My Week so far! April 4th - 8th

Okay I left you all off on Monday afternoon, so we’ll start from Monday night.

Monday night I really did nothing, I uploaded photos from Cape Coast all night while playing Uno with people from the Hostel and then went to bed!

Tuesday morning I went to the school and helped out with the kids as usual and while I was at the school I found out that their last day of school before their 2 week Easter break will be on Friday, the 15^th of April. They cal that “Our Day” and on that day they will play games, celebrate Easter together, have a nice meal ordered for them, and have a dance! So that will be a lot of fun, the way the school here works is that they take three 2 week breaks a year. Two weeks over Christmas, two weeks over Easter, and two weeks in August, so it is different then our schools where we take 3 months off at one time.

Tuesday afternoon I did a little shopping around the market areas and bought 2 beautiful and colorfully decorated wooden maps of Africa! They will look great on my walls when I get an apartment. They are the exact size (but flat) of my suitcase, so that’s perfect. Things I buy here are generally for the decorating of my future apartment . . . so when people come over it will be like walking into Africa! Later in the afternoon, Jose suggested that we go to the beach because he really wanted to swim, so Kamal, Linnea (a girl from Belgium) and I put everything else (like washing clothes) on hold and went to the beach at about 3pm. Once we arrived on the beach we walked across the beach for 10 minutes so that we could be in a deserted area with no people selling things and hassling us! It was fantastic to have that part of the ocean to ourselves to swim in and a table area to ourselves. We swam right up until it got dark (and for awhile after it was dark, because it gets dark at about 6pm here). The waves are huge . . . all the time, I remember when I was young my cousins and I would wait for a rainy and windy day so we could swim in the “big waves” . . . here the “big waves” are bigger, more fun, and there all the time . . . it’s fantastic! There was a man on the beach that kept whistling at us to get out of the water, telling us we were too deep and it wasn’t safe, so we got out and then told him we all knew how to swim . . . and then he said ohhhh if you can swim then you can go back in haha! Ghanaians as a rule cannot swim, so they assume that no one can lol!

At night we went back from the water to our table area at the beach and two of Linnea’s local Ghanaian friends came to sit with us around the table (with a bonfire next to us). They talked to us all about the culture of Ghana and told us how to do a lot things here, how to deal with people without looking like a tourist, and a lot of the gestures and sounds to make in conversation to fit in as a “true” Ghanaian. It was fantastic to be sitting with these two guys, they were hilarious, but the real treat was that they just wanted to hang out with us and teach us. . . they didn’t want anything (no being hit on, or being sold something), so we could hang out and learn from them as equals (that happens rarely, this is the first time in Ghana I have talked to a local who didn’t want to marry me or sell things to me). They taught us a lot of Twi (the local dialect of their language here) and it has been very very useful over the past few days. While I am here in Ghana this time it is my project to learn as much Twi as possible. I can already hold a basic conversation with some of what I learned, so that is a great start! Here are some of the words and phrases we learned:

 Aitesen – how are you

Aye – Good

Enko yie – Things are not going well

Me yah – I am going

Wo yah – we are going

Me yah – also means I am

Yah frema – My name is

Mefree – I am from

Eeceoh – water

Me yeh ejumah – I work at

Wakachili – I am late

Mima Atche – good morning

Nanti ye – goodbye

Meda asi – thank you

Meda asi paa – thank you very much (can be used sarcastically when someone pokes fun at you . . . like “yeah thanks a lot”)

Seado – You’re welcome

Forso yenesa – continue (do that again) . . . (we were warned that this is usually only used in bed . . . so it’s like keep doing that hahaha)

Medawasi – means talking to one person

Kolo – crazy

Meia den ako – how do I get to

Ehyah heiyeh – how much?

Bo sa womme – clap your hands

Mekwaba – I am coming back

Oh mamei – Swear word . . . means “your mother” aka who raised you (this is a huge insult when said with a raised voice)

Ohchina – I’ll see you tomorrow

Oh mamei a denkchim – your mother is a crocodile (also quite an insult)

Me woe – I have

Pokchina – pork

Akwaba – welcome

Adein – why? (very useful with the kids at the preschool when they fight or laugh at

 people)

On a side note I also got a book from the roadside with sentances (140) translated from english to Twi, they are all ridiculous sentances that I'd never use but they are funny! It will be brough home with me so you can all see it then!

We also learned very bad hand motions to go with the swear words. If you put your left hand out with all of your fingers spread it basically means “F*** you). If you make a lighter or thumb war type motion with your hands, it means your mothers crotch (same Idea as “I slept with your mom” lol. So I am learning the basics of the language! This was my favorite night that I have had in Ghana so far (including the last trip) because I learned so much! Now around the hostel the hand motions that are bad are a big joke and we all use them as a joke to greet each other lol!

I feel like this time around I am immersing myself into the culture a lot more than the first time, I don’t feel like a tourist anymore, I genuinely feel like I am learning to be a Ghanaian, as if I have moved here. Probably because I am taking more risks, saying yes to every opportunity of being with locals, and putting more effort into learning about the people here instead of just sight seeing!

After we finished our hang out session on the beach at 9:30pm we went out of the beach and got a taxi back to darkuman! Very fun night that we discussed over the hostel table then went to bed!

Wednesday morning I went to the preschool and faustina gave me new dresses for free, a nice change to her gifts of Papaya which I don’t like lol. I helped out with the kids and used my newly learned Twi words on them and they were very impressed! When I said ahh Adein to them, they were shocked! The kids are actually listening to me more now because of the Twi, so finally I have a little bit of Authority over the children and I am not just an Obruni to them (and to think all it took was speaking some Twi for respect!).

Wednesday afternoon I went to a little pizza joint (yes pizza but nothing like our type of pizza) for lunch, which was delicious, and then came back to the hostel to do laundry. I had so much laundry built up from the weekend that it took me 3 hours to wash and rinse all of the clothes by hand and hang them up! So that took care of my afternoon!

Wednesday night we stayed at the Hostel and played Uno and other games while drinking wine. We drink lots of wine at the Hostel due to the fact that a bottle of nice (good quality international wines) wine is only 5 cedi (about 2.50 canadian). It is nice to just sit around the hostel table and get to know everyone’s different cultures in their countries. I am learning a great deal about Europe here! After all the games, wine, and conversing were over we all went to bed!

Thursday morning I went to the preschool and taught them a song. I taught them the “this little light of mine, I’m gunna let it shine” song. The teachers loved the verse about not letting satan blow it out, because currently they are teaching the children about the devil and how to avoid him and being tempted, also the concept of heaven and hell, so they said that song will help! The kids loved this song as well, so overall it was a hit and they were eager to learn and sing it! I really really wish that religion was still a part of schools in Canada, the kids at this school are so respectful and well behaved because they are taught to follow Jesus’s teachings. For example when they fight, the teachers always say “God says we are brothers and sisters, show respect to your brothers/sisters, no fighting” and they get the message right away. Also anything they do well they thank jesus for, and when they receive candy from me they thank god for bringing them me! Wish our Kids were so grateful for what they have and receive every day! They know that the consequences of misbehaving and doing bad things is more then just “getting in trouble” they know it is bad morals of them. The kids at this school are also taught to honor their parents . . . never see that in Canada at schools! I do remember when I was in Grade 2 school was like this, and I was a very well behaved child, then when things changed I still was because of my home moral teachings, but other children slid because they could get away with things . . because really how bad is sitting in a corner? But I can’t change Canada, so I shall enjoy the teaching methods in Ghana while I am here!

Thursday afternoon Anne and I decided to go to the beach (it was 42 degrees so swimming was a great plan) because it was anne’s last day here in Ghana! So we had a girly tanning session at the beach and got up from tanning every hour to go swim. I got hit on 7 times in the water . . . that’s not unusual but a tad annoying lol! But when you’re tanning you can pretend to be asleep and then the sellers won’t bother you! So that was a great afternoon, followed by a horrible taxi ride home. We wanted to stop at a Barclays bank on the way home to get money out, but the taxi driver drove around on all the back roads for an hour and claimed to not be able to find one. So we had to tell him to get on a main road (which took time for him to get the concept of) and then sure enough there was a bank . . . I think he had rocks for brains  . . . why would you look for banks on rural back roads . .  . stupid man! Then when we got back he tried to charge more money and we said “oh maamie, dabbi dabbi” which means “general insult” and no no! He then changed his tone and took our original price (felt cool to swear at someone here though)!

Thursday evening we all went to a restaurant called zoo zoo (not far from here) to have a few drinks and say goodbye to Jose and Anne who were both leaving on Friday! They had a great atmosphere with hookah and great food (we couldn’t try either because it was too late, but it will be done in the future). Then we all came home and went to bed. We did find mango’s fallen from the tree and ate those as a snack before bed . . . mango eating is so messy, but sooo worth it! You peel it with your hands and it is all gooey and juicy and you suck all of the fruit (messily) off of the pit! Great night!

This morning (Friday) I went to the school and it was one of the children’s 5^th birthday, so they had sweets for here on a table and a photographer came to take pictures of the celebration for her. Esther was very excited about it all! They also had champagne for her (yes they give a glass 5% alcohol champagne to children on their birthdays) that I shook and opened so it did the fizz out thing! I have pictures of all of this to put on facebook! A 5^th birthday also means that it’s their last birthday at the school before they move on, so they make a big deal of it! After celebrating that, Faustina and I went to one of the children’s family’s house to visit them because the child from the school in that household was sick with cholera and hadn’t been to school all week. Faustina explained to me that when a child from the school is sick, it is a teachers responsibility to go and visit the family. So we did, and I was amazed at the living conditions, there were open sewer type rivers all through the community (pictures to come) and garbage and goats everywhere . . . wasn’t surprised about the cholera. When we got to their house, it was a group house where many of the student live so all of the parents were very happy to meet me (considering how much their kids talk about me to them) to know who “auntie Melissa” was. The child looked very ill, but we sat with him for awhile and he (and the family) seemed very happy that we came! Much more personal with the children then we would be in Canada for sure, but it is very nice to be that close to your students and their families! Puts new meaning to the very common phrase in Ghana “It’s nice to be nice”.

This afternoon I came back to the hostel, had some mango’s and wrote this blog! This afternoon I am going out to lunch to zoo zoo’s (to try the food and smoke the hookah) with anne and linnea to send anne off before her flight. Then later on Kamal, Linnea, and I will be headed to Kokrobite (hour away) for the weekend. It is a beach lodge called big Milly’s so our goal is to have a relaxing and fun beach weekend! I will tell you all about it on Monday!

Thanks for reading I will keep you all posted J