To Da Beach We Go

So mom and dad survived their first night in Ghana just fine…and there was no critter in my mattress :)

The next morning we take a taxi with all our luggage to Kaneshi station, which is a huge tro/bus station in Accra.  We had the taxi drop us on the side of the road where could catch a nice AC tro to Elmina Beach; these tros are not in the station and that helps avoid a whole lot of hassle.  Mom and dad got to see the clusterfuck that is Accra traffic, complete with burning heat, choking exhaust, and ditches filled with funk and urine.  We get out and start to drag our luggage to a tro and a guy grabs one of the little bags.  Then he of course started to demand money.  I’m trying to talk to the tro driver about our luggage, we’ll have to buy 2 extra seats to accommodate them, and the bag guy is harassing mom.  People are pushing by on the street, announcements are screaming from the speakers, and food is being sold off people’s heads; the white people are melting in the sun.  I determine that there is not enough seats for us and our luggage, so they tell us to wait for the next tro and there is no other tros on this side heading to Elmina.  After a few minutes of trying to corral mom, dad, and our luggage, and fight off the bag guy, I tell mom and dad to stay put and not give money to anyone and I’m gonna walk down the row and see if I can find a different tro.  Low and behold there is one, yippie.  So I go back and collect mom and dad and the luggage and off we go as the tro driver and bag guy yell at us.

“Get in the first row and sit, I’ll take care of the baggage.”  So I pay our new tro guy and am still fighting with the bag guy from the first tro.  After 10 minutes or so we’re off.  We’re sitting in line to leave and the bag guy comes up, smiles, and knocks on mom’s window and waves bye…it made her laugh.  So after traffic and about 3 hours we land at Elmina junction where we have to catch a taxi to our beach huts.  I argue again and then the guy loads our bags in his taxi…but the luggage won’t fit without leaving the trunk up.  So we’re off, down the roads through the busy port town of Elmina.  The streets are crowded, fishing boats are coming in, and mom and dad have their eyes peeled for their luggage falling out the back or for someone grabbing a bag…dad’s hand was on the door handle ready to jump out the whole time :)  We keep going, pass through town, turn, go past a really nice hotel.  “Oh that’s nice.” “Yeah, not for us.”  Turn again and go past another nice looking place, “Is that for us?”  “No.”  “Where the hell are we staying?”  At about that time we pull up to a thatch building… “This is us.!” 

So we go down pulling our bags through the sand and the girls take us to our hut.  It was super cute.  Uh….no fan…that sucks!  And a composting toilet…I’m afraid now…the parents are not looking so happy.  “Look, you get to shower outside at night under the stars, it’s great!”  That didn’t brighten them up, either.

We go and sit under a thatch hut and listen to the waves.  The place is really beautiful and quiet.  There’s a couple other people there…they have a dog that keeps fighting with the dogs that live at the place…mom spent the whole 3 days worrying about getting rabies...the one shot she didn't get :)  We have a drink and just relax.  That night at dinner we meet an old lady from Germany who has been traveling around Ghana, Togo, and Benin for 2 months.  I thought it was good for her to talk to mom and dad because she has traveled extensively…then she told them how she got robbed in Ghana…dammit!  Anyway, we go to bed and it’s hot as hell in the hut.  Lights are only solar after 10 pm as the place is ran on a generator in the evening.  Mom realizes she’s not going to able to fix her hair in the morning and starts to  freak.  “Don’t worry, no one cares what anybody looks like here.” “I don’t wanna look stupid in all my vacation pictures!”  I forget that in some places people expect things of you, like make-up, deodorant, clothes that match…it’s gonna be a rude awakening for me going back to America!  I spent the night sleeping on the floor (where I got to sleep for 3 days) coughing my lungs out thanks to the great harmattan weather, trying to muffle my coughs so mom and dad could sleep.  It was a long, shitty, hot night!!!  And since the toilet was out the back door, I got to play potty partners with mom all night with our headlamps…fun stuff, eh, mom?

Next day we get a cab into Elmina to visit the slave castle there.  It was interesting and you could see the Elmina harbor…I just love their boats.  After our tour we walk down towards the market because we wanna buy some fruit.  Immediately annoying guys selling shit descend on us in the parking lot.  After we get rid of them we walk; as we’re hunting for fruit sellers, a lil boy comes up and says, “Give me money.”  I give my usual lecture, “ Can your mother not feed you?  Where is your mother? Should I tell her that you are begging from strangers.  You sound stupid.  You don’t beg, it’s rude!”  “Jeanna, shut the hell up, that girl over there has a machete!”  (everyone in Ghana has a machete…that’s how they cut stuff).  At this point, mom and dad don’t care about fruit anymore and since we don’t see any sellers, we head back to the castle area to catch a taxi.  We do find a coconut seller and have a coconut while some little annoying girl talks shit to us in Twi.  I hate going to touristy areas!  I want to beat all the bratty kids and tell them that they are hurting themselves, their community, and Ghana by being obnoxious little beggars and that tourists will quit coming and they’ll have no one to sell their bags of water to then!

So after haggling with the taxi driver, we take off and head home after maybe 3 hours away.  “I don’t care if we ever leave the hotel until our driver comes.”  Yeah, that’s kinda what I figured.  So we hang out at the huts, just relaxing by the beach, reading magazines mom and dad brought me, eating beef jerky and peanuts.  I found a lady to take my braids out…dad kept telling me how bad they smelled…and they did, so that took 3.5 hours in the evening.  We spent the evening talking to the German lady again.  Our last day was just relaxing; reading magazines and dozing under the huts listening to waves.  I got caught up on the happenings of Jefferson City :)  It was nice!