Life has been a crazy whirlwind these past few weeks. All of the traveling we have been doing mixed with midterms and papers building up has made time fly by. We were just talking about the fact that exactly a month from two days ago, we fly out...in one month (the 15th of December) I will be home, in cold Michigan, sitting somewhere trying to warm myself with tea. There's so many things about being home that I look forward to...in many respects I'm anxious to get home, but I know that as soon as I get home I will be anxious to come back here, so I'm trying to slow down, relax, and enjoy my last few weeks in West Africa.
Our travels so far have been numerous, a few weeks ago we spent a week in the northern region. We stayed in Tamale for a few days (where we rented bicycles and rode around the town...I LOVED it) and drove all the way up to Bolgatanga and Paga (where we saw the Burkina Faso border) to see some development projects. We also spent a few nights in Yendi, which was by far my favorite place in Ghana so far. I loved Yendi because of its remoteness...people in Accra are aggressive and you must constantly be on your guard, I found people in Yendi to be much friendlier and gentler. It was nice to get a break from all the stress of city life. We also spent one night in Mole national park where we went on a safari hike. I got stuck in the not-so-luck group of hikers. While most of my classmates were chased by elephants, we only saw antelope and some monkeys...perhaps the most exciting part of our hike was getting to travel off the beaten path and walk through a few tropical rivers and elephant dung...
The next weekend (or soon after) we all traveled up to Cape Coast where we stayed in small bungaloes right off a rocky beach. I thought I could just sit there for hours watching the waves crash into the rocks. It was amazing. We visited some slave castles there and went to Kakum National Park where we took a canopy tour of the rain forest. I loved Cape Coast! A few of us girls went back the very next weekend with Lydia before she had to go back to the states. The second time around was all inclusive with the most amazing breakfast I've eaten in Ghana, a sandy beach with palm trees, and skinny dipping in the ocean in the middle of the night. Oh the memories.
Last weekend we went to the Volta Region (eastern Ghana) where we stayed in a town called Ho (thats right, it was called Ho). On Saturday we tro-tro'd up to Wli Falls and hiked out to see one of the nicest water falls in the country. It was beautiful, the only thing that could have made it better would have been the lack of a hundred or so other Ghanaian tourists. I think it was a class trip of some sort, I guess we went on a bad day.
We are leaving for Kumasi this coming Monday and two weeks from this week we will be heading off for our own personal travels in West Africa. The group has split up into a few sub-groups traveling to different areas...Sam, Jordan, and I are attempting Timbuktu (which is said to be 3+ days travel away). So basically, if we're lucky we'll get all the necessary visa's (one to Burkina Faso and one to Mali) and then if everything goes as planned, we will get to Mali in three days, stay there for three days, and get back in three days...if we're unlucky, hopefully we will make it to Timbuktu at least in time to spend the night there before we have to turn around. It will be an adventure...but at the end, we will get to see the Sahara. Wish me luck.
Thursday, November 15, 2007
Saturday, October 27, 2007
We have been traveling a lot these past few weeks. We spent all of last week in the north and this weekend we are in Cape Coast. Despite all of the struggles and annoyances of traveling in large groups, on buses for hours on end, I have learned a lot about Ghana these past few weeks...too bad I only have a few minutes of internet time left here at the internet cafe in Cape Coast University, so I will not be recounting my adventures at this time...stories and pictures can wait until later.
I just wanted to say, I just recieved some bad news from home, the death of a friend's family member...so when you read this, remember and be thankful for those who are still near you and pray for those in this world who are mourning and in pain.
Blessings to you, I love you all.
I just wanted to say, I just recieved some bad news from home, the death of a friend's family member...so when you read this, remember and be thankful for those who are still near you and pray for those in this world who are mourning and in pain.
Blessings to you, I love you all.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
So much has happened since the last time I wrote,...as things piled on top of each other, I began to avoid writing new posts knowing that there would be so much to say, but alas, there is so much that I have no way of writing it succinctly...
Life has been crazy these past few weeks. I feel like I've spent much of my time trying to figure out what I am really supposed to be doing here... Life at the university is so far removed from ordinary Ghanaian life, life at ISH is even further removed from anything Ghanaian (since here we are surrounded by international students most of the time). I'm frustrated because I feel as though I have made few real connections with Ghanaians and have contributed little to my knowledge about what life here is really like. Overall I feel like I've been living here without really experiencing what it is like to be in Ghana. It's so easy to remain isolated within our group of international student friends and thus so difficult to truly experience Ghana. I finally got a room-mate. Her name is Adiza and she's absolutely adorable (I'll have to post a picture sometime). I thought that when I got a roomate, things would change, I thought that this person would be my "in" persay, but even though we get along great, and we hang out in the room together a little, somehow there is a great divide between the Ghanaians and the internationals, the groups just don't tend to mend well,... it's a bit disturbing. In a way the phenomenon makes sense...we're so different from one another, we have such different ideas about how to have fun etc...but still. I just wish cross cultural relationships were easy.
There's also been quite a bit of social drama among the Calvin group. I love everyone on this trip to death, but often I think my life would be easier (or just better) if I had come alone. I haven't made as many friends with people in other groups as I would have liked to, and although I know that it is mostly my fault, I also know that I would be more compelled to branch out if I were here alone, without a safety net of familiar comfortable people around me. As it is, it's more of a struggle. Also, it's seemed as though coming with a large group of Calvin folk has just brought Calvin drama here and I have had little need to deal with the other issues that should be consuming my thoughts while I am learning how to live in a foreign country.
Home-sickness has finally set in as well. Some of us girls were sitting in one of our rooms a little while ago talking about things we missed about home...I never before realized how much I love fall. I miss the mornings at school when the sky is open wide and bright blue, the sun is shining and illuminating the gold leaves on the trees. Those mornings when it's cool enough to wear jeans and a sweater a sip coffee as you walk to class...friends, when you encounter these precious moments on fall mornings, just think of me and how much I would love to be there with you. I love being here and would not trade in this experience for the world, but I still miss Michigan...
Life has been crazy these past few weeks. I feel like I've spent much of my time trying to figure out what I am really supposed to be doing here... Life at the university is so far removed from ordinary Ghanaian life, life at ISH is even further removed from anything Ghanaian (since here we are surrounded by international students most of the time). I'm frustrated because I feel as though I have made few real connections with Ghanaians and have contributed little to my knowledge about what life here is really like. Overall I feel like I've been living here without really experiencing what it is like to be in Ghana. It's so easy to remain isolated within our group of international student friends and thus so difficult to truly experience Ghana. I finally got a room-mate. Her name is Adiza and she's absolutely adorable (I'll have to post a picture sometime). I thought that when I got a roomate, things would change, I thought that this person would be my "in" persay, but even though we get along great, and we hang out in the room together a little, somehow there is a great divide between the Ghanaians and the internationals, the groups just don't tend to mend well,... it's a bit disturbing. In a way the phenomenon makes sense...we're so different from one another, we have such different ideas about how to have fun etc...but still. I just wish cross cultural relationships were easy.
There's also been quite a bit of social drama among the Calvin group. I love everyone on this trip to death, but often I think my life would be easier (or just better) if I had come alone. I haven't made as many friends with people in other groups as I would have liked to, and although I know that it is mostly my fault, I also know that I would be more compelled to branch out if I were here alone, without a safety net of familiar comfortable people around me. As it is, it's more of a struggle. Also, it's seemed as though coming with a large group of Calvin folk has just brought Calvin drama here and I have had little need to deal with the other issues that should be consuming my thoughts while I am learning how to live in a foreign country.
Home-sickness has finally set in as well. Some of us girls were sitting in one of our rooms a little while ago talking about things we missed about home...I never before realized how much I love fall. I miss the mornings at school when the sky is open wide and bright blue, the sun is shining and illuminating the gold leaves on the trees. Those mornings when it's cool enough to wear jeans and a sweater a sip coffee as you walk to class...friends, when you encounter these precious moments on fall mornings, just think of me and how much I would love to be there with you. I love being here and would not trade in this experience for the world, but I still miss Michigan...
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Random...
Here are some random pictures for you all to see...
A store a few minutes walk from the hostel (in fact you can see ISH2 in the background) commonly called "Chop" or "Jesus" by the members of the Calvin group...
The night market, where I purchase most of my food
(located just outside of the hostel...I can see it from my window)
Esther's fruit stand...I buy all my fruit from her, including my daily pineapple...
You can buy lattes at the little cafe in Max-Mart...we went there last week while studying, I've missed good coffee so much, it was one of my happiest moments in a long time...
The epitome of Tuesday nights: Star Beer, cigarettes, and buy one get one free pizza at Bonjour
its been a while...
As the title of this entry suggests, it has been a while since I last wrote to you all...and much has happened since then. The following is the abbreviated version of what I would have written had I blogged every day these past few days...
Thursday began as a celebration...since we have readings and papers due for History and virtually no class on Fridays, Thursday nights feel somewhat like Friday nights. On the recommendation of our High-life music professor, we decided to try Bywell Bar which has a live band every Thursday night performing covers of popular songs as well as Ghanaian music. I had a really good time dancing and hanging out with the group and hope to turn Bywell into a Thursday night tradition...
On Friday, after a night of dancing at Bywell and our morning drumming class, we decided to take a day trip to Asenema Falls (a waterfall and hiking area located not too far from Accra). The waterfall was amazing...but surrounded by large slippery sharp rocks (ones that Brad eventually cut his face on) which we proceeded to climb until we got halfway up the waterfall and behind it. This was probably not my most intelligent decision but the experience was worth the few scrapes on my arms and legs. The most interesting part of Asenema falls was the journey there and back. Unless we were willing to pay an arm and a leg for a taxi (which was not the case) we had to take multiple modes of transportation to get to Asenema. First we took a tro-tro to Medina (tro-tro's are large eighteen passenger vans that cruise along the roads here picking up passengers as they go, they usually have a final destination but no set schedule, a passenger can
get on and thus get off anywhere along the way...tro-tro's are also usually packed full of people and can become hot and uncomfortable, especially if you are sitting in one on a tro-tro yard waiting for it to fill up before take-off). In Medina we got off at the wrong stop and had to walk a half mile up the road to find a connecting tro-tro to Adrukum (the village closest to Asenema Falls). Most of us ended up sitting on the Adrukum tro-tro for nearly 45minutes as the driver waited for it to fill up. After about an hour's ride we reached Adrukum where six of us shoved into a taxi which took us on the last 5 kilometers of the trip. The way back home was even more interesting since Asenema falls in out in the middle of nowhere--which meant we had
to hitch-hike back to Adrukum where we grabbed a tro-tro home. We walked about a half-mile before some Ghanaian workers picked us up in their covered pick-up and took us into town.
Having survived Asenema (beat up yet in one piece) we spent most of Friday night hanging out in Erica's room...while most of the boys bought cheap nasty boxed wine for the night, Sam and I decided to be classy and go with the bagged vodka. That's right, you can actually buy vodka pre-packaged in shot-sized bags here...I have included a picture if you don't believe me. The fifth that Derek's holding up cost us about $2 dollars, real classy...they made probably the worst screw-drivers I've ever tasted.
The rest of the weekend was spent on random affairs, Saturday a few of us went down to "Circle" (a shopping area of Accra) where we explored the Hocker's Market as people tried to coerce us into buying all sorts of random paraphernalia.
On Sunday, Emily, Lydia, and I spent most of the day in search of a chick-flick, which was incredibly hopeless... but in the process ended up eating at a great restaurant called Papaye and finding a little Gellato place which sells both Gellato ice-cream as well as other European desserts...yay!
Overall these past few days have been a great learning experience, I've been busy traveling here and there but in the process have gotten quite used to riding on tro-tro's and bargaining with taxi drivers. Hopping on a tro-tro to a rather unfamiliar place is no longer as scary as it was a few weeks ago. I'm also more on my guard than I used to be. I still struggle with knowing when to be polite to harassing street vendors and when it is culturally acceptable for me to respond with a comment as equally rude as the one directed at me. The one thing I cannot stand here is that people (mostly men) feel that they have permission to touch and grab at us ladies. It is not uncommon for a street vendor to grab at my arm or wrist while he is trying to get my attention... At first I was shocked when this happened, then I tried to be polite, now a days I either rip my arm free or attempt to slap their hand away (which sadly is yet to be successful). Overall, I love that I am finally getting used to being here, I'm more used to the culture and how I am expected to act in certain situations.
Thursday began as a celebration...since we have readings and papers due for History and virtually no class on Fridays, Thursday nights feel somewhat like Friday nights. On the recommendation of our High-life music professor, we decided to try Bywell Bar which has a live band every Thursday night performing covers of popular songs as well as Ghanaian music. I had a really good time dancing and hanging out with the group and hope to turn Bywell into a Thursday night tradition...
On Friday, after a night of dancing at Bywell and our morning drumming class, we decided to take a day trip to Asenema Falls (a waterfall and hiking area located not too far from Accra). The waterfall was amazing...but surrounded by large slippery sharp rocks (ones that Brad eventually cut his face on) which we proceeded to climb until we got halfway up the waterfall and behind it. This was probably not my most intelligent decision but the experience was worth the few scrapes on my arms and legs. The most interesting part of Asenema falls was the journey there and back. Unless we were willing to pay an arm and a leg for a taxi (which was not the case) we had to take multiple modes of transportation to get to Asenema. First we took a tro-tro to Medina (tro-tro's are large eighteen passenger vans that cruise along the roads here picking up passengers as they go, they usually have a final destination but no set schedule, a passenger can
get on and thus get off anywhere along the way...tro-tro's are also usually packed full of people and can become hot and uncomfortable, especially if you are sitting in one on a tro-tro yard waiting for it to fill up before take-off). In Medina we got off at the wrong stop and had to walk a half mile up the road to find a connecting tro-tro to Adrukum (the village closest to Asenema Falls). Most of us ended up sitting on the Adrukum tro-tro for nearly 45minutes as the driver waited for it to fill up. After about an hour's ride we reached Adrukum where six of us shoved into a taxi which took us on the last 5 kilometers of the trip. The way back home was even more interesting since Asenema falls in out in the middle of nowhere--which meant we had
to hitch-hike back to Adrukum where we grabbed a tro-tro home. We walked about a half-mile before some Ghanaian workers picked us up in their covered pick-up and took us into town.Having survived Asenema (beat up yet in one piece) we spent most of Friday night hanging out in Erica's room...while most of the boys bought cheap nasty boxed wine for the night, Sam and I decided to be classy and go with the bagged vodka. That's right, you can actually buy vodka pre-packaged in shot-sized bags here...I have included a picture if you don't believe me. The fifth that Derek's holding up cost us about $2 dollars, real classy...they made probably the worst screw-drivers I've ever tasted.
The rest of the weekend was spent on random affairs, Saturday a few of us went down to "Circle" (a shopping area of Accra) where we explored the Hocker's Market as people tried to coerce us into buying all sorts of random paraphernalia.
On Sunday, Emily, Lydia, and I spent most of the day in search of a chick-flick, which was incredibly hopeless... but in the process ended up eating at a great restaurant called Papaye and finding a little Gellato place which sells both Gellato ice-cream as well as other European desserts...yay!
Overall these past few days have been a great learning experience, I've been busy traveling here and there but in the process have gotten quite used to riding on tro-tro's and bargaining with taxi drivers. Hopping on a tro-tro to a rather unfamiliar place is no longer as scary as it was a few weeks ago. I'm also more on my guard than I used to be. I still struggle with knowing when to be polite to harassing street vendors and when it is culturally acceptable for me to respond with a comment as equally rude as the one directed at me. The one thing I cannot stand here is that people (mostly men) feel that they have permission to touch and grab at us ladies. It is not uncommon for a street vendor to grab at my arm or wrist while he is trying to get my attention... At first I was shocked when this happened, then I tried to be polite, now a days I either rip my arm free or attempt to slap their hand away (which sadly is yet to be successful). Overall, I love that I am finally getting used to being here, I'm more used to the culture and how I am expected to act in certain situations.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
mating frogs...
It is about time to mention the crazy mating frogs they have here right now. After dark, the sounds of (the loudest I've ever heard) frog croaking fills the air. Every now and then the frogs get silent (or you stop noticing them) and then they get going: one frog starts and the rest follow in response. Some of the girls have had a difficult time sleeping at night just because the frogs are so loud. We finally figured it all out, the trench gutters on the side of the road are filled with tadpoles...they're mating. Which can only mean that a few months from now we will have a thousand times the frogs we have now...the croaking will only get louder until we all go mad!
Saturday, September 15, 2007
there and back again...
We've been told by multiple people to expect power-outages quite frequently. Since the rainy season is coming to an end, the Volta is drying up, which means the dam we went to visit (the one that feeds power to all of Ghana, Togo, Benin, and part of Burkina Faso) cannot provide as much power as is is needed and thus there are random power-outages. The rainy season went a little long this year so we hadn't yet experienced a power-outage, that is until last night...
Most of us from the Calvin group had been planning (for a few days now) on going to a Karaoke bar called Champs last night...the other international students had told us it was a good time so we decided we'd give it a try. Most of us girls had been planning on showering and getting all dressed up (since we usually feel dirty and frumpy) before leaving--which would have been fine if the power hadn't gone out as it was getting dark at 6:30pm. Most of us ended up showering in the pitch dark of the girls bathroom and I will probably never forget the time I had trying to apply my make-up in the dark while Sam was shining a flashlight into my face. Magically we all ended up looking great! Even more magically, the lights flickered on as we were about to walk down the stairs and out of the hostel...timing is everything.
We all had a really good time at Champs. The atmosphere was a little strange since there were mostly only white people there and it was so packed that most of us couldn't sit down. I spent most of my time at Champs lingering around the bar (with most of the group) mingling with the other internationals. (The very fact that I couldn't sit down made for an interesting night because I had broken the strap on one of my heels as we were getting out of the cab in front of the restaurant.) We ended up meeting some really interesting people who we hung out with for the rest of the night... We got to know an Italian guy (David) who is our age and is the manager at a gold mine a few hours from Accra. We also met a Afrikaans guy who had just come from South Africa (also our age) to work as a distributor of merchandise into Ghana--his name is Paul. There was also a teacher from Switzerland named Berit who lives with the aforementioned two men.
The night was long, but to make a long story short, Joy and I ended up singing "Wonderwall" by Oasis in front of about a hundred or so people, we also danced to other ridiculous songs sang by random drunk people including Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" performed by Brad, Matt, and Berit. Most of the group spent much of the rest of the night with David, Paul, and Berit as they took us around and introduced us to more of the town.
My favorite moment: When we were dancing there was this creepy guy who kept coming up to me and wanting to dance with me, I kept saying no and dancing away into a crowd of my friends but he kept coming back throughout the night. So I told Matt: "For all practical purposes tonight you are my boyfriend." He quickly got the hint and began to hover over me to shoo off this dude whenever need be. As we were leaving the place he walked out next to/behind me as this creepy guy went to grab my arm to ask me to dance with him once again. All of a sudden, Matt breaks in and shoves this dude against the wall away from me as he escorts me out of the building... it was great. Thanks goes to Matt, He's a trooper... his girlfriend back home would be proud!
Most of us from the Calvin group had been planning (for a few days now) on going to a Karaoke bar called Champs last night...the other international students had told us it was a good time so we decided we'd give it a try. Most of us girls had been planning on showering and getting all dressed up (since we usually feel dirty and frumpy) before leaving--which would have been fine if the power hadn't gone out as it was getting dark at 6:30pm. Most of us ended up showering in the pitch dark of the girls bathroom and I will probably never forget the time I had trying to apply my make-up in the dark while Sam was shining a flashlight into my face. Magically we all ended up looking great! Even more magically, the lights flickered on as we were about to walk down the stairs and out of the hostel...timing is everything.
We all had a really good time at Champs. The atmosphere was a little strange since there were mostly only white people there and it was so packed that most of us couldn't sit down. I spent most of my time at Champs lingering around the bar (with most of the group) mingling with the other internationals. (The very fact that I couldn't sit down made for an interesting night because I had broken the strap on one of my heels as we were getting out of the cab in front of the restaurant.) We ended up meeting some really interesting people who we hung out with for the rest of the night... We got to know an Italian guy (David) who is our age and is the manager at a gold mine a few hours from Accra. We also met a Afrikaans guy who had just come from South Africa (also our age) to work as a distributor of merchandise into Ghana--his name is Paul. There was also a teacher from Switzerland named Berit who lives with the aforementioned two men.
The night was long, but to make a long story short, Joy and I ended up singing "Wonderwall" by Oasis in front of about a hundred or so people, we also danced to other ridiculous songs sang by random drunk people including Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" performed by Brad, Matt, and Berit. Most of the group spent much of the rest of the night with David, Paul, and Berit as they took us around and introduced us to more of the town.
My favorite moment: When we were dancing there was this creepy guy who kept coming up to me and wanting to dance with me, I kept saying no and dancing away into a crowd of my friends but he kept coming back throughout the night. So I told Matt: "For all practical purposes tonight you are my boyfriend." He quickly got the hint and began to hover over me to shoo off this dude whenever need be. As we were leaving the place he walked out next to/behind me as this creepy guy went to grab my arm to ask me to dance with him once again. All of a sudden, Matt breaks in and shoves this dude against the wall away from me as he escorts me out of the building... it was great. Thanks goes to Matt, He's a trooper... his girlfriend back home would be proud!
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