Day 36

Today it started pouring rain around 9 o'clock this morning and now, at 1:45 in the afternoon, it is still at it. So, now that the power has reestablished itself, I will commence with my update of the weekend and my week so far.
Turns out, I ended up not going for a tour of Tamale or going shopping on Saturday afternoon, because much more exciting plans developed. While at her event, Chief ran into a lady from Louisville who teaches at Bellarmine who was headed to Mole National Game Reserve for the weekend with a group of friends!! After a bit of plan making, and some very hurried packing (which was more just throwing random articles of clothing into my bag), I was on my way to meet Angela, the Louisvillian, and her group of friends from Accra for a trip to Mole. The group consisted of Angela and five of her American friends from Dagara Music Centre in Accra. We all piled into an SUV they had rented, along with the driver they had hired to take us there, and started on our way. About 15 minutes into our drive, we turned off the paved road and onto a very rough and bumpy dirt road that lasted for the next two or three hours. The driver was somewhat....reckless, I guess you could say. Although the bumps, and cattle, and sheep, and people on bikes don't seem to slow many of the drivers down here, so I guess you could just say he drove like a typical Ghanaian. We, on the other hand, tried to make the most of our 4 hour roller coaster ride :) Angela and I sat in the very back while three of her friends, Alex, Sarah, and Tad, sat in the middle, and Griffin (the mastermind behind all the planning and such) sat in the front with the driver. The rest of the group didn't talk a whole lot, but Angela and I really hit it off and managed to find things to talk about or laugh at for the majority of the trip.
The scenery was absolutely beautiful because we were pretty far out from any urban area, so there were a ton of green fields and trees and small villages with people going about their daily routines (all outside). As we were getting close, Angela informed me that one little detail she forgot to mention on the phone was that we would be staying in a tree house out in the wilderness of the national forest for at least the first night, but not to worry, we would have an armed guard to look out below while we (tried) to sleep :) This was a little bit of a different set up from the hotel room that I had been expected, but there wasn't a whole lot I could do about it at that point, and, plus, it sounded pretty neat!
 Fortunately, before we headed to the tree house, we stopped at the lodge area where they had a pool, restaurant, bar, bathrooms (with toilet paper), and a place to sit and lookout over one of the watering holes. We ordered dinner and enjoyed the BEAUTIFUL sunset while we waited for our meals to be prepared. While we were waiting, a baboon came running up towards the eating area, which was a tad frightening, but someone shooed it away; so it went and joined another baboon and a baby baboon in a nearby tree and contented itself on just watching us go about our business (which was mostly just watching them all sitting in a tree!). After dinner--and a huge plate of fresh pineapple for dessert--we hopped in the car and headed to the information desk where we picked up our tour guide/armed guard and some sleeping mats and mosquito nets. Fortunately, the driver took us to the tree house (since it was pitch black and I would have had an anxiety attack if we had to walk) before he left.
The tree house was basically just and elevated wooden porch with wooden walls...and no roof...that wrapped around a tree. There were holes cut into the walls as windows and, luckily, a set of stairs to climb up to the house (trying to lug my bag up a ladder would have been near impossible). There are few things I would have packed (and not have packed) if I would have known that our area of residence here was going to be in the middle of nowhere and up in a tree---such as, a headlight, a blanket, less clothes, and possibly the pocket knife---but, I made do just fine without them :). We all stayed for quite a while just taking in the sounds (which there were a TON of) and the stars (which there were even more of!!). It is amazing how many stars you can see when you're that far out :) Tad even spotted what we believed to be the Milky Way!!! The sleeping situation was not as impressive as the sights and sounds, but I managed to get a few hours of shut eye on the thin little yoga mat, and passed the night without a single bug bite :)!! In the morning, the birds had replaced the frogs and insects as our little symphony, which sounded just as fantastic as the night sounds :)
I have no idea what time we were all up, but it was well before the sun! That is when I found out that we were taking a walking safari back to the lodge area so that we could try to see the animals before they made their way too far into the park (apparently we were only about 2 miles or so in). This was exciting and all, but the bag I had brought with me (while not huge) was definitely not the most fit for a trek in the forest. Everyone else had packed accordingly in hiking backpacks. Then again, they knew the plans ahead of time!!! However, I quickly found a comfortable way to carry my stuff and we were off on our morning adventure.
We walked for a little ways before we sighted any wildlife. Our first sighting was just a glimpse of an antelope before it took off into the cover of some trees, but not long after we saw a much larger group of antelope that stayed still long enough for us to snap a few pictures before they darted off. A short while later, we came across a huge group of wart hogs, which are probably one of my least favorite animals, but even they look pretty neat and impressive in the wild!! There were quite a few babies, and unlike the antelope, these suckers stood their ground and offered us a pretty substantial staring match :) Christopher, our tour guide, next took us to the other large watering hole (there are two large watering holes in the park) and let us rest up in a lookout things with some of the guards. They told us that they have around the clock guards on duty due to poachers :/ Apparently it is such a prevalent problem that there is a school nearby for the children of men killed poaching. That made me sad. While we were resting and looking at the watering hole, we were all pretty sure we saw a crocodile just barely surface on the water, but it never came up enough for us to be totally sure. We did some really pretty birds and some more antelope though! Christopher had thought we would see some elephants there, but he said they must not have made it that far today yet and we would try to meet them on our way back to camp.
On our trek back to the camp, Christopher took us past a pile of bones that were from an elephant that had dies a few years earlier. It had wandered into a nearby village and been shot by the people there and had then managed to make it back to the watering hole to die. Apparently elephants prefer to die by water. The bones were gigantic!!!
As we approached the lodge area, we found three elephants on the other side of a little river munching on some tree branches. It seemed that they were used to human presence, and so we were able to sit down next to the river to snap pictures and take in the magnificent scene!!! As we were sitting there enjoying the activities of the three elephants, more started emerging from a forested area off to our right. You would think it would have been a noisy procession, but they were literally almost silent!!!!! That sort of creeped me out. haha. But it was a really neat thing to see. We sat there for quite a while just watching them all hanging out, eating leaves, and covering themselves in mud and water :) :) :) Eventually, they started heading towards the forest, and we started to get extremely hungry (it was about 11 and we'd been up since about 6 or so with no breakfast!!), so we headed up the lodge.
As we were finishing breakfast and trying to decide what activities we wanted to do for the day, it began to rain. Pretty soon, it was pouring so hard we could barely see out past the pool, so that limited our activities. We passed a good deal of the afternoon hanging out at a table (that was outside but under ample cover ) just chatting, drinking coffee, playing music (that was mostly Angela) and relaxing. Unfortunately, there were no rooms for us to move our stuff into, but then again, it was pretty refreshing to just sit outside and relax with the rain. Around 4 or so, it cleared up enough to walk around and not long after we got a room to put our stuff in. We decided to just stay in one of the "dorm" rooms, which was a room with three bunk beds and a bathroom with a toilet and a shower. After cleaning up a bit, Angela went a walk along a little path and saw some monkeys, antelope, and warthogs!!
At dinner, the group decided that they would join me on the 4 o'clock A.M. bus back to Tamale (mostly bc I think they could sense that I was a little apprehensive about taking it back by myself, but also because it was the cheapest method) and so we headed off to bed. Once again, I had a rough time sleeping, and before long, it was time to rise and shine (although I'm not sure I was doing much shining at that hour of the morning). It was still really dark on our walk to the bus stop, and it took us a while to wake up the driver who we realized was sleeping inside. Finally, around 4:30 or so, we were ready to roll. At first, the only people on the bus were our group plus two others, but that soon changed and before long, I was squeezed between Angela and a man with very large, very strong, very heavy shoulders that leaned on my and squished me the second he fell asleep, which was approximately 10 minutes after he sat down ;) However, his weight kept me from bouncing around too much :) Luckily, the bus driver was much more cautious than our driver on the way there, and I managed to stay in my seat with more ease (seat belts are rarely used and sometimes even non-existent in most cars here). Around 7 or so, Angela and I had breakfast in the form of Cliff bars that I had actually thought to bring along in my hurried packing. I managed to doze a few times, but my neck got pretty stiff pretty quickly so I gave that up. Around 9, we arrived in Tamale, and remembering that 9 was usually the time that Jon goes to pick up Madame Fati from her house and take her to the palace, I called Madame Fati. Sure enough, Jon had just picked her, and they came to the bus stop to get me. We gave the group a ride to the bus station on the other side of town that they needed to go to (there are no rules against packing  5 people into the bed of a truck in Ghana!) so that they wouldn't have to pay a taxi. I have Angela my bag of snacks and unopened bottle of water to hold her over on their long journey back to Accra. (I later found out that they didn't get back until 2 A.M--that's almost 24 hours of traveling on very uncomfortable buses..yuck!!).
The second I arrived back at the palace, I had to change into better clothes (my sleep/travel shorts and t-shirt weren't proper attire) to accompany Chief and her elders to call on another local Chief. This time, there were a TON of elders and spectators packed into the greeting room and there was even dancing and a lot more drumming than usual! Prof told me that this is the more traditional way of greeting. By the time we got back from the event, I was exhausted, but I managed to make it through lunch before I came back to my room to shower and nap. The "nap" lasted about 4 hours, but it was a much needed four hours!! And that concluded my adventurous weekend (which actually ran over into Monday morning!).
Now for the usual categorized updates:

Food: Monday night we had yam balls with some kind of steak and cheese sauce. Way beyond five stars i  my book!!!! They are by far my new-found favorite :) So good, in fact, that Chief and I reheated the leftovers for breakfast and ate them with butter, honey, and bananas! We decided that we should talk Mariama into making breakfast yam balls since the ones she made that night were savory yam balls and intended for dinner consumption ;))

Health Work: Yesterday and today I visited Tamale Central Health clinic to observe their "disease control" center. Since the clinic is for Maternal and Child Health, their disease control center consists of a nurse giving a bunch of babies a bunch of immunization shots, and therefore, ultimately, a bunch of crying, screaming babies....NOT my favorite scene by any means. However, the experience is still teaching me a lot. The immunizations and services that the clinic offers are free to the public and privately funded. The nurses are paid by the govt. The clinic is just one decently sized room. In the back right corner is the registration table where mothers can pick up a book with information on child health and a sheet for immunization records if they don't already have one. In the back left corner is the counseling center where the mothers get vitamins for their babies and information on child health. In the front left corner is the weighing station where Auntie Margaret works...I like her! And in the front  right corner, right next to the door is the immunization station where a nurse sits in a chair and the mother's hold the babies while she gives them their shots or drops or whatever they need. There are no partitions or sinks for hand washing or Germ-X bottles, or anything of the sort that I have grown used to seeing at such places in the U.S. This was very surprising. The mother's just sit on a little bench and hold their child and their child's leg or arm or wherever he/she is getting the shot while the nurse just goes about her business. I've gotten to the point where I don't feel tempted to look away, but even so, I can confidently say that this is not the particular area of public health that I would want to work in!!

School: A brighter topic!!! This is my last week of teaching, sadly, because I have to make my visits to the health clinics in the mornings which would be the times that I would also be teaching :(( Tuesday I had my regular lesson which got cut a little short bc of a meeting I had to go to with Chief. However, I managed to finish my genetics section and get a good deal into Infectious Diseases :)) I enjoyed teaching that. Yesterday, i went over to teach, but the girls were having an all day rehearsal for the talent show they were supposed to have today. I decided to stay and watch the rehearsals anyway. As usual, there were always more than a few girls at my side and more than a few of them asked me if I would dance during the dancing part of the rehearsal. After seeing their form of dancing, I politely declined!! It was really fun to watch and spend more time with the girls. I told them I would bring my camera over today and take lots of pictures, but the rain ruined  the whole program so I didn't get a chance :( I will find time next week to go over and take pictures and stuff with them, though, because I will not leave without heaps of pictures with all of them. Every time I go over to the school, I fall more in love with all the girls. I'm so, so, so, soooooo sad to have to stop teaching :( I enjoyed it SO much!!! Now at least I know it is something I MUST do in my future. Although I don't think teaching American students this age would have quite the same feeling, I know that I will definitely end up teaching some level of students, somewhere, someday :)) I'm definitely going to miss these girls more than words can say when I leave :(!

Miscellaneous: The other evening, I mustered up my courage and walked around to some nearby shops before dinner. I went into one shop that had some really pretty paintings hung outside. A young guy was working and I started talking to him about the paintings. Turns out, he painted all of them!! His name was Hussein and he went to art school at Polytechnic, a college up the road. As he was showing some of the paintings and giving me some prices, the guy that owned a little convenience store next door came over with his four month old daughter, Esther (I asked her name). Without me even asking, he let me old her! :) She was tiny and absolutely adorable!!! I got a picture with Hussein, Esther and the dad before I left. It was really nice to go out by myself and meet some nice people :) I'm glad I went. I told Hussein that I would come back so that he can paint my portrait (which he also does) and I look forward to doing so!!