Eastern West Africa lap complete

The sights in West Africa are “few and far between.” This saying is usually an exaggeration meant only to add emphasis to a story but not altogether true. It is difficult to express how literal it is here. The countries here are pretty big and the distances are made almost impossibly far by grueling transport but there is almost always something along the way in a journey, right? Not so much in West Africa. There are very few “tourist” sights per nation. In fact, after our recent lap of eastern West Africa, another saying comes to mind. In West Africa, "the journey is the destination."

We took a month long tour which brought us from Mali, through Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin, Togo, Ghana, back into Burkina and eventually returning to Mali - all on public transport. What is that like, you ask? Well, if any of you happen to have a sauna in your house (maybe you are Finnish or maybe just eccentric) you should invite twenty to twenty five of your buddies over, heat up the sauna and all sit in it together for about twelve hours. Provided that your sauna is no larger than a cargo van, you will get the idea. For those of you who do not have a sauna available in your house don’t fret, you can head on down to the local YMCA and perform the same experiment. They have suanas there and you will probably end up with a more authentic experience anyway, what with the locker room smell, the others being complete strangers and your strong desire to be somewhere else after about ten seconds.

In reality, the transport in places like Guinea, Sierra Leone and the Ivory Coast made our transport in eastern West Africa look like a couple of recent grads backpacking Europe. It is difficult to describe those transport experiences without developing a nervous twitch or tick, so we will leave that in the past.

Anyway, you will all hear more about those travels. We will fill everybody in on the highlights soon but for right now we are off our Close of Service (COS) conference. Once we have been taught how to be Americans again we will get to the trip tales. For now, just know we are safe “home” in Mali.


(Mark outside of the car, resting on the curb, as is the radiator...)