Getting to Know Accra, Ghana

First of all I want to start out by apologizing for how long it’s taken me to post a second blog… I’m not used to writing them and I’ve been so busy it’s been hard to find the time!

Sunday June 5^th, was day two of orientation for the new volunteers. Godwin taught us about cultural dos and don’ts (things like not using your left hand, not smelling food and don’t point the sole of your shoe at somebody when you cross your legs), some safety issues and then we went for another walk around the city. We began by walking about 10-15 minutes to the Kaneshie market where we found a tro-tro that was heading into the area of Accra (a tro-tro is kind of like a cross between a bus and a mini van) from there we walked about 20 minutes to an area called James Town, which is the poorest area of Accra. You can definitely tell that James Town is the poor area when you look at your surroundings… but when you see the people you’d assume they were the most well off people around – they are all so happy! Just being around them brightens my day. While in James Town we went into the James Town Light House which I believe is one of the oldest lighthouses in Accra/Ghana (but don’t quote me on that). The view from the lighthouse was amazing, probably one of the best in the city! After leaving the lighthouse we went into the area of James Town that is right on the coast (where the fishermen live) and ended up playing with some kids in the ocean, my roommate Nici even had a photo shoot with them! We then continued one our journey and walk for what felt like days (SO HOT OUT) to Independence Square. This square is where people come and gather for things like Independence Day or other big national holidays. Normally in Ghana it is illegal for people to take photos of government buildings but luckily for us we made friends with one of the military guards guarding the square and he gave us permission to take photos of the area!

Independence Square

A view of James Town from the lighthouse

Monday June 6^th was day three of orientation and we began our Twi lessons (the local language), which was really fun, but very difficult! I think learning the local language has really helped me feel more at home and comfortable here – especially because everywhere I go people want to talk to me, so now I actually understand what they are saying and I can say some things back to them! In the afternoon we went to the Art Market and looked around at some of the MANY things that they sell there. We met a man named Moses who makes personalized drums and he and I have already started planning out the drum that I am going to bring back with me ( I AM SO EXCITED). I also started scoping out places to buy some paintings and to get dresses made for me! Did I mention that I was excited?

Tuesday June 7^th will hopefully be the worst day of the trip... My roommate Nici woke up very very early in the morning and was very sick, we ended up having to go to the hospital and she had to spend the day there. She’s feeling much better now but it was definitely a dark day for the house. On the plus side, we now know what the Ghanaian health care system is like so if anybody here gets seriously sick I am confident in the care they will receive.

Wednesday June 8^th was a very laid back day as we were all trying to recover from a very long and exhausting Tuesday. We did some more lessons in Twi and then went to the Accra mall to look around and enjoy some air conditioning! This mall is the biggest one is Western Ghana and has (I think) the only movie theatre in Accra, so I will definitely be going there again to see a certain Harry Potter movie, I doubt any of you have heard about it.

Thursday June 9^th started with more Twi lessons (at this point I’m pretty much an expert haha) and ended with us going to the Labadi beach to go for a SWIM! Although the beach is gorgeous – white sand and nice blue/green water – we were unable to go swimming because the beach and ocean was littered with garbage, so unfortunate. But I understand why it happens because the city doesn’t have a very effective means of removing garbage from the city… they actually don’t even have garbage cans around the city (again I understand why, they have bigger things to worry about at the time being). Anyway, the afternoon turned out to be very relaxing, we just sat on the beach, had a beer and wadded into the water to about our knees – the water was SO NICE!

Friday June 10^th was the final day of orientation and the assignment was to go to different areas of the city (by ourselves, before this day we’d been shown around by two men that work with Volunteer Abroad, Godwin and Richi) and pick up different things to prove that we had been there. All in all it went very well but we got lost at the very beginning… not the best way to start the day! Things here are not very organized so when you go to get a bus you have to ask around to make sure you’re getting on the bus to the place you want to go, so that is exactly what I did. Unfortunately, the person I asked for directions led me to the wrong bus and right from the get go we were in the wrong place. But after asking about 2938042093 more people how to get to the post office we finally got ourselves reoriented and were able to make all of our stops and get to the finish line! After we finished finding our way around the city we came back to basecamp to make FOU FOU! For those of you who don’t know what it is this Wikipedia link should do the trick! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fufu After Fou Fou we decided to grab some drinks and head up to our roof (our entire roof is a patio) and pre-drink before going to a bar here called Champs to watch the hockey game! Champs is a Western style bar equipped with pool tables, karaoke and even air conditioning and, it’s Canadian owned! It was definitely a blast but I had to go home before the game ended because I was exhausted! And, to be fair, the game didn’t start here until 1 am!

Me pounding Fou Fou

Saturday June 11^th and Sunday June 12^th  After a lazy morning of trying to recover from a hangover the group of us headed to a small beach town called Ada Foah in Eastern Ghana, about 2 hours away from Accra. After a long, hot and stuffy tro ride we finally made it! We were greeted by a man named Jean-Paul who led us from the tro station to the beach where we boarded a wooden fishing boat to get to our final destination for the night. Once we got close I immediately recognized it from Anne’s pictures of her trip to Ghana two years ago… I think it’s so cool that we went to the same place! Anyway, the beach we beautiful and on one side was Lake Volta (the biggest man made lake in the world) and about 500 feet from the lake, separated by gorgeous white sand, was the Atlantic Ocean! My words, and even photos cannot do the place justice, it was so beautiful and had such a great laid back feel, I hope I can go back! Even though the weather wasn’t that great (it rained on and off – mostly on, the entire time we were there) we had a blast, we sat around a huge bon fire, played some drums, sang and danced. All in all it was a great end to my first week in Ghana!

I am having a fabulous time so far but I am missing all your crazy folks back home! If you are reading my blog I’d love it if you took the time to comment on my blog and let me know how you are doing!

I’ll try to update my blog more often but no promises, things get pretty busy here and the internet isn’t very reliable. But tomorrow is my first day of placement so I’m sure I’ll have lots to say and I’ll want to let you guys know how everything went!

Lots of love from Ghana!!! <3 

My Journey to Ghana - the flights and my first day!

So here I am… sitting in the Halifax airport waiting for my long journey to begin. The excitement of leaving and the realization of where I am going has finally hit me – it’s an amazing feeling. After a thundermug (or two) while waiting three hours for my flight the adventure finally begins and oh god, was it ever horrible.

Now I am writing to you from JFK airport in New York… I just got off what was perhaps the worst flight of my life – it is truly a miracle that I wasn’t sick on the plane. I choose to blame the extremely small plane, not the thundermugs for my sick stomach feeling. Upon landing I actually thought the plane was going to roll because it was so all over the place and bumpy! However, my upset stomach and crappy feeling was short lived. As I was finding my way off the plane I went to the nearest Delta service person I could find, started asking her where I should go for my next flight to Amsterdam only to be interrupted by none other than Allen Patriquin, Dave’s father! WHAT AN AWESOME SURPRISE!!!! Allen came up to me completely decked out in his awesome pilot’s outfit and says something along the lines of “Come with me Claire, I’ve got you covered.” And off we went, winding through the crazy terminals that make up JFK. I have to tell you, being escorted around an airport by a pilot makes one feel pretty damned important, I could get used to that feeling. Allen took me to a bar (he knows me well) so I could wait for him until he was debriefed and then he would come get me again and take me right to my gate. After a quick bus ride to the right terminal I’m at my proper gate and Allen’s off to Venice this evening so unfortunately, he’s not flying my flight. Oh well, there’s always next time! So, now I’ve got about 3 and a half hours to kill until my next flight… and no wireless – don’t be surprised if the next part of this entry is a boring ramble about something that has no significance to what’s actually going on in my life, I’m bound to get bored.

Annnd now I am in Amsterdam! Apparently Parks and Rec is enough to keep me distracted for three hours! Ok, so Amsterdam is awesome… I had to go talk to some representatives for the Royal Dutch Airlines about my connection to Accra and they are probably the best people (aside from Allen) that I’ve seen/met on my journey thus far. I got to the counter and this older Dutch man and a younger Dutch man decided they were going to make my flight to Accra the best flight ever… just because I was Canadian. They then proceeded to make fun of Americans and wanted to know if Canadians felt the same way about Americans as Europeans did. I told them I was dating an American and they suddenly got very quiet and started to blush, so I told them that I make fun of the lovely Dave for being an American all of the time and that for the most part, there was definitely some sort of similar feeling in Canada and Europe… and the jokes, teasing and pampering began again. They decided that since I was such a nice person I need an entire ROW to myself on this next airplane… so that’s what I get – can you say pumped?

So…. Today is Friday and I arrived in Ghana last night around 8pm Ghanaian time or 5pm Nova Scotia time or 4pm Ontario time. I was greeted in the airport by two men that work for the volunteer organization named Michael and Godwin and after a very interesting cab ride we got to my new home for the next 3 months… and while stepping out of the car I immediately stepped into an open sewer… great job me! Why do I feel like this is going to be a reoccurring theme? In Canada I trip and cut up my knees… in Ghana I step in shit… I think I like the Canadian version better. Guess I’ll just have to keep my eyes open.

Anyway, I’ve spent a whole day here now and I absolutely love it! Godwin took me and two of the other new volunteers, Nikki and Cassandra, into the area of Osu today so we could start getting to know the city and the buses there (which are called tro-tros and are CRAZY!) After that the other volunteers and myself (there are nine of us in total) played some card games, had some drinks, and ran out into the rain to get an egg and hotdog sandwich (not as weird as it sounds). Anyway, I am absolutely exhausted and I should get going to bed soon. Hope you all enjoyed my very first (and very random) first blog ever!

Hope everybody is doing well!!! Miss you and Love you all!

P.S. A very happy birthday to my dearest brother CALLUM!!!!!!