Dune Bashing

Sorry for not posting recently. Ingrid and I have been having some computer troubles. We are actually about to head out for egypt, but I want to share some things about Dubai so the next few posts will have an anecdote or description of something I found fun or ridiculous.

Dune bashing is both fun AND ridiculous. I Loved it. We got in a 4x4 and drove into the desert. Once we were away from packed sand and into some serious dunes the driver went a little nuts. He began driving along the sides of the dunes, and over steep edges, and for the most part it felt like we were sliding everywhere. hmmm thats not a good description. If youve ever slid in the snow, just a short controlled skid as you took a turn... imagine that sliding feeling continuing for several minutes. Now add a slope, so the car is tilted at just under 45 degrees. Now pretend youre in a landrover, a vehicle that almost WANTS to flip over on its side. Now go at high speeds from one slope to another over and over. Now add a convoy of landrovers so you have the added danger of crashing into one-another...

I badly wanted to try it, but I probably would have killed us all. The guy driving was incredible.

Heading to Dubai

In just a few hours Ingrid and I will board a plane to dubai. I suspect that we will be little shocked returning to a modern metropolis, but im excited for the food. We are going at peak tourist time, but if some things are more expensive, other things are cheaper. Besides the Dubai Shopping festival will certainly be interesting.

Ghana was fun, and I definetely enjoyed our time here. I will miss the street food for sure, and also our very comfortable room in the church. But im excited as well.

Monkeys and Airplanes

Hey hey,

sorry I havent posted in a bit, its been hard to get on the internet since we got back from Burkina. We've been back for a few days and are just going through the list of things we havent done and things we want to do again before we leave Ghana.

Just two things aobut Burkina, which was lovely and filled with tasty french food. Burkina is a desert and was a french colony. It is very poor.

But we stayed with really rich people, which can be stifling but was fun. Mr Ron has a pet monkey. The monkey was kinda dumb but it was cute. A British Colonel Monkey i think. He chased me and I ran. seriously. this tiny monkey and i ran like a mouse being hunted by a cat. ha.

I also got to fly a plane. I know, who would let me do that? But it was wicked fun, and we didnt crash. sweet.

Goodbye Beach

Im not gonna lie... I love the beach. Its really pretty fantastic. The Green Turtle Lodge, haven of volunteers and expats, is really really well planned and organized. Besides being in a great, if remote, location; it is also exceptionally comfortable, well integrated with the locals, and ecologically friendly. All awesome things.

Now we are headed to Burkina Faso, and hopefully Mali. I am looking forward to the new country, both of us are very excited, if a little nervous since neither of us speak French. With some luck I'll be able to update from there. You'll notice the name change. If I dont get to update I'll change it again... Taking Names: Middle East.

Back again

So mole was sweet. Beautiful. And the elephants were awesome. We only saw five, a small bachelor group, but it was pretty sick, and I got a few pictures before the camera battery failed on me. Ha. so it goes.

Now we are back in Accra, it was a grueling 19 hour trip, but it is great to be back here. In a few days we are off to the beach and that will be wonderful as well. Hopefully another update before we head out there.

Fizzle

So the final election was taking place... and one of the parties told their supporters not to vote. In the most brilliant strategy ever the NPP said that since they didnt think the EC had the right to declare the winner that weekend their people would not vote. And by and large they didnt.

That was on Friday. On Sat the NDC was declared the winner and the NPP candidate had given a very decent concession speech. Jubilation occurred. And now the streets are a lot less tense and things are spiraling back to normal.

Tomorrow we head out to go see elephants. Back in a while.

Election drama

My last post about the election painted a tense but probably peaceful picture. In this post I would like to emphsize the tension.

Both parties have protested, and the leaders on both sides have told the election commission that there has been ffraud in different areas. The NPP has filed an injunction with the court saying that the EC should not announce a winner tomorrow, instead there should be a re-vote in yet another area.

We bought a paper today and some of the articles were somewhat bleak. The parties have begun to divide into ethnic groups, with the NPP perceived as the Ashanti paty and the NDC as everyone else. Radio personalities are inciting violence and although protests have not turned into riots rocks have been thrown and people have shown up with machetes.

The tension is higher than I thought and the streets are far emptier than usual... but on the other hand the leaders of the parties are urgin people to remain calm and to wait for results. Violence has been minimal and is restricted to the fringes of the parties and, so far, people are simply waiting.

Ingrid and I may just go back to the beach to wait it all out.