Blog 10 Fun on the Weekends

For my 3rd weekend in Ghana, Diana and I hit Kokrobite Beach! This beach is a short 45 minute drive going west from Accra. We lucked out with a ride to Accra by Diana's roomie, who manages at bank in Aburi. How nice of him to stop and pick us up after he got off work and take us to Accra in style and comfort in his Mercades. I was loving this ride compared to the cramped, smelly, no AC Tro-Tro. I sat back and relaxed, worry free! Dropped off at a taxi station in Accra and made the $7 US taxi ride to Big Milly's Backyard in Kokrobite. You can look them up online if you want to see pics and get details about Big Milly's. This is the place to be for all volunteers working in Ghana and locals too! Sits right on the beach. Arriving Friday we walked into a Traditional Ghanaian Dance, it seemed like the entire town turned out for this event, kids and adults all sitting and enjoying the show. We quickly grabbed a drink and watched the show. We originally booked the $3 per night, per person dorm rooms but when we found out they would be outside in a hammock we decided that would be too much of an invitation for MALARIA even though the place was nice enough to provide mosquito nets. So indoors we go to a very nice cabina ($17 per night total!!! So $8.50 per person! Beat that Ocean City!!!!) complete with an outdoor shower attached to the cabina. It surpassed my expectations! I had the best shower of my life outside with the hot sun beating down through a huge palm tree branch making the cold water refreshing, not so cold and not mind numbing! Just me and nature, just the way I like it! Met some nice locals, lots of volunteers, college students studying in Accra through a program with New York University, and a Bitter Barbie Peace Corp Volunteer coming off her 4 year service in Africa (I think she stayed too long!) You do not need to be a student at NYU to go through that program, NYU has a campus in Accra, if case anyone reading this is interested...

Sat, incredible banana pancakes for breakfast at Big Milly's ($1.50)and fruit, spent the day on the beach, the waves were very strong so I did not venture out far (no lifeguard), met a nice lady from Oregon who has been living in Ghana for the past few years, was given land by a local chief to turn into a protected forest. Her name is Dorlinda and she has just finished planting over 400 trees on 130 acres of land for The Solo Forest Foundation. I am going to cruise by there again in a few weeks and visit her and do my part for the environment and plant a tree. She lived in Hawaii for 18 years and just had Gull Bladder surgery here for the bargain price of $900 at a local clinic, run by 2 surgeons from France. She said when she got there the equipment looked so old she was too scared to cry. Her surgery was 2 weeks before we met her and so far, so good! Sat night dinner at a local Italian Rest run by Italians, I had pesto penne. The Italian lady in her 30's personally came over to check on us and make sure we were enjoying ourselves, I love when rest. owners do this! She was very sweet and you can see her young children playing around the town during the day. Back to Big Milly's... We danced the night away to the local reggee band...Jen B, the singer in the band gave me a shout out in one of the songs! I thought of you from Amy's Birthday Ball at Washington College.

Kokrobite Beach was nice. Large wooden boats everywhere, people mending nets, boats going out, coming in, I got some great shots! Will be going back to Big Milly's again if I can. One of the local guys who works there said that he lives on the property and the couple that own Big Milly's have been putting him through school for years. He is getting ready to attend University in Ireland. Amazing story and nice guy!