Kokrobite and Basketballs of Hope

            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!

Food Poisoning, Lake Bosumtwi, and Marriage Proposals

I know it’s been a while on my blog updates. So sorry. I have officially had my first bout of sickness here in Africa. I think it was food poisoning or a bacteria infection from some food or water. Either way, it wasn’t fun but thankfully it was short lived and didn’t involve a hospital stay. It did keep me here in Legon for a weekend but my friends were very kind and stayed with me. As my time is dwindling here I’m realizing my weekends to travel are becoming fewer and fewer…I’m going to be back in the states before I know it.

This past weekend a few friends and I headed up to Lake Bosumtwi located in central Ghana, which is the biggest natural lake in Ghana and was made by a meteor that hit the earth. Before we made it to the lake we spent some time in Kumasi (the huge market town). On Saturday morning we decided it would be fun to wander through the market which is the Biggest in West Africa and not for the fair-weather traveler. Not the best idea we’ve ever had. It was crazy crowded – think the day after thanksgiving shopping (Africa style of course) on crack. We somehow made it into the meat section of the market, which you can only imagine, smells to high heaven and made me consider a vegan lifestyle. Not to mention we could barely keep sight of each other because of how crowded it is. After wandering, completely lost, for about an hour we made it out. Amazingly enough only Jayne was pick-pocketed, and thankfully it was only her phone. She was at the end of our line of obrunis, so she was definitely a target.

After our eventful morning we took a series of trotros and taxis to get to the Lake Point Guest House. Which is right on the lake shores and has these cute little huts and everything is eco-friendly. We swam in the lake and just chilled at the lodge. It was a nice break from the crazy noise and trash of Accra. After dinner we headed back to our hut and found the lovely family of ridiculously large spiders that happened to be staying in our hut too. Of course it turned into a thirty-minute ordeal of trying to kill the spiders with shoes and bug spray while we screamed and jumped on the bed every time they moved. One escaped but the other was not so lucky. At one point in came running at my foot and scared the crap out of me, but I finally got it. Of course Jayne and Kendall, rather than trying to kill it, spent their time standing on the bed capturing all the chaos on video…should make a hilarious facebook video.

The next morning we hiked along a dried-up stream through the mountains surrounding the lake. Amazingly enough I did not twist my ankle on the river rocks…it was a great morning and so beautiful - Lots of bamboo and butterflies and beautiful views of the lake. When we got back we decided to check out early and save some money heading back to university a day early. Man was that a disaster. The Austrian lady who owned the lodge and her Ghanaian husband were not having any of that. They insisted on us paying for our second night (33cedi, which in Ghana is A LOT for a hotel room-even a nice one)…and we of course, said absolutely not. They told us that anywhere in the world when you make reservations to stay you pay for those nights. Which is absolute bullocks, and I told them so because I myself have worked in the hotel industry. They said, “This is Ghana” but we informed them that we live here too and always check out early. Anyways, it turned into a two-hour stare down of us trying to reason and insist upon fairness while they yelled and made a few racial comments along the lines of “This is Africa, these white people don’t belong here.” The woman who said it was Austrian for God’s sake!! At one point both Jayne and Kendall were crying from frustration with these ridiculous people. In a perfect world we would have paid for the services we HAD received and walked away. However, we were in the middle of nowhere with no transportation and an angry owner threatening to call the police for trying to destroy his business. So we paid them and vowed to write every travel book and review about their blatant disrespect and terrible business. My friend Max kept saying, “I have backpacked all over the world, and this is just not how business is done.” I walked away from the whole ordeal thinking “only in Africa!” My friends and I are pretty excited to write four separate letters of complaint to travel books – especially those based solely on independent travelers’ reviews…

I keep encountering situations with Ghanaian men that I find pretty hilarious. I’ll tell you a few of my favorites. When I was traveling in Wa (northern Ghana), my friends and I were bartering for some fabric. At one point I was very kindly telling the man to be a good Christian and give us poor students a fair price and he looks to my friend Alli (who is very petite and little) and says to me, “Okay, I give you 5 cedi and you give me your daughter.” Apparently a good deal on fabric is equivalent to selling my daughter to this man! Not to mention she’s about four years older than me…of course no one ever believes me that I’m only 19 – they literally laugh in my face when I tell them. Whatever…I still got a good deal on the fabric ☺ Yesterday in Kumase when we were surrounded by men trying to get us on their bus (it’s like a game – who can snag the obrunis), this 40-year-old Ghanaian man decided it would be a good time to propose to me. The conversation went something like this:

Man: “I like you.”
Me: “I’m not getting on your bus, it’s too expensive.”
Man: “No, I like you.”
Me: “Okay then.”
Man: “Where are you from? Britain?”
Me: “America.”
Man: “Obama!!!!! I love you, take me home to your country.”
Me: “Sorry, but I’m living here right now.”
Man: “Let me have your phone number.”
Me: “No.”
Man: “Let me have your email address.”
Me: “No.”
Man: “Why don’t you like me?”

I feel like I have one of these encounters at least twice a week. I have my first test this week, and I think it’s going to be pretty painful, seeing as how I never have any idea what the professor is talking about...although my friends have mentioned that they rarely even grade the exams, especially in this class because it’s about 800 students. And I’m beginning to actually barter in Twi – I feel it’s very effective because the Ghanaians love it and this it’s hilarious when the Obrunis try to speak their language. They usually just lower the price because they think we’re so funny and appreciate how hard we’re trying.

That’s all for now! Good news – I got the camp job this summer, so I will be heading to Wisconsin for a few months. Gramps and Grammy – I got your letter and there should be one coming your way soon. Love and miss you all!

Bonjour!

Well, bad news…my camera was stolen on my way back from Togo. So the pictures will be nonexistent for a while. As the Ghanaians say, “It is finished.” This past weekend we headed to Togo (country to the east of Ghana) because it was time to renew our visas and if we crossed the boarder it’s free. However, we were only given a stamp for 30 days, so it looks like we’ll be heading to Cote d’Voire sooner than we thought for another visa stamp. Despite those two disappointments it was a good weekend.

We crossed the Togo boarder Friday evening. It’s a French speaking country and no one in our group spoke French…so right away we knew it would be interesting. As soon as we went through immigration (an adventure when you don’t speak the language or have any of the currency to buy a visa) we were being followed by this possibly mentally challenged man on the beach. He kept up a steady stream of French and every time we tried to lose him, he was more determined to follow us. So very quickly I learned my first French words: “Fee shay mwa la pay!” I know my spelling is atrocious, but it means, “Please go away!” It came in handy a few times and was pretty effective.

Lome, the capital of Togo, is known to be the Paris of West Africa. So of course the food was amazing and the architecture was French inspired. And there was cheese! I haven’t had cheese in two months – such a luxury. It was a nice change from Ghana. Our first night we stayed in the city at Hotel de Gallione. It was full of expatriates (lots of greasy old men), but we loved it because there was live jazz music. New people showed up all night long with their own instruments for the jam session: violins, saxophone, guitars, harmonicas, drums. It was great.

The next day I had my first experience on a Moto Taxi – which is basically a motorcycle you hop on to get around the city. I loved it! It was so much faster than the trotros – I wish they had them in Accra during rush hour. We also headed further into Togo to the Safari Hotel, which ended up being amazing!! It had a pool and was right on the beach, and of course, amazing food. When we were hanging out at the beach all of the little village kids decided to come play too. We had no way of communicating with them, because they didn’t speak French or English, but they were adorable and ended up teaching us games and playing in the water and sand. Even the moms joined in the swimming by the end of our beach trip. I walked away with a nasty sunburn, but thankfully the weather back in Ghana has been pretty overcast so my burn hasn’t been too annoying.

This coming Friday is Ghana’s Independence day, so that should be a fun party and a relaxing weekend without travel – I haven’t been home for more than four days in about a month. Also, the athletic director at the university has decided to start up a girl’s softball program, so it looks like I’m going to be on the first University of Ghana softball team. Another American student and I will be teaching Ghanaian students how to play, as it’s likely they haven’t ever seen a softball game…I’m excited about the chance to make some Ghanaian friends at practices!

African Safari!

Last Thursday a few friends and I made the fourteen plus hour journey to the northern region of Ghana. It was most definitely an adventure. My seatmate on our first bus ride happened to be a Baptist Minister from the North; he was rather delighted about my church membership. He immediately began to set me up with Baptist contacts throughout Accra. He was very interested in how I felt about 9/11 and whether babies were abandoned in the United States the way they are in his country. He was surprised that some of his continents problems are shared by the developed world. After making sure I had a place to stay and was safe, we parted ways as he was traveling farther than me that night.

Anyway, we overnighted in Tomale and woke up the next morning at 3:30am to the sound of the Islamic call to prayer (extremely creepy that early in the morning) so we could catch the next bus. While we were at the bus stop by 4am, unfortunately all of the tickets were gone. So for about two hours we ran around begging trotros and taxis to take us up to Mole for a decent price. At first they would ask for prices up to 400cedi (completely ridiculous), but we ended up sharing a trotro with a bunch of obrunis from Belgium, Germany, and Spain for 120, success! It turned out to be a great morning – I felt like a world traveler.

As soon as we made it to Mole National Park, we saw four elephants mosey across the Savannah and take a dip in the watering hole. It was one of those moments when you think, “wow, I’m in Africa.” And miracle of miracles, the lodge had a pool. Needless to say, we took advantage of that and spent the day in the water. The next morning we set out very early on our Safari with an adorable armed park ranger. It was definitely a success, because we saw tons of African elephants, green monkeys, bushbuck, cob, warthogs (which are so personable and fun), crocodiles, and the craziest stream of army ants I’ve ever seen. I feel like I say this all the time, but it was just like the lion king! I think my friends may be getting tired of me singing The Circle of Life, but when I see things like a line of elephant tracks I can’t really help it.

After that we set out headed to the Hippo Sanctuary, but instead we ended up stranded in the small village of Larabanga. At first it seemed a bit miserable, but we ended up just playing with the village kids for hours and hours. They were all filthy and in rags, but they were the happiest, most smiley little group I’ve ever seen. The village women taught us how to flag down passing vehicles in hopes of rides even though they spoke absolutely no English, and eventually they began dropping off more and more kids for us to play with and watch while they went about their daily chores. One of the little girls clung to me the whole time. Her hair was turning orange from mal nutrition, and her teeth were literally rotting out of her mouth. Very skinny and wearing the dirtiest rag of a shirt, she couldn’t have been more than 5. It definitely put a sour taste in my mouth, just because she was in a situation that is so easily avoidable and yet no one has done anything to help her.

Finally we hailed a bus out of town. We were all cramped, and I ended up sitting on a top of the engine. It was extremely hot and made me very nervous every time it started smoking – I just kept praying that it wouldn’t blow up or break down. By the time we made it to our destination we were so coated in red dirt and sweat we look like different people – I’ve never looked so dark in my life, and all of my blonde friends suddenly had very red hair (picture American Indian skin color). Sadly, we never actually made it to the Hippo Sanctuary, due to extremely scarce modes of transportation. Instead, we just hung out in Wichau for the day and played cards and made friends with the little kids near the village well.

After a sleep-less, fairly miserable overnight bus ride we made it back to Accra. In the process I lost some of the fabric I had purchased on one or our buses. One of the girls in our group also got into a fight with our taxi driver when he couldn’t get us through the gates to the university (didn’t have his license) and we refused to pay him the full amount. He said, “Do not provoke my anger” and ended up grabbing Emily roughly when we tried to walk through the gates. He seemed to be rather surprised when she spun around and said, “Do NOT touch me! Get your hands off me!” I’m not sure how many women he’s had stand up to him like that. Thankfully, a Ghanaian student stepped in and after lots of yelling and refusing to get back in his taxi when the porters agreed to let him through the gates, we walked the mile or so back to our Hostels. So often throughout the weekend we would look at each other and say, “I just love you guys. I’m so glad we’re alive.”

My favorite quote of the trip was by our Belgian friend Demitri. Within the first 20 minutes of meeting him he said, “The thing about you Americans is you’re F***ing up your own language.” It was rather hilarious and pretty accurate.

Apparently it’s time for everyone to get sick. Lots of viruses, bacterial infections, dysentery, and Malaria are being passed around our ISEP group. So far only a few are in the hospital, hopefully I’m not next. And very sadly, my headphones have seen their last days…I’m pretty sure the trotro rides did them in. Hopefully I’ll be able to find some decent ones soon.

Success! Finally...

I finally had a successful volunteering expedition - two actually! I'm so relieved, for a while I thought it was never going to happen. Thursday I skipped class (just one, don't worry parents, it's not for any real credit) and traveled 8 hours (roundtrip) on a tro tro to Bosco orphanage. It was the longest, hottest travel experience I've had in my entire life. I literally thought I might die from the heat...thankfully I made it through, and was able to spend about an hour at the orphanage. It was a beautiful place, but definitely a disappointing visit due to it's ridiculous brevity.

The next day however, I was able to volunteer at an orphanage closer to campus in Osu, and it was WONDERFUL! I worked with about forty 2-6 year olds. When i walked through the gates twenty of them swarmed me, yelling and jumping up and down. They put me in that house because i requested to work with the disabled kids and HIV positive babies. One of the little boys, Peter, was adorable. I couldn't tell what was wrong with him, but he had no leg muscles to speak of and had trouble sitting up. We put some music on for the little ones to dance to (so adorable!), and I picked up little Peter's arms and did my best to help him dance - really it was just bouncing his arms up and down. And He would get this little half smile on his face; He was just so excited to be getting attention and touch it made my heart ache. These kids get much less individual attention than I saw in Haiti. There were only two Anties (nannies) for about forty kids. One of the little boys - Peppitto, immediately latched on to me and cried...trying to get attention. When I finally had a chance to pick him up (he's probably five), he clung for dear life like he'd never been held in his life...but if you hold one of them they all start trying to climb up you. It's really heartbreaking. I'm hoping to be able to take a few at a time to play somewhere else in the complex next time, so it won't be so chaotic and tear filled.

I feel like other things have happened, but my internet time is running low so i'm gonna cut this short. Thursday I'm traveling to Northern Ghana to Mole for a Safari and visit to a hippo sanctuary! I'm SOOO excited...also planning a trip to Burkina Faso (country bordering Ghana in the north) in a few weeks!

Kumase

Hi friends!

I have officially been in Africa for a month, and it is definitely passing more quickly than I expected. I feel like there's so much more I want to do, but I don't know if I'm going to be able to fit it all in. Go on a safari, visit other countries, play with a monkey, swim through some waterfalls...I need to start accomplishing more things.

This weekend our entire ISEP group traveled to Kumase, which is about a five-hour drive into the Central Region of Ghana. The city houses the largest market in West Africa, but we only spent about an hour in it, which was fine with me, because it was pretty hectic and overcrowded. Although, we did meet a lot of adorable little kids who wanted to play with us. While we were there we visited a Kente cloth-weaving village. As soon as our bus pulled up about fifty men trying to sell us kente cloth surrounded us. Kente is this really beautiful hand woven cloth that the people in the villages make on this huge contraption; it takes about 3 days to make a strip that's 6 inches wide and 5 feet long (I got to try weaving it!). The village was a bigt overwhelming, but I'm beginning to really enjoy bargaining (smiling is the key). One of my friends like to say things like, "my dear friend, be a good Christian and give ma good price", and it's almost always successful - they love it! We also hit up a woodcarving village,and people were buying drums for 30 cedi that would be worth hundreds of dollars in the states.

We also visited the palace of the great Ashanti chief (basically Ghana's royalty). I twas pretty much a colonial house turned into a museum filled with old furniture and creepy life-sized statues painted to look like past chiefs sitting on thrones. I found it less than riveting, but that was probably due to the six/hour bus ride I had just endured on very little sleep.

On the way back to Accra i FINALLY saw some monkeys. Unfortunately, it was extremely short lived; they were just chilling in the tops of trees as we drove through parts of the rain forest. Still, it was an exciting moment.

My plans for summer are finally beginning to shape up. More traveling. My American friends and I are planning a coast-to-coast road trip through the US. I should be good - I'm really glad I've found some spontaneous travelers.

I hope you are all well. I've finally started receiving some letters. Two weeks for mail travel feels like an eternity. But it's so great when they finally arrive. I think I might begin to make a few phone calls to some of you at home so be ready for three minute calls from an extremely long series of numbers.

Still no malaria for me - success! Gramps-so far I haven't found a spear, buy I'm still looking :)

Love and miss you all!

Cape Coast Weekend

Hello all!

I’ve just returned to campus from my first weekend of traveling. My entire group traveled about two hours west (thanks to traffic it took about five hours) to the city of Cape Coast. Once we got into the city we toured a slave castle used for holding thousands of slaves before they journeyed to the Americas. It sat right on the ocean and was amazingly beautiful. But the dungeons and jail cells were definitely surreal and pretty emotional for some of us, especially those whose ancestors were slaves. The conditions they stayed in were dark and stifling and much worse than livestock quarters. The walls of the dungeons had what looked like a water line about a foot from the floor, but in actuality it was the point to which the floors were covered with human waste and rot.

It was quite a shame that it was such a somber place, because the view from the outer walls of the castle was amazing. It looked over the rocks to the oceans where fishermen docked their multicolored boats. One of the boats on the water had sails made of patched together scraps – it made me think of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I loved it.

The next day we traveled out of Cape Coast and into the rainforest. We visited a national park and hiked up to the canopy walk, which is a series of about five suspended rope bridges through the canopy of the rainforest. The bridges were attached to huge trees that towered over the rest of the forest; it was easily over a hundred feet from the ground. Jumping over the edge would have definitely resulted in death. My knees shook the entire time, but it was AMAZING. Pictures don’t do it justice, the view was crazy awesome. I felt like an extremely nervous Tarzan. I only wish the one-foot wide board didn’t creak and rock so much as we crossed between trees. Grammy, you would have died. One of the Ghanaian students who came with us decided to jump and shake the bridge while I was on it, and I threatened his life. He found it hilarious.

After the canopy walk we visited a beach resort for lunch and a swim. The rooms were literally huts on the beach. It reminded me of a secluded beach in Hawaii. The beach was wonderful and everything was open and shaded with palm trees. The waiters brought us towels and food while we hung out under umbrellas of palm fronds. I could have stayed there for weeks. Of course, every person staying there was a rich foreigner…but it was a nice taste of Western convenience and food.

I took a tro tro into Accra and bought a guitar today – very exciting. I now have something productive to do during my downtime! Next weekend we are heading to Kumasi – the largest market in Western Africa. It will probably put a sizable dent in my bank account, but I’ll be getting presents to bring home. So you should all put in your requests now – kente cloth, tribal masks, beads, jimbeys (although those might be difficult to transport), bags, paintings, dresses – let me know!

Love and miss you all,

Becca