I have officially been in Africa for about two and half months…and to be honest I feel like I’m having a mid-trip crisis. My visa is expiring this weekend so I have three options: 1. Deportation 2. Leave the country and reenter or 3. Send my passport to immigration and wait forever to get it back. For a few hours on Monday I was literally looking for cheap flights to Europe for the weekend…instead I’m going to be heading to Cote D’voire. I think I could use a quick visit back to the states, and then I would be set to go for my remaining 7 weeks here. Hopefully I will have recuperated soon because I still have so much to accomplish and experience here.
This past weekend a few friends and I traveled about 30 kilometers west of Accra to the beach resort Big Milly’s in Kokrobite. I think it will rank among one of my smoothest weekend expeditions in Africa – at least no one screamed at me this time. The beach was great and so typically African, with lots of colorfully painted fishing boats and children selling oranges on top of their heads, and of course tons of Rastas playing football on the beach. Our room was a cute little hut with a functioning shower, mosquito nets included. I swam and read and made friends with a 12-year-old Ghanaian named Cecilia. When I shared my Disney princess gummies snack with her she wasn’t quite sure what to make of them. She picked at them a bit and eventually ran home with them and promised she had eaten and enjoyed them.
Our first night at the resort a group of drummers and traditional African dancers preformed traditional African war and fertility dances for the villagers and tourists. It was amazing and so entertaining! There was lots of pain and beads and headdresses. I will not stop being amazed by how expressive the dancers are with their movements. In between performances random locals would mosey onto the dance floor and break out into synchronized dances. Apparently, all the locals know the traditional dances. I was content to simply witness the festivities.
On my second night at the beach I met a fellow American who had moved to Ghana to start his own NGO. He had even gone to seminary in Atlanta and heard of my hometown…the whole conversation made the world seem very small. But it was also very encouraging because he is doing something that I would like to do in the future and I felt I could learn a lot from his experiences. I also met a Rasta named Jesus (or Thomas) who was my age and very sweet. At one point in our conversation I asked why he didn’t have dreads, and he told me his mom had come for a visit and made him shave them off. She said, “What is this? No one in our family is a Rasta!” He explained that he respected his mother and didn’t want to upset her, so he settled for wearing a bandana and looking like Tupac instead. He also offered to take me to Mali and Niger, but I respectfully declined.
Sadly another girl in my ISEP group is going home tomorrow. I wish she could finish out the semester, but she has been sick for quite a while and is ready to just feel well again. Once again, I feel very thankful that I haven’t been hospitalized or seriously ill like many of my friends.
A friend of mine is trying to raise money for a village school here in Ghana. The school is also a home for a good portion of the children who attend the school. However it’s very under funded, and there are no activities to speak of once school is finished for the day/week. So, my friend is trying to raise money to build a basketball court on campus that can be used while school is in and out of session. She needs at least a hundred votes on the website www.givemeaning.com/proposal/basketballsofhope in order to get the funding for her project. So, if you have the extra time please log on and vote for her proposal!
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