Getting out of Accra...

This weekend Trish, Shanika and I headed northeast of Accra to Ghana’s Volta region. [SEE BLACK LINE ON THE MAP FOR A VISUAL] Unlike our friends who had gone a few weeks back, we were somewhat less prepared. At one point it was actually acknowledged that of the three of us, I was the most organized… right, so you get the general idea then. Interestingly enough though, I think it was our lack of preparation that made the trip fantastic. Our trip began with Shanika receiving a phone call from her boss, informing her that two of the volunteers she looks after (oh that made TPA - Teaching and Projects Abroad - sound like a babysitting service… it's not, sorry-o!) are at the Trust Hospital because they thought they had malaria. On a side note this seems awfully common… people ending up at the hospital because they think they have malaria… I don’t think you could pay me enough to sit in that place and WAIT for six hours while probably exposing yourself to loads of other ACTUAL illnesses, when you probably just have a bad case of the flu, but hey, that’s just me I guess. So Trish and I hung out at the food court, Bradt guide in hand [best guide to Ghana ever, with fabulous commentary], contemplating what we should do, or rather, where we should go.

After some deliberating, Shanika arrived and we set on checking out this “Eco-Lodge,” which was described in the Bradt guide as somewhere you could relax, swim and enjoy the beautiful surroundings… sounded rather perfect actually. We made Shanika call the lodge to make sure there was availability (in retrospect it’s kind of hilarious we did this). They assured us that they could accommodate us, and explained where we should catch the tro from to get there. We headed over to the ‘long-distance’ tro parking lot, elicited loads of intrigued stares and with virtually no problems found our tro, paid our fare (1.90 USD), inquired how long the ride would be (2 hours) and found some seats on the relatively empty tro. Now it is necessary to explain that tros here (short OR long distance) wait until the very last seat is filled before departing (well usually anyway)… this meant we waited for what felt like an hour before we departed. That wouldn’t have been the worst thing, but it was absolutely sweltering outside… so you can imagine how much worse it was on the tro. Let’s just say we’re officially Ghanaian now, because we each have a handkerchief (read: sweat rag). Still aside from being hot and sweaty, it was a decent ride, and I think the fact that this older lady grabbed Trish’s arm when she came on to the tro and said: “You are welcome!” made it that much better… I love the small niceties in Ghana. Sometimes I think they even make up for the hissing and honking! :)

So a few hours later, we realized we didn’t know where we were getting off (this would have never happened to Naureen et al., I’m just saying, ahaha). So with the help of virtually EVERYONE sitting around us and the Bradt guide we determined that what we thought was one town, Anum-Boso, was actually two separate towns. When we pulled up in Anum, we hummed and ha’d for a bit, and decided to get off in the next town, Boso. This was a huge mistake, because Anum, as we found out later, has a regular taxi service, whereas Boso… not so much.

When we got out of the tro in Boso it was very apparent we were no longer in Accra. This was small town Ghana… and we were pretty sure no one had ever seen an Obruni before… let alone three, looking rather lost and toting backpacks. After refusing to pay 40,000 cedis (4 USD) for a taxi to the Eco Lodge (we thought it was 30,000), we wandered down what appeared to be the main road in hope that we might come across another taxi. How wrong we were.

After a few minutes of reveling in the silence of the town, we came upon a porch where a few guys hanging out. We decided to inquire about the taxi situation, since things weren’t looking too promising for us. A lady wearing funeral garb (black and brown/black and red) explained that there was no regular taxis in Boso, only Anum, but that we were welcome to wait on her porch. We were quite taken aback when a few of the guys brought a bench for us to sit on and wait… We began chatting with the lady, who it turned out lived in London, and was in Ghana for two consecutive funerals. She was absolutely lovely and after a few minutes of waiting told us we should go with her driver who would take us to the lodge. You can imagine our surprise… we had just met this woman! We tried to refuse her generous offer, but she insisted, saying that we shouldn’t pay her (when we offered), but we could tip the driver. It was one of those moments that makes you remember Accra is somewhat like many other big cities: cold and impersonal… it doesn’t necessarily reflect Ghana very well at all.

TBC tomorrow…