8/4
So last time, we left off at the movie 12 Years a Slave and how it set the tone for this week. We wouldn't be leaving for the slave castles until tomorrow, so for today, we started off with a lecture on how we can stay healthy in Ghana. As a vegetarian, we were essentially told that we would have to eat a lot of vegetables. Surprise, surprise. We had a few more discussions after that, ate lunch and then went off to this school in Jamestown (I think, it was somewhere around there) where we would be doing some community service.
When we got to the school, the kids immediately crowded around us and started holding our hands and legs. It's like all of them wanted a certain piece of us to grab on to. Either that, or they just wanted to touch a foreigner. It was all pretty cute and we started playing with the kids a little before we walked inside this classroom and the kids all sat on one side while we sat on the other side. In the middle, the principal of the school began talking to us, thanking us for coming. He then introduced several groups of kids, who danced and sang and preformed skits for us. I have one particular video on my camera that I will upload eventually, but it's really cute. Some of us got up from our side and began dancing with the kids who were preforming with us and eventually, it just turned into a dancing session which the principal loved. I saw one kid standing outside a window who wasn't in the school, but he looked so sad that he couldn't come inside and join us. I talked with him a little bit to try and make him feel better and even took a picture of him and showed it to him. But I realized since the window had bars on them, the picture made him look like he was in a jail cell. At least I tried.
All of that fun ended temporarily and we began to repaint the walls of the school with a fresh new coat to cover up some of the markings and stains that had been there. Thankfully, painting didn't take too long since we were able to team up and finish it within an hour and we were soon able to play with the kids again and take lots of pictures. The kids I played with seemed to be obsessed with my camera and sunglasses and began taking selfies and trying to make poses with my sunglasses on. I was actually surprised they didn't run off with my stuff or refuse to give it back to me and I was glad I could walk around and talk to my group members without having to worry about my things. Soon, it was time to go and we reluctantly said bye to all the kids. It really was a good way to get our minds off the looming visit to the slave castles and I think we all needed something like this to recharge ourselves for the week again. I know as a fact that I'm not good when it comes to entertaining children, but these kids were something else entirely.
We went out for dinner at this place called Star Bites, which, looking at the logo, seemed like a rip off of Starbucks. The only reason I'm writing about this dinner was because they had this amazing pasta with alfredo sauce and mushrooms and it made me feel super happy. It was weird, I can't really explain it, but since it was vegetarian, I took a lot of pasta.When we're catered food, the vegetarians always go first just so we can get enough to eat (and because we're VIP's obviously).
8/5
Today was the day we embarked on a four day trip across the Southern part of Ghana. Before we left, we got breakfast and had some lectures on the history of slavery in Ghana and the experiences that captives went though in their journey from Africa to wherever they were shipped off to.
We left for the three hour bus ride to Elmina Castle, which is the most prominent slave castle in Ghana. On the ride however, our bus crashed. It wasn't really anything serious, no one got hurt, but it was just bizarre. Basically, this empty taxi that was barked on the other side of the road somehow rolled onto the road and it hit the bus on the side. I saw it all happen from my window seat and I'm a little scared because my reaction was very slow but when I poked my head out the window, I didn't see any scratches on the bus. The bus jerked to the right to try and avoid the cab and some guy on the sidewalk had to jump out of the way to avoid getting hit by the bus. The driver and some of the orientation leaders got out to try and get everything settled and within 20 minutes we were on our way. Some of us sitting in the back kept looking out the back window to see what was going on but I had lost interest by that point and continued listening to music, waiting to continue on with our journey.
We made it to the castle and the tour guide took us through most of the rooms and chambers inside. There was one part where he had us all go inside a dungeon and locked us in it, telling us that this room was where they would starve certain captives to death. It was pretty nerve wracking to be in the same exact room where probably hundreds of people died in. I kept wondering how the tour guide, who was a Ghanaian, was able to give the same tour everyday without showing any emotion. The last part of the tour involved us going to the "point of no return," which is where captives would walk out from the castle onto the beach and become loaded onto ships headed for the Americas. It's called the point of no return because it was assumed that the captives would never return to see their homeland again. In essence, their last view of Africa would be as they exit the castle, since they didn't get access to go outside on the ships. Each of us walked out a little bit one by one and this was where the majority of us let our emotions go. Once again, it was a very emotionally charged atmosphere, and we all held a moment of silence for those who had passed away during the whole process.
8/6
We had breakfast in the hotel and before I go on talking about the Kakum Rainforest Reserve and the canopy walk experience, let me talk a little bit about the hotel because it was REALLY nice. I don't mean it was a five star hotel, but it was literally on the beach. I pretty much fell asleep last night listening to the waves crash and recede over and over again. The rooms were essentially huts but the best part was how the showers had hot water. Man, when I took a shower that night with the hot water, it made me realize how much I had gotten adapted to the cold showers here. It's crazy to think how hot water is such a luxury here.
Alright, now that I'm done gushing over the hotel, we can move on. I got on the bus and we drove for about an hour to the Kakum Rainforest. Kakum is a famous tourist attraction in Ghana because it's the only national park in Africa with a canopy walkway. Remarkably, the guide told us there has never been any accident on the walkway and when I began walking through the seven bridges, I started to see why. Yeah, they swayed here and there but there were so many ropes and wires connecting the trees to the bridges that it would take a lot for the bridges to collapse. It was so cool looking around and down at the forest because it was all so green and lush. The weather was perfect too, slightly foggy and drizzly, so it gave the forest an eerie mist to it. It reminded me a lot of walking through the cloud forests in Costa Rica because they were both so similar. The only difference was that Costa Rica had zip-lining across the canopy as an option. And after walking through the bridges, I think zip-lining would have been more fun.
Afterwards we returned to the hotel where we had a free afternoon to do whatever we want. I went with a big group to get lunch from the hotel restaurant but it ended up taking almost two hours to get our food because there was apparently only one chef and a lot of orders. So when we were finally served food, our lunch ended up becoming an early dinner. Once I finished eating another delicious spaghetti dish, I just spent some time on the beach, staring at the view and pondering the meaning of life until nighttime came. A few other friends joined me and we all started remarking how we had been over a week in Ghana and how we already feel like we're different people. It was all a really nice evening just chilling on the beach with some good friends, enjoying a few drinks and talking.
8/7
On this day, we spent about five or six hours traveling to Kumasi, the other major city in Ghana. I couldn't wait to go because the night before, I had accumulated a ton of bug bites on my feet and around my ankles and it ended up raining hard as well, which turned the chill vibe into a dreary one. I actually haven't been getting bitten as much as I thought I would, but part of that is because it's still the rainy season here. Anyway, Kumasi was the capital of the Ashanti nation, a rich and powerful group of people who resisted British colonization for a while until they were finally overwhelmed. They are also the basis for a lot of culture here in Ghana. Our first stop in Kumasi was this village called Adanwomase where we got to see how kente cloth was made. Kente is cloth woven from silk or cotton and is adorned with many colors and symbols, each of them with a special meaning. It was mainly worn by the kings of the Ashanti during important and sacred festivals and it is still treated like so. We saw little kids, probably ten years old or so weaving the cloth on these rickety wooden machines and the guide explained to us that they don't work once school starts, but it was still interesting to see these young boys having the knowledge to make such intricate cloth. We also got a tour of this cocoa plantation that just happened to be next to the kente weaving place, which I thought was pretty random, but we got to try some cocoa beans that were pleasantly sweet, but not like the chocolate I had been missing.
Once the tour ended, we did a little bit of shopping in the area, where I bought a cloth that meant togetherness. Then we came to our hotel and checked in. Our room this time was also pretty nice, as we were the only room to have two windows, which for some reason was a big deal for some people. The showers also had hot water but it didn't last for more than three minutes, when it just became lukewarm. We had some free time until dinner, so most of us decided to go in the pool. I didn't feel like going in the pool so I ended up going to this room that we ended up calling "The Wi-Fi Room" because there would always be a good chunk of us in that room staring blankly at their phones or laptops, taking advantage of the exceptionally good wi-fi that was there. We then got dinner at the restaurant across the street, and walking across the street was kind of difficult to do because there were these guys trying to sell us these paintings that they probably didn't paint themselves. I ended up becoming known as "Bombay" to them, so whenever I walked by, they would always yell, "Hey Bombay!" to me. It actually hasn't been the first time I've been called Bombay or Indian by the locals before, but I honestly enjoy the fact that over here, it's seen as humorous to call someone by those names, but if you did that in America, you would be seen as a racist. All in all, it's good fun.
8/8
In the morning, we had a lecture on the arts and crafts in Ghana and I'm not gonna lie, I did not pay any attention to that lecture at all because I was seated in the way back and I couldn't see or hear much. Oh well. We then left for the Manhyia Palace which is the seat of the Ashantehene (the main king) as well as his house. We got a tour of the whole building and learned a lot about the history and practices of the Ashanti people. We got lunch and went to another small market which I liked a lot because the vendors wouldn't try and harass you into buying something. They would say hello and invite you to come in to their store and at least look around, but that's it. I also liked it because they had Ghana rubber wristbands I had been looking for my entire time here. I ended up buying five or six for about a dollar. You have to love the cheapness here.
The shopping went on for another hour or so and then we came back to our hotel, where once again, the majority of our afternoon and our evening was to ourselves. I stayed in the wi-fi room for the most part because of the constant messages from the group chats I was in blowing my phone up. I decided to go the restaurant across the street for food and once I finished eating and walked back to the hotel, the vendors hollered at me again and I said, "Okay fine, I'll at least take a look." So the vendor took me over and showed me his paintings and there were actually a few that I liked. I heard from another person in the group that he got a painting for 13 cedis, so I was determined to get to a price around there. I ended up doing some hardcore bargaining that lasted nearly 30 minutes because the vendor was taking forever to lower his original price of 50 cedis. I mean to say that he was lowering his price for me, but he was doing it very slowly and most of the time consisted of me chipping away at the price until I finally coaxed him to do 15 cedis. He didn't seem very happy with it but I guess it was better for him to make a sale than to lose out on one.
8/9
During breakfast this morning, we were watching CNN and they were talking about the progress of Ebola in West Africa. A lot of us have been keeping tabs on its whereabouts and not much has changed. The Ghanaian government is doing everything in its power to prevent Ebola from coming by tightening their borders and having hotlines to call in case someone is showing the symptoms. It's sort of hard to tell if the symptoms match up with Ebola at first because it starts off a lot like malaria but by the time you can differentiate, the Ebola virus is already on the verge of killing you. But once again, I stress that Ebola isn't in Ghana and the nearest case is some 300 miles away (Yes, I actually looked that up on Google Maps). If Ebola does come to Ghana though, our program will most likely get cancelled and we will be flown back to the states as soon as possible. So let's hope that doesn't become the case.
The majority of the morning and afternoon took place in the bus, as we were headed back to school from Kumasi. The drive was six hours long and I was not feeling well the entire ride because I ended up getting diarrhea that morning and there was a war raging on in my stomach. I knew diarrhea was inevitable but I didn't think it would happen this late into the trip. But I felt pretty horrible on the ride and I didn't eat much out of fear that it would act as a nuclear bomb in my stomach. It was also the first time I truly felt homesick, probably because I kept thinking I wouldn't be suffering from this if I was back home and that I could get access to a good toilet that would always have toilet paper whenever I wanted to. That's another thing that's been a little difficult over here, finding bathrooms with toilet paper. Thank goodness my sister recommended that I brought my own toilet paper and wet wipes. But yeah, that ride was just horrible and when we got back I just stayed in my room and rested till dinnertime.
8/10
Completely free day today! I don't really remember what I did that day. If I remember, I'll come back and edit this. I wanted to go to the Aburi Botanical Gardens but I figured I should stay close to campus since I still wasn't feeling a hundred percent. I also couldn't go to the computer lab because it was closed on weekends. Sundays are pretty quiet days on campus because most people are in church or are staying at home. I just remember going out to dinner at this very swanky restaurant that had a bar, pool table, dance floor and giant booths. Once again, I waited an hour for the food to come out and it became more complicated when the waitress couldn't really understand what I was trying to order. But it all turned out fine and I got my food, which was so good it almost made the wait worth it. The bulk of our orientation was finally over and next week, we would begin the process of registering for classes. Or so I thought.
So last time, we left off at the movie 12 Years a Slave and how it set the tone for this week. We wouldn't be leaving for the slave castles until tomorrow, so for today, we started off with a lecture on how we can stay healthy in Ghana. As a vegetarian, we were essentially told that we would have to eat a lot of vegetables. Surprise, surprise. We had a few more discussions after that, ate lunch and then went off to this school in Jamestown (I think, it was somewhere around there) where we would be doing some community service.
When we got to the school, the kids immediately crowded around us and started holding our hands and legs. It's like all of them wanted a certain piece of us to grab on to. Either that, or they just wanted to touch a foreigner. It was all pretty cute and we started playing with the kids a little before we walked inside this classroom and the kids all sat on one side while we sat on the other side. In the middle, the principal of the school began talking to us, thanking us for coming. He then introduced several groups of kids, who danced and sang and preformed skits for us. I have one particular video on my camera that I will upload eventually, but it's really cute. Some of us got up from our side and began dancing with the kids who were preforming with us and eventually, it just turned into a dancing session which the principal loved. I saw one kid standing outside a window who wasn't in the school, but he looked so sad that he couldn't come inside and join us. I talked with him a little bit to try and make him feel better and even took a picture of him and showed it to him. But I realized since the window had bars on them, the picture made him look like he was in a jail cell. At least I tried.
All of that fun ended temporarily and we began to repaint the walls of the school with a fresh new coat to cover up some of the markings and stains that had been there. Thankfully, painting didn't take too long since we were able to team up and finish it within an hour and we were soon able to play with the kids again and take lots of pictures. The kids I played with seemed to be obsessed with my camera and sunglasses and began taking selfies and trying to make poses with my sunglasses on. I was actually surprised they didn't run off with my stuff or refuse to give it back to me and I was glad I could walk around and talk to my group members without having to worry about my things. Soon, it was time to go and we reluctantly said bye to all the kids. It really was a good way to get our minds off the looming visit to the slave castles and I think we all needed something like this to recharge ourselves for the week again. I know as a fact that I'm not good when it comes to entertaining children, but these kids were something else entirely.
We went out for dinner at this place called Star Bites, which, looking at the logo, seemed like a rip off of Starbucks. The only reason I'm writing about this dinner was because they had this amazing pasta with alfredo sauce and mushrooms and it made me feel super happy. It was weird, I can't really explain it, but since it was vegetarian, I took a lot of pasta.When we're catered food, the vegetarians always go first just so we can get enough to eat (and because we're VIP's obviously).
8/5
Today was the day we embarked on a four day trip across the Southern part of Ghana. Before we left, we got breakfast and had some lectures on the history of slavery in Ghana and the experiences that captives went though in their journey from Africa to wherever they were shipped off to.
We left for the three hour bus ride to Elmina Castle, which is the most prominent slave castle in Ghana. On the ride however, our bus crashed. It wasn't really anything serious, no one got hurt, but it was just bizarre. Basically, this empty taxi that was barked on the other side of the road somehow rolled onto the road and it hit the bus on the side. I saw it all happen from my window seat and I'm a little scared because my reaction was very slow but when I poked my head out the window, I didn't see any scratches on the bus. The bus jerked to the right to try and avoid the cab and some guy on the sidewalk had to jump out of the way to avoid getting hit by the bus. The driver and some of the orientation leaders got out to try and get everything settled and within 20 minutes we were on our way. Some of us sitting in the back kept looking out the back window to see what was going on but I had lost interest by that point and continued listening to music, waiting to continue on with our journey.
We made it to the castle and the tour guide took us through most of the rooms and chambers inside. There was one part where he had us all go inside a dungeon and locked us in it, telling us that this room was where they would starve certain captives to death. It was pretty nerve wracking to be in the same exact room where probably hundreds of people died in. I kept wondering how the tour guide, who was a Ghanaian, was able to give the same tour everyday without showing any emotion. The last part of the tour involved us going to the "point of no return," which is where captives would walk out from the castle onto the beach and become loaded onto ships headed for the Americas. It's called the point of no return because it was assumed that the captives would never return to see their homeland again. In essence, their last view of Africa would be as they exit the castle, since they didn't get access to go outside on the ships. Each of us walked out a little bit one by one and this was where the majority of us let our emotions go. Once again, it was a very emotionally charged atmosphere, and we all held a moment of silence for those who had passed away during the whole process.
8/6
We had breakfast in the hotel and before I go on talking about the Kakum Rainforest Reserve and the canopy walk experience, let me talk a little bit about the hotel because it was REALLY nice. I don't mean it was a five star hotel, but it was literally on the beach. I pretty much fell asleep last night listening to the waves crash and recede over and over again. The rooms were essentially huts but the best part was how the showers had hot water. Man, when I took a shower that night with the hot water, it made me realize how much I had gotten adapted to the cold showers here. It's crazy to think how hot water is such a luxury here.
Alright, now that I'm done gushing over the hotel, we can move on. I got on the bus and we drove for about an hour to the Kakum Rainforest. Kakum is a famous tourist attraction in Ghana because it's the only national park in Africa with a canopy walkway. Remarkably, the guide told us there has never been any accident on the walkway and when I began walking through the seven bridges, I started to see why. Yeah, they swayed here and there but there were so many ropes and wires connecting the trees to the bridges that it would take a lot for the bridges to collapse. It was so cool looking around and down at the forest because it was all so green and lush. The weather was perfect too, slightly foggy and drizzly, so it gave the forest an eerie mist to it. It reminded me a lot of walking through the cloud forests in Costa Rica because they were both so similar. The only difference was that Costa Rica had zip-lining across the canopy as an option. And after walking through the bridges, I think zip-lining would have been more fun.
Afterwards we returned to the hotel where we had a free afternoon to do whatever we want. I went with a big group to get lunch from the hotel restaurant but it ended up taking almost two hours to get our food because there was apparently only one chef and a lot of orders. So when we were finally served food, our lunch ended up becoming an early dinner. Once I finished eating another delicious spaghetti dish, I just spent some time on the beach, staring at the view and pondering the meaning of life until nighttime came. A few other friends joined me and we all started remarking how we had been over a week in Ghana and how we already feel like we're different people. It was all a really nice evening just chilling on the beach with some good friends, enjoying a few drinks and talking.
8/7
On this day, we spent about five or six hours traveling to Kumasi, the other major city in Ghana. I couldn't wait to go because the night before, I had accumulated a ton of bug bites on my feet and around my ankles and it ended up raining hard as well, which turned the chill vibe into a dreary one. I actually haven't been getting bitten as much as I thought I would, but part of that is because it's still the rainy season here. Anyway, Kumasi was the capital of the Ashanti nation, a rich and powerful group of people who resisted British colonization for a while until they were finally overwhelmed. They are also the basis for a lot of culture here in Ghana. Our first stop in Kumasi was this village called Adanwomase where we got to see how kente cloth was made. Kente is cloth woven from silk or cotton and is adorned with many colors and symbols, each of them with a special meaning. It was mainly worn by the kings of the Ashanti during important and sacred festivals and it is still treated like so. We saw little kids, probably ten years old or so weaving the cloth on these rickety wooden machines and the guide explained to us that they don't work once school starts, but it was still interesting to see these young boys having the knowledge to make such intricate cloth. We also got a tour of this cocoa plantation that just happened to be next to the kente weaving place, which I thought was pretty random, but we got to try some cocoa beans that were pleasantly sweet, but not like the chocolate I had been missing.
Once the tour ended, we did a little bit of shopping in the area, where I bought a cloth that meant togetherness. Then we came to our hotel and checked in. Our room this time was also pretty nice, as we were the only room to have two windows, which for some reason was a big deal for some people. The showers also had hot water but it didn't last for more than three minutes, when it just became lukewarm. We had some free time until dinner, so most of us decided to go in the pool. I didn't feel like going in the pool so I ended up going to this room that we ended up calling "The Wi-Fi Room" because there would always be a good chunk of us in that room staring blankly at their phones or laptops, taking advantage of the exceptionally good wi-fi that was there. We then got dinner at the restaurant across the street, and walking across the street was kind of difficult to do because there were these guys trying to sell us these paintings that they probably didn't paint themselves. I ended up becoming known as "Bombay" to them, so whenever I walked by, they would always yell, "Hey Bombay!" to me. It actually hasn't been the first time I've been called Bombay or Indian by the locals before, but I honestly enjoy the fact that over here, it's seen as humorous to call someone by those names, but if you did that in America, you would be seen as a racist. All in all, it's good fun.
8/8
In the morning, we had a lecture on the arts and crafts in Ghana and I'm not gonna lie, I did not pay any attention to that lecture at all because I was seated in the way back and I couldn't see or hear much. Oh well. We then left for the Manhyia Palace which is the seat of the Ashantehene (the main king) as well as his house. We got a tour of the whole building and learned a lot about the history and practices of the Ashanti people. We got lunch and went to another small market which I liked a lot because the vendors wouldn't try and harass you into buying something. They would say hello and invite you to come in to their store and at least look around, but that's it. I also liked it because they had Ghana rubber wristbands I had been looking for my entire time here. I ended up buying five or six for about a dollar. You have to love the cheapness here.
The shopping went on for another hour or so and then we came back to our hotel, where once again, the majority of our afternoon and our evening was to ourselves. I stayed in the wi-fi room for the most part because of the constant messages from the group chats I was in blowing my phone up. I decided to go the restaurant across the street for food and once I finished eating and walked back to the hotel, the vendors hollered at me again and I said, "Okay fine, I'll at least take a look." So the vendor took me over and showed me his paintings and there were actually a few that I liked. I heard from another person in the group that he got a painting for 13 cedis, so I was determined to get to a price around there. I ended up doing some hardcore bargaining that lasted nearly 30 minutes because the vendor was taking forever to lower his original price of 50 cedis. I mean to say that he was lowering his price for me, but he was doing it very slowly and most of the time consisted of me chipping away at the price until I finally coaxed him to do 15 cedis. He didn't seem very happy with it but I guess it was better for him to make a sale than to lose out on one.
8/9
During breakfast this morning, we were watching CNN and they were talking about the progress of Ebola in West Africa. A lot of us have been keeping tabs on its whereabouts and not much has changed. The Ghanaian government is doing everything in its power to prevent Ebola from coming by tightening their borders and having hotlines to call in case someone is showing the symptoms. It's sort of hard to tell if the symptoms match up with Ebola at first because it starts off a lot like malaria but by the time you can differentiate, the Ebola virus is already on the verge of killing you. But once again, I stress that Ebola isn't in Ghana and the nearest case is some 300 miles away (Yes, I actually looked that up on Google Maps). If Ebola does come to Ghana though, our program will most likely get cancelled and we will be flown back to the states as soon as possible. So let's hope that doesn't become the case.
The majority of the morning and afternoon took place in the bus, as we were headed back to school from Kumasi. The drive was six hours long and I was not feeling well the entire ride because I ended up getting diarrhea that morning and there was a war raging on in my stomach. I knew diarrhea was inevitable but I didn't think it would happen this late into the trip. But I felt pretty horrible on the ride and I didn't eat much out of fear that it would act as a nuclear bomb in my stomach. It was also the first time I truly felt homesick, probably because I kept thinking I wouldn't be suffering from this if I was back home and that I could get access to a good toilet that would always have toilet paper whenever I wanted to. That's another thing that's been a little difficult over here, finding bathrooms with toilet paper. Thank goodness my sister recommended that I brought my own toilet paper and wet wipes. But yeah, that ride was just horrible and when we got back I just stayed in my room and rested till dinnertime.
8/10
Completely free day today! I don't really remember what I did that day. If I remember, I'll come back and edit this. I wanted to go to the Aburi Botanical Gardens but I figured I should stay close to campus since I still wasn't feeling a hundred percent. I also couldn't go to the computer lab because it was closed on weekends. Sundays are pretty quiet days on campus because most people are in church or are staying at home. I just remember going out to dinner at this very swanky restaurant that had a bar, pool table, dance floor and giant booths. Once again, I waited an hour for the food to come out and it became more complicated when the waitress couldn't really understand what I was trying to order. But it all turned out fine and I got my food, which was so good it almost made the wait worth it. The bulk of our orientation was finally over and next week, we would begin the process of registering for classes. Or so I thought.
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