After our short walk around Ouidah, we hopped back in the taxi and continued to Doutou (DUE – TOO), the village where Marianne lives. Marianne is a Christian missionary working to translate the Bible into the Saxwe (SAHW – WAY) language, living in a Saxwe community and learning the community language and culture. Her goal,…

Not feeling like getting in another taxi or bus, we decided to spend the day wandering around Cotonou. We needed to find a bank machine to get some cash, and we wanted to pick up a different SIM for my phone in hopes of figuring out why text and Internet were not working. Since we…

Today we took the ABC bus to from Accra to Cotonou. The bus cost was 79 cedi each (about $40). We also paid 20,000 CFA for Togo visas (about $40 each). The bus company guy did a really good job of guiding us through the visa crossings – which was really nice – it made…

We were a bit more adventurous today. We were reminded of our friends in Turkey who once told us “if you don’t ask us for what you want, we will think you do not like us.” It reminded us that what we consider “polite” in Canada may not be considered polite elsewhere. We also realized…

Saturday and Sunday night we are couchsurfing with a generous local host Aba. Aba’s family is from the Cape Coast area but her parents move to Accra so this is where she grew up. She runs a catering company, cooking food on contract for weddings and other special events. Before coming to Aba’s house, we…

I’m in denial. The reality started to sink in when we landed, but it hasn’t really sunk in yet. We are in Accra, Ghana – that is – West Africa! The smells remind me of a combination of Costa Rica and some kind of burning smell. Scott said it reminded him of diesel, I thought…