Past 2 Weeks and Trip Across 3 Nations

Ghanaian High School reunion/tribal ritual
One of my Ghanaian friends at the University invited me to a bonfire where there was high school reunion. Thinking that I was going to roast marshmallows and s'mores on the beach, I was pretty excited. But as you may have gathered from the rest of my blog entries, nothing here is normal or expected. We drove about 10 minutes from campus into this woods area. As we pulled up there were about 600 Ghanaian students in a line carrying torches, marching, and singing some song in their local language. Once they got about 50 feet from the fire they chucked their torch high in the air toward the bonfire and added to the 20ft flames. It was really cool, but at the same time everything in me was saying that I probably shouldn’t be there. The entire event sort of reminded me of those movies where the village people chase out the outsider with pitchforks and torches. Sort of like a reverse KKK ceremony but I decided I was safe enough so we hung around. I had never felt more out of place in my life, even counting my African dance class. There were about 600 or more Ghanaian people and one token white person- me. I felt like a celebrity as people took pictures with me and wanted to shake my hand as I walked by. Never a dull moment...


Dog Incident (WARNING DO NOT READ IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BE ANGRY AND SAD OR ARE UNDER 16 years old)
On a more dark and sullen note one of my friends witnessed the killing of a dog outside our dorms. I contemplated adding this to the blog because it is so evil – but I wanted this blog to be as true to my experience as possible. Apparently a man picked up a dog by the tail and flung it around and hit the poor dog's face against the cement. To silence the yelping animal the man then kicked the dog against a light post. The man then bagged the yelping dog and calmly walked away. I was really really upset after I heard of the incident and asked my Ghanaian roommate if that was normal. He told me that sometimes the more poor people up north eat dog in order to stay alive but had never seen such thing at the University. I suppose I’m being ethnocentric or biased but I feel no animal no matter what culture should be tortured the way this poor dog was. I have to face the fact I am in a different culture here, but I feel that you reach a point where some things are just wrong…… On a brighter note, the rest of this blog entry is about my trip to Benin!!!


TRIP TO BENIN
Yet another amazing weekend traveling around West Africa with some of my California friends (John, Helen, and Brit). In a span of 9 hours I managed to cross three African nations and ended up in Benin. The journey to Benin was a little ridiculous to say the least, but my adventures are definitely memorable. Prior to leaving Ghana my dad got in contact with one of his friends in the United States who actually grew up in a village in Benin. My dad’s friend knows the Princess of Benin and was good friends with the cousin of the princess named Godfried whom was our contact once we were to arrive in Benin. We had absolutely no idea what to expect on our journey. We didn’t know if we would be staying in a palace, get to meet the king, or how in the world we would even be able to meet Godfried once in Benin because our Ghanaian phones don’t work across the border. Anyway, nothing is wrong with a little adventure so we assumed the risks end embarked on a weekend we won’t soon forget.


Journey to Togo Border
First of all, the trip began by a group of Ghanaians pushing our bus down the road in hopes that would jump-start our stubborn bus engine. That pretty much set the tone for the rest of our journey to Benin. It was surprisingly similar that scene in Little Miss Sunshine. The scenery from Ghana to Togo was similar to the I5 in California but with skinnier cows on the roadside. Anyway, once we got to the Ghanaian border I was questioned by one of the Togo border police as to what I was studying at the University of Ghana. After I replied, “political science” the policeman shouted something in Twi (one of the local languages) and about 6 or 7 border military patrol surrounded me with AK47s all shouting at once. My heart pounded because my friends had already walked through the border and were waiting for me at the other side while I was alone, being interrogated. I had NO idea what was going on! Finally I understood one man who yelled, “Why are you studying political science? Why do you want to go to Togo? Are you studying human rights?” What exactly do you study in political science?” My voice was shaky as I replied that I was not studying human rights and that I am International Relations major. I explained that I was only traveling through Togo to get to Benin for visiting purposes and promised I was not there for any political matters. After about 7 minutes of further questioning, the Togo border patrol finally agreed to let me pass. On the drive through Togo I thought a lot about what happened at the border and it sort of made me nervous as to why they were inquiring if I was there to study human rights. That makes me think there was something to hide.


Journey to Benin Border
The adventures did not stop at the Ghana/Togo border. About half-way through Togo the brakes on our bus gave out and we hit the center divider after barely missing two other cars. John, Helen, Brit and I were all pretty freaked out but the driver was laughing. We asked the driver if it was safe to stay on the bus and he replied, “Yea there shouldn’t be any more problems and winked at us. So ensuring right? Since the bus could no longer stop or slow down we literally drove about 6mph across the rest of the nation of Togo and into Benin. The scenery of Togo was a stark contrast to Ghana. The coast was quite similar to that of Hawaii with beautiful white sand beaches and tropical forests inland. At the Benin border some people starting pounding on our slow moving bus so we asked the driver what was going on. He calmly replied they are probably just criminals so refrain from opening the doors. We all looked at each other and thought “only in Africa would somebody say don’t worry they are just criminals.” Looking back on it, the fact I was interrogated, the brakes went out on the bus, and criminals pounded on the bus to get in just seemed fitting. I have grown to expect the unexpected. We had another big hassle at the border between Togo and Benin because we did not buy visas prior because we were told we buy them at the border. After about 45 minutes of arguing (they only speak French mind you) we finally convinced the border patrol to give us a 48 hour temporary visa. So once in Benin we called Godfried (the cousin of the princess) from one of the border patrol’s cell phones.


Our Stay In Benin
Godfried picked us up in front of the Benin soccer stadium and took us back to his house. I swear, Godfried has to be the kindest African man I have ever met. Once we got to his house he had already prepared a traditional Benin dish for us and brought out a bunch of drinks. Even though we were complete strangers he treated us as royalty, such a good guy. We pleaded with him to let us pay for the food and gas but told us to save our money.
The next day (Friday) Godfried picked us up bright and early and drove us through the main city and then about 5 hours to a small and remote village where he and my dad’s friend grew up as children. Since Benin was a French colony until the 1960's they were heavily influenced by French culture. Traveling from English Ghana to French Benin was like traveling to Europe. We found ourselves in a land of baguettes, cheese, French top hats and pastries. The nation reminded me of when I traveled to France when I was in high school, the similarities were quite shocking. Even the Africans looked French. Weird huh?. To my surprise there were little to no cars, just thousands of motorbikes crowding the streets. Even the taxis were all motorbikes. In the city, the smog from all the motorbikes was almost unbearable and the visibility low.


Meeting the King of Benin
On the way to the village we stopped at the Palace of the King and paid about $2 to meet the guy. Im pretty sure he was just a tourist attraction but I was determined to meet the King. Tensions were high at the palace because apparently there had been some sort of conflict with a rival king a week prior but Godfried convinced the guards to let us in. Anyway, the guards briefed us on how we were supposed to greet the king. He said that we must, “Take off our shoes and go down on our knees and bow down touching our heads to the dirt twice then proceed toward the king about 5 steps and repeat the same process and wait until the King addresses us.” The King looked exactly like Jaba the Hud, about 400lbs and just sort of sat there with a ceremonial nose jewelry covering a strip of his face. To both sides of the King sat two of his several wives whom handed him food and drink while he continued to just sit there. The King said in French, “Hello and welcome to Africa.” I laughed to myself because the entire thing seemed like a tourist trap, but now I can say I met the King. We then said our goodbyes and got on our way.


The Village and Voodoo “Black Magic”
Once we arrived in the childhood village of my dad’s friend and his cousin I really felt like I was in stereotypical Africa. - it was very cool. I was amazed that I was actually standing in the streets of this remote village were my dad’s friend had grown up. We ate some fried yams and fritters which consists of fried balls of beans. Surprisingly it was really good, or maybe I was just really hungry. After dinner we went to a traditional Voodoo ceremony. Apparently Togo and Benin are the Voodoo centers of the world and are the only places where Voodoo is still seriously practiced. Talk about odd. We arrived right in the middle of some ritual where a spirit man was dressed as a giant doll and was chasing people while snapping a whip at them. There were about 100 people total involved in the ritual. I didn’t see anybody actually get whipped but I was pretty freaked out. The giant spirit man started running toward the car with his whip so I jumped back in the car with my friends and we locked the door. Godfried then talked to the people involved in the ceremony and they agreed to let us watch the rest of the ceremony. The spirit man yelled random groans while the village people pounded on their drums and danced around. Apparently he was saying that we were welcome but who knows. In order to capture the moment I pulled out my camera and snapped a picture. This caused a HUGE stir and the village people started running around in absolute pandemonium. The spirit man stopped moving and froze as soon as the flash went off and he ran out of the ceremony. After probably committing a major taboo, Godfried told us it was time to get out of there so we hurried to the car and drove away. The entire ritual was very surreal and a bit unnerving but at least I have a priceless picture of the giant Voodoo man-doll.


Thieves
After the ceremony we went back to the abandoned house where Godfried grew up and got ready for bed. He rolled out a thin straw mat on the hard cement and said make yourselves comfortable. Needless to say, I did not sleep too well on the cement porch outside the house but it’s all part of the experience. We might have slept for about 2 hours before we awoke to Godfried screaming something in French into the darkness. I asked if everything was ok and he replied that we had just been robbed. Somehow a burglar snuck by our heads and walked the house and stole Godfrieds briefcase and my friend Helen’s purse. Somehow the burglar didn’t think to steal my backpack which was the only item left in the room. I am so so lucky he didn’t steal the backpack because it had my passport, ipod, and mom’s camera with all my pictures on it. Everybody was a bit on edge so we couldn’t go back to sleep. Godfried contacted the town enforcer (similar to a sheriff) which was a man wearing only a toga like robe who came and checked out the scene. Before long there were about 20 townspeople all searching around for the thief and the stolen goods. At about 7am Godfried woke Helen and myself and told us to follow him. We walked into the vacant field and found the stolen purse and briefcase. Amazingly nothing was stolen/ not even a single cent. Godfried thought the robber realized he had stolen from one of his fellow townspeople and was overwhelmed with guilt so decided not to steel anything.


Pythons
The next day (Saturday) we drove back to the main city but dropped by a “Voodoo spiritual lake” and a Voodoo python sanctuary. It was actually pretty funny, once we arrived to the lake Godfried said, “looks like just a lake to me.” The python sanctuary was pretty cool. We walked into the small circular hut which contained at least 500 drugged out/ barely moving pythons. We took a bunch of pictures holding the pythons and continued on our way. Exhausted from the lack of sleep the previous night we took Godfried to dinner and called it a night.


Trip back to the University of Ghana.
Leaving the Benin border was a ridiculous hastle. We all had expired visas by about 12 hours so the border patrol did not want to let us pass. We literally stood there and watched people walk by and bribe the patrol man with cigarettes and money in order to cross with no visas but since we were white they wanted us to pay a hefty fine because he said “we have the money.” After refusing to pay the fine for about 45 minutes and pleading with him that we were poor students at the University of Ghana the main honcho came over and let us pass. Only in Africa can you beg your way through border security. Anyway, once in Togo we hopped on a motorcycle taxi and taxied through an entire nation. It sounds much more hard core than it really is – the nation it only took about 90 minutes to get all the way across. After my first good lunch(hamburger) in Africa, we continued all the way back to the university.


Closing remarks
I am starting to think about the United States quite often now. I miss my family, friends and food. Yes the three “F”s. I always feel like I am on the verge of getting sick but have somehow been able to stay relatively healthy. One of my best friends on the trip just got diagnosed with malaria yesterday and people seem to be dropping like flies. We now have about 10-12 confirmed cases of malaria out of about 30 people. I find myself saying its all part of the experience quite often. I am getting pretty skinny on my chicken, rice, plantain, and pineapple diet and am getting in pretty good shape simply by walking 35 minutes to every class. You have no idea how much I miss just one bite of sushi or In-N-Out burger! It makes me frustrated just to think about all the good food I miss so much. The weather here is now turning the rainy season which really means humid and dusty season. You would think after 3 months here I would be used to the heat, but it is still a great challenge. Looking back on all the experiences I have had in a relatively short time is quite amazing. I have done more in Africa than I ever thought was possible… it is now time to start really getting focused on school and start preparing for the finals.. I thank you all so much for taking time out of your day to read my blog. Hope to talk with you all soon. Please continue to send me e-mails and messages/comments on facebook – I look forward to hearing from everybody back home (I check the internet about twice a week electricity permitting).

Best,
Jason