I am sure that many of you reading this have heard of the
Akaa Project but for those who haven’t, check it out (http://theakaaproject.org/).
I finally made it to the Akaa village, located in the upper Eastern region of
Ghana. I am so glad to have had the opportunity but I could not have imagined
beforehand just how incredible this little village is.
My
adventure began when I met Rasta Tataguan at Tema station in Accra. He had on a
bright green shirt with matching neon green headwrap over his enormous bundle
of dreadlocks, and neon green sunglasses. Needless to say I didn’t really know
what to think, but we boarded a trotro heading for Koforidua. After some jollof
rice and a short taxi ride we arrived at Akaa falls. The falls are beautiful
and definitely worth a trip if you make it to Ghana. We continued on another 20
minutes and finally arrived at the village. Akaa is spread out over a small
valley, with around 20 or 30 houses in several small clusters. We went to the
first cluster of houses which includes the Chief’s house. I met the Chief, the
Queen mother, their son and several other people from the village along the
way. After a short meeting with the Chief we put our stuff down in his house
and went for a walk. We met some of the kids from the village along the way as
they yelled out, “rasta, rasta”.
We came
upon Umbrella rock which was much more incredible than I had anticipated. It is
in fact one giant rock balanced on a much smaller rock (see the pictures to
understand). But even better is that you can climb up on top of the 30 foot
tall umbrella rock and get a great view of the valley below. The ladder that
leads up umbrella rock was handmade from bamboo and string. After I came back
down we walked down a steep rocky path to the river that runs through the
valley and some nearby caves. It was quite the hike back up and probably the
hardest workout I have had in months. We headed back to the village and decided
we would play some soccer with the guys. We played on a patch of dirt between
some houses and a hill with rocks set up as our goals. But it was the most fun
I have had in a long time. If a Ghanaian or any African for that matter ever
asks you to a pickup soccer game, don’t miss out on the opportunity. They are
all really passionate and talented. When it started to get dark we had to call
it quits so we headed back to the house. I was soaked to the bone with sweat
and so took a quick outside bucket shower before making dinner. We prepared a
meal of noodles and meat sauce over a coal fire. The village people gave us
some extra fufu as well. I don’t normally like fufu but this was amazing, it
had the consistency of cookie dough but without much flavor. If I ate that fufu
all the time I am sure I would love Ghanaian cuisine.
The
next morning we woke up and did a little work for the village. I got to take a
machete to some of the weeds growing on the hill behind the Chief’s house and
plant some flowers. It was quite fun until we ran into some fire ants that took
issue with us cutting up their house. I was glad to do a small bit for the
village since they had shown me such a wonderful time. Afterwards we took a
walk to the other parts of the village and met everybody from Akaa.
Unfortunately it was about time for me to go back to Accra so we walked the 5
miles back to the main road and caught a trotro. I spent a very short time,
only about 24 hours, in Akaa but I can’t wait to go back.
