The Beach

The beach is beautiful, reminds me of home. The rumble of the ocean when your at a distance grabs at my heart everytime I hear it. The beach has always been my escape, rain or shine, summer or winter. The stress leaves as the water sprays up at me from the wave cazhing on the shore, it's just so relaxing.

May 16th & May 22nd
Each trip to the beach we left early morning. We piled into our trow trow and off we went, each time a different route. The drive to the beach i definitely a beautiful one. You pass many towns, farms, all the scenery so beautiful. To get to this beach we had to get dropped off just before the Azizanya village. We then walked fifteen to twenty minutes through a village of all straw huts, some with mud walls but majority straw. The huts are all very close together and are enclosed by palm tree leaf fences so it's like a maze to get through. This village is very friendly, children running up to you, "Bafoono!" and parents taking their children over to say hello. Each side of the village is also lined with water, ocean on one side, river on the other. On the way you have to cross three different bridges and it's when you cross the last you know you've arrived.
Palm tree bottoms painted green, yellow and pink line the shore of the beach. You can see straw huts with doors painted of different flage from around the world. There is two straw huts, one you can order cold drinks from(you don't find cold drinks very often around here) and the other where you can order food from. The Volta river is on your right while you can hear the rumbling of the ocean coming from your left.
At this point I found myself taking a moment, it was all so beautiful. I had always said that resorts weren't for me and that I didn't support what many resorts do to communities but for some odd reason here I felt okay, I didn't have that horrible feeling.
After I had this moment I took off to towards the ocean. The beach rolled upward, explaining why I couldn't see the ocean only hear, and when I reached the top in front of me endless white sand leading to beautiful deep blue ocean with highlights of waves crashing close to the shore. It was beautiful. Down the beach in a distance there was one of the unique looking fishing boats pulled up onto the beach with busy men working in the water. I found myself a seat close to the water and just sat taking it all in.
Both times we travelled to the beach we ended up staying the full day at the resort. We had food, not traditional but not Canadian either, just some rice, "salad"(kind of like clowslaw without the dressing), yam fries, you know all that good stuff. Although that reminds me, my first trip there I had Banku and Barracua fish("the best fish on the West coast of Africa," says Godwin) with Godwin, the Arethas, Anoch and two other friends of Godwin's fromt he community. Who would have thought I would ever be in Africa let alone eating a Barracuda fish. It was so delicious. I also met some cool people at the beach as well. There was another group of volunteers who had come over from Togo from working on the Africa Mercy Ship and told me all about it. They were from Canada and the Netherland and travelled the West coast of Africa doing major surguries that may not be offered in local hospitals.
On my second trip, I was able to enjoy the beach more. I played some football with one of the students from the school that had come along for the day as well as playing some volleyball after being asked by some locals which was an absoulute hoot. We also took the boat back to catch our ride to Sega rather than walking through the half wet village at this point in the day. The boat was this old fashion, think like a canoe/kayak mixed but very long and sat at least twenty of us. The boat ride lasted about the same as it would take to walk but it was very beautiful to see the Islands on the river, all palm trees, and the different perspective of the coastline we'd travelled by car each time.
The beach was so beautiful and hard to leave. As I said before I didn't initially like the fact I was supporting a "resort" but later to my surprise I found out this resort actually sends all it's profits to the local school. Funny how that worked out hey. One more trip before I leave Ghana... I think so.