Well I will try and explain this weekend to you as best as I can.
I decided that after a crazy week in Accra I needed to take a break. A good friend of mine left on Friday night and so me and a few other girls took a trip to the Wli Falls, which is East of Accra in the Volta Region. It is a four and a half hour tro journey and it was pretty decent until a woman got sick all over the tro. I luckily was not hit by the vomit and managed to keep myself on the tro and not jump out the window. Man am I being tested. She spent the rest of the tro ride puking out the window and I spent the rest of the tro ride with my Ipod on full volume shaking trying not to flip out more than I was. I think I did pretty good.
Finally we get to this village called Hohoe and is about 30 minutes away from the Wli Falls. No one is cooperating in helping us find our way to the falls--trying to rip us off or just be crazy. On the tro to the waterfalls I hit my head and cut it open on the top of the tro. Get to waterfalls only to see that the people we were meeting up with (they left 4 hours before us) were not there yet and our phones didn't work so we couldn't find them. Luckily when we got to the waterfall lodge to check in they were there (tro tro problems took them an extra 4 hours).
As we headed out for out 45-minute walk through the rainforest to the falls we realize that there is a school trip there and a million kids (not peaceful at all). At the entrance to the rainforest there is a woman puking her guts out (puke # 2 of the day).
We walk 45 minutes into the rainforest thinking that we are seeing most people coming out but there are still about 100 kids there when we make it. The bats are out and flying everywhere. Even with all of the people it was somehow a serene atmosphere. I can't even explain it but the people faded away and all that was there was this beautiful waterfall in front of us with a rainbow and the rainforest all around us.
We waited about an hour for all the people to leave and hung out in the water for awhile. I got in the water and walked towards where the waterfall met the water below and I have never had a sensation like that. The force of the water and wind was pushing me backwards. It was the most amazing feeling. It knocked me down a few times and I tripped over a few rocks but it was all-good. Then we looked at the time and realized it was going to get dark in about an hour so we should head back. Well as we were walking back it started raining-then thundering-then lightning-then pitch black. We were running through the rainforest in the dark with bats flying everywhere and bugs flying at our face. I was cold because I fell in the water with all my clothes on and the temperature had dropped from the weather. My bug spray got washed off and so I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes. Finally we made it out of the rainforest but only to discover that the trees no longer blocked the rain and that the power was out.
We tried walking back to the lodge with the light of our phones but I was the only one with flip-flops (forgot my gym shoes). My feet were sinking in the mud and I had to pee so badly that I couldn't walk. I didn't bring enough clothes for the weekend so I had to improvise with a towel. It was too cold outside to shower so I was muddy from my feet all the way up to my knees. Didn't sleep that night and got up the next morning to go to the falls so that we could experience it without all the people but still in the daylight.
While we are eating breakfast it starts pouring again and so we can't go to the falls. It rains all morning and shows not signs of stopping so we got a tro to hohoe so then we could get the 4 1/2 hour tro to Accra. Once in Hohoe it was still pouring rain and we were hungry from lack of food. I bought a loaf of bread and ate the whole thing and we waited for an hour for a tro to fill up so that it would head back to Accra. On our way back from Accra the immigration police stopped us. Keep in mind that we don't carry our passports when we travel in the country because we don't want them to get stolen. I had switched bags so I didn't have my volunteer badge either.
They pulled us 5 Obruni's aside but let everyone else go and told us that if we didn't have our passport or volunteer id that we would not be able to go further. Bettina and I were the two that had neither and the told us that we couldn't go back to Accra until they had our passports. I just started laughing because I didn't even know what to do. Then after 5 minutes the immigration officers start cracking up and tell us that they are joking and to go back and get on the tro.......that was not a funny joke.
Get back to Accra and get lost in Accra. Accra is flooded. Our street is flooded and is now a mud river. Get home to realize that our host family has been gone all day and there is no dinner. What a weekend. But this is what I will say. Despite everything that went wrong I was happy. I was traveling with volunteers I truly enjoyed and I couldn't do anything but laugh. I think one thing I have learned here in Ghana is that if you don't laugh about things that happen you just won't make it through.
Suck it up and keep going. I was faced with cockroaches; throw up, lightning, mud, a cut head, horrible rain yet I was in a good mood. We are going back to the waterfalls a different weekend. We never got to experience the real thing. I will send pictures soon. I am sorry this is so jumbled and not organized. It is basically my thoughts thrown up on a page...... That is all for now! Hope you had a great weekend!! :)
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