The fun never stops.

36 hours after landing in Accra, I was off again on a journey north. 9 hours last Friday brought me to Tamale for a chance meeting with Cheri, Cheri's mom and several other PCVs. Early the next morning, with a full car, the journey continued with another 9 hours via Bolgatonga and Ouagadougu on the way to northern Burkina Faso and a town called Ouahigouya via Tampuy.

Talk about blind leading the blind!! Once over the border, we were in Francophone West Africa in a car full of non-French speakers and no clue where we were going. Giddy about the opportunity, we were all chuckling as directions were translated from French to Morey (sp?) (a dialect shared between Northern Ghana and much of Burkina Faso) to Ghanaian English. Roughly every 3 blocks, we would pull over, one of our Ghanaian leaders would struggle with French greetings before asking for Tampion followed by Wageyuga. Most onlookers responded with blank stares or a stream of French but when we finally got directions, they were translated as "Go small and turn left at the disting." Hmmmm. How small and which disting?

Eventually we made it to the Burkina Faso Sub-Regional Moringa Conference where we met volunteers, counterparts and APCDs from Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin and Niger. We were the only group with no French speakers so the three day conference (not to mention food orders etc.) were aided by translators.

As a group we discussed everything from Moringa history to respective counties experience to a cooking demonstration implemented by the Niger group. Many new friends and a great mass of data later and we were on our way back south with the goal of producing a comprehensive West African Moringa Guide by September.

I woke up several times during the last night in Burkina with a decently high fever. I assumed it was due to so much travel and slept it off on 9 hour ride to Tamale. I was greeted by Cheri in Tamale and had a fever and the chills. Some hours later, I felt great and had no fever. This morning, the fever was back up to nearly 102 and I slept/shivered my way 9 more hours to Accra with a raging headache(private cars cut the trip by a day at least. I just had blood drawn and was given Coartem to treat what might be Malaria. I guess Bormase will have to wait a few more days.

I can't wait to see the village, my dog and my trees but I'll have to wait for lab results until tomorrow afternoon and will likely return to site on Sunday.

What I have feels better than the flu and worse than a cold. I have the rare opportunity to bundle up in Ghana!! I will keep you all updated.

Love to all
Ira