My Time in Accra: Kpando: A Short Story

I had wanted to see the Kpando Potters for weeks now, and I finally decided to make a weekend out of it! Most people backed out, so it ended up being Jenny and I leaving mid morning Saturday, with little to no plans of what we were doing. After waiting an hour in Madina for the trotro to fill up, we finally left for the Volta. We got there around 4:30 and spent some time walking around the small town. It was not very touristy, which was really nice for a change. People were fairly friendly and generally left us alone, which is also a welcomed change from Accra. We checked out the beautifully built church and some of the stands before checking into the hotel. It had its own bathroom and a nice fan! Living the high life.

The guidebook said the restaurant at the hotel we were in was the best in town, so we decided to grab dinner there. They didn’t have a menu, so the lady mumbled the 2 things on the menu (I found most people in Kpando mumbled, my dad would have disapproved). Fufu and groundnut soup or rice and chicken. Gives an idea of the restaurants in Kpando. Though to be fair, most of the food was sold at stands, not restaurants. We sat outside and waited for our food for a few minutes before an older drunk man asked if he could join us.

He was fun to chat with as he mumbled (yes mumbled) stories of his childhood, his experience with white people, and how the handyman’s journey begins with the first step. He repeated this quote almost 20 times in the hour we spent with him. It took us a while to realize he was saying “handyman”. Jenny kept fairly quiet and this guy spent a good portion of the conversation telling her she was quiet and didn’t talk. Thanks dude, we realize she was quiet, now maybe give her a chance to talk?

It was an entertaining dinner and he ended up paying for us, which was an added bonus! I didn’t realize he was staying at the same hotel until the end of dinner and he kept asking if we wanted to go hangout, but we politely (and firmly) declined. As we were trying to get into our room (the key was ridiculous) we turned around to see him smiling at us through a window in the hallway. It would have been scary if it wasn’t so funny.

We were pretty tired and crashed by like 10:00 pm only to wake up at 11:00 pm to this guy knocking on our door! It started as tapping and mumbling, followed by banging. I woke up Jenny before asking who was there. Then it stopped and I guess he walked away. Luckily we had locked the door, and looking back its just ridiculous, but at the time it was a little frightening!

We woke up early the next day to go see some pottery. We asked a cab driver that didn’t speak much English if he could take us there and we nodded and showed us to his car. Once in the car he asked, “Wait, where are we going?” I then proceeded to play charades with this man as I tried to explain pottery to him. He then drove around an asked multiple people in Ewe before taking us 200 meters outside of town and getting out of the car. Some lady then walked up to our car and with a solemn face asked us where we were from. We told her and she barked out “welcome. Come”. So we got out of the car, not knowing what was going on, only to have her open up a metal shed to a bunch of pottery. Not exactly what I expected, but ok!

They weren’t making anything that day because it was Sunday, so we bought a piece or two and walked back to the town center. On our walk back we looked for a stand that might be selling Nescafe (the closest thing to coffee we get). There were a few selling the packets, but no one had hot water. I never feel more grossly American than when I’m looking for coffee, but sometimes you just know your going to need it.

We settling for a Nescafe packet and a cold water sachet to mix it with and caught a shared taxi to go see the lake. A large woman with a big bag practically sat on me when I couldn’t scoot over fast enough and started yelling at the cab driver in Ewe. It made for a fun ride down the hill to the water.

I’m not sure what we were expecting, because it was really just a fishing market. Plenty of stands selling fish and other goods while fishermen fixed their boats and nets for the day. We were obviously out of place, but we had just gotten there, so why not walk around!

We settled on a log by the water, drank our makeshift coffee and enjoyed the view and the breeze. A few people passed and said hello, one man introduced his kid to us (adorable of course), but most people left us alone. We were considering leaving when a young man sat down with us. We exchanged name (his is Mohammed) and he wrote down his number on my arm. When I asked him if he worked he told us he was a footballer… Like for the black stars? No. He doesn’t get paid for it. Right, moving on.

I mentioned that I might get a mango and he quickly jumped on that, saying he would get me one. How could I refuse? Literally, he left before I could refuse.

He came back with, not one or two or even three, but a whole bag filled with at least 25 mangos. Oh I love Ghana.

He ran off to go bring someone some fish (I didn’t catch who) and right before we were going to get in a taxi to go see a meditation center, he ran back and hopped in the cab with us. Looks like we made a new friend for the day!

As we were driving back up, he pointed out his house to us, which I guess is where he ran too (dang he’s fast…must be all the football).

We did not go to the meditation center, but instead passed through the northern part of the town. We passed a sign for the real pottery shed! Looked much more legitimate. This guy took us to another part of the lake that didn’t have fisherman on it. He then talked to the canoe ferry and took us on a short canoe ride. I’m not sure why, but it was fun! He even made Jenny row for a while, which was rather entertaining.

We got back in the cab after our excursion and on our way back through the town I asked if we could stop at the pottery shed. Overall it was fairly similar to the other shed experience. We drove up a hill, the cab driver asked some kids a question, a lady who seemed in charge got in the cab, we drove through some bush to another shed, got out and looked at pottery. The shed was bigger and actually had pottery wheels and things outside of it, but it was basically the same thing.

We headed out yet again to find this meditation place, but our new friend told us we needed to eat first. So of course we go back to his house. He introduces us to his entire family and friends and we awkwardly say our hellos. We walked over and met his sister, who was making lunch for us, and I offered to help, but I don’t think they understood me.

We walked back to his house and he told us that after lunch we could have a bath. I politely declined and told him we were still trying to see the meditation center and go home! So he took a bath instead and when he came back out the food was ready! Banku and tilapia. It was truly delicious. Of course all of his brother/ friends wanted pictures of white girls eating Ghanaian food, so they all had their phones out snapping away. I’m sure there are tons of random pictures of me floating around Ghana.

We finally got back to the town center and tried again to look for this meditation center. None of the taxi drivers knew what we were talking about and Mohammed had never been there before, so he couldn’t help much. Jenny suggested pulling out the map in the guidebook. By then I had a crowd of taxi drivers around all fighting to look at the map so they could prove themselves. I put it away shortly after people started pulling at it and an older gentleman said he would take us. I trusted him more than the rest, so we hopped in his cab and got away.

We got there with no trouble (I knew I could trust this guy) and stepped out of the cab into a bushy area. We spoke with a man and a woman playing checkers, who were in charge I guess.

The story goes that a man followed a falling star until it landed in this field.

The mother Mary proceeded to tell him that she wanted this field to be a place of meditation, prayer and tourism in her name. And so this place came to be. Supposedly there is a cult like group of people that live around there and have ceremonies on the first Friday of the month. On this lovely Sunday, however it was simple a beautiful garden, with cool statues around every corner.

We headed back, got on a trotro (with our friend who was going to his moms house on the way) and headed home. But not before e bought some cool elvish bread!