Good Bye, Ghana. / Hello, South Africa.

Today I am leaving the Anastasis, which I have called home for the past 14 months. I finished up my last week here with another great game of how long does it really take to get rid of malaria. I think I had it for two weeks but really only about 3 days (if you ask I will explain more). We also had lots of fire and lifeoat drills and a Wedding Engagement. So, next time you see Drew or Laura be sure to congratulate them on their upcoming wedding on Dec 16th..

Jen and I will be departing for South Africa and then to the USA. So prepare.




















In case you missed what I saw last time in South Africa here is a little taste...

Ada Foah Sunset

View from my hut.. Need I say more...

Ada Foah (New Estuary Beach Camp)

Ada Foah is the most relaxing place I have been in Ghana so far. The New Estuary Beach Camp that we stayed at is rustic but great. I spent about $25 for the entire weekend. Below is a picture of what the huts looked like we stayed in. The huts are on a delta about 5 meters from the Volta River and 25 meters from the Alantic Ocean. More pictures to come later.

Fire Drill and Cataract Surgery

I was planning on sleeping in today, since I was off work. However, I was awakened by a fire drill. So, I ran to my Fire Station and suited up. The drill took about 1 hour, during which Micah and I, carried two victims out of the fire... Fire drill pictures by Debra Bell (She is one of the Ship's Photographers.)















This afternoon I watched Surgeries in the Operating Room. I watched a cataract removal, a tumor removal, and a neurofibroma removal. To Learn more about Cataracts Go Here.

Tagbo Falls / Wli Falls / Mt. Afadjato

Day 2 of the 3 day journey involved a lot of hiking. We hiked to the top of Mt Afadjato first then hiked to Liate Wote and into Tagbo Falls. Mt Afadjato is the "highest mountain" in Ghana at 885 meters. It took us 30 minutes to get to the top it was mostly straight up. From the top we could see our next destination cascading down the mountain side. You can see Togo in the background we were only 3
Km away from the border. After a hard day hiking we enjoyed a great sunset from our taxi who finally returned to pick us up. He had a flat tire and was 1 hour late.

















Day 3 began again with a lot of hiking. It was about a 1.5 hour hike to the base of Upper Wli Falls, the path was more difficult and steeper than the mountain the day before. Wli Falls is considered to be the "Tallest in West Africa" consisting of a series of drops and cascades that combine for about 400 meters of total drop in about 30 meters of distance traveled. Their are two big drops the Upper Falls(about 40 meters) and the Lower Falls(about 50 meters) .

Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary

Tafi Atome is the first place we stopped on our three day journey into the Volta Region. The Village is home to about 300 Mona Monkeys. The monkeys still exist here due to the belief that the monkeys were messengers to the Gods. However, as the villagers lost their reverence for the animals due to an erosion of traditional beliefs by Christianity, they began to destroy the forest and all the monkeys that lived within. In 1993 NGO's established the Monkey Sanctuary to protect the now endangered Mona Monkeys for tourism. The Villagers now lead tours thru the forest. They also demonstrate the ways of the village including Kente Weaving. The Kente cloths take four hours to make one yard that is only 4 inches wide.