Post service travel in W. Africa |
||
GhanaIn mid October I left Accra in the company of Barbara and Katy. We went to Ho, Ghana and spent a couple relaxing days.TogoWe then went on to Kpalime, Togo and spent a decent time in a village auberge where we saw butterflies and went on a nature walk. Riding from the village back to Kpalime we knew we weren't in Ghana anymore when people came up to the cab yelling at us and hanging onto the cab, trying to get us to have them carry our bags. We went through Lome, where we changed money on the street. Barbara figured we'd go into a bank to change money, but when we asked to change money the guy in the bank brought us to the street outside and said "here's a good guy, change your dollars to CFA with him". That all went well and we moved on.BeninWe went on to Ouidah, Benin where we saw the route des esclaves. From there we went to Porto Novo and took a pirogue ride to a village on stilts. Then on to Abomey where we encountered a couple of masks that really looked like walking haystacks. We made an offering to one of the masks and then were told that our trip would go safely. I'd never had my fortune told by a haystack before. We headed to Natitingou where we saw real life "tata sambas", multiple story mud/stick dwellings that were really cool.Burkina FasoWe pushed on from Natatingou to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso in one day. We had a cab break down and caught a ride to the next town in a truck. I sat in the back and got really dusty. We arrived in Ouaga at about midnight and were pleased to find a calm, civil atmosphere unlike Abidjan. Cab drivers politely offered us rides to where we stayed, we took one and away we went. We spent just a night in Ouaga and crossed the border into Mali the next day. We paid ~30,000 CFA for the 1-2 hour cab ride across the border. As we crossed the border in the middle of a sandy expanse we passed an old sign for traffic going toward the border of "Haute Volta" (Upper Volta), as Burkina used to be called.MaliAs soon as we got into Mali a guide found us and we spent the next five days with him, hiking from village to village along the Bandiagara escarpment, which was tres cool. We went on to Mopti after that and had an annoying time, being harangued by wandering vendors. A crazy woman came after us with the intention of throwing a cinder block at us. That was interesting. The local kids thought it was hilarious. We spent a couple days in Djenne, then moved on to Bamako. Bamako was an easy going place. Though we arrived there late at night, as in Ouaga, we had no problems. We also did not encounter any really pushy vendors. I've gotta say the Wackenhut guards outside the US embassy were the probably the biggest jerks in town.We took the "express train" from Bamako to Tambacounda, Senegal. That was quite an experience. First off, when we bought tickets we found that, as the lonely planet said there were lots of people at the front of the line at the ticket office who would buy tickets and then have a friend approach you at the rear of the line to sell it at a marked up price. While we were standing in line some people complained that Katy and Barbara couldn't be in line. We thought "what?" Then it turned out that way up at the front there was a short line of women buying tickets, parallel to the "men's line". We figured it'd be easiest if Katy and Barbara bought our tickets in the shorter line which wasn't plagued by people trying to scalp tickets. Purchasers were supposed to alternate between the two lines, yet Barbara found a man at the front who put his arm out to deliberately block her progress to the ticket window when it was her turn. She gave him some harsh words and apparently he reluctantly gave in. SenegalThe train took 30 hours to get to Tambacounda. We found out why PCVs who serve in Mali often prefer to fly from Bamako to Senegal. The train rarely went faster than 30 mph, and stopped about every 20 minutes, so that people at each village along the way could try to sell us the same stuff that people did at the last village. There were people sneaking onto the train without tickets, going onto the roofs of the second class compartments (which they say are typically 150% filled, so it figures). One guy was apparently caught without a ticket and spent the night in the aisle of our car, handcuffed to the window. We spent a long 12 hours or so taking minibuses to Dakar. We got ripped off along the way when the bus drivers had us change buses and then drove off in the first bus, when we'd paid for a trip all the way to Dakar. We arrived at like 8am.Dakar was annoying. There were lots of wandering vendors that didn't take no for an answer, but treated it as a way of haggling. Walking into a shop was the only way to get away from the wandering vendors, and then they'd say that they would wait for you to come out, and some did. We went to the Isle de Goree' and spent a couple relaxing nights. We saw a slave holding building and had an good time walking around the maybe 1km square island. Barbara and I had an amusing time walking together amongst the vendors, half of which would refer to us and mother and son, the other half would refer to us as newlyweds. An interesting experience. We also encountered a batik vendor who said "quoi" at the end of every sentence. Barbara nearly broke out in laughter, but somehow kept it under control. "C'est les batik-quoi." "C'est joli-quoi." "On faire sa avec les couleur naturel-quoi." "comme ca-quoi." HomeWe all flew our separate ways and after 24 hrs or so in transit I arrived in Mpls. It was mid november, and I moved in with a friend. I had a bit of a shock adapting to my friend's house that was 58F versus the maybe 85F night time temperature I had been accustomed to. I got sick and then wound up suffering from an infection with Giardia and a secondary infection for like 4-6 weeks. Not fun.Links to |
Photos
(640X480 res.)
Ghana
Togo Benin Burkina Faso Mali Dakar, Senegal News sites Local artwork My home page
Photos courtesy of Barbara |
|
