The End of the Trip

Dearest friends,

I have returned to Accra safe and sound after traveling for the past 52 days. This will most likely be the final post on the blog, so I will do my best to tell you about Burkina as well as talk a little bit about the trip as a whole.

I believe I went through three phases during this trip. The first phase involved being a tourist as I visited mountains and waterfalls in Togo, the Route of Slaves in Ouidah, and the Safari I took in Natitingou. I then began the next phase as a student of the world, where I wanted to do everything off the tourist track; to learn about different ways of life, different cultures and histories, different regional languages. This was when I stayed with a couchsurfer in Niamey, a peace corp volunteer in Malbaza, took the long pinasse ride to Tombouctou on a cargo boat, and stayed in the desert with a Tuareg friend of mine. When I arrived in Burkina, I reached a third phase that at first was difficult to categorize.

It took me two days to reach the capital of Burkina Faso, Ouaga. I departed Tombouctou at 3am, even though the 4 by 4 driver told me 4am and rudely awoke me an hour early. Regardless, a rough trip through the desert commenced at 5am and we finally reached Bandiagara in the afternoon. In Bandiagara we waited for a while for a "bus", which was essentially the back of a cargo van with the seats taken out and wooden benches lining the sides. I opened the back door to find that the bus was completely full except for the space on the ground on top of the tire, so thats where I sat for the next couple hours struggling to find a place to put my feet among the bags on the ground. It was nonetheless a funny image, a white person sitting in the midst of 20 or more Africans sitting on benches. I heard the click of a cameraphone from the women in front of me, so which I responded "Photo, cadeau cadeau" as all the little African children do. This much amused the rest of the bus. Nonetheless, I spent the night sleeping on the ground in Koro waiting for the bus the next day and finally arrived in Ouaga late the next day after about 2 days of travel.

Having finally reached Ouaga, I was tired. I had been traveling for quite some time to reach it. I wasnt really in the mood to go to the touristy areas of Bobo and Banfora which offered touristy things very similar to Kpalime, Togo and neither did I feel like staying in a small village in line with my second phase. Instead I spent the days in Ouaga, relaxing. I went to see movies at the French Cultural Center, meet up with Peace Corp volunteers to celebrate 4th of July, took myself out to a really nice dinner with steak marinated in bourbon. The third phase of my trip was very much like summer vacation. I had gone from tourist to student of the world and now just wanted to stay in one city and live the life as if I was on vacation. So to be honest, I dont have that much to tell you about life in Burkina or culture and history or really crazy experiences.

Nonetheless, my last night in town I went with a friend of mine to listen to his African drum band play. We arrived in this compound with a house and covered area with chairs. We sat and listened as 6 people enthusiastically played the drums. As they played, neighborhood children came and danced in front of the drummers. The older children banged their tomato cans that they use to collect cadeaus and the younger kids danced. Unfortunately, the conversation afterwards was interrupted by a large storm which came. The two french people that were there watching with me got out in time, but I didnt get to leave before the winds came so I was stuck in this tiny room with 8 other people to wait out the storm. As we came out after the storm, we were sad to discover that the covered area had all blown down and was now a mix of straw and wood on the ground. Such is the African rainy season!

Coming back into Ghana, I was amazed to be riding on the STC bus with air conditioning and a TV. It had been a long time since I had such amenities on a bus. Arriving in the country, I started seeing little things that to me are only in Ghana. Here are a couple:
1. 4 seats, 4 people: In Ghana you can take a tro tro in which four seats will actually be for four people. In every other country I went they would stuff as many people as possible into the small space. A taxi cab for 4 people in Ghana would fit 10 in Niger, the bed of a pick up truck sits 18 on wooden benches.
2. Wokaw hen: In Ghana its common for people to ask where you are going out of curiousity or to help you. In no other country did people ask me where I was going, the first comment was usually cadeau or do you need X.

After being here for so long I started to miss things that I didnt expect to miss. I have really missed understanding side conversations. Its frequent that I will be on a taxi or bus and everyone starts laughing or yelling about something I dont understand why or something strange happens and everyone starts talking about what happens but I cant understand the explanation even if its in French. I also miss not being the center of attention, everywhere I go because I am white everybody watches me or is curious, if I do something out of the ordinary everyone nearby notices. It will be nice to go back to being just a member of the crowd again.

This whole trip has really been a learning experience. Although it hasnt necessarily helped me figure out what I will do with my life, I have picked up some important life skills like knowing who to trust, trusting my instincts about a person or a situation, knowing how to get myself out of difficult situations in a foreign language, getting around in a brand new city and country. I have made some really good, life-long friends around the world. I have picked up some words in Hausa, Bambara, Tamasheq, and Dogon. I have some understaning of the life of nomads, of villagers in Niger, of the religion of Voodoo, of the African concept of time.

This journey has been a landmark in my life and I thank all of you for following me on this journey. I will see you all soon and I cannot wait to tell you all of my stories.

Best always,
Ben