Ghana Shenanigans–Every day life

The little things are what come to mind when I think about Ghana. The walk down the hill to catch the tro-tro, stopping at Baba’s on the way for some juice or water. Buying fan ice from the little carts that people pushed around. Taking a break from the hospital to hunt for Bofrot (doughnuts) and everyone knowing me there as their local obruni.

 

My bofrot lady

Pool bar, so much time spent here that Nana or Betsy would automatically bring me a club when I arrived. So many Clubs were drunk (huge bottle of Ghanaian lager). Buying kebabs when dinner had been gross. Trying to take over DJ responsibilities so we could dance to Chop my money and Azonto. I miss Ghanaian music so much! One time we even found the actual pool table that we named the bar after, up some stairs with no rails so you could drop off either side, making me feel like I was in Temple Run. My 2 pet kittens that lived at the bar and I would occasionally be able to catch, until they disappeared suspiciously. Even the walk to pool bar, over walls and through gardens saying hello to everyone because they all seemed to know who we were. So many good nights there. And that time Tom and I decided to darty (daytime party) there, only to get home around 7 and realise that we were supposed to be having dinner with everyone (including the director and staff) for Yikes birthday. I was terribly drunk! That was an odd meal cheese with salt and pepper to start, plain pasta with boiled chicken and a cheesy triangle to finish.

 

Drinking from water sachets- so convenient and cheap, I wish we had them here. I especially miss people selling stuff through the windows of the tro-tro. From relatively normal things like snacks and drinks to coat hangers, flannels, posters and once I even saw a coffee table. I miss the tro-tros the most convenient public transport as there was always one going past so you never had to wait to long. It was my favourite when you got on 1 with a tv screen and watched the crazy African programmes with the most ridiculous premises. The best ones involved magic as the special effects were excellent.

 

Visiting Matilda the seamstress to get some clothes or souvenirs made. She made me the most beautiful patchwork blanket. Then there was that time when I tagged along with the microfinance volunteers who wanted to sell her things on ebay and made me model them.

 

Going to the mall because we couldn’t cope with Ghanaian food any longer and needed to buy pizza or chips. The food was not particularly good. We were provided with dinner every night at the house and it was either edible but plain (fried rice and pasta), absolutely horrendous (fish paste) or swimming in oil (red-red –which I actually found pretty delicious, it’s made of spicy beans and served with plantain).

 

Going to the hotel across the road for a breakfast of omelette, bread and milo or chicken and chips for lunch. Finding that another volunteer was already there and having great chats. I miss the other volunteers the most. I miss being surrounded by friends, always having someone to talk to and never being alone. When you live together so closely you can’t help but make great friends and I really believe I will know some of these people forever. The people I met there are some of the best people I’ve ever met. When you go somewhere like that to volunteer, you’ve got to be a certain kind of person who loves adventure but wants to make a difference in peoples lives. And it turns out that is my favourite sort of person.

 

Street library! I occasionally tagged along to street library and it was the most intense but fun and rewarding experience. We would go out in the van with the music blaring over the tannoy and the kids would start to run after us. When we arrived at the location for the day we’d get all the books out and read with the kids. The ages ranged from tiny tots who didn’t know any English to teenagers who needed to be told to get harder books because they were reading so well already. We stayed for a few hours but by the end noone could concentrate anymore and we ended up playing games. The girls taught me their hand clapping games and I attempted to teach them ‘A sailor went to sea’.

 

Street Library –I let them do my hair…

 

I miss the friendliness of Ghana, everyone was always happy to speak with you and if you had a problem would do anything to try and help. I don’t miss being an Obruni though. Being white gave you something of a celebrity status, kids would wave and shout Obruni at you and be so excited to see you all the time and I’d often feel like I was getting special treatment just because I was white. I know we kind of stand out there but it did seem something of an extreme reaction. So many men would tell me they loved me and want to marry me, purely because I was white, they would have literally just seen me and started talking to me and decide this. I spoke to Richard who worked at the house about it and he told me that in Ghana if you like a woman you have to tell her you love her straight away to show that you are serious. This is so at odds with my views as I just think how could you possibly love someone you don’t even know. I guess I just don’t believe in love at first sight.

 

My time in Ghana was genuinely the best time of my life. When I was there I felt like I was exactly where I was supposed to be. The people I met were amazing, the country is beautiful and I feel like the Western world could learn a lot from the culture and attitudes of the people there. I wish at home people were as friendly and peaceful as they were in Ghana. It really made me feel like we should be more grateful for what we have and stop focusing on the next thing we want to buy or wasting our time not appreciating the people in our lives. Ghana, you’ve been great.

 

Xx

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Mole National Park–Walking Safari

‘Walking Safari’ doesn’t that sound ridiculous, like you’re going to get eaten by a lion? Luckily I survived but it was pretty touch and go.

 

This was actually one of the best things I have done in my life. Where else are you allowed to go wandering through a safari park looking for animals for about a fiver? So cheap and worth so much more.

 

I woke up early even for a 7am safari. I was excited like it was my birthday. Today was the day i would hopefully see an elephant in the wild. Pretty much the reason I came to Ghana (…maybe a little something to do with volunteering too).

 

 

Early morning view from the lodge

By now there were loads of people staying at the park. They’d all turned up on the tourist coach from Tamale late the previous evening. I was so happy I’d got here early and already been on safari instead of being on the bus all day. We got split into 3 separate groups for the walking tour. I went with my roomie and her friend who I’d hung out with the night before (benefits of staying in dorms). Weirdly I saw some girls there who I’d met at Green Turtle Lodge, although it took me a while to figure out how I knew them. Ghana is a pretty small country for tourists -you will see the same people over and over again!

 

We set off to the staff village where an elephant had been seen that morning. Unfortunately she’d already left by the time we got there and all we had to admire was her poop. The guide started following her tracks, showing us the footprints and where she had brushed mud high up along the foliage. It was quite a strange experience to be honest as our guide was very quiet and was only talking in his local language to 2 people who turned out to be students working at the park. We were all pretty confused but the students were amazingly helpful at explaining everything he wasn’t telling us and as long as he found us an elephant I would be happy! Tracking seemed to go on forever and I was starting to worry that we were never going to find one. We kept retracing our steps and going in different directions making us think the guide had lost his way. And then we got a call on the walkie talkie, the people who had gone in a jeep had found an elephant –too far away for us to get to. I was pretty sad at this point, and was even wondering if we could go back and get a jeep to find it. But we went down to the plains to see what else we could see instead.

 

As were walking we came across a fresh leopard print from earlier that day. Not exactly an animal I was hopeful of seeing on a walking safari! Luckily he didn’t materialise :).

 

Leopard Footprint

We were moving down the hill towards the waterhole I had visited the day before when we got a call from another walking group. The elephants were by the river, on our side, exactly where we were heading to. We started creeping along trying to be quiet when we rounded a bush to find 2 elephants right there, just a couple of metres away. i happened to be right behind the guide at this point and forgetting about the need to be quiet let out an “Oh shit!” –he wasn’t pleased. I was so happy we’d found them and never expected to get this close. They walked past us and then one stood for a while, posing perfectly for our photographs.

 

Our Elephants

“Look at my tail!”

Poser

The elephant eventually had enough of posing and walked off into the bushes. We started our walk back up the hill past the lodge to find that the elephants had actually decided to go for a swim. I had no idea elephants even could swim!

 

So beautiful

 

This was honestly one of the best things I’ve ever done. It’s hard to believe that I was that close to these beautiful animals, in the wild. A walking safari seems like a ridiculous concept but I would recommend it to anyone. Go to Mole, you probably won’t even get eaten by a leopard.

 

Xx

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Mole National Park–Jeep Safari

I was so excited that I’d arrived in time for the afternoon safari. There were 3 Dutch people already going (who were super nice) so I was able to split the cost and go for the jeep safari with them. Even just climbing up to sit on top of the jeep was exciting. When else do you get to travel on top of your vehicle?

 

Nice view from up here…

We set off and hadn’t gone far before we saw antelope running off into the distance –my first safari animal!

 

Hey Deer

 

We bumped along the track, our guide banging on the roof of the truck to make the driver stop when he saw something interesting. A tree absolutely full of monkeys, then monkeys everywhere as they start running into the distance away from our car (a little more wild then the friendly monkeys at Boabeng-Fiema).

 

Guys, I’m on safari! Lifelong dream completed.

 

We continued on seeing more antelope before turning around to try a different route. This one had baboons! Swinging in the trees, just watching us, watching them. It was amazing to see –they really looked like they were wondering what we were doing outside their front door.

 

Hey Guys, What Cha Doing?

We carried on, crossing streams down into the valley where we saw a different kind of antelope, a lot of Pumbas (warthogs) and even a crocodile’s eyes peeping up in the water hole. I was excited to see a crocodile in the wild because it was the only wild animal I’d missed out when I was in Australia.

This made me feel like I was in the Lion King…

 

The safari was amazing and made me oh so excited for the morning walking safari where we might even see elephants –The reason I had embarked on this crazy solo journey.

 

On a side note, the food is amazing at Mole National Park. We went for a beer and dinner after the safari and I had the best chips I’d had in Ghana. So delish.

 

Xx

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An Epic Journey–From Tro-Tro to Bus to Bike

The traditional route to get to Mole National Park is to go to Tamale and then get the 1 bus a day from there, but you know, going back on myself didn’t really suit me so I took some local advice and found myself on a pretty epic journey.

 

It started off pretty normal, I got on the tro-tro heading towards Tamale but instead of going all the way there I got off at Domongo Junction, saving myself an extra 45mins of the journey. Luckily the bus onwards was already at Domongo Junction but all the seats were already taken. The bus mate tried to persuade me to wait for the next one but, knowing I might be waiting forever, I jumped on the bus for the bumpiest most squashed ride of my life. I only stayed upright because there were so many people wedged on that bus it was impossible to fall down. Makes the tube seem like a breeze. The road to Mole National Park is really, pretty terrible. They have started working on it but only at the opposite end to what I was currently travelling on. It seemed like the journey took forever but I don’t think it was actually that long –about 1-2hours until we arrived at Domongo.

 

From Domongo I was under the impression I could get a bus to Larabanga but it turned out it wouldn’t be there until the evening and I think it may actually have been the same bus that goes to Mole from Tamale. The taxi drivers started sniffing around trying to charge me 50C for a 15min journey, but I had heard it was possible to get a motorbike taxi instead. I asked a guy who had just arrived on his bike and he said he would take me if we put 10C of gas in the bike but he had to run an errand first.

 

Selfies on motorbikes are really safe…

 

It turned out he wasn’t a taxi driver just a really awesome, helpful guy called Mutawakilu. I’d never been on a motorbike before and I loved it. Mutawakilu was pretty careful and drove relatively slowly but it still felt pretty fast to me. We chatted as we drove and he explained to me that he wanted to be a teacher but he couldn’t afford the fees to complete his training and that the errand he was running was to pay the school fees of a kid he was trying to help. I think he was genuinely one of the kindest people I’ve ever met. His father had died when he was a teenager so he never got to finish his studies as he had to look after the rest of his family. Now in his 30s he desperately wants to go back and realise his dream but in rural Northern Ghana it is very difficult for him to raise the funds. I really hope he manages to get his happy ending but it seems a long way off. I think instead of sponsor a child schemes we need sponsor a teacher schemes –now who knows how to start a charity?

 

We stopped off in Larabanga to see the oldest mud mosque in Ghana (Northern Ghana is largely Muslim as compared to the heavily Christian South) and one of the widest trees I’ve ever seen.

 

The doors are actually pretty tiny, even I’d have to stoop.

Giant Tree

Mutawakilu and I

The wooden spikes in the pictures are basically what’s holding this mosque together. It was pretty interesting, I’d never seen anything built in this way before and it definitely looks unique. Every few years the mosque get’s cleaned and becomes beautifully white again (obviously I missed that year).

 

The entrance to Mole National Park is just out of Larabanga. We were both pretty excited to get there as although Mutawakilu grew up in Larabanga and lived in Domongo he had never been to the park or seen the animals! It’s crazy how no one visits what’s on their doorstep (I actually live in the same county as Stonehenge and have never visited –fool, I know). We rolled up to the Visitors centre, somewhat shocking the gamekeepers with my arrival by bike, and found out that I was in time for the afternoon safari –Yay!! I checked into my room (I stayed in the girls shared dorm) and said goodbye to Mutawakilu as he excitedly went to the look out to see if he could spot some wildlife.

 

I’d made it to Mole, and it felt awesome!

 

Xx

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Kintampo Falls

 

As I said goodbye to my adopted family I realised that I would once again end up arriving somewhere new at night, not ideal. I got the tro-tro back to Techiman, and then another on to Kintampo. The clouds started to close in as we left Techiman and soon it was tipping it down with rain.  I was  lucky enough to have the window seat by a door that didn’t close properly, in a storm and was getting damper and damper as rain trickled down the back of my seat. As I tried to manoevure myself into a position where the rain wasn’t running down my back, I once again was wondering whether I’d made a bad choice and should have perhaps gone straight to Tamale rather than stopping off to see Kintampo falls. I even went as far as to look for a bus going on to Tamale when I arrived in Kintampo but there was nothing until the morning.

 

I asked around for a guesthouse and found myself in a slightly sketchy room just off the main road, but at least I had it all to myself. Realising I hadn’t eaten since the morning I had an amazing meal of barbequed beef and indomie noodles from one of my favourite shop names I’d seen (bearing in mind that most shop names have some sort of religious affiliation).

 

 

I set my alarm for 5am, with the aim of quickly seeing Kintampo Falls before heading on up to Mole National Park. In the end the alarm was unnecessary, blaring music woke me up just before it went off. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the Ghanaian’s need to get up crazy early. It was still dark so I waited a little while for dawn and then headed to find a taxi who would take me to the falls. When I arrived at crazy early O’ clock it turned out that the falls didn’t open until 8am, but you know this is Ghana and someone paused from their work feeding the chickens to take my 5 cedis. I had the falls entirely to myself and it was amazing. The early bird really does catch the worm.

 

Behind the 1st Part of the Falls

The Main Part of Kintampo Falls

Awkward Waterfall Selfie

Normally this place has huge crowds, but when I was there it was so quiet and peaceful, all you could hear were the sounds of nature, it was simply amazing. Everything always seems to work out for the best, all my troubles seemed to lead me to a new and unique experiences that I would never have had otherwise. Having the waterfall to myself was pretty magical – no distractions,  no self-consciousness, no worries. Just me and the falls chilling in the early dawn. Perfect.

 

Xx

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Boabeng Fiema Monkey Sanctuary

I was so excited to go here. Whenever I go to a new country one of my main objectives is to see as much local wildlife as possible. In Boabeng Fiema the monkeys are considered to be sacred and are not allowed to be harmed as what happens to them, will also happen to you and you will suffer. They are considered to be equals and there is even a monkey graveyard where they are buried. As they are not allowed to be harmed monkeys pretty much have the run of the villages, with so little fear of humans they will happily steal the locals food.

 

As we bumped along the dirt road to the sanctuary I was staring at the trees trying to spot the first monkey when we turned a corner and they were all playing in the road ahead. The first of the many, many monkeys I saw that day! As we drove through the village there were the extremely friendly Mona monkeys on one side and the shyer Colobus monkeys on the other. We stopped to quietly watch them, and then realising how curious they were about us, we threw them some of the bananas we’d bought en route.

 

Mona monkeys nomming on our bananas

 

 

Colobus monkey hiding in the trees

We drove up to the sanctuary, which you can actually stay the night at –it’s where I’d been hoping to get to the previous day before fate intervened. I paid my 10C fee and 2 guides took us on a walk through the forest where I saw the cutest baby monkeys as well as the monkey graveyard. Priests and priestesses are also buried alongside the monkeys with one who apparently lived until they were 120 years old. Somewhat disbelieving I asked how this could be possible and they told me it’s because people used to live a healthier, more natural life when they just lived off the land. An interesting thought.

 

 A long, healthy life

 

Unfortunately it was a pretty short walk as we had to head back so I could travel on to Kintampo but I did practically shake hands with a monkey :).

 

 

It was amazing to see wild monkeys up close like this. The traditionally beliefs of the local people have had a huge impact on the conservation of these animals in Ghana. Elsewhere it would be extremely rare to see even 1 monkey hiding in a tree, let alone taking a banana out your hand. The villages have stumbled across an impressive conservation method –if only we could convince more people of the value of wildlife.

 

Xx

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An Impromptu Homestay

Arriving somewhere at night is not advisable. Arriving somewhere at night on your first day of travelling alone in Ghana is one of the worst ideas I’ve ever had.

I’m going to be honest, travelling alone for the first time is scary, it’s all on you, you make a bad decision and there’s no one else to blame or to go through it with. You’re on your own and you have to step up and handle the situation. As I sat on that tro-tro, constantly checking my signal to see if I could get hold of a guesthouse or anyone who could help, I was worried. Worried about going to the right place, worried about arriving somewhere in the dark, worried about where I was going to stay. But things have a way of working themselves out and as I look back what seemed like a stupid decision led to one of the most unique and interesting experiences of the trip. When I managed to get some signal I called my friend Baba (who also works as a tour guide) and he happened to have a friend in the town I was going to, who he said would meet me.

The car dropped me off at what seemed like some sort of abandoned garage. There was a group of young guys hanging out there who wanted to know what the obruni was doing in their hang out. It was the type of group that I would have avoided had I seen them at home, but in Ghana everyone is so kind and friendly I ended up hanging out with them while I waited for Rebecca to meet me.

Rebecca arrived with her daughter, son-in-law and grandsons in tow –the elder of which insisted on taking my bag and was later referred to by the family as ‘my future husband’. We walked across the garage, down a dirt track and into their home –which I had no idea I was being taken too. I met the rest of the family and ended up sitting in their living room chatting. I wasn’t really sure what was going on but decided to go with it. There’s nothing else you really can do in these situations. They asked if I was hungry and drove me to a nearby hotel where I could get ‘obruni food’ (chicken and fried rice). I felt somewhat awkward as they watched me eat and didn’t have anything for themselves, especially when I couldn’t finish it and they scraped the leftover chicken off my plate for the baby boy to eat later.

They took me back to the house and asked me to stay with them, there was a mattress on the floor in the living room which they made up for me. It was so kind of them to invite me into their home, I didn’t really know what to say- It’s the sort of thing you can’t really say no to. I felt privileged to have such an amazing opportunity to gain insight into Ghanaian family life. As bedtime came closer, most of the family disappeared back to their own homes. I think it’s lovely how close family life is there (in the morning they were all back to cook together and eat their breakfast). I was left alone to sleep in the living room with a bucket (in case I needed the loo –I decided I wouldn’t). I slept surprisingly well in their home, except for a strange banging at the door in the middle of the night, which Rebecca got up to quickly answer –I couldn’t work out what that could have been.

My Ghanaian Host Family

Obviously, being in Ghana, it was an early morning start. The women were cooking rice with onion for breakfast which I made every effort to eat all of this time. The children all took some with them in a thermos to eat for their lunch as well. It is interesting to see what they ate at home, although I did feel somewhat concerned for the lack of nutrition in the diet. Especially in a comparably middle class family (both Rebecca and her son-in-law were teachers –and he also drove a taxi), and their home was pretty nice compared to a lot of Ghanaians small homes.

I was told I’d be taken to to the monkey sanctuary later and spent the morning sat with the daughter and eldest grandson watching telly and bagging up popcorn that they sold at the school and on the street. I think I may have mentioned this but Ghanaian telly is pretty crazy and difficult to take in large doses –it was quite a long morning! In the afternoon the others finally returned though and we were able to go to Boabeng Fiema Monkey Sanctuary which really deserves its own post :).

This impromptu homestay let me into a world which I would never have seen otherwise. The daily life of Ghanaians, the way extended families are so close, their love for crazy tv shoes, the simplicity of just laying a blanket on the ground for the baby to sleep on when he got tired. It was an unexpected experience which I am so thankful for, a rare insight into family life, so normal for them and so different for me.

Xx

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Going solo in Ghana

As I watched Tom and Jorge drive away up the hill from Lake Bosumtwi I realised I was really doing this. I was travelling alone in Ghana. I wasn’t sure why I had ever thought this was a good idea, only that I really wanted to see an elephant in the wild, so was going to go to Mole National Park whether anyone else could come or not. My stubbornness had led me to this and I was just going to have to be brave and do it. But that moment of feeling alone for the first  time was terrifying.

 

Driving away from this beautiful place

I tried to find out where I could get the tro-tro to the next town only to find out that it didn’t run on Sundays….this hadn’t started well. I even tried calling Tom to come back to take me to the next town but of course, his phone had died. So I ended up overpaying for a taxi to get me out of there, knowing that I had literally no leverage to bargain with. I got the tro-tro from the next town and headed to Kumasi, happy that I’d at least made it back to my start point.

 

Arriving back in Kumasi after the peaceful Lake Bosumtwi was a complete smash in the face to the senses. There were people and tro-tros everywhere and I had no idea where I was going. I wandered aimlessly for a while, hoping I might stumble upon the tro-tro I needed before someone decided to take pity on the lost obruni. This friendly guy led me all through the markets to the right bus stop, helped me buy my ticket and made sure I actually got on the right tro-tro. Ghanaians are amazing people, so helpful and friendly they would do anything to make sure you’re okay, not expecting anything in return except perhaps a phone number so they could keep in touch.

 

I did however have the worst toilet experience of my life at Kumasi market. I paid my 20 pesowa, thinking it was strangely cheap, to walk into a mass female urinal, with 10s of people squatting over what was basically a long drain. Horrified at the sight but needing to go I had to make the decision of whether to go in the first space I saw surrounded by other people or to walk all the way to the end where I could at least face the wall and pretend I was on my own. As someone who gets the toilet nerves anyway and can’t go if I even think someone can hear me I walked to the end and pretended no one was there. Most horrendous toilet ever, thank god I was at least wearing a skirt. It was moments like this when I really felt ‘foreign’. This was normal to them, they didn’t care who could see, even when I used toilets with cubicles it was all to common to see people using the facilities with the door wide open. I can not even comprehend this ever happening at home. Ever. If I’m honest I somewhat admire their comfort in their own bodies, but I could never see myself being like them. It’s just not British.

 

After that enlightening experience I was only too happy to get on the tro tro and start my journey to Techiman and then onto Nkoranza in a share taxi. Unfortunately it was night time by the time I arrived and after some level of panicking and phoning my friend Baba I stayed in one of the most interesting places of my trip…

 

Xx

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