A homestay, a waterfall, and a mountain...

My weekend was really good; Ghana is a beautiful country. We had a program trip that involved homestays in the town of Liati Wote which is by both one of Ghana's most beautiful waterfall, Tagbo Falls, and Ghanas tallest freestanding mountain, which we hiked this morning and was quite a hike. Ghana apparently doesn't believe in putting switchbacks in their trails, so the trail went practically straight up(and straight down which was more harrowing). It was a spectacular view from the top though! We could see the village down below and all the surrounding countryside. My pictures, as always, fail to give it justice.

We got to the village Saturday afternoon, were fed a delicious lunch, and then headed to the waterfall which really was spectacular although again my pictures failed to give it justice. Then we went back, met our host family. I stayed in a house with two other girls, and our host parents spoke rather patchy English but their son was in secondary school and he showed us around and I think showed us off a bit, introducing us to all of his friends. It was a pretty small village and Francis, the son, said one easily knew everyone. Saturday night they had a bonfire in the center of town for us, and traditional drumming and dancing. It was very festive, and while the dancers were good, my favorite people to watch were the children.

The hike this morning was, like I said, harrowing, and I am definitely sore from it. It took about an hour to get up, then we spent an hour at the summit, and then we hiked down again which was the hardest part and which we did at least in parts slipping and sliding...

Then the drive back which was uneventful; on the drive there our bus got a flat tire and the last stretch of road to Liati Wote, which was a dirt road full of potholes, seriously dented the bus and one could in places here the bottom scraping the ground which is never a good sound... actually, the road was there on the way out too, but Isaac, our driver, did a phenomenal job and once we finally made it to the pavement we all cheered.

It was a pretty mellow trip which was fun, full of natural beauty and not too much driving. Next weekend we are traveling to the north, and that will involve one day of twelve straight hours of driving... Still, it will hopefully be worth that much driving. Otherwise, class this week and I will hopefully get to go to Peace and Love Orphanage a couple times(I got baby barf on me last week.)

I don't think I blogged last week, so a quick overview of random highlights like discovering that their was a vegan/vegetarian vendor in the nearby night market where I buy all my meals(tofu burgers are a nice break from rice...) and American politics, I stayed up until three the night of the debate and then Friday went to the American embassy and gave them my absentee ballot to mail in(I was told it was more reliable than Ghanaian post, and I want my vote to count!) Go Obama! Truly, it is quite strange being so far away when so much is going on at home with the election and now the economy as well! Other highlights probably include baby barf(just the normal white goo) and getting to simply hold the baby(his name is Barack; the children named him after Barack Obama I do believe).

Oh, this actually is almost worth of a post unto itself, but I'll attach it on the end. Friday night I went with a friend to the school production which was Lysistrata by Aristophanes which is essentially a play about women going on a sex strike to make their husbands, the Athenians and Spartans, form a truce and the men's ensuing agony over this deprivation and eventual compliance, and being Aristophanes it was decidedly crude. Now Ghanaians seem like a very conservative culture, but on Friday the audience, and the outlandish things they said in response to the play(not conservative at all) were just as entertaining as the play. Even though I struggled to understand the actors much of the time, it was a truly entertaining, and interesting, cultural experience...