Maybe my best day yet - Biking in Ghana

More monkeys to come, but I just love this picture. He looks so intense.

I rented for three months a bike from my friend Luc and yesterday was my first day on the bike. Torkor is on the edge of Lake Volta and there is a steep little mountain ridge that separates it from Kpandu, the bigger town where I frequently go to use the internet, go to a bar/restaurant and get some things I cannot find in Torkor.

This is my town!

Some of the 2nd grade kids playing with my bike

The bike is a mountain bike which is great because there are a lot of off-roading/potholing/dirt roads I will be going on. I have seen exactly one girl on a bike; part of this may be that pants are still uncommon on women here. So being a yevu, white girl, on a bike is odder than me just walking around. But just like in the US it sure is convenient. I do not have to wait for the taxis or try to squeeze into one that is already full. Side note, the current record for taxi capacity was 4 adults and one child in the back, driver, plus one adult and two kids in the passenger seat. Nine people in a Toyota hatchback.  It is also nice being able to bike past instead of having people stopping me on the street. Like in Chicago I feel safer on my bike in sketchier neighborhoods than I do walking. It is more anonymous but not always in a good way. I do not say hi to as many people because I am avoiding cars, potholes, people and goats. I do not observe the world around in as much detail. I am glad I started on foot but I am also glad I can now pop down the road or to campus in a few minutes rather than 10-15 minutes. When I went to campus to check in quickly some of the smaller boys ran up when they saw the bike. A few were able to straddle the top tube and reach the peddles, the others I put on the bike and just ran around with them on it for a while. I am writing this as I am about to set off with Tracy and Josh, the other volunteers, to go to Tafi Atome which is a village that has a monkey sanctuary so I am sure I will have more to write in a few hours.

And I am back! What a spectacular day. After a rough start of the first hostile situation I encountered. I biked to the trotro station, which entering is not allowed. I did not see the tiny sign. And I guy came up, grabbed my bike and said I could not go until I gave him 5 cedis. Which is not a lot of money but I was not going to be blackmailed when I made an honest mistake. This then escalated into my holding the bike, him holding my bike, and about 20 people yelling at each other some on my side and some on his. I was getting upset but also pissed and stubborn. But anyways, on to the good parts. 

Please sir, can I have some more?

Finally I got one to jump on me

I met Tracy and Josh and we headed out to Luc's place to borrow bikes for them and set off for Tofi Atome. With a hand-sketched map and slightly conflicting directions to the place we were not totally sure but luckily asking for directions is easy. It was a bright but overcast morning and on a quiet but newly paved road which was great. The last bit was dirt but very newly manicured. It was a little over an hour bike away and it was really nice to get into the more rural areas where there are long stretches of wilderness, no traffic and noise and just beautiful. If you took out the plantain trees, it really reminds me of home in the Blue Ridge Mountains. We arrived to the Monkey sanctuary and as I was locking up the bikes a nut fell out of a tree and wacked my hat. Then we look up and it was the monkey throwing them at us! After checking in and paying for the tour we and a bunch of Germans were given bananas to feed to one of the seven families that live here. Only a few of the families are people friendly. Tracy was like a monkey whisperer and had tons leap on her. It took me a while for a monkey to stay on my arm and not just grab a piece of the banana and run. Either way it was amazing to get so close to them and not be afraid of them biting like in other parts of the world. They were small Mona monkeys, and many were just little babies. The alpha male was much bigger but he was fed first and then kept back from the bananas. So that was just a super fun experience being surrounded and inches away from these adorable little guys, who made this little cooing/squeaking sound.

On the way back out we stopped in Kudzra, the town where my roommate and about 8 other students come from, to visit the bamboo beach. It is just the place where there is a river crossing and a peaceful open area along the shore with large bamboo stands. It would be a great place for a picnic of almost looks like a natural ballroom like you could have a wedding there.

The bamboo beach

Back to town, stopping for Fan-ice, a tasty frozen treat sold from bicycle carts, and went to a new bar and had the best restaurant food I have had here, fried rice, chicken and salad. We were all a bit wary of the greens but it was so good we all ate them and hoped for the best. So it was a great day with friends and on bikes with good food, conversation and monkeys. And it ended with a rainbow as I biked home.

P.S. Milk was a bad idea

Happy but HOT on my bike

So this is obvious, but it hit me today that it is HOT in equatorial Africa. It was the first day I felt like I just could not cool off. It is the kind of heat I cannot escape either with no AC, no refrigerator for cold drinks and only one fan in the house (which I plan on rectifying soon) After my first bike trip to Kpandu I just could not get cooled down even after sitting an hour in the internet cafe. So hopefully I will be slowly acclimating more but I am just a sweaty mess when I bike.