Chapter 2 - AFRICA

I still have not shared all I would like from my time in Europe, and here I am on a totally different continet wondering where the time went, hardly beleiving I am already here! So, yes, for all of you who are wondering where in the world I am, I am in Africa. West Africa to be more precise, in Benin, in the town of Lokossa, where I am helping with english classes in one elemantary and one secondary school.

My arrival in Africa is not one I will not soon forget. I think the impact of the experience was magnified by my coming straight from Euroupe, arriving as I did in a new place without having fully processed the last. It is definitely advisible to give yourself processing or down time when traveling, and this was a time when I was definitely lacking in that, though I knew full well what I was getting myself into with this non-stop travel business. The last stop in Europe for me was Barcelona. I had prepared almost everything I needed for Africa before I got there so I would have time to enjoy the city. That I did, but energetic sightseeing combined with an extremely inconveniant flight time meant I was more than a bit tired when my plane landed in Accra, Ghana. Luckily there were two volunteer coodinators from STAESA, the organization that set up my volunteer placement, there to meet me at the airport.

When I walked out the airport doors I was greeted by a crowd of people held back by temporary fences, all waiting for their arrivees. I thought it would be easy to find the ones I was looking for since they would holding a sign with my name on it, but there seemed to be dozens of people holding signs and shouting the names of the people they were looking for. I found my coodinators, however, and we caught a taxi to the local Salvation Army, which had a sort of youth hostel set-up and where we spent the night.

The next day we went to get my visa for Togo (for travel to Benin). Accra on little sleep can be a little overwhelming! Streets full of vendors, taxis, mini buses, pedestrians, busy marktets... in three words I would say busy, hot, and loud. After I got my visa for Togo I traveled with Mr. Akakpo, one of the STAESA coordinators, to his place in Lomé, Togo, and stayed there for a few days untill I could get my Benin visa. I got a good rush from my first "moto" (motorcycle) taxi ride from the Togo/Ghana border to Mr. Akakpo's place, tho I was slightly worried about falling off the back because I was wearing my full backpack. Probably not the safest way to get around since you never wear helmets, but affordable and practicle in Lomé, Lokossa, and many African towns and cities where dirt and pot-hole filled roads make driving a car difficult.

I attended my first African church servie in Lomé, which was much more lively and colourful than anything I've seen at home. I had a chance to recover and relax a little in Lomé, but I was still happy to finally arrive in Lokossa. At around 10 000 people it is a more manageable size than Lomé or Accra. My host family, the D'almeidas, have a relatively nice place with many trees in their front yard. For someone from the green "wet coast" of Canada it was a relief to see some greenery after the dusty streets of Lomé and Accra. The following photos are of the front of the house, and the back yard/kitchen area, as well as my room and the street I live on.



Hurrah! I got one photo up! ... and that's all for photos today. But now that I know that I have to go online at non-peak hours, only load one photo at a time, and be really patient, there will be more on the way.

Anyway... I was also happy to discover that there is a track near by that I can run at. A dirt track but a track no less. I will post pictures of that too as soon as I can get them working.

In general I have been settling in fairly well here, the hardest thing to get used to is the heat, but even that doesn't seems as intense anymore. People I meet are often eager to get to know me - there aren't many white people in this area so I stand out quite a bit. I must be going... but I will continue on my quest to get pictures up!
Greetings from Africa,
-Carla

Ch. 1 B4 - Random catch-up

Hi Everybody, I know it had been a reeeaaally long time since I've put anything up becasue even some of my best friends have had to email me and ask where I am. Well, I am in France, but back in France rather than still in France... if you read my last blog carefully you would know that I was on my way out of Paris and into Germany. So here is a little bit of an overview of where I've been, and with any luck, I'll cover some of these places in more detail later, because there are some stories that definitely deserve it!

For me Germany was all about friends and family (well, and maybe the food and beer). I never spent one night in a hostel there, but instead visited cousins, great-aunts, old friends, and even my former nanny. I started in Bonn, in west Germnay, where I met my tante Marianne (that's "aunt" to all you non-german speakers, and grandma = Oma) and cousins Claus and Rolf for the first time, and saw my tante Leisel again. After that I headed down south to Ingolstadt (near Munich) to visit some cousins. (By the way, evryone who is a cousin of any kind will just be called a cousin, because I'm really not sure about all the degrees of cousins!)It was very cool, meeting family I really new very little about, and while I was at it I got to go to Oktoberfest, and see Harry Potter 5 in German. After that I went north to visit my friend Doreen, and we went to Berlin, the Island of Rugen, and her hometown of Prenzlau. Those Lambrick Park grads reading this might remember a blond German girl sitting in on some of our classes in grade 11 - that was Doreen! After that I went to visit my former nanny, who live near Bielefeld (this is heading back west now), and I got to meet her family, and spend time with her two daughters who are close to the age I was when she was my nanny! I only looked a little different to her after 16 odd years ;) And after that, back to Bonn, or Rheinback to be specific, to see more cousins, who were actually in Canada when I was in Bonn the first time round! It was also great to meet them all for the first time, and it was espacially great to meet my cousin Zoe who though she may be 10 years younger than me, she equals if not surpasses my passion for all things fantasy and sci-fi.

After more than 3 great weeks with family and friends, I waved goodbye to my Oma's two sisters (who kind of felt like 2 adopted Omas) at the train station in Bonn, and got on a long train to Vienna. I had fun there. I met a bunch of English, Aussies, and Canadians at my very cool hostel, had some fancy Sacher Torte (local chocolate cake) and coffee in a cup with Mozart's profile on it, went to a crazy interactive music museum, and even saw and Opera (three cheers for cheap student tickets!). I also had a nice chat with some guys at a bike store I wandered into when I saw the Cannondales in the window... which kind of brings me to Budapest.

Thanks to my wonderful Hungarian co-worker, Gabor, at Fort Street Cycle, I had a place to stay in Budapest, capital of Hungary. I stayed at his sister's place for over a week while I visited the city, and took full advantage of the fact that she worked at one of the city's wonderfully relaxing and incredibly fance mineral baths (think several different pools, tubs, saunas, massage, etc.) and could get me in for free. I also went caving just outside the city - that's where my current facebook profile picture comes from - and had a few good home-cooked meals by Gabor's mom. Considering we both spoke about 2 words of each other's language, we got on quite well! And, of course, I sampled some home-made Hungarian Palinka, a drink that could possibly be illagal in Canada it is so strong, though Gabor's mom seemed to have no problem downing a shot of it while I choked down a sip or two. There was so much too see in Budapest, and it was tough to leave what I knew might be my last chance at a home cooked meal for a long time to come, but eventually I had to go.

I was heading for Italy, but Slovenia was on the way, so I stoped in the capital, Ljubljana, for a couple days. Very pretty little town, and it was good to get some fresh air after a long time in a big city. I stayed at Hostel Celica, a former prison turned youth hostel, and spent Halloween night out with a bunch or German architechture students at some interesting alternative clubs that had taken over the abandonned army base behind the hostel. I spent the next day sight-seeing, walking in parks, and palying on kid's playgrounds with 2 americans and one canadian who were in town for the weekend on a trip from the shcool they were studying at in Austria. Hmm, I will definitely have to get those pictures up some time :)

And then I was off to Itally... and that will have to wait a bit. But just so my mom can plot my journey on a map, this is where I went after Ljubljana, in order: Venice, Verona, Rome, Sorento, stuck in Naples train station for 4 or 5 hours during train strike, Rome, Florence, Nice, Marseille, Carcassonne, and now I am in Biarritz, on the south-west caost of France. And to quote Kirstin (my travel buddy and fellow Canadian who I met in Rome) as she said farewell to Michealangelo's David:
Stay glorious,
-Carla