Les étolies sont similar dans tout le monde, quand j’ai visité au Togo et au Benin

Les étolies sont similar dans tout le monde. (the stars are similar in the whole world)

Quand j’ai visité au Togo et au Benin… (When I visited Togo and Benin)

I noticed while I was traveling around Togo, Benin, and Ghana the stars are the same anywhere in the world.  No matter how lost or confused I feel we are all enduring the world…with the stars above us.  This week at MOP we played a sort of family feud where the students played against each other.  3 of the 5 groups had their name related to stars: Morning Star, Star Shine, and Golden Star.  At that moment I realized, no matter the differences between me and another culture, some things stay the same. Fascination with the stars is a world thing…something I can look up at night and know I am alive and experiencing something new…but I will always find something in common…even if it is just the stars.

This visit to Togo and Benin had been adjusted several times.  My friend Katie and I got sick right before the last planned visited so we had to postpone it.  Our original plan was to go up to north Benin to see a safari and be able to compare northern Benin with northern Ghana.  Sadly, with this new date, we did not have enough time for this visit up north, but staying in south Togo and Benin was indeed an adventure…something Ghana, Togo, and Benin all have in common: TIA—indeed this is Africa.

Voyage au Togo (voyage to Togo)

We started off heading to Tema station (which is called “Accra…Accra…Accra” by tro tro drivers and mates).  We waited about an hour and a half for the tro tro to Aflao (the border city to Togo) to fill up.  We finally headed through Eastern Ghana, through the beautiful and lush Volta Region (covered in tropical rainforests and hills filling the scenery).  Shortly into the ride, we realized our choice in tro tro was a bit of a mistake…IT WAS EXTREMELY SLOW.  The journey took over 4 hours…which it should ONLY TAKE 3 hours.  We did a scenic route going through Keta, a beautiful town boarding Volta Lake, a Lagoon, and the ocean.  The tro tro ended at Keta forcing us to try to find more transportation, which the driver ended up just finding us a taxi (which he paid for) to go to Aflao.  Once we made it to Aflao we were overcrowded by locals, tro tro drivers, moto drivers, and taxi drivers asking constantly where we were going.  Luckily, since I had been to Lomé before I lead the group to the border (frontere).  It was a fairly quick process with Ghana scaning the passport and Togo lacking the technology for such an action.  We entered Lomé and I got on MY VERY FIRST MOTO RIDE! (this is motocycle taxi ride) IT WAS EPIC!!!!!!!!  The wind blowing through my hair and the excitement on how fast the driver was going.  I was loving it.

Lomé: begets and markets

We checked into our hotel (the same one I stayed in last time) and then were determined to go to the market and try the local food.  We walked to the Grande Marche where we looked around at the crafts and got begets and an avocado (with tomatoes, onions, and salt mixed in).  I felt very French like eating on the beach and absorbing the French influence.  I am not saying colonization was good…but I do like French food (there is a reason why I took so many years of French…for the food).  We got back to the hotel and played cards while eating French deserts…YUMMY!

Voyage au Benin (voyage to Benin) trop longtemp (to long of time)…TO GET THERE

So, we found the minibus station that was going to Continou….we were not sure if it was correct…but we hoped the name would give it the obvious affect ‘Gare Continou”.  We hopped on the minibus and waited for it to fill while we stuffed our faces full of French bread.  We, yet again, picked the wrong minibus because it took us 5 hours to get there. On the way three 30 year old men got to chatting with Emma and I (because we were the two that spoke French).  They proposed to us several times and told us about their journey from Accra to Continou for a computer part.  THAT IS A 8 HOUR TRIP..that all three men went on.  This was pretty ridiculous…but SUCH an African thing to do.  I tried fried cheese on the way…interesting…but not the same tasting cheese as in the US.  See a different part of Togo and the new country of Benin along the way was wonderful.  Togo is WAY MORE NIDUSTRIAL that Ghana is.  There is off shore drilling with MANY oil factors all around Lome.  Outside of Lome farming is HUGE.  I did not notice farming as such a HUGE thing in Ghana.  ONE OF THE BIGGEST differences between the two were the mode of transportation.  Motos are HUGE IN TOGO AND BENIN and fairly minor in Ghana…does this have to do with the country that colonized it?  I did notice many French vs. British influence in these three countries.

Continou (a bigger city than the capital)

Once we arrived to Continou we were set on trying to find our hotel.  We were staying in a German house that was recommended through our guide book.  The moto taxis ended up taking us to the German Embassy…BAHAHAHAHAHA…yep they sure did.  Then we had to explain it was a hotel NOT the Embassy.  Finally we made it to the hotel and go a room for the four of us (Avery, Katie, Emma, and I).  We went downstairs and talked to the owner about where he recommended we go for the rest of the day….Grande Marche it is then (the market that is KNOWN for the voodoo).

Fetish market (voodoo)

We spend 10-15 minutes talking to motos to try to find people that knew the French word for voodoo or fetish…it was not easy, but we found someone that FINALLY knew what we were talking about.  We hopped on and they took us to the biggest market in Benin (Continou is not that capital but is bigger than the capital).  Then the nice moto driver walked us ALL the way through the market to the fetish section (and then the jewelry section).  It was CRAZY TO SEE VOODOO IN ACTION.  It was gross to see dead monkey parts, caged birds, bagged snakes, and many other animal parts I could not label…OHHH and an elephant skull…questionable where they got that.  The moto driver was really into shoving live snakes and turtles into our faces.  The smell was a mix between rotten meat and vomit.  It clenched my stomach from the sights and smells.  I find voodoo culture fascinating…but some of the things are not easy to swallow.

Hamburgers, crepes, and pasteries from my dreams

After our trip to this curious market we found a restaurant near our hotel THAT HAD CHEESEBURGERS.  This was the first time I had a hamburger in 3 months so OF COURSE I DESTROYED IT and after Emma and I basket in the glory of French desserts having crepes and pastries. I feel asleep knowing my stomach was a good 3 times larger from that meal: content.  If you know me…you know I think through my stomach very often…probably WAY too often…but hey…It is indeed me.

Hotel du lac et la visité au Ganvie (Lake Hotel and the visit to Ganvie, a town ON STILTS)

The day before, we talked to the owner and he recommended this AMAZING TRIP to a stilt village.  We hopped on motos after another French pastry meal ready for an adventure.  We arrive at this VERY FANSY HOTEL…something WAY out of my budget range…AND waited for the rest of the tour group to arrive.  We were then led back to the back of the hotel that was connected to the river…which leads to the ocean.  This river connects a lake to the ocean and the stilt village, Ganvie, is in this lake.  We were taken by boat through the river to the lake and then all the way to the village.  The view was memorizing. I felt lost in a dream.  The locals have a huge assortment of traps for fish and shrimp.  They use wood to confuse and trap the fish over time.  It was the most creative way of fish that I have ever seen.  Once we started approaching the village I got an odd feeling that I was not suppose to be there.  Young kids would reach out there hands begging for bonbons and older people gave dirty looks not content with us there.  I felt like I was breaking into a house in the middle of the night waking up the rightful owners.  The town seemed very dependent on tourism, yet hated tourists.  I could understand that looking at a city near me—Estes Park, they rely on tourism, yet the hate it non-the-less.  Although I was invading this place is was beautiful to see.  Everyone got around by boat.  There were small four year old girls pulling themselves in wood canoes.  I have always wanted to go to a water based village (on my bucket list, and I have now).  But, I do wish I could see the village in a light was not so negatively geared towards us.  I would like to someday be embraced and introduced like I have been treated by many Ghanaians that I have made friendships with.  I see myself as a traveler, not a tourist…but I did not have enough time to show that to these people…another day…maybe I can show that to another group.

Coming back to Accra

After this eventful trip, we caught a taxi back to Lome and the a tro tro in Aflao all the way home.  We travel for 7 hours straight…let’s us say there was some heavy sleeping that night!  Traveling back in the dark, I looked up and realized…these stars…are similar everywhere…just like we all have something in common.  Akwaaba (I will go and come)…and it circles around connecting all of us.