Chapter 62...The Voodoo Vacation Part III - Ghana

Being welcomed back into Ghana bought with it a huge sigh of relief! We were back in a land we know well, surrounded by people we feel we have come to understand and a currency that works in our favour (and that Abs doesn't have to learn the exchange rate for!) I spent the majority of our first day back talking to people in French still, which made me chuckle to myself every time (if only I'd spent my school days speaking it so much, I may have come out with a higher grade)! 

So with our plan set we dodged all the private cars and headed for our beloved (and safer than zemis) tros in order to find one going to Ada Foah, our next stop! There was no 'car' (tro) for Ada Foah at the tro park, but we could take one for Accra paying the full fare and just alighting at Ada when we hit there! We weren't so keen on paying the eight Cedis to do that so decided to discuss our options away from the many many tro drivers we had found ourselves surrounded by! As we walked away we found ourselves stood in a quieter part next to a shared taxi to Keta...we've heard of Keta, so a few minutes later we've bargained the fare down and we're numbers three and four in the car and on our way... We ring some fellow vols who stayed there recently asking for the name of the place they stayed - 'Meet Me There' we tell our taxi driver, 'OK no worries he says.' As we drive into Keta we look around eagerly taking in the beauty of the place and deciding where we might want to head for food, sandals, cloth (no, no more cloth), but the car keeps driving and before we know it we've left Keta! Abs and I give each other a small look, but go with it, after all we've told the driver where we want to go. Half an hour later, Keta is many moons away and we decide to question how much further! It turns out 'Meet Me There' is a Ghana 'in Keta' (meaning not at all) and after another fifteen minutes we are dropped at a junction and told to pay 1 Cedi to take a 4x4 (the road was recently washed away) to 'Meet Me There.' Eventually after seeing most of the coastline to the East of Accra we arrive at our final destination...Oh and I am barefoot again by this point having broken one of my 'new' second-hand sandals! Abs is seriously worried and thinks I have a problem with footwear (maybe I do)!

We wile away the afternoon eating, listening to music, reading and enjoying the sea breeze. That evening we decide to make an old favourite of mine that I first came across in South America "Irish", as I introduce Abs to 'Baileys Milo' (Poppy you would love it, try it)! 

Day 9: A bit of this and that!
Travel days always prove to be chaotic so we made sure we were prepared with a good breakfast for our journey out of 'Meet Me There' (we saw how difficult it was getting there) and up to Koforidua. I enjoyed fruity pancakes with hibiscus juice, making a huge change to the norm of egg 'n' bread, which I think my body appreciated!

Luckily as we walked out of 'Meet Me There' a 4x4 was driving up the road with plenty of spare seats. We hopped in and away we went, first part easy enough! We then found a tro to Accra half full, again what a result, lady luck must be on our side! As you've probably guessed by now, travelling in tros is a necessity, but not one that many volunteers enjoy, because they are usually crowded, hot and relatively slow! Abs and I have got into the habit of always asking if we can travel in the front and majority of the time we have flashed a smile and been told yes. Same again with the Accra tro so we jumped in greeting the few people in the back, arranged our backpacks infront of us and our legs overlapping around them and each other! It's not the most comfortable, but better than being squashed like that in the back with people on either side all hot and sweaty! After a few minutes the driver came and the tro pulled away, brilliant no waiting we thought, could this day get any better! It took both of us about ten minutes to finally realise that we were squashed into the front seat of the tro, Abbies heel digging into my ankle and her needing to itch a bite on her foot every two seconds, whilst the whole of the back of the tro was virtually empty with free seats galore! In true lazy style we were cosy and we had a giggle, but neither of us suggested moving so we continued the three hours onto Tema as we were...

At Tema I bought yet another pair of sandals (remember mine broke on the way to 'Meet Me There') and we swapped tros for one to Kof. The route there was stunningly beautiful driving around the mountains and seeing Ghana from up above for miles and miles into the distance! Anyone who knows me well will know just amazing that makes me feel! Once I floated back down from the happy clouds I'd been perched on we met Kof vols, went for beer and kebabs, showered, unpacked, cooked dinner and started watching 'The Departed' before bed...

Day 10: A day at the falls (we all know what happened last time I was at waterfalls (no I didn't lose any shoes))!
We woke up this morning raring and ready to go, as we were determined to get some much needed exercise by hiking around Boti Falls, half an hour out of Kof! Our breakfast was immense - bread, meat, egg and beans, and our walking shoes were on...

My first ever double waterfall!

Stunning views from this rock!
It was worth the hard work getting to the top!

 

Following our energetic two hour hike at the falls we go back to Kof for a fufu lunch (newly introduced to me and something that I now love), a check of emails at the Vodafone shop (a/c, broadband, clean, such a treat) and a spot of shopping for yet more sandals (safe to have a back-up pair now I feel), Pebbles chocolates and Baileys for Abs (her new found obsession)! The rain keeps us in that evening finishing 'The Departed,' cooking bruschetta and playing cards. 

Day 11: Can we really fit anymore in our backpacks?! 
Koforidua is famous for it's bead market, which is held every Thursday in the centre of town. Abs and I deliberately planned our trip to be in Kof on a Thursday so we could visit the market. Visit the market we did, and this will come as no surprise to you when I tell you we bought our weight in beads! I think we may both have slight issues when it comes to shopping as we (Abs especially) could fit no more in our backpacks, yet we still kept buying! Earrings, bracelets (yes more), necklaces, earrings, keyrings, earrings...! After three attempts to leave the market we eventually had to drag each other out and away from all of the beautiful beads!

That afternoon we arrived in Accra, our final stop before the long journey back to Bolga at the weekend. We were on the final leg of our two week vacation and away from home and we were starting to feel it. Our backpacks were too heavy, we missed our own beds and all our clothes were dirty! Perfect timing for a date night with the EWB then!

I showered and deliberated over which of my clothes were the cleanest, the good old smell test told me they were all equally as bad! Abs suggested I just wear all my new jewellry to distract from the smell, I decided this was a wise idea so left for Paloma Hotel jingling all the way...I rolled into bed full after delicious pizza and salad at Eddys feeling like I needed another holiday to get over this one! I was beat, but we still had one more day to go, and maybe the most important one of them all...

Day 12...VSO?!
Good old egg 'n' bread got us going for the day as we tro'd it down to Osu (Oxford St) in Accra. We had a few hours to shop, stock up on chocolate and pop into the programme office. We decided the programme office should come top of that list! This was the day I finally got answers to my burning questions regarding my future time here in Ghana. The answer was exactly the one I wanted to hear and it lead the way to some productive planning for my next year in Ghana...

After this decision was made the rest of the day was mine so we headed to Global Mama an NGO run shop that we had wanted to visit for a while because all the items in there are made by local women. I felt like I was with my girlies again back home as Irene (Accra vol) and I squeezed into a fitting room trying on dresses, tops, trousers and deciding that none of them were quite right (maybe we've become too fussy having seamstresses to make all our clothes for us)! I left only with gifts, but happy with an afternoon of girly fun! We went for lunch at Koala, bought some red wine for dinner and eventually as the sun began to set and the Accra rush hour hit we headed for the Asylum Down volunteer house. We settled down for the evening with fried rice and chicken (much to Abbies delight, ha), chocolate covered popcorn, fruit salad and red wine and it suddenly dawned on me... Kenya was my next holiday and it was only one month away! The sheer excitement of a family reunion gave me one of my incredible free moments (Annie and I call them something else) when I decided that the EWB and I should go to Sierra Leone in September instead of the coast of Ghana like we'd planned! So after a quick and simple conversation and some reading of the LP, Sierra Leone is being booked tonight... It's always fun I feel to finish one holiday with a plan for the next!