Well today is my last time writing from Africa. It is a bittersweet time. I am really sad to leave and I might actually cry...weird I know. I have already said goodbye to the children and held it together pretty well because they didn't understand I wasn't coming back tomorrow. I have absolutely loved my time here and even though I can't wait to return to life and comforts of home, I can't believe how fast my time has gone by here. To remember Ghana and give you more insight of the things that I love most about here, I am going to list what I will miss most.
*Warning: some may be sarcastic. I know I wasn't sarcastic before but it must be something I picked up here :).
I am going to miss: being called "Yevu", our white parades, the happy faces of the children waving from behind every corner and fence, the happy, friendly of the faces of the Ghanian people as we walk by, the laughs from the Ghanian people as we try and speak Ewe, going to Ghanian hospitals with thoughts of malaria in my head, taking anti-malaria medication, the sticky yet wonderful aroma of deet in the morning, the high-carb diet, Fan-choco, choco delight (sigh), the smell of freshly burned coal in the morning, the enormous potholes filled with bacteria infested water, the goats and chickens aimlessly wandering the street and amazingly dodging the taxi cabs, the sounds of the taxi cabs honking at anything in its way cause in Ghana taxis and vans have the right a way. I am going to miss seeing how tough these Ghanians are as they carry fridges and suitcases on their heads, to name a few. Yes these were witnessed. I am going to miss tucking myself in my bed with my mosquito net every night only to wish I had gone to the bathroom before I did so. I am going to miss boiled groundnuts(peanuts) and drinking soda from a glass bottle. I am going to miss the cultural music radiating throughout the neighborhood until 4 in the morning on Wednesday nights from the church next door. I am going to miss late night chats with Alpha that usually turned into late night U.S. state capital lessons because he knows more than me. I am going to miss fuzzy hair, sticky, sweaty face, no make-up, I look like a boy in pictures look. I am going to miss the stickers that dangerously cover the back window of taxi cabs proclaiming their faith in God. I am going to miss Hi-Life dancing. I am going to miss the smell of the banana tub and the swarm of fruit flies that fly out each time I want a banana. I am goint to miss letting my yellow mellow and having to throw my soiled toilet paper in the garbage can. I am going to miss fans. I am going to miss my feet looking tan from the orange dirt. I am going to miss hand scrubbing my clothes in wash bins and line drying them only to have them rained on. I am going to miss the green grass and plants that grow abundantly and are trimmed with machetes. I am going to miss cold showers that remind me of Bear Lake and only to become sweaty shortly after. I am going to miss not wearing white shirts but creme ones from the children's dirty hands. I am going to miss all the marriage proposals ;). I am going to miss getting urinated on. I am going to miss the chatter of the children and the call of "teecha". I am going to miss the petting of my head because of the amazement of soft hair. I am going to miss the pinching, rubbing and poking of the children wondering if my white skin will come off. I am going to miss spiders on me from the flowers the girls put in my hair. I am going to miss those brown heads. I am going to miss flies, mosquitoes, ants, lizards and anything that crawls and does crawl on my food. I am going to miss the staff here, Christine, Atsu, George, Dela, John, Joe, Alpha, Rebekah, Bertha, Prosper and Xzibit. I am going to miss my fellow volunteers and the moments we have shared. I am going to miss walking by light of a flashlight only to wait 5 minutes for this site to load each link so I could keep you all informed. I am going to miss the quiet peacefullness of this town, the fireflies that you can see dotting the dirt path, the stars that have nothing to dim their light, the wonderful forests and lush plants that surround the area. Most of all, I am going to miss the people and the simpleness and happiness they live everyday. The happiness they have of life when they have next to nothing. The happiness that we all should have everyday when we think of all the wonderful things we have even when we think we don't have much. I am really going to miss how much these people remember where everything they have comes from, our Savior Jesus Christ.
It is amazing to me that just like the scriptures say, the meek and the poor are the ones who do remember the Lord the most. It has become very evident here and is one thing I hope to take with me. I also hope that from this trip I will remember every day that happiness is dependent on my outlook on life and nothing else. I am grateful for a wonderful family and friends that are with me through the good, the bad and the sad. I will miss Ghana and the people, maybe even cry the whole way home, but I am most grateful to have a great home to come back to where we have been fortunate enough to have the presence of the Lord in our lives.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
A New Meaning to Fast Food
While driving to and from Kumasi, I have come to discover a new meaning for fast food. When driving anywhere in the city you will find these "fast food" vendors. It reminds me of Blue Comedy Collar tour where he talks about spontaneous buys such as hot tubs at the county fair. This applies to Ghana. Just in case you didn't have a mirror to check out if you have food in your teeth in the car, why settle for a hand-held? You can buy a full length mirror right in the comfort of your car. There are various things you can buy but I wanted to talk about the food. Our crazy driver, who apparently got hungry on his drive was able to get his meal, roasted snails and some water pouches. This process goes like this. The vendors walk by your car and reach in your window if open or stand there staring at you. All you have to do is reach out your hand and there it is. I actually saw one situation where a woman was running after the car, grabbing food off her head while the car was passing the food down and exchanging the money. Like I said, a new meaning to fast food. Talk about service!
Well today was a normal day, I went to my placement at Happy Kids where the kids are, very happy. P.S. Tara if you want some twins Peter and Paul are adorable. Basically I want to take a lot of them home though :). The lady said it wasn't hard to adopt but I am not sure if she fully comprehended either. I am really enjoying my placement and wishing that I had more time. I can't believe that this is my last week and I only have 3 more days here!! Where did the time go? I am not going to lie, tears will be shed. I know big surprise to those of you that know me well :). I am teaching the 6-7 year old kids the alphabet sounds and trying to show them how to blend words. It is a bit trickier since they don't have a big English vocabulary and they can't tell if the words sound right. I do have some bright kids in my class and I feel very much at home teaching these kids how to read. Again, I wish I had more time.
We had our last Ewe lesson today and learned our African names, my name I made up Afi, since it goes by what day of the week you were born and I don't know. But don't be surprised if I am fluent when I get home...yeah right. One thing that you may need to be warned about however. Some girls were laying out trying to convert themselves from Yevu to Amaybo(black person). They asked our guard Alpha how many more times they would have to lay out to become Amaybo. Thinking it was a clever question and after getting a lot of sun that day, I asked Alpha how many times I would have to lay out. He just laughed and said I am already Amaybo.
A few other important details, I saw my first huge African spider today in our house. It wasn't huge I guess but big and nasty and it almost escaped and I almost lost the ability to sleep the rest of the week with it on the loose. I have also found besides big spiders, that men here are anxious to get married...another reason to stay here. After stepping out of the cab I immediately got a "I'll marry you" no questions asked. Wow that easy huh.
Other than the marriage proposal and big spider, life is great here.
Well today was a normal day, I went to my placement at Happy Kids where the kids are, very happy. P.S. Tara if you want some twins Peter and Paul are adorable. Basically I want to take a lot of them home though :). The lady said it wasn't hard to adopt but I am not sure if she fully comprehended either. I am really enjoying my placement and wishing that I had more time. I can't believe that this is my last week and I only have 3 more days here!! Where did the time go? I am not going to lie, tears will be shed. I know big surprise to those of you that know me well :). I am teaching the 6-7 year old kids the alphabet sounds and trying to show them how to blend words. It is a bit trickier since they don't have a big English vocabulary and they can't tell if the words sound right. I do have some bright kids in my class and I feel very much at home teaching these kids how to read. Again, I wish I had more time.
We had our last Ewe lesson today and learned our African names, my name I made up Afi, since it goes by what day of the week you were born and I don't know. But don't be surprised if I am fluent when I get home...yeah right. One thing that you may need to be warned about however. Some girls were laying out trying to convert themselves from Yevu to Amaybo(black person). They asked our guard Alpha how many more times they would have to lay out to become Amaybo. Thinking it was a clever question and after getting a lot of sun that day, I asked Alpha how many times I would have to lay out. He just laughed and said I am already Amaybo.
A few other important details, I saw my first huge African spider today in our house. It wasn't huge I guess but big and nasty and it almost escaped and I almost lost the ability to sleep the rest of the week with it on the loose. I have also found besides big spiders, that men here are anxious to get married...another reason to stay here. After stepping out of the cab I immediately got a "I'll marry you" no questions asked. Wow that easy huh.
Other than the marriage proposal and big spider, life is great here.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Kumasi
Yesterday I started our weekend journey to Kumasi. Kumasi is west of where I am in the Ashanti Region. The drive should have been 5-6 hours but complications with our driver made it a 9 hour journey. Our journey started out with a crazy driver who drove like a maniac to make sure he could follow his buddy in front of us so he could make it to Kumasi. On our journey on the road, despite our abnormally, for Ghana, crazy driver I discovered that the reason why they don't have painted road lanes, because nobody would use them. There were four or five cars passing in the oncoming lane at a time. Yes I did worry for my life.
Today when we traveled around Kumasi. Instead of taking our driver you endangered our lives and had no idea how to get around this town, we hired a car from the hotel, or a 30 passenger bus for Heather, Val and me. Our driver Steve was able to tell us a lot about the town and take us around to the good sites to see. Our first stop was the culutral center. It was more like a small courtyard with things around it but it was a lot of historical items from the Ashanti king and kingdom. A couple pieces that were really interesting were, a treasure satchel made out of elephant skin that the tour guide said hadn't been open since the 1700's for fear of the fall of the Ashanti kingdom. The second was a drum made of a leopard skin that was used as a war drum. When you rub a stick across the top, it really did sound like the growl of a leopard.
Our next stop was the Kumasi market. Now in order to travel through the Kumasi market there are a few requirements:
1. You need to walk at a fast pace when following our guide Steve.
2. You must be willing to change lanes, cut people off, and bump into the to go where you must go.
3. You must have a strong stomach because the smell of fish, raw meat of all sorts and parts of the animal's bodies will surely make you want to throw up.
4. You must be good at manuevering not only your body but your head around the large, and I mean large items the women are carrying on their head.
5. You must have eyes on your thighs, feet and all sides of your head so as to not step or bump into the raw meat on wooden platters in all directions.
6. You must be willing to walk around in hot, humid weather, that absorbs the smell of fish by the way.
**If you should survive the market, without feeling nausea, getting some kind of liquid on you, not getting your feet ran over by a big cart or being separated from your group, consider yourself lucky:).
The Kumasi market was really quite the experience. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get pictures of the animal hooves, and large snails, among the other things because the people were afraid that us Americans were going to sell their ideas in the states :). So all of you that are tempted...don't! Kumasi market for me was more a place to be survived rather than a place to shop. But with that and malaria, I think I can call this trip a success!
Today when we traveled around Kumasi. Instead of taking our driver you endangered our lives and had no idea how to get around this town, we hired a car from the hotel, or a 30 passenger bus for Heather, Val and me. Our driver Steve was able to tell us a lot about the town and take us around to the good sites to see. Our first stop was the culutral center. It was more like a small courtyard with things around it but it was a lot of historical items from the Ashanti king and kingdom. A couple pieces that were really interesting were, a treasure satchel made out of elephant skin that the tour guide said hadn't been open since the 1700's for fear of the fall of the Ashanti kingdom. The second was a drum made of a leopard skin that was used as a war drum. When you rub a stick across the top, it really did sound like the growl of a leopard.
Our next stop was the Kumasi market. Now in order to travel through the Kumasi market there are a few requirements:
1. You need to walk at a fast pace when following our guide Steve.
2. You must be willing to change lanes, cut people off, and bump into the to go where you must go.
3. You must have a strong stomach because the smell of fish, raw meat of all sorts and parts of the animal's bodies will surely make you want to throw up.
4. You must be good at manuevering not only your body but your head around the large, and I mean large items the women are carrying on their head.
5. You must have eyes on your thighs, feet and all sides of your head so as to not step or bump into the raw meat on wooden platters in all directions.
6. You must be willing to walk around in hot, humid weather, that absorbs the smell of fish by the way.
**If you should survive the market, without feeling nausea, getting some kind of liquid on you, not getting your feet ran over by a big cart or being separated from your group, consider yourself lucky:).
The Kumasi market was really quite the experience. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get pictures of the animal hooves, and large snails, among the other things because the people were afraid that us Americans were going to sell their ideas in the states :). So all of you that are tempted...don't! Kumasi market for me was more a place to be survived rather than a place to shop. But with that and malaria, I think I can call this trip a success!
Is that a tan line or just dirt?
Thursday night we got to experience the Hi-life. No, my spelling isn't that bad. We learned a dance called Hi-life. There is also a Ghanian group here called Hi-life. Basically all there is to the dance is a side step motion. Our directors George and Christine then said that you let the music move your body. Apparently they didn't realize they were talking to a bunch of white people. It was a really fun experience however and a lot of fun just movin to the music and dancing in the moonlight in Ghana, minus the sweat that was puddling on my body in the 101 degree weather, not a joke.
National Ghana Day
Sorry I am a little behind in the blogging. Wednesday was Republic Day for Ghana. On Republic Day the kids don't have a school so as a group we went to the bat cave, or just so really cool caves in Ghana that I don't remember the name of. Anyway to take you on this hike we went on there were 6 caves we went in. The first was a little crawl in crawl out cave and from there they progressively got harder. The third cave is the kicker. To get inside of this cave you have to crawl backwards and down a ladder. While you are crawling you have to avoid the bats flying out of the same small hole. A fellow volunteer, on my turn of course, decided to shine her head lamp on a group of bats inside of the cave. As I was climbing in about 12 bats come flying out. Figures. After a lot of coaxing I was talked into trying to crawl again. The caves were really neat some required so more crawling, rock climbing without gear and a lot of water dripping and mud. Thank goodness we had our fearless leaders, George, Dela, Joe and Boss with his machete.
Now as I was talking with my mother the other day, she was wondering if all I eat is choco delight. Well, although it is a nice treat all the time when I am not eating meals that is not all I eat. I also eat Fan Choco (frozen chocolate milk) :). Ghana is famous for it's chocolate so I definitely came to the right place. A few things that they eat here are rice, pasta, rice, potatoes, rice, pineapple and mango. They change the all carb diet up occasionally by adding a red sauce made from a pepper called a Pom nut and sometimes throwing in green peppers and chicken or occasionally beef. When I was in Cape Coast I ate a dish called Red-Red which is black-eyed peas and a red sort of sauce over chicken and fried plantains(yumm..they are like bananas). There has also been some interesting stuff I have eaten. Banku is one it looks like a ball of mushed up rice which is made of corn flour. To eat this banku, you dip it in okro soup. To describe this soup to you better, it looks like a spinach soup in an orange juice but when you dip the banku, it strings up like it has cheese in it. I didn't eat very much that night. For the most part I really enjoy the food there isn't a lot of variety but, it is very tasty and has enough spice to please my tongue. It has really made me appreciate though the variety of foods we have in the states. One more thing that I have eaten a lot of is crackers. That is about all they have in a gas station is dozens of types of cream crackers. I think I will be okay without crackers for a while.
Now as I was talking with my mother the other day, she was wondering if all I eat is choco delight. Well, although it is a nice treat all the time when I am not eating meals that is not all I eat. I also eat Fan Choco (frozen chocolate milk) :). Ghana is famous for it's chocolate so I definitely came to the right place. A few things that they eat here are rice, pasta, rice, potatoes, rice, pineapple and mango. They change the all carb diet up occasionally by adding a red sauce made from a pepper called a Pom nut and sometimes throwing in green peppers and chicken or occasionally beef. When I was in Cape Coast I ate a dish called Red-Red which is black-eyed peas and a red sort of sauce over chicken and fried plantains(yumm..they are like bananas). There has also been some interesting stuff I have eaten. Banku is one it looks like a ball of mushed up rice which is made of corn flour. To eat this banku, you dip it in okro soup. To describe this soup to you better, it looks like a spinach soup in an orange juice but when you dip the banku, it strings up like it has cheese in it. I didn't eat very much that night. For the most part I really enjoy the food there isn't a lot of variety but, it is very tasty and has enough spice to please my tongue. It has really made me appreciate though the variety of foods we have in the states. One more thing that I have eaten a lot of is crackers. That is about all they have in a gas station is dozens of types of cream crackers. I think I will be okay without crackers for a while.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)