TRAVEL TO GHANA
January 16 - 27, 2008

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Joy of Voice and Jane Lowey invite you to join this year's journey to Ghana, West Africa.

On January 16, 2008 I will be leading a group of women in the colorful, robust and friendly country of Ghana.   The group size will be between 10 and 14 women,  and the tour will  be ten (10) days long.   The all-inclusive cost for the trip is $3400. This will include flights, accommodations, meals, all in-country travel, guides, drivers, and teachers. Not included:   alcoholic beverages, gifts, and purchases of textiles, beads etc.   at market.

The theme for this adventure is women, music and textiles. We will be meeting with singers, dancers and drummers who will teach us women's songs. Much of the time, we will "live" in one main  "base camp", and  there receive the many women and men who will be our cultural emissaries.   This base camp will be a modern style guest house or hotel that will be very comfortable to the western traveler. Please check out the following website for an example of what type of accommodations we can expect to be staying in. www.afiavillage.com

We will make 2 or 3 overnight excursions to more rural parts of Ghana, but we will be able to leave the majority of our luggage at the guest house.   While in Accra, we will visit the country's largest open market, which is a feast for the senses.   Another time, we will venture out to the real African bead market, (not the tourist one) and browse the many and varied African trade beads.   There are many markets for textiles in Ghana, including ones for imported cloth and locally crafted batik cloth.   We will explore the many  types of cloth, and see countless ways that the women make their clothes into magnificent outfits. We will each have a chance to have something made to wear, as a remembrance of this once in a lifetime tour.

One excursion we will make is to the village of Khumasi.   This village is the seat of the royal families  of traditional Ghana.   It is here that the famous Khente cloth  is woven and worn by the kings and queens.

Perhaps we will travel north to the rainforest, and explore its lush canopy.  The second excursion is not yet decided.   We have many options, but we want to stay in the "flow" of the group and the place. **It is most important that we remain flexible with the schedule, as we will be living in the heart of  Africa, and things are very changeable.  We will be on African time, and we will be moving to drumbeats and songs, rather than clocks and calendars!

By the time we undertake our journey home to the US, we will have made many new friends, laughed and played    alot, and learned several women's songs to take home.   We might even be wearing our new African clothes!

Departure is from Boston's Logan International Airport.    We will take a short flight to  New York's JFK International Airport, and then head non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean to Ghana's capital city of Accra.    We will be flying Delta Airlines

Departure from Boston:	January 16,  2008	-     2:00PM
Arrives JFK:	January 16, 2008	-     3:23PM
Departure from JFK:	January 16, 2008	-    4:45PM
Arrives Accra:	January 17, 2008	-    8:15AM
Returning to the US:
Departs Accra:	January 27, 2008	-     10:30AM
Arrives JFK:	January 27, 2008	-      5:00PM
Departs JFK:	January 27, 2008	-      7:00PM
Arrives Boston:	January 27, 2008	-      8:37PM

For further information email yojane@joyofvoice.com