We arrive at the sanctuary visitors office about 24hours after we set out for it. Seems pretty relaxed. Look over the rates, arrange for a tro tro to bring us to our rooms (like 30 minutes away on another awful road) and shop for something easy to cook for dinner. For $2.10 we pick up spaghetti, tomato paste, sugar, pepper, sal, sugar, onions, garlic and groundnut paste (sorta like peanut butter) We make it to our rooms safely which was basically like little cabins. Mr. Adams (our guide) gets me a couple of pots and bowls, sets up a camp fire for us and I whipped up the first meal I’ve cooked in 2 months. It was actually pretty decent, nothing I’d make again, but I wasn’t embarrassed to serve it to my friend and Mr. Adams. After dinner by flashlight we hit the hay.
Drea and Cristin obsessed all morning as to whether we’d see hippos. During the rainy season it’s particularly hard to see them because the water level in the “Black Volta River” is much higher. After Mr. Adams was done praying we grabbed a canoe and rowed out. We had serious doubts but within 15 minutes we spotted our first hippo’s ears. After a few minutes more hippos came out to play and we saw 3 of them just chilling there, blowing water out of their nose. Little known fact. Hippos don’t drink water. They absorb water through their skins and spew out what they don’t need. They also take water through the grass. We made it back to shore within and hour and played the waiting game for our Tro to pick us up again. We hoped to take the 3-4 hour trip back to Mole in time for the 4:30pm after noon hike. Of course this is Ghana so that didn’t happen. Although we were back to shore by 9 our tro didn’t pick us up to almost noon. No matter we made it to Mole by 5:30 or so. Checked in to pretty decent dorm style rooms and ordered a lousy Western style excuse for African food dinner. Spotted warthogs running past my room.
In the morning I was first greeting by the buzz of the Men’s dorm light switch and the guard calling for the morning walk. I was further greeted by a family of baboons passing just steps from my room, in search of food. I felt vindicated for hours of travel. Our Armed Guard (legit shotgun) was kinda weird and obsessed with Antelopes, but over all he was a cool guy. On a two hour foot safari of the national park we saw elephants, antelope, at least 3 types of monkeys, warthogs and more birds than I can remember. The obvious crowd-pleasers were the elephants. The only other time I’d seen them that close was a Circus at Newport Mall in Jersey City, NJ. I recall not liking it very much because it was wicked hot and the elephants didn’t seem to be enjoying themselves. Here the elephants are free to roam where they please so we saw a couple just chilling around the park and then about 6 more playing in the watering hole.
Small hike back, decent (though long awaited) breakfast and spent some time in the hotel pool. Drea and Cristin soon became a spectacle when two schools, including one Muslim, came to visit the park : “ I feel like we’re the elephants” says Cristin. At some point I stopped of at the “staff canteen” were the park staff takes their meals and drink. Everything was much cheaper and the food was much more authentic so we decided to place an order for dinner there. With nothing much to do the 4 of us played cards with some of the staff and enjoyed watching monkeys and warthogs run around freely. One particularly brave baboon stole a coconut from the canteen, but upon being chased threw it back. Dinner was awesome as promised (A giant rice ball in peanut soup) and after dark we headed back to the rooms. There was another guy staying in the female dorms so the four of us just chilled there until I was ready for bed. Apparently one of the other park visitors was ready to go to sleep early because she said something kinda snippy about “getting up really early to catch the bus home”. Cristin, never one to take any lip exclaims “Curt, I think that was a hint you should go. A really rude German hint.”
Sunday is a lot more smooth. Catch our bus round 4:15 am, long bus rides, more ghanain movies, Andrea thinking she has malaria (she’s feeling better today so probably not), Cristin paying 20 peswas to use the bathroom (she even got a ticket), terrible roads but we make it back in our door in Accra by 9:45 pm. Really glad I took the trip, and definitely my best of the summer. I can do without extended tro-tro rides for the next few years though!
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Wednesday 21st – Sunday 25th (Part 1)
The trip that almost never happened ended up being the best of the summer. Andrea and Daan have been looking forward to visiting Mole national park since early June. Problem is it’s like 14 hours away…on a good day. I went from pretty sure I wasn’t going to definitely sure I wasn’t going (after visiting green turtle I was sure I would go back there instead) to absolutely going (after asking around whether it’s worth the trip) till almost not going at all hours before I was supposed to board the bus. Ultimately I was torn between hanging out with Shara and whoever else because she just returned from being away for 3 weekends and going to an amazing place that was really far away. Though Drea probably thinks it was her Fordham law skills that persuaded me it was mostly my friend Andrew’s (from Tufts) road trip across America that inspired me to make the trip. Sure it wasn’t going to be as epic, but we were literally driving clear across the country. I took the trip as a good opportunity to do a mini-road trip, and any animals we saw (which were not a guarantee in the rainy season) would be a bonus.
So after the inevitable sibling bickering about which bus to get on, Me, Drea, Daan and Cristin boarded a 1980’s looking bus with curtains to make the first leg of our trip to Kumasi (roughly half way there). We boarded around 5:15 … I passed out around 5:45 …wake up at 9pm: “ Wtf? We’re still here?”. The blaring of a bad Ghanian movie couldn’t mask the sounds of random vendors banging on the door trying to get passengers to buy refreshments or nicknacks. See the way busses work here is, you don’t leave till it fills up. Unforntuley for is it was a big bus and several buses were going to Kumasi. Even though it was the cheapest it didn’t exactly have prime real estate in the parking lot. About 15 minutes later we were finally off and I feel asleep again (surprisingly I caught up on a lot of sleep on the first leg of our journey). Wake up around 1:45 …still not there yet. Call my Mom who is very much aware of the time difference…get grounded by my dad for “being out so late” haha. We finally arrive at Kumasi station around 2:30. Pay too much for a cab to “Wa station” (only about $1 each, but it was pretty damn close) and are pleasantly surprised to find a pretty crowded outdoor station with Weslife blaring across the street and a woman cooking egg sandwhichs and hot beverages for cheap. First night down and we didn’t even have to pay for a room.
We get our tickets round 4am…more waiting and eventually we’re off to Wa. About 8 hours later we arrive after spending time on the worst roads of all time. Someone made the analogy to riding on a “Shake weight” with wheels. Wa is a pretty low key town in the north. Lots of people riding motos as opposed to driving cars, and no one harassing you to buy things left and right. Cops were really friendly too and gave us directions to Weichu (“we chow”) Station. This part of our journey is actually going a couple hours away from the Mole National Park. Weichu is home to a hippo sanctuary. My limited understanding of sanctuaries is it’s a nature reserve and the animals are free to come and go as they please. The community (and various international volunteers who come and go) maintaining the sanctuary just make sure no one or thing is harming the hippos and they do a survey of the river now and then get a head count. After grabbing some snacks in the near by market, waiting a bunch on the tro for it to leave we set of for Weichu. Correction, these are the worst effing roads I’ve ever been on. Spoiler alert to Aunt Missy, I was in another car accident so you might as well skip down to the part when we see elephants and monkeys if you don’t want to hear about it. For you law school kids our driver was definitely being negligent. To the point where I’m just sitting there going…he’s going to honk his horn right? He’s gonna break yes? Nope. He nearly kamikazes into the back of a pick up truck before veering off the road into a ditch. On our way we teetered dangerously back and forth on either side on two wheels, flirting with the wind to tip us over. I’ve been hardened by my first accident and the everyday dangers of getting to work in the morning so I was actually completely calm and away of my surroundings. I actually tried tipping in the opposite direction a couple times to keep the car from going over completely. Meanwhile there was a crying baby, a pregnant woman, several elderly people, some young woman yelling “Jesus! Jesus” and Andrea repeating hysterically “we’re gonna tip over, we’re gonna tip over”. We didn’t tip over. We just ended up sorta stuck in a ditch on the side of the road. After checking to see If everyone was alright, which did little good because these particular northerners didn’t know or care much for English, I helped push the tro back onto the road (or rather tried but did a rather poor job of it). Luckily we were only about 5 minutes away from the sanctuary. …Stay tuned for the rest of the story coming soon.
So after the inevitable sibling bickering about which bus to get on, Me, Drea, Daan and Cristin boarded a 1980’s looking bus with curtains to make the first leg of our trip to Kumasi (roughly half way there). We boarded around 5:15 … I passed out around 5:45 …wake up at 9pm: “ Wtf? We’re still here?”. The blaring of a bad Ghanian movie couldn’t mask the sounds of random vendors banging on the door trying to get passengers to buy refreshments or nicknacks. See the way busses work here is, you don’t leave till it fills up. Unforntuley for is it was a big bus and several buses were going to Kumasi. Even though it was the cheapest it didn’t exactly have prime real estate in the parking lot. About 15 minutes later we were finally off and I feel asleep again (surprisingly I caught up on a lot of sleep on the first leg of our journey). Wake up around 1:45 …still not there yet. Call my Mom who is very much aware of the time difference…get grounded by my dad for “being out so late” haha. We finally arrive at Kumasi station around 2:30. Pay too much for a cab to “Wa station” (only about $1 each, but it was pretty damn close) and are pleasantly surprised to find a pretty crowded outdoor station with Weslife blaring across the street and a woman cooking egg sandwhichs and hot beverages for cheap. First night down and we didn’t even have to pay for a room.
We get our tickets round 4am…more waiting and eventually we’re off to Wa. About 8 hours later we arrive after spending time on the worst roads of all time. Someone made the analogy to riding on a “Shake weight” with wheels. Wa is a pretty low key town in the north. Lots of people riding motos as opposed to driving cars, and no one harassing you to buy things left and right. Cops were really friendly too and gave us directions to Weichu (“we chow”) Station. This part of our journey is actually going a couple hours away from the Mole National Park. Weichu is home to a hippo sanctuary. My limited understanding of sanctuaries is it’s a nature reserve and the animals are free to come and go as they please. The community (and various international volunteers who come and go) maintaining the sanctuary just make sure no one or thing is harming the hippos and they do a survey of the river now and then get a head count. After grabbing some snacks in the near by market, waiting a bunch on the tro for it to leave we set of for Weichu. Correction, these are the worst effing roads I’ve ever been on. Spoiler alert to Aunt Missy, I was in another car accident so you might as well skip down to the part when we see elephants and monkeys if you don’t want to hear about it. For you law school kids our driver was definitely being negligent. To the point where I’m just sitting there going…he’s going to honk his horn right? He’s gonna break yes? Nope. He nearly kamikazes into the back of a pick up truck before veering off the road into a ditch. On our way we teetered dangerously back and forth on either side on two wheels, flirting with the wind to tip us over. I’ve been hardened by my first accident and the everyday dangers of getting to work in the morning so I was actually completely calm and away of my surroundings. I actually tried tipping in the opposite direction a couple times to keep the car from going over completely. Meanwhile there was a crying baby, a pregnant woman, several elderly people, some young woman yelling “Jesus! Jesus” and Andrea repeating hysterically “we’re gonna tip over, we’re gonna tip over”. We didn’t tip over. We just ended up sorta stuck in a ditch on the side of the road. After checking to see If everyone was alright, which did little good because these particular northerners didn’t know or care much for English, I helped push the tro back onto the road (or rather tried but did a rather poor job of it). Luckily we were only about 5 minutes away from the sanctuary. …Stay tuned for the rest of the story coming soon.
Monday, July 26, 2010
July 17th – July 21st
Our 3rd visit to Komeyete’s wasn’t all that different from the 2nd, except for a complete lack of sleep. If you read my post about that weekend, swap out Daan and Pedro for Cristin and Julie (a friend I made through Shara). We didn’t get to clean the beach for lack of trash bags but we did get to plant some trees with Komeyete’s reforestation project.
That Saturday night was just awful though. The 5 of us (refresher, Me, Terry, Andrea, Cristin and Julie) crammed under a table cloth as a make-shift mosquito net and tried to go to sleep. After about 15 minutes with my eyes closed (though it felt like it could have been a lot longer) I was awoken by the sound of at least 50 mosquitoes buzzing around the net. It was deafening, and I had to check several times to make sure it wasn’t actually in my ear. Terry didn’t have to ask twice if I wanted to get the hell outta there and we went back around the bond fire to find Komoyete and some of his friends trying to sleep under the protection of heat. They didn’t seem to be having a great time at that either. As I alluded to earlier, neither Terry nor I really knew what time it was. We assumed that the sun would be rising soon so we planned to just wait it out. Delirious probably from the application of too much Deet (mosquito repellent) Terry asks me to burry him in the sand. He was actually safe for about 15 minutes until some creatures (either sand crabs or really freakin persistent mosquitoes) found their way to him.
I decided it would be best to walk down to the neighboring beach because the mosquitoes are less apt to bother moving objects. It actually worked. On our way we past an inexplicable heard of goats never before seen on our previous visits to the Island though I suppose not as mysterious as the polar bears on LOST™. After about 45 minutes of walking/stopping to enjoy the momentary lack of buzzing Terry spoke aloud what we both suspected, that it was actually a lot closer to dusk than dawn. I walked Terry back but having been disturbed to the point of being wide awake I tried my luck at the heat method again. Nope. So I set off back to the neighboring beach, cursing myself because I lost another debate with Andrea, who has taken to nagging me like a real sibling not just my “American sistah”, regarding whether I should go to the Island that weekend: “If only I stayed in Accra and visited the University of Ghana instead” I muttered to myself …and the goats. A peer across the river revealed that those plans might as well been a wash too since Accra was Black with power outages. Delirium clearly set in our my part now because I decided to climb up to a life guard tower and sing Beatles songs to myself. Sunrise began about 2 hours later I guess and after waving to the security guard, I went back to my end of the Island, determined to row a boat back on my lonesome. Instead I ended up having a great conversation with this guy named Charles, an older gentleman who likes to go on long runs on Sundays and has chatted me up in the past. He’s a Ghanaian working with an NGO, making way to Houston, T X at the end of the August for some sort of training. What we chatted about wasn’t important but it definitely made me less angry. Julie joined us not to long after our conversation started, and I learned about all the work she’s done in Africa over the past few years. She gets the worst of the “Obruni” cat calls since she’s a white woman from Boston, MA, but ironically she’s probably seen more of Africa than 80% of Ghanaians.
We left the island pretty early so that we can wash up before celebrating Andrea’s (23rd) and Terry’s (22nd) birthday. Swap back Pedro and Daan for Cristin and Juli for our party ..and add an Energy drink while you’re at it. Sunday’s are randomly a big party night in Accra. Maybe it’s the holyghost or some other divine spirit but the Lord’s day is definitely more fun than any Friday I’ve spent in the city. We got a few drinks at our favorite spot called “Duncans” (waiters are nice and they don’t try to Obruni-price us) and planned on having a foreign food dinner. As almost 2 hours ticked by we decided it was probably best to just get some fast food. We ended up at Papaye, a local joint which is renowned for their chicken and rice (as a foodie/vegetarian I’m comfortable to say that it does appear that they prepare their birds quite well, which is all I can ask for. If you’re gonna kill animals at least see them to a proper end). The 5 of us ended up ordering burgers and chips (egg sandwich for me) which I only mention because it was the best egg sandwich I’ve had in years…think big mac without the extra bread and fried eggs instead of beef. We ended up back home after midnight.
Monday morning I began to cram about 7 days worth of work into just 3. The court is about to go on vacation so I had to wrap up about 5 cases for my boss. Even though between Saturday and Wednesday afternoon I only ended up with 16 hours sleep I’m happy with my work. On Wednesday we set off for Mole National Park in the northern region which is the subject of my next post.
That Saturday night was just awful though. The 5 of us (refresher, Me, Terry, Andrea, Cristin and Julie) crammed under a table cloth as a make-shift mosquito net and tried to go to sleep. After about 15 minutes with my eyes closed (though it felt like it could have been a lot longer) I was awoken by the sound of at least 50 mosquitoes buzzing around the net. It was deafening, and I had to check several times to make sure it wasn’t actually in my ear. Terry didn’t have to ask twice if I wanted to get the hell outta there and we went back around the bond fire to find Komoyete and some of his friends trying to sleep under the protection of heat. They didn’t seem to be having a great time at that either. As I alluded to earlier, neither Terry nor I really knew what time it was. We assumed that the sun would be rising soon so we planned to just wait it out. Delirious probably from the application of too much Deet (mosquito repellent) Terry asks me to burry him in the sand. He was actually safe for about 15 minutes until some creatures (either sand crabs or really freakin persistent mosquitoes) found their way to him.
I decided it would be best to walk down to the neighboring beach because the mosquitoes are less apt to bother moving objects. It actually worked. On our way we past an inexplicable heard of goats never before seen on our previous visits to the Island though I suppose not as mysterious as the polar bears on LOST™. After about 45 minutes of walking/stopping to enjoy the momentary lack of buzzing Terry spoke aloud what we both suspected, that it was actually a lot closer to dusk than dawn. I walked Terry back but having been disturbed to the point of being wide awake I tried my luck at the heat method again. Nope. So I set off back to the neighboring beach, cursing myself because I lost another debate with Andrea, who has taken to nagging me like a real sibling not just my “American sistah”, regarding whether I should go to the Island that weekend: “If only I stayed in Accra and visited the University of Ghana instead” I muttered to myself …and the goats. A peer across the river revealed that those plans might as well been a wash too since Accra was Black with power outages. Delirium clearly set in our my part now because I decided to climb up to a life guard tower and sing Beatles songs to myself. Sunrise began about 2 hours later I guess and after waving to the security guard, I went back to my end of the Island, determined to row a boat back on my lonesome. Instead I ended up having a great conversation with this guy named Charles, an older gentleman who likes to go on long runs on Sundays and has chatted me up in the past. He’s a Ghanaian working with an NGO, making way to Houston, T X at the end of the August for some sort of training. What we chatted about wasn’t important but it definitely made me less angry. Julie joined us not to long after our conversation started, and I learned about all the work she’s done in Africa over the past few years. She gets the worst of the “Obruni” cat calls since she’s a white woman from Boston, MA, but ironically she’s probably seen more of Africa than 80% of Ghanaians.
We left the island pretty early so that we can wash up before celebrating Andrea’s (23rd) and Terry’s (22nd) birthday. Swap back Pedro and Daan for Cristin and Juli for our party ..and add an Energy drink while you’re at it. Sunday’s are randomly a big party night in Accra. Maybe it’s the holyghost or some other divine spirit but the Lord’s day is definitely more fun than any Friday I’ve spent in the city. We got a few drinks at our favorite spot called “Duncans” (waiters are nice and they don’t try to Obruni-price us) and planned on having a foreign food dinner. As almost 2 hours ticked by we decided it was probably best to just get some fast food. We ended up at Papaye, a local joint which is renowned for their chicken and rice (as a foodie/vegetarian I’m comfortable to say that it does appear that they prepare their birds quite well, which is all I can ask for. If you’re gonna kill animals at least see them to a proper end). The 5 of us ended up ordering burgers and chips (egg sandwich for me) which I only mention because it was the best egg sandwich I’ve had in years…think big mac without the extra bread and fried eggs instead of beef. We ended up back home after midnight.
Monday morning I began to cram about 7 days worth of work into just 3. The court is about to go on vacation so I had to wrap up about 5 cases for my boss. Even though between Saturday and Wednesday afternoon I only ended up with 16 hours sleep I’m happy with my work. On Wednesday we set off for Mole National Park in the northern region which is the subject of my next post.
Friday, July 16, 2010
July 12th - July 16th
Andrea and I were snapped slightly back into reality this week as we both had OCI (on campus interview) stuff to do for our summer 2011 jobs. It actually wasn't terrible using the 3g modems we bought, but it took up the free time that used to be reserved for watching the world cup :P
I still managed to have some fun though. Tuesday was my brother Sean’s b-day. Knowing him he probably had enough fun for both of us. On Wednesday I went to hang out with Evans, the dude that helped me get set up in Ghana. His friend Rashida popped in Evans' place because she agreed to make a dress for Terri. For roughly $20, including the cost of nice fabric that Shara helped me pick out a couple weeks ago, you can get a tailor made dress, complete in a week! The three of us watched the U-20 women's teams from Ghana ("the Black Princess") battle the defending champion Americans to a tie. That's the result I like to see when my two favorite teams meet, haha.
On Thursday, I wanted to get a bunch of people together for a drink, which presented the perfect opportunity to visit Pedro in his new digs (I can't remember if I wrote about it, but Pedro moved out of my room into an Apt just beyond the Teshi-Nungua traffic. It became completely necessary because he is extending his stay by at least 2 months. )His place is actually really nice! He's got like a kitchenette, and a small living room with two chairs and a table. And a couch, bed and tv in his room. He's actually paying less money than us for a nicer place but it took him forever to find it. As I’m writing the power just went off, but thank goodness for the generator that allowed me to save my progress. Power came back in 2 minutes though.
Me, Daan, Pedro, Andrea and Jackye grabbed a drink at the “T” spot (named for the T shaped junction by which it’s located. Whilst Pedro was telling us another one of his wild drunk stories from the night before that involved him and Terry pleading with prostitutes to find a new line of work a debate ensued about prostitution that left me and Andrea arguing for a half an hour, while the other 3 got bored and started a side conversation (Andrea is actually interviewing commercial sex workers for the report she’s working on at the Human Rights Center). Law school creeps its way in, again!
Jackye went home and the remaining 4 of us went to a dinner spot that Pedro discovered a couple nights ago. It was nice to get a local meal as a “family” that wasn’t cooked to death by grandma. For 7 cedi total ($5) we all got a substantial meal (rice balls with peanut soup and an egg for me). Lucky for Pedro, he really likes local food so he’ll survive at least another 2 months.
Aside from Daan, who really wants to go home as soon as she can, I feel like we’ve all said this week how much we’re used to living here. With a little under a month to go it’s a good feeling to have. My boss keeps floating the idea of my coming back after I get my law degree to work at his firm or to teach at the University of Ghana law school (he even brought me to the school to meet a senior professor). At first it seemed kind of outlandish but I’m actually giving it thought. I have a great boss here, who trusts me with some substantial work (ask me about the work I’m doing with Internet fraud right now). Additionally, I always thought when I was growing up how cool it would be to give my kids the unique experience of living abroad as a child… so the possibility of coming back for a year or two when my first born is of school age (5 or so) is seeming like a viable option. Of course that is just fantasy at this point, so I don’t wanna hear any lip from family about sweeping their currently non-existent grandchildren or nieces/nephews to Africa.
This weekend me, Christin (the girl who came to the Western region with us last weekend), Terry and Andrea are going to visit Komeyete, again. We’re hoping to bring trash bags, rubber gloves and candy to “Africa” to convince the kids to help us clean up the beach. There are a ton of plastic bags and other rubbish that washes up from Accra, and it really mars the otherwise beautiful scenery (and football matches are a drag when you trip over plastic coke bottle every ten minutes). We’re hoping to make a short trip out of it so we can come back to Accra to celebrate Andrea’s birthday/gear up for our 12 hour journey to the Northern region next weekend!
I still managed to have some fun though. Tuesday was my brother Sean’s b-day. Knowing him he probably had enough fun for both of us. On Wednesday I went to hang out with Evans, the dude that helped me get set up in Ghana. His friend Rashida popped in Evans' place because she agreed to make a dress for Terri. For roughly $20, including the cost of nice fabric that Shara helped me pick out a couple weeks ago, you can get a tailor made dress, complete in a week! The three of us watched the U-20 women's teams from Ghana ("the Black Princess") battle the defending champion Americans to a tie. That's the result I like to see when my two favorite teams meet, haha.
On Thursday, I wanted to get a bunch of people together for a drink, which presented the perfect opportunity to visit Pedro in his new digs (I can't remember if I wrote about it, but Pedro moved out of my room into an Apt just beyond the Teshi-Nungua traffic. It became completely necessary because he is extending his stay by at least 2 months. )His place is actually really nice! He's got like a kitchenette, and a small living room with two chairs and a table. And a couch, bed and tv in his room. He's actually paying less money than us for a nicer place but it took him forever to find it. As I’m writing the power just went off, but thank goodness for the generator that allowed me to save my progress. Power came back in 2 minutes though.
Me, Daan, Pedro, Andrea and Jackye grabbed a drink at the “T” spot (named for the T shaped junction by which it’s located. Whilst Pedro was telling us another one of his wild drunk stories from the night before that involved him and Terry pleading with prostitutes to find a new line of work a debate ensued about prostitution that left me and Andrea arguing for a half an hour, while the other 3 got bored and started a side conversation (Andrea is actually interviewing commercial sex workers for the report she’s working on at the Human Rights Center). Law school creeps its way in, again!
Jackye went home and the remaining 4 of us went to a dinner spot that Pedro discovered a couple nights ago. It was nice to get a local meal as a “family” that wasn’t cooked to death by grandma. For 7 cedi total ($5) we all got a substantial meal (rice balls with peanut soup and an egg for me). Lucky for Pedro, he really likes local food so he’ll survive at least another 2 months.
Aside from Daan, who really wants to go home as soon as she can, I feel like we’ve all said this week how much we’re used to living here. With a little under a month to go it’s a good feeling to have. My boss keeps floating the idea of my coming back after I get my law degree to work at his firm or to teach at the University of Ghana law school (he even brought me to the school to meet a senior professor). At first it seemed kind of outlandish but I’m actually giving it thought. I have a great boss here, who trusts me with some substantial work (ask me about the work I’m doing with Internet fraud right now). Additionally, I always thought when I was growing up how cool it would be to give my kids the unique experience of living abroad as a child… so the possibility of coming back for a year or two when my first born is of school age (5 or so) is seeming like a viable option. Of course that is just fantasy at this point, so I don’t wanna hear any lip from family about sweeping their currently non-existent grandchildren or nieces/nephews to Africa.
This weekend me, Christin (the girl who came to the Western region with us last weekend), Terry and Andrea are going to visit Komeyete, again. We’re hoping to bring trash bags, rubber gloves and candy to “Africa” to convince the kids to help us clean up the beach. There are a ton of plastic bags and other rubbish that washes up from Accra, and it really mars the otherwise beautiful scenery (and football matches are a drag when you trip over plastic coke bottle every ten minutes). We’re hoping to make a short trip out of it so we can come back to Accra to celebrate Andrea’s birthday/gear up for our 12 hour journey to the Northern region next weekend!
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Weekend of July 9th
This weekend had to the potentional to be really amazing or really lousy...it ended up being just ok but that's quite alright. Andrea and I tag-teamed the planning to visit the Nzulezo (N-zu-lay-zu) stilt village. Drea's internet is really bad so I scoured the net for whatever I could find whenever I had down time. I came up with our accomdation for Friday, just outside the village in a Town called Beyin. It got really good reviews and the owner was friendly enough. The worst part of the planning was an unwillingness to be exclusive. It's hard to not invite people to weekend trips, especially newbie Obruni's who have no idea what to do or see, but at one point we had 12 confirmed people. It's hard enough to take a trip to Adam's Morgan with 12 people, try arranging transportation and accommodations for a place 5 hours and 2 different busses away! Luckily the newer half of the group decided it was best that they get their feet wet with something more local, leaving a manageable group of Me, Drea, Daan, Terry, and new friends Christin and Emma. Andrea broke her “no obruni's with braids rule” with Christin , a work colleague, and it really paid off, she's a nice girl from Gary, Indiana with a lot of personality. Guess you can't judge an obruni by their ill fashioned hairdo (or however the phrase goes). Andrea arranged the second night at the Green Turtle lodge, dubbed the nicest beach in Ghana and popular volunteer spot for their turtle conservationist project.
Getting there was a mess still...mostly b/c of the rain and transfer but we made it safely. The hostel/resort was really nice, but by the time we got there we passed out. It misted all morning, causing us to jog from our rooms to breakfast. On the way Christin must have dropped her wallet because half way through our meal one of the caretakers came by and handed it to us. “The money's gonna be gone” whispered Christin cynically, but sure enough it was. When she asked who found it because there was money missing the waitress immediately started yelling at the guy who gave it to her in one of the Ghanian Dialects. The dude started stripping to prove his innocence and he looked genuinely upset about the ordeal. Andrea saw Christin count out her money on the way to breakfast so there's no doubt she had it on the way. It's possible that someone came along and found the wallet and tossed it down for the male caretaker to find...but there was almost no one else at the place. After the owner raced back from town and had a chat with us...we ended up with 20 Cedi's off our bill, leaving a 50 cedi deficit for Christin :-/ . We'll never know what really happened, but at least we're all safe.
In the interirm between losing Christin's money and meeting with the Owner of the Beyin Hotel we went to see the village. Andrea will describe the trip there as a canoe ride...but Terry and I can tell you (the leaders of the two boats) that it was most definitely a row....like a 40 minute row! But it was still misting so it was really enjoyable. The stilt village was built by refugees escaping a war. I'm unclear about the entire story but I'll supplement this post with more info... The village was actually really disappointing. I would not recommend. The whole experience felt like we were uninvited guests in someones home. The people on the village weren't all that friendly and understandably so. These 6 random obrunis (and others who make the trip) find their everyday life sooooooooooooo amusing, that they pay to 7 cedi each to row a boat out to see them. But they do appreciate the proceeds and the extra donation to the school that we and others undoubtedly give so I guess it's a tradeoff.
After the Coke summit with the owner of the Beyin Hotel we set off for Green Turtle Lodge. Another travel hassel, including 10 KM of the bumpiest road I've ever been on but we got there with almost 2 hours of sunlight (and we made it about 90 minutes closer to Accra for our return trip.) It was well worth the trip. Isolated from the world and the food was amazing (example: French Toast with bananas and African honey + real coffee for the first time since I left the States). We popped open a bottle of Argentine wine I bought for $3 from a convenience store in Accra (not bad at all) but I barely finished a sip because I was drawn to the volley ball net. Terry and I ran over and joined two spainish couples in a match. Louis (a diplomat) Dorethea, Nacho (not sure if that's his name...but he pulls it off) and another woman who had a really pretty spanish name that I can't remember (all jounalists) were an awesome find. We played volley ball with them until it got dark, and soccer the next day. They came down in two SVU's so they had 3 seats in each and offered to give us a ride back to Accra. They saved us soooooooooo much hassle and since they wanted to get back for the world cup, we were sure to make it back for the match too. So even though I was pulling for Holland after Ghana was eliminated, I had too much Spanish hospitality not to root feverishly for them. Me, Daan and Andrea went to Epos one last time to bid farewell to a large chapter in our Africa experience. We donned spanish flags on our faces, courtesy of our new friends, and watched the game outside on giant movie screens. In case you live under a rock, Spain pulled out the victory in Extra time and our 4 friends and 20 or so other spanish transplants were beside themselves. I gave Nacho a hug to congratulate him and before Andrea could do the same, he had to stabilize himself on a chair as he dropped his head in his hands to pour tears of joy.
Monday morning ended up with no power in my office all day. Now that the world cup is done it's gonna be a pretty regular thing. Womp Womp.
Getting there was a mess still...mostly b/c of the rain and transfer but we made it safely. The hostel/resort was really nice, but by the time we got there we passed out. It misted all morning, causing us to jog from our rooms to breakfast. On the way Christin must have dropped her wallet because half way through our meal one of the caretakers came by and handed it to us. “The money's gonna be gone” whispered Christin cynically, but sure enough it was. When she asked who found it because there was money missing the waitress immediately started yelling at the guy who gave it to her in one of the Ghanian Dialects. The dude started stripping to prove his innocence and he looked genuinely upset about the ordeal. Andrea saw Christin count out her money on the way to breakfast so there's no doubt she had it on the way. It's possible that someone came along and found the wallet and tossed it down for the male caretaker to find...but there was almost no one else at the place. After the owner raced back from town and had a chat with us...we ended up with 20 Cedi's off our bill, leaving a 50 cedi deficit for Christin :-/ . We'll never know what really happened, but at least we're all safe.
In the interirm between losing Christin's money and meeting with the Owner of the Beyin Hotel we went to see the village. Andrea will describe the trip there as a canoe ride...but Terry and I can tell you (the leaders of the two boats) that it was most definitely a row....like a 40 minute row! But it was still misting so it was really enjoyable. The stilt village was built by refugees escaping a war. I'm unclear about the entire story but I'll supplement this post with more info... The village was actually really disappointing. I would not recommend. The whole experience felt like we were uninvited guests in someones home. The people on the village weren't all that friendly and understandably so. These 6 random obrunis (and others who make the trip) find their everyday life sooooooooooooo amusing, that they pay to 7 cedi each to row a boat out to see them. But they do appreciate the proceeds and the extra donation to the school that we and others undoubtedly give so I guess it's a tradeoff.
After the Coke summit with the owner of the Beyin Hotel we set off for Green Turtle Lodge. Another travel hassel, including 10 KM of the bumpiest road I've ever been on but we got there with almost 2 hours of sunlight (and we made it about 90 minutes closer to Accra for our return trip.) It was well worth the trip. Isolated from the world and the food was amazing (example: French Toast with bananas and African honey + real coffee for the first time since I left the States). We popped open a bottle of Argentine wine I bought for $3 from a convenience store in Accra (not bad at all) but I barely finished a sip because I was drawn to the volley ball net. Terry and I ran over and joined two spainish couples in a match. Louis (a diplomat) Dorethea, Nacho (not sure if that's his name...but he pulls it off) and another woman who had a really pretty spanish name that I can't remember (all jounalists) were an awesome find. We played volley ball with them until it got dark, and soccer the next day. They came down in two SVU's so they had 3 seats in each and offered to give us a ride back to Accra. They saved us soooooooooo much hassle and since they wanted to get back for the world cup, we were sure to make it back for the match too. So even though I was pulling for Holland after Ghana was eliminated, I had too much Spanish hospitality not to root feverishly for them. Me, Daan and Andrea went to Epos one last time to bid farewell to a large chapter in our Africa experience. We donned spanish flags on our faces, courtesy of our new friends, and watched the game outside on giant movie screens. In case you live under a rock, Spain pulled out the victory in Extra time and our 4 friends and 20 or so other spanish transplants were beside themselves. I gave Nacho a hug to congratulate him and before Andrea could do the same, he had to stabilize himself on a chair as he dropped his head in his hands to pour tears of joy.
Monday morning ended up with no power in my office all day. Now that the world cup is done it's gonna be a pretty regular thing. Womp Womp.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Republic Day- July 1st/ Weekend of July 2nd
Thursday was very well near my 4th religious experience of the week (but Andrea, being the law student she is would not let me call it one). Andrea invited me, shara and Daan to hang out with a guy she met here (Prince Nana) and his "keep fit club". We piled into a van with way too many people and sang religious songs, played drums, made crazy highpitched noises etc for about 3 hours to visit bodi falls. I gotta say the ride down was actually more fun than the place itself. Perhaps because we were celebrating Republic Day, which is like indepence day part II for Ghana (when the British occupiers actually left) but the place looked like 6 flags great adventure. Along the route in the forest were several Fan Ice Vendors (idk if i ever talked about this, but imagine a Wendy's frostie stuffed into a little plastic pouch...for 25 cents...so good), food vendors, vendors of anything people were willing to carry on their head. And there were just way to many people. Being from right outside the NYC you'd think i'd be ok with that...but Terri can tell you that I really am not. I don't like midtown NYC at all, and I almost choked a b***h during the Cherry Blossom festival in DC. Anyway we had a pretty challenging hike to see this palmtree with 3 branches...the hike was cool but the tree was unimpressive. I actually really enjoy hiking these days and I told Brittany that we should round up some people at the Law Center to take a weekend trip to West Virginia
if anyone is down for that when I get back to D.C.. Ghanaian do not enjoy hiking though, for all their superior fitness over Americans they are not built for climbing. Everyone asked me every two minutes if I was tired and they were surprised when I told them know with a laugh. Me and this dude Maxwell broke a way from the pack on the way back and went on ahead to the bodi waterfall...pretty nice but not as impressive as the Wili water falls I saw a couple weeks ago... at lunch I met a young kid named Issac Newton (with a Ghanian Last Name I can't recall). He loves science and wants to be a pilot when he grows up. Issac asked me to stay with him while Shara and Andrea went to dance with some of the women we came with. Apparently some jerks were bothering them the one time I wasn't around to defend them but luckily one of the guys we came with was there to defuse the situation. After that the entire keepfit club broke away from the pack and we had an African Dance/Drum session before a 5 hour trotro trip home (the drive was doing like 40km an hour for no apparent reason :-/)
We didn't plan on going anywhere this weekend as Shara was off to climb mount Kili and me, pedro and Andrea wanted to stay in town to the blackstars match (which they lost in a heartbreaking fashion I care not to rehash). One of Andrea/Pedro's collauges really wanted to meet komeyete after Andrea blabbed on about him so we paid him another visit. This time we didn't have to stay in a hostel as he arranged for us to stay in a fishing village/island he calls "Africa" (if anyone knows Ghana the village shares an Island with Bojo Beach). Komeyete was much more talkative this week, perhaps because he was more aquinted with me and andrea, or maybe he was just excited to have so many new friends. Me, Andrea, Pedro, Terry and Daan walked around Komeyte's village looking at the trees he just planted for his reforstation project. We set of for Africa after not too long. Everytime I take a boat to or from Africa I get this feeling of being plucked from earth and placed in a picture of the most beautiful landscape you ever imagined. The number of times me and Terry exchanged the phrases "this isn't real" or "wow...this is amazing" could not be counted on our fingers and toes. After a swim, me, Terry and Pedro played football with some local kids. All the kids were really nice and friendly and of course master footballers. The sunset was incredible, easily the most beautiful I've ever seen. All the while Komoyete was building a tent out of reeds that we brought from the forest and some tarp. His friend also built a bonfire. After we changed up, we sat around the bonfire and hung out with the kids and whoever else in the village was interested. After a bit komeyete removed some hotstones from the bonfire and brought them into the tarp/reed tent. About 5 minutes later he advised us to put some swimming clothes on and to bring it some bags of drinking water. We through some lemon grass on the stones and periodicly poured water on the stones for a sauna experience you could not buy in the US. Terri's mother once told me that lemongrass tea can cure cancer and I definitely felt toxins exiting my body. I'm def. going to try to recreate this one weekend in the US.
The next morning I played football with the kids again and actually got a little sunburn (not a burn, burn, but my skin was peeling a bit)...whoops. They nicknamed Terry Obruni fish (white fish) and later nicknamed me redfish, I'm assuming because of my new color I'm rocking here. When I tan I tend to look Native American. We took a short trip down to bojo beach and on the way back helped bring in a very large fishing catch. We only helped for the last half hour and got all of the glory of seeing the catch bring brought in, but these guys were having a tug of war with the sea for hours. I really don't know how they do it. We actually bought some of the fish for very cheap and komeyete's friends friend it up for everyone except the stupid vegetarian (me :P) . Aside for the inexplicable meloncholy mood that has washed over me for two consecutive Sundays , it was a terrific weekend.
This weekend were going to visit the Nzeluzo Village on stilts (you can only get there by boat) and the Green Turtle Lodge -- the nicest beach in Ghana/turtle conservationist resort.
if anyone is down for that when I get back to D.C.. Ghanaian do not enjoy hiking though, for all their superior fitness over Americans they are not built for climbing. Everyone asked me every two minutes if I was tired and they were surprised when I told them know with a laugh. Me and this dude Maxwell broke a way from the pack on the way back and went on ahead to the bodi waterfall...pretty nice but not as impressive as the Wili water falls I saw a couple weeks ago... at lunch I met a young kid named Issac Newton (with a Ghanian Last Name I can't recall). He loves science and wants to be a pilot when he grows up. Issac asked me to stay with him while Shara and Andrea went to dance with some of the women we came with. Apparently some jerks were bothering them the one time I wasn't around to defend them but luckily one of the guys we came with was there to defuse the situation. After that the entire keepfit club broke away from the pack and we had an African Dance/Drum session before a 5 hour trotro trip home (the drive was doing like 40km an hour for no apparent reason :-/)
We didn't plan on going anywhere this weekend as Shara was off to climb mount Kili and me, pedro and Andrea wanted to stay in town to the blackstars match (which they lost in a heartbreaking fashion I care not to rehash). One of Andrea/Pedro's collauges really wanted to meet komeyete after Andrea blabbed on about him so we paid him another visit. This time we didn't have to stay in a hostel as he arranged for us to stay in a fishing village/island he calls "Africa" (if anyone knows Ghana the village shares an Island with Bojo Beach). Komeyete was much more talkative this week, perhaps because he was more aquinted with me and andrea, or maybe he was just excited to have so many new friends. Me, Andrea, Pedro, Terry and Daan walked around Komeyte's village looking at the trees he just planted for his reforstation project. We set of for Africa after not too long. Everytime I take a boat to or from Africa I get this feeling of being plucked from earth and placed in a picture of the most beautiful landscape you ever imagined. The number of times me and Terry exchanged the phrases "this isn't real" or "wow...this is amazing" could not be counted on our fingers and toes. After a swim, me, Terry and Pedro played football with some local kids. All the kids were really nice and friendly and of course master footballers. The sunset was incredible, easily the most beautiful I've ever seen. All the while Komoyete was building a tent out of reeds that we brought from the forest and some tarp. His friend also built a bonfire. After we changed up, we sat around the bonfire and hung out with the kids and whoever else in the village was interested. After a bit komeyete removed some hotstones from the bonfire and brought them into the tarp/reed tent. About 5 minutes later he advised us to put some swimming clothes on and to bring it some bags of drinking water. We through some lemon grass on the stones and periodicly poured water on the stones for a sauna experience you could not buy in the US. Terri's mother once told me that lemongrass tea can cure cancer and I definitely felt toxins exiting my body. I'm def. going to try to recreate this one weekend in the US.
The next morning I played football with the kids again and actually got a little sunburn (not a burn, burn, but my skin was peeling a bit)...whoops. They nicknamed Terry Obruni fish (white fish) and later nicknamed me redfish, I'm assuming because of my new color I'm rocking here. When I tan I tend to look Native American. We took a short trip down to bojo beach and on the way back helped bring in a very large fishing catch. We only helped for the last half hour and got all of the glory of seeing the catch bring brought in, but these guys were having a tug of war with the sea for hours. I really don't know how they do it. We actually bought some of the fish for very cheap and komeyete's friends friend it up for everyone except the stupid vegetarian (me :P) . Aside for the inexplicable meloncholy mood that has washed over me for two consecutive Sundays , it was a terrific weekend.
This weekend were going to visit the Nzeluzo Village on stilts (you can only get there by boat) and the Green Turtle Lodge -- the nicest beach in Ghana/turtle conservationist resort.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Post: Coming Soon
Thursday - BodiFalls/Republic Day
Weekend - Impromptu visit to our friend Komeyete: Highlights, sleeping on the beach in a traditional hut, hanging out with sweet kids in the fishing village, football on the beach, bonfire, homemade sauna on the beach, helping bring in a large fishing catch...
Weekend - Impromptu visit to our friend Komeyete: Highlights, sleeping on the beach in a traditional hut, hanging out with sweet kids in the fishing village, football on the beach, bonfire, homemade sauna on the beach, helping bring in a large fishing catch...
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