Your Stories about Africa (country, life, speak, travel)

[SlowWalk]

I am curious how many have been to African countries and which is your favorite and why?

I'm a travelling wanderer and I have travelled to many African countries and many times to Ghana and South Africa. I will be travelling to Cameroon in a few weeks and moving through several other countries.

Also, I would like to live and work there. PM me with any recomendations how to go about finding expat or other work there?

I went to Johannessburg one December. Being mid summer, I was surprised how cold it was there high of 55 F. I can't recommend that part of SA in December; most of the city virtually shuts down because of holiday after 14Dec. My reservation meant nothing. No car available. There was ONE rental car left after looking at all the car companies at the airport.

Ghana is so far my favorite place in Africa; Mozambique my least favorite.

[Chava61]

I have been to South Africa and Botswana. I found Botswana to be a relatively safe place without the racism present in South Africa. Botswana is considered the "jewel of Africa" for safari in the Southern part of Africa in general.

[GTRhodes]

I spent a year in the coastal area of Nigeria, Cross River State, between the towns of Uyo and Abak. I was working for ITT Nigeria Ltd, Telephone Outside Plant, I ran a 25 man crew putting in PVC conduit that would eventually house telephone cable, we covered the conduit in concrete so any future utility burials would not cut the phone lines. One could not predict on any given day what would transpire, Elephants, Crocs, Hippos, Leopard, Mamba, Cobra, Krait, monkeys (NEVER throw anything at a troop of monkeys) Ikbo Masquerade, got spider bit, attacked by Elephants and one Leopard (not at the same time) mobbed by the Ikbo and stalked by them as well, surrounded by them one night as I walked back from a dance in a small local village. They asked for a bribe to spare my life, I gave them a half kobo piece, (about the same thing as half a penny, money wise) While in full regalia, the Ikbo can not speak, but....they were the finest mime troop I have ever seen, it was a fun night. Only later did I find out that the Ikbo are used for political assassinations because, while wearing the mask, they are not legally responsible for their actions. Just another of the legalistic quirks of an animist society. I loved it!! One of these days I may well get around to writing all of it down, lol, only half would be believed and all of it would be true.

[JoulesMSU]

I have been to Morocco, Mali, Gabon, and South Africa.

I really enjoyed each country and learned a lot, even though they are all very different from each other. I find the post above mine to be an unfortunate stereotype that most people probably think of when they think of Africa - wild animals everywhere, etc. Not so. I spent most of my time in the large cities; Casablanca, Bamako, Libreville, and Pretoria/Johannseburg. There was never any chance of running into an elephant, lion, snake or whatever you might think "roams wild" over there. In Bamako we saw some cattle wandering down a road on the outskirts of town, and a handful of stray dogs, but that was about it. Instead, what fascinated me was the traffic and the markets.

The markets in Morocco and Mali were especially interesting, you could find just about anything you wanted and there were no set prices - whatever you could negotiate was the price you paid. It was unfortunate that I was targeted for price gouging since I'm white, but I did my research and asked locals what they paid before I tried to buy anything. Like soccer jerseys, the locals generally pay about $3 for them. The merchants were trying to get me to pay $20-$30. lol I laughed and started to walk away when they started so high, they'd quickly come back down to more realistic prices so that they wouldn't lose the sale. The traffic was interesting too, motorbikes everywhere swerving in and out of cars, those shady vans piling in as many people as possible (while charging hardly anything for a fare) acting as taxis, police sitting in little stands near intersections and blowing whistles in order to pull cars over (this was especially lol worthy), very few stoplights (South Africa excluded, lots there). Was very interesting to watch and ride in, I don't think I'd ever want to actually have to drive there though.

Weather wise, Gabon surprised me. I was there in June, middle of summer, and it was fairly cool. I guess I didn't really do my research before going, because I was expecting the kind of extreme heat I'd had in Mali. Instead, it was constantly around 60-70 degrees. The Atlantic Ocean kept it pretty cool despite being right on the equator. In South Africa, I knew it was winter (also June), so I was prepared for the cold, but what I wasn't prepared for was that most places do not have heat! I had to bundle up under 5-6 blankets at night to stay warm in my B&B and also slept in at least 2 layers of clothing. But I was there for the World Cup so it's not like I really had many options either.

Mali, I knew it was going to get up in the 100s or higher (and it did), but it wasn't as hot as I expected (if that makes sense). It's more of a "dry heat" or whatever (very low humidity). I actually wore long pants most days (the country is mostly Muslim, they prefer to dress "conservatively" like that, so I did as well) and had no problem wearing that. I actually liked it too, because it meant there was no way I was going to get malaria since those kind of mosquitoes mostly target your ankles.


Overall, I love Africa. I definitely want to go back and visit even more countries there. If I had to rank them I'd say Mali was my favorite, then Morocco, then Gabon, then South Africa, although I'd go back to any of them if I had the chance.