Wednesday the 4th of january i got up early and called Gyimah. I wanted to organise to go to a village to go and teach for the following week. He was very argumentative and unwilling to discuss it. It was very frustrating particularly since i was unsure as to why he was so hesitant to let me go. But in any case after the chat i finished getting ready for the day and set off on my adventures on my lonesome. I generally prefer to travel with people but travelling with yuzhong was very frustrating since her English was bad and she did things very slowly, she walked slowly, ate slowly, talked slowly. She too prefered not to travel with me since I do things very quickly. So in any case I began my days adventures.
I grabbed a couple of connecting tro tros and made it to Hans cottage. It's a hotel near cape coast that has crocodiles roaming loose on the grounds. They are 'tame' so i went up a patted one and even had a photo with one. I went on a walk about the grounds and mingled in amongst them. It made me mildly nervous but it all worked out for the best so that's ok.
Next i walked to the ostrich farm on the neighbouring property. But in order to get there i had to walk through some abandoned construction sites. That made me super nervous so i found two small girls and asked them to come with me. The went to tell their mother and to put on some shoes and then they skipped along beside me. They were initially shy but then they opened up and were quite intelligent. It turns out their father is a professor at Kumasi university which explains why their English is so good. So we saw the ostriches, they were ok, mildly interesting. On my way out we ran into the owner and he made me pay 5 cedis for entering his property and seeing the ostriches. I paid it though i think that price was excessive.
Next stop was the kakum national park. It took a while for me to catch a tro tro there and while i was standing on the side of the road a young boy befriended me. I didn't really like him, he was maybe 15 years old and seemed drunk, or on drugs. But he helped me get a tro tro (kinda) and i was on my way.
At the national park I did a 20 minute canopy walk on bridges built with ropes and ladders between trees about 50 meters up. As somebody who is afraid of heights i expected it to be terrifying. But it was not scary at all. I think because there were so many trees you couldn't really tell how high up you are. I think maybe because i was alone and had nobody to complain to that i kinda just got on with it and swallowed any fear that i might have had.
After the canopy walk i went on a nature walk with two Germans (seriously, this place is full of them) and our guide James. He showed us ginseng and ebony and native pepper plants. It took about 2 hours and was very interesting. Also i find it very enjoyable to walk around the jungle, the sounds and the butterflies and the trees make it really beautiful.
I had paid for the canopy walk but not the nature walk, on the way back the guide offered to have me pay it to him directly but I would not be able to receive a receipt for it. It seemed pretty obvious to me that this was a way for him to supplement his income. But i had no interest in circumventing the usual channels and declined the offer. It made me a bit uncomfortable the rest of the walk. After all i liked James, he was a great guide and I'm sure that the guys at the front desk keep plenty of this money for themselves. Hrm.
On the way back to the entrance there was a man with a small stall. He was selling local honey and coconuts and cocoa pods. I bought one and had it opened for me. I sat down by the edge of the forest and ate the cocoa seeds. You don't actually eat the seeds but you suck on the soft and sweet coating that they have and then spit them out. But if you happen to bite through them you will see that the seeds are purple. Like the Cadbury colours! Such sneaky/smart marketing.
I also went to the small museum they have on site about protecting the environment and the like in Ghana. It was a good museum though obviously aimed at kids.
After that i took a taxi, it was 8 cedis which is a lot more than a tro tro but usually to cover that distance is 20 cedis, he was actually on his way to pick up his kids from school so since it was such a discount and i had only had a muesli bar and the cocoa seeds and it was 4pm i was a bit lazy. I took the taxi back to the vegetarian restaurant, Boabab. I got a bowl of groundnut soup with tofu and rice as well as a juice made of ginger and hibiscus. Both were delicious and very filling. Particularly after so long of failing to have nationally balanced food it was so exciting to have protein and fibre and good vegetables.
I then took a taxi home and was totally exhausted from all the hiking and walking around all day. But to my surprise there were all these new residents at the LC house. Two Ghanaians returns from Christmas break, they were boys (no surprises there) and were very nice. Also two Nigerian girls who'd gone to ivory coast for Christmas had also returned. One was very interesting and was studying computer science, the first girl i'd ever met who was studying that. Lastly there were two new interns from ivory coast who had arrived. They were sharing the room with yuzhong and i. It made it pretty cramped but we survived. It was great fun that last night in cape coast. Lots of people around from lots of different places.
Thursday morning the 5th of January i got up early, obviously, and called Gyimah. He told me that he planned to leave takoradi at about 11 (which means really 12pm) so he should arrive about 5 or 6, which really means around 7pm. So since it is only 3 hours from cape coast to kumasi yuzhong and i decided to go to elmina a nearby town. We went to the castle there which is much larger than the cape coast caste and far more grand. The town too is gorgeous, the same old beach town European architecture painted in bright colours. There is also a large lagoon and lots of fishermen with their brightly coloured fishing boats. The tour around the castle was pretty much the same as the story in cape coast. On the way to the castle one of the locals had asked for my name. On the way out he presented me with a shell with his name, email address and number on it. Interesting pick-up line.
From Elmina we returned to my favourite vegetarian restaurant, baobab. Gosh i love that place. This time i got stir-fried vegetables and rice as well as a pineapple and moringa (like wheatgrass) juice. I was super happy about my access to vegetables that week. After lunch we returned to the aiesec house, said goodbye to everybody and hope on various connecting tro tro's until we caught a minibus to kumasi. But obviously it doesn't leave until it's full which meant that we didn't actually leave cape coast until 5.15. and since things always take longer than expected we didn't arrive until after 9pm. Highlights from that bus ride include having yuzhong fall asleep with her sunglasses and mess up her hair leaving her looking a lot like kim jong-il. Also listening to shiurim by rabbi shai held on theology. Mind-blowing stuff. Slash, i need to listen again since I'm not sure i really got it the first time.
Anyways, by the time we returned to the Kumasi house it was almost 10pm. And i was exhausted. However, the house was pumping. There were 2 new male interns from Nigeria, a new Ghanaian housemate called Ato, Nessiyah the Nigerian was there too. Most brilliantly an Australian called Susan had arrived! I woke her up by flicking on the light in my room only to discover her with her giant mosquito net set up in my room. She was super friendly though, despite having just woken her up. We chatted for about an hour before she went back to sleep and I went to shower.
I went to sleep and enjoyed sleeping in my own bed in my own room. It felt like home.
On that note i'm gonna stop writing now. I suppose that soon i will return to continue catching you up on my weekend in Kumasi and how it came to be that I'm in this tiny village teaching.
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