There and Back Again

Countdown to Albuquerque! 

I'll be home in three days! I'm wrapping up now -- I've turned in my final project to my adviser, took a trip to Barcelona and Lisbon, and now I'm tying up a couple of loose ends before I depart on Thursday night.

For all intents and purposes, my internship is complete. All the health ed students doing field work this semester needed to put together a poster summarizing their individual projects, and all the posters were presented at a poster session on May 1st. My poster was presented by my adviser at UNM, since I was still in Ghana (thank you Dr. Avila!). 

My research and lesson plans were focused on topics the women here requested: nutrition, breast cancer and menopause. Of those three topics, most of my time was spent on preparing for the breast cancer class. Teaching women here the importance of self breast exams, and the importance of teaching others how to do a self breast exam, helps to meet a huge need in Ghana. Mammograms are available in only two cities, leaving mammograms out of the realm of possibility for most Ghanaian women. (Transportation costs, medical costs and lost wages from taking a couple of days off work for travel lead women to choose not to travel to get a mammogram). Also, 60% of Ghanaian women who present with breast cancer at the doctor's office are already in stage 3 or 4, meaning the cancer has spread to other parts of the body, so their 5-year survival rate is 25%. Compared with the rest of the world, West Africa has a relatively low breast cancer rate, but their mortality rate from it is high. The two top reasons women presented so late are attributed to lack of knowledge, and having gone to the doctor previously. That last reason is worry-some but there hasn't been further research on why that happens and the details around it. When I asked a few women about their experiences at doctors offices, they said that when they went to the doctor (which takes all day because you have to wait in line), the doctor would prescribe you medicine for what s/he thinks you have and then send you on your way. But many times the medicine would have no effect. My general sense was a feeling of hopelessness if you are really sick. "But that's just life," I would hear from the women. 

While mammograms are the preferred method of breast cancer detection, self breast exams are crucial, not only in Ghana but everywhere. I spoke with a visiting nurse here, and she said ALL of her breast cancer clients found their lump on their own. So ladies, don't underestimate the importance of the SBE!!

On May 2nd, with my work in Cape Coast completed and my trip to Barcelona coming up, I said goodbye to my Cape Coast friends and headed to Accra, where I would stay at the volunteer house until I left for the airport that night. Here are pictures of some of the friends I made in Cape Coast:

Me and Mr. Appiah, the volunteer house security guard, as I was leaving the Cape Coast house for the last time. Mr. Appiah is almost 70, very old for a Ghanaian man. The average man in Ghana lives to 63. (For women it's 65).

Me, Sascha and Anna, and cat, at Papa's for a Stone beer on Sascha's last day. Sascha and Anna were two of the first friends I made upon arriving in Cape Coast. We all became big Stone fans!

The Cape Coast Crew at my going-away party. They served bananas and papayas in honor of my nutrition class. :)

With my 60 lb suitcase filled with souvenirs in tow, I got myself to the "fast car" station (a step up from a tro-tro) and went to Accra where I would relax until my flight to Lisbon. 

And now for my Barcelona and Lisbon adventures! When I booked this trip, I coincidentally booked it to start the day after my final project was due (phew!). I wasn't paying attention to dates too much. I've really been flying by the seat of my pants here, and to my amazement it has worked out! So I was able to explore these lovely cities with nothing weighing heavily on my mind.

My original plan was to just go to Barcelona. But I noticed when perusing flight options that you could get a lengthy layover in Lisbon. So on my way to Barcelona, I had a 14-hour layover in Lisbon from 6 AM to 8 PM. From the airport, where I witnessed a gorgeous sunrise, I hopped on the metro and spent the day in two beautiful neighborhoods, Oriente and Baixa. 

In the Oriente neighborhood, I visited the aquarium, one of the top three in Europe according to their signage! 

I apologize for not giving you the information of what kind of crazy looking fish this is, as I couldn't find it at the aquarium, but I had to include a picture of it! It is swimming to the left in case you were wondering. It was about two feet high.

After visiting the aquarium and nearby harbor,  I hopped on the metro and went to the Baixa neighborhood, and got my fill of historical churches and town plazas! Yay!

 

Visiting the Baxia neighborhood is a great workout for your quads and glutes, because you are pretty much either walking uphill or downhill! 

Then I got on the plane to Barcelona. Wow, another gorgeous city! In Barcelona, the highlights were the Sagrada Família cathedral that Gaudi is famous for, the Picasso Museum and the Fundació Miró. 
 

Segrada Familia. This is only one part of the amazing cathedral Gaudi designed. If you have never checked this place out, I highly recommend you do! Nature was his inspiration in designing it.

Gaudi used animal figures all over the church.

Joan Miró (1893-1983) is one of my favorite Surrealist painters, and I've long been a fan. I can't explain his work, but I love it! This is one of my favorites:

Dog Barking at the Moon, 1926. Joan Miró.

This painting is housed at the Philadelphia museum, so I didn't see it live. But the paintings and sculptures at the Fundacio Miró in Barcelona were just as marvelous, and the museum was special since Miró had a hand in creating it.

I was in Barcelona for 4 days, and I stayed in a cute little room in an apartment I found on airb&b. If you have never checked this website out, you need to if you are planning any travels! I got this room for $43 dollars a night. It was clean, located in the oldest (best) part of Barcelona, and the host, Carmen, was a gem. 

I also did a TON of walking on this trip. It didn't get dark until 10 PM so I let myself get lost in all those lovely boulevards!

On my way back to Accra, I had another lengthy layover in Lisbon, this time from 5 PM-5 PM, 24 blissful hours. So prior to my trip I researched a nice place to stay. Coincidentally (again! I can't make this stuff up!) it was in the Baxia neighborhood, which I was now a pro at getting around. It was a nice little hotel located on the grounds of the St. George Castle. I had a view of the ocean from my room, and a complementary bottle of port on my arrival (I only had 2 small glasses!) 

The discrete front of the hotel I stayed in in Lisbon, Solar do Castelo, on the grounds of the St. George Castle.

 

The view from the hotel room...kinda sweet!

Since I was only going to be in Lisbon for one night, I decided I needed to see a Fado performance. I didn't even know Fado existed until my first layover. I kept seeing signs for it so did a little research. If you didn't know, Fado is a very emotional type of music, typically performed with one guitar and one singer, and it is very Portuguese. The word Fado is derived from a Latin word that means destiny. The songs are usually very sad. I asked the hotel receptionist where I could catch a performance, and she sent me to PARREIRINHA DE ALFAMA, a cozy, well-known restaurant where I heard three Fado performances and had a yummy, although lengthy, meal. I tried to leave twice because I was finished eating and so pooped, but the manager would not have it! So first he enticed me to stay by bringing me a shot of a cherry liquor that Lisbon is known for. Two hours and two performances later, I tried to leave again, so this time he brought me a card signed by himself and all the performers! I stayed through the grand finale, and upon my departure, he graciously bid me adieu, hoping I would visit again.

Left: guitarist for Fado performers. Right: Persistent manager and guitarist.

Cozy Parreirinha de Alfama. The lights were dimmed as the Fado artists walked throughout the restaurant during their performances.

The next morning, I sadly checked out of my lovely hotel after a buffet breakfast, and visited the castle before my flight. I visited a couple of castles on this trip, and strangely none of the rooms had any time-relevant furniture. Mostly they were administrative offices. But the grounds were pretty, and it was a nice last destination before I headed back to the airport.

At the St. George Castle in Lisbon

The little road I walked down to get from the hotel to the castle.

And so, here I am back in Accra, almost at the end of my stay in Ghana, writing my last entry for this blog.  Lord of the Rings fans will know I stole the title of this post from Bilbo Baggins. While my time in Ghana was no where near as scary as his quest, in my own realm I had to work through fear of the unknown, doubts about my abilities, and being away from my loved ones, just to get on a plane! After that, to my surprise and relief, it all kind of fell into place. My internship experience has been phenomenal, and Global Mamas has been an amazing host. But the biggest gifts from this trip are these:  I truly believe we are all braver and stronger than we know, we just need to have a dream, make a plan, and then show up for it. That a change in perspective and learning about cultures unknown to us is necessary for growth, and the more we open ourselves up to other parts this world, the better humans we are. And that there are many things to see on a journey...beautiful, ugly, heartbreaking, mind-blowing things. We need to look at all of it.

So that's my "Ghana Project" in a nutshell.

In Ghana, when someone knows you are going on a trip, they always say "Safe Journey." Well, this life is a trip. :)  And I wish everyone a safe journey!

Love,
Adrienne

Fried but happy

I can't believe how long it's been since I posted something! Shame on me. Things have been picking up as far as my internship goes, and I've been away from Cape Coast for over a week, to a town near Accra called Ashaiman ("Ashama"). Internet has been unreliable, and my timing of trying to get a post up has not been good..but here I am! I am seriously pooped with all my traipsing around Ghana, sightseeing and giving presentations! But I have had a ball, and I have a lot to catch you up on, so here we go. In chronological order:

First, I did a Nutrition class with two beloved community members, Judith and Ellie, about two and a half weeks ago. Judith runs a souvenir store and Ellie runs a restaurant next door to Judith's store.  We have dinner many nights at Ellie's, dinner costs the equivalent of about $4 and is dee-licous. Both businesses are located near the Global Mamas volunteer house, making it the best location in Ghana because of these two ladies. I was so pleased to spend this time with them. I'll be meeting them tomorrow to do a breast cancer awareness class and a menopause class.

Judith, Ellie and Me at Ellie's place

Then about two weeks ago put aside my fear of dancing in front of people sober and and I got my African dancing and drumming on! Remember that lady I included in my second post, Antoinette, Ghana's premier female master drummer? She gives workshops! So me, Amelia, and Adrienne (yes another Adrienne, it took getting used to!) danced and drummed our little hearts out for two hours.  Antoinette was a great instructor, her assistants were encouraging and patient, and I was so glad I didn't chicken out.

Adrienne, Amelia and Adrienne, with Antoinette center back, and her two amazing assistants.

Me disturbing the elephants trying to bathe in peace

April 15 was spent on the way to Mole (Mo-lay) National Park, with another volunteer and her visiting friend. Elephants, warthogs, water buffalo, Roan antelopes, and many, many other animals walked around without a care in the world. What an amazing thing to see! Ok yes, they did run away when they saw us coming, a bunch of funny humans riding atop a jeep, holding on for dear life as the driver negotiated the jeep around enormous potholes.  But to see them in their natural habitat was one of my bucket list items. Check! :)

Cloud formation in Mole after a heavy rain and hail storm...the heavens opened right up!

During our stay, there was a huge rainfall that lasted a good hour. The sky was amazing soon after it stopped.

Hamza in front of Ghana's oldest Mosque

I forgot to mention, before we got to Mole, we made a short stop to visit Ghana's oldest mosque. The gentleman in the photo is Hamza, our guide. He said they have written records that this mosque existed in 1491, but most believe it is even much older than that. I didn't see the inside...you can't enter it unless you are Muslim. But the outside was so cool it didn't matter! Northern Ghana's population is mostly Muslim. And this mosque is still a working mosque.

The last night we (two gals and I) were in Mole, the sunset was spectacular. And see that horizon? It's all trees. When was the last time you saw so many trees? This is medicine for the soul.

After Mole, the gals I was travelling with and I went to Accra, where we met up with some other volunteers and went to the Accra Mall. Yes, the mall! We saw a movie that was not my choice (I wanted to see Captain America) but the choice of Sascha, a volunteer from Denmark, who passionately wanted to see "Heaven is a Real Place." So we did. And that's all I'll say about that.

After a few days in Accra, I went to Ashaiman with one of the Global Mamas founders, Renae, to stay for two days and give presentations on nutrition, breast cancer awareness and menopause. This was a big deal for me because my goal was to give at least one presentation at each GM location, and this was the last location for me to visit. I also gave the most presentations here because they were all finally finished! So this was a big step for me, and I've relieved I was able to complete it. It seemed to go well, and while there were a few gals who looked bored out of their minds, (I tried to make it exciting!) many more had questions and lingered a bit afterwards to talk a little more. 

This is when the group exercise was going on, where they needed to design a nutritious meal based on the info they just got.

"Ashimama's Food Pyramid"

As part of my internship in Community Health, one of my tasks was to make sure the audience was able to create their own food pyramid using foods relevant to them. That's what this picture above captures. We all took turns drawing. My favorites are the chicken and goat! When I asked them what they wanted to call it, they said "Ashimama's Food Pyramid" (Ashimamas being a combination of Ashaiman and Mamas.)  Genius!

After Ashaiman, it was back to Accra for a couple of days. The Accra Global Mamas house is also the private home of the founder, Renae, her husband and their two kids. They also have two huge dogs that are extremely intimidating, especially when they growl, but all they want (like most non-rabid dogs) is a good scratch from you. I couldn't resist taking a picture of this guy, in a much less intimidating mood. I think this one is named Loose Fur:

I'm back in Cape Coast now, looking at the last 3 weeks of my stay in Ghana. It has gone by so quickly. But in the beginning, it was going by so slow! Next week I'm here, the following week I am taking a week off and going to Barcelona, home of three of my favorites, Miro, Picasso and Gaudi. Then I'm back in Ghana for a few days, then home! I can't wait to see my friends and family, including my own menagerie animals.

I'd like to leave you with this picture of the elephants I took during the walking safari on our third day in Mole. This captures the essence of what I thought of whenever I thought of Africa. Ghana has turned out to be much, much more, but the spirit of Africa will always be this to me. I'm grateful beyond measure that I got to see this in real life.

Kakum National Park and...oh yeah, my internship!

I am slightly self-conscious of appearing to be on a perpetual vacation, or as my Dad would say, my second retirement.  I may be giving you the impression that all I am doing is traveling and hanging out at the beach, but I did come here to work on my internship, too, I promise Dr. Avila.

This past week was a big week as far as my internship goes. But before I rush into all that, I wanted to share my journeys from last weekend!

Saturday we got up early to hit the road at 8 AM to visit one of Ghana’s world-famous national parks, Kakum. A lush, gorgeous tropical rain forest, Kakum is 145 square miles of beauty with a unique feature, a canopy bridge that allows you to basically walk above the tree line and get a rare view of the forest from above.  It took about 20 minutes to get from beginning to end of the bridge, with breaks in between at seven viewing platforms. The bridge moves and sways as you walk across it. It was breathtaking, literally and figuratively!

Me on the canopy bridge. I blinked...of course!

The park is home to over 300 species of bird, 600 species of butterfly and 40 mammal species, with the largest population of forest elephants in Ghana, but we didn’t see any. We did see some beautiful butterflies, lizards and my favorite, the praying mantis, but that’s just fine because walking along a bouncy suspension bridge made of ladders and wood planks and held up by netting was exciting enough!

On the way home, Ben, our taxi driver, insisted we stop at a roadside attraction that had live crocodiles. He said you could stand next to them and get your picture taken, and we didn’t believe him until we got there and saw school children having their pictures taken standing right next to a live crocodile that was not in a cage, not restrained in any way, and as Ben promised us, was not drugged. We were all extremely uncomfortable, and frankly quite freaked out, so we didn’t stay long. It was more nerve-wracking watching  those children so close to wild, carnivorous creatures than walking across a bridge held up by nets! (Sorry, no photos of that stop!)

Sunday was spent at a beach right here in Cape Coast, Brenu Beach. But it is far enough away that we still had to take a tro-tro, then a taxi, then take a walk to get to the beach. This is my favorite beach so far. There were hammocks and chairs with umbrellas, and it didn’t take us to long to find our own spots. I chose a hammock and I stayed on it for 4 hours reading a summer romance novel.

Brenu Beach. Kinda crazy perfect, right? This is where I spent several hours last Saturday!

I also enjoyed a glass of freshly made pineapple juice. As you know, pineapple is great for your digestion as it has a lot of fiber and natural enzymes. It is also high in vitamins C and E, so it benefits your eyes, skin, internal tissues, brain and heart. And when you mix it with a little coconut rum, it tastes even more delicious!

When we first got to Brenu Beach, the sun was shining and the breeze was up, keeping us relatively cool.

After a few of hours though, we heard a loud thunderclap and looked north to see a huge black cloud coming our way, which quickly moved in our direction. Amazingly, it didn’t rain while we were there, but it got us packing up to head home. I couldn’t believe how close the clouds appeared over the ocean.

Looking like it's time to go home.

So that was our weekend, the latest of my sightseeing part of this journey. What I haven’t been writing about in my blogs is my internship. That’s mostly because I have been in the research and assessment phase, and crafting my presentations, which is not as exciting to write about as monkeys and the questionable history of the building I live in (see previous blog entries if that got you interested!). But now I’ve begun the next phase, which is presenting something that is (hopefully) useful to the audience.

On Wednesday, March 19^th, I co-lead my first class, on good nutrition. It was mostly presented by a very educated and, bless her heart, very pregnant nutritionist from the University of Cape Coast, Rebecca. She is from Ghana and delivered her part of the presentation in Fante. When it came time for me to present, Global Mamas office manager extraordinaire, Patience, translated my words into Fante. 

Forty women and one brave man, Hubert, the nice fellow who gave me my first walking tour of Cape Coast when I first got here, attended the class. The class was pretty tame for the first 30 minutes or so. But then the women got really comfortable and started asking questions, giving each other advice, sharing experiences – in other words, it was a great success. All the while Patience was quietly translating for me what was going on so I could keep up with what was being said and share in the moment.

The class was scheduled to last for two hours max, with short exercises, and a water break. However, because there were so many questions and a lot of discussion, we skipped all the learning exercises and only took one short break for refreshments. On top of that, the class ran a little late. All in all, I think we gave our Global Mamas something they needed and enjoyed. Yay!

Moringa Oleifera

At the request of my internship hosts, I included the nutritional benefits of the local Moringa tree in this presentation. So I did my due diligence and conducted a literature review on Moringa, and found some amazing facts. Moringa, which grows prevalently in Africa, is a nutritional powerhouse.  It’s leaves and pods are very good sources of vitamins A, B, and C, calcium, iron, potassium, eight essential amino acids, and protein. Ayurveda and current research  use Moringa to successfully treat anemia, malnutrition, arthritis, skin disorders, and high blood pressure, to name a few. I discovered  in recent research that Moringa is helpful for people receiving chemotherapy – patients needed less chemo and less recovery time because by adding Moringa to the equation,  chemo did it’s job in a shorter amount of time, and the patient’s healing process was quicker. Even more amazing:  Moringa grows in the countries where malnutrition is the highest.

Next week I travel to Krobo to present the same nutrition class, sans a nutritionist. Gladys, the office manager, who speaks English in addition to her native Krobo, will translate my presentation live. Most of the employees at the Krobo office only speak Krobo and no English. That brings up one of the interesting things about Africa’s history. When the powers that be decided where the borders to each country would lie, they sort of lumped a lot of different tribes into one country, so country boundaries did not reflect natural language divisions of people in the area.  In Ghana for instance, many people can’t understand each other if they don’t speak English, because their native languages are so utterly different. Fante is spoken here in Cape Coast, and Krobo is spoken in Odumase Krobo, Ewe is spoken in the eastern part of Ghana – and they are completely different languages even though the areas are a few hours away and in the same country.   To make it even more interesting, while English is an official language here in Ghana, all the countries that surround Ghana – Cote D’Ivoire, Togo and Burkina Faso – are all Francophone, using French as its first or second language, as it were. So English doesn’t work as well in those African countries as it does here in Ghana.

So that about wraps it up for last week and this coming week. This weekend, I’ve been taking it easy reading Maya’s Notebook by Isabel Allende. I threw my back out last Tuesday, the day before my presentation. It was the first time it’s ever happened, and I was worried I would be in too much pain the next day and miss the class, so I went to our neighborhood pharmacy and got some prescription-strength painkillers over the counter for about $8 that helped me get through the next day without a hitch.  At least in my experience in two foreign countries, Ghana and India, strong painkillers are easier to come by than in the U.S. In 1984, when the McConnells went to India, my mom took a bad fall in the shower and was in a lot of pain. My dad called the hotel doctor, who promptly came to their hotel room, assessed my mom’s injuries, and gave her a shot of morphine. My mom, whose list of drug-induced experiences is very short and boring (she’s only been drunk once, seriously!), still fondly remembers the morphine experience of 1984. Kids, if you are reading this passage, take note: Just say no to drugs. It’s ok if your doctor gives you painkillers to help you recover if you are in the hospital, at home recovering from an injury, or took a bad fall in the shower, but that’s the only time it’s ok to take painkillers. Unless of course you throw out your back in a foreign country, you are short on time, you are afraid you will miss a presentation if you don’t get some because you’ve taken your aspirin and it didn’t work, and stronger painkillers are available at your neighborhood pharmacy.  Then it’s ok, but only take enough to get you through your presentation, and tell your parents or friends that you are taking them, so at least someone knows in case you have a bad reaction.

Heading to Ashaiman Tema and Krobo this week

Since I’m heading to Krobo this week, with a stop at the Global Mamas office in Ashaiman for a few days, and I don’t know what the Internet situation will be, it may be a while before you receive another edition of my blog. But have no fear! I will be back with more stories soon. In the mean time, please memorize the following Fante words.  They will come in handy when you visit southern Ghana one day.

English                              Fante                       Pronunciation

Good morning                   Mema wo akye          May moe watchee

Good afternoon                 Mema wo aha             May moe wa ha

Good evening                    Mema wo adwe         May moe wadgee

Responses to greetings above:

Response to older man              Yaa egya           yah age a          

Response to older woman          Yaa ena             yah enna          

Response to  your age or younger    Yaa nua                  yah neeya        

How are you?                     Otse den?                   Oat se den?

I’m good.                           Bokoo                          Bo koh

What is your name?            Wofre wo den?          Woe froh woe den?

My name is ______             Wofre me ________  Woe freh me _______

How much?                         Ahen                           Ah hin

Reduce!                              Tso do                         tsew dough

I don’t have any money        Me ne cica                  May nay sika

Thank you                           Me da wo ase             Me dah see

Very much                           Pa Paa Pa                   Pa paaaa pa

Please                          Me pa wo kyew         May pow woe choe

Where is?                             Owo hen?                   Oh woe hane?

Where is the toilet         Toilet owo hen?         Toilet oh wo hane?

Oh and by the way, I also achieved another educational milestone recently…I got our resident African grey parrot Busua to say “Aloha!”

On that note, Alooooooooooo-ha!

Krobo, Peki and Wli

Yes I’m back and I’m ok! Internet is unpredictable here, and I’ve been without it for about a week. So to continue with my adventures...

Bead market at Odumase Krobo

Odumase Krobo (Krobo for short) is where I spent much of last week. Global Mamas has an office there where their beads are made and jewelry is strung, as Krobo is famous for it’s glass beads. Some of my housemates and I went to Krobo to help Global Mamas complete their Annual Report employee interviewing.

Our interviews were completed by mid-afternoon, so we all decided to head over to their outdoor market. We took a taxi from a very nice young man named Felix, (pronounced FELL-ix) and he dropped us off in the middle of MAYHEM. Cars and tro-tros coming within centimeters of you, if not bumping you with their bumper. A sea of people. The market was lively, although a bit dangerous. Besides the cars moving through humans like cattle, I almost walked right in to a rusty metal roof of one of the booths. I’m not used to roofs being at my 5’ 3 ¾” level! Glad I got my tetanus shot before my trip. Gotta keep on your toes here in Ghana!

Once you get off the main road through the market, it’s a lot more peaceful. The market was filled with sellers of food, clothing, shoes, pans, and just about anything you can think of, but we were there to shop the beads. Hand-painted beads, strings of beads that remind you of those Necko candies, handmade glass beads, brass beads, stone beads.  We got there late so only got to shop for about an hour, which was probably a blessing in disguise. But we got some good shopping in and lively interaction with the sellers, so it was a satisfying trip. When the bead sellers started packing up, we decided we needed a beer, and voila! Felix

Dana, Laurie, Anna & Sascha after the market

coincidentally drove right by so we hopped into his cab. We told him we needed a beer, and he took us to a very nice hotel located right across the street from Global Mamas.  We moved a table outside to the courtyard, where there was no one else, and enjoyed sharing the spoils of the day.

The next day, Thursday, was a holiday, as it was Ghana’s Independence Day. For the daytime celebration, children dress in their school uniforms and march around in formation with fake rifles. For about a week before Independence Day, children practice in public areas; it’s quite a sight!

Children practicing in formation for Ghana's Independence Day March 6

My home, Cape Coast, is directly above this caption, on the coast.

Friday morning we completed the remainder of the interviewing, and then the weekend had begun for me, Sascha and Anna! We hopped into a tro-tro and headed off to our weekend excursion in the Volta Region. Lake Volta is the largest manmade lake in the world, and it’s dam produces most, if not all, of Ghana’s electricity. As you can see on the map, it’s huge! Our destination was an eco-hotel called Roots Yard in a tiny town called Peki (see bubble on map) (www.rootsyard.org). Roots Yard was our home base for a couple of days while we travelled to nearby attractions, Wli Waterfalls and the Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary.

Feeding a Mona Monkey

Saturday morning we headed over to the Monkey Sanctuary first. We took a tro-tro to Hohoe (no, the two words don’t rhyme, it’s “ho-hoy”) located just north of Peki, and from there we hopped on motorcycles where our guides took us on the final leg of our journey to the sanctuary. The conversation I had with my guide is very typical for female North American tourists here: Are you married? How many people in your family? I want to marry an American woman! Mind you, he might say this even if he is already married, because polygamy is practiced here.

The monkeys were gentle little Mona Monkeys living in a bamboo grove. They were strong little guys, so you had to hold your banana firmly so they would interact with you more. They would peel back the banana skin, remove the banana meat, all the while rarely losing eye contact with you, and be on their way. To my surprise, one decided to jump from the bamboo stalk to my arm almost as soon as I held out a banana! He/she was surprising light in weight.  Since about 1933 the monkeys have been protected here and are revered by the locals. Prior to that, they were hunted to near-extinction, as new religion settled in and forbade animal worship. I’m glad they have a safe home now.

Wli Waterfall, the highest in Western Africa

After seeing the monkeys, we then headed to Wli Waterfalls, the highest waterfall in Western Africa, and about 15 minutes from the Togo border. It was another tro-tro ride and then a taxi ride to the visitor’s information center. From the main office you take a 20 minute walk through a rain forest until you get to the falls. I had read somewhere that Wli was also home to bats; turns out it’s a rare fruit bat that lives right next to the waterfall, and they are protected here, as they used to be hunted. They are kind of difficult to make out because they blend right in to the rock, but then one will take off and fly and then you realize there are HUNDREDS of them hanging out!  We hung out for a few hours and we got home late that night, but our wonderful hosts had dinner ready for us shortly after we arrived at around 11 PM. We had texted them earlier that we thought we would be late, and they generously said No problem!

The next day we decided to walk to Lake Volta, which turned out to be too ambitious a goal and we ended up taking a taxi to the lake after about 3 hours of walking. But the walk was gorgeous, through a cocoa tree grove and giant trees that completely dwarfed us.

We also walked by several cemeteries. Which brings up the subject of funerals. Funerals are a big, big deal here; how you celebrate a person’s death has a direct impact on your family’s reputation. A funeral can go on into the night and through the next morning, as we witnessed the first night we spent at Roots Yard. They were having a funeral for a local military hero, and all night and into the early hours of the next morning hymnal music was blaring into the neighborhood. They were still celebrating Sunday morning, as illustrated by a car full of locals showing up to the lodge at 9:30 AM with beers in hand to toast with the owners, who also knew the recently deceased. It is touching that they celebrate a person to such magnitude, but apparently a family can go bankrupt with the cost, which brings up some concerns.  But then again, we do that in the U.S. with weddings!

Lake Volta, the largest man-made lake in the world

Anyway, back to our hike/taxi ride to the lake. When we got there, we were so hot, and we all really wanted to go for a swim, but we all decided against it. There is a worm that lives in the shore of the lake that will burrow into human skin and you have to have it cut out. There is also a parasite in the water that may enter your body and you may not know about it for a very long time. So we chickened out. Although for just a few seconds, I did go knee-deep into the lake, as my legs were covered in sweat and red dirt, and I looked pretty pathetic. This cemented my promise to myself to see a tropical medicine doctor when I get back to the U.S., which I am kind of excited about, just to get checked for random parasites and worms that hitched a ride with me to New Mexico.

The best movie theater in Ghana!

After getting back from our hike and having a vegan dinner, we saw “12 Years a Slave.” And it was the best theater ever! We hung a sheet on a building near our dormitory, and stretched out on some loungers, and saw the movie outdoors. This picture was taken the next day; we viewed the movie at night. I really don’t have the words to describe the movie that would do it justice, but it was very well done and very powerful. Wow.

Kente Cloth

The following day we were planning on heading home, but first we walked about 15 minutes down the road to see Kente cloth weavers. Kente cloth (from kenten meaning basket weave) originated in the Ashanti region. It is hand-woven and is worn on formal occasions. To see them weave this cloth is quite amazing; they use their hands and toes to move around the many pieces of string. I didn’t take a picture because it felt too intrusive, but I purchased a piece of Kente cloth that is sort of a sampler of all the patterns they use.

We went back to Roots Yard to settle our bills, then headed out for the long trip back to Cape Coast (and Anna on to Krobo). On the way home, our traveling route got a little unpredictable because tro-tro drivers like to tell you they can take you halfway to your destination where you may catch another tro-tro to your final destination, but they don’t really know for sure if your transfer tro-tro is still running. Long story short, we spent the night in Accra and got home a day late. After talking with some of the seasoned volunteers here, I discovered that this is a very common thing, and part of the Ghanaian Maybe Time.

View from the back of a tro-tro

My lesson about traveling in Ghana is to start your traveling early! And try not to travel at night. But we did see a lot more of the region than we would have, and it was quite lovely. And while we were driving through the green mountains of southeastern Ghana, and while I worried about what time we would be getting home in this mysterious country, a quote from one of my family’s favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., popped in my head: “Peculiar travel suggestions are dancing lessons from God.” Thank you for writing those words that comforted me on my journey, Mr. Vonnegut!