Adowso
Impromptu class
Impromptu class
Bushy trail
Houses on the Volta Lake
Village where I spent the night
Boat ferry (check out the goat)
Evans
Evans
Anonymous waterfall
Volta Lake
Volta Lake
Waterfall near Begoro
Last weekend, I went for a walk through the Kwahu plateau - an isolated part of Ghana on the Western arm of Lake Volta.
It turned out to be one of the best trips that I have taken.
It turned out to be one of the best trips that I have taken.
The first day, I arrived in the subsistence fishing village of Adowso at 9 A.M. having left Akwatia at 3 A.M. The people in Adowso, as well as the people in every village that I passed during my trek, were either subsistence farmers or fishers. They largely dealt in a barter economy- fish for grain, grain for fish. It was very interesting to see people living in such a different way.
But this different way of life means social immobility. On one of the villages that I passed, children asked me to teach them because their teacher was "traveling" (I've heard that in Ghana, "traveling" is a euphemism for dead). So, I ended up giving an impromptu two hour lesson about negative numbers and fractions in an outdoor classroom. A couple of the smart students picked up the concepts; the rest didn't. But even smart students cannot become contenders. In Ghana, the first eight grades of schooling are free, but from high school, the family must pay. And as the parents of the students undoubtedly had no money (none of the kids had a bag for books, a ball for play, a change of clothes), the kids consequently had no future.
I continued my trek with many other interesting interactions with the locals until I came across a pair of teachers. One of the teachers, Evans, said that I can stay with him for the night and as the day was ending with no guesthouse in sight, I accepted. We ate some Banku (fermented corn with cassava in a fish pepper soup), which was way better than anything that I eat at home in Akwatia and Evans even gave me his bed to sleep.
The next morning, I woke up early and took a passenger boat (a semi-canoe and a semi-boat) with Evans to the next village where we parted, and I took a motorcycle to the village after that, and I resumed my hike. On the way to the next village, I saw a huge waterfall. It had to be one of the tallest, if not the tallest in Ghana, but because of its isolation, it does not even have a name. I tried to reach the pool of the fall, but the unnavigable trail to the pool quickly turned into an impassable trail.
When I finally did reach the next village after a five hour walk in the sweltering African sun, I had a chat with the chief who lent me his son to show me the next town. So I was joined by his son and six of his friends for a two hour walk during which they showed me the various edible plants and told me about the region. At the next town, I was kindly offered an empty schoolroom with a wooden plank as a bed to spend another night so I began spraying the edges of the plank with mosquito repellent. Luckily, a rare tro tro came to the remote village of Mpaam and I was able to take the two hour bumpy ride on a dirt road to Begoro, a big town with a guesthouse that had a bed.
After a twelve hour sleep, I went hiking again in the surrounding mountains – I came across a very pretty waterfall, then I went back to the routine in Akwatia.
But this different way of life means social immobility. On one of the villages that I passed, children asked me to teach them because their teacher was "traveling" (I've heard that in Ghana, "traveling" is a euphemism for dead). So, I ended up giving an impromptu two hour lesson about negative numbers and fractions in an outdoor classroom. A couple of the smart students picked up the concepts; the rest didn't. But even smart students cannot become contenders. In Ghana, the first eight grades of schooling are free, but from high school, the family must pay. And as the parents of the students undoubtedly had no money (none of the kids had a bag for books, a ball for play, a change of clothes), the kids consequently had no future.
I continued my trek with many other interesting interactions with the locals until I came across a pair of teachers. One of the teachers, Evans, said that I can stay with him for the night and as the day was ending with no guesthouse in sight, I accepted. We ate some Banku (fermented corn with cassava in a fish pepper soup), which was way better than anything that I eat at home in Akwatia and Evans even gave me his bed to sleep.
The next morning, I woke up early and took a passenger boat (a semi-canoe and a semi-boat) with Evans to the next village where we parted, and I took a motorcycle to the village after that, and I resumed my hike. On the way to the next village, I saw a huge waterfall. It had to be one of the tallest, if not the tallest in Ghana, but because of its isolation, it does not even have a name. I tried to reach the pool of the fall, but the unnavigable trail to the pool quickly turned into an impassable trail.
When I finally did reach the next village after a five hour walk in the sweltering African sun, I had a chat with the chief who lent me his son to show me the next town. So I was joined by his son and six of his friends for a two hour walk during which they showed me the various edible plants and told me about the region. At the next town, I was kindly offered an empty schoolroom with a wooden plank as a bed to spend another night so I began spraying the edges of the plank with mosquito repellent. Luckily, a rare tro tro came to the remote village of Mpaam and I was able to take the two hour bumpy ride on a dirt road to Begoro, a big town with a guesthouse that had a bed.
After a twelve hour sleep, I went hiking again in the surrounding mountains – I came across a very pretty waterfall, then I went back to the routine in Akwatia.
No comments:
Post a Comment