Boti Falls...

On Saturday I also did a bit of traveling through Ghana with one of the other Fulbrighters and one of her coworkers to Boti Falls (probably the most beautiful waterfall I have ever seen in my life). There was a little shrine there as well that was for traditional African gods and it was super cool to see that and to just think about religion and nature and different peoples views and how they worship and celebrate. While there, I said a prayer of thanks. (How many Americans in their lifetime have been able to pray before a traditional African shrine in front of a gorgeous waterfall in Africa…a truly blessed experience.) We then went to a little village where we put on traditional funeral attire and went to pay our respects to an Aunt of the Ghanaian we were with whom had just lost a son. It was quite an experience as well. Then we checked out the Aburi Botanical Gardens which were ok, pretty, but not awe-inspiring. I did notice that a lot of plants that are here, are in the states, more specifically, my house! Moses and the bulrush, wandering Jew, philodendron, ficus, and Norfolk pine, a neat thing to see.

Visiting the Chief...

The weekend here has been VERY busy, but great as well. Sunday I went to a “Charismatic Christian Church”. I got up at 5:15 or so and we were at church by 6 and it went for 2 and a half hours! The singing was great and the dancing was cool too.
Aftewards, Akordy (headmistresses son) and I met up with the other Fulbrighter in Accra and took a trotro up to Tema and and met with the 3rd and final Fulbrighter. The 4 of us and a couple of Ghanaians from Tema all went to PramPram which is a fishing community near Tema right on the Atlantic. The city was founded, or so it is told, by freed slaves that came back to Ghana. We were able to see how they fish which was neat…a lot of manpower, not engines or motors at all. Some of the little kids that would yell “Obruni” were adorable and I played with them a little bit (looked at them, turned my back to them, and then flinched like I was going to chase them, they got a huge kick out of it as did I) and they wanted to feel my hands and what white skin felt like. Weird, but an unforgettable experience for a white boy from the Midwest.
We then went to a nice beach resort a bit further down the coast where we checked out the ocean for a bit and then had lunch (rice and chicken, nothing fancy, but fine). It is really very pretty. The ocean is beautiful, but honestly, the whole thing is so new, so different, so overwhelming, that even the awesomeness of the ocean is diminished.
After lunch we drove for to another little beach where there was a lagoon that has tides come in and out like every 4 minutes. I was in the wrong place and the wrong time and the tide started to come in and I had to run for shore! The Fulbrighter from Tema was right behind me and was not quite as quick and caught up to her waist or so in water! Nothing serious but pretty funny for us and hilarious for all of the Ghanaian spectators. Then, we got back in (we were in two cars by the way, the two girl Fulbrighters in a nice car with a Ghanaian teacher from Tema and his cousin, and they in a rickety old taxi with were Akordy and I…the Taxi driver did not understand the difference from left and right, so you had to point, the car had no seatbelts, the passenger airbag was deployed and hanging out deflated, the engine visibly smoke whenever above 60kmph, had no suspension whatsoever and ran on a methane gas tank that was in the hatch-back portion of the car) and took off again for 45 minutes down a the bumpiest, dustiest dirt road ever. Finally we came to a small traditional village where we were formally greeted by the chief of the entire region. We sat and talked with him, he gave us fresh coconuts to drink and eat and also he got out a bottle of Whiskey. The girls both politely refrained, but I, being the only white male, felt a bit obligated to drink with him. Keep in mind that this chief is a rather large, imposing man, he is a chief, we are in his kingdom, at the end of nowhere and I am the only white male and he makes a great deal of eye contact with me, more so than anyone else. So He poured us some whiskey and he started on it pretty hard. I went slowly, which was fine. After some fine conversation about Ghana and the US we went to leave. I set my glass down on the table with about a shot of whiskey left in it (hoping I could just leave it behind) and he saw me, and asked “Oh, don’t you want to finish your drink?”. So, when in Ghana… I was a little light headed for the next hour. As we walked out of the village with the chief, one of the Ghanaians explained to us that it is usually customary to bring a gift (alcohol) to the chief when visiting, but this was ok today. As we were getting in the cars, I took a shell from my pocket that I had picked up at the beach (someone had told me that a long time ago the shells were used as a form of currency in Ghana) and gave it to him and told him that I had nothing else, but it was a token and that he was invited to Accra Girls’ anytime.

Makola Market, A Whole New Perspective…

Today, Madame Headmistress took me to Makola Market in the center of Accra. We had to take two trotros to get there and when we did is was an interesting experience. Most everyone in Accra, or Ghana for that matter does all of their grocery shopping in the markets, not at a grocery store. (I think there are only 3 that exist in Accra). This market is the biggest in Accra and, rumor has it, the largest in Africa. We got off the trotro and walk around for nearly 3 hours and still did not see even half of it. I was amazed. We walked into one of the entrances from the street and as we walked through, I glanced over to notice a railing and that below us there were 2 more levels! They sell anything and everything that you can imagine and every 3 steps is an entirely new cacophony of smells (some good, some not so good). Many of the things in the market are things that I have never ever seem before. I asked the headmistress what some things were and she tried to explain it, but more often than not I just nodded my head and stared in amazement. It was a neat experience and a bit overwhelming as well. I think that, initially at least, I may stick to the smaller market nearer to the school, but maybe not, there is still much exploring to be done!

Thank You...

As I have now arrived here in Ghana and just begun to get my feet under me, I would be amiss if I did not thank some very important and key people. There have been a number of people that have helped me get to this point and I am sure that I will continue to call on many of them in the future. Thank you to SHG for the opportunity to be able to do this. I know I asked many people in my department and the school to go above and beyond and all of them came through with great character. Theresa Duffin and her family were especially helpful in easing the transition for, and opening their home to, Mrs. Kpobi. Thank you to the Social Studies Department for doing everything they can in welcoming a new department member. And thank you to Sister Margaret Joanne and Sister Katherine for there work and support behind the scenes in making such an experience possible. To Sister Phillip, thanks for helping in whatever ways you have been. Also, thank you to the Rotary Club of Springfield and their generous donation to help make this Fulbright year as rewarding and successful as possible in the eyes of not only myself, but the students here as well. Susan Gustavson of Whitney Young School in Chicago has been a wealth of information and advice that has already been worth its weight in gold; thank you and have a great school year. Last, but certainly, not least, thank you, thank you, thank you to my family and Stacey who have all gone out of their way to help me in whatever way possible. You have been there for the last few months, were an enormous help in the days immediately prior to departure, and I am sure that you will be of indescribable help in the year to come (at least I hope). To all of you, any many others I am sure I have failed to mention, I offer you my sincerest thank you.

Laundry Day...

Laundry, or “wash”, here is not quite the same as it is in the US. Here it is by hand, it takes much longer, and is hard work. Yesterday for the first time I tried to do it and it was not pretty. I started way to late in the day. I did it around noon when the sun was hot and it was humid and there is not enough day left for everything to dry by the evening. Regardless, I did 24 pieces of laundry. I have never counted laundry in the US in my life, but here, after an hours worth of hard work, I counted to see how much I did.

I took two huge bowl like buckets and filled one with soapy water the other half full with clear water. You take the clothes in the soapy water and scrub them together one by one, dunk them in the clear water, rinse them again from a huge “poly tank” and put them on the line to dry. I did this, but I don’t; think I used enough soap or scrubbed long enough. Needless to say, some of my t-shirts still don’t smell or look the greatest. This morning, after my run, I redid some of the wash and it is on the line to dry right now. Hopefully it will be better.

Trip to Kakum and Cape Coast...

Saturday I went with Rebecca Watt (Fulbright teacher from the US at another school in Accra) and Samuel (Ghanaian) and Kasa (Ghanaian) from Achimota School to Kakum National Park and St. Georges Castle at Elmina near Cape Coast. A very interesting trip. They picked me up at my house at 6am and they said it would take about an hour to get there; 2 and a half hours late were arrived in Cape Coast and still had 45 minutes to go to get to the park. I think that I am learning that when Ghanaians say a time, double or triple it and that is closer to reality. However, when we got to Kakum, it was neat. It is a tropical rainforest that has hiking trails and a canopy walk. They have taken not quite half a mile of rainforest canopy and suspended a path 40 to 50 feet in the air so that you get a very unique look at the area. There are only 4 canopy walks in the world so this was pretty cool. The park was neat, but it was definitely a very “touristy” location; many “Obrunis”.

We then left and went to visit Samuel’s wife and baby girl at Cape Coast University. Samuel stayed with his wife, while Kasa, Rebecca and I went to the St. George’s Castle. We took the tour and it was fascinating on many levels. In Springfield the Lincoln Home is kinda neat, the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is pretty cool, but this was different. The castle was built more than 500 years ago; white men were not even in America; Columbus had not sailed the ocean blue. In addition to its age, the most astounding part is that between 12 and 14 million slaves passed through the castle on their way to being shipped across the Atlantic on the Middle Passage. We were allowed to see the actual cells and the “Room of No Return”- the last time the slaves were in Africa before the Middle Passage. Still not sure how I feel about the whole tour, I think I need to let it sink in a little bit. We also visited a festival they were having in Cape Coast where the President of Ghana had come to visit. The traditional chiefs invited him and they paraded in with great pomp and circumstance. But also, from each neighborhood, there is one youth chief that paraded down the street. They were not allowed into the formal ceremony, but it was neat to see all the costumes and the dancing. They were all just having a good time.

We left and then need to “quickly” stop at Kasa’s village. Probably the most remarkable part of the trip. We drove about an hour from the main road over a very bumpy dirt road through these tiny villages with mud huts with no electricity or running water before we got to his village. When we arrived, Kasa went to talk to the elders about a scholarship that would allow any of the children that could pass a specific West African Standardized Test free secondary schooling. Meanwhile, here I am, sitting in a car waiting. Within 120 seconds, 40-50 children, 11 and under, gathered about 10 yards from the car and were just staring. I can assume that they don’t see cars that often, but it could be the first time in their life, that they have ever seen a white person. So I got out and was really nervous, but introduced myself (I wrote my name with a stick in the dirt and we all sounded it out), asked them their names and ages, and did a magic trick. It was really just kind of an eye opening experience. Places like Americans see on TV really do exist.

On the way back to Accra we were stuck in traffic and had not eaten so I decided to get a loaf of bread for a vendor to share with everyone. Kasa was in the front seat, so in Twi he called the lady over and asked how much for a loaf. She told him 5000 (about 50 cents). So from the back seat I handed it out the window to her and she looked at my hand, saw I was white and said 10,000 ($1). As soon as she saw I was white, or that a white person was buying the bread the price doubled. I have no problem paying 10,000 for the bread, if it is a fair price, but I told her no and gave her 5000 and that was fine. Everywhere I go people stare. Sometimes they will yell out “Obruni” (white person). They think that because I am white I have money. I have already seen people try to befriend me because they want something. It is difficult sometimes to have to be so careful as to who you can trust and not. However, the vast majority of people have been very nice and very friendly in a very forthright and honest way. Everyone that is associated with the school has been genuine with me thus far, which is nice to be able to fall back upon.

Arriving in Africa...

I left for Africa on Monday, September 1. The goodbyes were tough, but no regrets. I left Springfield at 2:20pm and did not arrive in Ghana until 1:20 pm (IL time)- 23 hours of flying is a long time (plus, I can’t sleep on planes). When I arrived in Ghana, I went through immigration without problem, got 1 checked bag without problem, but the second one never arrived. I had to wait in line for almost an hour to report a missing bag, (which still has not come in a day later) and then went through customs. I am not sure if what I did was good or not, but when I walked through customs I did just that, walked through, never stopped. There were officials sitting at desks helping other people coming into the country, but none of them said anything to me, so I just walked through. I hope that is ok. Then I left the airport to see a huge crowd of people standing outside the doors. I was hoping to see someone holding a sign with my name, but no such luck. So there I was; an “obruni” (white person) in Africa, at night, in a city of 2.5 million people, not knowing a soul, missing a bag, very little money, exhausted, and with no ride. I decided to hire a taxi (with a very nice driver) and he took me to a reasonable hotel that I could afford. I crashed there for the night and decided to worry about things in the morning. The next morning I was able to get a hold of my contact at the embassy and the headmistress and one of her sons who picked me up and brought me to Accra Girls School. They showed me to my new home for a year. Today, I was able to, not only be driven around Accra, but also went grocery shopping, ate fufu and got a local phone number. The headmistress and her two sons have been very helpful.