After sitting outside the little café at our dorm for over 3 hours contemplating what to do for the weekend, Jesse and I decided to join our friend Andrea in an adventure to the Volta region. Andrea had met two very nice Rastafarian musicians that wanted to take her to see an eco-village that an uncle had developed a few years back. Traveling with Ghanaians (especially Rastafarian musicians who I later found out were famous in Ghana!)?? …Sign me up!
Our travel there was wonderful. We took a tro-tro to a village called Asikuma (just outside of the eco-village Xofa) where we hung out for a few hours…you know- walked around the village (which was surrounded by mountains) and had a few beers while we played the drums. As dusk approached, we took a taxi up a random dirt road to a path that wondered right into the rainforest. To my surprise, that is where we were dumped and left to walk about 1 mile into the eco-village. The walk was okay minus the fact that we were deep in the jungle at night, and the moths and bug were flocking to my headlamp. Once we got there, we settled down under a homely shelter right in the shore of lake Volta….there we ate the best dinner I have had in Ghana (rice with VEGITABLE stew- that is right…veggies-spinach and tomatoes!!!). Then for the remainder of the evening, we sat in a circle played drums and shared songs…
So…..after a long music session, we decided to turn in. We went into our little hut that had grass mats for a roof and realized that there was only one bed for the 3 of us. Instead of getting cozy, Jesse said she wanted to sleep on the floor (yes…on the floor of a hut in the middle of the Jungle). There were no lights, so we flashed out headlamps around the room to check for any weird, poisonous bugs….it seemed to be all clear! A few minutes later I laid down on the bed and, unfortunately, I still had my headlamp on….and it was shining brightly on the grass rooftop….which happened to also serve as a happy home for the BIGGEST, scariest, egg carrying spiders I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!!!!! I mean…they looked like sea crabs crawling all over the ceiling- they were the size of a baby’s fist, and they carried egg sacks the size of a quarter. AND THERE WERE A LOT OF THEM…..I really don’t even know if I will ever be able to replicate the noise of horror that came out of my mouth as I watched these spiders crawl above me, trying to detach their egg sacks on my head! Needless to say, Jesse decided to take refuge on the bed for the night with Andrea and me. Despite being extremely tired (and I was actually so excited to get a good night sleep…) we were all wide awake with our lights shining on the little critters-we mentally marked where EACH one was and shined our lights on them all night (with the logic that spiders don’t like light…who knows if that is true, but it made us feel a whole lot better). A few times we watched them crawl down the wall, or try to drop their huge eggs sack…we were all scrunched up in our own little 1’ by1’ space- knees tightly held to chest-scared out of our minds…..
You might think that it couldn’t get worse…. at least that is what we thought until we saw a scorpion crawling on the wall (can I remind you that I am in the Jungle in Afrika!). We were literally prisoners to this room…we simply sat on the bed all night long (contemplating ways that it could be worse- maybe if a snake dropped through the roof-we did hear scuttling!) and anxiously waited for daylight. The next morning, we told the boys all that we had been through and they laughed and said, “this is Afrika man,,,nothing will harm you!” Then they pulled snakeskins from the grass roof!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The next day was kind of shot for us…but relaxing. We spend the day lazily lying around by the lake, reading books, and sleeping in hammocks. That night we got to enjoy the yummy veggies again and another music jam….then the boys showed us to our new room that did not have a grass roof with spiders living in it…phew!
Well….you might think that was a relief......BUT the second that I walked in the door something flew right in front of me into the other room. As much as I didn’t want to shine my light around, I couldn’t resist. I entered the room that the, what I thought was a bird, flew into…I shined my light around for a few second before I saw a bat hanging upside down from the top bunk of the bed!!!!! As I scurried out of the room in somewhat of a panic, I ran into a bee hive on the wall…..again here we were…us 3 American girls standing outside in the Jungle contemplating what to do- sleep with spiders and scorpions or bats and bees? Which one could be more dangerous- rabbis or bee stings….or poisonous spider bites or scorpion stings???? Where was the closest hospital? 3 hours away? Okay….it is less likely that the bats have rabbis than it is that the scorpion and spiders are not poisonous….plus scorpions can get in the sheets!!!!
When we asked Kofi and Kodu for advise once again they laughed and said, “this is Afrika man…nothing will harm you!” So all three of us slept on one bed (broken bed at that) with the bats and the bees. Fortunately for you all we survived…I did wake up with a mysterious cut on my arm- I have yet to experience signs of rabbis, so I think I am in the clear!
The next day we took a canoe to an amazing village on an island of lake Volta (did I mention it is the biggest man made lake in the world??). It was great….we watched precious little kids sing and dance, then we took a walk through their farm land.
After walking out of Xofa back to Asikuma, we took a taxi to our friend Rainbow’s shrine. Again we played drums, and before I knew it we were witnessing some sort of religious ceremony. At the end, rainbow gave us all books of prayers- it was a pretty cool experience.
We finally ate lunch, got on a tro-tro and headed back to Accra. We were all tired, but alive and well…kind of. Jesse had an allergic reaction to the mangos we picked (which we also ate)- her hand and throat started to swell- when she went to the hospital, she found out that she also had malaria…so I guess a better way to say it is that we were all alive…and Andrea and I were well. I am still waiting to see if that mysterious cut on my arm is a bat bite- I will let you know if and when I experience signs of rabbis!
I know I have been slacking on the blogs,…I will blog more (or at least I will try!)
God's love and peace!
No comments:
Post a Comment