G&E

So I rendez-voused with Geoff and Evelyn. It's really great to have friends around again. I went to Vic Baboo's for dinner while they went to Moti Mahal, for 2 reasons... One, I think I'd enjoy the food better, and two, I wanted them to have another nice dinner together without me, since I'll be with them for the next two weeks. I enjoyed the dinner, but some guy invited himself to join me, and kindof wanted me to pay for him (though he eventually paid for himself) and then was very pushy about getting me to buy some of his art. He even grabbed my arm at one point. This is one of the only times during the trip that I was actually a bit scared, he seemed angry that I wasn't buying anything from him (even though I had been sure not to lead him on... this same guy had talked to me when I passed through kumasi before) and I was a little worried he'd do something, so I returned to my hotel rather hurriedly.

Next day, we headed to BFMS, though we changed money in kumasi first. Since my parents had sent me money in US$20 bills, I didn't get as good an exchange rate as if it had been $50 or $100 bills. Oh well. I'm going to try to change some more at less official people in Techiman, maybe they will give a better rate? We'll see, not much to do about it. Headed up to Nkoranza, then BFMS later. It was much later in the day than expected, so we didn't get to spend as much time there as we'd have liked. And also since it was market day, a few people we'd like to have seen were not around. The Colobus monkeys were also hiding, so Geoff didn't get to see any unfortunately. It was dark by the time we were heading out of there, but we wanted to stay at "hand in hand" in Nkoranza, not at the BFMS guesthouse. Not completely sure why. We were lucky and didn't have to wait long for a tro tro at least. And Charity, the hostess at hand-in-hand, was great in looking after us even though we arrived at like 8:30 pm. Once morning (and light) came, I discovered it's a really nice place. But again, don't have as much time to hang around as we'd like. Walked back into town, visiting Evelyn's friend at the hospital, and internet cafe. That's where we're at now. Gonna try to get to Tamale today, but again since we started pretty late, we're going to arrive pretty late, but I'm sure it'll turn out ok. Feel much more confident about things since I'm not alone now. I'm just never fully comfortable arriving somewhere after dark without set plans for accomodation and such.

Tomorrow, we'll try to head to Mole national park, and spend a few relaxing days there while we think about how we'll spend the remainder of the trip in eastern region. But at this point, I'm really flexible. In a sense, just don't care anymore, will be similarly happy with whatever we do.