Tamale

Lots of posts and pictures below as well; we were so busy for the last couple of days that it was impossible to get to all of the information and recognitions. so I have spent some time catching up.


After celebrating with Vida's family over a final dinner, we returned to the hotel and the power went out. This made the final packing rather exciting and I am still wondering if I have left anything important behind. Without air conditioning, the room was steaming hot, and of course, now that I know how much spiders prefer the warm temperatures, I couldn't help but wonder if there were any lurking nearby. We were planning to leave early this morning, 5:30, to catch another one of what I choose to call a 'yam' bus much like the one we took from Kumasi. Resigned to sweating all night, and again for a minimum of 2 and a half hours on a crowded bus, it was a wonderful surprise when Josbert and Cynthia pulled up with a man who was heading to Tamale in his very new, airconditioned security truck. For a fee of 30 cedi, we rode in style, had a chance to see the landscape up close and listen to local music on the radio. The driver was a bit fast, and a bit ruthless and one dead dog later we arrived in Tamale. (Jan, our dog lover, was asleep at the time, and I was glad she missed it as it was a pretty callous moment and she had a hard time watching the goats get vaccinated, the dog's demise would have been much worse!)

We arrived in Tamale at 8, and are currently in a pretty basic hotel, not nearly as comfortable as the Comme si Comme sa., but it is for 1 night, and then we are up early and at the bus again at 5:30. This will be a higher end bus, air conditioned so should be at least a little easier than the trip up. It will be long though, minimum 10 hours and I am learning that Ghanians like to tell you what you want to hear so if you ask how long the bus ride is, you will hear a positive response; they want you to be happy after all. It has taken me all this time to learn, don't ask:)

So, sadly, our Ghana experience is winding down. We'll be in Accra tomorrow night, spend Saturday getting ready for the flight home and then on the plane on Sunday evening. However, we do have Tamale to explore this afternoon. Apparently the food is much better here with more variety and the town is definitely attractive, lots of trees and quite green as more rain falls here than in Bolga. We will be going to visit the University of Developmental Studies and looking at some of their adult education programming as well as community development programs. Then dinner, bed, and a long journey tomorrow.

Off to explore the Tamale market too as once UDS is done, we are finished the obligatory visits. It is great to have all the speeches and presentations behind me and I will get to be a tourist for these last few days. I have led more discussions and made more presentations and speeches on this trip than I have in my entire life, so time to do a bit of travel and shopping...always a great way to come down from an intensive stretch of work.

Bye for now