Oh my – it’s been awhile!
I’m gonna be in Argentina tomorrow, and I haven’t even started blogging on Africa yet! I had a whole bunch of tests though, so that’s my excuse. 🙂 Next is Ghana, and I’m excited, because I loved it, but I’m also realizing how quickly I am forgetting countries! We only had 4 days in Tema, Ghana, but I absolutely loved it. It’s the most different port we’ve been to so far, and I would love to go back (any takers??).
The first day, I had a field lab that was required for my ecology class. For the lab we were going to a wildlife preserve as well as the Akosombo Dam, which created the second largest man-made lake in the world, Lake Volta (it used to be the biggest, but China surpassed them recently). I was really excited to go to the Akosombo dam, because it is featured in my favorite documentary, FLOW, about water issues in the world. But before we could get out there, we had to get off the ship first, which in itself was an experience. At our cultural pre-port (basically a presentation on the country we are given before we enter) they told us that Ghanains are very friendly, and to be prepared for vendors to hold on to you and follow you around. Also, they said that the majority of the girls would get at least three marriage proposals. Woohoo! So, I thought I was prepared. Ha.
When we looked over the railing of the ship that morning, we could see vendors already set up, ready to sell us anything our hearts desired. When we got off the ship, they were already ready for us, asking our names, leading us to their stalls, showing us their things, and telling us a price before we could get a word in edge-wise. They were extremely nice, and they weren’t doing anything wrong, but it was so strange to be so attended to. I didn’t much care for it, since I like to just look on my own time, but I got used to it, and chatted with a few of the guys about what they were selling and just life in general. I told them I wasn’t buying today, but I’d come back, and then I went off on my trip.
We left Tema on a huge air conditioned coach bus, and drove through the city to get to the wildlife preserve first. Oh Tema. Quite a city. There are many, many people and many, many tiny shops. There were goats and chickens and cows everywhere, and the women carried the food and goods they were selling on their heads (which was impressive – some of the things they had looked heavy!). The shops were tiny and made from scrap wood and corrugated tin for roofs. The best part about the shops was the titles. Ghana is one of the most peaceful and stable nations in Africa, and it has been that way for many years, despite the differences in religion that cause a lot of the conflicts elsewhere. Islam and Christianity are the two main religions, and they are usually combined with traditional African religious customs. So, because of the deeply entrenched religious traditions, the shops were named things like “Hand of God Sawmill”, “Faith is the Key Windows”, “Trust in God Welding”, “Jesus is the Answer Electronics”, “Holy Ghost Internet Zone”, “Judgement Day Phones and Electronics”, and “God’s Time Beauty Salon”. I did not make these up – I wrote them down as I saw them. It was pretty funny in some cases. Another thing I noticed was that I was a minority. It wasn’t bad or anything, just strange. In all of the advertising, I didn’t see a single white person – again, not bad, just a new feeling.
Also, the driving rules are a bit different in Ghana in that there are none. It got a little crazy a few times. Once we got out of the city, the roads were mostly dirt without much paving, and they had a ton of speed bumps. It was an exciting ride through the countryside. (also, as a short aside, we just came into view of Buenos Aires, and I can see the skyline out my window J ) The countryside of Ghana was very beautiful, some typical savannah, with yellow grasses, a few trees here and there, and some granite rock outcrops with forests on the small slopes. Here and there were some neighborhoods, some rather nice, while others where more like the scrap wood and tin roofed shops I saw. In most of the nicer neighborhoods I saw a lot of razor wire and walls around the homes. I’m not sure what they were trying to keep out, but they didn’t look like they were taking any chances.
Now, time for a brief interlude… I’m now entering the Amazon River! The first part of this entry was written quite awhile ago, and since then I’ve had no time to write! So, I’m finally gonna finish Ghana, and hopefully finish many more countries before the trip is over! Probably a good idea, right?
Alright, so we were on the bus, and after a harrowing ride through the city and a bumpy ride through the country, we made it to the reserve. The first thing we saw were a bunch of baboons running towards the bus. Apparently, they’re pretty used to being fed by tourists. They were huge. And their faces looked very dog-like. It was kind of creepy, to be honest. Then, we hopped off the bus and saw some ostriches – caged. It was interesting. It was supposed to be a preserve, but it seemed to be run more for tourists than for preserving the species it was intended to protect.
After a brief tour around, we jumped back on the bus to go to a cave on the preserve. On the way through the park, I could completely understand where the artists got the idea for Pride Rock in the Lion King. The grasslands were dotted with steep outcrops of granite rock popping out of the ground. When we got to our stop, our guide began telling us about the history of the cave. It used to be the palace of the local tribe’s king. They had council meetings there, and in times of war they would put the women and children in a back chamber and wall it up with rocks to protect them. We saw a few huge centipedes running around, and some lizards and snails. We later got to go into the back room, where there were a ton of roosting bats. Once you walked into the chamber, you were hit with a strong smell of guano. Guano is the bats’ waste which accumulates on the floor of the cave. It’s usually used in agriculture as fertilizer, and is actually pretty valuable. But boy does it smell! For a minute of two, it was almost hard to breathe! The bats were making their little chirping sounds, swooping around the cave, which was completely dark but for a tiny shaft of light. I could totally imagine the women and children hiding in the room, waiting anxiously to hear about the outcome of the battle. I could also imagine the little kids complaining about the smell of the bats!
We hiked back down to the bus, and then were on our way to our last stop – the Akosombo Dam. The Dam has a very interesting history. It was created to make hydroelectricity for an American aluminum company. The Ghanain Government put up 50% of the capital for it, but has only received about 20% of the electricity. The dam also displaced upwards of 80,000 people, and has increased the prevalence of AIDs, schistosomiasis and malaria in the basin. I personally believe that the bad stuff far outweighs any benefits, but it’s been done, so I suppose there’s nothing to be done. The scale of it was almost unbelievable. Our tour guide had been reluctantly pulled out of her nice desk chair, and so wasn’t in a great mood for taking tourists around. Despite that, it was very interesting, and an amazing sight.
Then we made our way back to the ship, where I stayed for the rest of the evening, just venturing out for a little while to talk with the vendors. It was very difficult to get into Tema on your own, and traffic is a free for all, so not recommended.
The second day, I went to Accra. Accra is one of the biggest cities in Ghana, and was a far different environment than any city we had seen thus far. When we got off of the shuttle bus that Semester at Sea had provided for us, we were swarmed again. Vendors were grabbing our hands (and not letting go), asking our names, asking where we were from, etc. etc. all over again. I was getting used to it, but still didn’t like it. We finally got away, and were trying to get to a market which was out by the beach. We were so turned around and had absolutely no idea where to go. We were wandering through a neighborhood made of cinder blocks, wood scraps, and corrugated tin, goats and chickens running around everywhere. Everyone was sitting outside, talking to each other, and having a pretty good time it seemed. The one thing that really got me though (being the environmental health person I am) was that the streets were lined with what were essentially open sewers. There was trash, stagnant water, and anything else you can think of in them. Aesthetically, it wasn’t pleasant, but I didn’t really care much about that. It was simply the fact that these people were living next to these things with a constant threat of disease. I think though, that Ghana might have bigger problems than infrastructure, and they probably don’t have the money for such large scale infrastructure as it would take to solve such a problem.
We continued asking people where the market was and how to get there, but seemed to be no closer to getting there. Finally, one of the men we met told us he would take us there. We followed him, and actually ran into a guy my friend had met the day before. He was on the way to the market too, since he worked there, and told us he would take over and lead us. The man who had been taking us became upset and angry, and was talking to our new guide in a tone that was not terribly pleasant, so I assumed it wasn’t good. Finally, he and his friend got rid of him and then told us that our original guide had wanted us to pay him and was upset. It was an interesting experience, definitely.
In the process of running around, our group had splintered off into smaller bits, so we now had about six people. We followed our new guide and his friend into the market, where we saw people carving drums, making necklaces, carving masks, and sewing bags. It was amazing to see them making these beautiful things, sitting under trees and carving into wood, stretching cowhide over the drums, and then playing them. By this point, our group had split off again, and my friend Lauren and I were left with our guides. She had met the one guy the day before, and I had been joking with his friend, Solomon, so we stuck together and they told us they’d walk around with us and “protect” us from the vendors. They were joking around, since most of the vendors were their friends, but they did take us around and introduced us, showed us all of the crafts and told us what some of the crafts and the symbols on them meant. I decided to buy a small drum, and was able to choose which symbols I wanted carved on it, and then was able to watch the design be carved into the wood.
We stayed in that market for hours, talking to vendors, doing some good natured bartering, realizing we wished we had more money, and joking with our new friends. The crafts were absolutely beautiful, and I was impressed with how well made they were and how hard the vendors worked on them. Just being in that market was one of the best experiences I had in Ghana, talking to the people selling the things they had made, how they made them, what they meant, how they learned to make them. It was great.
After we had finished shopping and were ready to sit, we asked the guys if they would take us down to the beach right next to the market. There was another neighborhood of corrugated metal and wood scraps right on the beach, and all of the shacks seemed to be stuck right on top of one another, with the pathways between them hardly big enough for me to squeeze through. We walked down the beach, and saw herds of pigs running around, goats and their herder, dogs, and kids playing in the water. We saw the traditional canoe-like boats they fished in, and were told they usually catch fish like tilapia, which are a large part of their diet. However, a lot of the fishermen are being out fished by commercial fleets from European nations. This has caused a huge emigration from Ghana to other nations where they can find jobs and support their families.
We began walking towards a collection of plastic chairs and tables with a covering over them, not quite a restaurant, but a place for the four of us to just sit out of the sun. The guys got drinks, but we just wanted to sit out of the sun, so we sat and looked out at the beach. It was beautiful, but had some problems. The first thing I noticed was essentially a river of raw sewage from the neighborhood running into the ocean. Again, another infrastructure and health problem. Then I saw that kids were swimming in the water, and I just had to wonder how often kids got sick from that sort of thing. But, it was normal and no big deal to them, so they didn’t seem bothered by it.
The guys got their drinks and opened them, and poured a bit onto the sand before they started drinking. Apparently in Ghana, it is traditional to pour a libation to the ancestors before drinking. That is one of the interesting things about Ghana: they are very devout Christians, but a lot of their traditional African religion is combined with it. We’re the same way in the U.S. though, so I always find it interesting when people talk about that sort of thing like it is something awful. A bit hypocritical, I think.
After sitting there for about an hour, talking about how much they like Obama, being asked whether we had boyfriends, talking about jobs and school, and family, we hopped up decided to start our way back to the part of the city where we would pick up the shuttle bus. On the way there, we ran into a bunch of kids playing in one of the open spaces in the area. Semester at Sea had brought a program on board called Global Grins, whose mission is simply to send toothbrushes throughout the world to improve health. We had a ton of toothbrushes with us to help with the program, so we began giving them to the kids. Suddenly, they started coming out of the woodwork – we were surrounded!
After all of the toothbrushes were distributed to the kids, who were happily pantomiming brushing their teeth, we got on our way. The guys brought us to the main street and got us a taxi, since would invariably get lost by ourselves. We hugged goodbye, and told them we hoped to come back someday and maybe we’d happen to run into them again.
Lauren and I were exhausted and hot, so after finding out the bus wasn’t coming for another hour and a half, we popped into a restaurant to grab some cokes and put our feet up. We hung out there for an hour, watching a soccer game and drinking our deliciously cold cokes. Then we ran over to a store that sold cell phone stuff, because she wanted to get an SD (I think that’s right… technology and I don’t get along) card. As we wandered around the city, just trying to waste time, it was getting dark, so we went to where the shuttle bus was coming and just hung out there, so that we wouldn’t get lost trying to get there in the dark. Some of the other students were there already, and one of the guys from the ship was having a dance-off with one of the vendors. All of us crowded around to watch them show off their moves, and we were all laughing with each other at their antics. We just hung out there, doing more laughing and talking, learning new names, and I even got a bit of my hair braided in a traditional style by one of the guys. That is the most amazing thing about Ghana. They are so friendly and kind. It’s amazing. People are so open and friendly you almost wonder if they’re being that way to get something, but they really aren’t. Whenever I asked natives what they liked most about Ghana it was always the friendliness of the people. They just want to share their lives with you and learn about you. It really was amazing.
When we got back to the ship, most of the vendors were out playing their drums, so we hopped out of the bus and went over to them, and learned how to play the drums. More laughing, more learning, more names.
We got back on the ship, and went to sleep, halfway done with Ghana.
The next day, I had a trip to the Cedi Bead Factory. Cedi beads are native handicrafts to Ghana which they have made traditionally for many years. They are made of glass, melted and fired in a clay oven. Our bus ride to get there, however, was an adventure in itself. To get us there, they put us in this huge air conditioned bus and drove us through the insane streets of Tema, the smaller dirt roads of the countryside, and finally through the impossibly small streets of the town where the factory was to be found. The huge bus was in no way small enough to get through these streets, but our bus driver was determined. I was actually very impressed with, if somewhat afraid of, his driving. However, as we were passing through one street, the bus got caught on something. After we finally got past whatever was holding us back, mostly due to the driver giving the bus more and more gas, we realized what it was. Our stupidly tall bus had gotten caught on some electrical wires which had been hung across the street. Our lovely bus had yanked them out, removing electricity to a good part of the town. We were all horrified. We told the bus driver to stop, to get out, to figure out what to do, but he ignored us and kept driving. Great, so now, all of these white American tourists in their huge air conditioned bus had just ripped out the electricity for a chunk of a small remote town in Ghana. Fabulous. We were all embarrassed and horrified and had no idea what to do. When would they get their electricity back? They were pretty remote, and services like that were rare enough as it was in some parts of Ghana. It was insane.
Still reeling from what we had done, but not really done, but still felt responsible for, we got to the bead factory. The workers there showed us how they made the beads out of glass from old soda bottles, powdering the glass, putting the glass in small cups in a pattern, firing those and creating the beads, and then rolling them in sand to polish them. They were beautiful. They showed us the different styles, and then told us about the big bead which they made. Cedi beads are used to show status, and the larger the beads the more influential you are. The largest beads are saved for the Queen Mothers, essentially the matriarchs of the community in which they lived.
Once we had learned about the history and process of making the beads, they took us to the market of the town, which was huge and crowded and full of cedi beads. We bought bracelets, necklaces, and earrings of the beads, all of beautiful colors and patterns. We finally wound our way back into the streets and then to the bus, which was determined to take us back to the ship, else we would be late. Why being late would be a problem, I don’t know, because none of us had anything to be there for, but apparently it was. So much so, evidently, that they had hired a guy on a motorcycle with huge flashing lights to drive right down the middle of the street, clearing cars out of our way. Cars were pulled off on the side of the road, some even in the ditches just so we could speed down the middle of the road in busy Tema. It was again embarrassing, shocking, and just unnecessary.
We were all happy to get off the bus and be on solid ground, using a means of movement which we could control. Meandering around the ship, four of us found out about a reggae festival that was that night, and decided to go out to dinner and go to the festival. We went to a traditional restaurant, where I got red red, a traditional dish of beans and rice and chicken and is pretty spicy, with plantains. We sat there and talked for a while, then called a taxi and headed to the festival. It was on the beach, and there was a large stage which looked like a billboard platform essentially, but was made of rough scraps of wood. There were some guys singing, wearing dreads that they threw around while they danced and sang on the stage. There were people everywhere, singing and laughing. One guy was going through the crowd on a horse… just meandering through the tables, riding his horse. A few Ghanain guys came over to our table and sat with us, just talking about people they had met from the States, showing us pictures and new music. It was a fun, but so random and casual that it didn’t seem like a festival or concert, just a bunch of people sitting in the same place and sometimes catching a snatch of reggae music. We left with our taxi driver and went back to the ship to sleep.
The next day, I had another trip, to meet some of the Queen Mothers of Tema. The Queen Mothers are essentially the leaders of the community, who check on families, help out with education and economic initiatives, and wield some regional political power. They are chosen in their 20s by community leaders, and cannot refuse to become Queen Mothers. They are essentially trapped into the role, but most fill the role with grace and generosity, and are honored by the title. Some do run away, they said, not wanting the responsibility. On official business, they are required to wear traditional clothing, including jewelry (like the Cedi beads), traditional fabric, and other finery. They told us about the projects they worked on, and the things they had helped do in the past. It’s a great idea, because they are able to act as mediators in the small communities where they live, and know the area intimately, allowing them to be effective leaders.
After that, I spent the rest of the day in the market by the ship, talking with the vendors again, saying goodbye, bartering, and purchasing some last minute things with the cedis (also the name of their currency) I had left.
Ok, so I know this one took me forever, and is really long, but I’m going to knuckle down and get the others done. They may not be in such detail, but I’ll get them to you! Sorry for the length of this one!
Ellen Crossing the Equator 