The Tourist Ventures – Part II

The purpose of our second day on the road was to get from Point A (Mole National Park) to Point B (Cape Coast). We wended our way through lovely countryside, stopping at an old-fashioned filling station to fuel our vehicle. The diesel was pumped by hand into clear measuring cylinders, then siphoned into the tank. Wow!

On we went to Abba’s home village, where we spent the night with his family. Since we arrived at 3:00 in the afternoon, one of Abba’s cousins – “Rey” – gave us a walking tour of the town, from the chief’s palace to the community health clinic (where scales – the first I’ve seen in Ghana – revealed that the exercise and Ghanaian food have been doing their job: I came purposing to put on weight, and am succeeding. Woo-hoo!) to a cassava farm.

As we walked along, we attracted a lot of attention, and Rey explained that the only obrunis the people ever see are on TV, “so you could be criminals, and people would still be happy to see you.” He was trying to say that they regarded us as celebrities, but I hastened to assure him that if it was any consolation, we weren’t criminals. ;) Ghana was beating Burkina Faso in their Cup of Nations (African soccer tournament) match, which was quite fun, as the town erupted into cheers each time our team scored.

Abba arranged for his family to prepare fufu for supper: what a treat for Daddy and Benjamin (and me)! We brushed our teeth out behind the family compound, spitting on the bare earth, and marveling at the panoply of stars overhead.

It was a good day.