Adventures Abroad: Ghana

I'm starting a new series of posts on Oleander and Palm.  I will be sharing my Adventures Abroad.  Travel is such a huge part of who I am.  My global travels have definitely shaped how I think and how I live my life.  By sharing some of my adventures, I think you'll learn a bit more about me.  And I hope to inspire you to see some unusual and beautiful corners of the world.

Sitting on the balcony of our guest house in Mole Game Reserve.  Real Elephants!

I'm lucky enough to have seen both African and Asian Elephants in the wild.  There is no animal that compares to seeing an elephant.  It's definitely a highlight in my life.  They are amazingly graceful and quiet for their giant size.

I must have been feeling brave or just stupid.

Ghana is not the beginning of my travels, but Africa seemed like a good place to start.  I've said before that I grew up in Papua New Guinea.  I graduated from High School there and moved back to Canada for College. While I was in College, my parents and my two youngest brothers moved back overseas.  My parents were missionaries.  My Dad is a pastor and he started and guided local churches and pastors.  He also built many churches, clinics and schools.   My mom is a nurse and she ran clinics in villages and shanty settlements and also taught primary health care.

Arriving in Accra, my parent's friends greeted me with a Welcome to Ghana sash.

The Christmas of my Sophomore year in college (1997), I got to go spend a month with my family in Ghana. They lived in Accra (the capitol of Ghana).  But, we visited lots of parts of the country in my parent's, sometimes reliable, Jeep.

My three brothers and I swimming at a waterfall.  It took some hard swimming and tricky climbing to get up under the waterfall. 

West Africa is an exciting place to visit.  The food is spicey and flavorful.  The people are lively and friendly. There is rich tradition and a sad history (we visited where slaves where shipped to America).  And amazing scenery and wildlife.

Fishing boats near the Ivory Coast border. 

Swimming with my brothers at the beach.  Very warm water and great waves to play in.

Sunset in Africa!  What could be better?  At Mole Game Reserve.

I obviously didn't have a great camera, I was a poor college kid.  And my photography skills have definitely improved over the years.  I guess I'll have to go back to Ghana and take more pictures.  But, it's still so much fun to look through these.  I'm not sure if these Adventures Abroad posts will be interesting to my readers, but I'm having fun putting them together.   

Let me know what you think.  Do you want to see more of my travels?  Is Africa a destination on our list of places to see before you die?  It should be.