Traveling the Northern and Upper East Regions

During my revision week at uni, which is a week long between the end of lectures and the start of finals, I took a five day trip to the Northern part of Ghana with another international student, Jenna. Our plans came together better than we could ever planned considering the bulk of of our plans were made just a few days in advance or as we went along. The first leg of our trip was up to Tamale, the capital of the Northern Region.

We started our trip in two hours of traffic to STC bus station, a trip that should have been just twenty minutes away. We just barely made it to our 8am bus. The bus itself was super nice. I keep likening it to flying first class because the seats were huge and comfy and were complete with a meal tray that swung out of the arm of the chair. They even played Ghanaian movies for part of the trip and 90s love song music videos for the last part. In general the trip was good despite the fact it was about 12 hours. There were enough stops for food and washrooms, although washrooms become a much looser term the further north you go (I will discuss it further later). Some of the roads were pretty bad and we spent long streches on bumpy, dirt roads crevassed with deep dips in the terrain. But we finally arrived in Tamale around 9:30 in the evening and went straight to our guesthouse (Guesthouse is the term used for a a hostel, although they are slightly different than hostels).

In the morning Jenna and I found a little gem of a place to get some breakfast before catching our bus to Mole National Park. It was called Swad Fast Food, although fast food is a misleading term since our 6 cedi meal consisted of fresh juice, our choice of tea, 'coffee', or Milo (hot chocolate-like drink), a large spanish omlete with tomatoes, peppers, and onions, and a generous helping of toast and butter, served on a garden patio.

Later we met up with some other international students also traveling to Mole. We all had tickets for a 1:30 bus to Mole National Park but it didn't actually leave until 5:30. Such is how time operates in Ghana! By the time we got on the road it was dark. The bus was packed full and the roads were bad, once again. The guy sitting next to me fell asleep on my shoulder a few times, but we were all tired so I couldn't blame him. It was dark at this point and I had a clear view of the night sky. They were stunning. Because the villages in the North are generally more traditional in most areas with mud huts and thatched roofs there is much less light pollution which means clear night skies and a banner of stars above.

We arrived at Mole and we were all exhausted from sitting around in the sun all day at the bus station. Jenna and I opted to stay in the female dorms and we passed out as soom as we could. None of us got the pleasure of a running shower because their pipe water only runs during certin times through the day.

We woke up early the next morning for the walking safari and saw the park for the first time in full light. I walked out to the observing deck over the expanse of savanna and the watering hole below and I literally could not put words together. "Wow" was about the extent of my sentence structure. Grade school grammar could never have prepared me for a moment like that. Being in a city for so long made me forget how much I really do love the quiet beauty of nature.
From the observation deck we could see some men out in a canoe on the watering hole. Jenna and I realized there was a guy in the water and someone behind us was explaining that they were trying to get 'him' out. He was by this large rock in the water and I couldn't fathom how he got in there to begin with. But at that point we both remembered that our Austrian roommates form the previous night had told us that the previous morning they had done the walking safari and they saw an elephant die. Their guide pointed him out as an older elephant that they expected to die soon and sure enough they watched him move into the water and proceed to dive under. After about half an hour they said their guide admitted that that was quite unusual and that he probably had gone their to die. And what we were viewing that morning was the men trying to get him out of the water. What we thought was a rock at first was the elephant whose body had surfaced.

The walking safari itself was perfect. We headed out around 7 with a guide who led us through the savanna landscape. It was quiet and there was no garbage, something very rare in most parts of Ghana. We saw elephants, antelope, and wart hogs. The tour ended in a small village that is located in Mole where warhogs and baboons wander the street amongst people.
After breakfast we did a canoe tour and some of us did a village walk. These were part of an ecotourism program run with the village of Mognori. It was originally set up because when the park opened the people had problems with elephants trampling their crops and there was no other way to supplement their loses.

The village is located outside the main park so we took a jeep there and some of us got to ride on top. It seemed like some of us enjoyed that more than anything else. I sat towards the back with my feet hanging behind the jeep, and this seemed to be where the most dirt got kicked up, thus leaving me covered in a thick layer of red dirt from head to toe once I got off. It wasn't until I was back in ISH days later that I finally got a propper shower and saw the real extent of dirt that ran out of my hair, creating a muddy pool in the bottom of the shower.
On the village tour we got to meet with the village herbalist, the chief's brother, who showed us different roots he uses to cure different aliments, such as a headache, which is expressed as "my head has been atacked by a lion." We also got to shake hands with the chief himself. What a sight he was, perched under a large tree wearing an Obama t-shirt.

The last thing we were shown in the vilalge was the process of making shea butter. Ghana is a big producer in shea butter, and this particular village produces their own. We were shown the nuts that it is made from and it was explained how they are picked, cracked, dried, and crushed before being processed in to the butter. They use it for the skin as well as for cooking.

Back at the motel we all hung out by the pool and just relaxed. It was really an all around great day, and to end it watching a beautiful African red sunset over the savanna landscape we had walked thorugh earlier that day was perfect. And I hate to admit it, but listening to the Lion King soundtrack, especially Circle of Life, and Toto's Africa while viewing all this was better than I could have ever imagined. It sounds terribly cliche about it, but they sure got something right becasue they captured the scene perfectly in their music.

For dinner Jenna and I decided to not pay the overpriced fees of the park's restaurant and opted to dine at the Staff Canteen where women from the village in the park prepare the meals. Howa, the young girl who prepared our meal, brought us our fufu. The scene couldn't have been more telling of my African experience, dining under a small, open hut on wooden benches and a low picnic table with nothing but a dim light over head, apart form the stars in the sky, eating our fufu with our fingers and enjoying the company of two rowdy warthogs. The quote of the night form this experience is "we dined with warthogs and got pruny fingers form our fufu." It pretty much sums up our experience, and I must say this is one night I will always look on as being one of the best.

The next morning we left on the 4am bus back to Tamale. I have come to love public transportation based on the people you meet. On this particular trip I had a few different people cycle through the seat next to me, but my favorite was a middle aged woman and her tiny baby boy. She was breast feeding him most of the way. He kept looking a tme with his big eyes and he was grabbing at my arm. The woman looked at me and tried to speak to me, although she didn't speak much english. She simply gave me a big smile and explained that he was very tired. Sure enough they both fell asleep next to me in a short time. I feel like that is an experience you would never have at home. It was beautiful watching mother and child interact.

A quick note on languages: I have been learning Twi, but Ghana has 45-70 different languages spoken so throughout the time I spent traveling in the north I almost always felt like I was in another country again because I was back to square one with my language skills.

When we got back to Tamale Jenna and I caught a bus to Bolgatonga (Bolga), located in the Upper East Region, with our new addition to the group, Elaine. Before Bolga we got off at the junction for Tonga where we caught a ride with a fellow traveler who works digging bore holes in rural communities for water pumps. He gave us a ride to Tengzug, the village where we would take a tour of their shrine.

It was a fascinating tour of their village community. Tenzug means "the head" because they are located in the hills, a not so common geographical feature of Ghana. We got to see the palace of the king who has 17 wives. The king lives in the palace with all his wives and children, some 600 people. The entire village is about 2,000 people, divided into eight sections.

Before we could visit the shrine itself we had to ask permission from the caretaker of the shrine He welcomed us and had someone accompany us in to the shrine in the hills because our tour guide did not belong to that compound and therefore did not have the ritual rites to guide us alone.

The shrine itself dwells in the cave, the physical, and it can see you but you cannot see it. The shrine itself might be equated to a spirit. It is seperate from the physical and uses the cave as a habitat. It is here that people bring sacrafices of fowl, chickens, and cows to ask for guidance, or fertility, or any other problem you may be struggling with.

We spent the night in Bolga at an awesome little guest house snuggled behind some small shops on the main road. It was a gem of a place hidden away, owned by a family. But we left early the next morning to travel up to Paga, the furthest north you can go before reaching Burkina Faso. We got to see the border, but we did not cross. We got a shared taxi up tp Paga(a lovely little commodity where you pay a fixed rate to go to a particular place, the only catch is that you have to wait for it to fill up, but you can always buy out the extra seats if you are in a rush, and the price is usually about a cedi or two, or less) .In Paga we saw the King's Pond where 200+ crocodiles reside. It was not a particularly large pond so the thought that there were so many crocodiles in there was not too comforting. In fact I wasn't really prepared at all for just how freaked out I would be by the sight of a large, prehistoric looking creature to come lurking out of the water. And I must give a shout out to Jenna who has a terrible fear of lizzards, and being that crocodiles are basically large ancient lizzards, she had a lot to face.

The crocodiles are tabbooed among the local community because it is believed that they saved and protected their ancestors from their enemies and so no one is to eat or kill them. Likewise the crocodiles leave the people alone. Of course I returned home to ISH to find out that in another location in Ghana another international student from ISH had just been attacked by a crocodile and had her face all stiched up. In retrospect I may have opted to pass on that particular attraction.

Back in Bolga we waited around for some time before getting our 3:30 bus back to Accra. We finally arrived at the station in Keneshi around 6am, about a 16 hour trip the full length of Ghana. We were back at ISH around 7:30am after a trotro ride thorugh early morning traffic, only to find that the water in ISH 1, ISH 2, AND Jubilee was out which meant no shower for dirty travelers, just sleep. Maybe one of the longest trips of my life, but well worth it.

Being up north I defintely noticed some things that were different than the rest of Ghana I have seen. For one thing there is a much larger Muslim population. There are more mosques to see and it is not uncommon to hear the call to prayers. Also, while sitting in the bus station I could hear music on the street that seemed to have a slightly more Middle Eastern style to it.
Another difference is the use of bicycles. Bicycles are somewhat of a hazzard around Accra and women are not often seen on bikes. I have a friend, Grace, who rides her bike to her internship everyday and she swears she could come up with a good video game about riding your bike through the streets of Accra due to the number of obstacles you have to dodge. But up north everything is much more open and bikes are a much more common mode of transportation. Motor taxis are also more frequently found and in both cases it is not uncommon to see women driving them.

One particular difference I would like to discuss is the public urinals (washrooms/bathrooms). I encountered a few different styles in my travels north. The first is the most basic urinal in which you enter in to a small little compound with a cement floor and a drain out the corner. As you could imagine, you simply squat. They also providde you with a little plastic tea pot common in the north to rinse the floor, and your feet, after you have finished your business. Another type is the smae set up except they have two little cement pillars that you can place each foot on. This reduces risks of splashing. Yet another, and perhaps the most tricky (I admit I was baffled by how to operate in there and so I opted to hold it in) it the urinal where a ledge is built up along two sides of the compound so as to seperate off a sectinon of the ground where you are to 'go'. You need to stand up on the ledge and I guess aim over into the other side? It still seems impossible to me. All I kept thinking of when I saw it was a trough. But the most rudimentary form I have heard of only from legend, because I was fortunate enough not to have used it at the bus station in Bolga. It consists of boards set over an open gutter. According to those who have used it, it was quite a test of balance, teetering out on these unstable planks to squat and relieve yourself where so many others have, praying you do not fall over and be dumped into the depths of vile filth. I heard a terrible account from a friend about a woman who fell into one of these gutters when she was nine years old and within seconds she was covered in cocroaches, so shocked that she couldn't move and a woman on the street had to pull her out. But all in all that is a rare occurence and the bathroom situation was never truly that unbearable.

So the trip was good, but it also marks our one month stage. It is pretty crazy to think we have already experienced about four months of Ghana and now we are down to our last. Right now I am not ready to leave, but at the same time I am getting excited to see everyone and change it up a bit again. And Christmas isn't so far off now, which is bizarre since its still 90 degrees every day here. So now it is time to balance excitement for home and my desire to stay.

Peace.
Katie

The New Normal

There are many things that I have had to adjust to , or rather become accustomed to, since I have been here. Most are just small little things, but in a way they have all become such normal parts of my life here. And I think I would like to share some of them to give an idea of what it is like to live in Ghana. Some will seem irrelevant, and some perhaps negative, but I feel negative towards none of them. They are quirky little things that just heighten my experience in Ghana. I hope some will raise further discussions or questions later. This post is sort of a bullet list of ideas that I would love to expand on later if anyone ever has any questions. So Here is goes:

• Pidgin: I have been exposed to two types. Ghanaian and Nigerian. Ghanaian pidgin is a combination of Twi and broken English, while Nigerian pidgin is more of just a really broken form of English. I really like listening into it and seeing what I can pick up. "How far?" is Nigerian pidgin for "What's up" or "How's it going." And to say I'm coming in Ghanaian pidgin its "I dey come." You can also say "I dey hung" for I'm hungry, or "I dey mad" is your crazy. The guys use it on the sidelines and on the field during football matches so that's when I get the most exposure to it. Mostly it is like a guessing game trying to understand, and I typically only get about 40% of what is going on.


• Goats, chickens, dogs, and sometimes cats just hanging out in the streets is a pretty typical sight. Anywhere from campus to the market you see animals roaming around doing their own thing. Dogs and defintiley not cats, are not typically house pets.Groundnut paste instead of peanutbutter is something I had to get used to. It has a basically similar taste, its just a different type of nut, and its always natural. I actually quite like it.


• Alot of the sore food, like biscuits and soy milk, and candy, and many other things are produced in the Middle East and so he majority of the wrting on the packets are in Arabic.


• No coffee. They have instant coffee that you mix in with boiled water, and if you want cream you usually have to use powdered milk. I already plan on getting the largest cup of coffee I can find when I arrive in the airport.


• Open gutters. Mostly all of Ghana has a system of open gutters, or sewers, in the streets. Sometimes they are filled with raunchy lokking/smelling excriments but sometimes they just collect rain water, garbage, and leaves. On campus they are generlaly clean, but around certain parts of Accra you can smell them from the windows of your trotro as you drive by. Around the markets people dump old buckets of water and other waste in them so they are usually filled. Those are the more crowded areas.


• There is a special handshake that is done when you greet someone here. Its sort of a grab of the hand and the a slide down into a finger snap. Its done pretty subtly though. I was pretty terrible at it at first but now its pretty standard procedure to me.


• 
  
  Trotros and taxis are the most common modes of transportation. Trotros cost anywhere form 30 to 80 peswas unless you are traveling a longdistance in which case you catch one fom the main trotro station in a number of locations and pay between 2 to 9 cedi. Taxis pay by the distance, notby time or per person, so that is pretty good, but they can still be pricy when you use them all the time, so I prefer to take trotro. There is also a sahred taxi system that is you are luck enough to get one its onle 50 peswas to one cedi per person. But they are not as common around Accra.


• 
  
  Water supplies in ISH are pretty good despite there being no hot water (although in this hot water it is never too much of a problem), but there are occasinal spurts where we loose water and can't shower or flush toilet or wash dishes. We had one span of time for just under a week where water was completely. The only way to do anything was to get water from the polytanks of water on the ground floor that you have to put in a bucket and carry to where you need it. So for that week showering was not very easy and the toilets just sat, so needless to say things got sort of dirty that week, but in general its no more than a day or so that it goes out for.


• 
  
  We also have ot occasinally deal with electricity going out, but the only real problem with that is you loose the fan which is our only relief form the heat of our rooms sometimes. And my handy head lamp sure comes in handy when the power goes out at night :)


• 
  
  Bargaining. Now I am not a pushy person, so adjusting to the system of bartering in the markets made me a little uncomfortable at first, but once I worked through it I grew to actually like it. In fact I welcome the interaction. It creates a personal relation between the buyer in seller, and alhtough it may appear to be a negative one, almost always I have walked away laughing or smiling. I have learned how to handle unwanted attention from hawkers and how to get the price I want. I feel accomplished afterwards.


• 
  
  Laundry is done by hand. You can pay to have someone do it over at ISH 2 but I have held strong and continue to do all my laundry by hand. I'm not great at is which means some clothes are not going to be brought home after their wear and tear, but I get the job done.


• 
  
  Traffic. There is no other itme I realize I am living in a city than when I am sitting in two hours of traffic. Not only that but there are virtually no traffic laws. Cars rarely ever use turn signals or stay in their lanes properly. Its much like partaking in a virtual video game of car racing at times. Speed limits don't really exist exccept is certain localized areas. Cars often drive up the soulder of a road to cut a line of cars and honking is practically expected. Drivers (Drivahs) here use their horns to let people crossing the road ahead know they are speeing up close to them or to let a car know they are about to speed up and cut them off, or for other such curteous reasons. It seems unsafe, but I actually rarely notice accidents and there seems to be some sort of order behind all te chaos.


• 
  
  Most places do not accept large bills. Even a 5 cedi not is hard to break someitmes, especially early in the mornings. Having anything larger than that can be tricky. You can't buy anything because they will straight up tell you they don't have change and then you are out of luck.


• 
  
  Customer service here is very bad. Not to say that the people are bad or the facilities, but it is not valued like it is in the U.S. The theory of "the customer is always right" defintiely is not apllied in Ghana. Sometimes you feel like you are doing somehting wrong or making the person angry, but more often than not its just their attitude for being at work. They do not vaule forced friendliness. However, if you met the person on the streets chances are they will be the friendliest person. Perhaps they got it right? We should be more friendly to people on a daily basis, and perhaps we should not force friendliness so much in business institutions? Sometimes when I go into the store in ISH I barely get a motion of recognition from the women who works there, but if I were to ask someone on the street where I can get a trotro to somewhere they would take me by the hand and lead me there even if they do not know themselves. Another quick example of 'customer service' in Ghana is when my friend Katherine and I were ordering food at a restaurant in Kokrobite and the waiter, very nice, came over and the first thing he says to us is "let me start with what we don't have." Later that same day we ordered lunch and the waiter told us we could order so long as it was something quick. It wasn't mean in any way, it was just blunt and honest. What else can you ask for I guess?


• 
  
  AZONTO!! This is a type of dance that is common to see anywhere from the streets to the clubs. It is ver individual to each person and usually you can communicate some sort of story of message through a series of hand movements and facial expressions. Its really fun and I prefer it to much of the club style dancing you find at home. I advise everyone to youtube it. Azono by Fuse ODG feat. Tiffany is a good video if you want to get a good idea of how it is done.

I think I have described quite a few things, but there are many more I could talk about. I might put together another blog at a different time about some more interesting things I have come to call normal here in Ghana. But for now I shall leave it at that!

Peace.

Katie

JISH Football

A few weeks ago I was getting restless from not being active so I decided to make a change. Through a number of happenstance opportunities I got in touch with the captain of the girl's inter-hall football (soccer) team for JISH (Jubilee/ International Student Hostel), Marge. Marge is an American. She goes to school out in California. She told me that there was training the next morning at 6:30 in the morning and if I was interested I could go with them.

And so I went. After not exercising seriously for two months I showed up at training 6:30 on a Friday morning and scrimmaged with the guys. The girls' team is too small to hold real practices on our own so the guys, who have much larger numbers, let us train with them. My first day was definitely challenging since the sun rises early and holds back no heat from the start. By the time we finished at around 8:00 the sun was blazing hot and intense. Despite being really tired and out of breath by the end I thought I did relatively well, although by no means did I shine.

So after only one training (the other girls had already been training for a few weeks) we had our first game that following Monday. Monday morning I had to go to the market and get my equipment since I obviously didn't bring any with me. So I set off to Mekola Market with Katherine, Bobby, and Wilder. This was my first trip to this particular market. The market was chaotic. The streets were packed with bodies and sellers and people grabbing your arms, Obroni and Ghanaian alike. But I actually really enjoyed myself. It was like a big scavenger hunt. The market is all outdoors and there is no clear organization to it. I had a mini panic attack at first trying to determine how in the world I would find what I needed, but once you start asking around people are willing to point you in the direction. Being that there is no real stores or identifying places to give directions, there was a lot of "go across the street and down that way and ask for Auntie so and so. Someone will know where she is." Or "go that way" with a general finger point in a direction. Eventually I found everything I needed for reasonable prices and I even had some good chances to practice my Twi again.So in the end I got my football boots, as they call them, and shin guards, and socks.

The games are supposed to start at 4:30 which means they don't actually start until 5:00 or later, but this was better because by this time the sun has gone down some and the heat is bearable to the point that I almost didn't even notice it. Our team barely came together with enough players, but our first game went well. We won with no goals scored. I started as a defensive midfielder and I actually didn't do half bad. The sports directory provided us with uniforms so we looked legitimate, and some of the guys took it upon themselves to coach us, giving us a pregame pep talk and bringing us water and cheering us on the whole way. Some of the guys who coached us were Kenya, TG, Frank, Milo and Philip.
After we won they were so excited that there was a procession of cars back to ISH (as we walked back and they drove) with windows down, music blaring, horns blowing, and people hanging out windows screaming. The porters from the hostels congratulated us and all of ISH and Jubilee heard about our victory. It was actually quite unexpected. It felt good to have such support and be a part of a team sport again.

Each game to follow went the same way. We ended up being undefeated with no goals scored against us. We usually had some sort of reception when we returned and we always had words of encouragement form the guys after the game. They even bought us sodas after the game. After our last game a dance circle broke out in celebration. Winning the competition was a big deal for one thing because football is a big deal here. Most people follow at least one team, mostly its Chelsea versus Manchester United. But also, this is the first year that ISH and Jubilee are competing in the Inter-Hall Athletics because previously they were hostels, not halls, so this is the first year they are a hall of residence at the university.

Since the guys all supported us we in turn supported the guys in their games. Unfortunately they did not do as well, but they have much better competition than we had, not to mention they only just put their team together this year where as some of the other guys' teams have been playing together for years. But their skill level is way above any of the girls' teams.

If you feel like checking out some of the articles written about our team the links are below:

http://ug-sportsdirectorate.blogspot.com/2011/10/best-newcomers.html

http://ug-sportsdirectorate.blogspot.com/2011/10/no-more-showers-let-goals-rain.html

Even thought the team is done playing we still occasionally train and I love seeing all the girls from the team! This was definitely one of my most memorable experiences here!

Kumasi

Quite some time ago now I traveled to Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti Region. It is about five hours north of Accra, not quite at the center of the country. The trip was part of my program through ISEP so we had an organized bus to get us there and accommodations already set up. We stayed two nights in the Engineering Guest House at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).
Friday we left early in the morning. When we arrived later in the afternoon we saw the Asantehene's (King's) Palace, although only in passing, and visited the Manhiya Palace which is now a museum. The Manhiya Palace was a beautiful home to many past Asantehene, or chiefs, of the Akan people. It was originally built by the British but because the Ashanti kingdom did not want to have any obligations to the British they insisted on buying it from them instead of accepting it as a gift (there was also some guilt involved over a case of the British demanding the sacred golden stool which the Asantehene sits on, thought to have been put on earth by the gods themselves, and a fake one being handed to the British unbeknownst to them).
After the tour of the museum we loaded back onto the bus and were taken to the Kumasi National Cultural Center which was a beautiful park-like area that sat on a hill above the central market. It consisted of different artist workshops and a few small places to eat. We spent only an hour there, but returned on Saturday where we had more time to shop around.
The rest of the night was spent at the Guest House where we caught up with our student leaders and advisers for ISEP and other ISEP members that we don't see on a regular basis. It was like a big family reunion!
Saturday was by far my favorite day. It was filled with so many wonderful participatory things that really just put me in the heart of the culture. After a lovely family breakfast of eggs, toast, and coffee (although there is no such thing as 'real' coffee here; unless you want to spend 5-8 cedi on a tiny little cup in a highly westernized institution which is by no means what I came here to do, so in the mean time I use Nescafe packets of 'coffee' which is more like coffee-flavored water), we headed to our first destination of Bonwire Village, a small village known for their production of Kente weaving. Kente cloth is a long strip of interwoven fabric, usually silk or cotton, that displays typically geometric shapes, but the shapes or symbols are meant to communicate meaningful messages to the observer. It is traditionally worn by important people of the Asnatehene's court and by the Asantehene himself. In more contemporary times, however, it is more acceptable to see kente patterns worn by anyone, but it still holds an important place in festivals held by the Akan. The colors are bold and colorful and each also has its own meaning.
The Kente itself is woven on looms. We observed men working on the looms in Bonwire, and some of us even got to try it out. Frank, one of the men weaving, taught me how to work the loom! It was actually a lot easier than I expected, although I was going at snail speed compared to him, not to mention I was doing a solid pattern where as typically there are so many different colors going and at so many different angles. I did it for some time and I was told I was a natural (this of course is probably told to any Obroni who trys).
The Kente really is a beautiful artwork and I bought myself a piece made by Frank that I plan to wear at graduation. I bargained hard for it and I was told I got a very fair price for it! There are two geometric figures repeated on it and I was told that one means "No two hands are equal" and the other means "One drop makes a mighty ocean."
Our next stop was to the village of Ntonso where Adinkra symbols are stamped on cloth. Adinkra symbols are used by the Akan in Ghana. They are typically used on cloth worn by chiefs or other people of importance during important festivals and ceremonies, such as the Kente cloth is used. Funerals are one of the most typical ones where you see men and women wearing red and black outfits with these symbols imprinted on the cloth. The symbols themselves each have a meaning attached to them, or rather a proverb. Some symbols communicate the same message, but they are always meant to tell something about the person wearing it and the reason they wear it. The Adinkra symbols are seen all around Ghana, from architecture (its common to see the symbols in railings or on on the side of buildings), to clothing or as decorative art on drums and such.
In Ntonso we were given a demonstration of how the dye used to stamp cloth is made and then we were given the chance to stamp our own cloth with the symbols of our choice. These villages that we went to are not 'set-up' villages like you might see at Williamsburg or other time period sights we are used to in America. These are actual villages where the every day hustle and bustle of life was going on. In fact, had we not been brought there by our group I may have never suspected these little places existed. So when we arrived at the place in Ntonso we walked through to a courtyard where houses were being occupied by local families. There was even a little cement building where someone was showering and women pounding fufu. We learned about how the bark from a particular tree is stripped and then soaked in water before being pounded and dried and later boiled to create the dyes. We all had the chance to pound the damp bark to extract the moisture and separate the dye. To be honest, I missed half the demonstration because I was interested in something else.
As I mentioned there were two women pounding fufu as we entered the compound. I had only had fufu once at this point but i knew that the process of making it was a physically taxing one. I told Susan, our director, that I wanted to try pounding fufu and she laughed at the fact that anyone would actually want to try it, but she said she would ask the women if it was alright. Now, fufu is a typical Ghanaian dish that consists of a plantain or yam mash mixed in with water and pounded into a large mass of dough-like consistency. It is served in ground-nut soup or light soup along with some sort of meat. It is eaten with the hands, pinching off parts of the fufu from the bottom of the soup. So Susan asked the women if it would be ok if I, Jenna, and Zuhra tried our skill at pounding fufu and the women graciously agreed, slightly amused at our curiosity. Pounding fufu involves lifting a large wooden staff with a rounded end and pounding down in the center of the fufu with as much force as you can. The tricky part is not catching your partner's hands in it as she turns the dough over with each pound making sure it is properly mashed through. The staff, or rod, was heavy, solid wood so it was hard to get a really powerful downward thrust, but it was fun to try. The women turning the fufu over while I pounded spoke to Susan in Twi and Susan told me that she had said I was doing well. Also just a quick fun note: I have seen some t-shirts on campus that say "Make fufu, not war" which, if you know the physical process that goes into fufu as you now do, it is pretty funny. Take your anger out on the fufu, not on other people is what it is saying.

After Ntonso we went to a wood carving village where we were given an hour or so to shop around in all these little shops. When we first stepped off the bus it was overwhelming because all the sellers were really aggressive, but at this time we were all a little more capable of handling ourselves in these situations, sort of politely brushing them off and ignoring their grabs as they try to take you to their shop. But once we broke off into smaller groups and started wandering around from shop to shop people were less aggressive and I actually had fun. I got to practice some of my Twi for bargaining. This is always fun. When someone sees you trying to use Twi they almost always smile and laugh, but its makes for a good interaction. And I'm pretty sure it helped me get prices down a lot. From my experiences with sellers I find that they always appreciate a good conversation and a little joking around. Jenna and I spent some time on the side of the road just playing on some drums with two sellers, and they tried to teach us some. Its safe to say that Africa has not brought out my sense of rhythm anymore that home does. So after a long day we made our last stop back at the Cultural Center. I got a Ghanaian dish of ampesi for lunch, It is boiled yams that you break with your hands and dip into palava sauce, a sort of spinach -like sauce. They provide bowls of water because you use your hands to eat it all. I love eating with my hands! Cutlery is so impersonal to the food that sustains us (ok perhaps I'm being a little extreme, haha).

The entire weekend was just a blissful experience of Ghanaian culture combined with amazing people. It reinforced just how amazing all the people in ISEP are. Our directors, Susan and Theresa, are beautiful people who take care of us every step of the way. Our student guides, Shadrach and Awushi, are like older siblings watching out for us and always there for a good laugh (even if its at my own expense). And all the students from all over the States, each with their own story, are such inspirations. I have said it before and i will say it again, I am blessed beyond belief to be in this beautiful country. It is thought that Ghana created the heart of Pangaea when it was one land mass, so is it too far to think that I am in the heart of the world right now?

Peace.

Katie

Volta Region: Wli Waterfalls & Monkey Sanctuary

This past weekend I traveled to Volta Region which is East and North of Accra. I traveled with my friends Kelly, Katherine, and Jenna. We left Accra around five on Friday after Jenna and Kelly got out of classes. We really didn't do a whole lot of planning for the trip. I packed an hour before we left and we caught a taxi to Tema Trotro station. When we arrived we asked around for the Ho trotro, since that is where we were going. The driver told us the last one for the day had just left, but he pointed us in the direction of a different station just outside the main station. So we walked on through the many vendors in the market and on towards the main road where sure enough we found a dingy little sign for Ho and a trotro with four seats available. We hopped in with our bags and paid the 7 cedi fare. Trotros, as I have mentioned are more or less large vans packed to full capacity. And they will not leave the station until they fill all the seats. You could be waiting for hours in some cases before it is filled and ready to leave. Luckily we never ran into anything too bad. And as you can imagine, there are no time tables for when they are to leave. It's basically hit or miss.

But we hopped on and it wasn't too long before the last seat was filled. In the meantime we bought plantain chips and other snacks for the ride. There are always women and men selling items in the streets through windows. I have seen women run after trotros to get their customer's their food and make sure they get their money. It is actually quite convenient.

Once we got going we hit massive traffic and it took us at least an hour just to get out of Accra, let alone to get to Ho. The ride there was probably about four, four and a half hours in all. Coming home, however, it was an easy three hours. As we got further away from Accra the scenery got more green and lush and the air became fresh and crisp. I could smell the rain in the air and sure enough we were hit with some strong downpours and thunderstorms. I actually rather enjoyed the ride with the windows down and the fresh air coming in. I felt connected to Ghana. It was a simple happiness.

When we arrived in Ho we caught a taxi to the house we stayed at. It was a volunteer house owned by a friend of a friend of Katherine's. It was a simple house. The outside as well as many of the rooms inside were a vibrant pink. There was no real furniture, just mattresses and sleep sacks pile din a room that could be laid out in the spare rooms.

Saturday we woke up early and caught a taxi back to the trotro station we arrived in the night before. From there we caught a trotro to Hohoe, but we got off in Tafi Atome to visit the monkey sanctuary. The second we stepped out of the trotro we were all being pulled in different directions. I was so confused and it took me a few moments to figure out what was going on because we were all a little disoriented from the ride. I soon remembered that we were taking motor bikes to the sanctuary and it was the drivers trying to make sure they got their business. Each of us climbed on the back of a motor bike and were off. I think that may have been one of the highlights of the day. It was fun, speeding along each other with the wind in our faces and enjoying the passing scenery. Motor bikes are a definite plus in my book!

The monkey sanctuary itself was really awesome. Our guide was Emmanuel, a young kid about our age. We walked about five minutes into the surrounding rain forest and Emmanuel made a call to the monkeys. They are Mona monkeys, by the way, part of the Old World Monkey classification (I slightly nerded out before the trip and went back

to look up all my old slides from my Primates and Anthropology course). At first just the alpha male came out and Emmanuel threw him a banana. Yes! the myth is true! Monkeys do indeed like bananas. Soon more and more monkeys came out. It was really pretty amazing to watch them jump from the branches and get real close, timid at first, but still comfortable. When we gave them the bananas they actually peeled them open themselves. Emmanuel showed us how to hold the banana far enough away from the trees so that they were forced to jump on our arms and eat the banana from there. I had a monkey on my arm! Super cool. I felt its padded little feet grab at my hands and arm. Our distant cousins man!! I think I found a new love an appreciation for our friendly little cousins.

After we chilled with the Mona monkeys to our hearts content we caught a trotro the rest of the way to Hohoe where the waterfalls are. The hike in was beautiful. It is always refreshing to get back to nature and that was just what we did. I think the best part of the hike was the butterflies. I have never seen so many butterflies before. They literally flew out from beneath your feet as we walked along. They were many different sizes and colors. Some of them were super flirtatious, flying real close to you, landing for a second and then flying away again, beckoning you to follow. But of course the real beauty of the hike was the waterfall.

The Wli waterfall, pronounced like Vli, is such a powerful waterfall that it creates its own waves in the pool beneath it, and the mist created from it hitting below flows off in all directions creating a looming cloud of mist that is swept up in a current of air and moistens all who stand too close. After arriving back in Ho that night we were all exhausted. All I remember is laying down on my mattress thinking how I could do something else with the day, and next thing I know I wake up and its dark outside and the three volunteers staying in the house had returned. I passed out so hard. It was the sort of sleep where you wake up and you physically feel like you had sunk into your bed and it left you sore with sleep. It was good sleep.

Sunday morning we up and left and headed back home. To Legon. It is nice to call it home. It feels like home.

Much love from Ghana.

Katie

Daily Endeavors at Uni

I am all regregistered for classes and school is officially in session. Lectures meet only once a week for two hours unless you have an additional tutorial for one hour a week, which just one of my lectures has. The first week most professors, profs as they call them, didn't even show up, let alone the students. But anyway, I am taking African Indigenous Religions, Art History of Ghana, Literature of the African Diaspora, and Twi. If you couldn't tell, I am an African Studies minor and what better place to fulfill my requirements than in Africa!

My typical day on campus starts with me leaving ISH and walking to campus, which takes about twenty minutes depending on where I need to be. Class is two hours long, and then I usually spend time in the IPO computer lab to use their internet since it is heaps faster than the internet at ISH. Internet in ISH has cut out for days at a time and sometimes it might as well just not be there since its so slow, but I honestly never miss it. Its nice to not be constantly connected elsewhere and to just live in the present. So if any of you try and contact me and I don't respond promptly it is probably because I either don't have internet connection or I don't have patience to deal with internet connection so slow it makes dial up look fast. But back to the topic of a day on campus, if I have other errands like the post office, bank or picking up readings for a class and such I take care of those as well. And of course there are plenty of options to grab food on campus. My go-to meal is Red Red and plantains. And my go-to drink when on campus is and iced Milo drink, which is this delicious chocolate drink from Coffee Queue.
Meals at night are either eaten in the kitchen downstairs, at Tasty Treats across the way in ISH2 or at the Night Market. The Night Market is my favorite place to be. It is a small market right by the hostels where ISH 1 & 2 are located. I can see it form my balcony on the fourth floor. It is made up of a number of different stands that sell all sorts of things at really incredibly cheap prices. They are run by local women and their families. Some stands sell bananas, coconuts, oranges, and other fruits and vegetables. Other stands sell things like brooms, plates and bowls, silverware, close pins, loaves of bread, and canned or packaged items. The most popular stand is the egg sandwich stand. The family who runs it make a bomb egg sandwich! One egg, two cheese, vegetables, all on half a loaf of sweet bread. Its delicious! Auntie Mary, her husband, and her two sons Henry Jr. and Kodjo run it. Henry Jr. and Kodjo speak Twi with us and we try and speak Spanish with them because they want to learn. The sandwiches are only 1 cedi 60 peswas and that is only because I get two cheese instead of one.

The Night Market also has stands where you can get a full meal (anything from jollof rice and plantains, or cassava/yams, to kebabs and boiled eggs) for any amount you want. 50 peswas worth is what most people get and its super filling. And whats even more amazing is when I traveled to the Volta Region recently, we stayed in a town called ho and everything there was even cheaper. Accra is more expensive beause it imports a lot of products from other regions and yet it is still super affordable. For example, a bag of water in Accra is 10 peswas but its just 5 peswas in Ho. And when we asked for 1 cedi of bananas we thought we would get about four, but instead we got a whole bunch. More like seven or eight.

I moved out of my ground floor room to the fourth/top floor my second or third week here. I was supposed to get a Ghanaian roommate but as of this morning I still had not gotten one so I more or less had a massive single. But this morning, September 20, almost a month or more into classes, I finally got one! I only talked to her for about two minutes because she isn't moving in until tomorrow night. But from that short time I would say she seems pretty cool. Her name is Anne. It was a bit of shock of course since I had already more or less decided I wasn't going to get one at this point, but when she left I was all smiles and felt really happy. I have a good feeling about it. I think its going to be super fun and interesting!!! And I love the fourth floor. It is really airy and has an open feeling to it. Whenever I wear a skirt I have to wear spandex shorts underneath because it literally flies up to my face. My friend Jared has taken to calling me

Marilyn Monroe. And the view of the city from the fourth floor at night is beautiful! When the moon is out its so bright over the city. I hang out on my balcony a lot with my friends and we always try to catch the sunset. They tend to be very red here.

I guess you could more or less say I'm falling in love with my time here. I have felt at home from the start and I have met so many amazing people that open my eyes to so many beautiful things. I feel unbelievably blessed and thankful for this opportunity.

Peace.

Katie

Cape Coast & Kakum National Park

For our first actual weekend in Ghana ISEP took us to the Central Region where we got a tour of the Cape Coast castle on Saturday and then did a canopy walk in Kakum National Park on Sunday. Cape Coast castle is an old fortification on the Gold Coast of Ghana. The name Gold Coast comes from the fact that what is now Ghana had large gold resources prevalent in the land when Europeans first started to arrive in West Africa. The first fortification to be established on the Gold Coast was Elmina, by the Portuguese in 1482. However, the Dutch as well as the British all had holdings in Ghana at some point or another. Cape Coast was just one of about 60 or so forts, castles, and lodges spread along the small expanse of the Gold Coast. Although the initial function of the castle may have started as a base for ships and production export, the rise and expansion of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade would have the castle serve a more sinister function.
The castle as we experienced it was a dark and haunting shadow of much of Africa's history. We were led from the central courtyard of the Castle where the fresh sea air and the sound of the ocean could be heard to the lower cells where men were packed into dark, damp rooms. And from there to where the women and children were. And form there to the dungeon where those who were 'unruly' were kept and left to more or less perish. Scratches on the ground were visible from where men would literally go crazy with hunger and the stench of human excrement and the decay of other men whose bodies were not removed until the last of them had passed. Needless to say the experience was one of inner reflection and weighed heavily on many of us. It is hard to put in words the experience of it all.
After cape coast we checked into our rooms for the night at our botel, Hans Cottage. Many of you may wonder what in the world a botel is. Well it is a lagoon area where the restaurant and other facilities are raised on stilts above the water, which is home to some friendly creatures. crocodiles. The room themselves were a series of little cottage like rooms behind the restaurant and on the land. They were quite cozy. The main attraction was the hot showers! Something we do not usually get. I'm sure you question the need for a hot shower in hot African weather, but the fact is the weather here has been relatively cool compared to the summer I left at home.
The whole experience at Hans Cottage was fun. Everyone really bonded even more. Some of us did karaoke with the band and everyone was dancing and they even had a pool.
One funny little anecdote of the night is behind the room I stayed in was a little green grass area fenced in. In it were all these adorable bunnies hoping around. They were all so fluffy and happy. It was like some children's movie. So a few of us were looking at them and taking pictures, and I turn to my friend Alex and ask her what she think they have them here for. Neither of us say anything but just laugh it off. So we go down for dinner and we get the menus and sure enough one of the most popular dishes on there was rabbit stew. Of course I had sort of guessed, but seeing it right there in front of me was quite the shock. Of course I saw they were kept in good conditions so I have no qualms about them being used for meals, it was just funny since I had made a personal connection with the rabbits behind my cottage and found out they were being kept for food.
Turning our attention away from the slaughter of innocent little bunnies to day two, we got a lovely continental breakfast and hopped on the bus to head to Kakum National Park. A little intro to some music here, there is a more traditional style called Highlife and then there is a newer genre called Hiplife which combines elements of highlife, reggae, dancehall, and hip hop. So of course we all are binging on the new music. Our group song is this song called Waist & Power by a group called 4X4. If you would like to check it out for yourself here is a link. www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTqSHhqFOyo. I think we asked our bus driver to play it about 4 times in a row and all of us sang the chorus, getting to know the words a little more each time, and danced along.
Kakum National Park is a beautiful expanse of tropical rainforest in the Central region of Ghana. Just a brief note on the regions of Ghana, there are ten altogether each with their own capital. I live in the Greater Accra region which of course the capital of Ghana and of the region is Accra. So Kakum has a series of 7 hanging bridges about 130 feet over the canopies of the rain forest. It was a short hike in led by our guide Still Alive, as he calls himself. Our day was a little rainy and fogged over, but it was the lingering fog that gives everything a mystical allure. So as we walked through the high canopies we were met with the open sprinkle of rain, but to me it was just a reminder of the beauty and connectedness of the world around us. I was actually quite thankful for the rain. Two foods I experienced while there were cocoa seeds which were a seed coated in a sweet gum that you sucked no, and then a fresh coconut meat. Both were delicious and are only the start of my taste endeavors!
Cape Coast and Kakum was the end of our orientation for ISEP and now we are all on our own for everything. Classes, food, travel, and everything else! And now the real exploration begins!!!!!!!

Peace.
Katie

August 11, 2011: Trotro Ride & Medina Market

So Reggae Night was fun. We ended up going to La Beach. The plan was to get a bunch of taxis, but Jenna and I ended up being left behind by accident because we ran back inside to grab our stuff. Obed ended up picking us up with a friend since he was going too. The situation actually worked out better than we hoped because Jenna and I got to experience a little bit of the local life, going to two local bars before La Beach. We also experienced a local drink, called Judgement Day (I don't remember the Twi name they use). It was this really spicy drink with ginger and gin in it. The band at La Beach was really good and everyone just had a fun night, dancing, and hanging out.

Today we were taken on our first Trotro ride. A troro is a popular mode of transportation around here. They have large vans that seat about sixteen and they pack everyone in. It only costs between 20 and 50 pesewas, in general. They go to all different places and they can be overwhelming in the sense that there is no orderly fashion to which people enter so if you want a seat you have to more or less push your way on, and god forbid you need to get off to let someone out for their spot you need to be quick at getting back on before someone takes your place. But its very convenient. And the ride itself is strangely familiar with its jolting and chaotic traffic patterns. It reminded me of being in the IH.
So we took the trotro to Medina Market first where there was literally anything and everything you could imagine. They sold fruits, vegetables, pigs feet, fish, live crabs and snails, clothes, jewelry, cleaning supplies, shoes, school supplies, and almost anything else you could ever need. It was crowded and we were called Obroni alot. Obroni means white person and obibini means black person. Obroni isn't meant to be a negative term, at least not in most cases, but more of just an observation. We were told to just smile, wave, and keep walking showing that it doesn't bother you.
After Medina Market we went to 37 Military where you can get trotros and taxis going almost anywhere. Its the central hub for them. We also were shown a large vegetable stand and another grocery store. From there we went back to Legon, where campus is. But I see many trotro rides in my future.
One very strange thing we have noticed about our ISEP group is the number of multiples in our families. I have the twins, Zurha's younger brothers are twins, Wilder is a twin, Jenna is a triplet, Vanika is a twin, and there may be one or two other people with twins in the family, but its very unusual. Twins in Ghana are dresses in the same color, and if you are a twin or the parent of a twin you wear white for the mourning period after the death of the twin.
Whenever you are in a vehicle and you are stuck in traffic or at a light men and women alike walk through the road with items on their heads selling stuff to people right through their window. One woman on our trotro bought a water sashae. Its kinda cool being able to grab a bag of plantains chips or a fresh banana or even a bracelet right from the seat of your car. It also has never ceased to impress me the items that woman carry on their heads. They carry boxes with meat of pastries in it, or huge stacks of cloth or water. Its really amazing!
Tomorrow we are going to Cape Coast Castle and staying over nights in the area and then on Saturday we will be going to Kakum National Park. Right now I'm going to pack. Shouldn't be too hard for one night.

Peace.
Katie

August 10, 2011: IPO Orientation & Campus Tours

For the past two days IPO, the international Programs Office, has been putting on their overall orientation for all international students. It consists of safety tips, helath issues, cultural expectations, registration for classes, student life and regulations, and all other related topics.
Here are some thoughts I jotted down during the orientation:

• Always greet right to left because it has the more natural flow


• The women wear the most beautiful fabrics that are so vibrant and reflect how full of life they are


• Everyone is incredibly patient and willing to help. Not once have I sensed that they were sick and tired of our questions despite the same ones being asked a million and a half times.


• Titles are extremely inportant to Ghanaians, such as Professor, or as they say here, Prof.


• Ghana is in fact a developing country so many of the amenities I take for granted in the States will seem like luxuries here, such as a warm, not even hot, shower or laundry facilities, or clean drinking water.


• A note on water: We were started off with bottled water, but the pipe water at uni is apparently safe to wash fruits and brush your teeth in, so I have started doing that, although I don't straight up drink it. Also, I just bought what they call sashae (not sure on the spelling, but its pronnounced like the sashae dance step) water which is a little bag of water. They are packaged by the same company I buy bottled water from, Voltic. A large pack of about 40 sashaes cost 1.50 GHC so less than that in USD.


• Ghanaian society is very family oriented so people in the streets refer to everyone as brother, sister, auntie, and other endearing terms.


• During the section on student policies for conduct we were introduced to a common form of social justice preformed by students on campus...throwing people into the pond outside the library which is overgrown with weeds and definitely doesn't look like a place I'd like to venture into. In the outline of what is expected from Junior Stundets at UG it clearly states "It shall be an offence for a Junior Member to: v. Throw any person into ponds in the University"


• Abortion in Ghana is illegal and Ghanaians are very political. My student leader, my mamma, Awushi, a fourth year political science student here, told us that Ghanaians will discuss politicts everywhere and they are very aware.


• Football, or soccer, is the national sport here and Ghanaians are very intese about their team, the Black Stars. The Black Star is supposed to represent the unity and power of the black diaspora everywhere. As you could imagine it was a very joyous day when Ghana beat America in the World Cup this past year. I myself am trying to go to their game vs. Swaziland in September.


• Ghanaians all have a day day which is derived from the day that they were born on. For example, Fida means Friday so a boy would be called Kofi and a girl Afua. I was born on a Monday which is Dwowdo so my day name is Adwoa ('dw' is pronnounced with a 'j' sound like in jet). Let me know if anyone wants to know their day name!


• Ghanaians have a one year long mandatory civil service period where they can be placed any where in the country and work on any project from teaching to working for a business.


• I have been asked about what Ghanaians do for malaria, and I learned that they are partially immune to it, and many get it a few times a year.

In addition to the orientation we got the official campus tour. I was so taken aback by the beauty of this campus! I have to admit I think its more beautiful than UVM campus, and i love my campus. The Blame Library is the largest in West Africa and its this massive white cement building with red bamboo looking roof and a stretch of green lawn decked with statues sprawled in front of it. The natural vegetation seems to naturally grow as if the campus and the vegetation naturally belong together. The library has open windows that creates a fresh circulation of air throughout. They still use a partial card catalougue. All the buildings on campus have the same, in general, white cement and red bamaboo roofs (when I say bamboo, its not literally bamboo, it just has the look of it). There is a central road that splits down the center making it a little easier to get your bearings. Everything is open and greeen and I just can't possibly fully describe it. The Registry sits up on a hill above campus and as you walk into it it is like walking up to a palace. It has a tall tower in the back bearing the Black Star symbol, and it has marble floors, and black accents, and stautes of important people. Its really elegant! There are a lot of places to eat on campus and some of them, like Odo Rise at Akuafo Hall (one of the residences for students), are really cheap. A meal there consists of as much food as you want for about $2 GHC. I got two large scoops of rice with red red, a bean based meal, and plantains and coleslaw for that amount. Also located in Akuafo Hall is Tacobell which is not like the American Taco Bell as we had all been decieved to think. Its this little lounge type place where you get similar meals.

Its hard to really describe everything in full. Things like that are meant to be experienced, so a few pictures will have to do the trick.

Today we was a little bit slower, with less stuff planned. We registered as official students at UG and got our ID cards and we were given time to go around to look at timetables and class offerings. Their system for registering is much different than what any of us are used to. We have to physically go to each department on campus and look to make sure our courses are being offered and then we have to check the timetables to find out where we have class and who the professor is. We only meet once a week for each class for about two hours. Many of the timetables still were not posted. We were warned that some may not even be posted until classes actually start. We also have to register at the general office for each department, then register online, and hand in our final list of classes. So technically, the first week of classes you are just trying them out and you are not registered until you hand in you final registration form which isn't due until September 26. Its like an add/drop period. Some people are stressed out about the system, but there isn't much you can do, so I'm not going to get myself too worked up.
Tonight all of the ISEP group and a whole lot of other people at ISH are going back to La Beach where we were on Sunday for Reggae Night. Either there or Tawala Beach. They are supposed to have a live band and it opens right to the beach. Right now I'm just uploading my new Ghanaian and Nigerian music from Obed, another student leader here although he actually graduated. So I'll leave it at that. I think I wrote a lot. Hopefully it was at least semi interesting!
Peace.
Katie (Adwoa)

August 7, 2011: Day 3 in Ghana

Today we were taken to a discount market. They sold everything form furniture to groceries to books to swing sets! It was basically this huge warehouse. The power went out a few times. When I was waiting to check out the power cut out and so the machines went and I had to wait for it to kick back in. I just found it interesting because you could tell it was such a normal occurance there.

We had lunch at this place called the Guest house. Its sort of campus (i think) but its not in the central area where all the departments and lecture halls are. Everyone in ISEP is meshing really well and there are so many different people with different backgrounds. This one girl Katherine spent the past two months in eastern Africa, I think Tanzania and maybe Kenya. She was volunteering at an orphanage and then at a refugee camp. Jenna is this awesome chick from California and she says things like "dude" and "whoa" a lot. She was a nanny in Germany this summer and took a course in Spain, so she spent lots of time in Europe. Kelly from Utah and her parents are archaeologists which is pretty awesome. She is studying theatre. Zurha is originally from Somalia but lives in Virginia. And those are just a few of the awesome people I have met (not to mention just the awesome Americans).

This paragraph is for Alex Price if you are reading: There is an Alexandria in my group who eerily reminds me of you from ther mannerisms to her face and hair right down to how she dresses. Its like a little bit of home sometimes. Afterall, everyone has a twin somewhere in the world!

After lunch we went to La Beach, literally a beach. It was here that everything began to fall into place. The beach was beautiful with its vibrantly colored buildings and tables and umbrellas. There were people drumming and dancing or otherwise just hanging out. The currents are extremely strong so only a small section was used for wading and swimming.

The most beautiful moment to me however, was when Jenna and I wandered over to a not-so-populated section of the beach, where they had some Ghanaian music playing. Its called hiplife, a combnation of hip hop and a more traditional music called highlife as well as some reggae influences. Its really beautiful. There were only a few people dancing, but they were just enjoying themselves. But it was this young boy who came dancing down the beach towards us. He couldn't have been more than ten but he had some sick dance moves and boy did he know it! He slowly moved closer to where Jenna and I were and stood to the side. So Jenna and I went over to him and had him show us some dance moves. Soon our whole group came over and we were all dancing, but it was so simple, and fun. Everyone was just ejoying themselves, enjoying the music, and enjoying our new home.

After the beach we were dropped off at the hostel and given packed dinner from Tasty Treats, an on campus place. There a few seamstresses who come around to the hostels and make these beautiful dresses and other items, so one of them was here tonight. Joanna, the seamstress here tonight, and I bought a beautiful pre made romper that just happened to fit. It cost 12 GHC (currency: Ghanaian Cedi) which is probably about 10 USD. The equivalent of our cents is a pesewa. Joanna is the sweetest woman and when I asked her her name she told me we would be great friends and I will come to her home for an African meal. That is just the level of friendlieness you encounter here.

And to end that perfect day a few of us from ISEP sat in the grassy courtyard in the hostel and just hung out under the open sky. I'm waiting for the sy to clear up more so we can see stars! We played card games and Jamison played his Ukalale. It was just a wonderfully familiar feeling and I felt more at home today than I have so far.

I haven't really described much about the setting I am in yet so I will do a bit of that now. As I have said, I am in the International Student Hostel 1, or simply ISH 1. You pull up to this four story building of white cement and walk into a front portal where there is a front desk where someone is always stationed. There is also a guard stationed at all hours outside the hostel doors. When you enter the actual hostel grounds its a large square complex with a central courtyard. The rooms go all around the complex on each floor and each floor has bathroom facilities although I am learning the gender line for bathroom usage is a bit blurred. The first floor has a small place to eat with tables and chairs set up outside it, and there is a small store where you can buy toiletries and snacks and units for your phone (their equivalent of minutes). There are also laundry lines set up and the water tanks for when water is not available via shower head. The second floor has an internet cafe where you can access wifi for 1 GHC, which is about 66 cents. The actual 'cafe' is small with about seven computers set up in it to use. Each floor also has kitchen facilities.

The rooms themselves have a small twin bed, maybe even a bit smaller than a twin, a bureau closet, a comfy chair, a desk and chair, and a night table. The furniture is clearly used, but not in bad condition. Each room also has a porch that looks outside the hostel, although the ground floor ones, where I am at now, are enclosed so you don't get that open feel the other porches on the higher floors have.

The bathrooms do not have toilet paper or soap, as most don't in a lot of places you go.

Random thoughts:

• Ghanaians speak English with what they call a full pronnunciation, meaning they pronounce every single letter so instead of saying thing with the 'th' sound they pronounce it as if it were ting, with the t and h pronnounced seperately


• They drive on the right side of the road, despite having been a British colony


• Using your left hand to give or recieve items as well as to eat or gesture is a major insult. if your right hand is occupied you must either support the left with the right or simply say "I am not giving this to you with my left"


• An even bigger insult is smelling your food. Awushi, my student guide, couldn't even tell us what it means and she wouldn't mimick what she meant because it was that big of a taboo.

Well thats it for tonight.

Peace.

Katie

August 6, 2011: Day two in Ghana

Akwaaba! It means Welcome in Twi, the local dialect here in the greater Accra area. I am once again traveling to a far off place, and wanted to keep you all connected in! I'm going to cheat a little and backtrack on my days, writing each one as if it is present tenses because I have been keeping them in a word document, but internet isn't readily available so this is the first I've been able to start this baby up.

I have lots on my mind, and lots to share, so I will either bore you to death, or bore myself to death of typing, so I may just break up everything up and save things for later posts...either that or my one hour internet connection kicks me off first.

So I am writing this particular post as if it was 8/6, so Saturday. Here we go.

Right now I am in midst of my orientation program through the International Student Exchange Program (ISEP). It will last right through next week and through next weekend. The program is made up of students all over the U.S. and its lead by a group of Ghanaian students, leaders, and organizers. They have all been just so warm and welcoming, helping us all out. Most of us came in on group flights form the states and were all picked up in a big bus where they loaded our luggage onto the top of the bus and strapped it down. After we were placed in our temporary rooms, since most of us are getting Ghanaian roommates (myself included) we were taken to the mall to get phones/sim cards/other stuff we might need. Then later they prepared dinner for us. We had jollof rice among other things which is a traditional dish in Ghana, and more generally in West Africa. I'm not sure exactly what goes in it but its had some vegetables and onions and such in it. They also served plantains! Delicious.

Today we had another full day from 7am until dinner time. My day started off with a shower out of a bucket. Needless to say, water here is not reliable. There is not always running water. That is when you fill your bucket with water form the huge water tanks in the back of the complex (side note: International Student Hostel 1 or ISH 1 is where I live). So after a strangely familiar and comfortable 'bath' (Caroga Lake bucket baths) we headed onto campus where we received an orientation on safety, hygiene, and culture. The classroom was nice and open with a breeze coming in. I looked out the window at some point and noticed this massive bird trying to pick up an entire plastic bag full of something and fly off, however the bag was too heavy so he dropped it. It was quite entertaining seeing this bird lift off with a plastic shopping bag as if it was off to the market.

Our walk to the orientation building was through campus, but I am reserving all judgements until our actual campus tour.

After our brief orientation in the classroom we were taken on a bus tour of the greater Accra area. The Uni is in Legon which is about a five minute ride away from Accra, the capital. We were shown where the hospital, the post office, and other such facilities are located around the city. Although, city is a very relative term. You mustn't think of it as skyscrapers. Its a very relative term. The streets are crowed with people selling everything you can imagine and bartering is perfectly acceptable if not expected. Part of the trip was letting all us Americans loose in one of the markets to test our survival skills. Definitely an experience. Within seconds of stepping off our bus we were being approached from all sides by the men selling various items. And they are persistent, asking you your name and telling you they will give you a special price because you are friends. They are friendly, and harmless, but it was a very overwhelming when you tried to explain you don't plan on buying anything and yet they still push. But my goal is to perfect my bartering abilities by the end of the trip!

For those who don't know where exactly Ghana is, its a small country in Western Africa along the Gulf of Guinea. It borders Togo on the right, Cote d'ivore (The Ivory Coast) to the left, and Burkina Faso to the north. It was a British colony and it has a proud history of being the first African country to gain independence from colonial rule. Kwame Nkrumah is the first president of the Ghana and it is his mausoleum that we visited today. The location of the mausoleum is an area that Europeans had been given exclusive access to so that when Nkrumah led Ghana into its first republic he reclaimed the the area giving a speech in the park, and sparking a renewed African identity.

Its still been a crazy whirlwind of events and information and names and more information and so many names!! But I am going to leave it at that for now!

Peace.

Katie