catching the balls

girls and me on the ride

Starting from Accra by bus/car going to Akosombo – a small town first built to provide living space for the the workers building this amazing dam and later becoming a tourist spot. Akosombo dam is THE biggest man-made lakes in the world. It covers 3.6% of the land of Ghana. A friend of ours (Ghana-born Indian ) took me, Heleni, Jorien and Isabella for a ride on his boat across the lake – damn cool stuff His company is producing plastic stuff and everytime he comes he brings a bag of one of his products – a childs toy plastic ball that he throws in water for the kids from the fishing village to pick. Its a real fun sight as not just kids but whole village gets on boats and makes a race of who gets the most with those still on shore cheering for them

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akosombo_Dam

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Next is the time to climb Highest Mountain of Ghana – Mount Afadjato – with amazing 88O m

slovak posing on top of Ghana

Slovakia vs Ghana

It sounds like an easy thing to do but in the heat and humidity its a real torture and getting to the top not being covered with sweat is impossible. The view is great to Ghana on one side and Togo on the other. Add to it the walk through jungle and the cool signpost on the top and you have a very good reason why to do the climb.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Afadjato

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And the third is the most amazing part of the trip and actually one of the best things to do in Ghana – take a shower under a 60 m tall shower – the Wli waterfalls. Its a two level waterfall that is very easy to reach from the village of Hohoe by foot, first you get to the lower stage with a beautiful lake and waterfall and hundreds of fruit hanging on the walls above you and than those who feel like can climb to the upper level (some 1,5 hr hike up the hill through jungle), where you find another lake and a waterfall that you can partly climb (trying at least to climb the rocks while the water is falling on you from the sky). This was the only time in Ghana we actually felt cold because the water was chilly and air too. The water was actually coming from Togo

http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/artikel.php?ID=105563

It was the first AIESEC event I was at in Ghana. It seems like its an annual (or more frequent) thing when they invite the LC members and interns for a swim, dance and some food on the beach. So surely I went… and surely I tried to avoid the official cost of 8 USD by trying to find out who goes from the places closer to me, who knows the way and joining them  I met some nice random group of interns this way and discovered that it will be my preferred way of going to such events because the “official transport” bus was late by 2 hours…

I saw also an ironic but not very positive rememberance of Pakistan and all that crap that the country is fighting with right now… A random sign saying “Slow Down, Taliban Zone… Peace, Love, Discipline… Burning”.

On the way I also saw something very positive to me. There was a narrow street that our vanbus took with a mosque and Islam centre to the left and a street called Jeruzalem and Izrael to the right… May such acceptance be in the world…

But thoughts of this kind were in the background as soon as I got to the beach, its really nice with sandy banks, big waves and clean sea… Fishermen and their boats floating and harboring on the same beach. Somebody on some blog wrote that its nice that two “economies” meet and dont compete = tourism and fishery. True, its a nice place and based on what we have seen also a good fishing water. There was a group of fishermen dividing the catch, looks like a lucky day because the guy who was with us and is in Accra for last three years said he has never seen such a good catch.

So we got on the beach, threw our stuff on the beach and went for swim… the waves have been little bit too big for a relaxing swim, but it was fun, I got tired and soaked which was the goal. Very soon the local kids started to flock around and as one of the intens – Tanya from Macedonia – is very playful and likes kids she started to talk with them (in a very basic English), play with the kids and soon we (me and the kids of course) finished up digging one of the interns into sand and I trying how many of the kids am I able to carry on my back, i.e. are needed to pull me to the ground (lets say a test of http://www.howmanyfiveyearoldscouldyoutakeinafight.com).

So, was fun

Sunset came and brought some nice views on the boats, people, palm trees, sea and sand…

And lastly, why Shell beach? Because first I bought a huge shell (like 10 cm) for 1 USD (and I picked one of the smaller ones so I can transport it) and later I found hundreds of smaller but equally nice shells right there on the beach. 

I picked a lot of them and plan to make a windtinkle out of them, will see how it goes

The first time I was taken there by one of the expat guys I met during my crazy first weekend in Accra (see “Accra-like weekend“), today I went there because I wanted to see if I manage to get there on my own and if it is going to be fun

So I went, have been able after asking few people to locate the correct van, got in there still not too sure because the van drivers started to argue with which bus should I go (“not beach this one, my goes to beach!”) and got out on an unknown place… Luckily two girls were also going to the beach and I walked with them, just to realize that I actually know where am I, just came from an unknown direction and some 10 mins walk away from where I expected to finish.

The beach part where I was before was paid, 3 USD So I tried to find a free part (I am a broke Slovak!) so I just walked along the fences and stuff. And while doing that I passed a group of youngsters, they were like “Yo Hi Sup Man, whatcha doin here, lookin for some Ghana gals?” and I am like “Hi, no just want to go to the beach for free or cheap.” The idea of a broke white man was funny to them so they exchanged some more yo senteces with me and than went straight for a hole in the wall guarded by a guy… I realized that they want to sneak in to the paid part of beach (which was today charging 5 USD because it was holidays) and so of course I joined (thats too much fun not to try ).

So we went through the whole and some random trash, followed by the “guard” who was asking for money for letting us in (to the free part of beach behind the wall) and dealing out our price to get on the pay beach (You need to bribe the guard to do so), than we spent some 10 minutes bargaining with the guard, paid 2 USD instead of 5 USD and went in. We finished up sittin on a table, drinking some wine they doing “YoSupThomas” and me trying to explain that for me its damn funny because the YoSpeech is pretty much of “I-think-I-am-so-cool” thing in Slovakia

What were my impressions of the people You can read in the post Ghana Youngs are Horny x 2, Friendly and YO! :)

The beach was already a beehive when I came with some dozens people splashing in water under the watchful eyes of the lifeguard guy and with much more dozens people sitting and chatting on the beach at chairs and tables… as sunset approached all “water” people moved to beach and have been joined by even more people who came to hang out… 

Thats why I vote Labadi beach to be the party beach…

And for pictures from the beach just click on any of the ones that are mixed into the text or click here…

It was a rather long and interesting weekend so get ready for a little reading, ok? In addition I didnt take my camera (why camera at a simple dinner?) so there are also no pictures to accompany the text

So what actually happened?

On Thursday I realized that the weekend is nearly here and I dont know what am I going to do, there was a serious risk I will just sit at home and watch a movie. So I went to aiesec.net, searched for all internships that were reported to still go on (the interns be still in town) and sent out an email asking about their plans.

I got an answer from few and among them Fernanda from Italy, ex MC there, whom it looks like I have met on IC in Poland and also in Turkey She and one more intern Ben were the ones who made me decide to join (what I thought was only) a pizza dinner. So I took a deep breath and for the first time alone got on one of those minibus/vans that replace public transport. They have no markings and system, You just need to search for the one that goes Your direction and signal it to stop. Luckily I got the right place. It turned out that its a dinner of 12 people of mixed origin – both when it comes to nationality and reasons to be in Accra.

The dinner turned out quite fun, mostly thanks to a new chap of mine, Vinnie from India, who had an obvious interest in any female in the place (or at least the nice ones). It felt refreshing because nice girls are the most common topic of discussions in Pakistan (at least between boys, girls talk about boys of course… unless a boy asks them about a girl ). With the dinner finishing at around 11pm there was a discussion about where to go next and stuff and I got an offer from Vinnie that “lets crash the MC house”, so I say OK and agree that we will sleep there over tonight (asking “why”?, what a boring question… rather stop thinking that way else this whole weekend was rather about doing exactly those things that have no logical explanation).

But than came an another suggestion – lets go to a pub and have a beer! Of course I agreed and made Vinnie go to (he had a big event to run the day after but he cant say no to fun). Apart from the two of us Fernanda and a married AIESEC alumni from Italy went for it. Oh, I should also say that I didnt eat anything on that place, too expensive, so I took the cheapest thing on the menu – a beer (sadly I havent eaten since lunch)

The Pub called Champs. Fun place full of football shirts, table football, pool tables and sport decoration and… a stage for Karaoke. We got there and the alumni saw a table of people whom to one he was boss and the others were friends of friends (a very common status in Accra) – germany / usa / canada. So we joined tables (there was no other place free anyways) and started to do the cheers! Soon karaoke started and not later after first participants from our table were on the stage… Me and vinnie doing the background moves Looking at the bill each of us had by average 4,5 beers in the next 3 hours During the coarse of this – seeing as Vinnie gets more and more happy and shiny I made a request for somebody to save me and take care of me.. and I got an assurance from one of the newly gained associates that I will be taken care of and kept safe. Add also some table football games and lots of laughing and in so the dizzy feeling of a Fine Night came the suggestion (at around 2 am) to go for a disco bar. All of us had pretty much been high so of course all of us went.

A disco that the name I dont remember (and didnt really are about)… You know I actually dont like discos, but whatever. Why did I to than? Well ok: Its only Friday, I just got my first wage (I am getting paid WEEKLY!) and have the feel to do something stupid and fun. So while indulging into a random dance to mix of US and African music the beers had time to climb up to the heads and meet the content of a bottle of wine, that randomly popped up from somewhere, on the way. At like 4 am some of us were already pretty trashed, at 5 am when one of the guys was constantly falling on his ass while dancing and one other hitting on a married girl it was time to look for a ways to get the places we would call home-for-that-night. And who would thing that the person who promised to take care of me would actually remember the promise?

So I finished up crashing a really nice house some 3 blocks from the beach. The morning for the four of us (participants of the party) who slept there was kinds painful and tiring and came at anywhere between 11 am and 2 pm when we were waking up and going for next round of naps (its Saturday so why care?). At around 5 pm I was taken to the beach and saw for the first time the sea of Ghana… Amazing place, different like any other beach I have seen (every beach I have seen was other than the ones before), with people eating, selling random stuff, playing in water and clouds on the sky that played with all possible colors of sky.

But what to do during the evening of such random day? Well, what about some Sushi? But thats expensive… but well a lucky idiot like me… I got an offer that my food will be paid for (thank You dear Christine!). So I had some (for me) crazy expensive and pretty good first-time-ever-I-eat-this Sushi made by a Japanese guy. I was glad to know how to use chopsticks, else it would be a pretty awkward evening Just to add – the four of us have spent like 230 USD (holy-f-sh*t!), looks like my last sushi for a very very long time.

Hmm, what to do now? Well nobody really felt like a party scene (hmm, guess why) so we just went for an Irish pub for beer, some more table football, pool and darts. A pretty calm evening. But what to do now? Well the “anybody has a TV at home – what about some beer and watching movies?” question came and one of the girls says “yep I do… and also there is a pool for those who live in the house” – who could say no to such an offer? So the four of us finished “watching” the movie Departed. Actually I was the only one who saw the ending as rest fell asleep. So this night I have crashed an another house

I forgot to tell that the house was… as one of the girls said “by american standards it was comfortable”. For me it was scarily huge – 3 toilets, that tells I guess a lot… I felt there lost and realized that I dont want to have such a huge house, looks like Slovaks are not at all used to such huge housing places (it actually made me think if I really want to have a job that earns so much money that I could afford such a place). But despite all it was a nicely arranged place with breeze and flowers and nice furniture – its just that it felt too big to me.

And finally after waking up and a breakfast of cereals (Kellogs babe) it was time to head home So I took a loan for the tro-tro van and with little bit of searching for the correct shakers (vans) got home for a nice sleep before the working Monday… that will be followed byt a free Tuesday Why? Well like 1/4 of the 24mio of Ghanians are Moslem so government has decided to make Eid (the final day of Ramadan) a national holiday.

Just to finish it all up – I am going with one other intern and some of his friends for a swim in pool and sea, will post You on that and this time take pictures

Bye from Accra!