Halfway Point!

The longer I am here in Ghana, the harder it seems for me to post. I believe this is because I am getting used to daily life, that things have become mundane for me, which is helpful as far as assimilating but not quite so interesting. However, living with a family has really allowed me to learn about individuals, traditions and cultural differences; some things I'll never understand, but most I have accepted. At points I feel like the distinct difference between our cultures is where things are not beneficial to these people, but are practiced anyways, things that appear to be uncivilized by American standards...things like littering, kicking animals, beating children and crowding 3 lanes of cars on one lane's worth of road. That being said....
My host family is as nice and helpful as ever, they are always teaching me new things about life in Africa. Yesterday they let me try my hand at making fufu, which entails mashing cassava root with a very tall blunt stick. You really have to slam the thing down, but all the while, and woman is kneading the dough toward you, and I was so afraid of smashing her fingers I couldn't really commit to it. We had a fantastic little gathering last night, organized by Yotam, my fellow volunteer who departed this morning. We had chicken and beef with home-made barbecue sauce, pineapple kabobs, Isreali salad, and mashed potatoes. I also enjoyed a few beers. The drummers from our program also came, so we had good live music and good fun. A very nice send-off indeed. In fact, last week was all about send-offs, as 3 of the volunteers returned to their respective homes! So, I guess you could say the week was bittersweet, because I have been friends with these people, really leaning on them this whole time, and I am genuinely sad to see them go.
I suppose I should backtrack to some of the experiences we shared together here in Ghana, since I didn't update you our trip to Cape Coast. So, the weekend before last was our final trip together, and Ronnie, the program director took us to Cape Coast, a nice little town about 3 hours away. It would have been a much harder trip had we not had the disposal of our own tro tro. We spent Fri. night at a cute little beach resort, which also had cute little bungalows much like Kokrobite beach, and good food, and dancing. We chose not to stay the following night opting instead for an overnight venture to Kakum National Park. This is a rain forest really close to Cape Coast, that has all kinds of hiking trails and a huge suspension bridge. Our accomodations were 4 sided, open platforms covered by tin roofing (imagine a gazebo, of sorts) with mosquito nets and really smelly, really really used foam mats. We whiled away the evening with a candle-light sing-along, courtesy of Yotam's guitar. There were other members of the audience besides the Obronis, like giant black centipedes and enormous ants. It was incredible how loud the forest became after dark; we were surround by a constant hum of insects, birds, bats and God knows what other creatures. It was a high pitched drone that only ceased in volume with the advent of a midnight rainstorm. I have to say I slept well, under the circumstances, aside from being woken with a mean case of heart burn. Ever resourceful that I am, I carry Pepto Bismal everywhere I go, so I was able to relieve my woes.
The sad truth of this adventure is that we decided not to to the canopy bridge walk as it was quite expensive and rumored not to be worth it. Do I regret this now? Perhaps a little bit, but I have plenty of nature-centric options left for my next 3 weekends. We packed up early, headed back down towards Cape Coast, but stopped for lunch at the Hans Cottage Botel. Yes, I said Botel. It looked really nice, it was definitely Euro-styled hotel, a bit run-down, but the draw there was not the place, but the CROCODILES that live in the river surrounding the restaurant. You don't just get to see these fellas, you get to watch an old lady feed them and beat them back with a stick. They allow you to just stand on the grounds, right there with these crocs hanging around, no less than 15 feet away. Great photo ops. That was fun, and funny, although I wasn't feeling so hot. By the time we had left the Botel and gotten to our next destination, I was in no mood for touring, although this was something I couldn't miss. We visited Elmina Castle, which is the oldest extant European building in possibly all of Africa, built by the Portuguese in 1482. But that is not the real significance of this place...the historical fortitude of this fort was that it was the major slave-trading quarters for the Continent. Already feeling woozy, I felt a tremendous burden of tragedy and lack of focus during the tour of the underground dungeons where they kept human beings in total darkness without sanitation or fresh air. I believe being there added to my malaise, but I am glad I was able to see first hand how the ancestors of so many Americans began their sad journey.
The weekend ended pretty uneventfully, with a long, uncomfortable tro tro ride home. The rest of the week went by pretty much without a hitch, aside from the departure of our volunteers, one by one. The outreach went really well. The kids in this particular school were great, and very receptive, and make me look forward to really bearing down and working hard these last few weeks! Outreach for today begins in 15 minutes, so until next time!