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 3rd/4th
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
