Weekend on/in water
This weekend I had one of the most adventurous trips going to Nzulezu – a village on stilts in far West of Ghana. (yes, there are some places here I haven’t been to;))
The plan was to go to Takoradi on Friday evening, spend the night there, go to Nzulezu on Saturday, spend the night there and come back on Sunday back to Accra. Generally this was what happened, but with a few significant alterations:)
The bus to Takoradi was supposed to leave at 5:30 pm. On the ticket it said that “reporting time” is 4:30pm. Being naïve obrunies, that’s the time we actually were at the station. We waited… and waited… the bus came at 5:30, but then it appeared that it’s without A/C, so we should get some money back. All the people stood nicely in a que to get refund and so after 45 minutes we were ready to leave.
Obviously 6pm is not the best time to be driving somewhere in Accra and we got stuck in traffic. Luckily, it took us only an hour to get out of Accra and we were on the way and so at around 8:30pm instead of being close to Takoradi, we were at Winneba runabout (approx. 1 hour outside Accra) and stopped there. What happened? The headlights of the bus stopped working and we couldn’t go further:) They said they called another bus from Accra and it will be an hour until it gets there.
Being not that naïve anymore, of course, we didn’t believe them, but there was nothing to do, so we just sat at one of the local bars and had some drinks… waiting… and waiting… and waiting…
After 2,5 h a small minivan pulled over: they didn’t send the new bus, they sent an electrician! Luckily, he knew what he was doing and fixed whatever needed to be fixing and again we were on our way.
I don’t know what happened to the driver, but he was driving like he was carrying eggs and didn’t see at all where he was going i.e. very slowly. All these circumstances led to the fact that we were at Takoradi at 2 am. We found Daniela, David (Cris) and Enrico waiting for us. I’m sure his Nissan Patrol hasn’t seen 11 obrunies fitting in before;)
After spending the night (or should I say couple of hours) at Tiina’s place, we were on the way to Nzulezu. It’s really cool how 10 obrunies can easily get a “personal” trotro to take us where we need to go. And after 3 more hours we were very close to our target. Just before that, there’s a 45 minutes walk through the meadow (which in the rainy season is full of water):
and some smaller or bigger ponds:
Finally we reached the boats, which took us through some jungle
and the lake
and after another 45 minutes of happy paddling
we reached the village:
Honestly, I expected it to be bigger, but it’s quite cute small thing:)
Though I don’t know how they manage to fit 500 people there.
They have everything in these small houses, including a mini bar
and a school
This is where we stayed:
The funny thing about this place is that when people are in their rooms sleeping and turning in their beds or just walking around, the whole platform is a bit shaky and everybody else feels its movement:) A view from my room:
We did nothing all day… just relaxed… I swam a bit, though the water wasn’t very clean as you can imagine. Interestingly though it’s the only place in Ghana, where I saw everybody knowing how to swim. Swimming is really not Ghanaian thing;)
One fun fact for Lithuanians: I’m sure you all remember playing “asilas” when you were little, don’t you?;) well apparently it’s an international game, so we played “burro” – “asilas” in Spanish! A very fun game… Especially for those who already are trying to sleep, but any time we hit the table shouting “burro”, they get the vibration of the platform:)
On Sunday everything was very strangely on time: we left the village on time, we came to the other village where we had to take the trotro on time, we even managed to swim in the ocean (not the cleanest place) and left the place on time. We went to Bocadillos in Takoradi, spend a couple of hours there and were at the bus station on time. Though again the A/C wasn’t working and we had to get the refund, we left Takoradi on time. And we reached Accra ON TIME.
Where’s the alteration I’ve talked about? Of course things don’t go that smoothly in Ghana;) Just as we came to Accra, the huge rain started. It was pouring extremely hard with a huge wind. Earth was mixing with the sky as we say in Lithuania and only one question: how to get home? We stayed at the station for a while hoping the rain would stop, but it didn’t. It was getting quite cold and the rats running around didn’t make people happy, so we decided to walk (there were no empty taxies at all…). Some people wanted to stay, but I felt very determined and after declaring strongly “I’m going home!” went for it. After two steps I fell into the gutter!:) You have no idea how funny the situation looked!!! We haven’t laughed like this for quite a while:) Of course I have a huge bruise on my leg now… But that’s not all. I fell into the gutter and while I was laughing and trying to get out, Maryna lend me a hand and just after I was out, she fell!:) Somehow she didn’t realize that was the gutter…
And that was just the start of our adventure to get home. We reached the main street and had to cross it. In the middle there was a lot of water and somehow while running I managed to loose my slipper. Got back to take it and lost another one… As the cars were coming I just finally grabbed both of my slippers and ran through the street barefooted… After that I lost my slippers a couple more times… By the time we got home the rain was not that strong, but me and Maryna were more than soaking wet:)
Yeah, somehow this doesn’t sound very funny and I’m sure for people who were not there it’s not that much fun, but we still laugh remembering it:)
And ironically – after spending a weekend on water, walking home in the storm and coming in totally wet, you realize – there’s still no water in the house…
The plan was to go to Takoradi on Friday evening, spend the night there, go to Nzulezu on Saturday, spend the night there and come back on Sunday back to Accra. Generally this was what happened, but with a few significant alterations:)
The bus to Takoradi was supposed to leave at 5:30 pm. On the ticket it said that “reporting time” is 4:30pm. Being naïve obrunies, that’s the time we actually were at the station. We waited… and waited… the bus came at 5:30, but then it appeared that it’s without A/C, so we should get some money back. All the people stood nicely in a que to get refund and so after 45 minutes we were ready to leave.
Obviously 6pm is not the best time to be driving somewhere in Accra and we got stuck in traffic. Luckily, it took us only an hour to get out of Accra and we were on the way and so at around 8:30pm instead of being close to Takoradi, we were at Winneba runabout (approx. 1 hour outside Accra) and stopped there. What happened? The headlights of the bus stopped working and we couldn’t go further:) They said they called another bus from Accra and it will be an hour until it gets there.
Being not that naïve anymore, of course, we didn’t believe them, but there was nothing to do, so we just sat at one of the local bars and had some drinks… waiting… and waiting… and waiting…
After 2,5 h a small minivan pulled over: they didn’t send the new bus, they sent an electrician! Luckily, he knew what he was doing and fixed whatever needed to be fixing and again we were on our way.
I don’t know what happened to the driver, but he was driving like he was carrying eggs and didn’t see at all where he was going i.e. very slowly. All these circumstances led to the fact that we were at Takoradi at 2 am. We found Daniela, David (Cris) and Enrico waiting for us. I’m sure his Nissan Patrol hasn’t seen 11 obrunies fitting in before;)
After spending the night (or should I say couple of hours) at Tiina’s place, we were on the way to Nzulezu. It’s really cool how 10 obrunies can easily get a “personal” trotro to take us where we need to go. And after 3 more hours we were very close to our target. Just before that, there’s a 45 minutes walk through the meadow (which in the rainy season is full of water):
and some smaller or bigger ponds:
Finally we reached the boats, which took us through some jungle
and the lake
and after another 45 minutes of happy paddling
we reached the village:
Honestly, I expected it to be bigger, but it’s quite cute small thing:)
Though I don’t know how they manage to fit 500 people there.
They have everything in these small houses, including a mini bar
and a school
This is where we stayed:
The funny thing about this place is that when people are in their rooms sleeping and turning in their beds or just walking around, the whole platform is a bit shaky and everybody else feels its movement:) A view from my room:
We did nothing all day… just relaxed… I swam a bit, though the water wasn’t very clean as you can imagine. Interestingly though it’s the only place in Ghana, where I saw everybody knowing how to swim. Swimming is really not Ghanaian thing;)
One fun fact for Lithuanians: I’m sure you all remember playing “asilas” when you were little, don’t you?;) well apparently it’s an international game, so we played “burro” – “asilas” in Spanish! A very fun game… Especially for those who already are trying to sleep, but any time we hit the table shouting “burro”, they get the vibration of the platform:)
On Sunday everything was very strangely on time: we left the village on time, we came to the other village where we had to take the trotro on time, we even managed to swim in the ocean (not the cleanest place) and left the place on time. We went to Bocadillos in Takoradi, spend a couple of hours there and were at the bus station on time. Though again the A/C wasn’t working and we had to get the refund, we left Takoradi on time. And we reached Accra ON TIME.
Where’s the alteration I’ve talked about? Of course things don’t go that smoothly in Ghana;) Just as we came to Accra, the huge rain started. It was pouring extremely hard with a huge wind. Earth was mixing with the sky as we say in Lithuania and only one question: how to get home? We stayed at the station for a while hoping the rain would stop, but it didn’t. It was getting quite cold and the rats running around didn’t make people happy, so we decided to walk (there were no empty taxies at all…). Some people wanted to stay, but I felt very determined and after declaring strongly “I’m going home!” went for it. After two steps I fell into the gutter!:) You have no idea how funny the situation looked!!! We haven’t laughed like this for quite a while:) Of course I have a huge bruise on my leg now… But that’s not all. I fell into the gutter and while I was laughing and trying to get out, Maryna lend me a hand and just after I was out, she fell!:) Somehow she didn’t realize that was the gutter…
And that was just the start of our adventure to get home. We reached the main street and had to cross it. In the middle there was a lot of water and somehow while running I managed to loose my slipper. Got back to take it and lost another one… As the cars were coming I just finally grabbed both of my slippers and ran through the street barefooted… After that I lost my slippers a couple more times… By the time we got home the rain was not that strong, but me and Maryna were more than soaking wet:)
Yeah, somehow this doesn’t sound very funny and I’m sure for people who were not there it’s not that much fun, but we still laugh remembering it:)
And ironically – after spending a weekend on water, walking home in the storm and coming in totally wet, you realize – there’s still no water in the house…
5 Comments:
Love reading your blog.
Best Easter wishes from Poland to all of you.
Ela's mother.
You wont believe it but here in Asia they play "asilas" or burro too! Though the rules are a bit different and the game is called "hard attack" it is similar thing.
On last sunday we just played it according the Malaysian rules:))
It's interesting how the same things go arround at the same time
Dalia,
happy Easter! Wishing sunny and warm spring for you, I guess, would not be reasonable, as you have both - sun and warmth - over there. :) But I wish tomorrow is another amazing day for you in Africa.
Please, let us know how you spent it. ;)
Mindazaz
Thank you very much for the greetings;) I'll surely tell you how it went. But it might be that I'm going to Honkong tomorrow!!! I feel dizzy:) Wish me luck with that;)
Dalia
Looks like an awesome adventure!! The houses on stilts are very similar to the fishing communities here. The pearl divers in the South live in houses like that, too.
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