Wli Waterfalls, Lake Volta, and Afadjato Mountain

Hello again from Ghana! Since I last posted I've been busy exploring the country. The car rides are always intense--the roads are not exactly in great repair (biggest and most numerous potholes I've ever seen) and the cars people drive here are not built for the conditions. We usually take a van without air conditioning and cram about 14 people in it. The seats might as well be bare metal. BUT--when we reach our destinations it's always completely worth the ride. Last week we took a trip to the Wli waterfalls, from what I've told the tallest in West Africa. It was an easy 45 minute hike to the waterfalls, during which we passed over 7 different rivers. It's a really cool experience to walk through the jungle here. For those of you that are familiar I often feel like I'm a character in "Lost". Everything is just a little different than the woods back home: the plants and trees look tropical, the bugs are bigger, and the weather is hotter. The waterfall itself was stunning--it was a stream of water that dropped straight down the height of a small skyscraper to a large water hole at the bottom. We swam in it, and some of us stood right under the falling water (of course I had to do that).
Since we don't volunteer on the weekends they are free time, so our group decided to go to Lake Volta last weekend. We took a two hour ride to our hotel for the stay. I expected a Holiday Inn, but the Afrikiko was more like a resort minus the amenities. No little soaps in the rooms, no room service, no workout facility. But they had air conditioning, a pool, beautiful grounds, and a setting right on the Lake. We spent the weekend mostly relaxing. On Saturday night we went to another hotel for dinner, and then to the disco afterwards. Interesting experience in so many ways.
Yesterday morning instead of going to our volunteer placements we drove to Afadjato mountain, which they tell us is the tallest in Ghana. I was definitely not prepared for how intense the hike was. It only took an hour, but it was about 850 meters vertical, which I'm not accustomed to. The view from the top was incredible though--360 degree view standing from one point. I took some great pictures that I'll have when I get back. Although I couldn't sleep on the treacherous ride, I took a nap when I got back.
Briefly other things going on:
World Cup! Ghana won its first game, so everyone here is really excited. The whole town seems to watch all the matches--people even bought TVs and put them up in or in front of their shops on the street just for the World Cup.
Rain. Almost every afternoon it rains HARD for at least an hour straight. These are the kind of storms that might go on for like 5 or 10 minutes back home, but they last forever here. Today I was in town when the rain hit, so someone invited me into his shop for shelter until I could flag down a cab to get home.
Power outages. With the rain often comes widespread blackouts. The power is usually restored in a few hours, but a couple days ago we had to sleep through the night without fans because the power was out and our generator wasn't working. Not the most comfortable night I've had, and showering in the dark did prove very difficult.
My volunteering continues to go well. It's still really hard work--I appreciate elementary school teachers more than I ever had. After a few hours of teaching I feel exhausted, every day. But the kids are great, and the work makes me feel really fulfilled.
It's almost 9 here so It's time for me to make the walk back to the home base. Hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the "warm" weather back home.