Jessica & Stephen Go to Ghana

Once the excitement of the soccer game passed Jessica and I were finally able to gather some readings/ assignments for our classes. The political science department simply copies the selected portions of books they wish students to read which makes for the whole of the main department a giant copyright infringement warehouse. Each department also has a small library of its own, to which both of us are trying to navigate on a weekly basis.

On September 12^th our CIEE group ventured to Cape Coast which contains another main university, Kakum national park, and most importantly a few castles used during the slave trade. Jessica and I choose to visit the same castle President Obama and his family visited, formally Cape Coast Castle. The tour was a very humbling experience and akin to visiting the Holocaust museum in the US.

After standing in the dungeons that held the captives for 6 months to 3 years, we were taken in the most emotional portion of the castle where misbehaving captives were held.  This was a 10×15 foot room with no light or ventilation.  60 people were put in this room and locked in until the last of them suffocated.  It was very chilling to see the scratches on the floors and walls made with their shackles.  Even with all of this going on, a church located directly above the male’s dungeon, operated during the castle’s use.  It was inspiring though to walk through the “door of no return” (the exit to the castle before the middle passage) and to be able to return. 

Unfortunately after returning to our hotel for dinner, both of us fell very sick. It must have been the food because several other members of our group also felt ill throughout the next couple days. We recovered rather quickly but missed going to walk in the canopy of Kakum National Park. However we plan on returning to Cape Coast to walk the canopy and enjoy some live crocodile viewing at a nearby resort.

Fortunately the week before we fell ill, a vegetarian stand opened up in the “night market” outside our dorm. This new stand has allowed us to try items like groundnut soup and spices on tofu that would not normally be available to us. The women at the stand are also very nice and we have made some good friends there due to our frequent visits. Our friend Gilbert from the night market also continues to teach us Twi and about what it is like to grow up in Ghana. His stories have revealed surprising details such as the time he was beaten by his teacher for not doing his homework!

It seems like every day we meet someone new who wants to be our friend and travel around Ghana with us without knowing anything about us. The willingness of Ghanaians and Nigerians studying in Ghana to befriend foreigners is something that is very odd. For example while walking in downtown Osu a 17 year old kid rode his bike up next to us just to say “hello, can I be your friend.” That is about the extent of many conversations and encounters around town. There was even a group of visiting Nigerians studying geography who wanted a picture with us as we were walking back to our dorm. Our frequent encounters make it seem like we are mini celebrities.

After a rather dense week of school work we decided to return to Bojo Beach for the weekend of September 18^th -20^th. An off the cuff look for a hotel led us to a very nice resting place called the De Holiday Beach Hotel. This fully furnished resort complete with a pool, bar, game room, and solon ran us only $35 a night. This also included a free breakfast and a room complete with 2 flat screen televisions, a fully equipped kitchen, and most importantly hot water.  After a full day at the beach on Saturday we were invited by some locals to Reggae Night at a nice hostel called Big Milly’s. This resort was right next to a beach called Kokrobite and provided a fun and relaxing environment.

September 21, 2009 became a national holiday (only as of the previous Thursday) in honor of Kwame Nkrumah – Ghana’s first president – so classes were canceled and we had a day to get ahead on laundry and school work. 

We will also begin volunteering at an after school program called Chapter 58 later this week.

On Sunday September 6^th we traveled to the main soccer stadium in downtown Accra to see Ghana play Sudan. This match was important because it held world cup qualifying implications, but Ghana (whose soccer team is known as “The Black Stars”) was heavily favored. Our seats could not have been better. We were only seven rows back from the midfield line! Luckily we justified our television worthy tickets by decking ourselves out in Ghana apparel.

The game was not very exciting as far as soccer matches go, as Ghana controlled the game for all 90 minutes. Once they scored their first goal Ghana used their size and strength to out muscle Sudan and keep ball control. The biggest highlight came from one of Ghana’s star players Michael Essien. In the 60^th minute he found the back of the net from just outside the box in a truly powerful shot. Throughout the game his ball handling and general awareness set him apart and he soon became Jessica’s favorite player. She has even become a Chelsea fan because Essien plays for them in the premier league. Additionally Essien is one of the biggest celebrities in Ghana and is sponsored by MTN  (one of the biggest cell phone companies in Ghana).

Being part of the crowd was also a great experience because there was not an empty seat and everyone was a diehard fan. There was even a tribal chief who brought pigeons and a blessing leaf  to bring good luck to the Ghanaians. There were also a group of ten or so young men who pranced up and down the sidelines wearing almost nothing but body paint to show their support. They even carried some kind of smoking caldron on their heads at one point in time.

At the end of the game the vice president of Ghana announced his congratulations to the Black Starts because by winning they clinched a spot in the 2010 world cup in South Africa. Even as we exited the stadium, people where going crazy and it was a very special environment to be a part of.

Writing from Last Week

Last weekend we went on our first trip with our study abroad group.  We were told to meet in the parking lot at 8:00 am on Saturday morning, but after an hour of waiting the bus never showed up, so we rescheduled for Sunday at noon.  Since Stephen and I had nothing to do we took the trotro into Accra to visit the national museum.  The museum was entertaining enough but all of the items were poorly displayed and many did not have any description of the item’s importance.  Sorry there will not be any pictures from here because they charged extra to take pictures.  In the back of the museum there was an art exhibition that had some beautiful paintings that were incredibly cheap as far as art goes.  So now I have a painting that I want, and Stephen and I have picked out two rather large drums that we want to bring home, so we are brainstorming ways to get these home.  Please comment if you have any insights as to how to go about this (other than shipping because we heard that it will cost more than the drums to ship them). 

On Sunday we woke up early to try to find breakfast (almost nowhere is open on Sundays).  We found a coffee shop in the Accra Mall and Stephen finally got a vanilla late.  It is interesting that coffee is pretty rare in Ghana despite the fact that they grow coffee beans and instead of coffee a popular drink is called Milo, which is basically hot chocolate, only better.  Once we returned to our hostel we met up with our group and rode about an hour up to the top of a hill to a botanic garden.  There were plenty of interesting trees and plants, but my favorite is called the shy plant, which looks like a tiny fern that curls up when you touch it (I will try to post a video).   

Next we went to the first cocoa farm in Ghana.  It was really interesting because they still had two of the original trees that we planted in Ghana in the 1800s.  They took us through the steps of producing the cocoa beans.  They harvest the pods once they turn yellow with a long pole that has a sharp tool on the end called “go to hell” since it send the pod somewhere that the pod will never come back from.  They use this so that they can harvest only the ripe pods without damaging the tree or knocking down any pods that are still green.  When they first open the pod you can suck on the seeds, which sort of taste like mango.  These seeds are placed under giant leave to ferment and during the fermentation process they are turned and sifted through to remove everything but the beans.  Next the beans are dried and the bad beans are picked out.  We got to taste the dried beans, which were very bitter (as you would expect).  At this point the beans are ready to sell to the government, who buys all of the cocoa beans in Ghana for export.  It was also very interesting to see that the cocoa farmers grew everything from avocados to yams among the trees.

Our final stop was a wood carving village.  This community is where people aspiring to become a woodcarver go to apprentice the art and many of them then have stands in the area where they sell their work.  Unfortunately we only had half an hour to look around, which is not nearly enough time to shop since you have to first go around so you have an idea of what things should cost and then go back and bargain.  I think that we will go back there sometime so we can buy a few pieces. 

My Oceanography classes have been really interesting so far, but also kind of depressing because the topic of environmental degradation comes up in every class.  The environmental habits here are quite bad and it seems to be a combination of a lack of awareness, poverty and a lack of infrastructure.  Open dumping and open burning of trash is the norm, with much of the trash and sewage going straight into the ocean and lagoons.  People take from the land whatever they can get because they do not have any other means of livelihood.  For example, mangroves are being deforested for firewood, or cut down and filled to build housing complexes, sand is being collected (illegally) to sell to construction sites and sea turtles are still being hunted and their eggs gathered.   Unfortunately, from what I have gathered from the Ghanaians in my classes and my Ghanaian friends it seems that overall the people are still far away from realizing the rarity of the organisms here and the importance of preserving them.

On a happier note, I met a graduate student that is working at The University of Ghana’s research station that monitors the turtles’ activities and he gave me his contact information if I ever want to come out there.  I definitely plan to contact him so we can maybe see the sea turtles.

I was also very excited when I realized that they have the West African Manatee here.  One of the professors did his PhD research on them, so hopefully he can advise me one how to see one.  I have a feeling my chances are not very good though because their numbers are pretty low and they inhabit the lake and the entire length of the river so it would be quite lucky to see one.

So after 3 weeks of classes neither of us is completely registered for our classes.  It has been quite a mess and my schedule has changed 3 times since I last reported it.  I cannot even describe the frustration of everyone telling you that you need to do something different than what you were told the last time you were there.  Additionally, no one wants to give you a complete answer and they will typically just refer you somewhere else.  For example, to add Conservation Biology I needed the head of the department to sign an add-drop form.  Naturally I took it to his secretary, who sent me to the general office to ask where the TA’s office was.  The Zoology general office sent me to the Oceanography general office to ask where the Zoology TA’s were (this didn’t make sense but I went anyway).  The Oceanography office sent me to the Oceanography TA’s who sent me back to the secretary for the Zoology head of the department who sent me back to the Zoology general office.  The general office tried to send me back to Oceanography but at this point I refused to leave until she would just tell me where the TA’s were herself.  To this she said I was being difficult and wasting her time.  I was persistent though and eventually she gave me directions to walk down the hall and it was the last door on the left.  Why she couldn’t have told me that in the first place I don’t know, but once I found the TA’s they took me back to the first office I went to and got the signature.  So some form of this is what we have gone through again and again. 

We both added an African Drumming course though.  Unfortunately it is not completely added and we will have to continue to deal with that later, but the first day of class was really fun.  The teacher is a very nice guy and we learned some of the communication drumming like “how are you”, “I am fine” and “thank you”.  I really want to take a drum home now but I am still trying to figure out the logistics of that. 

Writing from Today

Okay so it has taken me a long time to post this since I wrote it, so I am just going to add on what has happened since then.  The power on campus was out (which is why I couldn’t post this) so registration continued into this week.  Fortunately after some more running around and craziness I am happy to say that we are both registered. 

Over this past weekend we went with a group to Bojo beach which was absolutely beautiful (especially compared to most beaches around here).  After the adventure of getting there by trotro and a taxi that all 7 of us squeezed into we crossed a bridge and road in a boat across and estuary to a strip of white sand that had the ocean on the other side.  The weather was perfect and we finally got to see the sun after a month of almost entirely overcast weather.  The hot and sunny days are supposed to become more and more frequent as we move into the dry season so we will see how excited I am about the sun then. 

On Sunday we went to see the Black Stars play Sudan in soccer, but Stephen wants to write about this, so I guess you will hear about that later.

Yesterday the Oceanography department arranged a field trip for the 400 level students to take us to Tema port and on a drive to see some of the coast and lagoons.  We met at about 7:00 and left at about 7:30.  The harbor was about an hour away but once we reached the port we had to sit on the bus for 1.5-2 more hours because the port intercepted a large shipment of cocaine over the weekend and was changing management so I guess they were trying to figure that out.  Once we were in the man in charge of environmental concerns spoke to us about ballast water issues and took us onto a Norwegian ship where the seaman on board told us that none of the ports enforce rules about ballast water or any global environmental regulations except for the United States and Australia.  The port manager then explained that they do not feel like they can really enforce rule because ships will stop docking in their ports and will go to other West African countries instead, causing Ghana to have major economic problems. 

Next we stopped at a lagoon that supposedly is better than it used to be, but it was lined with anywhere from 1-10 feet of garbage that had been brought in by the tides.  After that we visited a lagoon that was by a hotel that drained its sewage directly into it and the professor said fish can no longer live here and that this one was nowhere near the worst.  So the field trip was surprisingly depressing, but ironically a coffin shop was a bit of an upper because they sold coffins shaped as birds, airplanes and even beer bottles. 

I think that this is probably enough for now and I have to go celebrate terrific Tuesday where you get two suspicious looking pizzas for the price of one!

Yɛbɛhyia bio (We will meet again)!

On Friday August 21 we decided to set off for a baboon sanctuary in Shai Hills because it was recommended to us by our program director. Our director explained that Shai Hills was only two tro-tro stops away, however we soon discovered that two stops away was actually a little over 100km of traveling. Luckily at every stop local Ghanaians willingly guided us to our destination. One Ghanaian soldier named Akins even went out of his way to make sure we got on the correct bus before boarding his own.

             Once we arrived in Shai Hills we found the Shai Hills Resort.  Resort was a bit of an exaggeration but it was a fairly nice hotel with air conditioning and an outdoor restaurant. Unfortunately the hotel did not have running water until the morning, but they did have a fuzzy television where we were able to watch an episode of CSI New York. The restaurant also served spaghetti which was a nice switch up from rice and Milo which is like Ghanaian chocolate milk.

             After a good night’s sleep we woke up around 6am to get a head start on seeing some baboons. We had to walk around 2km on the side of the highway to the park entrance where we were given a military escort. Within ten minutes of walking we came across a family of four baboons just chilling by a local school house. It was an amazing thing to see such large animals roaming freely. In all, our hike took us about two hours, through high grass meadows and up a steep rocky hill that provided a jaw dropping view of the Shai Hills wilderness. On our way back down the hill we also stopped by a small pond where a crocodile lives. We did not get to see it but Jessica thinks she heard it scurry into the water upon our arrival.

             The climax of the adventure came about just before we exited the park. Out of nowhere a pack of about seven or eight baboons of all shapes and sizes crossed the path about 20 yards in front of us!

             Eventually we made our way back to the resort for brunch and had our worries about getting back alleviated by the resort’s owner offering us a ride back to a main city called Tema. As he drove us back he gave us some insightful stories about the different ethnicities in Ghana and told us how he had grown up in the Shai Hills region. He even found the correct tro-tro for us to get back to the University in Legon, even though when he stopped in Tema his key had broken off in the ignition.

             Overall it was a great trip and hopefully the internet will be cooperative enough to let us post some pictures.

As promised, we finally got this blog up and running after 11 days in Ghana. Internet is a little tricky to come by for the most part, but the International Office is nice enough to let us use theirs. So here is what has been going on since we got here:
We arrived at the airport and met up with people from CIEE (our exchange program) and they took a large group of us back to the Coconut Grove Hotel, where we had the first 2 1/2 days of orientation. Most of the sessions were lectures about safety and cultural differences (for example, it is not polite to use your left hand). On the second day we were sent out into the middle of Accra (the capitol of Ghana) for a scavenger hunt of buildings so we could learn to get around without maps. Most of the streets are only two lanes wide, so they are always packed with cars. Traffic laws don’t seem common so cars drive off the road and run red lights without hesitation. Additionally pedestrians do not have the right of way, so you always have to be on the lookout for cars that will make no effort not to hit you. The public transportation is a system of “trotros” that are essentially old vans, with doors that barely shut, which drive around yelling out their destinations. You hop in the trotro with as many as 24 other people. I think we are starting to get the hang of them though.
On Tuesday afternoon we got to move in to our Hostel on campus. When we pulled up we weren’t sure whether to be relieved or nervous that the building was surrounded with spiraled razor wire. The rooms are big and livable though. We even each have a balcony and the building is very open so that we get a nice breeze.
The campus is huge and it takes about 20-30 minutes to get to any class, but the people are all so nice and everyone says good morning to you along the way that it is always a nice walk. In the afternoon however, it can get pretty warm (although the Ghanaians don’t seem to think so because they are all wearing jeans).
Class registration began on Wednesday and ended on Friday (although you can still add or drop classes until September 4th). Surprisingly it took all three days, plus a few days this week to figure out which classes to take. To register for classes you must first go to all of the departments you are interested in and see what courses they are offering. Then after you decide you can go back and register with the department and then register for the class. Each department has a different procedure, so they may send you around to get other forms or signatures. Additionally, people seem to be out of the office a lot, so you are often instructed to come back later. Some departments also require “interviews” to take upper level classes. So, you have to meet at a separate interview time where they basically just ask you if you have taken the prerequisite courses.
Once you have registered for your courses you still do not know what day, what time, or where the classes are so once the time table comes out your whole schedule may change. In some cases the time table does not come out until after the first class has taken place. Then, the provisional final exam schedule will come out. If two exams are at the same time then you fail one of those classes, so you must drop one class and add another. Unfortunately there can be changes to the provisional exam schedule after the add-drop period is over, so you can still end up failing a class. The good news is that Miami only transfers the credit, so the grades do not count into our GPAs.
I think that we are both pretty set on what courses we are taking though:
Jessica-
Coastal Management
Introductory Limnology
Freshwater Ecology
Coastal Ecosystems of West Africa
Seamanship
Islamic Ethics
Twi for Beginners
Stephen-
Ghana Colonialism to Independence
Organization Theory
Political Economy of Colonialism
International Conflict
Islamic Ethics
Twi for Beginners
You may notice that we both are taking classes almost exclusively from one department and that is because the times don’t really work out across departments and you are not allowed to take classes in two different faculties because the exams may be at the same time, so if you take a science class you cannot take a class in English (not that I would want to anyway). Due to this rule I may fail Islamic Ethics but in order to have enough credits I would have had to take two more Oceanography courses and I thought 5 was enough.
As far as the wildlife goes, there are a lot of interesting birds, lizards and insects. We have seen vultures, iridescent beetles, foot-long green and red lizards and a huge centipede. There are also a lot of wild dogs and one house on campus has a pet baboon outside. I walk by frequently and today the owner was sitting outside so I got to talk to him and get close to the baboon. It didn’t seem like it wanted to be touched though and it has huge teeth so I did not get too close. It seemed very interested in clothes though. I grabbed on to my skirt and would pull up the man’s pant leg and pull down his sock to look at his leg.
As far as food goes there is mostly just rice. The fruit though is amazing! I thought I loved fresh pineapple before, but the pineapple here is infinitely better. It is not even describable and I already know I am going to miss it when I leave.
If you want to send either of us mail our address here is:
First Name Last Name
c/o Kwasi Gyasi-Gyamerah
Private Mail Bag 31
Graduate Studies Building
University of Ghana
Legon Ghana
West Africa
Hope all is going well at home and we will try to write again soon to keep you all posted on what is going on here!