Sooner or later, it seemed, every Peace Corps volunteer in Togo wound up buying at least one pair of sandals from the "chicken man". The chicken man sold leather sandals in a Lomé market next to a stall where you could buy chickens (hence his name), and they were of an unusually good quality: thick soles, leather straps, and an attractive twisted leather cord.

It wasn't just among the Togolese PCV's that the chicken man was a celebrity. I remember running into some PCVs from Upper Volta while traveling in Mali. One of them glanced down at my feet and smiled. "The chicken man." he said.

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