Kumasi Part 1: Revisiting Ghana

(May 27, 2011)

After spending the night in Takoradi, we caught an early bus (like 5am-ish) to Kumasi.  Once we were in the city we got off the bus into… chaos.

                           This is actually downtown Accra near the main market, but same idea.


 It’s hard to describe the bustling energy of urban Africa.  Take an urban city in the US like Washington DC, with its traffic and buildings and industy, without a lot of the pavement and street signs, with 50x more people walking- in the street, between cars, next to the streets, add animals- goats, chickens, sometimes sheep and the stray cat or dog, add a lot more exhaust, the smell of animals, sometimes the waft of sewage depending on how close you are to the gigantic drains all over Ghana, and add the noise- beyond the normal engines and conversations- people hawking goods, offering you taxis and buses, selling animals, constant honking from cars, and the bustle of hundreds of people talking in one area. 

                             I took this in traffic in Kumasi- I don't remember why the people on horseback.

  It affects all of your senses at once except taste, unless you choose to partake in some of the goods being offered.  Then you may get rice, beans, stew, cookies that are more like biscuits, various meat on a stick, pastries, etc.  All that I tried were good, and miraculously, almost all seemed to agree with my system.*

After disembarking into the semi-chaos, we needed to find a place to stay for the 2 days we planned on being in Kumasi.  Diana’s methodology of figuring out taxi fares is to ask several people, not necessarily the drivers, what the fare is to various places, to figure out what we should be charged.  In the process of doing this one guy was almost dragging us into (stopped) traffic to get us a taxi.  He wasn’t the driver, but he was going to find us a taxi and expected us to be tipped for it.  So he told us a fare, and we said that’s way too high.  Then a driver said, no, this, and it was half as much.  So we agreed and started to get into the taxi and the first guy is demanding a tip- we apparently picked the taxi he wanted us to, except for half the fare.  And Diana is trying to explain that we don’t owe him anything, he was trying to gyp us, and as we wait to merge into traffic he’s standing next to the taxi yelling at us that we are bad people because we didn’t tip him.  I was really frustrated, and thinking, I want to yell back at you that you are a bad person.  But I didn’t, because that really wouldn’t have helped anything.  And not all taxi drivers are bad at all- we befriended several in various cities throughout Ghana.

Next edition:  Manhiya  Palace, the Kumasi Market, and bedbugs

* Without going into more detail than you probably want, all of us interns got upset stomachs every now and then, but nothing really bad.  My worst experience was a ‘dodgey tummy’ in the words of Angelina who is from the UK, for about 5 days, and then it cleared up.  I never identified anything that made my stomach upset, and considering that when I went to Jamaica for a week in 2001 I wound in the hospital for a couple of hours because I couldn’t keep water down, I consider Ghana a success for my GI system.

7 Quick Takes

1.  My Christmas/winter break was pretty awesome.  I got to see a lot of people, play with a big goofy black lab, and help my mom start cleaning out our basement.  You might not think that last item is awesome, but trust me, it is.

2. I took a condensed class (read, 2 credits in 1 weeks, class 8:30am-5:30pm) last week and it was really interesting.  Also informtion overload, but still really cool- Environmental Microbiology: Control of Food and Waterborne Diseases.  Now I just need to finish the assignments for the class.

3. My mom is currently in Israel and my cousin is in Antarctica!  I am by far not the only globe trotter in my family.

4. I have this little thing called a thesis to write this semester.  It's more than a little intimidating.  I'm sure I'll blog about it more, because so far I have been very creative in finding ways to avoid working on it.

5.  I'm still applying for the Peace Corps.  I'm currently in the land of a thousand doctor's appointments, to be followed with probably more doctor's appointments, and then hopefully a placement.  So far I've been nominated for a health position- no shock there :)

6. I have recently read several books, and one of my goals is to blog about reading more.  But for now, titles will suffice:  20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, The Ghost Map (for my class, but I already owned it), and 'We Swam the Grand Canyon: A cheap vacation that got a little out of hand'.
Currently reading: King Leopold's Ghost, The Last Taboo: Opening the Door on the Global Sanitation  Crisis, and Generations.  A lot of my Christmas loot was also books, so there's a lovely pile in the non-yet-started category too.

7. My new years resolution is 'To not let the perfect get in the way of the good'.  So, to not let my human imperfections stop me from trying things and doing them imperfectly.  This is for scheduling, dieting, writing, reading, and all other goals that I make and will probably screw up at some point.  Reading 300/365 days of the year is much better than 0/365 days, even though its not a perfect 365/365.  So we'll see how things go :)

Musings on Friendships

Dear future potentially married self,

I'm not trying to make any assumptions here, but there is a chance that you'll be married in the future.  And this IS something that your current single self wants (in the future).  That being said, please remember that you have freaking awesome friends that you have made as a single person.  And please don't ditch them when you get married.  I know that when people get married they sometimes say, 'I didn't know what love was until I got married', etc etc, or stop spending time with their friends because all they want to do is look googly eyed at their true love. There might be a separate letter to you asking you to please not do that too much in public. But I digress.
Don't forget your friends.  They are seriously awesome.  They have laughed with you, cried with you, carried you through hell and back, worked with you, played with you, tried to change the world with you.  These are the people that you can build silly gingerbread houses with and form the group that bursts out laughing in the middle of studying scripture.  You've said you can call me at 2am and they did, and then they returned the favor.  These are the people you sat in the hallway of your apartment and talked for hours on end with.  These are the people that supported your decision to go sledding in a shopping cart, and to do hurricane relief work after Katrina.  The ones that know the crazy stories from your childhood, and college, and grad school, and are also good friends with your mom.  The ones that challenge your beliefs and make you grow as a person.  They are your co-workers, roommates, mentors, and the people of all ages that fill your life.  These are people your current single self hopes you will spend the rest of your life knowing, and growing with, and spending time with and keeping in touch with.
So if you fall in love and get married, don't say you didn't know what love is until that point.  Because that's really not true.  Romantic love is different, and so please remember to throw that adjective in there.  Because agape and philos love, the love of God and friends, you've know your whole life, in ways that many people never even glimpse.   Hang on to that.  It's just as if not more important than a spouse.
You've got the best friends on the planet and then some.  Don't throw them under the bus for a boy.

Love,
(Single) Me

7 Quick Takes

1.  It's been a really long time since I've blogged.  I keep thinking of all of these things to write about, but I never have time enough to write that 'perfect' entry I'm conceptualizing.  So one of my new goals is, in the words of The Frugal Girl, a blog I follow: "Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good".  So here's to more imperfect blog entries.
2. Speaking of imperfect, I feel like something is wrong with the space key on my laptop.  So if there are two words run together give me some grace, I promise it's not that I failed 4th grade grammar.
3.  I'm just short of being halfway through this semester (yikes?), and it's awesome.  It's a lot of work, but I really like my classes.  Mental note to expand on those in another post. I'm not currently working, but debating a job or internship for next semester- we shall see.
4.  Um, I'm back from Ghana?  Maybe that should have been #1 on the list.  My summer in Ghana was awesome and although I only posted about half of what I wrote about the summer so far, another one of my goals is to rectify that in the future too.
5.  I forgot how much I like to write.  Somewhere an English class (or two or ten) scarred me from writing and it's taken me years to realize that I actually really enjoy writing.  It's another form of creativity for me.
6.  As I am writing this, I am swaying back and forth to the music stuck in my head, Michael Jackson's 'Beat It'.  I think listening to a big 80s weekend on the radio has lasting side effects.
7.  It's fall break!  Which means I didn't have class today, which is nice.  Fall break extends into tomorrow also, but since I don't have class on Tuesdays, today is the real break.  And since half of my classes are on Mondays, it's a real break indeed.  It's also following a rather insane 2 weeks, so it's much appreciated.  So far I've been to the zoo, the Stone Mountain laser show, church, and the grocery store.  And slept a lot.  I've also been cleaning, scrap booking, baking, and catching up on some neglected friendships.

I alight here

That's the Ghanian way of saying this is where I get off when you're in a car.

I fly home to the States tonight, arriving sometime tomorrow afternoon EST.

I know I've been very bad about keeping up my blog, mostly because our internet situation got scarce these last few weeks, which makes uploading pictures impossible (we're charged on bandwidth).

So, I hope to post a lot more pictures and stories when I'm back home.

The research this summer has been awesome, as have the people I've gotten to work with.  I've been able to see quite a lot of Ghana, although I didn't make it up north this trip.  I've bought a lot of arts/crafts souvineers.

I've traveled by plane, bus, taxi, tro-tro (old beat-up van crammed full of people), car, canoe, and motorbike.  I've walked a lot.  I've seen a lot of toilets (my research was on sanitation).  I've gotten one marriage proposal from an assemblyman.  I've gotten and recovered from malaria.  I've worked on a lot of spreadsheets.  We've had several dance parties. I've learned to make 1 Ghanian dish, red-red (bean stew and fried plantains).  I've taken pictures of lots of goats, which I've seen in yards, houses, gutters, streets, trees, and car windows.  I've eaten a lot of mangos and pineapple.

I've had lots of crazy adventures, including canoeing on 2 lakes, getting caught in a rainstorm and subsequently having a water fight, tracking down a cab driver for the better part of a day (and then spending the night at the house of another cab driver's grandmother), seeing numerous beaches, waiting hours for a tro-tro, meeting people from all over Ghana and the world (Gambia, Togo, China, Denmark, England, Canada...), visiting 2 waterfalls and frolicking in one, visiting 2 museums, climbing a lighthouse, seeing 3 forts, crossing a canopy walk, and touring the University of Ghana campus.

I've learned a lot about conducting research involving people, and with people of another culture.  It was fantastic to be able to work along side of Ghanians for this survey, and they had a lot more experience surveying than I did.  I've made friends that I really really hope I keep in touch with (on 3 continents).  I've learned that GIS mapping is super cool.

I've gotten to look poverty in the face, and realize that not all poverty is equal, and that people here in Ghana are better than I am about not judging on appearances.  I've seen how frustrated people are when they think they have no power to change things in their community.

I've been able to see a beautiful country filled with friendly people and a lot of opportunity.  Ghana is heading in the right direction, and its wonderful to see.  There is also still a lot to be done.

I'm sad to leave and happy to be seeing my family and friends soon, all at the same time.

To my Ghanian friends that may or may not be reading this, please stay in touch and come visit me! 
Akwaaba.  You are welcome.

My apologies for being a delinquent blogger

On Friday night Mie (pronounced Mia) arrived from Copenhagen, the 4th summer intern for SUSA. So yesterday we did a lot of sightseeing in Accra. We went to the Makola market, the biggest one in downtown Accra. It was like the one I went to in Kumasi, except much cleaner. We didn’t buy anything but walked around a bit; once you actually get inside it’s actually less crowded than the perimeter on the street. I think this is because a lot of the food stuffs are sold on the street and those are the most popular items. All kinds of vegetables, live snails, live crabs, chicken pieces, goat, smoked fish, everything.


After the market we went to Jamestown, a fishing village on the coast. It’s sort of advertised as a timeless village, meaning that it hasn’t been modernized; it’s still a traditional village. Honestly it reminded me a lot of Prampram, except I think it’s poorer, judging on the building materials of the houses. I was able to get some good pictures though; I’ve been reluctant to take a lot of pictures at our research site because the health center will continue to work in the area and didn’t want us taking lot of pictures. At Jamestown they are most used to tourists and we went with a guide. We first climbed to the top of a lighthouse and got a magnificent view of the surrounding area and coast. From there we sort of picked up a guide who took us through Jamestown for an hour or so.

On our way to getting a cab to independence square we stopped for a few minutes to watch some men drumming and lots of children crowding around wanting to dance. It was very sunny so we kept moving to find some shade and a taxi after a few minutes. We walked around independence square and down to the beach there, where we could see were we had just been at Jamestown, and had a better view of the Christiansburg fort where the government resides.

Finally we went to a shop called Wild Gecko near campus that we’ve been meaning to check out for a few weeks. It was a little more expensive than the cultural center we went to a few weeks ago, but had some different things as well. Then we took a cab to the mall where we ate Chinese food at our new favorite restaurant and Mie got some groceries.

Today we slept in and did some work. I’ll try to post pictures when I get better internet.

It’s crazy that I’m only here another 2 weeks!

The Stilt Village (May 28th)

Since we got into Beyin late on Wednesday, we had to wait until Thursday to go to the stilt village. Our trotro driver from the previous night said the earliest you could go was 7am, so we woke up around 6:15 and were ready to go at 7. Someone at the hotel gave us a ride, squished into his pickup truck, through the small village of Beyin to the dock where you go to the stilt village. We paid in a small building and then boarded a canoe, me in the front and Diana in the back with a guy rowing in the very back, to the stilt village.

Are we really getting in this??

Sunrise on the water

Through the swamp to the lake.

 The stilt village reminded me a little bit of the floating village/stilt village I saw in Venezuela, except this one seemed poorer.
Not a minute after we stepped onto the dock we saw a cat run by, leap to another piece of the dock, miss, fall in the water with a huge splash, and literally shoot out of the water away from us, with villagers laughing all around. This was a dry cat.

The village doesn’t have electricity and they use the lake as their water source. I didn’t get all the specifics from the guide, but apparently they keep it pretty clean since they drink from it. They only have one boat with a motor for emergencies; otherwise they make the 45 minute journey by canoe whenever they want to go to land. There is a primary school in the village, as well as a nursery (which looked more like a preschool), but kids that want/get to go to high school do it on the mainland. Although the water looked very clean, there were piles of trash around the docks in the marsh, and chickens and goats and other animals roaming the docks and the trash.
I can’t help but wonder how they keep the water clean enough to drink if there is so much trash, and if its ever been tested to see how clean it actually is. Our guide scooped some up to drink on our way back, but Diana and I knew that if we drank it we’d have serious stomach issues. The people in the village were very polite and almost ignored us, going about their daily activities. Apparently they can get up to 150 people a day visiting the village, so I guess they are used to it and don’t have time to stop whenever someone comes. There were signs and verbal warnings not to take pictures of the people unless you asked permission, which seems to be the norm in Ghana in general.

After about 1 ½ hours we left again by canoe, and there was a dug-out canoe of villagers leaving at the same time.  They said we could take their picture, so I have a few shots.  I have some videos of the canoes also, but I don’t have the internet bandwidth to upload them here in Ghana.  Maybe after I get home.

After returning to land, we walked back to our hotel through a small village- I could imagine myself living somewhere like it in the Peace Corps.  Then we bounced back to civilization on a few Tro-tros and taxis, and spent the night in Takoradi with Diana’s cousin at her apartment.   We visited Diana’s Grandmother and also met her aunt, who were both super nice.