Today we set our sights for Lake Bosomtwe!  According to my Google maps, it’s about 5 hours by car, although I heard that this depends on what route you take and what shape the roads are in.  Either way, it should be an adventurous trip. Driving is often a good way to get to see and know a country.

After a group breakfast at the hostel, we headed outside to wait for our transportation.  I was expecting a minivan that seated 12 or 14, but to my surprise and delight, we had a bus!

Partridge family style!

It was air conditioned, too!  We all pretty much had a row to ourselves, which allowed some much needed napping.  

The landscape wasn’t all that fascinating, but the small towns that we passed through were pretty interesting.  Lots of rocks and dust, and many construction projects in various stages of completion. 

At one point, we stopped for a bathroom break, and also for Anke to buy a SIM card.  There were kids hanging around the SIM card shop peeking at us, curious about who we were and what we were doing.  I waved at one of the kids, and that’s all I needed to do to break the ice. They came over, and I asked if I could take some pictures, and wham!  They struck poses like they were movie stars, and I got some really great photos.  

The bus ride continued for another hour or two, and the roads suddenly changed from paved to unpaved, and we were tossed around in the bus for a bit until we finally reached our destination, Wildwin Resort.

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Jo Bailey, a Mission Rabies employee who I worked with in Goa, came out to greet us all, and it was really nice seeing her again.

We were shown to our rooms.  I think there’s one triple (three gals sharing a room – Laura, Petra, and Anke), three doubles (Ingrid and Peter, Jo and Helena, and Lottie and Leigh), and one single (me!)

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Unfortunately, it has very little furniture – the bed plus a weird chair – so I couldn’t really unpack my clothes and put them in drawers or hang them up.  But no biggie…I just put them on that weird chair. The bathroom is pretty big, but I’ve discovered, to my dismay, that there seems to be no hot water. Grrrr.  This happened in Ethiopia, too.  Oh well… getting out of my comfort zone is what it’s all about, I guess.

After getting settled in, I went down to the lake.  As you might imagine, it’s very serene. Absolutely beautiful.  I took a few photos, of course. 

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A few others also went to check out the lake as well.

We all reconvened at the reception area at 5:00, where Jo gave the introductory talk about Mission Rabies in general, and MR Ghana in particular, and then we had dinner.

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We had another little break, and I went down to the lake again and meditated on the dock for ten minutes.  The sun was just starting to set, giving rise to the “golden hour”, where the lighting is perfect for taking photos.  I checked out the little section of the lake that we have direct access to, in detail.

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After that, we had a tutorial on how to use the Mission Rabies app.  This app was designed specifically for Mission Rabies to collect all of the pertinent data about the geographical areas that we’ll need to cover, and the actual dogs that we vaccinate.  The app is programmed into special cell phones that are doled out to each of the volunteers. During my Goa trip, our team leader Frank entered all of the data. For this mission, I’m determined to familiarize myself with the app, even though one of the Ghanaian team members will probably be running the app.  This is because some of the dog data that had to be entered requires asking the dog owner some questions, and even though everyone speaks English, there’s still a language barrier, and things go faster if the natives are questioned by fellow natives.

Tomorrow the real adventure begins. Can’t wait!

MISSION RABIES GHAHA – CHAPTER 4

Recently here in this region, a 12-year old boy died of rabies after being bitten by a dog. There is still much work to be done here, and in Asia as well. Our Mission Rabies work is helping to reduce these awful incidents. To continue this work requires financial resources, the vast majority of which come from individual donations. If you’ve enjoy my postings and support the work I’ve been doing, I hope you’ll take a moment to make a donation to help support my mission in Ghana and future missions.

To do this type of work is expensive and requires many resources.  If you support the work that I am doing with this amazing organization, I ask that you make a donation to the cause.  Every dollar helps.