From Washington DC to West Africa, by land sea or air.

June 11, 2007 10:10 AM

From Washington DC to West Africa. I’m willing to be a courier, to work on a ship, to trade work, to be deputized as an air marshal, to provide technical support on a trans-Atlantic balloon ride, to go as part of a program that requires me to work for them when I get there. I just need to get to Senegal. And cheap.

There must be creative ways to travel to West Africa on the cheap. Work on a ship to Brussels and hitchhike down? An IT or job training program that needs teachers? A job with an NGO? All creative ideas welcome.

posted by Nothing to travel & transportation (10 comments total)

Do you speak French?
posted by YoBananaBoy at 10:16 AM on June 11, 2007

How long do you want to stay?
posted by Pollomacho at 10:23 AM on June 11, 2007

Get an extra job waiting tables or tending bar until you save enough to just pay for the trip.
posted by The World Famous at 10:26 AM on June 11, 2007

http://www.geocities.com/freighterman.geo/mainmenu.html
posted by fire&wings at 10:42 AM on June 11, 2007 [1 favorite]

You might want to check out the Geek Corps. I believe they have programs in Senegal.

Also, don't just give up on finding cheap flights with a simple flight search-engine like Kayak.com (you did check that, I hope!?). There might be a low-cost European carrier that flies to Dakar that isn't covered by your run-of-the-mill searching websites. Check out wikipedia's list of low-cost airlines to get a better idea of who flies to Senegal for cheap.

If you go the flying route, you'll of course need to be flexible. Layovers, multiple airlines, etc. Also, you might consider flying into another nearby country if they are cheaper. Most of these countries will undoubtedly have long-haul buses traveling between the major capitals, which should cost you less than $50 for several thousand miles of travel. This option will be long and uncomfortable, but may save you tons of $$.

When do you want to leave? My very cursory search found a flight for $1,500 from JFK (almost always cheaper to fly to Africa from NYC). With a month or two working a part-time job, as The World Famous suggested, you could easily save up for this and save yourself future worries - plus that would give you time to brush up on your French, since English isn't going to get you very far in West Africa.
posted by i less than three nsima at 10:50 AM on June 11, 2007

Oh wow, if you can get to Madrid by tomorrow, there is a flight on Air Europa to Dakar at 7:30 PM for 80 Euros. Looks like booking last minute may be your friend.
Air Europa's website.
posted by i less than three nsima at 11:05 AM on June 11, 2007

does it *have* to be senegal, and are you interested in staying for a while? if the answers are no and yes, send me an email, and i may have a couple contacts for you around Accra.
posted by whatzit at 12:50 PM on June 11, 2007

I speak enough to get by. I was in Dakar earlier this year. I have looked at freighter travel, but it is not easy to find routes that go from here to there. Thanks for the Air Europe link! Awesome. Extra job is not possible right now. Geek Corps looks cool!

Thanks for the suggestions so far! Any ideas, crazy or not, are welcome.
posted by Nothing at 12:56 PM on June 11, 2007

It does have to be Senegal, and it will be for a while. If I can manage financially, I would come back to DC every two-four months or so, but let's say a year in total.
posted by Nothing at 12:58 PM on June 11, 2007

Check out the Dakar Airport Wikipedia page and see which airlines fly there from which cities, and then connect those cities with DC.

There are non-stop flights from Dulles and JFK to Dakar on South African Airways, and Delta flies to Dakar from Atlanta.
posted by mdonley at 3:08 PM on June 11, 2007