The Best Weekend of My Life

This last weekend was by far one of the most amazing of my life. We had been making plans to go to Mole National Park up in northern Ghana for about a month, and when classes were cancelled Monday because of the national holiday for Kwame Nkrumah's birthday, we were able to extend our trip by a day. I don't know HOW we thought we were going to do the entire trip in 3 days originally, because it was still the most ridiculous trip ever in 4 days.

Our trip began on Friday morning at 4 am when our group of 7 met at Okponglo to catch a taxi/tr0-tro to Kaneshie station. When we got to the corner, a man drove up in a wonderful sized car for 7 people and asked if we wanted a ride.. Of course we said yes (sorry Mama!) and he took us to the STC station near Kaneshie market for FREE!! We also cut out about an hour of travel time because he was an absolute speed demon. Originally we were aiming for the 6 am bus, but we got there with just enough time to board the 4:30 bus, and began our 6 hour journey to Kumasi. The bus was wonderful, and AT THE TIME we all complained about how cold it was. That was silly. We had no idea what we had coming.

When we got to Kumasi, we went to the STC ticket counter to buy tickets for the next trip to Tamale. The bus had just left and there were no more for the day. We hadn't planned for that. So we took taxis across town to the MetroMass station and waited in a line of super aggressive, pretty smelly people waiting to buy tickets. They don't let you actually buy the tickets until the bus arrives, so even though we were the first in line, by the time the bus got there we had a bunch of men scrunching against us and pushing us around. EVENTUALLY we got the tickets (after lots of pushing, and sunburning, and frustration, and outbursts by mentally ill men in the market). We boarded the bus, and shortly after a man who had just purchased a chicken from the market got in the row behind us and put his tied up chicken under the seat. So the chicken sat for the entire 7 hour bus ride underneath Leah and Lindsay's seat, pecking at them occasionally and sliding around whenever we hit a bump or went down or uphill. We have tons of great pictures of that. After one of the most uncomfortable bus rides of our lives, we got to Tamale and made it to the Catholic Guesthouse. It was very nice accomadations for just 8 cedi a night, and we went out to dinner at a nice little place called Swab, had a beer and some good food, and then went back to the Guesthouse. OF COURSE at that point the water wasn't working, so we had to bug the hotel attendant to help us out. Not great. Eventually we all got showered and ended our first big day of travel, thinking nothing else could really go wrong.

WRONG. The next day we woke up, had a nutritious breakfast of crackers and bread dipped in peanut butter/spicy almond paste and set out with the man Frederick who had offered to drive us in his tro-tro the night before. We could get to Larabanga for about 30 cedi, but he was probably going to pick up other people on the way. It sounded good so we set off on the 3 hour trip. After about 45 minutes, Freddy pulled over to check the tire pressure, and when he got back in to start the car, it wouldn't start. Because that would be too reasonable. After a few minutes of confused silence, he asked if we can get out and start pushing the tro-tro, to see if he could start it in 2nd gear rather than 1st. So all 7 of us get out of the tro-tro and start pushing it down the highway in the middle of northern Ghana. We got it pretty far before we realized that just wasn't going to work. Freddy then called his "mechanic friend" who said he would come help us. But Freddy wanted to make sure he could find us, so we got out of the tro-tro once again, and began pushing it backwards around the corner we had just pushed it forwards on, so that the mechanic would see us. ????????? After Freddy was satisfied with our location, we walked out into the bush to sit and relax in the shade for a while, and ended up telling riddles and playing games. Ridiculous. Tons of people walked by, looking at the broken down tro-tro, then looking into the bush and seeing 7 obrunis and 1 Ghanaian man.

I guess we thought the mechanic would show up in something like a AAA truck ( I don't know how we got that idea), but about 2 or 3 hours later he showed up on a tro-tro with a small baggy of tools. Cool. He went to work and within 15 minutes had fixed whatever the problem was and we drove to the next little village to drop him off. We figured the trip would get MUCH better after that, but as soon as we got to the next town, about 8 more people piled into the tro-tro (it doesn't fit that many people) and for the rest of the ride we were once again squished in a super hot, dirty bus with a ton of Ghanaians.

When we got to Larabanga to check into the Salia Brothers Hotel, we were slightly surprised by the accomodations. The rooms were pretty basic, but the toilet room consisted of a platform with a hole in it, and the shower room was a room with a bench and a bar of soap on it, and a lone bucket. After the bus ride we had just had I'm not sure we could have handled that. We were told we could sleep on the roof if the weather stayed nice so we considered that a plus and packed up our stuff to go to Mole National Park, about 15 minutes away. When we had all arrived, and after eating lunch next to baboons and warthogs (!!!!!!) we decided to do a canoe safari, and all piled into the back of this adorable man Michael's "wagon type thing" and started on our ride to the lake. We stopped at a small eco-village on the park property to pick up the oars and met some adorable little kids who ran from their huts to greet us, dance for us, and play with our cameras. We have a TON of adorable videos and pictures from that encounter. We then got to the lake and waited for the canoe to arrive after transporting people across the lake. We talked to Michael for a while and he told us that when Obama had come to Ghana this summer he had been able to shake his hand, and how that had been one of the best moments of his life. Very cool.

On the canoe we floated across the river looking at trees and birds. To be honest there wasn't much to look at, and we were hoping for a crocodile but it was the rainy season so the river was overflowed, and crocodiles generally like to stay on the banks and in shallow water. The canoe ride was beautiful though, and we drove back on the wagon to go jump into the swimming pool before it closed. I felt a little guilty about all the sunscreen, bug spray and overall just dirt I put into the swimming pool just by putting my body in it...but decided it was completely worth it. We then found out that the Mole Motel (where we had originally wanted to stay) had an opening, and decided to cancel our reservation at Salia Brothers and move all of our stuff to the park. This was definitely a difficult decision because we had already moved into the Salia place, and had befriended Mr. Salia, who had agreed to help us with transportation back to Tamale once we were done at the park. We called him and explained the situation, and he understood completely and only asked that we pay half of the cost of our reservation, which equaled about 2 cedi each (an amazing deal). After being accompanied yet again by baboons and warthogs for dinner, a few of us went back the Salia Brothers and scooped up all of our stuff and moved back to Mole Motel. After we showered, the 7 of us sat in one of the rooms, drinking a much deserved beer, swatting mosquitoes away and talking for quite a while. End of day 2.

The next day we woke up at 6 am to get to the walking safari, and met with our tour guide to head out. He was the sweetest old man, and had been working at the park for 30 years. He led us all throughout the park, showing us red moneys, baboons, tons of warthogs, antelopes, waterbucks, and other little stuff. Our main goal was an elephant, and we saw a ton of fresh elephant footprints all over the place, but could never find the real thing. Slightly disappointing, but at this point we had decided that the best part of the trip was just getting there.

We ate lunch and packed up our stuff to head back to Larabanga, where we were hoping to catch a ride back to Tamale. This was a little harder than we thought. Most of us had run out of money, and there were no ATMs, so we were a little strapped for how much we could pay to get there. There were a ton of men in the village trying to help us figure out how to get to Tamale, but they all wanted ridiculous amounts of money, so we had to refuse most of their offers. During this whole waiting process, a few of us walked over to the Larabanga mud huts. They were the first mud huts built in Ghana and West Africa, and welcomed over 4,000 people every Friday night to worship. They were absolutely beautiful. We walked through the village to get back and saw dozens of children playing soccer and running around, most looking incredibly malnourished. The guide told us about a Peace Corp worker who had come to Larabanga a few years earlier and built a school. It's hard to see that even if these kids have a school to go to, they still can't get the proper nutrition, and most have all the signs of Kwashiokor. That has definitely been a difficult thing to deal with.

We eventually got on a bus going to Damongo, where were hoping to pick up another bus to go all the way back to Tamale. There were huge arguments surrounding how much we would pay for a bus. We got the impression that only tourists go through that town, so the drivers believed they could rip us off completely and we would have no idea. Not to say that we know that much, but we've been here long enough to know when we're being ripped off and know how to argue it now, which made the process much harder. We had to deal with being ripped off because we had no other options, and eventually paid too much to get back to Tamale. 3 hours later, after being once again smushed in a bus with a ton of Ghanaians, we got back to Tamale and went back to the Catholic Guesthouse. We went out to the same restaurant and had an amazing meal, and a huge conversation about absolutely everything. After showering, we shared a bag of my favorite gummybears and called it a day.

The next morning we got up at about 4:30 to get to the STC station. By now all of us were super dirty, tired, cranky, running low on money, tired of eating crackers, and overall just wanting a nice shower. I think it was amazing how we were all able to acknowledge that despite all of that, it was still one of the best weekends we had ever had and we were really proud of ourselves for sticking it out. We climbed on the bus and 14 hours later arrived in Accra to be bombarded by taxi drivers once again.

It's impossible to describe how ridiculous this weekend was. Nothing worked the way it was supposed to, and everything was so much harder than it needed to be, but it still ended up as the most fun I've had in my entire life. I think we put together an amazing travelling group, and everyone was able to contribute their own bit to the trip. Overall I think we were just all able to suck it up and laugh, which is exactly what you have to be able to do here.