May 19, 2013 - Family Man

In the morning, I leave for Tamale to meet up with my contacts out there but until then, Its family man time. I must admit, it feels a bit weird to be the youngest boy in the gang. Hanging out with these old bloods got me thinking bout the value of a man of principle. Its weird listening to stories of life in their young'in era versus life in my young'in era. It feels as though im the crazy one jumping and globe trotting where as in reality, im like a saint. I brought up my desire to travel to Ivory coast which landed me the title of an...

May 17, 2013 - Pride

What is the value of the word pride? On the flight to Ghana, I sat next to a guy on the flight who while filling out his immigration and custom forms, said to me, "i feel like writing "Proudly Ghanaian" in the nationality box."Perplexed by why he thought he was "Proudly Ghanaian," I had a conversation with him. As it turned out, he was a freshman in a college in Boston, visited Ghana every summer for 3 months, had a girl he was dating that he hadnt seen in 7 years ad live in South Africa for 2 years before going to Boston. I asked myself...

May 13, 2013 - Random Thoughts

What does it mean when we the people of the Republic of Ghana say we are a nation advancing rapidly in development. It seems to me that we do not need development but rather, we need a change in our mentality and corruption culture. We need a change in the way we govern and run our public sector. It seems to me that after 5 years, the gap between the poor and the rich has gotten bigger and the rate of unemployment has increased. I believe that the government and the people have an equal role to play in this demise. The government; We elect...

May 13, 2013 - Leaving Accra, Ghana

Monday 13th May, 2013 Accra, Ghana Today is our last day in West Africa and we have to pack our bags after 11 weeks here in this part of the world. It was hot this morning and we visited the internet café to post the blog and check into our flight this evening at 8.45pm. We did some final shopping and then packed our bags, after which we went out for the final time to try and cash the Guinea Francs (unsuccessfully). Back for a small lunch and then chatted to the people still left at the hotel. We got a taxi to the airport at around 4pm and...

May 12, 2013 - A-C-C-R-A

Home sweet home. They say that there is no place like home. Indeed, there is no place in the world like where one grew up in or where one calls home. It still feels like one of those dreams that you never want to wake up from. I must admit, leaving NY for Ghana was not as easy as I expected it to be. Hours before the plane began boarding, i started getting cold feet out of fear that I might not feel at home in my own home. I had fears that it would be a challenge to fit back into the very society the molded and made me who I am today. These...

May 12, 2013 - Togo back to Accra

Thursday 9th May, 2013 Grand Popo, Benin to Agbodrafo, Togo Set off today after breakfast at around 9am from our pleasant auberge by the sea for the Benin/Togo border about 10-15km away and after stopping at the bank for some people to get money and the border formalities and changing our watches back one hour once we were into Togo, it was only a short drive to our auberge by the lake (Lake Togo) where we were camping. Again however we decided to upgrade to a room (most definitely not as nice as the previous two nights) and we then had a...

Apr 22, 2013 - Yamassoukrou, Cote d'Ivoire to Accra, Ghana

Tuesday 16th April, 2013 Yamoussoukro to Grand Bassam, Cote d’Ivoire This morning we had breakfast in the hotel in Yamoussoukro and then we had to erect the tents in the parking area of the hotel before we left, so they would dry after our wet morning of a few days ago, otherwise they could get mouldy. After that had been achieved, we drove across the city to do a guided tour of the Basilica of Notre Dame. This building would have to be the most amazing man-made construction we have seen in Africa – apart from the Egyptian and Sudanese...

Apr 15, 2013 - Takoradi, Ghana

Day two of captivity. Bummer!! Sean had another episode this morning, so we’re definitely going to be stuck in quarantine today too. Rats! Back to the mostly rice & bananas diet for the day. I watched from our window as everyone was loading up the buses for the all-day excursions. I wanted to see if the people we'd been with the night before getting sick were all ok. Luckily I saw everyone head out. Patri & Dayo were signalling with me to ask if I was coming on the tours. I was having to mime that we weren't allowed. We both would have...

Apr 11, 2013 - Accra, Ghana & boarding the ship.

After a quick breakfast & rearranging our bags for the cruise, we were picked up for the day. We thought is was best to have the luggage with us while sightseeing for the day so that we wouldn’t have to go back to the hotel. Our driver Ibrahim took us to the monument, burial place, & museum of Kwame Nkrume, the first President of Ghana after independence. We had our first ever "celebrity" experience when a group of school kids at the monument wanted to take photos with us. We thought at first they just wanted us to take their photos, but...

Sep 23, 2012 - Hookworm

HOOKWORM It began during my trip to Accra to attend a funeral. The funeral of my good friend Nana’s senior sister. We headed in on Thursday, a day late for him. Family meetings were in full swing as we arrived. We stay with Kwame, a 37 year old childfree bachelor—unheard of in Ghana. The childfree movement has not caught on here at all. Kwame believes the U.S. has been robbing and stealing voraciously and he’s pissed that we killed Quadaffi. In the morning I prepare for funeral in part by trimming my toenails. As I have only been wearing...

Feb 2, 2012 - The Kiterunners

Hey Everybody, Entertainment Here in Africa the children rarely have toys. The kids entertain themselves by using refuse to have fun. For example kids run through the red dust covered streets rolling a used bicycle or motobike tire. Some times they use a stick and sometimes they use their hands to propel the rubber. The kids also find used jerry cans and use them as sleds to ride down a small hill. My favourite toy that the African children play with is the kite. The children patch together a kite from sticks, some paper and a string. The...

Jan 18, 2012 - Mole National Park

Hey Everyone, I wanted to share with everyone some of the highlights of my trip to Mole National Park. Naughty Monkeys I was staying at the Mole Motel in Mole National Park. Mole National Park is the top destination to go to in Ghana to see wildlife. The motel has a troop of baboons who congregate there. The baboons range in size and age, but they all seem to have one thing in common. They like to steal food and get into trouble. One of the baboons who was carrying a baby, snuck up on an unsuspecting patron who was having lunch. The baboon...