A Weekend in Volta

We have been working hard and have a busy few weeks ahead of us, so as last weekend was our last chance to travel in Africa together on our own, we decided to take an extended weekend and head to the Volta Region. The Volta Region is along the eastern border that Ghana shares with Togo. When Ghana gained its independence in 1957, the Volta Region was incorporated into the new country with the agreement that after 50 years it could choose to remain part of Ghana, become part of Togo, or become its own republic. 2007 marked Ghana’s 50^th anniversary and the region is in the process of deciding its fate. It is the largest region in Ghana and home to the Wli Waterfall;, Afadjato mountain (the largest mountain in Ghana and some argue in all of West Africa); Lake Volta, the largest man-made lake in Ghana, and a monkey sanctuary to name a few.

Wednesday morning we rose early, packed, ate breakfast and headed out to get a good start on the day Silly us for thinking we could do anything in something remotely resembling a timely fashion. As we have come to say in Africa….hurry up and wait. We set off in a tro-tro to Accra with Pricilla, one of the Valued Girls. She would take us to the bus station where we would take a bus to Hohoe in the Volta Region. After sitting in traffic in Accra for nearly an hour without moving, we opted to get off and walk to the bus station which ended up only being a few blocks away. Carrying our bas through the busy streets of downtown Accra was comical at best. After some confusion with Pricilla about whether or not we wanted to take a big bus or tro-tro for the 3 hour trip, we secured our 6 Cedis fare (approximately $4) on a big bus, sat down, and waited.

In Ghana, you can get almost anything you need anywhere you are from people selling goods along the roads and literally in the streets in traffic. This was no exception. Once we boarded the bus and were waiting for it to depart, we were able to buy fried rice with chicken and strawberry frozen yogurt through the window – could have bought books, toothbrushes, Mentos, cell phone credits, you name it they sell it. I’m going to have a hard time sitting in traffic on I-5 without being able to do all of my grocery shopping and errands at the same time.

Only 20 minutes behind schedule, the bus started up after a few attempts and several puffs of diesel fumes and we headed out into traffic. Within a minute, we came around a corner, hit a taxi and causing it to sideswipe a teenage boy on a bicycle. A crowd quickly gathered, the bus driver jumped out and there was a lot of shouting in Twi and hand gesturing we couldn’t make out. The boy took off o his mangled bike, the taxi driver sped off, and our driver got back on, started up the bus, and we were off again. And only 4 hours after we left home!!

The Volta Region is gorgeous. It’s very lush and tropical with beautiful green hills. The villages in the region are much quieter than the villages where we are staying. There are acacia trees everywhere. On Thursday we got up and went out to the Wli Waterfall. We arrived at the visitor center and met our guide, Wisdom. He took us on the trail to the waterfall, which was about an hour walk. The falls were beautiful, and there were hundreds of humongous bats hanging on the cliffs around it. After the falls we went back to the village of Wli which is almost on the border of Togo. We convinced Wisdom to walk us over to Togo just so we could say we’d been. It was about a half mile walk to the border and luckily we had remembered to bring our passports with us. We didn’t have visas for Togo, but Wisdom assured us it wouldn’t be a problem, he knew one of the border patrol agents. Sure enough, after a few minutes of talking in Ewe, the Volta Region dialect, we were allowed to pass. We crossed the border and entered No Man’s Land, a half mile of road that is neither Ghana nor Togo. We reached a stone on the side of the road that was the official border and crossed into Togo. When we got to the actual border crossing point, we were met by a Togolese border patrol agent. He looked at our passports, and asked why we didn’t have visas for Togo but we had them for Kenya. Wisdom explained to him that we just wanted to walk around a bit and sightsee. The agent said that he would have to keep our passports until we got back to make sure we didn’t stay in Togo. Keep in mind, this agent had no official uniform or anything identifying himself as an agent….just a guy sitting at the border station. We were all a little unsure of the situation, but decided that we would go for it. We met a small boy walking down the road and said “hello” which he didn’t understand. Finally Chasity said hello in French which he understood. Amazing that just a few feet from Ghana, where everyone speaks English, it’s French or Ewe only. We walked up the road for about a mile, stopped to watch some Europeans building an orphanage and decided to head back. When we got to the Togolese border, we found the agent sitting on a motorcycle surrounded by 3 guys. He was holding our passports and definitely didn’t look like he was going to be giving them back. He tried to get us to pay and we were sure it would be an astronomical fee. He and Wisdom exchanged what appeared to be some heated words in Ewe and after a few tense minutes we were allowed to pass. Apparently Wisdom has friends that work for the Ghanaian border and he reminded this Togolese agent that his sister and aunties cross the border to buy and sell goods and if we weren’t allowed back into Ghana he would make it difficult for the relatives to pass. Helps to have friends here we have found!!!! . When we got back we decided to take a tro-tro to Hohoe instead of paying for a taxi…and as always, had quite the adventure. Hohoe was about half an hour drive by taxi…and it took an hour and 45 minutes by tro-tro. Apparently the driver had to make several stops to do errands on the way. This included driving through several people’s front yards to get coal, we surprised a young man taking a shower as we nearly clipped him. At one point there were palm leaves on the floor at my feet, huge bags of cocoa beans sticking out the back, something tied to the roof, and who knows what else, all in the tro-tro. At this point everyone else had gotten off and it was just 3 obronis exhausted and not sure what else to do or where we were going to end up. We even went back to the border to Togo to drop something off and pick something up. Eventually we made it back, just another day in Ghana.

The next day we went to Afadjato, the tallest mountain in Ghana and, as it is debated, perhaps all of West Africa. Our guide this day was Paul. We decided for the sake of time to hike to the waterfall there instead of up the mountain as it would be dark by the time we got there. Toward the end of the trail, I felt something bite my toe. I looked down to see a very large ant and when I looked around I realized they were everywhere. I pulled the ones that were already on my feet and legs out and as Paul advised…..I ran. Jenny was right behind me and wasn’t quite as lucky, she had them all over and they managed to get all the way up her pants, biting all the way. Getting rid of them required immediate removal of clothes……I’m sure Paul saw more of us that day than he was comfortable with. We made it to the waterfall, and again it was breathtaking. We stayed and sat a while, Chasity and Paul having rock skipping contests….I think Paul was declared the winner.

That night we went to our friend Nii’s house for dinner, who we'd met the weekend before at Kokrobite beach (that post to come!!!) to learn how to make ground nut soup. It was an amazing process to watch, I have to admit that with Nii and his friend Godxon in charge and Chasity trying to help……I didn’t do much other than watch! He used all kinds of fresh ingredients, some I had never heard of (garden egg? Who knew?!) and the rice was local rice from a field nearby. Ground nut soup is a nut based broth that gets thick when you cook it , then you put in chicken and have it with rice balls. We have all become addicted to it and have it almost every day. This was by far the best we have had with all the fresh vegetables. There were 6 of us and it was just like a dinner party at home, except not. We sat on the porch and the kids from the houses next door came and talked to us and danced with us and listened to reggae. It was really nice to be at a friends’ house hanging out, it felt like a normal life for the first time in a while.

The next day we got up early and went to the monkey sanctuary. The monkeys in this particular forest are thought to be sacred. We fed them bananas and they would peel them down and take chunks out of our hands very delicately. Our taxi driver Godwin came with us and when we were done walking through the sanctuary, he took us to his cousin’s house so that Chasity could ride the motorbike. We walked up to the house and were greeted by about 10 men sitting around in a circle in the front yard, one from the Ghana army. They brought chairs out and insisted we sit with them. Chasity and Godwin went off for their ride and Jenny and I sat with the men. We got several marriage proposals which we politely declined. They began to pass a bottle of palm wine around, which we have not had yet and have been told is a must at least once. This particular bottle however had some unidentifiable particles in it and was really dark and dirty looking so we passed.

We left Hohoe on a “bus” (really just an air conditioned tro-tro) at 5 and were told it would be 2-1/2 hours max. Oh Ghana. Fool me once……..about half an hour into the drive the driver pulled over to put oil in as it appeared to be leaking. We did this about 5 more times until the driver gave up and pulled over and told us to get out and he would call another vehicle. Apparently by call he just meant try to flag someone down on the road. We were halfway back to Accra, in the middle of nowhere, stranded on the side of the road in the dark. There were a few stands and we wandered around a little; bought some credits for the cell phone, met some children and bought them toys. After 2 hours we got a regular tro-tro to Accra and made it home by midnight: dirty and exhausted, but another amazing experience. TIA…….This is Africa.