To go to Togo

On a Monday morning one might think “all I need is a good cappuccino and a ham and cheese sandwich and this day will be much better”. And then you walk to the nearest bakery and get it. And perhaps your day is much better. Or in my case you wait 5 days for the weekend to come, charter 5 friends, hop on the minibus and drive for 4 hours to Togo, land of delicious French food. Somehow British colonial kitchen combined with West-Africa turned into something quite gross. But French colonial cuisine combined with West-Africa miraculously turned into crevettes, ail, pain au chocolat et –whoohoo- baguette avec du fromage et jambon. I almost packed my 4 suitcases and moved. But then, around the corner of the patisserie, we found this creepy voodoo market:

And a nice and very serious looking young man explained me how to make the ‘love medicine’. I will share the recipe with you as who knows when it may come in handy for one of you. Scrape some powder of the scull of a monkey and add some herbs and water. Put 7 drops in your right hand and whisper your name and the name of the person you love 7 times in your hand palm. Then -quickly- invite the person you love and shake his or her hand. And for sure he or she will fall in love with you right away and you will live happily ever after. Unfortunately he didn’t say which herbs exactly, so I have to do some research on that.

Winter sun

Mission accomplished: Meije back on the plane all tanned and relaxed and ready again to cope with the rain and put her pedicured toes back into those winter boots. (Leaving me in Accra all re-energized by her lovely company, missing her terribly and eternally grateful for all those night shifts we used to work together, when we closed the bar and stayed for hours drinking Corona, telling each other everything there was to know about our life and became great friends).

According to most expats here ‘only people that really love you come to visit you in Ghana’ as opposed to those who come when you are based in Kenya, Fiji or New York. Apparently in such a place you may as well open up a travel company and hotel because you get visitors every week. However, with this picture I’m guessing that in the next few months perhaps I will find out more people love me during winter than in summer.

Out in Africa

Ok, so imagine for a second you are driving in a national park in the south of Kenya. The roads are muddy and slippery and luckily you’ve rented a 4wd. There are some deer, some huge colourful birds, zebras everywhere, but all you do is trying to look through your binoculars at the horizon. The road is bumpy, so it’s hard to not stick the binoculars in your eye every time you hit a pothole.

The zebras, the giraffe, the buffaloes, you’ve seen them all as they are everywhere. But the real thing is hiding. It’s getting a bit dark already and the dirt roads all look scary similar, and you wish you had a compass as you don’t remember whether the sun goes down east or west anymore and which way you came from. Then all of a sudden you scream “stop” because you see a big cat. Your handsome driver aka boyfriend hits the breaks and slowly you approach the cat till you get close and your face looks like this:

A safari is one of my new favorite things. Together with chocolate pies that are still melted inside. But what happens when you have a flat tire in the park and there are cheetahs, lions and leopards around? And not a single soul with a gun? And what if you have to pee? Although for that one I know now it's possible to just do it really quickly in the open field.

Camping in a national park is fun as well. But what to do when there are aggressive rhinos, hippos and crocodiles sniffing around your little tent? And I surely have to pee at least once every night. Thank God for the Masai warrior you can hire to guard your tent all night with a spear. He looks a bit weird with his earlobes stretched to his shoulders because of piercings and jewelery. But he does the job and did not fall asleep. Interesting people by the way, with their diet of milk and cattle blood.

Anyhow, we’re out of romantic East Africa, safe and sound, with all our hands and feet still attached to our bodies. Next trip will be Enschede for Christmas.