Burkina By Bobby

It is official. I will be finished with my Peace Corps service in one month. I should be finished with all the paper work and ready to leave Burkina Faso, by the last week in September. While I will be leaving Burkina Faso in late September I will not be returning immediately to the United States of America.

I, along with four other friends, are going to take advantage of the fact that we all currently speak French and are accustomed to living on a couple dollars a day and see some of the other countries in West Africa.

Current plans are subject to change depending on election schedules and political events. But as it stands we are going to travel to the following countries:

Mali: We may head up to into the Sahara, see a friend who is working for an NGO, make our way to Timbuktu down to Bamako and into Guinea

Guinea: Working our way through the green hilly inland of guinea we will then travel to either Liberia or Sierra Leone. This depends more on time than security as both countries are currently politically stable.

Liberia: This is the Biggest question mark on the trip

Sierra Leone: We will either enter from Guinea or come up along the coast from Monrovia (Liberia) This is the biggest attraction for all of us. From Here we will continue along the coast through Guinea and then onto Guinea Bissau

Guinea Bissau: This is supposed to be one of the most beautiful countries in West Africa and it is politically stable though the Economist reports that it might be well on its way to becoming Africa’s first Narco state!!!

Senegal: This is supposed to be one of the most developed countries in West Africa, so hopefully we will be able to recharge after crossing all these countries by land on bush taxis

The Gambia: This is a sliver of a country within Senegal, but again is supposed to be one of the most beautiful countries in West Africa and is one of the most highly anticipated countries on our list. After passing through The Gambia we will be back in Senegal

Morocco: I will fly to Morocco from Senegal and then continue onto New York and Chicago after spending a bit of time checking out Casablanca, Fez and maybe Marrakech

So there you have it. I plan to be home by Thanksgiving so this is all pretty ambitious for 9 weeks of travel. It is pretty likely that plans will change slightly and we will cut some things out in order to see West Africa without it having it be a race against time.

I will write more on this later, and I hope to post some short blogs as we travel. Check out a map or some information on some of the countries and let me know if there is anything that I should be sure not to miss. Most of our planning is coming through our Peace Corps networking and West African guide books, but it is always good to hear from other sources.