5.5 weeks * 39 days * 936 hours * 51160 minutes

Sunday, July 11, 2010

July 6: Mole National Park & Larabunga

A consistent pattern emerging- early to bed, early to rise.

We started our morning at 5 a.m., after breakfast we headed northwest to Mole National Park. Bad decision #1: not bringing socks. We partook in a 2 hour hiking safari where we saw baboons, monkeys, warthogs, antelope, AND elephants! We had to wear knee high rubber boots to protect us from wildlife (we found out there are scorpions and black cobras). No really, we did see a three inch scorpion in the ditch by our guest house!!! After the hike, our feet were covered in blisters from the damn rental boots!! (Really, who doesn't bring socks to the safari!) We've learned a valuable lesson.

Out of all the animals, the elephants were definitely our favorite! To see elephants so close and in the wild was absolutely amazing. We look forward to sharing pictures in the future with everyone.

We stopped in the village of Larabunga to visit with Issak and Kosco, friends of Janaan's (she met them last year). We toured the village and met with some community members to learn about the water issues. Currently their problems are twofold. They have two dams that create holding ponds of water during the rainy season. However, the water is shared with people and animals which creates sanitary concerns. As a solution, three bore holes (basically wells) were installed. Two were set up as manual pumps and the other electric. Currently, only one of the manual bore holes is functioning. The village is looking for outside funding to fix the broken manual pump and connect the electricity for the third bore hole. The bore holes are not only important for clean water, but necessary to sustain the village during the dry season when the holding ponds dry up. During the village tour, we also saw how the community utilizes shea nuts to make shea butter products for profit.

-Recovering from blisters... Beth & Leena

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