Crystal was up in the middle of the night, and had a hard time getting back to sleep.  We were both permanently awake a little before 06:30, and it didn’t take too long to get ready.  Despite the AC never really cooling anything down, at least everything charged and synced overnight.  We went down to breakfast a little after 07:00, and had some of the bananas and avocados the group had bought the day before.  This was our last morning of using French, so we tried to empty the chamber (which wasn’t very large).

We headed out just after 08:00, and Sena forewarned us that the road to the border would not be that great.  So even though the border was close, it might take a bit of time.  On the way out of Kpalime we went by an old German hospital and church.  Sena gave us the opportunity to stop the vehicle and go outside to wander around, but none of us had sufficient interest; instead we just kept on going to the border.

Our border crossing was right by Nyive (on the Ghana side), and didn’t remotely resemble a border town or even anywhere in the vicinity of a national border.  The Togo side was pretty easy, with the only issue that the guards wanted to see each one of us (apparently to confirm it was us that was leaving), so we took turns coming out of the vehicle, going to say hi to the border guards, and then going back to the vehicle.

On the Ghana side of the border there were too many cooks in the kitchen.  Best as we can tell, there were 6-7 disparate items that needed to be done, but there wasn’t a single person assigned to a specific task (like an assembly line), or one person to do every step for a given traveler.  Instead there was a lot of passing stuff around, people wondering what was already done, different people doing the same task multiple times, etc.  We just tried to stay calm and not irritate anyone.  We inadvertently spoke French a couple times to the border guards, but caught ourselves, and we’re sure we weren’t the first nor the last to do that.  We were eventually all back in the vehicle by 10:30.

About 30 minutes later we stopped in Ho.  We briefly got out of the vehicle on one of the main roads, and walked around the market area.  It was controlled chaos, more or less.  Crystal tried to grab some shampoo - since the last couple hotels hadn’t had any - but none of the shops we went past had any.  We made a second stop, however, not too far away, so that some of the people could exchange money.  We had ordered ahead for CFA (for Togo and Benin) and for Cedi (for Ghana), and we figured whatever we didn’t use, we could put in our tips for Abass and/or Sena.

When other people got out to change money, Crystal told Sena that she was going to go to the shop across the street from where we had parked.  She asked the woman in the shop if she sold shampoo, but she said she didn't, and pointed Crystal to a maroon building further down the street.  Crystal went in, and it was packed.  She eventually found the shampoos, none of which she really recognized, and just picked one.  Then she was trying to figure out how to get in line to pay, as there were no discernable lines.  She saw one guy buying something, so she just got behind him, and went to pay as soon as he was done.  The shampoo was $50 (about €4), and she tried to pay with a $50 bill, but the cashier wanted smaller bills, despite it being exact change.  Thankfully she had smaller bills, too.  She had to show the receipt at a desk outside, and they gave her a bag, apparently to demonstrate that she had purchased something correctly.  When she was walking back to the bus, Abass was waiting outside and asked her if everything was ok - which now it was.

We noticed a ton of billboards around town announcing people’s passing.  We assumed this must be a cultural thing in Ghana, as we’d never seen anything like it before on our travels, including in Benin and Togo.  We continued southwest towards the Volta River, and crossed over the Adomi bridge on foot, just to take in the views.  Years ago Ghana dammed the Volta River and created Lake Volta, the largest man-made body of water on the planet.  We were at the south end of the lake, at a spot where a bridge didn’t need to be too long to cross the river.

On the west side of the river, we stopped for lunch at Afrikoko Riverfront Resort.  They had set up a buffet for us, with shredded chicken, beef stroganoff, tilapia, Jollof Rice, potatoes, hot sauce, and black pepper sauce.  We saw a couple other tour groups at lunch as well.  Ghana receives far more tourists than Togo and Benin, so we’d probably be seeing more tourists than we had for the past week or so.  All of us kept accidentally speaking French, as now it had become ingrained when we were at restaurants in Togo and Benin, but now we were done traveling in French-speaking countries.  We checked Google Translate to see if we had Ewe - the local language for a good chunk of Ghana and Togo - and sure enough it was on there.  So we learned akpe na wò (thank you) and taflatsɛ (please).

After lunch we continued north up the west bank of the river, to Akosombo, where Sena was born.  We actually went right past the hospital where he was born.  Nearby we made a brief stop to see the hydroelectric plant at the Akosombo Dam, i.e., the southern edge of Lake Volta.  We continued an hour or so southeast to a place Jane had visited in 2012, where a local artisan makes and sells beads.  We saw a huge glass pile, with a bunch of bottles that seemed odd for Ghana (e.g., Kirkland), and it made sense when the guy told us that they just take the bottles from the embassies.

We got to see how the bead-making process works.  First, glass is cooked at about 600 degrees celsius.  Some are recycled glass, some are new.  He told us that he has five different kinds of beads, but we were having a hard time staying awake after the big lunch, and with it being very hot and there being no wind.  Eventually the beads come out kind of dirty, and he showed us how with water and a very mild abrasive, the beads are polished.  After showing us the process, we got to go into the shop.  We looked only briefly, but the other women in the group kept looking for a while.

On the ride to the hotel, there was really bad traffic since we were behind a funeral procession on a small street, and there wasn’t room for anyone to pass.  Our hotel (Royal Senchi) was quite a change from some of the more recent hotels, with a couple golf holes, long walking paths around the grounds, multiple pools, both indoor and outdoor restaurants, plus a gym and a shopping area.  Justin went to the pool, and Crystal went to the bar.  There was lightning and thunder not too far away, but not too close either, and we didn’t get any rain.

We met for dinner at 19:30, at the indoor restaurant.  It was a buffet, so we could eat as soon as we wanted, but the drinks took forever to arrive, including Justin’s Tommy’s Margarita.  When he got it, it was awful, probably the worst margarita he’s ever had (out of thousands).  He can only assume it was half agave nectar.  Since we had a long drive the next day, Sena suggested we order to-go sandwiches so that we could just eat at a roadside stop at a convenient time.  This all made sense, but it was a shit show ordering the sandwiches, as there were a litany of questions and a bunch of back-and-forth and a lot of talking on top of one another.  We were seated in the corner of the restaurant, it was very hot, and Justin had a mild panic attack, so he just went to the bar, which was empty and cool.  A couple minutes later Crystal came over, after she had put her sandwich order in.  We had one round, and then went to the room and called it an early night.