Ghana w/ Chad Wallin | You Be Trippin' with Ari Shaffir

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Are you ready?

Yeah, for sure.

All right.

I love that clapping.

Slayton.

I'm gonna go ahead and queue you in.

I should be producing

in five, four, three, two.

Where you been, and where are you going?

This is our

travel show.

Yeah, we're gonna talk about travel today.

It's you be trippin'.

yeah

hi everybody welcome to you be trippin' it's the only travel podcast wait it's a travel podcast where me my guests uh go to a different place every week it's the only travel podcast that stands strongly against the new works teachers being shot by their students today my guest is producer and

documentarian chad walleen everybody

Rick Lean, you might know him as.

Damn it.

I mean, we should explain that at some point, right?

Yeah, why did it start?

Did we put in the explanation when it started?

Did that one come out ever?

It hasn't come out yet.

Okay.

Which makes it confusing.

All right.

Well, whatever.

Yeah.

Which one was that on?

I think Ari Matty.

Okay.

That'll come out in not too long.

Yeah.

Before this.

Well.

All right.

Where are we going?

We're going to Ghana.

This is cool.

It's my, it's on the west coast.

Oh, no, no.

Not my homeland.

West coast of Africa in this little

elbow part.

Nope.

Not Somalia.

West is.

Oh, that's right.

That little.

Okay.

Ghana.

Somewhere around here.

Sierra Leone can't reach yeah damn this is an old fucking thing okay anyway why'd you go so I've been through travel a lot right yeah I've been to like 36 countries or so damn travel quite a bit been there three times it was never like a place that called to me necessarily like Japan or Vietnam did um

but each time was like a different reason and the first time I guess I could uh just go chronologically yeah like what why how do you go to a place that doesn't call you?

I know what you mean, but like.

Yeah, the first time I was on this,

I worked on this ship that circumnavigated the globe.

Yeah.

And so that was one of the

cruise ship that was turned into like a university.

It's called Semester at Sea.

Really?

Yeah.

Theo did that.

Did he?

Yeah.

Yeah, I've done it.

So I went as a student, and then they hired me to do audio-video stuff.

Yeah.

So I've been on it three times and went kind of all over the world.

What do they do?

What's the curriculum on this shit?

It's all over the place.

They teach you actual liberal arts stuff.

Yeah, so it's like all over the place.

They have all kinds of classes you can take depending on the.

This is semester at sea?

This is semester at sea.

It was like just a boat with like 20 people on there.

I think that's how it started.

This is a cruise ship.

Yeah.

This is way different than I imagined semester at sea.

Yeah, it was pretty crazy, pretty wild.

It was fun, though.

There's got to be fucking going on in this.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

How would they stop it?

They don't.

Oh.

That was there.

I mean, you're at sea and there's no one else to choose from.

Yeah.

Everybody's fucking.

Right.

Wow.

It was like 400 students on there.

Oh.

Same age groups.

Yeah, for the most part.

Wow.

Yeah, okay, obviously.

Drugs or no?

How you get there?

There were drugs.

So it would stop in different ports and we'd be there for like anywhere from three to eight days.

And like every time we were somewhere, I would just go off and do my own thing.

Yeah.

So depending on the country, you could find drugs.

Yeah.

What do you mean, do your own thing?

So like in India, I didn't come back to the ship at all the whole time I was there.

Or Japan, I just took a train to the other coast and then went up to Tokyo and just

couch surfed and stuff.

And they don't really check in on you.

For the eight days you're there, you're just like, go, do whatever.

Just go.

Wow, what?

How old are you?

Mid to early early 20s.

During this?

Yeah.

This is when you're working for them or you're actually doing it, you're talking about?

Both.

Okay.

Yeah.

You could just go off for eight days then.

Yeah, I don't know what it's like now, but back then it was pretty loose.

But if you didn't come back in time, they would leave you.

They'd leave you.

Yeah.

How do they explain that to the parents?

It's not up to them to explain it, you know?

Like, your son's not here.

We're removing fucking school.

Gone.

Yeah, I mean, well, I mean, like, port times, the ships have to leave at a certain time because other ships are coming in.

Wait, what are the age groups of people doing this?

It's just like 20-year-olds, 21-year-olds, or is it also like high schoolers?

No, no, high schoolers.

It's all college, all college.

But then they did have like,

you know, older people that they called lifelong learners, you know?

So, but they, yeah.

Were they fucking?

Probably.

Hopefully, just each other.

Wait, you get off this boat at 21 years old.

What's waiting for you?

Drugs and hookers.

Yeah, and parties.

But I mean, like,

I was into that stuff, but like,

I was more into

let's get a small group of people and just go like, you know, couch her for staying with local people.

Hell yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I tried to get past the drugs and hookers and just like get a cab and go into the end of the day.

Well, no, not always, not always, but

I mean like general.

Yeah, yeah.

yeah.

I kind of wanted to get as far away from the students as possible.

Right.

Yeah.

And then when I was in Ghana,

this ship came into port, and I saw it from the outside, you know, like hundreds of students coming into this country.

Yeah.

It was kind of sad.

You know, I had never seen anyone throw up on the streets of Ghana before until they came in.

And we're just, it's like, oh, that's probably not a good thing for our image.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So the first time I i was there is for a week and i basically you know i just did kind of touristy stuff saw like a giant in ghana yeah giant waterfall monkeys and you know small village wait how do you know which ones of all those pictures go back a few

and go back two more and now slowly wait one more

And then go forward.

How do you know who is from forward, forward, who is from Ghana and who was just visiting?

Keep going.

Keep going.

Keep going.

So, like, how do you know?

Of showing me these pictures, are these your classmates?

Oh, the one back there throwing the hands up.

Yeah.

What is this?

This is weird.

Yeah, so that's cassava.

And they.

When we talk about the food, I'll show you what they do with that.

Okay.

Where is it?

How far away from port is this?

You're just by yourself now?

How are you getting around?

This was probably several hours from the port.

Probably more.

Yeah, yeah, so transportation is like it's either cab, yeah, or they had these they're called tros, tros, yeah, like a tro tro van.

So basically, you just pack in with people, yeah, and uh, how much is this, and whatever, it was and just goes to where it goes.

It's just it was super cheap, yeah.

Um, let's see, fucking families in there

look so sad, girl.

I know,

damn, Damn.

Yeah, so

the place I stayed the second time I went was probably

four or five hours from the port.

Yeah.

One of these.

How are you renting this?

How do you know about it?

So

they're, you know, they stop along the roads and you can kind of just hail them down or they have specific.

But like, who told you how to do it?

I don't remember.

Probably.

Probably the guy I stayed with.

This guy, George.

Yeah.

So the second time I went,

he's great.

He's clearly rules.

The second time I went,

I started an education program there

where we paired students in Ghana with the classroom in Kansas City.

We paired them as pen pals, and they met through Skype to group our project together.

Oh, wow.

And I was going to do it probably in like South America because the time zone lined up better.

But when I was in Turkey, I ran into a guy that I had met in Ghana the first time I was there, and I told him about the project.

And he's like, well, you could do it in Ghana.

Like, they're pretty welcoming to that kind of thing.

And connected me with some people.

And then I posted it on, I think, couchsurfing on a forum.

And George responded and said I could stay with him.

What year was this?

2014.

Okay.

Couchsurfing is still cool.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And this was his place.

Have you done it more recently?

Couch?

No, I mean, I feel like it's way different.

I think you have to pay for it now.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

And I don't know who would, who's on there anymore.

Yeah, who's on there anymore?

It seems like we're too many weirdos fucking it up.

Yeah.

Either creeps or like thieves.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I stayed with some creeps before.

Yeah.

So I knew somebody got real mad at him because he wouldn't like

he wouldn't like hang out in his bedroom more.

Yeah.

He was like, I don't want, I'm not doing that.

And he's like, I've got to get this whole story.

This guy's screaming at him.

And then, like, locking him out.

And you're like, all right, this time is over.

Yeah, I had to sleep with the guy in his bedroom on the floor.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was weird.

He showed me a bag of his hair.

Yeah.

What?

Yeah, so I left.

He had no furniture.

And he, like, his closet was full of the same clothes.

And all he ate were like frozen burritos.

Where was this?

That was in Austin, actually.

All right, so wait, wait.

So you go to the first time.

First time was just

how did you know then to get out and go get guides and stuff?

That's what I'm saying.

Was it the ship telling you like there'll be somebody doing a tour?

I think the ship would give you like a sheet of, you know, recommendations and like language stuff and currency stuff and like just basic kind of shit.

That's so cool that you did it, though.

But yeah, I think in any port, you can, when you walk off, you can find someone trying to sell you some kind of trip or bus or tour or something like that.

Times Square is that.

Yeah, so that was that time.

But what I did find interesting,

you might like these.

These are Ghana?

Look at these houses.

Oh, yeah.

This is

actually the place I stayed the second time.

Which house?

That's the gray one, yeah.

Just concrete and nothing.

Concrete and nothing, and then this is the

inside.

what yeah

so there's no kitchen no bathroom no ac wait it's a grid screen room

yeah shot a lot of content did you forget to put the background in yeah

i don't need that what wait go back

how hot is it in here oh

sleep on a fucking uh yoga mat

Yeah, because it would be like sometimes 100 outside, and so that place would just cook.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But this was our makeshift kitchen, just the hallway.

And we washed our own clothes.

Damn.

So the neighbors, they were nice.

Hi, everybody.

Let me break into today's episode to tell you a little bit about the guest Chad Wallen.

Really helped start this show here at the YMH.

He's moved on to...

bigger and better things but he's got a documentary on Ghana on these guys who stand outside and like

hustle tourists outside a former slave castle in Ghana.

These guys are like, you know, you see them in all your travels.

They run up to you,

kind of aggressive.

People tend to avoid him.

But this film he's making is about their lives and their perspectives.

And Chad is trying to raise funds to finish a film.

Trying to get $20,000 to be able to finish this film and kind of bring to light what these people are going through and just kind of be able to see them as humans.

So there's a link at the bottom of the screen.

It's on the screen right now.

And there'll be a little clickable link at the bottom of YouTube or Spotify where you can go and donate to the film.

You can follow Chad on Instagram at

Chad Thomas Wallin, C-H-A-D-T-H-O-M-A-S,

W-A-L-L-I-N.

Follow him, get on there.

He's got music stuff, travel stuff, and whatever.

Tells travel stories.

But help support his documentary.

The Castle Boys.

Help him make something that's pretty cool.

Chad, as you know,

so we use to cover up

the word

petri on this show, and we replaced it.

No, wait, I'm sorry, I was wrong.

We use Ari for that.

Damn it.

Ari file.

Chad.

Chad is Chad.

Chad is Chad.

That's right.

So that means last week you heard him say Ari over

a few places.

That's Ari.

Chad, best of luck to you in the future, man.

I wish you nothing but the best in all your travels and all your adventures.

I hope you raise money for this documentary on Ghana.

So I'm now officially pulling you as the cover for the R-word.

For me, I've got nothing going on.

You can go to Arieshair.com and subscribe.

Wherever you're watching or listening, go to AriShafir.com and get Yubi Tripping t-shirts that I'd love you guys to wear out in your hostel adventures.

Go for a hike shirts.

There's still a few Feidelberg shirts left over from America Sweetheart and stay positive shirts.

And go at the fest shirt.

And guys, I guess shroom fest I should tell you about.

It's coming up September 6th, 7th, and 8th.

Wherever you are, get some mushrooms, try to find them now, and then participate by doing mushrooms.

It's a Saturday, Sunday, or Monday.

The reason it's three days is because you got to do it responsibly.

And if you've got a big wedding on Saturday, then don't do them on Sunday.

If you're Jewish, you've got a big wedding on Sunday.

Why can't Jews do it on Saturday?

One, rates are up,

get cheaper rentals on Sundays.

And two,

it's Chavez.

Where the hell are you going to do that?

So,

wherever you are, just do mushrooms.

Oh, let's get back to the episode.

Ghana, this is an interesting one.

The dark continent.

We got to do more Africa stuff, but nobody's really been there, but some people have.

Anyway, let's get back to the episode.

What city is this?

This is in Almina.

Okay.

It's like on the coast.

Do you know?

Are you familiar with that?

No, not at all.

Okay, so

it's probably like.

Pull up a map.

Do that for me.

Alright.

Yeah.

And how far did it take to get there?

You got straight there and they let you off?

Like, you can stay with this guy for however much and like go for it?

Yeah, I had been in contact with him.

Okay.

And

told you,

like, which business is there?

I think he met me in the airport.

Like, at the airport.

Because, like, when you get off the plane, it's like everyone's rushing at you.

You look like Theovon here, too.

I know.

Oh, so my hair was so long and like stupid looking that the kids thought I was a girl.

So we had to cut my hair.

Okay.

Go full screen on that.

Let me see this.

Okay, back up some.

Or ex that out.

They're talking shit back there.

For sure.

Cape Coast.

Keep going back out.

More, more, more, more, more.

Wait.

So, okay.

Here's the capital.

That's where we that's where I would fly into.

Yeah.

And then over here

is where we stayed.

Wow.

Where I stayed.

Elmina?

Yep.

Damn.

Okay.

What did you do all day?

Well.

Oh, the shitters in here must have been fucking horrific.

Do you want to see what they're going to do?

Yeah, let's see the shitters.

Is it inside or outside?

The shitters.

I mean, I can't.

If I had to guess if Ghana has

First World or some Other World toilets, it would be Other World.

What do you think they look like?

I think they're.

Okay.

Either built up.

It's going to be a hole in the ground.

Or a reclaimed fucking, like, you know, the worst toilet in Scotland from train spotting?

Like, pick them up, but put Josek out in the woods.

Or just a tree.

Oh.

Really?

Yeah.

What do you mean?

Where would we just

stand and poop into a puddle?

Yeah.

Jesus, bro.

Certain parts of the beach

is where most of the people went.

Yeah.

I can never.

Are there other people around you at this point?

Like, if you're out there shitting, you can't be the only one shitting.

No, sometimes I stumbled onto people, but I actually never did this because I just couldn't, you know.

So there was like a hotel like on the edge of town, and they had a bar, and I would just walk like 20 minutes to the bar.

And do it at the hotel.

Yeah.

What do they have?

Regular hotel.

Nice.

This is where the people you stayed with shot.

Yeah.

I I mean, it's pretty.

It is pretty.

Except for knowing there's a bunch of human dumps in there.

Yeah.

What would you do?

Put both feet on rocks and then just like lean over into one of the puddles?

Just kind of,

you know, squat.

Do you know?

But yeah, I couldn't ever figure out how to

make that work.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's hard to stay up.

That's hard.

Especially when you're out in the elements.

Yeah, and then there might be a wave coming, wind.

You got to kind of prop yourself up, but now you're like hands in shit in like in possible shit like area.

They really don't really teach you for this.

That's what they should help you with on the boat, on the boat.

All right, go ahead.

Yeah, so you hung out here in this place for like a week?

I was there for five months.

Really?

You just stayed?

Well, I was doing this education program, so I was like there for

the semester and you know, teaching and running this project where, like i said we like

connected students through like skype

and uh they did like art projects and

whoa whoa

that's that dude again wait back up back up back up

that's george

oh they all wear uniforms like that

how big is soccer in this world huge yeah look at that kid just like enough with the picture let's get a game let's come on guys let's get this game going the gas stations there would project the soccer games onto the side of them and people would just all gather outside the gas station to watch yeah yeah is gone any good in like world cup stuff or yeah i think they they played i think in one of the world cups like a year or so after i left here they played the usa yeah yeah oh really do they do any do they do it any good i thought you were gonna fart who's this guy

I don't know.

I thought it was Michael Jackson at first, but it's totally not.

That might be their pen pal, actually.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Wait, go back.

Let me see when they're talking to those people.

They're talking to those people.

On Skype.

Yeah.

So these people are where?

In Kansas City?

Yeah.

So my friend was a teacher there, and she ran it on that side, and I ran it on this side.

We had a, we, like, I did a fundraiser in my hometown.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What do their jerseys say?

Peace?

Spelled wrong?

Peace go.

Pisco.

Oh, that's the name of the school?

I think it's.

Wait, what do they speak in Ghana?

English?

So there's they speak English, but there's like a bunch of different languages.

Yeah.

There they spoke Fanti.

It's called Fanti.

Okay.

Yeah.

You're learning?

Yeah, so like, which was cool because every time you learned the smallest amount, everyone would just be like, ah.

Yeah.

So if you said like, no fucking way.

If you said Atsuden, that means, how are you?

And if they said it to you, you'd say Boko, and that means good.

But even like that small amount would be.

So they passed you, they'd be like, Atsuden, and you'd be like, Boco.

I was like, casually after a while, they'd be like, what the hell?

Yeah.

Did they touch your hair a lot?

I could see that when I'm like, this is wild.

The kids, especially, would, you know, run up to me and yo, Brony, which means white.

What is it?

White.

Yo, Brony?

Brony.

Brony.

Yeah.

Oh, that's cool.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's funny because that's Bronnie James, plays like a white guy.

Jake questions.

Oh, yeah, I got

so hot there.

It looks like it, dude.

Fucking hell.

What are we talking about?

We're mostly talking about how the other students live, what their lives are like.

They're like coming up with what's our place like, you know, and like kind of doing this cross-cultural exchange thing.

What do they think of the Kansas City people?

I mean, they really

liked it.

I think they,

you know, I don't know.

Yeah.

It's weird because it's just such a different world, you know.

So, I mean, they were all very excited to do it.

But, you know, like their classroom is

third floors.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Makeshift wood desks.

But they all, they all, like, really liked talking to their pen pals, which was fun.

Did they know anything about American culture?

Like, do they get American TV?

They watch American movies sometimes,

but their TV is wild.

Some of their shows are,

I don't know, like ridiculous.

It's hard to explain.

But like,

you know, the wife would be cheating on the man, and then he would, like, you know, slap her and stuff.

Really?

And they're just like, what are you laughing about?

Like, oh, they just don't do this where I'm from.

Yeah.

I tell you what they said in Romania.

I did a joke about the N-word and the F-word and the R-word.

And I'm like, and I'm like, it got lumped in.

The R-word got lumped in with the N-word and the F-word, F-word for gays.

But I wasn't saying that yet.

I was just saying the N-word.

And some lady in Romania has raised her hand.

And I was like, what?

She goes, what's the F-word?

And I was like,

you know what the N-word is?

She goes, yeah.

And I'm like, so the F-word's like, for gays.

And she goes, oh,

why don't don't you just say that then?

Just say the word.

And I'm like, oh, we're just not allowed where I'm from.

She's like, why?

I'm like, I don't know.

It's just the rule.

It's kind of different.

Yeah.

I think it's making its way back.

That was making its way back a little bit.

It is fun.

It's losing its connection to the gays.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But it's still got that connection to the gays enough where it's like, yeah, I can't really like it.

Yeah, I don't really like it.

I don't really use it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I use it in text a lot, but

sometimes in my game chat with my friends.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

I screamed at Joe DeRosa once at a crowded

arcade bar when he was rushing me and I was drunk.

I was like, wait a second.

And then we both like froze and stared at each other.

Well,

you're an interesting guy because publicly you're a fucking lunatic.

Yeah.

You know, you're yelling F word and like shitting on stage.

But like secretly, you're kind of a thoughtful, nice guy.

I realized that was wrong in public.

Yeah.

I realized it did sound bad.

Oh, so.

So

you stayed with him and who's this?

That's a fucking Ari file.

Yeah.

Wait, no.

So this guy's named Seth.

And when I was typical name for one of those.

So

when I was there the second time,

he was also there and he was staying like several hours away.

And I had never met him before.

And he rode his motorbike into town.

And the guy I stayed with, George, he's like such an outgoing kind of dude

that you know, he started talking to him, and then he found out he was from Nebraska, which is where I'm from.

So George called me and said to come have lunch with them.

Turns out we're from like the same county, and like he's like one small town over, and I had never met him before.

Yeah.

And he was like dating my former guitar player's ex.

Whoa.

Yeah.

So both in fucking Ghana, so I've never always heard from each other.

Yeah.

And he goes, hey, I got a cup if you want to hold it.

Well, we were at a party.

Oh, okay.

Yeah.

I wasn't.

All right.

And you're like, yeah, bring that cup.

I'd love to hold it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, you know, one of those small world kind of things.

Yeah.

Damn.

That's wild.

He drove all the way just to see you.

To see me.

To meet you, I mean?

No, he was going there because on.

Do they have regular parties here?

Yeah, they party a lot.

Nice.

It's fun.

He went to that town because in that town there's like a tourist attraction.

It's like an old colonial castle

that they used during the slave trade, basically.

And George,

the guy that I stayed with, he and his friends hustled tourists for money outside of it.

And so, yeah, that's how it is.

What's the hustle?

All kinds of hustles.

Sorry, my phone's gone off.

All kinds of hustles.

So they would,

you know, they would.

Either make bracelets or make seashells with your name on it or they would tell you they have like a soccer club that they want you to donate to, and there's no real soccer club.

Yeah, they do that here, too.

Or they'll be like, hey, can you exchange these Euros, but you don't really have Euros?

Or like, you know, they make the exchange rate weird and they end up on top with that.

Oh, right.

Yeah.

That's why I went back the second time.

I went to,

because I became friends with George and all of his friends.

And I just saw these like tourists coming and going and being afraid of these guys.

And if you go on trip, trip advisor, it's like, stay away from these guys.

They're sketchy.

They're dangerous or whatever.

The Ghanaians or whatever you call them.

What do you call them?

The Ghanaian?

Ghanaian, yeah.

But they're really not.

You know, they're just making a living and they're actually not that sketchy.

Like if you were to get your bag stolen, they would go chase it down and bring it back to you because they don't want anyone...

They don't want that reputation and they don't want anyone fucking with their

money.

Is that everywhere?

Just like just these small towns or like the big cities the same way?

The big city's probably a little rougher.

A little, but like

dangerous, dangerous, or just like

no, no, I never, I don't think it's dangerous at all.

What do you think the travel advisory says?

These are fun to do.

Look this up.

But what do you think it says?

Do not, pretty much do not go.

Be very careful or use regular precaution.

I think it's going to say

use regular precaution, but I couldn't.

Okay.

They usually err on the side of like, just don't fucking go.

Stay in America.

This way.

Is it safe to go to Ghana?

That's what you gotta put in.

Exercise increased caution.

Increased caution.

Due to crime and violence.

Because members of the LGB community.

That's if you're gay.

Yep, boom.

Let's see.

Okay.

That's the same thing I found.

Okay, now Reddit, safest country you can go to in Africa, it said.

Yeah, it's actually very safe.

Because they burn them alive, right?

Do they have witches there?

Some areas have increased risk.

Read the entire travel.

Okay.

Ports, be more careful.

It's fine, actually, it's not that bad.

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Yeah, so they're actually very welcoming and friendly there, and they call it the gateway to Africa.

And I feel like, you know, Africa.

Not the gateway with the the why.

Not with the why, no.

Yeah.

Not really.

So, you know, Africa is a big continent.

There are many different countries there.

You know, like Morocco is way different from South Africa.

You know, Egypt and Kenya.

They're all way different.

But like, Ghana, I think, is a good kind of entryway into Ghana, you know, because it's.

Into what?

Into Africa.

Into Africa.

It's like a safe,

you know, middle ground, I think.

Yeah.

So.

um wait wait put that on the screen.

I want to see the the law of Ghana.

The law of Ghana.

Yeah, hold on.

LGB travelers.

Okay.

Ghanaian law contains prohibitions on unlawful carnal knowledge.

Generally interpreted as any kind of sexual intimacy between persons of the same sex.

It's illegal.

I'm not gay.

This doesn't affect me, but it's interesting.

Punishments include fines and/or incarceration.

But that's what you want to be if you're gay.

With other gays locked up with no eyes.

Yeah, I mean,

maybe it's not safe for everybody.

Yeah, whatever.

But

targeted assault, right?

And you're gay too.

Harassment due to their identity.

Okay.

All right.

But it seems like besides them, it's fucking chill.

Yeah, pretty safe.

Okay.

Pretty safe.

Some parts you want to avoid.

Like, yeah, in areas near the northern border, upper east.

Okay.

Alright.

Keep going.

Interesting.

Where am I at?

Okay.

So, yeah, I went back to shoot this documentary, and I essentially shot it with them.

Damn.

Fisherman.

Yeah.

So the two things they can do there is either hustle at this castle or fish, you know?

Okay.

So

some of these.

Oh, I thought that was your white friend who was hustling.

That's them.

What would my white...

I don't know.

It didn't make sense.

I was like, he's hustling tourists.

No.

Okay.

these guys.

That makes more sense.

Yeah, I don't think.

I was like, how are the tourists falling for this?

Yeah, Trip Advisor is not writing reviews about my friend Seth.

Right, right.

Yeah.

Those bracelets are pretty, though.

Yeah.

I would get one of those.

How much would those be?

A dollar tops.

Well, you know, maybe five.

You got them?

It's interesting you say that.

Wow, look at these roads.

This is just a fucking dirt hill.

Wow.

DECC.

That was the name of our project.

Wow.

With the Ghanaian flag colors?

Yeah, my friend made those.

Whoa.

I mean, they're cool.

How much would this go for?

It depends on how much they could get out of you.

Right.

What's like a typical amount?

And what's like the most?

I'd say about five.

Five bucks.

Yeah.

It's like, okay.

Yeah.

I mean, it's sewn by hand-ish.

Yeah, yeah.

Or whatever.

I have a video of them doing that.

Really?

Yeah.

I think they weave it in and then cut out a a hole here

in the shape?

Slide the whole thing in.

It's basically they're just like wrapping real fast in different ways.

Yeah.

Weird.

I'll get to that.

So we're here.

This is George and I guess we're drinking and drunk here.

Yeah.

Dude, I have a problem where any time I see people drinking in foreign places, I want a drink and a smoke.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Go back to to that one again.

What kind of bears us?

Yeah, I for sure want a klube.

Yeah, it was great.

Is that their beer?

Look how young you look, Chad.

I know.

God damn it.

But I was like 30 there.

Really?

Yeah.

Oh, you look so much younger.

God damn it.

You face horribly in Austin.

What's this documentary?

This documentary is about the school or about the castle?

It's about the castle and it's about

the time where it puts in the stamp of the year, of the

time.

Yeah, this is all just like behind the scenes shooting stuff.

Damn.

Were they open to like you shooting stuff?

Were they talking to you?

Were they interested?

Yeah, so

I feel like not many people could have made this documentary.

The only reason I could is because the second time I was there, I stayed with George and became friends with them.

And

when I was about to leave, like the guy that kind of led the group, he was like, you know, of all the people who have been here, we trust you the most, which was, you know, cool to hear.

But,

you know, it's a big.

They knew you weren't going to just come in and fucking,

I don't know,

use them and leave.

Yeah.

Yeah, they got to know you.

That's so cool that you're

Yeah, that's the...

Oh, it's pretty dirty.

I did occasionally.

You're not supposed to?

I mean, they do.

Yeah.

But

I'd try not to.

Wow, that's cool.

Wait, is that the flag?

No, it's a different flag.

Go back, one.

What is that's the Ghanaian flag?

No.

No.

So these all these ships

Sometimes I mean a lot of them are Ghanaian, but sometimes

other countries come in because there's great fishing there.

Especially the Chinese.

The Chinese overfish there.

Really?

Yeah.

Where do they come in from?

I don't know.

Just get around and just fucking do it.

Yeah.

Dude, China rules with like, nah, we're just going to fish in your spot.

Yeah.

They really don't give a fuck.

You really got to threaten nuclear to get them out.

And then South Africa does it with the gold mines there.

Gold mines in Ghana?

Yeah.

We'll give you guys pickaxes if you let us have the gold.

I mean, I'm sure it's good for the government.

Damn, what'd your family say about you living here?

I mean, they've always been supportive of my traveling, and I think they thought it was cool that I would just go do something like this, you know, with no like real,

I don't know, just on my own to do it.

Mm-hmm.

That's nice.

Yeah.

What's that guy, heroin addict?

He's one of the guys that hustle there.

Is he sleeping against that pole?

I mean, they're there

all day, every day, you know, for hours at a time.

So when it's slow, they just kind of.

But he's standing up.

Is he taking a nap, standing up?

Leading?

Maybe.

You can.

Nope, you can't.

I mean, is he just sleeping against a pole?

I think so.

That's the wildest thing I've ever seen.

He's just standing.

Just is are there dangerous animals on the ground?

No, no, no dangerous animals on the ground.

He just put his head on a pole and then just like leaned into it and fell asleep.

I think he's just bored, you know.

Wow.

How do you not is he pissing?

No.

What

did see a lot of outdoor pissing there?

Yeah, I bet.

Yeah, I bet.

How did it smell?

What's the smell in uh in this town?

Um, it wasn't terrible unless you were by, like, there's street gutters that are like three feet deep, and people piss into that.

So, okay, yeah, that doesn't clear much.

Looks pretty green to be honest.

Yeah, it's very beautiful,

it's very pretty.

Um,

Here's more.

Wow.

It's so fucking decrepit.

Yeah.

Is this still in use?

Just for tourism.

Like you go and you tour.

This is the old castle.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, this was like the Dutch, I think,

built it, and then the Portuguese took it over, or vice versa.

Dutch were low-key badasses for colonization.

Yeah.

They don't have a name, but they really took a lot.

Yeah.

That's here.

So they're coming from like here, taking that, which is tough.

But also, they got all this.

They got Trinidad.

Where the fuck are the Dutch coming there?

They go around that way, I guess.

I don't understand.

Yeah.

There was a lot of that back in the day.

Yeah, not Trinidad.

I mean, East Timor.

Yeah, how the fuck did every I heard it was all like, like, hey, like, French for a minute were like, hey, we're not going to do colonization.

And this was like, all right, then the British are taking that.

Like, fuck no, we'll take it before they take it.

Yeah.

Yeah, so.

Okay.

Yeah, so this is basically them.

This is what they're hustling.

So they play soccer back there.

Okay.

Waiting for someone to come out.

So like all these people show up to tour this place.

Yeah.

They're making these seashells.

Drawing on them.

They're making these bracelets.

How are they building this?

Traditional art?

Are they just like, whatever?

We give them Sylvenia and they also give us Sylvenia.

Exchange is no robbery.

Yeah, so just busloads of people come through.

Are people saying it's like robbery?

Is that where they're saying it?

Yeah, I mean, people

tell other people to avoid these guys.

Yeah, sure, but they just don't like it.

I got the connection.

But they like run out.

Chibo jersey, back up some, backbock a little bit.

This is what happens when you do not commit to practice.

You end up on a fucking Ghanaian.

Somebody came and jettisoned that there.

Wait, did Tebo play for the Jets?

He did.

He brought them to God.

That's some fucking backpacker going, oh, I gotta lose something.

I'm like, I don't need this Tim Tebo jersey, actually.

I could just leave this here.

Yeah, one time I showed up in a cab.

Look how angry Bobby Lee is.

I showed up in a cab

and they thought I was a tourist at first.

So I like,

they came running at like rushing at me and they're like, they saw me and they're like, oh, that's you.

I mean, how easy is it in a place like this?

How much easier is it to spot a tourist over some place like Kansas City?

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's just like, white one, get him.

This is the documentary?

These are parts of it.

So we are making it.

The way is long.

Celebrating like a lot of the big name that day.

We joke with a wicked man who wanted to see us down, you know.

But God make us strong.

And we got fucking money.

Yeah, you got points of money above.

Yeah, that's fucking money, man.

Yo, your brain didn't understand.

It's a fun day.

Yeah.

That's a young Jeezy song, Lyric.

Everything that guy just said, word for word, to be honest.

Yeah.

Yeah, so that's just, you know, parts of the document.

Wow.

I'm still working on it.

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Did you get to know them, know them?

Like, did you hang out?

What did you guys do day to day?

You're there for five months.

You're not just.

So this time I was here for one month shooting this.

And yeah, we hung out.

We went to.

They had bars there.

They had like, yeah, they had like a club on the in Cape Coast, which was like 10 minutes away.

And we just hung out.

And

sometimes I would, not this time because I was shooting pretty much every single day.

But sometimes I would go to other regions and travel around and see some shit.

But, yeah, I just hung out with them.

Oh, that's what I was going to ask you.

What's their religion?

Or are they religious?

Christian.

Christian.

And then in the northern part of Ghana, it's

they're Muslim.

Okay.

Yeah.

Mostly Christian here, though.

Do you agree that Muzzie should be a derogatory term?

Should it be a derogatory term?

I don't know if it's a term at all, but if it's not, should we nominate it for one?

You say Muzzy?

I did.

Isn't that like a language learning program for kids from like the 90s or the 80s?

And you think they're anti-Muslim?

Maybe.

Wow.

I don't recall that.

Muzzie, can you...

If someone doesn't mind, look up.

I guess Urban Dictionary probably would be the spot for that.

Yeah, you guys could

look it up.

It's gotta be.

Anytime you shorten something and add a Y, that's derogatory.

It sounds bad.

If we get demonetized on this episode from just that, from calling you clearly said Muzzy.

For making up a slur.

If it catches on fast enough.

Muzzy.

Language learning.

Okay, no, no, no, no.

Urban dictionary, Muzzy.

A term for marijuana.

Interesting.

Huh.

Of Muslim in appearance.

Oh, what?

Person of Muslim origin and appearance.

Does it say it's derogatory?

Wait, did you already know that?

I do not.

I'm in tune with derogatory, the derogatory world.

Short for a person.

Okay.

I know.

He's such a Muzzy.

Okay.

Last one.

Put in is Muzzy

derogatory.

Slurs.

Oh, they spell out IE.

Isn't that interesting?

All right.

So IE is the slur, and then why is maybe the learning program?

Oh, wow.

Well, should we record next?

Hold on, let's record a quick segment for next week's episode.

Guys, I said some unfortunate things last week on the Ubi Trippin' podcast, and I would like to tell my listeners that I'll try to be better.

I did not know at the time that that word was hurtful,

even though I did break it down, and that's that's why I first suggested it because I thought it probably is one I should not have done that and I'd like to apologize to my probably fucking under seven Muslim listeners and I'll try to be better in the future

okay let's get back to next last week

I don't think you will

fucking Muslims always coming after you

they are the coolest they're not they're not really like cancel culture they're just like we'll just take care of it yeah

like when Muzzies get mad bro they just handle it.

Yeah, just the way you say it.

Like, campaigns and hashtags.

The way you say it does make it sound bad.

Yeah.

Jewy, interesting.

It's lengthening.

Also, it's descriptive.

Muzzy is not descriptive.

Jewy is like, look at that guy.

He might not be Jewish.

He's acting Jewie.

Can't act Muzzy.

I don't like that either.

Yeah.

All right.

Let's see your painting.

So they paint.

I know.

I paint.

some of my artworks.

Straight.

Dude, they had this.

This is like

word for word in Myanmar.

The same kind of people hang out, paint this on the same rollout paintings in like the temples in whatever city.

Yellow means the rich resource.

You mean the forest.

That's good.

And the style stands for the forest.

And they run off a bunch similar, but they're all individual, right?

But they do paint them.

They just kind of

follow the same.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, each one's a touch different.

Yeah, and they said you can crumple it up and put it in your bag.

It won't break.

Yeah, I had some right here.

Really?

Yeah.

This is from Ghana.

Yeah.

This is that guy's painting.

Interesting.

Tony.

Real name?

I don't know.

Do they have normal names like that?

Um, sometimes, like, their first name, it's usually like first name is Ghanaian and second name Christian.

So like, uh, George is actually Kwame.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Which one's which one is Christian and which one's Ghanaian?

I haven't figured that out yet.

Kwame Brown, huge busts for the bullets.

Damn cool.

How much is this?

Anywhere between like

20, 20 and 50.

20 and 50 bucks.

Yeah.

Again, it's like

for me, it's it was, you know.

What?

I still.

I mean, are you on a massive budget out there?

Is this like end-of-the-trip kind of expenditures, or are you spending this all the time?

I was.

Wow.

I was.

These are really pretty.

Oh, so for your favorite, I think.

For this,

with the film, I had budgeted to have expenditures like this because

I knew I was going to take them all out to dinner and

buy them drinks and food and just spend extra money there because they were collaborating with me.

Yeah.

Oh, that's cool.

Like, spread it around a little bit.

Make them like you.

But one of those is for you.

You can pick whichever one you want.

You can put it on this set.

Damn it.

It's my favorite one.

This is the one I already know.

It's my favorite.

Really?

No, I'm kidding.

Oh.

Wait, really?

What?

Can I have one?

Yeah, of course.

Oh, nice.

All right.

Which way does this one go?

This one's sideways.

This.

And this one's up and down.

Yeah.

So, like.

Well, that one has Africa on it.

And it's probably.

Oh, look at the back of this.

Selected

harp sprit.

Oh, it's on the other side.

Wheat, millbite.

Pride of the West.

Wow.

How did they get this?

Product of Ghana.

I don't know.

This is just a rice bag, flower bag, in Ghana, and they paint on the back of it.

Wait, so which one's that?

What do you mean, what's Africa?

It's the African flag.

It's an African flag.

No, the continent.

Oh.

Uh-oh.

So you can see it's this way.

Yeah.

Oh, hell yeah, bro.

Yeah, you can put it in here or in New York, whatever you want to do.

I mean, I'll put it in here.

I'm going to eventually bring all my New York stuff here

when I move out.

So it's going to come here eventually.

Wait, so you're moving, moving?

Yeah, I'm going to throw all my shit.

I'm going to downsize.

Hell yeah.

Yeah.

Then move to London.

But then I'll get it back and take a lot to London, so I don't know.

Wait, where'd it go?

Well, that's not really downsizing.

Where do you see it?

Yeah, I mean, whatever.

I'll downsize the rest of it.

Yeah, and then I'll buy a bunch of IKEA shit when I get to London.

Okay, well, we have room for this.

When we set this up, the whole point was to be able to grow this.

Ooh, maybe right here, right here.

Yeah, we'll tack it on there.

Okay, we'll tack it off.

That's your job for after work.

Thank you.

Okay.

These are great.

Yeah, and they like.

Okay, so that's their hustle.

It's not a hustle.

That's a job.

Yeah, I mean, but the way in which they do it is

kind of a hustle, you know?

Yeah.

Wow.

But yeah, for the documentary, I interviewed them all.

Wait.

No.

I'm sorry.

I thought I saw the the logo for that on here.

Okay, keep going.

You interviewed them all about what?

Life there?

When I was six years old, I started coming here.

Yeah, just about.

And Sarah, she did this to me, and then this is what I don't.

I don't like it.

I divorced Sarah.

Tonight I'm boozing.

I get some money today, too.

So, and

I'm bringing some girls with me too.

I love girls, you know.

If you can give me one minute, please, please, I'm coming.

Yeah, they would have been.

It's a Tebow jersey.

They would run off during your job.

They were getting abandoned by our fathers, you know.

So our moms are the ones that take care of us.

They get abandoned by their fathers.

Yeah.

They suffer.

So we also have the intention

to take care of them because hip-hop culture is a very good thing without them.

They do, but they also have

their own music there.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

There's so much in my head that I want to do.

I'm a dreamer, like always dreaming for bigger things.

My bed, I sleep on.

Damn, it's fucking poor here.

I have have my titty that I sleep with

that steady.

Say hi.

What?

Anytime that someone needs some place to sleep, and I help him with this bed.

That's not a fucking bed, bro.

It's a folded-up blanket.

Yeah,

small living room.

I appreciate that much.

What did you sleep on when you were here?

Did you have a cot?

I had like a little rolled-up

yoga mat?

Kind of.

Or mattress.

this thing

that's okay, that's okay.

That's a mattress.

Yeah, thin, but it's something, but it's something.

Yeah.

Did you date at all while you're here?

No, but there were like um

there were some like Peace Corps people there that I would hang with and you know, not date, but to hook up.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You can't be somewhere five months without like

getting a nut.

I don't think on this time because I was so busy shooting and I was only there a month.

But yeah,

what's the food like there?

Food.

And is that all different in the different African countries?

Or is it coastal is all kind of the same and then inner is all the same?

I think regionally it's somewhat similar to some other coastal places.

Yeah, like Guatemala to Mexico, it's like it's pretty close food.

It's on the borders.

It doesn't stop.

You know?

Yeah, so this is

a light soup or palm nut soup.

So they have these like balls of like starchy kind of.

The one on the left looks exactly like my ball.

Yeah.

It's the way the sack hangs.

Yeah.

It's the one on the right is lower.

And then the one on the left is kind of upper more.

And then there's no dick in this picture, obviously.

But like, yeah, that's exactly my balls.

The one on the right.

What's crazy is a little lower.

Yeah, I've seen your balls.

If we insert this, a picture of my balls, would that get us in trouble?

Probably.

I mean, we could blur it.

Relax anything.

We'll do it in post-doc.

Yeah, it's crazy.

No, no, no, no, no.

It's crazy how much I've seen your balls, and you're like, it is crazy.

You're technically like one of my bosses, sort of.

No, we both work for the same boss.

Yeah, but on the hierarchy.

Yeah, yeah.

Can I fire you right now?

No, I don't think so.

Of course you'd say that, though.

You could probably call Tom and fire me.

Tom, I had to fire a chat today.

He's seen my balls one too many times.

He refused to look at my balls.

So you eat it with your hands.

Ew.

It doesn't seem like like the food you'd eat with your hands.

It seems way too wet for this.

Yeah, you eat soup with your hands.

And then drink the whole thing?

Yeah.

Is that chicken bone on the bottom?

Yep.

So like you'll grab the starchy thing and like kind of scoop up the soup.

Okay, it's mozzarella soup.

Just made a little different.

Yeah.

Do you,

is it spicy?

So it depends on.

West African food is hella spicy.

Depends on which one you get.

Like palm nut soup's pretty spicy.

The light soup is lighter, so they call it light soup.

And then they have ground nut soup, which kind of tastes like peanut butter a little bit.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Let me look at this scene here.

Okay.

There's a restaurant.

Yeah.

Plastic bowls.

Plastic fucking utensils.

Bring your own soda.

Damn.

Okay.

Everyone wears slides?

Or a lot of people?

A lot of people.

Yeah.

They're also wearing jeans and long-sleeve shirts a lot, too.

That's interesting.

Yeah.

I did not.

Well, I guess I did wear jeans sometimes.

What is that?

Just like I'm a man, do whatever?

They do that in in the Dominican Republic, too.

Yeah.

You know, you get used to the climate and the weather and you just kind of want to look good.

Yeah, dude, this thing is awesome.

This is how they make that little ball.

Oh.

Wait, wait.

Do you know the.

Start for the beginning of this.

Do you know the Instagram account, Secret Buttholes?

No.

What?

Secret buttholes?

No.

It's just stuff that looks like buttholes in nature and stuff.

It's somebody squeezing a donut and then jelly comes out of the middle.

It's a secret butthole.

Do you guys want to look up secret buttholes?

Yeah, we got to submit this to us.

It's the first shot in this.

I kind of wish yours was more secret.

Well, yeah, that's why I'm not on there.

Just stuff that looks like buttholes.

Look at that tree.

Tell me, does it look like a butthole?

This is kind of cool.

They have a little black to it.

Oh, I love it.

Stuff that looks like buttholes.

It's like a nice light, like.

Oh, look at that one in the middle.

That's great.

Definitely looks like...

Ah, that one looks like cum coming out of it.

To the right.

Secret gay butthole.

Yeah.

I think my brothers are like

this.

Your brother, what?

My brothers would like this.

Oh, who wouldn't?

Wait, let's see the chocolate one.

Play on that.

This is going to be fucking perfect.

Yeah.

It was a little secret butthole for a second.

Now play your video again.

Start over.

There's a moment where it's this total secret butthole.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, secret butthole.

Okay.

All right, put God on the map.

Get him on secret butthole.

So, yeah, those were, you know, those, when you asked me earlier what those things were that those ladies were gathered around, they were the white things in those buckets.

That's what this is.

It's cassava that they pound into that starchy, sticky substance.

The men work it?

Yeah.

Is there like gender

roles pretty pretty strong here

yes they are actually george's mom like wouldn't let me do my own laundry after a while she found out that i was doing it and she was like no you got to bring it over that's chick work yeah is that the reason well either that or she's just she was being really accommodating and nice you know but yeah i think kind of that too it's weird though when it's like the kitchen stuff in me in

i'm trying to think where maybe me and mar the chicks work pave the roads huh They're out there fucking doing all the whatever, and the men are doing basket weaving.

Really?

Yeah.

Whatever culture that is, I think it's Myanmar.

They got it right.

Yeah, so more rice balls and then.

Yeah, these look less like my balls, but the one on the right looks like a secret butthole.

Go back one.

So I'm sorry.

Stop acting like a Muzzy for a second and do what the juice says.

Yeah, that totally looks a secret butthole.

Guys, you got to put us on this.

Come on, secret buttholes.

I Put us on.

I don't.

I guess you see.

See what looks like a little piece of poop that got pushed in and now it's coming back out.

Well, you see.

You know, you kind of suctioned it out.

You see what you want to see, you know?

You do see what you want to see.

Deep, Chad.

It's fucking deep.

This is watchy.

It's basically like noodles and beans and some other stuff in a bag and you'd buy it on the side of the road and you'd like bite open the corner of it and just kind of smoosh it in your mouth.

Oh, wow.

What is it?

What's in the bottom?

Beans and stuff?

Yeah.

And then noodles on top.

And then sometimes like lettuce or fish and then spices and

a sauce.

Is it water in there or is it just like...

No.

Okay.

It's not like a soup.

Okay.

That's so cool.

Water sachets.

There was no real, like, couldn't, I couldn't drink the water, and they all drank these too, but little water sachets.

It's just bags of water.

Again, you bite the corner off and.

And then suck it out.

Yeah.

What's that?

Hot chicken.

That looks spicy.

Go back one.

That looks spicy as shit.

That's the kind of stuff you eat, though.

You're just like your head sweating.

Yeah, I think this was...

That might have been

a squid or something in there.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

This is very green.

This is outside the castle, so we'd break for lunch and they would feed us.

Okay.

How'd your stomach take to the food out there?

Not too bad.

I was fine.

Red red's basically plantains and beans.

And it's the same thing.

Use your hand fork.

Pretty much for

Show the hand fork.

Explain it.

The hand fork?

Yeah.

No, you got to.

You kind of just grab the whatever the harder or stickier thing is.

You grab that, and then the other stuff you scoop up with that.

Yeah.

Okay.

And then, you know, right in your mouth.

It's this thing, right?

Yeah, it's this kind of.

Yeah.

You just push it out into your mouth.

Uh-huh.

Do you wash your hands first before that?

Or are you just going?

I think I tried washing my hands, but, you know,

sometimes you're just.

I mean, when I was staying in that green room, sometimes I was peeing in bottles because I didn't want to go outside.

I do that all the time.

Yeah.

I do that in my own home right now when I don't want to go downstairs.

Yeah, Danny said he's he's done that and they all everyone in the booth was like, ugh.

And I was like, What are you guys?

What are you talking about?

You don't pee in bottles?

Sometimes you got to pee in bottles.

You ever reuse the bottle?

For what?

I know, right?

No.

I mean, like, what if it's one of those Yetis?

Well, you don't want to throw that out, yeah.

Yeah.

But also those Yetis and what is the other bottle?

Stanley Cup?

Stanley.

No, not Stanley.

The little screw top.

Turbis.

Chicks love them.

Stanley.

Stanley?

Anybody?

It's like it keeps it hot or cold, whatever's in there.

It's Stanley.

Okay.

I'm thinking that's not the name.

Yeah, you're not going to chuck one of those.

And also, it keeps the smell away the most.

Yeah.

No one sees it.

Yeah.

Well,

like...

Like I said, often the kids would run up to me, you know, and.

Want a Stanley fool of piss.

Don't startle it, man.

Well, you know, like, I didn't sometimes, if I didn't want to walk 20 minutes to go to the bathroom, if you go outside and kids are walking up to you, it's not a very comfortable position to be in to try and pee.

So, oh, yeah, I would just pee in bottles and dump it later.

Yeah, especially later at night.

Did it get cold at night here or no?

Cold

sometimes, maybe like

a light sweater,

but not often.

Okay.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah, this is what I'm talking about the equator, but this is what I thought you would like.

Yeah.

They have signs everywhere, but all their places are called.

Yeah, called something kind of off.

I love this place.

I gotta get out of here.

Everybody has kebab.

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

Fried rice, plain rice, cooked jollof.

Yeah, Jollof rice.

rice.

Yeah.

That's other places too, not just Ghana.

I think so, yeah.

Nigeria?

What's the weirdo in Atlanta?

What's his name?

Where's he from?

He's from somewhere.

He's got roots.

Weirdo in Atlanta.

The weirdo character, the Finnwood.

Not Paperboy, but he's like from.

Gator?

What?

Gator?

I know, but he's from.

Keith Stanfield?

Or the character?

Oh, the character.

I don't know the actors' names.

Yeah, the character.

But where's the character from?

Maybe it's Nigeria.

Why do I feel like Nigeria?

Is Nigeria on the other side?

Yeah, that's him.

Darius, yeah, yeah, yeah.

That guy rules.

That guy fucking rules.

He's the funniest thing on TV.

Put up Darius Atlanta Nigeria.

Maybe that'll come up.

But they have Joel Off Rice.

There's a whole episode about it anyway.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, it's in other places.

Damn

the many

wait, okay.

Yeah, forget it.

It's somewhere.

Wait, here's Nigerian.

There you go.

They really disliked Nigerians there.

Oh, I love that.

I love a good fight that white people don't just hate both of.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Where's Nigeria here?

It's pretty close.

I think it's a little maybe north of it a little bit.

So it's like neighbor?

Not neighbor.

But nearby.

It's almost a neighbor, but it's like.

Okay.

But they both have droll-off price.

Yeah, but

they just were like, don't trust the Nigerians or stay away from them.

Why?

They have the best weed across the country.

Across the world, I mean.

You need weed in a country, it's the Nigerians.

They do have weed there.

Legal or illegal?

In

barely illegal?

Yeah, we smoked weed there.

Yeah.

This looks like Sean Patton's fucking mom's garage

are cutting up wheat.

Nice, bro.

Badass.

Is it arrestable or is it just like

is it arrestable?

I don't.

I think maybe.

Yeah.

But

I think it's just more frowned upon.

Okay.

That's what Canada was for the longest time.

Like, it's illegal, but no one's going to stop you.

Yeah, they don't want the elders in the community knowing that they're doing it.

That's how we are now.

I don't know if the cops would really come after them or anything.

Okay.

It'd be funny if it was only like

dangerous to smoke weed if you're white.

You know, switch it up.

These guys, yeah, they.

Who's that?

Um, that's Tony.

No, no.

Who's that?

They're singing.

There's a guy

to their left.

No, but are they singing to some like hip-hop guy?

One of their musicians?

Do you know?

I don't know.

It sounds like a real song.

They have a lot of good music there.

But some of it is Nigerian.

Really?

Which was kind of funny.

I hate it.

Yeah.

They also have this thing called snuff.

That's the pipe.

Yeah, the local pipe.

It's just so pink, small

ambush.

I'm booze of this.

Snooze?

I want to see this

gold coast hat.

I love these hand-me-down hats.

Just do it up the oh, he's

you did it?

Yeah

looks so unpleasant.

I look so fucking I mean it's really just like just like a shot.

We Africans we have bad smell in our air.

That's it.

You can see I'm crying.

Just to ask you.

Just cleanse the eye in a clear.

He's make the eye clean.

See everything.

See, he's crying.

No one helps you by his crying.

I mean, if you just color change all

black colors in that clip to all white colors, it would just be awesome.

I mean, yeah, you make a fair point.

Yeah.

So they're all doing snuss?

Yeah.

Does anybody do blow?

I don't think so.

I never saw it.

Yeah, it's not cocaine.

Yeah, that's a good one.

It's a good sight.

How long does it last for?

I think like 10 minutes,

just a hundred.

You do it, you do it, gotta do it, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Is it good?

Does this make you want to do it?

I would do it again.

I mean, it's kind of, I think it was kind of menthol-y, or like, it felt like,

I don't know, mint opening up your sinuses, but also in like a very kind of uncomfortable way.

Yeah.

And what's snus?

I don't know.

Is that a different thing?

pain with the pain.

On the thing, it says snuff, but they call it snooze.

Is it the same thing?

I think so.

I don't

know.

They keep it away from children.

Cocaine guys can't take this.

Cocaine guys, they can't take this.

Cocaine guys can take that.

See how it is?

See me crying.

See me crying.

I mean they're acting like cocheads.

Yeah.

It looks like a red skin cap.

Dude, I don't know.

I love with third world countries.

Is it third world?

It is.

Yeah.

I love seeing their outfits.

It's the best.

Legit normal button-down shirts and then like hand-me-done stuff.

While they're similar, subtleties separate the pinch from the pouch.

Two popular types of smokeless tobacco.

I don't know.

I don't know which one's which

Snuff is finely ground dipping tobacco, also called moist.

Snuss is a finely finely ground, but is enclosed in a small tea bag-like pouch.

Now, I knew snuss is like that.

I still sniffing it.

Yeah.

It was like cinnamon-y.

In Israel, they used to do that.

The guy would come around a synagogue and he'd be like, give all the adults together.

Give a little thing.

Yeah, I did it once.

But it can't have been tobacco.

Maybe it was.

Maybe he said snuff.

Snuss, I thought.

I don't know.

I don't think it was tobacco.

Yeah, I thought it was like more cinnamon-y.

Yeah, it was something else.

Okay.

Yeah, then they had like

these jugs of palm wine.

This is the bathtub wine I was talking about.

Yeah.

Bathtub liquor everywhere.

Yeah, like, yeah, they turned palm into wine, basically.

Wow.

Yeah.

How, I mean, tastes, what's the hit like?

Taste was kind of thick-ish.

I mean, it had a hint of like almost a wine but in some sort of an off way.

Yeah.

Okay.

And then how did it hit?

Does it get you like drunk drunk?

I don't remember.

They had palm oil ones in like Indonesia.

They had like

that, it's that, but it wasn't like winey, it was more alcohol-y.

We got drunk off of these things more often.

They're little packets of alcohol that you can buy everywhere on the street.

Pouches.

Yeah.

A caprice on.

Yeah.

You just rip open in the the corner and wow i mean this is what they had all through covet in new york but not straight liquor yeah

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So,

did you try these?

Yeah, of course.

How much are they?

It depends on

where you got them, but you could get them for like

$1.80 or something like that.

Oh, that's going to be a single barrel.

Yeah, they're worth it.

A dollar?

They're pretty cheap.

That's just a shot.

Unless you were, like, obviously a tourist, you know?

And three.

What's 50 milliliters?

Two shots?

One shot?

I'm trying to look from her hands how big it is.

It's like a double shot.

It's like this big oh wow I think it was

it seemed like it was probably three ounces or something like that okay 50 milliliters that's what it says on there how big is that anyway don't know

and uh wow and you had those too yeah yeah we would so we played a game where you would you know you would slap your friend with it and then they would have to drink it

That's great.

You try to avoid it or you're trying to like, all right.

Well, you try to do it sneakily, so there was no real avoiding it.

I guess I have to

slam this now.

That's fun.

That's fun.

Okay.

Kids be kidding.

Yeah.

But say, like, for fun,

the kids would do this kind of stuff.

Sled down the hill on one of those palm oil

things

on concrete.

Let you go.

They gotta let you go at some point.

Yep.

What?

That kid's just doing it on his ass.

I think he has a little small plastic.

Oh.

The kid in a fucking bathing suit bottom.

This is fucking wild.

Look at this scene.

Trash everywhere on the right.

Fucking that chick's outfit on the left, boss.

The chick outfit's on the right.

Meh.

Nips, though.

Look how fun everybody's having.

Yeah, they have a blast.

Yeah, that's...

Liquor makes the party go, bro.

Yeah, I don't know if

this is liquor.

What's the fence over there

in the background?

What are they keeping out here?

Oh,

they're rebuilding that bridge that goes to the castle.

Okay.

It was falling apart.

Did you ever feel danger there?

Did you think people were going to fuck with you?

I think at a club, I felt like I might get my pockets you know ran through but other than that when i was in one of those vans one of those shared van rides one time the like uh some federal uh i guess like soldiers or something pulled us over they see me in the back and they're like you come out of here so you know i was the only white guy in there so they pull me out and then they like take my bag and they start going through it and as they're going through it they have this ak-47 strapped across them but it's like slung over his shoulder and as he's going through my bag it's like keeps aiming at my head and i'm like trying to go like this

and then both of them just start laughing they're like oh you're afraid of this like why would you be afraid of this i'm like because it's he's aiming it at my face

so there that's probably the most danger i felt there but it was pretty it was pretty safe i think yeah what was funny though i had like another run-in with some some federal people the day i was leaving they the hotel that i stayed in for my last night because I needed to pack and everything.

They call me down to the lobby and they're like, some people are here for you.

And I come down, and it's these

people in like military outfits.

And they wanted to see all my papers.

They wanted to see my passport,

my vaccine.

You had to have a yellow fever vaccine to go there.

So they wanted to see all that.

But really, what they wanted to do

was take a picture with me.

They didn't know how to ask.

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

And they're just like, can we get a picture?

On your phone?

Yeah.

Well, they had phones too.

They did it too.

I think I don't remember what happened, but.

What does it say on her shoulder?

Is that her name?

Is that just her wreck?

It's just her wreck.

I don't know.

Yeah.

It's like it says nation or something like that.

Ghana, something nation.

This has to be, this couldn't have been 15 years ago

because

no phone was able to capture both those skills.

This was 2017?

Okay, five years ago, six years ago.

Yeah.

And then when I got to the airport.

Wait, back up one?

Back up one picture.

Here's the outfit I want.

Back up one.

What a born.

Everybody

on that hill after you sled down.

Okay.

Yeah, at the end of it.

Okay, here's what I want.

Pause.

That guy's shirt, the blue, the sleeveless.

That is a pretty rough thing.

I'm taking this at like a Montauk beach house.

That with those tight, those like speedos just to his left of screen.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, that's a fucking bomb outfit.

And then the bracelet, I got you.

And then the bracelet.

I like the pink pants.

The pink pants are not bad.

Obviously, you can't leave the fucking pool area with just the speedos.

But at the pool area

and in the house,

if you got to get another drink, but like,

who else has something badass?

I mean, that dress on the left is great, but that's for chicks.

Okay, the long pants.

I could do the long pants.

dude that fucking button down

i do i like the blue you go the pink pants okay blue shirt pink pants i mean he's got the whole outfit then

look at

look at okay that kid with the blue the blue shirt the pink pants uh-huh his just follow his he's so happy they're also about to steal that other kid's little tree thing yeah i mean he's holding it up he's just seeing it going like i'm gonna so fucking take that well that's i mean they're all so happy which was kind of crazy to me, you know, because like...

They don't seem miserable at all.

Yeah, and then I'm like miserable here.

So it's like, what the fuck?

Yeah, we're supposed to send our leftover food to the hair?

They're having a great time.

Okay, sorry.

Okay, go ahead.

That's the outfit I want for Frocket.

Well, not Christmas.

I guess it's summertime.

Go ahead.

Look how happy you're doing, too.

I was having a lot of fun.

It was cool.

How freed you feel out there?

Especially the five-month trip.

Well, I mean, I love.

traveling and I miss it a lot, you know, because it's like,

it gets me to, well, get out of my comfort zone zone for one but also like just it it makes you it's like the most present I ever am because like I have to

be aware of my surroundings and I'm also in this new place everything's new and

I don't know I just I just I like being in other places it gives me an appreciation for America for sure

I mean, notice like being present too is like noticing it where it's like you are constantly looking around, seeing stuff as new.

But like, you know, Shepherd Ferry?

Yeah.

His whole thing was like, hey, look at your, look what this is.

Look at your surroundings.

Like, what is this place?

You should notice it a little more because you just don't when you like day to day.

Yeah.

Yeah, you're right.

When you're traveling, you're noticing every little thing, and it keeps you way present that way.

Yeah.

Oh, and this, uh, actually, you might think this is ridiculous, but this book bag I've had since high school, and I've, I've traveled, like, I've taken it.

It's got to get repaired.

I know if I zip it up the wrong way, it's gone.

Yeah.

My fucking Osprey thing broke, and it said like nine weeks to get a new one.

I don't have nine weeks.

Oh, it's got a zip up?

No, it doesn't.

Yeah.

So that's my travel backpack.

Yeah.

Oh, that's raggedy.

That is small.

Yeah.

Damn, that's fucking dirty.

I got uh

more African money?

Yeah.

Ghanaian money.

Oh, wow.

This is what we need.

This thing.

It's little design.

How often do you get like souvenirs when you're in places?

What a weird symbol.

It's a cent symbol.

Yeah, it's a CD.

That's the name of the currency.

But I don't get too many souvenirs.

Maybe like little things that are easy to travel with.

I mean, all these.

This looks like a doo-op group from the 50s.

I mean, dead on.

What is that?

Coffee bean?

What's that bean?

Oh, that looks like I had no idea actually.

It's stamped on there.

Like it's like always one CD, 50 CDs.

I forget what the exchange rate is.

It's been a while.

It's got to be nothing.

Yeah, how much would these be?

What would you guess?

How much would it be?

Let me guess.

That's probably...

I'm going to be wrong because I don't remember.

Yeah, sure.

Maybe $4.

Okay.

And what could you get with the 20?

Full meal?

You could get it.

Yeah, food was really cheap.

Yeah, like those, uh, especially like watchi or like the soups and stuff.

Yeah, like a few bucks, couple bucks, something like that.

But I'm probably off on this exchange rate.

You want to look it up?

Yeah, okay.

Yeah, it's tough to remember the exchange rates at different places.

Yeah, I've been the governor signed it 2015, 2015.

Yeah, I'll put one in the middle.

It's uh,

65.

Wait,

it's 6 cents to one CD.

6 cents to one CD.

So 20 C D.

20 is 60.

$1.30.

Yeah, $1.30.

Okay.

$1.30 is one of these.

And you could get a full soup and more.

How much does their beer be?

One of these or less?

It depends on what kind of place you went.

But yeah, they're about $1 or two.

A couple bucks.

I fucking love that.

I don't know what it is now.

This was 2017.

Right.

Legal tender for the payments of any amount.

Wow.

I don't remember what it is.

You're just like...

Well.

So, how was it leaving?

So

leaving, like I said, they came down and like, you know, show us your papers.

Yeah.

When I was leaving the airport, I brought my guitar with me on the second time I went because it was going to be there for five months.

Yeah.

I'm not a.

Oh, you like playing?

I play music pretty much.

It's just like the travel guy with the guitar is like, oh, geez.

But it's not like I took it to like bonfires and was like, come check out my guitar.

It's like I was stuck in this green room sometimes for hours at a time.

It's like, I got to have.

Why are they green?

Is that just their flare?

So he rented that place and the ceiling was green and he just wanted the rest of it to match.

So he painted it all green.

Yeah.

So when I, you know, how when you fly, you can kind of bring bigger things with you and they'll check it at the gate there.

Yeah.

Like I used to do that with my guitar a lot.

On the way back, the

airport worker in Ghana wouldn't let me do that.

He said I had to strap it to my other bag.

So he made me

basically saran wrap it to my other bag.

And I was like, I was like,

this is going to break.

I'm like, that's my guitar is going to break if we do that because that's just a soft bag.

You know, not like one of the hard case ones.

And he's like, well, that's the only thing you can do.

I was like, fuck, fine.

And then, of course, the whole thing got all smashed up.

But, you know, sometimes when you're in Ghana, it's just like, I,

you know,

there's random rules that you just kind of have to follow sometimes that don't make sense.

Yeah.

And you try to argue, but you're just like, it's not, I don't know if this is like standard what he's doing or if he's doing a jick.

Yeah, I tried arguing, but he was just not happy.

Like, if a TSA guy's overstepping, you could be like, and it's going to like hurt your stuff.

You're like, get me a supervisor.

That's not the right thing.

Yeah.

But like when you don't know another country, you're like, am I allowed to Karen on this?

Right.

Yeah.

I think I should Karen, but I'm not sure.

I like slightly Karen, but not crazy.

You know, I was like,

I mean, I do, when I'm traveling in another place, I'm just kind of like, yeah, I guess this is how

this situation is happening.

Right.

Yeah, when you left after the five months, and then you went back again for one month?

Yeah, for the doctor.

So first was like eight days.

or five days or something just on the stopover.

Yeah, something like that.

And then you're like, I like this place.

I want to go back.

I only went back to do that education program because i had met this guy in turkey who was like you should do it in ghana so i went to go do it there okay so yeah i never really wanted to go but life has a way of i don't know presenting opportunities and like that and are you now like more when you hear the word ghana like if it's like a world cup game are you like more like yeah taken by it you know so some i had a an uber driver recently and i was like i recognize that accent and i was like are you from ghana and he was like so excited you know because nobody knows no one knows.

But it is cool when like there's some kind of, you know, Ghanaian thing or connection that happens.

And then I can talk about it with somebody.

Yeah.

Whenever I see Ecuador stuff, if like they're playing and anything.

Yeah.

You were there for like six months?

Six months, yeah.

But I'm always like, oh, I'm just, I root for them instantly.

Always.

And then,

yeah.

They copied the fucking Barcelona.

thing.

They put Barcelona on it.

Mm-hmm.

All they just have is local beer, which I should have here.

Get some Pilsner's or Klubes.

But yeah, you're always like,

that's my jam.

I have association with it.

Yeah, I mean, like I said, I've been to a lot of different places, but I think since I've been to Ghana three times and have spent a lot of time there, I feel like when you're in a place for a long time, it's way different than

even going for a week or two because there's a certain point where this fog kind of starts to

lift a little bit, and you're like, you start to see why, you know, they think this particular thing's funny, or why they say something like that, or why this other thing is the way it is that you just didn't see before.

You know, it starts to present itself more clearly.

Because you're not seeing it like new?

Because you're not, because, well, because you're just getting, you're getting more acclimated to the culture and like

how

their world works.

So, like, what kind of thing would you like to sort of see, but not before?

Um,

can we just make up an example of something you're talking about?

Hmm.

I don't know.

Well, like

yeah, I don't know.

It's I don't remember.

I just remember that feeling, and I remember

sometimes I get where it's like, oh, I don't have to do anything today.

I'm not like, it's not like, come on quick.

So it's that feeling led me like, hmm.

That was kind of one of them.

Was so when I was doing that education program, sometimes the headmaster, like, I'll be like, we're coming Thursday.

And he'd be like, yes, you know, but he's only saying that because he wants to say yes and he wants to be polite.

Thursday comes, and it's like, well, maybe not, not today, we're busy or something.

And then you just kind of get used to

it's the time and the scheduling is way different.

And so you kind of learn to slow down and then you kind of get it, you know, because they're, I mean, they're fishing or they're hustling or like people are cooking on the street.

There's no like

time-sensitive thing that they're really stuck to, yeah.

So, you get to that like pace of life with them where you're like, Oh, you guys don't schedule as much as we do.

Yeah, or like New York to San Diego, it's just like you're always like, get out of the way, and then they're like, Why?

Or, like, a tourist will do something stupid, and you can you like look over at your friend who's from there, and you're like, I know why that's stupid, you know.

I get it now, yeah, yeah.

But

yeah, with the um

uh

the like this is they can either hustle or they can fish in this way.

So, like this is their this is like their option, you know?

Hustle or fish, yeah.

Are they looked at the same way?

It's like whatever, just get money or whatever.

I think you can sell the fish, right?

Yeah, I think it's just you know, make a living.

Right.

But yeah, these things are huge.

Damn.

I mean, three guys just look the back half of it.

Yeah, look at all these things.

And then putting in like makeshift wheels and stuff.

This is how the pyramids are built.

Wow.

Oh, yeah, it's hard work.

So that's why some of the guys choose to

hang out at the hanging.

Yeah, depending on how that guy smoking weed?

Probably, yeah.

Damn.

So yeah.

What fish do they they have there?

I don't remember, but it was a very...

Their food was very seafood heavy or like goat and chicken.

There wasn't a lot of beef or anything, but it was a lot of seafood.

I mean, seafood's as cheap as any coastal place.

There's just like fish, just tons of food.

Yeah.

There's nothing you have to upkeep them.

Just get them.

Yeah.

But yeah, I'm trying to go.

I want to go back.

I was going to go back to shoot more because I'm trying to finish this documentary, but the pandemic happened, so I couldn't go.

Which pandemic?

I'm in Texas.

They denied it.

Yeah.

I should have been in Texas.

Unfortunately, I was in Chicago, and I was in New York.

Yeah, New York is not great for it.

Yeah.

No.

So you got to go back and finish it.

What else you got to get?

So

I have enough footage to finish the feature, but I feel like

there's more I could add to it to just make it a little bit stronger.

Or I want to bring George here.

He wants to come here, so I'm trying to go through the visa application process with him to do that.

Can you just visit?

Or he wants to move?

He wants to visit.

I don't think they'd let him move.

Do you need a visa just to visit?

Yeah, I guess so.

Yeah, I mean, it's very hard to get, too.

Like, it's a whole process, and you can still be denied, even if you have all these letters and people are like

just to visit.

Yeah, like the United States,

it's different for every country how hard it is to get a visa to come here.

Yeah.

You know, Ghana's not high on the list on.

Canadians can just come visit.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But right.

Other countries are like,

wow.

So, yeah, I've been like, I've been I want to go back still and just see what it's like after the pandemic and a couple of the guys actually have died Which is from loneliness from you not being there?

Yeah, they miss me a lot

So yeah, just to see how it's changed, but I've been applying to like a lot of film grants, but film grants and academia aren't really in the market for funding white dudes in Africa kind of projects, you know?

How much would you need?

I'm not going to donate it, but I'm just wondering.

So my budget that I've figured out is somewhere between like if I were to go back and like also pay for coloring and like festival submissions and just everything to finish it is like 15 or so.

15 grand.

Yeah.

Um, so I'm trying to have grants for that.

What they don't have grants for that.

They do.

I've applied to a bunch of them.

I got a rejection letter yesterday, and they gave me feedback.

It was like two pages that were all glowing, like positive stuff, and then it said his your identity might be a problem.

Put any on the fucking picture.

That's actually, that's what one of my

just co-sign him as like a head.

I started this in grad school and we might be like one of those fake marriages.

Give him 500 bucks to say he's the president of the company.

One of my professors said that if I wanted to get this project funded, I would have to hire a person of color and put them above me on the credits.

And I was like, well, that actually sounds more racist to me.

They really don't know what they're doing.

So no.

They just don't want to be wrong.

I would collaborate with a Ghanaian on this, but I'm not just going to like.

tokenism to me.

I don't know.

What about George?

Yeah, George.

He's not helping to make it, or is he?

George is a producer on it, but like, you know, he's in Ghana.

It's hard to

apply for film grants here with him there.

But yeah, I'm just going my own route.

I think I'm just going to like try to find some like wealthy doc fans or comedy fans or like degenerates to come.

I'm going to go separately, like my own way to make this happen.

Got a GoFundMe.

We'll put it in the end of this episode.

I was thinking about doing that.

If there's only somebody you knew who used to spend a ton of money on food and now spends less, he could have that extra food money.

Wait, what?

What?

Who?

The fucking owner, bro.

Oh.

He was spending $100 a day in fucking just rice.

You're making that up, though?

No, his rice budget was fucking massive.

He loves it.

That's bigger than their rice.

He's all thin now and frail.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Just be like, donate your fucking, you know, car budget to me.

For a week, you'd have it.

Anyway.

Or put it, go fund me.

Maybe people will help you with it.

Yeah, I might do that.

I mean, it would be cool to fund something independently, like, through like people outside of those systems.

And then no one's gonna weigh in and be like, I want you to do it this way.

Yeah, I'm kind of at this point.

I'm just like, fuck them.

Like, I don't really need them.

Like, it doesn't, I don't care if it plays at, like, a snobby festival.

Yeah.

You know, I can set up my own screening and do my own thing and put it on the internet.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But that's the goal.

That's what I've been trying to do.

Keep getting rejected.

So.

I mean, you're almost there too.

Did you have to put that together?

I don't know how the documentary in the grant world works.

There's like grants for different stages of projects.

Mine's like

if I just put a few months into it, I could finish it up, except for if I want to go back or bring George here, that would take a little longer.

It's right here?

Yeah.

It's right in there.

Okay.

Yeah.

Do you, um, do they have any islands off there?

Off there?

I don't know.

I have been to

Mauritius, which is an island on this side somewhere.

Yeah.

I heard about an island and heard about I was fucking not writing jokes being on social media and I saw there's an island off Kenya that's like only donkeys no cars huh and just like really pretty but nobody goes there yeah damn what surprised you about Ghana that you were like no fucking way but it's the true thing

hmm

what surprised me about Ghana or what would people not know that you're like actually it's this

would no one suspect

I don't think anyone knows anything about Ghana, to be honest.

So it's like everything, like it's very safe.

Like, even, you know, it seems like, oh, I'm not going to go down to a beach where these guys are just like

dangerous as fuck.

Yeah, and it's not.

Like, I mean, I just, me and my friend John, who's in the film, we just walked down there and asked him if we could start filming and then just hung out with them.

You know, everyone's pretty welcoming.

My friend Seth, he had that motorbike, and like one time he left his helmet on it and went to go do something and when he came back the helmet was gone and then he was like, oh man, someone fucking stole it.

But then some guy came.

He's like, no, we just were watching it for you.

So it doesn't get stolen.

Oh, wow.

So it's like, I don't know.

They're very, yeah.

They're very nice, nice people.

Yeah, you really got to face your own fears at that point.

You're like, what am I scared of?

Yeah.

Like, everything points to this is fine.

And I'm still scared.

So, like, it's me.

But that's partly why I'm doing that documentary is because people come in there and they're they're afraid of places like this and they just go to the tourist thing and they get out.

And it's like, no, you could learn a lot more and have an interesting time meeting people who live there and they're actually, you don't need to avoid them if you get out of your comfort zone a little bit.

Yeah, it's just like I get the fear, but

that wasn't bad.

I'm going to retire.

I'm going to retire.

That was pretty fucking good.

Yeah,

I try to buy instruments.

I used to buy instruments different places I went, but I I got this thing in Morocco that it was like a big string thing and it had a big drum and it was wrapped in animal hide, but it wasn't treated animal hide, so when I brought it back it started to rot.

And I was like, maybe I don't need to buy instruments everywhere.

How would would there any like epic like meals or feasts?

You know, were there any like big like family get-togethers that you'd be at?

Yeah.

For holiday parties?

Like for with food?

Um we had Independence Day when I was there there, Independence Day.

Uh and that was like a big celebration.

But the biggest one we had was when we wrapped filming on the documentary.

One of their friends kind of owned this like big kind of resort.

Not resort, but like a place where tourists would go watch like dancers and stuff.

Uh-huh.

And so we went out to this place and rented it, and like we bought food for all the guys that hustle at the castle.

That's fun.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And like just everything that they wanted.

Like there was chicken, there was like their favorite meals, there was all kinds of of beer

but this kind of stuff is mostly for like the tourists i mean they would never have a thing that says ghana in ghana we would never have a usa thing yeah that's super typical yeah but you know they would have like fire breathing and and like that based on them at all or no or they're just doing it for tourists um i think it's well fire breathing i'm not sure the drumming is very ingrained in the culture and the tradition fire i'm not sure you know they outlaw drumming in Trinidad?

What do you mean?

They said, you're not allowed to drum anymore.

It's a revolution song.

Huh.

And so then they responded by going, well, we got to make music.

So they used those oil drums.

Huh.

And that's how Steelpen started.

They're ready to make music on that.

I think they should outlaw drum circles here.

They should outlaw drum circles or keep it at the very, very end of a beach.

They're never different.

They're never different.

It's not so much, it's always like for two minutes, you're like, this is pretty cool, everything coming together.

Yeah.

And they're like, these people kind of suck, though.

Yeah.

There's no way to do it right.

You couldn't have a bunch of like white chicks doing it without like Harry Pitts and

Dreads.

Yeah, it's often white chicks with Harry Pitts and Dreads.

Blich people.

Yeah.

Yeah, I want to go back.

I want to finish the doc.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I definitely, I want to go.

What do you miss about that place?

Is it like a food that you miss or anything?

Or like, or like, like any nature-y thing?

Like, what do you like when you think about it, like, oh, I want to do that again.

Um, I miss

I miss the there there's like a certain freedom there to where, you know, here socially,

we're very free country, but like, socially there are rules that you're kind of constrained to.

Protestant shit.

Yeah.

Puritan stuff.

Yeah.

And they're felt even though, well, we did read that it's not good for gay people, you know?

Yeah, that's what we're talking about.

There's a certain freedom in, like, d I don't know, you can you can cross the street wherever you want.

You just feel free walking around, or I can sit right here.

It's not weird if I were to just sit on the street or like do something.

Kids can go suns out, guns out with no one looking at them weird.

Yeah.

Sick.

Yeah.

People, I saw, I mean, people shower, like, they bathe themselves with buckets of water just out there in front of people.

Um, yeah, it just was more free.

And, like, some of the street food was pretty good.

Cheap.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That seems cool.

Would you ever go?

I would.

I'm starting to, from this podcast, more and more are going, like, I gotta face my fears on Africa.

And actually, and not, I mean, I would read, it's like, there are different countries.

I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, but in my head, they're all still one big fucking continent.

Yeah.

But, like, starting to like internalize, they actually are different.

Not northern Africa that we all look at as different, but like, you know, all of them.

Yeah.

Yeah, they're all very different.

Here, and I guess Miss Somalia.

Well, maybe Somalia too.

But, like, that all seems the same.

But I know it's not.

So it's like,

yeah, do some research, like, which ones are the like 100% do not be there.

I liked South Africa a lot.

Yeah.

Yeah.

South of Africa.

You ever see kneecap?

Yeah, I would definitely go.

So Ghana seems like a decent start.

It's a good entryway.

Liberia and Monrovia.

I have a bunch of friends in Liberia.

They left during the wars.

And then now they can go back, but they don't.

Did you go see the Congo at all?

No, I haven't been to the Congo.

Inland?

Not really.

No, not yet.

Yeah.

Because what started me there was the ship, so it was like very port-centric.

How was travel here?

Was it just

easy?

Cars, trains, buses, or?

Trains and vans.

Trains and vans.

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

No, wait, wait, wait.

Cars and vans.

No trains.

So it was like...

So then that's really kind of isolated to get places.

Or would you go planes to a place?

You would go planes to another place.

And they were all cool with it?

Like they had them.

What planes?

I mean, so you could get around, like, accessible.

Yeah, I mean, they had an airport in the capital, and that was kind of it.

Okay.

You know, which was like five hours from where I was from.

I had to, one time driving to the airport, we had to, I was in one of those vans and I had to make them stop so I could piss on the side of the road because there are no stops.

Just, you know,

and all these cars are just watching me, you know?

Yeah.

Just like whatever.

I miss my bottles.

All right.

Yeah.

Well, let's do the last couple things.

You got to find where you want to go.

You got to say your travel advice.

Well, what's great about what I really like working on your show because I like comedy.

Suck on that, Bert.

People work on my show enjoy it and don't just do it because they feel threatened.

We feel threatened in a different way.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We don't, I don't, whenever you leave here, I'm like, all right, what shouldn't I touch?

Yeah.

Oh, me?

Yeah, exactly.

All right.

Fair, fair.

But your podcast, like, it's like, I can watch for the guest or I can watch for a country.

And I know that it's a good episode when I want to go to that place afterwards.

So I really want to go to Thailand.

That's on my list.

From what?

Column?

Yeah.

And just, I've always wanted to go there, but that, like, solidified it for me.

Yeah.

And then

Cuba has always been on my list.

And now I definitely want to go.

Because you heard about someone who actually went.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, yeah.

I've just always been because we're not people

before.

Yeah, and people are like one thing.

I'm like, what?

Yeah.

What is it?

And now I'm like, oh, yeah, guys.

You can just, it's like not actually what we were told.

You just go.

It's all set up.

Those two are kind of the big ones.

I mean, Bali would be cool.

Bali, depending where you go.

I want to do more in South Africa or South America, I mean.

I've been to Peru, but I would like to do more.

I've said this before, but the cool thing about South Africa, if you're going to South America, when you go to multiple places, you don't have to relearn the words.

Yeah.

You just

except Brazil.

but i think they might still understand you but if you like get it like okay now you can cross borders and still like not start over which is which is nice yeah and in here no fucking way starting over every like 40 feet right

yeah

you should go to india that's cool i know you don't want to the one i did with adam roe made me want to go a little more even though he was like it just smells like piss and shit everywhere because there's piss and shit everywhere it was kind of like That whole place is like an assault on all of your senses at once.

Lots of color, lots of sound, lots of smell.

Yeah.

Part of me would want to go and just like actually see what life is like.

And another part of me is like, give me a resort with the painted up fucking towns that I'm not that at all.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That I'm like getting a version of it.

Yeah, I'm like half in, half out in terms of like comfort and tourism.

Yeah.

You know, it's kind of like drugs where I'm like, listen, I just, I can't, I'm just too tired to do mushrooms tonight.

I would not go stay in that green room again.

You would not?

No.

If you're too luxurious.

I would for a night, you know, but I'm not going to spend five months

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sometimes when it's like my first day at a hostel now, I'm like, what am I doing?

Just get a hotel.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But then once you get over that first few days,

you get no sleep, then you, or you get a little, then you get no sleep, and then you get like, oh, I can sleep now.

Yeah.

And then you're like, I'm fine with this.

Yeah.

I like a little comfort now.

I feel like I've done it, you know, like I've proven to myself that I can handle all that and don't really need to again.

That's the problem.

You don't need to, but it is more fun.

Yeah.

Sleeping on trains is pretty great.

Yeah.

Yeah.

all right.

So now, travel advice: travel tips.

Um,

pack heavy, you never know what you're gonna need.

Wow, you're lie.

Have you ever heard of melanesia versus polynesia?

No, what the fuck is that?

But this is this is an old map, right?

So we don't even know.

I know what polynesia is, I've never heard of melanesia.

I think that means they're darker here.

Australasia, polymela, melatonin, polytonin,

poly means multiple.

Yeah.

Indonesia.

I don't know.

Mela.

I don't know.

I don't know enough words to break it down.

Austria.

Australasia, but that's like a...

Asia.

Asia.

Oh, yeah.

It's a version of Asia.

It's a version of Asia.

So Polynesia.

Australasia.

Got it.

Melanesia.

Mel.

What countries is this?

What's this?

Indonesia.

Managed.

Indonesia.

Managed.

Indonesia.

Indianesia.

Yeah.

Wow, so all this used to be kind of Asia,

is what I'm guessing because also, like, if you're coming from

there, they must so England went here first, they got here first before way before us, and then went this way,

and they're like, This must be part of Asia, Polynesia.

So, what the fuck's Melanesia?

But we broke it down now,

Micronesia, which is small islands of Asia,

Melania,

What?

I didn't know any of this.

What's it say?

Sub-region of

Oceania.

Pacific Ocean extends to New Guinea.

Yeah, but where does the word come from?

Melanesia.

Etymology?

While you're looking that up, tell me your travel tip.

I guess my main one is just like, don't be a dick to the locals.

Like, I've seen so many tourists come in and out of there and just, like, act like they're owed something.

Yeah.

And that's just, that's always bothered me.

Especially when I was on that ship, I saw it all the time with those, like, rich students.

Because I was there on a scholarship and, like, I worked on it, right?

Yeah.

But, you know, it was pricey.

So it was like a lot of rich kids just kind of being entitled in all these other places.

Just get out.

Talk to people.

Be friendly.

See where they that takes you.

You know, do whatever your comfort level is.

Just kind of skew it a little bit.

One notch uncomfortable.

For me, it's pretty uncomfortable, but not everyone can handle that.

Yeah, don't be a dick.

That's not a problem.

Don't be a dick.

Don't be a dick to locals.

Even if you're upset,

be a dick to your travel friend if you ought to be a dick to somebody.

Asian, Ancient Greek means melas, means black, and nesos, which means island.

Black island.

Islands of black people is what it translates to.

Papua New Guinea.

They're all black.

Black Asia.

Yeah.

That's what it is.

Melanin.

What?

Melanin.

Melanin.

It's Black Asia.

What is this?

What is this one?

Indonesia?

Indonesia.

Indian Asia.

Polynasia, which is a lot of islands.

Micron Asia, which is tiny islands.

Tiny little islands.

What the fuck?

You see, learn on something down.

Learn on is Papasia.

It should just be higher a little bit.

It should be up there.

Although maybe the

indigenous indigenous here were kind of black.

We've learned everything is Asia and also Muzzy is a slur.

Dude, don't say fucking Muzzy, bro.

I can't believe that.

No, we know.

No, no.

That's crazy what you just said out of the blue.

Damn it.

Chad, buddy, thank you very much.

He's a fucking world-renowned producer here at YMH.

This is great.

It was fun.

This is great.

God.

I'm glad we finally did it.

We've been talking about it for a while.

I know.

It's nice to bumping me for the big dogs, you know?

Whatever.

You're here all the time.

It's like the Smithsonian thing.

It's fine.

You just don't realize that I'm a big dog and I'm just not

a big dog.

Hey, wait.

One of these are going to appear and one at the studio in

New York.

I thought you liked those.

Yeah, I do.

Which one should go here?

I mean, I could put them right here.

This is it.

Or this red one.

Which one goes better here?

I think something like that.

The red pops more than the red.

Pops more.

Yeah, and this will go with other things there.

Alright, so this will go up here.

We'll tape it right here.

And then the other day you said that you need you like t-shirts on the road because you want to own a shit.

This is from my education program.

I still have a DECC.

Yeah.

You still have some?

I have like a whole bucket full.

Okay.

I mean, I'll definitely use this on this road trip.

I definitely don't have enough t-shirts.

I don't never get enough to get in my throat.

DCC.

Yeah, I'll go hiking with this.

What if I run into somebody like, oh, I was part of that culture?

No, that'd be a Kansas City person.

Like, hey, I was part of that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I was part of that.

All right.

Hell yeah.

Buddy.

Thank you.

Thanks, dude.

We'll put this up.

That was fun.

This up right here.

I'll take one of these.

I'll take both of them back, but I'll take one of them back with me.

You're going to go exchange those, aren't you?

He said, a dollar's coming, bro.

How am I not going to?

Russell Peters wanted to give me a nice watch once.

I'm like, Russell, there's no way I'm not going to sell it.

You cannot give me that.

And he doesn't.

Yeah, you got to stop saying no to these things.

You have producers here that wouldn't mind them.

One time, somebody threw weed at Rogan at a theater, and he was like, ha ha, funny.

And he was like, what is this?

He just was never going to, and he went to throw it back.

We were in Canada, though, so it was before you could get weed.

Or just on the road for

a few days.

We weren't flying with it then.

And he goes, no, and he goes, you throw it back.

And I'm run out of the side.

I go, no!

Like, we need that.

All right.

Until next week, everybody.

I'm not going to do it again.

I'm retired.

You go.

You good.

You give it a stab.

How do you say goodbye and get in the end?

Goodbye.

Okay.

There's no way that's good.

They speak English.

Well, that's the episode, everybody.

Thank you very much, Chad Wallen, for coming in.

Well, not coming in.

He was working here, so he really just came over.

He just moved to a different location in the YMH studios.

Ghana, though.

Very cool.

Very cool videos and pictures.

Get out there.

Been there a few times.

Can you imagine?

Oh, it's so dank there.

It's just like dusty.

That's how that is.

His pictures

seem like what I think of all of Africa.

There's this article on Africa, how to write Africa.

Ooh, it's such a good one.

Essay

how to write Africa.

It's so good.

It's about how people.

Oh, yeah, here it is.

By Binyavanga Wangina.

Wainaina.

Let's not use their name to replace

Chad.

Okay, always use the word Africa or darkness or safari in your title.

Subtitles may include the words Zanzibar, Maasai, Zulu, Zambezi, Congo, Nile, big, sky, shadow, drum, sun, or bygone.

And useful are words such as gorillas, G-U-E-R, timeless, primordial, and tribal.

Note that people means Africans who are not black, while the people means black Africans.

Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book or in it unless that African has won a Nobel Prize.

An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts, use these.

If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Maasai or Zulu or Dogon dress.

In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country.

It is hot and dusty.

This is how everybody everybody writes about Africa at every place.

It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall thin people who are starving.

Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates.

Don't get bogged down with precise descriptions.

Africa is big, 54 countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book.

The continent is full of deserts, jungles, highlands, savannahs, many other things, but your reader doesn't care about all that.

So keep your description romantic, evocative, and unparticular.

All this goes on.

Always in your book with Nelson Mandela saying something about rainbows or renaissances because you care.

Go get that.

Granta.com slash how slash two slash how to write about Africa.

Read the whole thing.

Thanks, chat.

I appreciate it.

I hope you are doing great out there.

I hope you have good luck raising money for your documentary,

Castle Boys, about these guys who are outside a former slave castle in Ghana trying to drum up tourism.

Donate to him, you guys.

Click on the link right now and give a couple ducats his way to help him finish this film.

And you can say you helped make it when you watch it.

You can be like, I helped him make that.

Follow him on Instagram at Chad Thomas Wallen.

And that's it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Good luck, man.

You should finish this video.

You should finish this movie.

It should be cool.

Raise, give them, everybody give them like three, four, seven, ten dollars, whatever.

whatever, and they can make this fucking thing.

It's hard to make it.

It's got to go out there again.

Go to the links to support the film.

That's all you got to do, really.

It's right down there.

Also, you can go right down there below and get t-shirts from Ubi Trippin' or whatever.

T-shirts that if you eventually die, your family will

collect with all the rest of your stuff and send off to Ghana.

So, full circle.

That's it, everybody.

I hope you enjoy your shroomfest.

Talk to you later.

If you have a guest suggestion, leave it in the comments.

Anything else?

I don't know.

I probably will never go to Ghana.

He did make it seem very interesting, but I'm scared of Africa.

I've seen too many videos of people burning a witch alive.

And I'm like, I don't know.

I had a wicon stage.

What if they call that up?

They're like, were you wicing?

I'm like, I was a cutter for a little bit while I was trying to figure shit out.

And they go, yeah, we're going to burn you just to be safe.

It's not worth it.

You know, Copenhagen has great restaurants.

You're going to go to Ghana.

But, you know, I'm not against it.

Like, if I was there, they're like, you know,

sure, but

it's over there.

Anyway, guys, that's the episode.

Thank you very much for tuning in.

Get your everything.

Until next week.

Hey, say goodbye in Ghana.

I should look these up.

I'm not going to do the clicks.

No, Eddie, I'm not just going to do clicks.

It's fucking racist.

Let's see.

Oh, it actually is.

Oh, Akiyiri.

Oh, next week's episode is

Feidelberg, John Feidelberg.

Oh, nice.

Okay.

Bye, everybody.

And I forget where we're going, but.