Trekking Around the Coast

---

Rusty Ropes and Cracking Boards

Last week I went to Kakum National Park, where really the only thing worth seeing amidst dense jungle was a 1000 foot long and 100 foot high canopy bridge spread across 6 tree trunks. It was built a few years ago with funding from USAID, and let me tell you, that thing creaks and shakes like there's no tomorrow; where the millions of dollars in funding went, I do not know. 6 Ghanians basically took some rope, wood, and netting, put it on their backs, and climbed these trees with just a hammer and some nails. Some questions I asked: "Is that board supposed to be just swinging like that with no nails attached to the tree?", to which the guide replied "That is a good question. I am sure it is no problem." It's nice to have such a reassuring guide...

I had high aspirations of becoming a Jane of the Jungle wild haired woman atop this lofty bridge, but the reality of my keen love for gravity and having two feet firmly planted on the ground gave way. Ah well! But it was very beautiful looking around the jungle at all the trees and greenery. Ghana is very beautiful! As you can see from the picture, it really was a step by step process to get to the end!

Winneba Aboalcyer (Deer Hunt) Festival

This past weekend I headed an hour past Cape Coast to the quaint fishing village of Winneba. This reminded me of living in Cannes, where the quaint port town that I absolutely loved became this ridiculously crazed town with drunkards by the thousands and parties till the crack of drawn. But of course instead of the flashy stars and glitzy dresses, here at the end of it all we had antelope sacrificed to the Winneba shrine and two local tribes dressed in traditional gowns parading around town. My friend and I joined in on the festivities, dancing in the streets with the red asafo company. All this high-life and hip-life and reggae music blasting from every speaker, and people of every age and type in the streets dancing. It was great!!!

The people I went with all had different experiences. I personally loved the attitude of the people - grandfathers stopped by as we ate the local chop food wondering how we were finding the local cuisine and if we liked the festival and Ghana. Women would give us big hugs and say welcome! And some local tribesmen would pull us into the streets to dance. The elderly folk felt very protective of us and looked out for us the whole time. I loved it! But another friend had a completely different experience from being groped, to having puppies thrown at her, to having people shout at her saying that they resented what her forefathers did to the Ghanaians. And she was on the same block as me, just an hour later! This is just a snapshot of life here though, one minute you are loving the people and the next you want to be invisible. Likewise, many times Ghanaians are confused, and it takes a few seconds before you determine whether they are actually smiling or scowling at you!

Meanwhile, Back At The Office...

I have plenty of time these days to write in my journal, write these travel blogs and see how many possible tan lines I can get, as in the past few days we experienced a flood and a power surge in our office that caused one of the computers to blow up and the rest to go off line. We currently have an electrician fixing it, but seeing as how he keeps proudly showing us his fireman's badge, I'm not really sure if he knows he's here to fix the power surge and not to pour more water onto our already drenched office. I'll let you know how things go in my next posting!

---

Photos

Steady...
Strolling across the canopy bridge at Kakum National Park

Go Reds!
Celebrating the deer hunt festival with the red asafo company.