Solo Mission

So, a lot has been happening in the past two weeks. Twenty-one seems to hold a lot for me, and to be honest at the moment I feel a little at the mercy of forces that seem to be grabbing hold of me by the laces and tossing me at whim in different directions. It has all been for the better, though, I think…

But yes my solo mission! I decided that I needed to experience striking out on my own for adventure. I was ready, and to be honest wanted some alone time and the ability to see what traveling on my own would be like. I’ll give my verdict at the end. My trip was supposed to be a three day long trip up to the volta region. I ended up only staying one night at the place where I had made the reservation. It was an eco-lodge run by a ghanain-american rasta couple. It was beautiful and sat right beneath mount boso on lake volta. The water was very clean and one could swim in the lake amongst the mango trees in water that felt like it had been heated for a bath. When I arrived, however, I found that I was the only visitor there. This was not unusual for the place, and a group of five had just left the night before I arrived. The lodge was composed of five huts that lay right against the lake, and another series of five huts that housed the staff/ farmers. The staff were all very friendly ghanain rastas who cooked me dinner and taught me to play some ewe reggae music on the drums, while they sang. To set the scene, this all occured under the light of two lanterns, since the ecolodge did not have electricity. It was all in all very charming, except when it got really dark and I was alone in my bed with giant ginny hens landing on my roof at night. I also discovered that a giant spider the size of my hand (literally- i know i exaggerate insects, but this was no exaggeration) lived right at the base of my door. Who knows, I probably got some extra spider protein in my diet that night.

In the morning, one of the staff took me for a hike up the mountain, and into some surrounding villages. It was great. Truly, truly beautiful, and I got to see some super remote villages where they do not see white people often. Everyone was so friendly, and many women were painted with traditional white paint all over their bodies. I bought my guide some apperteshie (that awful 100 proof gin stuff again) and we continued on our way. We walked for a few hours, and of course my guide told me his life story and offered many proposals of marriage. But, my fo-fiance has become very convincing and quite impressive I must say!

So, i came back and swam in the lake. But, by that time I decided that I had seen enough of the place, and any more time there alone would probably prove to be boring. It was also pretty expensive for an eco-lodge. The trip down by taxi was also a lot, since the road- if one could call it that- is so potholed and rocky with deep, dirt ditches that the drivers don’t like to go down it. My guide had also found it his duty to be by my side and cater to my whim twenty-four seven. Not so relaxing…so I high tailed it out of there. I found a tro-tro heading back up the road, as a group of young, white, cricket players/volunteers made their way to the eco-lodge for the rest of the weekend. The drivers of the tro gave me a much cheaper price out, so I drove with them and they actually took me all the way to kpong. This made my journey much shorter, and I was able to take a “small car” from there all the way back to the University.

The ride itself was an interesting story. I got stopped in the middle of a funeral, the woman in the small car was screaming at a crack-pot medicinal soap seller about how the soap had given her an infection in her “cocoa farm”-genital region also refered to hear on a woman as her “jeruselum”, and when I was 15 minutes from the university I got caught in a rain storm. The rain turned the 15 minutes into an hour, adding an extra hour to my already five hour journey. Aaaaah! I crashed into my bed at the university at 7:30, this was of course after finding that the power was out again. I stumbled around for my light, only to turn it out again as I lay comatose in my bed until morning.

Phew, so throw into that weekend that I had met a lovely friend last week on my birthday who I really enjoyed spending time with this week, and had to say goodbye to on sunday night, and you have my crazy weekend that had me by the laces.

So, my verdict is that adventure is good and travel is hard because you meet interesting people for a brief spurt of time that then have to move on. I’m getting tougher I think…someone told me I seem like a german the other day because I know what I want. Hahaha- not so sure how to take that…