Elephants and the Baboon Debacle

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Get a coffee.  Or a glass of wine.  This one could be a long one reader, and I hope that it will give you a smile, or perhaps a laugh.  It's not my sole purpose in this blogging, but this day ended with another "Pre-Africa Deb may not have been able to....." that may cause your lips to move in a smiley position!

But first, "You are welcome."  This typical, heartfelt greeting came from our park ranger guide, Jacob, this morning as we arrived for our "walking safari" of Mole National Park.  "Thank you," we all reply and hope that today will be luckier in terms of seeing some wildlife, particularly the elusive elephants we didn't see on the jeep safari yesterday afternoon.  Jacob tells us that we will spend the next two hours walking and that we will see bush buck, antelope, baboons and, if we are LUCKY, elephants.  Great.  Lucky.  We weren't really lucky last night.  What changed?  OK, wait, we are positive.  Let's go Jacob, go find those elephants!  Well, 15 minutes later guess what?

A big bull savannah elephant, just happily munching on leaves, knocking down trees and otherwise ignoring the five of us who were walking all around and snapping pictures.  Now, I'm not sure of the proper distance one should keep from an elephant in the wild, but I am fairly sure that Jacob was potentially putting us a little closer than that to get the ultimate photo op.  He was an awesome guide, a good eye for photography and understood what we were looking for.  At one point someone mentioned that the broken tusk was kind of unattractive, Jacob walked us around the elephant until we were able to shoot his "good side" (seriously, yes, his good side, the one with the full tusk).

That's the water bill issue!

We followed this big guy for about 15 minutes, Jacob clearly knew about his habits.  We watched as he walked through the residences for staff of Mole, and then watched in amazement as he stopped for a little refreshment before carrying on.  Most of the villages that we have seen that have access to water on site have giant containers of water.  Mole staff quarters are no different.  Except....

Finally Jacob told the group of us, "let's go find some more elephants."  You didn't have to tellustwice, so we followed him like a herd of warthogs through the savannah, crossing over grassy areas, tree stump bridges and then we came upon a dry river bed.  It was almost melodramatic when Jacob stopped and just stood looking at the ground.  We all waited with bated breath....what could he be looking at???  "We will go this way," he said (pointing the direction we should take).  "That way there is a fresh kill, either a hyena or a lion."  He pointed out the drag marks in the dirt, and the fresh blood.  We all nodded, let's go the opposite way of a potentially protective large mammal eating his dinner.  Yup, we agree Jacob, let's go thataway.

Jacob finds us another elephant

  Once we were free from the danger of getting eaten, or mistaken as potential rivals for food, Jacob set out to find us another elephant.  He didn't disappoint!  I will have to try to upload the video of this one when I get back to regular internet speed, but Jacob outdid himself finding this guy hanging out at a watering hole.  So much fun, we must have spent the better part of an hour watching the elephant either  shallow dive or belly flop in the water (depends on how accurate you want the verbiage, suffice it to say this elephant's entrance into the water is too funny!)

It was a wonderful morning walk through Mole, we saw so much and were very grateful to have Jacob as a guide.  The photos and video that I got are going to be the kind of memories that I will treasure forever.  All of us that are here in Ghana agree that we needed this weekend, it was really a respite from the constant reminders of what life is like here in Ghana for so many people.  I feel blessed to have been able to move away from the sights, sounds and smells of every day Ghanaian life for a couple of precious days, and thankful for the new friends that I have been able to share it with.

Liam, me, Jacob, Nancy and Tracey at the end of our safari


BONUS BLOG EDITION:  THE BABOON DEBACLE

And you thought you were done reading.  You are going to regret the day that you decided to humour me and read this occasionally!  This is going to read like a play so that you can really get into it.  The italicized words are THOUGHTS, so the character (me or Nancy) is thinking but not speaking.  The (bracketed) words are meant to help you envision what is actually going on.  The up and down normal words are the description of setting.  Hope you enjoy, and it is worth it at "The End".

Standing on the front sidewalk by our rooms, and Nancy is sitting on the porch dutifully doing the Kete Krachi report while I take a break.  Out of the corner of my eye I catch a movement.  Now, in Edmonton that could mean a car, a dog, perhaps a neighbour driving a car and walking a dog.  BUT in Africa it could also mean that there is a baboon running towards me.

Deb:  Hey.  That's a baboon.  Damn.  Camera is inside and Sandy would be like "why didn't you have the camera?"  Wonder if it's bad to cross in front of him, he's coming pretty fast.  Must be scared.
Nancy:  OMG, it's a baboon.  I wonder if they bite?
(Baboon stops in front of Nancy, reaches out to grab her knapsack containing her passport and other important items)
Deb:  HEY!!!!
(Baboon let's go of said bag and grabs Nancy's "Burt's Bees Moisture Wipes" packet sitting on the porch)
Nancy:  HEY!!!
(Baboon looks at Nancy and throws the wipes to the ground.  Kind of like a little kid.  Then he picks up a black plastic bag containing Nancy's recent craft store purchases and makes a break for it.  Debbie breaks into a run after him.)
Debbie:  HEY!!!  STOP!!!  Come back here, get back here!
Nancy:  Why is Debbie chasing a baboon and yelling?
Debbie:  Why is Nancy still sitting on the porch when this baboon has 80 GHc worth of stuff she just bought?  DROP IT!! COME BACK HERE!
Nancy:  Why would Debbie chase a baboon to get back a bag of garbage?
(Baboon stops to admire his ill-gotten gains as I close in on him still yelling and probably looking like a fool waiving my arms around)
Debbie:  GIVE THAT BACK NOW!!!
Nancy:  This is the funniest thing I have seen all week, I still cannot figure out why she wants that garbage bag so bad.
Debbie:  Why is Nancy still sitting there?  And why does she look like she is laughing?
(Baboon decides at this point after rifling through the bag that there is no food in it.  Either that or the screaming, flailing white person is a little too much for him and he drops the bag and runs off.)
Debbie:  Pre-Africa Deb wouldn't have chased a baboon.  Or at least wouldn't have won.  Triumph!  And why is Nancy still sitting there?
Nancy:  Oh shit, that's my stuff from the craft store!

THE END

Texts with Sandy after this:

Deb:  "A baboon stole Nancy's bag today."

Sandy:  Oh!  Did she lose anything?

Deb:  Nope I chased it down.  That bugger was fast.

Sandy:  Wow, who is this woman?  I like her!

Safari Saturday

January 25, 2014  Mole National Park, Ghana

I'm taking some time for a few minutes before we head out on our jeep safari.  This morning I woke up at 7 AM, just because.  There was no call to prayer, no chickens, no goats, just the song of birds that I cannot identify.  It was so soothing.  I thought to myself, "Should I sleep in?"  I decided to take a look to see if any elephants were about first.  If they weren't then I would go back to bed.  As I stood watching the watering hole I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye.  A mother and two babies wandered out of the forest.  I was so awestruck that I forgot I had my camera (hence you don't see the picture here).  Then I had to run back to the room because I promised Nancy that I would come get her if I saw elephants!  By the time we got back there was another one having a bath in the watering hole and mom and babies were slightly hidden by forest (Sandy would have forgotten about Nancy and if this was his blog there would be several hundred pics of mom and her babies.  Because this is my blog all you get from my awestruckness is this...)

Elephant (like you didn't guess already)

So I'm not Sandy.  It's a half an elephant.  And Nancy got her elephant alarm so all is good.  Nancy and I worked on our Damongo report in the morning, we're feeling pretty good about it.  Tracy and Liam and Heidi and Joan arrived in the early afternoon and we all had a wonderful time telling stories!  Our best ones that you, the reader, have already heard (the bat story and the bugs on the bed story).  Tracey and Liam may have had it the worst, they have been in much poorer areas that we have and they have been surviving on their "bring comfort food from home" rations along with bread that their driver has found at the market.  Food is plentiful at the market if you are OK with a plethora of larvae on your meat, an unknown water source on your vegetables, and no snacks....Ghanaians don't really understand what you want when you tell them you want a snack....I digress again.  Liam is a first year coach from Ireland, he's in the same boat as Nancy and I, only we've had food.  He's a lovely man and I think should be very proud of himself for taking on this gruelling assignment.  Nice that he has Tracey who has been there, done that, bought the Tshirt when it comes to travelling!  Heidi and Joan have also been having some great adventures, they have met chiefs and are going to an AGM next week!  Joan also had the pleasure of getting a dress made from credit union cloth in their last town....if I can convince Heidi to sneak me a photo of this I will post it.  It's priceless (Joan believes she pointed at a different style of dress than the one she received, personally I think it makes her look rather....ummmm...alpine)

Well, out the door we go, the six of us are taking a jeep safari tour to see if we can get closer to the elephants (and perhaps get a shot of a whole one so Sandy doesn't disown me as a wife).  Carefully get by the herd (is that what you call them?) of warthogs outside the door....(did you know they eat kneeling down?)

U-G-L-Y you ain't got no alibi.....sorry.  The face only a mommy warthog would love.  Perhaps.  OK, sorry, jeep safari, going for the elephants.  We decide to ride on the top of the jeep ('cause we're the cool kids) and for two hours we drive around.  And around.  And around.  Really, it was quite nice in the 35 degree heat to drive around and around (unless you take into account the red dust that permeates every pore of your body and clothing).  No elephants.  It was quite disappointing, but there is still tomorrow on the walking safari at 7 AM.  We did see many other animals, baboons and bush bucks, more warthogs and some vultures.  It's Africa, there's bound to be wildlife around right?  Maybe tomorrow we will be lucky.  

Baboons at the watering hole on the jeep safari

In the meantime, Nancy has discovered wildlife in her room.  A rather medium-sized lizard. She's not Pre-Africa Nancy (not that I have met her, but I am assuming) so she has decided that her buddy can stay in the room with her tonight.  Perhaps it will eat any bugs that end up on her bed. 

Me.....I'm alone.  I think. 

TGIF Africa Style

Blog January 24, 2014

Oh how I do not want to get out of bed this morning.  That’s probably because there was no call to prayer at dawn, I’m getting used to it to ease me awake at 4.  One more hot shower, although I am sure we will have water at Mole (pronounce MOLAY) tonight.  Nancy and I got Francis (the palace waiter) to give us a couple of pieces of bread after dinner so we start our day with water and peanut butter on bread.  Yum.  Tastes like home with the exception of no coffee.

The drive to Damongo is not far.  2 hours after departing we pull up to the Damongo Dioscesan Community Credit Union.  Damongo is a small village with an active market place and a little bit of a sad history for the credit union.  Many people in this village trusted the first credit union that was established here, but it turned out to be mismanaged and potentially have some issues with staff which resulted in many of the members losing their savings.  The old credit union closed down, and this credit union came into being in 2002. Many of the former members of the now defunct credit union brought their savings, and their passion here.  I am impressed by their dedication to the community and to the co-operative movement. 

Today Hardi, the manager, wanted to take us to the market place to meet some of his members.  Although I was feeling slightly light-headed and a little nauseous (not sure why, it wasn’t malaria pill day) I thought that the fresh (39 degree) air would do me some good.  Perhaps I was a little mistaken.  The smell of the market greeted us, a combination of…..let’s face it, I haven’t got a clue.  I like to pretend that I know what something would smell like in 39 degree heat, but I’m from Edmonton.  The first few stalls were men chopping meat.  Maybe that was it.  Or the fish.  Or any number of other things that were being cooked/sold.  Many of the market stall owners were members, and all of them (in true Ghanain fashion) were wonderful.  “You are welcome,” I heard at every stall we stopped at.  I feel welcome.  A little sick, but welcome nonetheless.

Although we have been inundated with the vision of all of these villages over the last week we have not really been “inside” one.  I have conflicting feelings about it.  From our air conditioned truck hurtling down the road I catch glimpses of children and adults in their day-to-day routines and think that it should be left that way, just a glimpse.  Then I think that I should want to see inside one of the mud structures, inside the community, what am I afraid I am going to see?  Jude solved that for me today.

We have a free weekend.  It is Friday.  Nancy and I are booked for three nights at the Mole Motel in Mole National Park.  It’s a respite from our week and we are looking forward to it.  On our way from Damongo to Mole there is a village, yes, a red mud hut village, in the town of Larabunga.  In Larabunga we will find the oldest mosque in Ghana (and perhaps Western Africa).  We will also find a village and a community looking for any and all money, for school, for children, for business, for post secondary education, it ran the gamut tonight.   The community was welcoming, and there were young man, Hasma, who provided the history and stories behind many of the structures and scenes that we came upon.  The mosque was impressive for being built sometime in the 1400s.  The village was sad, and coupled with Hasma’s detailed description of what they were lacking it turned out to be a trying hour or more.  At one point, when Hasma was explaining the engineering of a particular building, I looked aside and saw a young girl about 2 smiling at me.  I smiled back and she held up a treasure she had found.  A razor blade.  I stopped Hasma, and said “the girl has a blade!”  He walked over to her, took the razor blade from her, and continued on with his story.  I got the feeling that this wasn’t the first time nor was it an anomaly, which was quite disturbing.  Many people over the age of 16 that we see have scars on their faces, my understanding is that these cuts are tribal marks and actually are a thing of beauty. 

 

We finally left behind this village and continued on to Mole Motel where we will spend the next three nights.  Four other coaches who have been travelling northern Ghana will join us tomorrow.  For tonight, Nancy and I are firmly ensconced in rooms 3 & 4 of the “R” block.  Our view is spectacular, apparently the water comes on between 6 and 8 AM tomorrow, and we can walk “not far” (no, really, it’s not a Jude “not far” it’s a Canadian not far) to the viewing area overlooking one of the watering holes.  And the bar has cold Star.

Mole elephant viewing area

Life is good.         

It's a palace!

Blog Jan 23, 2014

“It’s a Palace!”

We’ve been at the Kete Krachi guest house for two nights, it is now time to move on to Tamale for a night.  You, the reader, are getting the hang of this when I say we asked Jude how long it would take and he said “It’s far and the roads are bad.”  (A reminder, far is 2-24 hours in Ghanain time).  Yesterday the Board asked to meet us for our presentation at 10 AM, when we told Jude he shook his head and made a clucking noise.  This, we have come to know, is “that’s not good, so I will fix it.”  A while later, in a foreign language heated discussion Jude tells us the Board will meet us at 8:30AM instead.  Well, that is good!  We meet with Daniel, Joseph and the entire Board of Directors of the credit union and we are literally high-fiving eachother as we are leaving.  I think we’ve made a small impact that may eventually help this credit union and we are proud!  Jude hurries us into the truck and off we go on another one of those roller coaster roads (that you will see pictures of soon!)  

I’m becoming used to the view from the air conditioned truck, driving through rural Ghana.  Village after village, women pounding cassava (or shea nuts), naked or poorly clothed children playing in the dirt, fires going with water boiling for the next meal.  The dirt here is red, it permeates everything.  My sister embroidered a handkerchief for me that I opened when I got here, it’s stained red from wiping my face and neck all day.  Your skin, clothing, and shoes are covered in red dust as are the leaves of the plants along these endless roads.  And the villages are red like the road.  We sit in the truck, knowing that there is no way to help every person that you see out these windows and, truthfully, not knowing if they believe that they need help.  These villages do not just dot the landscape, they ARE the landscape.  You do not go more than a kilometer without seeing women and children laboring with something on their heads-buckets of water, grass to fix thatched roofs, yams or other edibles….I was shocked when this journey began, but now I just wonder about their story and how they feel about their life.

Typical village on our journey

We stop across the road from one of these villages.  Jude tells us that his boss wants him to pick up some yams from this village but they are supposed to be sacked and ready at the roadside stand.   It turns out they aren’t, and Jude exhibits the most anger that I have seen (which really amounts to a few words in his tribal language then an explanation that the yams aren’t ready and we have to go to the village.)  While the men all gather around a giant pile of yams and start hucking them into the bed of the truck Nancy and I get out to take a look around.  There are several children coming up the road (again, calling “Obruni, obruni!”  We are smiling as they come.  A little one, no more than two years old, is following the children down the path.  He sees us and screams, and turns around moving as quickly as possible back towards the main part of the village.  The older children run to catch him, and bring him to see us, but it doesn’t really end well.  I hate the idea that I may very well be the subject of many of these little ones’ nightmares in the coming weeks. 

Obruni skin, pretty scary.

Tamale is the second largest city in Ghana in terms of the land area.  It reminds me of a little less impoverished Accra.  As I stand beside the main road leading in I watch a young girl leading a blind woman from car to car at the traffic lights.  When the light turns green she leads the woman to the median just to move back out when it turns red.  I think that she is school age, maybe slightly younger, but she must not be able to go because of money.

We arrive in Tamale by supper time, and we are staying at the Modern City Hotel.  Now, because of our past experience at CuTrac and at Kete Krachi we probably do not have our hopes set very high.  But it’s a palace.  Truly.  OK, Pre Africa it could be a two star, potentially lower.  But it’s a palace.  We are shown to our rooms, they have a blanket on the bed!  There is a curtain on the shower (and very little mould and dirt!)  When you turn on the tap you get hot water!  There is a restaurant that serves more than banku, fufu and chicken and rice (although my heart was set on banku tonight).  And they have white wine!!   

Now, there’s a funny thing about Ghanain restaurants, or at least those that we have come across.  They truly want to please you, so much so that you may endup getting a “yes” when it really a flat out “no”.  Take dinner tonight.  You have white wine?  Yes.  Is it chilled?  Yes, I can put it in the fridge.  Where is it now?  On that cupboard.  OK, please chill it.  25 minutes later, is the wine ready?  Yes.  It’s chilled?  Yes.  Francis, lovely young man, brings it to the table.  The bottle is luke warm.  And it’s not white.  We ordered a Star.  Nancy asked about the pizza, and do you have pepperoni?  Yes.  Is it home made?  Yes.  She orders it.  The pizza comes, there is no pepperoni on it.  But there is peppers.  Let’s eat, it is what it is.  Cheers to the palace called Modern City Hotel!

It is What It is.

Jan. 22, 2014

Well, when we went to our rooms last night Nancy turned on her air conditioning and her fan and then we chatted for a few minutes.  I looked at the head of her bed and asked “What is that by your pillow?”  Four black bugs.  And, I’ll ask again, what do you think we did?  It’s a good thing we had just finished a Star beer, Nancy tossed the bottle cap in the middle of them.  They didn’t move.  Then we looked up at the walls, there was “a few” more of them hanging out.  We looked at eachother and Nancy just said, “You’ve been preaching that it’s like camping…..it is what it is.” And with that we said our goodnights.  Nancy slept with her head at the foot of the bed so she could leave room for her new friends.

Prayer call, dawn again.  Getting used to this.  We met our first credit union manager today.  Daniel spent the day with us, answering our questions, furiously writing things down when we mentioned something.  The Board Chairperson, Joseph spent some time with us as well as Vice Chair (Madame Mary) and Secretary (Madame Mercy).  The credit union is small, has many challenges ahead, but the people we met today are a determined group and we hope, with some of our recommendations, they will turn Kete Krachi Credit Union into a viable part of their community. 

At about 10:30 AM Daniel turned to us and said, “When would you like to take beer?”  Nancy and I were shocked.  “Not during a work day!”  Daniel made a disapproving noise and we continued on.  Not long after Leticia came in with four bottles of Guiness.  “No!  No!” Nancy said.  Joseph told her “Don’t worry, it’s soft,” and Nancy explained we do not drink while we work.  He repeated that it was soft, and we started laughing.  They have malt Guiness non alcoholic here, it’s their pop.  It’s our nemesis, so thick you almost have to chew it.  We choked it back (we are already looking unthankful with all of the food we leave on our plates here.)

At 3 PM it was a day.  No more work.  Now we relax.  I thought of Graeson when we sat down at the plastic table, in plastic lawn chairs with Joseph and Daniel.  Grae didn’t particularly care for those in Puerto Vallarta, I’m sure this would have startled him with the poor village on the other side of the chain link from where we were.  We talked for hours, found out that Joseph had one wife and two kids, Daniel had two wives and five kids.  We discussed plural marriage and how it is frowned upon in Canada, discussed politics in Ghana and then Joseph asked us how we felt about the treatment of homosexuality in Canada.  The discussion was close to my heart, and very interesting to see where another culture is at with acceptance.  Uganda, where some of our fellow coaches are, just stopped meting out a punishment of death for this.  We moved on to another subject some time later, but not before I asked each of them, “If one of your children came to you, holding their heart in their hand, and said ‘Father, I am gay,’ what would you say?”  In the end I’m not so sure they are that different than us.  Your children are your children, one word cannot change our love.

This is getting long again, sorry L but speaking of children…Leticia brings her 16 month old son, Nhyria (when I get strong internet there will be a photo of them here).  Nhyria is breast feeding and this is a little difference I thought was intriguing…when he is hungry someone just brings him to Leticia and she feeds him.  In front of the manager, guests, Board members, it is treated as nothing here. 

Sandy spoiled my last two memorable moments for the 22^rd.  So I will just recap them by asking you, “What’s on your bucket list?”  It may take a long time, if at all, that I may forget the look on Jude’s face when he gave us his.  That his children grow up and be better off.  That he may someday have his own place to lay his head.  What more could a man ask for? 

I’ll post some pics of the guest house here soon, but imagine if you will rooms that are indoors but access to them isn’t.  Kind of.  Hard to explain, check back in a few days.  Nancy and I were heading to bed and we got to the topof the outdoor stairs and a big moth was flying around.  The bugs here are big.  Well, some of them at least.  The cockroaches are.  I digress.  So this moth hits a wall, then another wall, then beelines for my skirt and lands on it.  Pre Africa Deb isn’t here.  I shake my skirt to dislodge said moth, thinking about how heavy it is.  It doesn’t come out.  I shake harder.  It doesn’t come out.  So I grab a good chunk and whip the material.  Plop.  That’s the sound a bat makes when it lands on the floor (take note just in case at some point you require this piece of trivia…”plop”)  We looked down.  Yes, it’s a bat.  Nancy says I did a little Newfie jig as we walked down the hall to our rooms.  We looked back before saying goodnight and it was still where it plopped.  Sorry everyone, I didn’t have my camera.  But our mantra is and has been….

“It is what it is.”