monkeys and waterfalls
This weekend I saw monkeys and waterfalls.
Haha, let me elaborate. Saturday morning we all piled once more onto our tour bus and drove a bazillion hours (ok, it was only 3) to some new place in Ghana: the Volta region (though I was actually there last week too, but whatever). We saw a baboon on the side of the road on the way there with a brith pink booty, which was pretty cool. Then the bus in front of us hit a monkey and killed it, ironically on the way to the monkey sanctuary. At the sanctuary (which was just a village with a no hunting law) we fed wild monkeys bananas (yes, they really like bananas and really respond to stupid kissy noises!!). Oh so cool. They were perhaps the cutest things ever. Mona monkeys I believe. The one I fed actually put his little paws on my hand grabbing the banana cuz I had it mostly unpeeled so he had to work for it. I have pictures, but alas, none of me actually feeding the monkey cuz my flash was too slow. Oh well.
The next day we went to Wli Falls, which was gorgeous. Not as nice as Boti falls cuz it was higher and therefore stronger, meaning swimming in it was actually painful and I only stayed in the water for a few minutes. But the air there is so clean... my lungs were very greatful. I also got some wonderful pictures of butterflies. At one point my black+white checkered Vans were beign swarmed by a little gang of tiny solid blue, yellow and white butterflies, but I was enjoying the moment so much that I didn't get a chance to whip out the camera. It's ok... I'll remember it anyway.
The whole weekend was just, well, pretty. There was rainstorms, clouds, sunsets and harvest moons. I spent Friday at the beach and saw the most amazing harvest moon slung low over the horizon of the ocean with black clouds rolling over it like a dragon devouring a pearl.
I figured out why I love the dance classes here so much! Our studio has open doors where we get fresh air from the outside. People come gather and watch all the time. We have live drummers. But most of all, everyone just loves dancing so much. People yell and shout happy things and have huge smiles on their faces when they dance. Ok, not everyone (actually, there are lots of lazy people in my class) but a good enough number do that it puts me in high spirits for the whole class. And it helps that I'm friends with my dance instructors (I went clubbing with them again last Thursday night).
As for my drumming for the other dance classes, I'm having a blast! I got promoted to actually playing a drum as opposed to the shaker-dude-guy. I mean, not to say the shaker is very easy the drum is very hard. They're actually about the same at times, but the drum is just more fun and less painful (your wrist/forearm gets so tired from hitting that shaker over and over for 7 minutes straight). I'm playing either the sogo, kagan or one of the big talking drums (which I'm about to do in an hour!! It's for that beat I was writing about last week that made me just ridiculously happy). But dang, I really don't have enough time here to learn everything I want.
Electricity and internet has been a bit scarce lately. Everytime power goes out, the server takes anywhere from 2-10 hours to reload... but the electricity was continually going out, so the internet never came back on. Haha... I love it though.
Looks like I'll be going to Nigeria in a couple weeks and Togo the next weekend after that. Pretty excited. But more about that when it comes.
Haha, let me elaborate. Saturday morning we all piled once more onto our tour bus and drove a bazillion hours (ok, it was only 3) to some new place in Ghana: the Volta region (though I was actually there last week too, but whatever). We saw a baboon on the side of the road on the way there with a brith pink booty, which was pretty cool. Then the bus in front of us hit a monkey and killed it, ironically on the way to the monkey sanctuary. At the sanctuary (which was just a village with a no hunting law) we fed wild monkeys bananas (yes, they really like bananas and really respond to stupid kissy noises!!). Oh so cool. They were perhaps the cutest things ever. Mona monkeys I believe. The one I fed actually put his little paws on my hand grabbing the banana cuz I had it mostly unpeeled so he had to work for it. I have pictures, but alas, none of me actually feeding the monkey cuz my flash was too slow. Oh well.
The next day we went to Wli Falls, which was gorgeous. Not as nice as Boti falls cuz it was higher and therefore stronger, meaning swimming in it was actually painful and I only stayed in the water for a few minutes. But the air there is so clean... my lungs were very greatful. I also got some wonderful pictures of butterflies. At one point my black+white checkered Vans were beign swarmed by a little gang of tiny solid blue, yellow and white butterflies, but I was enjoying the moment so much that I didn't get a chance to whip out the camera. It's ok... I'll remember it anyway.
The whole weekend was just, well, pretty. There was rainstorms, clouds, sunsets and harvest moons. I spent Friday at the beach and saw the most amazing harvest moon slung low over the horizon of the ocean with black clouds rolling over it like a dragon devouring a pearl.
I figured out why I love the dance classes here so much! Our studio has open doors where we get fresh air from the outside. People come gather and watch all the time. We have live drummers. But most of all, everyone just loves dancing so much. People yell and shout happy things and have huge smiles on their faces when they dance. Ok, not everyone (actually, there are lots of lazy people in my class) but a good enough number do that it puts me in high spirits for the whole class. And it helps that I'm friends with my dance instructors (I went clubbing with them again last Thursday night).
As for my drumming for the other dance classes, I'm having a blast! I got promoted to actually playing a drum as opposed to the shaker-dude-guy. I mean, not to say the shaker is very easy the drum is very hard. They're actually about the same at times, but the drum is just more fun and less painful (your wrist/forearm gets so tired from hitting that shaker over and over for 7 minutes straight). I'm playing either the sogo, kagan or one of the big talking drums (which I'm about to do in an hour!! It's for that beat I was writing about last week that made me just ridiculously happy). But dang, I really don't have enough time here to learn everything I want.
Electricity and internet has been a bit scarce lately. Everytime power goes out, the server takes anywhere from 2-10 hours to reload... but the electricity was continually going out, so the internet never came back on. Haha... I love it though.
Looks like I'll be going to Nigeria in a couple weeks and Togo the next weekend after that. Pretty excited. But more about that when it comes.