FRIDAY

05|28|10

We were up very early and left the house by six in the morning. We made plans to go see Nzulezo. Nzulezo is a village on stilts about four hours west of Elmina. We first had to catch a cab into Cape Coat where we found Tro Tro which would take us directly there and back. Mind you this sounds a lot easier than it really is. Negotiating with these people is very difficult and it will be a lot harder in a week when we don’t have Ekieta to do the work for us. She is a volunteer who lives in Oregon but is originally from Nigeria. We were going to have to take a couple different tro tro’s to get to Nzulezo but with good bargaining we were able to have them take us the whole way there. The drive was around 4 or 5 hours long. By the time we got there we were all irritable from the heat and the uncomfortable seats. On the way we tried some sort of doughnut thing from one of the street sellers. These are everywhere and we’ve been wondering what they’re all about. We call them Doughboys and they are very yummy! I also bought some plantain chips which I have to say are now my favorite thing here!!! I think it the closest I’m going to get to chips without paying an arm and a leg. Kelly is going to talk to Eli and have her make Plantain chips and Guacamole (the avocados here have so much more flavor). She is going to make a killing from that!! In the last leg of our journey it was obvious that there was almost no civilization around and we worried that our tro tro drivers would leave us stranded when we left for our tour. The only view we had were remote villages and rubber tree farms. We collectively decided to pay for them to come on the trip with us. It was one a good deed since they had never been before and two we were guaranteed a ride back. took pictures along the way of buildings and landscape for color and design inspiration. To get to the village on stilts we had to take canoes through a man made creek to get to the lagoon. During the dry season the creek dries up and the canoe ride becomes a long walk. The people in the village use the lake to come to and from the land to farm and make trades. Using the creek makes the trip a lot faster. Since it is at the beginning of the dry season there were a few spots that weren’t deep enough for our boats to cross with us all in it. At this point I had just finished explaining to Sarah about schistosomiasis. Also known as bilharzias it’s a disease that you get from a parasitic worm which is found in the freshwater. I was warned so many times to make sure NOT to get in any freshwater. The process starts when someone infected with the schistosoma eggs use the freshwater as a toilet. The eggs hatch in the water and live off and grow inside snails. The parasites then leave the snail and then can penetrate the skin of anyone wading or swimming in that water up to 48 hours. The parasite are like little worms that grow inside your body and then lay their eggs in your blood vessels and travel to different parts of your body. The parasite needs the snail to live in the water which I’m sure was in the creek and lagoon since the tribe chose to live here because their God(the snail) was in abundance. So I had told Sara all this and started to put Neosporin on my feet because I had open cuts and there was water in our boat. While I was doing this was when our tour guide ordered me (specifically me to get out of the canoe). He explained that our boat was too heavy and that one of us needed to get out so it would float better. Well one I didn’t really understand why I was chosen but he explained that I was the only one that had short and and flip flop so it was easiest for me to get out. You only live once right? I guess we’ll find out in a few months if I got infected when worms start breaking through my skin!! The water was pleasant once I stopped thinking about parasitic worms. It was really clear and felt refreshing! The village was very impressive. You could take pictures but if someone was in your shot you had to ask for their permission. I believe it has something to do with stealing their soul. The village was a lot cleaner then most of the places we’re visited thus far. They even had garbage cans outside their hut. Most of the people that were around were lounging and playing cards. There are 500 people that live there and if they’re not in the village they have gone to work on the farm or fish. If they are gone they usually don’t come back for a few days. The best part of the day was the canoe ride their and back. We sang a lot and made lots of jokes. The tour guide said we were the liveliest bunch hes ever had and he liked it. Though I don’t think he was too impressed with our singing skill level since on the way back he played his radio to drown us out a bit. The ride back felt longer then the trip there which I didn’t think could be possible. It was such a long day, I don’t think we’ll do that sort of traveling in one day again. We originally didn’t have plans to eat at Eli’s but when we were on our ride home we gave Maria a call to have Eli whip up some comfort food for dinner. Eli made us a huge dinner of mac and cheese and it was the best way to end the stressful day.