My Week in Dixcove and My weekend back in Accra!

Hey guys, It has been more than a week since I have blogged . . . so this may be a long one! I will start with last week’s Friday night karaoke since that is where I left you!

On Friday night I got my passport for Benin back from the guy who said he would deliver it to me. He tried to get to Darkuman, but he called saying his motor bike broke down in Dansuman . . . so I got in a cab and went to meet him because I really wanted my passport back! But I did get the passport with my Benin Visa inside so all was well with that. After that I went to Karaoke by myself, but I met a whole group of Americans at the bar and hung out with them! They were very cool. Karaoke went as usual, but this time I told the host that I was a karaoke host in Canada. He now wants me to try and find him a website where he can download more French songs, and more music in general (I will need Rob’s help on this one). But I sang and everyone yet again loved me, and I had a blast. All the guys at the bar were trying to pick me up because of my voice (which is still creepy but a better reason than because I am white lol) specifically the bouncers lol. But all in all it was a great night,

Saturday morning I got up at 9am and started packing to go to Dixcove to stay with Mike and Julia at their Eco Lodge (Desert Rose Lodge) for the week. I packed and then took off to the STC station for my bus to Takoradi. The bus was actually (surprisingly) on time . . . for Ghana. It was supposed to leave at 12:30, and it arrived at the station at 12:30 so we left at 1pm . . . on time for Ghana! The bus had no problems this time around and the trip was quite uneventful, other than the fact that when we stopped in Cape Coast I got a wonderful meat pie from a street vendor. When I arrived in Takoradi I got a taxi to the Dixcove area and directed the taxi driver on the really bumpy back dirt roods to Desert Rose Lodge. It was fantastic to get there and hug Mike and Julia after a year of seeing each other! It was bliss! I had supper with them that night and this first night it was only me Mike and Julia, so we got to do a lot of catching up about our year. Before I continue on with what I did each day at this Lodge, I am going to take some time to explain this Lodge to you.

Mike and Julia are a couple from Sweden who set out 5 years ago to build a lodge somewhere in the world. They had traveled to India and to Asia together before deciding they wanted to build a lodge, and those trips were what fueled it. They started again in India, but it wasn’t possible to build there, so they continued into Africa. Their plan was to travel most of Africa just to see it, and then to end up in south Africa where they would build their lodge. They arrived in Ghana and immediately felt welcomed and amazed. When they stayed at Green Turtle Lodge (a lodge owned and run by a British couple that is now about a 20 minute drive up the road from them, they have remained very close to this couple as well) they felt a sense of family and loved the villages around the Lodge. They then knew that this was the place for their project! In the past 5 years they have built a very nice eco friendly lodge, this means that there is no electricity, running water, or damaging utilities to the environment, and everything that they have built was built using natural elements such as mud, bamboo, wood, and like materials. Their Lodge is directly on the beach, and it is a private beach shared by the neighboring villages, so there is no garbage in it, and it is very secluded (apart from occasional visits from the village children wanting to get you Coconuts off the tree). They do have solar power and wind power that they have set up their own system for, and it works just enough to run some lights at night in their “hang out area” and run some music. It is very impressive that they built this solar/wind energy system on their own! They have an outhouse that is a self compositing toilet, basically a really deep hollowed out well. They also have a sink right outside that which is pumped from a bucket of water. They have bucket shower stalls (made out of bamboo) where you pour water on yourself from a small cup and you get the water from a big bucket. The water that they have in these buckets is all rain water, they collect the rain water for use which again means that they are using natural elements from nature to run their lodge. In their “hang out” area they have three couches (made out of wicker and bamboo with bought cushions) and a wooden table to sit around and “hang out”, they have a pool table, a dart board, a full bar (every kind of alcohol, including local Ghana brews), two hammocks, and a picnic table. That is a great spot to hang out at night, the whole floor of the “hang out” area is sand, so it gives you a really earthy feel. They have a working kitchen, and they make delicious food, and outside the kitchen they have a dining area with picnic tables where all the guests always eat together with Mike and Julia (this place gives you a real “family” feeling). New this year, they have built a salt water pool just below the “hang out” area. They fill the pool up using a water pump and lots of hose line, they put the hose into the ocean and pump the water from there into the pool (harder then it sounds, we did this on the second day I arrived and it took a whole day to get it working properly). They have one room with a double bed, one dorm room with four single beds and a double bed, one self contained bamboo hut with a double bed, and two wooden made tents with double beds in them. All of the beds have mosquito nets to keep the bugs away at night (and there are a lot of big strange bugs in the bush where they are at the Lodge). It is a really fantastic place with a great concept on preserving the land, and the sense of family that you get when you arrive here is fantastic (I truly believe that this is due to the amazing personalities and welcoming concepts of Mike and Julia themselves). They say they want to keep the Lodge at a 25 person capacity so that it always feels like a place where you can get to know everyone! So that is a little background and description of Desert Rose Lodge!

So on Sunday morning I woke up and had breakfast (fried eggs, bread and fresh oranges) and then I did nothing all day . . . I went to the beach, then I came up to the Lodge and tanned on the bamboo tanning chairs, then I took a nap on a hammock, went back to the beach and tanned some more (I know, that’s the life haha). That afternoon a new couple arrived, their names were Claire and John, they were from London, also a girl from Austria arrived, her name was Ellia. At supper time we had fresh Lobster from Dixcove (the fishing town nearby), and Mike cut them in half and barbequed them and covered them in a garlic breadcrumb crust . . . that was THE best lobster I have ever had (and I am from the maritimes!). That night we all sat around in the “hang out” area and got to know each other, then went to bed quite late!

Monday morning I woke up to Kuso (one of their cats, kitten actually) beside me playing with my hair, he had managed to crawl inside the mosquito net . . . clever! I went outside, showered and had breakfast, then I went to Dixcove with Ellia to see the fort of the slaves there and experience the fishing village! The fort slave was nowhere near as impressive as the ones in cape coast, but still interesting . . . an English couple has bought it and are now living in it, so it was weird to see that. The fishing village was cool, they taught us all about the fishing boats (simple concept really) and how they use their nets to catch the fish and how they cool, clean and gut the fish. We even saw them gutting large sharks that they had caught. After the visit in the village I got a tro tro into takoradi to take out more money then I got a taxi back to Desert Rose Lodge. When I got back to Desert Rose Lodge Claire, John, and I went to go see how the local moonshine called Akpetchi is made. One of the workers at the Lodge took us there, it was about a 5 minute walk from the Lodge down the dirt road, the another 5 minute walk into the forest bush area. It was located literally in the middle of a clearing in the woods. The way it works is they take the local palm wine that they make out of palm oil nuts (it’s like a fermented wine) then they put that in big barrels where it boils for a long time, then tubes from those barrels transport the akpetechi into big pools where the alcohol distills (and gets much stronger), then it gets slowly stiffened out and filtered into bottles. It was very interesting to see how this moonshine is made in the middle of the woods haha. I got a bottle of palm wine and a bottle of Akpetechi from them at this place to bring home!

That night when we were all back at the lodge we had dinner, which was homemade pizza with real cheese! Two other guys had arrived at this point from germany named Sasha and Danial. We then took part in drinking the akpetechi and had a blast of a night being drunk and learning how to climb coconut trees! I have learned that climbing coconut trees is all in the power of your thighs to push forward! You have to hug the tree and grip the tree with your thighs to pull yourself up (valid skill to have I think, it should go on my resume . . . can climb a coconut tree haha). We then braved the outhouse at night together because at night there are HUGE bugs in there, then we went to bed (all sleeping in the same dorm, so that was funny as well).

Tuesday I didn’t do a whole lot which is the point of being at this Lodge. I tanned, swam, napped on hammocks, swam more, and tanned more. For Lunch I had a pasta salad with curry dressing (which I now know how to make from scratch when I get back to Canada) and then we all had supper which was Sweedish Meatballs and rice! We drank 4 bottles of wine between us that night and had a dart tournament . . . yes smart idea lol! It was a lot of fun to hang out with these people and the vibe that mike and Julia set is perfect for that!

Wedenesday I again didn’t do much of anything, Mike Julia and I got the pump working, so in the morning we pumped the water from the sea into the salt water pool and I spent most of the day in there, and tanning! Claire, John, Sasha, and Daniel all left in the afternoon, so it was Mike, Julia, and I alone again for my last night which was great! We had Potato au Gratin (scalloped potatoes) and veggie stir fry for supper then we had a relaxing night talking and laughing!

Thursday I spent the morning I spent in the salt water pool and tanning which was very relaxing, then I showered and packed up to leave for Takoradi to get a bus back to Accra! A taxi came and picked me up at the lodge, and he was really great since it was a local friend of Mike and Julia’s. He let me drive through the dirt roads in Dixcove since there’s not a lot of traffic, he said that it was so that I could say I have driven in Ghana, and on Ghana bad roads haha, boy can I ever say that! It was like off roading times 10! This was very fun, then when we hit main roads he drove again. When I got to the bus station they told me that there were no buses for the next 3 days to Accra because they were all full. I asked a taxi driver if there were other stations and he said he’d been to them and the buses there were full as well with big crowds . . . This was a frustrating moment for me! Then this worker at the bus station told me to hang around and he’d see if there was room after the people with tickets got on the bus . . . well there wasn’t, so I pulled a very bad girl move that I am kind of embarrassed about . . . I stood there and made myself cry, sure enough there was a lady that started waving me onto the bus from the bus window, so I fought with the driver and got on the bus, when I got on the bus this lady said you can sit in the seat we bough for our three year old, as long as she can sit on your knee the whole way to Accra . . . I was thrilled with that and said sure thing! So yes, I got on a bus to get back to Accra, but I am a little ashamed about how I did it . . . haha. That was quite a bus ride with a chatty 3 year old on my knee, but she was very very cute!

I got back to Accra at about 8pm and was very excited to have power again so that I could charge my dead phone and have a fan . . . but this is Ghana and nothing ever works in your favor . . . so when I got back to the hostel I arrived to no power, and there was no power all night . . . so I just went to bed because there was nothing else to do!

Friday I woke up very early to go to church, it being good Friday and all, and I couldn’t go to the Methodist church with aunty and uncle because the service would have been in Twi, so I decided to go to church with Eunice, the Laundry and cleaning lady here at the Hostel. Her church was called assemblies of God . . . it was the craziest church I have ever been to in my life . . . take a Pentecostal church from Canada and dial up the crazy by 20 (you know with all the speaking in tongues, fainting, dancing around like lunatics, shouting fire and brimstone, being possessed with the spirit . . . yeah all that). I was terrified and finding a lot of comedy in this (I didn’t show that I found it funny because they might have made me go up there and start talking gibberish too). They were getting people up there and the pastors were putting their hands on the peoples heads and shouting at them in tongues (which I still believe is gibberish . . . I stand by that) and then they started talking in tongues, then they were fainting, and they kept saying they were full of the spirit . . . but it seemed like they were full of something else if you ask me! They kept yelling God gives us the power, then May the fire of God come down on us . . . then there was more wacky dancing and tongues. This is NOT my kind of church because I do not believe tongues is the language of God, and I do not believe that God wants us to make idiots of ourselves to worship him, so all in all for me it didn’t feel like a good Friday worship ceremony. They were too happy and not mournful enough.

I went back to the Hostel and went to my room and watched the Passion of the Christ, then I felt more like it was good Friday! Then in the afternoon I went to meet my Guide that will be taking me to Benin on Monday, we talked about the plans and details and such, and talked about ourselves to get to know each other . . . He is very handsome, this may be a problem . . . self restraint haha! In the evening I came down to the common area and hung out with everyone for awhile and then there was a very creepy black man from America with dreads that came wandering into the hostel, he was talking to himself and scared us so we got Uncle. Uncle talked to him for a long time and then eventually got him to leave. Uncle then told us that he stayed here 2 years ago and was fine for awhile with his girlfriend here, but then she left him and he started doing heroin here and got crazy (like he was this night), so then they had to kick him out of the hostel and deport him from the country. Now that he’s back, Uncle says that he is so delusional that he thinks he is friends with aunty and uncle and wants to stay here again . . . he has come back to the hostel a lot this weekend and so now they have locked everything in the hostel and we have to ring a bell to get in (understandable). We then decided to go to Karaoke! Karaoke was fun Bruno got ill from alcohol so he had to leave early, then pilar, Linnea, and I were left and we sang our hearts out and drank until 2am! At this time we got a taxi back home, only problem was the taxi ran out of gas halfway to our hostel so we drunkenly stood on the street waiting for another taxi (took a long time at that hour of night) and eventually got one. When we got back to the hostel pilar and Linnea couldn’t get into their rooms because aunty had locked the house, so we all went up to my room and watched glee and had drunken girl talk until 6am when they could get back into their rooms!

Saturday we all woke up quite late because of the night before. We then had lunch and went into the darkuman market to buy fabrics. I bought lots of fabrics for myself and for Linda to make dresses with and then we bought some mangoes and came back to the hostel. I ate the mangos (all three . . . yeah I am going to miss mangos when I get back) and then I went to get money from the bank for my Benin trip. When I got back it started to downpour so Linnea, Pilar, and I got in our bathing suits and started running around the hostel in the rain, getting soaked and splashing in puddles . . . it was fantastic, it was the first time in Ghana that I felt cold (very welcomed feeling)! It rained for about two hours so it was a long splashing session. After that we got changed and had dinner, then the creepy man came back and Uncle kicked him out again! After that Pilar, Linnea, Kamal and I went up to my room to watch Glee. Kamal had never seen Glee before so we introduced him to it and watched the first six episodes. He said that it was Ok, and “good in a guilty pleasure for a guy kind of way”. So that was another fun night!

Sunday Morning I slept in because I had no interest in going back to the church of crazy! I celebrated Easter here by eating Belgian chocolate eggs that Linnea had brought to Ghana, and having a noodle stir fry for lunch. That brings us to this point where I started writing this blog. So there you have it. Tonight I am going out with about 10 people from the hostel to and Indian restaurant, then I will be packing and preparing for my trip to Benin tomorrow! In Benin I am set out to learn all about Voodoo, I even have an appointment on Tuesday morning for a one on one sacrifice ceremony with a voodoo fetish priest, and also a planned visit to their Python Temple where I can have the Python’s draped around me! I will blog when I return to Ghana on Thursday! Thanks for reading!