SASADU, last days at school, back to Accra and Goodbye Ghana hello Kenya

I arrived back at Akrofu on the Friday to find the celebrations for SASADU well and truely underway.  Each year 4 communities come together to celebrate the founding of their villages and links between them.  Akrofu was the first village and where the founding chief is buried with the other communities starting from people migrating from there.

Lots of load music, dancing and drinking which literally went on all night.  On the Saturday the village was honoured with a visit from the Ghanian vice president.  Blimey!  One of the local's sons is the head of the Ghanian youth party so arranged the visit.  Unfortunately I was shattered on the Sat and feel asleep in the afternoon so missed much of the festivities, including a Bobobo competition and lots of drumming and dancing.  Bugger!  Oh well next time :-)

I had a skirt and top made the night before from cloth especially made for everyone for the occasion.  The seamstress must have been up all night with all the sewing she had to do for people.  I thought it looked good and so did everyone else from the comments I had so hopefully I'll be able to fit into it next time as I have lost a little bit of weight.

Sunday was much the same, music, dancing and some guys performing rituals with cutlasses; dancing and slicing themselves without cutting or bleeding.  Over here they are seen as having magical powers or 'juju' and the reason why they don't actually cut themselves.

The beginning of last week I headed to the schools for some farewells as I would be heading back to Accra on the Thursday and flying out on Sat.  Addresses and contact details all sorted for the school twinning and details and photos taken of two primary kids that Karen will be sponsoring through their education.  All a bit sad saying goodbye but I will be visiting again next March/April and will be good to see how the kids are doing in their studies.

Steve had to go to the hospital to see a doctor about his stomach.  It still wasn't right and he kept getting really bad pains.  A two week course of medicine apparently should do the trick although without a full exam and x-ray I'm not sure how the doctor could tell what it was.  I'm no doctor so maybe he did.

Packing my rucksack was slow and very unenthusiastic but needed to be done. 

Didn't really do much the days before my flight.  Popped into Madina to visit the bank and that's about it.  Relaxed back at the house most of the time with the odd outing for a drink.  Saturday wasn't good as it was my last day.  Rucksack packed, all set and some tearful moments.  I was soooo close to cancelling the rest of my trip and just staying in Ghana for another 4-6 months or so but I need to do the trip and it's only 4 months.  As well as the cost (although would prob work out cheaper in the long run to stay in Ghana) and time spent arranging everything, it's something I've wanted to do for years so would be a shame to cancel and regret it later.

I'm starting to like Accra more and more.  Especially since I went into a supermarket and saw loads of cheese, wine, choc cake and basically everything we have back home.  They are around twice the price of in the UK but worth it.  Also places where I can get pizza, had one at Bonjour which wasn't great but better than nothing.

I headed to the airport in a taxi around 5ish and arrived around 6:10.  Check-in only took 30 mins but as usual seemed like waiting for paint to dry.  An hour or so waiting around outside saying goodbye to friends wasn't great.  Nobody wanted me to leave and neither did I.  Close to 8 I headed off to departures to wait even longer before boarding the plane to Nairobi and ending up stuck in between some guy who I can only assume had never flown before and took some tablets to pass out and a rather large Irish bloke who really needed two seats to be comfy.  Both were taking up the armrests...no consideration. lol.  So there I was, not particularly comfy with a tiny glass of white wine trying to watch 'Salt' on a tiny screen a few feet away from me.  Kenya Airways is definitely not Emirates.

The plane eventually set off around 21:15 and we landed in a surprisingly cold Nairobi at 5:30am.  I was bloody freezing.  Obtaining a visa was relatively simple, picked up my bag and wandered around all the Foreign Exchange Bureaus trying to get US$.  Only one took travellers cheques (max of $300) and none accepted cards!  Bit of a worry as need more for the local payment of my trip so hoping can get them in Karen Town before the start.  Not sure what'll happen if I can't.  Will just have to see.  Fingers crossed.

'Smiley' picked me up from the airport.  A local guy who does airport transfers to Karen Camp where I'm staying.  Nice guy and definitely smiles and laughs a lot.  A good thing but occasionally seems a bit manic. lol

On the way just outside the airport he showed me giraffes!  Right next to the city and airport at the edge of the Nairobi National Park.  Mad.

Karen Camp is more of a budget travellers place which seems ok, the staff are friendly and a few other travellers like me were there.  I feel a bit lonely though.  Unfamiliar surroundings, definitely a different feel to Ghana and complete strangers.  I'm sure once the trip begins and I meet everyone I'll be fine.  I have managed to have a cheese toastie and omlette and chips so one point for food that isn't rice or banku. 

So a new adventure begins, Maasai Mara 4 day trip to start before the big 3 month overland to Johannesburg.  I bought a new bridge camera before I left the UK and 3 months later still don't know how to use it properly.  Auto it is then. lol.

Goodbye Ghana for a few months, hello Eastern and Southern Africa.

Nothing to note on the wildlife and mozzie situation yet although the room I'm staying in has a fab big mozzie net to protect me :-).

Next blog for the Overland trip is http://sams-african-overland-adventure.blogspot.com

Bye for now

Sam xxx