Monkeys, arriving @ Mole National Park

On Thursday, our adventure continued as we headed to Mole National Park from Kumasi. We traveled for over 13 hours! Midway through our traveling, we stopped to see a wild monkey conservation! We stopped at a small village nearby to purchase fresh bananas to feed to the monkeys!

Almost immediately after getting off of the bus, monkeys made their way towards the village, knowing that most tourists have food to feed them. We spent the first 30 minutes feeding the wild monkeys, and I think we enjoyed it more than the monkeys did. They were flipping around those tree branches, snatching the banana pieces from our hands, and then quickly jumping away after they finished the banana piece. The group of monkeys was about 30. We then got a tour of the surrounding rainforest. Many foreign looking insects (to me) were scrambling around. The ants here are huge. They have huge dirt piles that look like oblong pyramids with holes in them; termite colonies. There was a many massive trees, but one in particular was super awesome. They call tithe devil tree because a tree wrapped around another tree, killing the other. The result was an alive, hollow tree.

The roads from Kumasi to Mole are insane! Not only are they dirt roads, but they are EXTREMELY bumpy and sometimes swamped with water. Villages that we passed are living like they did for the past 1000 or so years, living in mud huts covered with tree branches and hay. It is amazing to see how some people live in this third world country.

Once we arrived at our hotel, which overlooks Mole National Park, we went for a swim! While we we're eating dinner, the power went out and stayed out until 1 AM. Northern Ghana is extremely hot, day or night. I woke up in pools of sweat several times before the air conditioning came back on. We have no running water for the majority of the day.

I REALLY appreciate America and have never been so proud to be from America. We are all so blessed with everything at our fingertips. Castles for homes, clean cities and roadside, prime healthcare. Why are we so lucky to live so comfortably? How is it fair that a child is born in America the same minute a child is born in Ghana?

Not everyone gets the same lease on life...