Oldest Mosque in Ghana

Larabunga, Northern Ghana

Meeting the elders and hearing their stories

The spiritual leader (Tingan Sob) in Tanchera was very welcoming to me and offered to take me around to show me different trees and plants that I hadn't seen yet in the community. He also explained how he became one of the most powerful men in the village. 'The Gods choose me, they killed my son to show me I had to come back and fulfill my role". He was living in the second largest town in Ghana (Kumasi) when the former leader passed away. The community do not choose who replaces them, but allows the Gods to do so, and through his son's death, he knew he had to bring his family back to the village and take up his destiny.

This is what makes being in Ghana all the worth while

Fire, mice and new friends

Helped out with a grass fire today that was getting a bit to close to some buildings next to my office.. Figured i should snap a few photos of our process.. no water but only green branches were used... we werent that effective, but managed to not have the building catch fire. Once the fire was out.. a guy came over to show me some mice that he had found... the mother mouse was taken and probably will be eaten for dinner tonight.

HIPPOS!

Yes that is right!! I completed 1/2 of my expectations of seeing hippos! These lovely guys were seen last weekend at the Wachau hippo sancuary, which has been partly funded through the Calgary zoo. I spent the weekend staying in a nearby village and was woken up at 540am by my nice guide to bring me down to the black volta river. We were so lucky as 5 hippos (one male adult, one female and 3 youngins) were hanging out in front of us. During the wet season the river is often too high to see them at all. I got to take a lovely 1.5 hour boat ride to watch them a little closer and then watched them from the shore for while after. It was so nice and peaceful and felt great that is was only me and the local fishermen around. If anyone travels to Ghana they should definately check this place out! It is well worth it.

My african home

My bedroom, its big with a nice window and a fan! What more can a girl ask for?

Back yard: place for cooking, washing clothes, growing food, and hanging out

Front door and my bike, which sadly was stolen!

Front gate that i have to bang on each night to be let in.

My home in Wa. I live with a woman, her 6 year old daughter and her 15 year old niece. Their English is not that strong, and my Wallie is horrible, but we still manage to have a good time watching movies on my laptop at night.

Weekend at Cape Coast

Beautiful sun on the beach. I spent over an hour watching the sky change..

Almina castle. The first castle built on the west african coastline, used as a trading post for a variety of goods and then turned into a slave hold where up to men and woman stayed in small rooms waiting for the ships to arrive to take them away. Horrific place to visit, especially the smell in some of the rooms.

A beautiful lizard.. love his colours.. he was really camera shy and kept running away from me.. but i managed to get a good shot

Cape Coast was a great weekend trip, actually it could have been a great week long trip. Rachel (my partner in crime) and I manged to get ourselves into one of the best resorts along the palm lined beach.. we spent the weekend visiting the castle, chatting with travellers we met, ate great food, went riding on horses early one morning, and had a wonderful long bumpy to get there (which was worth every sore min).

Harvest Festival

Its time to party for the harvest festival, which occurs in many communities in northern Ghana around this time. The sleepy town of Lawra was busting with hundreds of people, as everyone comes home from all over Ghana to visit family, friends, watch a football match, dance competitions, see a hunting demonstration, and a enjoy a large market. Here are just 2 images from that weekend (internet is too slow to add more.. sorry!). I think what I will remember most is how loud the guns were.. I was filming a procession of the chiefs and a gun went off close by and it took me awhile to get my hearing back.. i moved away after that!