Kpalime

Ok so this past weekend I had a much needed weekend away...not the typical restful relaxed weekend away, but a fully african, full of mishaps and random adventures....the town the 15 of us went to was about 2.5hrs drive north, surrounded by hills (and hiking), markets (like any town) and little brown kids waving and smiling to us Yovo's (like any where you go when you have a smile on ur face and ur hand waving!)

there are a few things that i have come to learn through my travelling on these weekends away.....

lesson one:- when asking the guide how much longer to go until the top - 10 minutes can mean anywhere from 30 mins to over an hour. this is important to note when you are tired and in need of a sit down...
it kinda goes like this....
me: where is the next village? 
guide: not far, not far. umm ten minutes! 
- - an hour later and no village yet - -
me: no really, where is the next village?
guide: five minutes, very very close.
as you can probably guess, we arrived at the next village in 30 mins.



lesson two:- small small english doesnt necessarily mean anymore than ten words or so. certainly not able to communicate with my small small almost nonexistant french.

lesson three:- the cost of something is always negotiable, usually done in private and it doesnt matter how long it takes - theres all the time in the world. there is also a huge expectation that us yovo's (white people) have a huge amount of money and can pay 3 times as much as the locals - never mind the fact that we're all volunteering and have no income!

lesson four:- driving - the only thing that i can recommend is to shut ur eyes and if u decide to sleep to hold your head in your hands or your neck will be broken by the end of the drive. the white lines are really there for no reason other than to drive over. And if there is a slow puncture its perfectly acceptable to stop every town to fill up the tyre with more air - no point in changing the tyre of course.

lesson five:-  researching your trip beforehand might well be something that you do back at home...where to go, what to see, but this doesnt really apply in africa. your whole trip is dependent on who you talk to and when, and to be honest how much ur willing to pay each. like on saturday the waterfalls had no water in them (even in rainy season) whereas on sunday morning there was water aplenty.

lesson six:- ok so your vehicle might have 15 seats - no seatbelts tho, however thats only a technicality. theres always room for one...or two...or three more. or some baskets of food or animals, whatever needs moving from one place to another.

lesson seven:-  who would have thought hiking in west africa is similar to hiking in Peru.

lesson eight:- bananas - the bananas at home certainly are nothing compared to bananas bourght straight from the tree. no chemicals or forced ripening, just sweet nectar! especially good when you need a snack.


lesson nine:- carrying large buckets of water on your head is the easiest thing to do, when walking in flipflops up steep trails; usually running rather than walking carefully, without one drop leaving the bucket.

lesson ten:- little does one realise just how covered the body is in sweat pores....when you cant think that you can sweat anymore - well you can, believe me!


the weekend in pictures...