On the Other Side of Togo

Wow, I can’t believe it’s already December and I have yet written about… well anything lately. I will try to bring you up to date with what’s been going on with me here in Benin. I’ll start with my trip to Ghana….

While I was in Porto Norvo as a trainee for the new volunteers this past summer, I randomly struck up a conversation with Emily who was also working and getting ready to COS (Close of Service). We got on the topic of her COS trip and after a while it was decided that I would join her and Adrienne on the beginning of their trip, I would go to Ghana with them.

To get ready for the trip all I needed to do was get VISAs for Togo and Ghana, and luckily it didn’t take more than 2 hassle free days. Before leaving I had to work the last week of the training which ended with the newbies Swearing In as volunteers and a celebration for the 40th Anniversary of Peace Corps Benin. Adrienne and Emily accompanied me the last night of working stage (the training) and we took off early the next morning.

The taxi picked us up at the house we were staying in, not a usual occurrence. The taxi was also a very nice, very new BMW; the only BMW I have every sat in actually and we were the only ones in it besides the driver. This is not the norm of travelling. Usually the 4 door sedans are packed with 4-6 adults in the back (that doesn’t include children) and 4 in the front including the driver (one time there were five- all adults). If you’re having trouble imagining this, there is someone who shares the driver’s seat an d straddles the stick shift, a seat I absolute refuse to sit in (it’s not for the ladies). Doors only open from either the inside or the outside, never both. Window knobs have been taken off to squeeze in more people and therefore a tool is needed to roll them down, if available. It’s normal that the car needs to be pushed, forward or backwards in order to start and sometimes a 2 hour ride can turn into almost 4 with multiple stops to let people out or pick others up. So this spacious BMW with only the three of us was a nice way to start our vacation.

Travelling from Benin’s capital to the Togo/Ghana boarder only took a few hours, Togo is not very big. After crossing the border we took a tro-tro, a van/ minibus which tend to be reasonably spacious, took us into Accra. Arriving in Accra was like being back in the states. There were highways, billboards, cars not being held up by duck tap, designated places for trash, I could keep going. It’s was amazing the contrast of development from Benin, which I had just left only a few hours ago, to Ghana; a country leading the way to development in West Africa.
So what does one do when arriving into a city that resembles America? Eat of course! We headed straight for the Sports Bar “Champs.” Just your typical sports bar, flat screen TV showing the latest in sports, pitchers of beer and pool tables, it wasn’t surprising the other customers were either tourists or expats. The menu was overwhelming at first, more than my normal choices of pâte, yam pile or rice. Even writing this entry 3 months later I still remembered everything I ate on the trip… kind of pathetic I know.

In Accra we went to the Artisan Market where we saw most of the same crafts found in Benin, fabricated for tourists but interesting no less. We even meet someone from Burkina and shared a few words in French, something that made his day, enough in fact to give us petite cadeaux. Adrienne hooked us up with a drummer, Liman, who at first seemed a pest, but she gave him a chance and luckily so because he gave the three of us a drumming lesson. I love to drum! The rhythm comes easy to me and I could get lost in the beat. At one point he told me that I hit the drum like I would my boyfriend who cheated on me. He got that right.

That night we met up with some other Benin volunteers who also happened to be in Accra to celebrate Adrienne’s birthday. It was decided to go for pizza. I can get lost describing the food, but you have to understand going a year with real cheese only on occasion, less than once a month, you’ll remember when you get it again. I had a pizza with green peppers, onions, mushrooms, etc. We topped the evening off with ice cream, yum!

The next day we headed out to Cape Coast. We soon found out that with the nice highways, pickpocketers come as a package deal. In Benin I haven’t had any problems with pickpocketers, normally I give the driver my bag, he puts it in the back and I don’t have to think about it again. In Accra, people were all over us, so much that locals took it upon themselves to look after us, one actually rode the few hours with my bag on top of her lap. It was sweet and amusing, I had taken precautions already with my bag to avoid such problems, but sometimes you can’t refuse help.

After our first night in Cape Coast we met an incredible woman from Washington State, Kathryn Roe. She lives in Cape Coast for 6-8 months out of the year helping students with school contributions in order to graduate with a high school diploma. The time she spends in the states is to raise awareness and get people to sponsor students. She has more students than sponsors, an easy thing to occur when so many are in need. You should check out her website, www.nas.com/africa, she is one of the few expats that understands the reality in making a contribution to the lives here, most people just give money to build a school or orphanage not thinking of the need or someone to run it afterwards, a concept that makes me bang my head every time I’m asked for money, presents, a ticket to the United States, etc. Kathryn is no stranger and understands the workings inside and out, giving her time above all else to provide the opportunity to deserving students in order to have a chance at an education.

Meeting Kathryn was definitely a highlight. Not only is she inspiring, she gave advice as to what we should see in the area and had us over for meals more than once, in which we would get into a conversations that were hard to cease. So in Cape Coast we went to the Kakum National Park and walk along the canopy walkways. Not sure how high up they we were or even what purpose they served, but they were very very high and luckily none of us were afraid of heights. We also visited the slave castles where the Portuguese and eventually the British had captured/ bought slaves and packed them like sardines into rooms for months on end with food given once a month in order to continue their dreaded lives. Women were picked out like animals in order to serve the wants of the European governor whose chamber was above their dungeon. Standing in the room where the women were kept, the only light shines from the door window, I looked around me and even though this castle has been abandoned centuries ago, I had the feeling that the walls and floors were still soiled with the blood, sweat, urine, feces and tears of the poor souls entrapped there. I’m not usually a sentimental person (as my friends know I don’t normally cry in movies) but I felt the presence there and I can’t begin to understand what human being could put another through such terrors.

Our time in Cape Coast was brief and I would love to go back for a longer duration. Take some drumming or traditional dance lessons, go to the neighboring towns for traditional ceremonies; who knows?

Next on our stop was Kumasi. We stayed at the Peace Corps Workstation at a time where Ghanaian Volunteers were also making use of the place to stay. One of them took us out to her village 3 hours away. Because of the distance we only stayed there for a night. It was nice to see the similarities between PC Benin and Ghana as well as the differences. Her village was more like Benin than what we saw in Accra, no electricity, running water, etc. Yet the houses, being a Habit for Humanity community, were set up in resemblance to the suburbs. People had lawns and property was finely distinguished between neighbors. Also a side note: Ghanaians in this area hang up their clean underwear to dry outside; this past year my underwear has been hung up on my mosquito net for it is not okay in Benin to let them dry outside.

On our way back to Kumasi, we stopped and got what was said to be the best pizza in Ghana. I couldn’t argue. The fresh veggies and mozzarella cheese won me over. Kumasi was a headache trying to get around. We went to an Ashanti Kingdom museum to see the artifacts of the Ashanti Kings who are known for their gold. But we couldn’t find the sword in the stone, really there is a sword stuck in a stone that is said will bring upon bad luck to whoever removes it. This is so strongly believed that they built a hospital around it instead of removing it. We also became adventurous and went to the market which is said to be the largest of West Africa. The hassle and bustle was enough after spending only an hour we bought some batiks made in the area and headed back to the workstation.

The next day I took the trip back to Accra by myself while Adrienne and Emily continued their trip around West Africa. You could guess what I did once I got back to Accra… yup I ate! More specifically hamburgers, ice cream and coffee, yummy! I also met some English girls staying in the hostel with me so I joined them for dinner and listened as they reminisced about their past 6 weeks living in Ghana and how much they were looking forward to going home.

On my way back to Benin I was not as lucky to get into another BMW. Instead in Lomé I was greeted with the typical taxi and the typical wait for it to fill up with passengers. During the wait women came up to the car selling everything you could imagine and the women waiting with me just kept buying for the sole sake that the items were cheaper. I even took part buying clothes for my 1 year old neighbor. It was a bonding moment as well as a true cultural experience seeing the three of us, all from different countries with different languages and all sharing in the joys of shopping, a true trait among women.

My 12 day trip to Ghana was a nice experience that has only expanded my taste for travelling. I’ve already set my calendar for my Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger trip…