Chapter 45...The Tamale 'Triathlon!'

Running (stomach), Tennis and Swimming were the three components of my energetic weekend with one of the EWB's in Tamale! On Friday afternoon, after spending the morning running back and forth between my bedroom and the toilet then downing water and rehydration sachets, I braved the three hour tro journey down to Tama where a super chilled, super fun weekend lay ahead...

Friday evening consisted of the EWB boys cooking dinner, which meant portion sizing was completely off, around twenty chilli's were used, but a great tasting meal was made and we all left feeling well fed (having discussed extensively the pronunciation of 'oregano' and the ruthless-ness of English women)!

Saturday started after a well-earned lie-in followed by lunch - baguette, salad and pizza at Luxury (definitely a new Tama fave of mine)! From there it was off to VRA tennis courts where we planned for me to test out my tennis knee to see whether I could even play! Unfortunately it wasn't my tennis knee that let me down on the day, but my complete lack of practise over the past few years, which resulted in the majority of my shots going either long or into the net! Luckily though when there's a tennis coach on the other side, most of my shots were salvaged to allow play to continue and I wasn't made to run around too much in the midday sun! 

My post tennis glow!

After 45 minutes of sweltering hot tennis we hit Bigiza Hotel where we paid 5GHC (the best money I've spent so far in Ghana) to use the swimming pool! I was literally squealing with excitement as I dipped my toe into the not-too-cool, yet refreshing water and as my head went under that was the moment I had been waiting three and a half months in Ghana for - heaven! We found ourselves unexpectedly included in a game of 'volleyball' with around 15 Ghanaians who were already in the pool and we had a brilliant afternoon listening to them joking and chatting ("you swim like a tilapia"), having underwater swimming competitions and lobbing the ball over the fence  to get a breather from the intensity of a Ghanaian mans throw (especially when trying to catch the ball while treading water in the deep end)!

Leaving the pool had to be done in stages so as to lessen the blow!

 So after a breath-takingly energy consuming day we walked back to TICCS Guesthouse... 

...in the cool evening air with every good intention of showering, getting dressed and heading out for dinner! Instead we found ourselves flaking out on the bed for a couple of hours sharing I-pod earphones as we laughed and cried our way through Shane Koyczan's album of poems. Eventually around 9pm with rumbling stomachs we strolled the five minutes to SWAD fast food restaurant where we ordered chicken massala and a chicken burger then it was back to TICCS for a much needed early night after such a late one the night before!

Sunday earned us another lie-in (waking up after check out), an egg 'n' bread breakfast for the EWB then it was the end of a terrific triathlon weekend in Tamale and the start of the three hour tro ride back to Bolga for me! As I was tro-ing it back on the monotonous Bolga-Tamale road I found myself reflecting on life and it's funny way of surprising me exactly when I think it can't anymore! I received this quote as a text last week and at this precise moment in time I couldn't agree with it more...

"Sometimes the slightest things change the direction of our lives, the merest breath of a circumstance, a random moment that connects like a meteorite striking the Earth. Lives have swivelled and changed direction on the strength of a chance remark..."