Friday May 9th, 2014

Friday May 9^th, 2014

Today was the coolest day.  I know I have been here and done this trip before but this was one of the best.  We were up so late last night just laughing.  I laughed for over an hour straight.  The jokes just kept coming and I physically turned blue and purple from lack of O2 because of the laughter.  So waking up, I was in a real good mood. 

We went on the safari and instead of walking we took an SUV and sat on top.  The elephants weren’t at the typical water hole because of the rain storm from the night before.  We were out there for a couple of hours trying to track them down and didn’t see them—but we did see a ton of other animals which was real fun. 

We headed into Larabanga to take a tour of their village.  Abrahim does such a good job of taking us through.  He is a member of the Larabanga community and a couple years back he was sponsored by a British woman and went to schooling in Accra.  He studied tourism and has since gone back to his village and turned in into a tourism spot for visitors in Mole.  Way good kid.  While there, we were called and told there were elephants!!  We all jumped in the bus and picked up a good 20 other people to join us. 

The bus drove into the bush and up ahead we saw elephants crossing.  We followed them into the trees and I kid you not, we were ten feet from them.  Ten freaking feet!!! It was so cool!! We just watched them as they ate and hung out.  No big deal at all.  We were there for a good 30 minutes without a problem.  No fence.  No wires.  No signs.  Just nature and the elephants.  So simple.  It was really incredible to be that close. 

We came back and swam and had dinner together.  We headed back out to Larabanga for an evening celebration in our honor.  The girls that Abrahim had dance for us are orphans that he has helped rescue from the streets and poverty.  They danced and sang for an hour around the fire and then they all selected our group to come up and dance with them.  It was the most fun night.  Everybody got really into the dancing and clapping and it was just a good time. 

At the end each girl took their partner aside and told about their story.  My dancer was 14 and was orphaned at 4 years old when her parents died.  Abrahim and his community took her in and have been educating her since and she said now she has officially become a member of the community.  She wants to grow up to be a teacher. 

Every girl had their own story to share and it was amazing to share that with them. We are in Ghana, Africa; in the village of Larabanga and we participated in a cultural dance held our honor.  We all participated in a little piece of something that will be very difficult to describe to friends and family.  Amazing time.  It was beautiful.