Northern Region - Part 3

Tamale - Our Home Base

Tamale is where we stayed most of the nights we were in the Northern Region. We stayed at the Tamale Institute of Cross Cultural Studies (TICCS), an institute associated with the Catholic church. The major form of transportation in Tamale, and much of the Northern Region, is bicycles (and motorbikes). Tamale even had wide pedestraian/bike paths along the major roads. The first day we were in Tamale, we rented bikes to explore the city. The bikes weren't very nice...kindof old with baskets on the front. Joel, Chichi and I rode in a group. We wanted to get outside of the city because the paths were full of people so it was really hard to ride without hitting someone. We rode out past all of the schools and into a very rural area near the city. We rode around that area for a while and say a sign that said "Ghana 2000 Network" and something about development, so we decided to stop at that place to see exactly what it was. We talked to the guy who was in charge of it and we found out it was a shea butter soap making place. There were four or five people inside making the soap and it was pretty cool to see them doing their work. On the way back to Tamale, we stopped for a Coke, because it was really hot. We got our bikes back safetly and then got some waakye at Zelias (a place that was recommended to me by someone back at the University) for lunch. I explored the city on foot a few of the other days we were there, seeing the market and the many mosques in the city.
One day, we also visited World Vision. We learned a lot about their organization and what kinds of things they're involved in in Northern Ghana. They are a really good organization and I respect how they do things.
A lot of our nights were spent hanging out at the Jungle Bar at TICCS. We played cards, watched a little TV, and talked. It was a nice place to hang out, except for all the bugs. I also got my first hamburger since being in Ghana there...it was pretty dang good. One night, a bunch of us also tried out a nice restaurant just down the road that had Indian food. It was really good.

Northern Region - Part 2

Day and Night in Yendi

In Yendi, we visited an Islamic NGO that works for female education and women empowerment. We heard a little bit about what they do and then visited one of their work sites, a shea butter collective. We got to observe women extracting shea butter from the shea nuts and learned about the process. We were also followed around everywhere in Yendi by a huge group of children. We were able to explore the town and market in Yendi, and for dinner we tried a local specialty, tee zed (kind of like a solidified ball of porridge) with groundnut soup and guinea fowl. Our group also visited the District Assembly in Yendi to see more of how the government is involved in development work. The guy we were supposed to talk to had an urgent security meeting though so we didn't end up meeting with him. That night, we went to an amazing Gonji Performance and got to embarrass ourselves by dancing solo or in doubles in front of over a hundred locals. Let's just say, they laughed a lot. In Yendi, there was a photographer (either for the town or for the NGO?) who went many of the places with our group taking pictures. We also saw some pictures from last years Calvin group at the NGO's headquarters. That night Joel and I went out with Samuel, our tour guide who is a grad student at the University and has gone on all our trips with us. His mother-in-law lives in Yendi, so we went to her house, which was pretty cool. Joel and I each got to ride on our photographer's motorbike, and then he had us both get on and brought us the rest of the way. It probably looked pretty rediculous with 3 grown guys on a motorbike. It was fun though. The next day, after waking up and having breakfast at the hotel, we went to visit one of the few female chiefs of Ghana. We had to take our shoes off before entering her compound, and then we had a short conversation with her. She was quite old and had gotten out of the hospital just the day before so we kept it short. After this, we left Yendi and headed back to Tamale, which was our home base during the Northern Region trip.

Chichi tries her hand at crushing shea nuts, the first step in obtaining shea butter

After crushing the nuts, the powder was heated and then mixed with water for a long time until the "butter" stared seperating out. This is a woman mixing the shea butter mixture.

Me and Melinda at the shea butter collection site

Joel and I with one of the women who worked at the shea butter collection site.

The gonji performance. There were gonji (a one-stringed instrument) and gourd rattle players. It was a very interesting sound and a fun night.

Two from our group dancing and the large audience watching

A man with a gonji at the female chief's compound

My new friends at the female chief's compound

More pictures/stories to come including:
Biking around Tamale
Being within 10 feet of warthogs and elephants right outside my hotel room
Seeing kob, waterbuck, bushbuck, elephants, warthogs, baboons and other monkeys at Mole NP
Visiting Larabanga Mosque (the oldest mosque in Ghana, built in the late 1400s)
My second warm shower of the semester at the hotel in Kumasi

Northern Region - Part 1

Day Trip to Paga, Navrongo, and Bolgatanga

Building at the Slave Camp in Paga (a city on Ghana's border with Burkina Faso). The slave camp was where they kept slaves that were captured in the area before sending them to the castles in the South.

Holes that were carved into the rocks and that the slaves ate out of

Paga Crocodile Pond

Sitting on a crocodile at Chief's Crocodile Pond in Paga. No big deal. There were supposedly 400-500 crocodiles in this pond, although I only saw two. The locals believe that the crocodiles are sacred and that they're resurrections of their ancestors. It doesn't seem very respectful to want me to sit on their ancestor. This was right before we fed the crocodile a live chicken.

A traditional mud house in Paga across from the crocodile pond. This was a large complex with several houses. This isn't the way that most of the traditional houses looked though. Most were mud houses with thatched roofs.

The Burkina Faso border crossing. Because a visa to Burkina Faso is $40 and because I didn't have any time to spend there anyway, it hasn't been added to the list of countries I've been to...maybe another time.

Navrongo Catholic Church...I think it's the oldest Catholic church in Ghana, and maybe in West Africa. We were all really hot and tired so we stayed for about 5 minutes.

In Bolgatanga we stopped for lunch. I got rice balls with groundnut soup and guinea fowl. All three were excellent. We then went to the Bolgatanga Craft Market where a lot of the girls bought baskets. I just bought a few old Ghanaian coins.

Cape Coast Trip - Day 2

On the second day of our trip we visited Kakum National Park, where we went on a canopy walk and a hike through the rainforest. Afterwards, we went to Brenu Beach Resort for lunch and a couple hours of relaxation. It was a gorgeous beach which influenced a few people to stay the night there. The rest of us had an almost 6 hour bus ride back to campus...a ride that normally takes about 4 hours.

The Canopy Walk at Kakum

Me, up in the trees

The view from the canopy

Our guide in front of a huge Kapok tree

A butterfly

A lizard

Three woman walking down the beach under the leaning palm (which is no longer standing)

Palm trees at the beach

The Atlantic

Cape Coast Trip - Day 1

Here are some pictures of the two slave castles we visited over the weekend. The first is Cape Coast Castle and the second is Elmina Castle (the first European building built in Sub-Saharan Africa). Such a pretty landscape for such a horrific action.

Cape Coast Castle

The Ocean-side of the Castle

A view of the Atlantic from Inside the Castle

The Door of No Return (The last door the slaves went through before being put on the ships)

Directly outside the Door of No Return

Elmina Castle - built 1482

The view of the castle before entering

The female slave yard

The Portuguese Church...in the center of the Slave Castle

The Slave Exit to the Boats

The Ocean-side of Elmina Castle

Me with the city of Elmina and fishing boats in the background

Me at Elmina Castle

Sunlight on the Castle

Bats in the Castle

On Top Of The World

On our way back to the University from Akrofi-Christaller in Akropong, our group stopped by Krobo Mountain for a little hike. It was a really nice hike…especially if you like to sweat. It was hot and it was quite strenuous. I was definitely dripping with sweat. There were also several places that there didn’t really even seem to be a path. We had to walk through lots of tall grass that stood way over our heads…and stupid me was wearing shorts and a t-shirt (although I wasn’t the only one). There were also a lot of bugs, and I got a lot of bites. My arms and legs were literally covered with them…very itchy. It was actually the first time I had used bug spray too, but I think it may have come off with all of the sweat. We passed through grass, woods, and rocky areas, and there was even an area with tons on small cacti growing. Once we reached the top, we rested a little bit and took some pictures. It was an amazing view. We could see for miles, but man, was it a long way down. I definitely didn’t like getting too close to the edge, because it was pretty much a straight drop to the ground. There was a big cross that had been placed on top by Germans (I think missionaries) some time ago, but sometime since it has been knocked down. After a little time at the top we made our way back down, which wasn’t quite so tiring but was almost harder because it was so easy to slip on the smooth rocks and the lose stones. There were a couple times that I came close to falling on my butt, but I saved myself somehow. After reaching the bottom, we had a little lunch and made our way back to the University, where showers were the first thing on the agenda.

Again, thanks to Melissa for these two pictures.

Me, on top of Krobo Mountain

Joel and I at the top