After Christmas, I had the chance to visit my OMI
priests and brother classmates at TICCS and Fr. Phanuel’s family (Executive
Director of TICCS) for a New Year Celebration in the Volta Region of Ghana.
The Volta is located at the eastern part of Ghana. It
is bordered on the East by Togo, on the West by the Volta River and Lake,
Atlantic Ocean on the South, and Oti region to the North.
In order to reduce travel time, we took an alternative
route to Kpando in Ho, Volta by taking a ferry from the Dambai Ferry Site. The ferry is closer and has less traffic
compared to the Tamale-Accra Road (12 hours land trip). The cost was also
cheaper to cross the Oti River to Ho/Kpando. The loading and unloading of several
cargo trucks into the ferry boat was a sight to behold.
Our Lady of the Grotto –
Our Lady of Lourdes in Agbenoxoe in the Diocese of Ho
The first stop on our Volta excursion is in Agbenoxoe
where the Our Lady of the Grotto – Our Lady of Lourdes is located. It is here
on the largest artificial lake in the world - Lake Wolta in a small village
named Agbenoxoe meaning “a place to live” in the local Ewe language that my OMI
TICCS co-learners will serve the local Catholic community and look after one of
the few Marian Shrines in Ghana.
This is a wonderful place. One can immediately feel peace as soon as one
enters its compound. Truly a great place
to meditate. The human size statues portraying the Stations of the Cross is
worth the trip to this serene garden of peace.
There is also a larger-than-life statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary and
St. Bernadette. We had a great time there.
The parish priest and the OMIs were gracious hosts.
Among the highlights of our stay in Agbenoxoe is a
visit to a fishing village and a ride in a canoe around the lake and the
midnight New Year’s Eve Mass at one of the parish’s outstation where a few
children had their First Communion. The
joy of the people was palpable all throughout the celebration.
Wli/Agumatsa Falls
From Agbenoxoe, we moved to Fodome,
Fr. Phanuel’s hometown. As expected, the family greeted us warmly and were most
hospitable. The 90-year-old patriarch of
the family was a gracious host to us.
We were taken to the Wli/Agumatsa Falls
the next morning. The Agumatsa Falls is the highest waterfall in Ghana and the
tallest in all of West Africa located 20 kms from Hoehoe in the Volta Region. It
is known locally as Agoomatsa which means, “Allow Me to Flow. It has a total
height of about 80 m. There are two
waterfalls at Wli – the long fall and the short fall and both take different
times to get there. To get to the short fall we had to hike for about 1 hour
and 30 minutes if the walking pace is not fast and at least one hour if you
walk a little quicker. To get to the long fall, we were told would take about 3
hours hike and climbing mountains. To
make the walk manageable, we decided to go for the short fall. The hike itself
was exploratory as it was surrounded by rain forest. We got to see many species
of butterfly, plants as wells as bats.
Even though the walk was long and the water cold, the falls did not
disappoint. It was beautiful, awesome,
and magnificent.
Mount Afadja or
Mount Afadjato is one of the
highest mountains in Ghana standing at an elevation of 885 meters
(2,904 ft). ‘Afadja’ is the name of the mountain whereas ‘to’ in the Ewe
dialect means mountain therefore, it is called ‘Afadjato’ by the locals.
The story is that when the indigenous people migrated
to the area and saw the mountain it looked like the mound in which water yam is
planted, water yam being called “Avadze” in Ewe. Moreover, there were some
creeping plants on the mountain that resembled the water yam plant; they
therefore called it “Avadze-to”. Today the word has been palatalized into
“Afadjato”. It is unfortunate that none of us dared to take the mountain climb
after the forest walk at Wli Falls.
Sacred Heart of Jesus Shrine at Fodome-Helu,
Hoehoe, Volta
The Sacred Heart of Jesus Shrine at Fodome was the
last stop on our Volta adventure before coming home to Tamale through
Accra. The Shrine is under the care of
the Sacred Heart Parish of Fodome. The environment is so serene, truly a place for
prayer and meditation. It boasts of giant-sized
stations of the cross and of the course the giant statue of the Sacred Heart of
Jesus.
The statue of Jesus from the ground to the crown is 15
feet long. The outstretched arms are 8
feet and welcomes the pilgrim to the site, ready to embrace and bestow blessings
upon him. We learned that they used about
56 bags of cement to finish the statue. Other giant statues in the ground are
the Immaculate Heart of Mary and the Divine Mercy. Truly a wonderful place to
visit when in the Volta Region.
Apart from these beautiful tourist spots in Ghana, it
is the Ghanaian people’s beauty that stands out. The claim that
Ghana has a warm national character where visitors are welcomed as friends has
once again proven to be true in our visit to the Volta region.
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