On the road, part 1

At 239,000 square kilometers, Ghana is just about equivalent to the size of Oregon. Over the last week and a half, we nibbled off of a corner of it. And let me assure you it’s packed with flavor and more than your daily allowance of tasty nutrients.

Carmen Iezzi, the executive director of the Fair Trade Federation, was in Ghana to meet some of her Ghana-based federation members. Renae, the Ghana half of Global Mamas and one of those members, played tour guide and kindly invited Shawn and I, as well as a couple other GM volunteers, to join them on a whirlwind tour.

We departed Accra on Thursday morning and ventured northeast toward Koforidua in the Eastern Region. Along the way we stopped in Aburi, a woodworking village where Shawn and I did our part to invigorate the local economy. I wouldn’t call it a buying frenzy, but whatever the step is before frenzy would be accurate enough for Fox News.

The road is surprisingly well maintained and takes you through some stunning country. Close your eyes and imagine “Africa” and you are likely, without perhaps being aware of it, conjuring up images of Ghana. It is green. It is lush. It is hot. The sun is as bright and insistent as a nuclear detonation. People follow the roadside, some on their way to sell the things on their head and others on their way to gather up things to deposit there.

Thirsty, we stopped for palm wine. Should you find yourself on the road between Aburi and Koforidua, and have a hankering for the sweet, frothy spirit, simply look for a table or pole with an upturned calabash. This is your sign that the “bar” is open. We filled up an empty water bottle’s worth, 1.5 liters, for 1 cedi, 50 pesewas, or about US$1.50. Think of a less fizzy wine cooler mixed with warm bathwater.

Warning: If you do visit the local palm wine vendor, and you do fill up a water bottle, keep in mind that it continues to ferment all by itself. So if you cap the bottle and, say, stop for lunch somewhere and leave the bottle in the car, and then return an hour later and look to enjoy post-meal pick-me-up, point the bottle away from your face.

(Picture: One happy wood carver in Aburi)