Back in the USA...

I left Accra last night at 11:15pm.  The vegetarian who sat next to me was not interested in talking to me so I didn't wish her a Happy New Year or try to kiss her.  The flight to Dulles was 11 1/2 hours long.  Getting through immigration and customs was a piece of cake.  I was off for another 2 hour plane ride to Chicago.

Chicago was great.  Shirley Hunter met me at the airport.  We haven't seen each other since high school but it's like no time had gone by.  Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, she was the first to hear about the trip and didn't get the cliff note version.  We had two quick hours and I was off on another 4 hour plane ride to Phoenix.

When I arrived a Sky Harbor, I ran into Christine Gregoire, the governor of Washington State, I didn't say anything since it took me a moment to realize who she was.  I thought it was cool.

Loren was waiting patiently for me to come down the ramp.  He was a sight for sore eyes!  I had be traveling 25 hours at this point, it was nice to see the person who is probably my closest friend in Phoenix. I enjoyed the car ride home knowing that I had internal AC if needed and a motor taxi wouldn't try to run off the road.

We were arrived at my house, Loren had taken the time this morning to steam clean my carpets and scrub my kitchen floors.  They looked so beautiful.  He trimmed the trees in my backyard.  I was truly enamored by the gesture.

We are off to dinner tonight because I am going to try and get over the jet-lag as fast as I can.  Usually, it hits me more coming home than leaving.  I am going to take a shower then a bath to get all the dirt off me. The humidity was horrible to my hair, now I get to see what the real damage is and I can wear it long again!  I told him that I wanted really good food and that I would dig something out of my closet.

What an experience!  I am glad to be in my home again and looking forward to seeing what is coming next.

Off to flush the toilets...

Love ya,

Tanya/T'ya

Happy New Year's Eve!

I can think of plenty of things that I would be rather doing tonight than sitting on a plane perhaps crossing several midnight count downs.  My flight leaves at 11:15 pm.  Come to think of it, I may be going back and forth in and out of 2010 and 2011.  I wonder if United gives free champagne on the flight tonight?  Is it inappropriate to kiss the person sitting in the seat next to me?

The family is off to a Jehovah Witness conference today in Ghana.  They left early this morning in their Sunday best.  They all looked absolutely gorgeous.  I need to remind myself to take a picture when they get back.  I have had the day to myself which has been nice.  I am sucked in to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  It's an easy read so I am up to 750 pages of the 850.

For the first couple of days, I thought this trip was about renewal, I have now realized that this trip is about closure.  I have acheived my fourth and final life goal.  I believe that I can now close the door of the what-if and just look ahead.

I should end this quickly, I am at the internet cafe.  The guy next to me is having IM sex and he is getting antsy in his seat.  I am afraid to see what may happen next.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Back in Accra...

Theresa and Betrand turned out to be the only people that I have met in Africa that wanted nothing for something.  Theresa got up at the crack of dawn and Betrand took her to her part time job at the US Embassy.  When he got home, he put together a continential breakfast and was the most hospitable host.  He even gave us a ride back to Joseph's sister's bar.  I really appreciated everything they did for us.

Sometime in the middle of the night, I realized that Joseph had used me to go visit his sister.  I heard and read that there were so many interesting things to see in Benin.  Unfortunately, all I saw was the over-polluted city of Contonou.  If the US is trying to save the Ozone layer, they might a well forget about, because Contonou will destroy it.  There is open gas containers and non-street legal bikes every where.  Again, in my last blog, with Joseph I realized that I never knew where I was going, what I was doing and how much it was going to cost me.  I started getting ticked off.

Once we got to his sister's bar, she told him that she was not going to show up for another hour and a half.  He wanted me to wait but I said no.  I told him that I wanted to go back to Lome because I wasn't feeling good.  So he starts dragging me around again.  Again, we walk for miles.  We stopped by a bank so I can get change for the large bills I have.  When we leave, I ask him where we are going.  He tells me the harbor...what??? When did we talk about going to the harbor?  So once again we head back to the bar.  We wait their for another hour for his sister to show up.  I am getting pretty steamed at this point.  Finally, she shows up and I said I want to leave because I am really getting sick at this point.  To make a long story short, we catch a cab...where?  Hell, if I should know. As we pass Ouidah, I realize that we are heading to Lome.

In the cab, I am getting more sick, all I smell is exhaust and gas.  The window is rolled down and the handle is broke off so I can't roll it back up.  I feel like I am dying from carbon monoxide poisioning.  About two hours into our trip, the cab driver pulls over to get some gas, then pull the gas container that has been sitting behind my head on the back dash.  I looked over at Joseph, with a look that could kill, and asked him if that was a gas can...guess what the answer was...?

My patience was running pretty short with Joseph, I realized that I had to pay for everything, but it was paying for everyone else that I had a problem with. It really ticked me off when I had to pay for his bribe at the border crossing because he didn't bring his papers.

By the time we got back to Lome, I was sicker than a dog.  We stopped by the pharmacy and I got some cough drops because my throat was so sore.  The pharamacist offer me antibiotics but I declined.

Yesterday, I spent the day in bed because I was so sick. Fortunately, Gerson had the shower and toilet working in my room so I didn't have to leave.  Bethel was concerned that I had malaria but I didn't have a fever.  Princess got the chicken pox while I was gone and Gerson Jr had malaria, so the whole house was full of sickies.  I ended up getting antibiotics for bronchitis from the pharmacy.  I feel much better today but my chest still feels like it is on fire.  I like the pharmacies here, you don't have to see a doctor first.  I picked up some malaria pills that I will start taking when I get home.

We have arrived back in Accra.  It took at least an hour for Gerson to get through the border.  I still haven't figured out why.  It's mainly because he has a new car.  There are about 10 check points in the 165 km from the Togo border to Accra.

I have had my pizza fix.  I think that I am good for a while.  I thought I was going to need pizza when I got home., now it's some protein and a huge salad.  The thought of eathing meat here scares me even though I have not got food poisoning.

I leave in a little more than 24 hours.  I can not wait to flush a toilet again.

Utter Chaos...

I woke up to a wonderful day.  I brought a pair of my smaller jeans with me.  They fit absolutely perfectly.  I thought I would lose a couple of pounds here.  Looks like I may have.

Joseph arrived early this morning so we could take a taxi to Benin.  We arrived at the market, men and cars were all in disarray, and the men were trying to shove people in cars.  Once we got into our taxi, it parked right next to a blaring speaker.  Blaring speakers seems to be part of African culture...let me rephrase that, bad blaring speakers are part of African culture.  It seems like all the old, outdated, 3 feet or larger speakers have arrived here. 

Anyhoo,  I was trying to explain to Joseph that I needed a Visa to get into Benin because I was trying to figure out how the taxi went straight to Contonou.  As it turns out, I did need a visa.  The crazy part is that Joseph didn't have ID and went through the border just fine.  I have a 48 hour visa which cost 20,000 CFA (a little over $20).  Now I have three pretty visas to display in my almost expired passport.

We arrived in Contonou about 3 hours later. This city is so polluted, I am barely able to breathe.  On the surface, it seems like Accra, Lome and Contonou are all the same just three different countries.  I managed to find a hair shop that did caucasian hair.  They washed and blow dried it.  I wanted to see how much I need to cut off when I get back to the US.  One of Bethel's friends' tried to help me when I was in Ghana and my hair got fried.  He met up with his sister.  Once again, I walked a few miles today.  Joseph is not always the best communicator, sometimes I walk and I have no idea where I am going, why I am going there and how much it's going to cost me once I get there.

Theresa and Betrand have opened their house to us and feed us dinner and dessert especially because we arrived empty handed.  I found them on Couchsurfing.com and seems to be a fine experience.  Theresa is from Maryland, so it's nice to ramble to an American. She is the first white person I have talked to here.  She has been patient because my plans have been constantly changing.

Not sure what our plan is for tomorrow.  Still flying by the seat of my pants (at least in my skinny ones).  I would like to get out of the city, there is too much smog and congestion.

I am looking forward to coming home on Friday.  I am still hot, sweaty and dirty.

A little late, but Merry Christmas

I am really appreciating the ease of living in the United States.  Bethel needs her battery replaced in her car.  The mechanic came over on Friday to replace it.  Now, most of us know that a battery can be changed out without the need of a mechanic.  Heck, I can do it.  Not in Togo though, he came over to replace the battery and then left with the car.  The car has now returned and the mechanic and the battery have left and will not back until Monday because it needs two hours to charge.  This one completely confuses me because I know that a battery just need to be changed out and then you need to drive it for a while.  I am not sure what I am missing.

I have a tour guide, his name is Joseph.  He took me to the market on Christmas Eve.  It's amazing with so much sand here how he can keep his white shirt so white. He doesn't drive (I can't blame him for that if you saw the driving here).  We walked for hours, I swear we must have walked about 10 miles. It's nice because he gave me some history of Togo.  Togo was owned by the Germans until the WWI, once the Germans lost the war, the country was divided between the French and the British.  The west side of the country was incorportated into Ghana, and the east was considered Togo.  Lome is the only capital city that lies on an international border. 

Joseph took me to a Fetish shop where you can buy presents for the Gods.  We were greated by a man name Patience.  Patience has been the only African that has said anything slightly inappropriate. They took me in a separate room, where they showed me good luck charm for lack of a better term.  Joseph wouldn't let me buy anything.  Later he told me it was a scam.  I was glad that he was looking out for me.

Yesterday, Joseph and I headed to Kpalime (pronounced Pal-leh-may).  It was a smaller village two hours north of Lome.  It was a much more peaceful city without as much smog.  We stopped at one of his friend's parents house.  She was very nice, she gave us homemade juice for our travel.  I loved her house because it was in a U shape and each building had different rooms.

We stopped at an African craft mall (per se), the items had a fixed price so you didn't have to negotiate.  Most of the stuff I have seen here, I can buy at home and isn't worth buy in the first place.  The mall had a lot of beautiful fabric and wood carvings but no ATMs, I only had so much money on me.

We stopped at hotel for lunch. I had a delicious pork-chop with fries.  I have been fearful of getting food poisoning but there has been no problems.  I even use the tap water to brush my teeth.  The hotel was the only place I found a bathroom that flushed.

Joseph has ten brothers and sisters.  His father had three wives and he was they only of the third wife.  Hi family lived in Kpalime but he was raised by his uncle and aunt in Lome.  If you are the only child of a third or more wife, you will get treated unfairly by the other wives which is why he was removed by his uncle in his home.  Joseph ran into one of his sisters while we were there.  We went to her shop to wait for her and it took her a long time to show up.  He thought we should leave but I said I was in no rush and that we should wait for her.  I had no idea what most people

We headed back to Lome, I was able to see the other side of the city.  It's exactly the same throughout.  On Christmas, the town does not stop like in the US.  Some shops close but there are many that are still open.  Most of the stands on the side of the road where open as well.

When we got back to Bethel's place, I invited him inside.  He wouldn't come inside until Gerson invited him in.  I was able to call the girls last night.  It was good to hear both of their voices.  Ava seems so pre-occupied with her new Littlest Pet Shop toys but told me she was looking forward to showing them to me.  Keara is surviving her father's place.  It sounded like we are all looking forward to seeing each other again.  I miss them.

Tomorrow, Joseph and I are heading to Benin.  Bethel says it's a very nice country to visit.  I an looking forward to it.

Pray for Running Water...

Before I left, someone asked me if I was more excited to see Bethel or going to Africa.  From my reaction, I believed the answer was going to Africa.  However, I was wrong.  I am happily amazed that two people, who probably have very little in common, can talk non-stop from the time they get up to well into the wee hours of the morning.

We didn't make it to the market yesterday.  Bethel's car needed a new battery.  The mechanic showed up at 11 am and then took her car.  Finally, her husband called a driver to come drive his car (he has a stick and she is too afraid to drive it).  The markets close at dusk because there are not enough light to keep it open.  We went to several different supermarkets because Gerson, Bethel's husband, received the equivalent of $125 in free groceries.  Let me tell you, that $125 does not buy much groceries in Togo.  The supermarket was very expensive.  It makes sense that everyone makes everything from stratch.

However, we quickly stopped by the market to pick up some vegetables.  Like Peru, they had slabs of meat for sale.  Flies were all over the meat and I got food poisoning just looking at it.  It so incredibly poor that I don't like taking pictures of it because I feel compassion about their poverty.

Bethel is looking for a maid to help her in the house.  I asked her how much she pays for one.  She said she pays 18,000 CFA (482CFA/$1) or $37.  I asked if she paid that per day, she told me that was per month.  I gasped.  After going to the grocery store, my gasp got bigger.  Gerson said that you have to pay help a minimum of $60 per month.  They have 24 hour security guard and someone to come do the laundry (hopefully he is coming today).

The construction on the house is slow coming.  Gerson went balistic on the plumber yesterday.  He wanted me to have running water so I could take a shower in the new house.  After a year, it's still not here.  He has been promised that we will have it today, but I won't hold my breath.

The electricity went out last night for a while.  I guess I was right when I put on my "out of office" that I wouldn't have access to running water or electricity.

Merry Christmas Eve, it doesn't quite seem like it here.

Off to the Market

We are off to the market and the shops in Lome today.  The shops close at 12:30 pm  for lunch and reopen at 2:30 pm.  Fortunately, the market is open all day.  I am hoping that we don't see the rush of people that we did in Accra.