Perspective: Environment in Ghana

While at the Mountain Paradise Lodge last week, I had an opportunity to speak with the owner and manager, Mr. Toni. A true hotelier, he not only understood hospitality, but he was also very passionate about the environmental preservation of the surrounding area. 

I asked Mr. Toni for insight into the Ghanaian perspective on the environment. His answer was sobering; he said, specifically, that many people here see the environment as “Nature’s gift to be consumed unsustainably.” Why, I asked. Toni summed up the problem to lack of education: essentially, a lack of training and education on why and how to sustain the environment for their kids and their kids’ kids. Some of the problems, for example, include:

• Deforestation—because no one replants the trees that are cut down for firewood
  
• Inorganic chemicals and harmful fertilizer—because it’s easier and quicker to spray chemicals than to weed, and no one realizes that farmers are dying at an earlier age each year because of the exposure to these chemicals
• Poison hunting—the easiest way for hunters to now hunt game is through poison: they simply set the traps and then take the animals. Since the hunters are selling the meat to others, the safety of the meat isn’t really a concern to them.
  

Toni said that many of these problems permeate from governmental issues. Specifically, no politician wants to be the one who presents an expensive, energy-intensive and long-term focused solution when the profitable quick-fixes are available today. Thus, some politicians encourage the use of chemicals for farming. Others just avoid the topic altogether.  

To only increase disadvantageous solutions, there is also international political pressure. Take, for example, the Volta Dam Project. China is funding a dam and hydro-electric plant to be built in the lush, tropical area of the Volta region that will flood and harm/destroy much of the surrounding habitat. 

What’s the solution? When I asked Toni this, he responded that help needs to come from inside and outside. An internal education initiative is needed with outside support—financial and political.

Looking back, it was a conversation to remember. It was incredible to meet someone in my industry who is truly passionate about making a long-lasting, positive difference in the world. And Toni acts on these passions—he’s started up a volunteering initiative with a local village, has adopted nearby land to protect it, and more. Pairing passion to make a difference with the action to get there—a goal for many of us. 

* Online article on Ghana's environment from a privately owned Ghanaian newspaper

Note: Apologies on the lack of external support—it was extremely difficult to find online information about Ghana’s environmental conditions.

Monkeys, waterfalls, Togo, oh my!

It’s 10PM at night, and we’re finally safely back at our home residence in Elmina after a three-day excursion through the eastern region of Ghana. What did it encompass? Many adventures: crazy tro-tro rides, swimming in waterfalls, feeding monkeys, and perhaps a visit to Togo. Read on….

Four of us girls set off early Friday morning to head to the Volta region in the east of Ghana, an area known for its tropical rainforests and lush environments. After six hours of tros, taxis, and buses, we were thrilled to finally arrive at our first destination: the village of Wli (pronounced “vlee”). The final leg of our journey was bouncing up a pothole-ridden road in a taxi that held four of us in the back with a family of five and the driver in the front.

Our first night was spent camping on the grounds of this beautiful lodge that looked out across the light fog and dark green hills to see Wli Waterfall, the highlight of the region.

 

On our hike to the waterfall the next day, it felt like an expedition into a true rainforest. Our guide quickly pointed out the first wild pineapple I’ve ever seen; it was a mini revelation! Here was the source of so many of my meals… He quickly moved on to a cocoa plant and pulled off a cocoa pod, oblivious to my increasing joy. I couldn’t believe that I was holding the fruit from which chocolate comes. As if that wasn’t enough, before we were halfway through with our hike, the guide gestured toward a coffee plant. At this point, I seriously contemplated if I should even leave this rainforest.

    

Wli Falls was spectacular. The highest waterfall in West Africa, its water shoots off the cliff side far above you to land crashing into the cool pool at your feet. Its incessant roar along with the wind and mist created from its crash-landing makes for an awe-inspiring site. It took all our courage to walk straight under the falls, inching backward as the water droplets flew against us like a hailstorm.

 

An hour and several hundred pictures later, we headed for our next destination: Mountain Paradise Lodge. Our tro dropped us off at the entrance to the road that led to the lodge. Our guidebook said it was only a 5km, 45-minute walk, so we happily set off down the pretty path, excited to explore a new destination.

It never occurred to us that the lodge’s name may have been inspired by its location.

Our walk turned into a hill which turned into a steep slope, and far too quickly we were trekking up the side of a mountain. The surroundings of palm trees, tropical birds, and beautiful views were wonderful, until we realized that the sun was beginning to set.

It’s amazing how fast you can hike uphill with two backpacks on (one for the stuff, one for the camera) when you start seriously trying not to contemplate all the scary movies that start at dusk.

The hike went on for what seemed like hours. Step by step, we inched forward as the sun sank lower in the sky. Each turn in the path just led to another switchback and another hill! Sweat dripped into my eyebrows, from my arms, and my feet moved on. Looking behind us at one point, we could see far below the village we had so blithely left behind us just an hour ago, blissfully unaware of the traumatic climb that lay ahead.

As we trekked around yet another curve in the path, the brush cleared slightly, and suddenly we could see the lodge!

We saw it…. sitting on the top of the far ridge on the other side of the valley.

By the time we made it to the entrance sign for the lodge, Bethany expressed our feelings best: running toward the sign, she said, “I could just marry that sign.” I’m pretty sure that dinner of chicken and rice with fresh mangos and bananas may be one of the most-deserved meals I’ve had. We had even arrived at the lodge in time to see the until-then dreaded sunset.

Mountain Paradise Lodge was just that: a paradise. Nestled away on a hill overlooking the rainforests and valleys of the Volta, you could just see Lake Volta gleaming on the horizon. No sounds where present save that of the rainforest, and it was heaven to fall asleep to bird songs and rain drops on our tent.

Our tro ride the next day may have been the best one yet. There may have been one (several) points during the ride where I couldn’t stop laughing. We had fit 19 people in a car meant to hold 10, and our fellow car members include a slightly tipsy funeral party who were gaily serenading us throughout the ride, an adamant American and marijuana fan, and a rather friendly, French-speaking Togolese. After a marriage proposal, several songs, and an offer of marijuana, we were thrilled to alight from the car. However, I quickly realized that we were actually parked at the border between Ghana and Togo. Hmmm…. How could I turn down an opportunity like this?

So, I went to Togo.

It’s really amazing where a smile and some sign language can get you. (For those of you who worry, don’t research the safety of the country of Togo.)

Moving on, we trekked our way back across Ghana today, and I am now happily back in my little village outside Cape Coast. 

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.