The wedding project of Winnie and Cliff

We got up at 6a,m and met at the restaurant for the walking Safari. It was nice weather and we were hoping see some elephant. Too bad, we only saw one in the water. He is wounded. This is the mating season now, and so male elephant fights. This one apparently lost the battle and got hurt at the back behind his ears. He has been in the water for a week. The water helps to keep the insects and flies away from his wound. But he did not have enough food, elephants need to spend 16 hours eating every day. It needs to eat 5% of his body weight. Hopefully, he will get better.

Well,  in the walking safari , we went into  baboons, some birds, cobs. Nothing interesting. We wanted to see more elephant. I think Elephant is one of the coolest animals in the world.

After the safari, we came back for breakfast and then order for our lunch. ( it takes about an hour or 2 for them to prepare) Then, we kinda hang out and tried to switch room. Our AC was not working in our room last night. So I woke up at2amand found myself sweating like crazy. I could not sleep. The fan was on the other side of the room which our bed don’t get anything. So I made Cliff get up and move the bed close to the fan. I got some wind and finally was able to sleep. So I need either the AC or the bed underneath the fan.  So, after all the hustles, it was already lunch time. We had lunch at2pm,and then went to the museum at3pm. We ran into a group who want to rent a jeep for the Safari at afternoon. We were able to hop in the ride with them. It was fun. All 9 of us sat on top of the jeep, it was crazy.  We get to se e ore cobs, waterbuck and bush buck but still., we only saw one elephant. The wounded one.

We had an ok dinner and went to bed early. Tomorrow our group decided to do a jeep ride safari rather than walking.  There will be 11 of us.

Checked out the Ex-Tee hotel and left forMoleNational park. We left around9amand arrived at around5pm.  The road was so bad, i think the bus needs a new shock after this trip. When we get to the park ,  they had water from5to8pm( not always) so we jumped into the shower immediately . After half an hour, I think they stopped the water. So we were lucky to have the half a hour water. Dinner at the restaurant and ready for the Safari tomorrow.

We went by Gungabisi where is the first village to receive a well in 2008. This is the well which was hand digged. Lunch at Swap. Walk around the market.

Went by Rahsed ‘s village and get to meet his mom. We have her a female goat , which hopefully she can breed ore baby goats. Dinner at sand’s garden.

Pack because we will be heading to the Mole park for 3 days 2 nights trip

Travel to Tongo hillswhjich is about one house from Bolga. This is thewell that will be funded by Forest Grove Shiega.  It looks like a very big community.  They handed some filter straws to some of the men and mosquito nets to the women with kids. Some men got very upset as they did not get the nets. Afterrwards, we went to the Chief’s house and this chief has 18 wives and unknown number of kids.  His house has solar light satellite and he owns an Audi. What a life for this chief. While walking to the bus, we passed by a lot of rocks. One of the big boulder is used as a school site in 1950’s.

Afterwards, we headed to a restaurant called Swap. They have all kinds of food , range from pizza, to curry. It is very good.  After that, we went back to the hotel and freshened up.

The well contractor Robert has invited us to go to his house for dinner. It was very close to our hotel. He has a very nice house. High wall with spike wires. I think he owns like 3 cars. The table was setup when we arrived and it has all kinds of liquor available. People had their month wide opened when they saw that.  On top of the alcohol , they have the buffet food style ready. Food was delicious. After the dinner, everyone started dancing. It was a fun night.

An half activity day for us. After the breakfast, we were told that today it’s a free day so we can do whatever we want and come back by5 pm for dinner at the hotel. While we went back to the market and get my dress alternate, we got a call from Rashed at12:15pmsaying, we need to be back by1pm.We have some activities to do. So we rushed back while we were still waiting for the dress and doing some shopping, we came by at1pm. Then they said, it has been moved to2pm because no one is back. After another hour, they move it to3pm because not everyone is back to the hotel.  We did not leave the hotel as a group until 4. We made plans already as we were told there is no activity for today. Then we were rushed back to the hotel and waited for 3 hours for nothing. That was not cool. When I travel with a tour guide before, once the schedule is announce for that day, there is not Last MINUTE change. Anyway, we got over it. I don’t these people are still new to the tour guide business. I am sure they will do better next time.  So we headed to the Paga crocodile pond and went by the Burkio Faso border. We get to take a quick picture from the other side of the border to Ghana.

After the border, we went by the Paga crocodile pond where people believe these are sacred crocodile and they don’t bite. We bought a chicken and got one of the old crocs came to the shore. The people made the croc stopped and let us hold his tail for picture. Each camera was 2CeDi and entry fee was 7CeDi. This is a rip off!! Anyway, we took some photos and headed back to hotel for dinner.

We left Techiman and traveled to the drySahelregion of Bolgatanga where are clean water well projects are located about 6 hour travel day.  We got to Bolga at3pm and went and got out dress and suit made for the wedding tomorrow. We checked into the Ex-teeCrystalhotel where the sink is bigger and we will spend about 5 nights here. Two people in our group get to ride on the motorcycle Rashed’s friend has. It’s about $2200 CD to import it fromChinaand 1 license plate is needed for all others.  It’s our wedding’s eve. I did not realize that until John mentioned it. We lose track of the time while we are inAfrica. Therefore, we have to prepare for our vows tomorrow. I want to make it little special but simple. We don’t have much expectation on where we are and who we with. We only care about the moment when we exchange vows. Dresses, environment, witnesses, flowers or no flowers, weather…. They don’t matter!!

Thanks everyone for the blessing.

Winnie & Cliff

We had the breakfast and headed to Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary.  We bought peanuts to feed the monkeys. They are mainly Columbus and Mona. It was cool to feed and they are god to the village people. When the monkey dies, it won’t die in the bush. It will die in an open area. Therefore, when the village people found them dead, they will put them in casket and have a funeral for them. Very interesting.  After that, we went to Buoyem. A twon with caves and hiking trail that overlook Techiman. Unfortunately, no one is able to go to the caves due to reports of bees attacking people in that area. Some hiked to see Africa Rock, mostly-abandoned reptile exhibit with Cros & tortises and water fall. Because cliff ‘s eye area has some kind of infection which we were trying to treat it with over the counter medicine. We decided to go to the hospital and get the doctor it look at. InGhana, you have to wait for a long time for hospital because there are so many people got sick, sometimes you have to wait in days. Rashed went with us and was able to get us in the front of the line and coincidentally, the doctor is his brother from village that they went to school together. They have lost contact and it happens that they found each other in the hospital here. 😛   Anyway, the doctor gave Cliff some antibiotic tablets and cream. Hopefully  the infection will go away soon. J

On the way back from the Monkey place, we saw a car accident and the taxi has flipped and crashed to the side of the road.  It happened that we saw some of the victim there at the hospital waiting to get help. But it was about 2 or 3 hours after the accident has happened. They are still trying to queue to see the doctor( We didn’t cut in front of them. They came after we finished while we were waiting for medicine.) Anyway, we felt bad for them.  Hopefully they will get well soon.

Finally get to eat at3pmand the restaurant at the hotel was good!! Before dinner, we went around in town to the market , it was very nice.

We left Akosombo and traveled by bus to Techiman. It was long ride for about 8 hours. We knew we would get caught in traffic for the town in between, so we left at8am. Cliff’s eye is still kinda swollen, I think he might get an infection. So we bought some Penicillin cream.( They don’t have anti-biotic)

We passed by a few towns and stopped a few times for EMERGENCY Toilet stops. Haha , I don’t think anyone is used to the food here. No one has anything serious. But, we found that it is a cjallenge to find toilet and with flushing water. The toilet was awfully smelly and full of flies. But we all have to go.  It was quite an experience. One of the crew member , he is a professional photographer saw our face when we came out of the toilet. He was making fun of me for having that facial expression when I came out. 😛 Anyway, we got over that. So we are all good now. Everyone is happy and excited to move on to another town.  This t we are at,Kumasi, is the second busiest city inGhana. It is very civilized and developed. I saw kids who went to school with uniform,  the houses there were very nice.

When we get to the EnCom hotel at Techiman, we walked around and found some medicine for cliff. The dinner was fabulous. Anyway, we get to walk around to see the night lives before dinner.