We had a day off school and all the teachers were looking forward to getting out of the city. I think that sometimes teachers enjoy days off more than students! Five of us decided to go to the Volta region (to the east) where it is a bit mountainous and very green!
William, the school driver, picked us up early Friday morning and drove us to a hotel/camp site by way of the crudest dirt road I had yet seen in Ghana that has a great view of the second tallest point in Ghana. About as soon as we got there, we started our couple hour walk up to Mt. Gemi. It was amazing being out in God’s creation! We were able to enjoy the scenery around us and get a glimpse into the lives of the people that live in that area as we walked through the little villages along the way to the top of the mountain. It was fun having William with us because he could talk to the people and he was able to share information about the land, the environment, and the people with us. At the top of the mountain there is a medal cross and it just reminded me how God has His hand on everything. The world that I could see stretched out before me at the top of Mt. Gemi was the Lord’s. Everything I was looking at and all the people in each village was a part of His perfect creation. I was reminded to love His creation (His people included!) with His agape love. We took a different path down the mountain which was much more rain forest-like. Instead of walking along the road we hiked down a small path through the trees. It was beautiful and I felt very adventurous!
That evening, after enjoying a Ghanaian dinner of chicken and rice, we sang worship songs as we looked up at the mountain we had climbed. We could hear African drumming in the distance probably from a funeral celebration.
The next day we woke up and I was amazed that I wasn’t sore from the four hours of walking/hiking from the day before! We drove about an hour away to a mountain with a huge waterfall. The falls were split into the upper falls and the lower falls. We enjoyed a nice 45 minute walk to the area of the lower falls and then we were given walking sticks and we were directed up a steep path towards the upper falls. I think that was the hardest climb I have ever done before! We hiked up for about 45 minutes singing songs to try to get our minds off the hard climb! Then we hiked down for about 25 minutes to base of the upper falls. One in the group was afraid of heights so she did not like going downhill! I much preferred going downhill to up! As we were hiking we passed people coming back from the falls and they were very encouraging and told us that the waterfall was well worth the hike! And boy, were they right! It was beautiful! The mist coming off the waterfall was so refreshing too! We enjoyed lunch at the top of apples, peanuts, popcorn, and other snacks we brought with us. Then after a little rest and the doctoring of my many blisters (why did I bring my gym shoes back to America!) we started our trip back. I found that the hike back up the decline was worse then the hike up originally! I guess it’s probably because I was tired at this point! But we made it down with only a few falls and one bloody incident (good thing we had Band-Aids!).
After the hike back down we walked to the lower falls. Both falls were beautiful, but the upper falls had more sunlight around and the lower falls had a lot of bats! After the hike back to the van we decided to take a little trip to see some ostriches of all things! There was an ostrich farm a minute or two away from the falls. I can’t believe how big they are when you stand close to them! I now know why Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs was afraid of them! After getting some pictures and touching one of them, we continued on our way to William’s village.
It was our first opportunity to really be in a village since most of our life is spent in the city. William was so excited to see his family and I think he really enjoyed showing us where he was from. We were able to meet members of his extended family, see the school he attended, meet the chief and other important leaders in the village, and play with the kids that continuously followed us around the village! Some of the little kids had never seen a white person. Isn’t that interesting? At first, several of the children were afraid of us.
The trip was an amazing venture out into the rural areas of Ghana. It was so refreshing being able to step out of the “city life” centered on school and schedules. Even though the hikes were intense, it was still an amazing time of renewal and a reminder of how big our God is.
