ADVENTURES IN BEING AGGIE: April 2012

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.