Around the World and Back Again

After traveling around for what feels like a lifetime, I'm finally get ready to settle into a routine. I'll hopefully be able to catch you all up on the whirlwind that was the two-week educational tour. We shall see.

On our way back from the north, we stopped at Kintampo Falls - the most beautiful waterfall I ever saw. We all got in and climbed all around like ants. The water was so powerful; I forgot that water could be that strong.

Once officially on the tour, we started in Cape Coast, which is tourist central in Ghana, especially because it's right on the gorgeous Gulf of Guinea.We had class on the rooftop of our hotel that overlooked the ocean, enjoyed the beach, and traveled around the city.

The Gulf of Guinea at sunrise

A fishing boat by the Gulf

The Atlantic Ocean at sunset

Cape Coast is also where the slaves were taken during the Transatlantic Slave Raids, so we went to two castles (dungeons). It was extremely powerful in ways that I can't really adequately describe, which seems to happen to me a lot on this blog. Going into the isolation cells where the slaves were kept, you could barely breath because the air was so thick. In Cape Coast Castle (dungeon), there was a church for the English officials and governor to attend that was quite literally on top of the dungeon where 800 male slaves were kept in darkness with minimal to no food. It's honestly the strangest juxtaposition of two dichotomous worlds.

The male slave dungeon entrance at Cape Coast Castle (dungeon) 

The view from the Governor's Quarters

Canons lined up, facing the Atlantic, at Cape Coast Castle (dungeon)

El-Mina Castle (dungeon): Basically the exact same as Cape Coast, but built by the Portuguese, not the British

Also while we were in Cape Coast, we all did a canopy walk through the treetops Ghana's rainforest at Kakum National Park. As I'm sure you all know all too well, I'm deathly afraid of heights, but I absolutely loved the walk...when the bridge walkway wasn't moving. It was incredible nonetheless, though sometimes absolutely terrifying in the same moment.

 

Canopy walk views from Kakum National Park

After we left Cape Coast, we went straight for the Volta Region, where bounced around three villages in nine days. We started in Dagbamete, where we traveled to try some Kente weaving. Kente is highly treasured in Ghana and one of the most worn and replicated patterns throughout the country and has been for centuries. It's woven in a man-operated loom that incorporates both hands and feet.

We then traveled to Sogakope and saw more dance and drum groups and traveled to a nearby village, Vume, to do traditional pottery (ie - without a throwing wheel) by the Volta River.

 

 Claire and Dan dancing with two girls from the women's dance and drum group

 

The two demonstrators at Vume beginning their pots

Ariel and I after finishing the tops of our pots

The view of the Volta River from where we were doing pottery

From there, we went to another village, Krobo-Odumase, which is the home of beadwork in Ghana. We met with a group of Queen Mothers and learned about the Dipo tradition for young girls. Dipo is an initiation, coming-of-age process and apparently one of the only coming-of-age traditions still left in Ghana.

Five Krobo girls dancing, demonstrating the different types of dress during each stage of Dipo

We also got a chance to make our own beads from a master beadmaker. The beads are all made from recycled materials, especially glass bottles. The broken glass is put into different size molds, melted, turned, and then cooled to produce gorgeous beads. Sometimes the beads are painted, but the beadmaker said that fashion is starting to change and plain, simple beads are selling better.

Broken glass in a mold, almost ready for firing

A mixture of the painted and plain beads after stringing

So, after traveling all about, I'm back in Accra until tomorrow when I'll leave for Kumasi to start my independent study project for the next month. I'm studying urban women's access to financial resources, so they may be more updates, though I can't guarantee they'll be as exciting as this one. Hope all is well and best wishes from Ghana!

True Life: I Went on an African Safari and Almost Broke My Butt

As the title eludes, it's true! Two days ago the SIT program went to Mole National Park right outside of Damongo for a safari. It was absolutely incredible, but I should probably back up and give you all some details.

The drive up to Mole was basically hellish. The first 90 minutes was fine, but then we turned onto this unpaved road that we had to stay on...for 2.5 hours. It did such a number on my back and butt, but it was totally worth it. I forget how lucky we are to have all of the roads basically paved in America. Never again will I complain about a pothole. Never. Again. Driving through we saw all of these villages, though, that always make me think of how diverse Ghana really is.

It's hard to understand how people can travel to Accra and think they know Ghana, but it really is so much more than just its capital. I'm not saying that because I travel around that I know more about Ghana, I just can see how different it is throughout the whole country.

Anyways, after the road, we finally arrived at Mole and we were able to stay overnight at the Mole Motel inside the park, which was really awesome, especially because there were monkeys and warthogs that just came right up to your door:

We got dinner at the hotel restaurant where they had hamburgers, so of course, most all of us ordered them. Tamale and the northern region in general has so much Westernized food, which, quite honestly, is a relief because Ghanaian food just isn't doing it for me anymore, but more about that later. So, once we got the cheeseburgers, we were greeted with a little Ghanaian surprise. The taste of the cheese was a little bit funny and no one could figure out why. Finally, we realized that the cheese was melted Laughing Cow cheese. Yes. Ghanaians (sadly) don't have much cheese at all, so Laughing Cow is as good as it gets. A newly-found appreciation for dairy products, let me tell you. The burgers also had cucumbers instead of pickles. Oh, Ghana, you slay me.

Anyways, then we woke up early on Thursday morning to go on a driving safari tour through the bush. We saw so many antelopes and gazelles. The road was so bumpy, but I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before and somehow was able to fall dead asleep. I was woken up to an elephant. Seriously. We all got out and were able to take pictures so closely to the elephant; it was crazy.

(The tro-tro that took us from Tamale to Mole that also doubled as a safari vehicle)

We had to leave fairly early from the park and work our way back to Tamale, but not before we had coffee!

When we got back to the hotel (which, I should add, is absolutely gorgeous and like a little paradise within Tamale), we all watched finished the season of Modern Family that I (accidentally) brought. It's so weird when we do that, though, because I literally feel like I'm in America again. It's a little odd.

Though I intended to write about food or Anita, I promise I will; I just figured writing about elephant sightings was, perhaps, a little bit more fun to write about. Anywho, tomorrow morning we're off to Kumasi for a night then we start the educational tour where we travel to Cape Coast, the Central and Eastern Regions, and the Volta Region all in twelve days. So, if I don't write soon, no fear!

Hot Tamale and the Fanless Village

After a long time away and lots of procrastinating, I decided it's time to finally what is bound to be the longest blog entry in the entire history of blog entries. Since I last updated, I stayed in Ntinanko, a village in the Ashanti region, for two weeks and moved up north to Tamale, the northern region's capital.

So, let's start with some village details: Ntinanko is about 900 people and about an hour or so from Kumasi. Because SIT varies the villages they go to every semester, some of the children in the village hadn't ever seen white people before, so that was definitely an interesting experience. Other than that, though, the community was absolutely welcoming and accepted us right away. In fact, almost too much. I didn't realize that we would all, to some extent, be sort of like zoo animals where everyone, especially the children, would want to watch us do nothing. Sometimes, the six of us would be taking naps in the SIT headquarters living room and children would be crowding the windows to stare at us. It was pretty suffocating at times, but then a lady yelled at the 60-80 kids outside of our house and threw some rocks and they never really came back with such great force. We were able to do a lot of really great things, like teach in the schools and I was able to study the Ntinanko palm oil co-operative for my mini independent study, which I'm sure is too boring to write about in detail on here, but it was totally perfect for me. Also, on the list of Ntinanko experiences was the three-hour church service we went to...all in Twi. Yes. That happened. Oh, and Izzy got a millipede on her butt when she was going to the bathroom. Village life. Totally rad.

The village experience was by far one of the most life-changing that I've had so far in Ghana. I'm going to try to help out the Ntinanko schools when I get home. They have a Tech Ed class, but only one computer for 168 students and the roof leaks when it rains. All of the kids were so excited to go to school that I just don't feel right about leaving when I know I could pull something together.

Anywho, we drove seven hours to Tamale and now I think I might be in the hottest place on the planet. It was 110 degrees today. It's so different than Accra and Kumasi, though. There are goats and cows just roaming the streets and whatnot. It's really cool. Most of the people are Muslims, too, whereas most of the country is Christian. The city's much more manageable, too, which is really nice after just coming from a village where there's just dirt roads and under 1,000 people in the community.

Today, we went to see a dance and drum troupe and every time I'm reminded about how real and raw and human it is to just dance to simple drum beats with your bare feet. I absolutely love it and could watch it all day. I'd say I would love to actually participate every day, but I'm pretty much the most embarrassing person ever when I dance, so I just like to, you know, tone it down a few notches every once in a while.

My internet time is about to run out, though, but in the next entry (which will hopefully be sooner), you can expect any combination of the following:
+ The story of Anita
+ Making shea butter
+ American food in Ghana (specifically lamb burgers)
+ The lameness of Ghanaian cuisine

Picture post!

Ali showed us how to get to seriously the fast internet cafe ever, so that means it's time for a picture post (finally)!

 My bathroom and bedroom in Accra.

My first marriage proposal at Labadi Beach, Prince.

Group drum lesson at the University of Ghana

Batik workshop

My finished batik on the left!

Kwame dancing during the first funeral ceremony

Tro-tros outside of the University

Me; my Accra homestay sister, Nana; Debbie; Ali; and her homestay brother

Ainsley, Sarah, Ashley, and Jake with their wire sculptures

A professional dancer during a show in Accra

The group driving from Accra to Kumasi

Kwame, being his ridiculous self, at the soccer game

The beloved Auntie Margaret and the goats

The traditional African priestess

Erica, me, and Ali

 Gin and lime for the birthdays!

Kente weaving at KNUST

Ainsley and me getting ready to eat our peanut butter sandwiches

The group at Kandy's!

So, that's just a taste of what I have so far in pictures. Yesterday, we started the real dance classes and it was crazy. It's so hot that I swear my body doesn't ever stop. I don't even have salt in my sweat anymore, just water. I love African dance, though. It's just an awesome feeling to dance barefoot to a set of drums right next to you and sweat dripping off of you. Doesn't sound awesome, but I swear it is.

This weekend we're going to Kejetia Market, the biggest market in West Africa, and having some clothes made by one of the girls' homestay mother. So, updates soon!

The Traditional Priestess and Me

Yesterday was definitely an interesting adventure. We were split into two groups and we traveled about an hour away into the countryside to go to a traditional African shrine. The nine of us walked into this very picturesque scene in the middle of a village. One of the SIT staff translated for us to speak to the priestess about her experiences and whatnot within the African traditional religion. Then, we danced with her and the other community members. We were then able to go for a consultation with her while she was possessed by the ancestral spirits. It was definitely an interesting experience that I couldn't even really comprehend while I was there. It's so crazy to think that, before Christianity, people practiced this type of religion for thousands of years. When I get to a faster internet connection, I'll post up some pictures so you can all see what everything looks like.

Anyways, I'm off to dance class!

Finally--a real post!

So, let's just excuse the fact that I may actually be the worst blogger in the history of bloggers. Since I last updated, I moved from Accra to Kumasi and a ton of stuff happened. Just the brief overview is that I've taken many dance and drum classes, became conversational in Twi, figured out the tro-tro system (by some grace of god), went to Labadi Beach twice, went to two funeral ceremonies, gotten five marriage proposals, and had some ridiculous adventures. It's really nice because the SIT group is really cohesive; I can't believe it's only been two weeks. So, even though we're all in different homestays, we're became our own family.

Moving from Accra to Kumasi totally showed the difference between Accra and the rest of Ghana. Accra is insanely crowded and there isn't much natural beauty to mention. I just never really felt comfortable there. My homestay family was nice and I got along with them, but it was just a little bit off the whole time. Luckily, many people in my group felt the same way, so it was a nice change to come to Kumasi.

It's really interesting to live the simpler life here. I don't really much, surprisingly, though I would like an ice cube once in a while when it's so hot. In Kumasi, like life in Accra, I don't have running water and the most surprising part of that is how much water it actually takes to flush a toilet. It takes more water for me to flush a toilet than it does for me to take a shower. It's also cooler in Kumasi and, let me just tell you, waking up without being drenched in sweat is basically the best feeling in this entire world.

Also, in Kumasi, I should probably mention my ridiculous homestay mother, Auntie Margaret. I really have minimal words to describe Auntie Margaret, but she is definitely worth noting. Auntie Margaret is about sixty of sixty-five years old and she also has a tenant, Ahrin, who lives with us. We live about fifteen minutes drive from both of our schools here and it's nice because it's just out of the city, enough to be scenic. Oh, I should also mention that Auntie Margaret has fifteen goats. They roam in and out of the house as they please. On Saturday, it rained ridiculously hard and Auntie Margaret wasn't able to get one of the baby goats to come to her and so, sadly, it passed away. This led to all of the other goats crying throughout the night and into the morning. I don't know if you ever had to hear the magical music that is crying goats interjected by a rooster, but you should definitely at some point. Auntie Margaret also loves beer and she doesn't like to drink alone, so she always makes me have at least a sip. I told one of the staffers, Kwame, that I was living with her and he just bursted out laughing. She is very loving, though, just a bit...off. It's hilarious, though.

I really love Kumasi and can't wait to finally load pictures for everyone to see my life here!

Also, to those who emailed me, I saw them all and will respond later! I had too many to respond to since I hadn't been on really!

Akwaaba!

I've been in Ghana for five days now, so I think I've accumulated some stories. Probably too many. Oh well. So, since arriving, we stayed in a hotel on Saturday and Sunday night in East Legon, the outskirts of Accra. It had air conditioning and running water. Totally excellent. We had orientation that started with learning a dance and some Twi vocab. Twi is ridiculously harder than I expected. It's all tonal and barely ever written down. I assumed that people would speak more English than they do, too. Most Ghanaians speak Twi to each other, not English. I'm trying to pick it up...eventually.

On Monday, our homestay families came and got us. My homestay mother's name is Auntie Jennis and she's hosted SIT students for the last 10-12 years. I have a host sister, Nana, who's six and I barely ever see my host father. In Ghana, all Westerners are called Obruni, so on the street, you'll just hear "Obruni obruni obruni!" It's not meant to be offensive, but you definitely hear it all the time. The people here are just so kind, though. They're always trying to help you in any way they can. Yesterday, a girl from my program, Ali, and I were trying to go back to our houses on the "public transportation system," tro tro. The tro tros are crazy old vans that just pick people up and run all the time. You never known when they're coming, they don't have designated stops, they basically are just a little nuts all around. Anyways, we had to transfer at Kwame Nkrumah Circle, the Times Square of Ghana. We were so lost, so this man who looked about 28 took us to exactly where we needed to go, caught a cab for us, and paid for our cab. Ghanaians are also really nice to obrunis in general, so that works in our favor. Our teachers here say that everyone in Ghana looks at the world as a chain link, so if one of the links is having a hard time, it is the others' duty to help out.

Also, a little known fact about Ghanaians is that 90% of them are up by 5:30 AM. Oy, I know, me...5:30? Yeah, it's true. I've been waking up for class at 4:30 AM to be out of the house by 5:45. I'm still trying to get used to it. Luckily, my homestay house is one of the nicer ones, though I have to still use a bucket shower because water doesn't run through the shower usually.

Sorry this is rushed, I'm grabbing a ride home from my host mom. More updates to come!