Blogs from Tamale, Northern, Ghana, Africa - page 8

Hi folks, sue here Again... We are all enjoying a quiet day together today, the pace of life is actually so much slower here but we are so exhausted. We get up at about 6.30am every morning but that doesn't count as to whether or not you have been woken by the call to prayers from our local mosque. Obviously we are living in a Muslim part of the country and they are very strong in their religion. Their seem to be a mosque on every corner and we are surrounded by about three of them. On the normal run of the mill day we are woken between 0430aand 0500 for the morning prayers. Our local mosque seems to have the biggest loudspeakers of any others and the sound is there in the bedroom with you. ... read more

September 14: Began the trip with a visit to Kumasi, the capital and heart of the Ashanti people and the site of the largest market in West Africa. I did my buying elsewhere, however, and with my growing grasp of the Twi language, bargained for cloth in the touristy village of Bonwire. I couldn't discern whether they asked me to repeat "wobegye sen?" (roughly translated as "how much do you want for this") out of sheer astonishment that an obruni was speaking Twi or because I spoke with a heavy accent. Nonetheless, I purchased a couple of fine pieces of Kente at a very fair price. September 15: Journeyed further inland to see Kintampo falls (roughly in the middle of the country), which was not as large as the others I had seen in the Volta ... read more

We were surrounded by moles. They advanced, teeth bared, snarling, Eric screamed..... You've probably guessed that Mole was not a park dedicated to our scurrying underground cousins, instead it was a brilliant park filled with elephants, antelopes, monkeys, baboons, warthogs and irridescent birds. We stayed at the Mole ('mole-ay') Motel. This was a fascinating place. It is perched on a cliff above a primeval savannah landscape that disappears vastly over the horizon. Directly at the base of the cliff are two watering holes, at which all the many creatures gather. One morning, 15 elephants went for a swim in one of the pools for a couple of hours. They were platfully dunking one another and clashing their tusks. What a sight! All the animals come wandering through the hotel grounds; there are constant streams of warthogs ... read more

The house is a compound, meaning all the doors to the rooms face into a middle circle where all the socializing, cooking, washing and playing happens. Most houses from the ones I have seen are set up this way, more like a community than a row of houses. Food is prepared for everyone in the compound and everyone pulls their own to make the household complete. I still have not figured out everyone who lives at my compound, or even how they might be related. I would say there are maybe 10 doors into the rooms. And from my head I can count about 17 people plus myself currently residing here, only 2 of them being older woman taking care of the house. The children range in age from a new baby to my age. My ... read more

...And then I got Malaria... but I still managed to ride a crocodile, go on a safari, and have a baboon come up to the table where I was eating, grap the black bag out of my purst that contained all of my cash, and chase him until he dropped it... So yeah, we left for Bolgatanga on friday and our bus left late, broke down and needed another car to drive 2 hours up to where we were to bring us a spare part, then a tire blew just south of tamale and had to be fixed, and we finally arrived 12 hours later (should have been 6). Our hotel of choice was also full so we went to another place and I went to bed... wierdest thing about malaria is that I woke up ... read more