Volta Region

Even though the rainy season in Ghana lasts for several months, it still seems like no one has gotten used to it. When it rains, everything slows or stops. Last Thursday it was pouring all morning, so getting all the kids to school went extremely slowly. Breakfast was late because it took a while to make the fire to heat the pourridge. We waited for a while to see if the rain would stop so we wouldn't have to walk to school in it, but it never did. One of the girls told me that if it didn't stop raining, she just wouldn't go to school because her exams were finished anyway. Finally, we had to force all of the kids to trek through the mud and  streams that had covered the roads to get to school. There was legitimately a small river covering the path on the way back to the volunteer house.

On Friday morning after we got the kids to school, 4 other volunteers and I left to go to the Volta region for the weekend. A lot of the kids at Worcsa are from that area, some are even from the two towns we stayed in, so it was exciting to see where they're from. When we got to our first hotel in Hohoe, we were informed that one of our rooms was double booked so we would have to pay for a more expensive second room. Despite arguing with the hotel employee for at least half an hour over it, we were still forced to pay for the more expensive room. If that happened at home, the hotel would have at least offered us a discount of some sort. Like I explained before, there's a huge difference in customer service here. If the employee had offered us a discount, he would have had to pay for it out of his pocket, so he just didn't bother.

Saturday was a very full day. We went to the Wli waterfalls in the morning, the highest falls in West Africa. They were breathtaking to see, and the spray got us soaked. Along the path there, our guide picked us fresh cocoa fruit to eat! (The raw fruit tastes nothing like chocolate.) Then we went to the Tafi Atome monkey sanctuary. Our guide gave us each a banana, and if you held it out in your fist, the monkeys would jump on you and take a piece of it to eat!

It's getting down to my last days here, and I'm starting to feel really sad, even though I do have 5 days still. I'm at the mall today because I need to print out pictures to make a poster of myself to hang in the orphanage before I leave. I need to come back tomorrow, and there are several other things I need to do here before I go. I'm already feeling a bit overwhelmed, like I won't have enough time, but I'm sure I'll get it all done. Being away from the kids for even a weekend is difficult, I can't imagine what it will be like having to say goodbye to them on Friday..