Days 7 and 8 - A Village on Water, a Rainforest & Seeing a Completely Different Side of Ghana

This weekend was a little bit different.

After our first full week of teaching, we had the luxury of leaving our little village for a couple of days and exploring a completely different part of Ghana.

The volunteers split into two groups. Half headed off towards Cape Coast, me and Anna naturally got on the wrong trip  while our group travelled around two hours by minibus towards Nzulezu Stilt Village and Ankasa Conservation Area.

And I don’t think I was prepared for just how different this weekend would be.

Friday Night — Sunset, Coconuts & an Actual Shower 

We arrived at our accommodation in the evening and, after a week of fairly basic living, the rooms felt surprisingly luxurious, we could have our own room and the shower worked first time. You really do appreciate the simple things over here. NEVER did I think I’d become this excited about a shower, but being able to properly wash and scrub my hair felt AMAZING!

Once we’d settled in, we ordered some food and headed down to the beach to watch the sunset.

The sunsets in Ghana are honestly something else. The colours across the sky are incredible and there is something about sitting beside the sea here that instantly seems to slow everything down.

After the emotional heaviness of the previous day, it was exactly where I needed to be.

We also had fresh coconuts. A man literally took a machete, chopped the top straight off, popped a straw inside and handed it over. It doesn’t get much fresher than that. And it was delicious.

Our wild Friday night then consisted of a few games of Uno. One of the volunteers, Ruben, taught us a completely different way of playing. It took me considerably longer than everyone else to understand what was happening , but once I eventually grasped it, it was actually really fun.

By about 8pm, we were in bed. Clearly Ghana has changed me.

Saturday — A Village Built Entirely on Water

Saturday morning started with something we haven’t had much of this week a lie-in.

Instead of getting up around 7am for school, breakfast wasn’t until 8:30am. Omelette and bread, then we were off. Our destination was Nzulezu Stilt Village. And this absolutely blew my mind.

The only way into the community is by water, so we travelled across by boat until eventually this entire village appeared in front of us homes, businesses, a school and a community centre, all constructed above the lake.

Our guide told us that approximately 524 people currently live there. Not around the water. On it.

 

The name Nzulezu comes from the local Nzema language and means “surface of the water.” The settlement is believed to be several centuries old. According to local oral tradition, the ancestors of the community migrated from the area of Walata/Oualata, associated with the ancient Ghana Empire. (Visit Ghana)

The village is essentially built around one long wooden walkway, which the locals actually call Main Street. And it really is their high street.

On either side are houses and tiny makeshift shops selling the everyday basics such as eggs, food and other essentials. There is also a primary school and, right in the middle, a community centre where I spotted drums ready for community gatherings.

Official information describes fishing, farming on nearby land and tourism as important parts of life here. (Visit Ghana)

But seeing it written down and actually standing in the middle of it are two completely different things.

People were gutting fish, Washing clothes in buckets, Preparing food, Children were playing, Families were sitting together, Boats were coming and going, And underneath absolutely everything was water.

Obviously, with my childcare brain permanently switched on, one of my first thoughts was:

THE BABIES.

There are tiny children crawling and walking around and, in places, there is literally nothing between the edge of the platform and the lake. My risk-assessment brain was having an absolute meltdown. 

But it also made me think about how differently children learn to navigate their environments. This is their normal. Generations have grown up here surrounded by water, within a community where everybody seems to know everybody. It was fascinating.

School on the Water

There is a primary school within Nzulezu, meaning the younger children can receive their education without leaving the village although there is no qualified teachers and the community nominate this role to people.

For secondary education, however, children have to leave the water settlement and travel out by boat. That really made me think.

Our guide explained that there isn’t a doctor based within the village either. If somebody needs medical attention, they first have to make the journey out by boat and then continue by road about an hour away. Things we wouldn’t even think twice about accessing at home suddenly become an entire journey.

During our visit, the community talked to us about the school and invited visitors to make donations towards education. We donated 100 Ghanaian cedi and signed their visitor book with where we’d travelled from and our contribution. After spending the previous week teaching children, that felt particularly meaningful.

Crocodiles for Dinner 

Then came another reminder that we were very much not in England. They had caught a crocodile and it wasn’t being relocated.

It was going to be eaten.

There it was in a container while we were being shown around, ready to eventually be prepared for its meat. I think that may be one of those sentences I never expected to write in a blog.

Life here is incredibly resourceful. Food is caught, grown, prepared and used in ways that feel worlds apart from walking into Tesco and picking something off a shelf.

A Television… in the Middle of a Lake

One of the things that confused me most was spotting a television inside one of the houses.

My immediate thought was:

How on earth have they got electricity out here?!

It turns out there is an answer. According to Ghana’s official tourism information, Nzulezu isn’t connected to the conventional electricity grid. Some households have traditionally powered televisions using car batteries, alongside rechargeable lamps, torches and other independent sources of power. (Visit Ghana). Which somehow makes seeing that television even more fascinating.

The homes themselves were incredibly simple wooden structures with basic sleeping areas, mattresses or locally constructed beds. But outside those individual homes was this huge shared community and I think that’s what struck me most. So much of life happens together.

After visiting the stilt village, we stopped at one of the local slave forts, where we learnt about the devastating history experienced by the ancestors of the surrounding communities. Men and women were separated and held in tiny, dark rooms, with around 30 people crammed into each space, almost no ventilation and only a small opening through which food and water could be passed. Standing inside those rooms and imagining what people endured there was incredibly sobering … a very difficult but important part of Ghana’s history to understand

An Evening I Nearly Experienced From Bed

We travelled back later in the day ready for an evening of traditional drumming, dancing and a bonfire.

Unfortunately, this was the point where our weekend took a slight turn.

Anna became really poorly.

Being in Ghana, a sudden fever isn’t something you mess around with, and naturally malaria immediately crossed everyone’s minds. So while everyone else went outside, I stayed with her.

Thankfully, it turned out to be a short-lived fever and she began feeling much better afterwards, but at the time it was pretty worrying.

The bonfire was literally outside our room, though, so while I couldn’t join in, I could hear everything happening.

Drums. Music. Dancing. People shouting and laughing. And the girls kept sending me pictures. It looked incredible.

One thing I’ve learnt very quickly about Ghana is that when people celebrate, they CELEBRATE. Everything is full of energy.

 

Sunday — Into Ankasa Rainforest 

Thankfully, Anna woke up on Sunday feeling considerably better, which meant we could carry on with the final part of our weekend.

Ankasa Conservation Area and this was another completely different experience.

Ankasa is an area of protected wet evergreen rainforest in western Ghana, close to the Côte d’Ivoire border. Ghana’s tourism authority describes the wider protected area as around 490 km², with extraordinary plant diversity around 300 plant species can occur within a single hectare. Wildlife recorded there includes forest elephants (previously) bongo, chimpanzees, Diana monkeys and numerous other primates and birds. (Visit Ghana)

Just walking through it was incredible. The forest felt almost completely silent at first. Then you stopped and listened properly. And realised it wasn’t silent at all.

Birds. Insects. Water. Leaves moving. Things rustling that I probably didn’t actually want to investigate. It was peaceful but completely alive.

 

Our guide stopped along the way to teach us about some of the trees.

One of the most incredible things was seeing the enormous buttress roots spreading out from the bases of some of them. In tropical rainforests, these huge above-ground root structures help support very tall trees growing in relatively shallow tropical soils.

And they were enormous.

We were also shown trees that our guide described as male and female, explaining the differences in the appearance and texture of their trunks.

Then we came to what he called the communication tree.

This one fascinated me. The huge roots act almost like a natural drum. Our guide explained that historically, striking the roots with something hard creates a deep sound capable of travelling through the forest.

He told us this was used as a way of communicating across distances and that those protecting the forest could use the sound to alert others to things such as poachers entering the area.

Standing there surrounded by rainforest, looking at a tree being used as a communication system, was another one of those moments where you realise how much knowledge exists within communities that has absolutely nothing to do with technology.

No phone. No signal. Just understanding your environment.

We trekked further through the forest until reaching the water, where we could sit beside the river surrounded by nothing but trees, some of us even swam in it.

Beautiful doesn’t really cover it.

Back to Our Ghana Home

Eventually, it was time to make the journey back. And strangely, arriving back at our volunteer accommodation actually felt a little bit like coming home.

We rested for a while, unpacked and decompressed before heading out for dinner at Tina’s, which has quickly become a favourite with the volunteers.

Then we went across to the little local pool bar opposite our accommodation and played pool with some of the locals.

It was really nice just being part of normal village life rather than being there to teach, volunteer or visit somewhere.

And then I discovered Darling. Dangerous discovery.

I was told it was around 10% alcohol, cost the equivalent of pennies compared with drinks at home at just 63p and tasted basically like lemon fruit juice.

Which is a TERRIBLE combination because it does not taste remotely as alcoholic as it apparently is.

Absolutely lethal.  One was plenty.

Our Little Four-Legged Friends 

And then there are the animals.  There are dogs, cats and the cutest little kittens everywhere, and naturally we’ve become slightly obsessed with them. They wander around so freely and every now and then one decides it quite fancies a cuddle. Yesterday, while we were sitting eating, the most gorgeous tiny kitten casually jumped up to join us and obviously received ALL the attention.  Between cuddles from the children and cuddles from the animals, I don’t think we’re ever short of affection here. They’re such a sweet little part of everyday village life that I know we’ll miss too. 

Becoming Our Own Little Team 

Something else that’s really started to stand out this weekend is how much we’re all beginning to come together as a little team. We’re past those first few days of simply learning everyone’s names and are starting to really get to know each other, everyone’s individual journeys, what brought them to Ghana, why they chose to volunteer and the different lives we’ve all temporarily left behind at home. The girls who were already here when we arrived have been absolutely amazing at showing us the ropes, answering our endless questions and helping us settle into life here. But now they’re reaching the end of their own trips, and watching them prepare to leave is actually quite heartbreaking. You can see just how attached they’ve become to the children, the community and the people here, and how genuinely upset they are at the thought of saying goodbye. The strange part is knowing that this time next week, that’s going to be us. We’ve arrived as complete strangers from completely different walks of life, yet somehow, in such a short space of time, we’re becoming our own little Ghana family. I think sharing an experience like this accelerates friendships in a way normal life rarely does as you’re seeing, learning, laughing, struggling and processing things together every single day. And I already know that the people are going to become just as important a part of this experience as the places we’ve visited and the work we’ve come here to do. 

The People Looking After Us 

I think one of the things I want to finish this weekend’s blog with is something I probably haven’t given enough attention to yet.

The people looking after us here. The team at our accommodation are phenomenal. There is such a protective, family feeling amongst the volunteers and the local team that supports us.

Dinah in particular cannot do enough for anybody. She’s constantly checking whether everyone has eaten, whether we’re okay, whether we need anything and whether everybody is where they’re supposed to be. And that really showed when Anna became poorly.

When you’re thousands of miles away from home and somebody suddenly becomes unwell, you realise just how important it is to have people around you who know the area and genuinely care about you. They aren’t simply staff looking after a group of volunteers. It genuinely feels like a little family. And after only just over a week, that’s probably one of the things I’ll remember most about being here.

This weekend showed us a completely different Ghana. We watched the sun set over the Atlantic. Drank coconuts straight from the shell. Travelled by boat to a centuries-old community built entirely above a lake. Saw a school on water. Walked through one of Ghana’s most biologically rich rainforests. Learnt how trees can communicate across a forest. Had a malaria scare. Played pool with locals.

And discovered a drink that should probably come with considerably more warning than it does. 

But more than anything, this weekend gave us a chance to step outside the little world we’ve lived in for the last week and understand just how varied life in Ghana really is.

Tomorrow it’s back to school.

Back to the children. Back to the chaos. And somehow, after only a weekend away…

I’m actually really excited to see them. 

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