These last few weeks have been completely full so many things. I feel like bursting there are so many emotions swimming around everyone, and everything here. I am so sad to leave, but at the same time, I am so excited for all of the wonderful things awaiting me at home. Being here has made me appreciate how tolerate, diverse and open-minded it is in America. I can safely say that that is not a sentiment that I thought I would come away with. My journal is bursting with watercolors and clippings and mementos, I can’t wait for you to see!
I just finished my last final this afternoon so all of the academic work is completely done, and it feels really good. On top of that, we have been traveling and exploring Accra so much because we want to remember all we can. We had a wonderful trip to Wli falls a couple weekends ago, a massive waterfall in the rainforest…it was absolutely stunning. We have also gone back to Kokrobrite beach, and held two fantastic fundraisers to raise money for the organizations that we have all worked with over the course of the semester. WE did really well at both, it feels great to make a difference after only four months. I had my last day working at New Horizon today, and lets just say that some tears were spilled, on all sides. I can’t express how touching of an experience I have had working there- I will never forget anyone there. The boys all kissed and hugged me, and presented me with the most glorious card. I will share it with you when I come home!
We have two more nights here and we are all just soaking everything up as best we can. Most of all, I feel so grateful, blessed, and eager to begin more adventures. I feel strong, capable, independent, but more importantly, I feel really whole, with the knowledge that I can do something as life-changing, challenging, heartbreaking, rewarding as this and then come home to the love and support that is my life at home. Life is staggeringly wonderful. And I thank you all so much for being a part of it.
All my love,
Elena
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Funerals, Fundraising, Findings:)
I haven’t been very good about blogging lately, but I am hereby going to attempt to make it up!
I think the last time I was here was when we had just arrived home from our paragliding/ Easter weekend in Togo, so I have a lot to catch up on!
The last two weeks have been wonderfully busy. I have done a lot of work trying to pull together a fundraiser with my friend to support education in Ghana, specifically to help fund New Horizon. I actually just had a meeting with the president and founder of the school today, Mrs. Francois, and it went really well. I am hoping to connect New Horizon with some special needs schools in the U.S., so that they can have a network to share ideas, new technologies, and the students could be able to communicate with each other. I also am hoping to hire someone here to update their website so that many of the goods, like baskets, cloth, dolls, doormats, could be sold online, internationally! If the students had a steady outlet for their products, I think that it would benefit the school tremendously.
I also joined her other organization, called PACID which stands for Parents Association for Children with Intellectual Disability. I am going to be an associate member, helping to fundraise and be an advocate for the organization from back in America. The goal of PACID is to raise awareness of parents who have children with psychological issues. Many parents here in Ghana and in many other countries do not understand the science behind these disabilities. And tend to shun, ignore, or even kill their children that are disabled. It is not uncommon for parents to lock their afflicted children in a room out of embarrassment of their condition, or out of fear. People tend to think that mentally disabled people are possessed by the devil, or cursed in some way. The goal of PACID is to send representatives out into villages all over Ghana to meet with these parents and educate them about the reality that is intellectual disability. Mrs. Francois spoke so eloquently about all of these issues, and I was so moved to do something to help. A dutch organization helped to begin PACID in the early 2000s, but unfortunately because PACID does not have enough funds, and is dormant at the moment. I am hoping to really focus on raising funds for them in the future.
These last few weekends have been very eventful! The warm nights have been particularly enticing lately and we have been known to maybe go out for dancing and drinks on a Tuesday, Wednesday night…it is a wonderful way to relax, and meet so many people. Our dancing has gotten more decidedly African as well, I think we owe that to our dance class!
Two Fridays ago, a group of us was invited to the funeral rites part of the funeral for the former first lady of Ghana. One of our professors here at our campus is her daughter. We were so lucky to be there. We had to all get specific dresses made for it, with white and black patterned material which is customary to wear to funerals like these. We had to wear black headscarves, and everything. It was incredible experience. There were thousands of people in the park and everyone had to circulate at some point and shake the hands of everyone sitting in the front row. You had to be announced and everything. It was pretty incredible. AND, as icing on the cake, Stevie Wonder was there! Apparently he was a very close friend of the family and sang at the ceremony. Wow. It was a surreal experience. On Saturday, I visited an art gallery for one of my classes, and then a group of about 15 of us headed to Big Milly’s in the late afternoon for a little beach time, a beautiful Italian dinner all other and then some dancing on the beach with fresh coconut pineapple juice before passing out in our respective bungalows. Ahh. Pretty nice.
We returned home on Sunday for a lovely evening all together, grocery shopping, making dinner, and watching a movie in our house. (The residential setup here is that there are four houses around a courtyard. Each house has about 5 people living in it, with its own kitchen and three bathrooms, and a living room and dining room. We are all very aware of how lucky we are to have a setup like this here. Anyways, I live in house 2, with Molly, Heather, Anna and Sara. Lets just say that our house is the crazy house. We are all loud, incredibly social, and a little wacky, so our house is where everyone comes whenever we all get together. I love it, it reminds me of home!)
This last weekend was also fantastic. We went on an NYU trip up to Tamale in Northern Ghana for four days, leaving last Thursday. The bus ride is twelve hours, so both Thursday and Sunday weren’t very eventful because we were in transit for most of the day, but in general, the rides weren’t bad at all. My patience has grown considerably since I have been living here. It is a necessary aspect of being here, one must learn to slow down, and wait. In Tamale, we stayed at cool guesthouse, showers over the toilet, typical box-like rooms, but it was a fun experience! Two women were in change of all the cooking and we got some wonderful home cooked meals and delicious breakfasts from them which was so sweet! The first full day we were there, we were able to go and visit the largest mosque in northern Ghana, which was incredible. We had to dress very conservatively; so all had to buy shawls outside before going inside! Then we visited a medical clinic, that was one of the most moving experience I have ever had in my life. It is run by a man named Dr. Abdulai, who grew up orphaned and homeless, but never the less, decided to begin this free clinic for the poor. He has never done any fundraising in his life, but has been able to sustain all of his patients in this incredible place simply through donations. There is a fully equipped operating room, and rooms to house patients who have been completely abandoned. We met several patients who were afflicted by leprosy and left for dead by their families, as well as some who had absolutely nowhere else to go in the world. Dr. Abdulai has taken them all in. But, amazingly, the place is not large, but it is not overrun either. It is one of the most well-managed places I have ever been to. It houses the people that absolutely need to be housed, and it treats things like ulcers, fistulas, and illnesses that absolutely need to be treated. It is staffed by volunteers, mostly Africans, but a few foreigners, and everything that he has has been “a gift from god.” He lives by the idea that whatever happens to the clinic is all about “divine providence.” It is a sentiment felt by many here in Ghana.
After the clinic, we visited some diviners, who me met with and they told us about ourselves and our futures. It was incredibly amusing, and usually involved that we needed to pay him ten cedi(Ghanaian currency) and sacrifice a white fowl for the “benefit of the village children.” Hmm… lets just say it was an experience, but nothing to be taken to heart! The next day we visited the Pikaro Slave camp, near the border of Burkina Faso!, which was really fascinating. When we visited Elmina Castle earlier this trip, one was so aware of the divide and tension between the slave and the white man, and the feelings of guilt, race, and sadness that accompany that divide. But here, it was so much more complex because this slave trade was primarily about Africans selling Africans. Chiefs and other villages in Africa during the slave trade would capture and enslave other Africans to send them to slave camps to be shipped abroad, with generous compensation from the colonizers. It was so interesting to see that we can’t blame any certain group for something like the slave trade. Just by being human, everyone is responsible for making sure things like this do not happen. We saw the slave conditions, and one again, it was so hard to imagine that humanity is capable of such atrocity.
After the camp, we visited a camp of widows who specialized in basket-weaving. I sat with babies and children on my lap for most of the afternoon watching the women create such beautiful pieces. It was lovely. We came home later for a nice dinner and early sleep because we had to wake up at 4 am to get the bus back to Accra. Big weekend, left us all with a lot to think about.
On another note, I have been kidnapping my friend Justice’s guitar as of late and playing A LOT. I haven’t been able to play easily here because I don’t have a guitar for myself, but I have been feeling so amazing since I have been playing again. Wow, its crazy how much it fuels me! School has been great, I have been working on final projects so that the big push at the end wont be too overwhelming, and I want to focus on being here, in Ghana and not so much school work.
I feel like I just wrote everything out that has been on my mind, in no particular order…welcome to Elena’s brain everyone! Hope you enjoy☺
Love to All, I’ll check in soon. Can’t wait to see you !
I think the last time I was here was when we had just arrived home from our paragliding/ Easter weekend in Togo, so I have a lot to catch up on!
The last two weeks have been wonderfully busy. I have done a lot of work trying to pull together a fundraiser with my friend to support education in Ghana, specifically to help fund New Horizon. I actually just had a meeting with the president and founder of the school today, Mrs. Francois, and it went really well. I am hoping to connect New Horizon with some special needs schools in the U.S., so that they can have a network to share ideas, new technologies, and the students could be able to communicate with each other. I also am hoping to hire someone here to update their website so that many of the goods, like baskets, cloth, dolls, doormats, could be sold online, internationally! If the students had a steady outlet for their products, I think that it would benefit the school tremendously.
I also joined her other organization, called PACID which stands for Parents Association for Children with Intellectual Disability. I am going to be an associate member, helping to fundraise and be an advocate for the organization from back in America. The goal of PACID is to raise awareness of parents who have children with psychological issues. Many parents here in Ghana and in many other countries do not understand the science behind these disabilities. And tend to shun, ignore, or even kill their children that are disabled. It is not uncommon for parents to lock their afflicted children in a room out of embarrassment of their condition, or out of fear. People tend to think that mentally disabled people are possessed by the devil, or cursed in some way. The goal of PACID is to send representatives out into villages all over Ghana to meet with these parents and educate them about the reality that is intellectual disability. Mrs. Francois spoke so eloquently about all of these issues, and I was so moved to do something to help. A dutch organization helped to begin PACID in the early 2000s, but unfortunately because PACID does not have enough funds, and is dormant at the moment. I am hoping to really focus on raising funds for them in the future.
These last few weekends have been very eventful! The warm nights have been particularly enticing lately and we have been known to maybe go out for dancing and drinks on a Tuesday, Wednesday night…it is a wonderful way to relax, and meet so many people. Our dancing has gotten more decidedly African as well, I think we owe that to our dance class!
Two Fridays ago, a group of us was invited to the funeral rites part of the funeral for the former first lady of Ghana. One of our professors here at our campus is her daughter. We were so lucky to be there. We had to all get specific dresses made for it, with white and black patterned material which is customary to wear to funerals like these. We had to wear black headscarves, and everything. It was incredible experience. There were thousands of people in the park and everyone had to circulate at some point and shake the hands of everyone sitting in the front row. You had to be announced and everything. It was pretty incredible. AND, as icing on the cake, Stevie Wonder was there! Apparently he was a very close friend of the family and sang at the ceremony. Wow. It was a surreal experience. On Saturday, I visited an art gallery for one of my classes, and then a group of about 15 of us headed to Big Milly’s in the late afternoon for a little beach time, a beautiful Italian dinner all other and then some dancing on the beach with fresh coconut pineapple juice before passing out in our respective bungalows. Ahh. Pretty nice.
We returned home on Sunday for a lovely evening all together, grocery shopping, making dinner, and watching a movie in our house. (The residential setup here is that there are four houses around a courtyard. Each house has about 5 people living in it, with its own kitchen and three bathrooms, and a living room and dining room. We are all very aware of how lucky we are to have a setup like this here. Anyways, I live in house 2, with Molly, Heather, Anna and Sara. Lets just say that our house is the crazy house. We are all loud, incredibly social, and a little wacky, so our house is where everyone comes whenever we all get together. I love it, it reminds me of home!)
This last weekend was also fantastic. We went on an NYU trip up to Tamale in Northern Ghana for four days, leaving last Thursday. The bus ride is twelve hours, so both Thursday and Sunday weren’t very eventful because we were in transit for most of the day, but in general, the rides weren’t bad at all. My patience has grown considerably since I have been living here. It is a necessary aspect of being here, one must learn to slow down, and wait. In Tamale, we stayed at cool guesthouse, showers over the toilet, typical box-like rooms, but it was a fun experience! Two women were in change of all the cooking and we got some wonderful home cooked meals and delicious breakfasts from them which was so sweet! The first full day we were there, we were able to go and visit the largest mosque in northern Ghana, which was incredible. We had to dress very conservatively; so all had to buy shawls outside before going inside! Then we visited a medical clinic, that was one of the most moving experience I have ever had in my life. It is run by a man named Dr. Abdulai, who grew up orphaned and homeless, but never the less, decided to begin this free clinic for the poor. He has never done any fundraising in his life, but has been able to sustain all of his patients in this incredible place simply through donations. There is a fully equipped operating room, and rooms to house patients who have been completely abandoned. We met several patients who were afflicted by leprosy and left for dead by their families, as well as some who had absolutely nowhere else to go in the world. Dr. Abdulai has taken them all in. But, amazingly, the place is not large, but it is not overrun either. It is one of the most well-managed places I have ever been to. It houses the people that absolutely need to be housed, and it treats things like ulcers, fistulas, and illnesses that absolutely need to be treated. It is staffed by volunteers, mostly Africans, but a few foreigners, and everything that he has has been “a gift from god.” He lives by the idea that whatever happens to the clinic is all about “divine providence.” It is a sentiment felt by many here in Ghana.
After the clinic, we visited some diviners, who me met with and they told us about ourselves and our futures. It was incredibly amusing, and usually involved that we needed to pay him ten cedi(Ghanaian currency) and sacrifice a white fowl for the “benefit of the village children.” Hmm… lets just say it was an experience, but nothing to be taken to heart! The next day we visited the Pikaro Slave camp, near the border of Burkina Faso!, which was really fascinating. When we visited Elmina Castle earlier this trip, one was so aware of the divide and tension between the slave and the white man, and the feelings of guilt, race, and sadness that accompany that divide. But here, it was so much more complex because this slave trade was primarily about Africans selling Africans. Chiefs and other villages in Africa during the slave trade would capture and enslave other Africans to send them to slave camps to be shipped abroad, with generous compensation from the colonizers. It was so interesting to see that we can’t blame any certain group for something like the slave trade. Just by being human, everyone is responsible for making sure things like this do not happen. We saw the slave conditions, and one again, it was so hard to imagine that humanity is capable of such atrocity.
After the camp, we visited a camp of widows who specialized in basket-weaving. I sat with babies and children on my lap for most of the afternoon watching the women create such beautiful pieces. It was lovely. We came home later for a nice dinner and early sleep because we had to wake up at 4 am to get the bus back to Accra. Big weekend, left us all with a lot to think about.
On another note, I have been kidnapping my friend Justice’s guitar as of late and playing A LOT. I haven’t been able to play easily here because I don’t have a guitar for myself, but I have been feeling so amazing since I have been playing again. Wow, its crazy how much it fuels me! School has been great, I have been working on final projects so that the big push at the end wont be too overwhelming, and I want to focus on being here, in Ghana and not so much school work.
I feel like I just wrote everything out that has been on my mind, in no particular order…welcome to Elena’s brain everyone! Hope you enjoy☺
Love to All, I’ll check in soon. Can’t wait to see you !
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Easter Weekend
Easter Weekend? Like Valentine’s Day, once again I think it is safe to say that I had a different Easter here than I have ever had before.
It began early in the morning on Friday, when we decided to catch an early morning tro-tro and head to Nkwakwa to the fifth annual paragliding festival! We were not told much about it but decided on a whim that when else were we going to be given the opportunity to go paragliding in Ghana? None of us had ever been before, but we were ready and very excited. We caught a taxi to the place where we were told, and had a beautiful ride up a rainforested mountain, awed at the lush greenery. At the top, we came to the festival. It was phenomenal! There were important people from all over Ghana, leaders and chiefs, and everyone was playing music. We ended up waiting around for the entire day before our time came to go, but every second was worth it. There were pilots who came from South Africa to fly with you, and I got to go first, strapped into a harness and literally ran and jumped off of a cliff, thousands of feet off the ground into the air. I cannot describe how incredibly exhilarating it was, and so unbelievably peaceful. Up in the air, everything is so quiet. There were huge birds circling us as we went higher and higher, until we were in the clouds. The sun was getting low in the sky, and the lighting was exceptional. It was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life. We landed in a small field at the end in the next town over, and I waited until the rest of my friends had landed. We ended up going out for drinks with all of the paragliding instructors, and one was from Santa Barbara! It was wonderful talking to him about home! We caught a tro-tro back to Accra that night and had a late dinner, hanging out with the rest of the group. We were all on fire, so elated from our day.
The next morning, Saturday, Anna, Camilla, Mara and I headed to the Togo border, getting there about one in the afternoon. It was completely surreal to walk across the dusty, red-dirt border, and I was aware of how different it was from normal border crossings, in airplanes. We did have to go through immigration and fill out a few forms, but it was relatively easy. And the best part is that we don’t have to pay for a Visa extension now because if you leave the country and come back, you get an extended sixty-day period! We crossed the border and took a taxi to the charming Hotel Galion, this adorable little white hotel run by a little French man. Togo is a Francophone country so everyone spoke French which was hard for me because I am used to doing a lot of talking and I couldn’t because I don’t know enough French! I got to get on that☺. We relaxed and had a lovely French lunch and headed to the Voodoo Fetish market, which is actually a large part of Togolese culture. We met the chief and he talked to us for a while, prayed for us, and we got small trinkets. The actual market was pretty disturbing. I have never seen so many dead animals before. There were heads of monkeys, dogs, leaopards, lizards, birds…the smell was overwhelming. There were also voodoo dolls of course, and I got a safe travel omen for good luck. I was a little relived actually though when we left, it was a lot to handle. We returned to our hotel for a sunset walk on the beach before heading to dinner at Koh Samai, a fantastic Thai and Sushi restaurant if you can believe it. It was one of the best meals I have ever had in my life. I had Thai tofu soup in a giant coconut shell with lemongrass, ginger…mmmm! We were very happy girls. We wanted to go out to get a cocktail or something after dinner and went to this club that had been advertised positively in the guidebook, so we took a taxi and got there, immediately ushered into a booth. It was then that we were able to look around. There were scantily clad women everywhere, dancing into a mirror, with an older woman watching everything. The “bar” literally had one kind of beer and some soda and there were two white men hanging out surrounded by women at the end of the bar. It was at this moment that Camilla said, “ You guys, we are in a brothel, and that is the madame,” pointing to the older woman. Then it clicked. We politely stood up and walked out. Hahaha. What an experience. On the street we doubled over laughing. What a night!
Easter Sunday we went to Togoville, after a lovely petit dejeune of omelettes and baguettes, taking a taxi with our new friends Moritz and Bobby, volunteers from Germany and the U.S. We took a canoe across, toured the church and walked around the historically voodoo city. Then we got yummy fresh bread and avocados and had a picnic on the shore of Lac Togo, swimming and luxuriating in the wonderful day. Then we went and met a voodoo priestess! We had to take off our clothes and wrap a piece of fabric around ourselves, and had to pour libation with her to her dieties… it was a crazy experience! We took a canoe back late afternoon back to the Hotel Galion, and read and journaled on our balcony until after dark. We ventured then to Le Triskett, a beautiful French garden restaurant. I got to call Mom from the hotel and heard that mattie was searching downtown for her Easter basket, set up by Dad! It was lovely to picture. We all had an exceptional evening hanging out with our new friends and slept very well☺
On Monday, we headed back to Accra on the tro-tro, and I was able to run, go shopping for fabric for a funeral dress I will need for Friday and have dinner with everyone! We watched New York I Love You, which made us all miss the city, but also made us so happy that we are here right now. What an incredible experience.
A little funny story too, I had the book Confessions of a Shopaholic in my bag on the way back from Togo that I had picked up from the hotel, but I finished it in the tro-tro. Then an elderly Ghanainan man behind me asked me to borrow it! I was so delighted that I just gave it to him! He read it, entranced the entire rest of the ride!
I miss and love you all, Happy Easter, Passover, Spring!
It began early in the morning on Friday, when we decided to catch an early morning tro-tro and head to Nkwakwa to the fifth annual paragliding festival! We were not told much about it but decided on a whim that when else were we going to be given the opportunity to go paragliding in Ghana? None of us had ever been before, but we were ready and very excited. We caught a taxi to the place where we were told, and had a beautiful ride up a rainforested mountain, awed at the lush greenery. At the top, we came to the festival. It was phenomenal! There were important people from all over Ghana, leaders and chiefs, and everyone was playing music. We ended up waiting around for the entire day before our time came to go, but every second was worth it. There were pilots who came from South Africa to fly with you, and I got to go first, strapped into a harness and literally ran and jumped off of a cliff, thousands of feet off the ground into the air. I cannot describe how incredibly exhilarating it was, and so unbelievably peaceful. Up in the air, everything is so quiet. There were huge birds circling us as we went higher and higher, until we were in the clouds. The sun was getting low in the sky, and the lighting was exceptional. It was one of the most wonderful experiences of my life. We landed in a small field at the end in the next town over, and I waited until the rest of my friends had landed. We ended up going out for drinks with all of the paragliding instructors, and one was from Santa Barbara! It was wonderful talking to him about home! We caught a tro-tro back to Accra that night and had a late dinner, hanging out with the rest of the group. We were all on fire, so elated from our day.
The next morning, Saturday, Anna, Camilla, Mara and I headed to the Togo border, getting there about one in the afternoon. It was completely surreal to walk across the dusty, red-dirt border, and I was aware of how different it was from normal border crossings, in airplanes. We did have to go through immigration and fill out a few forms, but it was relatively easy. And the best part is that we don’t have to pay for a Visa extension now because if you leave the country and come back, you get an extended sixty-day period! We crossed the border and took a taxi to the charming Hotel Galion, this adorable little white hotel run by a little French man. Togo is a Francophone country so everyone spoke French which was hard for me because I am used to doing a lot of talking and I couldn’t because I don’t know enough French! I got to get on that☺. We relaxed and had a lovely French lunch and headed to the Voodoo Fetish market, which is actually a large part of Togolese culture. We met the chief and he talked to us for a while, prayed for us, and we got small trinkets. The actual market was pretty disturbing. I have never seen so many dead animals before. There were heads of monkeys, dogs, leaopards, lizards, birds…the smell was overwhelming. There were also voodoo dolls of course, and I got a safe travel omen for good luck. I was a little relived actually though when we left, it was a lot to handle. We returned to our hotel for a sunset walk on the beach before heading to dinner at Koh Samai, a fantastic Thai and Sushi restaurant if you can believe it. It was one of the best meals I have ever had in my life. I had Thai tofu soup in a giant coconut shell with lemongrass, ginger…mmmm! We were very happy girls. We wanted to go out to get a cocktail or something after dinner and went to this club that had been advertised positively in the guidebook, so we took a taxi and got there, immediately ushered into a booth. It was then that we were able to look around. There were scantily clad women everywhere, dancing into a mirror, with an older woman watching everything. The “bar” literally had one kind of beer and some soda and there were two white men hanging out surrounded by women at the end of the bar. It was at this moment that Camilla said, “ You guys, we are in a brothel, and that is the madame,” pointing to the older woman. Then it clicked. We politely stood up and walked out. Hahaha. What an experience. On the street we doubled over laughing. What a night!
Easter Sunday we went to Togoville, after a lovely petit dejeune of omelettes and baguettes, taking a taxi with our new friends Moritz and Bobby, volunteers from Germany and the U.S. We took a canoe across, toured the church and walked around the historically voodoo city. Then we got yummy fresh bread and avocados and had a picnic on the shore of Lac Togo, swimming and luxuriating in the wonderful day. Then we went and met a voodoo priestess! We had to take off our clothes and wrap a piece of fabric around ourselves, and had to pour libation with her to her dieties… it was a crazy experience! We took a canoe back late afternoon back to the Hotel Galion, and read and journaled on our balcony until after dark. We ventured then to Le Triskett, a beautiful French garden restaurant. I got to call Mom from the hotel and heard that mattie was searching downtown for her Easter basket, set up by Dad! It was lovely to picture. We all had an exceptional evening hanging out with our new friends and slept very well☺
On Monday, we headed back to Accra on the tro-tro, and I was able to run, go shopping for fabric for a funeral dress I will need for Friday and have dinner with everyone! We watched New York I Love You, which made us all miss the city, but also made us so happy that we are here right now. What an incredible experience.
A little funny story too, I had the book Confessions of a Shopaholic in my bag on the way back from Togo that I had picked up from the hotel, but I finished it in the tro-tro. Then an elderly Ghanainan man behind me asked me to borrow it! I was so delighted that I just gave it to him! He read it, entranced the entire rest of the ride!
I miss and love you all, Happy Easter, Passover, Spring!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Cooking and Concrete
I continue to have incredible adventures here. How blessed I am.
This last weekend, our NYU group went about 4 hours away to a tiny village and helped them build a school for their children. We had to first gather water in huge buckets on our head from a stream about half a mile away, through the entire village, down a hot dirt road and through a small jungle. It was such an experience. I can’t imagine doing that a few times, every day like all the children and women of the village do. All of our necks were hurting from the weight, after a couple trips. It really, really makes you appreciate every drop that you use. After we gathered the water, we all helped to mix the concrete, and then shoveled it into our buckets, and carried it to the school on our heads again, where we would pass it off to a villager who was helping us and they would spread it across the floor. It was a very long, tedious process, but in just six hours, we had set the entire floor of the multi-room school house. It was also fun for me because I am so comfortable with concrete floors from my own house and I could tell everyone about what I remember about pouring the concrete floor in my house. I think my friends have a very funny vision about what my life is like at home☺. Also, halfway through the construction, my friend molly and I peeked our head in to the shade in a little communal hut, and there were about six women cooking Banku, which is a typical dish served here, basically a mixture of mashed cassava dough and ground maize, boiled together until it is a white, fluffy, sticky blob. It is usually eaten with some kind of spicy stew. They saw us observing and asked if we wanted to help, so we did, I ground up some chili peppers in a mortar and pestle, and molly helped to stir the banku. In the end, they shared some of it with us. It was a perfect snack to compliment the work we had been doing.
This week we have had a lot of visitors, many of the other student’s families and boyfriends have come to see them for their spring breaks, so it has been fun being around them, but it makes me miss everyone at home so much more!
Still, I cant believe how quickly this is all going. Tomorrow is April, (happy anniversary mom and dad by the way☺) and then there is really only about a month left. Its hard to process everything that I have experienced so far, and will continue to. There is a lot left to do here. I am working very hard for New Horizons right now, looking for outlets for the wares that the vocational school for the more mature students have created. There are beautiful cards, baskets, doormats, batik cloths and napkins…I really want to get their things out into the community. They occasionally have bazaars, but I think that if I could secure a steady source of business, the vocational school would do wonders for the health of the school. Fifty percent of the profits go to the student that creates the art, and the other half goes towards funds for the school. I have been struggling lately trying to find ways to bring money in for them, when I see all of the good work that is being done, even in policy towards the local attitudes of Ghanaians towards disabilities. I am going to help with this, raising awareness in the community about the importance of treating disabilities here. Many parents either ignore their children or deny their children their basic rights, embarrassed of having giving birth to a disabled child. The mindset behind this desperately needs to change. My head is deep in this right now, as I search for solutions, and changes I can help spark as I finish up my time here.
This long Easter weekend, I am traveling with a group of five friends and we are heading to Togo and Benin! We literally need to leave the country because our visas will expire. We were cheap and only wanted to pay the two month extension fee, but we don’t mind either because it gives us another excuse to travel! I am really looking forward to it, especially because both are Francophone countries. Apparently, the food is fantastic there, and the culture feels very different. From what I know about our plans, we are going to be visiting a python temple and some sacred forest sanctuary…we’ll see what happens! We leave this Friday. I love traveling so spontaneously.
Tonight we are having a Shabbat dinner too, there are a lot of Jewish students on the trip and they wanted to host a dinner for everyone, which should be really fun. We are all looking forward to a change from so much Ghanaian food!
I am thinking of my lovely familiy on their spring break right now, and all of you, hoping all is well. I love you all.
This last weekend, our NYU group went about 4 hours away to a tiny village and helped them build a school for their children. We had to first gather water in huge buckets on our head from a stream about half a mile away, through the entire village, down a hot dirt road and through a small jungle. It was such an experience. I can’t imagine doing that a few times, every day like all the children and women of the village do. All of our necks were hurting from the weight, after a couple trips. It really, really makes you appreciate every drop that you use. After we gathered the water, we all helped to mix the concrete, and then shoveled it into our buckets, and carried it to the school on our heads again, where we would pass it off to a villager who was helping us and they would spread it across the floor. It was a very long, tedious process, but in just six hours, we had set the entire floor of the multi-room school house. It was also fun for me because I am so comfortable with concrete floors from my own house and I could tell everyone about what I remember about pouring the concrete floor in my house. I think my friends have a very funny vision about what my life is like at home☺. Also, halfway through the construction, my friend molly and I peeked our head in to the shade in a little communal hut, and there were about six women cooking Banku, which is a typical dish served here, basically a mixture of mashed cassava dough and ground maize, boiled together until it is a white, fluffy, sticky blob. It is usually eaten with some kind of spicy stew. They saw us observing and asked if we wanted to help, so we did, I ground up some chili peppers in a mortar and pestle, and molly helped to stir the banku. In the end, they shared some of it with us. It was a perfect snack to compliment the work we had been doing.
This week we have had a lot of visitors, many of the other student’s families and boyfriends have come to see them for their spring breaks, so it has been fun being around them, but it makes me miss everyone at home so much more!
Still, I cant believe how quickly this is all going. Tomorrow is April, (happy anniversary mom and dad by the way☺) and then there is really only about a month left. Its hard to process everything that I have experienced so far, and will continue to. There is a lot left to do here. I am working very hard for New Horizons right now, looking for outlets for the wares that the vocational school for the more mature students have created. There are beautiful cards, baskets, doormats, batik cloths and napkins…I really want to get their things out into the community. They occasionally have bazaars, but I think that if I could secure a steady source of business, the vocational school would do wonders for the health of the school. Fifty percent of the profits go to the student that creates the art, and the other half goes towards funds for the school. I have been struggling lately trying to find ways to bring money in for them, when I see all of the good work that is being done, even in policy towards the local attitudes of Ghanaians towards disabilities. I am going to help with this, raising awareness in the community about the importance of treating disabilities here. Many parents either ignore their children or deny their children their basic rights, embarrassed of having giving birth to a disabled child. The mindset behind this desperately needs to change. My head is deep in this right now, as I search for solutions, and changes I can help spark as I finish up my time here.
This long Easter weekend, I am traveling with a group of five friends and we are heading to Togo and Benin! We literally need to leave the country because our visas will expire. We were cheap and only wanted to pay the two month extension fee, but we don’t mind either because it gives us another excuse to travel! I am really looking forward to it, especially because both are Francophone countries. Apparently, the food is fantastic there, and the culture feels very different. From what I know about our plans, we are going to be visiting a python temple and some sacred forest sanctuary…we’ll see what happens! We leave this Friday. I love traveling so spontaneously.
Tonight we are having a Shabbat dinner too, there are a lot of Jewish students on the trip and they wanted to host a dinner for everyone, which should be really fun. We are all looking forward to a change from so much Ghanaian food!
I am thinking of my lovely familiy on their spring break right now, and all of you, hoping all is well. I love you all.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Spring Break- Part 2, Hideout Lodge, Green Turtle Lodge, Stilt Village
Spring Break Part 2
We arrived at the Hideout Lodge by early afternoon, after three hours of navigating tro-tros and taxis, down red dirt pathways, through jungles, until the road opened up on the most beautiful beach. The green lushness of the scenery, the open blue sky, the turquoise water…it was absolutely stunning. We went through a tiny local village, crossed a rickety footbridge over a lagoon, and walked down the beach for about 5 minutes, before arriving at Hideout. It was so secluded, and we entered this fairytale, Swiss Family Robinson-like paradise. There were little red bungalows, one of which we stayed in, with a shower, fan, beautiful bed…there were also tree houses that you could stay in. There was a restaurant that served every delicious meal on wooden tables next to the sand, about 15 feet from the water. There were hammocks, palm trees, and the nicest staff. I think that we were one of two groups there, and the other was a quiet couple, who we never really saw.
The afternoon that we arrived there, we had lunch, jumped in the ocean, and I went for the most glorious beach run, before Mara and Camilla and I walked at least a mile down the sand to “our” rock, a huge outcropping into the sea that we climbed up and just watched the scenery, and natural beauty all around us. We returned at dark for lobster and cocktails on the sand, for the US equivalent of 5 dollars. Wow. Sleep that night felt euphoric, and being in a real bed was so nice.
We woke up the next morning and went on a canoe ride of the river with a local guide who offered to take us. We got up around 6 and set off in search of crocodiles and monkeys, which we didn’t see, but we definitely saw some beautiful birds. Back in time for fresh fruit, tea, oatmeal and omelettes at our favorite table on the sand…I ran again and we sat on the sand, journaled, and I painted and charcoaled before lunch. After, we packed up our things and before we left, we crossed the river and climbed up a cliff where we could make out the presence of some old ruins of some sort. It turned out to be a surprisingly intact Dutch slave fort, build in the mid-1600’s. It was so beautiful, green vines encasing the ancient structure. We climbed all over it, and the view from the top was honestly one of the most beautiful I have ever seen in my life. The untouched rawness of the jungle, set against the ocean was unreal.
After we climbed down, we caught a tro-tro again, headed for the Green Turtle Lodge, a cheap, but amazingly well known backpackers resort. It took an hour or two to get there because of the conditions of the roads even though it was about 20 km away, but it was worth it. We made it, ran into a group of NYU students who had been there for their entire spring break already, and checked in to another lovely bungalow. We swam, got cocktails, played in the sand, and found out the Camilla’s family, who was traveling around Ghana, hoping to meet up with us in a couple days, was randomly staying down the beach from us, about a ten minute walk! They were the only two lodges for miles and miles, and the odds of them staying there were quite small, so we were thrilled that they were there! It was so nice to be around a family! We met up with her parents and younger brother and sister, and they treated us to fancy dinner at their lodge. It was such a treat. Then we went on a turtle hike along the beach around ten at night with some guides and other travelers from Green Turtle Lodge. Again, the open expanse of the ocean and the sheer clarity of the starry night sky was enough to make you feel both incredibly small, and at the same time, so blessed to be alive, to see places like this, so unexplored. Sleep felt fantastic.
The next day, the girls and I luxuriated and had breakfast on the beach again; I don’t think I can convey the sheer joy of having all of our meals in this setting. We got so spoiled! I ran, we read, did art and journaled again, and met tons of other young people from all of the world we had also ended up at Green Turtle. There was a group from Denmark, Sweden, some Peace core volunteers, some Ghanaian students…it was wonderful to hear how everyone came to be there. This was our most relaxing day, and it ended with Camilla’s family treating us to another beautiful dinner at their beach lodge (yes, on the sand) where we were their only customers and they served us fish that we saw locals literally swim in from the ocean to the back door of the kitchen to serve us. That night we spent at Green Turtle, staying up late and lying on the sand, letting the immense beauty of the sky, and the ocean soak into our bones.
Mara and I woke up early the next morning and she wanted to join me on my daily run, so we had a blast, just sprinting down the sand for as far as we could, until we were far away from any civilization. We stopped, did yoga, before running home. It was a beautiful way to start the day. After our beach breakfast, we sadly packed up, but headed to the Nzulezo stilt village, about a three-hour trek via tro-tro, taxi, etc. We reached the Village, or the river that we would catch a canoe ride on, around 4:30 and caught that last canoe headed toward the village. An hour ride through the jungle and a beautiful lake, we arrived. Nzulezo is a very special place in Ghana, and many people do not know about it. However, a friend who had been on this NYU program before had recommended it to us, so we ventured there. It is a little local village of about 500 people, and it is entirely on stilts, everything, every structure made from bamboo and raffia. We were the only tourists there when we arrived and the entire village greeted us, gave us a room to stay, and a tour of the tiny village. It was so wonderful.
We were able to take our canoe out at sunset, and in the middle of the lake, the girls and I jumped in and skinny-dipped in the fading evening light. I will never forget it. We paddled home right as it turned night, and our host, we called him Danny, had cooked us some kind of rice-dish, and soup and fufu, typical Ghanaian fare. We ate as much as we could because in Ghana, it is extremely rude to not finish your food if it is prepared for you. Luckily, Danny was a good cook☺
This town had no electricity either, so we went to bed earlier. When all is quiet in these villages, and everyone is settling in, it is hard to make it past 9:30! As we were in our room however, we saw tarantula size spiders hanging out by our beds. And Camilla is incredibly terrified of spiders. A local boy came running when he heard shrieking and didn’t look twice at the spider. After convincing Camilla that it was harmless, I asked him, attempting to back up my claims of them being innocent creatures, “Do this spiders bite?” “Yes,” he replied, smiling. Dang. So then, I asked him, “Well, is it poisonous?” To that, he also replied, “Yes.” Ooookay. I remember thinking, so much for making Camilla feel better. (We later found out that this boy did not know a word of English, except “yes” apparently, but we did not know this at the time, so the spiders were in fact harmless). Lets just say that we swiftly picked up our mattresses, and moved out onto the open dock, in the center of the village. We spooned close together, determined not to roll off, which was actually not that hard to do so im glad that we stayed dry. All of this said, once we settled down, I we ended up sleeping incredibly well, spider free, and dreams full of stars.
The problem with sleeping in the center of the village was that waking up in the morning at 6 meant that we woke up to the entire village surrounding us, looking down and wondering why these girls had camped out there. I specifically remember opening my eyes and seeing a mother bathing her child literally off the dock next to me, then turning over and seeing 5 naked Ghanaian teenage boys scrubbing themselves down on my other side. This was the ultimate moment of the trip where we said, “Where ARE we?” once again. Our guide roused us, and we headed out on our canoe around 7 in the morning, back to the village on the mainland. This was our last full day of traveling and our goal was to stay the night in Kokrobrite, at Big Milly’s Backyard bungalows, about an hour outside of Accra. Traveling is very difficult in Africa on Sundays because of the amount of religious ceremonies that occur, so we wanted to get the majority out on Saturday, and we wanted to have a relaxing day on Sunday. The day was stormy but beautiful as we navigated our way back along the Western Coast towards home, and we luxuriated in knowing that we had just had some pretty incredible experiences. We arrived at our beautiful, lofted bungalow at night, had a beautiful dinner and slept in a tiny double bed in the cozy wooden loft of our bungalow, sad about our last night together.
We woke up to a light rain on the roof and headed out to the thatched roof restaurant on the sand where we had a celebratory breakfast. After a final beach walk, we packed up our things, soggy, dirty, muddy etc. and caught a tro-tro back to Accra. Pulling into Church Crescent, the complex where we live, was completely surreal, but we had the wonderful feeling of returning home, at least for now that is☺
These last few days being back has been great, everyone that traveled, my roommates especially, had amazing trips in Egypt, Rwanda, Mali…I want to travel EVERYWHERE now! When I came back to New Horizon yesterday to teach, the teacher and students cried they were so happy to see me. It was a wonderful, wonderful reunion. It feels good to be back, I cant wait to see you all!!
MUCH love.
We arrived at the Hideout Lodge by early afternoon, after three hours of navigating tro-tros and taxis, down red dirt pathways, through jungles, until the road opened up on the most beautiful beach. The green lushness of the scenery, the open blue sky, the turquoise water…it was absolutely stunning. We went through a tiny local village, crossed a rickety footbridge over a lagoon, and walked down the beach for about 5 minutes, before arriving at Hideout. It was so secluded, and we entered this fairytale, Swiss Family Robinson-like paradise. There were little red bungalows, one of which we stayed in, with a shower, fan, beautiful bed…there were also tree houses that you could stay in. There was a restaurant that served every delicious meal on wooden tables next to the sand, about 15 feet from the water. There were hammocks, palm trees, and the nicest staff. I think that we were one of two groups there, and the other was a quiet couple, who we never really saw.
The afternoon that we arrived there, we had lunch, jumped in the ocean, and I went for the most glorious beach run, before Mara and Camilla and I walked at least a mile down the sand to “our” rock, a huge outcropping into the sea that we climbed up and just watched the scenery, and natural beauty all around us. We returned at dark for lobster and cocktails on the sand, for the US equivalent of 5 dollars. Wow. Sleep that night felt euphoric, and being in a real bed was so nice.
We woke up the next morning and went on a canoe ride of the river with a local guide who offered to take us. We got up around 6 and set off in search of crocodiles and monkeys, which we didn’t see, but we definitely saw some beautiful birds. Back in time for fresh fruit, tea, oatmeal and omelettes at our favorite table on the sand…I ran again and we sat on the sand, journaled, and I painted and charcoaled before lunch. After, we packed up our things and before we left, we crossed the river and climbed up a cliff where we could make out the presence of some old ruins of some sort. It turned out to be a surprisingly intact Dutch slave fort, build in the mid-1600’s. It was so beautiful, green vines encasing the ancient structure. We climbed all over it, and the view from the top was honestly one of the most beautiful I have ever seen in my life. The untouched rawness of the jungle, set against the ocean was unreal.
After we climbed down, we caught a tro-tro again, headed for the Green Turtle Lodge, a cheap, but amazingly well known backpackers resort. It took an hour or two to get there because of the conditions of the roads even though it was about 20 km away, but it was worth it. We made it, ran into a group of NYU students who had been there for their entire spring break already, and checked in to another lovely bungalow. We swam, got cocktails, played in the sand, and found out the Camilla’s family, who was traveling around Ghana, hoping to meet up with us in a couple days, was randomly staying down the beach from us, about a ten minute walk! They were the only two lodges for miles and miles, and the odds of them staying there were quite small, so we were thrilled that they were there! It was so nice to be around a family! We met up with her parents and younger brother and sister, and they treated us to fancy dinner at their lodge. It was such a treat. Then we went on a turtle hike along the beach around ten at night with some guides and other travelers from Green Turtle Lodge. Again, the open expanse of the ocean and the sheer clarity of the starry night sky was enough to make you feel both incredibly small, and at the same time, so blessed to be alive, to see places like this, so unexplored. Sleep felt fantastic.
The next day, the girls and I luxuriated and had breakfast on the beach again; I don’t think I can convey the sheer joy of having all of our meals in this setting. We got so spoiled! I ran, we read, did art and journaled again, and met tons of other young people from all of the world we had also ended up at Green Turtle. There was a group from Denmark, Sweden, some Peace core volunteers, some Ghanaian students…it was wonderful to hear how everyone came to be there. This was our most relaxing day, and it ended with Camilla’s family treating us to another beautiful dinner at their beach lodge (yes, on the sand) where we were their only customers and they served us fish that we saw locals literally swim in from the ocean to the back door of the kitchen to serve us. That night we spent at Green Turtle, staying up late and lying on the sand, letting the immense beauty of the sky, and the ocean soak into our bones.
Mara and I woke up early the next morning and she wanted to join me on my daily run, so we had a blast, just sprinting down the sand for as far as we could, until we were far away from any civilization. We stopped, did yoga, before running home. It was a beautiful way to start the day. After our beach breakfast, we sadly packed up, but headed to the Nzulezo stilt village, about a three-hour trek via tro-tro, taxi, etc. We reached the Village, or the river that we would catch a canoe ride on, around 4:30 and caught that last canoe headed toward the village. An hour ride through the jungle and a beautiful lake, we arrived. Nzulezo is a very special place in Ghana, and many people do not know about it. However, a friend who had been on this NYU program before had recommended it to us, so we ventured there. It is a little local village of about 500 people, and it is entirely on stilts, everything, every structure made from bamboo and raffia. We were the only tourists there when we arrived and the entire village greeted us, gave us a room to stay, and a tour of the tiny village. It was so wonderful.
We were able to take our canoe out at sunset, and in the middle of the lake, the girls and I jumped in and skinny-dipped in the fading evening light. I will never forget it. We paddled home right as it turned night, and our host, we called him Danny, had cooked us some kind of rice-dish, and soup and fufu, typical Ghanaian fare. We ate as much as we could because in Ghana, it is extremely rude to not finish your food if it is prepared for you. Luckily, Danny was a good cook☺
This town had no electricity either, so we went to bed earlier. When all is quiet in these villages, and everyone is settling in, it is hard to make it past 9:30! As we were in our room however, we saw tarantula size spiders hanging out by our beds. And Camilla is incredibly terrified of spiders. A local boy came running when he heard shrieking and didn’t look twice at the spider. After convincing Camilla that it was harmless, I asked him, attempting to back up my claims of them being innocent creatures, “Do this spiders bite?” “Yes,” he replied, smiling. Dang. So then, I asked him, “Well, is it poisonous?” To that, he also replied, “Yes.” Ooookay. I remember thinking, so much for making Camilla feel better. (We later found out that this boy did not know a word of English, except “yes” apparently, but we did not know this at the time, so the spiders were in fact harmless). Lets just say that we swiftly picked up our mattresses, and moved out onto the open dock, in the center of the village. We spooned close together, determined not to roll off, which was actually not that hard to do so im glad that we stayed dry. All of this said, once we settled down, I we ended up sleeping incredibly well, spider free, and dreams full of stars.
The problem with sleeping in the center of the village was that waking up in the morning at 6 meant that we woke up to the entire village surrounding us, looking down and wondering why these girls had camped out there. I specifically remember opening my eyes and seeing a mother bathing her child literally off the dock next to me, then turning over and seeing 5 naked Ghanaian teenage boys scrubbing themselves down on my other side. This was the ultimate moment of the trip where we said, “Where ARE we?” once again. Our guide roused us, and we headed out on our canoe around 7 in the morning, back to the village on the mainland. This was our last full day of traveling and our goal was to stay the night in Kokrobrite, at Big Milly’s Backyard bungalows, about an hour outside of Accra. Traveling is very difficult in Africa on Sundays because of the amount of religious ceremonies that occur, so we wanted to get the majority out on Saturday, and we wanted to have a relaxing day on Sunday. The day was stormy but beautiful as we navigated our way back along the Western Coast towards home, and we luxuriated in knowing that we had just had some pretty incredible experiences. We arrived at our beautiful, lofted bungalow at night, had a beautiful dinner and slept in a tiny double bed in the cozy wooden loft of our bungalow, sad about our last night together.
We woke up to a light rain on the roof and headed out to the thatched roof restaurant on the sand where we had a celebratory breakfast. After a final beach walk, we packed up our things, soggy, dirty, muddy etc. and caught a tro-tro back to Accra. Pulling into Church Crescent, the complex where we live, was completely surreal, but we had the wonderful feeling of returning home, at least for now that is☺
These last few days being back has been great, everyone that traveled, my roommates especially, had amazing trips in Egypt, Rwanda, Mali…I want to travel EVERYWHERE now! When I came back to New Horizon yesterday to teach, the teacher and students cried they were so happy to see me. It was a wonderful, wonderful reunion. It feels good to be back, I cant wait to see you all!!
MUCH love.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Spring Break- Part 1 Mole, Larabanga, Kumasi
Spring Break
I am going to start by saying simply that I have just had a truly life-changing week traveling around Northern and Western Ghana with my friends Mara and Camilla. I am so incredibly grateful for every experience that I had, and I have that incredible feeling that you get when you have experiences like this and literally wouldn’t have wanted to change a second of it.
I suppose the best I can do is start at the beginning and see how far I get, at least in this post. Camilla, Mara and I got up around 5am, and left Accra on an STC bus(similar to greyhound) headed to Tamale, in Northern Ghana. It was a fourteen-hour trip, and when we finally arrived at our hotel, and persuaded the restaurant to feed us around eleven, it felt amazing to be on solid ground. The three of us cuddled into a double bed and slept for a solid 4 hours, before waking up at 4 am to catch a four hour bus ride through mud-hut villages and red dirt roads to Mole National Park and Larabanga village. We were covered in red dust by the time we entered the park and reached the pretty funny 1960’s style hotel in the middle of the expansive park, with lookouts that viewed the savannahs and two watering holes. We arrived in time to have breakfast, where we were greeted by families of baboons and warthogs, who would literally grab your things or sniff around your shoes if you weren’t careful. We cooled off in the pool and then went on a walking tour through the park with an armed guide, searching for elephants. The scenery was stunning, hot and drier that we have seen before. We saw kobs, antelopes, and beautiful, exotic birds, but no elephants yet. Our guides all promised us they would go home and pray all night, hoping that we would see one tomorrow.
When we returned however, we found out that the hotel in fact had absolutely NO vacancy. Every room, dorm bed, was full. They did however, have one more tent that we could rent. Enthusiastically we agreed, and when it got dark, we walked into the trees a little ways to the campground, and literally set our tent up on a wooden platform. Now lets talk about this tent situation. It was a two person tent. Barely. No mats, no sleeping bags, just plastic bottom on wood. And we can’t just sleep under that stars here because apparently the baboons are aggressive and we need to be careful about exposure to mosquitoes to avoid malaria. So the three of us crammed in together, me in the middle, as usual( we have a formation☺ .) I don’t think I can describe the heat that was inside that tent. Imagine NO BREEZE in a plastic tent, in about 90-100 degree weather. If you moved a muscle, sweat dripped, from every single pore of your body. We were not prone to claustrophobia, but I think it is safe to say, that that night we were. It was funny it was so unbearable, but, of course, laughing at it moved a few muscles. However, we were so exhausted, having gotten about 3 hours of sleep in the last two days that we fell asleep, and woke up, actually refreshed. Around 6 in the morning, I unzipped the tent and breathed in real, fresh air, just in time to see a friendly family of warthogs hanging out about five feet from us. I waved them good morning before rousing the girls and packing up, in time to make the 7am safari drive around the park, for our second attempt at seeing elephants. And see them we did!
Seeing an elephant, in the wild, not a zoo, on TV, in the Lion King, or anything else, is one of the biggest rushes in the world. Their sheer size is astounding. I was overcome by their gracefulness, by the way they held themselves. It was a beautiful experience. We got about 15 meters away, closer than you get to them on any safari, anywhere. They were bathing, and had such a tangible form of communication with each other. Walking back, the girls and I were blissful. WE reached to hotel before breakfast. We could get used to this schedule. I think it is also necessary that I point out that both safaris that we went on in Mole cost the equivalent of 10 US dollars. This includes guides, transportation, everything. The cost of things here is truly unbelievable. East African safaris will usually cost upwards of 3 or 4 hundred dollars A DAY. Wow. What a gift to be able to do all of this.
Later that afternoon, we called the Salia brothers, twin brothers that live in a neighboring village that had been recommended to us by students who had been to NYU in Ghana before. They drove up to Mole, picked all three of us with our stuff up on motorbikes and drove us to their village of Larabanga, where we were given a mattress and a place to stay on their roof. Seriously. It was amazing. We walked around the village with their children, saw an ancient mosque that is the oldest structure in Ghana, and returned, where we hiked up to a neighboring compound and were led to a table and served food by lantern light. Apparently, the wife of one of the brothers had been in the kitchen, making us dinner. It was incredibly sweet. The brothers sat down with us and we talked until late in the evening. The stars here were some of the clearest I have ever seen. You can imagine, when no one has electricity for miles, the sky is like diamonds. We were led back to their house, in the middle of the village, and we got ready for bed by lantern again, and climbed up to our perch on the roof, where a foam mattress and a sheet was laid out. Perfect. Elephants and rooftop sleepovers. An excellent day. It was the most wonderful feeling to lie down, staring up at the sky, surrounded by Mara and Camilla, giggling and asking the question, Where ARE we? It was a perfect night.
Our next day was not quite so exciting, at 4 in the morning, we were woken up and told that our bus to Tamale, where we were headed, was leaving. We jumped out of bed and threw everything we had into our backpacks and barely were able to elbow our way on to the bus, but we made it, thanks to the help of our host. After four hours, we arrived, had time for a much needed breakfast, and got on another 8 hour bus ride to Kumasi, to stay in a wonderful backpacker guesthouse. We had a fantastic dinner at a neighboring restaurant, and returned late at night to take our first showers in a long time. What a fantastic feeling☺ The next day, we got up at 4 am again and headed to the coast of Western Ghana…I will save that for the next post…much love
I am going to start by saying simply that I have just had a truly life-changing week traveling around Northern and Western Ghana with my friends Mara and Camilla. I am so incredibly grateful for every experience that I had, and I have that incredible feeling that you get when you have experiences like this and literally wouldn’t have wanted to change a second of it.
I suppose the best I can do is start at the beginning and see how far I get, at least in this post. Camilla, Mara and I got up around 5am, and left Accra on an STC bus(similar to greyhound) headed to Tamale, in Northern Ghana. It was a fourteen-hour trip, and when we finally arrived at our hotel, and persuaded the restaurant to feed us around eleven, it felt amazing to be on solid ground. The three of us cuddled into a double bed and slept for a solid 4 hours, before waking up at 4 am to catch a four hour bus ride through mud-hut villages and red dirt roads to Mole National Park and Larabanga village. We were covered in red dust by the time we entered the park and reached the pretty funny 1960’s style hotel in the middle of the expansive park, with lookouts that viewed the savannahs and two watering holes. We arrived in time to have breakfast, where we were greeted by families of baboons and warthogs, who would literally grab your things or sniff around your shoes if you weren’t careful. We cooled off in the pool and then went on a walking tour through the park with an armed guide, searching for elephants. The scenery was stunning, hot and drier that we have seen before. We saw kobs, antelopes, and beautiful, exotic birds, but no elephants yet. Our guides all promised us they would go home and pray all night, hoping that we would see one tomorrow.
When we returned however, we found out that the hotel in fact had absolutely NO vacancy. Every room, dorm bed, was full. They did however, have one more tent that we could rent. Enthusiastically we agreed, and when it got dark, we walked into the trees a little ways to the campground, and literally set our tent up on a wooden platform. Now lets talk about this tent situation. It was a two person tent. Barely. No mats, no sleeping bags, just plastic bottom on wood. And we can’t just sleep under that stars here because apparently the baboons are aggressive and we need to be careful about exposure to mosquitoes to avoid malaria. So the three of us crammed in together, me in the middle, as usual( we have a formation☺ .) I don’t think I can describe the heat that was inside that tent. Imagine NO BREEZE in a plastic tent, in about 90-100 degree weather. If you moved a muscle, sweat dripped, from every single pore of your body. We were not prone to claustrophobia, but I think it is safe to say, that that night we were. It was funny it was so unbearable, but, of course, laughing at it moved a few muscles. However, we were so exhausted, having gotten about 3 hours of sleep in the last two days that we fell asleep, and woke up, actually refreshed. Around 6 in the morning, I unzipped the tent and breathed in real, fresh air, just in time to see a friendly family of warthogs hanging out about five feet from us. I waved them good morning before rousing the girls and packing up, in time to make the 7am safari drive around the park, for our second attempt at seeing elephants. And see them we did!
Seeing an elephant, in the wild, not a zoo, on TV, in the Lion King, or anything else, is one of the biggest rushes in the world. Their sheer size is astounding. I was overcome by their gracefulness, by the way they held themselves. It was a beautiful experience. We got about 15 meters away, closer than you get to them on any safari, anywhere. They were bathing, and had such a tangible form of communication with each other. Walking back, the girls and I were blissful. WE reached to hotel before breakfast. We could get used to this schedule. I think it is also necessary that I point out that both safaris that we went on in Mole cost the equivalent of 10 US dollars. This includes guides, transportation, everything. The cost of things here is truly unbelievable. East African safaris will usually cost upwards of 3 or 4 hundred dollars A DAY. Wow. What a gift to be able to do all of this.
Later that afternoon, we called the Salia brothers, twin brothers that live in a neighboring village that had been recommended to us by students who had been to NYU in Ghana before. They drove up to Mole, picked all three of us with our stuff up on motorbikes and drove us to their village of Larabanga, where we were given a mattress and a place to stay on their roof. Seriously. It was amazing. We walked around the village with their children, saw an ancient mosque that is the oldest structure in Ghana, and returned, where we hiked up to a neighboring compound and were led to a table and served food by lantern light. Apparently, the wife of one of the brothers had been in the kitchen, making us dinner. It was incredibly sweet. The brothers sat down with us and we talked until late in the evening. The stars here were some of the clearest I have ever seen. You can imagine, when no one has electricity for miles, the sky is like diamonds. We were led back to their house, in the middle of the village, and we got ready for bed by lantern again, and climbed up to our perch on the roof, where a foam mattress and a sheet was laid out. Perfect. Elephants and rooftop sleepovers. An excellent day. It was the most wonderful feeling to lie down, staring up at the sky, surrounded by Mara and Camilla, giggling and asking the question, Where ARE we? It was a perfect night.
Our next day was not quite so exciting, at 4 in the morning, we were woken up and told that our bus to Tamale, where we were headed, was leaving. We jumped out of bed and threw everything we had into our backpacks and barely were able to elbow our way on to the bus, but we made it, thanks to the help of our host. After four hours, we arrived, had time for a much needed breakfast, and got on another 8 hour bus ride to Kumasi, to stay in a wonderful backpacker guesthouse. We had a fantastic dinner at a neighboring restaurant, and returned late at night to take our first showers in a long time. What a fantastic feeling☺ The next day, we got up at 4 am again and headed to the coast of Western Ghana…I will save that for the next post…much love
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Happy Birthday Ghana!
I forgot to say that last week, for my African Dance class, we got to go to the National theater and danced with th national dance troupe of Ghana. Seriously. It was absolutely incredible! They were so generous and kind, while making fun of us at times too, which we deserved. We all left wishing that we had larger butts to shake around. Oh well!
This last weekend, my friends and I rented a house at Big Milly’s Backyard, a backpackers paradise on Kokrobrite beach, about an hour and a half from Accra. We left early Saturday morning, which was Ghanaian Independence Day, and got to the hotel around 11. We checked in, squeezed 11 of us into a tiny little house with an upstairs, balcony, cute little couches… and hit the beach, swimming with children everywhere, shopping on the beach for dresses, pottery, jewelry, fresh pineapples, coconuts and oranges, and reading. It was blissful. In the middle of the day, a crazy rain storm came in for about an hour and I had one of the most glorious moments of my life, standing in the warm, warm ocean in the rain, feeling the wind all around me. We went out to a little Italian restaurant owned by real Italians(!) and then celebrated Ghanaian independence day with reggae, dancing and excellent company.
This week we are all getting ready for our spring break adventure, while simultaneously taking midterms. I had my art history midterm yesterday…yeesh! But I think I did well☺. On Friday, my friends Camilla, Mara and I are traveling to Tamale and Mole National park to see elephants, sleep on the roof of our hotel, and then work our way south, staying at the famous stilt village, Green Turtle Eco lodge and hiking through the rainforest to visit bat caves for a week. I am so excited to just go, it will be pretty spontaneous, and I think its safe to say, pretty unforgettable, whatever happens.
Love to everyone at home, thinking of you as always.
This last weekend, my friends and I rented a house at Big Milly’s Backyard, a backpackers paradise on Kokrobrite beach, about an hour and a half from Accra. We left early Saturday morning, which was Ghanaian Independence Day, and got to the hotel around 11. We checked in, squeezed 11 of us into a tiny little house with an upstairs, balcony, cute little couches… and hit the beach, swimming with children everywhere, shopping on the beach for dresses, pottery, jewelry, fresh pineapples, coconuts and oranges, and reading. It was blissful. In the middle of the day, a crazy rain storm came in for about an hour and I had one of the most glorious moments of my life, standing in the warm, warm ocean in the rain, feeling the wind all around me. We went out to a little Italian restaurant owned by real Italians(!) and then celebrated Ghanaian independence day with reggae, dancing and excellent company.
This week we are all getting ready for our spring break adventure, while simultaneously taking midterms. I had my art history midterm yesterday…yeesh! But I think I did well☺. On Friday, my friends Camilla, Mara and I are traveling to Tamale and Mole National park to see elephants, sleep on the roof of our hotel, and then work our way south, staying at the famous stilt village, Green Turtle Eco lodge and hiking through the rainforest to visit bat caves for a week. I am so excited to just go, it will be pretty spontaneous, and I think its safe to say, pretty unforgettable, whatever happens.
Love to everyone at home, thinking of you as always.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Possibilities:)
It has been particularly scorching this week, but I have been accustomed to the constant layer of sweat. I am discovering new pores and outlets of sweat I never knew existed before I came here. But I feel strangely clean sometimes…I suppose I am entirely rid of toxins in my system, getting flushed out daily☺ (sorry I just re-read that and I guess that was a lot of sweat talk, but I’m gonna keep it because that’s the way it is here)
I went to an awesome art show on Tuesday night after dinner with a couple of friends and it was so cool, we got to meet the artist and talk to him about his work. His name is Akirash, and I was able to get his information and I am going to do an artist profile on him for my non-western art class, visiting his studio and talking to him about the materials he uses, how he started doing his work in the first place, where he finds his inspiration…I am very excited because his art, it is very experimental, and focused on installation pieces as well as paintings and drawings. The art space he had set up in the studio was covered in beach sand all over the ground and in the center was a giant tradition canoe boat made out of large plastic water bottles. On the walls were beautiful traditionally focused paintings, as well as origami hats made from scraps of recycled paper and children’s shoes dyed in mud. Outside, there was a traditional performance of African dance and drumming, with the performers dressed in traditionally designed clothing, but all made from trash scraps. He was dressed in a similar outfit with paint all over his face, a smiling, young man, excited about showcasing all of his work. It was completely bizarre, but so vibrant and free. I am looking forward to talking to him more.
New Horizon Special School continues to be so rewarding, everyday I go, I am grateful for the experience. In my African Women Speak class, we have been discussing feminism in Ghana a great deal, and today I had a large research paper due about some aspect of feminism in Ghana that I found intriguing. The requirement was that we talked to many local Ghanaians around us as our primary source for research. I happily toured around this week, and met many women, the bearded fruit lady who sells us pineapple, my two seamstresses, the teller at EcoBank when the machine ate my ATM card…I had some pretty wonderful, fascinating conversations.
Spring break is coming up and we are all furiously making plans. Let me start by saying that traveling in Africa is insane. First of all, getting somewhere about 200 miles away is a day trip, at least! the roads are slow, when buses are your only option, and they also choose which days of the week to actually travel, and never on a Sunday. Also, a flight to ANYWHERE is 1000 dollars. Literally. I could get to Europe easier that anywhere is Africa, probably for cheaper too, but I want to stay here. I figure that I’m in Africa, how could I leave? So my friends Mara and Camilla and I were planning to go to Northern Ghana and Burkina Faso, to the Gorum Gorum region to ride camels and go to incredible Islamic markets. The problem is that there was a huge meningitis outbreak in Northern Ghana, and we are banned from travel in those areas. Also, Cote Ivoire, the country to my left, has been in intense political turmoil for some time so that has always been out of the question travel-wise, and then Togo, the country to our right just had elections yesterday and the effects of that are possibly going to be violent, so we are advised not to travel that direction. So essentially, if you follow me, and can picture Ghana on a map, we are surrounded, literally, by places that are off-limits. The realities here are just mind-blowing. We had a huge trip meeting with the entire NYU in Ghana group this week, and hearing all of the security measures was a eye-opening experience. There are a few people traveling to Rwanda, Mali and Egypt, but the rest of us are “re-evaluating” I should say. I will keep the Spring Break chronicles up to date for you, as they tend to be quite interesting, however I will say that our back up plan at the moment is going to this amazing eco-lodge called the Green Turtle, a few hundred miles west on the coast of Ghana, and going on hikes, day trips, visiting caves, waterfalls, staying on the beach, visiting an amazing wildlife reserve with elephants and chimpanzees and maybe going camping for few days. Some back up plan right? Our break starts March 12th, so we have time to figure it out, however. I actually love the spontaneity that is required here, doing anything. It has forced all of us to really adapt to new things constantly. Its pretty liberating.
On an ENTIRELY different note, I just found out that I was accepted into the NYU Florence Fall semester program! I applied in late January, just to see what would happen, but now that I know it is looking more and more appealing! Being here has been a traveling wake-up call for me…I officially have the travel bug, I am itching to go Everywhere!
Wow, this blog has been ALL over the place. Questions, concerns, suggestions? I’m open to anything! Please also, if anyone is curious about anything here, just little things about everyday life, or anything, Ask me! I have had a lot of people asking me about things like that and I forget sometimes to include them. I miss and love you all, as always!
Talk to you soon! MUCH LOVE
I went to an awesome art show on Tuesday night after dinner with a couple of friends and it was so cool, we got to meet the artist and talk to him about his work. His name is Akirash, and I was able to get his information and I am going to do an artist profile on him for my non-western art class, visiting his studio and talking to him about the materials he uses, how he started doing his work in the first place, where he finds his inspiration…I am very excited because his art, it is very experimental, and focused on installation pieces as well as paintings and drawings. The art space he had set up in the studio was covered in beach sand all over the ground and in the center was a giant tradition canoe boat made out of large plastic water bottles. On the walls were beautiful traditionally focused paintings, as well as origami hats made from scraps of recycled paper and children’s shoes dyed in mud. Outside, there was a traditional performance of African dance and drumming, with the performers dressed in traditionally designed clothing, but all made from trash scraps. He was dressed in a similar outfit with paint all over his face, a smiling, young man, excited about showcasing all of his work. It was completely bizarre, but so vibrant and free. I am looking forward to talking to him more.
New Horizon Special School continues to be so rewarding, everyday I go, I am grateful for the experience. In my African Women Speak class, we have been discussing feminism in Ghana a great deal, and today I had a large research paper due about some aspect of feminism in Ghana that I found intriguing. The requirement was that we talked to many local Ghanaians around us as our primary source for research. I happily toured around this week, and met many women, the bearded fruit lady who sells us pineapple, my two seamstresses, the teller at EcoBank when the machine ate my ATM card…I had some pretty wonderful, fascinating conversations.
Spring break is coming up and we are all furiously making plans. Let me start by saying that traveling in Africa is insane. First of all, getting somewhere about 200 miles away is a day trip, at least! the roads are slow, when buses are your only option, and they also choose which days of the week to actually travel, and never on a Sunday. Also, a flight to ANYWHERE is 1000 dollars. Literally. I could get to Europe easier that anywhere is Africa, probably for cheaper too, but I want to stay here. I figure that I’m in Africa, how could I leave? So my friends Mara and Camilla and I were planning to go to Northern Ghana and Burkina Faso, to the Gorum Gorum region to ride camels and go to incredible Islamic markets. The problem is that there was a huge meningitis outbreak in Northern Ghana, and we are banned from travel in those areas. Also, Cote Ivoire, the country to my left, has been in intense political turmoil for some time so that has always been out of the question travel-wise, and then Togo, the country to our right just had elections yesterday and the effects of that are possibly going to be violent, so we are advised not to travel that direction. So essentially, if you follow me, and can picture Ghana on a map, we are surrounded, literally, by places that are off-limits. The realities here are just mind-blowing. We had a huge trip meeting with the entire NYU in Ghana group this week, and hearing all of the security measures was a eye-opening experience. There are a few people traveling to Rwanda, Mali and Egypt, but the rest of us are “re-evaluating” I should say. I will keep the Spring Break chronicles up to date for you, as they tend to be quite interesting, however I will say that our back up plan at the moment is going to this amazing eco-lodge called the Green Turtle, a few hundred miles west on the coast of Ghana, and going on hikes, day trips, visiting caves, waterfalls, staying on the beach, visiting an amazing wildlife reserve with elephants and chimpanzees and maybe going camping for few days. Some back up plan right? Our break starts March 12th, so we have time to figure it out, however. I actually love the spontaneity that is required here, doing anything. It has forced all of us to really adapt to new things constantly. Its pretty liberating.
On an ENTIRELY different note, I just found out that I was accepted into the NYU Florence Fall semester program! I applied in late January, just to see what would happen, but now that I know it is looking more and more appealing! Being here has been a traveling wake-up call for me…I officially have the travel bug, I am itching to go Everywhere!
Wow, this blog has been ALL over the place. Questions, concerns, suggestions? I’m open to anything! Please also, if anyone is curious about anything here, just little things about everyday life, or anything, Ask me! I have had a lot of people asking me about things like that and I forget sometimes to include them. I miss and love you all, as always!
Talk to you soon! MUCH LOVE
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Global warming?
Since my last hurried blog post, I hope that I can fill in some gaps…
This last weekend we traveled to Kumasi, a large town about 5 hours away from Accra, we got up at 430 in the morning and all took a bus up to the region, the Ashanti Kingdom. We visiting the palace of the modern day king, went to some beautiful craft fairs of Kente Cloth and drum making…it was a fantastic trip. We stayed in a lovely hotel, and soaked up a different region that we have been spending time in lately…it was a great change of pace.
I feel like everything has fallen into place for me, my classes, friends, my work at New Horizon. There is a wonderful routine to everything, and at the same time, I find days, moments when I am suddenly surrounded by all things new. In talking to mom, dad, friends, I am continuously shocked at how I have accustomed to certain things here, like crazy markets, haggling for literally EVERything, taxis, food, clothes, fabric etc., friends with irregular bowel movementsJ, beggars on the street…I feel myself challenged, and my heart breaks a little every day, but I feel so unbelievably charged right now, like I really need to do something big. I have notes, drawings, ideas, scribbled all over my journals, papers taped to my wall. Being here has been a wake-up call, I feel on the verge of getting a project rolling… more to follow on that. Oh and it is SO HOT here, the locals all say it is the hottest that they can remember...global warming???
I am thinking of you all, so very much! You are in my heart as I navigate this crazy wonderful adventureJ
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
All is well in Ghana-land
All is well in Ghana-land. Time is flying by in a blur, I cant believe how quickly everything has gone by already!
Classes have been wonderful, we went to a contemporary art gallery last Tuesday with my art class, and I was so struck by the way art is approached here, at least modern art. Art is a complete luxury, not a way of life the way it was in the future, and the way I know it to be back home, surrounded by so many practicing artists…
We all had homestays this weekend so dispersed into the greater Accra region to stay with traditional Ghanaian families for three days. What an experience! We attended their aunts surprise 40th birthday party last Friday and danced until four in the morning, everyone, children, babies, grandparents…it was phenomenal. It was such a different experience being in another house that does things so differently than I am used to, but it was a valuable experience. It made me so grateful for my own family, as I am dailyJ
Sorry about the short post, but I will keep them coming when I have a moment! Love and miss you all!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Joy
New Horzions Special School has been an amazing experience for me. So far, I have only been working there for two weeks, but it has been wonderful, heartbreaking, important for me. I go in to help in the Rose classroom, all the classes are named after flowersJ, for two or three hours three times a week in between my classes here at NYU and Ashesi University. I am helping in a class with about seven people, ages ranging from 14 to 56, although most are in their early twenties. I know one has cerebral palsy, there is a student with down syndrom, and the rest have similar disabilities not entirely diagnosable. What strikes me every time is how expressive, emotional, intuitive these individuals are. Most don’t have the verbal skills to even speak, but have their own language anyway, whether in noises, in rhythms, in smiles, in their eyes. I have worked at Hillside House, the cerebral palsy center at home in Santa Barbara, and once again here, I am absolutely struck by the joy of these people. Sometimes it is the simple, wonderful things, like the sets of math problems I give to fourteen year old Eric everyday, over and over again, him spitting back answers to me the second I can copy them down for him. Godfrey and Muktah who try to out do the other in proposing to marry me. I have my share of love notes and graphic picturesJ. Helen, who is so, so smart and can understand everything we go over in class, has amazing comprehension ability, but who lacks the means to write it. I sit with her everyday holding a pencil in her hand and copying down the notes that the teacher is covering on the board. She is fifty-six years old and going to school is her favorite thing in the world. I have heard that she absolutely hates holidays and weekends, the days that school is cancelled. I am learning so much about humility and being humble here, appreciating simplicity, and recognizing joy.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Valentines Day?
I’m going to preface this blog by saying that I can safely say that I had an astronomically different Valentine’s day that I have ever experienced before. I am going to paint you a little picture:
Woke up in a hotel room, wedged between two other girls on a double bed with no sheets or blankets, the power is off, the water is off, and the floor has a substantial amount of water that flooded in from the middle of the night monsoon that hit around 3 in the morning the previous night. There was also a seven inch lizard on the wall. Cool.
This stunningly romantic setting was in the extremely charming, sense the sarcasm, Adomi Hotel near Akosombo town, a small colonial village near on Lake Volta. I had planned this trip a few days earlier and had lots of takers. Nine of my friends and I got up at 5:30 in the morning on Saturday, and took off in cabs for the tro-tro station. For those of you who don’t know what a tro-tro is, picture an oversized van, usually very run-down, that carries about 15 people. There is really no schedule for them, there are no signs, and you really just need to ask around for the one that is going to place that you need to get to. Even at six in the morning there were hundreds and hundreds of people out at the station, pigs, chickens, grilled fish with their very distinct odor, everyone was grabbing us, selling phone cards, fabric, everything. Pretty much what we experience everyday, just concentrated in one large area. I don’t know how, but we boarded the right van, and actually left not long after. This is a great feat because tro-tros run notoriously late, and by late I mean anywhere from two to seven hours, if they even leave at all. So we were feeling pretty good about ourselves as we flew down the highway. As soon as we got out the city and started heading north towards Lake `Volta, which is the largest man-made lake in the world by the way, the scenery changed and suddenly we were in rolling green hills and savannah. It was absolutely stunning.
Two and a half hours later, we arrived at the ferry port of the Dodi Princess, a cruise that takes six hours to explore the lake and visit Dodi Island. On the cruise there was great music, we danced with everyone, a small pool, and a barbeque! We soaked up so much sun, it was paradise. We met so many people, and really relaxed. Our weeks are really crazy here, literally I am busy with class, working at New Horizon Special School and getting everything done, that I am off to one thing or the other seven until ten Monday through Thursday. The weeks are flying by, so it was nice to take a step back. I was able to journal, read, and we all had a great time with each other. Little did we know it was also the special Valentine’s `day cruise so it was completely hilarious, as the band played love songs and couples were canoodling everywhere.
After the cruise, we checked into the Adomi Hotel, and like I said before, it wasn’t ideal. About half of us saw the humor in the lizards and power outages, and cement block exteriors and showering over the toilet, and lack of mosquito nets, but its safe to say that initially, not everyone was thrilled. However, by the next morning, we couldn’t stop laughing about it.
In the morning, after realizing the wonderful irony of our V-day situation, we ventured to a lovely breakfast on the lake before we took canoes out to explore. It was one of the most peaceful experiences I have ever had in my life. It was so calm, and so physically stunning, that we couldn’t help but let the perfection of the moment overtake us.
After another successful tro-tro ride home, we were able to have a lovely afternoon at home before dressing up and meeting up with the rest of our friends who had stayed in `accra for the weekend, and going to Mamma Mia’s, a fantastic Italian restaurant, where had authentic food, the owner is from near `Tuscany, and great wine. So I suppose that Valentines night was a little more conventional.
I continuously find myself in these situations, where the familiarity meets the completely foreign. It is so exhilarating. The arc of my days here take me through so many stages, emotions, activities; I feel so alive, and so grateful to be here. I will update soon, just wanted to share and wish you all the happiest of Valentine’s Days!:)
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Elmina Castle/Kakum National Park Weekend
We woke up at six in the morning on Saturday and all headed to Cape Coast on the bus, arriving at Coconut Grove Resort for brunch under a palapa by the pool on the beach. It was stunning. Where am I again? We took our time settling into our rooms before heading to Elmina Castle, the first slave castle built by the Portuguese in 1493. It was unbelievable, being so close to such a significant part of our history. The location was absolutely stunning, which was such a sharp contrast when we saw all of the horrific conditions that the slaves were kept within the walls of the castle. It was an incredibly emotional experience for all of us. Many people were crying, and deeply disturbed. It was hard not to be, when we see the darker side of humanity’s capability in such graphic terms. We even went to the “room of no return,” a dungeon in the back of the castle that the slaves would leave to board the ships towards the Americas. It was incredibly moving.
We left the castle and drove towards Kakum National Park, stopping on the way at a restaurant on stilts over a giant pond of crocodiles. I faced my fear and touched it. As my mama can attest, this is BIG for me, I really am terrified of them. We continued on to the Park and went on the Canopy Walk, a beautiful bridge in the rainforest, suspended hundreds of feet in the air. Those of the group who were afraid of heights had a hard time, but it was so magical being up so high! I loved it. The bridge was broken up into different sections and we were on it for about twenty minutes. The view was unbelievable, I felt like I was completely in the jungle, no civilization in sight, only lush green trees, vines and blue skies. It was a big contrast to the way we had spent the morning.
We returned to our bungalows and swam in the pool and the ocean, walking, running and playing on the beach and in the warm, warm sand past sunset until dark. We had a lovely dinner on the beach, followed by palm wine and dancing and drumming around a bonfire until extremely late. We met a lot of people from all over the world, families and international students..
My roommate Molly and I got up at sunrise the next morning and jumped in the ocean first thing, a perfect way to start the day. We showered, had another lovely breakfast and then got a group of us to go into Cape Coast town, where we had an hour to explore. We literally made it about 4 blocks because children materialized out of nowhere, and we happily played with them, learning dance moves, taking pictures, and meeting their families. I took out a pencil at one point to write something for one of the little boys and all the children crowded around me, they all wanted my pencil, or something to write with, and didn’t own any. This took me by surprise and I am planning to go somewhere when I get back to Accra and buy a huge pack of them to keep in my bag to hand out to all the people that we meet.
We headed back to Accra after swimming some more and checking out of our hotel. We arrived and I was able to go for a run while it was still light before we all gathered to eat dinner together, whatever was in our refrigerator. It was an exhausting, glorious weekend, and I get to officially begin my work in the classroom tomorrow at New Horizons, and I am really eager to start.
All my love.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Monkey sunsets
I just had a phenomenal weekend; I really don’t know where to start. I will have to separate it into two blogs. Here is the first:
Friday morning, eight friends and I got up early, with the intention of going to visit the solo monkey sanctuary, a potentially forty minute drive. Two and a half hours later, after getting lost with our cab drivers down dirt roads leading into tiny villages and ending literally on the ocean, we found it, a lush oasis of rainforest on the beach. We met a man named Kwame, who was a friend of a friend of a girl with us, Olivia. It was a very distant connection, but Kwame embraced us like we were his own family. He walked us around the entire sanctuary, then through the neighboring village, where everyone knew him quite fondly. He was like the unofficial mayor of the town, and he took us to the local school, where we were invited into the principal’s house where we sat around with him and his wife, talking and sharing stories. Then they took us into the classrooms where the students loved playing with us, and the teachers requested to take a big group picture with us. It was such a magical afternoon. Then Kwame took us through the rest of the village and we met so many people. We got to watch fufu being ground in a giant pot by a group of old women and played soccer with all the children following us around. Kwame got us fresh oranges and sweet potatoes off of the street, handing them to all of us. His generosity was astounding. Suddenly, we found ourselves at a beautiful lagoon in a fishing village. There were the most beautiful, colorful boats, they looked like African gondolas. Kwame whispered to a friend and he disappeared for a moment before returning with a giant oar, and ushering us onto a small boat. He took us to an open beach, the most pristine white sand you’ve ever seen, with eight little palapas, and a small bar with fanta and coconuts. We were so hot from walking around all day, and stripped off our clothes and ran naked into the warm, buttery ocean. It was pure bliss.
After the salt water had saturated every part of us, an hour or so, we got back in the boat with Kwame and headed back to town, where we hiked back through the village and up above the town. The view was amazing, and as we looped around back to the sanctuary, we saw monkeys, out for their evening meal as the sun is setting. We returned to our started point with, get this, our cab drivers from that morning, still waiting. STILL WAITING! They were there for nine hours! It was hilarious. They drove us back, straight to our big group dinner. Needless to say we passed out that night, tired, but completely floored by how much we had seen, how much we had experienced.
Being here has really opened my eyes to a completely different way of life, and I have been astounded by the generosity of the people that I have met, especially this day. There are infinite ways to lead a happy life, and you don’t need much to do it. I have always felt so blessed with my home and my friends and my family, and I have this incredible sense of belonging here, that I have only ever felt at home. There is an amazing similarity within the culture here and the way that I am accustomed to, it is strangely familiar and different all at once.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
New Horizon
Hello All!
Quick update, I'm just running out the door to my first day at my internship with New Horizons, the special school for children and young adults with disabilities. I am going to be working out my schedule, and see when I can teach music! I am really looking forward to it.
This week has been really great, and I can really feel myself sinking into the culture more and more. We met the king, last friday which I told you about, and it really was like stepping back into the past. That afternoon, i bought a bike between me and two friends of mine so we can explore that way too, it has been a great way to get around, and my internship is perfect biking distance away.
Saturday, my friends and I were itching to get out of the neighborhood that we live in and wanted to see more of Accra. We ventured into `jamestown, an old colony of the British in the 19th century during the slave trade. It was a phenomenal experience. we just walked into these tiny villages of metal siding shacks, goats were running free, chickens, children were naked, taking bucket showers, eating jollaf rice wrapped in banana leaves...the smells, colors, were overwhelming, and I was really struck by how different this place is from home. I felt saturated, and exhilarated. We then climbed the Jamestown lighthouse and looked out over the entire city, and the ocean, at the shack towns along the coast, at the more affluent areas interspersed with churches and mosques peaking out over rooftops...We then ventured to the beaches, and were immediately surrounded by thirty young children, climbing all over us, asking our names, we played in the sand, sung songs, splashed around for hours. On our way home, we poked our heads into an old fort and ended up getting a full tour of Saint James fort, an old prison originaly built for slaves in the eighteen hundreds. There were some rooms that we walked in, and had to immediately exit, the feelings inside were so powerful and strong. You can tell that a lot happened there, a lot of unresolved tension was in the air. We were pretty quiet on the taxi ride home.
I found myself thinking of this day alot this week, as we get into the schedule of classes and everything going on.
Also, Sunday was a great day, even though `ghana lost the African cup. We went to the center of town in a huge group, dressed in appropriate colors of green red and yellow and watched the game with hundreds of local ghanaians on a huge jumbotron screen. We ate fan ice( yummy vanilla ice cream in plastic bags) and cheered like crazy americans that we are. As I went off to the side to find a trash can, these young ghanaians were painting flags on their arms, and asked if they could paint me. `of course i said `yes! but i got stars on my face, my chest, and the local TV station filmed it all. Everyone is so friendly here, they loved that i cared enough about ghana to do that. It was really sweet actually:)
NYU paid for everyone to join the gym here, which is actually the best gym in the country, it is beautiful, and my friends and I went to yoga last night. It was bizarre, that was something I thought I would not be doing on my study abroad experience. It was lovely.
Oh and guess what? I am very allergic to something here, for four days this weekend I broke out in a red, welty, full-body rash, and it would come out for a couple hours in the morning and at nighttime. hmm...i could not figure it out, especially because i have never been allergic to anything in my life. We actually traced it back to my Malarone, the anti-malaria medication that I am taking, and so i had a nice, few hour trip to the hospital for a consultation to get it changed, what an experience. the hospitals here are very different from at home, as you would expect. There were so many steps. reception to check in to the temperature room, to waiting room 5 where you are called to the consultation room where you then take your prescription to the office and wait for it to be filled. needless to say, i was there for a while, but i had a book and was armed with the key word here: Patience.:) Honestly, just seeing the way the system worked was really interesting, i just cant imagine going through it if i was feeling sick or anything, the wait would have felt a lot longer.
Time is going by so fast already, we are headed to Cape Coast this weekend to visit elmina castle and do the canopy walk at Kakum national park. It should be wonderful, past students have said that this is one of the best trips that we do.
Sending so much love to everyone, thank you so much for the lovely notes and well wishes!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Go Ghana!
Happy Thursday! Pictures are slowly going up on Facebook...enjoy!
GHANA JUST WON the game vs Nigeria! We are all sitting here crammed into our living room right now and just did a major victory dance. The city is going crazy, its almost like Obama night in New York...no exaggeration. Were on our way to the African Cup, I would suggest you start paying attention.
Had a wonderful week, went to Karaoke all night last Friday, very cultural experience indeed. After we went to the beach around 2 in the morning, and we jumped around in the waves, met a lot of local Ghanaians and rastas, and had a lovely evening. The nights are so gloriously warm here, it is so nice to be able to not have to think about any kind of sweater or anything to go out, it just make things less complicated. Jumping in the ocean is effortless, and expected, when you know youll be dry in minutes.
Went to the beach both weekend days, and on Saturday we went to a big Durbar orientation at the University of Ghana for special admission students. Basically, they fed us and we got to see a lot of cool dance and drumming performances, so no complaints here. What was really cool is we got to volunteer at Ghana’s solidarity concert for Haiti through a connection that our program director has. We got to personally meet all of the most famous musicians, dance groups and pop stars of Ghana, it was a fantastic night. We even got to meet the Ambassador of Haiti, which was incredibly humbling and an invaluable experience.
This week has started to feel much more real, and has been sinking into our systems. Literally. We had about 8 people in the hospital this weekend, everyone has diarrhea and other...issues. Nothing has been too serious, its just a crazy symptom of our bodies adjusting to new food and new bacteria in everything. I was actually sick ALL DAY yesterday, a 24 hour bug to the minute, and feel so good now, probably because i was feeling so persistently nauseous yesterday. As all of you know, being sick is NOT my thing, I don’t think I had thrown up in about 5 years before yesterday. Too much information? Sorry. But you might have to get used to it.
Besides yesterday, when I was sick and had to miss my African dance classL things have been going really well and I really like my classes. Guess what? This might not mean anything to some of you but for those who know our family shrub very well, in my African art history class, my teacher quoted SKIP COLE. I was like, um, “he is kind of like my uncle( because it would have been complicated to explain exactly)” and my little professor got SO excited. It was bizarre.
We are just getting ready to go to dinner now, and then I think we are going out tonight in celebration of the victory game. Oh, and tomorrow, a group of us is going to meet a King. Of Jamestown, a community on the coast of Accra. I know, a king! What century am I in? We have to dress very conservatively, greet from right to left, and absolutely under no circumstances cross our legs. It should be exciting.
As always I send my love to you all, please keep sending emails, posts, comments, I love hearing little pieces of your lives.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Classes and coconuts
Welcome to my second attempt at bloging! Or it is blogging? Oh no, I think the heat is going to my headJ you should feel extremely lucky that you have even anything to read, considering the entire country of Ghana had no internet for most of the day yesterday. It was wonderful to not be bothered by that at all.. except that it delayed my birthday wishes the the most glorious SOPHIA! Who turned a blissful 20 years old yesterday. Much love to her as she departs, I believe, from Peru today, and back to school. Safe flight my dear.
Everything is going great, I feel so comfortable here already. Me and my friend Molly are just blogging here at the academic center where there is actually internet, on our way back from meeting with the seamstress! I just put in two orders with her, from sketches that I made on a piece of paper earlier. It is so easy here, I told her exactly what I wanted, gave her three yards of fabric that I bought at Makola Market the other day, and my dresses will be ready by tomorrow or Monday. A lot of people have gotten clothes already, and they are just beautiful!
Some other highlights:
Reggae dancing on the beach again, every Wednesday! So that was really fun again. The warm air at nighttime is magic. We found a huge endangered sea turtle last time, and some guy asked us if we wanted him to kill it and then buy turtle meat from him. No thank you!
We’ve had a few of our classes this week, and I am having a great time, the professors are phenomenal, and really Ghanaian. Most of them have grown up here in Accra, and are great to talk to and ask about interesting things to do. We have so many field trips too in every class, which is exactly what we should be doing while we are here.
My volunteering has been finalized and I will be working at New Horizon school helping teachers and students in the classroom in the mornings when `I have afternoon classes on `Tuesday and Thursday, and then `I will be working at the Micro Finance and Open Heart `agency on Fridays, and maybe Monday as well. Then friends and `I will be going to the Touch a `life orphanage on `Saturdays to volunteer and spend time with children of refugee women.
Our program director, Christa, the Tyra equivalent, is so cool. She has this country in the palm of her hand. She helped organize events to support the relief effort in Haiti and we are invited to concerts this `Saturday and next Saturday nights, as “volunteers” where we get to see the biggest `hip life artists in the country and the rest of west Africa perform! `Rumor has it that Kofi Anan we also be there, but Christa has BBC, CNN, and all the media lined up to cover the concerts. I cant wait.
We found a wonderful new restaurant, called “Melting Moments” that, literally, almost everyone has eaten at everyday this week for lunch in between classes, and trips to the beachJ. Its fantastic, we cant say enough good things thta its turned into a big joke between everyone. it has everything that were missing, fresh salads, sandwiches, omelettes, and fantastic teas, cookies, iced coffee… stuff that’s harder to find. its my friends birthday today so we are going to lunch there AGAIN, and getting her one of their famous cakes from there I believe. All this said, don’t worry we are eating typical west African food every night at dinner, our meal plan is FANTASTIC, I cant say enough good things about the places that we are eating, and I will definitely make a point to coax everyone to branch out from this melting moments routine and try more local things! But it has been a wonderful adjustment place.
I have a lot of friends that we have gone out with a couple times that `ive met at `ashesi and `University of Ghana, weve going to the beach, they join us for lunch sometimes, its been really fun. There a guy who just came from Cameroon, telling us all about his trip, and a girl who just came from Botswana. It great getting multiple perspectives.
Hm…I have been feeling great, no more Malarone side effects! And I have not gotten malaria or typhoid yet, so im good. (Sorry mom, bad joke.) Ive actually been going on a morning run everyday before it gets too hot, and it is a wonderful way to get to know the local vendors and neighbors. I just do a couple big loops weaving in and out of the neighborhood that we are in, and school children chase me sometimes, run with me, laughing and asking my name. I wave to the man who sells fresh coconuts and the women at the barbershop with the fantastic signs. There are other students on the trip that do similar loops around the same time of day, and its fun running into them on the way.
I hope everything is great there, I hear SB is getting rained on in a major way, and probably most of California im assuming. Its most definitely not raining her, except we had one afternoon lightning storm and it was so dramatic!
Sorry about lack of pictures, I think that there is something wrong with my memory card now, but at least I have them on my computer for now. I will ask Christa about a local place that I can go maybe to get it fixed? (mom, well talk details)…um the thing missing from my life at the moment is a guitar! My fingers are getting antsy! but I just made a plan while I was sitting here in the course of typing this blog, with a girl doing the same thing next to me, and we are going to go to a cool music store near `makola market tomorrow and see what we can find.
All my love to you, again, happy birthday to the loveliest Sophia, and I will blog again as soon as I get the chance.
Elena
Monday, January 18, 2010
First Week
So sorry that it has taken me this long to say anything. Ghana is incredible. It is beautiful and overwhelming and HOT and welcoming and foreign and different, it is both everything and nothing that I was expecting. I feel so blessed to be here.
I can only say that this first week has been one of the most eye-opening experiences I have ever had. I am not usually very quiet, but we are all close to silent driving or walking around everywhere, soaking up everything around us...it's all been so wonderful and new. So many colors and fabrics and foods and people...I'm actually enjoying feeling out of my element at times.
After an airport mishap and lonely hotel room my first night in london, I arrived in Accra, late, late at night, but that first step off the plane and drinking in that warm humid air was magic. I arrived at the apartments we are staying in and collapsed on my bed, not even meeting my new roommates yet. The next week was completely full of meeting new people on the trip( who are fantastic, and from all over) in a million orientation activities. Our director is a beautiful woman who looks and asks like Tyra Banks. She has her stuff together. She dresses like an African Princess, with clothes made with the beautiful local fabrics tailored for her. We all secretly want to be her.
Orientation was exhausting, up at seven everyday, then a walk to the academic center for workshops on Twi, the local language, cultural assimilation meetings, sessions on health, safety, lectures by famous professors from the University of Ghana on religions of Ghana, the history of accra by the former mayor of the city and a whole city tour! We've had wonderful food, yummy fresh fruit juices and great dishes, chicken, yams, plantains, papayas, fufu!, fish, yummy stews of beans, onions, Red Red...Mmmmm. Restaurants take about 3 hours here, but everything here is more relaxed...We have danced our way around the city so far, there is a huge Reggae festival every Wednesday night on the beach, so we all went and ran in the ocean, and danced until we had a thick layer of bug spray, sand, sweat, the typical stickiness of our everydays. We have danced until 2 in the morning at least half the time we have been here, and its liberating, fantastic, and a perfect way to get to know other Ghanaians. They approach you and are so friendly, asking about you...I have made a lot of friends, both ghanaian and other international students, and its wonderful because i keep running into them around the city. Everyday feels more and more comfortable. We've had a fantastic African dance lesson the other day, and when you can shake your butt in front of other people like that, it cant help but put us in the right mindset.
What else? We spent all day at the beach yesterday, playing soccer with the locals, eating fresh fruit, swimming for hours in the warm ATLANTIC ocean. We had kids climbing all over us, it was so so wonderful.
I am going to be starting volunteering tomorrow with WISE, West African AIDS Foundation, and the Osu CHildrens home orphanage. I am taking an African Dance and Drumming Class at Ashesi University every Wednesday, with all Ghanaian students. I am also taking Human Right in Africa at the University of Ghana! I am taking Health and Society at NYU’s campus, about health care on a global scale, and also Topics in Non-Western Art, with a wonderful professor where we get to shadow Ghanaian artists, who we get to choose, and visit their studios and profile them, and create our own art with them as well. I am really looking forward to this week.
I am thinking of all of you, as I embark on this crazy adventure. Let me know about what you want to hear from me, there is so much going on, I am sure I have left out something important! Update ME on the wonderful things YOU are doing too. I will be better at posting I promise. ALL my love.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
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