Leah Chapin

Lake Bosomtwi

July 17, 2007

I woke up early the next morning with the faint light of dawn sifting through a curtained window next to my bunk bed.  What I saw when I pulled back the curtain was enough to make me rise immediately from bed and hurry outside.

Standing on the front porch, I tried to absorb the beauty of what was surrounding me.  Our hostel was perched on the feet of what looked like small mountains surrounding this beautiful lake.  There was mist hanging on the mountains, and a short walk took me to the edge of the lake.  The bottom of the lake was covered by stones, and it felt so dream-like to wade out into the water, and watch the local fishermen.

The fishermen were sitting astride long boards with a pot perched on the board in front of them.  They were all casting nets and gathering fish to put in the pot.  I remember thinking how lucky I was to be there, despite the difficult journey.  We read later that the lake was formed in the bottom of the youngest known crater on Earth!

We ate a breakfast of eggs, toast, and marmalade, reminding me of my love for that kind of breakfast I developed in Athens.  Our plan the night before had been to leave as soon as possible, but it was so beautiful, we didn’t end up requesting a cab to be called until 9am.  When the cab arrived, it was 12pm, and there was a woman in a nearby village who needed to go to a hospital, so we let her have our cab.  We finally headed out at 1pm.

It was another long day of riding South in a local bus much like school boy.  We actually had to travel back up to Kumasi first in order to get a bus to the coast.  Elisabeth had recommended that we stay in a cheap place in Elmina called the Bridge House.

We got to the Bridge House after dark, had dinner in the lobby, then took a cab to the resort that the Bridge House was a part of.  Everything at the resort was closed, but we decided to take a walk down the resort’s beach.  It was beautiful at night, with the waves washing over the soft, white sand, and crashing against the occasional black rock shelves.  We walked down the beach a ways, and I fell behind the boys.  I was watching the reflection of a particularly bright star on the edge of the wet sand as I walked.  The reflection would follow as I walked along in the dark, and it inspired me to some very abstract thoughts that I will not attempt to write here, about God, and how he guides us.

The boys had gotten a ways ahead, and I decided to just sit on the sand and wait for them to walk back to where we had left our shoes.  I laid back, not caring that I was getting sand all over me, and looked up at the stars.  The waves were crashing, and the temperature was perfect…I fell asleep.  When I woke up, it was notably darker, and there was a cloud cover that obscured the stars.   It was also a litter chilly, and I couldn’t see Josh or David, so I walked back towards where we had left our shoes, because I had  my yellow blanket there to warm up with.  As I became really close to where we had started, I was startled by a bright light being shone in my face, and by the man’s voice demanding “Where have you BEEN!?”.  It wasn’t David or Joshua’s voice, but the voice of the guard they had recruited to help search for me.  When they had walked back by where I was, they had not seen me on the sand, and had been running up and down the beach yelling my name for about 20 minutes.

Joshua seemed very relieved to have found me, but David was quiet.  I had learned early on with David that quiet is not a good thing, and that he must have been really upset.  I found out later that he was prepared to be very angry with me, but when he found out that I hadn’t decided to just go on my own little adventure, but had fallen asleep, he just wasn’t quite sure what do with all of that prepared anger, so he just kept quiet.  I found out later that he couldn’t help but think what could of happened, like being kidnapped and sold into unpleasant industries of Africa.  I made a more conscious effort for the rest of the trip to never lose sight of them.