Ghana… what an adventure it was. Ghana was probably the most “adventurous” port I’ve been too I would have to say. I got to experience some pretty legit stuff… like hardcore Africa. First of all, it was definitely almost a complete 360 from South Africa. There was a lot of poverty and reminded me a lot of India. It was also very dirty, REALLY hot and the drivers were crazy! It was an experience, that’s for sure. I’ve experienced some pretty crazy and insane drivers thus far on my trip (Viet Nam… Yangshuo… etc.), but honestly I don’t think I’ve ever felt so unsafe in a vehicle ever before haha. Taxi and bus drivers just bomb down the highway… don’t really think there’s a speed limit. It’s absolute craziness. We seriously had to be going 100 mph at some times, no lie! A little overwhelming… also most of the roads were under construction too, so the potholes just added an additional dramatic effect to the total experience lol. One of the coolest things I noticed about Ghana was that mostly women, but men as well, would carry absolutely anything you could think of on their heads… balancing just buckets of stuff, walking down the street. They would balance everything from eggs, baskets of drinks, or food, clothes… you name it!!! It was pretty impressive. Also the most precious thing, was the women would carry their babies on their backs by wrapping this fabric around their bodies. I actually noticed that a little in the townships in South Africa, but definitely not to the extent of what I saw in Ghana. I also I have never felt so “white” in my entire life… lol we turned heads everywhere we went and I can’t even tell you how many people came up to me wanting to shake my hand or just talk to me. I felt like a celebrity… but in more of an overwhelming way. Ghana isn’t necessarily a vacationing spot for Westerners!
So the night before we arrived in Ghana my plans completely changed around. I was planning on doing a lot of SAS trips and sticking around the ship for the most part, but some of my trips got messed up so I decided to go off with Jenna and Abbey for a couple nights. When we arrived in Tema we got a taxi right away and tried to find our hostel for the night… which turned into a 2 + hour epidemic! Our driver, Thomas, was somewhat of an asshole and got pretty frustrated with us, because we had him drive us to this hostel that actually was nonexistent… although we had been e-mailing this women back and forth who worked there? Yeah, we were pretty confused, it just didn’t make any sense at all. We ended up in a dangerous part of Accra supposedly, which our driver got mad about as well, but how did we know… it was our first time ever in Ghana! Oh well. He ended up taking us to this beach resort which was too expensive, but we found a less expensive one right down the road. After we got checked in and situated we decided to check out this bar/restaurant called Billy Jane’s which was right down the street. Here is where we met Kennedy, Benjamin and a few others who we became friends with right off the bat and would return back to Billy Jane’s on a few more occasions during our stay in Ghana to hang out with them. They seriously were some of the nicest people I have met on this entire trip and were just so welcoming. At night we went to this part of town called Osu, where we hit up a couple bars, met up with some other SASers and had a really fun time. We definitely showed them all that white girls CAN dance!!! Haha :P
The next morning we were back at Billy Jane’s recovering from the night and relaxed for a couple hours with the friends we made the day before. We ended up going to the market in the afternoon, where I picked up a lot of cool stuff… dresses, a drum and some paintings. I love African stuff… everything is just so unique and vibrant!! Some of my favorite things I have purchased have been in Africa. Our market experience though was by far one of the most overwhelming too haha which I thought I would never say after experiencing some of the markets in China or Viet Nam. Then again, I don’t think many Ghanaians see very many white people either and thinking that we have all the money in the world they probably thought we were gonna buy a lot of stuff… yeah right, I wish! Anyways, people would just literally grab me and try to drag me into their shops and I’ve never had so many people yelling at me at once haha I just wanted to look!!! But that is a concept they don’t understand very well apparently! We ended up bumping into some guys we met at the bar the night before who are drummers. We got to see people make the drums from scratch and got some drumming lessons!! It was really cool. I got this little drum with my name carved into it which I sadly had forgotten in the back of our taxi when we finally were taken back to the ship :( Oh well. Abbey actually surprised me and bought me a new one the last day we were in Ghana, what a sweetheart she is!
So that night we met Nash, who was gonna be our tour guide for the next day or so. A girl on the ship had gotten his contact info from some website that offered a village experience tour and overnight. It definitely sounded pretty cool and legit, so we were pretty pumped about it. We hopped on a bus with him and headed east from Accra towards the Lake Volta area. He said our bus ride was only supposed to take 2 hours when it took over 3, and after that we took this “45 minute” taxi ride to the village which turned into around 2 hours lol. It was definitely a long journey and we still didn’t really know what to expect. I think we ended up in a town called Cocoa and then we took a taxi up this mountain and into the middle of nowhere… the further we went up the mountain the less civilization there was. At one point he warned us that from then on out there would be no electricity hahaha. After an interesting ride we finally made it to this village, which I still don’t even remember what it was called, but there was no electricity and was absolutely in the middle of nowhere!!! Africa at its finest! Haha, I can’t even emphasize it enough! So we got to this village after midnight and Nash woke up the Chief so we could meet him, which I thought was crazy because it was so late, but he was expecting us. After we met him we chilled under the stars for a while and then finally went to bed. Our accommodations were a lot better than I had expected, but just so hot… don’t think I’ve ever been so hot and have sweat so much in my life, for real (and I sweat a lot haha). When we woke up in the morning the village people were pretty shocked to see these 3 random white girls just walking through the village, it was pretty hysterical. We got to socialize with the Chief and the people and my favorite part was to hang out with the kids and see where they went to school. They just were all so adorable!!! They all melted my hearts. We scared a couple of them though haha and made them cry… don’t think they’ve ever seen a white person in their lives! We also met this boy Michael who just completely intrigued us… he was one of the most ambitious kids I’ve ever met in my life. He was attending high school, but was explaining to us how it was expensive, and that he puts all his money towards it, because he knows in order to get a good job he needs a good education. His family is really poor and can’t afford to pay for his schooling, which is why he does it himself. He hopes to someday be able to come to the US to study further… and I really hope his dream will come true someday, he’s a smart cookie and definitely deserves the opportunity. Overall, being able to stay in this village was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve had traveling around the world, when it comes to true adventure and being immersed in someone else’s culture.
Later in the day we got to go to Lake Volta, the largest man-made lake in the world, where we got to go on a little canoe ride, which is pretty neat to say I’ve done! Got to go swimming at this hotel after, which was the best thing ever, since we were all so extremely overheated and sweating our butts off haha! Nash left to go get us food which took him over 2 hours to do… we were pretty skeptical and anxious, since we had given him the rest of our money for our tour and in the back on my mind I was just hoping that he didn’t just split and leave us stranded. He was just taking his sweet old time though, which we found a lot of Africans do actually haha. There was a few occasions while we were traveling with Nash that he would just get up and leave us, saying he would be right back, and hours later he would return… pretty funny. We headed back into Accra after that and since it wasn’t too late we decided to go back to Billy Jane’s one more final time to surprise our new friends!!! They were so happy that we showed up and once again, we ended up staying a few hours just hanging out with them. It was bittersweet when we had to leave for real though this time… they were so sad. It broke my heart a little bit! Especially when I know in the back on my mind that I probably won’t ever be returning back to Ghana again. Who knows.
Today, our last day in port I went to a psychiatric hospital tour for class, the only SAS trip that I still had followed through with lol! It was quite interesting to say the least… we got to see a lot of patients in their natural settings and honestly I felt like we were being a little intrusive so it made me feel uncomfortable at times. We got to go into one of the bad wards too, which made me feel the most uncomfortable of all the wards we got to see. I got back to the ship relatively early and a few hours shy of on-ship time, but ended up passing out for a few hours. Definitely a nap that I had been looking forward to ever since I left the ship the first day! Now we’ve left Ghana and are heading to Brazil, but actually have stopped to fuel up and it’s rocky as can be. I have a slight headache from all the motion… I hope I’ll be able to sleep! Can’t believe in a week I’ll be in Brazil and then a week and half after that I’ll be home, in NH. Wow. I have SO much to get done before though… like projects, presentations and exams. At least I’ll be kept pretty busy this time around while we’re at sea. I’m gonna try to post some pictures in the next few days or so too, so check back! Goodnight.
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