Eastern Region

Friday, April 8, 2011

Today I could have slept in, but for some reason I woke up at around six thirty and was unable to fall back to sleep. I was forced to get up out of bed and I decided to start soaking my towels, so I could get them washed. After I finished my laundry I saw Hannah and she told me they would be making smoothies and cinnamon toast for brunch. I was able to indulge on fruits and it was fantastic. We then went to a woman’s house to weave baskets. The experience was phenomenal and we cannot wait to return. I made a basket that is blue and gold for the bathroom in my apartment at school next year. I am going to use it to put Potpourri in and I am thrilled about it. We watched little girls sing and dance, we created wonderful baskets, and we received bracelets to match our baskets, so all in all it was a wonderful day that took from one to seven.
When we got back I decided to go out, so I got ready and waited for people to return from one of the hostels that they were watching a performance at. Two of the boys Peter and Sam came back to ISH to pick me up, so we could go to the Roof Top and the other half went straight to the club. When they arrived they learned that it was closed, so we picked a different club and they went there just to find out that it was twenty cedis each to get in. They got frustrated and decided to come back to the hostel and the two boys I was with made the decision to go to Venus. Therefore, I stayed back because it is a hooka bar, which I have no interest in. So we spent hours attempting to find somewhere to go and I ended up not going out.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

This morning I was suppose to wake up at seven so that I could leave by seven forty-five for the Eastern Region of Ghana. Instead I woke up at 8:06, freaked out, got dressed, packed my bag as quickly as possible, and ran out to the bus. As I was doing these things I had decided that I had missed the bus and I would need to find some way to get there on my own, because it is one of the CIEE trips so it is a free weekend of traveling that I would not want to miss. But as I walked outside I caught sight of the bus hopped on and it pulled away. It is moments like these that prove there is a God. They were not waiting for me they just happened to be running twenty minutes late.
We headed off first to a woodcarving workshop in Aburi, which was terribly disappointing. It was a man that spoke to us for about two minutes and then we got one hour to shop at an art market. We got back in the car and went to Aburi Botanical Gardens, which also consisted of a short tour. We were able to smell different spices that come from trees, climb in a hollow tree, and play in a broken helicopter. We also got to eat small berries and star fruit, so although we did not learn much it was beautiful and entertaining. We then had lunch, which is always exciting on CIEE trips and headed off to Tetteh Quarshie’s Cocoa Farm. We tasted cocoa from the plant and then we tried chocolate from in the dried seed. The first plant tasted slimy and sweet and the second seed tasted bitter and extremely strong. We learned about how the cocoa is grown, dried, and then exported to the rest of the world. It was a nice tour, but once again shorter than we expected. We then went back to the Capital View Hotel where we had several hours of free time before dinner. I was able to use the Internet, take a warm shower, sit in air conditioning, and then go out and sit by the pool. After dinner I went swimming in a pool with warm water, which was nice considering it was a bit cool outside which doesn’t happen often. We hung out in the room for a while and then we went to a club at the hotel. There was no one there except the ten people we went with, but we made it fun by dancing for several hours. After the club we all went off to bed, because we had breakfast the following day at seven.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

I went down for breakfast to learn they would be serving cereal, not just any cereal but coco puffs. You may not think this is exciting, but cereal is one of the foods many of us miss the most, so it was thrilling. And since they make the milk taste like chocolate the fact that the milk is powdered milk does not ruin the cereal. I also had an egg, beans, and oatmeal, which were all delicious and I was so full I could barely walk. The next thing on the agenda was going to Boti Falls to hike to a three-headed palm tree and then swim in the waterfalls.
No one realized that we would be going on a hike, so we all had on flip-flops and inappropriate clothing, but we proceeded nonetheless. The hike was much easier then the hikes from last weekend, but there were difficult parts due to the fact that it had rained and the walkway was slippery. We made it to a large rock that we paid fifty peswas to climb up. When the leaders of CIEE finally arrived they got in a fight with the kids that charged us to go up the rock for about twenty minutes. None of us really minded paying, but the u-pals were holding their ground insisting that we were cheated. We did not get our money back, but we enjoyed the rock anyway. There was a fantastic view and we were able to just relax.
The point of the hike was to get to the three headed palm tree, but after the fight everyone decided it was not worth it and turned back. However, I figured that I would not be returning and we had already made it about an hours distance so we might as well complete the journey. Se two of the u-pals, Mickey and Gideon and I headed off to the palm tree. We arrived in about ten minutes to a less than exciting tree in the middle of a village. It was worth the journey since we had already gone so far, but I would not suggest it to anyone else. Although I loved the hike and am happy we went on it.
We were able to hike back quick enough to catch up with the rest of the group and make to the falls at the same time as the group. We ran right into the water because we were dripping sweet from every part of our bodies, I could feel the sweet dripping down my face, arms and legs. The water was freezing, but it felt amazing. I climbed the rocks, went under the fall, and just swam around for about an hour before it was time to leave. The falls were only about a five-minute walk from the main gate, so we were back on the bus in no time. We returned to the hotel for a delicious lunch consisting of rice balls with soup and goat meat, chicken, jollof rice with tomato sauce, and cabbage with salad cream (mayonnaise). We traveled back to the bus and made our way back to the hostel arriving a little before five, earlier than any other trip in the past. It was a nice weekend and although the first day was slightly disappointing the falls made up for it.
When I returned I learned that it had rained and I still had about five pieces of clothing on the clothesline because they were still wet when I left for the Eastern Region. Therefore, I will need to rewash those clothes, which I was not excited about. However, I got over it put them in the dirty clothes and began to do some reading. When I completed my assignment I watched the King’s Speech, which I greatly enjoyed and then went to bed.