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

Slave Castles and African Atlantic Slave Trade

Okay here is a blog about everything that we learned at the Slave Castle’s. It is a little emotional and upsetting so be aware while reading!

First we went to the Cape Coast Castle. Cape Coast Castle is a fort in Ghana built by Swedish traders. The first construction of the Castle was in 1653 for the Swedish Africa Company named Carolusborg after King Charles X of Sweden. It was later rebuilt in stone.

In April 1663 the whole Swedish Gold Coast (what Cape Coast was called in that time when Ghana was just an “area” of Africa) was seized by the Danish. In 1664 the Castle was conquered by the English and was extensively rebuilt by the Committee of Merchants (whose Governors administered the entire British colony) in the late 18th century. In 1844, it became the seat of the colonial Government of the British Gold Coast.

The Castle was built for the trade in timber and gold. Later the structure was used in the trans-Atlantic slave trade (which is mostly what I will talk about in this blog). The Castle, or Castle and Dungeon, to give it its official name, was first restored in the 1920s by the British Public Works Department to be a memorial and museum of what happened during the slave trade.

When we first entered the castle we started our tour. We learned that Slaves were not just randomly round up within Africa. When Africans were sent to these castles it was because they were criminals and had been caught for something in their area. For men most were theives or they were trying to overtake governement officials, rebels basically. For women it was mostly adulterers that were sent to the castle. Once they got to the castle (after grueling and torturous journeys from their area’s of africa, where along the journey they were often brutaly beaten) they were evaluated on whether they were weak, strong, or sick. They had different set of three letters for each category. Once determined if they were sick, strong, or weak they were then “branded”. Branded means that the governors of the castle would take a hot metal cast iron with the initals as a stamp on the bottom of it, they would make the stamp part of the metal cast iron pipng hot, and then they would scorch the three respective letters onto the persons back so that they could be identified while they were in the dungeons. Once they were branded there were separate dungeons, 3 male dungeons and 3 female dungeons, the strong were kept in the same room, weak in the same room, and sick in the same room (male and females were separated).

The first set of dungeons on our tour through the Castle were the male dungeons. These dungeons were about the size of an average persons living room, but there were on average 550 slaves kept in each dungeon. The dungeons are all underground and in each dungeon there was only a very small window close to the ceiling for ventilation and light. They were just empty rooms all cement bricks and so people were shackled and chained to the floor at their ankles, neck, and wrists in sections by the letter of their first name. All along the walls about a 2 feet up from the floor were letters of the alphabet that encircled the room to separate people. The guide told us that at most times these two feet from the floor was filled with the slaves own urine, feces, and vomit. This really hit a hard spot for me because to imagine people living for months on end before they got a slave job to do, they were living in a dark cell in a pool of their own waste . . . . It sounds horrible I know, but standing in that same room made it even worse. The guide turned off the lights (that were not there at the slave time) and closed the dungeon door while giving us all this information so we could get a feel for how it would have felt. They were fed yam, rice or fish once a day, and were given water once a day, but a lot of the emprisoned slaves tried to starve themselves, and if they were caught doing that they were immediately traded to be a slave in another country where “the white man” would be brutal to them. The slaves that were traded of to the North American Countries were generally the men in the “strong” dungeon room, then it moved to the “weak” and the guide said that the sick normally died in their respective dungeon. The “weak” dungeon room had a door of no return where people tried to escape but ended up dying. Also in this room there was a room the size of a closet where they put the sick to die! Directly above the male “strong” dungeon the castle governor built a protestant church. This was often refferred to as heaven and hell (heaven being the church, hell being the dungeon below) The female dungeons looked very similar and worked the same way.  

When they were traded they were sent through the “door of no return” which was the only door leading outside to the coast in the castle, and it was the height of about your waist, and it was a very slender door. So they (while still shackled) were made to crawl outside of this door into sunlight for the first time in months to years, where they were immediately greeted by the North Americans and beaten while they were put on boats for them (aka us). A lot of the slaves were blinded and experienced blindness for quite some time after being outside because they had been in the dark for so long, the North Americans (us) usually beat them the entire way back on the boats trying to “beat the sight back into them”. Now imagine being me as a white person going through this tour and learning about how brutal and horrible we were . . . . I felt like crying most of the tour but I managed to hold it together . . . but it was like “foot in mouth” syndrome embarrasingly multiplied by hundreds L!

The next day on Sunday we went to the Elmina Castle. Elmina Castle was built by Portugal in 1482 as São Jorge da Mina (St. George of the Mine) Castle, also known simply as Mina or Feitoria da Mina) in present-day Elmina, Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast). It was the first trading post built on the Gulf of Guinea, so is the oldest European building in existence below the Sahara. First established as a trade settlement, the castle later became one of the most important stops on the route of the Atlantic slave trade. The Dutch seized the fort from the Portuguese in 1637, and took over all the Portuguese Gold Coast in 1642. The slave trade continued under the Dutch until 1814; in 1871 the Dutch Gold Coast, including the fort, became a possession of the British Empire.
By the seventeenth century, most trade in West Africa concentrated on the sale of slaves. São Jorge da Mina (Elmina Castle) played a significant part in the Atlantic Slave Trade. The castle acted as a depot where slaves were bought in bartering fashion from local African chiefs and kings. The slaves, often captured in the African interior by the slave-catchers of coastal tribes, were sold to Portuguese traders in exchange for goods such as textiles and horses. The slaves were held captive in the castle before exiting through the castle’s infamous “Door of No Return” to be transported and resold in newly colonized Brazil and other Portuguese colonies.

So in this castle the slaves mainly went to Europe, Portugal, and South America. So that wasn’t us, but equally as bad.

In this castle I found there was much more authentic untouched antiques and materials. It is less renovated (than Cape Coast Castle) and so you can see markings, stains, evidence of struggles, and original cement bricks and wood. The Dungeons and the basic structure of this castle was the same as cape coast castle, as well as how they branded slaves and the conditions that they were kept. In some of the dungeons that we saw here there were still embeded fingernails and evident scratching marks of the prisoners trying to claw their way out of the dungeon, or if they were suffering while dying . . . It was a hard thing to be standing in front of! Also they had three of the original prison bars that were laid against they wall and in the rust you could see the finger prints. We also saw the actual shackles that were used at the time with blood stains still on them. Very heartbreaking, looking at this raw evidence and material brought a lump to my throat.

There were also cells for prisoners at the castle. There were two side by side. One was for foreigners (north americans, europeans, and south americans) who did crimes and they only stayed in that cell for a day. The cell beside it was called the death cell and it was for the slaves within the castle that disobeyed, or for slaves that were deemed useless once the “foreigners” got them and sent back. Above this cell was a skull and cross bones to signify death. This is because when the slaves were put in this cell for whatever reason they never came back out. They were given no food or water and starved to death. The bodies were only cleaned out of this cell once a month, so most prisoners in this very very tiny cell were surronded by dead bodies, a prediction of what they would soon be. We saw shrines to the dead prisoners and some of the bones which we were not allowed to take pictures of . . . understandably. But the only ventalation for these two cells was a window on the top of the wall in between the two cells, so the foreigners could hear the slaves dying. Pitch black cells.

At this castle there was a “door of no return” to the outside coast to be traded that is very similar in size to the Cape Coast Castle. The same type of situation happened as well.

At the top of each of these Castles there was the Governers Chambers which were ridiculously nice in comparison to the rest of the castle . . . quite disturbing really.

At the end of the tour there was a big plaque saying how they remember those who died and they are doing everything in their power to make sure that this kind of injustice never happens again.

The slave trade is sometimes called the Maafa by African and African-American scholars, meaning "holocaust" or "great disaster" in Swahili. Some scholars, such as Marimba Ani and Maulana Karenga use the terms African Holocaust or Holocaust of Enslavement. After being inside of these castles and learning what I did, I can understand why they would refer to it as the African Holocost.

I hope that you enjoyed learning about all of the things I learned at Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle. Please check my facebook for the photo’s  . .  . They are more shocking then all of this information was . . .

My Weekend In Cape Coast!

Now, time to tell you all about my weekend trip to Cape Coast!

Friday afternoon Kamal and I set off for the STC bus station, when we got there we had to wait an hour and a half for the bus to show up (it was 45 minutes late . . . right on time for Ghana Maybe time) then we got on the bus. When we got on the bus, the bus reversed about 10 meters and then made a loud noise and started smoking . . . sooo we all had to get off the bus. They assured us that another bus was coming right away, 2 and a half hours later a bus came. People were so angry during these 2 and a half hours, they were yelling in twee and and flailing their hands about . . . that was very funny to watch. The real funny part was that at the station there was a full lot of perfectly good buses, we had a driver, but no they didn’t use one of the buses sitting right there, they called a bus already on the road and waited 2 and a half hours for it to come to the station full of working buses . . . . logic at it’s best! Kamal and I turned on the mp3 player and started jamming out to some music, the angry people laughed at us quite a bit, then went back to being angry lol! Finally we got on the bus that came for us, Once we got on we just sat in the first two seats we found, then some guy came on and said we had to get up because we were supposed to be sitting in our assigned number seat. Stupidly we did and he took our seats, when we went to find our numbers two people were sitting there and said assigned seating was not followed here, so at that point we knew we had been screwed out of seating haha! So we stood there on the bus while for 20 minutes the Ghanians argued in twee about where to sit the Obruni’s (they said obruni a lot and were pointing to us and seats so we knew that was the case) eventually people moved and told kamal to sit in a seat at the back and me to sit towards the front by the window (again logic at it’s best). People here argue over every decision they have to make among themselves . . . stupid really haha! Then we were on the bus and on our way to Cape Coast! The bus ride was fairly uneventful, except the man next to me saw on my mp3 player the name of the song “she thinks my tractor’s sexy” and he wanted to know what a tractor was, so I explained and he listened to a bit of the song . . . . I still don’t think he understood, but it was very funny!

We arrived in cape coast at 9:30 then immediately got a taxi to the Hans Cottage Botel where we were staying. The Taxi driver wanted to come back in the morning for us but we knew it would be expensive for a taxi driver to escort us around all day so we said no and opted for tro tro’s! So when we got to the botel it was 10pm and we sat in the restaurant area and listened to a live reggae band while eating and drinking African wine! The food there is fantastic, they had stroganoff, curry pasta, cheeseburgers, steak, and even cake for desert! That night we went back to our room (we opted for the cheap style room, which was two twin style beds in a small room with a fan, and shared public bathrooms and showers outside) to go to sleep, and found it very hard because the crickets were soooo loud, I have never heard so many crickets so loud! The sleep was good though, after such a hectic travel day!

Saturday we woke up at 7am and got some breakfast, they have a buffet for breakfast there. The service at Hans Cottage Botel was terrible, they took forever to come take your order, took forever to get you the food, and made you get your own drinks . . . so a buffet in the morning was nice because it meant no waiting! We ate breakfast and met up with a guy that we knew from the hostel previously named Leon, he’s black, 6 ft 8 and is from Texas. He was new here so he wasn’t familiar with taxi’s ripping you off, so he got a taxi to come for him in the morning, we told him to ditch that and come with us on tro tro’s! We walked out towards the road and the taxi driver said it would be 44 cedi for the day for him and we quickly said no to that, but he kept bugging Leon saying that even if he didn’t take the taxi that Leon owed him 10 cedi for driving out there, we thought that was crap and told Leon to keep walking and ignore it . . . . but for some reason he paid it . . . craziness! So then went out to the main road to find a tro tro to Kakum national park. This took some time because the main road was pretty empty (in the middle of nowhere). We got to Kakum at 9 and started the canopy walk tour at 9:30. I did this tour last year but Kamal really wanted to do it so I went again. This time around it was very hot . . . it was about 38 degrees on Saturday and so climbing the hill up to the canopy bridges caused a lot of sweat! But we got up to the canopy bridges and walked over top of the rain forest on those. They are roped bridges that are quite narrow and shaky . . . it is an experience for sure! The bridges are 40 feet from the top of the rain forest . . . so they are pretty high up there. We saw no wildlife while we were in Kakum this time, last year I saw snakes and things, but I think this time it was too hot for wildlife to be close to the trails! At the end of the 7 bridges we realized that our guide was in the reggae band that plays at the botel at night, so that was funny! That’s all I really have to say about Kakum, there’s a lot of trees and the bridges were high. . . . yeah.

After we finished at Kakum we took a tro tro to cape coast, which was hot and over crowded as usual. We got to Cape Coast central area and got a taxi to the cape coast castle. The cape coast castle is where all the slaves were kept, and all the trading of them happened. This was a very very emotional tour, and I learned a lot about the slave trade and the time period that I didn’t know . . . It made me ashamed of our past as a North American culture, and feel really sorry for the culture here. I will be writing a separate blog after this one to tell you all about the slave castles because there is so much to tell! It was very hot at the slave castle throughout the tour so by the time it was done we were drenched in sweat and completely overheated. So then we went back to the Botel.

Hans Cottage Botel is a funny place, it is on top of a lake which is filled with tame crocodiles that you can pet, there are naked statue children everywhere, it has a fancy pool, and it is called a botel . . . I’ve heard of motel’s and hotel’s but never a botel. I think it is supposed to be a play on words between boat and hotel . . . but if that’s the case shouldn’t it be boatel?? Who knows lol! So when we got back to the botel we immediately went swimming in the pool, it was quite crowded with Ghanaians (because they can come into the botel and pay to swim for the afternoon) but luckily people from Ghana cannot swim, so they were all crowded in the shallow end, so Kamal and I had the deep end to ourselves! It is very funny to watch Ghanaians swim, they try, but the use so much force when starting off that they sink and then just stand up and splash water on themselves or sit in shallow enough water and stay there. I don’t think I have ever seen a black competitive swimmer though . . . just not their thing haha! Then after that we went for a walk around the botel to find crocodiles and we found lots, but we couldn’t touch them because they were resting on ground to close to the water, and the staff said that they might have gotton angry, so we kept our distance and just took pictures! After that we went swimming again, then went to the restaurant for supper (which took 2 hours haha). We drank more wine and listened to the reggae band, but had a very early night because we had a very hot, long , and emotionally draining day. On the way to our room to go to bed we found a centipede the size of my foot (look for the photos on facebook soon), which was kind of frightening. Then we went to bed.

Sunday we got up early at 7am again, had another breakfast buffet while watching the birds (there are lots of herons, pretty yellow small birds that resemble humming birds, and other sorts) then Kamal and went out to the street to find a tro tro to Elmina. On the tro tro to elmina there was a lday who got on that was carrying a live chicken by it’s wings and it was clucking bloody murder haha . . . once she put it on her lap it was quiet though . .  I got a picture of that! Once we were in Elmina we went on a tour of the Elmina castle (another slave castle). This was just as hot of a tour and was very similar with slight differences to the Cape Coast castle (I will write about this one as well in my next blog). After we finished there we walked out to get a tro tro back to the botel. On our way out we were hassled by locals selling things quite a bit, but I was more hassled by a man wanting to be my “friend”. I told him that was fine but I had a fiancé back home (I don’t but it works), but he said that didn’t matter here in Ghana because my fiancé was not here, so he said that we should go talk somewhere . . . I was very ticked off at him at this point and Kamal was ticked off at people trying to sell him things so we just got in a taxi. Once we were in the taxi people started yelling at him for being rude and not buying, and this guy kept asking for my number, I told him I didn’t have a Ghana phone and my Canadian phone didn’t work here. At that point a bunch of his friends started yelling at me for not being nice and for lying about not having a phone. . . . ugh so I said that I thought he was being very rude for asking for my number when he knew I was engaged and he should be ashamed, then we told the driver to go! What a hassle!

We got back to the botel and went swimming for and hour from 11 – 12 and had the whole pool to ourselves! Then at 12 at the botel they feed the crocodiles and they all come up to shore, so we went to do that. For 2 cedi they let you feed raw chicken to the crocodiles on a stick, so we did that and got lots of pictures and after they were fed we could touch them and take pictures! That was really fun, I felt kind of like the crocodile hunter lol! After that we met some girls from the states who were staying in Accra as well doing a medical rotation here, so we went to the STC bus station with them to catch the 3pm bus back to Accra! It was a long wait there because we arrived there at 2 to ensure we got seats and the bus was late yet again and arrived at 4. We ate at the restaurant there though and got to know each other. We finally got on the bus to come back to Accra and were all squished in the back seats for the ride home! This would have been great, but we got as far as the city limit of Accra right where the city starts and the bus broke down . . . we were cursed with buses this weekend I think. They told us another bus was coming to pick us all up and to wait, but we opted out of waiting because god knows how long that could have taken . . . so all 5 of us got in a taxi and were dropped off at our own area’s of the city. Because the university (where 2 of the girls were) is on the opposite side of the city we got a nice tour of Accra! The city is much bigger then Toronto or Montreal . . . so it takes a long time to drive around it. We finally got back to the hostel at 8pm.

Once we were home at the hostel we told everyone about our horrible STC bus adventures and our wonderful Cape Coast adventures and then went to bed!

Today I just went to the school in the morning and then came back to the hostel and started blogging!

Be sure to read my next blog which I will be starting now about the Slave Castle’s . . . but be warned it is eye opening! Also tonight I will be posting pictures of the entire weekend including pictures from the Slave Castles on facebook!

Pre Weekend News :)

Ok, I have a lot to write about, mainly about my weekend, but we’ll start with Wednesday night where I left you off.

Wednesday night we were going to go to Reggae night at Labody beach, but we were all very comfy here and kind of lazy so we just stayed at the hostel. It was good that we did because we got to meet more new comers to the hostel, Toby and Eric from Sweden. We got aquainted with them and played more Uno and went to bed.

Thursday I didn’t do a whole lot of anything. I went to the preschool in the morning and helped out as usual, then in the afternoon I went to the bank and bought STC bus tickets to cape coast for the weekend, then came back and hung out at the hostel all evening with everyone here playing 20 questions and talking.

Before I get started on the weekend trip, I will go over Friday morning at the preschool for you.

Friday morning I went very early to the preschool and brought them toffee’s for their game time. First though, they were having their worship time, singing songs and this particular morning they were learning about the story of Joseph (I really wish I brought the musical for them to watch). This was a very fun morning of games after that, they even got me dancing in one of their games haha! The big news I have however I was told about on Friday . . . so I will fill you all in!

The money that I and my church has fundraised towards the school was supposed to go towards building a classroom for the four year olds. The bank draft of all this money that I gave Faustina is still in the bank because in Ghana they hold these cheques for 6 weeks (so in 4 weeks when I leave Faustina will have access to the money). Right now Faustina is renting the lot that the preschool is on from a landlord, now this landlord is not gung ho on a new classroom being built on his lot, and he has a lot of restrictions on what the kids are allowed to do as to not damage the property. Uncle (minister at the church that owns the preschool, and owner of the hostel I stay at) has bought a new bigger piece of vacant land about 3 blocks from where the preschool already is, and he is giving that to Faustina as a gift from the church here. Faustina has asked if it would be ok if when she gets the money that we fundraised if she uses it for the construction of a completely new school on this new land! I said that was a great idea, this way she will own the land, not have to pay rent, and have more freedom with the kids. It also means that the childrens monthly tuition will go down from 9 cedi a month to 5 cedi a month because she won’t have to cover rent, great for the kids and their families! So with all that being said, my presentation when I get back will be very short, because things won’t start happening until I leave. But that also means that I will have to come back for about 2 weeks to see the new school and paint the churches name and my name on the wall. Uncle and Faustina have promised me that they will keep me updated on the progress of everything while I am in Canada, and they will let me know when it is finished (which Uncle predicts will be late September or early October) so that I can come see it! I honestly think that this will be better for the school, and am happy that I have made it possible for them to build a new school and get away from the situation they are in now! This of coarse may mean more fundraising when I get back!

There’s my pre weekend summation for you all I will leave this post at that and put my weekend adventure in my next post (which I am writing now so it should be up within the half hour of this one!)

My Weekend and Half of the week!

Well here is another blog for you, I will be updating my blogs more regularly now because I got an internet modem stick for my laptop so I don’t have to go to internet cafe’s! I left you on Friday afternoon so we’ll start with Friday night!

Friday night Kamal, Jarkob, Anne, another guy, and I went to karaoke at Champs (the bar inside the paloma hotel). Because we were 5 people we had to squeeze into a cab, this was fine until we got to a police block and the taxi driver noticed. He pulled over and told us that one of us would have to get out and walk to the next block so he could pick that person up there . . . so two of the guys got out and walked down the road. The taxi driver went through the police check and then turned the next corner to pick the guys up. I thought that was fraud at it’s best haha! We got to karaoke, and it cost 10 cedi (7 dollars) to get inside, once we were inside they informed us that with our entrance ticket we could receive 5 free shots of tequila (you can imagine how the night went from then on LOL). So we got the shots and took all five at once then proceeded to pick songs (maybe that’s how they get all the locals to sing haha). For all my karaoke friends out there, there were only about 120 songs to pick from (no country at all) so I sang: Rehab, Africa, Killing me softly, the way you make me feel, and Hallelujah. Kamal and I also got up to sing “It wasn’t me” by Shaggy because we heard it in taxi’s all the time and thought it was funny that Ghanians still love it . . . . after all that tequila it was an epic performance! They all loved killing me softly when I sang it, they were loudly singing along, and were doing the gangsta rap actions to it as well . . . epic (couldn’t help but think of Sophie while I was singing it though L) They also had Jager Bombs at this bar for the same price as at the alehouse too . . . . so Kamal and I were happy campers for the night! On the Cab ride home we were all quite drunk, and there were a lot of road blocks (as there always are at night here) and that was fine . . . until at one of them the taxi driver got out of the car and was talking to the military policemen for a long time . . . we were all hysterical and thought we were going to a Ghana prison. Luckily we did not wind up in prison and we made it home! When I got home I drunkenly took a shower with a cockroach and talked to it . . . funny how they don’t terrify me when I am in that state haha!

On Saturday none of us woke up until noon. We had lunch, and then Anne, Jarkob, and I went to the beach for the afternoon. Kamal wasn’t feeling up to it lol. At the beach we swam and tanned and all those wonderful things. I also bought a very nice full size twin quilt hand sewn with all the ghanian fabrics you can buy here. Then two “rasta” guys came to sit with us saying they wanted to be our friends and learn about our countries. They were interested in Finland (Jarkob), Canada (me), but when it got to Germany (Anne) they were not as interested and called her cheap lol. They got really annoying after awhile because after the “friendship talk” they kept trying to bring us to their shop to sell us necklaces, and they kept asking us to stay into the night and party like a rasta with them. . . . that was our queue to head back to the hostel!

Saturday night we caught up with Kamal who had been sitting here all day. He wanted to make it a record 12 hours of doing that so we hung out with him. While we were sat doing nothing we played a lot of 20 questions games, and we saw baby birds hatching in their nest above the table we have here. That was like watching the discovery channel live . . . pretty cool! Then at 11:30 the power went out, and so we got lanterns and went on a bug hunt (because they all come out in the dark). We found lots of cockroaches (scary) and other interesting unidentifiable bugs. The power came back on at 12:30 . . . we thought about going to bed, but Mary Pierre was waiting for her boyfriend from Nigeria to arrive here and she didn’t want to wait on the street alone, so Kamal and I went with her. There is absolutely no one on the streets at that hour on a Saturday night  . . . but it’s kind of nice to see the roads that empty and not full of chaos. We even saw puppies running around J. The taxi driver that was driving here was completely lost so we talked to him several times on the phone trying to explain how to get to darkuman, after 2 hours of waiting we realized he was in dansuman instead . . . . stupid taxi drivers! So after he arrived we went to bed!

Sunday, I went to the Accra Mall to try and get a modem. I took a taxi there for 7 cedi which is a good price, but he informed me that there would be a working Barclays atm in the mall . . . wasn’t the case, so then I had to get a cab to a bank, he charged me 6 cedi when it was only a 2 minute drive away . . . I was angry and yelling at him to bring it down but he wouldn’t. At this point I am completely ticked off, but I go back into the mall to get the modem. I got to the mtn office where they sell them and they said they were out and would have more on Tuesday. This made my whole days efforts pointless and a waste of taxi money. So I bought a few things, a bottle of wine, and a hamburger to bring back with me and help my mood. The taxi driver on the way back said 10 cedi to get back to darkuman, but then we drove for an hour because he was lost (even though when I got in the cab he told me he knew where darkuman was). So when he finally dropped me here he charged me 12 cedi, argued with him for lying about knowing where it is, gave him 10 and got out of the cab. So to sum up Sunday . . . I was really pissed off and fed up with taxi drivers! They always tell you they know where they are going even when they don’t, and then they try to rip you off . . . these are the only people I don’t like in Ghana . . . Taxi Drivers!

Sunday evening we just hung around the hostel and played Uno . . . then we went to bed!

Monday I got up in the morning and went to the school with the kids. I was teaching them how to write their letters. They kept messing them up so I started to go around and put my hand over their hands and guiding their pencils to write, so they could see what the motion feels like and then getting them to write again and they did much better. The teachers were amazed and said they would have never thought of doing that . . . not surprising because they are not a very “nurturing” culture, but I felt pretty proud that I taught the teachers a technique for teaching! There was one child though, who was writing all his letters upside down and backwards, I felt bad for the child because my pencil guiding was not helping him, and I knew right away that he was dyslexic. But the teachers kept hitting him and saying shame, then they would send him back to try again. I tried to explain what dyslexia was to the teachers but they did not understand and said “so if we want him to write an M we should give him and example of a W” . . . my explaining was a lost cause. He unfortunately in a country that doesn’t have help for this problem will end up selling things on the street after preschool.

Monday afternoon was pretty uneventful except for the food. I went to the internet café in Circle, then went around the markets in Circle. I had my lunch there in the market at a Kabob stand, the stand just said “fresh meat kabobs” they looked good so I tried one. This was arguably the best meat I had ever eaten, so I turned to the man and asked him what kind of meat it was . . . . he looked at me and said, Guinea Pig! Yes I ate one of the cute little creatures that we keep as pets in Canada  . . . I felt sad for a second. . . . but they are very tasty to be wasted as pets haha! So then I got in a taxi to come back home and he offered me free taxi rides for my whole trip . . . . if I married him . . . great deal really haha (not really . . . I was a little afraid haha).

Monday night was very uneventful, we sat around the hostel and played Uno, until Lovespell came on of coarse. Lovespell is a Mexican soap opera that has been translated into English which they play on the local tv channel here at 9pm. Millicent (Auntie’s daughter who works here) always comes out to the common are to watch it! It is one of those ridiculous shows where there are lots of affairs with husbands and fathers and second removed sisters. They are trying to kill each other for inherited money, and the love triangles and stories get thicker and more ridiculous . . . but Millicent is sooo into it that she gets riled up when things happen, so half the fun of watching this show is watching her (we also make our own translations of what goes on haha)! Then after that we played more cards and went to bed!

Tuesday I woke up late to go to the preschool because I had some stomach problems overnight . . . from who knows because everything I eat is a little strange. When I got to the preschool I did the usual, help with writing, chase children, you know. Then Faustina bought me yet another bag of Papaya’s (Paw Paw they call them), she buys me about 6 every second day . . . I don’t even like them, but I can’t hurt her feelings, so I just accept them and bring them to the hostel where other people take them!

In the afternoon I went to Osu to get a modem (because MTN said they would have some by Tuesday) but I got to the office and they said they were all finished . . . so frustrated again, I walked down the road to go to the westernized smoothie and sandwich bar they have in Osu. On the way to that I found a man selling mtn modems on the street, so I bought one from him for 60 cedi and he said I would have to go back to the office to register it, so back I went with modem in hand. When I got there they were outraged that I had a modem to register . . . they said “where did you buy that, they are supposed to be finished so we can keep network fast” I said on the street, then they registered it and started talking angrily to each other in twee! I don’t care how mad they are . . . I’m just happy I got a modem! In this situation I benefited from Fraud! So then I got my sandwich and smoothie and headed back home.

Tuesday night we went to lovers inn (the bar down the raod with all the loud music) to watch the football (soccer) match between England and Ghana. They are soo into their football, anytime Ghana even has the ball they are cheering like maniacs, then if they get a goal (yes just a goal) they go nuts dancing and blowing horns, ect . . . some guy even hugged me after a goal last night haha. It was a fairly boring game up until Ghana scored though. England was ahead by 1 for an hour of the game, then in the last 10 minutes Ghana scored and tied up the game. It is a very overwhelming atmosphere to be in when you’re watching a Ghana game here in Ghana! While at the bar Anne and I went to the bartender and said we wanted a shot of whatever was the most popular alcohol here in darkuman, she then made us try a little taste of every local alcohol until the last one (which she saved because it was the most popular) which she gave us each a full shot of . . . and it was horrible, it was called cocoa and it tasted like coffee, chocolate, and cherry cough syrup mixed together . . .and did it ever burn! But hey at least now I know what the popular alcohol is here and can say I’ve tried it! After the game was over we came back to the hostel and played some Uno, then went to bed.

Today I got up and went to the preschool. At the preschool I taught them a new song, they are very interested in little songs and they know tons of chants and songs that they always get up and sing to have a break from learning. So I taught them a new one today. I taught them the “sally the camal has 5 humps” song . . . very common home but new to them. They did well with it but their favorite part was not the counting but the part where they got to go “boom boom boom” and shake around a bit. Still they learned it and it will help with counting! They want me to teach them lots of new songs this time around so if anybody knows any very simple kids songs, leave me a message with them!

This afternoon was very uneventful, I spent 2 hours washing clothes and towels and things (by hand of coarse) then I bought a very nice flat wooden carved and colored map of Africa with the names of each country carved in it and designs on the sides of the continent. That is going to look fantastic on my wall when I get an apartment soon! Then after that I ate a fresh mango for lunch and started this blog (which has taken an hour or so, so I hope you like my updating you all lol). Tonight we will go to Labodi Beach for reggae night. They have this every Wednesday night and they just set up a stage and have live reggae bands play all night, and you can dance in the sand! I will update you on how that goes soon J

I have posted more pictures of the kids at the school on facebook, so you can check those out as well! Again thanks for reading, I will keep you posted on my activities!

Little Update!

So on Wednesday Night we went to a concert of a lady from Cote D'Ivoire, It was fantastic. She has actually won a Grammy in 2010 too, so that's pretty cool! for the middle of Ghana, this was a very classy venue. There was an art Gallery and a fancy bar in the back, and it was a full size stage (just like at magnetic hill) with lots of lights, equipment, and seating! This woman had the most incredible voice I've ever heard, very talented, and she was getting people up on stage with her to dance! She sang in 7 different languages (none of them english) and all of her songs were about women issues or global issues.There was also an opening reggae band that was pretty kewl, the lead singer played a recorder . . . yes he was rockin out on a recorder like we had in grade 3 hahaha. Kamal and I were the only two people in the place laughing at that. When we got a taxi home, our taxi driver decided to take us on back roads in the middle of nowhere at midnight . . . we all thought that we may be kidnapped haha, but then we saw a sign that said "new highway construction, do not drive here" so then we realized why there were no cars (didn't make me feel safer though). Great night overall though, and hey it got us out of the hostel for a change!

Yesterday I did not do much, nor did Kamal . . .see the food in Ghana can take a toll on your stomach. All of the food is basically starch (rice, yams, meats, plantains, bread, eggs) so we were all feeling a little blocked at the hostel. We went out on a search for fruit which helps that, but on the way Nana gave us a "better cure" he gave us these seeds from a tree to eat (don't know what kind of seeds they were) so we all did. Only problem was that we were all bathroom ridden for the rest of the night. Problem solved though haha!!

I went to the preschool again today, and it was heartwarming. I sent them a big box of 24 cans of play doh at christmas time this year (they don't have that in this country) and today they were making things out of the play doh. Of coarse being the big kid (inside) that I am, I joined in! I took lots of pictures and will be putting them up onto facebook this weekend at some point! I want to take the majority of these kids home with me . . . so if I don't make it past the border and end up in an african jail, you'll all know I was stealing children haha!

At the school where I am they are very different in discipline, they hit the children often when they do something bad, but that is the culture in all of Ghana, so I have learned to get used to it! You know something though, these kids are much more energetic, but because of good discipline they are also much MUCH better behaved then children I have seen in our school systems!

Oh and also the other day I found out that Chemical waste from the hospitals is also dumped into the gutters on the side of the street. So add that to all the other crap! (definitly would get hit by the truck knowing that!)

There's not too much other news from here, Kamal and I have been spending most of our time being bored at the hostel (playing "bullshit" card game most times) and talking about the absolute humor of the way people act here (I will do a whole post in the future about the way people act). I washed alot of my clothing today as well which was quite a task (no washing machines here, it's all washed in buckets of soap and water by hand then hung up!) . . . I'll be a great housewife now though I suppose haha!

Tonight Kamal, myself, Anne, and a coupke others will be going out for drinks and some karaoke at the paloma hotel bar!

Talk to you all soon! Thanks for reading :)

Ghana the second time around!

Now the second time around my purpose for coming back is to build a classroom for the 4 year olds at the preschool where I was before. I raised 1900$ to do so and gave the cheque to the head mistress of the school on Monday! It was very exciting to do that, and it was great to be re-united with all of the children that I worked with before. Faustina says that the money will be enough to build the classroom, buy tables chairs and supplies for the school, provide vaccinations for a year for the children, and pay the landlord for the property for 3 months. Very exciting to know that my money is going a long way!

At the preschool so far I have been helping out mainly with the 2 and 3 year olds, this means diaper changes, bottle feeding and baby food feeding, chasing (lots of chasing), and holding the toddlers when they cry (which is a lot for no reason lol). As cute as these children are (and they are very very cute . . . part of me really wants black babies now) I would have to say that this is the BEST form of birth control out there!!

I have decided that when I get back to Canada, weight watchers and joining a gym is necessary!! Here in Ghana everyone (and I mean everyone) that I knew before, pork lady, auntie and uncle from the hostel, faustina and the other teachers, Nana, and the hairdressers all said that I had put on weight and that I have gotton fat. They all have said it as a compliment, and they say I look better this way. I asked Nana why and he said that bigger women in Ghana are more attractive because it means they will bear children better and it’s a sign of fertility. Even though everyone here loves that I’ve gotton fat, In Canada that is not a compliment, so weight loss is essential when I get back home (won’t happen here with all the rice, plantains, yams, and meat lol).

There are lots of interesting people at the hostel this time around, I have met a guy from England named Kamal (originally from east India) who is my age and really fun to hang out with. He is volunteering at the hospital here and has lots of cool malaria stories so far! He and I have spent many a boring night here at the hostel so far talking about the different places we’ve traveled and discussing the funny things in Ghana.

For example, this time around I have found out the answer to my questions about people having toilets in their house . . . answer is no they do not, they have buckets in which they do their business, then those buckets are dumped into the open gutters on the streets! Now I finally know why those look so gross and why the city smells so bad!

Also the drivers here are still crazy! They have made crosswalks (which are new since the last time I was here) but they haven’t made a bit of difference. . . cars still don’t really stop for people. When you are walking on the side of the road you really have to watch your back to see if a car is about to hit you.

Now here’s the thought Kamal and I had, and are still laughing about. When you’re walking down the street you are walking very very close to those open gutters full of shit, piss, and garbage. Now if a truck is beeping it’s horn and coming up behind you close to hitting you . . . you have two options, A: Trip over quickly and fall into the gutter of crap, or B: get hit by the truck. We are really not sure which is worse . . . judging by how nasty the gutters are, I think I’d be better off getting hit by the truck! That is still a big fear though, losing footing and stepping into a shit filled gutter . . . I would never feel clean!

You never feel clean here anyways, you’re always sweating so you’re smelly, there’s dust and dirt clinging to you everywhere, and when you do shower, the water is also full of dirt so your skin still feels pretty gritty! I can officially call myself a dirtbag while I am here. But the wonderful thing about that is, is that no one cares because everyone is just as dirty and sweaty!

I got my hair done in the “Rasta” braids again, they are much less hot then my natural hair, and they are easier to clean due to them being plastic hair! So that’s good. While I was getting my hair done I had lots of very funny conversations with the local hairdressers (it took about 9 hours to do). Last time I was here I had a boyfriend back home that they knew about, so of coarse they asked about him. When I told them that I broke up with him because he didn’t want to settle down and have children, they said that it was good that I did that because there were lots of “fish in the sea” who do want babies haha! They said in Ghana that would never happen, and if it did the man would be shunned (funny). They also asked about my family back home and when I told them I had a brother, one girl was quite insistent on marrying him! She asks about him every time I walk past the shop now, she’ll say “ah, you did not bring me Andrew yet, you get him on phone and we talk ok?” haha, we’ll see what Andrew thinks of that idea haha!

I have been eating lots of wonderful street food, for breakfast there is a lady at a stand outside the school who makes fried egg sandwiches on sweet bread, for lunch I have been eating goat meat (in a sauce) with rice, and at supper Auntie cooks for us at the hostel so it’s always different things. Last night we had boiled eggs in a weird chili sauce with spinach and some sort of meat, it had the same texture as cous cous. Neither Kamal or I can figure out exactly what it was, good but that’s the first time I’ve eaten a whole meal without being able to define what’s in it lol! At night the pork stand opens and I go get a baggie of pork for a snack, it is marinated in an amazing sauce and you can pick your own chunks of the meat when buying it, best pork in the world! It is kind of sad that the prok lady remembers me though, the first night I arrived here I went to get some and she says “ah akwaba (welcome) no spices eh?” shows how much I love the pork lol! I have also had lots of pineapple which is delicious, they sell it to you and then cut it up right there for you and put it in a bag with a toothpick to eat! That’s service haha! The fried plantain is also delicious. I am still on the hunt for mango’s though!

My room is great, single room this time right off the bat so that’s good. The noise never stops here though, at night when you are trying to sleep the nighclub music is blaring and you can hear the commotion of people. In the morning the muslim mosques start singing (loudly) in a loudspeaker their “call to allah” at about 7am. So noise is always a given!

No cockroach sightings in my room to date. I raided the room pretty profusely when I first arrived so that is probably why J. Lots of cockroaches in the common area where we hang out at night though.

My legs are once again covered in mosquito bites, despite my constant application of useless bug spray . . . 30% deet is apparently not enough to keep them away. I am taking Malaria pills, but I was last time too and got Malaria anyway . . . so we’ll see how that works out!

That’s about all I have to say for the last couple days. Tonight Kamal, Mary Pierre, Anne, and Petra are going out to Osu for the evening and for supper, then we will be going to the alliance francais to see a concert. The performer is from Cote D’Ivoire and does drum beats and urban music with tribal paintings. It should be very fun! I will let you all know how that goes soon J

I have posted pictures of my first day at the school on facebook, so you can have a look at those. I haven’t been taking as many pictures this time around because it would be pictures of the same things from last year (pointless really). But I will be taking pictures of new things that I do and new places that I go, so keep looking for those!

Thanks for reading what I’ve got to say about things so far! I will write again soon J