from where to start.
WE left tamele in very good spirts not knowing what might happen. As it it turned out, we were supposedl;y ion a small sticky situation is Burkina faso, but we did not it at allm well, we heard about it it on our way north to Mali form some very anooying cadians we met on the tro tro, or bush taxi as we have had to learn to call them here. Good ol' sam was at it again, and he made a great freind as we passed the boarder who let us sleep in his tinny one bedroom house with no eletircity, and his pregnat wife in the same bed a Gill. What a guy, we wernt out dancing and met asll of his friends. we know it was bad to put so much trust in him, and he told us so later, but we have made a great frioned. he owns a small kitchen shoppe in la grand marche, doesn't speak a word of english, as we have all turned to our french side once crossing over the boarder into burkina and then into mali.

WE then arrived ion the torist oasis of Mopti, a nice little town with a resturant that served the best stake I have ever had (sorry Nick) and evey youth in the place was a tour guide or a boat man, we sdtayed for 4 nightsd but didn't do any of the tourist things because we met so many anmoyiung tour guide4s and so many anoying torists, but I do recomend the place to all of you. And that was where we had chirsmas, and santa came, gave a nice case of food poinsoning and i through all night, all day and my chiursmas we ruined, though we have been celebrating hard on all the other days, so we still in good cheer.

Then we made our way down to Ba;akoom the capital in Malim where we bought Ngoni, ther grandfather of my bes6t friend, the american Banjo. and since, we have been playing it on the street and drink a very strong african tea with an olod widower on the street for 12 hours a day.


'the lone goat stands alone on the road looking at the spirts of his fallen brothers, he knows his fatem allah needs his soul. THat is the life for him, on this the 30 december. taberski is upon us and after the bloody morning steet6 killingsm we know we will be eating mutton all day long.'
Thats how itwas yesterday, 9 oclovckm and all the steets are filled with blood. by noon, we can't ewat anymore fresh muttonand taht brings us up untill today.

:erry chirsmas (ess[ecially to mom and dad and nick) and happy new year.
PEACE amnd LOVEr
ALEX

hey all
how are oyu

I am doing greta. Sam arrived and we decided to take a river boat up the volta lake from Akosobo to Yeji. The lake is created by a dam, and covers over - almost entierly - the forest that used to be there, but the tops of many trees are proturding from nthe murky, green water, that if we were to swim in we would get very sick. IT was a great trip, very cold, almost 15 degress i rekon. BUt the time was ince, it took 2 days and we met everyone on board, they did run out of beer, but tthe food was great. NOw I am back in Tamele and having a ince time, tomorow I wqill go on to burkina faso and later, mali.

I want to wish you all a very merry chirsmas and a happy new year, and thank oyu all for reading this, caring about what I am doing and for being such great people.

I all you freidsnand families the best in a time ment for celbration of them.

PEACE and LOVE
ALEX

\HEy Everyone
Well, it has been a nice end to a nice acedemic season, and now I have no more acedemics all year. Sdam has jsut arrived, and tommorw we go north up the volta river, towards Mali. I may not be near the internet for some time, so I will wish you all a happy new year.
Go leafs go
PEACE
ALEX

Hey

Well, I took a trip yesterday to Ada, which consists of Big Ada and Ada Foah. IO had been once before but this time I was their to meet the man that I will work for after charismas. His work is at a place called Radio Ada, a community radio station that broadcasts in Dagme, the local language. Radio Ada Claims to give voice to the voiceless, and it appear that they do a very good job. My work at the station will be teaching computers to local people of all ages. There is a class that has just started and the young men running it are very nice and excited to be working with me. I will also have the opportunity to go out with the station to communities and see what they do and how they make their programmes. One woman their said to me that ‘we let the people do the talking, our job is just to hold microphone. It was very nice meeting and they warmly accepted me and are all excited for my joining them in the second week of January.

After this nice visit I WALKED AROUND ADA, down to the beach and met my friends their, Quasi, whom I had met earlier, he makes braclets and sits on the beach all day. So I think that will live down near the beach and have a 30 minuets bike ride everyday to work. The town is very nice and it is right where the river – Volta – meats the ocean. The beaches are white and endless and the su is hot but the wind blows all day. I think that I will like this palce a lot, and the work seems very important and usefull.

OTHER THAN THAT I will be heading towards a towen called amasaman today to do some research into the Health issues inn the Ga west district, near accra. Very interesting, it is the last academic work I will have to do all year, until the long report due in three months. Very nice. So that it what I have been up to this last week, oho and I got a myt sweet matching outfit for me and one for Kate, it is great and quite fun too.

PEACE

ALEX

Well, it has been a great weekend with my dad here. We just had a blast. Walking around, seeing all the things that have become normal in my daily life here. We spent a few nights at nice restaurants and some other meals we ate at local chop bars, which he very nicely dealt with. The high light for me, other than just seeing him and hanging out was how well he interacted with my friends here. First he gave a talk to my whole class, which everyone loved, said it was the best talk we’ve had all year and learned a lot from. But also how he came out to the bars with my friends talking to them as I would, they really like it and I think he does too. What a nice time, thanks Dad for everything. Now he is off in Burkina Faso and then to Mali and cote D’ivore.
Other than that, I got my new bike; it is a fixed gear, or direct drive bike. Which means that the pedals don’t ever stop, they move when the wheel moves, to slow down you can put pressure back wards on the wheel. I have already had a little trouble with it, 4 flat tyres in 2 days, and the chain had some small problems which was fixed quickly with a hammer banging on the breaking link. But the ride is great and I have already been out for hours riding around. It is fun stuff.
I also got some nice new blue and yellow paints and took some more clothes to the taylor to get made, some matching outfits for me and Kate and I picked up a shirt for my dad, which, unfortunately (sorry dad) made into and African style shirt (which is very nice)n rather than the normal collared shirt that he had asked for. That is part of life here, never getting the answer or the product or meal that you asked for, but we all get used to that one.
These past few days I have been getting annoyed with the people on the streets always calling me white man, I have been responding yes, you are right, or good work, its true. I don’t know why and hope that it goes away, this angst about the calling of Obruni, but that is life here and I can’t let it bother me. I think these days that it is actually quite racist, not that they are being negative, but that it is always pointed out. When they ask if it the same in Canada but for black people I think NO way, first, some of us have gotten over the skin deep differences that is ‘race’ but others wouldn’t ever yell it on the street, they might end up in jail or something.
Well, Peace and Love everyone.
ALMO


A big thanks to steve bosworth who hocked me up with the ghubs for my new bike, thanks buddy, you rock.!!