Ghana Love It Part 5

Previous - Part 4

Hello everyone, wo ho te sen? Now edited with photos!

Last weekend, Maddi (UK) Lien (Belgium) and I went to visit the Boa Beng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary, and had the pleasure of seeing two types of wild monkeys all throughout the sanctuary park - the Mona monkey, and the Colobus monkey. The latter were the shy of the two types, up in the trees staring curiously at us with black faces framed with white tufts of hair, and long white plumed tails. The other monkeys, the Mona monkeys, were quite the friendly fellows as they dropped right by us staring greedily at the small bananas we held around them. The mona monkeys were of slightly more strange and beautiful coloring than the Colobus - they had a darkened fur topped with a light dusty orange around the head and back, and had multicolored faces. Some of the pictures Maddi got of these primates are incredible, so I will be updating this post with those once we are home to upload them. I'd also like to give a shout out to Lisa and Katie Rickerhauser telling them I did indeed get to see monkeys this trip. To give you an idea though, here's a quick google image search of only the colobus (for a close up):

Mona Monkey

My friend's picture

Colobus Monkey

The ficus tree I climbed

I absolutely loved the sanctuary as it was incredible how friendly the Mona monkeys were towards humans - I was able to gave them bananas right out of my hands (in a safe manner, of course.) I was also able to climb an old ficus tree that once wrapped around another tree that had died, making it a hollowed-out looking bunch of branches looping and twirling from the ground to form a very interesting structure. It wasn't that high up but it was still very fun as the inside of the ficus tree had many handholds. And of course, the monkeys were extraordinary to observe - I recommend this trip to anyone.

Spot the monkeys! (Click for larger image)

The monkeys came for their bananas in swarms of 7 or 8

A very forbidding tree. The ents march for war! (Nerdy, I know.)

Stella and a little girl who helped us make fufu (later)

After this trip, which had one of the most frustrating commutes back (coming back to Kumasi after 4 on weekend traffic is an ABSOLUTE NIGHTMARE. Plus we got off at the wrong stop. Overall we wasted 3 extra hours driving on a trip that was already an 8 hour round trip.. and wasted a ton of money being forced to get a taxi on the way back) we just decided to rest Sunday and get to know our new roommates, Stella (from UK), Will (UK), and Francesco (Italy.) Most of our new roommates were in medicine/public health, and they all have very varied and likeable personalities. Francesco in particular is a very vivacious and outgoing Italian, Will is a very genial Brit, and Stella is an amiable new roommate. All and all our house has gained some new and interesting members, adding to my already long list of new international people and friends I've met.

Will and Francesco, the devilish duo themselves.

Today I was able to go on outreach again, visiting the same pig farm but this time vaccinating and giving vitamins to a whole bunch of pigs (I believe around 30.. of all different sizes.) It was fairly hard and tiring work, as pigs are extremely vocal (next time I'm bringing ear plugs for the squealing) and tend to kick dirt and crud off the floor all around you (this calls for a very nice shower today.. though I am of course sitting in the internet cafe in my same scrubs, smelling of pig farm. Wonderful.) I still had fun, however. Wednesday we will go back to vaccinate pigs and also I believe see a hernia surgery. So for now, this is all I will update with, and of course I am so very glad to have people reading about what I've been doing in Africa.

See you next time!

Piglets and their mother

-Marisa

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