Kokrobite weekend :)

So, let’s start from my Friday afternoon, seeing as that is where I left you off!

On Friday afternoon Linnea and I went to Zoo Zoo’s (talked about this place in the last blog) and we had delicious falaffel’s and Shwarma’s! They also had fresh Mango juice which was delicious! I had two men (both waiters) try to pick me up and ask to be my husband . . . . so yeah pretty much the usual lol! After we finished there we came back to the hostel and packed to go away to Kokrobite for the weekend. Once we were packed we said goodbye to Ann who was leaving to go back to Germany . . . that was sad, and we presently miss Ann. After packing and goodbyes Kamal, Linnea, Thao, and I set off to find a tro tro to Kaneshie. We got on the tro tro to Kaneshie and once in Kaneshie we had to walk around the market for a half hour to find a tro tro going to Kokrobite! It was very hot, and I don’t like crowds of people in markets because you can hardly move and they’re all grabbing you . . . so I was not in a great mood after that experience. We finally got sat into a tro tro headed to kokrobite and luckily we all got window seats (very important on tro tro’s because they are so crowded and get hot quickly . . . you don’t want to be in the middle of people). The ride there took quite a bit of time due to the traffic because we left at about 6pm.

Once we arrived in Kokrobite (pronounced Kok – Row – Beet – Eh) at Big Milly’s Backyard (name of the hotel beach lodge) we walked into very loud cultural music and dancing. We were shown to our “rooms” (if that’s what they call a room. Our rooms were two double mattresses (for four of us) on top of a roof with mosquito nets . . . no fan or anything . . . and also no privacy. We had to keep all four of our bags in a very small compact locked box and dig through that every time someone wanted something. All four of us were not thrilled to see our arrangements lol! They also don’t provide the lock so Kamal went back into the town to buy one  . . . yeah. There were about 8 matresses on the roof so we had lots of company! We made our peace with what was and then went down to the bar to enjoy the cultural dancing and a bottle of wine! This is where we met horrible man Francis. He seemed nice and normal at first, so we let him hang out with us. He was a member of the circus act that went on at the end of Friday nights and at the first of Saturday nights. He had dreads and such so we knew he was what they call a “Rasta” (even though to actually be a practicing Rastafarian you have to be vegan and not drink alcohol . . . they don’t get that in Ghana I guess and still call themselves “Rasta” because they like reggae, have dreads, and smoke weed). So he hung around us and asked for a glass of wine (should have been clue #1) while he waited to perform. We watched him perform and then after everything stopped we went to sit with a group of obruni’s that we had met at the alliance Franais in Accra weeks ago! This was nice to sit and chat with them about what we had all been up to since we had met before and laugh about culture here in Ghana. Linnea and I then decided to venture to find a bathroom before bed . . . we found one but in Kokrobite there are no flush toilets . . . they look like normal toilets but you have to pour buckets of water into them after you’re done to flush them, also you cannot put paper into them so you have to put that into a garbage bin . . . interesting for sure! After our bathroom experience we went to bed (completely sweaty and dirty after the day, but it would have been a lot of effort to take a bucket bath at that point since there were no showers). When we got back to the “loft” where we were sleeping we changed quite publicly (no privacy) and got onto our double mattress (with no blankets or pillows) and put down the mosquito net to try and sleep . . . the power went out at this point so it was kind of scary to be in the pitch black on a roof with a little mesh protecting you from bugs. It was a very restless, hot, and sleepless night.

The next morning Kamal and Thao decided to go to a fort monument in town, and Linnea and I opted to stay at the beach all day. So Linnea and I got breakfast and freshly squeezed mango juice, and then headed to the beach! We swam for most of the morning, then at noon we went back to the fresh juice bar, got more mango juice, and went up to the roof of that building and took a nap on the hammocks! At about 2pm we decided to go tanning on the beach, which turned into swimming quickly because it was so hot, and we swan until about 4pm! Then we ventured off to take a bucket bath (because now we were salty from the water AND dirty from the previous days) There was no privacy for this either, so we gathered buckets of water from the well and brought them to a kind of secluded place and washed ourselves in our bathing suits. Still didn’t feel clean, but better then before. It is a lot of effort to take a bucket bath, carrying the water, and rinsing soap and sand off by pouring water on yourself is harder then it sounds! After the shower we switched rooms, so that Linnea and I were sharing a single room with a double mattress with a fan and a door that closed YAY! So then we took turns changing in a room with privacy!! After that we met up with Kamal at the bar (Thao went a separate way) and decided on what we would do for supper . . . Francis came up to us and stupidly, we told him our plans for dinner and he came and joined us . . .

We all went to the Gardenia restaurant (outside of the hotel, just down the road) for Italian food. The food was fantastic; we had pizza, pasta, real cheese brochette, and chocolate cake with bananas! Up to this point we had realized that Francis was very interested in me . . . not good. He went to the street to get Palm wine and came back with that  . . . palm wine is home brewed wine from the palm nuts . . . it tastes very different from wine, don’t know why it’s called wine. He shared that with us and we shared some pizza with him. It was a very awkward supper, because he kept staring at me weirdly and every time he’d get in a picture with me he would start touching me, I did NOT like this. So then I started talking about my boyfriend (I don’t have one, but in this case I definitely did), unfortunately he didn’t seem to care. He then went off to get ready for his show. After we were finished eating we went back to the hotel for reggae night . . . unfortunately we had to sit through an hour of circus type things before the reggae band started. Francis and his friend were the Circus people who did lots of balancing tricks, eating glass, laying on the glass then being walked on, eating fire, burning themselves with fire sticks, and other stupid things. Francis actually tried to pick me up by using his “hey I can eat glass line” I said “That’s nice” but I was really thinking . . . “that makes you stupid then” LOL! After the circus act was over the reggae band went on, it was at about this point that Kamal and I discovered that one shot of 65% rum was only 1 cedi . . . . so the drinking began there (you can probably figure out how happy we were feeling from that price haha). We drank a lot and were thoroughly enjoying the reggae music and the dancing, that is until Francis tracked us down again . . . I told him several times that I did not like him touching me, dancing with me, hitting on me, or getting to close to me because of my “boyfriend” but none of this worked! He kept arguing that I was in Ghana so I needed a boyfriend in this country . . . He also argued that I was being rude to him . . . . . and He argued that in Ghana everyone touches everyone in that way. I yelled at him some more and he got frustrated and went away. I wish that was the end of our experiences with Francis . . . Kamal, Linnea, and I started drunkenly dancing again for awhile and then all of a sudden I feel someone grab my hips and my butt and start grinding on me . . . yup you guessed it . . . Francis. So immediately I slapped him and pushed him off of me! He then argued with me for a half an hour about my hitting him and how I had no respect and was not being “nice”. I told him that he’s lucky all I did was slapped him because in my country what he did was harassment (he did not grasp this concept at all) and I said that he was being very disrespectful to me by not listening to me when I said I did not want him touching me! This argument went nowhere, but he finally left from frustration. Again, I wish that was the end of Francis! After Francis left we got much drunker, had a great time and danced the night away until 2am to reggae! Kamal and I were loaded, Linnea went to bed after the band stopped, but Kamal and I heard the band say beach after party, so of coarse we were like hell yeah! We got to the beach and immediately ran into the water with our clothes on and everything. Of coarse at this point we were tripping and falling face first into the water with every wave . . . but man that was soooo much fun! It will go down as the best drunken experience of my life . . . drunken swimming on a beach in Ghana with waves and our clothes on at 3am! Very fun! After all the running into the water and tripping around was done we sat on the beach with a bunch of really cool obruni’s! We laughed and partied with more palm wine sitting in the sand until very late. Now Kamal met a girl named lela from England and they were hitting it off really well, I met a guy named Corey from Australia and we were hitting it off really well. It was so romantic too we were flirting and whispering things and getting to know each other. Both of these people we were hitting it off with lived in Accra like us, so there was even a chance of continuing this, that is until Francis showed up again (Ugh I hate this man). He came down and sat with us and immediately sat next to me with his arm around me, and I told him to sit on the other side of the circle or leave (I wish he left), so he went to the other side of the circle. Then he started asking Lela (Kamal’s new found crush) why she didn’t have children at 30 and she should be ashamed of herself (he was 35 with no children so this was hypocritical) then he started touching her and she got angry as well, then he started telling her that she is not a good person because she didn’t believe in God! This of coarse got her all upset and she started to cry and she walked away down the beach. Then Corey (My new found crush) went to comfort her (as a friend at first) on the beach. While the two of them were gone, we tried to explain to Francis that what he did was very wrong and disrespectful, but he did not understand (as always with him) and we tried to explain that Lela had been in Ghana for  a year and when we Obruni’s are here for that long little things can set us off and make us homesick. He didn’t understand that either and kept talking about how things are with touching in Ghana . . . stupid stupid man! By the time Lela and Corey got back to our circle they had their arms around each other and were all lovey dovey! Soooooo . . . Francis took away the opportunity for both me and Kamal to have any chance with our new found crushes (bad person and a love block!) We were NOT happy! For the next 20 minutes Francis kept trying to apologize which he somehow turned into arguments with all of us, so we all got up and went to bed, fed up with Francis. He was the ULTIMATE buzz kill! So I got back to my room and went to sleep at 5am then I woke up at 9am.

When I woke up at 9am I was quite hungover, as was Kamal. Hangovers in Ghana heat are dreadful, you feel dehydrated, overheated, and sick. So Linnea, Kamal, and I decided to go for breakfast to see if that helped, it did but we were still very tired. After breakfast we all went to the beach to go swimming. When we first walked onto the beach Francis came up to me and started touching me while he said Hi. I slapped him again and told him I would report him to the hotel if he touched me again (he didn’t understand this concept either and kept trying to apologize). The apologies turned into arguments again and my head couldn’t handle it anymore, so I told him I’d had enough of him and he left, saying I wasn’t nice (I really didn’t care). Then we went swimming for about 2 hours which was nice, and tanned for an hour. After that Linnea and I went to take a bucket bath and got changed into dry clothes. We then went to the bar and started planning our trip back home to accra. When I got to the bar the Bartender told me that Francis had charged a beer to my room and said I wouldn’t mind, I told the bartender that I did mind and the bartender said that was fine and that he would make Francis pay later . . . (ugh what a guy). Then while making our travel plans to come back home to accra, Francis came up and said you guys live at crystal hostel in Darkuman right? . . . we said yeah (very nervously . . . don’t know how he got that information) and he then said “ok, I live in Kaneshie area so I will go on a tro tro with you guys” we didn’t know how to get out of it so we just said yeah yeah sure . . . Luckily the next thing he said was “ok I am going to film my act with another obruni so I will be back in 30 minutes to come with you”. As soon as he left we grabbed our bags, checked out and hightailed it out of there to a tro tro as quickly as we could! Luckily he missed us and we haven’t seen him since! But we are all very nervous knowing that he knows where our hostel is . . . but we have told Nana, Uncle and Auntie about him and shown them pictures, and they said that they would take care of him if he shows up here! What a horrible awful no good person . . . I have never met anyone that relentless in my life! Now it’s a big joke around the hostel that anytime anything bad happens to us in Ghana we can call it “getting Francised” LOL! But other then Francis I quite enjoyed Kokrobite and Big Milly’s. It’s a very relaxing place with great parties at night! But relaxing on the beach and partying got boring after one weekend, so I have come to the conclusion that I could NEVER go to an all inclusive beach resort for a vacation because I would be way to bored and there’s no culture . . . you wouldn’t learn anything and hey, I can drink and be on a beach at home, if I go to another country I want to learn the culture and mix with the locals!

Once we got back to the hostel on that Sunday afternoon it was about 3pm. All of us were exhausted so we all went to our rooms for naps and woke up around 6pm for supper! We ate supper and then told our stories from the weekend (good drunk swimming stories, and francis stories) to everyone, played some uno and went to bed at 9pm because we were all still very tired!

Today I went to the school in the morning and walked there with Nana because he wanted to talk to Faustina about a tree building project for the kids. When we got to the school we were told that Faustina was in the hospital being treated for Cholera. So Nana left. I stuck around and helped the teachers out by watching a room full of vomiting children, the teachers didn’t know what they were sick with . . . but It is likely that it was Cholera as well. There were 13 out of 55 children in that room vomiting. It is a shame that they don’t stay home when they are sick in this country, that’s why things spread! I left the preschool at 2pm (long day) and went to look for some things at Melcom, but didn’t find them, so I came back here and thoroughly showered myself after being around all that sickness, then I began to post pictures onto facebook. I did that until super time.

After supper, I hung out in the common area with everyone and played Uno for the night. Then I came up to my room and started writing this blog! That brings us up to now.

I am still working on a plan to get to Benin at the end of my trip, but guides are quite pricy. I am going into the office tomorrow to see if I can’t get a lower price from the guide company. If I can’t Nana has offered to go with me, so that may be the route I take! I am going to keep you all updated throughout this week on my events and occurances and so be sure to keep reading!