http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/ichaselions/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from ichaselions en-us Sun, 20 Dec 2009 14:18:29 +0000 Sun, 20 Dec 2009 14:18:29 +0000 By this time tomorrow I will be waiting to board my flight back to the United States. That's right...after four months on the dark continent I will finally be returning home. It's crazy to think that this adventure is coming to an end. Last year around this time I remember talking with my family about my Africa related excitement slowly starting to plan for a world 8000 miles away that I coul http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-353710.html I was we would say in Ghana...I have gone and come. Rachel and I left to go to Benin on Wednesday. I'd like to say we got up bright and early but considering we were up in moving before the sun...we just got up early. We hoped on a bus bound for Aflao the border crossing point to go into Togo and of course got the bus without air conditioning hooray But we did see an old woman who looked exact http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Benin/South/Ouidah/blog-351845.html Its been some time since I've written...I don't really have an excuse because I haven't really done much with my time. Without classes and finals most of my time has been spent sitting on my pretty behind. I've gotten some productive things done I did an outline for my thesis got some shopping done before coming home and enjoyed some leisurely reading. The days have been hot and long and I ge http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Central/Elmina/blog-350365.html It feels like its been ages since I have been on this thing and I apologize. The internet across the country has been mediocre at best and the connection I have in my room has been down. I got a partial explanation of why everything is so slow here. There are basically a handful of companies a few years ago there were literally only two that control all the bandwith coming into the country whic http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-347228.html I thought I'd take this wonderful break from studying to update you on my exciting life that is. Classes have basically ended...during the first week of November...which means we had two months worth of class and I can hardly say its been intensive. I have two finals this week for the same class a written Twi final tomorrow and an oral Twi final on Wednesday. I hope to do well...I've been stu http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-343754.html Dear BarackI woke up to a new world today. I literally saw the sun rise on a world that isfull of hope for you and what you can do.Fifty years ago the idea that you a black man in America could be presidentwould have been laughable. But last night the tradition of hundreds of yearsof racism on our shores was dealt a massive blow and the cause of equality waslifted up like it hasn't been befor http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Accra/blog-342354.html Good morning worldI've had a variety of things going on lately. The most interesting at the moment is my meetings and discussions with members of influential government and nongovernmental actors involved with HIVAIDS in Ghana. I've been learning a lot about how the world really works on the ground here and how full of inconsistencies publications and statements made by certain groups are. Unfo http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-341237.html Hello WorldWell first things first I have fully recovered from malaria hooray I got very lucky all in all. I caught it early and was able to get to the doctor before it did any real damage. So with the exception of being on bed rest for a few days having the achy joints of an 80 year old man I wasn't too miserable. I just hope that the drugs killed all the little parasites. Even if they d http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Volta/Lake-Volta/blog-338910.html So a variety of personal news to report. First things first I have shaved my beard off. Its been a dramatic change. I haven't seen my face without any fur on it for about a year and so it was no surprise I didn't recognize myself. Many people are asking what precipitated the need for such dramatic change The answer is really I was tired of all the damn attention I got from Ghanaians who thought http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-336160.html Story time...Three days ago at this point Saturday a good portion of the international students ventured over to SekondiTakoradi to watch a soccer game between Ghana The Black Stars and Lesotho. Twas no ordinary soccer game though this was a World Cup qualifier increasing the importance of the game. We wanted to get tickets for the match before we even got to the stadium but that like man http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Western/Sekondi-Takoradi/blog-334299.html Hello worldI have been such a terrible blogger lately...I even misdated the backdated blog entry I just posted but oh well. It is 10 minutes to 1am here and I am freaking exhaustedThings have been moderately entertaining. I went dancing with people a few times and saw some good shows. But the main event was today when we went to Takoradi to watch the Ghanaian Black Stars battle Lesotho. The B http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Western/Sekondi-Takoradi/blog-333380.html My internet has been down for several days and this blog entry has taken awhile to write. Its not as detailed as it should be but I doubt many of you will care and will get the gist of the experience. I'm sorry it took so longI have neglected my blogging duties lately and I apologize but luckily now I have a relatively long and exciting story to tell.If you haven't notice...this blog's location http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Togo/Lome/blog-333375.html This weekend was excellent. Rachel one of the girls in my group and I booked out of town for a little village called Beyin in the Western region. The location on this blog is set at SekondiTakoradi but in reality we were about 100km to the West relatively close to the Cote d'Ivoire border. We hopped on a trotro early Thursday a trotro so small that I literally couldn't sit up straight...th http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Western/Sekondi-Takoradi/blog-329011.html Helloooo worldItrsquos been a few days since I've written mainly because I had nothing to write about...but this weekend was very interesting. On Saturday I went down to the Arts CenterNational Cultural Center. I think I have written about this place before buy I am not entirely sure but for review sake it is basically a massive 'curio' market as the Brits would say. It also happens to be on http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Accra/blog-326736.html It's been another uneventful week here in Accra with most of my time spent trying to keep tabs on the impending civil unrest yipee or the fall of the American empire dundundunnn.... Needless to say I can't complain that I'm not in the states right now because lord knows I'd be more annoyed with what's going on there than I already am. But needless to say if that nut Palin gets in the Whit http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Accra/blog-325272.html I haven't posted in awhile and frankly its because nothing to exciting has been going on lately how that could be while in Africa I'm not totally sure. The past week has been relatively uneventful with most of my time spent either reading or going to class and not learning much at all. I think part of the issue is that the lectures are very basic and they professors rely on the readings much mo http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Ashanti/Kumasi/blog-323565.html I have returned from my Cape Coast adventure and I can say I had another funfilled and enlightening experience.Like I said before we went to Cape Coast Castle on Friday which was a very enriching trip but one that was deeply disturbing. The castle was a major point in the TransAtlantic Slave Trade and just seeing it makes you think of white imperialism. Its a very impressive structure consideri http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Central/Cape-Coast/blog-321319.html Greetings from Cape CoastI'm hungry so I am going to try and keep this brief and elaborate later.We left yesterday morning for a few hour drive over here. Our first stop of the day was at Cape Coast Castle...a fort originally built by the Portugese but eventually overseen by the British. We took a tour of the place and while very interesting I can honestly say that it was one of the more depres http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Central/Cape-Coast/blog-320615.html I'M BACKAfter a five day journey I have returned to wonderful Legon and even after a decent night's sleep I'm exhausted. I've been working on 6 hours sleep most nights which means that I have been having very long days. But it was all worth it because our trip was awesome We left Thursday from Legon to head north to Kumasi...a drive that takes several hours. With the exception of a flat tire t http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Northern/Mole-National-Park/blog-318906.html I have FINALLY had an actual class at the University of Ghana. It truly is a momentous occasion. Yesterday I had Twi for the first time. Its a very interesting language there are several words that have like 4 different meanings or uses depending on the context. We learned how to ask people's names and say our own and where we are from To ask someone's name in Twi you say Wow day sen The res http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-316853.html