Week 10 started with the busiest weekend of the cycle - we really saw Ghana! We had the Adaklu volunteers over for the night, and had a relaxing catch up of food, walks, coconuts, swimming and bonfires. I’m sure the visitors went away feeling very glad of their condition up in the North compared to our relatively basic lifestyle.
On the Sunday the Abrobiano gang travelled along with the Adaklu crew to Kakum National Park. We’d all heard lot about the canopy walk and the beauty of the place, so expectations were high! We were taken on a walking tour first by our esteemed guide Christopher. He excited us with talk of monkeys and leopards, only to break the news that we would not see such nocturnal beasts. But it was a really beautiful rainforest, and we had soon climbed the hill to the start of the canopy walk. The route was a series of 7 precarious rope walkways, ranging from 11m-40m high in the canopy. Some volunteers loved it and were shaking themselves every which way, and others edged lowly, clinging to the rope for their dear lives.
We all survived, luckily, and boarded the buses bound to Cape Coast. We were hosted and treated to a grand jollof feast by the Football For Hope guys, and some took the chance to explore the city and the buzzing market streets. One huge, manic road led all the way down the sea, and down it you could buy almost whatever your heart contented: fine cloth; delicious street food; stylish sandals; paint of the emulsion or oil based variety; smooth Swiss chocolate; even tiny wooden elephants. The vibrancy of the city swept some of the village-dwellers up, and we spent all of our allowance all at once! A couple of the group also ventured up Fort William, one of many ancient colonial monuments. Though the mist had wrapped the city up, the view of the multicoloured buildings steepled upon the cliffs was reminiscent of Naples- a lovely view! In the early evening we had a game of football - an essential feature of the team meet-ups - on the artificial turf that was typically high tempo and exhausting for all! The evening brought some real Ghanaian culture - live music! Rastas with gnarly beats and bass riffs got us all bouncing, and they even managed to fit in the Abro anthem which is Hero by Enrique. We danced until the early hours, and trudged home to get a quick kip.
Monday morning saw the departure of Adaklu, but the fun didn’t stop for the others! We hit the market again, and devoured some plantain and beans before finally hitting the road after noon. We had one final destination before Abro - Elmina Castle. This is a castle 503 years old established by the Portuguese before passing to the Dutch and finally the English. It had always functioned as a part of the ‘evil trade’ - slavery, and was a network of dungeons and cells contrasting with the churches and governor’s quarters up above. Particularly chilling was the ‘door of no return’, the final leg of the slaves stay in the fort which led directly to the beach. One inscription we found on the wall resonated with a lot of the volunteers: Until the lion has a historian, the hunter is always the hero.
On Tuesday, the group had to rouse itself back into action, to try and finish the work left to do in Abrobiano. We had deadlines for football nets, painting projects, an impact movie to finish, and final surveys to get done - busy!
On Wednesday Bernadine and Robbie showed us what they know. Robbie’s topic was radio, and showed us the basic layout of a recording studio with all the knobs and soundwaves. Bernadine provided what all they UKVs were needing - recipes for our favourite Ghanaian dishes! There was yam balls, sobolo and kelewele, so now whenever we miss Ghana, we can whip up a meal and remember all the good times! In the evening Deladem hosted the final social with some quizzes and fifa.
By Thursday things were looking good. The KG classroom was taking shape brilliantly, and I don’t think anyone expected the vibes to change so much with just a few licks of paint! We have numbers, letters, verbs, flags and even shapes! Sakodie treated us to the final KWIK which was a nice board game, ludo.
Come Friday, everything was getting wrapped up - final filming was being done by the media team, action research were compiling their pie charts and the infrastructure putting the final flurries on the painting.
The final weekend in Abrobiano looms large!
