Millipedes, crabs, lizards, oh my!

Hola amigos!

Sara and I have become accustomed to being greeted by every person that walks by us in smaller communities, being honked at my almost every passing taxi, and chanted exuberantly “obruni” by most children and some adults. Although we were afraid of being treated like walking ATMs, most people welcome us to the country and treat us as automatic friends. We’ve began adventuring in the neighbourhood around our homestay and work place, and have found a few storefronts with owners we particularly enjoy and are becoming regulars at. Near our house, the children on the block have become more excited every time we walk by- they seem to be overcoming their shyness of us. Sara and I enjoy going for walks, but that seems to be a bit foreign to the locals. We wander with no specific end point (though sometimes we’re looking for a store with ice cream to beat the heat), but many people stop us to ask where we’re going or if we need a car. One day a boy was walking behind us with his friends and asked several times if we were sure we didn’t need a car. When we arrived at the closest cross-road he exclaimed, “We are at the junction, NOW do you need a car!?”

There is a path that takes us from our home to a taxi station where we sometimes pick a car to go out. On the side of most roads, there are drains for sewage, which have boards or concrete blocks to walk across from the road to the store fronts (there are no sidewalks). A natural (I think) stream also serve this purpose at times, and on the path to the taxi station there is a little board bridge, quite slippery, to get across. Locals sometimes laugh as we carefully meander across the bridge, and through the path, which is almost always wet, even on a dry day, and flooded on a rainy day. Luckily, some of the people in our communities at home and work are getting used to our little walks and are less shocked to see us two obrunis aimlessly wandering.  Another Cooperant in Botswana has a blog called, “All Who Wander Are Not Lost,” and I think this is a perfect description of my adventures in Ghana thus far. I will find it very hard to leave in two months.

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On Friday night George and his friends took Sara and I to a Karaoke bar that seems to be all the rage for tourists. Sara and I estimated that about 1/5 of the people there were not locals. There were many younger people of Asian descent, and many middle aged white men, and ourselves. We were the first to do karaoke, and stone-cold sober, we drew many stares. We were terrible, of course. As the night drew on, it transformed from a karaoke bar to a dance club, and we met some other youth doing interesting things in the country.

Davina and Heather visited us in Takoradi, and although I was sick in bed on Saturday with some sort of food poisoning, Sara took them out to show them our regular spots. On Sunday we all went to church with the family. We went to a different church this week than last week, much larger, with an impressive blue steeple, and the size of a cathedral on the inside. This church had an organ, as well as drums, and a very large choir, which I really enjoyed.

I am very excited for this weekend, because Team Ghana and myself are going to the Canadian Embassy in Accra for a Canada Day barbeque and celebration for all of the Canadians in the country. Sara and I have met one Canadian so far, a university student from Winnipeg with Journalists for Human Rights, and are looking forward to meeting others. We will also head to Boti Falls for a celebration. Coincidentally, July 1^st is also Ghana Republic Day, a National Holiday, and thousands of people flee to the falls for a celebration on July 1^st, and foreign visitors are welcome. The falls are the tallest in West Africa, and there is a small lake that is safe for swimming.

I am now in Half-Assini, a coastal town in West Ghana. I have come with Kwesi from work and a team from another NGO. I arrived yesterday evening, and am staying until Thursday. The drive here was beautiful and fascinating. We took “the road less travelled” for the most part, going through lush tropics and small villages. On the main road, the towns were similar to what I have seen else where, but on the back roads, they seemed very isolated, with simple mud huts with thatched roofs, no sign of electricity, just fires and people outside. Around Axim, Kwesi said told me that there are more coconut trees in that small area than people in all of Ghana. I never really knew how tall coconut trees were until I came to Ghana. We also passed many kilometres of rubber tree plantations, and the factory as well, which smelled strongly of rubber, of course. I also enjoyed the cattles just chilling in the middle of the road. They don’t move for you, you move for them.

Today I was able to adventure on the coast of Half-Assini, the town I’m staying in. The beach here is natural a beautiful, covered in sea shells and coconut shells. I walked along the sand admiring the palm trees over head and the fishing boats in the distance. There were many crab holes in the sand, and at first I was unable to see any crabs, expecting them to be red or pink, in my coastal inexperience. They turned out to be smaller than I expected, and ran so fast, faster than I can really understand is possible, and were the same colour of the sand, camouflaging well. I finally found one that stopped moving, and took a photo. Can you see it?

Crab camouflaged at Half Assini

Kwesi said it was okay to go up to the fishing community where all the boats were, so I was able to get many beautiful photographs of the boats, the ocean, the communities, and the palm trees overhead. Child were playing about, and were so excited by my presence, asking for photos exuberantly, then very excited to see them on my camera afterwards. I introduced myself to each of them, asking their names and telling them mine, then shaking their hands, which some didn’t really seem to understand. We saw some men taking their fish out of the nets, and I liked to look at the boats to see the fishing techniques I’ve been reading about at work.

Kwesi showing me shark fin on the beach

A new friends, Solomon, showing me how to remove fish from the nets

Overall, a beautiful walk. :) 

Also in Half-Assini- lizards everywhere! I have seen many in Takoradi, but nothing like this! I have literally seen hundreds today, some small a green, some much larger (the size of squirrels!) with orange heads and black bodies and big thick tails. I attended a meeting at the District Assembly for Jomoro today on Development Plans, and lizards just came in and out at their ease.  I have also seen several millipedes, which are fat and curl up sometimes, and a few cockroaches.

Hope the sunshine is treating everyone well where ever you are!

Caro