Hey, it's me after a long journey to the northern and central regions of Ghana. For anyone who is ever traveling here know that i have never known more pot holes to be in a road in my life! And we were the lucky ones traveling in a bus. THere are things here called tro-tros which are basically modified vans to fit 2-3 times as many people as originally possible which are people's main mode of transportation around Ghana (outside of the taxis which are more in the cities). Anyways, we had air conditioning and room to move, thank you Dr. Digre!

So the trip up to Mole took 5 hours the first day and about 10 the next. We stopped along the way in Kumasi (the biggest city in Ghana) which we'd return to after out trip.

Mole is not pronounced like the animal, but rather the "e" sounds like a long "a". So, after the long bumpy, dirty road journey we made it to Mole National Park. The hotel which is in the park overlooks two waterholes from the poolside viewing area. In the morning we took a walking Safari and say crocadiles, many members of the gazelle family (bush buck, kob...), and elephants! I think i officially have about 50 or so pictures of them. I am in AFRICA and the Elephants made it final

Later back at the hotel we had a huge group of baboons come around looking for stuff to take. They flanked us by the pool and got a purse, but we were able to scare them into dropping it. They were absolulutely hysterical to watch!

Then in the evening we played soccer against a local team and with some help from a few Mole boys we were able to acutally win the match (first time since Elon started playing them). All of the people were great about it as we admitted that under normal circumstances they would have kicked out butts. ps. half was through the match we had warthogs running onto the field :)

That night a bunch of the guys we played came up to the hotel and we all celebrated a girl on the trip's birthday. It was fun chatting it up on such a casual level as we all asked questions back and forth. They were all our or older age, but there's something in the way that we age that makes us look a lot older in comparsion for some reason. Anyway we danced, drank, and chatted the night away!

Well after that we took to long drive back to Kumasi for some uneventful days of delayed buses (it broke down for about 2-3 hours on the way back from Mole), museum trips (which i wont bore you on their details. They were great for me, but i know you dont want to hear history things), and lounging by the pool.

After that we headed for the coast the the Coconut Grove Beach Resort which was seated right on the shorline. Complete with an outdoor resaurant/bar, volleyball, ocean, and pool it was toursit heaven.

During the day we went through the fishing villages to Elmina and Cape Coast castles where slaves were housed before sending them off to the Americas and Europe. It was intense seeing rooms with no light, no sanitation, and no bigger than a classroom meant to hold hundreds of people. I can't imagine the horrors that went on there, and the clean walls of today do not do it justice. On top of that the scenes from the top of the forts were so beautiful it was hard to imagine anything happening there to the degree of what the tour guide described. I will save you all the stories, but know that treating anyone as anything less than human is the absolute worst thing our species has done through time.

On a lighter note... we went to the opening match of the African Cup of Nations on Sunday evening and it was AMAZING! The opening ceremony was like a giant durbar only more chaotic complete with drumps and dancers and chiefs! all comeing to gether to make music and african symbols out of their bodies on the field. I even got to see the President of Ghana Speak. Then anyone who saw the game can be jealous as Ghana scored the game winning kick in the 45th minute of the 2nd half!! The crowd went insane! Well Guinea wasn't so happy, but they were dancing the whole time anyhow and not paying attention (the group in front of us were anyhow).

well i may add more about some cutural/ intersting things i have found while here, but as for now i have to go to the south african embassy to pick up my passport. Peace and Love everyone back home and i miss you guys terribly.

Ps. check out the photos when you get a chance.. although they don't do any of it justice!