I remember when I first started as a travel agent, the only call that stumped me was someone asking to go to Togo. I thought "where is that". Then I did abit of research, so let me enlighten the rest of you about this small place in West Africa. Officially named the Togolese Republic, in the late 1800's parts of Togo were controlled by Germany. Gnassingbe Eyadema was one of Africa's longest sitting dictators, after his passing and two months after his son was elected, it came out that many thought the votes were fraudulent. The land has lagoons and marshes, hill areas and flat - just about anything you can imagine. Cocoa, coffee, and cotton are their main products, and I think it would be interesting to visit a place that does this type of work. I love just about any country that has deep history to it, and Togo has more than enough.

A quick snip about their religious beliefs: A majority of the Togolese population (50%) adhere to indigenous animist beliefs [1]. Christianity is the second largest religious group, to which 29% of the country's population belong. The remaining 21% of Togolese follow Islam.

I am also a religion research junkie, so this would be an all over trip for all of my expectations for a good research vacation!