A Change of Plans...

Three weeks ago I was packing and planning for my long two week journey to Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. The five us going had it all figured out and were ready to go. Early Friday morning we caught a tro-tro to Kumasi (about a 6 hour ride). On this ride the man sitting next to me kept sneaking touches of my hair and Alli had a 10 year old girl sitting in he lap (it was packed full). Once we got to Kumasi we found a bus that was leaving in the evening, so we got some street food, fried rice with noodles, lettuce and sauces. When we saw the bus we thought it was a junk bus just used for old parts but it turned out it was ours. I thought it would never be able to make it all the way. It drove through the night and we made it to the border around 5am. At the boarder there were people there to change Cedis (Ghana’s currency) to CFA’s (all francophone country’s currency). The exchange rate is a little confusing because the CFA is so weak and we had been cheated at the Togo boarder before. Out of no where a man from our bus who spoke both English and French came to help us. After we got our money exchanged we went to wait for customs (which in total took around 4 hours!!!) While waiting the man who helped with our money found some bottle crates for us to sit on. After talking with him for awhile we found out his name was Jahkar (although I thought he was saying Checkers for the longest time so I called him Checkers) and he was going to Gambia so he would also be going through Mali with us. He ended up being one of the biggest blessings and greatest helps on our trip. However, on our bus to Ouagadougou (the capital of Burkina) spontaneity took hold of us and we decided to go to Senegal. I think it all started because we met a Ghanaian nurse on our bus going to Dakar (Senegal’s capital). So our new plan was Burkina Faso, Mali, and Senegal. Driving through Burkina Faso was a much different landscape than Ghana. It is very dry, the ground is all sand and the villages seemed much smaller. It was clear Burkina is a lot poorer than Ghana. Once we got to Ouagadougou Jahkar helped us get to the bus station to get our new tickets and sat with Emily as she watched our bags while we got food. The capital was much smaller and less developed looking than Accra but we found some great food. We got rice and spaghetti… but we found no silverware to use. So we ate at the bus stop with our hands and avocado peels. While Emily was waiting for us with Jahkar she found out he is from Liberia, which is a country filled with violent conflict. Before the rebel wars broke out he was a college student studying sociology but when it became too dangerous he had to leave. He has not been home for about 5 years now and hopes to go home next year. He now studies French (Liberia is an English speaking country) as he moves across West Africa and hopes to be a translator someday. We loaded on the bus that evening and when Emily took a picture 3 of us Jahkar said, “okay, my turn!” Meaning, take a picture of him. It was adorable. We thought we were driving through the night but after about 4 hours our bus stopped at a bus station and said we will leave on a different bus in the morning. At first I think we were all a little shocked and Emily went to argue with the bus driver. Eventually we laid out our blankets on the concrete and used our backpacks as pillows and went to sleep. At the bus station there were huge sacks of beans (or something) and Jahkar slept on one right by us I think to make sure we were safe. In the morning we scrambled onto the bus when we woke up. (A small side note: the blankets that we slept on that night were from Weichau in Northern Ghana. We all got them when we went on the Mole (elephants) trip together. They ended up being the best purchases every. We used them as blankets, sleeping mats, pillows, a foot sling (Alli hurt her foot when the ten year old sat on her), head scarves, seat cushions, skirts, changing curtains, etc). We only drove for a few minutes that morning before we stopped at a different station to get more passengers. That took quite awhile so we had some breakfast there. I had some orangeish noodles and orangey potatoes. It was fairly good. It was also Easter that day so some of us sang hymns and camp songs that we all knew. It was very different from any other Easter Sunday but I kind of really liked it. Seeing the world, a different way of living and singing praise with good friends. We could not go to church because Burkina (and Mali and Senegal) are predominately Muslim countries so there are usually no churches to be found. It was really cool being surrounded by the Muslim religion and culture. Seeing them stop to pray in the middle of the day/night was very inspiring. There is so much commitment and perseverance of daily prayer against today’s fast paced world. Once we had loaded enough passengers we continued to Bamako, Mali. This was the greatest bus ever because we made so many friends despite the fact that barely anyone spoke English. First we were still with Jahkar, and then we made and English/French speaker friend named Ben who also helped with a little translating at the Mali boarder. The best part though was the whole back half of the Bus. I am not really sure where these people were from and they did not speak English but we still made a friendly connection with them. Everything I know about them is purely guesses from their clothing but they looked like they were some mix of mystic and Muslim. The men wore turbans, some with only their eyes showing and some with their faces showing. Their traditional full length robes were black but their turbans were a solid bright color, each man with a different color. The woman wore long dresses and scarves with were bright colors with eccentric patterns. A lot has sparkles or sequins. They wore lots of earrings and big jewelry. Their hair was very interesting, it was almost like a high-top with w mullet, and their little babies had the same hair. It was clear that the other Africans were prejudice against them and did not want us sitting by them. But still we embraced them and they embraced us, some of us got to hold their babies and they always smiled at us. When we got to the bus station in Bamako it was a little chaotic. Jahkar found us a man going to Dakar on our bus. He did not speak English, but Alli speaks French so she could translate for us. His name was Sekou and he was late twenties. At the bus station when Jahkar was about to leave he spoke to Sekou (in French). I could not understand it but from the tone and gestures it seemed to be a, “If you hurt these girls or loose them I will hunt you down.” I felt like our father was threatening a new boyfriend. Sekou looked quite overwhelmed by all of this, and who can blame him. A stranger was entrusting to him 5 English speaking Americans to take to Dakar. When Sekou was looking for a taxi to take us to the next bus station he looked so intense and stressed. He took on his role as our guardian very seriously. We had to go in two separate cabs and he was so worried about the cab he was not in. When we got to the bus station the bus was going to leave in the morning so we slept at the station again (this time on straw mats which are also used for Muslim prayer). We got egg sandwiches then went to bed. Soon after I fell asleep I woke up to yelling. All of us girls clumped together and watched one worker pick a man up and kick him out. Apparently he tried to go into the room with the luggage and steal, which is silly because the awake workers were inside. I do not know how he thought he would get away with it. After the worker told us not to worry it happens all the time, “it is apart of the business!” he told us. So we went back to sleep and everything was fine. The people at the bus stations treated us so well and looked out for us. I think they were excited to privileged Americans live like they did and they were so happy to accommodate us. In the middle of the night one of us woke up and Sekou was sitting on a crate awake watching over us. It was really precious. In the morning we washed out faces and brushed our teeth. By this point the sleeping at bus stations and washing became routine. The bathrooms throughout the whole trip consisted of a little concrete box. Four concrete walls, no roof, and a concrete floor with a hole to use for the bathroom. At first this grossed me out and I had a hard time with it, but I am proud to say I have mastered the art of squatting. To wash out faces, arms and legs and to brush our teeth we would buy a little rubber tea pot (25 CFA) filled with water and basically sit in a trough. This bus ride to Dakar took 2 days with one night at a bus station. On this bus ride Sekou became much more comfortable with us. He would buy us water and we bought him tea or offered him peanuts. He always sat with Alli because she was the only one who spoke French. At one point she taught him English and he taught her Wolof, the language they speak in Dakar and most of Senegal. He knew the English alphabet so he would read Allis book out loud and then he would translate. It was very late when we got into Dakar and the close we got the colder it got. I have not been cold in Africa but on this bus ride I was freezing, I put pants on over my short, a zip up and I put my blanket around my whole body like a cocoon and I was still cold. By the time we got to Dakar we all felt very attached to Sekou (he is from Dakar) and it was so sad saying good-bye to him, but he gave us his address. Our hotel was decently cheap because it had a shared bathroom but still really nice. At this point we had not showered for 5 days so even though it was 3am we all took showers. The bottom of the shower was really gross at the end but it was so nice to be clean and comb out my hair. I swear it had begun to dread from not brushing it. The next day we just explored Dakar. Right away we met a guy about our age from Senegal. He knew English because he had been in Alabama for a few months so he had a southern accent. It was hilarious to hear him talk, he almost sounded like he was from America. He helped us find a lot of cool craft markets and food markets. Senegal had the best street food. I got a baguette with a chopped up hard boiled egg, lettuce, tomato, onion, green pepper, and best of all mustard! Ghana does not have mustard, or any familiar sauces for that matter other than ketchup. Dakar is really developed and a lot of the buildings reminded me of Europe. We also went to a patisserie and got Gelato. The next day we got up early to go see the ocean and a beautiful mosque right on the beach. After we went to a wildlife reserve. It was amazing; we saw many different kinds of antelope, African buffalo, crocodile, ostrich, zebras, rhinos, and giraffes! I took a lot of great pictures that hopefully I will be able to post if the internet is fast enough. That night we slept on a bus in the bus station in Dakar. It was really fun hanging out in the bus station, we got bean sandwiches and watched Beyonce music videos on the bus. In the morning we began going back to Bamako. This bus was clean and the seats were nice but there was absolutely NO leg room. The row was three seats and I was all the way in. It was incredibly claustrophobic. We rode on that bus for two days with a night at a bus station. After the two days I was so glad to never sit in that seat again. On that bus we met Philip. A Malian who absolutely loves America. He does everything he can to embody American culture and is working at getting a visa. His siblings are already there so hopefully he will be granted one. He had a fake iphone which he listened to Michael Jackson, Phil Collins, and Bruce Springsteen on. Every hour or so he would ask about American culture or history and gave Emily all of his information asking her to write him a referral to get a visa. We spent the next day exploring Bamako. First we spent forever trying to find a patisserie and got ripped off by countless mean taxi drivers. Eventually we found the patisserie but it was closed so our last and nice cab driver took us to a cheap restaurant. After we went to a “beauty salon” in a large market. The salon consisted of a large tarp filled with women getting their hair braided or henna painted on their feet, hands, or eyebrows. We all got henna on a hand/forearm. After we tried to find an internet café because there was some stuff Emily needed to get done. Of course that was closed too, so we went to a different patisserie next door. We intended to be cheap and just get one small one. 3 hours later I had spaghetti, two pastries, and washed my face in the bathroom (sadly still no real toilet though). Overall Bamako was a slightly frustrating experience. No one would listen to us and acted like we were incompetent. I think it was because we were women, which is something I have never experience in Ghana. After we went to the bus stop to sleep and caught the bus on our way back. The rest of the trip back was really sketch with countless people trying to rip us off, which is all a little to hard to explain, but it ended up being okay although I think we lost some money along the way. At the Ghana boarder the guards were so nice and helped us with a guy who was also scamming us. It was really nice to be back in Ghana. On the Bus from Bolgatonga to Kumasi my seat was soaked with pee… so that was gross. I used my blanket to sit on but the pee still soaked through. We took a tro-tro from Kumasi back to Accra and best of all it was air-conditioned and fast, plus we got three Cedis off the price. They must of seen how gross and dirty we were and took pity… it had been 7 days without a shower. We got back late at night. I took the best shower of my life, at food at the vegan stand and went to sleep. Although the road back was a little difficult and we spent a lot of time in buses it was such an amazing trip. We saw so much of West Africa, met the coolest people, and lived as a lot of Africans do. Now I have three weeks left in Ghana, I will be so sad to leave but I cant wait to be home too!

... sorry this is so long