Just before I left on this trip I was contacted by a man I’ve known for quite a few years, Ben Idun. He built and owned one of the hotels I’ve used often, and over time we became friends. We would often sit on the bench in front of the reception area and talk about everything from family to local politics to education to religion. I haven’t seen him for a few years, so getting his call was a surprise, but welcomed.

The only time we had to meet was this morning, before we leave Elmina for points north. Ben was at the hotel a few minutes before 8 am, so we went to the restaurant to have breakfast and talk.

It was very enjoyable to catch up on his family and what has happened since our last meeting. He is exactly 10 years older than I am, and was looking to slow down and have more time for his children and grandchildren. At the same time he was approached by a travel group who wants to expand their “footprint” in this part of Africa, and have a hotel in Elmina under contract to bring their groups.

After further talks, a consortium including the travel group, approached him about actually buying his property. Since he is at the point in life where he was ready for that, he considered it carefully, and agreed to sell this past January. He has stayed on as the interim manager until the end of May, and then he’ll be footloose and fancy free! I’m happy for him. He’s worked very hard, and deserves to enjoy the fruit of his labors!

Mr. Sake was here at 10 on the dot, although we didn’t get out quite on time. When I paid my bill I doublechecked the bill, and gave him my credit card. However, when he entered the payment he inadvertently transposed two numbers, meaning I was overcharged by 720 Ghana cedis (a little under $50). For some reason he was unable to immediately reverse the charge, which required a manager to come out. He couldn’t do it either, but the main person in the back office wanted it done that way.

Finally, after 20 minutes or so of trying, they finally decided to accept the credit card charge, and simply give me a refund in cash. Since I was going to have to change more money anyway, that was fine with me. And we got on our way.

It took right at 5 hours to make the trip up to Kumasi, and I was reminded yet again of how bad some sections of the road have become. I am unsure if there was a reason why Mr. Sake was driving harder and faster than normal (perhaps he wanted to be home at a certain time), but he was. And we hit many of those bumps and potholes faster and harder than normal.

A time or two I started to fall asleep, and was jarred back awake with my neck being whiplashed! Driving in Ghana: part obstacle course and part aerobic workout for the neck…

As we neared Kumasi we came across the remnants of a bad automobile accident in the edge of a small town. One of the very big cross-country busses, the company here is VIP Bus Service, had been involved with another vehicle that I couldn’t tell what it used to be. There were deep gouges on the road, the bus had left the road and gone through a ditch and cement culvert completely taking the wheels and suspension out from under the bus. And there were various shattered car and bus parts all over the place. Quite a number of people were standing around the bus (assumedly passengers) and police and multiple vehicles on the road as traffic slowly wound through the crash site. We learned afterward that at least four people were killed in that accident. A very sobering reminder of what can happen if a driver is inattentive, going too fast in town or perhaps driving a vehicle that really isn’t roadworthy… We will never know the cause or causes of this tragic accident.

We are staying at a hotel I tried to use once before but was unable to, the Frederick’s Lodge. It has good ratings and isn’t outrageously expensive. When we arrived we found it clean and neat. They have very good internet, and it is more accessible to Kumasi than where I have normally stayed.

In fact, the Kumasi Central Mall is only about half a dozen blocks from here. I needed to pick up a duffle bag and Mr. Horchak wanted a couple of items, so we walked over. In the heat and humidity I was soaked through, but it was a good walk. We even found a restaurant that looked promising, and I was able to order a pan-fried beef and they had it! It was good, except the cook apparently decided the meat is good, but it is better if you coat it with a lot of pepe (a hot pepper mixture quite common here). That spoiled it a bit for me, but I still managed to eat it down.

Tomorrow we have a rather slow day. I often build one or two of these into a trip because there is always work I need to keep up on, and something unexpected often comes up. In this case nothing has come up, so I expect to spend most of the day working in my room.

But for now, time to shower (as soon as I quit sweating) and then for a hopefully good night’s sleep!