This is going to be a bit of a rant, then I'll cut to the good stuff. I’m really frustrated with my community service placement. And it’s not because I haven’t had experience working with Autistic children in the past. This is mostly to do the with center and the fact that there is really nothing for us to do. I don’t feel appreciated and I don’t feel like there is really anything that I can do to make the program any better since I’m only there one to two times a week. Victor, our community service placement advisor, came into AACT today to talk to Marta and I about our experience there. Not only was that awkward and the worst environment to do it in, but it wasn’t very helpful either. To frankly talk about my experience somewhere where I’m not necessarily happy, I shouldn’t be in that place talking about my frustrations around the people/staff that I’m frustrated with. But Marta and I still got a little bit in about how we felt. We talked to him about how the directors never really gave us any direction and the most help we’ve had since we’ve been there are the other foreign volunteers who are sometimes just as lost as we are. The Ghanaian staff seem to really dislike our presence there and never talk to us and when they do its very unfriendly. The organization of the whole program isn’t very conducive to the children’s learning. Half of the time the children don’t even do anything productive. For instance a few weeks ago we went in on a Friday morning, their arts and crafts/”fun” day. I was really looking forward to doing art with the kids because I think that it is so therapeutic and helpful for them. When we got there, they had US, the VOLUNTEERS, doing the art project. It was a tedious task where we make beads out of magazines, so the children wouldn’t have been able to help, so they should’ve given the kids something to do, right? Well, no they just sat around and did nothing while we made these beads. The only thing that was redeeming about making the beads is that they are going to make them into necklaces, etc. for fundraising, but still, they should’ve had some activity… anything! for the kids to do while we were doing this. So I’ve concluded that the only thing I enjoy about the program is the kids. I’m pretty certain I’m going to ask Victor if I can move my placement elsewhere after spring break, because I really want to do something that is helpful, where I actually feel like I am doing something. Somewhere like maybe an orphanage. Even Emily, a volunteer/intern that has been there everyday for the past couple of months, has said that the program is a lacking and that they definitely don’t need manpower – they have plenty of people working there; they need people who actually know what they’re doing and that can help the other workers to make a difference in these children’s lives. So after hearing Emily say that today, I really think that my ‘help’ there isn’t needed and I will get experience with Autistic children in the future, somewhere where my help can be put to better use. Emily also mentioned that a lot of orphanages in Ghana aren’t doing so well so they could probably use the help more anyway. So I’ll see how that goes.
Another thing that made me angry today is that when we were saying bye to the director, Marta and I were explaining to her that we wouldn’t be in for a while because it was our spring break and we weren’t going to be in Ghana. So she said that was fine, but then out of nowhere she asked us “How do you do laundry?” So we told her we have washers and driers at our hostel/house/dorm/whatever you want to call it. And to that she said you guys aren’t getting the real Ghanaian experience. You need to be doing things like Emily and Sophia and living with families and doing the real thing here. And this just really frustrated me. I know that we are especially spoiled living in this beautiful complex in a developing country, and when people say stuff like that its really annoying. Like don’t you realize that we know that we are fortunate and that really do appreciate everything about this experience. And just because we’re not hand washing our clothes, making fufu every week, living without A/C, and “living the real Ghanaian way” (whatever that means) with Ghanaians, doesn’t mean that we’re not getting any less of a great experience as anyone living with a Ghanaian family or any of the like. This is where NYU houses us and we pay for it, so this is where we’re going to live. Also, we’re here studying abroad just like anyone in Paris or Rome. We’re here just as much to immerse ourselves in the community and to learn about the way people do things just as much as anyone else in any other country, if not more, because coming here is SO different than the US whereas in some other countries, the lifestyle is more similar. People don’t make snide comments to other students studying abroad and living in resident halls, just because they’re not living with families and getting the “real” experience. We’re living just as much of a “real” experience in A/C and with wireless internet is just playing into the stereotype that Ghana and even Africa are not developed. “Real Ghanaians” live this way too, it just doesn’t happen to be the way that stereotypical Ghanaians live. If anything its wonderful to be living this lifestyle in a place that most people wouldn’t expect it because it shows how advanced this country is and how much its growing. Like Tina just said, “I think its demeaning to limit yourself to thinking that the African experience is just some primitive way of living, especially after all they’ve come through to get to where they are now.” Ugh, I don’t even know if I’m making any sense any more, I just really don’t appreciate it when people say that kind of stuff to me. It’ll be nice to be on spring break and have time to just relax and reflect on the past couple of months. I’m very happy here. So don’t let this post make you think otherwise, I just think that some people are very close minded and don’t see all sides of the situation.
Phew, back to the exciting, fun stuff that I’ve been up to. This weekend was absolutely wonderful. We got off to a bumpy (literally) start, but it ended up being just so marvelous.
Thursday night, Gaby and I went to get a drink with her friend David from Ashesi University. She met him in her dance class. We were originally going to go to his friend's birthday at some club, and he was going to pick us up but he ended up being stopped by the police because his car wasn't registered and he was like 3 hours late, so we just said, um... no club, let's just go talk. And he said he'd much prefer that, he only wanted to take us to the club to not let us down. At the bar, we just talked and it was so nice. He is very educated and quite privileged too and he had a lot to say about Ghana and America and life in general. He's been to the US a bunch to visit some family that he has there and says that one day he'd like to move there. But not for his whole life - just for a bit. He had many observations about that US... most of which were very true. He said that when in America, people don't really have the time of day for you. And that's true. Here in Ghana people are SO willing to help you out, to talk to you, to spend time with you - they simply like your company. Whereas in the US if you were to ask someone in passing "How are you?" it's expected that its a short answer, "Good", and you both go on with your day. Here, to some extent, that's true, but people also just LOVE to talk to you also. So if you were to walk by a stranger and say "Ete sen?" (How are you?) and they reply "Eye." (fine) (hopefully you remember this all from the earlier Twi lessons)... you might actually have a full conversation with them about their day, their family, their life/your day, your family, etc. That's somewhat frustrating about the US... but I guess I'm used to it, and I might be irritated if everyone I said hi to in passing actually wanted to have a full conversation with me about my day. David also observed that people just looove to eat and watch t.v., i.e. obesity in America. It's too bad that we have that reputation. We then talked about how many people have an expectation that when they get to America... their life is made. That they are set for the rest of their life. When no, that is not true at all. People have problems in the US too. They have to sacrifice a lot also. There are a lot of opportunities in America, but it's not necessarily easy to achieve. So that was nice talking to David. It was also nice to get approached by the waiter saying that this creepy, thuggish Ghanaian man wanted to give me his number. Ew. So I took the piece of paper with 'Charles'' number on it and asked David if I should do anything - he said basically to just acknowledge that I got it. And then when Charles was on his way out he came over to our table bent down by me and said "I'll be expecting your call soon" yucckkkkk. Charles and I haven't hung out yet, I'm going to call him tomorrow.
The next day was Ghana’s Independence Day! Happy Ghana Independence Day – March 6, 1957! Fifty two years of independence and peace – how exciting. That morning, we were off to Green Turtle Lodge, a little beach resort outside of Takoradi for Gillian's 21st birthday. To get to Takoradi, we took the intercity bus. It was 6.5 cedi. We met at Labone Coffee Shop (a 'famous' coffee shop near the house we live in) at 8:15 in order to get to the bus station by 9, to hopefully get on a bus by 9:30... even 10 would've been great. Soooo, we get there, all buses are sold out until 11:30. Okay, cool. We'll wait, we're in good company, right? 11:30 rolls around when over the intercom we hear "Passengers on the 11:30 bus to Takoradi are going to have to be patient." ... haha, only in Ghana. 12:30's here, and we finally get on bus. Mmm.. maybe one of the worst rides. Gaby was so generous to let me have the window seat so I could sleep since the night before we stayed out with David and the night before that I had just gotten back from my 20 hour ride from Burkina Faso - yeah I was pretty sleepy. The bus: no useful A/C just warm air blowing at us through the vent, lady behind me putting her knees in my back, couldn't open the window for air because the lady behind me had a child (since when does it matter if the window is open because you have a child?) = very little sleep, soooo sweaty in the sleep that I did get, so uncomfortable (those knees are nothing like the massage chairs at the Asian nail places). The only thing good about the bus is it got us to our destination. After a 4.5 hour ride.
So the bus ride was over. How about the tro tro ride there after. Quite difficult to find the tro tro to Akwidaa. Every taxi driver ever approached us about taking us to the Green Turtle Lodge. They all know that Obrunis are going to the Green Turtle Lodge. This would've been a great offer had it not been 30 cedi. So finally after finding the tro tro station, the one tro tro that was going to Akwidaa had to literally be put back together. It was actually taken apart before we got in it. The car had been used to transport a LOT of something - we're still not sure exactly what - but in the process they had taken out all the seats. So when they heard we needed to stop at Akwidaa, they put it back together and we were on our way.
The tro tro ride was really great, although Gillian, the birthday girl, would disagree. We didn't really know if this was going to take us to the right place. It was getting dark so there was really no way to tell if we were getting anywhere productive. And the people driving and operating the tro tro had no idea what the Green Turtle Lodge was. But I had a good time, and I just reallllly wanted to get to the Lodge. Also, the tro tro conductor was talking about how life was beautiful or something, I don't really remember, but it was fun, nonetheless. Okay, so we got dropped off at Akwidaa. Now what do we do... no sign of Green Turtle Lodge, except another swarm of taxi drivers offering to take us to the Lodge for some pretty steep prices. Finally we settled with 15 cedi because apparently it was pretty far and that's the lowest anyone would go.
Fifteen cedi was worth it. This ride was "cray-cray" (in the words of Gaby, aka crazy). SO long and SO bumpy. It was especially wonderful in the pitch black. We had no idea if where the taxi driver was taking us was legitimately going to the lodge or if he knew where he was going or if we'd end up at the lodge at all. This ride was so long. It was probably like 1.5 hours on the bumpiest road through little villages every once in a while. Finally! We made it. We ended up paying the driver 20 cedi because 15 just didn't seem like enough, especially since he'd have to make the drive back with no one in his car, so he'd obviously not be making any profit.
We finally made it to the Lodge after 12 hours of traveling (any future travelers to the Lodge - it really shouldn't take that long... just don't get on a late, late bus or look for a tro tro for too long, it’ll significantly prolong your experience). Getting to the Green Turtle Lodge was the most incredible thing. This place is so beautiful and just so serene. It's literally on the beach. The bar, the restaurant, the rooms, the tables, the everything is in the sand on the beach. Aw... what a place to end up at after such a tumultuous ride here. It was lovely. When we got there, Elizabeth talked with the man at the reception desk. She had originally booked three rooms but a few people bailed, so we only needed the two. He wanted to charge us for all three but Elizabeth explained to them that she had tried contacting them many times to cancel it but the phone service at this place = nada. Because it’s in the middle of nowhere. But we finally got him to agree that we wouldn't be paying for the extra room, and thank goodness we didn't because if we had. We might not have made it home this evening at all.
Having said that, no one budgeted enough money for the trip. I mean I guess we had JUST enough money! The first night…out of two nights.. there we started to realize that money was an issue. Soooo we all just pooled our money together and started a very strict budget. It was actually quite hilarious. We set aside the money we each owed for the hotel room and put it underneath the fan, obviously the most safe place. Then since all the food is on the tab, we would set aside money for our food. Then we set aside our money for the trip home. Then we set aside money for dinner and breakfast – we’d share both, two dishes for the four of us.. Lunch wasn’t going to be an option, we didn’t think. So this was the beginning of our little stay at Green Turtle and, really, thank the Lord that they didn’t charge us for the extra room. That would’ve been seriously bad news – aka NO food for us.
Our first night was great. And so relaxing. We ate dinner on the beach. This was before we realized the money crisis and ALL six of us got dinner. (There were six of us the first night… Mallory and Gillian ended up leaving on Saturday morning because Mallory’s mom was coming to town and the poor birthday girl didn’t feel well). After dinner, Gaby and I put on our suits and just laid on the beach and walked in the water. It was so peaceful and calm. We just listened to the waves crash on the beach and the palm trees rustle against each other. It was so quiet. So empty. And just so still. We took a short nap on the beach and just set our alarm so that we’d actually wake up and go to the room. Going back to the room was the worst part of the night. Gaby and I went to our rooms – we were both in different rooms, both sleeping on the floor. Hot hot hot hot hot hot night. The windows were open but almost literally no ventilation. And I sweat so much in my sleep. I almost got out of bed and woke Gaby to see if she’d like to go sleep on the beach, but I was just too lazy. She had the same thought in the middle of the night, but she was too scared to leave the room haha. So we both slept miserably and SO HOT.
Although the room was hot. It was an awesome room. It had a great shower, a bed, and a ‘green’ toilet. Everything was solar powered. The toilet was self-composting – so no water, also meaning that the waste is broken down and decomposed organically – you’d love it Greer! And you couldn’t put anything down the toilet but toilet paper. To make it smell less, we had to put ashes over the waste. It was so nice. I really want a self-composting toilet! And solar power. Which was lovely. Except at night when it goes out, because there is no ..sun. This was only a problem night two when Gaby and I actually got the bed and the fan – but the fan worked probably twenty percent of the night. Just our luck.
Finally, it was time to get up. We ate breakfast on the beach – just some toast, because by this time we realized the budget crisis. After breakfast, Gillian and Mallory left to go back to Accra. Sad times. But the rest of the day was so unbelievably wonderful. We just laid on the beach. Played some beach volleyball. And laid more. It was really hot so we spent most of our town under the little shades. Half way through the day we decided we NEEDED to fit lunch into our budget so we had a “budget meeting” – we held these frequently throughout the day with the little money that we had. We decided we could fit two cheese sandwiches into our budget. We ordered them. But then ended up waiting so long for them – they had to make the cheese, grow the tomatoes, and um .. make the bread. Not really but it really seemed like we waited forever. I think it was because we were so hungry from our small breakfast. We got our cheese sandwiches which were good. Definitely not filling though. So we put our order in for dinner and you have to tell them the time you want it – so we ordered the cheapest – two pastas with tomato sauce at 7:30. We had a great afternoon laying the beach, playing the water. The waves WERE HUGE. They took us down like sumo wrestlers. We, I think, all actually thought we might die. After being thrown down by a wave I had so much sand in my bottoms – it was like I had severely poopy pants. After that we decided those waves were too cray-cray. So we just hung out. We played cards and did our best at playing dominoes – anyone know how to play dominoes? No? Yeah me neither. So we didn’t really play dominoes. Dinner time slowly came. As we were waiting we saw another table get the pasta. We anxiously peeked at it. Wondering how big so that we wouldn’t expect too much or too little. We got the zoom camera out and took a picture of the pasta to inspect the size of our upcoming meal. It seemed like a good size. About an hour later we received our two pastas and devoured them. It was SO delicious. All we wanted was more! We could see that pasta across the way still. The girl at the other table didn’t finish her pasta. Our eyes ogled at it just wanting it in OUR BELLAY. Unfortunately, we weren’t feeling creepy enough to ask her if we could have her leftovers. Sooo instead, in honor of Gillian, we had another budget meeting and splurged 2.5 cedi on fruit and fondue! They said it was my birthday so the waiter who brought over our fondue started singing.. whispering happy birthday to me. It was so funny but so yummy to have our fondue made of mouthwatering Ghanaian chocolate. We had fresh pineapple and banana to dip in the chocolate. It was perfect for our little hungry tums. After this we were all so exhausted from the sleepless night before and all the sun from the day, so we went to bed at 9pm.
The next morning as we were eating our breakfast, this guy Sean came to sit with us. He had just been discharged from the PeaceCorps because of the governmental travel alert and the military coup. It was so nice to talk to him. At first, we thought that he was European, he kind of looked it, but then we found out he was from Illinois. He was in Mali to do work in a village with their water and sanitation. Ironically, he had two amoebas from drinking contaminated water. He realized the stupidity in drinking the water and just said that getting back to the States was going to be hell with all the medicines he’s going to have to take to get rid of everything foul in his body. He was very soft-spoken and so informative. He told us about the Peace Corps application process and how in depth it was. He talked about how he was planning to go to Mali and had these huge projects to put wells in and help with the sanitation of the water, etc. But when he got to his village, they really didn’t need help in that area because they already had funding from somewhere else, so he essentially just “hung out and drank tea” the whole time. The people you meet traveling around Ghana are just so great. It was so nice to talk to him. Unfortunately we only got to talk to him for about an hour before we had to check out.
Checking out was kind of shady, because we had to pretend like Tina wasn’t with us or they were going to charge us an extra 5 cedi for the extra person. So Tina and I hid in the room as they checked out and we ended up having JUST enough money. Then we were off to the STC station – another hour and a half on the rocky rocky road. But we had an incredible taxi driver named Frances. Frances was a such a fun little man. He was fun to talk to and wanted to teach us a little Twi, even though Twi isn’t really widely spoken in the Western Region where Takoradi is. He also asked us all if we were married or had boyfriends and our ages. When I told him I was 21 and didn’t have a boyfriend, then Tina said she was 19 with a boyfriend, he asked why I didn’t have one even though I was older than she is. He then told me he was going to find me a Ghanaian boyfriend from Green Turtle Lodge. How that’s going to work… I have no clue. But it was cute nonetheless.
At the STC bus station, we met a Ghanaian girl who was obsessed with American culture. It was hilarious and sad at the same time. Hilarious because of her obsession and what she was obsessed with. Sad because she’s left so much of her culture behind. Her name was Esi. Esi talked about how foreigners all think that Africans live in trees and hang out with monkeys and elephants, but really people aren’t like that… obviously haha. She said that the American stereotype was that females are all promiscuous. … unfortunate. Anyway, she was hilarious. She LOVES Sex and the City and wanted to know who all our favorite characters were. She loves Miranda because she’s blunt. She also said that she checks Perez Hilton EVERY time she gets on the computer to check the latest gossip. She loves Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, and she’s not a fan of Jennifer Aniston. She asked us if American men liked big butts.. and we told her mostly they like big boobs. And to that, I said well I have neither.. and Esi points to my boobs and says “Oh, you can get that fixed” and I told her that I didn’t want plastic surgery at all and she said, “Well if you have the money, why not?” Oh man, she was awesome. It was also unfortunate though because she didn’t know her family’s language. She didn’t really know her roots. This was appalling to me just because I feel like I’d love to know all of that stuff, and its just a shame to see her throwing it away for American gossip. She did make a good point that not knowing the language was also kind of bringing Ghanaians together because its like they al have one unified language so everyone can communicate. But this is a good example of a “real” Ghanaian experience – not all Ghanaians live primitive lifestyles… hers actually seemed quite luxurious.
Getting home was way easy this time. And when we got home, there was a huge rainstorm, and we went out to dinner for Gillian’s birthday. It was delightful and so nice to celebrate her real birthday!
Today… besides having a hard time at volunteering, I lost my phone and I’m pretty sad about that because I lost the numbers of some Ghanaians that I don’t think I’ll be able to get again. Hopefully it’ll show up somewhere. If not… oh well! Who needs a cell phone in Africa anyway.. I mostly only used it for an alarm anyway.
I'm now starting a blog entry about my homestay, Burkina, and um everything in between. Catching up on this blog is quite a pain in the b. So I'm going to try and start updated more daily than monthly.
love peace loooove
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