Update for Oct. 10th-13th

So first off, I have to apologize; I am terrible at this blog thing. Plus, it doesn’t help that the internet here is very hit or miss… usually its a miss. The connection can be so slow sometimes. Okay, on to the blog...

This first long-awaited update is for the weekend of Oct. 10-12th. I traveled with a group of friends to the Western coast region to a couple of towns called Busia and Butre. We stayed at this wonderful little beach hotel in Butre, sleeping in small tree houses. We had a great time Friday night with a big bonfire on the beach, drumming from some local rastas, and plenty of dancing.

Saturday found us leaving Butre and backtracking to the nearby twin-cities of Takoradi/Sekondi. It was a huge day for Ghana because the “Black Stars", the Ghanaian national soccer team, were playing the Lesotho national team in a World Cup qualifier. This was the first time the Black Stars had played a match in the newly built Sekondi Stadium... and the Ghanaian fans definitely put the stadium and authorites to the test.

Event organizers were severely unprepared for the massive turnout. The capacity of the stadium is 20,000 spectators while the day's match drew out over 30,000 frenzied fans. The 12 of us obrunis (white people) from the university arrived about 3 hours before kick-off and were quickly met with disappointment when we realized tickets had long been sold out. We split up and frantically searched for ways into the game. Some in the group were able to sneak past riot police who were busy beating back excited fans while the rest of us were able to pick up random tickets from scalpers.

So after the chaos of the mobs and riot police we enjoyed watching a wonderful game of soccer with Ghana coming up on top, 3-0. After the game we headed back to Butre and Busia. Here at the beach we enjoyed another evening bonfire, an early morning canoe ride through a coastal river in search of crocodiles (no luck though) and on Monday my friend Andrew Zimmerman and I played in the surf, he on a surfboard and me on a bodyboard. I tried to surf for a bit but to no avail, maybe next time though.