Imagining Backpacking Without Plastic

Today I tried to imagine a backpacker without plastic…it’s hard to do! So much of our journey depends on plastic: purified water, laminated passports, debit cards, 3oz conditioner and sunscreen and insect repellant bottles. I would be nearly blind without my big plastic sunglasses in the bright Mediterranean sun. Our camera records visual memories, and our external hard drive stores writings and music and digital maps. Imagine trading in our laptop for a pencil (no rubber eraser) and un-bound paper. Imagine a sketch pad and paintbrush instead of a Sony cyber shot. Imagine toting ceramic or glass containers instead of Tupperware for leftovers and meal prep. Imagine no zippers on our backpacks or buttons on our pants. No swimsuits, no headphones, no Bandaids, no duct-tape, no sleeping bags, no playing cards, no headlamp. How drastically our trip would change if we culled everything that contained plastic.

And that extensive list simply encompasses just some of the material things that we carry with us. Our everyday travel consumes plastic at an alarming rate, even with a conscientious effort to decrease our usage. We carry extra plastic bags so as not to accumulate more, but shopkeepers all around the world like to double and triple bag things. Even if we purchase home-made, natural chips, they come in a bag, which is then placed in a bag. With a frequent language barrier, a request or charade that indicates, “please, we don’t need a bag” is lost in the gap. When we try to hand the plastic bag back, it usually is just thrown away, unused.

Although we have traveled through a few regions of the world that have placed a ban on plastic bags (Mussoorie and Jabalpur, India), and though many places choose to use alternatives (oftentimes in India we received nut mixes in handmade paper bags, served delicious beans in biodegradable bowls shaped from leaves, and handed FanMilk ice cream wrapped in sections of paper while in Ghana), efforts are not global. Sometimes it feels that the efforts of some are overshadowed by the inattention of others.

But the solution seems too simple not to be widespread….just stop using plastic bags! Place a huge tax on plastic bags, make them more expensive, charge people for them. Is it really so hard? Are we really so addicted to thin, easily-torn, completely disposable plastic bags? It seems that we are.

We are all connected, sometimes in positive ways, sometimes in negative ones. The plastic pollution of our seas and airspace impacts the entirety of our species. Last night we watched a documentary called “Addicted to Plastic.” While not the caliber of a Michael Moore or Lolis Eric Elie documentary, the movie makes you think. It makes you reflect and increase your awareness (and so associated impact) of plastic use.

It’s good to be cognizant and aware, even if you can’t completely change your behaviors. Make a list of all the plastic in your bathroom. In your kitchen. In your car. Simply think about it, for that is a step in the right evolutionary direction. And, when you are thinking green, think outside of the box. Shortly after Hurricane Katrina, when our green friends and architects were disposing of newly found wealth, many chose to trade in gas guzzling SUVs for hybrid green vehicles. While their intentions were good, the truth is that the environmental cost of manufacturing that new product is much, much higher than simply driving the ‘older model’ another few years.

Some plastic parts of our lives are nearly impossible to change: wooden cellphones, or fred-flinstone, tire-less style cars are *slightly* impractical. But other simple solutions make a collective difference. Wooden reusable chopsticks are way cooler than plastic sporks. Canvas shopping bags are much classier than plastic ones. Try eating at the restaurant instead of getting take-out. Have you ever been to a store that has bulk shampoo instead of buying a new bottle every two months (shout-out to Periwinkle Provisions in Sweet Home, Ore.)?

Please share your tips and tricks to avoiding unnecessary plastic use. The comment feature in blogger is very tricky, using the “Anonymous” option for leaving a comment seems to have the best results.

Addicted to Plastic mentions several very cool companies, more information and links can be found below (but seriously, watch the movie on your plastic DVD player if you get the chance):

TieTek, LLC in Houston Texas: when the city stopped recycling, this company came up with a solution. TieTik takes any and all waste plastic (from tires to household plastics), melts it down, and turns the product into plastic railroad ties. These ties are then sold to railroad companies all over the country. TieTek ties last longer than wood, are impervious to termites, can be melted down and used again and again, and because all railroad ties are uniform in size, only one mold is used.

Agri-Plas, Inc. in Oregon: focuses especially on the agriculture waste products like baling twine, plastic flower pots, plastic sheeting. It processes 15% of the state’s waste. Baling twine is melted down to make truck bumpers, while flower pots are turned into more flower pots.

Interface, Inc. in Georgia: Recycles any and all plastic components into new carpets, efforts are powered by methane from the local landfill. “Landfills are the oil mines of our future!” the CEO says hopefully.

UniquEco in Nairobi, Kenya: Knits plastic bags into purses for resale. Employs locals and pick up plastic bag trash. Flip flops are collected from beaches and towns and then cored out to make curtains, jewelry, and knick-knacks.

Global Mamas in Ghana: recycles plastic water bags and other disposable trash into a variety of resale items.

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Who Wants to Be Rich?

written by Nathan

All across the world we try and catch a little TV. Television (the tube) offers a glimpse into the culture we are visiting, and locally produced TV often showcases differences in taste - dramatic, comedic, newsworthy.

I first started noticing this, when I began to split my life between the USA and Latin America. In Colombia, there is no featured or localized weather (it is close enough to the equator that seasons are relative) - but all of news is national, with a focus on local stories and issues from across the country. Violence is more honest - dead bodies shown are occasionally on the midday news. In Latin America, the favorite show is the ‘telenovella’ our version of a soap opera. A must see to understand ins and outs of dramatic tension.

But, since we have begun this long journey round the planet, I have come more to understand a value of TV for the traveler. In public, or in hotel lobbies, it is a great way to begin conversations with your hosts about what common interests you share. In this case, football (soccer) or the Olympics were universally appreciated, no verbal language needed beyond exclamations. As we travel, natural disasters around the globe and the upcoming World Cup have captured the attention of many.

From China to India, From Ghana to Egypt, we have been amused, entertained, and educated with a worldwide phenomenon of TV success. 

You probably already know the show, either from friends, from watercooler conversations, or, perhaps you are a fan yourself: “Who wants to be a Millionaire?” It's a game show of odd trivia, hard facts, science etc growing ever more popular across our planet. The game show has spawned an Oscar winning dramatic movie, “Slumdog Millionaire,” and is syndicated across the world on Fox and other networks. It also has many immitators… soe closer than others to the real thing.

In Ghana, Brittany became slightly addicted to the telanovela “Second Chance,” dubbed in English. It was fun to attempt lip reading in Spanish, while following the gripping drama. How are Salvador and Isabel coping with the ongoing saga of their twisted lives? Only a return to Ghana will answer these questions.

While in China, we adored a hilarious show that involved people matched against tricky shapes cut out of a quickly moving wall...called "Brain wall?"

 

Another television highlight that we encountered was the live taping of a show that involved an obstacle course of pygmy goats, geese, pigs dressed in biker outfits, humans dressed as giant pandas, and a wheelbarrow filled with bowling balls. After running around the obstacle course and catching one of each animal, contestants had to shoot a Big Bad Wolf with an airgun and then milk three balls from the udders of a giant plastic cow. Very few people managed to complete the course, needless to say. I don't know that it ever aired, but I had to physically old Brittany back from entering herself as a contestant.

“Who wants to be Rich?” is the Ghanian version of ’Millionaire’. It has a slightly different set up, most do, but has the same smart-aleck host who seems to play for and against the contestants. Instead of two levels of break points for gathering certain winnings it has three.

Here was our favorite question from “Who Wants to Be Rich:”

“Which of these is a type of fruit?”
A) Hanana
B) Manana
C) Ghanana
D) Banana

We were all duly impressed when the contestant correctly chose D) Banana.

Seriously, the questions were embarrassingly simple at first. But they certainly elevated in difficulty as the show progressed. We were quickly lost as trivia pointed to Ghanian history and truly stumped with a question about the correct periodic table number for the element of Chlorine.

Who’s laughing now?

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Reparations and Repatriations

written by Nathan

What are reparations and what are repatriations?

Yesterday, we went to Cape Coast Castle It is one of nearly sixty remaining colonial forts along the coast of the great ancient kingdom of Mauritania, the ‘Gold Coast of Africa’. It struck me there that we have not taken seriously enough repatriation and reparation opportunities in today’s day and age. The world has become concerned about remedying itself; but, we do not seek out yet a root cause. While there, I took a photo of a sacred text. It had been brought to the castle and placed in a foul corner of the women’s cell. It was addressed to President Obama. It read, “Now that you are President Mr. Obama, What is your opinion on reparations?”

‘How can we ask the world’s most powerful leaders to take seriously the cause of reparations when we are not aware of it ourselves?’, I thought.

After the Civil War, President Lincoln promised reparations to freed slaves in the form of 40 acres and a mule, if this amount were given at fair historical interest, even not individually, but as a fund for reparations to today’s African-American diasporic community, it would be sufficient for a historically marginalized and politically and physically oppressed peoples to gain a more equitable division of power, voice, and sustainable economic wealth to make up for some of the evils of the past slavery. But, what of the other groups that deserve reparations? What would be justice with one oppressed peoples’ served and not the others. So, justice can be served by programs of comprehensive reparation and repatriation. Again, no political will in the world today could leverage such a powerful movement. Who could do this? Could people do this?

For 200 years, this fort sent 1000 men and 300 women every three months into slavery. It was but one of many such points of embarkation - a ‘door of no return.‘ At this fort, the last door slaves used before exiting onto the slave ships three hundred meters off to sea. The door to the ships which cruelly handled their ‘slave cargo’ across ferocious straights between West Africa and the Americas was called the Door of No Return because once slaves left they would either perish at sea or in a new land.

But, there was no UN at this time, there were no conventions which bind us now. So how would we begin this desired world outcome of economic and social justice.

Well, of course, the world has become more aware of how justice is created. It has actually come through the ages to us, through Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. All have spoken of the same framework. Political thinkers too, have wrestled with philosophies of guidance and behaviorisms for society.

But, there has been no binding movement, and causes and injustices have built up more rapidly in the past 200 years, though with equal amounts of Law and Human Rights Progress to balance against the severity and ruthlessness of previous millennia of cruelties.

If sufficient resources, education and understanding were given to a true repatriation movement for pan-africanist blacks from the Americas to afford a serious and healthful repatriation to countries where their families were enslaved in Africa it would benefit both sides of the Atlantic. This could bridge histories of suffering between descendants and inflictors of slavery. This is one of the starting places. Local communities and peoples are encouraged and working in small pockets for self-reliance and self-sufficiency programs to begin sustainable and locally beneficial processes.

Many of these, led by Universities, NGOs and Churches, are outside led, but have traditions of gradual acceptance of community participation, engagement, and control.

Affirmative action was conceived as a type of reparation. So was a truth and reconciliation commission set up in South Africa after apartheid. Experiments towards justice and equity have been used after conflicts and changes of oppressive rule now in much of the world. In a sense, it has created more faith that systems of justice can be conducted on the basis that all human beings caan be found equal under the law. This is a very large ideal. It is one I, personally, hold dear.

What are reparations and what are repatriations? In their fullest sense they are ethnic harmony, equity and health in stewardship of environments, cultures, and economies.

What would it mean to initiate global reparations for historically marginalized peoples’?

How could such peoples benefit from self-guidance and self- sufficiency? How could such an economy be scaled to create oppression mitigation?

It would take a majority of the planet, making community-based decisions to work together and benefit collectively from universal self-interest, to begin to pay down the inequity of only the last two centuries. But, if we do this, if we make two centuries of reparations, we can both make restitution in the form of more pluralized democracy while simultaneously conceiving of a sustainable high-functioning, egalitarian world social enterprise.

Are there other paths to this new, more equitable, society? There are likely many varied forms to begin to get there. These will only blend, however, so long as they are still exercised from principles of self-sufficiency, stewardship of economics and aesthetics, and sustainability. But, in its most simple socio-economic principle reparations built on new principles of ZERI businesses and non-profit societies, along with repatraiation and open borders, will get us peaceful harmony between nations and persons in the quickest best order. If not repatriations, then what? What can we do to build new and respectful forms of justice and equality stemming from so many centuries of its misappropriation by others?

In the women’s cell, placed next to the wreath left by the Obamas, is a wreath newly left by the Reggae artist Sizzla. It reads, “To all the deceased ancestors.” Ancestral, Cultural, and Aesthetic abundance together with education, economic and social productivity means repatriation and reparation in forms of coming to terms of justice through equity, inclusivity, collaborative control.

If you are of African descent living abroad, you are welcomed by the Ghanaian government to place your wreath at on of its infamous slave castles (usually wreathes are left in their plastic wrapping but may be unwrapped as the Obamas).

Our trip to West Africa confirms my long held belief that for many African-Americans, repatriation to Africa is a good option in some form (physically, spiritually, emotionally, economically etc). Not only is Africa the fountainhead for lost history and culture; but, it is a healing land of important ancestry. Aligning ourselves with positive human and political movements; with economic, humanitarian, and educational progress here; can serve as an act or personal and social liberation and a source of power.

What are reparations and what are repatriations? Aids to benefit a world of economic justice.

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Seat of Asafos

We spent several days in Winneba, seat of Asafos, just an hour west of Accra. Asafos are Social Clubs derived from ancient kingdoms whose calendars of important dates and events have ruled the town for generations. We arrived Saturday morning on the second and very important day of their largest annual festival. It was hot. The streets were filled with crowds from all over Ghana. Sound systems beat a bass of parades and competition.

We were late, so we assumed that much of the ceremony was over. Quite to the contrary, ceremonies, blessings, events, and even the coronation of the next ruling family had all been put off. How could this happen? Our western minds thought: you have an event scheduled, what could stop you from proceeding? The deer had been caught. A king had stomped three times to kill it. Even here there was discrepancy.

A guard from Sir Charles Beach who walked with us to town our first day gave us his opinion on the controversy, “There can only be one king,” he said, “The people who put forward a second king they are not from here.”

He went on, “We are the overwhelming majority. How can there be two kings? There can’t be.”

In Winneba, Ghana, on the great African Atlantic Coast, this year we learned two kings had been put forward. Only one king will rule. Groups took sides. No one stepped down and calm had broken.

Police had used tear gas, the very morning of our arrival, to disrupt fighting. Who knew? We did not. We could not tell where the lines were split. There were no visible differences. And while discussion of the controversy was animate and testy, the generally civility and functioning of society appeared uninterrupted.

Many different groups of ‘Asafo’ social clubs passed and paraded, running and dancing past us, with flags, matching t-shirts, clothes, robes, and the like. We saw no violence, not even argument. But, we were told the dispute was still unsettled.

Who were the minority? The majority? This is part of the adventure of travel: Not knowing or getting the whole story, having part of your trip ‘lost in the translation.’

We wish the people of Winebba peace and resolution in finding their new king.

So, after three days, we left, wondering what the Asafos do during other times of the year. We wonder about this ancient relation between peoples’ and nature, we wonder how much this similar separation between peoples, the disputes over power, the ancient ritual and its interplay with modernity…we wonder how much we see of this in our own home and every place we visit?

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Be Just Football Club

Service has many names, many faces, many impacts, and many methods of success. My service project in Ghana was perhaps a bit more technical than usual, but the results are certainly positive.

On our second day in Cape Coast, just as we were deciding to pack up and depart for Kumasi, we met a new friend. Tony advised us that rather than traveling to Kumasi (which is larger than Accra and no less than 4 hours away), why not go to Winneba instead? Beaches, annual festival, and en route to Accra.

We learned that Tony is a football (soccer) coach in Cape Coast, and together with a few friends, began the “Be Just Football Club.” As a registered football club affiliated to the Central Regional Football Association, the Be Just Football Club seeks to participate in football to the highest level and produce quality footballers within the local and international football leagues as well as producing players to feed the national teams. The Be Just Football Club also works to use football as a means to assist the less privileged in the society (I.e. orphanages, prisons, and hospitals), and to keep teenagers engaged in positive and healthy activity.

Tony mentioned that he was anxious to have a website for his club; in fact, his players were pestering him relentlessly. He was trying to save money to hire a web designer.

I offered my paltry, but baseline, skills to help Tony create a free website using Blogger. We met at our hotel and typed up all of the content first, then spent an hour and a half at the internet café putting it all together.

You may visit the Be Just Football Club website to learn about their team! Tony and I included a Clustr visitor map to track the location of visitors to the website; please add your international location (achieved by simply visiting the Be Just Football Club website)!

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White Sails of Winneba

written by Nathan

 After sunrise, a dozen small white sails cover the horizon. They sail past the horizon.

Morning fishing on this coast takes many forms.

Early risers go deep to the drop offs where the Atlantic spills up out of the deep. These walls are where the great schools of big fish migrate; and, the men use hand lines to pull in the fish when luck hooks a tuna or mackerel.

Last night, a lonely boat kept its light on much past midnight. The fishermen spend the night hooking squid.

Later this morning, men in giant sea-going canoes will set out. Their canoes are filled with long shallow nets. They catch shore fish. Their nets have vary small openings, but only are two meters deep.

A boy dives off of the front of the boat. He grabs the end of the line and swims toward shore. The boat appears to be leaving him. He surfs through the big waves, guiding the nets perpendicular to shore.

The boat is hading back now, they have emptied the boat of all its net. The tall man at the front of the boat is putting off line. Then another, bigger boy, dives off of the boat into the water and swims towards shore. Then another man dives in. They swim in. A great circle is forming behind them as they face the shore.

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Music on the Streets of West Africa

written by Nathan

 
If you love the culture or are from the Caribbean (in my case the Gulf of Mexico’s coastal parishes) you would feel right at home in West Africa. Here, the people’s sway, their excited conversation, their public life…the love of family, community, respect for elderly, the deference of small children, grown-upness of teenage youth, all concedes the same spirit: warmth of life, of markets, of churches and worship here, the public parade and royalty of music, these are here - and move around you in social forms, in group spirit.

Life musically sustains streets as civilities exchanged maintain sacred orders on manner. One needs to be from these new lands to see what is evident and obvious. To not be inculcated into the naturality and ital spirit of a group of peoples obstructed from their kingdoms by 500 years of strange oppression would be foreign for most outsiders, which it is not for us. Days leave streets evacuated as blinding light gives harsh and partial visibility to white walls; while sleeping forms muddle in darkness of the thickest tree shade.

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Going Guidebook-less

If I may be so bold, I would say that we have become exceptional travelers. We haven’t always been this good….it’s a skill that has developed in the last five months on the road.

When we began this journey in December, we carried with us a Lonely Planet India Guidebook. Let me note that we didn’t arrive in India until three months later, and additionally, let me specify that the LP India weighs about four pounds. It was a bone of contention between us, but once we left home with it, why would we dump it before arriving in India? I was delighted to pawn it off on our good friends in Jabalpur in our last few weeks in India. We learned a few lessons from having that guidebook: 1) it is way too heavy for backpackers; 2) that we oftentimes used the guidebook to determine where we DIDN‘T want to go, since every other foreigner was also there; and 3) that we oftentimes set ourselves up for disappointment when the prices listed for hotel and transportation were vastly incorrect. While great for some, and mandatory for many types of travelers, they just don’t seem to help us that much.

So, we bagged the whole guidebook thing. We use the space in our bags to tote a few, quickly devoured, pleasure books, some short pamphlet-style literature from Ghandi’s Ashram, and plenty of our own writings. This isn’t to say that we aren’t interested in browsing through a guidebook should it cross our path, but we don’t seek them out. When we are trying to determine a direction, we look at our National Geographic World Map, stop by a travel/tour office and ask some questions (the people who work in these offices are notoriously bored and are happy to chat), or talk to the people that we meet along the way. We also sometimes save regional maps to our computer and use them for reference.

Last week when we left Accra, intending to head down the coast to Cape Coast, we arrived at the bus station only to find that the CC bus had left a few hours earlier. So, we just hopped aboard the next bus, bound for a town called “Takoradi.” Now, without a map, or a guidebook, or very positive customer service at the bus station, we hadn’t the slightest idea where Takoradi was….but we knew that it was in Ghana and only four hours away. Quick deductions told us that it wasn’t east (for Togo was only three hours), so let’s go North….or West….or Northwest….or wherever Takoradi is! Tickets purchased and window seats scored, we were soon delighted to find ourselves traveling west, along the Atlantic Coast.

Strangely enough, our bus passed right through Cape Coast, but since we’d purchased tickets on to Takoradi, we stayed aboard. We ended up staying three days in Takoradi, quickly establishing ourselves as regulars at the local restaurant and enjoying countless bowls of spicy groundnut (“peanut” for all you foreigners) chowder, wandering through the industrial port, browsing through the market, and spending ridiculously hot afternoons watching Tela Novellas dubbed in English on our hotel television.

After a few lazy days in Takoradi, we backtracked to Cape Coast, our original destination. Debarking from the bus, we coyly evaded the merciless taxi drivers and walked half a mile, then catching a reasonably-priced taxi into town. We told the driver that we wanted a hotel room for around 10 cedis ($8 USD) and he deposited us in a modest hotel with a fantastic balcony that catches the most spectacular evening breezes from the ocean. At night we relaxed in the fresh air and watched fruit bats the size of owls swooping in the gigantic tree outside of the balcony.

However, let our readers not think that each and every part of our guidebook-less adventure is pleasant. I can recall a few that weren’t so easy or carefree. I can even remember a few where we would have been delighted to have the address of a hotel….ANY hotel! But my selective memory is a gift and I remember more vividly the times when we unexpectedly arrived at a perfect place, of our own accord, with nothing to thank but hope, perseverance, and luck.

There is certainly a wealth of information on the internet, but we don’t really do much in the way of internet research either; most of our internet time is spent posting blogs, dealing with business from home, and trying to stay in touch with friends and family. When I am out exploring the world, I don’t feel inclined to spend too much of my time reading about other people’s explorations. There just isn’t enough time in the day; better to spend the hours wandering and talking to people and figuring things out for ourselves.

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Who the Cap Fits

written by Nathan

There is something you have to feel listening to the Wailers on the night streets of Africa. There is more heartbeat and more resonance to feel. This may not even be possible on a shanty corner of the Caribbean, even in Jamaica. It may be just because Bob Marley wanted so much to be here… or that the music begins, happens, ends here. But, it is a kindred feeling.

Who the cap fits, let him wear it! Long live the King of Reggae on the dusty streets of Africa!

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Reggae in West Africa is just as on-the-money as in any Caribbean, European, or American hotspot. It is solid, base-filled, crooning, and ranges in harmony and nativity. In Ghana, we were so fortunate to meet our DJ friend Black Shanti and go and see his rising artist ragga star Patan at Rising Phoenix (Akuma Village). The crowd sits around a great pit of dancing, young men mostly and emphatic rastas. People stand in groups, sharing their bread, sipping pineapple juice and tonics. There is good ital and meat bbq and a stand out front selling all the necessary sundries (They have a nice restaurant with a striking sunset and moonrise view over the ocean - but restaurant did not seem to be in use during the late night concert).

These guys really know roots, rock, reggae, and the music thumps at maximum proportions from dusk to dawn.. The show we went to was free - so we felt very lucky - but they have regular live concerts that are always as fair priced as their 1.5 liter “Star” lagers. A very high recommendation for reggae listeners visiting the Capital of Accra in Ghana.

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Getting Our Groove On in West Africa

Life without music would be meaningless.” - Niezsche
[Taken from a marquee billboard advertising the Ghana Music Awards 2010

One night, as we were wandering through our Asylum Down neighborhood in Accra, we heard some great reggae bumping from a small shop with a corrugated metal roof. Being who we are, and feeling the ongoing inspiration of our portable hard-drive of collected music, we popped in to say hello. To our great delight, we found ourselves in the doorway of the local DJ studio, with DJ Black Shanti hard at work transferring music from records into digital form.

Shanti is promoting some great reggae artists from Ghana and has some ideas about creating an internet radio station. His office and DJ studio is one block from the circle of Asylum Square in Accra. If you are there and want to meet Black Shanti and some of his artists - just ask for the Rasta DJ, everyone knows him.

Thanks to Shanti, we have now have some fantastic reggae from West Africa…coming soon to a city near you! We really look forward to adding it to the 600GB collection at Hotel Oso Perezoso, and carrying it with us to share and enjoy on the rest of our travels.


We had similar good fortune in meeting another local musician in West Africa, again just by happenstance. One hot, sweaty afternoon in Lomé, as we were enjoying a cold Ekko beer at a local bar, a gentleman came up to invite us to his nightclub that evening to listen to some live Togolaise jazz! We started to speak about our jazz culture of New Orleans, but the conversation peetered out: our French was more limited than his English and we seemed to be getting nowhere. But our new friend popped into the doorway next door and emerged with his friend Yawo, who spoke both English and Spanish!. Almost immediately, our ‘translator’ became a great friend. We waxed on and on about music and the United States and cities around the world (Yawo Attivor and his Afro-Fun Band have toured and played with musicians in Africa, North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East). We talked politics and economics and global friendship. Yawo turned us on to some great music from Togo, and even shared some of his own tracks with us. We love it! You can get a bit of your own Yawo on youtube.com .

Another music exchange happened in Lomé, where we shared part of our collection to a budding young guitar player who managed the internet café one block from our hotel (La Patience) in Lome’.

And for the music lovers of this blog that need a bit of a soundtrack, here are a few of our other favorites (some of which you can listen to online for FREE!).

Listen to WRIU Rhode Island of Friday night, or Shepherd Mondays on 91.5 WTUL New Orleans. All of these great reggae stars of radio are ‘live’ on your internet dial streaming worldwide.


Pandora


Steve Greer’s awesome blues show on WRVU, Nashville


New Orleans' own WWOZ.


Listen to Black Shanti on radio 98.9 “Happy-FM” Ghana. Or hear it streaming on this site.

Check out our new friend Yawo on his site.

Get your groove on! And keep emailing your songs to us!

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Ghana and Togo for Travelers

We arrived at the Accra airport on 4/21/2010 and left four weeks later. In Ghana we visited only Accra, and in Togo we visited Lome and Aneho.

VISAS
We wrote a blog on our experience of arriving in Accra sans-Visas. With our two day transit visas, we traveled to Togo by bus, which is only 2-3 hours by bus, and 5-6 cedis per person. Upon arriving at the border, we obtained a seven day Togo visa which cost us 15,000 Togo dollars each. We thought that we might go all the way through Benin to Lagos, but the visa for Benin was only two days, and cost 10,000 Togo dollars. Although unable to confirm our assumptions, we would most like need to pay again at each border to cross back through. While in Lome we visited the Ghana embassy and secured our 30 day visas. So, instead of paying $150 USD each at the Accra airport for a 30 day Ghana visa, we paid a total of $91 USD ($20 Ghana transit + $8 transportation to Togo + $20 seven day Togo Visa + $40 Ghana visa from the embassy in Togo + $3 in required visas photos that we forgot to bring with us + $8 transportation back to Accra) each. The excess of almost $60 paid for our hotels, food, and general fun in Togo. Accra is more expensive than Togo, so we made out pretty well.

VISA AND MASTERCARD
If you happen to be traveling with a Mastercard debit card, almost none of the banks will accept it. EXCEPT Stanbic Bank! We were delighted to figure this out halfway through our trip. The branch we used was on Ring Road, behind Asylum Down.

LOME, TOGO
Lome has a few hotels to choose from, we definitely feel that we found the best one. Hotel Patience is very close to the BTCI building on the main boulevard, two blocks toward the ocean and one block heading down the boulevard. Just ask, people know where it is. We got a room for two, with private bath (cold water shower), cable television (with three channels, all in French), outlet, and an ancient but powerful standing fan for 4,500 Togo francs ($9 USD). Friendly staff, great location, only downside is the sometimes-raucous and late-night church choir across the street at Zion (we made the mistake of staying there the first night - same price, but the Friday night music rattled our room ALL night).

BTCI is a major bank in Lome and the only one that would accept one of our Visa debit cards. All of West Africa is without (to our knowledge) Mastercard facilities. Take cash to exchange or ensure that you have a few Visa cards on hand.

In Lome, motocycles are much less expensive than taking taxis, assuming you can handle the thrill. The drivers are generally extremely good drivers and don’t poke fun if you ask them to slow down. The price for motos is 100-250 Togo francs.

ACCRA
We really enjoyed our stay at the Times Square Lodge in Asylum Down. Not too many foreigners around and it was within (courageous) walking distance of downtown and other fun neighborhoods. Our room for two was 20 cedis per night: large, spacious room with ceiling fan and outlet. Very clean shared bath and shared tub/bucket shower. Pleasant and friendly staff. Good deal in a city where you can’t find a hotel much cheaper….we looked.

OUTSIDE ACCRA
The beach in Accra is kinda gross. Better to take a bus 2 hours west and spend a few days in nearby Winneba. This University town has many hotels, but a visitor quickly realizes that many of these are rented out long-term to students. There are a few options right on the lovely St. Charles Beach, our recommendation is Manuel’s: 20 cedi’s a night for a rather nice room, fan, quiet, bright white sheets, private bath, two beds.

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Ghana Visa

To friends and family who are more interested in our travelogue, my apologies, for this post serves only to get some information onto the internet. When I searched for relevant and current information on the subject of a Ghana Visa one month ago, there was an extreme deficient of information. Now I can add our experiences and inform others in similar situations.

The moral of this story is: while you can certainly get an emergency visa upon arrival in Ghana, it is quite expensive. But totally do-able and may be less time-consuming than the traditional route. My experience is with an American passport.

We did try to get our visas in advance, but it just didn’t work. The Ghana Embassy in Ethiopia was not only unhelpful, but verged on unfriendly as well. So we arrived at the Accra airport with passports, a small amount of cash, and hopeful smiles.

Although we debarked quickly from the plane and sped to the counter, we were the last to be helped at the Visa on Arrival desk. The staff were courteous, though filled with criticisms about our decision to arrive without a visa. Why do you have a desk here then?

An “emergency visa,” or visa on arrival for Ghana costs $150 USD. Rather expensive. We opted to get the 48-hour transit visa, only $20 each. In fact, this was all that we could do. We had $43 USD, and all airport ATMs were visa (we have mastercard). So, there wasn’t really an alternative, aside from booking a flight elsewhere right then.

So, we are here in Accra for 48 hours, and then we plan to catch a bus to Togo…beaches! When we informed the Visa on Arrival desk of our intentions to travel to Togo, they thought that it sounded like a good plan. They also mentioned that the Ghana visa is a great deal cheaper either at the main embassy downtown, or in Togo.

Since we have made a conscious decision not to travel with a guidebook, we aren’t really sure where we are going, aside from East, to Togo.

update: April 30, 2010
With our two day transit visas, we traveled to Togo by bus, which is only 2-3 hours by bus, and 5-6 cedis per person. Upon arriving at the border, we obtained a seven day Togo visa which cost us 15,000 Togo dollars each. We thought that we might go all the way through Benin to Lagos, but the visa for Benin was only two days, and cost 10,000 Togo dollars. Although unable to confirm our assumptions, we would most like need to pay again at each border to cross back through. While in Lome we visited the Ghana embassy and secured our 30 day visas. So, instead of paying $150 USD each at the Accra airport for a 30 day Ghana visa, we paid a total of $91 USD ($20 Ghana transit + $8 transportation to Togo + $20 seven day Togo Visa + $40 Ghana visa from the embassy in Togo + $3 in required visas photos that we forgot to bring with us + $8 transportation back to Accra) each. The excess of almost $60 paid for our hotels, food, and general fun in Togo. Accra is more expensive than Togo, so we made out pretty well.

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Coffee and Ethiopia

written by Nathan

 

Another quick note on coffee loving and Ethiopia. For those who love coffee, Ethiopia is your Jerusalem. Not only is this birthplace of humanity also the origin of wild ‘Arabica,’ our coffee ancestor still growing in forests here, Ethiopia still produces the meanest Cup o’ Joe that I have practically ever had.

For those readers who know that I proudly decamped (½ time) for Colombia almost ten years ago, this comes of course as a shock to all of us…. Especially me. Not that I did not love or know coffee before Colombia, café culture is a pride of my childhood new Orleans and Francophile Louisiana.

Of course, we have not found Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts even trying to compete with this 1000 year old coffee culture. Not that you can’t get a soy double latte here, just don’t ask for sugar substitute. Soy lattes are called ‘macchiato fasting’ indicating refrain from drinking cow’s milk (2-4 birr or less than 30c).

*** As we try and cull what themes come from our blog as it moves abroad (now transferring our content again subjects from East to West Africa the North Africa this next month), obviously travel - it's thrills, chills, strains, and magic moments of discovery - always rings true.

Focusing on aspects of each place, we are aligning our experiences with what we think other travelers may be interested in; and, writing more reviews.

Look for our 'Picks and Pans' list of favorite spots we have found along the route thus far in upcoming blogs.

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