Ghana bound!

I really don’t know what to expect from Ghana… I heard that it’s full of poverty and could possibly resemble Chennai, India—which would be interesting.  Accra, the city we’re going to is the largest city in Ghana with a population of almost 2 million people!  Just found out today too that our ship is actually porting in Tema which is a little North East of Accra of about 1 hr and nothing is really there worth exploring… which means that in order to actually explore off the ship we have to take the shuttle into Accra, which by the sounds of it is going to be somewhat of an inconvenience.  I believe the last shuttle runs at or maybe before midnight too, so if I want to stay out later than that it won’t be an option unless I find somewhere to crash for the night… but I’m thinking I’m gonna take it easy in Ghana, because to tell you the truth I’m getting pretty exhausted from all this traveling lol.  I’m also thinking that I’m going to do Ghana mostly by SAS trips, which is the complete opposite of what I’ve been doing, but I’m thinking a break of having to figure out travel plans will be nice before our last port, Brazil, where I’ll be traveling independently to Rio de Janeiro! Which will be a good last “hoo rah” before heading back to the US…

 

The first day in Ghana I think I’ll be heading into Accra with the girls to explore what it has to offer… maybe make up for some hiking that I wasn’t able to do in South Africa, but we’ll see. Don’t think we really have much of a plan for the day, which is okay, sometimes these turn into the best days!  The second day I’m doing a trip to the Accra Psychiatric Hospital for a class FDP. According to the description in the SAS Field Book, The World Health Organization has called attention to the abuse of the rights of the mentally ill in developing nations and specifically in Ghana, there has been a major effort to reform the system to protect the rights of patients while offering care. Here we’ll be able to observe such severely mentally ill patients in the hospital setting. Should be very interesting I think!

 

The third day, at the moment, I don’t have finalized plans for, but I’m gonna try to get on the Ananse Kwae trip, which consists of participating in a sustainable development project by planting seedlings in this tropical forest preservation in Mampong, in the beautiful scenic hills North East of Accra, apparently.  I guess we’ll be able to work side by side with Ghanaian university students. We’ll also be able to visit the Aburi Botanical Gardens, a “must see” in Ghana! Pretty much my game plan is to go to the buses in the morning to see if they have room… so I’m hoping they will!!! Don’t think I’m gonna make other plans lol, but I know of a lot of people that have been successful in doing this, so I have my fingers crossed! The fourth, and last day, I’m going to the village of Torgorme, which is located on the Volta River.  Here we’ll be immersed in the culture and will be participating in a naming ceremony in which we’ll all be given an African name, which I think is gonna be pretty neat! Our day is packed with pottery-making or weaving sessions and a tour through the Shai Hills Game Reserve, where we’ll be able to see a variety of different animals from antelope, monkeys and birds! Last but not least we get to visit some caves which we’ll be able to learn about the artifacts that have been found at the site and if we’re lucky we’ll be able to see bats too! I’m so pumped for this trip haha!!! I hope SAS won’t let me down!

 

1… more… month… :) <3 The countdown begins…