BFMS Queen Mother
I'm now BFMS Queen Mother since Julie left today! Too bad I have no subjects to rule over. Scott's also leaving to go travelling in the north for 2 weeks before we meet up again in Accra to pick up Geoff. Wow, I can't believe I'm going to be all by myself for the next week and a half before Geoff gets here. I'm going to be bored out of my mind! I'm glad I have books, music, and TV now that Alfred's family has one. I'm going to be mesmerized by Latin American soap operas since that's the only thing that plays on Ghanaian prime time TV!
The management committee put on a dinner for Julie last night since she's basically spent 2 years of her life at BFMS when you add up all her trips. She's even coming back next year to teach the field school. We had chicken fufu (pounded yam served in glutinous balls) and it was delicious; Alfred and Bea's groundnut soup is the best in Ghana! I took Peptobismol as preventative medicine though because fufu always makes me run for the bathroom at 5 am! :)
My work is officially done because I got my export permits in Kumasi with no major problems! I left BFMS this past Wednesday with Bright and we got there too late to do anything. Even the restaurant in the hotel closed on me! I was staying near FORIG (Forestry Research Institute of Ghana) because it was more convenient but it also meant I was so far out of downtown Kumasi that I super far away from all the tourist haunts frequented last year. Anyways, I survived the night on bananas, beef jerky, and Malted Milk biscuits.
The next morning I met Bright at FORIG really early. We tried to go see the guy at CRI(Crops Research Institute) who was the only one who could sign the phytosanitary certificates that would allow me to take the plant samples out of the country. Unfortunately, the entire office had travelled to Techiman for the day, so we were out of luck. I went to Bright's house and said hello to his 2 kids (the whole family should be arriving in Calgary today because the Cdn embassy finally gave Bright visas for his kids!). I tagged along with them to the Central Market but went off wandering by myself to find a football jersey for my brother. My goal was to find an Asante Kotoko jersey because they are the coolest team in Ghana. I have 2 bandanas and when I wear them people always yell "Fabulous" (team slogan) at me. After some walking around I did manage to find one and discovered that the team sponsor is Spacefon (the network keeping me in touch with Geoff this summer). Too bad that the Spacefon slogan is WAY bigger than the Asante Kotoko porcupine so at first it looks like I'm a walking advertisement for Spacefon.
On Friday, I had the craziest day. I went back to CRI without Bright since he had to pack for the move to Calgary and waited all morning for the guy to come to work. I added up the weights of all my samples and both packages were about 3000 g each. The guy did eventually show up to sign my permit at about 12:30 pm. Someone was nice enough to drop me off at the junction so I didn't have to walk carrying 3 months of work + my day pack. I caught a taxi into town to go to DHL so I could ship half of my samples home. It cost me over 1.7 million cedis (that's more than 200 Cdn) to courier a 4 kg package home. It had better make it! Even worse, DHL didn't accept credit card! So I had to run around to find a bank to change the last of my Cdn dollars. After trying 3 banks and getting progressively more flustered and worried, I found a Forex bureau that would change my money. Thank goodness! Shipped the package to the university and got a taxi out to the lorry station. Now it was about 2:30 pm.
The tro-tro gods were on my side on Friday and I think I made some sort of time record going from Kumasi to BFMS. I managed to find a car going to Techiman and I was the last person they needed to fill it. So within a couple minutes we were speeding our way towards Techiman, and I mean speeding. I don't think I opened my eyes for most of that trip. I'm glad the speedometer didn't work on that car. I just had visions of us hitting people, goats, dogs, chickens and I couldn't bear to look at the road! We didn't hit anything but it was definitely scary. Our driver got us to Techiman in under 2 hours; within 20 mins of arriving I managed to get a car to Nkoranza. I even had time to stop in Nkoranza for e-mail! I got a tro-tro to BFMS no problem and made it back by 7:30 pm. I was exhausted but amazed that I could do everything in 1 day. Murphy's Law finally gave me a break!
I just want the next week and a half to go really quickly. Then the real adventure begins and I get to be a tourist again. Start e-mailing me people! I now have lots of time to answer your e-mails individually.
The management committee put on a dinner for Julie last night since she's basically spent 2 years of her life at BFMS when you add up all her trips. She's even coming back next year to teach the field school. We had chicken fufu (pounded yam served in glutinous balls) and it was delicious; Alfred and Bea's groundnut soup is the best in Ghana! I took Peptobismol as preventative medicine though because fufu always makes me run for the bathroom at 5 am! :)
My work is officially done because I got my export permits in Kumasi with no major problems! I left BFMS this past Wednesday with Bright and we got there too late to do anything. Even the restaurant in the hotel closed on me! I was staying near FORIG (Forestry Research Institute of Ghana) because it was more convenient but it also meant I was so far out of downtown Kumasi that I super far away from all the tourist haunts frequented last year. Anyways, I survived the night on bananas, beef jerky, and Malted Milk biscuits.
The next morning I met Bright at FORIG really early. We tried to go see the guy at CRI(Crops Research Institute) who was the only one who could sign the phytosanitary certificates that would allow me to take the plant samples out of the country. Unfortunately, the entire office had travelled to Techiman for the day, so we were out of luck. I went to Bright's house and said hello to his 2 kids (the whole family should be arriving in Calgary today because the Cdn embassy finally gave Bright visas for his kids!). I tagged along with them to the Central Market but went off wandering by myself to find a football jersey for my brother. My goal was to find an Asante Kotoko jersey because they are the coolest team in Ghana. I have 2 bandanas and when I wear them people always yell "Fabulous" (team slogan) at me. After some walking around I did manage to find one and discovered that the team sponsor is Spacefon (the network keeping me in touch with Geoff this summer). Too bad that the Spacefon slogan is WAY bigger than the Asante Kotoko porcupine so at first it looks like I'm a walking advertisement for Spacefon.
On Friday, I had the craziest day. I went back to CRI without Bright since he had to pack for the move to Calgary and waited all morning for the guy to come to work. I added up the weights of all my samples and both packages were about 3000 g each. The guy did eventually show up to sign my permit at about 12:30 pm. Someone was nice enough to drop me off at the junction so I didn't have to walk carrying 3 months of work + my day pack. I caught a taxi into town to go to DHL so I could ship half of my samples home. It cost me over 1.7 million cedis (that's more than 200 Cdn) to courier a 4 kg package home. It had better make it! Even worse, DHL didn't accept credit card! So I had to run around to find a bank to change the last of my Cdn dollars. After trying 3 banks and getting progressively more flustered and worried, I found a Forex bureau that would change my money. Thank goodness! Shipped the package to the university and got a taxi out to the lorry station. Now it was about 2:30 pm.
The tro-tro gods were on my side on Friday and I think I made some sort of time record going from Kumasi to BFMS. I managed to find a car going to Techiman and I was the last person they needed to fill it. So within a couple minutes we were speeding our way towards Techiman, and I mean speeding. I don't think I opened my eyes for most of that trip. I'm glad the speedometer didn't work on that car. I just had visions of us hitting people, goats, dogs, chickens and I couldn't bear to look at the road! We didn't hit anything but it was definitely scary. Our driver got us to Techiman in under 2 hours; within 20 mins of arriving I managed to get a car to Nkoranza. I even had time to stop in Nkoranza for e-mail! I got a tro-tro to BFMS no problem and made it back by 7:30 pm. I was exhausted but amazed that I could do everything in 1 day. Murphy's Law finally gave me a break!
I just want the next week and a half to go really quickly. Then the real adventure begins and I get to be a tourist again. Start e-mailing me people! I now have lots of time to answer your e-mails individually.
posted by Avatamsaka Monastery Choir at 3:33 AM
3 Comments:
"Anyways, I survived the night on bananas, beef jerky, and Malted Milk biscuits."
I feel for you there - sounds exactly like my night in London Heathrow. Cept substitute that with Hotrods, a bottle of water, sleep depravation and energy bars.
I hope at least you slept better than I did!
Congratulations, Ev!! Now all you have to do is analyze your samples, do your math, write up your paper, revise, and of course, defend! ;) But first, have fun on your trip!
PS got back in town saturday. got your letter, thanks! sent you a postcard, but to your calgary address, so you'll get it in September!
Hi Sandi, I did sleep pretty well except that the hotel had added moth balls to my room. I couldn't find them to get rid of them but I kept getting wafted with the scent of moth balls all night!
Thanks Abbey! How was Italy? I can't wait to see your pictures though I guess I'll have to wait till Xmas when you're back from Halifax. Good luck with the move to Dalhousie! At least the tough part is over, I can be home (and in Edmonton) for the rest of the stuff. And no course work or TAing this term! Yippee!
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