Ghanamania

Hellohellohello,

Just an update on my current activities in Ghana. I am trying desperately to finish my blogs about Morocco but there are literally 8 to go, and I am starting to wonder how the hell I will ever get there...plus my current adventures are starting to take a backseat...oy vey!

Okay, so a new batch of Californians arrived a month ago and it is strange. They are very nice (for the most part) and are interested in learning and not teaching (which is a big step, seriously) but they are SO young in so many ways. Things like doing their laundry by hand in a bucket, or scrambling for candles and flashlights during a blackout, or hauling buckets of water up 4 flights of stairs is still interesting and fun for them, when in reality, it's not fun, or very interesting, its actually kind of a pain in the ass. I know I was like them in the beginning, and so I am trying to not be judgmental, but it becomes ridiculous when all you want is to bitch for a minute about the lack of water, and some big-hearted new kid is laughing and smiling over the whole thing...it makes you feel like a jerk. But I know I am not a jerk, I am just experienced, and I now understand (after a lot of trial and tribulation, I might add) that just because you are grateful to be in a place and really do like it for many reasons, does not mean you need to like carrying buckets of water up stairs.

Moving on: Elena and I went on a 5 day adventure this week. Our plan was to head North to go back to Mole (Mole-lay) National Park and then head to the Northwest corner of Ghana to go to Wa, to a Hippo Sanctuary where we would be allowed to sleep in a TREEHOUSE above the hippos! So we set out Friday morning and boarded a bus to Tamale, which is about 12 hours away. Unlike the last time we headed north, where our bus broke down 3 times and the 12 hour trip took 27 hours total, after only a short delay we were on our way, making it to Tamale by 9pm, a mere 13 hours after we were scheduled to leave Accra.

We stayed at the Catholic Guest House in Tamale Friday night, where we had called ahead to make a reservation, that they lost, so we were forced to sleep in a single bed, which wouldn't have been so bad except for the fact that it was easily 95,000 degrees (at 9pm) in Tamale. Ick.

We awoke at 4:00 am so we would get back down to the bus station by 4:30 to buy tickets heading toward Wa, but we would alight in Larabanga, only 5 km from the park. So we make our way through the crowded and putrid-smelling Tamale bus station, where we are informed by several people that the bus heading toward Wa is sold out. This is impossible, and we know it, because the last time we were in the Tamale bus station at 4:30 in the morning, the tickets to Wa did not go on sale until 4:30 in the morning, and as it was actually 4:35 by this time, there seemed to be no possible way, at all, that this bus, that only leaves once a day, and was the cornerstone of our entire trip going the way it was planned, could be sold out. So there.

Sadly, Ghana IS a developing country, and one development made in the city of Tamale, at this stupid bus station, was that of selling advanced tickets. The bus WAS in fact, sold out. Crap.

Just when we were about to get a little frustrated Elena meets this older gentleman, who tells us that the conductor of the bus will usually sell tickets when the bus leaves, and that way we could STAND. Okay. The two of us had done this ride from Tamale to Larabanga in December, and could attest to the fact that it was the absolute bumpiest ride in the entire world...and took nearly 3 hours. I was in serious doubt that my body would like me a whole lot after 3 hours standing on a bus that was literally jumping up and down.

But, that is exactly what we did, body be damned. It was pretty awkward, mainly because I was standing in between seats where two teenage boys sat, and had virtually no control over what they were saying about me/my body while I bounced around...so yeah. That kind of sucked. It was made more tolerable by the fact that the entire aisle of this bus was full of people, so it wasn't just the two oboruni women standing in the middle of the aisle to get laughed at. And everything became more amusing when some young Ghanaian man started trying to sell herbal remedies for all our bodily ailments. (The same cream could cure a sore throat, a runny nose, erectile dysfunction and vaginal discharge!)

After 3 hours of pure ridiculous, we got off the bus at Larabanga. We were the ONLY people to get off the bus, and about 15 more people were trying to get on. This was a problem, because our plan the next day was to catch this SAME bus heading toward Wa, to get to the Hippo Sanctuary, which was about 5 hours ride away. Meaning, if we decided to stay with our plan, we would have to most likely stand in an even more crowded bus for nearly twice as long...no thank you.
Our new plan became to try and go to Kintampo Falls, south of Tamale, and about halfway toward Kumasi, and then the Boabeng-Fiemma Monkey Sanctuary. Then back to Accra by Tuesday.

After getting off the bus, we then mounted a moto (motorcycle) with some young Ghanaian, who drove us up to the park, and then at the gate, after we paid the entrance fee, the moto took Elena up to the hotel (only one at a time on the back in the park) and I hopped in the back of some Danish family's truck, and hitched my way up to the hotel. Sometimes I am amazed by Ghanaian forms of transportation.

We took beds in the female dorm, where we met this really nice girl from Switzerland who had volunteered in Kumasi 2 years ago. While Elena napped I talked with her about what its like to miss Ghana. She said that she had never been homesick for Switzerland in all the traveling she had done, but that she was so homesick for Ghana when she left it. It was very sad and scary, but good to know that she is fine now, and makes it a priority to come back, and still has strong ties with the community she lived in.

In the afternoon, we went on a Safari walk, where we only saw one elephant, but it was really close, and I got some great pictures! We also saw tons on Bushbuck, Kob, and Crocodiles. We also saw this BEAUTIFUL bird that may have been a Great Blue Herring. This is according to this RIDICULOUS woman on the walk with us...who was completely covered in tarp-like stuff and putting bug repellent all over her socks (which were pulled up over her tarp pants) and who kept talking about wanting to see snakes or something...so who knows about the accuracy of this sighting.

The next morning we left the park (at 4:30) to go back to Tamale. The bus ride was full of all these arguments, that I could not understand, and ended up taking 4 hours. By the time we got to Tamale we were starving and irritated. We also found out that the tro we needed to take to Kintampo Falls had already left, and we were forced to take another one, heading further south to Techiman, and we would drop at Kintampo. This tro took about 40 minutes to leave, and was the biggest tro I have ever seen. In addition to the 6 or so rows of five seats running down the car, there were also two rows of 6-8 in the back that were raised up. No one wanted these seats, so all the seats in the main part of the car, including the fold out ones in the middle were taken first, forcing everyone to get up and move every time anyone needed to get in or out of the back. This problem was made worse by the fact that this tro was so incredibly cramped, for the fold out seat to fold UP the person sitting nearest to the hinge had to somehow move to allow the seat to fold. This was me, fyi. I had to do this squish-into-the-back-of-my-seat thing to let people pass at least 15 times, and on about the 11th time around, I cut myself on the metal part of the seat, making my back bleed all over my shirt, and so I was forced to hold a bandanna over the cut for the duration of the ride. Yep.

We eventually got off at Kintampo, where we found a taxi who would take us to the falls, wait for us, and then take us to Techiman, where we were staying the night, all for 11 Ghana Cedis. Not bad. The falls were nice, and very relaxing, and much needed after that freaking tro tro ride from hell. It was a little awkward because there are 3 different falls, the third only for swimming/bathing, and at all three falls, there were people praying. Kind of a damper on the fun of two oborunis in two-piece swim suits...oh well. We got over it, and presumably so did the pray-ers, and we got in the water and stood in the falls and it was wonderful. (I also got to clean up a little of the blood.)

We then headed to Techiman, but not before picking up 2 more passengers. Two men, one I never met, the other was Kwame. Kwame had to be at least 35, and talked at me for the 40 minutes of our ride about how he wasn't scared of anything and he was very brave, etc, etc. When he asked for my number I told him I didn't have a phone. Que Sara.

We then got into our hotel in Techiman, which for 20 cedis (too much...but who cares) we got running HOT water, toilet paper in the room, soap in the room, and A TELEVISION!!!!!!! The TV only got one station, but we still watched for 3 hours. Sometimes you just need to veg.

The next morning, we set out toward the Boabeng-Fiemma Monkey Sanctuary. We took a shared taxi to Nkrawnza, then a tro from there to Fiemma. We walked over to the orientation house-thing, where we met our guide, Robert, and off we went on a 2 hour walk to learn about monkeys.

This monkey sanctuary has two kind of monkeys: The Mona monkey, which is very social and a complete pain in the ass to all the people who live in the neighboring villages, and the Black and White Colubus Monkeys who are much more shy. Ironically we mainly saw the black and whites, which was fine, because we had seen the Mona at a different sanctuary in the Volta Region. They are pretty crazy looking with these SUPER long white tails and very wise faces. According to Robert, when these monkeys moan and cry between the hours of 11pm and 2am, it means someone in the village will die in the next 7 days. When this happens all the older people of the village walk around wondering if it will be them or one of their friends. And, if the monkeys moan and cry between 2am and 6am, it means it will rain. The people in the villages were hoping to hear them crying soon. (It was CRAZY hot and dry there).

We also saw the monkey graveyard, where the monkeys found dead must be buried, or bad things will happen to the villagers, and also where the fetish priests who have a special relationship with the monkeys are buried too. One of the priests who was buried was (according to his gravestone) 120 years old when he died. And, according to Robert, a woman in the Boabeng village is currently 160. I'm not sure if I believe it though...

When we left the sanctuary, we were told to wait at the junction down the road and a tro would come by and we could get on there. After an hour and a half, we had been passed by 2 full tros and were beginning to get worried. When it looked like we might have to just start walking, a pick-up truck came around the corner and stopped in front of us.

The driver, William Osu, was on his way to Techiman, to sell corn. We asked if we could hitch with him, and he said yes. So I climbed into the little seat behind William, and Elena in the passenger's seat and we were off. On the way, William stopped and picked up around 10 people from neighboring villages, on their way home after a day working on farms. He also told us all the names of the villages, and which where smaller or bigger, which had schools, etc. He was a complete life-saver. We gave him 5 cedis when he dropped us at the Techiman bus station and he wished us well.

We then got on another tro, this time toward Kumasi, where we planned to stay the night, and then grab an STC bus in the morning to Accra. By the time we got to Kumasi it was around 5pm and we were FILTHY. We dropped from our tro in downtown, and then grabbed a taxi to the STC station so we could buy our tickets in advance. After that we walked to this really cute hotel/hostel place very near the bus station where we promptly took showers, and then went in search of dinner and a much deserved beer.

The next day we got our bus (only left 90 minutes late) and got to Accra around 3pm. All in all not our most successful of trips, and we spent TONS on transportation (relatively...) but it was good, and now we have two more destinations off our lists of stuff to do before we leave...in less than 4 months.

Okay, there is more Ghana news...mainly that I might have a cancerous mole (getting it checked on Friday), I was bitten by a monkey, on campus, it did not draw blood, and I do not have rabies (but now really hate monkeys a lot), and that I still have yet to have an actual class. Oh, Ghana.

I love you.