wow, it has been a while. There is a lot to say about ghana, so first i will just give an outline of me trip.
I arrived late at night into Accra, which is where Brian lives. when i walked out the airport i completely freaked out as i faced roughly 500 people swarming behind a gate yelling and hissing at me; then luckily i saw Brian, the only white face in the crowd. We quickly got a cab, which charged us an obscene amount, since it was the airport. I had no idea what to expect of ghana since i was so rushed when i left the country.
That first morning i slept in late being so tired from the 24 hours of traveling. We went out and had some authentic food. I had the red red, which is kind of like some spicy beans and grilled plantains. it ended up being one of my favorite dishes. I then got to experience a what a tro tro was like; a tro tro is like a large van where they cram people well beyond any plausible capacity. It's good cheap transportation. We visited Kwame Nkrumah's mausoleum (1st pres. of ghana), and then headed to ussher fort, which was later turned into a prison, and is now abandoned and can be viewed by bribing the door man. Throughout the day i was still scared and nervous about being in ghana. There are always people hissing at you and staring, incessantly trying to get money from you, it was an overwhelming culture shock that i wasn't prepared for.
Day 2- we went to a light house and got a view of the city. It took us a while to get into the lighthouse because the guy we needed to bribe was trying to over charge us. We still got over charged but not as badly. Later that night I met Rob and Marta, Aaron and Erin; they live next door and are very nice people. It was funny because when i met them i came off as an alcoholic as i slipped vodka into my juice under the table during dinner.
Day 3- I was able to accompany Brian to the Creche, which is where he works three days a week. It's like a day care for street children. As a walked into the gate i was swarmed by over twenty children all hugging me, touching me, saying hello; i had to grab the gate to not fall over. It was one of the most amazing things i've experienced, the excitement in these children is like nothing i've ever seen. I made my way through the storm to meet the women who work there, and the crowed followed. They were a violent crowd, as they pushed each other down, leaving some to cry. They were the cutest kids ever, but very dirty with a constant flow of boogers running down their noses and pee soaked pants. At this point i felt so welcomed into ghana i was no longer afraid. The children normally had class but with christmas around the corner they had free time all day every day. That also explains the ghana christmas atmosphere; because it's going to be christmas no one is going to get anything done. But people on the street will continue to ask for christmas money weeks before and three weeks after in honor of christmas.
Day 4- We went the creche again and left around one to catch a bus to Kumasi. I fell asleep and drooled all over brian, talk about awkward for him to get up when we left the bus. We got into Kumasi around nine or ten and it took us a while to find a place to eat. We had some awful chinese food which i was suspect as to what was actually in it. Then when we got to the crappy hotel i realized that my watter bottle of vodka was lost on the bus, talk about huge waste of alcohol. (i thought of you beth at this point since it is our cardinal rule never to waste vodka and it was like an entire bottle, i was sad also because i lost my cute little nalgene).
Day 5- We woke up and found this porridge woman on the street, it was very gingery and good. I loved the sweet fresh bread it came with. Then we had to figure out how to get up north to Mole (sounds like mol-lay), which is where all the safari animals are. All the bus tickets were sold out, so we had to try this station that had tro-tros there; another guy who was looking for a ride up north tagged along, lets just say he looked like lurch and had the worst hair cut ever. Our cab driver ended up getting arrested on our way to the station, but luckily bribed his way out of it. It was such crap too, because they were like "oh he doesn't have the right shoes on," little did they pay attention to the fact that there were no seat belts in the car at all. But at one point the cops got in the car and were like "where are you going?" we thought they were going to take us, but then our cab driver came back to the car after some talking and dashing of money. We end up at the station and they only allow you to buy tickets the day you are leaving, when you do this you pay then wait for the car to fill up. So then Brian and i went to the largest outdoor market in all of West Africa (wayyy coool), however i nearly crapped my pants when i got grabbed by someone who didn't let go. I mean at this point i was used to people touching my arm but not holding on, i ran off and all was well. A little more cautious the rest of the time in the market. Then we went on our way to the cultural center of Kumasi, and this nice guy we met on the street walked us there. I noticed that the men we would meet there would never walk next to me and only next to other men. After the cultural center we wandered around looking for this military museum. Along the way we met the "wizard" who apparently had paintings hung in the palace, won many awards, and was finishing graphic design school; umm sure thanks for the bull shit mister. He pulled us off to the side after we found the museum and kept trying to sell us some crappy paintings. They were only crappy because we had found some much nicer ones earlier for less money. It turns out that the wizard is really good at getting the obrunis (white people) to buy his paintings because lurch (the guy we met earlier) and two other people in our hotel bought paintings from him. Anyways the museum was really cool; it almost made me cry, they had weapons from the genocide in Rwanda. The guide we had was really young and would not stop staring at me the entire time then quizzed me about everything, a very funny and awkward situation. Later as we got back to the hotel, lurch had met two other girls traveling to Mole and we all decided to rent a tro-tro, very pricey but the easiest way for us to get there. That night at the hotel someone knocked on our door at like 11 (which is late for ghana) and i was like "umm sleeping." ten minutes went by and then another knock, i reply "who is it?", some mumbles. Another ten minutes goes by another knock. I open the door and this guy who worked at the hotel was like "oh i have toilet paper for you," then he stood in the door way as i told him i was sleeping, he finally left as i closed the door. Turns out he had a little crush. I did not sleep that great, not only because our door stayed closed because a centimeter of wood held it shut with the lock and the creepy door guy, but it was one of many nights with awful diarrhea.
day 6- Had a long ass tro-tro ride with lurch, who the entire three days we ended up traveling together called me Shannon, even after i corrected him. talk about dense. One of the girls, Heather, was really cool but her friend sucked, i don't even remember her name. The ride was the bumpiest thing i have ever been on, the roads were unpaved and had HUGE potholes in it. The ride for me was almost fun, but being sick with the shits made it not fun. The tro tro broke down while we were at a pee stop at the side of the road, ahh sweet relief of the bushes. Then we had to push the tro tro to start, and it could have made it to our destination only an hour away but the driver took pack to a small town and had us stand around for an hour. i was NOT happy, super pissed off. We then got crammed into this tro tro with a crap load of other people, it just sucked because we paid so much money and got screwed. We finally arrived in Mole. But then we didn't have reservations because we arrived a day earlier than we thought. So we had to fight for a room and they cleared out a storage room and the five of us slept on the floor. I was so angry, i hate being trapped into spending 24hours with the same people who just weren't all that much fun. Good thing i downed a couple beers in substitute for dinner. I went to sleep on the floor and woke up the next day with over 100 mosquito bites, no exaggeration, my legs are soo ugly with scars now.
day 7- Was so itchy and feeling sick, continuous diarrhea, slight fever, annoyed with everyone around me. Wanted to call o'tool and bitch about my life. We went on the 6am safari walk. Got to see a lot of cool animals; we tried to be very quiet, but the guide kept taking cell phone calls and talking. We walked for about two hours and still no elephants or monkeys; then the call came and the elephants were up by the hotel. We made our way up and got some awesome shots of them. Then Brian and i rented some bikes and rode into the next town, it was so hot and dehydrating. Along the way i met this old man with a machete, he was nice. We got into the next town, Larabanga, which has one of the oldest mosques in ghana. Then we rode our bikes back as i could no longer stand the itching and needed more cream for my sores. As we got back we found monkeys climbing on people's cars, I was literally a foot away from five wild monkeys! soo fun. Sickness continued... then had to experience my first bucket shower, talk about worse then all the other cold showers i took that trip. It was just dumping water that was sitting in bucket over my head. At least this night we had a room to stay in. But we had to wake up at 4am to catch the bus to Tamale.
day 8- still sick, soo freaking miserable at 4am. About to kill brian for no reason at all besides taking out my anger of being sick and the system in which buses work in ghana. The bus breaks down they transfer us to another bus, we continuously fear our bags didn't make it on. At least we got lucky here and we never paid for the bus and when it broke down they refunded people in order to give the bus we got on. We arrived at Tamale, very tired, very sick. Ended up going to sleep for a while then woke up for a late lunch. I thought that we had seen the last of the two girls that we met in Mole, but we ran into them on the street, and Brian invited them to tag along for the day. I feel bad now, because i was kind of a jerk and wanted nothing to do with them. All i wanted to do was be alone with my fever and diarrhea. But then we ended up spending all day with them. But actually i am now getting to my FAVORITE BEST PART OF THE TRIP!! So this peace core guy brian met along they way had this random number of Walisu, who gives tours of his village. We show up and got to see authentic pottery making, which was amazing for me and my love of ceramics. Then he showed us around and the entire time we could hear drumming in the background. We inquired as to where the noise was coming from, and he took us to one of their traditional dance ceremonies. We were invited to dance, but we came back for that after he showed us the shay butter making, and cotton spinner. The people in villages make absolutely no money, the cotton spinner makes roughly four dollars a month. It was sad to learn about these things, but Walisu is trying to better there situation with all the money coming in from the tours. Which is hard for him to do because most tourists only do what is listed in the only guide book to ghana, and even the local hotels wont put up his banners. Hopefully his tours will take off, because it was the best thing i experienced, it was soo authentic and not touristy at all. Then after seeing the cotton spinner we went back to the music and it was our turns to dance. The butterflies were swarming in my stomach, but luckily they made brian go first. He was dressed in traditional tribal dance clothes and then placed 10000 cidis (like a dollar) on the drummer's forehead, which is what you are supposed to do in order to help support the drummers. Then as he danced the people put coins on his forehead which would fall to the ground and that money would also go to the drummers. Then they had me get up and walk over to Brian and place money on my forehead and connect it to his. We looked into each others eyes and just went with it. It was some awful dancing on both of our parts, but i can honestly say i have never had so much fun dancing in my entire life. It was this feeling that is indescribable, the talking drums fill you with emotion and the surrounding crowed. Then they had Brian sit down and i rocked out my solo dance with a scarf around my neck, which is what the women wear. This was the best part of the entire trip, and i will never forget it. Later that night i told brian i wanted to take the 15hour bus ride back to Accra because then we would make it back to have Christmas with his friends, which was the closest thing to a family we had in ghana.
day 9- woke up at 5 and took long long long ride back to Accra. Got into Accra and slept, very tired, and finally no more diarrhea too constipated from taking Cipro medicine to poop.
day 10- Christmas. It was very very sad for me, i have never felt so homesick in my entire life. I sat and cried a little bit and wanted to call everyone i knew, but it was too expensive so i just called my mom. I really wanted to leave ghana at this point and almost did. I ended up staying and we ate dinner that Marta, Rob, and Aaron had made. They were so sweet and made things feel a little bit better, they even bought me a gift; nicest people ever. We lit sparklers and ran through the street singing happy birthday to Jesus.
day 11- left late to Cape Coast, had decided not to leave ghana and continue on. Cape Coast was nice, because we had hot showers and we took about 20 in the two days we were there. We arrived around dinner time so didn't really do to much this day.
day 12- went to Elmina, and saw the slave castle there. There is such an amazing and rich history in ghana. It is so sad to hear about all the horrible things that went on for centuries, and the fact that slavery still exists in some places in the world is horrible. There would be a balcony where the governor would look out at all the female slaves, pick one, she would be allowed to bathe, then she would be raped to death. So many died, so many tortured, so many lived a life of suffering. After the castle we walked around Elmina, then returned to Cape coast.
day 13- went to Cape Coast slave castle. The tour was not as extensive as the Elmina castle tour, but Cape Coast was much larger. After the castle we headed out to Kakum national park, into the jungle. We got there around 300 and had to order our lunch/dinner because the park closes around 4. Brian and i were brave and decided that we were going to sleep in the middle of the jungle all by ourselves. Our beds were an upraised piece of wood, a foot off the ground, with mosquito nets with many many holes in them. We sat there as darkness was coming upon us. I have never been so terrified once darkness hit. Pitch black with the creepiest noises i have ever herd in my life. There was something walking right around our bed, i could hear the wood chips cracking. Then all of a sudden there was this light in the sky that brian saw, then a glowing orb started to float around us, at first farther off in the distance and gradually came closer and closer. it ended up flying over us. I don't care if anyone thinks that i'm crazy or not, but i saw what i saw. Then about thirty minutes later the orb came back and floated around us again, it was a glowing ball about the size of a bird, this was no lightening bug. I was about to pee my pants i was so scared. Then we worked up the courage to reach into our bags and got some xanex to help us relax so we could sleep.
day 14- woke up, yay not dead!! 7am go on a canopy tour of the forest. Didn't see any monkeys but did get to see some animal fall out of a tree and catch itself. It was fun to walk along the ropes and through the tops of the trees, but the walk wasn't very long, but definitely something to do. We had to make our way back to Cape Coast in order to catch a ride to Axim. After various tro-tro rides from Cape Coast, to Takoradi, then we made it to Axim. Here we saw the most beautiful sunset and finally got to relax along the beach after much busy traveling. Well only a night of beach relaxing.
Day 15- woke up and made our way to see a village on stilts. I was an interesting trip to say the least. We were waiting along the road and wanted to take a tro-tro, but then this taxi drove up and told us no tro-tros came there. We opted to wait because normally they lie to you so you will take their taxi. But this one let us in for free and took us down the mile or so to where the tro-tros do stop. Then we waited there for about ten minutes when the taxi comes back, and offers us a ride to the center where we can catch a canoe to the village. He offered a low price, so we took it. It was the shadiest ride. So at first the friend of his is driving and he is taking us to where his cab is. Then we get to his cab and it stinks of fish, because as he later explained to us that he buys the fish from the villages and sells the to the resorts. It had flies all over it. He takes some time cleaning it up, we then get in and it needs to have a good push to get going. Twenty feet after we got started, the car got a flat tire. He was going to take us with to go get it fixed. We get out and he tells us to wait only 15 minutes, we end up waiting about 40, but even if we wanted to take something else there no cars that passed had empty spots. Finally we are on our way. It ended up being a very smelly and bumpy ride. The driver tells us this road is too bumpy and we must take the beach front road. All of a sudden we are driving into a tiny village and clearly not on a road, then come out driving on the literal beach. There are always people pulling in their nets along the beach, so as we passed they would have to lift them over the car or have us drive over their ropes. They all did actually end up knowing the driver as they all said hi to him. It was the strangest thing to take a taxi along the ocean and sometimes in an inch or so of the water on the shore. After nearly running a few people down, we arrived at the office where you find someone to canoe you over. We looked back to pay our taxi drier and he disappeared, so we left money at the office, but even when we came back he hadn't shown up. So we went on a canoe ride which was very pretty and i thought better then the actual village. Because at the village on stilts we just kind of walked up and down it once and then left, there village has already become touristy so they are not phased by visitors. Then after our canoe ride back we really lucked out and this other couple who had also just visited the village and had seen us at the hotel the previous night; offered to give us a ride back to however far we wanted up to the hotel. From there we then found a couple tro-tros and made our way to Algona, which then took us to Busau. This was when we spoiled ourselves with a really nice hotel since it was new years. Rob and Marta met us in Busua, so we sat around relaxing and eating with them all day.
day 16- New Years!! here is Brian's description of the ghana new years, and it is all accurate : We treated ourselves to a nice dinner and spent the night drinking at our hotel and ran out to the beach to ring in the New Year. There was no giant clock to cue in the new year and the various cliques that littered the beach failed to synchronize their watches. Over the span of 4 minutes there were 9 separate countdowns accompanied by their own fireworks. Later, Katie throws up the most expensive meal we had eaten in Ghana.
day 17- Hungover. we make our way to The Green Turtle, which is an eco-lodge set along a beautiful palm lined beach. There are about 10 bunalows that are solar powered, the shower water is recycled to water the plants, and the self composting toilets smell really bad. So i made sure to pee on the beach as much as possible to avoid them.
day 18- Here is a story that can only be good heard from brian's perspective, get ready it gets good here: "I’m woken up early in the morning by Katie fighting with the door like a lunatic. She is pulling at the door and frantically exclaims “The key broke off in the lock and we’re locked in!!” Caring more about sleeping at that moment than our impending doom I rolled over to go back to bed but Katie pleaded for me to get up and uttered the four words that makes any trapped experience all the more excruciating: “I have to pee”. I started to crack up but I was quickly reprimanded with a stern look that implored me to get out of bed. By the time I reach the door Katie is already holding her crotch and kicking her legs high as she does her pee-pee dance around the room. Now, I just lose it and am getting tears in my eyes from laughing. Katie laughs too, but begs me not to make her laugh and make it worse. I go over to the door and sure enough the key is hopelessly jammed into the lock. I turn to Katie and as she carries on her pee-pee dance she screams, “Brian, it’s an emergency!” I look out the window and no one is around. We were not left with many options. I start to ram my shoulders into the door to try to break the door down hoping that the entire bungalow won’t come crashing down if I succeed. Katie’s just dancing there the entire time stuck repeating a mantra of, “I gotta go, I gotta go.” As I continued to bust the door down Katie exclaims, “I can’t wait. Hurry, find me something to pee in!” I’m hysterically laughing as I glance around the room which had virtually nothing in it. The best I could do was hand her a wicker basket. Not wasting any time and not really carrying about the gaping holes in the basket she pulled down her pants and peed in the basket in the middle of our bungalow. It was then that we figured out that our room was slanted as her pee slowly trickled out of the basket and escaped out the door. A satisfied Katie stood up and told me how good that felt. We tried our best to clean up our pee stained bungalow before calling out the window and getting someone to rescue us. The lock was later fixed that night but we agreed to stop locking it." All i have to say is that it was the floor or my pants, i chose the floor and managed to keep my half of the key that i broke.
this day to january 6th- we boogied boarded, read books, relaxed on the beach, i got attacked by another hundred mosquitos, and layed around all day. It was just what i needed after all that traveling.
january 7th- My last day. It was Aaron's birthday so after racing around the airport to check my bags in we met up with his family. Then raced back to the airport. And thats when i said goodbye to ghana... at least for now, you never can know what could bring me back...
I arrived late at night into Accra, which is where Brian lives. when i walked out the airport i completely freaked out as i faced roughly 500 people swarming behind a gate yelling and hissing at me; then luckily i saw Brian, the only white face in the crowd. We quickly got a cab, which charged us an obscene amount, since it was the airport. I had no idea what to expect of ghana since i was so rushed when i left the country.
That first morning i slept in late being so tired from the 24 hours of traveling. We went out and had some authentic food. I had the red red, which is kind of like some spicy beans and grilled plantains. it ended up being one of my favorite dishes. I then got to experience a what a tro tro was like; a tro tro is like a large van where they cram people well beyond any plausible capacity. It's good cheap transportation. We visited Kwame Nkrumah's mausoleum (1st pres. of ghana), and then headed to ussher fort, which was later turned into a prison, and is now abandoned and can be viewed by bribing the door man. Throughout the day i was still scared and nervous about being in ghana. There are always people hissing at you and staring, incessantly trying to get money from you, it was an overwhelming culture shock that i wasn't prepared for.
Day 2- we went to a light house and got a view of the city. It took us a while to get into the lighthouse because the guy we needed to bribe was trying to over charge us. We still got over charged but not as badly. Later that night I met Rob and Marta, Aaron and Erin; they live next door and are very nice people. It was funny because when i met them i came off as an alcoholic as i slipped vodka into my juice under the table during dinner.
Day 3- I was able to accompany Brian to the Creche, which is where he works three days a week. It's like a day care for street children. As a walked into the gate i was swarmed by over twenty children all hugging me, touching me, saying hello; i had to grab the gate to not fall over. It was one of the most amazing things i've experienced, the excitement in these children is like nothing i've ever seen. I made my way through the storm to meet the women who work there, and the crowed followed. They were a violent crowd, as they pushed each other down, leaving some to cry. They were the cutest kids ever, but very dirty with a constant flow of boogers running down their noses and pee soaked pants. At this point i felt so welcomed into ghana i was no longer afraid. The children normally had class but with christmas around the corner they had free time all day every day. That also explains the ghana christmas atmosphere; because it's going to be christmas no one is going to get anything done. But people on the street will continue to ask for christmas money weeks before and three weeks after in honor of christmas.
Day 4- We went the creche again and left around one to catch a bus to Kumasi. I fell asleep and drooled all over brian, talk about awkward for him to get up when we left the bus. We got into Kumasi around nine or ten and it took us a while to find a place to eat. We had some awful chinese food which i was suspect as to what was actually in it. Then when we got to the crappy hotel i realized that my watter bottle of vodka was lost on the bus, talk about huge waste of alcohol. (i thought of you beth at this point since it is our cardinal rule never to waste vodka and it was like an entire bottle, i was sad also because i lost my cute little nalgene).
Day 5- We woke up and found this porridge woman on the street, it was very gingery and good. I loved the sweet fresh bread it came with. Then we had to figure out how to get up north to Mole (sounds like mol-lay), which is where all the safari animals are. All the bus tickets were sold out, so we had to try this station that had tro-tros there; another guy who was looking for a ride up north tagged along, lets just say he looked like lurch and had the worst hair cut ever. Our cab driver ended up getting arrested on our way to the station, but luckily bribed his way out of it. It was such crap too, because they were like "oh he doesn't have the right shoes on," little did they pay attention to the fact that there were no seat belts in the car at all. But at one point the cops got in the car and were like "where are you going?" we thought they were going to take us, but then our cab driver came back to the car after some talking and dashing of money. We end up at the station and they only allow you to buy tickets the day you are leaving, when you do this you pay then wait for the car to fill up. So then Brian and i went to the largest outdoor market in all of West Africa (wayyy coool), however i nearly crapped my pants when i got grabbed by someone who didn't let go. I mean at this point i was used to people touching my arm but not holding on, i ran off and all was well. A little more cautious the rest of the time in the market. Then we went on our way to the cultural center of Kumasi, and this nice guy we met on the street walked us there. I noticed that the men we would meet there would never walk next to me and only next to other men. After the cultural center we wandered around looking for this military museum. Along the way we met the "wizard" who apparently had paintings hung in the palace, won many awards, and was finishing graphic design school; umm sure thanks for the bull shit mister. He pulled us off to the side after we found the museum and kept trying to sell us some crappy paintings. They were only crappy because we had found some much nicer ones earlier for less money. It turns out that the wizard is really good at getting the obrunis (white people) to buy his paintings because lurch (the guy we met earlier) and two other people in our hotel bought paintings from him. Anyways the museum was really cool; it almost made me cry, they had weapons from the genocide in Rwanda. The guide we had was really young and would not stop staring at me the entire time then quizzed me about everything, a very funny and awkward situation. Later as we got back to the hotel, lurch had met two other girls traveling to Mole and we all decided to rent a tro-tro, very pricey but the easiest way for us to get there. That night at the hotel someone knocked on our door at like 11 (which is late for ghana) and i was like "umm sleeping." ten minutes went by and then another knock, i reply "who is it?", some mumbles. Another ten minutes goes by another knock. I open the door and this guy who worked at the hotel was like "oh i have toilet paper for you," then he stood in the door way as i told him i was sleeping, he finally left as i closed the door. Turns out he had a little crush. I did not sleep that great, not only because our door stayed closed because a centimeter of wood held it shut with the lock and the creepy door guy, but it was one of many nights with awful diarrhea.
day 6- Had a long ass tro-tro ride with lurch, who the entire three days we ended up traveling together called me Shannon, even after i corrected him. talk about dense. One of the girls, Heather, was really cool but her friend sucked, i don't even remember her name. The ride was the bumpiest thing i have ever been on, the roads were unpaved and had HUGE potholes in it. The ride for me was almost fun, but being sick with the shits made it not fun. The tro tro broke down while we were at a pee stop at the side of the road, ahh sweet relief of the bushes. Then we had to push the tro tro to start, and it could have made it to our destination only an hour away but the driver took pack to a small town and had us stand around for an hour. i was NOT happy, super pissed off. We then got crammed into this tro tro with a crap load of other people, it just sucked because we paid so much money and got screwed. We finally arrived in Mole. But then we didn't have reservations because we arrived a day earlier than we thought. So we had to fight for a room and they cleared out a storage room and the five of us slept on the floor. I was so angry, i hate being trapped into spending 24hours with the same people who just weren't all that much fun. Good thing i downed a couple beers in substitute for dinner. I went to sleep on the floor and woke up the next day with over 100 mosquito bites, no exaggeration, my legs are soo ugly with scars now.
day 7- Was so itchy and feeling sick, continuous diarrhea, slight fever, annoyed with everyone around me. Wanted to call o'tool and bitch about my life. We went on the 6am safari walk. Got to see a lot of cool animals; we tried to be very quiet, but the guide kept taking cell phone calls and talking. We walked for about two hours and still no elephants or monkeys; then the call came and the elephants were up by the hotel. We made our way up and got some awesome shots of them. Then Brian and i rented some bikes and rode into the next town, it was so hot and dehydrating. Along the way i met this old man with a machete, he was nice. We got into the next town, Larabanga, which has one of the oldest mosques in ghana. Then we rode our bikes back as i could no longer stand the itching and needed more cream for my sores. As we got back we found monkeys climbing on people's cars, I was literally a foot away from five wild monkeys! soo fun. Sickness continued... then had to experience my first bucket shower, talk about worse then all the other cold showers i took that trip. It was just dumping water that was sitting in bucket over my head. At least this night we had a room to stay in. But we had to wake up at 4am to catch the bus to Tamale.
day 8- still sick, soo freaking miserable at 4am. About to kill brian for no reason at all besides taking out my anger of being sick and the system in which buses work in ghana. The bus breaks down they transfer us to another bus, we continuously fear our bags didn't make it on. At least we got lucky here and we never paid for the bus and when it broke down they refunded people in order to give the bus we got on. We arrived at Tamale, very tired, very sick. Ended up going to sleep for a while then woke up for a late lunch. I thought that we had seen the last of the two girls that we met in Mole, but we ran into them on the street, and Brian invited them to tag along for the day. I feel bad now, because i was kind of a jerk and wanted nothing to do with them. All i wanted to do was be alone with my fever and diarrhea. But then we ended up spending all day with them. But actually i am now getting to my FAVORITE BEST PART OF THE TRIP!! So this peace core guy brian met along they way had this random number of Walisu, who gives tours of his village. We show up and got to see authentic pottery making, which was amazing for me and my love of ceramics. Then he showed us around and the entire time we could hear drumming in the background. We inquired as to where the noise was coming from, and he took us to one of their traditional dance ceremonies. We were invited to dance, but we came back for that after he showed us the shay butter making, and cotton spinner. The people in villages make absolutely no money, the cotton spinner makes roughly four dollars a month. It was sad to learn about these things, but Walisu is trying to better there situation with all the money coming in from the tours. Which is hard for him to do because most tourists only do what is listed in the only guide book to ghana, and even the local hotels wont put up his banners. Hopefully his tours will take off, because it was the best thing i experienced, it was soo authentic and not touristy at all. Then after seeing the cotton spinner we went back to the music and it was our turns to dance. The butterflies were swarming in my stomach, but luckily they made brian go first. He was dressed in traditional tribal dance clothes and then placed 10000 cidis (like a dollar) on the drummer's forehead, which is what you are supposed to do in order to help support the drummers. Then as he danced the people put coins on his forehead which would fall to the ground and that money would also go to the drummers. Then they had me get up and walk over to Brian and place money on my forehead and connect it to his. We looked into each others eyes and just went with it. It was some awful dancing on both of our parts, but i can honestly say i have never had so much fun dancing in my entire life. It was this feeling that is indescribable, the talking drums fill you with emotion and the surrounding crowed. Then they had Brian sit down and i rocked out my solo dance with a scarf around my neck, which is what the women wear. This was the best part of the entire trip, and i will never forget it. Later that night i told brian i wanted to take the 15hour bus ride back to Accra because then we would make it back to have Christmas with his friends, which was the closest thing to a family we had in ghana.
day 9- woke up at 5 and took long long long ride back to Accra. Got into Accra and slept, very tired, and finally no more diarrhea too constipated from taking Cipro medicine to poop.
day 10- Christmas. It was very very sad for me, i have never felt so homesick in my entire life. I sat and cried a little bit and wanted to call everyone i knew, but it was too expensive so i just called my mom. I really wanted to leave ghana at this point and almost did. I ended up staying and we ate dinner that Marta, Rob, and Aaron had made. They were so sweet and made things feel a little bit better, they even bought me a gift; nicest people ever. We lit sparklers and ran through the street singing happy birthday to Jesus.
day 11- left late to Cape Coast, had decided not to leave ghana and continue on. Cape Coast was nice, because we had hot showers and we took about 20 in the two days we were there. We arrived around dinner time so didn't really do to much this day.
day 12- went to Elmina, and saw the slave castle there. There is such an amazing and rich history in ghana. It is so sad to hear about all the horrible things that went on for centuries, and the fact that slavery still exists in some places in the world is horrible. There would be a balcony where the governor would look out at all the female slaves, pick one, she would be allowed to bathe, then she would be raped to death. So many died, so many tortured, so many lived a life of suffering. After the castle we walked around Elmina, then returned to Cape coast.
day 13- went to Cape Coast slave castle. The tour was not as extensive as the Elmina castle tour, but Cape Coast was much larger. After the castle we headed out to Kakum national park, into the jungle. We got there around 300 and had to order our lunch/dinner because the park closes around 4. Brian and i were brave and decided that we were going to sleep in the middle of the jungle all by ourselves. Our beds were an upraised piece of wood, a foot off the ground, with mosquito nets with many many holes in them. We sat there as darkness was coming upon us. I have never been so terrified once darkness hit. Pitch black with the creepiest noises i have ever herd in my life. There was something walking right around our bed, i could hear the wood chips cracking. Then all of a sudden there was this light in the sky that brian saw, then a glowing orb started to float around us, at first farther off in the distance and gradually came closer and closer. it ended up flying over us. I don't care if anyone thinks that i'm crazy or not, but i saw what i saw. Then about thirty minutes later the orb came back and floated around us again, it was a glowing ball about the size of a bird, this was no lightening bug. I was about to pee my pants i was so scared. Then we worked up the courage to reach into our bags and got some xanex to help us relax so we could sleep.
day 14- woke up, yay not dead!! 7am go on a canopy tour of the forest. Didn't see any monkeys but did get to see some animal fall out of a tree and catch itself. It was fun to walk along the ropes and through the tops of the trees, but the walk wasn't very long, but definitely something to do. We had to make our way back to Cape Coast in order to catch a ride to Axim. After various tro-tro rides from Cape Coast, to Takoradi, then we made it to Axim. Here we saw the most beautiful sunset and finally got to relax along the beach after much busy traveling. Well only a night of beach relaxing.
Day 15- woke up and made our way to see a village on stilts. I was an interesting trip to say the least. We were waiting along the road and wanted to take a tro-tro, but then this taxi drove up and told us no tro-tros came there. We opted to wait because normally they lie to you so you will take their taxi. But this one let us in for free and took us down the mile or so to where the tro-tros do stop. Then we waited there for about ten minutes when the taxi comes back, and offers us a ride to the center where we can catch a canoe to the village. He offered a low price, so we took it. It was the shadiest ride. So at first the friend of his is driving and he is taking us to where his cab is. Then we get to his cab and it stinks of fish, because as he later explained to us that he buys the fish from the villages and sells the to the resorts. It had flies all over it. He takes some time cleaning it up, we then get in and it needs to have a good push to get going. Twenty feet after we got started, the car got a flat tire. He was going to take us with to go get it fixed. We get out and he tells us to wait only 15 minutes, we end up waiting about 40, but even if we wanted to take something else there no cars that passed had empty spots. Finally we are on our way. It ended up being a very smelly and bumpy ride. The driver tells us this road is too bumpy and we must take the beach front road. All of a sudden we are driving into a tiny village and clearly not on a road, then come out driving on the literal beach. There are always people pulling in their nets along the beach, so as we passed they would have to lift them over the car or have us drive over their ropes. They all did actually end up knowing the driver as they all said hi to him. It was the strangest thing to take a taxi along the ocean and sometimes in an inch or so of the water on the shore. After nearly running a few people down, we arrived at the office where you find someone to canoe you over. We looked back to pay our taxi drier and he disappeared, so we left money at the office, but even when we came back he hadn't shown up. So we went on a canoe ride which was very pretty and i thought better then the actual village. Because at the village on stilts we just kind of walked up and down it once and then left, there village has already become touristy so they are not phased by visitors. Then after our canoe ride back we really lucked out and this other couple who had also just visited the village and had seen us at the hotel the previous night; offered to give us a ride back to however far we wanted up to the hotel. From there we then found a couple tro-tros and made our way to Algona, which then took us to Busau. This was when we spoiled ourselves with a really nice hotel since it was new years. Rob and Marta met us in Busua, so we sat around relaxing and eating with them all day.
day 16- New Years!! here is Brian's description of the ghana new years, and it is all accurate : We treated ourselves to a nice dinner and spent the night drinking at our hotel and ran out to the beach to ring in the New Year. There was no giant clock to cue in the new year and the various cliques that littered the beach failed to synchronize their watches. Over the span of 4 minutes there were 9 separate countdowns accompanied by their own fireworks. Later, Katie throws up the most expensive meal we had eaten in Ghana.
day 17- Hungover. we make our way to The Green Turtle, which is an eco-lodge set along a beautiful palm lined beach. There are about 10 bunalows that are solar powered, the shower water is recycled to water the plants, and the self composting toilets smell really bad. So i made sure to pee on the beach as much as possible to avoid them.
day 18- Here is a story that can only be good heard from brian's perspective, get ready it gets good here: "I’m woken up early in the morning by Katie fighting with the door like a lunatic. She is pulling at the door and frantically exclaims “The key broke off in the lock and we’re locked in!!” Caring more about sleeping at that moment than our impending doom I rolled over to go back to bed but Katie pleaded for me to get up and uttered the four words that makes any trapped experience all the more excruciating: “I have to pee”. I started to crack up but I was quickly reprimanded with a stern look that implored me to get out of bed. By the time I reach the door Katie is already holding her crotch and kicking her legs high as she does her pee-pee dance around the room. Now, I just lose it and am getting tears in my eyes from laughing. Katie laughs too, but begs me not to make her laugh and make it worse. I go over to the door and sure enough the key is hopelessly jammed into the lock. I turn to Katie and as she carries on her pee-pee dance she screams, “Brian, it’s an emergency!” I look out the window and no one is around. We were not left with many options. I start to ram my shoulders into the door to try to break the door down hoping that the entire bungalow won’t come crashing down if I succeed. Katie’s just dancing there the entire time stuck repeating a mantra of, “I gotta go, I gotta go.” As I continued to bust the door down Katie exclaims, “I can’t wait. Hurry, find me something to pee in!” I’m hysterically laughing as I glance around the room which had virtually nothing in it. The best I could do was hand her a wicker basket. Not wasting any time and not really carrying about the gaping holes in the basket she pulled down her pants and peed in the basket in the middle of our bungalow. It was then that we figured out that our room was slanted as her pee slowly trickled out of the basket and escaped out the door. A satisfied Katie stood up and told me how good that felt. We tried our best to clean up our pee stained bungalow before calling out the window and getting someone to rescue us. The lock was later fixed that night but we agreed to stop locking it." All i have to say is that it was the floor or my pants, i chose the floor and managed to keep my half of the key that i broke.
this day to january 6th- we boogied boarded, read books, relaxed on the beach, i got attacked by another hundred mosquitos, and layed around all day. It was just what i needed after all that traveling.
january 7th- My last day. It was Aaron's birthday so after racing around the airport to check my bags in we met up with his family. Then raced back to the airport. And thats when i said goodbye to ghana... at least for now, you never can know what could bring me back...
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