Written 8th October 2014
This weekend we went to visit the others in Akatsi (pronounced Acatachi). All of their projects surround the town with only our project 5 hours away. The trotro journey wasn’t bad at all. Everyone was so nice and made sure we knew where we were going and that no one over-charged us because of our colour. We had one stop over in Ho but other than that it was a straight journey. We got there at about 4 and met the others in a spot (bar) run by the legend that is, Koby. He drove some of the group to go and pick up food and on the way back took them to a Ghanaian radio station where they were introduced by DJ Whiskey (!!!!) to the entire of Southern and Eastern Ghana. It was a weird moment hearing Erin’s incredibly strong English accent on Ghanaian radio.
Koby put in one of those colourful 80’s disco ball lights above our table which gave the whole night a sort of party feel (although for the first two hours it was bright day light out!). Lots of people came to join us, even DJ Whiskey, and we drank and danced and chatted the night away. When I say “night away” I mean until 10 o’clock, which is pretty late for Ghana! We usually go to bed around 7 so this was a late night for us. Koby was kind enough to take us home and took a particular shine to Frances. It took some convincing to get him to leave, but eventually he did.
We were staying with Rosie and Myrtle who pretty much live in a palace. They are living in the MP’s house while he lives in Accra so they have like 4 rooms, a living room and two bathrooms WITH RUNNING WATER AND A SHOWER! We thought we had died and gone to heaven it was so luxurious. I don’t know if I have explained our toilet/shower situation but in short our toilet is a hole with a shed over it, next to a chicken coup and our shower has no door and we use a bucket to splash freezing water over ourselves twice a day. Get why we were so happy now?!
On the Saturday had planned to go canoeing on Lake Volta but it chose that day to be chucking it down with rain. In true British Style we decided to persevere through the rain. After watching Myrtle absolutely deck in front of the entire trotro satiation and get covered in mud, we all piled into a trotro and headed to Soge-Kopta to find a place to eat and canoe. Soge-Kopta was dubbed Soggy-Kopte because despite our hopes of it drying up, it just rained all day. After a bit of confusion we found a place to eat which served pizza, burgers and spaghetti! This place also had the best toilet posters ever which gave us a little giggle. In true Ghanaian fashion everything was over fried or made of pastry…EVERYTHING! Also they forgot cheese on our pizza which sucked. All we wanted was some normal home food but alas, we are still looking. The Intrepid Five; Louis, Izzy, Laura, Beth and I decided to brave the rain and go canoeing. On the way to the shore I slipped on the stairs and now have one hell of a bruise on my bum :/ The canoe man came around the corner bringing, in the bottom of his boat, a live eel…! He then proceeded to bat it with his paddle and then ultimately kill it. All of us were horrified and suddenly found something really interesting to look at behind us :/ The canoe ride was pretty fun with Louis having to bail the boat so that we didn’t sink and some random man on a bridge shouted “WHITE PEOPLE!!!” at us which was really funny!
Sunday was pretty uneventful but we did go to Akatsi market and see all the cool material which was annoying for me because I had no money left and the nearest ATM is an hour away. The travel back was fine, the highlight being this little girl sitting next to me on the trotro held my hand the whole way. It was so cute! We were glad to be back in Lolobi Ashiambi because we had been missing our familiar faces that we see everyday.
Abby x
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