Tuesday, August 6
Our bicycles arrived. All shiny new. The Chinese inner tubes and some pretty strange fittings. The valves come out and have little rubber bits on them. The thing you screw the pump onto, typically breaks off. The rubber bits inside sometimes got all gummed up, but the valve inside comes out easily. George went and got some replacement valves that didn't have the rubber bits inside which worked much better. A few of the brake handles broke off when we tried using them. But we did get them fixed up enough to ride. Noah, Emmanuel and I rode to Vakpo to repair some of them, and on the way, a pedal fell off. Fortunately, this part of Africa is pretty flat. Once we got that all sorted out, they worked pretty well.
For lunch, Mary and Rose prepared beans & gare, which is basically ground cassava that looks like grated Parmesan you sprinkle on top.
After lunch, we all loaded up in the trotro and headed to Mount Afadjato at Liati-Wote, the highest mountain in Ghana, about an hour away. It is on the far east part of the country and very near Togo. We stopped in Kpando, a small town on the way.
We first visited Akpene's friend, another Peace Corps volunteer. Then, in accordance with tradition, we met with the chief to gain permission for our visit. Akpene brought a bottle of schnapps as a gift for him.
The chief gave us libation (more Akpateshie). After taking libation, it's proper to pour the last bit on the floor, so as we left, there were puddles everywhere on the concrete.
Just as we were leaving, a downpour started, so we lingered in his small porch. We were invited back in to wait out the rain, which only lasted a few minutes.
We then hiked to the waterfall which was a beautiful hike. George cracked open a large pod containing cocoa beans. They are surrounded slimy milky stuff inside the pod. You suck on the milky stuff and then spit out the bean, since it's too bitter to eat.
Then we came to the waterfall. About 100 feet high, and surrounded by lush beautiful green. So, in spite of advice of the health departments, we all jumped in. The cool water felt so good. It's really fun to swim under the fall, and completely dumped on. In places though, there were some extremely sharp rocks on the bottom! Tony sliced his toe open pretty good. From then on he was known as Tony the Toe :-) Marilyn came to the rescue with all her nursing experience and put all the pieces back together.
In places though, there were some extremely sharp rocks on the bottom! Tony sliced his toe open pretty good. From then on he was known as Tony the Toe :-) Marilyn came to the rescue with all her nursing experience and put all the pieces back together.
Back at Akpene's friend Jess's place, we had a wonderful dinner, and yes, more Akpateshie & beer. The local kids came out and entertained us with their drumming and dancing, which I managed to record.
Here are two recordings from that evening. one part (2:56 (2.8mb) another part 2:41 (2.5mb)
After we returned, Noah, Maliki and Mawuynyo helped me with language lessons. In Ghana, every region has their own language, while English is taught from an early age in all the schools. In the Volta region the local language is Ewe.
Some villages have their own way of greeting people. Kind of a code so you know someone is from your village. In Jordan Nu, they greet each other with "Afeta-la-fo-he" which means "the lord has risen". In response you say "Afon-ami-va-va" which means "Yes, the lord has risen". It is a quite religious village.
Every night, when the last of us would (finally!) go to bed, Noah and Emmanuel would bring all the porch furnature, the bicycles and drums inside. It was a lot to bring in very late at night, when they are probably used to going to bed early since church is at 5am every day. In the morning the porch is all swept and everything comes back out again. They work pretty hard!