VACA!
My friends and I went on a mini-vacation this past weekend to Green Turtle Lodge. To get there you have to take two trotros (15 person vans that could fall apart at any minute in which 20+ people are squished into). In our first trotro, two Ghanaian men got to asking us if we were married (as usual) and if I had children. (Most of us wear fake wedding rings around). He believed that I was married but he didn't believe that I didn't have children, i'm not sure why. Then I was asked what color baby I want to have at which point I pretended to fall asleep.
THE INFAMOUS TROTRO
About an hour into the ride we began to pass through a funeral celebration. In Ghana, death is celebrated in consideration of a person's life and accomplishments. Aka hundreds of people gather in the street to get drunk and dance in their black and red traditional clothing. However, this funeral had a particularly large amount of people in attendance and so the road was essentially blocked for our trotro to pass. All of a sudden people from the crowd started climbing on our trotro and yelling at us. People grabbed at our arms and legs through the windows. If you have ever seen Dawn of The Dead, it was exactly like the scene where all the zombies climb on top of the van. It got a bit scary, but in true Ghanaian fashion, the driver pretended as if nothing was out of the ordinary and very slowly drove through the crowd. We were later told the a trotro driver had died and the funeral goers were mad at our trotro driver for not attending the funeral.
Then we had to pay.
GREEN TURTLE LODGE
The lodge was founded by an English couple who wanted to create a hotel based on eco-tourism. The toilets were completely self-composting which was cool... I know you'd be curious, but don't look down the hole. Ever. It moves.
Sea turtles are endangered in the area so the owners of the lodge pay fisherman to release any that they catch. Also, the lodge employs many people from the local town and pays children to take tourists on canoe rides through the swamps. We woke up at 530 one morning and went on the canoe ride which was really nice. The hotel even provided mosquito nets for our matresses on the beach! (let it be noted that while the intention was there, the mosquito nets were widely ineffective). Another plus was the amazing food. They actually made chocolate covered bananas. I was in heaven. Since it is a tourist spot, there were lots of foreigners and it was reallly weird to be surrounded by white people. Regardless, it was a nice break from Cape Coast which doesn't have many activities to do.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Ghana is Larger Than it Appears in Most Maps and Rearview Mirrors
My group and I spent the past week traveling in Northern Ghana. The following adventures ensued:
SILLINESS:
Wa: Wa is about a 10 hour bus ride from Cape Coast which is brutal in 90degree weather on dirt roads that allow the bus to only travel at 20 miles an hour. I'm not exactly sure why we went to Wa. I think it was as kind of an overnight rest stop to go farther up north. My friends and I therefore spent our evening in hot pursuit of FanChoco (amazingly delicious frozen chocolate milk in a bag that is the only thing keeping me from going crazy). We found a taxi at the edge of the road. He wanted to overcharge us, so my friend Ariel told him that he could continue on his route without making any money, or he could make 80 pesuars by taking us. They got into a heated argument which involved her chanting "80 PESUARS 80 PESUARS!" and the driver decided that he could not morally take a small fee and would HAVE to take us for free. In the spirit of messing with him, Ariel told him she was from Australia and we each chose a different country. We bonded with him over the fact that we were a mini Model U.N. and sang our national anthems. I don't think he spoke english.
Needless to say (because it's Ghana), once we got to Wa we were told that FanChoco cannot be found in town after 8pm. It was 8:30.
Later, at the hostel, we came across a sign that said laundry was not allowed to be done in the rooms and it should be submitted to reception for washing. Now, while in America, this might imply that the laundry service was complimentary, this is Ghana, and they of course charged us. Even that would have been fine, but our clothes came back a lovely shade of pink. We spoke to 4 different personnel in hopes of merely a discount. Unfortunately, each blatantly laughed at the ridiculous idea that laundry should be returned in its original color and the further inconceivable notion that we should have a discount. oh ghana.
HISTORY AND IMPOVERISHED TOWNS
Gwollu: We traveled another 8 hours roundtrip to Gwollu, a town on the Burkina Faso border. This town is famous for a wall it built to protect the village from slave raids during the 1800s. The town was extremely depressing because we were clearly some of the only visitors all year. Futhermore, most of the children appeared starkly malnourished. I saw one boy curled up in middle of the ground looking very tired and sweating profusely. It must have been 110 degrees in the sun. However, I later learned that he was sick with epilepsy and his family believed that the best thing for him was to lay out in the open.
Sankana: Sanakana is a village famous for the caves that locals hid in to escape the slave raids. We met with the elders and drank Pitu (a maize based slightly fermented beverage) out of Calabash bowls (hallowed squash halves).
THE BEST AND THE WORST OF GHANA:
Mole National Park:
Good-
Mole (pronounced MOLAY!) is a HUGE preserved park in north eastern Ghana. Out of the 420,000 square km, there is one 'resort/tour site'. The first day I encountered numerous baboons sitting right on my front stoop! They had blue rears and all. While walking out of my room one day, i literally tripped over a warthog. He gave me an angry look, but then walked away. We went on two tours of the park in search of animals with our guide "DK." DK was awesome. He was dressed in a full safari outfit with a gun and looked very "1930's I want bushmeat"...until his cellphone rang so he could share where the elephants where located. A group member asked him what was in his gun and he replied "......ehhhhhhh....bullets." We saw a variety of birds, crocodiles, and deer-like animals whose names i dont remember. The coolest part was seeing a real live elephant! Did you know that the African Elephant is the second fastest land animal on earth?? It is, and I stood 30 feet away from it! Also, I later saw about 5 elephants bathing in the pond. Apparently, they sometimes climb up to the resort to drink from the swimming pool. It was overall a really cool experience.
Not so good:
The power went out a variety of times during our trips in the north. However, the most noted was in Mole. My friends staying in the room next door to me had a cockroach problem. And by problem I mean guerilla style invasion. We asked the front desk for assistance and we were handed a single can of Raid. That's when the power went out. And the water. The next hour was spent tip-toeing around the room in the dark and hitting everything that moved with a shoe and then spraying it 4 times over. There were at least 30 casualties, but the army certainly was not defeated and we spent the evening in fear.
KUMASI
Kumasi is the 2nd largest city in Ghana. Despite this, it has barely any American influence and is filled with the usual raw food vendors and markets. We spent two days there and it is veryyy polluted. Interestingly, they decided to put a zoo directly in the middle of the city. That is why at any time you can see thousands of bats flying above a patch of trees. Even better, you can see them up close on the sidewalk being roasted on kabobs! Delicious.
We also went to a carving village nearby which was really interesting and had beautiful sculptures. However, the sellers are like vultures and will literally grab you and push you into their shop. I enjoy explaining that concept of 'personal space' to them.
HAIR SAGA:
It's really really hot up north. So my friend cut my hair again. The first person to guess what it looks like gets a prize.
SILLINESS:
Wa: Wa is about a 10 hour bus ride from Cape Coast which is brutal in 90degree weather on dirt roads that allow the bus to only travel at 20 miles an hour. I'm not exactly sure why we went to Wa. I think it was as kind of an overnight rest stop to go farther up north. My friends and I therefore spent our evening in hot pursuit of FanChoco (amazingly delicious frozen chocolate milk in a bag that is the only thing keeping me from going crazy). We found a taxi at the edge of the road. He wanted to overcharge us, so my friend Ariel told him that he could continue on his route without making any money, or he could make 80 pesuars by taking us. They got into a heated argument which involved her chanting "80 PESUARS 80 PESUARS!" and the driver decided that he could not morally take a small fee and would HAVE to take us for free. In the spirit of messing with him, Ariel told him she was from Australia and we each chose a different country. We bonded with him over the fact that we were a mini Model U.N. and sang our national anthems. I don't think he spoke english.
Needless to say (because it's Ghana), once we got to Wa we were told that FanChoco cannot be found in town after 8pm. It was 8:30.
Later, at the hostel, we came across a sign that said laundry was not allowed to be done in the rooms and it should be submitted to reception for washing. Now, while in America, this might imply that the laundry service was complimentary, this is Ghana, and they of course charged us. Even that would have been fine, but our clothes came back a lovely shade of pink. We spoke to 4 different personnel in hopes of merely a discount. Unfortunately, each blatantly laughed at the ridiculous idea that laundry should be returned in its original color and the further inconceivable notion that we should have a discount. oh ghana.
HISTORY AND IMPOVERISHED TOWNS
Gwollu: We traveled another 8 hours roundtrip to Gwollu, a town on the Burkina Faso border. This town is famous for a wall it built to protect the village from slave raids during the 1800s. The town was extremely depressing because we were clearly some of the only visitors all year. Futhermore, most of the children appeared starkly malnourished. I saw one boy curled up in middle of the ground looking very tired and sweating profusely. It must have been 110 degrees in the sun. However, I later learned that he was sick with epilepsy and his family believed that the best thing for him was to lay out in the open.
Sankana: Sanakana is a village famous for the caves that locals hid in to escape the slave raids. We met with the elders and drank Pitu (a maize based slightly fermented beverage) out of Calabash bowls (hallowed squash halves).
THE BEST AND THE WORST OF GHANA:
Mole National Park:
Good-
Mole (pronounced MOLAY!) is a HUGE preserved park in north eastern Ghana. Out of the 420,000 square km, there is one 'resort/tour site'. The first day I encountered numerous baboons sitting right on my front stoop! They had blue rears and all. While walking out of my room one day, i literally tripped over a warthog. He gave me an angry look, but then walked away. We went on two tours of the park in search of animals with our guide "DK." DK was awesome. He was dressed in a full safari outfit with a gun and looked very "1930's I want bushmeat"...until his cellphone rang so he could share where the elephants where located. A group member asked him what was in his gun and he replied "......ehhhhhhh....bullets." We saw a variety of birds, crocodiles, and deer-like animals whose names i dont remember. The coolest part was seeing a real live elephant! Did you know that the African Elephant is the second fastest land animal on earth?? It is, and I stood 30 feet away from it! Also, I later saw about 5 elephants bathing in the pond. Apparently, they sometimes climb up to the resort to drink from the swimming pool. It was overall a really cool experience.
Not so good:
The power went out a variety of times during our trips in the north. However, the most noted was in Mole. My friends staying in the room next door to me had a cockroach problem. And by problem I mean guerilla style invasion. We asked the front desk for assistance and we were handed a single can of Raid. That's when the power went out. And the water. The next hour was spent tip-toeing around the room in the dark and hitting everything that moved with a shoe and then spraying it 4 times over. There were at least 30 casualties, but the army certainly was not defeated and we spent the evening in fear.
KUMASI
Kumasi is the 2nd largest city in Ghana. Despite this, it has barely any American influence and is filled with the usual raw food vendors and markets. We spent two days there and it is veryyy polluted. Interestingly, they decided to put a zoo directly in the middle of the city. That is why at any time you can see thousands of bats flying above a patch of trees. Even better, you can see them up close on the sidewalk being roasted on kabobs! Delicious.
We also went to a carving village nearby which was really interesting and had beautiful sculptures. However, the sellers are like vultures and will literally grab you and push you into their shop. I enjoy explaining that concept of 'personal space' to them.
HAIR SAGA:
It's really really hot up north. So my friend cut my hair again. The first person to guess what it looks like gets a prize.
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