Its been awhile since I have written anything...

 

During the week some of our time is spent with our courses...,dancing, dyeing fabric, speaking Twi (which is remarkably better since the last time I wrote), and learning about the animals in west Africa. The rest of the time is spent sweating, drinking water from the plastic bags, eating the fresh pineapple and mangos at the fruit stands, and waiting in line for a tro-tro to the beach.

 

 It does feel like that at times, but we actually have quite a few things going on as well.  I mentioned the Special ed school that I’m volunteering at, the children there are fabulous, and that turns my Tuesdays into a joyous day spending time with their smiles.  I've started at another orphanage recently also, Osu Childrens Home, and this particular one desperately needs more volunteers. Not to mention they have NO running water since it got shut off in December (it is in Accra, the capital city).  It would cost them about US $1000 , and they have very little funding, and run mostly on donations, but that goes to food. (anyone interested in donating, please contact me!) There are 25 toddlers/babies under the age of 2 , in the particular building of the orphanage, with 3 staff members, and I was the only volunteer there.  the rest of the orphanage is filled with all ages of other children. When I was there yesterday, in the baby building, they introduced me to the latest member of the growing family, 3 newborns, all of which are extremely small. born only a few days ago, and found outside, and 1 just brought from the hospital, they said one was born premature, at 7 months, and they don't know about the others, but I assume the same. They are sooo tiny!  When there are 25 children (2 years and under) in different cribs and it tends to be chaotic when crying breaks out.  One would tend to hesitate and contemplate how exactly to pick up such a small baby because they look so frail.  their legs are about the size of my pinky finger, and it looks painful when they cry.  but all they want it too be held and touched.  after the nap time the children are playing , some walking, all over the floor and they just reach up with their arms hoping you will hold them.  some of them get adopted to Germany, or the u.s., but the others just grow up at this place.  Its hurts your soul to look at so many children with out parents, and not to have someone more to turn to then the person on duty.  Its exhausting, but you really just can't wait to go back again and give them attention.

 

  The special education school which I volunteer at is having some "fun games"

this Saturday, so a bunch of us are going to help out with that.  The school that I’m teaching English at is on holiday for the Easter break, so we have a little time until Rick and I start teaching again there. 

 

We have been trying to travel every weekend, which is quite the process because to go everywhere is long, bumpy, and crowded.  It can be quite enjoyable despite this, because there are always interesting conversations happening, sellers coming on checking if anyone is interested in perhaps the worm-killer they are holding in the unlabeled little glass bottle, assuring "if you take it now, for only $5,000 cedis (60 cents US), it will rid you of all the worms in your stomach!"  Also, if you have a window seat on the tro tro you can easily buy all sorts of things out your window on the whole journey (batteries, plantain chips, ice cream, bags of water, chicken, loaves of bread, oranges, papaya, radios, calculators, toilet paper, fresh bush meat (rat or grasscutter), pineapple, yam ball, etc).  They are unique little bus/vans because the 4 bench like rows have a seat on the end that folds down, so there is no isle.  This is great economically, but difficult when people need to get out at a stop, because everyone on the folding seats, or that row need to move.  The tro-tro's cram as many people on as will fit (or not fit), and you just sit squashed next to people for a few hours.  You are lucky if you have room for your legs, not to mention the small weekend bag you are traveling with (usually ends up on your lap).  For that reason, we have learned to change our packing techniques for trips; thus ditching the school-sized backpack, for a size-practical "hip bag", which is much more efficient when trying to move through large groups of people as well.  Many times on the tro tros there will be things shoved under the seats that people are taking with them (water containers mostly), so your knees may be even with your armpits for most of the journey.  For the sake of staying positive when your hot and sweaty body is sticking to the vinyl seat ,Nathan and I came up with the game to play.  "how many body parts are numb at any given time ?" ( from not being able to move at all)  it's quite a comical way to realize you're not the only one tingly all over. There is a minimum of 3 at all times, your butt, at least one foot, and one leg.  It can easily be doubled however with the other foot, leg, and perhaps and arm.  This is usually okay to manage with, until they tell you its your stop, and you attempt to get up, which involves hopping out of the tro tro while your body is trying to re-circulate blood to the parts it thought it permanently lost.  Within minutes you are normal again and can begin your walk.

 

Last weekend Nathan and I went to a place called Domama, its a community-based eco-tourism site set up by peace corps.  so this village is about an 5 hours by tro tro from where we are in Legon-Accra. The attraction is a sacred rock shrine, rain forest and also the river trip The dirt road is bumpy, and the puddles are huge, signifying the rainy season is creeping up.  It was evening when we arrived, and only candles lit up the village; there is no electricity.  The air is fresh and clean, and the sky is much brighter than the place we are living.  At moments like this one, in a place like this, we feel a glimpse of what it must be like to be a photographer or writer for National Geographic.  As we are waiting for our room to be prepared at the "guest house", about a 15 children run over to Nathan and I , and jump all over us, yelling "obruni"! (white man).  We speak the Twi that we know with them and we here them roar in laughter.  They try to teach us there clapping games, but they don't speak English, so it was just a lot of repeating movements, hearing them laugh, us laughing because we don't get it, and we then moved onto another game.  This time it was a large circle with them all singing a song and one dancing solo in the middle, they then chose the next person.  Of course, they wanted to see the "obruni" dance! So I unnaturally tried to shake and move my body like they did, without success, we all were laughing silly.  

 

In the morning we began our venture with our guide in our private tro-tro around some winding dirt roads through the rainforest.  there had been a huge storm the previous day, so at one point the road was impassable because of the trees that had fallen, so our driver, guide and Nathan and I get out to help clear the way.  I looked down a small path through the grass and saw some children running out to the road.  They were bringing their machetes to help chop the trees.  The kids must have been 6 or 7 years old, and were busting the trees quite impressively.   Despite every branch covered in hundreds of red-biting ants, and getting bit a fair amount, in about 20 minutes we had all cleared the road, and continued on.    Our walk through the rainforest was beautiful, with fresh cocoa plants, pineapples, tall trees, vines and the call of birds.  When reaching the rock shrine we were told the legends of it and its significance to the ancestors of the area.  It really is quite amazing because it is 3 large round rocks with a cover over them the area of a house.  its the only thing like it in this region, so quite magnificent to see.

 

Our walk through the rainforest continued through the rainforest until we reached a very small village on the edge of the Pra River.  there were a few children around that smiled and hid at first, then came out to hang out with us for a bit.  they offered us a tangerine, which was so generous of them because they don't have much here at all.  I searched through my little hip bag, and found some creamsavers candy (thanks to a package from Katy Hinz!!), and traded them for the fresh tangerine.  they didn't really know what to do with it at first, and just put it in the palm of there hand and licked it until it got really small, then put in there mouth.  I know its entertaining for them to watch us eat their food too because they use their hands to eat most dishes, which we are so used to utensils, so you can imagine the laughs we get!  A man in the village paddled us down the river in a long carved out wooded canoe, and as far as we could see back, the 4 kids were waving and yelling to us from the shore.  The river was gorgeous, cutting right through the rainforest, we passed a few people fishing with nets, and one man hunting for antelope.  It was a little shaky at times because the powerful rains had seemed to raise the water level quite a bit, creating some "rapids" over the rocks.  Which is fabulous if you are "white water rafting",  but we were in brown water, in a old wooden canoe, and weren't prepared for any rafting experience at that moment.  The guy in the front was a "trainer" , as they called him, this seemed to prompt a lot of yelling from the other paddeler, "fa nifa, fa nifa, FA NIFA.....benkum benkum, BENKUM" .  Speaking in Twi, we quickly recognized this as ,turn right, right, RIGHT, and left, left LEFT, as we were carefully trying to angle our canoe through the rocks, as if it bent like a snake.  With the heightened blood pressure, we grabbed onto the deteriorated sides, made it safely to the end and gave the "trainee" a huge "MEDASEE PAAPAAPAA"  (thank you very much!!). 

 

We also spend a weekend at trekking the Shai wildlife reserve, seeing only one baboon however because it was the middle of the day, it was savannah plains and gorgeous scenery.  Also visiting a small little village where we witnessed the actually bead making process, which would only encourage one to buy more beads to support the hard work that these talented people do.  The beads of Ghana are very important and have different significance to different divides of people here.  Most people are seen wearing some type of bead work, and they are sold everywhere.  Very colorful, and varying styles.  Heading from here to Akosombo, we met up with our group and took a 5 hour river boat cruise.  Holding 200 people, they had a band,  2 eating places, and a little sundeck.  Very touristy, including landing at a island were the people who live there are waiting for the boat to land for the quick visit that we had.  I am not one for such tourist events, I would rather visit the place with only a few people and get to know the people, BUT, the scenery is gorgeous on the Volta River. 

 

So, for next week, Nathan and I are going on a field trip with our Wildlife Management class.  We will be heading to Mole National Park, which is a long journey, about 18 hours from Accra, and spending Easter Weekend there with our class of about 20 .  Some of our friends have already been there and raved about the close encounters you have with dozens of elephants and baboons.  Since we will be in the north of Ghana, we will most likely continue traveling for another week or so.  We're looking at doing either heading north to explore the countries of Burkina Faso and Mali (Timbuktu is here in the Sahara), or moving east to Togo and Benin.  They are all French speaking countries, so it would be a little challenging!

 

One of the most enjoyable things so far is perhaps getting to know the people living and working around us.  When we leave the hostel, and begin the walk to the road, you always have to leave a few minutes early to visit with Isaac, the construction security guard whom we bring ice cream and frozen tampico, Aquia and Esse, the two young girls who make us egg sandwiches and who we buy our water sachets from, Kakra; the little toddler girl with crazy hair who yells "HELLO HELLO!" to us (she always wants to be held for a bit!), Markos; the man who works at the little store and always has a great good morning hello and smile...these are just a few of the people who we look forward to visiting with throughout the day.

 

Wishing a happy Easter next weekend to you! 

 

Sorry for month and a half with no news, then smashing a massive email on you! 

 

love Kathleen