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!