Winneba

This past weekend I took a trip to Winneba to meet up with a friend-of-a-friend.  Back story: before I was going to Ghana, a good friend of mine from high school messaged me and her friend in a group chat to introduce us, as me and this other women will both be in Ghana at the same time.  My high school friend knew this person from their mutual time in the Peace Corp in Thailand.  So I started chatting with the woman staying in Ghana, and she helped me a great deal with my preparation (talking me out of three pairs of shoes I almost brought that would have been a disaster) and cultural acclimation (taught me to not be upset with children calling me "Obruni").  She was already an invaluable resource even before I got in country.  And once I was here, she and I were in regular contact, and she helped me with some of my homesick woes that preoccupied my first week here.  Well, we made plans for me to visit her in Winneba, a coastal town where she lives and works.  This past weekend my hosts were in Accra doing wedding preparations (that I just found out today I'll be going to!  That'll get it's own post after the traditional wedding - stay tuned!).  Thus, I decided it was a perfect weekend to stay in Winneba if it worked for my friend, and she said it did! So I had a delightful brief visit that has been one of the highlights of the trip thus far!

Early Saturday morning (5 AM) I was up with my hosts packing up.  The bus ride to Accra that they would be taking stops at Winneba junction, so I was able to take the same bus as my hosts.  We piled on, and I was able to score the last window seat, in the very back! I very much wanted to look at the scenery as we drove (though I didn't take any pictures of this).  We departed just past 6 AM.

It was mostly an uneventful trip, but about 20 minutes out of Winneba, suddenly our bus blew a tyre (I'm purposefully going for the British spelling because that is how it is spelled here) - one right below me!  It was very loud.  We pulled onto the side of the road... but then got back on the road and kept driving.  I was confused, until we pulled into a gas station and I realized that that was the reason we had got back on the road on the blown out tyre - the driver decided to get to the gas station to attempt repairs.  We all filed off the bus, and luckily since we were at a gas station, we were able to get some breakfast.  We purchased cookies and I got my first Ghanaian ice cream - I have hesitated buying it to bring home in the past, figuring it will melt in the taxi ride home.  But this was the occasion for ice cream!  So strawberry ice cream from Ghana and coconut cookies from Iran were my breakfast.  After about 30 minutes of waiting, we were informed that the tyre was changed (for the doughnut, I assume) and we all got back in the bus.

The bus ride from then on was again very noisy!  Even the Ghanaians on the bus had looks of alarm, which made me feel like I wasn't overexagerating how weird it was that we were clipping along on this very noisy doughnut!  Below is a selfie of my feelings of the situation, and a picture of what the bus looked like from the very back left corner.

Luckily we made it to Winneba junction and I shuffled past everyone with my huge backpack.  I waited a little bit and my friend met me, and we were off! First we went back to her place so I could wash my face and relax under a fan for a minute while we discussed our options for the day.  We deiced that we would visit the market, then go to the smokehouse and cold store the organization she works for built, then head to a "spot" on the beach for some beers, get some food, and figure it out from there.  Perfect!  

After walking around the market, we went to the "livelihoods site" where her organization, Challenging Heights, has built a "smokehouse," or a covered area where multiple smoking ovens were built, and a cold store where fish and other perishables can be stored.  Challenging heights works to fight child slavery in Ghana and built the smokehouse when they realized that one of the most concrete ways to stop parents from selling their children (to what seem like reputable individuals and "schools" but are usually slavers) was to strengthen the economic power of mothers. Winneba is a coastal, fishery-dependent community, thus many of the women living there work as fish processors.  The cold store allows the women to not have to take an entire day to travel to Tema to procure fish, and the smoke house gives the women a reliable, covered place where they can smoke fish all year long, even during the rainy season.  Challenging heights also built many private smoke ovens for individual fish processors, but I only visited the communal one.  Below are some pictures:  

After seeing the communal smoke house and cold-store, I discussed with my friend the possibility of using Winneba as a study site, in order to have a comparison fishery-dependent community in Central Region to compare to my four study sites in Western Region (see the "Shama" post).  We both felt this was a good idea, and she was kind enough to offer to host me for a week. What is especially appealing is the fact that I am able to capitalize on the connections Challenging Heights already has formed with these women, and will need to do less in terms of building trust with them.  Further, they do not suffer from research fatigue, which many fishery-dependent communities do.  Subsequent to this trip, I've communicated with the director of Challenging Heights as well as the Programs Coordinator at Hen Mpoano, and have been officially invited to conduct survey research at the livelihoods site at Winneba.  Hooray!  I'm not gonna lie, I fishery-geek'ed out pretty hard during this part of my visit!  

After visiting the livelihoods site, my friend and I went to a rasta spot on the beach to drink some beers.  Sadly, because I'm terrible at remembering to take pictures, I didn't get any pictures of the beautiful view from here.  But I'll get some the next time I come back!  I did get a picture of my new favorite furry friend, though: 

That is the only cat I've pet so far in Ghana, and after 3 weeks starved for a chance to pet a feline (but seeing them everywhere!) I was so delighted to meed this sweet creature.  This is the reason I am certain that when I return to Winneba I'll go back to this charming rasta spot by the beach.  Also, the Ghanaian lager "Club" is growing on me quite a bit (yesterday I bought four bottles of it for the house). 

Here are some pictures I took on the road from the beach, looking back on it: 

         

And here is a picture of a Jewish center in Winneba(!): 

After getting some Jollof (which I cannot get enough of and am going to eat a bunch of in about an hour when it's lunch time) we went back to my friend's place to rest given how early I had to wake up the night before.  After a brief nap, we walked around Winneba a bit and stopped by a spot where she knows the owner.  She got "indome," which is a brand of ramen that is cooked at stands that only exist at night, and is stir fried with vegetables, egg, and meat if one takes meat (my friend does not).  I got "keliweli," which is delicious spicy fried plantains.  We turned in at about 10, as we were feeling sleepy.  

The next day, after being treated to home-cooked breakfast, my friend helped me take a taxi back to Winneba junction.  There, I caught a "tro tro," which is the local name for a minibus.  I originally thought I would take a tro to Cape Coast and there catch another one to Takoradi, but the tro I got on actually went all the way to Takoradi!  Below is a picture I took from the tro, near Cape Coast. 

I was able to tell the tro driver which stop in Sekondi I wished to get off at, and was able to get off the tro and catch a taxi home without a hitch!  I'm now officially able to travel by myself anywhere in the country and know I'm able to give directions back to my place of residence in Sekondi if need be.  Hooray autonomy! 

So that's the end of my entry on this very successful weekend trip to Winneba.  I'm greatly looking forward to spending a week there a the end of October in order to conduct surveys, see my friend, eat indome, and pet a friendly kitty!