GuacaMOLE

Hi all! I just returned yesterday from a particularly exciting week in Ghana. This weekend my group and I journeyed to Mole National Park. Most of all it was AMAZING! However, the trip was also arduous and (forewarning) slightly disgusting.

The ardor: getting there

First, we took a 3 hour tro-tro* from Bolga to Tamale. (*Tro-tros are big vans that provide public transportation throughout Ghana. They pack 19-24 people in the backs of each van. Thus we were squeezed sweaty shoulder to sweater shoulder, butt to butt, and thigh to thigh, holding our bags on our laps and praying for bigger windows.) Upon our arrival in Tamale, we bought bus tickets for the daily bus to Mole. They told us the bus boards at 1:30 pm, so we arrived at the station just after 1:00 ready to go. 1:30 came and went. Around 2:00 we started asking around if we missed it. 2:30…3:30…we sat in the shade and read our books. I attracted confused stares as I started doing yoga in the middle of our fellow-bus-waiters…Finally the bus arrived at 5:15 pm. We spent another 4 hours on the bus, similarly crammed together with bags in laps or between our legs. The last 2 hours of the ride, we departed from surfaced roads. The bus windows began to rattle and then bang like shot guns and the floor and seats vibrated (unfortunately not as comfortably as those nice massage chairs that they have if you get a pedicure…haha). To say the least, we were quite relieved to finally arrive at Mole Park around 9:30 pm.

The AMAZING: Mole

I woke up Saturday morning to a screech outside my window. 4 baboons chased one another across my line of sight, only meters from our bedroom window! As I looked out the window, I counted more than 20 baboons sitting in the grass, scampering on their hands and feet (with gaits like dogs mixed with human children), and preening. My group mates and I had our cameras out in a flash (bad pun…). We laughed at the baboons’ weird butts: it looks like they are covered in pink and tan plastic.

After our auspicious baboon-alarm morning, we proceeded to see a variety of other Ghanaian species. We took both a 2.5 hour “walking safari tour” and a 2 hour “car safari tour” with a guide named Abraham. Abraham helped us to spot and identify tons of antelope species including: kob, bushbuck, waterbuck, roan antelope, and hartebeest. The kob lined the roads as commonly as deer in Michigan corn fields (or U of M’s North Campus). According to Abraham, it was a rare treat to glimpse the small herds of waterbuck, roan, and hartebeest stampeding across our path. We saw several birds: red-throated bee eaters, a kingfisher, and Senegal cuckus. We met a warthog—like Pumba (naturally I had to sing some “Hakuna Matata”), saw some adorable patas monkeys, and glimpsed the ominous eyes of several crocodiles lurking in the ponds. Seeing these species outside of Disney animation and the zoo was surreal.

The most incredible moment of my weekend, however, occurred during our “walking safari.” We saw ELEPHANTS! As we approached a pond, we heard rumblings and then 3 massive, dark shapes came into view: 3 elephants cooling themselves and frolicking in the water! (Incessant picture-taking, jaw-dropping, and awed exclamations ensued for the next hour—yes, we watched the elephants for a whole hour, and we could have stayed longer!) Playing in the water, 2 of the elephants locked trucks and “wrestled” back and forth, their tusks dipping into and out of the water. Although playful, each movement seemed stoically slow because elephants are just so big. Soon they climbed up the steep slope out of the pond to join 3 more elephants in a nearby field. We followed them around and continued to watch. The elephants pawed their massive feet into water holes to stir up the mud then they lowered their whole bulk down into the mud to cover themselves. Abraham explained that the layer of mud on their skin helps them to stay cool. We gawked as they flapped their ears (the size of car doors) and stood with one of their back legs crossed over to the other (as nonchalantly as country-club boys relaxing after a game of squash). All six of the elephants were males, Abraham said; apparently elephants usually travel in same-sex groups. Soon enough, one of the elephants indiscreetly displayed his “manlihood” with, as Abraham put it, his “fifth leg.” (Amazingly this euphemism isn’t a great exaggeration. Elephant penises are huge: 3 ft long and probably 6 inches wide, it nearly dragged to the ground!) If you can’t tell by this rather detailed account, seeing elephants was spectacular!

The disgusting…

After our safaris, tours, and ample pictures, we went to the Mole restaurant for some dinner. I got a Spanish omelet (because the menu-picture advertised large chunks of vegetables). Unfortunately the omelet offered neither liberal veggies nor a pleasant night for me. I didn’t start to feel queasy till around 8 pm. At first I thought it could be cramps. After my bucket-shower, I wondered if maybe I should switch with Mozhgon and sleep on the bottom bunk for easy-toilet-access. By 2 am, I appreciated this decision, and I felt significantly better.

But “the disgusting” wasn’t quite over. The bus back to Tamale on Sunday left at 4 am, so the five of us woke up in the pitch dark at 3:30 to board the shot-gun-windowed-, vibrating-seated-bus. Still feeling quite queasy and dizzy, I took a window seat—just in case. This was another wise decision. After about 15 minutes, I emptied any remaining contents of my stomach out of the moving bus window…so there’s a first (and hopefully last): vomiting out of a moving vehicle.

(sorry for the lack of transition to the next topic…guacamole is definitely not part of the disgusting category)

Quick coda: Guacamole

They grow huge and delicious avocadoes here in Ghana. There are also tomatoes, onions, and garlic available. Thus Mozhgon, Rachel, Allison, and I decided to make some guacamole! Yum. They don’t have tortilla chips here, so we bought plantain chips from the market; it was delightful (even Kaylee, the finicky eater, loved it). After this success, we wanted to share our “American”-guacamole-culture with our translators. Emmanuel, Charles, and Sowah all thought the guac was “quite good.” (I thought of all of my sophisticats and hipsters--eating pounds of guacamole at any gathering.)

Missing you all, sending my love—and looking forward to sharing guacamole with you soon!