Christmas in Nigeria

While we didn't spend the actual Christmas Day in Nigeria, we did manage to feel festive. A huge thank you to our friends Emily and Monty who donated us their Christmas tree when they moved back to the States. Christmas isn't Christmas without a tree! Here's a picture of our place all Christmassed up.

Including a cute little button playing

Not actually that Christmassy... but hasn't our house come a long way? We're gonna be leaving it all behind in a few months! :(

 We also got to have an early Christmas with our adopted Tate family. Such a nice time and Neriah got totally spoiled!! 

Johnny Jump Up from Calli - woo hoo!

Opening presents

Thanks Steve and Jodi for the Bumbo!

Neriah and Jodi

Enough presents now guys!

Christmas in Ghana - Part 4

From Ezile and Busua Beach, we started making our way back to Accra, via Cape Coast (probably the biggest tourist destination in Ghana). I hadn't seen as many white folk my whole time in Ghana!

There were a few lowlights/highlights in Cape Coast.

1. The Boabab Tree Cafe/Guest House - after hearing great things about this vegetarian cafe I was super excited to try it. We met a random Aussie guy, who was on a self-appointed mission to get Europeans to apologise for their part in the slave trade. It was obvious he was passionate about it, but um... they have? And actually, it seems like its the West Africans that need to apologise, since they were dealing in slaves before Europeans even came to West Africa?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_slave_trade

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8356357.stm

http://across.co.nz/Apologyfo%20SlaveTrade.html

Anyway, the most annoying part about this place was that after an hour of waiting for our food (c'mon guys, I have a 4 month old baby who needs naps, etc) we found out they hadn't even started cooking it! They were just hanging out talking... and as we looked around, NO ONE ELSE had their food either. We cancelled our order (a sandwich and smoothie from memory) and walked to a food-is-ready and had beautiful rice, beans, plantain for about a 1/4 of the price and it was INSTANT. 

2. Cape Coast Castle - this tour was definitely worth it. Cape Coast was the main British hub for the trading of 'commodities', and hundreds of thousands of West Africans were held here in the dungeons, and those who stayed alive, walked out through the 'Door of No Return' onto the boats that would take them to a new land and a new life. It was so eerie to stand in the very places where so much cruelty took place... and to walk along the very path they walked.  I walked out through the 'Door of No Return' and I was struck by the sight of the landscape... this was their last glimpse at their homeland before boarding those ships.  In 1998, the Ghanian government encouraged black people everywhere to return to Ghana to receive a sense of healing. On the opposite side of the 'Door of No Return' is a another sign... 'Door of Return'... welcome home....

The Door Of No Return

The bustling fishing port outside the door

I'm smiling because an old lady was telling me to give my baby to her. Sorry lady.

Neriah missed most of the tour

 And, pretty much, that was our trip. We had the most awesome time and are so grateful that we were able to go and explore. We are also thankful that we have the most precious little girl who travels so well.

Christmas in Ghana - Part 3

We spent a couple of nights in Ezile Bay, a private bay owned by a French couple who also own an inn at Busua. We fell in love with this bay. It was just stunning. Clean beaches, big palm trees, private bungalows. We didn't do much here at all - read books, swam, napped, and walked to the neighbouring villages. This holiday was the tropical holiday I have been dreaming about for years!

After hearing so many amazing things about the 'lobster' (small crayfish) we decided to splash out and treat ourselves. What came back was a dish that contained so much garlic it would have killed the entire Twilight crew. Glad we bought that dish. 

We took Neriah for so many swims. She seems to really enjoy the water, and the few times she took a wave to the face, she didn't seem too phased!  She got to experience and enjoy the texture of sand for the first time as well.

Here is our little $25 a night bungalow.

Hanging out at the beach

Exploring the texture and flavour of sand for the first time.

A lot of our trip consisted of this.

I love love love this photo! She looks like a 'Survivor Ghana' contestant

More swims - she took a few waves to the face and it didn't even phase her!

Ezile Bay is situated between two villages, don't ask me the name of either of them because I can't tell you that. We walked 10 minutes to one of the villages, where we met loads of kids who wandered with us as we walked through. They loved Neriah and enjoyed holding her hand and singing and dancing for her. Definitely the first white baby they had ever seen! This village was unusual for us as I was hoping to find some food (generally there is an least one lady selling rice and beans and plantain somewhere) but there was absolutely nothing. 

So, tired and hungry, we wandered over to the other village, which was a busy, bustling fishing village. This was a super cool place, with absolutely no order to it. We weaved and wormed our way through mud huts, random sellers, hair dressers, babies sleeping in the walking path and food sellers. YAY! Food in Ghana is so much cheaper than Nigeria and so delicious.

Some of the boats parked up by the bridge.

Caleb did a massive run as well, visiting Cape Three Points. I'm not too sure what Cape Three Points is about, but from the photos it looks pretty cool. An old lighthouse, one of those signs that points 'this was to Auckland', with the distance on the back (I'd find that annoying). Everything was very bright and colourful though. I'm sure Caleb had a great time.

9752km to Auckland!!

Christmas in Ghana - Part 2

From Elmina we took public transport again to Busua Beach, to check out a local surf school for a friend. 

We fell in love with Busua. We loved the friendliness of the people, the laidback vibe, the lovely children, the delicious food and the beautiful clean beach.

The main street of Busua. The little food place on the right is owned by a lady named Florence, who cooks the best pancakes and a mean egg sandwich. This is the local meeting place for breakfast, and lunch, and sometimes dinner...

We were so lucky to get a fabulous huge room with a private balcony, which became Neriah's play area. She spent many a nap here, in the breeze, and we loved watching the world go by from up here.

Neriah's awesome tent (thanks Aunty Kelly and Uncle Vlad!)

The view from our balcony

What a good wife, doing the laundry

While in Busua we rented a surfboard and while the surf was only little and quite dumpy, it was still a load of fun. I was stoked that I could still stand up after not surfing for 2 years. SUCCESS! We met some really cool Aussies and Americans as well. Busua has a few projects happening there, mainly tourism development and a few community programmes as well. 

Super cool Aussies - Claire and Alex

Sunset walk on the beach

Some of the local kids who fell in love with Neriah

My friends

Busua Beach - this is actually not the best photo. I promise the water was blue, and clean.

One of many swims for little Neriah. I wish I could have captured the one where Caleb had to hold her up to the sky and jump as a massive wave come. Oh my nervous heart.

We spent three nights here and then headed off to a private beach called Ezile Bay for a couple of nights. We actually loved Busua so much that we chose to go back there to spend Christmas. This time we stayed with an Italian guy who is currently building a new hotel. He had two finished rooms so we took one and kept him company.
We spent Christmas Eve singing Christmas carols and reflecting on the birth of Jesus, and woke up for pancakes and presents!  Our Christmas lunch consisted of plantain and yam chips with Ghanian stew, and our wonderful host Robbie cooked us a delicious Italian risotto for dinner. Mmm mmm.

Present time!

Num num

At Robbie's Place

We also wandered about a kilometre to the neighbouring village, Dixcove, another fishing village and home to Dixcove Castle, which also had dungeons for holding slaves before they were moved onto various places around the globe. A very sobering experience, particularly as we were the only ones visiting this place.

Looking down over the fishing boats

Christmas in Ghana - Part 1

Yahoo! Finally, after a failed attempt trying to get into Benin Republic, we made it to our second West African country. 

Sitting in the Lagos airport for five hours before scheduled departure time, and then another two hours waiting for a delayed plane, I was pondering why anyone would wait seven hours in an airport for an hour long flight.

Do I look tired much?

Once in Ghana we spent the night in Accra, after a fellow passenger decided that it was too much for Caleb to take his wife and baby to Cape Coast (a two hour bus ride) that night and booked us into a hotel, which he drove us to as well (thank you God for angels in disguise - there is no WAY I would have made that journey and it was too late at night to be bothered looking for accommodation!)
Then we headed off by trotro (public transport buses) to Elmina Beach (thank you God for angels keeping us safe).

This is a tro-tro.

 

People thought we were hilarious having Neriah in a baby capsule and kept telling me I needed to have her strapped on my back. But you know, public transport doesn't have the best safety record, so if we can make it more safe for our little girl then we will do it!

Elmina fishing port

Elmina is a small coastal fishing village. There wasn't a whole lot there, but it definitely gave us a good taste of a bustling village. One of the things I loved about Ghana was how much emptier it seems than Nigeria. It is a busy little place but no way near as hectic! The streets and beaches are cleaner, and the pace of life is slower. 

The road to main Elmina town

We did a good bit of rockhopping and discovered a beach that was not actually a beach, it was a public toilet. Could not get out of there fast enough.

We were stoked to be rockhopping around the coast, until we stumbled upon (smelt) poo beach

Introducing Neriah to the green coconut. I truly wish I could love these as much as the Archer and Calvert families, but after a few mouthfuls, I'm done!

Unfinished boats? Art? Who knows?

Neriah was also lucky enough to have her first, of many, bucket baths. She was extra lucky because this was also the only place for the rest of our holiday that had hot water. Lucky baby.

Upon arriving at our hotel we tried to order some lunch, to which we were informed that the cook had gone to the market and would not be back for some time. A few hours later we tried to order dinner, to which we were told that the cook was not coming back. Righto. Thanks for the heads up. My poor husband had to go wandering the streets in the dark to find us whatever he could. My awesome husband came back with a strange combination from various food sellers, including the best and most awesome dish of the whole holiday - some BBQed fish, covered in onion, peppers and deliciousness. Mmmm.
Thanks hubby. I am glad that you are our family's provider :)