Ho Ho Ho

   Sunday week ago we went for a spin to the mountains around Nkawkaw. Lovely scenery, particularly loved the serpentine-like stretch of road that brought us up and down the mountain. There were several abandoned trucks along the way, either to weak to make it up or abandoned because the breaks aren't working. You'd be shocked to know how many motors over here are speeding about the place with no breaks and you'd also wonder why someone would even attempt to go down such a road when the breaks aren't working. Suicidal if you ask me. Actually one of my constant worries when I'm on the road myself. Once again, welcome to Africa :)

   On one of those sharp bends uphill we encountered an abandoned bus blocking the way. Cars, including ourselves had to pass it on the inner side of the steep curve. At least by the time we were headed back a towing truck was working on it. 

   Hope everyone has had a relaxing and enjoyable few days with their loved ones. Can't believe the year is nearly over. Although Rory and myself are not the Christmassy type we thoroughly enjoyed a chilled out day by the pool with the few remaining staff left at Purple Rocks. We had some visitors from Newmont also. Rory's day was made when we were presented with a big, tasty lump of ham. He made sure to stuff himself with as much as he could eat and he somehow talked the canteen crew into handing him the leftover ham when they finished up. Opportunist! :) We ended the day with a round of Monopoly. Haven't played that game in years and it turned out to be quite entertaining. 

   Since my library crew won't return until the 9th of January I have decided to take a few days off myself. I shall mostly be sitting by the pool today reading a book (if the haze decides to lift) and thinking of the terrible freeze-shock I will get when I am back in Ireland in just 4 weeks time. I'll be hitting Irish soil on the 24th January until 14th February. Would love to catch up with whoever is around then.

   Tomorrow we'll take a spin down to Cape Coast for a few nights. It's meant to be beautiful with lots to see. Really looking forward to the trip. 

Petrol station - the moment just before he managed to spill the petrol all over the bike *classic* :)

 

Heading towards Nkawkaw and the mointains (Kwahu-Oda)

Rory pushing it...

 

 

The big feast

Harmattan

To stick with the ole Irish way lets talk a bit about the weather. For the last 2-3 weeks I haven't seen a decent blue sky. It's constantly hazy. this is because the Harmattan season has started. During that season Ghana weather is very dry and dusty due to the northeast trade winds blowing from the desert. It also is a little cooler at night. In short: It's the Ghanaian cold and flu season. At an average of 30 degrees Celsius I do find this most peculiar. 
   Thursday last week I felt courageous once again and joined the guys at the library for lunch. This time they escorted me to a different 'chop bar' or restaurant. There was quite a vibe about the place when they realised I was about to be their first Obruni customer. I was equally excited (or worried?) to have my first experience of eating Fufu. 
   Fufu is made by boiling starchy root vegetables such as cassava, yam, plantain or rice, then pounding them into a glutinous mass. It is eaten with light soup, for example tomato or palm nut. We had it with a chicken soup and bits of lamb. Oh yeah... it is eaten by hand. You right hand to be precise. Soup... by hand. Interesting experience. It isn't actually as bad as I had been told (I had been warned of Fufu's tastelessness and gooey consistency by several of Rory's colleagues). Admitted, I wouldn't let it become part of my daily diet for nutrition reasons alone, but if it was put in front of me again I'd eat it, no problem. 
   When I couldn't make it the next day, the restaurant owner enquired about my whereabouts and insisted to send the guys back with a gift of 'bushmeat' soup for me. Well presented in a plastic bag. I had to ask a good few times what kind of meat 'bushmeat' is and only after a while Sammy explained it was Antelope. So I'm guessing 'roadkill' is more like it... I tried it but it was way too spicy for my likings and tasted too much of the local 'pepe' sauce which has fish in it. The combination didn't float my boat. I was genuinely happy about the gesture though, especially when so far it has been a rare experience for me to be given presents by a Ghanaian.
    Instead and sadly in the past 2 months I have perhaps met a handful locals who seem genuine and friendly for no superior motive. There is hardly a week that goes by without people trying one of their many tactics for you to give them money or any type of present. People over here are poor, no doubt. Amazingly enough though, it isn't the poor that have the cheek to ask for money. It is the ones that are doing well enough, have 2-3 mobiles, new clothes, a job... They are opportunists and I don't blame them for that. I'm frustrated with their way of thinking and expectant attitude however. It can be tiring, especially when you look around and see the potential that surrounds each one of them and how little they seem to care. Instead they go begging :( Not sure if I'm able to bring across what I mean. Maybe it is a bit of a culture shock I'm going through and I will be able to deal with it better in time. I doubt it though...
   On a more positive note. After many weeks of a testosteron filled environment we're now one step closer to hormonal balance at Purple Rocks. Rozahn, a young lady my age from South Africa has moved to Ghana a couple weeks ago. Her husband works for one of the contractors on site. This is good news :)

Akoasi roundabout with traditional goat randomly passing the road - we're still waiting for proper roads but at least the roundabout thingy is tiled ;-)

My 3 library helpers Hayford, Daniel and Seth (left picture) and Restaurant owner and husband preparing food

Palm nut soup (left) and Fufu (right) in the making

Food order Fast Food style and proof of me getting my hands dirty (I'm a legend!)

Opportunist lady with cute baby and fan group posing 

From child labour to RTFM

Quick update on the progress in the library. We're still busy with adding books to the accession register which could basically be described as stock taking. We've added about 1.500 books so far. Many books unfortunately had to be removed and disposed of because they had been in poor storage conditions for several months before and termites had gotten to them. Unfortunately some of the encyclopedias are damaged too and now incomplete. Frustrating. 
   We've done a good clean up of the room. The guys had to remove the stains of paint from the tables and chairs. While Seth and Hayford were taking a break 3 year old Lewis made himself useful :) The room is starting to take shape with an official desk/office space for the librarian. It's still a long way to go, but at least progress is showing.

Kev, one of Rory's colleagues from Australia was so kind to bring back a screen for Suzi. We fitted it yesterday and it looks pretty decent. I like! Rory meanwhile got busy scratching his head over installing the bike to bike radio kit on his KTM. You need to have studied to understand that manual. By the way, a few days ago we fixed the problem with the clutch. It is now running on 100% extra virgin olive oil :) 
  Oh yeah, how do you like my new helmet camera? :D 

 

Morocco

I have one word for Morocco: Wow!!! What a beautiful, diverse and panoramic country. 

   After landing in Casablanca early Monday morning we rented a car and did some sightseeing around the city. As in Ghana, driving in Morocco is a bit of an adventure in itself. African driving antics - only Morocco style. We discovered strange rules such as traffic entering into a roundabout has right of way. It escapes my logic and makes me wonder why you would have a roundabout in the first place. Anyway, not quite ready for a new level of traffic mayhem and never ending beeping concerts we left Casablanca the same day and drove along the coast to Rabat where we stayed for 2 nights. Rabat is a nice, relatively modern city. 

   The highly praised hospitality and friendliness of the Moroccans is not so much present in the cities I'm afraid. Very much like in any big city I suppose. One of the many guys in Rabat sitting by the side of the road to watch your car got fairly aggressive when we refused to pay him. We had parked inside a dedicated area (blue lines) and paid for a ticket at the machine. He argued that the car was not entirely parked inside the blue lines. Hence we had to give him money. We acted the stupid tourist. He opened the drivers door and released his anger by saying: 'English? Yes? SHUT UP! ... Go home Jew!". On hindsight very comical. Where did that come from?!

   Leaving Rabat we were headed towards Meknes and Fes to see the remains of Volubilis, a Roman settlement. I'm sure there are more spectacular and well preserved ruins around the world but I am always amazed to see how details such as elaborate mosaic floors survive for centuries. After wandering around for a while and guessing who might have lived there and how, it was time to get going again. We booked ourselves into a Hotel in Fes for the night.

    From Fes we were headed to the Beni Mellal region the next day.  We stopped for dinner in Beni Mellal. Funniest moment of the holiday: Rory asking for pork at a restaurant in a totally muslim country. Priceless!
    About 20 km before Azilal along some very windy, mountainous roads we stumbled across a dam (Bin el Ouidane). Apparentely the largest in Morocco. Driving past a very nice hotel overlooking the lake we decided to try our luck and stay for the night. Upon further inspection of the hotel we liked it that much that we ended up staying 2 nights. We made a day trip to the Cascades d'Ouzoud. We were determined to find our way from the top of the waterfall down to the valley without the help of a local guide and succeeded. Being there in the low season is a definite plus. I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much if it was as overrun by tourists as it is in the summer months. This way it was just perfect. We even got to see some monkeys who live in the caves around the waterfall. Amazing! 

    As nice as the hotel was we left the next day with the goal to pass through the Gorges du Todra. A narrow valley between mountains, with steep rocky walls. It was quite a long drive through the snowy Atlas mountains and windy, rocky roads which made me dream of having my bike there (yes Daniel, you were right!). Another highlight: Giving an older man in the middle of nowhere a lift to the next village. He only spoke arabic and my poor attempts of pronouncing a few standard sentences from my dictionary failed. It didn't matter though. Every now and then you heard a chuckle from our unusual passenger in the back. He was very thankful when we dropped him at his destination and we both felt great.

    Just when it was getting dark and about 20 km before Tinerhir we spotted an unusual complex of buildings which turned out to be a very hospitable Guesthouse. We spend the night in a cave! The warmest and coziest we had been the entire trip. The price included a heartwarming dinner and breakfast. If you're ever traveling through that area make sure to spend a night at 'Le Festival'. An absolute must! If you're lucky, you will also get to see the clearest, starriest sky at night, see some real Nomads and listen to hundreds of their mountain goats giving out with an echo :) Loved it!

    The next morning we got the see the gorge in full glory. Pictures never fully capture stuff like this tho. We decided to keep driving and to make it to Marrakech the same day. It was a long yet again very enjoyable drive through Dades Valley and a few more mountains. I got to see Camels in the flesh for the first time. I was very please none of them decided to spit at me. 

    Upon landing in Marrakech we decided to spend a few days there to relax from all the driving and fully experience the city. Being one of those who absolutely hate it to be approached by shop assistants (in Europe that is) I wasn't really looking forward to the hassle that is the Medina. To my surprise it turned out to be a lot of fun. The Medina didn't see Rory 'Berber' Gaffney coming :) I suppose bartering runs deep in the Irish gene. The shopkeepers loved it and called Rory a 'Berber' because he wouldn't make it easy for them. Pure entertainment.

    Unfortunately Rory got food poising and was knocked out for 2 days followed by less amusing news from his workplace so that we didn't leave Marrakech until Sunday when we had to leave for the airport in Casablanca. We were in a class hotel though so that I didn't really mind staying.

   In summary: Both of us left Morocco stunned and with the promise to return - next time by bike :) Here are a handful snaps (click on image for larger version). Enjoy!

Casablanca - Mosque Hassan II

Rabat - Mausoleum Mohamed V

Mausoleum interior

Bin el Ouidane - dam and view of lake from hotel pool 

(near Azilal in Morocco)

Cascades d'Ouzoud

Heading for the Atlas Mountains

Sleeping in a cave

Gorges du Todra 

First Camel I got to see in flesh
driving through Dades Valley