We arrive at Segou and Monica, a PCV there who I had met a couple weeks before when she was visiting Ghana, came and met us at the station. We went back to her place, showered, and then headed out for dinner. We went to “The Shack” and they had this awesome kebab with white fish from the Niger. Ohhhhhh, it was so good. And fried potatoes! The only fish you get in villages in Ghana is the nasty smoked/dried river fish that makes me gag…that’s what I feed my cat. This fish was awesome and flaky and ohhhh so good. After that we went and had a drink and then went home. The next day was Global Handwashing day and Monica was hosting an event at her house for her neighborhood kids.
The next day we wake up and the kids come to learn about why washing your hands often is important. We played games and then took everyone out to the tippytap (see pictures) that Monica had made. We came back and colored and drew all our hands on posters. It was a fun day! After that we went and got some fish again, and homemade yogurt….ohhhh so good. We walked along the Niger River to a Bogolan making shop. Bogolan is also called mudcloth and I love it! The thread is pulled by hand, woven and then dyed using mud, bark, and leaves. It’s so pretty. We hang out and see how it’s made and then we get to try our hand at making a small stencil design. The guy has you choose a design and then he tells you what it means. The one I picked means “responsible” and Nivole’s meant “dancer.” I was looking for a big piece so I could make a duvet cover with it, but they didn’t have one. There was another shop on the other end of town, so we started heading there. On the way we stopped at a regular cloth shop and I bought a bunch of printed designs that we don’t have in Ghana. Once at the Bogolan shop I spent probably 45 minutes to an hour going back and forth on what to buy…it’s all so cool! But all the really big queen size pieces were not in a pattern I like. After much contemplation and few evil eyes and sighs from Nivole, I picked a green (surprise) double size cloth. I figure I can always add a solid border to it or just use it as a throw. Anyway, mission accomplished! I left Ghana looking forward to hiking Dogon and buying some snazzy mudcloth!
The next day we slept in and then went to visit a RPCV (returned peace corps volunteer) who married a Lebanese guy and still lives in Segou. She made homemade angel food cake and it was spectacular! After that we went to her husband’s hotel where we had brick oven pizza with real cheese… NICE. After hanging out for a bit, we went home, napped, and then went back to the hotel to eat STEAK! Real steak…like the kind you don’t have to cook to the consistency of shoe leather in order to make sure you don’t get cooties. I had a medium rare steak, with potatoes, and a salad…eating is much fun.
The next morning we had to say goodbye to Monica, who we both really liked, with a plan to maybe meet up in Burkina for a safari in March. We headed to the bus station and waited…we got there at 6 and at 9:30 the bus finally left. We are destined to arrive in Ouga hopefully by around 9pm…turned out to be 11:30 p.m. We had texted a Burkina PCV to see what “area” the Ouaga PC house was in was called; and then we were gonna just hope to be able to direct the taxi to the PC house. (I have to admit I was a little worried about us trying to find our way around, without French, in Ouaga in the middle of the night.) The bus unloads and lucky for us there is a taxi, Nivole does a fantastic Instant French on the “area” name, the driver let me smoke in the cab (nicotine was needed), and we successfully found our way to the house with only having been their once. WIN!WIN!WIN! We were so happy. Eben, our awesome PCV from our first pass through Ouaga, was there at the house, too! So we showered and hung out until about 3or so. Eben said he wants to come visit Ghana in January and that he was trying to put a Burkina safari together for March...you don’t say? J I love coincidences. Next morning we walk to the PC office to pay for our night’s stay, hail a cab and successfully explain we want to get a bus to Kumasi, and head to a different bus station, get out and a man comes and speaks to us in ENGLISH! “Where are you going?” “Kumasi.” “Come, the bus is leaving.” A nice AC bus is getting ready to go straight to Kumasi...seriously??? Thank you, Lord. So we board our nice bus and start our journey around 10 a.m. At 11:30 p.m. we arrive in Kumasi, take a taxi and get to the PC house a little after 12…yeah Ghana! We spend the next day going through our pictures (Nivole left one SD card at Monicas!!!) and talking about how awesome our trip was and how we need to get planning a short Togo trip and also the Burkina safari. Nivole leaves to go to her village (about an hour a way). I stay and set up my women’s products at the PC store and go get a beer and lunch with another PCV who had just got back from Tanzania. After a good night’s sleep, I get up and start trying to get to the station around 6:30. I get dumped off somewhere I’ve never been before (I’ve only been to Kumasi once and it’s a big city with a big market and tro/yard) and I can’t find the huge station. The mate points me in one direction and that doesn’t seem right, but what do I know? So I start walking. Then I ask some lady if I was going the right direction for the market and she said no, I was heading to the bus station…there’s only really slow, shitty buses to HoHoe, so I turned around and went to find the tro yard. I get to Kejetia market and things are looking familiar; find the tro yard, find the Koforidua tro. Wait for it to fill; I leave Kejetia around 9:30. Get to Koforidua, wait for Kpong tro to fill. Get to Kpong. As I’m walking to the Kpong station, some dude is hissing at me, but I didn’t pay him any attention because I had to pee. So I get to the HoHoe tro (completely empty) and am talking to the driver when the hissing guy comes and starts trying to chat me up and wants to buy me a drink because I look hot and he wants to be my friend, and… I make it very clear I’m not interested, drop my bags in the tro and head off to the urinals. The guy follows me. “Brother, I am going to urinate, you do not need to come. I have been traveling all day and I am not interested in being your friend. I will wait for my tro to fill by myself and then will go home.” “I should go then.” “Yes, you should go. Thank you.” I pee. I come out of the urinal and head back toward the tro and have to pass the taxi stand. “Oh sister….blah, blah, blah” some taxi driver comes and grabs onto my arm and is yammering about being my friend and all the other taxi drivers are jawing him on. “Dude, not in the mood.” And I kinda twist my arm away and head back to my tro. I call Nivole and go into the corner to smoke. She informs me that according to the news Gaddafi was killed and we should be on alert (we always get put on alert if any white people in the world have done anything controversial in the news) and I should be careful getting home. Ok, I’ll calm my sass down. After I get off the phone with her, I check my email and while I’m doing this I hear some guy sucking his teeth repeatedly…I know he can’t be sucking his teeth at me because he’s been doing it a long time and I’m obviously busy on my phone. “Sister, someone wants to talk to you.” He sent some other dude over to me. “He’s been sucking his teeth at me this whole time; why doesn’t his lazy ass get up and come over himself?” So much for the sass reduction. The teeth-sucker proceeds to tell me how he wants to be my friend and I should give him my number so he can come and visit me. After much back and forth about how I’m not interested, don’t want him to call, I just go sit in my tro… the guy works at the tro yard though and decides to come sit in my tro, too. But other people are starting to come and he eventually gets out. I argue with the driver about the cost of my bag (I’ve stopped arguing and just give them 1 cedi, if they don’t want it I tell them to take my pack out or I’ll sit it on my lap). We finally agree. ***Note, the trip from Kumasi to HoHoe is the same trip that caused me to hide in my house for 2 days back in November. I was so pissed off at anything Ghanaian. It was still just as annoying this time, but I guess I’m more used to it now)*** I get to HoHoe and wait for my tro to Likpe. I drop, go greet Fo Nicho and Esther before I climb the hill to my house…I get in the door at 8:30 p.m. I walk in, see no huge critters, don’t smell anything dead, my roof is still up… I AM HOME J
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