Thursday, June 5, 2014

The last weeks

The last two weeks were full of small but charming moments. I want to let the pictures speak for themselves with only a few words. 

Rainy season has started only a few days back and all sorts of insects are seeking shelter inside my room. One day I was wondering about the appearance of a butterfly inside my room until I found some cocoons.


Talking about rainy season. This week in the evening time a massive thunder/rain storm came to Wa. Even though it was dark the lightning made it like daylight. One struck our house and suddenly the lightbulbs went on for 3 minutes. Stupid me wanted to check out what is going on and touched the switch for the light, when an electric shock went through my body. On top, the Shea Tree in front of our house tipped. Pretty impressive scene. Check out how the thunder drums






Have you heard of Shea Butter? Northern Ghana is full of Shea Trees and at the moment it is harvesting time. The fruit is more or less delicious and inside is a nut that is turned into Shea Butter. At the moment it is harvesting time and you see the women and children plucking the nuts, carrying it and producing the butter everywhere.



As we were visiting our women groups deep in inside the rural areas we stumbles across the shea farmers everywhere. It was also a pleasure to meet our own women again and see their happy faces when we come and visit. The delicious village Pito was a nice coproduct. 



Saturday, May 10, 2014

A Visit to Togo and other Stories

During my travels with Thomas I met a German girl, Eva. We were buddies within a sec and she decided to come and visit me in Wa.
In a village only some three kilometers away we took our bicycles we visited the mud and stick mosque in Nakori. Here in the Upper West and Northern Region you can find some of there mosques which were build by Sudanese people in the 17th century ( some sources also say 14th century).




Two weeks later we met again in Accra to go to Togo together. From Accra you get on the bus an drive towards the boarder. You cross the boarder check point and are right at the entrance of the capital of Togo, Lomé. And this is where we freaked out. Baguettes! Yes! Ghanaian bread is horrible. But Togo has Baguettes and it is avocado season. This is paradise. Within a couple of minutes we found the nice and charming Auberge de Diane where we spent our first night and made plans about baguette breakfast =). Lomé has a quite impressive beach front from where you can watch the many ships waiting to embark the port of Lomé. We walked around the center for a bit and met at a beach bar with another volunteer I had met before. The funniest thing is that you have to rethink your mode of transport. In Ghana you hop into a Tro-tro whereas in Togo you have moto-taxis. Every second a motorbike will pass you honking at you to show that he is free. Those moto-taxis are almost the only vehicles you see on the streets. This is actually a great solution to traffic problems. 




Baguette! 
Lomé Beach Front

The next day we planned to go to the Fetishmarket that is one of the few to NO things to do in Lomé. We got to the entrance and decided to turn around. It is small, the smell is horrible and it is only made for tourist. Rotten dead animals, covered in 10 year old dust are laying down and you can see the close up for an immense charge.

So we went directly to our next destination: Agbodrafo. This is 1.5 hours away from the capital and is a beautiful village between the Lake Togo and the ocean. Our very recommendable Hotel Safari was within short walking distance to both. 

We took a trip across the Lake Togo on a canoe and visited Togoville. We were led to visit the Prince of Togoville (pretty posh guy) who explained to us about the history of the town. During the times of colonialism the city was called Togo and gave its name to the country later on. The Germans messed about with the town but there seemed to be a peaceful relationship. 
It was a pleasant walk through the town, where we saw the church (being prepared for the Easter celebrations), some statues and enjoyed the quietness due to Easter coming up.



Our next destination was Kpalimé, a bit further up North. We went back to Lomé and from there towards Kpamilé. For out of town distances one has to take a shared taxi. There are no buses or tro tros or the like. The taxi will be filled with as many people as possible. Actually it won't leave unless there are 6 passengers inside. This is especially comforting on a two hour journey. Well, I guess it could be worse. 
In Kpalimé our only plan was to see the waterfalls. The tour was pretty awesome. First, you go on a moto-taxi for 20 minutes and it takes you up into the mountains. Then you start a 1.5 hours hike that takes you through coffee plantations, banana and plantain gardens until you finally arrive at a small hidden waterfall. 

cocoa
coffee
 

After Kpalimé we went back to Accra and from there I went to Wa. I came back to weeks ago. The last two weeks were extremely stressful and it seems like months have passed since this journey. 

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Travel-time!

The past two weeks I had great company from Germany, precisely Berlin. My good friend Thomas came, I picked him in Accra (after two bussed broke down from Wa to Accra) and we had the best time ever, enjoying Ghana as much as possible.  This is the tour we did:


Start in Accra ( in the garden of Agoo Hostel, great place!)


Keeping the stay in Accra short we went to Volta Region after just one night in the capital. Two volunteers from Germany are near Hohoe and we stayed with them for two nights. The 5 hour drive there was crazy because we not only travelled in a trotro packed with 2000 plastic sandals but also with the most crazy driver I have ever met in Ghana. Nobody in the tro spoke as I guess that they were praying in silence, begging to survive this trip.
Hohoe welcomed us with "lights off" which is the local way to say that the electricity is out. We had a romantic candle light dinner with the other two volunteers Paul and Lennart.
The next day we went to see the Wli waterfalls. We were lucky because we were pretty much the only people there and had the chance to swim and let the water slam down on our bodies. Next two the waterfalls there was a colony of bats living. At some point they all started flying at once and the sky turned black.

Lennart & Paul 



Wli waterfalls

bats at the waterfalls


After the waterfalls we went to taste some of the locally made palm wine. Yammieee!



The next day, March 6th, was Ghanaian Independence day. After a speech by the local chief we watched the school children of the village march, enjoyed some of the snacks sold and chilled for the rest of the day.

local chief

a girl selling bananas and peanuts at the festivities

school children march to celebrate the day

some of the school children
In the evening time we went to a rap competition and hopped on the 2 a.m. bus to Kumasi. Guess what! 4 hours later the bus broke down in a village and we were stranded for another four hours waiting for the bus to be repaired.

unexpected bus stop at 6 in the morning

finding some rest in the next village until the bus got fixed
When we got to Kumasi we only needed 3 hours to find our hotel =). We stayed at the colonial style Hotel de Kingsway, which however offered all we needed. The next day we visited the Kumasi Central market, which is supposed to be the biggest of West Africa. But well, it was not all that exciting. Afterwards we entered the Kumasi Fort where we had a small guided tour and looked at 300 guns and 200 pictures of former generals and soldiers. Not all that exciting either. But Kumasi itself has a great flair and you just feel comfortable. So comfortable that I completely forgot to take pictures!

After just one night we took a night mini bus to Tamale. It must have been the sweatiest place with the smallest seats ever. On every side my neighbours were so close that our bodies were producing an enormous heat. And guess what! We had to change the tire in the middle of the night. But we got to Tamale, found the next bus to Bolgatanga quickly and took a Taxi (that we shared with 6 people plus driver) to Sirigu and arrived at our beautiful lodge.





The next day we went to Paga where we took a tour through Pikworo Slave camp. Then we visited the crocodile pond. I still can't believe that I paid for a chicken to be thrown into the crocodile's mouth. So there was a pond with crocs inside. As soon as we approached with a screaming chicken they started coming. The oldest and fattest one (too many chickens?) came and laid quietly. The chicken was thrown into the mouth directly. I think it had a fast death but for no reason anyway. SORRY dear chicken!

alive chicken

dead chicken, happy tourist!

fat croc!

From here on we had fantastic travel company from the UK. Navi accompanied us for three days and we enjoyed her British humor a lot. The three of us made our way from Sirigu to Mole National Park. On the way we met a group of 7 Germany going there as well. Now I felt like a real tourist. We spent the whole day travelling. Of course one of the trotros broke down and we delayed. In the end we arrived at Mole late at night, ate and slept.

In the morning we went on a walking tour with Calma, a funny Ghanaian guide. At 7 am we walked with a group of 6 or so and were lucky enough to meet a big group of elephants. Warthogs were crossing and we also saw different types of antelopes (kobs, bush bucks, water bucks).






When we came back I chatted with one of the workers behind the dorm rooms and while we were sitting there all quietly a group of baboons came and chewed some of the dawadawa. As they threw some of the delicious seeds to the ground a warthog and a bush buck mommy and her baby came really close to us, not noticing we were there.





Later some green monkeys decided to try some of the dawadawa as well. The same evening we went on a jeep safari, which was rather unexciting but worth the feeling of cruising through the park on top of a jeep.




The next day we went on our next mission: Hippos! We were stranded in Larabanga (the village that forms the entrance to Mole National Park) for a bit because all the trotros passing were full. Finally, a full one was nice enough to squeeze us inside. Before getting to our destination, the Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary, we ended up having to walk 2 hours because the Taxi drivers wanted to rip us off. In the end a big truck picked us up and allowed us to sit on the loading space. From the Wechiau visitor's center we were picked by a Motorking and went another hour until we arrived at hour tree platform where we spent the night. This was amazing. We woke up to the loud chirping of birds, insects and just very intense sounds. And then: Hippos. We went on a small canoe and found a group of sleeping hippos very soon. Unfortunately, we had to stay far away as we didn't want to give them reason to worry.







From Wechiau our next and final destination was Wa. This was the most Ghanaian experience ever. Wechiau had market day and somebody bought 20 goats and 3 sheep that somehow had to get to Wa with us. So 5 were seated under us and enjoyed to wet Thomas' legs. While the rest had to go on the roof. Unfortunately the road was bumpy and in total three fell off the roof. However, they had a rope around their neck and dangled until the trotro stopped. They actually survived this torture.

a goat between my feet in the trotro


In Wa we noticed how exhausted we were and relaxed for the weekend. Thomas had the chance to go to church and went back to Accra/Berlin on Sunday. Those two weeks were just the best intense travelling you can wish for.