When I arrived in Ghana my company told me that I will be travelling quite often between Benin (where I am mostly based) and Ghana (where most of my colleagues are and work). So, I was so excited about it, until I realized that we will do it by land. I can hear you wondering why not by air? Well… when you see the flight tickets prices within Africa woooow that is super expensive. It is cheaper to fly from Africa to Europe than between African countries, that’s ridiculous right ?!

Anyway, after my first land trip from Accra to Cotonou which is about 7 hours, I am now used to it and even customs in boarders know me well.

Now, let’s talk about how this journey looks like. Horrible, awful, exasperating. From Accra to Aflao, the border between Ghana and Togo, our car is almost stopped 4 to 5 times by police officers who most of the time want to find any excuses to bribe you a bit or even flirt with you (yes, I know it sounds crazy but it happened to me). Then, when arriving at Aflao, in the no man’s land you have a bunch of people coming to you, to carry your bag, to sell you local sim card, to change your money (ghana cedis to CFA,) to sell you african print fabric etc.. Let’s say the no man’s land is like a shopping market.

Now, it is time to pass all the administrations, worst part. It literally takes ages, but it never take the same time. Some days it can be a very long process (about an hour ) and another day you can be lucky  and pass the border in 20mn. As a young women I find passing the border very interesting. Wether soldiers, customs, policeman will want to flirt with you, or sometimes I feel like it is written in my head ‘I am a foreigner’ so, “undeclared customs ” will just stop me all the time. I hate them so much, they are just random people that seat at the border and will pretend to be customs so they can “check” your bag and ask for gifts if some things interest them.

The journey is long and stressful. I won’t event talk about how local are sometimes treats at the border. Everything is unofficial, it depends of the mood of the officer wether he will charge you more or almost nothing.

Despite to be stressful this trip still a good experience and I am now a visa expert!

In any cases, I realized that my smile is my biggest weapon, trust me.