Ghana be Fun

Back to Africa- again

Well, I have now been back for over a month and still not gotten around to writing anything before now.  I guess I should also look back over the weeks before I left for the summer, but that really was too far away.

I have surprised myself by how much I was looking forward to being back here.  I still don’t think I am feeling about it in terms of being home, but I certainly feel quite settled and sinking back into the groove of life here.

I was looking forward to coming back to Accra for the weather- I am loving the days here at the minute, very little rain, warm, a great breeze, mainly sunny but with a bit of cloudy shade and very little humidity. It is a fantastic time to be outside and to enjoy being here. 

I also enjoyed being able to catch up with all the people here when I returned, and it was down to one of these, Prosper (or Douglas) that I found myself at the Mepe Festival on August 4.  It really was a once in a lifetime experience! Well, for me it was a once in a lifetime trip, it actually happens once a year in the village of Mepe about 60 km outside of Accra.  All the people who come from the village return to their homes, the chiefs of the five main clans are all present and parade through the town dancing, singing and playing music.  It really was a mad throng of people with an incredible vibrancy, joyousness and volume.  Different clans wear different color outfits and one group even seemed to be eating their headdresses, which on closer inspection where created using pineapples. 

I am not sure who found the spectacle more entertaining.  Me being able to watch the parade and be completely surrounded by all the singing, dancing, color, noise and the pushing throng of people or the townspeople who seemed to think I was a real embodiment of one of the evil ghost spirits they were driving away.  Quite near the front, and accompanied by drummers, where two men dressed as white, evil characters- a personification of everything that is bad.  So, to have a real white, ghost, spirit present was a reason for a photograph.  I felt like a minor celebrity as about 50 people whipped out phones and cameras to capture the three of us- two in costume and me.

I am assured that this is a remembrance of the battles they fought to claim and settle the area even before the British appeared on the scene. This is about inter-clan and tribal victory; the colors they wear representing the role their ancestors played in the local history, and nothing to do with the Europeans.  Which makes my presence a little less strange; I’m not sure how much less, but a little less.

Other than this, school has started again and I am loving being back- catching up with everyone and meeting new people, seeing the school grow and develop; but that does mean everything has been busy, busy, busy and weekends have started to fill up and become a time for mundane chores and relaxing.  Then again, nothing here can be mundane… there are always the traffic, the fluctuating power, the interesting smells and the never-ending mosquitoes to keep you on your toes.

Ghana be fun

Tempest Tossed Travel

So, it has been a good long while since I last got around to writing a blog entry, and of course lots has been going on- mainly travel related, because why have an easy travel experience when you can have a regular ordeal.

My first interesting flying experience was on a KLM flight back from Amsterdam just after Easter, we were somewhere over the Sahara when the call went out.  It was one of those, “Is there a doctor on board moments?” Of course there was.  However, true to form that wasn’t where the incident ended.  The first responder turned out to be a Witch Doctor.  He entreated the whole plane to pray for the sick man, and ordered the demons leave.  In the past this has never seemed like a great treatment for epilepsy and the same was true in this case.  Luckily by the time the cabin crew had moved the praying doctor away a real doctor, this time with an MD appeared and proceeded to put the world to rights- or at least as right as you can make it while cruising at 37,000ft.  I left that flight wondering, and vocalizing how often things like this happen.  It turns out I wasn’t going to have to wait to long to find out the answer…

A week later I was on a BA flight from JFK into Heathrow when the same call went out over the tannoy system.  This time it appeared the situation was more serious (or at least we were over a more densely populated area with more hospitals and medical services) as we re-routed to St. John’s in an attempt to land and reach a hospital.  Unfortunately the weather was too unsettled and after circling for a while we were forced to divert to Gander, where the pilot did land the plane and medical teams were brought on board to help the patient- who was removed and transported to hospital.

Unfortunately for us (maybe a little selfish) Gander airport was officially closed as it was 1:30am and we were running low on fuel due to the detours and the circling- so back toward St John’s we headed, where we could refuel and finally head back toward Heathrow.  For the first time ever I was glad I had had a six and a half hour layover planned as by the time the plane landed in Heathrow it was down to a solid one hour.  Which meant there was just enough time to make the connection without having to sit in a Starbucks free B Gate section of Terminal 5.  When everyone tells you how great the shopping is at Terminal 5 I assume they have never had to connect thru there- either that or WH Smith, Boots and Weatherspoons now constitute amazing shopping and a fantastic retail experience.

I am however, now back in Accra and all that that entails.  The weather is hot, hot, hot with a few storms thrown in for fun.  There are of course all the little Ghanaisms still here:

The Container Store is not, as you would find in the US a big store selling nothing but containers of all shapes, styles and sizes… but rather a store made from a shipping container.  It is usually used as a workshop, or had products to be sold from inside and more often than not is painted in some bright color as sponsored by a cell phone company.

I’m sure I have said it before- but what is it with the way people drive here?  People are generally very laid back, the phrase Africa Time has come about for a reason; until people get behind the wheel of a car!  Then there is mayhem.  It is like nothing I have ever seen before.  Hands on horns, any side of the road you want to be on, someone is already occupying the place on the road you want to be in? No problem you can just shove them out of the way.  If you don’t look then no one is there.  The shouting the yelling, the pushing the shoving… and then when you get there- well, you can be laid back again!  No rush to actually do anything, jobs and activities can wait.

Thursday night saw a rather large and somewhat damaging storm.  The kind that rips up trees, and tears off roof tiles (proper roof tiles, not the banana leaf sort); I also decided that as hurricane season started in the US on May 1^st and in lieu of Fox News to do the scare mongering I would name the storm Alice.  If it had been a few miles off the coast then I am sure Fox News would have the Doppler Radar on it and they would be tracking it while telling everyone that the entire Eastern Seaboard was going to be obliterated. (I really do miss Fox News), so I did their job for them and created a storm watch of my own, along with the name. Accra city seem to have completed the hurricane experience for me by making sure the power (and thus the water) have also been erratic since Thursday, I think we have managed a whole three hours with them working; not too much of a problem until the generator also ran out of Diesel on Saturday night.  Not too much to do on a Saturday night when you have no power, no water and no light by 6:00pm.  Early night anyone?

Anyway, this has led to me being in a bit of funk this weekend and really needing to get out of town and just be somewhere else, so next weekend is looking like a trip along the coast.

Ghana be...fun

Where we are going there won’t be roads!

I haven’t gone back to misquoting movies at the start of each blog entry but this really did seem like a suitable way in which to start an entry about a long and somewhat bumpy trip on a motorbike all the way from Accra to Mole National Park in the North of Ghana.

Saturday started well and the road to Kumasi was looking good… or at least to start with.  Having headed out north to Koforidua a week or so before I had a vague inkling about what was to come.  If I had engaged any sort of common sense, or indeed had an ounce of sense of any kind when it comes to direction I would have been prepared for the missing chunk of road.  Unfortunately I have neither common sense nor sense of direction; and the nice smooth red line on the map did not equate with the spinal shock and bruised posterior I had suffered whilst on a bus heading back into Accra the previous week.  I therefore discovered that not only was the road still under construction in certain places, but that it takes about 45 minutes to cover 40 miles of sand, mud and bomb sized craters when sitting on the back of a motorbike.  This was about as uncomfortable as sliding down 5 flights of stairs when wearing only one’s pyjamas. Having been in trouble numerous times as a child for doing this I can say with a fair amount of authority the resulting friction burns from sliding back and forth on denim also feel uncomfortably similar.

It was with great relief and happiness that I saw the sign to Linda Dor service and rest area and stopping for a quick break was an option.  A quick Fandango later and I was good to get back on the bike and start heading north again… I ummed and ahhhed for a bit about whether or not I wanted to brave the restrooms- public restrooms have never been a preferred option, but given the fact we had covered so few miles I really felt it would be a good move.  So, I queued up outside to pay for my toilet paper (it came pre folded and cost 20 pesewa) and then I was allowed inside.  I was actually quite stunned by the size of the room and the number of stalls, there were two long rows of immaculately kept stalls and only two people using the facilities.  Despite the fact there was a sign in the parking lot quite explicitly saying, “It is forbidden to urinate here” it turns out at least three people thought the sign did not apply to them, and even that they could use it as a target, or a balance pole.  Turns it was there loss as this was possibly the best-equipped restroom I have encountered since arriving in Ghana.  The doors to the cubicles may have been without a closing mechanism but that is why you take a bag with you, right?  To prop the door closed?  Better than that tho were the automatic, motion sensitive soap dispensers, complete with soap, AND the automatic, motion sensitive paper towel dispenser complete with paper towels, and functioning power.  It was truly worth the entire trip just for this.  20 pesewa well spent, and I would be happy to give more.

I would like to say that I will not be recounting any more restroom stories for the remainder of the blog, but that would be blatantly untrue, and just not funny.  The other one involved a garage with an impeccable clean restroom- it would put anything but Buckee’s to shame!  It had a roster on the wall for cleaning duties, it had soap, towels, and tissue no running water and a goat that came charging at me head down as soon as I opened the door!  Short tussle with the goat later- you’ll see me roping cattle at the rodeo yet- and the restroom was mine!

The rest of the roads toward Kumasi and beyond were indeed paved, if not with gold, then a more modern equivalent- tarmac and it was indeed full on 24K tarmac at that.  It was a long, flat black ribbon of it stretching all the way ahead of us… or at least until we were about 40 miles from our destination, and then it changed into sand, mud, ridges, gravel and potholes.  It was truly the most uncomfortable, bone jarring, brain shacking experience I have ever had the misfortunate to encounter.

Luckily for my back the adventure was about to take a more interesting turn, for no sooner was the National Park in sight and unpacking, relaxing and looking at some wildlife seeming a distinct possibly the lightning started to flash, the thunder started to rumble and the clouds gathered, heavy and dark.  This was no flash in the pan storm either… it was a full on all night and into the next morning job.  Which meant that the sand, the mud and the gravel had all turned into clay, mud and gouges of missing road.  There was no way the bike was coming down that track.

So, at 6:30am, in the rain and with the distant echoes of thunder still ringing in the air it was time to find someone with an 4 x 4 flatbed to transport the bike 40 miles cross country and back to the tarmac… five men, a broken windshield, a bent tailgate, broken roll bars and five hours later we arrived back on a tarmacked road! 

There was so much more to this adventure- but I’m just not sure it can be done justice here- the video (to follow) might be much better at telling the story than me!

I have also missed out- the randomness of road name in Kumasi, the most amazing Indian meal I have eaten in a long time, the beauty of the Black Volta, the 13^th Century Mosques, the amazing Ashanti Gold Mining towns, an the medieval feeling of some of the “forgotten” villages… but this was truly an African Adventure worthy of its own book- not reflections in a blog.

Ghana be... fun

Koforidua

This week has seen more travel, and true to form there have been some of the usual trials and tribulations to test patience and ingenuity.  The only difference was, this time I was traveling with 46 Grade 6’s, and luckily five fantastic chaperones. 

The weather at the minute appears to have two settings: HOT, HOT, HOT or WET, WET, WET and over this trip we had both in equal measure.  Torrential downpours, thunder and lightening, and bright blue skies, vivid colors and scorching Africa temperatures, unfortunately the rain the and lightening came at a time when we were all supposed to be outside at the famous bead market- so that was one place I didn’t get to go to, and I will have to head back to at a future date.

The first stop was at a Government School in Mampong.  We were to meet with their Grade 6 students, the age at which compulsory schooling ends in Ghana, and swap experiences.  The students at this school treated us to some amazing drumming and traditional dancing, these were highly talented students; we were also treated to some poetry recitals and a tour of the school.  I only wish I had had the confidence to get up and put on a performance like these twelve year olds did when I was their age.  What I found fascinating was the tour of the school.  Each grade was taught all together in a single classroom, desks in rows and sentences to learn written on the board.  Each child stood to answer a question and all stood as we entered the room en mass.  To me it all seemed very traditional, and all students from the youngest to the oldest followed these rules.  I think maybe the most bewildering feature (for anyone who has taught in a British School) was the school uniform.  It was uniform.  All shirts were tucked in, all the time, all skirts/ shorts were of knee length and everyone managed to wear every piece of clothing exactly were it was meant to be worn.  It really was an impressive feat. 

Koforidua is the capital of the Eastern Region in Ghana and was founded in 1875 by the Ashanti who were moving south due to tribal divisions.  It was at one time the largest cocoa producing area in Ghana and it is still the oldest area, still producing cocoa today.  (See, I was listening the Chief’s talk).  It is also home to the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana- another stop on our tour.

As the Ashanti have strong connections here one activity that we had planned to do was to visit the Shrine of the Ashanti Priest.  Unfortunately he died just before we arrived, which from a selfish point of view threw the trip planning into a little bit of disarray as an alternative activity was found.  (No, I did not have this eventuality written into my plan or my risk assessment.  I see that this was an oversight on my part and as such it won't happen again.)  Luckily we had the CRIG to visit instead.  I have absolutely no idea how these priests are chosen, and how the tradition is passed on, this is something I will have to research as I am actually interested and more than a little disappointed that we couldn’t visit.  However, this did not seem like the time to call and ask for more information.

 

Again, I was paying attention to the talk that we were given and it turns out the CRIG was first established in 1938, and continued when Ghana got independence in 1957 and then as Nigeria followed in 1960 they continued to work together to ensure that the quality of cocoa was high, and the diseases common to the plant were under control.  All of this is good news, as Ghana and the Koforidua region continue to supply Nestle and Kraft who happen to be two of my favorite food manufacturing companies.

Next up was the Chief’s Palace- and this is where I managed to glean a lot of the facts and dates I have mentioned.  Despite careful explanation I am still mot sure I totally understand the succession rules.  It is passed down thru the maternal line, but only a man may sit on the stool and reign as chief.  So rather than pass from father to son, as far as I can understand it, it passes from uncle to nephew.   

The other main stop on the trip was Boti Falls, the Three Headed Palm Tree and Umbrella Rock.  Umbrella Rock is a precariously balanced outcrop of stone that brings good luck to anyone who climbs up it and writes their name on the overhang… my good luck came from the fact that none of the 46 students I had with me fell, tripped, banged heads or any such other disaster that I worried about happening (and yes, all of that had been written into my risk assessment).

This was followed by the Three Headed Palm tree; usually- I am reliably informed- palm tress grow with just one shoot, this one starts with one trunk and then splits into three, and it is all totally a natural phenomena- no cross breeding, no genetic manipulation, just magic (and Voodoo is still practiced here).  This palm tree has a huge base, each stem is about 70 cms in diameter and all have lush green leaves and coconuts.  It is said that if you sit on the tree you will give birth to twins, a good reason to avoid lingering too long here!

The final part of this hike was Boti Falls, a waterfall of 150 feet high and located on the Ponpon River.  Again this was a lush green area, and because the dry season is ending the pool and the waterfall are very dry.  However, the tourist authorities are working on developing this site and making it more accessible, they have built in roads and tracks rather than just hiking routes, and they have built a 250 step staircase down to the bottom of the waterfall.  This does seem to make it safer and easier to navigate – even if the steps are uneven and have varying depths.  If you visit at the right time of the year then there are two water flows that merge here creating a rainbow.  However, at this time there wasn’t enough water to see this.

This week also a quick note- some of the images (Umbrella Rock and the Three Headed Palm) come from Google as my photos all have students in.