New year, new country, and new adventures to be had.

You heard right folks, this time I'm off to Guatemala! So I'm bringing back the blog.

I can't believe it's been over a year since I left for Ghana. I miss everything about it, and I miss it every day. Especially now, since it's winter. Every time I trudge along in the snow or scrape the ice off of my car before work, I just miss the beach and the sun and even the times where I would be covered in sweat in a crowded trotro because I think I'd prefer that any day to the cold and barren tundra of Minnesota/Wisconsin winters. I mean, I do like the seasons of Minnesota, but it's March and it's still snowing outside and I didn't really have to deal with winter at all last year so I'm a little bit impatient for it to end.

So it's time for me once again to head south, towards the equator. I'll be working in Panajachel, Guatemala for an organization called Mercado Global. It's a non-profit that helps Guatemalan artisan women escape the cycle of poverty by offering education, training, loans, and access to markets. It's main focus is empowering women and as a result, it works to alleviate poverty, malnutrition, and other such things.
Here's the website. I'm extremely excited to be working with this group. Not entirely sure on the specifics of my position yet, but I know it will possibly involve some outreach, as well as some work doing evaluations of training programs and things like that.

One thing I've been struggling with wrapping my head around though, is the language barrier I'm going to run into. Obviously, they speak Spanish down there, and while I've taken a few years of it in high school, I feel like my skills aren't nearly where they need to be right now. I've had a friend helping me practice my speaking quite a bit, and I'm hoping that I know enough at this point to get around by myself. I'm pretty nervous, but my hope is that through immersion, I'll pick up a ton while I'm there. I'm pretty excited about improving my spanish skills, actually. As much as I love German, it's not quite as useful to me in the long run as Spanish will be.

I am so glad I had the experience I had in Ghana because I feel like I'm a little more mentally prepared this time for culture shock. It'll be a different kind of culture shock, but at least I've dealt with it before. And I'll be there for roughly the same amount of time as I was in Ghana, too. It might still be pretty hard this time because I'll be going alone instead of with a group of peers. I will be working with people all the time, but when I go home at night, I'm hoping I won't get too lonely. I have to find my own housing, so I'll most likely be living alone. Which both sounds exciting and a little scary. But I'll be just fine.

Anyway, so things are starting to wrap up here in Eden Prairie before I go. I just told Walgreens--for what will hopefully be the last time--that I'm leaving, I've gotten all of my appointments and meds out of the way and checked off my list, and all that's left to do is work for a few more weeks, pack my suitcase, and say my goodbyes. So I just wanted to throw this post out there to let everyone know that I will be leaving on April 8th and that you should follow me here for updates and stories and general musings about my life in another new place!

“Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” – Miriam Beard

I apologize to all those who regularly read my blog. It's been a while since the last time I posted. I had big plans to do all of these top 10 lists related to my favorite things in Ghana. But alas, I opened up my laptop a week or two ago and about half of the keys on the top row of letters on my keyboard had stopped working. Which is unfortunate to happen right before finals, but I'm glad it at least waited until the end of the semester to break on me rather than it happening earlier.

So due to the inconvenience of posting from other people's computers, this may be one of my last posts. I may add more when I get back to the US, because I'm sure the readjustment to American life will be somewhat interesting.

Anyway, I have only two weeks left in Ghana to the day. And I can't tell you how weird I feel about leaving. There are so many things that I'm going to miss, yet so many things I'm excited to return to at home. Get ready for a mushy, sentimental post.

I may not have expressed many of my deeper emotions when I posted about arriving in Ghana, but now that I'm reflecting on my experience I feel okay sharing them now. Before I left for Ghana I had surprisingly few strong emotions about coming. I was excited of course, and I was sad to be leaving my family and friends for so long, but I didn't really feel all that much fear or anxiety about coming. But when I arrived, went through orientation and was dumped on campus with a week or two before school started and was trying to adjust to so much change at once, I initially felt really lost and homesick. Now, it's so hard to imagine leaving. What is it going to feel like being able to walk down the street again without sticking out like a sore thumb? Having access to all the drinkable tap water I want instead of drinking from plastic bags, and be able to even get hot water straight from the faucet? Having air conditioning and bathrooms in most buildings? (And soap and toilet paper included!) Being cold in 70 degree weather? Will I accidentally use phrases like “oh chale!” and “it is finished” and “you are invited” or accidentally throw in some twi phrases as well, and get strange looks? Are the African print clothes I had made here normal for every day wear in the US? (Even if they’re not, it won’t stop me from wearing them.) Will I accidentally snap my fingers after I shake hands with people? Will I forget to wear my seatbelt? Will I still feel that moment of panic that arises whenever I don't have exact change? And as my mom’s been joking about to me lately, will I try to bargain at the taco bell drive-thru? (I wish I could! How great would that be?!)

These are all things I'll need to figure out how to deal with when I get back. Just little things. It’ll just feel strange, but won’t actually be a problem. Also, I’m not going to know how to answer the question, “How was Ghana?” …I'll probably just refer people to this blog because it's hard to sum up four and a half months by being asked just that one question. Of course it was wonderful, but it was also extremely challenging at times, and experiencing life in a developing country just kind of changes the way you view the world. I've purposefully avoided that subject on this blog and just focused on my cultural and travel experiences, but taking classes on development and hearing the African perspective has been one of the most interesting aspects of being here. I'll definitely take that perspective back with me, because it's made me think about and reevaluate aspects of the way I live life in the US.

I also can't tell you how much I'll miss the people here. I've made really great friends, which of course makes it even harder to leave. Both my Ghanaian friends and the people I've had amazing travel experiences with have made this all the more unforgettable. And just the everyday kindness you receive from people you don't know. I've had wonderful conversations with taxi drivers, made friends with vendors (my favorites, of course, being Maame Louise and my favorite little girl named Rahina that sells me apples and bananas at the night market), and just been shown so much kindness from complete strangers.

One of my favorite views--the mountainous Volta region

I’m going to miss how beautiful it is here as well. Ghana has no shortage of breathtaking ocean views, beaches, country-sides, forests, mountains and valleys. Even the cities, though not quite as beautiful, have their certain charming qualities. (And the best/cheapest street food I’ve ever had.)

And since I’m being completely honest here, there are of course things that I won't miss. Mainly the oburoni comments (only when I'm in a bad mood), creepy guys asking for your number/asking to marry you, people asking me about my religious beliefs on almost a daily basis, people trying to rip me off because I'm a foreigner, and never knowing what time I need to be somewhere because the one day I happen to be on Ghana-time, everyone else decides to be punctual. But those were all part of the experience, and are only slight annoyances when overall, I've been extremely happy here. I’ve learned that it’s easier to deal with frustrations if you just shrug it off or laugh, and I think because of that I’m a little more relaxed and perhaps a little more patient than I was before.

I'm getting more and more emotional about leaving with every passing day. I’m feeling both sadness to leave and excitement to get back to the amazing people at home that I've had to do without for the past few months. But I have two weeks left here, and I plan on making the most of it. Turns out I will be able to go to the north after all, so I'll be able to go see some elephants at Mole National Park, as well as see the oldest mosque in West Africa, the Larabanga mosque. I also have two finals to take before that, but I'm much less excited about those…

And then on May 27th, I'm heading home. Back in Madison by June 4th so I can start a summer class and two jobs. Goodbye relaxing slow-paced Ghana, hello busy, stressful life back home.

Thanks to everyone who read this while I've been away. I really appreciate the love and support you all have shown me while I've been here, through facebook, phone calls, texts, letters, emails, etc. I can't tell you how good it feels to know that people back home haven't forgotten about me. :)

I love and miss everyone, and I'll see you back in the US! So-long from Ghana! Yɛbɛhyia bio.

It's a little late, but here you go....FOOD

I think since the semester's winding down and I don't have any more trips planned out anymore (I was going to go to Mole national park, but that fell through), I might just write some top tens for y'all. Starting with what I should have done a long time ago, which is the food in Ghana. Here we go.

Favorite foods. (In no particular order of preference).

Fufu and chicken with light soup

1. Fufu. This has to be first. Because it's so popular here and as so many people have told me, you can't say you've been to Ghana without having tried Fufu. It's really good! Though it doesn't sound as appetizing as it actually is. It's a ball of pounded cassava and plantain, and tastes kind of bland by itself, but it's meant to be served with either light soup (tomato-based with either fish, chicken, goat, or bush meat) or groundnut soup (peanut based soup with fish). Personally, I prefer light soup with goat or chicken. I don't like groundnut soup unless it's made without the fish. Also, another thing about fufu is you can't use utensils. I mean you can, but you wouldn't want to be caught dead trying to eat fufu with a fork or spoon. (Although I realize there is a spoon in the picture of the fufu...that's for when you've finished the fufu and are drinking the soup.) Everyone eats it with their hands. It can get messy, but it really is the best way to eat it!

Jollof with spaghetti, egg, and
sausage

2. Jollof rice. I ate this all the time when I first got here because I loved it so much. It's still really good, but I think I got all jollof'ed out after a while. But jollof rice is just this kind of spicy tomato-ey rice that's often served with chicken. You can mostly get it at these things called "chop bars" where they have giant bowls of rice and spaghetti and salad and stuff, and you ask for maybe 50 pesawas worth of rice, 30 pesawas worth of spaghetti, etc. And maybe a hard boiled egg and a sausage or piece of chicken. It's a cheap meal, and really good.

3. Fried rice. Self-explanatory. It's just normal fried rice with vegetables like you'd get at a chinese restaurant at home, but it's really really good here.

4. Egg sandwiches. Fried egg with vegetables on bread. I don't know why it's sooo good, but it is.

5. Meat Pies. I NEED to learn how to make these. I basically just eat it for the crust, because it's like the best crust I've ever had on anything. It's like a little semi-circular pie crust filled with a little bit of ground beef and some onions, but the pie crust is like maybe a little eggier than normal crust I've had...? I can't really figure out what makes it so good, but like I said, I'm going to find out, because I can't live without these things.

6. Fan Ice. I described these in the last post I wrote. It's like soft-serve vanilla ice cream in a bag. Fan-choco and fan-yogo are really good too. There are these men in blue shirts that walk around with carts and a little bike horn selling these things along with meat pies and spring rolls and I'm usually always listening for that little horn on really hot days. They're amazing. I need to write a letter to the fan-milk company telling them to export to the US because I don't understand why we don't have these at home.

7. Dough balls. These have some sort of Ghanaian name, but I can't figure out what it is. It sounds something like bowl-fruit, but I know that's not right. Anyway, it's literally just like a big ball of sweet, fried dough. And it's like the best breakfast ever. Though I'm sure they're terrible for you. But a lot of food here is terrible for you.

8. Hard boiled eggs with pepper. Women just sell these on the street everywhere. You buy an egg, and they peel the shell off and cut it in half and then spread this really spicy red pepper and onion spread in the middle and then you eat it just like that. It makes my nose run from how spicy it is, but it's so tasty.

9. Golden tree chocolate. Also mentioned in a previous post, but has to be mentioned again. It's not like typical chocolate in the US. I actually didn't like it at first because I bought the milk chocolate kind and expected it to taste like chocolate I was used to, but it's made with less sugar and more cocoa. I still don't really like the milk chocolate they make, but I LOVE the dark chocolate and lemon and orange chocolate. And of course, the chocolate spread.

10. Anything from Maame Louise. This woman makes my favorite food I've eaten here so far. She makes groundnut soup, but a vegetarian version that's really tasty, and vegetable sauce, rice, mashed potatoes, boiled yams, and she even makes muffins and cookies, and sometimes mango or pineapple bread. I get her food for dinner all the time. It's incredible.


Least Favorite Foods


1. Kenkey. Kind of like fufu, but made with maize instead, and it's fermented and really sour. Most Ghanaians, when you tell them you don't like Kenkey, tell you that you just haven't tried good Kenkey yet, but I don't see how there can be all that much variation...I just think they've all been eating it pretty much since birth, and are just very used to it. I haven't met a single foreigner who actually enjoys it.

2. Banku. I have no idea what it's made with, but to me it looks and tastes exactly like Kenkey. Maybe a tad less sour, but not much.

3. Fish. For some reason, I have disliked every type of fish I've tried since being in Ghana. I'm not a huge fish person to begin with, and the fish here just usually smells and tastes extra fishy. I usually avoid it.

4. Plaintains. I may be the only person on my entire program and maybe in all of Ghana who just can't stand plantains. I actually think they're fine when they're raw because they just taste like bananas, but I can't stand fried plantains. They're just really heavy and starchy and too sweet and sticky for me, but everyone else seems to love them.

5. Waakye. It's some odd combination of mashed beans and rice that I just don't care for all that much.

6. Shito. Fish sauce. (See #3.)

And I'm going to stop there because I can't think of anything else I really don't like. For the most part the food here took a lot of getting used to in the beginning, but I've learned to really like it over the course of the semester! So there you have it. What I have and haven't really been eating over the past 3 and a half months.

The Adventures of Akosua and Rasta

I wish I spoke French. New goal. I should master my German first, but I feel like if I ever want to come back to West Africa, French would be super useful to know. Not that we were lost the whole time in Togo, because it was surprisingly easy to get around, but I think I would just feel like less of a jackass walking around speaking English in an area where they mostly speak French and Ewe.

Anyway, our adventure began on Friday morning, when we caught a trotro to Aflao, which is the city on the border of Ghana and Togo. It should have only taken about 3 hours to get there, but it took more like five. About halfway into the ride, one of the back tires blew out. It was completely shredded. And it was quite alarming just driving along listening to music, then I just hear a loud CLUNK and we're all of a sudden lopsided and smelling burning rubber. Mmm. So we all get out so the driver can change the tire, which took about 20 minutes because there was some problem with the car jack or something, and then we all pile back in and we're on our way.

15 minutes later:

Spare tire blows out. The first time it happened, I honestly didn't mind at all, considering I had to pee really badly and it gave me an opportunity to relieve myself without asking the driver to pull over. This second time however, I was much less eager to get out. Because we happened to be fresh out of spare tires and the driver hopped on another trotro going the opposite direction to head somewhere to get another tire and left us in the middle of nowhere on the highway. And about half of the other passengers ditched and got on another one headed to Aflao. Chekwube and I opted out, considering they were charging an extra 5 cedis that we didn't feel like paying. So we waited, and hoped the driver would actually come back. (He did.)

Basket fail.

In the mean time, we had arts and crafts time and made baskets out of dead plants, because there was nothing else to do in the hour we had to wait for the driver to come back. And I walked down the street to buy a mango. Instead of buying one, the little girl who was at the stand gave me NINE for free! She refused to take my money, I think because she saw we were stranded, bless her little heart. I was so thrilled, so I went back and offered everybody a mango who was stranded with us. No one wanted any so I was like, okay great, what the hell do I do with nine mangos? So I ate two and Chekwube had one and I gave away the rest at the Togo border to this guy who wouldn't leave us alone and was offering unsolicited help and then asking us for money. So I handed him a bag of mangos instead. He seemed quite satisfied with that, so problem solved.

Anyway, so we got through the border just fine. I thought we were going to have problems, because there always seems to be frustrations when crossing borders, but it went smoothly. We got ripped off REALLY badly by a cab driver though when we got to the other side because he was clever enough to know that a couple of Americans are probably really confused by having to convert cedis to sifas. We were. And felt really stupid about it. But by the end I think we kind of had it figured out.

Our hotel was adorable. It was this cute little hotel down a side street off of the main road, which runs along the beach. So we were about a block away from the ocean. The rooms were tiny. Literally just a bed in a tiny room with a little bathroom, which we paid a little extra for because not all the rooms had bathrooms. It wasn't bad at all though, just small.

So after we checked in we headed out to just go walk around. We didn't know it at the time, but we walked through La Grande Marche (the grand market) and just kind of explored Lome a little bit. I love it there. They sell baguettes on the street! With this delicious avocado salad that they spread on the inside of it and it was incredible. Easy to make too, I think it was just avocado, tomato, onion, lettuce, oil and a little mayo. On a baguette. That was my dinner. Along with 4 fan-milk products. I don't know if I've talked about fan-ice, but it's one of the best things that's ever happened to me. In Ghana they have fan-ice (vanilla ice cream), fan-choco (frozen chocolate milk), and strawberry fan-yogo (frozen yogurt). But in Togo, they have fan-ice, fan-choco, VANILLA fan-yogo, fan-vanille (frozen vanilla milk), fan-lait (a slightly different tasting vanilla milk), and fan-cocktail and fan-joy, which are both fruity things. So with all these new flavors to try, we went a little overboard and bought a ton of them. I have no shame.

But it's not just street food that makes Lome awesome. It's a beautiful city, right on the ocean with so many palm trees everywhere. It was so tropical and pretty. It's also just a really interesting mix of people. There's a ton of Ewe people, because that ethnic group is split halfway between Ghana and Togo, and then most people speak French as well. And then there's also a few Twi speakers here and there since it's right on the border with Ghana. And then a lot of people spoke English as well, thankfully. Otherwise we would have been quite lost. But walking down the street in the market, people were yelling at us what I could only assume were the same things people yell at us in Accra, but we just couldn't tell what language it was in half the time.

Also, I have two more names to add to the list of things I now respond to. Afi, which is the Ewe version of Afia, and Yo Vo, which apparently means "white person" in Ewe. I don't know if that's how it's spelled but that's what it sounded like.

And the city was also cool because the preferred mode of transportation is motorcycles. They were EVERYWHERE. Like fleets of them. Being a pedestrian is terrifying because I think I almost got hit by one about 15 times. But they're fun to ride. I know what you're thinking…haven't I had enough? What with the infected burn from the exhaust pipe and whatnot? Well, I guess the answer to that would be no.

Dead monkeys :(

On Saturday morning we caught a motorcycle taxi (which the guidebook says they call "zemi-johns") to the fetish market. It was a traditional African voodoo market, and it was SO COOL. But also a little gross. We got lucky too, because my motorcycle driver, Ange, said he knew someone there so he came with us, and then ended up being our translator for the tour of the market because the guy giving us the tour didn't speak much English.

But there were all kinds of smelly dead animals there. Used for all sorts of things. For example, apparently dead owls are used to keep away bad dreams, and snake vertebrae are used for rheumatism, and dead chameleons are for people in love. Romantic, right? There were also dead porcupines, monkeys, crocodiles, hippos, horses, you name it.

And then the tour guide introduced us to the chief of the market, and they took us back into this little room where there was this voodoo spirit shrine thing set up. And the chief asked us for our names and asked each of the spirits to bless us with a long life. And then they told us a little more about the rituals they do and showed us more of the objects they use for the rituals. I just love that kind of stuff. Like cool rituals and whatnot. It was so great.

Then Ange took us to the Musee International (museum), but it's apparently closed until next month, so they let us look around the lawn at these statues instead and we could only peer inside the windows of the museum. Kind of a bummer, but oh well.

BFFs

Then we parted ways with Ange, who had hung out with us for like 2 hours acting as our personal tour guide, and from there we just walked along the beach for a while with some more fan-milk products. After a while we called it a day and headed back to the border. It was a short stay, but worth it just to see the city. It's one of those places where you don't have to do much. You can just walk around enjoying the view, so that's what we did.

We got back successfully without more tire blowouts, so that was good as well. And I managed to get one last avocado baguette sandwich at the trotro station before we left Aflao. Success.

Merekɔ Kumase

CIEE definitely knows how to spoil us on these little trips they take us on. Even though we've technically paid for it already, but it still feels like we're being spoiled. This past weekend in Kumasi, I took my first hot shower in 3 months. And I would have taken another hot shower before we left but both the power and the water went out right before I was going to. The hotel also had air conditioning in all the rooms, which made the hot shower that much better. I haven't felt that clean in such a long time.

Anyway, so Kumasi: we went from Friday morning to Sunday night. It's about a 6 hour drive to the Asante region (on a pretty rough road. In the US, the same distance would probably take about 2 hours by car).  Friday, we spent the day visiting another Kente village called Bonwire. Personally, I liked the Kente place in the Volta region much better, but this one was fine too. It was just that you could tell this one was frequented by tourists because we were swarmed by people selling stuff from the moment we got there to when we left. Even after we left actually, because some guy trying to sell us key chains actually ran after the bus while it was leaving. The one in the Volta region was much more informative about the tradition of making Kente, and there was barely anyone pressuring us to buy things. The one in Kumasi stressed me out.

Then we went to another village (that I can't remember the name of) where they make Adinkra cloth. It's basically just Kente cloth that they stamp Adinkra symbols on in a special dye that they make out of a certain kind of tree bark. Adinkra symbols are special symbols that were used by the Asante people back in the day that all have different specific meanings. The Adinkra cloth they make is traditionally worn at funerals, but it's been becoming more common to see it worn at other special events as well. The symbols are everywhere around Ghana though. Especially this symbol, "gye nyame" which means "except for God" which is a symbol of God being the supreme being or something along those lines. It's just one of those things you see everywhere, painted on the sides of buildings, or whatever:

And here's my personal favorite symbol, "Sankofa", which symbolizes the importance of learning from the past:

So that place was cool. They showed us how they make the dye and stamp the cloth, and we all did some stamping, and some people even designed their own cloths and picked out the symbols they wanted to use.

Yaa Asantewaa

On Saturday we went to see an Asante traditional home, which was really cool because it was actually the home of Yaa Asantewaa, who was the Queen Mother of the Asante people during the time when they were resisting colonialism. She led a lot of people to fight against the Europeans, and just seems like she was a really brave, smart, kick-ass woman in general. Unfortunately, she was captured and sent into exile, the Asante people lost the war and most of the traditional homes were destroyed, and now the one we saw is one of ten that are left. They're now protected by the UN.

The house was really interesting though. There were reliefs of adinkra symbols carved into the walls, and drums they used for communication with other villages, and there were some turtles just chilling in the little courtyard in the middle. And we got to try on this skirt thing, that apparently really wealthy people wore back in the day. Check me out, wearing a rich Asante person's outfit:

Me and my boyfriend.

So that was really interesting. And then later we went to the palace of the current King of the Asante people. According to my program director, the Asante king probably still has more power and influence than the president of Ghana. And they still have a Queen Mother as well, who is even more powerful than the king. She's over 100 years old though. But that's the one thing I really like about the Asante people. It's a matrilineal society, so women have more control as far as traditions go, and the Queen Mother is the most powerful person in the society.

I just wish you'd see that kind of respect for women in modern Ghanaian society, but unfortunately there are still a lot of problems with the status of women. I won't get into that too much, but it's been one of those things that upsets me about Ghanaian culture. But there's still a lot of different traditions practiced in Ghana, and gender roles play a very large part in those traditions, so I guess that's where that stems from. But anyway, it was refreshing to learn that the Asante people of Ghana honor women as more important members of society.

So after all that culture and traditional stuff, we headed to the central market in Kumasi to do some shopping. It's the largest open market in West Africa. And it was intense. Markets are always intense though.

Kumasi Central Market

First of all, as an oburoni, you quickly learn what names you're expected to respond to. My name isn't always oburoni. It can also be Akosua, Amma, Afia, Abena, Akua, or Adwoa. It's actually gotten to the point where I will automatically turn my head whenever I hear any of those names shouted in my immediate vicinity. And about 90% of the time they are, in fact, talking to whatever oburoni happens to be in the area. They yell out any one of those names randomly because those are the day names--people in Ghana are often named based on what day of the week you were born on, so those names happen to be the ones for women (minus Yaa, which is the name for Thursday). The male names are: Kwasi, Kwabena, Kweku, Kwame, Yaw, Kofi, and Kojo. None of those are in order, because I forgot which days and which names go together. But I know Akua is for Wednesday, because that's my day name. :) I even introduce myself as Akua sometimes, when I don't feel like telling people my real name. And people usually just think it's really funny that you're calling yourself by a Ghanaian name.

Anyway, so the market was basically your typical crazy market experience that I've described here before. People shouting at me, grabbing my arms, etc. I even got slapped on the butt really hard while I was standing and waiting for a friend to finish shopping at one of the stands. I was offended, expecting to turn around and see some creepy old guy or something behind me, but no. It was some woman in her 20s or 30s. The strangest part though was when I turned around to look at her after she slapped me, neither of us said anything. I just gave her a puzzled look and she just stared right back, and then I slowly walked away to the next shop. Awkward, yes? And I got a marriage proposal by some creepy guy who wouldn't leave me alone for a good 10 minutes, spoke German with a Ghanaian because I told him I was from Germany, and made a new friend with a woman because her day name was also Akua. I don't know why that was a big deal but I just went with it.

Also, I practiced my Twi with a ton of sellers. A lot of people get really excited when they ask you something in Twi and you're actually able to answer them. I think most of the time they expect blank stares, because when you answer them they start laughing a ton and tell everyone in the area that the oburoni speaks Twi. And then they ask you more questions you can't answer, and that's when the blank stares start.

But I was surprised at how much I can sort of guess what people are talking about when I'm listening to conversations now. Like I definitely cannot understand a majority of it, but I can pick out words here and there and figure out what they might be saying. Like I was trying on shoes at the market, and this woman didn't have any shoes in my size, and when I was walking away, I heard her telling another shoe seller about how Americans have big feet. And that's about all I could understand.

I did eventually find big enough shoes for my massive American feet though, and I bought them. They were like 5 cedis, which I think is less than $3. And I think I maybe could have even gotten them for less, but I stopped at 5. Everything's such a bargain. I'm currently getting a skirt made for myself that will cost me 8 cedis. Not including fabric, but even then it'll only have cost me about 10 US dollars in total. For a custom-made skirt. And she's going to have it ready for me by Wednesday. I'm so jazzed. I'm going to go buy more fabric and get a dress or something made as well, because how could I not? It's custom made and super cheap!

Also, today was a good day because I finally found what I've been looking for for weeks now--Golden tree chocolate spread. Golden tree is a brand of chocolate produced in Ghana, but you can't find it anywhere else because they can't export it because it apparently can't compete with Swiss and American chocolate. But it's really, really good! It's just made with a little more cocoa powder and a little less milk, or something. And the chocolate spread tastes like Nutella, but because it's made in Ghana, a big tub of it costs about half the price of a tiny jar of Nutella. So it's basically my dream come true. I'm only talking about this because I'm actually really excited about finding it because for some reason it's been really hard to find.

I will stop boring you with my thoughts for today. But that does remind me I haven't talked about food yet, so maybe I'll do that soon.

Until then, yɛbɛhyia bio, me adamfo! [We will meet again, my friends.]

:)

Koforidua and Agomanya

Did some more spontaneous traveling this past weekend. I honestly wasn't planning on taking very many weekend trips while I'm here, but I'm glad that I've been taking advantage of the opportunity. I always have so much fun when I'm out finding new places to go instead of sitting around ISH for the weekend and going to Accra all the time. My friends Zoe, Chekwube, and I decided on Thursday night to head to the eastern region on Friday morning. So we took a trotro to Koforidua, a small city about 2 hours north of Accra. From there we took another trotro to a place called Boti falls. Only to find out that the falls were dried up. But we decided that since we had gone all that way, we just went on a hike instead. (It was much less intense than the one at Wli, so no worries.) We hiked up to a place called Umbrella Rock, which was this big rock perched precariously on this smaller rock. I didn't get a good picture of it, but here's me standing on top of it:

And then there was a weird palm tree about a three minute walk from there. It had three trunks coming out of one, and legend was that any woman who could climb up to the top would have twins someday. Needless to say, I did not partake...neither did Zoe or Chekwube, as both of them are one half of a set of twins and didn't care to start new family traditions.

So then we hiked back down. this is where things got a little weird. We had this guide named John. Quite the interesting fellow. I really don't mean this as an insult, but the truth is that his English was terrible and we could only just nod and smile while 75% of what he was saying went right over our heads. Also, he seemed to really like Chekwube, because I don't think he directly spoke to me or Zoe for the entire hike. Which was pretty funny, actually.

So anyway, we found out on the hike back that this guy was bat-shit insane. We had a suspicion on the hike up. Just because he was kind of irritating us by repeatedly saying for the entire hike that he wasn't going to pressure us to go fast, because we are ladies and ladies should be careful and go slow. And that was fine and all the first couple times he said it. But by the 500th time he told us to take it easy because we were ladies, I was about ready to slap him. So instead of slowing down, we went a little faster than I think we would have otherwise. But on the way down, instead of telling us there was no pressure to go quickly, he saw the tour group that was behind us pass us on the path, and that's when he completely lost it. Apparently they get paid per tour, so the more you get in one day, the more money you get. He didn't want his coworker to get the money that was his, but unfortunately Chekwube had a twisted ankle from an injury that happened a few weeks ago, and she had to go really slow while climbing down the rocks because it was really bothering her. For John, this was no excuse for going slow because he told us on the way up that we should be careful because we were ladies, and now one of us is hurt, and he told us this would happen if we didn't be careful.

John, posing next to a tree
right before his hissy fit

He was pissed. And started running way up ahead of us on the path in fits of anger and then screaming to himself about how we should have been more careful and how this is such a waste of time. At first we thought he was talking to someone else ahead of us on the path, until we caught up with him and realized that he was, in fact, screaming to himself. We were just so done with him by that point that we kept telling him that if he wanted to go ahead of us and get another tour group, we could make it back by ourselves. But he wouldn't do that. He eventually calmed down toward the end of the hike. But it was just a really weird experience. And then he asked us for a tip at the end, to which we were all confused by.  So far the only places people have really expected tips in Ghana have been tours. But I don't think that this guy realized that tips usually depend on the level of customer service...and if you're yelling at your group to go faster for half the hike when one of them is hurt, I think you can safely forget about getting a tip.

So then we took a trotro back to Koforidua. At one point in the ride where people had to get off and we shuffled around the seats, I ended up in the middle row, looked down, and to my surprise there was a live chicken on the floor next to my feet. Just tied up and chillin. Scared the shit out of me though. Hadn't made any noise for about 30 minutes, so that was the last thing I was expecting to see on the floor. It really creeped me out though, because I felt like it was just staring up at me with the one eye I could see, and it was just panting from the heat. I really felt bad for it. But I couldn't help but be really freaked out that there was a live chicken on a trotro, 2 inches away from my feet.

So then when we got back to Koforidua, we got a late lunch and headed to our hotel, which was really nice! The water there was actually running, and they gave us each our own bar of soap! And there was a water boiler, and breakfast was included the next morning, and it was cheap, when split between 3 people.

"Bead is everywhere, so bead all you can bead."

Saturday morning, we checked out and went to take a trotro to a place called Agomanya, which was about an hour away from Koforidua. At Agomanya, they have this gigantic market--it was so huge, I think we were probably wandering around for about an hour before we realized we had no idea where we were anymore and had to ask someone to help us find the bead market, which was what we came for. We were led through the market on the most convoluted path that there's no way we would have ever found it on our own. I'm glad we got there though, because it was worth the trip to that market. There were just rows and rows and rows of people selling handmade glass beads and they were all so beautiful. At the time, I thought I was going overboard buying so many beads, but they were so cheap that looking back on it, I honestly think that I maybe should have bought more.

Before we headed back home, we stopped at a place where they make the glass beads from the market. Like I said, they're all hand-made individually so that was really cool to see. They're also all made from recycled glass. They take recycled glass bottles and crush them into powder and add pigment and fire them into beads.

So overall it was a great weekend. Then on Easter Sunday, I bummed around ISH the whole day, which was eerily quiet for hours. It was because all the Ghanaians were most likely at church, and a lot of the other international students were still gone for the weekend, so I felt like I had the whole building to myself. That obviously wasn't the case, but it was so much quieter than I had experienced before. It was a nice change!

On an unrelated note, I register tomorrow for my LAST semester at UW. As in, I'm most likely graduating in December. How crazy is that? I'm freaking out about graduating so much earlier than I had planned, but it'll save some money. And it's pretty exciting! But I really have no idea what I'm doing after I graduate yet, but I've been looking at a bunch of options.
Time really flies. I can't believe college is almost over.
And I can't believe I only have less than 7 weeks left in Ghana! That sounds like a long time, but if you look at it like this: 3 more weeks of classes, 1 revision week before finals, and then I have about a week and a half of finals, and about 2 weeks left free for traveling or doing whatever. Then home. That's going to feel like no time at all. And in that amount of time I'll be going to Kumasi, Togo, and Mole national park, so those will make it go a lot faster too. I'm excited for things at home, but I know that I'm definitely not ready for this to end just yet. I'm afraid it'll go too fast.

I bless the rains down in Aaaafrica!

This morning I awoke to the relaxing sound of rain outside my window. And then when I was awake enough to remember that my laundry was out drying on the balcony, I bolted out of bed to go grab my clothes before they got another unintended rinse cycle, and got tangled in my mosquito net in the process.


My laundry stayed dry, thank goodness, and despite the abrupt awakening, it was a great way to start the morning. (Especially because my next door neighbor, who usually blasts hip hop first thing in the morning, was playing "Samson" by Regina Spektor instead, which was a very nice change. Definitely glad we had a music swap). But I just love it when it rains here. Back when it was still Harmattan season when the air was so hot, dry, and dusty all the time, there was one morning on my way to my internship where it started raining, and I think that was the first time rain had put me in THAT good of a mood. Even though the window on the trotro was leaking and getting me and the guy sitting next to me all wet. I was just glad not to be wet from my own sweat for once.


So it seems we're entering the rainy season now. And though it's still pretty hot and a lot more humid than it was before, it's really nice to not have the sun beating down on you constantly. And the cool breeze and the occasional sprinklings when I'm walking to class are pretty nice for cooling off. I'm really enjoying this weather, since it's a nice change after what feels like weeks and weeks of unrelenting sun and a constant 90 degrees.
Instead, I wore a sweater this morning. It was just delightful.


I had a really good weekend as well. Friday night I stayed in, but Saturday, we had another CIEE outing to a children's home in Haatso near where my internship is. We spent the day sanding and painting the walls, and hanging out with the kids a little bit. It was hard work because we had so many walls to paint, and by the end we were all just covered in dust, paint splatter, and sweat, but it was a really fun day. And later on after we'd showered and relaxed for a while, a few friends and I went out for pizza.


Then on Sunday, my friends Zoe, Tali, Kate, and I decided to do some more exploring of Accra, since we've been here for so long now (over 2.5 months, if you can believe it!) and haven't seen everything there is to see yet. So we went to the National Museum, near an area in Accra called Adabraka. Which I'm always tempted to call "Abracadabra" but unfortunately, that's not quite right.

Pretty cool mask. A rabbit, perhaps?

But the museum was really cool. Someone on our program told us not to go, because he said it sucked but we went anyway and I think it was worth it! Honestly, they had a lot of really cool stuff like old artifacts from all over West Africa and lots of information about old traditional cultures and stuff, which we really don't get much of a chance to learn about every day. I feel like I've been learning so much about modern Ghanaian culture in the cities, but not a whole lot about rural, traditional life in Ghana. So there was a lot of cool stuff that I learned. Like about the importance of puberty rituals, like when girls are initiated into womanhood and one of the things they have to do is swallow an egg whole. Or if a woman has twins and one of them dies, she has a doll made that represents the deceased twin, and cares for the doll as if it's a child until the surviving child is old enough to take care of it him/herself.  I just think stuff like that is so interesting. Here's what it looks like:

So then after the museum we went to go find somewhere to eat, and ended up at a place called White Bell, which was pretty much a place geared towards westerners and was overpriced, but it had a really nice atmosphere. And they had a lovely selection of music from artists like Enya, Elton John, and Dolly Parton. (?)


Since then, school has been going pretty well for me the past few days. I got my Twi test back and got an A on it, which is absolutely not any sort of indicator of my actual skills in Twi, which are nonexistent. I can deal with Twi just fine when it's written, but I'm kind of hopeless when I try to speak it. Which doesn't help me much since most Ghanaians don't even write Twi anyway. It's mostly just spoken, and English is more commonly used in writing. I'm working at my pronunciation though. It's just so hard to figure out the tonal aspect of it.


Speaking of school though, I'm beginning to realize how spoiled I'm becoming as far as getting work done goes. There isn't much homework here at all compared to the classes I take at UW. I caught myself complaining the other day about having to do my Twi homework, which consisted of writing out a whole six sentences. And I had a paper due last week in my international relations class, which I didn't even know about because I felt sick the day it was assigned and I wasn't in class. So I went up to the professor after class and asked him if we had an assignment due that day and he just said "yes, it's due if you have it, but if not you can turn it in later." Um. What?


Things are clearly much more relaxed here. But I'm taking a summer class like a week after I get back from this trip so I'm a little bit worried about getting back into the more stressful mindset of school in the US. Especially since it's a class that's four days a week for two hours a day and is only a month long but a semester's worth of material. Here, I only have class 3 days a week. And although classes last 2 hours, the dictation style of lecture makes it go at a much slower pace than I'm used to. So hopefully I can handle jumping right back into school when I go back to Madison in June.


Sooo anyway. This coming weekend is Easter, as I'm sure some of you are aware of. And though I'm curious to see what kinds of things they do for Easter around here, I'm almost certain it involves going to church for most of the day and I'm not so sure I want to do that. So since we have Friday through next Monday off, my friends Zoe and Chekwube and I might be going somewhere for a day trip to just get out of Legon for a bit. I don't know what we're doing yet though.


I will leave you with this: in honor of the rainy season, I give you one of my old fav's from the decade I'm kind of glad I missed..."Africa" by Toto :)

(I have no idea what point this video's trying to make. It's kind of bizarre. But you gotta love the song...)