Bats and Rastafarians

To be honest, Accra can get on my nerves after a while. It’s a busy, noisy, smelly and disorganized mass of people and concrete buildings connected by random highways and backstreets that are filled with cars and tro-tros that only add to the ambiance.

Sometimes the hostel can get that way too. Given that I still don’t feel at home at the Hostel or in my room, (my big project for next semester: stop living like I’m at a hotel and settle in!) I like to get out on weekends as much as possible. I have yet to remain in Accra for two weekends in a row!

It appears that Meghan B. and Catherine felt the same, because they went away for 10 days for a “working vacation” at XOFA, a project in the wilderness of Volta Region. The basic idea behind it was to replant a deforested area with mango trees and other crops. This eventually became an eco-tourist venture (read: hotel without electricity) that is mostly run by Rastafarians and offers lots of activities for people who want to live the simple life.

The place itself is pretty neat, with lots of nice huts, seashell walkways, beautiful flowers and Rasta atmosphere. Did I mention that it sits on Lake Volta, Africa’s largest man-made lake? The best part is that it is bilharzia-free, so you can go swimming without worrying about getting worms! The water was warm and fresh, like being in a nice pool without the chlorine. One of the best swims I’ve ever had, period.

It’s quite a beautiful place, but it’s pretty expensive by Ghanaian standards, so the budget-conscious would be setting themselves up to be disappointed with the value of staying there. So Meghan and Catherine spent over a week there planting mango trees and helping educate the children at the local village For their volunteering, they got half off accommodations and food. You be the judge of whether that’s a good deal.

Anyways, Meghan called me on Thursday and told me to bring as many people to XOFA to help out for a day… something about a “bat house”. So a bunch of the girls came with me the next evening to check it out…

(Building the bat houses)

Apparently, the school was quickly becoming unusable because of a bat infestation. Our basic project for Saturday was to 1) rid the schoolhouse of nesting bats, 2) cover the area between the roof and walls so that the bats couldn’t re-enter and 3) make alternate accommodations for the bats. It felt like a bizarre Trading Spaces / development project that had to be finished in a day. (Note to self: pitch that idea to TLC)

So we acquired netting and nails for the bat-proofing, made a butterfly net out of sticks, rope and the net and made bat houses out of branches, sticks and nails. We went over and were followed by all of the children in the village (all mud huts and no electricity), so Lisa and Julianna played with them while we went to work on getting the bats out, putting up the netting and erecting the bat houses on a pole. Able-bodied locals participated with us and it was only right to have them in on the process, since it’s for their school.

(Hilde and I relaxing)

Long story short, we did a pretty good job considering our time constraints. I don’t know if we helped solve their problems. It was my first experience with a community development project (albeit not a “real” one) and it kinda felt good to get something positive done and feel like we took an idea and made it work.

We celebrated by having dinner and drinks on the shore whilst watching lightning off in the distance. Afterwards, we shared some stories, songs and lemongrass tea with our new Rasta friends King and Cha Cha (AKA "Batman") The experience was great for the body soul and methinks I’ll take a week off next semester with Meghan to do it all again.