Lauren and I are ready for our second tour around Ghana! Today we learned about all of the different types of plants and how they are used in the culture. Our first stop was the Botanical Gardens, but they are not located in Accra, rather, the Eastern Region, so it was about an hour drive.
The view was incredible along the drive, unfortunately my picture is kind of crappy though...that's what you get when you take pictures from inside of a bus I guess...anyways, you will just have to trust me when I say it was incredible. When we were closer to the gardens we passed a school with these adorable children who chased after our bus and waved to us! They were so so so so cute! I cannot wait to work with the children here.When we finally got to the gardens we went on a tour all around and examined a ton of different trees. To be honest, I am not that big on trees, but some of it was really cool.
The first tree we saw is called a ficus. It isn't really a tree though...it is more like a tree killer. It wraps itself around a tree and sucks out all of the nutrients, causing the tree to die and disintegrate. Lovely right? It doesn't sound very pleasant, but the final product is this huge, hollow cast of a tree. It was really pretty.
here is the inside and here is the outside this is a rando pic I couldn't get rid of..awkward.
Africa has a lot of palm trees and they are used in various ways: cooking, weaving, drinking, and medicine.Some also had these crazy thorns all around them that looked kind of like toothpicks. Ashley (my roomie) is sitting on the palm tree that looks like a love seat. What happened was a termite hill formed between the trunk and turned it soft, so it just fell over and another tree grew in it's original place.
We also learned how to find the age of a palm tree. If you look closely at the 2 pictures, than you may be able to see rings around the trunk of the palm tree. The smaller one (in the middle) is 13 years old, because I counted 13 rings around the trunk--actually, our tour guide counted 13 rings, but I trust him. Can you count the number of rings the first picture has? (the correct answer is no...because I couldn't even fit the whole tree in my shot, so you are missing the bottom part of the tree...awkward again)
We learned what different plants were used for as well. Here is Maddie smelling a plant that is used when burning incense. It kind of smelled like vapor rub to be honest; it smelled really good. Our tour guide said people used it to burn when they were sick or to cast out spirits I believe. People also tasted cinnamon off of a cinnamon tree. I didn't, but I got a picture of Lauren trying to peel it off the bark. People said it tasted really good. I suppose we will have to trust them.
. Here is a picture of a tree that was ruined by a natural disaster, so a guy just carved it out! Isn't that crazy?! It symbolizes life in many different ways. It shows that you need people's help to get to the top in life and it also shows that some people won't make it to the top. At some points it shows that you need to use people sometimes to get to the top as well. I can't point out where it shows all of these different things, but that is what he told us. I just think the carving is unbelievable. 
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We also got a picture on a children play set. It is this cool abandoned helicopter! It was really rusty and gross though. Also, Maddie ended up cutting herself on a rusted part, but don't fret, we cleaned that cut off real fast and put a band-aid on it thanks to Cassie. Shout out to Cassie for being prepared!
Everyone in the picture (starting from the back row):
Sarah, Bridget, Maddie, Matt
Darby, Lauren
And I am in the top...obviously....
Then we went to this AWESOME herbal medicine lab. It was so interesting! They told us why they believed in herbal cures and how they find them. They have cures (or remedies) for everything; diabetes, arthritis, menstrual cramps, anxiety, joint pain, almost everything! They told us about the tension they have with pharmacies and other drug companies, but also how they are making great strides. Also, the herbal medicine is stupid cheap because they cannot charge a lot due to the fact that they are funded by the government. I don't really get that...but it is true!
We walked around the lab where they dry the leaves and take out the different compounds. It was really interesting. 
After the lab we went back to the hotel--it was a long drive back and the jet-lag is a real life struggle--clearly. I couldn't sleep though, because I am just too excited still.I have a problem.
That was it for today!! Yay Africa!
