I Once Was Lost but Now Am Found

I Once Was Lost but Now Am Found
Lome, Togo West Africa
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Andy of HoboTraveler.com

I have been lost wondering in the wilderness. It does not feel good be lost, there is a sense of being weak, traveling by nature leads to a feeling of being lost or separated from the pack. Yes, although we make a free will choice, I do sometimes feel like I am not included, I am being excluded from groups. I feel a little ostracized from my own tribe, culture, ethnic group or caste.
My goal to travel was never to escape my family, friends or many of the small social groups, I personally did not see it as leaving home, just living a different way. I probably talk more with some of my family by internet than I did when I live close to them, because we write letters. I did want to escape the I-HAVE-TO-WORK or I am not OK mentality of the USA.

I do not want to return to the USA, I do want some of the benefits. I have found that living abroad has some problems.

The rapid change of the internet from sending newsletter to RSS feeds and blogs has cut me off from reading the current news of the world. I used to be able to read many newsletters, now they are almost gone. I found a solution, to the lack of empathy for the world that makes RSS feeds. The real global world or 80 percent of the planet does not have a 24/7 connection, we still need to download and read emails to do so cheaply. Now I have a work around and can read their RSS feeds offline.
http://www.rssfwd.com

Cut of from the Internet!
West Africa internet café or cyber cafes are so bad, I would almost say, there is no internet in West Africa. Now there is, as I am almost positive within the next two years all of West Africa will have GPRS internet connection by using a cell phone, so I am back.

Cut off from the Travelers in Africa!
Africa cut me off from Travelers, I have not be able to find them, I was not excited to look, but I found it strange an a little unnerving to not be able to ask them a few questions.

This isolation from travelers or better yet, people doing multiple country trips. In Africa there are these wanna be something’s that travel or are tourist but just do a 1-2 or 1-3 country shuffle, they do not do a good 5-10 country dance. I think a traveler is a person that at least gets beyond 3, maybe I am making up some more rules… as I go.

I think I found the Travelers in West Africa; I keep reading the guidebooks and thinking.
- A person has to be a Fou, has to be a NUT, and has to want to die to live in a tent and camp in West Africa. -

NOTE: Just because you never heard of a person, dying when they are camping does not mean it does not happen! A missing traveler is only missed by his family and friends, they just vanish.

However, duh, it finally hit me, this is not for camping, it is for his motor home, caravan, 4-wheel drive with piles of junk on their roofs to park, it is not for camping, and it is for parking a motor home. Parking is the need, not the camping; they need to park their home, then maybe a little camping.

I am found 4 travelers, they are in a camp site. I can now make first contact with the multiple country travelers in West Africa. I will go to the Camp Sites or Parking lots for the 4-wheel drive people.

Nobody wants to be in any forced seclusion, I know deserted islands, it is not a great place, unless you want to go crazy, the perfect.

I can tell you many stories of people getting robbed who camped.

Maybe all this information in somewhere in the Christian Bible:
Joshua 5:9–12; Psalm 32; II Corinthians 5:16–21; Luke 15:1–3, 11b–32; III Nephi 4:44–52; Doctrine and Covenants 152:4a

hehehe, want to get brownie points with my Mom, quote the bible.

I Once Was Lost but Now Am Found

Togo Hotel Camping

Togo Hotel Camping
Kpalime, Togo West Africa
Wednesday, March 28, 2007

I forgot about electrical problems, Kpalime, Togo has a small problem with the electricity going off, yet nothing close to Nepal or Lome, Togo. I am reconsidering the possibility that in Lome, the Auberge MyDiana maybe had a different type of electrical problem, I think the house was on a residential power set up and required a commercial account. Not, that the city should give preferential treatment to business accounts, but I think the Galion Hotel had less problem, they had about the same amount of electrical problems as Kpalime, but nothing close to the MyDiana Auberge, but no way to check, I would have to go over and say, hey do you have electricity every time one hotel went off, go visit the other.

Because the owner would not pay the residential set up, the city shuts them off more or allowed worst service.

Camping - When I camp, I do not have electricity always.

When I camp, I go the woods, and I accept that I do not have electricity and I deal with it. There is a lot of camping available in West Africa, the guidebooks are continually pointing where a person can camp, I am not sure, this may be because of about 90 percent of travelers through Africa seem to be in cars or SUV - four wheel drives.

When I camp, I plan on not having electricity, and then am happy when I do. This is what I am thinking about hotel camping. I do plan on having electricity in a hotel, it would be better to plan on not, and being happy because I do.

I do not try to camp, I only camp because I have no choice, and I do camp or live outside under the stars sometimes. I would think in reality I am better prepared to camp, then the person who plan to camp. There is an idea that a true backpacker is ready to camp, is living in a self contained backpack, ready to live anywhere. Cooking, sleeping, rain, mosquitoes and is ready for bear.

Togo Hotel Camping