A God send

Henry the driver and God send, drove me toward, Accra. So far the workshop had caged my exploration of Ghana, with that over on the 27th, I felt relieved. However the dust on Khzaima's car remained unwashed. Checking my email, I came across this in the inbox.

Salam Usman,

Compliments of the season. Hope you are having fun in accra.

There is a daddo maritime country manager sadiq, pullo on, pls feel free to call him if you need assistance or a friendly voice. Number +233 249 253 313.

Best Regards, Mahmud B. Tukur.

Sadiq, was on holiday in Yola, and but kindly dispatched Henry his driver. A brief parle with Khuzaima and Henry at the Sonset office and I had a mental itinery for the next few days. The Cape Coast and Akosombo would come later. But today that meant seeing the capital more and for the nation of Ghana that meant going to the Kwame Nkrumah mausoleum.

Zongowood and the day of the Assemblymen

My host Khuzaima easily spotted my Khaftan and black Indonesian cap in the arrival lounge of the Kotoka airport. Earlier I exchanged 20 Euros for 37.50 Chedes the Ghanian currency. The car a black Toyota Corolla was attired in a thin light brown veil of Ghanian earth, a drizzle of mundane dust that testified to Khuzima industry. As the Chief Iman's executive secretary, Khuzaima's attire was more much more heavenly . Kotoka airport is right in the city of Accra. The road to the great Accra area the new Fadama was very shaded. One of Ghana major highway's is named Olusegun Obansanjo! "What is this! I exclamined to Khuzaima", "Well it seems that former Presidents Obansanjo and Kofo had a good working relationship, we are good at that in Ghana, naming things after big people." The next road we passed by, Laura Bush road was an uncompleted confirmation to the vainglory of "big people". My abode for the past three days has been the Annashi guest house new fadama, my feet are up on the balcony (I love balconies!) and searching through the library of the Chief Iman house I came across "Life of Pi" a Booker winning novel, about a young boy castaway on the Pacific with a Hyena, a Zebra and a Tiger. Good company for the next few days. The new Fadama is a part of Accra know as a Zongo a corruption of the hausa word Zango which means "station". A Zango or Zongo (is a fulani suppose to care?) is a new neighbour for stangers, equivalent to the Sabon Gari's of northern Nigeria, a ghetto well? Sort of, the ghutters had the exact same stench as Obalende's but the layout was more spacious and organised, so it looked like Unguwan Rimi but smelled like Lagos! A prefect melange of two Nigeria's towns. Today is actually an election day for Ghana's "Assembly men", governement representatives at the local level all looking forward to becoming "big people". Ghana is considered to be "Africa's most sucessful democracy." Obama's vist in July giving it the US president's stamp of approval. In contrast to Nigeria they was certainly no "tension" in the air as politicians made their way through the Zongo's. The scene below is right in front of the Chief Iman's office.

At night another stupidly euphoric calvary passed by my balcony.

The room at the Annanash guest house.

Akwaaba

Akwaaba, that's akan for Welcome. Why am I in Ghana? for the pure joy of traveling. Well it's not that romantic, I do have a paper to present at a forum on climate change for Ghana's Iman's. The flight was brief and the clouds motherly. Ghana's kotoka is seems smaller that Murtala Muhammed. Small is beautiful as immigration, baggage pick up and security took no more that 15 minutes, my butt in a chair at the arrival lounge I await my host, the grandson of Ghana's chief Iman, Khuzaima.

Backlogs of sleep and thoughts

This time I took no chances, self discipline is the Fulani's religion. I followed my rules of peregrination. Take a day off from work before traveling to prepare. That helps to deal Nigeria's PHCN and other "invisible" enemies, (the ominous "they"). I've got a big backlog of blog to upload with electricity blackouts chased away from the Ghanian borders (and all of Nigeria's neighbours for that matter). It time to go into SEAL mode. Tomorrow a short flight to Kotoka international airport and Insha Allah, a start of a West African adventure.

Mosimi

The road to Mosimi in Ogun was cordoned by all things of a Sunday afternoon in Lagos, hawkers of bush meat, bare foot Aladura, prim and well groom families headed to Church, sellers of pirate DVD's and the occasional red faced white man supervising another road.

I should have left earlier that I did. Lagos knows no rest, no sleep, no siesta. Salihu my man Sunday thundered along the road leading into the deeper southwest of the great geographical expression. The cultural diversity of this Nigeria, would make leadership difficult expect to the bold, anthropological terrain so much different from the northern hinterlands. After a repeated starsky and hutch meandering and with the urban jungle behind us we see more of the real jungle. "We don pass Ikorodu, we go soon enter Ogun state". As it was almost magharib and Salihu's speach was a relief. "I beg which way to the depot" Mosimi is one of the locations of the Nigeria's many and ironically empty tank farms. The training division has fast track an order for my dispatch to the facility. "Go left, then right then gooooo, down for another 5 or 6 minutes you will see it." We thanked our path finder, in Nigeria it's important to greet before asking for anything, a hasty accostation is often interpreted rudely. The darkness had already set in by the time I got the the reception at the facility. It was too late to see anything much that night, but sunlight did reveal the somewhat serene milieu of the environ. I was particularly impressed by this trio of palms arranged in descending (or is it ascending height).
Father, mother and child. A palm family, Were they planted in sequence? Maybe palms like people shrink as they grow older.






The picture below is of the guest rooms at the center, the accommodation was not bad for the price (N4000, $26, 16 GBP). The worst thing that happen during my stay was the "shock of my life" The boiler in the toilet discharged some volts of lighting into my blood stream, so much for all those health and safety they give us at the office. I reported to the reception, and was offered another room; pity I can't sue the NNPC.

Late night walker

Its almost 20:00 in Lagos, going home one foot at a time.

hits from around the world

Even if its one line

Update......feet in Lagos.

Another 48 hrs in London!

What happens when you miss your flight at Heathrow airport

Due South

Destiny. Here I am headed once due south, no I didn't make it to dear Island, "Maybe you like someone to say behind," the taxi man said

Dead Man Island

Finally at Ross Priory. I set out on a journey 11 days ago to get as far away from "civilsation" as possible, to arrive at one place at one particular point in Time. Tomorrow will be the Climax of several months of planning, and determination and above all Grace. Ross Priory is a beautiful gothic priory next to the stunning Loch Lomond. On the way here I had some trouble with the cash machine, so the Cab from Balloch station to the Priory takes about 15 minutes costing roughly £10.00, their is a strange
Island in the middle of the Loch that looks like a me a pot bellied man lying flat on his back. The name dead man's Island.

The Athens of the North

My first trip to Edinburgh was in 2007 on returning from Inverness. The video below will give you and idea why this most historical of British cities is called "the Athens of the North"



















Edinburgh, Scotland's capital is for a reserved guy like me the one must see city in Britain. My first time experience of emerging from Edinburgh's Waverly train station and onto Princess street to be awestruck by the uber Gothic Scot memorial was back in 2007; and its history all around, literaly built on a the site of a volcano, its most famous feature being the Edinburgh castle is situated right on one of the several volcanic remnants. The fingers of God have really shaped the Scottish landscape into perhaps one of the most majestic highland regions in the world. The video above is from Claton Hill, the site of another extinct volcano.

The National monument of Claton hill is styled after the Greek Parthenon.

A hill of beans....

Checked in Fajr approaches, unfortunately I was unable to get a Window seat, a chance to see la sécheresse; the growing Sahara, I missed a window seat ticket to what would turn out to be a permiere viewing of Casablanca staring me.

Met Tesslim Salauden at the airport, we finished from the same Alma Mater, the Federal Univesity of Technology Minna, I knew I would meet a famillar face. His entourage of jellof rice and ox tail pepper soup helped ferry the night away.

I havn't made a stop over since my return trip from Dakar. For a muslim a to fly over the Sufi ocean south of Spain, to make a mere "stopover" at Morocco is a bad tease to the beautiful Magreb, Fez, Agadir, Casablanca, Bogart and Bergman.

An unwarranted insult to a concrete noun. But the heart is the from the King, of the King, and to the King. Let's all pray to wear Moroccan sandals one day. Amen, Amin, Om.

Into the Magrib

Morocco is known as the Magrib the Islamic east, a change of window seat on the flight bestow on me the majestic views of the mountains near the city of Agadir.


I believe its a Berber city. Our approach into Casablanca starts at few minutes later they are many farmlands and the human impact more visible as we approach landing.

Dead:lines

Right now I am outside one of the most "dangerous" airports in the World. The rush to get here, the separation from sanity the overbearing pressure of dead:lines, is best forgotten. I once described it as super hot, super flat, and super crowed. I am at the masjid outside the Murtala Mohammed Airport Lagos a man, probably the Iman sleeps in front in the Mirhab niche. Insha Allah lets watch this space.

The Muslims have a New York!

The dubai experience is as some say do buy!

Supreme Flight

As you might have guessed by now DXB is the code for Dubai. For lack of a better word my flight was perfect. The wide body of the Boeing 777-300 attacked the drag with little turbulence. Emirates have set the standard; supreme flight with a dash of ICE, (will get to that later).

There was quite a delay in taking off from Lagos, a conspiracy of weather and traffic, the artificial and natural. By coincidence, its exactly a year since my trip to Senegal. Then like now I arrived at the destination on a Friday.

I'm in Dubai en route to the 2nd emirate conference on Islamic Astronomy http://www.icoproject.org/conf2.html taking place in Abu Dhabi, capital of the UAE. Known for some ICE (Information, Communication, Entertainment) Emirates hyper interactive in flight infotainment system. ICE is bound to keep you plugged in. Even latest hits like Avatar where a click away. 33K was a window seat of course, this was the most rewarding precognition, the full moon rose up in its true luminescence over the plane wing as we headed eastwards. Its brilliance was pure white un-spoilt by clouds or air pollution. I could have sold my kidney for a camera.

Dammam, Saudi Arabia, and Bharain spewed bright lights below that irradiated outward, the network of sodium creating a spider web that were bound to abstract the glory of the heavens above.

The moon's light was so bright the plane's shadow was distinctly visible on the desert sand as we approached landing.

Immigration took an eye scan and stamp me in with the friendly Arab hospitality, the local du network was having trouble so I had to buy a phone card and got through to Simwal who recommend a cheap hotel in the Deira area. Finally having settled in the Muezzin called the Ahdan, so I prayed Fajr and slept.

Dubai is arguably the world's most talked about city. So I put the best feet forward.

BOUND FOR DXB

First trip to the UAE, 24 hours from I might be blogging from 38,000 feet. Haven't booked a hotel room yet but let's pray feet touch the ground. Seat number, 33k.