Wednesday, April 28th, 2011
I had class like usual today and after my second class I went straight to the CIEE office for a departure meeting. We were given pizza, which tasted amazing and spoke about the adjustment period back to home. Specific things that are truly going to be difficult to grow accustomed too are; specific changes in speech, the cost of living, tipping at restaurants, in taxis, and sales tax, and all of the friends that we have made here will be gone when we return to the states. Although we are all excited to get home, we are also sad to leave behind the relationships we have formed here. After the meeting we all left with sorrow in our hearts, but we soon forgot about the quick departure and went back to our lives. I got ready for dance and headed over right on time. We closed at around one and I was back in my dorm before two. I did not do anything that night except get some reading done and then go to bed.
Thursday, April 29, 2011
Today, I woke up early and headed off to work, which I was hoping would lead to my computer being repaired. Although this was just wishful thinking because no one in Ghana has knowledge about Macs, I was able to find a lock smith to make me a new key for my room. With one problem solved and about four hours wasted I continued back to the hostel. I said my goodbyes at my internship because with no computer I have no way to get any work completed. I was back in the dorm extremely early, so I got lunch and began reading for my Africa in the Global System class. I then went to dance, which helped to decrease my anxiety because I am finally beginning to understand the music and differentiate the sounds. After dance we had the intention of going to Tantra, but because it was pouring the club was closed. The next two places we hoped to go were also closed, so we ended up at Duplex which was a terrible decision. The weather was bad so standing outside was miserable, the music was horrible and hard to dance too, and the bar was jam packed with many foreigners who were all smoking making it hard to move around and breath. We left before three and I got back and went straight to bed.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Not much to tell
Monday, April 25, 2011
It was a holiday today, so we have no classes and my internship was canceled. I planned on getting a new key because I lost mine yesterday, but the lock smith was closed like everything else in this country on holiday. So I spent the majority of the day relaxing and reading until it was time to go to dance. Dance was long and we did not get out until around one; however, I greatly enjoyed it because we got a lot done and had an extremely productive practice.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Today one of my classes was canceled, but I still had my last Twi class. Before class I went to the office to use the internet and I learned my computer is broken. My screen is not working and I know it is not a large problem, but I cannot get it fixed until I am back in the states. Therefore, blogging is going to be much more difficult for me to do often.
I finally made my way to class after I got over the fact that my computer is no longer functioning properly. Class went well and straight from there I went to dance, so I could practice with Atsu before class began. He helped me greatly and I feel so much better about some of the moves in dance. After dance we went back to the hostel to get some dinner and I ended up going straight to bed after we ate. I was sleeping by midnight, which has not happened in a really long time so it was a nice change.
It was a holiday today, so we have no classes and my internship was canceled. I planned on getting a new key because I lost mine yesterday, but the lock smith was closed like everything else in this country on holiday. So I spent the majority of the day relaxing and reading until it was time to go to dance. Dance was long and we did not get out until around one; however, I greatly enjoyed it because we got a lot done and had an extremely productive practice.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Today one of my classes was canceled, but I still had my last Twi class. Before class I went to the office to use the internet and I learned my computer is broken. My screen is not working and I know it is not a large problem, but I cannot get it fixed until I am back in the states. Therefore, blogging is going to be much more difficult for me to do often.
I finally made my way to class after I got over the fact that my computer is no longer functioning properly. Class went well and straight from there I went to dance, so I could practice with Atsu before class began. He helped me greatly and I feel so much better about some of the moves in dance. After dance we went back to the hostel to get some dinner and I ended up going straight to bed after we ate. I was sleeping by midnight, which has not happened in a really long time so it was a nice change.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Easter Day
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Easter Sunday
I got up and went to church with the knowledge that it would be an extremely long service. To my utter surprise the entire ordeal took about seven hours and involved a sermon that touched on Easter for about ten minutes. It was a nice mass and the service was in English, which is always a nice surprise. But the preacher spoke mostly about himself or about his book that was just released. He also spent over an hour thanking people for sponsoring his book and celebrating his birthday with him. The mass centered around the theory that what you put into life does not control what you get out of it, which seems to be a backward message. It was difficult to comprehend the meaning he was trying to get across, but after analyzing and discussing it with fellow obrunis we came to a conclusion on the central idea. We were greeted by everyone in mass and many of the men were interested in getting to know us better outside of church as they put it. After the service we were serviced a delicious lunch with the entire church community. This made the day feel a little bit more like Easter, although we were eating Ghanaian food instead of my traditional Easter meal. We also got a chocolate chip cookie, which is huge in a country with little to no dessert.
The country as a whole does not celebrate the Easter holiday any further, it is solely a day to worship the Lord in church and the following day is used for the same purpose. Therefore, it is not unusual for people to make plans on Easter night, I of course had dance, so by the time I arrived back at the hostel I had thirty minutes to get settled, dressed, and head off to dance rehearsal. We practiced for about two hours and I feel more confident with the dance then I did before class, so at least I am showing improvement. After practice we walked back to the hostel with a group of people from dance. They were all TAs and on the way we saw a u-pal. The rest of the walk was entertaining because they were arguing over whom I should walk next too. The entire scene was clearly a joke and they did a great job in keeping me entertained the entire walk back.
Easter Sunday
I got up and went to church with the knowledge that it would be an extremely long service. To my utter surprise the entire ordeal took about seven hours and involved a sermon that touched on Easter for about ten minutes. It was a nice mass and the service was in English, which is always a nice surprise. But the preacher spoke mostly about himself or about his book that was just released. He also spent over an hour thanking people for sponsoring his book and celebrating his birthday with him. The mass centered around the theory that what you put into life does not control what you get out of it, which seems to be a backward message. It was difficult to comprehend the meaning he was trying to get across, but after analyzing and discussing it with fellow obrunis we came to a conclusion on the central idea. We were greeted by everyone in mass and many of the men were interested in getting to know us better outside of church as they put it. After the service we were serviced a delicious lunch with the entire church community. This made the day feel a little bit more like Easter, although we were eating Ghanaian food instead of my traditional Easter meal. We also got a chocolate chip cookie, which is huge in a country with little to no dessert.
The country as a whole does not celebrate the Easter holiday any further, it is solely a day to worship the Lord in church and the following day is used for the same purpose. Therefore, it is not unusual for people to make plans on Easter night, I of course had dance, so by the time I arrived back at the hostel I had thirty minutes to get settled, dressed, and head off to dance rehearsal. We practiced for about two hours and I feel more confident with the dance then I did before class, so at least I am showing improvement. After practice we walked back to the hostel with a group of people from dance. They were all TAs and on the way we saw a u-pal. The rest of the walk was entertaining because they were arguing over whom I should walk next too. The entire scene was clearly a joke and they did a great job in keeping me entertained the entire walk back.
Easter Weekend!
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
I am doing much better today, I woke up regenerated and with no signs of sickness. I think I was worn-out from not sleeping enough and the rehydration salts and ten hours of sleep has solved my problem. Through out the day I still had some signs of sickness, but I was in much better shape. I went to all of my classes and they went by smoothly and then I had dance for about five hours. We are moving along now, although we are practicing five days a week for the final two weeks so my spare time is going to be greatly diminished.
The only exciting part of my day was discovering a new way to walk to class that cuts off about five minutes, which is nice since the distance from my first class to my second one always makes me late. Additionally, my first class got out early so I was able to finish up my assignment before my second class. I had not done an adequate job due to the fact that I was so sick and so drained the day before. But in the end it all worked out and I got everything done.
I am getting anxious to be home and have all of those things that I miss and the stress of finals is becoming real, but I try to think of what lies ahead and the wonderful last two weeks that I am going to have. It is those thoughts that keep me going. Although I want to be home and I miss everyone so much, I know I am not finished with my experience here yet. I still learn new things everyday and my horizons become expanded with each new encounter. I meet men who annoy me beyond belief and I have become so much better at blowing off the entire ordeal without becoming stressed. I have more patience fro the slow speed of life and the individuals who speak to me as if they are being helpful but really they are just causing me anxiety.
So many of my mannerisms have been altered from specific inflections in speak and subtle changes in wordings for everyday activities to the way that when something goes wrong it is expected and it is not seen as an issue it is just something else to deal with. Everyday I try to predict which one of the changes will prevail and which things will disappear in time causing me to revert back to how I was before the semester. There are several things I hope I can maintain, while others I am praying vanish before I land back in America; like eating with my hands!
Thursday, April 21, 2011
I am completely better today!!! I was able to eat two meals and keep them both down; I even made it all the way through dance without getting sick. My day was exponentially better than yesterday; I feel reenergized and am once again ready to continue my journey in Ghana. My Easter plans were ruined on Wednesday, which greatly added to my hardship and Hannah once again came to the rescue and invited me to go paragliding with her group. Also Eunice invited me to church with her, so everything is going to work out I am sure of it.
My day started out great because I woke up to a phone call from my boss letting me know that I did not have to go into work. I was able to go back to sleep until almost ten!!! And then when I got up I did some readings and just got to relax for the remainder of the day until dance. I ate redred for the first time in a while because I was sick, so it tasted better than usual. I even finished the book I had been reading by Glenn Beck. It was a beautiful morning and then I had to go to dance. I still do not know the music well enough to perform on my own, but Atsu and Mickey, two Ghanaian dancers, have promised to work with some of the girls that don’t know what they are doing and me before our exam. Therefore, I am confident if I work really hard in class and with them that I will understand the dance in time.
Like a typical Thursday I went off to Tantra for an evening of dancing and time to unwind. Unfortunately, Friday is a holiday so no one has classes. Therefore, the club was extremely crowded and the music wasn’t great. After one the DJ changed so at least the music improved. We did end up having a fun night, but it was not the relaxing atmosphere I was looking forward to. We returned after five AM and I did not get to bed until after six because the boys were waiting for someone to bring them food and we stayed up talking until it was time for Peter to leave for his journey to the East for the Easter Festival.
Friday, April 22, 2011
This morning I did not have to be up until nine, which was nice since I got to bed really late yesterday. We left at around ten for the Eastern Region- Kwahu – with the thought process that we would arrive by around two. What really happened is we got to circle on the nicest bus we have ridden on yet, because it was empty and extremely cheap. The first person we encountered exclaimed Welcome to Africa in the most enthusiastic of voices; it was incredibly entertaining and definitely the largest welcome we have received in quite some time. Then, we looked for the metro mass bus we were told would take us to our destination, but this bus was finished (or never existed) we are not sure. So we found a different way by getting directions from the sweetest women, Sister Ama. She gave us contact information for Auntie Acos who lives in Obo, which is the town in Kwahu were the festival takes place. She got us on a bus to the right place; however, the bus was quite expensive but we got on anyway because the lines for different transportation were long and not that much cheaper. We were forced to listen to screeching Ghanaian movies the entire trip after about an hour of preaching by a random man that was screaming ff the top of his lungs and it was after three by the time we reached Nkawkaw. There we took a trotro to Obo, where we arbitrarily decided to get off when the atmosphere seemed good.
It happened that a sweet young girl saw that we were in need of assistance and walked us around for thirty minutes looking for a hotel with an opened room. We eventually found a beautiful room with one bed for all five of us. It was located right by the “Chill Spot” for MTN, so we spent a portion of our night there. Before going to the chill spot, we asked a taxi driver to drive us up the road for as far as one cedi could get us and it actually worked. We found somewhere to get dinner a restaurant with a sign in the front that said continental and local dishes. When we got inside there were several good signs that we were going to get fed. We were all very hungry by this point because we hadn’t eaten all day and it was around seven. We had also walked up and down looking for food and we were unable to find somewhere everyone could find some thing. So when we finally got to order every one was ecstatic. Although we quickly found out there was no reason to get excited. The waitress brought us to our table upstairs where it was pitch black and no lights were provided. Then we were informed that they had banku, fufu, and rice with sauce. We all ordered and she returned to tell us that the rice is finished. Therefore, there were zero meals with no meat. So three of us went out one more time to look for food to bring back to the table to join the two people who would be eating fufu. I was able to find kenkay with no meat, Hannah ate bananas, and Devin had yam chips with sauce. We brought our food back to the restaurant and in the end everything worked out.
We then went to the Chill Spot and there were probably thirty little kids wearing bags on their shoes so when we walked by they could slide right in front of our feet. It was hysterical and we stayed to dance with them for a little while. They were adorable and kept us entertained for longer than we expected. Then older boys came by to get to know us, we were dreading the encounter due to the fact that every time this happens it always turns out with us attempting to find excuses to leave. However, these boys were a pleasant surprise. They were really kind and did not bother us at all. We were able to sit with them and have a nice conversation and then leave when it was time for them to get dinner and us to head of to a concert. There was no awkward encounter and they did not try to follow us to our room.
We then found our way to Ohenenana where we were told a concert would be underway. It was much further than we realized, but once we arrived we were glad we took the effort to get there. The taxi rides were all epic the entire weekend and the journey to the concert was no exception. The fist taxi did not want to take us because of the traffic so he started to pull away. Devin yelled out “WAIT!! LISTEN, you are going this way, we need to go this way so drive us in this direction until our paths are no longer in sync. He agreed and the entire ride we spoke with him in Twi, he was so entertained we were sure he would take us the entire way. However, that did not actually happen he let us down when he needed to turn, but we did get closer and the encounter was wonderful. He was such a nice guy and we learned some new Twi in the process. We found another taxi that was much less friendly, but he got us to where we needed to go.
We found the concert, the music was great, but we were the only white people so men flocked at us more than usual. We could not get men to stop touching us until we found the kindest Ghanaian women to dance around us; they were our saviors. At the end of the show we went to explore and met a group of three men who began by being pleasant and our final encounter was one of them kissing one of our friends, so we decided it was time to go back to the hotel. Once again we had an adventurous driver. He got into a huge fight over something that we were completely blind too. At one point he even turned off the vehicle and got out of the car. We were freaking out because we had already paid. One of the most important rules to remember is never pay until you get to your destination, but there is a back story to the reason why we paid. We met up with the junior sister of one of our program directors and her friends and she got out of the taxi paid him and told us to hop in. It was such a kind thing for them to do, but it led us to a situation where getting out of the taxi would cost us money but staying in could lead to trouble. In the end the taxi driver returned and we were once again on our way. The traffic was terrible and we were barely moving so the driver again got out, this time to fix his tire while we were in the middle of the road stuck in traffic. The entire encounter was amusing and it just added to the unique experiences we had with our taxi drivers!
We got back to the room and I decided to take a shower. The bathroom was beautiful, but the shower had no door or curtain. Therefore, when I turned the water on everything in the bathroom got soaked including my clothes and the toilet paper. I finished my shower and went to my bag to find something to sleep in that resembled pajamas, but was not drenched. I then laid down on the blanket we laid down on the floor for Hannah and I to sleep on, sleep did not come quickly but once it did I was out until six when I received a phone call.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
I was not able to fall back asleep after the call at six, but at seven we were getting up anyway. So I got up and got ready and in due time we were ready to head off to paragliding. We made our way to Atenin, which is located at the top of a mountain where the paragliding took place. Once again we took an unforgettable taxi ride, but this was the least favorable of all of the encounters. This man was madly in love with me and wanted terribly to get married. Although this happens constantly, it is unfortunate when it occurs in a taxi ride that is going to last a half hour. The driver drove us all the way up the mountain with the air conditioning on because of the severity of the dust. Therefore, when we got to the top he wanted us to pay more, but like I said before paying when you arrive is the most important rule the second most important rule is to discuss a price before entering. Therefore, we did not give him more money, we paid what we agreed on and made him go away. We found the list to paraglide and the way everything worked out amazingly the entire weekend this was no exception. We got the last spots for the day, paid, and patiently waited for several hours before they called us up to be strapped on. We were all so excited and the timing could not have been better. Right before I departed the vice president of Ghana showed up and sat three chairs to the left of me. It was incredible.
I soon found out that my professional that I would be flying with does paragliding acro, so he promised to do tricks with me in the air. I was so excited because the women had told me it depended on whom I got that I could not be guaranteed crazy tricks. We flew for about thirty minutes above the beautiful forest, right underneath the clouds, with the birds flying along side us. It was amazing and I think everyone should try and do it! Then it was time to go nuts, we swung in circles where we were completely vertical, and then we did a loop and went upside down. The driver said we reached 100 mph and dropped 50 meters a second! After we landed I got to ride back up the mountain in the back of a pick up truck, so it was two firsts in one! It was such an extraordinary festival and well worth all of the trouble.
We then got back in five different types of transportation and made our way back to our dorm, we arrive in much less than seven hours (the time it took to get there) so we were all thrilled. The last trotro ride was again entertaining, we got in and it would not start. The driver revved the engine for about twenty minutes before finally trying something new. A couple of men then popped the hood and figured out what the problem was. Soon after we were on our way back to school, but right before our stop the trotro turned down the wrong road and we quickly had to tell the car to stop so we could get out and walk the rest of the way. It was only about ten feet, it was just a surprise when the car went the wrong way since we are used to taking the same path. Also on our first trotro, which was about a four-hour drive there was the most annoying man sitting with us. He bothered us the entire way, although I that am under the impression the he thought he was being helpful. Really we all just wanted to sleep and he said it was too dangerous to sleep on the bus. The roads were so bad it was already difficult to do any thing except hang on for dear life, to have to deal with this mans nonsense made the trip that much worse. It also rained, which means the thousands of pot holes all filled with water and the dirt roads get that much more difficult to travel on. The water was so high in some areas we thought the car was going to stall out, but thankfully there were few car problems the largest problem was the man that kept talking to us after we made it clear we had no interest in conversation. We were all tired, hot, hungry, and ready to get back to school.
I am doing much better today, I woke up regenerated and with no signs of sickness. I think I was worn-out from not sleeping enough and the rehydration salts and ten hours of sleep has solved my problem. Through out the day I still had some signs of sickness, but I was in much better shape. I went to all of my classes and they went by smoothly and then I had dance for about five hours. We are moving along now, although we are practicing five days a week for the final two weeks so my spare time is going to be greatly diminished.
The only exciting part of my day was discovering a new way to walk to class that cuts off about five minutes, which is nice since the distance from my first class to my second one always makes me late. Additionally, my first class got out early so I was able to finish up my assignment before my second class. I had not done an adequate job due to the fact that I was so sick and so drained the day before. But in the end it all worked out and I got everything done.
I am getting anxious to be home and have all of those things that I miss and the stress of finals is becoming real, but I try to think of what lies ahead and the wonderful last two weeks that I am going to have. It is those thoughts that keep me going. Although I want to be home and I miss everyone so much, I know I am not finished with my experience here yet. I still learn new things everyday and my horizons become expanded with each new encounter. I meet men who annoy me beyond belief and I have become so much better at blowing off the entire ordeal without becoming stressed. I have more patience fro the slow speed of life and the individuals who speak to me as if they are being helpful but really they are just causing me anxiety.
So many of my mannerisms have been altered from specific inflections in speak and subtle changes in wordings for everyday activities to the way that when something goes wrong it is expected and it is not seen as an issue it is just something else to deal with. Everyday I try to predict which one of the changes will prevail and which things will disappear in time causing me to revert back to how I was before the semester. There are several things I hope I can maintain, while others I am praying vanish before I land back in America; like eating with my hands!
Thursday, April 21, 2011
I am completely better today!!! I was able to eat two meals and keep them both down; I even made it all the way through dance without getting sick. My day was exponentially better than yesterday; I feel reenergized and am once again ready to continue my journey in Ghana. My Easter plans were ruined on Wednesday, which greatly added to my hardship and Hannah once again came to the rescue and invited me to go paragliding with her group. Also Eunice invited me to church with her, so everything is going to work out I am sure of it.
My day started out great because I woke up to a phone call from my boss letting me know that I did not have to go into work. I was able to go back to sleep until almost ten!!! And then when I got up I did some readings and just got to relax for the remainder of the day until dance. I ate redred for the first time in a while because I was sick, so it tasted better than usual. I even finished the book I had been reading by Glenn Beck. It was a beautiful morning and then I had to go to dance. I still do not know the music well enough to perform on my own, but Atsu and Mickey, two Ghanaian dancers, have promised to work with some of the girls that don’t know what they are doing and me before our exam. Therefore, I am confident if I work really hard in class and with them that I will understand the dance in time.
Like a typical Thursday I went off to Tantra for an evening of dancing and time to unwind. Unfortunately, Friday is a holiday so no one has classes. Therefore, the club was extremely crowded and the music wasn’t great. After one the DJ changed so at least the music improved. We did end up having a fun night, but it was not the relaxing atmosphere I was looking forward to. We returned after five AM and I did not get to bed until after six because the boys were waiting for someone to bring them food and we stayed up talking until it was time for Peter to leave for his journey to the East for the Easter Festival.
Friday, April 22, 2011
This morning I did not have to be up until nine, which was nice since I got to bed really late yesterday. We left at around ten for the Eastern Region- Kwahu – with the thought process that we would arrive by around two. What really happened is we got to circle on the nicest bus we have ridden on yet, because it was empty and extremely cheap. The first person we encountered exclaimed Welcome to Africa in the most enthusiastic of voices; it was incredibly entertaining and definitely the largest welcome we have received in quite some time. Then, we looked for the metro mass bus we were told would take us to our destination, but this bus was finished (or never existed) we are not sure. So we found a different way by getting directions from the sweetest women, Sister Ama. She gave us contact information for Auntie Acos who lives in Obo, which is the town in Kwahu were the festival takes place. She got us on a bus to the right place; however, the bus was quite expensive but we got on anyway because the lines for different transportation were long and not that much cheaper. We were forced to listen to screeching Ghanaian movies the entire trip after about an hour of preaching by a random man that was screaming ff the top of his lungs and it was after three by the time we reached Nkawkaw. There we took a trotro to Obo, where we arbitrarily decided to get off when the atmosphere seemed good.
It happened that a sweet young girl saw that we were in need of assistance and walked us around for thirty minutes looking for a hotel with an opened room. We eventually found a beautiful room with one bed for all five of us. It was located right by the “Chill Spot” for MTN, so we spent a portion of our night there. Before going to the chill spot, we asked a taxi driver to drive us up the road for as far as one cedi could get us and it actually worked. We found somewhere to get dinner a restaurant with a sign in the front that said continental and local dishes. When we got inside there were several good signs that we were going to get fed. We were all very hungry by this point because we hadn’t eaten all day and it was around seven. We had also walked up and down looking for food and we were unable to find somewhere everyone could find some thing. So when we finally got to order every one was ecstatic. Although we quickly found out there was no reason to get excited. The waitress brought us to our table upstairs where it was pitch black and no lights were provided. Then we were informed that they had banku, fufu, and rice with sauce. We all ordered and she returned to tell us that the rice is finished. Therefore, there were zero meals with no meat. So three of us went out one more time to look for food to bring back to the table to join the two people who would be eating fufu. I was able to find kenkay with no meat, Hannah ate bananas, and Devin had yam chips with sauce. We brought our food back to the restaurant and in the end everything worked out.
We then went to the Chill Spot and there were probably thirty little kids wearing bags on their shoes so when we walked by they could slide right in front of our feet. It was hysterical and we stayed to dance with them for a little while. They were adorable and kept us entertained for longer than we expected. Then older boys came by to get to know us, we were dreading the encounter due to the fact that every time this happens it always turns out with us attempting to find excuses to leave. However, these boys were a pleasant surprise. They were really kind and did not bother us at all. We were able to sit with them and have a nice conversation and then leave when it was time for them to get dinner and us to head of to a concert. There was no awkward encounter and they did not try to follow us to our room.
We then found our way to Ohenenana where we were told a concert would be underway. It was much further than we realized, but once we arrived we were glad we took the effort to get there. The taxi rides were all epic the entire weekend and the journey to the concert was no exception. The fist taxi did not want to take us because of the traffic so he started to pull away. Devin yelled out “WAIT!! LISTEN, you are going this way, we need to go this way so drive us in this direction until our paths are no longer in sync. He agreed and the entire ride we spoke with him in Twi, he was so entertained we were sure he would take us the entire way. However, that did not actually happen he let us down when he needed to turn, but we did get closer and the encounter was wonderful. He was such a nice guy and we learned some new Twi in the process. We found another taxi that was much less friendly, but he got us to where we needed to go.
We found the concert, the music was great, but we were the only white people so men flocked at us more than usual. We could not get men to stop touching us until we found the kindest Ghanaian women to dance around us; they were our saviors. At the end of the show we went to explore and met a group of three men who began by being pleasant and our final encounter was one of them kissing one of our friends, so we decided it was time to go back to the hotel. Once again we had an adventurous driver. He got into a huge fight over something that we were completely blind too. At one point he even turned off the vehicle and got out of the car. We were freaking out because we had already paid. One of the most important rules to remember is never pay until you get to your destination, but there is a back story to the reason why we paid. We met up with the junior sister of one of our program directors and her friends and she got out of the taxi paid him and told us to hop in. It was such a kind thing for them to do, but it led us to a situation where getting out of the taxi would cost us money but staying in could lead to trouble. In the end the taxi driver returned and we were once again on our way. The traffic was terrible and we were barely moving so the driver again got out, this time to fix his tire while we were in the middle of the road stuck in traffic. The entire encounter was amusing and it just added to the unique experiences we had with our taxi drivers!
We got back to the room and I decided to take a shower. The bathroom was beautiful, but the shower had no door or curtain. Therefore, when I turned the water on everything in the bathroom got soaked including my clothes and the toilet paper. I finished my shower and went to my bag to find something to sleep in that resembled pajamas, but was not drenched. I then laid down on the blanket we laid down on the floor for Hannah and I to sleep on, sleep did not come quickly but once it did I was out until six when I received a phone call.
Saturday, April 23, 2011
I was not able to fall back asleep after the call at six, but at seven we were getting up anyway. So I got up and got ready and in due time we were ready to head off to paragliding. We made our way to Atenin, which is located at the top of a mountain where the paragliding took place. Once again we took an unforgettable taxi ride, but this was the least favorable of all of the encounters. This man was madly in love with me and wanted terribly to get married. Although this happens constantly, it is unfortunate when it occurs in a taxi ride that is going to last a half hour. The driver drove us all the way up the mountain with the air conditioning on because of the severity of the dust. Therefore, when we got to the top he wanted us to pay more, but like I said before paying when you arrive is the most important rule the second most important rule is to discuss a price before entering. Therefore, we did not give him more money, we paid what we agreed on and made him go away. We found the list to paraglide and the way everything worked out amazingly the entire weekend this was no exception. We got the last spots for the day, paid, and patiently waited for several hours before they called us up to be strapped on. We were all so excited and the timing could not have been better. Right before I departed the vice president of Ghana showed up and sat three chairs to the left of me. It was incredible.
I soon found out that my professional that I would be flying with does paragliding acro, so he promised to do tricks with me in the air. I was so excited because the women had told me it depended on whom I got that I could not be guaranteed crazy tricks. We flew for about thirty minutes above the beautiful forest, right underneath the clouds, with the birds flying along side us. It was amazing and I think everyone should try and do it! Then it was time to go nuts, we swung in circles where we were completely vertical, and then we did a loop and went upside down. The driver said we reached 100 mph and dropped 50 meters a second! After we landed I got to ride back up the mountain in the back of a pick up truck, so it was two firsts in one! It was such an extraordinary festival and well worth all of the trouble.
We then got back in five different types of transportation and made our way back to our dorm, we arrive in much less than seven hours (the time it took to get there) so we were all thrilled. The last trotro ride was again entertaining, we got in and it would not start. The driver revved the engine for about twenty minutes before finally trying something new. A couple of men then popped the hood and figured out what the problem was. Soon after we were on our way back to school, but right before our stop the trotro turned down the wrong road and we quickly had to tell the car to stop so we could get out and walk the rest of the way. It was only about ten feet, it was just a surprise when the car went the wrong way since we are used to taking the same path. Also on our first trotro, which was about a four-hour drive there was the most annoying man sitting with us. He bothered us the entire way, although I that am under the impression the he thought he was being helpful. Really we all just wanted to sleep and he said it was too dangerous to sleep on the bus. The roads were so bad it was already difficult to do any thing except hang on for dear life, to have to deal with this mans nonsense made the trip that much worse. It also rained, which means the thousands of pot holes all filled with water and the dirt roads get that much more difficult to travel on. The water was so high in some areas we thought the car was going to stall out, but thankfully there were few car problems the largest problem was the man that kept talking to us after we made it clear we had no interest in conversation. We were all tired, hot, hungry, and ready to get back to school.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
I'm Sick :(
Monday, April 18, 2011
I did not get to bed until almost four, so waking up at five forty was not possible. I got up after six instead, got ready quickly and went down to the junction as quickly as possible. I had the luckiest morning because I could see down to the end of the junction that a bus was pulling over, so I ran as quickly as I could straight onto the bus just making it before they shut the doors. It was terrific and when I got off at thirty-seven I did not have to wait for any lights while walking to the station, I just seemed to have the perfect day to have left late. I arrived at work about ten minutes early, which was completely unexpected. I though for sure that I would be at least ten minutes late, it was a pleasant surprise to arrive early. I had essentially nothing to do at work, because my boss continues to say there is a lot for me to do, but she has not organized it yet. I think this will be one of the last weeks I go. I hate wasting my time and money to get to work and do nothing.
After work I got back, got ready for Twi, and went off to class. I was exhausted in class and could not wait to get to bed. I took a twenty minute nap and then a friend woke me up and I was unable to go back to sleep before dance. Dance began at seven thirty and we did not get back until almost two. It was such a long night and I could not wait to get to bed. The walk back to the room was long and full of mosquitoes. I must have ten new bites from the short walk over to my room. I had to finish a dance paper before bed and get some reading done, so I barely got to sleep at all.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
I woke up at around 7 am extremely ill and I decided there was no way I would be able to make it to class. However, at about 11:00 I saw the Metro Mass bus pass by and I realized it must be a sign to take the bus to class. I decided to go and I am not sure it was the right decision. I was so sick the entire class I could barely pay attention and I had to keep leaving to go to the bathroom. I then had to wait for an hour in the CIEE office for my next class to begin. I decided it might be a good idea to put something into my system, so I took a small breaded food. It turned out that my body disagreed because about thirty minutes later I regurgitated it. From then on for the remainder of the day I puked about every hour. I sat through class and then went to dance class in so much pain. I did not dance because I could barely keep my head up and I had absolutely nothing in my system. I got back from dance before 8 and went straight to bed.
I did not get to bed until almost four, so waking up at five forty was not possible. I got up after six instead, got ready quickly and went down to the junction as quickly as possible. I had the luckiest morning because I could see down to the end of the junction that a bus was pulling over, so I ran as quickly as I could straight onto the bus just making it before they shut the doors. It was terrific and when I got off at thirty-seven I did not have to wait for any lights while walking to the station, I just seemed to have the perfect day to have left late. I arrived at work about ten minutes early, which was completely unexpected. I though for sure that I would be at least ten minutes late, it was a pleasant surprise to arrive early. I had essentially nothing to do at work, because my boss continues to say there is a lot for me to do, but she has not organized it yet. I think this will be one of the last weeks I go. I hate wasting my time and money to get to work and do nothing.
After work I got back, got ready for Twi, and went off to class. I was exhausted in class and could not wait to get to bed. I took a twenty minute nap and then a friend woke me up and I was unable to go back to sleep before dance. Dance began at seven thirty and we did not get back until almost two. It was such a long night and I could not wait to get to bed. The walk back to the room was long and full of mosquitoes. I must have ten new bites from the short walk over to my room. I had to finish a dance paper before bed and get some reading done, so I barely got to sleep at all.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
I woke up at around 7 am extremely ill and I decided there was no way I would be able to make it to class. However, at about 11:00 I saw the Metro Mass bus pass by and I realized it must be a sign to take the bus to class. I decided to go and I am not sure it was the right decision. I was so sick the entire class I could barely pay attention and I had to keep leaving to go to the bathroom. I then had to wait for an hour in the CIEE office for my next class to begin. I decided it might be a good idea to put something into my system, so I took a small breaded food. It turned out that my body disagreed because about thirty minutes later I regurgitated it. From then on for the remainder of the day I puked about every hour. I sat through class and then went to dance class in so much pain. I did not dance because I could barely keep my head up and I had absolutely nothing in my system. I got back from dance before 8 and went straight to bed.
Monday, April 18, 2011
A weekend at Kokrobite
Thursday, April 14, 2011
I have no idea what happened this morning, but after my alarm went off at 5:40 I fell back asleep and did not wake up until 6:20. I quickly got ready and I ended up leaving my room fifteen minutes later than usual. I was lucky enough to get on a trotro quickly and I arrived at work forty minutes early. It is incredible with the traffic and transportation conditions that I can leave late and arrive early and that I can also leave on time and be late. But I have gotten much better at working the system and it does not take me nearly as long to get around. I finished my assignments at work, in a timely manner and was able to leave with plenty of time to go back to my room and relax before dance class.
Dance was held outside because the building was being used for a production. Therefore, we got to slice our feet up by dancing barefoot on the cement and class got cut short because it gets dark by six-thirty. After class I attended the production and it was wonderful. It was a dance production with about thirty people and they told an amazing story using only music and dancing. The costumes were beautiful and the backdrops were set up in such a way that they created different dimensions. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera with me, so there are no pictures of the show.
After the show I got ready and went out to Tantra for the birthday of one of my Ghanaian friends. This was my first tipsy night in Ghana and it all happened because they owner is in love with me. He gave me whatever alcohol I asked for and he did not try to dance with me once. He did creepily say that he just likes to watch people dance, but I am okay with that as long as I get drinks and nothing is expected of me at the end. I was with plenty of people I trust, so I was not unsafe at all and don’t worry although I did drink I was nowhere near out of control. I ensured I did not drink too much by handing every other drink off to someone nearby, while the owner was not paying attention. At around three forty-five the club closed and we headed first to Epos so the boys could pick up food and then back to the dorm.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Although I was awoken at around six, I was able to fall back asleep and I did not get up until nine. I have not slept in that late in a long time, so I felt wonderful when I got up. I had the best breakfast because Kayla, one of my neighbors and great friends here, lent me some honey and I was able to get cinnamon to put in my oatmeal. After I was fed and showered I packed my bag and headed off for a weekend at the beach. We arrived there earlier then expected after riding on three trotros and walking down the side roads to reach our destination. We laid out for a little while before our room was prepared and we were able to settle in. We quickly discovered that the shops on the beach are run by Rastas, so we would have a constant smell of weed throughout our trip, we attempted to sit far enough away to avoid the small, but that was difficult to do. We had a booked the last available room, which meant that we were paying for an expensive room in comparison to the other rooms for modern amenities and air conditioning because it was the only room left. And for Friday night we would only have five people in the room. The problem came about when we discovered that the hotel had not had electricity for the last three days, so the air and every other amenity was not functioning.
Therefore, as the most confrontational, but not blatantly rude person in the room I decided to go to reception to get the price of our room decreased. The woman informed me that her boss was not in to come back at two and I could speak with her. I returned at two and still there was no boss. She told me she would take ten cedis off the bill for the inconvenience because we are not actually paying for the air we are paying for the set up of the room. It is true that we had running water and many of the other rooms did not, but we were paying three times the amount then the triple that also has running water. Therefore, this was not the discount we were looking for, so I asked her how I could contact her boss because the price was unacceptable. She was terribly offended and told me to leave if she was just a nobody not worth talking too. I was trying very hard not to get into a fight, so I left and decided to give up on the topic for the day. After my confrontation I went over to the relaxing side of the resort and we were able to just hang out and have a nice night. We played a couple of games and there was a drumming show being held with several dancers. Some of them were excellent, other had no special talent, but it was entertaining for quite some time. After the show, we continued with our games until it was time for bed.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
The following day we went to the beach, hung out, ate the most delicious food I have had in Ghana, and then it was time to celebrate Hannah’s birthday. The name of the beach is Kokrobite and the resort is Big Milly’s. The atmosphere is lovely, it is a wonderful place to sit and relax, while you enjoy the breeze from the ocean. It is a public beach, so hawkers are all over and there are children all around asking for money. However, one very kind young boy saw my towel be wiped away by the waves and ran in the water to retrieved it, looked at how dirty it had gotten, ran back to the water, rinsed it off and rang it out all without being asked. He did not bother us the remainder of the time, he just helped move our stuff into safety every time “the sea is comes.”
The dinner was at an Italian restaurant that was opened up by an Italian couple several years ago right outside the resort. Although I would not say the pasta was great Italian food, it was still delicious. I had pasta al forno, with salad that actually had vinegar and green lettuce as opposed to cabbage. We also got chocolate cake for Hannah so we could sing happy birthday and let her blow out a watch at midnight. The cake was amazing and after, we forced her to jump into the ocean. Here is Ghana on your birthday, you get ponded, so we decided to put her in the ocean would be the most effective way to complete that. We all went in with her and afterwards we went out to dance for a bit to the reggae music. We soon went off to bed in high spirits.
The power was on when we returned to our rooms, which was exciting because the air conditioning was making the room well worth what ever they wanted up to pay. However, this lasted for only about an hour when the power went out once again, and again we were left in the smoldering heat.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
We woke up and went to breakfast and then I had to make my way back to reception to once again deal with paying for the room. By this time five other people had arrived so we now had ten people in out sweet (which is not actually as nice as you would picture) three on two of the beds, one person on the single bed, and three people on the floor. Reception was aware that seven people were now in the room and they split the bill up accordingly. Additionally, the night before we lost one of the room keys, so we were assuming that would be added to the price of the stay. When we got to reception we encountered a terrible hassle and in the end we each ended up paying fifteen for the first night and ten for the second night, a price that we were all content with. I will never return to that resort and it is just one more example of the difference between the United States and Ghana. The most important thing in Ghana is not pleasing the customer, and nothing is ever done in the easiest manner. After the terrible experience with paying we had to go to the main road and find taxis to take us to Bojo Beach where we would be having the CIEE Olympics as our last group function. We arrived two hours late so we missed football and volleyball and I participated in very little else. I laid out most of the time, although I did play tug-a-war. I did have a nice time and we got back to the hostel at around eight. I got dressed and went out with Atsu and Mickey to EPOs to dance for a couple of hours until it was time for bed.
I have no idea what happened this morning, but after my alarm went off at 5:40 I fell back asleep and did not wake up until 6:20. I quickly got ready and I ended up leaving my room fifteen minutes later than usual. I was lucky enough to get on a trotro quickly and I arrived at work forty minutes early. It is incredible with the traffic and transportation conditions that I can leave late and arrive early and that I can also leave on time and be late. But I have gotten much better at working the system and it does not take me nearly as long to get around. I finished my assignments at work, in a timely manner and was able to leave with plenty of time to go back to my room and relax before dance class.
Dance was held outside because the building was being used for a production. Therefore, we got to slice our feet up by dancing barefoot on the cement and class got cut short because it gets dark by six-thirty. After class I attended the production and it was wonderful. It was a dance production with about thirty people and they told an amazing story using only music and dancing. The costumes were beautiful and the backdrops were set up in such a way that they created different dimensions. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera with me, so there are no pictures of the show.
After the show I got ready and went out to Tantra for the birthday of one of my Ghanaian friends. This was my first tipsy night in Ghana and it all happened because they owner is in love with me. He gave me whatever alcohol I asked for and he did not try to dance with me once. He did creepily say that he just likes to watch people dance, but I am okay with that as long as I get drinks and nothing is expected of me at the end. I was with plenty of people I trust, so I was not unsafe at all and don’t worry although I did drink I was nowhere near out of control. I ensured I did not drink too much by handing every other drink off to someone nearby, while the owner was not paying attention. At around three forty-five the club closed and we headed first to Epos so the boys could pick up food and then back to the dorm.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Although I was awoken at around six, I was able to fall back asleep and I did not get up until nine. I have not slept in that late in a long time, so I felt wonderful when I got up. I had the best breakfast because Kayla, one of my neighbors and great friends here, lent me some honey and I was able to get cinnamon to put in my oatmeal. After I was fed and showered I packed my bag and headed off for a weekend at the beach. We arrived there earlier then expected after riding on three trotros and walking down the side roads to reach our destination. We laid out for a little while before our room was prepared and we were able to settle in. We quickly discovered that the shops on the beach are run by Rastas, so we would have a constant smell of weed throughout our trip, we attempted to sit far enough away to avoid the small, but that was difficult to do. We had a booked the last available room, which meant that we were paying for an expensive room in comparison to the other rooms for modern amenities and air conditioning because it was the only room left. And for Friday night we would only have five people in the room. The problem came about when we discovered that the hotel had not had electricity for the last three days, so the air and every other amenity was not functioning.
Therefore, as the most confrontational, but not blatantly rude person in the room I decided to go to reception to get the price of our room decreased. The woman informed me that her boss was not in to come back at two and I could speak with her. I returned at two and still there was no boss. She told me she would take ten cedis off the bill for the inconvenience because we are not actually paying for the air we are paying for the set up of the room. It is true that we had running water and many of the other rooms did not, but we were paying three times the amount then the triple that also has running water. Therefore, this was not the discount we were looking for, so I asked her how I could contact her boss because the price was unacceptable. She was terribly offended and told me to leave if she was just a nobody not worth talking too. I was trying very hard not to get into a fight, so I left and decided to give up on the topic for the day. After my confrontation I went over to the relaxing side of the resort and we were able to just hang out and have a nice night. We played a couple of games and there was a drumming show being held with several dancers. Some of them were excellent, other had no special talent, but it was entertaining for quite some time. After the show, we continued with our games until it was time for bed.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
The following day we went to the beach, hung out, ate the most delicious food I have had in Ghana, and then it was time to celebrate Hannah’s birthday. The name of the beach is Kokrobite and the resort is Big Milly’s. The atmosphere is lovely, it is a wonderful place to sit and relax, while you enjoy the breeze from the ocean. It is a public beach, so hawkers are all over and there are children all around asking for money. However, one very kind young boy saw my towel be wiped away by the waves and ran in the water to retrieved it, looked at how dirty it had gotten, ran back to the water, rinsed it off and rang it out all without being asked. He did not bother us the remainder of the time, he just helped move our stuff into safety every time “the sea is comes.”
The dinner was at an Italian restaurant that was opened up by an Italian couple several years ago right outside the resort. Although I would not say the pasta was great Italian food, it was still delicious. I had pasta al forno, with salad that actually had vinegar and green lettuce as opposed to cabbage. We also got chocolate cake for Hannah so we could sing happy birthday and let her blow out a watch at midnight. The cake was amazing and after, we forced her to jump into the ocean. Here is Ghana on your birthday, you get ponded, so we decided to put her in the ocean would be the most effective way to complete that. We all went in with her and afterwards we went out to dance for a bit to the reggae music. We soon went off to bed in high spirits.
The power was on when we returned to our rooms, which was exciting because the air conditioning was making the room well worth what ever they wanted up to pay. However, this lasted for only about an hour when the power went out once again, and again we were left in the smoldering heat.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
We woke up and went to breakfast and then I had to make my way back to reception to once again deal with paying for the room. By this time five other people had arrived so we now had ten people in out sweet (which is not actually as nice as you would picture) three on two of the beds, one person on the single bed, and three people on the floor. Reception was aware that seven people were now in the room and they split the bill up accordingly. Additionally, the night before we lost one of the room keys, so we were assuming that would be added to the price of the stay. When we got to reception we encountered a terrible hassle and in the end we each ended up paying fifteen for the first night and ten for the second night, a price that we were all content with. I will never return to that resort and it is just one more example of the difference between the United States and Ghana. The most important thing in Ghana is not pleasing the customer, and nothing is ever done in the easiest manner. After the terrible experience with paying we had to go to the main road and find taxis to take us to Bojo Beach where we would be having the CIEE Olympics as our last group function. We arrived two hours late so we missed football and volleyball and I participated in very little else. I laid out most of the time, although I did play tug-a-war. I did have a nice time and we got back to the hostel at around eight. I got dressed and went out with Atsu and Mickey to EPOs to dance for a couple of hours until it was time for bed.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
I got on the Internet three times in Three Days !!!
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
As I sit here trying to describe my life in Africa my emotions are spinning and I do not truly know if I am getting across the most essential things about my trip. It is true that the bowl I just ate oatmeal from that has been sitting next to me for about two minutes is already covered in ants, the floor has dust all over it because the hostel is all opened and the dirt is constantly coming in, I can look around and count at least two lizards climbing on my wall, and I have sweet dripping down my face even though I am sitting under a fan performing no physical tasks. Although these are details that may affect my life, they are certainly not the most important things about my journey.
I want to ensure that everyone understands the dynamic in this country. Everyone is hospitable, they invited you into their homes even if you don’t know them, they bring you to their churches, invite you to their weddings, they walk you to your destination when you are lost, they lend you shoes when yours break, they smile as they pass you, and they ask you if you need help understanding the professor. It is not just a kindness it is a way of living. Since most Ghanaians are not time conscience that do not have an issue spending a great amount of time helping others. In the United States we are always on the go, so making time to help a random stranger may not be at the top of your priority list. It is sad to admit that when Ghanaians travel to America they find the people rude and standoffish. Although this may be true in their eyes as a culture we understand that someone on the street is not going to walk twenty minutes out of their way to bring you to where you want to go, they may just point their finger in the direction you need to walk. This may not seem like a big deal to us, but to people who have the value within them to help others in distress it appears to be rude. Although I know that I cannot change the atmosphere of the Unite States and make everyone take a deep breath and just try and relax, I can do one thing. That is as an individual take other people into consideration more often. When someone needs help I will try not let my first thought be, do I have enough time to adequately assist this person. My first thought should be, do I have the skills necessary to help and if I do I will immediately go and be a service putting aside other plans I may have had for the day. It is these things in life that should be most important, not completing everything on your to-do list if it means shunning someone else away.
Additionally, my measure of productivity is vastly different then that that I use at home. When I wake up mop, do laundry and make lunch I feel as if I have accomplished an amazing amount. Where as at home, everything takes about the quarter of the time because we have machines, running water, and supplies necessary to compete things efficiently. It is nice to feel achieved and when I return to the US I hope to hold true to this. The little things are important and accomplishing small daily tasks in a timely manner should be appreciated. We should all learn to understand that others do not have the luxuries that we do and we should be conscience of how easy some of our tasks are in comparison to others with fewer amenities.
To tell you a little about my day, I woke up and decided to clean my sneakers. I bleached them for a couple of hours and scrubbed them with a hard brush. When they are completely dry I will soon find out if it paid off. I have done this in the past and the end result was them drying a nice brownish color, so I am crossing my fingers that the result this time is an improvement. I then went to class at 11:00 and after I got to use the Internet for the second time this week. Since there is no Twi class today I got to spend hours in the CIEE office with none interrupted Internet. After the Internet I went back to the room to get dinner and once again head off to dance. I am struggling with figuring out the music for the new dance, but I know I will eventually get it down. I just need a couple more weeks to practice.
We walked straight to a show after dance that consisted of musicians from all over the world playing the most interesting instruments. The performance was outstanding, it is incredible the way in which they were able to make such different music styles sound phenomenal when put together. The show lasted for several hours and we were full of bug bites and ready for bed when it was time to walk back to the dorm. When we arrived at the hostel it was after mid-night, so I headed straight to bed.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
I had a very typical Wednesday; I attended classes and went to my meeting with my advisor. Like a typical Ghanaian my advisor showed up thirty minutes late, a great improvement from him not showing up at all last week. After I saw him he said he would be right back and hopped in his car and left for another fifteen minutes. When we returned I handed in my paper and he asked me to come back the following week so we could review it. Just to inform you, his office is over a thirty minute walk each way from my hostel, so the entire process took over two hours and the entire purpose was to hand in a paper, which I completed over two weeks ago. However, it is things like these that I have gotten used to so I was not even annoyed with the situation.
After I got back to the hostel it was time for me to get dinner, change and once again proceed to dance. Our performance is quickly approaching and still the individuals in the production where not all in attendance and those that were seemed scattered. We are not prepared to perform, although I was in high spirits after rehearsal on Monday I am once again under the impression that we will not be successful in completing the dance on time. I would think that I would be used to bad conditions after doing the Nutcracker for so many years; however, the feeling I get is different. With Nutcracker the performers would focus and many would work tirelessly to attempt to receive better parts and I knew that in the end Evelyn would pull it all together. In this case everyone is disrespectful, no one shows up, and those who do show do not focus. In addition I enjoyed Nutcracker greatly, I am not sure why I just become overwhelmed at Atsu’s practices. I have been given the lead spot, I get to take control, and he almost always gives me the responsibility of teaching and running practice. Under normal circumstances in dance I would be thrilled, but the result in this case is vastly different. Instead of enjoyment, I become agitated because no one listens and the dancers are just not good enough to perform the piece adequately. In dance at home if someone is not dancing up to par they are removed from the part or if someone is not listening they must leave the room that is not how things function in my current rehearsal. I just cannot wait for the performance to come and these practices to be terminated.
Practice did eventually end and I was able to get back to the hostel and shower before joining a drink up that was taking place in the TV room upstairs in my hostel. We danced for a bit and then it was time to pond the birthday boy. The boys were so evil, they brought him into the bathroom, filled a huge bucket and processed to take smaller buckets full of water and pelt them at him. The water was whipping him so hard, my body was beginning to hurt for him. The process seemed evil and there was nothing I could do about it. Finally he was able to escape by running full speed out of the washroom and down the stairs to get changed. After he returned we cleaned up the mess and proceeded to bed.
As I sit here trying to describe my life in Africa my emotions are spinning and I do not truly know if I am getting across the most essential things about my trip. It is true that the bowl I just ate oatmeal from that has been sitting next to me for about two minutes is already covered in ants, the floor has dust all over it because the hostel is all opened and the dirt is constantly coming in, I can look around and count at least two lizards climbing on my wall, and I have sweet dripping down my face even though I am sitting under a fan performing no physical tasks. Although these are details that may affect my life, they are certainly not the most important things about my journey.
I want to ensure that everyone understands the dynamic in this country. Everyone is hospitable, they invited you into their homes even if you don’t know them, they bring you to their churches, invite you to their weddings, they walk you to your destination when you are lost, they lend you shoes when yours break, they smile as they pass you, and they ask you if you need help understanding the professor. It is not just a kindness it is a way of living. Since most Ghanaians are not time conscience that do not have an issue spending a great amount of time helping others. In the United States we are always on the go, so making time to help a random stranger may not be at the top of your priority list. It is sad to admit that when Ghanaians travel to America they find the people rude and standoffish. Although this may be true in their eyes as a culture we understand that someone on the street is not going to walk twenty minutes out of their way to bring you to where you want to go, they may just point their finger in the direction you need to walk. This may not seem like a big deal to us, but to people who have the value within them to help others in distress it appears to be rude. Although I know that I cannot change the atmosphere of the Unite States and make everyone take a deep breath and just try and relax, I can do one thing. That is as an individual take other people into consideration more often. When someone needs help I will try not let my first thought be, do I have enough time to adequately assist this person. My first thought should be, do I have the skills necessary to help and if I do I will immediately go and be a service putting aside other plans I may have had for the day. It is these things in life that should be most important, not completing everything on your to-do list if it means shunning someone else away.
Additionally, my measure of productivity is vastly different then that that I use at home. When I wake up mop, do laundry and make lunch I feel as if I have accomplished an amazing amount. Where as at home, everything takes about the quarter of the time because we have machines, running water, and supplies necessary to compete things efficiently. It is nice to feel achieved and when I return to the US I hope to hold true to this. The little things are important and accomplishing small daily tasks in a timely manner should be appreciated. We should all learn to understand that others do not have the luxuries that we do and we should be conscience of how easy some of our tasks are in comparison to others with fewer amenities.
To tell you a little about my day, I woke up and decided to clean my sneakers. I bleached them for a couple of hours and scrubbed them with a hard brush. When they are completely dry I will soon find out if it paid off. I have done this in the past and the end result was them drying a nice brownish color, so I am crossing my fingers that the result this time is an improvement. I then went to class at 11:00 and after I got to use the Internet for the second time this week. Since there is no Twi class today I got to spend hours in the CIEE office with none interrupted Internet. After the Internet I went back to the room to get dinner and once again head off to dance. I am struggling with figuring out the music for the new dance, but I know I will eventually get it down. I just need a couple more weeks to practice.
We walked straight to a show after dance that consisted of musicians from all over the world playing the most interesting instruments. The performance was outstanding, it is incredible the way in which they were able to make such different music styles sound phenomenal when put together. The show lasted for several hours and we were full of bug bites and ready for bed when it was time to walk back to the dorm. When we arrived at the hostel it was after mid-night, so I headed straight to bed.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
I had a very typical Wednesday; I attended classes and went to my meeting with my advisor. Like a typical Ghanaian my advisor showed up thirty minutes late, a great improvement from him not showing up at all last week. After I saw him he said he would be right back and hopped in his car and left for another fifteen minutes. When we returned I handed in my paper and he asked me to come back the following week so we could review it. Just to inform you, his office is over a thirty minute walk each way from my hostel, so the entire process took over two hours and the entire purpose was to hand in a paper, which I completed over two weeks ago. However, it is things like these that I have gotten used to so I was not even annoyed with the situation.
After I got back to the hostel it was time for me to get dinner, change and once again proceed to dance. Our performance is quickly approaching and still the individuals in the production where not all in attendance and those that were seemed scattered. We are not prepared to perform, although I was in high spirits after rehearsal on Monday I am once again under the impression that we will not be successful in completing the dance on time. I would think that I would be used to bad conditions after doing the Nutcracker for so many years; however, the feeling I get is different. With Nutcracker the performers would focus and many would work tirelessly to attempt to receive better parts and I knew that in the end Evelyn would pull it all together. In this case everyone is disrespectful, no one shows up, and those who do show do not focus. In addition I enjoyed Nutcracker greatly, I am not sure why I just become overwhelmed at Atsu’s practices. I have been given the lead spot, I get to take control, and he almost always gives me the responsibility of teaching and running practice. Under normal circumstances in dance I would be thrilled, but the result in this case is vastly different. Instead of enjoyment, I become agitated because no one listens and the dancers are just not good enough to perform the piece adequately. In dance at home if someone is not dancing up to par they are removed from the part or if someone is not listening they must leave the room that is not how things function in my current rehearsal. I just cannot wait for the performance to come and these practices to be terminated.
Practice did eventually end and I was able to get back to the hostel and shower before joining a drink up that was taking place in the TV room upstairs in my hostel. We danced for a bit and then it was time to pond the birthday boy. The boys were so evil, they brought him into the bathroom, filled a huge bucket and processed to take smaller buckets full of water and pelt them at him. The water was whipping him so hard, my body was beginning to hurt for him. The process seemed evil and there was nothing I could do about it. Finally he was able to escape by running full speed out of the washroom and down the stairs to get changed. After he returned we cleaned up the mess and proceeded to bed.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Dinner in East Legon
Monday, April 11, 2011
Today I woke up to get ready for work and when I went to leave the room I realized I could not find my key. I emptied several of my shelves and searched all over the room. I did not know what to do since I was locked in my room and could not get out without the key. I finally located it and I was able to let myself out, so I could brush my teeth and use the washroom. I boiled water, made some NesCafe, ironed my shirt, and I still had extra time. I decided to clean one of my shelves that I keep all of my cords and papers on. I was happy to complete the task and I finished at exactly 6:40 the time I like to leave for work. I was able to easily get on a bus and I arrived at work about thirty minutes early. I decided to stop and buy my new food for the week, which was called a sweet bun. It is essentially fried flower and it tasted excellent.
At work I got the last month of my assignment done and then was able to go home for the day. I got back in time to get lunch and take a nap which I had no intension of doing, but I was to exhausted to be productive. And I forgot to tell you the day we made the baskets I was also able to mop my floor, which needed to be done very badly. However, as I look down I notice that the floor needs to be mopped again it looks as if I never mopped in the first place. That is beside the point because it as not as if I mopped again what I did do was go to class and learn that it would be canceled the following day. After class I went straight to East Legon, which is about a five-minute taxi drive to eat dinner at Dana’s house. She is a girl from my program that is living at a home stay. Dinner was delicious and we got some sort of cake with chocolate for dessert, it was a wonderful meal. She also has seven puppies at the house so we got to play with them for a while before it was time for me to leave.
I walked back to the hostel, which took a little over thirty minutes with me practically running since it was dark and I had to be at dance. I got changed, grabbed my laptop, and ran off to dance, which takes about twenty minutes to get too. I arrived a little late, but no one noticed because the last production was still practicing, so Atsu did not have the room to practice in yet. Practice started about thirty minutes late, eight o’clock, and it was not over until almost midnight. Everyone was frustrated and just wanted to leave, but we were able to make a great deal of progress, completing over ten minutes of the dance. The performance will be about twenty minutes long when it is complete and we are well on our way to that. We prayed and Atsu closed rehearsal, so it was about 12:30 by the time I was in my room. I planned on reading for class before bed, but I ended up cuddling up with a good book and falling asleep.
Today I woke up to get ready for work and when I went to leave the room I realized I could not find my key. I emptied several of my shelves and searched all over the room. I did not know what to do since I was locked in my room and could not get out without the key. I finally located it and I was able to let myself out, so I could brush my teeth and use the washroom. I boiled water, made some NesCafe, ironed my shirt, and I still had extra time. I decided to clean one of my shelves that I keep all of my cords and papers on. I was happy to complete the task and I finished at exactly 6:40 the time I like to leave for work. I was able to easily get on a bus and I arrived at work about thirty minutes early. I decided to stop and buy my new food for the week, which was called a sweet bun. It is essentially fried flower and it tasted excellent.
At work I got the last month of my assignment done and then was able to go home for the day. I got back in time to get lunch and take a nap which I had no intension of doing, but I was to exhausted to be productive. And I forgot to tell you the day we made the baskets I was also able to mop my floor, which needed to be done very badly. However, as I look down I notice that the floor needs to be mopped again it looks as if I never mopped in the first place. That is beside the point because it as not as if I mopped again what I did do was go to class and learn that it would be canceled the following day. After class I went straight to East Legon, which is about a five-minute taxi drive to eat dinner at Dana’s house. She is a girl from my program that is living at a home stay. Dinner was delicious and we got some sort of cake with chocolate for dessert, it was a wonderful meal. She also has seven puppies at the house so we got to play with them for a while before it was time for me to leave.
I walked back to the hostel, which took a little over thirty minutes with me practically running since it was dark and I had to be at dance. I got changed, grabbed my laptop, and ran off to dance, which takes about twenty minutes to get too. I arrived a little late, but no one noticed because the last production was still practicing, so Atsu did not have the room to practice in yet. Practice started about thirty minutes late, eight o’clock, and it was not over until almost midnight. Everyone was frustrated and just wanted to leave, but we were able to make a great deal of progress, completing over ten minutes of the dance. The performance will be about twenty minutes long when it is complete and we are well on our way to that. We prayed and Atsu closed rehearsal, so it was about 12:30 by the time I was in my room. I planned on reading for class before bed, but I ended up cuddling up with a good book and falling asleep.
Monday, April 11, 2011
I will be home in two months from April 7th
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Like usual I had class at eleven thirty, but I decided to get up early so I could get reading done before class began. On my way out of my room I saw Atsu and realized I missed his dance rehearsal for the first time. I was disappointed in myself; I have not done something that irresponsible in a long time. I blatantly forgot about practice, I did not call him, or let anyone know I would not be there. He was not angry because people miss all the time, but I still could not get over the fact that I did something so irresponsible. I did something else unusual this morning also. I took the bus to class, most people choose not to walk to the new n block because it is about a thirty five to forty minute walk, but I always walk because I find it wasteful to pay to get to class. However, my legs were a bit sore when I woke up this morning, I was running a little late, and as I was walking out of the hostel I heard the bus honk. All of these things combined forced me to hop on the bus and take it for the first time. I have promised myself that I will not do that again unless it is a situation where I have to take it, the last thing I need is to dependent on a bus that I have no idea when it will arrive.
Someone I know was on the bus and I learned she was actually in my class, so I sat with her and we were able to keep each other busy while our monotonous teacher went over something he already taught at a snails pace last week. After class I had to go straight to the CIEE office to work out my schedule for next semester. I was able to choose all of the classes I found interesting and the teachers I like in a short time. I spent the rest of the time on the Internet before I had to go to Twi class. After Twi I came back to my room, made myself some oatmeal, and got ready for dance. By this time my legs were no longer soar and I was excited to get back to our dance since I did not go to my usual practices on Friday and Saturday. The dance went well, I am beginning to hear the music better and follow the master drummer for the new piece we are working on. At the closing of dance I stayed behind to rehearse what I had missed from Atsu’s dance, which only took about fifteen minutes. This can give you an idea about how productive our three-hour practice is. I headed back to the room, did hours worth of reading which I have fallen terribly behind on and went to bed.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
I had to register for classes today, which I was really nervous about, but I assume I had a good time slot because I did not have an issue getting into any of the classes I wanted. The time slot was supposed to be during one of my classes and thankfully the class was canceled so I did not have to skip class to register. I got all of my first choices and it took about two minutes. I have never had such an easy time registering and I was freaking out about it because you never know if the Internet will work here. Right after I registered it actually went out for about ten minutes before it began working again, things like this prove to me there must be a God. After I registered I went to meet with my advisor who did not show up, what a surprise and then I headed off to the hostel. I did not get reading done like I hoped because I had to get ready for dance with Astu and I had a meeting to possible be in a high life music video. However, they are shooting a weekend that I will be traveling, so I am not able to participate. I am not the disappointed considering I do not think I would be very good in a music video. After dance I watched a movie and went to bed way later than expected.
Also on the way out of class today my shoe broke, so I had to walk with one flip flop all the way back to the hostel with tons of people staring at me on the way. I stained them with blood and they broke in two places, so I decided to just throw them out and not attempt to get them fixed.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Today I got up at 5:40 like usual, ate breakfast, which is something new for me and got ready for work. I was ready earlier than usual, so I decided to just head out. The ride to work was not terrible and I arrived about forty minutes early. This left me time to explore Osu for a little while to find the white oats that are only one fifty as apposed to two fifty. I finally found them, so I got two packs one for me and one for a friend since the night market is out of them and headed over to work with about twenty minutes for myself before I had to start working. I still have not been given my new project, so I am just doing odd things that need to be done around the office. Although I still feel useful at times, I do spend a lot of time just sitting around getting my personal matters taken care of. I got to leave work early since there was not much for me to complete, so I was back on campus by around one. I was able to do all of my laundry excluding my towels and get reading done before it was time to go to dance.
There were about half the amount of people at dance then usual, due to the fact that we perform one dance for forty minutes straight without learning anything new. The point of doing this is to help us learn the music, although I don’t think it is working. Since many people are unhappy with the class, they have made the decision to no longer show up. I on the other hand am thrilled with the results. We not only have more space, we also spend more time dancing. I don’t mind that we are not learning any new steps; I just enjoy actually spending the time in dance class dancing. Therefore, dance class was great in my opinion.
When I got back to the room I got ready to go out and went off to Tantra, which once again was relatively empty. There were quite a bit of people from ISH there and in the end we all ended up having a great time. We left the club at three when it closed and half of the group continued on to a different club, but I decided to go back to the hostel.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Today I could have slept in, but for some reason I woke up at around six thirty and was unable to fall back to sleep. I was forced to get up out of bed and I decided to start soaking my towels, so I could get them washed. After I finished my laundry I saw Hannah and she told me they would be making smoothies and cinnamon toast for brunch. I was able to indulge on fruits and it was fantastic. We then went to a woman’s house to weave baskets. The experience was phenomenal and we cannot wait to return. I made a basket that is blue and gold for the bathroom in my apartment at school next year. I am going to use it to put Potpourri in and I am thrilled about it. We watched little girls sing and dance, we created wonderful baskets, and we received bracelets to match our baskets, so all in all it was a wonderful day that took from one to seven.
When we got back I decided to go out, so I got ready and waited for people to return from one of the hostels that they were watching a performance at. Two of the boys Peter and Sam came back to ISH to pick me up, so we could go to the Roof Top and the other half went straight to the club. When they arrived they learned that it was closed, so we picked a different club and they went there just to find out that it was twenty cedis each to get in. They got frustrated and decided to come back to the hostel and the two boys I was with made the decision to go to Venus. Therefore, I stayed back because it is a hooka bar, which I have no interest in. So we spent hours attempting to find somewhere to go and I ended up not going out.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
This morning I was suppose to wake up at seven so that I could leave by seven forty-five for the Eastern Region of Ghana. Instead I woke up at 8:06, freaked out, got dressed, packed my bag as quickly as possible, and ran out to the bus. As I was doing these things I had decided that I had missed the bus and I would need to find some way to get there on my own, because it is one of the CIEE trips so it is a free weekend of traveling that I would not want to miss. But as I walked outside I caught sight of the bus hopped on and it pulled away. It is moments like these that prove there is a God. They were not waiting for me they just happened to be running twenty minutes late.
We headed off first to a woodcarving workshop in Aburi, which was terribly disappointing. It was a man that spoke to us for about two minutes and then we got one hour to shop at an art market. We got back in the car and went to Aburi Botanical Gardens, which also consisted of a short tour. We were able to smell different spices that come from trees, climb in a hollow tree, and play in a broken helicopter. We also got to eat small berries and star fruit, so although we did not learn much it was beautiful and entertaining. We then had lunch, which is always exciting on CIEE trips and headed off to Tetteh Quarshie’s Cocoa Farm. We tasted cocoa from the plant and then we tried chocolate from in the dried seed. The first plant tasted slimy and sweet and the second seed tasted bitter and extremely strong. We learned about how the cocoa is grown, dried, and then exported to the rest of the world. It was a nice tour, but once again shorter than we expected. We then went back to the Capital View Hotel where we had several hours of free time before dinner. I was able to use the Internet, take a warm shower, sit in air conditioning, and then go out and sit by the pool. After dinner I went swimming in a pool with warm water, which was nice considering it was a bit cool outside which doesn’t happen often. We hung out in the room for a while and then we went to a club at the hotel. There was no one there except the ten people we went with, but we made it fun by dancing for several hours. After the club we all went off to bed, because we had breakfast the following day at seven.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
I went down for breakfast to learn they would be serving cereal, not just any cereal but coco puffs. You may not think this is exciting, but cereal is one of the foods many of us miss the most, so it was thrilling. And since they make the milk taste like chocolate the fact that the milk is powdered milk does not ruin the cereal. I also had an egg, beans, and oatmeal, which were all delicious and I was so full I could barely walk. The next thing on the agenda was going to Boti Falls to hike to a three-headed palm tree and then swim in the waterfalls.
No one realized that we would be going on a hike, so we all had on flip-flops and inappropriate clothing, but we proceeded nonetheless. The hike was much easier then the hikes from last weekend, but there were difficult parts due to the fact that it had rained and the walkway was slippery. We made it to a large rock that we paid fifty peswas to climb up. When the leaders of CIEE finally arrived they got in a fight with the kids that charged us to go up the rock for about twenty minutes. None of us really minded paying, but the u-pals were holding their ground insisting that we were cheated. We did not get our money back, but we enjoyed the rock anyway. There was a fantastic view and we were able to just relax.
The point of the hike was to get to the three headed palm tree, but after the fight everyone decided it was not worth it and turned back. However, I figured that I would not be returning and we had already made it about an hours distance so we might as well complete the journey. Se two of the u-pals, Mickey and Gideon and I headed off to the palm tree. We arrived in about ten minutes to a less than exciting tree in the middle of a village. It was worth the journey since we had already gone so far, but I would not suggest it to anyone else. Although I loved the hike and am happy we went on it.
We were able to hike back quick enough to catch up with the rest of the group and make to the falls at the same time as the group. We ran right into the water because we were dripping sweet from every part of our bodies, I could feel the sweet dripping down my face, arms and legs. The water was freezing, but it felt amazing. I climbed the rocks, went under the fall, and just swam around for about an hour before it was time to leave. The falls were only about a five-minute walk from the main gate, so we were back on the bus in no time. We returned to the hotel for a delicious lunch consisting of rice balls with soup and goat meat, chicken, jollof rice with tomato sauce, and cabbage with salad cream (mayonnaise). We traveled back to the bus and made our way back to the hostel arriving a little before five, earlier than any other trip in the past. It was a nice weekend and although the first day was slightly disappointing the falls made up for it.
When I returned I learned that it had rained and I still had about five pieces of clothing on the clothesline because they were still wet when I left for the Eastern Region. Therefore, I will need to rewash those clothes, which I was not excited about. However, I got over it put them in the dirty clothes and began to do some reading. When I completed my assignment I watched the King’s Speech, which I greatly enjoyed and then went to bed.
Like usual I had class at eleven thirty, but I decided to get up early so I could get reading done before class began. On my way out of my room I saw Atsu and realized I missed his dance rehearsal for the first time. I was disappointed in myself; I have not done something that irresponsible in a long time. I blatantly forgot about practice, I did not call him, or let anyone know I would not be there. He was not angry because people miss all the time, but I still could not get over the fact that I did something so irresponsible. I did something else unusual this morning also. I took the bus to class, most people choose not to walk to the new n block because it is about a thirty five to forty minute walk, but I always walk because I find it wasteful to pay to get to class. However, my legs were a bit sore when I woke up this morning, I was running a little late, and as I was walking out of the hostel I heard the bus honk. All of these things combined forced me to hop on the bus and take it for the first time. I have promised myself that I will not do that again unless it is a situation where I have to take it, the last thing I need is to dependent on a bus that I have no idea when it will arrive.
Someone I know was on the bus and I learned she was actually in my class, so I sat with her and we were able to keep each other busy while our monotonous teacher went over something he already taught at a snails pace last week. After class I had to go straight to the CIEE office to work out my schedule for next semester. I was able to choose all of the classes I found interesting and the teachers I like in a short time. I spent the rest of the time on the Internet before I had to go to Twi class. After Twi I came back to my room, made myself some oatmeal, and got ready for dance. By this time my legs were no longer soar and I was excited to get back to our dance since I did not go to my usual practices on Friday and Saturday. The dance went well, I am beginning to hear the music better and follow the master drummer for the new piece we are working on. At the closing of dance I stayed behind to rehearse what I had missed from Atsu’s dance, which only took about fifteen minutes. This can give you an idea about how productive our three-hour practice is. I headed back to the room, did hours worth of reading which I have fallen terribly behind on and went to bed.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
I had to register for classes today, which I was really nervous about, but I assume I had a good time slot because I did not have an issue getting into any of the classes I wanted. The time slot was supposed to be during one of my classes and thankfully the class was canceled so I did not have to skip class to register. I got all of my first choices and it took about two minutes. I have never had such an easy time registering and I was freaking out about it because you never know if the Internet will work here. Right after I registered it actually went out for about ten minutes before it began working again, things like this prove to me there must be a God. After I registered I went to meet with my advisor who did not show up, what a surprise and then I headed off to the hostel. I did not get reading done like I hoped because I had to get ready for dance with Astu and I had a meeting to possible be in a high life music video. However, they are shooting a weekend that I will be traveling, so I am not able to participate. I am not the disappointed considering I do not think I would be very good in a music video. After dance I watched a movie and went to bed way later than expected.
Also on the way out of class today my shoe broke, so I had to walk with one flip flop all the way back to the hostel with tons of people staring at me on the way. I stained them with blood and they broke in two places, so I decided to just throw them out and not attempt to get them fixed.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Today I got up at 5:40 like usual, ate breakfast, which is something new for me and got ready for work. I was ready earlier than usual, so I decided to just head out. The ride to work was not terrible and I arrived about forty minutes early. This left me time to explore Osu for a little while to find the white oats that are only one fifty as apposed to two fifty. I finally found them, so I got two packs one for me and one for a friend since the night market is out of them and headed over to work with about twenty minutes for myself before I had to start working. I still have not been given my new project, so I am just doing odd things that need to be done around the office. Although I still feel useful at times, I do spend a lot of time just sitting around getting my personal matters taken care of. I got to leave work early since there was not much for me to complete, so I was back on campus by around one. I was able to do all of my laundry excluding my towels and get reading done before it was time to go to dance.
There were about half the amount of people at dance then usual, due to the fact that we perform one dance for forty minutes straight without learning anything new. The point of doing this is to help us learn the music, although I don’t think it is working. Since many people are unhappy with the class, they have made the decision to no longer show up. I on the other hand am thrilled with the results. We not only have more space, we also spend more time dancing. I don’t mind that we are not learning any new steps; I just enjoy actually spending the time in dance class dancing. Therefore, dance class was great in my opinion.
When I got back to the room I got ready to go out and went off to Tantra, which once again was relatively empty. There were quite a bit of people from ISH there and in the end we all ended up having a great time. We left the club at three when it closed and half of the group continued on to a different club, but I decided to go back to the hostel.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Today I could have slept in, but for some reason I woke up at around six thirty and was unable to fall back to sleep. I was forced to get up out of bed and I decided to start soaking my towels, so I could get them washed. After I finished my laundry I saw Hannah and she told me they would be making smoothies and cinnamon toast for brunch. I was able to indulge on fruits and it was fantastic. We then went to a woman’s house to weave baskets. The experience was phenomenal and we cannot wait to return. I made a basket that is blue and gold for the bathroom in my apartment at school next year. I am going to use it to put Potpourri in and I am thrilled about it. We watched little girls sing and dance, we created wonderful baskets, and we received bracelets to match our baskets, so all in all it was a wonderful day that took from one to seven.
When we got back I decided to go out, so I got ready and waited for people to return from one of the hostels that they were watching a performance at. Two of the boys Peter and Sam came back to ISH to pick me up, so we could go to the Roof Top and the other half went straight to the club. When they arrived they learned that it was closed, so we picked a different club and they went there just to find out that it was twenty cedis each to get in. They got frustrated and decided to come back to the hostel and the two boys I was with made the decision to go to Venus. Therefore, I stayed back because it is a hooka bar, which I have no interest in. So we spent hours attempting to find somewhere to go and I ended up not going out.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
This morning I was suppose to wake up at seven so that I could leave by seven forty-five for the Eastern Region of Ghana. Instead I woke up at 8:06, freaked out, got dressed, packed my bag as quickly as possible, and ran out to the bus. As I was doing these things I had decided that I had missed the bus and I would need to find some way to get there on my own, because it is one of the CIEE trips so it is a free weekend of traveling that I would not want to miss. But as I walked outside I caught sight of the bus hopped on and it pulled away. It is moments like these that prove there is a God. They were not waiting for me they just happened to be running twenty minutes late.
We headed off first to a woodcarving workshop in Aburi, which was terribly disappointing. It was a man that spoke to us for about two minutes and then we got one hour to shop at an art market. We got back in the car and went to Aburi Botanical Gardens, which also consisted of a short tour. We were able to smell different spices that come from trees, climb in a hollow tree, and play in a broken helicopter. We also got to eat small berries and star fruit, so although we did not learn much it was beautiful and entertaining. We then had lunch, which is always exciting on CIEE trips and headed off to Tetteh Quarshie’s Cocoa Farm. We tasted cocoa from the plant and then we tried chocolate from in the dried seed. The first plant tasted slimy and sweet and the second seed tasted bitter and extremely strong. We learned about how the cocoa is grown, dried, and then exported to the rest of the world. It was a nice tour, but once again shorter than we expected. We then went back to the Capital View Hotel where we had several hours of free time before dinner. I was able to use the Internet, take a warm shower, sit in air conditioning, and then go out and sit by the pool. After dinner I went swimming in a pool with warm water, which was nice considering it was a bit cool outside which doesn’t happen often. We hung out in the room for a while and then we went to a club at the hotel. There was no one there except the ten people we went with, but we made it fun by dancing for several hours. After the club we all went off to bed, because we had breakfast the following day at seven.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
I went down for breakfast to learn they would be serving cereal, not just any cereal but coco puffs. You may not think this is exciting, but cereal is one of the foods many of us miss the most, so it was thrilling. And since they make the milk taste like chocolate the fact that the milk is powdered milk does not ruin the cereal. I also had an egg, beans, and oatmeal, which were all delicious and I was so full I could barely walk. The next thing on the agenda was going to Boti Falls to hike to a three-headed palm tree and then swim in the waterfalls.
No one realized that we would be going on a hike, so we all had on flip-flops and inappropriate clothing, but we proceeded nonetheless. The hike was much easier then the hikes from last weekend, but there were difficult parts due to the fact that it had rained and the walkway was slippery. We made it to a large rock that we paid fifty peswas to climb up. When the leaders of CIEE finally arrived they got in a fight with the kids that charged us to go up the rock for about twenty minutes. None of us really minded paying, but the u-pals were holding their ground insisting that we were cheated. We did not get our money back, but we enjoyed the rock anyway. There was a fantastic view and we were able to just relax.
The point of the hike was to get to the three headed palm tree, but after the fight everyone decided it was not worth it and turned back. However, I figured that I would not be returning and we had already made it about an hours distance so we might as well complete the journey. Se two of the u-pals, Mickey and Gideon and I headed off to the palm tree. We arrived in about ten minutes to a less than exciting tree in the middle of a village. It was worth the journey since we had already gone so far, but I would not suggest it to anyone else. Although I loved the hike and am happy we went on it.
We were able to hike back quick enough to catch up with the rest of the group and make to the falls at the same time as the group. We ran right into the water because we were dripping sweet from every part of our bodies, I could feel the sweet dripping down my face, arms and legs. The water was freezing, but it felt amazing. I climbed the rocks, went under the fall, and just swam around for about an hour before it was time to leave. The falls were only about a five-minute walk from the main gate, so we were back on the bus in no time. We returned to the hotel for a delicious lunch consisting of rice balls with soup and goat meat, chicken, jollof rice with tomato sauce, and cabbage with salad cream (mayonnaise). We traveled back to the bus and made our way back to the hostel arriving a little before five, earlier than any other trip in the past. It was a nice weekend and although the first day was slightly disappointing the falls made up for it.
When I returned I learned that it had rained and I still had about five pieces of clothing on the clothesline because they were still wet when I left for the Eastern Region. Therefore, I will need to rewash those clothes, which I was not excited about. However, I got over it put them in the dirty clothes and began to do some reading. When I completed my assignment I watched the King’s Speech, which I greatly enjoyed and then went to bed.
Eastern Region
Friday, April 8, 2011
Today I could have slept in, but for some reason I woke up at around six thirty and was unable to fall back to sleep. I was forced to get up out of bed and I decided to start soaking my towels, so I could get them washed. After I finished my laundry I saw Hannah and she told me they would be making smoothies and cinnamon toast for brunch. I was able to indulge on fruits and it was fantastic. We then went to a woman’s house to weave baskets. The experience was phenomenal and we cannot wait to return. I made a basket that is blue and gold for the bathroom in my apartment at school next year. I am going to use it to put Potpourri in and I am thrilled about it. We watched little girls sing and dance, we created wonderful baskets, and we received bracelets to match our baskets, so all in all it was a wonderful day that took from one to seven.
When we got back I decided to go out, so I got ready and waited for people to return from one of the hostels that they were watching a performance at. Two of the boys Peter and Sam came back to ISH to pick me up, so we could go to the Roof Top and the other half went straight to the club. When they arrived they learned that it was closed, so we picked a different club and they went there just to find out that it was twenty cedis each to get in. They got frustrated and decided to come back to the hostel and the two boys I was with made the decision to go to Venus. Therefore, I stayed back because it is a hooka bar, which I have no interest in. So we spent hours attempting to find somewhere to go and I ended up not going out.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
This morning I was suppose to wake up at seven so that I could leave by seven forty-five for the Eastern Region of Ghana. Instead I woke up at 8:06, freaked out, got dressed, packed my bag as quickly as possible, and ran out to the bus. As I was doing these things I had decided that I had missed the bus and I would need to find some way to get there on my own, because it is one of the CIEE trips so it is a free weekend of traveling that I would not want to miss. But as I walked outside I caught sight of the bus hopped on and it pulled away. It is moments like these that prove there is a God. They were not waiting for me they just happened to be running twenty minutes late.
We headed off first to a woodcarving workshop in Aburi, which was terribly disappointing. It was a man that spoke to us for about two minutes and then we got one hour to shop at an art market. We got back in the car and went to Aburi Botanical Gardens, which also consisted of a short tour. We were able to smell different spices that come from trees, climb in a hollow tree, and play in a broken helicopter. We also got to eat small berries and star fruit, so although we did not learn much it was beautiful and entertaining. We then had lunch, which is always exciting on CIEE trips and headed off to Tetteh Quarshie’s Cocoa Farm. We tasted cocoa from the plant and then we tried chocolate from in the dried seed. The first plant tasted slimy and sweet and the second seed tasted bitter and extremely strong. We learned about how the cocoa is grown, dried, and then exported to the rest of the world. It was a nice tour, but once again shorter than we expected. We then went back to the Capital View Hotel where we had several hours of free time before dinner. I was able to use the Internet, take a warm shower, sit in air conditioning, and then go out and sit by the pool. After dinner I went swimming in a pool with warm water, which was nice considering it was a bit cool outside which doesn’t happen often. We hung out in the room for a while and then we went to a club at the hotel. There was no one there except the ten people we went with, but we made it fun by dancing for several hours. After the club we all went off to bed, because we had breakfast the following day at seven.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
I went down for breakfast to learn they would be serving cereal, not just any cereal but coco puffs. You may not think this is exciting, but cereal is one of the foods many of us miss the most, so it was thrilling. And since they make the milk taste like chocolate the fact that the milk is powdered milk does not ruin the cereal. I also had an egg, beans, and oatmeal, which were all delicious and I was so full I could barely walk. The next thing on the agenda was going to Boti Falls to hike to a three-headed palm tree and then swim in the waterfalls.
No one realized that we would be going on a hike, so we all had on flip-flops and inappropriate clothing, but we proceeded nonetheless. The hike was much easier then the hikes from last weekend, but there were difficult parts due to the fact that it had rained and the walkway was slippery. We made it to a large rock that we paid fifty peswas to climb up. When the leaders of CIEE finally arrived they got in a fight with the kids that charged us to go up the rock for about twenty minutes. None of us really minded paying, but the u-pals were holding their ground insisting that we were cheated. We did not get our money back, but we enjoyed the rock anyway. There was a fantastic view and we were able to just relax.
The point of the hike was to get to the three headed palm tree, but after the fight everyone decided it was not worth it and turned back. However, I figured that I would not be returning and we had already made it about an hours distance so we might as well complete the journey. Se two of the u-pals, Mickey and Gideon and I headed off to the palm tree. We arrived in about ten minutes to a less than exciting tree in the middle of a village. It was worth the journey since we had already gone so far, but I would not suggest it to anyone else. Although I loved the hike and am happy we went on it.
We were able to hike back quick enough to catch up with the rest of the group and make to the falls at the same time as the group. We ran right into the water because we were dripping sweet from every part of our bodies, I could feel the sweet dripping down my face, arms and legs. The water was freezing, but it felt amazing. I climbed the rocks, went under the fall, and just swam around for about an hour before it was time to leave. The falls were only about a five-minute walk from the main gate, so we were back on the bus in no time. We returned to the hotel for a delicious lunch consisting of rice balls with soup and goat meat, chicken, jollof rice with tomato sauce, and cabbage with salad cream (mayonnaise). We traveled back to the bus and made our way back to the hostel arriving a little before five, earlier than any other trip in the past. It was a nice weekend and although the first day was slightly disappointing the falls made up for it.
When I returned I learned that it had rained and I still had about five pieces of clothing on the clothesline because they were still wet when I left for the Eastern Region. Therefore, I will need to rewash those clothes, which I was not excited about. However, I got over it put them in the dirty clothes and began to do some reading. When I completed my assignment I watched the King’s Speech, which I greatly enjoyed and then went to bed.
Today I could have slept in, but for some reason I woke up at around six thirty and was unable to fall back to sleep. I was forced to get up out of bed and I decided to start soaking my towels, so I could get them washed. After I finished my laundry I saw Hannah and she told me they would be making smoothies and cinnamon toast for brunch. I was able to indulge on fruits and it was fantastic. We then went to a woman’s house to weave baskets. The experience was phenomenal and we cannot wait to return. I made a basket that is blue and gold for the bathroom in my apartment at school next year. I am going to use it to put Potpourri in and I am thrilled about it. We watched little girls sing and dance, we created wonderful baskets, and we received bracelets to match our baskets, so all in all it was a wonderful day that took from one to seven.
When we got back I decided to go out, so I got ready and waited for people to return from one of the hostels that they were watching a performance at. Two of the boys Peter and Sam came back to ISH to pick me up, so we could go to the Roof Top and the other half went straight to the club. When they arrived they learned that it was closed, so we picked a different club and they went there just to find out that it was twenty cedis each to get in. They got frustrated and decided to come back to the hostel and the two boys I was with made the decision to go to Venus. Therefore, I stayed back because it is a hooka bar, which I have no interest in. So we spent hours attempting to find somewhere to go and I ended up not going out.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
This morning I was suppose to wake up at seven so that I could leave by seven forty-five for the Eastern Region of Ghana. Instead I woke up at 8:06, freaked out, got dressed, packed my bag as quickly as possible, and ran out to the bus. As I was doing these things I had decided that I had missed the bus and I would need to find some way to get there on my own, because it is one of the CIEE trips so it is a free weekend of traveling that I would not want to miss. But as I walked outside I caught sight of the bus hopped on and it pulled away. It is moments like these that prove there is a God. They were not waiting for me they just happened to be running twenty minutes late.
We headed off first to a woodcarving workshop in Aburi, which was terribly disappointing. It was a man that spoke to us for about two minutes and then we got one hour to shop at an art market. We got back in the car and went to Aburi Botanical Gardens, which also consisted of a short tour. We were able to smell different spices that come from trees, climb in a hollow tree, and play in a broken helicopter. We also got to eat small berries and star fruit, so although we did not learn much it was beautiful and entertaining. We then had lunch, which is always exciting on CIEE trips and headed off to Tetteh Quarshie’s Cocoa Farm. We tasted cocoa from the plant and then we tried chocolate from in the dried seed. The first plant tasted slimy and sweet and the second seed tasted bitter and extremely strong. We learned about how the cocoa is grown, dried, and then exported to the rest of the world. It was a nice tour, but once again shorter than we expected. We then went back to the Capital View Hotel where we had several hours of free time before dinner. I was able to use the Internet, take a warm shower, sit in air conditioning, and then go out and sit by the pool. After dinner I went swimming in a pool with warm water, which was nice considering it was a bit cool outside which doesn’t happen often. We hung out in the room for a while and then we went to a club at the hotel. There was no one there except the ten people we went with, but we made it fun by dancing for several hours. After the club we all went off to bed, because we had breakfast the following day at seven.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
I went down for breakfast to learn they would be serving cereal, not just any cereal but coco puffs. You may not think this is exciting, but cereal is one of the foods many of us miss the most, so it was thrilling. And since they make the milk taste like chocolate the fact that the milk is powdered milk does not ruin the cereal. I also had an egg, beans, and oatmeal, which were all delicious and I was so full I could barely walk. The next thing on the agenda was going to Boti Falls to hike to a three-headed palm tree and then swim in the waterfalls.
No one realized that we would be going on a hike, so we all had on flip-flops and inappropriate clothing, but we proceeded nonetheless. The hike was much easier then the hikes from last weekend, but there were difficult parts due to the fact that it had rained and the walkway was slippery. We made it to a large rock that we paid fifty peswas to climb up. When the leaders of CIEE finally arrived they got in a fight with the kids that charged us to go up the rock for about twenty minutes. None of us really minded paying, but the u-pals were holding their ground insisting that we were cheated. We did not get our money back, but we enjoyed the rock anyway. There was a fantastic view and we were able to just relax.
The point of the hike was to get to the three headed palm tree, but after the fight everyone decided it was not worth it and turned back. However, I figured that I would not be returning and we had already made it about an hours distance so we might as well complete the journey. Se two of the u-pals, Mickey and Gideon and I headed off to the palm tree. We arrived in about ten minutes to a less than exciting tree in the middle of a village. It was worth the journey since we had already gone so far, but I would not suggest it to anyone else. Although I loved the hike and am happy we went on it.
We were able to hike back quick enough to catch up with the rest of the group and make to the falls at the same time as the group. We ran right into the water because we were dripping sweet from every part of our bodies, I could feel the sweet dripping down my face, arms and legs. The water was freezing, but it felt amazing. I climbed the rocks, went under the fall, and just swam around for about an hour before it was time to leave. The falls were only about a five-minute walk from the main gate, so we were back on the bus in no time. We returned to the hotel for a delicious lunch consisting of rice balls with soup and goat meat, chicken, jollof rice with tomato sauce, and cabbage with salad cream (mayonnaise). We traveled back to the bus and made our way back to the hostel arriving a little before five, earlier than any other trip in the past. It was a nice weekend and although the first day was slightly disappointing the falls made up for it.
When I returned I learned that it had rained and I still had about five pieces of clothing on the clothesline because they were still wet when I left for the Eastern Region. Therefore, I will need to rewash those clothes, which I was not excited about. However, I got over it put them in the dirty clothes and began to do some reading. When I completed my assignment I watched the King’s Speech, which I greatly enjoyed and then went to bed.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Back to life in the Hostel
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Like usual I had class at eleven thirty, but I decided to get up early so I could get reading done before class began. On my way out of my room I saw Atsu and realized I missed his dance rehearsal for the first time. I was disappointed in myself; I have not done something that irresponsible in a long time. I blatantly forgot about practice, I did not call him, or let anyone know I would not be there. He was not angry because people miss all the time, but I still could not get over the fact that I did something so irresponsible. I did something else unusual this morning also. I took the bus to class, most people choose not to walk to the new n block because it is about a thirty five to forty minute walk, but I always walk because I find it wasteful to pay to get to class. However, my legs were a bit sore when I woke up this morning, I was running a little late, and as I was walking out of the hostel I heard the bus honk. All of these things combined forced me to hop on the bus and take it for the first time. I have promised myself that I will not do that again unless it is a situation where I have to take it, the last thing I need is to dependent on a bus that I have no idea when it will arrive.
Someone I know was on the bus and I learned she was actually in my class, so I sat with her and we were able to keep each other busy while our monotonous teacher went over something he already taught at a snails pace last week. After class I had to go straight to the CIEE office to work out my schedule for next semester. I was able to choose all of the classes I found interesting and the teachers I like in a short time. I spent the rest of the time on the Internet before I had to go to Twi class. After Twi I came back to my room, made myself some oatmeal, and got ready for dance. By this time my legs were no longer soar and I was excited to get back to our dance since I did not go to my usual practices on Friday and Saturday. The dance went well, I am beginning to hear the music better and follow the master drummer for the new piece we are working on. At the closing of dance I stayed behind to rehearse what I had missed from Atsu’s dance, which only took about fifteen minutes. This can give you an idea about how productive our three-hour practice is. I headed back to the room, did hours worth of reading which I have fallen terribly behind on and went to bed.
Like usual I had class at eleven thirty, but I decided to get up early so I could get reading done before class began. On my way out of my room I saw Atsu and realized I missed his dance rehearsal for the first time. I was disappointed in myself; I have not done something that irresponsible in a long time. I blatantly forgot about practice, I did not call him, or let anyone know I would not be there. He was not angry because people miss all the time, but I still could not get over the fact that I did something so irresponsible. I did something else unusual this morning also. I took the bus to class, most people choose not to walk to the new n block because it is about a thirty five to forty minute walk, but I always walk because I find it wasteful to pay to get to class. However, my legs were a bit sore when I woke up this morning, I was running a little late, and as I was walking out of the hostel I heard the bus honk. All of these things combined forced me to hop on the bus and take it for the first time. I have promised myself that I will not do that again unless it is a situation where I have to take it, the last thing I need is to dependent on a bus that I have no idea when it will arrive.
Someone I know was on the bus and I learned she was actually in my class, so I sat with her and we were able to keep each other busy while our monotonous teacher went over something he already taught at a snails pace last week. After class I had to go straight to the CIEE office to work out my schedule for next semester. I was able to choose all of the classes I found interesting and the teachers I like in a short time. I spent the rest of the time on the Internet before I had to go to Twi class. After Twi I came back to my room, made myself some oatmeal, and got ready for dance. By this time my legs were no longer soar and I was excited to get back to our dance since I did not go to my usual practices on Friday and Saturday. The dance went well, I am beginning to hear the music better and follow the master drummer for the new piece we are working on. At the closing of dance I stayed behind to rehearse what I had missed from Atsu’s dance, which only took about fifteen minutes. This can give you an idea about how productive our three-hour practice is. I headed back to the room, did hours worth of reading which I have fallen terribly behind on and went to bed.
The Road Least Taken
Friday, April 1, 2011
This entry for this weekend may seem too long to read or excessive, but please if you choose to read one entry the entire time I am away make it the entries for this weekend.
The journey began at 6 AM, I was cranky, tired, and still unable to get the exhausted look out of my eyes by the time Yaw arrived and we were escorted to Okponglo to get a trotro to Madina. I was walking as if I was a mummy and I could not yet prepare for what lied ahead. We quickly got transportation to the station and in no time we were headed towards HoHoe in the Volta Region. I was able to force myself out of my monotone state after sleeping for about three hours on the trip, so by the time we arrived I was back in good spirits and ready for the adventure that I would soon encounter. Yaw sat us down in the shade and told us he was going to the market and would quickly return to lead us to the mountain we would be hiking up. As per the typical Ghanaian, Yaw returned about an hour later to lead us over to a taxi. He asked all four of us to get in the back and then preceded to find out if we had enough room. We replied we would be fine, so he opened the door and directed another young girl to join us. This would not have been a huge issue if it wasn’t for the fact that we were parked for about twenty minutes before we continued on our journey and we stopped several times along the way. Although I have informed you in the past just to reiterate, when a taxi with seven people in it and no air conditioning stops in the scorching heat no longer creating any wind, the people inside begin to drip sweat all over one another and feel as if they may faint. This is the way we felt and we did not understand whom the people were and why we were taking so long. We did finally get to JD the village located at the bottom of the mountain. We were all excited for the journey that we were told would take about two and a half hours. It was around two o’clock so we were hoping to arrive before five, which made us skeptical of the time line because we were informed that we would be served dinner as soon as we reached the top. Therefore, we came to the conclusion that the hike may be longer than predicted.
Something you should understand about the trip thus far. First, the little girl in the backseat of our taxi is Yaw’s sister, there was a young woman about my age in the front seat with a baby, sitting beside Yaw and this is also a sister of Yaw, Sarah, and her baby, Wanita. Yaw is a man of about thirty who lives in the village that we stayed in over the weekend, which is located on the top of a very fertile mountain that farms to sustain its self. Second, we were told we would need snacks for the trip, no one informed us that we would be leaving at six AM and our first meal would be served at 8 PM. Each step of the way we were all praying that we would be given something to eat and every hour we would look at our watches and try not to think about the time passing with no food. I am not sure if you realize that scaling a mountain several miles high is much more difficult on an empty stomach than it is when you have eaten to add additional energy into your body. Thirdly, Yaw kept leaving us and we felt terribly awkward because no one in the village speaks English or Twi, they only speak Ewe, which we do not know a word of.
Now let me take a few steps back and help you understand the importance of this weekend. I traveled to a village that is locate at the top of a mountain, the name is Wli Todzi and it is located above the Wli Falls, the tallest falls in West Africa. A young man from the United States started a program with Yaw in an attempt to raise money for the village. Although it does cost much more to stay in the village then someone would expect the cause is an amazing one and once you learn more I am sure each and every one of you would be willing to make the donation. Although I am sure many of you would have no interest in replicating the experience I had while being hosted in a village with little electricity and no running water. However, this village has many other problems outside of not having daily amenities that people can live without. All of the problems stem to the largest issue of all, the access to the village. The only way to get there is hiking about three hours up the side of the mountain. Therefore, every time the town needs something, including cloth, food, mattresses, furniture, pots to cook in, or anything else you can think of that someone would need to survive, someone needs to carry it up the mountain. There was a little girl with us who was carrying a fifty-pound bag of rice on her head and all of the water we would need for the weekend had to go up on someone’s head. It is incredible to fathom having to do that much work for simple daily supplies. Some of the kids walk up and down the mountain several times every week. The issues exist because the government started a project to build a road and It came to a halt when the political party changed and a new person took over power. Now the road has been started, but there is no money to finish the project.
One of the largest issues, that is perpetuated by the lack of a road, is the lack of a health clinic on the mountain. There is no one on the mountain that is trained medically and there are zero facilities to help those who are injured. This results in death from small issues that could have been prevented had they received medical attention right away. Many women die during childbirth because there are no midwives and if there is a problem the woman needs to be carried down the mountain, put in a car and taken to the nearest hospital. This is about a three or four hour trip depending on the men available to carry the woman. The young woman I spoke of earlier, Sarah, is the perfect story to describe the atrocities that occur because of this issue. She was giving birth about three months ago and she experiences severe complications. They had to immediately transport her to the hospital; by the time she arrived she was in a coma. She slipped into a coma for three days before she awoke with no knowledge of ever giving birth; everyone in her family was scared for her life, thank God that she survived. But many times instead of these woman slipping into comas they bleed out and die before anyone is available to help them. Since there is no prenatal care, women have no idea if there is a problem with the baby’s position, or if they should expect complications with the pregnancy or the birth. Also, many times women are unsure about how far along they are so the day they go into labor is the day they find out the baby is coming. If more money could be donated to the community they would be able to complete the two projects that the government started, first the health clinic, and second the road. Another issue not yet being addressed is that there is no ss (secondary school) on the mountain, so those kids that do go to ss have to be boarded in Togo or in Hohoe. The price of doing this is high and most families survive without money on the mountain by farming and trading, so they do not have any income to send children to school past primary school. The primary school on the mountain is also not adequate, they are lacking teachers, and there is only three classrooms for the entire village. I am unsure how many children there are, but there are over 1000 people who live in Wli Todzi. The name of the non-profit organization that is working to raise money is Rise Up Development, you can see their website at Riseup.com and find out more about the stories of the families who live on the mountain.
Now that you have an idea about the village I am about to enter I will continue on with my experience. As we were preparing to climb a hailstorm hit and we were force to retreat to a nearby shelter. We all sat inside a small building while shards of ice came pelting in through the windows. The rain lasted for about thirty minutes and by this time it was almost three thirty. We immediately began our journey to ensure we would reach the top before nightfall. I was in front with the three other girls I had gone with behind one of the young boys who came down just to carry our bags up the hill and Sarah who was carrying her baby and about seven other people were behind us. We were lucky since there was no sun and none of us struggled with the long hike. We had heard horror stories in the past about how horrific the climb was, but it seemed quite easy to me probably because I was prepared for the worst. On the trip up Erik, a fourteen year old boy that goes up and down the mountain or to Wli Falls and back almost everyday in support of the Rise Up program, was in front of me and he stopped periodically to obtain fruit. He climbed a tree and got papaya, he picked two different types of small fruit that were a lot like mamoncillos. One of them you popped out of the shell, sucked on it until the flavor was gone, and spit out the seed. The other you did the same thing except there was no case you just put the entire thing in your mouth. Both of them were sweet and tasted delicious. We made it up in about three hours before we sat down to take a short break to eat bananas and yellow mangos. It took about another half hour to walk to where we would be staying, but since there was no more climbing this part of the journey was simple. There were difficult parts to the climbing when you had to climb strait up and down with your hands and feet. There were also moments when we were walking extremely quickly and any slip of the foot would have led to a disastrous fall down the side of the mountain. It is incredible how so many people use the paths, but a large part of the journey is covered in plants and your feet get tangles and your hands mangled. We all arrived at the top with bumps, bruises, and scrapes from the hike and we all fell at least once. Thank God none of us were hurt because there are no rails and no one standing on the side to account for your safety.
This path is clearly the road less taken, not only because of the difficulty of the path, but because of the conditions you must endure while staying with your host family. When we finally made it to where we would be staying it was beginning to get dark, and once the sun was all the way down the cooking needed to be done with a little girl aiming a flashlight in the direction of the pot and the washroom could only be used if you took a light with you. We were hoping that dinner would be served when we arrived, what actually happened was they began dinner once they saw us coming. There are no phones and almost no one knows the time. So it is hard to predict when someone will arrive and this carries through to every part of the trip. We would later meet people to walk to Togo, this consists of sitting around and waiting for everyone to decide to show up, also breakfast is started after we wake up, which may seem like a good idea. However, breakfast may take over two hours to cook, so when we woke up late it was time to start cooking lunch which takes almost three hours by the time breakfast was served. We finally got dinner by around eight and it was something new too us, we all greatly enjoyed the new flavor. It was ground up corn with light soup, but the soup had many vegetables and fish. It has so much more substance than the soup you get at the night market; it is going to make eating my daily food difficult. We were served separate than everyone else. At first it was sad, although we were paying for the experience I felt as if we were taking food out of the children’s mouths. But the children were soon served the same food that we were eating so I no longer felt compelled to wait.
We were given four pots, one with soup for Brianna with no fish, one pot with light soup for the four of us to all eat from the same dish, one with apble for us to share, and one with water to wash our hands. One of the little girls carried over a small table and chairs to the place where most of us were sitting,. Then we were able to dig into the delicious food. When we eat we make such a mess, but no one seemed to mind. I am getting better at eating without ruining everything in my path, but I am still nowhere near as good as the average Ghanaian. After dinner we danced with the kids, while others drummed and just enjoyed the nice breeze. It did end up getting a bit cold, I had to put on long sleeves and pants to stay warm.
Other things that you should realize about the village: First, we had to wear cloths the entire time we were there because that is the traditional clothing of the ewe people. They claimed the village was conservative, which actually means that you need to be covered past your knees, but the women were not conservative when it came to breasts. Many women showed their breasts at their leisure, no one wore bras, and young children were almost always partially naked. Second, it is a hassle to use the bathroom so the children just go pee wherever they please. The bathroom where you pee is the same room that you use to take your bucket shower and the latrine is where you go to go number two. There was a bucket next to it with leaves you could use as toilet paper and there was a partial wall around it. However, as you used the bathroom anyone who turned his or her head in your direction could watch. Luckily the room with the bucket for bathing has walls on three sides that were high enough to cover past my head. However, the neighbors were not as lucky and we could watch the children on all sides of us bathe. Third, the family welcomed us with open arms, the children would carry chairs and place them behind us wherever we went and the adults were constantly cooking for us. The kids behave and obey the people that are older then them better than I have ever witnessed. They had to walk to the river several times while we were there to fetch water, they would sit by the pot and make sure the fire stayed lit, while Auntie Charlotte and Sarah cooked, they did their own wash and Sarah’s wash if she asked, they held flashlights while dinner was being prepared, they cut everything for the soups, the opened the cans of tomato paste using a knife, they took care of the babies when they cried, they essentially behaved like adults. The little girls were about ten years old and there were three of them living in the complex we were staying at. There were also young boys that behaved just as well. They had to go to the waterfalls, Togo, and up and down the mountain every time they were asked and they never complained. Forth, people wore the same clothes the entire time we stayed with them. Wanita, a three-month-old baby, was constantly changed, but besides her everyone else wore the same clothes everyday. The babies usually wore shirts, but they would stay naked from the waste down. I am not sure if this was done to make it easier for them to go to the bathroom since there is no diapers or just because they prefer to be naked.
All in all the first involved a great hike, but the time we spent in the village was a little bit awkward and we were unsure what the remainder of the weekend would be like.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
I woke up at around six to the sound of music playing outside and children all around playing. I swelled up with joy at the thought of the day that lay ahead. I stayed in bed and took in my surroundings and tried to appreciate the sheer enjoyment of the children. When I decided to leave my ecstasy and venture outside into the gleaming sun it was almost eight o’clock. I then sat around and just played with the children and got to know Sarah a bit more while breakfast was being prepared. We were soon served our first meal of the day, which consisted of white rice and tomato sauce. The food was phenomenal just not what we are used to in America for breakfast. We were again served our meal separate from everyone else in three pots on the little table and chairs that the children carried over to where we had been standing. We ate with out Yaw this time and then prepared for our hike to Wli Falls. The falls were supposed to be about an hour and a half hike down and we were told there was only one part of the journey that was difficult. What this truly meant was a two-hour hike, with about thirty minutes of scaling a mountain. Although it was tougher than expected it was amazing and I cannot wait for my next hike. Plus the falls were gorgeous and there was a beautiful breeze. The water was cool in temperature and when we got close to the falls the wind would wipe us in the face and the water would shoot in all direction. We had a very nice time and we stayed for almost an hour before we had to climb back up the steep mountain. The way back was much easier than we predicted and the boys were able to get us avocado, pineapple, and papaya all on the way. The pineapple was the best pineapple I have ever had in my life and we all just wanted to eat as much of it as possible. Although the climb back exerted less energy, it did require a greater amount of strength. Do to the fact that I have man legs, it was not a large problem for me to get to the top, for those with less strength in their legs they may disagree that up was easier than down. Therefore, the difficulty of the hike is all relative to the person you are talking to. Also, the path was just as blocked as the path up the mountain. We had to walk through bush and also along a route that refereeing to it as a path would be an over statement. I am not sure how the boys knew which way to go, but it surely wasn’t because there was a dirt path to lead the way. The path completely disappeared at times and I just prayed that someone was aware of how to get to our destination. There are people who come to the mountain and don’t visit the falls and for those people I feel sorry because it was an amazing experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
We got back ready for dinner since we had already missed lunch, but we had to wait for the fufu to be pounded. It was so interesting to watch the three young boys pounding, while the women sat by the fire making the okra soup that we would eat with the meal. We were able to help a little bit with the cooking and we also bathed while we waited. I was not prepared for the temperature of the water, so when I poured it on my head I let out a small shriek. I don’t think anyone heard me, at least I hope not. It was so cold I do not even understand how it ever cooled to that temperature since it is kept outside which is extremely hot. I presume the experience could have been worse although I did not like the feeling of showering where I know everyone uses the bathroom even if it is not much different from a normal shower. After we all got out of the shower dinner was almost ready, but it had begun to rain. This made it very difficult to get things done in a timely manner, but we all seemed to manage. When the rain came down harder the roof began to leak and we all got a little wet, but it didn’t faze anybody. We then helped them finish up dinner and we were served inside one of the rooms where we sleep. Sarah and Emos joined us and the experience was enjoyable. It was by far the best fufu I have ever had, the texture was very different from in the past and the soup once again much more dense, which was amazing. The soup was made up of okra, mushrooms, fish, garden egg (egg plant), peppers, and tomatoes. We ate almost all of it, which was a very large portion each and then we had the others join us in the room so we could play games. The rain continued so there was no dancing and drumming, but we had a great time anyway with never have I ever and other similar games.
With ever meal we drank apateshi and other types of alcohol, all of which are way to strong to drink with no chaser, but we all did it anyway. You also have to pour the first or last sip on the ground so that the ancestors could join you in your meal. This is something we had encountered in the past, but never to such a large extent. Also you must always take your shoes off at the door before entering the room, once I walked in with my shoes and they noticed right away. Everyone said something to me and I apologized many times for my mistake. One of the most interesting things was sometimes you could just sit back and listen and the only noise in the air is the sound of many different types of animals or the sound of children playing. There were goats, chicken, dogs, lambs, and pigs all around and the families all know which ones belong to them even though they all wander from place to place looking for scraps to eat. No one even steals someone else’s goats and they never worry about the eggs from the chicken making it to the correct family. The families have great respect for one another and they treat each other like you would treat your brothers and sisters. The entire community is like a family in many ways, when a mother dies giving birth a child is never sent to an orphanage. Two of the children that live in the block I was staying in were orphans that Auntie Charlotte took in because their mom died giving birth to them. To return to the night we played games for several hours and then everyone started heading off to bed.
Realize that we are sleeping in two different rooms, so we are taking the beds of the family members that live in the home. Sarah, Yaw and the baby all had to sleep in the same room because Meg and I were sleeping in Sarah’s room. They had to give up their rooms, their time, and their food to take care of us for the weekend in order to help their community. Their family is not being directly impacted financially the money will go to the community as a whole, and they are still willing to put some much into our weekend.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
I was supposed to get up at seven this morning to go to church. In order for me to do this I asked both Yaw and Sarah to wake me up because I did not have a clock to set an alarm on. I woke up to the noise of cassava being grounded and went outside to find out what time it was. It was still six so I went back to sleep and when I got up again I was informed it was after eight. I was in shock and really upset that no one got me up. Although I quickly realized that church begins at seven thirty like it takes two hours to hike up the mountain. It was almost nine by the time we left for church and we did not seem to have missed much at all. I returned by eleven thirty and breakfast was waiting for me when I got there. It was white rice and tomato sauce just like yesterday’s breakfast this time spicier. It was very good and right after it was time to start Sarah’s birthday celebration. She handed me the baby and told me she was mine for the rest of the day, which I was obviously thrilled about. The pastor came and said some prayers, we sang happy birthday and everyone began to dance. Happy, a man about my age is one of the males that help with the program. He asked me if I wanted to go with him into the village and of course I said yes. He toured me around the village, where about fifty people stopped to say hello to the two of us and by the time the tour was over I still spoke no Ewe. Happy was so sweet, every time I needed to respond to someone he would mouth whatever it was that I should be saying, so it appeared as if I knew some of the language. After the tour he asked if I wanted to go to Togo to watch him play football. I was thrilled by this question and quickly went to get ready. It was about an hour and a half hike, which was not that bad on the way there. We arrived earlier than the Togo team, so he walked me around for a little while. When we got back both teams were ready to play and I took a seat on the sidelines. It began to rain once again, but the game continued. At one point a goat ran through the field and I was the only one to react, but soon after a family of eight pigs ran across and one of them fell over because the rain was making the ground slippery. The grass really needed to be mowed, well in Africa it is referred to as weeded because each strand needs to be weeded. I was not the only person to react to this, everyone was hysterically laughing and the game had to be played around them until they made it all the way across the field. The game ended three to three and we walked back in the rain with no light. I slipped the entire way back, Happy felt so sorry for me he offered to carry me. I obviously did not concede to this and I made my way back bear foot, cold, and wet. It was still worth the trip because we had a lot of fun and I got to see another country with no visa.
As soon as I returned, Sarah informed me that she was waiting for me to prepare the salad with her. I was so excited to finally be helpful that I ran into my room, got changed, and made my way to where we would prepare dinner. I helped her cut up all of the vegetables and then we added mayonnaise in place of dressing creating something more like coleslaw then salad, but either way it was very good. Just to inform you, the other girls had left in the morning, so I spent the day in the village alone. This was the best day of all and it was no longer awkward. It was such a great experience and I began to feel integrated. When dinner was ready I was served along with Sarah and Yaw and we all had rice and salad which was amazing. I was really hungry since once again I was not around for lunch. After dinner the birthday celebration continued with no rain in site. There were girls from the village that performed a traditional dance and then some of the kids put on a play thankfully in English. After, the boys drummed and everyone else danced for hours. It was such an enjoyable night and I did not go to bed until late into the night.
Monday, April 4, 2011
My final day in the village only lasted a couple of hours since I had to leave by one in order to make in back in time to get a trotro back from Spana Junction. I woke up at around seven and went straight to getting breakfast ready. I cut up some vegetables and then Sarah came in and gave me the baby to take care of while she prepared the banku. I sat with the baby for about an hour while talking to Sarah and Erik. I learned a lot about their lives and I told them both I would like to return in the future. I was hoping that I would see Happy again soon to let him know I wanted to leave around one and thankfully he came strolling by around ten so I was able to talk to him. By the time we were done with breakfast it was already noon, so I had to prepare to leave. I tumble around with the children for some time and spotted them while they did back flips, then we danced and I went over and watched Sarah do her laundry. She offered to do mine while I waited, but I declined the offer although I desperately need to get my laundry done. By this time the baby was sleeping and I was all packed to leave, so as soon as Happy came over we were on our way back to HoHoe.
He took me down a path that no white person has ever used and for good reason. The entire way I was scared for my life. Happy was great and would catch me every ten minutes when I would fall and he let me go in front so I could control our speed. We essentially scaled the mountain for forty-five minutes before we reached land that was slightly slanted as opposed to straight up and down. It was interesting, but I am not sure I would want to do it again. One time I fell and started bleeding he felt so bad, but I told him not to worry I was already so cut up from the other hikes my legs did not even know the difference. He also got me bananas off the tree on the way down and stopped to show me different trees and mountains as we declined. When the hike got easier we were finally able to talk and I got all of my questions answered. It was about twenty minutes further of a much easier trail before we reached JD. At the bottom there was a culture fest in progress so we stayed for a short period of time and watched the children perform. Some of the groups were phenomenal and the costumes were gorgeous. It started to get late so Happy said it was time for us to go. We had to walk to the other side of the village to get a trotro to take us to Hohoe. This took much longer than predicted, we had to sit and wait for almost an hour before we got a ride. Once we did Happy was amazing and let me sleep the entire way and then he brought me right to the Accra Station, so all I had to do was hop on the trotro. It was not actually a trotro it had air conditioning and nice seats, although it was not exactly a bus. It was more of a mediocre van and this cost me an extra cedi, but I did not mind. I then got off at Spana at around nine thirty and immediately got on a trotro back to school. It is only about ten minutes away and then the walk from the stop to my hostel is about another fifteen minutes. In the end it was a little after ten that I arrived back in my room. I took a shower, got dinner, read, and went to bed.
This entry for this weekend may seem too long to read or excessive, but please if you choose to read one entry the entire time I am away make it the entries for this weekend.
The journey began at 6 AM, I was cranky, tired, and still unable to get the exhausted look out of my eyes by the time Yaw arrived and we were escorted to Okponglo to get a trotro to Madina. I was walking as if I was a mummy and I could not yet prepare for what lied ahead. We quickly got transportation to the station and in no time we were headed towards HoHoe in the Volta Region. I was able to force myself out of my monotone state after sleeping for about three hours on the trip, so by the time we arrived I was back in good spirits and ready for the adventure that I would soon encounter. Yaw sat us down in the shade and told us he was going to the market and would quickly return to lead us to the mountain we would be hiking up. As per the typical Ghanaian, Yaw returned about an hour later to lead us over to a taxi. He asked all four of us to get in the back and then preceded to find out if we had enough room. We replied we would be fine, so he opened the door and directed another young girl to join us. This would not have been a huge issue if it wasn’t for the fact that we were parked for about twenty minutes before we continued on our journey and we stopped several times along the way. Although I have informed you in the past just to reiterate, when a taxi with seven people in it and no air conditioning stops in the scorching heat no longer creating any wind, the people inside begin to drip sweat all over one another and feel as if they may faint. This is the way we felt and we did not understand whom the people were and why we were taking so long. We did finally get to JD the village located at the bottom of the mountain. We were all excited for the journey that we were told would take about two and a half hours. It was around two o’clock so we were hoping to arrive before five, which made us skeptical of the time line because we were informed that we would be served dinner as soon as we reached the top. Therefore, we came to the conclusion that the hike may be longer than predicted.
Something you should understand about the trip thus far. First, the little girl in the backseat of our taxi is Yaw’s sister, there was a young woman about my age in the front seat with a baby, sitting beside Yaw and this is also a sister of Yaw, Sarah, and her baby, Wanita. Yaw is a man of about thirty who lives in the village that we stayed in over the weekend, which is located on the top of a very fertile mountain that farms to sustain its self. Second, we were told we would need snacks for the trip, no one informed us that we would be leaving at six AM and our first meal would be served at 8 PM. Each step of the way we were all praying that we would be given something to eat and every hour we would look at our watches and try not to think about the time passing with no food. I am not sure if you realize that scaling a mountain several miles high is much more difficult on an empty stomach than it is when you have eaten to add additional energy into your body. Thirdly, Yaw kept leaving us and we felt terribly awkward because no one in the village speaks English or Twi, they only speak Ewe, which we do not know a word of.
Now let me take a few steps back and help you understand the importance of this weekend. I traveled to a village that is locate at the top of a mountain, the name is Wli Todzi and it is located above the Wli Falls, the tallest falls in West Africa. A young man from the United States started a program with Yaw in an attempt to raise money for the village. Although it does cost much more to stay in the village then someone would expect the cause is an amazing one and once you learn more I am sure each and every one of you would be willing to make the donation. Although I am sure many of you would have no interest in replicating the experience I had while being hosted in a village with little electricity and no running water. However, this village has many other problems outside of not having daily amenities that people can live without. All of the problems stem to the largest issue of all, the access to the village. The only way to get there is hiking about three hours up the side of the mountain. Therefore, every time the town needs something, including cloth, food, mattresses, furniture, pots to cook in, or anything else you can think of that someone would need to survive, someone needs to carry it up the mountain. There was a little girl with us who was carrying a fifty-pound bag of rice on her head and all of the water we would need for the weekend had to go up on someone’s head. It is incredible to fathom having to do that much work for simple daily supplies. Some of the kids walk up and down the mountain several times every week. The issues exist because the government started a project to build a road and It came to a halt when the political party changed and a new person took over power. Now the road has been started, but there is no money to finish the project.
One of the largest issues, that is perpetuated by the lack of a road, is the lack of a health clinic on the mountain. There is no one on the mountain that is trained medically and there are zero facilities to help those who are injured. This results in death from small issues that could have been prevented had they received medical attention right away. Many women die during childbirth because there are no midwives and if there is a problem the woman needs to be carried down the mountain, put in a car and taken to the nearest hospital. This is about a three or four hour trip depending on the men available to carry the woman. The young woman I spoke of earlier, Sarah, is the perfect story to describe the atrocities that occur because of this issue. She was giving birth about three months ago and she experiences severe complications. They had to immediately transport her to the hospital; by the time she arrived she was in a coma. She slipped into a coma for three days before she awoke with no knowledge of ever giving birth; everyone in her family was scared for her life, thank God that she survived. But many times instead of these woman slipping into comas they bleed out and die before anyone is available to help them. Since there is no prenatal care, women have no idea if there is a problem with the baby’s position, or if they should expect complications with the pregnancy or the birth. Also, many times women are unsure about how far along they are so the day they go into labor is the day they find out the baby is coming. If more money could be donated to the community they would be able to complete the two projects that the government started, first the health clinic, and second the road. Another issue not yet being addressed is that there is no ss (secondary school) on the mountain, so those kids that do go to ss have to be boarded in Togo or in Hohoe. The price of doing this is high and most families survive without money on the mountain by farming and trading, so they do not have any income to send children to school past primary school. The primary school on the mountain is also not adequate, they are lacking teachers, and there is only three classrooms for the entire village. I am unsure how many children there are, but there are over 1000 people who live in Wli Todzi. The name of the non-profit organization that is working to raise money is Rise Up Development, you can see their website at Riseup.com and find out more about the stories of the families who live on the mountain.
Now that you have an idea about the village I am about to enter I will continue on with my experience. As we were preparing to climb a hailstorm hit and we were force to retreat to a nearby shelter. We all sat inside a small building while shards of ice came pelting in through the windows. The rain lasted for about thirty minutes and by this time it was almost three thirty. We immediately began our journey to ensure we would reach the top before nightfall. I was in front with the three other girls I had gone with behind one of the young boys who came down just to carry our bags up the hill and Sarah who was carrying her baby and about seven other people were behind us. We were lucky since there was no sun and none of us struggled with the long hike. We had heard horror stories in the past about how horrific the climb was, but it seemed quite easy to me probably because I was prepared for the worst. On the trip up Erik, a fourteen year old boy that goes up and down the mountain or to Wli Falls and back almost everyday in support of the Rise Up program, was in front of me and he stopped periodically to obtain fruit. He climbed a tree and got papaya, he picked two different types of small fruit that were a lot like mamoncillos. One of them you popped out of the shell, sucked on it until the flavor was gone, and spit out the seed. The other you did the same thing except there was no case you just put the entire thing in your mouth. Both of them were sweet and tasted delicious. We made it up in about three hours before we sat down to take a short break to eat bananas and yellow mangos. It took about another half hour to walk to where we would be staying, but since there was no more climbing this part of the journey was simple. There were difficult parts to the climbing when you had to climb strait up and down with your hands and feet. There were also moments when we were walking extremely quickly and any slip of the foot would have led to a disastrous fall down the side of the mountain. It is incredible how so many people use the paths, but a large part of the journey is covered in plants and your feet get tangles and your hands mangled. We all arrived at the top with bumps, bruises, and scrapes from the hike and we all fell at least once. Thank God none of us were hurt because there are no rails and no one standing on the side to account for your safety.
This path is clearly the road less taken, not only because of the difficulty of the path, but because of the conditions you must endure while staying with your host family. When we finally made it to where we would be staying it was beginning to get dark, and once the sun was all the way down the cooking needed to be done with a little girl aiming a flashlight in the direction of the pot and the washroom could only be used if you took a light with you. We were hoping that dinner would be served when we arrived, what actually happened was they began dinner once they saw us coming. There are no phones and almost no one knows the time. So it is hard to predict when someone will arrive and this carries through to every part of the trip. We would later meet people to walk to Togo, this consists of sitting around and waiting for everyone to decide to show up, also breakfast is started after we wake up, which may seem like a good idea. However, breakfast may take over two hours to cook, so when we woke up late it was time to start cooking lunch which takes almost three hours by the time breakfast was served. We finally got dinner by around eight and it was something new too us, we all greatly enjoyed the new flavor. It was ground up corn with light soup, but the soup had many vegetables and fish. It has so much more substance than the soup you get at the night market; it is going to make eating my daily food difficult. We were served separate than everyone else. At first it was sad, although we were paying for the experience I felt as if we were taking food out of the children’s mouths. But the children were soon served the same food that we were eating so I no longer felt compelled to wait.
We were given four pots, one with soup for Brianna with no fish, one pot with light soup for the four of us to all eat from the same dish, one with apble for us to share, and one with water to wash our hands. One of the little girls carried over a small table and chairs to the place where most of us were sitting,. Then we were able to dig into the delicious food. When we eat we make such a mess, but no one seemed to mind. I am getting better at eating without ruining everything in my path, but I am still nowhere near as good as the average Ghanaian. After dinner we danced with the kids, while others drummed and just enjoyed the nice breeze. It did end up getting a bit cold, I had to put on long sleeves and pants to stay warm.
Other things that you should realize about the village: First, we had to wear cloths the entire time we were there because that is the traditional clothing of the ewe people. They claimed the village was conservative, which actually means that you need to be covered past your knees, but the women were not conservative when it came to breasts. Many women showed their breasts at their leisure, no one wore bras, and young children were almost always partially naked. Second, it is a hassle to use the bathroom so the children just go pee wherever they please. The bathroom where you pee is the same room that you use to take your bucket shower and the latrine is where you go to go number two. There was a bucket next to it with leaves you could use as toilet paper and there was a partial wall around it. However, as you used the bathroom anyone who turned his or her head in your direction could watch. Luckily the room with the bucket for bathing has walls on three sides that were high enough to cover past my head. However, the neighbors were not as lucky and we could watch the children on all sides of us bathe. Third, the family welcomed us with open arms, the children would carry chairs and place them behind us wherever we went and the adults were constantly cooking for us. The kids behave and obey the people that are older then them better than I have ever witnessed. They had to walk to the river several times while we were there to fetch water, they would sit by the pot and make sure the fire stayed lit, while Auntie Charlotte and Sarah cooked, they did their own wash and Sarah’s wash if she asked, they held flashlights while dinner was being prepared, they cut everything for the soups, the opened the cans of tomato paste using a knife, they took care of the babies when they cried, they essentially behaved like adults. The little girls were about ten years old and there were three of them living in the complex we were staying at. There were also young boys that behaved just as well. They had to go to the waterfalls, Togo, and up and down the mountain every time they were asked and they never complained. Forth, people wore the same clothes the entire time we stayed with them. Wanita, a three-month-old baby, was constantly changed, but besides her everyone else wore the same clothes everyday. The babies usually wore shirts, but they would stay naked from the waste down. I am not sure if this was done to make it easier for them to go to the bathroom since there is no diapers or just because they prefer to be naked.
All in all the first involved a great hike, but the time we spent in the village was a little bit awkward and we were unsure what the remainder of the weekend would be like.
Saturday, April 2, 2011
I woke up at around six to the sound of music playing outside and children all around playing. I swelled up with joy at the thought of the day that lay ahead. I stayed in bed and took in my surroundings and tried to appreciate the sheer enjoyment of the children. When I decided to leave my ecstasy and venture outside into the gleaming sun it was almost eight o’clock. I then sat around and just played with the children and got to know Sarah a bit more while breakfast was being prepared. We were soon served our first meal of the day, which consisted of white rice and tomato sauce. The food was phenomenal just not what we are used to in America for breakfast. We were again served our meal separate from everyone else in three pots on the little table and chairs that the children carried over to where we had been standing. We ate with out Yaw this time and then prepared for our hike to Wli Falls. The falls were supposed to be about an hour and a half hike down and we were told there was only one part of the journey that was difficult. What this truly meant was a two-hour hike, with about thirty minutes of scaling a mountain. Although it was tougher than expected it was amazing and I cannot wait for my next hike. Plus the falls were gorgeous and there was a beautiful breeze. The water was cool in temperature and when we got close to the falls the wind would wipe us in the face and the water would shoot in all direction. We had a very nice time and we stayed for almost an hour before we had to climb back up the steep mountain. The way back was much easier than we predicted and the boys were able to get us avocado, pineapple, and papaya all on the way. The pineapple was the best pineapple I have ever had in my life and we all just wanted to eat as much of it as possible. Although the climb back exerted less energy, it did require a greater amount of strength. Do to the fact that I have man legs, it was not a large problem for me to get to the top, for those with less strength in their legs they may disagree that up was easier than down. Therefore, the difficulty of the hike is all relative to the person you are talking to. Also, the path was just as blocked as the path up the mountain. We had to walk through bush and also along a route that refereeing to it as a path would be an over statement. I am not sure how the boys knew which way to go, but it surely wasn’t because there was a dirt path to lead the way. The path completely disappeared at times and I just prayed that someone was aware of how to get to our destination. There are people who come to the mountain and don’t visit the falls and for those people I feel sorry because it was an amazing experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat.
We got back ready for dinner since we had already missed lunch, but we had to wait for the fufu to be pounded. It was so interesting to watch the three young boys pounding, while the women sat by the fire making the okra soup that we would eat with the meal. We were able to help a little bit with the cooking and we also bathed while we waited. I was not prepared for the temperature of the water, so when I poured it on my head I let out a small shriek. I don’t think anyone heard me, at least I hope not. It was so cold I do not even understand how it ever cooled to that temperature since it is kept outside which is extremely hot. I presume the experience could have been worse although I did not like the feeling of showering where I know everyone uses the bathroom even if it is not much different from a normal shower. After we all got out of the shower dinner was almost ready, but it had begun to rain. This made it very difficult to get things done in a timely manner, but we all seemed to manage. When the rain came down harder the roof began to leak and we all got a little wet, but it didn’t faze anybody. We then helped them finish up dinner and we were served inside one of the rooms where we sleep. Sarah and Emos joined us and the experience was enjoyable. It was by far the best fufu I have ever had, the texture was very different from in the past and the soup once again much more dense, which was amazing. The soup was made up of okra, mushrooms, fish, garden egg (egg plant), peppers, and tomatoes. We ate almost all of it, which was a very large portion each and then we had the others join us in the room so we could play games. The rain continued so there was no dancing and drumming, but we had a great time anyway with never have I ever and other similar games.
With ever meal we drank apateshi and other types of alcohol, all of which are way to strong to drink with no chaser, but we all did it anyway. You also have to pour the first or last sip on the ground so that the ancestors could join you in your meal. This is something we had encountered in the past, but never to such a large extent. Also you must always take your shoes off at the door before entering the room, once I walked in with my shoes and they noticed right away. Everyone said something to me and I apologized many times for my mistake. One of the most interesting things was sometimes you could just sit back and listen and the only noise in the air is the sound of many different types of animals or the sound of children playing. There were goats, chicken, dogs, lambs, and pigs all around and the families all know which ones belong to them even though they all wander from place to place looking for scraps to eat. No one even steals someone else’s goats and they never worry about the eggs from the chicken making it to the correct family. The families have great respect for one another and they treat each other like you would treat your brothers and sisters. The entire community is like a family in many ways, when a mother dies giving birth a child is never sent to an orphanage. Two of the children that live in the block I was staying in were orphans that Auntie Charlotte took in because their mom died giving birth to them. To return to the night we played games for several hours and then everyone started heading off to bed.
Realize that we are sleeping in two different rooms, so we are taking the beds of the family members that live in the home. Sarah, Yaw and the baby all had to sleep in the same room because Meg and I were sleeping in Sarah’s room. They had to give up their rooms, their time, and their food to take care of us for the weekend in order to help their community. Their family is not being directly impacted financially the money will go to the community as a whole, and they are still willing to put some much into our weekend.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
I was supposed to get up at seven this morning to go to church. In order for me to do this I asked both Yaw and Sarah to wake me up because I did not have a clock to set an alarm on. I woke up to the noise of cassava being grounded and went outside to find out what time it was. It was still six so I went back to sleep and when I got up again I was informed it was after eight. I was in shock and really upset that no one got me up. Although I quickly realized that church begins at seven thirty like it takes two hours to hike up the mountain. It was almost nine by the time we left for church and we did not seem to have missed much at all. I returned by eleven thirty and breakfast was waiting for me when I got there. It was white rice and tomato sauce just like yesterday’s breakfast this time spicier. It was very good and right after it was time to start Sarah’s birthday celebration. She handed me the baby and told me she was mine for the rest of the day, which I was obviously thrilled about. The pastor came and said some prayers, we sang happy birthday and everyone began to dance. Happy, a man about my age is one of the males that help with the program. He asked me if I wanted to go with him into the village and of course I said yes. He toured me around the village, where about fifty people stopped to say hello to the two of us and by the time the tour was over I still spoke no Ewe. Happy was so sweet, every time I needed to respond to someone he would mouth whatever it was that I should be saying, so it appeared as if I knew some of the language. After the tour he asked if I wanted to go to Togo to watch him play football. I was thrilled by this question and quickly went to get ready. It was about an hour and a half hike, which was not that bad on the way there. We arrived earlier than the Togo team, so he walked me around for a little while. When we got back both teams were ready to play and I took a seat on the sidelines. It began to rain once again, but the game continued. At one point a goat ran through the field and I was the only one to react, but soon after a family of eight pigs ran across and one of them fell over because the rain was making the ground slippery. The grass really needed to be mowed, well in Africa it is referred to as weeded because each strand needs to be weeded. I was not the only person to react to this, everyone was hysterically laughing and the game had to be played around them until they made it all the way across the field. The game ended three to three and we walked back in the rain with no light. I slipped the entire way back, Happy felt so sorry for me he offered to carry me. I obviously did not concede to this and I made my way back bear foot, cold, and wet. It was still worth the trip because we had a lot of fun and I got to see another country with no visa.
As soon as I returned, Sarah informed me that she was waiting for me to prepare the salad with her. I was so excited to finally be helpful that I ran into my room, got changed, and made my way to where we would prepare dinner. I helped her cut up all of the vegetables and then we added mayonnaise in place of dressing creating something more like coleslaw then salad, but either way it was very good. Just to inform you, the other girls had left in the morning, so I spent the day in the village alone. This was the best day of all and it was no longer awkward. It was such a great experience and I began to feel integrated. When dinner was ready I was served along with Sarah and Yaw and we all had rice and salad which was amazing. I was really hungry since once again I was not around for lunch. After dinner the birthday celebration continued with no rain in site. There were girls from the village that performed a traditional dance and then some of the kids put on a play thankfully in English. After, the boys drummed and everyone else danced for hours. It was such an enjoyable night and I did not go to bed until late into the night.
Monday, April 4, 2011
My final day in the village only lasted a couple of hours since I had to leave by one in order to make in back in time to get a trotro back from Spana Junction. I woke up at around seven and went straight to getting breakfast ready. I cut up some vegetables and then Sarah came in and gave me the baby to take care of while she prepared the banku. I sat with the baby for about an hour while talking to Sarah and Erik. I learned a lot about their lives and I told them both I would like to return in the future. I was hoping that I would see Happy again soon to let him know I wanted to leave around one and thankfully he came strolling by around ten so I was able to talk to him. By the time we were done with breakfast it was already noon, so I had to prepare to leave. I tumble around with the children for some time and spotted them while they did back flips, then we danced and I went over and watched Sarah do her laundry. She offered to do mine while I waited, but I declined the offer although I desperately need to get my laundry done. By this time the baby was sleeping and I was all packed to leave, so as soon as Happy came over we were on our way back to HoHoe.
He took me down a path that no white person has ever used and for good reason. The entire way I was scared for my life. Happy was great and would catch me every ten minutes when I would fall and he let me go in front so I could control our speed. We essentially scaled the mountain for forty-five minutes before we reached land that was slightly slanted as opposed to straight up and down. It was interesting, but I am not sure I would want to do it again. One time I fell and started bleeding he felt so bad, but I told him not to worry I was already so cut up from the other hikes my legs did not even know the difference. He also got me bananas off the tree on the way down and stopped to show me different trees and mountains as we declined. When the hike got easier we were finally able to talk and I got all of my questions answered. It was about twenty minutes further of a much easier trail before we reached JD. At the bottom there was a culture fest in progress so we stayed for a short period of time and watched the children perform. Some of the groups were phenomenal and the costumes were gorgeous. It started to get late so Happy said it was time for us to go. We had to walk to the other side of the village to get a trotro to take us to Hohoe. This took much longer than predicted, we had to sit and wait for almost an hour before we got a ride. Once we did Happy was amazing and let me sleep the entire way and then he brought me right to the Accra Station, so all I had to do was hop on the trotro. It was not actually a trotro it had air conditioning and nice seats, although it was not exactly a bus. It was more of a mediocre van and this cost me an extra cedi, but I did not mind. I then got off at Spana at around nine thirty and immediately got on a trotro back to school. It is only about ten minutes away and then the walk from the stop to my hostel is about another fifteen minutes. In the end it was a little after ten that I arrived back in my room. I took a shower, got dinner, read, and went to bed.
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Thursday, March 31
Thursday, March 31, 2011
I woke up early this morning to get ready for work, I knew I would need to iron my clothes and clean my dishes so I left time. However, I was not ready until 6:50, so I left my room ten minutes later than usual. Thankfully, I still arrived at work right on time and I was able to stop on my way and get the battery in my watch changed by the man I bought it from. When I arrived at work I went immediately into a meeting that I was assigned to writing minutes at. It was suppose to start at nine; however, as usual it began at around ten fifteen and it lasted until after one. At the termination on the meeting we were given refreshments, which consisted of a piece of fried chicken, a muffin of some sort, and a meat pie. It was delicious and I was ecstatic to receive food considering I was starving by the time the meeting was over. In the future I will prepare and eat before the meeting since I am now aware it will last until past one.
I worked for about an hour longer before I ran out of things to do and decided to head back to school. I went straight to the CIEE office to use the computer so I could figure out which classes I want to take for next semester. Although I still do not know all four of them I am closer to figuring everything out. I left the office with just enough time to make it to my room, change, and proceed off to dance class on time. We did not learn anything today that I did not already learn on Saturday, so it was essentially a review. However, it was a great workout because we danced for almost the entire time with little interruption.
When I returned I learned that some of the girls decided to play beer pong and flip cup in the kitchen, it was very successful and reminded everyone of home. It was the first time we played beer games in Ghana, although like usual I used water and there was music and dancing to go along with the games adding a Ghanaian flair. It was extremely interesting to teach the Ghanaians how eat game worked; I think we greatly intrigued them. Afterwards, four of us went out to a bar/restaurant, Epos, to just hangout and talk for Kenny’s last night in Ghana. It was relaxing and the topic of conversation- politics- was very interesting. We arrived back at the hostel right in time for Peter to jump on the bus going to mole and for me to sleep two hours before I had to be up to go to Volta the following day.
Differences between the US and Ghana
Bathing- Many times Ghanaians will turn the water off while they are putting soap on and during most of the time they are bathing. This is rare in the United States because we have warm water, so if we turned the water off we would freeze. Since in Ghana the water we are bathing with is cooler than the actual temperature it makes little sense to let the water run while you are not using it. Also, they always refer to taking a shower as bathing, I think it is because in Twi the word for bath and shower is the same, so people do not differentiate between the two.
Healthcare- There is national healthcare, but it is very limited and medication is hard to obtain. There is no 911 or ambulances to bring you to the hospital if there is an emergency. Access to individuals in rural areas and in villages is very poor and many people die needlessly because they are unable to make it to the hospital.
Prayer- We pray before Atsu’s dance every week as a group, my teachers refer to God in every class, we talk about the bible constantly, and when people from the program mention their names locals will say that is in the bible. It is interesting how prayer and the Lord is involved in every aspect of many of the Ghanaian’s lives. Many people pray every time they get in a car or trotro to ensure that God will protect them on their journey.
I woke up early this morning to get ready for work, I knew I would need to iron my clothes and clean my dishes so I left time. However, I was not ready until 6:50, so I left my room ten minutes later than usual. Thankfully, I still arrived at work right on time and I was able to stop on my way and get the battery in my watch changed by the man I bought it from. When I arrived at work I went immediately into a meeting that I was assigned to writing minutes at. It was suppose to start at nine; however, as usual it began at around ten fifteen and it lasted until after one. At the termination on the meeting we were given refreshments, which consisted of a piece of fried chicken, a muffin of some sort, and a meat pie. It was delicious and I was ecstatic to receive food considering I was starving by the time the meeting was over. In the future I will prepare and eat before the meeting since I am now aware it will last until past one.
I worked for about an hour longer before I ran out of things to do and decided to head back to school. I went straight to the CIEE office to use the computer so I could figure out which classes I want to take for next semester. Although I still do not know all four of them I am closer to figuring everything out. I left the office with just enough time to make it to my room, change, and proceed off to dance class on time. We did not learn anything today that I did not already learn on Saturday, so it was essentially a review. However, it was a great workout because we danced for almost the entire time with little interruption.
When I returned I learned that some of the girls decided to play beer pong and flip cup in the kitchen, it was very successful and reminded everyone of home. It was the first time we played beer games in Ghana, although like usual I used water and there was music and dancing to go along with the games adding a Ghanaian flair. It was extremely interesting to teach the Ghanaians how eat game worked; I think we greatly intrigued them. Afterwards, four of us went out to a bar/restaurant, Epos, to just hangout and talk for Kenny’s last night in Ghana. It was relaxing and the topic of conversation- politics- was very interesting. We arrived back at the hostel right in time for Peter to jump on the bus going to mole and for me to sleep two hours before I had to be up to go to Volta the following day.
Differences between the US and Ghana
Bathing- Many times Ghanaians will turn the water off while they are putting soap on and during most of the time they are bathing. This is rare in the United States because we have warm water, so if we turned the water off we would freeze. Since in Ghana the water we are bathing with is cooler than the actual temperature it makes little sense to let the water run while you are not using it. Also, they always refer to taking a shower as bathing, I think it is because in Twi the word for bath and shower is the same, so people do not differentiate between the two.
Healthcare- There is national healthcare, but it is very limited and medication is hard to obtain. There is no 911 or ambulances to bring you to the hospital if there is an emergency. Access to individuals in rural areas and in villages is very poor and many people die needlessly because they are unable to make it to the hospital.
Prayer- We pray before Atsu’s dance every week as a group, my teachers refer to God in every class, we talk about the bible constantly, and when people from the program mention their names locals will say that is in the bible. It is interesting how prayer and the Lord is involved in every aspect of many of the Ghanaian’s lives. Many people pray every time they get in a car or trotro to ensure that God will protect them on their journey.
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