Ghana 2026

Part 3: 2nd weekend

Friday:

We woke up early to travel to Accra for a community outreach event. We had packed everything we would need into a rucksack each and took the trotro for the first time. It was cramped with 4 people per row and hot. We had to have our bags on our laps and the spaces between seats was small – we had our knees against the seats in front.

While we were waiting, a lady came on to preach very enthusiastically but we didn’t know what she was saying because it was in Twi. She only got off when we had started moving out the station.

The journey was extremely bumpy and not good for our knees, but there was a lovely breeze through the vehicle as we were travelling that meant it wasn’t hot anymore.

Once we had arrived in Accra we were picked up by our organiser to head to the event. Down a side street a local church had put up a canopy as the starting point for members of the public to have a health check. Then further down the street there was a room where the doctors would assess them and they could be given medication for free.

We got changed into scrubs and spent the morning helping with the initial check of blood glucose, malaria, typhoid and hepatitis B. The latter 3 were done from a single finger prick but each had a lateral flow style process.

We screened maybe 75-100 people with only one positive test of malaria, although by the end we had run out of malaria and hepatitis B tests so were only checking typhoid and blood glucose.

After around 4 and a half hours of helping we were very kindly given lunch on the roof of the building the local church congregate in. We were given jollof rice with chicken and plantain as well as water and a malt drink.

Above is the view from the roof.

After lunch our organiser took us to Kokrobite beach, which was about an hours drive away. We were wearing walking boots because we hadn’t planned to go to the beach and at one point walking along, the sea came in too fast for us to get out the way and it completely soaked our feet.

We then had some drinks before heading back to Accra to get ready for tomorrow.

Saturday:

We woke up early again to get a lift from our organiser to the trotro station. We got a trotro from Accra to Koforidua, which was about 2 hours. The journey was nicer than our previous trotro ride because it was just us 3 in the back.

We then spoke to the trotro driver and explained we wanted to go to Boti falls and he took us to a friend of his who was a taxi driver. Initially the taxi driver didn’t speak to us but he became very friendly and was very lovely. He became part photographer, part tour guide as well as driver.

When we arrived at Boti falls we had to wait in a long queue full of cars and mostly school buses. Our driver told us that because yesterday was the day they celebrate their independence lots of schools come to the waterfalls and people go to the beach/gardens to celebrate over the weekend period.

There were so many children once we were inside the grounds and most of them wanted us to wave at them or say hello. By the end I found it quite exhausting.

We also had what I described at the time as the worst social encounter of my life so far haha. There was a gentleman who had a microphone and was entertaining people by speaking inbetween the music that was playing. He started off saying things like everyone is welcome here including people from USA, Australia etc (no UK mention though haha). Then when you come to Boti falls it’s not just about the waterfalls, it’s about mingling etc and he was very clearly talking about us as we were sat on a bench away from other people (because we had been told to).

Some other people came up to him and then he was looking directly at us, continuing his waffling about mingling. Then he came over and interviewed us one by one. It was a short interview and some questions he asked us in Twi. I felt extremely awkward for not knowing what he was saying and especially because of the microphone. Then these guys that were with him were actually just wanting a picture with us so all of that conversation was merely waffle.

Anyway, we walked down to the waterfall and it was very lovely. It was quiet and although it was the dry season, the waterfall was still nice to look at.

Then we were told the guy who was supposed to take people to the umbrella rock (another attraction people come to see) was busy and that this walk would take an hour. He also told us he could drive round so we didn’t have to walk and that was the preferable option.

Once we got there we saw the three trunk palm tree. (The picture has been edited bottom right to remove some random people so the ground is a little inaccurate)

We then walked down to the umbrella rock. I had seen pictures of this before, but was pleasantly suprised by the amazing view from the rock. I would say that the actual rock looks more like a mushroom haha.

(above picture has also been edited bottom right to remove random people)

Nearby the rock was a tree with some fruit which we didn’t recognise. We asked our driver what it was and what it tasted like etc and then he went to climb the tree! He got some of the fruit down for us to try.

It’s the fruit of the parkia biglobosa (African locust bean tree). They are green and then dry brown and once dried they can be opened and the inside can be eaten. The yellow inside surrounds the seeds and is sort of powdery. It tastes sweet, almost banana-like.

We then made our way back to Koforidua to get a trotro to Aburi. This trotro was the worst so far. There were about 17 people in a 12 person space and it was very warm.

We were dropped off at the Aburi botanical gardens. We chose to just get entrance tickets and not a tour, so it was nice to stroll at our own pace but did mean we got quite confused due to the lack of signs/map.

It featured mostly trees, which were tall and impressive. Some had information in front of them but others didn’t.

We then walked to the trotro station to try and get a trotro back to Nsawam. We had to stand in a circular queue which was quite confusing as it looped round on itself and it was also slow. We ended up getting a shared taxi back instead.

Sunday was a quiet day with some needed rest after some long days.