A Goodbye to Ghana

Wow



Is it the 20th of January already?



 The past couple days have been almost surreal. I still cannot believe that I am flying back home tonight, it's a very bittersweet feeling however. I cannot wait to see everyone back home, but I've really come to love Ghana, it's people, and it's wildlife.


I'm very happy to announce that I am leaving on an extreme high note as well! As mentioned in my last post we had been surveying the beaches in Winneba for a weeks time looking for Sea Turtles and had come up with a big fat 0! However on my last night in Winneba, Leslie and I walked our beach site one last time. On our first run we came across freshly made tracks from a Green Sea Turtle....We had JUST MISSED IT! We proceeded to tell ourselves that this evidence was enough to make us happy even if we didn't see the actual turtle (mostly to validate the fact that we had walked a couple miles of beach for the past week!) because at the very least the beautiful creature made it back to the sea after a successful nesting without any poacher interference. However we were still a bit dissapointed in missing her.

We decided to hang out for a short time on the beach, just to try our luck with catching one emerging from the sea, but after sitting for a bit we began the trek back along the beach. As we continued our journey we saw caught a glimpse of something in the sand....MORE Tracks, we quickly put our red head lamps on and scanned the tracks, our eyes following them to the dunes at the top of the beach. It is here where we saw sand being flipped into the air.....IT WAS A TURTLE!!! We quickly and quietly scurried up the dune to find a beautiful Olive Ridley Turtle beginning to dig out her nest. We a watched her dig and lay eggs for a good hour, sitting in awe nearly the entire time. It was such a blessing to finally see one of these amazing creatures nesting in Africa!  We snapped some "Infared" video for Leslie's conservation/resource education video, and when she was finished nesting were able to take a few quick photos before she made her way back to the sea. Stuff like this always hits my heart pretty hard and I had to fight back tears of happiness/amazement when seeing this HUGE and beautiful animal perform such an amazing task! These are the kind of events that affirm my calling and my faith in the path that I'm traveling on!

After our last turtle-hurrah Leslie and I returned home where I got packed up and ready to go to Accra. Thankfully our friend Andy with the Ghana Wildlife division was going to Accra for a meeting and was able to give me a ride into town, helping me to keep all of my bags intact instead of jamming them into a crowded tro-tro! I hope to do more work with Andy in the future, there is a lot of potential for work at the Winneba site.













I cannot believe my time in Ghana has finally come to a close, this amazing place including it's people and wildlife will forever hold a special place in my heart. I've met some wonderful people,witnessed some incredible wildlife, and have had a truly outstanding experience here!  I just hope my presence here leaves an impression half as good as the impression the country has left on me.



Thank you to everyone here in Ghana and back in the states who made this trip possible, it's one of the best things I've ever done in my life and I hope I have done you proud.


To those still in Ghana, God Bless and see you again in the future. To those back home in the states, be seeing you soon!

Much Love...


"Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad, let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the Lord." -Psalm 96:11-13

THE END

To the Southlands!

Hey everyone!

My time in Ghana is nearing its end.  I’m definitely excited to see everyone back home, but it is very bittersweet and even sad to be leaving my home for the past 3 months. Ghana is an amazing country, and in my view a very blessed place as well. I felt more connected to God while here than I’ve ever felt in my life, I know for sure that the Lord called me here for some reason or another, and that is a a great feeling to have! I’ve met so many amazing and wonderful people here too that I will NEVER forget. I’m very certain that this will not be my last trip to Ghana either, I’ve fallen in love with the place and it’s amazing  people and wildlife.

For my penultimate blog entry I would like to show off some more pictures, and talk about my adventures in the southern/central region the past week or so, but do expect a final wrap up post in the next couple days before I leave!

Anyways…. On to the South!

Kakum rainforest early in the morning... stunning!

I made the journey to the southern region with my new friend Leslie. We had met through a mutual friend who she had contacted in regards to Sea Turtle work in Ghana. She paid me a visit in the north and got to see my neck of the woods (Damongo, Kulmasa, Mole national park,etc), then we took off to the south to see her study area in Winneba which is very close to Kakum national park rainforest.

We spent a couple days in Kakum and were not disappointed! We saw so many amazing creatures including dwarf bushbabies, a plethora of spider and centipede species, and my favorite a Smyth’s Watersnake which I captured in one of the streams flowing through the forest.

Grayia smythii

We also decided to camp out in a massive tree house within the forest for a night, the sounds of the wildlife all around us gave way to the most calming and restful sleep I’ve had since being in Ghana! It was amazing!

After checking out the rainforest, we headed to a small little animal rehab/sanctuary near bye (Monkey Forest sanctuary). Owned by an old Dutch couple  they collect wounded animals from around Ghana along with unwanted ones and offer them sanctuary and usually eventual release. I didn’t agree with all of the things they did (such as killing the venomous snakes they found on the property  when they could not persuade them to move on), but despite their flaws, it was nice to see someone doing some perceived good for the wild life in Ghana. We were able to get up close and personal with some od the denizens of the sanctuary, including two species of Hingeback tortoise, three species of aquatic turtles, Civet, and Genet cats, Black Dukier antelope, Rock Pythons, Ball Pythons, Nile crocs, and my personal favorites baby Black Cobras, Boomslangs, and Mambas!

Kinixys sp. possibly K.erosa

After leaving Kakum I took a detour to Cape Coast and stayed an evening to see the Slave Castle that made the city famous. I met a huge amount of people there, including native Rastafarians, Australian and Swedish/Swiss volunteer nurses and teachers, and some very good native Ghanian dancers! I also learned how to play a couple of Ghanian instruments while there. Something you’ll have to see when I get home haha!

Cannons at the Cape Coast Slave Castle

After my quick detour to cape coast I returned to Winneba where Leslie and I have been going out on Sea Turtle walks for an active conservation project that has been initiated by the Ghana Wildlife division.  So far we’ve been out almost everynight  I’ve been in Winneba but have not found ANY living nesting turtles or even evidence of nests! Sadly we did come across two dead Green Sea Turtles, one having been nearly bisected by what was likely the propeller of an illegal foreign fishing trawler.  In my last few nights here in Winneba we’ll continue our walks, hopefully I’ll be able to report back on my final blog with news of some turtle sightings/taggings!

Winneba itself is much different than the Northern region, and houses a melting pot of different cultures and languages. It’s quite the task to communicate down here sometimes due to the mixing of the Fanti, Twi, and Ga languages! The North was much easier as Walet and Gonga were the most prominent languages in the areas I lived!

I’ve met some other AMAZING volunteers here in the south as well, an awesome group that has been self-dubbed “The Crazy Obrunis” due to the constant activates they/we partake in! Including climbing mountains, walking beaches, etc.  The group ranges from all over, Including Amanda a volunteer teacher from Michigan, Clint a volunteer at an orphanage from Mississippi , Ben a social worker from Canada/France, Jessie another social worker from Michigan working with the Challenging heights program that seeks to end child slavery, and then myself and Leslie rounding out the crew with our wildlife/conservation work!

Well that’ll about do it guys, be leaving for home in 3 days (!!!!!!!!!!).

Much Love, and God Bless

My last coup in the Northern/Upper West!

Hey everyone!


Been traveling like a madman the past few days, sorry about the lack of blog entries! My friend Leslie a volunteer with the Ghana Wildlife division and I have been trekking around my work area and then traveled back down south to her own area of work (The Sea Turtle nesting beaches of Winneba!!!).



So on to a breif recap of our travels!



First we made a journey to Mole National park where my friend Oliver one of the managers allowed us to enter free of charge due to our volunteer work with A Rocha and the Wildlife division. We decided to stay the night at the Mole motel bunk site and went on two Amazing safaris that allowed us to see a plethora of species. We cam across Kob and Bushbuck (two of the three antelopes to see), Nile Crocodiles (my favorites of course!), and of course to main draw Elephants!

However another critter stole the show in my eyes, that being an AMAZING Puff Adder snake. It was my first time seeing a live snake in Ghana and I absolutely flipped out. It was extremely beautiful and docile, allowing me to get 2 or 3 feet away from it while it enjoyed a drink from a water hole.

We also encountered my third Chameleon of the trip, and enjoyed a BEAUTIFUL sunset right off the Mole Resteraunt balcony. Pretty much a perfect end to the day!

The following day we moved up to the Upper west region where I did my crocodile work. We paid a visit to my Kulmasa family, Morrison, Sedu, and Suk and my beloved crocodiles as well! After that we moved on to the Wiechu hippo sanctuary that was supposedly close by. However we found that this was not the case as we ended up spending more time getting there than we had spent doing anything else!  However once we finally made it we were blessed by the sight of 5 Hippos! Such amazing animals to see in the wild! We also made a quick trek to the other side of the river they were in (the Black Volta) as on the other bank was another country, the neighboring country of Burkina Faso! 

Following the Hippo trip we made a long but fun journey back to Damongo in one night, that involved hopping on Trotro buses and packed private bus! This allowed us to pack up and get ready to leave the next day.It was definitely a bit sad to say goodbye to my friends in Damango though. My great friends Braimah, Daryl, and Michael all saw us off as we caught a ride to Tamale and then hit an overnight bus to get to Accra and then Winneba.

I’ll be returning home in 10 days which is CRAZY!!!! I cannot believe the time has gone by so quickly! Be seeing all of you back in the states very soon!

Much Love and God Bless!

My Last few days in Damango= Rasta-Pirate Fun

Hey everyone,



Sorry the blog has been a little infrequent recently, anyways.....



I've been spending my final week here in Damongo doing a little bit of resting and relaxing. The A Rocha staff was on leave for most of late december/early January, but Michael one of the staff members remained in Damongo during his time off. Michael invited me to one of the churches here several times and I really enjoyed it! It's a very new congregation but it appears to be growing quickly, which was a very cool sign to see. The Pastor is only slightly older than myself, but man he can preach! The services where very fun and interactive. It was especially cool to see the young children dancing all around to the gospel music they played! Very cool way to experience the Ghanian Church culture!

I've also come across a new addiction here.... Fanmilk Ice cream, they have Vanilla, Chocolate, and strawberry yogurt. I usually eat 3 or 4 a day, they are just that goooooood! I've lost around 20 pounds since I got here, so I figure loading up on the sweets will help me gain some of it back!




One of the coolest things I've done this week involved going to the hair salon of my friend's sister and letting her Braid my ridiculously bushy beard "Rasta" style. The process involved her twisting my beard and intertwining it with some blonde extensions before capping it with a bead. It looks pretty cool and I figured it would be a fun and funny thing to do! Plus I was able to give my friend's sister a little business so that makes it worth it in it's own. The Final result looks to be a cross between a Rastafarian and some sort of Pirate. Thus I've dubbed my beard a "Rasta-Pirate" beard haha!

All in all it's kind of bittersweet to be leaving Damango soon. I've made so many awesome friends here and it's gonna be tough to leave them. However I'll be leaving to hit some very cool places in the rest of the country, including a return trip to Mole National park, and my crocodiles in Kulmasa, along with a Hippopottamus sanctuary, a Rainforest preserve park, and finally wrapping up my field time in Ghana walking the beaches in Winneba with some friends with the Wildlife division for sea turtles!


It's crazy to think my time in Ghana is down to just a little over two weeks! I'm going to make the best of this already amazing experience though!


Much Love and God Bless

My First Ghanian Christmas!

Hey everyone!


Hope you all had a Merry Christmas back home, filled with lots of joy and celebration! I had quite a Christmas celebration myself here in Ghana! It began like any other day with me cruising around town on my bicycle picking up supplies and whatnot, but once in town I ran into one of my basketball friends here in Damongo. He invited me to play some ball with the rest of the Damango basketball players I had played with before along with some new friends from Germany.

It was a very fun game of basketball (10 buckets from yours truly....yes I keep my stats in pickup basketball lol), and the German girls who played with us were both EXTREMELY good basketball players, they made me bite on shot fakes more than once!


After the game was over some of the locals who were playing asked me and our new German friends to join them for a Christmas celebration at one of the canteen/restaurants in town that night. So I called my good friend Braimah about it and we both decided to join them!


It was a fun night I drank one of the local made carbonated drinks known as Alvaro (AKA peach flavored deliciousness) and ate some unexpectedly delicious roasted chicken gizzards!  After eating, I decided to cut a little Ghanian rug and started dancing with some of the residents of Damango! It was a lot of fun even though I'm a TERRIBLE dancer haha.

Braimah and I chowing down on some Chicken gizzards!

busting a move with one of the locals of Damongo...or trying to!

All in all it was a very memorable way to spend my first Christmas away from home and I'm sure I'll treasure and remember it along the rest of my wonderful experiences here for the rest of my life!

The rest of my Christmas crew!

Merry Christmas to everyone again, and God Bless!

Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish you all  Merry Christmas back home!

and so does a friend of mine...........

Much Love and God Bless back home!


"You will have great joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth"-Luke 1:14

Hedgehog!!!!!

Hey Everyone!


Just wanted to post some pictures up of this awesome little bugger I came across after crocodile surveys tonight! For not loving mammals, the cool ones sure do seem to like me over here!

Soooo cooool!

Me and My new found friend!

    

Atelerix albiventris, The African Four-toed or Pygmy Hedgehog!