Shopping in Togo

Me with Shakira and her son

I get this question a lot from people in the States, "Where do you shop? What are the stores like?"
Where we live in Kara, we have some grocery stores but they are nothing like what you would see in the States. I would say they are more like 7-11s. But I am very thankful for our 7-11 sized stores since you never know what you are going to find in them. We have about four small grocery stores and a huge open-air market where we can buy all of our fresh produce, and you can find tons more at the market if you want to rummage! Here are some pictures of one of the stores that I go to every week. My friend, Shakira, runs the store for her husband, and she is trying to learn English, so I try and teach her phrases every time I shop there. One fun phrase I taught her that she loves is "see you later, alligator; after a while, crocodile." It has been great getting to know her.

We also do some of our shopping in Lome, which is the capital city about six hours south of us. We are able to find a lot more there than in Kara. We buy a lot of our meat and cheese there, and we also can find goodies at a store called "The Dollar Store," except nothing is a dollar! We just found Honey Nut Cheerios, and the boys were so excited! Okay, so maybe I got a little excited too. This store has a lot of things coming from Costco, and boy it is wonderful! One of my favorite stores in Lome is Orca. It's packed full of things for your house like a mini-Ikea. It really is amazing what you can find here now compared to just a few years ago. We do most of our shopping while in Lome at Champion, a grocery and home goods store. I am always excited to go and see the new things we can get. Well, I hope you have seen just a little peek into my life here in Togo.