14 hours on tro-tros....and it was worth it!

In preparation for our trip to Ghana I searched the internet for places to visit and things to see. We knew that most of our time would be spent working in the school but we would have a little time on the weekends to see some sights. When I was here before I heard all about the great beaches in the Western Region but I never had a chance to visit since I was in the Accra Mission. I wanted to go to a beach resort while we were here and I came across a little eco-reserve on the beach that had bungalows they rent out for very cheap (www.ezilebay.com) On the internet and while talking to the place on the phone it sounded like it would be easy to find and not that far so we set off at about 1 PM on Friday for Ezile Bay in Akwidaa in the Western Region of Ghana. The tro-tros ended up being VERY slow at the stations and the place ended up being much harder to find than I thought it would be. Six hours later Jayme and I barely made the last tro-tro to Akwidaa where Ezile Bay was. The Tro Tro was already full but they saw we were Obrunnis and made everyone smash a little more since it was the last tro tro of the night and there would be no way to get there until the next morning if we missed it. There were over 20 people crammed in that tro tro (a tro tro is a minivan, ghetto minivan-pictures to come) and I was not really in a seat at all. We finally got there after 7 hours on the tro-tros with the help of the driver and his son. The place was totally dark since they don't have any electricity there (eco-reserve hippies and the Ghanian power company both don't care to get it there). We were greeted by a Frenchman from Champagne named Donnie who seriously didn't speak any English or Twi. It was fun trying to communicate with him with our broken French and his African learned minimal English. We were given a kerosene lantern and shown to our bungalow. It was super basic but very fun.

The next day was absolutely incredible as we discovered the places we couldn't see in the dark the night before. It was truly Breathtaking. A large private beach was about 30 feet from our bungalow. We were the only guests that first night and there were just one other French couple from Burkina Faso staying there on the second night. The food was great since they had European type dishes for Jayme and they even pounded fufu for me! What a great place and a great experience. Totally worth it (In terms of time and trouble getting there I mean....money wise it was WAY worth it since the whole weekend with meals and room costed us about $70 US!)

Sunday morning we left early in our church clothes. We got to the tro tro station with the help of a local boy that the Frenchmen arranged for us. When we arrived there were only two other passengers who wanted to go to Akwidaa so we had to wait for about 15 other passengers before they would leave. The station was in a gross part of town so Jayme and I just sat in the tro tro for about 45 mins until we were all ready to go (by the way....we looked SO out of place! Not only are we white, but we were dressed so nice compared to everyone else!). We hoped to make it to Church in the nearest branch by 9 if we left the hotel by 7 so we could catch the first tro tro but we ended up getting to the Agona branch at 9:15.

Church in Agona was also an incredible experience. There were about 40 people in the branch. One of the them was walking to the church when we rode by in a taxi so we asked her where the church was and offered her a ride. She spoke zero English but explained to me that she had been a member of the Church since 1975 when they weren't really members yet here. Anyway, we walked in late to sacrament and sat down in the back. Immediately a member of the Branch Presidency walks back to us, greets us, and asks us to bear out testimonies. We both did and had a great time doing it. After Sacrament we found out the that we were the first ever non missionary visitors they had ever had to their branch! There was a pair of couple missionaries there named the Lambs from Bountiful that were super nice to us and gave us a ride to Takoradi and helped us find the station that would take us to Cape Coast. We will try to find a better connection so we can post pictures because we are sure you will love them. Until next time….