Happy ending to a bad day

That Thursday was just one of those days. I woke up with bad stomach cramps and my first bout with travelers' diarrhea. That was tons of fun. I pumped myself full of drugs until I could comfortably leave my room. I had to eat something so I could take my malaria pill so I ended up walking towards class planning to buy a big piece of dry white bread and some water sachets. I walked leisurely knowing I would be late, and stopped at the bank to withdraw money from the ATM where my card, without reason, was declined. I entered the bank to ask why and they told me they didn't know and I would have to go into Accra to the main branch with a copy of my passport so they could clear my name. Bad news: we had to submit our passports to the immigration office to get our visas extended to more than 2 months so I didn't have it. I fortunately had a 10 cedi bill, but nobody on campus accepts them because your average purchase is about 60 cents, and nobody wants to give so much change to one customer. Worn out, I asked the woman behind the desk if she would change that into 1s, which she begrudgingly did after accusing me of possessing counterfeit money. No fun!

In order to improve the situation, I did not abort a plan that Ali, Natalie and I had made earlier that week- to bus to the Western region to hang out on the beach. I figured that if I was going to be lying down with stomach cramps, I might as well be in a place with a working toilet, good food and a beach front (for the mental health).
We packed and left that afternoon by STC bus and arrived in Takoradi that night. From there we took a taxi along the bumpiest most undeveloped road to the backpackers hostel we were hoping to stay at. A series of garbled text messages gave me the impression that they had a room available, and when we arrived, they said they were full. Given that the place was 10km from anywhere, I almost broke down sobbing, but they were able to open up space for us in tents that night. Relieved to find a place to rest our weary heads, we grabbed some sodas from the bar.

My assessment was more than correct. Sleeping in a secluded tent on the beach listening to the ocean's pounding waves was so peaceful compared to a boy's college dormitory. I woke up refreshed and staked out one of the covered tables on the beach where we set up camp for the day. All of us, but particularly me, was happy to have a down day. The most exciting thing I did was to set up this slightly wobbly self-timing photo to show all of us happily together.
I even felt good enough to snack on a breakfast of french toast and plantains with a little honey to sweeten it. Yummy, especially since all I'd eaten the day before was plain white rice.




Ali went wandering down the beach to look for seashells, and both Ali and Natalie went swimming in the slightly turbulent Atlantic Ocean.







Fortunately, I had been looking for an opportunity to finish Huckleberry Finn, so I spent a large part of the day lounging in a hammock. It really does help a tummy ache to spend the day on a lovely white beach. I also met a girl named Jess who just graduated from Stanford and had been traveling with friends and working at a nursery school and another man whose name I never got, but he was born in Germany and worked in England before going for his PhD in ecology and is now studying anthropology, doing work in a small village in the Western region. Interesting people.

We lounged around until the sun set. Getting close to a real San Francisco sunset. It was so peaceful and wonderful. That night, the tents were also booked, but we had agreed to sleep on mats on the sand covered by mosquito nets. That was pretty uncomfortable, but we stuck it out.



The next day we had planned to go see a stilt village. It was still a long way off, and I wasn't feeling 100%. Also, the hostel was going to charge 80 cedi to make it a day trip, which none of us were willing to do. So instead, we contributed to eco-tourism in a cheaper way by walking down the village and taking a guided canoe ride through mangrove forests. They are amazing plants, and it was again quite calm.
We saw some inland villages and met our guides, but also just soaked in the good feelings of being surrounded by green.






Although the optimal time to see wildlife is early morning or evening, we went mid-day to break up the monotony of sitting on a beach, and saw some of the less appreciated wildlife like this crazy looking crab.




We got back to camp, spent much of the afternoon in hammocks or at our table. We tried playing trivial pursuit, but it was British and from the 1970s, and since none of us knew which county the star cricket player at the time hailed from, we gave up pretty quickly. There was a bonfire that night, and some of the backpackers tried their hands at drumming (quite badly), but the Ghanaians took over much to my peace of mind. They were not able to "upgrade us to a tent" so we spent another quiet night under the mosquito nets on the beach.
Sunday was our last day out there (we'd all agreed to miss classes on Monday to make it a long weekend). We hung out and ate at the Green Turtle (our hostel) and then moved our bags over to the Safari Lodge (the more upmarket option- costing each of us 10 cedi for the night). We were greeted back by the famous leaning palm tree, met some of the other guests who seemed to appreciate their personal space (very much not like backpackers).



We then checked into a room with real beds! It feels really good after a couple of days on the ground.






We took a long walk on the beach to appreciate it one last time, came back, swam, showered, played Sorry, and had a wonderful fancy meal while cranking up the bar tab with some fancy drinks. The next day we woke up early, caught our taxi (who actually arrived on time) and brought us to the bus station. We caught the next air conditioned bus without a hitch, and ran into some friends of mine from the International Students' Hostel. We all traveled together (you are assigned a seat on the bus when you buy your ticket which means absolutely nothing), and then we all caught a taxi back to campus. My stomach recovered and we got another good night of sleep at home before Tuesday classes.