Ghana

Sorry for the very long gaps between entries. I do have the excuse of midterms and papers being due, but mostly it’s been a combination of laziness and just not “feeling the muse,” as my fazere would say. I’m actually posting two entries today, since I think people would rather read two smaller entries than one large entry.

Ghana was pretty cool. I realize I use this word a lot, but it really does describe most of the things I’ve seen. Everyone carries stuff on their heads there, which is a talent I do not have. There was even a vendor with a giant sunglasses display on his head. It was impressive.

One of the first things I did in Ghana was visit some queen mothers, which are not actually the mothers of chiefs, but rule in tandem with him and are always a close female relative of the chief. I think ,based on some readings I did for a  class, the title comes more from the idea that they are the mother figure of the “traditional areas” over which they rule, and therefore a mother figure to the chief as well. I just wrote a 9-page paper on my visit with the queen mothers, so I’m not really feeling up to talking too much about the experience, but I will say that it was very interesting and the mothers were very informative (we basically got to ask them whatever questions we wanted, although most of the questions focused on how they ruled and their lifestyle and things), and they were all educated and spoke English. They were also very much into promoting the women and women’s vocational education in the area, so power to them.

I also explored the market in Takoradi (where we were docked), but that was definitely not my favorite experience. People stared at us like we didn’t belong (which is true, we didn’t, and we were not planning to buy anything) and there was a creepy guy who kept following us. There was this really nice lady who spoke English and helped us get back on the main road once we wandered down some side streets and got lost, so that was really nice of her. We also got some cooked plantains with some spicy sauce that were pretty good, but other than that, I could have done without the market.

The best day I had in Ghana was the day me, Michaella, and our friend Howard took a cab with a really nice cab driver (I talked to him pretty much the entire 4-hour round trip) to Kakum National Park, which is a rainforest with a set of extension bridges set up over part of the canopy that you can walk along. It doesn’t sound all that cool, but it was one of the best experiences I’ve had on the entire trip. Some people (we got there at the same time as an SAS trip) were whining about the rain, since it was pouring on us, but I think they were crazy because a) it’s supposed to rain in a rain forest and b) the rqain made the experience even better.

After the rain forest, the three of us stopped at this restaurant over a crocodile (er, it might have been alligators, but I don’t really know) pond. We also arrived here at the same time as an SAS group and so it took us forever to get our food. Well, mostly, it took them forever to cook Michaella’s food, which was funny because all it was was two small shish-kabobs. Anyway, that place was really cool because I ran into two people from SAS who had hired a local bird guide for the day, and they let me join them for about half an hour around the premises of the crocodile place. It was awesome. One of these days I’ll post a bird list for those of you who care (which is probably just Uncle Dave and maybe my mom), since I’ve seen a lot of cool birds on this trip.

The other big thing I did in Ghana was go to Nzulezo (I hope I’m getting the spelling right), which is a village on stilts. We were fortunate enough to get free tickets to the SAS trip going there (there’s a ticket donation box I tend to check very frequently), and it was sort of neat. I say “sort of” because the canoe ride to the village was really really cool, but the village itself was much too small for the 80 of us and it felt like we were invading the villagers’ privacy. They also looked very unhappy that we were there. We didn’t actually spend that much time there – we pretty much heard the chief give a speech about the legend of the foundation of the place (the people were escaping wars and followed their god, who had the form of a snail, there), were pressured into donating, and then left. I wouldn’t have minded donating – I probably would have given them some cedi anyway (Ghanaian currency) – but they basically stood in front of you with a bowl, so you felt completely awkward and compelled to donate. I didn’t like it. It also makes you wonder what they do with the money, since  those in charge said they use it to pay for a school teacher for the children, but the place is so obviously in poverty and they get TONS of tourists (mostly local), so you’d think you’d think they would have enough money to pay for a teacher and toimprove the villagers’ lives. Basically, I’d sum up the experience as uncomfortable.

After we rode the canoes back, we had lunch. That put some things into perspective. The food was really good, but there were tons of little kids around who begged us to give them our leftovers. We didn’t understand what they were asking for at first, but once we did, of course we obliged. It was just strange, uncomfortable, and sad to see little kids begging for scraps like that.

There were some other uncomfortable instances, too. For example, every time you went through the port gate, people would descend on you and try to force you (usually successfully) to buy a bracelet they would make on the spot with your name on it. When we were paying our taxi driver after getting back from Kakum, my friend paying took FOREVER to pay the guy, so we had like 10 guys surrounding us and forcing us to buy bracelets. I ended up with an ugly pink one with “Ghana” threaded into it, but at least I only paid 1 cedi (I don’t remember how much that is in U.S., but it isn’t much) for it.

Other than those things, I also did some shopping right next to our ship, where a bunch of people from Accra had set up some stalls and were selling their crafts. I’m a little sad now that I didn’t get a painting, but oh well.

I have the feeling that this entry may come off as incredibly negative, which isn’t really what I want. I did have a really good time in Ghana, and I think it’s important to see how other people live, especially those less fortunate than you. I’m not saying it’s OK to gawk at people’s misfortune or anything, but when in a developing country, I do think it’s important to see what’s around you. And I did have a good time. Like I said, it was uncomfortable, but Ghana was still really interesting and cool.