August 9th

Kumasi is a huge, bustling city - appearing much more Westernized andmodernized than Accra. It's good to be back to civilization (O: andwhile there's no running water at our hotel (so let's make that fourdays), it's not really. But, we did have a nice bucket shower as wellas being welcomed by the friendly sounds of traffic. Today, we sleptin at the awesome Justice Hotel ($12 C for a double room with bathroomand fan) and headed to a gym and are planning to attend a soccer gameat Baba Yara stadium.

We were woken up at 5:30 am with blaring drumming and chanting on thestreet in front of our hotel. It was actually the football teampreparing for their game!

Spent 3 hours hiking around Kumase looking for a treadmill thismorning! Didn't find a treadmill, because apaprently, there are manyelectrical issues. However, we did find a private gym which wasclosed. When we called the number, we talked to Dee (hey Dee!!!), anice dude who ended up being the director of fitness at the Scienceand Tech University. He met us at his private gym in his caddy anddrove us over to the campus to show us where we could run aroundcampus, and use a stairmaster.Nyame (god bless) Dee. He asked for ouremail addresses and gave us free access to the gym for a few days andgreat conversation (and some encouragement on the stairmaster whilesweating 5 lbs). "I thought you were a runner! Get those levels up!".

The school is only a .30c ride from the Justice, who by the way doeslaundry - all of mine -for like $5. In case any of you decide to go toGhana, remember that there are no treadmills and you cannot runoutside (potholes, unless you are in the jungle, but I would'trecommend that) and there are no tracks. So, if you want to workout,you have to settle for the stupid stairmaster.

We are sitting at Kumasi stadium waiting for the game to start.

Dinner on streets with 2 men who were just coming from a funeral (allwrapped in Sunday black and white garb - Saturday is black and red).They wanted to get their pictures taken with us and exchanged cellphone info. They gave us a soccer flag from the game as well and somefun conversation.

Dinner of chicken gizzard and sausage with spices. Too much Star Beer.