Tim Comes to Ghana

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Tim arrived in Accra late last Friday night, and even his first experience here was truly Ghanaian, which was frustrating for both of us. Several times my roommate had promised to bring me to a hotel where Tim could stay close to campus, but she never ended up taking me. She did, however, give me the phone number so I made reservations and the taxi driver could get directions. When we finally arrived, after stopping for about 10 minutes because the hotel would not answer the phone to provide further directions, we found no one working at reception even though they promised to wait for us to arrive. Our driver kindly took us to another hotel down the street, and insisted that we pay an extra 10 cedi (a 100% increase) for all of the trouble he went through to get us a place to stay. Everything ended up working out, but I felt bad that Tim had to deal with all of this frustration after such a long flight.

The first day of our trip to the Volta Region to see Wli Falls and the monkey sanctuary was also frustrating. We waited two hours in the tro-tro station for our car to fill up before we could start our four hour trip. At our destination, the first hotel and first restaurant we tried could not take us, but luckily our second tries were successful for each. After all this, on our way to bed a man from the tourist center approaches us just outside our hotel room and kindly informs us that the only reliable way to see the waterfall and return to the city is to hire a car for an exorbitant price. After about half an hour debating about how much money we brought and could afford on this car, we decided to go ahead and do it. Once again, everything worked out well, but we couldn’t help but feel ripped off about the hired car. The same man was very helpful in arranging our ride home, he spoke with a tro-tro driver who would pick us up from the intersection of the main road back to Accra and the road to the monkey sanctuary. That saved us a trip back to the city where we stayed the first night, which is in the opposite direction of Accra.

Aside from all the frustration about the logistics of getting ourselves from place to place, Tim and I really enjoyed the trip. The waterfall was beautiful and we took a nice swim to cool off and get close to the base of the falls, but it was too powerful to actually get under the waterfall itself. Then at the monkey sanctuary, we were really lucky because a troop of monkeys overtook the area just outside our room late in the afternoon for about half an hour. The alpha male completely intimidated me, so I gave up my seat on the step to our porch and he took it for himself. The other monkeys were all around and we got to see them climbing, playing, fighting, and even mating! And the next morning on our tour we got to feed bananas to the monkeys like I did on my last trip. Getting so close to them still scares me, but not Tim. At one point, I was trying to get pictures of Tim feeding the monkeys and I forgot I had a banana in my own hand. One of the monkeys noticed and when I didn’t feed it to him, he decided to literally jump on me and grab it out of my hand. It startled me, but it was really cool. How many people can say that a monkey jumped on them?

For Tim’s last two days, we went to Ada Foah, which is a beach on the east coast where the Volta River meets the ocean. This trip was much easier than the trip to Volta, and it was a good end to a busy week of experiencing Ghana. When we got off the tro-tro, we took a canoe to get to the hotel where we were staying. The ride was interesting to say the least. The canoe was barely afloat and my friend Dirk had to help paddle while I bailed water out with a coffee can. The scenery though was incredible and very diverse. We saw many large resort-type vacation homes with docks built out over the river and they were right next to villages where people were washing clothes and themselves right in the river.

Our hotel was a bit of a combination of both worlds. We had a restaurant and bar on site and we stayed right on the beach in the 100 yards of sand between the ocean and the river. However, we stayed in huts made of dried palm leaves with sand floors and mice at night. There was no running water, so the toilets were boxes over deep holes in the sand and the shower was a room just like our hut, but without a ceiling where you had to bathe yourself with water from a bucket. The river side had palm trees and in my opinion the better scenery, but the river itself was dirty and I didn’t want to risk swimming in it. The ocean side was just the opposite. The beach was covered in trash, and there was some in the water, but saltwater is safer for swimming. The waves were huge and very powerful, so swimming was exhausting and I probably never went further than ten feet out from the shoreline.

Tim got to have one type of market experience while he was here. We went to the cultural center where people sell mostly crafts and souvenir type goods. He said this was his least favorite part of the week (even worse than sitting in a hot tro-tro for two hours). He and I bought a lot of gifts, but the bargaining wasn’t enjoyable for him (nor me). And to make things more uncomfortable, a man brought us to his shop which was further back into the market close to where people were actually living. It didn’t bother me, because I’ve been places like that before and I felt safe in the daylight with so many people around, but Tim did not feel the same way. And in this man’s shop we had a bit of a bargaining fiasco for two wooden “unity” statues and bowls because I thought we had more money left than we did. In the end, we got a really great deal on the statues, and I was pleased because I’ve wanted them for a long time, but the experience left Tim a bit shaken up.

Overall, we had a great week and I wish Tim could have stayed longer. There’s a lot more to see and do than what he got to do in just one week. I really wish I would have had time to take him to the Madina market place, which is a smaller version of the market I described in Kumasi. I think it’s an important part of the experience, even if it’s completely overwhelming with so many people and so many scents all mixed into such a small space. And I know both of us would have loved to go to Mole and see the elephants, baboons, and other animals on a safari, but that trip requires a strenuous four days at least. I’m really glad Tim got to see Ghana, and he’ll be able to tell you that writing and pictures can never to justice to the whole experience. I really appreciate that we were able to share this experience because now he’ll better understand what I’m talking about and it’ll be good to have someone who can relate, since Ghana is completely different than home.

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