Living the High Life. Literally.

Accessible only by boat... a dug out wooden canoe, to be specific, that you must row - by hand - Nzulezo, is a community of more than 500 people who live in "The Village on Water", located in South Western Ghana.

Let me just say: Rowing a canoe for an hour is hard work! I even have blisters on my thumbs as evidence of my hard physical labor! Haha.


The stilt village was an amazing sight! It's something that is hard to imagine still exists is 2009... but then again, this is Africa.

After crossing Lake Amansuri, my guide, Samuel instructs me that if I want to take pictures of any person I must ask them first.

The reaction of the village people shocked me a little bit. They weren't very inviting. While I understand that it is their home, it is also a tourist attraction that thousands of people come to each year, so I was expecting them to be friendly.

In the end, I cut my losses and didn't take any pictures of the people. I saved myself the rejection!

The history of the village dates back 400+ years ago when people from Mali and Senegal were feuding. The Malian's fled and built the village on water to protect themselves from the enemies. While the feuds have subsided, the people still choose to live out on the water. For mere convenience of having a home already established, maybe? Life is simpler out on the water?

There was a primary school on site which was staffed by a member of the village. I wonder if they have had any formal education? Unlikely. Absolutely no computers or games for the students. But then again- it's obviously not necessary for them, and not a priority.

A Catholic church sat at the end of the row of houses held above water on tall stilts. My guide told me that while most of the people have accepted Christianity, some still believe in their own gods.

When a baby is born in the community, the child is dipped into the lake three times. Once the baby can crawl along the wooden planks that connect the houses and pass over the lake, the baby will see it's shadow and crawl back to safety. My guide said that for as long as the village has been in existence, a baby has never fallen in!

As for electricity, the community operates on car batteries and generators.

I was very curious about what kind of jobs the people had, where they got their food, and who could live in the village. Could anyone just move in?

From the minimal explanations I received, I was able to obtain the following answers:
Most of the people are farmers. They grow a lot of their own food, or will row to the village an hour away to buy additional supplies.
You must ask the chief if you are interested in living in the village and must "meet certain criteria".

Experiencing such an unusual way living was really neat. I'm glad I made the 7 hour trek to see another aspect of Ghana! A great weekend!

Easter Extravaganza

While there was no Easter Bunny, egg hunts, or a get together with the fam at Granny and Grampy's house, my Easter in Africa was great! Definitely a weekend to remember.

My friend, Delia, and I traveled to Lioti Wote in the Volta Region and did a "village stay" with a family for 5 days. Our host, Kuma, is a graduate student at the University of Ghana and studied in the US for a school year and also lived in Germany for four years. Kuma, and many people in the Volta Region are part of the Ewe Tribe and spoke Ewe, instead of Twi... so my limited tribal language skills weren't getting me very far here!

Once we arrived in the village we met Kuma's family and then proceeded to greet the entire village. According to Kuma, this greeting is absolutely necessary and expected. If you don't participate then you are being rude and disrespectful. Kuma kept commenting on the "communal society" and said that while he appreciates many aspects of the tradition, he says some things are becoming outdated, such as this method of greeting.

Highest Peak in Ghana... Conquered!

-The mountain and a glimpse of the village-

Mt. Afadjato is the highest mountain in Ghana and is located in Lioti Wote. Early Friday morning before it got too hot outside, Delia and I met our guide and started up. Our guide, Joshua was wearing long pants and flip flops to climb this mountain! What!? And at times... would run up! He made it look so easy! But don't let the Ghanaian fool you! It was tough!

The view from the top was awesome. We could see the entire village down below and the next mountain over was Togo.

After hiking the mountain, we relaxed at nearby Tagbo Falls, a beautiful waterfall. Being the first waterfall to that extent I've ever seen, it was amazing.

Wine from Trees

Later that afternoon, Kuma took us to a palm wine "farmer", so we could see the "tapping" process - how wine is made from trees.

Palm trees are cut and laid on their side for about a week. Then a hole is cut and a jug is placed underneath to catch the wine. Everyday the farmer comes back and puts fire in the hole and cuts away more of the bark so more wine will flow.

The farmer goes around to all his trees every day and repeats the same process. To me, it seems very tedious and doesn't reap a large return. It amazes me how people ever perfected the extraction and realized that the fluid which comes from a tree is alcoholic. At the end of our tour, we all tried some... drinking out of "calabash" which are little wooden bowls. It was warm, but very sweet. Definitely a favorite among the locals.

You may now kiss the Brother...?!

Saturday love was in the air.
A traditional wedding ceremony took place in the village.

The entire service was spoken in Ewe, but thankfully Kuma was there to translate for us.

To begin with, the groom's family carried in the dowry, or gifts for the bride and her family, on their heads. Yes! On their heads. It wouldn't have been done any other way!

The bride wasn't yet at the ceremony, so the family had to take their "car" and go get her - but they didn't have "gas". A collection was taken up. Then the "car" broke down and again another collection. The groom's family had to raise at least 50 cedi before the bride would come.

The bride was right inside the house the whole time.

The cute thing- when it was time for the bride to come out, there was a lady with a "steering wheel" leading the bride and members of her party into the ceremony. Haha.

The most interesting part about the whole thing though is that the groom wasn't ever there! He was in the U.S. and couldn't make it back for his own wedding! It was the groom's brother who stood in for him... I don't know why they couldn't have just waited until he was actually there... They will have a church ceremony later, and I can only hope he's present and accounted for for that one!

He has Risen!

At four am on Easter morning Delia and I are woken up by the sound of drumming and singing out in the street. People were dressed in all white and represented angels. Apparently they were shouting "He has risen!" in Ewe; a tradition they perform every Easter morning, to get everyone excited about the day.

Later that morning we attended Kuma's church for an Easter service. Surprisingly there was nothing spectacular or different about the church service. A lot of dancing and singing, but that is nearly every church service in Africa!

I was actually surprised at how much it seemed like just another day all together. No one greeted each other with "Happy Easter" like we do in the United States. We didn't even eat as an entire family for dinner or anything.

Evidently the "celebration" happens on Easter Monday.

On the agenda was musical chairs, tug of war, drumming, dancing, and singing, and other games. Delia and I were excited and ready to participate!

Activities were suppose to begin at 9 in the morning, but of course, they didn't.
At 10:30 I asked one of the guys why we hadn't started yet and he informed me that they were waiting for everyone to take their breakfast and get ready.

I tried to explain that the people should have planned ahead and taken their breakfast earlier, and that the activities should have just started without the people who weren't on time. Haha. Oh man. Why do I even try to reason with the Ghanaians?

Eventually is started to rain... pour. It soon became obvious that the "scheduled" events weren't actually going to take place! Haha. Oh Africa! Never a back up plan. Nope. That would be too efficient!