Aburi and Larteh Visits

Last weekend, the NYU in Ghana staff organized a day trip to the Aburi Botanical Gardens, which are about an hour and a half drive away from Accra. We piled onto the bus a little after 10 on Saturday morning. Like every other drive in Ghana, the drive to Aburi was very scenic. We drove through a bunch of small villages and up and down rolling hills with lush forests.



We arrived at Aburi and took a tour of the gardens. We tasted cocoa beans fresh from the tree, and picked starfruit. There was this one plant whose leaves were shaped like small ferns, which close when it rains to capture the water, but they also close when you touch them yourself. There was also a tree that was hollow on the inside, which we all took turns exploring.



At the end of the tour we stopped for a picnic lunch. We had brought a buffet from Tante Marie with us. There were lots of kids at the gardens that day, probably taking a field trip, but they were more eager to play with the obrunis. So we introduced them to all sorts of obruni games - freeze tag, red light green light, tug-of-war.



Then the NYU in Ghana staff had arranged for us to rent bikes for the afternoon to explore the town of Aburi. There were only 12 bikes or so, so we had to rotate. I was in one of the first groups to go, and it was great fun!



Aburi is a very hilly town, so there were lots of ups and downs. There is a lot of freedom in riding a bike. Some of the students here have invested in bikes for the semester, and they've gotten to know the city a lot better because they ride everywhere. I decided against it, because as much fun and convenient as it would be, the roads aren't very safe here. I try to walk as many places as I possibly can, just like in New York, but without a subway system, you end up taking taxis and tro-tros most places. I haven't mastered the tro-tro system, if you can call it a system, yet. We can take the NYU vans to and from the Academic Center, the two residences, the University of Ghana-Legon, and dinner at Tante Marie, and sometimes they are free to take us into Osu. I try to avoid taking the van when I don't have to. There's something very limiting about being cooped up in a van, observing everything from the inside. And at the same time, sometimes it's nice, because when you're just walking around places, people come up to you left and right and try to sell you everything under the sun. In the beginning I used make conversation with all the vendors, but lately it's been getting old because it's clear they only approach you because you're an obruni. And yes, I understand I am a foreigner, and I'm only here for a short amount of time, but for that time I am living here, and it would nice to be treated a little more like a local, and less like a tourist. It's something you never really get used to.

Yesterday my traditional medicine class went on a field trip to Larteh, which is actually en route to Aburi. We were going to meet the traditional medical practitioners in the town. When we arrived we were greeted by a large group of Larteh children, who were intrigued by all the obrunis. They followed us to the shrine we were visiting, and sat inside with us as we interacted with the elders of the town.



The elders were not speaking English, so everything was translated by either Professor Twumasi or the linguist there. We did not see any traditional medicine in practice, nor were we witness to any sort of witchdoctor possession like we are reading about in Professor Twumasi's book. The visit was actually conducted as more of a question and answer session, although a lot seemed to be lost in translation. We did get to shake hands with the elders, the priests and priestesses. We had to take off our shoes and be very careful where we stepped because some spots were considering spiritual dwellings and we were not to disturb the spirits.



We had planned to return from the field trip around 4, but because we operate on Ghanaian time here, we did not arrive home until around 6:30 or so. Last night Katie, Delmeshia, and myself went out for a roommate bonding dinner with three other girls who are roommates, and two other friends of ours. We ate at a local Indian restaurant, which was really delicious. A part of me feels like I should be eating Ghanaian food while in Ghana, but then again, there aren't really strictly Ghanaian restaurants. Most restaurants serve Ghanaian dishes in addition their specialty. Plus we eat Ghanaian food for lunch almost every day at Ashesi and dinner every night of the schoolweek at Tante Marie, so sometimes it's nice to change it up a little.

There will be much more Ghanaian food this weekend as well, because tonight we begin our homestays! It is only for two nights, but I am excited to get out of the compound and experience local Ghanaian family life!

One Month Anniversary: Part 2: Torgome and Community Service

This Friday I visited the West African AIDS Foundation to find out about the community service opportunities there, and I'm really excited about getting involved in their program as well. There is so much to do there, whether it be HIV testing, counseling, home-based care, child care, outreach, education, the list goes on and on, and the staff there is willing to train us in whatever we're interested in helping out with. I am really interested in the outreach program there, where they go out into the communities and do HIV testing and provide counseling. I am going to ask to be trained as a counselor, where I will get to speak to patients for 30-45 minutes, about whatever they want to talk about, and talk to them about HIV testing and treatment options, and so forth. I know it will be very intense, but I really feel like I can make a difference here. I really want to do it all, but I can really only dedicate Fridays at this point, which is annoying because community service is really why I came here. But I have full days of class Tuesday and Thursday, and I need Wednesday afternoon to develop film for photo, and Monday afternoon for "Flockstaff Mondays," so one day a week will have to do for now.

On Saturday morning, we rose bright and early and climbed aboard a tour bus headed for Torgome, a rural village about an hour and a half outside of Accra. When we arrived, a group of young children greeted us warmly as we exited the tour bus. The local dialect spoken in Torgome is Ewe, so the few Tri words we knew were of little use, but we did learn "Wazoola," meaning "Welcome" and "A-pay," meaning "Thank you." And if you don't know how to respond to something, simply answer "Yoooo," which doesn't have a direct translation, but pretty much covers all bases. The Torgome village had organized an entire program for us. We took our seats and local children wearing white grass skirts and adorned in red and blue and white body paint performed a dance.



We then filed in line to shake hands and exchange greetings with the Torgome chief and elders. It is important to remember that when in the presence of a tribal chief, you always sit with legs un-crossed, because crossed legs are a sign of disrespect. And when shaking hands, you shake right hands, and place your left hand on other side of his right, almost as if you are holding his right hand with both hands. This was followed by the chief's welcome speech, which was read by the chief's linguist, because the chief never directly speaks to the public. Then Christa and Esi, two of the NYU in Ghana staff, presented a box of school supplies that our group had compiled as a gift to the Torgome community. This was followed by more dancing and a drill performance by the village's scout group. Then they conducted a naming ceremony, in which we each received a pot with our village name, based on the day of the week we were born. My name is Delali, which means, "Our Savior is Alive."



After the naming ceremony, our group split off into three different groups to learn about three different trades in the village - either pottery making, weaving, or fishing. I chose to do pottery making, which was really interesting. It's all done by hand - sans pottery wheel - and it's so much harder than it looks! The ladies we were working with were so patient with us all - mine especially. While some people ended up having the pots made for them, the lady I was working with would show me how to do a certain step, wait while I tried it out, and show me again and again until I understood and could do it on my own. After pottery making we walked with hundreds of kids to the river to watch the group that was fishing.



Then we returned to the central area and danced and made friends until it was time to get back on the tour bus. The whole community gathered by the bus to see us off and wave goodbye.



The bus drove a little further to the Shai Hills, home to babboons! We stopped for lunch, and then trekked through the reserve for some babboon sighting.



The bus was unable to take us through because it had been raining and we didn't want to risk it getting stuck in the mud. Our guide said that those who brought proper walking shoes could trek further to see the caves at the top of the hill. Of course, all I had were my flip flops, but that didn't stop me. Most of us were without tennis shoes, but we trekked on through, muddy sandals and all!



When we got to the base of the hill we needed to climb to see the caves, it was too steep for shoes any more, so we trekked it barefoot! And it was SO WORTH IT! The view from the top of the hill was absolutely breath-taking, and the caves at the end of our trek were simply phenomenal!



With dirty feet and full camera memory cards, we returned to the tour buses way past schedule. But we're on Ghanaian time here, so it's all relative.

The rest of this weekend has been very chill. I intended to go to Jamestown today in hopes of meeting the Theatre for a Change community there and getting more involved with the program, but instead woke up and made "Happy Anniversary" brunch with the girls in my house. I'm kind of nervous as to whether this community service opportunity will work out, because what they really need right now is help with fundraising, and while I'm always more than happy to help, I really want to do something more hands-on, like doing theatre with the kids. The only issue is, I've learned that most of the kids in the James Town community do not speak English. And while I am more than ready to become more fluent in Twi and Ga, the fact remains that it will be very difficult to teach theatre when I have yet to speak the language. I'm still going to take a chance and try it out though, because that's just how you do things here. And with one month down, and only three to go, I don't want to miss out on anything!

One Month Anniversary: Part 1: African Outings

Happy Anniversary! Our group arrived in Ghana exactly one month ago, and since it's been a while since I last posted, I'm going to make two separate posts so you can pick and choose what you feel like reading about.

I'd like to say I've been busy, but that wouldn't be the truth. I've basically just been waiting for something exciting to happen that I can share with everyone. But then I got to thinking, it's Africa: everything's exciting!

It's been a very chill couple of weeks here. Last weekend, I did absolutely nothing. Which was great, you definitely need weekends like those, but I didn't come to Ghana to do nothing, and by the end of last weekend, I was becoming rather restless and frustrated for not making the most of my experience here. So, instead of hanging out with everyone on Saturday night, I stayed in and did laundry, which literally took about 6 or 7 hours because the washer is SO SMALL, and you cannot use the washer and dryer simultaneously and the dryer takes at least two cycles to dry anything! Don't worry, doing laundry is not how I intend to make the most of my
experience here. My point here is while I was doing laundry, I read through about half of the Ghana guidebook that NYU provided each of the students here. I had attempted to read it several times before I arrived, but never read it long enough to learn about all the cool things to do here. So then I made a list, of all the places I'd like to go while I'm here - everything from local markets to museums to small suburbs of Accra - and now I'm tasked with checking them all off over the next three months!

On Monday, I went to my African dance class in the morning, which unfortunately I won't be able to take for credit because you're required to go twice a week while I'm only able to go once. They don't really want too many people auditing the class, but my friends and I are going to continue going on Mondays and hope they
won't notice. Which is a funny thought in itself, because no matter where we go, how we dress, or how we act, we always stand out as "obrunis," the term the Ghanaians have playfully coined to describe the "foreigner."

After dance at Legon, a bunch of us ate lunch at the canteen at Ashesi University, which I frequent almost every day of the school week. For 10,000 cedis (which translates to about a $1.50), you can get a plate full of jollof rice, bean stew, french salad and fried plantain. Auntie Vic runs the canteen, and she looks forward to seeing us every afternoon. After lunch, I decided to take an excursion with my friends Arielle and Ben to the nearby suburb, James Town. Theatre for a Change is working with a community in James Town, which I had planned to check out the day before, but I was unable to get in touch with Ryan, the guy in charge of the operation, in time. So with James Town on the mind, and having recently read about a historic lighthouse there, and hearing about a traditional medicine market, Arielle, Ben and I ventured to check it out Monday afternoon.

Exploring Accra is quite an adventure, because it's hard to find out how to get where you want to go. The Ghana guidebook didn't offer any tips for getting to James Town, so we just went for it, without any specific plan in mind. We walked to the main road and after getting all kinds of directions from a few locals, we located the nearest tro-tro stop. A tro-tro is pretty much an old rickety mini-van that packs in as many people as possible to take them from A to B for 1,000 to 2,500 cedis (10 to 25 cents). We hopped on a tro-tro to Thomas Station, where we were supposed to connect to another tro-tro headed to James Town. However, we decided
we'd had enough tro-tro for one day and took a taxi the rest of the way - which is still a great deal: 15,000 cedis, split three ways, it equates to a little more than 50 cents per person!

When we arrived in James Town, the taxi driver asked where we would like to go, and we didn't really know, so he dropped us off at the lighthouse, which we found as a good start and finish point, because it seems that's where all the tro-tros were leaving from.



And then we just walked around for an hour or so. Vendors lined the
streets, selling all sorts of delicious foods and fun trinkets. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming.



We stuck out like sore thumbs, especially me with the manual camera I borrowed from the NYU Academic Center hanging from my neck. Like I said earlier though, we stick out regardless, so I might as well take pictures while I'm at it. I'm still getting the hang of this manual camera. I've never worked with one before, but we're learning how to develop film tomorrow for photography, so I wanted to try to get a few good pics. People are funny about cameras here. Almost everyone likes getting their picture taken, and digital cameras are great because you can show them the photograph, and Polaroids are even better because you can give them a copy.



But then there are a select few that look at you like you're going to steal their soul. We're learning in my photography class that before you ask to take someone's photograph - and you ALWAYS ASK - you should make conversation with
them. Even a simple, "Hi, how are you?" makes a person feel so much more at ease, and so much more receptive when it comes to having their picture taken.



Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, depending on how you look at it, our adventure was cut short when a couple of guys approached us, and after making general conversation, warned us that someone had been following us, and to stay aware of criminals and robbers. And with that, we decided that it might be best to
finish exploring James Town another day. I'm sure we would have been fine had we
continued on our little excursion, but when you receive a blatant warning like that, it's probably best to heed it. But I definitely plan on going back, because we didn't get to go up the lighthouse or find the traditional medicine market, so there
is much more of James Town to be explored. Arielle, Ben and I have decided to reserve Monday afternoons for exploring Accra and the surrounding area, which we are calling "Flockstaff Mondays," in honor of Arielle who mistakenly kept calling James Town "Flockstaff," for whatever reason - we love her for it.

I am no longer taking Pidgin and Creole at the University of Ghana-Legon because the class time was moved. Instead I am taking African Art: Past & Present, with Uncle Joe, who is the coolest man alive. He is so laid-back and SO HAPPY, ALL THE TIME - his joy is literally contagious. Plus we haven't had a smidgen of work so far (but I'm sure we will now because I totally just jinxed it!), but we are going on some pretty cool field trips. Last class we visited the shop of a metal sculptor, who collects scrap pieces of metal and welds them together into incredible sculptures. He demonstrated his art for us, and several students stayed in the afternoon to learn how to do it hands-on. I unfortunately couldn't because I had class that afternoon, but we asked if we could learn from him another time, and he was more than willing. He is going to Nigeria very soon to work on an exhibit there, and won't be back until the beginning of November. Just one more exciting thing to look forward to!

Weekend at Cape Coast & Elmina

The NYU in Ghana program has coordinated a bunch of different activities and excursions for our group during the next four months. They're all optional, but they're included in our tuition, so there really is no reason not to take advantage of them! Especially being in Ghana, I really don't know where I want to go or what I want to do, so it's nice to have a few highlights already planned out for me. I mean, I fully intend to pick up that Ghana guide one day and check out a few local hotspots that peak my interest, but my experience at Cape Coast & Elmina this past weekend has locked me into going on every NYU in Ghana organized excursion this fall!



It was only two days, which I was apprehensive about at first, because with everything on the itinerary it looked like we were in for a long weekend! We left bright and early Saturday morning. Okay, it was like 7am, which I get isn't ridiculously early, but for Noelle on a Saturday morning, it was tough. Plus Frances and I stayed up late the night before baking cookies for the bus ride. Of course, almost half of them never made it to the next morning, but that's to be expected when you live in close quarters with almost thirty other college kids! I slept most of the bus ride there, but was awake long enough to see the beautiful country side. It was seriously out-of-a-movie spectacular! Forests upon forests of palm trees, and colorful fruit stands lining the sides of the road...just gorgeous!

As was the hotel - the Coconut Grove Beach Resort at Cape Coast - where Will Smith has stayed, ahem ahem! We were welcomed with a buffet breakfast, then settled into our guestrooms, and sauntered along the beach until it was time to get on the road again. We headed into town to a festival in honor of thanksgiving. The group splintered off, and several of us girls found some seats amidst fifteen or twenty Ghanaian children who had gathered on some stairs to watch the parade. The parade lasted almost two hours, ending with the Ghanaian tribal chiefs parading through on chairs held up high, with large umbrellas to shield them from the hot sun.



The children we sat with were absolutely fascinated with our digital cameras, which was exciting because I was able to get some really great shots of them! After the parade we met up with some of the other students at the beach, where I met the cutest little boy who wanted his picture taken about a million times. He was SUCH A HAM! I really wish I had brought a Polaroid camera with me, so I could give the kids a copy of the pictures I take of them. I also wish I had brought some sort of souvenir from the States, like a key chain or something, to give to the kids here. Most of them ask for something to drink or eat, which gets difficult because if you buy for one you have to buy for all. And granted, key chains aren't edible, but it would be nice to be able to give them all something.





We made it back to the hotel in the afternoon for a couple hours at the beach. The waves were pretty rough, but I toughed it out. Once a beach girl, always a beach girl. Nothing could have kept me from getting into the water. The water was really pretty there too, and clean, unlike the beaches here in Accra, which are full of trash. After the beach, we all showered up and got ready for dinner. The food here is awesome. Some people have had some stomach issues, but I (KNOCK ON WOOD!) have been fine so far. Which is great because the food is pretty much all carbs, which is right up my alley! Lots of rice and fried plaintains, and bean stew, and chips (french fries), and vegetable stew, and fish kebabs. I'm not a huge fish person, but Accra is known for its seafood, so I can't resist having a taste or two! They also served us palm wine at dinner, which I wasn't too impressed with, but it's all part of the adventure! After dinner, we lit a bonfire on the beach and danced and danced until our legs could no longer carry us.

And that was only day one! Day two began with buffet breakfast again, said our goodbyes to the lovely Coconut Grove, and got on the road to Elmina to visit the slave castle. The experience was quite jarring, especially coming back from such a day of luxury at the Coconut Grove hotel. To see first hand the dreadful living conditions, and to hear the graphic detailed account by the tour guide, and to smell...well, you get the idea. Many of the students were brought to tears, and I was surprised I wasn't, because I tend to be the kind of person who wears her emotions on her sleeve, but it was still very moving nonetheless.



After the slave castles, we ate at this restaurant called Hans Cottage, which is situated on stilts over a crocodile pond. So cool - enough said. Then we drove to Kakum National Park, where we walked across a 366 meter canopy walk, 40 meters in the air! My friends Molly and Lisa are scared of heights, and they were right behind me, and they definitely made things more interesting! It was so beautiful up there. I didn't get to take many pictures because my camera batteries died - side note: always bring rechargeable batteries and a charger, because regular ones die in digital cameras SO QUICKLY! Hopefully the pics here will convey the essence for you!!