Ceaselessly Amazed

(FYI: I realize these posts end up really long! I just find this place so hard to describe in few words, and I don't want to forget details down the road...:)).

This place never ceases to amaze me. Honestly. I cannot get over it. Here, plans are just that, PLANS. They are in no way written in stone, and anything goes. Yesterday was a perfect example.

The plan yesterday (Monday) was to do the Canopy Walk in Kakum National Park in Cape Coast at 9am and then catch the 1pm bus from Cape Coast to Kumasi which would take four hours, and spend one night in Kumasi, and then take a 6 hour bus ride to Tamale today. I have learned that in Africa, nothing goes as planned. This is what actually happened:

After negotiating a taxi price with the drivers for a good half hour (you must set the price before getting in the vehicle because they like overcharging, and we wanted them to drive us around for 4 hours), we were finally on our way to the Canopy Walk. This was AMAZING. Gorgeous rainforest, huge trees, crazy moving walking bridges. Absolutely gorgeous. The photos and video I took do not do it justice. God's creation is beautiful. Here's a link I found that shows some picture:
http://www.mrfs.net/trips/2005/West_African_Coast/Kakum/Kakum.html

We then headed back to the Botel, packed up our stuff quickly, and carried on to the bus station. We showed up 1 hour early like we were told -- got there at noon, the bus was to leave at 1. SURPRISE - the bus came at 3:15. We got to sit in 40+ degree weather for 3 hours. Not a fan. Seriously though, in Ghana, anything goes. Clocks don't matter, we like to call this "Ghanaian time". I am now sunburnt.

Finally we're on our way. These roads are awful. Ridiculous potholes. The kids like to grab sand from around (everything is dirt here) and fill them which is wonderful, but still, they are awful. All we can do is laugh :)

We arrived in Kumasi at around 7:30pm only to find out the hostel we booked in was 35km away from the bus station so we hunted around for a different one...for 18 people...not easy! Finally found a hotel (we splurged and are staying in a hotel - and by hotel, I mean the equivalent of a 0.5 star hotel in Canada). We have AC though, and free internet!

Then we decided to have dinner at around 9pm. We did not leave this restaurant until 12:30am. Food. Takes. Forever. Honestly...it took one girl over 2 hours to get her meal, and the servers don't even care! There is no rush here in Ghana! We learn to wait, and wait, and wait.

Walking back to the hotel, I gracefully fell into a 3 feet deep uncovered sewer that runs alongside the roads here in Ghana. These are everywhere, and if you aren't expecting them and it's dark, you might fall in. And that is what I did. Thankfully it was dry, and thankfully we have a variety of dressing supplies (my leg is in rough shape...rather painful).

And so it goes. After such a long day we opted to stay in Kumasi for two nights instead of one, so we will head north to Tamale tomorrow instead of today. We went to the Marketplace today which is apparently the largest marketplace in the world. It was insanity!! SO busy!! So many people everywhere. We quickly learned that people in Kumasi do not like it when we have our cameras out and actually get mad. I did get a video of the chaos though, pure chaos.

Other than that it's been a pretty slack day. So nice. Definitely needed. I'm pretty excited to get to Tamale tomorrow - we will be staying there for almost 3 weeks (sorry Mom, the itinerary I sent you wasn't correct. I'll try to email you a new one sometime soon...). We haven't really been able to settle yet and feel like backpackers unloading all our stuff, loading it all back up. Settling will be nice.

Main lessons learned so far: patience and looking on the bright side is a necessity here in Ghana, positive attitude is HUGE, watch out for the uncovered sewers, wear more sunscreen, get used to crazy driving, and never complain about the heat.

Lastly, what you see on TV is reality. I have seen harsh poverty and it's rough. So hard to see. The kids are beautiful though and I'm soaking up their smiles!! Seeing them grow up like this and knowing that they will likely stay in this cycle of poverty breaks my heart and brings tears to my eyes. I wish the poverty could just go away.

And on that note, I'm signing off! Time to get my bags organized for tomorrows 830am departure and then head to bed. Here's to hoping the bus to Tamale is on time!!

Love, Lauren