Van Ride From Tamale to Nalerigu

My first reaction outside the Tamale airport was “we’ve just landed on the safari ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom!  (Kudo’s to Disney for creating such an authentic environment.)  The air was refreshingly, and surprisingly, cool and nothing could be seen in any direction but African plains and small trees.  Although no wild animals yet, the terrain, trees and termite towers certainly do remind us of that.

Our ride to Tamale was fairly uneventful.  We were on a paved road for one hour to Wale Wale (pronounced “wahllie wahllie”) then turned onto a dirt road for another hour to Nalerigu.  When I say dirt -- I mean dirt -- no gravel and apparently no road graders.  We are in the rainy season now so there were lots of areas where the road was washing away.  And I am beginning to think rainy season just means that they get SOME rain as opposed to the dry season when they get virtually no rain.  We once again felt like we were on some amusement park ride bouncing up and down / side to side.  On this road we began to see mainly thatched-roofed mud huts.  When we would pass by people (in various degrees of clothing) they would just smile huge smiles and wave.  These are a very hospitable and welcoming people!  We once again felt like celebrities as we trudged deeper into the African countryside.  

We thank God for his grace and mercy in helping us to safely arrive in our home-away-from-home.

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