Green Turtle

I don't know why some posts are harder to make myself sit down and write than others. This post about Green Turtle has been especially hard to get jazzed up to do.

I think, upon reflection, that I was afraid to sit down and write about how wonderful it is because I knew I would want to go back this weekend - and I can't.

So, Green Turtle.

One of the only places that I had heard repeated rave reviews about in Ghana was a place called Green Turtle Lodge. All I knew about the lodge was that it claimed to be "eco-tourism at its finest", it had a beautiful beach and once you got there you wouldn't want to leave. I believed these reviews to some extent but had fears about getting my hopes up. The other thing to be considered: it was almost 8 hours away by tro-tro if you made good time, according to people from my program who had already gone.

Last week, Friday, 5 a.m. we were up and putting the final items in our backpacks for our three day trip to Green Turtle. We had no idea what to expect from transportation but we knew that the earlier we got going the better off we would be. Our first tro-tro simply didn't happen. We couldn't find one to save our lives, so we ended up loading up a taxi and heading to our first stop: Kineshi station.

The drive was eventful due to the traffic and our aggressive driver, but the arrival at the station is the best part of the story.

We ran over a kid.

Calm down - we only ran over his foot. But none-the-less it was my first experience running over a person. Now, this kid - he did not take his brush with death lying down. Oh no - he and his friends saw this as an opportunity. After the boy and his pals came running to the cab yelling and screaming at the cab driver things only got worse.

As our terrifying driver continued to yell back that he owed him nothing "because the kid practically jumped in front of his car" (which was actually the truth) a crowd began to form. Before we knew it our cab was quite literally being mobbed. People were throwing themselves across the hood of the car to keep it from leaving, others were yelling at the driver through the windows of the car, and plenty of folks were just gawking at the semi-terrified-semi-amused oburonis in the car.

This is when my two companions and I began to wonder if we were safer in the cab or out of it... within 5 minutes of the mobbing we were fairly certain we needed to just get out of there. With hands reaching in the windows and demanding "the whites give money for the hospital" I stuck the 9 cedi we owed the driver under his bum and made a break for it. The surge of relief we felt as soon as we were out of shouting distance is something unmatched for me so far. We all just looked at each other and started to laugh. Luckily for us, where we ran to happened to be exactly where we needed to be for a bus to Takoradi.

There is no way for me to explain to you how much we rely on the kindness of strangers when we travel here. You literally go to a "station" aka some roadside area where a tro-tro driver decides to drop you, and you start asking every stranger you see where a tro to where you want to go might be...

I'll skip the rest of the travel stories - it was a fairly easy trip post mobbing.

When we reached Green Turtle... it was like walking into paradise. It was quiet. It was calm. It was absolutely gorgeous. We checked in at the bar - which consisted of saying "hey I'm Alexis" and them saying "hey, welcome. You are in that bungalow over there. Your friends are on the beach."

And then they started my tab. At the lodge you don't pay for anything until you leave. Ingenious on their part, dangerous for us. Luckily, I kept track of my bill and emerged spending almost exactly what I intended to spend.

We spent our first afternoon in giddy excitement, soaking up every ray of sun, every taste... Let me pause here: the food.

Oh my lord... the food. It was like all things that are good had come together and made it onto the menu at the lodge. My first delectable treat was bruschetta, my dinner was potato wedges and stir-fryed vegetables... it was all simply incredible. Then, that night as we listened to the waves crashing on the beach we drank tea and talked about how in love with this place we were, and tried to plan a follow-up trip.

After tea and banana fritters we headed down to the beach, laid out on the bamboo mats provided... and stared up into one of the most incredible night skies I have ever laid my eyes on. I have never seen the cosmos lit up like that before. Each star seemed to have been placed in its respective place just for us. The milky way ran from one end of the sky to the next. Shooting stars dove into the sea, one after the other.

I have never been so genuinely in awe of God's creation.

The next morning I woke up at 5:30 to try to catch the sunrise. It was cloudy but I opted to stay awake anyway. I rolled up my pajama pants and went for a walk on the beach with my camera. I don't know if I've ever been on a beach at dawn before. It was silent except for the waves rushing up to greet the sand. I stood in the water and thought about the fact that I am in Africa. That I am alone on a beach at 5:45 a.m.. That I am remarkably and unreasonably blessed.

I had my breakfast of french toast and caramelized bananas with french-pressed coffee. The first real cup of coffee I have had since I stepped foot in Africa. And my journey into heaven seemed to be complete. My taste buds effectively tantalized.

We spent the afternoon hiking down the beach to a rocky area approximately 3 miles away. We climbed on the rocks, sat and looked at the sea, and took copious amounts of pictures to document the experience.

We returned to the lodge to lay on the beach, nap, read in hammocks and even play some volleyball. That night we enjoyed another feast of treats that pushed you to the edge of ecstasy and finished up with a bon-fire, a game of pool, and an intense discussion of South Africa post-apartheid with our new friend Wayne, who was indeed from S. Africa.

Sunday morning we woke up, had our breakfast (more importantly I had my coffee) and walked a mile or so down the beach in the opposite direction of the rocks, to the closest village. There we caught a tro-tro at just the right time and headed home.

The transition from Green Turtle to Kineshi station was jarring to put it mildly. I wanted to stay on the tro and demand they return me to the lodge. The smell of burning trash, sewage and city life in general hit me from all the wrong angles. Hawkers hassling me, and the overall chaos of the greater Accra area was making my skin crawl.

Back at campus, after a good shower and some time reading Everything is Illuminated - I felt better.

I realized that night that I am halfway through my time here... In 2 months I will be back in the States.

When did that happen?

Life is good. Africa is beautiful and challenging all at the same time.