Every week, updating my blog is on my to do list, but with the traveling I’ve been doing, I always but it off till the following week. So what’s up?
The past couple weekends I’ve been traveling around Ghana with Sadie. This past weekend, we went to the Northern part of Ghana to go to Mole National Park for a Safari experience. We saw antelope, warthogs, baboons (one who almost stole our mango), and elephants! The amazing part was being able to see these animals in their environment. I mean, I’ve never seen a elephant roaming the savanna before?! Close to the park was one of West Africa’s famous mud mosques (the Northern region is predominantly Muslim) so we visited this village too. Oh and the best part, how we got North…we started in the Accra bus station and took a 12 hour bus to Tamale, got to Tamale at 3 in the morning, just in time for the 5am bus to Larabanga. The bus was packed. No, I mean packed, so packed the entrance stairs to the bus had 5 people squished together. Sadie sat next to the driver, on top of the engine (yes, her butt got baked), I was lucky enough to share one seat with a young girl. There really is no concept of personal space in this country. I’ve gotten so used to it; packed tro-tros just make me smile. Once we got to Larabanga we had about 10 miles more to the entrance, so we were able to take a short ride on a motor bike.
Two weekends ago we went to the Easter region of the country, which is much more jungle-like, compared to the savanna of the North. We went to a monkey sanctuary. Why sanctuary? Well at one point Ghana had a lot more monkeys, but hunting has caused a majority of the population to disappear. The monkey sanctuary we visited, Tafi Atome, was inhabited (and still is) by people who worshiped monkeys—monkeys are seen as the intermediaries from humans to the ancestors. So with protection from the village, the monkeys thrived. Now there are over 300 Mona monkeys in the small village, and the monkey population seems to be giving back to people in creating booming tourism! We spent our second day in the East in Hohoe and did yet another waterfall hike, except…this was pretty much the most challenging hike I’ve ever done. We decided to go to the upper falls, rather than the more popular lower falls, little did we know we had to scale (and then descend) a few mountains before we did so. Once we reached the waterfall, we threw off our shoes and ran into the water, right under the falls, so cool!
School wise…all is well. Actually I’m in the last couple weeks of classes. We have a dead week and finals take 3 weeks. I have a basketball game this Friday, it has been a couple weeks since we last played. The Police wanted a rematch because they didn’t understand how we beat them. Honestly, neither do I. They were some of the largest, strongest and fittest females I’ve seen in Ghana—not to mention they were police. We won the game in overtime, thanks to a few steals and free throws, and well, I’ll toot my own horn, I made the winning shots. It was one of the most exciting games I’ve played because the crowd was so intense.
Last week I cooked dinner for my roommate and her friends. At first, I had a hard time thinking of what “typical” American dish to make…without hamburger meat. I ended up making French toast, home fries, and tropical fruit salad—since the only fruits available were pineapple, papaya, mangos and bananas. They really enjoyed everything, I think. My room, for the most part, has been a fun place to hang out. Louisa’s friends always have questions for me, as I do for them, and there is always music playing.
So, Happy Halloween! Believe it or not I actually got to celebrate. Louisa was curious about the holiday so Sadie and I explained and made a Jack-O-Lantern out of a watermelon. The EAP boys held a party in their rooms and I have no idea how they got their hands on kegs. As I’m not the biggest party animal, I didn’t stay for long, but I had so much fun getting in costume. First it was hilarious to brainstorm with friends what we could all be: something that Ghanaians would understand, yet we had absolutely not materials for costumes. Myself and 3 friends were the decades—the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s. I was the 60s mostly because it meant I didn’t have to wear a bra. At times during the day, with how hot it gets, clothing becomes really overrated!
More updates to come, hopefully on a more frequent basis. But you know what, I don’t have too much time left here. About 6 weeks!
