TravelStream™ news feed for member hooktravellers on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/hooktravellers en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:14:53 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1111094820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1111094820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1111094820/tpod.html Tue, 14 Jul 2009 08:14:53 -0400 GHANA - HOT HOT HOT - A Canadian Family's journey to a fantastic country of wonderful people!

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Krobo Odumase, Ghana

When we arrived at Daniel's, there was a note from his daughter Esther, along with some beautiful glass bead necklaces. Krobo Odumase is famous for their hand made, hand painted glass beads. The note dated 15th March 2005 read: Welcome Lovely People: It is rather unfortunate I could not meet you. I will leave for Berekum in the Brong Ahago region and I need to prepare for that trip. I leave tomorrow in the afternoon after school. It is my wish to say hello to you all before I leave but if time would not permit, I wish you a happy stay. Please, you would have to bare with the hot climate over here. Enjoy your stay. And WELCOME. Esther
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1110597960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1110597960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1110597960/tpod.html Fri, 06 May 2005 12:06:15 -0400 GHANA - HOT HOT HOT - A Canadian Family's journey to a fantastic country of wonderful people!

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Ottawa/Montreal, Ontario, Canada

Our trip on Shawn's birthday went pretty well. We caught the KLM bus at the Ottawa train station and they dropped us off at the departure gate at Trudeau Airport in Montreal. It cost $45 to park the van at the train station for a month, way better than a week's fee at the park n fly at the Ottawa airport. This bus trip to Montreal was included in the price of our airline ticket. It is KLM's way of servicing Ottawa since they are not allowed to fly out of Ottawa. Upon check in, they gave us our boarding passes for the Montreal-Amsterdam portion as well as the Amsterdam-Accra portion of the trip. They ticketed our bags to go straight through to Accra, which was nice not having to collect them in Amsterdam and recheck them again. The flight left about 30 min late because the snow had developed into quite the little snowstorm in Montreal and we had to wait our turn to be deiced. The flight was nice and smooth, just a few bumps when they served the tea and coffee, which is par for the course. Shortly after take off, crackers and drinks were offered and shortly after the attendants came around with hot towels - haven't seen that in years! I guess it is something KLM still does. The movie was Wimbeldon. Dinner was a choice of chicken or pasta. A breakfast box was handed out about 1 1/2 hours before landing, which still managed to be on time even after the delay in taking off. The breakfast was a Cheerios breakfast bar, a yogurt, a fruit cup and a drinking box. The flight time was 7 1/2 hours.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1110815340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1110815340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1110815340/tpod.html Fri, 06 May 2005 11:07:33 -0400 GHANA - HOT HOT HOT - A Canadian Family's journey to a fantastic country of wonderful people!

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Accra, Ghana

Today we were off to a late start. Kailey had been up early and said there had been a bunch of black people at the house. Only later did we find out that Daniel had come to the house, a day early, and we basically slept through it. Daniel is the contact person we had in Ghana. Back in the 1960's when Shawn's Dad worked at the generating station at Akosombo, he hired Daniel as a technician before he left. Around 1989, three men from the Volta River Authority (Akosombo Dam) made a visit to Ontario to observe the practices at several of the (then named) Ontario Hydro dams. They made a stop in Arnprior for several weeks, staying at the Vacation Inn. Shawn sort of 'adopted' them and had them over to the house several times. We laughed as they were soooo cold and it was only the beginning of October! They went to Mark's Work Warehouse and outfitted themselves with big parkas etc. At the time I remember wondering what they were thinking of us and our country and our "foreign" practices and food etc. Little did I know that 15 years later the shoe would be on the other foot! Anyway, we were able to track Daniel down. He had just retired and offered to let us stay at his house and generally make our life easier in his country. He had great admiration for Shawn's Dad Jim, and any family of his was most welcome. So, now you know how the story with Daniel came to be, you'll hear mention of him many times as the story progresses. Anyway, I had written to Daniel that we would make our way to his village on Tuesday - we certainly didn't expect him to come and pick us up! I knew it was about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Accra, and didn't have any idea yet how we were going to move around. Oh well, we missed him, and felt bad about it, but it was time to eat! Boy, was breakfast a let-down. The toaster was broken, but Marian still insisted on putting the bread in it, so we had great lumps of dried out bread instead of toast. Again, the eggs were different. Imagine fried scrambled eggs - cooked in the famous oil again. The sausages had also been fried in oil until they were unrecognizable. Kelan asked if they had been living under the refrigerator and Andrew was sure they were something left over from Fear Factor. When we finally got our act together to get out of the house, we had Sylvester drive us to La Beach. It's one of the country's most attractive and lively public beaches and it's only about 10 mins from the city centre. This is Accra's best swimming beach, reasonably safe for swimming depending on the strength of the undertow. There are several outdoor bars/restaurants to choose from, as well as the usual vendors on the beach. It cost 5,000 each to get into the beach. They tried to charge another 5,000 for the vehicle but we only paid 30,000 altogether.There is a lot of garbage around the city. Everything you buy at the shops, and even when you get your money changed, all comes in black plastic bags. These are much like our plastic grocery bags we get, but these are all black, no writing on them, and they are just thrown everywhere. Even wading in the ocean you get spooked when something brushes your leg and you are relived to find it is one of the hated plastic bags.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1111166820/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1111166820/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1111166820/tpod.html Fri, 06 May 2005 11:03:32 -0400 GHANA - HOT HOT HOT - A Canadian Family's journey to a fantastic country of wonderful people!

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Kumasi, Ghana

Today Prince is off and told us he was "free to take us around" (free my foot!). I wanted to go to Bonwire but he said that would have to wait until Monday as they don't weave on Sundays and it was too late to head out today. We decide just to go to downtown Kumasi and go to the market. Prince suggests a visit to the King's Palace and we add that we want to see the sword. He gets us a taxi - which has 4 seats. The driver takes one and one is for Prince, which leaves the 5 of us in the back seat - uh, no I don't think so. We send that driver away (he's not happy) and tell Prince we need a bigger car or a mini van or something. The next taxi he gets is a mini station wagon, but it has no more seats than the first one did. Prince's level of frustration is rising - what do these people want? Finally he produces a mini van. Now we're talking! This one we hire for the total rip off price of 300,000 but what can we do? It comes with the driver and the mandatory shotgun rider. This is one rickety buggy! There are holes in the floor, a sliding door that only latches sometimes and the driver has to hot wire it to get it to go.We arrive (thankfully) at the Palace and try to enter through one of the doors but it is the wrong entrance as the King is at home. The boys claim they saw the King himself, dressed in black robes. We wait until the driver hot wires the van again and we drive around to the other side of the Palace grounds. Unfortunately you cannot take any pictures at the Palace. We are hassled by some kids trying to sell bookmarkers with our names on them. We give in and write KAILEY on a piece of paper and agree to buy it when we come out. As we enter, the Palace looks nothing like a Palace, more like some 100-year-old farmhouse with furnishings from the 1940's. The tour is quite interesting even if the place is so hot it is stifling. I had to pay for each of us to get in, and I paid for Prince to come along. Strange, I know I didn't pay for the driver and his sidekick but they are here on the tour with us. We learn all about the current and previous kings of the Ashanti people. We also learn about the Queen Mother who must not be the King's wife. She is either his sister or his mother that holds the position of Queen Mother. If the King's wife were to be the Queen Mother, then their children would not be of the royal family. The Queen Mother has a special stool upon which she sits and also a special pillow which goes on the stool - both of which the King must provide for her.I ask the tour director if he has any monster legends but he says the Ashanti have no monsters in their stories. The boys' French teacher has given them an assignment to present to the class a monster story from Ghana and we're having a heck of a time learning about one, let alone two. I did buy a folklore book so I'm hoping there will be something in there we can use. All their tales are about Anansi the spider and they are meant to teach a moral usually.The tour director notices the boys are twins and said had they been born Ashanti, their names automatically would have been Ata and Ata. I asked how you tell them apart when you want to call them. He replied I could call one Atsu as a nickname which means second born twin.At the end of the tour you must go through the gift shop before you reach the exit. The tour guide calls a man to open the shop and I realized he called the guy Ata, so I asked the gift store man if he was a twin. He was quite surprised and answered "Why, yes how do you know?" He then noticed the boys and said he would be honored to shake the twins hands.We managed to escape the gift shop without buying anything but going back to the van we had to come up with 5,000 for the bookmarker. We ended up buying another one too with Ghana on it for 10,000 because we only had 10,000 notes on us and they claimed to have no change. One kid tried to get the Ontario pin off Shawn's hat. He was going to give it to him until I told him to trade it for another bookmarker and the kid would not trade so we still have the pin.I notice the difference in the dress of the people in this region as compared to Accra. Perhaps it is because many of the people in this area are Muslims. The women's head scarves are now long and even the school uniforms are different.We spent way more time at the Palace than we thought so we decided to skip walking in the market as it is the largest market in Western Africa with at least at 15 hectares of stalls. It was even busier than the ones we've seen in Accra. I think the kids would have been a bit overwhelmed by it all. We took the trip to the Okomfo Anokye Hospital on Bantama Circle to see the Okomfo Anoke Sword which according to legend has been stuck in the ground in the same spot for 300 years. The sword marks the spot where the Golden Stool initially came down from the sky and it is an important symbol of unity for the Ashanti. The story says it would be the end of the Ashanti if the sword was ever pulled from the ground. To protect it from the elements, the sword is now inside a small circular building and they charge a small fee to see it. A guide tells you stories about how people have tried over the years to pull the sword out, including Muhammad Ali. When the hospital was being built by a white man named Mr. McGee, heavy machinery was brought in to try to dig the sword out but apparently the sword disappeared, only to mysteriously reappear in the same spot a week later after the machinery had left. To this day, every sixth Sunday a chief comes to pour three bottles of schnapps on the ground around the sword and sacrifices a lamb and spills it's blood around the sword to appease the ancestors.After heading back to the hotel, the boys hit the computers again while Kailey and I take a swim in the hotel pool. Too lazy to go back out, we went to the hotel restaurant again. This time was the first time we've seen any sign of any other guests staying here - a white man came into the restaurant and sat alone in the corner. A black couple also came in to eat. We usually have the place to ourselves.After dinner we all went to the computer room (there are no TV channels in the rooms) while a storm whipped up outside. The hotel lost power - computers went to backup power and the diesel generator kicked in. We found out it is located outside our bedroom window. I swear we should rent our family out to any place that is experiencing a drought. We're like the Schleprock guy on the Flintstones - you know the guy with the big rain cloud hanging over his head every where he goes!Prince invited us to go to church with him tomorrow but knowing it is an all day affair we pass. It would be neat to see though.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1111178040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1111178040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1111178040/tpod.html Fri, 06 May 2005 11:00:34 -0400 GHANA - HOT HOT HOT - A Canadian Family's journey to a fantastic country of wonderful people!

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Kumasi, Ghana

Today we are heading to Kumasi from Akosombo. Normally this would mean going back to Accra as there is no direct public transit between the two places, but Daniel has come through for us once again and has hired a van through the Methodist church to take us and all our stuff to Kumasi. It should take about 6 hours and will cost 455,000 - we gladly give them 500,000 and everyone seems happy. We are to leave Daniel's in Akosombo at 8AM and the van arrives at 7:30 - what's this all about? These guys mustn't be real Ghananians, cause nothing ever happens early here! We packed up all our stuff the night before and we are ready, having fed the kids some breakfast. Daniel is so disappointed in us at not eating his food but his pears are just disgusting and we are all afraid of eating too much coconut knowing full well what a natural laxative they are. I don't even try to eat any to be polite. Andrew still declares the pears to be the absolute worst food he has ever tasted. So bad, that it almost didn't stay down and this is the kid that will eat/try anything (as long as there are no olives visible). We are all waiting on Daniel and we finally get away at 8:30. Just before we left the kids each gave Daniel a gift - a watch, a pen set and a coffee table book of Canada. He seems embarrassed to receive the gifts and I am glad we went with the plan to leave the other things we brought him on the table in the bedroom. We left him a Canada ball cap, 2 Canada bath towels, a golf shirt and an Our Canada magazine and a calendar of Canadian pictures. His daughter Esther had left us a welcome note and some beads so we left her the pencils and chalk we had brought for her class and a pen and pencil gift set for her. We were disappointed, and so was Daniel, that we didn't get a chance to meet her as she had been out of town, in Kumasi actually where we were headed, and was returning as we were leaving. We probably passed her on the road. Willie hops aboard for a ride out to the main road and cozies up to Kailey. I better keep an eye on those two - Willie has already asked Kailey to marry him! We pass a woman on the road and I hear Willie say to Kailey - "That one they call Gladys". Shawn has a bucket hat to give to the pensioner - Big Man From the Hospital as Daniel calls him - that we met yesterday. He's this cute little round man who just grins from ear to ear. Kailey hopped out and ran up to his house to where he is sitting on the porch to give him the hat. He proudly puts it on and the biggest smile crosses his face. Oh, why didn't I have the camera out? He's smiling and waving with both hands as we leave.The ride is not too bad although I am worried about Andrew, he doesn't look well, his face is all red and he hasn't been eating. I'm hoping it is just the heat and keep pushing water on him. My stomach is upset again and I've taken more Gravol, hoping I can last this trip. I think if I just had some time to relax I would feel better, seems like we are just always on the go, and it is just so bloody hot all the time. Staying at Daniel's without any air conditioning has taken a toll on all of us I think. We're actually leaving a day earlier than we had planned.Daniel is along with us on this trip and as per usual, he needs to make several stops along the way. We just want to get going! At one spot he makes us all get out at a market along the road so we can look at Ghananian produce - enough already - no one is buying anything - let's get going. I hear Daniel tell the driver we Canadians are more used to sitting and driving long distances than they are. We are booting along and making good time until we hit road construction. This is where we loose all the time. We marvel at how strict our highway laws are compared to here. Trucks are running with flat tires, some trucks don't have tires on all their rims even. A couple of trucks have rolled over onto their sides, spilling their loads onto the roadways. I notice a change in the roadside stand offerings - now they are all selling plastic jugs of liquid. Daniel says it is palm oil which is what everyone uses to cook in.We pull into our hotel - the Silicon Hotel and Conference Center and I dash into the reception area before Daniel can join me, hoping it is OK that we've arrived a day early and that they have a room for us. Luckily it is no problem. We unload the luggage, say our goodbyes and Daniel and the drivers are gone. Air conditioning here we come! We go to our rooms and find a mistake. They've given us two 2-bedroom suites when I only booked one at $89 US a night. The beds look really tiny and although the boys plead to keep the second room, I decide to save some money and see if we can't get a cot. Turns out we just wheel a sofa bed in from next door and voila beds for us all. There are two bedrooms with a bed each and now we have two sofa beds. The maids are checking to see that everything is OK and they spy a house lizard on the wall in the hallway. They bring their little broom and try to scoop him up. All they end up doing is knocking him onto the floor, where his tail falls off and starts wiggling across the floor in one direction while the lizard heads off in another. Cool trick! I checked out the beds - soft pillows. I swear his pillows were just pillowcases on bags of concrete mix at Daniel's house! We ask at the desk were the nearest store is to get some pop etc to have in the room and we meet Prince for the first time. He leads us all down the road to a Shell station. He tells Shawn not to buy beer here as he will have to pay the deposit for the bottles. He will sell him bottles from the hotel to keep in our fridge in the room. We buy some cans of pop and Prince insists on carrying the bag back to the hotel.OH MY GOD!! A Bathtub! Haven't seen one of these in too long. I have a nice hot bath and I am horrified at the water - it is completely black! I had no idea I was so filthy dirty! I couldn't even see my legs in the water it was so dark. The boys head to check out the computers but since we're five hours ahead of home, no one is on MSN yet. Kailey takes a dip in the pool and before you know it, it is time to eat again. Thankfully, Andrew is looking much better - now I know it was just the heat. Just in case I had joined the International Association for Medical Assistance to Travellers and had names and numbers of English-speaking Western-trained doctors in Ghana in case we needed one. So, where to eat? Out comes the guidebook and Vic Baboo's is highly recommended. The book says it is central and a popular restaurant that has a menu that would take weeks to work through - burgers, pizza, grills, curries, Chinese, vegetarian, and you won't be disappointed in anything you order. After Daniel's it sounds like just what the doctor ordered - a good ol' pizza. We hire a taxi from the hotel to take us to the restaurant. We're not exactly sure where our hotel is in relation to the city center and we find out we're about 15 mins from downtown. Too far to walk anywhere. We do the right thing and negotiate a price before getting in the cab, about 25,000 or 30,000. The driver insists he knows were the restaurant is. I also show him on the map in the guidebook. Off we go, hanging on for dear life as usual. We drive, and we drive, all around the city. Finally the driver takes us to this restaurant and says this is it. Hmm, doesn't look like what I had in mind, looks rather dead or maybe closed. No sign out front either. Shawn goes to check it out. He's gone a while and finally comes back out. Nope, it is definitely NOT the place. He tells me later he walked in on some kind of "water buffalo" meeting. He says he was the only white guy in the place and since it was kinda dark, all he could see was the whites of their eyes glaring at him. We finally ask some people and get to the restaurant where we get into a fight with the taxi driver who is demanding more money because it took so long. Hey - he was the one that was lost! A few people are starting to gather so we throw 50,000 at him (he wanted 100,000) and rush inside Vic's. Now this seems more like it. The place is full of white travellers. We grab a table in the corner - bring on this big menu! When he gets around to it the waiter finally appears with the menus. This doesn't take nearly as long to get through as the guidebook has suggested, but we want pizza. When he finally saunters over again to take our order, we're told they are out of pizza. WHAT? Now we're disappointed and nothing seems to appeal to us. We end up ordering burgers, Kailey gets a hot dog, and Kelan gets some sort of beef and green pepper steak. What did he know that we didn't? Turns out they didn't have any hot dog buns so they gave Kailey another type of bun. The burgers were a huge letdown. The benches are really hard to sit on, the shape of them just doesn't fit your body. Kailey has to go to the washroom which is upstairs. Shawn takes her and they both come back looking distressed. Shawn says the washroom is so disgusting Kailey won't go. The toilet is plugged, it is dirty and there is no soap to wash etc. I told him to take her into the men's room but he says it's worse, and there is not even a sink in there. Eww! So, to recap, the food is crappy, the washrooms are disgusting, we got into a fight with the taxi driver to get here, the service was poor, the benches hard to sit on - oh yeah, the AC was broken too. The owner (I presume) helped us get a taxi to take us back to the hotel after we told him what we went through to get there and he negotiated the 25,000 rate for us. Seemed we were back to the hotel in minutes. Time for bed!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1111109340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1111109340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1111109340/tpod.html Fri, 06 May 2005 10:54:15 -0400 GHANA - HOT HOT HOT - A Canadian Family's journey to a fantastic country of wonderful people!

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Krobo Odumase, Ghana

Today turns out to be the best day (in my opinion) of our trip. We start out with a walk through Daniel's village. We meet some ladies that invite us to see their turtle (before it becomes dinner no doubt) and we give their little one a hat which one of the ladies promptly steals so we have to dig out another one for the baby. Shawn has a bag of goodies we've brought from Canada to give out to people we meet. The cute little kids living next door to Daniel are so shy when they see us. Quite possibly they have never seen an Obruni let alone five of us at once! We look at the mud huts with straw roofs and marvel that no matter what little they have, the yard is swept. Always the sound of sweeping. We pass a few children walking down the road that are just speechless. They just stare at us with big eyes. Shawn stops and hands each one of those paddles with the ball on a string. Kailey thinks we should show them how they work, but Shawn says figuring it out will be half the fun. We pass the central water well where some children are fetching water for their mothers. I wonder why these children are not at school but if their parents cannot afford the uniforms or the taxes or the supplies then they are not able to go to school. Daniel takes us to visit some ladies where he buys fish sometimes. One lady is happy to pose for a picture with her fish of the day. We are always careful to ask if we may take a picture first. Daniel is disgusted with the people of this village as they don't seem to be able to think for themselves or to think ahead. They just go ahead and cut down all the trees for firewood but no one thinks to plant any more. They cut down the trees in their own yards, not thinking that the shade it gives off makes the house cooler. It is so hot out today, the sun is actually shining and is really beating down on us. We've brought our water bottles but don't have near enough suntan lotion on. Daniel takes us to visit a woman he does respect. He calls her the Queen Mother. She goes to get her baby and is very proud to let Kailey hold him/her (not sure) and have her picture taken. I will send copies of these pictures back to Daniel so he can hand them out to the people in them. Daniel takes us by the village school. A few kids are milling around - we still haven't figured this out, there always seems to be kids outside and up and down the road of each school we pass. Why aren't they all in class or more of them out? I ask some of the kids if I may take their picture. A few of the brave ones pose for me and I take the picture. Suddenly we are swarmed by the kids. They are spilling out of the school and running towards us. The teacher is running behind them, yelling at them to come back. Oh-oh now I've done it! To my amazement, now they all want their picture taken. I take a step back to try to get as many as I can in the picture and they all take a step forward! This happens several times and I just give up and start taking pictures. I show them the pictures on the back of the digital camera and the squeal that comes out of them is unreal! Now they all crowd around and want to see themselves and of course want more pictures taken! Shawn said he wished he had a camera himself so he could take a picture of me in this sea of uniforms and smiling faces. He said the smile on my face was the biggest of all. It just made the whole trip for me.Kailey is getting burned and I want to take her inside. Daniel is ready to go pick up his bus and walks us to the tro-tro stop so we can go with him. We stop to meet a man that Daniel calls the Pensioner or The Big Man From The Hospital. We have a little chat with him, he's so cute. We decide that this will turn into a long trip, knowing how easily Daniel gets sidetracked and gets to visiting with everyone. We tell him we'll walk back to his house and wait for him there. Off we go, sure that we know the way. Somehow we missed a turn and ended up retracing our route back through the whole village again before we found his house again. We made the right choice because it is hours before Daniel returns with his bus. It's a lovely shade of green! Daniel calls for Willie and we set off back to Akosombo so we can visit again. Willie is a young man that helps Daniel out. Along the way Willie knows of a new resort and we turn off the road and head down this dirt path in the "Magic Bus". This place is called Afrikiko River Front Resort and it is so nice. There are nice flowering plants in bloom. That is one thing about Ghana, at least at this time of year, it is not very lush or even very green. We are given a tour by the manager - there do not appear to be any guests here - and it looks very nice. If we go back to visit Daniel I think we will stay here.We're finally on the road again and headed to Akosombo. One of the first stops is at the hospital. This is scary! Daniel just wanders through the place like he owns it. Right into the emergency room - through a door that says no admittance - and we're right in there with a couple of doctors and a nurse who all look very surprised to see us. I can see several people on gurneys, one guy who is bleeding through his bandage on his head. All I can think of is AIDS - let's get out of here. We manage to drag Daniel out of there. Kailey had mentioned that her toe was sore and Daniel wanted a doctor to look at it but of course she was having NO part of that. She didn't need it looked at anyway. Back in the bus and we drive around to the street Shawn lived on and look for his house. He's pretty sure he found it but the rubber tree is no longer in the backyard and the whole little town is not as lush or well kept as when he lived there. Plus his perception of how far things were has changed in 40 years! The whole town had been built for the families of the white workers when the dam was built. They all had gardeners and house boys etc. The school and hospital and pool and church etc were all built for their use only. Now the homes have been sold off to Ghananians and things are no where as well kept as they used to be. It was still cool for Shawn to see his kids swim in the same pool he had as a child. When we were at the pool yesterday, there were several men playing some sort of card game. Kailey just joined in with them and it was amazing to watch them greet her when she returned to the pool today - high fives all around, another chair brought for her etc. She was a long lost buddy! They did not even acknowledge the rest of us!After a quick swim, we went on a trip to town to get some beer etc. We stopped at a restaurant and we bought Willie and Daniel some dinner. What do you think they ordered? Yep - chicken and rice! We had a pretty good meal here. After dinner we continued on our quest to find a ride to Kumasi tomorrow. We drove into this town to find a guy that Daniel knew. On the way we're stopped by the police yet again. They want to know what Daniel is doing with these white people. Daniel tells him we are staying at his house. The policeman doesn't look like he believes him. Kailey opens the bus window and puts her hand out to the policeman. He asks her what her name is. She tells him "Kailey". He repeats something that sounds like Kill. She nods (close enough). He makes a cutting motion with his hand across his throat. "You mean like kill?" She shakes her head no and repeats her name again - KAY-LEE and they both laugh. She asks him how long he has been a policeman and he tells her he's been a policeman for 30 years. She invites him to visit us at our house in Canada when he tells her he is the chief. Before we leave he kisses her hand and she is thrilled. What a girl! When we got to the town, we pulled into a dirt courtyard and Daniel and Willie got out of the bus and left us there alone in this alley. There was a light on inside the van and now that it was dark outside, it illuminated us to everyone that passed by. We were trying to get the light to go out, nothing like a beacon to point out there were 5 white people alone and off the beaten track! We were a bit nervous and anxious for Daniel and Willie to come back. Finally they returned but had no luck in getting us a ride. Daniel knew another place and we found ourselves this time outside a Methodist church during choir practice. It was nice to listen to their voices drifting out to the parking lot. This time Daniel met with success and hired a van to take us to Kumasi tomorrow. Daniel managed to find Shawn some Star to buy and we were heading home. We were passing through this small village when suddenly the bus quits. Great! It's rather spooky in the dark in the middle of nowhere. Willie tries to get us going again. Daniel asks if we want to "Get down" and Kailey hops out of the bus. Some people came to offer Shawn a chair, which he declined. There had been some children playing where we broke down, but when Kailey got out they screamed and ran and hit behind the huts - maybe they'd never seen a white girl before. All you could see where the whites of their eyes peeking out. Kailey waved and said Hi and they all disappeared again! She was standing on a bit of a wall and started doing some dance moves when she saw the kids again. Eventually a few of them got brave and came out to watch. More and more kids appeared and next thing you know they were copying her. By the time the bus was fixed, they were all smiles and they had a new obruni friend! One of the shyest even gave Kailey a seashell before she left. That became one of her most treasured souveniers!Turns out the bus had run out of gas. Willie was able to get some gas and used a big leaf as a funnel and soon we were on our way again. We made it back to Daniel's and another day had passed. It was time for bed.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1111683180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1111683180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1111683180/tpod.html Fri, 06 May 2005 10:46:31 -0400 GHANA - HOT HOT HOT - A Canadian Family's journey to a fantastic country of wonderful people!

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Accra, Ghana

We're supposed to be picked up early this am. Shawn and I go for breakfast and let the kids sleep a bit. Breakfast is a bit better this am since there is still juice and there are some sort of pastries. While we are eating, we're watching these two little girls who are twins, maybe about 3 years old, who are having an Easter egg hunt (it's a few days early) but it's working as they are finding chocolates and rabbits etc their parents have obviously hidden for them. All of a sudden this one comes in all excited with the biggest find of the day. You should have seen the eyes on her - not realizing what she had was just a big coconut! Guess she thought she'd found the mother lode as far as Easter eggs goes!Back to wake up the kids so they can have breakfast before we go and hey, guess what? We have water! Showers for everyone. We hurry up - and wait. And wait. The guy that is to be our driver told us he was our driver yesterday as we were walking back from the pool, so where is he today? They had given us this sob story about the cost being so much because the driver had to come from Accra to get us, yet he was in Elmina yesterday. He finally shows up - at least Kailey had a chance to swim for awhile with her new friends, but we just want to get out of here. The drive to Accra is long, longer than it should be with traffic and worse, construction. The driver has a cassette he puts in at the start of the trip, and he plays it over and over again. More Bryan Adams, Elton John's Daniel etc. I see he has a Celine Dion cassette too. If he puts that one in, we'll be walking. I think we already have a chip on our shoulder about the price of this trip - but it is no one's fault but our own. Must be about time to wind this trip down. I know the boys are seriously missing their friends. Kailey seems fine, she just makes new ones whereever she goes.We marvel at the traffic, the accidents, the condition of the vehicles on the road. How different from what we are used to and the safety we take for granted! Sorry, that sounded a lot like those stupid Goodyear Tire commercials! We want to visit the market in Accra before we get something to eat and go to the hotel. We ask the driver takes us to the National Cultrual Centre on the seafront at 28th February Road. We hear that you can buy just about anything from genuine Kente and other fabric to wood carvings and crafts from all over Ghana and other parts of Western Africa. The guide book says "The one drawback to doing your curio shopping here is the high level of pushiness and histronics, though this seems to have abated significantly over the past year or two". Well, were getting the hang of Ghana now and this is not our first market experience so how bad can it be? In one word - BAD! We have never been as harassed as we were at this market. I took two steps into one building and if I thought the sellers in Bonwire were annoying, they didn't hold a candle to this. Talk about in your face! I stopped at one stall because the woman had some pens. She invited us into her stall and made all the rest of the vendors stay out. At least we could catch our breath, but boy was it hot in here. We made our purchase and headed back outside. The "roaming" vendors were on us once again. When we liked some carvings made by one guy, he made the others back off when it looked like a sale was imminent. Shawn bought a T-shirt of Adinkra symbols for way too much money. Not too much of a haggler that guy. He says he bought it just to get rid of the guy, but once one sees you buy, they are like buzzards over a fresh kill. We bought a couple of things and couldn't take it anymore. The boys ran back to our cab and were telling the driver to wake up and get them out of here! Arms were pushing in the windows, waving silver (yeah, right) and maps, purses, T-shirts, anything you can think of. There was a guy or two in a wheelchair and that was freaking Kailey out. She still talks about the blind people we saw and the crippled people and the people missing limbs. It really affected her. When I asked where she would like to go on the next trip she said somewhere with no black people. I was shocked at that response and asked her what she meant. She said she couldn't deal with the blind people and the beggars with no legs. I explained that happened to all sorts of people, not just black people. I told her there were blind and crippled people in Ottawa too, she just never saw or noticed them before. She just has such a kind heart.OK, so now we're out of money again and we might as well eat before heading to the hotel. Let's go to Frankie's for some food. Again, we're putting our trust in what the guide book says. We're heading to the Osu part of town, more of an upscale place and the part of town you find white people living in so there are more modern houses and shops and stores and nicer cars etc. There was a Standard Charter Bank with an ATM so we withdrew more money. The max is 800,000 at once so in went the card several times. We walked into Frankie's and it was so strange to suddenly find ourselves in a room full of white folks! The boys were just drooling over the menu - ahh burgers and pizza and chocolate milk shakes. The food came - and it was good!The driver was getting a bit antsy because it was getting late and he was complaining about the traffic. I had no sympathy for him, I wanted to get my money's worth out of this hire. If his story was true and he had come from Accra to pick us up in Elmina that morning, then he was almost home anyway. Besides, he was the one that was late this morning!It was dark by the time we reached our hotel, the Dutchotel. Funny how things started to look familiar while we were driving to the hotel. I guess Accra is not really THAT BIG of a city once you start moving around.We check into our hotel and just get to our room when the phone is ringing. That is strange, who would call us? Well it was none other than Daniel and he was calling from the lobby! Down we go to meet him and now it is our turn to be embarassed as this time he is the one with gifts for us! He presents Kailey with a beautiful blue tye-dye Ghananian dress with some Krobo beads. There is also a dress for me as well as some beads and a shirt for Shawn. He has brought the boys each a vest which is very heavy and I'm not sure when someone in Ghana would ever wear something of that weight. He also has gifts for us to bring back to two of his friends in Canada which we gladly do for him. One of them Shawn knows, the other may be more difficult to find, but at least they are both Hydro workers and we should be able to locate them. We talk Daniel into coming to dinner with us in the hotel restaurant. He doesn't want anything but a beer when he sees the prices on the menu. I finally talk him into ordering something, and what does he get? Chicken and Rice - what else! I get brave and order Red Red, which is a bean and meat sort of spicy stew or chili. It is really very good. It was so nice to get to see Daniel again. He tells us he is going to try to see us off at the airport and he's hoping to have his daughter Esther with him. We say we hope to see him again too and sadly say our good byes.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1111590600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1111590600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1111590600/tpod.html Fri, 06 May 2005 10:43:41 -0400 GHANA - HOT HOT HOT - A Canadian Family's journey to a fantastic country of wonderful people!

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Elmina, Ghana

We get up in the morning, still no water. We're up earlier than we planned, because there is shoveling going on right behind the wall at my head - shoveling and yelling. Nice! When we realize there will be no shower again we head to breakfast and see that some workers are mixing cement right at our bedroom. We go to have breakfast, which is included in the room price, but we're at the tail end of it and there isn't much that is appealing, at least to the boys. They have some pineapple no one but me wants, some cold porridge, eggs that have been sitting, warm milk and the now famous dried out toast. Shawn goes back to the room to get the jar of peanut butter and our own porridge packages. At least we can get some hot water and make hot porridge, something to tide the hungry bellies over til lunch anyway. I was looking forward to the activities this hotel promised - basketball, a games room and best of all a golf course. Well, the golf course was there - sort of. The grass hadn't been cut in a very long time. Grass was growing on the basketball court and the games room was locked all the time probably since the games were all broken. The pool table etc had seen better days from what we could see through the windows. The other hotel I had thought about booking instead of this one was the Elmina Beach Resort. I suggest we take a taxi and go and check it out and have lunch there so that is what we do. We ask for a taxi and wait while they find us one. There is a small internet room here with three computers that the boys haven't found yet but it is very expensive so I don't offer to tell them about it. Our taxi comes and we get him to take us to the other hotel. We are met in the impressive lobby and we tell them we would like to have lunch and look around. They have a gentleman escort us all through the hotel, showing us the tennis courts, basketball courts, even indoor squash courts with a viewing area! We check out the pool area. The only downfall of this hotel would be that there is no beach, it is all big rocks, but you are on the water. We sit down to lunch overlooking the ocean and the Elmina Slave Castle where we plan to go for a quick visit when we leave. The menu looks very nice. I order a BLT sandwich. We are all sitting there comparing this place to where we are staying when the waiter returns with the chefs apologies but they are out of bacon, would I like to choose something else. Oh oh, this place seems to have that same problem with not everything being available on the menu. I tell him it is OK, just bring me the tomato sandwich without the bacon. The food was enjoyed by all. At the end the waiter brings the bill and points out that the chef was upset that he didn't have any bacon so he doesn't charge for my meal at all. That was totally unexpected. We debate packing up at the other hotel and moving here. They tell us an oceanfront suite is $118 US. By this time it is afternoon and I don't imagine our hotel will let us out without paying for the day. Since we're leaving tomorrow we don't bother. So - if you are trying to decide between the two hotels, take the Elmina Beach Resort! The same gentleman insists on getting us a better ride than what we arrived in. He calls for a private car and driver to take us back to our hotel. We ask the driver if he could take us to the Elmina Slave Castle. He tells us the one in Cape Coast is way better, and he will take us there - he will not take us to the one we can see just over there. Fine, off to Cape Coast we go which is about 15 km away. Cape Coast was probably founded in the 15th century.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1110990300/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1110990300/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1110990300/tpod.html Fri, 06 May 2005 10:41:00 -0400 GHANA - HOT HOT HOT - A Canadian Family's journey to a fantastic country of wonderful people!

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Krobo-Odumase, Ghana

Turns out there are no mosquitos. We can only have one or two lights on in the house at a time. Someone sits and controls the water flow to the house so sometimes you have water and sometimes you don't. They shut it off for the night. A big plastic container is kept full of water in the bathroom to flush the toilet with - at least it is a flush toilet. Another bucket of water is kept in the shower room beside the bathroom, and there is a coffee cup to dip into the water bucket to pour over yourself to take a shower. There is a shower head on the wall but no water goes to it. The sink is in the living room.Daniel is very interesting to listen to and you do have to listen closely and we still don't catch all the words. He does not agree with most things the people in his country do. He says they are ignorant and stupid. I find out he is originally from Cape Coast area and he thinks these people here in Krobo-Odumase are beneath him. Again with the class thing I think. They are not educated. He tells us stories of his four children - one son is an engineer that had been working in Japan but is now living in Accra with his wife and son. Daniel says he is very bright. The other son started doing drugs "smokin the weed you know" was how he put it and although he did manage to graduate from university in statistics, Daniel doesn't know where he is now. One daughter just got married in January and lives in Britian. We asked if he has gone to visit her, and he has not and doesn't seem interested in doing so. Obviously his pride and joy is his other daughter Esther who is a teacher. She came to clean up his house for him for our visit and left us a wonderful welcome note and some beaded necklaces. She left out pictures of herself (she is very beautiful) and her ti-kwan-do class she teaches. I gather she majored in phys-ed with a minor in art.Daniel gave a little speech about smoking and how against it he is and Shawn doesn't know what to do now. Every time Shawn wanted to sneak outside to have one, Daniel was jumping up to head out with him.Daniel offers us fried yams - the kids don't like them. He eats sardines and hot peppers - we opt to make some KD. We all eat the pineapple Daniel offers for dessert and he has two whole stocks of banana for us to eat.It is very, very hot and hard to sleep. Daniel has a fan in Kailey and our rooms but they are on 1 hour timers and they keep shutting off on you. You wake up in a complete sweat and have to get up out of bed and turn them on again. I checked the thermometer on my bag and at 2:00 AM it was 34 C in the bedroom. I am just exhausted but we have to go to visit the hydro plant tomorrow.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1110984180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1110984180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/hooktravellers/ghana_2005/1110984180/tpod.html Fri, 06 May 2005 10:40:22 -0400 GHANA - HOT HOT HOT - A Canadian Family's journey to a fantastic country of wonderful people!

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Akosombo, Ghana

We awoke from a restless night. It was too hot to sleep. There were lots of different noises in the village but mostly goats, roosters and children along with the banging and clanging of pots and dishes etc. And the relentless sound of the brooms - sweep, sweep, sweep. There seems to be a lot of commotion outside, but perhaps this is a normal morning? Turns out it is not - they've caught a black cobra in the fence right outside our bedroom window! I hate snakes!After breakfast we go to catch the tro-tro. We walk from Daniel's house out to the main road to catch it. Shawn teases Daniel it is 10 KM out to the road and this becomes a running joke while we are with him. I'm not feeling well again this morning and I down some Gravol and Pepto and pray that everything stays inside where it should.The tro-tro arrives and it would be what we call full when it arrives. They do not call this full at all. Daniel did convince them not to pick up any more passengers until we got off. Normally they would continue to pick up everyone that flagged them down (by waving their arm and pointing at the road). Luckily it was a short ride. We cut across a field - with me ever mindful of anything that might slither - and arrived at an office of the Volta River Authority. We got a visitor pass of some kind, the rates on the door were C25,000 ea for non-Ghananians but we did not pay. They sent the same driver to pick us up that we had yesterday. While we were waiting for him, I walked back to the post office we had passed and bought some stamps for postcards and for the stamp collectors on my "please bring me back" list. The driver first took us up to the top of the dam and we worked our way inside. Kailey was busy handing out Ontario Power Generation pens that they had given us to bring to give away. It didn't take long for word to get out there was a girl giving out freebies as men were literally coming out of the walls to get a pen. We gave a windup radio/lantern to our driver. I tried to get him to sell me his shirt, but he wouldn't part with it. It was a Volta River Authority 40th Anniversary shirt 1961-2001. He said he would try to get me one. We had a tour of the dam inside and out and made arrangements to meet with the director for a few minutes. He had been busy with a TV crew filming him. We got the chance to take a lot of pictures. We presented him with some gifts from Ontario Power and a portrait book of Canada we had brought.We went to the town of Akosombo. The township of Akosombo was built in 1961 to house the workers involved in the creation of Ghana's largest dam, a clay and rock construction that measures 370m across and from top to bottom. The largest man made lake in the world, Lake Volta, was created when building the dam. We have a home movie of Shawn and his brothers swimming in the town pool and we wanted to see if we could do the same - swim in the same pool he had 40 years ago. We took a quick drive to see if we could see his old house, but he said they all looked the same to him. While Kailey and I swam, Daniel and Shawn walked back up to the top of the hill where he knew his house was and tried again to locate the house without any luck. The boys didn't want to come in the pool they just wanted to eat. We got the driver to take us to the Volta Hotel where the boys had fried chicken and fries, Shawn had an omelet and I ordered meatballs that came with fries and Kailey ordered spaghetti so we mixed up the spaghetti and meatballs when they came. Daniel and the driver would not eat, even though I said I was buying, they thought it was just too expensive to eat there. The driver did accept a beer. Beer and water are the same price (at least here at the hotel). The boys found an internet cafe in the hotel so we got 15 mins each - I hope I was able to get my email off this time. Of course the boys wanted to MSN someone and since it was noon at home, no one was on. When we left, Daniel wanted to take us to the market. Shawn just wanted to buy beer, water and pop - it had been a very long day. We went to the market anyway - what an experience! People kept touching Kailey. It was so packed cars were driving so close I was afraid someone's toes were going to get run over. We followed Daniel through the market, trying not to get lost all the while holding our breath. There sure were lots of sights to see - we mostly went through the produce section. We sure got a lot of stares!
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