Hellooo hellooo from the coast of Africa! Just got back from
an eye opening 5 days in Ghana and can’t wait to
tell my fans all about it. I apologize on the brief-ness of my account for day
4 and 5… I had to speed type and get this
up BEFORE South Africa on Friday!!!!
Monday
February 13- Day 1:
I decided to travel independently throughout Ghana for the
first 3 days… not alone don’t worry,
just independently from SAS. The group was an ideal size of 4: Jenna (my
roommate), Grant, Bailey, and me--- Jenna and I were originally going to travel
alone, but at the last minute we were able to recruit our male protector Grant
(he liked to tell us that he was the tallest man in the country, thus would be
able to fend off anyone!) and Bailey… I am so
happy the 2 of them joined us, not that Jenna and I wouldn’t have
survived on our own, but the 4 of us were the perfect travel group--- easy
going, not wanting to break the bank, interested in get a taste of Ghana culture,
and had similar places we wanted to visit.
Before I go on with the specifics of my trip I would like to
say, traveling alone is the most rewarding experience. I learned so much about
myself and also felt a new sense of pride/ independence by being able to travel
the country. Unlike SAS trips where you are herded around the country like
cattle, the 4 of us were forced to delve into the Ghanaian culture and attempt
to communicate with the Ghanaians. If you ever have the opportunity to explore
a country on your own--- do it!
The boat docked in a town called Tema (a major port city in
Ghana), it was literally a shipyard and although I knew I had made it to Africa,
the scenery was a bit misleading! We took what should have been a 45-minute bus
ride to the capital of Ghana, called Accra. The amount of time that this ride
takes can fluctuate mucho mucho mucho as it all depends on traffic. Alright
folks, I will no longer be able to listen to people’s belly
aching about Atlanta or DC traffic because Ghana traffic actually is
horrendous. The uplifting part about their traffic scene is that when the
traffic stops there are local vendors that sell all sorts of food and beverages
to drivers/ passengers--- the vendors come alongside the cars and you just flag
them down to purchase products from them. I enjoyed some sweet treats from
these vendors such as plantain chips, cookies, and even ice cream! While on the
subject of food, Ghana has really interesting ice cream called Fan Ice that you
eat out of a little plastic pouch. It is a bit softer and more melted than the
ice cream we are used to, but so tasty! Below you will find a picture of Ghana’s version
of an ice cream truck!!
After making it to Accra we were immediately swarmed by
street vendors who were trying to sell us bracelets with our names on them. It
was actually a pretty smart marketing technique that they did in which
immediately when they began talking to you they would ask for your name and
then as fast as they could, generally under 10 minutes would have a bracelet
made for you with your name on it. At that point, you were impressed, yet
overwhelmed--- did you even ask for the bracelet? No, of course not… then why
on earth were you required to buy it? Lucky for me, I was the third bracelet to
be made out of the 3 girls, thus Monroe didn’t have
enough time to make a Caryn bracelet, HOLLER! I felt like a champion for not
being caught in the tourist trap.
Our mission for when we got off the bus was to find an ATM
machine as none of us had any cedi (Ghanaian money) when I say none of us, I am
referring to all of the SAS students that also took the bus into Accra... this
would be about 100 students. Now that’s an oy
vey! We would go looking for ATMs and get really excited to find one, only to
get disappointed that fellow voyagers had wiped the machine out of cedi! As I
mentioned earlier, traveling with Grant was the ideal situation as he was a
smart traveler and exchanged his US dollars for cedi, thus he had plenty of
money to cover the 4 of us to get to Cape Coast, our final destination for the
day.
Side Note:
as a bargain hunter, I refuse to note Grant’s switching
of US dollars for cetas as a travel tip as I am unsure who will end up with the
better exchange rate… to my fans, please do your research and get back to
me
Once we figured out that Grant had enough money to pay for
our trip to Cape Coast we said “peace out” to the
other SASers and were off… officially doing some independent
traveling. TRAVEL TIP #1- when traveling in a foreign country use the ask, and
ask, and ask again strategy to be sure that the taxi driver understands the
destination you are traveling… Stop freaking out, we all got to
our destination just fine, but had a bit of a mishap to start.
We were told by SAS that before getting into a cab in Ghana
you should negotiate a price with the driver so that it is agreed upon before
the ride begins… because taxis are VERY negotiable
in terms of price, waiting in traffic doesn’t annoy
you because the price is already set! We were able to flag down a taxi with no
problem, were all excited that he was only charging us 10 cedi (6.25 US dollars
divided by 4 people), and assumed that he understood the location of the bus
station… well apparently that wasn’t the
case. As soon as we got out of the car the 4 of us had a minor panic attack not
that we were in the wrong location, rather because of the pure chaos that
occurs at a Ghana bus station. Bus stations in Ghana are VERY different than in
the US… by this I mean NO order
whatsoever---buses, vans, cars, goats are all mashed together in what appears
to be like a dirt covered parking lot with street vendors selling products and
loud yelling--- essentially MASS CHAOS!
Now add this to the equation: just my luck, while getting
out of the car my sun screen melts down my face into my eye so it is stinging
like crazy… I can barely see out of my eye
and look SUPER vulnerable. At this point someone tries to carry my bag for me
which then gets me even more frantic all at the same time that Jenna is yelling
at me, “Caryn, stop looking so helpless,
toughen up or else you become a target.” Well
Jenna, that really helps when I can’t see out
of my right eye!!!! As we push our way through the mass chaos, we are
eventually led to a van with ooooo I don’t like 20 people
inside and a cardboard sign on the top that reads “Cape
Coast.” Not to worry, all of our red
flags go off inside telling us that this is NOT the van we should be taking for
a 3-hour drive as it looks a bit unsafe. We talked with some guys standing
around and they were so helpful in clearing up our confusion, they gave us
instructions that we needed to get to Kanasha bus station so we should take a
cab.
Please pardon my last paragraph if it was difficult to
follow along… this should give you a good sense
of how we all felt at the bus station… I’d think of
it comparable to the following: ajkfhakjhgkaygiuyakgjnknakKJHGKAJHGIUAGLJNALKNG
LK!!!!!!
We arrived at the next bus station which still looked
nothing like a US bus station, but at least this time there was room to walk
and like Jenna says, “my biggest fear at the 1st
bus station was not that my bag would be stolen, but rather that my foot would
be driven over by a bus! Oy vey!” As we
navigated around this station we quickly realized that American coach bus
chariots don’t exist in Ghana, thus a van was
the way to travel.
At first I was skeptical, should I really be stepping in a
van that smelled like goats? But once we hopped inside, my nerves calmed as I
quickly realized this was the way to travel… like a
true local! My fellow passengers included a younger Ghanaian woman and two
older Ghanaian women. It was interesting to look at the disparity between the
clothing of the different generations. The 2 older women were in what seemed to
be more traditional Ghanaian clothing (pattern fabric, like a dress wrapped
around covering their entire body), in contrast the younger lady was wearing
tight jeans and a shirt. I feel this is probably representative of the younger
age within Ghana and wonder if I will notice this throughout the rest of my
travels.
The ride was rather uneventful I traded off between looking
out the window to take in the wonderful views of Ghana, while struggling to
keep my eyes open… We all munched on our delicious
plantain chips and were in Cape Coast before we knew it! Probably before the
van even came to a complete stop we were bombarded by taxi drivers that were
literally fighting over who would get to take us as their passengers… and the
overwhelming shenanigans start once again. This time it seemed to be a bit more
manageable because Cape Coast overall is a much smaller city, thus we didn’t have to
deal with the hub-bub of being in Accra.
Our cab driver recommended that we stay at the Mighty
Victory Hotel and took us straight there. As I said in the start, we were all
on the same page that the hotel was not a priority as long as it was a safe
place and it could sleep 4. The Mighty Victory ended up being the perfect place
for our needs, for 55 cedi (13 cedi per person so $8.13 a night) we had the
perfect room with 4 nice size beds! The only catch… no AC,
but when in Ghana, we must do as the Ghanaians, thus we survived!
We chose to travel to Cape Coast because we were told that
it would be a shame to come to Ghana without touring the Slave Castles. After a
bit of debate, we decided that it would be best to see the castles right away
on Monday so as not to run into the Semester at Sea group that would be touring
them on Tuesday… no need to wait in a long line
with a group of 40 Americans. Remember we
were attempting to keep low profile (which is of course quite difficult when
you are an American in Ghana).
The cab driver waited at the hotel for us to drop off our
belongings and then we were off to see the El Mina Slave Castles. It ended up
being about a 20 minute drive in which we got to once again enjoy the beautiful
African landscape--- this time we were driving along the beaches which are to
my surprise, gorgeous!
We arrived at the castles at around 4:00 PM and were
immediately greeted by a group of Ghanaian college students that all appeared
to be super excited and friendly to see us at the castle. Upon meeting us they
each separated the 4 of us from one another, introduced themselves and then had
us tell them our name including the spelling. My red flags were shooting off in
my head because I knew something weird was up… it’s me, I am
a little detective, of course I don’t trust
these guys for a second! We eventually made our way into the castle and were
told that it would be closing shortly, but we would still be able to take a
guided tour. We all decided that seeing the castles with no one else there
helped to ingrain in our minds what a horrible and eerie place these castles
must have been just a mere 530 years ago.
Let me rewind for a moment to explain the slave castles… El Mina
Castle was built in 1482 and today is the oldest and largest castle south of
the Sahara Desert. People were taken to the castle before they were shipped off
as slaves to the Americas. When the slaves entered the castle they were divided
between men and women… on the bottom floor were dungeons
in which the slaves were kept about 150 people to a room and the most minimal
amount of food to stay alive. On the top floor was where the governors lived in
these luxurious suite style rooms with a living room, bedroom, and balcony. One
of the most disturbing parts about the castle was that the governors could and
would pick a women at random and rape her… if she
refused she was immediately put into a cell where she would be starved to
death. The only way for her to escape the castle was to become pregnant.
Hopefully now you get a sense of why this was such an
emotionally training experience as it was pretty intense to be walking through
this castle where such horrific human to human actions occurred. As we toured
the castles we all couldn’t bring ourselves to even take
pictures inside because it felt too wrong to put on a smile.
When our tour of the castles was over, we were all
speechless… just wanted to get in the car and
leave! Well of course not so fast, my friend Issac (my Ghanaian college “friend”)
was waiting for his big moment to pounce on the stupid American tourists… as we
walked out of the castle the group of 5 of them once again cornered all of us,
but this time handed us sea shells with our names so perfectly scripted and a
personal message written on them (may I note this is a fine marketing
strategy--- all about the customization!!!) Of course, I quickly refused the shell
saying that there was no way that I could take it… I didn’t have the
money to pay for it! Issac wouldn’t take no
for an answer and graciously left the shell in my hand, telling me “I want to
give this to you.” Next step to the scam… Issac
brings out a yellow sheet of paper that appears to be a petition, he tells me
that he needs me to sign this sheet of paper and then write a number next to my
name--- he indicates that he needs this for his school. I of course am super
skeptical, I try pretending that I don’t
understand him, but in the end I write my name followed by 20.
As soon as I hand the paper back to Issac he is immediately
demanding that I give him 20 cedi because this is the number that I have
indicated on the form… Clearly, Issac didn’t know who
he was dealing with, there was no way I would just cough up 20 cedi because I
wrote down 20 on the form! After much bickering, we all successfully made it
back in the car. That was until Issac reached his hand inside the car and
forced me to give the shell back to him because I only gave him 10 cedi. I didn’t care at
this point about the darn shell all I wanted was to get out of there!
I know I know how ridiculous is that?! As I type this story
I actually get angry because how on earth were we all that stupid to fall right
into their trap? They totally took advantage of us at a point when we were so
vulnerable. The truth of the matter is that regardless of what these guys were
going to do with the money, they needed it far more than the 4 of us. I felt
similar sentiments throughout my time in Ghana as with any developing country
you always bargain, but at the end of the day realize that these people need
the money just for the basic necessities of life whereas I would be using it
for material goods.
Side Note:
When we came back to the hotel we realized that the shelled with “Corina” was nicely sitting as a friendly warning sign on
what not to do at El Mina… too bad we didn’t take
note of it before we left! Couldn’t help but snap a picture of our stupidity.
After collecting ourselves from the emotional rollercoaster
of the slave castles, we were hungry for dinner. The hotel recommended that we
eat at this hostel called Oasis that also had a nice outside dining facility.
As we walked up to Oasis, we recognized a tall Asian man playing basketball, it
ended up being Ko, one of the Resident Directors on the ship (just like living
in the dorms, each hall on the ship has a Resident Director who is in their
late 20s). There was actually a group of RDs staying at Oasis and we ended up
eating dinner with them. It reminded me a lot of being a camper at camp and
hanging out with counselors outside of camp…they were
able to really let their guards down and act as peers where we could all laugh
together!
Day 1 concluded with yet another scare, but came out with a
valuable life lesson. At around 11:00 PM we said so long to the RD’s and
headed back to the hotel… mind you we tried to act all
tough and walk home in the dark, mysterious, Cape Coast city, and of course
quickly became disoriented. As we continued to wonder aimlessly, we realized
that some boys were yelling at us “hey, hey,
hey”… Naturally, I was freaking out, while the rest of the
group remained rather calm, cool, and collect. We began picking up the pace,
until we decided that we were going the wrong direction and better turn around.
At this point one of the boys came running up to us asking if we were lost. A
bit hesitant, we told him that we were looking for the Mighty Victory Hotel and
asked if he could help us find it. Not only did this boy give us directions,
but he also escorted us all the way back to the hotel. I find it remarkable
that within one day, one hour, or even one minute you can see both the best and
the worst in humanity. This experience is teaching me that regardless of the
location, there are some really great people in the world and some really bad
people out there too.
Tuesday February
14th- Day 2
Day 2 began with breakfast at the hotel. Funny moment of the
day was when I of course wanted to order an egg white omelet----probably should
have thought about my surroundings as I was in Ghana. The waitress gave me such
a blank stare that I quickly caved and ordered a normal omelet… I really
am making strides in this whole picky eating business!
Our priority for day 2 was finding a place for service
learning. I am taking an international service learning class and one of the
requirements is to seek out 5 service learning opportunities throughout our
travels. As I said, this was the perfect travel group because they were all so
willing to fulfill this requirement with me! The night before Kyle, one of the
RD’s was raving about this trade school that he had
visited in Cape Coast and showed us the brochure--- I knew this sounded like
the perfect opportunity.
The name of the school/ foundation is called the Baobab
Children’s Foundation. In Ghana education
is provided for free until 5th grade, after this point, a family
must pay for further education. This NGO takes in students who come from large
families, live in crowded homes, and are either illiterate or physically
challenged and gives them the opportunity to go to school. Students must apply
to be apart of this program, as you can probably imagine there is a large
demand for this opportunity. Baobab takes these kids out of their home to give
them a better place to live along with a place to learn. In this school they
learn a trades such as cooking, hospitality, sewing, bag making, ect. These
students stay in the program for two and a half years with the intent that
after their training they should be able to find a job for themselves and make
money on their own.
We arrived at Baobab around 10:30 AM and per usual I was on
a mission to get enough information about the organization to be able to write
a paper and make a presentation for class. As we walked into Baobab, we saw an
outdoor restaurant with only vegetarian food, information regarding hotel accommodations,
and finally a small store with what appeared to be hand made clothing, bags,
and much more. Of course, I was in absolute heaven by all of the products, but
was forced to keep focused and try to see if I could have some of the workers
talk with me about the program and perhaps give me a tour of the school. I
ended up speaking with the German store clerk who told me to give him about 10
minutes and then he would of course speak with all of us. Well, that was
settled! Although I must say, at this point I was still a bit shaky… would I
really get enough information for my class?
To calm my nerves we decided to sit outside and wait for the
man to come to speak with us. As we were sitting at the table the waiter,
Monrah, a 17 year-old boy came up to see if we wanted to order anything. Jenna
and Bailey ordered some drinks, which side note were SOOO amazing---fresh
squeezed juices yum yum yum! Anywhoooo, we quickly began to stroke up a
conversation with Monrah who ended up being one of the students at the school.
It was so cute talking with Monrah as he was this adorable Ghanaian student who
was a little shy especially because he wasn’t perfect
with his English… anytime he couldn’t
translate what we were saying he would just give us this huge smile and then
start laughing! The only notable fact about Monrah that I have written down was
that he is the oldest of 10 children! He also informed us that the school where
all the students actually learn is about 20 minutes away, and this was just the
hotel, restaurant, and store.
As we were talking with Monrah, Bailey pointed to a lady as
she walked into the house and whispered to Monrah, “Is that
Edith?” He turned and smiled back “yes!” Who is Edith
is probably your next question… Edith is a German woman in her
mid 50s who is the founder of Baobab Children’s
Foundation. We had Monrah ask her if we could have a moment of her time to
speak with her about the Baobab house, and in a matter of 10 minutes we began a
rapid-fire question session with Edith.
How cool is that?! Edith ended up speaking with us for a
good 45 minutes and was a wealth of information. Bailey is a communications
major, so between the 2 of us we were able to film our entire conversation with
her. If you would like to see it when I get home, please let me know, as I
would love to pass it along. In the below picture you will see us posing with
some of the students who were working in the store.
The funniest part about our conversation with Edith was that
I got called out for mumbling! Between Edith’s self
taught English speaking and being hard of hearing in one ear, speaking slowly
and clearly was critical… for some reason I just couldn’t
comprehend this concept so whenever I would ask a question I would mumble my
words together and she would give me this look like what on earth are you
saying?! My friends would then have to repeat my question, at which point she
totally understood… by the end of our interview she
goes to me, “I just have to ask, what kind of
dialect do you speak, I have never had such a problem with understanding someone!!” TEHEHEHEH
I guess dad, you are right… I really do mumble!
We really wanted to make it to the actual school facility,
but we had already planned to meet my friend Katie back in Accra, and without
cell phones there was no way to communicate with her if we were running late,
so we chose to skip out on visiting the actual school… Remember
with Ghana traffic you would rather be safe than sorry!
I’m so happy I had the opportunity
to speak with Edith as she is truly an inspirational woman who really seems
like just your average person who wants to make a difference in the world. At
around 2:00 we decided it was time to head back to Accra, but of course not
without some yum yum yum pineapple and mango to eat from street vendors… aren’t you
jealous!? It’s so great in Ghana you can just
go up to a fruit stand, buy fruit, and then ask them to cut it right there for
you to enjoy!
We wandered around Cape Coast in search of a bus that would
take us back to Accra… somehow we stumbled upon the
local bus which according to our search just 1 day prior didn’t exist,
but we decided better go for it and purchased our tickets. I suppose the city
bus made our van look like a luxury ride as we were literally packed into this
bus like sardines… poor poor Grant had to sit
sideways in his seat because there wasn’t enough
room for his back to sit flat against the seat! In reality, it was a wonderful
experience as once again we got to see Ghana in the eyes of a local rather than
as a tourist.
One last side note: before getting on the bus, we were
speaking with a bunch of local Ghanaian men who really impressed me with their
knowledge and desire to travel to the US…
·
One of them really knew his states, when I told him
that I go to school in Georgia, he smiled and said oooo that’s where
Atlanta is right?
·
Another explained to us that they would love for the
opportunity to go to the United States, but it is extremely difficult to get a
VISA, thus they probably will never have the chance… it’s at these
points that I realize how much we take for granted being United States citizens
and having the opportunity to travel the world. This theme will be revisited
later on in my Ghana posting…
·
Finally, one of them blurted out ooo do you guys know
who Rosa Parks was? “Of course” we all
exclaimed…he pointed us in the direction of
this sign that honors Park’s fight with equality… it was
unclear as to whether this was where she is buried or if they just wanted to
commemorate her life
It took us about 3 ½ hours to get back to Accra, this meant
we were on schedule to meet Katie at the SAS shuttle stop. We were all a little
nervous about what we would do if Katie were not there because how long would
we have to wait for her to arrive? But like magic, we approached the shuttle
stop and there was Katie sitting and waiting for us! Wahoooo a successful
mission without the use of any modern day technology… for all
you anti-cell phone people aren’t you proud!?
I truly thought that without Hallmark how could Valentine’s Day
exist? Much to my dismay, they do in-fact celebrate this “holiday”… thus
Grant did not have just 1 Valentine this year, but rather 4 dashing women… in Ghana
they kept calling it “Val’s Day” perhaps I’ll bring
this slang back to the states?! I’m a bit
embarrassed to admit that my dinner’s in Accra
consisted of AMAZING brick oven pizza and DELICIOUS sushi… evidence
of globalization?? MOST DEF! After our delicious dinner we had to say so long
to Bailey, she had a field trip the next morning so she wanted to be sure to
get back to the ship on Tuesday night just to be on the safe side!
We wandered around Accra in search of a hotel/ hostel and
came across one that originally was out of our price range, but with a bit of
negotiating worked out perfectly. Once again 4 beds, but this time AC was
included! Tuesday night we decided to keep it low key and just hung out at the
hotel bar, we were all too nervous to go wondering around the streets of
Ghana--- hear that mom, we were being safe so no need to worry about me!!! We
ended up making friends with the owner of the hotel and spoke with him about
life in Ghana… Now for the moment of truth: by
around 2:00 AM I was pooped and unwilling to walk back to my room alone so I
pulled out an “OOOOO CK!” and fell
asleep in a bar in Ghana hahahahahah--- oopps!
Wednesday
February 15th- Day 3:
I believe I forgot to emphasis the fact that Ghana is HOT HOT
HOT. By the time Wednesday rolled around, I was actually disgusting… for those
of you who don’t know, it takes a lot for me to
legitimately WANT to shower, but by this point, a shower was sounding heavenly.
From my Ghana experience I take away a new found appreciation of the basic
necessities of life… to say that I will come back home
never desiring a material good again would be a complete lie, instead I hope to
appreciate what I have, scale back on my consumption, and most of all be able
to see the bigger picture of life and appreciating its preciousness.
On Wednesday we decided to navigate the markets of Ghana and
let me just tell you, this is an experience in itself. Makola Market is the
biggest market in Ghana which literally carries just about everything and
anything you can think of… shoes, clothing, food (fruits, vegetables,
pigs feet, crabs, eggs, etc), pots & pans, fabrics, nail polishes, locks---
you name it, one of those vendors most likely carries it! It is situated along
a few streets and I believe a center square, but I must be honest that although
I feel I have a pretty good sense of direction, I was so overwhelmed by this
market that I really don’t know its exact placement! When I
say craziness I mean it in all sincerity--- people are walking at a fast pass,
vendors are moving merchandise throughout the market, women are carrying huge
bowls on top of their head--- without holding on (which might I add is one of
the most impressive things ever… you just want to chant YOU GO
GIRL!) As you walk through the market you are constantly pushed around and must
be VERY aggressive if you want to keep moving… if you
are a New Yorker, than you would be in your element, as for me, being that I am
now a Southern Belle, pushing through this market seemed out of the question.
As a result, Grant, Katie, and Jenna made me follow after the 3 of them because
whenever I was in the lead I would so generously allow others to go along their
merry way before I would walk ;) teheheh I would like to point out that in no
way is the pushing seen as rude like it may appear, but it is more of a way of
life.
Now on a more serious tone about the market—it was
probably at this point that Ghana’s poverty
became so apparent to me… while we walked past the vendors,
I was struck by the women and children that were lying down in their booths
sleeping on the ground right next to all of the commotion. Although it was hot,
loud, and dirty, these people needed a place to rest, and since this was their
best option, they took full advantage. I couldn’t help but
feel a sense of guilt while I walked past the booths--- what have I really done
to deserve the life that I have been given compared to all of these people? I
know life isn’t fair, but I’m having
extreme difficulty in making sense of the fact that I was lucky and born into a
fortunate family, purely because of chance.
I want to note that this type of poverty takes place in the
US as well, but we so often turn our cheek to it and would rather help out
internationally. What is the reason for this phenomenon? We have been talking a
lot about this in my service learning class, so as we discuss more and more, I
plan to continue to reflect on this idea.
Below you will find a picture from the market. I must admit
that the picture isn’t that good because the Ghanaian
people really don’t want tourists taking pictures.
They feel that we will publish these pictures in magazine and potentially misrepresent
their country. As a result I didn’t take any
of my own pictures, but am borrowing Katie’s who didn’t know
about this rule and was yelled at by some Ghanaian women.
Our day continued with a trip to another local market which
was more manageable in the sense that it wasn’t nearly
as chaotic, however the vendors here were soooooo pushy it was exhausting! As
you walked down a row you would hear, “my friend
my friend” or “have a
look at my bracelets, necklaces, etc.” Literally
I wasn’t able to make eye contact with
them or else I would get sucked into their booth… after
about 20 minutes of the craziness of the market, we had enough and decided it
was time for lunch. It just so happened that at this point we ran into our
friends Maddie and Madison so we all ate lunch together at a local restaurant
where we got a taste of Ghanaian cuisine.
Quick summary of Ghanaian eating:
·
Super spicy! I order chicken with a red sauce and
rice, but the sauce was sooo spicy that I ended up only being able to eat the
rice!!!
o Not to
worry we also order plenty of plantain chips so I ate those
·
Fufu is this soup with dough inside and you literally
use your hands to scoop up the soup
o Side note:
in Ghana and other parts of the world it is extremely rude to use your left
hand as this is seen as the “dirty hand” in which
one uses it for wiping themselves… therefore
when waving hello or eating one must only use their right hand
After lunch we had a Fan ice cream and then decided to head
back to our hotel/ hostel because it had wifi/ everyone needed some chill time
and of course decided that it was “5:00
SOMEWHERE!” and had our very own happy
(multiple) hours!
NEWS
FLASH: Jilly successfully managed to facetime with me from Ghana which was
really fun, we kept cutting in and out, but it was great being able to talk to
her ;) Keep your eye out for a mysterious number from me because you never know
when you may get a phone call!
As I said before, we ended up eating dinner at a delicious
sushi restaurant that had outdoor seating in which we got to look over the city
of Ghana. Not quite as picturesque of a view as Rio, but still managed to do
the trick. At the end of the meal, we noticed that there was a growing group of
English speaking people that were about to sit down beside us. We all kept
eyeing them and were so curious as to what they were all doing here… we ended
up biting the bullet and asking them what they were doing in Ghana! It just so
happened that we were among a group of American and Ghanaian investors who were
celebrating an American’s last night in Ghana as she had
been there for 8 weeks doing consulting work for this investment group… might I
add in here that we were certainly among a rather elite crew of people: there
were probably a handful of people with Harvard Business graduate degrees, undergraduate
degrees from Yale, Brown, Cornell and the list just goes on… Travel
Advice #2- ALWAYS take every opportunity to talk to those around you when
traveling, it’s truly fascinating to hear about
others adventures and you never know when they will provide you with valuable
travel tips.
Katie, Jenna and I were all exhausted and had to wake up
early on Thursday morning for field trips so a las, we took a taxi back to the
ship and I honestly don’t think I have ever been so
excited to get on board… I took one of the most amazing
cold showers of my life (for some reason the hot water wasn’t working)
and then I got into bed--- absolute bliss!
Thursday
February 16th- Day 4:
I had my field trip to the World Bank of Ghana on
Thursday--- the cool part about this field trip was that the professor who led
it actually worked at the World Bank of Ghana about 10 years ago and this was
his first time back! He was being so cute about it and was super excited to see
all his old friends. In all honesty, there really isn’t much to
report… it was a cool experience to hear
about what they do, but after a few hours of being spoken to we were all
getting a bit antsy/ were ready for naps (these long days start hitting pretty
hard by day 4). A fun fact about the World Bank: they have developed a mobile
application in hopes of reaching my generation so that we can have access to
their data on the go! Just noteworthy to see how far this whole social media/
technology age has gone and will go…
Thursday night we decided to make it easy and eat dinner on
the ship followed by a night out in Tema. Much like my night out in Dominica, a
bunch of SAS people all went to the same local bar and danced the night away… this one
didn’t have quite as unique selection of foods such as the
goat soup, but was still a bunch of fun.
Friday
February 17th- Day 5:
My final day in Ghana was spent touring a company called
Global Mammas. The way that Global Mammas works is that it gets customers from
the United States such as small stores that would like to carry products made
from the Ghanaian women. These women are then each assigned a specific craft to
make so that when the company gets an order the women will hand craft the item!
Without Global Mammas, these women would not have a job and therefore would not
be able to support their family with basic life needs such as food, shelter,
and clothing. It is truly an incredible company… in the
picture below you can see me with one of the co-founders, Renea… Patti
joined in for the picture as well! I again have this on video so if you are
interested in hearing her speak let me know when I return home and I would be
happy to share!
Get EXCITED---- I’m making
my way to SOUTH AFRICA! My journey will include some legit Eliza Thornberry
time as I am going to on Safari and hoping to find “the big 5” for my
fans out there who enjoy the trivia portion of my blog, please email back with
the answer to what the big 5 is referencing…
Sadly I had no one respond to my last blog question, but no
worries… perhaps I stumped the audience?!
The question once again was: explain to me
the meaning behind the various colors on the flag of Ghana.
The flag is red,
yellow, and green
Green- the agriculture wealth
Red- blood that was used for
fighting for independence
Gold- for the mineral wealth
Star for freedom and independence
