Mole

No, not the delicious Mexican dish...Mole National Park in northern Ghana.

We traveled there this weekend because, despite the talk of cultural awareness, people come to Africa to see wildlife. Determined to see elephants, we made the 400+ kilometer treck in an overpriced rented van. Then van had "Blessing" written across the top of the windshield, and the driver indeed drove as if he thought he was protected by God.

Mole lived up to expectations. We were greeted by baboons at the front gates, and warthogs wandered around the pool as we ate dinner. We took a tour the next morning with a park ranger, who was armed with a 22 gauge rifle that would just bonce bullets off most of the animals there. We saw elephants right away that morning (indeed, just 50 yards from the hotel). The rest of the tour brought us various different hooved mammals whose names are becoming a blur, and closer looks at elephants after bathing. That afternoon, baboon swung in the trees above our head as we read on the platform overlooking the balcony. One baboon snuck up 6 feet behind me, but just stared at us for a minute and walked away.


There is also an almost 600 year old mosque 5 kilometers from the park, the oldest extant building in Ghana. Roma and med student Chris (not Wong) rode bikes to see it, but I was laid up in my room for the afternoon with my first case of traveler's diarrhea for the month. Fortunately, Cipro works quickly! And more fortunately, we had brought enough snack food that we didn't have to order dinner at the hotel's restaurant that night. Apparently my mistake was the desire to try guinea foul.

This morning, before leaving, we got to see the same elephant herd bathing in the watering hole. On the way back to Kumasi, we stopped at a monkey preserve. I was surprised to learn that most monkeys in Africa have been hunted extensively, and the only ones remaining are in perserves. This particular preserve was near two villages that consider the monkeys there to be sacred. They even have funerals for dead monkeys and bury them in coffins. The local legend is that the an ancient fetish priest turned some humans into the mona monkeys (for reasons that aren't entirley clear to me), then died before he could change them back. Sacred or not, we got to walk alongside and underneath families of monkeys within the rainforest, which made the white-knuckle ride to the preserve worth it.

Recent Overly Religious Sign: "Jesus is Coming Upholstery"

Recent Local Cuisine: I will not go into further detail about guinea fowl. However, a few days ago I tried kenkey, which is fermented maize (similar to banku) that is cooked in a banana leaf and has the consistency of polenta. It is quite good, but quickly filling. I was told that I was taking too small of a bite; apparently one is supposed to wolf it down.