Waterfall

Today we went to the waterfall. It is about an hour journey from Kpando. The closest large village to the falls is called Hohoe. I woke up around 7 am since we were suppose to leave between 8-9 am. Grace had warm water waiting for me so I was able to take a hot bucket shower again!! Heaven! During the dry season the temperature drops to around 70 degrees at night. I think they are worried that I'm terribly cold during the mornings. To me, it is just the right sleeping temperature. I won't refuse a hot shower, though!

I'm quickly learning African time. It means if someone says a certain time, they mean within 2 hours of that time! Haha!! Its just another thing I'm trying to get use to. I am very prompt and so I'm having a hard time with that.

Millie's friend, Isaac, a police officer in the village came to pick us up around 10 am. We then picked up her friend Evelyn and Millie's Dad's friend Killian. Killian invited himself along since I think he worries about me. Maybe since I look 15 years old, he felt like I needed a chaperone. Haha!

The car ride was an adventure. The roads leave a lot to be desired. You alternate between periods of pavement and dirt roads. The pavement is smooth 50% of the time. When that occurs, they drive, I swear, 100mph!! When the pavement is full of pot holes, you get thrown around and feel like you have whiplash, since they dart all over the road trying to avoid holes. When the road is dirt, they drive wherever they feel it will be the flattest. When there are other cars coming, you constantly feel like they are playing chicken. Pedestrians do not have the right of way. The drivers are kind enough to honk at you so you know to jump out of the way! Now, I understand why the taxi cab drivers who are immigrants from Africa drive so crazy in the US.


Once we got to the base of the falls, we had a 45 minute walk to the actual falls. The walk was very pretty. We were in a jungle surrounded by small mountains. Beautiful little butterflies were flying all around your head. There were pretty white ones, black and white ones, aqua blue ones, yellow ones, and black and orange ones! As we were walking we past palm trees, ferns, bamboo, and cocoa trees. I always thought cocoa came from a plant, but they are tall trees here. Ghana is known for their cocoa crops so I'm excited to try some when I'm here.


After 45 minutes, we came to a clearing where you can first hear the gushing of water. A fine mist of water starts to sprinkle on your face and then you can see the falls! It was pretty tall and we were only able to see the bottom of it. I got excited because hundreds of small butterflies were congregating in this one spot! I finally was able to snap a picture of them. The fall is so tall that we couldn't take a picture with us in it and get a photo of the entire fall. People swam out to the falls in the pool that the fall flows into. I was told by the doctors in the US to avoid any freshwater here so I didn't venture out into them. The falls come down so hard that people have to lock arms so they do not fall over. I love water, but I'm not a fan of cold water so I figured it was okay that I didn't go in it! We sat around for about an hour enjoying the sight and the wonderful sound of water falling and then walked back down.

On the walk down, I met a Canadian volunteer. It was nice for a few minutes to talk to someone who understands the culture shock I am going through. He seemed a little more adjusted then me! Haha!

We were going to eat in Hohoe on the way home since we were all starving, or at least I thought. After two stops we found a place that had rice since I'm not completely use to the food yet here. I thought we were going to eat together, but it was just going to be me eating and so I told them we could just go home. I'm still not use to eating alone yet here. I guess it is a sign of respect here for someone to eat alone. I, on the other hand, enjoy my meals the most when I'm with company!

Overall, my journey to the falls was nice! The drive is emotionally exhausting, but that's Africa! :) If I go back again, I will take the longer hike up to see the upper part of the falls since we could only see the lower falls today!

Tomorrow my post will be about doing laundry! Haha! Hope everyone is having a happy weekend!


Love, Kari