Last week I was able to do a little tourism stuff. All of the volunteers in Ghana were invited to a conference in (or I should say near) Accra. So I took advantage of being in the south to do a little exploring, along with two Indian volunteers.
We arrived in Cape Coast on Sunday afternoon and went to Elmina Castle. This castle had passed through Portuguese, Dutch and English hands before becoming a Ghanaian heritage site. I am not sure whether any of the Europeans were better or worse than the others. We had the chance to experience being closed into a slave punishment cell, and it would not have taken me very long to have panicked if it was a real occurence.
Monday we went to Kakum National Park. It is known for its canopy walk, which is a series of 7 suspended walkways as high as 40 metres from the forest floor. It gives the tourist a chance to see the forest from the top. The walkway was built by Canadians from Vancouver. It was a bit scary while still feeling pretty safe. There were no animals to be seen or birds either, probably because we went later in the day and after other groups had been through making all their noise, etc. It was enjoyable and a worthwhile experience.
That afternoon we returned to Elmina and went for a swim in the ocean. I wasn't sure we would get a chance so was glad that we did it after we got there. The water was quite warm. The waves were pretty wild. After about an hour in the water I was ready to get out and relax a bit.
Following the weekend we returned to Accra for the conference. This is the swimming pool at the hotel we were at. It was right on the beach as well, but the rocks made the beach unusable for play. The swimming pool was a nice alternative and was used by most of the volunteers each afternoon.
The conference was very positive. The planners arranged for topics that dealt with Ghanaian culture, corruption, first aid, etc. and was structured so there wasn't so much time for complaints. That was saved until the last day, and by then most people were more relaxed and their complaints were no longer foremost in their minds. Overall, it was a wonderful experience.
The trip home was another story. I left the hotel, along with three others, at 6:30 in the morning to report to the bus station at 7:00 for an 8:00 departure. Our bus finally arrived about 9:30. Then there was a crush to get luggage loaded. as there is nothing like a queue at this point. Then people got on the bus that were stopping in Tamale, rather than Bolga, and were taking seats from people that had legitimate tickets for the entire journey. We finally left Accra about 10:00.
Stops were scheduled every couple of hours. While travelling, Nigerian movies were on constantly. The Ghanaians would rather see a Nigerian movie than an American one, and they would often be laughing at something that I either didn't get or couldn't understand what had been said. It was okay. But after a while, even that can get too old to enjoy at all. We finally reached Bolgatanga at 3:00 AM. There were only a couple of taxis at the station so I started walking home. I found a driver watching television along the way and we agreed on a price, though he didn't seem to remember that when we finally got to my house. Before that, we had just pulled away when the car made a terrible racket. He had a flat. He continued on a couple of kilometres to a 24-hour tire place and had it repaired, but that added more time to an already too long trip. I finally got home at 4:00 AM. My housemate, who had chosen to travel on another carrier starting sometime after lunch, arrived at 6:30. It was pretty tiring.
So far this week I have been to district offices each day. In Zebilla two of five computers started without a problem. A third one is almost working after a lot of effort on my part. And I left Zebilla about 2:30 with a storm coming. I thought I could outrun it but I was mistaken. I rode about 35 kilometres in a downpour and have to say that it was not much fun. Today (18 July) I was in Navrongo and accomplished most of what I wanted to do there. I will have to go back to finish up on one computer and do some corrections on another installation that I started there.
In the meantime, I have contacted the five offices and all the computers are now here or will soon be here. That is good news, but also bad news as I see how truly awful the computers are. It is definitely a challenge. I hope to get them stable enough that they don't require repairs every time they are started. I am not overly confident that it will be possible to achieve that goal.
Anyway, I am busy working now and I am feeling a bit tired because of the travel. But it is a good feeling too.
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