Accra = BEST PLACE IN ALL GHANA

I don't even know where to start, but Accra is cool....prolly because it's like America and Ghana together. Also, Dela's parents have a nice house with a guard and a driver and guard dogs and air conditioning and hot water (shower for me tomorrow YES). And nice cars with air conditioning. And her sisters are so cool and friendly and outgoing and I adore them. Their names are Enyosam and Esinam. I think I spelled that right. Anyway, it's great here. There's food from all over, just like in America. Sushi and Italian and Indian and KFC! The KFC was soooo good. Not like in the states. Way better. That's what I had yesterday.

Last night we went to Bella Roma, this Italian bar and restaurant. We went to the fancy, upscale, bar/dance/club side and it was so fun! I met the owner who is an expat from Italy and he said his wife is from Maryland. Anyway, he gave us our drinks for free and even brought over an appetizer to welcome us. The place got crazy fun and they played great music and Dela, Esinam and I had a great time. Oh, and I ordered us chocolate lava cake and almost died from yummyness. They loved it as well.

Me, Esinam and Dela

Today I went back to Bella Roma for lunch because the menu was like, legit, amazing, straight from Italy - Italian food. Expensive, but who cares, I'M HUNGRY. I had a seafood pasta with tomato/wine/olive oil sauce. AMAZING. And a lobster tail. Oh, AND the most amazing incredible bruschetta of my life. Olive and tomato and stuff....nomnomnonmonmnonmonm. I nearly died of happiness and delight. My stomach was so overjoyed.

bruschetta

And then I got sushi for dinner, which I'm about to go eat. It's made by actual Japanese dudes too, so it has to be good.

Ghanian Traditional Wedding

SO, I went to a wedding today in Accra with Dela. It was a Ghanian Traditional Wedding, but it turns out it was the "engagement," not the wedding...I'll explain.

So first what happens here in Ghana is the guy proposes to the girl. When she says yes, he goes and asks her parent's permission. When they say okay, they start planning. The family of the girl gives the guys family a list, called an "engagement list" of stuff they want for their daughter....like the ring, a bible, money, cattle (depends on where the people are from, of course), and other things. Then they plan the engagement ceremony (which is what we went to) and then the guy's parents bring all the stuff for the girl's parents (neither bride nor groom are present for this part) and see if it is enough for the son to marry the daughter. Sometimes, it is not enough. The whole thing is a negotiation. Perhaps the family wants more money or something, that is to be negotiated at the ceremony. Everyone else sits outside and enjoys drinks and things while this goes on. Which is what we did. When the bargaining is done, the bride and groom come and then people eat and party. We stayed for a bit but not the whole time because it was a tad boring and it was hot and we were hungry.

THE COOLEST PART, though, was that the immediate ex-president of Ghana was AT the engagement ceremony. John Kufuor. This guy: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kufuor

Or, this guy:

 

Also, here is Dela and I at the wedding! The dress I am wearing is the one I had made here in Ghana.

Kumasi Photos

I took some pictures of the LC people and the visitors. Here they are!

Someone's weave. Not even joking.

LC house living room (unfurnished cause they just barely moved in)

men do laundry here! (sometimes)

LC People:

Kakum National Park

We went to Kakum National Park in Cape Coast last weekend! We did the canopy walk which was fun and crazy and SUPER HIGH UP in the air. This one dude in the group we were with was terrified. He made everybody back up on the first canopy thing and then he finally went. I laughed. Anyway, here's some pics!

La Casa #2

The mother has requested more pictures of the house, so here are some. I also plan to take my professional camera out into the village soon and take some pictures of the school, kids, and friendly villagers.

books for the library

my bed and my mess

our huge fridge.....for 8 people...

our "kitchen"...fyi, we have 7 spoons and one fork. there has yet to be an all-out brawl for the fork but I foresee it in the near future.

The yard and Queen Mother's yard

This is growing in our house. Like, IN our house.

The long road to work.

Trotro Tip #1

THIS is a Trotro!

Trotro tip #1: Never pick your nose in a Trotro, unless you want your finger to end up in your brain.

Not that I pick my nose in Trotros........but I feel I must share my important observations!

Not an AIESEC house.

Regarding this post: there are going to be a lot of AIESEC terms you might not get, but the message will probably get through anyway.

Our house, as I, as well as our one-night German visitor, have observed, is not an AIESEC house. The values are missing. Technically, it is, because we are all in AIESEC or are EPs (6/8 are in AIESEC). The thing is, people are not sharing stories and hanging out and spending time together and doing roll-call dances like AIESECers should be. It's quite disappointing. The 3 asian girls are very friendly and nice and I like them a lot, but they always just go hang out in their room and don't converse with us more than at breakfast or dinner. The guy from Japan barely talks to us at all. It's basically just Janelle and I. It's lame. We should all be hanging out and going on weekend trips together and playing games and all that, but we don't. David, the Ghanaian roommate tries to spread his friendship around, so that's good, but he is somewhat like the others as well. We should be getting a girl from Canada this weekend and maybe a girl from Brazil, so maybe that will help things, but I am not sure.

Either way, it's a bummer. At the AIESEC house in Kumasi we taught them the American roll-call we do at conferences, and they taught us 3 Ghana roll-calls (dances). We haven't done that at all in our house.

SO LAME.

Oh well.

Ghanaian Baseball

In Ghana they play baseball with a machete and a coconut.

Just kidding. I don't think they even know what baseball is. But I think I'm going to try out the machete/coconut idea. I will report on how it goes.

KAJUIYUIWYWURIWFHSF AHHHHG

How is the internet here SO BAD?! I can't even upload Cape Coast pictures or anything. I am so frustrated :( I'm trying, guys!

A message from your broke friend.... and Cape Coast!

Be warned...if you are someone I am giving a gift/souvenir to from Ghana...it's not going to be anything big or very exciting. Working in Ghana for 6 weeks, for free, means I have to spend all my money on food. And I am definitely not sacraficing my small travel budget to buy gifts, despite how much I love you guys. JUST SO YA KNOW. MMMKKK. And if I am not giving you one, I apologize in advance.

We are going to Cape Coast tomorrow. I'm excited, although I hope I like the lame hotel we are staying in. It's super cheap but there's no hot water or anything...and no pool...and NO A/C which means tons more mosquitoes... and I wanted to class it up a bit. But someone didn't want to spend the extra (cheap CHEAP for the awesome accomodations) money. Maybe when other EPs get here they will be willing and I can spend the last weekend in Cape Coast again haha. I think we are getting a Canadian girl and maybe a Brazilian girl next week.We shall see. But I am sure I'll end up MOSTLY liking it. We have to bring our own mosquito nets which is ridiculous. -_- Did I write about this already? I can't remember. But I'm sure the next post will be about the hotel being fairly cool and the amazing food people have told us about. Also we are going to try to meet up with a Cape Coast AIESECer named Francis - we want him to show us the nightlife...also I want to finagle a Cape Coast AIESEC shirt out of him. haha. I got one from the KNUST LC but it's HUGEEEEEEEEEEEEE. I dunno if I can even wear it lol. But maybe, since no matter what I am obsessed with AIESEC shirts. GOTTA CATCH EM ALL!

Oh also, the boyfriend and one or two other people mentioned how I am not in any of the pictures, so this weekend Janelle and I promise to go all-out tourist dorks and take lots of pictures of each other and pics together doing tourist crap. So soon, there will be better proof that I actually went to Africa and didn't just steal pictures from the internet. Haha.

MUCHO AMOR, AMIGOS!

Or, as they say in Twi, odo! (means love...though I don't have the symbols their language uses so it's typed phoenetically....did I spell that right? Blogger doesn't seem to have spell check!)

Adorable Essays and Teacher's Pets...and the phrase "Thank you." Oh, and a weird German guy.

Yeah, I definitely have a few favorite students in my class who are BOUND for university some day. They are generally the ones who always raise their hands, despite whether or not the answer is correct, they keep trying. They are Nicholas, Ofe, Jima, Augustine, and Prince. There is another girl who is opening up, I think her name is Rose...I think if she stops being shy she will do well, also. Ofe is the class prefect (HARRY POTTER REFERENCE WHAT) and helps me with things I might need or questions I have.

Anyway, last week the students had a writing assignment for homework and they were to write an essay called "My Favorite Teacher," and write about their favorite teacher and some of the visual qualities and personality and facts (where they come from, what they teach, etc). I was excited to read, while grading today, that some wrote about me. Ofe's essay was, not to my surprise, the best written. He said I am beautiful and I am a good teacher and I like kids. Some of the other students who wrote about me made me laugh. They wrote about my hair and how I'm white, and apparently my nose is pointy and I have small eyes. Oh and they assume I am about 5 feet tall, and that I like cats. And my cat's name is Jessie (many students copy each other so the cat/Jessie thing came up like 3 times or so). At least they have imaginations, eh?

Something else I keep meaning to blog about is how Ghanaians pretty much NEVER say "thank you." The Twi word for it is "Me dase" (pronounced may dah-say), though we are usually the ones to say it. Last night a few water girls came by and they often try to snatch our food, or just dig in to whatever they see. So a visiting German guy gave them some cookies...they didn't even look at him after, so I made them say thank you. Even when I told the school I was giving them this computer after I was done with it, they didn't say thank you. At first I was a bit miffed, but then I realized like, NOBODY says it. Which is a bit annoying to me, still, but I think I am getting used to it.

OH, one more thing. We had a German AIESECer doing some research for his university come stay with us last night. I have never in my life seen a guy (who is like, 6'4 as well) who was so terribly afraid of bugs. A giant praying mantis was on the cieling and he freaked out. Not to mention, he could not get over how rural/deplorable/limited our accomadations were and said he was probably not going to sleep at all and that the house is just crazy. I guess I really am pretty hardcore, because I was like "meh, it's not THAT bad, dude." Who ever thought I'd think that when someone is dissing my crappy/humble dirt house? Haha.

Corporal Punishment

So, here in Ghana, in pretty much all of our schools in Ofoase (as I have heard from the other interns) they use a form of corproral punishment. I hate this. Perhaps I should not mention this as maybe it will make people not want to help these schools, but I am here to blog about the realities of Ghana, not sugar coat it and make it all rainbows and lollipops (btw, I saw lollipops yesterday. WOO!)

Yesterday when I arrived for teaching (early, as always), I hung out in the office and planned the lesson until the bell rang to start class. By bell, I mean a hand one that the Headmaster literally rings himself. It;s actually sufficient, since this school is tiny and there are only 3 classrooms.

Anyway, I went to my classroom to begin English and another teacher (whose name constantly escapes me...) was still in there. All of the students were standing, as they often do when a teacher enters a room or any sort of formality is necessary. Then I noticed he was smacking a kid on the leg with what has appeared to be some sort of bamboo stick. There are, in fact, 8 of them under the bench on the floor near me (part of me would like to run off with them and throw them in a ditch somwhere, but perhaps the administration has their own stash). It looked quite painful, and I thought if he was doing that to me I would punch him in the mouth. I (wrongly) assumed that the kid had done something bad, as on my first day I was told that when kids act out they usually get a smack with the stick. This teacher, however, was smacking each and every kid in his class. They often recoil because of what is obviously pain, so he smacks them again.

To be quite frank, I want to smack this dude every time I see him now. In America, this is more than generally unacceptable behavior, especially when it's not your own kid. Obviously, we see someone spanking their kid in public every once and a while, but anything beyond that is abuse and not tolerated. If people heard their kids were being beaten with sticks in school, there would be outrage and it would immediately appear on HLN with the lovely and loud Nancy Grace.

Today I heard a bit more if it going on from my classroom in the other room and so I plugged my ears as I graded essays. But what can I do or say? My first day I was asked if I would do it, and I said aboslutely no, I will boot the kids out of class for 5 minutes instead (which I did today for two kids who wouldn't stop talking). I refuse to even have that evil stick of bamboo in my classroom when I am teaching. I'd really just like to yell at them and be like STOP DOING THAT, JERK...but I am not sure how appropriate that would really be.

The Value of a Dollar (or, I am a cheap-ass)

It’s kind of funny what a cheap-ass I have become in Ghana. The exchange rate here, depending on where you go, is 1.80 to 1.92…so whenever I buy something, I just divide it in half to get whatever it would be in American dollars so that it’s less confusing and so I know how much I’m spending.

So consider this: 5 GHC (Ghana Cedi) is $2.50, 20 GHC is $10, etc.

The average price of things is very low. I can get 30 bags of water for 1 GHC ($0.50). I can get 3 mangoes for $0.25, a dress made for $3.50, a cheaper version of a Ghana soccer/football jersey for $2.50, etc.

What is interesting about this is because everything is so cheap, I have become so cheap. Kind of like I did in China, except that here it’s even worse so my stinginess has become even worse. When someone wants 1 GHC for an apple, I give them an evil look. When they want 5 GHC for pretty much ANYTHING, I feel like they are ripping me off! This guy tried to make us pay 0.40 GHC for a short Trotro ride instead of the regular 0.30 GHC, and we got pissed. That’s a $0.05 difference, and I literally got mad about it. It’s so strange. The fact that someone is trying to rip me off for $0.05 is ludicrous!

I like to think this will carry back over to America when I get home and then maybe I can pay off that cursed credit card bill…but I imagine it will go back to normal pretty soon. I mean, where am I going to be able to get a dress made for $3.50?! :( I'm like a rich person here but in America I am just another college student. Although, I certainly eat more Ramen here than I do at home, so I guess there's a little college student in me still (I am pretty much forced to eat ramen as there is nothing else to eat. I will venture out today in search of a meat pie.)

Okay, I have to go teach 25 kids on how to save and name a document - all with one computer. I will try to post pictures of the school and students soon also. This connection is too slow.

The curious incident of the money in the night time.

Well, we went to Kumasi this weekend. What a crazy ride that was. There are soooooo many people and the markets are just insane. If we go to a market in Accra, which is bound to be the same but possibly more people, I will take my small camera and take pictures. It is definitely too risky to take my professional camera. Anyway, Janelle and I bought Ghana football [see: soccer] jerseys (the cheap version) and some awesome African fabric. I am going today (Monday) to the village tailor to attempt to explain the type of dress and/or skirt I want. I am still looking for some sort of awesome pink & green fabric, so hopefully I will find that soon. I was a bit disappointed that all the jewelry they were selling was like, cheap, crappy American jewelry. But the market is a popular place for the locals themselves to shop and I’m sure they are sick of their jewelry style  just like we are sick of some of ours. The coolest thing was that Janelle and I navigated the whole thing by ourselves without anyone from the house and sparse directions. Locals are so helpful here though, so it was fairly easy. We navigated around for like, 7 hours, all on our own. I think I’m pretty good at that from so much travel.

Anyway, we stayed at the LC house, which had a FLUSHING TOILET AND SHOWER. OH MY GODDDD. And working sinks so I could wash my hands!!! That was glorious. There were so many people staying there that I could barely count them. I think, including us, it was close to 15, but the house is fairly large so it wasn’t too bad. The girls and guys have their own bathrooms and then there is a 3^rd for everyone. Also, there were 3 pools nearby, but sadly we didn’t get to go swimming…it didn’t end up working out time wise, and by Sunday morning I just wanted to go “home” (to Ofoase).

“But why on earth would you want to leave a flushing toilet and real shower?!” you might ask. Drama, that’s why. In a nutshell; I went to the bank and took out 200 Cedi, which is basically $100…but that goes VERY far in Ghana and is a lot of money. I put some in my wallet and some in my backpack, then zip-tied the pocket where the money was. Later when we got back to the LC house, I cut open the zip-tie to reorganize and then put most of the money back. I did not zip-tie it (can you see where this is going?). Besides myself and Janelle, there were two other people in the room (both from Cote D’Ivoire). One was sleeping, and the other was a guy (didn’t pay much attention to who) getting something out of the cabinet. I remember thinking “he can see me doing this…should I zip-tie this? Nahhh this is the LC house.” Then I left the room. We went to a bar to watch the Germany/Portugal match in the EU cup, and when we came back we got ready to go out to PARTYYYYYY!

However, when I went to grab some money for our bus we had to take and club entrance fee, the money was gone. All of it. About 150GHC (Ghana Cedi)…I of course started to freak out, and Janelle and I went through all my bags at least 4 times, if not more. We took everything apart and searched and searched. I wanted to make sure it was gone before I said anything, but finally I had to tell Sam and Steven (my fav people there, definitely, and Samuel is the one who interviewed me for the internship). They were very upset about it as well, and mentioned calling the police, which I thought was kind of pointless. They gathered EVERYONE in the living room and then proceeded to say that they were calling the police who would be there soon and that they were going to go through EVERYONE’S stuff and if they didn’t find it we would all have to go to the police station. And then Steven also mentioned some African superstition about some voodoo thing where, if the person who stole it didn’t fess up, they would die the next morning (or something). Apparently they are quite superstitious. If I had stolen something, I would have been afraid.

At all of this, of course, I freaked out. The idea of everyone’s stuff being sifted through or going to a frickin’ Ghana police station or anything of the sort was not only pointless but invasive and completely unnecessary. At this I freaked out and demanded that they drop the whole thing, and that we just go out and have a good time and they can buy me a drink or two and worry about it in the morning.

We all left to go out, and the Ivoirians stayed behind because they were leaving early the next morning. The club was not the funnest thing I’ve ever been to, but it was okay. It was expensive and they almost didn’t let us in because we were wearing flip-flops with our dresses. And it’s not even like it was a posh club or anything. One guy was like “you should be wearing high-heels!” I gave him the middle finger in my head.

We got home at 5am (which was ridiculous), went to bed, and ended up waking up at like 7/730. Exhausted, we began to pack up so we could get out of there. I began to pack my backpack and low and behold, the money had returned. It was definitely not MY original money, because I know it wasn’t a solid 150GHC (I estimated) and I had a mix of bills. This was one type of bill and exactly 150GHC.

SO, at least there was light at the end of the tunnel, and now I don’t have to live off of $10 for a week!!! YAY.  Would I go back? Probably. Would I lock my stuff up like a high-security prison? You bet.

I will post a few pics of the KNUST LC later.

Picture time.

Everyone, EVERYONE carries stuff on their heads here. More pics of this later.

WTF

WTF IS THIS WEIRD MAGAZINE

Winnie reading "Stone Soup" to some kids

Joyce drawing a portrait of a kid

Yams and ingredients. Dunno what the yellow things are.

Books for the library the NGO is building

Queen Mother's yard/our yard. She lives next door and is the Momma of the village, basically.

Our backyard

Cute kid.

Kumasi

 We decided to go to Kumasi this weekend (June 8^th, I think, I never know the date anymore) to visit the LC. Their house is really cool, and huge. All the floors are…well, floors. No dirt floors or concrete slabs. They also appear to have enough utensils and kitchenware for everyone. AND AND AND!!! THEY HAVE REAL TOILETS AND SHOWERS AND RUNNING WATER. PRAISE THE LORD!!!!

We haven’t used the showers yet - we heard there isn’t much water pressure but I totally don’t care. Anyway, then Samuel (my TN manager who got me here) took us to this place where we had pizza (not very good, but still, American food). AND!! MORE EXCITING NEWS!!! There’s a pool there. Yes, you heard it right ladies and gentlemen. A pool. We are going to try to convince people to go with us there later/tonight. I’ve been so close to jumping into dirty rivers because I need to go swimming so badly. 

The internet cafe here at the KNUST campus (university) is what's allowing me to finally update all that I've been writing. YAY.

Tomorrow we are going to check out the city of Kumasi and then go out and check out the nightlife tomorrow night. I’m excited for that. Ghana has this weird palm alcohol that tastes like death but I want to try it anyway. Also, in Kumasi they totally don’t care if you show your knees, so my red dress should be fine. It comes just above my knees, and is the only nice dress I brought. It’s a little awkward cause in the cities they dress nicer and wear jeans, and here I am in my rural, school teacher clothes.

I will update with Kumasi pictures later. Though, who the heck knows when I will have this glorious internet again.

Next weekend, we are maybe going to a waterfall, monkey sanctuary, umbrella rock, and to Togo! But I am not sure yet because some people are not as reliable as I wish they were. 

Love to everyone!

Roomies.

Here's some pictures of our roommates. I haven't got everyone yet. Oh, and me with the water girls. The water girls are the adorable kids who bring us water to fill our giant can thing, so that we can do laundry and shower and such. They carry buckets FULL of water on their heads, quite far, to deliver it for us.

David

 

Kazou

Janelle

Me and the water girls. David took this picture and is obviously not a photographer!