Tro Tros, Coconuts, and Really Long Posts!

Location: Walvis Bay, Namibia

Takoradi, Ghana: 10/15-10/16 & Tema, Ghana: 10/17-10/18

For those of you who don't know, Ghana is a country in West Africa which has about the same land area as the state of Oregon. In 1957 Ghana was the first country in sub-saharan Africa to gain independence from colonial rule, and it is doing better economically and politically than many African countries (though the average yearly wage is still only $3,500.) The Prime Meridian also runs right through it (side note: the ship crossed the equator at the prime meridian, aka 0˚ latitude and 0˚ longitude! Isn't that cool?)

As you can see above, for some unknown reason, the M.V. Explorer was docking at two different ports in Ghana over the four days that we were there. It spent the first two days in Takoradi (which is supposed to have a population of about 445,000, but honestly didn't feel very big) before moving on the second evening to a port in Tema (which is about the size of Eugene, but we had a shuttle that would take us about an hour away to the much larger city of Accra.) This meant that we were allowed to either travel with the ship or find our way overland between the two ports. Of course, you must decide which option you will be choosing several days before arriving at the port, which makes sense but also makes it hard to plan (remember we have limited internet to look up bus routes or places to stay.) Many people just wing it and manage to find their way just fine, especially since these two ports were really not very far apart. Once again I decided to stay with the ship, since most of the in-country time that would be lost by the move was at night, and therefor when I would be sleeping anyway (and I might as well be sleeping in my cozy cabin on the ship than paying for a place wherever whichever group I managed to join decided to stay.)

Beyond that, I didn't have much of a plan for Ghana. The previous eight days (after I left Morocco) had just been one big blur of essays and midterm exams in all of my classes, and it had left me with remarkably little time to plan. I had signed up for a field program to visit and learn about the Morning Star School in Accra on the third day (10/17), but that left the entire time in Takoradi open. I planned to explore the city a bit on the second day (I wanted to stay close since I would have to be back to the ship before on-ship time anyway), and I was undecided whether to spend the first day going to Kakum National Park (a rainforest with a famous treetop canopy walk) or to one of the infamous castles and slave dungeons on Cape Coast (disturbing, but interesting)––while I wanted to do both, they were both an hour or so from Takoradi and I was fairly certain there wouldn't be time.

I ultimately found someone else who wanted to go to the rainforest, and so I planned to meet with her and her group that morning for breakfast while we were waiting for the ship to clear so that we could disembark. Unfortunately, they then decided to simply explore Takoradi that morning. Dang. Okay, so I needed to find a different group. One of the girls I was sitting with helpfully led me over to a table with another group planning to go to Kakum that day. I didn't know any of them, but I awkwardly invited myself along (which is basically commonplace on Semester at Sea, so they were alright with it.) But then I found out that we were now a group of 8 people. Nothing good ever comes from traveling in a group that large. So I thank them and roam off to try to find someone else to travel with (will this finally be the time that I find myself completely groupless? I hoped not!)

In the end I ran into Tanner and Yawen, two of the people I had traveled in Morocco with; it turned out that they were planning to go to Kakum and/or Cape Coast as well, and I had rather enjoyed our time in Morocco, so I happily joined them. We consulted with a local woman that was at the hospitality desk giving people tips on what to do and where to go, and she informed us that no, it was probably not a good idea to try and see both Kakum and Cape Coast in one day, and that since it was a national holiday Kakum would probably be crowded and not the best place to go. So we decided to go to the castles/dungeons of Cape Coast. 

Then the announcement came over the loudspeaker that the ship had cleared, and we were off! We disembarked the ship and went straight to the shuttle that would take us to the port gate, bypassing the little makeshift market that had sprung up alongside the ship, trying to tempt students with vibrant clothes, colorful canvas paintings, and little bracelets with your name on them which were woven on the spot. We would all be very tired of those merchants by the time we left. Many of them followed us to Tema.

The air was warm and very humid. I sat in my seat, waiting for the bus to leave, and alternated slathering on more sunscreen and more bug repellent. I was already paranoid about getting bitten by mosquitos in Ghana. I had been taking my antimalarial medication, and I had gotten my Yellow Fever vaccination, but after listening to Doctor Dave in logistical pre-port, and Professor Boyer in his lecture the previous night, and everyone else who put in a word on the subject of tropical diseases, I was really not in the mood to risk it. From the warnings we got, I almost expected to step off the ship and be instantly swarmed with disease-carrying insects.

For the record, I did not see, hear, or feel a single mosquito the entire time I was in Ghana. Nope, not even one.

But speaking of being swarmed, the moment that our shuttle helpfully dropped us off at the port gate we encountered another kind of swarm; the less-fortunate bracelet-making people who had apparently not bribed their way into the actual port were lying in wait. The second we stepped off of the bus, they were everywhere. Taken a little aback, Tanner and Yawen and I tried to forge our way through the throng. Yawen accidentally picked up one of the bracelet guys, who heard her name and immediately started weaving her a bracelet which she would spend the next 15 minutes (he followed us unto the taxi we got) trying to convince him that she really didn't want.

The taxi took us to a bank with an ATM, which all of us needed because we had determined that the $15 service fee charged by the ship to order Cedi through them was more than we wanted to pay (Cedi is the currency in Ghana: 2 Cedi is worth about 1 USD.) We then decided to make our own way into the main market square, escaping both from Yawen's bracelet-maker and the Taxi guy, who was trying to get us to hire him to take us all the way to Cape Coast.

Dang it was hot out! And the three of us stuck out like a sore thumb as we walked down the mostly residential streets. Every taxi that passed us would honk, sometimes multiple times, as if to say "What the heck are you white people doing walking? Don't you want a taxi? Are you sure?" But we eventually made it to our destination: the central market. We knew that the bus station would be around there somewhere, and Tanner started asking locals which direction we should go. One woman helpfully pointed down the way we were walking. The next said that we should go back a little, and turn the left. After we did that a guy who looked like he knew what he was talking about shook his head and pointed back the way we had come. We were now very confused.

The market itself consisted of a very helter-skelter assortment, from people with carts full of shoes to sellers sitting on the ground by blankets or buckets piled high with all kinds of discolored fruits, and large tuberous yams (not the sweet potato kind.) Nearly all of these sellers were women, many of them walking along carrying their wares in large bowls balanced atop their heads. One woman's bowl was full of huge doomed slugs trying to make their slow escape with varying degrees of unsuccess; another woman was carrying a neatly sliced watermelon covered daintily in plastic wrap with a large, lethal-looking knife sticking right up through the center.

We eventually made it to the bus station, along with another group of about nine other SASers (that's what we call ourselves) who were also resisting the honks of the taxis. What ensued was a confusing rush. The driver of the bus to Cape Coast tried to assure us that the bus would be leaving "soon", though we had learned from a woman in our pre-port lecture who had lived in Ghana for two years that this likely translate to "when the bus is full," which could quite literally be hours. There were maybe five other people there, and the bus was pretty big. Then there were the Tro Tro drivers. A Tro Tro is like a large Taxi, and before we knew it all 12 of us were being ushered away from the still shouting bus driver over to a line of taxis and Tro Tros. There were 12 spots in the large white Tro Tro, and all 12 of us wanted to get to Cape Coast. Okay, it was a deal.

Once they realized that their quarry was taken, the other drivers hurried back to their respective vehicles, waiting for the next unsuspecting group of SASers. We all clambered into our Tro Tro, and breathed a sigh of relief. By the time we were moving at a decent speed with all of the windows down it wasn't even too hot!

The ride was relatively uneventful, and I spent most of the time watching shack after shack of make-shift mini marts pass by my window, framed by large tropical trees and bushes. The funny thing was that nearly all of these little businesses seemed to have religious names, regardless of their wares. I wish I had thought to start writing them down earlier, but as it was I saw signs for a "By His Grace Mini Mart" and "Put Your Trust in Jesus Chop Bar." Even the hairdressers were likewise christened! It was really interesting.

On the opposite side of the street stretched the ocean, and a long golden beach dotted with palm trees. Suddenly we were stopping. Were we there yet? Nope, the driver was just stopping to buy himself a coconut from a cluster of boys on the side of the road bearing a stack of the aforementioned nuts and large saber-like knives with which they would proceed to rapidly divest the coconuts of their tops (how were they not chopping their fingers off? They were wielding those huge knives like one might a potato peeler or cheese-grater!)

Being a little less inhibited than us Americans, Yawen, who is from China, proceeds to hand the driver money to get her a coconut too. Then everyone else starts digging into their pockets for money to get their own coconuts. Everyone was quite thrilled after this, and as the driver (who introduced himself as Patrick) pulled back onto the highway we were all merrily taking pictures of ourselves with our prizes. He must have thought we were all very weird.

We arrived at Cape Coast Castle, and after making arrangements for Patrick to come pick us up in a few hours, the three of us separated from the other group and made our way into the castle. Since this post is already very long and I still have to finish my Anthropology readings before tomorrow's quiz, I am not going to go into detail about the rest of the day. Our tour of the castle was informative and creepy, and by the time we made it make to Takoradi we had just enough time to get dinner (which turned out to be very spicy and therefor inedible to me) before heading back to the ship as it was almost dark.

I spent the next day with Yawen and Christina (the forth person I had traveling with in Morocco!) wandering through the center of the central market in Takoradi, which is an interesting tale for another time!

That night the ship repositioned to Tema, and the next day I went on my field program to the Morning Star School, which was interesting but really highlighted that I should not go into any career involving large groups of small children, because I am not a natural with kids (one of the first things that we did was to go and hang out with the kids during their recess. I was feeling very out of my depth until I realized that I could just hand out stickers and they would be happy.)

It was still early in the day when the field program got back to the ship, so I hopped on the next shuttle to Accra (remember that's the nearest decent-sized city, about an hour's drive from our port in Tema) and joined two girls who had also been on the Morning Star field program and were planning to find the market (they'd had field programs/labs over the last couple of days and not gotten a chance to buy any souvenirs.)

Long story still long, we found the market with the help of two local guys. In contrast to the market I had explored the previous day in Takoradi, which was clearly there for the locals, this market was clearly oriented to appeal to tourists. It was basically a larger version of the one which had yet again sprung up outside the ship. I didn't buy much, though I did manage to find a pin for my collection (I have gotten myself a pin in every country; I somehow managed to lose the one for Belgium though, which bummed me out because I rather liked Belgium.)

Anyhow, we eventually got back to the shuttle. It was dark by this point, and I had to dodge numerous painting-sellers who had gathered around the SASers trying to get onto the bus. One of them wanted my flashlight, and was trying to guilt-trip me into parting with it by telling me about his family sitting around with no light and the three little sisters he had to put through school. I felt like a complete heel not giving him my silly flashlight (probably $5 from Walmart), but seriously, I can't just give away stuff/money to all of the painting-sellers and bracelet-makers and cute little children of Ghana that I meet! Yes, I made the mistake of buying a 2 Cedi water bottle for one of the kids in Cape Town, and then had to bodily drag myself away from the others who wanted me to buy them water/food too.

I'll skip over talking about the last day, because I pretty much spent it sticking close to the ship (I wasn't even going to chance taking the shuttle to Accra, since there's only one road between the cities and an accident along that road had already delayed the morning shuttle––we were expecting about 270 SASers to return at the last minute just from field labs alone, and I was not going to stuck behind them and get dock time in Cape Town because my shuttle got delayed.) I took a taxi into Tema to find myself WiFi so that I could get some stuff squared away on the internet. I was a bit tired of Ghana at that point, so I was grateful when the taxi driver took me to a nice hotel where I could buy WiFi and not have to worry about people eyeing my laptop in a local internet cafe. I was not the only SASer there, but the place wasn't overrun (just a couple of life-long learners) which was nice.

So yah, that was Ghana! I took a taxi back to the ship and we departed for Cape Town. Obviously I skimmed over a bunch, but since it's really quite late now and this is probably the longest post of I have written I think I'll leave you with that. I don't have very great pictures from Ghana, since much of the time a camera would have been rude or out-of-place. So I'm probably not going to post any photos; you'll have to settle for my dubious narrative abilities instead!

Thanks for keeping up my adventures, and don't forget to comment!