Yesterday we stayed put because of the election. The only time I left the room was in search of bofrot. Today we started before the crack of dawn thinking it would be super quiet and like a ghost town. We couldn’t have been more wrong. We attempted to get to the main street, however there was a big party going on. They had speakers blasting loud music and hundreds of Ghanaians cheering over something.
“Unbelievable,” I laughed. “Do these people ever sleep?”
Some locals helped guide us by taking us down back roads and through people’s backyards. He welcomed us to his country and told us Ghana was very safe. Sometimes all we needed was a kind word from a stranger to give us some confidence to keep moving forward.
The early morning welcomed us with white birds singing melodies and a bright red sunrise above a field of golden wheats. We passed by small streams with palm trees and women washing laundry in ponds next to lillies in full bloom. Men whipped their cattle with sticks to get them to the other side of the road while women and children meandered through fields to begin harvesting.
I loved being in a place that wasn’t advanced yet. “We are experiencing the real version of what a television tries to capture,” I said.
“Yeah,” Dubu said, “I’m just not one to live vicariously through someone. I felt you were the same way. That’s why I felt you were the perfect fit for this.”
We went through a very kind farm town where people chased us down the road, begging for a photo with us.
One mother ran out with her kids and screamed, “Obrouni! Obrouni! Obrouni!”
100 yards down the road later, a group of kids yelled, “AYYYY!” as they threw their hands up and waved.
Dubu laughed. “Can you imagine if we did this in America? If we pointed at black people and yelled, ‘Black man!’ We would get called racist in a heartbeat.”
“Yeah, people need to loosen up,” I said. “I can’t be around people that get offended over shit like that.”
We stopped to take pictures of large termite mounds and goats hanging out on hilltops and mailboxes, wondering how they got up there.
“It must be in their nature to climb,” I said.
Then, I stopped to pee in a bush. A group of men drove by and caught me then yelled at the top of their lungs that they loved me. Later on, kids chased us alongside our bikes until they grew tired from keeping up with our pace. We arrived in Atebubu during the heat of the day and took some much needed rest.