Today is Monday May 26th and once again there is no school. I honestly could not tell you what holiday Ghana is celebrating today but it seems as though school is never in session for these kids. I am happy to report the chalkboards are complete! Well, all ten have been constructed. I have yet to buy the paint. Since there is no school today however I plan on going to town to do just that. I cannot wait to see the finished product.
The weekend went by quickly and the orientation was interesting. While we had great discussions and it was nice to spend time with volunteers who had actually been here for almost a year, I have come to the conclusion that I am a bit disappointed with my organization, ICYE. After a the weekend of pondering this however, I decided I can not do much about it now. I do think that it is entirely possible to come to Ghana to volunteer without an organization and without paying expensive fees to an international office and never fully understanding where my money has gone. While I absolutely will encourage others to volunteer, I would also encourage people to think about going on their own terms.
We arrived at the conference center around 8pm on Friday and we have nothing scheduled other than talking and meeting those we did not already know. All day Saturday we were doing activities and discussions about our projects, the kind of impact we think we had on our projects thus far or what we hope to accomplish before leaving. For those that have been here almost one year, we learned what they think they have actually accomplished and what they wish they had done differently. We had a fairly lengthy discussion on discipline in the schools and how every one of us hated the fact that the school authorities used nothing but physical punishment to “fix the problem.” The canning and the being forced to clean up garbage outside (during school hours) might provide a 5 minute solution but it does not solve anything. Yet when we were asked to come up with other ideas for discipline, things we have and have not tried, everything we came up seemed like it too would fail. Yelling at the kids does nothing, as I have found out, taking away breaks and P.E. also does not work because the teachers will not take their breaks to stay behind in the classroom with the kids. There is no detention teacher (I remember the few times I had detention in both middle school and high school, usually for talking too much, and that always worked on me) and everyone wants immediate results, like beating the children. No one wants to wait for change to happen and wait to see if a new form of discipline will actually work. The topic of discipline is just very difficult. Another interesting discussion was about our experiences in Ghana and what we plan to take back home with us. I still have almost 3 months so I choose to have this discussion with myself perhaps in July but it was interesting to listen to those that have been here much longer than I. Each of us are grateful for the experience and for whomever helped us actually get to Africa, that is one thing we all have in common.
Saturday evening I was hanging out with Eva, Sabine and Hannah, all from Germany. They arrived August 2007 and will be leaving in mid July. They had all graduated from secondary school then took a year off before going to a university to come to Africa. I admire what they have done. After just 3 months a part of me is missing home but they have been here for 10 months and they are just out of high school. To me, they are quite brave. I wish I had had the nerve or the courage to do something like that. Over our beers we discussed the positives and negatives of our organization, ICYE, and they gave me some pointers for my next 3 months. They also told me I am not a “typical American,” though I have no idea what they mean by this. Apparently, to Germans, Americans are selfish, arrogant and tightly wound. I found this fascinating. It is rare that a person gets to hear how they are perceived as a nation, from someone of another nationality. I am happy to report that I am Sabine’s first American friend and she is going to remember that not all Americans are not utterly selfish. At least I like to think that I’m not.
After our final thoughts on Sunday morning we headed back into town and I met up with Heather, Leanne, Tony and the driver Duko to go to another football match. Thankfully the rain held off for the game and we had a nice time, though the stadium was filled far beyond capacity. The match was Kumasi verses Accra, major rivalry. Of course I was waving a red and white Kumasi flag, though overall I didn’t really care who won. Still, it was exciting to see how crazy everyone gets during even the littlest foul. I am grateful that they do not sell alcohol at these games because I can only imagine how ugly things could get in an already over excited stadium, crammed FULL of people. Next weekend I will join my friends down to Cape Coast which should be a lot of fun.
I am going to head to town but will write more this week.
Today is Thursday May 29th and I have a cold. Not just a head cold but a whole body cold. How this happened I am not sure but I am missing the luxury of cuddling up on my couch in Seattle, in front of the fireplace and the tv, eating chicken noodle soup…oh well. Soon enough I suppose.
I find that that week has gone by both slowly and quickly but none the less, here we are with the week just about over. On Tuesday I went to work grading class 4 math homework. About half did pretty good and the other half I spent some extra time with this week and now just the entire class understands how to find the area of a square.
I also continued with my sex education class with the vocational school. This week the subject was puberty. While the girls, the boy did not join us this week, did comply an take notes I do not think they were as interested in puberty as they were with menstruation. This may be because they have mostly passed the puberty period and therefore do not really care that much. Next week I begin with sex health and how to protect yourself. When I mentioned bringing condoms to class and demonstrating how to use them correctly, I had the classes attention. What a shock.
The rain/wind storms hit hard the past two days, one completely waking me up at 4 am with me thinking my room would be torn into two, that or I would be hit by lightening. The bolts were so bright and the thunder so loud I swear the storm from right on top of us. Thankfully, my room did not leak too badly and I was able to go back to sleep.
This weekend I will be going to Cape Coast with my friends from the UK and the girls from Canada. It is Heather and Leanne’s last weekend here in Ghana and I plan on spending it with them. Sadly, I have already said goodbye to many friends during my 3 months and it is always a bit sad but then you meet new people and everything works itself out. I have met so many people from all over the world thus far and that is very exciting.
One last thing I want to share before posting this blog…I am going to attempt to write this in a most unbiased form. For a few weeks now an adolescent girl has been hanging out around Columbus (I am referring to the place Columbus, not the pastor, where I live). She clearly has some mental instabilities but seems harmless and sweet. From what I can see and have been told, mental illness is uncommon here and viewed as something no one wants to deal with. At first I saw her every few days but now it seems as though she is living here. I was told that she came from Tema (located near Accra) where her mother lives and was brought to Medoma (the town where I live) to be with her father. Now her father has disserted her and she therefore has become dependent on the church. On Tuesday, while I was teaching my lesson on puberty, I heard her singing, very loudly on the other side of the school wall. I stood on a chair to see her and asked nicely if she could sing more quietly or go sing for someone else since I am teaching. She then pointed at her leg and I saw that she was literally chained to the ground. There was a metal chain wrapped around her leg, with a lock and she had no room to move around. I immediately thought of a dog, a poorly treated dog, and was appalled. This girl is not an animal yet that is the way she was being treated. I was then informed by the vocational school girls that she was chained like this each day since last week and that one of the associate pastors decided to do this. Again, I was shocked. I tried to finish the lesson then went to speak with the girl. She stood there smiling and singing her heart out. Her favorite is Celine Dion and various American pop artists. I smiled at her and said she has a wonderful singing voice, which she does. After school I went to speak to Naomi about the chaining and then I was given the “rundown” on beliefs in Ghana. Naomi told me that Ghanaians believe in evil spirits, little ghosts, and in curses. If you are “not right in the head,” as they refer to mentally unstable people, you are first brought to a hospital to be checked out. If doctors can not determine what is wrong then the person is “diagnosed” as spiritually sick. The girl (who has been called Ellen) was brought to Columbus so the pastor (bishop, prophet) could pray for her and essentially ‘cure’ her. In order to do this the pastor (my host father) ordered her to follow a strict fasting schedule (not sure exactly what it is but something along the lines of 6am to 6pm without food each day) and is heavily prayed for my him and other members of the church. To prevent her from running off or getting in the way of others she is chained behind the school, in the shade however. With time she should defeat the curse or the spiritual evilness within her. Curses usually happen when someone (who already possesses bad spirits) you know is jealous of your accomplishments or of your success and sends evil thoughts and bad spirits into the person in which they wish to curse. From what Naomi tells me, Ellen has not always been “not right in the head” but we have no facts for sure. The fasting is to strengthen her spiritual soul. You eat for your body strength but eating too much weakens your spiritual soul. When you fast, your body uses fats to increase the strength of your spirit and you can better defend yourself against evil spirits. Naomi herself fasts twice a week to build up her spiritual soul. I was also told that it is late at night when the evil spirits are hardest at work and that is why people pray loudly late into the night (and wake me ). The fasting should strengthen Ellen’s soul and spirit and she will eventually be strong enough to defeat the curse, that and the constant prayers of course.
So…what am I suppose to say to that? This is clearly a belief that I know nothing about and find very hard to understand but who am I to tell the church they are wrong? I still believe that it is cruel to chain a human being…I’ll keep you up to date with Ellen’s recovery.
Today I continued working with class 4 and tomorrow I will wrap up puberty with the vocational school. Have a great weekend everyone!
keep checking my website with the pictures...I am always adding more.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
How's the weather in Seattle?
Another week…another blog. Are my blogs sounding repetitive or are you still interested?
Since I like to start where I left off…last Saturday night I stayed with friends Alison and Tony (from the UK). They are the ones who live in the house I have nicknamed “The Palace.” For the night I was transported back home. We sat on the fluffy couches, ate top roman chicken flavored soup, had ice cream for dessert and drank Wine! We also watched cable television of course. Doing that made me appreciate my room at the orphanage however. I know one would like it would make me appreciate going home to the states but for the time being, I am happy to not be living in a house that so closely resembles my house at home. I like my cold showers and the bugs (well I tolerate the cockroaches but what else is new) and I have grown somewhat fond of the Pentecostal church waking me up in the middle of the night with repetitions of “Jesus! Jesus!” I think I can only say I have grown fond of it because I will be leaving in less than three months. Yes I have actually less than three months remaining. I recently found out that school is actually out for break starting July 31st After this I am free to travel or go home early. In truth, I have done quite a bit of traveling so far and plan on doing more before August so I am not sure I will have much left to do once third term is complete. I do not have an exact date for my return though so I will keep everyone posted.
To continue: after spending the night at “The Palace” and sleeping in my own air conditioned room, we woke up bright and early to get started on our drive. Heather, Leanne (my Canadian friends here doing research for their nursing degrees), Tony and myself piled into one of the trucks belonging to Tony’s construction company (and our wonderful driver Duko of course) and drove the 3.5 hours north to Kintampo. From there we spent the rest of our morning at the Kintampo waterfalls. There are three falls in all but the only the third is worth spending anytime. We changed into swim suits and stood under the waterfall. Pictures to come soon.
From there we ate a roadside lunch of fried rice and chicken then continued on our way to the Buabeng-Fiema monkey sanctuary. The drive was unbelievably bumpy and I kept thanking god (or someone) that I was in a vehicle with working seatbelts. I am still baffled by the fact that the few tourist attractions located in Ghana are so very difficult to get to. The roads are unpaved and unsafe (with the speed people drive) and it is hard not to get discouraged and simply turn around. Since we had our fairly comfortable truck however, we made it to the sanctuary. In the few hours we spent there we came in close contact with quite a few monkeys. This was well worth the drive. From there we headed back to Kumasi. Just to paint a picture of the kind of road we are driving on: a combination of bumpy dirt road and terribly paved roads with potholes that look at those a crater fell from the sky, people are driving anywhere between 60 to 90 miles per hour and sometimes the road curves…oh and in the three hours up and three hours back home I think we saw at least three or four huge trucks completely turned over on its side or even on its roof. Thankfully we witnessed no actual crashes and no blood but passing these trucks on the road is quite nerve racking. For one thing, whatever type of cargo these trucks are carrying is usually piled on top of the truck as well as inside and therefore many of these semi’s become quite top heavy. Take that into consideration as well as the potholes, curves in the road, people constantly trying to overtake one another and lastly, the speed, it is a wonder I am still alive. However, I did arrive home in one piece, and just in time. Sunday night was another long and windy rain storm.
Monday came around and now it is Thursday (May 22). I can hardly believe it. I had a full week with class 4, attempting to teach them math. This week we are working on finding the perimeter of shapes and are still trying to master converting centimeters into meters and vice versa. It took four days but most of the kids were able to get at least 6 out of 8 on their math homework. When this happens, I feel like I am actually accomplishing something. Monday night I held the weekly movie night in my room. While I try to reserve Sunday night for this, I am not always back in time. On Monday the younger kids requested “Toys” meaning cartoons so we settled on “The Emperors New Groove.” My little buddy P.K. sat on my lap the whole time acting very cuddly. It will be so hard to leave him.
Tuesday was my first real sex ed class with the vocational school. I actually had 4 students too, what a break through. I decided not to count on more than 5 at any given time but then the ones who show up are the ones who will benefit right? The topic for this week is menstruation. My students consisted of 3 girls and one boy. I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate (for Ghana) to have the boy participate in the class but the teacher thought be should learn about health (as he should) so he remained. Because each of the students were in their teens, they have already had their first periods (alright, the three girls) but when I asked if they knew why they menstruated once a month, they had no response. The boy mentioned something about getting rid of the dirty blood so I went from there. I drew (as best I could) a diagram of a woman’s pelvic region and explained what happens in the ovaries, the fallopian tubes and the uterus. After the discussion, I asked the girls to tell me why a woman gets her period. Though they weren’t completely accurate, they began to understand the workings of ovulation, menstruation and pregnancy. I am really looking forward to continuing this class each week. Of course I had to control the laughter in the class when discussing male and female genitalia but then again I remember it being hard to keep a straight face in my sex health class in high school.
Today I took class 4 to P.E. (as I promised them I would if they worked hard on their math homework) but again was disappointed to see only the boys playing football/soccer. I tried to get the girls to play but most have little interest or are too scared to play with the boys. I have given up trying to play any other organized game at P.E. (which really should just be called recess), and usually our games of football are not very organized either. I wish I could offer these kids a real field to play on with four square lines and basketball hoops but I fear that will always be a dream, never a reality. After lunch I noticed there was no teacher in the KG1 classroom. The nursery school teacher informed me that she went home early because she felt sick. After much prying I learned that she had menstrual cramps and was excused. This made me very angry. I realize that things are done differently here but I don’t think cramps is reason enough to leave your kindergarten class unattended. I am sympathetic to her pain as I too suffer from cramps but I personally would have to be on the verge of fainting for me to leave the children I am responsible for. I then attempted to teach the class but wow, was that difficult. For one thing, these children speak very little English so after covering the ABC’s, counting, colors and reading a children’s book about the weather I had noting left for them. I had them sing me some songs but that only went so far. Soon they were fighting and hitting each other, I am shocked at how many slaps and punches I see between even the young kids. However, when your teachers beat you when you misbehave, it is really only a matter of time before the kids start taking their aggression out on each other. Not only aggression but boredom. After lunch many of the younger classes are told to “sleep.” While I am all for naps, it is rare that the kids will sleep for a full two hours, yet it seems as though the teachers have surrendered for the day and the children are on their own.
The chalkboards are currently in a standstill but I am told construction should resume this Saturday, just three boards remain unfinished, and then all that is left is the painting. I am keeping my fingers crossed that come Monday there will be 10 fully finished blackboards. Well school is over and I need to wash some clothes. I’ll write again before I actually post.
Friday morning: I just got back from Tafo (a nearby town) to again search for black paint. From what I can tell, black paint is not all that common and often people use the liquid chemicals in batteries to mix black paint. When I heard this I became alarmed. Clearly Ghanaians are unaware of how harmful battery juice is if it is absorbed in the skin. There is no way I am using that to paint the chalkboards in the school. I am pretty sure I am going to have to settle on a shade of dark green. I am just looking forward to seeing the finished product. I will take many pictures once they are finished.
Last night I worked with three of the kids in class 5 (that live at the orphanage), we were working on forming sentences using words about household items. Again this is what makes me happy, when I am able to work with just a few kids and really see the progress. I also played with the younger kids, tickling them mostly. I’m not sure what it is but every child here is over the top ticklish and I just love to hear them laugh.
Alright I am off to take class 5 to P.E. Maybe the class 5 girls will actually participate. Then this weekend I will be in Kumasi for the mid session orientation camp for my organization (ICYE). I am not really sure what we will be doing but all the volunteers still in Ghana will be there.
More updates next week.
-Erin
Since I like to start where I left off…last Saturday night I stayed with friends Alison and Tony (from the UK). They are the ones who live in the house I have nicknamed “The Palace.” For the night I was transported back home. We sat on the fluffy couches, ate top roman chicken flavored soup, had ice cream for dessert and drank Wine! We also watched cable television of course. Doing that made me appreciate my room at the orphanage however. I know one would like it would make me appreciate going home to the states but for the time being, I am happy to not be living in a house that so closely resembles my house at home. I like my cold showers and the bugs (well I tolerate the cockroaches but what else is new) and I have grown somewhat fond of the Pentecostal church waking me up in the middle of the night with repetitions of “Jesus! Jesus!” I think I can only say I have grown fond of it because I will be leaving in less than three months. Yes I have actually less than three months remaining. I recently found out that school is actually out for break starting July 31st After this I am free to travel or go home early. In truth, I have done quite a bit of traveling so far and plan on doing more before August so I am not sure I will have much left to do once third term is complete. I do not have an exact date for my return though so I will keep everyone posted.
To continue: after spending the night at “The Palace” and sleeping in my own air conditioned room, we woke up bright and early to get started on our drive. Heather, Leanne (my Canadian friends here doing research for their nursing degrees), Tony and myself piled into one of the trucks belonging to Tony’s construction company (and our wonderful driver Duko of course) and drove the 3.5 hours north to Kintampo. From there we spent the rest of our morning at the Kintampo waterfalls. There are three falls in all but the only the third is worth spending anytime. We changed into swim suits and stood under the waterfall. Pictures to come soon.
From there we ate a roadside lunch of fried rice and chicken then continued on our way to the Buabeng-Fiema monkey sanctuary. The drive was unbelievably bumpy and I kept thanking god (or someone) that I was in a vehicle with working seatbelts. I am still baffled by the fact that the few tourist attractions located in Ghana are so very difficult to get to. The roads are unpaved and unsafe (with the speed people drive) and it is hard not to get discouraged and simply turn around. Since we had our fairly comfortable truck however, we made it to the sanctuary. In the few hours we spent there we came in close contact with quite a few monkeys. This was well worth the drive. From there we headed back to Kumasi. Just to paint a picture of the kind of road we are driving on: a combination of bumpy dirt road and terribly paved roads with potholes that look at those a crater fell from the sky, people are driving anywhere between 60 to 90 miles per hour and sometimes the road curves…oh and in the three hours up and three hours back home I think we saw at least three or four huge trucks completely turned over on its side or even on its roof. Thankfully we witnessed no actual crashes and no blood but passing these trucks on the road is quite nerve racking. For one thing, whatever type of cargo these trucks are carrying is usually piled on top of the truck as well as inside and therefore many of these semi’s become quite top heavy. Take that into consideration as well as the potholes, curves in the road, people constantly trying to overtake one another and lastly, the speed, it is a wonder I am still alive. However, I did arrive home in one piece, and just in time. Sunday night was another long and windy rain storm.
Monday came around and now it is Thursday (May 22). I can hardly believe it. I had a full week with class 4, attempting to teach them math. This week we are working on finding the perimeter of shapes and are still trying to master converting centimeters into meters and vice versa. It took four days but most of the kids were able to get at least 6 out of 8 on their math homework. When this happens, I feel like I am actually accomplishing something. Monday night I held the weekly movie night in my room. While I try to reserve Sunday night for this, I am not always back in time. On Monday the younger kids requested “Toys” meaning cartoons so we settled on “The Emperors New Groove.” My little buddy P.K. sat on my lap the whole time acting very cuddly. It will be so hard to leave him.
Tuesday was my first real sex ed class with the vocational school. I actually had 4 students too, what a break through. I decided not to count on more than 5 at any given time but then the ones who show up are the ones who will benefit right? The topic for this week is menstruation. My students consisted of 3 girls and one boy. I wasn’t sure if it was appropriate (for Ghana) to have the boy participate in the class but the teacher thought be should learn about health (as he should) so he remained. Because each of the students were in their teens, they have already had their first periods (alright, the three girls) but when I asked if they knew why they menstruated once a month, they had no response. The boy mentioned something about getting rid of the dirty blood so I went from there. I drew (as best I could) a diagram of a woman’s pelvic region and explained what happens in the ovaries, the fallopian tubes and the uterus. After the discussion, I asked the girls to tell me why a woman gets her period. Though they weren’t completely accurate, they began to understand the workings of ovulation, menstruation and pregnancy. I am really looking forward to continuing this class each week. Of course I had to control the laughter in the class when discussing male and female genitalia but then again I remember it being hard to keep a straight face in my sex health class in high school.
Today I took class 4 to P.E. (as I promised them I would if they worked hard on their math homework) but again was disappointed to see only the boys playing football/soccer. I tried to get the girls to play but most have little interest or are too scared to play with the boys. I have given up trying to play any other organized game at P.E. (which really should just be called recess), and usually our games of football are not very organized either. I wish I could offer these kids a real field to play on with four square lines and basketball hoops but I fear that will always be a dream, never a reality. After lunch I noticed there was no teacher in the KG1 classroom. The nursery school teacher informed me that she went home early because she felt sick. After much prying I learned that she had menstrual cramps and was excused. This made me very angry. I realize that things are done differently here but I don’t think cramps is reason enough to leave your kindergarten class unattended. I am sympathetic to her pain as I too suffer from cramps but I personally would have to be on the verge of fainting for me to leave the children I am responsible for. I then attempted to teach the class but wow, was that difficult. For one thing, these children speak very little English so after covering the ABC’s, counting, colors and reading a children’s book about the weather I had noting left for them. I had them sing me some songs but that only went so far. Soon they were fighting and hitting each other, I am shocked at how many slaps and punches I see between even the young kids. However, when your teachers beat you when you misbehave, it is really only a matter of time before the kids start taking their aggression out on each other. Not only aggression but boredom. After lunch many of the younger classes are told to “sleep.” While I am all for naps, it is rare that the kids will sleep for a full two hours, yet it seems as though the teachers have surrendered for the day and the children are on their own.
The chalkboards are currently in a standstill but I am told construction should resume this Saturday, just three boards remain unfinished, and then all that is left is the painting. I am keeping my fingers crossed that come Monday there will be 10 fully finished blackboards. Well school is over and I need to wash some clothes. I’ll write again before I actually post.
Friday morning: I just got back from Tafo (a nearby town) to again search for black paint. From what I can tell, black paint is not all that common and often people use the liquid chemicals in batteries to mix black paint. When I heard this I became alarmed. Clearly Ghanaians are unaware of how harmful battery juice is if it is absorbed in the skin. There is no way I am using that to paint the chalkboards in the school. I am pretty sure I am going to have to settle on a shade of dark green. I am just looking forward to seeing the finished product. I will take many pictures once they are finished.
Last night I worked with three of the kids in class 5 (that live at the orphanage), we were working on forming sentences using words about household items. Again this is what makes me happy, when I am able to work with just a few kids and really see the progress. I also played with the younger kids, tickling them mostly. I’m not sure what it is but every child here is over the top ticklish and I just love to hear them laugh.
Alright I am off to take class 5 to P.E. Maybe the class 5 girls will actually participate. Then this weekend I will be in Kumasi for the mid session orientation camp for my organization (ICYE). I am not really sure what we will be doing but all the volunteers still in Ghana will be there.
More updates next week.
-Erin
Saturday, May 17, 2008
It's a long one...
Wednesday May 14, 2008: School is about to start but I wanted to begin typing this weeks blog because it seems as though I have a lot to write. Finally the school attendance is almost back to normal and I am so happy to see all the kids. I am still trying to work out my schedule for this term because, as usual, there is so much I want to do and so many classes I want to work with. But first I am going to go back to this past weekend.
On Friday night I went to the hotel of my friends from Canada. Heather and Leann are staying in a hotel for 3 months while they are completing their research for their nursing school masters program at the university of Alberta. Both are interested in birth and delivery and midwifery and they have told me about their findings. Heather is studying pregnancy and birthing within a community in Ghana while Leann is studying from within the teaching hospital. This hospital is supposed to be one of the best in the country but from what she has told me, I pray to do not get sick during my last three months here because it sounds as though the conditions at the hospital will only make me worse. Patients are placed on mats on the floor and are not given even remotely the care they should be given, especially while in labor. I watched Leann break down in tears when she was telling me about the number of babies that have died before being born or just after she has witnessed in the 6 weeks she has been in Ghana. The high infant mortality rate is more often than not due to the negligence of the hospital staff. How terribly sad. And from what Heather tells me, I would prefer to have my child with a midwife in the community because she has witnessed far fewer infant deaths, stillborn births or death of the birthing mother. One rather morbid cultural difference is that in Ghana if a woman dies while giving birth it means she was unfaithful to her husband and God is punishing her. Just before the baby is born, within the village/community, the nurse or midwife asks the woman if she has anything to confess and if she neglects to do so and then dies it is because she did not confess to her adulterous sins. Another thing I find quite disturbing is that women are not allowed to grieve if their first child dies. Because children under the age of 5 die so often here, and in many developing nations, a woman is not allowed to grieve when her first child dies, but once the second or third child passes away then they can mourn. And another thing, when a child is stillborn or dies within the first 8 days of being born, they are not given a funeral but simply placed in a shoebox and are disposed of. Apparently a baby is not a person until they are 8 days old. The things Heather and Leann are learning are both fascinating and horrifying.
To continue: on Friday night the three of us made fufu and chicken stew. Yes it is possible to make fufu without the actual pounding stick, you can buy fufu flour at the store and mix it on the stove. We also used a blender to mix the veggies, how very un-Ghanaian of us. Still, it was a good dinner. That night we met up with other friends and attempted to go out to a bar. Nightlife here is very different than nightlife back home. For one thing bars and clubs do not get remotely crowded or in full swing until after midnight and some people stay up until 4 or 5 in the morning. Not me. By 2 I am tired and it is well past my bed time. Then on Saturday morning I woke up at Heather and Leann’s hotel and we made breakfast! They had found some instant bisquick batter and we made pancakes and eggs. It did not taste exactly like home but it was nice to have something other than oatmeal. I returned to the school on Saturday to see how the chalkboard building process was going. The workers seemed to have gone home early for the day but three more boards were finished. Overall they look good and are now just in need of paint. While I am glad I could help to make the school function better, I was unaware of all the extra costs such as paying the men for the labor. This means I can not continue buying posters for the classrooms and colored chalk because now is the time to really watch my finances. I did good on Sunday however and I was able to have a great day without spending much. Before heading into town and to the swimming pool I made a peanut butter (or rather ground nut butter) and jelly sandwich to save money on lunch. I was at the hotel swimming pool with a few friends from 10 to 2 pm and then I headed to the football (soccer) stadium. I had met a new friend named Tony a week earlier, he is from the UK and is here for the summer working construction for a water treatment company. He is living with another girl from the UK whom I met while at the national park. The two of them are living extremely luxuriously while here in Africa. They have drivers to take them wherever they want to go (and now their new friends, me) and a beautiful 5 bedroom house for the two of them complete with huge kitchen, washing machine and big screen tv WITH cable. We spent Sunday evening watching tv and enjoying a beer and drying off. Earlier while at the game we experienced Ghana’s rainy season like never before. Before the game started the sky was blue and it was quite HOT but by the first ten minutes of the game dark clouds rolled in and I was worried. First off there was NO shelter and all of us has cell phones and cameras. We crammed them all under our one umbrella just before the rain came pouring down in buckets, literally. We were instantly soaked through the bone and I was feeling cold. Everywhere around us people were yelling and having a great time, it was quite the experience. The second half was called off but I was not disappointed one bit. What better place to go than Tony and Alison’s palace of a house? I plan on spending many of my weekends there.
So Monday came and school started. To my surprise, most of the kids had actually showed up. While school is important in Ghana, daily attendance is not. Even though teachers expect attendance to be low I still witnessed many kids being caned because they missed the first week of classes. One thing I have noticed: the child is always to blame. If the parents requested the child stay home or if the family wanted to travel (not that that happens too often) or if the guardians do not have the money for the printing fee, the child gets beaten. How is that in anyway fair?
On Monday I dealt with some issues in building the chalkboards, I did not want the building to interfere with the children’s education and had to tell the workers they must wait until the weekend to continue. It seemed as though the nursery school class was completely out of control so I attempted to get them to quite down by singing songs. We began with “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” but the teacher soon took over and I heard the kids singing songs about Jesus. There were no vocational school girls at school so I headed to Kumasi early to bid farewell to Emily. For those who need clarification as to who she is, Emily is the other American volunteer from my organization. She and I grew close over the phone starting in October and had planned to first go to Kenya together and then decided on Ghana a month later. Due to the late start of our volunteer work, she is only able to be here for 3 months and is returning home this week. I will miss her a lot but hopefully we will see one another soon since we do in fact live in the same country.
Since I got home later than planned on Sunday I had movie night with the kids on Monday night. This time we watched “Save the Last Dance,” a movie about dancing. I guess the older kids had grown tired of Disney movies.
Yesterday (Tuesday) the workers had completely dismissed what I had told them earlier and continued building. After some rather harsh words, they understood and will wait until Saturday. I began with class 4 and we did math, or converting centimeters to meters and millimeters to be exact. I had to correct the teacher a few times so clearly it is difficult to teach the kids but about half of them got their homework correct so they are making progress. It is so hard to teach the kids without text books. If I did not have my own math book when I was in grade school to take home and complete my homework each night, I would have been hopeless. This school needs so many supplies, I hardly know where to begin.
After break I decide to begin working with the vocational school girls. Apparently there are 16 girls enrolled in the class but I have never once seen more then ten girls at a time. Yesterday there were 3. Oh well, I decided those three will benefit from being in school on time. I began my sex ed course with the question “What is sex?” I said there is no right or wrong answer but I wanted them to write down whatever they think of when I say the word sex. One girl, 16, answered “when a man and a women come together, in a bed.” That is on the right track. I then brought up several different ideas that come to me when I think of the word sex. The girls seemed both attentive and interested so I have high hopes for this course. From there I bulleted the main topics I wanted to discuss over the next 5 weeks or so. So far I have menstruation, puberty, sex health such as methods to protect yourself, STD’s and infections, abortion, sexual abuse, rape and finally some nutrition. For homework I told the girls to think of anything else they would like to discuss and to tell their friends to make it to class next week. Clearly I have a lot of research to do. I know what I learned in middle and high school health classes and that was a while ago. While I plan on looking online more this week, if anyone has some keys facts about these topics, please email me. Thank you. Well that’s enough for today. More before I publish this post this weekend.
Thursday May 15, 2008. The school day is over and I am once again rolling my eyes as myself because I must learn to control my impatience. I find myself writing a checklist each day of all the things I want to “fix” at this school but then I get overwhelmed, have no idea where to start begin thinking pessimistically telling myself “well nothing is going to change anyway so why bother?” I know this is a terrible attitude but it is just so heartbreaking to see the lack of necessary materials and resources needed to accurately teach these children. After grading the math homework of class 4 yesterday I wrote down the names of the 4 children that got the lowest scoring grades then today I took those 4 children out of class and began from square one. How can these kids do long division is they can not subtract? The four kids, Paul Owasu, Kwame Agyr, Bonsu Opoku and Elizabeth needed to break down the problems step by step to understand that you can not subtract 5 from 2 and therefore you must borrow from the number to the left. This concept is quite difficult for them and even though I find myself easily frustrated I remember that I too had serious difficulty learning math. I however had access to tutors, math books, chairs and desks meant for a child my age (not desks meant for kindergartners), and people who actually KNEW how to go slow and teach me. After 45 minutes 3 of the 4 were able to answer problems on their own but Elizabeth was having major trouble. I dismissed the other 3 and I worked for another half hour with her. This time I had her begin with a simple addition problem. After a while of making her understand the difference between addition and subtraction we began the long process of her adding simple number such as 9 and 3. Starting from 9 and adding three on her hands also proved to be quite difficult for her. I took out a plastic bag with many bottle caps (something Catherine had put together and left for me before returning to England) and used them as props to add and subtract. I decided for next week I will buy a bunch of hard candy and use it for props, perhaps that will help. After lunch I did a lesson about colors for KG 1. Overall they did very well and knew just about all of their colors. I think I need to give myself balance between the older classes and the younger classes. Tomorrow I plan on teaching a lesson on prepositions to class 4, we’ll see how that goes, and continue math with Elizabeth and a few others who need extra help. Then this weekend I am going to look into the price for blackboard paint and attempt to paint the boards myself to avoid more labor costs. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Just another quick thing before posting this. It is now Saturday and I have yet to buy more paint. It turns out that the men building the boards did not estimate correctly because there are several bags of concrete leftover. They are not finished with all of the chalkboards but they defiantly do not need 12 bags to do so. Therefore I am waiting to buy paint until I see if I can return the leftover concrete. Yesterday was nice and somewhat relaxing. We were due for a rainstorm since it had not rained since Tuesday. The storm prevented me from getting into town to use the internet and check on paint prices but I was able to almost finish my tenth book, A Thousand Splendid Suns. If any of you have not yet read both this book and The Kite Runner: Get On It! They are absolutely incredible and terribly sad. I now have just two books left for my next three months so that could be a problem. In addition to reading all night I put to use the multiplication flash cards mom sent to me in Ghana at the request of the kids. No where else will kids be asking to “learn” on a Friday night. This gives me great pleasure and helps me realize the impact I am having since I feel utterly useless while in school. More on that later though. Ok well I am off to meet the Canadian girls and my new friends from the UK. We are going to make dinner in their fancy kitchen and watch movies. Have a great weekend.
-Erin
and last but not least...I have some photos up online. I am only up to my weekend at Cape Coast over Easter and I am not near done yet) but check these out in the mean time: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26395483@N06/?saved=1
just plug in the above website and start from the beginning!
On Friday night I went to the hotel of my friends from Canada. Heather and Leann are staying in a hotel for 3 months while they are completing their research for their nursing school masters program at the university of Alberta. Both are interested in birth and delivery and midwifery and they have told me about their findings. Heather is studying pregnancy and birthing within a community in Ghana while Leann is studying from within the teaching hospital. This hospital is supposed to be one of the best in the country but from what she has told me, I pray to do not get sick during my last three months here because it sounds as though the conditions at the hospital will only make me worse. Patients are placed on mats on the floor and are not given even remotely the care they should be given, especially while in labor. I watched Leann break down in tears when she was telling me about the number of babies that have died before being born or just after she has witnessed in the 6 weeks she has been in Ghana. The high infant mortality rate is more often than not due to the negligence of the hospital staff. How terribly sad. And from what Heather tells me, I would prefer to have my child with a midwife in the community because she has witnessed far fewer infant deaths, stillborn births or death of the birthing mother. One rather morbid cultural difference is that in Ghana if a woman dies while giving birth it means she was unfaithful to her husband and God is punishing her. Just before the baby is born, within the village/community, the nurse or midwife asks the woman if she has anything to confess and if she neglects to do so and then dies it is because she did not confess to her adulterous sins. Another thing I find quite disturbing is that women are not allowed to grieve if their first child dies. Because children under the age of 5 die so often here, and in many developing nations, a woman is not allowed to grieve when her first child dies, but once the second or third child passes away then they can mourn. And another thing, when a child is stillborn or dies within the first 8 days of being born, they are not given a funeral but simply placed in a shoebox and are disposed of. Apparently a baby is not a person until they are 8 days old. The things Heather and Leann are learning are both fascinating and horrifying.
To continue: on Friday night the three of us made fufu and chicken stew. Yes it is possible to make fufu without the actual pounding stick, you can buy fufu flour at the store and mix it on the stove. We also used a blender to mix the veggies, how very un-Ghanaian of us. Still, it was a good dinner. That night we met up with other friends and attempted to go out to a bar. Nightlife here is very different than nightlife back home. For one thing bars and clubs do not get remotely crowded or in full swing until after midnight and some people stay up until 4 or 5 in the morning. Not me. By 2 I am tired and it is well past my bed time. Then on Saturday morning I woke up at Heather and Leann’s hotel and we made breakfast! They had found some instant bisquick batter and we made pancakes and eggs. It did not taste exactly like home but it was nice to have something other than oatmeal. I returned to the school on Saturday to see how the chalkboard building process was going. The workers seemed to have gone home early for the day but three more boards were finished. Overall they look good and are now just in need of paint. While I am glad I could help to make the school function better, I was unaware of all the extra costs such as paying the men for the labor. This means I can not continue buying posters for the classrooms and colored chalk because now is the time to really watch my finances. I did good on Sunday however and I was able to have a great day without spending much. Before heading into town and to the swimming pool I made a peanut butter (or rather ground nut butter) and jelly sandwich to save money on lunch. I was at the hotel swimming pool with a few friends from 10 to 2 pm and then I headed to the football (soccer) stadium. I had met a new friend named Tony a week earlier, he is from the UK and is here for the summer working construction for a water treatment company. He is living with another girl from the UK whom I met while at the national park. The two of them are living extremely luxuriously while here in Africa. They have drivers to take them wherever they want to go (and now their new friends, me) and a beautiful 5 bedroom house for the two of them complete with huge kitchen, washing machine and big screen tv WITH cable. We spent Sunday evening watching tv and enjoying a beer and drying off. Earlier while at the game we experienced Ghana’s rainy season like never before. Before the game started the sky was blue and it was quite HOT but by the first ten minutes of the game dark clouds rolled in and I was worried. First off there was NO shelter and all of us has cell phones and cameras. We crammed them all under our one umbrella just before the rain came pouring down in buckets, literally. We were instantly soaked through the bone and I was feeling cold. Everywhere around us people were yelling and having a great time, it was quite the experience. The second half was called off but I was not disappointed one bit. What better place to go than Tony and Alison’s palace of a house? I plan on spending many of my weekends there.
So Monday came and school started. To my surprise, most of the kids had actually showed up. While school is important in Ghana, daily attendance is not. Even though teachers expect attendance to be low I still witnessed many kids being caned because they missed the first week of classes. One thing I have noticed: the child is always to blame. If the parents requested the child stay home or if the family wanted to travel (not that that happens too often) or if the guardians do not have the money for the printing fee, the child gets beaten. How is that in anyway fair?
On Monday I dealt with some issues in building the chalkboards, I did not want the building to interfere with the children’s education and had to tell the workers they must wait until the weekend to continue. It seemed as though the nursery school class was completely out of control so I attempted to get them to quite down by singing songs. We began with “Head, shoulders, knees and toes” but the teacher soon took over and I heard the kids singing songs about Jesus. There were no vocational school girls at school so I headed to Kumasi early to bid farewell to Emily. For those who need clarification as to who she is, Emily is the other American volunteer from my organization. She and I grew close over the phone starting in October and had planned to first go to Kenya together and then decided on Ghana a month later. Due to the late start of our volunteer work, she is only able to be here for 3 months and is returning home this week. I will miss her a lot but hopefully we will see one another soon since we do in fact live in the same country.
Since I got home later than planned on Sunday I had movie night with the kids on Monday night. This time we watched “Save the Last Dance,” a movie about dancing. I guess the older kids had grown tired of Disney movies.
Yesterday (Tuesday) the workers had completely dismissed what I had told them earlier and continued building. After some rather harsh words, they understood and will wait until Saturday. I began with class 4 and we did math, or converting centimeters to meters and millimeters to be exact. I had to correct the teacher a few times so clearly it is difficult to teach the kids but about half of them got their homework correct so they are making progress. It is so hard to teach the kids without text books. If I did not have my own math book when I was in grade school to take home and complete my homework each night, I would have been hopeless. This school needs so many supplies, I hardly know where to begin.
After break I decide to begin working with the vocational school girls. Apparently there are 16 girls enrolled in the class but I have never once seen more then ten girls at a time. Yesterday there were 3. Oh well, I decided those three will benefit from being in school on time. I began my sex ed course with the question “What is sex?” I said there is no right or wrong answer but I wanted them to write down whatever they think of when I say the word sex. One girl, 16, answered “when a man and a women come together, in a bed.” That is on the right track. I then brought up several different ideas that come to me when I think of the word sex. The girls seemed both attentive and interested so I have high hopes for this course. From there I bulleted the main topics I wanted to discuss over the next 5 weeks or so. So far I have menstruation, puberty, sex health such as methods to protect yourself, STD’s and infections, abortion, sexual abuse, rape and finally some nutrition. For homework I told the girls to think of anything else they would like to discuss and to tell their friends to make it to class next week. Clearly I have a lot of research to do. I know what I learned in middle and high school health classes and that was a while ago. While I plan on looking online more this week, if anyone has some keys facts about these topics, please email me. Thank you. Well that’s enough for today. More before I publish this post this weekend.
Thursday May 15, 2008. The school day is over and I am once again rolling my eyes as myself because I must learn to control my impatience. I find myself writing a checklist each day of all the things I want to “fix” at this school but then I get overwhelmed, have no idea where to start begin thinking pessimistically telling myself “well nothing is going to change anyway so why bother?” I know this is a terrible attitude but it is just so heartbreaking to see the lack of necessary materials and resources needed to accurately teach these children. After grading the math homework of class 4 yesterday I wrote down the names of the 4 children that got the lowest scoring grades then today I took those 4 children out of class and began from square one. How can these kids do long division is they can not subtract? The four kids, Paul Owasu, Kwame Agyr, Bonsu Opoku and Elizabeth needed to break down the problems step by step to understand that you can not subtract 5 from 2 and therefore you must borrow from the number to the left. This concept is quite difficult for them and even though I find myself easily frustrated I remember that I too had serious difficulty learning math. I however had access to tutors, math books, chairs and desks meant for a child my age (not desks meant for kindergartners), and people who actually KNEW how to go slow and teach me. After 45 minutes 3 of the 4 were able to answer problems on their own but Elizabeth was having major trouble. I dismissed the other 3 and I worked for another half hour with her. This time I had her begin with a simple addition problem. After a while of making her understand the difference between addition and subtraction we began the long process of her adding simple number such as 9 and 3. Starting from 9 and adding three on her hands also proved to be quite difficult for her. I took out a plastic bag with many bottle caps (something Catherine had put together and left for me before returning to England) and used them as props to add and subtract. I decided for next week I will buy a bunch of hard candy and use it for props, perhaps that will help. After lunch I did a lesson about colors for KG 1. Overall they did very well and knew just about all of their colors. I think I need to give myself balance between the older classes and the younger classes. Tomorrow I plan on teaching a lesson on prepositions to class 4, we’ll see how that goes, and continue math with Elizabeth and a few others who need extra help. Then this weekend I am going to look into the price for blackboard paint and attempt to paint the boards myself to avoid more labor costs. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Just another quick thing before posting this. It is now Saturday and I have yet to buy more paint. It turns out that the men building the boards did not estimate correctly because there are several bags of concrete leftover. They are not finished with all of the chalkboards but they defiantly do not need 12 bags to do so. Therefore I am waiting to buy paint until I see if I can return the leftover concrete. Yesterday was nice and somewhat relaxing. We were due for a rainstorm since it had not rained since Tuesday. The storm prevented me from getting into town to use the internet and check on paint prices but I was able to almost finish my tenth book, A Thousand Splendid Suns. If any of you have not yet read both this book and The Kite Runner: Get On It! They are absolutely incredible and terribly sad. I now have just two books left for my next three months so that could be a problem. In addition to reading all night I put to use the multiplication flash cards mom sent to me in Ghana at the request of the kids. No where else will kids be asking to “learn” on a Friday night. This gives me great pleasure and helps me realize the impact I am having since I feel utterly useless while in school. More on that later though. Ok well I am off to meet the Canadian girls and my new friends from the UK. We are going to make dinner in their fancy kitchen and watch movies. Have a great weekend.
-Erin
and last but not least...I have some photos up online. I am only up to my weekend at Cape Coast over Easter and I am not near done yet) but check these out in the mean time: http://www.flickr.com/photos/26395483@N06/?saved=1
just plug in the above website and start from the beginning!
Friday, May 9, 2008
whoa...the week went by FAST
The first day of school is over and I taught not one thing. Today is Tuesday May 6, 2008 and probably a quarter of the students actually attended school. Apparently this is quite common for the week after break and we shouldn’t expect usual attendance until the start of next week. So today we (the other volunteers, Martina, Klara and I) visited with the kids, helped tidy the classrooms (dusted away spider webs, and the spiders along with them, swept the dust on the floor from one pile to another, that sort of thing) and tried to ignore the fact that this lack of attendance would never happen back home. Even though we were not able to begin teaching, it was great to see the kids faces and they seemed just as happy to see us.
I noticed that many of the blackboards in the classrooms were falling down, bent and pretty much worthless. I had noticed this before but did not know if there was much that could be done. Most of the boards are literally a large piece of plywood that has been painted black. This only lasts so long and as you can imagine, the chalk never gets completely wiped off. I asked Naomi what is costs to have actual blackboards installed in each classroom and she went to ask someone. She returned to ask if she could take me down the road to a lumber yard to see for myself. Since it was clear that there would be no actual teaching done today, Martina, Klara and I went with Naomi to the town of Ahwiaa (about ten minutes away). Of course the school needs more text books and reading books and pencils but it also needs appropriate blackboards, ones that will last. The school itself needs so much work and I believe chalkboards are where to start.
I soon realized that true blackboards are hard to find in Ghana but we could buy new boards for 8 cedi each and again paint the boards black. Another idea is to figure out the cost of cement and build blackboards by smoothing a new layer of cement to the walls of the classrooms and to then paint that black. I did not understand how this would work so Naomi took us to another school nearby that used cement for their chalkboards. After seeing the other school I think this is the best option. I should get an estimate on costs soon and depending on that cost, the other two volunteers and I may just decide to pay for them. I would love to see some improvement in the school building before I leave.
This past weekend was fun. I spent most of the day on Friday with a friend I met in Mole National Park. She is a grad student from Canada doing research for her nursing program. Because she has to work in her thesis while here in Ghana, Heather has a laptop with her and this is wonderful because we discovered free internet at a luxurious hotel in Kumasi. The Golden Tulip hotel is stunning and has a beautiful pool and restaurant and is entirely too expensive to stay at, however they coffee is affordable and REAL! We sat at the restaurant at the hotel for hours drinking coffee, treating ourselves to lunch and using the free (fast) internet. I was able to upload my pictures onto my cd but need to wait until this weekend to use her computer once again to actually get the pictures online for you to see. I am really keeping my fingers crossed this time because I cannot wait to show you all what I have been doing the past 10 weeks. After we left the hotel we went back to her hotel. Heather (and her friend Leann who was traveling for the weekend) are staying in a hotel for the full three months they are living in Ghana because they were unable to find a host stay. While this is a somewhat expensive choice, I was invited to stay over Friday night and I have never slept so well (while in Africa). Not only did they have air conditioner but it was very quiet!
Then on Sunday I joined Emily and Monica (two other volunteer friends) at another nearby hotel to spend the day at the pool. Not long after we arrived a woman came over to introduce herself after hearing us speaking English. Turns out she is with a group of adults in the medical field hoping to open a training center specializing in facial deformities in children. We asked her where she was from and she said that seven out of the ten were from non other then the Children’s Hospital in Seattle, Washington. This was all too fortunate and unbelievable. I asked if I could meet the rest of her group deciding I absolutely must take this opportunity to practice my networking skills and decide if I do in fact take after my mother. She invited me to join them and soon I found myself seated with her group explaining what I was doing in Ghana, where I went to high school, college and my future plans (to get into the health care field myself) in addition to current Seattle weather and any recent news in the democratic election. Before leaving I managed to get three business cards and invitations to get in touch with them. I was thrilled and felt quite accomplished. Don’t worry, I have already sent an email to each saying how great it was to have met them. And to finish off the weekend Martina and Klara returned to our project after not seeing much of each other over the break and the three of us ate a dinner of boiled yams and vegetable stew and watched “Dream Girls” on the dvd player. I will write more this week before posting this blog.
Hello again...it is Friday May 9th today and I am back at the Golden Tulip luxury hotel with two friends from Canada taking advantage of the free internet. I am happy to say that this week went by very quickly. So on Wednesday Martina, Klara and I went with Naomi to purchase the cement and then order the sand. While I am so happy to offer to pay for all of these materials, I have to admit I did not think the construction for the blackboards would even begin to take place until July or something. Everything in Ghana takes three times as long as it would anywhere else so to my surprise I was shelling out $240. Again, I am quite happy to do this but my casual comment about the price of blackboards now has me seriously watching the amount of money I have in my account for the next 3 months. The sand did not arrive until yesterday afternoon therefore the actual building of the blackboards did not begin until this morning. Yesterday I came to school wearing shorts, a t-shirt and my running shoes. The kids know what that means. I was greeted with huge smiles and "Madame...P.E.??!!" I smiled back, "yes kids...c'mon." They followed me out to the "field" and we began a boys verses girls game of football. With the attendance being so slow, we were actually able to play a real game for a while. The girls tired easily though to my disappointment. I played with the boys a while longer then began skipping rope with the girls. My forgot to put sunblock on however and my shoulders are quite red.
Thursday was beautiful and very hot but that night we had one of the biggest storms we have ever had. There was torrential rains, wind, lightening and thunder complete with a leaking roof. In addition to all of that I had about 12 kids in my room. Klara had gotten braids in her hair about 3 weeks ago and it takes just as long to take them out by hand (about 7 hours). She was in my room with a few of the girls taking out her braids while watching some movies and before I knew it all the other kids were in my room. When the storm started not one of them wanted to go outside, understandably so. By nine, when the storm finally let up, I had ten children sleeping on my floor. I felt bad waking them up but there was no way they could all stay in my room for the night.
I have to get going though, Heather, Leann (friends from Canada) and I are going to attempt to make our own fufu for dinner tonight. I'll let you know how it goes. Have a great week and Happy Mother's Day on Sunday!
-Erin
I noticed that many of the blackboards in the classrooms were falling down, bent and pretty much worthless. I had noticed this before but did not know if there was much that could be done. Most of the boards are literally a large piece of plywood that has been painted black. This only lasts so long and as you can imagine, the chalk never gets completely wiped off. I asked Naomi what is costs to have actual blackboards installed in each classroom and she went to ask someone. She returned to ask if she could take me down the road to a lumber yard to see for myself. Since it was clear that there would be no actual teaching done today, Martina, Klara and I went with Naomi to the town of Ahwiaa (about ten minutes away). Of course the school needs more text books and reading books and pencils but it also needs appropriate blackboards, ones that will last. The school itself needs so much work and I believe chalkboards are where to start.
I soon realized that true blackboards are hard to find in Ghana but we could buy new boards for 8 cedi each and again paint the boards black. Another idea is to figure out the cost of cement and build blackboards by smoothing a new layer of cement to the walls of the classrooms and to then paint that black. I did not understand how this would work so Naomi took us to another school nearby that used cement for their chalkboards. After seeing the other school I think this is the best option. I should get an estimate on costs soon and depending on that cost, the other two volunteers and I may just decide to pay for them. I would love to see some improvement in the school building before I leave.
This past weekend was fun. I spent most of the day on Friday with a friend I met in Mole National Park. She is a grad student from Canada doing research for her nursing program. Because she has to work in her thesis while here in Ghana, Heather has a laptop with her and this is wonderful because we discovered free internet at a luxurious hotel in Kumasi. The Golden Tulip hotel is stunning and has a beautiful pool and restaurant and is entirely too expensive to stay at, however they coffee is affordable and REAL! We sat at the restaurant at the hotel for hours drinking coffee, treating ourselves to lunch and using the free (fast) internet. I was able to upload my pictures onto my cd but need to wait until this weekend to use her computer once again to actually get the pictures online for you to see. I am really keeping my fingers crossed this time because I cannot wait to show you all what I have been doing the past 10 weeks. After we left the hotel we went back to her hotel. Heather (and her friend Leann who was traveling for the weekend) are staying in a hotel for the full three months they are living in Ghana because they were unable to find a host stay. While this is a somewhat expensive choice, I was invited to stay over Friday night and I have never slept so well (while in Africa). Not only did they have air conditioner but it was very quiet!
Then on Sunday I joined Emily and Monica (two other volunteer friends) at another nearby hotel to spend the day at the pool. Not long after we arrived a woman came over to introduce herself after hearing us speaking English. Turns out she is with a group of adults in the medical field hoping to open a training center specializing in facial deformities in children. We asked her where she was from and she said that seven out of the ten were from non other then the Children’s Hospital in Seattle, Washington. This was all too fortunate and unbelievable. I asked if I could meet the rest of her group deciding I absolutely must take this opportunity to practice my networking skills and decide if I do in fact take after my mother. She invited me to join them and soon I found myself seated with her group explaining what I was doing in Ghana, where I went to high school, college and my future plans (to get into the health care field myself) in addition to current Seattle weather and any recent news in the democratic election. Before leaving I managed to get three business cards and invitations to get in touch with them. I was thrilled and felt quite accomplished. Don’t worry, I have already sent an email to each saying how great it was to have met them. And to finish off the weekend Martina and Klara returned to our project after not seeing much of each other over the break and the three of us ate a dinner of boiled yams and vegetable stew and watched “Dream Girls” on the dvd player. I will write more this week before posting this blog.
Hello again...it is Friday May 9th today and I am back at the Golden Tulip luxury hotel with two friends from Canada taking advantage of the free internet. I am happy to say that this week went by very quickly. So on Wednesday Martina, Klara and I went with Naomi to purchase the cement and then order the sand. While I am so happy to offer to pay for all of these materials, I have to admit I did not think the construction for the blackboards would even begin to take place until July or something. Everything in Ghana takes three times as long as it would anywhere else so to my surprise I was shelling out $240. Again, I am quite happy to do this but my casual comment about the price of blackboards now has me seriously watching the amount of money I have in my account for the next 3 months. The sand did not arrive until yesterday afternoon therefore the actual building of the blackboards did not begin until this morning. Yesterday I came to school wearing shorts, a t-shirt and my running shoes. The kids know what that means. I was greeted with huge smiles and "Madame...P.E.??!!" I smiled back, "yes kids...c'mon." They followed me out to the "field" and we began a boys verses girls game of football. With the attendance being so slow, we were actually able to play a real game for a while. The girls tired easily though to my disappointment. I played with the boys a while longer then began skipping rope with the girls. My forgot to put sunblock on however and my shoulders are quite red.
Thursday was beautiful and very hot but that night we had one of the biggest storms we have ever had. There was torrential rains, wind, lightening and thunder complete with a leaking roof. In addition to all of that I had about 12 kids in my room. Klara had gotten braids in her hair about 3 weeks ago and it takes just as long to take them out by hand (about 7 hours). She was in my room with a few of the girls taking out her braids while watching some movies and before I knew it all the other kids were in my room. When the storm started not one of them wanted to go outside, understandably so. By nine, when the storm finally let up, I had ten children sleeping on my floor. I felt bad waking them up but there was no way they could all stay in my room for the night.
I have to get going though, Heather, Leann (friends from Canada) and I are going to attempt to make our own fufu for dinner tonight. I'll let you know how it goes. Have a great week and Happy Mother's Day on Sunday!
-Erin
Friday, May 2, 2008
10 weeks
Hello again…I want to thank people for taking the time to read my blogs. It means a lot to me that people are interested in my experiences over here in Ghana and the support is greatly appreciated and needed.
My trip down to Accra was nice. The 4 hour bus ride went smoothly (left on time, arrived roughly on time) and was overly air conditioned. Once we arrived in Accra we said goodbye to John, a volunteer from England, who was headed home and we were greeted by Albert. Albert is a taxi driver from Accra and I had gotten his number from another volunteer when I was at the national park up north. He is very reliable and is an expert on getting around Accra, and his name is passed around by foreigners. When I called Albert, he was very friendly and was at the station to meet us. We then went to our hotel. Accra is a great city but there are few affordable hotels, and even those can be expensive. We decided to try the cheapest hotel in our guidebooks and wow, this was no where near luxurious. Oh well, we put our stuff in the rooms and headed out to the cultural center. The cultural center in Accra is a series of stalls back to back (and when I say series, I mean hundreds) selling basically the exact same things. There are wood carvings and wooden animals and masks, many different kinds of jewelry and paintings and African cloth. After about 30 minutes however, you have seen all there is to see. I am trying my best to wait until at least the beginning of July to start buying crafts but I am taking orders, so let me know if you have something in particular that you would like from Ghana.
From the cultural center we headed to the Accra Mall. I had heard that this was fairly brand new and extremely nice. From the moment we walked me, my friends and my mouths dropped open and stayed that way. I felt like I was transported back to the states. Everything appeared quite Western looking and there was a whole lot more diversity walking around. We walked into every store just too look and then there was the supermarket! We had to remind ourselves that we were still in Africa. We then walked to the food court and had our pick in deciding if we wanted pizza, salads or burgers for dinner. Christina, Emily, Clara and I ordered a pizza each and still found room for ice cream. We made our way back to the hotel. Emily and my room had been crawling with huge cockroaches when we arrived but we were told they would spray the room. 5 hours later the room still had roaches everywhere and we decided to pull the prissy American girl attitude and ask for another room. While we had to share a bathroom with our new room, there were no bugs so we were content.
On Sunday we woke up and had delicious egg sandwiches on the street just across from our hotel then changed into suits and headed for the beach. We decided to try the Coco Beach resort because we knew that because we could not afford to stay there, the facilities would be great. For 5 cedis we were able to use the resort pool (which was absolutely lovely) and use the beach in front of their hotel. We felt this was well worth it and happily found chairs to lay on and tan. A little over an hour however the clouds rolled in and we had to go to the covered restaurant area. Here I ordered a greek salad and listened to the radio playing none other than my favorite country songs. I was happy. The rain did not let up though so after a while we headed back to the hotel.
On Monday we had to say goodbye to Christina. She is from Denmark but is now in India for another two month volunteer project. How ambitious of her! Emily (the volunteer from my organization, also from the US) headed back to Kumasi but I choose to stay in Accra for another day. Clara was leaving (back to Denmark) on Tuesday and I have been bored at my place all alone so I wanted to try another day at the pool. Clara and I met with Megan, a girl from Minnesota who I met at Mole National Park, and the three of us found ourselves back at the same resort. There was no rain on Monday however and we spent a beautiful day lounging by and in the pool. Clara and I enjoyed burgers for dinner once again and then we relaxed in the hotel for the rest of the evening. I took the 11am bus on Tuesday morning heading back to Kumasi. I assumed I would be back a little after three but that was before the rain started to fall. I guess the heart of rainy season should really mean flood season. If it wasn’t blistering hot when it’s not raining, I’m sure flooding would be an issue. Due to the torrential downpour it took the bus close to 7 hours to actually get back to Kumasi. By this point I was beginning to lose all patience and knew I had to get back home soon before I had a mental breakdown.
Since Tuesday I have been hanging out with the kids and just trying to find things to do with all the hours in the day. I am so ready for school to start again. This month has gone on long enough and even though I enjoyed the time to travel, the days have started growing much longer and I have began wishing I had company. Last night I invited the kids into my room for another movie night. I let them color too, something they always enjoy. This weekend I plan on hanging out with Emily and Heather (a new friend from Canada), hopefully lying poolside at another hotel nearby.
Have a great weekend!
-Erin
I also finally received the package from my mother. The mail system does work, but it is just another aspect of Ghana life I must be patient with. Hint, hint, I would love any cards and or other notes. Thanks!
My trip down to Accra was nice. The 4 hour bus ride went smoothly (left on time, arrived roughly on time) and was overly air conditioned. Once we arrived in Accra we said goodbye to John, a volunteer from England, who was headed home and we were greeted by Albert. Albert is a taxi driver from Accra and I had gotten his number from another volunteer when I was at the national park up north. He is very reliable and is an expert on getting around Accra, and his name is passed around by foreigners. When I called Albert, he was very friendly and was at the station to meet us. We then went to our hotel. Accra is a great city but there are few affordable hotels, and even those can be expensive. We decided to try the cheapest hotel in our guidebooks and wow, this was no where near luxurious. Oh well, we put our stuff in the rooms and headed out to the cultural center. The cultural center in Accra is a series of stalls back to back (and when I say series, I mean hundreds) selling basically the exact same things. There are wood carvings and wooden animals and masks, many different kinds of jewelry and paintings and African cloth. After about 30 minutes however, you have seen all there is to see. I am trying my best to wait until at least the beginning of July to start buying crafts but I am taking orders, so let me know if you have something in particular that you would like from Ghana.
From the cultural center we headed to the Accra Mall. I had heard that this was fairly brand new and extremely nice. From the moment we walked me, my friends and my mouths dropped open and stayed that way. I felt like I was transported back to the states. Everything appeared quite Western looking and there was a whole lot more diversity walking around. We walked into every store just too look and then there was the supermarket! We had to remind ourselves that we were still in Africa. We then walked to the food court and had our pick in deciding if we wanted pizza, salads or burgers for dinner. Christina, Emily, Clara and I ordered a pizza each and still found room for ice cream. We made our way back to the hotel. Emily and my room had been crawling with huge cockroaches when we arrived but we were told they would spray the room. 5 hours later the room still had roaches everywhere and we decided to pull the prissy American girl attitude and ask for another room. While we had to share a bathroom with our new room, there were no bugs so we were content.
On Sunday we woke up and had delicious egg sandwiches on the street just across from our hotel then changed into suits and headed for the beach. We decided to try the Coco Beach resort because we knew that because we could not afford to stay there, the facilities would be great. For 5 cedis we were able to use the resort pool (which was absolutely lovely) and use the beach in front of their hotel. We felt this was well worth it and happily found chairs to lay on and tan. A little over an hour however the clouds rolled in and we had to go to the covered restaurant area. Here I ordered a greek salad and listened to the radio playing none other than my favorite country songs. I was happy. The rain did not let up though so after a while we headed back to the hotel.
On Monday we had to say goodbye to Christina. She is from Denmark but is now in India for another two month volunteer project. How ambitious of her! Emily (the volunteer from my organization, also from the US) headed back to Kumasi but I choose to stay in Accra for another day. Clara was leaving (back to Denmark) on Tuesday and I have been bored at my place all alone so I wanted to try another day at the pool. Clara and I met with Megan, a girl from Minnesota who I met at Mole National Park, and the three of us found ourselves back at the same resort. There was no rain on Monday however and we spent a beautiful day lounging by and in the pool. Clara and I enjoyed burgers for dinner once again and then we relaxed in the hotel for the rest of the evening. I took the 11am bus on Tuesday morning heading back to Kumasi. I assumed I would be back a little after three but that was before the rain started to fall. I guess the heart of rainy season should really mean flood season. If it wasn’t blistering hot when it’s not raining, I’m sure flooding would be an issue. Due to the torrential downpour it took the bus close to 7 hours to actually get back to Kumasi. By this point I was beginning to lose all patience and knew I had to get back home soon before I had a mental breakdown.
Since Tuesday I have been hanging out with the kids and just trying to find things to do with all the hours in the day. I am so ready for school to start again. This month has gone on long enough and even though I enjoyed the time to travel, the days have started growing much longer and I have began wishing I had company. Last night I invited the kids into my room for another movie night. I let them color too, something they always enjoy. This weekend I plan on hanging out with Emily and Heather (a new friend from Canada), hopefully lying poolside at another hotel nearby.
Have a great weekend!
-Erin
I also finally received the package from my mother. The mail system does work, but it is just another aspect of Ghana life I must be patient with. Hint, hint, I would love any cards and or other notes. Thanks!
Friday, April 25, 2008
here I go again...
Hello all. I find myself once again typing away at the school computer. There are about 7 kids crowded around me, pretending to type as fast as I do. It is Thursday April 24th and I am deciding what to do with my day. I think I will once again head into
I have nothing really new to say other than the random thoughts I write on paper to later explain in my blog. One thing I have wanted to mention for a while is the strong presence of God and Jesus everywhere I look. Well I think I need to better define what I am saying. Religion, mostly denominations of Christianity, is everywhere, literally. No matter where I go I see “God’s time is the best fast food,” “Glory of God enterprise wood shop,” or “All power belongs to Jesus fashion center,” and my favorites “God hates all sinners plumbing” and “in him is peace nail salon.” Many schools also are religious affiliated as well such as, “
Another thing I wanted to address is using the toilet here. Don’t worry I am simply talking about public toilet’s, which you must pay for, and how many times I have paid the 20 pesewa, collected my toilet paper, went inside and came right back out deciding I would just have to wait. People are so forward with their need to go to the bathroom too. First off, now one says ‘bathroom’ or ‘restroom,’ though I have seen a few ‘washrooms.’ Several times a day a child will excuse themselves and say “Please Madame, I need to urinate.” It is hard not to smile when asked this since we have mostly been taught modesty. Then I tell myself, clearly it is natural and something all humans must do so why not just say it like it is? Because there are few public toilets and even some of the locals would prefer to go outside anyway, there are hand written signs all over the towns that state “don’t urinate” or “no urinating by law,” although sometimes urinate is spelled “uninate.” This hasn’t stopped me from casually glancing out the tro-tro window at any given time and accidentally seeing someone, usually a man relieving himself by the side of the road. I really am in a different culture aren’t I?
This leads me into another thing that is quite different from how I was brought up, something I am trying to understand and learn. This morning, as I was watching one of my copyrighted dvd’s of various romantic American movies bought off the street, I heard a shrill scream followed by sobbing. Usually I ignore this sound because it hardly lasts longer than 5 seconds but this time it continued and sounded pretty bad. I ran to the window to see what happened and I saw young Abigail, probably 9 years old, face down on the ground cried hysterically and no one made any move to go near her. I raced outside and ran to her. Clearly she and fallen and scraped herself. I angrily yelled at Joyce, a friend of Naomi’s and occasionally spends the night here, who sat nearby, doing nothing. She simply laughed at me. While I have realized before now that comforting a crying child is not too important to adults around here, I did not realize how far this “rule” went. I had been babysitting since I was 13 and I can tell when a child is in simple need of attention and when they are actually hurt. I picked Abigail up and helped her brush off. I told her to go wash herself with a bucket of water I grabbed for her while I found some band aids. No, her injury was not serious but how was I or anyone else supposed to know that? The rocky dirt in which the children play on has sharp edges and bits of rusty metal everywhere so who is to say she didn’t fall and crack her head on a sharp rock or slice open her leg? After she cleaned she was smiling again but I could tell she was surprised by my reaction. I was still frustrated after tending to her, mostly because not one adult seemed to have the slightest idea what I was doing. I guess I need to get over it though, the kids can’t be pampered here or they will simply not survive. Still…I like to think that my hugs and my wiping away the tears does more good than hurt.
Alright I am off to take a shower, oh how spoiled I am, and head to town. The kids have been asking if they can join me for a movie again tonight and because I will be gone again this weekend (in
Now it is Friday, just one day later and I am going to finish up the blog for the week. I am heading to
Tomorrow I go to
I wish you all a great weekend.
-
Picture update: Today I actually tried to upload pictures from my camera to the school computer and then put some pictures on a cd to bring to the internet with me. The computer gave me the message that it is low on virtual memory and therefore cannot complete the task. I am too nervous to upload my pictures directly to one of the computer’s in the internet café because those computers are fairly full of viruses. A friend has his laptop here so I will do my best to upload pictures that way. Sorry. If anyone who has traveled as a better suggestion, let me know.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
2 months down...
I have now been here a full 8 weeks (and 3 days?). Wow. Where has the time gone? I hear Seattle is cold and raining again, although you did have a few nice days, as well as San Francisco. It apparently is snowing in Montana and I am still sweating profusely each day. As you can see, I am back earlier than planed from my trip to northern Ghana. Originally my friends and I had planned to be gone for 10 days, this became 8 days and ended up being just 5 days. Why were our travels cut short? The main reason was due to the lack or organized transportation available in Ghana. For one thing, nothing and no one operates on an short of schedule. For practically any American, especially me (who is my father’s daughter) would be frustrated with the nonexistent need to be on time.
Here is the run down of my trip: Wednesday went according to plan. We boarded the STC “luxury” bus at 5 (well I guess we actually left about 5:40, so that was 40 minutes behind schedule but still pretty good according to Ghana) and were on our way. Luckily and very fortunately, the bus was fairly empty and my 4 travel companions and I were able to have our own set of seats each. To remind you my travel companions were Emily (Arkansas) Ross (Canada), Christina (Denmark) and Monica (Austria). After more than enough random stops on the way to buy things from various roadside vendors; things meaning a variety of crackers, water, juice, small dried fish if you so choose, yams etc, we finally arrived in Tamale a little after midnight. We were aggressively approached by many taxi drivers before we all of us even got off the bus and finally got to the first hotel we had gotten through to when we called from the bus. It was about one am when we finally settled into our room with two double beds, Ross had to sleep on the floor. All in all, not a bad first day, we were tired and the beds were firm but welcoming.
Early the next day we were off. We first had to argue with the hotel staff who tried to make us pay for two rooms after we were told on the phone that we only had to reserve one room. I think the hotel was virtually empty so the woman who owned the hotel was trying to get more money out of the obruni’s. By now we know when we are being taken advantage of and we politely told her no and paid the 17 cedis for the room. From there we headed to the bus station in Tamale to find out when we had to catch the bus to Larabunga, our next stop. We had a few hours to kill so we walked to the cultural center. There were many beautiful paintings and after much consideration I bought one oil painting. We also ate fried egg sandwiches on the side of the road for 40 pesewa each. We boarded the bus at 2:30 (though we of course didn’t depart until after 3) but first we met another friend at the bus station. Clara from Denmark had joined us since she could not leave on Wednesday. This time we were not taking an STC bus (similar to a greyhound), this time we had metro transit which is like a basic bus but will twice as many seats and this bus will not leave until each seat is full. Thankfully this ride was about 4 hours long, not 7 like the day before. We were forewarned about the overly bumpy road but still it was difficult to do much reading during those 4 hours.
The bus driver selected random radio stations (with the volume cranked high so you had no choice if you wanted to hear it or not), usually settling on various Ghanaian speaking stations but every once in while we would hear Celine Dion, Elton John or even the occasional backstreet boys song. I still smile thinking about riding a crowded, bumpy bus to northern Ghana singing to “I want it that way,” a popular boy band song from my middle school years.
We arrived at Larabunga (just 15 kilometers or so from Mole National Park) just before 6 I believe and we met one of the Salia brothers. Every guide book about Western Africa in the past 20 years has written fondly of the two identical Salia brother twins who run a guest house each. Much of northern Ghana is of the Muslim religion, as is significantly poorer than the lower half of the country. Thankfully however Mr. Salia’s savannah guest house was very homey. We stayed in little mud huts with grass roof’s and one double bed with mosquito net in each. There was a pit toilet and a place for bucket showers and a large area with a few picnic tables. The one thing missing (though I know the guest house was more authentic without it) was electricity. There was a generator used at night to provide few lights and a t.v. to watch movies at night for Mr. Salia’s children but no fans in the rooms. Therefore it was a bit difficult to sleep in the heat. We enjoyed delicious rice with vegetable stew and played cards before turning in for the night. We were up bright and early to a breakfast of bread with peanut butter and honey and were off to Mole National Park. We arrived at the hotel and tried to check in but learned that they would not know about any available rooms until noon. We found a place to store our backpacks and went to the canopy overlooking the waterhole where about 15 elephants were bathing themselves. This made all the crazy traveling well worth it. We sat and watched them and the random razorback hogs (or Pumba’s to our Disney generation) eating grass while enjoying an ice cold coke. Around 10:30 we gathered at the information lodge to sign up for a jeep safari tour. There were many other whites hanging around as well and I found myself quickly talking to others from the U.S., Canada, France, England and Holland. We joined with three other girls and the 9 of us went off with our guide in the land cruiser to find some more elephants. Our guide had a large (and very old) shot gun with him for protection, I know this is a good thing but it still made me a bit nervous while in the car. This did not stop me from getting a cool picture of me posing with the large weapon as the end of the tour.
After seeing a quite a few antelope and water buck we came across a large group of elephants eating in the bush. We were able to actually get out of the jeep and get closer, always with the guide between us and the elephants themselves. While in South Africa I was able to see a good amount of elephants but never on foot and I don’t believe we were this close either. Two hours later our safari was over and we were sweaty and in need of water. We thanked and paid the guides and went back to the hotel. We happily learned that there was a room available so we put our bags in the fairly nice, three bed plus three extra mattresses on the floor room (accompanied with a large fan!) and a shower, and changed into our swimsuits. The Mole Hotel was complete with a swimming pool overlooking the savannah! The rest of the day we ate lunch (salads and cheese burgers!) and swam. A large group of baboons came near to see if they could swipe any food and actually took off with some girl’s purse. She was able to get it back thankfully but it was quite funny.
Before dinner my group met one of the teachers at the nearby Mole government school and he offered to give us a tour. Being volunteer teachers ourselves, we are always curious to see what other schools look like and were happy for the opportunity. We had to walk a few kilometers though and it was in the middle of the day and was quite hot. This school building served mostly the children of the park employees but was pretty big and the classrooms were in good shape (compared to my school). On the way back from the school (which we really should not have walked to without a guide since it was located within the park itself) we encountered 6 large elephant right on the side of the road. We had to walk past them to get where we were going which was really incredible. I honestly was a bit nervous and kind of wished we had that large shotgun, just in case. We made it but I have the most amazing picture of myself standing just 25 feet from the large, beautiful beasts.
I met many more people from all over the world, travelers, volunteers and students (studying abroad at the University of Ghana in Accra). I so enjoy meeting new friends, and I now have many more contacts for my future travel plans. Friday night I actually enjoyed a round of drinking games with some new friends, all in all a lovely day.
Saturday we watched more elephant at the watering hole and ventured on a short walk then spent the afternoon poolside. After exchanging numbers with many of the new people I met, Mr. Salia picked us up and took us back to the guesthouse. While the Mole Hotel was nice, it was about 8 cedi per person to sleep and another 10 for meals where the guesthouse was just 3 cedi per night and about 6 for meals so it was clear that we should save money. Late Saturday afternoon we went on a walk in the village of Larabunga. Though this village’s economy needs tourism to survive, there is only one attraction drawing them here: the ancient Muslim mosque built in 1420. While we cannot actually go inside since we are not Muslim, we can pay 4 cedi for a detailed history of the mosque and the village. The children here actually look malnourished with large bellies and sunken eyes, yet they are smiling and happily grab our hands and walk with us throughout their home. We had back just before nightfall to eat some dinner (boiled yams and meat stew for me) and to join Salia’s children in watching Disney’s “Cars.” Saturday night was particularly HOT and it was very difficult to sleep. Emily and I actually joined Ross around 1 am to attempt to sleep outside under the stars on the few picnic benches.
On Sunday we had every intention of leaving further north to the city of Wa and then to the Hippo sanctuary but here is where any form of organized travel ended. We waited patiently in the town for the one metro bus to roll through and pick up people on their way to Wa and when it did, a good hour after we were told it would show, it was too crowded for even standing room. We were on a time crunch and really had to leave for Wa on Monday is we were going to make it at all. After waiting for another hour (and being told there would be a bus, and then being told there were no more buses today) we decided on a plan B. While we were deciding, Ross hoped on a motorbike that belonged to the teacher friend of ours from Friday. He and Monica actually hit it off and he had tagged along with our group every since. Ross had driven from Egypt to Italy on a motorcycle years ago and wanted to ride a bit here. I had been on a bike just once so I hopped on to go for a ride with him. Our short cruise was fun and went without any problems but while I was posing for a picture of myself on the bike I forgot about the painfully hot exhaust pipe and proceeded to burn the inside of my right calf. Since I am in Africa I worry about infection but I have more than enough antibacterial ointment and gaze so I should be just fine.
Plan B was to spend the morning checking out the nearby eco village then get a car to Damungo, an hour away, to try and catch a bus back home. The Moghori eco village is at the edge of Mole National Park and is quite the little community. We went on the hour walking tour of the village where we saw them preparing TZ (a traditional food like fufu), the children playing a traditional game in the group using small holes dug in the ground and small stones and saw the different types of mud houses. Many homes has shrines placed under small trees in their front “yards” which usually included a large, flat stone used to make animal sacrifices (yep!). We also met the village’s medicine man who showed us how he fixes things like menstrual cramps, headaches and broken bones as well as his large amount of Viagra to give to men “who can not go 5 times a day.” 5 times a day? Seriously? Wow.
After using the odorless eco toilet (something I loved), we headed off to Damungo. Mr. Salia was being an overly generous host and offered to drive us to the junction himself. We of course paid for the gas but were very grateful. We arrived at the junction at 12:15 (and were told the bus would leave around 1pm). To our surprise, the driver had actually decided to leave early and we had missed the only bus back to Kumasi! Just our luck (or lack there of). Again, thankfully, Mr. Salia was there and able to take us back to his guesthouse for one more night. Our final plan C was to take the 4am bus from Larabunga to Tamale. Sunday was also hot, and with lack of shade, we became a bit irritable but overall we simply relaxed, listened to my ipod speakers (something I am so very thankful for) and caught up on reading. I am now on my 6th book, which is ‘The Audacity of Hope’ by Mr. Barak Obama. More than once now a Ghanaian man has commented on my book and broke out with a huge smile saying, “I like Obama too.” Salia happily had a discussion about Obama and why he thinks he would be great for the next U.S. president. Ross from Canada is a Clinton fan himself and I very much enjoyed our little political debate while in Ghana. Salia was fortunate himself to have traveled to Europe (and his twin brother to the U.S.) many years ago. The two of them single-handedly started the nearby eco village, private school (with no school fees since the surrounding area is very impoverished) and worked on an NGO for the area. They are both very intelligent men. Sunday I spoke to both my dad in Seattle and mom (who is in Montana) at the moment. That is one thing I still find very interesting: I am in the savannah in northern Ghana with no electricity yet I can still get a perfectly clear signal on my cell phone to talk to loved ones from home. Aww the 20th century.
4am Monday morning we are up and waiting for the bus. We hear the 4am pray call at the close Muslim mosque. At 5am we board the bus in the pitch black dark and attempt to get some more sleep within our the small confines of our seats. We reach Tamale at 8am and by 9 are on another packed metro bus to Kumasi. We are with two Canadian ladies we met at Mole who are doing research for their masters at the university of Alberta. I have their numbers and plan on meeting them for dinner at some point next week. The road was again very bumpy. When I say bumpy, I mean literally flying off your seat! On the way we say two different buses (just like ours) on their sides. The drivers here don’t care about speed, even with a packed bus. Yes, I have started saying a little prayer upon boarding a new bus.
I finally arrived back at Columbus at 3pm yesterday and was greeted by many smiling faces of my children. It was nice to be back. After relaxing a bit, I did some reading with Mamaya (the 16 year old girl that needs a lot of help with her English), took a shower, cleaned my burn and went to sleep very early. I now feel rested and clean! I will be around this week and am off to Accra this Friday. I hope everyone had a great weekend and I wish you all a great week. I am off to check my post box to see if any packages have actually arrived!
Until next time,
Erin
lastly: a friend gave me a cd so I plan on uploading pictures at the school computer and will do my best to get some on a webshots website or something. Keep your fingers crossed!
Here is the run down of my trip: Wednesday went according to plan. We boarded the STC “luxury” bus at 5 (well I guess we actually left about 5:40, so that was 40 minutes behind schedule but still pretty good according to Ghana) and were on our way. Luckily and very fortunately, the bus was fairly empty and my 4 travel companions and I were able to have our own set of seats each. To remind you my travel companions were Emily (Arkansas) Ross (Canada), Christina (Denmark) and Monica (Austria). After more than enough random stops on the way to buy things from various roadside vendors; things meaning a variety of crackers, water, juice, small dried fish if you so choose, yams etc, we finally arrived in Tamale a little after midnight. We were aggressively approached by many taxi drivers before we all of us even got off the bus and finally got to the first hotel we had gotten through to when we called from the bus. It was about one am when we finally settled into our room with two double beds, Ross had to sleep on the floor. All in all, not a bad first day, we were tired and the beds were firm but welcoming.
Early the next day we were off. We first had to argue with the hotel staff who tried to make us pay for two rooms after we were told on the phone that we only had to reserve one room. I think the hotel was virtually empty so the woman who owned the hotel was trying to get more money out of the obruni’s. By now we know when we are being taken advantage of and we politely told her no and paid the 17 cedis for the room. From there we headed to the bus station in Tamale to find out when we had to catch the bus to Larabunga, our next stop. We had a few hours to kill so we walked to the cultural center. There were many beautiful paintings and after much consideration I bought one oil painting. We also ate fried egg sandwiches on the side of the road for 40 pesewa each. We boarded the bus at 2:30 (though we of course didn’t depart until after 3) but first we met another friend at the bus station. Clara from Denmark had joined us since she could not leave on Wednesday. This time we were not taking an STC bus (similar to a greyhound), this time we had metro transit which is like a basic bus but will twice as many seats and this bus will not leave until each seat is full. Thankfully this ride was about 4 hours long, not 7 like the day before. We were forewarned about the overly bumpy road but still it was difficult to do much reading during those 4 hours.
The bus driver selected random radio stations (with the volume cranked high so you had no choice if you wanted to hear it or not), usually settling on various Ghanaian speaking stations but every once in while we would hear Celine Dion, Elton John or even the occasional backstreet boys song. I still smile thinking about riding a crowded, bumpy bus to northern Ghana singing to “I want it that way,” a popular boy band song from my middle school years.
We arrived at Larabunga (just 15 kilometers or so from Mole National Park) just before 6 I believe and we met one of the Salia brothers. Every guide book about Western Africa in the past 20 years has written fondly of the two identical Salia brother twins who run a guest house each. Much of northern Ghana is of the Muslim religion, as is significantly poorer than the lower half of the country. Thankfully however Mr. Salia’s savannah guest house was very homey. We stayed in little mud huts with grass roof’s and one double bed with mosquito net in each. There was a pit toilet and a place for bucket showers and a large area with a few picnic tables. The one thing missing (though I know the guest house was more authentic without it) was electricity. There was a generator used at night to provide few lights and a t.v. to watch movies at night for Mr. Salia’s children but no fans in the rooms. Therefore it was a bit difficult to sleep in the heat. We enjoyed delicious rice with vegetable stew and played cards before turning in for the night. We were up bright and early to a breakfast of bread with peanut butter and honey and were off to Mole National Park. We arrived at the hotel and tried to check in but learned that they would not know about any available rooms until noon. We found a place to store our backpacks and went to the canopy overlooking the waterhole where about 15 elephants were bathing themselves. This made all the crazy traveling well worth it. We sat and watched them and the random razorback hogs (or Pumba’s to our Disney generation) eating grass while enjoying an ice cold coke. Around 10:30 we gathered at the information lodge to sign up for a jeep safari tour. There were many other whites hanging around as well and I found myself quickly talking to others from the U.S., Canada, France, England and Holland. We joined with three other girls and the 9 of us went off with our guide in the land cruiser to find some more elephants. Our guide had a large (and very old) shot gun with him for protection, I know this is a good thing but it still made me a bit nervous while in the car. This did not stop me from getting a cool picture of me posing with the large weapon as the end of the tour.
After seeing a quite a few antelope and water buck we came across a large group of elephants eating in the bush. We were able to actually get out of the jeep and get closer, always with the guide between us and the elephants themselves. While in South Africa I was able to see a good amount of elephants but never on foot and I don’t believe we were this close either. Two hours later our safari was over and we were sweaty and in need of water. We thanked and paid the guides and went back to the hotel. We happily learned that there was a room available so we put our bags in the fairly nice, three bed plus three extra mattresses on the floor room (accompanied with a large fan!) and a shower, and changed into our swimsuits. The Mole Hotel was complete with a swimming pool overlooking the savannah! The rest of the day we ate lunch (salads and cheese burgers!) and swam. A large group of baboons came near to see if they could swipe any food and actually took off with some girl’s purse. She was able to get it back thankfully but it was quite funny.
Before dinner my group met one of the teachers at the nearby Mole government school and he offered to give us a tour. Being volunteer teachers ourselves, we are always curious to see what other schools look like and were happy for the opportunity. We had to walk a few kilometers though and it was in the middle of the day and was quite hot. This school building served mostly the children of the park employees but was pretty big and the classrooms were in good shape (compared to my school). On the way back from the school (which we really should not have walked to without a guide since it was located within the park itself) we encountered 6 large elephant right on the side of the road. We had to walk past them to get where we were going which was really incredible. I honestly was a bit nervous and kind of wished we had that large shotgun, just in case. We made it but I have the most amazing picture of myself standing just 25 feet from the large, beautiful beasts.
I met many more people from all over the world, travelers, volunteers and students (studying abroad at the University of Ghana in Accra). I so enjoy meeting new friends, and I now have many more contacts for my future travel plans. Friday night I actually enjoyed a round of drinking games with some new friends, all in all a lovely day.
Saturday we watched more elephant at the watering hole and ventured on a short walk then spent the afternoon poolside. After exchanging numbers with many of the new people I met, Mr. Salia picked us up and took us back to the guesthouse. While the Mole Hotel was nice, it was about 8 cedi per person to sleep and another 10 for meals where the guesthouse was just 3 cedi per night and about 6 for meals so it was clear that we should save money. Late Saturday afternoon we went on a walk in the village of Larabunga. Though this village’s economy needs tourism to survive, there is only one attraction drawing them here: the ancient Muslim mosque built in 1420. While we cannot actually go inside since we are not Muslim, we can pay 4 cedi for a detailed history of the mosque and the village. The children here actually look malnourished with large bellies and sunken eyes, yet they are smiling and happily grab our hands and walk with us throughout their home. We had back just before nightfall to eat some dinner (boiled yams and meat stew for me) and to join Salia’s children in watching Disney’s “Cars.” Saturday night was particularly HOT and it was very difficult to sleep. Emily and I actually joined Ross around 1 am to attempt to sleep outside under the stars on the few picnic benches.
On Sunday we had every intention of leaving further north to the city of Wa and then to the Hippo sanctuary but here is where any form of organized travel ended. We waited patiently in the town for the one metro bus to roll through and pick up people on their way to Wa and when it did, a good hour after we were told it would show, it was too crowded for even standing room. We were on a time crunch and really had to leave for Wa on Monday is we were going to make it at all. After waiting for another hour (and being told there would be a bus, and then being told there were no more buses today) we decided on a plan B. While we were deciding, Ross hoped on a motorbike that belonged to the teacher friend of ours from Friday. He and Monica actually hit it off and he had tagged along with our group every since. Ross had driven from Egypt to Italy on a motorcycle years ago and wanted to ride a bit here. I had been on a bike just once so I hopped on to go for a ride with him. Our short cruise was fun and went without any problems but while I was posing for a picture of myself on the bike I forgot about the painfully hot exhaust pipe and proceeded to burn the inside of my right calf. Since I am in Africa I worry about infection but I have more than enough antibacterial ointment and gaze so I should be just fine.
Plan B was to spend the morning checking out the nearby eco village then get a car to Damungo, an hour away, to try and catch a bus back home. The Moghori eco village is at the edge of Mole National Park and is quite the little community. We went on the hour walking tour of the village where we saw them preparing TZ (a traditional food like fufu), the children playing a traditional game in the group using small holes dug in the ground and small stones and saw the different types of mud houses. Many homes has shrines placed under small trees in their front “yards” which usually included a large, flat stone used to make animal sacrifices (yep!). We also met the village’s medicine man who showed us how he fixes things like menstrual cramps, headaches and broken bones as well as his large amount of Viagra to give to men “who can not go 5 times a day.” 5 times a day? Seriously? Wow.
After using the odorless eco toilet (something I loved), we headed off to Damungo. Mr. Salia was being an overly generous host and offered to drive us to the junction himself. We of course paid for the gas but were very grateful. We arrived at the junction at 12:15 (and were told the bus would leave around 1pm). To our surprise, the driver had actually decided to leave early and we had missed the only bus back to Kumasi! Just our luck (or lack there of). Again, thankfully, Mr. Salia was there and able to take us back to his guesthouse for one more night. Our final plan C was to take the 4am bus from Larabunga to Tamale. Sunday was also hot, and with lack of shade, we became a bit irritable but overall we simply relaxed, listened to my ipod speakers (something I am so very thankful for) and caught up on reading. I am now on my 6th book, which is ‘The Audacity of Hope’ by Mr. Barak Obama. More than once now a Ghanaian man has commented on my book and broke out with a huge smile saying, “I like Obama too.” Salia happily had a discussion about Obama and why he thinks he would be great for the next U.S. president. Ross from Canada is a Clinton fan himself and I very much enjoyed our little political debate while in Ghana. Salia was fortunate himself to have traveled to Europe (and his twin brother to the U.S.) many years ago. The two of them single-handedly started the nearby eco village, private school (with no school fees since the surrounding area is very impoverished) and worked on an NGO for the area. They are both very intelligent men. Sunday I spoke to both my dad in Seattle and mom (who is in Montana) at the moment. That is one thing I still find very interesting: I am in the savannah in northern Ghana with no electricity yet I can still get a perfectly clear signal on my cell phone to talk to loved ones from home. Aww the 20th century.
4am Monday morning we are up and waiting for the bus. We hear the 4am pray call at the close Muslim mosque. At 5am we board the bus in the pitch black dark and attempt to get some more sleep within our the small confines of our seats. We reach Tamale at 8am and by 9 are on another packed metro bus to Kumasi. We are with two Canadian ladies we met at Mole who are doing research for their masters at the university of Alberta. I have their numbers and plan on meeting them for dinner at some point next week. The road was again very bumpy. When I say bumpy, I mean literally flying off your seat! On the way we say two different buses (just like ours) on their sides. The drivers here don’t care about speed, even with a packed bus. Yes, I have started saying a little prayer upon boarding a new bus.
I finally arrived back at Columbus at 3pm yesterday and was greeted by many smiling faces of my children. It was nice to be back. After relaxing a bit, I did some reading with Mamaya (the 16 year old girl that needs a lot of help with her English), took a shower, cleaned my burn and went to sleep very early. I now feel rested and clean! I will be around this week and am off to Accra this Friday. I hope everyone had a great weekend and I wish you all a great week. I am off to check my post box to see if any packages have actually arrived!
Until next time,
Erin
lastly: a friend gave me a cd so I plan on uploading pictures at the school computer and will do my best to get some on a webshots website or something. Keep your fingers crossed!
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