Day 76 (thursday)

The start of the journey to Nzulezo.

About 15 minutes in.

Just a villager passing us to go into town.

I just really liked this picture in the forest.

Approaching the village.

...and another one.

Me and the headmaster with some of the school children.

Just a view out towards the river.

One of the residents.

A photo of me just before we left.

This cute little thing followed me around for awhile.

Me and our guide.

Woke up today feeling pretty good. We were getting ready to take off and got a ride from one of the drivers (I learned that this house is essentially government housing and the family is here because the aunt is a statistician) to Maureen's cousin's house. She had wanted me to meet her for some time. We sat and chatted and had a little food (more rice and veggies). Her cousin wanted us to stay at her place for the evening but we had already made plans to travel to Takoradi and meet another uncle and he was going to house us for the evening. We snagged a taxi to a bus station and then drove to Takoradi. The trip was supposed to take, at most, 3 hours but we didn't get to our destination until just after 5 hours on the road. It's exhausting because of the sun and there is really no chance of sleeping with how bad the roads are. We met the uncle and we were both ready to crash. He was a nice fellow and ended up taking us to a hotel, he didn't want me to be uncomfortable so he paid for us to sleep in the hotel for the night (it was a bit expensive but under no circumstances would he, nor Maureen, allow me to help). After we dropped our things in the room, we walked back downstairs and spoke with the uncle again and followed him into the hotel restaurant where he paid for dinner. I slept ok and was ready for the next part of our journey. We got everything together and went in for our continental breakfast and learned that they didn't have any juice (Maureen was super bummed about this) and wouldn't substitute anything for it. I had some coffee and dry toast and waited for quite awhile for my oatmeal but finished it and was later glad I did. I found out that we would have to take a few different cars to get to the town near Nzulezo where we would have to paddle a canoe to reach the village. We got to the town eventually and I paid quite a bit, relatively, about 3 times as much as Maureen. She got her life jacket and we met up with our guide and set off for our canoe. We paddled through some incredibly thick forest and some large ponds before we eventually opened up into the river. The village was finally in our view so I knew it wouldn't be long before we got to the village. I took some photos and asked plenty of questions and it started raining a bit as we pulled up to the village. We walked into a room and the guide was beginning to tell us that we would need to provide more money or some sort of offering to the chief in order to hear the history. Maureen wouldn't allow it because we had already paid money for the ride (we were supposed to pay a little extra in order to take pictures but Maureen nixed that too) and got the guide to tell us on the way back (apparently he isn't allowed to tell of the history while he is on village grounds or he risks being fired). We walked around the village and spoke to some of the people and the headmaster of the school. The kids were all really sweet and enjoyed seeing new faces and they were all very receptive to having their pictures taken. We spent a good little chunk of time there and headed back to the town. We had to get back to Takoradi and had a bit of trouble finding a car that would get there. We found one that took us sort of out of the way first but it was really our only option and eventually made it. It was a blessing that we made it safely, the driver was speeding and cutting in and out of the lanes passing people while cars passing in the other direction were approaching. Several of the 20 something passengers were yelling at the man and Maureen was legitimately terrified (I know I've said it before but to reiterate her fear...3 years ago she was in a terrible tro tro accident where her leg was shattered (she had it operated on but it got infected and it almost had to be amputated but they were able to save it) and she watched several people die) and incredibly relieved when we were approaching Cape Coast. She even told the driver to stop before we got all the way into town and we stopped at UCC. It was getting late which meant that we didn't get there in time to visit the shops. We met a good friend of Maureen named Ben and he met us in the food shop as we were finishing our food. He paid for our food and found a place for us to stay (for the same reason as the uncle). We got to a nice little guest room in a small place off campus with Ben's mother. I settled in and was getting ready for bed but had to use the restroom and later figured out that it was actually the shower (I peed in the shower, totally pulled a Costanza). I went to bed and actually fell asleep as Maureen was talking to me, and slept ok (the mattress was just a soft foam pad).