Hammertime!

Harmattan (not to be confused with Hammertime winds, which incidentally, do not actually exist) have made Ghana so hazy for the past week or so. It's not been as unbearably hot though, so I'm not going to complain.

This weekend I along with six others (Marika (here's your shoutout, you're practically famous now), Caroline, Leah, Griffin, Katja, and Jake) went away to a beach called Kokrobite (I had the most difficult time pronouncing this...I think I finally got it though...it's Co-Crow-Bee-Tay). It all kind of started as a "Hey...we should do that" kind of plan, but we actually pulled it off and it was pretty freaking awesome. AND it only cost about 20 Cedi for the whole thing...lodging, food, transportation, drinks, entertainment.

So, Saturday morning, I made the rounds waking everyone up because I refused to waste the day and wanted to get out of Church by 11. I called the place we were headed to, Big Milly's Backyard, and reserved the last available room (a room meant for four people...we comfortably slept seven). We left Church slightly past the intended departure time but still before noon so I was pleased. In order to get to Kokrobite, you can take a taxi or a tro-tro (random Ghanaian form of transportation. They're like these really old 16 or 20 passenger vans that aren't entirely safe, but the only real way to get around. Plus they are sooooo incredibly cheap.), and we opted for the tro-tro. Getting the tro-tro was probably the most difficult part of the whole trip. It's all kind of a word of mouth thing, and through that, we heard that we had to get to Kaneshie to get the Kokrobite tro-tro. We took two taxis to Kaneshie, got separated, but eventually found each other after some very impressive "see that half red-half white building on the corner" directions. After we united we had to find the area where to Kokrobite bound tro-tros were. Luckily everyone we asked was really helpful and tried to point us in the right direction...directions were a little vague sometimes though. "Up" wasn't really that helpful, but it was the thought that counted. After stopping at several wrong tro-tros we found one that was going to Kokrobite that we could all fit on. While we waited for it to fill up (tro-tros will only leave once EVERY seat is full) we delighted in some FanIce.

So FanIce is pretty much the most amazing thing ever. It's this ice cream/frozen yogurt/frozen chocolate milk, that comes in a little plastic pillow-like pouch. You bite of the corner and then just squeeze the tasty contents into your mouth. Best of all it's only 30 pesawas (Ghanaian version of cents) and it's sold be these people who walk down the lanes of traffic. To get one you just signal to the guys who are holding it on their head and they come over and the whole transaction takes about 20 seconds.

Okay, so FanIce aside, after the tro-tro filled up we were on our way. It was a pretty cool ride just to see the different scenery. It's easy to forget that Accra is a city and is not necessarily indicative of the rest of Ghana, and while Kokrobite is only about 45 minutes away from the city center, it's totally different. The area was much more village like and there were many more goats and chickens roaming freely. The landscape was also much more lush (lusher?) and full of palm trees. So when we got to the end of the tro-tro line we still had to walk for like ten minutes, so we got to see the village close up.

After we checked in to our room which had three beds, two singles and a double...WITH mosquito nets (SO AFRICAN!) all for 39 Cedi a night (not bad when split seven ways) we through on our bathingsuits and headed straight for the beach. The beach was so gorgeous. Kokrobite is a fishing village and so all these long awesome boats were on the beach/in the water. We spent all afternoon on the beach where I proceeded to eat four bananas in the course of about ten minutes. We frolicked in the water and Griffin even got her hair braided by a small child.

For dinner we ate at the restaurant at Big Milly's Backyard. Most of us got some form of groundnut soup. It was the biggest portion of life and absolutely delicious and for 8 cedi the night's entertainment (a live reggae band and dancing) was included. The entertainment seemed like a great thing and it was until we decided to go to sleep only to realize that our little bungalow was right behind the stage and it was RIDICULOUSLY loud. Astonishingly, we all managed to fall asleep and stay asleep in the cramped loud quarters.

Well, we stayed asleep until about 5:30am when we thought it would be a great idea to go see the monkeys at the local monkey sanctuary. FALSE. It was a bad idea. And it didn't actually happen. But we went back to sleep and woke up a few hours later for the beach. We had a great breakfast for 40 pesawas each (these awesome bun/donuty sorts of things that a girl was selling on the beach) and spent the morning on the beach. After a couple hours we settled up the bill (my share was 19 Cedi) and headed home.

Going Away for the Weekend in Ghana:
Travel: 2 Cedi
Lodging: 6 Cedi
Drinks: 4.5 Cedi
Food: 10 Cedi (for three meals)

Total: 22.5 Cedi (Many FanIce included!)