And speaking of fish, I was quite a little guppy myself this weekend testing the rough and tumble waters of gold coast atlantic. My friends Emma, Carly and I decided to spend the weekend at Kokrobite beach (it was supposed to just be Friday, but we couldn't resist staying another night). We stayed at Big Milly's, which is a bar/restaurant/hotel on the beach. On Friday night, it was pretty relaxed because there weren't a ton of people there, so we went with two of our Ghanaian friends to a little spot (outdoor, small bar type place) to get some less expensive drinks. We ended up sitting there for a couple hours and somehow started singing, and one of the guys we were with happened to be a reggae singer so he was making up songs and we were singing background. Bursting out into song (as long as it's reggae) isn't uncommon here. After that we went to walk along the beach (accompanied by our friends, because it really isn't safe to walk alone) and we saw the most incredible thing. A large sea turtle came up onto the beach to lay her eggs! We watched the entire process from only a few feet away, and I know it's an unforgivable sin to disturb the turtle on her way back to the sea, but I got to touch her foot and her shell. It was especially funny for me because about four years ago I travelled to Costa Rica with the sole purpose (ok, not my sole purpose, but the sole purpose of VINS--Vermont Institute of Natural Science) to study and watch Ridley Sea Turtles laying eggs on the beaches. What a coincidence that I see one, randomly, laying eggs years later on another continent. Very cool. The next night was just fun, nothing too exciting to report. And the next day? Um... That's a whole other story....
Here it is: bad water sachet=the death of me. I guess Emma, Carly and I drank some bad water on Sunday because Sunday night, just as we were sitting down with Liz to begin studying for our two final exams, we all felt a sudden urge to reject some bad water from our bodies. I was puking all night long, but Liz saved my life at 4 in the morning with some rehydration tablets, which I think helped a lot. I took the exam the next morning without having really studied at all and I think it went alright. I took my last one this morning and it also went ok, and I think I'm mostly recovered by now. But there's my lesson in not trusting all the water sachets I see. (Water sachets are these small plastic bags of water you can get anywhere, and most of them are fine, but you need to be careful).
This Friday, we leave for Kumasi, a city right in the heart of Ghana, about four hours North of Accra. After spending a couple days there we will head to Tamale, which is right on the border of Burkina Faso, and in total, about 12 or 14 hours from Accra. We will be looking for NGO's to work with and visiting some sites as well. I'm very excited! The trip will be ten days in total. It seems the year is just flying by! I can't believe it's almost November. I'm still working on planning my winter break with some friends, but it looks like perhaps Cape Verde for Christmas? And maybe Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal by bus before that... But perhaps I'll stick closer to Ghana and travel along the coast and maybe visit a town in Benin called Oidah that is known for its voodoo practices. We shall see.
That is about all for now. One thing that I will warn you about though, is that I might speak differently when I get home. When I hang out with my Ghanaian friends here I have to speak very slowly and clearly so they understand me and sometimes I have to modify my word choice so they know what I mean. Everyone speaks English here, but obviously there are different levels of competency and there are accents to deal with. Dad, I'm sure you'll be happy about that, you'll never have to say "Lib, you need to speak slowly and clearly" again, because I already will!
Now that is truly all, I'm off to get pizza (would you expect me to eat pizza? it happens surprisingly often) with a co-worker of Carly's Dad who lives in Ghana with his family. (Carly's dad doesn't live in Ghana, he just used to work with this guy who does... Convenient for us!). Yum. But don't worry, tomorrow I'm back to fried plantains and wakye (beans and rice with spicey sauce, yum).
Posted by lib at October 28, 2008 02:48 PM