Mole and more

I just returned from a five day whirlwind trip to Mole National Park where we got to walk uip to elephants, feed baboons and Mona monkeys, and wake up to the sounds of wild warthogs eating outside our window. We took a walking safari as a group in the morning, and then in the afternoon I went with seven other people who were at Mole on a driving safari for two hours around the park. I was sitting on top of the car along with two Dutch boys, when we came across a lone elephant feeding. The car must have spooked it because he started trumpeting, and he turned away so we stopped to watch him. He evidently changed his mind about us because about thirty seconds after we stopped he tunred back around and charged us, trumpeting and throwing branches. We had to hold on for dear life as the driver gunned the car to get us away from the elephant, and he followed us to the road and stood in the middle of it making noise as we drove away. It was incredible but frightening at the same time. On our drive back from Mole yesterday we stopped at the Kontampo Waterfalls, and had a wonderful afternoon relaxing besides the most beautiful waterfall.
I am in Accra now and will be heading back to Keta this afternoon to get a good four days of building in this week. Last week we finished the foundation so tomorrow we will start to lay bricks and build up the walls, which is a faster process than the foundation was. We have been having some problems with the locals I have been working with, but thanx to a good friend from Accra we will be able to make our money stretch farther than I had been told at the beginning of the summer. It is absolutly astounding to see the building being erected day by day, and how with hard work from the volunteers we can acomplish so much in one day. On Thursday with eight people, one mason and two local laborers, we managed to mix cement, using shovels which is incredibly tiring, an carying headpans full of cement on our heads to the site, we finished half the floor of the clinic. I have been taking pictures everyday of the site and when I get I fully plan on making some kind of slideshow which documents the progress we made. All is well and I hope everyone is enjoying their summer.

breaking ground!!

The volunteers have been here for a week now and it has been a whirlwind ever since they touched down in Ghana. Alyssa and Caisa arrived a day early, on Thursday, so I along with some Ghanaian friends took them out for a night in Accra. Early the next morning we all trooped to the airport for the third time in two days to get the rest of the group, Dana, Michael, and Lauren. The five volunteers are all colleagues of mine at UPS so it was very strange for me as my two worlds collided, people from back home arriving in Ghana. Once I got over the shock of seeing five Yeevus (white man in Ewe) whom I knew get off the plane we jumped straight away into orientation. The first three days, Saturday, Sunday and Monday were spent in Accra at the Volunteer Abroad house, where Kersten and Poppo, the VA country coordinators, went through a comprehensive list of problems the volunteers could encounter and how to appropriately deal with those situations. We also took breaks in between classes and went to the beach, a five minutes walk from the house, or out dancing at local night clubs. Tuesday afternoon we rented a trotro, basically a large van, to take us to Keta, but as there where eight people, lots of luggage, and broken down beds which we were taking with us, and it started raining in the midst of packing, it took us a lot longer than expected. We reached Keta by 6pm, and only had about 45 minutes of daylight, so we rushed to get the beds set up before night time. The first night in Keta was a shock for everyone as they had been getting used to the modernized city of Accra, but they all survived, mosquito netting and fanless. The last few days have been consumed with building and getting the volunteers orientated to Keta. The first day of building was Wednesday, and as it was ridiculously hot we had only one task, consolidate the cement bricks which were laying over the entire section of land we needed to build on. Sounded easy, but lifting heavy bricks of cement and packing them in concise stacks, in the open sun, is actually quite tiring, but rewarding, as work on the clinic had begun. The next day, Thursday, was our first real day of actual building, and we got so much done. The team of local masons we are working with and the volunteers in one day had dug the outline of the main room and the office, and filled the outline with cement. At the end of the day, the outline of the building had appeared,and I was caught between jumping for sheer joy and crying out of overwhelming happiness. Needless to say, the experience so far has been beyond words, to see the project which I and so many others have so hard for actually coming to fruition. I remembered how much I love this country, the people here, and the atmosphere of relaxation, understanding and moving according to your own time, and the positive effect it has on me, especially after the craziness of school. I will try to post pictures when I can, they are beautiful and I am taking as many of each stage of the project as I can . I am tan, working hard, and have never been happier!!