On Friday, after our last outreach, Jerome and Bismarck (the ophthalmic nurse and the driver with Crystal Eye Clinic) decided to take us out for a night on the town. We all went to Highway View--a chill, outdoor bar blasting Ghanaian hits--while we waited and I tried the infamous "Digestive" drink which is Brandy, lime, and another unidentified alcohol.
Then Jerome and Bismarck pulled up in the big, clunky UFS van and drove us to a club.
The music started out American and then transitioned in to Ghanaians hits, it was perfect since we knew all the words to both after hours spent in the van listening to the same songs over and over again.
The whole time all of the girls were getting grabbed at by Ghanaians, and not subtly at all. They would literally grab your arm with boths hands and pull, as if physical force would make dancing with a sketchy stranger that much more appealing. We had to put Kale and Vu on protection duty. They would surround the girls as best as possible and intervene everytime someone got pursued by a stranger. It was a full time job. Jerome also occasionally would tap a guy forcefully on the shoulder, whisper something in his ear, and the guy would leave us all alone for a bit. You don't mess with a ~400 lb Ghanaian.
Some dancers there were ridiculous. There was one girl who danced bent over at the waist and moved her feet so fast to the beat that I don't know how she remained standing. Kale and I tried it, great thigh work out, but we looked like tools.
I think part of the reasons the dancers were so good is that they spent half their time dancing in a line in front of a mirror. I attempted this and within 0.5 seconds I was so uncomfortable that I had to turn away. Better left unseen.
When we left, our ears were still ringing and our clothes reeked of cigarette smoke.
The whole time all of the girls were getting grabbed at by Ghanaians, and not subtly at all. They would literally grab your arm with boths hands and pull, as if physical force would make dancing with a sketchy stranger that much more appealing. We had to put Kale and Vu on protection duty. They would surround the girls as best as possible and intervene everytime someone got pursued by a stranger. It was a full time job. Jerome also occasionally would tap a guy forcefully on the shoulder, whisper something in his ear, and the guy would leave us all alone for a bit. You don't mess with a ~400 lb Ghanaian.
Some dancers there were ridiculous. There was one girl who danced bent over at the waist and moved her feet so fast to the beat that I don't know how she remained standing. Kale and I tried it, great thigh work out, but we looked like tools.
I think part of the reasons the dancers were so good is that they spent half their time dancing in a line in front of a mirror. I attempted this and within 0.5 seconds I was so uncomfortable that I had to turn away. Better left unseen.
When we left, our ears were still ringing and our clothes reeked of cigarette smoke.
We hopped in the van, got back at 3, slept for an hour, and were ready to go at 4:45 am. Kale could barely stand up. We got in the Telecentre van regardless and headed to the Volta region for a day of monkeys and waterfalls.
I tried to sleep in the car regardless, but every time I succeeded, the driver poked me to point out something else mildly interesting along the road. I think he was lonely.
We arrived at the monkey reserve before 8am to make sure they weren't taking their afternoon nap to avoid to heat. I was hoping to see at least one monkey swinging through the trees, to my surprise an entire crew of baboons came out from the trees to play with us. We fed them peanut brittle (too fast) and peanuts (just right).
The way they ate the peanuts was very precious, they'd grab your hand open with one hand and take each peanut individually with the other. I was cool with this until mine decided to lick the crumbs up, then i was hand sanitizing and photographing the others.
The alpha-male refused to eat from us no matter how hard Kale tried, but the mothers with their babies swinging from the chest were not too proud to be fed.
FYI baboons' butts are disgusting. They are nothing like Rafiki's from the Lion King (my primary source on African wildlife) with his blue butt. Instead they are pink and look almost as if the skin decayed away. Not sure how this evolved.
We then paid an additional fee for the guide to take us to the antelope reserve. We followed him on a very long walk through the mud, with a few casualties, only to see antelope so far in the distance they might as well not have existed. Not to mention, all of us were on the verge of being ill.
Then we took a longer-than-expected drive to Boti Falls. There was another price debacle and then we took the 250 stairs (hardly a 'hike') to the twin falls, male and female.
The water beneath them was an inviting chocolate milk color, so naturally Chelsea went for a swim. I couldn't believe it when she submerged her head...
We all tried cocoa from a cocoa-nut (?). You are supposed to suck on the pods which tasted surprisingly like the 'apple' we had eaten (sour apple flavor) with the same texture (goopy, squishy, stringy), and the bitter cocoa remained inside the pod, unfit to taste.
We then had a long drive back with the engine overheating to dangerous levels and barely got out of bed for the next two days.
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