True Life: I Went on an African Safari and Almost Broke My Butt

As the title eludes, it's true! Two days ago the SIT program went to Mole National Park right outside of Damongo for a safari. It was absolutely incredible, but I should probably back up and give you all some details.

The drive up to Mole was basically hellish. The first 90 minutes was fine, but then we turned onto this unpaved road that we had to stay on...for 2.5 hours. It did such a number on my back and butt, but it was totally worth it. I forget how lucky we are to have all of the roads basically paved in America. Never again will I complain about a pothole. Never. Again. Driving through we saw all of these villages, though, that always make me think of how diverse Ghana really is.

It's hard to understand how people can travel to Accra and think they know Ghana, but it really is so much more than just its capital. I'm not saying that because I travel around that I know more about Ghana, I just can see how different it is throughout the whole country.

Anyways, after the road, we finally arrived at Mole and we were able to stay overnight at the Mole Motel inside the park, which was really awesome, especially because there were monkeys and warthogs that just came right up to your door:

We got dinner at the hotel restaurant where they had hamburgers, so of course, most all of us ordered them. Tamale and the northern region in general has so much Westernized food, which, quite honestly, is a relief because Ghanaian food just isn't doing it for me anymore, but more about that later. So, once we got the cheeseburgers, we were greeted with a little Ghanaian surprise. The taste of the cheese was a little bit funny and no one could figure out why. Finally, we realized that the cheese was melted Laughing Cow cheese. Yes. Ghanaians (sadly) don't have much cheese at all, so Laughing Cow is as good as it gets. A newly-found appreciation for dairy products, let me tell you. The burgers also had cucumbers instead of pickles. Oh, Ghana, you slay me.

Anyways, then we woke up early on Thursday morning to go on a driving safari tour through the bush. We saw so many antelopes and gazelles. The road was so bumpy, but I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before and somehow was able to fall dead asleep. I was woken up to an elephant. Seriously. We all got out and were able to take pictures so closely to the elephant; it was crazy.

(The tro-tro that took us from Tamale to Mole that also doubled as a safari vehicle)

We had to leave fairly early from the park and work our way back to Tamale, but not before we had coffee!

When we got back to the hotel (which, I should add, is absolutely gorgeous and like a little paradise within Tamale), we all watched finished the season of Modern Family that I (accidentally) brought. It's so weird when we do that, though, because I literally feel like I'm in America again. It's a little odd.

Though I intended to write about food or Anita, I promise I will; I just figured writing about elephant sightings was, perhaps, a little bit more fun to write about. Anywho, tomorrow morning we're off to Kumasi for a night then we start the educational tour where we travel to Cape Coast, the Central and Eastern Regions, and the Volta Region all in twelve days. So, if I don't write soon, no fear!