Buying Bread

July 17th, 2006 | By Joshua | 2 Comments »

That I am ready to go home does not matter to Africa, which persists in being everywhere I look and all around me. Our house in Mamprobi is relatively modern (compared to the villages we saw up north, anyway), and I sit on our porch on Sunday morning, reading a book and sipping bitter coffee, a vain attempt to escape. The book on my lap (Whiteman, by Tony D’Souza) is about Africa though, a US volunteer in rural Cote D’Ivoire, and the air is filled with sounds which, even after eight weeks of hearing them, are still more foreign than familiar.
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Cape Coast, Canopy, and College Kids

July 11th, 2006 | By Joshua | No Comments »

The dust has not settled from our trip north when we reconfigure our daypacks and set out before sunrise, searching for transport to Cape Coast. There’s not much traffic in Accra before six a.m. on a Saturday morning, not the kind that grinds to a halt for 15 minutes at a time, gridlocked in noxious exhaust, as happens in the afternoons. No, the air is actually cool and the streets gray and empty as we go from the STC bus station to Kwame Nkumrah Circle, then to Kaneshie Market, until we finally find a westbound tro-tro and climb in for the 3-hour cruise.
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Back from the Bush: Two Weeks in Northeast Ghana

July 7th, 2006 | By Joshua | 8 Comments »

To travel is to disappear. At least it used to be, before blogs and cell phones plugged our movements into the ether for anyone to access and share. Keyboards and keypads have been at my fingertips for most of this journey but sometimes, I go deep enough that even gadgets are left behind. And while it is true that an unusual span of silence might signify the Tranquilo Traveler’s demise (by shipwreck, assassins, or shark attack, most likely), it is more probable that I have simply gone beyond wires and signals.

In northeast Ghana, Tay and I discover that this is easy to do.
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World’s a-hummin’

June 24th, 2006 | By Joshua | No Comments »

After a sun-soaked, rasta-colored day at Kokrobite Beach, just west of Accra, I return to Mamprobi to discover this review of the Tranquilo Traveler on one of my favorite travel sites. A pleasant end to a great day–thanks for the props, World Hummers, see you out there.

Talkin’ bout “out there,” Tay and I are headed North on Monday–gonna blow this fufu stand on a week-long, up-country tour to PPAG’s rural clinics and, hopefully, a visit to the Burkina Faso border at Paga.

Jubilation! Ghana 2 - USA 1! Everybody’s Dancin’…

June 23rd, 2006 | By Joshua | 2 Comments »

Each of Ghana’s goals against the USA is followed by an eruption of shouts and drumming, everyone spilling out of PPAG’s Young & Wise Center to dance in the streets. So it is no surprise that when the game is over, the afternoon light golden, an entire country stops to celebrate.
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Game On! Ghana vs. USA today…

June 22nd, 2006 | By Joshua | 3 Comments »

It is “do or die” for the Black Stars this afternoon in Germany. The other four African teams (Togo, Tunisia, Angola, and Cote D’Ivoire) have all been sent home, and Ghana must win in order to proceed to the next round of the World Cup. I haven’t been much of a sports fan for the last 20 years, but it’s impossible not to get caught up in the electricity here.
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Fellow Free-Spirit Traveler Flies On

June 20th, 2006 | By Joshua | No Comments »

“On a camel to heaven,” is how the friends and family of Kinga Freespirit describe her latest journey, the one that began with her death from cerebral malaria a few days ago at the Military Hospital here in Accra. Kinga met many people during her solo African sojourn, and made even more friends on her previous trip: a five-year hitchhiking journey around the world with her partner, Chopin. Her book, Led By Destiny, tells all about it, and the long lists of comments on her site and places like the Thorn Tree show just how many people she touched.
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Accra: sight-free, soccer-insane city by the sea

June 19th, 2006 | By Joshua | No Comments »

There are no “sights” in Accra. None to write home about, anyway. There is a National Theatre, a museum (I think), and a zoo that we have yet to visit, but in general, I agree with our guidebook that, from a tourist’s perspective, Accra is downright “disappointing.”
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Africa, AIDS, and the Earth-Wide Web Sandwich

June 14th, 2006 | By Joshua | 1 Comment »

A few months ago, I received a note from fellow world traveler Jonathan Rawlinson, regarding the Nata Village Blog and efforts to combat HIV/AIDS in this Botswana village. I shelved the message and forgot about it, until today, when I was serendipitously led back to Nata after viewing Jon and his brother, Duncan’s, historical completion of the World’s First Earth Sandwich.
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Cassavas, Castles, and a day trip to Keta

June 12th, 2006 | By Joshua | 2 Comments »

It is nice to see some new landscapes, something other than the urban Accra grime. The 3-hour drive east along the coast is a long, flat expanse of lush cassava fields, pocked by red termite towers, the roadside dotted with clusters of watermelon and okra sellers. Although we are following the coast toward Togo, the ocean does not come into view until after we’ve crossed the wide Volta River, and dipped south to the coast.
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