Arriving at my new host family's house was a bit of a shock. This is a totally different type of Ghana that I'd only seen maybe once through our AFS group's visit to the consulate of Belgium's house. At first I was nervous about the way they live, thinking it was all too much at once or that it wasn't was I was going for in my trip to Ghana, but really I am super lucky to have the family I do now. They are wealthy, but really genuinely nice people who care about my experience with them and in Ghana. My old host family was great to me but having an opportunity to have host siblings and see a different lifestyle of Ghanaians is really interesting and definitely worth the switch.
Here's my new host family!
Akosua and K. Ofori:
and my host siblings, (from left)
Devita, Calvin, Abena, and Michelle.
I only spent about a weekend with them though before a scheduled trip to the northern regions with a few other AFSers came up. And that, was a BLAST. For the five of us who went, a lot of thanks to Manuel and Jonas for doing the planning and booking of hostels and things, I think I could say we all had an amazing time.
First we took a day-long bus ride to Tamale where we stayed for two nights, exploring and visiting the cultural center. Tamale is the hottest place I have been yet in Ghana. Over 105 F and no shade anywhere, just the sounds of people zooming by on the millions of motorcycles that fill the street and the Muslim Call to Prayer music that's megaphoned loud over all the buildings. Everywhere you go in Ghana women sell food from big buckets, wooden boxes, or dishes on top of their heads. The women in Tamale were selling some of the same things that I saw in Dormaa or Accra but some things that were completely new. Like these round little sugar covered disks of groundnuts pressed together. 1 cedi for three disks. I wish they sold those here.
(Tamale wildlife)
At the cultural center most of us went on a little shopping spree, buying souvenirs for our families back home. I bargained all over the place but still ended up spending a bit. All the gifts though are really neat and I'm so excited to give back to the people who've been helping me so much with this trip. I'd say what I got but I don't want to spoil any of the surprises. Even if I ask you if you want to know what they are (Justin, Mom, Dad, and Tia. Mostly Mom.) don't let me tell you!
We took a bus to Larrabonga, a village really close to Mole National Park, after our few days in Tamale. The farther north we traveled the less cement, square buildings we saw and the more round, grass-roofed huts there were. Our hostel was a great building. Lime green cement rectangle with a kind of courtyard in the middle. It was really run down but the owner, El Hassan was really kind and even let us sleep on the roof. To get onto the roof we used these logs with notches cut into them and slept on mattresses he moved up there for us so we could sleep comfortably under the stars. The stars were so bright in Larrabonga, when the sun went down the night was bright enough you could still see everything.
(Grass huts in Larrabonga)
(Our ladder to the roof of El' Hassan's Guest House)
In the morning we had to take motorcycles to Mole Park, it was that, ride bikes, or walk. Of course we would pick motorcycles. Once we got to the park we went on a jeep safari. I'm really sad to say that it was a complete bust. We saw barely any animals the two and a half hours we drove around and payed too much for it. We didn't let it ruin our day at the park though and paid a guide 3 cedi each to take us down on a walking tour by the watering hole where we knew there were crocodiles. Mole National Park is definitely a hit and miss experience, the animals aren't so frequent but the nature is really interesting.
(Me and Dabney on the safari jeep)
Later that day we walked to see the oldest mosque in Ghana, located close to our hostel in Larrabonga. The mosque was built in the 1420's by Muslims settling in that area. It's repainted, and kept up annually by the tourism and the locals. It's a huge white building with branches stuck in the sides to support the heavy walls. We were told that the huge boboa tree growing out the side magically grew after a man who had a lot of influence building the mosque was buried there.
(The mosque in Larrabonga and the boboa tree)
That night we met two Russian men who were staying at the hostel too, we invited them to dinner and walked to El' Hassan's twin brothers hostel where we sat around a campfire, played with kids, attempted to speak simple English with our new Russian friends and ate yam. The Russians were so nice and before we went to bed that night they even handed us a can of Russian caviar, or translated into simple English 'fish children'.
The next day we made the trip to Kintampo and visited their famous waterfalls. We played around the rocks, slipped a few times, sat behind the waterfall and all shared (or just tasted) our can of Russian caviar. The mosquitoes there were vicious and we all got bitten pretty badly but it was so beautiful that in the end it was worth it.
(Tasting the 'fish children')
(Jolien, Me, and Dabney in front of Kintampo Waterfalls)
The next morning we packed our bags, took a tro-tro to Kumasi, split ways and our trip was done. It was a really great time but I'm earnestly excited to be back in Accra with my new family and start my job. I'll be assistant teaching in a school close to my house called 'The Living Word'. The children who attend are usually pretty stretched financially so they drop the admission fees from 200 cedi to about 20-40 depending on the child. The school is very Ghanaian and I'm excited to work with children again. Not to mention I'm living with four! They haven't seen me yet, they're at school, but I'll surprise them when they come home.
