The Volta Region

Time seems to fly in Ghana, despite it's slow pace. Saturday we left for the Volta region, in eastern Ghana which creates the border with Togo. It took FOREVER to get there (which is probably a bad sign, seeing as we're going twice the distance this weekend) because of bad traffic and sucky roads. Our first stop was Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary! We walked down a path, through the jungle to get to a little area where monkeys were known to hang out. And then we got to FEED THEEEM! They ate bananas straight from our hands! ...well... one stole a banana straight from my hand, luckily I had another half :) But it was sooo cool! We had to tear ourselves away from them after a while so we could make it on time to the waterfall. Apparently the gates closed early... but I don't believe it. So we got back on the bus, drove another hour and a half, and pulled onto another dirt road. We stopped at a little rest stop, but there was no waterfall in sight. Ahh yeah, like everywhere else awesome in Ghana, you have to hike to get there. But it was so worth it!

Wli waterfall is the highest in West Africa. there were a bunch of tour groups wading in and out of the water and after our hike, we didn't hesitate to join them. The water was definitely colder than they made it seem! we went all the way under the falls and messed around, climbing on the back wall and taking a million pictures.

When we got out, the hike back didn't seem so bad, but we were all hungry for dinner. Little did we know it would be another five hours before we could eat. We left the falls en route to Hohoe, one of the largest towns in the Volta Region. we found a restaurant for dinner around 7 and settled in, starving. After half an hour, I wondered what was taking so long. After an hour, I was looking at the table cloth, wondering how good it would taste with a bit of salt. After an hour and a half, I got crabby really fast. An hour and a half may not seem like a long time, but after a day of hiking and swimming with a couple crackers as a snack, I was HUNGRY. Finally the food came, and it was like.. half a regular portion!! I was like, what is this? The appetizer? So after I shoveled that in, we drove to our hotel. It wasn't a hotel really, but a guest house behind a giant church. I showered, turned on my alarm and crashed.

Sunday was a day of relaxation, kind of. We left later than usual, at 9 am, and decided not to stop for lunch, but at a gas station to get snacks. We drove back to Accra, the return trip always seems shorter, and pulled into our hostel at 3:30. After we settled back in, people were drawn to the living room, like every night. We sat, chilled, looked through each others pictures and called it a night!

Osu

Last week I decided to drop my Tuesday class, so yesterday I had to walk around campus trying to figure out exactly how to do that. I started in the religions department, had to walk a few blocks to the deans office, back to the religions department and then BACK to the deans office. That was enough exercise for the day. But that meant that I had today free until 5:30! Kelly and I decided to do some exploring downtown in a part of the city called Osu. We took a taxi, too lazy to wait for a trotro, and it turned out to be an interesting ride. There was a huge traffic jam and as we were trying to cut through traffic, our taxi was side-swiped by another car! Taxi driver was not having a good day. They got out and yelled at each other until a truckload of policemen pulled up behind us to see what new traffic jam was holding up the other one. One police man climbed into the passenger's seat and we drove down the road, out of the way. They kept yelling for a bit, then our driver got back in and drove away... he wasn't very happy. He didn't respond to anything we said either.
On the plus side, we made it all the way to Osu without getting in another accident! Osu is basically a big touristy shopping street with nice restaurants (the Indian one we went to is there) and shops. There are annoying street vendors everywhere too selling anything from bracelets and drums to paintings and soccer jerseys. We were there for a fair trade store that specialized in batik fabrics and handmade clothing. The shop was pretty cool. It had a bunch of weird stuff too, like those bags made of plastic drink packets (except these were made of water sachets and ice cream wrappers), ornaments, purses and bags; anything you can dye, they had it. We also stopped by an arts store to buy some paints for a guy in our group. It took us about 20 minutes to find the freaking place! We must have asked twenty people and the first ten said just get a taxi and the second said it's only a few blocks away. Some said down the street, others said up, down a few dirt roads, past the yellow building, left, then right... I'm surprised we found it at all! In case you were wondering, it was down the road, four blocks, turn at the yellow building, three doors down from there.
We got back just in time to rest a bit before heading back out for our Twi class at 5:30. Today's lesson was killer. The professor introduced pairs of letters that make whistling sounds when they come next to each other in a word. Pairs like dw, tw and hw all whistle and I can't figure out how to do it! It rained again while we were in class and stopped right before we were released. It seems like the rainy season's going to start early this year, but all Ghanaians have different opinions. Looks like I'm breaking out the umbrella.
In other news, I'm sorry I have no pictures! I have to walk 40 minutes onto campus to get fast enough internet to upload anything or skype at all. There is an option of paying 50 bucks and getting the wireless from the hostel, but after shelling out 50 bucks for this stupid modem, I'm hesitant. Stupid money!

1/28/2011: Cape Coast

We got up extremely early today and left for an overnight in Cape Coast, a town on the coast about three hours from Accra. The last girl to arrive in Ghana showed up last night, just in time for the trip! Unfortunately though, she took her malaria pills without eating first and ended up just like I did, sick. After half an hour she was feeling better and we took off for the weekend! We had to drive all the way though Accra’s crazy traffic, which in itself is a completely different story, before we could start heading in the right direction. It was fun to see places we were starting to recognize and buy foods and little things from vendors out the window. People walk up and down the aisles of cars trying to sell anything from posters or food to handkerchiefs and gum. We all got plantain chips and fried doughnut things for the trip. As we creeped out of the city, we saw more and more houses surrounded by huge walls. All of the walls were topped with barbed wire or shards of glass! Many families had planted vine plants to cover the awkwardness of the barbed wire so many times the thorns from roses or other flowering plants were made of metal…

We passed a ridiculously huge shanty town/suburb named Nima. The tour guide that was with us for our city tour came with as well and he said that that part of town was mainly Muslims from all over Ghana. As soon as we passed the last few houses in Accra, we drove past a HUGE lake, Weija, which supplies most of the city’s water. We also saw a bunch of really weird things. A man was sleeping in an overturned wheelbarrow in the median of the giant highway we were on. A lady was selling Pringles on the roadside; she held two in her hand and fifty cans on her head! We also drove past a refugee camp set up during the Liberian war. Some of the inhabitants have already gone back to Liberia, but many stayed because Ghana grants asylum to those who want it. What was really interesting was the conversation we had about Cote d’Ivoire. If they start a civil war because of all that’s going on over there now, that camp and many others will fill up with refugees again. Ghana prides itself in being called a haven but a lot of people that come don’t spend much money and move on quickly.

We finally got to Cape Coast, had lunch, and then toured our first castle. Cape Coast castle was primarily used for holding and transporting slaves. We toured the holding cells first, which were completely dark. The guide said that when a few archaeologists from the university came in, they excavated through about 6 inches of human waste before finally hitting the actual floor. Thank goodness it didn’t smell like it. The castle butts right up to the beach for easy boat loading through the ‘door of no return’. Overall, it was a sad tour, but very educational!

We drove down the coast a little more to another slave castle, Elmina. We didn’t tour but we were allowed to run around for a few minutes to take pictures and stretch our legs on the beach. Each castle sat right on the sand and they were beautiful beaches! Too bad the history was so ugly. After Elmina we got back on the bus and headed toward our hotel. It sat almost on top of a lagoon that had a family of ‘friendly’ crocodiles. I’m sure if they were hungry enough any crocodile could become friendly… we only saw one anyway, and he was swimming away from us. The best part of the hotel was the water heaters! Not that they would turn on…