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Election 2008 and a final post from Ghana

So the news of the day is that just now as I was typing, Ghana announced that there will be a runoff shortly after Christmas because neither of the candidates achieved the needed 50% plus for a clear victory, but they are neck to neck. Moreover, the election was peaceful and without incident, and it seems as though for the last three days since Sunday when people waited hours in line to vote(a friend waited two hours...) people have been glued to their televisions and radios as they hand counted and announced results for each polling station as they came in. Nobody is surprised that there will be a runoff though, and it is a great day for Ghana and for Africa that the election went so well. It is definitely a cool time to be here.

Meanwhile, for me, this week has been full of exams... one down, two to go... I should be studying right now... oh well. This week is also full of every last minute thing as I fly out Saturday evening. I can't believe this semester is over. It has been so full, and it has gone by so fast. It has definitely been a highlight in my rather excellent college experience.

Anyways, just a quick update, and now I need to get back to studying!

travels, life, politics... the end is getting near...

First of all, I feel like I am becoming quite lax on this whole blog thing, but in my defense the computers here are almost more effort than they are worth... and as it gets closer and closer to leaving, I feel less and less motivated to update... I leave in 11 days, and I am definitely in a place of denial. I talked to my Dad the other day, and he said I was probably feeling wistful as my time came to a close, and it was really a good word to describe my emotions, so let me plagarize and say I am wistful. While I am excited to see family and friends again, I know how much I will miss Ghana and my life here as well...

Not this past weekend but the one before I went back to Cape Coast, this time going to Cape Coast castle which was like Elmina castle a very sobering memorial to history. We toured it with a bunch of school children who weren't very old, and I couldn't help but wishing that little children did not have to be exposed to the atrocities people commit against other people, but it is better they know than not know. I think I really just wished reality could be different. Our guide gave a good conclusion to the tour though encouraging all of us to remember what we hold in common, our humanity.

Then from Cape Coast we went back to Green Turtle Lodge where I had stayed for a weekend in October, but it was a different group of friends this time. One highlight of being there were the other Obruni's we met, especially this one German girl. She has been travelling around Ghana for almost two months, just backpacking, as a single woman, and after Ghana she is going to go to Tanzania to visit her sister who is studying there and to travel around with her. She said she wants to go to all of the continents before she has children, and she said that in her travels in Ghana, she has never felt not safe. Another highlight was a beautiful hike we went on to the southernmost tip of Ghana with a guide, Victor, who was very knowledgable and chatty. He was clearly among other things a community leader, and had worked with a Peace Corps volunteer to bring tourism into that region and community. He went around and did community assessments and he said that it has helped the community with employment and also because Green Turtle Lodge funnels some of their revenue back into community. They are also working actively to save sea turtles which are endangered but are also hunted and fished by the locals. We saw a sea turtle one night laying her eggs and she was beautiful!

That said, one of the big things going on in Ghana these days is the upcoming election which will take place this Sunday on December 7. It is a very close race between the NPP who currently hold power and the NDC who the NPP took over from in elections in 2000. There is also the CPP, Kwame Nkrumah's party, and other smaller parties who will be vying for smaller seats, but the presidency is going to come down to either the NDC or the NPP. Everyone hopes and prays the elections will be peaceful, although most people acknowledge they will be tense, but with nobody encouraging violence and everyone advocating peace from pastors to politicians to football heros, it should remain at tense and not verge into violence.

It has been interesting observing the election season. Billboards with the candidates faces and slogos can be found all around Accra and Ghana. The NPP's slogan is Nana Akofo-Addo 'Best man for the job, We are moving forward' and the NDC's slogan is Atta Mills a 'Better man for a better Ghana, a change we need'. It is not uncommon to pass large political rallies of people out on the streets wearing party t-shirts and normally dancing down the streets. The most bizarre of these occurences was when we were on our way to northern Ghana to Mole national park and were watching a dvd on our bus of a very American to the point of making fun of America movie and then you look out the window and there are hundred of people rallying around the bus. It was a good premonition of the reverse culture shock I imagine we all will experience when we go home, for Ghana has become very normal despite all its idiosyncracies.

Whenever an opportunity comes up, I am always eager to ask Ghanaians I meet about the election. True to the close nature, peoples answers consistently vary to who they support. In Volta region I found more people supporting the NDC and elsewhere a guide on a hike said that when the NPP candidate came to his village, they chased him away with stones... However, even if the rural might support the NDC more, citing unequal development under the NPP, if the urban areas tend towards the NPP, it will most likely win. The NPP also has significantly more resources(whether honestly or corrupting gained; whether from fundraising or skimming out of the federal budget, depending on who is asked), and so they are often predicted to win. Still, it will be close, and tense.

Another recent small controversy arose from a statement of Atta Mills that he would seek advice from the former president, meaning not current president John Kuofor but rather former NDC president and party founder Jerry Rawlings. This was controversial because it raised doubts of whether Atta Mills was really his own person or rather a puppet for Rawlings. People may have mixed opinions about Rawlings too, but he led Ghana for twenty years, starting with two separate coups around 1980 to mop up the rampant corruption(the second happening after he had handed the government back to others, only to see them consider business as usual). AFter his second coup he led the country in more of a military type government until 1992 when he transitioned into democratic elections, winning in 1992 and 1996, but then in 2000 the NDC lost to John Kuofor of the NPP.

December 7 we shall see what happens. I plan to keep my radio close at hands.

Thinking of politics, I had a rather entertaining conversation last night with a Ghanaian man who rather latched onto us. We talked some about Ghana's political situation and quite a bit more about America's political situation, and at the end of it, he told me that I should really consider running for president of the US when I get older. I couldn't convince him that I really had no desire to do so, and he was very insistent that I at least consider it. I told him I would, but that is not my life goal.

In the meantime, I have four exams coming up starting tomorrow and going all the way up to Friday the 12. Truly, my days here and fleeting and they have gone by so fast!

Backpacking...

So this past weekend, my friend Emily and I decided to get away from Accra and go explore the Volta Region which is the eastern region next to the Togolese border. It is one of the most beautiful areas of Ghana I have been to and host to many community based ecotourism sites. Community based ecotourism is a great way to go, for some of the villages are next to amazingly beautiful attractions like waterfalls, and they can make good money by charging a small fee to provide a guide or a meager lodging, and rather than being taken out of the community, that money stays to help further develop the community. In addition, it provides employment and I imagine a certain amount of pride. It also means you enter a village, hot, tired, sweaty and everybody greets and welcomes you. We decided that Volta region might be the most welcoming place we have been in this very welcoming county!

So yeah, Friday thru Tuesday we got to go on amazing hikes through the rainforest, saw and swam in our fourth, fifth and sixth waterfalls, sumitted our second and third Ghanaian mountain, visited a monkey sanctuary and got to feed monkeys. Overall, it was so beautiful!(so beautiful that I won't even really try and describe it because I know it would be a futile attempt).

It was also fun travelling just as two girls. We had no trouble from anyone. Like always, people are always so ready to be helpful(even if at times they don't actually know where you want to go they will still point you to the 'right' tro-tro; we use discretion...) One highlight was Saturday night we had a bat in our room when we came back to our hotel because we had left the window open. That same night there was also a dinner going on with speeches right outside our hotel window... it was pretty ridiculous and if we hadn't already paid we might have left... Otherwise, everything went so smoothly, and we kept running into our ISEP groups doing similar yet shorter treks through the Volta Region.

Other news from this week is Wednesday afternoon I went to a Black Stars football match which was pretty awesome. Ghanaians love their football(and by football I mean the real thing, not American football) The Black Stars were playing Tunisia, and neither team played very well, but still, it was a lot of fun. The game was a tie 0-0. We had awesome seats too, five rows up and close enough to see the players facial expressions when they were on our side of the field. They may not have been playing well, but their playing poorly is pretty intense!

In other news, I am heading out today for my last trip of the semester before I settle down to do some studying for exams, and then I come home three weeks from tomorrow. I am excited to see friends and family, but I know I will miss life in Ghana! This weekend I am heading out to Cape Coast again and then back to Green Turtle Lodge and the beach. We will come back Wednesday, and then celebrate Thanksgiving Thursday at our program directors house.

Well, thats whats new from over here, and I hope all is well who reads this:)

Togo and Benin

This past weekend I went on an awesome adventure to Ghana's two eastern neighbors of Francophone Africa, Togo and Benin. It was a most excellent time. For those who think two countries in one weekend rather ambitious, Togo is, in the south which is where we traveled, a mere 57 kilometers across. They are small countries, but full of character and history.

I traveled with two friends who I had traveled with before when I went to the beach at Green Turtle Lodge(it is good to know who you are going with, and they are both solid travel companions; adventuresome but not foolish). We left Thursday morning catching the 8:30 bus to Aflao and the border, crossed without mishap(actually, we crossed three times because my friend Emily left her yellow fever vaccination on the Ghana side and they let us go back to get it), and were in Lome, the captial of Togo.

We had heard that Togo was nothing special, but I really liked Lome, it had more charm than Accra. One element of Lome was that its main road ran right along the beach and that at least in the touristy part of town, everything was within walking distance. I love just walking around a city, for one gets a much better feel of its that way. After checking into our hotel, we walked along the beach and then up to the market where while having much the same array as Ghana's markets, did not seem to have the same intense hustle and bustle of Ghana's markets. It might have been that we didn't understand what people said, but in Ghana, if you don't get out of the way, people run you over, while in Togo people did not seem in such a rush. Another element that sets Lome apart from say Accra is the traffic; traffic in Ghana is awful, but in Lome the preferred mode of getting around is moto-taxis(motorcyle taxis where you hop on behind the driver and hold on for dear life...) This seriously cuts down on congestion.

The taxi-motos, or zemi-johns as they are called in Benin, were one of my favorite parts of our trip. While probably not the safest mode of transportation, it is the only way to get around, and quite frankly, they are a lot of fun. Our first ride was after dinner when we took it back to our hotel, the ocean on our left, the stars above us, and the warm night air... It was rather magical...

Friday morning we headed up the the Independence Square; as far as I am aware, independence squares or monuments of sorts are a requirement to be a country in Africa... Ok, not really, but it is a symbol of their experience as individual countries but also as a collective whole. Across from the square was the congressional palace(a magnificent building but we were told not to take pictures of government buildings because the police don't like that and it is really best to avoid getting tangled up with the police) and in the back of that was the national museuem.

The musuem proved the be a lot better than I had anticipated. We had a guide who spoke English 'small small', but she did a great job of telling us with her limited English and her gestures about the history of Togo and the culture of the people. Togo was home to the Dahomey kingdom, a rival of the Ashanti and like the Ashanti quite involved in the overland slave trade, and was first colonized by the Germans, but after World War I the colony was divided between Britain(the western part of Togoland became what in Ghana is now the Volta region) and France(what is now Togo). They had the same independence leader for some thrity plus years of rule including at first a dictatorship and then after 1990 with French pressure for a multiparty system elections that were in all likelihood rigged. The president eventually left in a coffin, having died of natural causes, and today his son is the elected(fairly or not?) president.

After a picnic lunch on the beach, we caught a shared taxi(which means you cram as many people as possible in a car, generally four in the back seat and two plus the driver in the front seat) and listened to Dolly Parton all the way to the border(country music has made its way to Africa). The Benin border was as smooth as the Togo one even though I had to buy a visa there because I had run out of time back in Accra. The man might have been fishing for a bribe, but when we played dumb, he let us get them without any additional costs. There is something rather glamorous and adventuresome about walking accross borders; the whole weekend it never grew old. From the Benin border we caught another shared taxi to Cotonou.

Moto-taxis in Lome are pleasant, but in Cotonou, a larger, more industrial city, they are absolutely terrifying, especially during rush hour. Trust me. Still, they get you where you are going, and so we caught zemi-johns to our hotel after the taxi let us off, were given a room with a dysfunctional fan, and went out in search of food, going to a nice French restaurant. When we got back later to our room, it was still stifling, so we set out in search of a nearby venue of live music that was mentioned in our guidebook... my guidebook was by and large our best friend because it was much easier to point to things in the book than to attempt to pronounce their names in a way that people recognized...

The music venue, a classy bar called Les Repaires de Bacchus, was excellent. There was a band playing something other than Ghanaian highlife(I don't know exactly how to classify the music, but it definitely had a latin sound to it; Benin has a Brazillian influence because after the slave trade was abbolished, many people who had been taken to Brazil as slaves returned to Benin.) And they were singing in French, which was cool. Also, and this is not something one really sees at all in Ghana, there was a table of young women, drinking and having a good time; in Ghana the only women one sees at bars and nightclubs seem to be prostitutes... I noticed this again the next day in Ouidah, men and women sitting and drinking together...

Saturday morning we set out early, found a patisierre where we had espresso and croussants for breakfast, and then caught a shared taxi to Abomey-Calavi which is the embarkation point for tours of Ganvie. Ganvie is one of the biggest stilt villages in West Africa(and possibly the world?) where people literally build their houses over the water on stilts. To visit ones neighbors, one would have to take a boat. People take their boats to go to market(and I heard there was even a floating market) and of course to fish, the communities main industry. It was really very remarkable, and I got some good pictures of the houses.

From Ganvie, we wanted to go to Ouidah, a much smaller city than Cotonou and one with a lot of history. We were told by a taxi driver who spoke English(English speakers were always much help and a relief in our travel attempts) that to take a taxi would take forever, and so we really ought to take a zemi-john to a place called circle and get a taxi from there. It was a terrifying ride to say the least. The drivers are crazy, and in their defense, they really know what they are doing and how to avoid the traffic all around them. Still, after that, we were not too keen to ride a zemi-john again for awhile.

Ouidah was charming. We were able to walk the length of it easily from our hotel on the outskirts. When we arrived we went to the museum which had a good exhibit of Benin's history and culture. In Benin, the big kingdom had beent he Abomey kingdom, and they like their contemporaries had been very involved in the overland slave trade. At one point, the king of Abomey started making female soldiers because he had sold so many of his people into slavery. The kings did not invent the slave trade, but they certainly profited from it... From Benin slaves were mostly taken to Brazil, Cuba and Haiti, taking their voodoo with them, and after the abolition of slavery in 1848 by the French(after four centuries) many families came back to Benin from Brazil, our guides family included.

From the museum, our guide led us down the Route des Esclaves, a 4km walk that the slaves were led down from the Portugese fort which housed the museum to the point of no return and the boats that took them out to the waiting ships, the middle passage, and slavery in the new world...

The guide told us some about the local practice of voodoo, a practice which has become a syncretism of voodoo and Roman Catholicism. The cathedral in the heart of Ouidah stands directly accross from the Voodoo temple of the Serpents, and according to the guide this poses no problems. The deities of the voodoo have each become associated with a Catholic saint, the most powerful deity, the Sea Goddess, becoming associated with the Virgin Mary. Ouidah is home to an annual voodoo festival each January, and in general, Togo and Benin are the birthplace of the practice. I have some serious reservations about voodoo, but it was good to hear what the guide had to say and I kept my reservations to myself. One thing he said, and I don't know if this still holds true or moreso historically, was that people thought you could summon smallpox upon your enemies, and when bad things happen to you, it is associated with voodoo. The worst thing the sorcery of bad voodoo can do is kill a person... but what of when bad things happen, and innocent people are blamed? Like I said, I have some serious reservations...

Sunday morning we visited what was probably my favorite museum of our trip, the Casa de Brazil in Ouidah. Its exhibit deals with the many roles of women in African society. There was a poem at the beginning of the exhibit which listed off the different roles a woman performed, ending with the question, what don't you do? It is so true too, and you see it wherever you go, women work so hard, much harder I would say than the men... The exhibit also looked at different ways women were moving forward in Africa today, gaining more rights and freedoms, and how they were working in their communities with their resources to make their lives and taht of their families better.

After that museum, we caught a shared taxi to the border, crossed again without mishap or hassle, and caught another shared taxi to Lome. In Lome at the restaurant we stopped at for lunch we ran into a group of students from ISEP because ISEP had led a trip to many of the same places(we had largely stolen their itinerary but had also decided travelling independently would be more of an adventure and less expensive). Apparently we looked very hot and tired carrying our backpacks, but they seemed full of energy; perhaps the price of travelling solo, but I never once wished I had gone with them on their airconditioned bus... there is a lot to be said for walking accross borders...

After lunch we crossed our final border, back into Ghana, and it was amazing to be able to communicate again. The language barrier was by and far the biggest challenge of the weekend. Often we would talk in English, the taxi driver would talk in French and eventually we would somehow come to an understanding, haggle a price, and hope that the driver would in fact take us to where we wanted to go. It always worked, but it took a lot of patience and a lot of trust... And the tro-tro ride home after cramped shared taxis was a luxury. It was fun to go away, but it was lovely coming back to Ghana, a place that has truly begun to feel like home, and as we drove back to Accra and watched the sunset over the country, I could not help but think that I would truly miss Ghana when the time comes to go home...

Election 2008

So this post is really more a shout out to Obama and the election last night than anything else.

Here in Ghana, we stayed up until dawn to see the results and hear the acceptance speech. I went to a watch party hosted by the NYU program at the university. It was a pretty big event with American students, Ghanaian students and other members of the Ghanaian and American abroad community. Of course, the special attraction was the large screen CNN with their frequent projections of who gets what state and how things are going. And at 4am, which is what time it was here when the 11 o'clock polls closed, and CNN projected victory, the atmosphere was more than slightly euphoric. And for all of you in the rest of the world, there really is such as thing as the Barack Obama song, by Black Rasta, and you should all look it up. It might just be amazing, or hilarious, and is very fun to dance to when Obama has just been announced as president-elect of the United States of America(which is quite different, by the way, from President of the world, which is what one Ghanaian radio broadcaster was claiming today while I was on a tro-tro...).

We've been passing the day on a cloud. Its been a long eight years, most of my political consciousness, and it definitely feels time for a change, and what a change. I really hope and believe that if anyone can unite Americans, it is Obama. Even his acceptance speech was graceful(and props to McCain for a super gracious speech as well).

Obama did it, we the American people did it, and I have so much hope(and a good dose of realism) for the next four years! As Obama likes to say, "Yes we can!"

My trip up north

This past weekend we went on our long awaited and once rescheduled trip to northern Ghana. Our primary destination was Mole National Park which is the biggest park in Ghana and has elephants. However, especially with the condition of Ghana's roads, it is quite a trip to get up there... and that is assuming your vehicles don't break down or things of that sort, things which our vehicles did.

We left Friday morning in our very nice, spacious air conditioned bus which even had a dvd player. Watching an American movie and then looking out the window and seeing a NPP political rally is somewhat of an odd culture shock. Friday was our short day as we only were going as far as Kumase, and we arrived around five at our hotel, had dinner and a relaxing evening just hanging out. All good so far.

Friday evening we decided to try and get an early start for our long day Saturday and so started out an hour earlier than was originally planned. It was good we did because at around 10 in the morning, our bus came to a stop, and we spent the next three hours stranded in this random village. Actually, being stranded was one of the highlights of the weekend because we just wandered around the village and entertained the villagers with our very broken attempts at Twi. I walked around with three other girls and everywhere we went people told us to come and talk, and women and children would gather around and laugh at us but not in a mean way for we were laughing at ourselves. They were all very sympathetic of our stranded state. Still, even with those perks, three hours got long. Another bus was supposed to come, but to nobodies real surprise, it didn't show up and after three hours they had gotten the bus running again... We have come to the point where we are surprised not when things don't work but rather when they do or when things really are when they are supposed to be...

Our next stop was at Kintampo Falls; waterfalls are one of Ghana's most spectacular attractions. This was my third waterfall, and they never cease to grow old. Kintampo also had the perk that at the third of the series of falls, and the biggest, it was safe to go swimming. It was a spectacular waterfall, and I was able to climb up the slippery rocks and sit for awhile under the waterfall, listening to its roar and watching others less succesful attempts to climb up. The slippery rocks seconded as a rather lucrative waterslide, which was fun going down, but posed the danger of some potential bruises.

Then after waiting another hour for Vivian, our amazing leader of the weekend who despite all the mishaps with vehicles and everything else always had a smile, to bring our lunch and our new transport for the final leg of the journey, we were packed onto two very rickety tro-tros, a sad second to our airconditioned bus, and spent the next four hours bumping along dusty dirt roads. By the time we arrived at Mole, everyone was caked in dust and ready for bed.

Sunday was our day to actually be at Mole, and it was an excellent day although we failed to see any elephants which was rather disappointing. We made the mistake of coming during mating season, so all the elephants were off doing what elephants do... Still, we got to go on two safari hikes where we saw baboons, different types of deer and warthogs, and even without the animals, hiking through the African bush and savanah is pretty awesome in and off itself. The biggest concentration of animals we found was around the piles of burning trash on the outskirts near a village... it was a strange and somewhat depressing sight to see them scavenging the burning rubbish...

Then, after our first hike we got to excursion into the nearby village of Larangba where we visited the mosque which is quite probably the oldest mosque in all of West Africa and certainly in Ghana dating back to at least 1421. It was built by the spiritual adviser to the king of that area(the name eludes me, for there were a great many kingdoms in West Africa; the Europeans made up the idea that Africa had no civilization prior to colonization and it was a lie...) The adviser himself had come from Medina in Saudi Arabia. We also got to visit the Mystic Stone which marks the place where this same adviser first settled, and which according to local lore refused to be moved when they tried and build a road through it and so remains. We were told that we should place our hands on it and pray for good husbands and they would be waiting for us when we went back to America, but we were skeptical and just in case they were right, most of the girls refused to touch it... most people in my program aren't in the market for husbands as of yet... we were a little more receptive when he said we should pray for the American elections... The mosque was super cool though, quite unique architecturally.

So yeah, Sunday was a good day even though our beds were infested with little bugs that were rather unnerving, and Monday we set out at five for the longest day ever! WE took our cramped tro-tros along the dusty, bumpy dirt road for four hours, and were almost met up again with our bus when one of the tro-tros broke down... go figure... so the bus came rather quickly and rescued us... Then after awhile we got a flat tire and spent a fun hour with a bunch of banana sellers. One of them decided I was her friend and gave me a lot of bananas and when her husband stopped by he said I should become his second wife(he was joking, but it was my first polygamous marriage proposal). Then we kept on, stopping for a very late lunch or early dinner in Kumase(it was supposed to be lunch) switching vehicles again from our original bus to another bus, and getting back to our hostel at eleven. Like I said, longest day ever. By the end of the trip, I was afraid everytime the bus hit a bump that it would blow a tire and everytime it stopped because of traffic that somehow the engine was dying. I mean, something else had to go wrong too, didn't it?

So yeah, overall, a good, long and at times challenging weekend, and I think this weekend the plan is to hang around Accra because I for one don't feel up to travelling again just yet, and I haven't done everything around here anyways and really should...

some midweek musings from a trip to the market

Yesterday, being Wednesday, was one of my freedays, and after a lazy morning, I went to Makola market located in central Accra with two other girls. None of us had been there before, as the other market Medina is a short ten minute tro-tro ride away, but we had heard it was better and had some good fabric. Ghana has beautiful fabrics whether patterned, tie and dye as they call it, or my personal favorite batiks... You can buy two yards for a cedi and get beautiful clothes made for very reasonable prices from any of the local seamstresses, and at markets, it gives one something to shop for and a purpose for being there which keeps one from being completely overwhelmed.

Anyways, the first musing stems from the tro-tro ride down, which definitely makes the list of most memorable tro-tro rides, up there with the flat tire and the time the door got stuck shut. Anyways, we caught the Accra tro-tro and all was well until we were quite near the Accra station and we hit traffic. There were police officers directing traffic, but despite the direction, our driver chose to blatantly disregard the officer and was pulled over. I think they were writing him a ticket, or checking to make sure he had a license and insurance... I never really know whats going on... One of the men on the bus though started talking and arguing with another officer out the window, something about how we were all being held up, how he wanted to get down and get his money back, again the details weren't clear... Eventually he and half the passengers decided to get down while we decided to stay on, not knowing exactly where we were... Apparently though when he got off the tro-tro the arguing men shoved a police officer, for the next minute all four of the officers were grabbing him and struggling with him(For he was sturggling quite fiercely) and forcing him, accompanied by one of the officers, back onto the tro-tro. By this point the man was apologizing profusely, but I think the officer was taking him into to report assault of an officer. It all happened very fast, was quite intense, and left me wondering if it wasn't an access of force... It certainly left me wondering what the relationship between the people and the police is here. I asked a friend once as a police station is located accross from campus, and she said at least as far as students were concerned, it wasn't so good, but she didn't explain...

The second somewhat bizarre occurence had to do with a cross-dressing market woman. Now some context is needed to explain why this was bizarre. Homosexuality is strictly illegal here, and in general people seem to have some pretty bizarre views. A girl in my program's Ghanaian roomate said it was a white man's disease, for example... There supposedly is an underground gay bar, or so I have heard, but this man was obviously a man(he had a beard) wearing a dress and selling wears off his head and being a woman... I am not sure of the technicalities of that sort of thing, but one had to wonder if he was endangering himself? Its illegal, but would people turn on you, or is it simply socially ostracized. I don't know, but it was bizarre...

Otherwise, Makola market was more crowded feeling than Medina and some people were quite aggressive, grabbing our wrists firmly to get us to look at their wares. It is quite daunting really. The woman are better than the men, but that is because you aren't afraid that they will hit on you and ask for your number or ask to marry you which honestly got old some time ago...

Fun fact about Ghanaian politics. The election to be held December 7 is drawing nearer, the candidates have drawn lots to determine their place on the ballot, campaign signs are everywhere... I heard on the radio the other day that the electoral commission is creating a provision which will allow any of the Muslim population who will be undertaking the Hajj, which overlaps the election, will able to vote by proxy(in other words, have somebody they establish beforehand and trust absolutely cast their ballot for them). Ghana doesn't have our system of absentee, rather others like the military or people wth the UN or students are also able to vote by proxy. It is a good sign of religious pluralism being alive and well in Ghana even if at least in the south the culture is overwhelmingly Christian.

In other news, I am heading north this weekend to see elephants and other sites of northern Ghana. What fun!

A homestay, a waterfall, and a mountain...

My weekend was really good; Ghana is a beautiful country. We had a program trip that involved homestays in the town of Liati Wote which is by both one of Ghana's most beautiful waterfall, Tagbo Falls, and Ghanas tallest freestanding mountain, which we hiked this morning and was quite a hike. Ghana apparently doesn't believe in putting switchbacks in their trails, so the trail went practically straight up(and straight down which was more harrowing). It was a spectacular view from the top though! We could see the village down below and all the surrounding countryside. My pictures, as always, fail to give it justice.

We got to the village Saturday afternoon, were fed a delicious lunch, and then headed to the waterfall which really was spectacular although again my pictures failed to give it justice. Then we went back, met our host family. I stayed in a house with two other girls, and our host parents spoke rather patchy English but their son was in secondary school and he showed us around and I think showed us off a bit, introducing us to all of his friends. It was a pretty small village and Francis, the son, said one easily knew everyone. Saturday night they had a bonfire in the center of town for us, and traditional drumming and dancing. It was very festive, and while the dancers were good, my favorite people to watch were the children.

The hike this morning was, like I said, harrowing, and I am definitely sore from it. It took about an hour to get up, then we spent an hour at the summit, and then we hiked down again which was the hardest part and which we did at least in parts slipping and sliding...

Then the drive back which was uneventful; on the drive there our bus got a flat tire and the last stretch of road to Liati Wote, which was a dirt road full of potholes, seriously dented the bus and one could in places here the bottom scraping the ground which is never a good sound... actually, the road was there on the way out too, but Isaac, our driver, did a phenomenal job and once we finally made it to the pavement we all cheered.

It was a pretty mellow trip which was fun, full of natural beauty and not too much driving. Next weekend we are traveling to the north, and that will involve one day of twelve straight hours of driving... Still, it will hopefully be worth that much driving. Otherwise, class this week and I will hopefully get to go to Peace and Love Orphanage a couple times(I got baby barf on me last week.)

I don't think I blogged last week, so a quick overview of random highlights like discovering that their was a vegan/vegetarian vendor in the nearby night market where I buy all my meals(tofu burgers are a nice break from rice...) and American politics, I stayed up until three the night of the debate and then Friday went to the American embassy and gave them my absentee ballot to mail in(I was told it was more reliable than Ghanaian post, and I want my vote to count!) Go Obama! Truly, it is quite strange being so far away when so much is going on at home with the election and now the economy as well! Other highlights probably include baby barf(just the normal white goo) and getting to simply hold the baby(his name is Barack; the children named him after Barack Obama I do believe).

Oh, this actually is almost worth of a post unto itself, but I'll attach it on the end. Friday night I went with a friend to the school production which was Lysistrata by Aristophanes which is essentially a play about women going on a sex strike to make their husbands, the Athenians and Spartans, form a truce and the men's ensuing agony over this deprivation and eventual compliance, and being Aristophanes it was decidedly crude. Now Ghanaians seem like a very conservative culture, but on Friday the audience, and the outlandish things they said in response to the play(not conservative at all) were just as entertaining as the play. Even though I struggled to understand the actors much of the time, it was a truly entertaining, and interesting, cultural experience...

Halfway...

So yesterday was the halfway point where I had been here two months and a day and still had two months and a day to go. It feels like it is going by fast, but it also feels like it will be the perfect amount of time. I know I won't want to go home until I do, but that I will be very glad when I do.

That said, I really haven't blogged in awhile, but I have been quite busy, or by busy perhaps I should mean away, for the last two weekends I went to the beach and that is anything but busy, rather relaxing and lazy and wonderful. With those two trips and then going to Boti Falls, I feel like I have been away from Accra more than in it recently, but that was the point.

Two weekends ago I went to a place called Ada Foah which is where the Volta River meets the sea and five other girls and myself stayed in grass huts(with mosquito netted beds) on the beach. I got sunburned, most painfully my lips... I didn't know one could sunburn there lips, but I now know that it is very unpleasant. This past weekend though I managed to avoid sunburn altogether.

Ada Foah was beautiful. We went Friday and came back Sunday which meant a full day at the beach. We had to take a canoe to get there, and because we arrived later than we had planned and after dark, that meant a canoe ride at night on the Volta River which was rather glorious. We probably made the boat driver think we were crazy with all our goings on, but I am pretty sure we provide a pretty constant source of amusement to Ghanaians. The beach right out side the place we were staying was pretty clean, but Saturday morning I walked down to where the river really does meet the sea and back again, a two hour walk, and we saw so much trash. It just washes up, but it was definitely discouraging.

Sunday morning was probably one of my favorite moments, for we got to witness the villagers at work pulling in their fishing nets and some men tryingn to get a boat out to sea. Whole families, men, women and children, would come out to pull the nets in. I wasn't quite sure how they were connected to both the land and the boats unless somebody swam the rope in, but that could easily be what had happened.

Another interesting thing about Ada Foah was the Peace Corps volunteer we met there. She had been in Ghana for more than a year and was at Ada Foah for a weekend away with her Ghanaian boyfriend. Her volunteering work was in a school in Tema(a city not very far from Accra with a big industrial port) and it was interesting to hear her talk about the schools. She taught JSS, Junior Secondary School, and she was pretty discouraged about the educational system. She said Ghana had only recently implemented educational reforms, but they did very little besides add additional demands to the teachers and students without reforming the educational system. To go onto Secondary School, the students needed to know a mass of information, and how they were taught it and learned it was pretty much direct memorization. There was next to no critical thinking, and seeing how so many of my classes are at university, it is not a very effective way to learn. however, she also said that if teachers or headmasters complained about the reforms, they were often demoted as had happened to one headmaster she knew in Tema. As a Peace Corps volunteer, she said she felt like all she could do was simply teach her students well; the only difference she was able to make was in their lives.

Skipping ahead, I came back Sunday, went to class Monday and Tuesday, and then Wednesday headed back to the beach with a different group of friends and a different location. Tuesday, like good Americans, we even watched the debate, staying up very late to do so; it started at one in the morning our time, ending around 2:30. It is crazy to think in a month we will know who are next president will be. I await my absentee ballot to do my civic duty. It is also crazy to be so far away when so much is happening in America both with the election and the economy. I am very thankful for my little radio and the BBC which do their best to keep me informed.

Anyways, moving on again, while my trip to Ada Foah took me east along the Ghanaian coast, my second trip took me west. Our ultimate destination was a place called Green Turtle Lodge, but we stayed the first night in Cape Coast. One of the guys I was travelling with has friends there who own a hotel, so we stayed in their hotel which was fun. They have a lake with crocodiles in it, so Thursday morning before heading out we were able to pet a sleeping crocodile which was pretty unnerving and also watch them get fed chicken scraps(they have sharp teeth!). Also, to add to our sighting of very old animals who have been around longer than the rest of us, we also were able to take a ten minute walk to a nearby ostrich farm. I have a very fond place in my heart from ostriches, probably from my time in South Africa where we got to visit the ostrich capital of the world and all attempted to master ostrich impersonations. Ostrich farming is not a very big industry in Ghana, but on our walk we also got to pass a lot of other farms, largely Casava which is a staple in the Ghanaian diet, making up both the beloved Fufu and Banku. My Twi teacher talks about Fufu all the time.

Green Turtle Lodge was amazing, the kind of place you don't want to leave and you want to go back to. It was quite far to get to. Our return trip took 10 plus hours, but mostly because we had to wait three hours for a bus because the one we were trying for was already sold out when we arrived. Our tro-tro also got a flat tire which was a first for us though obviously from the speed and ease that the mate and driver changed the tire, not for them. It was on one of the most rickety tro-tros yet. I think my favorite tro-tro moment was the time that the door was falling off so they had to tie it to the rest of the vehicle and then when the mate tried and open the door to let us out, it wouldn't open for five minutes... I digress...

It was also the cleanest beach I have yet seen in Ghana. Ada Foah was very much trash strewn. Probably part of it was that we were quite remote. The last leg of the journey was over a dirt road and so remote that they piled people on top of the tro-tro, a practice which is illegal but then when one is that remote, there are no police check points...

Here too there were a lot of intersting people to talk too. There appears to be a rather large population of obruni students and volunteers and we joked the other day about how we all thought we were so brave and cool and original to come to a place like Ghana... its all good though. There was a group of Australians who were volunteering as teaching assistants in a village and they had a lot of the same observations as the Peace Corps volunteers about the challenges facing the educational system. One girl I talked to said that the curicculum didn't teach phonetics which is the building blocks of reading...

Mostly I just listened to the ocean, went swimming, and read my book in the sun and shade depending on my mood. It was very relaxing and a wonderful get-away.

Now I am back to class and studying and the idea of doing homework and I will probably try and go to the oprhanage sometime this week. I decided to not continue trying to volunteer at the other place in Accra that did the reproductive rights education not because it wasn't amazing and I didn't want to but because it really didn't work with my schedule. I am trying to go to the orphanage more now though because they really do need the help, which was not true of Cencosad and was one reason stopping at the other place wasn't too hard of a decision.

In other news, the next few weekends I have ISEP program trips which should be fun and provide more for long and rambling blogs...

Travelling adventures

So I finally got to travel without the umbrella of ISEP this week. Tuesday morning I ran into a couple of girls in my program who said they were going to Boti Falls and I should come. I didn't need to be told twice even though I had never heard of the falls before, I had been itching to travel and get out of Accra. Ten minutes later we were heading out, yay for spontaneity! I love being spontaneous, and it was definitely worth it!

We took a series of tro-tros to get there; it took between three and a half to four hours in all and about three cedi... not bad at all. At Boti Falls, we hired a guide who led us to umbrella rock, a rock that truly does look like an umbrella, and to the palm tree with three trunks(I got cool pictures of both). It was very beautiful and the path seemed quite treachorous at places. By the time we finished the hike, my legs weren't the only ones shaking from the exertion. We were all quite photo happy which I thihnk annoyed our guide Joseph a little because it slowed us down.

The falls themselves were by far the best part; I could not help but wonder at the glory of God witnessed in His creation. There were two falls probably fifty feet high cascading into a pool below, a constant roar. Words don't give it justice. We stayed at the falls awhile, soaking up the beauty and resting our weary legs.

From Boti, our plans were more tentative. We planned to stay at a place called Shai Hills Resort which is by a nature reserve, but it apprently was not as close to Akosombo where our tro-tro ended as we though. It would have cost fifteen cedi to get a taxi to a place that may or may not have had room, and by that opnt, we were all five of us tired and hungry. The driver offered to take us to a place closer by.

When travelling, one puts incredible trust in their agents of transportation. First of all, it gets dark in Ghana, really dark, and quite early. Because we are so close to the ecuator, it gets dark year round sometime between six and seven or so I've been told. Moreover, because Ghana is still a developing country, outside the cities there is very little electricity. We would pass family compounds and whole villages where only the shops seemed to have the one electric bulb. I remember the other day coming back from Volta how we were driving on a road where there were streetlights, but none of them were lit. Like I was saying, dark really is dark in Ghana, which brings me back to the taxi...

When travelling, we have to trust. At tro-tro stations we are led around like sheep by people offering to help us find a vehicle to the right location; indeed, we would be lost without this ever ready help. Still, one always wonders if they wouldn't just lead us somewhere remote and mug us. It is the same with taxi drivers, and last night we definitely left he the main road and were on a dirt road that was seemingly going nowhere. A certain doubt flashed in all our minds...

However, he really was legit and took us to a hotel where we could get wo rooms for seven cedi a person and where despite our arriving after the restaurant closed, they took pity on us and made the best fried rice and chicken I have yet eaten in Ghana. We all took showers using the one towel that somebody was smart enough to bring and went to bed, exhausted from a busy and full day! The hotel was nice, clean and without any uninvited guests like cockroaches or anything; they even brought us a complimentary breakfast in the morning. It also had the nicest roof terrace where we sat and soaked up a bit of the countryside in the morning.

From our hotel, moreover, we could walk easily to our second destination of a nearby bead market(which apparently turned out not to be the bead market we meant to go to, but as far as I am concerned it was a bead market so does it really matter?). We got there again with help. We asked two men we were passing how to get there and when we seemed unsure of their directions, one offered to tak us, leading us along this backtrail which basically cut through people's backyards and over a rickety bride taht spanned a ditch full of trash. Again a moment of trust but of course we arrived without mishap. Ghanaians are very welcoming and hospitable, especially the further one gets from the cities...

From the bead market it was only and hour and half tro-tro back to school and we were back in time for a late lunch. Overall a most enjoyable adventure.

Oh, a quick note of two things I forgot to mention; one cool and one bizarre. The first is simply lightning, for on the tro-tro to Akaosombo Tuesday night dry lightning was illuminating the sky. Not having grown up with proper lightning(although Spokane has some decent thunder storms) I thought this very cool. The second thing was in Kofiridua(sp?) where we caught the tro-tro to Akosombo there was a parade of sorts of all these cars, mostly trucks with platforms, loaded down with Ghanaians dressed up as and impersonating the American gangster image and blaring American rap music. We couldn't figure out waht the occassion was, a Muslim holdy day seemed unlikely, but it definitely was bizarre. One car had a banner saying Black Americans, another something about pirates... Who knows...

In other news, I hope to travel again this weekend although that remains in the works... Possibly more in my next blog entry.

A weekend durbar

Another weekend gone, how time flies...

The highlight of this last weekend was going to a durbar on Saturday in Volta Region in the town of Dzodze. I went with a bunch of international students from my drumming class which is the drumming class for foreign students. Our teacher Johnson invited us, and the durbar was held in his home town. He is by far my favorite teacher for he is so passionate about drumming and dancing and he is always smiling. He has been teaching drumming here at Legon for 32 years! The durbar was definitely a most interesting cultural experience.

We took chartered tro-tros to get there and it took a good two and half to three hours, but the ride there at least wasn't too bad. The ride back started off very bumpy and swervy as the driver avoided potholes and who knows what else, and I felt quite nauseous. At that point I also was somewhat dehydrated which couldn't have helped, but I am getting ahead of myself.

Dzodze wasn't a very big town, and when we arrived we were welcomed in what I believe was the compound of Johnson's family, at least he introduced us to two of his sisters, one of whom was the priestess in the nearby shrine. After the durbar we got to go into the shrine, but as nobody explained anythings significance to us, it was rather anti-climatic. STill, when we arrived, they greated us the traditional way, shaking hands with everyone from right to left(it is bad manners to start on the left) and giving us Akepetchie which is the local alcohol and quite strong. Before serving the drink to people though, it is tradition to pour a small amount on the ground as libation to the gods and ancestors.

Then, shortly after that, we were led to where a grand procession was gathered to head to the durbar ground. The chief was there carried in a seat on the heads of four men as the chiefs were carried at the festival at Cape Coast, although here there was only one chief. He looked very regal, and before him were a group of dignified men, walking, who were probably elders for they too wore elaborate head ornaments and carried some ceremonial staffs. In front of these was a group of dancing girls wearing beads on their wrists and ankles and having chalk designs painted on their arms and legs. Then finally in front of these was a small musical troop who set the mood and tempo for the procession. IN addition to the formal procession there were of course a great many other people, including ourselves, who were walking or dancing along around it. Some of the older women were very active in convincing us to join their dancing which of course was quite fun. I think the best part of the afternoon was by far the procession because it had such energy to it, even if one is never quite sure what is going on or the importance of different ceremonial actions.

Eventually the procession came to the durbar ground which is just a field surrounded by chairs and standing room, we got to sit and were soon surrounded by a group of children who entertained and were entertained by us, and I think severely annoyed the older Ghanaians sitting around us. The rest of the afternoon consisted of speeches, predominantly in Ewe the major language of Volta region, music and dancing. At one point we got to dance, which was fun and probably entertained the Ghanaians. I had thought we might also drum, but for whatever reason, we ended up not. The festival was at least in part about palm trees, which grow in abundance in the Volta region and around Dzodze and produce a certain degree of economic return from goods such as palm oil. So some of the ceremonial dancers and most of the cermonial aspects had to do with palm branches. Again there were some dignitaries who poured libation to the gods and ancestors, but the ceremony also started with a Christian prayer... it is interesting to see how the traditional beliefs and Christian beliefs mix(and probably in the north where there are more Muslims, traditional beliefs and Islam mix).

There was one speaker, a government official of some sort, who spoke in English, and he spoke about the theme which was the social development of the region. He spoke of goals laid down the year before, like dormitories at the secondary school and more access to electricity, and of how some had been accomplished while others remained to be more fully realized. He thanked Ghana, president Kuofor, and also urged for peace in the upcoming elections and that no quarrels might break out. I think that is the prayer and hope of every Ghanaian.

While for much of the day I was not exactly sure what was going on, I really enjoyed going, and it was a great opportunity to be a fly on the wall of something so special and yet common to Ghana(special in that it was a big deal, and yet common because I imagined it followed the standard form for durbars) Also, without our teachers invitation, it is probably the sort of thing I would not or could not have done on my own, at least without being some how an intruder. AS JOhnsons guests though, we had a place, and I am sure he had to ask the chiefs permission for us to be there.

Anyways, thats that for now. Tomorrow is a national holiday because its the last day of Ramadan. I think its really cool that Ghana observes both Muslim and Christian holiday!

Malaria and hospitals in general...

So my big news from Ghana is that I had malaria last weekend, which didn't turn out to be half as bad as I thought it was, and I felt 100% better less than a week after getting sick. No giving blood in my near future though.

So in my experience at least(there were four or five of us who got malaria in the last week and we all had slightly different experiences) having malaria means having a very high fever, feeling achey like when one has the flu, and having diarhea which dehydrates you and is generally all around unpleasant. I got sick Thursday evening, decided to stick the night out, went to the student clinic Friday morning where a doctor asked me a few questions and agreed with my self-diagnosis, went to the hospital for lab testing and received some really hardcore drugs. Naturally I slept most of the weekend, but even by Saturday I was feeling if still slightly week 90% better. And as far as being sick, or malaria goes, it was the perfect weekend to get it because I wasn't travelling and really hadn't planned anything too big, so I was close to treatment and wasn't disappointed to miss out on anything exciting. Overall, I was pretty impressed by my experience with Ghanaian healthcare for except for the waiting, there was a lot of waiting, it seemed pretty thorough...

This week I have taken it kind of slow just to be safe, but the big activity has involved hospitals once again. This time I wasn't sick though, but rather there was a compulsory medical exam for all international students to deem if we were fit to attend university(which led to a lot of speculation of what one would do if they weren't deemed fit seeing as classes are already half-way through, and also to a lot of speculation if one refused to go would they be deported...) Anyways, rather reluctantly I went, and spent a sum total of six hours at the hospital getting really very little done. The first day they give you and x-ray and lab testing, and then the next day you have to return to pick up your results and see a physician for a medical examination which consisted of I'm not really sure... blood pressure, pulse, an eye test and a periphery examination of my x-ray and lab results... To top it all off, it turns out I didn't even have to take the examination because I had a letter from my physician back home, but even though that was what we thought, we were initially told by the doctors at the hospital and our program head that it didn't matter... I found out that they figured it out too late, the letters did count... Ah well, I suppose it is a cultural experience of sorts in hospitals in general...

In other news, I get to go to a durbar in the eastern region this Saturday with my drumming class which should be a lot of fun and hopefully generate a more intersting blog post than this one. However, this one does sum up my life recently... malaria and hospitals in general:)

My adventures in Accra

So here is an update on my adventures of yesterday... I feel like I learned as much in four hours about Ghana as I have in the last four weeks, but that is getting ahead of myself a little.



Myself and Sarah, a girl in my program, are going to be volunteering this semester with a local NGO called Cencosad that does community empowerment and development work. Their recent focus has been on educating about reproductive rights in Ga Meshie, a very high density area part of the city. It could probably be classified as a slum, and the people's whole lives take place in the very crowded area. Yesterday was our first day on the job so to speak, although I confess while I feel I learned a lot about Accra and Ghana, I don't actually know what our exact responsibilities with the organization will be.



The head of the project we will be working with is a graduate student here at the university, so we were able to meet up with him on campus and bum a ride down to the office(otherwise, like on the return trip, it is a good hour's tro-tro ride). Nii, the project head, is also the most chatty Ghanaian I've met yet, and I think the whole time we were with him conversation was kept up. He asked us some questions, but also he had a lot to tell us about Ghana, Cencosad, the Ga people(which is the ethnic group of Accra and who speak a different language than Twi... go figure...).

Some highlights from the general conversation is that he does not think the election this December will be fair and sees Ghana as still having a lot of corruption... political campaign signs are everywhere but the general concensus among other students seems to be that they don't know who they are voting for... most people who have said clearly want the main opposition party as opposed to the ruling party, but the reason they give is that the NPP had their chance and a change is needed... we use that line in the US, but it doesn't always mean change will really come, but I guess hope is a fundamental element of democracy... He also talked some about NGOs and how some are there to actually work and some are what he called brief-case NGOs, there for the money...

At the office we got to read the quarterly reports and see what reproductive right education actually meant on the ground. Cencosad tries and reach as many people in the Ga Meshie community as they can through dramatization, education including peer education in the schools, and sensitization of local leaders... it is definitely a project still very much underway, and from some statistics we were given, a very much needed one... there is a lot of common misconceptions and sometimes the message they teach is as simple as it is ok to say no to sex...

From the office we were given a grand walking tour of the neighborhood which was incredibly educational and eye-opening. Ga Meshie probably isn't that much poorer than a lot of neighborhoods in Accra, but it is so very dense that it definitely strikes one. There is a lot of unemployment, and one of the main economic activities is fishing which is a dieing industry as the fish supplies become increasingly more scarce and as trawlers take the place of the local canoes... the human cost of efficiency... traditionally the men fished and the women smoked it and sold it... We got to talk with one of the fishers, although Nii had to translate, and it doesn't sound like an especially easy livelihood at all...

Another aspect of this small area was the remnants of the slave trade, for there was both James Fort and Usher Fort which had been used in that evil trade, and one of the markets, Sengal, still bares the name given it after the people brought down from the north and sold there... The area used to contain both the Dutch and the British Accra, but again only remnants remain, like how the London market which used to be where the Europeans shopped is now a meat market(and the amount of flies upon the meat there, including the head and tail and other odd parts of bulls was slightly nauseating...).

It was hot, we got slightly dehydrated, but soaked it all up. This probably only captures part of what I learned, for I feel there was more, but clear thoughts allude me... I do think though that whatever we do end up doing there will be invaluable, and I only hope we bring to Cencosad as much as I imagine we will take away from it.

My weekend in Kumasi...

I wrote a lot about my weekend in Kumasi in my journal, so for this blog entry I will just type up some inserts from my time. It was definitely a good and rewarding weekend...

We left campus Friday morning, very much on time(which is remarkable) packed like sardines in a van too small to hold us all. Auntie Theresa, our program head, promised to get another van and come with the last few people shortly... As it was, I was in the first van sharing with my bag the very little room sitting on a wheel seat afforded. We tried to sleep on the drive, tried because the roads are so bumpy(in addition to questionable road quality, there is a remarkable number of speed bumps).
It was getting late in the afternoon when we finally reached KUmasi, home acocrding to my guidebook to 1 million people and to the Ashanti kingdom. In many ways it resembles Accra except for perhaps not so toxic. First we went to teh Ashanti palace museum which although perhaps not the most exciting guided tour was interesting on that prior to it, I knew very little about the kingdom. The current king I believe is the seventeenth, and the crown is passed down through the maternal line; moreover, a queen mother(not inherently the mother of the king; sometimes instead being grandmother, sister, aunt, niece of the king...). The current queen mother is over a hundred years old.
The Ashanti fought several wars with the British during the early years of colonialism, refusing to be humiliated. One such campaign was led by the queen mother when the king was imprisoned at Elmina castle. Incidentally, Mavis, a girl at Peace and Love orphanage, told me that story the other day, at least of sorts... She told me how the white men came, took all the gold and killed the people and then they came and took the children and killed the people but then a girl(she was actually quite old at the time and queen mother) took and hid the ceremonial gold stool and led a resitence which saw Kumasi besieged and eventually the palace sacked. I had not been sure what to believe about what Mavis tole me(some of her other tales of her own personal narrative I suspected being as much projected hope as reality). At her telling, of how the white men came and killed, I could not help being self-conscious of my skin...
At one point, the AShanti ruled almost all of present day Ghana spilling into Togo and Cote D'Ivoire. ONe line that stuck out was 'the Ashanti are a peace-loving people, so they are always ready to go to war'... Not exactly the best mode of peacemaking in my view. Still, overall the museum gave a good sense of what it means to be Ashanti, and as the Ashanti tend to be proud of who they are, that is a good thing to know. And that was only Friday...

We stayed at a guest house at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology which was very nice, especially because we had our first hot showers in a month... perhaps we got more excitement out of that then is quite rational...

Saturday was a very full day as well as we went to three different craft villages(a kente cloth one, a cloth dying one and a wood carving one) where we got to see how things were made and were encouraged to spend our money. This weekend definitely had a shopping component too it, and especially in the villages one had the sense that the villagers viewed as rather like walking pocket books, and vendors here can be ruthless. My favorite line was ' and after we negotiate the price we can talk about marriage'. I shot that guy down a little, pulling in my imaginary fiance as leverage... he is very convenient to keep around... It was interesting to note at the villages though it was the men who did the most skilled artisan work. There are definitely gender rolls here, like only men can be fishermen.
We got to go to the market in Kumasi(the name is elluding me and I don't know how to spell it) which is supposed to be the biggest in Ghana and perhaps in West Africa. It was definitely big... At markets I feel much less like a walking pocket book and generally just in the way... Some people hiss to get your attention, but mostly because we are Oburuni's...
Inevitably on our whole program weekend trips a bus full of Oburinis even driving attracts a lot of attention, especially with the children who greet the sight of us with excitement; waving, chasing the bus even , and loud and happy shouts of Oburuni, Oburuni. We stopped at the market again briefly Sunday morning and got thoroughly lost with one of our Ghanaian student guides; we had absolutely no idea how to get back to the van...

I apologize for how long and rather unedited this blog entry is, but the internet is really slow today and I am almost out of paid time... Look for my next blog entry which is all about today's educational adventures where I feel like I learned as much in four hours about Ghana as I did over the last four weeks, but like I said, I am running out of time and my typing fingers are getting cramped...

A month

I have been here a month today... it seems both longer and shorter looking back... it feels as though we only just arrived but also as though we have been here forever... One thing is true without a doubt, I have grown very comfortable being here. I remember the first week being nervous about everything, and now I am quite confident.

This week especially seems to have disappeared. I suppose it is only Thursday, but we leave at 9 tomorrow morning to go to Kumasi a city in the central region. It is the capital of African crafts and home of the biggest market in West Africa. It is also the capital of the Ashanti empire in its day. I think it promises to be a very good weekend.

This week was taken up with classes and volunteering... Like I said, I started at the orphanage and hope to go again this afternoon(and need to leave soon so this entry will be pretty short...). I hope to volunteer one or two afternoons a week as I am able. Yesterday I went and checked out Cencosad a local NGO that does community empowerment and development work. I hope to as I am able again to volunteer there. We met with the lady in charge, and this morning I met with the man in charge of one program(he is a graduate student here on campus, and hopefully I will be able to catch rides with him when I go down...). I am not sure exactly what I will be doing, or how well my schedule will fit, but I am excited about that prospect as well.

We drove to check out Cencosad yesterday, and if I haven't already mentioned it, let me digress on the phenomena of driving in Accra. While stopped at lights, vehicles are hoarded by sellers carryin there wares often on their heads or in their hands, anything from food to odd commodities like a bathroom scale, screwdrivers or even yesterday I saw a puppy. Some young men will wash your windows hoping to get paid(we were warned that if the windows are open, they are also prone to snatch one's purse and run away). And along so many roads people have their wares set up along the road... everything from food again to racks and racks of suit coats, purses, shoes, really anything one can imagine... and then you will drive by a place where there are people lined up on the ground in rows taking an afternoon siesta. It is not uncommon to come accross people napping wherever you go because often the same person will be at a store or market all day for near on 12 plus hours, so it makes sense that at some point they would rest...

p.s. this didn't post last Thursday when I wanted it to, so here is a second try.... a bit late...

the computer ate my blog entry...

So I feel compelled to start this blog entry with a lament... on Sunday I had nearly completed an excellent update when the power in my hostel was cut off and I lost my nearly completed entry... it made me sad... the power only was off like two minutes too... I mean, if the power is going to crash and make me lose my work, it might at least be an actual glorified blackout... I'm just kidding about that last one because I really was glad that the lights came back on...

Let that also serve as an excuse if this update is less excellent than it should be... So like I mentioned in my last entry, Saturday we headed to Cape Coast to see the tail end of their week long festival. It was a good seven hour drive to be in Cape Coast for four hours(one of which consisted of waiting for our lunch at a very slow restaurant...). It was totally worth it though because festivals are fun, and this one was no different. Granted, it was also very hot and crowded, but the parade was what really sealed the deal for a good day. The parade was more a procession really of all the chiefs(probably Fante chiefs because Cape Coast is a Fante region) and they were all decked out in their traditional attire and were being carried in these fancy seats above the crowd. They looked very royal and regal and I got some very good pictures. It definitely spoke of a different side of Africa than the designer clothes and American music that one finds on the streets... a little less westernized... The chiefs aren't just symbolic rulers of bygone days though; apparently they still maintain power as regional leaders in the government.
I went to church Sunday which was fun; I got to sing in a mix of English and Twi... I really like singing praise songs in different languages...

Yesterday, Monday that is, I started volunteering. I am going to be volunteering at a local orphanage about half an hour away by tro-tro. The orphanage seems quite well run and the kids I got to play with all seemed pretty happy. There are about sixty kids, and the big ones help look after the little ones and the hired help seemed very attentive and there is a pretty steady stream of volunteers who go in and out all week... I plan on going at least afternoons a week...

That's that for now:)

Maakye(goodmorning),

Another week down... time is going by very quickly here...

It's Friday morning and I was supposed to be on a bus headed to northern Ghana right now, but the bus broke down so this weekend will be a more local one and we will head north in October instead. I don't really mind because had we gone we would have traveled three weeks in a row(we have another trip to Kumasi next weekend) and that was a bit much. Also, they say that there is a higher chance of seeing elephants in October than September up north, and we all are hoping on elephants.

Plans for the weekend currently include going to a Karoake bar for somebodies birthday tonight, going back to Cape Coast tomorrow for a festival happening there, and hopefully going to church Sunday morning. I have yet to go to church and am hoping it is more encouraging than the frequent evangelists who come into class before the lecturers arrive and preach fire and brimstone at us... religion is everywhere in Ghana in a way we Americans are not used to so used to instead the highly political dance of separation of church and state that America practices... Taxis and tro-tros carry religious messages on their windows, shops have names like God is good fruit stand and on Sunday the world largely shuts down as stores close so their owners can attend church...

This afternoon I am going to the market with friends which is always fun. Medina, located fairly close to our campus, is the second biggest market in Accra(I believe). I have yet to go to Markola which is the biggest, but Medina is an experience in itself. It sprawls over blocks and blocks and carries everything from electrical appliances to shoes and all sorts of food from the stalls with packaged everything to the produce and fish vendors with their wares piled high in cascading towers. One of my favorite things to see are the snails(apparently people eat them) but they are in the market still alive and easily the size of my fist. I don't generally buy food there because there is a little market, we call it the Night Market because it is open late into the night(a girl said until midnight or one) just by our hostels and it is by far the best place to eat, or at least the cheapest, on campus. I can get rice, sauce, cabbage stew and fried plantains all for less than a cedi(about the equivalent of an American dollar) and it definitely fills you up. Medina though is the place to go when you want to get off campus and is a good place to buy fabrics. Ghana has beautiful fabrics and it is relatively inexpensive to buy some and then have a seamstress sew something for you; I got a dress made the other day... Medina is also the place to go for pots and silverware or radios; I bought a radio the other day and can now listen to the BBC world news and don't feel nearly so cut off from the rest of the world.

Well, I have probably rambled on enough for one post and will save some random reflections for the next one... I would say goodbye in Twi, but I don't remember how:)

My weekend in Cape Coast

It is Monday today so back to class, but this past weekend my program went on a trip to Cape Coast which is three hours away from Accra... Overall, it was a very fun experience...

We left Saturday morning and the first thing we did in Cape Coast was to go to Kakum National Park which is a rainforest. The main attraction there is a canopied walkway of swinging bridges high over the forest floor. The place was mobbed which was trying at times(one thing Ghanaians do not do well is wait in line). It was beautiful though and very cool to get to look down and see the rainforest spread out beneath you. We didn't see any animals(I heard they only come out at night) but this next weekend we are going to northern Ghana and will go to Mole National Park where I have heard we get to hike in and see elephants... very exciting...

We stayed in a sweet resort on the beach and got to play and hangout Saturday evening(college students are still quite good at playing...)

Then Sunday morning we had the more sobering experience of going to Elmina Castle which is a UNESCO world heritage site and I believe the oldest castle in Africa built in the 1400s by the Portugese, taken over by the Dutch, the British and finally with independence the Ghanaians. It was the last place many people were taken before being boarded onto ships and taken to the New World in what our guide called the Evil Trade, slavery. Our tour was deeply moving, the conditions there during the evil trade were awful, the Europeans treated the Africans worse than one would treat animals for where one will clean an animals stall, the slaves were left to waste away in their own filth... Only the strong survived to be boarded on ships and face the awful conditions of the Middle Passage... Our guide was right, it truly was an evil trade, and while some may say that slavery existed in Africa before the arrival of Europeans it was not that type of slavery but a slavery where the slave was treated with dignity and it is said that it was hard to tell who was a freeman and who was a slave... the slavery imposed by Europeans is a unique kind of evil...

On a happier note, we started our Twi langauge class last week so we will hopefully be able to communicate a little better with people we meet on the street in their own language. It is interesting to be in a country where the official language is English, a legacy from colonial days, but where that is nobodies first language. I believe there are around 70 different languages spoken in Ghana although Twi is the biggest especially in the Accra region. All I remember from the other nights class though is medi emo which means I eat rice, and as far as phrases go, that is a good one because it is very true and we eat rice every day...

Week Three

It is crazy to think I have already been here two weeks and am starting my third already... Life here continues to be good, full of adventures...
My biggest adventure perhaps was this past Friday when some friends and I decided to go to the National Museum. We took a taxi(slightly terrifying; I might stick to tro-tros as much as possible and not just for financial reasons...) They let us off several blocks away at the National Theatre which we had heard was only a short walk away... We got lost, but then we asked for directions, multiple times... We found it and the museum itself was really interesting. It had this one section which had all these finds from archaelogical digs showing just how old civilization in Africa goes back. In Ghana alone there were multiple Empires and throughout all of the West Africa region.
From the museum we decided to venture off the beaten track and hunt down a restaurant nearby mentioned in somebodies guidebook. The restaurant was fun; I got to eat with my hands again... And after the restaurant we had to find a tro-tro station and navigate our way back to campus at night, being the only abrunis(white people or foreigners). Ok, maybe not very exciting sounding, but it was pretty adventuresome feeling... people were very helpful to point us in the right direction and we kept a close hold on our bags for those who would be helpful in relieving us of our wallets
In other news, I went to the beach yesterday and got sunburned... but it was really fun and the ocean is very pretty and quite warm. I had my first academic class today and got assigned my first homework; I have a feeling that school here is going to be a far cry less demanding than a semester at Whitworth which quite frankly I feel quite happy with.
That's that for now!

week two...

Greetings from Ghana,



So here is an update on life on the other side of the world. This was the first week of class, but while I attended all of mine, only my drumming class actually happened. Apparently professors rarely show up the first week, and on top of that, there was a strike. They resolved the strike Tuesday afternoon, but all of my classes are on Monday and Tuesday, so I got off easy this week.



Fun and exciting things of this week. I went to an Obama rally Tuesday night put on by American supporters here in Accra(mainly expatriots although the student community definitely made a showing too). We took the tro-tros and everything which is the authentic way to travel, and I got to pick up a form to request an absentee ballot so I can vote!



Wednesday I went to the Madina market with a friend, again taking the tro-tros. We wanted to buy cooking supplies, and last night we made fried plantains(which took and hour and a half on our rusty hotplate in the hostel kitchen). I love the markets; they are crazy. People are everywhere, trying to sell you things, and the sounds and smells bombard you.



Also, I ate with my hands for the first time last night, which was a lot of fun and I enjoyed probably more than is completely rational. I had sticky rice and groundnut stew. I really enjoy Ghanaian cuisine and Ghanaian fruit!



Yep, so thats that, and now I can enjoy my long weekend. I hope all is well back home and everyone is enjoying life in general as much as I am!

Hello from Ghana

Hello from Ghana,
I have been here a week and am having a great time. My trip here went smoothly and this past week we received an extensive orientation getting registered as students and lectured on how things work here(ettiquette, politics and religion in the life of the everyday Ghanaian). We also got to see the city and go to the beach. The university is located in a part of Accra called Legon, but there are affordable ways to get anywhere from tro-tros(vans with lots of people) to taxis which are considerably cheaper than in the united states. Around campus there is the old standby of walking.
The campus is big, sprawling and rather beautiful. It is definitely more tropical here than back home with lots of humidity but it hasn't been too hot yet(it's the rainy season so I've heard it gets hotter but also a little less humid later on). You constantly have to watch yourself walking around though because unlike back in the states, pedestrians really have no right of way. THe first few days we all walked in the roads, but I think we've learned to hug the shoulder pretty well.
The program I am studying through is called ISEP, and there are 32 ISEP students from America this semester. There are also several other programs with students from America here. Orientation was a good opportunity to get to know the other ISEP students at least, and they are overall a fun group of people and quite eclectic coming from all over the US.
Today was the first day of classes and the last day of registration, meaning that I went to class this morning but because registration wasn't over the prof didn't see the need to come to class. After waiting for 30 minutes the students who had come decided to . Oh well, maybe next time... I am hopefully going to be taking seven classes; a Twi language class, an AFrican drumming class, a class on the Politics of International Economic Relations, a class on the International Politics of Refugees, a class on Peacebuilding in Post-conflict society, a class on the History of Colonialism in Africa and maybe a class on the Sociology of Law. I also hope to volunteer somewhere while I am here, but that is still in the works.
Anyways, that is life here so far and probably more than anyone has time to read. Now I will cross my fingers and hope the slow and tempremental internet will allow me to actually publish my post:) I hope all is well back in the States!

Two days

Hi, so I'm leaving for Ghana in two days on Sunday to study for the semester and I was informed that I should get a blog to keep people up to date on my time there. After much resistance and a lot of urging, I finally agreed(it seemed easier than update emails because this way I don't have to keep track of people's email addresses). This is for my friends and family to keep track of me, so if you don't actually know who I am, don't read this because that would be kind of creepy... If you do know me, this does not mean that you can read this and call it good. While this may keep you updated on my life, I would appreciate periodic emails about yours(otherwise its way too one-sided and that would be lame for me because I know how my life is...) So yes, I leave Sunday, and will keep this periodically updated(with pictures too if I can master the technology...) I will miss you all, but too much because I will be having grand adventures on the other side of the world!