Backpacking...

So this past weekend, my friend Emily and I decided to get away from Accra and go explore the Volta Region which is the eastern region next to the Togolese border. It is one of the most beautiful areas of Ghana I have been to and host to many community based ecotourism sites. Community based ecotourism is a great way to go, for some of the villages are next to amazingly beautiful attractions like waterfalls, and they can make good money by charging a small fee to provide a guide or a meager lodging, and rather than being taken out of the community, that money stays to help further develop the community. In addition, it provides employment and I imagine a certain amount of pride. It also means you enter a village, hot, tired, sweaty and everybody greets and welcomes you. We decided that Volta region might be the most welcoming place we have been in this very welcoming county!

So yeah, Friday thru Tuesday we got to go on amazing hikes through the rainforest, saw and swam in our fourth, fifth and sixth waterfalls, sumitted our second and third Ghanaian mountain, visited a monkey sanctuary and got to feed monkeys. Overall, it was so beautiful!(so beautiful that I won't even really try and describe it because I know it would be a futile attempt).

It was also fun travelling just as two girls. We had no trouble from anyone. Like always, people are always so ready to be helpful(even if at times they don't actually know where you want to go they will still point you to the 'right' tro-tro; we use discretion...) One highlight was Saturday night we had a bat in our room when we came back to our hotel because we had left the window open. That same night there was also a dinner going on with speeches right outside our hotel window... it was pretty ridiculous and if we hadn't already paid we might have left... Otherwise, everything went so smoothly, and we kept running into our ISEP groups doing similar yet shorter treks through the Volta Region.

Other news from this week is Wednesday afternoon I went to a Black Stars football match which was pretty awesome. Ghanaians love their football(and by football I mean the real thing, not American football) The Black Stars were playing Tunisia, and neither team played very well, but still, it was a lot of fun. The game was a tie 0-0. We had awesome seats too, five rows up and close enough to see the players facial expressions when they were on our side of the field. They may not have been playing well, but their playing poorly is pretty intense!

In other news, I am heading out today for my last trip of the semester before I settle down to do some studying for exams, and then I come home three weeks from tomorrow. I am excited to see friends and family, but I know I will miss life in Ghana! This weekend I am heading out to Cape Coast again and then back to Green Turtle Lodge and the beach. We will come back Wednesday, and then celebrate Thanksgiving Thursday at our program directors house.

Well, thats whats new from over here, and I hope all is well who reads this:)