October 13, 2011
Tamale is wonderful!!! We are officially in the Northern region of Ghana for the first time. There is definitely a huge influence from the Islamic culture, which is quite a change from the Christian atmosphere we were used to in the South. The weather is extremely hot and sunny. Thankfully, we are still in the rainy season so the weather is not as hot as in the Spring.
We are staying at Las Hotel, while the other half of the group is staying at a Catholic Guest House. I really like the area of our hotel because it is modern, urban, and busy; however, overall much more quiet than Kumasi or Accra. Tamale has a decent amount of traffic but no tro-tros! Solely using taxes has been a nice little vacation. There are tons and tons of motorcycles and bicycles here, as well. One can see women, men, and children on the motorcycles at any point during the day.
Yesterday and today we had lectures on various things in Tamale. The lectures, for the most part, are very interesting and helpful for most of our independent study projects. Yesterday in the afternoon we took a tour of the local market. We saw all of the kola nut, both ripe and unripe, and tried some. The kola nut is hard and literally the most bitter thing you can imagine. People in the North use kola nut for ceremonies, weddings, and visits to the chief. Many of the females in our group bought headscarves for our visit to the mosque. We learned how to wrap them, but surprisingly, wearing one was a little cooler than I anticipated. The sun is so intense here that head cover is really nice when walking outside.
On Monday we went to a shea butter co-operative owned by a group of older women. They make the shea butter and soaps themselves, which is a process we got to both participate in and observe. The shea butter goes through a process of drying and grinding and is then mixed by hand in a large metal bowl. The women stir in water, until the fat from the shea nuts actually forms on the top of the water in the bowl. The fat is what is makes the actual shea butter. They boil the fat, and disperse it into cups. The women also make shea butter soaps with different fruits and natural essences. I definitely purchased a lot of these for gifts! The women were very welcoming about selling their shea butter on an international level. Some students were even able to arrange having shea butter sent to them in the states from the co-operative! It was really interesting to see such a natural product being made, and have the opportunity to help make some!
On Tuesday, we had more lectures and then walked from the Catholic Guest House to a drumming show. The Northern Region has different drumming from the other regions we have seen, dancing as well. We were able to participate and watch the drummers/dancers for about an hour. I was really impressed with the costumes and dancing. The sun was so hot, and it was probably the hottest part of the day, yet these dancers were dancing in huge or elaborate costumes, seemingly unfazed by the heat. It was such a beautiful sight. Many local people gathered around to watch the dancing too. We also tried "soya" on a kabob. This is basically the Ghanaian version of tofu. It was surprisingly delicious! And almost even BETTER than tofu! Soya was much firmer than tofu and fried and coated with a spicy stew. Delicious!
Wednesday rolled around, and our group left mid-morning for Mole National Park. We were all warned about the road that leads to Mole, apparently quite a "rough" road, even for Ghana. A small tro-tro was our transportation to the park. We were also told that the trip should really only last about an hour, but due to the horrible condition of the road, the trip took around 4-5 hours. I have probably never been on a bumpier trip. But the entire trip was worth the rough ride. We arrived at the park and immediately saw baboons! The accommodations were really nice, and the rooms we stayed in were quite large. Also, the views from the hotel were absolutely incredible! We changed into our swimsuits and swam in the pool, literally overlooking the park with animals visible. Dinner was wonderful! Many of us chose to order cheeseburgers with French fries, and of course some wine. The group decided to go to sleep pretty early because we needed to be ready to go on our safari walk at 6:15 Thursday morning. The safari was so incredible; words cannot even describe how much I loved it. We split into two smaller groups, each traveling with an armed guide. We first came upon a small town right outside of Mole National Park. The town has warthogs and baboons wandering around constantly. They coexist, for the most part. Apparently the baboons have figured out what human food looks like, and how to snatch it. Baboons there know the difference between male and female humans, and usually only choose to take food from the females. It was odd being so close to creatures that are actually pretty vicious. Our group then headed into the valley/bush area. The entire park has tons of different species, including 400-600 elephants! We saw more baboons, warthogs, 3 types of antelope, and eventually elephant! Our guide tracked the elephants for us, so we were able to get close to them. Right now, Tamale is experiencing its cooler and rainier season. This makes spotting animals and elephants harder because the water in the park is copious, making their actual location fairly hard to detect. After seeing some elephant dung and a footprint, we finally came across 4 elephants. Three of them were large with tusks and the other was a smaller child. I learned that elephants are the second fastest land mammal, next to the cheetah. The elephants we saw were called Saharan, I believe. This means they were larger with rounded tusks, rather than the smaller ones found in different parts of Africa. It sounds silly, but the elephants were much larger than I expected! Even in the wild, where the amount of space is unbelievable, the elephants still looked so large. We were able to get fairly close to the elephants, when one turned toward us and started walking while making eye contact. At this point, our guide loaded his gun and told us to back away. Though a little frightening, my mom reminded me how cool this experience was. I was close enough to an elephant in Africa to be scared that it may charge me! Ah! We took our pictures, and hiked out of the valley. I had a wonderful cup of coffee, again overlooking the park, reflecting on our time in Mole. Though Ghana is truly extremely westernized and economically advancing, it was really neat to see much of what "Africa" seems to be when people think about it. The National Park was definitely different than those in the States, and was a once in a lifetime experience.
