Ghana

Where to even begin with Ghana...
Before arriving in Ghana I had signed up for a home stay in a village
called Senase through a guy from the Senase village who wanted to bring
SAS kids to experience his village. On day one I met up early with about
thirty other people who had signed up for the home stay as well. So we
all headed to the gangway and out into Ghana. I had no idea what I
expected Ghana to be like but as we stepped off the ship it was
basically just this dusty road with an industrial garage. We had to wait
for a while outside the ship for a shuttle that was supposed to bring us
to our bus. As we were waiting, Lucy and I decided to head over to this
little tent vendor place where they were selling tourist stuff. As soon
as we approached we got surrounded by the sales guys who were each
competing with one another and they were like forcing things into our
hands and giving us prices on things we weren't even interested in. It
was my first taste of the Ghanian hustle. So anyways I left the tent
somehow with a new backpack, a flag, and a bracelet. I guess their
hustle worked. As we were leaving some guy came up to Lucy and began
petting her bright pink suitcase bag and offering to buy it because he
thought it was beautiful. She was like no I can't sell it it's my only
bag I need it and he was like no no go back on the ship and get another
I want this one. He would not take no for an answer so we eventually
just had to run away basically. It was our first taste of what was to come.
Eventually, we hopped on the shuttle (after Lucy and I had run back onto
the ship to make everyone PB&J's and smuggle them out and missed the
first shuttle) and we were on our way. The shuttle dropped us off at
this random place on the side of the road where our tour guide was
waiting for us. From there we walked about a quarter mile on the side of
the road to the tour bus. The bus was jam packed with all thirty five
of us and some people had to sit on a stool in the middle aisle which
didn't seem like a big deal until we were told our next stop would be in
five hours. So the day of driving began. As we drove through Tema, the
traffic was terrible. I assume it always must be that way because the
people of Ghana had found a way to use the stopped cars to their
benefit. There were hundreds of people with baskets on their heads full
of water, snacks, CD's from like the 1980's, books, pretty much anything
you could want. Lucy and I were intrigued so we opened the window and
began bargaining for water and plantain chips. We ended up getting them
for like two dollars and we passed the money through the window as the
guy passed our goods. As soon as we shut the window the tour guide, who
had been rambling the whole time, began to talk about the people on the
street who were selling. He called them hawkers and told us never to buy
from them because it was illegal in Ghana. Woops.
As we drove it was really interesting to people watch and to see the
villages on the side of the road. Everyone in Ghana carries everything
on the top of their heads. Water, tv's, food, everything in little
baskets. They all have really good posture so I feel like maybe it's a
good idea. Anyways, they also take naps wherever the hell they want. We
saw groups of people just passed out under trees, some guy sleeping (i
hope) in the middle of a driveway, just anywhere they got tired. They
didn't look homeless of anything I really think it was just afternoon
nap. Another odd thing I noticed out the window is the way the mothers
carry their babies, they use a piece of fabric to strap the kid to their
backs but the kid is so tightly bound that their heads flop back. It
doesn't look comfortable but I mean it must be fine. Literally almost
every woman had a baby on their back, it's crazy how many kids and
basically just how many people were wandering around.
Finally after a solid five hours on the bus with only a quick stop at a
gas station to use the bathroom (which turned out to just be a room
where you squatted and went on the floor) we reached Cape Coast. We got
off the bus and were immediately surrounded by people trying to sell
random things and asking the girls to marry them. It was very
overwhelming. We made our way slowly due to the heard of people
surrounding us but finally made it to the Cape Coast Castle. As we
entered through the gate to the castle everyone quieted down and the
loud busy hustle was left outside. We were first able to walk around and
explore the main parts of the castle and then we were led to the museum
which described the history of the castle. Basically the building was
used to house thousands of slaves throughout the slave trade era just
before they were shipped off to the Americas. They had the actual
shackles that the slaves wore around their ankles, wrists, and necks.
They also had actual pieces of the hull of one of the slave transport
ships within the museum. After we were done in the museum we were led
to the male slave dungeon. There was one light bulb that lit the dungeon
which was built into the ground below the castle. We were told that five
hundred male slaves were held sometimes for as long as three months in
the dungeon. They had no access to toilets or bathing and were fed
minimally. It was really creepy being down there and a lot of people
were pretty emotional. As we moved on into another dungeon there was a
priest who did ceremonies regularly in Twi (the local language) for
people who wanted to bless the ancestors. We moved on to the woman slave
dungeon which was pretty much the same as the male one. Right next to
the female dungeon was a huge door called the "Door on No Return" which
is where the slaves were led out onto the ships to head across the
Atlantic. It was crazy going out those doors and thinking about how many
people had suffered so much taking those same steps. What we saw of the
coast was literally the last part of Ghana, their home, those people saw
for the rest of their lives.
So we left the slave dungeons and drove for about another hour to a
place called Hans Cottage Botel. I really have no idea what
distinguishes a botel from a hotel or motel but it turned out to be a
really nice place. It was more of a hostel than a hotel because 17 of us
stayed in one room and we had mattresses with just a sheet on them. So
we ended up getting there pretty late that night, probably around 9 and
we had had nothing to eat all day. We went to the botel restaurant and
ordered some food which turned out to be pretty good. It was the typical
chicken and plantains that we've grown really accustomed to in these
countries. They also had some American dishes on the menu like
spaghetti, french fries, and cheesburgers but those turned out to be
very mysterious. There was a bar and a pool so we had a really fun night
but went to bed fairly early because wake up call was at six am.
The next morning we had bread with jelly on it for breakfast in the same
restaurant. This restaurant was really cool though because it was
basically outdoors, there were no windows and it was built kind of like
a huge gazebo on a pond. In the morning there were SO MANY birds in the
trees, like literally there were more birds than leaves. I guess Ghana
is a really popular place for bird watchers to travel to (hope you're
reading this Meg ;) So that was really cool. After breakfast we got back
on the bus and drove for literally eleven hours that day to the Senase
village which is in the Ashanti region of Ghana. We made it from the
coast to about the very center of Ghana by the time we reached the
village. At that point, I was pretty frustrated with the amount of
driving the trip had included. We weren't given a very detailed
itinerary of what the trip entailed so I really wasn't expecting to
spend almost two days of my time in Ghana on a bus. Still driving
through the country was pretty cool and seeing so many different
villages and cities.
So the night of the second day we reached the Senase village around
probably eight. As soon as we drove into the village we hit a huge
pothole in the road and the bus got a flat tire. As the bus driver got
out to look at the damage we all stayed put on the bus. Within ten
minutes the bus was surrounded by a mob of children. I literally can't
even describe how many there were posing for pictures out the window and
reaching for us through the windows. At that point I was kind of like
what the hell, I am not about to get off this bus. But the bus was going
no where for the time being so we ended up having to grab all of our
stuff and walk the rest of the way to Fred's house. Fred is the guy who
set up the home stay. He was born in Accra but was adopted by a family
in Senase when he was a baby. Three years ago he was in Accra and he ran
into some SAS students who asked him to show them around. He agreed and
spent a lot of time with them. From that experience he got the idea to
bring SAS students to his village to experience what Ghanian life is
actually like. We were only the third group he had brought to Senase and
before that, the people in the village had literally never seen a white
person before. Fred is actually only twenty one.
So anyways, we got off the bus and were instantly swarmed. The kids were
awesome but it was a bit nerve wracking because as soon as we got off
they had grabbed all of our bags from us. It is customary for them to be
very hospitable and carry things for visitors, etc but with so many
people I didn't know I was pretty skeptical to have all my belongings in
the hands of kids I didn't know. It turned out to be fine, they were
very polite and trustworthy and the entire walk to Fred's they were
asking me questions about myself and America. Every time I spoke they
laughed hysterically at my accent and I'm pretty sure most of the time
they had no idea what I was saying. So finally we reached Fred's house
where his family had set up chairs outside for all of us and had dinner
prepared. We all sat around with the people of the village talking and
eating dinner which was something called fufu. I learned after that fufu
was a mix of yams, the meat of a cow's head which I'm assuming is cow
brains, and vegetables. It was really really tough to get down but when
you are sitting with people in their village eating their food and they
struggle to even get food for themselves, you aren't going to leave
food on your plate. As we were all eating, one of the guys in our group
realized that his nice cannon camera was missing. We all searched
everywhere and all of the adult villagers were very concerned. When it
didn't turn up after a while it was pretty clear that it had been stolen
so all of the village kids were yelled at in Twi and sent home. After
that incident the mood was no longer light and you could tell the adults
were really upset, they didn't want our experience in their village to
be like that. So everyone ended up going to bed pretty early and we were
sent off to our homes.
I was staying in a house with Lucy, Chelle, and Nidhi so we grabbed our
stuff and one of Fred's eighteen brothers led us to our house. It turned
out that our house was not even in Senase, we were walking for a while
down this dirt road and then we passed a few huts and then finally we
turned down this very sketchy looking alley way. In the alleyway there
were two apartments that had padlocks on the gates and iron bars
enclosing the porches. At this point I was like uh where the hell am I?
So Francis, the brother, called into one of the apartments and about ten
minutes later this guy walked out who had clearly just rolled out of
bed. He said "welcome, you have my house for two days" and got on his
little moped and left. We were like, uh what? So Francis gave us the
padlock key and told us that Auntie Maggie in the apartment next door
had a toilet so we could use it tomorrow. So we locked ourselves in and
went inside. The apartment consisted of two rooms with cracked concrete
walls. The furniture in the room consisted of four tv's (none of which
worked) three wall clocks, two stereos, a mat on the floor with a sheet
on it and a bed in the other room with a dirty sheet on it. The whole
place was lit by a very blue tinted lightbulb. I sort of felt like I was
in a really sketchy frat house or something. So Nidhi and Chelle claimed
the mat and Lucy and I took the bed.
Pretty early in the morning the rooster started crowing and at four
auntie Maggie was outside getting to work. Needless to say, we didn't
get much sleep. At six we woke up and went out to use Auntie Maggie's
bathroom. The alley way had about five women mashing plantains and
cooking and none of them spoke English. Auntie Maggie was pretty nice
about letting us use the toilet and she also had a shower head in this
weird room that we were able to sort of shower in.
At seven Francis and another one of Fred's brothers, Gordon, came back
to get us and led the way back to Fred's house. We ate breakfast which
was a sort of porridge that you put condensed milk and sugar on and
bread. It really was actually pretty good. After breakfast we headed off
to one of the village schools. All the kids were walking to school so we
were talking and laughing with them the whole walk which was really fun.
A lot of the families came out of their houses to see us and asked for
family pictures even though we couldn't give them the pictures they
loved looking at them on the screen after they were taken. A couple of
the people told me that they needed my camera, I was like sorry I need
it too! So we finally made it to the school and before we sat down we
had to go around and shake hands with the elders. It's very impolite to
do anything with your left hand in Ghana when dealing with other people
so we had to put our left hand behind our backs and bow as we shook each
of the elders hands. We sat down and the chief welcomed us with a speech
and then they played drums and did a dance performance for us. After
that, we split up into smaller groups and each group went off to
different schools for the day.
My group stopped at a public school down the street first where we were
mobbed by kids as soon as we stepped off the bus. They kept saying
"sister we like your shoes" and they also kept pinching my arm fat which
was pretty sad. Every time they pinched me they laughed and they kept
feeling my hands because compared to them my hands were so soft. It made
me really realize how different the lives we live in the states are to
the ones these kids live. They have hard calloused hands due to all the
work they do and these kids were like ten years old. It was really fun
playing with them, I tried to teach them some games but many of them
only spoke Twi so it was really hard. They LOVED having their pictures
taken and they loved taking pictures with our cameras. Once we broke
free from the kids we were brought into the headmasters office where all
the school officials sat down with us and told us all about the school
and answered all the questions we had. It was really cool, but not
exactly what I had expected to get out of the experience to be honest.
The headmaster just kind of brought up that the biggest issue in the
school was not enough government funding and handed each of us the
address of the school in case we wanted to send stuff. I definitely
realize that they don't have enough and the education system is not what
it should be but when i was told I would be visiting the schools I kind
of thought we would be volunteering and doing service, I would rather do
that than just send notebooks. I guess that the issue is they need the
supplies for any service to be done and in order to get supplies they
need money, I just wish we could have done something that day.
So after we left the public school we got back on the bus and drove
about fifteen minutes to the private school in the area. The difference
between the public school and the private school was so huge. The
private school was a boarding school and so they had much larger
buildings for housing the students. We once again were first led to the
administrators office where we were told all about the school. The
boarding school has both day and boarding students. They run in
trimesters and one of the unique aspects of the school was that the
students are not allowed to speak Twi, they are required to either talk
in English or French. There are signs all over the school grounds that
say Speak English. So after we talked to the headmaster we were given a
tour and along the tour we stopped in almost all of the classrooms to
talk to the kids and answer questions. Most of the questions they had in
each class were pretty similar, each class asked us why we were in
Ghana. They also asked us our religion, how old we are, and if we knew
how to Azonto (a really popular dance in Ghana). Sometimes we got random
questions like "How do you prevent syphilis?" which was pretty
random/awkward. It was really cool to have group discussions with each
classroom and we learned a lot from talking to the kids. They all spoke
really good English for the most part and they were much more
disciplined than the kids at the public school, we were never really
surrounded or grabbed which was the main experience at the first school.
It definitely is a class difference as well, the private school is not
free and I doubt it is cheap. So we spent most of the day there and then
around two we headed back to Senase.
Once we were back at Senase we were fed lunch which was a bean sort of
deal and fried plantains. It was really good. We hung out for a while
just talking and sitting around with the kids and people in the village
which was actually my favorite part. We were able to explore the village
a bit and stop in some shops, it was interesting to see how some of the
kids in the village became attached to certain people. Fred's eleven
year old brother, Gordon, was attached to my hip the entire day. So
later that afternoon we were led to a community area where they had set
up drums for us. They asked which of us would like to play the drums and
which would like to dance because they were going to teach us a native
dance. It was really funny learning the dance, the kids were crowded
around the entire time laughing at the white kids trying to dance which
was fine because I'm sure we looked ridiculous. It took us a really long
time to get it down and finally once we had it they told us that we
would be performing the dance at the private school in the morning.
That night we all hung out at Fred's house again after we ate dinner
which I honestly have absolutely no idea what that consisted of. I think
it was mainly vegetables but it was dark because the power went out so
we were kind of just just eating blindly. I had brought my ipod and I
gave it to the kids to try to play Scoops which they were obsessed with.
They were all crowded around and it was really really funny to hear
their commentary and see them get so excited over the game. As they were
playing they put on some Lil Wayne who they all love. They also love
Justin Bieber and Beyonce. It was all around a really fun night. Gordon
and I talked for a while and it was really cool how much he opened up.
He told me he wanted to let me know that his father had died and that he
was an orphan and he actually started to cry and it was probably the
saddest thing I have ever seen. I felt so bad and I didn't even know
what to say but we had a really good conversation about how good his
adoptive parents were and how lucky he was to have so many siblings who
cared about each other. I really took a lot from getting to know Gordon.
That night we went to bed pretty early because we were all so exhausted.
The next morning we woke up early again and went out into the alley way.
From a balcony this guy called to us and told us to go up. We were
obviously skeptical but one of the lady's in the alley said "go, go he
is the landlord". So we all went together up to this guys apartment
which was so nice! He had finished wooden ceilings and really nice
furniture. So he sat us down and told us that he was the mayor of the
area and that he had worked under the president of Ghana for like twelve
years or something. He was obviously pretty well off compared to most of
the people in the village. He invited us to go to church with him but we
told him that we wouldn't be in Ghana on Sunday and so he asked if we
wanted to go to a mosque service which would have been so cool, but we
were leaving on Thursday and those services are on Fridays. Everyone in
Ghana is very religious and it was hard for them to understand that I'm
not religious at all but I didn't want to pretend to be because I feel
like that's what this trip is all about, to learn about their culture
and to show them ours as well. So i felt like meeting him was pretty
cool but we couldn't stay long because we had to get to breakfast and
then to our performance at the school. We brought everything with us
from the home stay house because we were leaving right after the
performance so we took a picture with Auntie Maggie and gave her a gift,
and left a gift in the home we stayed in for the guy we had seen on the
first night.
The performance at the school was so fun. They actually made us all
costumes so we put those on and then did our dance in front of probably
300 people. It was all just in fun and most of the time everyone was
laughing. When it was over we took a bunch of pictures with all the kids
and Fred and said good bye to the people of the village. Senase was such
a friendly place and the people were so hospitable. It was hard to say
good bye to all the friends we had made and it really was a great
experience. Throughout our time there the villagers were really
struggling with the drinkng water situation because two weeks before the
well that feeds the three surrounding villages had become polluted. As a
thank you to the village for hosting us we all donated the extra cash we
had and were able to pay for the repairs to the well which made us all
feel really good.
So once again, we were back on the bus for like twelve hours. The roads
in Ghana are not well developed so it was a very bumpy ride and sitting
up front it was kind of hard to breathe because the bus drivers
assistant was boycotting deodorant or something. Needless to say, it
was a really really long ride. We stopped half way through in a city and
were able to shop for an hour and grab some food. We got back to the
ship around seven and I have never been so happy to see the MV.
As soon as we got back we took showers and got ready to go out. In each
port there is one bar that all the SAS kids seem to flock to and the bar
in Ghana was a sketchy place called Minillas. It was pretty cool though
because they had an outdoor dance floor. It ended up being a really fun
night but by the end we were all exhausted. The next morning at 8 am I
had an FDP at a place called City of Hope Refugee Camp. The City of
Hope is an orphanage/ school for kids who have been rescued from being
child slaves in the surrounding villages. Parents end up selling their
kids because they don't have enough money to survive or the children
become orphaned and sent to work. The children were ages three to
seventeen. The child slaves are forced to do most of the fishing for the
community in a huge man made lake, Lake Volta, that provides for the
villages in the area. The issue is that the kids are not educated, often
can't swim, and are too little to be doing such labor intensive work.
Often times the nets get tangled on trees below the surface of the water
and the kids drown trying to free the net. They are also often beaten,
starved, and treating inhumanely. The City of Hope founders explained to
us their system for going into the villages and rescuing the children.
They have volunteers within many of the villages doing background
investigations before they move in, and they often pressure the adults
overseeing the children to release the kids into their care using
persuasion techniques and sometimes law enforcement. Once they have the
kids in their care, the team usually visits the village the kids were
sold from to put pressure on the families or chief to end the sale of
human beings. It's a really intense system that is happening and it was
crazy to be at the heart of it because you always hear about those kinds
of things but it's not as real as actually being there and seeing the
kids who have suffered from it. At the City of Hope there were thirty
five kids living in the community houses they had built and the
organization has goals to continue building living spaces to house more
children. We spent the day volunteering in different parts of the little
community. I sat with each of the kids individually and helped them
write letters to their sponsors which was really fun because I got to
talk to them one on one. Seeing the kids read the letters from their
sponsors and watching their reactions and seeing the things they wrote
back was really pretty emotionally overwhelming. Even just seeing the
kids in the school environment I can't imagine them back in the village
doing all that work and being treated so badly. It's crazy to think
about. Going through their daily routine with them and volunteering was
really really cool.
Overall, Ghana was an amazing experience. I wouldn't describe it as
always being fun but it was impactful for sure. It was weird to me that
when I asked each of the kids in the village what their parents did for
a job, they all said that their parents were farmers. Yet I didn't see
any crops and all day the adults were kind of just chilling around the
village. I don't know if it was because this is the dry season, or if
there isn't enough work to go around but I wish that I had sort of
learned more about that aspect of village life. I was talking to Lucy
and we kept wondering if us going to these villages is helping or
hurting the people. We go with good intentions, but when we go we bring
our American culture with us just by default which is obviously more
wealthy and spoiled. If we didn't expose them to that culture, would
they know it existed or what they were missing? Does it help them and
motivate them to see how the other half lives, or does it discourage
them more? Being in such a different place and having all those
experiences definitely raises questions in your head that there are
probably no answers to.
We are currently right off the Coast of South Africa with one more day
until we are in port. The water is already extremely rough and tomorrow
it is only supposed to get worse. The Cape of Good Hope is famous for
having the roughest seas in the world. Exciting! I will update after
South Africa, miss you all!!!!!