thoughts and adventures

farewell, for now

2009-05-08T11:48:00.002-04:00

As I sit here and write my last blog from Africa, on my last day in Ghana, I am filled with mixed emotions and don’t even know where to begin or what to write about. There is no doubt I am beyond excited to go home—to be around anything familiar, to not be an “Obruni” anymore, to know how to appropriately function in society, to eat good food (not white rice for a long, long time), to see my momma, sister, nana, boyfriend and all of my family, to see my dear friends in New York and Texas—it’s definitely time.

I have been moved and blessed by these four months. I have learned things about myself and about humanity that I will carry with me forever. I have met and become close friends with some of the kindest people in the world. I have battled everything from the Ghanaian health care system, the maltreatment of women, to the lack of development in the nation. I have been to some of the most beautiful places (Winneba, Tamale) I’ve ever seen, and had some of the wildest experiences I’ve ever had (remember the 1 Cedi hostel in Togo? Or the journey to Green Turtle Lodge?). I have traveled three African countries—Togo, Morocco, and Ghana, and none of these journeys were without tough moments that ended up being hilarious ones. I have learned that “Africa” is not at all what I expected. I have peed on concrete slabs in front of lots of people. I have learned to love Makola market (a true example of growth!). I have bought more fabric than I can even wrap my mind around (Gillian can attest to my utter anxiety in packing it all). I have refused more marriage proposals than you can imagine. I have been treated both like royalty and like the scum of the earth because of my skin color. I have taken 126 malaria pills, and never missed a day(!). I have written 66 (now 67) blogs. I have ridden in tro-tros that my mom would’ve had a heart attack if she’d seen me in. I’ve bartered for hundreds of taxis. I have not eaten enough Fan Ice (must find a way to get this back to the states!). I have made local friends in every city I’ve been to. I have cried more than I ever thought I would. I have laughed more than I ever thought I would. I have become used to, and sometimes comforted by, power outages and water shortages. I have lived in Labone, one of the nicest neighborhoods in all of Ghana. I have been to the post office once a week, every week since I’ve been here. I have received letters from my mom, Nana, Sarah, Eric, Kala, Amanda, Rachel, Rebecca and Carley. I have cherished these letters. I have acquired a new tan, a new wardrobe, and a new outlook on life. I have challenged myself to think deeper about issues like development. I have become more patient with myself and with others. I have learned to slowwww downnnn. All in all, I have had the most incredible, rewarding, adventurous, scary, beautiful, fun, trying, and perfect study abroad experience. In Ghana. In Africa.

So now for the letters, with which I will try to be brief, but which deserve to be said, on the internet, for everyone to read.

Dear Solomon’s Girls,

Thank you for every single day providing a safe haven for one another to be themselves. Thank you for nurturing each other, and me, and always finding a way to have fun. Thank you for being the most eclectic, unlikeliest of people to live in a house together, but for proving that this “Real World: Ghana house” was real, and wonderful. Thanks for doing your dishes (ode to Julia) and for doing life with me. Emma, Anika, Marykate, Marika, Monica, Crystal, Tanesha, Gillian, Marta, Julia, Katie, Victoria, Stephannie, Helene, Leigh, Naa, and Julia, you girls are awesome and I love you all.

Dear Gillian,

I know you’re going to read this today anyway, since that’s what we do, but I want you to know what an impact you’ve had in my life these last four months. I never expected that we would become such great friends, or that we would go through hospitals, tro-tros, multiple countries, countless cries and laughs, Mamma Mia (I’ll leave it at that), some of our lowest and highest moments, bike rides, prayer, and fellowship together. You are as beautiful inside as you are out, and I am honored to have gotten to share an oversized room and undersized food supply with you for the last four months.

Dear Anyone-Who-Ever-Wrote-Me-A-Letter,

Thank you. Thank you for brightening my day and pissing off dear Debby, whom I harassed for the mail every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks for reminding me that even when I’m half-way around the world, people are still thinking about me and I am still part of my loved ones’ lives.

Dear Family and Friends,

Thanks for being patient with me, and for graciously encouraging me to go off on this adventure. Thank you for trusting me and for reminding me day in and day out that I need to wear bug spray, but more importantly, that I need to do what I, Elizabeth Shelby, want to do. Thanks for never hindering me from becoming who I am still in the process of becoming, and thank you for letting me go (even for just four months). Thanks for Skyping with me, for emailing with me, for IMing with me, for spending ridiculous amounts of money texting and calling me (and vice versa!), and for reading this little blog.

And finally…Dear Readers-of-this-Blog,

Thanks for coming with me on this journey. I’m glad to have shared it all with you. I hope you find something else just as compelling to read daily now! Just kidding. But seriously, I’ll miss writing it just as much as you’ll miss reading it.

Alright, I suppose I better close this computer up and pack it away—we leave in an hour and a half or so, and our plane leaves in 5 hours. If you read this at anytime within the next day, please send prayers of safety towards the sky, as Gillian and I will be on our way back to the states, EEEEK! We should get into New York on Saturday at 11 am NY time, so 10 am Texas time. I love you all and can’t wait to see you soon!!!

LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE!

QUICK post

2009-05-06T18:02:00.002-04:00

i have a test tomorrow which i need to keep studying for, so i'm just writing a quick post to show you a picture of marjorie and her two girls, janette (2) and tina (5). i stopped by her place today to pick up one of the last two things being made. tomorrow i'll have to say goodbye, which will be sad. less than 48 hours people, crazy. emma and leigh left today and it was pretty emotional for everyone. just hope these two days go by fast and slow all at once. anyway, gotta go study- wish me luck on this test!

love love love

my ghanaian experience: a photo blog

2009-05-04T19:59:00.040-04:00

As my time in Ghana is coming to a close, I thought it'd be nice to post pictures of the people and things I see on a daily basis, the people and places who have made this NYU-in-Ghana experience so wonderful.

Solomon's Lodge:

These are the girls of Solomon's Lodge. My Ghanaian family. Each girl has made this experience something special and fun. We've helped each other laugh through the terrible times, and have celebrated communally through the great times. These are some of the funniest, greatest, most intelligent and open-minded people I've ever gotten the chance to meet. I am so thankful I am able to call each of these girls my friend.

This is our day guard, Danny, who every day from 6 am to 6 pm watches over our house and protects us. He is employed by g4s, a local security company. this man always greets us with a friendly "You are welcome" when we enter Solomon's, and a "me combra" (meaning "come back soon") when we leave. There's not one person in Solomon's who hasn't been touched or blessed by Danny's hard work and smiling face every, single day.

This is the street Solomon's is on.

The man cutting hair is Issac. We pass his stand every day on our way to the Academic Center.

Part of the road on the walk to the Academic Center.

This is First Choice, the local store where we buy everything from sache' water to phone credit to snacks for the schools I taught at. Those signs in the front (the pink and yellow ones) are to let customers know they sell phone credit for both Zain and MTN users (the equivalent of, say, Verizon and ATT). Those red cases are crates and crates of empty class bottles, which Ghanaians recycle. In fact, if you were to buy a glass-bottled drink at First Choice, or anywhere else, you would have to consume the entire thing and give the bottle back before you could leave.

Ghanaian children love to pose for pictures. This was taken along the road on the way to the Academic Center. Painted on the white wall are two Ghanaian flags.

This is one of the shops on the way to the Academic Center. As I've mentioned before, many many shops have titles like this one, "King Majesty Hair Cut." In front is a typical-looking taxi (notice the religious writing on the back windshield? This is also common.).

This is Uncle Sammy, one of our two drivers (both are named Sammy!). One of the things we love and will remember most about him is how he tries to mimic an American voice. Whenever we leave the van and say "bye Sammy!" in our relatively high-pitched voices, he will raise his voice several octaves to try to match ours. He's Solomon's primary driver to and from dinner.

This is "Young" Sammy, as we call him. He's also a day driver for NYU, and is usually the one who would take me and Marykate to Legon on Mondays.

The Academic Center:

This is the Academic Center. It was once a house that NYU transformed into a building with several classrooms, a conference room, a computer area, and a kitchen. This is where I take three of my four classes. The walk from Solomon's to the Academic Center is about 7 minutes.

This is Uncle Tego!!! He, like Danny, works from 6 am to 6 pm, 6 days a week. He guards the Academic Center. Every single morning he greets me with a friendly "Queen Elizabeth," in his deep, Uncle Tego voice. He has all 40 something students' names, as he sees them day in and day out walking into the Academic Center. He says each student's name in a very distinct way. I'll have to say my name like he does for you in person.

This is the porch area of the Academic Center, where much of our intense orientation week was held. Occasionally we have classes out here under that veranda (for instance, this is where our televi class and our dress-up class were). Additionally, all of our workshops, for instance, "Adjusting to Ghana," were held out here.

West Africa AIDS Foundation, WAAF:
This is WAAF. While I don't see it every day, I did see it plenty this semester. The white building in the back of the shot is the Health Care Center, where people are tested and treated for all sorts of diseases, not just HIV. The tannish building on the left is the Almond Tree, where the women who make things to sell and get money for their medicines are stationed.

This is The Almond Tree. I have pictures of me with my favorite woman who works there, but have decided against posting, just for her privacy. I will gladly show them to you when I get home, though! She is the woman who has been making table runners and table cloths for some of you!

Miscellaneous:

This isn't such a great picture, but it was taken out of a taxi window. This is Independence Square, built to commemorate Ghana's independence in 1957. I'm sure I've already said this in a post, but Ghana was the first African colony to gain independence.

This is another shot of Independence Square. The ocean is in the background, and this is where events such as parades and large social festivals often take place.

So these are the pictures I have so far. Tomorrow I'm going to try to take pictures of some more of the staff, as well as of Marjorie and her shop. I hope you've enjoyed looking through them as much as I've enjoyed putting this blog together (and living these pictures).

love love love

our final weekend

2009-05-03T10:33:00.008-04:00

getting really tired of my blog formatting the way it has been...sorry, again, for the weird spacing.

*i didn't intend for this picture to turn out the way it did, but it's really cool!

*ahh! i can't believe we've almost concluded our final weekend in ghana. this time next week i'll be resting comfortably in jon's awesome apartment, followed by visiting my cousin in brooklyn and having a much needed dinner with charlie. can't believe it. there are so many things i want to say and blog about, so many reflections, etc. perhaps soon there will be a blog with those types of sentiments, but for now, i'll just update you on what we did this weekend!

*friday i spent writing my final paper of the semester! it's good to have that over with, and now i just need to focus on my tests that are on thursday and friday. the day was spent doing nothing, really, and we went to bed early because we had an early morning saturday.

*saturday started at 4:30 am, because nyu in ghana loves leave for their field trips as early as humanly possible. anyway, the bus picked us up at 5 to go to WLI FALLS, pronounced wee-lee falls. the four hour bus ride proved well worth it, as we we got there around 10 or so. we had to hike for 45 minutes to the actual falls, but it wasn't that strenuous, and actually really cool. we had to cross over several bridges, under which there would be families washing their clothes and collecting water. pretty cool.

*the waterfall is gorgeous, and according to the welcome sign is the tallest waterfall in west africa. we all braved the semi-cold waters and got in, and a bunch of us even went to the base of the falls, right where the water actually hits the bottom. it was came down SO hard and was SO loud, but really cool. now just pray none of us get river-blindness, JUST KIDDING. our RAs assured us it is safe for foreigners to swim in the water, and that everyone in prior semesters had done it and been just fine. somewhere, someone has a picture of us actually in the water.

wli falls...the water looks disgusting in this picture, but i assure you it wasn't this bad.

marika, me, gillian and marykate

*this morning all of solomon's decided to make brunch, complete with french toast, pancakes, eggs, and fruit salad. everyone pitched in, and i was the designated pancake-maker. when gillian's mom was here she bought us bisquick...a godsend. it was a great way to spend our last sunday as a complete house. two girls leave on wednesday, gillian, helene and i leave on friday, and then others leave next saturday and sunday. slowly the nyu in ghana program is coming to a close for the semester, and we are all getting really nostalgic and sad. this departure is bittersweet, but more on that later...

*for now, i plan on making the most of my final five days here. today i've decided to stay in my pajamas all day, until gillian and i head to the golden tulip for dinner tonight. we're treating ourselves, because, really, why not? maybe i'll get some organizing/"packing" done today, but let's be honest...i doubt much will get done.

*also, for those interested in the whole development discussion (i've shared some of my thoughts in earlier blogs), i'm reading a new book called dead aid by dambisa moyo, a zambian woman who was educated at harvard and oxford. she's worked for the world bank for many years, and argues that all foreign aid must be removed from africa before africa can get back on its own feet and actually develop. i don't know what her new solution/propositions are (i haven't read that far) but it's a compelling argument, especially since it's being made by an african. what i've read so far is very good, and i'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in another take on the issue/dialogue of development.

*anyway, that's all for now...i suppose i'll go get to that "packing". happy sunday my family and friends!

*love love love

taken from gillian's camera

2009-04-29T06:12:00.008-04:00

a picture from bike riding in aburi and one from that awesome fettuccini-laden dinner!

(my blog's doing that random no-line-between-paragraphs thing)

it's now wednesday, and the official day counter is in the SINGLE digits. that's right, 9 days until we leave for the states, and 13 days until i'm back in texas. before i go, i want to take pictures of all the things and people i do and see everyday. that's the kind of thing you don't think about until you're gone. so that's my project for the remainder of my time here, in addition to PACKING and finishing up two tests and papers which are still lingering over me. the past three days have been fairly un-blog-worthy, simply because they've been spent writing a 20 page paper with gillian. this is one of our biggest projects of the semester, so it's good to have it done!

random thought, but: remember a while ago when i said i had seen buildings with people's names on them? like isha's collection, etc.? well, since then i've also found: "marilyn's latest fashions," "prince eric" (i'm not kidding) and "sarah's fabric." also, at makola, there's a woman who sells fabric named diana (spelled d-i-a-n-a). that one made me smile ;)

>>also, please pray for solomon's lodge. in the past week, two of our girls have gotten malaria or "malaria" and have spent lots of time in the hospital. just to remind everyone, malaria is not contagious, it's transmitted through mosquitos. it is very treatable, especially in ghana, where the infection rate is so high. please pray for everyone's continued health and safety in these few short days left. let's just finish this thing healthily.

>>alright so this blog was highly jumbled, but bare with me!

sending lots of love to texas, new york and beyond. you texans, stay safe in all that rain...and don't get the swine flu. i kid i kid.

>>love love love

a gift for you on this tuesday morning

2009-04-28T05:20:00.001-04:00

gillian and i are working on a paper for one of our classes, and upon searching for what i assume was "rap in ghana" or something of the sort, gillian found this.

enjoy!

chicken fettuccini alfredo

2009-04-26T18:51:00.013-04:00

at the aburi botanical gardens by a broken down helicopter

I wrote this blog last night, but couldn't post it til this morning because our internet was out. Let’s see, since Tamale, I had a pretty normal week.

Monday I had my last class Media and Society class at Legon, which ended up being a “revision” class. The professor basically just told us what kinds of questions to expect on our final (next Thursday 5/7). He was surprised to see that only 40 out of 450 students were at the revision. WE were surprised there were even 450 students in the class ever! No previous Media and Society class had ever had that many students in it.

Tuesday I registered for my fall classes and I got all the ones I wanted! Next semester in New York I’m taking: History of Communication, Film: History and Form, Media and Identity, and Copyright, Commerce and Culture. I’m really excited about all of them! I’m in my Film: History and Form class with Marykate! It’ll be great to have a class with her again J.

Wednesday was kind of boring, nothing too exciting happened. Thursday Marykate and I got pedicures and manicures—the second of the semester! It was nice to get away from the house for a bit and relax. I nearly fell asleep in my oversized salon chair, as it should be.

FRIDAY was a really fun day! We had a makeup recitation session in the morning. It ended up being really fun and quite a cultural experience! The guest professor was Esi Sutherland, who is a really famous African writer, and is known all over the world. She brought in some people from the Accra Dance Company (or something like that), who brought with them lots of “costumes.” These were basically all different types of cloth and beads and head-wear. They dressed us up and we got to learn a few dance moves, too! I was dressed as an Ashanti woman, in formal wear. My favorite part of the whole experience was that they gave me a bustle (aka, a fake butt)! Ghanaians definitely aren’t lacking in the butt area, and so to be more realistic, they had to help me out a little bit! I asked if they add the bustle when Ghanaians wear the outfit, and they said, yes, all people add the bustle. So mayyyyybe these big butts we see under all this beautiful clothing have been a rouse all along!

my bustle

my typical weekend wear

Saturday was another NYU field trip to Aburi Botanical Gardens, in Aburi (where Tetteh Quarshie cocoa farm is). We had passed the botanical gardens when we went to Tetteh Quarshie, but didn’t have time to go, so I’m glad we got to go with NYU. It was just a day trip, so we got to leave the dorm around 10 a.m. and got there around noon. We first had a guided tour through the ten different lawns of the gardens. We saw many different plants, whose names I don’t remember (of course). My FAVORITE was this tree, which is actually two trees living symbiotically. They grow around each other. After 35 years or so, the outer tree ends up killing/strangling the inner tree, leaving the inner tree hollow and dead. The coolest part is that because of this, you can actually walk inside the tree, and even climb up the inside! It was really cool and quite a photo op! inside the tree

Afterwards, a few of us went down the hill to rent some bikes, which we got to ride around for a little bit. Never are you reminded of how out of shape you are until you get on a bike and have to ride around hilly areas for long periods of time. Gillian and I have bikes and ride them daily around our neighborhood but this apparently has done nothing to boost our physical stamina, as we were both exhausted after only a few minutes of pedaling. Needless to say, it was a lot of fun, but definitely tiring, and we only lasted 20 minutes or so around the gardens. Once everyone was done wandering around, we spent about 30 minutes at a “craft market,” which was really just a busy street lined with vendors on either side. It looked like and reminded me exactly of the “craft market” we went to in Kumasi. I got a really cool fabric patchwork oversized duffel bag which I will use as my carry on (since heaven knows I have far too much stuff).

Tonight is Gillian’s mom’s last night in Ghana…which everyone is really sad about. She’s brought such a joy to our house, despite getting sick herself for a few days. No worries though, she is feeling better. Anyway, tonight, as a parting dinner, she took me and Gillian to the Golden Tulip, a REALLY nice, REALLY expensive five star hotel in Accra. And it really is nice. I opened the menu, and as pathetic as this sounds, I literally had to hold back tears when I read the words “Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo” on the menu. It was the most American menu I have seen since I’ve been here, with dishes ranging from mashed potatoes to bacon burgers to all kinds of normal salads. I was in HEAVEN. Our dinner was accompanied by a piano player, and for an hour, I honestly did feel like I was in some ritzy hotel in America. The fettuccini was delicious, but even if it sucked, I would’ve appreciated it just the same. Just the fact that I ate something called chicken fettuccini was enough for me. Anyway, it was the perfect ending to a great few weeks spent with Barb.

We only have twelve days left—can’t believe it! This week will be busy spent writing papers and doing all sorts of projects and presentations. But Gillian and I have planned out our week so we won’t get stressed out. I only have two finals this semester, and they’re the last two days I’m here (one is the morning of the night I leave). But I’ve decided I will not stress out, so that’s that.

I hope all is well at home. I know Meredith’s graduation luncheon was today—I hope it went well and I wish I had been there! Can’t wait to see most of you so very soon!

love love love

tamale photo albums

2009-04-21T17:53:00.003-04:00

here are the links to my tamale photo albums. check them out if you're so inclined:

album #1:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=118331&id=616486619&l=9955a0e820

album #2:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=118707&id=616486619&l=72daaa84fc

tamale (no, not the food)

2009-04-20T16:45:00.014-04:00

Me and my friend Nassit at the widows village (read on, my friends...)

Tamale was AMAZING.

I guess I should preface this blog with a little description of what Tamale (no, not the food you Texans) is. It’s a city in Northern Ghana, about 14 hours north of Accra. Tamale is pronounced Tom-Uh-Lay, not Tuh-Mall-Ee. This trip was one planned by NYU. About 30 students went, and Gillian’s mom!

Because it was is so far away, we left EARLY on Thursday. I’m talking 4 a.m. early. But the bus ride went really smoothly and we got there around 5 p.m. We stayed at this place called the Tamale Institute of Cross Cultural Studies (TICCS). TICCS does lots of academic tours around Tamale, and they took care of us the entire weekend. They also have motel-esque accommodations, so that’s where some stayed (others had to stay at another motel-type place called Catholic Guest House). Anyway, after a long day’s travel, we ate dinner and went to sleep.

Friday morning we had breakfast around 7 and left TICCS with our tour guides to explore Tamale. But first, we had an hour long lecture on Northern Ghana (NG), where we learned some very cool things: NG takes up 41% of Ghana’s total land mass, though it only has ¼ of the Ghana’s population. Tamale’s population is about 800,000. Their society is patrilineal, meaning one inherits his/her ethnic identity from the father. (This is not the case in Akan society, where inheritance is matrilineal and inheritance is passed down from your mother’s brother.) The North took much longer to become developed, and did not establish formalized education until the 1930s, some hundred years after it was established in the southern part (Accra and such) of Ghana. The north has very few tourist attractions, and is not a metropolis like Accra. On this point, it was quite clear how “underdeveloped” NG is from Accra. On just the drive up alone, we would see the scenery change from buildings to arid land, with nothing around for miles. There are far fewer commercial transactions that happen in Tamale, though it is a surprisingly big city. The temperature was over 100 degrees every single day (much hotter than in Accra), though there was about the same amount of humidity. The people were SO much friendlier than in Accra, but we will get to that in a bit. Anyway, the north and south are basically total opposites. But back to the fun facts:

Farming and livestock raising are their two primary economic activities. I think I talked about this in a previous blog, but paying a bride wealth is a really big deal here, and especially in the north where everything is much more traditional and less modernized. Thus, cattle are raised for a dowry and bride price. If for whatever reason a man cannot pay the bride price, he cannot technically call his future children his own. Interesting stuff. As far as religion goes, there’s Christianity, Islam, and Traditional Religions (through the use of diviners—which I’ll get to, too). Our tour guide said “Africans are very additive- they take what is good and add on, though they never throw away.” He said this to mean that oftentimes Christians (and Muslims) will incorporate traditional African religious practices (like sacrifices and divination) into their own religious beliefs. This was especially evident up north. The guide also said, educationally speaking, in the north it is better to skip university because afterwards, a job isn’t guaranteed. However, farmers will definitely make money, and the job is secure and steady.

Anyway, so that’s my little Northern Ghana cultural lesson for you all. But back to what we actually did in Tamale. So on Saturday, after the lecture, we visited a local mosque. Northern Ghana has many more Muslims than the southern part of the country, so it was cool to see women wearing more conservative, modest clothing. The mosque was large and open, with a large round center. Many different colored mats lined the floors, and a Muslim showed us how they pray (always facing east, towards Mecca, always 5 times a day). It was interesting to find out that the men and women worship (pray) separately. There is a dividing wall between where the men pray and where the women pray, and it was explained to us that this is so there are no distractions or unclean thoughts during prayer. There is always a prayer leader who is in charge of leading the corporate prayers at the designated worship times. This person is never a woman. The women aren’t allowed to go to the upper levels of the mosque; however they made an exception and let our whole group go. We got to look down at all the mats and get a cool perspective.

After the mosque we drove around Tamale a bit and visited their market. It’s much smaller than either Makola or Kaneshi, but it is just as active. The walkways are narrower, and the people speak less English (obviously), so it was rather difficult to make transactions, but we managed. Of course I couldn’t stay away from the fabrics, and managed to buy a few more types of material for myself (AND for others!). I’ve found that the majority of the fabric patterns are pretty similar wherever you go in Ghana. The north had some designs that Accra doesn’t have, but typically, you see the same patterns wherever you are in the country. As we were leaving the market, we passed a gorgeous little baby eating fufu (a local yam-like dish). At first she was a little skeptical of us obrunis but she quickly warmed up to us and started smiling from ear to ear. (See picture below.)

After, we had a quick lunch at TICCS, and then headed to a clinic. Now this clinic was something else. It is run by a man named Dr. Abdulai, who for many years was a practicing private doctor in Accra (or some other big city, I forget). One day, he received a calling from God that he should help those who can’t help themselves—the lepers and the mentally sick and poor. In 1991, he moved back to Tamale, his hometown, and singlehandedly set up a clinic where they rely only on “divine providence” for funding. They do not charge any, ANY money for their services, and in fact, will only treat you if you can’t pay. If you can pay (and he says he can tell), then he asks you to visit a government hospital, as he wants his services to go to those who otherwise couldn’t get any. He relies on both monetary and medical donations, and said what they need most is antacids and pain medicine. He has a completely volunteered staff of 15 other doctors who have followed this same calling, and together they treat thousands of patients a year. They divvy out the donations to the patients according to need. One thing he said that really struck me was, “We believe in equity, not equality.” By this he meant that each patient will get the treatment and care and medicines that he or she needs, aka, the medicine may not be distributed completely equally among the patients. But this outlook, I think, is very indicative of how governments should run their own countries (and how the West should approach development). You do no one any good if you “distribute the wealth” without any sort of assessment of who needs what. Providing for specific needs is much more practical and, frankly, cost-effective, than giving everyone everything, even if they don’t need it.

Dr. Abdulai

They have made housing for lepers and other in-patients, as many of them were found on the street with no one to look after them (because there is so much stigma associated with any sort of sickness, let alone a sickness that is physically visible (leprosy)). Dr. Abdulai showed us around the facilities, and is the most joyful, funny, giving, selfless man. He was wearing a t-shirt and shorts the entire time, and would go up and greet every single one of his patience that he introduced us to. The lepers were so happy to have this man as a doctor and as a friend, and one had the biggest smile of anyone I’ve ever seen. Such joy in that place. That is what a heart for God and his people is supposed to look like. We presented Dr. Abdulai and the clinic with lots and lots of clothes and medicine that we NYU students had brought to Ghana and didn’t use. He went through each bag of stuff and told us where everything was going, making sure we knew how our donations (clothing and monetary) were being distributed. It was such a moving experience and one I will not soon forget. What a gracious and most humble man.

Some of the houses for the inpatients

After the clinic we broke into three groups of ten each and visited a diviner. A diviner is a spiritual leader who, according to African beliefs, can foresee the future. They’re almost like fortune-tellers in America, but much more legit and not hoaxie. Like I said earlier, many Christians, Muslims and traditionalists visit diviners for providence and warnings about the future. For instance, one may visit a diviner if he is about to take a long journey to make sure he will be safe. If the diviner (through using kola shells, sand, feathers, or other tools) sees that he will not be safe on the road, he will prescribe a remedy in order to avoid the bad fortune. Many Ghanaians, and West Africans, swear by these people. Generally, one visit costs 1 Cedi (though ours cost 2, Obruni special!). Anyway, so we met with the diviner first as a big group. He didn’t speak English, so we used a translator. The diviner told us he had been practicing divination since he was very young, and hopes to teach his children the skill. I asked if he had any other source of income, and he said he did some farming on the side. We all individually met wit him. Each person’s divination took about 10 minutes. Our diviner used kola shells to read our future, and mine is looking good. Here are a few highlights:

*I will live a long life and die a happy old lady
*I will have 2 boys and a girl
*My mom loves me very much
*I will travel for a few more years and then settle down in one place for a while
*I will come back to Ghana (and I will see him again…ehhh)
*There is a boy in my life and the diviner said he’s “the one”
*Oh, and one of us will buy a car soon (Mom?! ;))
*I am studying something involving music and talking (I guess you could count this if you stretched “communications” to literally mean “talking”)

Man, there were so many others, and I wrote them all down right after my session, and then proceeded to fold up the paper and put them in my pants pocket, which I washed the next night. Some things he said were definitely just not true, but others were pretty spot on. Either way, it was a cool cultural experience, AND while we were waiting for everyone else to go, we got to play with his daughters. He had some precious kids, and Gillian’s mom fell in love with them. She even tied a baby around her back like the locals do (I think this is an NYU in Ghana first, at least for this semester) and tried to balance a bowl on her head at the same time. We had a great time watching dusk go to pitch blackness, and watching his wife and her friends prepare dinner by firelight.

Speaking of Gillian's mom, this picture was taken at her birthday dinner last Wednesday. Don't they look alike?!

Woooo do you think I’ve written enough yet???

One more day to go! Alright, so Saturday we drove 2 and a half hours northeast to a town called Paga. At Paga, we visited a former slave camp. Earlier in the semester I went to Cape Coast, where the slaves were kept in dungeons before being shipped across the Atlantic. Well this slave camp, called Pikoro, was much different. This is where the salves were actually collected and kept before making the WALK to Cape Coast. Now let me just remind you that it took us 15 hours to DRIVE to this place from Accra. Now imagine WALKING, chained at the ankles, for a month straight, barefoot, with no food or water to Cape Coast, where even if you had survived the long walk, you probably wouldn’t survive the castle. The camp kept 150-180 slaves at a time, coming from various villages. Sometimes, families would sell off one of their men to the slave camp in order to pay off a debt. The conditions were hot and terrible, as they had to labor all day in the heat. April isn’t even the hottest month, and when we were there it was 105 degrees outside. Now imagine that, with no shirt, no shoes, no water, laboring all day. And this is before ever making the walk to Cape Coast, which is before trying to survive the terrible conditions at Cape Coast, which is before trying to survive at sea, which is before making it to the West and having to labor under terrible conditions for nothing. Nice job, history. Anyway, I don’t want to get on another slave rant or anything, but it was an important thing to see and definitely shocking (maybe even more so than Cape Coast).

My CRA, Julia, and me at Pikoro

After the slave camp, we drove another half hour or so to Bolgatanga to visit a widows village where the widows sell beautiful baskets they make to earn a living. Here in Ghana, widows are treated terribly. Usually, widows are either blamed for the death of the husband (because they didn’t properly care for him), or accused of being a witch. Honestly. Widows are social outcasts and are not allowed to socialize with anyone for at least a year, if not longer. Now imagine going through the grief of losing your husband, magnified by the fact that you are ostracized and accused of such a tragedy. Widows will be taken into the town center and beaten and bathed, humiliated. So this village we went to is a safe haven for widows to live in a community with their children. So we pulled up to the village and immediately at least 60 kids came running towards our bus. I guess they knew why we had come, and greeted us sooo warmly. One little boy even ran straight into me, wrapping his arms around my legs and just hugging me. His name was Nassit, and he followed me around the entire day (he's the boy in the picture at the beginning). We brought them more clothing donations, as it was clear the kids were wearing whatever they could possibly find. Many of their clothes didn’t fit at all, or were so old and dingy that they’d probably be better off without them. The widows were so kind and so welcoming, too. We, again, had to use a translator, and they welcomed us and told us a little about what they do. They explained that basket-making was their source of income since their husbands had died. Before we started browsing through their baskets they did a traditional dance for us, accompanied by boys playing the drums. Their baskets were GORGEOUS, and of course, I bought a few (and some additional things). I found a really stupid/cool hat (see pictures below) that I just love, but will probably never wear in the states. Perhaps I’ll give it to my PaPa when I get back. Side note, but…I have NO idea how I’m going to get any of this stuff home. No idea. I have probably accumulated 50 pounds of souvenirs alone—far too much to take on a plane. I warned Gillian that the night before we leave I will probably have a nervous breakdown and freak out because I can’t get any of my stuff back (you’ve, too, now been forewarned). Oh well, it always works out, and if I have to leave some tank tops behind, oh well.

OH! and I got to learn how to basket weave!

Me and the rooms at the widows village

SO, that was my Tamale weekend. We left at 3 am on Sunday morning, and made it back to Accra by 3 pm. I spent Sunday night doing nothing, as per usual, and yesterday Gillian, her mom and I went to a pool for a few hours. I don’t think I got any tanner, but it was a lot of fun and nice to cool off and chat. I think her mom is staying til Friday, which is so exciting! We love having her here. Only 17 more days til I’m back in the states, guys!! I can’t believe it.

Alright, this thing is getting out of control long, so I’m gonna end it. But enjoy all the pictures. I will post a link to the full albums in my next entry.

you know, this may have something to do with why i love africa. (photo cred: gillian)

love love love

happy easter!

2009-04-14T08:20:00.003-04:00

with love, from ghana!

we commemorated easter with a party at solomon's. we invited church crescent (the other dorm) over and had a bar-b-que south african style (thanks to some south african friends we met at champs), danced, and had a great time. some of the girls even hard-boiled eggs the night before and hid them around our house, and of course, gillian and i being the children that we are, partook of this easter egg hunt and found four (see picture above). kinda reminded me of my childhood easters at nana's house at the lake, when all my cousins and her neighbors and i would go all over her hilly yard looking for eggs in our sunday easter dresses. last easter, i was with my friend jon in texas, celebrating at the berry center, where my sister played some sort of percussion.

easter morning marykate, some friends and i went to st. peter's catholic church to celebrate. now, if you remember i went to a ghanaian church earlier in the semester with G, and decided that'd be the last time i went. however, i really wanted to go to church on easter, so opted to suck it up and deal with the FOUR hour long service. now, mind you, the sermon was only 20 minutes, maximum, followed by a translator doing the entire sermon again in twi. the other 3 hours and 20 minutes were devoted to announcements, performances (which were actually cool), two offerings, and communion. all in all, it was great and i'm glad i went, but BOY do these people know how to stretch out a church service.

gillian's mom is here and she's awesome! gillian seems so happy and has so much energy, and is a spitting image of her mom. she brought goodies my mom sent to her to bring for me, along with the new gavin degraw cd which is phenomenal. anyone who knows me at all knows i love gavin degraw, and was saddened when i found out he had a new cd come out while i'd be here and couldn't access it. but, thanks to my gracious mother and sister, i am currently playing the entire cd on repeat (along with a few other cds my sister sent along).

all in all, it's been a GREAT few days and i'm really, really enjoying my few short weeks left. gah, i still can't believe that in three weeks from saturday i will be back in the states!! seems so surreal.

wishing you all lots of love on this tax-day eve!

love love love

tetteh quarshie cocoa farm

2009-04-11T12:54:00.017-04:00

pronounced (teh-tay kwar-shee) cocoa farm.

me with some cocoa pods

(since my blog isn't letting me add spaces in between my paragraphs, a new paragraph will begin with ">")

the last few days have been a lot of fun! i guess i last posted on tuesday, which means since then i have: gone to makola (again), bought more fabric for all you lovely people, visited a fabric/clothing store (run by a lovely lady named gifty) that marykate and i have been wanting to visit FOREVER, taken things to marjorie, our new tailor fred, AND the almond tree, picked up things from both marjorie and fred, attended my first trivia night at a local obruni sports bar called champs, went to the art center again (met a really cool ghanaian named "colin powell" who knew all the capitals of every u.s. state, plus every capital of every country in the world), saw milk for the first time, and went to tetteh quarshie cocoa farm! oh, and i've done a little bit of school work here and there...you know, tough life.

i am realllllly trying to make the most of my FEW short days left in ghana, and it's funny because as time is running out, i am re-falling in love with it and really trying to do as much as possible while i'm still here. my friend anika and i were talking about how we think it's so strange that this four months of our ghana life is just a little bubble, a little chunk of time where our lives were SO different. but we will ultimately go back to our usual lives, having lived this ghana life that we will be seemingly cut off from once we leave here. not to that we can never have anything to do with it again, just that the people we interact with and the things we do on a daily basis will be a faint memory, at least 'til i return. which i will do. the whole thing is just very strange/happy/sad. 27 days! for those who don't know, i plan to leave on friday may 8th, getting into new york on saturday may 9th. my best friend jon is picking me up from jfk and he's been instructed to immediately take me to the olive garden on 22nd and 6th. i'll spend a few days in new york, spending time with my friends one last time before summer, seeing my cousin's new apartment, and going to my friend kala's graduation. i will fly back to texas on tuesday, may 12th, where summer will officially begin!

>GOOD NEWS! gillian is OUT of the hospital. :) she is back home and it is great to have my roomie back. i missed having someone to blurt out random things to, or someone with whom i

could find mindless ways to waste away hours on the internet. they didn't find anything specific wrong with her (yeah, after a week of ALL that!), but she is feeling better and is in good spirits because...her mom is coming TOMORROW!! we are ALL so excited to have a maternal influence in the house, especially one who's bringing with her some goodies from my mom!

tomorrow is easter, which we'll celebrate bar-b-que style. solomon's is hosting a bar-b-que for all the nyu in ghana people, along with some of our ghanaian friends and neighbors. should be a fun time. i'm going to church in the morning with marykate...can't wait for another raucous ghanaian church experience! i hope you all celebrate easter with the people you love, and remember what it's all about (strangely enough, not those marshmallow peeps OR the easter bunny).

>since the title of the post is tetteh quarshie cocoa farm, perhaps i should give a little more detail about the day trip we took this morning! anika, marykate, stephannie, marika's sister and i got on an 8 am tro-tro from apapa to tema station, where we took another tro-tro to aburi, where the cocoa farm is! aburi is also where the botanical gardens are, and we will be taking another trip (with nyu) up there in a few weeks! it's gorgeous and up in the hills, overlooking other cities. the scenery is very different than accra- very hilly and green and tropical. the cocoa farm was rather small and not quite what we were expecting, but it was still really fun! for some reason, when we got there, there was no one manning the entrance, so we just walked in and showed ourselves around. about 10 minutes later, a ghanaian named tio found us and asked us to pay. initially he asked for the "foreigner's" price, though there was a student price on the price list. we insisted we were students at their ghanaian university and should therefore only have to pay the students' price. plus, what the hell is a foreigner's (aka obruni aka white person) price anyway? if we tried to pull that crap in america...well, we just wouldn't even dream of pulling that crap. but, we worked our magic and only paid the student price, and got a really neat tour of the farm. apparently it takes something like 3-6 months for a cocoa pod to get ripe (the yellow color), and then 2-3 days to ferment, and 7 days to dry. they sell the cocoa by weight. usually each bag of cocoa is 64 kilo and will make about 100 ghana cedi. i asked how many pods it'd take to make one bag, and based on some calculations, it'd take about 30 ripe pods! plus manual labor...that's a lot of work for only 100 cedi a bag! the adventure was fun and i had a great time with my girlfriends. :)

notice the "foreign tourists" fee...yeah right.

marika, stephannie, ataleigh (marika's sis), me, anika, and marykate at tetteh quarshie.

>we just got done ordering chinese food and are gonna have a movie night. last night we watched milk, which, if you haven't seen, you need to stop reading this and go out and rent it RIGHT now. seriously. RIGHT NOW. it was phenomenal and the acting was great and the story is so inspiring and the issue of gay rights something i am very passionate about. do yourself a favor and rent it now. tonight we're gonna watch frost/nixon, which is supposed to be very good, too! i'll let you know! :)

>have a wonderful, wonderful saturday and happy easter, friends and family. missing you all so very much.

>love love love

(ps- dont know why this blog is formatting like it is. i've tried to fix it but it's not working. will try again later. sorry!)

creations from marjorie!

2009-04-07T18:08:00.003-04:00

i am so excited! i have been getting things made for you all from marjorie. last weekend's successful trip to makola market provided me with lots of fabric for everyone who requested something, and i have been giving it to marjorie in increments.

she brought some of the finished products over tonight, and they are all SO great!! and each is SO *insert your name here*. can't wait to distribute and to have a mini-fashion show with each of you dawning a unique and made-for-you african creation. trust me, though, i made sure each fabric/outfit combo is "wearable" and "trendy" by american standards. :) eeeek, can't wait!

i have a few more people and odds and ends to shop for, but my souvenir/gift shopping is ahead of schedule and right on track. i hear that in past semesters students have frantically run around the last week trying to buy things and have marjorie make things, and that's NOT how i want to spend my last week in ghana (which is only FIVE weeks away!).

if you want something made and haven't let me know, please let me know soon. we are making another trip to makola on thursday where i will probably buy my last batch of fabric. if you don't know what you want yet, but know that you want something, at least just let me know the colors you like so i can go ahead and get the fabric--we can talk designs later.

besides coming home from the hospital to an abundance of marjorie creations, today was a great day! i saw gillian twice at the hospital. HOPEFULLY she [better] will be released tomorrow, once the results come back from several tests she's waiting on. thanks for your continued prayers. she's in great spirits and feels much, much better. just ready to get out of that damned hospital. i don't blame her.

i am in great spirits, too, after that renewing trip to woe and an overall easy and good week thus far class-wise. one of my friend's sister's is here visiting for 10 days, so hopefully we can take her to all the places we went the first few weeks we were here, when everything was new and exciting and overwhelming.

miss you all so much but will see you VERY soon!

love love love

back from woe

2009-04-05T11:35:00.010-04:00

woe was so much fun! just what i needed/wanted! we spent most of saturday just touring around our professor's hometown (not village, as he reprimanded gaby for). apparently, a town is anything that has more than 5,000 inhabitants, and woe has 7,000, so it's doing pretty well.

we got to woe around 11 and visited our prof's house, which is definitely one of the nicest in woe. that's to say, it's actually got a foundation and is painted on the outside. most of the homes in way are either made with cinder blocks or mud, and many resemble the mud huts you'd suspect to find in an "african" town.

woe is a huge fishing community, as it has the atlantic ocean on one side of it, and a large, knee-deep lagoon on the other side. fresh catch is sold in baskets on the side of the road, and if you slow down too much on these roads, your car will be bombarded on all sides with fishermen selling fish they probably caught 30 minutes prior. so cool! if you check out my entire album from the trip (link below) you will see what i'm talking about.

saturday is funeral day in woe, and we saw our fair share of funeral processions and mourners. traditional funeral clothing can be one of three colors: red, white, or black. surprisingly enough, red and white are worn exclusively for people who have passed in old age. it is actually disrespectful to wear black to an elder's funeral. black is reserved for funerals of young people. this is true of all of ghana, though in woe, specifically, we saw many people wearing black (we found out later that one funeral was for a 33 year old man who died in a car accident).

we went to the beach, saw fishermen pulling in nets that are literally miles out in the ocean (again, photos in my full album). we also visited a beach location were about 200 years ago, after the abolition of the slave trade (not slavery), british soldiers tricked 100 ghanaian musicians to come on board the ship to "entertain them" while they were docked, only for the ship to take off with all 100 ghanaians on board. they were taken to cuba and sold in the illegal slave trade, never to be seen again. kind of ironic when you're standing in one of the most beautiful places you've ever been.
mallory, emma, prof, chris (an RA), me, and gaby

my favorite part of the trip was getting to see a performance our professor organized! he is the "owner" of a children's cultural group in woe. the kids range from 9 to about 15 years old, and they are AMAZING and music and dancing. there were probably 15 kids playing different times of percussion--drums, various bells, etc.-- and probably 10 (5 girls, 5 boys) kids doing traditional ewe dances to the music. they were SO SO great. i think africans just have this natural rhythm and ability to move their body in completely rhythmic, flexible ways that us obrunis just do not have. at one point they brought us up and tried to teach us to dance, but we were terrible. still, it was SO much fun, and i don't know if i've laughed at myself that hard in a while.

the kid playing the big drum, standing up, was incredible
a traditional ewe dance
and then the obrunis gave it a shot. not quite as synchronized, eh?

needless to say, the trip was a great success. there were only four of us who went because three of the other students in the class (including gillian) were sick. but us girls had a great time, and it was good to be in a new environment. the dance/cultural group last night really reminded me of why i love ghana. it was quite refreshing and really really fun.

hope your weekends were good, too! i don't have a busy week ahead of me, which is nice. gillian should get out of the hospital tomorrow, fingers crossed, though they're still waiting on results of some of her tests. her mom is coming on sunday for about 10 days, so we're really looking forward to having a mom around, and for her to bring us lots of american goodies!

love love love!

*so i think i figured out what i was doing wrong in the other links i would post to the full albums online. this one should work. to view the rest of the pictures, click here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=114853&id=616486619&l=883494e8f6

for my morocco albums, click:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=111893&id=616486619&l=25051443ab

and

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=112175&id=616486619&l=7f15941798

woe (way)

2009-04-03T20:22:00.002-04:00

just a quick blog to let you know that tomorrow i'm traveling with my society, culture and modernization class to our professor's hometown of woe (pronounced way). google magic tells me it's a few hours east of accra. google woe, ghana for more info and a very tiny wikipedia article on the town. we're staying in a hotel, though i think we are having dinner at our professor's house. should be an interesting experience, and will be a fun little overnight getaway from accra and all that it entails.

thanks for all the prayers, everyone. i find myself in better spirits today. got to talk to my mom today, who is an angel. and a saint. and a friend. and pretty much the best person in the world. this made me feel better.

i also got a letter from amanda (!!!). mmm how letters from dear friends brighten my day.

i am blessed beyond belief and need to constantly remind myself of this when i start getting in my complaining moods. thanks for your prayers, all. sending prayers your way over the atlantic.

love love love

"hope is here"

2009-04-02T05:42:00.005-04:00

i am really, really tired. physically and emotionally. and for some of you i've expressed this privately via emails, but i guess if this blog is supposed to accurately depict my entire time in ghana, the bad must go with the good.

first, gillian is still not feeling well. we made another hospital visit tonight. they are going to run extensive tests to finally get to the bottom of all this. she is staying overnight, which i think is the best call. julia (our RA) and i will go back to the hospital early (like 5 am) in the morning to be with her as she gets more tests done. which means i really should be sleeping right now, but what's new.

at the hospital right before i was going to leave, gillian got a phone call from our associate director, krista, who was just checking up on her. she told krista i was about to leave as "hope is here." what she meant was hope, our night driver, is here to pick me up, but i interpreted that a totally different way. hope is here. part of romans 12 says, "Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."

this verse really has hit me for a few reasons. a) joyful in hope. i have hope in a lot of things right now. hope that gillian will get better. hope that our time here will be/has been/is fruitful. hope in the future. hope in love. hope in humanity. b) patient in affliction. boy, couldn't have said it better myself. every night and every day, in my journal, in my head, and with gillian, i pray for patience. patience with the people here, patience with myself, patience with time. patience when i am most frustrated with ghana. c) faithful in prayer. i think god has really, really put prayer on my heart since morocco. the staff at the village of hope does prayer walks daily, where they walk around the voh campus, stopping at various houses or the school or the fences that border off the village and say a prayer for each location, and for the sustenance each place/location/venue will bring to the village. i think this had a profound effect on me, and i have really really been not only dedicated to, but moved to and want to, pray continually. since morocco, gillian and i have (tried to) pray every night together before she goes to bed. i find myself asking for prayer and praying for people much more frequently. and when i say i'm praying for you, please know i mean it. anyway, all that being said, i delight in being faithful in prayer. i just want to share that with you, praise god. but this verse above, in general, sums up what i think should be our ghana motto from here on out. i am trying.

for my sake, i am listing a few things on my list of things to pray about that i keep in my journal. some are totally stream of consciousness and 1 time deals, others we (gillian and i) pray about daily. if you are inclined, feel free to pray for these things too. i think honesty in our wants, desires and requests are imperative. and if we are to do as those verses say, let us be devoted to one another in brotherly (or sisterly) love.

here goes: for the safety, protection and happiness of our friends, family and loved ones in texas, seattle, new york and florida. for our navigators family. for the kids/staff/spirit of the village of hope. for ourselves- patience, joy, humility. for our friendship (mine and gillian's). for our friends here in ghana. for our relationships with our friends at home and in new york, that they may be just as strong when we return as they were when we left. for health, specifically for gillian's physical healing and peace of mind. for our hearts. for the future. for ghana and the people of ghana.

the list could/does go on quite a bit more, but this is enough for the world wide web.

i am heading to bed, as i have to wake up in 5 hours.

love love love

edit: this was written last night, before my internet went out. and before i spent the rest of the night puking my guts out (don’t have the slightest idea why). welcome to africa.

togo v. cameroon

2009-03-28T20:37:00.005-04:00

sporting my togolese flag at the togo v. cameroon football game!

so it's been almost a week since i've updated! but, i didn't update because there's really nothing to be updated on. last week was a pretty boring week. it was REALLY hard being back in ghana right after having been in morocco with my friends. gillian and i are trying to stay positive though, and hold each other accountable to making the best out of the last 6 weeks we have here.

this weekend was fun, though! last night (friday night) some friends and i went to the "coca cola party." i know, sounds as vague as it was. anyway, coke had some sort of radio contest, and the winner of the contest had a party thrown for him by coke. a ghanaian friend of one of the students on the program invited us to come along, so that's what about 10 of us did last night. it was at the silver star tower (one of the nicest, biggest buildings in ghana) on this balcony terrace level. everyone was decked out in red and white, and there was dancing and live performances and...CAKE! we all know how i get around a cake. anyway, as pathetic as this sounds, my friend stephanie and i waited until the cake was cut and passed out before we left.

stephanie and i called the nyu night driver, to come pick us up and take us back to solomon's. at night on the roads in ghana, police do roadside checks, where they shine a flashlight in your car and make you slow down or stop so they can inspect. it's not usually a big deal, and happens every night. because our vans are like huge, 15 passenger white vans, i guess they're an easy target for the police to stop. anyway, they stopped us and LONG story short, the police were threatening to detain our night driver at the cantonments police station for driving without his license. whenever our driver would try to explain why, for legit reasons, he didn't have his license on him in the car, the cops would get super defensive and start screaming at him "i don't care what you say, i'm in charge!". our driver was being nothing but absolutely respectful and compliant in every single way and these cops behaved like 5 year olds, exploiting the tiny bit of power they have. in the end, our driver wasn't detained, but did have to leave the van on the side of the road while he walked us home and then walked to his boss's office to get his license and the car's information before walking back to the van to give the cops the info. essentially, that experience was just a sad reminder of how even in progressing and developing nations, corruption, power struggle and greed are still very much at play.

today, marykate, stephanie and i went to makola market (yes! i went to the market and i didn't freak out!). marykate knew right where she was going, which made navigating and shopping a whole lot less stressful. we went solely to buy fabric, as i have a lot of things i need to get made for people! let me just say, i bought TONS of fabric, and none of it was for me! i'm really excited to have marjorie start making you all things :)

then, anika, marykate and i went to the togo embassy to meet up with alex, a togolese citizen who works at the embassy. marykate made friends with him when she got her visa a few months ago, and he invited her and some of her friends to the togo v. cameroon football (soccer) game that was today! so we met up with alex and some of his co-workers and headed to the accra stadium. the game was SO much fun, and we were all decked out with our togo flags. the best african football player, emmanuel adebayor, plays for togo, and cameroon is the best african team. so needless to say it was a pretty intense matchup, but togo came out victorious 1-0!

gillian and i went to the hospital again tonight. she has a sinus infection and so we got her some antibiotics and hopefully she'll be good as new in no time. i'm ready for my roommie to feel 100%!

tomorrow i plan on doing homework all day, working on other school-related things, and resting. maybe i'll take some fabric over to marjorie. marykate and i are also thinking about trying a new tailor, fred. we'll see!

hope all is well on the home front! ya'll send me updates please! missing you and can't wait to see you in just a few short weeks!

love love love

alex, me, marykate and anika at the game!

more from maroc

2009-03-28T07:05:00.002-04:00

the village of ain leuh

taking a break

my dear friends rachel, gillian and kala

more morocco pictures

2009-03-23T04:39:00.004-04:00

Me and Kala being tourists in Fez, day 1. Me and Charlie painting a family's home
In Ain Leuh

My Navigators family :)

here are the links to view both albums:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2821803&l=7dd8dc7d3e&id=616486619

and

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2821871&l=80fa1c2ea9&id=616486619

how he loves us

2009-03-22T17:52:00.007-04:00

Middle of the Atlas Mountains

I’m back from Morocco!

This past week has been filled with more memories, more troubling times, more heart-movements, more difficult conversations, more tears, more smiles, more laughs, more hugs and happiness, more joy and more spiritual challenges and growth than any other week in my life has ever been filled with. I am transformed and God has done incredible works in me. But this isn’t about me, and never was. My trip to Morocco was about the people of Morocco, about the parents and children at the Village of Hope.

For privacy reasons and to protect the Village of Hope and its staff and families, I am not posting any pictures of any of the children. Also, as this experience was so moving, I have yet to make sense of it all for myself. I am still processing and listening to God and letting my heart be molded. I am not ready to share the stories of the week yet, and don’t feel comfortable doing so on the internet. I would be more than happy to have many conversations about my time at VoH when I get back to the states—maybe we can sit down over chips and queso and I can really tell you about it. But for now, please know that asking me to share about my experience right now is like asking a fish how long it’s been living in the ocean—it’s too immediate, too in the moment, too personal to even be analyzed. I am still in the midst of my joyfulness, still processing the complete and utter humility and selflessness of what I saw this week.

These families changed my life. These parents are the most incredible people in the world. The kids have etched their names on my heart, and I am so honored to have gotten to play with, know and learn about each of these 33 children.

My time spent with the NYU Navigators (the group I faithfully call my “second family”) was most refreshing and necessary. Getting to see and spend time with some of my best friends and making new friends within my family was one of the greatest blessings God has given me since being in Ghana. Charlie and Kala, if you’re reading this, know that you two are the most wonderful, giving people I know, and know I love you both so much. I am blessed to have gotten to spend a week with 30 Navigators—30 people who know what it is to love others and serve God. In the words of Peter Trautmann, “it’s not what you do but who you do it with,” and I am so honored to have “done Morocco” with the Navigators.

Spiritually, I have been challenged in ways I haven’t ever been before. And I feel it is part of my duty in sharing with you all to encourage and challenge you, too. Complacency and idleness is the devil’s handiwork, as I know from experience. I challenge you to seek God, to bring the kingdom of heaven down to earth, to serve and to love and to rid you of yourself to make you less and Him more.

One of the verses we as a group were challenged by is Isaiah 61:1-4. It is:

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion—to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, he oil of gladness instead of mourning, ad a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.”

I love this passage because it doesn’t pity those who are poor and brokenhearted; it enables us to enable these children, and for these children to then enable Morocco. And I think that is what we were called to do this week, and that is what we did.

Thank you all for following me along in this journey, and for supporting me financially and prayerfully. I hope to have great conversations about this week when I return home.

love love love

Worship at the bonfire

Gillian and me at the bonfire VoH gave us on our last night!

Made for us by the kiddos

Will post more pictures tomorrow. This is all that would upload for now. Enjoy.

morocco!!!!!!

2009-03-13T14:11:00.005-04:00

haven't updated in a few days mostly because nothing too update-worthy has happened. yesterday was spent doing nothing all day. today was much of the same, as gillian and i watched two movies and packed and got ready for...

MOROCCO!

that's right. our plane leaves at 3 am our time (11 pm ny time, 10 pm houston time) and we have to get to the airport at 11 pm. we arrive in casablanca at 9 am, and have to wait around for the new york crew to get in around 3 pm! so basically, lots of travelling within the next 24 hours until we arrive at our destination of ain leuh!

thank you all who donated for making this trip possible for me. and even if you didn't donate, thank you for your prayers, support and well-wishes!! ALL are greatly appreciated. i can't believe it's actually here! gillian and i will be reunited with our new york friends and helping at the orphanage in a matter of hours! i cannot wait. i will come back with many stories and TONS of pictures.

i will leave you with a picture griffin took of me at green turtle. i like it :)

love love love!!

when it rains it pours

2009-03-10T17:57:00.003-04:00

So I didn't have much to say about today, until about 2 hours ago. We came home from dinner to a waterfall happening from a pipe that extends outside our house onto the pavement in our driveway. I think the pipe is designed for this sort of thing (in case another pipe breaks or something, the water has somewhere to go). Anyway, we walked inside and upstairs and realized the water had gotten in the ceiling and was leaking and dripping everywhere. We had to put buckets under the holes where water was leaking out of the ceiling. It took 18 girls, several guys, and a few hours, and about 50 towels to push all the water from the upstairs downstairs and out the front door. Needless to say, it was quite hilarious, and the pictures speak for themselves.

PS- Didn't this happen to me once before, last semester?

The only good picture I got of the water dripping from the ceiling, AND the puddle on the floor. This was in the early stages. Eventually the water was EVERYWHERE.

Notice the water dripping from the ceiling.

Marykate and I cleaning up!

Needless to say, it was a pretty eventful night. Today was good- had two classes and taught one workshop. Today we did the last of three workshops at one school, and that's a good feeling to have a whole school done! Only 4 more schools to finish up!

sending love love love!

"we can't eat that, it's not in the budget"

2009-03-09T19:28:00.010-04:00

Hi all!

So our weekend getaway to Green Turtle Lodge was amazing! As always, I traveled with wonderful companions- 5 of my friends on the trip: Gillian, Mallory, Tina, Griffin, and Gaby. This is the same group that went to Winneba, plus Griffin. Our journey was definitely an eventful and hilarious one, and I hope I don't forget any of the details.

We left Friday morning, heading to the STC (private) bus station around 8:15 to get there at 8:30 to buy tickets for the 9:00 bus. Unfortunately, the 9:00 bus was sold out, and we bought tickets for the 10:30 bus. As we were waiting, around 10:30, the 9:00 bus arrived. In typical Ghanaian fashion, the bus was an hour and half late, putting our bus about 2 hours late. After waiting at the STC bus station for about 4 hours, we finally boarded and began our 5 hour journey to Takoradi (the major city closest to Green Turtle). When we arrived in Takoradi we were greeted by cab drivers offering to take us to GTL for 30 Cedi! At the time we thought we were getting ripped off, though in retrospect, this was a fair price. Instead of opting for a taxi, we made our way to the tro-tro station where we literally watched the driver assemble the tro-tro. It was storing TONS of cargo, and he had to take all the cargo out and add seats to the tro-tro. It was pretty funny, and we had one of those "We're definitely in Africa" moments. Our tro-tro ride cost us 70 pesewas, and dropped us off at another tro-tro station, where we picked up a cab for 15 Cedi. It was getting dark and we felt uncomfortable being in a tro-tro at night. After driving crammed in the taxi on a dirt road for about an hour, we arrived at Green Turtle!!

Our view from the breakfast table

The reception desk was also the bar, and we immediately found ourselves kicking off our shoes because the entire hotel is on sand, right on the beach. It's not even a hotel as much as it is a lodge, as they provide camping on the beach and private bungalows. We opted for two private bungalows, 3 of us in each. Because we got there late, we ordered the only dinner option available to us, and went to bed pretty early since we were exhausted after a long day of traveling.

Our bungalow!

The night's sleep was one of the most eventful parts of the trip because Gillian kept waking up to the sound of some sort of bug or rodent in her bag of cough drops. It was crinkling all night long and we all didn't sleep very well for this reason, and because there was no AC. The bungalow is on the beach, and the hotel is "eco-friendly" and we therefore had a self-composting toilet (aka, a toilet seat above a deep hole...use your imagination). We were pleased when the sun came up because that meant we didn't have to try to sleep anymore.

Me and my friends at Green Turtle (Gaby, Tina, and Griffin)

Despite the rough night, we were so excited to spend the entire day on the beach just reading and talking and doing nothing. Gillian and Mallory decided to go back to Accra--Gillian wasn't feeling well and Mallory's mom was coming the following morning--so the four of us stayed (Griffin, Gaby, Tina and me). During breakfast, as we were figuring out how to sneak Tina into our bungalow since we wouldn't need a second one, we realized we were REALLY low on money. All of us, unintentionally, brought a whole lot less than we thought we'd need, and realized we might have to sacrifice meals to just have enough money to make it back to Accra. We pulled all of our funds (I'm talking, every single bill, every single cent) and lived off of a communal fund. Instead of each of the 4 of us having a meal for lunch, we ordered 2 and split it. Same with dinner, and breakfast the next morning. It was actually kind of hilarious having to literally ration out and budget every SINGLE thing we bought. The hotel sold shirts that said "Obruni" on the front, and I really, really wanted one, but alas, it was clearly not in the budget. We'd see someone with a glass of orange juice and would have to remind ourselves that we were sticking to the bare essentials--no luxuries like orange juice or personal meals for us! My friends nicknamed me "Stern" because I was in charge of the budget (Stern is our business school for those unfamiliar with the NYU lingo).

THE Obruni Shirt

Anyway, we spent the entire day on the beach, swimming, walking, reading, and just hanging out. We had dinner on the beach and went to bed by 9:30 because we had nothing better to do and wanted to take advantage of that. We woke up by 6:30 the next morning, well-rested and ready to start the day. We had breakfast and our final budget meeting, where we realized we literally had 12 Cedi to make it back home. Granted, we had already bought our bus tickets back home, but 12 Cedi between 4 girls is kind of ridiculous (and hilarious). We paid our tab and took a taxi (for 30 Cedi, the accurate price (which we had already accounted for in the budget)) back to Takoradi, where we caught an on-time (!) STC bus back to Accra. We got back to Accra around 5:30, and rested a few hours before Gillian's birthday dinner!!

It rained really hard last night when we got home, and we were afraid we wouldn't be able to go out for Gillian's bday because taxis are hard to come by when it rains. We remembered our night driver, Hope, has his own private taxi, and we gave him a call. He took us to and from dinner in the rain, and we got to enjoy a lovely and FUN dinner celebrating Gillian's 21st birthday! On a side note, Hope is going to take us to the airport on Friday night for Morocco! Gillian and I were weary of catching a cab late at night being obrunis with big suitcases, and luckily we won't have to now!

Gillian's birthday dinner at Mama Mia's!

Today was good. Had good conversations with friends here and at home. I went into WAAF for about an hour today, though my boss mysteriously didn't show up and I couldn't get ahold of her. While I was waiting I spent time in the Acorn Tree, talking with Esther, one of the women who makes things to sell at the shop. She is such a lovely woman and I am going to have her make you all a few gifts!

Hope all is well where you are. Hope you're still reading this (I know the blog was long!).

Miss you so much

love love love

for all the pictures from the trip, visit: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2747095&l=9b21c&id=616486619

some pictures for your pleasure

2009-03-05T16:24:00.004-05:00

I thought I'd share a few pictures with you. The first two are of me teaching at two different schools. In the first game the kids are playing a game (that's why their hands are on their heads). Ashley, another intern, is on the left.

In this photo, they're playing a "risk" game. They put various situations (ie- sex without a condom, kissing, sharing sharp objects, feeding someone with hiv) in piles of "low risk" "high risk" or "no risk" for contracting the virus.

This was taken today, in our African Popular Music class. We had a practical lesson learning to play different types of instruments. In African music, there is what is called a "silent beat". It's a beat everyone hears in their head but isn't played, and most Africans know how to tell and use the silent beat when playing. For Americans, the concept of the silent beat is completely uknown, so we had to learn to find it and play it (something that's not done traditionally). There were several types of drums, a double bell type thing, and a shaker. We all played/learned at once, and it was quite hilarious for all of us unrythmic Obrunis to try to play the same silent beat at one time. The entire time I thought of Sarah. You'd LOVE this class!!

Other than teaching at another school today, the drumming was the highlight of my day. Tomorrow a few of us girls leave for a 3-day weekend to a beach resort about 6 hours away from here. It's Gillian's 21st birthday and we plan on taking it easy and getting some sun! Only a week away from spring break! :)

love love love

i have real kente!

2009-03-04T10:03:00.004-05:00

Not sure why this is centered like this, but oh well. Above is a picture of the Trade Fair, where I spent a few hours of my afternoon today. It's Ghana's annual event, where vendors from all over the country come and set up booths. The fair lasts for several weeks, and I was fortunate enough to get to hear about it/make it before it closes in a few days. Gillian and I went with mere pennies compared to what we would eventually end up spending! They had everything there! From real, hand-woven kente cloth, to beaded jewelry, to television sets, they had it all. I found myself spending about an hour inside a beaded jewelry shop, picking out gifts for people (yes, maybe you!). I also made my way to another shop that had lots of authentic kente. Students usually buy the print kente, which is just kente pattern printed on normal material. I have a dress made out of this kind of fake kente. This shop we went to had authentic kente hung along all its walls, and I found one I just loved. It was a bit pricey, but for what it is, and for being hand-woven, I figured I needed to have one. I couldn't bear the thought of leaving Ghana without the most quintessential Ghanaian thing there is- kente. I hope to one day pass it on to my kids, as its really durable and really valued. Anyway, after picking all these things out, I went on a quest to find an ATM, which is NOT easy in Accra. You'd think it being the capital/biggest city in Ghana I'd have no problem, but I guess not! I finally found one and made my way back to the fair to buy everything. I also bought some REALLY great linen cloth that I'll probably just bring home as is. Maybe Mom can make some curtains or do something creative with it ;).

My kente!

Anyway, the rest of the day was spent doing nothing, as usual. Watched two movies today and wrote letters. Will get those in the mail tomorrow. I teach at my only school this week tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to that. I love working with these kids, their intelligence and willingness to learn really makes me smile.

Time for bed, be well!

love love love

short post

2009-03-03T18:19:00.002-05:00

today was entirely uneventful. i had my society, culture and modernization class. my internship seminar was cancelled today, so it was nice to sleep in a little bit. after SCM, gillian and i went to koala, the local supermarket, to buy some essentials (ramen noodles, cereal, and yogurt). the rest of the day was spent mindlessly on the computer and watching movies. today we watched when harry met sally and ocean's 12. we had a great dinner at sunshine salads, one of the best so far! so it was a boring but good, relaxing day (i seem to have many of those!).

one thing i have forgotten to point out is the often physical reminders of you all back home. sometimes i'll be driving and a sign will catch my eye because it has a familiar name on it.

signs i've seen so far:

"isha's collections"- a fabric store i'm presuming. i haven't been in yet, but promise i will and will take a picture before i leave.
"eric"- the name of some store that was closed as i was leaving WAAF yesterday
"elizabeth's pharmacy"- this was in winneba
and
"gillian's memories"- i think this is just a convenience type store, but the fact that it was "gillian," a very uncommon name here, and spelled with a "g" and not a "j" was just weird.

i have yet to see anything called "diana" or "sarah," but when i do, i will be sure to mention it! just thought the "isha" one was really random, but great!

anyway, that's all i've got to post for today! i talked with megan, my cousin, a few days ago and she is settled into brooklyn in the neighborhood i'm hoping to live in next year! it'll be good to have some family up there. AND, *clears throat* she is the ONLY person to send me measurements, which i appreciate immensely. isha, if you want a tablecloth, please tell me the length/shape/width of your table.

goodnight!

love love love

kumasi

2009-03-02T16:26:00.006-05:00

This past weekend, the entire NYU group traveled to Kumasi, located in the Ashanti region of Ghana, which is about five hours north of Accra. It is the second largest city in Ghana, and houses the largest ethnic group in all of Ghana, the Asante (or Ashanti).

We left, as promised, from our dorm at 5:20 a.m., clearly feeling so tired. We were on the bus for about 6 ½ half hours and arrived in Kumasi around noon. We checked into our hotel and quickly turned around to spend the rest of the day running around Kumasi doing various activities.

The first stop was lunch at the National Cultural Center of Ghana. We ate outside and, as usual, had a lot of heavy, heavy food. All of it was fried and very greasy, and when you’re sitting outside in 95 degree heat, with fans blowing hot air down on you, the food just doesn’t sound that appetizing. I ended up spending 7 Cedi on lunch (which was “optional” but really meant “this is the only place we’re stopping so you can pay the 7 Cedi and eat, or starve”) and all I ate was rice. Amway, after lunch we walked around the Cultural Center a bit. There is a secondary school inside the center, and shops that line walkways. The shops range from selling wood carvings to batik bags and stools. The stool is an important symbol in the Ghanaian, and especially Asante, culture. I’ll elaborate more on this later.

Men sawing and making stools and other things out of wood at the Cultural Center

Some of the things that were in the "trash" pile outside one of the stores. More polished versions of these types of masks were for sale.

After the Cultural Center, we headed to the King’s Palace (which is hardly a “palace” like you’d imagine. More like an old museum). There were peacocks in the front yard just walking around like business as usual. A guide took us around the palace, pointing out all the various honors and wardrobes and jewels the Kings have used in their time as King. The king is called the asantehene, and is in charge of settling familial and tribal disputes. He also has a queen mother, who is not his wife, but perhaps an aunt or mother or sister, who he makes all his decisions with. The Asante are a matrilineal society, which means that men don’t inherit from their own father, but from their mother’s brother (their uncles). So an old King is succeeded by his nephew, essentially. (I think I talked about this in a much earlier post.) Anyway, the king is adorned with all sorts of gold and jewels. In inheriting the new position as king, the nephew cannot ever remove any of the jewels; he can only ever add jewels to his collection. This makes for a LOT of heavy gold chains and rings as time continues. Anyway, the king also sits on a special stool, which is made entirely of gold. The stool is an icon of the Ashanti region and of the chief and his power, so they are pretty ubiquitous around Kumasi.

After the palace, we stopped at the “stool village” where there were stalls lined along a busy street. The stalls sold a lot of the same stuff I’ve found at the cultural center AND at the Art Center in Accra, with the addition of a whole lot of nicely carved wooden stools. I’d love to take one home with me, but they’re very heavy and very big, and I don’t have the slightest idea as to how I’d get it home. But anyway, I bought a few gifts. The men were so aggressive (as they always are when they see a huge white tour bus full of 30 Obrunis pulling up). I am getting to the point where I don’t even try to be nice anymore when the men are sooo pushy to get you to come to their stall. They’ll follow you and say “No, just come for a second, just look, you don’t have to buy, come, just look” and will NOT leave your side, even when you’re shopping in another stall. I’ve gotten really assertive and really don’t take any of their pushing anymore. It’s just frustrating, and it’s hard to distinguish between it being a cultural thing and it being just a practical, economic thing. Either way it’s incredibly frustrating and I’m getting tired of the constant pushiness of all Ghanaians in trying to get you to buy anything and everything.

BUT, after this we called it a day, as we were all INCREDIBLY exhausted. We ate dinner at the hotel and were asleep by 11:00. Sunday morning around 8:00 we went with one of our professors to visit this artist’s workshop. His name is Almighty God, which I at first found offensive, but after hearing his story, understood. He became a Christian about 15 years ago and feels called to preach the gospel, and therefore takes that name to spread the name of God. Anyway, he paints some really cool and some really strange things. I personally didn’t find his work that great, but maybe it was just a personal preference. Anyway, it was cool to meet him, because apparently he’s one of the greatest or most well-known artists in Ghana/West Africa, and even had an exhibit in NY and there was a story about him in the NY Times.

Almighty God and some of his art

After visiting his gallery (which was all outside, with most of the paintings just sitting propped up against a wall on the dusty ground) we headed to the Kumasi Market (I think it has an official name, but I can’t think of it). Anyway, it is the largest market in West Africa, which made me shudder inside, since we know how I am with markets. BUT, because it was Sunday, about 90% of the stalls were closed, so it wasn’t stressful AT ALL. There were about 10 fabric stands open (out of what I imagine on a busy day would be a thousand), and I found two new fabrics to get dresses made out of.

Me at the Kumasi Market. Gotta have a blue door picture.

We headed home shortly thereafter and got back to Accra around 8 pm. One random side note I want to mention just so when I re-read this months/years later I remember, is that on the way home we passed many small villages which were bustling with trade and people selling things on the streets. Many people had booths or stands set up along the road, and oftentimes, their stands would be resting on top of railroad tracks. There is even a railroad track that runs straight through Kumasi Market. At first I didn’t understand why these people would build structures and have their shops and walk back and forth the railroad tracks so casually, but then it hit me that those tracks are physical evidence of the British colonialism in Ghana. The British built these tracks when they established trade to and through Ghana and West Africa, and these tracks served no purpose for the Ghanaians once the British were gone. I think it’s a beautiful example of how Africans got back on their own two feet after Europe came and messed everything up. Now they are doing their OWN trading, and running their own commerce on top of the very tracks that once suppressed them. Anyway, I thought it was really interesting,

Today was a good day. I went into WAAF for about an hour and made some phone calls. Spent the rest of the day napping and reading, and had my class at Legon at night. Tomorrow I only have one class, which will be nice!

Hope everyone had as eventful a weekend as I did! Well, maybe weekends that are uneventful are just as fun and necessary, so either way, I just hope your weekend was what you wanted of it!
Sending my love!!!

love love love

3 schools, 1 week

2009-02-27T18:29:00.003-05:00

So it’s been another day since I’ve written. I hope I don’t make it a habit of skipping days like this, but this week was a bit busier than usual, with me teaching at three schools in addition to going to classes.

Yesterday I had my African Popular Music class, where we learned how to play the televi. I knew the basic, basic way to play (which our teacher taught), but learned a few more elaborate ways of playing it. I am by NO means even proficient at playing the televi, but will have fun teaching Sarah when I get back to the states.

Me and Gillian playing our televi. We matched that day and absolutely didn't plan it. Guess that's what roomies do!

I also taught at my second school, King’s Palace. It was their first day of workshops, and so Leigh and I covered the basic facts about HIV / AIDS and STDs / STIs. The kids at King’s were SO responsive, and knew a lot already. They asked tons of great questions, and were polite and kind to each other when one would ask a potentially embarrassing question. We teach them the ABCD modes of prevention. A is for abstinence, B is for be faithful, C is for condom use, and D is for don’t share sharp objects. They really seem to understand these. Sometimes talking about sex or condom use can be a little awkward with 5th and 6th graders, but these kids didn’t laugh or giggle or anything. I think sex education is SO important in middle schools, and certainly don’t think it’s taught enough in the states. Especially looking at examples of my own education, I was never taught sex education by my schools. I don’t think ignoring the issue changes anything. Even in the Christian community and in church youth group, ignoring talking about proper safe sex practices does not change the fact that most kids will probably have sex. Just because certain groups of people can’t face the reality of what youth in America (and around the world) do doesn’t mean ignoring it will make it go away. Talking about condom use certainly doesn’t “encourage sex” as some adults may argue, but rather teaches kids to be responsible in doing something they’re likely to do anyway. All that being said, we teach the kids here about abstinence, and how it is the only way to 100% prevent yourself from getting HIV. We also promote condom use and being faithful with only one partner if you do choose to have sex. They understand this, and I think they’re well educated and equipped at this point to make their own life choices and are well aware of the potential repercussions of those actions.

Anyway, today I didn’t have any class, so I got to sleep in a little bit. Gillian and I went to Melting Moments for our weekly Mac-N-Cheese, and it was delicious! Afterwards, I went to teach at King’s again, for their second day of workshops. Today we talked about stigma and discrimination, and tried to educate them on types of discrimination against infected people, and why discriminating against someone with HIV / AIDS is wrong. We told them its their job to educate their friends and family who may be ignorant to how it is spread or who may have attitudes of disgust or hate towards people who have the disease. We did some role-playing games of examples of discrimination, and the students knew what to say and how to stop it.

I am very encouraged by the program, and, as I’ve said many times before, think WAAF is doing the country and all of West Africa a great, invaluable service. I would love to start something like this back in the states, but know it’d be a lot harder to just go into a school and teach about HIV for 2 hours. Maybe one day the West will be a little more open minded.
After work we just kind of lounged around, which we do a lot of, and went to dinner. Gillian and I watched a really dumb movie, but it was funny. I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet, but here they sell bootleg DVDs that have like 18 movies on one DVD. One DVD costs about 2 bucks. So I have almost 100 movies now, and it cost me no more than 10 dollars. Pretty great. Watching movies is a pastime here, as the TV in the living room is almost ALWAYS playing a movie with a few people watching. When there’s nothing to do (which is a lot of the time), movie watching is a great option.

I need to wrap this up because tomorrow we’re LEAVING at 5:20 to go to Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana. It’s an NYU-sponsored trip, so we’ll spend the night and come back Sunday. Apparently Kumasi is like the fabric capital of Ghana, so I suspect I’ll come back with tons of cloth! STILL WAITING ON THOSE MEASUREMENTS PEOPLE! If you don’t send me what you want, it’s not getting made. Plain and simple. I know, said so lovingly, right? I just don’t want to wait til the last week and have to ask Marjorie to make 10 dresses. So help a sister out.

Time for bed! Hope all is well at home. Miss you so much! I’ll write about my weekend when I get back on Sunday. In the meantime, everyone enjoy themselves this weekend and enjoy precious time with family and friends.

love love love

televi

2009-02-25T19:03:00.003-05:00

Hi all! I know, I know, yet another day without updating has gone by. But don’t worry, yesterday wasn’t too eventful. Just had my usual two classes, both of which were really interesting, though both ended extra early. My internship class was only an hour long—hardly enough time to cover anything substantial, so we just spent the majority of the time just talking to our professor about NYU. She has a 12 year old daughter, and is beginning to think about college options, and said she would never even consider sending her kid to a school like NYU, with no campus or gates or anything. I guess we’re really lucky to have parents that trust us ad allowed us to grow up quickly in college. I’m definitely thankful for my NYU experience. Feeling like you live in the City and go to school is totally different than the normal college experience of living and breathing the university. Living in New York has been one of the greatest, most challenging, but most rewarding experiences of my life. Anyway, babbling on…

Today was a great day as well. I slept in and watched movies for a few hours since I didn’t have class or work today. Marykate, Gillian and I went to lunch and then MK and I went to the Art Center (the place I liked with all the cool gifts) to buy little percussion “instruments,” called Televi, for our African Popular Music class tomorrow. I don’t know how to describe them other than they are two balls filled with beans connected to a string. You put one ball in your hand and flip the other ball back and forth with a flip of your wrist to get the two balls to hit each other and create sound. It’s something all the locals use here in Ghana, and was originally a kid toy before it got appropriated and became a musical instrument in West African music. So anyway, we bought those, because our teacher is going to show us how to properly play them tomorrow. (I’ve tried and can do the most basic of motions, but am no where near proficient.) Sarah, I’m brining some home for you because I know you would love them. I bargained for a few other gifts at the Art Center, and let me just say, I’m a PRO bargainer. The seller even commented on how good I was.

Televi

After the Art Center we had recitation, and watched a documentary called Traces of the Trade by a roughly 30 year old woman who lives in Bristol, Rhode Island. She is a 6th or 7th generation decedent of the DeWolf family, one of the most prominent, wealthy families in Rhode Island and one of the leaders in the slave trade. Many of the buildings and monuments erected in Rhode Island were built using money the DeWolf’s made from the business. Anyway, this woman, a Princeton graduate, decided to trace the steps of her ancestors to follow their journey along the slave trade. She invited 200 of her family (clearly, both immediate and distant distant family) to come along, and I think 7 of them went. They went to Ghana and visited the Elmina Slave Castle (the castle we saw) and then went to Cuba where slaves were also held. Her point was to see what her ancestors had done, see the atrocities of the slave trade, make peace with Africans and apologize, and open up a dialogue about slavery and race issues between themselves and Africans and African Americans. It was a really good documentary and really cool to see Ghana and Elmina featured in the documentary.

Dinner was a bit different tonight, as Tante had some function going on at the restaurant, so they brought all the food over to Solomon’s. We managed to fit 45 people in our dining room/living room, which was a sight to behold, but it was fun. Gillian and I just got done talking for what must’ve been close to 2 hours. It’s great to have a roommate who I can talk with about whatever, and who I get along with so well. G, if you’re reading this, holla.

Anyway, tomorrow I have my African Popular Music class, and then I’m teaching the first workshop at a new school with Leigh. Should be great, I can’t wait!

How is everyone doing? Update me please! Miss you all so much!

love love love

TOGO!

2009-02-23T18:31:00.005-05:00

Here’s the Togo blog!:

We decided to leave early Saturday morning instead of mid-day Friday, and I think we made the right choice, seeing as from the time we left Ghana to the time we got to our hotel in Togo, it was about 7 hours. Here in Ghana there’s a lot of waiting around, and we did our fair share of that en route to Togo. Anyway, after four hours, several taxi and van transitions, we got to Aflao, the Ghanaian city on the border. Crossing the border was unlike any customs process I’d ever done before, especially since the “border” was a rope tied to poles that men either pulled or let lay on the ground for cars to drive through. Kinda hilarious. Anyway, our van dropped us off on the Ghanaian side. There are very few signs or directions on where to go or how to actually cross the border, but after visiting several different buildings and handing our passports over to several different officials, we walked our way across the Ghanaian border and into Togo! Simple as that. On the Togo side, we were immediately hit with the fact that you can NOT visit Togo if you don’t know French. It’s impossible. Luckily, Marika and Emma spoke a little French, just enough to get us to and from places and make decent small talk. This was a really interesting phenomenon for us to witness: that a border (indicated by a rope nonetheless) was the dividing line between English and French speaking people. Definitely a very apparent exhibit of the Berlin Conference. That someone standing on the other side of the rope 5 feet away from me could know no English, just because of some arbitrary line, is pretty interesting once you witness it firsthand. Anyway, on the Togo side, we went through their version of customs, which isn’t that luxurious either, and got in a cab in Lome, the capital. We took a cab from the border to the bus station, where we caught another tro-tro for our two hour ride to Kpalimé (pronounced polly-may).
Gillian, Me, Tina, and Emma in a tro-tro. Very crammed, and VERY sweaty.

Once we got to Kpalimé, we checked into a “hotel” (more like a hostel) called Hotel Bafana Bafana. The five of us split up between two rooms. Gillian and I got the “nicer” room—by paying three extra Cedi, we got a shower (which we didn’t use) and a sink! What luxuries. Anyway, as you can see from the pictures, the conditions were less than ideal, and we ended up sleeping on top of our towels on top of the mattress, and used our pillows to cover the cracks at the bottom of the door that would let in mosquitoes at night otherwise. We doubt the sheets/pillows had been washed in a while. After checking in, we made our way to a restaurant the guide book told us about. I don’t remember the name of it, but I have a picture of the sign somewhere. Anyway, we got there about 5:30 but the chef wasn’t due to come until around 7, so we sat outside and drank Flag beers (the Togolese beer, very good) and talked for a few hours. We were shortly joined by a nice guy, about 25, named Gregory, who told us he was a tour guide and loved showing people around the mountain and waterfalls, if we were interested. We told him that’s exactly what we came to Togo to do, and that we’d love to have him show us around. He ended up eating dinner with us, and helped us order our food (since he spoke French, English, Ewe, and a little Twi). The chef finally came and greeted us all as if we were family, trying his best to speak English to us, since we couldn’t speak any French to him. We all ordered spaghetti, which was delicious! After dinner we picked up some bag water/sachet water, which we used to fill our bottles with for the next day’s hike. We don’t have anything like bag water in the states, so I don’t know how to explain it really other than it’s a small plastic bag, sealed on all four sides, that holds 500 mL of water (the equivalent of a normal sized water bottle). You rip off a corner of it with your teeth, and drink the water like that. It’s REALLY cheap. 30 bags cost 1 Cedi (less than one dollar). It was my first time drinking bag water, because sometimes they warn us against using off-brands, but it was fine and I’m fine. J I’ve now found a more economical way to be drinking LOTS of water, constantly. I know that makes you happy, Mom. So we headed home and got to bed fairly early because we were set to meet Gregory at 7:30 at a local breakfast place. Gillian and I didn’t sleep much because it was SO hot, but I woke up refreshed anyway.

We started Sunday morning right at 6:30, getting ready and heading over to breakfast to get a bite to eat before we met Gregory. He showed up at 7:30 right on the dot, and had arranged for a taxi to take us everywhere all day. The taxi took us up the mountain about half way, and we walked up the rest of the way to the top. On the way, we saw this HUGE tree that must’ve been over 100 years old, whose roots were over 15 feet tall. The tree reminded me of the huge trees in Yosemite.
THE tree

Anyway, the mountain is part of a chain of mountains that are all connected. Each mountain houses many different villages, one of which Gregory belongs to. We overlooked the entire city of Kpalimé, and could see Ghana in the far distance.
Togo, Africa

We worked our way back down and around the mountains, walking through various villages, passing schools and churches that were in session. The coolest part of it all was that if Gregory hadn’t have been with us, we wouldn’t have had any idea these tucked-away villages even existed. We stopped along the way for Gregory to point out various plants and animals. I can’t remember the names of any plants, because they were all in French, but there was whose leaf, when rubbed together in your hands, disintegrated and turned into dye. The natives use the dye to dye cloth and paint on their skin, and Gregory painted a butterfly on my arm with the red dye from the leaf (that is what’s on my arm in the waterfall picture). It was the COOLEST thing! There were other plants that did the same sort of thing, and produced green or white colors.

Not blood, but the dye from a tree leaf. Also, if you click on the picture and enlarge it, you can see that the girls are holding bag water in their hands.

There were goats roaming free EVERYWHERE, and we saw chickens and baby chicks that were dyed bright pink. Gregory said this was so they were easy to spot if they got away (I guess they’re valuable commodities and can’t be lost). We saw plants that were low to the ground, and if you touched its leaves, the entire plant closed up and would remain closed for 15 minutes. We saw all sorts of fruit trees- pineapple bushes, banana trees, cassava plants, huge gourd type things, palm trees that had been cut down to make palm wine out of, etc. etc. We were literally walking through the forest and jungle on a tiny tiny trail that was completely unoccupied, except for the occasional local walking to or from his home.

Walking through the jungle, not quite Disneyland

We stopped in Gregory’s village and ate some bananas he picked for us fresh off the tree, and took a break while he visited with some of his friends. Gillian and I had to pee, and not to get too graphic or anything, but we are getting very good at relieving ourselves wherever nature calls us. ANYWAY, I mostly included that last sentence to laugh at later when I re-read this blog 10 years from now.

After wandering around down and through the mountain, we headed back UP to meet our taxi driver (this hike back up was REALLY difficult, as we were hot and tired). The taxi driver drove us a little ways to another mountain, where we hiked DOWN huge, steep steps to get to the base of a waterfall. (We knew that getting back UP the huge, steep steps would be a trip.) The waterfall was GORGEOUS, and refreshing to feel the water mist in our faces after being in the hot sun for a good portion of the day. We sat on a rock directly in front of the waterfall, and just rested and enjoyed the jungle and mountain that were around us. It was really, really cool, in every sense of the word. The hike back up was HARD, as we were on a complete incline, climbing up steps that were 3 feet high. Talk about the most intense Stairmaster ever. BUT, once we got to the top, it was so rewarding, as always. I need more physical activity, for sure. Hiking a mountain really makes you realize how out of shape you really are, ha.

Anyway, we paid and thanked Gregory, who left us to the cab driver, who took us all the way to the border in Kpalimé. We didn’t cross back into Ghana where we came in from (near Lome), but crossed back into a Ghanaian city called Ho. After several marriage proposals from customs officers (who, again, were rarely in uniform, and whose “office” consisted of nothing more than a shack) we were back in Ghana and back on a bus to Accra! There are police stationed at various checkpoints in Ghana, and our bus was stopped once on the way home, and everyone was asked to get out. We all got out, and all the black people (everyone except the five of us) were allowed to get back on, while we were questioned by Ghanaian police (who were wearing flip flops) and asked to show our passports. At this point, we had been through about 7 checkpoints/customs points, so were used to this. It didn’t make sense though, since we were well into Ghana, and had taken a bus that left from a city in Ghana. What if we hadn’t had our passports? Either way, we concluded, based on the fact that the police here don’t get paid well and rely on bribes from those they pull over as their main source of income, that they were trying to find something wrong with our visas in order for us to give them money to let us go instead of take us in. BUT, nothing was wrong with our visas, so we got back in the bus and made it back to Accra safe and sound!

Gillian and I got pizza last night from the only pizza chain in Accra, and I talked to my mom and sister for about an hour on Skype last night! Today was good, but tiring—went in to work for a few hours and then came home and did homework/ran errands/bought groceries/had class at Legon the rest of the day. It’s midnight now, and I need to get some sleep for my 8 a.m. tomorrow!

It was a WONDERFUL trip, and I STRONGLY encourage everyone to make it to Togo, and to Kpalimé. It’s so tropical and beautiful, and someone compared it to Puerto Rico. I haven’t been to PR, but I’d have to agree. Hope everyone’s weekend was good! Miss you all!

love love love

FOR MORE PICTURES- http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=105842&id=616486619&l=4d1c3
and
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=106165&id=616486619&l=b538b

"this is NOT disneyland"

2009-02-22T15:54:00.003-05:00

i'm back from togo!!!

IT WAS INCREDIBLE. i'm working on a blog right now with all the details, but essentially, it was a GREAT 36 hours with 5 girls. so many memories :)

the title of this blog was a quote from gillian while we were hiking through mountainous forests in kpalime. we're literally walking through african forests and jungles, and gillian was like, "this is real life, this is not a disneyland "jungle" ride, this is real." it was just a really good way to put it, the magnitude and amazing-ness (not a word) of it all.

in the mean time, i'll leave you with a picture from the trip, taken at the base of the waterfall, at the base of the mountain, which was a 1 km hike down and 1 km back UP. whew!

love love love

gonna leave ghana and off to go to togo

2009-02-20T19:12:00.007-05:00

sorry i didn't update yesterday! i didn't have much to say since i didn't do much (again, thankfully). i had class at 10:30, and afterwards gillian and i went to the post office to do our usual thursday mailings. i really didn't do anything else the rest of the day, except have a great dinner at sunshine. after dinner, we watched hotel rwanda. it was my first time seeing the film, and it was really emotional but also really good. don cheadle did a great job, and seeing on film what we often hear about on paper and pay no attention to was moving. i hope all of you see it if you haven't.

also, on a totally unrelated note, as i'm sure many of you have heard, a group of about 50 radical nyu students called "take back nyu!" has spent the last two or three days barricaded inside our biggest dining hall which is also in our student center, kimmel. they effectively shut down the entire building, keeping the guards over hours and disrupting much of the business and social activities that happen daily in kimmel. they are protesting and advocating for a number of things-- some of their demands are reasonable, while others are completely insane. they are protesting under "we, the students of nyu" and i just want it to be known that i, for one, do NOT support this extreme and unprofessional/unorganized way of going about negotiating with john sexton and the school. to read the list of their demands, visit: http://www.takebacknyu.com/. to read the coverage about the protest (which ended in multiple arrests and 18 suspensions), visit our school's newspaper online at http://www.nyunews.com/. this is the kind of stuff that gives nyu a "whiny, prissy" reputation in new york, especially, but in the nation also. our press is always bad press because of people who need to be a martyr about something, anything, just for the sake of being a martyr. maybe i shouldn't be writing all this on my blog, but it pisses me off. anyway, please know that whatever you read or hear about on the news is NOT indicative of what 95% of the student body supports. just some crazy radicals trying to protest and make headlines like it's the 1960s.

this editorial, written by the entire washington square news team, sums up my ENTIRE stance on the issue: http://www.nyunews.com/opinion/staff_editorials/tbnyu_is_vocal_but_doesn_t_speak_for_all_students-1.1487680

whew. anyway, today was a good day too! again, did absolutely nothing, and slept in for a long time which was nice. gillian and i stayed in our pajamas most of the day. most of the students in the program went to their optional homestays this weekend, but since we're leaving for togo tomorrow, about 5 of us stayed behind (about 8 of us total stayed behind, the others are just staying in accra). the small group of us went to dinner at tante's and afterwards came home and watched america's sweethearts. gillian made a cake (which is interesting in its own right, since we lack many ingredients and our oven doesn't have a temp. gauge), and it turned out pretty good! we love cake here, and find any reason to eat it.

tomorrow we leave for togo! we plan on just spending one night in kpalime (pronounced polly-may), where we will wake up sunday morning at climb mt. agou. since togo was a french colony, no one speaks any english, and we are lucky we have marika with us, who speaks some french. this is when knowing many languages comes in handy! i've decided my future kids are going to speak at least two languages. they'll learn both english and spanish from a young age, so they can function more easily in foreign worlds.

well, better get to bed. we have an early morning and busy day ahead of us (a 6 hour tro-tro ride!). i will take LOTS of pictures, and will update you all when i'm back on sunday.

have a happy weekend, sending lots of hugs.

love love love

edit: no one who engaged in the sit-in was arrested, just suspended.

art center :)

2009-02-18T18:33:00.000-05:00

So today I woke up to a text at 7 am from my boss, Belynda, saying there wasn’t anything at WAAF I needed to come in to do, so I could stay at home today. What a relief! I turned my alarm off and went back to sleep until 10:30! It was really nice to sleep in and have NO responsibilities today. I had a leisurely morning, doing some reading for class and surfing the internet for a little bit. Around 1 MK and I went to Melting Moments (the place that has the really good macaroni and cheese!). Of course, I ordered mac and cheese, and bought some really good cookies for the road. Afterwards, Katie, her mom (who is visiting for a week (so good to have a maternal influence in the house)) invited me to go with them to the Art Center in Accra. I hadn’t been before, so I opted to go, and we had a GREAT time. I was a little worried it’d be like the markets, and therefore was preparing myself for a very, very stressful next for hours. However, when we got there, it was almost empty, and the stalls are a lot more spread out. The Art Center is where people buy a lot of cool, authentic Ghanaian souvenirs, and where you can really put your bartering skills to the test! Katie knew a man who owns one of the stands, so he came and showed us his huge shop. I had a field day in there, picking out lots of gifts for myself and for all of you! I collected all my things and negotiated for them collectively. I got him down from 40 Cedi to 27, total!! I’m getting good at this bartering thing. ;) Anyway, it’s a REALLY cool place. Of course, there’s the usual “Hey, come over here!” “Just look, you don’t have to buy.” “Let me just show you this one thing.” “It’s nice to be nice.” But other than that, it was 100x more peaceful than either Kaneshi or Makola, and I had a really positive experience, AND came home with some souvenirs. It was great to spend time with Katie and her mom, too. We got back around 5, and I just hung out at home until dinner at Tante’s at 7. The evening has been relatively uneventful since, but all in all, it was a really nice day.

Oh! And special shout out to Amanda Rachelle, whose letter I got today! Made me so happy to get a letter from home, and makes me miss her, and all of you, a million times more. Keeping you all in my heart, always always always.

love love love

seun kuti

2009-02-17T18:58:00.005-05:00

Alright I don’t know where to start for today!

I had my internship seminar at 8 am. I’m getting used to waking up way earlier than I did in New York, and it’s not so bad, as long as I can get a nap in at some point during the day. Anyway, so internship seminar went well, as usual. Today I led the discussion. We are reading The White Man’s Burden, by William Easterly. It’s a REALLY, REALLY interesting book about development and Western aid. It deals a lot with the issues that I talked about in previous blogs—about how much aid is too much, how aid should be allocated, etc. Easterly makes an argument against “Big Plans” and distinguishes two distinct categories of people the “planners” and the “searchers”. The Planners are those governmental organizations, celebrities, major, famous non-profits, etc. that make bold, sweeping claims about “eradicating poverty or eliminating AIDS”. The searchers are those who go into the countries, starting at the grassroots level, and focus on the small, immediate needs that are specific to that place. For instance, he gives the example of the road on the way to Cape Coast from Accra, and how one village 30 years ago was lacking any source of clean water. Today, this village has pipes that come carry clean water from Winneba. Searchers found an immediate need and met it at a local level. Through these smaller, but more impactful projects, development is tangible and can be seen. Easterly argues that the planners (organizations like the IMF, World Bank, USAID, WHO, UNICEF, celebrities like Bono, big charity fundraises like Live 8, etc) who set lofty goals, and whose bank account receive the checks we haplessly write, are often not executed, or not executed in the most effective way. He says, and I find myself agreeing:

“In foreign aid, Planners announce good intentions but don’t motivate anyone to carry them out; Searchers find things that work and get some reward. Planners raise expectations but take no responsibility for meeting them; Searchers accept responsibility for their actions. Planners determine what to supply; Searchers find out what is in demand. Planners apply global blueprints; Searchers adapt to local conditions. Planners at the top lack knowledge of the bottom; Searchers find out what the reality is at the bottom. Planners never hear whether the planned got what it needed; Searchers find out if the customer is satisfied.”

He continues on about what each is or isn’t, but essentially, I think he makes a very valid argument. The book is very conversational and easy to read, and something I am VERY interested in. I recommend it to EVERYONE (you can find it on Amazon or BN.com). It’s a response to economist Jeffery Sachs’ book The End of Poverty, which I haven’t read. Sachs is a big advocate of the Planner, and so he and Easterly often debate via editorials in the NYT or through their books. Both sides are very interesting, and I plan on reading Sachs’ book when I get home. OH! And Easterly is the top developing economics professor at NYU. I encourage all of you to read this book, so we can all have a dialogue about it when I get back. I’m just enthralled by all this and still don’t know what to make of it all.

ANYWAY, so we talked a lot more about that in the internship seminar. In my Society, Culture and Modernization class we talked about traditional politics, specifically the role of a chief. Ghana’s political system is divided into two parts: A) the democratic, elected officials part, with a parliament, and B) the traditional politics, aka the obeying of chiefs. These two work together, and exist simultaneously though sometimes they’re in conflict with each other. Anyway, the chiefs rule over different tribes in different regions of Ghana, and are revered. The chief does not speak to anyone directly, not even the Queenmother, who is the only person who can publically rebuke the king/chief. The Queenmother doesn’t necessarily have to be the king’s mother, but has to be of the same lineage—so, an aunt, a sister, a niece, etc. The chief’s wife has no formal role. The chief’s main duty is to protect its people, and to be the region’s spiritual leader. There are many other forms and traditions the chief takes on, but they are aplenty, and I have a lot more to write about, so I’ll move on…

TODAY WAS MY FIRST DAY TEACHING AT WAAF!! Leigh and I went to Flagstaff, a school about 15 minutes away. School got out a little later than anticipated, so we were sitting outside waiting for class to be dismissed so we could use the classroom. While we were waiting, some pre-school girls came up to me, and I started teaching them how to play patty-cake. They were so amused, and started playing with each other. One girl, though, was scared of us Obrunis, and wanted nothing to do with us. She stayed a few feet back while her friends came up and played with us. When the bell boy came up ringing a handbell (letting them know school was out), everyone, including the 4 year old preschoolers to the teachers recited Psalm 23. The ENTIRE thing, much like reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. It was a REALLY cool thing to see, and so unexpected. It’s amazing how much religious life is infused in everything, including public education. Anyway, so the class we taught was made up of 10 boys and 10 girls, primarily 4th and 5th grades. Their teachers chose them to be peer educators and be a part of the Passion Squad, so they are the best of the best. Leigh and I went back and forth teaching them basic facts about HIV / AIDS, ways of transmission, modes of prevention, signs and symptoms and basic facts about STIs. It’s a lot for 9 and 10 year olds to take in, especially when it seemed most of them didn’t really know what HIV / AIDS was, or what the acronyms stood for. What I found most surprising was that a lot of them thought you could get HIV from kissing someone. Leigh and I spent a lot of time clarifying this, making sure they understood that kissing someone with HIV could not give you the virus. I think they finally caught on, but because they didn’t know much about the virus to begin with, they didn’t seem to have many questions yet. I think they were soaking it all up and taking thorough notes. Maybe next week they’ll have thought more about what we taught and have more questions. They’re great kids though, and really proactive and want to learn. I am encouraged by today’s work, and encouraged by the kids and their willingness and interest to learn. I know what WAAF is doing is making a difference, and I’m just thankful to be a part of it.

I took a nap when I got home, and after dinner at Sunshine Salads, a bunch of us went to a concert by a man named Seun Kuti. He is a famous Nigerian musician, whose father was the founder of Afrobeat, a popular form of African music (which we learned about in our African Popular Music class). Seun is really revered here in Ghana and all over Africa, and for good reason. His concert was outside in a mini-amphitheatre type place. He sang and played the sax, while his band was comprised of several drummers (the bongo kind), a few more sax players, a cowbell-type person, and backup singers (men and women). His music is infectious, and we all were dancing along to the songs for hours. If you want to listen to some of his music, his Myspace website is:
www.myspace.com/seunkuti. You can sample his songs on there. I plan on buying his CD and making multiple copies for everyone!

Marykate, Gillian and me at Kuti's concert.
A bad picture, but the man in the white stripped outfit is Kuti.

Well, this blog is long enough and my wrists HURT! I’m going to take a shower and hop in bed. Gotta be up by 8 to be at WAAF by 9:30! Shouldn’t be a long day tomorrow, though, so I’m excited. Blessings!

love love love

isaiah 54:10

2009-02-16T19:32:00.002-05:00

Today began at 6:30 am. Leigh and I had appointments to visit with two schools’ patrons to verify when we would have our first workshops. We arrived at the first school at 8 am sharp, and got there just in time to see something really cool. Most schools in Accra are multi-leveled, fairly open, and are centered around a courtyard type area. When we arrived at Burma Camp, which is a military school, there were hundreds of students in the courtyard, all lined up. There were about four students playing a simple drum beat, and all the other students were somewhat sloppily, but on beat, marching in place and singing some sort of chant in Twi. They were lined up by classroom, and a teacher would dismiss each line one at a time. The students of that line would march single file, while singing, to their classroom, and the line would immediately crumble once they got out of their teacher’s eyesight. It was really fun to watch and see these kids behaving so well. It reminded me a lot of my elementary school days at Lagos, when we’d meet in our class lines underneath the ramada before school started. Though, we didn’t march or sing songs while waiting. Anyway, we met with the patron of Burma Camp and confirmed a date. Then, we went to the second school and met with the patron of that school and confirmed two dates for workshops in the future. Leigh and I were done by 9:00, and called Belynda who said we didn’t need to come into the office for anything, so we were free to go home. It was nice to have all our work done by 9 am and have the rest of the day to ourselves. As much as I HATE waking up early, I do appreciate the feeling of having an entire day to do with what I please.

After getting home, I finished up all the reading I have to do for tomorrow’s two classes, and wrote in my internship journal. For our internship seminar, we have to keep a journal each week of our feelings on the internship or the class, what we’re learning, etc. I find myself repeating a lot of what I say in these blogs and also a lot of the conversations I have with my friends here. Since tomorrow’s Tuesday, aka, learning day, I’m sure tomorrow’s blog will be full of new information and questions that arise from my class tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ll also recommend a book that I think everyone should read, which relates to the blog entry I wrote last Tuesday about foreign aid and if it’s good or bad.

Marykate and I went to Legon around 4:00. We got there a little early, so we just sat outside under the shade and talked. The weather wasn’t too bad, actually, and there was a nice breeze that made sitting outside bearable. Our Media and Society class was good, and we made a new Ghanaian friend! Her name is Felicia, and she befriended us. We heard that at Legon especially, it’s hard for Obruni girls to make friends with Ghanaian girls, because the Ghanaians are often rude or short with us. So we were pleasantly surprised when Felicia turned around and started talking to us! We hope to keep sitting by her and maybe even hang out with her a few times.

Gillian brought home dinner from Tante’s for me, and MK and I had a really good talk about family, friends, adventures, being away from home, etc. I’m thankful for the friendships I’m making here, and for the unique people I’m meeting. I really do feel a sense of community, and know that I’m not alone in any of my feelings.

Hope everyone had a good Monday! Stay safe and be happy!

PS- I teach at my first school tomorrow!! Wish me luck, as Leigh and I visit Flagstaff to teach the first workshop at the school! Can’t wait!

love love love

isaiah 54:10:
"Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed," says the LORD, who has compassion on you."
This verse is where my heart is right now.

happy valentine's day weekend!

2009-02-15T06:27:00.002-05:00

Sorry for not updating in a few days! It’s been a good weekend, and by the end of Friday and Saturday night I was just exhausted. So I’ll pick up from Friday. Gillian and I had nothing to do on Friday, so we tried to sleep in, which really only meant sleeping til 9:30 or 10. We both usually can’t sleep any later even if we want to. Oftentimes at night I find myself waking up once every hour or so, checking my phone in a panic, thinking I’m late for something. Either way, we spent most of Friday at a hotel pool with some of our friends. This wasn’t the same pool we went to last time (the one with the umbrella in the bottom), but a hotel much closer to us and much nicer. The pool temperature was the PERFECT pool temperature, especially for a really hot day (every day). We just laid out, swam, and even watched about 5 local middle school boys have swim practice with their teacher for about an hour in the pool (we were tanning at the time, which was kinda awkward/funny, but really fun to watch). Friday night we made popcorn and watched Ocean’s Eleven. Someone in the house has Ocean’s Twelve, so we plan on watching that one soon! That’s pretty much all for Friday—nothing too extraordinary happened, but we definitely relaxed and had a good time with friends.

Saturday was VALENTINE’S DAY! Aside from the fact that my Eric wasn’t here to share the day with, us girls had a great day celebrating each other! MK, Gillian and I first got pedicures and manicures at a place our director, Christa, recommended. This place was so nice, and we felt like we were back in NY. Even better, a mani/pedi was 13.5 Cedi total!! I got my toes painted neon pink, and my fingers bright red, in honor of the holiday! It was really nice to be pampered and get our feet all smooth and fixed up, after being a little worn from walking in flip flops and on dirt roads for 5 weeks. It was a really great morning, and the day had just begun.

Afterwards Gillian, MK and I went to the Accra Mall, which I talked about in an earlier post. It’s the crazy shopping mall that reminds me so much of malls in America. Anyway, they have a cinema, so we went there and watched Bride Wars (the chic flick starring Anne Hathaway and Kate Hudson)! It was SOO cute, but even if it wasn’t, we still would’ve probably loved it just because it was a movie, at a movie theatre, in a mall that reminded us of home. We all left the theatre completely thinking we were gonna step outside onto the New York streets. Ha, alas, that was not the case, but it was a really nice escape and a great girly movie to see with my girls. After the movie we came home and got ready for dinner at Mamma Mia’s! A bunch of us went, and picked up the cake on the way. We sat outside, but shortly after getting our wine, it started to lightning and rain, which was totally unexpected, since it’s the dry/draught season. BUT, we moved inside to a big table and drank wine, ate cake, and listened to the heavy rain outside. It was a great dinner with lots of laughs and celebrating of just being together. We came home and just read and talked. I watched almost 6 episodes of Entourage and fell asleep to the sound of the rain rather early. (Totally irrelevant side-note: Speaking of Entourage—I’ve seen all the seasons and am bummed season 5 isn’t out on DVD yet. I’m in love with Ari Gold.)

The girls at our Valentine's Day dinner at Mamma Mia's!

Today we had a really lazy morning. I got a lot of reading done for my classes this week (it’s gonna be a BUSY week), and did some homework I needed to do. At 2:30 we started making dinner with our RA, Julia, and didn’t finish until 6!! It takes a LOT of time to prepare a typical Ghanaian dish, and I guess I learned to appreciate it (and cooking in general) a lot more. We made red-red (different than mine, not sure which I like better), fried plantains, chicken sauce stew, and coconut rice. The coconut rice was SOOO good, and I think everyone I know would love it (and that’s saying something, since I know a lot of picky eaters). It’s just got a hint of coconut flavor. It’s boiled/steamed/whatever in a pot just like normal white rice is cooked. But instead of water, it’s cooked in coconut milk. I guess in the states we’d use an artificial or packaged kind, but here we used straight up real coconuts that we milked and shredded. Really cool and really good! We had a great dinner with a lot of the house, and have TONS of leftovers for the rest of the week.

I got to talk with my mom and sister on Skype tonight, which has become our Sunday tradition. I love talking to them and catching up on all the Houston news. Good to hear Nana’s doing well and walking around! Hope everyone else at home is well. I have a busy week ahead of me, as I’m sure we all do, but let’s try to be stress-free and happy. I get to go to Togo next weekend with my friends--we're really excited!!

Be blessed.

love love love

thursday 2/12/09

2009-02-12T19:55:00.000-05:00

So I’m keeping this one short (don’t I always say that?). No but really, I’m tired and don’t have a ton to say or ramble about.

Today was very productive! First I had my African Popular Music class, which was interesting as always, but is kind of frustrating because my teacher is VERY scatter-brained and jumps from topic to topic or style of music to style of music. And, since we’re covering the entire CONTINENT of Africa, which has over 30 countries, it’s difficult to retain types of music or fads or instruments, even when broken down into countries or regions. But, it’s a good class. Afterwards, Gillian and I were on a hunt to find postcards to send to our boyfriends’ parents. We biked to the post office (such a HARD but physically rewarding bike ride, once it’s over) and found post cards at a store right next to it. I got to mail a few letters home, so be looking within the next 2 weeks. After, we went to the supermarket and bought some groceries and fruit and such. We also went by this Italian restaurant called Mamma Mia!, which apparently has really good pizza. We didn’t eat, but we did make reservations for Saturday night for a few of us girls to celebrate Valentine’s Day together! It’s a shame none of us will be with our boyfriends, so we decided to just throw each other a dinner in celebration. Also, Gillian and I ordered a cake for the occasion. What the heck, we’re going all out on this one! The rest of the day I spent resting and napping and reading (I’m on my third book since being here!). I really enjoy all the free time I have. I’ve rekindled my enjoyment of reading, and find myself looking forward to reading my book. I only have 2 left, but a lot of girls in the house brought books, so we’re doing kind of a book exchange thing.

Anyway, tomorrow I don’t have anything to do, so a few of us girls are going to the pool or the beach. I think on Saturday Marykate and I are getting pedicures to spoil ourselves some more—can’t wait!

Miss everyone and love you all a lot!

love love love

forgotten anecdotes

2009-02-11T19:16:00.006-05:00

I’m going to begin this blog entry with some random anecdotes, information, or stories that I’ve forgotten to share with you. As I remembered them, I wrote them down, and now I think I have a long enough list to make a blog entry out of it. Most of these things are completely unrelated to one another:

-Many women here carry their babies on their backs. But, unlike in America with those Baby Bjorn things, these women just use cloth that they literally tie around their waists, with the babies sandwiched in between the fabric and the mothers’ backs. I’ve always wondered how these women actually go about getting the baby on their backs, because logistically, the process of getting the baby on the back and tying it seems incredibly difficult. Well, I was walking in the market a while ago, and finally saw how they do it! The woman bends over so her back is parallel to the ground and literally sets/rests the baby prostrate on her back. While still bending over, puts the cloth over the baby’s back, then stands up straight and ties the cloth around her waist. I guess they do it so many times that it just works, but to me, a simple knot doesn’t seem like enough security! These babies are so funny to see, because their necks have no support, so their heads literally just flop around from side to side. Their legs stick out from either side of the mom’s waist. (See below)

-Country music is strangely a big deal here. Like, Kenny-Chesney-ish-American country music. I was in the car today with some people from WAAF, and we were listening to a country radio station. This isn’t the first time country music has come on a taxi radio and I always get freaked out because a) I get confused as to where I am (Africa? Or Texas?), and b) because it reminds me of home and I know the songs! While we were in the car I asked a coworker if Ghanaians really liked country music or something, and he said yeah! So strange which American trends/cultural things make it over here and which don’t.

-Last week, Belynda and I visited one of the schools we’re working at. We visited the Director of Education at his office. When we arrived, there was a woman in his office who sat in on our meeting. We explained we were from WAAF, and proposed what we wanted to do in the school. At one point, the education director said how great this program was because it’s necessary to educate young people. The woman said “That’s funny, I haven’t seen someone with AIDS in years.” This comment struck me as totally indicative of the way most ignorant people (Africans and Americans) view this epidemic. I can’t imagine how someone could say they hadn’t seen someone with AIDS in years, as if it’s something that can be seen by looking at person. Whether or not she had had any interaction with a person with AIDS, I cannot say, but most likely, she had. However, for a well-educated woman working at a school to say she hadn’t “seen” one in years really irked me, and made me wonder if this kind of ignorance is part of the perpetuation of this disease.

-Speaking of schools, on Monday, Leigh, Ashley and I visited another school, and as we were walking through the courtyard, we saw a group of about 20 3-5 year old students, all dressed in uniform, doing some sort of chant led by their teacher. The second they saw us, the all stopped chanting and started grinning from ear-to-ear. They began chanting “brofonyo”, which is the Ga equivalent of Twi’s “Obruni” (which we hear more often). I’m used to being called out as a foreigner now, but there was something about these precious, smiling children who were fascinated with us. I think it’s common that for a lot of young children, we are the first, or one of the few, Obrunis or brofonyos they’ve ever seen. It’s really great when they react positively and try to play with us by making faces or giggling.

-Finally, I am recommending a book to everyone. It’s called The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinksi. Marykate is reading it for her journalism class, and they’re currently passing the book around for the rest of the class to read. I have NOT read it yet, but plan to as soon as the entire journalism class has read it. It’s a collection of a journalist’s personal journal as he spent one year traveling around the perimeter of Africa. Each section is about a different country he went to, and all his experiences in that country. I think the first place he begins is Ghana! Anyway, Marykate said it’s a WONDERUFL book, and has recommended it to her family, so I thought I’d spread it along. Try to read it if you can, I know I’m going to!

So that’s all the random notes/things I had forgotten to mention in previous posts. I think it was a good way to break up the monotony of the play-by-play style blog entries I’ve been writing lately. Anyway, as far as today goes, I went to one of the schools to deliver the last letter to the headmistress, then went in to WAAF. Belynda and I worked out the entire schedule of which 2 interns go to which schools on which days to conduct the workshops. There are 15 workshops we’re doing, and 3 interns’ schedules, and 5 schools’ schedules to coordinate, and I got it all figured out! I was actually really proud of myself for pulling it off. I had to call and confirm with the club patrons the dates, and let me just say, talking to a Ghanaian on the phone is HARD. I know sometimes talking in person with a Ghanaian can be hard because English isn’t their first language, so sometimes the way I phrase something or the way they phrase something just doesn’t translate. But, even some who do speak English well have very heavy accents, which I’ve gotten used to deciphering. BUT, combine the two and add communicating over the phone to the mix, and boy is it tough. Anyway, it was a good day at WAAF and we got a lot done! Spent the rest of the day napping, and had recitation with our Academic Director for one of my classes. Had a good dinner, and a good after-dinner snack (popcorn!). It’s been a good, but tiring day, and I look forward to tomorrow after 1:30, when my class and work responsibilities are done for the week! No huge plans this weekend, which I like. Some of us girls want to go out to a nice restaurant and buy a cake on Valentine’s Day night, and I think Marykate and I are going to get pedicures to spoil ourselves since our boyfriends aren’t here :(. But it should be fun!

Hope all is well at home. Nana—I know you won’t read this for a while—but I’m glad the surgery went well and everything’s okay! Praying for everyone, always.

love love love

macaroni and cheese, development, and ancestor worship

2009-02-10T19:02:00.000-05:00

So I think I’ve decided I love Tuesdays.

I have to get up at 7 a.m. for 8 a.m. class, but I don’t mind at all, because the classes are so worthwhile and I’m learning SO much from them. Tuesdays I have my internship seminar first, and then right after that I have my Society, Culture and Modernization class. Both are really, really great classes, and I’m surprised at how much I’ve learned through my internship seminar. Because all of us in the internship program are interning at NGOs, NGOs and their functions and roles in developing Ghana are what the readings primarily focus on. Today, we talked a lot about how many people and societies (both in the African and in the West) view outside developmental aid as merely an extension of the colonial agendas established over a hundred years ago in Africa. Essentially, some argue that NGOs funded, implemented, or directed by the West are self-serving in that the goal is not necessarily to “develop” the country but to make it more western. As Westerners trying to come develop a developing world, we often see these countries as way far behind in infrastructure (both physical, social, political, etc.). However, the West fails to recognize that the state of Ghana (the first African country to gain independence from colonial rule in 1957) is only 50 years old (and every other country is much younger), and that America didn’t just become the progressive, developed country it is today in a matter of 50 years. We most certainly didn’t even face equal amounts of oppression and pressure and influence from other countries like Africans did. So to call these countries “underdeveloped” or behind is true, but only because they haven’t had the time to catch up. Additionally, this raises the question of whether our help is wanted. At least this is something I’ve been looking at and thinking a lot about. I think it’s great that the West is trying to advance Ghana and Africa, but it should be doing so for the sake of Ghana and Africa, not for its own sake (as is sadly the case). I wonder if Africans are resistant to our help because they are reminded of the colonial agendas, or if these programs are seen as valuable to their success and growth. A trite, but true, saying goes “Give a man to fish, he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he’ll eat for a lifetime.” I think the same motto should be applied for any truly effective development. The West cannot come in and put a band-aid on Africa’s problems, giving it a quick fix and moving on. In fact, we shouldn’t be solving any of Africa’s problems, but instead teaching them, and providing them with the resources and the education and the means to better themselves. We cannot continue to think we have to do the work for them—it only fosters a lack of motivation to change and grow in Africans, and a completely self-serving mentality in Westerners. Additionally, and briefly, the World Bank and the IMF lend so much money on loan to African countries, only to charge them high interest rates and include so many strings attached that by the time the funds have been exhausted, they owe more than they borrowed, and have to take out more and more loans. It’s a vicious cycle which isn’t assuaged by the fact that Africans will intentionally and often over-bid the budget for funding of roads, for instance, and then use only a small portion of the funding (the necessary portion) to pay for the development, and distribute the rest in both corrupt and uncorrupt (but still against the terms of their loans) ways. Therefore, the money we keep shipping on over to Africa isn’t getting distributed as it should be, and funds, time and efforts aren’t allocated as well as they could be. Ultimately, we need to teach them how to fish: how to be self-sufficient and how to develop in their own way. On the same token, we cannot assume that as a “developed nation” we know what development should look like for the whole world. Oftentimes, our way of doing things in America/Europe JUST DOESN’T WORK here. The culture is different, the attitudes are different, and changing some of these things means ultimately changing the fiber of these countries, and that is an injustice. So, I am stuck wondering, how much help is too much help? How little help is too little? Are the programs in effect right now actually doing good, or just disguised Western-agenda pushing? Do Africans even want our Western ways of doing things implemented here? (Who’s to say our way is the right way? Maybe they just want to be left alone to live and develop as they are doing on their own time and in their own way). It’s all very confusing and interesting, and I have a million more sentences to say about it all, but this is just the tip of the iceberg, and I know I’m rambling. Anyway, I’ll leave this topic alone for now, and leave you with a quote from the reading we had to do regarding this issue:

“As with the racist ideologies of the past, the discourse of development continued to define non-Western people in terms of their perceived divergence from the cultural standards of the West, and it reproduced the social hierarchies that had prevailed between both groups under colonialism. On this basis, the so-called ‘developing world’ and its inhabitants were (and still are) described only in terms of what they are not. They are chaotic not ordered, traditional not modern, corrupt not honest, underdeveloped not developed, irrational not rational, lacking in all of those things the West resumes itself to be” (“The missionary position: NGOs and development in Africa,” Manji and O’Coill). ß A very interesting read if you have the time.

Just something to chew on (I’m definitely still chewing).

Switching gears, though, my second class, “Society, Culture and Modernization,” was really great. Today we learned about religion in Ghana. I talked in an earlier post about their belief in a Supreme God (High God) and the lower gods (low gods). In addition to the belief in these, their religious practices involve ancestor worship, witchcraft, magic, and oracles/divination. Aside from the worship of the low gods, ancestor worship is the most prominent form of religious expression in Ghana. It is believed that if you live a good life, have children, AND die a good death, you will become an ancestor. If you die a bad death (which includes death from ailments, disease, suicide, accidents, execution or ulcers), or do not bear children, you will not become an ancestor and your legacy will not be remembered. Upon death, these ancestors are buried with things they’ll need for their adventure into the “land of spirits”. It is the Ghanaian belief that whatever the ancestor was (occupationally) in the physical life, he/she will be in the land of the spirits. Therefore, a king will be a king, and oftentimes, his servants would commit suicide, as a form of honor, just to be buried with the king to accompany him to the land of the spirits. Ancestors are also buried with money to pay they ferryman, as it is believed that the land of the spirits are somewhere across a river in Nigeria. (The knowledge that most people are buried with money is cause for a lot of grave-robbing.) Additionally, they believe that you are a reincarnation of an ancestor. Our professor said he was a reincarnation of his great grandfather. We asked him how he knew this, and he said he visited a diviner. Ancestor worship is also a form of social control, because if you do not lead a good, positive life on earth, you will not move on to the land of spirits after death or become an ancestor, yourself.

Divination is another tenant of religion here, and diviners are essentially psychics. They can tell you about your past (like who you are a reincarnation of) or can tell you about the future, all for a small fee. Anyone can become a diviner by taking a class on how to become one. Diviners can also use “juju,” a form of black magic, to manipulate certain events (a student could visit a diviner before a test to use juju to make the teacher give him/her an “A”).

Witchcraft is also very common, though not like we think of it in America. Almost all mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws are witches, which I found very funny, since one could argue the same thing in America! They are said to be witches because they cause a strain between the man’s relationship with either woman. Being called a witch is common in Ghana, and can be ascribed to anyone, man or woman, with unusual behavior (Even if this person is an outcast or just socially awkward). People believe being a witch is inherited, and often call people witches when they feel someone has slighted them.

All this was very interesting to me, and I love learning about Ghanaian culture through this class! Our reading for that class comes from our professor’s, book, entitled “Tradition and Change in Ghana: An Introduction to Sociology,” by G. K. Nukunya. It’s very comprehensive, and covers all major topics of Ghanaian society and culture. I will bring the book home with me and can lend it out to anyone who’s interested in reading it (I highly recommend it!).

After class, Gillian and I went to Melting Moments, a cute little restaurant down the street from us. We hadn’t been there before, but heard great things about it. I got a huge bowl of baked macaroni and cheese, which might’ve been just about the best thing I’ve eaten since I’ve been here. AND it was only 3 Cedi 80 pesewas! I left feeling so satisfied and FULL for once. We spent the rest of the day really doing nothing, though I did figure out some visa stuff for our upcoming spring break trip to Morocco, and booked the hotel rooms for Gillian’s birthday weekend trip we’re planning in early March! All in all, it’s been a WONDERUFL day, and I am happy.

Also, I got to Skype with Jon for almost an hour and a half, which truly warmed my heart, since I hadn’t talked to my dear friend in so long. Rebecca joined us for a little of the conversation, and it was great to hear from her too! I had a long talk with Eric, too, about all this development stuff, and where my heart is with all of it. It was a great day of communication and love.

love love love

the long post from cape coast!

2009-02-09T17:20:00.002-05:00

So I promised you a longer update of my Cape Coast/Elmina weekend, and if I keep putting it off, it’ll never get done and I’ll start to forget things! Before I start, though, this has been a very busy day, and I have lots of homework, so feel blessed that I am writing this, haha.

Anyway, our trip began EARLY Saturday morning. The bus came for us at 6:20, so we had to be up by 5:45. Mostly my own fault, I got little sleep the night before, so I conked out on the bus ride to Cape Coast. Cape Coast/Elmina is about 2 ½ hours west of Accra. The reason the two towns are always joined together with a “/” is because they are so close, and there are two big slave castles there, one in each town. Each castle is named after its respective town, but they are only about 10 minutes apart. Anyway, we pulled up to the Coconut Grove Hotel around 8 am and immediately checked in and had breakfast. Because this was an NYU-sponsored trip, we were randomly assigned roommates, and my roommate was Leah, a girl I hadn’t gotten to know very well before this weekend, but who is very nice. Our breakfast was an outdoor buffet, complete with all kinds of great American breakfast-y foods, including omelets, croissants (Sarah!), sausage links, cereal and fresh fruit. Of course, they had fresh pineapple juice, which was delicious! It was so nice to have a full, complete breakfast. Usually at home in Accra my breakfast consists of two pieces of buttered toast and jelly. But anyway, we had breakfast outside under some gazebo/hut type things right on the beach. After breakfast, we played on the beach for a while, and the water was the perfect temperature. It’s a shame I didn’t have a chance to swim all weekend, because I really would’ve liked to! BUT, we had a jam-packed weekend, learned a lot and had some sobering moments, but also had SO much fun!
Gabby, Marykate, Gillian, Mallory and I at the beach!

After breakfast we went to the Elmina Slave Castle, which is really called St. George’s Castle. A man named Atto was our guide, and was so knowledgeable. His family had passed down the oral history for generations, and so he literally knew the castle inside and out. We learned that the castle was constructed in 1482 by the Portuguese, who originally built the castle for gold-trading purposes. Over the course of hundreds of years, several different European empires occupied the castle, including the Dutch. We learned that any part of the castle that had red brick was constructed and occupied by the Portuguese, and any yellow brick indicated the Dutch’s presence. Throughout the course of the commodity trading going on in the castle, the Portuguese governors would bring back 20 Ghanaians at a time back to Europe, to “help educate them” and teach them how to be Western, so that they could go back to Ghana and be of use to their own people. However, when they arrived in Portugal, the king would use them as servants, cleaning the castles, and not providing them with any of the education they were promised. This idea of using these Ghanaians, who were already readily available near the economic hub of the city, for menial tasks was then exploited (quite an understatement), and the Europeans began paying off different African tribes to capture other tribes and bring them to the castle, where they would be kept in horrible conditions and eventually used as a commodity, which led to the great Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Many wouldn’t even make it to the boats because the living conditions were so terrible.

A thousand men, women and children would live in the castle at one time, along with the governor and the European soldiers. The castle’s structure is interesting, as it is divided into many different levels. The slaves were kept in the bottom level, the soldiers in the middle levels, and the governor and his quarters occupied most of the top level. The men and women were separated, and oftentimes entire families would be captured at one time, and therefore split up. Husbands and wives would rarely, if ever, see their spouses again, and if they happened to see them as they were being boarded onto the boat, it was only for a few seconds. The children had no separate living quarters, so they stayed with the adults of their appropriate gender. The women and men each shared a large, communal cell, where they would literally remain for their entire stay in the castle. Many died in the cells from disease, lack of nutrition, heat exhaustion, etc. There were two buckets in each cell, one for feces and one for urine. Atto said that many became too weak to even make it to the buckets to relieve themselves, and therefore, the floors of the cells were constantly soiled with human excrement. These are the same floors the men and women would sleep on, eat on and live on. They were never cleaned, and the heat combined with the stench made living unbearable. Because the governor was away from his wife back in Europe, he would rape the women (who he chose by standing over a balcony, having all the women come out of the cell and stand outside in the courtyard, choose a woman, who would then be stripped naked, humiliated, and washed publicly in the courtyard for everyone to see before making her way up to the top floor where the governor would have his way with her). Best case scenario, she would become pregnant and get to leave the castle, establishing a home in Elmina. These mulatto children then served as almost liaisons between Africa and Europe, as they were both black and white, and became very valuable to the Europeans.
Part of the castle

There are several cells, men and women, and then the “room of no return,” which is where those still living would be held while waiting for an incoming ship. The doorway that leads to stairs which lead to the ship is incredibly narrow, and Atto informed us that this is so the men and women (whose feet are shackled together, so they stand and walk in a single file line) can file through one at a time. Additionally, he said that it didn’t need to be any wider, because even those who were “fat” when they entered the castle, were usually always so malnourished that they were frail by the time they left.

I was thankful to get to experience all of this, though it was very sobering and difficult to deal with. There are several African Americans on our trip, and one of them was crying when we reached the point of no return. I was telling one of my friends this: that in America we know about slavery, and the struggles African Americans faced in achieving equality in America, but the beginning of the story for Americans is that “there were slaves”. Experiencing the slave castle opened up my eyes to the “prequel” of the story, if you will, of where these slaves came from, how they were literally ripped from their homes for NO reason (most of the time by other Africans, their brothers and sisters), and put into these horrible living conditions. If they survived, that was just the beginning of the journey, though most didn’t even make it to the ships. It was a powerful experience and the historical education I gained from it is something I wish we were taught in schools when talking about slavery, because these people came from somewhere, they had a history that shouldn’t be ignored.
Standing at the top of the slave castle, overlooking Elmina, a fishing village

But anyway, after the slave castle we made our way to Kakum National Forest, where we were to do our canopy walk!! We had to climb a mountain to get to the top of the trees, which was so cool! Once we were at the top of the mountain, there was a little platform where a few of us at a time stood and waited to walk across the first of seven bridges. The bridges are seriously no bigger than 2 feet wide, and I couldn’t put both my feet side by side on the bridge, it was that narrow. There was netting up to about my shoulders, and the bridge swung back and forth. The bridges are strung about 150 feet up in the air (though it feels like MUCH higher, sooo cool!!), and are literally nestled in the forest. Every direction you looked, 360 degrees around, was forest. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done in my life, especially because the slight anxiety caused by the boards creaking beneath us was enough to just give me a jolt of adrenaline that made the whole thing a billion times cooler. Everyone did the walk, even those who were afraid of heights, but lots of those people were freaking out the whole time. I, however, don’t mind heights at all, and LOVED every second of it. God is so good, and I had to stop midway on the bridge and just say to myself “LOOK AT WHERE I AM RIGHT NOW! In Africa, in a forest, walking through the tops of the trees!” I am truly, truly blessed. I thought about how much my dad and Eric would love doing something like this. I hope one day Eric and I can go back to Cape Coast and do all of these things together. Anyway, as soon as the last person crossed the last bridge, it began to ran, which was really cool and refreshing (and what perfect timing!).
Me and Gillian high above the ground!

We headed back to the hotel, showered, and had dinner, which was again served outside on the beach, and which was, again, delicious. After dinner we had a bonfire and a few of us played elementary school games on the beach like freeze tag and red rover. It was a lot of fun just to play and be barefoot at night, on the beach, next to a bonfire.

Sunday morning, about half of our group of 40 went to make our very own batik!!! A woman who knows Christa, our director, has an NGO here (I forgot the name) which enables local women to use their crafts in a very directed way to make their own livings. The woman who runs the NGO is American, and this was the first batik-making workshop she’s doing, so essentially, we were her guinea pigs! Fortunately, everything was FREE, and we got to take home 2 yards of our own batik. There were three local Ghanaian women teaching us the whole process, and their ultimate goal through this NGO is to establish future workshops for these women to be able to conduct on their own, for a profit, for visitors. I’m going to steal an excerpt from Gillian’s blog describing what exactly we did:

1) We cut out designs to stamp on our cloth using foam blocks
2) We dipped our “stamps” in melted wax and applied it to the white cloth
3) We soaked our cloth (once completely covered in our design) in a bucket of cool water
4) We dyed our cloth
5) The cloth is hung to dry
6) Once dry the cloth is dipped in a solvent to dissolve the wax and seal the cloth
7) The cloth is hung up to dry againWe get our cloth!!

The cloth wasn’t dried by the time we had to leave for home, so the woman brought the cloth into Accra today, and I got mine tonight! It’s great! I wanted to dye it bright orange, but (unfortunately), it turned kind of, almost exactly burnt orange, t.u.’s colors. Oh well, it’s still really pretty and I love it!
Stamping my batik!

All in all, this weekend was incredible, and I’m still processing everything we did and learned!

Today was exciting and very jam-packed. I went to WAAF at 8:30 this morning, and ran around to the 5 different schools until around 2. We had to hand-deliver new letters, confirming our presence in their schools. This wouldn’t be so bad, or take so long, if getting from school to school didn’t take about 30 minutes each. BUT, I am really getting a kick out of all this, and loving every second of it, even when I’m hot, sweaty, smelly and gross (which is 90% of the time). The kids at the schools are so respectful to us when we walk in their classrooms to talk with their teachers, and I think they’ll be great to work with. I’m really, really excited to start teaching. At 4:40 Marykate and I headed to Legon for our Media and Society class, which, surprisingly, was WONDERFUL! The teacher must have put some sort of spell over the students or something, because there were NO uproars or interruptions, and the students were incredibly well-behaved. The lesson was really interesting, too, which was great! Oh! And Marykate (who is also a communications major) and I found out, after communicating with our advisor and department chair back at NYU, that this class counts towards our major, which is a double plus! When I got home, I had a care package from my mom and FIVE letters waiting for me (from mom and Nana), which totally brightened my day! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!

I am going to bed tired but extremely satisfied and content. I am so glad everyone is doing well at home, and I am praying for you, Nana, for Wednesday. I miss you all so so so much and think about you all the time!

love love love

**Again, for more pictures from my trip with detailed captions, go to:

www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=102876&l=d1a86&id=616486619

short post about cape coast!

2009-02-08T19:58:00.001-05:00

So this will be a short blog tonight. I am going to post a longer, more detailed blog tomorrow. We got back from Cape Coast/Elmina tonight around 6, and since then I’ve been doing homework, catching up on emails, talking to my mom and sister, and getting ready for the week.

Short version: WE VISITED A SLAVE CASTLE, WALKED THROUGH THE FOREST 200 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND (VIA 7 DIFFERENT BRIDGES), ATE DINNER ON THE BEACH AND HAD A BONFIRE, ATE LOTS OF CAKE, AND MADE OUR VERY OWN BATIK!

Long version: will come tomorrow!

In the mean time, I hope everyone had a great, great weekend. I certainly did! To see ALL of my pictures from this weekend, visit this link:

www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=102876&l=d1a86&id=616486619

It’ll be a lot faster than uploading pictures to the blog, AND you get to see 60 of them instead of just 5 or 6!

love love love

elizabeth the grouch

2009-02-06T19:05:00.002-05:00

Warning: I had a tired, exhausting day. Therefore, this post may be a tad negative. Just a warning. But hey, I've not nothing but great days since I've been here, I'm entitled to one grouchy one.

Today was an exhausting! Those who are taking class(es) at Legon, including me, had recitation this morning. It’s interesting how this works with almost each of us taking a different class at Legon. Because this is the case, our Academic Director, Aunti Akosua, is just teaching us topics about Ghana, which is great. Since we are visiting the Elmina Slave Castle tomorrow at Cape Coast, we talked a little bit about slave castles and were each given a topic to study while at the castle tomorrow. I got art, so it’ll be interesting to look at the castle from an “art” point of view. Next week we’ll all share our topics and how they relate to slave trade/the castle. Should be really interesting.

After recitation, Gillian, Anika and I decided to go to Makola—bad idea! I don’t know why I keep submitting myself to this kind of anxiety. I know it’s going to be stressful and drive me crazy, and yet, I still go. All in the name of fabric, I guess. That’s the only reason I’d ever go to the market—because that’s where all the fabric is. Anyway, long story short, it took us about two hours of walking around the perimeter of the market to find the actual entrance to the market, and once we found it, we (I) were so hot/tired/exhausted that we weren’t even in the buying mood anymore, so we left shortly after looking at 2 fabric stands. I didn’t get anything, but that’s okay. The market put me in a pretty bad mood the rest of the day. I think the solution to this problem is to just stay away from the markets as much as possible. They’re great, and I think everyone should experience both at least once, but they put New York Times Square to absolute shame as far as business and crowded people go.

After the market a bunch of us went to the grocery store and I bought some popcorn kernels, chocolate, tea biscuits, and snacks for the road tomorrow—essentially all junk food that’s not easily available anywhere else. The groceries were worth the money I paid for them and the chocolate helped ease my grouchiness a little.

So we went to dinner at Tante Marie’s tonight, which (perhaps it was just my bad mood), was fairly disappointing. They never, ever have enough food, and so those who eat last (we’re dismissed by tables to get our food buffet-style) always get the crappy stuff that everyone else rejected. Of course, our table was second to last, and therefore I had a little bit of pasta, and that was it.

We got home and made cookies, drank wine, and watched Across the Universe—my favorite movie. I think I need a reminder of home, and that movie definitely helped. I’m definitely in the “hostile” stage of living in a new place, or maybe I’m just having a “hostile” day, but I just wasn’t feeling it today. Anyway, I need to go to sleep before I start ranting. AND! We’re going to Cape Coast/Elmina tomorrow with the entire NYU group (all 40 of us) and are spending the night. We’re going to tour the slave castle, AND do a canopy walk through the tops of tress in a forest. This is what I’ve been looking forward to my entire trip, so I’m excited we finally get to do it! Sunday we’re taking a batik-making class, which should be great as well! I should be back sometime Sunday afternoon.

Have a wonderful weekend and take care of yourselves! Miss you all SO much.

love love love

lazy thursday

2009-02-05T19:48:00.003-05:00

this post will be short and sweet since i'm still waiting on those 25 things from you all! i think i've shared enough of my life and heart for all to see, now it's my turn to do the vicarious living! (thanks, ish, for responding so quickly!)

anyway, today i had my african popular music class, which is different than i expected, though i don't know what i expected. it's a lot of history about all different regions of africa and the musical history of those regions, and there are a lot of names and time periods and places to remember. but the class is interesting and it's the biggest one nyu has here, so it must be good.

after class i rode my bike to SDA school, where i met up with belynda and leigh who had been going to schools while i was in class, meeting with them to verify that we were doing our education programs with them this semester. leigh and i have to go back to all 5 schools on monday and hand-deliver letters to each of the headmasters/headmistresses confirming our doing workshops there, and providing dates of availability. it's just interesting how business and official matters are conducted here. very bureaucratic, very formal. there's not much emailing or phone calling, but a lot of sitting outside offices, waiting to speak with someone for maybe 2 minutes. but it's fun and i'm SOO excited about actually getting to start the workshops!

i had the rest of the day off and spent most of it watching season 4 of entourage. i'm gonna be done pretty soon, and we've gone through almost all the DVDs i brought, so i don't know what i'll be watching a few weeks from now! we find ourselves watching a movie almost every night, and since i brought the biggest collection, they're mostly movies i like (good for me!).

all is well here. tomorrow gillian and i are going to venture to makola, the other market we still haven't been to. pray for me as i re-experience this very hectic situation (i don't think markets, at least ghanaian markets, are for me, but we'll see how this goes).

i really want to start skyping more with people! so if you have a skype name, let me know.

miss you all and love you lots!

elizabeth

25 things

2009-02-04T17:09:00.003-05:00

Hello family and friends! So many of you who are in the Facebook world know of what the following 25 things are. There's a chain letter type of thing going around on Facebook, where people post 25 random things about themselves. Basically, you just write whatever comes to mind about yourself--things everyone may know or things people would be surprised to know. Lots of people are doing it (peer pressure, people!) and it's actually really cool. I've learned a lot about my friends and found things in common with them that I didn't even know about. ANYWAY, my point is, I'm reposting the list I made for Facebook on my blog, for you all to see. ADDITIONALLY, I'm asking YOU, yes YOU, to post a list of 25 random facts about you. That means you Nana, Isha, Mom, Sarah, Anita, and all the others who I know read this all the time. Just leave me a comment back with 25 things. You may be surprised by what you find out about me, and maybe even by what you say about yourself. It's a fun exercise.

1. I absolutely love the color teal, in any form or fashion.
2. As per above, also have a ridiculous fascination with blue doors on houses/shacks/gates/etc. Whenever I see one I particularly like, I take a picture. Who knows what I’ll eventually do with the photo collection.
3. I think naps are the biggest luxury in the entire world, and become really hostile (can’t help it!) when someone wakes me up from one.
4. I have always been torn between going to A&M and NYU. I honestly think about this every single day.
5. On the same note, I am beyond grateful for the education NYU has given me, and the experiences and friends I have made in New York. As do most NYU students, I have a love/hate relationship with the school, and always miss it/love it when I’m not there.
6. I’m much more of “let’s stay home, eat pizza, and watch a movie” type person than a “let’s go out person”.
7. Fettuccini Alfredo with chicken is my favorite food. I am not ashamed to say the hands down best fettuccini alfredo in the ENTIRE world is found at Fazoli’s Drive Thru (along with the best bread sticks in the entire world).
8. I hate taking baths. I much prefer showering.
9. I try not to sweat the small stuff and not to worry. I know people who spend their whole lives worrying about (what I think are) insignificant things, and it’s a waste of time and energy. I’m a very “go with the flow” kind of person.
10. I had the absolute best dad in the entire world, and wish he could’ve seen me grow into adulthood—we would’ve had some fun together during those late teenage years.
11. Likewise, I have the best family in the entire world. My mom, sister and I are so close, and I don’t like going a day without hearing from them. My mom is the most selfless, loving, kind soul in the history of man, and is someone who truly deserves all the happiness in the world.
12. I’m not particularly a HUGE animal person, and have often found our various dogs more annoying than anything else. That’s not to say I don’t like dogs. In fact, I much prefer them to cats. I do have a soft spot in my heart for our dog, Dakota, and Eric’s dog, Sammy, though.
13. I love my car and miss driving whenever I’m in NY or away from home.
14. I have a strange fascination with the postal system and the post office in general. Eric can attest to this, much to his frustration. Additionally, receiving letters in the mail is one of my greatest joys. It shows you took time and is one of the greatest ways to show you care about me. I also love writing and sending handwritten letters.
15. I LOVE all things wedding related. I will look at strangers’ wedding albums and websites for hours. I love a good love story, especially when they happen in real life. I have also told my best friends that they have to get married if for no other reason so that I can be in their wedding party. I have almost no clue what I would want my own wedding to be like (as far as the details go), but have had multiple hour-long conversations with my roommates entertaining every possibility.
16. Similarly, the most important and treasured goal I have set for myself is that I can one day be a good wife and a good mother. I would love work in TV Production one day, but that is not my ultimate aspiration. I’m much more maternal than I think most people realize.
17. My best friends and Eric are some of the most incredible, crazy people I have ever met. Not like “Woo! Let’s get drunk!!” crazy, but like “I enjoy fewer things more than can’t believe how much fun I have with these people when we’re just sitting on the couch watching Will and Grace, eating cookie dough” kind of crazy.
18. I recently went brunette, and think I still prefer myself as a blonde.
19. My favorite book is Catcher in the Rye. Sounds cliché, but this book has had a tremendous impact on my life, and is a fiber of my being for many different reasons.
20. I love music, but don’t listen to it nearly as much as I wish I did. I know people who have soundtracks to their whole lives, and live and breathe music. I wish I was that person, but I usually find one good band and listen to its entire album(s) on repeat for months. My all-time favorite artist is Kate Nash.
21. The final scene in Across the Universe, when “All You Need is Love” is playing, is by far the most perfect scene in any movie ever.
22. Here in Ghana, and in NY, I miss many foods from home, though most of them are restaurants. They include but are not limited to: Willie’s chips and queso, Del Pueblo, Freebirds, Fazolis, Olive Garden (don’t judge me), Mi Cocina, and more. I also miss my mom’s and my Nana’s cooking.
23. I think a life without fulfillment (in whatever form) is pointless. I always need to be doing something, going somewhere, exploring something new, discovering myself, helping others. I get incredibly frustrated with people who waste away their precious time staying stagnant, never evolving or improving or learning.
24. I wear the same two rings religiously. I never, ever take them off. In fact, I dare you to look through my pictures and find one within the last three years where I’m not wearing both rings.
25. I am proud of who I am and what I’ve accomplished in the last 19 years.

a good website

2009-02-04T06:23:00.002-05:00

so i was just surfing the internet, looking up information about ghana and its neighboring countries, and ran across this site about ghana by the CIA. it has tons of facts and answers pretty much any questions you may have about the country's structure.

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gh.html

very interesting. it's worth a look!

NGOs and marriage

2009-02-03T19:06:00.001-05:00

Today started really early! I woke up at 7 a.m. for my 8 a.m. internship seminar, which was actually really, really interesting. We had read a reading that discussed what an NGO is and what its functions are and how it is run. In one part of the reading, it defined the two types of NGOs, and how they are rarely mutually exclusive, but tend to overlap in their functions. Essentially, there are two types of NGOs: advocacy and operational.
Advocacy NGOs support other organizations with similar causes to have a voice. They raise awareness on an issue (e.g. - human rights, AIDS prevention, rights of homosexuals, etc.) and promote rights. The results of these programs are relatively intangible, as the programs’ main goals is education and spreading the message about the message or cause. Operational NGOs meet the needs of the community affected. Many will provide tangible means for their target groups (for instance, Habitat for Humanity is an operational NGO, because they provide tangible houses for their target group to use). These types of NGOs have programs, give out needles or beds, and have clinics of facilities. As I said, though, most NGOs do both operational and advocacy work, and there are very few that only focus on one. WAAF does both operational and advocacy work. Their advocacy programs are much like what Leigh and I will be doing—going into schools and educating the youth, aka, spreading the message for the cause. The operational work WAAF does includes the services and funding they provide to the 15 Orphans and Vulnerable Children we sponsor, as well as having facilities for people to get tested, passing out condoms, etc. I was really glad to know the difference, and am glad I can look at WAAF and the work its doing in the larger context of what an NGO is and does.

In my Society, Culture and Modernization class, we learned about marriage in the Ghanaian culture. It was a really interesting class and we had a really good dialogue with our professor about the differences between Western ideas of marriage and the Ghanaian ideas. Some of the things that stuck out to me most about the discussion were:
*Marriage is constitutionally defined as between a man and a woman, and same sex relations (even without marriage) is illegal in Ghana
*While most inter-familial marriages are discouraged, one type, the Cross-Cousin Marriage type, is actually encouraged. Essentially, in the Ghanaian culture, it is not considered a good thing to marry your first cousin (mother’s brother’s son, or whatever). This is strange to even Ghanaians, because family is so important, and most cousins are raised together like brothers and sisters, and then some eventually marry each other.
*Bouncing off of this idea, most marriages are not arranged, per se, but they are definitely discussed by both families, and most parents encourage their children to marry within certain groups.
*Marriage is also what our professor calls a union between two families, and the marriage is less about the two people getting married than it is about the two families coming together.

The part I found most interesting and disturbing all at the same time was the roles and expectations of the husband and wife.
*The wife is supposed to refer to her husband never by his first name. She may refer to him by his last name, as her children’s father, or, most commonly, by “my lord”. Our professor asked the only guy in our class if he’d like it if his wife called him “my lord,” and the boy replied probably not, that’d it’d be a little weird. The professor seemed taken aback that a man wouldn’t want his wife to call him that. We explained that in the states, husbands and wives call each other by their first names, and he just didn’t understand that.
*The husband is responsible for paying off the wife’s debt, taking care of her and providing for her, while the wife is responsible for bearing children and maintaining the household.
*Men typically do not want to marry a woman who is of equal or higher intelligence than he, because they feel they are superior to the wife in opinion, knowledge and thought. I guess a smart wife intimidates them too much, so they almost always marry down (in smartness). **The girls in the class, myself included, were NOT okay with this
*In the 1960s, the rate of polygamy used to be about 50%, and now it is down to 15-20%. For those husbands that practice polygamy, their first wives oftentimes help select the second wife, as she selects someone who will be of great use to her around the house and with the kids
*The main keyword in a marriage here is “respect,” but it is not usually a mutual respect. The term is most commonly used when referring to a wife’s submission to the husband, as in the case of intelligence, or using the term my lord.

Ultimately, many of us found this whole concept of marriage particularly disturbing. I’m no feminist, but I do believe in gender equality, and this just doesn’t sound like that to me. I think that’s the way it is though, and our professor didn’t sound apologetic about this being the case. It was interesting to get to talk with him about the differences between marriage here and marriage in the United States. I think both sides learned a lot from each other.

After that class, Gillian and I went to the Togo embassy and got our visas! They put a really big stamp in our passport, which we were both excited about. The visa lasts for a month, and we plan on taking a trip to Togo the weekend after Valentine’s Day weekend.

I got to take a two hour nap today, which was a godsend, and had a great dinner at Sunshine Salads. Some of us watched “The Nanny Diaries” tonight, which was a good reminder of New York.

I don’t have much to do tomorrow except visit the school that we are proposing to work with. That’s at 1:30, though, so I’ll get to sleep in. Hope all is well. Keep me posted!

love love love

first day at waaf!

2009-02-02T19:45:00.000-05:00

Today was my first day at WAAF! Leigh and I were supposed to meet Belynda, our boss, at 9:30 this morning, and shortly before arriving at WAAF after an hour of commuting a total of two miles, we got a call from Victor, the internship coordinator at NYU, telling us Belynda had an emergency meeting and that we’d meet her at WAAF at noon, instead. After a bit of frustration and grumpiness from the heat, Leigh and I made our way back home, but not before buying some fabric from the tro-tro station (weird place to buy fabric, I know, but it was cheap and good!). Long story short, we finally met Belynda at noon, and got started right away digging into the curriculum manual that we will use to teach the workshops at the five schools. Essentially, we do one workshop for one school for one week. The workshop is broken into three days, each day for about three hours. Leigh and I will work together, and have split up the topics we’ll be discussing and teaching the children. My assigned topics are Basic Facts on HIV / AIDS, Stigma, Assertive Skills/Sexuality, and Peer Education. Leigh’s topics are Basic Facts on STIs, Positive Living and Adolescence. We will alternate turns presenting the information to the students, all while having them engage with activities and group work to help them stay interested and have some fun. There are 20 children per Passion Squad, and their ages range from 3rd grade to 8th grade. They are selected by their teachers and serve as peer educators for their entire school. They are encouraged to keep a log of all the fellow students they’ve talked to about HIV / AIDS related issues, and have those students sign a log to show they’ve been educating their peers.

Today at WAAF we went through the manuals with Belynda and discussed what we’d be doing this week. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we are going to visit the five schools we are working with to re-establish relationships with them, and to find out times and availabilities for us to conduct the workshops. After we did this and talked about some restructuring we’d be doing within the workshops, Leigh and I were told to write a letter to the newest school we hope to have participate in the program. I wasn’t sure what exactly what to write, and in what format, but Belynda just let us write the letter we thought would be best. Similarly, the interns aren’t given much structure, and I work much better with structure and clear direction. I’m not used to this way of kind of just sending us out on our own to do these clubs however we want and to write letters however we feel best fit. I guess it’s great because she’s so trusting of us and our ability to do the work, but it’s also nerve wracking because I can’t judge my own progress or success in doing something when I don’t have a set goal or standard that I’m being held to.

Anyway, I am super excited about going into the schools and working directly with the kids. Gillian and I were talking about the program and it is just such a great thing that they do, because as much as funding for research and medication is important, nothing solves the problem of spreading the disease but educating the youth and enabling them to make educated sexual health decisions at an early stage. There’s no room for ignorance, and WAAF makes sure to educate as early as possible to help prevent future generations from being inflicted with the disease.

After work I stopped by the Acorn Tree, the store on WAAF’s grounds, and bought an AWESOME batik satchel bag for 9 Cedi that I’ll use as my book bag from now on. I met the woman who made it, Rebecca, and am very happy with my purchase!

After WAAF I had my Media and Society class at Legon, which was good but still quite frustrating because the students don’t seem to have much respect for their professor. If he makes a comment they find even seemingly controversial (and I honestly didn’t think he made any controversial comments) there would be an uproar of screaming and fist pounding and talking over each other. At one point, when the professor mentioned a fact about Ghana’s new president, a student stood up, turned around and stuck his butt up in the air. It just doesn’t make much sense, especially since it’s a 400 level class; I guess I expected a greater level of maturity. It’s quite frustrating, especially when Marykate and I seem to be two of very few people in the class that want to learn and hear what he has to say. Anyway, patience patience patience patience patience.

Tomorrow I have two classes, and afterwards Gillian, Marykate, Marika and I are going to the Togo embassy to get our visas for our trip to Togo in a few weeks. A few of us are going to cross the eastern border into Togo and spend the day visiting its capital, Lome. We also hope to spend a day climbing a mountain, apparently it’s beautiful and quite the experience.

Time for bed, I have class early!

love love love

welcome to winneba

2009-02-01T15:26:00.008-05:00

Winneba

Just got back from Winneba, and the short version is: IT WAS ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE! WONDERFUL TIME WITH FRIENDS, MADE NEW FRIENDS, WENT TO THE BEACH, HAD COCONUTS PICKED AND GIVEN TO US BY LOCALS, WATCHED OUR FIRST AFRICAN THUNDERSTORM, SAW THE SUN RISE OVER THE OCEAN AT THE WEE HOURS OF THE MORNING, RESTED.

The long version may take several hours to write, and may take you a LONG time to read, but if you’re ready, I’m ready!

Day 1- Friday
So our trip began Friday morning. Six of were going to make the trip on Friday, and nine others joined us on Saturday. But the six that went were Gillian, Marykate, Mallory, Tina, Gabby and I. One of the most interesting parts of our trip began before tires even started rolling towards Winneba. First, the Solomon’s girls (Gillian, Marykate and I) met up with the Church girls at “Coffee Shop,” a local landmark here, and took a cab to the Tema Bus Station. We had originally planned on taking a privately owned bus, though when we got there, the woman said there wasn’t another bus leaving until 12:30, and it would cost us 6 Cedi each. We opted not to wait for two hours, and not to pay the 6 Cedi, so the woman told us there are tro-tros that leave for Winneba all the time, so we decided to make our way over to Kaneshi, the market where I got accosted (see previous post)/the place where tro-tros are. At the bus station we asked a cab driver for a lift to Kaneshi, which we knew was close by, but didn’t know the exact direction. He asked us for 6 Cedi, which is a huge rip-off. He wouldn’t even try bargaining with us, and thought we were really going to fall for his tricks. We’re all getting good at spotting good prices v. bad prices, and this was clearly a rip-off, since he was only taking us maybe a mile, probably less. So, instead, we decided to just walk to Kaneshi, being directed by friendly locals trying to help us out. We finally got to what we thought was Kaneshi, since there were a ton of tro-tros there, and were directed to a bigger, nicer, mini-van type of tro-tro that was going to Winneba. Great! We all got in and got settled and we were told it’d be 6 Cedi again! Tro-tros should never cost more than 1 Cedi, and that’s for really long distances. We tried to bargain to no avail, and finally just walked out while the guy was trying to explain to us why it was fair, etc. etc. A kind man saw us and decided to walk us to the right Kaneshi, where we finally boarded the right bus! It was a public metro bus, but bigger and taller than the metro buses we have in America, and painted bright orange. It was pretty new, and only cost us 90 pesewas!! While we waited for the bus to fill up, I bought a FanIce, plantain chips and a sweat rag out the window. Vendors crowd around waiting buses' windows because they know people will buy something because it’s SO hot.

The bus ride was nice. It took a little over an hour to drive about 60 miles west along the coast. The bus made frequent stops, as people will just call out where they want to be dropped off along the route. Thankfully, Winneba was the last stop, so we didn’t have to do much guesswork or anything. Once we got off the bus, there was a cab just waiting, so we took it to our hotel, Lagoon Lodge.

Gabby, our trip planner, had been speaking over the phone with Isaac, the owner, all week, and he greeted us warmly upon arrival. Lagoon Lodge is a beautiful hotel with an open courtyard in the center where their restaurant seating is. There are two floors, and one side of the hotel overlooks wide, open, African plains. It was an amazing thing to see, especially at sunset, but we’ll get to that later. The six of us shared three rooms, and it only cost us 10 Cedi per night per person to stay. Talk about cheap!!

*Winneba is absolutely incredible (I think I’ve used that phrase a whole lot), but it’s true. It’s a quiet, quiet beach town located 60 miles west of Accra, and there’s nothing touristy about it. Most people who see you are shocked that an Obruni is there, and are more than welcoming and hospitable because of that. It’s so unlike Accra, and it was such a refresher. There’s a lot of fishing that happens there, and families just mind their own business and go on living their quaint, perfect little beachside lives.*

After we threw our stuff down, we were so excited to get to the beach, so we asked Isaac where we needed to walk, and he directed us down a path which took us about 10 minutes to walk to the beach. When we turned the final corner and could hear the ocean, we all just squealed with delight and ran up to the beach, which is covered in palm trees, fishing boats, and white sand. It truly is one of the most beautiful beaches I’ve ever been to. It was so quiet and peaceful and the sound of the ocean can lull me into euphoria any day. Marykate and I walked down towards the water while the other girls stayed up at the top, and noticed a very good looking Ghanaian couple taking our picture. We turned to them and asked them if we could take their picture, and they agreed, and we spent the next few minutes taking various pictures of each other. They were grad students at the local university, and were enjoying their day off at the beach. After the pictures, MK and I joined the others and started walking to get food at a place Isaac recommended, Emmanuel’s. On the way to Emmanuel’s, we saw some Ghanaian children, and we always wave and say hi to the children, because they usually are so enthralled by seeing a white person. Mallory went up to one group of about 4 students, all different ages, but the youngest being no older than 3, and waved to them and reached out her hand. The youngest girl shuddered and began to cry when Mallory reached out her hand, because the girl had never seen an Obruni before. It was the strangest thing, but completely understandable. I’ve tried to find an equivalent to that in America, but I don’t think there is one, and since the US is such a diverse country already, nothing surprises us.
A fishing boat I just loved on the beach

We got to Emmanuel’s, which wasn’t a close walk, and much to our dismay, Emmanuel’s restaurant had been replaced by his little snack shop. There are many of these types of stores all over Accra, and they sell crackers and chocolate and the like. At this point we were all starving and had such an exhausting day already, that we asked Emmanuel where a good place to eat was, and he said there wasn’t one anywhere near this beach, but that he’d drive us to Royal beach, where there was an outdoor restaurant overlooking the beach. So all six of us piled in his nice station wagon, and he drove us for about 10 minutes to Royal beach. At the restaurant’s entrance there was a beach guard charging 5 Cedi to park. Emmanuel didn’t think this was fair, since people who are parking are paying to eat at the restaurant. Emmanuel proceeded to have a 5 minute long argument with this beach patrol man in Twi (so we couldn’t understand and word of it) and finally got us to the restaurant. Emmanuel gave us his phone number and told us to call him when we were done swimming and eating, and he’d come back to pick us up. The restaurant is basically a gazebo type thing overlooking the water on a hill and the people serving us were so friendly (as is everyone everywhere). While we were waiting for our food, we noticed a boy climbing what, I kid you not, was a 50 foot palm tree, carrying a machete in one hand and climbing the bare tree with just his arms and legs. It was the most incredible thing I’ve ever seen, and he literally just climbed up it like a monkey. I was enthralled, and watched him throughout our lunch as he sat in the palm tree and cut off coconuts and threw them to the ground. His friends were at the bottom just kind of watching, and the boy was up in the tree for a good 20 minutes. I wasn’t paying attention when he came down, but soon after, he and all his friends came over with 6 coconuts, cut off the tops of each of them, and gave us each one! We drank out all the milk (which I’m not particularly fond of, but had to be a good sport) and even had a chugging contest at one point to finish it off. When we were done, the boys cut open each of our coconuts so we could eat the meat of it (which, again, I didn’t particularly like). But it was just the most surreal experience—sitting by the ocean, being waited on by the most genuinely hospitable people, watching a boy climb a coconut tree, bring us the coconuts, and help us eat and drink the coconuts, and enjoying good company. We all just sat back and reminded ourselves of how lucky we are, and how “we’re in Africa!” and how incredible that moment and the entire day were.

Fresh from the tree!
Us with the waiters/coconut people!

After we were done eating our rice and chicken (a standard dish here served at most restaurants), we walked the ten feet to the ocean and immediately ran in. The water was the perfect temperature, and was soooo refreshing. We collected shells and just swam and had a great time. Emmanuel had come and waited in his car until we were done. We told him we wanted to wash our sandy feet off before we got in his car, so he asked the owner of the restaurant (who also owns the hostel right next to the restaurant) to let us go into one of the rooms to wash our feet in the shower. He asked the owner all of this in Twi, so we didn’t know what he was saying until the owner showed us to a room. We were humbled by their graciousness but politely declined because we didn’t want to impose. Emmanuel said it was perfectly fine if we got in the car dirty, that he didn’t care. I sat in the front seat and talked to him the entire way back to our hotel. He told me that Isaac was right, he did once own a restaurant, but closed it when the students he housed (he also owns hostels next to his store for students to stay in over the semester) left for the break. He said he planned on opening it up again soon. He invited us over the following day for lunch, and said he’d open up his kitchen and cook us spaghetti with tomato and tuna sauce. Let me just say, this kind of hospitality and kindness is so beautiful. There were no ulterior motives, no weirdness, just pure, simple, kindness. One fellow human extending a hand to another and welcoming us into his home and family.

When we got back to the hotel, we showered and sat around talking for a long time, and ate dinner at the hotel. We all ordered grilled cheese sandwiches, which were great, and massive amounts of French fries (they get us every time!). Also, the hotel serves fresh (as in, cut up a pineapple in front of you and put it through the juicer) pineapple juice, of which we each got a glass.
the sunset over the plains

After dinner we all sat up on the hotel’s second level porch, and talked and read and just rested. After a while the wind really started picking up, and there was heat lightning every few minutes which would light up the entire sky purple and blue. In the distance we could hear drummers and singers playing music as it started lightening and thunderstorming. It was such a beautiful sight and sound to behold, and we just sat under the porch covering listening to God work his magic on the African sky and plains. We slept well.

Day 2- Saturday
Saturday morning we woke up around 10 and had breakfast at the hotel. I had oatmeal and a pineapple juice, both of which were good. After breakfast we went to the beach for a little bit, taking pictures (this time I brought my good camera, I had forgotten to on Friday) and just walking along the sand. We promised Emmanuel we’d be there at noon, so we didn’t swim in the morning. We got to Emmanuel’s at noon and he and his wife greeted us with open arms and broad smiles. They had set up a place for us in their “backyard” (which is huge and beautiful, since it’s also the hostel’s backyard). We waited for a few minutes while they finished cooking the spaghetti (I think from their own kitchen), and talked under a little beaded canopy hut thing. It was so cool and just, again, beautiful. The spaghetti was amazing, and I didn’t think I’d like the tuna, but it was actually really good because the tuna was in chunks and tasted kinda like chicken. Anyway, it was great, and Emmanuel joined us and we thanked him profusely for his kindness. He also showed us one guest house he has available for normal tourists, where they can stay for only 20 Cedi a night! If/when I go back to Winneba, I’ll definitely stay there! We took a picture with him and will send it to him. He called me later that day and asked us if we wanted breakfast before we left Sunday morning—that’s hospitality.
At the beach!

Us with Emmanuel!

After lunch, we split off into two groups—Gillian and Mallory went to the Fort of Good Hope, a slave castle a few miles away, and Gabby, Tina, Marykate and I went to the beach to just swim and lay out and read. I ended up swimming quite a bit, but there was one point when the tide completely overtook me and I got tossed around a bit. I decided I’d just lie out on the beach, work on my tan, sleep, and read. I think one of my favorite things in the world is sleeping on a towel on the beach during the day. The feeling of the sun hitting your back is pretty great. Anyway, at the beach Marykate and I met another friend named Richard, who is 17 and whose father and he own one of the fishing boats we saw on the beach. He offered to take us out fishing Sunday morning at 6 a.m., and of course we agreed! After the beach, Marykate, Tina and I took a taxi into town to visit the local market (MUCH MUCH smaller than Kaneshi market). It was SO much fun, because all the market people were so nice and weren’t hassling us or anything. Funny story—the kids here LOVE having their picture taken. When you show them their picture they absolutely die laughing, they think it’s the coolest thing ever to see themselves in your camera. So I was taking pictures of all the kids at the market, and slowly more and more started climbing on me, begging me to take their picture. They make hilarious faces and poses (I don’t know where the get these poses from!) and it’s just hilarious. I also found popcorn kernels (“popping corn”) at the market, which was great because I’ve been looking for it for a while and can’t find it anywhere.

After the market we went to a Catholic church in town, which was beautiful both on the outside and the inside. The inside was painted in bright pink, and the altar had tens of Jesus statues all over. It reminded me of the church scenes in “Romeo + Juliet”. The children’s choir was practicing as we walked in, and it was so great to see another kind of church here. After, we came back and had dinner at our hotel, again. I had oatmeal and french-fries, and strawberry ice cream for dessert—what a balanced dinner, right? Oh well, you only live once. Gillian and I decided to stay in and watch a movie in our hotel room, but the cable cut out about half way through, and it was already 1 a.m., so we decided to call it a night since we had to wake up at 5:15 to go fishing!

Day 3- Sunday
We got up at 5:15, as planned, and were SO tired. We all were ready on time, and headed over to the beach around 5:45, when it was still pitch black outside. As we were walking, nighttime slowly started to turn into dusk, which was really cool to see, since I’m never up that early. We got to the beach and were astounded by the size of the breaking waves. These were bigger than I’ve probably ever seen, and definitely not okay to take a pretty small fishing boat out in. Richard was already there waiting when we arrived, and after waiting for about 30 minutes to see if the waves would slow down, he told us it wouldn’t be a good idea to go out. It was a blessing in disguise though, because as much as I wanted to go out on the boat, it was incredible sitting on the sand and watching the sun rise through the fog and then just open up over the entire ocean. It was really amazing. Definitely the perfect ending to a perfect weekend. We thanked Richard and exchanged contact information, which he wrote down in his school notebook. Another interesting point—his school notebook is like a Ghanaian standard school notebook, every child is given one by the school. On the cover, though, there’s a black and white picture of Oprah grinning, probably taken in the late 1980s. I thought it was the funniest thing, and asked Richard if he knew who that was on the cover. He said no, and we told him she was a famous television personality and had TONS of money, and he just kind of smiled and didn’t seem to care. It was so funny to see how unimpressive, or really, just unimportant she is here. Anyway, we said bye to Richard, then headed back to the hotel and had a quick breakfast before leaving. We caught a bus right away and it left pretty soon after we got on, and we were home in Accra by 11 a.m.
Good morning! Richard, Marykate, Tina, Mallory and me at 6 a.m.

I’ve spent the rest of my day doing laundry, writing this blog, unpacking, and napping, and it’s been great. Tonight Gillian and I made Red-Red, the dish I’ve been talking about! It’s fairly simple to make, but takes a bit of time, since the beans have to cook for an hour. I had it for dinner and it was delicious! I can’t wait to make it for everyone in the states! We need palm oil, though, and I don’t think that’s readily available in America. Maybe they’d have it at World Market or Central Market or a specialty store like that. Anyway, it turned out great and I can’t wait to make it for everyone! In a little bit we’re going to watch a movie and eat popcorn while I read some manuals for WAAF. I start my first day tomorrow at 9 a.m.! I’m really, really excited, and can’t wait to work with Belynda, my boss. She’s incredibly sweet and I think is going to make this experience even better than it already will be.

Now that I’ve spent five pages of a Word document writing, I’ll shut up and wish you all well and hope that everyone is happy and healthy and had a great weekend! If you ever get the chance to go to West Africa, and have a limited amount of time, skip Accra and go to Winneba. You will not regret it. I miss everyone and love you all so much!

love love love

the four "H"s

2009-01-29T17:30:00.000-05:00

So I guess I need to catch everyone up on the last few days. I thought because I had so much free time yesterday, I’d be able to fully update my blog, but turns out, I only uploaded pictures of our house! Anyway, yesterday was nice because I got to sleep in until about 10, when the cleaning people woke me up, and then the guilt of seeping in late kept me up. I really hate that, and wish that when I have the opportunity to sleep in, I just do it. Either way, it was good rest. I don’t remember much about what I did yesterday, probably because I didn’t do much of anything but lounge around the house until Marykate and I decided to go to Marjorie with some of the fabric we already had to have her make a few more things for us. I already have two pretty conservative dresses, and so I decided to get a halter top made from this really pretty batik fabric, and to also get a high-waisted skirt made from this bright orange and yellow fabric. She said she’d have them done by Friday, just in time for our trip! She also sells a lot of fabric, so MK and I took a look through it all, and of course, I bought more fabric! I have four new kinds of fabric, but don’t worry, none of them are for me. I’ve already started brainstorming patterns and designs for my friends and family at home, so I’ve been collecting the fabric for the designs until people start sending me their measurements and what exactly they want (HINT HINT).

Anyway, yesterday we had an “Adjusting to Ghana” workshop, and two American professors that teach at the University of Ghana came and told us about the four stages most people go through when living in a different culture for the first time. The first is the “Honeymoon” phase, which apparently can last the entire time for some people. This phase is pretty self-explanatory, but basically means that you’re enthralled with everything and think everything’s really great and kind of blind to the realities of a lot of things. The second phase is the “Hostility” phase, when the newness has worn off and you’re very homesick and tired and aren’t quite yet adjusted to the new culture. The third phase is the “Humor” phase, and this is when you begin to adapt and begin to recognize cultural differences and adapt accordingly, without making judgment calls or anything. The final phase is the “Home” phase, and this happens about 10 weeks in, when you begin to really feel at ease with everything, and truly call this place “home”. I think right now I’m in between hostility and humor, because I still get frustrated with a lot of things, but also try to take everything in stride and realize that’s just the way things are in Ghana. I don’t know if I ever went through the honeymoon phase to a large extent, but I definitely had my share of “This place is incredible!” moments. Anyway, just found this interesting and thought I’d share.

After dinner we came home and a few of us watched Superbad and made Valentine’s Day cards. Since it takes about 2 weeks (I think longer, actually) for a letter to get to the United States, Gillian and I decided we’d better get our cards out now so that hopefully they’ll be there in time for Valentine’s Day.

Today was pretty relaxed, too. A bunch of us had our African Popular Music class, which was great and went by pretty fast. There are like 15 of us in the class, the largest class we have here, for sure, and our professor is totally an African music genius. I think he’s from London but has lived in Ghana and taught at Legon for over 30 years. After our music class, Gillian and I were on a quest to find Ghanaian chocolate to send home! It’s rare here because Ghana is rich in cocoa resources, but don’t have the structural means to produce chocolate out of the cocoa, so they must export their cocoa, and then import the produced chocolate. It’s kind of sad and twisted, and is a result of British colonialism. We finally found chocolate, and then headed to the post office (not on our bikes, since we didn’t want the chocolate to melt). After the post office, Gillian, Mallory and I went back to Marjorie, since she called me and said my skirt and top were ready!! She works so fast but does a really good job, and I was pleased to have them before our trip to Winneba tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll wear the clothes soon and take pictures to post!

Tomorrow we’re going to Winneba, a town about an hour west of Accra along the coast. Apparently it has really nice beaches (that you can actually swim in, unlike the beaches in Accra), and at night we get to go turtle watching! I think about 15 of us are going by bus, and sleeping four to a hotel room, but it’ll be a really fun road trip. A few of us are also planning a trip to Togo, which we might take on Valentine’s Day weekend, but we’re not entirely sure on the plans for that trip yet! Anyway, I’m excited to get out of Accra for a few days and lie on the beach and get to know more people in our group better! I probably won’t have internet, meaning I probably can’t update this over the weekend, but certainly will update and post pictures when we get back!

Hope all is well at home! I miss you all and love you so so so so so much!

love love love

where i live

2009-01-28T07:43:00.002-05:00

This is our dining room/living room area.

(A little dark but) this is only half of our kitchen. Complete with three stovetops, three sinks and three refrigerators.

This is my and Gillian's bedroom. It'd probably be pretty easy to guess which side's mine.

So this are our digs. You wonder why we call it "The Real World" House.

i <3 skype (when it works)

2009-01-27T21:38:00.001-05:00

Marykate and I eating FanChoco and FanIce. It's made here in Ghana, and is INCREDIBLE. It's either vanilla, chocolate or strawberry ice cream in plastic packages. You rip off a corner with your teeth and suck the ice cream out. Boys with little trollies are EVERYWHERE selling these on the street for 30 pesewas (cents). It's a staple of our daily diet (especially when we're outside a lot) and SO delicious. This ice cream is incredible- I must find a way to get it back to the states!

Today was pretty relaxing, even with the two classes I had. My first class was at 8 am, and was my internship seminar class. It meets once a week, and is where all the students doing internships for credit come together to discuss what’s going on in each of their internships. Should be a good and productive class. I also had my Society, Culture and Modernization class, which was great! I really am enjoying it so far. This week we learned about kinship in traditional Ghanaian society, and learned the difference between tribes (ethnic groups), clans and lineages, and their roles with each other and with society as a whole. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll add more to exactly what those are.

Afterwards, Gillian and I biked to Apapa to get the remaining ingredients for our Red-Red. Since we’ll be traveling this weekend, we plan on making the Red-Red either Sunday night or Monday, in order to have it for the rest of the week. Can’t wait to see how it turns out.

After Apapa, I took a LONG nap, since I had the rest of the day free to do whatever. The nap was so nice and relaxing and good for me. This is one of the main reasons I chose to come to Ghana, as silly as it may seem, it was a pretty legit reason. Not necessarily to nap, specifically, but to just have rest. It is so nice here because when you’re sitting inside, you don’t feel pressure to be outside, to constantly be doing something. This city isn’t conducive to that kind of type-A behavior. New York is the exact opposite—there’s always something that needs to be done, even when there’s nothing that needs to be done. If you’re sitting inside then you’re a loser, so you better find something to do. I needed a break from that and am welcoming it with open arms.

After the nap we went to Sunshine for dinner, which was good as always. Then NYU hosted the first “Movie Night” of the semester, where we watched some footage from filmed by students who were in Ghana when Obama won the election, and then several 10 minute documentaries filmed last semester by a film class here at NYU in Ghana. They were really cool and I’m glad I went. We watched the films on a projector outside the Academic Center, and the cool night breeze was so nice to sit outside to.

Tonight I also got to Skype for a long time with my mom, sister, and Nana and Eric and Charlie, all of which were so refreshing. I love talking with people and friends from home and NY. Reminds me of where I came from and what I’m doing here. Thanks for all the prayers and good wishes you all have been sending my way.

Tomorrow, since I have NO class and NOTHING to do, I’ll try to post pictures of the inside of our house (Aunt Isha).

love love love

WAAF!

2009-01-26T17:37:00.000-05:00

God answers prayers, for sure. This morning I had what I thought was going to be the group interview with WAAF. Turns out all three of us already had the positions and Belinda, the director of WAAF, wanted to just meet with us to tell us about the program and its facilities, and to discuss hours of availability. Victor, the community service coordinator, took me, Leigh and Emma (the three interns vying to work at WAAF) to the facilities around 10:30 this morning. We toured the facilities, which were so nice. Keeping in mind that it is Ghana, and buildings aren’t sprawling outwards and upwards, it was very modest but very, very professional. There is a clinic where anyone can come and get tested, along with several counseling rooms for those who get tested to have their pre and post-test meetings. There is a lab where the tests are read, a doctor’s office and a pharmacy, too. I knew the second I walked in there that it was a perfect fit for me, and when I found out I would be working there too, I was just so thankful and excited. I think once I conceded to God that, nope, I’m not in control, and that I’ll be put where I need to be, that’s when trust turns into reward. Anyway, WAAF is incredible and I am soooo excited to start working on Monday!

There are two “jobs,” I guess you could call them, that interns do, and each intern is assigned to a job for the semester. The first is what Emma is doing, which is called their OVC section. OVC stands for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, and is a group of about 15 kids, ranging from newborns to age 13, who have lost one or both parents to AIDS, and who may have the virus themselves. Because elementary and primary education here is not free, these orphans’ caregivers (sometimes grandparents or aunts or uncles) have a hard time paying for school or anti-retrovirals for these kids. WAAF funds these children’s education and medicinal needs, which I think is just incredible. Emma’s job will be to basically do house visits with a counselor all semester long, going to each child’s home and conducting surveys and collecting information and how WAAF’s help is helping (or not), how the children are coping, etc. She’ll also play with the kids, I’m sure. It’s so worthwhile, and she’s perfect for the job.

Leigh and I are doing the Education part of WAAF, which I am SO excited about! Basically over the course of the next four months, Leigh and I will be going to 5 elementary schools throughout Accra, all of which have after-school HIV/AIDS Awareness clubs. Leigh and I will run a series of workshops which teach kids in each of the following 7 topics: Basic Facts about HIV/AIDS; Basic Facts about STIs/STDs; Stigma and Discrimination; Living Positively; Adolescence: Basic Sexual Health; Assertive Skills in Sexuality; and Peer Education. These children are self-appointed peer educators for their student body, and the goal is to get them to go out and spread the word about AIDS to their fellow students. We’ll start next week with creating an assessment which we will hand out the first time we visit the schools to 10 students in the club and 10 students not in the club, to note how much they know about HIV/AIDS. At the end of the semester we’ll administer the same survey again, and hopefully, as previous years have shown, the numbers will increase dramatically for both groups of students. We will also be responsible for creating a report at the end of the semester about the success of our workshops, and the outreach WAAF is doing as a whole. I am thrilled beyond belief to actually get to go into schools and work with young children, which I love doing, and spread this very important message to them. I am also coming up with new ideas on how to get other kids who aren’t in these clubs involved, and hopefully I can contribute them and help make the program even better.

One last, really cool, thing about WAAF is they have a store right next to it called The Acorn Tree, named after the tree they have in the front of the facility. Here, women who have come through WAAF before, and who have lost their jobs because they are living with HIV and the stigma that comes along with it, sell their handmade batik bags, clothing, and jewelry. These things are beautiful, too. Each item has a unique tag on it describing the premise of the store, and at the bottom, the woman who made the item signs her name, and every cent of that sale goes to that specific woman to help pay for her medicine. It’s an incredible idea. Be expecting gifts from here!

So I guess you could call the first few hours of my morning a great success! After I got back from WAAF, Gillian, Marykate and I went to Ashesi for lunch. They have really cheap lunch there, and it’s always WAY too much and so good! Afterwards we walked over the vegetable stand and I bought some apples and some tomatoes and such. Gillian and I then biked to the post office where I picked up my package from Mom! I had collected the other package earlier this morning, and was so happy to have gotten both today, along with a letter from Nana! Getting stuff from home makes me so happy and makes me feel a little bit closer! Mom, I have already eaten some peanut butter crackers and a slice of banana bread—thank you! Nana, your note was so sweet. Anyway, the bike ride to the post office was definitely better than the walk Gillian and I took a few weeks ago (wow! Can’t believe it’s been that long), but it was still really strenuous, especially because the entire road there is uphill then downhill then uphill, so there’s really no direction, there or back, that’s easier. It was still a good work out, though, and we are putting our bikes to good use. When we got back from the post office a few of us went to Koala, the third big supermarket here, and I got some more jelly (I’m eating toast and jelly like it’s my job), and some stuff to make Red-Red! I don’t remember if I wrote about it in my last blog, but if not, I’ll write more about it when I actually make it. Basically, it’s a delicious bean stewy dish that’s great and I can’t wait to make it.

Marykate and I had our Legon class today—Media and Society—and it was really good. The professor is great, and seems to know what he’s talking about. The students, however, were really immature, it seemed. It was like being in a 9th grade on-level class with all the interruptions and uproarious laughter when the professor said anything that could even in the tiniest way be turned into some sexual comment (Sarah!). It was so unexpected for MK and me, especially because we were told that the Legon classes were very strict and that we should behave even more appropriately than we do at NYU. On the way up there, we talked with our bus driver, Sammy, about how the employee/employer relationship works here. It makes so much sense and is so pain-free, and I don’t know why it’s so hard for Americans to just be nice to each other, to calm down, to take a deep breath and relax and little, and show respect to one another. Sammy told us in the Ghanaian culture, everything is about having one another’s respect and maintaining a solid reputation—it’s the most important thing you have. He said he cleans his van on Saturdays on his day off because Christa, our director, wants it to look nice for us. I asked why he would do that, and he said because he respects Christa and has to show her that, and in return, he has Christa’s respect. Everything is mutual and everyone is happy. It’s such simplistic logic, to do something just because someone else asked you to, and to be kind because he or she is your superior, but it’s lost in translation in America. Everyone’s too busy to be friendly. It’s a real shame. Life would be a lot more joyful if everyone would just be patient with and nice to each other, like they are here.

Essentially, it was a fantastic day. I am truly blessed and am feeling more and more at home here everyday. I’m thankful we are getting into the swing of actually living here. I no longer feel like a strange visitor, which is good. This will be a good semester, I can feel it.

love love love

church and tro-tros

2009-01-25T17:53:00.003-05:00

I’m exhausted but had a wonderful day! Our day began at 6:30, when Gillian and I woke up to go to church with Naa. The services start super early here, though they tend to run long and run into the next service’s beginning time. But hey, that’s Ghana. Being late or over time doesn’t affect me anymore at all. It’s just the way of life here. In that vein, we were late to church by almost an hour, but they were still doing their opening hymns, so I think we were okay. No one seemed to notice we were late. The service wasn’t exactly what I thought it’d be (you know, lots of hooping and hollering and “amens!” and such, though maybe that’s more of a black American thing), but it was still really good! It lasted about two and a half hours. They begin with opening hymns out of their Methodist Hymnal Book. There are like 4 or 5 hymns they sing before the preacher preaches. The preacher preaches for about 30 minutes or so, and then begins the long part—collecting the offering(s), doing announcements, etc. The offering collection is so cool because it’s not like at home where a tray is a passed around and people put money in. Here, everyone gets up row by row (kind of like you do for communion) and walks to the front, putting money in one of 7 buckets, each bucket labeled with a day of the week. Each day represents the day you were born (just like your Ghanaian name does), and you put your donation in the appropriate bin. When you walk back up the aisle, everyone dances to the music and seems to be filled with joy. Every week they tell the congregation how much each day of the week raised the previous week, kind of like a little competition. The day of the week which raised the most money goes wild and claps and such. Kinda a smart idea if you ask me, they seemed to get a lot of donations that way. They also do announcements, which no joke, took like 45 minutes or so. They announce stuff like upcoming marriages and stuff—they announce a marriage for three weeks before the wedding, and do the whole “If anyone has any reason for these two to not be married, speak now or forever hold your peace” type of thing. Kinda funny because I’ve never seen that in person before. After all the announcements there is a second round of singing, this time not hymnals but more upbeat songs, lead by a 6 person singing group. It was a lot of fun to try to figure out the songs, and there was one in particular I really, really liked. I asked Naa what it meant (because it was sung in Twi) and she said it means “God is bigger than everything”. I’ll try to find the song online at some point and post a link. Afterwards we went to Naa’s house for a few minutes and met her brother and friend, and had some of her mom’s fresh squeezed pineapple juice, it was sooo good.

When we got back, we decided to go to Makola Market, so a few of us (including one Ghanaian neighbor) got on our first Tro-Tro!! I don’t think I’ve explained what these are yet. They’re these privately owned mini-van type things that are basically falling apart, but they go to a central location, much like the shared taxis yesterday. Tro-tros are kinda like the bus system-equivalent here, though they’re private and there are public buses here. The tro-tros are by far the cheapest way to get around, as our trip to Makola was about a 15 minute ride and cost us 30 pesewas (cents) each. Ha, but you definitely get what you pay for—the vans interior is practically in shambles, and is overcrowded. But it’s an experience in its own right. NYU doesn’t really recommend taking them, though former students say that’s how they got around all the time, they just never took them at night. It was a little nerve racking, but knowing we had a Ghanaian guy with us made us feel a little more at ease about taking one for the first time. The inside of the tro-tro.

Anyway, we got to the market and low and behold, it was closed. Several people told me it’d be open on Sunday, but I guess they were wrong. There was an open gate and so we walked in to find all the stands completely closed up. We tried to walk back out of the gates and there was a man locking the gates up, which scared us because we thought we were gonna get stuck inside! We were so tired already and exhausted from the heat, and were frustrated it was closed. But we finally got out of the gates with some pleading and eye-batting to the guard, and visited some stands right outside the market. I bought some more fabric, which we’re going to take to another tailor sometime this week. I think I’ll get a skirt made. I have been looking online and finding pictures of outfits I like, so I’m excited! Anyway, some of us bought fabric, and Gillian and I bought some much needed Tupperware and water jugs to store our boiled water in. We came home exhausted, but very happy, because we’d gotten a lot of the stuff we’ve been needing for a while.
Gillian and I riding VERY close together in the tro-tro.

Katie made dinner for a few of us tonight- spaghetti with homemade meat sauce and meat balls. It was SO good! Marykate made a Ghanaian dish called Red-Red and it was also DELICIOUS. I’m gonna learn how to make it. It makes a huge pot of stew, and can be saved for MANY leftover meals throughout the week.

Oh! I forgot to mention the Harmattan winds—they are the winds that happen from January to April(ish) that bring sand down from the Sahara. The air is often muggy and our eyes get dry pretty easily because of these winds. It was especially evident this morning when we were driving to church—the sky was all hazy and yellowish. Gillian pointed out the sky here is never blue, which is really true. Maybe once Harmattan season is over the sky will clear up.

I’m excited for tomorrow! Our group interview at WAAF is tomorrow morning at 10 am, so be praying for that! I also have my first Media and Society class with Marykate tomorrow, which I’m really looking forward to. Time for me to go to sleep now!

love love love

MaxMart

2009-01-24T19:19:00.003-05:00

Another full day! We woke up this morning and decided to hit the pool with some of the people from the other dorm. We went to this hotel called The Wangara. One of our friends, Gabby, got us a group rate so we only had to pay three Cedi each to use the pool for the entire day. We got there about 12 and stayed til around 2. The pool was pretty funny—only half way full and in the deep end there was a fully submerged shade umbrella turned upside down. The hotel worker that showed us to the pool told one of the guys, “If any of you get in, get that umbrella out for us.” So amusing how all this works here. I didn’t swim but I did lay out, and it was really nice to get some sun and talk with friends. About 13 of us decided we’re going to take a trip to another beach about an hour away next weekend. I already forgot the name of the beach, but tomorrow we’re booking our hotel rooms and figuring out all the travel arrangements. I think to take a bus it’s only 1 Cedi, and the hotel room, split between 2 people, is like 20 Cedi. Not bad for a weekend trip! We’re really excited to finally go off on our own and plan this trip for ourselves.
Me, Gillian and Mallory at the pool

After the pool, Gillian and I decided we needed to go to the grocery store to buy some more things we couldn’t buy at the market. We went to the other major supermarket they have here—MaxMart. We took what’s called a “shared taxi” there, which you pick up at a set location and which takes all of its passengers to a set destination. Luckily, the destination our taxi was going to drops off right outside the grocery store. The taxi only cost 50 pesewas (cents) for each person, so we got a really good deal. MaxMart had everything familiar—Frosted Flakes and Prego Pasta Sauce, and stuff like that, but everything was SO expensive. Like, a box of Frosted Flakes was 15 Cedi (equivalent to 15 dollars). I don’t know who has the money to buy all this stuff! We Obronis can’t even afford that!! I know it’s expensive because it’s imported, but they’d only import it and charge that much if there was a demand for it and people were willing to pay that much! It boggles my mind. So needless to say, we only bought a few select things, including some Stir Fry sauce for our dinner! Right next to MaxMart is a HUGE vegetable stand, so we stopped by there and got a few vegetables for our stir fry. We got 6 onions, 6 carrots, and 3 bell peppers for 5 Cedi. Not bad!!

We had basically the same group from the pool over for dinner, and Gillian, Mallory and I cooked stir fry and chicken and rice. Everything was delicious, and the chicken was awesome. Very easy, and something I think I could easily make at home (mostly thanks to the sauce, but whatever). We had a lovely dinner and made cookies for dessert. The cookies didn’t turn out as planned, but it was instant mix from a box, and the only extra needed ingredients were water and butter, soooo I think they turned out the best they could. Afterward we watched Spanglish and ate more cookies.

Tomorrow, Gillian, Marykate and I are going to church with Naa. We’re very excited, especially because we hear church is so different here! After church we plan on going to the other market, to check it out and hopefully buy some stuff we still need (Tupperware, cereal, fruits, etc.).

Our bikes are doing so well! The Waffle is a trouper and Gillian’s bike is great, too. We’ve already ridden them many places and I really like having them. Riding them brings me back to a very nostalgic place and makes me happy.
our bikes!

I know this weekend has been very busy for many of my family and friends—please keep each other sane and happy and healthy. I miss you all and love you so much!

love love love

elizabeth

quest for cake

2009-01-23T19:16:00.000-05:00

The house is quiet tonight as some of the girls left for a trip to a beach a few hours away. I enjoy the peace and quiet because it gives me peace of mind and solace. A lot of times I am overwhelmed by people always doing something, or there being people all around me. A former student who did the NYU in Ghana program mentioned that students have to get used to not having much, if any, alone time here—because you can’t travel at night by yourself (and not really in the day either) and there is always someone in the house or outside or around. It’s very true, and I’m remembering how much alone time means to me, and how important it is for me to have time and space to sit in my bed and watch TV. That’s why I used to stay up late at home or in NY, because it’s a time when everyone else is asleep and I can finally process and be. I’ve really enjoyed reading outside on the couch.

Anyway, today was really fun. I didn’t have any classes or anything, so Gillian and I woke up about 10 and hung around the house for a few hours. We decided a few days ago that our top priority this week was to get bikes in order to be able to ride around easier and maybe allow us to go places we wouldn’t otherwise go on foot (like the Post Office). One of the CRAs, Chris, took me, Gillian and Eric to this area of Accra called Nima (if you asked me to point to it on a map I’d have no idea what to do). We decided that it was only reasonable to spend between 60 and 65 Cedi on a bike, so we went up and down this main road going from bike shop to bike shop bargaining for bikes. One place went down to 60 for us, but didn’t have the bikes we wanted. Gillian and my main concern was getting a bike with a basket on the front. So girly but so essential. Anyway, Eric found a bike we wanted at one shop, and was bargaining with the guy with Chris, so G and I decided to just go ahead up to the next shop where we found the two cutest bikes—with baskets! They’re the very old fashioned kind of bikes, with the big wheel covers and high handle bars, and so adorable. Mine’s pink and Gillian’s is orange, and I’ve decided to name mine Waffle. Gillian named hers Sunnyside Up. But I digress. Anyway so these two bikes were perfect and just what we were looking for, but they were asking 95 Cedi for each. Long story short, after bargaining for literally an hour, and getting doted upon by this one guy who wanted to marry me and go to America, we got the price down to 65 Cedi for each bike! We were really proud of ourselves. Our blessed driver, Uncle Sammy, took us to and from Nima, and helped us load all three of our bikes in the van. Everyone here, especially all the NYU staff, is such a saint. When we got home, we rode our bikes to the corner store to get bread, and I’d forgotten how liberating it is to bike ride. I absolutely love it and love that it takes me back to my Arizona days. Seriously, I am flooded with joy.

After was had some fun riding around, Marika, Marykate, Gillian and I decided to get a cake for our CRA, Naa, who just got her driver’s license today. Here in Ghana it’s a big deal to get your license, and it’s a long process, so she was very very excited. We called several restaurants we knew of, and visited two of them, and none of them had a cake ready for pickup today. We finally found this place down the road called ChurCheese—the Ghanaian version of Chuck E Cheese—and bought 15 pieces of cake they were selling individually. They wanted to charge 3 Cedi a piece, so 45 Cedi total, and I negotiated it down to 40. I’m getting the hang of it and really having no shame calling bull on someone’s prices. When we got home from dinner we called an impromptu house meeting and surprised Naa. She was so excited and honored. Afterward we played a few rounds of Spoons, the card game, with her, and we had some good housemate bonding time. A few of us headed over to Church Crescent to hang out with them and watch the Alli G Show. Had lots of fun and are now back home. We’re gonna wake up and go to the pool all day tomorrow, then the market on Sunday. I could get used to this three day weekend thing.

Please continue to pray for Eric and his family—he lost his grandfather yesterday and they could use all the love and prayers you can offer.

I am doing well here—getting acclimated to my immediate environment, and beginning to understand how the people here work. I’m trying my best to participate in every custom they have here, and feeling good about the fact that this time will fly by. Gillian and I were talking about how we think it’ll be the perfect amount of time once it’s over. I’m not hoping for it to go by fast, but when it’s time to go home I think I’ll be ready. I miss home more and more everyday but know right here right now is where I need to be. Please don’t hesitate to write me letters or anything J

love love love

elizabeth

ps- I’ll post pictures of Waffle and Sunnyside Up tomorrow!

cheeseburgers, fries and fanmilk

2009-01-23T07:01:00.001-05:00

sorry i didn't post last night- we fell asleep watching wedding crashers at like 11 pm. so lame, but sooo much fun. anyway, yesterday was a good day!

a few of us went up to Legon for our African Popular Music class (which is actually an NYU class, but was just held at the UG campus this week). our professor is awesome- he is british but has lived in ghana for something like 30 years or something, and knows everything about everything about music in sub-saharan africa and ghana. he was in several bands here in ghana in the 70s, and is just a cool guy. there are like 15 of us in the class though, the biggest he's ever had, so he's thinking about moving the class to the nyu academic center- which would be great for all of us because it means an hour more of sleep and not a long bus ride! also, while we were there we FINALLY found out the date and time for our media and society class. i had resolved to not take the class if they didn't have the date/times posted by thursday, and they did, so marykate and i are all set. it's on monday evening, which leaves monday during the day, all wednesday and all friday free! i can work on two of those days and have the third as a day off.

after legon we all came home and made lunch and just hung out. i played this new game called bananagrams with katie and some others. it's basically a way cooler scrabble. mom- we must invest in it when i get home. gillian and i talked for a few hours, which was so refreshing- she and i are much more alike than we ever thought, and it was nice to get to bounce ideas and such off each other.

for dinner we went to sunshine salads, where they prepared a full-on american meal for us! chesseburger, fries, and vanilla ice cream! IT WAS SO GOOD! the cheeseburger was a tad spicy, but the fries were literally the best french fries i've ever had, and the ice cream (the brand here is called FanMilk) was delicious. during desert, we were serenaded by two men- one playing a guitar and one playing a drum- and of course, we got the bob marley "no woman no cry" song, as well as some other classics. it was really fun and festive, and made for a really good dinner.

we came back and decided to watch a movie, and we all fell asleep to it. it was good to sleep in this morning- we have a free day to do whatever we want, so i think gillian and i are gonna get bikes at some point, and there was talk of going to a local hotel pool and laying out all day. we'll see what happens!

also, i forgot to mention in my last post, we experienced our first power outage here in the dorms! it lasted for only like 2 minutes, but everything seriously went pitch black. guess the surge was too strong for our generators, even. it was cool though.

hope all is well at home. i love you all so!

elizabeth

no woman no cry

2009-01-21T19:44:00.003-05:00

Today was good for my soul. Let me back up though and start with yesterday- Obama’s inauguration! Despite any personal politics, one cannot deny it was a momentous occasion and an important moment in history. I was overjoyed that I got experience the swearing in of the first African American president in Africa. It was incredible seeing everyone gathered young and old, black and white, American and African, rallying together for the same cause- hope. I was almost moved to tears at one point in the program because the hope that Obama has instilled in his African brothers and sisters is incomparable to any hope he may have instilled in his American people. They admire him, perhaps because they identify racially with him, but also because he is a leader, and no one can argue with that. They trust that he will bring issues of third world countries to the forefront, and will not neglect them. Let’s hope they’re right. Anyway, spending inauguration evening at the W.B. DuBois center was incredible, and the pictures I posted yesterday should prove it. Lots of live music, vendors selling Obama stuff, and tons and tons of people. The moment he was sworn in everyone was hooping and hollering, and throughout his entire speech people were clapping as if they were really there. Such joy and hope he has instilled in these people.

Yesterday I also had my first Society, Culture and Modernization in Ghana class, which was great. Gillian and several of my friends are in the class and the professor has been teaching at the University of Ghana for over 40 years. The book he wrote on Ghana is what we’ll use as our textbook, and he seems very well versed in anything and everything Ghana. Each week we will cover a different topic of Ghanaian culture- past and present. This week we learned about the different ethnic groups of Ghana, and in the future we’ll learn about marriage practices, religious practices, politics, etc. At some point during the semester we’ll even get to go to his hometown in a very rural part along the coast and spend the weekend there! He says that’s the “real Ghana experience.”

Today was a very relaxing day- no classes! It was so nice to be able to sleep in, though I was woken by a phone call from Jennifer, my professor for my internship seminar. She said she sent my resume to WAAF and they want to interview the three of us together on Monday morning. I guess they’ll decide from there which two (or three) of us they want. I’m very happy that I’ll at least be given the chance to interview with them! So anyway, I slept in and lounged around the house all day while everyone was gone. When Marykate and Marika got back we went to a street in our neighborhood called Apapa, where lots of vegetables and household goods are sold. It’s very dirty and smells horrendous, and even though Marika went with the intention of buying food, she quickly opted not to. There were chickens running around in the streets, pecking at the trash in the gutters, and it was just fowl all around (ha ha). But, it’s a nice walk from our dorm and if a good street to walk down if you just want to walk (something that’s hard to do here, at least alone).
Apapa
After I got back I laid outside on one of our couches and read and dozed off. The weather was perfect and the shade was good and the sounds of bicycle vendors honking their little horns (the ones that sound like a child’s tricycle horn) were enough to put me right to sleep. It was so wonderful getting to rest my body and soul.

We went to Tante Marie’s for dinner, and everything was really good but super spicy, so I didn’t eat too much. Afterwards, pretty much the entire program went to Labadi beach for Reggae night, where a band plays live reggae music on the beach and everyone drinks and dances and is merry! Little fire pits all over the beach light up the night for dancing, and it’s a really good time. I think we’ll all be going there many Wednesday nights because it’s a good place and time to unwind and just dance with friends. Here's a link to a very popular Bob Marley song here, "No Woman, No Cry". I've heard it at both Reggae night and at that other bar/club we went to last week and it's one of the essentials: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg2n039txnk

We have to get up early for a class at 10:30 at Legon- African Popular Music. I’m really excited about this class, and hope at some point we can learn how to play drums or something!

Hope all is well at home. Please keep each other safe and love love love.

PS- a very beautiful collaboration called "Yes, We Can" was played a lot last night, and I really like the way the artsits did it. Click here to listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjXyqcx-mYY

president obama

2009-01-20T13:21:00.003-05:00

Vendors at the W.E.B. DuBoise Center selling Obama shirts, hats, and bags made out of recycled goods from Ghana.

A Ghanaian waving an American flag. Unity.

As Obama was being sworn in

Sunset in Ghana. Beautiful moment this day and in history.

My friend Marykate and I in our dresses!

first day of "classes"

2009-01-19T18:17:00.004-05:00

Today was the first day of classes here at the NYU Academic Center! My class wasn’t until 2 but I didn’t get to sleep in because we had to, yet again, trek to Legon to see if class times were posted for the class Marykate and I want to take. Guess what? They weren’t. “Come back tomorrow” is the token response, and I’m beginning to wonder if classes EVER start here. Ha. Markyate is checking tomorrow to see if the times will be posted, though we highly doubt it.

I had my internship seminar today, which was really good. There are about ten of us doing it, so the class is really small and meets once a week to discuss our internships, problems we’re having within them, interesting developmental issues, assigned readings pertaining to development, etc. Today, specifically, we discussed our expectations and fears with this internship, and I think we got reassured about a lot of worries we had as a collective group (will our employers take us seriously, will there be a communication gap/issue, will we be assigned menial or overwhelming tasks, etc.). Jennifer, our professor, told everyone where she sent our resumes off to, and she didn’t send mine to WAAF. Two other girls also wanted to work there, and apparently they only had two spots for interns, so Jennifer only sent two resumes for them to look at. I’m a bit frustrated because I feel I’m well qualified and perhaps Jennifer should have sent all three for WAAF to look at and decide which two they wanted. Either way, she sent my resume to SHARP, a Ghana-specific HIV/AIDS awareness organization. Their website is http://ghanasharp.org/ I haven’t done too much research on it, but from what I have seen, they do good work. And I know I’ll be useful wherever I’m placed, and that’s ultimately all that matters. I know I should be flexible and not picky, but I had my heart set on WAAF since I applied to study abroad in Ghana in early September. My biggest frustration is just having my heart set on something and my direction being completely changed not by my doing. I guess I need to trust God more and stop thinking I get to make my own plans. This is all for good, no matter where I work, and SHARP seems to be a very good organization. Just not the one I had set out to work at. We’ll see. I may talk to Jennifer if tomorrow I’m still feeling as bummed as I do now. But all is well and God works and I’m not in control. This is not about me. And if this is my biggest problem right now, I am truly, truly blessed.

After class I came home and did what I always do when frustrated- take a nap. It always, always helps for me to just go to sleep and not think about anything. The nap was wonderful and after I woke up I called Eric, we talked for a bit, and hearing his voice makes everything better. Please pray for him and his family; they’re going through a hard time as his grandfather is very, very ill.

After the nap we went to dinner at Tante Marie’s, then a few of us went over to Church (the other dorm) to watch Planet Earth with some of the girls over there. Umm Planet Earth is SO cool. Anyone who hasn’t seen it, see it. It’s on Discovery Channel and is truly amazing. The bonding time with the other girls was nice, and it was nice to get out of our dorm and hang in theirs for a while.

Off to bed now- I have one class tomorrow at 10, and then I’m free the rest of the day to read and write and do whatever else I choose!

Hope all is well at home.

love love love

this is Solomon's Lodge, where 15 of us girls live. we all call it "the real world house".

week one is done!

2009-01-18T18:52:00.002-05:00

At the market yesterday...pigs feet in the foreground. mmm.

Can’t believe it’s been ONE WEEK since we’ve been here. Time is so weird here because it feels like the days drag on and fly by all at the same time. We’ve been here a week and it feels like it’s been a month and a day all at the same time. Pretty crazy. So today’s post today probably. I realize I’ve gotten pretty wordy in my previous posts, though it helps me process the day as much as it helps you know what I’m doing, so everyone wins! But we didn’t do a whole whole lot today, and I have to get to bed early.

We started the day with brunch at Headlines Hospitality- the very first restaurant we ate at (the picture of the food in one of my first blogs was taken there). They served us all sorts of brunchy foods and it was SO good! We had bacon, omelets, sausage, croissants, toast, and fruit! Once again, we had fresh squeezed pineapple juice that literally tastes like pineapples. Fruit here is served as a dessert, and fresh pineapple at the end of a meal is typical and oh so delicious. They even made us a huge sheet cake decorated like the Ghanaian flag that said “Welcome to Ghana NYU!” and that was really good. Everything was so good and a great reminder of home.

After the brunch we headed to the Labadi Beach- right near where the art gallery is. We heard it was going to be crowded and kind of dirty, but it wasn’t too bad! We found a nice spot kind of to ourselves, and just sunbathed, read, and some played Frisbee and went for walks. Once we settled vendors would come up to us trying to sell stuff, but they eventually got the hint we were not interested and wanted to be left alone. There were a few people selling fruit and fried plantain chips which were delicious. I bought 3 bananas and a pineapple for ONE Cedi (that's ONE dollar, folks). Also, I bought 2 bags of plantain chips for a Cedi. Ah I could eat fruit all day long because it's sooo cheap. The beach wasn’t gorgeous, but it was very nice and a good way to rest for a few hours.

After the beach we went to the Accra Mall, which is seriously like a regular shopping mall. So strange to see in the middle of Accra, since huge complexes like shopping malls just don’t exist here. It was like stepping back into America or something. The mall had a supermarket with everything we needed. The prices were more expensive than in the markets, but they had packaged meat and certain foods the market just doesn’t sell. We came back with tons of groceries and Gillian, Marika, Marykate and I made dinner! Gillian and I were in charge of the rice while Marika and Marykate made the vegetables and chicken- it was all delicious, though Gillian and I need to perfect the rice. Hopefully by the end of the semester we’ll be rice geniuses. Marika, Marykate and I at the beach!

Tomorrow is the first day of classes! I only have my internship seminar tomorrow, so we’ll see how everything works out with that!

I hope all is well at home and that everyone is safe, happy, and healthy. I think about everyone often and see things that remind me of all of you everywhere I go.

love love love

peeing in gutters (ah ghana!)

2009-01-17T16:08:00.002-05:00

Boy did I have experiences today. Gillian and I slept through the University of Ghana orientation, because we figured it’d be more of the same we’ve heard from everyone- no drinking the water, take your malaria meds, wear bug spray, etc. And from what I heard from those who went, that’s exactly what it was. So I’m not to bummed that I got to sleep in until 10 to miss that. Gillian and I then encountered our first bit of bartering as we hailed a taxi to take us to the post office in Cantonments, the next neighborhood over. In Ghana, taxi fares aren’t like in the states. You tell the driver where you’re going and then barter for the price before you even get in. He said it’d cost two Cedi, and we said, no, 1 Cedi and 50 pesewas (cents). He said no he can’t do that, so we said okay, and moves on our merry way. He called beckoned us back and said that he’d take us for 1.50! So it works! The key to bartering, according to my CRA, Naa, is to just walk away if they won’t take your deal or won’t even cooperate with you, and most of the time they’ll call you back to haggle. So we made it to the post office which is like a 5 minute drive away. It costs $1.50 to mail a letter to the U.S. and 90 cents to mail a postcard. You put the letters in a bag labeled “United States” that just kinda hangs off the side of a counter. Again, I have full faith that my letters will get to where they need to be, but only because this is how to country operates. In America, forget it, I’d never just drop my mail in a sack and expect it to get anywhere. We decided to walk back to our dorm from the post office because we didn’t figure it’d be that far. Well, it took us about 30 minutes in the heat, but we didn’t get lost and we made it! We each had a 1.5 liter water bottle and we each drank almost all of ours on the walk, so we stayed hydrated and healthy. On the way home I bought another phone card for my cell phone, and when I said thank you to her in Twi, she got so excited and started clapping and hollering. They get SO excited here when you know even a phrase in their language. It again makes you see how stubborn us Westerners are. If a Ghanaian, Mexican, German, whoever, came to our country, it’s expected that they will know your language. Them getting “hello” or “good morning” right in English doesn’t impress us at all. These people are so gracious and so excited when you try to relate to them on their native level. We also stopped into a drug store to buy some mosquito repellent cream that our director, Christa, recommended, and the guy laughed at us when we tried to buy it. Maybe it’s for black skin or something, but he seemed amused that we wanted some.

After we got back we went to Kaneshi market which was incredible but entirely too overwhelming. I can only go there like once a month, otherwise I’d pull my hair out. Before we got there though, we waited for the other vans at this school playground. Their playgrounds consists mainly of dirt and soccer nets (they LOVE soccer here and are SO good), but outside the playground were men cooking pigs. Like stick an entire pig on a metal spoke and turn over hot coals it kind of cooking. It was kinda creepy at first but Leigh and I got out and talked to the man who cooks the pigs. He said he cooks these pigs for one of the 5 star restaurants here in Accra. He said they serve the pig as is (head, tongue, eyes, feet, everything except the intestines, which some people do eat) and put it on a platter. I guess some places like Hawaii do this, but it was really foreign to me. While we were waiting for the other vans, I realllly had to pee, and there weren’t any bathrooms around. So one of the CRAs directed me to this alley way where there are two stalls, one for girls and one for boys. These stalls are LITERALLY just walls in an alley way. No toilet, no nothing. Just a slanted ground that drains all the urine into a little gutter. So needless to say I practically peed, squatting, in the street, but it was really funny and I guess what these school children do. By the way, there’s not toilet paper in any of the UG bathrooms, I guess they just don’t believe in it.
The locals roasting pigs

So then we went to the market. It is three levels, indoors and outdoors. The outdoor portion surrounds the perimeter of a large, three story warehouse, and is where all the vegetables and meat is sold. The ground floor is all food, too. Mostly vegetables and sauces and spices and such. The second floor is where all the household goods are sold. Everyone has a little stand and sits outside their stand, waiting for people to walk by. They sell everything from crackers to toilet paper to pots and pans to kitchen knives to trashcans. I tried bartering with a woman for some rice, but she wouldn’t even begin to bargain with me. Naa said that at the markets, bargaining is the name of the game, but this one woman would not budge, so I just walked away. The third floor was AMAZING- Mom, you would’ve died. There are stands set up much like on the second floor, but it’s only full of fabrics. Every color and design you could imagine, and most of it is printed here in Ghana. Mallory and I walked around that floor for an hour or so, and each bought three different fabrics to have dresses made from. Marjorie, the dress maker, is coming to our dorm tonight, so I can give her the fabric I bought and hopefully soon I’ll have a Ghanaian dress or two! ***IF ANYONE WANTS A DRESS/SKIRT/TOP MADE, PLEASE EMAIL ME YOUR MEASUREMENTS AND WHAT COLOR FABRIC YOU’D LIKE!*** Browsing through fabric

All the women here wear these authentic dresses with these very distinct patterns, and I’m so excited to have a few to wear here! We went then went back downstairs to the first floor where all the food is. It is customary here to ask someone if you can take their picture before you take it. This being said, I’d asked everyone I’d taken pictures of if I could take their picture, and everyone had obliged. As I was walking down the stairs to the first floor, I had a perfect view of part of the market, and decided since there was no one in particular to ask for a picture, it wouldn’t be a problem. I took a picture without flash and Mallory took one after with flash, and all of a sudden an old man came up to me with a closed fist, shaking it at me and screaming at me asking me why I would take a picture. All these women at their stands, and even some men, got between me and him and pulled him away from me. I was so rattled and frightened and just overwhelmed.

The picture that caused great havoc.

Mallory and I then proceeded to get separated from our group and couldn’t find them when it was time for us all to meet back up, which was also overwhelming. We finally got Chris, one of the CRAs, and he led us back to the bus where I could finally breathe again. I don’t know how often I can go to that market, it’s so intense and crazy. But very fun and I am sooo glad I got fabric BECAUSE…

Marjorie, the dress maker, came by our dorm tonight and took our measurements and our dress designs and is making our dresses for us! Each dress/outfit costs 5 Cedi!!! That’s it. I’m having two dresses made right now, but know I will get MANY more made in the coming months. She’s incredible and so inexpensive, I almost feel bad for giving her so little money. Again, if anyone wants anything made, send me your measurements! Oh, and she said she’d have our dresses made by TUESDAY! It’s Saturday night! A bunch of us are hopefully volunteering at the Obama inauguration festival here, and we will get to wear our dresses to that! I am SO excited!

Now Gillian and I are resting and just got off Skype with Charlie!! So good to see him- he brought much laughter to the dorm room. I’m heading to bed relatively soon- another exhausting day. Tomorrow we’re having brunch made for us at a restaurant, then going to the beach!!! Hope all is well!

love love love

in love with african art

2009-01-16T18:45:00.002-05:00

Today was one of the busiest days we’ve had, and I got the least amount of sleep I’ve gotten this entire trip last night, but strangely enough, I felt very rested and not too tired or exhausted today. We spent a lot of the day in the shade, and didn’t do too much walking around. We started off at the Artist Alliance Gallery right by Labadi Beach (the beach we will visit on Sunday afternoon). The Gallery is beautiful and has beautiful work from artists all over Africa. I even found two paintings that I LOVE. Sometimes I wish I had endless amounts of money so I could collect art from all the places I’ve been/will go. Mom- if you’re looking for new art to decorate the house, let me know ;) I’d be happy to purchase. The owner of the gallery, Professor Glover, showed us around and talked to us about the traditional and contemporary African art. Traditional art, he said, always served a function. It “performed” as he calls it. He pointed out that museums in America that display African Kente clothe in by hanging it on the walls have it all wrong. The finely woven cloth was meant to perform by being worn—they were not made to sit as table cloths or hang on walls as décor. He had some paintings hanging in the gallery and they were all really beautiful.
We couldn't take pictures inside the gallery, but the doors were decorated with these metal sculptrues! :)

I forgot to mention that yesterday we went to the U.S. Embassy and the Ambassador gave us a little speech, welcoming us to Ghana, telling us about the customs, etc. etc. They really tried to recruit people to join the Foreign Service. I thought it was an interesting time to be giving a recruiting pitch, but I guess they had their target audience sitting in front of them.

But, back to today. After the museum we went to the Kwame Nkrumah Mausoleum. Kwame was the first president of Ghana, and before he became president in 1960, was active in gaining Ghanaian independence from Britain. He married an Egyptian I order to further his main goal was to bring Africa together for the sake of Africa. He’s a revered figure here in Ghana, and many dedications, festivals and special events are still given in his name and honor.
Standing next to the Mausoleum

My friends Gillian and Mallory

We went to the University of Ghana again. The whole registering process is getting kinda old, especially when all we did today was get our ID cards and it took 3 hours. Honestly. I don’t even know what took that long, because from the time we turned in paperwork to put ourselves in the computer, til the time we were called in to take our picture, we were waiting around for 3 hours. Nothing is speedy here and when it’s hot outside, it tries your patience. Anyway, now I have a new ID card! I’m officially a University of Ghana student. :)

We also met with representatives from various NGOs and non-profits, and I met two of the recruiters from the West African AIDS Foundation. They were very kind and I think I’ll enjoy working with them a lot. Hopefully I will have an interview with them sometime next week- I’ll keep you posted on how all that goes.

Then it was time for dinner at Tante Marie’s- Our Monday, Wednesday, Friday dive. Good food and good company as always.

Now I’m catching up on all my emails and registration for classes, etc. Tomorrow Gillian and I are skipping the Univ. of Ghana orientation to sleep in. We’re going to pretend we don’t feel well. Most people at this point actually haven’t been feeling well at least for a little bit. Diarrhea is common among students here throughout the entire semester as we get acclimated to the new food, water, environment, etc. I haven’t been too sick, but there have been some students who stay home the entire day because they’re so dehydrated and sick. I’m grateful my stomach is tough and that I’m feeling alright so far.

Tomorrow we’re going to the Univ. of Ghana after the orientation to finish registering for classes or something. I’m actually not sure what we’re doing tomorrow, but apparently something. At this point we’re just going with the flow and doing what they tell us.

Some random things: I don’t miss any food from home, yet. It’s been exactly a week since we began our journey here from JFK. There are really good European cookies called Digestives stocked in our pantry (gross name, delicious taste). That’s all for now.

love love love

hey jude

2009-01-15T20:53:00.002-05:00

Another full day! We started with a lecture on religion in Ghana. Ghana is primarily a Christian nation. The last census was taken in 2000, and showed at 69% of the Ghanaians are Christian. However, because religion is a public affair in Ghana, the number of “churched” Christians (devout Christians) is around 15%. One of the most interesting thigns I learned about African Christianity is that while they believe in one sovereign God (big “G”) they also believe in many gods (small “g”), but they don’t consider themselves polytheistic. This is because the smaller gods are intermediaries and helpers of the God. The gods are just messengers for the big God, and gods and Gods are never equal. There are shrines set up for the gods, but ultimately, the praises of these gods are a reflection of the praises of and gratitude towards the big God. Islam was introduced uninentioally when traders from the Middle East came through Ghana and began setlling and intermarrying within the Ghanaian population in the 15th century. The rhetoric of Ghana is very religious—many of the taxi cabs’ back windows have religious stickers on the back. Even in the recent Ghanaian election, church songs were appropriated as the candidates theme songs, interchanging the word “God” with the candidates’ name.

Today we also met the NYU Faculty, which was really interesting. All of them are wonderful and every class sounds great, so I’m doing some shuffling around still trying to decide exactly what I want to take this semester. I want to be productive enough to make a lasting impact on my surroundings, but to rest enough to find peace for my soul at the same time.

I made a list during one of our sessions today about things I have forgotten to mention in the blog, so here they are:

The song that was playing on the van coming from the airport was called “Barack Obama” by Blakk Rasta- a Ghanaian rapper. Do yourself a favor and watch the video/listen to the song- it’s great and will get stuck in your head all day, I promise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L85YF0pyPH0

Also, some of you may want to write me.

My address for letters and USPS packages is:

Elizabeth Shelby
PMB CT 84
Cantonments, Accra
Ghana

Any other form of post (FedEx, DHL), please email me and I’ll send you another address to mail to.

Tonight we went to an outdoor bar/dance club with a live Ghanaian band playing tons of drums and beads and moroccas and the like. It was SO much fun to be outside and dancing! However, it was incredibly hot and crowded, and having already been out in the sun all day, we smelled disgusting. That’s just how it goes here, and you just get used to always being dirty and looking kind of awful. With all the dirt, sweat, layers of sunscreen and bugspray our bodies accumulate throughout the day, a nice shower beckons us before bed. But anyway, it was so much fun and all the girls just danced together to local Ghanaian music while couples danced all around us. The band played Ghanaian music, but also played covers of very Western songs like Hey Jude. It was sooo funny to hear them singing that song and playing it really well on their drums and other crazy instruments. I guess music is the unviersal language. The club/bar/dance place apparently also has a lot of older, European gentlemen with young, Ghanaian women, and put two and two together, it’s very apparent that these women are these men’s escorts for the evening. Very strange to see so out in the open. “Women of the night,” as they’re called here, would dance on the floor near us, and grab guys and drag them on the floor too. Very interesting and fun experience.

I’m exhausted and we have to wake up again early tomorrow (will this ever end?!). Tomorrow we’re going to the largest art gallery in West Africa, so I’m excited!

love love love

elizabeth (see pictures below)

ps- Aunt Isha, left-handed people can still use their left hand to write, but all Ghanaians are taught from the time they're born that all activity should be done with the right hand, so many learn to write with their left hand and end up ambidextrous!

A heart shape I found in the dirt at the University of Ghana. I think the heart was made from old tire rubber or something, and it was just laying in the dirt in that exact shape. This is my desktop now. :)

This is what registration looks like- a mob scene! I bet you could guess who I was with?

Dancing tonight at the club (whose name escapes me right now). The sheen on my face is PURE sweat- I was literally dripping.

the internet sucks

2009-01-15T03:31:00.001-05:00

Some interesting facts about Ghana:

The flag is red, yellow and green with a black star in the middle. It was designed by a woman who is still alive and living in Accra today. She is in her 80s. There was a contest after Ghana gained independence from Great Britain in 1957 to design the new flag, and she won. The color red represents the blood of the people who fought for independence, the yellow is for the gold found on the Gold Coast of Ghana, and the green is for its natural resources (it is a country rich in resources, though it has little means of manufacturing and processing its own resources). The black star in the middle of the flag represents the black people of Ghana.

It feels like we’ve been here for months and it’s funny when we remind ourselves we’ve only been here for three full days. I can’t believe I’ll be living here for four months. I often wonder if it will go by fast or slow, but I’m sure I’ll have a better idea once school gets started. I’m actually really looking forward to school, especially the classes I (hope to) have at the University of Ghana! We went there today to see the campus and register for classes, and it was a totally new experience. Definitely something I will cherish forever. First of all, they register for all their classes by going to each department, selecting a class, and registering on paper. They do almost nothing on the computer, much like the “olden days” when our parents went to college (sorry Mom!). It was so fun though because The University of Ghana is a sprawling campus that reminds me a lot of A&M, except no football team, and dirt roads everywhere. But it’s beautiful and very austere. A girl who lives in Solomon’s, Marykate, and I walked around trying to find where to register for a Media and Society class, and ended up being referred to, no lie, like 5 different building because no one knew where exactly to send us. I was smiling the whole time because it was so funny to see how (to Westerners) unorganized it is. I told Marykate that if this was our system in America, I would have no faith that my registration requests would ever even go through, because in some cases, you literally register on a loose piece of notebook paper. But it works and I have faith in their system!

So, speaking of classes, I hope to take the Media and Society class I was talking about, which should be really interesting since I’m a Communications major, and we take classes much like that in New York (some even have that exact title!). It’ll be interesting to note the differences between the way they see media and society and the way we do in New York. I also want to take a 2 credit Traditional African Dance class at the University of Ghana, which I think Gillian and our new friend Mallory are taking, too. J It should be really fun! At the NYU Academic Center I plan on taking Pan-Africanism, African Popular Music, Society, Culture, and Modernization in Ghana, and my Internship with the West African AIDS Foundation, which counts as four credits. So this semester I plan on taking 18 credits, all of which will end up being electives at NYU. Marykate and I are trying to get the Media and Society class to count as a requirement for our program at NYU, but we’ll see how the department handles it.

Today we visited the two universities here in Accra- Ashesi University and the Univ. of Ghana. Ashesi is the private university that has only about 300 students enrolled, and the Univ. of Ghana has 33,000 students! Suffice it to say, since I’ve been looking for the “real” college experience since I’ve been in college, taking classes at the University of Ghana is a dream. I’ve heard many people say Ashesi is much like NYU- full of only those students who can afford (or had the grades to get a scholarship) for school. And as I mentioned earlier, public university is paid for by the government in Ghana. We also learned some cultural do’s and don’t’s in one of our lectures today. You are NOT supposed to use your left hand for anything, and extending it, waving it or eating with it is the ultimate sign of disrespect. Also, unlike in America, you must knock anytime you enter someone’s office, and before you begin asking someone (your director for instance) you must say “Hi! How are you doing today?” and genuinely be interested and be willing to spend a few minutes inquiring about the other person before you even begin to request something.

Patience is a virtue here. Our meetings almost always start at least 10 minutes late, and when the director or professors come in to teach, they don’t apologize or even act like they know they’re late.

I also learned my Ghanaian name today! First names are determined by the day you were born. So for each day of the week there’s a girls name and a guy’s name. And then your last name is given to you by lineage. Since I was born on a Friday, my name is Afia (pronounced Ah-FEE-ah).

I think that’s all I’ll write for tonight. I’m exhausted!!! It’s usually around 90 degrees here, with 90% humidity, and it wears you out!! I forgot what it’s like to live in a place as hot as this. Reminds me of my Arizona days, but with humidity.

love love love,

Afia

tuesday 1/13

2009-01-13T15:47:00.004-05:00

Today was a great day. I finally got to see the village or town that I was hoping for. As I mentioned before, the last few days have felt like we’ve been operating tunnel-vision through a maze. We live in a neighborhood called Lebone, which is one of the nicer neighborhoods in Accra. It’s primarily made up of homes and a few restaurants, but there are lots of people on the sides of the roads selling everything from toilet paper to calling cards to bananas. The area of the city to the west of us is called Osu, and that is where “Circle” is. It’s kinda the Times Square of Accra, if that makes any sense. It’s much more open and there are driving circles like in Europe with cars traveling down both sides of the street driving much like they do in NY- kinda crazy and without following too many rules. Lined on the side of the road from end to end are vendors who will yell “Hello!” to you in order to draw you in to see their goods. Street vendors here are much more aggressive here than they are even in NY. They will come up to you and follow you and walk with you, handing you bracelets and wooden carved paddles and Obama T-shirts. No I’m not joking. Speaking of, everyone is really pro-Obama here, clearly, and have a lot of pride. In a letter I wrote to Eric I even mentioned that in the van coming from the airport they played this song (on repeat) about Obama. It sounded like local Ghanaians singing it’s pretty incredible to see the pride they have for him here. There’s a festival happening on inauguration day that I think we’re all going to. How cool to be here in Africa when the first African-American president is sworn in. Anyway, lined down the streets are people selling t-shirts, jerseys, beaded jewelry, Ghanaian flags, trashcans and other household appliances, fabrics and any other knickknack you can think of. That’s what makes me thing it’s a lot like Time Square- everything is overpriced and very touristy, except for maybe the fabrics. When we visit actual markets though I think we’ll begin to see some more fruit stands and handmade fabric stands and such. I’m just guessing though. There’s a grocery store in town called Koala, which has a lot of American brands and more specialty foods like Barilla pasta and stuff. We’re visiting that tomorrow.

The Circle in Osu

We ate at this place called Freddie’s, whose menu was very familiar (finally!). They serve all sorts of American food, and I ordered a chicken and cheese sandwhch. Mmmm it was good to give my mouth a break from all the spiciness. During lunch the power would go out for a few minutes and no one reacts or seems to notice at all. Christa, our associate director, says that in this part of the continent there are power fluctuations and power goes on and off all the time. It makes me laugh when I think about how we would (and do) react in America if the lights went out for even a few seconds. We have to turn the lights off and the AC off every time we’re not using them, because electricity is very expensive here and there’s not enough of it to use wastefully. Often Gillian and I use our computers in the dark just because we realize how unnecessary most additional lighting is.

Momma, these are some of the many fabrics! :)

Anyway, switching gears, today we also spent a lot of time at the Academic Center, which is NYU’s facility where we have our NYU classes. As I think I’ve mentioned, we can also take classes at University of Ghana, Legon (the public university) and Ashesi University (the small, private university of about 300 students). Did you know the government fully pays for all public university education? In return, upon graduation students spend a year doing “Federal Service,” which basically is a way to thank and repay your country for your education. It’s not the military or anything, but basically a year of full-time volunteer work. You receive a small stipend but no salary. In fact, our CRAs (Community Residential Advisors) are all doing their Federal Service now, and were assigned to the NYU Ghana campus. Anyway, at our Academic Center we had a few lectures on the history of Ghana, health safety (we know, it’s dangerous here, take your pills, wear sunscreen), and then took a Twi class taught by our Director, Auntie Anyidoh. I’ll practice my Twi below. There are over 40 languages spoken in Ghana, but Akan is spoken by about 40% of the population. Twi is a dialect of Akan, and is what most people in Accra speak, in addition to English and most likely several other dialects.

Maakye (pronounced mah-chey) is Good Morning

Wo de sen? (pronounced Woah-day-sin) is What is your name?

Me de Elizabeth (meh-day) is My name’s Elizabeth.

Thank you is “Medaase” (pronounced meh-dah-say)- we use this word a lot!

Yes is “Aane” (ah-nay) No is “Daabi” (Dehhh-bee)

The numbers to 5 are: Baako, Mmienu, Mmiensa, Enan, Enum

That’s all I’ll practice for now. Time for dinner at Sunshine Salads, the other place we have a meal plan to. It’s supposed to serve more American type foods. I’ll update later!

love love love

i'm here!

2009-01-12T18:32:00.005-05:00

these thoughts are sporadic as i am copying and pasting various parts of my email to my mom for brevity's sake. however, I AM HERE IN GHANA! and it is fabulous. i miss everyone at home, but am making a new family here which is wonderful.

We still haven't been to what they call "Circle," or the center of town, and haven't gone to any markets or anything yet. I keep forgetting that it's only the first full day here and that I have four months to see and experience everything but I am just itching to go walking around the local markets. We may do that on Saturday, I think. The trip we had planned on Saturday to go to a Torgome Village got cancelled because the chief's mother died a few days ago and they are throwing a funeral this weekend. In Ghana funerals are huge celebrations and parties, much like birthdays are celebrated. We were going to see a naming eremony, visit with local cheifs, learn kentle weaving and pottery making etc. I think the trip will get rescheduled at some point, hopefully! Sunday we may go to the beach. The girl, Katie, who's been here two semesters already said that there's an incredible beach about an hour away where you can learn how to surf and rent a tent for like $3 and hang out all day. Sounds amazing! She said she'd take us soon.

Gillian and I waiting outside an exchange Bureau to exchange money. (Great exchange rate btw!). It was about a billion degrees outside so we're looking good.

everyone is SO nice! We are all getting along so well. There are two dorms or "houses"- Solomon's Lodge and Church Crescent. I'm in Solomon's Lodge which is the newer house- they've only had it for two semesters now. It's SO nice- nicer than the dorms at NYU. It kinda feels like what I think a sorority house feels like. There's one HUGE kitchen with many stovetops and refrigerators, a living room, two breakfast tables, and then like 10 or so bedrooms, each which house either singles or doubles. There are 15 girls living in my house, and we are all starting to become like a little family. There are 5 guys on the trip, but they're all in Church Crescent. We've had some amazing food and some very spicy food too! Ghanaian food is very spicy and I do not like spicy, but it's pretty good. Tonight we went to Tante Marie's for dinner, which is one of the places we have a meal plan to on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights. We had chicken and rice, yams and ice cream with peanuts in it for dessert. They LOVE fruit- like pineapple and papaya and have it for dessert.

This is what I ate for lunch- a bunch of traditional Ghanaian dishes. White rice, gelled rice, two types of meat which have Ghanaian names that I can't remember, yams, fried plantains, and some pasty thing on the right hand side which tasted awful. But I'm proud of myself for trying all of it and eating most of it! On the top left corner you'll see a water bottle and FRESH pineapple juice made literally of pineapples only. Delicious.

We basically spent the majority of the day going through basic orientation type things. We went to lunch at a restaurant that served the really spicy food. It was an outdoor restaurant under this big canopy- so beautiful! What I've seen of Accra isn't what I pictured, visually, about what Ghana/Africa would look like, though I don't really know what I imagined. Perhaps it's because we haven't gone to town yet, and we've just been in our neighborhood (Lebone- pronounced Leh-Bone-A). All the houses are surrounded by high walls and so it kinda feels like I'm in a tunnel vision maze almost. Like I don't know my way around and the streets are all kinda walled in from these walls guarding the houses that it's not open or anything. But we're going to take many weekend trips all around Ghana, so hopefully we will see different parts of the country in different ways. I'm excited! Did you know we can get clothes for us made for us in any pattern or design we want (or can create!) for only $5??? We just buy the fabrics from the markets and take it to this tailor in town. How incredible!

I haven't started my internship yet. I think I meet with my director on Thursday to discuss how that all works. But I'm really excited to get started. Gillian is considering doing it with me, which would be so great to get to go to work together. She's a great roommate and we're getting along so well. Thanks for everyone who has sent their prayers to heaven. I truly feel blessed to be here in such an oftentimes uncomfortable environment, because I know I will be stretched and grown in ways unimaginable.

For the worried family members- I am taking my malaria meds every single day- Gillian and I wake up and the first thing we do the second we get out of bed is take our pills. Using lots of bug spray and keeping our room cool. We boiled the water we'll use to brush our teeth tonight. Staying healthy and safe. :)

Sending love to all!!!

LOVELOVELOVE

ghana, morocco and beyond

2009-01-09T12:35:00.002-05:00

1/10/09
Dear Family and Friends,

As many of you know, I am heading to Ghana for the spring semester! I am currently a sophomore studying at NYU, majoring in communications. In addition to its primary campus in the heart of Manhattan, NYU has 10 study abroad campuses around the world, and urges all of its students to spend a semester abroad. I have chosen to spend the second semester of my sophomore year in Ghana, a country located in West Africa. I chose to study in Accra, Ghana to continue the HIV/AIDS prevention and education work I began this past semester in New York City. In August 2008, I began an internship at LIFEbeat: The Music Industry Fights AIDS. LIFEbeat’s mission is to raise HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention education to America’s youth by teaming up with the music industry to reach America’s most infected population. (For more information about this wonderful organization, please visit www.lifebeat.org.) My time at LIFEbeat and my taking several classes about historic and contemporary Africa continued to nurture in me a growing, global awareness of the destruction caused by this epidemic. During my four month stay in Ghana, I will be interning with the West African AIDS Foundation, which is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) aimed at providing awareness and education to those who, heartbreakingly, may otherwise be ignorant to the simple prevention techniques. (For more information about the West African AIDS Foundation, please visit www.waafweb.org.)

In addition to studying and working in Ghana, I plan on traveling all around Africa during my four month stay. During spring break, I will spend a week in Morocco with the NYU Navigators (or Navs), the Christian ministry I belong to at NYU. Navs has become my family away from home, and through Navs, I have met most of my dearest friends. Navs is a nationwide ministry with many college branches, and it fosters love and community among its members with a greater goal of helping those in need around us. Living in New York City for 8 months of the year has certainly taught me how many needs are unmet in the poor and hurting community, and as a family, the Navigators and I work diligently to love, like Jesus, those whom the world dismisses.

In Morocco, about 20 of us will be working for a week at the Village of Hope in Ain Leuh. The Village of Hope is committed to establishing permanent homes for orphaned or unwanted children up to the age of 18. The Village of Hope places 10 children each in 10 housing units, where a married couple essentially adopts and provides for their 10 children. These couples have promised to dedicate their lives to raising, nurturing, and educating these children until the reach the age of 18. Because there are 10 children per house and 10 houses, there are 100 children whose lives will forever be changed by these couples’ selflessness! As a team, the Navs will travel to Ain Leuh to help the Village of Hope in the construction of more homes, as well as help with upkeep jobs. We will also participating in sports activities with the children.

As a group, our mission is to:

Serve the poor, forgotten and oppressed
To explore the holistic nature of the Gospel
To explore ministry in a limited access country

For more information on the Village of Hope, please visit www.voh-ainleuh.org.

I am so excited to be part of such a wonderful, important project, and feel called to invite you to join us in helping to make it happen! Some of you share my Christian faith, and I respect that others don’t. But regardless of our faith backgrounds, I strongly believe serving these children is a crucial role we, the very materially blessed, need to take on.

In order to serve in Morocco, I must raise $1,700, which includes the cost of the trip itself (the supplies we will purchase and use, my housing, meals, etc.) and airfare. Ideally, I need to raise $750 of the cost by January 22nd. I am humbly asking you to consider donating whatever you can to help me make my way to Morocco to help these beautiful children. Every little bit helps! If you don’t feel comfortable supporting this particular project, or can’t at this time, I totally understand and please don’t feel uncomfortable! But, I do still encourage you to reach out to the world’s poor and oppressed in other new and significant ways in 2009!

I am keeping a blog to document not only my Moroccan trip, which will take place the week of March 13th-March 20th, 2009, but also my entire journey through Africa. The blog is at:

www.ghanaelizabeth.blogspot.com.

I will be updating it (hopefully!) daily with stories and pictures of my wonderful adventures. I invite you to read it and join me in my journey!

I thank you for taking the time to read this, and for considering a contribution. May you and your family have a blessed and thankful 2009.

Excited,

Elizabeth Shelby

“Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:14

*If you want to donate funds for my Morocco trip, please contact me! :) But prayers are always welcome!

the early stages

2008-09-07T23:12:00.003-04:00

so this is my first blog post on here. i'm dedicating my blog to my upcoming ghanaian adventure, updating you every step of the way until i come back home in may. it's only september 8th 2008 right now, but the excitement is building in me already. i am almost done with the application process and only have about three weeks left until i'm officially accepted. not to jump the gun or anything, but the prospect of living in ghana for 5 months is so exciting. i met with gillian at think the other day and she is going too! she is a fellow nyu navigator and she and i share a similar desire and motivation for going, and it's going to be wonderful having someone there who i already know, and who can encourage me both spiritually and in my volunteering endeavors.

just a little background on WHY i want to go:

primarily, i want to go to work with the West African AIDS Foundation (WAAF), which is an amazing organization involved in AIDS outreach. they fund programs for aids awareness and education, as well as provide counseling and encouragement to people living with the virus. since the beginning of last spring semester, my heart has been yearning to go to africa and do some kinds of aids education/awareness work there. i spent many nights talking to my best-friend and now-roommate rebecca about it, bouncing off ideas with her and thinking of ways to get over there this summer. i considered kenya, uganda and ghana all as possibilities for the summer. unfortunately, plans fell through and i didn't make it to africa this summer. how great would it be to, a full year later, actually get to go?

i hope by saying "africa" i am not overgeneralizing the continent, because each country and culture is so vastly different, that there is no "africa" that unanimously applies to each country. each country faces different needs and hardships, economic in/stability, cultures, etc. none are the same and a gross generalization is ignorant and unfair. however, for this blog's sake, when i refer to africa i mean africa. in january i had no clear country of choice, i just knew that the rising AIDS epidemic which infects the very deepest and widest parts of africa was something that i had to face head on. i didn't care how i got there or where specifically "there" was, but i knew i needed to go. ever since, the calling has not ceased, but instead grown exponentially. but i know i cannot bite off more than i can chew. i cannot expect to save the world in one semester. well really, i cannot do anything- for everything is through god's power and will, and what needs to be done, in whatever time or fashion that is, will get done. but this study abroad opportunity provides me with every single thing i need to work with an NGO to promote AIDS education and raise awareness.

oh yeah, and not to mention ghana's gorgeousness and rich and diverse culture- talk about a life experience. i am SO excited to see what happens, where this goes, what classes i end up taking, and how fully i immerse myself in ghana's culture.

here are my goals listed succinctly:
*to work with WAAF extensively and gain experience in running an AIDS awareness program
*to get to know locals, and through them get to experience the REAL ghana, not the nyu-in-ghana ghana
*to fully and wholly give of myself
*to learn native ghanaian languages (or maybe just one- there are over 250!)
*to go to school, and learn at both the nyu university and the two local universities
*to make native friends and nyu friends
*to travel around the country and around africa
*to try new foods (talk about a leap of faith)
*to completely let go of expectations and let god do what he will
*to visit a beach, a rainforest, a desert, a metropolitain city all in 5 months
*to help the hurting, whoever and whatever that may be, in whatever capacity possible
*to be the hands and feet of christ
*to laugh and share life and cry and love and live

i think that's enough for tonight, more updates whenever i find out (if) all is official!

lovelovelove