Keta
Trip Start
Aug 13, 2005
1
8
17
Trip End
Jan 03, 2006
Keta,
Ghana
Friday, September 23, 2005
We managed to tro-tro our way there without too much of a problem. Every time we get to the markets there are children who are begging. The come and grab onto your hands and ask for money, pointing to their mouths. They are usually immigrant children, and don't seem to speak English although than "5000 cedes". They will hold your hand and begin to swarm you and if you aren't paying attention they try to remove your watch or get into your purse
A favourite past time
. I had one little girl come up to me at the tro-tro station and pointed to my water bottle. I didn't think twice like I do with money, she was thirsty and I was happy that the bottle was still full and cold. Its moments like that, that really break my heart.We reached Keta before by late afternoon. We were hoping to spend our first night in an old slave castle. Unfortunately the castle had crumbled and they no longer allowed people to stay there. We did manage to get a tour and went into many of the slave caves, we were told stories of the living conditions, saw where people tried to dig holes in the concrete floor, saw the bolts from where people were chained to the ground, and the stories only got worse in the female slave quarters. It is so sad to stand where such abuse happened but our history is full of it.
We found a hotel to stay at right on the gulf; we quickly grabbed our bathing suits and headed to the beach. Not many people were there and we were certainly the only obrunis. Lisa, Lucas, and I swam for a little bit but we were all hungry so we headed for dinner.
The crew went out that night to check out a local reggae bar. I unfortunately received the news that my Oma had passed away, so I spent the night in
A full look at the Fort
. The next morning Lucas, Mike, and I woke early to watch the sun rise over the ocean. The local community is a fishing one and again I stood in awe watching people pulling in the nets and singing to keep in time. Its so picturesque. The community kept telling us to "go see the big fish". Not really interested we finally gave in, only to witness a shark! The community was really excited about it, Lucas and I were a little freaked since they caught it in the water that we had been swimming in the previous night!
We headed out of that town and up north. Our tro-tro broke down several times along the way, but it gave me a chance to witness the local agriculture and systems of irrigation, which were really incredible. We finally reached out final destination that was in the town with Africa's oldest lighthouse. Apparently 600 years but we're not so sure. We found a little hotel that had three rooms for us, we threw down our stuff and went out exploring. We traveled through this small community learning a new "obruni" song that the children sing as we pass by. We got to the beach and took off swimming. I was a little reluctant after the shark sighting earlier that day, so I became the official photographer. We decided to check out the old lighthouse and so up we climbed the steep stairs to the top
After an ocean Swim we watched the beautiful sun
. The view was amazing and well worth the frightening climb. We found the only restaurant in the town, which was a forty-minute walk from our hotel. We began to order only to be told "we don't have that today". It turns out their electricity was off an as a result we could have rice. So we all ordered a large plate of plain rice and fanta.We headed back to Accra the next day and decided a course of action, which would allow us to take a boat down the Volta River. We took a tro tro to the last stop and got out on a pier. We found a man who knew a man who had a boat and began negotiating prices with him. Lucas and I were leading the negotiations but when we began to run into problems the rest of the group decided to tro tro home. Lucas and I let them walk away as a strategy to have the man bring his price down lower. He didn't seem willing to budge until he told Lucas "I like your friend, she is pretty" and pointed at me. I looked at Lucas, and he asked how much "how much do you think he'll take off the price if we give you to him?" I was about to yell at him when he put his arm around me and said "but I love her, she is my wife and I will not sell her to you." Thank God for Lucas!
We managed to talk the man down from 250,000 cedes, to 175,000 and the group agreed. It was a beautiful boat ride down the volta and the rest of the trip home was flawless.
Comments
I told you!
Did I not tell you therre was sharks there. Another point for me. I'm glad the trip was awesome, I really can't wait to see all the pictures. I'm also glad you weren't sold for the night. Take care of yourself, watch out for the sharks... I miss you. Ky