Around Accra, for the last times

So the photos show, from top...., some of my work people, then its like street views of Accra, one you can even see a train! It runs like once a day and I believe is so slow you can walkk faster, mainly cos people live on the tracks and they're not meant to run them down or anything....


I don;t know how much I've said about it before, possibly a lot....but there are lots and lots of people here, and a great majority of them are always out and about on the streets, a lot selling, some just hanging, others moving around.

This huge volume of people can make walking around very difficult, already dealing with not good footpaths and open drains and ditches to fall in, avoiding walking into people, and avoiding people who grab you and call you over constantly can make going outside sometimes a very daunting prospect. Sometime in the middle of my stay here there were nights I just stayed at home because I couldn't be bothered dealing with it, but then I got over that fast again.

But now, the AMA, who are like the city council, have been taking on this clearing out exercise to take all illegal tradespeople off the streets and footpaths...When I first heard about it, I thought they were being crazy, and it kinda coincided with Obama's visit, so it was cleaner for him....not that I imagine he walked much of the streets, but even though the tradespeople come back, even when their little makeshift stands have been destroyed, the AMA are actually holding pretty firm and keep moving them on.

So now you can walk along the footpath without worrying about walking into somebody's goods or being asked to buy something every 1sec, but in addition they are keeping people off walking on the roads and grass verges, so there seem to be more hundreds of people to avoid walking into!!

I think it is actually slowly starting to help ease congestion though, but sometimes its an inconvenience.....I always knew where I could buy what as I wa walking along the road, now sometimes its not there when I want it!!

Anyway the point of this story is that in January I went to a meeting in town, where the building was actually 7 flights high, so had a view of the central market and town, but I didn't have my camera at the time.

Today I managed to get back there with my camera, as someone from work was going, but even though I got the view and the photos, the chaos is fully not what it was in January, there lots like there's no traffic, no cars weaving in and out, and the people walking down the stretch of market seem to have space to move, which they never had before.

So I have my photos but not the effect I was hoping for.....

Work Trip

So last week at work, I knew I had a meeting to go to on a Thursday, which is nothing unusual at all.......but what my work forgot to tell me until Wednesday morning was that the meeting was not actually in Accra, and was at one fo the mining towns, and so we would be flying to Kumasi and going from there, leaving on Wednesday afternoon, so I had 5mins to pack as I was about to head out to another meeting, luckily right by the airport so wouldn't have to deal with traffic!

But apart from the lack of communication, I am very glad I got to travel there. First flying between cities in Ghana means you can fly in the daylight so get a view over the city, all European international flights leave after 6pm so you only see darkness and lights when leaving, so I got a chance to try take some aerial photos.

And also I got the chance to see the mines, instead of just having passed through the outside of the towns as I have before when travelling through that area.

We flew to Kumasi, which is the big city to the north west of Accra, about a 45min flight, and then its an hour drive south to Obuasi, which is a town practically there for the existence of one big mining company, its a gold mine, and all the affliate companies which need to be there to support it.

Then the next day we went on to another mining down further down south. I had driven this road before with my parents when going from Busua to Kumasi, and it was one of the longest journeys take in Ghana for the relatively small amount of distance to be covered. Luckily this time less torrential rain, but the road is still terrible, you're bumping the whole way even in a big 4x4.

But we eventually made it to Tarkwa, which is the other big sized mining town, this one has a lot more companies present, and doesn't have just gold. We were there to work with a managanese company.

And after our work, we got to tour through the mine, which pretty much just means getting in car, driving for a little bit and looking down over a giant hole in the ground which they blow up every so often and take away ore from. Probably more technical than that.....but they just crush the ore to smaller sized pieces and ship it away like that, no chemicals or any treatment actually in Ghana itself.

So after that, was the drive back to Accra, and I even made it in time to go to the dinner reservation I had made before leaving, unaware that I may not be back in time!
But got my nice Japanese stirfry, at one of the nice restaurants in Accra, which thankfully also due to being away and getting extra allowance pay I could easily afford!

The above photos are from the mine site, its a plant that closes its leaves up when you touch it, so top photo is before, and bottom photo is the after, of the same plant.


The mine pit, one fo the many they are currently working in.

In our protective gear
View from above Accra, showing the coast, unfortunately on the wrong side of town to view my house clearly

Last Weekend Trip in Ghana - Back to the Volta Region

So another monkey video, as there were complaints last time from certain people, about my average camera skills, so this time I got someone else to take the video of me!

Anyway, this was back at the monkey sanctuary at Tafi Atome, because I went to the Volta region for my last travelling weekend in Ghana.

I had friends who wanted to see the river/lake, the monkey place was somewhere to stay in the area, and I wanted to go to Amedzofe, which is nearby, the highest village in Ghana.

So set off Saturday morning, about 7am so earlish for us, late for most Ghanaians! But thanks to our number, we filled a tro tro by oursleves and set off to Kpong, which is a village on the Volat River, downstream of the dam. Mian aim was to find someway to get a boat ride/canoe to get out on the water. Unsure how we were going to do this as no one advertises anything here....well at least doesn't advertise anywhere i can see it!

In Kpong, its mainly fishing village, so we wandered around down to the river, which has a ferry wharf, which I think goes to the coast, no idea when or how, but no sign of boats for hire, apart from fisherman asking us to get in with them....

So we took another tro tro to the next town, which is where the road crosses over the Volta river, with an impressive for Ghana, bridge. This place also has hotels along the riverside, so gives a chance to sit, and more potential for water activities.

And we were in luck kind of, found a place with nice river side tables, a mini zoo, and motor boat hire, so we went up and down a bit of the river. But they may benefit from having kayaks or something to hire also....

After the river trip, found another tro tro to get us to the monkey village, again because we could fill it, we negotiated a straight trip to the village, although the driver did try to ask for more money later, because he said we weren't clear about where exactly we were going.....

But arrived, and in time with huge tour bus, which meant our tour through the forest was put off til 6am the next day, but we still wandered around the village while there was daylight left.

So after the monkey's in the morning, it was time to attempt to get out of the village...its only 5km off the main road, but the only transport they had was motortaxis (ie. a motorbike) and with 12 of us, thats quite a few to take. In the end, a couple took the taxi's to find ongoing transport at the main road, and the rest of us walked, which was nice in the early morning as it wasn;t too hot yet, there was no way I could have done that at any time of day over the not rainy season as it would have been far too hot, but temperatures are pretty mild now.

So at the main road, had to again negotiate for a tro tro to take us to Amedzofe, which by map and paper is not far, like 20kms I think, but it would have to I think win the prize for worst road in Ghana on the most barely held together tro tro. The road wasn;t even dirt, wasn't even anything, some rock mostly, ditches and holes everywhere, and the tro tro was held together by twigs I'm sure on the underneath of the car!

And its high, unfortunately clouds restricted some of the views from the top, but I'm sure I could see the lake in the distance.

Once we made it to the village we decided to take the walk to the waterfall, which the guide described as 'a little bit steep' and 'half an hour'.

So started off with nice wide path, and then turned to one section which was actually lined with planted colourful bushes, then......

Its gets very steep, so steep they've actually put in ropes to help you guide yourself down, which was a lot of fun, and even though I was in jandels and a skirt, as log as you could swing yourself down with the rope it was pretty easy, but it took us some time as some people couldn't quite get the hang on the concept of the rope and I think were using it to their disadvantage rather than advantage. But we all made it to the bottom safely.

Coming up was actually very easy, although little sore on the muscles which haven't done much hill work in the past 8 months!

Once back in the village, the same tro tro took us on to the district capital Ho, from where would would get a tro tro back to Accra. And on the way out, the road it a little rough for awhile but then it actually gets amazing, about 4 lanes wide, prefectly flat, each village has space for a bus stop and sign! I have no idea how often people come through this area, but its very nice.

In Ho, got on the cheapest tro tro which could take us all and was about to leave.....but htere is a reason why some tro tros are cheaper......their cars are older and crappier.....and so after travelling at very slow pace, and our driver deciding to overtake on a corner, which he couldn't do as his acceleration was non-existant, he broke the car, pretty much he couldn't go higher than first gear.

So we pulled over, all got out, Ghanaian passengers started yelling at him in Twi, we stood there with not a lot to do...But villages are always close by generally, so there was someone trying to fix the car,,,,so we all got back in, he revved up for about 5mins.....we travelled about 10m....then stoppped again!

Everyone off again, and not likely to get back on! After much wasting time, the driver finally paid off another tro tro driver to take us all in his car the rest of the way back to Accra. There was never any question of not getting back, but they are very slow people in coming to the obvious decision first and fast, so this whole process took maybe an hour...

But we made it, and was an enjoyable weekend.

Photos at link below.

http://picasaweb.google.com/emmajaynedavidson/20090802VoltaRegion#