Easter Break

My easter break began like this:
Liz: So we're thinking we might, maybe, be able to get a tro-tro to the Kwahu plateau from Circle.
Liza: And we know paragliding is somewhere on the Kwahu plateau. As in one of the 10 towns that are there.
Neisha: Alright then. Off to Circle.

---As we wandered around Circle (Ghanian bus station) looking for a tro-tro (decrepit bus) we told a man we were looking for a way to get to Kwahu plateau. The words that finally caught his ear and got him to recognize the area we were headed to was when we said, "the really big Easter festival!" And he said, OH!!!! Kwahu!!! (This happens often in Ghana. I say a word and then ten minutes later after hand gestures and explanations, the Ghanian repeats the word to me in its correct form, having being unable to understand what I was saying as I butchered the pronunciation). About four hours later we made it to Atibi Kwahu, where the bus told us in unison, Obruni!!! Get off here!! Go paraglide!! Oh!! the three small white girls replied, as we hurriedly gathered our blue Jansport backpacks and jumped off the bus, waving goodbye to the bus of friends we had made.
---We took a 15 minute taxi ride up a mountain, the road crumbling beneath the tires and seeping in through the windows all over our clothes, hair, and skin. We walked around the top of the mountain, signing up for paragliding on Monday so we could avoid the long lines, waiting, and possibility of getting pushed back till the next day. We went back into town and made friends on the street, getting shown around town to a place to eat, a hair salon, and lots of bars pumping Ghainian jams. We took a cab to a tiny village called Buruku where we had heard about a giant rock pillar shrine the townspeople believed was the eye of God, watching and protecting them. We decided to bushwhack up the mountain that had no trails, was incredibly overgrown and dangerously steep (as we would come to learn). Two hours later we were at the top of the mountain, cut up, filthy, and completely satisfied. We fell down the mountain and on the process lost the phone that held our taxi driver's number. As we were far from town in a very remote village our only option was to start walking and hope a taxi or tro tro passed by. Well after being on the road for about 5 minutes a giant yam truck passed by.... Yup. Definitely hitch hiked back into town on a giant yam truck. Liz, Neisha, and I climbed in next to the four men and we all got to know each other for the next twenty minutes. The driver thought it was hysterical that he had picked up three American women off the side of the road, and couldn't help but call his brother in Virginia to tell him the comical tale, going so far as to make each one of us get on the phone and talk to the man. Writing about me and two other girls hitchhiking with four men sounds incredible dangerous in retrospect, but honestly I couldn't have been safer. I felt safe as could be, and the men were concerned for us, asking if we had any troubles, and if they needed to take care of any locals for us. They dropped us into a town called Tafo and we began our search for where we would stay for the night.
---The first thing we wanted to do was hydrate and shower. We went to a store to buy water and bumped into a fellow Obruni. She was volunteering in the town, teaching at a school and coaching a football team. She brought us to her hostel where she introduced us to a few other volunteers who we spent time with. One of the guys, Ross, found a room for us to stay in for the night, and made sure we were safe and sound before leaving us for the night. The next morning Ross took us to a local waterfall, a beautiful scene that pictures can't even give justice to. Our next adventure was crossing Lake Volta. We went to the major port and found a fishing boat to take us across the 30 minute journey for only 2 cedis. It was so wonderful to be on a boat again, and I had missed being close to the water. Yet another reminder that I need water need me in living my life. We drove to the next major city, Donkorkrom where we found a giant Easter parade and a long night of live music. We treated ourselves to a real hotel room at Genesis Hotel, an adorable tiny inn owned by a local family where rooms were a pricey 10 cedi a night. We met a fabulous man who spent the evening with us, discussing love, God, and Ghana. He was a very very interesting man, and definitely one of my favorite people I've met so far in Ghana.
---Sunday morning we began our trek back to Atibi Kwahu where we would paraglide first thing Monday morning. We found a set up of tents on the local high school and parked ourselves there for the night. It was a small field with lots of tents set up and couldn't have reminded me more of my family on Saranac Lake. We stole some of the high school's water and took quick bucket showers before heading out on the town to watch the nights festivities. I was so unprepared for the giant swarm of people that clogged the streets. Cars were packed on the road but completely unable to move for danger of knocking over a crowd of people. Food stands were everywhere, along with people, music, and cheap alcohol. We spent the night meeting people, telling men to leave us alone, and dancing with the nice people we found. By the end of the night I was having a fabulous time declining men, making up stories of my husband waiting for me at home, or just calling them out on their offensive hawking of foreign women. We went to sleep long before the party ended (which was somewhere around 5am), and had to sneak back into our tent field in order to avoid trailing home a line of eager prospective husbands.
....read next time to learn about Monday's paragliding adventure!!