On my second day in Togo, the team of the Institut Togolais de Recherche Agronomique (ITRA) took my travel companion from the International Center for Biosaline Agriculture, Nhamo Nhamo, and me to a village about a hour or so from Lome. About 40 locals came from three villages to meet us. I learned of their efforts to create a community seedbank and took some lovely photos of the villagers with their seeds.

But then I had some free time so I just wandered around snapping pics of the locals as well as the chiefs of the three villages. They were all keen to pose in front of the foreigner’s big camera and found it easy to show off their huge and warm smiles. The ITRA team will print them off and give them as gifts the next time they have a meeting of the cooperative.