MONDAY

05|31|10
Today I woke up with just enough time to get a shower before heading out to Cape Coast. Since the prices for Kakum National Park go up on Tuesday we decided to go this morning and come back to the office halfway through the day. Kakum is a rain forest a little less than an hour away from Cape Coast. It is famous for its canopy walk which is comprised of seven bridges all connected together held up by a single tree. It was built and opened in 1995 by two Canadians and six Ghanaians. I cant quite remember the name but I know it means Black Ivory. This kind of tree is very strong and is the only one that can hold the weight of an elephant when it rubs up against it for a good scratch.
We collectively decided to take another tro tro on this journey. Knowing how well our last one went I was defiantly not looking forward to this trip. I don’t think anyone else was either and for some reason we all had a tough start to the day. We did pass a little obruni fan club walking through the streets that helped a little but I think we all seemed to have a case of the Mondays that wouldn’t go away. I know I was grumpy and knew that I was hot and bothered and really wanted to have a FanIce. These are sold by the street sellers in little coolers they carry ontop of their heads. There is a frozen chocolate milk, vanilla icecream, and strawberry yogurt flavor. To eat them you bite off a corner like you do with the Purewater and suck out the icecream . They really hit the stop when you need to cool off. Unfortunately it seems that whenever you want something around here it’s impossible to find; and when you don’t want it … their shoving it in your face demanding you to buy it!! The further and further we walked to find a tro tro the more and more I really wanted a FanIce. I thought I was out of luck when we flagged down and bargend with the driver. Just as we were getting in the tro a FanIce kid came strolling by!! Sweet relief!!!! I got a chocolate milk flavor and it was so delicious!!
The tro tro ride to Kakum wasn’t as bad as our last one. We were told that the trip was going to be around a half an hour drive but it was obviously a lot longer. I feel like if your told something is going to take you however long you might as well times that by three and that’s how long it’ll really take you. Once we got to the park we had to wait a little while for the next tour to start. They had a little museum building to walk through to fill the time. They also had a really nice gift shop that I was very tempted to buy gifts at but decided against it since the prices were so high. A lot of the things they were selling I can most likely get in town for a cheaper price. They also had an outside restaurant which we stopped at after the tour. They sold American food so some of the girls got chicken nuggets and French fries to fill some of their American food cravings.
The walk to get to the canopy was exhausting; you really get a good work out. As for the Kakum experience, there really isn’t any way you can explain how breath taking the forest and the canopy walk is. To try and explain it would just cheapen my experience and the pictures will never do it justice. I guess all I can say is that if you really want to know what it’s like you’re going to have to travel to Ghana and see it in person.
Halfway through the walk was when I really noticed my mood turning for the worst. I still enjoyed every minute of our trip but I noticed that my tummy wasn’t feeling too well. Sara gave me some Imodium which didn’t seem to help. Once we were back on the Tro Tro I could tell I was getting sicker by the moment. It was that kind of feeling when you skin hurts to touch, it feels sort of tingly almost too. By the time we got to Cape Coast we still had sometime to work at the office but i went straight back home to get some rest. I don’t think that taxi could have gotten me home any quicker.

I slept till around the time people were coming home from the office. The huge metal garden door could wake anyone up, its so loud. . I was really sad when I wasn’t able to make it to dinner. We had sat down and discussed what foods to have at dinner and I had chosen tonight’s dinner. Red Red is a bean dish that’s super spicy and served with fried plantains. I had read so much about it prior to the trip and was really looking forward to it. Since I had already signed up Eli would have made enough for me so I asked if they could bring some home for me which they did and I plan to eat it the minute I’m feeling better.
My stomach at this point was really uneasy. Ekiette said she had some special tea that would help my tummy settle so I gave that a try hoping it would help. She told me that it would taste pretty nasty but for some reason I didn’t find it that bad. It had a lemongrass flavor and was very bitter. Within minutes of finishing the tea I had to run for the bathroom. I threw up about three times which was awful but afterwards I was feeling a bit better. I skipped dinner and hoped that in the morning I would be feeling a little better.