July 2 Final day in Ghana

Not a lot to report today.  I had breakfast about 8:15 or so.  We had agreed to go to the market at 10:00 this morning, so I took my time and have mostly packed and finished by Jeffrey Archer book.  It was very good, but, of course, he left things up in the air for his next book.

About 10:40 or so we headed to the market.  Quite crowded.  Sue, in particular, wanted to do some shopping.  She got some cloth, carvings, baskets, a drum, I think that was all.  We were all over the market area, at least it feels that way.  Quite sunny today, so it made it hot.  Several of our days have been at least partly overcast, but not today.  I had a hard time keeping my glasses on my face.

We caught a taxi back and got back about 2:00 pm.  I think a shower would serve me well in preparation for the flight.  Our flight is at 10:10 pm and we are supposed to leave for the airport at 6:30 pm.

I checked in online and found out that Delta is looking for volunteers to take another flight. I ignored that information.  I am ready to leave.  It has been a great experience, but I have had enough for this time.

July 1 Kumosi to Accra

I have added a couple of photos that I took on the KNUST campus in Kumosi and other places on Sunday, July 1.

My room on the KNUST campus in Kumosi.  It was very nice and everything worked except the Internet!

My little balcony at KNUST, a very pleasant place to read.

An example of housing on KNUST campus, probably for junior faculty.  Senior faculty had individual (detached)  homes with their names out front.

Flowers are not very common, at least not where I have been and at this time of year.  I did find these on side of the road on the KNUST campus.

A little bit of an idea what the market looked like in Kumosi.  We are just coming down a street approaching the market.  It fills a very large open area that you kind of weave your way through.  Since it was Sunday morning it was not very busy.

If you look closely you will see this awning says "Fargo Fashion Shoes."  jJust took a quick shot from the taxi while in Kumosi (I think).

July 1 Back in Accra

A short blog tonight, another day of riding.  We left the hotel about 9:20 or so.  Chuks had secured a taxi that was a station wagon.  Our luggage has expanded a bit.  I still just had my computer case and backpack, but Chuks had acquired a painting and an extra bag of various items.  The Torgusons Jeff and Sue) had acquired at least two paintings plus a few other items.  It was a fairly short ride to the bus station about 30 minutes or so.  There is bus service between Kumasi (I think I have been spelling in wrong) and Accra in large Greyhound buses, as Chuks as said.  The depot was chaos, as normal.  As soon as the taxi gets close, men swarm around it.  Chuks had actually purchased the tickets through the passenger window before we came to a stop.  Large buses are trying to back into narrow slots, others are leaving and taxis are looking for any space available to let out their passengers.  And there are lots of people standing around, passengers with luggage, employees, and others.  The way the system works is as soon as a bus is filled up it leaves.  Our tickets indicated our seat numbers, we were 28-31, the four seats across the back.  So as soon as our luggage was tagged, paid for and loaded we boarded.  We had to pay extra for the luggage, a person just looks at the pile and gives you an amount.  Shortly after we boarded we started to leave, but it took another 5-10 minutes to get the cars out of the way so we could actually pull out.  By the way these were the most spacious seats I have had on any vehicle, arm rest on both sides, headrest, seatbelt, nice cushion, reclining, and I could barely reach the seat in front of me with my feet out straight.

The trip to Accra was about 5 hours.  We made one stop at a rest stop, I suspect owned by the bus company.  For a small fee you could use the bathroom and there was various types of food available.  I passed on the food.  The stop was only about 10 minutes.  At Accra we collected our luggage and after a bit of negotiation with several different young men we got a station wagon taxi to take us back to our original guest house in Accra.  I am not feeling to adventuresome tonight.  I guess I will take a shower and read.  It has been great having access to the Internet again.  I am so glad that Phil and Melissa are back in DC.  I have had several chats with Marcia.  I suspect Melanie is with clients, since I have not heard from her.

I should mention the roads quickly.  After we were outside of Kumasi we were on a four lane divided highway (with speed bumps, of course, but the bus rode better than our car to Mole).  Sometimes it became a two lane highway then back to four.  A short distance after the rest stop it became a dirt road, similar to the road to Mole.  No slick spots, but plenty rough.  Again, we were sometimes driving on the left and sometimes on the right.  Of course with the bus, we seemed to have fewer cars cutting us off. They are still building the road, that is why the middle portion is dirt.  In a couple of places we drove down and around a bridge that was partially constructed.  But the road doesn't go over it yet, it goes around it.

Time for a shower!

Some photos of the safari in Mole National Park

A view of part of the Mole National Park compound.  Through the gate are overnight accommodations (not mine).

This block is where I slept.  Each opening is a room with three beds and a bathroom.  I realized I never took a photo inside, but there was not a lot of time.  

The only source of running water is if they keep these tanks full.  They didn't.  There are tanks associated with every building and they fill them once or twice a day.  When you run out in your bathroom, you use a bucket of water to dump over your head or to flush the toilet, your choice!

Our vehicle for the safari.  Eight people could ride on top. Great views

Another Range Rover ahead of us in search of animals.  The road was washed in places and filled in with rocks.  Made the Range Rover rock from side to side at times.

I actually saw this guy on the compound before the safari started, as you can tell from the power lines and towers.  He was about 500 feet from my room.  The guide told us he is about 60 years old and the reason he has a shorter tusk is that they break off as they get older.

As you can see my 300 mm camera lens worked great!

Later on the safari we saw these two at a water hole.  The one closest is older, closer to 70 and has lost both tusks.  We were told we would only see males.  The females and young are deep in the park.

A wart hog in the compound.  They were plentiful

This monkey was right out back of my room.  I suspect it is a mother and baby.  This was as close as she let me get.

Lots of antelope of various types

The guide called this a kingfisher

These are also plentiful, and not just at Mole.  I have seen variations in every place we have been.

June 30, Kumosi, Part II

It was lightly misting for a few minutes, but nothing serious.  I walked down the road a little ways and took a few pictures. I walked by some of the housing for the junior faculty, at least that is what Chuks later told me they were.  As seems to be the case with most universities in Ghana, the faculty and staff live on campus.  We did see some of the faculty have signs in front of their places indicating who lives there.  There is also a large impressive building that Chuks says is only available to senior faculty as a type of lounge or perhaps club.

About 11:00 am the four of us headed out.  Jeff is feeling much better.  Sue thought she was getting a touch of the stomach thing so took a pill this morning.  We walked a little ways and then caught a cab.  Our destination was a museum adjacent to the palace of the King of the Asantis, the major tribe of much of Ghana and beyond.  We watch a short video that was well done about the history of the Asanti kings then toured the museum.  No pictures allowed.  The museum used to be the palace but now the king lives next door.  Naturally there was gift shop but nothing of particular interest.  

Next we walked to  the major market of the city. I have been trying to think of a way to describe what the markets are like.  The closest I have come up with so far is to think about the State Fair except it is not as well organized, there are people driving everywhere in addition to thousands on foot and it doesn't end after 10 days.  There also seems to be limited garbage cleanup.  We were lucky it was Sunday because the market was not as full of people as during the week.Our major goal was an artist colony called the Cultural Center.  We just had to get through the market to get there.  Chuks estimated it to be a 10 to 15 minute walk so it took us about 30 minutes.  

The Cultural Center was much less crowded.  Most of the buildings were closed.  Chuks found an artist he knows and his shop was open.  He is a painter.  Sue's was interested in buying some of his paintings.  We arrived at the  shop about 12:30.  I looked around for a few minutes at the paintings and the carvings next door, then had a seat.  Jeff was sitting on the sidewalk already.  Chuks had wandered off a bit and was sitting in the shade.  Jeff and I talked for a bit, then Sue called to him so I joined Chuks.  Fortunately, I had brought my new Jeffrey Archer book so I started to read.  It had been very warm and muggy when we were walking so the shade felt good.  About 2:30 a young man came by to survey me.  I am afraid I wasn't a very good subject.  The survey was about music, especially Ghana music.  I told him I had not listened to enough to form an opinion.  I was able to ask four or five of his questions, but I don't buy much music and really only listen to Western music on the radio.  By this time Chuks had joined Sue and Jeff and bought a painting so I ended the survey and joined them.  Sue had bought a couple of paintings I believe and was haggling about a couple of rugs from the shop that I thought was carvings.  Anyway she didn't buy the rugs and we were off.

We caught a taxi back to the guest house without incident, just the normal weaving from lane to lane and cutting off other cars and in turn being cut off by others and avoiding motorcycles and pedestrians.  I think traffic is worse here in Kumosi then in the parts of Accra or Cape Coast that we have seen.  We often sit stalled in traffic for several minutes.  Meanwhile, sellers walk by the cars selling anything portable.  It is not uncommon for several cars or large trucks (lorries) to be simply stopped in the right driving lane.  They may have broken down, have a flat tire or who knows.  You just suddenly lose a lane of the  road.  Occasionally the stalled vehicle will be in the middle of the road or even in an intersection.  Sometimes there are people working on or under it, sometimes no one appears to be around who has anything to do with the vehicle.  Sue, Jeff and I had a late lunch/dinner and sat around until about 5:30.  Just after we walked out of the restaurant we met Chuks.  He was just coming in to eat.  I have no idea what he had been doing, perhaps resting in his room.

Every time I walk through the guest house lobby I ask if the Internet is likely to come back up.  Last night I was told maybe this morning.  This morning I was told maybe this afternoon.  Later I was told it comes up and down.  Tonight I was told it might be up in the morning.  You get the picture.

After we ate I came back to my room and sat on my little balcony and read.  It was quite relaxing.  I came in when it got too dark to read and turned on the air conditioning.  Everything works well at this guest house except the Internet.  The plan for tomorrow is to have breakfast and be packed ready to leave at 9:00 am.  Chuks says it is a 5 hour drive back to Accra.  Of course with traffic we can easily add an hour or two to that.  I believe we are taking a taxi to some type of bus station (I use that term loosely) and take a bus back to Accra.  Chuks describes the bus as a like a Greyhound.  He has already told Jeff and Sue that they will have to pay extra for their luggage.

Today was a lower key day, which I was OK with. Chuks has mentioned that he has only been able to make contact with one person from the university about the project.  I am unclear if he has had contact with her in the past several months or since we have been here.  He said she might call him after she went to church, but I correctly predicted that there would be no contact with the KNUST university faculty for us.  I just don't think they are interested.

One other quick thought that I have not commented on.  Religion  is very prevalent here.  Accra was almost entirely Christian with most of the religions being Protestant.  I have seen Baptist, Methodist, Episcopal, Seven Day Advent and Mormon Churches.  Religious signs and mottos are everywhere, billboards, written on buildings, taxis, private cars, road signs, any flat surface.  I saw Dr. Jesus Fast Food, Sis Mary Food among others.  Cape Coast was largely Christian but a few muslims.  The women have there hair covered but not a lot of burkkas (spelling?).  As we traveled north, the Muslims increased and the Christians decreased.  Kumasi seems to be a real mix.  One section of town will be Christian and another will be Muslim.  It does not seem to be as strict Muslim as in the Middle East, judging from the clothing.  The Somalis in St. Cloud dress more traditionally than the Muslims appear to do here.  

Second quick note, domesticated animals.  Chickens and goats are everywhere.  I have yet to see a place with people that did not have chickens and goats running around freely.  Talk about free range chicken! The only time I have seen chickens in any type of containment is in cages for sale on side of the road/street in the cities.   I have seen cats once or twice and a few dogs, sometimes in the villages and sometimes in the cities.  We have seen a few herds of cattle especially on the trip to Mole and back.  The only time we have seen pigs is in areas that looked to be heavily Muslim, which I do not understand.

Third quick note, villages.  On the road to and from Mole we passed innumerable villages.  Towards the south they are usually made out of concrete blocks sometimes with corrugated steel roofs and sometimes thatched. Further north they were more likely made out of mud with thatched roofs, sometimes round and sometimes square.  In the south, people on side of the roads and in the roads are carrying things to sell on top of their heads, fresh fruit, baked goods, bread, toilet paper, water to sell, etc.  In the north people are carrying things they need on top of their heads, firewood, food, water, laundry, etc.

June 30 Kumosi, Part I

I just went down to breakfast.  No sign of Chuks, Jeff or Sue.  The standard breakfast here is an omelet, toast with jam and butter and coffee.  Most places also have some type of sausage and beans.  The sausage in some places was a hot dog.  The beans are typically served at room temperature.  This place actually had a breakfast menu so I a fried egg for variation.  I have eaten more eggs in the past week than in the past year.  We are supposed to meet up at 10:30 this morning.  Chuks is taking us to tour somewhere.  He has had a hard time making contact with any faculty at this university to work with.  Since this is Sunday and we are leaving tomorrow morning, I doubt that we see anyone from the university.  

Chuks is not traveling back with us, he is staying here and then to Nigeria.  I don't know if I mentioned but he is actually Nigerian, not Ghanian.  He has led several short term study abroad programs here to Ghana.  He typically comes in May right after the semester is out and stays for 3 weeks.  He follows the same basic path that we have taken, but he told us he does not take the students from Cape Coast to Mole in one day.  He stops in Kumasi at least overnight.  So the students do not get the 13 1/2 one day journey.  He will spend some time in Nigeria and return to Ghana.  He plans to come back to the university in Komasi to see if he can make contact with any faculty about the project.

It is about 9:00 am.  I guess I will go for a walk around the area.

June 29 Safari and trip to Kumosi

The safari started at 7:00 am so we were told to gather at the guides station about 6:50 am.  We decided that since we wanted to make sure we were able to go we should be there at 6:30 am.  I  got up at 5:30 and discovered that the generator had been  turned off, so no electricity at all. Also, the  water was no longer trickling, it was completely gone.  I washed up with some  of the bottled water I had, dressed in whatever was on top of my backpack and went outside to look around.  It was beginning to get light so I  could see where I was for the first time.  I wandered around the camp for a few minutes and saw some warthogs wandering through.  I got a couple of shots.  Then I saw a monkey and  baby from  a distance, so got a poor shot of them.  I couldn't get too close.  A few others were up and around and then I heard someone say there was an elephant in the compound so I was able to photograph it from about 200 feet or less.  My new lens worked great.

Around 6:30 Chuks showed up and  a few minutes later I knocked on Jeff and Sue's door.  They said they were up.  More and more people were gathering by the guide station so I went back over.  There were two types of safari, walking and Jeep.  Chuks always does the walking safari, but I decided that my image of a safari was in a Jeep, actually a Land Rover.  They build seats on top of the 4 Land Rovers and there was room for 8 up there.  We were to arrange ourselves in groups of 8 because the group as a whole paid the  cost of the vehicle.  

Jeff and Sue came over a couple of minutes before 7:00 am and missed most of the orientation.  Jeff was not feeling well.  His knees bother him and the walk  to the rope bridges, up a very steep climb and steps took its tole on him.  In addition, he had been up several times in the night with stomach issues.  Anyway, there was a group of 6 that Sue and I joined on top and Jeff rode inside.  He didn't feel like climbing up.

We headed off and within 500 feet we encountered the elephant I had seen earlier.  We all climbed down off the Land Rover and got within 50 yards of less of the  elephant.  I got a few pictures.  We found out later that sometimes the safaris do not see any elephants.  We met up with Chuks on  the walking tour, his group walked around one side of a building and we drove around the other side when we saw the elephant.  After about 15 minutes we climbed back aboard and headed off looking for other animals.

We saw lots of warthogs, they are all over the place.  The  other common thing we saw were a couple of different types of antelopes.  We saw adult and some young several times.  Mole is a savanna, so it is open grassland and some small trees and bushes.  Much of the time it is quite easy to see the animals.  

We saw a large bird with  blue on its back  that the  guide called a Kingfisher and another colorful bird that I did not understand the name of.  Near the end we saw two more elephants heading to a waterhole, so we were able to follow them on foot and  see them very clearly.  Once they got to the waterhole, they mostly stood in the water and stared at us.  We were told we were very lucky to see so many elephants.  There are about 400 in the park and it is extremely large.  Most are not near where the  people  go.  

After about 2 hours we headed back to camp and had breakfast.  Still no water or electricity,  but seeing was no longer an issues since it was bright out now.  I realized that I never took a photograph of my room, but that is probably because I hardly saw it.  We discovered that there were pails of water in each room for bathing whenever the  water was out, a common occurance.  So we cleaned up a bit and headed out about 11:00 am.  It would have been nice to have a bit more time in Mole, especially after how long it took as to get there.  There are safaris several times a day:  one mid morning, one early afternoon, one in the evening and one after dark.  You can also sleep out in the savanna overnight.  They give you a sleeping mattress and mosquito netting and a guide, of course.  I would have gone on a walking safari at least.

There are three roads that lead to Mole National Park and Chuks and the driver, after some discussion, decided to take a different one than we came on.  The road did not have the deep ruts, slick spots, or speed bumps, but was very rough.  At times we were traveling at 10 kmh, about 6 mph.  So it took us 2 1/2 hours to get to the paved road again.  The first section of paved road was excellent, I would assume it have recently been completed.  After another couple of hours we were back to the rougher paved roads and speed bumps.  We arrived  at our guest house on the university campus in Kamosi (KNUST, I haven't found out what it stands for) at 8:30 pm.  The last two hours in the dark, but a lot of it was in the city.  We also drove through a thundershower.  It rained pretty hard for a while.  We were just pleased we were not on the dirt road.

The guest house is very nice, all the lights work, the refrigerator, fan and ac all work, and there is plenty of water and hot water.  The only thing that does not work is the Internet.  I did get the password, but it is down.  They said to check it in the morning, but it is still down.  I did find a plug in the room that I could recharge all of my equipment, so my computer, iPad and phone all have full charges.

June 28 to Mole National Park

We arrived back in Kumasi and are at KNUST University for two nights.  We are all a bit road weary.  The trip to Mole National Park took from 6:00 am to 7:30 pm.  We were stopped for one hour in Kumasi for breakfast at 10:00 am.  Other stops were about 10 minutes, so it was a long ride.  There were 5 of us in a Toyota Corolla, the driver and us 4.  Jeff, Sue and I had the backseat plus a couple of small  pieces of luggage.  Chuks had the front seat with a piece of luggage on his back.  The air conditioning worked great, even in the back seat, which was a godsend.  We were definitely shoulder to shoulder and knee to knee the whole time.  The back seat is about the same size as in the Prius.  Fortunately, none of us are very heavy.  

There doesn't seem to be much for speed limit signs, just in villages, there are speed bumps.  At times the villages are only a mile or two apart, so there are lots of speed bumps.  Some were so high the car dragged going across them.  Of course we were loaded heavy with people and luggage.  The driver tried about everything to get across the speed bumps except ask us to get out.  He seemed to have the best luck crossing them at a 45 degree angle.  Fortunately there was not a lot of traffic so he could take the whole road.

The last 2 1/2 hours were on a dirt road.   Some parts of it were pretty good, other parts were like a washboard and  other parts had very deep ruts.  According to Chuks the road was about 40 miles long, so you get an idea of our average speed.  Most of the  road was extremely wide almost as wide as a 4 lane highway, just rough.  And there were still speed bumps, just out of dirt instead of concrete or pavement.  Sometimes there were speed bumps on the dirt road when there was no apparent reason  for them, very few villages on the  dirt road.  We probably only met 10 cars in the 2 1/2 hour.  The driver spent as much time driving on the left as on the right trying to find someplace relatively smooth.  I can't imagine what kind of shape his struts are in now.  The only place that was really hairy was one section that was wet and  we ended up sliding and swerving.  He finally got it under control but it was very much like driving on glare ice, except I was afraid if he completely stopped we might be stuck.  Fortunately that section only lasted for a couple of miles.

We are quite close to the equator, I think Ghana is between 4 and 9 degrees latitude, so it gets dark beginning about 6:30 pm.  As a result the last hour was in pretty much darkness.  This made trying to avoid the ruts a bit more interesting and also slowing down for the speed bumps.

Anyway,  we arrived at Mole safe and sound and checked in.  We each  had a three  beds in our room, that is all that was available when Chuks made the reservation months ago.  We later found out there was a group of 48 physicians assistants there.  We went to our rooms and  I discovered that I  had a light in the bathroom and the  refrigerator would come on that was it.  The lights in the bedroom, fan and  air conditioning did not function.  Did I mention it was very warm and humid and no breeze?  We checked and  found out that the electricity was out and the generator could not power everything.  Also the water just trickled out of the faucet so no shower.  It took about 10 minutes to fill the flush.  So we dumped out stuff in our rooms and went to eat.  The kitchen was still  open and we ate outside by candlelight.  We hadn't eaten since 10:00 am  so we were hungry.  The menu was limited, mostly rice and chicken.  Then to bed.

Thursday, July 27, a full day

I am not sure with all of the flying and driving you are doing if anyone has time to read this or not.  I am sitting outside the Institute of Education Guest House office again tonight where I can get an Internet connection.

Sorry that the flight was delayed from Milwaukee. I hope you, Melissa and Phil, are not too tired to start your trip back.  It is too bad that you had to make the extra trip to the Cities, Marcia.  I hope everything got straightened out after a while.  Sorry I was not there to help.

We had breakfast at 7:30 this morning, or rather I did.  Chuks decided he didn't want to eat breakfast and Jeff and Sue came over about 7:50.  The original plan was for the three of us, Jeff, Sue and me, to meet up with a young woman that Chuks has hired to guide students when he has been here in the past to take us do the coast to watch the fishermen at 8:00 am.  We left about 8:30, but it is a short drive to the coast.  The fishermen take their nets out to sea early in the morning then groups of men spend the morning pulling them in.  I have a quick picture.

This is the line of fisherman pulling in the net.  They wrap the road around the coconut trees to anchor them.  There were a couple of women there and their job seemed to coil up the ropes as the line was pulled in. I pulled for a couple of minutes with them and you could really feel when you could pull the rope in and when the ocean held it back.

The taxi driver brought Jeff and me back on campus at 9:30 so we could meet with the members of the Geography Department at 10:30.  The meeting seemed to go well.  There were several members of the department there and we all talked about our interest in the project and how we saw contributing.  I believe the next step will be to get a Memorandum of Agreement between the two campuses then develop a plan to start the project.  Chuks hopes to receive a major grant to complete the project.

After the meeting the Head of the Geography Dept. let us use a department van and had someone drive us around.  We went to Cape Coast Castle first.  It was a castle started by the Dutch and eventually enlarged and used by the British mainly for the slave trade.  We went to a nearby restaurant and order our lunch first then toured the castle.  The tour took a little over 1 1/2 hours.  I will include a couple of pictures.

Part of the interior of the castle taken from the parade grounds inside.   The structure on the left with the red roof was the church which sits directly on top of the dungeons where the slaves were kept until a ship arrived.  The average wait was 3 months.

Inside the castle with the cannons pointed toward the sea. It is a beautiful setting.

This castle did a better job of telling about the slave trade then the one we visited yesterday.  We got a sense of what life was like.  One estimate I heard was only about 1/5 of the slaves captured actually made it to the Americas.  The rest died on the trip from their villages to Cape Coast or other ports, or died waiting for a ship, or died on board the ships.  President and Mrs. Obama visited here in 2009 and there is a plaque noting the occasion.  Michelle believes that her relatives are from this region and were shipped to America from Cape Coast.  I also learned that most of the slaves were sent to Central and South America, only about 10% went to the US.

Anyway we had lunch around 2:00 pm and headed for a rain forest national park near here.  The driver from the university took us.  We left the restaurant at 3:00 and arrived at the national park about 4:00 pm.  The last entry was posted as 3:30.  Chuks negotiated and for an additional fee we hired a guide to take us into the rain forest.  The attraction is a series of rope bridges that you can walk across.  There are a total of 7 of them.  The total length is 1080 feet and they are about 130 feet above the ground.  We were above the rain forest canopy.  It was hot and humid but a super experience.

One of the rope bridges, taken from another.  We walked across 7 of them in a giant circle.

Jeff and Sue ahead of me on the rope bridge.  As you walked along you kind of balanced/bounced off the ropes on the sides.  The green are the tops of trees below us.

We returned from the national park and the Head of the Geography Department had arranged for us to have dinner at a restaurant.  Actually he picked up the food personally at the market in the morning and took it to a woman to prepare for us.  The food was good, but I am getting a bit tired of African food, it just isn't what I am used to.  However, we had the dessert for the first time, fresh pineapple and mangos.  I have never had better! The pineapple was supper sweet and juicy.  It was almost liquid in your mouth.  Then the Head brought us back to campus, a lot today.

Wednesday, June 26, Cape Coast

We got up and had breakfast and left for Cape Coast this morning.  We were supposed to leave at 8:30 but it was close to 9:30 before we left the hotel.  Chuks said it would be a 1 1/2 trip if there was not traffic, closer to 2 1/2 with traffic.  It took all of 2 1/2 hours.  First we drove in a taxi to another part of Accra to get a van to Cape Coast.  There does not appear to be bus service between cities, but at a very chaotic market there were lines of 15 passenger buses lined up.  Chuks found one headed for Cape Coast and bought the tickets.  I was able to down size to by backpack and computer case, but Sue and Jeff had one of their large suitcases plus two good size carry-ons.  It ended up that they had to pay an extra fare for the suitcase.  We then waited until the van was filled which took another 15 minutes or so then headed out.  It was a little after 10:00 am.  Our van was a Ford with air conditioning, actually I was a bit cold most of the way.  Most of the vans did not have air conditioning.  We passed a large number of vans on the road with 15 people aboard and the back in tied down because of all of the luggage.  Fortunately we were not in that condition.

I thought for a long time that the trip would be just passing by continuous rows of "shops" and minimal housing, like much of Accra, but after a while we were in open countryside.  Occasionally we went by villages of thatched huts, then we would go through cities much like Accra, lots of people on the streets, every traffic light, selling things and continuous rows of stands, minimal buildings or just people selling things off the street.

We arrive in Cape Coast a little after 12:30 pm and took a taxi to the university.  The university is a huge campus, I am not sure of the student population, but it is acres and acres, perhaps a couple of miles or more long.  Our rooms are very nice.  They have several guest houses for the School of Education and a separate set for the School of Business and perhaps others.  There may be 10 buildings (I am in letter H and Chuks is in letter J so that is why I am thinking a total of 10) and each building has 4 apartments.  I have a large living room, large bedroom with a queen size bed and full bath.  The cost is $37.50 a night.

After unpacking we went to lunch at a restaurant across the street from our apartments  then headed for St. Georges Castle.  It is a castle started by the Portuguese in the 1400s then captured by the Dutch in the mid 1500s and finally sold to the British in the 1800s. It was used as a fort during colonial times and also as a holding place for slaves waiting for the ships to come to the port.  We explored the dungeons where the slaves were kept, naturally many died waiting for the ship.  There were held for up to 3 months waiting for a ship to come in.  I took lots of photographs, but given the sketchy nature of my Internet connection I will have to add them later.

On the way back we stopped at a place on side of the road and had a drink.  As its name implies, Cape Coast is on the Atlantic and it is really quite beautiful here with the palm and coconut trees and ocean.  The castle is in a very nice setting, just used for very inhuman purposes.

We got back to the campus tonight and had another drink.  I didn't want anything to eat and the restaurant only had rice, fish and french fries left.  It is quite warm and humid here so I don't feel very hungry, plus I had a large serving of rice and chicken for lunch.

Tomorrow promises to be a full day.  We are supposed to take a taxi to the coast, about a 5 minute ride to watch the fishermen.  They take their nets out in the ocean early in the morning then pull them in by hand while chanting to capture the fish.  Then at 10:00 we have a meeting with some members of the Geography department.  After that we go to a second castle also used in the slave trade and then we go to a rain forest for a visit.  We stay here at the university tomorrow night.  Friday morning we head for Mole National Park, an 8 hour drive.

I think I will go back inside where it is cooler and call it a night.

Happy Birthday, Melanie.  Sorry, I am not in Minnesota for your birthday.  Should we celebrate your birthday at the Twins game on the 4th??

Tuesday, June 25 Part II

We met the Assistant Registrar of International Studies this afternoon at 3:00 pm.  He came by the hotel and picked us up, so no taxi ride this afternoon.   I guess I have not described the rides, not sure I can!!

The roads are very narrow, most, but not all that we drive on are paved.  But the pavement is in bad need of repair.  Typically on both sides of the road is a ditch usually 1 to 1 1/2 feet deep with vertical sides.  In other words a sheer drop off where the pavement ends that is about a foot wide.  I have not seen a car with its wheel in the gutter/ditch but I am amazed I haven't.  I think I mentioned earlier, where lots of people cross the ditch or where cars turn to go in a driveway or side road there is usually a concrete or metal grate covering the ditch, but there are typically gaps.  When we came home tonight, someone had lifted he grate off the side road we were turning onto so Daniel, the Assistant Registrar, had to position his turn very carefully so we didn't go into the ditch.

In addition, there are lots of cars, trucks, people walking, bicycles and motorcycles, not too mention the people selling things at every traffic light.  Motorcycles seem to just go, they will drive between lines of cars and totally ignore traffic lights.  This morning we met a motorcycle coming toward us to the right of our taxi, balancing between hitting the taxi and going in the ditch.  Traffic constantly changes lanes and horn beeping is constant.  One of our drivers this morning seemed to beep his horn at random times, it seemed to have nothing to do with traffic or pedestrians.  Most taxi drivers will turn left directly in front of oncoming traffic and beep to say they are doing it.  I told Sue that we would pay big money at an amusement park for this type of thrill and adventure!  There are no real lane markers on may streets except the one dividing the two directions of traffic, so the number of cars wide is determined by the daring of the drivers, pedestrians, and motorcyclists.  The ride with Daniel this afternoon was extremely mild.  He didn't cut anyone off, didn't turn left on red lights, stopped for red lights, and even let a car or two in front of him at uncontrolled intersections (of which there are many!)  He was no fun at all!!  All of the taxis are standard transmissions and the clutches are at the very end of their life, in other words they don't clutch, they shudder every time we start up again.  Daniel had an automatic, like I said, no fun at all.  I suggested to Sue that we get a video camera and just hold it out the window pointing forward for the next taxi ride.  She was afraid we would lose the camera.

Dinner tonight was very nice.  We went to a very upscale hotel directly on the beach, I believe a 5 star hotel.  About as nice a hotel (as distinguished from a castle) as I have seen.  We ate outdoors overlooking the sand and water.  A little ways up was apparently a public beach because people were playing in the water.  This was a very nice beach, not one where they had thrown their garbage into huge piles as I saw earlier in the day.  I only saw one old tire laying on the beach. If you got close to the railing, people came by to try to sell you something, mostly maps and jewelry today.  They are very persistent, but were not allowed on the hotel property.  They tried to negotiate through the railing.  The food was excellent.  I had fried prawns, they were some of the largest shrimp I have ever seen.  Also I order the usual 1 1/2 cups of fried rice.  It was very good and all of our meals came at almost the same time.  We also had fried plantains and peanuts as appetizers.  Oh, I had a drink of orange, pineapple, and lemon juice with a bit of grenadine. It was excellent.  The meal cost easily twice as much as any we had but was very nice and in a beautiful setting.  Directly across the street and on either side of the hotel grounds are some of the worst slums I have seen.  Talk about contrast!

Some photos of the hotel and restaurant:

We ate at a table like this one under a thatched roof, railing and beach on the left, hotel grounds on the right.

Jeff, Sue and Chuks admiring the view before eating.

Sue taking pictures (at least her legs)  while sellers (see hands) are trying to get her attention to buy the bracelets.  

A little bit more of the hotel grounds.  This is the most green I have seen.  The lawn looked like a golf course.

From our table looking back toward the main area of the hotel.

Tuesday, June 25

We left this morning for a tour of the national museum and other monuments in Accra.  I just realized that the computer has a card reader so I can upload a few photographs finally.  I will write less and let the photos do the talking.

Like lots of places in the world, Ghana is a land of contrasts.  A modern bank building

Near some small shops and open areas for selling

You can buy almost anything portable from men and women on the street.  They are particularly plentiful at traffic lights.  The amount and height of things carried on their heads is impressive. 

The view from the restaurant where we ate last night.  It was on a second floor and was open air.  The breeze was refreshing.  The city is quite dense.

More shops on side of the road.  This road was paved.

We are close to the beach, but it is used as a dumping ground for garbage.  Goats seems to roam freely eating what they can find.  Also chickens are plentiful

Some flowers for you, Marcia

No idea of their names

This is the burial place for the man who is the equivalent of Martin Luther King for West Africa.  I can't spell his name.  He was the first president of Ghana.  Ghana was a colony of England until 1957 and was the first West African nation to become independent.  This man was educated in the U.S., U of Pennsylvania, then came back to promote peace and independence.

More flowers around the burial place above.

This is the interior courtyard of the International Building,  The green is grass growing around the white blocks on the ground.

This was the path we took to walk across campus from the International Building to the building that housed the Archeology Department.  Grass and green are fairly minimal and the soil is very red.

Monday, June 24

Last night we ate in the little restaurant attached to the hotel.  Chuks described what many of the items were on menu.  I don't have a copy of the menu so I can't give you the names of the dishes.  Rice is a staple, as I expected.  For meat there is chicken and fish.  Beef was on the menu but not available last night.  If you give them a couple hours notice they will run to a nearby market and pick some up.  I think Jeff and Sue were going to have beef tonight.  The food is generally a bit spicy than the Scandinavian food of central Minnesota.  I noticed some of the spice in the flight over.  Jeff and Sue are now asking that their food not be spicy.  It seems to bother Jeff in particular.  I found out he is a native of St. Cloud.  I had chicken and fried yams last night.  The yams are white, not like what we have in the U. S.  They don't have a lot of flavor, they brought out a sample last night before we ordered.  They gave us a sample cooked and showed us a raw one.  They look somewhat like a very large yam or potato, definitely a tuber.  I also had palava sauce which is made from spinach and other things.  I wouldn't have thought of it as a sauce it looked liked cooked spinach with traces of other things in it.  Not bad.  Dessert does not seem to be an option.

I found the website for this guest house it is http://guesthouse.knust.edu.gh/.  I believe it is run by the University of Ghana.

Last night I understood Chuks to say that we should meet at 8:30 to be ready for the day.  He was going to get up at 5:30 to jog.  Sue apparently went with him.  I went down to breakfast at 8:00 am.  Just as I finished at 8:20 I met Jeff coming down.  I came up to my room and got ready for the day and went down at 8:30.  I could see Jeff and Sue having breakfast so I waited for them to finish and for Chuks in the lobby.  About 9:00 am I finally discovered that Chuks was having breakfast with them.  We had an appointment at the University of Ghana at 10:00.  We left the hotel to walk a short distance to a place to change money about 9:20 then came back to the hotel.  We finally left for the university about 9:50 or so.  Chuks called them and said we would be a little late because of the traffic.  We arrived at the university about 10:30.

The campus is very large, about 45,000 students plus most of the faculty and staff live on the campus.  It is not very busy right now because the only classes seem to be distance students who are on campus this summer preparing for exams.  I think their system is very similar to the British system.  I took a few shots of the campus but the second item I did not bring was the cable that connects my camera to the computer.

I did take a couple of shots of the street in front of the guest house with my cell phone.  They are looking opposite ways from the front of our guest house.

This is looking down the street from the front of our guest house/hotel.  I have no idea what the orange cans are for.

Looking up the street.  The streets have deep gutters along them, usually on both sides.  There are stones or metal grates that cars drive over or people walk on when crossing the gutters.  Some are dry others have water flowing in them, I am not sure from where.  All have trash in them.  This is the rainy season so apparently it can rain anytime.  I was told it rained on Friday before we came.

Most of the buildings have corrugated metal roofs and the buildings are made out of stucco or concrete blocks.  I have seen lots of palm trees and Chuks pointed out a mango tree on campus.  Many of the streets are not paved and are quite rough.  Taxis really take a beating.  The place were we changed money did not look too inspiring, but I simply follow Chuks' lead.  We got the going rate according to a website I checked this afternoon.

We met with 4 people at the university, a lady who has written a book on the history of slavery in Ghana, an archeologist who has done a lot of work documenting the slave trade in Ghana, the head of the archeology department and a member of the geography department.  They seem interested in working with us.  Chuks is to outline our project and send it to the head of the archeology department who will take it to the department.  Reading the book on slavery is our homework.

After the university meeting we took a taxi and met up with Sue and her guide at a very large outdoor market/bazaar.  As soon as we got out of the taxi we were descended upon by young men welcoming us and asking where we were from.  Naturally they had something to sell and they were very persistent.  Jeff, in particular, had one trying to sell him some jewelry.  He tried for about 10 minutes.  We were kind of stuck there because Chuks was trying to call Sue and her guide to find out where they were and couldn't get a connection.  The guy finally left and came back two more times.  After about 20 minutes Chuks was able to contact Sue and her guide and about 10 minutes later they appeared.  We then took taxis to lunch.

One of the more interesting aspects of travel here is that at every traffic light, there are many people walking up and down the streets between the cars selling everything you can imagine.  Lots of food, bottled water, SIM cards, phone chargers, children's books, maps, toilet paper, etc.  Chuks bought a couple of maps of Ghana for our project and the cab driver bought water.  Sometimes the light turns to green before the transition is completed so the person is running along side the car trying to get the money.  Naturally the price is negotiated heavily.  The large map that Chuks bought stated at 50 ceti, about $25.  Chuks got it for 10 ceti, $5.  The women, for the most part, are carrying the product they are selling in baskets on top of their heads.  The men are less likely to be carrying them this way.  If you buy a bottle of water or a bag of peanuts they simply reach up and grab the item and hand it to you without taking the basket off their heads or readjusting it.  I did see one woman with what looked like 3-4 Costco size packages of toilet paper balanced on her head.  I have not seen anyone but that yet.  I tried to get a few pictures with my camera.

Dinner was a taxi ride from the market/bazaar to a place called Bukas.  Chuks told us to say we have now been to Bukas, apparently it is a well know spot.  I had rice and beans cooked together plus chicken.  It was a huge meal.  About 1 1/2 cups of rice and beans, half a chicken, spaghetti, something like cocos, cooked cabbage/carrots, and a couple of sauces.  Certainly more than enough.  Chuks had the rice and beans plus fish and cow's tail plus most of the other things I had.  He really enjoyed the cow's tail, pressure cooked to be tender and no fat.  By the way, meals come to the table as they are ready.  I happened to get mine last and Sue and Jeff were finished by the time I started, kind of English style.

We are back at the guest house and done for the day.  We were able to walk from the restaurant to the guest house in about 20 minutes.  Mostly on unpaved roads with lots of huts bordering.  Some look like residences others are business.  We walked by a place that was apparently a car repair place, but there was not building at all, just lots of cars in various stages of repair.

I have an updated itinerary for the rest of our trip.  Chuks and I kind of worked it out after dinner.
Tuesday, June 25 we will tour some in the morning (not sure what), then meet with the assistant registrar of International Studies from the U. of Ghana at 3:00 pm and have dinner with him.
Wednesday, June 26 we will travel to Cape Coast and visit one or more slave castles.  These were the holding areas, basically prisons where slaves were held until ships arrived.
Thursday, June 27 we will meet with university officials from Cape Coast University and then walk over some rope bridges.
Friday, June 28 we will travel to Mole National Park
Saturday, June 29 we will go on a safari in the morning then travel to Kumasi in the afternoon
Sunday, June 30 we will spend the day in Kumasi.  Perhaps we will meet with university officials, but since it is Sunday, we probably won't.
Monday, July 1 we will meet with university officials in Kumasi then travel back to Accra.
Tuesday, July 2 we will spend the day in Accra, out flight leaves at 10:00 pm that day.