traveling the volta: day one

five-day weekends mean one thing in ghana: travel. this time, andi, heather, grace and i set off on thursday afternoon for the eastern Volta region, named for its proximity to the Volta River. We took a tro-tro there, arrived at 9 pm at Taste Lodge in Hohoe (pronounced ho-hoy)where a seemingly friendly family got us situated into two rooms. The next morning, during breakfast, the large and somewhat intimidating mother/owner/manageress sat down with us at our table and asked when we were planning on leaving. we told her we intended to stay two nights, and she said, "well, that's going to be a problem." it turns out even though we had reserved two rooms for two nights she had more important guests coming who needed our rooms and we needed to leave within half an hour.
WHAT??
We were a little shocked and then a little angry but we couldn't really do anything except agree to leave. It didn't help that she kept saying "I feel so so sorry" with a huge grin on her face. So as we were leaving we left a cracker on the bed, took the soap and purposely didn't put the pillows back inside just to show taste lodge that we were not happy that they were kicking us out.
so, the four of us started down the dirt road of Hohoe, homeless and annoyed, in search of a new hotel. we found the grand, which was more central, nicer and cheaper. score.
we took a tro-tro to the nearby small town of kpando in search of a women's pottery co-op we had read about in our ghana guidebook. from kpando, we took a taxi 5 minutes to a village called Fesi. The best thing about the Volta Region is how amazingly green everything is! All the plants look so healthy from the rain and the green color is unlike any I have ever seen before. The village was the first real village I have been to- it had thatched roof mud huts surrounded by green, tangled trees and children ran around excitedly as we arrived. We walked through the maze of huts to a clearing where a woman and three children were sitting. We asked them where the potters were, and the mother motioned for her three-year old daughter to show us the way. it was the funniest sight: four 20 year old girls being led down a mossy, green, tropical path by a local toddler. She led us to another clearing where we saw a huge building with a large porch and a smaller hut next to it. There were about five or six women on the porch, smoothing pots, adding designs to them or molding clay to start their next project. their pottery was absolutely beautiful and every piece is one of a kind because they are all hand made by the 30 or so women who work at the co-op. inside the building was a small warehouse featuring all of their handiwork. Their pieces are a beautiful black color, smooth and almost opal from drying in the kiln and in the sunlight. they are all amazingly talented; creating pots, vases, bowls, figurines, beads. there was a peace corps volunteer at the shed who is there teaching the women how to effectively run a small business- how to save their money and make a profit. I talked to one of the women for a while, and she showed me how she does her work- it is so meticulous! It takes her a long time to finish a small tea pot- because there are so many intricate designs on the exterior of the sculpture and also because she has to let it dry in the sun partially, and then fire it in the kiln. it was a great experience, and i loved getting an insight into the lives of these women and the Fesi residents. It painted a very different picture from Accra and I love it!