June 24,

I went to Mole National Park on Friday through Sunday!! It was very exciting! :) The rest of the week roughly the same schedule as my other weeks, just going to the orphanage and then homework and relaxing for the rest of the day. Hence I'm really just going to talk about the park! We drove there on Friday afternoon, it was supposed to be a four hour trip but it only took us two and a half... I suppose our driver was speeding? We drove through two police checking points and they motioned us to stop and he just drove straight through... I thought we were going to get arrested, but in the rear view mirror they just  looked really angry and and waved their guns menacingly. Any how, that was really nice getting to Mole in such short time! The motel we were staying at is actual within the park and the animals run free range. As we drove into the park we saw baboons and wildebeests sitting right next to the motel! When we got in the staff told us we had to lock our doors at ALL times or else the baboons would come into our rooms and steal our stuff! :) So...Cool...!! The motel had a pool and that entertained us all of Friday night,the water was disgusting with green fungi floating in it and we found a few frogs around the edges! Ha, but the cold water was very relaxing after the bus ride. My roommate and I got into our room late and turned on the lights, she nudged me and pointed and next to my bed was a Scorpion!!! Now we had two normal beds and then a mattress just laying on the ground, which of course was mine, the scorpion was probably 6" from my pillow...We did the only we could, we jumped on her bed and screamed! Nobody heard us...after about thirty minutes of dancing on the bed and hyperventilating we did the next thing we could think of, we sprayed it with 99.8% Deet, the scorpion still didn't move! We looked at each other and started talking, saying maybe it was dead and we just hadn't noticed it earlier. We looked back at the scorpion...and...it was gone! Of course that led to more screaming. :) Long story short, we found it again hiding in my sheets and managed to put a glass cup over it. We got Francis our tour guide and he told us it was a baby scorpion and their poison was very deadly...Go figure...to make us feel better he said it shouldn't have been in our room and it was "just a mistake". That definitely calmed us down, NOT. After that fiasco we decided to push the two beds together and I slept on the very hard crack between them. Although uncomfortable, I felt much more safe sleeping above ground. Saturday morning we woke up and went on a two hour walking safari, it was AWESOME! We got 200' from an elephant and took great pictures! We saw two elephants, antelopes, tree monkeys, baboons, wildebeests, guinea fowl, water buffalo and possibly a crocodile in the water... (we didn't want to get too close to that one!). For the rest of the morning we sunbathed and swam in the pool, I got my first real burn and can barely move my arms; one of the baboons came so close to me I could have touched it, we had a table with all our stuff on it and he walked right up to it, scanned the items and took one of the volunteers pack of cigarettes!! Silly monkey... That afternoon we went on a jeep safari, let me say again...AMAZING... we saw nine more elephants all in a group and they let us get out of the car to take pictures and this time we got 40'-50' near it. :) The est of Saturday we swam and then early Sunday morning we drove back! On the way home we stopped at the market and I bought some boiled Guinea Fowl eggs, oh my goodness...Best Eggs Ever! They were delicious, on the way home we listened to African Gospel music blaring through the speakers, it made the bus ride so much more enjoyable. Yesterday I decided to finally tell the Africans I was sick, (I've been really sick for the last two weeks and haven't said anything :/ ), they made me stay home from work and sleep and take meds. Wow! I should have told them so long ago!! Today I feel much better, goodness my stubbornness almost killed me... In the afternoon I went to the missionaries house and hung out, we had a pie party on their p-day, pretty practical if you ask me! ;) Two of the Elders are leaving so we got pictures and I wrote in their memory books or something like that... I felt better today and went to the orphanage on my shift. The nannies told me they had changed the shift and I was now afternoons this week. It is frustrating that they don't tell me anything, they sent me home and said if I wanted to volunteer to come back this evening or tomorrow evening. I had already made plans for tonight because of my morning shift so now I don't get to go to the orphanage today...bummer. Well that has been the last few days in the life of Tamale! :) Love you all, hope you're enjoying the summer!

Love ya,

Love Emily :)