Day 71 (saturday)

The 45 km ride in this truck.

Me with the mystical stone.

The centuries old mosque.

A view from the roof overlooking Larabanga (the village just outside of Mole that is home to the mosque).

A different view from the same rooftop.

This guy was right on the trail as I was walking to my room.

Saw this little guy on the ground (it was probably about 6 inches across) and stayed long enough for me to catch a photo.

The picture doesn't do it any justice but this was the sunset...sooo pretty!

Well, today I woke up sometime in the 3 o'clock hour and couldn't really go back to sleep but I was ready to start the adventure. Sarpong knocked on my door right at 4 and I got out of bed shortly thereafter and put a few things together and packed my backpack. Maureen was already in the kitchen making jollof rice for me, she had also made a few sandwiches. I figured that I didn't need as much as she was preparing to pack so I gave one of the travel dishes to Sarpong. We got a bit of a later start than we had wanted to but still got to the bus station pretty early (we were taking the metro mass transit again) but the bus that we were after was already full and so we had to wait for the next available one. We stood around for almost a couple of hours before we could board our bus but eventually we took off. We were heading north to a place called Sawla (Sarpong was continuing further north to a place called Wa) where I was going to meet a friend of his. This friend was somebody he had met while traveling in that area before and they had arranged that he would pick me up at Sawla and take me to Larabanga (where the oldest mosque in all of Ghana is) and then on to Mole National Park via motorcycle. He wasn't going to charge me anything because I was a friend of Sarpong. We stopped half way at a rest stop so people could get some food and stretch their legs. I had one container of rice and a sandwich (I always ration my food carefully just in case something goes wrong) and the one bottle of water that I bought at the bus station in Kumasi. My phone didn't have any credits and his carrier didn't have any service in the town so we couldn't get a hold of the guy so we both exited the bus. A lady saw us exit the bus and called for our attention and asked if we were meeting someone. We sat down at her little stand and waited for a few minutes and finally he showed up. We started heading out but we needed to make sure that Sarpong got a car to his destination. When we got to the station we realized that he was the only one there which meant that he would have to wait until it got full before he could leave. I went with the guy (I forgot his name) and we waited for some time and there weren't really any vehicles going to the place that we needed. I thought that he was already prepared with that (as I will come to find out he wasn't prepared for too much) but he wasn't and when a pickup truck passed by he asked if sitting in the back was ok and I said sure. We got to the truck and several people were also rapidly approaching it, the cab filled up quickly and then 4 or 5 people jumped into the back with all of their music instruments and then we got in. There was very little room and we were also joined by a goat. I thought I remembered that the journey wasn't very far so it wasn't too big of a deal, NOPE, just a short 45 kilometers along an incredibly terrible road. My rear end was so sore by the time that we finally got to where we were going (Larabanga) that I couldn't really sit. I didn't really think we needed to wait too long and gave “the guy” the thumbs up and we grabbed a motorcycle and drove around a bit. We had to fuel up and then he took me to the mosque in the village (the entire population of this community is Muslim). I learned that it was the oldest mosque in all of Ghana and was built in 1421 by the man who founded the community. It was pretty cool, obviously I couldn't enter because I am not of the faith (I was originally under the impression that it wasn't in use so much anymore so paying the fee would include seeing inside). I had to pay a little to literally walk around the small facility, all good though. We went to the mystical stone as well (it is said that the mystical stone was a part of the founding of the mosque and critical to the location of the mosque). From there we biked into the park (I forgot the first thing on my list of things to bring which was my student id) and I had to pay twice as much as I would have if I could prove that I was a student. We started into the park and headed to the hotel. I was supposed to meet Kuukuwa there but hadn't heard from her yet so I wasn't sure what the plan was. I stood around for a little while and then 'the guy' said that I should just get a room first just in case they were full. Well as luck would have it, all the rooms were full. The hotel was trying to figure something out and in the meantime I was trying to make some phone calls and realized that I had little to no service at this place. I finally got in touch with Maureen and we were discussing how much I should give 'the guy'. She called him and spoke with him for a few minutes and then called me back. He told her that he couldn't tell her how much because he was doing a favor for Sarpong and then told her how much he spent on the travel (he lied to her and told her that the journey from Sawla to Larabanga was more than he actually paid...i watched the transaction) and we decided to settle on 25 – 30 cedis so he could recoup his costs and have a little extra. I reached out to give him 27 cedis and he just looked at me and with a smug grin, laughed at me. I asked him what the problem was and he told me quietly that he does this for a business (I was completely blindsided and the fudge packer wanted to charge me 50) and that he would charge much more than that. He was reluctant to tell Maureen and Sarpong that he would charge me anything but had absolutely no problem telling me that I needed to pay. I gave him what he wanted, begrudgingly, and then was summoned by one of the hotel staff. I followed him and 'the guy' just disappeared and was escorted to a room in a house behind the hotel. It was my only option and cost me more than twice what I had budgeted to pay. Now I didn't know if I was going to have enough money to get home the next day so I'm completely frazzled at this point because Kuukuwa still hadn't come around and likely couldn't get a hold of me. I couldn't afford to get any food or drinks because I was, quite literally, just barely going to have enough to get back to Kumasi (I was also told that there was only one bus leaving to the town that I would need and it leaves at 4 in the morning). I also realized that I had gotten to the park too late to go on the afternoon safari so I would have to go in the morning. I made due with the food that Maureen packed and the one bottle of water I bought at the station in Kumasi. The room I was in was, well, less than ideal, it had running water and a chair and a bed (which I later found out was ungodly uncomfortable). There was no towel so I couldn't take a shower and my hopes were slowly going downhill. I decided not to just sit in my room so I went out by the pool to mingle with people (there were a couple of big groups of white people) as I had seen several people hanging around as I was going to my room. I overheard that a girl said she was from Salt Lake so after her conversation I began talking with her. By random chance there was a group of nursing students from the University of Utah at the hotel so I at least had somebody to talk to. Naturally she was very concerned about making sure I would get back safely and even tried to get a spot on their bus back to Kumasi but it was full (I was grateful for the gesture but knew that something would work out). Watching the sunset was absolutely breathtaking and erased all of the days misfortunes. I spoke to her (Emily) and the nurse in charge of their trip (Amy, who works as an assistant professor as well as a nurse at the student health center) for a little while and enjoyed the conversation quite a bit. We all parted ways and I went to my room. It was dark enough that you could hardly see your hand in front of your face (when I was originally walking to my room, there were warthogs and other animals roaming around nearby) so it was kind of interesting walking through the forest to my room. I had to set the alarm on my phone to 6 as the morning safari was starting at 7 (I wasn't really too worried about getting up on time because I figured I wouldn't sleep). I couldn't really get comfortable and sunk into the mattress so I just had a fan to listen to and some music (but I didn't want to run the battery out because I knew that my journey the next day was going to be long). I was exhausted by this point.