Akwaaba

Monday, February 01, 2010
Kokrobite, Ghana

    January 18-31

Route traveled

    Burkina Faso
        Bobo-Dioulasso - Ouagadougou

    Ghana
        Tamale - Mole National Park - Kokrobite



    I am writing this from Kokrobite Ghana and I just walked 5 miles to reach the internet cafe which consits of an english guy with a laptop. I found a nice place on the beach on the atlantic coast.
The last two weeks or so have been full of rastas and relaxing. Back in Bobo in Burkina I was staying at the mission, im not sure the type of religion exactly maybe catholic or christian, but everyone there was really friendly and during my stay in Bobo which lasted for 4 nights. Each morning I would wake up and walk out and buy some bread and some cheese and some other food and some water and head back to the mission. Put my music on and just relax most of the day, speaking a little with the people that passed by in the mission. On my first night in Bobo as I was walking out of the internet cafe, i met a guy on the street who asked me to come over and talk with him, he didnt speak very well english but i understood a little of him. I also met a big guy named Abraham who spoke perfect english and looked like a skinny Notorious B.I.G. We talked as I orderd some food and he told me about this place that had really good live music called Bamboo. I decided to check it out the next day. So the next day i relaxed all day and at about sunset i headed to the same restaurant and ordered the same salad and couscous meal. Abraham and his friends were there again and we hung out and later went to Bamboo. That night i saw a band called Allah Son, and they were a drumming group. This group was some of the best drumming i have ever seen it was truly a great display of african drumming, that night i also bought a bottle of some kind of liqour from france that said Menthyl on the front and it was quite nice. i took this with me in a fanta bottle to the club and shared it with everyone. after the drumming show i went with Abraham and a few of his friends to the discotech nightclub where we drank more and danced. a good monday night in bobo indeed. The next day consisted of almost the same thing relaxing all day and going to see a show later in the night, that night i saw a group called Praya Percussion who were also a really good drumming group and some of the dancing was like i have never seen before. so after really chilling out and taking it slowly in bobo i was ready to move on. Since i have been in only frech speaking countries i was really ready to go to Ghana. I could also hear Ghana calling me to go there so i decided to go. On a tuesday morning i headed off in my goal of making it to the border of ghana called hamale. I had bought a ticket the night before, so i got to the bus station and was really confusing cuz the bag guy kept saying that i had a ticket for the wrong bus and it wasnt there but then it came so i didnt understand, but some guy helped me understand who spoke english but it still didnt seem to make much sense, as is much things in africa anyhow. anyway i got on the bus and was off, maybe 6 hours later i arrived at the border, and on the bus i met some ghanian guys who spoke perfect english and it was really nice to meet people who i could easily talk to other than just having small interactions with little words. At this point as i was at the burkina border that i only had a visa for one week for burkina. this wasnt a problem since i was leaving the country after only about 5 days. I got stamped out of burkina and walked through no mans land to the ghana border and i could just sense the english language calling me, i got to the ghana immigration and talked with the border police, and for the first time i really understood what they were saying and asking me. To my great suprise the guy said that i needed a visa and the only way to get it is to go to the capital city of burkina and go to the ghana embassy. i couldnt believe this was happening again, just like in Mauritania, but the distance wasnt as far back to the capital. I asked him if this was a new law and he said yes it started at the first of the year, just my luck the law was only a couple of weeks old. I even offered them money and he said it wasnt about money and that it just wasnt possible. a little deflated but not to badly i asked how i could get a bus back to the capital. he said it probably wouldnt be until tomorrow and that if i wanted to go check and then come back i could leave my passport with him and find a guesthouse on the ghana side of the border. so i wandered back to the burkina police control and i tried to explain i had no visa, the guy very friendly told me since my visa for burkina was gonna be expired that i would have to extend it for no extra charge in Ouagadougou. so i was back in burkina faso once again, i walked all the way back to where the bus had dropped me off and luckily the same bus that dropped me off was still there and it was heading back in the same direction. i rechanged my money back to central african francs from ghanian cedis and explained that i needed to get to the capital. so they said no problem and they took me to a city called Pa which was at the juntion where i could go to the capital. they dropped me off and left me with a bus station worker and told him to get me a bus, so i sat there on the side of the road waiting for a bus to show up and after about 45 minutes one came and i hopped on. when i got on the bus was blaring bob marley's three little birds and i immediately knew i was going in the right direction, and i felt that this was supposed to happen. After about 5 more hours i made it to the capital of burkina with the great name of Ouagadougou. I found a really nice hotel in the center of the city, but the only had a room with ac that costs a lot but since it was my only option i took it and they agreed to give me a cheaper room the next day. i didnt need to use the Ac but since i had it, i blasted it just to remember how it felt, and i slept fairly cold in my sleeping bag. the next morning with my goal of attaining a ghana visa i walked a few miles and arrived at the embassy. the security guy told me to take my valuables and to leave my bag at the gate. as i was walking in i saw 3 other white people waiting outside and waved hello. as i walked in i was immediately told to go wait outside. so i went to wait with the others. they were a couple from istanbul and a guy named jonathan but called yoni from Germany. as we were waiting some came out and told us we were waiting in the wrong place and made us move and then someone right after that said we could come in the embassy. so when i went in i did not get a very warm response from the lady that was working there. she seemed to be annoyed for us to be taking up her time. so since i was the last one to arrive i was the last to be called up. The lady took me back to an office and when i entered i saw a guy reading something with his head down. he barely acknowledged my presence and i said hello how are you. he managed a faint fine in response and said what do i want in a very disturbed manner. i said i wanted to get a visa to ghana. barely looking up from his paper he said it is not possible and that i have to attain my visa in the country where i am from. so i would have to go back to the usa and get my visa and then come back. i told him that his was not possible. he asked what i really wanted to do in ghana. and i told him just to go to the beach and maybe a national park. i also asked him when they changed this new law for the visa. and he said it has always been like this but now it is just being enforced. i held back my laughter... and said so what can i do? he said with a grunt, go see the lady, meaning the lady who had brought me in. when i got to her she asked me what the man said, i told her and then she handed me a application form for the visa told me to go fill it out and give her 4 photos. i did this and returned and she asked me for the money and i gave it to her and then she said come back on monday. The day was thursday. i said ok and left. When i left i talked with Yoni, and since we were in the exact same predicament we decided to hang out and since he needed more photos for his visa i showed him where there were photo shops near my hotel. Yoni is a 29 year old from Germany who is riding his bicycle from Berlin Germany all the way down to South Africa. So far he has been riding for about 6 months and he also was planning on making it down for the world cup. every day yoni jumps and his bike and rides all day and stops at sunset finds some food and water in the village and sleeps out in the nature. really an amazing way to travel and really makes me think how the way i am traveling is so easy compared to his methods. so we get back to the hotel and we agree to meet later. the hotel i stayed was hotel delwende and the staff there was really friendly and they made me feel at home, and since i was going to stay there for 6 nights it was really a great thing to have. there was also a terrace looking out on the city which was a greating place to just waste away the days. i switched rooms to a cheaper one and went outside to meet yoni. we decided to go have a drink, as we were looking for a bar we met a tuareg who guided us to a place called Zaka. a place where they play live music. immediately a rasta came up to me all excited as if he was waiting just for us to arrive. he talked fast and wanted to know all about us. we sat down and he just rambled on about being a rasta and how the lifestyle is and what he believes. in africa so far i have met to kinds of rastas. the first being like this guy whos name is makumba, he constantly talks about what he is and what he believes instead of just being it, and the other rastas just live it without having to speak about it. so makumba just kept rambling on as we drank beer and told us of all the things he could do for us. drum lessons, sell us gangja, take us on a canoe ride or go back to his village to hear traditional music. yoni and i decided the last part sounded alright so we sed fuck it and agreed to go. makumba took me on his motorbike and yoni rode his bike and was still able to keep up. we went about 15 minutes outside the city to his small little compound. in his place they played music for us and his friend was teaching methods and beats on the drum, we smoked with them and just hung out for awhile. they kept trying to sell us ganja but we kept saying no. when we first agreed to go with makumba i said i will not give you money, and said rastas dont ask for money that everyhthing comes from the heart and if you like something than you can give a small contribution. after hanging out with makumba all i could sense was that he wanted money from me. anyhow i eventually got him to take me back to my hotel but on the way the tire went flat. i of course had to make a donation to him for this which was only 4 dollars but it shouldnt have been my problem, but what can i do, he then bought me some food, cuz i was out of money, and then he was begging me for more money for gasoline. i knew this would happen, with this guy i could tell there always must be something given in return. i finally made it back to my hotel and as i was walking in i realized that he now knew where i lived and would probably be coming to stop by a lot. Yoni from what i noticed was more aggressive with these types of people and really made sure that they knew they were getting no money out of us. as we were hanging out for the few days he would always say ahead of time to any african that was with us that he would not be paying them for anything. i really learned from him that this was a good way to make sure there would be no misunderstandings in the end between eachother, and maybe i could practise these ways for a person that i seemed to be only after my money. cuz in africa its so very hard to tell who is genuine and who justs wants to hang out with u to get something in return. the next day i switched rooms again and was now in my third room, but Yoni joined me this time to cut down costs.   at this point the Africa Cup of Nations was getting close to the end and everyone was watching the games. Ghana was doing really well and i was hoping they would make it to the finals so i could watch it in Ghana. more of that to come later. The next day consisted of hanging out on the terrace and eating food in the streets for under 1 dollar. Makumba as expected came to the hotel and wanted to hang out with us all day. the first thing he told me when he came was that he got pulled over for running a stoplight and that the police took his motorbike. he wanted me to give him money to get his bike back , i said no and went along with my listening to music. a few mintues he asked me again and i just kept saying no and then he asked me for money to get back to his house, and i said no and he accused me of being a rash man, and i told him i was gonna go chill by myself and i left. that night after doing almost nothing all day Yoni and i went to see a concert at the french cultural center. there was really good music and we had a great time bullshitting with all the rastas and other locals. i saw a rasta with a really nice hat and through the translation of yonis french i asked him to make me one just like it. and we agreed to meet the next day at my hotel. Yoni was really helpful for me and he translated greatly during our time together from french to english. the next day we did nothing again but i had to switch rooms one more time and this was my fourth of the hotel but i didnt mind because this time the room was massive and it was just the two of us in a room that could fit 8. so all day we did nothing again and ate very cheap, and just hung around chatting with the hotel staff who really liked my music. one of the hotel workers who was named boobaka told me that he wanted us to go hang out that night and we agreed on a time to meet later. also the rasta who was going to make the hat for me actually showed up and gave me my hat, which made me pleased. so later that night boobaka came with his friend on two motor bikes. they took yoni and i and about 20 mintues outside of town to first a bar. where we we bought a few beers. next we went to a club, which was really fun and we danced and drank many beers all payed for by boobaka and his friend. a girl came around selling hard boiled eggs in the club and we ate some. then we went to another club called matata that was just full of hookers, i wasnt even sure there was a regular girl in the place, boobaka kept trying to get me a girl but i said thats ok, but they just kept buying beer and even some food for us. i had a feeling he was spending half his paycheck and showing us a good time, i felt bad as well but realized that it may have been his honor to be so hospitable to us. really a genuine guy. having our fill of beer for the night we headed back and were dropped off at the hotel. the next day was sunday and the whole city shuts down. its was really great and peaceful and it seemed like a different place all together. a little hazy from the day before i asked yoni if he wanted to go find a swimming pool. then of course makumba showed up with his friend and was by our side the rest of the day. we found a pool which was quite dirty and the funny thing was they made us shower before we got in. hung out at the pool for a few hours and went to get some lunch. at the lunch place we had a bit of a run in cuz i had agreed to pay for makumba's food which only costs about 1 dollar but his friend also wanted to share with him. apparently they were given a double portion, but i only payed for a single. in the end after jibberish talking i ended giving them another dollars worth and let the situation sizzle. yoni said out of principal he wouldnt have given them the dollar, but i guess im just a conflict avoider and when it comes to small money its easier to give then to have problems. they also had really good yogurt at this place and it was the only one in town so i didnt want to make them angry and not be able to come back. that night we saw ghana win and make it to the semifinals to play nigeria. the other semifinal game was egypt against algeria. the next day was monday and it was embassy time. so i got up ate breakfast and walked to the embassy and of course makumba was with me and wanted to walk with me. it didnt really matter i was starting to understand him a little more and once he realized i wasnt gonna give him any more money he let himself change a bit and became a better person to hang out with. so i got to the embassy and walked in to see the lady from before, she didnt seem to remember me. a small note to add is that yoni told me that a french guy had applied for his visa the same way we did and got rejected, so i was a little unsure if i would get mine. anyway the lady asked me what i wanted and i told her that she said come back on monday at 1130, and she said oh yes. to my great delight she handed me my passport with the visa and i was on my way. she was in a better mood this time. so apparently all the hub bub nonsense they put us through at first was just a front to make them look like they are enforcing the law, but im really not sure, in the end i got my visa and that was all that matters. its Africa of course, and what does really make sense?? i had 3 goals that day and the first was complete. Boobaka helped me find the 2nd two being to buy a bus ticket to ghana and to extend my visa for burkina which was already expired due to the fact that the ghana embassy kept my passport and i didnt get a chance to extend it. i walked about 2 hours to the bus station and arranged my ticket to the city of Tamale in ghana. then i walked back found a taxi and showed him the paper boobaka had given me that told the name of the immigration place in french. i found it and there were people just standing in lines all over the place, i had no idea what to do, finally someone came up to me who spoke english and pointed me to the man with the extensions. he barely spoke english but the impression i got from him was i could either by a visa from him for 20,000 cfa that would last for 5 months or simply go to the border and buy one for 10,000 cfa that lasts one week. i had to pry the second option out of him and kept asking and asking until he finally said it would be ok. of course the extension was not free like the original police border guy had told me. i was not surprised however, so i left after doing nothing with my visa. i was ready to go to ghana now. the next morning yoni and i exchanged email and planned to meet maybe two weeks later in kokrobite beach in ghana. cuz for him to travel the same distance it takes me one or two days, it would take him about one week or so. i got my bus and was off and excited to go to ghana and speak english. in the french speaking countries i cant even say how many people would come up to me trying to have a conversation and it was so dissapointing when i couldnt speak with them. i arrived at the ghana border got off the bus and as expected the police told me my visa was expired. i said i know and i gave him the 10,000 cfa without him asking for it. i felt like i knew exactly what was going to happen and i was ready for it. i got my new visa just to step out of the country, but it was still necessary. when i got into the ghana my whole world changed around me. all the signs started to make sense, and just like the snap of your fingers everyone made sense. its like listening to a new cd at first not really liking it but you keep listening over and over and then finally you just get it. of course that example doesnt quite make sense but for the sense of something just all of a sudden sounding right it will do. i met a girl from ghana on the bus and she didnt speak french and she was having trouble communicating, and in frustration she said i just need to get into my country cuz they dont understand anything here. i laughed and agreed feeling her pain. so i got the bus to tamale. when i got off i wanted to test my newly found freedom of language and i asked the first guy i saw where a cheap hotel was. he didnt know but he asked a guy who helped me find one. i actually found the hotel i was looking for but they were full so they told me to go to a place around the corner. it turned out to be a mineral and agricultural guesthouse used mainly for staff but they gave me the biggest room i have ever stayed in, it was almost like an apartment and it was only 10 dollars.     after getting the filth off me from the bus ride i headed out to get some food. there i met some really chilled guys who taught music and then some other guy named jessie the conquerer. we talked and smoked a good amount with his friend, and were able to really communicate like my friends and i do back home. it was really good especially to use my normal type of talk and my humor and they understood it. the next day i planned to take the bus to mole national park to have a little safari and see some wildlife and nature. i found the bus and bought my ticket. it must be said that in most places in burkina and ghana there are girls that walk around selling bags of drinking water. the funny thing is that when they walk around they yell the most annoying sales pitch you may ever hear in your life. what they say it think is... here is pure water... but imagine the worst high pitch sound and try and say ahhiiiiiaiahes pya wataaaaa, just something that i cant help to laugh at, but it does work cuz i buy a shitload of this water. 1 bag is 500ml---half a liter and it costs about 3 cents american.   so so cheap. after a long journey i arrive at the national park. there since the dorm was full i was forced to get my most expensive hotel room thus far in africa which costs me 35 dollars, it was a huge room. but i had no choice and this hotel was the only one inside the national park so there were no other options. i even asked if i could sleep on the floor but he said no. it was worth the hassle because the hotel had a swimming pool which was clean and refreshing. the best part was the location. the view from the swimming pool was out onto a huge watering hole where elephants come to bathe along with other animals. so the view was spectacular, i dont think ive ever hung out swimming and watched elephants in their normal habitat. it really was surreal. that day instead of going on the 3 hour safari i decided to stay at the pool all day. that night ghana played nigeria in the semifinal and won. it was really fun and watching with the ghanian people was really special. egypt won their match as well and that was to be the final for the cup in a few days. that night i tried a nice ghanian dish at the hotel restaurant. chatted with the other travelers and talked witht he hotel workers. in the morning i woke up at 6 and went on the safari walk. we saw elephants antelope warthogs crocodiles, baboons...being my favorite and many birds. it was a nice little walk and it felt good to get out in the nature and see some wildlife again after mostly being in cities for the last 2 weeks or so. after the walk i was ready to leave and at 11am. this started my long hard journey to the coast. i wasnt sure where i would end up that night since the park didnt really have a bus station i kinda had to wing it. so i got a taxi from the park to the first village. there i met a guy who took me on his motorbike to the next village with a bus station. it was a scary ride and really bad roads and i had all my luggage on me so i was really fearing for an accident, but we made it safely and there i got a taxi all the way back to tamale, i wasnt trying to go there but thats where it seemed i was destined to go that day. the ride was so dusty that by the end of the taxi ride i must have looked like a birthday cake with icing made from the shavings of an indian's from bombay's skin. in simpler terms i was brown and dirty. in the taxi there was an old lady who was barely making it and almost passed out, she asked me for my water and felt better, at the end of the ride she said the water saved her from collapsing. when we arrived in tamale after a painful journey the lady showed me a nice place to eat and thanked me so much for helping her out with the water. at the station i decided that i wanted to make a beeline for the coast and bought a direct ticket to the capital of ghana...Accra. at the bus station i met a muslim who i talked with and couldnt believe that i didnt pray to any god or have any beliefs, and he said he wanted to move to america. i told him he could marry my mother and he said ok but than i remembered she was canadien so that wouldnt really help him get to the usa. anyway this bus was to say the least not made for sleeping. the seats were completely upright and there was just no practical way to sleep especially with all the bumps. i was so tired and i tried everyway to sleep but i just turned into a bobblehead bouncing around waking up everytime. the others on the bus were just sprawled out over eachother finding any way to sleep. in this situation there is only one option...turn on 145 songs of pink floyd and hit shuffle and turn up the volume. and get lost in the music. this seemed to do its job and after 12 hours i arrived in accra!
i made it to accra at 5 in the morning and i was dead tired filthy and felt like a brainless zombie. i told the taxi driver to take me to kokrobite beach, but he took me to cocoa beach which was the other direction. i said no this isnt it, and he got so mad, and blamed me for pronouncing it wrong, he kept saying it over and over, and i just said i understand one time. i was so tired i didnt even want to deal with him, but he wasnt that bad of a guy he was being hospitable, and finally he took me to kokrobite but it costs me a lot of money, but i had to suck it up and forget about it cuz in the end i was where i wanted to be and i could sleep. this place i arrived to was the beach i was planning on going to since i read about it before my trip started. i got a bungalow for 8 dollars a night, which is just a small walk to the beach. the place is called big milly's backyard and it is a tropical compound consisting of bungalows and a loft dorm and a bar and restaurant. it is such a great atmosphere, and its surrounded by palm trees and lush plants all over. my room was perfect and i was so pleased to have arrived. i slept until 130 in the afternoon and went to explore. i headed out to the beach and whallah i was in rastafari land. this beach is just full of rastas and the vibe is just what i needed. i walked along the beach passing a dance party and football players and many fishermen. it was beautiful to see for the first time. i walked the beach and then headed back and ate some pineapple which is my favorite. i headed out to the market to buy some water, i met some nice woman along the way who i talked with. then i bought a block of bags of water for 1 cedi. which is about 75 cents. in this block of bags of water i got 30 bags which is 10 bottles of 1.5 liter size. to sum it up i got a shitload of water to take back to my hotel for barely any money. as i was walking back i met some guys from burkina who smoked a joint with me, and i ate some spaghetti, then i went back to the hotel and hung out on the beach, i dont need to go into much detail but everywhere i walked i met some rastas who wanted to smoke with me. feeling irie all day, later i met jackson from holland at one of the rastas shops. later i went and worked out in my room got feeling right and that night was the big saturday night reggae show at big milly's, many people come from accra to see the show and it was awesome. the energy was so strong and all the rastas were jamming like no other, i met many cool people, and of course let the smoke enter me many times, dont worry mom and dad, its not really a drug!! danced around until about 3am and crashed out. the next day i did almost nothing, hung out with jackson and my other new rasta friends and did the lazy beach lifestyle. that night however was the big african cup final and i watched with many excited people. one guy even told me since i was rooting for ghana that if they won he would make me the king of his village give me a wife and a mansion. he was really a funny guy. ghana ended up losing to egypt 1-0 which was a dissapointment but it seemed everyone took it well. i had a feeling we would have done some serious partying if they had won. that night there was a bonfire on the beach with a drum circle. danced around with everyone and had a great time. that leads me to today. the day i am writing this part of my journey. i woke up was on a mission to find the internet., i ran into a rasta named johnny from the ivory coast. we found one cafe in kokrobite but it was closed. he told me of one but it was about 2 miles away and said we needed a taxi. i said lets just walk, and he agreed cuz he also needed to send a message on the net. i got some egg sandwiches for breakfast and bananas and we walked for about two hours and it ended up being about 7 miles maybe more im not really sure. we got to the shop but it was closed but we waited for about 2 hours for the english guy to show up and we were in. while we waited i played rebelution, jimmy cliff and israel vibration for johnny, and he really liked rebelution. i think i may stay on this beach for one or two weeks im not really sure it depends how it goes day by day. i want to rent a motorbike and road up the coast but im not sure if thats possible yet, i have a month long visa for ghana and i just might use the whole thing.
just a note that ive noticed in africa so far. Obama is everywhere. Especially in mali, there was at least one kid in every village with an obama shirt on, his influence is strong here. and when i tell africans i am american they get so happy and speak of obama. im really glad i traveled here while he is president. im sure it would have been much different before with bush in office. there are also so many things like backpacks and keychains with obama on it, a lot of people think he will change the world and really help africa especially.
well im off now to walk back to kokrobite, i could take a taxi but its so much nicer to walk and take in everything around. i have to constantly tell myself to slow down and take everything in and really be in the moment instead of thinking of the next place i want to go. being on the beach has reminded me of this!


   
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J. Descant
2010-02-08

really enjoy reading your post!

2025-02-17

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