akwaba abroni

on june 28th we took a 2 hour flight to ghana. and wow what an amazing country. im really glad that we were able to see another african country because if not i feel like i would have made some generalizations to africa that would not have been so accurate. not only was it not 40 degrees, but it was beautiful and lush, and all 3 resorts we stayed in were on the ocean!

so as i said there are a lot of contrasting elements between burkina and ghana not to mention that we were there for a vacation and got a little break from some of the frustrations weve been experiencing on project. first of all they speak english there so that took some getting used to - not speaking french. secondly, we noticed was how incredibly developped it was compared to burkina and also how much cleaner. oooh and good food!

the first resort we stayed in was in axim and it took about 7 hours to get there by cab from accra. but our driver, robert, was so great as he managed to get us there even through the thickest rain ive ever seen - so much so that we could not see the dirt path we were driving on at 9 oclock at night. yup i was a little nervous but we arrived safe and sound to be surprised by luxurious accomodations and an amazing view- check out the pic above. and by luxurious i mean that i had my first running shower in 2 months and it was in fact hot. weeee. so we met some other norweigans and canadians at the resort and hung out with them for the next 2 days which was passed by on the beach and in a rainforest that is the most biologically diverse in ghana, called ankasa. we ended up staying there an extra night because it was so great.

our second resort was ok but it was located in cape coast which is such a fantastic city. we went by tro tro which is the funniest method of transportation but so cool. its basically vans where they squish 20 to 30 people in to get from place to place, theyre ridiculously cheap, and are everywhere. so halarious. we visited the elmina slave castle and which happened to be the same day that there was a huge festival going on so everyone was dancing on the streets, there was music, and dragon boat races. very cool. the next day we went to kukum national park where we climbed up to huge bridges in the rainforest canopy. amazing. sadly no monkeys but i still have faith that i will see a monkey before i leave africa. we met some quebecois and hung out with them to continue onto the market in cape coast which is so halarious. you look one way and you see beautiful material and the other way, plates of pig hooves and fish. the next day we went to the cape coast slave castle. this one was the most affecting for me. its hard to describe but it was just so interesting to be there, learning about the history, walking through the dungeons and cells where thousands of people were kept and yeah... i really cant describe but it was amazing.

then we headed to accra for a bit of the city feel. we were staying at this place called big millys back yard where it tends to be just all volunteers that stay there and theres live music and dancing and drumming. we met lots more canadians and discovered the most delicious italian restaurant.

we were supposed to fly out on july 8 back to ouaga but air burkina just happened to have cancelled our flight. we spent 6 hours in an office trying to negotiate a way to get us back to burkina. it was so ridiculous. they were telling us we had to figure out, etc. anyway we were a bunch of other important people working for the un and stuff and they managed to work things out. we ended up staying another night in accra and going to togo the next day. which means that my passport is starting to look very cool.

so that was pretty long. unfortunately i didnt have enough room on my camera to take pictures so hopefully anthony will upload some on facebook so you can check them out cuz theyre actually so beautiful. so yeah if you get a chance- you should go to ghana, bear in mind that all of my impressions are relative to my last 2 months in burkina.

ps. the title means white person - welcome in trie language.