Tour de Ghana

Ryan's Personal Journal Entery, Jan 25, 2006
This day starts as any other here. Before the sun has even begun to warm the horizon we can hear the Arabic ramblings over the loud speaker calling the Muslims to prayer. This does not usually disturb anyone since the roosters have already been at it for some time. All this is quickly fallowed by the sounds of people fetching water for the day. In the dry season water is sparse and those who rise early get the most. The air is soon filled with sounds of palm brooms sweeping, children crying, and the town waking. The sun is usually the last one up here in Africa.

Tour de Ghana
Our first grand tour of Ghana has come to a close. Traveling in Ghana can be an exhausting prospect to say the least. At times we were on the road for eight or more hours a day on roads that can turn from tarmac to red dirt without warning. Our route took us through nearly every major city and ecosystem in Ghana and 10 of its 12 regions. From the mountainous south with its intense Christianity (Lord is Our Shepard Hairstylist and God is Magnificent Coldstore, among many others) to the dry savanna and prevalent mosques of the Islamic North. Each community we visited welcomed us with tireless Ghanaian hospitality, often giving us the best accommodation in town. The libraries we inspected were amazing, often double the minimum requirement of shelves and tables.

First we headed east to the lumber town of Sefwi-Dwiano. We passed through one of the largest cities of West Africa, Kumasi. The library here is part of the company’s social responsibility policy. As a parting gift they gave us two huge branches of plantain, with out 30 plantains each! We passed the night watching Drew Cary via satellite.

Heading North
Now we begin our long trek north. First we headed to the town of Mim. The library project here was founded by a man named Dr. Agye. While being the Chief of Mim he is also a Ph.D. in physics and worked in the aeronautical industry in the US before returning to Ghana. Now he promotes education with great enthusiasm. Another of his projects was the building of an all girls school, a testimony to the culture, as many girls marry early and are not encouraged to continue with their education. When the town came up with the money for the school Dr. Agye was approached by the elders of the town. They wanted him to squander the money on them. He said no and built the school. The day before its grand opening they burnt his Mercedes to ashes. Progress in Ghana is not always easy.

We are put up in the lush confines of the lumber company’s housing. I called it “oh bruni town” (white man town). They served us beef patties (which is a big deal, even though only one of us eats meat), potatoes, fried rice, fresh salad (safe enough to eat), ice cream, and my first African beer. This is the type of reception we received constantly. The communities are very grateful for the gift of a library as it represents one more opportunity for the youth to be successful in their education. Towns like Mim that have a progressive chief and forward thinking people in the community are changing the self serving idealism that is plaguing some of the older generations.

Mim
After Mim we continued trucking northward to Techiman. We met with old friends of Kurt and Hilda’s. Bill Owens and his wife, Ashietu (spelled wrong probably). They run an International School in Techiman. We rested a day and went to the Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary “where humans and monkeys live happily together.” Monkeys of nearly all species are endangered in most of Africa. This is in part due to being hunted as bushmeat. Protein is hard to find, especially the further north one travels. Bushmeat, while technically illegal, is often regarded as a statement of status if one can afford to serve it at their table.

The black and white Colubus Monkeys and the ever friendly Mona Monkey are protected here by tradition. They are sacred here and even given burials in the monkey cemetery if one is found dead. A Peace Corps Volunteer helped to establish the Sanctuary and develop it as an eco-tourism destination. Our guide Jonas told us of the cultural and natural history of the area. Eco-tourism mixes education with sight seeing and the end product is often that the visitor has more respect for the locals as well as a better understanding of the place they are visiting. Here for example we got to literally walk right up to a troupe of Mona monkeys. They are obviously eager to help relieve the tourists of the bread they are carrying.

Into the Bush
We continue the march north. The lush fruit bearing palms begin to give way to the arid savannah. The weather of the north is influenced by the winds coming off the Sahara, leaving the land thirsty and tired. Now we are entering the true African bush. Here we are directed not by “turn at that road”, but rather “turn at that sheep”. There are no roads, we follow the foot paths with our impossibly large Toyota. Homes are widely scattered as nothing can live to densely here, the land will not permit it. The homes are circular and are made of mud and thatched roofs. A single bore hole well provides water to all the nearby villages. We are in the middle of the Harmon, the dry season, and all the other wells have long dried up. Yet despite it all, we are welcomed more warmly here than anywhere else.

As we bump up to the small village of Ta’am Puraam we see a crowd of people. They organize themselves and begin to clap and sing. We are greeted in their traditional African way. Shrill screams energize the dancers while the drum beat moves them in an orchestrated tradition that is distinctly and unforgettably Africa. I look around and see the parched landscape with its skeleton trees aching for a drink, then see the smiling faces welcoming us in music, song, and dance. Now I feel we have entered the heart of Africa!

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