Since they weren’t expecting guests for lunch, the house boy went out and came back first with a quart bottle of beer and of course, no glass. I had to pick up the bottle with both hands.
A few minutes later I was presented with some form of meat on wooden skewers. I gingerly took one and began to chew. It was the toughest meat I had ever had. It was peppered beyond my tolerance, but when I was finished; I looked up and asked, “Is there more?”
To my surprise, everyone laughed as though I had told the greatest joke.
The next thing I knew the Ambassador was arranging for a party to introduce me to all the Lome business women the next evening.
As it turned out, about 50 people showed up and most were women who were predominantly responsible for the majority of business that took place in their community. They were dynamic and more fun than I could have imagined possible.
Two days later we were heading back across the border at Ghana when we started hearing several people arguing. I looked around until I saw this young women being dragged by two very large men in uniform. Fred’s driver got out of the car and went over to find out what the problem was and discovered they were arresting the girl for trying to smuggle a single bar of soap across the border.