African Safari!

Last Thursday a few friends and I made the fourteen plus hour journey to the northern region of Ghana. It was most definitely an adventure. My seatmate on our first bus ride happened to be a Baptist Minister from the North; he was rather delighted about my church membership. He immediately began to set me up with Baptist contacts throughout Accra. He was very interested in how I felt about 9/11 and whether babies were abandoned in the United States the way they are in his country. He was surprised that some of his continents problems are shared by the developed world. After making sure I had a place to stay and was safe, we parted ways as he was traveling farther than me that night.

Anyway, we overnighted in Tomale and woke up the next morning at 3:30am to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer (extremely creepy that early in the morning) so we could catch the next bus. While we were at the bus stop by 4am, unfortunately all of the tickets were gone. So for about two hours we ran around begging trotros and taxis to take us up to Mole for a decent price. At first they would ask for prices up to 400cedi (completely ridiculous), but we ended up sharing a trotro with a bunch of obrunis from Belgium, Germany, and Spain for 120, success! It turned out to be a great morning – I felt like a world traveler.

As soon as we made it to Mole National Park, we saw four elephants mosey across the Savannah and take a dip in the watering hole. It was one of those moments when you think, “wow, I’m in Africa.” And miracle of miracles, the lodge had a pool. Needless to say, we took advantage of that and spent the day in the water. The next morning we set out very early on our Safari with an adorable armed park ranger. It was definitely a success, because we saw tons of African elephants, green monkeys, bushbuck, cob, warthogs (which are so personable and fun), crocodiles, and the craziest stream of army ants I’ve ever seen. I feel like I say this all the time, but it was just like the lion king! I think my friends may be getting tired of me singing The Circle of Life, but when I see things like a line of elephant tracks I can’t really help it.

After that we set out headed to the Hippo Sanctuary, but instead we ended up stranded in the small village of Larabanga. At first it seemed a bit miserable, but we ended up just playing with the village kids for hours and hours. They were all filthy and in rags, but they were the happiest, most smiley little group I’ve ever seen. The village women taught us how to flag down passing vehicles in hopes of rides even though they spoke absolutely no English, and eventually they began dropping off more and more kids for us to play with and watch while they went about their daily chores. One of the little girls clung to me the whole time. Her hair was turning orange from mal nutrition, and her teeth were literally rotting out of her mouth. Very skinny and wearing the dirtiest rag of a shirt, she couldn’t have been more than 5. It definitely put a sour taste in my mouth, just because she was in a situation that is so easily avoidable and yet no one has done anything to help her.

Finally we hailed a bus out of town. We were all cramped, and I ended up sitting on a top of the engine. It was extremely hot and made me very nervous every time it started smoking – I just kept praying that it wouldn’t blow up or break down. By the time we made it to our destination we were so coated in red dirt and sweat we look like different people – I’ve never looked so dark in my life, and all of my blonde friends suddenly had very red hair (picture American Indian skin color). Sadly, we never actually made it to the Hippo Sanctuary, due to extremely scarce modes of transportation. Instead, we just hung out in Wichau for the day and played cards and made friends with the little kids near the village well.

After a sleep-less, fairly miserable overnight bus ride we made it back to Accra. In the process I lost some of the fabric I had purchased on one or our buses. One of the girls in our group also got into a fight with our taxi driver when he couldn’t get us through the gates to the university (didn’t have his license) and we refused to pay him the full amount. He said, “Do not provoke my anger” and ended up grabbing Emily roughly when we tried to walk through the gates. He seemed to be rather surprised when she spun around and said, “Do NOT touch me! Get your hands off me!” I’m not sure how many women he’s had stand up to him like that. Thankfully, a Ghanaian student stepped in and after lots of yelling and refusing to get back in his taxi when the porters agreed to let him through the gates, we walked the mile or so back to our Hostels. So often throughout the weekend we would look at each other and say, “I just love you guys. I’m so glad we’re alive.”

My favorite quote of the trip was by our Belgian friend Demitri. Within the first 20 minutes of meeting him he said, “The thing about you Americans is you’re F***ing up your own language.” It was rather hilarious and pretty accurate.

Apparently it’s time for everyone to get sick. Lots of viruses, bacterial infections, dysentery, and Malaria are being passed around our ISEP group. So far only a few are in the hospital, hopefully I’m not next. And very sadly, my headphones have seen their last days…I’m pretty sure the trotro rides did them in. Hopefully I’ll be able to find some decent ones soon.

Success! Finally...

I finally had a successful volunteering expedition - two actually! I'm so relieved, for a while I thought it was never going to happen. Thursday I skipped class (just one, don't worry parents, it's not for any real credit) and traveled 8 hours (roundtrip) on a tro tro to Bosco orphanage. It was the longest, hottest travel experience I've had in my entire life. I literally thought I might die from the heat...thankfully I made it through, and was able to spend about an hour at the orphanage. It was a beautiful place, but definitely a disappointing visit due to it's ridiculous brevity.

The next day however, I was able to volunteer at an orphanage closer to campus in Osu, and it was WONDERFUL! I worked with about forty 2-6 year olds. When i walked through the gates twenty of them swarmed me, yelling and jumping up and down. They put me in that house because i requested to work with the disabled kids and HIV positive babies. One of the little boys, Peter, was adorable. I couldn't tell what was wrong with him, but he had no leg muscles to speak of and had trouble sitting up. We put some music on for the little ones to dance to (so adorable!), and I picked up little Peter's arms and did my best to help him dance - really it was just bouncing his arms up and down. And He would get this little half smile on his face; He was just so excited to be getting attention and touch it made my heart ache. These kids get much less individual attention than I saw in Haiti. There were only two Anties (nannies) for about forty kids. One of the little boys - Peppitto, immediately latched on to me and cried...trying to get attention. When I finally had a chance to pick him up (he's probably five), he clung for dear life like he'd never been held in his life...but if you hold one of them they all start trying to climb up you. It's really heartbreaking. I'm hoping to be able to take a few at a time to play somewhere else in the complex next time, so it won't be so chaotic and tear filled.

I feel like other things have happened, but my internet time is running low so i'm gonna cut this short. Thursday I'm traveling to Northern Ghana to Mole for a Safari and visit to a hippo sanctuary! I'm SOOO excited...also planning a trip to Burkina Faso (country bordering Ghana in the north) in a few weeks!

Kumase

Hi friends!

I have officially been in Africa for a month, and it is definitely passing more quickly than I expected. I feel like there's so much more I want to do, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to fit it all in. Go on a safari, visit other countries, play with a monkey, swim through some waterfalls...I need to start accomplishing more things.

This weekend our entire ISEP group traveled to Kumase, which is about a five-hour drive into the Central Region of Ghana. The city houses the largest market in West Africa, but we only spent about an hour in it, which was fine with me, because it was pretty hectic and overcrowded. Although, we did meet a lot of adorable little kids who wanted to play with us. While we were there we visited a Kente cloth-weaving village. As soon as our bus pulled up about fifty men trying to sell us kente cloth surrounded us. Kente is this really beautiful hand woven cloth that the people in the villages make on this huge contraption; it takes about 3 days to make a strip that's 6 inches wide and 5 feet long (I got to try weaving it!). The village was a bigt overwhelming, but I'm beginning to really enjoy bargaining (smiling is the key). One of my friends like to say things like, "my dear friend, be a good Christian and give ma good price", and it's almost always successful - they love it! We also hit up a woodcarving village,and people were buying drums for 30 cedi that would be worth hundreds of dollars in the states.

We also visited the palace of the great Ashanti chief (basically Ghana's royalty). I twas pretty much a colonial house turned into a museum filled with old furniture and creepy life-sized statues painted to look like past chiefs sitting on thrones. I found it less than riveting, but that was probably due to the six/hour bus ride I had just endured on very little sleep.

On the way back to Accra i FINALLY saw some monkeys. Unfortunately, it was extremely short lived; they were just chilling in the tops of trees as we drove through parts of the rain forest. Still, it was an exciting moment.

My plans for summer are finally beginning to shape up. More traveling. My American friends and I are planning a coast-to-coast road trip through the US. I should be good - I'm really glad I've found some spontaneous travelers.

I hope you are all well. I've finally started receiving some letters. Two weeks for mail travel feels like an eternity. But it's so great when they finally arrive. I think I might begin to make a few phone calls to some of you at home so be ready for three minute calls from an extremely long series of numbers.

Still no malaria for me - success! Gramps-so far I haven't found a spear, buy I'm still looking :)

Love and miss you all!

Cape Coast Weekend

Hello all!

I’ve just returned to campus from my first weekend of traveling. My entire group traveled about two hours west (thanks to traffic it took about five hours) to the city of Cape Coast. Once we got into the city we toured a slave castle used for holding thousands of slaves before they journeyed to the Americas. It sat right on the ocean and was amazingly beautiful. But the dungeons and jail cells were definitely surreal and pretty emotional for some of us, especially those whose ancestors were slaves. The conditions they stayed in were dark and stifling and much worse than livestock quarters. The walls of the dungeons had what looked like a water line about a foot from the floor, but in actuality it was the point to which the floors were covered with human waste and rot.

It was quite a shame that it was such a somber place, because the view from the outer walls of the castle was amazing. It looked over the rocks to the oceans where fishermen docked their multicolored boats. One of the boats on the water had sails made of patched together scraps – it made me think of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I loved it.

The next day we traveled out of Cape Coast and into the rainforest. We visited a national park and hiked up to the canopy walk, which is a series of about five suspended rope bridges through the canopy of the rainforest. The bridges were attached to huge trees that towered over the rest of the forest; it was easily over a hundred feet from the ground. Jumping over the edge would have definitely resulted in death. My knees shook the entire time, but it was AMAZING. Pictures don’t do it justice, the view was crazy awesome. I felt like an extremely nervous Tarzan. I only wish the one-foot wide board didn’t creak and rock so much as we crossed between trees. Grammy, you would have died. One of the Ghanaian students who came with us decided to jump and shake the bridge while I was on it, and I threatened his life. He found it hilarious.

After the canopy walk we visited a beach resort for lunch and a swim. The rooms were literally huts on the beach. It reminded me of a secluded beach in Hawaii. The beach was wonderful and everything was open and shaded with palm trees. The waiters brought us towels and food while we hung out under umbrellas of palm fronds. I could have stayed there for weeks. Of course, every person staying there was a rich foreigner…but it was a nice taste of Western convenience and food.

I took a tro tro into Accra and bought a guitar today – very exciting. I now have something productive to do during my downtime! Next weekend we are heading to Kumasi – the largest market in Western Africa. It will probably put a sizable dent in my bank account, but I’ll be getting presents to bring home. So you should all put in your requests now – kente cloth, tribal masks, beads, jimbeys (although those might be difficult to transport), bags, paintings, dresses – let me know!

Love and miss you all,

Becca