I arrived back in Ghana yesterday after a six day trip through Benin and Togo. The trip got cut a day short because the CFA apparently gets one much less further than the Cedi. Lome and Cotonou were quite expensive.

The French definitely had a different take on colonization than the British. Lome is said to be the “Paris of West Africa” although Abidijan in Cote di Viore makes the same claim. There are actual cobblestone sidewalks, however, and the buildings feel much more permanent. There is less trash, but more pollution, hardly any car taxis at all. Everyone rides around on motorcycles. You hop on the back of a moto taxi and they take you where you need to go. It’s insanely fun riding along the ocean front at night on the back of a motorcycle, zipping through condensed and congested busy streets. I think I love motorcycles. If it wasn’t for all the pollution I would prefer them. Everywhere was also much quieter. Less people were shouting, and I heard hardly anyone speaking native ewe language. Everyone seemed to be speaking french. There were Africans with goatees and little mustaches, women with heavily penciled eyebrows, and baguettes and delicious ice cream parlors as far as the eye can see.

The food was definitely the highlight of the trip. I got amazing pizzas, carafe after carafe of wine, thai food, hibiscus and ginger juice, baguettes and croissants with cheese for breakfast, and cappuccino. I actually drank coffee- gave me the shakes though, which paired with dehydration wasn’t the best. It’s interesting, though, that all of these places were filled with Togolese or Beninian people. In Ghana, most Ghanaians eat the traditional African food, and international restaurants and foods tend to be the pastimes of the expatriates or travelers. There was definitely a feel of a more worldly culture on both Lome and Cotonou, which is even more interesting when you also notice that more people were wearing traditional style dress and African cloth. Basically, it’s a very confusing situation.

I almost got myself detained and my camera taken on the way across the border. I am such a fool. Being a nerdy tourist I wanted to take a picture of the welcome to togo and welcome to ghana archways. I was not thinking of the fact that these were government property. As a result, I was rushed by men in camo with ak47s telling me, “don’t ever do that again! We should confiscate your camera” Everyone was shouting and rushing at me. Luckily, I didn’t actually take the picture. Of course, this being Africa on the way back through the immigration officer didn’t try to attack me and confiscate my camera, but instead wanted my and my friend’s emails and contact numbers for the u.s. Ridiculous. We also saw a group of refugees from niger heading through the border. They literally stopped my breath. They were incredibly tall and thin, the women had all sorts of large hoops through their ears, everyone wore scarves and turbins, and they just looked incredibly exotic and foreign to me at that moment. It made me realize how prosperous ghana truly is in comparison to other parts of africa. It felt very much like home when I got back to accra.

We did rough it for a night while traveling. The above descriptions were the most posh part of the trip. We spent one night on the island of Togoville. It is an old slave market, and an all and all incredibly picturesque and beautiful town. The pope visited a few years ago, there’s a giant german built cathedral on the island, and the villagers were all proud to show his oversized blue and white pirogue. We thought there was a hostel there, but in retrospect I really think we were in someone’s house. They had us wait in a “reception room”, which consisted of putting on a tv for an hour and having us watch ridiculous rap and high lige music videos from Cote di Viore. They then threw a mattress into two empty rooms for both sets of us to sleep on. The bathroom was a small room with a dirt floor. There were three lovely, huge, exotic looking spiders in our room. They won’t crawl on us, I reassured my friend, but surely enough just as we fell asleep one crawled over my leg and up my friend’s thigh. We hardly slept at all that night. They made us pay a ton for everything, and we were very much at their mercy seeing as we didn’t want to offend them, and were stuck on the island for the moment. The women and children were lovely and very sweet, however. They got us pasta and fish stew for dinner, with tangerines for desert. It was definitely a very memorable experience.

Traveling back was a hassle. I think that the military in Ghana must have been looking for someone, because we went through five different checkpoints. These are when your tro has to pull to the side of the road and the police officers check the truck and make everyone get off. Not the most fun when you are trying to keep up the small talk with the police officer who is asking all about the u.s. and telling you his distant relatives live in new jersey, while keeping an eye on the other officer who seems to be lingering too long near your bag. It was good to be back in Ghana, though, and have people constantly smiling and talking to / hastling you. I think that I like ghana better than togo and benin for this reason, people didn’t shout at you or hastle you as much in these countries. I thought that this would make the experience more relaxing, but it was actually less engaging and felt more like the western world. People were too busy or composed to pay you too much notice.