Thursday, September 24, 2009 – Hike and Monkeys
We didn’t get a chance to sleep in at all because breakfast was at 7:00 and the bus was leaving at 7:30. I woke up at 5:30 to hear roosters and goats making lots of awkward noises that sounded like they were right in our room. We all got up at 6:30 to gather our stuff and spend a little more time with our family. We took a family picture and reluctantly said goodbye after a lot of hugs. I don’t think any of us wanted to go. I felt right at home with them and could have stayed for another month. I promised our family I would be back to visit them and I will be sure to hold that promise! Beauty took us the back way to the church where we would have breakfast. We got to see some more houses of the village and goats along the way. People were on their porches and we waved and said goodbye! It was actually really sad to be leaving. The church was much different than what I expected. It was a big concrete building and the windows were just wide open with nothing covering them. There were no pews but tables set up for our breakfast. Each family had their own table and the village had prepared the breakfast for us! We had a loaf of homemade bread, the best pineapple I’ve ever had, weird smelly sausage that was probably goat, bananas, and tea. After sadly giving our Ghanaian mom one last hug, we headed for the bus. Many of the children were waving goodbye to us and watched the bus leave. I was so sad to be leaving Torgorme but I knew it would not be my last visit.
Now we had a 3 ½ hour bus ride to get to the highest mountain in Ghana for our hike. We drove through many more villages and in each one the children would run from their homes to wave to us. The girls were picking on me for waving to literally everyone we passed! I loved seeing all their smiling faces! The ride to the mountain was one of the bumpiest rides I’ve ever experienced. The road would go from slightly paved to a dirt road in a matter of seconds. The paved roads had speed bumps every ten feet in the villages.The dirt roads weren’t just dirt roads either. There were bumps and ridges in the middle of the road nearly one foot deep, if not more. During the ride Lauren said to me: “Mackenzie, put your hands in the air!” It was literally like a rollercoaster ride but definitely an entertaining ride! At one point, our bus was so far over to the side of the road to avoid the big ditches in the middle that we almost tipped over. Our bus driver was amazing at getting us through this hell of a ride!
We all had to pee like racehorses by the time we got to the mountain after that very bumpy ride. At least these bathrooms had toilet paper! By this point in the trip, I had never appreciated toilet paper more. We all gathered under a pavilion before our hike for a little history of Afdjato Mountain, the highest mountain in Ghana located in the Volta region. At first, the hike was pretty average and seemed like it would be tough all the way to the top but not like anything we couldn’t handle. Well as we got up to the first marker of 200 some feet we were basically rock climbing. The mountain was nearly straight up and the man made path out of rocks was about 1-2 feet apart from each other. The higher we got, the harder it was to breath because of the humidity. I thought I was going to heal over half the time. Our tour guide was zooming up the mountain so we barely had any time to catch our breath. A little ways past the half way point I stopped for a break (probably my 5th break by now!). Julie and I were both dying trying to hike up this damn mountain and I thought if I went any further I would fall backwards and not get to see the monkeys on our next part of the trip. Lila stayed with us for a while to make sure we’d be okay because we had lost the group by now. We told her to go ahead and we would hang there. Julie and I decided to start back down the mountain because there was no way we would make it to the top without taking ALL day. I felt extremely wimpy but I didn’t want to risk falling to a very painful death down this mountain trail! The way back down we realized we made it pretty far so I was proud that I did that much! It wouldn’t have been so bad if we could actually breathe but the humidity and air pressure was so bad it was nearly impossible.
We made it back down and saw the longest worm ever on the way to the clearing. We saw a side path right near the exit and decided to explore a little before the rest of the group came back down. We hadn’t made it more than 15 feet and a man with a machete hollered to us from where we came from and told us the path was the other way. He came out of nowhere and when we got back to the main path he was gone. It was a little creepy but at least we were at civilization! A few women and their small children had set up a snack and drink table for us. Julie and I grabbed a drink and looked at the snacks – they had Obama biscuits! The wrapper was an American flag and had a picture of Obama on it. I couldn’t believe my eyes! Eventually everyone came down and we visited and relaxed as we waited for the last group.
Next stop was the monkey sanctuary. We had about an hour and a half to get there and we had more of an adventure on this road than the last. We finally arrived and were greeted by a man wearing a monkey sanctuary shirt and an Obama necklace! I got a picture of him J We walked through a path and were in an area full of trees. The guide started making weird noises to attract the monkeys and all of a sudden the trees were shaking all over. We got close to some branches and he handed us each a banana. The monkeys came so close!!! We didn’t even have to peel the bananas; they know how to do it on their own. When it was my turn I got really close to the branch and held out my banana. The monkey came down and grabbed right on to the banana and ripped it open. He took huge chunks at a time and his mouth was so small that I couldn’t believe he fit it all inside. It was the coolest experience to be feeding monkeys bananas right out of my hand. There were a bunch of kids from the village we were in following us around and I started videotaping them. I turned the screen to face them so they could see themselves and they got so excited! I had a whole group following me all the way back to the bus. It was so cute how excited they got because they rarely ever see themselves. Overall, the whole day was great! I was so happy we got to see the monkeys and it was definitely worth the extra hour and a half bumpy ride!
We mostly napped on the way home because by now it was really dark. When we finally got back to the ship we all went to shower and met on the 7th deck to have ice cream! It was becoming our ritual after a long tripJ I had such a great time on the Cultural Immersion and was so glad I got to experience real Ghanaian life. Although the hike wasn’t as successful as I had hoped, the monkeys made the day awesome!! Tomorrow is our last day in Ghana…until then!
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