Thank God for Outhouses

So today our group went to Boti Falls. It is an area that has two waterfalls and hikes to various beautiful views. We took 1 taxi, and 2 Trotros (small buses) to get there. The weather was not looking great, but we decided to press on. As some of you may know, I am not a person who is overly excited about rain or getting my hair wet, so I brought a shower cap. Yes, I got a lot of stares and of course I looked ridiculous, but my hair was dry. I put my cap on and started down the 250 steps to see the two waterfalls. This is the best time of year to see them because in June, July and August the waterfalls flood the beach area and you can not get close to the falls. They are beautiful and the tropical trees and leaves are large, green and majestic. After taking a few pictures I headed back up the 250 stairs with our guide Mary. She pointed out the different types of trees and what they were used for. After getting to the top of the hill, I asked for a bathroom. I knew it would probably be an outhouse and I was prepared for the worse. I brought my toilet paper and I took my book bag off. I went in to examine the situation. After closing the door, it got too dark and I started imagining little animals crawling on me, so I decided a better idea was to have a friend stand in the door way so I could have light. My mission was accomplished, and overall, I thought it was a pretty clean outhouse. I have seen worse in Ecuador. It had a tin roof with cement walls. The toilet was brown and black and had little ants crawling on it, but I was still impressed. I quickly switched places with my friend and as soon as she was done the strongest rainstorm we had in Ghana started. The rain almost hurt you hand to touch. We were both stuck in the tin roof, dirty and smelly bathroom. I was holding my breath, and telling myself "I can wait out the storm no problem"... then 5 minutes went by and then 10 minutes. The rain would not let up. By this time, another volunteer was standing outside under a tree and she rain to the outhouse too. There were then 3 of us in a smelly, but spacious outhouse trying to wait out the rain. We talked about strategies to get to another shelter, but nothing seemed possible until I realized I had an umbrella in my bag!!! I am so crazy. I just spent 15 minutes in a dirty outhouse, when I could have left at any point.. good grief..