Jordan here: So Sarah looked at our last 4 months of our service and still had some vacation days to use up and knew there were some places we still wanted to see. Our All Volunteer conference took place in the Eastern Region in early April and we had our Close of Service conference in early May, and since it takes 2 full days, one way, to get back to our site, and we had some work to do in Accra, that this would be the best time to use up the days in between.
Our All Vol was really fun. Lots of time to see people that are out in the boonies like us, just on the other side of the country. Although some of the sessions really are work, because they’re tough to get through, we got the evenings to hang out. I was lucky enough to play a couple poker tournaments, Sarah was in the talent show, and as much ultimate Frisbee as we could get! By now, we’re the elder group and of course the topic is how our service is closing and what was next. Some people had grad school, med school, jobs, or like us, quite unknown. The end was bittersweet, because truly some of those people we wouldn’t see again. Then we parted ways and Sarah and I headed to Accra.
We had some grants to close and to do our taxes and plan the next couple weeks off. Then we took off for our friend Kevin’s site in the Western Region. After arriving we got to see him in his village and school. It was really refreshing to see another Volunteer who loves his place and the people and really has become integrated. He knew most people and had a great time with his students and fellow teachers. That was really great to see. The next day we took a trip out to a touristy site not far from his site. Its an entire, albeit small, village built on stilts on top of a lake. We noticed how important your guide is to your experience. A couple people had a really great time because the guide gave lots of information, was excited, etc. However, ours was a 14-year-old kid who wasn’t much of a conversationalist. We were greeted by a man peeing into the water that all the children were swimming in. Apparently they had had a big party the few days before and people were having a great time. However, we caught the after-party and people weren’t all that energetic or welcoming. So everything is situational, and that goes for life in general.
We stopped by a restaurant run by a Spanish man and the food was fabulous! On the way to our next place we saw another Volunteer’s site and enjoyed a little palm wine on the roof of her place overlooking the Atlantic beach. Pretty nice! Then on to the Hideout beach resort for some slow down relaxing time in a tree house. We thought it’d just be the two of us, but each day we encountered different Volunteers who apparently had the same thoughts as us. It was all very fun, though. The beach was beautiful! Every day we would take our beach walk, about a mile to a big rock point where the waves in the afternoon would pick up and spray us with ocean mist. We both got a lot of reading done and a lot of planning for our trip after we close our service (Sarah has the Morocco book nearly memorized already!). We are very excited to hear we, if God bless, will see our parents and some other good friends along the way! We stayed in a tree house with about 40 square feet of space including the bed, more than plenty for the two of us. We swam in the ocean about 4 times a day and played in the salt water waves, trying each time to ride them into the shore. Each night we dined well on burgers and a beer, or some fresh fish. Even one night we splurged and got the Lobster Thermidor which was fantastic! Fresh lobster for a relatively great price. We said good bye to the Hideout quite happy with our stay.
We then moved on to another beach, arguably even more beautiful in a town called Busua. On World Malaria Day, we “helped” with a surf competition put on by Peace Corps Volunteers and a surf shop that was raising awareness about how to combat malaria. My contribution was being a judge of the surfing for some of the competitors. Whoever put me in a judging position for a surf competition obviously didn’t know I was a Midwest boy that had seen the ocean only a handful of times and knew nothing about surfing. It turned out it was relatively low-key and I did alright, I guess. But aside from that, we hung out on the beach and swam more and threw around the Frisbee. We even got to eat our first chocolate banana pancakes since our old apartment in Falcon Heights! Delicious.
Feeling we had gotten a respectable amount of sand and surf and beach, we moved on the next morning to head back along the coast toward Accra. However, plans changed when we got a call in the tro in Takoradi...
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