Ghana, Day 117 (Monday) - Adventures in Getting Lost

Hi Ruth!

I'm still in Ghana.

Monday, I decided I was going to go back to the pottery place where Mr. Happy showed us how to make things out of clay - I wanted to get a gift for Miss Theresa and Mr. Bill, since Miss Theresa is leaving today and Mr. Bill is leaving next week.  I also wanted to pick up a book by a man that Mr. Bill knows, that a store near there was supposed to sell.  It's called A Sense of Savannah, and it's about the time the man spent up in the northern part of Ghana, where I'm going to go visit this weekend.

When you and I went, we took a cab, because I know that you don't like to walk very much!  But I really like walking - walking is one of my favorite ways to get around places, because you get to see everything, and you can find stuff in the corners and around bends that you wouldn't normally see if you just took a car everywhere.  I didn't know how much walking I'd be doing, though!

I started out pretty early, after looking at a map that seemed to show how I could cut through the back of campus to get there without going all the way down to the highway.

First, I crossed the field outside the flat.  Lots of people here call it the "field of screams," because that's where the people who were singing and yelling every night when you were here get together.  But to me, I always think of it as the place where you and I played Maryland-Ghana and pretended to be on airplanes coming to visit each other.  It's my favorite game.

Then, I thought that I could go past Night Market (in New Orleans, of course) and go around behind the "hostels," where lots of the students live.  The hostels are very big, so it took me a while to walk all the way around them.

But, when I finally got all the way up and around them to the other side - there was no road!  So I looked around, and I finally found a small path that led through the brush.  I didn't know where it was going, but it looked like it was going in the right direction, so I followed it.  I ended up on this road, that was now going in the wrong direction.

But I didn't give up!  I followed the road, and eventually I ended up at a big building where they were having a conference about how to help people be protected from diseases [Adults: HIV].  But the man at the gate told me there was no way to go through, so I kept going, and eventually, after all this, ended up on the road near the pool.

Instead of following it all the way to the big road, I thought I'd try this side road, that I'd never tried, but looked like it was going more in the direction I wanted to go.

As I walked along, I saw a huge tree with beautiful yellow flowers (and I know that yellow is one of your favorite colors, with pink and purple, too).

And really big termite mounds, which I always think are neat.

Unfortunately, this road changed direction, too!  I walked by some very nice houses (one of which had a tiny, tiny, tiny puppy resting in the road in front of it - smaller than a book!  I didn't get a picture since there were some bigger dogs around who didn't look happy to see me), and a goat.  But then I ended up back at the main highway, so I walked the rest of the way on the big road.

On the way home, I just went the way I knew!

I'll probably walk a lot when I'm near Bolgatanga, and I may try to rent a bicycle to get around a bit.  I will tell you what I find!

And, there are only 14 more days - just two weeks! - until I get home and can go for walks with you.  I know, I know, you don't like walking very much.