Togo, Africa: Coconut Co-op

       In April of this year, I was incredibly lucky to be chosen as one of nine Team Members from Whole Foods Market to attend the Team Member Volunteer program trip to Togo, Africa. This program sends employees to places around the world where micro lending with the goal to alleviate poverty occurs. The trip is taken with the intent of education as well as the execution of volunteer projects that benefit the communities we visit.  

The Whole Planet Foundation Team Member Volunteer trip to Togo started the moment we all met in the Airport. Our group quickly became friends. 

Our first day was spent at the Entrepreneurs de Monde office in Lome, the country's capital city. Here we learned the logistical processes of micro lending in Togo and first hand saw the impact a small loan given can be for some incredibly impoverished Togolese people. 

One young man refurbished furniture on a broken down porch with little shade in the heat from found and reclaimed materials. Another woman made "Akban," a fermented rice paste to sell in baggies around her neighborhood. She lived on dirt floors, wore torn clothing, but smiled with pride as she sifted and rinsed her millet while telling us how she was able to start her business and now has independent income. She will soon take her second loan to improve her living conditions.

        Everyday of the trip began with a new activity to visit a different community affected by efforts to alleviate poverty.

Our third morning there started later than usual. Without the pressure of an early rise, we all seemed to rest a little better. The jet lag was slowly washing from our limbs. After a couple days together, we have also settled into one another’s personalities and inside jokes began to form and blossom. 

It was with this new relaxed interpersonal comfort that we all stood around watching Liz get her hair braided. We each commented and took pictures in turn. One of our guides for the trip was Delali. She worked for Alaffia, the coconut and shea product based company that was hosting us in their compound. We started calling her Momma D after the first day when we realized she was the woman people go to to get things done. 

         Liz mentioned that she would love to get her hair braided, and here we were the following morning, watching it get done before our eyes.

After an elongated wait that is common in Togo due to the cultures relaxed views on time, Delali returns to the compound after some morning errands. “Momma D!” We all cried out together. She rushed forward with apologies, but quickly eased back into our shared and jolly disposition. 

“Okay Let’s go” was her common cry to us when time to leave. 

We, the nine Team Members, Aaron the interpreter, Johanna, our US Alaffia representative, Monear, the driver, and Delali all piled into our 15-passenger van and travelled through the city. The once strange and new sites  were now becoming familiar landscape. Buildings were mostly left unfinished and walls are mainly just bare cement. Between these fallen-in structures are skinny bamboo poles supporting rusted tin or thatch straw roofs. Some of these structures housed liters of petrol or bits of produce for sale, others were lean to living structures. Loose trash littered every street and in many spots, goats and chickens could be seen pecking at the ground. 

As we turned off the main road, we left behind paved gravel for compacted red dirt and potholes. We bounced around the van over the new terrain and took in the lush new sites of rich greenery and tall palmy coconut trees. The road was still dotted with lean-to structures, housing families as they cooked, communed or just napped in the heat.

A quality of the Togolese that impressed us throughout the trip was the style: immaculate clothing often tailored with bright styles and colors. Also, everyone presented genuine expressions. It was fun to wave and smile, and even if the person was walking with a stern demeanor, they would immediately return the smile and wave. 

We slowly made our way through a large expanse of leafy plantation before we saw an Alaffia entrance sign and first heard the music. 

Women in brightly colored panya, tailored into beautiful dresses with matching headscarves and all donning matching blue aprons were line on either side of the street. They sang and clapped, creating contrapuntal rhythms with beaded gourds. Their song was joyful and catchy and smiles contagious as we walked through their music filled tunnel of welcome. As we did so, they closed in behind us and followed, continuing their tune. They led us, the singing and clapping crescendoing in strength all the while, to the center of the compound which consisted of seven circular cement and straw thatch roofed structures. Here we took seats in plastic chairs under a wide reaching shade tree.

As we sat, a man in a bright colored comple carried a machete forward and starting slicing the tops of off some young coconuts and passing them around for us to drink fresh coconut water from. As we enjoyed the juice, they came around again, siding them in half and presenting us with the fresh pulp inside. Despite the heat, it was cool and refreshing and unbelievable fresh and delicious. 

As we finished the coconuts, another dance in which a man had to dance down and pick up a white scarf that was being tossed around by some of the woman took place. Common to the Lome area, this dance included the bent over pop and release of the spine while also doing a shuffling swaying step. This was a dance we all participated in from time to time throughout the trip.

The manager of the facility introduced his staff and took us on a tour of how their coconut oil is made. The process seemed crude at first, but proved highly effective as we watched them be able to churn out a high yield of high quality fermented oil with a small staff. 

They also spoke to us about what they do to try and help the community, such as letting local farmers cows graze their abundant grass to keep fields clear, they pay higher rates per coconut to local coconut gatherers and also have a tree sanctuary so trees are not over utilized and sustainability is practiced. 

On this tour we made jokes with the manager as he asked us to bring him an American coconut sometime and then he laughed at Westerners paying four to six dollars for coconut water. We took pictures with the amazing staff and made our way back toward the compound. We left to the soundtrack of more joyful singing by beautiful people, wearing stylish clothes and happy smiles.