Dust, Nice Girls & Motorcycles
I can’t tell you about Burkina Faso. That’s huge. But, I can tell you about Ouagadougou. Quite huge too, but, well, that’s actually where we went.
You cross the White Volta [always wondered why it’s white] like two times through Sudan country before you get there. I’m told we got to see it flowing because it was not the Dry Season.
And the architecture changes so drastically much as you penetrate deeper into the Sudan, you wonder if it’s the same stretch of land.
It’s interesting how phenomena like that come up — vast tracts of land broken up and differentiated by nothing but immaterial, invisible, boundaries. But that’s deep sociology — we’re just travelers, man, not even geographers.
And it continues like that all the way to the border at Paga. The vegetation tries to, pretends to, change after you cross the border but it’s just the same Sudan broken up by patches of forest. They are quite large patches nevertheless and they’re protected areas. Would you be willy-nilly about your forests in the Sudan?
But one thing a sensitive, or perceptive, or etc, person would notice is how the Sudanese forest [what I call what we found in Ouagadougou — not using it as an official term] differs from the Guinean one [what we have in Ghana — also unofficial term]. The atmosphere of the former feels lighter, less dense, than the latter, from Tarkwa to Adaklu. It’s probably an issue of humidity — don’t forget to say you heard it here first.
We saw a marshbuck in the Parc Weogo too. Anyway, wonderful sight! This guy was tough. The meat on this guy must be something only aliens can grade. I formed the opinion that day that animals that grow up in the wild, with all its dangers, challenges, peculiar and vast wide-ranging opportunities and benefits, are more authentic than those in captivity or on farms or whatever — I know it just makes sense that it’s so but not every time is what we think to be the case the case.
The creature could have been a Greater kudu too — they look alike — but I don’t know marshbucks to reach the size and kudu range isn’t West African. But chale, human invention is diverse and extensive - the guy may have been introduced.
Here comes the best part.
Then there were the girls: fine creatures! In this current climate of sexual harassment, hey, I must be very careful with this topic. But, hey man, like my man 2Chainz says “I love bad girls, that’s fully my problem” so if you ain’t a bad girl, don’t come roll with a bad boy like me. Or else, like 2Pac says, “IF YOU WANNA roll with me, baby, here’s a chance” for “behold, I stand at the door of your heart; if you let me in, I will come in and dine with you.”
And, man, I made this one girlfriend like that, but we didn’t go as far as you’d want for a juicy story, girl. We had to leave the very next day after I met her and she was going to get off late — like 2300h, then the story starts to go downhill: we returned from our night on the town even later — no hope.
Oh, but there’ll be another chance, man. Aww, I tell ya, I tell ya, there’ll be another, baby!
When it comes to food, everyone knows Ghana is boring. But then Ghana is a very conservative, traditionalist, very British — so they say oh! [don’t look at me, I’m just the writer], place. But these guys, they really are food artists. You should try their charcoal-grilled soybean kebabs.
So!
So!
We didn’t at all do a good job of getting under the skin of this place — too much taken for granted in preparing. For me, it was my first long distance trip in years so I’m pardonable, easy; doubt about the others. We promise to do a better job on the next trip.
Just so.
