Monday - Trip to the Village on Stilts

OK, this is now Tuesday here in Ghana...we got back late yesterday from our trip so I am going to report on this now and then (hopefully) blog later today on our time in the classroom.

Monday - I got up at 3:15 AM to get ready...and met Janet and my traveling buddies at 3:45 AM...we went to where we were supposed to get on the brand new bus that student monies had purchased. The Ghanaians are not ruled by the same time constraints as we are...SO by 5:15, all were aboard (40 senior level students and us) and we took off for the Village. The students were very lively...they played (loud) music...mostly local music but some rap and some were dancing in the bus aisles, some were singing (most but not all of the dancing was done by the female students). They seem to be a very happy group! We drove many hours in an air-conditioned bus before we reached a place on the ocean to stop and eat. The food was native Ghana food - spicy rice, a chicken leg. I didn't eat much as it was a bit too spicy for me. We had the experience of using a female urinal (you bring your own TP) and took off again...eventually we got on a tro-tro (a beat up van that seats as many people as can fit)...ours had 18 squished in. We took this over some pretty rough terrain to the canoes but to get to the canoes we had to walk about a quarter of a mile over even rougher terrain, over planks and eventually we waded in the river water to the canoes. I was seated by Janet and there were 5 other students in our canoe plus the rower. We traveled the river for a bit and then traveled quite a ways in a fresh water lake. We were told there were many crocodiles and alligators in the lake but we didn't see any (which is good because you can feel pretty vulnerable in a canoe). We landed in the Stilt Village (I don't have the name right now but will get that for my next blog), climbed up some very interesting ladder and walked through the Village. There were many children and adults all over. Approximately 450 people live there and there is very little health care. We sat in an open area and heard a talk about how the Village came to be and then boarded our canoes for the trip back. We decided to walk as the Tro-tros were not there, but we had fresh coconuts (not as sweet as you might think) to drink (and then eat the coconut if you wanted to) before we started walking. My feet hurt so I took off my flip flops and was walking bare feet across the African terrain...kinda cool! Eventually a tro-tro came and I boarded to get back to our bus. With one of the students I went on a hunt to find some cold bottled water...only found hot bottled water but it would have to do. Next we went to a rain forest (an additional 2 hours AWAY from UCC) and when we got there, the students decided that they didn't want to spent a CD for a tour (a CD is about .80) so we went to an open air market about 30 miles from there...and they spent an hour shopping. We got back to UCC at about 9 PM, very tired...and that was about it for Monday's travels. I will try to post a pic or 2 a bit later...not sure if that will work as internet connections are very slow here but we shall see.