I got eight passport photos taken in a shop on the Rue Nelson Mandela Saturday afternoon. They are possibly the ugliest photos of me ever taken. It was 105 degrees, I was tired and sweaty and my hair was greasy and unkempt. The photographer tried to make me smile, but instead managed to capture my face twisted into what can best be described as a nauseated smirk.

But there's no time to get them retaken. I went to the Embassy of Burkina Faso this morning, filled out my visa application in triplicate, paid the unreasonably high fee of CFA 30,200, gave them three of the photos, and left my passport with them. I'll pick up at noon and take it to E's office, where I'll give it to his administrator Ibrahim. He will take it, my Ghana visa application (completed in quadruplicate), four photos, and the more reasonable fee of CFA 12,000 to the Ghana Embassy. Their fee may be more reasonable but they demand an inexplicable three days for visa processing, so we'll all cross our fingers and hope it's ready by Wednesday afternoon.

If all goes well, I'll be joining E on an overland trip. I can't find one good map with all those places on it, but you can see on these two:

Day one, we'll leave Bamako, Mali and head southeast, aiming for Bobo-Diolasso, Burkina Faso. We'll continue all the way to the capital, Ouagadougou, where we'll spend the night. Day two, we'll head almost due south into Ghana. Our destination is Tamale. We'll spend two nights there, then turn around and drive back.

As E pointed out, it's a once-in-a-lifetime chance for me to sleep across three countries. (I am notorious for falling unconscious within the first few minutes of road trips. I barely have time to buckle my seatbelt before I nod off.)