So my mom was giving me a hard time for not updating my blog this week, so here I am. And so I just thought I would put it in perspective…. The Internet is a 15-minute walk away. Tonight, I walked through thunder and lightning in the dark African streets just to get here, to cater to you folk. So enjoy! (Ok I lied… I took a taxi tonight, but still!)
Anyway, This week has been a lot of ups and downs. I am still thoroughly enjoying my time here, but there are some things that have happened that have made this week less than enjoyable. But, I will start with the positive first!
On Tuesday we went hiking at Mt. Afadjato, the tallest peak in Ghana. It was about an hour drive away, and though I have been driving on bumpy roads this whole time, this trip really hit me hard for some reason. It might have been the instant coffee I chugged before we left… anyway, when we finally got there, I celebrated the fact that they had not only a toilet, but WESTERN style toilets. Yes, with a seat and a handle and toilet paper and everything. Heaven! I showed my respect by promptly throwing up several times. Oops! But, thanks to the toughness my mom and dad taught Launa and me at a young age, I wiped my mouth, and joined the group to hike the mountain. Let me tell you, it was NOT a fun hike. It was super steep and I was still dizzy from the car hike. Cardiovascularly I was fine, thanks to all the hikes at Arroyo Verde, but my head was not enjoying it. But I tried to remain positive, and enjoy the scenery. And though I was silent the whole way up the mountain (about 850 m) I did manage to squeak out one sentence to the other hikers that were grumbling…. “You guys are lucky my parents are not here hiking with us…. There is no WAY we would be taking this many water breaks!” haha ☺ The view from the top was spectacular, no way to really explain it, so you will just have to wait until the internet is better and I can upload a picture…
Yesterday we went to the Monkey Sanctuary and fed some monkeys.. they were SO stinkin cute. But I guess I scared them away, because none of them would eat out of my hand. Big scary Yevu I guess! Haha.
The best part of my week, and I would venture to say my trip thus far, was my Tuesday night. I was invited to go to dinner at a woman’s house from the town. Her sister works with me at pro-link, and she came in one day and invited me over. I was a bit apprehensive because I have only eaten food from our home base, which is safe for us weak stomached Americans. But, she was so eager to have me that I just could not say no. I didn’t want to go by myself, so I invited my two friends Susan and Alexis, and the woman, her name is Delight, was delighted to have them! (Sorry I had to)
We met her at the Internet café and she walked us to the store and bought us some bottled water and fruit juice. It meant a great deal to us that she would buy those things, which are considered luxuries to most around here, just for us. From there we took a taxi to the outskirts of Hohoe. And let me remind you that there are no real road laws here… so the four of us piled into the backseat of a taxi that was the size of a small sedan. Cozy! After that we had about a 15-minute walk to her house. At one point I thought to myself, “I am walking in the pitch black, in Africa, in a place where I don’t have any idea where it is… with a woman I have met twice, with no cell phone. I should be terrified!” Yet, I was totally trusting of this woman and her intentions, and I proved to be right.
Her house is the last one before you leave the city, so it was up on a hill a little bit, and they had a huge area of land surrounding them. She set up a table outside, with their only chairs and cups and fed us yams and a soup. Luckily it was something we had been served at home before, so we were used to it, but her’s was QUITE a bit spicier! At home we use silverware, but in Ghana, people eat with their hands, so we joined her in eating with our hands (right ones only!) and just sat and chatted for a bit. The longer we sat, the more people started to come. It was a compound area shared with her neighbors, so all of the neighbors must have heard three Yevu’s were on their land, so they came to see us. There were about 20 people total, four adult women, one teenage boy, and the rest were children of various ages, including a few infants who were beautiful. I was sad I didn’t bring my camera, but I still had a great experience.
They gave us a tour of their yard, which included cages for animals… they had chickens, turkeys, rabbits, dogs, and goats. Alexis got a little bit sad when the woman said the goat’s name was “Easter Dinner” haha! Then they showed us where they grow the yams, and how they collect them. It was a pseudo-greenhouse made out of sticks, but still very sophisticated looking. In West Africa, one of the main things eaten is Palm Oil, which is oil made from the nuts in the palm trees. At Delight’s house, there was a huge cast-iron bowl that was full to the top with these nuts. Then, four of the older girls came with HUGE sticks, and they stood in a circle and pounded the nuts with the sticks in order to make it into oil. It was fascinating to watch how well they worked together, and how hard they worked. Then they let us try, which was so fun. At the home base, we have language lessons a few times a week, and at our last lesson we were taught a song that everybody here knows that is about pounding fufu (smashed cassava) although we were mashing palm fruit instead of fufu, we still starting singing, and everybody was so amazed that we knew their song. They all starting singing along with us, and continued the song when we had to stop because we couldn’t remember the rest. But it was such a surreal experience, to be mashing palm nuts into oil, with a group of West African women, singing a song in their language. It was something I will never ever forget.
Tomorrow me, Susan, and Alexis are going to travel to the beach town of KoKrobite. We are going to brave the tro-tro system, which is extremely cheap. The tro-tros are 15 seater vans, which serve as taxis. You pay for your seat, and then hope that everybody around you put on deodorant, because they get squishy. It is a 5ish hour drive, but it should only cost us $12 Cedi.. which is about 8.50 American dollars… slightly less than a US taxi… hah! It should be a nice get away, because the biggest obstacle that I am facing right now is personality clash with a few of the other volunteers. Nothing major… just a small annoyance. To put it simply, they are the kind of people that make me a bit ashamed to be American in a foreign country… just oblivious to Ghana’s culture, etc etc. But, like I said, nothing major. And the beach weekend should be lovely, I cant wait! Stay tuned, I will blog about it next week. I wont have my computer with me.
Until then, Miadogo! (That means, “We will meet again”)
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