"The Recap" - August 22nd, 2007

The night before I began my journey I was feeling very ill. My body was sore all over and I had a fever. I didn't say much about it to the Brothers because I really wanted this trip to happen. Becoming very ill while traveling on my own in a developing country does seem like a worst case scenario for most people, but I am prepared for anything. After three visits to Ghana I have never traveled any further north than the city of Kumasi. I have not seen the country at all. I wasn't going to allow myself to miss this opportunity.

So naturally when the morning came I felt even worse than the night before (not to mention that my excitement alone was doing a number on my stomach). I was bustling about feverishly all morning making final packing decisions and making photo copies of my passport to bring with me, which was quite a battle in its own since power went out three times in about 30 minutes. But when the time came I said my goodbyes and made my way into Cape Coast town with Br. Ebenezer. He dropped me off at Tantry Station where I bought my ticket for a "207", a vehicle slightly larger than a conversion van, that was headed from Cape Coast to Sunyani.

I purchased my ticket and was offered a front seat. I wasn't so lucky in the future as you will later learn. Anyway, there was a woman half inside the bus shouting praises in Fante and quoting the Bible in English to all who would listen in the very cramped seats.

It was incredibly muggy inside the 207, I thought I was coming down with malaria, I was crammed up against the window, and there was a woman behind me screaming praises to God...let's do this!

The journey was a long one! It takes about four hours to get to Kumasi and about another 2 hours to get to Sunyani from there. I struck up a conversation with the young man sitting next to me, Peter, who turned out to be a third year student at University of Winneba. He is majoring in Education and was quite interested in talking to me. We spoke mostly about the economic situation in Ghana and often compared it to the situation in the U.S.

He had been traveling all night from Winneba to Cape Coast and now to his home in Sunyani. He had not had any rest and was very tired. I felt just as bad as he did as my body ached even worse after every pothole that we hit. I thought to myself how much more HCC students could learn if given the opportunity to use public transportation in Ghana. I thought about the Ghanaians who have no choice, but to use this very uncomfortable and often times unreliable, and in other cases unsafe form of transportation. It is different from the U.S. One very quickly learns patience here.

We were stopped at several police check points where our driver very strategically slipped 1 Ghana Cedi into his driver's license and handed it to the officer so that we may pass without any further delay( in other words without some kind of safety inspection). I had made the journey t Kumasi many times and as always it was very beautiful when you are driving past the thick vegetation and then the great rolling hills.

We arrived in Kumasi, the urban capitol of the Ashanti Region, in the early afternoon to the usual traffic jams and great crowds of people going about their business in the market places. We were stuck in traffic for a while behind a local tro-tro, a mini-van that serves as a taxi, that was driving very slow leaving large gaps in front of him while trying to pick up passengers. Our driver was furious and screamed out the window at him as well as half of the passengers, but he didn't budge. Out of nowhere, a police chief appeared. He was irate and was screaming a the man in the tro-tro. I saw the chief wave his hand and two other police men came up pulled the man out of his vehicle and then commandeered it. Before one could bat their eye they were driving off with his car to who knows where leaving the bewildered driver on the median with the chief still screaming in his face. As we slowly drove passed the scene, all of our passengers pointed out the window and jeered at the tro-tro driver like school children saying, "Ha Ha BUSTED!" It was hilarious.

Shortly after that we were stuck in traffic once again and I looked out the window at the thousands of people bustling about, not one "bruni", white person, in sight. I laughed out loud at the absurdity of my situation. Here I am the graduate of a small Midwest college, thousands of miles from home, crammed into a bus driving through a busy African city. "I am nuts!"

After a brief stop for stretching and refreshment we continued our journey northwest to Sunyani. As I entered the Brong-Ahafo region for the first time ever I noticed that the vegetation was becoming a little less thick than before and that the land was becoming flatter. There were beautiful puffy cumulus clouds in the sky and I was loving life, save my aching body.
It didn't take long for us to reach Sunyani. At first sight it was a very clean and well organized city compared to some of the others that I have frequented in my time here in Ghana. I alighted soon after we entered the city and quickly met up with Br. James outside the old market station. We grabbed a taxi back to their brand new house where they will begin forming a new Holy Cross Community about 5 minutes from the center of town.

By the time we got back to the house I was so exhausted I could hardly speak or move. I just went to my room after a short tour of the house and collapsed for the next three hours. I thought I was going to die of exhaustion and was perfectly happy with the idea of not moving ever again.

It was then that I decided that maybe I should take an extra day in Sunyani to get healthy and then continue my journey to Tamale. I think it was a sound decision don't you?