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Grinding millet
My what a big mortar and pestle you have! Bamako, Mali Well, this isn’t exactly how I’d planned to write my blog, but unfortunately it’s the way it’s panned out! Lack of internet access, lack of bandwidth when you do have the internet (one dial-up connection shared between four people anybody??), and lack of electricity through constant power cuts over the last 6 weeks or so mean that its been impossible to keep up to date with this blog.
So rather than try and kill myself writing up entry after entry now that I’ve eventually found an internet café, I’m going to scrap the hurried bits and pieces I’ve started and let the photos tell the story, while I concentrate on mentioning my highlights and impressions of West Africa! (By the way, I don’t plan to continue like this for the entire trip, but hope - possibly without foundation - that things will be much improved in Cameroon and East Africa!)
So, I’ll start by mentioning where I am and where I’ve been since I was last in touch! I’m currently in Calabar, Nigeria and since I last updated you in Mauritania, I’ve travelled through Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin and now Nigeria. It sounds like a lot of travelling
Cold beer at last!
Me, Phil, Amy and Megan hide from the midday heat and enjoy a cold beer, after arriving in Bamako, Mali from the deserts of Mauritania since the beginning of April, but its been brilliant! West Africa has been amazing, culturally and visually - from the beaches, deserts, small towns, big cities, endless markets and everything else our big green truck has brought us to see.
At the same time it’s been fraught with difficulties from the afore-mentioned power shortages, water shortages, various (mild) illnesses, and of course, as I’ve mentioned before, the heat!
The people have been amazing too - I can't even begin to describe them all, as there is so many different cultures here - Nigeria alone has 320 different tribes recognized! On the whole the people have been extremely friendly, always smiling and waving as we pass, and always inquisitive as to where we’ve come from and where we’re going to. The children too are so curious - wanting to touch us, hold our hands, play games … but of course there's a lot of begging too which can get quite disturbing. In some areas, the children (and sometimes the adults) will drive you crazy demanding presents, sweets and pens, or your water bottle - it’s the bottle rather than the contents that’s of real value here, and you can see everything
from petrol to peanuts sold in ‘recycled’ plastic bottles!
There’ve been many, many highlights of West Africa though, possibly more so in Mali than any other country. It was in Mali that we stumbled across a tribal funeral ‘celebration’, a local village occasion that had to be seen to be believed. Chaotic drumming, frenzied dancing, enchanting singing and to be the first white people ever to visit this village!! They were ecstatic, believing it to be a significant good luck symbol, and it was such and honour to be part welcomed into their celebration.
It was also in Mali that we visited Dogon country - a 3 day trek along a section of the Bandiagara escarpment that is the land of the
Dogon people. Mud houses, granaries with witch-hat straw roofs, scattered rocks in bizarre natural formations, ancient dwellings pockmarked on the cliff face, and so much history and tradition, fascination culturally and aesthetically.
It’d be impossible to describe all my highlights and lowlights here - I just don’t have the time or the words to do it justice, so as I said I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, and leave you with a list of things, both good
and bad, that I’ll forever associate with West Africa!
Drinking water in bags
Violent thunder storms and flash floods
Dirty streets and open sewers
Insects bigger than you can imagine
“long drop” toilets and bucket showers
Roadblocks and bribing the officials with gifts to let us through, from sweets to books to t-shirts
Markets and meat stalls covered in flies
Fabulous, colourful clothes
Amazing local art & craft, traditional, tribal, religious and purely decorative
Pot-holes and terrible roads
Stubbing your toe on random blocks of concrete in the middle of the footpath (my skin will be hard as nails when I return!)
Delicious, and dirt cheap, street food
Not being allowed to take photos of the locals
Marriage proposals
Moto-taxis; and seeing whole families fit on one bike
Hectic markets, with everything from mouse-traps to live chickens to be slaughtered in front of you
Going to get a key “cut” and finding that instead they just find a match from a giant trunk of keys
Fanmilk, delicious frozen yoghurt most of the group have become addicted to
Brightly coloured lizards
Doughballs
Mmmmm....greasy but so tasty! The good and the bad (but mostly good!) of not having a mobile phone
Pirogue boat trips
Sleeping in a pool of sweat on muggy nights
Ordering off a menu, and being brought something completely different. You’ll get what they want to give you!
Dough-balls
Conversations about what you’ll eat when you get home, and how much you miss Tesco
Dodgy stomachs
Begging children
Self-appointed tour guides you can't shake off
Being woken at 4am by the
muezzin’s call to prayer from the nearest mosque
The unbelievable bundles the African women can balance perfectly on their heads
Ghana’s shop signs - such classics as “Oh Jesus Fast Food”, “Don’t Mind Your Wife Café”, “No Weapons Barbers” and “Blood of Jesus Bike Shop”
The call of “Psst, psst” be market traders to get your attention
Fußball tables on every street corner
Slums with satellite dishes
Power shortages
Water shortages
Children who never seem to cry
Perfectly maintained mud and thatch buildings standing alongside abandoned, derelict ‘modern’ concrete ones
Baboons climbing into the truck to steal bananas
Guinness
everywhere, including a
Djennè mosque
This huge mosque is the world's largest mud-brick structure - and it needs 'touching up' each year after the rainy season! non-alcoholic version,
Maltina So, I’m off to Cameroon today to hopefully, weather permitting, climb Mount Cameroon and spend some time relaxing on the beaches before flying across to Ethiopia, where I begin the 2nd half of my trip!
I'll be updating you all from Cameroon so stay tuned! And I know I've a million people I've promised to email, I haven't forgotten so expect to hear from me soon!
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best bits
What a brilliant blog. Nice step stats. Sounds like you are having an amazing time. Love the photos of the kids and the pyramid too! Keep having a BRILLIANT time. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx