April 26 – Bodies on the Beach

Yesterday was Easter Monday. We were told that there would be more people than usual as many come from around the country to spend the day on the beach but we were definitely not expecting the almost 2 million people that showed up along this very small stretch of beach (we had guessed a million but we later found out that it was closer to 2 million). It was a similar vibe to that of the Tam-Tam’s at Mount Royal in Montreal. There were people playing drums, dancing, smoking weed, playing soccer and various other activities. We’ve never seen so many people in one place before. Jacob obviously stuck out, and when he would walk down the beach with his big beard (it’s been growing for 2 months now) it was like Moses splitting the Red Sea - crowds of people would move out of his way and stare at him as we walked by, many asking him to be his friend and to go swimming with them. After braving the crowd we decided to just hang out on the terrace of our hotel which overlooked the beach. I remember wondering if anyone had drowned seeing as there were so many people in the water.

 

Today, while eating lunch at the hotel restaurant on the beach we noticed the kitchen staff all staring out at the water and pointing. There was also a large group of people on the beach doing the same thing. Jacob and I got up to see what was happening and before I could even realize what was going on, I saw Jacob running down onto the beach, jumping into the water and then coming out dragging something that looked really heavy. I asked someone what was happening and they told me that what Jacob was pulling a dead body. By the time I got to Jacob on the beach he was ordering the locals to do things – telling one person to call the police, telling another to go get a towel or branches in order to cover the body. As they finished covering it up, another body was noticed in the water. The locals were asking Jacob to come with them to go get it, but the body was too far out and the water was too rough, only someone on a boat could get to it but the local fishermen did not want to do it. It eventually disappeared but apparently washed up a little while later down the beach.  

I asked why nobody had gone in to get the bodies earlier and they told me that everyone was scared. They were scared of the water which had taken these lives and scared of touching a dead body…maybe for religious reasons. Jacob now seems to be well known on the beach. Many random people know his name and they touch and praise him, telling him that he is courageous. 

As I am writing this, the body that Jacob pulled out is just being removed now – the owner of the hotel told us that she had to pay for someone to come get it otherwise it would have just been left there decomposing. We found out that 5 bodies had turned up on this beach and 10 on another just down the coast. They were mostly young men who had probably been drinking too much at yesterday’s party, gone too far out and didn’t know how to swim in the strong currents.

I was really impressed with Jacob’s instincts to go get the body, how fast he went to help and how he was telling people what to do after he brought it to shore. It’s been a pretty surreal day and I can’t stop thinking about how bad I feel for the families of these young men. It doesn’t seem to be such a big thing for the locals – we’ve been told that “life is cheap in Africa” but this is definitely our first experience witnessing it.

Rest in Peace

April 24 – Ghana

Whenever we arrive in a new country, we always land in one of the main cities, all of which are large and very intense and Accra is no different. Our new plan is to try and get out of the city as quickly as possible (although Jacob sometimes insists that we stay longer to “explore”). After one day Accra we headed to a small village, Kokrobite, just outside the city and located on a very nice stretch of beach. We’re staying at a place called Big Milly’s Backyard in a small bungalow just steps from the beach. Big Milly’s is a real hippy place with private rooms, dorms, RV’s and tents. The locals hang around on the beach playing drums and smoking joints, sometimes with the guests.

 

 

 

So far we’ve noticed that people are very nice, everyone wants to meet one another and just hang out. The locals, as usual, are especially interested in making friends with us. Every day we meet new people who we have dinner with and spend the evening having drinks and playing cards. The locals really like Jacob and when we walk down the beach they all say hi to him, hold his hands and ask to be his friend. We even had 2 boys ask to walk with us, which they did for a long time and when I finally asked why, they said that they wanted to be seen with “the white man”. This is definitely giving Jacob an ego boost and he insists that every woman that talks to him or even looks in his general direction has a crush on him and is flirting. The women do tend to say hi to him often and then giggle when he responds.

Ghana is very different from Sierra Leone; electricity works regularly, there’s internet, there are paved roads, multi-story buildings – It’s just more developed. There’s a lot to see in Ghana and so far it seems very nice. Given the current situation in Burkina Faso we may decide to skip the other countries on our list for West Africa and stay in Ghana until we leave for Asia.

Accra

 

My new pet

new friends from Nigeria

The beach

  

April 19 - Until Next Time

We decided that we had to leave and continue to the next country so we headed back to Freetown where we stayed with an old friend of mine who now works here. Passover started yesterday and I was actually able to find a Sedar which was being run by 2 Lubovitch Jews from Brooklyn. It was pretty impressive – they brought all the kosher wine, food and even matzah from the US. 23 people attended – Jews from the states, England, Russia and Israel  - and I got to meet some pretty interesting people, mostly in the mining industry here in Sierra Leone.    

Today we decided to make arrangements to leave and I made the assumption that getting out of Sierra Leone would be simple…big mistake. First of all, achieving anything here usually takes a full day, mostly due to traffic but also because in general, shit just doesn’t work. We were able to find a travel agent who found a flight for us leaving the next day but when we tried to pay, of course they didn’t take visa (nor did any of the other travel agents we visited or the airline itself). So now we needed to find a bank but getting money here is not so easy. ATM’s will not accept our cards so we needed to find a certain bank that would let us take a cash advance on our Visa. We spent the day being told to go from one bank to the next until the banks eventually closed but we did find an ATM that would accept our Visa card. The maximum amount we can take out is 200,000 Leones ($50) meaning we would need to make 20 withdrawals at a fee of $5 a piece provided Visa doesn’t freeze the card for suspicious transactions. So we were forced to continue this the next morning.     

We went back to the same bank but the teller would only give us money in the local currency so we needed to withdraw about 4 million Leones and with the highest denomination being 10,000 ($2.25 US), we needed to bring a backpack to carry all the cash from the bank to the travel agent. By the time we got to the travel Agent, our flight had been cancelled so our departure was delayed for another few days.

We caught the local ferry back to the airport which was certainly an interesting experience and after some haggling with taxi drivers and porters, a long wait in the heat and a small bribe to the customs officers to let me go without having my bag ripped apart in a “random search”, we were on the plane.

We both really fell in love with this country and I think Lungi actually wants to live here - not because she likes it so much but because everything seems to be called Lungi. Just kidding she loves the place. Off to Ghana...



Our great host - Jill



Counting my millions 

The ferry

Lungi getting to Lungi

Lungi shrimp!

The Lungi network

Some random pictures:

 

 

The new (and improved) Baywatch

Lungi's first purchase for our future baby (NO SHE IS NOT PREGNANT!)

April 16 – The Beach

We volunteered with an organization called Tribewanted which is located on a very secluded and gorgeous beach called John Obey. The concept is pretty interesting; they’re building an eco-resort in collaboration with the local fishing village (home to about 350 people), employing the locals and providing assistance to the villagers so that they can build new homes, build new boats, fix up the school and so on. Tribewanted isn’t really a resort yet, it is in the process of being built so when we arrived the only people there were 2 of the founding members and a couple of other tourists. By the second night Lungi and I were the only guests left so we basically had the place to ourselves. We sleep in a tent directly on the sand with virtually no one else on it so we really feel like we’re in the movie “The Beach”.

Our private beach

 

Our home

We spend our days helping to build mud bungalows, cooking meals, playing volleyball or just lounging around on the beach. Lungi has been spending a lot of time in the kitchen learning local recipes and how to carry 5 gallons of water on her head. Yesterday I went into one of the nearby towns to join in on a soccer match with some of the locals.

 

 

I’ve realized that Lungi’s a bit of a novelty in most of the places we have been to in Africa especially here. Apparently the locals in the fishing village usually keep their distance from the guests but they really embraced Lungi. They all wanted to make friends with her, showing her pictures of their families, telling her stories about their lives and teaching her local customs. They even walked us to our car when we left and gave us goodbye hugs which they have apparently never done before. This morning I walked into the camp to find Lungi rubbing cream on to some local village woman’s upper body (including the boobies) which was a little weird but whatever. All the local men were just sitting around like this was a normal thing so I guess it is.

We decided to visit another stretch of beach up the coast, called River #2. Getting there was a bit of a challenge – first we went to the wrong village where the car got stuck in the sand. I had to get a bunch of local villagers to help push the car out, then haggle over how much to pay them for their assistance, and when the car finally got out, the driver was so excited to finally be unstuck that he sped off leaving me in the little village – he eventually came back to get me. We found a place to stay but they were full so they gave us a tent to set up on the beach with front row view of the local beach party which went on until about 2am.   

River #2

Roadside assistance

The fishing village

Some local villagers

 

 

Our transportation - usually 10 people fit in the back

Lobster on the grill