from the "briefing" dept.

A short note. Surprise!

I've finished all my interviews in Tamale. My work is done. It's time to go home.

Tonight: dinner with JHR trainer Nichole Huck and her partner Shawn.

Tomorrow: The 6 a.m. bus back to Kumasi. I'll have dinner with Leffler. The last one until next year.

Saturday: The noon bus to Takoradi.

Sunday: The packing begins.

More tales from the last few days to come. Likely this weekend. I've also got some pictures and video up on FB and Flickr.

Cheers!

Doug

Here's a sample... from Salankpang, about 45 km east of Tamale, in northern Ghana:

from the "hot tamale" dept.

After a seven hour bus ride from Kumasi, I am now in Tamale - the largest city in Ghana's north.

My interviewing begins tomorrow and continues through Thursday and possibly Friday. I'm looking forward to getting this week put behind me so I can get back to Takoradi and start packing.

Hard to believe I'll be complaining about the cold and rain in a little more than a week!

Much more to come on the weekend.

Cheers!

from the "blurb" dept.

Back from a weekend on the US Navy ship USS McHenry. Great experience and people. Lots of cool photos.

Now I'm off to Kumasi and Tamale. Likely offline through the end of this week. Photos and stories to come!

Cheers!

from the "have some fun while I'm gone" dept.

It's Friday... the countdown is now 14. In 14 days I'll be back in Vancouver. Crazy, man.

In the meantime... I'm a few hours away from hopping on a bus to the port city of Tema. It's about 25 minutes from Accra and four hours from Takoradi.

Tomorrow Brennan, Sa'id (a reporter from LUV FM in Kumasi) and I will board the USS McHenry and sail up the coast. We're doing some stories on the ship and its mission (security, goodwill) for LUV and Global National.

The schedule has us sailing overnight and putting into Takoradi Sunday morning.

Then on Tuesday or Wednesday I will begin the long journey to Tamale and Northern Ghana to work on the magazine articles that I've mentioned previously. Then back to pack and get ready to move home.

In the meantime, I'll be offline. So, if you're looking for something to keep you busy, here's an early Christmas treat:

Holiday Snowglobe

Cheers!

Doug

from the "when cabinets attack" dept.

So... I'm sitting in my room and doing some work on the computer when suddenly, from the kitchen, I hear this unholy crash.

WTF!?

Turns out that one of the cabinets on the wall decided to go for a little journey all the way to the floor.


At least a dozen plates were smashed to bits as well as all but one of our glasses.

To add to the fun, at least four one-litre containers of juice and UHT milk were crushed. They burst, of course... resulting in a nice milky-juicy-glassy soup all over the floor. The ants are going to love that...

Here's the video of the aftermath:

Two hours of cleaning later, I'm ready for a pint.

Cheers!

from the "topping the charts" dept.

In the run up to a footie match between Canada and a local South African team, a South African website thought they'd try to explain the difference between America and Canada:

"Although they sound the same when they talk they are an independent nation and completely different to their neighbours The United States of America - who beat Bafana Bafana on the weekend."

Their top ten list of things Canadian is here!

Cheers!

Doug

from the "due process" dept.

It's tough to be a journalist:

NEW YORK (AP) - The U.S. military plans to seek a criminal case in an Iraqi court against an award-winning Associated Press photographer but is refusing to disclose what evidence or accusations would be presented.

US Plans Case Against AP Photographer

(via Drudge)

from the "erm" dept.

I'm still not sure what to make of the Miss Landmine Angola 2008 beauty contest.

MISS LANDMINE - NEWS

It does make you think... doesn't it?

from the "soupy sales" dept.

A fantastic link from Wendy in Winnipeg:

"Aqua Books started using a new logo this spring that was a riff on Andy Warhols' soup can. Owner Kelly Hughes said he though the logo was hilarious, but "Campbell's, apparently, did not." See their letter to him, and his reply."

Read Campbell's cease and desist letter and Hughes side-splitting reply here:

Aqua Books | Winnipeg Manitoba Canada | The Soup Incident | Used Bookstore

from the "not-quite-the-USO" dept.

Brennan Leffler and I are hoping to cover this story for the media folks back home:

DAKAR (Reuters) - As it steams down the West African coast, the USS Fort McHenry faces one of its toughest battles: to convince skeptical Africans their continent can benefit from more U.S. military involvement.

The 600-foot (185-metre) ship, which saw combat in the first Gulf War, is embarking on a six-month mission to train West African navies to fight drug smuggling and maritime security threats in a region which supplies nearly a fifth of U.S. oil imports, rivaling the Middle East.

The rest of the story:
U.S. to woo Africans with naval diplomacy - washingtonpost.com

If all goes according to plan, we'll be sailing up the coast of
Ghana next weekend.

Cheers!