Sacred

The asteroid’s velocity only decreased a bit once it hit the atmosphere and immediately impacted the Earth. Massive destruction forced animal migrations. After centuries, there was only emptiness in the crater. One brave leaf started it all. Suddenly a rain forest had developed and the crater served as a small water reservoir: the only one in the area. It was past the Pleistocene and humans as they are recognized now had developed around the rainforest. From pond to lagoon, the floods and droughts transformed the landscape. The Ashanti kingdom was formed around the ever-changing pond. One day, a hunter was following an antelope (twe) and once it saw the antelope touch the small pond, immediately the water body started growing as a throbbing heart. He attributed it to the Ashanti goddess Bosom. This is how Lake Bosomtwe was born.

This lake enchanted me and its sacredness is certainly a function of the ecosystem it creates, the vastness within the crater. Nonetheless, it is hard to differentiate what practices are out of respect rather than pure myth or even tourism sells.

I was told about a sacred rock in Abrodwum where they hold sacrifices for the gods but my friend who has lived there for a while has never seen or heard of one. I heard about all the people that pass themselves as chiefs to get money from the tourists. I was told about the belief that the Ghanaians don’t put any metals into the lake because it would bring bad luck but you can get a motor boat tour in the lake- although most fishermen still use padua canoes to go fishing- the little fish that are in there (now people have moved to cacao farming which is rapidly eroding the land).

Too much to say, my point is, in my travels all over Central America, South America and Africa I have heard of these beliefs and been told about them as though they were still kept. All around the lake Christianity overcomes any belief. Some of the old practices are considered heresy. Just tell me these are what people USED TO believe in. It is just as valid; I can appreciate places/monuments for what they are today as well.

Many trees have been cut down, old ceiba trees (known in West Africa as kapok) that take decades to grow; this is Bosomtwe’s patrimony but is now dead. All in the name of electricity, they are adding post lines to provide electricity around the lake. Undoubtedly electricity will improve quality of life around the lake. I am sad there was no exploration of other options, of even other routes to connect the cable line to maintain the trees… They are not even allowing people to use the wood. So they are simply lying around. It is heartbreaking. 

This is no different from the accumulation of trash around the shores that will end up in the lake. Until today it looks pristine-I did go swimming- but I do not know for how long.

I know all of this because I met Elodie. She runs the guesthouse where I stayed for the weekend (everyone should go to the Green Ranch!). I am so grateful for Elodie’s soul and having met her. She has been living around the lake for 4 years now and has traveled all over South America-not Ecuador, sadly- It was refreshing to be able to talk with her about the issues. There is such impetus in her; she has actually done a lot talking with the Ghanain EPA and many other municipal offices about the maintenance of the lake, unfortunately she has not been successful with getting government offices to actually do something.

Elodie and her son Simeon

The weekend was wonderful. After many years of not riding a horse we took a 3-hour horseback ride around a portion of the lake. I couldn’t believe how many memories this brought back- from my adolescence and the cabalgatas I used to attend to, always afraid of falling from the horses, and so very much infatuated with some of my friends who would give me a ride in their horses-.

Me and Quazar, my horse. It took as some time to connect but she got me! This was particularly important for the time when we were trotting. The kids behind were hilarious! Posing for the pictures and then singing for us- they don't get many visitors...

I got to see many bats, which I haven’t seen since the last time I went to the jungle in Ecuador. I was showing Elodie how to call them; she was thrilled to learn.

During this trip we met Paige, a fantastic girl also studying global health at Duke, doing work in Bureli ulcers- as many of my obroni friends are in Ghana. We hiked to a high part of the crater to see the lake, explored some cacao and corn plantations and also stole one papaya that was not as ripe as it could have.

Paige, Allison and I on our hike!

On Sunday night I was able to meet Jeff, a friend of one of my Mailman peeps (Leona, if you are reading this, I miss youuuuuu and thank you!). He and one of his friends, Patrick, took me to a nice lounge where there was fantastic live music, I hope I will be able to go there again. We talked a bit about Ghana, living abroad and Jeff’s new enterprise- some delicious honey that I have been devouring (he gave me two jars so I have been indulging). 

This past week I have been working a lot but also going out quite a bit. I have met some really great people here but also have already gotten disappointed. This happens. There is a lot of work to be done here about the views on women, especially about women from abroad.

Also, not so often I have gotten frustrated about the assumptions about who I am and what I’m doing here. I have two poems for those people (they are in English). Check them out, by Carlos Andres Gomez.

Save Africa

Juan Valdez or why is a guy like you named Carlos

I had been telling many of my Ghanaian friends about my concerns for the lake and I was encouraged to write something about it on ghanaweb.com. I have given it a lot of thought and I believe what I have written here will be my part. I have a sense of entitlement to protect the earth but here I am an outsider. I hope that once my Ghanaian friends read this, they might want to take the lead. It is the only way I see it would go anywhere since I am again only passing by. I see the lake as sacred not only because of what it was but because of what it is. Making it a protected area will endanger the population’s subsistence from farming, which is already dire (I have seen this in Guatemala). There most be a way to make it sustainable and I hope Ghanaians will make that happen.

4 weeks are gone. Time flies.

Afia.