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Published: September 2nd 2008
Well hello again! Where to start??? (Sorry these blogs are so grammatically and syntacticly horrible. It is just that with the internet the way it is, I want to squeeze in so much, and I never have time to proof read. so again, sorry!) Last night my USAC group returned from our five day journey to Northern Ghana and back. (Ghana has various distinct regions. Greater Accra is located in the south east/central section of the country and the Northern region is in the center of the country, north of the university but not as north as the Upper East and Upper West regions.) Anyway, I do not think I am talked enough about the roads in Ghana yet, they range from two lane highways complete with advertisements on the electric lampposts to dirt lanes with constant pot holes large enough to live in...which are often filled with water in the rainy season. And the in between roads, to me they are the scariest. The two lane highways often have a barrier between the opposing directions of traffic, and the pot hole ridden roads keep traffic at a speed close to 10 mph. However, the in between roads alternate between paved and unpaved, and there tends to be no lines dividing traffic lanes, which seems to translate into very very few traffic laws. In translation: ONLY a Ghanaian should drive in Ghana, and in my opinion, Ghanaians should drive much much slower. I also think that they should not pass large vehicles while going up a blind bend in the road; however, it seems that very, very few vehicles agree with me. When roads are half decent, vehicles drive at around 70/80 mph, and basically they play chicken with each other, whether or not lanes are marked on the road. There were more times than I can count that our van was speeding down a road with a slower vehicle ahead of us, but, instead of slowing down, our driver would begin to pass on the left, with another vehicle clearly coming the other way, in the road space that we are moving over to.....and all three of us vehicles somehow make our way through. This happens on hills, around bends.....like I said, I would not recommend an American coming to Ghana with the intent of driving their own vehicle. I keep calling them "vehicles" for lack of a better term because in addition to personal cars which go very fast, there are taxis which move much slower (most taxis I have ridden in are very, very old, with severely cracked windshields, and engines that fail every few minutes. In fact, I rode in one a week and a half ago that had wires sticking out under the steering wheel, and only when two of the wires were twisted together would the car run; so every time the wires came undone, the taxi would shut off, and the driver would twist the wires back together to start the car.) In addition there are tro-tros which are older vans that are for public transportation, and very cheap; you just find one that is going where you want to go, hope in, and wait for it to fill up with people. Lastly, there are buses which, as I saw on our journey, are often loaded on top with all of the personal belongings of the people inside (suitcases, produce, goats!!), and the load on top tends to be, vertically, at least half as high as the bus itself. The point being, I was pretty stressed out driving on these roads! haha.
Well, on our five day journey we left for Kumasi on day one. Kumasi is a city about half way between Accra and Mole Animal Park, our farthest destination. This drive took about ten hours, though the distance is not terribly far in miles. However, by far the most exciting part of the trip revolved around our stay at Mole Park. The drive from Kumasi the next morning took all day, over twelve hours! However, the last 4 or five hours of the drive is on one of the worst roads that can only be driven on at about 10 mph, and still we got 2 flat tires! Before hitting the dirt road to Mole we stopped at a waterfall (ah, I forgot the name!) and this time I was brave enough to get in the water and stand at the rock base where the water was cascading down. While it was a soaking wet experience that only one other USAC student joined me on, it was such an invigorating moment to look up at the water and see it all coming down right above.....and I hope I can get pictures of it up here soon! So.....that night when we got to Mole, we noticed the extremely dense fog of large bugs. In the morning however, we went on a walking safari!! Western Africa is not typical safari land, but Northen Ghana has lions, tigers, hyenas (all of which are nocturnal, we were told...also, no bears lol) and elephants, monkeys, baboons, warthogs, pythons, crocodiles, waterbucks, and cops (antelope-ish animals). So, at 6 a.m. we met our guide, suited up in a ranger uniform with a rifle strapped to his back, and headed off to look for animals. We were very, very lucky. We saw warthogs and cops immediately, and about 5-10 minutes into our hike we saw our first elephant, who was huge and just watching us as we watched him eat and took his picture. (more on our other elephant sighting in a moment). Not long after that we saw a group of about 50-80 baboons of all ages hanging out in the middle of the trail! haha. After these two sightings, we broke away from the main trail and began some read hiking through the park. Well, about a half an hour later we hear another elephant, but with the dense trees and grass we have trouble locating him, until we are within a large room's distance of it!. I, personally, am remembering the friendly elephant we had met just earlier, so I feel quite comfortable until I hear the elephant let out a very large and scary elephant sound and begin charging towards us. At the same moment, I hear our guide yell "Run!" So, I take off running, literally, in that moment, for what I thought was my life. About 10 running steps later I, along with the rest of the group, realize that the elephant has stopped charging and is now just standing behind the trees somewhere, so we stop as well, and nervously laugh and we jog/walk farther and farther away. Apparently, the elephant had given us a warning charge, and well...let's just saw my adrenaline supply was tested, and it is quite healthy. SO for the remainder of the walk, I kept imagining what I would do if a lion decided to wake up and chase me. Then, when our guide showed us python tracks and crocodile water, I had to begin to devise individual plans for what I would do depending on what animal chose to attack. haha!
Later that day we went to the village of Larabanga, which is a Muslim village with the oldest mosque in W. Africa. Northern Ghana is much poorer than Southern Ghana, a situation that resulted from the trade of the country moving to the south when the TransAtlantic slave trade began. So, the villages in the north tend to truly be mud huts with grass tops. Also, while the North is Muslim, it is not at all what I was expecting. I was expecting to see Middle Eastern Muslim dress, etc. but in fact, the people wear, it seems, what ever they have, some older American clothing, some traditional fabrics, a mixture. It is interesting though. The traditional clothing of Ghana is so colorful and beautiful. The clothes that end up Northern Ghana (random Nike etc.) tends to look shabby, I almost wonder why they wear more American clothing, out of want or out of need...something I will look into. The people of Larabunga were nothing but friendly, walking with us, telling us about their village, the way they live, etc. The children all wanted to hold our hands or get piggy back rides, and the whole experience was really engaging. However, I did learn that in order to get to a hospital, a villager would have to travel 100 miles! (seemingly impossible, we were told that most people who are born in the village live there their entire lives) So, it is interesting to learn how unaccessable medical care is to entire communities. Then, it becomes more real/graphic/depressing when one of the boys showing us around pointed out the orphanage building set up by Germans at one point. Through conversation, he made it sound like mothers die during childbirth at a pretty high rate, and that their village had a large population of orphans. I knew before I came that I would have a heightened appreciation for Pittsburgh after this semester, but really, it is amazing how lucky many of us in the U.S. really are - something I knew, but now I emotionally, physically, feel and know.
The next morning at breakfast, monkeys tried to steal our food! and on the way back we stopped at a woodcarving village, where I bought some stuff to take home and practiced my bartering; and a weaving village where I got an impromptu lesson in how to weave.
This morning I had my dance class, stayed after and took part in the next dance class, had Twi class, had my first Conflict and Conflict Resolution class, and am now on my way to Foreign Policy Analysis.
I was sick (UGH) sunday night and monday morning, but am now only dealing with a lightheadedness that is probably a side effect of my malaria (prevention) drugs .
Ok, more soon. thank you for all the comments and messages! Jamie Nease! have a wonderful first week of college!!! (Aunt Sherry and Uncle Tim: did Tim go south to help with the hurricane???) I get to watch a little bit of news here every once in a while if there is a public tv, and often the international CNN is broadcasting.
love love love
Kristin
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kimi
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wow!!!!
hahhahahahha that elephant story made me laugh so hard. "he was just standing behind some trees" i didnt know elephants charged! i suppose i am too used to the pittsburgh zoo. haha. well i miss you and i love love love reading your blog. i hope you stop getting sick!!! see ya!!