Thank the lord. I'm not kidding, James and I must be blessed. I spent my last 50F on a breakfast of spicy beans upon arriving in Gao (en retour from Ghana) and then headed to the bank.
Our transport luck ran out--and we were stuck in Tamale Ghana forced to stay in a pricey hotel and then even once we got across the boarder to Burkina the timing almost worked, a car was supposed to leave an hour after we arrived, but then we ended up spending the night in said car parked at the station, for we were too cheap to go to a hotel (though it did give us the opportunity to get out into Ouaga on the night of Eid el-Fitr (the end of Ramadan) and eat good pizza).
We made it to Niamey, Niger on Sunday before dark at least mostly due to the nice boarder guards. The moment we got out of transport, a guide approached us asking "Boston or Peace Corps?" He knew we were one of the two because of our water bottles. Ha. I never did get a chance to see the program run by my alma-mater, alas. Another trip. We did see the giraffes of course, which was expensive but A-mazing. And got to hang out with PC Niger which has a totally different vibe. They like being at site despite having this beautifully furnished hostel to stay-in in Niamey. I also appreciated being understood in a capital city--half of Niger is "Zarma" an ethnicity who speaks a dialect of Songhoy. So again, a future option for development work!
After our day in the bush with the giraffes, we found out we could only get official transport out of Niamey on Monday mornings. Oops. It was Tuesday. So a friend I called who does business between Ansongo and Niamey tells us to get whatever transport we can get to Ayorou, Niger and from there it is "easy" to get to Ansongo.
"Easy" he said. Sure, we did get transport to Ayorou. And then we sat. All day. At the guards-station leaving town playing dominoes while the kids watched us anasarey hoping SOMETHING would pass. I've climbed atop a shipping/produce truck before, and I'll do it again. We were desperate. Finally (after one guy offered us two seats in his 4x4 for 125000F--hahaha, you think we have money left? No! We had 15000F and some pocket change), a truck passes at sundown heading to Ansongo. They ask how much we can pay and we give them 10000F...which is the price of a bus ticket from Niamey all the way to Gao, and we were only going to Ansongo and already in Ayorou. Ugh. I fell asleep, only jarred a few times, once by a near axle-breaking dip in the road and then the boarder crossing guards. In fact, Jojo was so sleepy from being on the road since Friday, I was asleep when we arrived in Ansongo at midnight. Pitch black. I was so embarrassed to be lost in my own town!! I didn't see where we had turned off the road or anything. So...we circled around a bit me desperately searching for a landmark I knew. Finally I saw the hill up to the radio tower and found Dave's place. He wasn't home but we let ourselves in and Zubbu even got up to make us some sardine soup with bread. Oh, was it good to be home.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Worth the Trip
Ice cold Coke in Niamey, Niger: 225 F
Kilo of bananas for the road: 300 F
Chartered taxi: 25000 F
Guide fee: 11500 F
T-Shirt Souvenir: 2500 F
Walking through the bush with the last herd of giraffes in West Africa: Priceless.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
The Green Turtle Lodge
Our trip to Kakum and the rope walk through the rain-forest failed, because, well it was too rainy. So we headed to the beach a day earlier than planned. The series of tro-tros we took to get there work incredibly well--and of course we kept eating Fanmilk along the way (Ghana's street ice cream...sooooo good!). A guy even gave us a free ride in his car between car-parks once! I heart Ghana.
It was also raining on the beach, but that didn't stop us from enjoying cocktails and games of cards or dictionary and even some soppy tai qi on the beach. The sun came out on the third day and we got some great body-surfing in. And a sand castle built. Good times. The food was so delicious--tuna salad, red red, chunky chips with real ketchup. Ah! Brie kept saying, "Let's never leave."
The toilets decompose themselves and you shower in a banana grove. There was beach volley ball and beach walking and Mia the huge German shepherd who would chase sand balls. Clearly born and raised on the beach. Aside from the HUGE spider-eating spider we saw, I'd bring my parents here it was so nice!
It was also raining on the beach, but that didn't stop us from enjoying cocktails and games of cards or dictionary and even some soppy tai qi on the beach. The sun came out on the third day and we got some great body-surfing in. And a sand castle built. Good times. The food was so delicious--tuna salad, red red, chunky chips with real ketchup. Ah! Brie kept saying, "Let's never leave."
The toilets decompose themselves and you shower in a banana grove. There was beach volley ball and beach walking and Mia the huge German shepherd who would chase sand balls. Clearly born and raised on the beach. Aside from the HUGE spider-eating spider we saw, I'd bring my parents here it was so nice!
Sunday, October 7, 2007
Everything's Going so well!
The first morning, I woke up to an ambulance siren in Accra, Doppler-effecting into the window of our dorm room in the Salvation Army Hostel. It's a different world here. Everything is paved. Ghanaians are super nice and helpful even if sometimes I can't understand their English.
Still, the bus ride. Whew. LONG. Van from Sevare to Kora, Mali was interesting with entertainment provided by 3 students and one talk-a-lot moron (I quote: "Transubstantiation is the language of drunkards"...riiiight...and "Kilogram is weight and kilometer is distance, you can't say there are 15kilos left of the trip"...they were discussing everything from mundanity to religion to politics). Plus they dubbed James "Monsieur President" because he is a Toure and so is ATT. We got the last 4 seats on that van and arrived in Kora with perfectly enough time to eat some lunch and get the van for Ouahigouya, Burkina; and, there we ate delicious spaghetti and hopped right onto the bus to Ouaga. Brie and kept exclaiming "Everything is going so well!!" Moulin Rouge style. We weren't cursing it; really! Not possible. We were headed to Ghana and everything is better, in, Ghana.
So sure, with flooding we had to get out and ford the "river" of a washed-out road, but generally no mishaps. Or maybe I am just numb to transport issues now?
Really, I can't believe how many times I've said I am moving to Accra. Seriously, I'll consider it an option for future development work.
Sunday we went to El Mina (derived from the Portuguese for "mine" and the gold mined there) to see the fishing community and the slave fort. Really wretched what humans can do to each other. The governor of the fort (Dutch) had a staircase from the female quarters for rape-access. He'd pick his favorite from the balcony and have her sent up. The balcony from where you could see the first Roman-Catholic church in W.Africa (the fort and church were built by the Portuguese in 1482--which makes it the oldest European structure still standing in Sub-Saharan Africa). I don't think Christians have always faithfully practised the greatest commandment of them all...standing in the "room of no return" where slaves were shuffled through onto boats to the New World we said "never again" and had a moment of silence.
***
El Mina the town gave us a flavour of coastal life--fisherman and their boats, animist fetish houses, a Dutch cemetery (one governor was murdered and buried there in 1808), St. Jago fort and the slave fort. Oh, and men, naked, shitting on the beach. Yes...coastal life. We also saw well dressed men and women (it was Sunday) and polite children. Stumpy goats tried to steal part of my RedRed (beans and plantains). There were various church services going on and much singing, drumming, and clapping of hands throughout town.
In general, I loved the fashion in Ghana. Fitted suits of pagne fabric and shiny basin completes--but pants for women too! It seemed to be a more open/free culture. The "Use a Condom" billboard in Accra for example where the message was spelled out in stick figures of people in well, various positions.
We came upon a dance rehearsal of sorts in Accra at a small beach-side bar, which made me jealous of the clearly more richer music and dance culture. I guess it is just too hot in Gao. I repeatedly asked myself during the trip, is it the Christianity? The English? Or, what did the French do to Mali? Though really it is probably just a question of climate and resources.
Still, the bus ride. Whew. LONG. Van from Sevare to Kora, Mali was interesting with entertainment provided by 3 students and one talk-a-lot moron (I quote: "Transubstantiation is the language of drunkards"...riiiight...and "Kilogram is weight and kilometer is distance, you can't say there are 15kilos left of the trip"...they were discussing everything from mundanity to religion to politics). Plus they dubbed James "Monsieur President" because he is a Toure and so is ATT. We got the last 4 seats on that van and arrived in Kora with perfectly enough time to eat some lunch and get the van for Ouahigouya, Burkina; and, there we ate delicious spaghetti and hopped right onto the bus to Ouaga. Brie and kept exclaiming "Everything is going so well!!" Moulin Rouge style. We weren't cursing it; really! Not possible. We were headed to Ghana and everything is better, in, Ghana.
So sure, with flooding we had to get out and ford the "river" of a washed-out road, but generally no mishaps. Or maybe I am just numb to transport issues now?
Really, I can't believe how many times I've said I am moving to Accra. Seriously, I'll consider it an option for future development work.
Sunday we went to El Mina (derived from the Portuguese for "mine" and the gold mined there) to see the fishing community and the slave fort. Really wretched what humans can do to each other. The governor of the fort (Dutch) had a staircase from the female quarters for rape-access. He'd pick his favorite from the balcony and have her sent up. The balcony from where you could see the first Roman-Catholic church in W.Africa (the fort and church were built by the Portuguese in 1482--which makes it the oldest European structure still standing in Sub-Saharan Africa). I don't think Christians have always faithfully practised the greatest commandment of them all...standing in the "room of no return" where slaves were shuffled through onto boats to the New World we said "never again" and had a moment of silence.
***
El Mina the town gave us a flavour of coastal life--fisherman and their boats, animist fetish houses, a Dutch cemetery (one governor was murdered and buried there in 1808), St. Jago fort and the slave fort. Oh, and men, naked, shitting on the beach. Yes...coastal life. We also saw well dressed men and women (it was Sunday) and polite children. Stumpy goats tried to steal part of my RedRed (beans and plantains). There were various church services going on and much singing, drumming, and clapping of hands throughout town.
In general, I loved the fashion in Ghana. Fitted suits of pagne fabric and shiny basin completes--but pants for women too! It seemed to be a more open/free culture. The "Use a Condom" billboard in Accra for example where the message was spelled out in stick figures of people in well, various positions.
We came upon a dance rehearsal of sorts in Accra at a small beach-side bar, which made me jealous of the clearly more richer music and dance culture. I guess it is just too hot in Gao. I repeatedly asked myself during the trip, is it the Christianity? The English? Or, what did the French do to Mali? Though really it is probably just a question of climate and resources.
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