4am: piled into the bus again for the long ride to Koforidua.
Koforidua is high up in the Mountain ranges over looking Accra. On the way up there we passed Rita Marley's studio which was perched on the side of the mountain, it had been through a fire and was in pretty shabby shape but I still wanted to go see it.
The group stopped for a tour of the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana. They grew several types of Cocoa, Cashews, coffee and shea. Theres a tone of thing you can make with Coca, butter,wines,chocolet, animal feed, jelly/jams,pectin,fertilizer,soap and vinegar. With all these things it made it even harder to see why Ghana had so many imported goods. Black soap (Alata semina) was the best soap ever...but non of the locals seemed to used it.
On the inside, the Cocoa fruit was white and slimy a lot like Lychee fruits in east Asia or Canepas (Mamoncillo) in central America. Its sweetness was alot more like Lychee though.
After the Coca Research Institute, we stopped by an AIDS hostel called the 'Mathew 25 house' for some more community service. The gave us a tour and told us alot about their mission and the stigmatization a lot of AIDS victims go through due to lack peoples of education. Statistically, more woman are found with the virus simply because woman seem to be more health conscious. To me that was a dangerous fact, it ment alot more guys could be sitting around spreading AIDS and not getting checked out all because of ego. The most appalling them was the refusal to teach condom use. I understand that some may see the promotion of condoms as a push for promiscuity but people are going to do what they want, if some one is set on having sex shouldn't they atleast be safe about it? The Mathew house staff told us they didnt even have condoms to give people that asked.
The group was helping paint out side of Mathew 25 house. My father and grandfather both are professional painters, after working a few jobs painting my house and lifeguard sheds at work...i felt like I was pretty knowledgeable in the are. How ever the older gentle men who founded the House was bent on his was, because I was young female my input wasn't really taken to heart and almost immediately the watered down paint began to develop air pockets and chiped. It was irritating to be ignored by these people but non the less I stayed humble and finished the job..in the end i felt good about it.
After we returned to the hotel I was bent on discovering more of Koforidua. It was such a beautiful place, how what I not take full advantage of being here. My dads friend came to visit me in Cape Coast and had briefly mentioned a waterfall some where in Koforidua. I really wanted to go alone but based on the Ostrich farm escapade I decided a few more people should come, just to help out with cab fare.After walking around the Coca place and painting all day I was pretty tired but there was no way I was passing up a waterfall.
.:Akaah Waterfalls:.
The cab dropped us off about a mile from were the falls were actually were. on the hike over we scaled several tall rocks. When we got to the clearing it was like something off of National Geographic..JUST WHAT I WAS LOOKING FOR. I didnt know how much water and mist my camera could handle but i jumped in waist deep and climbed up the mossy falls alone. It was so nice..I was actually really glad we left in such a small group.
We had no clue how to get back to Kofridua or the hotel. Hitchhiking along the long winding dusty path in the direction in which we came, several tro-tro passed up and refused to stop. You'd think it was a taxi drivers dream to see 5 Americans just walking around looking lost. NOPE..no one stopped. We must have walked five miles before a cab stopped. as long as we had day light I was fine with it.
In the cab were two brothers blasting local music on the casttes player. We piled in like a clown car. We got back around sunset, on the way back I spotted a mosque which I was determined to go to before I left Africa.
