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  Ejisu, Ghana
Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Blog overdue, but better late than never…I'm actually
writing this offline and hoping that the internet is back up soon. There was quite a big storm on Sunday
morning, although I slept through it…the power did go out during the
night.  We have a generator which the
security guard switches on when he sees everything go dark…it makes an awful
noise, and I did wake up for that.  Our
house seems to have sprung a couple of leaks-have to get that fixed before the
real rainy season starts!  Others were
worse off…I can imagine the huts in the villages were quite swampy, and lots of
people apparently had their tvs blow up – thank goodness we have our electrical
stuff on surge protectors.



We’ve had a couple of fun weekends now…after everyone being
sick for a couple of weeks and not getting out much.  One weekend we went out to Lou Moon
Lodge.  A place owned by a couple of
Belgians , with children named Lou and Luna (No, I am not kidding).  Very nice people, nice place, but a bit
overpriced…we had a good time however, and even launched our zodiac and took a
ride in the Atlantic Ocean.  Can you say
big waves!!!  At least the water is warm,
so I wasn’t worried…even if we tipped over, we wouldn’t get hypothermia too
quickly,lol.  It was quite fun.  Lots of local Ghanaians out in their
hollowed-out wooden boats, fishing. And no, they don’t wear lifejackets (but we
were).  Raphael and I also kayaked out
and named a cove Saraph Bay…I don’t think we were the first to visit, but we
pretended.



I won’t give any details about how when launching the boat
the truck got stuck in the sand, and the tide was coming up…(those of you who
know Fred won’t be surprised at this bit of news!)  Finally, after a lot of Quebec  swearing, we decided to gather a bunch of
"strong" Ghanaian guys from the village…this turned out to be the best idea
(yes, it was mine)…a dozen of them came over and pretty much lifted the truck
out of its ocean muck…I handed out a couple of Ghana cedis$ to each of them and
they were quite pleased with their 15 minutes of work!  I laugh now, but at the time…The village
chief came over to supervise, an old fellow who didn’t speak English, and told
me through a translator that as soon as he crossed over to the resort , the
truck was able to get out of the sand…our good luck.



This weekend we decided to visit Kakum Park.  This is a place with an aerial walkway 30
metres above the ground in the rainforest…Surprisingly very well set up,
reasonably priced (Ghanaian 2.50cedis, non-Ghanaian 9 cedis), and a guide who
really seemed to know his stuff. 



It was about a two hour drive from Takoradi…along the coast
towards Accra, and then a turn north after Cape Coast (where the Obamas visited
when they were here in the summer). 
Surprisingly good road also, always a treat when we are in a bouncy
company truck.

The aerial walkway is a bit like Arbre-en-arbre, or the
Capalino Suspension Bridge in North Van…in fact it was built by a couple of
Canadians (crazy people that we are). 
The guide quite smartly told us that the trick is to not look down if
you think you might have vertigo...so I didn't actually get much of a view as I was concentrating on just trying to get across without passing out!




While there I met a bunch of nurses doing a one-semester internship in Accra...they said it was quite eye-opening working in a hospital here, without the same kind of resources we have back at home.




Raph is home sick today...ate some Ghanaian mayonnaise maybe?!

I promise to get a camera soon, I know you all want to see pictures!

Sarah

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