Back From Ghana

I've been back for almost a month so I thought I should bring this blog to a close. I won't be writing in here again...unless maybe I go back to Ghana. It's been a little wierd being back and I find that I miss Ghana a lot. It was just a no worries, no stress, fun place to be where everyone was happy and the weather was always nice. It is a place that I would definitely like to return to.

Things I Miss:
Pure Water - drinking water out of a bag...and it's so cheap
The Night Market - good food prepared for me, fresh fruit and water all only a minute from ISH2
ISH2 - my home for the semester...tons of great people lived there
The University of Ghana - I loved this campus
The Weather - always sunny and hot...windows always open
The hospitality shown by the Ghanaian people
The happiness of everyone
Perry Americana and Mem Fast Food - my favorite places for dinner
Omo tuo and nkatenkwan (Rice balls and Groundnut soup) - My Favorite Ghanaian food
Fufu - another fun meal
A little bit of spice in my food
Fresh mangoes, oranges, bananas and pineapple
Golden Tree Chocolate
Trotros and taxi (public transportation in general) and not having to drive
Wearing sandals
Walking places
The early sunrise and early start to the day
The brightness of the days
The pace of life - no hurry, no stress
Limited TV, internet and phone...things I now waste my time on instead of doing something productive or fun
The Great Music
Being a lot easier to remember to take my malaria meds while I was there
The excitement of being in a new place
New experiences
Travel
New products and foods to try
The scenery
All the great people that I met in ISH2 and everywhere else on campus and across Ghana
My roommate Victor

Things I Don't Miss:
Cold Showers
Gutters along the roads and the stuff that was in some of them
Trash/Litter
Traffic
Dirty feet and dirty sandals
Sweating through clothes
Frequent power outages...although they gave me an excuse to get out

Last Days in Ghana (a belated post)

Our final retreat at Brenu Beach, a little jaunt into Cape Coast, some last minute shopping in Accra, last walks around the university, and saying goodbye to the many great people I’ve meet…these are how I spent my last few days in Ghana. It was a great semester…definitely an experience I will never forget.

Watchtower at the Beach

A view from the watchtower looking down the beach

A wooden boat

Chichi and I after our final ceremony

Market in Cape Coast

Cape Coast Panorama

Accra...the city I grew to love

Indepedence Arch

The Entrance to the University of Ghana

Institute of African Studies...the building where we had our classes (except for Drumming and Dance)

Looking at the International Student Hostel 2 (behind the papaya tree) from a path on campus. That was my home for the semester.

Victor & I a few hours before my departure

Free Travel

For the past week or so, Melissa, Melinda, Joel and I have been backpacking around the Volta Region of Ghana, where there is beautiful scenary, great hiking, and incredibly kind people. After our first day of traffic, waiting for the bus to show up, more traffic, waiting for the bus to get fixed, and even more traffic we finally showed up in Hohoe a little before midnight, about 15 hours after leaving the university that morning (and Hohoe is only about 4 hours away). We stayed in Hohoe that night, and the next morning headed over to Wli. We hiked to some caves and to see both the upper and lower Wli Falls and stayed in the incredible Waterfall Lodge. We spent the next couple nights in the mountains of Biakpa where we slept in tents. The fifth night we stayed in the village of Tafi Atome, and our last night was spent in Ho where we caught the bus at 4am for our smooth commute back to the university.

Looking out from the cave

Going into another cave

Sunrise in Wli

Walking down the path from the hotel

Upper Wli Falls (after the 2 hr climb)

A mound of ants

Lower Wli Falls (after the descent)

Joel learning to carve

Relaxing at the amazing Waterfall Lodge with some Milo and tea

Our tent at Mountain Paradise in Biakpa

One of several waterfalls around Biakpa

Looking out the window in Tafi Atome

The kids watching the monkeys...and us. This was shortly after they brought me a baked yam that was probably the best I had in Ghana.

Kente weaving

Kumasi

Our Calvin group spent a couple days in Kumasi just prior to our free travel time. Our hotel turned out to be really shabby and we didn't have running water for the couple days we were there. I had my own room that was barely bigger than my bed and had walls that were probably half an inch thick. Really, they would bend if you touched them. Although it wasn't the nicest place, I really ended up enjoying it. The workers were really nice and were fun to hang out with. Two of them taught me a game one night and we played a game of pool with them. There were also some cool people staying there and we played quite a lot of cards at night. Kumasi has the largest market in West Africa and I spent several hours walking through it on two seperate days. It was a pretty cool experience and there was lots of stuff. We also went to the Coca Cola Bottling Plant of Ghana one of the days and saw how they produced the drinks and bottled them. It was fun and we all got to wear lab coats, hair nets and goggles during the tour. We also got free Orange Fantas, their product for the day. We visited a museum in what used to be an Ashanti palace. It had a lot of things that belonged to the past Ashanti chiefs. There were also peacocks wandering around the lawn. While we were in Kumasi, we also were able to see how kente cloth and adinkra cloth are made. Kente cloth, especially, is something that the Ashantis are very well known for. Overall, I think we all had a really good time in Kumasi.

Sorry, long time no blog

As of Friday, I'm officially done with my semester (or at least the class part). Last week was a little stressful with papers and exams and that's why I haven't written anything in awhile. After this message, it may be a little while again. Tomorrow, I leave for Kumasi and I'll be there until Wednesday. On Thursday I will leave for the Volta Region with Joel, Melinda, and Melissa and we'll be there for about a week. I probably wont update until at least then. Once I get back from the Volta Region, I'll have about three days here in Accra, a night or two at Brenu Beach for our final retreat, and then a couple days here again until I fly back to Michigan.

Volta Region Trip

The Volta Region was so beautiful. Much of the region is very rural with small villages (at least in the area we traveled around in) and there is nature everywhere...mountains to climb, waterfalls to see, rainforests to hike through, etc. There is a pretty big focus on ecotourism here so it was the type of place that I really liked to spend some time. I liked it so much in fact, that I'm pretty sure that I'll spend at least part of my free travel time in a couple weeks back in this area. If my scenario works out perfectly, I'll also spend a little time in Benin.

Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary

Wli Falls

Adaklu Mountain
Freedom Hotel (in Ho)

Togo

A couple weekends ago, five of us decided to get out of the country for the weekend, so we headed to Togo. This involved spending Wednesday afternoon getting passport pictures taken and applying for a Togolese visa (and getting lunch at Frankies). On Friday morning, Joel, Anna, Sarah, Stephanie, and I grabbed a trotro heading for the border town of Aflao and hopped on. Once at the border (about 2 1/2 hours later) we got out and crossed on foot. After entering Togo, I was very glad we had Stephanie along because there wasn't an ounce of English spoken. We grabbed a taxi and headed to Hotel Le Galion in Lome where we got dinner, planned out the rest of the weekend, and stayed the night. On Saturday morning we woke up and walked along the beach which was only a block or two from our hotel. We came back and got breakfast and then decided to get a tour of the city on motorbikes. We rode past some pretty cool buildings downtown, through the market, and along the beach. It was an amazing ride and probably one of the best parts of Togo. We got back to our hotel and decided to head a little further East to stay the next night. We loved the motorbike ride so much that we decided to ride them to our next destination, Chez Alice, just east of Lome. After getting our bungalow, we walked down the road in search of some lunch, and with the help of a couple nice ladies, we were successful at finding some good spaghetti. Later, we walked along the beach and found a place to hang out. We met another nice Togolese lady who wanted to practice her English, and we stayed on the beach to watch the sun set. For dinner, we headed to a really nice hotel and got some delicious salads. We relaxed on the beach under the starlight before heading back to our bungalow to sleep. Our bungalow had two beds covered with mosquito netting. The three girls shared the bigger of the two beds and us guys had to share a twin bed that had a mattress made of foam...not comfortable at all. I felt like I was in a hospital bed that was folding up on me because my butt was sagging a foot or two lower than my head and legs. In the morning, we walked down the road to get a little breakfast, relaxed a little bit at Chez Alice, and then headed back to the University. It was a successful trip and a relaxing weekend. It was a little difficult, though, not really being able to communicate with anybody, although that was a feeling I'm glad I was able to experience.

We took a walk along the beach in the morning before breakfast

Breakfast at the hotel...the ham and cheese omelette was sooo good, but sooo greasy

Me on the motorbike...ready to tour Lome

A really cool building in Lome

Chez Alice

Our bungalow

One of the pet monkeys at Chez Alice (and Stephanie found out that he does attack if you get to close)

Some of the decorative furniture at Chez Alice

A group pic at the beach

Heading back to Ghana