Where I come from...Battor, Volta Region, Ghana

Greetings all,

I believe I promised a food edition of my blog but that will have to come later because I had a fantastic weekend that I want to tell you about!

For a few weeks now I have known that my family would be making a trip to Battor, my host-dad's village for a funeral this weekend. However, they failed to mention that instead of a funeral it was a celebration of the 10th anniversary of our grandmother's death. It was an extra big deal because she was the Queen Mother of the village (basically the mayor of a town kind of deal). All week the people in our sewing center were busy sewing our entire family clothes in a matching fabric for the occasion. Friday, I decided against going to the beach in order to stay home and help prepare for the celebration..it was a great choice. I found out shortly that two of my parents' sons came to visit us from the U.S. for the event. They are awesome!

Friday afternoon Charlie (my host-dad), my sister Sisto, and one of the brothers left for Battor. At dinner the brother that stayed home told me that he was impressed that I am so hands on (basically because I helped cook and take out the trash haha). He said that he and his brother agreed that I fit in perfectly with the family thanks to my eagerness to help (everyone together now.. "awww").

Saturday, Jessalyn, Paige, Anil, Erica, and I went to watch my brother Remi play rugby against the University of Ghana team. It was really hot out and none of us really knew anything about rugby but it was fun nonetheless. By the end of the game we sort of figured it out unfortunately Remi's team lost.. The whole experience, just like any other in Ghana was interesting because 1. there were A LOT of oburonis on Remi's team. 2. One of them, a slightly inebriated Brit, came up to talk to us and brought up randomnly how his undershorts he wears for rugby aren't very clean because he told the house boy not to worry about it..he then asked us what our plans were for the evening... 3. the University of Ghana's rugby coach first tried to convince us to join the women's rugby team and then tried convincing us to give him our numbers... thank goodness for Remi, I just told the guys that Remi usually takes us out so they should ask him if they want to see us again haha Here's a pic of Remi playing:

Remi in an action shot

Saturday afternoon I hung out with the twins who are staying with us-Bernice and Benedicta and Remi. Everyone else in the house had left for Battor already so it was just us and Rachel for most of the day until Auntie Kosh came and one of my brothers and Chairman returned from Battor. I took some Benadryl because I thought I was having an allergic reaction to something..turns out Auntie Kosh thinks it is just heat rash too late because the Benadryl knocked me out for an hour and then I just woke up long enough to eat dinner before going to bed at 9pm...

Sunday was the big day! We planned to leave at 6:30am, 7 at the latest so of course we left at 7:30. I was supposed to ride on the bus but my brother told me I should ride in the car with him and Chairman, Rachel, and two of the kids. As someone who gets motion sickness so easily I didn't mind giving up a seat on the bus for a spacious SUV backseat. We were able to drive most of the way to Battor on the nicest road in Ghana...it actually didn't have ANY potholes! There were even toll booths to pay for it! We were stopped at the police barrier because our car wasn't registered so Chairman had to pay one of the police officers to let us keep going.

We finally got to Battor and I couldn't believe it. Our house in Battor is even bigger than our house in East Legon!! The contrast between our house and the thatch roof houses across the street was amazing.When we arrived at our house everyone was screaming to welcome me, it was like they hadn't seen me in years! I got a tour of the house from Rachel and then went to join the women who were cooking outside. I helped cut plantains and provided some general comic relief for everyone who was around..the white girl it cooking?? Then I went to church with pretty much the entire family. I sat in back with Yaya, Chairman, Remi, etc. It was neat to see the sea of people in our family wearing the same pattern. I noticed a lot of police standing around and asked about them and was told it was because my dad's house often hosts dignitaries. Halfway through mass I noticed that they kept talking about the Vice President...lo and behold the security detail pulls up clears a path into the church and the Vice President just walks into our mass!! Eventually he gave a campaign speech of course and some other chiefs (including one of my uncles) and dignitaries...including my dad were introduced! It was awesome! Here's a pic of the VP talking at church:

No big deal, the Vice President of Ghana just visits my dad and  his family village for our party...

Yaya said we needed to leave church a bit earlier because they needed help at home. So we went to our house where the food was being prepared and began taking it over to our Auntie's house. I carried the Kelewele or fried plantains on my head which amused everyone, I'm pretty sure that comments like (look at that white girl!) were being flown around. Luckily, I knew how ridiculous it looked. When we got to our Auntie's house I was surprised by how big of an even this was. We had at least four tents with tables and chairs under them, a band, a huge tent for the food, many coolers for drinks, and an all around party atmosphere. I found my place in the buffet serving line ironically serving white rice. This was one of the many things that surprised so many people, especially the older ladies who have never been served by a white person before. Luckily, I have a lot of experience serving from my volunteering for the rodeo's bbq chicken dinner haha

Ironically-the white girl served the white rice..

After serving people for awhile including the Vice President's entire security force and the VP (of course he didn't come through line and he only ate rice and chicken which convinces me that he's not actually Ghanaian...we had four soups, stews, three kinds of rice, chicken, tilapia, crabs, etc and he chose rice and chicken?!?! how western of him!). I was able to eat a nice combo of random things that were left but unfortunately there wasn't very much of my favorite soup left. My Auntie Mary pulled me out to dance and I mad Remi come with..it was hilarious being the only white person...I definitely draw attention to our family. Then I tried pulling one of my brothers out there but it was unsuccessful. I helped out a bit more and then my host-mom pulled me out to dance with her...once again, quite entertaining. Two of my brothers who live in America were visiting and we had a good conversation about how impressed everyone was with my hands on approach to the family. I'm not sure what they expected me to be doing while everyone else worked...I can't just sit their and watch and look like everyone should do work for me. I wouldn't do that at home and I would never think of doing it at my second home here. It's also a lot more fun to get involved because that is when those little moments that make you fall in love with your family happen.

We started cleaning up the food and taking it back to our house and by the time we got back most of the guests were gone. We ended up going to another house which actually belonged to my grandmother, the Queen Mother, where we did plenty more dancing. I was actually dancing in front of the chiefs and elders...unfortunately that meant that the amount of people who knew how to work a camera were in short supply..but here's a pic of others dancing.

After the dancing, Rachel and Sitso took me to the statues of the Queen Mother and her mother. Here is a picture of one of them.

Statue of the Queen Mother whose death we were celebrating.

We went back to our house to pack up everything and then loaded up the cars and were on our way back to East Legon. On the way I couldn't stop looking out the window at the beautiful sunset and landscapes. I just kept thinking over and over about how much I love this place and these people. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything.

Siril and I at the party

My host-mom, Auntie Grace and I

A few of my sisters and I (Rachel, Sisto, Yaya, and Gifty) please note how we're all wearing the same fabric but non of our dresses look exactly the same.

My sister Gifty, brother Remi, and I waiting to leave for Battor.

Bernice and Benedicta, a set of twins who are staying at our house right now-they are hilarious.

The view out the car window on our way home from Battor...absolutely beautiful.

Building things by hand and hack saw =>best day ever

Buenos dias mi familia y amigos!

Why good morning in spanish you ask? We currently have a set of twins around my age staying with us and last night they asked me to start giving them Spanish lessons on the basics haha

I've been just as busy as ever now that I have decided to try and go to my internship three times a week now...crazy!! Luckily, I really enjoy being super busy because I hate being bored...I no longer have time to be bored while I'm here! This past week I also had one of my favorite days here so far, let me tell you about it!

Tuesday of last week, was pretty normal except that one of my professors called me out in class...once again in the class where I'm the only other white girl. Luckily, it was just to thank me for coming to class regularly because the three oburoni guys and most Ghanaians are just occasional class attendees. He also shook my hand after class to thank me again haha I know, I know..as my dad would say "you brown noser!"

Wednesday, Jessalyn and I got a ride to school from my host dad. I don't remember the last time I was driven to school (as a loyal school bus rider up until I got my license). He just happened to be parked on the side of the road outside our house when we were walking past and he called us over and said he'd take us! 

Thursday was a great day for me in Ghana. I went to my internship alone and it was the first day that I've been here where I really felt like I was just another person going to work in the morning, not the white girl struggling to get somewhere. I wasn't called oburoni all day until my way home around 6pm. I was able to easily catch a tro tro to my internship, paid the fare easily, got dropped off at the right place and everything! While these seem like small things, when you're in a place where you draw attention immediately upon entering someone's view it's the little things that matter most. I was able to do entrance interviews for our new trainees at SISS which was really nice being able to meet these new students and get to know them right away. 

Side note: I don't think I ever showed you all what a tro tro looks like so here it is:

This is a nice looking tro tro, please note the large number of heads inside and random things on top. Things missing that are characteristic of the typical tro tro: back door being held shut with a rope, a "mate" hanging out the side door yelling the destinations the tro tro will go to, the general rust and poor conditions on the outside of the vehicle. You may wonder why we take these if they're so crowded and in poor condition...well to get to a location five hours away it cost us about $5...when I go to my internship it costs me 20 cents each way...not too bad!

Friday, we went to Agbogbloshie again to work at the school. This time I didn't get to teach because the entire first floor of kids (which I started counting and my previous guess was a complete underestimate!) spent the day singing and dancing. They taught Madam Tera a few songs and dances and I had to lead them in a few primary school songs though my brain was blanking on any except for the ones I learned when I was in Yoruba (another African language class I took at UW).

Saturday, was by far one of my top two days so far in Ghana. CIEE did a community service project at Future Leaders, a small school in Teshie. For some reason quite a few people skipped this event either for no reason or because it was too early (we left around 7am), unfortunately for them, they missed out on a fantastic and rewarding day. We sanded, painted, and put up walls to separate the new additional classrooms. If you know me at all, you probably have noticed my ridiculous love of random hard work, especially if it's something that a man would typically be seen doing..for example..working in a cast iron foundry making car rotors and furnace boilers (if you don't know me...that's 100% true...I did that and LOVED it). Therefore, it may not be surprising that I LOVED working at this school. I tried to make sure I was always busy which led of course to me being super dirty between paint and sawdust. I was fortunate enough to work with some fellow Midwesterners on really important projects like painting the gate. Please note my enthusiasm:

Winner, winner chicken dinner!

More pictures and possibly a video from our community service day will come in my next blog since I didn't take my camera so I'm waiting on others to post pics of me so I can take them.

A week or two I gave you all a link to my friend Anil's blog and I still highly recommend it because I'm often featured in it (3 weeks in a row, yeah!). You should also check out my friend Matt's blog. He is also quite hilarious http://topoftheworld18.wordpress.com/2012/10/07/is-that-your-giraffe/

I'm planning to do my blog next week on food so you can see some of the typical Ghanaian dishes (even if my stomach won't allow me to enjoy them as well) and also talk about the funeral I'm attending this weekend in my family's village, Battor.

Till next time!

New friends and a sampling of music for your enjoyment...

Greetings all!

It's that time again, weekly update! After my crazy tro tro experience last week the week wasn't super exciting until I got my phone fixed on Thursday. For the beginning of the week I just studied for my developmental studies mid-term that was on Wednesday.

Friday morning Jessalyn and I were catching a tro tro at 6am to get to Agbogbloshie for our first time teaching at their only school. We got there about 30 minutes early and just sat there meeting the children while they petted our hair and skin non-stop. Because this is the biggest slum in Ghana it's not exactly a tourist destination which means that they see even fewer white people than most in the Accra area. I helped teach a class of kids ages 8-10 with their science class. It's very interesting because since not all kids have books or pencils most of the teaching is done through repetition over and over and over again.There was a lot of dancing in the afternoon because it was Friday but it's so crazy to be teaching in this school. It has two floors. The first is an open room that houses three different classes the youngest age is 3 and goes up to at least 10 on my floor. There are no room dividers so the classes are just taught simultaneously leading to a lot of chaos. Upstairs the rooms are slightly more defined and most of the older kids are up there but it still can get pretty chaotic because I can't even guess at the number of kids that are in that school. What was great is that you can tell the kids really want to learn which is key if they want to get out of the slum in the future.

Jessalyn, Paige, Anil, Erica, Cassie, Cassie's brother Nana and his friend Nana and I all went out for a fun night of bar hopping before going dancing at Hollywood again. If you know me at all, you know I'm not a big dancer...however I can't stop myself from dancing in Ghana...and it's not the alcohol. I mean it! The music here is just so catchy and makes you want to dance! Here are some of my current favorite songs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu1_tYAhE8E

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAqv3mtlDNY&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17vC8qZILJE

This is one of the newest dance crazes in Ghana that has recently gone international, called Azonto...it's just the repetition of random movements similar to what we would call the "shopping cart" etc. haha it's pretty fun though all the Ghanaians make fun of me for not doing it right: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTUIlOudlHI

Saturday we had a Durbar (party) for all of the international students on campus. I went mostly for the free food which didn't dissapoint...there was mashed potatoes and lasagna among other things!! Delicious! The rest of the event was cultural performances and performances by students. There are two videos at the end of this post of some of the professional cultural dancers...they always make me wish I could dance or was in a dance class!

Saturday night my sister Rachel took me to a friend's soccer game. Afterwards we went to Jerry's for kebobs and what ended up being a couple drinks...it was fun until the 30-year-old in the group decided he really really likes my personality...even though we hadn't talked to each other in at least an hour...I was stupid and gave him my number and am now dealing with the consequences of numerous calls per night..I haven't been answering but I know that if I want to hang out with Rachel and her friends I'll have to see them again and most likely him...going to have to answer soon and let him know that I'm taken haha.

Sunday, I went to church with my Aunt Edith and then came home and rested for most of the day because I was thinking I might be getting a cold.

Monday of this week we went to our internship again and started getting ready for the new class of trainees to come in and we'll begin teaching them on Monday! I also spoke with my Auntie Grace about some problems I was having with the teenage girls in the house going through my things but luckily she was super nice about it and took care of it right away! She also referred to me earlier in the evening as Tera Aduovo (our family's last name) which made me smile all night long because I've been waiting to really feel like part of the family and being called by their last name is about as close as it gets. I'll also be able to spend the weekend with the family in our village called Battor next weekend for a funeral and I'll get to wear the same fabric as the rest of the family which is really exciting because the entire family wears the same pattern...and I'm part of the family!! :)

**It's important to note that I have a new pet... he's been in my room for over a week now with no signs of leaving...I'm not a big fan of lizards .or anything with hands..but I just keep reminding myself that he is harmless and actually helps me out by eating mosquitoes ..but I'm really struggling to keep it together when he gets close to my bed!!! I'm taking suggestions for names if you have any!

Jessalyn, me, and Paige on another fun night out dancing.

Abena and Boatemaa who work in our CIEE office are AMAZING...they help me with literally everything and I'm going to miss them an incredible amount when I leave! They both checked in on me at the hospital and even took me home from the hospital when I first got here! (thank goodness that seems so far in the past!)

Here are some videos of the dancing performances at the durbar on Saturday:

Crazy days, making babies, and being a rockstar..

**To clarify the title-it should be known that I am NOT making babies...there's a story to that...
This week has been eventful as ever, here's an update:

Monday-Went to internship which was slightly more productive than the previous week because Selina was there who I believe is actually in charge and she helped answer many of our questions that weren’t being answered before. Jessalyn and I gave our second lesson on how to use the internet and internet safety. This class was good but a bit harder than the first one since most of these kids have never even used a computer before. We are going to start doing one-on-one lessons with those interested to teach them computer basics and internet use and safety.

Tuesday- fun fact-my friend Cassie says that everyone looks like an animal so I finally got her to tell me mine…she says I’m an Angelfish, a yellow one to be exact. She said that my bubbly and cheerful personality make the yellow color an obvious choice and because the fish has some fun tail features that flow behind it that resemble my prominent use of the messy bun. One of my professors asked me to stay after class by simply pointing at me…the girl behind me thought it was her but her friend promptly corrected her by saying “no he’s talking to the whitey” haha luckily I made a joke of this and he only wanted to make sure I got the syllabus he e-mailed me. Then he asked me where my friend was…I only have one friend in the class, my Ghanaian friend Evans…however, the Prof. was asking about the only other white girl in the class…I had to break the news to him that I actually have no idea who she is or why she missed class haha

Thursday-not super eventful but went for an after drink with my brother Remi and a French guy named Albon (sp?) who’s been staying with one of my Aunties while he’s been travelling Ghana. He’s a pretty interesting guy and had some tips about travelling to the north and dealing with immigration in a sticky situation (hint: it includes lots of cash).

Friday-Friday was a national holiday, Founder’s Day and the celebration of the first president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah’s birthday. Because of this I wasn’t able to go to my internship or my first visit to Agbobloshie  so I just stayed around the house all day. In the past staying at home all day has been torturous but this Friday was a really good, relaxing day. I helped out our batik workers for a few hours and helped Yaa Yaa in the actual shop for a while. I also got to pick out some fabrics for a blazer, dress, and skirt to be made. I also cleaned my room which was really nice and I even got a key for my room finally after having some recent problems having any personal space in the house.

When my host-dad Charlie came home in the afternoon he asked me to go and get some beer and glasses so we could have a drink before dinner which he also invited me to eat with him and Auntie Grace and Auntie Mary. This may not seem like a big deal except he usually eats either alone in his room or out on the porch while the kids wait until he’s finished and then they eat in the house. As a sort of “special” kid in the house I usually get to eat at the same time as him but not usually with him. He also told me that we will be taking a three-day trip to our family’s village in October and I’m going with!! I’m really excited to get to meet even more family and see the entire funeral service that we’ll be there for. I also asked if Andy can stay with our family when he visits in November...not only did my 70-year-old host-dad say yes but when I suggested that I sleep in the girls' room and Andy could have my room he quickly said "oh no, no...you are boyfriend and girlfriend. You must stay in the same room and make babies." Seriously, he said that. I couldn't believe it and couldn't stop laughing. I assured him that no babies are going to be made especially not anytime soon. But he just wanted to be clear that he had no problem with it....He was at least wise enough to say this when Auntie Grace wasn't around...I'm not sure what she would've done to him if she'd heard about this hahahaha

Saturday-we took a trip to the Eastern Region. My stomach was having an off day so even our relatively short hour long bus ride led to some motion sickness. We went to the first cocoa plantation in Ghana where we got to see how they harvest and pick cocoa. Unfortunately, because of my stomachache I decided not to try the cocoa so the highlight of my experience there was learning that the stick they use to pull down the cocoa is called “Go to Hell”…for real. It is. Since the trees are too high to climb/you don’t want to damage the tree, they use the stick to pull the cocoa down toward “hell” or at least away from heaven.

Next we went to the Aburi botanical gardens. It was your typical beautiful botanical gardens. The coolest plant was something called Mimosa pudica that reacts to being touched by closing up. Here's a video of it in action:

Me in front of the oldest rubber tree in the park. It actually has another tree that grew around it and now you can walk through it.

This tree is called the "Struggle for Power" since all of the people carved into it are clamoring to the top to take the kingship.

The leaves of the pink plans are poisonous if you break them open.

My friend Evans and I at the botanical gardens.

 Next we stopped at a wood working village where I bought some really cool gifts for pretty cheap prices and will probably be going back for a few things. Then we stopped at a bead making village where we watched them make beads and then were able to buy some things as souvenirs.

Bead making village-they put glass pieces into the holes and melt them in the fire. When they pull them out they add the hole for the string  to go through the beads and add designs.

 Sunday, I just went to church which I always enjoy. My Aunt Edith said she will ask the choir director if I can join their choir for the rest of my stay which I am super excited about!

Yesterday was one of the craziest days yet. I went to Agbobloshie for the first time for my internship. It was an eyeopening experience to see such poor living conditions. The lagoon is clogged with trash and there is no sanitation system. We aren't even allowed to buy packaged food or water there because it isn't sanitary. We visited some SISS trainees who are actually going to be able to leave the slum thanks to our job training and helping them get job placements. Then we visited a school where we're going to volunteer at. The kids treated us like rockstars and I was almost tipped over because so many kids were hugging me at one time. We were supposed to be back for class but had to wait for 1.5 hours for the tro tro to come. Unfortunately the tro tro kept breaking down because the radiator was overheating and the engine kept stalling. We were about 10 minutes from our stop when the brakes decided to fail and we hit a taxi and then the curb..Scariest moment here so far. Luckily, no one was injured and we came to a stop and all got out..I quickly noticed that my phone was missing. During the crash it fell off my lap and out of the tro tro through a hole between the door and the floorboard. What are the odds of that?? It was crazy. So we caught another tro tro and walked home. I ran in the house to get money and get to the mall before it closed. I was able to buy a new phone and keep the same number but it's not working yet so I'm going to go back tomorrow.

All in all, it has been a crazy past few days and I have a mid-term tomorrow. Pookie has two exams today so we agreed that if we both do well we will make brownies on Friday which I'm sure I'll need since I'm going to Agbobloshie to teach at the school on Friday.

Thank God everything is going well regardless of some bumps in the road but I'm just going to "keep trucking" (shoutout to my dad on that one) haha

Here is a link to my friend Anil's blog-I find his posts much more entertaining than mine because they are filled with sarcasm which I love. Please check it out, especially last week's post that features me in it quite a bit (even if some are just the back of my head in a tro tro): http://kwasiabroad.blogspot.com/2012/09/blogging-to-prove-that-i-am-still-alive.html?spref=fb

Ain't no mountain high enough...

Bonjour! (my family also speaks french so I'm asking them to teach me some of that as well, though I obviously knew hello already!)

Once again this past week was very eventful and there is a lot to share!

On Monday I got some skirts that I had my host-mom’s shop make. They’re super cute and I’m really happy with them and can’t wait to start getting dresses made!

The rest of the week I was in a bit of a funk and was debating whether or not to travel to the Volta Region for the weekend with my friends. Luckily, I made a good choice and decided to go so I spent Thursday night with my family and impressed them with my incredible strength by helping them open up some fabric that got delivered (it’s harder to open than you think since it’s wrapped in metal bands but not impossible). Auntie Mary just kept walking around saying to herself “macho girl, macho girl” haha.

Friday morning my friends and I met at 5am to start our journey to the Volta Region. After a lot of confusion and chaos we finally found a bus to take us to a town called Ho which took about 3 hours or so and from there we took a tro tro to Ho Hoe where we were staying and arrived by 12:30pm. There was more confusion when we got to our hotel over pricing and the number of people we wanted to stay in each room but in the end we had agreed to do two rooms for 40 cedi each for the first night. We freshened up and headed out on a mission to climb Mt. Afadje, the tallest mountain in Ghana at 882m. We eventually found a tro tro to take us to the village where the mountain was located and it ended up being filled with about 21 people, someone on the roof, and a door that refused to shut…to say it was dangerous would be an understatement if you knew the conditions of the pothole filled dirt roads on the way to the mountain.

We got to the tourist center for the mountain where we signed in the guest book, paid our entrance fee, and were sent on our way…alone. The lady just walked out the door and said “there’s the path...safe journey”.  So we started up the mountain…some of us expected the hike would be challenging but not too bad, probably a hike around the mountain. However, the hike was straight up the mountain…it was super hard but relatively short since the climb was so steep, it only took us about 45 minutes or so to get to the top. The view was AMAZING! Here are some pics and a video from the top:

just a preview of some of the roads we took to almost all of our destinations this weekend. Somehow people were able to tell the tro tro driver to stop at different areas (unmarked mind you) that led to their homes...I have no idea how..it all looks the same!

The group minus Anna on top of the mountain.

Words and pictures cannot do these scenes justice. Ever.

View of a neighboring village from the mountaintop.

still standing after climbing my first mountain..the highest mountain in Ghana

The trek down the mountain was much more difficult since we decided to go down a different path...turns out it was very steep and gravel which makes it extremely hard to stay standing as you go down. Some of the group decided to split off without telling the rest of us so we had no choice but to keep going down the mountain and hope to see them when we got down. However, this path didn't lead us back to the tourist center for the mountain but to a different village instead. Luckily, the people in this village were really nice because by the time everyone got there it was too late to get a tro tro or taxi back to Ho Hoe so someone at their tourist center had to go into the village and find us enough motorcycles to bring us to a police barrier and from there we needed to take a taxi or tro tro to Ho Hoe. This whole event of losing people etc was extremely stressful but getting to ride a motorcycle at sunset through the bush is pretty unbelievable. We returned to our hotel where we had to deal with more arguing over prices and they made us rent another room because they didn't want us to have so many people in a room. After arguing for awhile we gave in and just decided to check out a different hotel in the morning.

Saturday: We got up and switched to a different hotel called the Taste Lodge. We wanted to stay there originally but couldn't get their phone numbers to work. Friday night Anil, Paige, Ian, and Cassie went to talk to the owners and explained our situation and that we were looking for a place to stay. Luckily, the owners were super nice and we checked in Saturday morning where they were so welcoming and happy to see us. It was awesome. The hotel was also super cute because it was kind of like the rooms were little houses with your own porch chairs and gate.

We settled in and started our journey to the Wli falls. After getting the run around once again with people trying to tell us that no tro tros go there on Saturdays...which is 100% not true. Eventually we found the tro tro and got to the falls in around 45 minutes. We decided to hike to the upper falls and it was well worth it. The hike wasn't easier than Friday's exactly but it was less steep and I really enjoyed it as my adrenaline finally started pumping around the half way mark even though I was carrying a bunch of water in my bag, etc.  The upper falls were so beautiful as was the hike up there...I finally started to believe that I'm in Ghana because I have never seen anything as beautiful as the Volta Region. We could only spend a short amount of time at the upper falls because the tour guide said that since it is the rainy season it would start raining soon and based on our experience with some rain coming down the mountain on Friday we knew we didn't want to get caught descending in it again. My endorphins were going crazy on the way down which made it so much more fun because Anil and I had a sing-a-long with lots of witty conversation the entire down making it go by much faster! We checked out the lower falls so some people could swim in them and then started back to the tourism office and it started pouring...not raining. pouring. If we weren't already drenched with sweat and water from the falls we were definitely wet after the rain. We got back, got on a tro tro, and headed back to our hotel for dinner. Anil and I had to awkwardly go back to the hotel to pick up some shampoo that Cassie forgot and we bought a bunch of bananas from a really nice girl named Grace (the people of Ho Hoe are sooo nice!) We had dinner and a drink to celebrate our amazing accomplishments at our hotel then walked to a music store where we ended up listening to ABBA thanks to Ian hahaha and then stopped at Hotel Obama a bar near our hotel for another drink. We went back to the hotel where the owners had been nice enough to not only let us have 3-4 people in each room but also gave us a cot for each room to make everyone more comfortable!

Here are some pics from the falls:

Me in front of the upper falls.

The whole group in front of the upper falls.

Sunday: We got up and had breakfast at our hotel before packing and heading out. The owners were so accomodating that I asked for the correct number of the place so we could stay there again if we visit the area again...I got not only one number but three including the owner's personal cell phone number! Sooo sweet! We got a tro tro headed to Accra and were on our way! Anil and I are the ones that usually get carsick so we took some Dramamine and the window seats in the back row. Unfortunately the driver shut the windows because the tro tro had a/c...which would have been ok except that none of the air was getting back to us so after a while of suffering one of the other men in the tro tro convinced the driver to let us in the back open our windows which made it exponentially more tolerable...that and the fact that our sing-a-long continued into the tro tro ride.

We got back to East Legon aka home...the best place in Ghana around 2:30pm. My family was surprised to see me so early in the day but immediately invited me to my first funeral. It may seem like an odd thing to be excited about but in Ghana funerals are celebrations of life which I soon found out was quite the party. I went with Rachel, Sisto, and Remi and we walked around a bit so I could see everything and then Rachel and Sitso helped Auntie Edith, Auntie Mary, and Auntie Grace pass out the salad that was our family's contribution to the funeral. Numerous people came up to be and told me they loved me and wanted to find me my own table and chairs...luckily I just sat by our family so I felt like I belonged there. I met one Ghanaian woman from Rhode Island...random. The event was huge, there were a bunch of white tents and tables and chairs...dancers and singers...tons of food and drinks and lots of people. After an hour we decided to go home but the excitement didn't stop there. Some kids saw me  from afar and started yelling "obruni, obruni!" I ignored them at first hoping they would go away. However, they came up and asked me for a drink..I told them I didn't have anything and they pointed to the stuff in our truck. I said they weren't mine (beause they weren't!) and my sisters started yelling at them and chasing them away. When the kids wouldn't leave Remi chased them away. None of them could believe the kids did that but I told them "welcome to the life of an obruni". In fact just yesterday some school girls walked up to me and just said "I want 50 pesewas" next time my response will be "me too, do you have some?"

Remi and I dropped the girls off at home and went back to the funeral to pick up some coolers for Aunt Edith. It was dark when we got back but we parked pretty close and walked into the crowd to find the Aunties and the coolers. Remi was trying to find some guys to carry the coolers when I turned around and picked one up and said "let's go" I surprised pretty much everyone at the party by being a white girl, in a dress, carrying a cooler around...I'm white, not incompetent! I waited for Remi to catch up and all of a sudden a crowd of people started chasing us and yelling at us. I couldn't understand what they were saying but Remi said they thought we were stealing the coolers so they made us walk back until we could find someone to prove that we weren't stealing them and they were actually our coolers. Luckily, Auntie Mary, crazy woman that she is, just happened to be dancing around the parking lot and we called her over...after a few more dance moves she did and saved us. My family was very embarrassed by this but I thought it was hilarious. It was one of the first times while I've been here that I've felt truly equal...they accused me of being a criminal even though I'm a white girl! And it was hilarious because I just don't know why a white girl wearing a dress would steal a cooler in Ghana...what was I going to do with it? hahaha

Overall, this weekend was a fantastic, chaotic time. I'll be travelling to the Eastern Region on Saturday of this coming weekend and might do something fun on Friday because I just found out that it's a public holiday, Founder's Day. Fun times are yet to come in my adventure with roughly 3 months to go!

Two marriage proposals, some dancing, and one Auntie Grace

Greetings,

For the most part this past week has been great-filled with fun times with family and friends and a few eyeopening moments with other foreign students.

Last Monday, was my second day at our internship it was slightly better than the week before but not by much…we still sat there doing not much of anything. Luckily when we went yesterday after a boring 3 hours it finally was good when we taught the students about the similarities and differences between the US and Ghana. The best moments were when we blew their minds by telling them about the poverty, homelessness, and unemployment in the US and the illiteracy rate in inner-city schools. We want them to know that the average American does not live the life of the Kardashians and other celebrities they see on TV, we have money problems just like the people here…just on a different scale. After class the kids helped Jessalyn and I study our Twi which was very entertaining.

Tuesday morning I got up early enough for a run before it got too hot. Unfortunately, I found out soon after getting back that our water was off…and not only was that off but our water holding thing (kind of like an old school well, we pull water up in a bucket) had no water in it because they needed to recement the bottom of it because it was leaking water. Luckily I was able to still get a bucket of water to wash up because you never want to walk around in this heat and dust without showering after a run…ick.. I had two classes and lunch with my friend Evans and then came home for dinner. Siril saw me working on homework and asked me to teach him to write in English because he can only write in French and maybe Ewe.

Wednesday was day 2 without water, which actually doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to me anymore but thank goodness I brought baby wipes! After class we had a reflection session in the CIEE office. This was meant to be a time for large groups of us to reflect on our first month in Ghana and the highs and lows so far. I was a little frustrated after the meeting because a lot of people have been walking out of classes because they don’t like what they’re hearing and personally I think they are being oversensitive. Many complaints were made about feeling like people here are forcing their opinions down our throats…the same people then start judging the Ghanaians for various things that they say and how that isn’t ok to say in the US. After a while I raised my hand and tried to remind everyone that we are not in the US. We are in Ghana. People, opinions, and ideologies here are different…isn’t that why we’re here? When considering where to study abroad I chose two places that are nothing like the US precisely for that reason, I don’t want to pay one year’s worth of tuition for one semester if it’s going to be just like home. I realized that nothing that I see here really surprises me and I think it’s just because I came here with the mindset that it would be nothing like home…and that is perfectly ok with me. I hope that other students start realizing the opportunity of a life-time we have before their sensitivity damages their experiences here because they won’t take in the differences but are instead rejecting them.

Every Thursday, Remi and I try to get a group of my friends and his to go out to clubs because ladies can get in for free at one but it never seems to work out so we went to Jerry’s with Rachel instead so it was a fun night of a drink or two with my host siblings. Something interesting that is happening is that the country is rationing electricity so it is going out more often.  I’m not sure yet why the rationing is happening but my sister Rachel said that if the dam is low they might ration the electricity because it is run by hydropower. Somehow I ended up with a family who has a generator so we usually don’t sit too long in the dark.

Friday, I went to my internship for the first time alone. The tro tro dropped me off too far away so I had to walk back through the construction zone to get to the path that would take me to the center. Along the way I received my first marriage proposal. I always get the best...the ones with no teeth and who must be at least 40 years old, but at least he has a job as a construction worker! At my internship I watched the students do presentations which were very impressive and then made friends with another intern, a Ghanaian named Lydia. She helped me practice Twi and made me feel better about the internship overall. Friday evening Rachel and Remi wanted to take me to a club called Hollywood. We met my friends Paige, Anna, and Jessalyn at Jerry's for a drink before hand which was fun since the girls had been drinking for awhile before we got there. After some pictures we grabbed a taxi to go to Hollywood. I'm not a fan of dancing but here it's part of everyday life...I'm adapting. Let's just say that it was a fantastic time. In my time here my friends and I have come up with a bunch of strategies to keep unwanted men away from us and having my host brother there didn't hurt. This ended up being my latest night out in Ghana and Paige and I were able to represent UW when the club played Jump Around haha

We dropped the caps of our beer in our cup..twinsies!

Paige, me, Remi

This is the cloudless sky and crazy strong sun we were dealing with resulting in a very hot game.

Saturday, I went to the Ghananain national football team (the Black Stars) game against Malawi. Unfortunately, they almost left without us to the game because they told me the bus left at 1:45 and it really left at 1:20..thank goodness we were early!! I don't really know anything about football (soccer) but it's like a religion here so I decided to go and it was pretty fun! I got my second wedding proposal, this handsome devil was also old and missing teeth and tried to win me over by saying that he'll be the president and I'll be the first lady...obviously he doesn't know my feelings about me wanting to be the president with the first "first sir" for a husband...hahaha Another interesting thing about the game is how incredibly loud it was...vuvuzelas are blasting for the entire game and by the end I found myself shouting "what?" even more than normal. They also sell just about anything in the stadium including women who sell fried chicken by the piece from a tray on their head. In the end Ghana won 2-0 and it was a great time. Here's a very brief clip of the game:

Malawi in red and Black Stars in white.

Gideon's face demonstrates the enthusiasm Ghanaians have for the game.

The best part of the day was when I got home from the game and finally met my host-mom, Auntie Grace!! It was dark and I followed her in our gate and she held the house door open for me. When I walked in and thanked her she said "Hi girl!" just like my Auntie Mary so I was thrown off the rest of our greeting went like this:

-Hi girl! What's your name?

-I'm Tera. What's your name?

-Well, I'm the mom of the house

-(ahhhhhh) I'm so sorry it's sooo nice to meet you finally!! (could I have been any cooler?)

hahaha luckily she thought it was funny and gave me a big hug. I think I'm going to love her! Pookie's sister Stephanie also came back to Ghana with Auntie Grace after visiting the US for one month. She's 15 so we have some more teenage girl attitude running through the house.

Sunday, I did my laundry and then went to church with the girls and this weekend it was a Catholic mass which was pretty cool. Then I spent some time doing homework until my friend Jessalyn came over to study. My family loves her (especially my brothers) so she's always welcome at our house. Charlie (my host-dad) offered us a beer but in true mom fashion Auntie Grace said "not until they're done studying!" haha. I also got to skype with some family this weekend which was fantastic, especially hearing from my three younger cousins who had fantastic questions for me :) I ended the weekend showing Siril and Remi how to do Sudoku puzzles which was fun and they're going to start teaching me more card games.

Sorry for the long post but lots of things happen here all the time!

Hope you're all doing well, don't forget questions are always welcome! 

Kumasi, Hive-like things, and Urinal bonding

Akwaaba! (welcome)

It has been about one week since my last post and I've been busy as ever. I started my internship on Monday and it was actually terribly boring unfortunately. Jessalyn and I got there about 15 minutes early (around 7:45am) and stayed until 12:30pm when we couldn't stay sitting anymore because it was soo boring. I think the main bosses forgot we were coming so we just sat around doing nothing the whole time. Luckily, we're at the internship today and we at least have a curriculum to start planning for Sisters in Support, the group we're leading.

Tuesday, I finally had all of my classes and found out when my tutorials (discussion sections) will be. Unfortunately, one of them conflicts with my planned internship time so now I can only go to my internship on Mondays and Fridays when we aren't travelling. Wednesday, we had our developmental studies class and our homestay meeting. I also joined Cassie, Ian, Anil, and Anna for an additional homestay "meeting" which involves a pre-dinner drink. Thursday, I woke up with a cold and just feeling all around down. I went to class and met up with Jessalyn and friends who always know how to make me feel better! Unfortunately, I had an extremely stressful evening thanks to the UW financial aid office and the bursar's office and a big tuition bill I wasn't expecting. Luckily, a late night phone call made me feel a bit better even if it did make waking up for our trip a little harder.

Friday morning at 6am we loaded the buses to travel to the Ashanti Region's capital, Kumasi. It's about a 5 hour ride...which is terrible for someone who gets carsick easily and has a cold a.k.a me. The roads here are also in very rough shape and have soo many potholes and "rumble strips" or speed bumps. When we finally arrived in Kumasi we visited a Traditional Ashanti Home in Ejisu. There are nine other such homes in the region and they are all marked as UN World Heritage Sites. These are the last material remains of the great Asante civilization in the 18th Century. These buildings used to be shrines/fetish houses belonging to some of the powerful deities in the kingdom. The traditional religion is still practiced in these homes which takes the form of consulting with deities to seek advice on specific situations and also to seek favors.

Prior to our next stop we were treated to pizza for lunch...unfortunately the pizza wasn't very good and didn't sit well with most of us after the extremely bumpy ride to our next stop, Bonwire village. Bonwire is famous for their Kente cloth and designs, each of which have a distinct meaning.

Kente Cloth

Next we went to the Ntonso Adinkra Village to learn about the Adinkra symbols and their meanings and how they're put on cloth.

Me stamping my symbol that meant hope onto our group cloth.

Finally, we went to the hotel to have dinner on the rooftop where we had a mixture of Ghanaian soup and hamburgers (the patty was the size of the top of a soda can...but the fries were fantastic! After dinner, we grabbed some drinks and headed to Jessalyn's and my room for a good old fashioned game of kemp and spoons with our twin beds pushed together as snack table, card table, and our seats. It was a pretty fun evening with all the characters in our group. We were all exhausted so we decided to go to bed relatively early, especially me and my cold-ridden self.

Saturday, we had breakfast at 8, I woke up with some crazy hive-like bug bite things on one arm and my right eyelid was swollen...still not sure from what but it was weird...our first stop was at the home of musician Prof. Agya Koo Nima to learn about and listen to Palmwine music.

Then we went to the Manhyia Palace Museum. The museum holds effigies of the past and present kings of the Ashanti Kingdom, and some gold artifacts and also tells the story of the Ashanti kingdom.

Our last stop of the day was at the largest open market in West Africa, the Kejitia Market in Kumasi. If you recall my last market experience you already have an idea of how this experience went. Luckily, it wasn't that bad. Because of its size, this market was much more organized and its actually more of a walk into shops experience rather than a million people grabbing you and yelling at you...it was still something I don't really want to do again, but it was better than the Mokola market.

Ever wonder what happens to the clothes you throw out? These white bags are filled with used clothes from the U.S. and Europe that people buy, clean, and then sell at the markets. You don't know what's in the bags before you open them so you have to choose very carefully.

Just a glimpse from afar of the HUGE market. They literally sell everything you can think of there. Really, ask me about it. I'm sure they have it.

We had dinner at the hotel again and once again brought drinks and a few bottles of wine and snacks back to our room for some more cards (old maid this time) and enjoying a terrible movie. Some of our group decided to go out that night and came back Sunday morning with some great stories.

Sunday morning I enjoyed my last hot shower for the near future...it was sooo nice!! Then I went with a few people back to the Kente village since my money problems on Thursday put my normally conservative spending style completely on hold and I didn't buy anything at all for the entire weekend. I knew that if I left without something I'd regret it so I went back and bought a large piece of Kente for a blanket, a small purse, and a scarf size piece of cloth. I can't show you a pic of these just in case I decide to give them as presents!

Then we got back in time for lunch and set off on our journey back to Legon. Unfortunately, the trip was about 6.5 hours because we had to stop two extra times for bathroom breaks…one of which I’m sure will make my parents so proud to know that my friend and I used the urinal…to be fair-the women’s stalls didn’t have a toilet or anything besides a tiny hole in the ground so after hearing of the success of a few other ladies somehow going in the urinal…we decided to give it a try…and it worked just fine. Hahahaha thinking about it still makes me laugh!

I finally got back to my house around 7:30 and was somewhat surprised by my welcome. Everyone in my family just kept saying they were so glad I was finally back which felt really good since there are times when you question whether or not you fit into the family…after last night I think I am beginning to be part of the family and not a guest! It was my sister, Seecho’s birthday so we had fried plantains and yams and wine and soda. There is always music and dancing in my house and they were sneaky enough to even get me in on the dancing…and on video. I normally wouldn’t share this but I think it’s really funny especially since it is clear that I can’t dance but the camera ran out of memory right before we had a nice circle of dancing going on with all the women in our house…including my Auntie Mary. Overall, it was a great end to the weekend and I can’t wait for our next birthday celebration.

My Auntie Grace (host-mom) will finally return to Ghana on Saturday so I’m excited to finally meet her and see how the family dynamics change with her return! Sunday, I’m going to a football (or what we call soccer) game in Accra to watch the national team, the Blackstars play Malawi. I don’t know anything about football but I’m really excited to go since it is our equivalent of American football and watching the Packers!

Sorry for the super long post but I had a lot to share with you all! Please remember that you can ask questions or suggest topics for my next post in the comment section!

Till next time!