Burkina Faso and Northern Ghana

I had a very eventful weekend. On Friday I left early in the morning on a bus to Bolgatanga (aka Bolga) with Billie and Jess and then we stayed over night in Bolga and did dinner with Jess and Faye who were on their way to Paga. Bolga was kind of a sketchy town and it was super dark at night but we had a good dinner and a nice room which was cool. Jess met with one of Sheena’s friends who introduced her to someone who knows a lot about female circumcision (her thesis topic). Our room was pretty nice and the food there was decent.
The next day we got up, had breakfast and met up with Whitney. Then this guy Yao who Jessica met and a couple of his friends took us around to the Tongo Hills and Shrine. We didn’t end up going in the shrine (because it was raining and the local tradition also requires women to take off their shirts and bras) but we saw the hills and the caves where there were schools, or meetings or hiding places which came in handy when there was a battle with the British. Then we met the chief of Tongo (who has 16 wives) and saw his palace which was pretty amazing. My camera’s battery died part way through so I need to get pictures from some of the other girls, but it was pretty amazing.
When we got to Paga we crossed the border into Burkina Faso, which was a bit of a long drawn out process, but we made it. Then we exchanged money and caught a tro-tro to Ouagadougou (pronounced Wa-ga-doo-goo), the capital of Burkina Faso. It took us four hours by tro-tro with 2 dead cows on the roof.
So we finally made it into Ouaga and got a cab to a hotel. The guys who worked at the hotel were super nice and showed us a restaurant where we could get some food. My French was the best out of our group so we were able to navigate reasonably well and I could translate most things. I was proud of how well I did with the French actually.
On Sunday we wondered around the city a bit, saw some different things and went to some of the markets. Most people there were super nice but some were super aggressive. It was exhausting having to translate and feel like I was in charge, but I was proud of myself for handling it. Saturday night we had the most amazing meal at this swanky French restaurant. I had spaghetti carbonara and then crepes for dessert. It was unreal. Ouaga was more expensive and nice than we had expected. Burkina Faso is the third poorest country in the world, so that was a shock to us. Some of the architecture was gorgeous too. Most things were closed on Sunday which was actually surprising to us.
Monday we got up super early to get to the bus station for a bus that never really showed up. We ended up getting in a tro-tro that was a super stressful experience. In the end the tro-tro got us to Paga where we crossed the border again into Ghana and went into the town of Paga. We did a tour of a traditional village and then went to a crocodile sanctuary where you buy a live chicken and then some guy lures the croc out of the water with the chicken and you can go up and touch it and some people sit on it. The crocodile that came out was huge and they slither and walk in such a gross way. And then there were two other ones that were on either side of it. You can’t approach crocodiles from the front or they get scared so you have to go around behind them to touch them. But because there were two others on either side that were facing the big one, I was a huge baby and was too scared. But some of the other girls went up and touched the crocs tail. Too scary for me. Then we chartered a taxi back to Bolga and found a bus going to Kumasi that would drop us off in Tamale on the way. We ended up waiting for 5 hours for the bus and then had a four hour bus ride back to Tamale. It was an exhausting day.
Overall a very interesting experience and it was really neat to see the differences between a french and english colony. There are many, but the food is most notable.