The Truth about Voodoo, My experience in Benin!

This blog is going to be a long one, and it will include everything I did on my trip to Benin. Most of my trip was focused on discovering the truth about West African vodun (what we call voodoo) and you will be surprised by reading this blog to realize that most everything that you first think of when you hear the word “voodoo” is actually false! I myself after an 11 hour ceremony with a vodun priest now practice vodun and no, contrary to your impressions of “voodoo”, it does not conflict with my Christianity in any way. I will explain all of this in this blog, so read on!

We’ll start with Monday which was mainly a travel day. I met my guide Boris in Accra and we set off on an air conditioned tro tro to the border of Togo, a town called Aflao. Once we got there we change my money into CFA’s and went through the Togolese border. We traveled trough Togo on motorbikes for an hour (motorbike are my new favorite thing in the world . . . don’t know why I have never been on a motorbike before this . . . but yeah) Then we went through the border of Benin and took motorbikes again to get to Ouidah, the first destination city on our tour. This whole travel process through the borders was actually quite hectic and stressful because of people constantly hassling us to change money or for motorbikes or for us just to give them money . . . mainly in Togo, I really did not like Togo, it was dirty, dusty, smoggy, polluted, and the people were very persistently rude! Anyways, back to the arrival in Ouidah! We first checked into the hotel I was staying at and dropped off our luggage, then we walked for about 20 minutes down the road to go to the Python Temple. Before I describe the Python Temple I would first like to say Kudos to Benin for being a very esthetically nice country, there is hardly any garbage on the ground, no open sewers, little pollution, and beautiful cobble stone streets with great architecture throughout the cities (I am assuming this has a lot to do with their government, so bravo!, maybe they can teach Ghana a thing or two!) Now Onto describing the Python Temple we visited.

First I will explain why they think that Pythons are sacred. Back when Africa didn’t have countries there were tribes in different regions that would battle against each other, Ouidah (which was still called Ouidah at that time) had a tribe, but they were not very strong fighters. The tribes from other areas would chase them into highly wooded area’s where there were loads of Pythons. Scared of the pythons the other tribes would flee the battle, so the people of the Ouidah tribe began using the Pythons to scare off opposing tribes by wearing them around themselves during battle. The Python Temple today is a sacred place (I will be using the term sacred a lot in this blog do to the vodun culture) to honor the pythons that saved their city and the culture that lives here. They perform a ceremony every 7 years to bless the town through the pythons. In old times they used to get virgin girls to go to the river to get sacred water to put in the Calabash, but now it’s harder to tell when girls are virgins, so they use elderly women. The water from the calabash is mixed with healing medicinal leafs and is used for people to drink small amounts and bless the whole town. They sacrifice a goat in this ceremony as well and share the blood of the goat to bless people. The significance of sacrifices in Vodun culture is huge, because a sacrifice is the only way to link the spirit world of their ancestors to the physical world (I will talk more about that in a bit when I give a full description of “voodoo”). At the snake temple there is still a vodun priest that lives in a hut on site. There is also a sacred tree called Iroko that is 400 years old, they have a white cloth on this tree that they throw yolk and spices on so as to feed the tree through the sacred cloth. When you arrive at the Python temple they take you on a tour of the temple and tell you everything I have just said, then they bring you into the temple where they keep the Pythons. Then in tradition with how they used to go into battle they drape the huge pythons around your neck (yes there are pictures of me to go on facebook with pythons all over me!). Interesting fact about the python temple is that when the pythons die, because they are sacred, they bury them in a cemetery just like humans. So that covers the Python Temple.

After that we walked back to the hotel and got some of our things, and then headed out to a restaurant for dinner. The restaurant was very nice and in an outdoor setting and so we sat down at a table across from a local Benin couple. I had steak and chips (I know I am not a steak person but the only other meat option was rabbit, and that wasn’t happening) and then Boris started asking me about why I was interested in Vodun. I then told him the story of a séance I had preformed when I was a teenager, and I told him all about the scary things that happened that night like my posters falling down and my dolls having red marker around their eyes and such. I told him that bad things have happened after that (which I didn’t want to get into) and I wanted to see the roots of vodun and try to find out what I did wrong. He said that he was impressed by my true belief in the vodun culture and he thought before that I was just another “tourist” that wanted to see it as a joke for back home, but he said “now that I know that you are serious about our culture and beliefs I think this is an issue we should take to a vodun priest”. The benin man from the table next to us heard our conversation and he came to the table to wish me healing in the country and then payed for our meals . . . very good impression of Benin right off the bat! So we finished our dinner and I went to bed while he changed the plans of our trip to involve a consult with a vodun priest.

Tuesday morning I woke up very early and we went to breakfast at a different restaurant, it was good but the service was bad. We then finished seeing all the tourist sights in Ouidah. We started off with the museum, which I was not allowed to take pictures at, and it was a basic overview of the history of Benin, slaves in the area, and of Vodun. I will give you an overview of what I learned here:

The Fort of São João Baptista de Ajudá (in English St. John the Baptist of Ouidah Fort) is a small fortress built by the Portuguese in the city of Ouidah on the coast of Dahomey (originally Ajudá, from Hweda, on the Atlantic coast of modern Benin), reached by the Portuguese in 1580, after which it grew around the slave trade, for which the Slave Coast was already renowned. The Fort, built in land given to Portugal by the King of Dahomey, remained under Portuguese control from 1721 until 1961.
In 1680 the Portuguese governor of São Tomé and Príncipe was authorised to erect a fort. In 1721, after having been abandoned for some years, it was reconstructed and named São João Baptista de Ajudá.

Pirate Bartholomew Roberts at Ouidah, with his ship and captured merchantmen in the background

The fort had an important impact in Benin, greatly contributing to both the Portuguese and African slave trade. Its importance is attested by the fact that the Portuguese language was the only foreign language that the Kings of Dahomey authorised. Portuguese descendants were also important in the political structure of the kingdom and some established Portuguese-Brazilian families, such as the Sousa, whose descendants still exist in Benin, were powerful and abided by private law. In January 1722 the pirate Bartholomew Roberts ("Black Bart") sailed into the harbour and captured all the eleven ships at anchor there.
Following the abolition of the legal slave trade in 1807, the fort, which had before been one of the major slave ports, gradually lost its importance and although Portugal continued to claim it as one of its possessions, formal occupation and administration were abandoned on several occasions. It was only when French presence in the region started threatening Portugal’s interests that the settlement was again permanently manned. This didn't prevent the French conquest of Dahomey (1891–1894). After this, São João Baptista de Ajudá - now reduced to the territory actually within the walls of the fort - lost what remained of its importance.
The fort was reoccupied by Portugal in 1865. In this period it served as a base for a brief Portuguese attempt to create a protectorate in the Kingdom of Dahomey of which the city of Hweda (Ajudá - Ouidah) was part (1885–1887).
Until its annexation by Dahomey in 1961, São João Baptista de Ajudá was probably the smallest recognized separate modern political unit: according to the census of 1921 it had 5 inhabitants and, at the moment of the ultimatum by the Dahomey Government, it had only 2 inhabitants representing Portuguese Sovereignty who tried to burn it rather than surrendering it.
Only in 1975, after the Portuguese Estado Novo regime has been overthrown due to the Carnation Revolution at Lisbon, did the annexation of the fort by Dahomey (now renamed Benin) gain official Portuguese recognition. This was followed by the forts' restoration, which was paid for by Portugal. The fort is a small square with towers at the four corners. It comprises a church and officers' quarters. The Fort of São João Baptista de Ajudá now houses a museum.

That’s the basic history of the museum that I learned but in the museum I learned other cultural things as well . . . here is a point form list of some interesting points:

è    Every 10^th of January (every year) Benin holds a very large (largest in the world) voodoo festival.

è    They had horns in their time which they believed they could send small pox to people through.

è    When people die in Benin their spirits are kept alive through statues and torches.

è    They put statues on their front lawns of Legba (I will explain what Legba is soon) to protect their houses.

è    They traded 15 strong slaves for 1 cannon, or 21 women slaves for 1 cannon.

è    Because so many slaves were sent to Brazil from this region, brazil now has a huge vodun culture

è    Kings during that time had the right to have 41 wives . . .

è    The last day of king dahomey’s 41 day ceremony he sacrificed a human, he did this by throwing the slaves off a boat onto land, if they landed on their feet they were free, but if not they were killed.

è    When going to battle they had to promise the king that they would come back with the head of an enemy.

è    There were 5 forts in Ouidah, the French, Danish, Dutch, British, and Portuguese (the Portuguese is the only fort still standing, as a museum of coarse)

Just some more things I learned at the museum. We then got on motorbikes and went to the sacred forest. Here is what I learned there:

The sacred forest is a sacred place filled with sacred trees and interpretive statues of Vodun Gods. It is sacred for two reasons:

1 à Sacred trees are inside (duh)

2 à The first vodun festival in Ouidah took place in here.

The name of the community the sacred forest is in is called Kpasse, There was a king Kpasse and the first statue we saw was a representation of what he though he was . . . a panther. Originally the sacred forest was King Kpasse’s farm. I will now give you a run down of some of the different statues of the gods that we saw. Interesting fact first though, in vodun originally, anything that they didn’t understand in life or in nature became a God (since they didn’t understand it, it was powerful, thus a God).

We’ll start with Legba, Legba is a general protection God, he is said to be the link between the physical and spiritual worlds. Most people keep a statue of him in their houses for protection. There are several other Gods but I will describe them in the photos I took of them when I post the photos on facebook (it will mean more that way) Legba is the most important of the Gods anyways. On a side note an “adept” person is what they call a practicing voodoo person, and there is traditional dress only during the voodoo festival for them. Perhaps on January 10^th in Canada I will dress as an adept, because I now am and adept.

An interesting belief in vodun culture that I learned at the sacred forest is that they believe that cats and dogs have a stronger ability to view spirits, so you can take the eye crusts from your cat or dog and put them in the crests of your eyes and then be able to see spirits as well.

There is a story of a tree that fell down from a lightning strike in 1993 and because the tree was sacred 2 men tried to cut it away and preserve it to move it to a different location. Apparently the two men became ill while trying to do this and lost consciousness, when they woke up the tree was back in the same location it originally was and was alive again. They have now built walls around this tree and it is a huge sacred site in Benin.

There was a place in the sacred forest that I could not pass through because I am not an initiated person, it was a door to another even more sacred area, but I got a great picture of the door! So that is the basis of the sacred forest.

Next we went down the slave road that is famous in Benin, it is basically the same basic story of the slaves that I have already covered, but on this slave road they prepared the slaves in dark rooms so they would be prepared for the dark that they would experience for months on the boats, they also had a burial point along the road to bury dead slaves, or bury alive weak slaves. There is a memorial grave for all of these deaths there and in order to walk on it you need to be barefoot (in any sacred place in Benin you must be barefoot). Then we went to the door of no return on the beach which was the final step of the road, and it was the same idea as all doors of no return’s for the slaves, it basically means that they were put on ships to be sent to brazil.

After all of this sight seeing in Ouidah, we got into a shared taxi and headed off to Cotenu, then further on to Porto-Novo (the purpose being to go see the voodoo priest in the morning). When we arrived in Porto-Novo, we decided to stay at Boris’s Aunt and Uncle’s house in a village in the middle of the bush a half hour out of the city (because the voodoo priest lives in the village so it was easier to be close). It was really nice to be staying in mud huts with no electricity or technology, living they way village people do, it gives you a great sense of Africa! The bathrooms were just area’s behind your hut where you peed on the ground and washed it away with water, and you did other things in a bucket . . . for showering you just stood there and poured water on yourself. This type of travel adventure is not for everyone, infact I can think of lots of people I know who could not handle this. So we went into our mud hut (there were four in this compound) and went to sleep for the night.

The next morning we woke up and headed off to see the vodun priest for my consultation. It was an 11 hour day in the vodun temple because I needed several ceremonies for healing, but before I get into that I want to clear up your impressions of “voodoo” and give you an actual description of what voodoo is.

Vodun cosmology centers around the vodun spirits and other elements of divine essence that govern the Earth, a hierarchy that range in power from major deities governing the forces of nature and human society to the spirits of individual streams, trees, and rocks, as well as dozens of ethnic vodun, defenders of a certain clan, tribe, or nation. The vodun are the centre of religious life, similarly in many ways to the cult of intercession of saints and angels that made Vodun compatible with Christianity, especially Catholicism, and produced syncretic religions such as Haitian Vodou. Adherents also emphasise ancestor worship and hold that the spirits of the dead live side by side with the world of the living, each family of spirits having its own female priesthood, often hereditary.
Patterns of worship follow various dialects, gods, practices, songs and rituals. Vodun recognises one God with many helpers called Orishas. A single divine Creator, called variously Mawu or Nana Buluku is an androgynous being who in one tradition bore seven children and gave each rule over a realm of nature - animals, earth, and sea - or else these children are inter-ethnic and related to natural phenomena or to historical or mythical individuals. The creator embodies a dual cosmogonic principle of which Mawu the moon and Lisa the sun are respectively the female and male aspects, often portrayed as the twin children of the Creator.
Mawu's youngest child, Legba, was to remain with her and act as a go-between with her other children: in some clans he is young and virile while in Haiti he takes the form of an old man. Other deities might include Mami Wata, god/desses of the waters, Gu, ruling iron and smithcraft, Sakpata, who rules diseases and many others. Eshu, a messenger deity who relays messages between the human world and the world of the Orishas, is depicted as a dark, short man with a large staff and often a pipe, candy or his fingers in his mouth. As the mediator between the gods and the living he maintains balance, order, peace and communication.
All creation is considered divine and therefore contains the power of the divine. This is how medicines such as herbal remedies are understood, and explains the ubiquitous use of mundane objects in religious ritual. Voodoo talismans, called "fetishes", are objects such as statues or dried animal parts that are sold for their healing and spiritually rejuvenating properties. Sorcerers and sorceresses called Botono (or Aze/Azetos) are believed to cast spells on enemies on behalf of supplicants, calling upon spirits to bring misfortune or harm to a person or group. Animal sacrifice is a common way to show respect and thankfulness to the gods.
Mama, or Queen Mothers, are usually elder women who are elected by the kingmakers upon the death of the previous Queen Mother and are given the name of one of their highly respected female ancestors. The woman who is chosen is usually the oldest women in her clan, but this tradition may be overruled due to factors such as health, education, and national influence. The responsibilities of a Queen Mother are mostly geared towards activities among women. They take part in the organisation and the running of markets and are also responsible for their upkeep, which is vitally important because marketplaces are the focal points for gatherings and social centres in their communities. In the past when the men of the villages would go to war, the Queen Mothers would lead prayer ceremonies in which all the women attended every morning to ensure the safe return of their menfolk.

The basis of Voodoo is to link humans to the spirit world and to respect the spirit world because it is more powerful then us. Voodoo is NOT spells, witchcraft, black magic, vengeful, satan related, or any of the things that most people associate the word with. It also does not conflict with christian beleifs or the Bible, so you can be a christian who practices Voodoo! Voodoo is about healing yourself through nature and using the spirit world and the power of nature to cure problems, and to know yourself by being in touch with these natural powers. It is all about energy in the world and learning how to channel your energy to benefit you, and also to benefit nature so that you are in harmony with the outer world. Christianity and voodoo work quite well when both are practiced even John Paul the 2^nd as the pope went to visit Ouidah in 1989 to pay his respects to vodun priests. Now that you have a brief history of what voodoo actually is I will begin to describe my 11 hour day at the temple.

I walked into the temple and immediately had to remove my shoes and was given a big piece of material to cover my street clothes with so that I was covered from chest to ankle. I walked into the temple and the priest invited me and Boris to sit down (Boris translated for me because the voodoo priest practiced only in Ewe, the local language). He began to contact the oracle (the oracles are gods that priests consult to learn about other people, and to get advice from on how to help them) he did this by putting oil on stones, putting them on my head and then the sacred well, then he threw them on the ground to get readings. Immediately he began to tell me all about my past, he knew everything about me and I hadn’t really spoken to him yet. He said that in my past I had an abusive boyfriend who did damage to me, and I have had more then one of them, he knew that I had a miscarriage, he said that both my intestines and my womb were diseased and that I should never give blood because of this, He told me I was a person who was short tempered, he said because of my short temper and anxiety I was on medications, he told me about when my grandmother died, he told me of random childhood moments I had, and then he drew a picture of my house (scarily acurate). He had me convinced at this point because I have no idea how he would have known all of this, but what happened next shocked me to my core. He said, “there is a little girl present with us, do you know a little girl who has died or why a little girl would be with us?” My heart sank, because I knew exactly which little girl he meant. See, when I was a teenager and did that séance I brought something to my room in my parents house, and for years I have been seeing the ghost of this little girl in my room (I told very few people of this because most people would not believe me) and she always asked for help. So immediately I told the priest all about that, and he gave me a very stern and fearful look, he said you should not have done that, he said that I am a very vulnerable person to the spirit world which is rare, and is also why I could see this little girl but my friends could not. He told me that this little girl was infact not a little girl, but a very bad spirit disguising itself as a little girl to intruige me because the spirit knew my love of children. He said that since I was 14 this spirit had been trying to “take me” and has been responsible for anything bad happening in my life. He said that even when I didn’t see her, she was inside me creating a bad aura to attract “Noukumbia” (sorrow) to my life, which he siad is why I have had bad boyfriends, miscarriages, car accidents, failed attempts at school, and why my career has never taken off. He also said this spirit has been making my illness worse.

Immediately after explaining this to me he said I first needed an exorcism, then I needed two sacrifice ceremonies (one of a chicken to rid me of bad spirits and the negative aura I have accumulated and one of a goat to heal my womb for children and to heal my illnesses made worse by this spirit).
So he first preformed the exorcism, I have no recolection of what went on here but at the end of it I remember seeing the little girl and I started to vomit, I asked why I was vomitting, and he said that the spirit was coming out of me, and the vommitting got rid of the spirit.

Then we moved on to the first ceremony of sacrificing the chicken, now as I said earlier in this blog sacrifices are to link the physical world to the spirit world, in this case to rid me of my negative aura attracting Noukumbia (sorrow) into my life, because even though the spirit had left me, I needed to get rid of the damge it had done. The ceremony began by him giving me kola nuts (the kola trees are sacred) to rub all over me, I then gave him the kola nuts and he put them on the sacrificing altar. He then made me chant and repeat things in the ewe language, then he made an idol representing bad spirits in a dish. Then we plucked the feathers from the chicken and put the feathers in the idol along with a few of the kola nuts with my aura on them. We then covered the bowl, this is to represent the bad spirits effects leaving me, and for me to leave them in the past. He then took the chicken and while it was still alive rubbed it up and down my body (wings flapping and all) to link the chicken to me. Then he cut the chickens throat and poured the blood on the kola nuts, he then took the chicken out of the room and let it die, I then had to put my foot on it until it stopped moving to ensure it’s death and offer it to the gods. After that I had to end the ceremony by licking the chicken blood off of the kola nuts so that the gods blessing of my aura stays within my body.

Next was the goat sacrifice to cleanse and heal my womb for future children and to help de intensify my illnesses. I had to take the leash and rope and hold the goat in place, while doing this we had to be facing the sun (the sun is a diety) and he got me to repeat a great deal of chants in the local ewe language to bless and offer the goat to cure me. We then tied the goats legs and laid him on the ground. We dug a hole and in the hole we poured sacred leaf water and palm oils, we then placed the goat so that his neck was over the hole containing the sacred elements. Then he and I put our hands on the knife and together we cut the goats throat and held his head straight so that the blood poured into the hole. Once the goat was dead, they cut the head off and added it to the collection of my ceremonial offereings (shrine bowl, dead chicken, blood covered kola nuts, bag of herb blessings, and now the goat head). Then I had to soak my hands in the hole of goat blood, oil, and water for two minutes, then lick each fingertip to ensure that the doings of the ceremony and the healing of my womb and illnesses stays with me. After this I had a bit of a resting break while they butchered the goat meat (they did this so they could give half of the meat to the temple people and half to me).

He then gave me the sacred items from my ceremonies (shrine bowl, dead chicken, blood covered kola nuts, bag of herb blessings, and the goat head) and gave me a sheet of paper with a prayer to recite. He told me to walk into the woods by myself for 3 minutes and when I reached a place by a tree to dig a hole and recite these prayers. After reciting the prayers I buried all of these items, and he said it was very important once I covered the hole, to walk back to the temple without looking back. The significance of this was leaving my illnesses, negative aura, spirits, and Noukumbia behind me, so they would no longer be a part of my life. He could not be present for this because he helped perform the ceremonies.

After these ceremonies were through I went back to the vodun priest for council to make sure everything healed my soul, and for him to predict and bless my future. He began consulting the oracles again, and he said that all had worked, that I was free of spirits and negative auras, that my Noukumbia attracting agent was gone from my energy, and that my body had been healed. He then told me some very important things that I had to do to ensure that my life would stay this way. He said that I should never wear solid red, because as a person who is vulnerable to seeing the spirit world, red attracts bad auras and spirits. He said when I get back to Canada that it is important for me to buy gifts or candies for children and give them to a large group of children to sacrifice of myself unto them (to help me have children in the future by being in touch with them). He also said that that night when I went back to the hut I was staying in that I would bleed (period wise) heavily for one hour, and not to be afraid because this was the gods cleansing my womb as a part of the ceremonies (I didn’t know about that because I am on the depo). He then began to tell me about my future, I will put the oracles findings in point form:

è    I will have a husband within the next 4 years.

è    I will only be pregnant once, but I will give birth to twins

è    I will have an impressive career, but not in radio(what I do now and what I studied), it will be in helping hopeless or troubled children.

è    It is important that I never gossip or involve myself in arguments that don’t concern me at work, because that would be the downfall of my career.

è    When I am in vulnerable situations in life (sick, stressed, weak) I need to protect myself from the spirit world because I am vulnerable to it, by carrying legba (a small statue, size of a phone, in my purse)

è    Cockroaches in the spirit world are a sign of pending danger unless when I see one I also see it die.

è    \I will die from a very short (2 month) painful illness when I am 77.

He said it was very important that I never try to conjure spirits into the physical world again, and from this point on in my life I would lead a happy sucessful life. He gave me instruction on how to use the things that he wanted me to buy at a fetish market (legba statue, wooden skull, kola nuts, luck shell charms, and chants and prayers) to enhance my life when I get back to Canada.

After this long 11 hour day, we said our goodbyes to the vodun priest, but he assured me that he knew he would see me again. So we hugged him and he gave me a chicken (live) to take with me on my journey back to where we were staying, also goat meat. He instructed that the live chicken had to be released half way through our journey onto the road and then we must continue forward without looking back. He said the Goat was the only thing I was allowed to eat that night to ensure the purity of the ceremonies would stick. So off we went, and we stopped the motorbike halfway to his Uncles house and let the chicken run free without looking back at it.

When I left the temple, I was overcome by the strangest and most wonderful feeling I have ever had in my life. It was like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders and I have a new outlook on life now. I used to be such a cynical, negative person, and I could always feel my negativity coming out of me in all life’s situations . . . but now it’s like I no longer know how to be negative or cynical, I just can’t get myself to feel that way anymore, which is fantastic. Just by this feeling I know that this negative aura that the spirit had on me is gone, and I know (even though I haven’t seen it yet) that my life has changed for the better, I can feel it in my bones and my soul. I know none of you can understand such a rapid change in personality and outlook, and honestly I don’t fully understand it either, but I know that it has happened.

So we got back to the village to Boris’s Uncles mud huts and began to cook the goat. We then feasted on goat (I was only allowed to eat the unspiced goat chunks, but others had cous cous with it). I then went to bed because it was quite late. Then I woke up and the strangest thing happened, even though I had my doubts because of being on the depo provera needle (meaning I haven’t bleed at all period wise in 3 years) I started to bleed, very very heavily. I put on pads (not enough) so I stood outside in the “bathroom” area (villages lol) and I bleed, but just like the priest said, this only lasted one hour, then it stopped completely. I was shocked and at that moment I realized just how powerful the spirit world really is. At that moment there was no doubt in my mind of the validity of what I had experienced and the power of vodun (if it can break through chemicals and make my body do that). I then went back to bed and with the help of kola nuts, slept peacefully.
So, I am now a beleiver of vodun and I am an adept (practicing voodoo person). But as a described in my voodoo explanation earlier this does not conflict with my christianity at all and I am still a christian as well as an adept. I know many of you may not understand it, but if you are curious I can talk to you about it.

So Thursday morning I woke up refreshed and a new person! Boris and I got our bags and I profusely thanked the family for letting us stay with them. We then took off on motorbikes to go pick up a shared taxi to get to cotenu. In cotenu we went to an art market and I bought some decoration type things to take home with me. Then I said my goodbye’s to Boris and thanked him for being a great guide (seriously if you are going to Benin look him up!) and I went on my way to find a shared taxi to Lomei (Togo). I got in that taxi and had to get out at the border to go through the passport stamping and get across the border, then I met the shared taxi again on the Togo side of the border. I drove in the shared taxi to Lomei (border town) and got out. I then got a motorbike to take me to the huge fetish market that they have in Lomei to buy my things on my list that the vodun preist gave me for practice at home. I got to the fetish market, now to describe a fetish market, it is basically a place where you can buy idols, statues, potions, blood, animal heads, skins, or body parts, live animals, and sacred things like stones and healing products. Because it was my first time at a fetish market a man showed me around it and told me what everything was used for, and he helped me find all the things on my list to buy, so now I am set to practice healing vodun when I get back to canada. He also let me take pictures of the whole fetish market, so everyone can see what it looks like. After that I got back on the motorbike and headed to the border to get back into Ghana. Once I was across the border and back in Ghana I got on an air conditioned tro tro and made the sad trip back to Accra, I really never wanted to leave Benin!

I got back to Accra after a 5 hour tro tro ride (it should have been a 3 hour distance) and as soon as I got to the hostel it started to downpour and the power went out. But people here were having a party for Linnea leaving the next day, and were very interested to hear my stories!
So that concludes my Benin blog! I hope you all have a better understanding of what voodoo ACTUALLY is now and all of your past conceptions of it are now gone! I will be happy to answer any questions you have that I haven’t covered as well! This is also the last blog I will be writing while I am in Ghana (there will be one last blog after this, but it will be writen when I am back in Canada) I leave Ghana on Thursday (will be back late on Friday night) which I am very sad about . . . but I think I ended my trip on a great note in Benin, very healing and I am fully prepared to go back to Canada and start my life now! So again thank you for reading!

My Week in Dixcove and My weekend back in Accra!

Hey guys, It has been more than a week since I have blogged . . . so this may be a long one! I will start with last week’s Friday night karaoke since that is where I left you!

On Friday night I got my passport for Benin back from the guy who said he would deliver it to me. He tried to get to Darkuman, but he called saying his motor bike broke down in Dansuman . . . so I got in a cab and went to meet him because I really wanted my passport back! But I did get the passport with my Benin Visa inside so all was well with that. After that I went to Karaoke by myself, but I met a whole group of Americans at the bar and hung out with them! They were very cool. Karaoke went as usual, but this time I told the host that I was a karaoke host in Canada. He now wants me to try and find him a website where he can download more French songs, and more music in general (I will need Rob’s help on this one). But I sang and everyone yet again loved me, and I had a blast. All the guys at the bar were trying to pick me up because of my voice (which is still creepy but a better reason than because I am white lol) specifically the bouncers lol. But all in all it was a great night,

Saturday morning I got up at 9am and started packing to go to Dixcove to stay with Mike and Julia at their Eco Lodge (Desert Rose Lodge) for the week. I packed and then took off to the STC station for my bus to Takoradi. The bus was actually (surprisingly) on time . . . for Ghana. It was supposed to leave at 12:30, and it arrived at the station at 12:30 so we left at 1pm . . . on time for Ghana! The bus had no problems this time around and the trip was quite uneventful, other than the fact that when we stopped in Cape Coast I got a wonderful meat pie from a street vendor. When I arrived in Takoradi I got a taxi to the Dixcove area and directed the taxi driver on the really bumpy back dirt roods to Desert Rose Lodge. It was fantastic to get there and hug Mike and Julia after a year of seeing each other! It was bliss! I had supper with them that night and this first night it was only me Mike and Julia, so we got to do a lot of catching up about our year. Before I continue on with what I did each day at this Lodge, I am going to take some time to explain this Lodge to you.

Mike and Julia are a couple from Sweden who set out 5 years ago to build a lodge somewhere in the world. They had traveled to India and to Asia together before deciding they wanted to build a lodge, and those trips were what fueled it. They started again in India, but it wasn’t possible to build there, so they continued into Africa. Their plan was to travel most of Africa just to see it, and then to end up in south Africa where they would build their lodge. They arrived in Ghana and immediately felt welcomed and amazed. When they stayed at Green Turtle Lodge (a lodge owned and run by a British couple that is now about a 20 minute drive up the road from them, they have remained very close to this couple as well) they felt a sense of family and loved the villages around the Lodge. They then knew that this was the place for their project! In the past 5 years they have built a very nice eco friendly lodge, this means that there is no electricity, running water, or damaging utilities to the environment, and everything that they have built was built using natural elements such as mud, bamboo, wood, and like materials. Their Lodge is directly on the beach, and it is a private beach shared by the neighboring villages, so there is no garbage in it, and it is very secluded (apart from occasional visits from the village children wanting to get you Coconuts off the tree). They do have solar power and wind power that they have set up their own system for, and it works just enough to run some lights at night in their “hang out area” and run some music. It is very impressive that they built this solar/wind energy system on their own! They have an outhouse that is a self compositing toilet, basically a really deep hollowed out well. They also have a sink right outside that which is pumped from a bucket of water. They have bucket shower stalls (made out of bamboo) where you pour water on yourself from a small cup and you get the water from a big bucket. The water that they have in these buckets is all rain water, they collect the rain water for use which again means that they are using natural elements from nature to run their lodge. In their “hang out” area they have three couches (made out of wicker and bamboo with bought cushions) and a wooden table to sit around and “hang out”, they have a pool table, a dart board, a full bar (every kind of alcohol, including local Ghana brews), two hammocks, and a picnic table. That is a great spot to hang out at night, the whole floor of the “hang out” area is sand, so it gives you a really earthy feel. They have a working kitchen, and they make delicious food, and outside the kitchen they have a dining area with picnic tables where all the guests always eat together with Mike and Julia (this place gives you a real “family” feeling). New this year, they have built a salt water pool just below the “hang out” area. They fill the pool up using a water pump and lots of hose line, they put the hose into the ocean and pump the water from there into the pool (harder then it sounds, we did this on the second day I arrived and it took a whole day to get it working properly). They have one room with a double bed, one dorm room with four single beds and a double bed, one self contained bamboo hut with a double bed, and two wooden made tents with double beds in them. All of the beds have mosquito nets to keep the bugs away at night (and there are a lot of big strange bugs in the bush where they are at the Lodge). It is a really fantastic place with a great concept on preserving the land, and the sense of family that you get when you arrive here is fantastic (I truly believe that this is due to the amazing personalities and welcoming concepts of Mike and Julia themselves). They say they want to keep the Lodge at a 25 person capacity so that it always feels like a place where you can get to know everyone! So that is a little background and description of Desert Rose Lodge!

So on Sunday morning I woke up and had breakfast (fried eggs, bread and fresh oranges) and then I did nothing all day . . . I went to the beach, then I came up to the Lodge and tanned on the bamboo tanning chairs, then I took a nap on a hammock, went back to the beach and tanned some more (I know, that’s the life haha). That afternoon a new couple arrived, their names were Claire and John, they were from London, also a girl from Austria arrived, her name was Ellia. At supper time we had fresh Lobster from Dixcove (the fishing town nearby), and Mike cut them in half and barbequed them and covered them in a garlic breadcrumb crust . . . that was THE best lobster I have ever had (and I am from the maritimes!). That night we all sat around in the “hang out” area and got to know each other, then went to bed quite late!

Monday morning I woke up to Kuso (one of their cats, kitten actually) beside me playing with my hair, he had managed to crawl inside the mosquito net . . . clever! I went outside, showered and had breakfast, then I went to Dixcove with Ellia to see the fort of the slaves there and experience the fishing village! The fort slave was nowhere near as impressive as the ones in cape coast, but still interesting . . . an English couple has bought it and are now living in it, so it was weird to see that. The fishing village was cool, they taught us all about the fishing boats (simple concept really) and how they use their nets to catch the fish and how they cool, clean and gut the fish. We even saw them gutting large sharks that they had caught. After the visit in the village I got a tro tro into takoradi to take out more money then I got a taxi back to Desert Rose Lodge. When I got back to Desert Rose Lodge Claire, John, and I went to go see how the local moonshine called Akpetchi is made. One of the workers at the Lodge took us there, it was about a 5 minute walk from the Lodge down the dirt road, the another 5 minute walk into the forest bush area. It was located literally in the middle of a clearing in the woods. The way it works is they take the local palm wine that they make out of palm oil nuts (it’s like a fermented wine) then they put that in big barrels where it boils for a long time, then tubes from those barrels transport the akpetechi into big pools where the alcohol distills (and gets much stronger), then it gets slowly stiffened out and filtered into bottles. It was very interesting to see how this moonshine is made in the middle of the woods haha. I got a bottle of palm wine and a bottle of Akpetechi from them at this place to bring home!

That night when we were all back at the lodge we had dinner, which was homemade pizza with real cheese! Two other guys had arrived at this point from germany named Sasha and Danial. We then took part in drinking the akpetechi and had a blast of a night being drunk and learning how to climb coconut trees! I have learned that climbing coconut trees is all in the power of your thighs to push forward! You have to hug the tree and grip the tree with your thighs to pull yourself up (valid skill to have I think, it should go on my resume . . . can climb a coconut tree haha). We then braved the outhouse at night together because at night there are HUGE bugs in there, then we went to bed (all sleeping in the same dorm, so that was funny as well).

Tuesday I didn’t do a whole lot which is the point of being at this Lodge. I tanned, swam, napped on hammocks, swam more, and tanned more. For Lunch I had a pasta salad with curry dressing (which I now know how to make from scratch when I get back to Canada) and then we all had supper which was Sweedish Meatballs and rice! We drank 4 bottles of wine between us that night and had a dart tournament . . . yes smart idea lol! It was a lot of fun to hang out with these people and the vibe that mike and Julia set is perfect for that!

Wedenesday I again didn’t do much of anything, Mike Julia and I got the pump working, so in the morning we pumped the water from the sea into the salt water pool and I spent most of the day in there, and tanning! Claire, John, Sasha, and Daniel all left in the afternoon, so it was Mike, Julia, and I alone again for my last night which was great! We had Potato au Gratin (scalloped potatoes) and veggie stir fry for supper then we had a relaxing night talking and laughing!

Thursday I spent the morning I spent in the salt water pool and tanning which was very relaxing, then I showered and packed up to leave for Takoradi to get a bus back to Accra! A taxi came and picked me up at the lodge, and he was really great since it was a local friend of Mike and Julia’s. He let me drive through the dirt roads in Dixcove since there’s not a lot of traffic, he said that it was so that I could say I have driven in Ghana, and on Ghana bad roads haha, boy can I ever say that! It was like off roading times 10! This was very fun, then when we hit main roads he drove again. When I got to the bus station they told me that there were no buses for the next 3 days to Accra because they were all full. I asked a taxi driver if there were other stations and he said he’d been to them and the buses there were full as well with big crowds . . . This was a frustrating moment for me! Then this worker at the bus station told me to hang around and he’d see if there was room after the people with tickets got on the bus . . . well there wasn’t, so I pulled a very bad girl move that I am kind of embarrassed about . . . I stood there and made myself cry, sure enough there was a lady that started waving me onto the bus from the bus window, so I fought with the driver and got on the bus, when I got on the bus this lady said you can sit in the seat we bough for our three year old, as long as she can sit on your knee the whole way to Accra . . . I was thrilled with that and said sure thing! So yes, I got on a bus to get back to Accra, but I am a little ashamed about how I did it . . . haha. That was quite a bus ride with a chatty 3 year old on my knee, but she was very very cute!

I got back to Accra at about 8pm and was very excited to have power again so that I could charge my dead phone and have a fan . . . but this is Ghana and nothing ever works in your favor . . . so when I got back to the hostel I arrived to no power, and there was no power all night . . . so I just went to bed because there was nothing else to do!

Friday I woke up very early to go to church, it being good Friday and all, and I couldn’t go to the Methodist church with aunty and uncle because the service would have been in Twi, so I decided to go to church with Eunice, the Laundry and cleaning lady here at the Hostel. Her church was called assemblies of God . . . it was the craziest church I have ever been to in my life . . . take a Pentecostal church from Canada and dial up the crazy by 20 (you know with all the speaking in tongues, fainting, dancing around like lunatics, shouting fire and brimstone, being possessed with the spirit . . . yeah all that). I was terrified and finding a lot of comedy in this (I didn’t show that I found it funny because they might have made me go up there and start talking gibberish too). They were getting people up there and the pastors were putting their hands on the peoples heads and shouting at them in tongues (which I still believe is gibberish . . . I stand by that) and then they started talking in tongues, then they were fainting, and they kept saying they were full of the spirit . . . but it seemed like they were full of something else if you ask me! They kept yelling God gives us the power, then May the fire of God come down on us . . . then there was more wacky dancing and tongues. This is NOT my kind of church because I do not believe tongues is the language of God, and I do not believe that God wants us to make idiots of ourselves to worship him, so all in all for me it didn’t feel like a good Friday worship ceremony. They were too happy and not mournful enough.

I went back to the Hostel and went to my room and watched the Passion of the Christ, then I felt more like it was good Friday! Then in the afternoon I went to meet my Guide that will be taking me to Benin on Monday, we talked about the plans and details and such, and talked about ourselves to get to know each other . . . He is very handsome, this may be a problem . . . self restraint haha! In the evening I came down to the common area and hung out with everyone for awhile and then there was a very creepy black man from America with dreads that came wandering into the hostel, he was talking to himself and scared us so we got Uncle. Uncle talked to him for a long time and then eventually got him to leave. Uncle then told us that he stayed here 2 years ago and was fine for awhile with his girlfriend here, but then she left him and he started doing heroin here and got crazy (like he was this night), so then they had to kick him out of the hostel and deport him from the country. Now that he’s back, Uncle says that he is so delusional that he thinks he is friends with aunty and uncle and wants to stay here again . . . he has come back to the hostel a lot this weekend and so now they have locked everything in the hostel and we have to ring a bell to get in (understandable). We then decided to go to Karaoke! Karaoke was fun Bruno got ill from alcohol so he had to leave early, then pilar, Linnea, and I were left and we sang our hearts out and drank until 2am! At this time we got a taxi back home, only problem was the taxi ran out of gas halfway to our hostel so we drunkenly stood on the street waiting for another taxi (took a long time at that hour of night) and eventually got one. When we got back to the hostel pilar and Linnea couldn’t get into their rooms because aunty had locked the house, so we all went up to my room and watched glee and had drunken girl talk until 6am when they could get back into their rooms!

Saturday we all woke up quite late because of the night before. We then had lunch and went into the darkuman market to buy fabrics. I bought lots of fabrics for myself and for Linda to make dresses with and then we bought some mangoes and came back to the hostel. I ate the mangos (all three . . . yeah I am going to miss mangos when I get back) and then I went to get money from the bank for my Benin trip. When I got back it started to downpour so Linnea, Pilar, and I got in our bathing suits and started running around the hostel in the rain, getting soaked and splashing in puddles . . . it was fantastic, it was the first time in Ghana that I felt cold (very welcomed feeling)! It rained for about two hours so it was a long splashing session. After that we got changed and had dinner, then the creepy man came back and Uncle kicked him out again! After that Pilar, Linnea, Kamal and I went up to my room to watch Glee. Kamal had never seen Glee before so we introduced him to it and watched the first six episodes. He said that it was Ok, and “good in a guilty pleasure for a guy kind of way”. So that was another fun night!

Sunday Morning I slept in because I had no interest in going back to the church of crazy! I celebrated Easter here by eating Belgian chocolate eggs that Linnea had brought to Ghana, and having a noodle stir fry for lunch. That brings us to this point where I started writing this blog. So there you have it. Tonight I am going out with about 10 people from the hostel to and Indian restaurant, then I will be packing and preparing for my trip to Benin tomorrow! In Benin I am set out to learn all about Voodoo, I even have an appointment on Tuesday morning for a one on one sacrifice ceremony with a voodoo fetish priest, and also a planned visit to their Python Temple where I can have the Python’s draped around me! I will blog when I return to Ghana on Thursday! Thanks for reading!

My Week April 11th - April 15th!

Ok, so I left you all on Monday afternoon, after my Kokrobite weekend, so now I will tell you all about my week.

Monday night I didn’t do much of anything, I got pork from Grace at the pork stand down the road. She calls me Akosua because I was born on a Sunday. See in Ghana, you have a second name based on the day of the week that you were born. Here is a chart so that you too can find out your Ghana first name:

Sunday –        (male): Kwasi        (female): Akosua

Monday –       (male): Kojo          (female): Adwoa

Tuesday –       (male): Kwabena   (female): Abena

Wednesday -  (male): Kwaku       (female): Akua

Thursday –     (male): Yao            (female): Yaa

Friday –          (male): Kofi           (female): Afia

Saturday –      (male): Kwame      (female): Ama

So there you have it, Now you know what your true name should be (the key is going back on a calendar to your birth year to find out what day of the week your birthday falls on then). They use those all the time, they tell you their given name (like Melissa) only when they know you very well, but always introduce with their Ghana name! So that’s kind of fun now when I met people to tell them my name is Akosua, then they know I have been in Ghana for a long time!

But the rest of Monday night I did nothing, except play Uno with Eric, Toby, and Kamal of coarse (tradition now)!

Tuesday morning I woke up and went to the school, the kids were feeling a little better on Tuesday, but not by a lot. So they had a doctor come and give them Cholera medication. Faustina was back from the hospital, but still resting, so it was another school day of taking care of sick kids (with less vomit though)!

Tuesday afternoon I came back and took a nap at the hostel because I was worn out from looking after sick kids (it’s a lot more draining then looking after healthy kids).

Tuesday Evening I went to get some pork from Grace again and while I was down there a lady named Mercy told me I had nice breasts . . . compliment I guess haha! Also a man asked to Marry me, and when I said no he asked for my phone number, when I again said no he said “ahh adain (why) it’s nice to be nice einh?”. Now in Ghana that is THE biggest catch phrase ever! They say it when you are being nice and they say it when you are apparently being mean to encourage you to be nice! I’ll probably come back to Canada and start saying “hey, it’s nice to be nice!”! Other then that I did nothing really, I again played Uno and went to bed!

Wednesday morning I went to the school as usual, and surprisingly most everyone was cured of the Cholera! So the drugs the doctors gave must have been good! I had a normal morning with the kids, and they were doing their exams!

Wednesday afternoon I set out on a mission with the help of Nana to find Three big canvases and powder paint to mix with glue (for Thursday for the kids). Nana was convinced that we could find these things in Darkuman where we stay, so for an hour and a half we walked through the town of Darkuman asking every shop if they sold it, or knew where we could find it. After everyone (and I mean everyone) in Darkuman said they didn’t have it, I convinced Nana that we best go to the art market across town (where they sell all the souvenirs, woodwork, paintings, and such to ask them where to get it. When we got to the art market a man took us down the road to his house where he had lots of paint and glue, and his brother made blank thick canvases. So after an hour of haggling the price down I got three Canvases, 5 colors of paint, glue, and paint brushes for 40 cedi! That was a much different experience then going to a craft supply store in Canada haha! Then Nana and I came back to the hostel and I went to a bank.

Wednesday night I didn’t do anything yet again! But there were new girls that arrived here from the Netherlands and they had this great card game called set. The cards had different shapes on them and you lay twelve out on the table and have to collect sets of three (harder then it sounds, it is a logic game). So I thoroughly enjoyed that for hours then went to bed early to prepare for an early morning of painting with the kids the next day!

Thursday morning I woke up early at 7am and went to the school with Nana for 8am. When I got to the school I announced to the kids that “today we are going to messy paint”. They didn’t quite get it so I then said “We’re going to paint with our hands”, they all looked at the teachers like “are we allowed?” and the teachers knew before hand, so they encouraged the kids that it was ok haha! So Nana and I began to mix the paint colors with glue and water (this makes sure that the paint won’t crack when I roll it up to pack it) and then we bagan calling children up to get their hands painted. So we had an assembly line, myself and another teacher were putting the paint on the kids hands, then Nana and another teacher were stamping the kids hands on the canvases, then another teacher was writing the names of the children with pen underneath their handprint. This took about four hours, it was very fun though! After that the kids got back into the paint and started painting each others faces with tribal marks . . . of coarse I couldn’t get away from them without being painted up as well, so it was a fun messy paint day! I think that the kids were just excited to be allowed to be messy, because the teachers told me that they have never heard of finger painting before this! So after all was said and done I left one big Canvas for the preschool to post on their wall and I took two to post on my walls (when I get my own place) for myself! They are beautiful and I can’t wait to show them to you all! Walking down the street covered in paint with these in mid afternoon was quite funny though!

Thursday afternoon I went to run quite a few errands (after showering the paint off of coarse) and the main errand being getting my Visa for Benin! I got in a taxi and headed for the embassy. Now all the embassy’s for every country are in the same area of town, so it took the taxi driver a half an hour of driving through this area to find the Benin embassy. Every couple meters he would be like “here’s an embassy” and it would be to Egypt or Libya or something, so I had to keep telling him to keep looking! I finally got to the Benin embassy and they were closed at 2pm for Visa’s, frustrating, but they let me fill out the forms and give them my passport so that it could be done the next day. Only problem was that I needed passport pictures, so I went in a taxi down the road to get some passport photos taken. Once that was done I went back to the Benin embassy to give him those, then he said he would have my passport ready for me by 7pm tomorrow (Friday). So then off I went after all that hassle (I wanted to go to the bank to get money off my mastercard for a start at paying auntie at the hostel but I couldn’t without my passport) so my next errand was going to a VIP bus station to get a ticket for Takoradi for Saturday because I am going to dixcove to stay with Mike and Julia and the eco lodge. When I got there they said their busses only go to Kumasi . . . so then I had to go to an STC station . . . back in another taxi I got. When I got to the STC station they had closed their till at 4pm, but said that if I paid them they would write my name and attach it to a ticket and write down Takoradi bus 12:30 on it, and I could get my ticket and be guaranteed aspot if I went to the station at 11:30 on Saturday, so that is what I did. Then I went to melcom (supermarket) to get a notebook and candies for the kids for the next day. Finally after all that hassle of everything I came back to the Hostel exhausted! Frustrated and a little homesick I called Linda, who made things much better!

Thursday night I didn’t do anything (to be expected after my day). I played Uno and Set with the hostel gang and went to bed.

Friday (today) I went to the school early again at 8am because they were having their last day party before vacating for two weeks for Easter! It was very much like the “party” school days we had in elementary school for things like Halloween or Christmas. They didn’t do anything and were allowed to just do whatever, they had a DJ come in and play music so they were all dancing, they had biscuits and candy and pop for the kids and at lunch time they had roasted a whole chicken for the kids to share (special to them because they usually just have rice and sauces). So it was a day of lots of fun! The teachers even got me dancing with them to the music haha! The day lasted until 1pm when the kids were sent home with baskets full of candy, treats, work from their semester, and report cards! Faustina filled me in today that the new preschool they are building will be built while the kids are still in school at their old location, and even when the new school is built the old school will run at the same time until that group of kids are all graduated from the preschool (but they won’t be accepting new children at the old location). The new location will run at the same time recruiting new children (because it will be in a different neighborhood) and they will start to build attendance that way. So this is a project that they have wanted to move forward with for a long time, and it will take more money then what I have fundraised, but I think that we can do it (yes I will need help lol). It will be a long term project and may take up to five years before they can vacate their old location and move to their new one (while transitioning both), but it will be worth it to know that I made it possible for them to build a new school! It was sad saying goodbye to the kids for two weeks, but I am hoping to extend my trip until the 4^th instead of the 2^nd of May because they start school back on the 3^rd, this way I will have the 3^rd morning and the 4^th morning to say goodbye to the kids!

This afternoon I didn’t do much of anything, I felt kind of sickish like I had heat exhaustion from being in the sun dancing all day, so I came back and took a nap. Then I washed some Laundry to be ready for the week in Dixcove ahead. And after I finished that I started this blog! So there we are! I am going to meet the man with my Visa very soon (plans for Benin are coming together well and today the travel company did me a favor and reduced the price to no profit to them because it is such a short trip and are only giving profit to the guide . . . so it is now affordable for 4 days at 200 cedi), and then tonight I am going to go to Karaoke for a bit with some people from the hostel! I won’t be writing for awhile because I will be in Dixcove at Desert Rose Lodge with Mike and Julia from tomorrow (Saturday) until Wednesday (no internet connection in the middle of nowhere) so I will update you on how that trip went when I come back. Again thank you for reading!

Kokrobite weekend :)

So, let’s start from my Friday afternoon, seeing as that is where I left you off!

On Friday afternoon Linnea and I went to Zoo Zoo’s (talked about this place in the last blog) and we had delicious falaffel’s and Shwarma’s! They also had fresh Mango juice which was delicious! I had two men (both waiters) try to pick me up and ask to be my husband . . . . so yeah pretty much the usual lol! After we finished there we came back to the hostel and packed to go away to Kokrobite for the weekend. Once we were packed we said goodbye to Ann who was leaving to go back to Germany . . . that was sad, and we presently miss Ann. After packing and goodbyes Kamal, Linnea, Thao, and I set off to find a tro tro to Kaneshie. We got on the tro tro to Kaneshie and once in Kaneshie we had to walk around the market for a half hour to find a tro tro going to Kokrobite! It was very hot, and I don’t like crowds of people in markets because you can hardly move and they’re all grabbing you . . . so I was not in a great mood after that experience. We finally got sat into a tro tro headed to kokrobite and luckily we all got window seats (very important on tro tro’s because they are so crowded and get hot quickly . . . you don’t want to be in the middle of people). The ride there took quite a bit of time due to the traffic because we left at about 6pm.

Once we arrived in Kokrobite (pronounced Kok – Row – Beet – Eh) at Big Milly’s Backyard (name of the hotel beach lodge) we walked into very loud cultural music and dancing. We were shown to our “rooms” (if that’s what they call a room. Our rooms were two double mattresses (for four of us) on top of a roof with mosquito nets . . . no fan or anything . . . and also no privacy. We had to keep all four of our bags in a very small compact locked box and dig through that every time someone wanted something. All four of us were not thrilled to see our arrangements lol! They also don’t provide the lock so Kamal went back into the town to buy one  . . . yeah. There were about 8 matresses on the roof so we had lots of company! We made our peace with what was and then went down to the bar to enjoy the cultural dancing and a bottle of wine! This is where we met horrible man Francis. He seemed nice and normal at first, so we let him hang out with us. He was a member of the circus act that went on at the end of Friday nights and at the first of Saturday nights. He had dreads and such so we knew he was what they call a “Rasta” (even though to actually be a practicing Rastafarian you have to be vegan and not drink alcohol . . . they don’t get that in Ghana I guess and still call themselves “Rasta” because they like reggae, have dreads, and smoke weed). So he hung around us and asked for a glass of wine (should have been clue #1) while he waited to perform. We watched him perform and then after everything stopped we went to sit with a group of obruni’s that we had met at the alliance Franais in Accra weeks ago! This was nice to sit and chat with them about what we had all been up to since we had met before and laugh about culture here in Ghana. Linnea and I then decided to venture to find a bathroom before bed . . . we found one but in Kokrobite there are no flush toilets . . . they look like normal toilets but you have to pour buckets of water into them after you’re done to flush them, also you cannot put paper into them so you have to put that into a garbage bin . . . interesting for sure! After our bathroom experience we went to bed (completely sweaty and dirty after the day, but it would have been a lot of effort to take a bucket bath at that point since there were no showers). When we got back to the “loft” where we were sleeping we changed quite publicly (no privacy) and got onto our double mattress (with no blankets or pillows) and put down the mosquito net to try and sleep . . . the power went out at this point so it was kind of scary to be in the pitch black on a roof with a little mesh protecting you from bugs. It was a very restless, hot, and sleepless night.

The next morning Kamal and Thao decided to go to a fort monument in town, and Linnea and I opted to stay at the beach all day. So Linnea and I got breakfast and freshly squeezed mango juice, and then headed to the beach! We swam for most of the morning, then at noon we went back to the fresh juice bar, got more mango juice, and went up to the roof of that building and took a nap on the hammocks! At about 2pm we decided to go tanning on the beach, which turned into swimming quickly because it was so hot, and we swan until about 4pm! Then we ventured off to take a bucket bath (because now we were salty from the water AND dirty from the previous days) There was no privacy for this either, so we gathered buckets of water from the well and brought them to a kind of secluded place and washed ourselves in our bathing suits. Still didn’t feel clean, but better then before. It is a lot of effort to take a bucket bath, carrying the water, and rinsing soap and sand off by pouring water on yourself is harder then it sounds! After the shower we switched rooms, so that Linnea and I were sharing a single room with a double mattress with a fan and a door that closed YAY! So then we took turns changing in a room with privacy!! After that we met up with Kamal at the bar (Thao went a separate way) and decided on what we would do for supper . . . Francis came up to us and stupidly, we told him our plans for dinner and he came and joined us . . .

We all went to the Gardenia restaurant (outside of the hotel, just down the road) for Italian food. The food was fantastic; we had pizza, pasta, real cheese brochette, and chocolate cake with bananas! Up to this point we had realized that Francis was very interested in me . . . not good. He went to the street to get Palm wine and came back with that  . . . palm wine is home brewed wine from the palm nuts . . . it tastes very different from wine, don’t know why it’s called wine. He shared that with us and we shared some pizza with him. It was a very awkward supper, because he kept staring at me weirdly and every time he’d get in a picture with me he would start touching me, I did NOT like this. So then I started talking about my boyfriend (I don’t have one, but in this case I definitely did), unfortunately he didn’t seem to care. He then went off to get ready for his show. After we were finished eating we went back to the hotel for reggae night . . . unfortunately we had to sit through an hour of circus type things before the reggae band started. Francis and his friend were the Circus people who did lots of balancing tricks, eating glass, laying on the glass then being walked on, eating fire, burning themselves with fire sticks, and other stupid things. Francis actually tried to pick me up by using his “hey I can eat glass line” I said “That’s nice” but I was really thinking . . . “that makes you stupid then” LOL! After the circus act was over the reggae band went on, it was at about this point that Kamal and I discovered that one shot of 65% rum was only 1 cedi . . . . so the drinking began there (you can probably figure out how happy we were feeling from that price haha). We drank a lot and were thoroughly enjoying the reggae music and the dancing, that is until Francis tracked us down again . . . I told him several times that I did not like him touching me, dancing with me, hitting on me, or getting to close to me because of my “boyfriend” but none of this worked! He kept arguing that I was in Ghana so I needed a boyfriend in this country . . . He also argued that I was being rude to him . . . . . and He argued that in Ghana everyone touches everyone in that way. I yelled at him some more and he got frustrated and went away. I wish that was the end of our experiences with Francis . . . Kamal, Linnea, and I started drunkenly dancing again for awhile and then all of a sudden I feel someone grab my hips and my butt and start grinding on me . . . yup you guessed it . . . Francis. So immediately I slapped him and pushed him off of me! He then argued with me for a half an hour about my hitting him and how I had no respect and was not being “nice”. I told him that he’s lucky all I did was slapped him because in my country what he did was harassment (he did not grasp this concept at all) and I said that he was being very disrespectful to me by not listening to me when I said I did not want him touching me! This argument went nowhere, but he finally left from frustration. Again, I wish that was the end of Francis! After Francis left we got much drunker, had a great time and danced the night away until 2am to reggae! Kamal and I were loaded, Linnea went to bed after the band stopped, but Kamal and I heard the band say beach after party, so of coarse we were like hell yeah! We got to the beach and immediately ran into the water with our clothes on and everything. Of coarse at this point we were tripping and falling face first into the water with every wave . . . but man that was soooo much fun! It will go down as the best drunken experience of my life . . . drunken swimming on a beach in Ghana with waves and our clothes on at 3am! Very fun! After all the running into the water and tripping around was done we sat on the beach with a bunch of really cool obruni’s! We laughed and partied with more palm wine sitting in the sand until very late. Now Kamal met a girl named lela from England and they were hitting it off really well, I met a guy named Corey from Australia and we were hitting it off really well. It was so romantic too we were flirting and whispering things and getting to know each other. Both of these people we were hitting it off with lived in Accra like us, so there was even a chance of continuing this, that is until Francis showed up again (Ugh I hate this man). He came down and sat with us and immediately sat next to me with his arm around me, and I told him to sit on the other side of the circle or leave (I wish he left), so he went to the other side of the circle. Then he started asking Lela (Kamal’s new found crush) why she didn’t have children at 30 and she should be ashamed of herself (he was 35 with no children so this was hypocritical) then he started touching her and she got angry as well, then he started telling her that she is not a good person because she didn’t believe in God! This of coarse got her all upset and she started to cry and she walked away down the beach. Then Corey (My new found crush) went to comfort her (as a friend at first) on the beach. While the two of them were gone, we tried to explain to Francis that what he did was very wrong and disrespectful, but he did not understand (as always with him) and we tried to explain that Lela had been in Ghana for  a year and when we Obruni’s are here for that long little things can set us off and make us homesick. He didn’t understand that either and kept talking about how things are with touching in Ghana . . . stupid stupid man! By the time Lela and Corey got back to our circle they had their arms around each other and were all lovey dovey! Soooooo . . . Francis took away the opportunity for both me and Kamal to have any chance with our new found crushes (bad person and a love block!) We were NOT happy! For the next 20 minutes Francis kept trying to apologize which he somehow turned into arguments with all of us, so we all got up and went to bed, fed up with Francis. He was the ULTIMATE buzz kill! So I got back to my room and went to sleep at 5am then I woke up at 9am.

When I woke up at 9am I was quite hungover, as was Kamal. Hangovers in Ghana heat are dreadful, you feel dehydrated, overheated, and sick. So Linnea, Kamal, and I decided to go for breakfast to see if that helped, it did but we were still very tired. After breakfast we all went to the beach to go swimming. When we first walked onto the beach Francis came up to me and started touching me while he said Hi. I slapped him again and told him I would report him to the hotel if he touched me again (he didn’t understand this concept either and kept trying to apologize). The apologies turned into arguments again and my head couldn’t handle it anymore, so I told him I’d had enough of him and he left, saying I wasn’t nice (I really didn’t care). Then we went swimming for about 2 hours which was nice, and tanned for an hour. After that Linnea and I went to take a bucket bath and got changed into dry clothes. We then went to the bar and started planning our trip back home to accra. When I got to the bar the Bartender told me that Francis had charged a beer to my room and said I wouldn’t mind, I told the bartender that I did mind and the bartender said that was fine and that he would make Francis pay later . . . (ugh what a guy). Then while making our travel plans to come back home to accra, Francis came up and said you guys live at crystal hostel in Darkuman right? . . . we said yeah (very nervously . . . don’t know how he got that information) and he then said “ok, I live in Kaneshie area so I will go on a tro tro with you guys” we didn’t know how to get out of it so we just said yeah yeah sure . . . Luckily the next thing he said was “ok I am going to film my act with another obruni so I will be back in 30 minutes to come with you”. As soon as he left we grabbed our bags, checked out and hightailed it out of there to a tro tro as quickly as we could! Luckily he missed us and we haven’t seen him since! But we are all very nervous knowing that he knows where our hostel is . . . but we have told Nana, Uncle and Auntie about him and shown them pictures, and they said that they would take care of him if he shows up here! What a horrible awful no good person . . . I have never met anyone that relentless in my life! Now it’s a big joke around the hostel that anytime anything bad happens to us in Ghana we can call it “getting Francised” LOL! But other then Francis I quite enjoyed Kokrobite and Big Milly’s. It’s a very relaxing place with great parties at night! But relaxing on the beach and partying got boring after one weekend, so I have come to the conclusion that I could NEVER go to an all inclusive beach resort for a vacation because I would be way to bored and there’s no culture . . . you wouldn’t learn anything and hey, I can drink and be on a beach at home, if I go to another country I want to learn the culture and mix with the locals!

Once we got back to the hostel on that Sunday afternoon it was about 3pm. All of us were exhausted so we all went to our rooms for naps and woke up around 6pm for supper! We ate supper and then told our stories from the weekend (good drunk swimming stories, and francis stories) to everyone, played some uno and went to bed at 9pm because we were all still very tired!

Today I went to the school in the morning and walked there with Nana because he wanted to talk to Faustina about a tree building project for the kids. When we got to the school we were told that Faustina was in the hospital being treated for Cholera. So Nana left. I stuck around and helped the teachers out by watching a room full of vomiting children, the teachers didn’t know what they were sick with . . . but It is likely that it was Cholera as well. There were 13 out of 55 children in that room vomiting. It is a shame that they don’t stay home when they are sick in this country, that’s why things spread! I left the preschool at 2pm (long day) and went to look for some things at Melcom, but didn’t find them, so I came back here and thoroughly showered myself after being around all that sickness, then I began to post pictures onto facebook. I did that until super time.

After supper, I hung out in the common area with everyone and played Uno for the night. Then I came up to my room and started writing this blog! That brings us up to now.

I am still working on a plan to get to Benin at the end of my trip, but guides are quite pricy. I am going into the office tomorrow to see if I can’t get a lower price from the guide company. If I can’t Nana has offered to go with me, so that may be the route I take! I am going to keep you all updated throughout this week on my events and occurances and so be sure to keep reading!