Run Run Run!

A few days ago I was woken up by the rooster at about 6am, which is a bit early. With not much to do until 8am, I decided I would be ambitious and head out for a run. It was a cool morning (about 28 degrees) so I strapped on my shoes, shorts and tank top and headed down the road. It must be quite an amusing site to see a Yevu run down the street in athletic clothes because every man, woman and child that I saw as I ran giggled and waved! I decided that running on the main street was a bit too intimidating so I headed down a back road towards the beach. Again, more pointing, waving and giggling! I must stop and admit that the run felt more like a slow painful death than a healthy form of exercise. It felt cool before I started running but the muggy heat and moist humidity made me realize that going for a run in Ghana is not like going for a run at home! Soooo, I ran to the lighthouse and headed back for home, only to get incredibly lost in a farmer's field along the way. Don't ask me how but back roads in small villages look like unbeaten paths. I stumbled upon a family and asked where the CCS house was from here and although they all giggled at the lost foreigner, they sent their smallest child to run me back to the house. The girl must not have been more than 6 years old but she navigated us through 10 foot tall grass, around termite hills and past the local goat watering hole. I thanked her and she giggled and ran back into the grass... I may attempt again but we'll see!

We had an enormous storm the other night! The first rain since I arrived here! I woke up to what sounded like a machine gun going off! The roof of our small room is made of corrugated tin and grass so with a huge rainstorm, you can hardly hear yourself yell across the room because the rain on the tin roof is deafening. I personally had never experienced winds like that and when I woke up the Aussie to tell her that I thought there was a hurricane outside, she laughed and laughed and LAUGHED at me! Apparently I have not experienced a tropical storm in which rooves blow off and all the animals hide from the insane winds. She'd better stop making fun of me, though, cause I'm her only Gigga Picker around!

As I said in the first post, we are in Ho. It is definitely a city and definitely weird to see cars, street lights, Western style clothing, and cafes! It's not a city like home, though, as there are no beaming restaurants or distinguished places to dine/cafe. It's amazing how little time it takes to become accustomed to few possessions and ammenities. All the Woe volunteers agreed last night that we were homesick: not for our real homes in Canada, the US, etc, but for our small fishing village! Strange, isn't it? I enjoy not having city noise, bussling shoppers and horns beeping incessantly. There aren't any children running around here like there is in Woe because it's a city and in the cities, no one just lets their children run around like they do in rural areas. Sometimes we will have villager's children for hours and hours before they go home with no worries but as you can imagine, it's different in the city.

Tomorrow, most of the group is going to Cape Coast. It's a slave trade castle and quite the amazing area to visit from what I hear. I am going as well but the Aussie and I have decided not to go with the tour guide because it is a complete rip off. So we are choosing to be adventurous travellers and not complacent tourists! We will get to the tro-tro station in the morning and head to Accra. There, we will get on another tro-tro and head to Cape Coast, check into a hotel and take sight of the area. We'll stay there for two nights (Friday and Saturday) and head back to Accra on Sunday to stop off at a supermarket called Koala's. It's the only Western style supermarket in Ghana so we're excited to find chocolate, whole wheat bread, crackers and a few other things we miss from home. I have to say that I don't miss too much from home except for: milk (there is NONE in Ghana except for UHT), carrots, Heinz ketchup, whole wheat bread (the bread here is rice flour and is really sweet), and MEAT! Every so often we get chicken but I do miss the odd hamburger, steak or pork chop. That's about it for foods that I miss!

I do have to get going, however, as we've been at the internet for quite some time. I will hopefully get to an internet station in Accra on Sunday so you can expect an update relatively soon. Thanks again for reading and keeping up on my adventures! I miss everyone tons (don't think I've forgotten about you!) Talk to you soon,

Kelsey

P.S. the address can be found in the comments section thanks to Derek! ;)