The Adventure Begins...

It is hard to believe that it has already been a week since I arrived in Ghana and almost two weeks since I left Van Isle. Since that leaving I’ve reconnected with an old (as in long time ago – we are not ‘old’) classmate from Acadia, travelled to Ghana, reconnected with friends and colleagues here, and travelled through four different regions (i.e., provinces) of the country!

As noted the adventure started in Seattle where I met up with Andrea and her family for a couple of days. This was a great send off as I got to participate in their Seder dinner – a Jewish tradition to mark the start of Passover – and to check out the Pike Place Market (Andi I’m still dreaming of those pain au chocolat!). As trite as it is to say… it was like I had seen her just yesterday and despite all the living we’ve done since graduating in ’99 (OMG) we are in essence the same people! Her daughters are lovely and her husband Herbie is a riot! Andi was busy complaining that I was heading off to Ghana and Herbie was off to Kenya and she had to stay home… oh well perhaps next time! J

The decision to fly from Seattle was driven by the $400/ticket saving over flying from Vancouver ($300 when you factor in the cost of getting to Seattle). From a travel perspective I would rather hang at YVR than SeaTac but its not worth $300 to do so!

Jay Eating the Tilapia Head!

I’ve been in Ghana for just over a week now and it seems that I’ve been on the road for most of it. I hung out in Accra for a couple of days waiting for students to arrive and took the opportunity to meet up with my friend and collogue Donna Sheppard (NCRC/Calgary Zoo) and eat some great Ghanaian food! I haven’t seen Donna since hanging out in Nairobi last spring so there was a lot of catching up to do! We also hung out at Duncan’s in Osu (area of Accra) where my student Jay got her first taste of Ghana – Banku and Tilapia!

Fufu with Groundnut Soup & Goat

Once Brianne and Ashley arrived (11^th) we quickly headed out of Accra to the Palm Hills Hotel in Akropong – a place I stayed with my mom 2 years ago! J Bri and Ash got right back into Ghana life with a bowl of fufu and cows feet for dinner! Jay jumped into the fray and we all ended up having fufu and groundnut soup for lunch the next day!

After a short stay in Sunyani it was off to Mole and Larabanga where we had a short visit with Ibn (local Assemblyman) before heading to Tamale. Of course before leaving Mole we had to take a safari walk. It was one of the best that I had taken with a lot of interpretation provided by Adam and animals doing different things. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Amanda Moore at Mole National Park

Checking out the elephant diet...through poo!

Looking like Jane of the Jungle at Mole!

Termite Mound

Elephant teeth

Bush Buck

Wart Hog Parade!

Bush Buck with deformed horn

Elephant blowing bubbles

The next adventure...

The spring semester at Vancouver Island University is quickly drawing to a close and that means that preparation for my next adventure is ramping up! This year's adventure will start off with a couple of days in Seattle as I catch-up with an old university pal from Acadia (Andrea B) before meeting up with a student and heading off to Ghana.

I am really excited about this year's trip to Ghana as I will be there for 15 weeks - that's almost 4 months! This year we're doing some really cool research into the gendered nature of daily life in a northern community, we continuing our investigation of residents' perceptions of the benefits and sacrifices of their community-based conservation area, and we will be helping a community define their vision of tourism development! Of course I'm also getting to work with some amazing folks in a country that I've come to love!!

General outline of the trip so far:

April 5 - 7: Seattle - catching up and likely drinking too much wine! ;)

April 7 to May 1: Preliminary data collection and analysis on a project focusing on the Gendered Nature of Daily life in a Northern Ghanaian Community.

May 5 - May 22: Investigating the residents' perceptions of the benefits and sacrifices of the Wechiau Community Hippo Sanctuary!

May 25 - June 30 - Working with the community of Larabanga to develop a vision for tourism development within the community.

July 1 - CANADA DAY!!!

July 2 - 10 - Wrapping things up with students, checking out Cape Coast, and debriefing.

July 11 - 17... I'm free in Ghana without plans yet...beach time? Volta region? Who knows!!

Hope you'll join me for this next adventure.

Aggie

The Up-Date!

It has been a long time since I last posted to my blog and a lot has occurred since I returned from Africa in July! The two-second version of life up to December 12…hit the Nairobi, Kenya airport only to discover my ticket had been cancelled! I put to use my mad-skills (okay beginner/average) at negotiation and not only got on the plane but also got an up-grade! In London I managed to get a flight to Vancouver (BA claimed that it was my travel agent’s issue – NOT SO MUCH!) but also ended up with a 9-hour layover in London…that means hitting the town!

In London I chose to suspend all understanding of exchange rates and viewed all prices in dollars (silly I know!!!) versus doing the mental math to convert to pounds. Anyway – I had enough time to check out Hyde Park (background for many a romance novel), Buckingham Place (no architectural awards there), Westminster Abby, Big Ben, and Trafalgar Square (which was set up for the Harry Potter movie premier!!!). All in all the day was bloody brilliant – I could have done without the massive rainstorm however, as it emphasized the temperature difference and resulted in me having to buy dry clothing at the AIRPORT!!!

Days after returning to Canada I was off again on a whirlwind road trip with my dad. Now many of you will know that his health isn’t that great and the road trip really worked to emphasize that for me! Just three years ago we were camping our way through Northern BC and the Yukon – this year we motelled the entire way and really didn’t do much beyond seeing the sites along the road. The major exceptions to that: We went to an Edmonton – Vancouver football game in Edmonton, we visited the Royal Tyrell Museum near Drumheller, of course we hit Bass Pro near Calgary, and then a quick stop at Tija and Christine’s in Okotoks! From there it was off to Vulcan (shopped for Cam), then Head Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, and then we headed off to the US! Our trip through the upper US (Montana, Idaho, Washington) was beautiful (highway 2 the whole way). My favorite locations were driving through Glacier National park and Libby Montana!!

The trip ended with another football game in Vancouver – Esks vs Lions again! Gill, Less, Nolan, Dawson, and Helen joined us and it was a great way to end the trip. I sent Dad and Helen to the ferry in a cab and then headed off to Janay’s to celebrate Analise’s birthday – I can’t believe she’s four!

The rest of the summer was split between trips to the west coast, going back to work, and the start of our new Master of Arts in Sustainable Leisure Management!! It was totally stressful but really cool to be part of a new program launch! The fall was a nutty time of teach 4 ½ classes, trying to recover from the anemia that resulted from having Malaria, and really adjusting to living back in Deep Bay…with my parents and my grandmother (1 month) who had knee replacement surgery!

End all that chaos and your caught up on the adventure…oh yeah! I made 3 trips to Vancouver (one to a Whitecaps game, one to visit Laura at UBC, and one to support my students who presented at a conference), one more trip to gravel pit for thanksgiving, and a final trip to the west coast for Jon and James’ wedding!!! Now that your are caught up you may want to check out the next post…it’s about the two week vacation I just spent in the State of Hawaii!

Some pics from the road trip!