Benin, travel, insanity

11-6-11
Well, the past week and a half have been real crazy, but fun and eventful. From October 26-28 I was in Cape Coast for a few days of classes and ISP prep. Not too much to talk about there. But on the 29, I started to travel again. I was still a little road weary after the continual long trips from the Northern trip, but I sucked it up and went for it. On the 29 we left around 9 am to go to Accra, and we spent the day figuring out life and things. I’ll get to what I was figuring out later. We spent the day chilling and enjoyed a really good egg sandwich at the night market. We couldn’t be out too late though, we had a fun day planned for the 30…
Not really. We got up at 3:30 am to leave around 4 to go to Benin. If it wasn’t for getting through customs, it wouldn’t have taken so long, but hey, I had to go to Togo to say I have been in Benin. I know, I’m a punny guy. At least I know that for the next month I am gonna be in Ghana. Alright, I’ll stop it. Anyway, we left before the crack of dawn and drove a few hours to the border between Ghana and Togo, and somehow I slept for maybe an hour and a half or so. As soon as the sun came up though, I was awake and unable to sleep. I think the morning hours are the most peaceful, but I hate being awake for them when I could be sleeping. After getting through the border, we drove through Togo. It’s a little country, so it only took us about two or three hours to do it, and that was with a stop. We got off at a little beach side hotel with a restaurant and got a few carbonated drinks. That means I am officially saying that I have been to Togo, because I have stepped foot on the soil. I don’t count the Netherlands, since I was just in the airport. After our brief stop, we got back on the bus and drove to the Togo and Benin border. After getting through that, we continued on to Cotonou, where we would spend the next few days. That was a long day of travelling.
On October 31, we did a lot of things. We went to a town maybe forty minutes away called Ouidah. We were taken about town by a retired professor called Elisee Soumonni, and he has spent his life studying the slave trade in the area. The first thing we did was visit the Portuguese fort in Ouidah. The tour was a small complex, and there is a lot in it that can be compared to the castles of Elmina and Cape Coast. I will not get into it in detail, but it is presumed that about two million people were shipped from the Slave Coast, as it is called, which is from Ouidah to Lagos, Nigeria. Most of the people taken from here were taken to Brazil, which was honestly where people were treated in the worst way. Many did not survive the brutal treatment. However, there are many African influences that survive in Brazil today, and they originated from this area. One of these influences was voodoo. After the Portuguese fort, we visited two places that were centers of this traditional religion. One was the Sacred Forest, and the other was the Temple of Pythons. The Sacred Forest was a tour that took us through a small portion of the forest, but had multiple shrines to different things. I couldn’t honestly tell you what they all were; my memory is not that good. After the Sacred Forest we went to the Python Temple. It was a place of meditation for priests. Also, snaked are seen as powerful spirits and they were to be respected. The ones in the Temple of Pythons were domesticated, and tourists were taken into it so that they could hold a snake or have one around their neck. I couldn’t not do it. I held one in my hands and had another one around my neck. It was interesting, but I had to do it. How could I say I went to the Temple of Pythons and not hold a snake? After that, we went to the equivalent of what is known as the Door of No Return for the Slave Coast. One thing I forgot to mention earlier is that Ouidah is inland, not on the coast. Apparently during the trade, the coast was not a safe place, so the European powers established themselves inland for better protection. That means that the captives were marched from the forts probably ten kilometers or so to the ocean, where they were taken onto smaller boats and then put onto bigger boats for the Middle Passage. To remember the departure, Benin created a large arched structure as a token of remembrance. It was in one of the more likely places where people were last on the continent and then forcibly removed. That was all on October 31, and we were still trying to recover from our long trip the day before. Needless to say, we were all quite tired.
The next day, we remained busy. We took a boat ride to a place called Ganvie which is a village built on the water. It was fun to see, but I felt really touristy, and I didn’t like that feeling when I was looking upon peoples livelihoods. That’s all I will say about that. After Ganvie, we went to Soumonni’s house for a lecture. It was really good. After that we had lunch, and then we got a quick tour of Cotonou. I should probably talk about it, since it was a fascinating town. It’s the business city of Benin, and thus is a big city with a lot of suburbs. However, Benin is not a very rich country. Thus we saw the same exact thing we saw in the north: motorcycles. Lots of motorcycles. At any given point, you could look out the window and see approximately one trillion motorcycles. But of course, being smaller, they usually sneak through the bigger traffic and sit at the front of the stop lights. There is even a taxi service in Cotonou which operates by motorcycle. I wouldn’t do it; I don’t want to die. I’m glad that Ampah was driving, but he said that Benin is one of his least favorite places to drive, and I completely understand why. It was crazy! We all needed to recover after the last few days, so we all went back to our hotel and crashed that night.
November 2 was far more relaxed. In the morning we had individual conferences with Dr. Avorgbedor about our ISP’s. It went well for me, and my ideas are more set in stone now. After the conferences, we went to another shopping area for lunch and buying things. I don’t like shopping, so I basically chilled with Ampah and Ebo Sam (the program coordinator). When that was done, we went to dinner earlier because a few of us wanted to do something. At the American Cultural Center close by, they were showing Toy Story 3. We went to watch the movie, but after the movie, there was a brief discussion about it, and it honestly was one of the more fascinating experiences in my life. I should say that there were probably about 25 people in the room: 4 Americans, and roughly 21 Beninese. The conversation started off with community but then talked about development. Since that is partially my ISP topic, it was perfect for me to be there. To summarize what the discussion entailed, there was two parts. First, the discussion talked about how the only people who could develop Benin were the youth of Benin. That is exactly true. Outside forces are focused on their own interests, not the interests of the Beninese, and thus a system of perpetual reliance is created. This is true of America, Europe, China, India, the Lebanese, etc. They cannot develop Benin properly, only the Beninese youth can. However, a comment was made towards the end that made me cringe. The comment was that they could develop to be like America. I wanted to yell, but I held myself back. Yes, America has great wealth, but it also has great poverty. The best way to develop a country is not the American model, but a model that holds equality as the most important aspect of complete development. With the inequality comes the perpetual reliance, and this is a global phenomenon, since the world has developed without a sense of creating an equality of everyone. Now the practicality of this is slim, but that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t strive for this goal. Now I can’t bring this message to the world, since that would be a message brought from the outside, and thus I would be preaching a contradiction. Thus I am telling this to America, since that is the only place where I could have any proper influence. America, grow up. Stop being so selfish and spread the wealth.
The next day, we did another 4am trip, but this time we went all the way back to Cape Coast. It took about 14 hours or so, including stops such as lunch and bathroom breaks. I spent the next two nights in Cape Coast, which were again very busy. I had to do a gazillion things, and all of it was last minute details. There was no way to avoid it, and in fact I actually did quite a few things before to lessen the stress of those days. I had plans to finalize, a phone to activate, to get a wireless modem, pack all of my belongs, say farewell to my host family, say farewell to my peers, and a few other things. I mentioned earlier that I had to figure out a few things when I was in Accra on the way too Benin. That was my living situation for the ISP. I am staying in Accra, since this is the hub in Ghana where outside forces can be seen most prominently. Well, the hostel we stayed at as decent and quite cheap, so my original plan was to spend the ISP there. However, I could only book two nights, because on Monday November 7 they have a conference taking place and the entire hostel is booked for two weeks. Thus entered panic mode. I talked to Ebo Sam, and he called his equal in the SIT program based in Accra. I was able to talk to him over the phone and he said that three students in that program were staying in Accra for the month in an apartment, and there was room for a fourth person. So yesterday I called Professor Kate, who rents the apartment out, and I reserved a space for myself in the apartment. Uff da. That was stressful. But now I will have a place to live on Monday, and that is good news. Currently I have one more night in the hostel, and then I move out to an apartment. I don’t know anything about the people I will be moving in with, but it will be good to be with people who have a working knowledge about the city. I should mention that yesterday (11/5) I got into an air-conditioned van and came to Accra. After that, I got into a taxi and half an hour later ended up at the hostel. So my travelling is still not finished, and it hasn’t really stopped. Last night, since I am studying outside influences, I went to a Chinese restaurant across the street. It was rather expensive, but it was all for the sake of research. At the restaurant, there were plenty of Chinese people, only proving my point about how the Chinese are very involved in Africa’s infrastructure development. Today, I am planning on organizing my thoughts, doing some research, and preparing interview questions. It should be a busy day, but I will hopefully relax a little and cool down after the insanity I have been experience for the last week and a half. But now the next four weeks are ISP time. Bring it!