"That Sheep is Going to Drown in the Ocean!!!"

Hello everyone and Happy Holidays!!!! It doesn't feel much like holiday time for me because I am in AFRICA, but we (me and my fellow Ghana travellers) celebrated as much as possible together. More on that in a minute. First of all, I would just like to let everyone know that Ghana is a beauuuuutiful place! My first impression in Kumasi (large town in central Ghana) was "THIS is a Peace Corps country of service, too??" Everything is 10 times more developped than Burkina, and it just doesn't even feel like the same continent. If you have ever been to Jamaica or other Caribbean resort islands, I'd say it is comparable to that, especially on the beaches. They have take-out Chinese food, paved streets, paint on their buildings (as opposed to just mud) and they speak English ... and that is all I have to know to know that volunteers who got placed in Ghana are much luckier than yours truly. Not that I am bitter.

So.... vacation went like this...
Day 1: 14 hour bus ride from Ouaga to Kumasi. Slept one night in a mission house near bus station.
Day 2: 5 hour tro-tro ride (like a short bus, but much more crowded) to Takoradi, a large city on the southern coast of Ghana. 2 more hours in same tro-tro to finally arrive at the most beautiful beach resort we poor BF volunteers could ever dream up.

At the border we had exchanged our francs (BF currency) for cedis (Ghanaian currency). There are about 16,000 cedis for every 1,000 francs, or about 9,000 cedis per $1. For some reason, Ghana does not have bills smaller than 20,000, so when you exchange your money, you have TONS of bills and you have to walk around feeling like a bank robber because you just have stacks of cash on you in black plastic bags at all times. I changed over like 80,000 francs, so I started out with over 1,000,000 cedis, all in bills of 10,000 and 20,000. It was hilarious actually, but kind of annoying. The entire 10 day trip, including travel, hotel, and food ended up costing me about 2 million cedis, or something like $250. Crazy.


Days 3 and 4: Beach, sun, beach, eating, drinking, relaxation, bliss




We stayed at this place called the Green Turtle Lodge,on the west coast of Ghana, near the Ivory Coast, and no one wanted to ever leave it. It was well worth the two rough days of travel. This place is run by a young English couple, who were nothing but wonderful. Their hotel is an Eco-tourist hotel that has huge mud huts with solar powered electricity in each one, and each guest is responsible for shutting off their own lights or else you won't have any at night. There's other interesting environmental stuff, but it's boring to write about. But take my word, it was very fascinating and very eco-friendly.





So this is the funniest story I got out of this trip. Our second day in wonderful Paradise, I went for a walk with Patrice and her sister up to the nearest little fishing town to check it out. The owners of our hotel had this great, friendly German Shepherd beach dog who began to accompany us on our walk up the beach. Along the way, a few random sheep from the little village were nearby and the dog began chasing them. He settled on just one of the smaller ones, and chased it down, began gnawing on its legs a little, and was just playing with it. But the little sheep was terrified and headed for the ocean to escape the dog. Now the waves in Ghana are really rough and even us humans were getting tossed around in the surf like shells, so this little sheep had no chance once he had gone in kind of deep. We ran over and called the dog out, and then Patrice and I just stood, staring at the sheep, yelling "Oh, man.. that sheep is gonna drown in the ocean!... yep, he's just gonna drown all right...ooh, look at that... poor little sheep.." and so on, like we were announcing a football game. Meanwhile, Patrice's sister, who is visiting from America, sheds her bags and shoes and runs in the ocean to save the sheep. She had to get about waist deep before she could grab it, and then emerges from the water with a wet, scared bundle of a sheep in her arms. So what do Patrice and I do? First instinct was not to go help or anything, but to get our cameras immediately. I think this was just the most proof you could have that we have become jaded in our 9 months in BF, and animals are no more than food to us now. Thank goodness I didn't feel the same way about the dog. I swear I was really concerned for her when she started going in the ocean, and I would have run in to save HER!! I swear... well, I probably swear... but really, can you ever think of being on the NJ shore or something and seeing a sheep in the ocean???


Day 5 (Christmas Eve): Left paradise to go to another beach town, which is much more touristy, called Busua. Not as wonderful, but still nice and we still had the beach. Our first meal was hell, though. We went to a place called Frank's, but Frank was nowhere to be found. A stoned rastafarian named Fin took our order, which took about 15 min in itself. About 30 min later, Fin came out to tell us that at least half of the orders would be impossible because Frank doesn't have the ingredients. Finally Frank makes an appearance a little while later and tells us what he DOES have. Just about everyone's order changed, after we had been there about an hour. About 20 min after this, Frank came out to tell us that he was missing some more stuff and that we should just all eat spaghetti. So, basically that is what happened. A couple people got a couple of different things, and everyone else ate the spaghetti. So, about 3 hours after sitting down, we ate what was served to us (not what was ordered) and we vowed to never eat at Frank's again. And why o why did we leave Paradise?
The rest of the day in Busua was nice, though, and Josh brought his computer so we could watch "It's a Wonderful Life" over and over again, just like in America.



Day 6 (Christmas/First night of Hanukka): Thank goodness Patrice and Josh were on the ball with the holidays because they really turned our morning into a nice Christmakkuh morning. Josh actually brought a Santa suit with him, and Patrice had made stockings for everyone while she was in village, and the rest of us were to bring stocking stuffers. It was really, really nice and fun and probably adorable if you were watching us. Since I hadn't had time to shop before the trip, and it was also Hanukkah, I decided to throw together a mini-Chanukkah celebration at sundown. I had not yet received my Chanuka package from my parents, so I had to fabricate my own menorah. I ran around Busua looking for something useful for a menorah and ended up creating a menorah out of a cardboard-styrofoam egg crate, a blue marker, sand, shells, and candles. It was like being 6 yrs old in Hebrew school all over again. So at night, I lit my candles and sang my prayers and gave out gifts.
We ate a Christmas lobster lunch at a place called "The Lobster Man" and we ate Hanukah dinner at a place called "Dan, the Pancake Man"

Another viewing of "It's a Wonderful Life."


Day 7: On the road again. We travelled from Busua to Cape Coast, which is another touristy location on the beach, and east from Busua about 3 hours drive. On the way, we stopped in this city called Takoradi, where we happened upon a big street festival and parade with everyone dressed up in these brightly colored clown-type outfits at every turn. It was really festive and fun, and we stayed there to take pics and dance and get some culture. Although none of us really ever got the answer to why exactly there was a festival in the first place, but whatever. Culture, people, it was culture.




Arrival and stay at Cape Coast was pretty uneventful, but still nice.

Day 8: Ate good food in Cape Coast and then headed back up to Kumasi and stayed the night.

Days 9-10: Day in Kumasi (shopping, eating, etc..), got on the bus for Ouaga at 5 p.m. Arrived at a town about an hour short of the border at 2 a.m. where we waited for 5 hours until the Ghana - Burkina border opened. Finally made it back to Ouaga at 1 p.m. the next day.


Well, that's about all for me. I am back to speaking French and breathing dust in good old BF. I think I'm going back to Padema today or tomorrow, and I don't know yet what I am doing for New Yrs. But HAPPY NEW YEARS everyone, and I hope you all have a great time partying!! I also hope to SEE you in 2006!!