Trip to Navrongo

We landed in Tamale, a city in the Northern region of Ghana, around 6:40 am and were picked up by two pickup trucks from the Navrongo Health Research Center, where we’ll be staying and working. Flying in over Tamale was a weird experience. Unlike every airport I’ve ever been to (including Accra), you don’t fly in over sprawling city and suburb lights. Around Tamale, there’s nothing but trees and plants, and it didn’t even look like there was a runway until we got off the plane. The city of Tamale itself, located about a mile down the road, isn’t... what I imagine a city to look like, even less so than Accra. The “downtown” was mostly shacks on either side of a highway (apparently the only road in northern Ghana, although I could be mistaken). Weirdly, several shacks were Chinese restaurants.

Despite arriving in Tamale around 7 am, there were people EVERYWHERE. Turns out we actually had spectacular timing, as today happens to be the end of Ramadan and everyone was just getting out of Mosque. This made for fantastic people watching, as everyone was in their best clothes (including the kids, who were adorable). On the road from Tamale to Navrongo, about two hours at absolutely breakneck speed, we passed a ton of small villages and towns, all of which seemed to have a tiny clay mosque at their center. The villages are made up of family compounds, composed of a circle of clay and thatch one-room houses encircled by a common wall. I kept trying to get pictures, but the driver was seriously speeding. Granted, it was an empty road besides the occasional stray goat or motorcycle, but still.

I woke up as we entered Navrongo (up ungodly early this morning, so I deserved this nap), and we passed Church and some houses before reaching the War Memorial Hospital and the Health Research Center. We had breakfast and met with Dr. Williams, who is our host and academic advisor for the semester. We’re going to spend the next few weeks getting acquainted with the NHRC staff and projects, as well as exploring Navrongo, so there will be a lot more to share with you guys soon. We also had the opportunity to get settled in our apartments, which are next door to each other, and unpack. The apartments are... livable. Kinda worn down, kinda a lot of bugs in the corners... Honestly it reminds me of Henle, although that could be because our toilet paper is tied to the wall with rope. I also want to give thanks to Mrs. Bufe, who provided me with lovely pictures of my favorite people back at Georgetown, lovingly (not creepily), hanging from my bed.

OH. And the wireless is broken... and they can’t find a part for it anywhere in Ghana right now. So internet is going to be pretty limited for awhile, hopefully not long!