A Rastafarian, Goat, and Waterfall.
I have absolutely no words for how beautiful Ghana is. When I walk outside each morning to go to work, all I can see is green. Corn will grow almost anywhere, even in residential areas, there are coconut and mango trees around our workplace, and even fresh cocoa grows nearby the city as well. It almost feels like I’m living in paradise.
Two weekends ago we visited the Kintampo Waterfall, which is one of the larger falls in Ghana and it was absolutely stunning. We also went to visit the Bobiri Forest Butterfly Sanctuary where there are over 400 different species of butterflies and the only butterfly sanctuary in West Africa.
Then this past weekend we visited Cape Coast and went to the Kakum National Forest where we walked on these super sketchy bridges over the canopy of the forests (my favorite excursion so far), met a married couple our own age, and chilled on the beach with a cool Rastafarian.
When I came to Ghana, I didn’t expect to experience amazing forests and beaches, and I am extremely grateful that I have had this opportunity, but, unfortunately, its really easy to forget that not all of Ghana looks like this.
While walking out of the Kintampo Waterfalls looking for a taxi, Brooke, David, and I were looking for a taxi to take us to the bus stop so we could travel back to Kumasi. We started walking on the road towards the stop and saw some individuals standing in the road drain area on the right side of the road (in Ghana they have gutter about 4 feet deep and 2 feet wide that follow the road, it looks like a huge ditch). At first, I was confused about what they were doing in the ditch since they normally hold sewage and garbage. As we approached closer, we saw a group of 3 men and a baby boy using a large water bottle cut long ways collecting water coming from a pipe emptying into the large sewage ditch alongside the road. As we passed, without saying anything, I stopped, took out a new, sealed water bottle, and gave it to the person who looked like the father of the baby which he immediately opened and started giving the water to the baby. He was a bit surprised, but then sincerely replied saying “medaase,” which means “thank you” in Twi.
I forgot that even amongst all the fun, touristy stuff, and work activities we have been doing, people struggle every day to get simple necessities like clean water, something I definitely take for granted. It made me realize that although Ghana is not a country that perpetuates the stereotype of an African country, it's still not perfect and people continue to fight for basic living needs. This experience really put things into perspective for me. Even though we learn and hear about people not having access to clean drinking water all the time, it doesn’t really hit you until you experience it first hand.
I don't think I will ever forget about this experience, but I’m still going to enjoy this trip as I have been and continue to try and immerse myself into the culture and learn as much as I can. David and I took a big step during our Cape Coast trip when we started eating the street food. I even learned how to make a couple of Ghanian street food dishes from the friendly ladies serving us the food. Cape
I wish I ate the street food earlier, it's so flipping good.
As for a work update, the past two weeks have been pretty eventful. I generated a couple of promising leads to sell the bamboo bicycles to some bike shops overseas, Bernice, the CEO of Bright Generation/Ghana Bamboo Bikes Initiative/Envirotech (the business arm of the GBBI), had articles written about her for donating 85 bikes to students around the Accra area, and I submitted two applications for grants and startup business competitions.
Also as Bright Generation interns, we got the opportunity to do a One for One TOMS shoe donation program, where we went into a rural community and gave away shoes to some primary school kids. While also in the same community, we got to visit some farmers who received some microloans that the SCU Microfinance Loan Team had given out and got to see all the progress the farmers have made as a result of it.
Unfortunately, on the way back, our car broke down 3 times and eventually had to take a taxi back home, had to “help” the policemen out a little bit to let us pass through because we squished 4 people in the backseat of the taxi, and also saw some goats just chilling on top of a tro tro, zooming down the freeway at 40 mph.
I think the goats on that car might be one of the coolest things I’ve seen all trip.
Till next time,
— Sahil Sagar
