So yesterday was our first day of volunteering! We were so busy yesterday that I didn’t even get a chance to write in my journal so I’ll start from the beginning. So, we woke up pretty early, ate breakfast and loaded the bus. Since there was so much traffic we got to the church where we had orientation a little late, but it was okay. Prince, the guy in charge of our volunteering, took us to a room where we brought all of our donations and sorted it into 3 categories: school, orphanage and church. Now this is where it gets shady. Prince took so much of our supplies and we didn’t even realize it until we laid out all of the things for the orphanage and the school. He took alllll of the pencils, paper, basically all of the school supplies and gave them to the church, where we aren’t even volunteering and it is obvious that they really don’t need it as much as the school does. So we were all kind of pissed off about that. But we first went to the orphanage. As soon as the door opened, a little boy named Isaac ran and literally jumped into my arms. I picked him up and we all piled into the small room with about 12 little kids. They were learning about words and shapes. It was adorable! But they all sang the Ghanaian national anthem and said their pledge of allegiance. So for them, we sang our national anthem and said the pledge. We all introduced ourselves and so did the kids. After that we all picked one kid up and just cuddled a little bit with them! I got a little girl named Emmanuela who was probably only 2 or 3. I couldn’t tell she was a girl at first, but we figured it out. She wouldn’t talk to me at all so I thought she didn’t like me, so I went to put her down but she wouldn’t have that. She reached right back up to be held, so I did. About 10 minutes later, the older kids who live at the orphanage came back from school for lunch time. They did dances and sang for us. It was so awesome! We loved it. Ernest even got up and danced with them at one point. Then he broke the chair he was sitting in. It was hilarious. But while sitting on the floor and watching the dancing, there were bugs crawling around. It was sad to think that they have to live somewhere with bugs crawling on them. Most of the kids didn’t have shoes, the little kids at least. They walked around barefoot. There were around 5 or 6 women who live/work there that they call “aunties.” They are pretty much their mothers, since their own mothers abandoned them and pretty much left them to die. There are babies there. How could a mother leave her child to die? I will never understand it. The kids are pretty dirty, but so cute. We felt gross after it. We played soccer with them, hand games, and just talked to them. Emmanuela finally started talking to me a little bit when she got more comfortable. She was nuzzling her head in my neck! When we presented them our donation, they prayed for us, and made a speech about how they are still privileged even though people don’t think they are and they will use the things we gave them to learn and better themselves. I got teary eyed during that. We had to leave after about 2 hours of being there. I had to put down Emmanuela, and she kept lifting her legs up so I wouldn’t put her down, but I had to. She just slumped down and kept her head down when I tried saying goodbye so I lifted her chin up and there were just tears rolling down. I got so upset when I saw that. I started crying because she was crying. I reassured her I would be back but it was just so sad. I gave her away to one of the aunties but I didn’t want to leave her! I want to take her home! After the orphanage, we went to the school. All of the kids swarmed out of their classrooms when we arrived. It is a private school so they all have uniforms and are so adorable. They were so excited that we were there!! We got a tour of the school and the different classrooms and grades. I was starting to get bored when we were just standing in the office not interacting with kids and a guy who works for Prince saw that and took me downstairs to kids who are probably in 2nd grade and I got to sit with them and teach them subtracting! It was awesome. I was the only one in there with all of these kids. I loved it. But after the school, we walked back to the church, to see the start of a funeral. It was interesting. Just a bunch of tents. They were preparing for the body later on that night. But they celebrate funerals for 4 days with food and drink. It’s a celebration of their life, not a sad thing. So after that, we got lunch at Southern Fried Chicken and at that point, noone was feeling too hot. We finally got home, took naps and then got in the shower to get ready for the night! We got a cab and planned on going to a restaurant called Monsoon.We got pulled over by the guards and I guess the driver didn’t have his license so he told us he had to slip him money to let us pass! Well after we spent a while trying to find Monsoon, we found it and it was closed! We were walking trying to find somewhere to eat, and it smelled so bad while walking down the street. Here, they have this weird sewer system where there are just these little ditches in the sidewalks and there’s water, sewage, trash, you name it in there, so it smells really bad. People will just stop walking down the street and pee right there in front of everyone. It’s nuts, but anyways we went to Frankie’s, the place we went the first night for dinner, and got some dinner. I got Hummus, which they spell Homos, and it was soooo good! We got some beers and then asked the waiter which club to go to. He recommended Boomerang, so we went. It was 10 cedis to get in, and then we go up to the bar, and beer was 5 cedis! We were not very happy about that. So noone was at the club. There was like 10 people there when we got there. So we sat and just drank and talked. Then some random guy came up to us and started talking and he was kind of creepy so we didn’t talk back. Then we got another beer and decided to hit the dance floor. WELL, we were attacked by like 4 guys and we just could not stop laughing. It was hilarious because we didn’t want to dance with them and they were just grabbing our arms and smiling. Alli got headlocked. And literally we were dying laughing. We couldn’t even stand up straight. Then we look and see the VIP room and there’s a random stripper pole in there and the bartender was cleaning a bottle very seductively and we were like alright we need to get out of here. So we finished our beers very, very, very quickly and booked it out of there. We got a cab driver named Emmanuel, which it seems everyone is named here, and we were stopped again by other cops. And the cops and the driver were talking and he finally let us pass so I asked him what that was all about. He said there was a guy who was acting as a taxi driver and would take people and pretend to drive them to where they needed to go but would just stop the car, take all of their money and leave them there! So the cops were just making sure that he wasn’t the criminal. We got home around 2 am. We all talked for a little and went our separate ways. This morning, we woke up around 9:30, we got to sleep in a little and got ready for the Aburi Botanical Gardens. It took us like 1 hour 30 minutes to get there, and the ride there was pretty to see. It was all mountains and there were some beautiful houses on the cliffs. But then there were some really poor parts too. That’s how it is here- rich living next to the poor. There is no middle class, just rich and poor. But, we arrived at the Gardens and it was beautiful. So many pretty trees and flowers and butterflies. We got to smell cinnamon leaves, bay leaves and menthol leaves from all of the different trees. There were star fruit, nutmeg and these weird cherry trees too! I wanted to steal a star fruit but I couldn’t reach them. But after out tour, we got some lunch, and there were chickens just roaming around and eating the crumbs off the floor under our feet. There were also these HUGE centipedes or millipedes, I’m not sure which one, but they were gross. We drove back to GIMPA after lunch and Julie’s sorority sister and her friend came to visit us for the night. They are volunteering 2 hours away from Accra in a hospital. Leigh works in maternity and Casey works in pediatrics. They said they see some crazy things. The doctors were doing a C-section, and realized the woman was a hermaphrodite. They hadn’t seen one since being doctors, so they made Leigh get her camera and take a picture. They also took a picture of a tumor too. But, Leigh and Casey said they have seen the most malnourished children and people. They even saw a mother who had AIDS who probably only weighed 90 pounds who had given birth to a still born. They don’t use numbing medication for spinal taps or epidurals, it’s just all done naturally. Leigh and Casey live with a family and their “Dad” is the headmaster as a school for special needs children.They sleep with mosquito nets and they have bins with clean water. They aren’t allowed to eat with the family, which is weird. The headmaster has two wives. They live with the Junior wife. He brought them to the village where his senior wife lives and introduced them and they thought he was joking, but he wasn’t. But they also told us about Cape Coast and the canopy walk they did at Kakum National Park, where we will be going. They said it is beautiful and you can see elephants. I AM SO EXCITED! :) The seamstress came today and fitted us for our dresses. They will be done next week and I can’t wait to see them! Tonight we are going out to dinner with the south africans we met at Bojo beach last week and we will be going out clubbing, I think. And tomorrow is the boat trip!
Monday, January 17, 2011
January 13, 2011-
Today were the rest of the presentations! It was so boring to sit through and all I could think about was going to the arts center market after! Around 2:45 we loaded the buses and went to the market. We have to drive through the ghetto to get to the market. When you look out, its just a sea of rooftops. There was cattle just walking around and child shepherd with a bunch of goats! The kids were even taking the cattle for walks. It was crazy. As soon as we got to the market, all of the vendors spotted us, obviously because of the hotcatt and because we’re white. So right when we walked off the bus they started to rush us. Well, you just have to tell them “NO!” over and over so that they get the point. We’re not trying to be mean, they just will grab you and ask your name and a million questions so you have to let them know you mean business. It was good for us though because we got to strengthen our bargaining skills. I bought a a few bracelets for gabby and gabby, a carved elephant bottle opener, a beautiful painting for my room and fabric so that we can bring it to the seamstress so she can make us dresses! I want my dress to be tight and strapless on top but flare out at the bottom and I want it to be short. We are getting out measurements done tomorrow. I met a great guy named David at the market and I noticed him more because he sounded American. He said he has family from America so I was guessing maybe he lived there for a while. He asked me what I liked about Ghana and we talked for a little. He also asked how I felt about everyone rushing us when we got off the bus, and I said you know I understand because they are just trying to make a living. He loved that answer and called me very wise. He told me to find him and say hi if we ever came back. Nice guy. There was also this guy named TJ who kept following us. It was actually so funny. He would just pop out of nowhere, alleyways, etc. We were like what the hell TJ! We all got a good laugh at that. And the guy we bought the paintings from wanted to charge us 25 dollars for the painting at first but I told him 10 cedis was all I would pay and he finally said “fine you win.” So that was good! Overall it was a great time and we can’t wait to go to Kumasi and do some more bargaining. We we probably go back to the arts center too before we leave. We will probably just hang out tonight and drink wine and play some drinking games. Tomorrow we have to wake up super early to start our week of volunteering! YAY!!!!!! :)
January 12, 2011 Entry- National Museum and National Theater
Today I gave both of my presentations for class. I just wanted to get it over with so that I could relax tonight! Today we went to the National Museum. We learned a lot about the culture and we saw pots, masks, statues, old photos, money, jewelry, and excavated items. It was interesting, but the lady who took us on the tour was rushing us a little bit because they were going to close soon. She was feisty, that’s for sure. After the tour we were able to look in the gift shop. They had beautiful masks, tapestries and they had these hand-carved elephant statues. I HAD TO HAVE ONE! The wood has great colored beads on it too! I absolutely love it! They also had a elephant mask. I may have to go back and get that. Everything was really reasonably priced too. The only weird thing is that they make you pay 2 cedis if you want to take pictures. They have been asking that a lot at museums. I’m not paying 2 cedis just to take a picture! After the museum, we went to the National Theater. We took a tour and we got to see the huge African drums. The theater was very nice and it’s the only one in Ghana! They said that on Friday, the Ghanaian orchestra is going to perform so we are trying to get tickets to see the show. Then, we went to the mall to get some things from Shoprite and have dinner. We got some chinese. They love chinese food here for some reason, it’s so weird. But, now we’re just home and we’re gonna relax for a bit!
January 11, 2011 Entry
So today we had class for a little bit but around 2:15, we got ready and loaded up the hotcatt for our orientation for our volunteer week at the school and orphanage! So, we arrived at the town in which we will be doing our volunteer work, and they brought us to a beautifully decorated church. They were playing instruments for us and singing to welcome us to their town and thank us for what we will be doing. We started dancing and singing with them too! Prince, the coordinator, welcomed us into the church and he began teaching us about some general facts to do with Ghana. We knew most of them already, but we sat and listened anyway. It was kind of a bizarre thing. Like there was a band that would play while Prince was teaching and then he would ask if we had questions but we weren’t sure what there would be questions to ask about. It was weird But anyway, there were children who kept coming into the church because they knew we were there. So after Prince stopped talking, we got to dance with the children. They were going crazy over the cameras and were posing for pictures. They even wanted to take my camera and take pictures themselves, but it scared me because I do not want to lose another camera haha They would all gather behind the camera so they could see how they looked in the pictures. It was so cute. But during all of this, a mother had a baby on her back in the traditional way they do it here, and she just took it off and gave the baby to Julie and wrapped the baby on her back. It was awesome! I definitely want to try that before we leave. Another thing I noticed was that very young children around ages 10 or 11 are taking care of babies that are only a few months old. It’s so interesting to see that their mother(most likely the child they are holding is there sibling) trusts them with the child! The boy who was carrying his sister was so good with her and would keep everyone away when they would get too loud or too pushy. He was so responsible and in touch with the baby’s needs. Also, a girl was in the church and she look much older. She was talking to us and she was very pretty. She even asked matt if she could have his kids- how funny is that hahaha But she came on the bus with us to see the school we will be teaching at and we dropped them off before we went back to GIMPA, but she sat next to me. Her name is Sandra and she is 18 years old, will be 19 on March 29. She has two siblings, a sister who is 25 and not married yet and a brother who is 23. She said she has a lot of friends and she loves Rihanna and Nelly! She wanted my phone number and the background on her phone was Nelly too. She had on beautiful bracelets, so I told her I loved them and she gave some to me! She said we were friends! It was the sweetest thing! I wished I had something to give to her, but I didn’t. Hopefully I will see her again so I can bring her a gift. She also said she doesn’t have a boyfriend and doesn’t want one because she loves the single life. She kept telling me she was coming to live with us at GIMPA and would come home to America with us and I just laughed...I wasn’t sure if she was kidding or serious haha. But when we were getting on the bus home to GIMPA, the kids ran with the bus saying goodbye. It was so cute! I didn’t want to leave them yet! On the way home I was looking out the window and I can’t help but notice all of the abandoned and unfinished buildings. I want to ask Ernest why its like that. But, that’s all for today!
January 10, 2011 Entry- W.E.B. Dubois Museum
Had breakfast. Had class. Then we went to the W.E.B. Dubois museum. The museum was actually the house that Dubois was given by Nkrumah when he was asked to move here to Ghana. He had two burials, and his second and last burial is next to the museum here. It’s in a little circular house with stools that are carved that mean different things that were in important to Dubois. Also, the ceiling was painted like a spider web, because spiders are considered the smartest and most creative insect here in Ghana. After the museum, we went to dinner at a beautiful outdoor restaurant. I ordered boiled yams with a cassava sauce and chicken. It was definitely interesting. The sauce, was more like a spinach with cassava shaved over it and the yams have no taste, they taste like potatoes. I put on a lot of sauce but that didn’t really make it better so I just ate chicken and some other people’s plantains. We got home and our internet still wasn’t fixed. We haven’t had it for 5 days. Hopefully they will fix it tomorrow. When I got back, I just did homework and hung out with the girls and matt for a little bit.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
January 9, 2011 entry- Soccer Game
Today we woke up relatively late, around 930 am, which isn’t even that early, to do some work, since we have so much to do and it’s ridiculous. After getting work done, we got ready to go to lunch and then the soccer game! We went to the mall for lunch and I got a grilled chicken sandwich. It was delicious, but the ketchup was really weird. It was very sweet and very thin. My charger for my computer blew out because of the voltage over here, so I went to the apple store to see if I could buy a new charger. Well, a charger is $265 cedis, which is around $177 dollars. I was in disbelief. In America, an apple charger is only $70. So, long story short, I’m borrowing chargers from the girls on my trip who have macs. After the mall, we got on the bus and drove to Osu real quick. We wanted to get soccer jerseys for the game! So we learned how to bargain with the men. It was definitely interesting! We all got jerseys and I bought a bracelet. The man I bought it from was very nice, his name is Kofi. He showed me where his shop (a table on the side of the road) is so I can come see him again. Then we hopped on the bus and we were off to the soccer game! We got the 5 cedi seats. There are 2, 3, 5, and 7 cedi seats, 7 being the most exclusive. We wanted to be more with the people so we wanted 3 cedi seats, but we ended up with 5 cedi seats, which was still fun. It was the Accra Hearts (the home team) vs. RTU (which I’m not sure what it stands for). It was so much fun! Accra wasn’t playing too well and everyone was getting rowdy in the stands. When RTU score a goal, the few supporters of them that were there were running all over the stadium, taking off their shirts and yelling. Then some fights started to break out and the police got involved. The Accra fans were becoming so frustrated with their team that they started to throw water bottles on the field. It was awesome to be with all of the locals and hear them speak about the game in Twi. I saw some people walking around selling ice cream and it looked interesting so I bought some. It was frozen strawberry yogurt and it comes in a little plastic package where you bite off a corner and suck out the yogurt. It was pretty good! In the stands, people bring drums and other instruments and we got to listen to live music the whole game, which was great and festive. RTU won, which was disappointing, because we wanted to see how the fans would react if the Accra Hearts won the game. After the game, we went to shoprite to pick up some things for lunch this week and then we came home. I did some laundry in the sink (not fun) and now I’m about to do some homework.
January 8, 2011 Entry- Bojo Beach
Today we went to Bojo Beach! The ride there was pretty long, around an hour and a half ride there. The ride was awesome. I just waved to the kids all day long. Then we arrived there, and it was a beautiful sight! There was a bridge that we walked over to get to a small island. While walking over the bridge, there was a huge crab! I’ve never seen a crab like it back in the US. To get over to the beach, we had to take a canoe! The canoe was kind of tippy on the way there, which was kind of scary. I had my camera and blackberry in my backpack and I did not want those things to get ruined. We made it to the beach safe and hopped off so excited to finally be there! It was stunning. It was pretty much empty, too. I took a little walk along the beach and found some great shells that I will be bringing back with me. Then, we went up to the bar and had some drinks! We laid out in the sun, got a some color on our skin. Finally around 2pm, everybody started arriving to the island. It was like a huge party! We were meeting so many people! There were 3 girls and 1 guy from Washington DC who are Ghanaian and were just visiting. We also met some South Africans who are here on business for 3 weeks. We swam in the ocean and the water temperature was perfect. It was like sitting in a bath tub! While in the ocean, one of the South African’s found a water snake! It was dead, thank god, but still it was kind of creepy that something like that could be swimming around with us. We met some Ghanains on the beach who were playing the drums so we danced to the drums with them! It was great! Also, we started a dance party when they turned the big speakers on. So many people came to dance with us! A woman let me dance with her baby who probably only 2. It was amazing! We danced forever and worked off the beers we were drinking (which I was slightly drunk from haha)! Also, we met a man at the bar who was drinking the weirdest thing! We were first talking to Ernest about the dentist. He said he’s never been to the dentist! So we asked the bartender and he said the same thing. Finally, we asked the man standing next to Ernest, and he said he had just been 3 months ago and told Ernest it was not good to have never been haha He was drinking the weirdest thing too! The bartender gave him a shot of something red, its called Compari and is a strong, but sweeter Gin. You mix that with a Guiness beer, and the beer will taste sweeter. Well, the man offered me to try it, but I said no. Well 5 minutes later, he ordered me and my 2 friends a round so we could try it! It tasted pretty good. I don’t think I could drink that all day, but one is alright. Later, he asked for my phone number even though he had told us earlier that he was married. hahahah we got a good laugh at that. Culturally here, it is “acceptable” for a man to cheat on his wife. Most of the time, his wife will never know. But if she does find out, she can divorce him, but most look the other way. But, if the wife were to cheat on her husband she would be divorced immediately. What a double standard! Ernest said it is because this society revolves around men. He said if you do not want to be cheated on, do not marry a Ghanaian! Good to know! The music here is amazing. It’s so happy and fun to dance to. We’ve been finding some music online that sounds about right, so we’ve been looking into that. We love the dancing here and can’t wait to get out and dance at a nightclub! For dinner, I had something called Banku and chicken. Banku is a fermented dough that tastes like sourdough. It is not baked, it is just dough. You dip it in the sauce with the chicken and it tastes interesting. I wouldn’t say I would have it again, but I’m glad I tried it. The ride home took 2 hours . We saw a man with a monkey on the way home. It was crazy! It was a baby! Ernest told us that people go in and take the babies away from their mothers and kill them and eat them but they will keep the babies as pets. We were exhausted when we got home. We kept trying to get Ernest to take us out tonight, but he warned us we would be tired, and we definitely are.
January 7, 2011 Entry
Today, we woke up for breakfast and then went to class. Class was 5 hours today. Not okay. My brain was hurting so much by the end. The first 3 hours were deadly, but the last 2 were actually really fun. Ernest, our amazing tour guide, came to teach us Twi, which is a dialect spoken in Ghana. He taught us so many words! It was awesome to sit there and talk with him in his native language. He taught us words to use as the market as well, because the vendors will respect us more if we bargain with them in Twi. They will be surprised that we even took the time to learn the language! After class, we took a ride into Old Accra. Old Accra is the slum area of Accra. There is sewage and trash everywhere, goats and chickens running loose, naked children, you name it. There were lots of boys playing soccer too, the favorite sport of the country! We were driving by one particular area and saw a huge celebration with dancing and loud music. There were easily 200 people there. Ernest told us it was a wedding celebration. All of a sudden, he just tells us to get off the bus and go dance with them. I was so nervous my hands were shaking. I just felt like we were being thrown into shark infested waters. But, much to my surprise, they welcomed us with open arms! We danced with them to awesome African music. The women all danced so well and their butts were able to do things I have never seen before! They all threw money on us too! I guess that’s a way of showing that they like your dancing. They formed a huge circle in the middle of all of the people and each person got to dance and show their moves by themselves. It was so amazing. I got to take some pictures with the women and children. It was so nice to be welcomed like that. People in the US would probably never just invite you into their wedding celebration! A man shook my hand and told me congratulations when we came out! It was by far one of the most amazing moments of my life. While driving the bus away, we saw the vendors on the street. Ernest mentioned that the vendors don’t even put their goods away at night. They just trust that nobody will steal it, that’s how uncommon theft is here. The children all waved to us when we were on the bus, it was wonderful. Today was the first day that I felt welcomed and not that I was being stared at. Everyone stares at us a lot. I understand, but it just makes us feel uncomfortable at times. Today was a breakthrough! For dinner we went to a place called southern fried chicken. Our teacher told us it was pizza, hamburgers and chicken, and we didn’t want american crap food like that. But, thank goodness, when we got there they had Ghanaian food as well. I asked Ernest what he recommended, and he told me the Red Red is good. Red Red is a dish that contains a bean stew, plantains and chicken. It was delicious! I love the plantains, I dont know what I’ll do without them when I go home. The beans were interesting. Not my favorite, but I will try anything once! After dinner, we stopped at the Pharmacy on the way home. Kelly hasn’t been feeling well, so we stopped so she could get some medicine. AT the pharmacies here, you just tell them what you need and they give it to you! You don’t even need a prescription or anything! The traffic on the way home was terrible. Last night it took us an hour and a half to get home from somewhere that should have taken 20 minutes. We even saw people directing traffic because the lights go out a lot here, even the traffic lights and won’t come back on for a while, so locals will volunteer, for no money, to direct traffic certain nights when the lights go out. How awesome is that?! Anyway, tonight we all thought we were in for a long ride. But, out of nowhere, our bus driver takes us throught a back way! It felt like a wild animal was going to jump out at any moment. We were literally in the middle of nowhere. We then made it to a gate, and magically we were back at school. It was crazy! When we got back to GIMPA we went up to our rooms and myself, allison, alli, erin, matt and brittany went on a nice night walk. I need to get a good night’s sleep for tomorrow’s beach day! :)
My dinner- Red Red
January 6, 2011 Entry
Sorry I haven't been able to post! my internet has been down and it's finaaallllly back! so here are all my entries from the first day til now!
Independence Square
January 6, 2010
Today we woke up around 8:30 this morning and went to get breakfast. They had yogurt! So, I had some of that instead of the cereal with hot milk. The yogurt definitely tasted different, but it was good. It had a perfume-like taste to it but I didn’t mind too much. They also offered fresh mango. It was the ripest and sweetest mango I have ever tasted. It’s so nice to be somewhere where the fruit is exotic and delicious! After breakfast we had class in a classroom a little ways down the campus. The room is air conditioned which is awesome, but it can sometimes get a little chilly in there. But, we had Political science first, for 2 hours. This class will mainly zone in on the culture and facts about Ghana. After our first class we had an hour and a half lunch break. Instead of lunch, a bunch of girls and myself got changed into bathing suits and went tanning outside. It seems like the 50 spf will not be be getting me a tan! Then we had another 2 hour class, Contemporary West Africa. This class will be all about the whole continent of Africa and the 5 different regions. The power actually went out during that class! Edwin, our friend from GIMPA, said that the power just goes out sometimes. Lucky for us, the campus has its own generators so our power returns in less than 2 minutes. But, for people who live in the city of Accra, they could lose their power for as long as a day! How crazy is that? After class, we got ready and we took a ride to Kwame Nkrumah’s memorial and museum. He was the first President of the free Ghana and was a visionary for the way that Ghana should be run! Now he is repected and people understand what he did for the country, but back when he was in office there was controversy. He was friends with the communist leader of China and Castro at the time, and it has been said that the CIA created the plan to overthrow Nkrumah. He was overthrown, and he fled the country, becoming the new president of Guinea. His memorial is beautiful, with stone and water. The museum had wonderful pictures of Nkrumah with many leaders, such as our own JFK. After the memorial and museum, we took a ride to Freedom and Independence Square. This square is very large and is right next to the ocean, which gives it a nice breeze! This square is used every March 6, the day that Ghana became free, to celebrate and party. To the left of the square in the distance is the parliament building. There are military officers with guns guarding the square because nobody is allowed to take pictures of that building. Scary! After this, we drove through Osu, and it took us 1 hour and 30 minutes to get back to GIMPA because of all the crazy driving and traffic. On the way home, Dr. Davis purchased some plantain chips for us to eat from a woman who carried them on her head! They were absolutely delicious. We finally arrived back to GIMPA and our dinner was waiting for us. There was chicken, fish, rice, plantains and pineapple. It was so good! All of the food here is good for you and tastes good as well. We learned some interesting things today from Ernest. During our ride he talked about Ghana’s traditions regarding the circle of life. He started with birth, saying that when a baby is born, the child is not named for 7 days. The child is considered a stranger until it is named. On the 8th day, the child receives a name and is placed in the arms of a trusted uncle. The child will be named after a family member of good upstanding in society. If the child is given the name of a family member who is a drunkard, the child is expected to inherit that behavior too. They will annoint the baby’s lips with palm wine 3 times. Ernest also told us about marriage. This next tradition is not that common in big cities anymore, but it is common in smaller villages. When a girl gets her first menstrual cycle, the women of the village will get all of the young girls into one place and hold them there. They will then teach them about sex and marriage and how to take care of themselves and not have sex before marriage. They talk to them about this because a girl is supposed to be a virgin when she marries. The man pays a dowry for her, and most girls have arranged marriages their first time around (Ernest said they sometimes can get out of the marriage later, that is why lots of women have been married 2 times). In some cultures, a 16 year old girl will be married off to a 96 year old man because he has enough money to pay a dowry. When the girl and her new husband are about to have sex for the first time, they will lay down a white sheet and if there is no blood on the sheet, the girl is assumed to not be a virgin and will be returned to her family shamefully. When someone dies, the body will stay in the morgue for about a month. Then the body will be released on a Friday, and the services will be on the Saturday following. They will cry, but then the day after, they have a thanks giving. They will celebrate with friends and family and there will be food, drinks and fun. They still believe in witchcraft and voodoo here too!
Kwame Nkrumah's Memorial
Fruit Bats EVERYWHERE
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Finally in Ghana! Day 1
So! We are finally in Ghana! We arrived last night around 930 pm. The whole travel ordeal was absolutely crazy. My mom drove me to Philly airport and we got there at 4pm. I said my goodbyes :( and then my whole group and I checked in for our flight with British Airways. When we walked to the gate, I saw my sorority sister, Sam! She was waiting at the same gate because she is studying in London for winter session. It was such a nice surprise to see her! So, the plane ride to London was 6 hours. I slept for about 2.5-3 hours, I think. But, I don’t sleep very well on planes and I kept coming in and out so I really don’t think I had that great of a sleep. When we got to London, we took a shuttle from our plane to the airport, where we arrived around 6:45 am. A woman on the shuttle asked us if we were from UD. It turns out she went to UD and did a winter study abroad session but lives in London now with her kids and husband. Small world! We had a 7 hour layover there, which was terrible! We went to breakfast at a pub and myself, Kelly, Julie, Alli, and Matt got some beers and breakfast. We figured we were in London, so why not drink some beers even though it was only 7 am! After our meal and beers, we went back downstairs to the terminal. We waited and waited and waited. We were all sleeping on the hard, cold, tile floor or falling asleep bent in half over our backpacks. Let me tell you, out of all the weird places I have slept, this was the most uncomfortable by far. Finally, it was time to get on the plane around 2:30 pm. So we got on the plane and I was able to sleep for around 2 hours. I woke up to food being served. They kept feeding us on the plane! I felt like a cow when we got off! But, I watched 2 movies and then it was time to get off since we had arrived in Ghana!!! As soon as we stepped off the plane, the humidity hit. My glasses became foggy, that’s how humid it was! I even tried taking pictures and the camera lens was foggy! When we emerged from the shuttle we took to the airport and went through the customs area and found our luggage. Thank goodness it was all there! We exchanged our american dollars for Ghanaian cedis (pronounced seedys), which the exchange rate is 1.45 cedis for 1 american dollar. We then went outside and were immediately greeted by Ernest, the coolest tour guide ever. Not only were we greeted by Ernest, but by 10 eager Ghanaians who wanted to “help” us for cash. I just pushed my way through and didn’t even care to stop. If you give to one, they will all see that, and you will be broke by the first week! The bus ride to where we are staying, The Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, was only a short 20-25 minute ride away. We arrived to air conditioning! Yay! The building is set up like a hotel, so there are 14 of us on the trip and there are two people to each room. My roommate’s name is Allison. She’s really nice and we get along great! People were so shocked when I said I didn’t know anybody going into the trip. It’s not hard to make friends if you put yourself out there! Everyone is great and we are all having a fun time together. Me and Allison share room 206. Our group has a reserved floor. Allison and myself settled in our room, unpacked, took showers (since we felt absolutely disgusting after traveling all of that time) and passed out. We woke up at 8:30, which all of us as a group agreed on because we would go to breakfast at 9, but when I walked to the bathroom, I noticed a paper on the floor next to the door. OH it was just a note saying that breakfast ended at 9am. Well, Allison woke up, and we booked it downstairs so we could eat. The food wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. There was sausage with onions and peppers, eggs, watermelon, sour oranges, and cereal with HOT milk. I was definitely not a fan of the hot milk, so I had one egg with some fruit. Not the most filling breakfast. We then went back upstairs to get ready for our tour of GIMPA. Our guide, Edwin, has been helping us settle in and he will help us throughout our stay. Edwin took us all over campus, introduced us to people, showed us where our classes would be and pointed out these ginormous ant hills. Most of them are taller than me! He told us to stay away from them, especially the dead ones, because reptiles usually live in them. He also taught us that GIMPA was established in 1961 by the UN. Also, it is expanding and adding on a new law school. The institute is not state run, so it makes profit only internally. After the tour, we went back to our rooms, and Dr.Davis just told us about our time here and what classes would be like and so on. We have class tomorrow at 9:30 am. Each class (we are taking 2) will be 2 hours each. I think it’s a bit much. When I was in Vienna, we took 2 classes, but each class was only an hour each. Because honestly, who wants to sit inside all day and learn about stuff, when we could be outside experiencing Africa. We are kind of isolated in GIMPA. If we want to go anywhere, we can’t just leave. We need to arrange someone to pick us up, etc. We were talking and we kind of just wish we could leave and do whatever we want after class or at night. But, we will see what happens. Anyway, after our meeting, we went back to our rooms to get the internet turned on. After that huge ordeal, I took a nice 40 minute nap (I was still exhausted from traveling, still am) and then went down to the lobby around 3:15 to meet for our group’s tour of the University of Ghana and the city of Osu. The University is beautiful! It has terra cotta roofs and so much greenery. There were lots of people walking around, all waving at us, which was nice. After the tour of the University, we went to Osu. It is crazy there. There were chickens and goats running around. 25 people hanging off of the backs of trucks. Children begging. People selling things on the street. There were even women carrying bananas on their heads! I loved riding through the city and seeing the way people make a living and live their lives. We ate at a restaurant called Frankie’s, where Ernest recommended the Jollof with grilled chicken and salad. It was actually SO GOOD! The jollof, he said, is rice in a sort of stew that is spicy. It was delicious. It sort of tasted like Jumbalaya. We also had some beers. The beer they drink here is called Star. It tastes really good and we enjoyed it. It was a fun time and we got to talk to Ernest a lot. He said that he has a 16 year old son but isn’t married. He is single and like to party, he told us! He said that once you get married, your social life is never the same and that he wants to be single for a while longer before settling down. I don’t blame him! He also said he would take us to the nightclubs so we are definitely excited about that. After dinner, we drove to the mall in Accra to go to the Shoprite to pick up some items. I got some apples (which we have to peel the skin off of so it’s safe to eat), bananas. yogurt, wine, beer and lots of water. We use the bottled for everything, such as cleaning off the fruit, brushing our teeth and drinking. After the mall, we dropped off Ernest, and made our way back to GIMPA. Today was a great day but I am still so tired and can’t wait to go to sleep! :)
The GIANT anthills
Everyone passed out in London-Heathrow Airport
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