Day 75 (wednesday)

Maureen's cousins and me.

Got up around 3 and had a bit of a rough time falling asleep again and heard a little noise outside. I later learned that it was Maureen's aunt just getting home, whom I met later in the morning. I laid around for a few more hours and then Maureen came to get me up for breakfast. I learned that uncle Joe, as he's referred to, was waiting for me to join him for coffee. We had spoken for awhile last night and I learned that he too loves coffee and was excited to have a coffee drinking friend. Uncle Joe is a beautiful man and I learned that recently he suffered a stroke so he has been spending a lot of time in New York receiving treatment and speech therapy. What a wonderful, pleasant and kind person, I feel so fortunate to have such a great host. I enjoyed spending my breakfast time having coffee with him and talking to him. Maureen was outside doing some chores along with some of her cousins. As we were heading in for breakfast, I told Maureen that I would rather just stay in today which means that I will forgo the trip to the mountainous region where we were set to hike to the tallest peak in Ghana (which isn't much by my standards reaching just a few thousand feet) and visit one of the largest waterfalls in west Africa. It was certainly something that I had planned on doing throughout the duration of my trip but we have done so much traveling that I am a bit overwhelmed and exhausted. I figured that it would also give Maureen a little bit of time to get reacquainted with her family. Today I will likely visit the U.S. Embassy and will probably head west as we will visit nzulezo tomorrow which is a village on the water referred to as the village on stilts and requires a one hour canoe ride to get there.

Day 74 (tuesday)

Me and a few of the sociology/social work faculty.

Woke up at a decent hour and had some pancakes and half a cup of coffee (the water boiled off) and then took a shower and finished packing my things. Peter picked us up and we drove around campus for a bit to run some errands and then headed to the engineering guest house for the final lunch provided by some of the social science staff. Kwadwo and a few others joined to see me off, it was really sweet and a wonderful gesture. Kwadwo took us to the bus station and this time we got to take vip instead of anything else and it was absolutely wonderful. We stopped along the way at a rest stop and I got a little dish of fried rice, unfortunately it was pretty terrible. The roads were about as nice. The main road from Kumasi to Accra is really bad and because it is such a main road, it has gained national attention. The president will begin reprimanding people if the project isn't done by the end of the year but I don't see how they could do it. We made it just fine and my initial impression of Accra was that it was very busy and there were several tall buildings everywhere. We got to Maureen's place and it was a really nice place and I felt very welcomed.

Day 73 (monday)

Got up around 7 today and still felt pretty exhausted but couldn't go back to sleep. Maureen got up and made pancakes and we spoke for awhile. She ended up calling 'the guy' and explaining her displeasure with him. I spent the rest of the morning writing in the blog and then figuring out what the rest of my day was going to be like. Maureen got a call from her supervisor so she had to bail pretty quick to go meet him (he had set up a few other meetings with her to finalize her work and didn't show up to any of them). I spent the next few hours organizing my things and putting the room back in order and, with the exception of my computer, have gotten everything ready to go. It started setting in for me today that this will be my last day in Kumasi. I also think yesterday is catching up with me. Went to Maureen's family's place one more time to say our goodbyes and had some dinner. We also dropped off some of our luggage. We got home pretty late and I jumped right into bed. The “property manager” guy was clapping and screaming and it was incredibly annoying. Maureen went outside and told him to quiet down.

Day 72 (sunday)

These two were hanging out by the pool.

A view down into the park from the hotel.

These two were just hanging out (literally).

Saw this guy on my way to the visitor's center.

Our guide leading us into the park.

Antelope.

Red monkey.

This guy was funny, he kept jumping around and tried to intimidate one of our group members by jumping at him.

Oh, the baboons.

A view from down in the park.

The first elephant we came across.

A couple more joined.

...and another.

I just liked the picture.

This one was my favorite.

Me and the herd.

Another shot of me in front of the park.

My friend, Meg, that I sat next to on the first leg of my journey home.

An image of some street folks in Tamale (the city I went to before my trek back to Kumasi).

Well, I didn't sleep as I figured. I got my things together and splashed some water on my face and headed out to the pool area where other people were also gathering for the morning safari. It was really cool to see the sunrise and animals out, at a distance, in the park. I was also told that it is common for elephants and many other animals to come all the way up to the hotel grounds in the early morning (no luck this morning). The baboons were out everywhere and it was cool to see them too. They were jumping all over everything and looking for food wherever they could scrounge for it. They were on top of the buildings and roaming around everywhere. I joined the group and we headed for the visitors center which is where the groups would be split up to start their safari's. We had to be accompanied by an armed guard and I was with some guys from France and a couple from England as well. We started out on our safari and walked through the fields and saw some warthogs, red monkeys, baboons, and a couple different species of antelope. I was primarily interested in seeing the elephants, as were the rest of the group. A couple of the French guys had gone on the evening safari the night before and didn't get to see any. We made our way out into the park, it had rained heavily the night before so it was pretty muddy. I should have gotten the boots for rent because it was slippery and I stepped in puddles of water and my shoes were soaked. We were on the tail end of our tour and were heading back towards the visitor's center and we saw one of the other groups standing around and it turns out that they were taking pictures of an elephant, SUCCESS. I was so excited to see an elephant at such close distance in its natural habitat. We were observing the one elephant for a little while and then one after another joined and there were 5 total, so awesome, they are such magnificent creatures. We headed back to the hotel and had to square up with payment. At this point the magic of seeing the animals was wearing off and now I was thinking about how I was going to get home. Just as I was leaving the office, Kuukuwa called me and had just arrived at the park. I was so glad to see her, it rejuvenated me. She was aware of my situation and was so sad that things had worked out that way. She was running around trying to figure out a way to make sure I was taken care of. I joined her with her group for a little while. She had spoken to another group and was able to secure a place on a bus with a volunteer group that was heading to Tamale. I was so relieved but still wasn't sure about whether or not I would have sufficient funds to get all the way home. Before I could even say anything, she gave me the money for the trip from the park to Tamale which eased the burden a little bit. She knew that I couldn't buy food or drinks (fortunately I saved enough of what I originally brought) so she bought me some water...I wouldn't let her buy me food though, I said it was too much but that I was incredibly grateful. Her group set off to another place to eat and I just waited for the group to finish their breakfast before we could take off for Tamale. As I was sitting on a little stoop by the pool, 'the guy' showed up (only because I had called him the night before to tell him that I was going on the morning safari and was telling him that he should help me get to Tamale) unannounced because he couldn't get a hold of me. I had already made arrangements to join the other group so his services weren't needed. I was frustrated with the whole experience and voiced my concerns to him. The fact that he lied to my hostel mates and “found it hard to speak to them with regards to price” but had no problem charging me almost twice what they had talked about before was all incredibly frustrating. He told me that they should have known to expect something like that, I cut him off again and told him that he was missing the point. The conversation went on for several minutes and he asked if I wanted the difference back and, all things considered, I said yes. He got on his phone and just kind of ignored me and didn't speak to me the rest of the time. He offered to give me some of the money back (which is not at all the point) and he just sat in the parking lot and watched me leave. The guy was a total disappointment. The group that I joined was a volunteer group based out of Tamale and consisted of people throughout Europe and a couple from Philly. The bus was in pretty bad shape but I was just excited to be leaving. I sat next to a wonderful girl (Megan) from Philadelphia (currently a student from Boston University) and had a nice conversation with her. I had to sit over the wheel well so I had very little room for my legs, still worth it being able to leave. The road was terrible and the rain made it even worse, Megan had told me that it broke down a couple times on their way to the park. We stopped at a little village on the way so people could get food and drinks. I just stayed on the bus with a couple of other people. We took off and eventually got to Tamale. At this point I was completely exhausted. I exited the bus with one of the guides and he escorted me to the bus station and I was able to get a bus directly to Kumasi. It was supposed to be a 6 hour journey and I was relieved to be getting home. I called Maureen to let her know that I was boarding the bus and she was glad to hear it and told me to call her when I got in and that she would come get me. Shortly after I boarded the bus, the phone was completely out of battery and wouldn't turn on and I didn't know anyone's number by heart so I knew I wasn't going to be able to get in touch with anyone. I just figured that I would cross that bridge when I got to it. I called Maureen around 4:30 and we didn't set off until some time after 5. I couldn't get too comfortable because my rear end was still pretty sore from the pickup truck the day before and there wasn't very much room for my legs. We made several stops and it was getting very dark and I wasn't sure exactly what time it was. We finally got into Kumasi and as I exited the bus there were only a couple cab drivers around so I figured Maureen was at home. I told one of the taxi drivers that I needed to get to tech junction and he said ok but then another driver came and said that he would take me and then they started arguing about it (pretty comical really). I ended up going with one of the drivers and made it to tech and realized that it was late enough that I wasn't going to catch another taxi from tech to the house. I asked him if he would be willing to take me in towards campus (he fumbled around and was willing to take more than 10 times the regular fare) but he was not so I paid his fee and ran across the road and began walking home. I walked in towards campus and a taxi driver happened to be driving in the same direction and asked where I was going, I asked how much (as I didn't have any money) and he just told me not to worry about it and get in. He took me home and wasn't expecting much so I gave him the small bit of change that I had and he seemed grateful, I absolutely was. I got in and Maureen was awake to greet me. We spoke for a little while but I assured her that I was ok and that she could go to sleep as we could speak in the morning. I took a quick, and very cold, shower and settled in and realized that it was around 2:30. I don't know if I've been this tired before. Needless to say, I am so glad to be back in this bed.

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.

Day 70 (friday the 13th) 10 days left

I guess we were on the wrong side of the tracks...this was on the way from one side of Kejetia to the other.

The European girls I met at the market.

Woke up at 5 and couldn't really get comfortable enough to fall asleep but was still pretty exhausted. I got up and warmed some water for cereal and coffee (today I put a bit much in and it was like drinking tar, I finished it though). Maureen and the other downstairs roommates (mainly Kuukuah) were already up and packing their stuff (both are leaving the hostel after the weekend). I watched some movies and then decided to take a shower and shave a bit. I came back to my room and read a bit and noticed that it was only 10. Today ought to be good though, going to Bonwire for fabric, returning my shirt, and going to the tailor so it should be an eventful day. We may also stop by the armed forces museum if we have time. Spent some time in Bonwire first and I picked out a couple things and also used a couple of my shirts as trade. I was pretty tired but we took off and headed towards town so I could exchange my shirt (the sleeves were pretty far off from one another) but the guy who sold us the shirt came up with some sort of excuse for not being able to give a refund. I got another shirt that was similar to the one I had. We passed by the familiar area in town and saw our friends and looked through their things (they continue to tell me that they will give me a good price). I spent some time looking through some more of the paintings but wasn't all that interested in them (I still picked one and paid 5 cedis for it). I also came across some European girls while we were shopping. I stopped and spoke with them for several minutes. I came to understand that they were here for various internships. I was psyched to snap a picture with them. I totally forgot that we still needed to go to the tailors shop so we walked around for awhile and caught a cab to that end of town and the traffic was at a complete standstill for quite some time. We eventually made it to that end but were both completely exhausted by this point. I grabbed my items and we set off for home. It was getting dark now and we had to wait for awhile to catch a taxi to take us where we needed to go. We finally got to tech, grabbed some popcorn and got home. I was happy with the day, minus the traffic, as I grabbed some pretty cool things. When we got home, Maureen was super sad to tell me that she wouldn't be joining me, it was kind of a shock but I will still venture to the north. She was still influential in making sure that plans were set in place for me (I assure you that it will be an adventure with details in the coming days). I am just finishing up some dinner (rice and stew with a salad) and will quickly go to bed as I have to be up by 4 to start my day.

Day 69 (thursday)

My breakfast.

Maureen's family's house.

Early start, Maureen made breakfast again, salad with bananas and oranges, and I already had cereal and coffee prepared. Mostly reading today, been nursing a dull headache for most of the day and any time I would get comfortable enough to rest something would happen (phone call, too hot etc) to wake me up. Warmed up a huge plate of bean stew and rice. Took a shower pretty late in the day and got ready to visit with some more of Maureen's family (some that I haven't met yet). I learned that when Maureen visits Kumasi (when she isn't staying at the hostel), she stays with these people, one of which includes her cousin. It was nice to visit with some new people and they were very nice. I couldn't turn down the food they offered me so I managed to stuff more food in my mouth. The uncle asked several questions and was intrigued by my desire to be here and wanted to know my overall perceptions. He also questioned me about my tattoos. We finally took off and were both completely exhausted. We got to the house shortly after 10 and both crashed pretty hard. Tomorrow should be a good day.