Condensing a Few Months

It has been awhile but since my last blog I have had a series of adventures.

I traveled to Mole National Park with some awesome ladies, joined my friends on their epic bicycle tour of Ghana, showed some family (Dad, Candace, and Ashley) my current home J, played in a volleyball tournament with the university team, and then proceeded to be successfully lazy for the past few weeks….well sort of.

The Mole adventure started in a way that I don’t have a word for, only a laugh.  There were many events that preceded our moment of sitting on the bus laughing hysterically as it drove out of Accra headed north in the sunset. Vanika, Sarah, Marcela and I decided to take the weekend and enjoy Mole National Park before they left at the end of the semester.  Well, in trying to buy tickets and get the group together on Wednesday, we end up only 3 of us on the bus as it is ready to depart….The fourth person, Marcela, was finishing up some exams and rushing through traffic to try and catch the bus. SO, this meant that Vanika, Sarah, and I had to stall the bus.  I was yelled at by the bus driver to “Sit Down!”, and then as the driver asked where is your friend---I had just talked to Marcela on the phone---I say “Oh, she’ll be here in 2 minutes. She’s very close, just walking along that road”, as I point to the main road next to the station. Meanwhile, Marcela reports to me on the phone “I am 10 minutes away.”  When the bus driver moved the bus out of it’s parking position and to the gate of the bus station, I started making enough noise to get every Ghanaian on the bus on our side to insure that the bus waits.  Well she made it! And we could nothing but laugh because of the scene we had created and our nerves of concern that she would not make it.

20 hours later, after the bus ride, a tro-tro ride and an expensive taxi ride, me made it to Mole. Our plans for the weekend in terms of accommodations and prices often times resulted in us yelling and complaining and kvetching, but ultimately, we had an amazing experience.  We slept in a tree hide, saw elephants in the day and at night, heard hyenas, and experienced just a beautiful African eco-system with laughter.  The trip, fortunately, ended with a very generous Ghanaian giving us a ride back to Kumasi in his personal car. This saved us at least 10 hours of travel by bus or tro-tro and we were exhausted.  He showed us this stone that is believed to have incredible spiritual powers (when they were building the road, they moved the stone. The next day, it was in its original place. They moved it again and the next day, it had returned.  The road is built with a big curve in it to avoid this stone and leave it resting in its place.  Horses are also not allowed in the town because the belief is that the stone does not allow it. A horse once tried to enter on the road near the stone and the horse died on the road).  This was my last trip of the semester with my travel buddies, Vanika and Marcela—it was a good one!

The bike trip is definitely worth mentioning.  It was this epic journey that, as far as internet and word-of-mouth research shows, no one had ever done before.  The plan was to take about 5 weeks and bicycle around Ghana, heading West then North then South near the border of Togo, then take the boat up the Volta River, and bike South back to Accra.  Frazer came up with the original idea, then Armando, Margarita, and I completed the team that planned and did this trip.  I, however, did only about 15 days of the 35 day trip because of Dad, Candace, and Ashley visiting, as well as the volleyball tournament.  It was really great seeing family and showing them Ghana!! I am very happy to have done some of this bike trip and been able to do these other adventures.  I also want to say that our friend Andrew kicked butt and after his motorbike tour of the North, traded in his wheels for Frazer’s old bike, Wild Thing, and he joined us for the last few days of the trip.

The group will be writing a blog, so I won’t go into details about the trip—and honestly, there is too much to say so I don’t really want to go into details.  I will say though that I was able to see and love Ghana, especially Ghanaians, in a more enriching way.  One of my favorite parts of the whole trip was in the mornings. Around 6:30 or 7am, we would be riding and feeling warmed up, cruising on empty roads, and through the hamatan (the hazy, dry season) you could stare at the orange sun resting above the mist and green landscape of the fields or jungle.

The volleyball tournament was also an adventure. We traveled to Kumasi with the guys and the other sports teams to compete with different universities in Ghana and took home second place.  We went with the intention and capability of gold. I had to miss playing in the first match that we won! The second match was the determiner for getting gold. It was the hardest team there, and I thought we had it! Sometimes, I guess it’s just not meant to be.  Ultimately, I love playing with this team.  They have fight and passion and freakin’ awesome women! We would pray every night before the match and then everyday before each match, which something I am not accustomed to.  The team also usually speaks Twi, which leaves me staring kindly dumbly sometimes. Every once in a while I know what is going on.

The trip with Dad, Candace, and Ashley was really cool for me to be able to show them where and how I have been living.  I think I through a lot at them for their 8 day trip.  We spent some time in Accra, went to the beach at Kokrobite. We traveled to Cape Coast and I dragged them to Kumasi for the volleyball tournament.  Part of their trip, we looked at the Last Bathe, a place along the slave trade route where the people captured would be bathed for the last time and sold.  We then saw the Cape Coast castle where these people were sent across the ocean and it is a really eye opening experience.

I am currently spending my time hanging out with people and figuring out my next semester’s classes. Living life simply and often times lazily, planning out my next few adventures for the following months.  Also, I owe Rita a bike ride ;-). She helps her family sell fruit at the Night Market near the hostel.  She is a young woman, aged 12?, and has a giggle that spreads joy like fire. One day, I offered her a ride on the back of the bike, she was doing something with pineapples. She took one look at me, then one look at the pineapples and said, “Not today, I’m busy.”  The children here astound me because this behavior is normal, expected, and I’ve seen it throughout Ghana.

Mole National Park, view from the restaurant

I’m sending my love! I hope you are well!

I do believe that it has been about 2 months since my last blog....woops!

Since then I have gone to Togo (where got some money stolen :-}), I've read a lot!, sometimes gone to class, volunteered, gone to the bars, and learned how to order food in Twi.

About a week ago, I was sitting on the balcony and watched a baby lizard crawl under the door into the room. AHH! I swung the door open and yelled to my roommate, "Emily!! We have a pet lizard!" heehee. luckily the little guy ran right onto our dust pan so she just picked up the pan and walked out to the balcony as I ran into the room and jumped on my bed. Well, Emily is a sweetheart (I'm currently eating some chocolate chip cookies that she baked) and she stood there looking at the lizard and then looking at the two story drop. Emily said to me something like, "I can't throw it off the balcony, open the front door." I was like "NO! don't run through the room with it!" teeheeheee. Well, I opened the door and she released the lizard into a safe environment outside our front door and not off the balcony.  Despite all this effort, I noticed a baby lizard in the room last night. I surrender. We have two of them living on our balcony actually.

One of my favorite things to do is to sit on the balcony and watch the sky. I can watch the birds and clouds move for hours. Luckily, I usually have something to do that prevents that from happening, such as laundry. I am proud to say that I have learned how to wash my clothes like a Ghanaian. I am now capable of making shirts as white as if I used bleach. It's kind of painful, I have some cuts on my hands, but it's fun. I think I did laundry daily for a week because I was so excited of my ability!  My cuts have prevented me from keeping up this daily habit.

Last night I went with some friends to a music festival. It was soo much fun to chill and hear some local music.  While I was there they played mostly reggae (they had lots of different type of performers at the festival throughout the weekend) .  The reggae is not quite like Bob Marley and it's not something I would put onto my Itunes.  I wish I could remember the name of the comedian, but Shadrach (a Ghanaian friend) showed me this Nigerian comedian who made a reggae band out of scratch.  He gave each instrument one thing they had to do over and over again and then put some words in that went like "YA...YA...YA.." :-) ahahaha it was accurate for the local reggae style. But, I don't mean to totally diss on the this music, there is a time and place for it. Wednesday nights are reggae nights at the beach and it fits perfectly! Also, the teachers at the school like to drum and sing some reggae. When they jam, I've quite enjoyed it.

Well I love you very much!

The Events of Late

Hello Family and Friends!

I am very sorry for taking so long to blog.  The past few weeks have been very full and very fun!

Three weekends ago I went to Hohoe in the Volta Region with three other friends from ISH, Marcela, Elizabeth, and Vanika.  The plan was to climb Mt. Afadjato (the “tallest” mountain in Ghana) and check out some of the waterfalls in the area.  The weekend turned out to be an amazing and seemingly, pre-destined, turn of events.

We left at 7:30 am to take a tro-tro to a tro-tro station after making plans the night before to leave at 5 am.  When we finally made it to the tro-tro station (we walked past it a few times before someone dropped us off at the correct place) and stood inline to get on the correct tro-tro for Hohoe.  The tro-tro station is a dirt area on the side of the road surrounded by people and kiosks.  It is hard to pick out amongst the traffic, people and other dirt areas for tro-tros.  Since then, I have passed by the area multiple times and always see a sign marking that place as a tro-tro station for Hohoe. 

Anyway, while in line we met a sharply dressed Ghanain named Ethan.  Ethan was headed home for the weekend because he is from Hohoe but works in Accra.  After a 4 hour tro-tro ride with a combined bathroom break and tire repair stop, as well as a snack stop, we arrived in Hohoe with no hotel reservation and only an idea of what we wanted to do.  Ethan took care of us.  He took us to Sicily, his mother’s restaurant.  She started it when she was 11 and slowly built up her business from selling on the street into a successful restaurant that will have a club built above the dining area. It is completely family run.  Ethan called some people and got us a hotel reservation and the five of us spent the afternoon eating and talking.  Well there was more to the afternoon: a torrential storm of rain and thunder, along with some ghost stories, along with games (Ninja!) and a power outage.  Ethan left us to clean himself up from traveling and we went for a short walk into the town. We found out later that night that he was next in line to be chief or King but turned it down. Apparently, the chiefs are the people who own the gold mines and other profitable businesses because they need to be taken care of.  Ethan turned the position down because you then become tied to the area and the position. I later learned of a man who avoided going home for years so as to avoid being tricked into becoming the next chief.

On our afternoon walk of the day we arrived when the storm had passed, this Ghanaian approached us.  He was very friendly and related to us well.  I, however, was a little annoyed because I was not in the mood to develop another relationship with someone who just saw that we are Obrunis.  Turns out that it was a very meant-to-be/coincidental meeting. The guy was Knox, a friend of a friend kind of deal.  Ethan hooked us up with food and lodging, and Knox hooked us up with the outdoor adventures and knowledge of transportation.

We all became very good friends by the end of the weekend; in fact such good friends that it was a sad goodbye. We also successfully climbed Mt. Afadjato (884 meters—an easy climb for me, not for some of the people in our group) and saw the lower Wli falls.  Knox, Marcela and I went under the falls!  On the tro-tro ride home Sunday night we were exhausted but we could stop saying how beautiful life his, how amazingly coincidental the whole weekend was and how “horrible” it had been.  We had to start saying the weekend was “horrible” because it was too good and said to many times how great the weekend was.

Since then I have been finding time to relax and I have not put so much energy into finding a new adventure, but I feel a change of heart and my travel bug has surfaced yet again…plans are still in the making.

But don’t misunderstand me; I have not spent the past few weeks sitting around. Had that been the case I might have blogged.  Last weekend, a few of us went back to Cape Coast for a festival.  The festival commemorates the passing of a plague because the people appeased to the gods.  There were chiefs sitting in regal chariots being carried on the tops of men’s heads.  These chiefs had a procession of drummers behind them.  A man would carry a drum on his head horizontally so that another man could walk behind and play the drums.  The chief would do little dances that all conveyed a message while they sat.  There were women carrying small seats for the Chiefs for when everyone arrived at the end of the parade.  Supposedly, when you carry one of the seats you become possessed and need the support of people. Some people guided these women and fanned the women or poured drinks down their open mouths. 

The festival was crowded and everyone danced.  People were dancing traditionally and in a modern style.  There were trucks driving around with speakers booming out the back.  There were roller bladers jumping over each other, there were people firing off guns.  It was a sincerely real festival.  There was one older woman who captivated my interest.  She was just watching the parade and had a baby strapped to her back.  She would mention people to stop bumping her or to not shoot the guns because of the baby.  Sometimes she would motion people to not stand in front of her so that she could see.  Everytime, she conveyed her message in a style that demonstrated she commanded the respect that she had earned with age.  People would mostly acquiesce her requests.  However, one man that was standing in front of her laughed, used his phone to take a video of her then us obrunis, and made all of us watching this happen laugh because of the ridiculousness of the whole situation.

We just stayed for the day in Cape Coast.  I learned though that it is worth it that when going to a festival I should plan on staying at least one night because there is so much going on.

This past week I attempted to play rugby.  That didn’t work out because I was the only girl who showed up to play.  Instead, I have become somewhat a part of the volleyball team.  I say somewhat, because I don’t want to be committed to a team. I want to travel. I have been occasionally practicing with them at 5:30 am.

I also traveled to the school by myself for the first time. I thought it would be a big ordeal to travel by myself but not at all.  The school has students show up inconsistently but I still enjoy going.  Cujoe, Kofi, and Solomon have made a home there and now I am learning how to drum, as well as still being delicious banku.

This past weekend, about 10 of us obrunis from ISH were cast in a music video of the one the biggest artists in Ghana. His name is Samini.  (They wanted some international students to come to the video, sometimes they do auditions but this was very relaxed.  For this video specifically, they just called up some students who would know international students and then sent a car to pick us up.  This not very uncommon). It was quite a surprise and still a shock to me that I am in a music video of a famous artist. No worries! There was no dirty dancing.  The video was of a chill house party, so we chilled and pretended to party.  Then we really partied.  We went out with the director of the video, Gyo, and everyone else involved.  It was so much fun and the coolest thing about it is the talent of the people we were with.  I specifically want to mention Gyo because he uses simple technology compared to music video directors in the US and comes up with a fantastic product!! He does the lighting, the filming, the directing, he does it all.  He is the number one director in Ghana. It was so amazing going out, working, and talking with him!

Since then I have spent the weekend reading Into Thin Air. I am loving this book because it is the closest I am to being active outdoors right now, plus it’s a great story!

Love you all very much!!!

P.S. I have my working camera back!!

Quick and Simple Update

Sometimes
Theresa Patrine Ennin


 Sometimes I want to hide in bed and not go out
I want to go stay out and not go in
A see saw of decisions
A maelstrom of emotions newly born, striving for supremacy

Sometimes a song evokes tears of remembrance
A tune incites dancing
A war for dominance
Equal measure of elation and deflation
Wonder and dismay balanced on the edge of the heart
Below the precipice

This is a poem from a book I bought at the U of Ghana bookstore. It's a book of poetry by all Ghanaian poets.  This poem is what caused me to by the book.

I am quite tired so I am going to give short quick updates.

I volunteered today at the school and taught the students how to count to 15 in French. It was fun, and they of course fed us volunteers again.

Last night, an exchange student from Canada had a nasty fall while jogging. She was jogging at night and fell into the "obruni trap".  There are gutters along all of the roads that are about 8 inches wide and then at least a foot deep.  She fell into one and, literally, got a whole in her leg.  She wanted to put a band-aid on it and go, but I encouraged her to go the hospital. So two of us plus the injured student went to the hospital last night. She ended up getting a few stitches.  I just want to thank my WFR for last night. I was able to help clean the wound and give her the reason she needed to get it taken care of properly.

My camera is almost fixed...

I love my geography classes! One is on soils and biogeography, the other is on arid lands.  These classes take me back to NOLS. Thanks NOLS!!! ...or should I now say me da se pa papapapapapa (thank you very very very much in Twi).

I am headed to the Volta region this weekend!!!

Thank you all for the comments!!! I love you!!

Volunteering

Last week I went to a very small primary school (or elementary school).  A German exchange student, Johannes, who helped to build the school.  Here is the link http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=301958504056 if you are interested in reading the background of the school.

I went to the school with 5 German exchange students and one Ghanaian graduate of the University of Ghana. We took the tro tro and arrived there in the early afternoon. We did not get back to campus until around 8:30 p.m.  It was such a great experience!  When we arrived at the school, the students were in class despite the fact they this is their holiday.  The students go to the school anyway.  The three men who started the school are Cujoe, Kofi, and Solomon. They cook, garden, teach, build, and honestly, sleep at the school.  They do all of this for the kids.  Yohannes and another guy named Sean, who I have never met, helped get the materials for the school to be built, and I think allow for the school to exist--that's a detail I'm not very sure of.

So why we spent so long at the school is because they wanted to make us dinner.  Johannes is a called "brother" by the teachers, and they are all one big family.  The teachers made us benku. A traditional meal that is a bread type dish with a "stew"--or sauce.  It took a few hours to chop and cook the food.  The sauce had vegetables and fish in it. It was delicious!! They kept talking about how you have to cook the food for a long time so that you don't hurt your stomach.  My stomach definitely smiled from this dinner.

Then we ate, but not without a ceremony of course.  They said some prayers and poured some hard alcohol onto the floor for the ancestors and in gratitude.  We had a few spirits then we ate with our hands. You only use your right hand. You take a piece of the bread type dish (it's like a big matzo ball that won't crumble), roll it in your hand and make a little bowl shape out of it with your thumb. You then dip the bread stuff (which is not made out of wheat--I don't remember what it is exactly made out of...maybe corn) and dip it into the stew. Everyone eats out of the same big bowls of food placed in the center of the table.

After dinner they played some drums for us and it was a mini jam session/concert.  The teachers are a part of a band called 024 and they have a puppy that they named 024. They also happen to have a cat named Bush.  They have a garden that has these "grass cutters". They are animals that look like oversized guinea pigs.  Anyway, hopefully on Wednesday this week I'll head over to the school to start volunteering for real.

Other than this, I've been hanging out. I went to the bars last night. I did absolutely nothing on Saturday except nap and study Torah. Then went to Church on Sunday with some friends.  I am getting more accustomed to being here, and I have been exploring different types of food at the night market. You can get rice, then some pasta, chicken, fish, eggs, cabbage salad, or plantains. It is quite good!! You order according to how much you will pay for. I usually get 50 peswas amount for rice, an egg which is 40 peswas, and fried plantains for 20 peswas. This is like a good cereal bowl size of food and it fills me up.

Well I love you very much!!!

Ginger Tea

A few more fun things about this week...

About 5 people have gotten sick. Luckily, I am not one of them... and this is most likely because it hasn't happened yet.  I have been making ginger tea for people and it has been helping! Woohoo!

The other day a few of us students took the tro tro into town to go the mall for some errands. The rush hour traffic starts at about 4pm here and we managed to hit it right at the peak when trying to go home.  People were crowding onto the tro tros before we even knew where they were headed and before the other passengers could get off.  So after trying for awhile we decided to take a taxi.  Well after an intense price bargaining for the ride, 5 of us piled into the taxi. The taxi driver then hot wired his car, sending some smoke into the air and took off. He turned to us and said something like, "there are too many of you in the car. If the cops stop us, you'll get arrested." At this point I'm just rolling my eyes like "great, thanks for the late warning." We chose to walk some of the way, had to jump over a huge gutter.  Needless to say, we got home very safe and sound.  Ultimately, my friend Vanika and I were laughing most of the way home between conversations of firm bargaining.  I also just want to say that overall, I do feel very safe here!!!

I am taking a dance class. All thanks to my current--maybe temporary--roommate, Emily, we went to a 200 level class. Oy vay, I didn't think I could do anything above a 100 level but it was fine. I could not stop beaming. It was soooo much fun!!!  There are about 10 live drummers and 20 instructors with one head instructor who is an old man.  He walks with a cane.  However, he introduced himself to the class saying that in class he does not use the cane because we are all good people and that allows him to walk without it. There was so much fun, good and lively energy. I am so lucky that I get to  take this class twice a week....Sorry Dad, but I might end up doing all dance and drumming classes.

I hope you are all having a wonderful day!! Much Love!!

First Week of School

Hey!! Very sorry for the slow response on the blog. I have been very busy with traveling up the coast, traveling around town and then getting ready for classes (of course, I am here to study abroad :-}).

The ISEP group went up to Cape Coast this weekend, which is about a 2 hour drive east of Accra. It was so beautiful and green. I really appreciated being out of the city. They took us to a place I can't remember the name of. It is a fort that was used for the slave trade. Apparently, there were so many of these forts across the coast that there was only a distance of about 18 kilometers between each fort.  What impacted me the most was the reality of the slave trade.  The amount of people, their treatment, and the global issue of humanity since slavery still exists today.

We then carried onward to our hotel which is on a crocodile pond :-). The next day we went hiking in Kakum National Forest. We did the canopy walk, where we walked on this rope/ladder system high above the main tree level. It was so beautiful! Turns out you can camp there, so I will be doing that hopefully!!

We also have taken some tro tro rides. This is very fun! And when I say fun, I mean something I would like and something mom would not like.  Tro tros tend to be old vans that has someone shouting out the window where the tro tro is headed. If that's your intended route, you hop on then pay. But you have to be quick and aggressive because there is not a lot of room.  We went to Medina mall. This is a local shopping area that has food, clothes, toothpaste, and everything else you want. The vendors sell live snails and live crabs. It is quite an experience of vendor after vendor crammed into a square and there are just narrow rows to walk down.

However, this not all of what Ghana is like. A very generous student took another ISEP student and I out for a simple Ghanaian bar experience.  It was the most extravagant and fun "just going to the bar for a beer" that I could ever imagine. Hookah, chicken, and different types of drinks. I have learned that Ghanaians love to help you if you ask and they will go out of their way to make sure you are happy.

Alright, so the first week of school.....sometimes I wonder if it really is the first week of school because there are not a lot of people here. Teachers have not been showing up to some lectures. Only a third of the students are in class. I still don't know when my Twi (a local language of Ghana) will be. I'll find out in a week or so.  It is the ultimate example of going with the flow.  Supposedly, in a few weeks though I will have to be 30 minutes early to my lectures in order to just get a seat.

I miss you and love you!!!