Happy New Year!

So where to start? So much has happened since the last time I posted. I suppose the beginning is a good place.

I left for Ouaga the 14th of December. I closed my windows, and threw a sheet over my bookshelves in hopes of keeping the dust away. I said goodbye to my neighbors and started the hike to the bus station. Some people on the street thought that I was gone for good, and I had to stop to explain that I would return in January.

The mood at the transit house in Ouaga was great. Volunteers who haven't seen each other for 3 months were reunited. Every time the gate opened there was a "HEY! How are you! It's been so long!". I would compare it to watching people at an airport reunited with their families after a long trip. We all went out to dinner to celebrate the reunion.

Training started the next day. We had four days of it altogether. Training.

The first day we were in the conference room for 11 hours.

I used the lunches to scramble over to the Ghanaian embassy to work out my travel visa.

Training.

Training ended on Friday. We stopped early, perhaps to make up for the more grueling sessions earlier in the week. There was lots of time set aside for things like "group discussion and reflection". We decided unanimously that we could discuss and reflect over beers that evening if we felt so inclined. Several of us did.

Fast forward through 3 days of perfect, perfect, relaxing nothing and I was at the bus station. The bus was air conditioned, and the 24 hour ride was rather uneventful save for a woman who actually shook the back of my seat when I tried to lean back about 18 hours in to the trip. I calmly stated in my best "tired after 18 hours on a bus French" that it was the middle of the night, I had paid for my seat, and would do whatever I damn well please with it. I left out the part about, "if you pulled that on Greyhound...".

We arrived in Accra in the early morning hours, and caught yet another bus to Takoradi (about 6 hours). From there we took a cab (1 hour) to beautiful Busua Beach. I realized that I had forgotten my shorts in Ouaga, so I made some cut offs out of a pair of khakis. The sea welcomed me with open arms.

Our stay in Busua was perfect, save for the fact that it was far too short. Leslie Otto, a fellow volunteer asked me how long I'd like to stay the next time I go. I told her, "Two, maybe three years". The cost of living in Ghana is incredibly low, despite the level of development. Burkina is landlocked, so everything has to be shipped overland in to Ouaga, and then redistributed thereafter. This drives the cost of goods through the roof.

The place was touristy to the point that I really felt I was on vacation. Though not so much that it became tacky. Most other people there were young volunteers from various countries, with the occasional odd German couple riding their tricked out BMW motorcycles across the continent.

We left Busua feeling refreshed, and pushed on. We had planned to take a ferry from the village of Akosombo up Lake Volta, thus cutting the bus trip in half. When we arrived in Akosombo however, we found that the ferry doesn't run during the holidays. We found a cheap, yet clean and very comfortable hostel, and stayed the night.

Akosombo didn't feel like Africa in the least, at least what I've come to know of it. Here we've got a small community situated in a rolling jungle, next to an enormous lake. There were streets with 4 or 5 ranch style houses with driveways, garages, and even lawns. We're not in Kansas anymore.

We rose at around 4am to catch a tro-tro (small bus stuffed full of people) to Kumasi. We arrived in Kumasi just in time to not catch the bus that wasn't leaving for Ouaga that day. Good thing we got up so early. Thankfully we were able to find a bus that departed that evening, saving us a nights stay in Kumasi. We were thoroughly exhausted at this point and slept at the bus station. We did get to explore the market a bit in Kumasi, though we were so tired that elbowing our way through the narrow market streets became a bit much.

We did finally make it back to Ouaga, and without one nervous breakdown (if you ever want a solid travel companion, look no further than the Peace Corps). Though I did find myself getting a bit short with the cab drivers at the bus station. As usual, I was given a ridiculous price (to be fair, my baggage and tan screamed tourist). Eventually we found someone slightly less ridiculous. We were just happy to be done with all the cars, tro-tros, and busses.

I wish I had more photos to post, but I had difficulty charging my camera as Ghana has UK style outlets, and the adapter I have is French. C'est la vie. Go to Busua.

Which leads me on to NYE. A good time was had by all. We bounced around Ouaga, drank a bit much, and ended up at a small kiosk drinking beer and listening to blues music (yes, blues music)until the sun came up.

This has been a monster of a post. I wish everyone health and prosperity in 2010!