Soo, I almost got detained, almost went to Togo and..

finally got around to do doing the agriculture research portion of my internship!

I've been busy, and I'll begin with what I did the day after my "day in the life," saturday before last.
(by the way, I'm in a really hi-tech internet café in Accra and I'm going to take my time and enjoy this air conditioning)

I met Richard around 6:30 am in Kasoa, and it's really because of his sweet connections that I got to do my research at all. His cousin had a cash crop farm a few hours away in a village called Aboaba, so he agreed to take me out there and he enjoyed himself too because it's like a second home to him, and he hadn't been in a while. We switched trotros in different towns and then got off in a village where there was a funeral going on (only distinguished by the fact that most people were in black, because they were up and celebrating!). We walked for about 40 minutes in the heat along a dirt road but the surroundings were so beautiful.. everything so lush, walking by cassava plants, oranges, you name it..
I had bought loaves of bread to give as gifts (as is custom), and when we came upon a little mud hut I was introduced to Richard's uncle, grandpa (a frail old man who later suggested marriage, but I didn't want Richard as a grandson, lol) and other relatives, and a cute little kitten who were all very welcoming and I made (very) small talk in Twi.

We continued on and met Michael Abeka,Richard's cousin, and the farmer who I came to meet! We walked a bit further and came to a small village, remote enough that a little boy took one look at me and ran away screaming and crying as if he'd seen a ghost! I was apologetic, lol. The other kids were brave though, and pretty excited to see me!

We came to Michael's house and he brought out some chairs for us to sit under an orange tree and I asked him my research questions, like "what technologies have you adopted to improve your crop yields?" and got some great answers, but I still need to compile everything and write a report on the "economic sustainability of cash crops in Ghana," for no particular reason apart from I'm interested in it, and agriculture is a huge part of development.. International Development being what I'll study in school in the fall.

Anywho, when we were done he cut up some coconuts for us to drink and it was the most amazing thing.. and then he chopped them open so we could spoon out the inside. mmm.

I'm a bit of a nerd when it comes to seeing how things grow, so it was really fun when we took a walk through the farm where he was growing cocoa, coconuts, palm nuts, oranges, and "sometimes pineapple." He gave a cocoa pod to take home (lol), and later I cut it up and shared it with the girls at the hostel. Cocoa beans have a white mango-y tasting coating, and the bean itself makes chocolaaate.

We walked back to Michael's house and some women prepared Banku on an open fire in a little mud hut. It was the best Banku I've ever had, and enjoyed it with freshly plucked oranges and some more coconut. We were invited to stay the night but decided to head back, and I thanked them for their hospitality.

--- fast forward ---

On wednesday I went to Labadi beach with the girls and spent the night in Accra, went to a super fancy hotel the next day and paid just to used the pool & facilities (including an actual shower which I haven't seen in a loong time)

On Friday some of the volunteers went to another beach, and I spent the night at the orphanage and filled in for Gizelle, administering complicated medicine to 5 kids including a boy with AIDS, who got me up at 5:30 the next day to bathe him. It was nice living there and seeing the kids off to bed, then hearing them in their intense morning prayer session. Didn't mind the company of mice, either. heh. I did the morning medicines, got the kids to line up to wash their hands before breakfast, and then went back to the hostel and packed for a weekend exploring Wli ("vlee") Waterfalls with Irene!

I made my way to Accra where I got a tro-tro to Tema, this time knowing where I was when I got off, and met Irene. We got some snacks for the road and got on a tro-tro to Hohoe ("ho-hoy"), and she laughed at me eating instant noodles raw. Along the way we stopped in a place called Kpong and got spicy fried snail kebabs from the window, sold off the top of someone's head.
We planned to spend the night in Hohoe but all hotels were full, so we continued on to Wli where we had a homestay but it was basically like a hostel.. complete with bucket shower. It was nice though, and we had dinner there and then went to bed exhausted. The next morning we had breakfast at a restaurant (cornflakes with actual milk!) and made our way with a guide named Wisdom to the lower falls. The walk through the rainforest was beautiful, crossing 9 bridges, and at the end was the "tallest waterfall in West Africa." I asked Wisdom, "where does the water come from?" and he said, "the top." Definitely lives up to his name!

There was a path that led to the upper falls, and we were warned that it was difficult but decided to brave it. It was extreme hike/climbing for sure, and we were both ready to die less than a quarter of the way. It was worth it though, for the amazing views (I've decided the Volta Region is the most beautiful in all of Ghana, with rolling green hills in the landscape), and at the end was the amazing and secluded upper falls, and we were cooled down by the spray. We went to the top of the lower falls and looked down.. don't fall! Wisdom found a banana tree so we had a snack and then made the way back.. quicker, but very steep! My legs felt like jelly and I'm still sore...

So at some point during this hike, Wisdom asks if we want to go to Togo, as it's in walking distance from Wli. What he meant was "Togo village," aka "Yikpa" where his friends and family live and he wanted to take us.. still in Ghana, though, he insisted. So after cooling off again in the lower falls (where a girl recognized me as a Canadian by my MEC bag and turned out to be in her last year at the university I'll be attending in the fall), we hiked through the bush and waded through a river to "avoid the customs officials," who apparently would try and charge us even if we weren't entering Togo for real. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought we found a hole in the border because in Vikpa they spoke French and had Togolese flags in places and I sure felt like I was out of Ghana...

The local dialect in the region is Ewe ("eh-way"), and Irene speaks it perfectly because she lived in the Volta until she was 14. I picked up a few words, quickly learning I was no longer "obruni," but "yevo," according to the kids, lol.

By dinnertime we were both ready to collapse, and we said goodbye to Wisdom and went to another restaurant. I had fish and chips Ghana-style, with fries made from yam, and a whole Telapia fish (head and tail included).. it was great. Ghanaians know how to do their fish and I'm beginning to prefer the yam fry variety to the potato version.
While we were waiting for our food, a guy comes over with a scorpion in a bucket and then set it free on the floor.

After another night in Wli we headed back, and on our way from Hohoe-Tema everyone had to get off at a police checkpoint. An officer approached Irene and I and asked for my passport, but I didn't have it with me nor did I have a "volunteer ID card" that he wanted, so he said he had to detain me there. After making it clear that I'd rather be detained than pay my way out of the situation, he let us go, good thing as our tro-tro was getting ready to leave. The trotro which got a flat tire half way and still continued on...

Back in Tema we hung out at Irene's house for a bit, and then went to Accra to the art market and then she waited with me in the loong lineup of people waiting for trotros to Kasoa. We said our goodbyes and parted ways.. I'll be sure to see her again before I leave Ghana though, sometime over the next 2 weeks. Makes me sad to think about!

Congrats on reading this far.

-Erika

p.s. Yaw is learning how to stand!!!!!!! He's done a complete turnaround from when I first saw him.. like a completely different kid! I certainly don't take all the credit but feel proud all the same :) Before you couldn't imagine him putting any weight on those legs, and he could barely lift his head up. Today (after getting the go-ahead from Naomi) I took him all the way to Tema with a teacher from Royal seed by taxi so he could get his hearing tested, because we noticed some behavioural things that made us question.. he never cried and was very cooperative :).. taking him back next friday for final tests

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Part of trip: Ghana

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