day two

Woke up at the Catholic Guest House. The room we took had no electricity and the guard told us we could stay there for free (we gave him 10,000 cedis for his kindness).

After finding an egg sandwich stand we began to explore the city. The first thing I noticed was how clean it was when compared to Accra. Also, bikes and scooters outnumbered cars. In fact, they even have bike lanes! In Accra, people rarely ride bikes, because only poor people would have to ride a bike and nobody wants to be seen as poor. They would rather walk. We passed a stand by the side of the road displaying cow heads for sale. They told us we could buy one and they woulc break open the head so we could get to the brain. We the guy flipped one of them over hundreds of flies flew out. They also sold tails and feet. We moved on with out making a purchase.

We then moved on to the market. I have been to markets before and always found them to be a bit annoying. In the south it is hard to walk more than a few feet with out someone grabbing you and telling you to take a "nice good look". We weren't bothered at all in this market. For anyone who has not seen an African market before: it is kind of like a flea market in the it is generally in the open air. Vendors are behind their stands on either side of a narrow dirt path. Goods are spread out on tables and usually neatly stacked. You can get everything from tomatoes to fabric, get a haircut or have clothes made. I made one purchase that day. I bought what I was told was a bracelet. It was made of iron, very heavy and I could just barely sqeeze it over my hand. I was pretty happy with it and got it for 10,000 cedis ($1). Later that night someone told me that it was not a bracelet at all. It was a link from a chain used to imprison slaves during the slave trade. I took it off right away and felt pretty foolish. Other than that, this market did not really offer anything different from anyother than I had been to, but it was a nice walk.

We had heard that there was a leather tanning shop in the city, so we set off to find it. When we got there we peaked into the courtyard to see what was going on. It smelled like chemicals and rotting meat. A man was hammering tanned goat skins to the ground to dry. We wanted to learn more, bnut were told by one man that we would have to pay 100,000 cedis to the elders before looking around more. We decided leave. Instead, we watched people making sandles down the street. For about five dollars you could have a pair of sandles custom made. We talked a little bit to the people making them and found out that the family had been making them at that site for generations.

We were still pretty tired from the bus trip, so we decided to head back to the hotel and nap. Before that, we stopped and had lunch. A meal called red red. This is basically a stew made from beans and fried ripe plantains served on the side. Both the beans and plantains are red from the palm oil in which they are cooked. Food stands on the streets are called chop bars and are just about everywhere. In Ghana, you order your food based on how much you want to pay. For instance, I had 1000 cedis worth of beans and 500 cedis worth of plantains (total about 20 cents). It was enought to fill me up. Downside to chop bars...there is no running water, therefore, not always the cleanest for conditions. If you are not careful that the food is hot when served to you you could get sick! In the end it works out, with the money you are saving on food you will have enough left over and then some to by the meds you need to treat whatever illness you catch! Finally we reached the hotel and fell asleep.

We did not really know anyone in Tamale, but had gotten numbers from friends of friends. We gave them a call and were invited to a pub crawl that was going on that night. we ended up hitting it off with these people and meeting a ton more along the way. At about 1am we were in the back of a pick up on the way to the hotel for the night. The next day we would head further north to Bolgatanga.