Steve and I played “hooky” from work today! We had a glorious time! We got up this morning at 5:00 to head for Bolgatanga. It took us 3 hours to get to Bolgatanga. We had pizza left from our supper last night so that is what we had for brunch. Is there anything better than cold pizza when you are hungry?
We stopped along the way so we could take pictures of the medicine trees and the weaver birds. The medicine trees are very old. I am not sure what kind of trees they are but they were planted in the mid to late 1800’s by the Germans. Many of the Germans that came to this area were missionaries. The people still use the trees for medicine. Today while we were out we saw a man with his machete (cutlass) cutting the bark off one of the trees. The trees try to heal themselves by producing huge knots (sort of like burls) around the areas where the bark is removed. Some of the knots are large enough for a person to sit on them. Today we got a picture of the 3 goats that had climbed the knots of one of the trees and were sitting there looking like they were playing “king of the mountain”.
The weaver birds are very noisy birds; they actually pluck grass and weave their nest into an upside down basket with a very small hole. We would not have even noticed the birds if there was not a police barricade right in front of the tree they had colonized. There were hundreds of birds in the colony. There was an equally large colony in the two trees across the road. The police officer said that the weaver birds were there because of the rice fields that were planted in the flood plain on both sides of the road. We passed through several police and customs barricades today but we were only stopped once.
The road to Bolgatanga is awful and getting worse every time we make the trip. On top of the road being full of potholes it is littered with speed ramps. The speed ramps are so high that if you don’t see one and accidently hit it without slowing down your head will hit the ceiling of the truck! I told Steve that in a few years the only part of the road that will be left is the speed ramps. This road takes a beating because all the cargo trucks that come from the countries above Ghana have to pass down this road to get to the coast to import and export goods.
Tichak, the night watchman called this afternoon to let us know that when he went to visit his sick uncle he found him in pretty bad shape and he brought him from the village into the hospital at Yendi. He was admitted to the hospital. We have no idea what is wrong with his uncle but he will probably need help paying for the hospital bill.
We got back to Yendi this evening at 5:30. We washed the vegetables we bought and we went ahead and cooked the green beans and cauliflower because the car ride did not do it any favors. We found fresh mint while we were shopping so we made mint sauce. When I bought some Daikon radishes I asked the young man that was selling them where the radish tops were. He said that he had cut them off. I told him I wanted them; he said he thought they were spoiled. I asked to see them; they were fine; a little wilted but I was going to cook them anyway. He was surprised when I told him to bag them up for me; so surprised that he wouldn’t charge me for them. While I was cooking the beans I cooked them too. Supper is half done for tomorrow and the next day! I love it when a plan comes together!
Hope you had as much fun as we did today!
In HIS Service,
Steve and Kandie
