Foyer des Marins Lome

... and explaining our story, we pulled out the map and had this man show us directions/give us distances to the next town and next available stop for pure water sachets.. He pointed to Gati on the map. “c’est ici”/ that’s here. We were in Gati drinking water from lord knows where—water that was probably one of the biggest lifesavers of our entire trip, just handed to us from a really nice stranger. Again, one of the ...

... the road. West Africa has exceptionally few trashcans. Leslie had to carry her juice box all the way through Lome, until we had walked 22 miles and found a gas station to stop at---she was looking for a trashcan the whole time. <br><br>We took this walk pretty seriously---stopped very little, but anytime we did WANT to stop we definitely could have and did. There were plenty of markets, gas stations, and ...

... This meant that the next morning, at 5 am (before drum lessons), we both had to go back to the village. I would not advise anyone to ride a motorcycle (even as a passenger) at 5 am. Waking up while going 50 km/h through the bush is a terrifying experience. We made it to the village, worked out the details, and got back in time to go around Dagbamete with Kwasi greeting everybody (literally everybody!) in the village.<br><br>In the last two days, I tied up all of my loose ...

... a drum jam that went late into the night.<br><br> The drum lesson on Thursday was a very weird experience. Right beside the drumming spot, the village diviner sacrificed a goat and chicken. At first, I tried to ignore it, but eventually I realised that sooner or later I would have to come to terms with this tradition. Ten minutes later, once we were settling back into drumming, a snake fell out of a tree and landed on me. At first, I thought it was a branch ...

... and Sanga, Ann and Dave looked at the stalls on the Ghanaian side of the border. Van Damme waited patiently while we explored. One taxi driver offered Ann and Dave a ride to Accra. Ann said we were going to Canada and he would need to use a car, boat, train etc. he just laughed and said thank you. Sanga finally got through about 2, we had even convinced the guards to let us go back to see what had happened to our friend. When we drove the car through the guards all exuberantly waved ...

... euros and a lot of money in African terms... think... well, I pay 25 000 for a week&#8217;s lodging AND food. Well, I sent him a quick text saying thank you and not much else.<br><br>The next morning (I&#8217;m sorry this is turning into such a saga), after ignoring a couple of his phonecalls (I hope no one important ever calls me, I very rarely answer the phone here...), I heard Erica knocking on my door. I opened it to a stack of presents, from Pascal. <br><br ...

... from Togo it only took us 40 minutes to get out of Ghana and into Togo with a 7 day visa. Now we just had to wait for Sanga and the car. While we waited Ann and Dave walked up and down the street looking at what the sellers had. Van Damme, who has not travelled much, was worried by all of the people. Finally Sanga and the car came to the crossing. We went to meet him and waited by the car for the last stage of the ...

... of four brothers who were on holiday was unenthusiastic to say the least (sarcasm is wasted on the Togolese, by the way). I think that's just it, though, efficiency is not what they aim for here. I knew taht before I came, but, really, it was getting ridiculous. I can't even remember all the other things that annoyed me, at the moment! There was more than that, though. I was pretty much useless there. I mean, every visit we went on, the local ...

... and bargained forever with Kwame. I got everything for a really good price. I told him I will definitely send people his way, and I will. Pam and Debbie also bought a couple of things from him. <br><br>On Wednesday, my friends went to a clothing store. I stayed behind because I wasn&#8217;t planning on buying any ready-made clothing. In Anyako, Egbor said that he could come to the house in Abelemkpe to show us some more cloth, because Debbie wanted to see some Ashanti ...

... they were saying). Some old guy came up to me and told me that he loves me. He called me Adzovi (Adzo is my day name, and vi means young), but I&#8217;ve never met him. That was kind of creepy. When he shook my hand, he did the middle-finger wiggle in the palm of my hand. It was disgusting. I was trying to be polite, so I didn&#8217;t slap him. Thank god for Seshie, who kept walking and told me to stay with the group. We saw some kids playing soccer. Then we went to see my ...