A weekend at Kokrobite

Thursday, April 14, 2011

I have no idea what happened this morning, but after my alarm went off at 5:40 I fell back asleep and did not wake up until 6:20. I quickly got ready and I ended up leaving my room fifteen minutes later than usual. I was lucky enough to get on a trotro quickly and I arrived at work forty minutes early. It is incredible with the traffic and transportation conditions that I can leave late and arrive early and that I can also leave on time and be late. But I have gotten much better at working the system and it does not take me nearly as long to get around. I finished my assignments at work, in a timely manner and was able to leave with plenty of time to go back to my room and relax before dance class.
Dance was held outside because the building was being used for a production. Therefore, we got to slice our feet up by dancing barefoot on the cement and class got cut short because it gets dark by six-thirty. After class I attended the production and it was wonderful. It was a dance production with about thirty people and they told an amazing story using only music and dancing. The costumes were beautiful and the backdrops were set up in such a way that they created different dimensions. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera with me, so there are no pictures of the show.
After the show I got ready and went out to Tantra for the birthday of one of my Ghanaian friends. This was my first tipsy night in Ghana and it all happened because they owner is in love with me. He gave me whatever alcohol I asked for and he did not try to dance with me once. He did creepily say that he just likes to watch people dance, but I am okay with that as long as I get drinks and nothing is expected of me at the end. I was with plenty of people I trust, so I was not unsafe at all and don’t worry although I did drink I was nowhere near out of control. I ensured I did not drink too much by handing every other drink off to someone nearby, while the owner was not paying attention. At around three forty-five the club closed and we headed first to Epos so the boys could pick up food and then back to the dorm.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Although I was awoken at around six, I was able to fall back asleep and I did not get up until nine. I have not slept in that late in a long time, so I felt wonderful when I got up. I had the best breakfast because Kayla, one of my neighbors and great friends here, lent me some honey and I was able to get cinnamon to put in my oatmeal. After I was fed and showered I packed my bag and headed off for a weekend at the beach. We arrived there earlier then expected after riding on three trotros and walking down the side roads to reach our destination. We laid out for a little while before our room was prepared and we were able to settle in. We quickly discovered that the shops on the beach are run by Rastas, so we would have a constant smell of weed throughout our trip, we attempted to sit far enough away to avoid the small, but that was difficult to do. We had a booked the last available room, which meant that we were paying for an expensive room in comparison to the other rooms for modern amenities and air conditioning because it was the only room left. And for Friday night we would only have five people in the room. The problem came about when we discovered that the hotel had not had electricity for the last three days, so the air and every other amenity was not functioning.
Therefore, as the most confrontational, but not blatantly rude person in the room I decided to go to reception to get the price of our room decreased. The woman informed me that her boss was not in to come back at two and I could speak with her. I returned at two and still there was no boss. She told me she would take ten cedis off the bill for the inconvenience because we are not actually paying for the air we are paying for the set up of the room. It is true that we had running water and many of the other rooms did not, but we were paying three times the amount then the triple that also has running water. Therefore, this was not the discount we were looking for, so I asked her how I could contact her boss because the price was unacceptable. She was terribly offended and told me to leave if she was just a nobody not worth talking too. I was trying very hard not to get into a fight, so I left and decided to give up on the topic for the day. After my confrontation I went over to the relaxing side of the resort and we were able to just hang out and have a nice night. We played a couple of games and there was a drumming show being held with several dancers. Some of them were excellent, other had no special talent, but it was entertaining for quite some time. After the show, we continued with our games until it was time for bed.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

The following day we went to the beach, hung out, ate the most delicious food I have had in Ghana, and then it was time to celebrate Hannah’s birthday. The name of the beach is Kokrobite and the resort is Big Milly’s. The atmosphere is lovely, it is a wonderful place to sit and relax, while you enjoy the breeze from the ocean. It is a public beach, so hawkers are all over and there are children all around asking for money. However, one very kind young boy saw my towel be wiped away by the waves and ran in the water to retrieved it, looked at how dirty it had gotten, ran back to the water, rinsed it off and rang it out all without being asked. He did not bother us the remainder of the time, he just helped move our stuff into safety every time “the sea is comes.”
The dinner was at an Italian restaurant that was opened up by an Italian couple several years ago right outside the resort. Although I would not say the pasta was great Italian food, it was still delicious. I had pasta al forno, with salad that actually had vinegar and green lettuce as opposed to cabbage. We also got chocolate cake for Hannah so we could sing happy birthday and let her blow out a watch at midnight. The cake was amazing and after, we forced her to jump into the ocean. Here is Ghana on your birthday, you get ponded, so we decided to put her in the ocean would be the most effective way to complete that. We all went in with her and afterwards we went out to dance for a bit to the reggae music. We soon went off to bed in high spirits.
The power was on when we returned to our rooms, which was exciting because the air conditioning was making the room well worth what ever they wanted up to pay. However, this lasted for only about an hour when the power went out once again, and again we were left in the smoldering heat.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

We woke up and went to breakfast and then I had to make my way back to reception to once again deal with paying for the room. By this time five other people had arrived so we now had ten people in out sweet (which is not actually as nice as you would picture) three on two of the beds, one person on the single bed, and three people on the floor. Reception was aware that seven people were now in the room and they split the bill up accordingly. Additionally, the night before we lost one of the room keys, so we were assuming that would be added to the price of the stay. When we got to reception we encountered a terrible hassle and in the end we each ended up paying fifteen for the first night and ten for the second night, a price that we were all content with. I will never return to that resort and it is just one more example of the difference between the United States and Ghana. The most important thing in Ghana is not pleasing the customer, and nothing is ever done in the easiest manner. After the terrible experience with paying we had to go to the main road and find taxis to take us to Bojo Beach where we would be having the CIEE Olympics as our last group function. We arrived two hours late so we missed football and volleyball and I participated in very little else. I laid out most of the time, although I did play tug-a-war. I did have a nice time and we got back to the hostel at around eight. I got dressed and went out with Atsu and Mickey to EPOs to dance for a couple of hours until it was time for bed.