Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Weekend in Ghana

Me and three of my friends spent the past weekend in Ghana! It was a fun trip. We made some memories. I just figured it was a shame to be that close to another country and never go. So we made a trip. :) We began our trip on Friday night. At the border we met a friend of Lydia's, an Liberian guy named JR. He ended up going with us the whole weekend. It was kinda nice having an African to help us navigate our way through Ghana. :)
So the five of us left the border in a taxi for four passengers on a four hour drive to Accra Ghana. That was an experience in itself. We'll just say we did some very close bonding during those four hours. hehe Go through the pictures to get the rest of the story...

After the four hour drive we very relieved to get to the motel. We climbed out of the car sore backsides, numb legs, feet asleep and all. hehe :-p this was the bed all four of us girls shared that first night in our little room :) hehe I slept like a baby...some of the other girls weren't so lucky.

The next day we found a tro tro (passenger van taxi) at the busy bus station.


Window shopping is one of the fun parts of Africa. You can pretty much get anything you need food or drink wise right from the comfort of your vehicle without even pulling off the road. As soon as you stop you are surrounded by venders all carying baskets of goods on their heads. Here you can see we are enjoying some plantain chips we bought. So yummy!
We finally reached Cape Coast after a three or four hour drive in the Tro Tro.
We went to do a canapy walk! I heard there are only three in the world and this is the biggest. Its basically a bunch of rope bridges hung above the trees.
Hiking to the beginning of the bridges.




Up in that little building is where the walk begins!
Climbing the stairs. Almost there!
waiting our turn
Here we go!





notice the mud squishing between my toes and all over my flip flops. Note to self, wrong choice of shoes! it had been raining so the trail up was pretty muddy. :)
Hello! ;-p
Really big tree!! JR said, "we don't call that a tree, its a Log!" haha
Don't slip!
All done. this way out of the jungle.
A trail of ants. they were all over. and are supposedly pretty bad ones.
This little station was on the way out, they were selling coconuts and other refreshments :)
Next we went to the place we were staying Saturday night called Han's Cottage. This was my bed! :) we were all pretty excited to have our own after the previous night. Hahahah!
Hangin out eating some snacks we'd packed

So Hans' Cottage is pretty cool! its a hotel, hostel, restaraunt, gift shop, pool etc. and kind of all built over this water!
waiting to eat dinner in the restaurant.
So they had aligators! and we got to touch them! I know, it doesn't sound safe, prolly wasn't all that much, but don't worry, nobody lost any limbs or anything. ;-p
the pool
Cheese!
Lydia being goofy on her bed :) wait maybe it was my bed, which became Carmen's bed (we switched later)
So Carmen and Karen decided to brush their hair up so it would be crazy and poofy. So funny.
On Sunday we drove another 4 hours back to Tema to visit the Logos Hope, Operation Mobilization.

Their main focus is to bring books to people all over the world so people can have the opportunity to learn and obtain books at extremely cheap prices, whereas otherwise books are only affordable by the rich.
Eating some ice cream at the coffee/snack bar on the Logos Hope.
Carmen...being Carmen. She was so fun, we all found her our greatest entertainment I think. Thanks Carmen!
Driving home in another Tro Tro. Everyone was tired. We had fun but we were ready to be back onboard our floating home.
*Sigh* It's so nice to be home.
the sight of the port and then that big white boxy ship makes us all breath a sigh of relief and comfort that only home brings. It's crazy to think that this familiar gangway is the walkway to my home. ;) I was so excited to get back to my room and my little bunk bed. :) And I'll tell you a shower never felt so good. (Well ok, there have been other times)
A nice ending to a great adventure.

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Fire Drill :)

So every other week or so on Thursday, we have fire drills. When we are in port, everyone has to leave the ship and go out onto the dock to their muster station. This past Thursday is one of the few that I happened to be onboard for. Usually the dental team is still off the ship during the fire drills. So these are just some pictures on the dock. Everyone checks into their station, crew and dayvolunteers and even patients (to some extent, depending on the drill, and the seriousness of each patients condition), and then we all just hang out and pretty much sit for an hour or two while the emergancy teams finish everything up inside the ship. hehe enjoy the pictures.

This little girl and her sister kept running around together playing on these wooden steps almost like it was a slide. ;-p it was funny.

That fenced in area is a waiting area for patients. It is used for other things as well as you can see. People are just chilling till we get the ok to go back onship.
Kelly and Jo! My friends AND my Muster takers at my muster station! :)
They are great. :) Kelly is also my roomie and Jo is pretty much an honorary roomie, she is in our room more than her own I think :) Every day definately, more than once hehe
Melissa and Karen, the dental team just claimed a spot on the dock and plopped down right on the ground hehe.
Gini and Me. Best way to sit! back rests. Yes!




Ok so this fire drill something hillarious happened. As I went down the gangway I saw Paul, our hair dressor carrying his stool, I yelled, "Paul you saving your chair?" hehe he was like yup.
after checking into my station, i started wondering around, and found him set up next to the portapottys cutting Theo (one of the kids onboard) and Mareijke (one of our dentists) hair!! hahaha it was the most hillarious thing ever. He was like, well I gave them the choice and they said just do it on the dock! otherwise it would have been built up with people wanting me to squeez them in after the drill. This was the best drill ever :)

Thank God for sanitizer, (that little stand) though i'm not sure how much good its going to do, as you can see i think that portapotty is leaking ;-p Yuck! haha