Back Online (And Other Stories)

Ok, so it’s finally time to break radio silence – apologies to everyone for not filling your days with wonder and laughter as usual… The reason has been that I’ve been away from Cotonou, and on my return half of West Africa was out of internet as apparently a ship had hit the sea cable from Europe. Anyone notice?

There’s a LOT I want to write/show since the last post so I’ll break it up over a few rapid fire instalments. But the general topic is going to be a little trip I made across West Africa.



Here at last!



A good start

Yep, we didn’t leave on time, of course. I say we – I should probably mention that Rian has made it here safe and sound (Martyn I hope she’s already texted you. Otherwise apologies for the late notice of your daughter’s safe arrival to Benin….).

The first hurdle was my illness, which left me in bed for the better part of a week. Although pretty uncomfortable, I mostly missed work days, so can’t really complain!



Bothered



Next hurdle: visas. Visas, visas, visas.



It turns out that to get to Ghana you have to get a visa from the embassy in your home country. As I wasn’t ready to pop back to London, I had to put on my best charm. And after 5 visits to the embassy here, I finally swayed the consul to let me visit his country. Thanks very much to them, it was nice.

But visa issues are never over: my Benin visa was about to expire, and I was pretty keen to get back into the country. This is the official procedure:

1.       Get proof of residence from your neighbourhood chief

2.       Get slightly more official proof of residence from the town hall

3.       Get even more official proof of residence from the town hall (NOT at the same time. MUST be done sequentially. Requires your landlord’s signature. Who happens to live in Nigeria. Damn. Also very expensive to get.)

4.       Get immigration approval and visa extension

After 3 weeks and only getting to step 2 in the process, I tried “Option Number 2”:

1.       Go straight to immigration, smile sweetly, and enquire whether there isn’t “another way”. Oh, and bring some loose change…

So, good to go?

No. Still visa issues, I’m afraid.

We weren’t travelling alone. A good friend here, Iris has just finished her year in Benin and we arranged to do Ghana together. However, she had less success charming the Ghanaian cashier lady, and met with a few more formalities to meet.

It came to a head when we were both at the embassy (separate issues), and Iris complained about the unfairness of her treatment as opposed to mine – “Why do I have to when he didn’t?”. Fair question. The reply: “Ah. He should have done. I’ll have to notify the authorities and they’ll cancel his visa.”

Ah.

Smile sweetly. Hope…

After a bit of ego stroking, they decide it’s not worth the hassle, and tell us there’ll be no problems.

Excellent. Everyone has visas, we’re sorted.

Not quite.

I call another Kiva Fellow in Ghana, with whom we’d hoped to meet up, and in fact whose address we were using as the “official address while in Ghana” for the visas.

“I’m not sure I’m going to be able to help you after all,” she announces. “You see I’ve just realised I’ve overstayed my own visa, by over a month. I’m focussed on trying not to get deported right now…”.

With that omen we hit the road. That’s the last I heard from her until we arrived at her town in Ghana….

But more on that later.

Lessons from this blog? If you have to get through red tape in West Africa, make sure you get started early. And always look for another, simpler way...