MOUNT ADAKLU

Adaklu Mountain: 1

Me: zero point three quarters

Walter, my 10 y/o guide, scrambled up the mountain, walking stick in hand. His companion, Enoch, kept up the rear, & I struggled along somewhere in-between! I didn’t quite make it to the peak, as a mixture of exhaustion & an onset of fear of heights prevailed, but I was pretty proud all the same! Having mentioned previously that I was craving exercise, this morning certainly fulfilled that desire, & more. Drenched in sweat (the kind where it’s dripping off your eyelids), I think I got a pretty good work-out!

Adaklu, an area that includes 40-odd villages at the base of the mountain, has been developed into a community ecotourist project. The children in the village piled together for several group shots, plus the baby goats were too cute to ignore!

Several attempts at group photos:

Enoch wanted to have go a with my camera:

CUTE!!:

My guides, Enoch & Walter:

[all photos by me}

SATURDAY (DESPATCH #6)

Date: Saturday 29^th June.

It’s my last weekend here, & as I found out on Friday, it’s also a long public holiday weekend: Ghanaians celebrate Republic Day on Monday. Wandering around town earlier, I noticed a number of people wearing smart black clothes, or dark rose printed dresses. Not in a mournful way; everyone seems as jolly & laissez-faire as usual!

Things have been slowing down at work, & I’ve spent a bit of time surfing the interwebs & editing photos inbetween waiting to be called upon. Towards the end of the week however, things got busier as it was requested I prepare a formal report of recommendations, evaluations, & points to consider for future volunteer workers. Initially, I thought I might cut short my assignment here & head to Accra earlier than suggested, on Tuesday instead of Thursday. Turns out there should be enough for me to do (plus the bank holiday that I was unaware of!) to fill a couple of days. Things generally work at a slower pace here, so whilst back in the UK I might assess a workload to take 2 days, here you might spend 4... you never can tell! Friday was pretty busy in the office too: people gathered to hold a meeting that began in the morning to discuss ideas & progress concerning Voice Ghana’s work (I kept hearing mention of Obama, significant since he is currently in the midst of his first visit to Africa as President) – I think the meeting was meant to end by 1pm - people drifted away, caught up on previous conversations, came back to discuss new topics, & then I think the last of the blue plastic chairs was stacked back in its tower by the door come 4pm.

A couple of important things we completed last week included going through the Quickbooks backup procedure with Millicent. She’ll create backups on a weekly basis, saving to an external hard-drive. It’s something we kind of take for granted in a large office: we’ll take care to save our work into shared folders, but any electronic mishap or accidental delete is solved with a simple phone call to IT to request an automatic backup...

I took a somewhat leisurely stroll around the markets in Ho today. I didn’t buy anything, as a lot of produce I saw was either food or knick-knacks, although I think they have different markets every day. I bought a great wooden carving (pictured above) at the Wli falls last weekend, & I think any other material purchases may well be in Accra, as I’m planning to scope out The Centre for National Culture, a sort of marketplace that Bradt recommends. The market was very busy & full of hustle & bustle, & I didn’t feel quite comfortable taking my camera out, I think it would have appeared too voyeuristic.

I don’t have too many plans for tomorrow, although I might walk to the Chances hotel in order to check out their gym. I also need to go to the bank (this may seem a simple task, but given that cash is the only currency here, that there are only a handful of banks, & quite often the networks go down, a walk to the bank is not always so fruitful!) Monday, I plan to go and hike Adaklu Mountain.

I have only a few more days left in Ho. I think the anonymity that London brings will be strange at first! The wonder that is online communication makes it super easy to keep in touch, but it sometimes emphasizes the bizarre - I’m in a small office in West Africa, dodging the lizards scrambling across the carpet, whilst discussing outfits over email with Sophie for our next London Fashion Week! I’m looking forward to real coffee (perhaps the coffee grown here outprices the locals, as I haven’t come across anything other than instant coffee. There’s an Espresso place in town, which I later found out was an internet café). Other things I’m looking forward to: cooking my own meals, EXERCISE, Orange Wednesdays, shopping in Zara, Sunday newspapers, & catching up with my friends over cocktails (Err Ceri, I wanna try some of that punch!) I downloaded a couple of things to watch this weekend (last 2 episodes of Made in Chelsea OMG OMG, plus vintage eps of Sex & The City, classic!)

One thing I’ve learnt here is how to take things at a slower pace, enjoying the simpler things - no commute to work bar a 100foot stroll across the track, taking breakfast without simultaneously trying to listen to The Today Show & catching up on emails, getting early nights & plugging in the headphones to listen to music as I fall asleep... to, ahem, the Glee soundtrack & Taylor Swift. This is as cool as it gets for this 30 y/o accountant.

Pictures: goats everywhere, a peek through the woods at the Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary, the village & some of its crafts on the way to the Wli falls, trying to capture the light and humidity and lusciousness of the rainforest, one of the high-schools in Ho, signs for the hair-salon, The Agricultural Development Bank, where some call it sightseeing & we call it business, banapine – yup, banana pineapple juice, as delicious as it sounds, & the view from my hut door.

{all photos by me}

DESPATCH #5

My Year of Abundant Wealth (Portrait) & 5 Other Short Stories.

(1)

Meet Angela*. She’s a giggly, bubbly schoolgirl, who requested I took her photo. A lot of the girls here love posing for photographs - & of course as soon as the camera turns on them, it’s hand on hip, & out comes the pout. Tyra would be so proud, there’s an excellent example of smizing going on here**.

* Probably not her real name. A lot of people play around with a couple of names: an African name, & then another (usually Western) name. One of the kids who helps out at The White House bar & restaurant calls himself Gilbert. I love the playfulness of it!

** Reference to America’s Next Top Model lingo: smiling with the eyes.

(2)

The main street at dusk.

A little different to my usual view of Balham High Street. Ho is situated between 2 mountains; Adaklu to the South is regularly hiked by tourists, something I plan to do my final weekend here.

(3) Hillview.

A popular chop bar, located at the end of the main street towards the hills in the North. One thing you notice here is that there is little to none outside lighting. You have the street lights lining the streets, but the restaurants will usually be lit up by the light from the bar or kitchen. This makes it somewhat difficult to see what you’re eating, especially when you’re eating sans cutlery! I had my second serving of banku here, reckoning I should give it another try after my first attempt. It came served with a spicy tomato & okra stew, plus a sizeable portion of tilapia fish. Already on the table were a number of bowls, plastic carafes filled with water, & squeezy soap. After the hand washing, you get stuck in: unwrap the banku & twist off a portion, dunk in the stew, & pull apart the fish. It’s a messy job, but totally worth it! The fish flakes off the bones so easily that the concept of a fish knife would clearly be redundant here.

Again, another couple of kids keen to have their photo taken, getting a little star-struck in the light of the flash!

 (4)

The Wli (Agumatsa) falls.

Reportedly the highest in West Africa. Situated within the village of Wli Agorviefe, & on the border with Togo, the trek to the falls took us through a rainforest abundant with fruits, wildlife, & lots of ants!

Coffee beans, & cocoa:

Mind the gap! (please excuse the mosquito bitten feet: the reason I should have packed 2 cans of Deet!)

The main attraction:

Numerous bats hang off the cliffs by the falls. The Agumatsa Wildlife Sanctuary, in which the falls lie, was initially set up to help protect the bats. Their high-pitched shrieking greets you alongside the crash of the water into the pool below.

Our guide informed us that this particular tree is the type that gets transformed into the beautiful & sturdy wooden furniture crafted by the locals.

(5)

Cuteness overload, at the Tafu Atome Monkey Sanctuary.

With a bag of bananas in hand, the monkey-whisperer kid led us out into the trees & began making monkey calls, a tight, pursed-lip sound. Shadows in the trees soon shifted shape to become mona monkeys, who reside exclusively in this part of Ghana. Climbing & swinging delicately between the leaves & down the branches, the monkeys came out for their fair share of breakfast. We took turns holding the banana at arms length; I didn’t hold mine too strongly, so it was gone pretty quickly! Such expressive little faces, you can’t fail to fall in love with these friendly creatures.

(6)

Miscellany. 

Fast food, Ghana style. Ghana time = when it’s ready, & certainly not before. After 2 weeks of pretty heavy food - rice, fried plantain, roasted yams, meat & fish, stews & sauces – a guilty indulgence at local ‘fast food’ hangout KCS. After a 40 minute-expected wait, I wolfed the pizza down, indigestion not once crossing my mind. It was super delicious, much nicer than Domino’s, & I’m pretty sure this was independent of any external circumstances!

{all photos by me}