the last little while...

Life has been a crazy whirlwind these past few weeks. All of the traveling we have been doing mixed with midterms and papers building up has made time fly by. We were just talking about the fact that exactly a month from two days ago, we fly out...in one month (the 15th of December) I will be home, in cold Michigan, sitting somewhere trying to warm myself with tea. There's so many things about being home that I look forward to...in many respects I'm anxious to get home, but I know that as soon as I get home I will be anxious to come back here, so I'm trying to slow down, relax, and enjoy my last few weeks in West Africa.
Our travels so far have been numerous, a few weeks ago we spent a week in the northern region. We stayed in Tamale for a few days (where we rented bicycles and rode around the town...I LOVED it) and drove all the way up to Bolgatanga and Paga (where we saw the Burkina Faso border) to see some development projects. We also spent a few nights in Yendi, which was by far my favorite place in Ghana so far. I loved Yendi because of its remoteness...people in Accra are aggressive and you must constantly be on your guard, I found people in Yendi to be much friendlier and gentler. It was nice to get a break from all the stress of city life. We also spent one night in Mole national park where we went on a safari hike. I got stuck in the not-so-luck group of hikers. While most of my classmates were chased by elephants, we only saw antelope and some monkeys...perhaps the most exciting part of our hike was getting to travel off the beaten path and walk through a few tropical rivers and elephant dung...
The next weekend (or soon after) we all traveled up to Cape Coast where we stayed in small bungaloes right off a rocky beach. I thought I could just sit there for hours watching the waves crash into the rocks. It was amazing. We visited some slave castles there and went to Kakum National Park where we took a canopy tour of the rain forest. I loved Cape Coast! A few of us girls went back the very next weekend with Lydia before she had to go back to the states. The second time around was all inclusive with the most amazing breakfast I've eaten in Ghana, a sandy beach with palm trees, and skinny dipping in the ocean in the middle of the night. Oh the memories.
Last weekend we went to the Volta Region (eastern Ghana) where we stayed in a town called Ho (thats right, it was called Ho). On Saturday we tro-tro'd up to Wli Falls and hiked out to see one of the nicest water falls in the country. It was beautiful, the only thing that could have made it better would have been the lack of a hundred or so other Ghanaian tourists. I think it was a class trip of some sort, I guess we went on a bad day.
We are leaving for Kumasi this coming Monday and two weeks from this week we will be heading off for our own personal travels in West Africa. The group has split up into a few sub-groups traveling to different areas...Sam, Jordan, and I are attempting Timbuktu (which is said to be 3+ days travel away). So basically, if we're lucky we'll get all the necessary visa's (one to Burkina Faso and one to Mali) and then if everything goes as planned, we will get to Mali in three days, stay there for three days, and get back in three days...if we're unlucky, hopefully we will make it to Timbuktu at least in time to spend the night there before we have to turn around. It will be an adventure...but at the end, we will get to see the Sahara. Wish me luck.