Togo 2012 - Day 8

Day 8 saw us having some relaxation before the long journey back to Lomé the following day. It also gave us the chance to do our packing and prepare our gifts for the orphanage that we would be handing over at the farewell ceremony that evening. 

Prior to that celebration we ended up going back to the hotel swimming pool, thanks to our friend Bernard. His brother was involved in putting on a pool party in conjunction with a local nightclub and asked if we would like to go along. There was a good atmosphere with quite a few local people there, though the music being pumped through the PA was at times deafening. 

Much fun was had from the swimming races they organised, Jack + Shovel near deadheating in the final of the front crawl, with Jack adjudged to have pinched it by a whisker thanks to instant video replay :-) They shared the prizes (t-shirt and a free entry voucher which shovel gave to Bernard for him to go with his son. Nice gesture. Well in, Shov! As they would say up in Scouseland.

The evening celebration gave the children to once more show us their talent for music and dance, but also to show their appreciation of our coming to spend time with them. They did genuinely seem to enjoy us being there and I think their joy came across in the songs and dances they offered us.  

In return, we performed a few of our party pieces and gave them the gifts that we had brought with us that we had not already given them (dvd player + dvds, bags of football tops and sports equipment, etc...).

Lottie making a presentation to our wonderful cook, Julienne...

... and to our equally wonderful driver Bernard.