Pros: Volta & the West Coast; Cons: Schoolwork & Illness

Ah, well an update has been in order for quite some time, so unfortunately it will have lacking on the details..

About a month ago, I traveled with Jacob to the Volta region. We survived a hike straight up a mountain through an almost storybook jungle to a second waterfall above the well-visited Wli falls (rock scrambling and straight climbing all the way up). While Jacob and I sweated out our entire body weights and tried to control our legs made of jello, our guide, a young man of about 18 or so, practically ran at top speed in flip flops... Of course the journey was well well worth it. After a fierce tropical storm that night, the next few days took us to:1. an Ewe Kente weaving town called Tafi Aguipe, where almost every child above the age of 7 or 8 begins learning the village and family trade, some becoming master weavers (able to have an apprentice) by the age of 12 or so, 2. the town of Kpandu on Lake Volta where a fisherman gave us an early morning ride out to an island (just to check it out) and where we met and took shots of "Playboy" liquor (at 8 am) with relatives of the chief and got impromtu lessons of fish species from fisherman just returned with a catch. Also in Kpandu, we were befriended by the elderly caretaker of a lodge who the entire town treated as their grandfather - thus gaining some lively conversation and drinking partners, and feeling quickly and unusually at home. By and large, the Volta Region is one of my favorite places in Ghana. It is lush green, mountainous and people don't get too worked up about two random white people strolling through town.

A few weeks later, after some tests and group project work, Jacob, Leeanna and I traveled to the Western coast to spend a few days on the beach at Busua (near Takoradi) and to visit Kakum National Park, Elmina and Cape Coast (a second time for me). The beach at Busua is unusually trash-free and incredibly, unfathomably, overwheliming beautiful. We stayed at a partially constructed "lodge" in the shade of a grove of enormous trees - sleeping on foam pads under a mosquito net on a bamboo platform just a few feet from the water at high tide. That is, until a storm hit - catching Leeanna and I in the nearby village of Butre and Jacob contemplating whether to cross a raging river of sewage being swept out to sea in order to attend a also raging Easter Monday beach party. Also in Busua: an Easter street parade with brass instruments and hordes of children and three crazy dancing Oburonis, packs of surfers both foreign and Ghanaian, night swimming under a full moon, and an acute attack of food poisoning for me (that later turned out to likely be malaria) dealt with under full camping conditions (no toilet). The day after we returned, Jacob flew out to continue his journey to Ethiopia, Holland, Serbia and the Balkans... while I lay curled in fetal position on my bed, was treated for malaria after a Thursday night hospital visit, and gave a mediocre (to say the least) performance for a dance final on Sunday.

So here I am, three weeks from my departure date, feeling much much better and embarking the most challenging and onerous task so far - staying on campus to study for exams and actually do some school work. Love to all and I hope to add more to this entry as I remember good stories...