Hip-Hopopotamus

So, I had a great weekend this weekend despite a couple of problems befalling friends.

I will start on a High by telling you about the trip that I, Mel, Alison, Linda and H took out to Wechiau Hippo Sanctuary. The hippo sanctuary is a stretch of the Black Volta River that runs along the border of Ghana and Burkina Faso to the West of Wa. The river its self is the border with one bank being in Ghana and the other in Burkina Faso. The sanctuary is about 50km outside of Wa and has accommodation and cooking facilities, but you must bring your own food. It is probably one of the most understated least visited tourist attractions that I have ever been to. The location, being tucked away way up in the remoteness of the upper west and the lack of any real push on tourism means that less than 1000 people each year visit it. The Sanctuary was setup by the Wechiau community and has ties to many other organisations, such as the Calgary Zoo, and has won lots of awards from the UN and the Eco Tourism Sector.

Linda and H’s Neighbor is the chief of the area they live in and he runs a couple schools near them. He is a very generous man and they have got to know if quite well. He lent us his small school bus for the weekend, a 25-seater and a driver to take us out and back. We were originally planning on eight people coming so we thought that even though it was big it would do nicely for bags and such. Unfortunately, Cath, Aaron and Noriko couldn’t make it for reasons I will share later. So, we did feel a bit silly have a 25-seater bus for 5 people, but we got over it.

We set of around 15:00 and drove about 30 minutes from Wa to Wechiau. The Visitor center is located there, this is where your book accommodation and arrange a guide for a boat safari. There are a few types of accommodation. There is a Lodge built in the traditional style (so not western), the roof of the lodge, or out on tree platforms near the river. Myself, Mel and Alison opted for the tree top platforms. Linda and H chose to sleep in the lodge. We arranged our guide and he got on the bus with us and we drove out to the lodge.

When we got to the lodge we encountered a few problems, this is normal in Ghana though and it wasn’t too surprising. One of the Platforms was in a tree that had been hit by lightning and so was unusable, the second’s ladder was loose, so they didn’t like to use that one and the third had people in it. It’s usually little things like this that if they had been communicated back to the visitor’s center would have been avoided, you get used to this though. So, myself, Mel and Alison decided to sleep on the roof of the lodge and got the bed setup, a mattress with a mosquito net over it.

The lodge was located a short walk from the river and, so it was in a remote area with no lights or traffic, there were a few houses scattered around it. The scenery was stunning and the sunset doubly so. We spent a peaceful evening eating the food we brought and chatting to the guide about the local wildlife and customs.

The night was very nice; we knew it was going to be cold, so we had plenty of blankets. The stars were out in vast numbers, no lights anywhere to dilute or drown them out they and we were treated to a few shooting stars. The only noises were that of a few birds and we heard a xylophone being played off in the distance.

We woke with the rising sun at just before 6:00 and packed up the beds and they set out with our guide to walk to the river. We walked down a small path through brown dry fields and past a few small houses. Here we met the boat man; he was only a boy of about 15. We all walked down to the banks of the Black Volta and were greeted with a few long wooden canoes like boats on the bank. Of all the boats that were there the one we would take out would be the last one I would have guessed. For a start it was underwater. We spent the next 15 minutes watching the boatman and guide try to get the boat floating, and they did succeed. It did become quickly apparent why the boat sank. The seams between some of the boards were not as leak proof as it should be. We thought that this might be the end of a trip but of course this is Ghana and they can fix anything. With the use of my Swiss army knife and the sacrifice of our guide’s socks the problem was fixed. The socks were cut up and the pieces stuffed into the cracks. We were not too sure about the watercrafts seaworthiness, but our fears were put to rest when our guide said, and I quote “I trust my socks”.

With the boat floating and only slightly leaking we set off in search of hippos. It’s not guaranteed that you will see any hippos, but we were hoping for the best. The river is quite a good size and has a multitude of birdlife along it. Fisherman paddled past as they went to set or retrieve traps. No engines of course so it was very peaceful, just the sound of birds, the paddling and of courses the bailing of water. I did forget to mention that even though our boat was floating and the socks doing their best to keep the water out we still were taking on a good amount of water. This meant that I was bailing water as we went to keep us a float; we picked up two small fished and a crayfish along the way. I was using a calabash to bail, this is a pumpkin like fruit that is cut in half and the tough skin dried to use as a bowl like implement.

Luck was with us on the trip though and we stayed afloat and we found a group of Hippos about 10 minutes upstream. Hippos as most of you know are very bad tempered and do attack humans quite a bit. A Peace Corp volunteer was recently attacked by a hippo in a village near the sanctuary and is in Accra hospital still recovering from quite serious injuries. The locals give the Hippos a lot of deserved respect and give them a wide berth when they are out in the boats. So soon after arriving near the Hippos the boat man and guide became very nervous and they decided to bank the boat and get out. We at first through this was just to watch the hippos, they got out of the boat but again we thought this was mostly a comfort thing. Soon though they asked us to get out of the boat and we waited on the shore.

The Hippos stayed a good distance from us and we paced about half an hour watching these large mammals lounge in the water. It was a peaceful experience watching them surface and blow a large plum of spray when they exhaled. It’s hard to take pictures which do them justice on a regular Camera; I have a few from H who had a SLR with a good lens that I will put up. We watched them for a bit longer before they were in a safe position for us to be able to leave. We got back into the Canoe and we made our way slowly back to the shore. We passed down the river and enjoy the growing warmth as the sun rises higher in the sky.

We get back safely to the shore and walk back to the lodge. The group of people that live near the lodge are the Lobi people from Burkina Faso who moved there to escape problems in their country many hundreds of years ago. We had the opportunity to go and see one of their houses, so we took it.

The house is made of mud bricks, pieces of food and woven grass and consists of about 4 buildings in a semi circle configuration. Mud silos sit in the corner of one room, they are containing various grains, beans and berries. The family is doing various chores around the house. A girl prepares Shea nut paste which looks like a black sludge, a woman is pounding beans in a divot made in the ground with a long wooden poll. Various rooms for sleeping, a blacksmiths area, and food preparation take up most of the space. Clay pots decorated with various symbols sit along a wall for water storage. The roof is used for drying various food stuffs, piles of beans and chillies sit on the room baking in the hot sun. The toilet facilities are all the fields around the house, there is not running water of course. They do have a small solar panel that provides energy to a small light in the middle of the compound. It’s a bit had to describe, I hope the pictures do it justice.

After the tour we got back on the bus with our guide and driver and dove back to the visitor’s center, it was about 11:00 at this point. I bought a chair at the office for 5 Ghana Cedi; it’s made from wood sticks and is generally called a relaxing chair as the angle you sit at is very laid back. I will put a picture up. The ride back to Wa was relaxing and passed quickly.

Cath, Aaron and Noriko couldn’t make the trip because Cath got very sick with a stomach bug. When you are sick with a stomach bug here it really takes a toll on you because it’s hot and you need a lot of liquids. Because of this Cath ended up in hospital in Jirapa and had to stay overnight. She had lots of blood test and it took a few days to come back with the diagnosis of dysentery. She is getting better now though so that is at least some good news.

The second problem was that Mel, Linda, and H’s house was broken into Sunday night. The back door on the hallway was weak and they had asked the landlord to replace it which was supposed to happen Monday. Luckily the doors to the living room and Linda and H’s bedroom was locked so they could only get into the two spare rooms and only made off with about 10 Ghc and a cell phone. If the living room door wasn’t locked they would have gotten a few laptops, cameras, and money so they were very lucky. The person also chose to use their front porch as a bathroom.

The first thing is that the timing was a bit suspicious because someone knew exactly how to get into their house shortly after the landlord was informed. They knew to kick the bottom of the door and that it was weak. So, there is a feeling that a trust that was broken. Our homes here are our fortitude of solitude, when everything else outside seems different, scary or overwhelming we can retreat inside our homes and center ourselves and feel safe and secure. It does shake you to have the place you considered the safest violated. Secondly the fact that someone used their porch as a bathroom felt like it was a personal insult and was almost worse than the break.

It was a great weekend for me; I had an awesome time and really enjoyed getting to see a bit more of Africa. Unfortunately, everything doesn’t always go as planned for us volunteers, but we get through it and march on.