Whew! Buses can be Fun!

With a hearty ‘Ho Ho Ho!” Merry Christmas from the land of warm people  and hot sun! We have attempted to live up to the high standards of humble travel remaining resolutely silent as we travel for hours on public transport sitting of rickety hard seats and , for this long-legged humanoid, no leg space. Most take the quiet approach with determined courage, but there is an alternative some Ghanaians choose, that is to humorously complain vociferously to the ticket-taker/conductor accusing him of taking some of the profits home to celebrate a rich Christmas with his family. In actuality, that is a possibility as there is really no verification of where the money does go. All in all, however, the people are usually truly very honest and helpful to one another. With no aisle available on the bus as it is filled with people, when a mother and small child get on, the small child is passed gently for person to person. The mother takes it for granted that this is done and does not bother to check the welfare of her baby. The advertised ‘air-conditioned but obviously not’ bus also features a good pause in time to watch what is outside. I saw 20 foot termite towers apparently created by the secretion of the termites themselves. I marvel at the sight of the mud hunts in large number, this being the mainstay for how people live, esp. farmers. They last no more than 10 years and then must rebuild again – the mud huts, not the farmers. The farmers last about 60 years, then because of the extremely hard work must give it up and hope their children take over. That is likely as the families are usually large here – I am guessing averaging four to five kids per family.

The three travelers, David Revell, my dear wife Lisa Revell and myself are doing well, Thank you. By the way I just learned that you can not respond to our website (thanks to Liz Kobs), so I offer to you our email revellstone@yahoo.com.

Well I have had enough time uncrinkle my body from the  sardine shape taken while on the bus for the last three hours, so I guess it is time to go eat some fried yams with guinea fowl.   -David Stone