We began our adventure in Accra. We visited the Temple and did some sightseeing, led by our local friend and tour guide Desmond. After two days we went to Cape Coast, where we lodged for four nights. We visited Mankessim, another small village, and did some sightseeing around the city there. I got a tummy sickness for a good two days out the top and the bottom. After Cape Coast, we took an awful Tro ride to Dunkwa, where we lodged three nights. We then stayed at a members house in Nkanfoa before heading back to Accra for one night. Then, our flight got canceled and the airline put us in a hotel for one more night.
Ghana is a tropical rain forest, at least where we are (in the central region- Cape Coast and surrounding). It's amazing to look around and see green everywhere anywhere you go. A lot of the fruit is green even when ripe. Bananas, plantains, mangoes, papaya, small oranges, coconut, apples, pears, avocado, watermelon, eggplant, and white pineapples are some of the common fruits. They grow cabbage, peppers of all kinds, tomatoes, cassava, white yam, sweet potato, peanuts, rice, corn, wheat, cocoa, onions, and others that I don't know what they are. There are not many flowers here. The equator is immediately south of Ghana, and so the temperature is consistent year round with high humidity. We are in the rainy months now, during the summer, and it seems the humidity builds up high until it finally rains, making the days hotter and stickier.
Trotros are their way of mass transportation. A van will have four or five rows of seats, holding anywhere from 12-18 passengers. There are a driver and a mate. The mate collects money and lets people on and off. The drivers usually are totally crazy and ignore the speed limit. I swear they are a death trap. No A/C but the windows provide wind. No way to use the bathroom if you're on a long route. The stations are just the Vans parked everywhere with people walking around seeking food and goods off their heads. A crowded and messy place.
Thursday night, our last night in Cape Coast, we had extra time. We went to visit Mankessim for the day (Weston's first mission area) but we did not find people at home and weren't very successful, so we got back home about 4:30. We had time to pack and Clean up and relax some, then went out to get dinner. I got an egg sandwich and Weston wanted rice. So we started walking toward a restaurant someone had shown him the other night, and suddenly there is all this commotion and people running in the direction we were going. As we pass the next couple of houses we see a building on fire. Turns out that is the exact restaurant Weston had in mind to get rice from. It wasn't on our street but you walk up to it from the street we were on.
Fire tank trucks got there quickly enough. Everyone was in commotion though, running to look, yelling, standing aside watching. Some people were helping. We were going to keep walking in another direction but we ended up staying back away. It was a knee-shaking sight. The entire kitchen and restaurant gone, engulfed, as well as the roof next door but that's it. We saw the owner and his wife and employees rather distraught. We watched it all happened and then calm down. Weston in his goodness had all he could do to not run and help in some way, but he didn't do so, thinking of me.
Fire is not a pretty sight and not happy. We started walking then but decided to just head back to our hotel. Weston got an egg sandwich from the same place and returned. Everyone had been in such chaos, drivers not paying attention and people worrying. There was a good number of people helping out but lots more standing on the side watching.
How was Ghana? Here is my answer: It was good, it was very different. It was an experience. An experience worth having, but I don't know that I would go back. It's very rough compared to what we are used to in the USA and it really takes some adjusting. It's a good place. Weston wants to start a business there, so maybe that will take me back after all. For now, I am just happy to be home and happy to have experienced a small piece of what he experienced for two years.
>>More writing to be added later.
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