What reminds us of West Africa (Mauritania to Cameroon)

 

·         Women carrying babies on their back

·         Street sellers

·         Rubbish including too many plastic water sachets and plastic bags [as an aside re: my rant about plastic water sachets – 270 tons of plastic waste is generated every day in Ghana, 85% of it from non-biodegradable bags containing purified water and icecream]

·         Goats (shorter and fatter than Morocco) and cows wandering around the towns

·         Drumming including lessons

·         Dancing – everywhere, even in the streets

·         Smiling kids with their double-handed waves

·         Kids shouting “Cadeaux!” [presents]and “Give me cash! Cash cash money!”

·         Street food (brochettes [skewers], fried dough balls, jollof rice, noodles with piment [spicy sauce], fufu, plantains, egg baguettes, Fan Milk icecream)

·         Hibiscus and baobab juices

·         Naked people wandering about town

·         Wigs

·         Corn rows

·         Organised chaos

·         Understandable laziness – it’s so f’ing hot

·         African time – there’s no point being in a hurry in West Africa

·         Warm beer

·         Diarrhoea

·         Staring at the sun at 3pm (as it’s so hazy during Harmattan)

·         Sweaty balls[thanks for that addition to the list Guber!]

·         Overly loud music from huge speakers blaring on the side of the road

·         Feeling your age – everyone in West Africa thinks you’re ‘way too old’ if you’re over 30 – you get called ‘Sister’ when they think you’re still young, and ‘Mamma’ when you’re clearly past your prime – it just comes a lot earlier here! Once I was even asked if I had grandkids – eek! I knew I had a 30s crisis this year for a reason!

·         Stinky dried fish
·         Masks
·            Falling apart taxis – one inventively had a piece of wood carved into the shape of a passenger window, and not surprisingly there was no handle to wind it up or down

·         Kente cloth

·         Charred ground (burnt off)

·         Beautiful bush camps

·         Mud huts

·         Muslim / Christian / Animalist (Voodoo)

·         White man prices

·         Albinos

·         Always selling stuff

·         Slave trade

·         Wooden sculptures

·         Baobab trees

·         Police checkpoints

·         Tribal face scars/markings

·         Humidity

·         Large belly button bumps on kids (apparently a mid-wife’s signature)

·         Open sewage

·         Purple and orange coloured lizards bobbing their heads up and down

·         French baguettes (ex. Ghana and Nigeria)

·         Constantly switching between English and French (French for the most part except in Ghana and Nigeria. But then in Cameroon, often people would keep switching between English and French in the one conversation and even within the one sentence!)

And the Top 5:

·         Women carrying everything on their heads

·         Hissing / kissing noises to attract attention

·         Colourful fabrics

·         Corruption

·         Friendly people