Back. Earlier than I'd planned because I got a ride most of the way back.

I had a delicious salad in Ho, awoke the next morning and failed
miserably in a search for a mango, and went straight on to the
monkey sanctuary. I walked the 5km in to the village of Tafi Atome
in a little over an hour and was there before 1. On the way for a
bit a few kids followed me for a while asking for water (I was
drinking from a bag) money and pens in high pitched voices. The
village was very nice and I got a room -pricier than I'dthought
it would be, which left me with far less money for Kente cloth.
Sat around by the office/reception area watching the monkeys play
in the dirt and reading and such. Just after I got there a group
of 6 arrived to stay the night, british volunteers at some drama
program. THen a truckload came from Chances hOtel, very expensive
place in Ho - Habitat volunteers from some NY church that it turns
out donate money to this methodist church in Buduburum. They left,
thankfully cause there were 20 of them, and meanwhile I tagged
along with the Brits to see the village kente weavers and then the
making of Palm Wine - alcohol from palm trees. they chop down 8
year old trees (which they do replace) and burn certain places to
bring up the sap, tap them, get 45 or so jerry cans of sap, which
ferments, then 4 of these at a time go into a barrel over a fire.
The barrel is sealed except a tube (bamboo I think) that comes out
and goes through another barrel of cold water - the alcohol in
vapor form is turned back into liquid and drips out the end through
a cotton filter into a jar. It takes 6 hours for 4 jerrycans (I
think bigger thn the tapped size) to turn into the hard liquor,
which is a whopping 78% alcohol said the guide. They had us try
both, the fermented stuff with bees in it. It was sweet and
fizzyish but had the worst aftertaste, undescribable - maybe the
bees? The hard liquor was perhaps like vodka but not quite,
peppery and STRONG. Then a night of storytelling, and dancing
and drumming performed, all after a delicious dinner. While the
drumming was going on some of the village girls started to play
with my "Obroni" hair. Then this morning up at 6 for the walk
in the forest, wherewe saw more monkeys and fed them bananas.
Breakfast, and I hitched a ride with the Brits in their
leather-upholstered spacious trotro all the way down near Tema,
from which I took 4 more trotros to get back to camp, earlier
than I'd have liked but it was a good weekend. Volta is gorgeous,
the whole region, the river and hills and everything.

Funny signs...
-Ashaiman Metal Fabricators
-Best Brains College (BBC) Remedial Classes
-billboard: Buy to insure your health. Help the poor to have health care.
-Fool to Pee Here
-in accra, do not really small and then PEE HERE huge

Anyway I'm hoping tomorrow, the 4th, will be fun with 7 americans
now among the volunteers.

I just met a girl who's volunteering here 3 months with this
new empowerment organization, found it through idealist.org, is on
a homestay and got here tuesday - she's so happy to have met a
white person and discovered there's a bunch of us.