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Who Do that Voo Doo?
That You Do So Well! Western Africa is not on the well-worn tourist route. All four ports are new to us. Fortunately we have several guest lecturers on board who have given us some background on these small countries hanging on the Atlantic edge of Africa. They were used as way stations during the era of slavery. They were all colonial outposts and only became independent in the past fifty years. As third world countries, they share many of the same problems such as poverty, high mortality rates and rampant unemployment. Malaria and Aids contribute to the problems of these poor countries. They have not been plagued with the tribal wars which have engulfed many of the other African states.
We arrived at the pilot station in Benin right on time but alas there was no pilot. Then Captain Mario got word that the ship that was supposed to leave to make way for us at the pier had lost its engine. So we cooled our heels for four hours and then as we were making our way into the port a mini wind storm sprung up and the maritime officials closed the port. A few disembarking passengers were taken ashore by tender and then
the decision was made to cancel the call in Benin. It was too bad because most had never been to this country and they were anxious to explore it. But more importantly, two containers of supplies were awaiting our arrival at the pier in order to be loaded on board. But it was not to be! The next day we found out that the ship had run out of potato chips and the new supply was sitting back in Benin. Talk about mutiny on the bounty! How would we survive the Atlantic crossing without the beloved chips? As Kevin says, “Loose chips sink ships.”
Togo is one of the poorer countries in the world and it is quite obvious when going ashore in Lome. The major religion is a mixture of animism and voodoo. We opted to attend a voodoo ceremony—a first for us. The drive to the event was an education in itself. The road sides were blanketed with billboards pleading for abstinence and/or condom use. Just say no!!
We had to travel into the countryside along rutted dirt roads to get to the site. The ceremony involved drumming, chanting, dancing, drinking and animal sacrifice. This day
they chose to sacrifice a chicken but we did see some nervous looking goats running around. Several men went into trances and became very agitated and had to be restrained. I think the trances were brought on more by the liquor than by any religious fervor. We had brought some pens and pencils to give to the children. When I pulled them out of my bags, I was besieged by a mob of kids. One older girl grabbed the whole bag but I gave her the evil eye and she retuned the bag to me. Kevin finished passing out the gifts to the little kids who were climbing all over him. We didn’t see any dolls stuck with pins but there were a number of heads carved out of gourds which were used in the ceremony.
We were there on the day of a worldwide malaria awareness event. So we covered ourselves with Deet and kept a sharp lookout for any of the flying pests. Since it was Sunday most everything was closed. But there was a lively street market filled with all sorts of crafts and some very persistent merchants.
Takoradi, Ghana was the next stop on
Everybody Loves Kevin
Or Maybe it's His Presents? the schedule. We ended up on a tour to a local cocoa processing factory where chocolate and cocoa butter is made. It was no Willy Wonka Chocolate Factory—in fact it was so noisy we couldn’t hear what the guide was telling us about the whole process. But the Ghanians are very proud of this industrial achievement. We visited the “European Town” of Sekondi. There were decaying colonial buildings and shantytowns reaching to the shore. We passed by a prison which looked really bad. We could see prisoners waving their arms out the barred windows. There is little in the way of tourist infrastructure in these West African nations but it is an interesting study in how people cope with life in what some passengers called fifth world countries.
The Gambia is an odd little country carved out of the center of Senegal. In spite of the predominance of Muslims the women have the most colorful dress. The beautiful costumes are made from locally grown cotton which is dyed vibrant colors and come with matching head scarves. We saw whole families living in sand dunes by the river. The dunes were covered with the river washed clothes drying in the
sun. Here in the port city of Banjul 90% of the billboards were advertising cell phones and calling plans. With the advent of cell phones many of these poor countries bypassed the whole telephone poles and lines era. So they will never have to have a measure on the ballot about undergrounding telephone wires. Since the average income is around $1.25 a day I’m surprised that most can even afford cell phones.
There was the best market right on the dock. It was a beehive of activity with lots of bartering and bargaining going on. It was even better than the downtown market. We sat on our balcony and watched passengers going off the ship three or four times to pick up their last souvenirs of Africa. We cast off that evening leaving the Dark Continent after a three week sojourn in this most foreign of lands. Now we were making our ocean passage across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and Florida and signaling the last two weeks of the 2010 World Cruise.
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