Rules of tro-tros

Well well well, it has not been long since I last blogged but hey, if I can find internet around here I am happy to sit and write. I am in the capital city, Accra, so that's why I've had quite a bit of time to blog in the last day or two. Hopefully I will get on tomorrow morning as well but we'll see. Anyway, I have been travelling all around the country for the past few days and let me tell you... it has been a crazy adventure. To start off, however, I have devised a few basic tro-tro rules that I think everyone should follow (as I know some of you will be taking public transport not only at home but during your travels as well). Here we go!

Rule #1: Everyone must take a shower or use deodorant before entering the tro-tro
Rule #2: Falling asleep on the person beside you (when you do not know each other) is unacceptable
Rule #3: Obscenities and insults such as, "move over, you are fat" are completly banned

Why have i made these rules? Because the trotro that Sarah and I took from Cape Coast back to Accra was the stinkiest, most disgusting tro-tro in the world. I am not kidding you when I say that we packed 43 people into a bus slightly larger than the "mini ETS buses" so the next time you are on one of those little buses and feel slightly claustrophobic, remember that in Ghana, they pack 4x that many people. Not only that, but the seat i was on was equal with the window level (and because it was roughly 35 degrees today, the window was fully open) and I honestly was scared for my life that we would bounce on a pot hole and I would fly out of the window... so I linked arms with the Aussie and honestly held on for 3.5 hours. BUUUUT I have made it to Accra and am safe and sound but if you think you are ever hot, sweaty and cramped, think again, my friends! ;)

Accra is very different than the small rural fishing village that I have become accustomed to. It's loud, stinky, polluted, and very populated with many many men that constantly hiss at you while you walk down the street. I thought that I had a lot of patience but it has turned out that, alas, it runs thin after about 2 hours of hissing. In traffic there are people that walk between the lanes of cars selling everything from a clothing iron to bananas, string, cigarettes, dish detergent and fish. It is all carried on their heads and people bargain and yell out all the windows. It's really quite loud and confusing to be honest, but I guess if you can get all your grocery shopping done while waiting at a traffic light, then good on you!

I am so confused by all the days because they all blurr together that I forget what I have told some on the phone, others by email and what I've put on the blog. But I don't think I've told anyone about the waterfall yet so here we go! A few days ago (I have no idea which one!), the group hired a tro-tro to this canopy/rainforest area about 3 hours away from Ho. We got up REALLY early in the morning (4:30am) so that we could catch the monkies in the rainforest around "breakfast time" before they retreated further into the forest. We got there just in time! Each of us received a banana from the tour guy and juuuuuust as I crouched down, out of the shrubs came a monkey! About 2 feet tall, he looked at me, inched his way forward and snatched the banana right from my hand! It was way cool! We kept on walking and about 1.5 hours into the rainforest we came to an opening where there was a waterfall. It is the largest waterfall in West Africa and the second largest waterfall in Africa!!! It was HUGE! So what do you do when you see such a large waterfall? JUMP IN! And we all did just that! Ditched our backpacks on the side by the rocks and hopped in the falls! I swam underneat the point where all the water fell and came up behind the waterfall.Looking around, I climbed and crept up into a small crevace and sat there for a good 15 minutes just listening to the deafening sound of rushing water. Being from the prairies I have obviously never seen a waterfall, let alone sit behind one by myself! Definitely one of those experiences that you cannot describe but only imagine when you think back on it...

Another entertaining story for you all! I did my second load of laundry the other day before we left for Ho. It had been piling up for about 5 days by then so I took my laundry sack out to the well and began pailing water. I was doing what I thought was a good job when a few of the compound kids came by. No joke, they are about 4 or 5 years old. Anyway, they began giggling at me (as many of the children do here), and I asked the what was so funny!? Well, apparently, Yevus suck at doing laundry so these little kids came over and started scrubbing my stuff! No word of a lie, they are better than a washing machine! They giggled and laughed as they did my laundry, holding up my Western tank tops and weird clothing! At the end, in exchange, I gave their little brother a bath with some shampoo and a small tub of water. It was a great deal in their eyes and in mine as well!


Not long ago, someone emailed me asking about the kind of food I eat in Ghana. I began to laugh, as I don't necessarily consider it food all the time, but nonetheless, I will try and describe it for you.As you know, breakfast is a solo event. Whenever we get ready for the day, we head to the kitchen and fix ourselves some toast, corn flakes or fruit. Now this all sounds like a luxury but let me tell you, it's not. The bread is very sweet (it's made of rice flour), the butter is not butter, the peanut butter is really called "ground nut paste" (close enough, say the Ghanians), and the only selection of jam is pineapple, which at first was gross but is starting to grow on me. The banans and oranges are excellent (nothing to complain about there) but as for the stale Corn Flakes, they may be over a year old. It's quite amusing to see the volunteers concoct various breakfasts in the morning! We have gone so far as to put groundnut paste right onto bananas to feel as though we are eating PB and bananas. Sometimes we mush the bananas to make "banana jam" and if we are really desperate for something new, we sprinkle cocoa powder on top of the butter to make a nutella like flavor. After that scrumptous delecacy of a meal, we head out for work only to return for lunch. Typical dishes for lunch or dinner include FuFu (essentially unidentifiable mush), fried plantanes (kind of like bananas), fried yams (surprisingly good), potato wedges (potatoes cut into the shape of wedges, nothing special), fish soup (still with the fish heads in the soup!) and rice. SOMETIMES we have ground nut stew which is a mix of vegetables in tomatoe based soup with groundnut paste (which, if you can remember, resembles peanut butter). Interesting, no? So now you can all understand why I miss having milk (there is none), cheese, meat, cold vegetables, other fruits, and salad dressing!Oh my! I have to go! The internet place is closing in about 3 minutes but I will hopefully blog tomorrow before I head back to Woe for the week. Nite nite!


P.S. If you have any questions about what's going on here, just ask! I sometimes forget what I have previously described and what I haven't so feel free to ask a question in the Comments section and that will help me write to y'all! Cheers!