Ghana... a wonderland of wonderous wonders

It's amazing how different countries in West Africa can be. Since I saw skittles in a store in Cotonou I knew we weren't in Niger anymore. Now in Ghana there are things non-existant in Niger, like nice dogs!


Ok, I'll let Kesley explain what we've been up to

"Hello again from Ghana!Since I last wrote in Cotonou, things are going well. We spent took a day trip on Tuesday to Ouidah where we saw a cool national history museum (for Benin, though previously where they held slaves for the slave trade), a python temple, complete with pythons that they put around our necks, and walked the Route of the Slaves, 4 km all the way to the ocean. We were super excited to see the ocean and walked in it but could not swim even if we wanted to....there was a crazy undertow.Wednesday we spent the whole day traveling from Cotonou past Accra in Ghana to Big Milly's Backyard, a beach resort in Kokrobite, Ghana. We had a beautiful room and stayed for two days, relaxing on the beach and soaking up the fine Ghanian sun. Of course, because I was so ridiculously white from covering up in the Muslim countries (Niger and Benin), I unfortunately burned my legs kinda badly and I am paying for it today! Today we got up early in Kokrobite, took one last stroll down the beach, and left for Cape Coast. Our tro-tro (basically a van with many seats) broke down and we had to get another one, but luckily we weren't on the side of the road all that long.We have walked around Cape Coast today, a beautiful little coastal town, and visited the Castle here, one of the main posts for the slave trade. They took us into the dungeons where 250-300 slaves were kept in a tiny room with one little window.....you can't even imagine what it must have been like for them. They would be kept there for two-three months at a time, waiting for the slave ship. The women were often raped and would kill their babies so that they would not be slaves. It was really sad to hear about it all.Tomorrow we are taking a day trip to Kakum National Park where there is a canopy walkway 300 ft. above the forest floor. Should be interesting for Jeremy.....he is afraid of heights! We might hire a car for the day so we can also go to Elmina, where another large fort is. Sunday we will head to Dixcove to stay at the Green Turtle, an eco-friendly beach resort!"

All the best, until my next update.

The quietest little capital city in the world

Porto Novo is a nice little place to visit. The seat of Benin's government since way back into the French colonial time, this place is only 45km from Cotonou, populated at around 225000, but it feels like a quiet, relaxing little place, especially as opposed to the hustle and bustle and traffic of Cotonou. But I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit I suppose since this is really my first post about me and Kelsey's traveling, so let me back up two weeks to leaving Gaya.....

Waving lines of flashback.... ala Wayne's World....

Biddilyloo biddilyloo biddilyloo

Left Gaya last Tuesday. Typical of any African traveling, this one started off like a bush taxi, coughing and sputtering and we weren't sure it would get moving.... We had bought tickets from Gaya to Dasa, Benin on a bus line, Air. Show up at 7 like they said. No bus at 730, no bus at 830. Finally a bus pulls up at 9 or so. It's full. They say, no problem, there's one behind it. Ok, Fine. Turns out the next bus is more than an hour behind this one.... and it's full also. Before it arrives we're told to head to the border and after the bus passes there people may get off and we can find seats, so we motorcycle taxi it to the border (Kelsey's first one ever actually) and get through just as the bus is pulling up. And.... no empty seats. It's this bus or nothing for the day so we talk our way on and sit in the aisle.... for FOUR hours. A bush taxi would have been better. Never has my back been so sore. But we make it to....

Dassa-Zoumé

This place is famous because the virgin Mary was seen in a cave in one of the hills behind town, and may I say, these hills are Awesome! They rise out of nowhere as one travels from the flat lands of Northern Benin, huge piles of rocks made by giant tonka trucks. They just seem so improbably placed in a land one wouldn't think of as having glacer activity (cause that's what looks like would have caused them), but no one can tell me where they came from. Our guide on one hike told me that they had always been there. Since his grandparents parents and that they were natural; no more info. Stayed at a great ecotourism place we got hooked up to through a PCV in the area and spent a relaxing day and a half hiking in the hills and enjoying GREEN.

It's ridiculous the difference in the flora between Gaya and Dassa, which is maybe halfway down Benin. Gaya is green by Niger standards, but Dassa is much much more. They have FORRESTS. That's multiple trees in the same place!!!! Unheard of in my neck of the woods. The land just seems thick with living plants, like it will strangle itself. And sometimes it can feel quite... claustraphobic after living in open savanah scrub land for a year. Even in our rainy season when the bushes get green and leafy it never feels like it controls the land like the foliage does here.

So after this intial shock of green-ness, and our pause to adjust (more for me as Kelsey is still somewhat fresh from the green NW), we pressed on to....

Abomey

Seat of the Dahomey Kingdom for a long time (since I only speak a little French I didn't exactly get all the info from our French language tour). We visited the palace of the last two kings, they're attached. It was interesting as they were a pretty bloody lot who traded in slaves. Carved and painted pictures on the palace walls depict decapitations and other bodily harm casued to enemies and there is one of the thrones set on the skulls of four poor fellows from and opposing group. One cool thing is they used women heavily in their army, which the europeans referred to as their Amazons. There's a pride in that and a lot of places are Benin with Amazon in the name. This was all in passing to....


Cotonou

Which isn't all that cool. Big and busy. Scared me, but not really because of it's size, but because of the difference in the power of the economy versus what one sees in Niger. It's sad to see my little slice of Africa in the grander scheme of things. We really are a poor country, even here. Cotonou is happening economically, with new builings, lots of businesses, etc. Clean streets even (for the most part), which means someone is being paid to pick up trash... a luxury from where I'm from. Didn't spend much time here, but instead went to...



Porto Novo

And now we're back where I started. I liked it much better than Cotonou. On Friday when we arrived it was sorta busy, Sat and Sun it was like a ghost town and then when we left there this morning (Monday) it was busy busy busy. Such a contrast, but I imagin most people who are in the government are only there during the week or when they have to be. So much of the government work is handled in Cotonou and not in the capital.... Well anyway it made it a more attractive place for me. They have some great colonial architecture there. Sadly, much of it is crumbling away, but they have restored a number of buildings, though there are so many many more that are just falling apart in the capital's twisted maze of old town. Very fun to walk through.

So from here it's on to Ghana after a stop tomorrow in the voodoo capital of Benin, Ouida. Will try to keep you all posted as we go.

Oh, before I go, don't forget how you can help out a poor English starved Nigerien child in Gaya for only $10. (I'm trying not to be overly pushy here, but I'm realizing that seven grand is a lot to come up with, so PLEASE donate and/or pass this along to others I may or may not know who are more suceptible to a casual mention of education needs in the third world... Thanks!)


Until later and from an English speaking country (hurray!)

Benin, Cotonou, and Beyond

First off, I wanted to point everyone towards my Peace Corps partnership page where you can buy an english textbook for kids in my town. Each book is ten dollars and will help out immensely. Please pass along the word to any and all who would be interested in helping. There's still 7000 to raise.

Ok enough of trying to get money from ya'll... Oh and I'll try to explain the whole PC Partnership thing better in a future post; feeling internet cafe time constrictions here: 9 minutes and counting till shutdown!

So Kelsey is visiting, has been here for over two weeks actually, and we are currently in Cotonou after seeing 1. Dirty Niamey, 2. Giraffes, 3. Gaya, and 4. some awesome hills. Pictures forthcoming with more internet time; but not tonight. So in the sake of such time crunch I'll let her tell ya'll all about it from some snippets which went out to her family. Maybe it'll help describe this place more since I'm too accustomed to its auirks and have settled into it. Enjoy!

From July 1

"Hey!

So, I would love to say that the time here so far has been AMAZING......

But the reality is that I find that Niamey sucks ass. The city is so sad and depressing....not what I was expecting at all. There are little kids begging everywhere, in addition to the real beggars. Some of the children beg to learn to be humble, according to the Qu'ran. If you give them money, they give it to their teacher. You can tell the difference between the children that are begging out of need and the ones who are learning to be humble because the ones who have money are the ones with silver bowls on strings and nice clothes. There is no shame here in begging.....they ALL do it. You are white, give me money.

I already had one little boy try to pickpocket me at the national museum. Going to the national museum would have been cool except for the fact that nothing has been updated since about 1983 (literally, no sarcasm here) and the zoo that they have is extremely depressing with the most cruel of animal conditions imaginable. It is hot and nasty, the flies are rampant during the day and the mosquitos at night.

So far, I am not impressed and I find myself a little depressed because of it. I am hearing that the trip will get better. Gaya is a small town but is still supposed to be prettier....we will head there Friday. I am REALLY looking forward to getting to Benin, Togo, and Ghana because the other volunteers that I have talked to that have been there say that it's awesome....we should be going there in a couple weeks.

Tomorrow I am going to have a purse made....I will get to pick out the material and everything. I am actually looking forward to that. Their local beer, Bierre Niger, is actually not bad, but each bottle is different....you never know what you are going to get. Wednesday we are going to look at a bunch of wild giraffes not too far from Niamey....supposed to be cool."

From July 8:

"Hey!

i decided that i am not going to capitolize anything since this is one
of those damn european keyboards where everything is out of order.

the trip is tons better. we went to goethéye, north of niamey for a
fish bake for a couple days. it was awesome to get out of the city
for a while as I was definitely tired of it. the culture shock has
worn off though and i am just trying to accept it for what it is now.
I got some fabric at the grand marché and had two bags made and a
dress. I am very excited as it was very cheap and they look good. I
love the way the women dress here....so colorful!

we also took a bush taxi out to Kore to see some wild giraffes that
are protected. They have about 150 there but we only got to see about
6, but three were babies. Even babies are huge! it was cool to see
them out in the wild and not in a zoo. We had to walk with a guide 7
km to see them in the hot sun....that part was not so much fun but
still worth it. the bush taxi ride was crazy. They crammed more
people into that van than i would have ever thought possible; and kept
trying to stuff more in. I had a womans armpit on me, and when her
baby started to cry, she pulled out her boob in my face and started
feeding. The boob and baby were practically in my lap! I have seen
more boobs here in one week than i have ever seen in my life!

I am now in Gaya; where Jeremy is stationed. Everyone here is very
friendly, and while it is still dirty, it is much prettier here thanks
to more trees and vegetation. The town is about 30,000 so it is still
a fair size. Everyone here wants to say hi and I am getting many good
opportunities to practice my french, which is good but i am still shy
with my lack of enough vocabulary. I can understand
about 70% of what people say, which i think is good considering that
african french sounds different than France french. Mostly I have to
rely on Jeremy though since most people speak Zarma more than french.
I hate that.... I have to stand and smile stupidly since I have no
idea what is being said and they are often teasing him about me.

It has been raining since it is rainy season, but usually in the
mornings. It makes it humid but at least it is a little cooler than
usual."


So.... as you can see it takes a little bit of time to come to love this place like I do, well at least get comfortable with it. Will post about the trip soon.... 2 minutes till this thing explodes, time to publish!