pawpaw adventures

My apologies in advance for spelling errors, I cranked this out real quickly.

Yesterday we went to the pawpaw farm with Cynthia. On Sunday, in business class, we talked about different expenses involved in our businesses and Cynthia described the transportation costs involved in going to buy pawpaw from the farm every Monday and Wednesday.

I decided that I needed to experience this and see how this all worked for myself.

Cynthia was going to meet us at the trotro station at 7am. I was a little hesitant about being on time since I knew that if Cynthia was late we would have to wait for her in the station and not at home. Cynthia is ALWAYS late.

She got there at 7:45am, so we spent 45mins waiting for her with every male in that trotro station yelling, “Obruni! Where you go?” (Except when they say it, it’s a very fast and blurred version of that phrase).

We took a trotro to Nsawam. From there we took a taxi to Kota Road where we got out and had to walk to the farm. The trotro ride was a little over an hour, so not too far at all. We walked about another hour to the farm through a little village down a little dirt path. It was long and hot, but it was beautiful!

We were in Africa’s “country.” There was long grass, trees, mountains in the distance; you could see for forever and it was breathtaking.

Beautiful Ghana

We started to get closer to the pawpaw farm and we walked through pineapple fields. I never really thought about how pineapples were grown before, but they grow on low plants, just above the ground in large fields with spike leaves all around them. It’s actually really cool!

Pineapple Plants

We past the passion fruit bushes that this farmer also grows (they use this to make real fruit juice here) and then finally got to the pawpaw trees.

There were SO many!

Pawpaw

Apparently once planted, a pawpaw tree can yield fruit within 8 months. And it grows fruit at 3 different heights along the trunk (with leaves above for protection) so that you always have riped fruit to pluck.

Pawpaw (said like popo by the way...a few people have been asking me), tastes kind of like a plain melon. They are orange on the inside, green on the outside and have little black seeds that you don’t eat.

The farmer went around and picked 3 crates of them for Cynthia, which another lady carried around n her head.

**Literally everyone carries stuff on their heads here, they think it is stupid to carry things with their hands, that is not what hands and arms are made of. Uncle Ernest said that that’s what heads were made for, he says that they aren’t good for anything else...

Cynthia walking with her baskets to the farm. Pawpaw trees in the background

While they plucked the pawpaw, Cynthia and I got a chance to talk a lot about herself, her business, her dreams of expanding and ever her dreams of owning land someday to grow her own pawpaw. She also talked about how land was available here as long as you had the money to pay for it. GH₵ 2000 will get you 5 acres far away from the cities, and it gets more pricey as you get closer to town. It is SO much less expensive here! I almost wish that I could go and buy her a couple of acres of land!

Cynthia and I

The farmer gave Petra and I a bag of pawpaw for free to take home and eat which was really nice of him. We just have so many that I don’t know if we can eat them all before they get too ripe. Like actually too many. He filled the bag so full, they were too heavy to carry to the roadside and the bag broke. The crunchy ones are much better than the soft ones, so we have to eat them quickly.

To go back, 3 men that worked on the farm had to help her carry the pawpaw back to the roadside. (The exporter was gone, so we couldn’t use his truck). They had the pawpaw on their heads for that hour long hike!

We saw a huge snake, it was a python and it was on the path in front of us as we walked (yes, alive). My camera battery died just as I went to snap it though so I couldn’t get a picture which was disappointing.

We then took trotro’s home to Asamankese where carriers were waiting to carry the pawpaw to her little spot to store her product. It was such an interesting day and I definitely learned a lot. And Cynthia used her little book that I gave her to RECORD EVERYTHING! YAY!

It was a great day.

Today in class my level one ladies reviewed the human body and learned the difference between “these are my” and “this is my” since we have 2 eyes, 2 arms, 2 breasts, but one nose, one head, etc. We started learning 3 letter words and they are getting much better at sounding out words to spell them on their own!

One of our three letter words was “fat” and one of the ladies came up to me at the end and said, “Caro, you were not fat when you got here, but you are getting fat.” A sure sign that Belinda has been feeding us well...that lady’s name is Comfort of all things, ironic isn’t it?

This morning before Petra woke up, I went outside to jump rope for a while. Auntie Joe came out to chat and watch me, I enjoy our morning talks when it’s cool enough outside to concentrate on listening. She said she used to jump rope but now she “feels too heavy.” Then she pretended to be skipping rope but without an actual rope; it was really cute. I am really going to miss Auntie Joe. She is my momma away from home and I love when she giggles and says, “Oh Caro!” and then grabs my hand and kisses my cheek. Such a sweet and stubborn lady, I love it.

The power just came back on after 4 hours. Fans went with it. It is a low of 27 tonight. A LOW of 27. Needless to say I am sweating like crazy. Goodnight!