April 12 - Sweet Salone

Arriving in Freetown we weren’t sure what to expect. According to what I found online, Sierra Leone is supposed to be one of the safest countries in West Africa but we were still a little nervous given the recent history of this country. Arriving at the airport (which is actually called Lungi International Airport) we were swarmed by the usual money changers, taxi drivers, people selling SIM cards, etc… It was 3:30am and we needed to take a small boat across the water to get into Freetown. When we arrived it was starting to get light and fishermen were throwing dynamite into the water to stun the fish.

Freetown is dirty, crowded, sticky and completely chaotic. There are maybe 3 million people packed into a city that was built for 500 thousand and the basic services that we take for granted are non-existent. Paved roads are rare, electricity seldom works and traveling 2-3 kilometers across the city can take up to 3 hours given the poor infrastructure and heavy traffic. The people here are some of the poorest in the country and most of them struggled to survive during the very bloody civil war which was started over control of the diamond mines. We met many people who were happy to share their stories like the army officer who told me that the rebels would ambush cars, rape the women inside, kill the men and sometimes even eat parts of their bodies because of a shortage of food. Sergeant Abdul spent 10 years fighting the rebels and killed “many, many people”. Another person we spoke to watched the rebels decapitate his father in front of his eyes when he was just a little boy.

Stories like these are common yet the people here are surprisingly happy, friendly and extremely positive about their future. They are currently celebrating their 50^th anniversary as an independent country and you can feel their optimism and hope in the air. The potential for this country is enormous and it is only a matter of time before it explodes into a flourishing tourist destination.

Out of all the places we’ve been so far, we have definitely felt the safest and most welcomed here. If anyone is looking for beautiful secluded beaches, great food and a bit more than just a regular vacation, I strongly recommend a trip to Sierra Leone.     

Lungi at Lungi

A gas station in Freetown

Apr 8 – Good Deeds

We’re at the airport waiting for our flight and have some time to kill so thought we’d share our new goal with you. Jacob and I have decided to do one nice thing every day while on the trip. We made this decision on April 8^th and this is how the first day went:

Things that I did:

1.       While in Ethiopia (Lalibela), we took a guided tour with a local who was part of a tourism board. We enjoyed his tour so much that I decided to write an email today to the director of the organization expressing how much we appreciated the professionalism and quality of our guide and that it was important to me to communicate this to his boss.

2.       There are people protesting here and while watching from the sidelines, an older woman had asked Jacob for some of his water to which he said “no”. I took his bottle and poured her a cup.

3.       The protests spilled into the train station and while waiting for our train, there was a woman who had passed out. The protesters were simply standing around her and continuing to protest so I went into the middle of the crowd to see if she was conscious. I found a cloth in her purse, soaked the cloth with water and placed it on her head. I also positioned her so that she would be more comfortable.  

LUNGI TOTAL: 3

Things that Jacob did:

1.       Stole money from a waiter.

2.       Denied the thirsty old woman from having some water on a very hot day.

3.       We’re supposed to volunteer in Sierra Leone for 1 week and Jacob tried to convince me to only do 3 days.

JACOB TOTAL: -3

Ok, this is Jacob writing now – I would like to point out that there is a good explanation for all of these. I swear I’m not a bad person!

1.       This was an accident of course - after we paid for our meal and left the restaurant, I realized that the waiter had undercharged us but it was too late. I even debated going back but we were too far away.

2.       The beggars here constantly ask us for our water and drinks and usually I’ll give it to them. I had just bought a new bottle of water and I thought the woman was a beggar asking me for it so I said no. I didn’t realize it was a lady who had just been in the sun too long and was dehydrated.

3.       I can’t defend myself on this one.

Here are some protest pics – the people are upset that there is no work for them and the government isn’t helping. The woman who was passed out had actually been hit by a police officer and instead of allowing the ambulance to come through, the protesters insisted on leaving her there to assist in proving their point – that the government doesn’t help them.

The woman I helped

Apr 7 - I can't think of a title

We left Marrakesh for Essaouira, a laid back town on the Atlantic, and met my new Moroccan best friend on the bus. She’s a very funny Muslim girl named Soumia. We ended up hanging out with her the entire time we were there, walking around, eating, shopping and laughing our heads off.

Me and Soumia

 

 

 

We found out that we could not get our tourist visas for Ghana on arrival and that the country had implemented a new policy that they would only grant visas to residents of the particular country that the embassy is in (meaning that we would have to go back to Canada). This is a ridiculous policy for a country that is trying to increase tourism as it will greatly limit tourists traveling overland that would like to visit Ghana.

Our problem is that we have already booked a flight that is leaving to Thailand form Ghana on May 5^thand obviously we are not going back to Canada to get a visa. So we decided to go to the Moroccan embassy in Rabat to try and convince them to give us a visa anyway. We took a bus from Essaouira but arrived late and when we got there someone rushed us onto one of the buses leaving to Casablanca. There were not enough seats on the bus so the driver started yelling and kicking people out of the seats which were reserved for us.  After a lot o yelling the bus driver grabbed our tickets and starting yelling us because we were on the wrong bus. While he kicked us off he started driving away with our bags still underneath the bus and Jacob had to run beside the bus while pulling our luggage out. We managed to still catch the correct bus although the driver definitely wasn’t happy and claimed that the whole schedule was now delayed because of us.

We got to the embassy in Rabat but unfortunately my charm and Jacob’s blue eyes did not help us – The ambassador rejected our detailed persuasion letter and insisted that we try getting it “in some other country.” So this is exactly what we will try to do – we will go to the Ghana embassy in each county that we visit and if worse comes to worse we will show up at the Ghana border and see how much the bribe will cost.  

We leave tomorrow night for Sierra Leone were we will be spending one week  volunteering at a remote beach village helping to build houses, schools, etc… We probably won’t have internet access for a little while but will update the block as soon as we can.  

Standard public Moroccan toilet

Me doing some laundry in the shower

Cat trying to get to chickens on other side

This cat decided to get on my lap at a cafe and refused to get off

Apr 4 - Sahara

We hopped on a mini bus with a couple of other tourists and took a 9 hour bus ride to Zagora, a town on the edge of the Sahara desert. The ride bus ride was very nice; we drove through small villages and right through the Atlas Mountains. I have been here once before with my father and remember doing this same drive however I forgot how vast the mountains are and how nerve racking it can be when navigating the tight turns and winding road with 1000 foot drops on either side, especially when the bus driver seems like he’s in a hurry to get home.  

 

 

We arrived in Zagora and took a 1 ½ hour camel trek to our camp in the Sahara – in the middle of a sea of sand with nothing else in sight but dunes. Although the ride was a bit uncomfortable it was really cool and the camels were awesome. I kind of zoned out and imagined we were a caravan of Arabian knights trekking through the desert to find lost Egyptian treasure.  We were told that we would have our own tent however this was not the case – we’ve noticed that the Moroccan vendors will tell you whatever it is that you want to hear, regardless of whether it is true or not, as long as it gets them the sale. Not to worry, we bunked up with a gay Moroccan couple who turned out to be very nice and I was probably the loudest snorer of the group anyway.

The Berber “hosts” prepared a delicious chicken Tagine and some Moroccan tea and treated us to some traditional singing and drumming around a fire. The whole experience was wonderful and getting to see the open sky and stars in the middle of the desert is something that I have always wanted to do.    

 

Our camp

 

Berber

Arabian Knight

My Camel, Charlie

 

Tea in the tent

Camel Toe!

Hard to tell from the pic but this thing is huge

Mar 30 – Marrakesh

We arrived in Morocco and did our usual routine for each new country – get money, find hotel, get SIM card for the cell and then plan an itinerary. We checked into yet another local hotel however this one was decent – clean, bathrooms with water and even a balcony overlooking the Marche Centrale.

Casablanca is nice but it’s just another city so we decided to catch a bus to Marrakesh where we booked into a hotel directly on Place Jemaa El Fna – a huge square filled with vendors, food stalls, snake charmers, story tellers, magicians and a fairly large number of crazies. It’s like an open air carnival just missing the clowns.

 

 

Behind the square is the Souk which is made up of tiny alleyways and covered streets lined with shops, the vendors pushing everything from beautiful copper lamps and wooden boxes to natural Berber Viagra. We sampled some of the local foods, Jacob tried some sort of natural herb that is supposed to cure his snoring for life and we basically spent the evening fighting off vendors and trying to find our way out of the labrynth of alleyways.

 

 

The local vendors are pretty aggressive. It’s virtually impossible to walk through the square without having someone put a snake or a monkey on your shoulder and then insist that you pay them a ridiculous amount of money – as a result Jacob has been doing a lot of arguing and a lot of bargaining. People just jump in front of you and start banging on a drum while twirling in cirlces and then demand payment. Of course I got suckered in by some old gypsy who decided to give me a henna tattoo without my permission – it should hopefully be gone in 2-3 weeks.

 

 

Although the square is chaotic, Morocco is a nice place with great food and a welcome break from the “other” Africa. Tomorrow we’re off on a camel trek into the desert where we will spend the night under the Sahara sky.