First off my five day trip to Mole national park:
We left on Friday morning. Early friday morning. In fact, I woke up at 3:30am thinking that we were all getting up at 4:00 but we delayed the trip an hour after I fell asleep. So I was up an hour before everyone else when it was still dark out. Oh well. I ate a big breakfast and drank a nice cup of instant coffee while enjoying the wonderful morning weather.
We got on a metro (a big cramped bus) and went for about 7ish hours to Kumasi, where we stayed in a hostel. Anna and I roomed together. They had running water! And a toilet that flushes! The water hasn't really been working at the house so it was a fricken awesome treat. Me and Anna took 3 showers each. It was absolutely magical.
THEN we woke up at 4:00am to take another metro (about 6 hours) to Tamale, to take another metro to Mole. We waited for about 4 hours in Tamale for our next metro in the sun, which was a toughy. The last leg to Mole was a long 7 hours with the last two hours on the bumpiest dirt road I have ever been on. It was so rough that the bus was falling apart; the floor board was cracking and a window fell off. Yeah. Very Hardcore.
We got to the motel (we called it a resort) at around 9:00pm and all crashed. The rooms had nice beds with a big fan. It was a very nice sleep.
The next morning we went on a safari!! We saw a bunch of animals: baboons, bores/warthogs, antelope...and elephants! Ahhh they were so beautiful. I've been a huge elephant fan but I was so captivated by these huge gorgeous creatures. We first saw them in the water in a pack and then they walked out to a plain. They were wild so we didn't know if we were actually going to see any. They were so elegant and gigantic. I loved every second of it. (I left my camera at the hostel in Kumasi so I had to take pictures with my phone...Mom, don't worry. We went to the same hostel on the way back and I got it back)
After the safari we spent the day by the pool, which was magnificent. We ate hamburgers! or the Ghanaian version of a hamburger. It was really nice to have some American food with all the rice and chicken that we eat. It was such a relaxing day but I got a baaad sunburn as a result. Thankfully it is now healed but it hurt that night.
That night we treked to a tree house in the safari to spend the night. We didn't really sleep because we all had to leave at 2:00am to catch a 4:00am metro, so we spent the night hanging out and eating rice/chicken. It was nice volunteer bonding. And the stars were crazy amazing! I have never seen so many stars in the sky. It was so beautiful and made me miss home a bit.
The trip home was also long. My butt hurt a lot. I survived though. We arrived in Ho on tuesday.
Wednesday l spent my day at the eye clinic and yesterday at Saviefe Deme, a small town/village 25 minutes outside of Ho.
This past week the clinic changed it's agenda in welcoming medical students from Virginia. They came to join the eye clinic with a general medical clinic to diagnose common diseases dealt with by Ghanaians. One major issue that they are dealing with is Malaria, for the obvious reasons. Yesterday was our first day with the med students and began a bit chaotic getting ourselves adjusted. The med students have chosen five villages to visit with the clinic, targeting specific health issues with certain areas. As untrained volunteers, we couldn't get into the hardcore medical stuff but we were able to observe on the outside, working with medication and the eye exams. It was really interesting to see what they have prepared and how they have been interacting with the Ghanaians. They spend two days at each village, one day educating the village on the health issues/how to keep themselves safe and another day doing the actual clinic by treating the Ghanaians for their respective ailments. It was pretty complicated. It was great seeing so many people getting treated.
When we were done with the day we had a meeting with the elders of the village we were at. It was really awesome to see the village leaders and hear them talk about their gratitude for our work. I felt very satisfied with the work we did that day.
Then yesterday I went to the town Saviefe Deme, where Ghana ACT both teaches and does community building. After transporting bricks to the building site for a long time with a large group of the community, we were out of work because our supplies for the next step weren't coming till the next week. While waiting for the volunteers who were teaching to finish, some of the school and town employees gave us a tour of the cocoa trees and some of the town. The cocoa trees were located in a beautiful little street and there were hundreds of the trees. The cocoa beans come in pods and you can suck on the seeds to taste the fruit on the outside. It's really sweet (tastes nothing like chocolate) and is delicious. After that we met up with a Peace Corps volunteer from the next town over named Mike. I hadn't met him before so I was able to get to hear his experience in Ghana as a part of the Peace Corps. It was really nice to see how successful he has been in his year here. It motivated me to possibly apply for the Peace Corps in the future!
Hi Nick, I am impressed with the amount of traveling you are doing. How cool it this trip! What great brain food. Miss you, no more sun burn!
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