Decision made, Friday after seminar we are going to the Volta region to swim and do some hiking. Although it is only 120 or so km it will take about 4-5 hours to get there. As always we are late getting started and figure because of rush hour we will miss the 3 oclock airconditioned spacious bus heading that way and instead will hop on a Tro Tro. Knowing this would be a tight ride, especially having to carry all of our lugguage on our laps, we are ready for the worst. Our taxi takes us to the Madina station and we get in line along with 30 + other Ghanaians. As the first Tro pulls up the line disappears and everyone starts pushing and struggling to get onto this bus, we are thinking we will never make it. Once again the Ghanaians pull through and one of them starts yelling at the other people, braces his arm against the door, blocking every from pushing us out of the way and gets us on the 3rd Tro. I manage to loose my sandel half way onto the Tro and see it tumbling into the muddy pile of dirt and garbage under the Van. Finally we settle into the back seats, I turn around to see some of the other girls but all I can see are bags and a couple wisps of their hair. Its going to be a long ride.

Personal space does not exist in Africa, espeically on these buses, so we get to know the ghanaians sitting beside us. One of the is from a village where we can hike a mountain and offers to help us get there (we have to change Tros a couple times) and get a room at the guest house. Thankful for the hospitality we agree, assuming the village he is from is the same village we are aiming for.... Halfway through the ride we stop for a public washroom break (consists of running to the field with the men to the left or and the women to the right) and the local peopl swarm our van selling food. One of our new friends has bought food and gives us some. Called "kenkey", it is mainly dough squished in between two large leafs and heated up. Along with the Kenkay he offors us what looks like some garnish, I agree thinking anything to spice up this dough would be nice, especially having not eaten since that morning. I look close up and they are tiny fish, you can see the eye balls and everything. When in rome....

We switch up Tros in Ho Hoy and head for the village we think is "Wlee". An hour long ride on a red dirt road with pot holes half the size of the van, swallowing us up. Travel on this road has to be impossible during the rainy season. Halfway through the ride our driver and "mate" realize a tire has gone flat. We all pile out for another public washroom break (thankfully it was dark by this time) and wait for them pull out a tire that was serving as my foot rest and switch out the flat tire. Finally arriving in the village just before midnight, our friend calls the guest house and we make our way over there. Making our arrangements to hike to the "falls" with a guide is underway and everything seems set, we get our mosquito net up, push the two single beds together and 3 of us pile on. A knock at the door lets us know our hike will start at 530am, after the long ride, the lack of food and sleep we agree and fall asleep.

The next morning after figuring out our hike is to climb the highest "mountain" in Ghana, Afadjato (mountain is overated, more like the highest hill), we realize we are in the wrong village... Oh well we are there and decide to do the hike and catch a Tro and head to Wlee falls that afternoon. We ended up hiking with 2 guys from France who have been teaching in Cote D'Ivoire for the past year and a half. After some picture taking and water breaks we head back down and hop on a Tro.

There are 2 falls in Wlee, lower and upper. The lower falls are busy and and easy 30-45 minute walk, the upper are almost completely secluded but a hard 2-3 hour hike to them. We hear the local kids will sometimes slingshot down bats at the lower falls and grill them up for you if your interested. After some breakfast we decide to hike to the upper falls. The hike consisted of intervals 15-20 minutes of hiking/climbing, 2 minutes of rest and wiping the sweat out of our eyes. Think of the volcano hike we did in Nicaragua but harder. An hour and a half in we make it to the falls, gorgeous, no one there but us. We intantly jump into the water and head for the falls.

We never seem to be getting enough sleep here, we try to take naps whenever we can... One of the best weekends so far.

The power has been going out twice a day at our hostel, most of the time while we are at the hospitals so its not bad. But than again, the power goes out at the hospital on a regular basis as well.

This past weekend was their independance day (March 6th), we tried to make our way to the "Black Star' square, which is a huge open area overlooking the ocean with stands all around it. Odd thing is they only, only use it for their independance day bash, the rest of the year it sits empty collecting garbage. Thinking it would start like all other things do in Ghana (on Ghanaian time) we show up a "little" later and realize it had been over for an hour, there are still hundreds of people around, selling food and hanging out, so we take a seat in the shade of the stands. That evening on the university grounds there was a free outdoor concert, one of the singers was wearing a fishnet tank top in the colors of the Ghanaian flag. Don't worry vince i'm trying to find one like it so you can add it to your collection of fishnet tanks :)

Sunday, a bunch of us decided we needed some much needed rest and relaxation. We made our way to "La Palm" hotel/resort and after paying an entrance fee we set up camp arround the pool. La Palm is a very ritzy nice hotel. A couple of us had a little altercation with a cab driver trying to overcharge us and we were able to escape into the hotel with the security stopping the driver, he managed to get around them and find us by the pool, make a scene and than eventually left. One of the ritzy hotel guests decided we deserved a treat and sent us over a couple 30$ bottles of sparkling water and fresh fruit...oh life is difficult:)

This is our last week at the hospital, than we head to a polyclinc just on the outsquirts of Accra for 2 weeks and than a village for our last week. How time has flied! I am only at the hospital for 2 more days because I am going to an orphanage for the last bit of the week with another girl. I have finally started getting used to the Ghanaian ways at the hospital so I am sad to leave. We have an individual who was flown from sierra lion because they do not have a Neuro ward. The patients are amazing and love to chat (if they can), I have spent all my down time on the unit sitting and chatting with the patients. The patient are not allowed to leave the hospital before they have paid and this past week I saw this for the first time. I keep thinking in Canada if this were the case the patient would most likely just up and leave, however here they sit around in bed waiting for a family member to collect money and eventually come in and pay off the bill.

Mom I hope you dont' mind, I seem to be bringing home a bunch of the fellow nurses, they haven't given me a choice in the matter, saying "once we share food we are family". lol. Good thing we've got a couple empty rooms.... :)

I have been lacking on vegetable intake here, so we visited a local grocery store the other day..phil you think red peppers are expensive in Canada?... (1 CD = 90 cents canadian).

- #1 Daughter