So I realize I'm a little earlier than usual with my post but after the weekend I had, I felt the need to post as soon as possible.
Last I wrote, I was leaving work early to go and watch the Ghana vs. Germany match. We lost... but it was 100% OK because we still qualified to continue on in the World Cup! Yay! The streets of Accra were crazy which was hilarious to see because in reality we had just lost to Germany and the only goals we had scored were from penalty kicks... but Ghanaians don't care about details, WE STILL MADE IT!!! We partied well into the evening dancing up a storm and having a blast.
Thursday was uneventful except for the fact that I was asked to create an Excel Databank fit with automated formulas and linking formulas etc to be used to compile and analyze our data. The nerd in me came out and after a few hours of formatting and re-learning Gr.8 computer class, the four sheet document was efficient, beautiful and -best of all- done! On Friday all the female volunteers decided to get together and go out for a nice Italian meal and some drinks, first at Mamma Mia's and then at a bar called Container. The food was great, the company was lovely and the drinks were plentiful, all in all a lovely evening!
Because Ghana was going to be playing the USA on Saturday, we decided to postpone our Ada Foa adventure (that I mentioned in my last post) for two weeks so to start our weekend, Stacey and I decided to head to the Arts and Culture market on the Saturday morning. We got there and immediately were escorted down a strange alleyway and into some huts with jewelery, paintings, sculptures etc. Our escort told us his name was Liman and that he wanted to show us his music. We said "maybe later" and made our way deeper into the maze of stalls. As we did so, we encountered some pretty interesting characters who attempted to sell Stacey earings for 25Cedi each (which my roommate had bought 2 for 5cedi the previous weekend) and who insisted God would smite us if we didn't purchase their goods. We were lost in the maze of art for a good three hours before finally emerging at the opposite end of the market greeted by none other than our friend Liman. He insisted that we come see his music and as neither Stacey or I could come up with a good excuse quick enough, he took us by the hand and led us down another alleyway farther away from the main hub. It was here we saw where all the drums and other traditional African instruments were being made! He took us into his shop and told us to sit down on the bench. He then called all his buddies over and they proceeded to give us an impromptu Djembe Drum concert! They played for about 20 minutes and then after that insisted that we learn! They handed us some drums and got to work teaching us all the different sounds the drum could make and a few of the traditional rhythms. This lasted for about 30 minutes and by the end of it we were all playing together... it was AWESOME. After that Liman taught us all about the different kinds of wood used to make the drums and how he got them to be the perfect sound. He was so kind to us that Stacey and I think we will go back to get some custom drums made -- he will make them for you however you like with whichever designs and symbols you desire. He was SO nice and didn't expect anything from us, just wanted to share his love for music. Stacey and I were definitely glad we followed him!!!
After the market, we all got ready and headed back to the bar for the big game. Ghana vs. USA. The streets were INSANE with people screaming and cheering and the bar set up 3 big outdoor projectors with screens for the 500+ Ghana fans. For those of you who didn't watch the match and haven't heard, Ghana defeated the USA 2-1 which meant once again, Ghana went crazy and this time with good reason!!! The drinks flowed and the music boomed... Stacey and I joined a little parade on the main street and hopped in a crazy free trotro around Osu and back to Labadi for the night as I had to work the next day.
Then came Sunday. Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. I warn you readers now that Sunday was the worst day I've had in Ghana so far and probably one of the worst travel days I've ever had.
Sunday started rough with an early wake-up trying to figure out where I was supposed to meet my supervisor, Grace. I called and called but she didn't answer her phone. Finally, two hours later, she called me back and told me should couldn't tell me where to go and could I pass the phone to my Aunties in the compound. Who knows WHY should couldn't tell me that I was to find a trotro to a town called Agbobloshie but apparently my Aunties had to know first. So I ended up taking a trotro from Labadi to Tema Station and from there would take one to Agbobloshie. On the trotro to Tema Station the man I sat next to told me that he was going to marry me and that I would pay for him to live in Canada. When I informed him that such a thing would not be happening he then requested my phone number. When I told him that I don't give my phone number out, he asked if I would take his number and call him every day. When I told him that I wouldn't be taking his number because I don't have time and don't want to be calling him every day, he got rather angry. He told me (and the entire trotro) that I was a terrible person and that God would make sure I die a firey death and that I will suffer for my actions. Nice hey? All this because I turned down a 30 year old soccer instructor from Ghana. With a start like this I knew it was going to be a GREAT day.
Once I got off the trotro (and away from the oh-so-kind man) I found my connecting trotro to Agbobloshie and climbed on. Half an hour later I was there, standing, waiting, looking for Grace. She had said "I'll see you at 1:30, I'll meet you there" which to me meant "leave at an appropriate time so as to arrive at the station at 1:30 and Grace will be waiting there for you". So there I was, at 1:30 on the dot, waiting for Grace at Agbobloshie. At 1:40 I decided to call and see where she was. And then again at 1:42, 1:44, 1:46, 1:48 and 1:50 hoping that she eventually would pick up her phone. At 1:55pm I was approached by a guy that was about 15-16 years old who started yelling at me asking for money and for me to take him to America. When I explained that 1) I don't have any money and 2) that I wasn't American, he got aggressive and started pulling on my bag, demanding that I give it to him because there was money in it. When I insisted that I was not going to be giving him any money and demanded that he let go of my bag, he ran off cursing at me the whole way. After that I tried calling Grace again (with no luck) and another boy approached me and tried to snatch the phone right out of my hand. Luckily I had a bit of a grip on my phone and swatted him away vigorously. Once he left, my phone rang and it was Grace (Finally!!) At this point I had been sitting alone in a VERY sketchy part of town and had almost been robbed twice I explained to her that I was uncomfortable and nervous and she said she was sending someone to come get me in 5 minutes and that she was sorry she was late but she had to go home and - .. GET THIS... - CHARGE HER PHONE. Yep. That's why I was left alone in this town. Because one of her two phones was out of battery. Shame.
So there I sat, waiting for the peer educator to come and get me when all of a sudden I'm approached by about 15-20 men all demanding I give them money, that I marry them and that because I'm white I must do what they say. Feeling COMPLETELY overwhelmed and terrified I saw a teenaged boy and girl sitting a few feet away from me and I asked if I could join them and sit for awhile as I was really scared. They agreed and we chatted for a while as I waited for the man. Finally I called Grace again and asked her what the hell was going on and she said that the peer educator came and left because he didn't see me. Now, I think I need to make it clear how impossible this was. I, the lone white girl, was sitting on a plastic chair at a far-less-than-busy trotro stop, amongst a sea of Ghanaian men in a space under half the size of a skating rink. There was NO way that if he came he didn't see me!!!!
At this point I broke down into tears on the phone with Grace and told her that I was upset and angry and that I wanted to go home. She then begged me to stay because she "needed" my help with the performance and told me that she would send one of the actors to come find me. Twenty minutes later I was still sitting (now alone as the young boy and girl had left) at the trotro stop with the large group of Ghanaian men staring me down. It was then I decided I had had MORE than enough and so got on a trotro and headed back to Tema Station. While in the trotro I got a call from Grace and told her that I was heading home via Tema. She (somehow) met me at Tema and convinced me to get in the taxi with her and go back to do the performance. When we got to the community - which was a few feet from the station I had been sitting at for hours, we realized that this community (comprising of tin and mud shacks) had been hit very badly by the rain and so the normally dirt roads were now just thick muddy avenues leading to even thicker and muddier avenues. We trekked through the mud all the way to a community centre in the middle of the town where we learned the men of the town would not give up their afternoon watching soccer for the performance and that we would have to have the performance out in the middle of the street. In the mud. With the cars/motorbikes passing and interrupting.
And so we set up and began the performance much later than initially planned and only once it was over (and I still had yet to do anything) did we find out that the people in the community we were in did not speak Twi and so did not understand anything that had gone on during the show!!! Wasn't that the icing on the cake?!
After the show we trekked back through the mud to the road where Grace then told me what she needed me for was to come with her to another town and get receipts and do some accounting... me... doing math stuff... again. So we go and what she considers to be accounting turns out to be multiplying 8x3 (24 thank you very much). I then find out that Grace has NO idea where we are and so we begin wandering aimlessly through the town looking for a way out. It is at this point that a whole bunch of kids ages 6-10 come and swarm around me pulling my hair, pinching me, kicking my legs, pushing me etc... one kid came over and pinched so hard I grabbed his hand and said "DON'T do that, it's VERY rude. DON'T touch me again" to which Grace said "ohhh... Lindsay... don't..."
After all this crap I was put through throughout the day she decided to scold me for scolding a child who pinched me so hard I have a bruise today. Awesome. Just AWESOME.
So that was yesterday. Really awesome. Not a good start to this week at all but thankfully it's only a 3 day week with Canada day being a Ghana national holiday as well (not called Canada day here obviously) and with me taking Friday off because I worked yesterday. I'm hoping that will be the only truly terrible day I have in Ghana... I've got just under 6 weeks left here (I'm arriving home to Toronto on the 6th of August) and I'm hoping they just keep getting better and better!
I hope all your weekends were far superior and that the week ahead brings nothing but good things!
Monday, June 28, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
It's Ghana Be Quite The Summer! - Part 4
So this past week in Ghana has been pretty relaxed... I can't say a whole lot has happened since my last post!
Last Wednesday Stacey (one of the other volunteers) texted me and said she had been given tickets to see a performance at the National Theatre of Ghana and that the person she was supposed to go with backed out, so would I like to go instead! Of course I accepted the offer and that night trekked to the "Ministries District" to get to the theatre. It was a beautiful big building with quite an interesting design... it had just one proscenium arch stage and although the seating was quite comfortable, there was no lighting grid on the ceiling and no booth! The lights were hung on what is essentially scaffolding that just kind of sat on stage as the actors moved around it. The booth was just a two guys with a sound board sitting in the middle of the theatre... interesting no?
Annnyway, the show that we saw was called "Cinderama: The African Cinderella" and was put on my ActionAid to raise awareness for child abuse. Cinderama, much like Cinderella, lost her mom and ended up living with her step-mother and two step-sisters. Unlike Cinderella however, her step family physically beat her constantly and refused to let her go to school saying she had to sell beads in the market. Cinderama eventually ran away and was attacked by a man who intended to rape her but was chased away by Cinderama's old school teacher. Then, surprise surprise, the prince decided to have a ball to choose a wife... women would dance for him sexually and then he would choose the one woman he wanted to dance with for life. Cinderama decided that this was the way to get money to go to school - she would marry the prince so he would pay for her education. Of course he chose Cinderama but when the clock struck midnight, Cinderama started running away because she had to get home to clean, but the Prince grabbed her waist-beads and tore them off... but she kept running. Finally the old priest came knocking at her door, she tried on the waist-beads - would you believe they were a perfect fit? - and the prince agreed to pay for her schooling.
For me, the storyline shocked me because a) all kids deserve to go to school, b)it seems like the right thing to do is for women to marry for money and c)the teacher didn't talk to Cinderama after scaring the rapist away, she just peaced out. HOWEVER, the biggest shock for me was the audience's reaction to what we were seeing. Every single time poor Cinderama was beaten, the audience members would yell "Good!", "She talked back! She deserves it!" or "Yes! You show her who is in charge" or would even just laugh hysterically. When the rapist grabbed her and tried to attack her the audience yelled "She deserved it dressed like that!" and "A man should always have his way!". When the Prince agreed to pay for her schooling, the audience yelled "She better give him sons!" and "Smart girl!".
....
DOES ANYONE ELSE SEE A PROBLEM WITH THIS??? We were there at the National Theatre raising awareness for the rights of children, showing the audience that child abuse is NOT ok and here the whole audience filled with Ghanaian men and women are cheering for the antagonists! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? ... Needless to say I was a little heated after the performance and despite the wonderful costumes, good acting, captivating dancing and fantastic music I still left with a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth. It showed me a glimpse of the true mentality Ghanaians have towards children and I can't say I liked that mentality one bit.
Thursday and Friday nothing very exciting happened as it was raining and as I've mentioned before, Ghana shuts down in the rain! Saturday Stacey, Emilie and myself got up early and went down to Labadi beach for some much needed sunshine. We each bought some artwork from the beach vendors and played with a few puppies that a man was selling. After that we went back to our house to shower and change for the big game - Ghana vs. Australia. We got all decked out once again and headed into town to a bar called Epo. The place was packed with Ghana fans draped in flags, blow-horns, wigs, streamers... anything that screamed Ghana! We cheered hard for our dear Black Stars but the game ended in a 1-1 tie and a crowd of disappointed Ghanaians. After the game we headed home and had a nice quiet night. The next day was pouring rain and I wasn't feeling the greatest so I decided to opt out of going to see workshop performance with Theatre for a Change. Then it was Monday where it rained all day once again, then Tuesday which was quite dull and now finally, Wednesday where the excitement will pick up again as Ghana plays Germany in the deciding match!
We will be leaving work early today to head to the bar, once again decked out in our finest Ghana gear to cheer for our Black Stars! This match is crucial for Ghana as if they don't win they won't make it to the next round and with most ever other African country out of the World Cup, all eyes are on Ghana today! Cross your fingers!
This weekend myself and a big group of volunteers have decided to venture to a tiny little peninsula by Lake Volta - 3-4 hours away - called Ada Foa. We will be sleeping in huts on the beach... should be fun!!!
Have a good week :-)
Last Wednesday Stacey (one of the other volunteers) texted me and said she had been given tickets to see a performance at the National Theatre of Ghana and that the person she was supposed to go with backed out, so would I like to go instead! Of course I accepted the offer and that night trekked to the "Ministries District" to get to the theatre. It was a beautiful big building with quite an interesting design... it had just one proscenium arch stage and although the seating was quite comfortable, there was no lighting grid on the ceiling and no booth! The lights were hung on what is essentially scaffolding that just kind of sat on stage as the actors moved around it. The booth was just a two guys with a sound board sitting in the middle of the theatre... interesting no?
Annnyway, the show that we saw was called "Cinderama: The African Cinderella" and was put on my ActionAid to raise awareness for child abuse. Cinderama, much like Cinderella, lost her mom and ended up living with her step-mother and two step-sisters. Unlike Cinderella however, her step family physically beat her constantly and refused to let her go to school saying she had to sell beads in the market. Cinderama eventually ran away and was attacked by a man who intended to rape her but was chased away by Cinderama's old school teacher. Then, surprise surprise, the prince decided to have a ball to choose a wife... women would dance for him sexually and then he would choose the one woman he wanted to dance with for life. Cinderama decided that this was the way to get money to go to school - she would marry the prince so he would pay for her education. Of course he chose Cinderama but when the clock struck midnight, Cinderama started running away because she had to get home to clean, but the Prince grabbed her waist-beads and tore them off... but she kept running. Finally the old priest came knocking at her door, she tried on the waist-beads - would you believe they were a perfect fit? - and the prince agreed to pay for her schooling.
For me, the storyline shocked me because a) all kids deserve to go to school, b)it seems like the right thing to do is for women to marry for money and c)the teacher didn't talk to Cinderama after scaring the rapist away, she just peaced out. HOWEVER, the biggest shock for me was the audience's reaction to what we were seeing. Every single time poor Cinderama was beaten, the audience members would yell "Good!", "She talked back! She deserves it!" or "Yes! You show her who is in charge" or would even just laugh hysterically. When the rapist grabbed her and tried to attack her the audience yelled "She deserved it dressed like that!" and "A man should always have his way!". When the Prince agreed to pay for her schooling, the audience yelled "She better give him sons!" and "Smart girl!".
....
DOES ANYONE ELSE SEE A PROBLEM WITH THIS??? We were there at the National Theatre raising awareness for the rights of children, showing the audience that child abuse is NOT ok and here the whole audience filled with Ghanaian men and women are cheering for the antagonists! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? ... Needless to say I was a little heated after the performance and despite the wonderful costumes, good acting, captivating dancing and fantastic music I still left with a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth. It showed me a glimpse of the true mentality Ghanaians have towards children and I can't say I liked that mentality one bit.
Thursday and Friday nothing very exciting happened as it was raining and as I've mentioned before, Ghana shuts down in the rain! Saturday Stacey, Emilie and myself got up early and went down to Labadi beach for some much needed sunshine. We each bought some artwork from the beach vendors and played with a few puppies that a man was selling. After that we went back to our house to shower and change for the big game - Ghana vs. Australia. We got all decked out once again and headed into town to a bar called Epo. The place was packed with Ghana fans draped in flags, blow-horns, wigs, streamers... anything that screamed Ghana! We cheered hard for our dear Black Stars but the game ended in a 1-1 tie and a crowd of disappointed Ghanaians. After the game we headed home and had a nice quiet night. The next day was pouring rain and I wasn't feeling the greatest so I decided to opt out of going to see workshop performance with Theatre for a Change. Then it was Monday where it rained all day once again, then Tuesday which was quite dull and now finally, Wednesday where the excitement will pick up again as Ghana plays Germany in the deciding match!
We will be leaving work early today to head to the bar, once again decked out in our finest Ghana gear to cheer for our Black Stars! This match is crucial for Ghana as if they don't win they won't make it to the next round and with most ever other African country out of the World Cup, all eyes are on Ghana today! Cross your fingers!
This weekend myself and a big group of volunteers have decided to venture to a tiny little peninsula by Lake Volta - 3-4 hours away - called Ada Foa. We will be sleeping in huts on the beach... should be fun!!!
Have a good week :-)
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
It's Ghana Be Quite The Summer! - Part 3
Hello Again!
So here we are with part 3 of my adventures in Ghana! I can't say a lot has gone on here since my last post. Last week I worked in the field Friday and Saturday and so was unable to travel at all but it was definitely an interesting weekend!
On Friday I traveled to a town called Amasama to watch a troupe of our actors perform for a crowd of hundreds... it was a little tough because a)the people watching sat along the outside of a field that was as big as a soccer field, b) the sound system didn't work, and c) the assembly man cut us off 1/2 way through because it was time to watch African drumming/dancing. Not such a successful performance to say the very least but the head assembly man of the community - Honourable Agogo - decided he liked me very much and so gave me a pineapple! I thanked him for the nice piece of fruit and we headed back to the road to catch our tro-tro.
The next day I went to two other communities. Old Fadama and another whose name I cannot remember. In Old Fadama it was really neat as we performed in the middle of Accra's biggest yam market. With hundreds of people around, watching as they sold their yams and other goods, it was almost as if the performance was a piece of street-theatre. The performance itself was on family planning and it was great seeing the reaction from the audience and their willingness to participate. Tons of people felt comfortable enough to speak out on the issue which was awesome to see. Unfortunately at the end of that performance the assembly men who were in charge of the community felt it necessary to demand money from us because they didn't HAVE to come and it was a favour to us that we had their presence at the performance. When we explained to them that we had no money in the budget to be paying for something they should be willing to do as it was for their community's own development, they decided to come at me yelling "YOU ARE WHITE, YOU HAVE MONEY, PAY US NOW!!!". Not exactly the nicest environment... it's very challenging being not only white but a female in these male dominated societies. They believe that women are incompetent and that whatever the man says should go. Once this lovely gentlemen was finished yelling at me, my coworker (a Ghanaian woman) decided to slink off and leave me to deal with the men on my own. I then explained to them that I am a volunteer and that I give only my time, energy and heart to this organization and that they should respect that and leave me the hell alone (only I said it far more eloquently than that). Once we were free from the money minded middle-aged men we hopped back on another tro tro and headed to another community where we did a performance and taught the audience about proper condom usage. It went very very well with the exception of one thing: the fake penises we had were made of a light wood, thus causing an audience member to yell "Our penises are BLACK, not WHITE.... what do WE do? Is it the same putting a condom on a black penis as a white one?" .... for Western culture this seems like the most ridiculous question possible but I guess when you've never had any sort of experience with a sexual-health class, the question is quite valid!
Then it was Sunday... Ghana's first World Cup match against Serbia! Emilie (my roommate), Stacey (another volunteer) and I went to a bar with about 10 old Ghanaian men to watch the big game. A few drinks, a few curses and one penalty kick later Ghana won the first African point on African soil!!! Needless to say Ghana has been going crazy ever since. Right after the game and some celebratory dancing in the our neighbourhood, the three of us hopped on a trotro and headed to the main party/restaurant/shopping street in Accra. Upon arrival we realized the street was shut down and everywhere you looked were screaming fans dressed in yellow, red, black and green. There were motorcycles doing tricks in the streets with flames coming from their exhausts as they flew through the crowds, people dancing on the tops of cars as they tried to get out of the street and cheers all around. Only when it began to rain did the cheers die down and the people disperse. AND THIS WAS ONLY THE FIRST GAME!!! Game two is this Saturday at 2pm (Ghana time)... I suggest you all watch it and cheer for Ghana!
This week the power has been on and off constantly as the combination of every TV in Ghana being tuned into the World Cup and CRAZY thunderstorms every night have made the electrical system unreliable to say the least! I will be working again this weekend both on Friday and Sunday (no one works when there is a game on) and will hopefully get to travel - or at least get to the beach - the weekend after that!
So I'm going to finish of the email with a few things I've learned in Ghana... some are quite shocking but hopefully you'll find amusing.
Happy Birthday to my mother whose big day is this Friday and I hope everyone is having a great summer so far!
Fun Ghanaian Lessons:
1. The word "toilet" is a relative term. Using the side of the road or open gutter to perform one's... business... is not only accepted, but encouraged.
2. To eat with a fork and knife is deserving of a laugh and a exasperated sigh - hands were made in the shovel shape for a reason.
3. If a child hits another child, this calls for laughter. However.. if they blow bubbles in their juice, it deserves a strong beating.
4. Stuffed animals and dolls are possessed by demon spirits. Once these spirits are within the toy and a child plays with the toy, that child with then be possessed.
5. White people do not fart. Because of this, they love the noise they hear when Black people fart which in turn means said white person will give money (out of thanks) to the black person. **no wonder it always smells funny on trotros
6. White people do not lie, cheat, steal or become angry. EVER.
7. Calling someone fat, ugly or obese is a term of endearment. Calling someone crazy, silly or foolish are the WORST insults.
8. Rain, soccer and mosquitoes are the three things that will shut down Ghana for a day... or two... or ten.
9. Obruni means "white foreigner" in Twi. A widely accepted thing to SCREAM as LOUDLY as possible across a busy street, a marketplace, etc whenever one sees a white person. Furthermore, second hand clothes stores or consignment-stores as we like to call them, are called "Dead Obruni Clothing Stores". Yes, that translates to dead white people clothing stores.
10. All Ghanaians are born with rhythm in their bloodstreams and dance in their hearts... newborns to 100 year old men dance in the streets, while they urinate, while they cook and while they clean... dance is the REAL language in Ghana and I'm happy to say I'm catching on quick! :-)
** Many pictures are now posted to Facebook... I have been trying to upload as many as I can but Facebook seems to be having issues with my internet connection. For all those not on facebook, feel free to visit this link to see my pictures instead...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2068210&id=132701906&l=a0f9d90010
So here we are with part 3 of my adventures in Ghana! I can't say a lot has gone on here since my last post. Last week I worked in the field Friday and Saturday and so was unable to travel at all but it was definitely an interesting weekend!
On Friday I traveled to a town called Amasama to watch a troupe of our actors perform for a crowd of hundreds... it was a little tough because a)the people watching sat along the outside of a field that was as big as a soccer field, b) the sound system didn't work, and c) the assembly man cut us off 1/2 way through because it was time to watch African drumming/dancing. Not such a successful performance to say the very least but the head assembly man of the community - Honourable Agogo - decided he liked me very much and so gave me a pineapple! I thanked him for the nice piece of fruit and we headed back to the road to catch our tro-tro.
The next day I went to two other communities. Old Fadama and another whose name I cannot remember. In Old Fadama it was really neat as we performed in the middle of Accra's biggest yam market. With hundreds of people around, watching as they sold their yams and other goods, it was almost as if the performance was a piece of street-theatre. The performance itself was on family planning and it was great seeing the reaction from the audience and their willingness to participate. Tons of people felt comfortable enough to speak out on the issue which was awesome to see. Unfortunately at the end of that performance the assembly men who were in charge of the community felt it necessary to demand money from us because they didn't HAVE to come and it was a favour to us that we had their presence at the performance. When we explained to them that we had no money in the budget to be paying for something they should be willing to do as it was for their community's own development, they decided to come at me yelling "YOU ARE WHITE, YOU HAVE MONEY, PAY US NOW!!!". Not exactly the nicest environment... it's very challenging being not only white but a female in these male dominated societies. They believe that women are incompetent and that whatever the man says should go. Once this lovely gentlemen was finished yelling at me, my coworker (a Ghanaian woman) decided to slink off and leave me to deal with the men on my own. I then explained to them that I am a volunteer and that I give only my time, energy and heart to this organization and that they should respect that and leave me the hell alone (only I said it far more eloquently than that). Once we were free from the money minded middle-aged men we hopped back on another tro tro and headed to another community where we did a performance and taught the audience about proper condom usage. It went very very well with the exception of one thing: the fake penises we had were made of a light wood, thus causing an audience member to yell "Our penises are BLACK, not WHITE.... what do WE do? Is it the same putting a condom on a black penis as a white one?" .... for Western culture this seems like the most ridiculous question possible but I guess when you've never had any sort of experience with a sexual-health class, the question is quite valid!
Then it was Sunday... Ghana's first World Cup match against Serbia! Emilie (my roommate), Stacey (another volunteer) and I went to a bar with about 10 old Ghanaian men to watch the big game. A few drinks, a few curses and one penalty kick later Ghana won the first African point on African soil!!! Needless to say Ghana has been going crazy ever since. Right after the game and some celebratory dancing in the our neighbourhood, the three of us hopped on a trotro and headed to the main party/restaurant/shopping street in Accra. Upon arrival we realized the street was shut down and everywhere you looked were screaming fans dressed in yellow, red, black and green. There were motorcycles doing tricks in the streets with flames coming from their exhausts as they flew through the crowds, people dancing on the tops of cars as they tried to get out of the street and cheers all around. Only when it began to rain did the cheers die down and the people disperse. AND THIS WAS ONLY THE FIRST GAME!!! Game two is this Saturday at 2pm (Ghana time)... I suggest you all watch it and cheer for Ghana!
This week the power has been on and off constantly as the combination of every TV in Ghana being tuned into the World Cup and CRAZY thunderstorms every night have made the electrical system unreliable to say the least! I will be working again this weekend both on Friday and Sunday (no one works when there is a game on) and will hopefully get to travel - or at least get to the beach - the weekend after that!
So I'm going to finish of the email with a few things I've learned in Ghana... some are quite shocking but hopefully you'll find amusing.
Happy Birthday to my mother whose big day is this Friday and I hope everyone is having a great summer so far!
Fun Ghanaian Lessons:
1. The word "toilet" is a relative term. Using the side of the road or open gutter to perform one's... business... is not only accepted, but encouraged.
2. To eat with a fork and knife is deserving of a laugh and a exasperated sigh - hands were made in the shovel shape for a reason.
3. If a child hits another child, this calls for laughter. However.. if they blow bubbles in their juice, it deserves a strong beating.
4. Stuffed animals and dolls are possessed by demon spirits. Once these spirits are within the toy and a child plays with the toy, that child with then be possessed.
5. White people do not fart. Because of this, they love the noise they hear when Black people fart which in turn means said white person will give money (out of thanks) to the black person. **no wonder it always smells funny on trotros
6. White people do not lie, cheat, steal or become angry. EVER.
7. Calling someone fat, ugly or obese is a term of endearment. Calling someone crazy, silly or foolish are the WORST insults.
8. Rain, soccer and mosquitoes are the three things that will shut down Ghana for a day... or two... or ten.
9. Obruni means "white foreigner" in Twi. A widely accepted thing to SCREAM as LOUDLY as possible across a busy street, a marketplace, etc whenever one sees a white person. Furthermore, second hand clothes stores or consignment-stores as we like to call them, are called "Dead Obruni Clothing Stores". Yes, that translates to dead white people clothing stores.
10. All Ghanaians are born with rhythm in their bloodstreams and dance in their hearts... newborns to 100 year old men dance in the streets, while they urinate, while they cook and while they clean... dance is the REAL language in Ghana and I'm happy to say I'm catching on quick! :-)
** Many pictures are now posted to Facebook... I have been trying to upload as many as I can but Facebook seems to be having issues with my internet connection. For all those not on facebook, feel free to visit this link to see my pictures instead...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2068210&id=132701906&l=a0f9d90010
Monday, June 7, 2010
It's Ghana Be Quite The Summer! - Part 2
Hello from Ghana!
I do realize that it has been exactly two weeks since my last posting so I apologize to all those who have asked for speedy/often updates! Needless to say it has been a crazy couple weeks full of ups and downs, new experiences, new friends and new languages! WARNING: This post is incredibly long. I will not be offended if you do not read it all... prepare yourselves.
The Wednesday after my last post I moved into my apartment with my roommate Emilie. She's an International Development Studies student at Ottawa University and is also working with me at Theatre for a Change. Our apartment is fantastic... we've each got our own rooms with a big bed and wardrobe and then we have a kitchen, living room and bathroom. Our place is situated within this little compound in a part of town called "La" where everyone is from the "Ga" tribe and so they speak Ga in La! The rest of the apartments in the compound are rented by one family -- every extended family member lives together in one small area... somehow I don't think the Joseph clan would be able to survive in such close quarters but hey - it works for some! Anyway, this family we live with has adopted both Emilie and I into their family and so constantly are looking out for us, rejecting marriage proposals for us, cooking us dinner and making sure we're up on time for work! Keep in mind that we ask for none of this! Unfortunately last week 3 members of the family came down with Malaria, Mama (who is - you guessed it - our mother here), Mario (her 7 year old nephew) and Roselyn (her 1 year old niece) have been quite sick so Emilie and I have been taking care of the other kids as much as we can to help the family out... we've also quadrupled our application of bug-spray as it is clear the mosquitoes in our compound are carriers of the Malaria virus!
The same Wednesday I moved into my home I also started work with Theatre for a Change! It's a great little NGO that works both in Ghana and Malawi promoting gender and sexual rights to marginalized and vulnerable groups through interactive and legislative theatre training. What we do is go into small communities and do surveys with the people to see which issues are most important to them. In some communities this may be HIV/AIDS, teenage pregnancy, safe abortion, sexual assault, gender inequality etc. Once we know what their biggest concerns are, Theatre for a Change (TfaC) creates a performance directly around the community's concern. By doing this, the people in the communities can relate easier and see themselves within the performance. TfaC will run the performance once all the way through and then stop and have a discussion with the audience about what they saw. The performances that we create always end negatively so as to show a typically real situation. We then ask individuals what they would have changed or done had they been in the situation that the character was in. At this point, the performers run the performance again and when the show gets to the part the audience member would have changed, the audience member joins the troupe on stage, takes the place of the actor and attempts to try and change how the situation would play out. This allows for direct participation and hands on learning and is really incredible to watch! You see the kids/teens/young adults start to understand that they DO have rights and that they don't have to stay silent and just let injustices occur. I'm SO happy to be with this organization as it is exactly combining the two things I love to do - theatre and community development! I have also somehow become the office techie which blows my mind a little bit but none the less I have designed and created the new TfaC brochure (2000 copies printed for mass distribution) and have re-programmed, re-formatted and re-organized pretty much every document, work space, contract etc in this office! I've also become the office typer as I can type far faster than the rest of the staff members and so they come to me, dictate what they want in their emails and then I email them what they have said so they can send it out... it's a very bizarre system but they seem to really love it!
My second weekend here I made my first big adventure to a town called Cape Coast. This was the biggest slave-trading post during the height of the Atlantic Slave trade and needless to say it was very overwhelming. We went to the main castle where they exported over 16 million slaves to the new world and we toured through each of the rooms. In some of them we entered, we smelled this very foul scent which the guide explained to us as being the true scent of the millions of people, dead bodies, feces, blood etc that had seeped so deeply into the concrete that despite excessive cleaning still couldn't come out. It was a very emotional and eye-opening tour... if any of you ever come to Ghana, it is definitely something you should look into seeing.
After the castle and a night at a hotel where we slept 8 people in 1 room because there were no other vacancies in the town, the big group of us traveled to Kokum National Park and hiked through the jungle to do a canopy walk! We walked from tree to tree on these rope swinging bridges with 2x4s for our feet to slide along... it was breathtaking looking out over one of the last true jungles in Western Africa, listening to the birds and watching for monkeys! On our way back however our taxi hit a small dog which broke his leg (among other things)as well as our hearts and therefore ending our fantastic trip with tears and a man telling us "animals don't matter in Ghana, don't cry". Lovely hey?
My second week here was a bit of a whirlwind. On Tuesday we had a big meeting with everyone in the office and I found out that I would be working in the Greater Accra and Eastern Regions for June and July and that Emilie will be working in the Central region. This means a LOT of travel for the both of us as the Eastern Region is about 2 hours away and the Central region is close to 3 hours away. We will be taking trotros (little minivans that pile up to 26 people inside and fly along the highways at unmentionable speeds) to and from these areas and will be able to work with the communities in a hands on way. Unfortunately all the performances are actually done in a local language, Twi (pronounced chwee) so Emilie and I have been trying to learn as much as possible as quickly as we can!
Wednesday night was a very busy night as we decided to go to see Sex in the City at the only cinema in Ghana. After that we hit the beach for a big reggae night where Rastafarians from across Ghana gather every week to do what they do best... drink, sing, dance and smoke. We had a lot dancing up a storm until I was approached by one Rasta and it just got weird. He told me that I was the golden angel queen of Zion and that he was never letting me leave Ghana for I belong with him in this country. Needless to say we left shortly thereafter as we were extremely creeped out! I then was called by another volunteer who was in a panic and needing to go to the hospital right away. I taxied up to her hostel (1/2 hour away) and became an RA once again, calming her down and making sure she got to the doctor. We didn't leave the hospital until 3:00am, making the 7am wake up for work that much more excruciating.
This past weekend we (myself and 9 others) decided to venture even farther - in the opposite direction - and travel 4 hours to the Volta Region. We got up at 5:30, were at the trotro station by 6:30 and on our way by 8am (we had to wait for it to fill up before we left). Unfortunately, as luck would have it, we got on the WORST TROTRO EVER!!!! For those of you who thought MY car was unreliable, you clearly have never been to Ghana. Half an hour into driving the trotro broke down and we all got out to take a look. half of the engine had detached from the other half and the radiator (so the driver said) was spewing water all over the ground. A piece of rope, some water, a banana, a bar of soap and a prayer later we were back on the road... for a total of 10 minutes. Such was our life for the next 4 hours... drive a little, stop, shove a banana mixed with soap in the engine to stick it together, wrap the rope around it, fill the radiator with water and pile back on the trotro. Eventually the 10 of us gave up on the "Little Trotro that Couldn't" and convinced a man on the side of the road to take us the rest of the way to Volta in his minivan for 5 cedi (the Ghanaian currency). An hour and a half later we arrived (far later than we expected), checked into a hotel and spent the rest of the day wandering around the little town of HoHoe(said Ho-Hoy). The next morning we were up bright and early to visit a gorgeous waterfall called "WLI WATERFALL" (pronounced Vlee). This is by far the most gorgeous waterfall I have EVER been to. A 40 meter cascading waterfall, a fresh pool of water to swim in below and stunning vegetation all around. We had to hike an hour to get there but it was well worth it! I took a TON of pictures so any of you that have me on facebook, be sure to check it out! After that we traveled to this pathetic excuse for a monkey sanctuary where we paid 5 cedi to feed the monkeys and to walk through a jungle where we saw no more monkeys. We were not impressed but the memory of the waterfalls made it all ok :-)
Well, I suppose that's about it! I'm very sorry that it was SUCH a ridiculously long post... I will try to make the updates shorter and more often from here on out, I promise!
Thanks for reading post number two and I hope everyone is having a great summer so far!!
I do realize that it has been exactly two weeks since my last posting so I apologize to all those who have asked for speedy/often updates! Needless to say it has been a crazy couple weeks full of ups and downs, new experiences, new friends and new languages! WARNING: This post is incredibly long. I will not be offended if you do not read it all... prepare yourselves.
The Wednesday after my last post I moved into my apartment with my roommate Emilie. She's an International Development Studies student at Ottawa University and is also working with me at Theatre for a Change. Our apartment is fantastic... we've each got our own rooms with a big bed and wardrobe and then we have a kitchen, living room and bathroom. Our place is situated within this little compound in a part of town called "La" where everyone is from the "Ga" tribe and so they speak Ga in La! The rest of the apartments in the compound are rented by one family -- every extended family member lives together in one small area... somehow I don't think the Joseph clan would be able to survive in such close quarters but hey - it works for some! Anyway, this family we live with has adopted both Emilie and I into their family and so constantly are looking out for us, rejecting marriage proposals for us, cooking us dinner and making sure we're up on time for work! Keep in mind that we ask for none of this! Unfortunately last week 3 members of the family came down with Malaria, Mama (who is - you guessed it - our mother here), Mario (her 7 year old nephew) and Roselyn (her 1 year old niece) have been quite sick so Emilie and I have been taking care of the other kids as much as we can to help the family out... we've also quadrupled our application of bug-spray as it is clear the mosquitoes in our compound are carriers of the Malaria virus!
The same Wednesday I moved into my home I also started work with Theatre for a Change! It's a great little NGO that works both in Ghana and Malawi promoting gender and sexual rights to marginalized and vulnerable groups through interactive and legislative theatre training. What we do is go into small communities and do surveys with the people to see which issues are most important to them. In some communities this may be HIV/AIDS, teenage pregnancy, safe abortion, sexual assault, gender inequality etc. Once we know what their biggest concerns are, Theatre for a Change (TfaC) creates a performance directly around the community's concern. By doing this, the people in the communities can relate easier and see themselves within the performance. TfaC will run the performance once all the way through and then stop and have a discussion with the audience about what they saw. The performances that we create always end negatively so as to show a typically real situation. We then ask individuals what they would have changed or done had they been in the situation that the character was in. At this point, the performers run the performance again and when the show gets to the part the audience member would have changed, the audience member joins the troupe on stage, takes the place of the actor and attempts to try and change how the situation would play out. This allows for direct participation and hands on learning and is really incredible to watch! You see the kids/teens/young adults start to understand that they DO have rights and that they don't have to stay silent and just let injustices occur. I'm SO happy to be with this organization as it is exactly combining the two things I love to do - theatre and community development! I have also somehow become the office techie which blows my mind a little bit but none the less I have designed and created the new TfaC brochure (2000 copies printed for mass distribution) and have re-programmed, re-formatted and re-organized pretty much every document, work space, contract etc in this office! I've also become the office typer as I can type far faster than the rest of the staff members and so they come to me, dictate what they want in their emails and then I email them what they have said so they can send it out... it's a very bizarre system but they seem to really love it!
My second weekend here I made my first big adventure to a town called Cape Coast. This was the biggest slave-trading post during the height of the Atlantic Slave trade and needless to say it was very overwhelming. We went to the main castle where they exported over 16 million slaves to the new world and we toured through each of the rooms. In some of them we entered, we smelled this very foul scent which the guide explained to us as being the true scent of the millions of people, dead bodies, feces, blood etc that had seeped so deeply into the concrete that despite excessive cleaning still couldn't come out. It was a very emotional and eye-opening tour... if any of you ever come to Ghana, it is definitely something you should look into seeing.
After the castle and a night at a hotel where we slept 8 people in 1 room because there were no other vacancies in the town, the big group of us traveled to Kokum National Park and hiked through the jungle to do a canopy walk! We walked from tree to tree on these rope swinging bridges with 2x4s for our feet to slide along... it was breathtaking looking out over one of the last true jungles in Western Africa, listening to the birds and watching for monkeys! On our way back however our taxi hit a small dog which broke his leg (among other things)as well as our hearts and therefore ending our fantastic trip with tears and a man telling us "animals don't matter in Ghana, don't cry". Lovely hey?
My second week here was a bit of a whirlwind. On Tuesday we had a big meeting with everyone in the office and I found out that I would be working in the Greater Accra and Eastern Regions for June and July and that Emilie will be working in the Central region. This means a LOT of travel for the both of us as the Eastern Region is about 2 hours away and the Central region is close to 3 hours away. We will be taking trotros (little minivans that pile up to 26 people inside and fly along the highways at unmentionable speeds) to and from these areas and will be able to work with the communities in a hands on way. Unfortunately all the performances are actually done in a local language, Twi (pronounced chwee) so Emilie and I have been trying to learn as much as possible as quickly as we can!
Wednesday night was a very busy night as we decided to go to see Sex in the City at the only cinema in Ghana. After that we hit the beach for a big reggae night where Rastafarians from across Ghana gather every week to do what they do best... drink, sing, dance and smoke. We had a lot dancing up a storm until I was approached by one Rasta and it just got weird. He told me that I was the golden angel queen of Zion and that he was never letting me leave Ghana for I belong with him in this country. Needless to say we left shortly thereafter as we were extremely creeped out! I then was called by another volunteer who was in a panic and needing to go to the hospital right away. I taxied up to her hostel (1/2 hour away) and became an RA once again, calming her down and making sure she got to the doctor. We didn't leave the hospital until 3:00am, making the 7am wake up for work that much more excruciating.
This past weekend we (myself and 9 others) decided to venture even farther - in the opposite direction - and travel 4 hours to the Volta Region. We got up at 5:30, were at the trotro station by 6:30 and on our way by 8am (we had to wait for it to fill up before we left). Unfortunately, as luck would have it, we got on the WORST TROTRO EVER!!!! For those of you who thought MY car was unreliable, you clearly have never been to Ghana. Half an hour into driving the trotro broke down and we all got out to take a look. half of the engine had detached from the other half and the radiator (so the driver said) was spewing water all over the ground. A piece of rope, some water, a banana, a bar of soap and a prayer later we were back on the road... for a total of 10 minutes. Such was our life for the next 4 hours... drive a little, stop, shove a banana mixed with soap in the engine to stick it together, wrap the rope around it, fill the radiator with water and pile back on the trotro. Eventually the 10 of us gave up on the "Little Trotro that Couldn't" and convinced a man on the side of the road to take us the rest of the way to Volta in his minivan for 5 cedi (the Ghanaian currency). An hour and a half later we arrived (far later than we expected), checked into a hotel and spent the rest of the day wandering around the little town of HoHoe(said Ho-Hoy). The next morning we were up bright and early to visit a gorgeous waterfall called "WLI WATERFALL" (pronounced Vlee). This is by far the most gorgeous waterfall I have EVER been to. A 40 meter cascading waterfall, a fresh pool of water to swim in below and stunning vegetation all around. We had to hike an hour to get there but it was well worth it! I took a TON of pictures so any of you that have me on facebook, be sure to check it out! After that we traveled to this pathetic excuse for a monkey sanctuary where we paid 5 cedi to feed the monkeys and to walk through a jungle where we saw no more monkeys. We were not impressed but the memory of the waterfalls made it all ok :-)
Well, I suppose that's about it! I'm very sorry that it was SUCH a ridiculously long post... I will try to make the updates shorter and more often from here on out, I promise!
Thanks for reading post number two and I hope everyone is having a great summer so far!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
