Motorbikes and Monkeys

Hello all! Ghana continues to amaze me. I am still absorbing all the cultural differences here, for better or worse. For every bad experience or uncomfortable experience, there is a good one and humor is our saving grace most of the time. I have learned that I cannot take things too seriously here because it is easy to get frustrated. I am truly learning what it means to take one day at a time and live in the moment. With that said, I love it here.

Classes are now in full swing (it only took about 4 weeks...) and they are going well, although it is a mixed bag. My population studies course will be a pain to get though this semester, but I can deal with it. My professor basically recites facts from a book the entire lecture and she is extremely vague about our requirements, which is a common theme in my university courses. My sociology of deviance course will probably be my most enjoyable class as the lecturer is very engaging and organized. She actually gave us a detailed syllabus and put together a reading coursepack! (This is a big deal.) I have two USAC courses, which are going fine. My professor for Twi is an interesting character...a grumpy old man, but he is growing on me. He has his funny moments. Unfortunately I had to drop my dance class because my sociology class times were changed around, which was really frustrating. It's disappointing but I had my chance two summers ago to learn African dance, so I don't feel I'm completely missing out. Needless to say, my academic career here will not be the highlight of my time, but that is not why I came here.

I have been traveling a lot and it is always a very interesting experience. Over the weekend, five of us traveled back to the Volta region in Ghana, where we stayed at a monkey sanctuary in the small village of Tafi Atome. We took a trotro there in record time, but the drivers are pretty crazy and they don't stop for anything. It was a long ride and very bumpy and swervy. We were very glad to get dropped off (in the middle of nowhere) after 3 hours of feeling slightly carsick. Tafi Atome is about 5km from the main road, so we started walking, when a group of local kids offered to carry our bags and show us the way. (a convenient way for them to get some money) Luckily we did not have to walk the entire way in the sweltering heat because we found a truck along the way and rode on the back of it standing up for the remainder of the trip. We were feeling very adventurous at that point.

We had a wonderful time in the village. For a cheap price, we stayed overnight in a bungalow with running water for showers and toilets and two meals. Our tour guide, Emmanuel showed us how to feed the monkeys. He called them with a particular kissing noise and they came right away. It was so cute to watch him with the monkeys because he has developed a relationship with all of them. He kept scolding the king of the clan for stealing the other monkeys' bananas and getting into fights. It was a very cool experience. We simply held out our bananas and waited for the monkeys to run up to us, peel the bananas, and eat them straight from our hands. The less patient monkeys would snatch the entire banana, peel and all, from our hands, and ran back up the trees to eat their feast in peace. Over the course of our stay there, we had the opportunity to feed the monkeys a few times.

In addition to feeding the monkeys, we were befriended my a group of local kids who we ended up playing with for several hours. They were completely amused by us, and couldn't get enough of our cameras. They wanted to climb on us and show us all their games and songs. A few of the girls took the liberty of braiding our hair. They were very cute but so persistent. We took them across town to get some ice cream. It must have been quite a site to the other villagers to see 5 white girls holding hands with 10 little kids, all eating ice cream out of bags. We had a wonderful time, but we were ready to take a break before them, so we had to tell them we were taking a nap and hide ourselves in our rooms for a little bit so they would run back home. When we came back from dinner that evening, they were all over us, and again in the morning before we left. It was fun, but we were ready to leave.

We had the opportunity to ride on the back of motorbikes from the village to the main road. It was certainly a highlight of our trip. A few of the girls were more weary about getting on the back of a motorbike, not knowing the drivers or exactly how safe it would be, but it was a great experience. I think we would have taken motorbikes all the way back to Accra if we had had the chance. The rest of our day in HoeHo was uneventful and frustrating. We were scammed by a trotro driver who overcharged us to drive us to the "Talking River", which turned out to be a serious disappointment. It is common for random Ghanaians and drivers to take advantage of white tourists by offering to be a "guide" and then charging a ridiculous price for it. Then we couldn't find any food because it was Sunday morning and everything was closed. We finally gave up and headed back to Accra. Our trotro had AC this time, but the ride was just as unnerving. At one point, we drove though a herd of cows because apparently it would be too much to stop and wait for them to cross the road. We were glad to be back in Accra by the end of the day. Overall, it was a fun time, but I am learning that when traveling in Ghana, it is better to go with the flow because plans always change and frustrations arise.

Now it's back to a week of class. I will be traveling back to Takoradi this weekend to visit Kweku again. Several of my friends from the hostel will also be visiting a beach near Takoradi so I hope to meet up with them at some point. I think I will be traveling a lot here because my friends are very ambitious and eager to explore Ghana. I am always up for traveling here because it means a new adventure and more cultural experiences.