Home Again, Home Again

So I flew home yesterday. The total trip only took 20 hours. Getting out of the Accra, Ghana airport was a series of waiting in lines that never seemed to end. But my luggage and I survived and came home to my beautiful wife. I have some photos posted here. Kags also has some that will be available at a later date.

Ghana

A long weekend

Whew, quite a while since the last post. On Thursday Kags and I headed north to Ho, a town in the Volta region. It was one of the most Western feeling towns we'd been to with street lights, nice bricked side walks and (interestingly enough) the least friendliest people (almost no one said hello, or even Obruni). From there we went North to a monkey sanctuary. The tro-tro actually dropped us off at the junction to the monkey sanctuary. The taxi wanted too much money to take us the last few miles so we prepared to walk, and then (as often happens in Ghana) strangers came to our aid. A pickup truck stopped and let us ride in the flat bed. The ride was great, getting to see lots of scenery and the closest thing to an amusement ride you'd get. They wouldn't even accept money from us.

The monkey sanctuary was great. We got to feed the Mona monkeys who live around the village. The villagers see them as sacred and protect them. Apparently a few years back Christianity had eroded the mysticism surrounding the monkeys and they started getting killed by villagers. Then Peace Corp saved the day by setting up an ecotourist setup and educating the town about how it could help them to preserve the monkeys. We also heard some African stories from an old blind story teller (the village has kind of a commune feel so everyone must contribute to his own abilities). We also ran into a very nice couple who were also visiting the region (he was Ghanaian and she was American) which made for some interesting conversation. While we were there we walked to a small village that had a ton of Kente weavers. The fabric was beautiful and the looms are something to see (pictures to be posted when I get home). Most of the weaving is done outside with the brightly colored thread strung up to 20 feet away. The loom involves hand motions and foot motions to get the thread woven right, and they do different patterns. I got laughed at for trying to take pictures of some of the goats that were head butting and playing.

Then we headed up to HoHo to see the waterfall. It is apparently West Africa's "largest" waterfall and it was very nice to sit and feel the spray. There was a bunch of school kids there on holiday and it added to the experience. The teenagers were swimming and playing in the waterfall pool and were enthusiastic without bothering us. One group of guys insisted that we take their picture and send it to them, but when we finally did they set it up so the waterfall isn't even in the photo.

Then yesterday we headed to the beach for a relaxing day before our flight home. Unfortunately the "beach resort" we picked had a pretty rocky beach that wasn't good for sun bathing or swimming. But we did get to see a great drumming/dancing/singing demonstration put on by a local youth group. They had dances from all over Ghana and the kids were very cute. They all had Kente decorated clothing.

We spent much of the day getting back to the hostel at Korle Bu so we could pack and check out. Now we're heading out to one last dinner at the luxurious Shangrila before flying out. By this time tomorrow I'll be back in the US.

Matt Bleeds in Ghana

So, earlier I alluded to our mountain biking expedition. We rented bikes from a shop outside Aburi Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately the rates were kind of high, and so we decided not to rent a tour guide. The shop assured us that we could follow one of their trails with a "map" which ended up buying a series of 4x6 photos of parts of the trail with directions on the back (e.g. turn left at the tro-tro station). I would have preferred an actual map of the area. Additionally, Kags hasn't done much mountain biking and neither have I, so we started off riding down the main road and pretty much kept to it. After a half hour of gliding downhill we realized it would be a pain to bike back up, so we started our return to the shop. At one point, I saw a side trail that looked very navigable. It wasn't too steep and had a nice wide dirt path, but it very quickly gave way to lots of rubble and became hard to stop. So I fell off my bike, luckily right onto my cushy back pack. The sad thing is that this was probably twenty feet off the main road. I was wearing a helmet and pants (but no pads) and so I was left with some torn pants and a bunch of scrapes on my hands/knee/arm. I used my mad medical skills to clean it with some water from my bottle and then used a little hand sanitizer. After that I alternated between walking the bike and biking up the road back to the shop. At one point, Kags and I got separated and met up back at the shop. Oddly enough he asked everyone he passed if they had seen a white guy with a bike but they all said "No". Maybe I've tanned so much I've started to blend in.

One of the nurses heard that I hurt myself biking and she said, "Now that you've bled on Ghana soil you have to come back."

Congratulations to Us

Kags and I deserve congratulations, today is our last day of medical school ever. Kind of odd to end the year in Ghana since no one really gets that it's our last rotation so it's not a huge deal to them. But yeah for us. We survived four years and will soon be Dr. Matt and Dr. Kags.

It's also left us with just five more days in Ghana. We're going to take a long weekend and spend Thursday through Monday travelling around the Volta region seeing the lake and some small towns.

For Those Travelling to Ghana

Some helpful tips:
1. Bathrooms - Unlike some countries, Ghana doesnt have squat toilets and I haven't really seen any pit toilets (except for the "public shitting grounds" alluded to in one of the guidebooks). Everything seems to have indoor plumbing. However, you also won't find toilet paper, soap, nor paper towels (those are to be provided by the user). And if the water is out, the toilet general doesn't flush, no matter how much plumbing there is.

2. Getting attention. Instead of saying "hey" or "yo" you make a snake like sound. It's similar to "Psssssst" without the P or the t sound. Kind of rude sounding and one of the expats who had been in Ghana for years really offended a Canadian woman on his trip back home.

3. Abruni - this means "white man" and might be considered offensive, if everyone who said it didn't have a big smile. Even the kids love shouting it and they get so excited when you respond to it. Which brings me to

4. Kids - they're everywhere. They seem to be in every doorway of every town. They say hello, smile, stick out their tongue, and love it when you respond. Like, getting an Abruni to smile and say hello is the ultimate victory. Which only makes them more fun. Also, there are some streets in Ghana that feel very ghetto by home standards and might feel dangerous, if there weren't kids everywhere. Oh, and when they are carried strapped to mom's back they're very cute.

5. Transit - There have been numerous posts about tro-tros, but only because they are essential, ubiquitous, and cheap. Although we usually have to ask people where they are going (there's often a lack of signage) we (almost) always find the right one and it usually leaves within a few minutes. With 5 people per row (they even have a seat that folds out to allow someone to sit in the aisle) they can easily hold 30 people. If that's not your style, then take a taxi, but be aware that some taxis are actually "shared" taxis and are like tro-tros on a smaller scale. They cost a little more, but only travel a fixed route and leave when they are full. The other taxis which take you (and only you) to anywhere you want are called "dropping" taxis and cost much more.

6. Water - No drinking fountains anywhere, but everyone sells 500ml bags (or "sachets") of water for about 400 cedis each (4 cents). So while I buy a lot of water, it aint breaking the bank.

7. Backpacks - A ghanaian with a backpack is just not seen. If they have luggage, they balance it on their head. I've seen luggage, a speaker, a coffee table, bowls, a stack of tooth paste (for sale), wooden boxes of pastries, and lumber. I don't know how they do it. I have to say, that given how hot it is, having anything laying against your back or body sounds uncomfortable. The head is definitely the way to go.

8. Trash - There's not really many public trash cans so littering is everywhere. Sometimes, people will unofficially decide that something is a public trash can. Look in the whole in the conrete and find trash, that box left by the side of the road has more trash thrown in by others. I think if a homeless people put out his cap on the street all he'd get would be more trash.

More to come.

The Kindness of Strangers

Kags and I had a great weekend. On Friday we took a Tro-Tro up to Aburi Botanical Gardens. We had a couple bumps initially because our guide book told us to catch the tro-tro at Tema Station, but the cab driver dropped us off there and they told us that they didn't have any tro-tros to Aburi. So we were told to walk to a station about half mile away. Same store, and they told us to go back to Tema. We told them we had just come from that station and so they told us to go to Nkrumah Circle (which is pretty much the transit hub of Accra and would have been very easy to get to from our Hostel if we had known). So once we were on the righttro-tro everything went well. Until the driver went past Aburi. We had told a half dozen people our destination, but apparently the driver didn't here and there was no sign. So when we noticed signs for the next town on the road wespoak up and had to take a cab about ten minutes back the way we came. Since this is Ghana, the cab cost about twice as much as the tro-tro and took us about 1/10th the distance. Also, never trust a cab driver here when they tell you that they know where something is. We said we wanted to go to the Oleander Guesthouse, which he said, sure to. Then when we got to Aburi he tried to take us to a different guesthouse and it was obvious he had no idea where the Oleander one was. So we stayed at the Aburi Botanical Gardens guesthouse and had a nice time. We payed extra for a TV (that was my doing, not Kags') which only worked part of the time because (like the rest of Ghana) Aburi has periodic power outages.

The first night Kags and I wandered around looking for a restaurant that was open during the outage. We eventually stumbled on a roadside grocery stand where the girl working there walked us down the street to a candle lit restaurant (for necessity, not romance) and helped us order food. We offered to buy her dinner, but she refused. It even seemed as if she was going to stay to see that we got our food. Everyone is so nice here. They didn't have Coke, so the guy wentacross the street to buy one for Kags. So, what could have been a terrible, hungry, dark night, ended up being very nice because of the Kindness of Strangers.

Saturday, we went to some waterfalls and then Sunday we explored the park, which was more Arboretum than Botanical Garden. We went mountain biking (more to come later) and took pictures of ourselves inside the random rusted
helicopter in the middle of the garden. Sunday we returned home and
returned to Champs for movie night, where we saw The Freedom
Writers and Death of a President (which, after watching, I felt was in poor taste).

American Idiots

So, last night Kags and I returned to Champs (the American Sportsbar) for Trivia night. Previously we went with some UK and German students, but the UK students went home and we haven't been able to find the German students anywhere (and have no way to contact them). SoKags and I were our own team, American Idiots (thank you Green Day). We failed miserably in the overall game. There was one round where you had to identify as many people as possible on the cover of theBeatles's album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (click on the link to see how many you can do), which year certain famous historical events happened, name the names of drinks based on ingredients (where is my wife when I need her?), and various other things. However, all was not lost. We scored perfectly on the beer round, which consisted of a bunch of riddles (scrambled movie names, trains leaving at 120mph, asking questions of someone who always lies, etc). So we won two pitchers of Star beer. I dutifully finished my pitcher, andKags donated his to another table. Thus, the American Idiots were just smart enough to earn free alcohol.