Volta Weekend August 14-15: Part 2

Continuing my Volta Weekend, at this point I'm still in Tafi Atome

My favorite part of the Tafi Atome was walking through the village. The traditional houses in Ghana are extremely different region from region. Some are round and in a compound, some many square houses in a compound, some are only one house for all activities, while others regions have separate houses/huts for different activities.

Left: Tafi Atome had different huts for different activities. The structure to right is the kitchen and to the left is the house. It's still under construction

One major difference in Volta was people asked to have their picture taken. In Accra, I never walk around with my camera for fear of being marked as a new visitor and then harassed. In Bolgatanga if you asked to take a picture of someone many set a price at 12 cidis ($10 US), which is their right but I prefer not to take the picture. But in Volta they want their pictures taken, even when told you cannot give them the hard copy.

Right: The women in black are dressed for a funeral. The style is the traditional Ghanaian style. Funerals can go on for 3 days and can sometimes take up to a year to plan (depending on the size and general wealth of the family)

The Calabash tree is my favorite tree in Ghana. In my head, I call them watermelon trees because the fruits are so large. The shells are extremely useful and Ghanaians use them as cups, bowls, or serving dishes, depending on the size of the calabash. The trees can be most often seen on the road from Kumasi to Tamale. One of my bosses was surprised I saw one in Volta, I feel very lucky.





I visited a yam garden in Tafi Atome and found the plants very strange. The leaves grew on a very weak stem; they looked more like vines to me. The villagers attached the stems to sticks to increase the size of the yam. The yam then grows beside the plant, creating a mound. The yams can then be roasted, fried, or mashed and used to create Banku. On returning to Accra I found out Volta is famous for its delicious Banku, sadly I didn't eat any :o(

Right: Bamboo is holding up the vine. The mound on the right is the growing yam.

Leaving Tafi Atome we stood by the main road to catch a tro-tro to Hohoe. All were full, but while waiting I got to try palm wine for the first time! Its alcohol content was so high and so sweet I couldn't finish one cup (served in the calabash).

Left: Palm wine trader. There was a simple four-post structure with a roof made of a banana tree and palm leaves to create shade. Men were drinking here at midday. The trader is about to hand me that half calabash in his hand.

As all the Hohoe tro-tros were full, we stayed the night in Fume at Paradise Mountain Lodge. The view was enchanting. High mountains covered in forest, a scattering of wildflowers, and large termite mounds.

Right: Morning picture of the view from Mountain Paradise Lodge, the mists slowly lifting with the rising of the sun. The sign Woe Zo means welcome.

Having stayed the night in Fume, we decided to hike there instead of heading towards the famous Wli falls. Left is our map of the 2-hour hike, as the trail is confusing (many interweaving trails along the way) a guide led the way.






The highlight of the hike was this small waterfall. Growing the rocks were beautiful pink flowers ... love nature!

Ropes are attached to that tree as we had to abseil down a little cliff to get to the falls. As always I find going up a lot easier than going down.

Right: Yolanda and me at Kulugu falls.




Parts of the forest are cleared for farming. The deforestation angered Yolanda, who is an environmental scientist but she also acknowledged the people's right to harvest cheap food. To farm or not to farm, is that the question?

Right: Yolanda and William, our guide, in a field of local maize. In Bolga they have millies, here they have maize

Below: Left is a picture of cocoa yam, and right are cassava plants. Both are like the yam plants above, the tuber grows in a mound near the plants' stem.

Left: View from Mountain Paradise Lodge's Bar, the last drink of fresh pineapple juice sweetened the view before we headed back to Accra.

Sunday was the reverse of Saturday, empty tros to Hohoe, full tros heading back to Accra. After waiting 30 minutes at Fume Junction and seeing 10 full tros pass us we ended up taking the 30 minutes tro north to Hohoe to grab a tro going straight south to Accra. Somehow we made it back home in 3.5 hours (expected it to be Col6), perhaps we were flying!

Volta may have been my last travel trip in Ghana. Before I leave I'll try to show you some of Accra. Somehow I've managed to spend all this time in the city but have no photos!

Volta Weekend August 14-15: Part 1

Volta is a place I was told I had to go ... and they were right. I feel that every time I leave Accra, I think this new area is the best part of Ghana. The optimist would say it shows how much Ghana has to offer, while the pessimist would say how important it is to get out of Accra! Luckily, Accra is so expensive it's cheaper for me to travel on the weekends than to stay in the city.



Above: me in Ho, capital of the Volta region. This Black Star arch invites Ghanaians to the voting center. Maybe if we did this in the States more people would vote ... hmm...

Volta is famous for many artistic talents: Kente, pottery, batiks. I saw the kente cloth being made. Most people go to Kpotoe, a famous weaving village 30 km out of Ho, but due to time limitations, I went to a weaver in Ho. Isn't it beautiful? I bought this exact kente. Its a new style and color, all my Ghanaian friends love it.

Kente adds color to any village or town. The string which feeds the loom is usually located 3 meters away, marking sidewalks with bright colors and a reminder of connection. On the tro-tro ride home, it was evident many of the Volta villages weave kente, the streaks of red, blue, and orange adding to the beautiful view.

Right: Typical Ghanaian shop (outside of Accra). The shop to the right is the tailor, and the shop to the left holds pre-made clothes by the tailor.

 Notice the red paint with the Vodafone label? MTN and Vodafone, the two major phone services are in a race to brand all of Ghana's villages. Ho is so beautiful because it's near the rainforest, you can see the banana trees edging close to the shops.

After shopping for Kente in Ho, my travel buddy Yolanda and I went to the Monkey Sanctuary in Tafi Atome. This smart village is an eco-tourism spot. The Mona monkeys know if they hear a 'tsk tsk' to come down and they will be fed bananas. My travel buddy took a million and one pictures of these little critters. I'll admit they are cute and intelligent, but in my mind, they are mostly pests. I think one too many vervet monkeys and baboons annoyed me in my childhood!


The internet is super slow right now, so this will be finished at another date
I leave Ghana in 11 days ... uggghhh. I'm already a little nostalgic.

Continued: Northern Ghana Trip July 25th-29th

Finally finishing it ...Read the North Ghana section first!

The Village

In the North, the crops are grown during the three-month rainy season (June-August) to sustain the communities for the next year. Irrigation has not been developed. Kirsten (A peace-corp friend I visited) says in Burkina Faso, just 30 minutes away, everyone irrigates, and produce is provided year-round. Burkina Faso is the third economically poorest country in the world, but it's doing more with less.

Right: Ghanaian Maize, T-Zed is the main starch made from it. Unlike banku, and kenkey, t-zed is not fermented. If you've been to Zimbabwe, it's a lot like sadza.

Right: T-Zed (white ball) in bito stew with goat meat.

Bito is a common dark leafy green in the north, and goat meat is extremely popular. I found it quite tasty!

Boreholes are the main source of water for the village. As this village sprawls for miles and miles, there are quite a few. Women and girls pump the water into buckets, put it on their heads, and walk home.

Laundry is done close to the borehole and dried on a nearby tree to save time.

Lucky, Ghanaian village women live near boreholes designed to be filled with buckets on their heads. Definitely saves back strain! Boreholes look like public showers, and your friend has to pump the water while you standstill. None were in this village.

Kirsten, my Peace-Corp friend, helped develop a tree nursery. The family in the photo to the right takes care of the trees. The nursery has a huge wall to protect the trees from all the donkeys, cattle, goats, chickens, and guinea fowl. Trees are attached to the family's house. The mother, standing next to Kirsten, is one of the most joyous Ghanaians you will ever meet! She only speaks FraFra but happiness radiates from her.

Right: Family who guards the trees.

The Market

To enter the Bolga Market you have to walk through the bus station. Traders pedal their wares. The man to left was one of the most colorful traders. He allowed me to take his picture on the condition I remembered the story of his name. I cannot spell it but I guess it is Dwange. He said it is the traditional act that is used to ensure a woman will keep her baby. A sheep is sacrificed, and the blood is treated by a traditional healer and drunk by the mother.


Left: Dwange, trader and barer of an important traditional name.

Bush products for sale. I wonder if they were poached illegally from Mole National Park? Hmm.... I didn't ask any questions.
On the other hand, bushmeat is very popular in Ghana, as hunting, apparently, still exists as a profession.

Right: you can see the horns, and in the boxes are porcupine quills, smaller horns, and bones of various animals. Hunting is a traditional profession, culturally accepted if not internationally approved.

These skins hung to the right of the stand above. The skin to the right looks like a civet and the one to the left is a cheetah, again didn't ask questions so I could be wrong!



Left: Skins at the market.

Tire shoes!!! We always hear how the rest of the world lives on what America throws away. Here is a fun example #1: the rubber of car tires made into shoes.

Fun example #2: Recycled clothes. In Ghana, used western clothing is sold everywhere. Very few people buy new Western clothes. Many actually look new. It is a shock to sometimes see a University of Michigan worn by a pedestrian. The weirdest part for me was an American Indian Medicine Wheel on a 'Walk to Prevent Diabetes' shirt! (I intern with an American Indian health and community center in Detroit).

Northern tunics are made and sold at the very back of the market. The market is huge! Winding through small roads created by all the stands/tables/open shops it takes about 10 minutes (if your not stopping!) to get to the back.

In the bottom right corner are the bolts of woven cloth. At these tunic stands, tailors sow the cloths together into one big fabric and then turn them into a tunic. The hanging tunic is for a man. The women's tunic is like a long dress. It looks and feels very heavy, but everyone swears its light enough to wear in summer!

The End

Special Thank You! to Kirsten and JayJay for hosting me that weekend. 


Here's a story to make you smile. I woke up Saturday morning to the sound of this very happy couple giggling. They've been together 7 years,  married 5 years, and just about spent the past 2 years in this small village & still, they wake up in the morning and laugh over breakfast. love it!

Bye-Bye Northern Ghana!

Left: Me with my Bolga basket!

Note: If you're traveling, buy the double weave baskets instead of the single weave, allowing for the double bend! (see the handle of the second basket peeping over the brim?)

Northern Ghana: July 25th-29th

My last weekend before the CoFA girls arrived I took off two days to go up north. Bolgatanga is the capital of Ghana's upper east region and is located thirty minutes from the border with Burkina Faso. It was 18.5 hour bus ride to Bolga, longer than my flight to Ghana! Luckily, I was a little sick, so I was unconscious for most of the trip.

I went to visit Kirsten, a Peace-Corp volunteer.

While Kirsten worked on Friday, I explored Bolga. I love seeing how people live and I walked all over. This is a typical Bolga housing complex. Residences exit just off the main roads of Bolga and are dirt. In contrast, the main roads are paved.

This is another typical street view of the residential parts of Bolga. The trash can to the right is an uncommon sight in most of Ghana!


Right: Residential alleyway and trashcan.


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The people in Bolga are fantastic! In the South, as an Obruni (white person), you often feel people are only interested in your money. Bolga's laid-back culture invites conversation and cultural exchange. This is Linda. A hairdresser by trade she was visiting her friend's salon (doors behind her). I talked to Linda for 30 minutes about life, and loved it!

Left: Linda, a hairdresser who welcomed a photo.






Kirsten and her husband JayJay live in a village about 15 minutes by motorcycle outside of Bolga. The village sprawls across the countryside. Family complexes generally contain multiple small, mud, houses enclosed by a mud fence.

Right: Statue of a wealthy family's grandfather. The children play on his lap. See the guest at his feet?

Weekend 5 weeks Ago: Cape Coast, Elmina, Kakum

Cape Coast in the central region of Ghana is a popular destination for tourists. Old European castles, the last stop on the African side of the slave trade, have been turned into museums. Slavery existed in Western Africa before the Europeans, but the conditions for the slaves rapidly deteriorated after the Europeans' arrival. Chiefs sold and delivered their slaves to castles like those in Cape Coast and Elmina.

The dungeons were creepy. On entry, the guide turned off the light. I swear you could feel ghosts bumping into you. Three dungeons just like the one to left were in the Cape Coast Castle. In total, 200 or more men crammed into these spaces where sleep, defecation, urination, and eating happened. The slaves remained here for months, awaiting the ships to arrive. Unimaginably, some survived this experience.

See the small cave in the wall near the ceiling? It was a lookout point for the spy. If slaves incited trouble, the lookout would inform the wardens. Instigators were either tortured or all were deposited in a smaller dungeon where they were left to starve/dehydrate to death.

Slaves exited through the Door of No Return onto a plank to board the slavers' vessels. To prevent runaways, a small panel was opened for the slaves who had to crawl through it one at a time.

I lucked out at Elmina. It was the annual Fante Bakatue Festival!!! It is a 6-day celebration of the 77 Gods of the land. The first night the gods run through the street, but all Fhanaians must not look. The next 4 days, the different Fante villages compete against each other in sports. The final day is the pan-festival day (this is the day I saw it). Everyone meets in Elmina by St.George's Castle.

The streets were filled with dancers like the one to the left. Children either joined in the dance, but some young ones were terrified!



All the Fante Chiefs came to the PanFestival fully garbed in traditional clothing and headgear. It was clear why Ghana was part of the Gold Coast! During the day cultural performances entertained the chiefs. At the end, there was a long procession, four men carrying the chiefs and their wives through the streets of Elmina we waved them bye-bye!

Pretty, pretty, fisherman boats line the estuaries of Elmina. Bright in color, each is decorated with different pictures, sayings, flags, and more.

Below is the view of Elmina from the Fort. St George's Castle [big white building :o)] passed through the hands of 3 colonial powers: Portuguese, Dutch, and then British. To the castle's right is under the yellow canopy sat all the chiefs. You can't see it but the canopy extended into a large circle, creating a sort of soccer-field-like stadium. On the streets are the Fante, tourists, and the dancing masked men.

Kakum is a short 40 minutes from Cape Coast. The four of us hired a taxi for the morning to do the canopy tour. Kakum is part of Ghana's Rainforest. It's a tourist center, with a seven-bridged canopy walk. It was truly breathtaking, though I wish we'd seen some monkeys!!!

Kakum has 7 bridges! this was one of the shortest.

Below: One of the tallest trees that anchored the canopy walks.
I had trouble photographing the depth of the forest, so just imagine this tree as being 3xs taller than the portions you see below.