Lost!

As we were leaving our adventure and the tree walk at Kakum, it began to rain. When it rains in Africa--it really RAINS--not raindrops but in sheets of water. It's really quite fabulous! We of course were out in the jungle on dirt roads but after 5 hours of sloshing through mud, we arrived at the Zoll's appartment in Kumasi, none the worse for wear, except a very muddy car.

We had hoped to be on our way back to Sunyani by 4 pm so that we would arrive home just a little after dark, but everything in Africa takes longer than planned and we didn't get on the road until after 5 pm. Then it took an incredibly long time to fight the traffic and worm our way through Sofaline and out of Kumasi. By the time we hit the main road it was getting dark.

Driving in Ghana is dangerous and crazy at best, but after dark it is truly a nightmare! We had been on the road for about 45 minutes and it was pitch black! At night the jungle is eerie and foreboding and the rainforest seems to close in from every direction. All of a sudden, ahead of us at the side of the road, loomed a figure flashing a small light back and forth. Gary slowed down and a man in a camoflauge outfit flagged us to a stop and told us that the road had been washed out and that we needed to take a detour.

SIDENOTE: Two weeks prior we had been told by two independant, reliable sources (and then again by Dr. Fife who read it in the Accra paper), that a VIP bus travelling from Kumasi to Sunyani had been flagged down and attacked by robbers. They stole everything valuable from the passengers and then raped one of the women on the bus. A taxi approached the stopped bus, realized what was going on, and was shot and killed as he tried to go for help.

Needless to say we were aprehensive about turning off the main highway, especially since "obrunis" are thought to be rich and especially at night. We hesitated but then took the detour off the road. In very broken English, the man told us to go to the "station" and then turn right to get back on the highway. We drove for quite a while and saw no station, not being exactly certain what a station really was. It got darker and darker with fewer and fewer little villages to pass through. The jungle seemed to be reaching in from all sides. It was downright scary!

We were both very uneasy and even a little frightened and began weighing our options. We were obviously NOT on the road to Sunyani and seemed to be heading deeper and deeper into the jungle. We didn't have a clue where we were, out on a dirt road in the rainforest, somewhere in Ghana, in the middle of the night! We considered pulling off and sleeping in the car until morning and daybreak, when we could actually see something. That in itself seemed a little dangerous--two obrunis asleep in a car on the side of the road. We kept going and finally came to another small village. We saw a few young people walking and stopped to ask which way to Sunyani. They, of course, spoke no English; we speak no Twi except the nice phrases like thankyou or good morning. I kept saying "Sunyani" and using sign language. Finally, one of the young men said, "No, no....Sunyani", and pointed back the way we had come. So we turned around and headed back, in the dark again, through the jungle, the way we had come.

When we reached the next village we stopped and asked again, and each time, after frustrating sign language, they directed us another way. It was hours going from town to town asking directions, sometimes from three or four different natives until we found someone who understood.

We finally arrived back on the main road and familiar sights and pulled into Sunyani after hours and hours of weaving through the backroads in the jungle in the dark. Our little apartment never looked so good and after such a horrible experience, we have both vowed we will not drive anywhere unfamiliar after dark again!