January 31st
It is almost February! Next Wednesday will be a month from when I arrived in Ghana. It has gone by really slowly at times, but very fast for the most part. This week I had classes again. In Africa in the International setting we started discussing possible paper and project topics. I had taken a class on people of the Caribbean at Lehigh so I suggested the subject of Rastafarianism and how it relates to Pan-Africanism (the theme of this class), specifically looking at reggae. A lot of reggae songs were used by Rastafarians to promote ideas of equality and repatriation of Africa (both make up some of the main ideas of Pan-Africanism). So I’m going to start doing research soon for that class, since the Internet is so slow it is good to start early! In the cultural values class we discussed cultural values seen in “Things Fall Apart” and how they have changed or have remained the same in today’s society. We have gotten more into Twi this week, learning phrases like “maakye” (pronounced maa-che) which means “good morning” and the proper responses. Mostly the only Twi I use in practice so far is “εte sεn- how are you, εyε- I’m fine, medaase- thank you”. The ε sounds like “eh” whereas the e sounds like “ey”. They have no c, j, q, or z in their alphabet. That part made me realize why so many people have trouble with my name! Jocelyn originally thought my name was “kency”. The dance class is fun, we’ve extrapolated on the dance moved and are also playing some instruments. There is now the bell, a shaker, and some people got to play the drums this week(see pictures). The leadership course continues to be my favorite. In many of the Africana classes, there is a high percentage of CIEE students so the Ashesi students are more reserved and don’t share their opinions as much. For the international setting course our professor purposefully made us all move because typically the Ashesi students sit in the back of the class and the CIEE students sit in the front (differences in socialization of class etiquette rather than racial conflict). We are getting to know some of the students better, and although some are very reserved, many of are really fun, interesting, and perceptive people.
On Wednesday, Jake from the CIEE program was severely dehydrated and was admitted to the hospital (the first victim). He’s feeling much better now and only had to stay for one night. Dedei (I’ve learned that is how you spell it) left to go to Kumasi for a few days on Wednesday, so Rachel and I taught her class on Friday. Before she left, her brother and sister came by to visit. Her sister Korkor (means second born in Ga, Dedei means first born) is a seamstress and measured Rachel and I for our very own traditional long skirt and top outfits. On Friday, we taught the P1 (first grade) at African Unity Primary (Dedei’s school). It was quite the experience. The children were very unruly and truly took advantage of the fact that they knew we wouldn’t hit them. As Rachel and I were the only ones there, the students were very excited to spend the day with us. However, they were also a bit overexcited and it turned out to be a very stressful day. The kids were never all sitting in their chairs at one time, they would punch and hit each other, wrestle and do handstands in the classroom, cry, draw on their desks with chalk, and some of them would even sneak out of the room to go to the market to get ice cream. They weren’t quite as crazy when we were there last week with Dedei, but she did have to hit them to get them to behave. This week though, some of the students from other classrooms would gather at the windows and even try to sneak into the classroom just to look at us. They don’t have any experience with white people so it was all very exciting for them, and extremely frustrating for us. During break times and PE it was less stressful because it was less important that we control them. During lunch I got some good pictures of them eating banku and groundnut (peanut) soup with fish. They loved the camera, but it was hard to keep their foody little fingers off of it. To make up for our stressful day, we went to get pizza last night for dinner and went out with some of our friends from school. We had a lot of fun, but being on the schedule of waking up early to run or go to school (usually I wake up at 6 or 7), I get tired really early on weekend nights. Today I’m going to Ashesi to use the Internet and try to skype because it is the only time the internet is fast enough to not cut out every other word.
*more points*
-I’ve been thinking about reasons for coming to Ashesi rather than the University of Legon. I had originally felt that I was sort of wimping out on going to Ashesi because it is more western in terms of its values and teaching style. I am happy in my choice however, because it gives a progressive prospective on the way Ghana is now. We are able to learn about the current situation and the problems it has and specifically how they are trying to remedy the problems. For example, good leadership has been elusive in Ghana. Most leaders become corrupt or are not notified by their subordinates when they are doing something that is not good (because of a cultural tendency to never challenge the leader).
-Most Ashesi students are older than typical university students in the US. Jocelyn is 21 and Antwiwaa is 22 (both are 2nd years).
-Although sort of an obvious point, black Africans (like most Ghanaians) do not get sunburned. I had a little burn on my face the other day, and Jocelyn was asking what it felt like and what happens once you get burned.
-Although race isn’t acknowledged in an inferior/superior type of dialect, it is recognized. It is interesting when watching American shows or movies while we are here, because the racial issues of the US look very silly. Most black Americans are very pale in comparison to black Africans. When the difference between black Americans and white Americans is so much less in terms of skin color, and the racial issues are so much more, it makes one think about how strange it is that we seem to have so much trouble with it in the US.
-Expanding that point a bit, the racial issues that we see here are much different. Obruni- actually comes from the Twi word for English, “Brofo”. O is used to emphasize the importance of something, and is also used in the context of God, “Onyame”. It seems that they have internalized the belief of white skin as beautiful and good, because it is associated with privilege. Many people will tell us we’re beautiful, seemingly without looking at our features at all, just noticing the color of our skin.
-In 2008 Ghana changed their currency from the cedi to the new Ghana cedi which is the same power of 10 only without 4 zero’s. So what used to be 5,000 cedis is now 50 pesewas. Because it happened so recently, people still sometimes use the terminology for the cedi, also the Ghana cedi is the only bill in circulation.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
January 25th
It’s been almost a week since I last posted. The school week went well, with nothing too eventful occurring. The classes are getting much more interesting because we’re actually doing things now. We’ve had a couple of articles to read for the Africa in the International Setting course and we have a critical reflection paper due on Tuesday. We were assigned to read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe for the Cultural Values class and we will discuss the first part tomorrow in class. The leadership course was especially interesting this week because it is a large class where Rachel and I are the only exchange students, so the large majority are Africans (Ghanaians mostly but some Nigerians). We have split into groups (we will later write an essay and do a presentation together) and my group members are really nice. I’m starting to recognize people more often and remember names (which is hard when some of them are so difficult to say without embarrassing myself). We talked about the value of integrity in a leader for a while in class because it is something that has changed in Ghana and something that causes them a lot of problems. They were saying that it used to be that integrity was something very important to most Ghanaians and their culture was set up to maintain a system of balances and checks of everyone’s honesty. For example, in setting up a marriage the two families bargain about the bride price as well as doing a thorough investigation of the proposer’s past and family. If the prospective husbands grandfather stole a goat, it could put a serious damper on the marriage negotiations. However, Ghana has a lot of trouble these days with officials and people in places of authority being corrupt and accepting bribes among other things. This was seen especially in the recent elections. I’ve heard from a number of people that they know people who voted more than once just by bribing the voting officials (may have led to some of the trouble with running out of balots…).
On Monday we went to the market on Oxford street and picked out some material and got measured for a couple skirts. I got two skirts made for me for 8 cedis each. I also bought a kente print dress for 10 cedis. On Friday we went to Dede’s school to teach PE. The kids are very cute. She teaches 1st grade but not all the students are 6 years old. Some of them have never had any schooling and so cannot read at all or speak much English. To interact with them we had to talk very slowly and mostly just teach by example. Although they know some English, they have a lot of trouble with our accents because they are so young and haven’t been exposed to many white people or Western television. It is a public school so many of the students are quite poor. The school provides lunch which serves as a pretty good motive for the students to come to school. At PE we played Simon Says for stretching and warm up. We tried to play duck duck goose with them but some of them didn’t understand it. They love to play soccer (football) so they played that for the last part. They also wanted to play a traditional game that Dede explained to us that sounded a bit like rock paper scissors. Two children play each other at a time. They jump in the air and clap their hands and then when they come down they pick one of a certain few moves they can do with their legs (a stamp, a kick etc.). If they child who initiated the game gets the same move as the other child they win the round and move on to the next kid. Something that I wasn’t expecting, but wasn’t surprised to see, was that the teachers use a stick to hit the kids to make them behave. If a student was out of their seat when they were supposed to be working a whack on the butt puts them back in their seat. When we walked in we saw an older student standing outside the classroom with her hand out while the teacher gave her a couple snaps with the stick. Rachel and I weren’t too keen on seeing this practice, but it is certainly a cultural difference. Dede is going to Kumasi with her church group from Wednesday until Friday. Since Rachel and I don’t have class on Friday we told her we would go and teach her class. Mostly we just have to occupy them (with games, stories, etc.) but she said we could work on subtraction and naming the different family members (so they can work on their English). It will be hard for us to control them I think, because neither of us are comfortable using their tactics, so hopefully we can keep them busy enough that they behave.
We ran again, and again Dede made enough breakfast for me. When we went to her school we drove by a hospital and I told her that I was trying to get some volunteer hours there because I want to be a doctor. She was so excited and said that I’d have to come back to Ghana then and that I would always have a mom in Ghana. She also told me later that night that I should come over whenever (apparently 1 meal a day isn’t enough), because Rachel and I are cheap to feed since we don’t eat much (according to her standards). She is very sweet and it’s nice to have someone looking out for me here and feeding me traditional foods! This morning we had what she called Tom Brown. She said it was made from corn, but it was basically a brown mush that she told us to put sugar in. Besides that heaping bowl she had oatmeal and a plate of eggs for us.
Yesterday the program took us on an outing to a cloth making factory and a separate bead making factory. We got to make our own Batik cloth. There were a bunch of foam prints that we could choose from and then the factory workers would help us put the wax on them and print them on our cloth. Then they let us watch the dyeing process and the wax removal process. They came out really cool! (Check the snapfish site for photo’s this weekend). We also got to try our hand at painting on the beads they made at the bead place, which we found very difficult. They use old bottles and ceramic dyes to make glass beads (by melting them in the oven). They use the same mixture but with water to apply designs to the beads with a toothpick and then cook those as well. Ours didn’t look anywhere near as cool as theirs did. Today we spent a lazy day at the beach reading for our classes and swimming. We’ve been spending most of our beach days at Towala beach instead of Labadi because it is a local beach. It is much smaller, less crowded, free to get in, and the restaurant near it costs less for more and better food. It is very near Dede’s school. It is especially noticeable in this area, but in most of Ghana, that animals seem to be everywhere. Goats and dogs (dogs that are abnormally small, though full grown) often are just walking around the streets (I’m not sure who they belong to, but people seem to eat a lot of goat here). Chickens are in the most abundance (in the sewage moats at the edges of the road, ew). At the beach and at the school however, there seem to be a lot of horses just hanging out in the field. To the right of the beach I think there is a farm that has some pigs because the mama pig and her babies often come to eat crabs on the beach. Sometimes the farmer will come and herd them back to his place.
My roommate finally moved in. Her name is Antwiwaa (said Antriwaa). She seems nice, but is not as friendly as Jocelyn. Although Jocelyn’s neat freak tendencies are starting to show. We now mop the kitchen every night, and sweep everywhere 4/7 days a week. The bathroom is cleaned twice a week and the entire place is mopped twice a week. Yikes. At least it will prevent cockroaches and ants from making their home with us.
*Random points about Ghana*
-People seem to be very Christian. Both of our roommates have bibles that they read every day. Pretty much every store (except the grocery store) is closed on Sundays, and most of the shops on the streets are also closed. It is very empty on the streets, and the people you do see are mostly dressed nicely for church (men in slacks and a coat, and women in a long skirt and top of traditional style with traditional material).
-Fried plantains are delicious. I will miss them very much when I come home.
-I have never tasted fruit so wonderful. I don’t think I will ever get tired of the mangoes, pineapples, and bananas.
-I have become more tan, so today I was asked if I am South African (not first glance American!)
-It is now ‘winter’, or the real beginning of the dry season. The temperature seems to have dropped (slightly, to probably mid 80’s/ low 90’s). It is much less humid and more comfortable. The mornings and evenings can be cool. To Ghanaians it is COLD. Some of the students in Dede’s class were wearing sweaters and jackets. I saw someone when we were running in the morning who was wearing a ski parka.
It’s been almost a week since I last posted. The school week went well, with nothing too eventful occurring. The classes are getting much more interesting because we’re actually doing things now. We’ve had a couple of articles to read for the Africa in the International Setting course and we have a critical reflection paper due on Tuesday. We were assigned to read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe for the Cultural Values class and we will discuss the first part tomorrow in class. The leadership course was especially interesting this week because it is a large class where Rachel and I are the only exchange students, so the large majority are Africans (Ghanaians mostly but some Nigerians). We have split into groups (we will later write an essay and do a presentation together) and my group members are really nice. I’m starting to recognize people more often and remember names (which is hard when some of them are so difficult to say without embarrassing myself). We talked about the value of integrity in a leader for a while in class because it is something that has changed in Ghana and something that causes them a lot of problems. They were saying that it used to be that integrity was something very important to most Ghanaians and their culture was set up to maintain a system of balances and checks of everyone’s honesty. For example, in setting up a marriage the two families bargain about the bride price as well as doing a thorough investigation of the proposer’s past and family. If the prospective husbands grandfather stole a goat, it could put a serious damper on the marriage negotiations. However, Ghana has a lot of trouble these days with officials and people in places of authority being corrupt and accepting bribes among other things. This was seen especially in the recent elections. I’ve heard from a number of people that they know people who voted more than once just by bribing the voting officials (may have led to some of the trouble with running out of balots…).
On Monday we went to the market on Oxford street and picked out some material and got measured for a couple skirts. I got two skirts made for me for 8 cedis each. I also bought a kente print dress for 10 cedis. On Friday we went to Dede’s school to teach PE. The kids are very cute. She teaches 1st grade but not all the students are 6 years old. Some of them have never had any schooling and so cannot read at all or speak much English. To interact with them we had to talk very slowly and mostly just teach by example. Although they know some English, they have a lot of trouble with our accents because they are so young and haven’t been exposed to many white people or Western television. It is a public school so many of the students are quite poor. The school provides lunch which serves as a pretty good motive for the students to come to school. At PE we played Simon Says for stretching and warm up. We tried to play duck duck goose with them but some of them didn’t understand it. They love to play soccer (football) so they played that for the last part. They also wanted to play a traditional game that Dede explained to us that sounded a bit like rock paper scissors. Two children play each other at a time. They jump in the air and clap their hands and then when they come down they pick one of a certain few moves they can do with their legs (a stamp, a kick etc.). If they child who initiated the game gets the same move as the other child they win the round and move on to the next kid. Something that I wasn’t expecting, but wasn’t surprised to see, was that the teachers use a stick to hit the kids to make them behave. If a student was out of their seat when they were supposed to be working a whack on the butt puts them back in their seat. When we walked in we saw an older student standing outside the classroom with her hand out while the teacher gave her a couple snaps with the stick. Rachel and I weren’t too keen on seeing this practice, but it is certainly a cultural difference. Dede is going to Kumasi with her church group from Wednesday until Friday. Since Rachel and I don’t have class on Friday we told her we would go and teach her class. Mostly we just have to occupy them (with games, stories, etc.) but she said we could work on subtraction and naming the different family members (so they can work on their English). It will be hard for us to control them I think, because neither of us are comfortable using their tactics, so hopefully we can keep them busy enough that they behave.
We ran again, and again Dede made enough breakfast for me. When we went to her school we drove by a hospital and I told her that I was trying to get some volunteer hours there because I want to be a doctor. She was so excited and said that I’d have to come back to Ghana then and that I would always have a mom in Ghana. She also told me later that night that I should come over whenever (apparently 1 meal a day isn’t enough), because Rachel and I are cheap to feed since we don’t eat much (according to her standards). She is very sweet and it’s nice to have someone looking out for me here and feeding me traditional foods! This morning we had what she called Tom Brown. She said it was made from corn, but it was basically a brown mush that she told us to put sugar in. Besides that heaping bowl she had oatmeal and a plate of eggs for us.
Yesterday the program took us on an outing to a cloth making factory and a separate bead making factory. We got to make our own Batik cloth. There were a bunch of foam prints that we could choose from and then the factory workers would help us put the wax on them and print them on our cloth. Then they let us watch the dyeing process and the wax removal process. They came out really cool! (Check the snapfish site for photo’s this weekend). We also got to try our hand at painting on the beads they made at the bead place, which we found very difficult. They use old bottles and ceramic dyes to make glass beads (by melting them in the oven). They use the same mixture but with water to apply designs to the beads with a toothpick and then cook those as well. Ours didn’t look anywhere near as cool as theirs did. Today we spent a lazy day at the beach reading for our classes and swimming. We’ve been spending most of our beach days at Towala beach instead of Labadi because it is a local beach. It is much smaller, less crowded, free to get in, and the restaurant near it costs less for more and better food. It is very near Dede’s school. It is especially noticeable in this area, but in most of Ghana, that animals seem to be everywhere. Goats and dogs (dogs that are abnormally small, though full grown) often are just walking around the streets (I’m not sure who they belong to, but people seem to eat a lot of goat here). Chickens are in the most abundance (in the sewage moats at the edges of the road, ew). At the beach and at the school however, there seem to be a lot of horses just hanging out in the field. To the right of the beach I think there is a farm that has some pigs because the mama pig and her babies often come to eat crabs on the beach. Sometimes the farmer will come and herd them back to his place.
My roommate finally moved in. Her name is Antwiwaa (said Antriwaa). She seems nice, but is not as friendly as Jocelyn. Although Jocelyn’s neat freak tendencies are starting to show. We now mop the kitchen every night, and sweep everywhere 4/7 days a week. The bathroom is cleaned twice a week and the entire place is mopped twice a week. Yikes. At least it will prevent cockroaches and ants from making their home with us.
*Random points about Ghana*
-People seem to be very Christian. Both of our roommates have bibles that they read every day. Pretty much every store (except the grocery store) is closed on Sundays, and most of the shops on the streets are also closed. It is very empty on the streets, and the people you do see are mostly dressed nicely for church (men in slacks and a coat, and women in a long skirt and top of traditional style with traditional material).
-Fried plantains are delicious. I will miss them very much when I come home.
-I have never tasted fruit so wonderful. I don’t think I will ever get tired of the mangoes, pineapples, and bananas.
-I have become more tan, so today I was asked if I am South African (not first glance American!)
-It is now ‘winter’, or the real beginning of the dry season. The temperature seems to have dropped (slightly, to probably mid 80’s/ low 90’s). It is much less humid and more comfortable. The mornings and evenings can be cool. To Ghanaians it is COLD. Some of the students in Dede’s class were wearing sweaters and jackets. I saw someone when we were running in the morning who was wearing a ski parka.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
January 19th
On Sunday I did laundry for the first time. Laundry is done in two buckets (for those of us who only have showers and not washrooms). The first is filled with water. Then you put the clothes in a few at a time and soap them up with the laundry bar and scrub them like you would hand washing anything. Then you rinse them and hang them out to dry on the line that is behind our hostel. They called safety pins peck’s here, so there was some confusion about terminology.
Then I put on a dress and Albert came to pick up Jocelyn and I. We drove through Accra and to the central region of Ghana to his brother Richard’s house. Although we had to drive on what looked like a dried up river bed (lots of ruts, and pot holes etc.), we ended up what was a very nice house for what I have seen in Ghana. It was the size of a small 4-person sized house in the US and was painted light teal. They had a flatscreen TV, although Ghanaian channels don’t come in too well. It was interesting to be the only white person there because they spoke Twi for a lot of the time and I couldn’t understand what they were saying. They seemed to be a very close and humor-filled family and I was able to meet their mother as well. After their mother left, Richards wife and a man (hired help?) showed me how they pound fufu. The man stands with a long wooden pounding stick (blunt at the end), and the woman sits on a short bench next to the pounding table/bowl. She puts in the plantains and he pounds. After all the plantains have been added she begins to pile the contents into the center underneath his pounds (this part looked tricky because she had to be careful not to get her hand in the way!). She then started rinsing her hand with water after every few pounds to add a bit of water to the mix. It started to look very doughy at this point, and reminded me of bread dough kneading. They then took the dough out, and did the same process with cassava root. The cassava was more white in color and seemed drier. They then pounded it all together and she separated it into smaller dough balls for the eating bowls. The dough was surrounded by a palm nut soup and some cooked chicken was put on top. The meal is eaten with only the right hand (no silverware). A small piece of fufu is taken off and covered with soup and eaten, but not chewed. It is supposed to be swallowed (this is how I found out how big to take off at once). It was pretty good. The fufu didn’t actually taste like much, but the soup was very good. It was much more filling than I expected it to be, and wasn’t able to finish my meager portion (in comparison to theirs). Richard was telling me how there are some foods that are not cross-ethnic (akan, ewe, ga, etc.) but that fufu is pretty much eaten by all. There are differences in how they make it though. Some of them use yam, some pound all of it together in the first place, etc. He said it makes a difference in how it tastes. Fufu is now available in boxed form as a powder that you add water to. They say it’s not as good as the traditional, which is true for most other boxed food items as well.
We then drove back and I got on the bus to go to the CIEE welcome dinner. The welcome dinner was held with all the students from the CIEE program at the University of Ghana (of which there are 45 students). I was very surprised to see a girl I knew from Acton who has been dating a kid I went to junior high and highschool with, though I hadn’t talked to her for about 4 years. They served us dinner and a drumming and dance performance crew put on quite the show for us. They got us all involved and we had a lot of fun. Boys from the neighborhood stood around the gate and watched the whole thing. There were some very cute young ones dancing to the music on a crate so we could see them.
Today we had class again, but our Twi course time was changed. This meant that I didn’t have class until 3 in the afternoon. Rachel and I decided to wake up early and beat the heat to our first run in Africa. When Rachel arrived at my hostel she told me that Dede had prepared breakfast for me as well to eat when we returned from our jog. So we jogged around my neighborhood a little (not many people here jog so we got some stares) and then went to her place. Breakfast was a rice porridge which they eat with milk (condensed milk from a can) and sugar. It was better than it sounds. I also had some drink that is quite popular here called Milo, which from what I can tell is the original Ovaltine. We had talked to Dede about coming in to work at her school (she teaches 1st grade) and today she suggested that since we don’t have class until late on Mondays that we come on Mondays and teach PE. She had been promising the kids she would allow PE, but hasn’t had anyone to teach it. She told us that at first the kids might just stare at us, or want to touch us, because it will be their first interaction with (and for some, the first time they see) white people. I also told her that I had tried fufu and she feigned anger at not being to first to expose me to it. She is very funny and it’s nice to have a sort of adopted homestay while still enjoying living in the hostel with people my own age. We went to Danquah circle to buy Kente print (the authentic cloth is much more expensive, but is very traditional Ghanaian) wraps for our African Dance and Music class. I also got measurements and bought fabric to have two skirts made for me (8 cedis each) and also bought a dress.
In our cultural values class today we talked briefly about each of the countries that make up West Africa. We also talked about how Burkina Faso (our neighbors directly north) have a film festival in late April early March and discussed maybe having a field trip there! The Twi class started today and our professor is very good. He keeps it interesting and has us repeat it. Twi seems to be a language that is quite simple, albeit very different than ours. The vocabulary is limited so they use a lot of gestures to distinguish, as well as context. Often whole words are left out and words are meshed into one another, so it will be important to listen carefully for certain clues as to what people are really saying. I bought some chicken at the Chinese grocery store (15 cedis for 9 breasts), and vegetables from a woman on the way home from school (who I have become kind of a regular customer for). She asked my name today (my African name Akosua, said A-ko-sia, emphasis on ko) so maybe she will remember me by name. I’m getting used to people calling me that because Dede calls me Akos for the most part. I think it is easier for them to remember names they already know.
On Sunday I did laundry for the first time. Laundry is done in two buckets (for those of us who only have showers and not washrooms). The first is filled with water. Then you put the clothes in a few at a time and soap them up with the laundry bar and scrub them like you would hand washing anything. Then you rinse them and hang them out to dry on the line that is behind our hostel. They called safety pins peck’s here, so there was some confusion about terminology.
Then I put on a dress and Albert came to pick up Jocelyn and I. We drove through Accra and to the central region of Ghana to his brother Richard’s house. Although we had to drive on what looked like a dried up river bed (lots of ruts, and pot holes etc.), we ended up what was a very nice house for what I have seen in Ghana. It was the size of a small 4-person sized house in the US and was painted light teal. They had a flatscreen TV, although Ghanaian channels don’t come in too well. It was interesting to be the only white person there because they spoke Twi for a lot of the time and I couldn’t understand what they were saying. They seemed to be a very close and humor-filled family and I was able to meet their mother as well. After their mother left, Richards wife and a man (hired help?) showed me how they pound fufu. The man stands with a long wooden pounding stick (blunt at the end), and the woman sits on a short bench next to the pounding table/bowl. She puts in the plantains and he pounds. After all the plantains have been added she begins to pile the contents into the center underneath his pounds (this part looked tricky because she had to be careful not to get her hand in the way!). She then started rinsing her hand with water after every few pounds to add a bit of water to the mix. It started to look very doughy at this point, and reminded me of bread dough kneading. They then took the dough out, and did the same process with cassava root. The cassava was more white in color and seemed drier. They then pounded it all together and she separated it into smaller dough balls for the eating bowls. The dough was surrounded by a palm nut soup and some cooked chicken was put on top. The meal is eaten with only the right hand (no silverware). A small piece of fufu is taken off and covered with soup and eaten, but not chewed. It is supposed to be swallowed (this is how I found out how big to take off at once). It was pretty good. The fufu didn’t actually taste like much, but the soup was very good. It was much more filling than I expected it to be, and wasn’t able to finish my meager portion (in comparison to theirs). Richard was telling me how there are some foods that are not cross-ethnic (akan, ewe, ga, etc.) but that fufu is pretty much eaten by all. There are differences in how they make it though. Some of them use yam, some pound all of it together in the first place, etc. He said it makes a difference in how it tastes. Fufu is now available in boxed form as a powder that you add water to. They say it’s not as good as the traditional, which is true for most other boxed food items as well.
We then drove back and I got on the bus to go to the CIEE welcome dinner. The welcome dinner was held with all the students from the CIEE program at the University of Ghana (of which there are 45 students). I was very surprised to see a girl I knew from Acton who has been dating a kid I went to junior high and highschool with, though I hadn’t talked to her for about 4 years. They served us dinner and a drumming and dance performance crew put on quite the show for us. They got us all involved and we had a lot of fun. Boys from the neighborhood stood around the gate and watched the whole thing. There were some very cute young ones dancing to the music on a crate so we could see them.
Today we had class again, but our Twi course time was changed. This meant that I didn’t have class until 3 in the afternoon. Rachel and I decided to wake up early and beat the heat to our first run in Africa. When Rachel arrived at my hostel she told me that Dede had prepared breakfast for me as well to eat when we returned from our jog. So we jogged around my neighborhood a little (not many people here jog so we got some stares) and then went to her place. Breakfast was a rice porridge which they eat with milk (condensed milk from a can) and sugar. It was better than it sounds. I also had some drink that is quite popular here called Milo, which from what I can tell is the original Ovaltine. We had talked to Dede about coming in to work at her school (she teaches 1st grade) and today she suggested that since we don’t have class until late on Mondays that we come on Mondays and teach PE. She had been promising the kids she would allow PE, but hasn’t had anyone to teach it. She told us that at first the kids might just stare at us, or want to touch us, because it will be their first interaction with (and for some, the first time they see) white people. I also told her that I had tried fufu and she feigned anger at not being to first to expose me to it. She is very funny and it’s nice to have a sort of adopted homestay while still enjoying living in the hostel with people my own age. We went to Danquah circle to buy Kente print (the authentic cloth is much more expensive, but is very traditional Ghanaian) wraps for our African Dance and Music class. I also got measurements and bought fabric to have two skirts made for me (8 cedis each) and also bought a dress.
In our cultural values class today we talked briefly about each of the countries that make up West Africa. We also talked about how Burkina Faso (our neighbors directly north) have a film festival in late April early March and discussed maybe having a field trip there! The Twi class started today and our professor is very good. He keeps it interesting and has us repeat it. Twi seems to be a language that is quite simple, albeit very different than ours. The vocabulary is limited so they use a lot of gestures to distinguish, as well as context. Often whole words are left out and words are meshed into one another, so it will be important to listen carefully for certain clues as to what people are really saying. I bought some chicken at the Chinese grocery store (15 cedis for 9 breasts), and vegetables from a woman on the way home from school (who I have become kind of a regular customer for). She asked my name today (my African name Akosua, said A-ko-sia, emphasis on ko) so maybe she will remember me by name. I’m getting used to people calling me that because Dede calls me Akos for the most part. I think it is easier for them to remember names they already know.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Why Ghana
To those wondering why I chose Ghana, it is not a concrete set of reasons. First, I have always wanted to go to Africa. My research this summer and this fall both were around issues that are most prevalent in 3rd world countries (less destructive and more effective woman controlled spermicides, and HIV). Often I think people dismiss the problems of developing regions without thinking about how they can help. I also want to eventually do the doctors without borders program, so I thought it would be beneficial to come volunteer in a health clinic or hospital to see what it is like here.
I decided I didn't want to go to Europe or a place that I was likely to visit in the future regardless of where I chose to study abroad. So looking at the program descriptions at Lehigh's study abroad fair, the CIEE program at Ashesi was the option that was most appealing to me. It allowed us to live with Ghanaian students and take classes in a highly thought of University. Ashesi here is the most modern and probably the best school you could go to in Ghana (much like our Ivy league schools). It allows students to create a home here in Ghana, and experience it more as a local than other programs (although with our white skin giving us away so obviously this has been a bit of a challenge as well). So far, all these reasons have been shown to be good ones and I'm enjoying my time here. I hope to soon begin volunteering at a hospital and maybe also at the school Rachel's homestay mom works at.
I decided I didn't want to go to Europe or a place that I was likely to visit in the future regardless of where I chose to study abroad. So looking at the program descriptions at Lehigh's study abroad fair, the CIEE program at Ashesi was the option that was most appealing to me. It allowed us to live with Ghanaian students and take classes in a highly thought of University. Ashesi here is the most modern and probably the best school you could go to in Ghana (much like our Ivy league schools). It allows students to create a home here in Ghana, and experience it more as a local than other programs (although with our white skin giving us away so obviously this has been a bit of a challenge as well). So far, all these reasons have been shown to be good ones and I'm enjoying my time here. I hope to soon begin volunteering at a hospital and maybe also at the school Rachel's homestay mom works at.
January 17th
So we had quite an adventure last night and today. We went to the beach again, which was pretty uneventful. We decided to go out for the night though and went to a place called ‘Purple Bar’. They drink a lot of a beer called Star here, and they mostly come in the bigger bottles (which is about two beers I would guess). At Purple Bar its only 1cedi and 50 pesewas for a large bottle (which is actually less than $1.50). So it is a very good deal. We then decided to go look for a club that my roommate had told me about. We stopped to ask someone directions and as we were looking toward where he pointed, he snatched Rachel’s change purse and ran away. They told us that in a case like that we should not pursue the robber, so we just decided to go home. On our way through the market area on the corner a friend I had met earlier named Isaac said hello and asked what was wrong (Rachel was visibly upset, her phone and the house keys to her homestay were also in the purse). He got really upset at hearing what had happened and said that he would ask around to see if anyone knew who had taken it (most people remember when a group of white people walk through). So we got a taxi (which I bargained down from an outrageous 5 cedis to 1.5, it helps to have a better idea how much it ought to cost and how far we’re really going) and dropped Rachel off and went home. Today Isaac came to the other students hostel while Rachel and I were out looking for another phone for her. So one of the students from the program called and me we headed over there. He had succeeded in finding the purse (with some help from his friend Koby) and it still had the house key in it! She did not of course get her money (only 5 cedis) or her phone back. She was very happy to have the house key back. It seems all Ghanaians see white people as easy targets, and some take advantage of it, while others are very interested in making sure we aren’t taken advantage of. So I guess we’ll just have to stick with those who are looking out for us.
As a side note, I wore jeans last night for the first time here! It gets to be comfortable enough at night (if it’s not too humid) that jeans are ok. They’re actually better because it helps keep the mosquitos off as well. Although I seem to have gotten a couple bites while we were out last night. Jocelyn showed me how to do laundry in the buckets today, and I bought a laundry bar (which is what they use, looks like a soap bar but is just laundry soap) and I bought some antiseptic for my bucket showers. Things are getting much more familiar and easier to navigate these days. Dede (Rachel’s homestay mom) is very worried about me living in the hostel. She told Rachel how terrible it is that I have to cook for myself and take care of myself. The first night I went there she made us Chicken and rice with a cole-slaw like salad. She invited me back the next night to try kenkey, which is a traditional Ghanaian food. Kenkey is similar to banku in that it is fermented corn dough. The kenkey she made us was less sour than the banku we tried at the restaurant the other night, although people say that usually it is the other way around. The stew we had it with was good and I ate a little before I realized it seemed to have a ground meat in it (goat maybe?). The fish was good with it, so hopefully next time the stew will be without red meat! Jocelyn has invited me to a family lunch thing tomorrow with her and her boyfriend Albert. They have been dating for 5 years, and he is 26 years old. Apparently he is ready to marry her, but she still is quite young (for Urban middle/upper class Ghanainan standards) and is waiting a bit. The official CIEE welcome dinner is tomorrow night.
I have now signed up for an account at the internet café near the other hostel, where the internet is much faster (it costs 1.40 for an hour). Facebook at the school has been blocked because it made the internet move even slower than it is already.
As a side note, I wore jeans last night for the first time here! It gets to be comfortable enough at night (if it’s not too humid) that jeans are ok. They’re actually better because it helps keep the mosquitos off as well. Although I seem to have gotten a couple bites while we were out last night. Jocelyn showed me how to do laundry in the buckets today, and I bought a laundry bar (which is what they use, looks like a soap bar but is just laundry soap) and I bought some antiseptic for my bucket showers. Things are getting much more familiar and easier to navigate these days. Dede (Rachel’s homestay mom) is very worried about me living in the hostel. She told Rachel how terrible it is that I have to cook for myself and take care of myself. The first night I went there she made us Chicken and rice with a cole-slaw like salad. She invited me back the next night to try kenkey, which is a traditional Ghanaian food. Kenkey is similar to banku in that it is fermented corn dough. The kenkey she made us was less sour than the banku we tried at the restaurant the other night, although people say that usually it is the other way around. The stew we had it with was good and I ate a little before I realized it seemed to have a ground meat in it (goat maybe?). The fish was good with it, so hopefully next time the stew will be without red meat! Jocelyn has invited me to a family lunch thing tomorrow with her and her boyfriend Albert. They have been dating for 5 years, and he is 26 years old. Apparently he is ready to marry her, but she still is quite young (for Urban middle/upper class Ghanainan standards) and is waiting a bit. The official CIEE welcome dinner is tomorrow night.
I have now signed up for an account at the internet café near the other hostel, where the internet is much faster (it costs 1.40 for an hour). Facebook at the school has been blocked because it made the internet move even slower than it is already.
This is a link to my photo album. It seems like its much easier to upload to the snapfish site than the blog site so check there for new ones!
Link to Snapfish
Link to Snapfish
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Another Day in Ghana!
or another few days.. It's been getting harder to write everyday as you may have noticed. We've started classes this week and so my schedule is a bit busier. On Mondays and Wednesdays I take the Beginner Twi language course, Cultural Values of West Africa through Film and Text. Wednesday mornings I have the Music and Dance course (this week we played the double bell and did a little warm-up dancing thing as well as a song that was really fun), and Wednesday afternoons I have Leadership I: What makes a good leader?. Tuesdays and Thursdays I have Africa in the International setting. Today we discussed a chapter of Paulo Friere she had us read about the process of humanization and dehumanization as it applies to an oppressive situation (and relating that to Ghana and Africa as a whole's situation). It's very interesting, and certainly being in Africa will give us a different perspective on the situation than would have been seen if the class was taken in the US. Tonight I'm going to my friend Rachel's house (she's in a homestay) for dinner with Dede, her homestay mom. Last night, most of the students in the CIEE program went to Labadi beach for the Reggae party they have. It was so pretty, the weather here is so much nicer at night. I still haven't seen many mosquitos, and haven't been bitten by any (so lucky!). I've been taking Vitamin B like Jen told me to because it makes you unattractive to them, and it seems to be working! We tried skypeing the other day while I was at school but it cut out a lot because of the poor internet. I had full service so it seems it may not work. The internet is quite slow here but seems to work sometimes, if you're on the right computer at the right time. The air conditioning in the classrooms only works when the school is running on electricity and not the generator (which is maybe half the time as I've experienced it). Mostly the electricity has worked consistently at my hostel, but the water shuts off almost every day. Jocelyn showed me that there is a tank outside our house that holds water we can carry inside in our 3 large buckets. She also showed me how to use an antiseptic in the water that I 'shower' with (from one of said buckets) which has significantly helped my itchy leg problem! She has been super helpful and is very sweet so I feel lucky to have her in my hostel. My roomate still has not moved in yet because she's been feeling sick, but will be moving in soon. The first week of classes isn't that important here because everyone just goes to see the classes and decide if they want to take them, so the roster is always changing. Yesterday we had a lecture about the history of Ghana, and it was interesting to learn about the Big 6 and the presidents that have held, and the multiple military coup's that have occurred after gaining their independence from the UK. It seems they are finally moving in the right direction in terms of presidents and everything with the second election and change of power occurring peacefully only a week or so ago. However, I was talking to a friend I met in my international class (called Eric) who said that there is quite a bit of corruption of those who have power in this country, including people at the voting polls. He said he knew many people who voted more than once by bribing the officials. So it seems the country still has a long way to go, but is headed in the right direction. It will be harder for me to document my days in a logical fashion so my posts may be more random from this one on, but if anyone has specific questions about things they are interested in, feel free to post them in the comments and that will help give me a start off point. Also, email my Ashesi account if you'd like (mackenzie.bartlett@ashesi.edu.gh) to email me because it is much faster to recieve and send emails that way.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Pictures
The internet is entirely too slow right now to upload pictures so sorry about that, I will try again tomorrow.
Since Wednesday the 7th..
January 7th, 2009
Today I flew to Ghana. Flew out of Boston at 10:00 PM, 6 ½ hour flight to Amsterdam/Schiphol airport for a layover. Dad had given me his roaming wireless internet user and password, but the Amsterdam wireless only accepts Amsterdam accounts. The pay phone wouldn’t let me use a calling card, so I used my credit card and then some change (in euros) to call Mom and Dad to let them know I had made the first leg safely. On the next flight, to Ghana, I was seated next to a Ghanean woman named Gifty Cobbinah. She didn’t speak much English, but we were able to communicate, and she was quite friendly. Each person had a personal TV on the chair in front of them, but she didn’t know how to use it so I helped her watch Mamma Mia! the movie. When the customs cards came around she asked me to fill hers out for her from a piece of paper with all her information. I asked her if she had an address and she told me no, only a town. For occupation she said she was a seamstress. She wanted to give me a ride to the school (I had told her that I was going to be studying at Ashesi), but I told her I had to go with the program staff to do an orientation. We flew over the Sahara desert for quite a few hours during this flight. I attempted to take a picture of it through the airplane window, but it didn’t do it justice at all. It is just massive, and all sand and sand formations from the wind and flash floods. I made it through customs easily and waited almost an hour and a half for my luggage. My name was called over the intercom and I followed a man downstairs and outside to where 3 women were waiting for me with a CIEE sign; Akuba, Akosua, (Ashesi students) and Aileen(assistant director/’auntie’). I drove with Aileen back to the hotel after stopping for gas (they drive on the right hand side of the road). The gas was sold in liters, and so prices look much lower! The Ghanian cedi is almost equivalent to the US dollar, so it makes conversions quite easy. Most things are cheaper though, unless someone is ripping you off because you’re American, or if it is a grocery store (where things like oranges, apples, and dairy products(unless you’d like them unpasteurized) are imported). The hotel wasn’t what we think of as a hotel, it was more motel-like. I shared a room and bed, albeit large, with another girl on the program named Carly from Holliston, MA. We had some dinner at the hotel restaurant (where they put out different foods, like a buffet) of breaded fried fish, a salad with a creamy/mayonaisy dressing (arranged on a platter not in a salad bowl), fried plantains, some rice, and a tomato/vegetable ‘soup’ that is pretty spicy. Tomorrow we start orientation at 8AM.
January 8th, 2009
Had a very long day of orientation. Learned some useful things, and some boring things. The resident director Gyasi (pronounced ‘Jesse’) seems very intelligent and understanding of our positions. He talked a lot today, and tried to make us feel confident in our choice to come to Ghana and warn us of things we should know about health and security etc. A lot of the talk centered around Malaria because it is so prevalent here. He said that at the hospitals 90% of the people there are there for Malaria treatment. Most Ghaneans only get mildly or moderately sick when they get Malaria because of genetic reasons, or built of tolerance (or half sickle cell anemia which he didn’t mention). However, since babies do not have this tolerance, we are seen as babies in the eyes of Malaria. So he stressed the importance of us taking our medication and being very careful not to get bitten. He also said that it is so easily and commonly curable that if we do happen to get Malaria (which you can even with the medication), treatment will allow you to be up and running again in about 3 days. We went to get money at the mall (where the have a Barclays ATM and a ForexBureau), and buy pay as you go phones. The cheapest phone was 25cedi’s and you can put however many minutes (in cedis) you want (local minutes are cheaper so use up your minutes faster if you’re making international calls). However, incoming calls are free so that makes reaching me easier on weekends or other times I wont have internet access. At dinner, my phone went missing. Originally I had thought it had fallen from my pocket, but was not anywhere near our table, and I had not gone anywhere, so I think it was taken. Meg ordered Banku and Tilapia, a Ghanian staple. Banku is basically a corn dough ball that tastes kind of like sour dough, uncooked. The sauces that come with traditional dishes are often spicy, but the flavors are very good. Looks like I will have to learn to like spicy. We went back to our hotel and got a couple drinks at the bar (a very American thing to do). We played some card games, and Akuba introduced us to two of her male friends from Ashesi, Yao and Kwe. We told some jokes and talked about which classes they had taken or heard about and suggest or not.
January 9th
Today we finished orientation in the morning and then packed up our stuff to move in the afternoon. Gyasi and I went with Boatemaa to the mall again to get another phone for me (not to lose this time). We met the others at the ‘girls hostel’ where me and another girl Jessica moved into. Jessica and I left our stuff and went with Akuba on a walking tour of the area (a residential area for more affluent Ghanians). She took us to the school and showed us how to get to each of the 3 buildings from our hostel. We are near the South African Embassy (a medium sizes teal building with a short protective wall), and we passed the US Embassy on the way here (a gigantic grey building with a very tall wall that looks remeniscient of a prison, with many signs prohibiting photography). We met up with Gyasi and Akuba and went to Danquah circle (where the Ashesi apartments are and 10 of our program participants). Oxford road is also off the circle which is the center of Osu, and has a lot of restaurants and stores along it. It is also similar to Canal st. in NYC in that there are people selling things from table and such all over the place. Many of them sell similar things, so you can ask multiple prices, and then bargain down the lowest one to half what they started with (more or less). I got an adaptor from a guy on the street because the Radio Shack guy at Solomon Pond (in MA) gave me the wrong one so I needed an adaptor for my adaptor. It cost me only 5 cedis (~5$). We also went to the grocery store(Koalla), where they take cards. Things there were pretty expensive to we went to another market down the street and got some dish soap and other things for cheaper. Fruit you can buy on the street as long as it has a thick skin that can be peeled or cut off. They say to wash all fruit in warm salty water anyway as a precaution to kill any bacteria. They said to buy vegetables in the grocery store so you can be sure. Pots and pans were pretty expensive at the store so we decided to try exploring more tomorrow to try to find a place with more reasonable prices. I now have eggs, cooking oil, and no pan. We went to dinner with some of the other kids in our program at a place called Frankie’s. It was kind of lame and American of us to get pizza, but it was quite good. On the walk back to Danquah, a bunch of very cute children came up to us pulling on our hands begging for money. Some of the students who have never been out of the country have some trouble with situations like this, or when vendors follow you and try to convince you to buy their goods. It gets dark here quite early, at about 6 or 6:30. Although Ghana is pretty safe, the CIEE staff recommend taking a taxi if it is dark out unless traveling in large groups. Jessica and I took a taxi from Danquah to our hostel, although not as easy as it sounds. Almost all Ghanians do not know or use street names. They go by landmarks (even as questionable as ‘there is a woman selling pineapples on the corner’…) So our taxi driver did not know the name of the street, and I only knew very limited land marks (a restaurant named ChurCheese). I called Boatemaa and found that my initial thoughts were correct and it’s the first left after taking a right at the restaurant, so we finally made it back, and now know how to do it in the future! Our hostel is pretty nice, as far as things go in Ghana. We have 2 double rooms (with bunk beds), a kitchen, a living space, and a toilet and shower. The kitchen (light switch location unknown) seems pretty nice. There is a very old refrigerator that will hold our stuff and keep it cold. The stove sits on a table with a propane tank next to it and a box of matches to light it, haven’t yet actually tried. The landlady is a very large Ghanian woman named Ivy. She either lives with or is friends with two other women named Monica and Barbara. The security man (Peter, who spends most of his time sleeping behind the gate) came to tell us ‘grandma is calling you’, so we went to have a talk with the three of them. All of them are very friendly and want to make our stay as nice as can be; they are very willing to help us. CIEE supplied us with Ghanian print bedsheets (very pretty fabrics) and a permethrin (repellent/insectiside) treated mosquito net. My room has one chair, bunked beds, and one wardrobe. Even with only two suitcases full of stuff I was unsure how to unpack so only did so halfway and will have to discuss with my Ghanian roommate when she arrives sometime between tomorrow and Monday. Jessica has been having trouble (culture shock/ homesickness) quite a bit tonight. She was very scared of getting hurt or taken advantage of on the trip back after dinner, and has been crying some and calling her parents and boyfriend a lot. Doesn’t help much that she ended up throwing up after I found out our water had stopped running (I guess no shower for me!). So I’m thankful that I’m still enjoying everything. We have the day off tomorrow so we’ve decided to go to the beach. Did see a mosquito in my room earlier but it has hidden from me so I’ll have to barricade it out of my bed via sleeping net. I hope he flies into the net and dies :D.
January 10th
Today was our day off so most of the students in the program went to Labadi beach. Jessica and I walked to the Ashesi Apartments in Danquah and we caught a trotro from there to the beach. Trotro’s are big mini-vans that function on a sort of schedule, running a specific route. A 10-15 minute ride is usually 25 pesewas (~cents), so they are much better means of transportation than the taxi’s (which can be more or less 2 cedis, depending on bargaining skills and how much they try to overprice you for being white and ignorant). The beach was gorgeous and the water very warm. Everyone on the beach is very friendly, and although a lot of people come up to you just trying to sell you things, some of them will just come and sit down next to you and try to be your friend. I wore SPF30 and only burned in one spot all day!(I may have missed that spot). I now know a very little twi. “How are you” is “e tessein”(or at least it sounds like that, I am most likely very wrong about the spelling) and the proper response is “a yeh”. E’s and A’s often sound very similar so that spelling is also very questionable. I purified some of my own water today using Nick and Gina’s ‘puripen’. They say not to drink the tap water because the water isn’t always running, and bacteria can grow in the pipes. The puripen is supposed to kill bacteria using UV light so I sure hope it works! I guess we’ll see. I seem to drink massive amounts of water here because it is so hot, although I seem to be getting used to the heat as well. Tonight I was so tired from all the sun that I decided not to go back out after walking back to the hostel at 5:00. I’ve been just settling in, purifying water, and watching a little Planet Earth before bed. Tomorrow we go to the botanical gardens and are doing a tour of Accra, so that we can get our bearings with landmarks and an idea of trotro routes.
January 11th
Today we went on a tour of Accra. We saw a lot of things that were interesting (JamesTown, Independence Square) and a lot that were more forgetful. I’m sure I will remember them more when I actually go there, it’s much different from seeing it inside a bus. Almost every roundabout is named after one of ‘The Big 6’(the most important 6 men who allowed the Ghanians to attain their independence in 1957). The botanical gardens were beautiful, mostly trees of various kinds. Each of their presidents has planted a tree in the presidential garden. They also have a lot of trees for spices (cinnamon, licorice, allspice etc.) and some medicinal uses (like a tree that smells JUST like Vick’s vapor rub). We went back to our hostel pretty early and then walked around a little bit and found the easiest way to Rachel’s (another girl in the program) homestay. I met her homestay mom on the way out, she was very nice and very friendly. One of our roomates moved in today, Jocelyn. She said that her and the other girl who were supposed to move in were told that another of the CIEE students would be moving in and it would be just Jocelyn and the three of us. A girl Ashley had asked to move because she has a lot of food allergies and needs to store a lot of food. We were both hoping for Ghanaian roomates though so we will see what the final situation is tomorrow. Jocelyn was quite shy at first but she seems really nice and willing to help us and share all her wonderful things with us (microwave, blender, toaster, shower mats). She also said she could teach me how to cook some of the more traditional Ghanaian foods like Kenkey, Fufu, Banku, and the soups (which are like our sauces, but they call them soup). Our first day of school is tomorrow but I don’t think we’ll have real classes. We still have to register and we also get to meet the president. I think I’ll have internet then so that’s when I will be posting this. The water stopped running again tonight around 6, but it came back on at 9 so I was able to shower.
Our (maybe) other roomate's name is Akosua, like our U-Pal. Every Ghanaian has a name for the day of the week on which they were born. Our resident director goes by his second name because often these names are very common (Kofi, Kwame, Kwasi, Yao, Yaa, Akua, Akosua etc). The female names start with an A except for Yaa, and the male names start with a K except for Yao. We also met Jocelyn’s boyfriend Albert. The dating relationships in Ghana are much different than in the US. Friends are very affectionate with each other in public, and even male friends will be seen holding hands. However, as soon as a male-female relationship turns into a romantic one, they are almost always seen with a foot or more between them. Some people don’t even introduce them to their families until they are more serious. These customs are changing though, as is some of the more patriarchal aspects of their society.
Today I flew to Ghana. Flew out of Boston at 10:00 PM, 6 ½ hour flight to Amsterdam/Schiphol airport for a layover. Dad had given me his roaming wireless internet user and password, but the Amsterdam wireless only accepts Amsterdam accounts. The pay phone wouldn’t let me use a calling card, so I used my credit card and then some change (in euros) to call Mom and Dad to let them know I had made the first leg safely. On the next flight, to Ghana, I was seated next to a Ghanean woman named Gifty Cobbinah. She didn’t speak much English, but we were able to communicate, and she was quite friendly. Each person had a personal TV on the chair in front of them, but she didn’t know how to use it so I helped her watch Mamma Mia! the movie. When the customs cards came around she asked me to fill hers out for her from a piece of paper with all her information. I asked her if she had an address and she told me no, only a town. For occupation she said she was a seamstress. She wanted to give me a ride to the school (I had told her that I was going to be studying at Ashesi), but I told her I had to go with the program staff to do an orientation. We flew over the Sahara desert for quite a few hours during this flight. I attempted to take a picture of it through the airplane window, but it didn’t do it justice at all. It is just massive, and all sand and sand formations from the wind and flash floods. I made it through customs easily and waited almost an hour and a half for my luggage. My name was called over the intercom and I followed a man downstairs and outside to where 3 women were waiting for me with a CIEE sign; Akuba, Akosua, (Ashesi students) and Aileen(assistant director/’auntie’). I drove with Aileen back to the hotel after stopping for gas (they drive on the right hand side of the road). The gas was sold in liters, and so prices look much lower! The Ghanian cedi is almost equivalent to the US dollar, so it makes conversions quite easy. Most things are cheaper though, unless someone is ripping you off because you’re American, or if it is a grocery store (where things like oranges, apples, and dairy products(unless you’d like them unpasteurized) are imported). The hotel wasn’t what we think of as a hotel, it was more motel-like. I shared a room and bed, albeit large, with another girl on the program named Carly from Holliston, MA. We had some dinner at the hotel restaurant (where they put out different foods, like a buffet) of breaded fried fish, a salad with a creamy/mayonaisy dressing (arranged on a platter not in a salad bowl), fried plantains, some rice, and a tomato/vegetable ‘soup’ that is pretty spicy. Tomorrow we start orientation at 8AM.
January 8th, 2009
Had a very long day of orientation. Learned some useful things, and some boring things. The resident director Gyasi (pronounced ‘Jesse’) seems very intelligent and understanding of our positions. He talked a lot today, and tried to make us feel confident in our choice to come to Ghana and warn us of things we should know about health and security etc. A lot of the talk centered around Malaria because it is so prevalent here. He said that at the hospitals 90% of the people there are there for Malaria treatment. Most Ghaneans only get mildly or moderately sick when they get Malaria because of genetic reasons, or built of tolerance (or half sickle cell anemia which he didn’t mention). However, since babies do not have this tolerance, we are seen as babies in the eyes of Malaria. So he stressed the importance of us taking our medication and being very careful not to get bitten. He also said that it is so easily and commonly curable that if we do happen to get Malaria (which you can even with the medication), treatment will allow you to be up and running again in about 3 days. We went to get money at the mall (where the have a Barclays ATM and a ForexBureau), and buy pay as you go phones. The cheapest phone was 25cedi’s and you can put however many minutes (in cedis) you want (local minutes are cheaper so use up your minutes faster if you’re making international calls). However, incoming calls are free so that makes reaching me easier on weekends or other times I wont have internet access. At dinner, my phone went missing. Originally I had thought it had fallen from my pocket, but was not anywhere near our table, and I had not gone anywhere, so I think it was taken. Meg ordered Banku and Tilapia, a Ghanian staple. Banku is basically a corn dough ball that tastes kind of like sour dough, uncooked. The sauces that come with traditional dishes are often spicy, but the flavors are very good. Looks like I will have to learn to like spicy. We went back to our hotel and got a couple drinks at the bar (a very American thing to do). We played some card games, and Akuba introduced us to two of her male friends from Ashesi, Yao and Kwe. We told some jokes and talked about which classes they had taken or heard about and suggest or not.
January 9th
Today we finished orientation in the morning and then packed up our stuff to move in the afternoon. Gyasi and I went with Boatemaa to the mall again to get another phone for me (not to lose this time). We met the others at the ‘girls hostel’ where me and another girl Jessica moved into. Jessica and I left our stuff and went with Akuba on a walking tour of the area (a residential area for more affluent Ghanians). She took us to the school and showed us how to get to each of the 3 buildings from our hostel. We are near the South African Embassy (a medium sizes teal building with a short protective wall), and we passed the US Embassy on the way here (a gigantic grey building with a very tall wall that looks remeniscient of a prison, with many signs prohibiting photography). We met up with Gyasi and Akuba and went to Danquah circle (where the Ashesi apartments are and 10 of our program participants). Oxford road is also off the circle which is the center of Osu, and has a lot of restaurants and stores along it. It is also similar to Canal st. in NYC in that there are people selling things from table and such all over the place. Many of them sell similar things, so you can ask multiple prices, and then bargain down the lowest one to half what they started with (more or less). I got an adaptor from a guy on the street because the Radio Shack guy at Solomon Pond (in MA) gave me the wrong one so I needed an adaptor for my adaptor. It cost me only 5 cedis (~5$). We also went to the grocery store(Koalla), where they take cards. Things there were pretty expensive to we went to another market down the street and got some dish soap and other things for cheaper. Fruit you can buy on the street as long as it has a thick skin that can be peeled or cut off. They say to wash all fruit in warm salty water anyway as a precaution to kill any bacteria. They said to buy vegetables in the grocery store so you can be sure. Pots and pans were pretty expensive at the store so we decided to try exploring more tomorrow to try to find a place with more reasonable prices. I now have eggs, cooking oil, and no pan. We went to dinner with some of the other kids in our program at a place called Frankie’s. It was kind of lame and American of us to get pizza, but it was quite good. On the walk back to Danquah, a bunch of very cute children came up to us pulling on our hands begging for money. Some of the students who have never been out of the country have some trouble with situations like this, or when vendors follow you and try to convince you to buy their goods. It gets dark here quite early, at about 6 or 6:30. Although Ghana is pretty safe, the CIEE staff recommend taking a taxi if it is dark out unless traveling in large groups. Jessica and I took a taxi from Danquah to our hostel, although not as easy as it sounds. Almost all Ghanians do not know or use street names. They go by landmarks (even as questionable as ‘there is a woman selling pineapples on the corner’…) So our taxi driver did not know the name of the street, and I only knew very limited land marks (a restaurant named ChurCheese). I called Boatemaa and found that my initial thoughts were correct and it’s the first left after taking a right at the restaurant, so we finally made it back, and now know how to do it in the future! Our hostel is pretty nice, as far as things go in Ghana. We have 2 double rooms (with bunk beds), a kitchen, a living space, and a toilet and shower. The kitchen (light switch location unknown) seems pretty nice. There is a very old refrigerator that will hold our stuff and keep it cold. The stove sits on a table with a propane tank next to it and a box of matches to light it, haven’t yet actually tried. The landlady is a very large Ghanian woman named Ivy. She either lives with or is friends with two other women named Monica and Barbara. The security man (Peter, who spends most of his time sleeping behind the gate) came to tell us ‘grandma is calling you’, so we went to have a talk with the three of them. All of them are very friendly and want to make our stay as nice as can be; they are very willing to help us. CIEE supplied us with Ghanian print bedsheets (very pretty fabrics) and a permethrin (repellent/insectiside) treated mosquito net. My room has one chair, bunked beds, and one wardrobe. Even with only two suitcases full of stuff I was unsure how to unpack so only did so halfway and will have to discuss with my Ghanian roommate when she arrives sometime between tomorrow and Monday. Jessica has been having trouble (culture shock/ homesickness) quite a bit tonight. She was very scared of getting hurt or taken advantage of on the trip back after dinner, and has been crying some and calling her parents and boyfriend a lot. Doesn’t help much that she ended up throwing up after I found out our water had stopped running (I guess no shower for me!). So I’m thankful that I’m still enjoying everything. We have the day off tomorrow so we’ve decided to go to the beach. Did see a mosquito in my room earlier but it has hidden from me so I’ll have to barricade it out of my bed via sleeping net. I hope he flies into the net and dies :D.
January 10th
Today was our day off so most of the students in the program went to Labadi beach. Jessica and I walked to the Ashesi Apartments in Danquah and we caught a trotro from there to the beach. Trotro’s are big mini-vans that function on a sort of schedule, running a specific route. A 10-15 minute ride is usually 25 pesewas (~cents), so they are much better means of transportation than the taxi’s (which can be more or less 2 cedis, depending on bargaining skills and how much they try to overprice you for being white and ignorant). The beach was gorgeous and the water very warm. Everyone on the beach is very friendly, and although a lot of people come up to you just trying to sell you things, some of them will just come and sit down next to you and try to be your friend. I wore SPF30 and only burned in one spot all day!(I may have missed that spot). I now know a very little twi. “How are you” is “e tessein”(or at least it sounds like that, I am most likely very wrong about the spelling) and the proper response is “a yeh”. E’s and A’s often sound very similar so that spelling is also very questionable. I purified some of my own water today using Nick and Gina’s ‘puripen’. They say not to drink the tap water because the water isn’t always running, and bacteria can grow in the pipes. The puripen is supposed to kill bacteria using UV light so I sure hope it works! I guess we’ll see. I seem to drink massive amounts of water here because it is so hot, although I seem to be getting used to the heat as well. Tonight I was so tired from all the sun that I decided not to go back out after walking back to the hostel at 5:00. I’ve been just settling in, purifying water, and watching a little Planet Earth before bed. Tomorrow we go to the botanical gardens and are doing a tour of Accra, so that we can get our bearings with landmarks and an idea of trotro routes.
January 11th
Today we went on a tour of Accra. We saw a lot of things that were interesting (JamesTown, Independence Square) and a lot that were more forgetful. I’m sure I will remember them more when I actually go there, it’s much different from seeing it inside a bus. Almost every roundabout is named after one of ‘The Big 6’(the most important 6 men who allowed the Ghanians to attain their independence in 1957). The botanical gardens were beautiful, mostly trees of various kinds. Each of their presidents has planted a tree in the presidential garden. They also have a lot of trees for spices (cinnamon, licorice, allspice etc.) and some medicinal uses (like a tree that smells JUST like Vick’s vapor rub). We went back to our hostel pretty early and then walked around a little bit and found the easiest way to Rachel’s (another girl in the program) homestay. I met her homestay mom on the way out, she was very nice and very friendly. One of our roomates moved in today, Jocelyn. She said that her and the other girl who were supposed to move in were told that another of the CIEE students would be moving in and it would be just Jocelyn and the three of us. A girl Ashley had asked to move because she has a lot of food allergies and needs to store a lot of food. We were both hoping for Ghanaian roomates though so we will see what the final situation is tomorrow. Jocelyn was quite shy at first but she seems really nice and willing to help us and share all her wonderful things with us (microwave, blender, toaster, shower mats). She also said she could teach me how to cook some of the more traditional Ghanaian foods like Kenkey, Fufu, Banku, and the soups (which are like our sauces, but they call them soup). Our first day of school is tomorrow but I don’t think we’ll have real classes. We still have to register and we also get to meet the president. I think I’ll have internet then so that’s when I will be posting this. The water stopped running again tonight around 6, but it came back on at 9 so I was able to shower.
Our (maybe) other roomate's name is Akosua, like our U-Pal. Every Ghanaian has a name for the day of the week on which they were born. Our resident director goes by his second name because often these names are very common (Kofi, Kwame, Kwasi, Yao, Yaa, Akua, Akosua etc). The female names start with an A except for Yaa, and the male names start with a K except for Yao. We also met Jocelyn’s boyfriend Albert. The dating relationships in Ghana are much different than in the US. Friends are very affectionate with each other in public, and even male friends will be seen holding hands. However, as soon as a male-female relationship turns into a romantic one, they are almost always seen with a foot or more between them. Some people don’t even introduce them to their families until they are more serious. These customs are changing though, as is some of the more patriarchal aspects of their society.
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