Inside the tree!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
monkeys climbing trees and i'm racist
So its been a while. Lots to update! Okay... well, after last time I updated, Andrea and I hung out with Akirash, a Ghanaian artist from Nigeria. We hung out with him at first because I asked him I could take photographs of him for my photo class - for this project we had to spend 8-12 hours with a Ghanaian. It ended up being such an incredible experience. At first, when I talked to Akirash on the phone about this, he was hesitant because he thought I was going to publish the pictures, but when I explained to him it was simply for my class and nothing commerical, he agreed!
When we got to Akirash's house, we hung out for a bit then left to run errands at the market and in the village that is outside of his house. Andrea and I both took our cameras and we had told Akirash about how shy we both have been so far in Ghana when taking pictures because we don't want to offend anyone or make anyone think less of us for taking pictures. When we said this, Akirash giggled and told us not to worry and to just take as many pictures as we want and not to worry about what others think. Since we're only taking pictures for ourselves and not publishing them or anything its not a problem. I dont know how often this happens but he said that people get angry when someone takes their picture then it shows up in a magazine or a travel guide, etc. and they get no recognition or monetary benefit from it. But I can assure them, my pictures aren't going to be published... except to my facebook or my blog.
Walking around with Akirash was so enjoyable and such a learning experience. We had so much fun! He bought food to make for dinner, we went with him to one of his art studios so that he could pray - he's Muslim. Watching his Muslim practice was so interesting... first washing himself with a tea pot of water outside the house, then praying on his mat indoors. It was so incredible to be able to observe that part of his day and that he let us be part of it.
After he was done praying, we walked around some more, went to an internet cafe where he checked his email, and just saw a bunch of his friends. He knew so many people in the village! We visited a few of his friends - went into another Muslim house and met this very nice, interesting man and his family. He had the most beautiful daughter, and his wife was so nice and welcoming also. They also allowed us to take pictures, so I got some cool ones there.
At some point while walking around, I tripped, nearly fell flat on my face, but was able to keep myself up. The only thing I was scared about was my camera - not even my face... but thankfully, both are fine. I did stub my toe though and it was bleeding. It didn't really hurt, so I didn't think anything of it, but when Akirash saw that it was bleeding, he was very concerned and said that we had to go wash it and wrap it up so that it wouldn't get infected. We went back to his studio where he washed it off with the same tea pot that he washed himself with before praying and he wrapped my toe with a little piece of fabric. It was so considerate of him to do it and he was so, so nice and caring.
After that, we walked around even more. All the school children were just getting out of class. They were all so excited to see us "obrunis" and everywhere we walked we'd hear "obruni, obruni!" And "snap us!" - meaning take my picture. I got so many great pictures of school children that afternoon. Akirash also helped both Andrea dn I be more bold - so we both were asking all the locals if we could take their pictures - most of them were happy to have their picture taken, others not so fond. But I did get some really good ones of people around the town. I wish I remembered the name of the town - but its been so long that I forgot. I really need to update for frequently. I think it started with an M... maybe something along the lines of Mamaba?
Well after leaving the village and getting so many great pictures of the local people and of course of Akirash, since that was my assignment in the first place, we went back to Askirash's house where we hung out for a while. Akirash made Andrea and me these delicious beans with some ground up white stuff on top - I'm not exactly sure what it was - something he bought in the market, but it was so delicious. We watched some Godzilla movie... interesting. I think Matthew Broderick was in it. This movie was so bad though, I can't believe he'd be in it, but we're pretty sure it was him. The DVD that it was on was one of the bootleg copies that you can buy on the streets here with like twelve other movies on it. I think the other movies were like "Tyranasaurus Rex" and "Aragon"... all my favorites, of course.
After eating and watching Godzilla, we went to the Alliance Francaise to dance and listen to live music there. It was so fun and the music was so good! There was also an art exhibition where one of Akirash's friends was showing some work - and the work was really good. It was mixed media and a lot of weaving different matierals together - hard to explain but brilliant.
We then spent the weekend, or some of it with Akirash. On Friday, Andrea and I went to Akirash's house to hang out, learn how to cook, and to spend the night. Our original plan was to spend the night Friday then wake up really early Saturday and go to Kokrobite, then go to Aburi gardens on Sunday. We ended up just hanging out on Friday, Andrea and I fell asleep really early.. and woke up after about 12 hours of sleep. And when we woke up Akirash had left a note for us saying that he had to go get medication for his friend in a city outside of Accra because they couldn't find any for him here. Instead of going to Kokrobite, Andrea and I went back to Chruch Cresent and I ended up spending my Valentines hanging out with a lot of people from the program and then going out to a very nice Italian dinner with a bunch of girls. Sunday, when Akirash was back from picking up the medication, he took Andrea and I to Aburi Botanical Gardens which is about an hour outside of Accra.
Something important about the weekend: Bathroom talk. Peeing sucked at the house because we had to pee over a hard surface squatting where you inevitably get pee all over your feet - while getting a wonderful hamstring workout. But I seriously had the LONGEST PEE EVER. It wouldn't end!! My legs were shaking and I was sweating like crazy just trying to hold myself up so i wouldn't fall in my pee haha. Ugh! Then pooing was an adventure too. We had to go to an outhouse type thing. There was an actual toilet, but no running water. We had to fill up a bucket before we went to the bathroom in order to flush the toilet. This was fun when I had to go at like 5 am haha. Basically I am so thankful for toilets in close proximity to my bed and just in general in America, but toilets are hard to come by here in Ghana.
Aburi and the surrounding city were so beautiful. The drive there was gorgeous - it was up a hill so we saw so much of the city from a higher altitude. When we first got off our tro tro, we got to a wood carving village. There were so many great masks, statues, and other wooden things - very cool. Everyone was trying to sell us stuff, but all I ended up buying was a small mask. After leaving this little market (if it could even be called that..), we walked to the Aburi Botanical Gardens. One of the most hilarious things happened as we were buying our admission to the park. So the sign said something like: Non-Ghanaians - Child: Free, Student - 1 cedi, Adult - 3 cedi. Ghanaian - Child: Free, Student - 50 pesewa, Adult: 1 cedi. So Andrea and I were like cool - 1 cedi. But apparently, student only applies to student through high school, so we were expected to pay the 3 cedi. We bargained down to 2, but still. A students a student. Whatever. So that wasn't funny, but then the lady told Akirash he had to pay, but Akirash decided he didn't want to pay. He told her that because he's there so much and because she always brings foreigners, like me and Andrea, he shouldn't have to pay and just walked in. We just laughed so hard once we got in the park because I really have never seen that happen and in the US i don't think that'd ever fly. Like I don't want to pay... soooo, yeah, I'm not going to. We joked about it with him for a while and he just laughed in his little infectious giggle, and then walked through the park. We bought pineapple from this lady in the park whose kids loved our cameras. The children really wanted to take pictures of us so we let them use our cameras and take pictures of us with their siblings and it was so fun and cute. The children were just so beautiful and full of life. After this we walked around some more than came to this tree. This was no ordinary tree. It was only the most incredible tree I've ever been to... it was hollow on the inside and had holes in it so we could climb INSIDE THE TREE. I got so many awesome pictures. I actually used one of the ones I took of Akirash for my photography project. That one got me into trouble, yet again. Geez, my photography teacher. That's all I'm going to say.
Last week, I also got some of my dresses back from Marjorie! I need to get more fabric so that I can make more stuff... but I'm started to realize that although its cheap, it adds up. I've made a couple tank top, a skirt, and two dresses. But i'm in love with all of them!
We watched Hotel Rwanda too. I forgot how good and moving it was. It was so sad too. I cried. But I'm very happy that I watched it again.
Then last weekend was my Ghanaian homestay. This is a whole post in itself. AH... I really should update more often, this is stressing me out. Maybe I'll post this, then write about my homestay, and then I'll write another one about this most incredible movie that we watched tonight for my recitation. I would highly recommend Traces of the Trade. It was just so phenomenal. But I seriously just think everyone should watch it.
This weekend, I'm going to Burkina Faso for FESPACO! 20 hours on a small Ford bus, each way. So many films to see. And a new stamp in my passport!
When we got to Akirash's house, we hung out for a bit then left to run errands at the market and in the village that is outside of his house. Andrea and I both took our cameras and we had told Akirash about how shy we both have been so far in Ghana when taking pictures because we don't want to offend anyone or make anyone think less of us for taking pictures. When we said this, Akirash giggled and told us not to worry and to just take as many pictures as we want and not to worry about what others think. Since we're only taking pictures for ourselves and not publishing them or anything its not a problem. I dont know how often this happens but he said that people get angry when someone takes their picture then it shows up in a magazine or a travel guide, etc. and they get no recognition or monetary benefit from it. But I can assure them, my pictures aren't going to be published... except to my facebook or my blog.
Walking around with Akirash was so enjoyable and such a learning experience. We had so much fun! He bought food to make for dinner, we went with him to one of his art studios so that he could pray - he's Muslim. Watching his Muslim practice was so interesting... first washing himself with a tea pot of water outside the house, then praying on his mat indoors. It was so incredible to be able to observe that part of his day and that he let us be part of it.
After he was done praying, we walked around some more, went to an internet cafe where he checked his email, and just saw a bunch of his friends. He knew so many people in the village! We visited a few of his friends - went into another Muslim house and met this very nice, interesting man and his family. He had the most beautiful daughter, and his wife was so nice and welcoming also. They also allowed us to take pictures, so I got some cool ones there.
At some point while walking around, I tripped, nearly fell flat on my face, but was able to keep myself up. The only thing I was scared about was my camera - not even my face... but thankfully, both are fine. I did stub my toe though and it was bleeding. It didn't really hurt, so I didn't think anything of it, but when Akirash saw that it was bleeding, he was very concerned and said that we had to go wash it and wrap it up so that it wouldn't get infected. We went back to his studio where he washed it off with the same tea pot that he washed himself with before praying and he wrapped my toe with a little piece of fabric. It was so considerate of him to do it and he was so, so nice and caring.
After that, we walked around even more. All the school children were just getting out of class. They were all so excited to see us "obrunis" and everywhere we walked we'd hear "obruni, obruni!" And "snap us!" - meaning take my picture. I got so many great pictures of school children that afternoon. Akirash also helped both Andrea dn I be more bold - so we both were asking all the locals if we could take their pictures - most of them were happy to have their picture taken, others not so fond. But I did get some really good ones of people around the town. I wish I remembered the name of the town - but its been so long that I forgot. I really need to update for frequently. I think it started with an M... maybe something along the lines of Mamaba?
Well after leaving the village and getting so many great pictures of the local people and of course of Akirash, since that was my assignment in the first place, we went back to Askirash's house where we hung out for a while. Akirash made Andrea and me these delicious beans with some ground up white stuff on top - I'm not exactly sure what it was - something he bought in the market, but it was so delicious. We watched some Godzilla movie... interesting. I think Matthew Broderick was in it. This movie was so bad though, I can't believe he'd be in it, but we're pretty sure it was him. The DVD that it was on was one of the bootleg copies that you can buy on the streets here with like twelve other movies on it. I think the other movies were like "Tyranasaurus Rex" and "Aragon"... all my favorites, of course.
After eating and watching Godzilla, we went to the Alliance Francaise to dance and listen to live music there. It was so fun and the music was so good! There was also an art exhibition where one of Akirash's friends was showing some work - and the work was really good. It was mixed media and a lot of weaving different matierals together - hard to explain but brilliant.
We then spent the weekend, or some of it with Akirash. On Friday, Andrea and I went to Akirash's house to hang out, learn how to cook, and to spend the night. Our original plan was to spend the night Friday then wake up really early Saturday and go to Kokrobite, then go to Aburi gardens on Sunday. We ended up just hanging out on Friday, Andrea and I fell asleep really early.. and woke up after about 12 hours of sleep. And when we woke up Akirash had left a note for us saying that he had to go get medication for his friend in a city outside of Accra because they couldn't find any for him here. Instead of going to Kokrobite, Andrea and I went back to Chruch Cresent and I ended up spending my Valentines hanging out with a lot of people from the program and then going out to a very nice Italian dinner with a bunch of girls. Sunday, when Akirash was back from picking up the medication, he took Andrea and I to Aburi Botanical Gardens which is about an hour outside of Accra.
Something important about the weekend: Bathroom talk. Peeing sucked at the house because we had to pee over a hard surface squatting where you inevitably get pee all over your feet - while getting a wonderful hamstring workout. But I seriously had the LONGEST PEE EVER. It wouldn't end!! My legs were shaking and I was sweating like crazy just trying to hold myself up so i wouldn't fall in my pee haha. Ugh! Then pooing was an adventure too. We had to go to an outhouse type thing. There was an actual toilet, but no running water. We had to fill up a bucket before we went to the bathroom in order to flush the toilet. This was fun when I had to go at like 5 am haha. Basically I am so thankful for toilets in close proximity to my bed and just in general in America, but toilets are hard to come by here in Ghana.
Aburi and the surrounding city were so beautiful. The drive there was gorgeous - it was up a hill so we saw so much of the city from a higher altitude. When we first got off our tro tro, we got to a wood carving village. There were so many great masks, statues, and other wooden things - very cool. Everyone was trying to sell us stuff, but all I ended up buying was a small mask. After leaving this little market (if it could even be called that..), we walked to the Aburi Botanical Gardens. One of the most hilarious things happened as we were buying our admission to the park. So the sign said something like: Non-Ghanaians - Child: Free, Student - 1 cedi, Adult - 3 cedi. Ghanaian - Child: Free, Student - 50 pesewa, Adult: 1 cedi. So Andrea and I were like cool - 1 cedi. But apparently, student only applies to student through high school, so we were expected to pay the 3 cedi. We bargained down to 2, but still. A students a student. Whatever. So that wasn't funny, but then the lady told Akirash he had to pay, but Akirash decided he didn't want to pay. He told her that because he's there so much and because she always brings foreigners, like me and Andrea, he shouldn't have to pay and just walked in. We just laughed so hard once we got in the park because I really have never seen that happen and in the US i don't think that'd ever fly. Like I don't want to pay... soooo, yeah, I'm not going to. We joked about it with him for a while and he just laughed in his little infectious giggle, and then walked through the park. We bought pineapple from this lady in the park whose kids loved our cameras. The children really wanted to take pictures of us so we let them use our cameras and take pictures of us with their siblings and it was so fun and cute. The children were just so beautiful and full of life. After this we walked around some more than came to this tree. This was no ordinary tree. It was only the most incredible tree I've ever been to... it was hollow on the inside and had holes in it so we could climb INSIDE THE TREE. I got so many awesome pictures. I actually used one of the ones I took of Akirash for my photography project. That one got me into trouble, yet again. Geez, my photography teacher. That's all I'm going to say.
Last week, I also got some of my dresses back from Marjorie! I need to get more fabric so that I can make more stuff... but I'm started to realize that although its cheap, it adds up. I've made a couple tank top, a skirt, and two dresses. But i'm in love with all of them!
We watched Hotel Rwanda too. I forgot how good and moving it was. It was so sad too. I cried. But I'm very happy that I watched it again.
Then last weekend was my Ghanaian homestay. This is a whole post in itself. AH... I really should update more often, this is stressing me out. Maybe I'll post this, then write about my homestay, and then I'll write another one about this most incredible movie that we watched tonight for my recitation. I would highly recommend Traces of the Trade. It was just so phenomenal. But I seriously just think everyone should watch it.
This weekend, I'm going to Burkina Faso for FESPACO! 20 hours on a small Ford bus, each way. So many films to see. And a new stamp in my passport!
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
a thousand words
Taking pictures here is actually really hard. I get really shy behind the camera here just because locals sometimes get either angry, embarrassed, or too camera-happy when I have my camera with me. I try to take as many pictures as possible here, but most of my pictures are from our excursions or weekend trips where we are in touristy areas because it is expected that people take pictures. Day to day life here people don't really appreciate having their pictures taken. In addition, we've been told that some feel like we are trying to exploit the under-development of the country, when really I appreciate every aspect of Ghana, even the less developed parts. So yeah, not as many pictures as I would like... but I do have some:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2110264&l=c9583&id=10808707
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2110752&l=06eaf&id=10808707
To make the pictures bigger, click on them..
So formatting photos on blogspot is probably one of the most frustrating things ever, so these are the places I went in order of the photos - Kakum Canopy Walk (at top), Elmina Castle, learning how to batik, then the beach outside our hotel):
Monday, February 9, 2009
jesus cares snack spot
So I’m writing this with no internet and I have to be up in five hours for Cape Coast. Really no rhyme or reason for me to write this right now, except that I want to. I probably won’t be able to post this until I’m back from Cape Coast either (if the internet is even working)… Well I’ll do a day by day since I’ve been slacking, and that’s easy.
Thursday: Popular African Music class – such a wonderful professor and we get to listen to really cool African music. I wish I could download all of it, but I don’t this much of it will be on iTunes =(. Then Marlee, Marika, Caroline, Leah, and I went to Makola market to buy more fabric. Took the “Craaa Craaa” tro tro, which is to “Accra Central,” of course. This was quite the experience. To get to the fabrics, you have to go through literally every other thing in the market, including my least favorite – fish. I was leading the way through the market and lead us down a path that was literally yucky fish smell for what seemed like FOREVER. But we were on a mission. Fabric. Finally, after seeing salted fish, fruits, veggies, shoes, pots and pans, and I’m pretty sure I saw some dead bats, we got to the fabric! There are a trillion fabric vendors. - each one having a huge variety of different fabrics. Unless you know exactly what you’re looking for, it’s so hard to pick one that you want because they’re all so unique and beautiful. Every lady at each booth picks a random fabric and tells you that it’d look nice on you and that you should buy it. It gets a little overwhelming and basically you just have to find the best fabric at the cheapest price or tell them that you’re not interested. Marika and I ended up buying one fabric a shared it and now I’m getting a tank top made out of it, yay!
Friday: Back to Makola market! This time I bought a couple batik fabrics and one other. I’m getting a long dress made out of one of them. But, I’m not too sure what I’m going to make with the other two, but I’m sure I’ll be inspired soon enough. The tro tro ride to and from from Makola were most literally the hottest car rides I’ve ever experienced. We managed to get the same tro tro both ways. Terrible ventilation, way too many people crammed in, and the engine was making the framing of the car so so hot. Friday night was the Social Mixer with Ghanaian students from both University of Ghana and Ashesi. It was a lot more fun and a lot less awkward than I thought it would be! Everyone was so friendly and I’m looking forward to making more Ghanaian friends in my Abnormal Psychology class at UG.
Saturday: Winneba!! How I love thee. The bus ride to Winneba was very easy. However getting on the bus, not so easy. The people at Kaneshie market were not so helpful this time around, like they were for Kokrobite. They lead us astray a few times, but finally we got in line for the 90 pesewa ride to Winneba. The bus ride was fun, we played lots of games, like name every country we can of every letter in the alphabet, then GHOST which I don’t feel like explaining, and um.. a little black magic, Marlee and I are psychic. When we got to Winneba, we checked in to our ‘hotel’ (similar to a dorm setting – no real windows, just slats; bathroom down the hall; communal showers; two twin beds). Then off to the beach. Awww… how wonderful. We were the only people on the beach, except a few Ghanaians who hung out with us and some others who were selling food. This beach was breathtaking. There were millions of shells on the beach and palm trees growing from the sand. Marika and I spent no less than three hours in the water just enjoying the waves. Then we played with these gorgeous children on the beach who were just so cute and they taught us some traditional African dance. A few others opted to sleep on the beach – resulting in serious burning, e.g. Marlee. That night, we laid on the beach for a couple of hours just listening to the ocean and looked at the stars because there is absolutely no air pollution. I think we saw very star in the night sky. I saw a shooting star too! On our way back in our breaking down tro tro, a yellow Lambourghini sped by us. It was disgusting. Seriously? Do you need that in Ghana? Do you need that in America? What a waste of money! You could feed propably the entire impovershed population in Ghana with that car. Rude. …I’ll pick up after we’re back from Cape Coast. I’m sleepy. Goodnight!
Monday: Funday! Not. Just had Abnormal psychology. Our first one. At first when the professor started talking, Leah, Andrea, and I looked at each other like, “Eff, there is no way we’re going to understand this man, especially learning about ‘abnormal’ psychology” because of the professor’s Ghanaian accent, but then as he started lecturing more, we caught on.
Tuesday: Marlee, Caroline and I went for Terrific Tuesday at Pizza Inn and got four large pizzas for 22 cedi. Completely worth it, in fact, we’re going back again tomorrow! Peri-peri chicken is my favorite – and this week I want to see if they can do a peri-peri chicken with PINEAPPLE! After Pizza Inn, I went to my interview at the Autism Awareness, Care, and Training center where Jasmyn and I got a tour of where we are going to be volunteering and met some of the other volunteers. Emily, a girl from Canada who has been volunteering there for about a month, is so nice and very helpful! She texted us directions on how to get to and from our neighborhood to AACT by tro tro… we ended up getting lost this week anyway, but oh well! Later that day, with my documenting class, we went to Jamestown – this very poor part of Accra. Jamestown used to be the main hustle-bustle part of Accra. Then unfortunately there was a huge earthquake and not so nice anymore. It was so wonderful. Yet so so destitute. We had these big video cameras and all the children were in awe and wanted to be videotaped. We walked by women making kenke, a traditional food here and it as so great to see the rhythm that they had while making the food and the joy they took in making it. The beach was so busy and beautiful. There was a fishing village on the beach and so many people were bustling around and doing their fishing business. It's so bizarre how gorgeous these beaches are but it’s where all the poorest people live. In the US these beaches would be lined with multi-million dollar mansions, but here these beaches are occupied by the poorest of the poor, just making a living by fishing. Its really unfortunate too because some of these beaches have so much trash on them... the waste management here is close to non-existent, and most people just burn their waste on the side of the road (all throughout Accra, not just Jamestown). So many people in Jamestown were playing football (not American) just in open courtyards, and they were all so good, like professional good. We also saw people boxing, which was really cool too. Hmm... it was just so much to take in. All the architecture was great. I really wish I had my camera camera with me so I could take pictures. Hopefully I'll go back soon though.
Wednesday: Photo class and then nothing.
Thursday: Woke up early and made the most delicious French toast with Marlee. Debby’s, one of the CRAs, mom makes the most delicious bread. We buy it in bulk. I’ve never been a bread eater (maybe that’s because I thought I was gluten intolerant for so long) but I seriously eat so much of Debby’s mom’s bread here. She sells each loaf for 2 cedi and my house went through like ten loaves of bread in like a week. Its so hard NOT TO EAT! So if I’m a trillion pounds when I get back from Africa, please excuse me, the bread is quite wonderful here. Went to Champs for Trivia Night and did pretty well. We got there a round late, so we only got 9th place, but next week we’re going to DOMINATE! Outside of Champs, we talked to a couple kids who are here strictly for volunteering. It was very eye-opening to hear about their experiences since they've been in Ghana and how they drastically differ from ours. I kepk thinking about how spoiled we are with our air conditioning and how we get angry when the internet isn't working, while they're in small villages helping families out and paying out of pocket for the villages chicken pox vaccination becuas the villagers couldn't afford it. They said that these people live on less than 50 pesewa a day - that's less than 50 American cents A DAY! I had to remind myself, well Marlee reminded me, that our stay here is no less significant, but just significant in a different way because we are here for our university education.. while they are here specifically to volunteer. I'm happy I got to talk with them because it sounds like something I'd be very interested in doing sometime in the future. ...now I'm going to sound completely vain and materialistic...
Friday: To sugar or to thread. That is the question. Nafisa came in today. Nafisa is the most wonderful blessing to Church Cresent since Marjorie, our dress maker. Nafisa came to our residence hall to sugar and thread (two different forms of hair removal) basically every girl in Church. She couldn't have come at a better time, since we were off to Cape Coast the next day! There were about ten of us who got these services all in the living room, mind you - leg sugaring, arm pit sugaring, bikini sugaring, eye brow threading, mustache removal/threading, and that's it. We all shed a few tears, and have now vowed, no shave February so we can all get our legs and armpits sugared in a couple of weeks. When in Africa.... That night, I videochatted with Erin and Allie!! Well minus the video. We conferenced called. So lovely to talk with my roomies =).
Up at 6am Saturday. Bus trip to Cape Coast/Elimina where we did a ton of stuff. Right when we got in, we had brunch on the beach, it was so glorious. We had a bunch of good breakfast foods like omelettes, croissants, cereal, looooots of pineapple, orange juice, and a great chocolate drink here called Milo, yum. After we ate, a bunch of us went on the beach and just played around on the rocks and in the water. It was just so beautiful. So that was the start of our day, next we were off to Elmina Castle (St. George's Castle back then) where thousands of slaves where held throughout history. It was so terribly hot that when we were listening to the tour guide, Emma fainted. It was so crazy because her water bottle dropped then she dropped, but thankfully Tanisha was there to hold her up. It was so bizarre to see someone faint. Needless to say, after that, they made sure we were drinking plenty of water and staying in the shade and sitting whenever we felt too hot. The tour through the castle was so sad. We were told the history of the actual castle - it was built by the Portuguese, but then taken over by the Dutch who maintained the slave trading, then the British who stopped the slave trading then gave Ghana its independence in 1957, when the castle was for the first time Ghana's. First we went to the women's quarters where we saw where hundreds of women were kept in very small quarters with no where to use the restroom, no where to sleep, and no where essentially to move. These women were forced to be in this room all day and all night where they would urinate, poop, menstruate, and vomit. They had to sleep in it and walk in it and just wait. They would wait until they were called to get on the slave boat to Europe or America. They were also sometimes forced by the governor to sleep with him. Some became his mistresses if they became pregnant, but otherwise they'd just be thrown back in the castle. Next we went to the mens' quarters which were very similar, but no forceful sex. Lastly, we went to the top of the castle where the views of the beach were absolutely incredible and the rooms were so nice. This is where the governor and his family lived their life in deliberate obliviousness to what was going on just floors below them. It was all so sad. Just thinking about where we were and how people had been tortured, raped, and killed on the very same floors that we were walking on was very eerie and disturbing. I just can't even imagine how people were able to treat other human beings the way they did. Our tour guide emphasized the importance of education about this in order to ensure that it never happened again in history. As we were leaving, some guy told Christa Sanders, the assistant director of our program, that he thought I was ‘nice’ (everyone is ‘nice’ here) and man did Christa show him – “You know what! She is her own woman…” then I got in the bus and let Christa take care of him.. what a character!
Next, we were off to Kakum National Park where we did a canopy walk! It was so incredible and so fun. I know I say this a lot, but I really don't think I've ever sweat SOOOO much in my life. We've estimated that we each probably sweat about a gallon of sweat. But for some reason, our pictures don't actually look too bad - we just look so shiny! Kind of like Edward in Twilight (for you Twilight fans =)). We were about 130 feet in the sky and walked over huge expanses of rainforest. It was quite unreal and so fun. I love heights and thrill like that.. and even people who were scared of heights went! Yahoo. After this sweat fest, we went back to the hotel/beach resort (very un-study abroad like) and went swimming in the pool and walked along the beach. For dinner, we had a buffet on the beach then there was birthday cake for all the February birthdays and then a bonfire on the beach. Very camp like – lots of games like “down by the banks” and “freeze tag” haha. No scary stories though =(. Sunday, we BATIKed!!! This was so so fun. I’m not really about to try to describe this so I’ll let wiki do it - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batik. I also took a bunch of pictures. Our fabrics came our beautifully and I’m so happy that we got to opportunity to do this activity. For one last time, Andrea, Gaby, Monica, and I went in the ocean and then in the pool. So refreshing.
Today, Jasmyn, Marta, and I went to our first day at AACT. It was so fun and such a learning experience. I can already tell I’m going to need a lot of patience and love to do well with the children and help them like I would like to.
In other news, Marlee, Caroline, and I have solidified our Spring Break plans. Cape Town, South Africa for 4 days, then Windhoek, Namibia for 4 days. Ah! I'm so excited.
Welp, that’s all folks.
Love peace love
Thursday: Popular African Music class – such a wonderful professor and we get to listen to really cool African music. I wish I could download all of it, but I don’t this much of it will be on iTunes =(. Then Marlee, Marika, Caroline, Leah, and I went to Makola market to buy more fabric. Took the “Craaa Craaa” tro tro, which is to “Accra Central,” of course. This was quite the experience. To get to the fabrics, you have to go through literally every other thing in the market, including my least favorite – fish. I was leading the way through the market and lead us down a path that was literally yucky fish smell for what seemed like FOREVER. But we were on a mission. Fabric. Finally, after seeing salted fish, fruits, veggies, shoes, pots and pans, and I’m pretty sure I saw some dead bats, we got to the fabric! There are a trillion fabric vendors. - each one having a huge variety of different fabrics. Unless you know exactly what you’re looking for, it’s so hard to pick one that you want because they’re all so unique and beautiful. Every lady at each booth picks a random fabric and tells you that it’d look nice on you and that you should buy it. It gets a little overwhelming and basically you just have to find the best fabric at the cheapest price or tell them that you’re not interested. Marika and I ended up buying one fabric a shared it and now I’m getting a tank top made out of it, yay!
Friday: Back to Makola market! This time I bought a couple batik fabrics and one other. I’m getting a long dress made out of one of them. But, I’m not too sure what I’m going to make with the other two, but I’m sure I’ll be inspired soon enough. The tro tro ride to and from from Makola were most literally the hottest car rides I’ve ever experienced. We managed to get the same tro tro both ways. Terrible ventilation, way too many people crammed in, and the engine was making the framing of the car so so hot. Friday night was the Social Mixer with Ghanaian students from both University of Ghana and Ashesi. It was a lot more fun and a lot less awkward than I thought it would be! Everyone was so friendly and I’m looking forward to making more Ghanaian friends in my Abnormal Psychology class at UG.
Saturday: Winneba!! How I love thee. The bus ride to Winneba was very easy. However getting on the bus, not so easy. The people at Kaneshie market were not so helpful this time around, like they were for Kokrobite. They lead us astray a few times, but finally we got in line for the 90 pesewa ride to Winneba. The bus ride was fun, we played lots of games, like name every country we can of every letter in the alphabet, then GHOST which I don’t feel like explaining, and um.. a little black magic, Marlee and I are psychic. When we got to Winneba, we checked in to our ‘hotel’ (similar to a dorm setting – no real windows, just slats; bathroom down the hall; communal showers; two twin beds). Then off to the beach. Awww… how wonderful. We were the only people on the beach, except a few Ghanaians who hung out with us and some others who were selling food. This beach was breathtaking. There were millions of shells on the beach and palm trees growing from the sand. Marika and I spent no less than three hours in the water just enjoying the waves. Then we played with these gorgeous children on the beach who were just so cute and they taught us some traditional African dance. A few others opted to sleep on the beach – resulting in serious burning, e.g. Marlee. That night, we laid on the beach for a couple of hours just listening to the ocean and looked at the stars because there is absolutely no air pollution. I think we saw very star in the night sky. I saw a shooting star too! On our way back in our breaking down tro tro, a yellow Lambourghini sped by us. It was disgusting. Seriously? Do you need that in Ghana? Do you need that in America? What a waste of money! You could feed propably the entire impovershed population in Ghana with that car. Rude. …I’ll pick up after we’re back from Cape Coast. I’m sleepy. Goodnight!
Monday: Funday! Not. Just had Abnormal psychology. Our first one. At first when the professor started talking, Leah, Andrea, and I looked at each other like, “Eff, there is no way we’re going to understand this man, especially learning about ‘abnormal’ psychology” because of the professor’s Ghanaian accent, but then as he started lecturing more, we caught on.
Tuesday: Marlee, Caroline and I went for Terrific Tuesday at Pizza Inn and got four large pizzas for 22 cedi. Completely worth it, in fact, we’re going back again tomorrow! Peri-peri chicken is my favorite – and this week I want to see if they can do a peri-peri chicken with PINEAPPLE! After Pizza Inn, I went to my interview at the Autism Awareness, Care, and Training center where Jasmyn and I got a tour of where we are going to be volunteering and met some of the other volunteers. Emily, a girl from Canada who has been volunteering there for about a month, is so nice and very helpful! She texted us directions on how to get to and from our neighborhood to AACT by tro tro… we ended up getting lost this week anyway, but oh well! Later that day, with my documenting class, we went to Jamestown – this very poor part of Accra. Jamestown used to be the main hustle-bustle part of Accra. Then unfortunately there was a huge earthquake and not so nice anymore. It was so wonderful. Yet so so destitute. We had these big video cameras and all the children were in awe and wanted to be videotaped. We walked by women making kenke, a traditional food here and it as so great to see the rhythm that they had while making the food and the joy they took in making it. The beach was so busy and beautiful. There was a fishing village on the beach and so many people were bustling around and doing their fishing business. It's so bizarre how gorgeous these beaches are but it’s where all the poorest people live. In the US these beaches would be lined with multi-million dollar mansions, but here these beaches are occupied by the poorest of the poor, just making a living by fishing. Its really unfortunate too because some of these beaches have so much trash on them... the waste management here is close to non-existent, and most people just burn their waste on the side of the road (all throughout Accra, not just Jamestown). So many people in Jamestown were playing football (not American) just in open courtyards, and they were all so good, like professional good. We also saw people boxing, which was really cool too. Hmm... it was just so much to take in. All the architecture was great. I really wish I had my camera camera with me so I could take pictures. Hopefully I'll go back soon though.
Wednesday: Photo class and then nothing.
Thursday: Woke up early and made the most delicious French toast with Marlee. Debby’s, one of the CRAs, mom makes the most delicious bread. We buy it in bulk. I’ve never been a bread eater (maybe that’s because I thought I was gluten intolerant for so long) but I seriously eat so much of Debby’s mom’s bread here. She sells each loaf for 2 cedi and my house went through like ten loaves of bread in like a week. Its so hard NOT TO EAT! So if I’m a trillion pounds when I get back from Africa, please excuse me, the bread is quite wonderful here. Went to Champs for Trivia Night and did pretty well. We got there a round late, so we only got 9th place, but next week we’re going to DOMINATE! Outside of Champs, we talked to a couple kids who are here strictly for volunteering. It was very eye-opening to hear about their experiences since they've been in Ghana and how they drastically differ from ours. I kepk thinking about how spoiled we are with our air conditioning and how we get angry when the internet isn't working, while they're in small villages helping families out and paying out of pocket for the villages chicken pox vaccination becuas the villagers couldn't afford it. They said that these people live on less than 50 pesewa a day - that's less than 50 American cents A DAY! I had to remind myself, well Marlee reminded me, that our stay here is no less significant, but just significant in a different way because we are here for our university education.. while they are here specifically to volunteer. I'm happy I got to talk with them because it sounds like something I'd be very interested in doing sometime in the future. ...now I'm going to sound completely vain and materialistic...
Friday: To sugar or to thread. That is the question. Nafisa came in today. Nafisa is the most wonderful blessing to Church Cresent since Marjorie, our dress maker. Nafisa came to our residence hall to sugar and thread (two different forms of hair removal) basically every girl in Church. She couldn't have come at a better time, since we were off to Cape Coast the next day! There were about ten of us who got these services all in the living room, mind you - leg sugaring, arm pit sugaring, bikini sugaring, eye brow threading, mustache removal/threading, and that's it. We all shed a few tears, and have now vowed, no shave February so we can all get our legs and armpits sugared in a couple of weeks. When in Africa.... That night, I videochatted with Erin and Allie!! Well minus the video. We conferenced called. So lovely to talk with my roomies =).
Up at 6am Saturday. Bus trip to Cape Coast/Elimina where we did a ton of stuff. Right when we got in, we had brunch on the beach, it was so glorious. We had a bunch of good breakfast foods like omelettes, croissants, cereal, looooots of pineapple, orange juice, and a great chocolate drink here called Milo, yum. After we ate, a bunch of us went on the beach and just played around on the rocks and in the water. It was just so beautiful. So that was the start of our day, next we were off to Elmina Castle (St. George's Castle back then) where thousands of slaves where held throughout history. It was so terribly hot that when we were listening to the tour guide, Emma fainted. It was so crazy because her water bottle dropped then she dropped, but thankfully Tanisha was there to hold her up. It was so bizarre to see someone faint. Needless to say, after that, they made sure we were drinking plenty of water and staying in the shade and sitting whenever we felt too hot. The tour through the castle was so sad. We were told the history of the actual castle - it was built by the Portuguese, but then taken over by the Dutch who maintained the slave trading, then the British who stopped the slave trading then gave Ghana its independence in 1957, when the castle was for the first time Ghana's. First we went to the women's quarters where we saw where hundreds of women were kept in very small quarters with no where to use the restroom, no where to sleep, and no where essentially to move. These women were forced to be in this room all day and all night where they would urinate, poop, menstruate, and vomit. They had to sleep in it and walk in it and just wait. They would wait until they were called to get on the slave boat to Europe or America. They were also sometimes forced by the governor to sleep with him. Some became his mistresses if they became pregnant, but otherwise they'd just be thrown back in the castle. Next we went to the mens' quarters which were very similar, but no forceful sex. Lastly, we went to the top of the castle where the views of the beach were absolutely incredible and the rooms were so nice. This is where the governor and his family lived their life in deliberate obliviousness to what was going on just floors below them. It was all so sad. Just thinking about where we were and how people had been tortured, raped, and killed on the very same floors that we were walking on was very eerie and disturbing. I just can't even imagine how people were able to treat other human beings the way they did. Our tour guide emphasized the importance of education about this in order to ensure that it never happened again in history. As we were leaving, some guy told Christa Sanders, the assistant director of our program, that he thought I was ‘nice’ (everyone is ‘nice’ here) and man did Christa show him – “You know what! She is her own woman…” then I got in the bus and let Christa take care of him.. what a character!
Next, we were off to Kakum National Park where we did a canopy walk! It was so incredible and so fun. I know I say this a lot, but I really don't think I've ever sweat SOOOO much in my life. We've estimated that we each probably sweat about a gallon of sweat. But for some reason, our pictures don't actually look too bad - we just look so shiny! Kind of like Edward in Twilight (for you Twilight fans =)). We were about 130 feet in the sky and walked over huge expanses of rainforest. It was quite unreal and so fun. I love heights and thrill like that.. and even people who were scared of heights went! Yahoo. After this sweat fest, we went back to the hotel/beach resort (very un-study abroad like) and went swimming in the pool and walked along the beach. For dinner, we had a buffet on the beach then there was birthday cake for all the February birthdays and then a bonfire on the beach. Very camp like – lots of games like “down by the banks” and “freeze tag” haha. No scary stories though =(. Sunday, we BATIKed!!! This was so so fun. I’m not really about to try to describe this so I’ll let wiki do it - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batik. I also took a bunch of pictures. Our fabrics came our beautifully and I’m so happy that we got to opportunity to do this activity. For one last time, Andrea, Gaby, Monica, and I went in the ocean and then in the pool. So refreshing.
Today, Jasmyn, Marta, and I went to our first day at AACT. It was so fun and such a learning experience. I can already tell I’m going to need a lot of patience and love to do well with the children and help them like I would like to.
In other news, Marlee, Caroline, and I have solidified our Spring Break plans. Cape Town, South Africa for 4 days, then Windhoek, Namibia for 4 days. Ah! I'm so excited.
Welp, that’s all folks.
Love peace love
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