Tamale

I set my alarm for 6:30. I woke up startled and confused and out of sorts. I probably could have slept another 6 hours, but I pulled myself out of bed to see the nice calm beach of early morning. Far from it! The beach was full of people exercising, playing and having a great time!

The view from my room. Coco Beach at 6:30 AM

Breakfast of Spanish omelet minus meat. Normally I would call that a vegetable omelet. I also included "sausage" which I could swear were hot dogs, baked beans, and dry bread that was ever so slightly toasted. Not surprisingly, decaf coffee was not an option.

By the time I finished I meandered back to hotel room but by then the beach had much fewer people.

I had meant to go to the beach to relax but ended up falling asleep  instead.

Meandering back to my room I met this fellow on the path

Samuel picked me up around 10 and we went to visit Ernest's family. They were very enthusiastic about the toys and flashlights that I brought. They were such beautiful girls. Jeanette told us that she said to the girls, "I told you Grandma Jeanne was coming!" In fact, she had told them that Grandma Jeanne would come if they were good, but she wouldn't come if they were naughty. :)

The Fletcher family

Unfortunately, shortly before he came to pick me up, Samuel discovered that we were on different flights and my flight was at noon -- there goes my Talapia and Goat soup with fufu!

So we went on to the airport. My check-in went smoothly. When I asked where to wait I followed the direction that the agent motioned with her head as she mumbled something. After waiting a while and everyone else in the room had boarded another flight,  I was asked where I was going. I meekly replied, "Tamale?" The agent shook her head and said, "No, no, no. You can't wait here." "OK, where do I wait?" A wave of the hand. "Wait with the others in the tent."

I walked out of the room back out through security and spun around several times before I realized the entrance into another room was actually into an air conditioned tent and waiting room.

Dr Peter Mumba, the chief of party for the project, and Eddie the trainer from the Liverpool School were already waiting and looked a bit relieved to see me. We sat and chatted for several minutes before we got up without any announcement and walked to our gate to board the shuttle to plane.

As people boarded several people found they had duplicate seat assignments. The captain apologized and said the problem was that the airlines had no internet connection that morning so they were unable to see what seat had already been assigned. I was fine and, in fact, had a row to myself.

The pilot announced that in a small plane they have to do some calculations to help balance the aircraft. They said that some passengers may be asked to change seats to help with the balancing. I heard the flight attendant ask a fellow near me if he would be willing to switch seats. He insisted, "No, I am in the correct seat. 8A" The flight attendant explained that she understood that, but in order to balance the plane... he responded curtly "I'm not interested!" The flight attendant looked pleadingly at her partner attendant and followed her gaze. The man directly behind me was asked to move instead and he obliged. I started to wonder if that fellow would be interested if the balance shift would cause us to crash.

I fell asleep during taxi. It felt as though it was a long time. In fact, when the plane came to a stop, I thought we had landed and that I had slept through the whole flight. In fact, we hadn't yet taken off. On this short flight the attendants served water, juice and "biscuits" (aka shortbread crackers.)

In no time at all we really landed in Tamale. It was 37 degrees  C (98.6 F) when we landed. It was a short hot walk to the "terminal" where we picked up luggage. I was reminded of the sophisticated luggage delivery system.

Luggage collection. No electricity required.

After we collected our luggage, smiling drivers met us warmly -- well, they were mostly smiling at Dr. Peter -- the big boss -- but they did grab our luggage and welcomed us to the waiting cars. The big cars were much easier to get in and out of this trip.

We drove to Gariba Lodge. I found out that is the location of the training and my housing are both located here. Yay, for easy commutes! 

My luxury room at Gariba Lodge

I was given an enormous luxury room but was still limited to just two towels in the bathroom. I have a feeling I wasn't supposed to have this nice of a room. I decided to unpack my belongings into the armoire since I knew I was going to be here for the week.

I "watched" TV and read my book until dinner time. It's a terrific book that Patti recommended called What Alice Forgot. 

 My colleagues picked me up and took me out to some place where we could watch the big football match during dinner. We tried to go to Wooden but it was PACKED. My friends were so surprised. Apparently it's normally nice and quiet.

So we came back to my hotel's restaurant and watched the  football game on a small screen. The room was crowded, but everyone was seated. It was a really important match. It was the African Cup finals. You could say it was the equivalent of the Superbowl. All of the teams were eliminated except for Ghana and Ivory Coast. The game was so close. Through the whole game there was no score. After penalty shots the score was matched. So in sudden death the room kept going from screaming to dead silence. Finally, after 8 shots, on the 9th shot the Ghana kicker missed but the Ivory Coast guy succeeded. The game was over and and the disappointment was solid.

For me, things were a little more positive. The hotel actually offered free wi-fi and I was able to get the password. Finally I had internet! So I spent most of the game chatting with family during the game.

It was well after 10 before all was wrapped up. It was finally bed time. I couldn't wait!