Tamale

So, yesterday we took an 8hr bus ride and arrived in Tamale! This city is quite different from the three other main areas we've been to so far (Accra, Cape Coast, Kumasi). We are further north now, and the weather went from incredible heat humidity with some lush green areas, to intense heat and dryness and very little green.

We arrived at the Catholic Guest House at around 630pm (which is like a motel - 2 people in a room. Super nice people work here and run the Guest House).

Today was an amazing day. There's an organization here that a man named Wali Su began which is called Rural and Social Development Program. He went to school for tourism and wanted to put his knowledge to good use, so he takes people on tours to 3 villages for a fee of 17 cedis (which is around $11 Canadian). He uses the revenue for those villages so they can purchase things for their village like a grinding mill to make shea butter, and one of the villages built a classroom (but now need a teacher). So we went on that tour today from 10am-6pm or so and it was HOT. We didn't bring lunch, and were all incredibly dehydrated, that part was not good. But I LOVED the rest!!

We began at one village where we were shown how they make shea butter (used for lotion, or cooking oil). They take shea nuts, take off a few layers, grind them down, and then add water while mixing for hours and hours, go through a few other steps, and eventually they get the shea butter. Then we got welcomed by the entire village through drumming and the traditional cultural dance! It was amazing!! We all joined in on the dancing and it was a wonderful time. So hilarious. They laughed at us a lot.

It was at this time that a gorgeous Ghanaian child fell asleep in my arms. She was beautiful.

We then carried on to two other villages, at one of them we saw how a spinner makes uses cotton to make thread, and how they make clay pots. These people really do live off the land. It's amazing to see! They all lived in those classic African huts (the temperature is surprisingly cool inside these).

The hardest part of the day was when the kids were all asking us for water. There was TONS of kids. Some of them drank water while we were there, but it was nasty and I would never have consumed any - so sad. So they wanted our pure bottled water and were fighting over it cause they wanted it so bad. So there we stood, pouring water into their mouths one at a time. So sad. So sad. I can't get over it. It's not right that people have to live like this.

It's interesting how in this culture it's okay for men to have a maximum of 4 wives. So, there are more women than men in the villages, and lots of kids. The women are almost all illiterate so they do the traditional rural women jobs like thread spinning, pot making, etc.

Tomorrow we are going to see another village and are apparently going out to an African club just to see what it's like!!

That's all for now!!! I am so in love with Africa and so stoked to see what else it has to offer! On Monday we start in the Tamale Regional Hospital where I will spend 10 days.

Love to all!