Center of the World

So I was in Ghana, the closest country to the center of the world! Our ship’s port was in Tema, about a 40 minute bus ride to Accra, the capital and biggest city. I don’t really know how to say this but Ghana was one of the most “real” ports to me. Maybe it was because tourism is not as big and I saw the “real” Africa that I’ve only seen in textbooks and movies before—the villages with clay houses, women walking around with baskets on their heads—it was all just the real thing.
My first day in Ghana was full of music, smiling faces, and Africa at its Africanest. Allyn, Courtney and I decided to go into Accra and explore for the day since we were leaving for trips into the country the next day. We took the shuttle into Accra which dropped us off at this tall, out-of-place, bright purple building which I think was a hotel or bar or something. It was by far the tallest building around, and we were in the center of the biggest city in Ghana (it would be a tiny building compared to any US city). All around us were relatively run-down buildings and street vendors. We had the name of a pretty well-known cultural arts market so we got in a cab and drove about 10 minutes there. As soon as we stepped out into the dirt and walked into the maze of shacks that made up the market, Ghanaian guys from every direction came over shaking our hands and asking our names. They would just hold on to our hands the whole time we were introducing ourselves- it was kinda funny. One guy named Joseph kept saying ‘one love’ and kept calling me Michele Obama, and insisted I come look at his paintings. I talked with him for a while and he was really nice so I went to his booth and looked at his paintings which were so amazing. All of these guys in the market who were just normal young guys could make all these incredible crafts- they are soo talented! So I ended up buying a couple of his paintings and he showed me this huge one he did of Michelle Obama- it was amazing. I asked Joseph where I could get a drum because all the guys were sitting around playing their drums, and so he took me through the market to I guess his friends shop where he sat me down and gave me a drum lesson! He taught me a bunch of different rhythms and I sat there for about an hour having the greatest time, and trying to keep up with him and all the other guys who joined in. Every single one of the guys there is incredible at the drums- it’s almost like they’re all born with the natural talent. So after playing for a while and Allyn and Courtney found me in the shop, Joseph asked  if I wanted my name carved into my drum and I said of course! I had spent a lot of time there with them and it was finally time to continue on and explore the rest of Accra, so I had to say goodbye to Joseph and my new friends. It’s hard to leave new friends after spending such a short time with them, but once again I was so happy to meet such friendly locals and be instantly welcomed.
We took a cab back to the main street of Accra where we were first dropped off and attempted to find some good African food for lunch. Part of our group was so hungry and dehydrated and  decided to settle at a fast food place right on the street, but me and my friend Erin really wanted to find a local restaurant with Ghanaian food. We asked a man who told us about Asanka, a popular place with the locals that was a little walk away. Erin and I walked along the street, asking different people until we found it. Asanka was kind of like a big open-air pavilion, with a kitchen in the front where huge pots of food were being prepared. We sat down and looked at the menu which had everything I had wanted to try in Ghana! luckily I had written down what a bunch of the names meant in our “cultural pre-port” the night before when our Ghanaian student was speaking about the food. Anyhow, I ended up ordering banku with grilled tilapia and Erin ordered Red Red. Basically, despite having to wait foreverrr for our food (they’re pretty slow and easy-going in Ghana), this was one of the most delicious meals I’ve had on this entire trip. Banku is this type of cornmeal dough that you usually eat with soup or fish and a type of sauce. Mine came with a whole grilled tilapia—head, tail, bones, and all—and a spicy tomato and pepper salsa. It was delicious- the freshest tasting fish I’ve ever had. Erin’s red red was a kind of bean dish accompanied by fried plantains- the best part about Ghanaian food! So in Ghana you eat everything with your hands, and the waiter brings out a bowl of water and hand soap which you use to wash yourself with. Anyway, I was very happy to have the chance to try real Ghanaian food, since that is one of my favorite things about visiting these countries! Their food is so flavorful yet so simple- most meals just consist of a soup or stew with fish, some kind of corn dough, and plantains.. yum :)
After being very satisfied with lunch, Erin and I walked back to the main street where the fast food place was to find Allyn and Courtney. They had heard of a big soccer game going on at the stadium so we decided to try to go there. We got in a cab which took us to the stadium but the game apparently wasn’t starting until way later. Sooo, we asked the driver to take us to Global Mama’s, a fair trade organization which sells traditional crafts by women in Ghana. we drove a long ways, along the coast (back at the Atlantic Ocean!!) until the driver pulled into this nice beach resort.. I think the only resort in Ghana. He had misunderstood where we wanted to go, so we had to drive all the way back to Osu, a suburb in Accra where Global Mama’s is. The store was awesome- all handmade crafts and clothing made by women in Ghana, and all the proceeds go directly to them or the NGO’s helping their businesses. I also bought a cookbook with all the traditional Ghanaian recipes :)
After spending a little too much money and feeling pretty dehydrated, we continued walking through the colorful streets of Accra, not really knowing how to spend the rest of our day. This city is pretty small for being the biggest in Ghana! We decided to stop at Frankie’s, a hotel/ice cream parlor/restaurant/bar, to rest for a while and watch a little soccer on tv. Finally we decided just to head back to Tema where the ship is, and attempt to go out around there for the evening. We took the shuttle back, showered, and tried to go out but Tema is more of an industrial city.. so there wasn’t much around and it was getting dark and a little sketchy. We ended up just coming back, packing, and getting some sleep for our eco-adventure the next couple of days :)
Allyn and I left early in the morning with a group of about 20 for our 2 day eco-adventure in the Volta region. Unfortunately everything is pretty far from everything else so the trip ended up being A LOT of driving. We drove about 4 hours in the morning—the bumpiest ride of my life—into the tropical rural region of Ghana. All of the roads were dirt roads with huge bumps and random pot holes about every 2 feet. We drove through several rural villages, passing mud and stick houses, goats and chickens wandering about, and women carrying everything on their heads from bowls of watermelons, to piles of yams, and I even saw one man carrying a sewing machine up there! It was really neat to see the real Africa- seeing these villages and people as they actually live. I saw children around the community well pumping water into their buckets to carry back to their houses, and women sitting around their one-room huts pounding fufu with a huge mortar and pestle.
After the long drive we arrived at the base of Mount Afadjato, the highest mountain in Ghana. We started the hike, which takes you 885 meters up, and about 5 minutes in we were all dying. First of all, the air around us was hardly air, it was more like a pool of humidity and the temperature had to be at least 100 degrees. Secondly- the hike literally went straight up for the entire hour it took, with no flat land… at all. There were signs along the way saying “don’t give up”, “don’t be a quitter”. Some people didn’t make it all the way up, but when I got up there in about an hour, it was definitely worth it. I’ve never been so drenched in sweat, but the 360 degree view around this little mountain peak was incredible. I was at the highest point in Ghana and I felt like I had deserved it. The view all around me was of smaller mountains and a few little villages here and there with their dirt roads and colorful shacks. Desperately needing water I started back down, which turned out to be even harder than going up. My legs were shaking from being so worked on the way up, and it’s just hard to descend straight down a mountain without falling! At that point I really missed Sugarloaf. I felt much better when I got down and got some water, because I lovee hiking and any chance I get to move around and not be sitting on a bus when we’re in port! The only thing then was that it was about 1pm, we hadn’t eaten since 6am, we just climbed a mountain, and we weren’t getting lunch until we drove another couple hours to the waterfalls. We were all dying for energy and when we asked our tour guide Emmanuel it was like he didn’t even have a plan for us ever eating lunch. Soo, we drove an hour or two more until we reached the Wli Waterfalls, where we finally got our bagged lunches and had to hike another hour through the jungle until we reached the falls and could sit down and eat. It was a gorgeous hike through the trees and over little bridges (crossing the same river 11 times!), passing children and their mothers washing clothes in the streams and kids chasing after us giving us mangoes they picked off the trees. Apart from the poorly-planned trip and being so energy-drained, the nature we got to enjoy was gorgeous and well worth it. Stepping into sight of the waterfalls was incredible- I think they’re the tallest falls in Ghana, and there is a constant rainbow sprawling across the base of them. The water looked SO refreshing and inviting but I was SO hungry- so I stuffed my sandwich in my mouth and rushed into the clear water. The water came cascading down a huge cliff—which I later noticed was covered in bats—into a beautiful pool of water below. As I walked in closer to the falls I could feel the spray and it was hard to keep my eyes open when we got too close. The feeling was amazing-- the most refreshing cool mist coming from clean water straight from the mountains. At one point I looked up to see a swarm of bats circling around and around overhead- the coolest sight. I made my way under the falls and it felt like a nice back massage, but a little painful when the water came down too hard, haha. So once again to go along with our poorly planned trip, they called us out of the water after being there for a total of 45 minutes… including the time to eat our lunch :( I was a little annoyed but they said we would miss dinner at our hotel which was a few hours away. It was frustrating to have to spend the majority of our trip riding in the bus, but I guess it was inevitable if we wanted to get to all these places. Also SAS has to find the absolute nicest hotels available for all of their trips, so we had to drive 3 more hours to this unnecessary resort-like hotel when we could have stayed at any little local place near the falls. Seriously- I didn’t even know hotels like this existed in rural villages of Ghana. It felt a little out-of-place… Allyn and I walked into our room which was actually 3 rooms- a front room, a huge bedroom with 2 queen beds and a fridge, and a bathroom with a shower which I couldn’t even touch both walls when I stretched my arms out. Sorry for the vivid description but it just seemed ridiculous that after spending all day in rural Ghana seeing these villages with one-room huts and no running water- that we would stay in a mansion like this. Anyhowww, we had a buffet dinner at the hotel restaurant, and then finally got a chance to wash off all the sweat and dirt from the day. It was a long and exhausting day but I was glad to be in the real heart of Ghana.
The next morning Emmanuel told us breakfast was at 6, because we needed to get on our way to Tafi Atome village, yet another 3 hours away. It ended up only taking us an hour to get there because there was no traffic… so basically we woke up at 5:30 for nothing because the village was the only thing we were doing that day and we’d only be there for 2 hours. Anyway, the drive to Tafi Atome was really cool- we drove through some bigger villages bustling with people walking around selling their goods in the market. I feel like everyone sells the same thing- fruits, bread, water, prepared street foods… I just don’t get who buys it all if they’re all selling it. And it’s not like there are many tourists around to buy anything.. it’s just all the locals who all have access to the same things. They all stared as our huge bus came bouncing down their little dirt streets and waved to us like we were celebrities. We made it to Tafi Atome, a unique village that practices conservation by keeping their wild monkeys sacred. First we walked into the forest where the friendly mona monkeys were jumping about in the trees around us. The guy who led us brought some bananas and made some monkey calls to lure them to us. Once they saw bananas in our hands they each came forward, eyeing us suspiciously and then jumping towards our hands to grab the banana. Some of them would sit while we held a banana and would peel it, taking off chunks and then running away. They were so cute! They would stuff a whole banana in their little mouths and run off before any others could steal it. So we had a fun time playing with the monkeys and I got to feed Commando- the king of the tribe. We continued through the forest, finding a different tribe of monkeys and some huuge bugs that looked like grubs from the lion king. These centipedes were longer than my hand!! They did look quite fat and juicy.. for a second I wanted to eat one.
We walked out of the forest and then had some time to explore the village.. From what I saw there was one long building which served as the school, and all the kids were sitting on the steps outside looking curiously over at us. Next to the school was the one-room church, and outside that was the well where some kids were filling buckets to take back to their houses. The rest of the village consisted of bamboo huts and small clay houses, with little goats wandering and people sitting around, either working around their homes or cooking meals or caring for babies….. It was real life. And we were just visitors, walking through their real life like it was a movie set or something. It was just kind of a strange feeling—even though they are relatively used to it with visitors coming to see their sacred monkeys, I just felt strange. There was one bright blue and yellow payphone randomly standing up in the middle of the dirt, which was so out-of-place and kinda funny.
So we didn’t have much time at Tafi Atome, not sure why since it was the only place we were going that day… but we got back on the bus, realized about a minute down the road that we forgot Wade at the village, went back to get him, and were headed out of the Volta region and back towards Accra. We crossed the Adome Bridge, the “most attractive bridge in Ghana” over Lake Volta which is the largest man-made lake in the world. Then we stopped for lunch at this gorgeousss resort hotel on the lake. It was even nicer than the one we stayed at- didn’t know that was possible. We had a nice buffet lunch and then hung out along the water for a while before heading back to the ship. I’ve realized how much cheaper all these SAS trips could be if they didn’t insist on booking the nicest hotels and restaurants, when we could just as easily stay in hostels and eat at local places on the streets. …especially while spending 2 days in the rural villages of Ghana. It just doesn’t seem right to drive 2 hours out of the way just to sleep in an upscale hotel. It’s also funny because if I compared our hotel to any one in the US, it would definitely not be considered “fancy”. We still had to turn on a heater to get hot water and there were lizards crawling all over the walls, but after spending so much time in these poor areas you get a whole new perspective on what’s “fancy”.
On the way back we stopped at a supermarket so we could have a chance to buy some Ghanaian chocolate our guide was talking about, which is supposed to be some of the best chocolate in the world. Cocoa is one of their largest exports, so I guess that would make sense. And mmm it was for sure the best I’ve had. Also being the cheapest since it’s made right there, I bought a lot to bring home to all of you reading this :)
Well, we got back home much earlier than planned, so Allyn and I and our friend Amanda decided to relax in the pool for a little since no one was on the ship, and then head out to Accra for dinner. Back in the bustling streets of Accra (but not really) we joined a couple other friends to attempt to find Bella Roma, an Italian place recommended to us. After asking a bunch of people we finally found it, this surprisingly awesome looking Italian lounge, randomly down some dark alley. We went inside and to our surprise found this gorgeous restaurant, much classier than I think any of us were expecting. We sat in a huge booth with pillows and ordered some delicious fresh mozzarella and tomato, the best garlic bread EVER, and margherita pizza with freshhhh basil. It was quite a satisfying meal, and then the owner came over and talked with us and gave us free dessert :) He’s from Rome and his family had this restaurant in Accra for years, which I thought was a pretty random place, and he did not seem like the type of person to fit in in Ghana. He said he likes it alright but I think he would fit in much better back in Rome. Anyway, we said goodbye and walked down the main street, stopping at an outdoor bar where all the locals were hanging out. Ghanaians are quite friendly people- so relaxed and easy-going, so they were a lot of fun to hang out with. We ended up seeing a lot of SASers all around town and luckily we caught the last shuttle back to Tema around 11.
My last day in Ghana I was spending at an orphanage, prepared to do service work and play with the kids. We left early for the Osu Children’s home, where we first got a tour of the whole place, including the school and the homes for the different age groups. There are orphans ranging from infants to kids in their 20’s, and they don’t get sent out on their own until they are sure they have real jobs to support themselves. It’s sad because some of the older kids can’t move out because they are still not educated enough to get jobs. Despite how friendly the orphan mothers are and how good of a program this is, it was still really depressing to witness. Their conditions aren’t the greatest and there are just too many kids to be able to give attention to each of them individually. They were happy doing the simplest things, like throwing a bouncy ball around with us for an hour, and then they received their tiny lunch bags with a little sandwich and a drink pouch. One kid I talked to named Atsu was 15, and he said his best friend was adopted a couple years ago and gets to live in California now. I asked him what his name meant and he said “twin”, so I asked where his twin was and he said very nonchalantly that he died as a baby. I was torn with my feelings the whole time I was there- it’s so good to know there are people who will take in orphans and street kids but so depressing that they still don’t have loving families or very nice living conditions. We spent some time scraping and painting walls, and then some time playing with the kids and holding the babies… they were so adorable. The worst thing was that when we left, we once again went to this super nice hotel for a huge buffet lunch. I don’t get SAS at all… we could have used the money that went to paying for that fancy buffet to give to the orphanage, and just had lunch on our own. Needless to say I felt pretty bad going to eat all that and be waited on while these kids we were just with had so little. Lunch was at least authentic African food though.. we had groundnut (peanut) soup with chicken, fish and vegetables, rice balls, and fried plantains… very tasty and very overfilling.
We got back to the ship kind of early, but I didn’t have enough time to go back into Accra before the ship would leave.  So I spent some time running and reflecting on everything I saw, and I realized I’m really glad we had a chance to stop in a place not so touristy and big-city-like like many of our other ports. That’s what made it so real for me, and I’d much rather have experiences like this than going to a bunch of famous sites to take pictures in front of.
I had a great time being in the center of the world, and it’s hard to believe I was really just in West Africa! Somehow I think I’ll believe it more when I get home and look back at all my pictures, but for now everything’s happening so fast and it’s hard to get my mind around the fact that I’m actually in all these places. We’re now well on our way to BRASIL, which I never gave much thought to before since it’s our last port…. buttt now that I’m researching it I’m getting SO excited. The culture and the cities seem so colorful and lively and fun. But I guess I’ll see for myself very soon :) I want to sleep in hammocks. We might go backpacking in Chapada Diamantina National Park, or travel around the coast of Bahia through the different beach towns- not sure yet. Whatever we decide to choose I’m determined to make it an AMAZING last port, the end of our journey, and the beginning of many more journeys. hopefully I just don’t get robbed..!
-Michele