elephants!

this afternoon we returned from two nights at mole national park. we arrived in the afternoon and spent the first night sleeping in tents that had been donated to the park from the u.s. army. they did a pretty good job of keeping us dry during the rain. i met a couple from the netherlands who were staying at the park and they asked me if i 'had met zee baboons yet.' then they showed me their truck and all of the damage that these crazy, red-assed monkeys had done to their vehicle. luckily they stayed away from our tent. we woke up ealry the second day and met telle, our guide for a two hour walking tour of the forest. telle took us to an elephant who was eating and was not nearly as excited to see us as we were to see him. the elephant began to charge us when he saw us and telle yelled 'run' as he cocked his shotgun. luckily the elephant stopped and we were able to come back and take its picture a million times. we also saw monkeys, warthogs, and antelope on our walking tour. when we returned to the campground we were preparing to leave the park and return to tamale when seven others and i decided that we wanted to spend another night. we booked a room in the motel and a jeep tour of the park. we left that afternoon on our safari and got to ride on the top of the jeep! on this tour we got to see a whole family of elephants, as well as crocodiles and baboons. that evening we met a few guys whose parents worked at the park and they had grown up their. they took us down into the forest (the motel is located on highest point in the park) to a watering hole to get a closer look at the crocodiles. moses, our friend, said that their were over 50 crocs living in the pond. he also told us about his friend who likes to swim across the pond! we didn't try.

tomorrow morning we return to kumasi for one night before departing on our educational tour. this tour will take us to cape coast, the voltal region, the central region, and several places in between. the tour will last two weeks and then we begin our independent study! i can't believe how fast this semester is moving. i hope everyone enjoyed their spring break and hopefully i'll be able to keep you updated during our tour as well as share some more stories!

go badgers!
dane