On July 29th, my first visitor arrived! My friend Robin Dykema, who is currently working as an English teacher in Taiwan, came to visit me for just under two weeks, and we had a blast! Since being a Peace Corps voluntter has made me slightly more laid back and less organized (this is actually a good thing for me, I think), Robin's trip was certainly under-planned and required her to be quite flexible at times, but trips like that tend to lead to great stories and fun experiences, so I was glad that she handled whatever was thrown at her so well.
We spent our first few days in Accra, mostly just eating and spending money. I often get caught up in my "village budget" (as I like to call it), and forget that things are waaaayyyy more expensive when you're in a big city. This combined with the fact that I can get things in the capitol that I can't get anywhere else in the country (a girl has to splurge sometimes...) and the fact that taxi driver and goods-sellers see white skin in the city and automatically assume that you're a tourist and must have oodles of money to spend (and no idea what things should cost) make travelling so much more expensive for volunteers like me.
After blowing all of our money, we left for the village. This was the part of Robin's trip that I was most excited about, since the village is really where my life is. From the start, Robin was thrown into village life, as everyone wanted to see the new stranger in town. We moved from hut to hut and greeted people, held babies, and helped with daily activities (like carrying water on our heads). It was not only fun for Robin to see this completely different culture and experience what life is like for me, but it was also extremely satisfying to be able to share this aspect of my life with someone and see the reaction of the villagers to my visitor. They all loved Robin and were very sad when we left to do more sightseeeing.
After a few days of village life, we departed for our whirlwind tour of touristy sites in Ghana, starting with the Kintampo Waterfalls and the Techiman Monastary. The waterfalls were beautiful, of course, but the best part about being there was the many Ghanaians who wanted to have their picture taken with us. It happens sometimes that a Ghanaian will decide that the presence of Americans (especially females) is something worthy of capturing in a photo, and once one person starts, the domino effect kicks in and every single person around you also wants to take a picture with you. Robin and I probably posed for pictures with 10 Ghanaians (men, women, and children), and would have had to pose for more if we weren't in a hurry to move along to our next destination. You've got to just take situations like these in stride and soak up the attention, because otherwise you might start to feel like an angry celebrity who lashes out at the paparazzi, and that certainly wouldn't do much for representing a good image of Americans to host country nationals :)
After the waterfalls, we moved on to a monastary, where we stayed for two days. The guest house is run by the monks who live there, and is a beautiful and cozy (and cheap!) place to relax. Everything was so quiet there and we had the opportunity to climb some rocks that look out over a beautiful expanse of untamed
land, which was a perfect place to take a deep breath and allow ourselves to get lost in the beauty. I sometimes forget that I live in such a unique and beautiful place, and there were so many moments during Robin's visit that I was able to experience things in this country that renewed my feelings of being blessed and so thankful. The picture to the left is of me standing on some of the rocks outside of the monastary. Of course a camera doesn't truly capture how epic the scene was, but I think you get the idea :)
After rock climbing, we left the next day to go see some monkeys! Monkey sanctuaries are always fun, and you usually have the opportunity to feed them bananas or peanuts, so you get to spend a lot of time seeing them up close and playing with them... I fed several monkeys out of my hand and the longer we stayed in the bush, the more monkeys emerged to check us out and play with us. This was a blast and definitely one of the highlights of Robin's trip.
Our next stop was a trip to Kakum National Park, which boasts a rainforest canopy walk that is one of four existing in the world. I have historically had a tenuous relationship with heights, particularly when I'm not being supported by much more than a few ropes and a wooden plank, but I sucked it up, pushed my fear to the back of my brain, and tried to soak up the incredible views and amazing experience that this walk presented to me. There are seven "bridges" that rise above the rainforest canopy and allow you the chance to see the flora and fauna from a totally unique perspective, and it was worth every penny we spent simply to say that you've walked above a rainforest in Ghana.
The picture to the right gives you a little snapshot of the rope bridge and the surroundings, which were spectacular. As you can see, the bridge only allowed for once person to walk at a time, so the experience was very personal and about a million times more terrifying for people like me who have a hard time walking over grates in the sidewalk, let alone 40 meters above the forest floor.
The final stop on our tour was Cape Coast, which, as the name implies, is one of the many beaches on the coast. The biggest attraction, if you can call it that, is the Cape Coast castle, which is an old slave castle right on the shore where thousands of West Africans were trafficked through before being sent out via ships (mostly to the Americas). This was both a sobering and amazing place to visit, because as you walk around the massive whitewashed structure and stand in the small, dark dungeons, there is such a strong dichotomy between the beauty of the place and the suffering that was experienced there. I could just imagine the European generals strolling along the verandas and looking out over the ocean, while at the same time prisoners were chained in nearly complete darkness in the tunnels below their feet. I learned a lot about the history of the slave trade in West Africa, which is where the majority of slaves were "purchased and exported" at the height of the Atlantic slave trade, and it was incredible to be able to walk around and imagine what life might have been like back then. The pictures below were both taken at the Cape Coast Castle, the first one looking out from the castle toward the ocean, and the second one looking from the ocean side toward the front of the castle.
Overall, Robin's trip was fantastic, and offered me a rare opportunity to see some sights in Ghana that I haven't yet gotten to see. I wish you all could come here and experience the culture, history, and atmosphere of this place, but all I can do for now is give you a little taste of the beauty that Ghana has to offer.
