Obruni, where are you going??!!??!!

Amazingly, with Mum's visit to Ghana, one more person will actually understand half the things I ramble on about in my blogs! For one, Mum now understands what it means to travel in Ghana - although now she has experienced the crazy experience that is the tro tro it may actually cause more worry than when I first arrived! For example Mum's parting shot "wear a seatbelt!!!!" may not actually be easily realised, considering most forms of transport consider these things mere accessories and in most they are simply absent (the driver mostly has one, but only uses it for show whilst passing police barriers and unclips it as soon as they are behind us!).

Mum is also the only person who has heard the "obruni" cry that titles this blog, as it is a frequent sound whilst travelling around Ghana, and near impossibly to avoid. As soon as you place one little toe outside the tro tro at a station there are calls of TAXI! and popular destinations. As soon as a WHITE person pokes their toe outside the calls intensify, and it is not uncommon to have several taxi men right up inside personal space yelling several things at once. Upon arriving in Cape Coast, for example, myself and Mum found ourselves stuck with a taxi driver for several minutes who just wouldn't let us go, babbling on about fare price, destinations, and simply couldn't get it inside his head that we wanted to walk, of all things! Of course people can be extremely helpful and kind, taking travellers to tro tro stations (in Takoradi an orange seller walked us for around 5 minutes) or even hailing taxis for us (in Cape Coast). But mostly, whether they tell the truth or not, it is veeeerry easy to be taken in by the person who is yelling at you - mostly because standing in a tro tro station surrounded by craziness is really a very overwhelming experience!! Despite being in Ghana for 4 months now this happens frequently and it is only when sitting/driving/paying that you realise the error! This happened when leaving Accra for Cape Coast with Mum as we wanted an air conditioned tro tro but were told by the man yelling CAPE COOAASTTTT that there were not any. Ten minutes later when we sat off we drove past many sititng there. Ah well, we had nice front seats so it wasn't so bad...!

So, as readers may gather Mum and I visited Cape Coast the Friday, after a day in Accra to meet my kiddies. I have visited the place before, but had not been inside the castle at Cape Coast itself (instead the one at Elmina). We arrived midday and thoroughly exhausted ourselves wandering around the shops selling souvenirs and so on before we even went to the castle! I actually really enjoyed visiting the castle as it was actually held by the British when slavery was at its height so although terrible history it was interesting nevertheless. The next morning we proceeded to Takaradi one of the large cities in Ghana around 2 hours from CCoast and from there we caught two other tro tros to get ourselves to the very small village of Butre along the coast. I had never been there myself so it was nice to see something new, and it was great for Mum to see a really rural village and experience the bumpy, dirt track that led most of the way there.

We stayed in a really nice resort type place called the Hideout which was across the river (where it entered the sea) on a very, very, very rickety bridge that twisted and tilted at an alarming angle! We stayed in a really nice clay bungalow and it was just really lovely and peaceful! We watched the Ghana vs. Australia match in a small shack-bar in the village will all the locals and many children on the floor only wearing their knickers (Barack Obama knickers)! The next morning we went on a canoe ride up the river through the mangrove forest, it was really beautiful in the morning sun. We saw lots of birds and crabs and so on and even a small alligator sitting high up in a tree - our guide was pointing and pointing (even standing up in the canoe so it wobbled alarmingly) and eventually we saw it...! Our guide, Tony, even took us further into a little tunnel type thing through the mangroves will all the branches (?) hanging down so we had to keep ducking out of the way. It really was amazing! After breakfast we walked the 3km over the hill and along the beach to Busua, a slightly larger village. We were guided half of the way by a small boy, around 8, wearing only pants and carrying for some reason two small wheels. Bizarrely, two girls also followed, around 4 and 6, both only wearing their knickers. We made quite a strange party actually, the two white women with the three next to naked children - all even holding hands at one point! (Mum has a excellent photo of these two girls so I will post a photo blog next I think!) At Busua we visited Daniel the Pancake Man and had juice from Frank the Juice Man... it was most strange! There is also Joseph the Lobster man but we didn't see him during our wanders!

Our next destination was again Cape Coast for just another relaxing half day instead of going all the way back to Accra. The next day, Tuesday, my birthday, was note worthy mainly because we got an AIR CONDITIONED TRO TRO back to Accra - a huuuge beast of a thing. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling so wonderful, only really my second bad feeling day here in Ghana, and not really helped by the 3 hour journey and the horribly stuffy trip through Accra to our hotel.

Thursday we left again only the other direction to Hohoe, where we proceeded on to Wli with the waterfall. For this journey we made a slight error as we decided to try to get yet another air conditioned tro. After listening to a tout on the street we were led to a small lot with half a douzen or so air con tros. Unfortunately, not many people had the same idea, and we waited a frustrating 2 hours for the damn thing to fill up and leave making me swear off air con tros and long for the broken and rusty (but fast-filling!) tro tros of the larger stations. Really, I haven't sworn off air con tros all together, but just ones from that place as getting one back from Hohoe was easy enough and actually left quicker than the non-air conditioned neighbour!

Annnyway, so Wli was of course as beautiful as last time and we stayed in a lovely quiet hotel with only another two guests. On the way there Mum had another Ghana experience - the share taxi - which squishes 2 people in the front and 4 in the back for a bumpy, uncomfortable ride! The morning for our hike to the waterfall was humid but not too hot, and even though I found it harder than the last time Mum had no problems! Our guide was really nice pointing things out to us and giving us a cocoa pod for us to suck he seeds (sounds disgusting but they tasted like mango!) and this bizarre fruit that tasted like the purest sugar that left a taste in our mouths for half an hour after!

Friday we returned to Accra and after visiting the Art Gallery near my house and a bar by the sea Mum left around 5 ish for the airport. (A small note must be made here on the Ghana vs USA match that I watched after her departure - the atmosphere was truly crazy!)

HOWEVER, Mum may be gone but I have the legacies of her trip sitting on the floor in my room! -- books, books and more books make me EXTREMELY happy and the amount of goodies that Mum bought with her made me quite hyper with joy when she first opened her suitcase. Thanks here go to Kat and Lizzie for the AMAZING care package they sent my Mum which includes jam I had for breakfast, haribo, nutella, a new journal and lots of sweeties! My Mum came with goats cheese, salami (again for breakfast!), crisps, biscuits, tons of flapjack from my Dad (truly, truly well received by Mum, myself and Anna!) and yet more sweets. Thank you also to Steve for the memory stick of the end of Grey's Anatomy season 6 which will give Anna and myself hours of entertainment.

I will post pictures when I can but after the internet cafe gave my memory stick a virus (fingers crossed the pictures can be saved) I don't trust the damn thing with my lovely camera! Anyways, I travel in a week up north and maybe into Burkina Faso so that will be an interesting post! :)

Love to everyone,
Sal xxxxxxxx

P.s. Mum would like me to mention how I argued with a police officer at the police barrier from Hohoe to Accra. Alright, that doesn't sound like such a fab idea does it? Arguing with a potentially armed, potentially corrupt officer of the law? But I have been stopped twice already at that silly police barrier and met with the demands for my passport. Once, I did not have it and was asked a few silly questions about what age group I volunteered with before we were let through. The second time I riffled through my bag to find my photocopy only to be asked what I did and on giving the reply "volunteering" was told to put the photocopy away. He actually refused to see it. So, this time, on being asked, whilst Mum dutifully went back to the tro to collect our heavy bags, I said "you know, you've asked me three times before at this point... yes, I'm a volunteer" and on hearing this they told me to call Mum back and didn't want to see her passport. It really makes no sense! And you know, after the third time of silly questioning, I would definitely argue again and save myself the effort of trudging back to the tro tro! (although, I admit I wont try that at a different police barrier at another location...)