Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Hot Tamale

Ok I am in Tamale.
So me and Charlie woke up a exactly 4:30 AM, for once before anyone in my house was up, and hitched a trotro to kumasi, where we then hopped on a bus to Techiman. The ride took about 2 hours, and was very uncomfortable. Techiman was pretty much nothing. The two of us enjoyed a soda and relaxed for a bit because we knew the journey to Tamale would be loooong. Well, it seems God smiled on us and the journet from Techiman to Tamale actually took three hours instead of five...halleluyah! Tamale was very different. Wow. The population is like 80% muslim and everyone ride bikes and motorcycles. I also don't get as much attention as in Kumasim, and when children call out to me, they don't say Obruni..only "hello!" which is much sweeter. Charlie and I walked around the market and dined on cut up mango and fufu. On a side note, I love fufu! Seriously, 1 cedi and you are stuffed. Now, I can't say my stomach likes it as much, but I get sick no mastter what I eat anyway. Ok so back to Tamale...The market was not as busy as the central market in Kumasi, but it was full of cow carcasses. Now I am no animal rights advocate, but to see the head, ribs and stomach of a cow being chopped up right in front of you, cow juice flying everywhere...yea it was gross. Besides that I like Tamale. It is friendly, peaceful, and just much different from the rest of the country. Now I am waiting for a bus to Larabanga to see the mud and stick mosques, and of course, I plan to go elephant watching at Mole!

Monday, July 28, 2008

<3

Well, ok, I have always had this knack for meeting and making new friends, but I really had no idea how good I was. I don’t know if its my personality or luck but somehow things have just been working out nicely here. I was a little bit bummed because Erika, Leslie, and Tracey all left, and I kind of got in a argument with Meredith so I felt really lonely. Also teaching ends today for exams so I was just really confused. Should I get a new placement? Really I wanted to travel, but all my friends were gone so I was just very confused and bored and I missed home.

Well, yesterday I went to town with hopes I could find one internet cafĂ©. It was Sunday, which means nothing, nothing, nothing, is open, but I needed to get out of the house. In my search I saw two white girls walking and I ran to them to ask if they had seen one. Their names were Esther and Christina, both from Canada, volunteering at a hospital in a suburb of Kumasi. They invited me to go to this hotel and get drinks, so I thought for a second, and decided I had nothing better to do. We went to this really nice hotel with a pool called the Micklin. It was actually the closest thing I have seen to a real, American hotel in awhile. We chatted, and they were really very nice, and it wasjust nice to make new friends on such an ordinarily boring Sunday. From the hotel we tried walking back to town and we ended up walking in the wrong direction. Then, God’s light shined on us and two Asian men in a jeep offered us a ride. Normally, I don’t get in cars with strangers, I swear. But the jeep was air conditioned, and they were the only two Asian men in Ghana so at least if the police had to hunt them down, they wouldn’t have much trouble. We got to town and were walking to a restaurant, when I saw a group of white people looking confused. Naturally, Kumasi is a confusing place, but I am very used to it now, so I ran over and asked if they needed help. Turns out they did! I took them to Sambra hotel where we were all going to eat, and they went to a drinking spot nearby. They were a group of foreigners who were doing study abroad at University of Kumasi--mostly in their twenties, although the one American girl was 19. As I was saying goodbye to Esther and Christina, I saw the group again. They were really friendly invited me to go to this bar which was very lively because the football game had just ended. I again thought for a moment and again realized it was Sunday and I had nothing better to do. I definitely made the right choice. The bar was POPPIN and everyone was dancing and just having a great time. I met new friends, and actually got to dance without having some random black guy trying to grind up on me. I also impressed everyone by getting fufu for dinner…mmmmm.

Today I am waiting for this girl Char to come that I met through TravBuddy.com. She is only 16! And she is in the same situation as me, where she has no one to travel with and has just finished teaching sooo yea. I hope she is nice because we are planning to spend the whole week doing the North and then the Volta region.

A few days ago, when I told my Dad that teaching had ended he offered to push my flight forward. I declined, but seriously considered the thought. Suddenly, I am so glad I didn’t. Once again my sense of adventure, of possibility, has returned, and I hope Char is up for budget hotels and $1 dinners!

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Seriously,
I admit, men are complicated, and men and women are different. Here in Ghana, I would kill to be “confused” by a man’s behavior, because confused implies one day I could understand. Let me tell you, I will never never never understand Ghanaian men. They are like different creature with habits and quirks I will never understand. I have created something of a field journal while observing their behavior.

#1) They tell you they like you. Tell you they love you. Tell you they want to marry you. And then, they ask your name
#2) They do not really care what you look like, only that you are white, which means you are a nice person and will make a nice wife.
#3) They ALL have huge muscles and great bodies. Even the children have muscles!
#4) Everyone must marry and have children, that is the purpose of a wife
#5) Any woman they date, they intend to marry
#6) All of that being said, they will not hesitate to touch you while dancing or sitting in a taxi, or really any uncomfortable situation.

So Ladies, if you are tired of casual dating and would like to find an attractive, eligible black man who is built like Vin Diesel… book your ticket to Ghana!
Well, this past weekend I ventured off to Kofuridia with Leslie and Erika. Kofiridua was a pretty uneventful place, and after a four hour bus ride, we were forced by the rain to hang out there until we could get a trotro to Boti Falls. Boti however, was gorgeous. The two falls were bigger than anything I had ever seen and the water was cold and delicious. After taking a swim in the falls we prepared a dinner of white bread (there is no other kind here) , mango, and biscuits—everything topped off of course with a Star beer and for me a Gordon’s Sparks. It was at Boti that it hit me how cheap Ghana is—we paid $5 for three people to stay in a hotel room. Sure it was a little gross and dirty, but $5! After it got dark and we were tired of talking to the park rangers we went off to our $5 room, lit a lantern, and dozed off. The next morning we had breakfast for $1.50 and took a hike around the park. I thought I was going to die, I am so out of shape, and we were practically rock climbing. Not to mention if I did fall, our guide reeked of booze and probably wouldn’t have been any good. Anyway, somehow I made it and the scenery was nice. Erika and I took another swim and met some totally awesome Israelis at the falls! I was so happy that I wasn’t the only Jew in Ghana. They were here for two years working for, you guessed it, a cell phone company. It was just a really nice little slice of the rest of the world. After the falls we checked out and when back to Kofiridua to head home. The most eventful thing that happened this weekend was on the busride home. The bus pulls up at 1:45 and me and my friends get on. We wait an hour and a half. The bus still doesn’t leave. We ask when it leaves and 3 people tell us 4:00. So at 3:15 Erika and I take a walk. We get back at 3:45 and the entire bus starts yelling at us in Twi. It was a seriously frightening sight. Old, fat women in their church clothes pointing their fingers at us and saying God knows what! We sat in silence on the way home.

My host family has been hosting 10 Dutch volunteers for the week, and it has been nice getting to know some new kids. I even got to meet some Belgians which is cool because I am Belgian and know like nothing about my heritage. I also had the chance to visit the Adinkra village of Ntonso and the Kente village of Bonwire. Both were definitely worth the trip, although I get a lot more attention traveling alone. The trip to Bonwire was especially frustrating. No one could tell me where to catch the Trotro, yet they still insisted on pointing me in some false direction. I wandered around for 2 hours in Kejetia and was about to blow $8 on a taxi until an older man said he would lead me there. I was so rude and told him right away that I would not buy anything. Then I started crying. I am such a bitch. The nice older man walked me to the trotro and told me where to go to, and told the driver where to make sure I got off. Then, he offered to come himself. The whole time I am still crying and being a bitch. If you think a white girl attracts attention, imagine a one crying her eyes out and being a bitch. Both villages were only enjoyable for me because I like clothes so much that I love to see anyone design any kind of garment.

Oh yea, that’s another thing I am really beginning to notice. I am really very obsessed with clothes, and dressmakers here have actually finally given me the chance to design my own garment. While I have mostly made simple pencil skirts and tube tops, I feel so much more proud of these garments. They are mine! Who knows? Maybe I have been wrong to ignore design as a career option all these years

As far as culinary news goes, I have finally acquired a taste for Fufu! Now, I can’t get enough of it. Fufu is basically a big squishy bowl of gummy, mashed, Cassava. It is the cheapest dish to make in Ghana and once you get used to it is really tasty.

As of today though, I am strictly eating tea and biscuits because my stomach woke me up in a rage this morning, so I have been watching Bollywood movies on my laptop all day.
Oh well
I’m in Africa
life is good.

Monday, July 14, 2008

Coasting the Cape.

Ok so this past weekend I took a trip to Cape Coast

I started out leaving wayy too late and being squished into a trotro next to a fat lady. Great way to begin a journey. Two hours in I was covered in sweat and we stopped for what was called a Urination Break. A woman stepped out of the car, and literally squatted and pissed on the street. No one blinked. The last two and a half hours of the journey were bumpy, because the roads were dirt, but whatever, I managed.

I arrived in Cape Coast and instantly noticed more white people, because it is a major tourist area. People were also even more aggressive to get the attention of four white girls (actually one was mixed, but she may as well be white here). The four of us dined at Oasis hotel, which was overpriced but clean and right on the beach. I enjoyed my new favorite Ghanian drink, Gordon's Spark and tried to ignore the adorable stray puppies I couldn't touch, and the Ghanian children on the beach asking me to buy them things. After a short break we all had to journey to Kakum National Park. Kakum is a rainforest and we had heard that camping there is a fantastic experience. We hopped into a cab, and learned the drivers name was Cornelius. I tried for the first 20 minutes of the ride to get Cornelius to play "give Me Blow" but apparently I don't speak Ghanian enough and nothing was getting through. It was dark when we arrived at Kakum and there was one man awake in the park at the time. He came to the taxi and we tried to get him to tell us where the tree platforms where, but he was not getting it.
"We have a nice place for you, we have just mowed the grass and there is a mosquito net"
" No, we want to camp in the platforms"
" There is a net it is nice"
Then Leslie and Erika get out to look for a key and me and Tracey are left with Cornelius, whom we refused to let leave because the other one there understood nothing. All I could do was offer him cookies, or biscuits as the call them here
Outside I heard Leslie screaming, "where is reception?"
"It is here"
"No, this is a rock!"

Finally the man said, "we must go to the man with the key"
So Cornelius drove us into this village and we were led into this sketchy backstreet and into someones house. The man rang the door bell and out came the Key Man, without pants. "are you the man with the key?" We said
"yes" he said, in perfect english. Salvation!

He led us back to Kakum and told us the platforms were closed, but took us to these really cool beds in the rain forest with a wonderful, impenetrable, mosquito net. After quick rinse-and-spit, we fell asleep to the noise of hundreds of bugs, monkeys, and God knows what else.

The next morning we awoke at 5:30, absolutely filthy, and met the tour guide for the canopy walk. I have to admit it was really beautiful, but not nearly as scary as I though it would be. Tracey was bugging out, and then she told me she had skydived, and I was like "how can you be scared of this then?" and she said, "well, there is no parachute."

Our next stop was the Dagoma rock shrine, so we trotroed to a nearby village to hop a taxi to the shrine. The only taxi was this truck that was falling in half and the seats were not properly screwed on to the bottom. We took a 20 minute ride through a village full of mud huts, or what I like to call "a tour of extreme poverty." The rock shrine was closed or not functioning or something so we rode back.

After a few more buses and trains and planes and whatnot, we ended up at the Elmina slave castle and took a formal tour. This was really very cool. They showed us the slave dungeons and where they took slaves to die. It is so creepy that a person could ever be sold like livestock, but it was done, and not really all that long ago. We all took lunch, and then shopped a bit in town. At night we went back to Oasis and watched traditional African drumming, which is one of the coolest things I have ever seen. Wow.

Sunday was only funny because a friend of mine discovered, suprisingly, that it was her time of the month. The two of us wandered the village looking for Tampax, which they do not sell in Cape Coast. Finally, I said "why don't you ask a white woman?"
Good move. She asked and that woman saved here life, and taught us all to always, always be prepared. I arrived home, showered and discovered that what I thought was a tan, was only dirt.
Oh well.

I decided to take the day to visit Ntonso, the Adinkra village. Adinkra is the Ashanti funeral clothing which is just gorgeous. It is this black and red dyed cloth with symbols stamped on that mean different things. I am hoping I can buy some and find a dressmaker that will make something other than a toga out of it, but I guess we will see.

Much love.
Cydney

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Sweaty and Happy...also called Swappy

Wow, I feel like my head is going to explode
Ok.
so.
Kumasi.
the central market.
my white skin.
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I have been spending every second of my free time fabric shopping because I was so pleased with my $2 patterned pencil skirt made by the dressmaker, I decided I want at least 5 more. I also want two vest and some pillowcases and well, you get the picture... So today I was looking for something specific so I decided to venture into Ketejia in the central market. The central market is the second biggest market in West Africa, but I would pay to see one that is bigger. Seriously, this place is like a country! I confidently dove in and after looking for about an hour, finally found the fabric section. Then I looked in what must have been a million places for a print I had seen, only to be left empty-handed. I decided to buy instead 3 yards of a kente style fabric just so the trip would not be a total waste. If this was a shopping mall, well, this would be perfectly normal for me. I often browse for an entire day and never make a purchase. Central Market is different though, the difference is what I like to call: the hassle factor. Every single person in every single store insists on calling me: "Obruni!" "Hey Come here" "blah blah" "white lady!." They all want to help me. Be my friend. Or as is best put, take my money. Well, at first in was funny, and I would smile and be cute and say no, but three hours of it in a hot crowded market is not exactly the easiest environment in which to be amiable. So anyone going to Ghana...avoid the market unless you absolutely have to go, there are like a billion fabric stores where you can browse to your hearts content. Lesson learned.

In other news, things are lovely in my new host family. I love having an 18, 20, and 21 year old to listen to music and swap pictures with. I now have the best of hip-life on my phone and practically have the words to African Girlz and Give Me Blow memorized. I have also gotten pretty awesome at handwashing clothes, and did it for 2 hours today, while also removing any skin left on my hands. I am starting to realize how little time I have left here, and am concentrating on experiencing as much as I can. I want to learn Twe, see all of the sights around Kumasi, learn to cook Ghanian food, and generally, as I said in my first entry, forget goals and enjoy the scenery.

On that note, I leave for a four day trip with Meredith, Tracey, Leslie, and Erika to Cape Coast. I am so excited to walk in the rainforest canopy and see Nzulezo, the stilt village. Before that,I fully intend on taking an ice cold shower and settling in on my mosquito-net free bed.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Change is ah-coming

Well, things have certainly changed quite a bit. When I arrived back at the orphnanage on Sunday, I soon became miserable. Truly, I didn't mind showering with the bucket or sweating under my net at night. What was bothering me was the children. I was not originally supposed to live in the orphanage, but they placed me there anyway. Most volunteers live with a family and work at the orphanage 8-5 and then go home. But me, I was working 24/7 and I never had anywhere to get away. I started flipping out because the children would knock on my door when I was relaxing, and really I never had any peace. So, as much as I loved the children I was starting to resent them, and I called and changed locations.

After causing quite a scene at the office, I ended up in a ridiculously nice place. I live in a gated community in a nice house, with soooo many people and sooo many rooms. The head of the household in actually a Queen in the Volta Region. There is a shower and fridge and a fan in my room. THere are also screens on the windows so I needn't worry about the malaria situation. They also feed me very well, too well, my appetite has quickly returned.

I have started teaching as my new job.I teach english to 10-13 year olds. They call me Madame Cydney. I am trying my best to be a good teacher, although the schools here, like everything else lacks organization. No one gives me a syllabus, and they tell me what I am teaching literally 2 minutes before they want me to teach. It is like a big gumball machine everyday and I never know what colors will pop out.

I remember I knew that this trip would change me, and it has, but not in the ways I expected. I have become way more independent than I ever thought. So much so, that I have decided not to go to Argentina through a prepaid program. I will travel the old fashion way, and find a place to live and take courses once I am there. Travel is getting so addicting, especially here where you can travel to the other end of a country for all of $3. There are so many places I am dying to go now: India, Ecuador, Ireland, and I don't even know where to start.
So ummm
Thank you Mom and Dad for not letting me waste away this summer.