New Roommates

May 10, 2011


I think I’m living in a room full of lizard poop, which makes things quite interesting. I’ve found little clumps of some sticky brown substance in places too impractical to be dirt. There are a couple stuck to my walls, some on my desk, the crack on the window screens… ick.

I’ve also caught the little critters scampering in my room a couple times, but they’re too quick to catch, and I’m really not sure how to track them. So I guess I’ve acquired a new roommate. Flora has essentially moved out, so I guess the plus is at least I’ve got company at night.

Exams are underway and I am 40% complete with my University of Ghana education! I took my dance final last week, which was hilariously disastrous, as I was in a group entirely of oborunis. Out of 26 groups, only three were 100% foreign students, and just my luck, I was in one of them. It was a sight, that’s for sure.

On Sunday, mefaa me nhyere Twi. Mesuaa mpoano so. Eye fi. Yehyiaa nnamfo na wonkyeree adee. Eye papa.

(On Sunday, I took my Twi exam. I studied on the beach. It was beautiful. We made friends and they taught us things. It was nice.)
…I’m practically fluent.

The weekend before, Anna and I went to the Volta Region for one last Ghanaian adventure. We went to Amedzofe, which is a mountain village where there are some waterfalls and hiking and such. Volta is definitely my favorite part of Ghana, so we were excited to finish our travels there.

We got a tro-tro to Ho, and once again everyone on the ride told us they would take us to their homes as soon as we got to Volta. The woman next to me got quite a kick out of me, I’m not sure why, but at one point she leaned over to show me the pictures she had snapped of me without me noticing. I was doing absolutely nothing interesting,just reading a book, but she thought it was just the funniest thing.

When we got to Ho, we got another car to take us up the mountain, where we were met by Wisdom, the local tourist operator. I can’t say he imparted us with too much knowledge, but maybe some day.

He set us up in the guest house and arranged for his wife to cook us dinner, so when it came time for dinner we walked down the hill and met him at his house. It wasn’t quite ready, so he sat us down and explained to us how God will always protect us, especially when a
storm comes. Since there had been no mention of God all afternoon or evening, it was a little unexpected, especially when he followed with “do you drink alcohol?” and then proceeded to explain that we had to take gin with him to honor his brother, who had been killed some ambiguous time in the recent past. Later his friend told him it was 40 days, so he used that as justification for the necessity of the gin (custom, you see), although he didn’t know that when he first introduced the idea. It was all just a little strange.

We slept fine and got up early to climb “Mt. Gemi.” For those Andover readers, it was about half the distance of Ward Hill. Why it warrants the title of a mountain, I’m not sure, but the cross at the top was very fitting of the area and you could see the hills all around and Lake Volta in the distance, so it was very picturesque.

Mt. Gemi: A Gruesome Hike

we're lucky we survived

Then we went and climbed the waterfalls, which were thankfully significantly less difficult than Wli. We felt a lot like Tarzan and Jane because it was steep enough that we were actually swinging from rope to rope and sliding all about. We were the only ones on the path so it was nice and peaceful.

When we got back to the village we met a Peace Corps volunteer and ended up talking to him for a while about what he was doing and how he found everything, so that was a cool perspective we hadn’t encountered yet.

When it came time to go home, it was of course a bit of a process, since the village is on the mountain so cars don’t come and go very frequently. Eventually a tro-tro did come, and we squeezed so many people in there actually wasn’t enough room for my head—everyone had either a child or a mountain of stuff on their lap. My solution was to stick my head out the window, so there I was, flying down the mountain half in, half out, quite content. I’m pretty sure the people along the way and at the base were a little confused as to why this oboruni head was popping out at them, but I rode right along just fine.

a woman carrying water on the path home

Now I’m in the midst of studying for one more exam on Friday, then a week in Togo and Benin and back to Accra for a week more of exams and final good-byes! 19 days til it’s go-time!