Accra to Kumasi

The drive through Accra seemed o last forever as the City of approximately 4 million people is built out and not up! One gets a glimpse at what Nanaimo could look like if (when) the urban sprawl joins all the eastern communities (Duncan – Qualicum). The landscape and cityscapes are very diverse as you go through neighbourhoods that would be considered to be ghettos or slums whereas others had houses that would easily fit into our nicest sections of town.

The remnants of British occupation (Ghana has been independent for 51 years) are still here as we passed the Accra golf course and driving range. The course was filled with what appeared to be Ghanaian businesses men and their caddies. The course also had a driving range…complete with people catching the balls! I’m not sure that I would want that job.

Dad you’ll be happy to know that the roads are constantly under construction. More specifically there are individuals who work on filling all the potholes in the road and then they ask passing motorists for food, water, or money for their troubles. It is my understanding that they are not formally paid to do the activity, which makes sense as there are a LOT of holes in the road. Our amazing driver Michael (a professional driver from Sunyani Polytechnic) is amazing and I think that roadway pothole slalom and on-coming traffic dodging will be in the Olympics if Ghana ever plays host. We did see evidence of major highway construction but as the wet season is about to start so I imagine that much of their work could be washed away.

The notion of drive through food services is taken to a new level. Every time we slowed down (note: I didn’t say STOP) both sides of the bus were approached by numerous individuals (mostly females and mostly children/teens) who were selling everything from snails and pineapple to buckets and clothes, I think that the weirdest thing that was sold was the snails – it was quite amusing to watch the woman selling them trying to keep them on tray…they kept trying to escape! We occasionally made roadside purchases of things like avocado, star apples (texture of slim...yuck), mini-bananas (yum yum), and plantain chips!!! Overall the trip was a grand adventure and we were happy to move out of Accra and into the country side.

Once in the country it felt a lot like Central America – a lot of huge green trees, large ferns, and lizards everywhere. Of course I have lots of pictures to share of our trip. One of my favorites was of the red-headed lizard that does push-ups to scare off other lizards. I got some great pics when we were stopped at an amazing road-stop. It was my first taste of Ghanaian pineapple…it was amazing. They are the size of Hawaiian pineapples but have the sweetness of those grown in Fiji…I could live on pineapple alone!

As we drove into Kumasi I discovered what professional hawking is all about! There were no less than 3 people by meter selling just about anything and everything that you could imagine. It was difficult to watch as many of those selling were young children. They were all quite excited to see Obronies (white people) on the bus – I think that thought that we were easy marks…some were right!

After arriving in Kumasi we headed to the Cultural Centre to have lunch and to learn some more about Ghana. On the way we saw a tree covered in fruit bats…it was an incredible site. There were hundreds of bats and they were all active throughout the day! The rest of the drive to the cultural centre was like taking a bus (28 passenger) through a congested maze of narrow streets, taxis, and people (mostly those trying to sell us things. I’m still trying to learn the various meaning to the “beep” of the horn but the Ghanaians drivers seem to have an odd method of “talking” to each other with their horns!

At the cultural centre we learned that our lunch spot was previously booked with nearly a hundred media – both local and foreign – who there to cover the 10th anniversary of the Ashanti King. That day at the cultural centre one of the local chiefs who was a subject of the king was holding court for the reporters. It all worked out in the end as we were able to have a quick tour of the museum, play with some children who were hanging out at the centre and were then able to watch the session with the Chief! It was very cool. The protocols were really interesting to watch as people had to greet the Chief and then the sub-Chiefs. There were two teen boys who were responsible for carrying the Chief’s umbrella and another two young boys who sat at the feet of the Chief. Of course I have tons of pics to show!

After that event we headed to our hostel for the night – it was wonderful to stop travelling and as our room had AC and the bar had Savannah Dry (tastes similar to Strong Bow…yeah!!!) my world was complete!

Tired, swollen, excited, and stunned...these are the words that I would use to describe me right now! The trip started out yesterday morning at 8:30 am it is not 5:00 pm the next day (Island time) and I am just heading to bed. I don't have the insight or the brain power to provide an good up date right now but we will be in Accra for a couple of days and have wireless at the hotel so I'll post a better one tomorrow.

Well it is now tomorrow! I slept like the dead last night and awoke feeling incredible. The melatonin that mom gave me seems to have worked well...it could also have been the 36 hours of travel with no sleep (I was awake for the better part of 45 hours!!) or the Smirnoff Ice I had on an empty stomach!!

Wednesday April 22 - Our flight left Vancouver at 12:05 and we were officially off to Ghana. It still didn't feel real though as we were all getting in our "lasts" of the trip. Trevor was excited to see a Tim's in the airport; whereas I was inclined to get my last Chai latte of the month! Everyone was busy getting rid of the Canadian money as it won't be used again until we return.

The flight to Miniapolois was good but the flight we were on didn't have any entertainment so we were left with reading and actually talking to each other! Our flight path took us over the Rockies and then through the Mid-west US. We flew of Fargo, ND but due to clouds were unable to see if the rivers were still flooding. Landing in Miniapolis showed that it is a community that plays baseball (think of the view of swimming pools when landing in L.A.) and does a lot of shipping. Everywhere we looked there were distribution warehouses with a lot of trucks parked in the lots. The airport is great but make sure you wander around and take a look at the options...it is rather like a mall. We ended up hiking to one end to eat only to discover that there was a much larger version of the same resturant much closer to our gate!!

The flight to Amsterdam was approximately 9 hours...just long enough for my ankles to turn to cankles! I guess I should have borrowed Gran's compression socks! The flight (Northwest Airlines oporated by Delta) was good. The food was okay but the entertainment was excellent. We had our own tvs complete with games, movies, tv, music, and more. Our flight path took us over Ontario, Labradour, and then just south of Iceland. Somewhere around Iceland we crossed over the Night/Day line and suddenly it was daylight when my body was saying...NIGHT!

I had a pretty amazing moment and was feeling really connected to Janay and my family...this occured when I flew over Scotland! The clouds parted and the sun was shinning and I had the opporutnity to just stare out the window and wonder about family, history, and of course...men in kilts! I could almost hear the bagpipes playing in the background! I may just have to go there on the way home next time. Once we had passed by the UK we coninued across the North Sea where the only thing visible for 100s of KM were the oil rigs. You would have to be a special person to be willing to work way out there. It made me think of the documentries that I've watched that showed how bad the storms can get in that area...marking isn't so bad!

Landing in Amsterdam was amazing - it looked like someone had made long snakes of differents coloured plasticine and layed them out in the fields. These are the Tulip fields - next year I may have to see if I can leave a couple of days early as I think seeing these fields in person would be an amazing chance. Anyway - the picture below is one that I took of a postcard as I was too busy looking out the window to take any photos on the flight!

The airport wasn't all that impressive where we were but I've been promised that other sections are amazing. As we have 8 hours to kill there on the way home I hope so. We quickly met up with Rick and then the Rotary crew but none of us saw Maggie so we were all boarding with a sense of anxiety. Of course she had arrived way before us and was sitting in the incredibly croweded section near our boarding gate...she was there the whole time we just didn't see her! I was incredibly thankful to see her when we boarded the plane.

Amsterdam airport requires you to go through security screening just before boarding the plane. The line up for our Boeing 777-200 started about 1 hour before departure and was HUGE! I now understand why...there were a LOT of people on the plane (seats were 3-3-3)! The screening was quick and unlike our experience with American customs (Jen S!!) no one got to experience the full pat down!

The flight path took us over the Alps and the Sahara which were both amazing. KLM was an amazing airline to fly with. The entertainment and food were great and the plane was good. The flight was about 7 hours and my cankles were nasty by the time I arrived.

I know that I'm way behind in postings but the trip has been pretty busy and tiring. I'll up date the post and catch up on monday.

We're Off

It's hard to believe but we're off and running. Well really we're off and waiting at a Vancouver hotel for our flight to Accra. Our day begins at 7:3o for a group breakfast then off to YVR for our flight. We are on a bit of a milk run as we head from Vancouver to Minneapolis to Amsterdam to Accra.

Accra is 7:00 hours a head of Vancouver so accounting for the time change we'll be in transit for about 24 hours...not counting the hours spend waiting at YVR!

It has been a push to get out the door and in the end I've had to bring some marking on the road with me! It all good in the end as I should have enough time to get it all done before landing in Africa. Every time that I thought I was ready I would find something else to do and just one more thing that had to be done before heading out the door. Of course I don't think it really hit me that I would be going to Africa until mom and dad showed up to take me to the ferry!

The team is working well and are all getting along well - good omens from the first day!? The highlight of our day was definitely our transportation from the ferry to the hotel. I made arrangements for a nice eco-friendly van to haul us all in...we ended up with a stretch SUV limo! It was quite a trip - Trevor and Matt took turns pushing all the buttons and playing with all the features. Sabrina announced that she "was already a rock star but now she got to ride like one"!

Well I should get to the marking...yeah right! I'm off to bed!! Go Canucks Go!!!

One Week Before Departure

Welcome to my latest travel adventure. In one week I will be heading to Vancouver to start a month long adventure with the Ghana-Canada Environmental Education Project. This project is a 5 year project between VIU (Rec & Tour, Forestry, & Nursing), and two Ghanaian universities with funding from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) via one of their post-secondary funding programs (I should know this but am drawing a blank!).

This year we have four VIU prof's and 5 VIU students who will be joining a VIU alumnae and approx 20 Ghanaian team members in a jam-packed month of community development and capacity building. Our main areas of focus - under the umbrella of poverty reduction - are: ecotourism, waste & bush fire management, and HIV/Aids awareness and reduction. There is a lot of work to be done but the great thing about this project is that we are not going to Ghana as "experts" (good think eh!) but rather we are focusing on helping increase the capacity of those that we are working with (and our own) to work on and solve these issues in ways that are sustainable and relevant to the Ghanaian people. It more of a "learn how to fish" project than a "take someone fishing" project!

As you can probably guess - I'm working on setting up the blog right now instead of marking! However, I must get back to it, because if the marking isn't done I won't be able to head to Ghana and see the elephants!!! Oh yeah...and do work too!

I hope you enjoy this adventure as much as the others. I'll be packing a computer and of course my camera (this trip was a good excuse for new equipment!) so I should be able to keep up to date.

Aggie