Hello Everyone!
So, my first Ghana entry was pretty long and I realized that other than the main events of the other days I got out a lot of my feelings and things I wanted to say. It's been mid-term time here…remember, we are actually in school here!? We have also been losing an hour a sleep every other night (as we are moving further east and have to follow the time changes) AND I've been fighting off a bit of a cold…
…This is all me justifying not writing in my blog for the past few days J. Here's my blog for the rest of Ghana!
So, I signed up to do this three-day, two night home-stay thing with a local Ghanaian that has organized trips for SAS in the past. The itinerary for the three days said that we should meet at 9am, but two days before the trip we got an email saying to meet outside of the port at 7am. So, we all dragged ourselves out of bed after a long day of walking around and a night of going out in Tema and made our ways to the outside of the port. I already talked about the concept of African time so when no one had shown up at 7:30 we didn't find it to weird. By 8 though, we figured that the 7am in the email had been a typo and we were really meant to get there at 9am. None of us had phones or internet access, so we really just had to sit and wait. About 8 people got fed up and decided to leave and do their own thing for the next couple days…I thought they were making a mistake at the time…three days later I was sure they made a mistake. A good two hours later it was finally 9 am and we all started to pick our spirits back up and get excited. Then we remembered…Africa time, they will probably be here in another 30 minutes. So, after 2 and a half hours of waiting, a nice man named Emanuel showed up. When we informed him how long we had been waiting he apologized profusely and explained that it was what we suspected…a simple slip of the finger that caused him to lose a lot of business—I'm sure he'll be triple-checking his emails from now on.
The morning got off to a rough start, but the tone of the trip quickly changed for good. We got on our little bus and made our way from the coast 4 hours north to the V'lta region in the northeast of the country. I tried to catch up on sleep during this ride, but as we made our way farther and farther from the coast it became harder and harder to literally stay in my seat with all the bumps. It felt like a roller-coaster, and I was thanking my 9-day stretch of constant swaying that had built up my stomach, otherwise I would have had some issues. On the way we stopped for lunch at a place that reminded me of both Dominica and the Amazon. It had lots of green and was right on the water…very beautiful.
We finally arrived in the town of Amedzofe that afternoon. This town is one of the highest elevated towns in the whole region. As we arrived all I could think about was how crazy-different this place was and how uncomfortable I felt. I tried very hard in the first 10 minutes to embrace the fact that I am a foreigner and to try and get used to the place. I walked right up to a woman named Kate. She showed me her home and welcomed me to the town with a smile. She explained that her village doesn't get visitors often, then she pointed to the kids that were barricading towards us and said "See?" We played with the kids for a bit before settling in to our accommodations for the evening. I shared a room with three other girls and two other guys. Where we stayed was surprisingly nice, we had little foam mattresses and even running water, so I wasn't complaining. We put our stuff down and headed right to the center of town.
As we got to town the kids came running again. By the time we arrived to the "center" I believe I had somewhat adopted an adorable little boy named Nati…he would not let go of my hand no matter the situation. Hey, I wasn't complaining, he was adorable. (When I post pictures, he is the one in the green printed shirt and the yellow sunglasses we gave him to mess around with). The people of the village completely embraced us, this is where I got my first taste of true Ghanaian hospitality. As we walked down the dirt road towards the center everyone we passed waved with a smile and hello. When we got to the center and found a drum circle, the men quickly invited us to join in the drumming and dancing. It was a fun evening of complete cultural emersion. It's funny how certain things in our culture are so second nature, like if someone couldn't figure out how to shake my hand I would find it odd. Well, for them, they couldn't understand how I couldn't immediately play the African drum the way they expected me to. I just laughed, embraced my American-ness, and kept trying to learn. The dancing was interesting as well, but I'll talk more about that later.
After lots of dancing and hanging out, Emanuel beckoned us all to go have dinner. By then it was dark and without a flashlight, there was no light. So, needless to say, walking through barely paved pathways was an interesting experience. We got to the home of our host for the evening. These women are amazing, without any running water they made dinner for about 20 of us. We ate rice and chicken and sat around as bats and moths flew around us. At first I was very scared of the bats, how could I not be? Then, like everything else in this country, I just accepted it and tried my hardest to feel comfortable. After a nice dinner most everyone went off to bed but me and my roommates for the evening decided to see what little night-life Amedzofe had to offer. We went into a bar and had a few drinks with some locals. Life here is so different. The people working the bar were kids!!! Their mom occasionally came by to make sure they were doing a good job. We were literally shocked that 11 year old kids were giving us beers, but hey, I guess the mom got to relax for the evening so that's good!
Walking back to our residence for the evening was quite the experience. We had one flashlight for 6 people and had a 10 minute walk. We were all repeatedly saying to each other, "Wow, I'm so glad that my Mom doesn't know that I'm walking through West Africa at 12:30 at night with one flashlight and no phone." See Mom, aren't you glad I waited till now to tell you?? The truth is that Emanuel told us it was okay to do this before hand because this is a very safe village, so no worries, we were fine!!
The next morning we woke up at 6am for breakfast. Of course with "African time" that meant that we wouldn't actually eat breakfast until 6:30. Then, we made our way towards the outskirts of the town to hike mount GEMI. This is the highest elevation place in the whole V'lta region. As we made our way up I found myself at the end of the group constantly distracted by the amazing surrounding. All I saw was hills and the occasional cluster of homes making up a village. When we got to the top I just sat and stared out for a while...sometimes here on SAS, whether I'm on the ship or on top of Mount GEMI, I have these moments where I can't even believe just HOW far from home I am…literally and figuratively. It's an awesome experience being so far removed from everything and completely immersing myself in something newly important to me…sometimes I need a minute or two to just swallow that. We spent a lot of time on top of Mount GEMI and after taking some time to myself I took the opportunity to talk to Emanuel. I asked him all sorts of questions about his home. He told me that the health-care system is nearly 10 years old and that it's a good new system. He explained that you need to be registered, and if you are, you get free health care. I was even informed that in these rural villages, the Government will show up and help everyone to get registered. The problems are that once you are registered, you need to re-new it every year, and many people don't. Also, in the more rural areas of Ghana, the actual hospitals and medical care are completely un-reliable and inadequate. Emanuel also told me that HIV and AIDS are not at all taboo and that there are many organizations that go around to educate the youth about these things. The main issue in this country is the same as many other countries of it's type—there are so many uncivilized, rural areas that end up getting left out of equation.
After the mountain we left Amedzofe and headed to an area called HoaHoa. We got out of the bus to head to a restaurant for lunch. On our way into the restaurant we passed a primary school. The schools here are mainly outdoors with three walls per classroom and an open side. The children saw our group heading over and they all bolted out of the classrooms and towards us. I felt so bad for the teachers as they tried to get the class back in order. Of course we were all ecstatic to see the kids and hang out.
We got to the restaurant and all put in our orders. I ordered Friday plantain and rice…yummmm. After we ordered, I knew that with Africa time that meant that we had another hour or so till we ate, so I wondered around a bit. The first place I went was the kitchen. I stumbled on Florence the chef and her one college looking stove and oven. I was in disbelief, I asked her, are you really going to make all this food by yourself!? She answered No!...well that makes more sense, I mean there has to be more people and more equipment. Then she said my daughter will help me! And pointed to her 11-year old daughter. I hung out with her for a bit, still not believing that she was going to do all of this on her own. Sure enough an hour later 20 stomachs were filled with delicious food….seriously, I know I've said it once or twice before, but the women there are SO impressive.
At lunch we two girls from Vancouver that were traveling through Ghana on their own. They told us that they were trying to get to the same hike and waterfall as us so we invited them to join us for the ride. While we were hiking towards the waterfall I spent my time talking to these travelers. They told me that they had been there for three months already, just going around and seeing where each day takes them. I asked them if it had been scary for two girls to travel alone and they said that they have just had to use their instincts and be smart and for the most part they have felt totally safe. About an hour later I started to hear it…the rush of the water. I looked ahead and saw a beautiful waterfall amidst the vast green. A friend and I didn't waste any time as we tore off our shoes and clothes (don't worry, we had prepared and were wearing bathing suites) and ran into the water. It was cold at first, but it was also in all definitions of the word, refreshing. The water never got deeper than about waist-deep. I felt a deep feeling of relief and excitement as I felt the specs of water fall on top of me from above. Sometimes, the water would come in heavier and larger groups that would make my head feel an intense pressure (not as intense as that banana hat though). We frolicked around like the kids we'd been playing with in Amedzofe and reluctantly got out as we noticed the air starting to get colder and the sky starting to get darker.
We left the waterfall and headed towards our last destination for the trip—Tafi Atome—Emmanuel's HOME! As we got closer and closer to the town I noticed our guide getting more and more giddy. Finally when we got there after sunset he jumped out of his seat and screamed "WE'RE HOME!" The previous two days, Emmanuel had been very excited about his home land. He loved to share his experiences and knowledge and was always ready with an answer and a smile. All of a sudden he was no longer the "guide", he was a guy, only about a year older than me, that was SOOO happy to be home. Watching his transition in his face and attitude really warmed my heart. We got off the bus and were assigned to our home-stays. My friend Eshley and I decided to be the only group of two (most of the other groups were about 4 or 5), hoping that we'd get more one on one time with our host. We didn't realize that unfortunately we wouldn't be spending much time with our hosts, but the time we did spend was very nice. Our host was named Victoria. Victoria is 23 and has two children. We got to the room we were staying in and she informed us that it was her room usually but that she would stay in her mother's room for the night. We tried to insist that there was no need and that she could stay in her own room, but she wouldn't have any of it. She told us that we were the guests and she wanted us to stay there. We accepted graciously.
After putting our stuff down we got back to the town center and met up with Emmanuel. He was running around with friends and honestly it was almost difficult to get him to stop for a second to tell us what to do. It was totally understandable though, and watching him so happy with his family and friends made us happy. We walked for a bit and got to this room that had walls waist-high and then different tapestries as curtains to cover the rest of the room. There was food laid out on the table covered in mosquito nets. Emmanuel told us to eat up quickly because we had a LONG night ahead of us. We ate some rice, beans, and of course, plantain and headed back out. We got back to the town center and the people were waiting excitedly for us in a drum circle. We all sat down, in a town SO far from home…yet I was sitting with people who called this place their home. They performed a few songs for us and even had some dancers come into the circle and show us some of their African dances. They were truly amazing and so incredibly talented. I could see the sweat coming off of their skin as they continued to dance with more and more energy. In the last song, the dancers went around and invited a few of us to go dance with them. There were about four dancers in the circle, two male and two female. The first round of pulling in foreigners started and I sat nervously. The first male grabbed another girl…phew I'm off the hook…then I watched the second male grab another girl from my group…ohhh good now I'm really off the hook….I watched them try to dance and laughed and clapped along with everyone. Then the two girls from our group sat back down, and to my surprise (even though I shouldn't have been surprised), the dancers were headed back towards us to grab more partners. Sure enough, I saw it, the dark, sweaty hand extended towards me. I looked at that hand, then the face to go with it and saw a huge smile. I smiled back and grabbed his hand. If you know me well you may know that I danced for a long time growing up, so you may be thinking ohh she know's how to do that. Well, NO!!!! This type of dance was unlike anything I had ever seen. I walked into the center of the circle with one of the best dancers in the town, it was like being invited to play the cello with Yo-yo Ma. Sure, it sounds like an awesomely educational experience, but imagine getting there and knowing NOTHING about the cello. This was one of those situations though were nothing could be held back, so I went for it. I heard the laughs of my peers and the locals, the same laughs that I had contributed to just a few moments ago. At first, I felt embarrassed by the laughs but then I realized just how funny the situation really was. It wasn't funny only because I didn't know what I was doing, it was funny because there I was, a white girl from the east-coast of the US, trying to dance with a man that has probably only been on a computer a few times in his life and grew up without running water. I love adrenalin rushes, and this was one I will never forget.
We continued to dance and sing with the drummers and dancers and other locals for a while. When that part of the evening was over (around 10 pm), Emmanuel looks at all of us and goes the night is only beginning! TO the bar!!! I didn't even know there was a bar in this small un-developed village! As we walked down the main dirt road towards the bar all I could think was that if we ever had that little light on a street at home, people would be on the phone with BGE so quickly complaining about a black-out! But, it was just the way of life there, that many lights weren't necessary. We got to another room like the one we'd had dinner in…waist-high walls and a mainly outdoor feel. Emmanuel poured us drink after drink and told us to drink the "moonshine gin" that we were told during pre-port to never drink. We learned how to do a couple of local dances, like the "Azunto" dance. At around 12 a friend of mine, Adolfo, decided that he would teach all of our new local friends a new word and "way of life" if you may…SWAG! This was the best and worst decision. Why worst? Because for the rest of the night all of the locals were walking around screaming SWAGGGGGGGGGG, forcing us to say it, and then do the "swag dance" that they made up. Why the best idea? Because even though it got incredibly annoying, it was also HILARIOUS. There we were, in a town, 4 and a half hours from a city, in West Africa, with no running water, very limited electricity, drinking, and listening to Ghanaians yelling and bragging about their "swag".
After a long night we decided to retire to our home for the night. Walking back was an interesting experience. There we were, two girls in the dark trying to find our way back to a place we'd only been to once for a few minutes. When we finally found our way back, we were ready to pass out. We decided that it would be a good idea to lock the door…after fiddling around with the lock for a while, we realized that it can only lock from the outside. So, being the innovative people we are, we had a good laugh as we pushed a table in front of the door…we justified it by saying that if someone does come in, at least we'll wake up and hear them…what will we do after we wake up and hear them? That's when we laughed and shrugged.
The next morning we woke up bright and early at 6am. This village of Tafi-Atome is known for being a "monkey sanctuary". They live side by side with the monkeys, preserve them, and treat them very well. We went out with Immanuel with some bananas and soon enough I had a monkey on my arm, peeling a banana and running off with a fuller stomach.
After a morning of monkeys, we made our way to the primary school that Immanuel himself had gone to. He told us that the school was expecting us and very excited. I walked right into one of the classes with one other and found out that they were the third grade…I was super excited because back home at Temple Micah I teach the third grade!! The class spoke together and welcomed us. We then took the kids outside and started teaching each other childhood dances and songs. The kids were all so excited to learn from us. We sat down to play their version of the game "duck, duck, goose". We were sitting in field, but not that type of field that you usually see, this one was filled with dirt and rocks. The game started and the very first girl tagged me. Without even thinking I stepped out of my flimsy flip flops and onto the dirt ground with bare-feet…just like the kids that I was playing with. After a couple hours of playing games outside my feet were grosser than they've ever looked before. I also didn't have the same built in soles that the kids I was playing with had, so my feet were aching, but it felt good. I got all of the kids names and the town's address, so when I get back home, I plan on giving my class at Micah pen-pals in West Africa (if anyone from Micah is reading this, I hope you like this idea!). It was so familiar to be playing with a class, and when it came time to say good-bye to them, as usual with this country, I didn't want to leave. It had become such a pattern in this country to come into peoples' lives for a few minutes, and then leave forever. I hated this feeling, I thought back to my times in Israel where I volunteered with kids around the same age. After a month of working with them, I knew all their names, their family stories, their favorite games, and colors. I looked at the kids in Ghana and felt the same connection to them as any others, and yet I didn't even know their names…it's so hard with such limited time. This is why I want to go back, I want to know their names, their stories, and not just show up and leave.
We left the school so that the kids could get back to class and I met two very appropriate people for the way I was feeling—two guys from the Peace Corps that were stationed in Ghana. We had about an hour and a half in the town to walk around before we left to go back to Accra. I spent just about the whole time talking to these two guys. They told me how they came to decide to do the Peace Corps, what they'd been doing, and how they felt. One was from Philadelphia and the other from NYC. The one from Phili told me that he got to go back home for a week for a wedding. I asked him how it was and he raved about the running water and air conditioning. It was so funny to see someone just like me that got excited over something that seems like a guarantee to us. I could empathize after living for two days without these things we consider "basic necessities", but couldn't even imagine what I'd be saying after nearly two years without them. Now, try to imagine what it's like for those who have never had it.
After traveling with Immanuel for three days and two nights I really felt like I knew him. I didn't feel all that different from him, being the same age and all, and seeing how he acted in his home reminded me of myself. Just before leaving the town he excitedly rounded up a group of us to take us to his home that he grew up in. We walked next to him, ready to see the place that produced such a nice guy. The truth is, that even after days of being in Ghana and seeing the conditions, after getting to know a local as well as I had, I still imagine him sitting around the kitchen table with his family the way I do. We got to his home and all I saw was a tiny little structure and a straw looking roof. I know I shouldn't have been surprised after my experiences, but clearly my naiveté of humanity outside the US has not completely gone away yet. He took us inside and talked to us about growing up. The amazing thing, though, is that while the physical conditions of his life were so different from mine, I could tell that it had the same amount of love, happiness, and laughter.
We left Tafi-Atome and got on the bus for a bumpy ride back to the ship. It was so bitter-sweet leaving the village, for reasons I've already explained. We got back to Accra, hugged Immanuel, and got back onto our "first world" ship. My first shower honestly made me feel a bit guilty as I felt the strong pressure of the water, used my bar of soap, shampoo, and conditioner, and exited suddenly "clean".
The following morning I woke up for a "field program" where we went to visit the maternity clinic of a hospital in the small city of Tema. The conditions of the hospital did not surprise me to be honest. The resources were very limited. The beds were right next to each other with no privacy. The place also wasn't air-conditioned or entirely sanitary. The drugs were in plastic bins on the sides of the rooms with labels all over the bins. There were also instructions for different procedures and reminders written in pen on papers hung up all over the walls. We got into the labor room and I saw a woman laying there, in labor on the bed. She was very quiet, and the nurse that had been taking us around didn't even acknowledge her, we just saw her, waved, and moved on. About ten minutes later, we were standing in a different room, talking to the one doctor that was on-call for the day. The hospital was pretty quiet other than that and there was certainly nothing big going on. Then, all of a sudden, I heard the cries of a newborn. A moment later, I saw the women who had been in labor being pushed past us on a wheel-chair with a baby in hand. I actually could not believe it. I laughed at the difference between child-birth in the US, and child-birth in Ghana. At home, it's a HUGE production. Generally, each woman gets her own private room, her closest family members accompany her as he is plugged into machines and given ice-chips. Then, once the labor starts there is yelling, directing, encouraging words, more yelling, then finally a baby-cry. Here, it is just a simple part of life for these women. They don't get any sort of pain-killer, no monitors, no loved-one's in the room, and they don't complain, they just do it.
This is the general mentality I saw within the Ghanaian people. They don't focus on what they don't have (which according to us, is a lot), instead they focus on the things they do have, and love in their country. It's a beautiful thing that I think we should all try to do more and more in our lives.
Steph
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