"The water hole? What's so great about the water hole?"

"I'll show you when we get there!!" -The Lion King

So many Lion King references this weekend- Disney should probably sue us. But before I get into the animal excitement, let me just start at the beginning.

After going to class on Wednesday morning, Duncan, Jenna, Erin, and I got our stuff together and headed to the STC station to catch a bus to Kumasi. Longest ride ever (like 6 hours) on the bumpiest road ever but we made it. Spent the night at the Guestline Lodge- in hospital beds I swear- and woke up at 4 am the next morning to catch the bus to Tamale. Bad news, bus was SOLD OUT! Ah. Luckily Duncan had made friends with the man he sat next to on the bus to Kumasi who happened to be entering the station as we were leaving and his friend who dropped him off adopted us and took us to three other stations trying to find a bus or tro tro to Tamale. Finally we found one and took the painfully long (like 8 hours) drive up to the north. When we got there, it was SO hot (way hotter than Accra) and I was way tired and way frustrated so we just got some street food, a Star, and went to bed in our PAINFULLY hot room- literally I sweated the night away. The highlight of that day was being taught this little Ghanaian folk song about groundnuts and how when you eat them they make you sick but if there is no market to sell them to you then you can't get sick. If only I could pronounce the words correctly..

On Friday morning, we got up for a 4 am (actually 6 am) bus (like 2 hours) that dropped us in Larabonga- the border town of Mole National Park where we got a ride to the park!! Yay. Such a relief. We finally got settled in the dorms which were full but we got mattresses for the floor- and crashed into a girl who we saw when trying to get on the bus to Tamale from Kumasi. I said hello and then parted ways. Luckily, she found us and asked if we wanted to join her and some friends on a 4 x 4 safari ride for two hours which we OBVIOUSLY said yes to! We got our stuff together, jumped on the roof of the jeep and rode into the park! Our guide, Abu Roxan, was awesome and pointed out lots of animals. We came up to a watering hole and saw ELEPHANTS! First, there was just one so we walked up to him- probably like 15 or 20 feet away- and then we climbed into this watchtower/sitting place and all of a sudden 15 elephants came tramping out of the forest and right in front of us! It was so magical. It felt so scripted but it was actually real. haha. They were just bathing and eating and being magnificent and regal and awesome. (we took pics but my computer is still broken so look for Jenna's sometime soon..) After that awesome adventure we just hung out, swam in the pool that overlooks the waterholes, read, napped- ate some dinner at the staff canteen and then played cards for like hours - the four of us plus this cool Canadian girl named Allie who was in our dorm too.

On Saturday we woke up for a 7:30 am walk with our guide, Abu. (PS -started the day with a fresh mango, banana, and groundnuts so I was ready to conquer the world let me tell you!) Abu is so cool- he's worked in the park for 20 years this August and he's seen lions, tons of elephants, caught poachers, even tried elephant meat that they took off a poacher when they caught them. He was so interesting and full of information and passion for the park. It was great. We saw more elephants (yes), crocodiles, warthogs (Pumba!), waterbucks, bushbucks, green monkeys- it was so cool! We just sorta roamed around, following animals or Abu's amazing sense of direction and animal radar- we even saw a dead female waterbuck- Abu said it must have been caught by a lion- it was so weird. The head was unattached and just a skull- the bugs did it good- and the skin was pretty much intact minus where the rear had been riped off- the legs were off too but next to it. So cool to see- sorta smelly and gross I guess- but hey, circle of life. After our walk, we lounged again (after all that work of traveling we needed the extra vacation day!) We played some more cards after dinner- this cool Ghanaian game named Spa (for Spade)- they call the cards different stuff too: cray is club, calou is diamond, yet is heart, and spa is spade! Duncan played with this cool kid named David (he's 10 but the most articulate Ghanaian I have yet to meet- he sold cookies and stuff for his mom at the canteen) and then we played with Abdulai (the staff bartender) and Alex (some random man haha) and it was so fun!

We got up extra early this morning to get a bus to Damongo Junction to tro-tro to Kumasi to tro-tro to Accra. We were low on money so tro-tro was the affordable option. It was a long, tiring, DIRTY DIRTY day- my white shirt is more accurately a brownish-gray color- but now we are back and relaxing. AH! I forgot! Our tro-tro ride today went into the middle of a pouring, bucket downpour with HAIL - it was so heavy and the winds were so strong. We couldn't even see out the front. It was like being in one of those car washes where you ride in it (you know?) but for like 20 minutes. So intense!! And.. my computer is officially broken and headed back to the US of A before I was ready for it to go but oh well. And the Dread Doctor said if Tell and I make him a website then he'll do our dreads for free! We'll see how that plan works out..

I'm going to go have a phone date with mom and dad and E- Jenna will put up pics soon I promise! I hope all is well at home and send me some updates!! Sorry this was so long and I'm sure I forgot some stuff so there will probably be more tomorrow after I've gotten more than like 4 hours of sleep at night! Till then, xoxo