Life has been interesting here to say the least, and I've found I am becoming used to things I would generally find extremely abnormal back home. For example, riding in a rickety, rusted out van with wobbly benches and no seatbelts all while driving down a jam-packed street with virtually no organization...totally normal. Albeit completely unsafe. Let's be honest, I should have probably died about 10476 times by now, but what's a new experience without some excitement?
In other news, Last weekend I went on the most beautiful and perfect trip to the Volta (eastern) region of Ghana; hiking distance from the Togolese border. I went with five amazing friends I've made while in Ghana and got to partake in things I've always dreamed of doing. We embarked on a 3 hour hike up a mountain to the top of a waterfall (Wli falls)....so 6-7 hours hike total. Easily one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. The hike, however, was definitely a challenge for me. One friend carried my backpack for me the whole way, if he hadn't I probably would have collapsed. But hey, I made it and now I can say I've hiked a mountain...and I most definitely would like to do it again many, many times. The next day we hiked again. A much smaller, but still very steep, hike. It took only about 30 minutes to reach the top and the panoramic views were outstanding. We were extremely lucky and had practically flawless weather, perfect transportation both ways with no major issues (other than being stopped for IDs, which I stupidly didn't bring. But Tyler being the genius that is he showed his school ID and told the police we were all from the same school, to which the police shook their heads and let us pass. But I could have passed out.)
This weekend, however, was a completely different story all together. A few friends and I decided we wanted to plan a trip to go to Mole National Park in the north to experience wildlife and get out of the city. However, when we looked up plane tickets we found prices had increased substantially to where flying became too expensive. The other alternative, driving, just seemed too dangerous and unpredictable with the condition of roads. Therefore, when the international programs office at University of Ghana announced a trip to Mole we decided it might be best, although there was some apprehension based on prior stories we had heard about IPO trips. Regardless, we went for it. However, literally 24 hours before we left, plans changed quite drastically, as in the number of days we were staying had been cut down to only one full day rather than the two we had been promised. Driving 12 hours there and back for only one day seemed a bit ridiculous, therefore one friend dropped out but 2 of us decided to remain because mole was one of our top places we wanted to go in Ghana.
Come 5am the next day (Friday), we got up and headed towards the north, expecting everything to go as planned (at least relatively because nothing ever goes as planned in Ghana). It was a bit of a difficult ride, as can be expected for a long journey, but otherwise everything was fine. We stopped at kintampo falls on our way and some people swam for a while and then we continued on our way. At this point we were still imagining everything was going as planned. We arrived at what we thought was our hotel around 9pm that night and waited hours...like literally...for our dinner. Mine actually came last and at that point I was feeling extremely crabby and frustrated. But, I had the idea of sleep dangling in front of me so I held on to that and tried to remain positive. However, when it came time to go to our rooms we discovered we had to drive a few minutes away to a guest house in the middle of what seeme like nowhere and, mind you, the power was out so it was pitch black. We were told all of a sudden that the roommates we were supposed to be with didn't apply and we now needed to fit 7 in a room. At this point we were annoyed and confused but willing to make it work, because when in Ghana this kind of stuff seems to happen a lot. Then, to our surprise, we opened the doors to two beds and several very small, old, dirty mats on the ground without any sheets...our beds. I was again very annoyed but thought "that's okay let's just push the two real beds together and all squeeze in together and try to get some sleep. However someone had the absolutely brilliant idea to check for bed bugs...and there were many. We grabbed our things and booked it to the pitch black courtyard and stood, ready to neglect sleeping for obvious reasons. We complained and our bus driver came back to get us. We then drove back to the hotel we ate dinner at, the place we were supposed to sleep at all along, and decided sleeping on the bus was our best option. Apparently they had given our rooms away, which our guides seemingly knew about the whole time but none of us were ever updated on the issue. They were able to secure two rooms but that still left about 15 of us roomless. I therefore curled up in the steaming hot bus and resigned to the fact I would get very little sleep. Our saint of a bus driver ended up sacrificing his sleep to periodically turn on the air conditioning to keep us comfortable. If it weren't for him I wouldn't have had even one hour of sleep.
But the fun didn't stop there. We were eventually given rooms for the following night (Saturday) but our roommates were all changed and some of us were given nice rooms with air conditioning while others were given partially clean looking rooms with questionable pillows and a fan on the cieling...still obviously better than bed bugs. We were promised things and then not given them, and communication was a constant struggle, as it usually seems to be.
Despite the craziness of the weekend I got to see elephants up close in the wild, I went on a night safari with friends and had a bird land next to me and then slap me in my face with its wing, I woke up to baboons parading about the hotel grounds, some with adorable babies latched on to them, and I got to see a beautiful star filled sky. In the end everything worked out and I'll forever have stories to tell, but I can guarantee you I will be planning my own trips from now on.
