Waking up early has always been a struggle for me. I snooze non-stop, and I’m
completely groggy without my caffeine. That all goes away when a trip comes my way. I’m
excited, I’m energized, and nothing beats that feeling. It’s knowing I’m gonna experience
something new and amazing. This feeling was at full force when we went to the Volta Region.

With barely enough sleep and filled with excitement, I got on the bus, and we set out on a
five-hour drive to one of the prettiest places in Ghana. The drive was bumpy beyond belief—so bumpy, in fact, that I couldn’t sleep. Thankfully I had a Red Bull along. Nothing like a good can of caffeine to brighten up the spirit.

It was interesting to see the more rural parts of Ghana on the drive. Most of the U.S.
media portrays Africa as if it’s all rural like this. After being in the city for so long, it was
educational to see the contrast and a different side of the country. A big theme of this trip has been how inaccurately the media portrays the continent. One of the big takeaways I hope to convey to people afterward is that Ghana is a complex society. There are many different sides to it, and it can’t really be summed up in a paragraph. The one thing I can say in one sentence is that the goats roaming around are absolutely adorable.

We finally got to our destination and exited the bus. Tired from the ride, we put on our sunglasses and started our trek through the African jungle. It was a fun walk, to say the least. We saw a village being built from the ground up, an army of army ants that blocked our path, and an entire side of a rock wall filled with thousands of bats. We found cocoa fruit and tried some. While not tasting like chocolate, it still was sweet and delicious. After about thirty minutes, we reached Wli Waterfall, the highest waterfall in West Africa.

I immediately took my shoes and socks off and dipped into the cool, crisp water. I slowly moved towards the waterfall and walked under it. The power of the water falling on my head and back combined with not being able to breathe was intense. I touched the back wall of the waterfall and quickly swam back out. After taking a deep breath of air, I screamed at the top of my lungs in triumph. This is what life is all about. I backstroked back to shore, looking up at the partially cloudy sky. We stayed at the waterfall for a little over an hour before heading to the hotel for the night.

The next morning, we traveled to the Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary. Our guide, Sonny,
bought some bananas for us to feed them. As we hiked off into the forest, we quickly heard the sounds of the monkeys squeaking. With bananas in our hands, the monkeys jumped onto our arms and feasted on the sweet fruit. One of them may have thought I was a tree because he stayed on me well after he had eaten the banana from my hand. This was hands down my
favorite thing we have done in Ghana, and I will truly never forget it.

After this, we traveled to Volta Lake, the largest human-made lake in the world. We took
a relaxing ride on a boat. The scenery was spectacular, and it was a nice reset compared to the many hours we had spent on the bus going over pothole after pothole. Later we had a nice dinner followed by some strawberry ice cream. It was time for a good night of rest.
In the morning, we had breakfast and loaded onto the bus to get back to Accra. After a
short drive, we arrived home. Another adventure in the books. That’s honestly what matters
most.

Life is really just a string of adventures one after another. We work, we socialize, and we try new experiences. Why would someone want to stay idle for their life? Don’t get me wrong, I like to read and have a lazy Sunday, but really what’s the point if you’re not going out and doing something new or spontaneous? We all have our own way of doing this. For me, that’s hiking and racing triathlons, but for someone else, it could be something completely different.

We all have to find our way of living the adventure. We all have a start date and an end date on our tombstone, but it’s what we do with the dash in between that matters most. And so we go on, filling that dash with adventure after adventure, memory after memory, and story after story.  The Volta region is just one of many adventures I’ve had and will have, but it will always hold a place in my being. A life of being idle? I say, in one loud voice, NO THANK YOU!