It all falls tumbling down [or: all roads lead to Accra]

Had all gone as scheduled, we would have gone to Akropong for the Odwira festival this week. This is a traditional harvest festival which has a lot of functions, most of which I have no idea about yet. Anyway, it's been moved up a few weeks, so we'll go in October.
Not having anything planned, we decided to go exploring. Not having any idea what to do, we decided to try the Amenapa waterfalls near Akropong/Akuapem. This was supposed to be about an hour and a half by tro-tro, and we had been to Akropong before, so why not? I figured that I had all the benefit of 4 Twi classes, and knew how to say "My name is Audrey. What is your name?" and "I am from America. My parents' names are Diane and Michael." This knowledge, plus the assurance of three cell phones, four guide books and ten people in their early twenties led us to yet another adventure.

We split up onto three groups- two of three and one of four. Each group had a guide book, a cell phone, and a boy. This last element seems to be crucial in the minds of many foreign travelers. Anyway, we hopped on a tro-tro to Medina, where we would catch another tro-tro to Akropong, after which we would hire a taxi to the falls. Brad, Jordan and I traveled the first leg of the group together, and then we met Sam(antha), Kinsco and Deric and waited for 40 minutes for the tro-tro to take off. After a very beautiful (if cramped) ride, we arrived at Akuapem and crammed the 6 of us in a relatively small taxi. The driver didn't have a cell phone, so we decided to wing it and worry about getting back later. 10 white people hitchhiking in rural, mountainous Ghana? No big deal. We were sure that we would find a ride back.

After a 10 minute walk to the falls, we found what seemed like 100 feet of water and the rest of our friends. The falls were beautiful and slightly ominous. In between the rocks, there were fish which had taken the great leap and found it wanting, and there was the collective trash of months of careless hikers strewn over the ground. The water buffeted us this and that way, and Brad lost his footing and gashed his head. All the while, it was unbelievably beautiful, with moss covering the boulders and the water streaming down the rock face. I had to close my eyes just to stand there, but Little Wings (a fabulous band) was in my head and I couldn't but dance. At that moment, I missed my friends so unbelievably much- standing under a waterfall, dancing like Joke and Brian and Audrey all together, hearing music in my head that reminded me of all of them- I could think of nothing better than being there with them.

But I digress. Erika, Derek, and Jordan went exploring and tried to find a way to the top of the falls. They were gone for over an hour, and we were starting to get a little worried. Finally, we saw them staggering out of the woods, covered in scratches, Jordan carrying his flip-flops, and Erica limping. "How was it?!?" "It was... not worth it." Apparently, they had traversed the deepest jungles of Akuapem and found it wanting. I'm not sure if it was the swarming ants or the scratching branches or the shoe-destroying terrain, but they weren't satisfied.

Finally, sore and wounded (but satisfied) we set off to find a way back to Accra. All of the tro-tro's that passed us were full, but we did our best to hitch a ride. Finally, after walking about half a mile uphill, a pickup truck stopped and agreed to take us to Akuapem. We hopped in the back and enjoyed the ride. That was really the end of the story. We finally caught a tro-tro back to Accra and then went out for dinner at Redd Lobster. I got back to the dorm at about 9, and was asleep by 9:40.

Tonight is Professor Jelks' birthday, so we're taking him out to dinner.