One Month in Ghana !

Daily Life

I got to try another new food today called bofrot. It is made of sugar, flower, and it is fried very similar to a donut, but less sweet.

Some details about my daily life that I feel people should know:

1. The ground is made of red clay and everywhere we walk we get filthy with red dust. Our shoes are all falling apart; we need to buy new ones constantly. The roads are uneven and it is difficult to walk without tripping. Not only are our shoes ruined, but most of us have feet that are all torn up. My feet are always full of cuts and bruises and dirty beyond belief.
2. The bathroom situation is sketchy and finding somewhere to use the washroom is always a challenge. On campus the washrooms are always locked so you first need to find the person with the key and then if you don’t have hand soap and toilet paper you are out of luck. But this is not the big issue. The issues emerge when you are off campus. On the way to Cape Coast our director said let me know if you need to stop to use the washroom, we will pull over and you can do nature outside. Also when we travel and stop at rest stops you have to pay 30 peswas to use the female urinal, which translates to smelly hole with no door. People are just expected not to look and if someone does everyone around scolds them. This only pertains to women because everywhere you go you will witness men using the Earth as their personal toilet. The gutters are a fine place to relieve yourself and it is perfectly acceptable to go wherever you please. I have never seen so many men in full before in my life.
3. Breastfeeding is the norm here and everywhere you go whether on a trotro or buying something at the market women will just be sitting there with one breast out trying to get a child to simmer down. I had an entire conversation with a woman with her breast out not anywhere near the mouth of her child.
4. Women never wear shorts here, they always cover their legs with jeans or where skirts and dresses to their knees. Men do not wear shorts either they wear pants about 60% of the time and jeans the remainder of the time. And about 99% of the men wear collared shirts everyday; they never wear workout clothes or plain t-shirts. Although when the electricity is out you will witness men wearing football outfits that have matching shirts and shorts because they are unable to iron their shirts so they refuse to wear them.
5. There are signs on almost every wall that say Please don’t urinate here, which is quite entertaining due to the fact that the signs are always ignored.
6. Ghanaian men (not all of them just the few I have addressed the issue with) like to date American women because not only are they easy, but they are also cheap. When they date Ghanaians they have to take them out, buy them clothes, and food. However, when they get with Americans they are just willing to go straight to at least kissing with no cost incurred to the men.
7. The villages are so impoverished; the families wash their bodies, their clothes, and drink from the same body of water. The way that the people find settlement is by looking for a water source and when they find one that can be sustained they build houses there. Some of the families live a good distance from the only source of water, so they are forced to walk a long way before they reach an essential part of their daily living, the water. The houses are made of clay and almost completely bare inside. The kids never have shoes and rarely have sufficient clothes. They eat off the floor and beg you every time they see you. They get so excited when they can see themselves on the camera and they love to just get the opportunity to hold the hand of the white people walking through. I look at the families and am petrified for the future of the young children. I am not sure if there is hope for their futures, knowing that the only schooling they receive is from teachers who are not certified and they are teaching the entire village in one room. How can they ever strive and be successfully if there are no opportunities available for them. The old women sit in front of their homes and cook all day just to feed their many children, the fathers walk on the streets in hopes of selling some materials or food to the cars passing buy, but the families will remain in the poor villages for years to come. When their homes crumble because of the weather conditions the families are forced to start over and reconstruct their homes. It is incredible how homes are so replaceable and the family values are so strong. With all of the poverty the love in the communities still remains. Each day I wonder what needs to be done in Africa in order to make it prosper. The land has potential, there are natural resources and oil and the people have the will power and the intelligence. Despite all of those aspects leadership is missing and a government system that suits the needs of the people. I am not sure what can be done to improve the conditions, but something needs to be done soon in order to allow for good people to live the lives they deserve.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday – February 17- 20 2011

This weekend we traveled to Mole, the journey was long about twenty hours and we hit several bumps in the road- quite literally. The street conditions in Accra are heavenly in comparison to the conditions of the roads up North. Mole is the biggest National Park in Ghana and it is located about twenty hours North of Accra the capital city. Our journey began at five thirty on Thursday morning; we left campus waited for about thirty minutes for a trotro that we were never able to get on. We decided to take taxis to avoid being late; however, when we arrived we soon learn that the STC bus that we had bought tickets to leave for at 8 would not leave until around 9:30. This estimate was quite accurate. While we were waiting I met the cutest little boy who came up to me and scooted onto my lap. It was shocked that he was so comfortable with me. I had to leave to attempt to find a stand that sold cell phones because mine had broken two days before when the power went out and I was using the light to finish my laundry. The phone fell in the water and got ruined. I handed the little boy to my friend and went off to find the cell phones. In about twenty seconds the little boy was grabbing my hand in an attempt to walk with me. I asked Kayla why she didn’t keep him and she said he jumped off her lap and ran to me. I decided to bring the little boy with me, we bought a phone and when we returned his mom came over and brought him on a bus. We again saw the boy while I was walking to the washroom and he ran up to my and jumped up, his mom had to carry him away from me it was the cutest thing.
We finally made our way onto an agonizingly hot bus that we soon learned had assigned seats. When we were directed to the correct area we made ourselves comfortable, as comfortable as we could be with our baggage under our feet and no air conditioning or breeze to keep us cool. Once the bus got turned on we discovered the luxury of air conditioning and we had great hope for the adventure we were about to embark on. Our dreams were crushed about twenty minutes later when we departed and a small TV screen turned on. The entire bus was infiltrated with roaring Nigerians that were characters on a soap opera that we would watch for the entire leg of the journey. Additionally, the air was on so high we were all freezing and did not bring proper entire to keep us warm. Our journey lasted for about fifteen hours, were we spent the night in Tamale. On our journey we stopped at “rest stops” where we could get over priced food and use the washroom (a hole) for twenty to thirty peswas. We survived on crackers and bread the entire way up and when we arrived it was just about eleven thirty.
Luckily we found a man that was available to help us find our way to a nearby hostel that we could spend the night in. We were all exhausted so we told him to point us to the nearest location. We had preselected the hotel from the guidebook, but we were unable to make reservations because apparently that doesn’t exist here. On our long walk to the hostel Caesar the man who not only pointed us in the right direction, who actually physically walked us to the residence we would be sleeping at informed us that the hostel is in fact a night club and a brothel. We made the decision to stay there anyway since there were seven of us and we would have a hostel all to ourselves. Unfortunately, when we arrived we were surprised to find out that there were no beds available and we would need to try a different location. Caesar once again led us to a new hostel, this time we had to follow him down a dark alley that looked to be deserted. Many of the girls were worried so they stayed back. He was extremely offended that after he has taken his time up to be nice and show us around we would accuse him of doing something wrong. In the end he got over his anger and the girls got over their fear and we proceeded to the main road where we got a taxi. Caesar hailed us taxis and we said goodbye and thank you for all of his generous help. However, Caesar had different plans, he replied “oh no I will come with you”. He jumped in the taxi and we were off, with some fear in our heads. We traveled to three more hostels until we made the joined decision that we would attempt our last resort. The guidebook said that the final Central Hostel was located through windy dark roads and is difficult to locate. But we were out of options and all we wanted to do was sleep. We got in another taxi and found our way to the last location where we were able to find lodging for ten cedis each. Although by the time we arrived we only slept two short hours before we had to be up at four AM to get to the bus station in time to get tickets to Wa.
The hostel was filthy; the sheet on the bed looked as if it hadn’t been washed in months, and when you used the sink the water would spill straight out of the bottom. Not only water, but also the soap we used, and anything else that passed through the pipes. We were not given toilet paper and the fan made so many different noises it was hard to sleep. There was a TV, but it did not turn on and we were to exhausted to know the difference. We did make it to the bus station in time to get tickets although the process was more difficult than predicted. Luckily a man was extremely helpful and found us when it was time to sell tickets, so we were the first seven tickets sold and we were able to get on the bus with minimal pushing and screaming. This bus, run by Mega Mass, does not have air conditioning and the seats are much closer together allowing for more people to fit into a smaller area. However, we would soon learn that the bus would go quick enough to make us freeze while the sun was still down and the wind gusted in through the broken window we were sitting behind. Also the dust would whip through the bus and blow into our faces and noses, making it a difficult journey for those with allergies. Fortunately, this bus ride was only four hours long and we would arrive in Larabanga by around ten AM.
As our guidebook predicted immediately after exiting the bus we were bombarded by people and harassed from every direction. The oldest Mosque in Ghana is located in Larabanga and kids were walking around trying to convince us to go and see it with them as tour guides for a small fee. We were informed before arriving that there is actually no fee for seeing the mosque, but a donation could be made to go towards the community if we so wished. So we denied all of the requests form the students and made the wonderful decision to walk the ninety minutes to Mole National Park. We had two options; either we road on motor bikes for four cedis each or we walked 6 km up the dirt road. We chose the latter not only because of the overpricing of the motorbikes, but also because we had been idle for so many hours, we were in need of some exercise. We were in the park by eleven thirty, we secured one hostel where four of us stayed and one hotel room where the remaining three slept, and ordered lunch that would be served in about three hours. We changed into our bathing suits and swam in the dirtiest pool I have ever been in and just relaxed until around 3 when we would leave for a walking safari. While we were eating lunch monkeys jumped up on the table and started stealing the mangos and pineapples, they were adorable with babies clinging to their bellies.
We ventured off to the tour where we would be guided by an armed guide. Although he was not as personable as Samuel, our tour guide in the Rainforest, he was superb at spotting animals. We were able to see every animal that is possible on the walking tour. First we saw kob antelope, then crocodiles, bush antelope, green monkeys, baboons, and warthogs. The hike took about two hours and we retuned greatly satisfied. For the first time in Ghana it was mandatory to tip because Mole is one of the largest tourist areas in Ghana. We returned to the pool where we had placed an order at three, before we left for the tour, to be served at seven for dinner. Three of us decided to go over to the canteen, which is the restaurant that is used for the staff to get dinner as opposed to the over priced restaurant food. When we arrived we quickly learned that the word restaurant is an over statement, it was more of a stall that sold rice, banku, and fufu. We ordered rice, beans, and chicken and the woman told us it would be a while because they needed to go buy a chicken to cook! They were going to go to the market and get a live chicken to kill and cook for us to eat. We opted against chicken and just got rice and beans and called it a meal.
The next day we woke up for the seven o’clock driving tour that was phenomenal. We were permitted to sit on the roof of the car while we drove through the safari and we saw a gigantic elephant that sadly only had one tusk. Then we saw a herd of six elephants that was made up of females and babies. However, we were not allowed to get off of the car to get a closer look at the herd because the females are not friendly and could easily attack. We caught a glimpse of many different types of antelope from relatively small species to humungous ones. At one point an entire pack crossed right in front of us. The tour was excellent and the driver was kind enough to take us to Larabanga after the tour, so we could visit the mosque. We had obtained a phone number for a nice young boy who was willing to tour us through the village and allow us to take photos with the mosque. We arrived at around eleven and our tour began by visiting the dump – the local water source is known as the dump. There were families bathing, some washing clothes, children playing, and women collecting water that they stored on their heads to carry back to their huts. Everyone was kind and the children all begged for us to take their photos so they could see themselves, some of them for the first time. A simple gesture of giving them a pen or taking a photo with them makes them all so happy; the look on their faces is indescribable and certainly priceless. Although some of the moms came up to us and yelled at us for giving young children pens, when they aren’t in school and they have older children that have nothing to write with and need them more. By that time we were all out of writing utensils so there was nothing we could do.
We were able to go into the community and taste gari, which is ground up cassava, it did not taste great but it was an interesting experience. The kids really seemed to like it; it is widely used to feed children because it can be cooked in a variety of ways. We were able to see the entire village from the roofs of the hut that we climbed up. The locals sleep on the roofs when it gets to hot because the breeze is stronger where there are no huts to block it. We learned how the huts are build and we saw how the locals cook food. We witnessed children playing amongst themselves banging on things in a rhythmic way while others danced in circles. We found out that on the seventh day of a child’s life their faces are cut to indicate when tribe they are from and black lines are worn under their eyes to help them with their eye site. We were also informed how the houses are marked on the outside to indicate the birth dates of the family members and we were shown how the goats are marked to ensure that the community knows whom they belong to. We saw the small school building where all of the children in the tribe go to learn by teachers who are neither qualified nor certified. The village was similar to those that we passed on our travel North, but it was mind boggling to witness the atrocious conditions so close up and to touch the hands of the dirty children who are striving to learn English and become educated when all of the odds are against them. I wanted so badly to stay in the community and do what I could to help, but our tour was coming to an end. We were able to donate but nothing we gave would be able to change the circumstances the families are forced to live with.
Later on in the day we went for a canoe tour in Magnori, one of three eco friendly environments in Ghana. We were under the impression that we would be canoeing through a safari, which would take place on the White Volta. In reality two individuals paddles us down the river and through the safari. It was interesting nonetheless, but there were many bugs and I got eaten alive. We did get to see a beautiful Wedding Bird and three different species of a different type of bird that were extremely colorful. At Magnori we also went on a short tour where we saw the Chief of the village and once again witnessed women cooking gari and cassava while there children picked at the finished product. We went inside the palace of the Chief, which was quite small and not decorated the way in which you might assume. After our adventures in the village we left the eco village and went back to Mole Restaurant. The park is government ran so there is only one hotel that you can stay in because there are no other facilities available. This results in minimal accommodations, terrible facilities, and high prices. We did not have water the entire time we stayed at the hotel and the water reserve was questionable, but we made the best of the stay with few complaints. All in all the trip was amazing, we greatly enjoyed ourselves and we would return again instantly if we were given another opportunity to do so.
We headed out on Sunday morning at four am and we arrived in Tamale before ten o’clock. We immediately got on another bus that was headed to Kumasi and it was here that the trip from hell began. We were in the last row of the bus, squished in like sardines. Sitting next to us was a man that had two live chickens in a box on his lap and the lack of air conditioning, space, and ventilation was a terrible combination. We were all tired and hungry, but to compressed to eat and to sweaty to sleep. There is nothing we could do, but try an entertain ourselves. We played every game we could think of and when we got board we just sat with some people leaning forward and some back to try and get some space between our legs and arms that were constantly swapping sweat with the appendages closest to them. When we finally got off that bus everyone was so frustrated and no one was in the mood to get on another bus, but we had no choice. We were forced into a taxi that brought us to an Accra cross stop and men picked up our things and brought them to a bus unbeknownst to us. We were again pulled and pushed like animals in different directions until we made a decision about which bus to get onto. The mate told us that the bus had air conditioning, but as we suspected it did not. When we finally made it back to Accra we were all ready to pass out and never wake up again. The first thing I did was hop in the shower and just stand there for about fifteen minutes, letting the cold water pour over me so I could cool down. I was so thankful that the water was on because upon arrival we discovered that there had been no sign of water all day. After my shower I climbed into bed and fell asleep right away.

Monday, February 21, 2011

I woke up early this morning at around eight o’clock with no difficulties. We have been getting up so early lately that eight almost seemed late, I never thought my body would adjust to waking up early, but I have been proven wrong. I started my laundry right away because my clothes from mole were so disgusting after hiking through swamp areas and sweating profusely in different transportation vehicles. I also had plenty of laundry to do from the beginning of the week. It took me over four hours to finish all of my clothes and in the end I had five bloody fingers. I was told earlier on that when you have bloody knuckles you know you are washing your clothes correctly, so although my fingers hurt terribly I was proud of myself for improving in my washing skills. I had Twi class, I went to dance, and did nothing else for the remainder of the day.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, February 22-24, 2011

Nothing very eventful has happened, I haven’t been going out as much in an attempt to become closer with my roommate and other Ghanaians. My roommate took me to the market to get a dress made for the wedding I am attending in a few weeks and I went to salsa lessons that were only a half hour long and to basic for me to get much out of them. I am going to go again next week and do the more advanced class so hopefully it will help me to improve my skills. I also had my internship for the first time and I really liked it. It is Women in Law, so it will be helpful for my field and I should get a better handle of the law system within Ghana.
It torrential down poured on Wednesday and the boys had a blast slip and sliding in the hallways on the bare floors. Thankfully the power only went out for a short while and cell phone service was only slowed down, but not brought to a halt. Pieces of the roof starting breaking off and landing in the grass in the center of the dorms and my room and many others were flooded. It typically doesn’t rain that hard in Ghana so the gutter system does not work adequately during the few times rain does pour down for hours.
I have several goals while I am here one of them is to make true friends that I will stay in touch with when I get home and they must be Ghanaian. I am working very hard at achieving this goal and I have definitely taken strides in the right direction. I have the nicest roommate and she has been so sweet and helpfully every time I ask her for something. We have begun to get closer and not allowing myself to go out every night has helped because I am able to wake up earlier and see her more often. This morning we both woke up at around seven thirty and did our laundry until it was time for me to leave for my internship and I hope to spend more time with her this weekend because I will not be traveling.