Sunday, August 11, 2013

Oppan Ghana Style!

Last week, we met up with our friends Jake, Corey, and Celina, who had flown in from Uganda and the US to have an awesome week filled with adventures and wine! Our poor friend Gavin was supposed to join us, but his dog literally ate his passport. I'm sorry I made your wife take that dog home.

We drove across the border and met up with our friends in Ghana. Ghana proved to be a bizarre country in which every cab was emblazoned with words of "enlightenment" (The Lord is my Sherperd [sic], My body is covered with the blood of Christ, I come with Jesus); every store had been named by a not-too-witty zealot (God is Great All The Time Fashion Shop, The Dependable God Plumbing Shop, God-Power Fridge Doctors); and random conversations stared with "Hi. I'm a good Christian. Give me 10 cedi." Um, no.

During our trip we visited the coffin makers, who will make you a custom coffin (fish, okra, car, hammer, blow dryer, etc.) when it's your time:
They quickly ushered us out when I tried to get into the one shaped like a giant Hershey's bar.
We visited Cape Coast, where we saw the old castle built by the British for the slave trade:
We visited several National Parks, where we did canopy walks, saw birds & mammals, angrily tore down snares and animal traps put up by poachers, and tirelessly sought out the last of a critically endangered monkey species known as the White-naped Mangabey (which, sadly, we never saw).


We stayed in hotels that neighbored Pentecostal Churches that woke you up at 5 am with the screams of women and the strange sounds of men speaking in tongues, yet still offered banana-flavored condoms "Anytime! Day or Night!" We stayed in a hotel that used to be a boat. And we stayed in a small residence/hotel/cocoa farm called Frenchman's Farm on the the border of Cote D'Ivoire, which was absolutely delightful.


We had an awesome trip and I am ecstatic to know that I, too, can one day be buried in a custom coffin shaped as a wine bottle, surrounded by banana condoms, and bid farewell by people speaking in tongues. What more could a girl want?

1 comment:

  1. Just another day in paradise! Keep the stories coming ~ I'm love them!

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