I would like to start off with an apology, I am very sorry that it has taken me so long to let you know that I arrived safely in Ghana, and then Tafi Atome (the monkey sanctuary) a few days later. But please know that my excuse is valid and one that I would have preferred not be able to make. More on this later though......
Ghana.........Wow! What a wonderfully unique country! Over the past few days I have been thinking of what really makes Ghana stick out from the other countries I have visited and over and over again it has hit me: the people. The Ghanian people are some of the most caring and inviting people I have ever come across.
The airport is in the heart of Accra, Ghana, what seems to be a very typical busy third world city with its traffic, street vendors, smog, and greyness. I was welcomed at the airport by Becca, Mo (her traveling companion from Holland) and Samson (a Ghanian friend who lives in Accra), we hopped into Samson's car and he took us back to his home where we could all catch our breath from a hard journey (Becca and Mo had just returned from a desert tour in Burkina Faso). Samson, who will reappear in this blog later as an angel, spent the next day touring us around Accra and its surrounding countryside showing us the sites. I got my first taste of Ghanian food and rain forest at a Botanical garden perched at the top of a mountain that overlooks the city.
The next day Becca, Mo, and I set off via Tro-tro (picture a late eighties diesel Dodge Caravan jam-packed with humanity/poultry/goats.....all with luggage) for our new home, Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary. After a four or five hour journey and just as I was getting over the novelty of all that is a Tro-tro, we arrived. As I walked into the village I was struck by how real it all was, I had found myself walking through that edition of National Geographic that you read over and over again as a child, complete with stick houses, thatched roofs, and naked babies chasing chickens. HEAVEN!
Tafi Atome is small village with a population of approximately 1000. It is one village of hundreds that dot the landscape of the Volta Region of Ghana.
An interesting fact about this is that each village, even though only a few miles apart, has a completely different language that do not overlap and is not understood by anyone that isn't native to that particular village. When communicating with someone from another tribe they will use a more common dialect called "ewe" pronounced "eh-way" and then on top of this they speak english quite well. How many languages are you fluent in?
Back to Tafi, it is set in a very lush rain forest complete with palms and enormous cotton trees that have buttressed root systems (they fan out at the bottom and create big ridges). It is not uncommon for there to be a rain storm late in the afternoon to cool it down and for the nights to be clear with an amazing view of the stars. The weather isn't very far off from a Virginia summer day. It starts off right around 70 degrees, heats up to 85 or 90 and then cools down to a very pleasant 65 or 70 low. Humidity is slightly higher but not at all as bad as I expected (or heard from people in the past)
Upon arrival, we met the head guide Sylvester, another individual for whose generosity and sincerity cannot be captured with words, who showed us to our guest house and made sure that we had every comfort that he could possibly provide.
After sitting for some while and chatting Sylvester left us to settle in, unpack, and adjust to the new surroundings.
Over the next 4 days we were left to settle in and become acquainted with the village and the village's children in particular. It is apparently quite common in Ghana for workers to be given 5 to 7 days of relax time before they are allowed to become functional citizens.
Here comes the excuses....By morning 3, I was tired of lazing around so I decided it was a lovely morning for a run. I put in about a 10 or 15 kilometer run. By the time I had gotten back to the guest house the girls had risen and breakfast was ready ( I will post on our food later). We ate and decided that since it was market day we should check it out so we hopped in a taxi and went to the market. This was a very typical local market with any bit of hardware you would ever need: soap, dried meats, clothes, you name it and it was there. Very neat to see. After about an hour of walking around I start feeling ill so we decided to head back. For the next two days I watched what started as a small (but pretty deep) cut on my right shin (that I got the day before I left for Africa) turn into a large red painful mountain on my leg accompanied with a bad fever and various other flu symptoms. We went to a local nurse who cleaned the wound and prescribed a weak antibiotic pill. After another day of symptoms spiraling downward and not being able to walk on it anymore we decided it was best that I go have a real hospital take a look.It just so happened that on that same day our friend Samson and another were schedule to come to Taif for a visit, what they didnt know was that coming to Tafi to look at monkeys was really going to be a, take John to the hospital, visit. As I mentioned Samson's sainthood earlier, he did this and sooo much more without missing a beat. And even though he did not get to visit with a single monkey and had spend a two full days driving us around, he left us with a smile on his face and a promise to return. To make a long story short (which I must do because its getting dark and I have a four hour trek back home) they took one look at my leg and admitted me for the next 5 days with a strong I.V. antibiotic and daily thorough/painful cleaning. I was released 3 days ago with little to no infection and a gaping hole in my shin and am better off for having had the experience. I will post more on health care in third world countries and how five nights in a major hospital here is a better deal than two nights in the states at a low end hotel.
