I want to share with you some of my journey this weekend to Sabin Hills, a small village in the Central Region of Ghana. I was invited by Evan ( young man the worked at the guest house) to travel with him to meet his family and visit the village. In hindsight I now realize how significant that visit was for Evan and his family, and unfortunately I had to manage some expectations but more about that later.
I understood the trip would take perhaps three to four hours and the distance on google maps is about 283 kilometres. We took a Tro Tro from guest home to Keneshie Market at 4:30 am , the first bus was full and we finally got settled on the second bus at 7:30am. We arrived at Dunkwa On-Ofin at 3:30pm, but the last vehicle to the village had already left. After some serious negotiating we settled on a fare by taxi to the village, 45 km and 2 hours on a very bumpy dirt road we arrived at the village.
Evan's grandfather ( by namesake) travelled with us and led us through the town on arrival, believe me I completely underestimated the attention I would draw as we walked.
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Evan, family friend, Grandfather & Chief, Auntie, Grandfather ( namesake)
After arriving and meeting the family we settled into a meal of bean stew, boiled yams and boiled plantains. I had to eat two meals; one served by Evan's Mother and one served my Evan's Auntie. Unlike Canada the men eat seperately from the children and women, as a guest I was expected to eat with the men. The meal was prepared with produce from his mother's farm on an open fire.
Cooking Kitchen
The evening was spent sitting on a log bench under a tree and under the stars, playing with the children meeting new people as they stopped by the meet the Obruyni. I made history that night, as I am the first white person to ever stay overnight in the village, previous visitors come in for the day and take accommodations in the city. Off to bed early, as in Ghana everyone gets up either before or at sunrise ( 4:30am).
The next morning was spent drinking Milo, eating bread, bathing with a bucket in the bath house and cleaning up around the property. Grandfather arranged for a taxi and I spent the next few hours meeting the King, the Chief, other family members and church elders. There was a funeral that day in the village and there were many visitors, everyone dressed in either black or red. As a guest I found out I had to attend the funeral, meet and shake hands with the family and their elders, unfortunately I was not expecting to attend a funeral and had to go in my shorts and sandals .
The next stop on our tour was the gold mines. The Central and Ashanti Regions of Ghana are well known for their gold mining, unfortunately only foreigners and perhaps high level government officials really benefit from the gold mining. The government owned mine closed 15 years ago and now the Chinese run illegal gold mines. They pay the local land owner some money to extract the gold from their land, employ local men & women to work in the mine for a pittance. I was able to walk throughout the open pit mine, it was very very hot, terrible fumes, no safety equipment and generally intolerable working conditions. Once they have extracted the gold they are supposed to fill in the pits and return the land to a point where it could be farmed again. Surprise, no way the foreigners just leave this big hills and holes of dirt with no reclaimation efforts and too far away from the capital for the government to monitor the activities.
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| The ground is excavated and the dirt is shovelled into bags and carried by the women or put into the machines directly |
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| Jan " Gold Miner" putting the gravel mixed with sand into a grinder, after which they run it through water several times. |
With a full tummy we decided I better travel back to Dunkwa on Saturday evening since there were no vehicles travelling back on Sunday. Again after much negotiating we found a reasonable drive with a taxi driver and the lottery guy. In Dunkwa we staying with Grandpa and his family, a wonderful family and great hospitality. They sent me back to Accra with fresh oranges, papayas, coconuts, bananas and nuts despite me explaining it was too much to carry on the Tro Tro.
Sunday morning I left for Accra by Tro Tro at 9:00 and arrived home by 6:00 that evening, feeling tired, dirty and blessed that I had been treated to such wonderful hospitality and kindness.
See you all soon in Canada!
