This has been quite the adventuresome week! I still don't have a camera, so no pictures yet, but I should be able to put some up in the next week or two!
Sunday we went to church with Jessie, our house mother. It was a two hour service with lots of dancing, singing, shouting etc. Everything you think it would be. At the end we they asked for any first time visitors to stand, and of course we were the only obruni (white people) there. They took us to an air conditioned room (a treat) and gave us pepsi and muffins! I like this place already!
On Wednesday we traveled to Cape Coast which is about an hour away. There we went to the rainforest park where we did a tree top canopy walk. There were rope bridges that led from tree to tree, it was really cool. We didn't see much wild life, everything is nocturnal, but we did hear some monkey calls in the distance! They have a tree house you can stay a night in, so we are thinking about doing that one night!
After the rain forest we went to the colonial castle in Cape Coast and did a tour. It was one of the major hubs for the slave trade. We went into the holding cells for slaves waiting to be shipped to the Americas, saw the punishment chambers, etc. It was really interesting, and really depressing. The male chamber was four small rooms, about 20ft x 60ft, each connected and designed to hold about 200 people. (The church for the colonists was right above...) The only light and ventilation came through a small window way up. This is where the rain water (when it does rain) would come through to wash all the waste and sewage down the troughs, through each room, and down a hallway. They said that waste would pile up 3-4 ft before it could wash away. This would then dump into the punishment chamber, for those "stubborn" slaves to stand in for 3 days or so to learn a lesson. The women's chambers were smaller, and right next to the Door of No Return. The slaves would spend 6 weeks or so in these chambers, step into the light for a few minutes, then passed through this door where they got their last glimpse of their homeland, language, family, etc. They have changed it now, and on the door coming into the castle it says The Door of Return, welcoming those Africans in diaspora to come back and connect with their roots. Diaspora is a rather powerful word here. It refers to people taken away from their homeland, and has strong connotations in regards to African Americans and those involved in the slave trade. It's really interesting, and I want to look into it some more. There was even a plaque from when Barack and Michelle Obama came in 2009. I thought it was weird at first, but then I figured it meant a lot for one of the world's largest recipients of slaves to have a black president. Obama is huge here! In fact, a lot of times when I tell people I'm from America, the first thing they say is "Obama!" I even saw a pair of children's underwear that had a US flag with Obama blazed across the booty!
Sunday we had a concert at a local clubhouse on the beach. The volunteer/teachers played some songs, as did a few of the students. Everything here runs on Ghana time, and most of the performers (at least those who showed up) got there over an hour late. It was quite an experience.... People really, really appreciate music here, but they don't listen well. It seems that since Takoradi is so noisy, everyone is trained to tune out, so it's hard to get them to listen. Interesting really.
On Monday we went to go see Edwin's kids. Edwin has been taking kids off the street, orphans, etc. for a few years and teaching them traditional drumming and dancing. It's the coolest thing! They meet every day for a couple hours, and rehearse in an old colonial open air cinema. It has a little stage area and rows of concrete benches, and it perfect for them. We traded performances with them... we played Can Can (and taught them the dance!) and they did a couple numbers. I'm going to go visit them a couple times a week, so I'll tell you more about it later, but when I told Edwin that I came to Ghana for drums and dancing, he was super excited. We're trading guitar lessons for dance lessons! I'm going to have to toughen up my feet though to keep up with these kids....
I'm going to try and cover a little each week about general Ghana things, so you guys can get a bit of a feel for it.
FOOD- Delicious. And there is a lot of it! Pretty much every meal has some form of rice and a sauce or soup. They eat meat, but not much and it is often in things rather than a separate thing. Every, every, everything is spicy! Jollof rice is my favorite, it has a tomato based sauce with garlic, onions, peppers and a variety of spices. We get lunch every day in the market, and usually get some jollof and red red. Red red is a combination of fried plantains (which are like bananas but less sweet) and a baked bean kind of thing. And yes, it's spicy! The produce here is amazing... I can't get enough of the mangos, pineapples, bananas, and oranges. Everything is freshly grown and lovely. Most of the food is from street vendors, which are fine for the most part. In fact, I've only gotten sick once, and that's when we went to a Chinese restaurant with air conditioning! (funny how it's always Chinese restaurants....)
WATER- The running water is not potable, but there is plenty of drinking water to be found. You can get bottled water, but the cheaper version comes in pouches, like milk pouches in schools. You bite off the tip and drink it. You can find people all over carrying big bowls of cold pouches on their heads, and they are 10 pesuas each... like 2 us cents. We have running water in our house, but because it is towards the end of the dry season, there isn't pressure, so it really only works at night. It runs down stairs, so we just have to fill up buckets and bring it up for washing clothes, bucket baths, flushing the toilet, etc.
TRANSPORTATION- Pretty much everyone gets around via taxi, which are prevalent and cheap. You can get a Drop taxi, which takes you where you want to go for 4 cedi (like $1.50). They have shared taxis which run a loop, kind of like a bus line. These cost around 20 cents and pick up all over the city, but then drop at certain spots in town. Luckily the school is very close to the market center, so we are near everything that's happening. There are also tro tros, which are 15 passenger vans (usually with 18 or so people in them) that are super cheap too. That's the main way you travel between towns, but they also run on routes within town too. Traffic here is crazy, and the only form of right away seems to be if you honk your horn first! They love horns here, and use it to communicate everything, from "I'm crossing this one way bridge" to "thanks for letting me in." Sometimes they just honk to the beat of the incredibly loud music on the radio!
That's all for now, my time is running out in the internet cafe (with AC, always a treat). I'd love to hear from you, so stay in touch!
With love, Ecua (That's my Ghana name... it means I was born on a Wednesday :)
