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Published: July 14th 2009
We (Aishu, Fionnuala and I) sacrificed a lie-in and got up early on Saturday (11th July) to get a tro to Tema Station in Accra, to catch another one from there to Kofiridua and travel on to Boti Falls. Unfortunately our travel plans coincided with Barack Obama’s visit to Accra,and most of the main roads were closed to traffic (including the road next to ours just off the main Labadi Road, which the Obamas would be travelling down on later on their visit to La General Hospital). We managed to get on a tro to Tema Station, but we hit congestion after only a few minutes. After sitting still in traffic for about 5 minutes, we started moving again only to be stopped again at the end of the road where we had to get off the tro (or ‘alight’, as the Ghanaians like to say), because it wasn’t allowed to go any further because the road was blocked. I had an idea of which direction Tema Station was from the point where we’d alighted the tro, but didn’t know exactly. Luckily, it seemed that most of the passengers on the tro had been heading to Tema Station and a nice man named Dodze said he was going there and would show us the way.
There were literally hundreds, if not thousands of people who had been forced to walk due to the road closures (I hope Obama realises the chaos he caused!). We must have looked like army ants to the military helicopter circling above us, all walking in one long line past Independence Arch on 28th February Road. Baton-wielding Ghanaian police lined the road, making sure we all stayed on the pavement. I thought I heard someone saying my name but thought I must be hearing things. I looked around anyway and saw the head teacher from the orphanage school, Janet, also walking in the line with her son; she had been on her way to Tema Station to visit her sister. It was quite surreal, it felt like something out of an apocalyptic film - it looked like a mass exodus out of Accra. The line of people was so long and most people were quite quiet, I don’t think anyone had any idea that the Obama procession of cars was about to drive past! Well, neither did we but I had an inkling something was about to happen because all of a sudden we weren’t allowed to go any further and everyone stopped. We passed a Reuters cameraman (the only cameraman we saw) and joked that if that clip was shown on TV we would stick out like a sore thumb, being the only Westerners in the line of people. And, as it happens, Aishu’s host mom from South Africa called on Sunday morning to say she had seen us on the news, marching along with loads of Ghanaians! Soon after everyone had stopped a group of Ghanaian policemen rode past on motorbikes, followed by a few ominous black cars and then one with Obama in! We saw him! Even though I hadn’t been that bothered about the fact he was visiting Ghana,it was quite exciting to see him and the atmosphere was really good! After he had passed, everyone cheered and were allowed to start walking again. Lots of Ghanaians kept saying to us, “Did you see him, did you see him?!” and seemed really happy for us (they must have thought we were Americans lol) - I smiled back and said yes I did see him! Obama probably thought all these people had lined the streets to see him drive by, but really they were just continuing their journey on foot because roads had been closed for the sake of his security!
We got to Tema Station after about another 5 minutes of walking and Dodze showed us where to get a tro to Koforidua. Tro-tro stations cane be very confusing to non-Ghanaians. They are usually big, bustling, busy places with groups of tros interspersed with market stalls and people walking around selling all kinds of things from their heads. But there is always someone to point you in the right direction for where you want to go. Tros never leave the station until they are full, and unfortunately the Koforidua Express tro took almost an hour to fill up, so we sat on the back seats and people-watched until it left the station. I spotted Janet and her son walk past and get on a different tro.
It took about an hour and a half to even get out of Accra because of the traffic chaos caused by Obama’s visit. We witnessed yet another altercation in a tro, and the inevitable loud, passionate discussion after our tro driver banged into another one and knocked its left wing mirror off. Some roads were completely gridlocked. Drivers honked their horns relentlessly, to no avail. We were stuck on a flyover, luckily traffic was slowly crawling along compared to the other roads we could see. After about an hour we passed Accra Mall, which normally takes about 10 minutes to get to! The speed picked up slightly but was still moving incredibly slow. Our tro driver decided to take the back roads, which were the bumpiest I’ve ever been on! Residential back roads are not tarmacced (sp?!) - they are dirt roads and extremely bumpy due to rocks and holes. The hard suspension on the tros means the drivers go very cautiously on them. We eventually reached a main concrete road, which was a pleasure to be on! But even concrete roads have their fair share of potholes. Drivers don’t necessarily drive on the correct side of the road - they drive on whichever side has the least potholes, until a vehicle comes in the opposite direction that is! Talking of potholes, construction workers had been filling them in on Labadi Road outside La General Hospital (which had also had a new lick of paint) for the past week. Funny how funds suddenly become available when Obama is in town.
The main road we were on took us into the Akuapem Hills, where it became a long, winding country road with steep hills and drops, surrounded by lush green landscape. I realised how nice it was to see different scenery after being used to flat, dusty, sprawling Accra. The journey was a bit of a rollercoaster ride though! Our tro driver had no worries overtaking other vehicles on blind hills and (over) speeding on the down hill parts! I enjoyed taking in the rural scenery and greenery. When we got to Koforidua we bought some snacks as we'd had no lunch (and I don't trust my stomach on long bus journeys lol) and I went to yet again another lovely public toilet, which can only be described as a female urinal. then we hopped on a tro heading in the direction of Agogo (which according to the guide book is not shown on any maps) and got dropped off outside the entrance to Boti Falls. We passed a lot of rural villages on the way, consisting mainly of mud huts, but they seemed very community-spirited and it was nice to see. A couple of boys got on our tro with massive machetes. It can be quite disconcerting the first time you see people walking around with machetes but it's normal in rural areas as a most of the jobs are agricultural.
At Boti Falls we were given a guide for 3 cedis (just over a pound) who took us on a trek before we went to the waterfall, firstly to see Umbrella Rock, which is basically a big rock with another one balancing on top of it which looks a bit like an umbrella. The views from it were spectacular, looking out over the dense trees of the rainforest. And very peaceful too, sitting on the rock looking at the hills and the mist in the distance. We went on a bit further to see the "miraculous palm tree" as they described it, which has 3 trunks eminating from one large trunk (most palm trees just have one trunk as far as i'm aware!). The trek there had seemed quite hard on the way, we had to go up and down quite a few very steep, almost verticle climbs with lots of rocks on them. It didn't help that lots of Ghanaian visitors going back in the opposite direction kept saying things like "you have many challenges ahead of you", "it gets worse" etc and they looked like they couldn't take it anymore. But it wasn't actually that bad on the way back after all! Plus, I had my geeky walking sandals on which helped! After we had walked back we went down the 150 concrete steps to the base of Boti Falls, which really were stunning! There are 'male' and 'female' falls (this is what the guide called them - I don't know if its the technical term - but bascially it was a twin waterfall!). You can't swim in the falls and you can see why because the water in the pool at the bottom looks very powerful; the water drops from quite a height. I think they are supposed to be the highest falls in Ghana. Just to make sure you don't swim in the water there is a sign saying "Do not swim. Stay alive - by order", which I found quite amusing. The falls are also a sacred site and apparently thousands of Ghanaians flock there on the 1st July (which also happens to be Republic Day in Ghana but I'm not sure if this is why they go to Boti Falls on that day so wouldn't like to say for definite!).
The journey back was much quicker even though there was still bad traffic going into Accra city centre (damn presidential visit lol). When we got back to Labadi we headed straight to the fast food restaurant Chick 'n' Lick 'n' (yes, that is how it's spelt!) and treated ourselves to a cheeseburger before going home. We were all really tired after fitting it all in in one day, and were looking forward to our first lie-in of the week. However our hopes of a lie-in were short lived because we all forgot about one crucial thing that happens on Sundays which does not allow for peaceful lie-ins! Mrs Odonkor, our host, holds a kids sunday school class in the morning, starting at around 7am and it is by no means quiet. Loud singing/shouting goes on for about an hour and a half right outside our window before they are told Bible stories. I wouldn't have minded so much if I hadn't have been so tired, and if I could have understood what they were saying. They were speaking in either Twi or Ga (I couldn't tell!), I was trying to make out what story she was telling but I could only make out the words "Pharoh", "wine" and "biscuits", but I think that must have been break time as I don't remember a story about biscuits in the Bible!
As it happens, Dodze, the man who showed us to Tema Station, has a wood carvings stall at Accra art market and he said if we went to his stall he would give us a good deal so we went there yesterday (monday) and he lived up to his word - I got some lovely items for gifts!
Bye for now all!!! x x x
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charlotte
non-member comment
LOL!
Your newly invested word 'Trafficmare' would have been useful for this post!! xx