who's the crocodile hunter now, huh? or i must be crazy for traveling on public transport for over 2000 miles roundtrip!

this was at the zenga crocodile pond in paga, ghana, on my way back from the ocean and the rainforest, suckers. a pcv by the name of yonas (who by the way lived in minneapolis at the same time as i, small world...) hosted me in his town for a couple of nights. he's a small enterprise development pcv working on eco-tourism in paga and the zenga crocodile pond is one of the 5 sites he is developing for appropriate tourism. other sites include: 2 other croc ponds, a former slave camp, and the traditional chief's palace.

this particular croc was 88 years old and very tame. there were about 100 crocodiles inhabiting the pond. i wasn't too worried about this one because earlier, he let me hold his tail and pose for a picture. the younger ones are more aggressive and if you don't keep your eye on them they will follow you-which happened to yonas.

at paga, i also went to the slave camp. the tour guide, simon, just graduated from high school. he explained to me the history of the camp and what each part of the camp was once used for. he is the descendant of the original owners of the land. his family didn't contribute to the slave trade, though. they just took over the land after the trade diminished.

paga is in northern ghana, only kilometers away from the burkina faso border. during the height of the slave trade, traders from mali, burkina faso, ivory coast, and ghana would bring their people to the camp. from there, after enough captives were taken, they would be marched down to elmina fort, in the city of the same name, to the west of cape coast. from there they would be shipped out to europe or european colonies.

on the lighter side, it was fantastic to spend about at least a week along the coast. we arrived at big milly's backyard, kokrobite, ghana, late evening on the third day straight of transport. it was really nice, live music was playing with waves crashing in the background. there were lots of palm tress and shady areas at big milly's.

after 2 nights big milly's, i headed to accra with some of my favorite people in peace corps--jen, nate, and charlie--to watch the world cup at champ's, a celebrated sports bar in the capital with real nachos and great beer. we watched the first round of the round robin, usa v. czech republic, and ghana v. italy. it was a lot of fun! everyone there was really into it, especially the ghanaians, this being the first time ghana had made it to the world cup.

one night in accra, then charlie and i headed to awkwidaa, ghana, while nate and jen headed north. we met up with the rest of the group, the other pcv's we split up with a couple of days before, at the green turtle lodge. it's an eco-tourist resort run by an english woman and her husband. it's all run on solar panels, has self-composting toilets, and employs ghanaians from the nearby village of awkwidaa to work there. the food is excellent, the beach is really private, and if you need a beer, you can have a cold one, easily. this would be a place that i would return to in a heartbeat. the only issue is getting there-it's definitely off the beaten path. you have to get to takoradi, then to agona junction, then find a tro-tro that goes all of the way out a 10 km. dirt road, past dixcove and busua. needless to say, it's worth it when you get off transport and it's instant zen that washes over you.

after the green turtle, we headed back east to cape coast for a few nights. we hit elmina and the castle there one afternoon and the next morning we went to kakum national park where we went on a canopy walk in the rainforest. pretty cool. after kakum, some people headed west to accra, while jen and i went north to kumasi.

we basically jumped from town to town on our way home. we stopped in tamale and that's where i met my new friend yonas. and that pretty much brings us full circle.

i didn't spend much time in ouagadougou other than for a night's rest on my way to ghana and on my way back to mali. and the fact that there is peace corps dotting the path along the way to the coast, is really nice. it's wonderful to see the hospitality extended to all peace corps volunteers by other pcv's. and of course, both burkinabes and ghanaians are wonderful too! yay for nice people in the world!

other random ghanaians interjections will likely come up in the near future, so bear with me. i would recommend anyone to go visit ghana, or burkina, or mali, for that matter. just remember the closer you get to the sahara desert, the harder it gets on all different levels of living and being. word.

read-what-i-have-read-list!!!
everything is illuminated: jonathan safran foer. amazing! i am curious as to how the movie would turn out... comments from any readers of this book would be welcome.
forward ever-the life of kwame nkrumah: editors of panaf books. kwame nkrumah is the guy who lead ghana to independence and was ghana's first president. his social and development programs are incredible-the volta dam, the roads, and the school system. too bad he was overthrown. read up on this revolutionary.
the souls of black folk: w.e.b. du bois. expat to ghana, where he later died, du bois is considered one of the father's of modern sociology. a really good read if you want an objective perspective of the few decades after emancipation in america.
the darwin awards 2: wendy northcutt. funny and disquietingly reassuring that hopefully i won't ever win a darwin award.
jesus' son: denis johnson. a collection of short stories. strangely good once you get past his character's need for pointed, senseless violence, or moreso, the ideas in his character's heads about violent actions they could take.

well, that is all for now.

peace. chance.