France, Logrono, and running of the cows,

So after I wrote you yesterday, we kept driving through the beautiful pyranees and stopped off in some of the Basque villages and bought some turron (sweets that they usually only eat for Christmas.) We then kept driving through the winding roads (which made us sick especially the marissa). We drove so far that we ended up in a little place called FRANCE and about 30 km into the country at that. They were having a festival in the town and it was crazy to get around. We got out and got some crapes and looked around a bit. It was pretty great and it just confirmed my thoguhts about learning french this year.We then drove back to olite, the city with the castle and ate dinner in the park (chorizo sandwiches again.) and played hearts while the rest of the town was watching Pirates of the Carib 3 in the plaza underneath the castle. We then drove to Falces again to sleep in the car. I parked it in a spot where a bunch of kids were playing thinking that because it was 1230 that they would be going to sleep soon, but they were up until 130 and so we drove to outside the city. However, we had to drive back and get our shoes that we left underneath the car because they smell so bad. And drove back to the spot outside the city. Marissa slept on the floor, Emily on the back seat and Paul and I in the passenger and driver respectively. Paul kept complaining about the heat and sweating and poor marissa was smashed by Paul and my seats and kept waking us up in the night if she got stuck. Paul´s seat didn´t have a control to make it go down and if he laid in a weird position it would smash marissa. So she put her head by my seat. One time she got stuck turning in her sleep and was panicked because she was stuck and I couldn´t find the release lever for about 30 seconds and so I was panicked. It was all pretty funny and ironically I slept very well. We woke up this morning to go see the running of the bulls. The town was packed with bands and people wearing white clothes and red hankerchiefs. There were a bunch of old men that climbed up this rock cliff to watch the "bulls" come down to the pen. We hopped up on some of the barricades that they have to corral the bulls through the city. Paul then asked where the people ran with the bulls. A man answered that it was the top of the mountian and that they were cows (they had horns though) and it was pretty steep. I had decided I was pretty tired and not in shape to even keep me from getting trampled by human or bovine so I opted to watch. It was pretty cool, but the best part was to see everyone singing, dancing, and talking with their friends. They didñt hang out with family like we do at parades but the old men and the old women hung out with their friends instead of their spouses.We drove to Logrono and went to church. I was pretty sad that I couldn´t remember how to get around and we had to go to the tourist office to find out the address. they had moved the chappel and I was happy to see how much it had grown. It was so much fun to see all of the members again and we hung out for 2 hours after talking with everyone. The ironic thing is that the people who I was better friends with were all on vacations (3 families) and I was pretty sad about that. We then went and got Kebob sandwiches and fries. We then dropped off the car which is too bad because now we are back to the busses and I really enjoyed driving through the small villages and seeing the countryside with that car (it had six gears and an automatic start and no key.) We will be in Madrid tonight and going to Segovia for our last day with the Hyer girls who are leaving on Tues. I hope everyone is doing alright and I will see you soon. I am pretty sad that I have to leave Logrono tonight and Spain soon, but I am making plans to return and am excited to sleep in a bed and not live out of a backpack. I have taken over 1000 pics and these great experiences that I will never forget.

Barcelona, harmonica and sangria

Hello Everyone,

Webmail is down again so if you, mom and dad, don�t mind forwarding this to the family, I would appreciate it.

We are in the fabulous city of Barcelona! It was a hard journey but we got here. We had a night train experience, but it wasn't in sleeping cars but on seats that didn't recline. Paul, Marissa, and Emily sat by each other and a guy that smelled pretty bad.
I sat next to an older French woman and we didn't say a word to each other. I took a sleeping pill that night and was alright except for a group of people that got on the train at 4 am and decided to play a card game. They quieted down after they saw that they had woken me up. That night for dinner was pretty funny. We sat on our back packs in the train station and ate a block of ice cream and croissants.

Today, the train was delayed because it had rained and flooded one of the tracks that they were doing construction so we didn't get in to Barcelona until 10:30. It was still raining so we dropped the bags off with the girls in a parking garage and Paul and I found this sweet hostel with free Internet and free breakfast. We are in bunk beds with some finnish girls. After we dropped our stuff off, we went to discover the city. We went to the cathedral and fed the geese in the courtyard. We also went on a tour of the roof and got to see the cool city scape. We then went and had lunch and the waiters were pretty busy and ignored us because we just got sandwiches and rice pudding. We then went to a church that was nice to fall asleep in. We then took off to the beach but couldn't get in the water because the rain washed in all of the rubbish. It also smelled pretty bad. We then got empanadas and palmeras and I played my harmonica. As I was playing, a brittish woman threw 2 euros out of her hotel room balcony at me and asked me to keep going. I got kind of stage fright but played some songs for her. She then asked us if we wanted something to drink and then I said that we didn't drink. She told me that it was just lemon juice and grape juice "sangria" which I remembered was alcohol, but in Mexico has no alcohol in it. Paul went and caught it and I told him to take a swig and say "cheers." Well it actually had wine in it, and Paul did what I said so I told him the sin was on my head. We then went on a walk to find churros and chocolate but every store was closed. One restaurant got offended that I even asked them if they had it.

We are back in the hostel and getting ready to sleep. So good night and I will try not to get Paul too drunk tomorrow. I just wanted to write a couple of funny things that have happened her in Spain so far: Marissa said, "I can�t breathe real good, I think that it is the latitude (she meant altitude)" We are off to see the Gaudi architecture.


While in Barcelona, we went to the Gaudi Park unfortunately they were filming a Woody Allen movie so we didn't get to see the whole thing.



We also saw the Sacrada Famila, which is probably the coolest cathedral in the world because it has a lot of modern art type architecture. They had to keep rebuilding the cathedral because some people who were against religion would burn it down. It is still not completed but it will be pretty remarkable when it is.

from Ghana to Granada part 1

Hello Everyone!Finally my email is working again. The webmail server was down for over a week and so I couldn´t email. So this one is going to be pretty long!
I went to church in Ghana with the missionaries that I was staying with. Church over in Ghana was so amazing because the people are alot more religious than we are in the states. They had a very in depth conversation about tithing. Everyone was citing scriptures and trying to figure out how to live the law more fully (they were talking about tithing on gifts etc.) The missionaries than fed us pot roast and it was the best meal that i had had for over a month. I took a taxi to the airport at 1200 am because my flight was supposed to leave at 4 and they told us to be there at least 3 hours early. The great thing about Royal Air Maroc is that every flight is usually delayed a couple of hours and this flight didn´t come until 9 am. Meaning instead of sleeping on a bench with some of the brittish kids that I met at the airport, I could have slept in a bed in the missionaries home. Our flight went to Benin (I found out while on the plane) and then flew to Morroco meaning that my 8hour layover in Morocco was cut to one hour and everyone else on the flight missed their connections to other places in Europe. It was a frantic mess trying to get things sorted out in the airport. It was pretty ironic that I wanted to go to Morocco and couldn´t because of the delay and everyone else that didn´t want to be there were stuck for 24 hours.
When I got to Madrid, my backpack didn´t come. (I think that it traveled more African countries than I did) because it finally came three days later. That night I wandered around Madrid looking for a hostal because of sorting out my luggage it was midnight. I luckily ran into a man from Mexico who directed me to a cheap place where the Hyers, Paul, and I stayed for the remainder of the time. I had the next day to myself and I have to say that I am so glad that these guys are here because I was pretty lonely and all of my pictures were of buildings with no people. The only human contact was asking people for directions. I was very productive and saw all of the sights in the lonely planet (the guide book.)
The next day, I took the metro to the airport (which I am now a master of the the Madrid metro). I waited for Paul and the Hyers for 3 hours while they went through customs and was pretty excited to see them. We then took the metro back to the hostal. It was pretty funny because Emily was in flip flops and she flip flopped onto the floor because it was so slippery. We then got chorizo, bread, and pastries and ate in the plaza de Espana. It was pretty fun. We went to the templo de Debod, an egyptian temple that they had brought to Madrid because they were flooding the area to build the Azwar dam in Egypt. It was pretty cool and then we got in trouble for touching ancient artifacts and using flash. We then went to the cathedral but it had closed and they were pretty jet lagged so we went back to the hostal and slept until it opened again at 5. We then went back to the cathedral, royal palace and walked around the Puerta del Sol and the plaza mayor which is a huge plaza with eating and ancient roman arches. We then listened to a Peruvian band playing Andean music. So for their first day they saw Roman, Egyptian, Peruvian and a little bit of Spain!
The next day was Emily´s Birthday and what a birthday it was! We got Dia yougurt, magdelenas, juice and ate in the plaza de España again. We then went to the Prado and commented on our favorite peices. Paul didn´t have his student ID and I am over 26 so we paid full price but Marissa and Emily got in for half price. We then went and had lunch in another park and bought fresh bread for our sandwiches. We then went to the Parque del Buen Retiro and took a nap in the park because of the jet lag, food, and looking at art for 3 hours wears you out! At this park, it was built in the 1700´s during the Romantisism time period of Spain so there were many monuments and fountains and a big lake. We rented a row boat and went out on the lake. We got pretty wet and each person would take a one of the two paddles and so it was entertaining to try to coordinate the strokes to get us to go around. We then split up, the Hyer girls went shopping and Paul and I went to see the houses of Lope de Vega, Cervantes and some other authors that are masters in spanish lit but for other people it would be pretty boring. We met back up and went and had paella and tortilla in the plaza mayor. Our waitor was pretty scary, but the food was great and then we got some ice cream for dessert. It was a pretty cool day just a little pricey. We then went back to the hostal and hung out on the balcony over looking the street. And tried to sleep because we had to get up early for our next day to Toledo..........

from Ghana to Granada part 2

I am copying parts of marissa´s email from my journal points that i have made so it might make sense or might not. We are leaving tonight at 945 to get on a train all night to go from Granada to Barcelona. Everyone is happy and healthy exept for blisters on everyone´s feet but mine. I don´t know if Marissa and Emily knew what they were in for when they signed up for this "experience."
August 3, 2007 - Toledo

In Toledo we went to the place where they used to have Roman Circuses. They had all these dirt trails for chariot races. Paul, Emily and Marissa had a great time pretending to be chariots racing each other in the park as i filmed them. It was pretty entertaining. We then rode up this huge outdoor escalator and saw a view of the beautiful city. We went to the Santa Maria Blanca Synangogue, but on our way we got lost in the small streets and had to ask a wonderful smelling man for directions(Marissa´s comment not mine). I tried to tell him how good he smelled, but Paul would not tell him. Emily tripped right in front of the good smelling man and he laughed at her. Ha ha ha. Paul was trying to rock climb up a wall and the rock broke causing him to slide down and split open his big toe. Sick! We found some cool jewely and Paul even bought a plate while we were here. We went into this beautiful church that was simple, we were not supposed to take pictures, but Scotty and Paul were bad boys and took some (I figured we were jewish and had a right!). We went and took pictures by the Roman Gate named puerta del Alfonzo II. We kept trying to take pictures and cars kept coming. Lame!! Our favorite part was the allys, don´t worry we took lots of pictures. (We went and saw the huge cathedral in Toledo. It is hard to describe but our pictures afterwards will help to show how amazing this place was. For lunch, we had tortilla sandwiches. I am trying to get my fill while I am here. I wanted ketchup like I had when I was a missionary because they would probably get offended.) Suddenly we found out we couldn´t get a bus to Sevilla from Toledo, so we had to go back to Madrid and then we took a bus ride from Madrid to Sevilla. We thought the bus ride was going to be 3 hours long, but it ended up being about 6 hours because of an accident and traffic. We had a little break on the bus and got some treats. (Marissa) happened to get some rotten chocolate milk and some nasty chocolate donuts. There was a Volcano movie, that Emily and (marissa) didn´t understand so we just slept. (It was a pretty cheesy movie about an american who looses his wife to a volcano and her spirit communicates with an Italian girl where she grew up and they save the village from a sleeping volcano) WE got to Sevilla at 1230 in the morning. WE found some British friends and walked with them to their HOstal because we didn´t have one yet( We walked for about an hour looking for a hostal. We had one in mind but thought that we should try their place first) When we got there, there was no room at the inn. We finally found one, it was actually a HOtel in Scotty´s opinion. It was the most expensive one we stayed in, it was 25 euros. Yikes!!!

August 4, 2007 - Sevilla

In the morning we decided to find a different Hostel that was less expensive.( it was a shared room of four beds for $10 cheaper a night) Scotty made me lead us back to the Hostel from town and I did it. It was awesome! I know my way around Spain!! We ate lunch in the park after getting food (We got a bar of ice cream and shared it between the four of us. It was pretty good ). A Gypsy boy came up to us and asked us for an Orange. ( We gave it to him so he wouldn´t curse us, and he was thankful) Emily made Marissa laugh while she had juice in her mouth and spit it out all over. Thank goodness we had those wipes!! We then went to a beautiful Cathedral. Scotty didn´t want to go in because it was 9 euros. Paul never got in cheap anywhere because he forgot his student card. Emily, Paul, and Marissa spent about 3 hours in the cathedral while Scotty walked about and read his book about Spain. Paul decided to be funny and lead Marissa into the boys bathroom. Ha ha. I don´t know what those signs mean :) ( While I was waiting in the hot sevilla plaza, these gypsy women tried to read my palm and ask for money. I told them no but watched as they got other travelers that were too naive and too timid to say no) We then went to Alcazar San Pedro. This is where Paul and Scotty´s grandpa lived. (Not really our grandpa, but our ancestor Pedro el Cruel.) He killed his half brother here. It was a beautiful palace. Marissa fed the fish. They were huge and they were fighting like crazy. A duck stepped on EMily´s foot. We then at some dinner and we had a POlish waitress who gave scotty two Tortilla Espanola instead of one (Because there was a language barrier, English and Spanish weren´t here first language). We then went to Plaza De Espana where there were beautiful bridges and a huge fountain.(They had tile depictions of each state in Spain. It was cool to see the cities that I served in) By the way, it was so, so hot in Sevilla. After the Plaza we went to the bar and watched an authentic Gypsy Flamenco dancer. We absolutely loved it. The bar is the real experience!!! OUr Flamenco dancer had really big boobs and was a little on the heavy side. EMily wishes she was a little skinnier. Ha ha. The dancer kept telling everyone to not video tape, ¨Video, NO!!! Marissa had a crush on the assistant clapper who also sang a little bit. He sure was cute. The guitarist was pretty amazing as well. We went to bed around 2 am and woke up at 7 am to catch a bus. We walked for about an hour with our backpacks to the wrong bus stop. We then caught a bus to another bus stop.

August 5 - Sevilla to Cordoba

We got our bus tickets, but the bus didn´t arrive til 11. WE could have slept in a couple more hours. Oh goodness... We played card games, got pastries and relaxed at the bus station. It was an expensive bus ride to Cordoba. Then we saw Mosque Mezquita. This was by far all of our favortie places. It was a little more simple than the other cathedrals. Big red and white arches. (It was a mosque that was later turned into a cathedral and is a world heritage sight as it should be.) We saw the Roman Bridge, the Roman Water Wheel and we even saw some turtles down by the river. After Mezquita we went to Alcazar Palace( a fortrace built by the christians to protect from muslim invaders), but it was closed because it was Sunday. WE sat on the bench for a little bit and played with the kitties. AFter this we got some delicious ice cream and Marissa dropped half of hers on the floor. We then got on a bus to Granada. The bus ride was shorter than we thought. The scenery on the way was beautiful, tons of olive trees. We we arrived in GRanada, it was about 10 PM we tried to find a Hostel and all of them were full. Marissa and EMily sat in a park for a little bit and made friends with some dogs. We named one of the Nintendog. Marissa saw a hostel down the way and it was actually open. Yay!!!! We loved Granada, people are so friendly. All the old ladies just hang out together. Everyone goes to bed so late and just eat ice cream. We saw babies out past 12 every night. AFter getting settled into our HOstel we decided we wanted some american food and we went to Burger King. It was delish. Scotty had his first burger in two months. Emily has had huge, fat feet the whole trip. She is retaining water and has huge blisters. Ouch.

August 6 - Granada

We woke up early this morning to go to the Alambra. This beautiful palace that is very popular. We waited in line for 6 hours to see this place and it was definitely worth it. While we waited we played card games, ate food. We got some pastries called Palmera. They were delicious. Paul and Marissa had fun watching Scotty and Emily not talking. We made up the conversation. Scotty´s favorite thing to ask us is what is our favorite part about whatever we are doing at the moment. It is pretty funny.
WE were so bored we decided to play rock, paper scissors with the consequence of getting a little slap if you lost.( A couple of the people in line watched us because it was entertaining and the line was so long and they were laughing at us pretty hard. We also played hearts and other card games.) We finally got into Alambra, it was so beautiful. Gardens and beautiful arabic writing everywhere. ( It was the home of the ruling family in Arabic times and even the christians realized that they should maintain this place. Many authors like Washington Erving wrote about the mystical place.) The palace was beautiful and we took some awesome pictures. AFter the Alambra Scotty and Paul went to the Tombs of Ferdinand and Isabella. They took illegal photos.(It was cool to see the tombs of these people that had such an important role in world history.) Emily and Marissa just went shopping and got attacked by the gypsy fortune tellers.( I tried to warn them not to talk to the fortune tellers, but they got suckered into this. Paul and I went to the Bazaar after with the girls and I talked to this student from Morocco about a blanket that I bought and then about world events. He was a geography student and my age. I had to explain that politics are not always felt the same within our country. And he had some interesting views on the Iraq war. He said that one of the Iraqi sellers just found out that his brother was killed in Bagdad by a bomb and that he would never move back to Iraq especially because all fo the doctors and educated people have left...there is no future for anyone there.) We hurried over to the train station because we had to get on our train by 9 pm. But, to our surprise our tickets were not saved and we had to get them for the next day. Paul and Marissa accidentally bought some rotten Madgalenas (spanish muffins) by the train station. Yucky!!! WE got a super cheap hostel for the night. We tried to go and see some more Flamenco dancing up in some caves, butr everywhere was too expensive. We got some delicious pizza and walked home. On the way home we convinced Emily that a bird pooped on her head and she almost peed her pants from laughing so hard. Yes!!! WE slept in!

This is Scott again and wanted to say congrats to mike and scott for thier passing their career tests, disertations, and whatever and we will be better at email in the future. I also hope you have as much fun seeing this through a 22 year old female perspective as I did.

Back in Ghana and off to Morocco

Just sending a quick note to say that I am back in English speaking Ghana after a wonderful 20 hour bus ride. It wasn't too bad except that I like to have my space and have no one touch me while I sleep and Pete is a bigger guy and his body and legs would cross the seat division line. "Line of Death" from car rides growing up has taught me the importance of boundries which are not always possible. It was a lot better than standing and the small spaces of the other buses. Crossing the border was interesting also. I guess the embassy gave me a "wrong visa"because they "undercharged me" and made it for two weeks instead of two days for a transient visa. The border patrol shortened my visa to 4 days which is more than sufficient time for me, but it was pretty frustrating. I asked them if they were on the same system as the embassy and they said yes but that the embassy "does things wrong." The ironic thing is that I asked the embassy if I could get a transient visa at the border and they said that they didn't know because they weren't the same system. I just laughed and learned that you just have to except things here in Africa because somethings will never make sense to me.Our last night in Ouagadougou was great. Our friends took us out to buy some cool art which they had at their store. We got some cool bougulas which they had gone to Mali to get. They were asking us to pay $30 for them and I showed them that I only had $20 left and that I still had to eat and get to the bus station. Rasmane said that they would feed us, we could stay at his house, and that they would take us to the bus station on their motorbikes. Oasman was pretty bummed because he said that he only made a $2 profit. They were both pretty sincere. We had already paid for the hotel and Pete paid for the taxi to the bus station (because there was no way that we would not have tipped over with our huge back packs on those motor bikes), but I left Burkina Faso with no cifas (I still had dollars and some ghanian money). That night we went back to their neighborhood and sat on their porch and talked. They made some sweet tea with charcoal and some rusty kettles. I had to explain that I didn't drink tea. Rasmane joked it was because doctors would be too jittery if they drank coffee, tea and dangerous if they smoked and drank alcohol. Pete however had tea and he drinks and so I think that it was Rasmane's way of making me feel comfortable when I had to refuse. It was interesting because later that night we were talking about what we liked about Africa and I was telling them about goat meat (which is unclean to eat for Muslims). I thought that Mormons and Muslims are a pretty funny match. We could have a whole meal together where the Mormons would eat all fo the food and the Muslims would drink all of the drink. I had to laugh at religion at that point because coffee, tea, and tobacco were all horrible things in my eyes but the norm in his, and shellfish, goat and pork were everyday for me. I think one of my best memories from Africa will be sitting on that front porch watching the sunset and laughing with these guys. I also had to laugh because one of the things that they really wanted to show us was that they got MTV, which I had no clue what any of the shows were. So we went to their neighbor's place that had set up a "movie theater" type place with a TV and wooden benches and a dirt floor. They had a chalk board of what shows they were going to watch and people would come. It was cable from France. I wondered how it was to watch commercials for things that they would never see or could ever afford. It was great and actually pretty sad to say goodbye to those guys even though we had only known them a couple of days and had a language barrier, we got to be pretty good friends during the 18 hours we spent with them.Africa has been quite an adventure. Even though I know Spain will be awesome, I am sad that I didn't spend the next couple of weeks here. I really hope that I can make it back someday. I also am happy that I could go while I am young because I think the friendships are the best part, and people my age are the ones with the most time because of no kids and flexible jobs (when I asked people about marriage ages here they said that for men it is usually in thier 30's so that they can afford a family, but the girls are usually 20) and the ones traveling. I also had to think about the importance of trusting people, even though you might get ripped off now and then, you can really miss out on some awesome experiences if you don't allow people into your life. I will probably write again in Spain because I have a day by myself there and I will have to tell about Morocco. Good luck and keep the emails coming as I will. Another side note, we are staying with one of the med students parents who are serving as medical missionaries here and I am washing my extremely dirty and oily clothes, so Paul doesn't need to bring me anything but Costco trailmix.

crocodiles, prostitutes and motorcycles

I am writing on a french keyboard so there will probably be many mistakes. This has been the trip of a life time and I am still loving every minute of it. Yesterday we explored ouagadougou and we met some guys that wanted to practice their english with us. So they also became our tour guides; We went to the flambou de la revolucion, which is a monument dedicated to the independce of burkina faso. We also went to the film makers monument: they have a film festival every year here. We then went to the embassy to pick up my visa, and it fills good to have my passport again. It was a good thing that I got those extra pages because they wouldnùt have been able to stamp any where for my visa. We then to the musuem of usic where we saw how the guitar, drum, and xylephone evloved into the instruments that they are today in burkina; It is so cool to see how the wood can make such cool sounds! The end room was a band that played traditional music. I contributed by playing Bob Marley on my harmonica;
These guys, oasman; rafikki; and osuani are 26 and have been so cool. They took us later that night to a bar awith traditional music and then took us to the clubbing. For a wednesday this place was rocking. They caught me checking out this girl and so they being hospitable as they are told her to come back to the room with me, I think she was a hooker or a gift; I had to explain that my religion didnùt alow this, and hey had to tell the girl and just laughed at me. Africa clubs are awesome! Everyone dances with everyone and no one cares how they dance; It is just a way to express yourself, like it should be. There was no freaking just plain dancing. it was a blast.
Our Burkina friends picked us up this morning and we went to the sacred crocodile compound on motorcycle about an our out of the city. It is the best away to see any country! I think that it is ironic that I think that motorcylces are dangerous in the states, even though you wear a helmet, obey laws and actuallly have lanes!, but I feel perfectly safe in Africa and the chaos of the streets.
At the crocodile park, we had to buy a chicken to lure the crocks away from the big ones inorder to get a picture of us sitting on one. In this lake the size of Falcon Park there were over 100 crocs! It was pretty funny and frightening to see the crocs surround us while our guide had a live chicken and was trying to get the crocs to move differnet places. They kept telling us that they werenot dangerous as our firends would jump as much as I did when the crocs would start running; I finally got a picture of me straddling a croc, but I was too freaked out to sit;
Time is up and so I will write again in Ghana

Ouagadougou!

I think that this is the craziest thing that I have ever done. I came to Burkina Faso with Pete. Neither of us knew anything about this country, how to get there, or even how to communicate with the people. We did know that this is a peaceful country and (I do feel very safe here now). My Ghanian visa expired because I left Ghana and now I have to get a new one. Luckily, it will be ready tomorrow and we will leave on a bus for Accra on Friday. I was pretty worried last night about how we were going to get around, but after waundering around today I know that we are going to be just fine. The people are so happy here and so kind. When it comes to buying things they will rip you off (like anywhere) but when we ask for directions they take us to the place and make sure we are taken care of and never expect a tip. We communicate through pointing or with the people that speak some English. It is definitely an adventure and I think that I should learn French this year.
Getting here was an adventure in itself. We went to the town of Hamile which is on the border. It is not the usual place to cross the border so I think that people were pretty shocked to see white people. Everyone from the village came out and welcomed us. They also were so hospitable and took us to the only guest house in town (a dark building by the bus station) Pete got bed bugs from the mattress but I fared alright. From the bus we met a man named Sabu who was also crossing the border. He was a bearded man that looks like Bob Marely but without the marijuana. He buys shirts in Burkina and sells them in Ghana. He waited for us outside of our guesthouse until we woke up to help us across. When we crossed, we tried to find out if I could bribe the guards to get back across with my visa (unfortunately they are honest) and we took the risk to cross the border and to deal with the problem here. We unfortunately missed the direct bus to ouagadougou and had to go in a van that made stops along the way. A man that we met from Hamile was on the bus (his name is Abass Rapid). He is a mechanic in ougo and he was coming here. We paid this bus to take us to Pa and switch buses to get to ouagadougou. On the way, we stopped about 15 times and it started to rain. Our bags were on the top and we were worried about wearing wet clothes the next couple of days. We also got a flat tire about 5 km before Pa and the jack broke so we (all 26 of us) just rode on the flat till the bus station. Pa was definelty a sight to see besides Ougadougou the rest of the country is very poor and it definitely has a different feel than Ghana. I actually felt that I was living in a national geographic (mud houses with straw roofs and walls inclosing the area, topless women, naked children, brama bulls, donkeys, the works!) When we got to Pa they tried to get us to pay more (in French and the indigenous language.) Luckily Abass was there and told them that we weren't going to pay anymore money. (which is a good thing because I think we had only $5 in Burkina cifa between the both of us although we had a couple of hundred in US that would be as good as toilet paper in the villages here) We finally reached the bank here in Burkina got some money. Because Pete is done with his journey after this (and the bed bugs weren't very fun) he has offered to pay for a good hotel for the time here and I chip in $10 a night. Abass, even though he hadn't seen his family in two weeks, got in a taxi and went with us to find a hotel, bank, etc. Finally an hour later he went home. Tired from the 10 hour journey that we had. I have to admit that I had a freak out moment on the bus thinking "what the heck have I got myself into!" but now I am very happy that I am here (because I know that there is a way back and a way to survive here.) All I can say is that I love Africans. They are the most giving people. On our way people gave us parts of their baguettes and sweet bread even though we were Americans and obviously rich enough to buy things for ourselves. They have offered their homes to us as strangers. They sacrifice time to make sure we are alright and take time to take us places. Africa is awesome! I really hope to come back here some day and hopefully have some french under my belt before.
Now lets get down to business. When Paul comes please have him bring some underwear for me! I don't think that my clothes are worth saving and they are stained with dirt. I love you guys and appreciate your emails
Scott
By the way, we just met a little boy with leprosy. I don't think that he knows it. He held Petes hand as I was talking to the guy we met off the street who took us to find the internet (which was a 15 minute walk). It is sad and you can only hope that he can get the cheap but couple month long treatment necessary. Humanity and reality of Africa

Comments on being a cheif

A quick note:
I wanted to write a little about our driver. He is next in line to be the chief in his village of 2500 people. He doesn’t feel like he is ready and so he is on the run. Last time the kidnapped him, tied him up, and put him in his uncle’s house. If they can get him to take the oaths, then he will have to be the chief. He wants to make money as a driver first and he is divorced. Because they can’t have a single chief, they will force him to get married. He says he doesn’t want to marry a “black woman” (African) again. But that his cousin married a girl from Jamaica and that this might be the way for him. He escaped from his uncles house by breaking a window and is on the run. He knows that he will be the chief and is alright with that but doesn’t want to have the restriction and responsibility of being a chief and a husband quite yet. (I think I can understand how he feels!) He is the one that has offered me free hotel and ride from Kumasi to Accra anytime that I want. I also forgot to mention that our bus ride from Ougadougou to Accra is going to be 20 hours! You only live once so this is how I am living!

Monkeys, Hippos and waterfalls

HEllo everybody,
I am in Wa a city in northern Ghana. Yesterday we went on a real Jungle boat ride. We went to the Hippo sancturary here and went for a canoe ride and saw about 7 hippos. I tried to capture the moment on my camera, but I don't have sound so you cant here them grunting and blowing water. It was pretty cool. We went with a girl that did an exchange in Chicago and had just returned and wanted to show us around. We stayed in this 3 dollar hotel and had MRE's last night that people left from our group. I am traveling around with a kid named Pete, he is a first year med student. We got to Wa on a bus that we had to take at 4 in the morning. Unfortunately Pete had to stand the whole time because the bus which usually holds 45 people had over 90 on it that day. It was pretty crazy.
Before this we were staying in the aweome city of Kintempo which I think has been my favorite city in Ghana. We went and saw these cool waterfalls and then we went to a monkey sactuary. The monkeys would come about four feet away from us and then they would ignore us as if we weren't there. This is because the people in the village consider them so sacred that they bury their bodies in a monkey grave yard when they find them. We had mangos the size of your head that were the sweetest things I have ever eaten. They were so good!
Getting to Kintempo was an adventure in itself. I left to meet my friends Pete and Carrie (Carrie went home after Kintempo). I took off on a bus by myself. The buses here however run different theean the US. They wait until they are entirely full and then they leave. So I ended up waiting on the bus for two hours so that 3 more people would climb on. I was four hours late to meet my friends in Kumasi. Luckily a woman let me use her cell phone to call. ON the bus we watched some Nigerian movies that were hillarious. One was about a girl that gets cursed by a woman. Everytime she sees her bible it turns her into a thief. She first stole all of her friends underware by putting them all on. She then shoplifts and gets caught and the people stone her until a nun saves her. Her family says that they wish that she would have died because no one wants to marry a thief. She joins a convent and then her mom brings her bible and she starts stealing and gets her friends to steal dressed up like nuns. Until a witch doctor curses them and they get swollen hands and bottoms. There was another movie taht I will write about later.
We are trying to get to Burkina Faso today. I have to go. I will email when we get to Woogodoogou.
Scott

schisto project and malaria project

Hello Everyone,

I have had a problem keeping up with the email updates this trip due to the power outages and unavailability to internet but here is an update of what has been going on so far. I wanted to congratulate Katy and Ty and spouses on their marriage. I also just found out that I passed my boards! I don’t know the score yet, but I guess I will just have to wait until I get home unless they have mailed the scores to my house in SLC. Also I just got paying the bills for my house. It is kind of crazy to think that even though I am on the other side of the planet, my bills and debts keep following me. I guess that is life.

Here is a summary of what has happened so far. On Saturday, we had the long waited for Schisto day in Barekuma. There was an official ceremony where the doctors explained in Twi what was going to happen and the challenges of controlling schisto. They had rented tents and all of the village leaders were wearing their traditional gowns. It was pretty spectacular. We then had people register and get their urine cups and then come back after they had filled them. We then used our dipsticks to measure if there was blood or protein. We then gave prescriptions to those who were positive. We had over 530 people pass through and had to cut the line short because we had to get back to Kumasi and the time that it took. Because the project turned into solely prevalence instead of the prevention (which will be next year), we took 400 of the samples and are counting the schisto eggs to see how bad the problem is. It is the first and necessary step to try to combat this problem which is a lot bigger than I expected. We also need used the study to find out what activities and frequency people use the river. We also need to find out the beliefs of the people about how they get schisto in order to help prevent it. The villagers during the meeting came up with some pretty good questions and it showed how necessary that they are involved in the process on how to prevent schisto. I felt pretty honored by the fact that this project has become a major focus of the doctors from the U and Ghana and how they used my inexperienced and rough outline of a study as a baseline.

It has been quite a challenge trying to get through the red tape and obtaining the supplies that we need for the project. I ran into a couple of problems such as not having the key to read 1600 of the 2000 dipsticks because it didn’t come in the package, then I let someone use my notebook with the information the day before the project and they lost it. However, we were lucky because the page with the key had been accidentally ripped out and was lying on the floor in the guesthouse where we were staying. Then during the testing we found that because we had different urine dipsticks, some of the tests required a longer reaction time than others, so we had to retest around 30 of them and found people positive that weren’t positive on the other test. I also mentioned before that I had to call Christina to get on the internet for me and then we finally hunted down the supplies and ended up buying a fridge for the lab. I also had to make 4000 copies. We were going to make copies at the hospital, and they told me that we had to buy some more toner. The toner was $70 and paper was $30 and I thought that we could get copies cheaper at a local place. Anyways I found a place that made copies for 5 cents a piece and I thought that it would be around $20 dollars and that I was saving us money however, it was actually $200 and I had to explain this to my professor. He was fine but I was pretty embarrassed. I will analyze the data when I get home. It was a good project and I learned a lot. It was pretty exciting to see the chief and the elders in the village participate and encourage the village to participate. They made us Foo foo which is the consistency of bread dough made out of cassava put into a spicy soup. They also gave us goat. I ate the whole thing and I can’t say how much I love goat meat!

On Sunday, we worked on a malaria study in a different village to see the prevalence in kids under the age of 3. I worked in the lab doing the quick tests by putting blood on the tests and reagents and working with the Ghanian doctors to do blood smears and fill capillary tubes with blood from the finger pricks of the kids. Ironically I didn’t mind that the kids were crying and actually found it pretty funny to see some of their reactions. A lot of them would start crying before we did anything, others started at the sight of blood, and others could care less what we were doing. I was also happy that the Ghanian docs and even Dr Alder would ask me to organize and get things done for them. Although I had made mistakes before, it felt good to be trusted with responsibility. It was sad though to see that over a third of the children in the village had malaria and most of them had the most aggressive type. However, most of them weren’t symptomatic enough to be hospitalized. It at least made me feel better to see this with all of my mosquito bites that I have. I haven’t been sick (not even diarrhea) this whole trip and I attribute this to the doxycycline prophylaxis for malaria. I love this stuff!

I will send an email later about Cape coast!
Scott

Cape Coast and slave castles

What a lucky day! Two emails in less than 12 hours! I had to take advantage of the free internet and power!
For the last couple of days we went to the southern coast of Ghana to the town of Cape Coast. The rest of the group stayed in a shwanky place that was $150 a night. Even though it was split between the 5 people in the room, I opted out for the $10 a night place by myself. It wasn’t too bad, but the power went out and I had to guide myself by lamp. There was also no water from the shower and I had to bathe in the sink. The drivers were sad that I wasn’t staying with the group. They understood that it was because of the money. They then told me that I should never pay for a hotel in Accra and that I should stay with one of them. They also said that they would hook me up with free bus rides while I am here and even offered to let me stay in their hotel while in Kumasi. It was very touching to see how they wanted to take care of me because they felt bad for me. I tried to explain that it was because I was trying to save money and that they didn’t have to worry about me. I also told them that if for any reason they came to the U.S. that they could stay at my home also. It always surprises me how hospitable people who have little are compared to how I am.

I ate dinner with the rest of the group at their hotel. While at dinner, our drivers became very angry at the waiter because he wouldn’t serve them and disrespected them. They said that he should treat them the same as the whites. He was black himself but they said that there are people that look down at them because they think that they are getting a huge portion of the white peoples money. I was one of many times that I felt embarrassed to be white.

The next morning, I awoke to screaming pigs being slaughtered. I scared the crap out of me because I thought they were girls screaming. People get up so early here in Ghana. There were people selling things outside of my window at 530am. The bus then came and picked me up at my hotel and we went to a national park and went on a canopy walk. It was really cool to be up in the trees around 50-100 feet from the groupnd walking on a single wooden plank . Sometimes I was pretty worried whether or not everything was screwed in all the way but they have never had any deaths so far. We saw a couple of birds and heard monkeys but the snakes, leopards, and most of the other animals were all nocturnal.

We then went to lunch at a restaurant on a crocodile pond. They were hanging out 5 feet from the wall of the restaurant. They seemed pretty calm and I wanted to touch them but I didn’t. I got the spaghetti which has been my staple over here because of the cost of the food is around $8 a meal and spaghetti is usually $4.

After lunch we went to the slave castle of El Mina. The Portuguese built it first to be used as a station for their missionary work in Africa. Then a hundred years later, one of the priests observed how the tribes would conquer other tribes and use them as labor. And he thought that African slavery would be beneficial in the Americas because all of the Indians were dying (because of the diseases and the work load) and the Africans were hardy. However the practice of the locals was much different than what they Europeans started. The slaves became part of the village. They ate with the people and married with the people and worked along side with the people. They were assimilated into the village more than used as slaves. The Portuguese would buy the slaves from conquering villages because they would sell them guns and powder in order to keep their business going and empowering the Africans. They would separate the women from the men and put them in dungeons. They would then rape both the women and the men and beat them. The governor’s residence was right above the court yard where they kept the women. He would pick out a woman every night to sleep with and then the soldiers were free to rape her after he was done. Some of the women died just from this. If they were impregnated they were sent out of the castle to a place to have the babies. The children were then raised and made to believe that they were better than the “regular” black people and would become leaders in the community. Many people still have Portuguese and Dutch last names in Cape Coast. They would also have the disobedient women hold a 50lb cannon ball in the courtyard all day long and beat them if they dropped it in front of the other women slaves to serve as examples. They would keep 150 of the women in a room about the size of our family room and play room with buckets for their waste. They would give them two meals a week because they said that they only wanted the strong to be slaves and the weak would die off. There was also a room that had a skull and cross bones where they would put the people who were trying to rebel. They would then lock them up until they all died. I thought how awful that would be seeing all of your friends starve to death and knowing that you would die the same way.
The ironic thing about all of this is that these people went to church right before they did all of these atrocities. They actually had one room that said “God is only in this room and not outside.” It is interesting how people can justify to the point to commit these horrible deeds.
Well on this happy note, I am going to bed and going to kontempo, a city in northern Ghana with some other med students. My project is done and so it is time to explore. I will email you again as time allows.
Scott

Dundee Died and Africa

Hello Family and friends,

I just received Paul’s email saying they had to put our dog, Dundee, to sleep. I can’t express the emotions that I am feeling and I am so sorry for the emotions that Dad and all of you most be experiencing. I know that it must have been a horrible decision to have to make and the house feels empty now. He has been a part of our lives for so long. I don’t feel like writing very much, but I wanted to capture a couple of thoughts because I don’t know when the power will be on or off here.

I never imagined Africa like this. I went through a little culture shock the first week to Ghana and my project, but now I am in the enjoying the people and the work here. The people are so friendly and kind. I have been learning Twi and now everyone in the villages feels like it is an invitation to talk freely to me. They laugh so hard at me and are just so excited that a white guy would try to learn their language. Just through my attempts has changed either my perception of them or their perception of me or both and we have become instant friends with anyone I meet by asking them “how is your body today.” I never would have figured that a people could be so accepting. We were mapping out a village today using GPS mapping so that we can do epidemiology research. I just say a little bit of my Twi and they laugh. The children chant “obronie” meaning white boy everywhere we go. It is great to see rural African life like this and in a way that I know will benefit them with their health.

The schisto project has definitely changed from my project to being the Ghanians and the expert’s project as it should be. I am perfectly happy to play the role of the gopher. I had to call Stinky to look something up for me on the internet because of the slow speed at the hospital. I am nervous and excited to see what is going to happen on Saturday. We are then going to do malaria clinics on Sunday. The people here are very religious and many are extremely sad that they are going to miss church. There are religious signs everywhere and are associated with everything such as “Jesus Saves Tire store” or “the twelve apostles taxi service” it is pretty great. Our bus driver is actually a mormon stake Sunday school president and it has been very interesting to hear his story as he was a missionary here when the Ghanian government closed the church down for a couple of years.

I just crashed an African party with drums, traditional dress and dancing. These people have extremely great muscle control and know how to move. It was good to see how culture has adapted but maintained import identity of these people through music. I thought that you would be happy to know that I played my harmonica on the bus today and will probably play later also.

You are in my thoughts and prayers,