29th and 30th October
Day 7 and 8 How can you see the difference between a Ghanian sheep and a Ghanian goat? … The goat escapes from the street when a car is coming! The street we used to go to Kintampo starts at Accra and goes through the whole country via Kumasi, Techiman and Tamale straight to Burkina Faso. This is probably the best developed street in Ghana and is comparable to German main roads. There is beautiful green landscape around. The darker green trees, bushes and palms contrast to the lighter green grassland. Sometimes there are corn fields also with trees of different size inside. From time to time we had to reduce our speed because of animals, mostly goats, crossing the street. But the most interesting things to see during this drive were the trucks. Mostly they transport char coal from the north to the south, but also all other things you can or you cannot imagine. On one truck there was even a living goat standing on the bags of char coal. But what the drive really made to an adventure was the Ghanaian style of driving. I will actually need some more time to get used to it. The Kintampo waterfalls are just great. Our guide first showed us the first step (out of three) of the falls. A really quiet place. The water is falling over a massive rock between the falling water and the rock there is a kind of cave. The water has created a fascinating little world in the sand flowing on different steps in any direction. And do you know what? When there are visitors arriving the water flows faster just to look even more impressive (At least our guide told us this fact). The main part of the falls is the spectacular third step. As we arrived a big group of laughing Ghanaian young people were swimming in the river. A quite bumpy looking rock was used as a water slide. I could stand there for hours just looking at the blustering water and happy people. Have you heard of Fufu? I was told that I should never ever miss eating Fufu when I go to Ghana. Yesterday was my first time to try that common Ghanaian dish. Annika knew a special place where we would find a very good tasting one near the hospital. As we were waiting for our food, I suddenly felt a touch on my arm from behind. I had a look to find out where this came from and saw a Ghanaian little girl grinning at me from a safe distance. Annika told me that children often are eager to try how our white skin may feel like. The most interesting thing about Fufu eating was the special way to eat it. You eat it without cutlery only with your right (!) hand. The porridge made out of cassava, a big root (like yam but a bit smaller), has to be formed in small balls with wholes (to keep the sauce) and swallowed without chewing. My valuation: not bad, but maybe not the absolutely best tasting dish I had in Ghana. But I will surely try again many more times. Sunday is churchday, at least for the around 70% christians (2010, according to wikipedia) in Ghana. Our (by the way so brilliant!) cook told us yesterday evening the way to the Evangelic Church of Ghana. Like I already expected the church service was quite different to which I am used to in Germany. The music was made of drums, keypoard and some other percussion instruments, the people were dancing and the service lasted for about three hours. Mostly impressive for me was to experience the Ghanaian music and also the naturalness these people included us to their community. We even could introduce ourself during the service. And by the way: I don´t know if the fact about Ghanaian sheep and goats is true. But according to the Ghanaian style of driving I am glad that we only met goats on the street.Text: Annika-Weiß