Goodbye is the Saddest Word I've Ever Known

Caro & I with our friend Ivy and her eldest daughter


Today is the day! I am getting ready to head to the airport and fly home! I can’t believe how fast time has gone by! I have enjoyed every minute of my time here in Ghana and I am so grateful for the experiences I have had here and for the incredible people that I have met!

I finished work last Friday and then spent a week travelling to Northern Ghana where I went to Mole National Park. There isn’t a lot of wildlife in Ghana however at Mole they have elephants, baboons, and warthogs! It was an amazing trip! Unfortunately Caro had to fly back to Canada early as a tornado went through her town and did a lot of damage. Many homes were ruined, and hers was one of them so she wanted to be home with her family. My week was lonely without my partner in crime aka “Saraline” but I was happy that she was able to change her flight and be at home with her family during this difficult time.

Yesterday I left my host family to travel to Accra to stay with Robin and Heather. It was so hard to say goodbye to my family. Alice and I spent the majority of the morning hugging and crying. Alice, Hilda, and Moe came with me to the bus station to see me off. I feel like I will be going back to Takoradi tonight and that this isn’t actually goodbye. I will miss them all so much!

I have a long flight coming up and I have fallen way behind on my diaries but I'm planning to have a whole stack to post after the plane lands! I hope you'll stay tuned to read about my last few weeks in Ghana!

Lots of love,
Sara : )

My home Away From Home!

During the past 2 and a half months in Ghana I have been having an incredible time, I owe a lot of my experience here to my host family. They have integrated us fully into the culture by serving us Ghanaian foods such as fufu, banku, and red-red. They also invite us to attend church with them and have taught us some phrases in Fante. It is all the little things they do for both Caro & I each and everyday that we are grateful for.

Before I left for Ghana I received the contact information for my host, Hilda. I had emailed her before leaving and from our emails I learned that she was a third year university student like myself and so we assumed she was living alone and had an available room for Caro & I. Back on June 10th, we arrived in Takoradi and saw that our assumption was way off! There are 13 people living in my house (including Caro & I)! That being said there is never a dull moment and I wouldn’t have it any other way!

Each of my family members has played such an important role in my experience here in Ghana and I would love to share with you all a bit about each of them.

My host mother is Alice. She is dedicated and hardworking. She works full-time as a registered nurse at the Regional Hospital. On top of that she raises the children, some of which are her brothers children but he had to travel to France for a job and since she was the eldest she took on the task of raising the children. One of mine and Caro’s favourite things about Alice is the way she is always so complimentary. She comments on our hair braids and our dresses. “You look so nice! AYYY!” It’s hilarious and we look forward to seeing her off to work every morning just so we can say “woho ye few” (you look beautiful)!

Alice comes from a family of 10 children. 2 of her siblings live with her. One of them is Emmanuel. Caro & I refer to him as “Mr. Mom”. You never see him sitting down relaxing. He is always in the kitchen cooking and cleaning. He also runs his own business installing curtains and blinds. Emmanuel has a beautiful singing voice and it is rare to not see him dancing around and singing! It always starts the day on the right track when Caro & I wake up for breakfast and he is singing away!


Abe is the second sibling of Alice’s that stays in the house. He has one son, Anthony who also lives in the house. Anthony is 11 or 12. He changes it each time we ask him! Abe works for Pepsi and spends his days delivering Pepsi to various towns.

Alice has 4 children. Her first born is George who is 26. He is our “big brother”. He is always looking out for both Caro & I and has been a great friend to us. Her second child is Charles who is very quiet although he will speak to us if we ask him a question. Then there is Kingsley who lives in Accra. We met him once when he came home to visit and he was very friendly. Lastly there is Hilda, Alice’s only daughter. Hilda is the woman who applied to QPID to host us for the summer. She is on summer holidays from University where she does financial & accounting studies. Hilda wakes bright & early each and every morning and works around the house all day. She is always trying to help Caro & I with whatever she possibly can and we are very grateful to have her as our Ghanaian sister.

Then there are 4 other children who I have not mentioned yet. They are Ruby (who goes by “Moe”), Timothy (who goes by “Nub”), Godfred, and Hilda Jr. These children stay with Alice as their father has gone to France to work. He comes home to visit them every now and then. I am not sure when they saw him last. Their mother is in Ghana however I am unsure why the children were not able to stay with her. The children are always helping in the kitchen and with the laundry. It is very rare to see them sitting around! When we first arrived in Takoradi the children could not even stay in the same room as Caro & I because they were terribly shy. Now they are still quiet around us but they don’t run and hide! We often play football with them or watch TV. Lately we have convinced Moe to give us some Ghanaian dance lessons!

Lastly there is Chi-Chi & Tiny: the cats. Chi-Chi is a cute cat who loves to roam around the kitchen in search of food. He has a broken hip though and as a result drags himself around the floor. Tiny is a kitten who seems to be permanently small. She has not grown very much but really likes to cuddle with Caro!

This is my Ghanaian family. They all have a special place in my heart and I am dreading leaving them next weekend! They have helped me create many fantastic memories and I am going to miss each and everyone of them when I return to Canada. I hope to be able to return to Ghana and visit one day!

Nzulezo- The Village on Stilts!

Hello Family & Friends!

Here are more diaries as promised! There are few talking about the experiences I had at the clinic last week as well as my trip on the weekend to the village on stilts! I hope you enjoy reading them and I will post more soon!

This week at the clinic was amazing and I definitely have a lot to write about! Tomorrow I am going to a primary school to do a presentation about malaria. I have butterflies right now just thinking about it as I am really not one for public speaking. Hopefully it goes well!

Enjoy the diaries and keep following for more updates!

Peace & love
-Sara


August 4th,

I went to volunteer at the maternity clinic today. I checked all of the blood pressures of the women as they were arriving while another nurse checked their weights. Then the clinic began with a song and a prayer once everyone had been registered and had there blood pressure + weight taken. I continued to take blood pressures for other women who came in after the clinic had begun. The women seemed to have drastically low blood pressures today. I was concerned that I was doing something wrong at first but I looked through their previous charts and for the majority today their blood pressure were 90/50- 100/70! At home that would be considered low for a non-pregnant person! I was chatting with a lot of the patients in Fante while doing their BP which they all got a kick out of. I think I am responding better now to “Sister Aba” than to Sara!

Later on in the day I helped with HIV testing. One of the nurses did the test and then I recorded the patient’s information in the record book and whether or not they tested positive based on what I determined by looking at the test strip.

I almost witnessed two deliveries today but neither of them were progressing enough on my shift. I waited around afterwards but they probably won’t give birth until later this evening. One of the women was breech and her cervix was stuck at 4cm. It had barely dilated all day and she was in a great deal of pain. The position of the baby as well as the failure for the baby to descend would result in a Caesarean section back at home and they do perform Caesarean sections at the hospital here so I don’t know why this woman hasn’t been referred for one. I would be so nervous to deliver a breech baby, especially when the clinic lacks many resources if there were to be any complications with the newborn. I am very worried about the baby and hoping to hear good news when I go to the clinic tomorrow!

After I left the clinic I went to my friend Eunice’s house. She is a nurse at the clinic. She wanted me to meet her baby daughter, Asabia. She was at her mother-in-law’s place and they were watching a hilarious soap opera that was dubbed in English. After watching soaps and playing with the baby I finally sauntered back to the office. There weren’t many people around but I popped in just in case. Then I went home with Caro.

We had supper and our tea party. We talked with Emmanuel and the kids for awhile. Moe (the eldest of the children) taught me a Ghanaian dance. You slap the sides of your legs twice, clap your hands once, and then hit your chest twice. It has a catchy rhythm! Now it is stuck in my head and I will probably just keep doing it over and over until she teaches me another dance!

Well I better get to bed. I am going on an outreach program for the clinic tomorrow and I have to leave my house at 5:30 am. Its going to feel a bit like the days of clinical at school!

Da yie! Sleep well!

August 5th,

This morning I left the house when it was still dark outside. My friend Frederick who is a taxi driver came to get me at my house and brought me to Shama. I arrived in Shama shortly after 6am and waited at the junction for the nurses (Anita, Amelia, and Priscilla) to arrive. Unfortunately this is Ghana and they were running behind so I got stuck there for a little while waiting. It is never good to stand in one place for a long time here as taxi drivers and tro-tros will come up to you constantly trying to drive you somewhere. They were especially confused to see a white girl all alone in the pouring rain and when they asked me where I was going I said "right here, I have no where to go" . They thought I was crazy. The nurses finally arrived at 7am. By this time I had received a few marriage proposals and had eaten an entire loaf of sugar bread! We travelled out to a small community called Yabiow together for our outreach program.

While we were in Yabiow we ran a small clinic for children ages 1 month- 5 years old. Parents brought their children out to the centre of the town where we were set up. We took all of their weights and compared it to the expected weight for the child’s age. If it was underweight we would consult with the parents and give them suggestions for nutrition. Many of the babies were due for their injections which they get at 6 months and 9 months so Priscilla was administering those. I was checking weights and recording them with Amelia. The scale really did not make the children happy, I think every single one of them cried. The scale was a hook and we hung it up with a rope to an archway. Then you put the child in a cloth that has leg holes and a band allowing it to attach to the hook at the bottom of the scale. When you place the cloth on the hook you let go of the child and record their weight. Then you remove them immediately as they aren’t very pleased about it!
We were all singing since we are silly nurses and that seemed to help make the children happy!

After we completed our outreach program I went back to the clinic in Shama and spent the rest of the day at the general health site. I worked with a nurse named Jessie who I had never worked with before. She was really nice.

There was one woman who was very sick that I was able to give an injection to. My friend Ellen was having a tough shift because her grandmother was on the ward and was quite sick. She kept going over to check on her. She was hooked up to an IV which ended up needing to be changed several times. The poor woman was in so much pain but since she was quite elderly her veins were not good enough to handle the IV that they were running. Eventually we got the right vein and she rested comfortably while the infusion went through. Later in the afternoon she came in to the treatment room to thank all of us and to say that she was feeling much better. “By God’s grace” she kept saying. I love when I am able to get a little bit of geriatrics over here!

When the patients come into the treatment room they always sit and speak with the head nurse who then diagnoses and writes a prescription. Then the other nurses and I will follow the orders, for example giving a drug, injection, dressing, etc. The conversations are always in Fante so I always get a translation after but today I was able to sit and talk with a patient about his symptoms because he only spoke French. He was from the Ivory Coast. It was pretty fun to dig my French speaking skills out of the closet although they were very dusty! I haven’t spoken French very much since high school but we were able to get to the root of the problem which is the main thing!

After another incredible day at the clinic where I once again was privileged to be shown all kinds of skills by the nurses as well as meet many incredible patients, I went back to Friends of the Nation. No one was around, but Caro found out today that apparently Fridays are half days for everyone at the office. We have been staying there until 5 for the past 2 months haha. We never noticed that people had gone home though because people are always out everyday. I guess we know for next week!

After work we met Emmanuel and went around to a few little shops in Takoradi. Then we went out for supper with 2 of our friends who work at the Coastal Resources Centre. Their organization partners with FON and shares a building so we met them at work. One of them is from the UK and her name is Shoshanna. The other one is Alex and he is from Australia. He just started at CRC this week and only arrived in Ghana 3 days ago so we thought it would be nice to take him out and show him around. We had supper at a new restaurant/nightclub that had opened recently called Vienna city. It was a very fancy place, almost too fancy for Caro & I since both of us enjoy walking down the road and buying rice in a plastic bag from our “fast food” lady!

Tomorrow Caro & I are travelling to Nzulezo - the stilt village. We were going to go out tonight but after having a late supper and chatting for awhile at the restaurant we were tired out and decided to call it a day.

Ochena! Until Tomorrow!


August 6th,

Caro & I woke up for a nice breakfast this morning that Hilda made for us. We then left for Nzulezo. This is a small village built above the water on Lake Amansuri. They say roughly 500 people live in Nzulezo and that it is over 500 years old. No one knows for certain why this village was built out in the middle of the lake. One legend has it that a group of refugees from modern-day Nigeria built it when they were chased there by another tribe during the war.

Caro & I were anxious to get going this morning and we left to catch a tro-tro to Beyin (the town where we could get a canoe out to Nzulezo) right after breakfast. We met an Irish couple named Vicky & Calum on the tro-tro. They were also going to Nzulezo so we ended up spending the day with them.

Our tro-tro ride to Beyin was a lot of fun! There were two ladies sitting in front of Caro & I asking us all kinds of questions. They were getting us to speak in Fante and having a blast watching us try to do so! Then one of them mentioned how they wanted us to marry their sons but we said we were already married. I had a ring on so they believed me but the one woman didn’t believe Caro and wanted proof. Caro pulled a picture of her boyfriend out of her wallet and the woman grabbed it and kissed it. We laughed so hard! She trusted her after that!

Once our tro-tro arrived in Beyin we set out for Nzulezo. While we were waiting for a canoe there were a couple of guys who kept taking pictures of Caro, Vicky, Calum, and I with their cellphones which was really awkward. We told them to stop but they wouldn’t. Sometimes it really isn’t fun being the minority and constantly being reminded that you are different, that you aren’t one of them, that you are so different that they need to take picture to show their friends that there were “obronnis” in town. It is a very unique experience to have. I usually don’t mind it but today I really felt alienated from a place that I have been feeling at home in for the past 2 months.

Thankfully our canoe was not filled with people who wanted to take pictures of us although we did pass by many canoes that shouted “obronni” and took our picture. After a day of this I was pretty exhausted. I would love to know how many camera phones in Beyin have a picture of us on them now!

The canoe ride out to Nzulezo was very serene. It was quiet and every tree and ripple in the water looked absolutely perfect. You could hear birds and frogs out in the distance. Once we arrived at Nzulezo a guide took us around the town. It wasn’t what I expected. Everyone talks about how beautiful it is but it is actually a very small, poor community. The people there do not have many opportunities for jobs. There is also little access to education. They are working on expanding their school right now and improving it so they ask all visitors to make a donation. While we were there we bought some akpeteshie to bring back to Canada. We enjoyed the tour around the village but the 4 of us had mixed feelings afterwards about the place as it is depicted as a must-see in the travel guide but being there made us feel awful because there were so many children begging for money, random pieces of boards missing from the walkways, and heaps of garbage in the water surrounding the village. There aren’t any clinics in Nzulezo so there is a lot of illness and if a person is very sick they will have to take a canoe out to town. I also can’t help but wonder about sanitation. Their garbage goes in the water, they drink the water, and they must have to relieve themselves in that water as well.

After our tour of the village we took a canoe back to Beyin. We walked along the main road of this town for awhile until we found a restaurant down by the ocean. We went there and had a bite to eat. All of us were pretty hungry by this point. After our “lupper,” we walked down the road and searched for a tro-tro. This is where things got messy! It was shortly after 4 and we couldn’t find a single tro-tro heading towards Takoradi. A man ended up convincing us to take a taxi to a junction 15 minutes west of where we were and promised us that we would get a tro-tro from there. We ended up finding a tro-tro heading towards the junction so we got it in but it broke down in the middle of nowhere. Then we took a taxi to the junction which was not 15 minutes out of Beyin, but over an hour! This meant we were now further away from home and getting a little too close to the Ivory Coast! When we were getting out of our taxi it was after 6 and it was quickly beginning to get dark outside. We had no idea where we were and while there were many tro-tros none of them were heading east towards Takoradi. I wanted to know where we were so I went over to a woman who was selling biscuits. She had her biscuits on a table with a newspaper underneath them. The newspaper was written entirely in French. In my head all I could think was “oh no I am in Elubo” (the dangerous town bordering the Ivory Coast). Luckily this wasn’t the case, we were in Tikobo 1. That was the one piece of good information as the 4 of us paced up and down the road to find a car. We were surrounded by taxi drivers giving us ridiculous prices to take us to Takoradi and others promising that if we went further west we could catch a tro-tro. None of us were crazy about that idea so we ended up bargaining with a taxi driver until he gave us a fair price.

The taxi ride back to Takoradi was brutal. The driver complained the entire time that we weren’t paying him enough even though he had set the price and agreed to it. He wanted us to pay more because he knew we were tourists and assumed we had money. We ignored him and let him ramble away. All we wanted was to get back to Tak. It took us ages to get there since the driver drove half the speed limit so that we would think the drive was longer than it was. Too bad for him Caro & I have travelled west before and have been living here for two & a half months so we know the distances and how much things should cost. We didn’t say anything about how every single car was passing us and just let him drive 20 miles an hour. When we arrived in Takoradi he dropped us at a tro-tro station and immediately got out of the car. He ran over to a group of guys that were standing outside their taxis and suddenly they were all surrounding us. He told them we had agreed to pay him 50 cedis when the deal was 40. He lied to them to try and get more money out of us but we gave him the 40 that we had agreed to and walked away. The moment where a group of angry taxi drivers were surrounding us was probably the scariest moment of my time in Ghana. I had no idea what was about to happen and I was so glad when Caro gave him the money and we all dashed out of there!

We made it home around 10pm. Vicky and Calum still have to travel to Cape Coast so I hope they make it there safely! Caro & I are now going to enjoy a nice bowl of fufu and unbraid her hair while we watch the movie pretty women.

I am so happy to be back in Tak!

Bye for now!


August 7th,

We were up pretty ate last night unbraiding Caro’s hair and we didn’t even finish it! Vicky & Calum made it home safely last night which was good! They will be going back to Ireland tomorrow!

The moment we woke up this morning we started working on unbraiding Caro’s hair. We worked on it until lunch time. Then we attempted to eat the lunch that was prepared for us- fish heads and rice. The rice was good but the fish head was a challenge for us. We both picked at the meat and avoided the eyeballs. We didn’t want to be rude and we have always tried everything they put in front of us but the eyeballs were a definite no.

After lunch we decided that the girls at the hair salon would be able to finish unbraiding Caro’s hair and they would probably be quicker at it than us. We got ice cream and snacks on the way to the salon because we knew we’d be there for awhile!

Once we got to the salon I helped the girls unbraid Caro’s hair. Then they washed it and dried it. We arrived at the salon at 2pm and didn’t get home until 11:30pm! They didn’t start braiding my hair until after 6! It was a long afternoon but we had fun and we both love our new hairstyles! I had my hair braided by Suzy & Alberta and we had fun singing and dancing! I ended up getting cornrows again but this time with wine coloured extensions!

My head is pretty sore right now from all of the pulling and tugging to get the braids tight but I am thrilled to have long hair again!

Until next time!

I Whip My Hair Back n Forth!

Good evening!

Here are a few travel diaries! I will be uploading the rest tomorrow so stay tuned for lots of stories! :) The picture I have attached with this blog is from the night I unbraided my hair. I now have it rebraided and it is red! I'll have to get a picture of it to post on here!

Ochena! (Tomorrow!)
-Sara xoxo :)

August 1st,

We got to work a little late this morning and our supervisor Kyei had been looking for us. Usually everyone is late but for some reason everyone was punctual today and poor Caro & I were out early running errands and trying to get organized after being away for the majority of last week.

Once we got to the office Kyei invited us to sit in on a meeting with him. There were 2 American people running this meeting from Oxfam. They were discussing oil and how it needs to be regulated in Ghana and They were doing a lot of chit chat and not a lot of planning which is usually how it goes at Friends of the Nation. Caro & I couldn’t contain our laughter at one point though because this woman came and joined in on the meeting and gave Kyei crap for being disorganized and not having a plan. She told everyone in the room that they were wasting their time unless they all marched to Accra and demanded their rights for their fishing coast. It was incredible to see a woman be so outspoken here and I will admit she did have a good point!

After the meeting there wasn’t much going on. Caro & I are finding the time long since there isn’t much for us to do at the office. I am very thankful that I have the clinic otherwise I would be very disappointed because I came here to volunteer and gain work experience. I feel bad for Caro though because she was looking forward to this internship and then they lost the funding for the project so now there is nothing for her to work on. It is unfortunate that they didn’t tell QPID about this before we came to Ghana as we could have found another organization to partner with.

During our lunch break we went for a walk to our favourite little shop that sells jolof rice. Then we went to see Janet and pick up our new dresses that she made for us. We also went for a walk through the field behind Friends of the Nation to see what we could find.

This evening Caro & I unbraided my hair. It was starting to get too loose and some of the extensions had fallen out. I was heartbroken but I will definitely get them redone! Unbraiding them took awhile because the cornrows were so long and thin but we streamed legally blonde the musical off of you tube and sang along which distracted us!

My hair now looks like a lion’s mane because it is so short and puffy from the braids! Part of me wants to go out for a walk down the road and show off my new look but at the risk of scaring children I will just stay inside!

PS. I will be home 4 weeks from today! I am looking forward to going home and seeing everyone but I am also sad about leaving Ghana. I have learned so much from volunteering at the clinic and I have met many incredible people that I am going to miss when I go back to Canada. I hope to get the opportunity to come back and visit Ghana one day!

Bye for now!

August 2nd,

This morning when I arrived at the clinic I went around to all of the sites to say good morning to everyone. A lot of them hadn’t seen me for awhile because I had been in Half Assini and then in Ho. I worked at the general health site today with my good friend “Sister Adua / Angelina.” She told me today when I arrived at the clinic that I could only speak Fante, no English! I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t be able to open my mouth all day since my vocabulary in Fante is quite limited to basic greetings and random phrases. It ended up being great though because I would try to say as much as I could in Fante and then she would help me with what I couldn’t say. I will probably get the hang of this language right before I leave to go back to Canada!

There were many injections for malaria today. I did a dressing change for a man who had a severe infection in his foot. When I was changing the dressing I would randomly speak in English since he spoke English and then I could hear sister Adua yelling at me from inside “only Fante!” Oops! Haha. I came to realize though that it was better when I spoke to the patient in Fante because he found my accent hilarious and that distracted him from the pain related to his dressing change. Laughter really is the best medicine!

There were a few people admitted to the treatment ward today. One of them was a little girl who had been vomiting excessively and required close monitoring all shift. The other one was an older woman who was very nauseated and dizzy. She was hooked up to an IV and also required frequent monitoring. She had a friend with her who would get really excited every time I walked onto the ward and would slap my arm in a playful manner. She was really funny and was having a blast teasing me. I love the patients at the clinic! They enjoy it when I try to speak their language, especially when I try to pronounce it with their accent which means I butcher it and sound hilarious!

After I finished at the clinic today I went to Friends of the Nation for a few hours. Then I went home and played with the kids. They taught me how to play a clapping game. You play with 2 people and you count 1, 2 over and over and change your feet according to the number you say. Who ever messes up loses the game. It is a popular game that I see many children playing along the road, on the school grounds, basically anywhere there is a group of children you can hear clapping hands and 1, 1, 2, 1 being shouted as they jump up and down. Now I finally know how to play! After that game we went inside the house and played a board game called Ludo. It has four different colours and it is similar to the board game trouble. It has a football theme to it so you can move your player backwards and kick people back to home base which can put the person in the lead right back at zero in a hurry!

For dessert tonight we had sugar cane. I can’t think of a sweeter dessert than chewing right on the sugar cane itself! I will probably have diabetes one day but I might as well live it up now! While we were eating sugar cane the children were all in the kitchen and we were singing our favourite Ghanaian rap songs. I think my favourite was hearing Emmanuel sing “Waist & Power” which is a song about wanting an African man. I’ll attach the link! It is a very popular song here right now! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTqSHhqFOyo

I had a fun evening with my family! I love each and every one of them so much!

Until next time!

August 3rd,

I got to wear my new skirt today that Janet made me! I was very excited about it! Caro & I plan to wear our Ghanaian clothing all the time when we go back to Kingston! We will be trendsetters!

Today at work Caro & I worked on our evaluation for Sight for Life. We had to make it very detailed and talk about everything we had learned about the organization from projects to funding so that QPID will have plenty of information if they decide to send cooperants there next year.

After work Caro & I went to market circle to feed our fabric buying addiction. We ran into our friend Josafe who we had not seen for a few weeks. After we bought some beautiful fabrics we went to Georgina‘s shop to have more dresses made. Caro & I also bought hair extensions while we were downtown because we are planning to rebraid our hair this weekend! Mine are pinkish red this time which should be fun! After a successful fabric shopping spree we went home and had a nice big helping of fufu.

Now I am scrubbing my nursing dress and getting ready for another day at the clinic tomorrow!

Until next time!

Monkeying Around Ghana!

Maadwo!

The past 2 weeks have been filled with travel, adventure, and incredible people! I spent last week in the Eastern part of Ghana right near the Togo border and the week before that I was on the Western side of Ghana 5km away from the Ivory Coast!

I only have 3 1/2 weeks left in Ghana so my time is short! I am going to the clinic tomorrow and Friday. Tomorrow I will be doing maternity and Friday I will be joining several of the other nurses on their outreach program. This is when they go out into the community and go to people's homes. I have been learning so much at the clinic and also growing as a person from my travels here in Ghana. I can't even begin to explain how amazing my experience here as been!

I have 2 weeks worth of diaries to share with you all that I have posted below!

Thanks for reading!

xox Sara :)

July 18th,

I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning and once I did all I wanted to do was go back to Cape Coast! The weekends always go by too fast! Our taxi driver couldn’t make it this morning so we went to the main road to get a car. It was rush hour so we didn’t get to work until 9. No one seems to mind though. Many of the people in our office are late everyday. Oh Ghanaian time!

We had a meeting at work with all of the other interns. The local interns of which there are 8 will be finishing next Friday so the meeting today mostly talked about how they would have to write a final report for friends of the nation. I didn’t realize they would be finishing a month before Caroline and I. hopefully there will be more work for us now though!

A woman came by today selling watermelon. She always brings her son with her on her back. He is soo cute but today he was very cranky. She let me hold him while she cut watermelon for everyone and I’m pretty sure everyone in the office could hear him screaming! I still want to keep him and take him home though!

On our lunch break Caro & I went for walk. Our friend Ivy has a new hair do! We love how every 4 weeks most of the women we know here change their hairstyles. I guess that will be me in 2 weeks time when I change my braids! Caro & I sat outside to eat our lunch today. The rainy season must be coming to an end because it has been sunny and beautiful all day today!

In the afternoon Caro & I met with our boss, Kyei. He asked Caro to travel to Half Assini which is in the western region of Ghana, 5km away from the Ivory Coast. He wants her to conduct interviews with several different people about a development plan they have been working on in the area and then write a report that they will use to create a presentation for future plans in the area. I don’t think it’s a good idea for her to go alone to this area so now I am tagging along for moral support!

Well I better go pack!

Bye for now!

July 19th,

This morning I got up and had breakfast and finished packing my things for Half Assini. I definitely fell asleep last night before I finished packing. Oops! Haha. Caro & I had to run a few errands and then we went to Axim station to catch a tro-tro to Half Assini.

The tro-tro ride to Half Assini only took about 2 hours so we arrived with plenty of time to start our interviews. We met Rhoda who is the deputy fishing officer. She is going to help Caro & I for the next few days by showing us where to find everyone we need to interview and by translating some of the interviews for people who don‘t speak English.

Overall we had a successful day. I was concerned at first because the first place Rhoda brought us to everyone who we needed to interview was gone for lunch and according to the receptionist none of them would be back until tomorrow. Lucikly we left there and moved on to other people we had to meet with. We ended up interviewing 2 assembly men, a fishmonger, the education rep. , the fishing officer, and the chief fishermen. There are a total of 19 people that need to be interviewed for Caro’s project so we will have a busy day tomorrow although we are thankful that we were able to get some of the interviews done today!

After the last interview was finished it was already getting dark outside. We found a little restaurant but it was closed so we walked along a long the road until we found some rice for sale. Then we scurried back to our hotel because it was pitch-black and not the safest place for 2 young white girls to be at night.

Davina, our site director, is leaving for Canada tonight. I can’t believe her 6 weeks is up already! That means I only have 6 weeks left in Ghana! Yikes!

Well I am going to go finish my supper!

Until tomorrow!


July 20th,

We were woken up by Kwesi at 10 to 7 in the morning. He just dropped by to say hello! I haven’t seen him in a few weeks so it was nice to see him but at the time I wasn’t very happy about it haha.

Rhoda came to meet Caro & I shortly after 9. It was quite a long day today. We walked all over the town and from 9-2 we had only found and interviewed 2 people. We took a break midafternoon and went back out around 5 where we were fortunate to meet with another person. After supper we went and interviewed Kwesi and Solomon since they have been very involved with the medium-term development plan.

From what I have learned today the medium-term development plan that we are meeting with various people about to gather their thoughts and comments is a 5 year plan for the Jomoro district. It encompasses many different needs of community members such as health, education (libraries), fishing practices, etc. from the interviews that I have seen so far it is very interesting to see how the assembly men who have a higher living standard than the fishmongers and fishmerman view the plan. The fishmonger we met with yesterday felt that she was not being heard and that the needs of her community were not being addressed so it is very interesting to see both sides.

Well the power keeps flicking on and off which I think is my signal to go to bed!

Good night! Da yie!

July 21st,

I was very nauscious when I woke up this morning so I didn’t go with Caro. She went to meet with Kyei who had arrived in Half Assini earlier this morning. They attended a meeting and after the meeting Caro was able to finish all of her interviews. I rested up and enjoyed the air conditioning in our room. I also took a shower! This was my first hot running water shower in 6 weeks! At my homestay we do not have running water so we do “bucket baths”. You simply take a bucket of water from the well outside bring it inside and pour it over yourself. It is refreshing but after the hot water today I finally feel clean!

We went back to Takoradi in the early afternoon. A bunch of people from the office had travelled out to Half Assini this morning with Kyei so Caro & I were able to hop on the Friends of the Nation bus with them and take a free ride back to Tak!

We were thrilled to spend the evening with our host family! They were excited to see us and we had really missed them the past few days since our evenings in Half Assini were so quiet! The children were playing football when we arrived today and the cat, Chi-Chi was happy to see Caro! The dogs at the house weren’t happy though, I don’t think they are ever going to warm up to us!

Now I am going to have a nice cup of milo and go to bed. Its so good to be home!

Good night!

July 22nd,

Today I went to work at the office. I hadn’t been there for 3 days but it felt like much longer! I spent the day putting my presentation on flipchart paper. I drew diagrams and used fun coloured markers. I am really excited to present it at the school on Monday!

After work I went home and ..you guessed it… today was Fufu Friday!! Caro & I enjoyed a nice big bowl of fufu with soup. Then we packed for our roadtrip. At 4am Caro and I will be leaving to take a bus to Kumasi. We are hoping to sleep on the 5 hour bus ride and then have the whole day to explore the Kejetia market which is the largest open market in West Africa!

It is early right now, even the children are still awake but I am going to try and get some sleep before I leave to catch the bus!

Bye for now!


July 23rd,

Caro and I woke up at 3am and left for the bus station. We met a taxi driver named Frederick yesterday and conveniently he does night-time driving. He came to the house to get Caro & I and brought us to the bus station. It was very dark out and for a normally busy town where the streets are flooded with people selling different things in your car windows and cars and tro-tros racing up and down and beeping their horns, there was not a sound! I only saw 2 cars, both of which were taxis! The city probably came to life shortly after 5 though. All of the Ghanaians I know like to wake up very early!

Our bus left at 4am on the dot. I took a gravol and woke up in Kumasi at 9 feeling rested and ready to shop! Caro & I quickly went and got a room at a backpacker’s lodge, dropped off our things and went off to find the Kejetia market.

The Kejetia market was huge and was not easy to walk through! The entrance caro and I went in had shoes everywhere you looked. We kept walking until we entered fabric! That was exactly what we were looking for! Our poor seamstresses are going to be busy! After fabric we went into the food section. The second we entered that all I could smell and see was fish. There was also fresh fruits and vegetables. My most terrifying moment was when it was so packed with people that you couldn’t move anywhere and a man pulling a large wooden wagon with parcels pushed his way through and I got pushed backwards and almost hit backed up into a bucked of uncooked goat legs!

After an hour or so in the market we needed to get out of the crowd and get some fresh air. It was unbelievably hard to move. In order to get through there you actually have to push people, if not they will push their way through you. I don’t think it’s the ideal location for anyone who is claustrophobic!

After briefly seeing the Kejetia market we went to the culture centre. This place was much more peaceful but was definitely a tourist trap! It was an area of town with all kinds of artists and craftsmen who sell their paintings, sculptures, drums, etc. There was also clothing and jewellery. We saw lots of obronni’s there! Caro & I really enjoyed walking through and looking at all of the amazing crafts and paintings. We both ended up getting some souvenirs for friends and family. We also met our host mother’s sister, Christie who lives in Kumasi. She came over to the culture centre and talked to us for awhile. She was so sweet and looked a lot like my host mom! I was happy that we were able to meet her!

After the culture centre we kept up our fun-filled shopping day by going to a nearby town named Kofofrom. We had read in Caro’s travel guide last week that they have many brass co-operatives in this area that make beautiful sculptures and that they offer workshops. We went all the way to this town to find out it wasn’t what we thought it was. It was one road with hardly anyone around. We found 2 stores that make and sell little brass sculptures but they no longer do the workshops. The brass sculptures were amazing though! They were so detailed! We enjoyed looking around and then took a tro-tro back to Kumasi.

Once we got back to Kumasi we went to our lodge and put down all of our things that we bought. Then we went to Vic Baboo’s café which is a popular restaurant that has western style food! Dinner was delicious! We skipped lunch and therefore had a huge supper! Mmm I am still so full!

This evening we sat outside at our lodge with our new friends Julia and Rebecc from Germany, as well as Simon from England and Clarence from Austria. We all had a few cold Ghanaian beers and talked about everything under the sun. It was really nice and relaxing! My friend Simon is here working on his PHD which he is doing on sanitation. He is an older man and was telling us about his life. He has worked extensively in Africa and has travelled to many African countries to do his research. Talking to him really made me want to see more African countries, I guess I will have to come back someday!

Overall it was a great day! Kumasi is a too busy of a city for me but I am very happy we made the trip out to see it!

Bye for now!


July 24th,

This morning we were woken up by some fog horn that was blasting out in the street for awhile. We went and had a cup of tea and decided what we wanted to see before leaving Kumasi. Since today is a Sunday many things were closed but we had heard about a sword called the Okomfo Anokye sword that is stuck in a rock and has a legend to it. We decided to go for an adventure to find it before leaving.

Our lodge wasn’t serving breakfast this morning because the cook had to go to church but we ended up getting a fresh loaf of butter bread from a lady selling it on the street and laying on the grass at the culture centre while eating the whole thing!

Then we kept on our mission of finding the sword. We had a map of how to get to it from Caro’s travel guide but her guide never mentioned anything about a hospital. Once we got to the hospital we were sure we made a mistake somewhere, especially because we hadn’t seen a single sign about the sword which is supposed to be a popular place for visitors to go to. We went through the gated entrance to the hospital which was a bunch of different buildings all over the place. It was very open concept so there would be chairs outside as a waiting area and then a building they would go into to be seen. I enjoyed wandering around the hospital and seeing it but people inside kept telling us to go different directions to see the sword. They all promised us it was on the hospital grounds though. We eventually found it after we cut through the eye clinic. It was in a small building and there was a man inside. He told us the story of the sword and let us look at it. This sword is an Asante legend. They say a traditional priest who was very high up in the Akan kingdom captured it from the sky and drove it into the ground with such force that it has remained there ever since. The sword symbolized to many people the unity of their city. Many people had tried to remove the sword, especially when they built the hospital but no one could. Even Muhammad Ali tried to remove it when he was in Ghana back in the 50’s or 60’s! I removed it though, piece of cake… just kidding! I have no arm strength whatsoever! It was funny once we found the sword because I was expecting it to be like a cartoon I remember from when I was little where there is a rock and the sword is sticking in it slightly but you can still see the blade. With this one the whole sword(or so they say) is in the rock so the only thing you can see is the handle. After seeing the sword we made our way back to the lodge. We got slightly lost along the way but we got there eventually! We had lunch and took a tro-tro back to Takoradi.

To get to Kumasi we took a bus but we wanted to tro-tro back so we had to find the station. It ended up being very hectic because everywhere we walked taxi drivers kept approaching us and begging us to get in the car. People kept telling us different directions to go in and I definitely got one too many marriage proposals for one afternoon! After making our way through the crowds though we found the station and made it back to Takoradi all in one piece.

Now I am going to go fetch water from the well and do laundry. We are having fufu for supper tonight! I am going to miss this food when I go back to Canada!

Talk to you soon!

July 25th,

Today was a very confusing day at the office. I was supposed to go to the Salvation Army primary school and also to the junior high school to do a talk on malaria and then one on STI’s. there was no one around the office and I couldn’t get a hold of any of the other interns who I was supposed to go with to the school. I was disappointed but hopefully I will still be able to do it another day. I ended up getting in touch with one of the interns, Steven and he was at a meeting. Apparently everyone was but Caro & I. I am not sure what the meeting was about or where it was but it made for a really long day and I felt really upset because I came here to volunteer and to be involved in the community but my experience at the office has been very quiet and there hasn’t been much to do. They told Caro and I last week that the original project they had for us got cancelled. I am thankful that Kwesi set me up at the clinic though because I would be disappointed if I spent 5 days sitting around the office begging for projects.

Anyway I will just be persistent and hopefully this presentation will still happen. I might just have to contact schools myself and travel to them and then just let the office know. People at the office have tried to schedule this a few times and then it keeps getting pushed back and cancelled.

On a happier note I brought some of the fabric that I bought on the weekend in Kumasi to my seamstress Janet. I have lots of fabric so I will have to go see my other seamstress, Georgina as well! Janet is making me a romper which she thinks is a silly looking outfit but I promised her they are popular in Canada!


We had boiled yam with pallova sauce for supper. The yam tasted similar to a french fries but not as greasy. Then the pallava sauce contains spinach and other vegetables. There was a bit of fish in it as well, I’m just not sure what kind. You dunk the yam in the sauce and it is delicious! I absolutely love Ghanaian food!


I am going to the clinic tomorrow for the day. Afterwards caro & I will be leaving for Accra. We are travelling to Ho in the Volta region which is on the eastern side of Ghana to meet with an organization called Sight for Life. We are going to go spend a few days with them to see what their projects are like and to see if it would be a good match for QPID to send cooperants to next year. It is a far trek since Caro and I are in the western region so we are going to split it in half by going to Accra and spending the night with Heather and Robin and then we will leave early Wednesday morning for Ho.

That’s all for now!

July 26th,

I got too see many things at the clinic today! When I first got there were quite a few people waiting to have dressings changed so I assisted one of the nurses, Isabella with those. Unfortunately there is only one kit of tools for dressings otherwise I could have sped things up for her. One of the dressings was on a young boy and he had a big open sore on his forehead. Luckily this boy didn’t kick us and runaway like the one a few weeks ago! The most memorable dressing for me was for a man who had a huge sore all around his foot. Its going down in my books as the biggest dressing I have ever been a part of! It looked unbelievably painful though. Each swipe we took at it with the gauze to clean it I could just see him cringing. He was relieved when it was over. I am worried about his foot though, I would hat to see the infection spread further.

For the most part everyone that was coming in today had malaria or a chest infection until we suddenly had a woman come running in with her twin babies in hand. She was speaking fante so I could not understand but she was speaking so quickly and the only word I picked out of the conversation between her and the head nurse was kerosene. Surely enough everyone dropped what they were doing and ran with the twin babies to the ward (they have a small ward at the clinic with 3 beds for patients requiring IV’s or who are extremely ill and need to be seen right away). The nurse had the babies drink “peptic” which induced vomiting and lots of it! We all kept busy with the mop today! The babies kept closing their eyes and their breathing was so rapid that it was scaring me. They were 13 months old. Once we got control of the situation and re-hydrated the babies and gave them an electrolyte replacement I was able to get the story from the mother. She said the babies were playing and then she went in the room to find them both on the floor with a kerosene lamp. She said they were alternating feeding it to each other. She picked them up and brought them to the clinic right away. When I left today the babies were still there but they were doing very well! They were sleeping and their vitals returned to normal. I am not sure if they will send the babies home or if they have someone on the ward at nighttime because I am worried about them and feel that they should be closely watched in case the kerosene is still in their system. This was my first “emergency experience” and I was overwhelmed.. Geriatrics is definitely still the pathway for my future in nursing! Haha!

I was thrilled to go to the clinic today! Since I was in Half Assini last week I wasn’t able to go and the nurses were worried that I went back to Canada since they hadn’t seen me for so long! To make up my absence I sang some popular Ghanaian raps songs for them haha I am probably an embarrassment to Canadians! We had a great day and I definitely learned a lot!

After the clinic I met Caro & we took a tro-tro to Accra. We got there around 8pm and we met Heather at a pizza place! I was craving pizza and I am jealous that Heather and Robin live so close to a pizza place! We had a cheese pizza with pineapple, corn, and green pepper. We were all very hungry and excited about the pizza and believe me it didn’t take us long to finish it!

Until next time!

July 27th,

Gerhard, the director of sight for life called Caro at 5:49am. He is excited that we are going to meet him and spend a few days at his organization but we weren’t happy about the early phone call haha. Oh well it forced us to get out of bed and start travelling! We made our way through the traffic and commotion of Accra and took a tro-tro out to Ho.

We arrived in Ho around lunch time. We went to a street vendor and bought chicken and rice. We kept trying to phone Gerhard to let him know we arrived but the network was down so none of our phones worked. We found a taxi driver who said he knew where sight for life was so we went with him. Unfortunately he overcharged us and brought us to the wrong place. He took us to “Unite for Sight”. The people at this organization were very confused but told us not to worry they knew where sight for life was. They told us to go to barrack and we will see it. We found another taxi and told him barrack. We thought they meant Barrack street but we ended up at the army barracks! We went in and walked all around the compound but had no luck. Eventually a man in uniform came runinng up to us demanding to know how we got in. we told him we walked right through the gate haha. Caro & I started laughing because Friends of the Nation which is the small NGO we volunteer at has a security guard outfront but the army barracks of all places doesn’t have anyone! The man told us he knew where sight for life was. He told us to go to the hospital and that their office was in there. We found that strange but since it is an NGO that works with eye health we figured we might as well try it out. We made our way to the hospital and found an eye clinic but it was not what we were looking for. It was a hilarious afternoon of wandering all around but our phones started working right after we left the hospital grounds. Gerhard came to meet us outside the hospital and we went with him to a school. They had done an eye screening program for the children at this school earlier in the day. By the time we got there the children were leaving but we at least got to see some of the children and learn about what sight for life did while they were at the school today. We will be spending all day tomorrow and Friday with the organization.

Gerhard set up accommodation for us at a teachers conference hall. Me, Caro, and Robin put our things there then went and grabbed chicken and rice for supper. We went out for a drink after supper with all of the workers from Sight for life to talk about their organization and to make a plan for tomorrow.

Well we are going to go have a nice cold beer! Its still happy hour right?

Bye for now!

July 28th,

This morning we met up with everyone from Sight for Life and went out to a rural community called Saviefe Gbedome. When we got there the people of the community welcomed us all by having a drumming and dancing ceremony. We all danced and sang. I got a kick out of an elderly woman who was dancing up a storm in her traditional African dress. I could tell she was older but later on in the day I learned she was 105!! She looked like she was 70 and here she was dancing all over the place! So amazing!

After the welcoming ceremony Gerhard who is the director of sight for life gave an introduction to what the organization does and what we came to do in the community. He also spoke about proper eyecare, cataracts, and glaucoma.

After his talk we each went to our different stations. Bob did registration and took everyone’s names and gave them a slip of paper that would be filled out at each station. Then Cynthia & I took blood pressures. Robin & Believe did health history. Gerhard and Edom are optometrists so they did eye screening and testing. Then Millicent and Caro distributed glasses and eye drops to those that needed them. We had a good system going and we really felt that the organization made good use of Caro, Robin, and I.

I had a lot of fun taking blood pressures with my new friend Cynthia! In the Volta region of Ghana they speak Ewe (pronounced ay-way) which is different from Fante and Twi. Cynthia taught me some phrases and I made a script that I could say to everyone. Now I have three languages on the go!


After the eye screening ended we ended the day by having another drum and dance ceremony with the people of the community. The dance that they were doing was very hard! It requires coordination otherwise you look like a chicken! They somehow move their arms, hips butts, and chests all at once really quickly! It was hilarious and we had so much fun! There were several women who loved getting Caro, Robin, and I to dance! My favourite is still the 105 year old woman!

I met a man named Daniel today and he gave Robin and I “akpeteshie”. This is gin that according to Daniel is almost 100%! I took half a shot and my lips were on fire! This might just be my new tequila! Robin didn’t find it too bad, although I think secretly he did! We also tasted palm wine which is really delicious!

Once we finished work we went into town for supper. Guess what we had? - Chicken and rice! Rice here is so good though! My favourite is called Jolof rice. It is spicy and has green peppers in it.

Tomorrow we are going to a different community with sight for life. I am looking forward to it! I had such a great day today! It was incredible to meet the people of this community and they were so welcoming. When we first got there they put a string with a beautiful bead that they made from clay around our wrist and made a line with baby powder down our arm (apparently this is how this community welcomes people). All of the men and women were wearing beautiful traditional African wear and were thankful to have sight for life among them for the day.

Well I am tuckered out!

Good night!

July 29th,

Today we went to a different community which was far away from Ho. It was called Adlaku Sofa. Caro, Robin, and I helped out with the same stations as yesterday. This community also welcomed sight for life with drumming and dancing. Their dancing was a bit different than the community that we went to yesterday but we picked up on it eventually!

The people in this community really had a good laugh when I would try to speak Ewe. Cynthia helped me translate what I wanted to say to people about high and low blood pressure in Ewe. I memorized it and then I recited it to everyone as I took their blood pressure. It was a lot of fun! All of the staff at sight for life have been very welcoming and friendly. The work has been fun as well. I think it would be a unique project for QPID cooperants next year.

One of the people in the community gave me a fresh coconut to eat. It was so good! Then we danced and sang! There was a man in this community who was albino. He was whiter than me but you could tell he wasn’t a white person because of his facial features. Caro has seen a few around Takoradi but I am not sure how prevalent it is.

It was sad to leave the community today and say goodbye to all of our new friends from Sight for Life. We enjoyed meeting and working with them! We went back to Ho with everyone from Sight for Life. They dropped Caro, Robin, and I off at a tro-tro station. The ride back to Ho was pretty nauseating because the van had no windows and we had a whole pile of people squished in. also it was hot so we were happy to get out and get on the tro-tro.

We travelled to Peki. Heather had arrived there long before we did but we made it eventually! We are staying at Roots Yard which is a place run by a young couple. They have two cabins and tents that they rent out. They don’t allow any meat or meat products on the premise so all of the food they serve is vegan. They also only support locals so the food is bought from local farmers and the coffee is also natural and from locals. I just had a hot chocolate made with real cocoa and soy milk! It was very sweet! We are staying here and camping tonight and tomorrow night. I think we are going to have an awesome weekend!

Bye for now!

July 30th,

We woke up to the most beautiful scenery in the world this morning. It was dark when we arrived last night so we weren’t able to see much. We are surrounded by mountains and beautiful green crops of corn. We are unable to get reception out here for our cellphones so we are actually disconnected. Gone “into the wild”.

We had a delicious breakfast: toast with pineapple jam. The jam is homemade with ginger and fresh pineapple chunks. I will have to remember to get the recipe! I also had a tea which was really strong but also really good!

The couple that owns the place we are staying (Roots Yard) are very nice. There is Bob who is a Ghanaian with a British accent as he lived in England when he went to university. Jackie is his wife. She is from England. Together they have 2 children. The older one is 3 going on 4 soon and is at the stage where he will repeat everything you say. His name is Solomon. They have another son named Marcus who is just over a year old. They also have a big dog named Kebra. They have a beautiful home right on the property and then they rent out the tents and cabins. They just opened recently but they seem to be doing very well!


There was a group of volunteers staying at Roots in a cabin. We met them at breakfast and decided to travel with them since they were also going to Wli (pronounced Vlee) Falls. All of the people in this group were from different places but they were all in Ghana volunteering with projects abroad. There was a girl from the Netherlands named Anna, Marvin from Germany, Meagan & Cassidy from Calgary (yay Canadians!), and Laura from England. There was a girl from Germany as well but I can’t remember her name!

Roots yard is in a small town out in the middle of nowhere so it took us awhile to find a tro-tro but we managed! Our first tro-tro broke down so we had to take another one to the town of Hoehoe. Then from there we had to transfer to another tro to go out to the falls. This tro-tro kept stalling. There was one time where the driver kept trying to rev it to go and as he was doing that we were slowly going backwards down a hill. Heather and I put our heads down because we didn’t want to watch ourselves back right into the traffic of the busy road. Somehow we managed to make it to Wli Falls accident free! I guess our tro-tro choices weren’t the greatest today!

After our long journey we finally made it to Wli Falls. The falls are supposed to be about an hour away from Roots Yard but it took us 3 hours to get there with all of our tro-tro troubles. Wli Falls is the tallest waterfall in Western Africa. Our tour guide, Frances showed us the way to the falls. It was a 45 minute hike through a beautiful rainforest where we saw cocoa beans and even pineapple plants. There are 9 footbridges that you have to cross to get to the falls so we used that as our marker to know that we were getting close! I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful the waterfall was. I tried to take pictures of it but you just can’t capture all of it. From where I was standing at the bottom it was huge plus there is an upper fall beyond what we could see! We all ended up going for a swim! The water was cold but it felt good! The mist from the falls ended up ruining my camera which was sad. I was fortunate that I took tons of pictures before that happened. The screen is a giant purple blob. I was hoping I culd fix it once it dried out!

Frances was a legendary tour guide and gave us a shot of akpeteshie to warm up our bellies after the swim. I definitely don’t have to worry about picking up a parasite from the water after having a shot of that gin! After we swam and relaxed by the falls we hiked back.

Then the real hilarious part began. We had met people at the falls and joined them for the hike so our group got even bigger making finding transportation for all of us even harder! I don’t know how we ever managed this but we taxied back to the main tro-tro station. It was roughly a 25 minute ride. We took 2 taxis. My taxi had 10 people (including the driver) in it and Caro’s had 8! Don’t ask me how we piled this many people in a small car but believe me it happened! My car had a hatchback so we were able to squeeze a few in the trunk and pile everyone else on top of each other in the back! There are many police barriers in between towns but luckily we didn’t pass any on our ride! The best part about my taxi ride was that we were all hiper and the radio was broken so we decided to serenade the taxi driver with a popular song called Waist & Power. The song is hilarious!

After the taxi ride we found a tro-tro all the way back to Roots Yard. We were all tired and it was already dark! The whole group of us sat outside and had supper. I had spicy tomato soup, jolof rice and a choconanna milkshake! Life is good!

I kept playing with my camera and now it is finally turning on! Woohoo!

Good night!


July 31st,

My camera turned on this morning and I was able to take pictures. They were a bit blurry at first but eventually it worked as good as new!

I filled up on pineapple jam again! I also had a chai latte. Heather has been ordering them this weekend and I never did because I figured I would crave them once I had one. It was delicious so I don’t regret it but I do wish I could find chai tea in Takoradi! A chai latte and an ice cap will be my first drinks back in Canada!

It was sad to leave Roots Yard. We really enjoyed camping there! I am going to miss Solomon. He was so funny! My favourite thing was when Caro asked Solomon when his birthday was. He replied its not today and she asked well when is it? Then Solomon answered its another day. Kids are just too cute!


Before we started our long journey back to Takoradi we went to the Tafiefe Adome monkey sanctuary. Our tro-tro brought us to the village and dropped us at a sign that said 5 km to the monkey sanctuary. We thought we could walk it or hop in a taxi. There were no taxis around and we figured it would be too long of a walk since we had to start heading home to Takoradi. There were 4 men along the road with motorcycles and they said they would bring us to the sanctuary. We figured oh why not! The motorcycle ride was fun, especially when it started to pour rain!

The monkey sanctuary was incredible! We bought a bunch of bananas and went out into the forest. Suddenly adorable mona monkeys appeared everywhere! I had heard that you could feed them the banana but I didn’t expect them to come jump on us and chill on our arms while they ate! The monkeys really liked Heather! It was so neat to watch them eat the banana. To feed them you simply cut a banana in half but you don’t peel it. Then you hold it tightly in your hand. Eventually a hungry monkey will jump out of the tree and sit on your arm. His little hands quickly peel the banana and then they eat it and sit with you but if they are timid they grab the banana and run away! I wish I could have taken one for a pet. I’m sure my parents wouldn’t mind me bringing one back to Canada!

Leaving the sanctuary was hilarious because we ended up meeting our friends from Roots Yard there and becoming a huge group again. The guys with the motorcycles had it all figured out though! They decided oh 2 people on each motorbike! Do you think we were crazy enough to do that? … of course we were! Caro & I got on a motorbike together with our giant backpacks and zoomed down the bumpy dirt road! It was a blast!

After a morning of adventure we took a tro-tro to Accra and then another one from there to Takoradi. It was a long trip but Caro and I slept and read.

We are now back in Takoradi. I am looking forward to spending some time with my host family tonight since we have been away a lot the past 2 weeks!

Until next time!