Ajumako – a village adventure

City life versus life in the village? My 6-hour experience was just a brief taste of how different these two lifestyles are here.

I left Cape Coast this morning at 9AM with a co-worker, Patience. We were headed up to a village a few hours away called Ajumako to meet the organization’s weavers: women who reuse the discarded fabric scraps from the seamstresses to create braided potholders and rugs. If only I had known how far away this village really was…

…It took two hours, two tro-tros, and one taxi to finally reach our little village. (More on definition of Ghanaian transportation options later.) It was mindblowing to leave from Cape Coast’s Kotakraba market--a packed market mecca of food, goods, and people—and to arrive just a few hours later to a tiny village at the end of a red, pothole-ridden road. My environment went from a raucous setting with people shouting to buy their goods to the peaceful sounds of goats bleating and children laughing.

The women we went to meet were fantastic. So many beautiful faces and big smiles. I couldn’t fathom, however, what it must be like to live in this little village. And yet they were so content. What can I bring to them? How can I make a difference? Do they even need me to? My brief observation of these women, as they sat on a little porch braiding their rugs and overlooking the village square, was that they were happier than many people who the world defines as “better off.” I’m blessed with the resources, education, and lifestyle that I'm born into—but I know with that I am also held more accountable.

My two hours in the village was full of laughter. I met the village chief, shot a few hundred pictures, and was chased by children shouting “’bruni!’” (Obruni is Fanti for “white person”). It was priceless. And sadly, one of the little children started crying when he saw me—he hadn’t seen someone as light as me before.

Our ride to the village was in a tiny taxi with a backseat full of filled gasoline containers. The ride back was just as adventurous. On the way, we were lucky enough to get picked up by a van that died in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd gear. The solution? The driver simply floored the van to 4th or 5th gear—on every road. And let me tell you, these roads were not built for those speeds (if you even call them roads).

That’s all part of the adventure! And that’s exactly why I love traveling—to meet and live life with the people who are that place. Pictures will be added soon.