Adventure to Green Turtle!

Time for a Ghana update!  This is going to be a lengthy one.  With classes finally in full swing, my Ghanaian adventures are now limited to the weekends for the most part, but as exciting as ever.  My schedule is such that I have no classes on Monday and am done at 930AM on Fridays so there is plenty of time to travel for a long weekend, which is exactly what a few friends and I did.  Two weeks ago the university held a Welcome Darbur for the international students where we ate delicious food, learned a bit about Ghanaian culture, socialized with fellow students, and got to watch amazing performances of traditional Ghanaian dance and music.  Although not a mandatory event, it was a lot of fun and a warm welcome to the country so most of us stuck around for it instead of traveling.  The following weekend was the first totally free set of days that we had since arriving in Ghana, so the four girls from Pitt and another friend Sarah from the University of Florida, decided it was time for an adventure.  In one of my West African guide books (a great Christmas present from my Dad) it recommends a weekend away at Green Turtle Lodge on the western coast of Ghana.  This eco-tourism lodge was started by a British couple and is located on a remote stretch of beach about an hour past Takoradi near Akwidaa Old Town.  As soon as we finished our Friday class, we gathered some belongings and began our long trek across the country.

dancers performing traditional Ghanaian moves at the Welcome Darbur

According to the directions on Green Turtle’s website, the travel time from Accra should have been about 5 hours consisting of a four hour STC bus ride to Takoradi, and an hour long tro tro ride to the lodge.  This seemed simple enough for 5 college students to handle, but what would a trip in Ghana be without a few twists?  Apparently when you attempt to catch a tro tro to Kaneshie Market around lunchtime, it is not possible to find one with space for 5 people and their backpacks of clothing; therefore, after our optimism began to dwindle, we were forced to squeeze into a taxi downtown.  Thank goodness Ama is a very petite girl, or else traveling with five people would have been even more complicated.  Fortunately, once we were dropped off at Kaneshie, an STC bus headed to Takoradi was waiting for passengers to fill it up before taking off.  The STC buses are similar to Greyhound or any other bus company in the US, but are a significant step up from the tro tros and much better for long distance transportation—and they are air conditioned!!  We had to wait about an hour on the STC bus before it was well occupied and ready to head to Takoradi.  I gladly dozed off for portions of the bus ride, but was occasionally woken up by the crazy Ghanaian TV series that was being shown or the several near accidents are bus encountered.  At this point, we thought the hard part of our journey was over, and we would be at our beach destination in no time.  Wrong again!  Despite the fact that I had written down the exact directions to the lodge as they provided on their website, no one seemed to know the landmarks we requested.  The STC driven advised we get off the bus before the Takoradi station in order to get a taxi to Green Turtle, because he said there would be no tro tros running that late at night.  However, a taxi from that point would have cost a ridiculous about of money and most did not even know where Green Turtle Lodge was.  I asked a passing woman where to catch a tro tro and she kindly walked us all the way to the best spot, and bargained with the drivers for us, even though it was in the opposite direction of where she was headed.  The tro tro was only able to take us to Agona Junction (which was lit only by a few candles) where we had to find a taxi for the last part of our trip.  Luckily Green Turtle has taxi drivers that they work with who were waiting here and gladly offered to drive us down the last 10 kilometers rocky unlit road.  Only then did we understand why every other person we had talked to said the last bit would take 2 hours—we even had to get out of the taxi and walk along side at points because the road was too difficult to navigate with passengers in the vehicle.

Our mosquito netted bed, watch out for the lizards!

                Finally, after a total of ten hours of travel, we made it to Green Turtle and were never happier to see the few people that were still awake sitting around a campfire on the beach.  True to Ghanaian hospitality, the man in charge for the night was nice enough to give us each some bread and spreads since we hadn’t eaten the entire day, before showing us to our rooms.  We stayed in dorm style accommodations which were essentially large rooms with multiple beds squeezed in and mosquito nets covering them.  This was perfect for our budgets and as we only used the rooms as a place to crash at night, they were more than enough.  We spent the next 3 days relaxing in every way possible—long walks on the beach, candle lit dinners, becoming totally engulfed in our books, and going for the occasional dip in the ocean.  One morning we took a walk down the beach to a nearby fishing village where we met two young girls on their way to fetch fresh water for their family.  Agnes and her little sister stopped us and asked to get their pictures taken, and then view it immediately after—they probably would shriek with excitement and burst into laughter at the sight of themselves.  We talked with them for a while and they held our hands as we walked with them to get water.  This was one of my favorite moments in Ghana so far because two girls less than the age of 10 unknowingly exposed me to a new world—one in which a young girl can sing a song about Jesus with a huge smile on her face, giggle at herself while wearing my sunglasses, and teach me how to do her favorite dance despite the fact that she was clearly malnourished and held a lot of responsibility for the wellbeing of her family at such a ripe age.  Saying goodbye to Agnes and her sister without being able to help them in the ways they desperately needed was hard, but I hope that singing and dancing with them brightened their day as much as they did mine.  That was a moment I won’t soon forget.

Agnes and her little sister get a picture with an obruni!

                Another perk of the weekend was the delicious food that was all made fresh from the surrounding resources—we even had French toast one morning from bread that was made by the Ghanaian women at Green Turtle with bananas and pure honey (so yummy)!  Aside from the animal of some sort that was trapped in the walls of our dorm and proceeded to cry all night long, we enjoyed a wonderful weekend escape on a remote beach with breathtaking scenery and wonderful people.  Monday, brought another long day of travel, but this time with a bit more organization on our part.  It is funny how arriving back on campus in Accra feels like home for the time being, and we are now back in the swing of class—the other reason I’ve come here.  This upcoming weekend we will stay in Accra, with plans to tour the city and some major historical sites around it.  Additionally, I am starting to volunteer at a local orphanage this week, which I am so excited for, as it is one of the driving factors in my wish to come to Ghana.  It is easy to see how fast four months here will go, and I don’t want to let it slip away from me!

The beautiful beach at Green Turtle Lodge