I realize that only westerners who know what Groundhog Day is and that have been to Ghana will understand the title. So here goes:
The grasscutter is an animal here in Ghana, that people eat. I have yet to eat one, but would like to, just to try it. So thus today has been dubbed as Grasscutter Day, mainly becuase it's the only animal the even remotely resembles a groundhog (and it's a way to for me to implement part of my life back home [however insignificant] to here.) And the Harmattan is the dry winds that come from the Sahara and venture all the way to the Gulf of Guinea (right outside my bedroom) during the dry season. Thus if Gary sees his/her shadow, our dry season will last for another 6 weeks (though Harmattan usually lasts until mid-march I've been told anyway, so it may be redundant if he does see it.)
Well with that out of the way, I can get on with the blog.
This weekend I had the chance to visit Kakum National Park with Kwadwo and Kwame, which was very exciting! First of all, being a Parks and Protected Area Major, it was neat to see a glimpse of the National Park system in a foreign country. I must say that it is fairly similar to what occurs in Canada (and the US for that matter), with interpreters, canteens, the same sor tof mandate, museums, etc.
Anyway, Kakum's biggest attraction are 7 rope bridges that span across the canopy of the Rainforest. At a height of 40 metres (that's 120 feet!)... I tried not to look down. Being slightly anxious with heights, this was nerverwracking (those of you who went to eagle canyon with me may remember!). There were also 20 people on the bridges at a time, and although the guide assured me you could fit two fully grown elephants on them, it was still very shaky and sketchy. Though it was that good kind of scared, and SO MUCH FUN! And it was such a graet view of the rainforest! Everyone should do this. Unfortunately, no Elephants or other animals... though I did get to see a crocodile on Sunday (from a safe distance, though they claim you can pet them... I didn't wanna find out. In fact in the North, they have a crocodile you can ride like a horse... but that's another story).
Check out the pics from Kakum on facebook!
This weekend I'm off to Accra to visit with some members of the group and check out Jamestown and the Mikola Market (which is where all our used clothing gets sent aka 'dead white man's clothing', so I can see the implications of this.)
As for Simple Living, one of the mandates of the program, it's been an interesting idea to balance now that I'm back in the big city away from the village. If I look hard enough I can litteraly find everything and anything you could imagine. When I tell people I live off of 2 Cedis a day for food, they think I'm crazy. Then I tell them I usually have change leftover (because, it is in fact, very manageable to live of 2 Cedis a day on food - about 1.40$ Canadian). The hardest thing I'm finding is having any sort of a social life, it can be difficult to do this without spending money (which is terrible to think...)! Though not impossible... you just have to be creative! And have friends that understand this. Needless to say, it will be interesting to see how I implement these ideals to my life back home.
As a side note, I can't believe it's February and I've been away from my village for over 5 weeks now... that's almost as long as I stayed in the village. I miss my village family alot and am looking forward to seeing them in March!
That's all for this week, I'll check in with ya soon. I hear Southern Ontario is getting its biggest storm since 2007 today. Ha!
Peace and Love,
Cheers!
Matty
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