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Half a Year on the Road or

"Money, money, money, you know it's funny…"

Like a good American citizen, I voted on Election Day in November 2000. And like most people in the world waited and waited to find out who would be taking the oath of office. Two weeks later I left the US and wondered out loud where I would be when I learned the results (answer: Cairo).

The $0.99 Gore bill and the $2000 Bush bill and other political novelties are available at the slick times web site.

First to the UK where I taped a short segment for the TV show "Collectors Lot" in conjunction with David Nevill of http://www.africantradebeads.com. Then I stayed in London with Stefany Tomalin (her shop on Portobello Road is now closed) and conducted Bead Identification Workshops.

The new British ten pound note, along with all sorts of safety features, honors Charles Darwin.

Off to Cairo for a couple of weeks until the Berenike archaeological team arrived and the first group made its way south to the site.
Some highlights of the excavation are here.

Egyptian money honors both its Pharaonic past and its Islamic present.

One neat side trip was to Shalaten, the most southerly Egyptian city in the Eastern Desert. Camel owners from Sudan, dressed in their violet robes, make a lively market six days a week. The town itself is a huge bazaar for this corner of the world with goods and prices comparable to Cairo.

Once bought, the wonderful beasts are loaded into trucks and sent up to slaughterhouses in Cairo. Camel meat is a staple in much of the Middle East. And how do you prevent a camel from running away?

My next major stop was Ghana, where I could rest my eyes on greenery. I stayed with my friend Orlando. This is a shot out his window.

500 cedis (cedi is cowry), worth a couple of dollars when I first went to Ghana, is now worth only a few cents. It honors three important Ghanaian industries – timber, cocoa and gold mining. The country was once called the Gold Coat and Ashante Gold Fields was the first African company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

My talk at the Ghana Bead Society was well received
It was great to meet old friends and make new ones.

Dr. L.B. Crossland of the Archaeology Department of the University of Ghana, Legon, and I discussing, hmmm. Oh, yeah, beads.

When I took a picture of Orlando at the reception someone else had it in for me.

We made a couple of trips to the Krobo region to visit beadmakers. This sign directs you to one of them, Cedi Bead Industries, run by the well-known young beadmaker nicknamed for the cowry shell.

We also traveled through Togo to Benin. I was especially interested in learning about beads as used in voodoo.

Pythons are important in this native religion. They didn't scare me (I have handled snakes before). This temple is in Ouidah, center of the cult. The circular "snake house" is in the background.

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