Come To Togo Ghana Benin for Free

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Come To Togo Ghana Benin for Free
Lome Togo, West Africa
Thursday, May 17, 2007
by Andy of HoboTraveler.com

I could give a person the money for a one-way ticket to Ghana, Togo, Benin, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, or Cameroon.

A plane ticket from Chicago to Accra, Ghana is about 550 US dollars one way. The cost to ship a package from the USA to Lome, Togo with DHL is…

382.04

I asked a man from France, the owner of a Hotel here in Togo, how difficult to receive a package from the USA. He says, the problem is customs,
he said,

- I had one small pack of CD Room shipped, the lady said, 5000 CFA, then I said, how do you figure this, and she scratch the paper, and then said 13,000 CFA.. I gave the money. -

Something to do with value, 13,000 CFA is about 25 US Dollars. Say the price of the CD Rom was 50 US, then I ship 400, that is 8 time 13,000 of about 200 US for custom.

382.04 for Shipping
200.00 for Customs

582.04 Enough to pay a person to come to Lome one-way.

448.50 is the value of what is in the bag, and insure only does 250.

The problem here is not the money; the problem is the scratch, the unknown amount of money to pay. A bribe, funky, no law, no rules life is difficult, how much before I desert the box at DHL, and say too much. How much is this worth to me? Any way I do it, they say I have to go to the Airport to Customs in Togo to pay.

The value of the package is 400, this is reaching for 1000 US, I can fly to Europe and fly back, maybe for 400? Oversimplified, I need to sleep, room, etc, buy, wait and it is Europe, and I may want to talk French French.

I am in Lome, Togo, I think it may behoove me to have the package sent to Gabon, Cameroon or Equatorial Guinea where I will need the package. There is one thing I do not do though in this process, I do not force the play, and I will allow my sense of instinct to guide me. When the time is right, the correct decision will appear.

Ever wonder why these countries have no money, there is no way for the person in the country to buy or sell, the country is held hostage by the import - export on a made-to-help-them scale of payments. On the other hand, I doubt they pay any person tax.

Now, it comes down this, in the not so straight countries, do we know a friend of a friend, which works in customs in Togo?

The idea of a courier is to bring in a package and get it through customs with the least amount of hassle. I need to think… I keep thinking I will see a Peace Corps and ask, I have not seen one person from Peace Corps for a month.

This is crazy, a person can fly a body, a live person and easier than shipping a package, this is the world, this is not the USA.

Shipping, DHL Shipping, Export Import, Togo Economics, Togo,

Come To Togo Ghana Benin for Free

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Reader Submitted Comments | Deleted Comments (0)

Rune said on Friday May 18th, 2007 01:33:00 PM

If somebody is willing to bring the package to Oslo, Norway, I could bring it with me from there to West Africa, but not until September though. That's when I will resign from my current job and start my new career as a hobo traveler, hehe. Great chance to visit West Africa.