The Road Least Taken

Friday, April 1, 2011

This entry for this weekend may seem too long to read or excessive, but please if you choose to read one entry the entire time I am away make it the entries for this weekend.
The journey began at 6 AM, I was cranky, tired, and still unable to get the exhausted look out of my eyes by the time Yaw arrived and we were escorted to Okponglo to get a trotro to Madina. I was walking as if I was a mummy and I could not yet prepare for what lied ahead. We quickly got transportation to the station and in no time we were headed towards HoHoe in the Volta Region. I was able to force myself out of my monotone state after sleeping for about three hours on the trip, so by the time we arrived I was back in good spirits and ready for the adventure that I would soon encounter. Yaw sat us down in the shade and told us he was going to the market and would quickly return to lead us to the mountain we would be hiking up. As per the typical Ghanaian, Yaw returned about an hour later to lead us over to a taxi. He asked all four of us to get in the back and then preceded to find out if we had enough room. We replied we would be fine, so he opened the door and directed another young girl to join us. This would not have been a huge issue if it wasn’t for the fact that we were parked for about twenty minutes before we continued on our journey and we stopped several times along the way. Although I have informed you in the past just to reiterate, when a taxi with seven people in it and no air conditioning stops in the scorching heat no longer creating any wind, the people inside begin to drip sweat all over one another and feel as if they may faint. This is the way we felt and we did not understand whom the people were and why we were taking so long. We did finally get to JD the village located at the bottom of the mountain. We were all excited for the journey that we were told would take about two and a half hours. It was around two o’clock so we were hoping to arrive before five, which made us skeptical of the time line because we were informed that we would be served dinner as soon as we reached the top. Therefore, we came to the conclusion that the hike may be longer than predicted.
Something you should understand about the trip thus far. First, the little girl in the backseat of our taxi is Yaw’s sister, there was a young woman about my age in the front seat with a baby, sitting beside Yaw and this is also a sister of Yaw, Sarah, and her baby, Wanita. Yaw is a man of about thirty who lives in the village that we stayed in over the weekend, which is located on the top of a very fertile mountain that farms to sustain its self. Second, we were told we would need snacks for the trip, no one informed us that we would be leaving at six AM and our first meal would be served at 8 PM. Each step of the way we were all praying that we would be given something to eat and every hour we would look at our watches and try not to think about the time passing with no food. I am not sure if you realize that scaling a mountain several miles high is much more difficult on an empty stomach than it is when you have eaten to add additional energy into your body. Thirdly, Yaw kept leaving us and we felt terribly awkward because no one in the village speaks English or Twi, they only speak Ewe, which we do not know a word of.
Now let me take a few steps back and help you understand the importance of this weekend. I traveled to a village that is locate at the top of a mountain, the name is Wli Todzi and it is located above the Wli Falls, the tallest falls in West Africa. A young man from the United States started a program with Yaw in an attempt to raise money for the village. Although it does cost much more to stay in the village then someone would expect the cause is an amazing one and once you learn more I am sure each and every one of you would be willing to make the donation. Although I am sure many of you would have no interest in replicating the experience I had while being hosted in a village with little electricity and no running water. However, this village has many other problems outside of not having daily amenities that people can live without. All of the problems stem to the largest issue of all, the access to the village. The only way to get there is hiking about three hours up the side of the mountain. Therefore, every time the town needs something, including cloth, food, mattresses, furniture, pots to cook in, or anything else you can think of that someone would need to survive, someone needs to carry it up the mountain. There was a little girl with us who was carrying a fifty-pound bag of rice on her head and all of the water we would need for the weekend had to go up on someone’s head. It is incredible to fathom having to do that much work for simple daily supplies. Some of the kids walk up and down the mountain several times every week. The issues exist because the government started a project to build a road and It came to a halt when the political party changed and a new person took over power. Now the road has been started, but there is no money to finish the project.
One of the largest issues, that is perpetuated by the lack of a road, is the lack of a health clinic on the mountain. There is no one on the mountain that is trained medically and there are zero facilities to help those who are injured. This results in death from small issues that could have been prevented had they received medical attention right away. Many women die during childbirth because there are no midwives and if there is a problem the woman needs to be carried down the mountain, put in a car and taken to the nearest hospital. This is about a three or four hour trip depending on the men available to carry the woman. The young woman I spoke of earlier, Sarah, is the perfect story to describe the atrocities that occur because of this issue. She was giving birth about three months ago and she experiences severe complications. They had to immediately transport her to the hospital; by the time she arrived she was in a coma. She slipped into a coma for three days before she awoke with no knowledge of ever giving birth; everyone in her family was scared for her life, thank God that she survived. But many times instead of these woman slipping into comas they bleed out and die before anyone is available to help them. Since there is no prenatal care, women have no idea if there is a problem with the baby’s position, or if they should expect complications with the pregnancy or the birth. Also, many times women are unsure about how far along they are so the day they go into labor is the day they find out the baby is coming. If more money could be donated to the community they would be able to complete the two projects that the government started, first the health clinic, and second the road. Another issue not yet being addressed is that there is no ss (secondary school) on the mountain, so those kids that do go to ss have to be boarded in Togo or in Hohoe. The price of doing this is high and most families survive without money on the mountain by farming and trading, so they do not have any income to send children to school past primary school. The primary school on the mountain is also not adequate, they are lacking teachers, and there is only three classrooms for the entire village. I am unsure how many children there are, but there are over 1000 people who live in Wli Todzi. The name of the non-profit organization that is working to raise money is Rise Up Development, you can see their website at Riseup.com and find out more about the stories of the families who live on the mountain.
Now that you have an idea about the village I am about to enter I will continue on with my experience. As we were preparing to climb a hailstorm hit and we were force to retreat to a nearby shelter. We all sat inside a small building while shards of ice came pelting in through the windows. The rain lasted for about thirty minutes and by this time it was almost three thirty. We immediately began our journey to ensure we would reach the top before nightfall. I was in front with the three other girls I had gone with behind one of the young boys who came down just to carry our bags up the hill and Sarah who was carrying her baby and about seven other people were behind us. We were lucky since there was no sun and none of us struggled with the long hike. We had heard horror stories in the past about how horrific the climb was, but it seemed quite easy to me probably because I was prepared for the worst. On the trip up Erik, a fourteen year old boy that goes up and down the mountain or to Wli Falls and back almost everyday in support of the Rise Up program, was in front of me and he stopped periodically to obtain fruit. He climbed a tree and got papaya, he picked two different types of small fruit that were a lot like mamoncillos. One of them you popped out of the shell, sucked on it until the flavor was gone, and spit out the seed. The other you did the same thing except there was no case you just put the entire thing in your mouth. Both of them were sweet and tasted delicious. We made it up in about three hours before we sat down to take a short break to eat bananas and yellow mangos. It took about another half hour to walk to where we would be staying, but since there was no more climbing this part of the journey was simple. There were difficult parts to the climbing when you had to climb strait up and down with your hands and feet. There were also moments when we were walking extremely quickly and any slip of the foot would have led to a disastrous fall down the side of the mountain. It is incredible how so many people use the paths, but a large part of the journey is covered in plants and your feet get tangles and your hands mangled. We all arrived at the top with bumps, bruises, and scrapes from the hike and we all fell at least once. Thank God none of us were hurt because there are no rails and no one standing on the side to account for your safety.
This path is clearly the road less taken, not only because of the difficulty of the path, but because of the conditions you must endure while staying with your host family. When we finally made it to where we would be staying it was beginning to get dark, and once the sun was all the way down the cooking needed to be done with a little girl aiming a flashlight in the direction of the pot and the washroom could only be used if you took a light with you. We were hoping that dinner would be served when we arrived, what actually happened was they began dinner once they saw us coming. There are no phones and almost no one knows the time. So it is hard to predict when someone will arrive and this carries through to every part of the trip. We would later meet people to walk to Togo, this consists of sitting around and waiting for everyone to decide to show up, also breakfast is started after we wake up, which may seem like a good idea. However, breakfast may take over two hours to cook, so when we woke up late it was time to start cooking lunch which takes almost three hours by the time breakfast was served. We finally got dinner by around eight and it was something new too us, we all greatly enjoyed the new flavor. It was ground up corn with light soup, but the soup had many vegetables and fish. It has so much more substance than the soup you get at the night market; it is going to make eating my daily food difficult. We were served separate than everyone else. At first it was sad, although we were paying for the experience I felt as if we were taking food out of the children’s mouths. But the children were soon served the same food that we were eating so I no longer felt compelled to wait.
We were given four pots, one with soup for Brianna with no fish, one pot with light soup for the four of us to all eat from the same dish, one with apble for us to share, and one with water to wash our hands. One of the little girls carried over a small table and chairs to the place where most of us were sitting,. Then we were able to dig into the delicious food. When we eat we make such a mess, but no one seemed to mind. I am getting better at eating without ruining everything in my path, but I am still nowhere near as good as the average Ghanaian. After dinner we danced with the kids, while others drummed and just enjoyed the nice breeze. It did end up getting a bit cold, I had to put on long sleeves and pants to stay warm.
Other things that you should realize about the village: First, we had to wear cloths the entire time we were there because that is the traditional clothing of the ewe people. They claimed the village was conservative, which actually means that you need to be covered past your knees, but the women were not conservative when it came to breasts. Many women showed their breasts at their leisure, no one wore bras, and young children were almost always partially naked. Second, it is a hassle to use the bathroom so the children just go pee wherever they please. The bathroom where you pee is the same room that you use to take your bucket shower and the latrine is where you go to go number two. There was a bucket next to it with leaves you could use as toilet paper and there was a partial wall around it. However, as you used the bathroom anyone who turned his or her head in your direction could watch. Luckily the room with the bucket for bathing has walls on three sides that were high enough to cover past my head. However, the neighbors were not as lucky and we could watch the children on all sides of us bathe. Third, the family welcomed us with open arms, the children would carry chairs and place them behind us wherever we went and the adults were constantly cooking for us. The kids behave and obey the people that are older then them better than I have ever witnessed. They had to walk to the river several times while we were there to fetch water, they would sit by the pot and make sure the fire stayed lit, while Auntie Charlotte and Sarah cooked, they did their own wash and Sarah’s wash if she asked, they held flashlights while dinner was being prepared, they cut everything for the soups, the opened the cans of tomato paste using a knife, they took care of the babies when they cried, they essentially behaved like adults. The little girls were about ten years old and there were three of them living in the complex we were staying at. There were also young boys that behaved just as well. They had to go to the waterfalls, Togo, and up and down the mountain every time they were asked and they never complained. Forth, people wore the same clothes the entire time we stayed with them. Wanita, a three-month-old baby, was constantly changed, but besides her everyone else wore the same clothes everyday. The babies usually wore shirts, but they would stay naked from the waste down. I am not sure if this was done to make it easier for them to go to the bathroom since there is no diapers or just because they prefer to be naked.
All in all the first involved a great hike, but the time we spent in the village was a little bit awkward and we were unsure what the remainder of the weekend would be like.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

I woke up at around six to the sound of music playing outside and children all around playing. I swelled up with joy at the thought of the day that lay ahead. I stayed in bed and took in my surroundings and tried to appreciate the sheer enjoyment of the children. When I decided to leave my ecstasy and venture outside into the gleaming sun it was almost eight o’clock. I then sat around and just played with the children and got to know Sarah a bit more while breakfast was being prepared. We were soon served our first meal of the day, which consisted of white rice and tomato sauce. The food was phenomenal just not what we are used to in America for breakfast. We were again served our meal separate from everyone else in three pots on the little table and chairs that the children carried over to where we had been standing. We ate with out Yaw this time and then prepared for our hike to Wli Falls. The falls were supposed to be about an hour and a half hike down and we were told there was only one part of the journey that was difficult. What this truly meant was a two-hour hike, with about thirty minutes of scaling a mountain. Although it was tougher than expected it was amazing and I cannot wait for my next hike. Plus the falls were gorgeous and there was a beautiful breeze. The water was cool in temperature and when we got close to the falls the wind would wipe us in the face and the water would shoot in all direction. We had a very nice time and we stayed for almost an hour before we had to climb back up the steep mountain. The way back was much easier than we predicted and the boys were able to get us avocado, pineapple, and papaya all on the way. The pineapple was the best pineapple I have ever had in my life and we all just wanted to eat as much of it as possible. Although the climb back exerted less energy, it did require a greater amount of strength. Do to the fact that I have man legs, it was not a large problem for me to get to the top, for those with less strength in their legs they may disagree that up was easier than down. Therefore, the difficulty of the hike is all relative to the person you are talking to. Also, the path was just as blocked as the path up the mountain. We had to walk through bush and also along a route that refereeing to it as a path would be an over statement. I am not sure how the boys knew which way to go, but it surely wasn’t because there was a dirt path to lead the way. The path completely disappeared at times and I just prayed that someone was aware of how to get to our destination. There are people who come to the mountain and don’t visit the falls and for those people I feel sorry because it was an amazing experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
We got back ready for dinner since we had already missed lunch, but we had to wait for the fufu to be pounded. It was so interesting to watch the three young boys pounding, while the women sat by the fire making the okra soup that we would eat with the meal. We were able to help a little bit with the cooking and we also bathed while we waited. I was not prepared for the temperature of the water, so when I poured it on my head I let out a small shriek. I don’t think anyone heard me, at least I hope not. It was so cold I do not even understand how it ever cooled to that temperature since it is kept outside which is extremely hot. I presume the experience could have been worse although I did not like the feeling of showering where I know everyone uses the bathroom even if it is not much different from a normal shower. After we all got out of the shower dinner was almost ready, but it had begun to rain. This made it very difficult to get things done in a timely manner, but we all seemed to manage. When the rain came down harder the roof began to leak and we all got a little wet, but it didn’t faze anybody. We then helped them finish up dinner and we were served inside one of the rooms where we sleep. Sarah and Emos joined us and the experience was enjoyable. It was by far the best fufu I have ever had, the texture was very different from in the past and the soup once again much more dense, which was amazing. The soup was made up of okra, mushrooms, fish, garden egg (egg plant), peppers, and tomatoes. We ate almost all of it, which was a very large portion each and then we had the others join us in the room so we could play games. The rain continued so there was no dancing and drumming, but we had a great time anyway with never have I ever and other similar games.
With ever meal we drank apateshi and other types of alcohol, all of which are way to strong to drink with no chaser, but we all did it anyway. You also have to pour the first or last sip on the ground so that the ancestors could join you in your meal. This is something we had encountered in the past, but never to such a large extent. Also you must always take your shoes off at the door before entering the room, once I walked in with my shoes and they noticed right away. Everyone said something to me and I apologized many times for my mistake. One of the most interesting things was sometimes you could just sit back and listen and the only noise in the air is the sound of many different types of animals or the sound of children playing. There were goats, chicken, dogs, lambs, and pigs all around and the families all know which ones belong to them even though they all wander from place to place looking for scraps to eat. No one even steals someone else’s goats and they never worry about the eggs from the chicken making it to the correct family. The families have great respect for one another and they treat each other like you would treat your brothers and sisters. The entire community is like a family in many ways, when a mother dies giving birth a child is never sent to an orphanage. Two of the children that live in the block I was staying in were orphans that Auntie Charlotte took in because their mom died giving birth to them. To return to the night we played games for several hours and then everyone started heading off to bed.
Realize that we are sleeping in two different rooms, so we are taking the beds of the family members that live in the home. Sarah, Yaw and the baby all had to sleep in the same room because Meg and I were sleeping in Sarah’s room. They had to give up their rooms, their time, and their food to take care of us for the weekend in order to help their community. Their family is not being directly impacted financially the money will go to the community as a whole, and they are still willing to put some much into our weekend.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

I was supposed to get up at seven this morning to go to church. In order for me to do this I asked both Yaw and Sarah to wake me up because I did not have a clock to set an alarm on. I woke up to the noise of cassava being grounded and went outside to find out what time it was. It was still six so I went back to sleep and when I got up again I was informed it was after eight. I was in shock and really upset that no one got me up. Although I quickly realized that church begins at seven thirty like it takes two hours to hike up the mountain. It was almost nine by the time we left for church and we did not seem to have missed much at all. I returned by eleven thirty and breakfast was waiting for me when I got there. It was white rice and tomato sauce just like yesterday’s breakfast this time spicier. It was very good and right after it was time to start Sarah’s birthday celebration. She handed me the baby and told me she was mine for the rest of the day, which I was obviously thrilled about. The pastor came and said some prayers, we sang happy birthday and everyone began to dance. Happy, a man about my age is one of the males that help with the program. He asked me if I wanted to go with him into the village and of course I said yes. He toured me around the village, where about fifty people stopped to say hello to the two of us and by the time the tour was over I still spoke no Ewe. Happy was so sweet, every time I needed to respond to someone he would mouth whatever it was that I should be saying, so it appeared as if I knew some of the language. After the tour he asked if I wanted to go to Togo to watch him play football. I was thrilled by this question and quickly went to get ready. It was about an hour and a half hike, which was not that bad on the way there. We arrived earlier than the Togo team, so he walked me around for a little while. When we got back both teams were ready to play and I took a seat on the sidelines. It began to rain once again, but the game continued. At one point a goat ran through the field and I was the only one to react, but soon after a family of eight pigs ran across and one of them fell over because the rain was making the ground slippery. The grass really needed to be mowed, well in Africa it is referred to as weeded because each strand needs to be weeded. I was not the only person to react to this, everyone was hysterically laughing and the game had to be played around them until they made it all the way across the field. The game ended three to three and we walked back in the rain with no light. I slipped the entire way back, Happy felt so sorry for me he offered to carry me. I obviously did not concede to this and I made my way back bear foot, cold, and wet. It was still worth the trip because we had a lot of fun and I got to see another country with no visa.
As soon as I returned, Sarah informed me that she was waiting for me to prepare the salad with her. I was so excited to finally be helpful that I ran into my room, got changed, and made my way to where we would prepare dinner. I helped her cut up all of the vegetables and then we added mayonnaise in place of dressing creating something more like coleslaw then salad, but either way it was very good. Just to inform you, the other girls had left in the morning, so I spent the day in the village alone. This was the best day of all and it was no longer awkward. It was such a great experience and I began to feel integrated. When dinner was ready I was served along with Sarah and Yaw and we all had rice and salad which was amazing. I was really hungry since once again I was not around for lunch. After dinner the birthday celebration continued with no rain in site. There were girls from the village that performed a traditional dance and then some of the kids put on a play thankfully in English. After, the boys drummed and everyone else danced for hours. It was such an enjoyable night and I did not go to bed until late into the night.

Monday, April 4, 2011
My final day in the village only lasted a couple of hours since I had to leave by one in order to make in back in time to get a trotro back from Spana Junction. I woke up at around seven and went straight to getting breakfast ready. I cut up some vegetables and then Sarah came in and gave me the baby to take care of while she prepared the banku. I sat with the baby for about an hour while talking to Sarah and Erik. I learned a lot about their lives and I told them both I would like to return in the future. I was hoping that I would see Happy again soon to let him know I wanted to leave around one and thankfully he came strolling by around ten so I was able to talk to him. By the time we were done with breakfast it was already noon, so I had to prepare to leave. I tumble around with the children for some time and spotted them while they did back flips, then we danced and I went over and watched Sarah do her laundry. She offered to do mine while I waited, but I declined the offer although I desperately need to get my laundry done. By this time the baby was sleeping and I was all packed to leave, so as soon as Happy came over we were on our way back to HoHoe.
He took me down a path that no white person has ever used and for good reason. The entire way I was scared for my life. Happy was great and would catch me every ten minutes when I would fall and he let me go in front so I could control our speed. We essentially scaled the mountain for forty-five minutes before we reached land that was slightly slanted as opposed to straight up and down. It was interesting, but I am not sure I would want to do it again. One time I fell and started bleeding he felt so bad, but I told him not to worry I was already so cut up from the other hikes my legs did not even know the difference. He also got me bananas off the tree on the way down and stopped to show me different trees and mountains as we declined. When the hike got easier we were finally able to talk and I got all of my questions answered. It was about twenty minutes further of a much easier trail before we reached JD. At the bottom there was a culture fest in progress so we stayed for a short period of time and watched the children perform. Some of the groups were phenomenal and the costumes were gorgeous. It started to get late so Happy said it was time for us to go. We had to walk to the other side of the village to get a trotro to take us to Hohoe. This took much longer than predicted, we had to sit and wait for almost an hour before we got a ride. Once we did Happy was amazing and let me sleep the entire way and then he brought me right to the Accra Station, so all I had to do was hop on the trotro. It was not actually a trotro it had air conditioning and nice seats, although it was not exactly a bus. It was more of a mediocre van and this cost me an extra cedi, but I did not mind. I then got off at Spana at around nine thirty and immediately got on a trotro back to school. It is only about ten minutes away and then the walk from the stop to my hostel is about another fifteen minutes. In the end it was a little after ten that I arrived back in my room. I took a shower, got dinner, read, and went to bed.