Yiri Lodge

The entrance gate & guard house

Our home away from home for the last 3 weeks  has been Yiri Lodge, owned by the Institute for  African Studies on the University of Ghana  campus.

Welcome!

Heading out with our Police escort.

It's at the north end of Accra, about an hour and a half drive from down town in rush hour, or 30 minutes if you have a police escort! 

We were going in the wrong direction up the highway!  Yikes!

The hotel is quite new and clean, with about 28 rooms, a lounge, restaurant and meeting rooms.

The front door.  Our drivers are always waiting in the lot for us at 6am :(

My balcony - although it's on the ground floor, so not very useful except as a place to store my smelly runners!

Ralph always has a big smile to great us at the front desk!

The entrance to my room #101 - the first one on the first floor.  Made it handy to run to the restaurant for my morning cup of coffee (or 2) before I was quite ready to sit down for breakfast.

The hotel restaurant.  Although technically open at 6, that was when they arrived at the hotel!  Food might be served by 6:45GMT (Ghana Maybe Time)

There doesn't seem to be any brewed coffee in Ghana... It's Nescafe!  But it's served with real cream, so I quite like it!!

Inside my room - simple but clean :)   Only once did I see a lizard in my room! 

I brought my own pillow - it's been so nice to have!

Students walking home from Sunday services - They are all dressed very nicely!

The pool is right next door to Yiri Lodge.

And nearby, is the university.  We are on the south end of campus, away from the classroom buildings, but close to residences and food services. 

You'll notice the red sand on all the paths.  It's everywhere!  My running shoes are quite covered with it, and are going to need a serious wash when I get home.


Some of my teammates were excited about having the pool so close, as they planned to use it to keep up their exercise routines.  But alas, it has not transpired for two reasons.  First of all, we are leaving so early in the morning (by 7am) and it gets dark so early (by 6pm) that there isn't much time in the day.  Secondly, after Jeremy swam there on day 2, he got quite sick, and suspected that it was the result of swallowing pool water.  We'll never know, as he hasn't been back again. 

The residences

I have been running several times, although half of what I normally do.  I often run by the residences, since there's always lots of people walking around, which makes me feel quite safe.   The last time I ran by, I noticed a lot of booming noise down by the last building and determined it was coming from the gutters.  What was it?  Turns out that a few dozen bullfrogs live in the cement tubes, and their loud resonant bass sounds were reverberating to make the sounds explosive!

The local shop supplies water & snacks - very basic stuff :(

Here's the local shop where we can go for water or other small snacks, but there isn't too much there.  We have to make a trip to "The Mall" for better choices.  We take a taxi there for about $4, although you have to negotiate each ride, there are no meters and no fixed prices.  Going downtown might cost you $4 or it might cost you $12, depending on your negotiating skills, the time of day and the traffic.

But the competition across the street closes the gap!

The university shop has plenty of competition though.  There are booths selling supplies everywhere!!  I buy bananas here regularly - the little mini bananas come in bunches of a dozen or so.   But people eat them in that quantity, with nuts, for a snack.  Yummy!

The IBM Team

It's about time I introduce you to the team of IBMers I'm living with here in Accra.

We had been meeting by phone for 3 months before we arrived, and started to feel an affinity based on our common excitement about coming on this adventure together.  We all felt lucky to be part of this small group of 11 people from all over the world, who were going to be together for 4 weeks with a common purpose.   There was this amazing instant synergy!

The team on Friday night after a long first week.

Sun Sik from Korea

Petr from Czech Republic

Jeremy from Canada

We are by no means an obvious group of friends.  All very different personalities, with different interests, different motivations for being here, and very different lives back home.

However, we are living, eating and traveling together every day, and all keen to make the very best of this wonderful opportunity we've been given!

Let me introduce them:

Greg from United States

Bala from India

Els from The Netherlands

Ken from United States

Chee from Brazil

Heleen from The Netherlands

Giovanni from Italy

I've now got 10 good friends from all around the world that I hope to visit in their home countries someday!

Kakum National Park

On Sunday we went to Kakum National Park, with an area of 375 square km in the central part of Ghana.  The park was first established in 1960 and is covered with tropical rainforest. Many rare animals live there including several endangered species that even the guides haven't seen!

It is famous for a series of 7 hanging bridges, 330 meters in length that hang 40 meters above the forest canopy that let you view the forest without disturbing the nature below. This Canopy Walkway was built by two Canadians from Vancouver!

It was quite a thrill for me!

A very narrow and long walkway!

We crossed 7 rope bridges with wood blank "floors" less than a foot wide.

Anyone who is afraid of heights (especially while traversing a narrow shaky rope bridge) will find the activity quite terrifying, but I loved it.  They are actually listed as one of the 7 scariest bridges in the world!  Giovanni was clever enough to take a shortcut that let him do the circuit twice!!  I unfortunately got caught as I headed down the same route. 

Bala making his way slowly but surely!

Bala got the prize today for overcoming his fear of heights and crossing all 7 bridges with a huge smile on his face at the end!  Good for you Bala!

That's one big tree! WOW.

The guide told us he made soccer balls from latex sap when he was young.  Notice the white drops?

This tree comes with it's own protection from wild animals.

In the park, the gamekeepers are specially trained in the medical and cultural significance of the trees and foliage, and our guide made the hike fascinating by telling us stories as we walked along the narrow paths in the rainforest.  We learned about latex trees, elephant's brush, Sugar plum trees, and saw a tree so big that 19 people were needed to hold hands in a circle to encompass it. 






So it was a great visit - we had an adventure on the bridges, we learned about the forest on the hike and we got some exercise too! 

Once again, Ghana has astounded us with it's unique and natural beauty.  :)























And the day wasn't over yet!  We went from there to lunch, where some of the team were brave enough to pet the crocodiles.   I couldn't do it, but now I'm regretting it.  Lesson learned Emily!

Jeremy wasn't going to let the chance pass him by.

Gorgeous!

We had a bit more time, so agreed quickly to stop at a beach to relax and enjoy.  In most of the world, this beach would be dotted with hotels and full of tourists, but here it is completely natural, peaceful and beautiful.

I hope it stays that way... 

Elmina and Cape Coast Castles

Cape Coast Castle - This is where the captives were brought up to eat twice a day.

Male Dungeon - Men were locked in and left to die if they were not compliant.

Ghana has a sad history as a key exit point for slaves during the years between the 1400's and the early 1800's.  We visited two forts that were owned over time by the British, Portuguese and Dutch where they bought and held the slaves before putting them on  ships to the New World.

Mail Slave Cell - 150 men would be held here.

The door of no return.  Boats waited outside this narrow opening to load slaves.

Touring the two forts (called castles) was heart wrenching, as our guards painted vivid pictures of what it was like for these people, brought from inland Africa as prisoners of war or hostages, with no idea what was happening, packed hundreds to a room without ventilation,sanitation or light, and fed very little.   Many had never seen the sea before, and getting on a boat shackled to 5 or 6 others would have been terrifying.






Women were paraded in the open court of the castle, and selections were made by the senior officials.  If the women would not comply to provide pleasure, they were put into a solitary cell to encourage them to change their mind.   If they became pregnant they were allowed to stay with their child for a year, but then the child was raised by the father, and the woman was returned to her  fate on a ship to slavery.
  

A message for us to remember and never repeat this injustice.

 One of our team was born in Haiti, and is likely a descendent of one of these slaves.  Others on our team are of Dutch heritage and were appalled by what their descendents had done.   It is estimated that 20 to 25 million Africans were taken from their continent, as part of the most massage migration in history.

Volta Region Weekend - Day 2

This was a marvelous day :)

I woke up pretty early to the sound of singing outside my window (see my last entry), and my mind quickly started thinking about how things were going.  I am loving the experience and the people I'm with, but I do miss those who are close to me at home, who I can share my personal thoughts with.  But loneliness passes quickly as I consider the day ahead.

I get up to see if anyone is around to go for a walk.  Perfect timing - Jeremy and Petr are ready to head out to find the local waterfalls a town resident told them about.  I'm in!  I need some exercise as my running efforts are way below normal.  So we headed out ...

Spectacular!  

But this was just the start to our day.  We hiked back to the hotel for a quick shower & breakfast and the team was on the road... including the wet clay road I mentioned in an earlier post.  This time we had to stop and help a van full of young men on their way to church!!

Our next stop was the Wli Waterfalls which were a much easier hike, but had the added benefit of having a pool at the bottom where we could swim under the falls!  So amazing to find such a place completely natural, and occupied by just the 12 of us!   We were laughing and jumping and playing like children. 

    

We stayed much longer than planned and so by the time lunch was done we were too late for the trip to the monkey sanctuary :(  But seeing the monkeys will hopefully be on a future agenda.  

A 4 hour drive home was passed quite uproariously with bus games that helped us to get to know each other (maybe better than we expected after such a short time!! )