Well, I'm in Africa! the experience has been one of almost continual travelling so far. I flew from Calgary, to Toronto, to London, to Milan, to Lagos, to Accra. From there Ev and I drove from Accra, to Kumasi, to Nkoranza, to Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary, back to Nkoranza, and here I am! Evelyn and I met up with Scott in Kumasi, and so we're all travelling together. We have been travelling around Ghana using first the STC (just picture a Greyhound) and then using trotro's. A tro tro, for those of you who don't know, is basically a minivan loaded with seats. Picture 2 people sitting up front with the driver, then 4 rows of 4 seats. So they stuff 18 people plus a driver into this thing and go. It's actually kinda neat! =)
So I love it here! It's actually really really nice. The people are friendly, the weather is nice (except for the whole "way too hot" thing), the food is good, etc. Took my first bucket shower last night...up until then I've been lucky enough to had a real shower, even if it was with cold water (we got hot water when we stayed in Kumasi, but that was it). Lots of fun =). I've met a ton of people, and I can probably remember most of their names because Evelyn has been talking about them all summer! So that's good. I've tried a lot of food so far too! I'm really lucky, because Evelyn has scouted out all the good food already, and I just have to try it! So, yeah, everything has been really really good so far. I'm not just saying that because I get to see Evelyn again, either!
If anyone is wondering, I have not gotten sick. I have been great...at least since I stepped off of the plane! I was a bit sick on the plane, but that's mainly due to not sleeping for a long time and taking a nap. I have yet to be bitten by even 1 mosquito! I guess they just don't like me very much. I have only seen 1 mosquito so far, in fact. I have, however, gotten attacked by ants already. I was lucky...it seems they were mainly just the small ants. They hurt when they bit, though. Evelyn, Scott, and I had been walking back through the BFMS forest, and I guess I stepped where I shouldn't have. It didn't help that we hadn't bothered to change and were still wearing our sandals, of course. Oh well.
We stayed at the Hand in Hand, a shelter for orphans and handicapped people. It's great, it's actually a project that is being run by a Dutch doctor (who I didn't get to meet, unfortunately). He has opened this internet cafe I'm at right now and is using the proceeds from the cafe to run the shelter. They also make bead necklaces and the like there, which is really nice. I have a picture of Evelyn with a nice bead necklace I bought her. It's great because we get something nice and we are giving to charity at the same time! (not to be confused with Evelyn's friend Charity who actually works at the Hand in Hand). Very nice place, though. It's a compound with animals and children running around. Don't worry, I have pictures!
So for the next part of our trip we're going from here (Nkoranza) to Techiman, to Tamale in the north. From there we're going to spend a few days in Mole national park. It should be great! One of the few places in Ghana you can find animals such as elephants. That will be hopefully be a lot more relaxing! It's been lots of fun so far, but definitely hectic; we needed to get to BFMS on Tuesday because it was market day, and therefore it's the only good day to get a ride out there. I think Evelyn and I are both a little worn out - especially poor Evelyn, who has had to do tons of work for us, including all the planning and bartering. She's also been sick, and is really run down because of that. We definitely need a break.
As for Evelyn, you can probably read her blog to find out more, but I can say she's doing fine =). She actually has been taking cipro and is no longer sick or anything. Now we just have to work on getting enough sleep...last night we stayed up talking to Scott until midnight! Yes, that is late when you consider that people get up at 5 or 6 am here. When we get to Mole everything should be great.
I have found that people in the more rural areas are much friendlier than in the cities. It's not that people are unfriendly in the cities, it's just that they tend to be rather pushy. You get people who kind of push their services on you and then expect to be tipped for it. That isn't necessarily so bad, except that their service may have been to walk beside you, ask if you need a guide, then follow you to where you're going (which is somewhere that you didn't need a guide to get to) and ask for a tip. Most of the time things are fine, though. I just don't like when people are super friendly to you because they want money (I did give in and gave 500 cedis to a little kid. Kind of not a good thing to do, but oh well. 500 cedis is about 60 cents Canadian). Of course, there are still an extraordinarily high number of people who are super friendly and they don't actually want anything. People will not only give us directions, but leave whatever they're doing to show us where the place is. They go out of their way a lot more than most people in Canada would. I think it actually has a lot to do with the pace of life here. Things are slower and people aren't in nearly as much of a hurry. Especially when you go to the villages. They are very peaceful and you get the impression that you can quite happily do whatever you want, working at your own pace. It's very relaxing.
Anyway, I guess I should get going. Hope everyone is doing well! I'll update everyone asap!
