VIVE L'AFRIQUE!

---

As the Francophones say, Joyeux Noel and Bonne Annee toute le monde! Please forgive my long absence on the blog, however being on holidays is the best excuse I know for going AWAL, and what a holiday it was. Then to make the delay even longer, the internet at my office has been down for the last week! So grab something to sip on, sit back and relax because this is going to be a long one…

Over the last three weeks I had the good fortune of being able to travel to two other West African countries - Burkina Faso and Mali - with some friends from home; Nathalie a fellow IDSer working in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, and Renee another WUSC Ghana volunteer living in Bolgatanga. The adventure began when Renee made her way down to Accra for some trip preparation, a whirlwind week in which we spent running around getting visas, changing money, going to the beach, and just general catching up. Then we set off on the infamous STC (Ghana’s bus company) and hauled ourselves up to Ouagadougou (and hauling indeed - we left at 10am on the 21st arriving in Ouaga at 3pm the next day). If you are already groaning at that, over the course of the trip we rode in roughly 18 different buses from start to finish and that was probably one of the better rides!

Once we crossed the border, we felt like our journey had begun! Suddenly there was dusty savannah as far as the eye could see, French bread coming out the ying yang, and men chain smoking like you wouldn’t believe - We had arrived in Burkina!
We began by flagging ourselves the first of many “bush taxis” (essentially a tro tro that goes for long distances and crams as many people as possible while overloading the roof with bikes, animals, bags, and any other random goods people decide they want to transport), and set off. The ride to Ouaga was pretty uninteresting as we quickly discovered that although Burkina has a population of 10 million, it’s quite spread out across their land mass and between the border to the city we never passed a settlement bigger then a small village at best! Upon entering Ouagadougou, Renee and I were completely lost, having not ended up at the spot our driver said he would drop us, and were instantly surrounded by a group of young men nattering to us in French and trying to carry our bags, while we butchered the French language trying to tell them we didn’t need help. Alas we got in a cab and set out for our meeting point, while trying to bargain in French (HA!) and in a new currency (the damn CFA…). Needless to say we got royally ripped off, however Nath saved the day (the first of many days to be saved by our resident Francophone ) by meeting us on her mophead. Yup, that’s right, the crazy girl drives through the nutso city of Ouaga on her own mophead! She does it like a pro though and loves it (meanwhile if I were to grab a ride I’m holding on for dear life, choking on exhaust, and praying the wheels don’t skid out on every turn!). If Accra is the world’s capital for traffic jams, well Ouaga is the capital of driving mopheads - twice as many as there are cars!

Our four days in Ouagadougou began as we settled into Nath’s lovely house in the west of the city, getting spoiled as she has someone to cook, clean, and GASP - do her laundry (and subsequently mine ). Nath took us around the city, with the main highlights being that we ate DELICIOUS food (steak, shrimp and leek fondue, and SALAD, a foreign concept in Ghana!), went dancing, drank lots of beer, relaxed, and listened as Renee and I made copious comparisons between Ouaga and Ghana (the presence of foods like French bread, salad, and fries were our favorite things to talk about and subsequently to eat!). We spent Christmas Eve at Angele’s house, the West African Country director for WUSC, who had invited all of the Burkina volunteers over for delicious catered food, Christmas caroling, and a small gift exchange. There are a lot more Canadian volunteers in Brukina then in Ghana and most of them are married with kids, so it was nice to have children running around and creating general mayhem like Christmas’s at home. Arranging a special trip to Burkina was also Santa Claus, which the kids got a kick out of. Christmas Day was one of the laziest Christmas I can remember, staying in our pajamas until noon when we got a surprise visit at Nath’s front door by a camel… yup, a man from the north was traveling to the city for his annual visit and went around the houses making a little extra cash by letting people sit on/take photos with the camel. So there I was on a camel in my boxer shorts -- classy, I know. Then a bunch of Nath’s friends came over for a delicious Christmas dinner and we just relaxed with good company and drank some festive beers.

Alas, it was time for our crazy Malian adventure to begin! Boxing Day rose bright and hot, and we took off, on a trip which we all later admitted to not really knowing what to expect. Going to Mali had been a slightly impromptu decision and one we had only read about briefly in our guidebooks, but we learned that to have no expectations is a wonderful way to travel and I loved all that Mali gave us the opportunity to see, and the many lessons I learned.

The first lesson was about time. All of us by now understood the concept of “Africa time”, meaning if you say 10, it’s more like 11, however one has to take this with an even bigger grain of salt when traveling as nothing ever goes your way and if you are dead set on sticking to a plan, well kiss your vacation good bye! After missing our originally planned bus, we scoured the city for one leaving as soon as possible and joined what we thought was a bus taking us directly to Bankass, Mali. Well, we got on our bush taxi and were really enjoying the first four hours of scenery, “snacking on the tro tro” (I am a sucker for warm French bread!) and talking with people, until we realized that we’d been traveling for 5 hours and still hadn’t hit the next major city in Burkina. We arrived in Ouahigouya after dark and watched as the rest of the bus unloaded and left the station, still thinking we were going to cross the border when we were informed that we should go find a hotel and show up tomorrow at 6 am. WHAT?!? C’est la vie dans voyage en l’Afrique. The lesson continued the next morning as our expected 5am pick up and 6am departure fell through and we sat waiting in some random bus lot until 8am when a rickety van pulled up and somehow crammed 16+ people in what would pass as a minivan in Canada! Possibly the most uncomfortable ride of my life with my butt half on the seat wedged between Nath and a Tuareg man from Mali. Nonetheless, we crossed the border and part two of our journey had begun. WE WERE IN MALI!

Our first four days in Mali we spent in the Dogon Country, an area of eastern Mali along the border of Burkina Faso, which boasts traditional villages and the Falaises de Bandigara, a mountain range set in the middle of the barren savannah of Eastern Mali. On our first night, we hooked ourselves up with a guide, a wonderful young man named Jerome. He was incredibly knowledgeable about the people and the history of the area, and over the course of the next four days, we saw a lot and learned a lot. Our trek began in Bankass with us attending a competition amongst local theater groups to see who would become the winning group for Bankass and compete nationally for the title of Mali’s best traditional dancers and theatrics. It was a really neat experience, made more so by the hundreds of people crowding into the arena creating a pulsing energy throughout the place! Afterwards, with the company of Jerome and his friends, we enjoyed our first of many nights of tea making at the campement. A popular activity in the Sahel with its chilly evenings is gathering in small groups around a coal pot and making tea. The tea is very strongly concentrated, and usually the leaves go through 2 or 3 rounds, with the tea getting mixed with LOTS of sugar, and then poured into what looks like a double shot glass for every round. Each person is given the glass to take their tea and the glass and tea are passed around likewise. It’s delicious, and a wonderful way to get to know people! That night we also enjoyed our first of many nights sleeping on the roof of our campement (small guest house type accommodation, usually pretty rugged and budget, with the option to camp) with just a mattress and a mosquito net - absolutely wonderful; the stars are “secenco” (beautiful in Dogon) in rural Mali. We also experienced just how cold it can get at night in the north and I regretted my decision of not bringing my sleeping bag!

The next day we began our trek into Dogon Country. Renee wanted a porter to carry her bags which we had arranged with Jerome the day before, but we got something better - a horse cart! The three of us were in love with this idea - considering the use of the modern day car, who ever gets to ride on a horse cart?! The first part of the journey from Bankass to Kani Kombole had the three of us stretched out like princesses basking in our good fortune! The rest of the trek did not disappoint us either. We used the horse cart to travel between the villages of the Dogon Country, which are spread out along the base of the mountains and onwards once the mountains ended. We went as far as the end of the mountain ranges and visited villages such as Kani Kombole (bustling little village that relies heavily on tourism for its livelihood, and also boasts a very large mud mosque), Ende (not as large, but located under an excellent portion of the mountain to hike where you can get right up into the Tellem houses - homes of the ancient Tellem people who built their homes right into the side of the mountain! This is where we based ourselves for sleeping for the duration), and Teli, which was similar to the previous villages. Renee, opting out of the day long hike to the village of __________ nestled in the middle of the mountains, got to spend the day in Teli with a family learning how to dance the whistle dance, eat like the locals, and drink traditional Malian millet beer. Nath and I opted for the hike, which was also incredible. The village is nestled in to the top of the northern tip of the mountain ranges and is split into three distinct areas based on religion. The Christian village gives a wonderful view of the valley and mountain ridge that we hiked, the Anime village allows one to look over the northern peak, and the Muslim side provides a walk along the edge of the mountain, overlooking savannah as far as the eye can see. We really wanted to climb to the top of the peak overlooking all the villages below, and as we approached the edge, we were rewarded with an absolutely incredible view - true, barren, African savannah stretching beyond the horizon. We had glimpsed this view on some of the other smaller hikes, but this was by far the most breathtaking. Really puts one in an introspective and pensive mood!

We finished off Dogon Country by enjoying some beer and good conversation with Jerome, as well as another night under the brilliant stars and then headed into the next part of our journey. From Kani-Kombole, Jerome hooked us up with a ride in a private car to the town of Bandiagara, just on the other side of the mountains. We spent a relaxing night in a very quaint and “swanky” (for our budget!) hotel. As we were discovering, Mali is a very touristy place, especially at key seasons like Christmas. Wherever we went, we weren’t without a white face close by (as I said, it’s the most white people I’ve seen in one place since I came to Africa!), however, the areas in Dogon really provided for a unique traveling experience that allows you to feel as if you are exploring the culture and going “off the beaten track”.

The next morning was New Year’s Eve, which we had decided we would spend in the town of Sevare, at the suggestion of Jerome who said that the town boasts the most happening bar in the area. Not wanting to miss out on dancing it up Malian style, we hitched a ride with the first car that drove past us at the hotel (which happened to be a full pick up truck with room left only in the back, along with a few chickens!). We soon discovered that there was nothing much happening in the town of Sevare besides the club so we spent the afternoon blowing money at an art shop, searching without success for somewhere to eat, and taking a very extended evening nap. We woke up an hour before midnight, and thanks to Nath’s encouragement, made it out to the club. We showed up at the perfect time and rang in the New Year by literally dancing the night away - we closed the bar down at 5am! (Well, Nath and I did… Renee was the champion drinker of the evening and had to tap out early hahaha).

Needless to say, we got off to a pretty slow start the next morning, but we eventually made it to Mopti, Mali’s second largest city, which is located along the Niger River and boasted by its inhabitants to be the “Venice of Africa”. Indeed, it was beautiful and unlike any other African city I have seen thus far - narrow, seemingly unplanned streets, water on all sides, tons of vendors and market places, all interspersed with the mud buildings that characterize Mali. We spent two nights in Mopti and had the chance to explore the bustling marketplace, visit “Old Town” (the original section of town which stems from the rest on a narrow sliver of land, surrounded by water, and housing some very old mosque’s and mud homes), drink tea with the locals, and truly discover the beauty of street food (nothing beats sitting around a street vendor on benches, chatting up the locals, eating hot fresh food Malian style - our wallets weren’t complaining either!). On our second day, we took a tour of the Niger River in our own private little ________ boat. We got to stop at some of the villages that dot the bank of the river and just enjoy a relaxing paddle along the river, complete with hibiscus tea and a great view of the city.

After our second night and some early morning shopping, we felt ready to depart the city and continued onwards to Djenne, an island town not far from Mopti on the Niger River which is famous for its UNESCO World Heritage mud mosque (but not much else!). It was our tenth major bus ride of the trip, and again we experienced the joy of African traveling as we were crammed into the back of an open truck with about 14 other passengers, all who looked equally as uncomfortable! Instead of taking the supposed 2 hours, the ride took 4 (and a surprising little ferry ride!) and we ended up checking into our campement at dusk. We opted for sleeping on the roof as we suspected this would be our last opportunity, so we set up camp and spent a FRIGID night on the roof, having not been prepared for the wind of the river and awoke fairly early the next morning to the possibility of taking freezing cold showers in a cement shower room whose door didn’t close. It was an interesting start to the morning needless to say! We then hired a guide as we wanted to see the sights in a couple of hours and be on our way, which wasn’t hard as a tour of the whole place took roughly two hours and still gave us time to bargain for some jewelry, take some pictures, and watch the process of making “bogolan” clothes (an art form of painting images and patterns from natural paints on to thick clothes - we bought several in Ende, and it was interesting to see the process behind it). Interesting tid bit - since Djenne was marked as a UNESCO World Heritage site in the 1980s, it has not been allowed to erect any modern style buildings unless they too are made of mud. I suppose this to keep the historical value of the town, however I found the power of UNESCO in dictating people’s lives to be rather authoritative…

Alas, the bulk of the trip was finished and the journey home began… and what a journey it was! We left Djenne on Friday at noon and I was on busses for the next four days, arriving in Accra on Tuesday morning. If I learned anything from this part of the trip, it was that patience is a virtue and if you don’t have this and the ability to sleep on moving vehicles, DO NOT bus anywhere in Africa! After leaving Djenne, we hooked up with two German girls who were also trying to get to the Burkina border by night time. We rode a shared taxi to the junction with the main road from Mopti where we awaited any passing traffic that might be going to the town of San or beyond, and luckily hitched a ride with a passing coach. From there, we switched to an insanely packed tro-tro type bus in San for a 4 hour ride to the border town of Kouri, where we arrived at 9:30 at night and when we asked for a hotel, the men from the station lead us to what can only be described as Mali’s most derelict and disgusting brothel - or at least that’s what it looked like! After deciding that the room was too gross, which consisted of four walls looking like someone had splattered blood on them, a bed with dirty sheets, and a whole host of four legged friends, we decided to put our sleeping gear to good use on the external compound of the “hotel” and spent a decidedly unpleasant last evening in Mali! This was made that much worse when our “guaranteed” (does that word exist in reference to African travel??) 6am bus ride to Burkina the next morning drove right past us on the road and we were forced to wait on the side of the road in Kouri until a tro tro passed through en route to Burkina five hours later. All I have to say is thank god for cards and the game of Asshole!

We did eventually make it to Bobo and from there we took a short bus ride (#15!) to Hounde, where another IDSer, Sara Osman, is doing her placement. Hounde is a fairly small town where Sara enjoys some pretty rural living (ie. The toilet is a hole in the ground much like what we were used to at some of the more run down establishments we stayed at, and no running water), but the people were wonderful and from all that Sara said, I can tell she is having a very rewarding and enriching experience. It was great to see her, and we spent the night catching up and eating at Hounde’s one and only dance spot, so of course we had to hit the dance floor again! The next morning we were off, this time back to Ouagadougou, where we spent the night at Nath’s and rehashing the trip. And then…. Sigh. Bus ride #17 began…. After hugs all around and the “Ahh I can’t believe this is over!”, Renee and I boarded the world’s most wretched bus (sorry, oversized tro tro!) and began our journey back to Ghana. Renee was only on the bus for four hours until we got to Bolgatanga, but I got on at 8:30am on Monday and didn’t get off until 11am the next day (unless you include the 4 hour delay in Tamale when the bus broke down or the transfer to another bus company in Kumasi as the company didn’t actually travel to Accra, only sold tickets there!). Needless to say, I was exhausted and will be perfectly happy if I never ride a bus again in my life!

Ultimately though, the trip was incredible and a much needed break from the routine of work and Accra. It was refreshing to be on the move again and exploring a new culture, new sights, and attempting to navigate a new language! As I said to my Mom during a Christmas phone call, “If I could backpack Africa for the rest of my life, I would!”. Although things very rarely went according to plan and you couldn’t count on a guaranteed ride if your life depended on it, things always worked out and you got where you were going, more likely then not with the aid of a kind and generous local who was willing to point you in the right direction. It was this attitude and generosity, along with the ability to feel so free in your choices and movement that made the trip a very unique one for me, compounded by the fact that it was all of our first times budget backpacking such a unique and diverse place as West Africa.

So there’s only one way I can think to end this, and that is by highlighting some of the more pertinent lessons I learned from my West African journey…
1. Talking to strangers isn’t that scary after all
2. Being uni-lingual is truly a pathetic state
3. The CFA sucks, but the French do know a thing or two about good music
4. In Africa, everything is bargainable
5. Never pack more then you can comfortably hike a mile with
6. There actually are people left in the world who will do something for nothing
7. It’s alright to wear really dirty clothes (but get your laundry done at every opportunity!)
8. You don’t always need a plan
9. Language barriers don’t prevent connections between people
10. Patience is a virtue - you can learn lots from waiting!

Sorry for the length of the blog, I hope I didn’t bore anyone! I enjoyed writing this entry and being able to bring a little of what this trip meant to me to all of you. I hope the New Year is finding everyone safe, healthy, and happy and don’t be afraid to email me with all the updates from the snowy lands of home! Sorry about this delay but there will be more coming shortly as it is African Cup of Nations time and Accra is going crazy!

Sending love from the African continent,
Courtney

---

Photos

The camel!
They're HUGE! Sorry, I forgot to include a picture of us in our PJs standing with the camel hahaha

The journey begins!
(sitting in a bus station of course!)

World's Craziest bus ride
In what can only be described as a vehicle slightly bigger then a mini van with an open back and wooden benches along the side, we crammed over 26 people into the back! You can get a feel for our cramped style from Renee!

Dogon Country begins with the tradtional dance show
(can you tell I'm captivated?!) -- also, I left out so many pictures on my flash drive that would have sewn the story together better, sorry about that!

The trek begins...
... with the HORSE CART!

Comments

[betty stewart]

How Exciting
Courtney, I'm really enjoying your blog. Is this the same agenda your sticking to when Mom visits!!!!!!!! You must be your father's daughter. Nothing in your travels reminds me of your Mom at all. Have a great time and stay safe.

[uncle leo]

monster!
Sure are a long ways from the old green couch at Stradwick!