13th - Money?

---

When I woke up, the bikini was gone! Not quite as funny as my crap joke about
dreaming I was eating a giant marshmallow and when I woke up my pillow was
gone, but i felt a huge weight lift from my shoulders. Not taking any chances
I skipped breakfast (couldn't afford it anyway) and skipped all the way to
the next village. My guidebook said lots of people got robbed on the way
there so I left everything behind apart from a few quid in my pocket and
pinned a bit more emergency cash inside my shorts. I think this was before
the road was built as I could imagine walking along a path in the jungle
would be now quite as safe as the road that is now there.
Ah real village life I thought, not a hotel in the place so obviously no semi
permanent white residents. A proper little fishing town, with a harbor and
brightly colored boats. I passed a football match where a game was in
progress, the women were pumping water from a well nearby and kids were
carrying it home on their heads in big buckets. No tourist trap here...
Whoever taught the kids to speak that evil word they were all saying needs
shooting! And whoever encourages it needs stabbing. A few times. If you've
ever been to China you will know that the only english word everyone knows is
'hello and after walking through a town and having 500 people say it to you,
you stop replying pretty soon and just get annoyed. Still, it is far better
than every two to seven year old holding their hands out and saying 'money'.
That is just depressing, but then half of them don't know what they're saying
and just going along with everyone else. The kids are so cute you can't hate
them, just the fact that a lot of people in this country have very little,
but still believe that money will solve all their problems. Still that's easy
for me to say...
The castle was cool, nicely restored and the caretaker gave me a great tour
around. Its now owned by an English guy and they did a lot of work on it, I
can't help thinking its going to be ruined by commercialism instead of te
weather (they're building a swimming pool on the headland in front of it) but
it certainly makes an impressive, if saddening, site. The slaves were kept in
tiny rooms, any food they got was just throw into the cells, there were no
toilets, little ventilation, 30 people to a tiny cell, rape of female slaves
was commonplace, only the strongest survived this ordeal which might last for
months before they arrived over the Atlantic and a life of misery, never to
see their home or family again. Far too many of these places were build to
house slaves to be transported off to death or the new world and although
Nana told me that night that he loves Tony Blair and the british as 'out
colonial masters' I think its a sad legacy to leave to a country as nice as
Ghana. Still, it was well before I was born, and no one alive today can
remember slavery so I don't feel too much guilt. Still, the British Empire was
built on the profits of human misery, if it hadn't happened we wouldn't be as
rich as we are now, it displaced millions and we'll never know how many
people died or suffered in pursuit of that four letter word - money.
But hey, I was on holiday by the beach and I wasn't going to get depressed!
Life was good, it looked like it was finally over between Angela and myself,
I felt some slight twinges of guilt for being so mean but it was a
rollercoaster of emotions all the way. Ambivalence, boredom, annoyance,
dread, more annoyance and finally relief. The last thing she said was 'I
really like you' to which I said 'ok thanks. see you'. I couldn't understand
how she could leave without saying she loved me, but then I know nothing
about women.
Another lazy day but now it was no longer the weekend so the very few people
who were there mostly left. Perhaps it was time to move on, but I'd only just
got there! There really was bugger all to do, the surf was ok for boogie
boarding and they had some surf boards but the swell wasn't really enough and
the boards a bit too short for me. I had plenty of books to get through
though and with lack of other distractions i was getting through them at a
fair clip. I resolved to leave the next day go and see some culture, surely
there were some interesting things to see in this country, I wasn't here to
read but for adventure, excitement and really wild things!
One last trip to Nana's for dinner and he had a crowd! Seems like my chat had
bolstered his confidence and he had grabbed every tourist in town, all 8 of
them! No room for me really but I sat down next to a couple of girls at the
end of the table. I have to be careful what I write now because they'll
undoubtedly read this. although I might make a few footnotes that make it
into the edition that's published on my death :p It became apparent after 5
seconds that they were a couple of girls from scandinavia, 15 seconds to see
it wasn't Denmark and another minute to be sure it was Swedish. All while
trying not to listen to their conversation which would have been rude. Or
could have been rude, I really wasn't listening. Honestly! I had to say
something though, god help me if they started talking about me, that I
couldn't ignore, and whatever it was they were talking about was more
interesting than my beer label. So I used that classic chat up line that has
served me so well 'which part of Swede are you from?' :p They were impressed,
but that soon vanished with the next 2 questions, 'Have you been to Sweden?
and 'Do you speak Swedish?'. About as impressive as me asking someone which
part of the west midlands they come from.
Still it got us chatting and they were great girls, always laughing and
speaking swedish in a land where everyone speaks english is great for taking
the piss. The language came flooding back and I didn't make the mistake I
made in Vietnam by saying I spoke great Swedish only to have the girl I said
it tell other Swedes I only spoke a little. Bitch! I am great! :p
They were away for four months and were about to start their trip back north
to Guinea where they would fly home a week after me. They were also planning
on leaving the next day but we were there until past midnight and drank so
much beer it seemed unlikely they would be getting up in time. I also suspect
it was my good looks and charm that made them want to stay a bit longer, and
nothing to do with my MP3 player filled with western music they'd both been
missing for three months. I staggered off to bed hoping they'd still be
around the next morning and happy that it seemed my trip had finally started!

---