February 16 – Day 47

CLICK ON THE PICTURE ABOVE TO GO TO THE EARTHWALK WEBSITE

REPORT FROM THE WALK:

GHANA, AFRICA

Layla Olupi:

Yesterday we walked all the way across the Ivory Coast, mostly in the rain and last night we stayed along the Birim River at Oda, Ghana. I hear we are over 12,000 miles into the EarthWalk. Last night we were lucky enough to be invited over to one of our neighbors where we witnessed and participated in making fu fu. Alex Nagel was the first to take a turn at pounding down a long wooden pole and smashing at the cassava and plantain mixture while a brave woman risked her hand turning the gummy stuff - referred to as "driving" - in a carved wooden bowl. I took part in the process and was quickly worn out by my physical exertion. It was like exercising at the gym and lifting free weights repeatedly but without the break between sets. Lindsey Mann, the only other woman in our small group, sat in a while driving the fu fu. The other women gasped when Lindsey mistakenly thrust her left hand into the mixture. In Ghana the right hand is solely used for eating and food preparation. When we ate, all the adults ate out of one large bowl and all with our right hands. When we were done the children ate what was left in the bowl.

Earlier this morning the roosters crowed like crazy for over an hour. They are still whooping it up some. They call this part of the city the old town and we went exploring a short while ago. The buildings here have a lot of courtyards, the streets are narrow and everyone can see what is going on in the street. Usually all the children are out on the street with all the adults watching them from the sheltered front of their homes. With the rain, today everyone was under the shelter of their homes. Just up the hill there is a school, the Islamic Primary School, there is a secondary school just beyond it. We went into a classroom and all the children stood up and said “Good Morning, Sirs!” in unison. We learned that religious tolerance is highly developed here. These kids were mostly Christian and so was their teacher and headmaster, yet they were studying Arabic and the Koran. One girl named Akim was great at languages and followed us everywhere and became our translator.

FROM EARTHWALK COSMIC HEADQUARTERS IN OMAHAHA

OUT OF AFRICA FREE LUNCH FOR TWO POINTS AWARDED WHEN LEAVING AFRICA
Raising ones ranking in the EarthWalk Foot Miles Standing. (Foot miles are the combined walking, running and jogging miles.)	1 point for every rise in the ranking – (no points lost for dropping in the rankings)
Recruiting someone to join EarthWalk. If you are in a tribe, recruit someone to join your tribe.	1 point for each tribe member for each person recruited for your tribe.
Losing weight between now and leaving Africa	1 point for each pound lost.

Recruit! Walk-run-jog- a lot! Lose weight!!!

Already there is a lot of movement up and down the standings for Foot Miles. Here are some examples:

Nancy Goldman - up 7

Patrick Jerome - up 6

Ron Webb - up 6

Bill Woolverton - up 4

Bill S - up 5

Lois Lundemo - up 5

Sheryl Fox - up 2

Danny Harwell - up 11

Sue Weill Durr - up 92

Gail Brosey - up 4

And so it goes…

You can keep up with your standing in the Foot Miles, by going to the main web site,

www.computercoop.com\earthwalk.htm

Click on the More Numbers link,

Then click on the Foot Miles link.

Submit Miles Here Too