Pictures from an Adventure

Not such a great day. Watching the car get fixed on the way to cape coast.

Just chillin on the side of the road outside of Accra. Thanks for the pictures Rosa.

Paul Badasu, Director of Humanity World International, and myself outside the house in Teshie-Nungua.

My two new roommates, Emily and Takeru, drinking milk from freshly cut coconuts. They sell tons of them on the side of the street and cut them with machetes when you ask for one.

Mitchel and myself out at Jazz night in Osu. The singers were amazing but there were too many Obroni's.

Almost the entire palm tree in this picture. I think it was about 100 feet tall, which is massive for this tree.

The roommates and me in the massive 6 headed palm tree in Mamfe. From left to right: Emily, Rosa, Mica, Me and Mitchel.

Picture of the roommates (except for Rosa who took the picture) looking up at the Palm tree in Mamfe. Mitchell, Emily and myself in front. Mica and Takeru in back.

Picture looking up at the palm tree while standing between its branches.

Panoramic view of the valley we saw. I wish I could make it bigger but it looked like a seen out of the lion king or Mighty Joe Young. These were some of the best views I have seen.

Me on the side of the hill looking out at the valley. It really was pretty steep.

Mica and me on the side of the hill. You can see out over the valley in the background.

Incredible picture of the hillside on our adventure.

Rosa took this great picture just before it started to rain. You can see the African storm clouds which are no joke.

The path leading down into the valley.

The roommates trying to get dry after getting caught in the rain on an adventure. I rode the whole way home pretty wet but I can't complain.

Unforgettable Adventure

I am sorry that my blogs have been lackluster over the past few weeks but my work at the hospital has been mostly the same and a few unfortunate circumstances have meant that we haven't traveled in a while. But I can assure you that this blog post will make up for it and then some.

                The story begins on Saturday morning. We woke up around 6 in the morning planning to head a few hours north into the Eastern region of Ghana. The Eastern region is located in the center of Ghana, just above Greater Accra. We had read in the guidebook that there were a few interesting places to see, including a palm tree with six heads and a cool waterfall. We headed to the station and got onto a trotro heading to Aburi around 9 o’clock. We realized soon after we left that we wanted to go farther north than Aburi, but figured that catching a second trotro once we were there would not be difficult... We were incorrect. Aburi is a small town located on the top of a hill, just outside of Accra. As our trotro struggled to pull us up the mountain roads, we got some pretty awesome views of the land below us. As we arrived in Aburi we were informed by a taxi driver (a very biased source of information) that to get 30 minutes north to Mamfe we could only take a taxi. We were forced to pile 6 people into a single taxi, not including the driver (4 in the back and 2 in the front seat) which was rather uncomfortable.

                When we arrived in Mamfe we expected that a short trotro ride would take us to the 6-headed palm tree located shortly outside of the small town. Unfortunately we were again wrong and finally got another taxi, again overflowing with Obroni's, to this palm tree. Mind you several people just wanted to skip the palm tree because it was beginning to seem like too much effort, and I admit that I myself had doubts. Our driver pulled off on the side of the road next to a cornfield and pointed out the path. We weren't even sure he had understood where exactly we wanted to go but we went anyway. As we came upon the palm tree most of us were unimpressed. From the side it simply looks like a rather large palm tree with several branches. But as we got closer I was really impressed. The tree is truly massive and it starts out as one giant trunk but then branches into six normal sized trunks (I will post pictures today). We took turns climbing up in the tree and then managed to fit all 6 of us into this tree. The pictures will tell the story better than I can. We headed back to the taxi and asked him to take us to the next town so we could catch a trotro. This meant another half hour on bumpy roads with 6 people in a taxi. I think to the Ghanaians it looked like one of those clown cars, where 20 clowns climb out and everyone is wondering how they all fit inside.

                The next town was Adawso and we managed to get a trotro there that took us to Koforidua, another 45 minutes north. Koforidua is the capital of the Eastern region, so we stayed for a while to check it out. They have a massive market with anything you can imagine, including some of the ugliest fish I have ever seen. We managed to get ourselves lost for about an hour before everyone found each other again. We decided, finally, to head to Boti falls and caught a trotro heading north.

                We were dropped off at Boti falls in the middle of a rainforest. I was excited as we walked up to the entrance but then saw that it cost a whopping  10 cedi to get in, and there was no discount for volunteers. To put this in perspective it’s about 6 dollars, which doesn't seem like much, but nothing in Ghana costs that much. I can buy a whole outfit of clothes or a day’s worth of meals and not pay 10 cedi. They also told us we wouldn't be able to swim without a guide and the place seemed touristy, so we decided to walk to another set of falls nearby, Akaa falls (different than the Akaa project village). We never made it.

                As we were walking along the road though the forest, one of my housemates noticed a path going into the woods. They decided to find out what it led to and I reluctantly followed. We weaved our way through the forest for a short while before the path opened onto a clearing. The path got narrower at this point; just barely wide enough to notice it was there. We were wading through hip high grass and prickers, and I found myself praying that none of us were going to get bitten by a snake. The path then opened onto a valley and it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. We were on one cliff and we could see across to the other side, about 500 yards away. It looked as though we had stumbled upon some hidden place where no other human being had been before (except for whoever had made the path). It started to rain slowly so we decided to go back and take cover back under the trees. The rain in Ghana can get really serious, very fast and we didn't want to get ourselves into any serious danger. We waited about 20 minutes and the rain subsided a bit so we continued on. The path turned along the side of the hill, so we were walking about 300 or 400 feet above the valley on a skinny mud path. We came upon several rocky cliffs and caves, and I wished I knew how to climb. The whole experience made me feel like Bear Grylls. We finally came to a clearing that had a corn field down in the valley. We decided to turn back because it was getting late and Ghana has sun down around 6:30. We did not want to get caught out here at night.

                As we began walking back the rain started to pick up again and the path got muddier. Everybody started slipping and falling on this path and every once in a while the path would give way beneath a foot. We finally made it back to the treeline and it started to pour. In Africa, when it pours it comes down in buckets. It absolutely does not mess around. Even in the forest we all got drenched, soaked through to the bone. We made it back to the road without event but as we started walking back towards civilization, there was not a car in sight. After a couple mile walk in the rain we made it to a small village with about 5 simple mud houses and the people sitting out on the porch invited us in. We sat under some random Ghanaian's roof for a half hour trying to dry ourselves and watching the rain continue to come down at a record rate. They were the nicest people, allowing my housemate Rosa to change in one of the houses and bringing benches for us to sit on. They even went out into the rain to hail us a trotro. When one finally stopped for us we rushed out and piled inside. I was the last one in and I think I am lucky to have made it. The trotro was packed with about 20 people (no exaggeration) and as I sat down the mate (guy who opens the door and collects money) handed me this little 4 or 5 year old girl to hang onto. He was squatting in front of me and I was holding this little girl between my legs. At first I was only holding her up when the trotro came to sudden stops but as we went along I could feel I was doing more and more work. I finally realized that this little girl had fallen asleep in my arms. I leaned back a little bit and did my best to support her as the trotro bumped and swerved along a terrible Ghana road. We finally came to a stop and the mate took her, while her mother departed from the trotro. I think they got a good laugh out of the fact that the little girl had fallen asleep on an Obroni. I was sad to see her go. Out of all the crazy adventurous stuff that happened that day, I think this was the most incredible. We continued along back to Koforidua and were dropped off around 6 o'clock, still soaking wet and not sure what we were doing next.

                We decided to just take a trotro back to Accra that night as most everyone had enough adventure to last them for weeks. First we walked around to find a place to change into some dry clothes. We went to All Nations University College and the security guard was so helpful, showing us to the bathrooms to change. Unfortunately my change of clothes in my backpack was wet as well so I did my best to dry off and wash the dirt off my legs in the sink. My shoes were soaked and so I took them off and walked barefoot to the trotro station down the street. We got on a trotro back to Accra and my housemate Mica and I watched as my other housemates fell asleep on one another. I don't know how anyone can fall asleep on a trotro on Ghana roads in the middle of the night. But I guess everyone had overdosed a little bit on adventure.

                We never made it to a waterfall. We all had cuts, scrapes, bruises and bugbites. Everyone was totally exausted, dirty and wet. But it was entirely worth it. I will post pictures as soon as I can, and I hope they do this story justice. This one is unforgettable. I can't wait for what we do next.

Twi for the Day: Ok = Yo

A Tough Couple of Weeks

So I have had a rather uneventful or eventful week depending on how you look at it. This will be just a short post as an update and hopefully I will have a more interesting post in the next week.

I have moved to the general office in the hospital where I have mostly been going over insurance claims, which is rather boring. However it gives me a chance to see all of the ailments of the people coming to the clinic. The most prominent ones are hypertension (high blood pressure), malaria, and gastroenteritis (virus or bacterial infection from water). There are also a ton of pregnancies. The variety of diseases is not all that great and malaria seems to be the biggest problem of all.

Last weekend I had my first bout with food poisoning and a bit of gastroenteritis myself. I have been eating rice and noodles with beef that my coworkers at the hospital enjoy for lunch. However on Friday I got a bad batch that my first world stomach couldn't handle. To spare you the gruesome details I spent 3 hours Friday night expelling the contents of my stomach. It is the sickest I have ever felt and dehydrated me so much that I thought I would have to go to the hospital for IV fluids. I felt pretty bad the whole weekend, severe dehydration feels a bit like you've been run over by a truck. Anyway I recover over the weekend, but the following Monday I woke up with the feeling that something was biting my feet. I knew my mosquito net was closed and when I shone a flashlight I couldn't see anything. It kept me up most of the night anyway, and when I got home from work the next day my feet were covered in small swollen red bites. I searched my bed and finally came to the conclusion that I had bedbugs or fleas or some other bloodsucking parasite. I was pretty eager to get rid of them and so I spent 2 days sleeping in another bed while mine was being treated with some insecticides. My bites have since subsided and the I haven't had any problems since but it just goes to show that there are problems you will have that you just can't foresee.

Speaking of problems that can't be predicted we were headed to Cape Coast this weekend. We left at 5 am and had made it out of Accra and about halfway to Cape Coast when I heard a loud bang. I thought a tire had blown but it turned out that a cap in the engine had overheated and blown off. We stopped on the side of the road and our program director, Paul, took the part to the local mechanic to get fixed. He came back an hour later but the car would still not start with the fixed part. So we called a mechanic to come look, and we tried putting in a new battery from a taxi that stopped to help. We ended up sitting in a broken down car for 8 hours (broke down at 8 am and left to return home at 4 pm) while we tried to get it restarted. So we were not able to make it to Cape Coast and will hopefully go another weekend. This took up our entire Saturday however, and now I must sleep all of Sunday to recover. Recapping these stories I realize I have a had a tough week. I will tell you all about Cape Coast when we finally make it there (fingers crossed).

Hopefully a much more exciting and cheerful update soon. Here is your Twi word of the week.

Twi word:         Yefre wo sen?  (Yayfray whoa  say?)                 What is your name?
                   
                         Yefre me Austin.                                                My name is Austin

Ghanaian Street Acrobats

We saw these guys doing these crazy handstand things and had to check it out. Apparently they are an acrobatic group that has been training together since they were kids. However they also work construction and this was just a little free time spent impressing some Obroni's. The guys saw us watching from a ways away and invited us over to watch all these fantastic tricks and to take pictures. It is really really impressive and these may be some of the strongest guys I have ever met.

They would do a handstand thing on these wooden blocks and then flip backwards onto their feet. It takes incredible balance as well as athleticism and I have to admit I'm pretty jealous.

This guy is halfway though doing his backflip from the handstand. These guys also did some straight flips off the ground that were really cool to watch.

I am not even sure what to call this

This was probably the most impressive trick they did for us. They actually stood like this long enough for us to take a picture.

This picture captured a guy halfway through a near fall. However as you can sort of tell they could stand on one anothers heads, so like stacking people. And they did not even use a stool or bend down. The guy one bottom would just sort of throw the other one up on his head. You have to be very strong but also compact and lightweight so that you don't put a burden on the other guys. 

Ya...he is actually balancing a shovel on his forehead.

They were pretty flexible guys. I know some people who can put a leg over their head but I don't believe any of them do it while standing on their buddies shoulder.

Incredible Pictures of Ghana

Sitting having a few drinks at reggae night on Labadi beach. That's me and Mica.

Some little children in Jamestown who were really excited to get there picture taken. Most are very willing as long as you show them the picture afterwards.

My roommate Chris having an intimate moment with one of the cows that had stopped along the side of the road.

This white bus is a TroTro. They are basically vans that can fit 15 to 20 people but they vary greatly in size and quality.

My housemates Chris (Canadian) and Mitchell (South African) with myself posing in front of the gate one night as we were waiting to be let into the house.

Mica, Mitchell and Myself with our newfound best friend in Wli.

Mica and Chris with our little friend, enjoying some corn.

Mitchell veiwing the cows and goats that we found grazing right next to the road we are living on. Imagine driving to school and a few streets down animals are just hanging out on the sidewalk.

Our favorite Rasta on Africa Union day at Labadi beach. He is actually a really nice guy and a good source of information. He even offered to pay for our cab ride home one night.

Soccer (sorry futbal) match going on in an abandoned courtyard near Jamestown in Accra.

Happened upon this outdoor pool game on the side of the road near Teshie-Nungua.

A beautiful picture by Rosa out the window of a TroTro as we were driving down Labadi road.

Can't Miss Pictures of the Ho Trip

A Mona Monkey sitting on a latter in the Monkey Sanctuary.

My housemate Mica feeding a banana to a friendly monkey who jumped onto her arm.

Couple of Monkeys fighting over a banana that Chris is holding out.

My Housemate Rosa watching a monkey as it hangs from a bamboo limb to grab the banana.

A Mona Monkey sitting in the Bamboo tree. These monkeys are considered sacred and at one point were worshiped by the people that lived in this region.

My Housemate Mitchell Standing by the waterfall, which is almost all of the way in view. It was very hard to take pictures of it because the spray from the fall would get the cameras wet.

The river below the falls which was raging after an entire day of rain.

A cocoa tree in the Volta region. One of Ghana's main products is Cocoa, and it is grown in much of the northern regions.

The top of the waterfall, slightly obscured by the tree. I could not seem to fit the whole thing into one picture.

A giant millipede, they were quite common in the forests.

Trip to Ho

                 We got another new volunteer the other day; her name is Mica (pronounced myka not meka). She is actually from the states, New York in fact, so I am no longer the only American in the house. She goes to Connecticut College, which is a small liberal arts college in Connecticut (and from talking with her is basically Wooster). She is here with the human rights internship, which brings the odds 4 to 1 of legal to medical humanitarians in the house. Anyway my housemates and I, as well as two people from their work went up to Ho for the weekend. Ho is about 4 hours northeast of Accra, located in the Volta region. It is a city but not nearly as big as Accra, and so it has a much more rural feel that is more common to Ghana. This area of Ghana is known for its mountains, lakes and waterfalls and I have to say it was amazing; Small mountains all around and almost no sign of people for miles at a time. 

                  We went up on Saturday morning and went just north of Ho to the Tafi-Atome Monkey Sanctuary. I will post pictures of the entire trip but I am not sure even they give the experience justice. The monkeys are free to roam but they travel in large groups and so you see  20 or 30 monkeys swarm when the guide calls them. Everybody is handed a banana and the monkey literally peels it in your hand and grabs a piece (or steals the whole banana if you’re not careful). The monkey’s act so much like humans that it is scary. Having a monkey sit on your shoulder and eat a banana out of your hand should be an item on everybody's bucket list.

                   As we were riding back to the main road on the back of a motorcycle (sorry mom) it started pouring down rain. We got drenched and it continued rained the whole rest of the day. I am telling you, I have never seen so much rain in my whole life. We were headed farther north on a trotro to see some waterfalls but we had to postpone till Sunday due to the rain. We found a surprisingly nice hotel in Wli, the town next to the falls. We got two rooms for 50 Cedi TOTAL(that’s like 30 bucks). We had been traveling all day and so walked into town (consisting of one street with maybe twenty shops and some houses) to find some food. We walked into a place that was absolutely blasting their music and some locals dancing. I have two left feet when it comes to dancing so I kept my butt in a chair but a couple of my roommates danced with the locals. Mica is actually a dancer so she got up and was shown some local moves. We met a little girl also who seemed quite fond of us. However she only spoke Ewe (local language of the Volta region) and so we could not understand a word she said. She was incredibly cute and didn't seem to shy to dance with the local Obroni's. Unfortunately when we went to say goodbye the next day she cried; I hope we make it back up to Wli to see her.

                The next morning we woke up and went to the waterfall.  It is a 45 minute hike to the bottom of the lower falls but it is well worth it and we saw some of the most interesting things on the walk. There are huge millipedes (about as long as your hand and as thick as your thumb) that come across the trail and freak a few of my housemates out.  The river also winds through the forest and it was overflowing from the previous days rain (the rapids looked incredible). When we got within 100 yards of the falls it began to rain. But as we got closer we realized that it wasn’t rain but the mist from the falls. The waterfall is so powerful that you can feel the wind coming off of it and you get soaked if your anywhere near it. We walked as close to the falls as we could get and tried to take a little swim, but this was rather difficult since the water threatened to wash us away at any minute. The falls are so powerful that when you get close it is almost impossible to see because the spray coming off blasts you in the face. It was an indescribable experience. I looked it up and the Wli falls are the highest in Ghana at 260 ft. I highly recommend the trip; I found it even more impressive and way more fun than Niagra falls. The drive out is a little rough because the roads have huge potholes and the trotro or bus drivers drive like the cops are after them. But if you can stomach a few bumps and swerves then it is well worth the 4-6 hour trip.

                Check out the next post which will be put up today with pictures of the Ho trip. I will post again next weekend with pictures of our trip to Cape Coast. I also want to give a shout out to my mom’s 3^rd/4^th grade class who were nice enough to skype me last week to learn a bit about Ghana. If they have any other questions I would love to hear them and some of the pictures I am posting should satisfy their previous requests.

Twi of the Day:                  Ani                         Eyes

                                         Aso                        Ears

                                         Ano                        Mouth

                                         Boapea                   Monkey