day three

We woke up, got an egg sandwich and headed to catch a tro to Bolgatanga (Bolga). We got some of the last tickets and we learned that unless you are in a huge hurry you should just wait for the next one, otherwise, you end up with the worst seats. Drew ended up sitting in between two very large women on an already overcrowded bench. I ended up in a jump seat in the middle of the bus next to a woman with 3 children piled into her seat so that she only had to pay for one seat. At that point I knew that this was going to be one of the longest four hours ever! Along the way we saw a recently crashed tro tro turned on its side and people crawling out of the windows. This was not very comforting. We finally arrived in Bolga and went to look for some food to eat. It was Sunday, so there was not much open. We ended up getting some jollof (rice cooked with tomato paste and a few spices) and an egg (I have eaten more eggs here than I ever have in my life.) After eating we headed back to the tro tro station and found the van going to Tongo. The fare was 4,000 cedis. I asked how much it would cost to put my backpack on the roof and was told 5,000 cedis. This seemed like too much since it was more than the fare I would pay so I decided to carry it on. When it came time to pay I handed the tro tro mate 10,000 and paid for my ticket and Drew’s, expecting 2,000 back in change. The mate told me that he did not have change and would give it to me later. I told him that would be fine. In fact, I did not really care if I got the change or not since it is really less than a quarter. Later, he came back and told me that he was going to keep the 2,000 because I carried a bag on board. This was a new rule designed to squeeze extra money out of the tourist. At this point I decided that I really wanted that change and demanded he find the change and bring it right back to me. After arguing back and forth, I ended up getting it back. All left to do was wait for the tro to fillup and then we could leave. Since it was Sunday, we ended up waiting over an hour. For some reason, people are expected to wait on the tro and not leave after you have paid the fare. It was hot and I was still a little upset about the mate trying to take my 2,000. I could not wait to get off that van!

We finally arrive in Tongo and exit the tro. The driver comes up to me and tells me that I owe him 5,000 cedis for the bag. At this point I was in no mood to humor him and did what you should really not do in Ghana. I just said “NO!” and walked away. He was offended and began yelling at me. There was a time when I first arrived in which this would have intimidated me and I would have given in. Not anymore! He was saying that I can’t just say no. I could say that I did not have the money or I don’t want to pay, but not just “no”. Again, I just said “No!” and that I was not going to pay extra since the woman with the goat on her lap did not have to any anymore and my bag did not smell nearly as bad. I walked away as he was still yelling at me.


A kid, Zachias, on the tro was from Tenzug and said he knew our friend Tonya. We had heard that Tenzug was about 4 km away and located on top of a hill. Zachias picked up his bike in Tongo and agreed to carry one of our bags and water. We followed him down a path into the hills. The landscape was amazing and the setting sun made it look golden. It reminded me of the American Southwest. After about 5 minutes of walking and following Zachias we told him that he could go on ahead since he had his bike and we would be in Tenzug shortly. This was a mistake since we forgot to ask him for directions before he left. Ten minutes later we realized out mistake and we were lost. It was also beginning to get dark. We ended up asking some people we met along the way and they showed us to the road we were supposed to be on.


We finally arrived at Tonya’s village and found her house. It was a small building next to the school. We asked her about the area and if there were places that we were not allowed to explore. She pointed to two hills she said were off limits because they were considered sacred. If we went there she would have to pay for a cow to be sacrificed to cleanse the place. Not wanting to put her out we agreed not to go to those hills. That evening we sat around her house around a coleman lantern. Electricity had yet to come to her village and there were no immediate plans to connect it to the grid. She had lived there for over a year by then and said she enjoyed the simplicity. We were all pretty tired so we turned end after a couple of hours sitting around listening to Tonya play her guitar and sing. Drew and I decided to sleep outside in her courtyard. Because it was so dark here we had great view of the stars as we fell asleep.

The next day we got up had some breakfast that Tonya had gotten from the chief's house. Porrige and my fave food in Ghana, cosi. Cosi is smashed up beans that are made into a patty and fried. After that we playes some frisbee and then headed to take the tour of the village. The village is made up of people with traditional religious beliefs and they perform sacrifices of all sorts to the gods. At one point we went to a shrine in a cave on a cliff. This is the main shrine of the village where people come for advice. When you go there, you first have to have permission from the priest. You also have to bring a fowl to be sacrificed and you are not allowed to wear a shirt of any kind. It interesting to see and hear about since these people really believe in this stuff.

We spent the afternoon rock climbing around the village and the evening drinking warm beer that we sent a ckid to go get for us from the closest store (about 3 miles away).