What can you Balance on YOUR head?

Today I witnessed a parade in Ghana.  Women only, trying to out-do each other, a battle for ‘the Strongest Neck.’  First came a woman with a bag on her head.  Not like brown baggin’ it, but a woman carrying her purse on her head, with no hands.  Then a girl came with a tray of apples, then a bowl of shish-kabobs.   She’d move to the side, take her bowl down and sell one to her friend.  A convenient, arms-free, snack version of the food truck, 
only suitable for a small town where everyone walked around and knew each other, in other words: Only in Ghana.   

The most impressive players in the parade were the mattress lady, the chicken coup lady, the pineapple lady(unpictured, but I was tremendously impressed that she could balance a bowl of about 20 pineapples and a giant knife on her head) and who could not be mesmerized by the BAG-LADY: an overflowing bowl of bags AND two big armfuls?  Wow-za!!!

The Bag Lady of Takoradi, Ghana

~~~

Takoradi, Ghana was the smelliest place I have ever been.  You can see in this photo, a square drop-off in the ground.  It was about 1-2 feet deep and filled with garbage, old food and gray water and probably, wait for it…poop.  At least that is what it smelt like.  Going around the globe I’ve been to a few souks before, but this was the most-narrow maze of a marketplace I have ever seen.  If you got pushed, you would fall ankle deep into poop water.  The market was about two feet wide and there was a gap- filled with more gray water-about 3 inches wide right down the middle.  Nothing they sold was fresh by any American Standard.  The most disgusting thing they sold?  


Snails.  
And in case you cannot tell from this picture, they were huge. These are like the size of shells you put up to your ear to hear the ocean.  Of course they were by a basket full of tiny, living blue crabs, so I closed my eyes and squirmishly walked past.  I followed the line-all six of us tourists, fresh off a luxury cruise ship, trying to get a gist of the city, but really just wanting this experience to be over so we could breathe again.  It was about 85 degrees F and 90% humidity and we were on the top rack of an oven with kitty litter box fumes coming from the bottom. 

FEAR FACTOR

 Tommy’s The Living Desert Tours

If you are ever in Walvis Bay, Namibia, you HAVE TO go on this tour!!! It was AMAZING!!! WE drove in 4x4s to the Namib Desert Dunes- more specifically Dune 7, the highest Dune in the Namib Desert, the oldest desert in the world.  (How can you prove it’s the oldest desert in the world, yeah, yeah, yeah, ivan had this argument started way before you did.)  The dunes were beautiful, a sight to see all on its own, but this tour was The Living Desert and they were all trained to fins animals in the desert they drove us through.  We reached the desert and had to stop for 20 minutes to deflate th tires so we could Indiana Jones-style it through the dunes!  We caravan through and five minutes he stops the 4x4, runs out and grabs this lizard he nicknamed the Ferrari.  He told us about, held it in his hands and then asked-“Who wants to wear it as an earring?”  And so, fear factor begins. 

I zoomed/cropped this photo so you can see his hysterical little body holding onto my ear for dear life.  It didn’t hurt, it was just creepy and made me squirmy the next ten minutes.  It was AWESOME!!!!!!

Because I know my mother and her friends are the primary readers of this blog, I refrained from posted the snake pictures, and just so you know, it was poisonous and I did not wear it as a necklace to go with my lizard earrings.   

The cutest creature we saw was the Palmetto gecko!  It’s nocturnal and the guides spotted a light spot in the sand and knew that’s where they were sleeping.  The dug them out of the sand and he was scared and so cute J 

A while later, Tommy spotted chameleon tracks (oh yeah…those,) put the car in neutral and ran into the desert to get the chameleon.  We were planning on stopping in 4 minutes at a chemical restroom area inserted into the desert to break for a bit.  And so, he let the chameleon ride in the car right in between us.  He got irritated and started hissing and although he wasn’t facing me but his little chameleon eyes were looking backwards at me.  So Tommy held it the whole way. 

Somehow, he convinced me to be brave again,  so I kneeled down and held the chameleon and he ate a worm off my arm with his long sticky tongue!!! It was Crazzzzy!!  

Ivan sees 6 Hippos, 1 yellow bird and 1 hungry Crocodile

@St. Lucia Reserve Richards Bay, South Africa

New Current City(finally): Richards Bay, South Africa and Durban, South Africa

 This was our first city where we actually MADE FRIENDS! Thanks to Mormon.org and our home teacher, bishop, & e-mail we got to go to church in Richards Bay!  We had a lovely time, ate DELICIOUS food after church.

The next day we visited St. Lucia –a river/national park where we saw hippos, crocodile and zebra on the way (pics to come.) Lots of the ports in South Africa feel pretty much like America, especially Cape Town.  Richards Bay is a beach town and it was so beautiful!!  There was so much Greenery too.  Unfortunately, the weather has been pretty bad since we have been here-windy, rainy, foggy.  In Durban, South Africa, the weather finally cleared and we were able to go to the BEACH!!! Here we are at Shaka Marine World where we went to beach-so fun!!  The waves were great and the water was perfect temperature.  Next week we will come back to Durban and the waterpark will be open! We haven’t been to a waterpark since Seven Peaks(lame) summer 2009, so we are pretty much stoked to go and with our new besties, yippe!

..until next time-xox

“It’s Maputo, I can cry if I want to”

Is what the 12 people I escorted were singing as I walked onto the bus when we ported in Maputo, Mozambique today.  As our first and only time in Mozambique, Maputo was a pretty boring place to spend it. 

Maputo was a 90/90 climate like NYC- 90 degrees and 90% humidity, except there was no Air Conditioned Starbucks you could hang out in a drink an Iced Passion Tea Lemonade.   This summer in New York, in order to get out of the heat I took the 2 ½ year old I babysat and went to The National History Museum a few times.  Today our guide did the same thing, except it was in Africa and the unemployment rate was 50% and there was no air conditioning.  In fact, it was a terrible museum and I never realized how I took for granted a good taxidermist. 

Seriously, this is some terrible work…eeeeewwww!!!

Thanks be to the man who took this picture of me and 1/2 a dead stuffed Lion!

P.S.  I didn't cry, it was actually a pretty good day!!!