May 4 ,2004
The last month has entailed
some fantastic journeys, travels, malaria bouts (not so fun), marriage, and
killer bus rides. Let me tell you some stories...
Our Zoology class, 20
students (all Ghanaian) departed for the north of Ghana, to Mole National Park,
on early on Good Friday morning, arriving late that night to the Northern
Region. On a grant from the Ghana Wildlife Society, everything was paid
for (which was fabulous at this point in our trip.) The park is gigantic, about
1/2 the size of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The area is Guinea
Savannah, with lots of grasses and African boa trees. We completed fancy field
work techniques of trapping small mammals, bird, insects and the best part:
LARGE MAMMAL counts and viewing in specific habitats. This involved
carrying around a small notebook, binoculars, and keeping track of how many
elephants, baboons, monkeys, warthogs, and antelopes we saw. Well you can
imagine how ecstatic one would be to see any animals in the wild like
this! At one point we were walking through the bush, and an enormous
elephant came out of nowhere, about 15 feet in front of us, stomping
around. It convientaly stopped, and we got a few priceless pictures
before it began to poop all over. Deciding it was hungry, it continued
past, ripped a tree branch off with its trunk and headed towards the
waterhole. At the waterhole you can expect to see anywhere from 5-25
elephants at a time, soaking and cooling off from the scorching sun. while
wondering through the bush, with 2 armed park guides, we came upon a skeleton
of a waterbuck that had been attacked by a lion, although it would be quite
spectacular to witness that, we would probably be in the same position as the
waterbuck if we had been around. So, the elephant viewing was more
splendid than I even imagined, we spent every minute we were not working by
kicking our feet up and watching in awe as herds of elephants emerged from the
forest line to visit the huge waterhole in front of us.
When the weekend was
complete our class headed home, and Nathan and I stayed north to continue
traveling for the week.
Larabanga was the village we
spent our Easter in. We celebrated our Easter with an "Easter Egg
Sandwich", the only dinner option, from the 10 year old at the one
chop bar. Larabanga is a village that is 100% Muslim, so we visited
the mosque on the mini-village tour given to us by four young boys. they
were quite enthusiastic about taking us around, through the twists and turns of
the mud house lined dirt alleys. all the roofs here are flat, with a
step-carved wooden log next to it that used to climb up it at night to
sleep because the houses are as hot as ovens to sleep in. In the
early morning (I wake up every morning at 6:30 am no matter where I am, and no
matter how late/early I go to sleep), I was on the roof watching the
village that had been awake for a few hours now, the air is somewhat hazy, as
the sun is barely peeking past the horizon. there is a dirt path on
my left, with a line of women and children with giant buckets on their heads
carrying the water for the day. the roosters are crowing, goats running
and pigs snorting. to my right, I look over a few houses, and see the 4
boys, eagerly waiting on a bench for Nathan and I to come and hang out, (we had
been playing checkers with them for a while the night before). waving and swinging
their feet, I could see there smiles from the large distance I was away from
them. they spoke English, but most of the people did not except for the
hello, and how are you phrases. We decided we throgoughly enjoyed
Larabanga, and if given more time, would come back to visit with the friends we
made. It has a very relaxed feeling, with smiles all over.
We waited on the
"corner" of the road for the one bus that passes through once a day
to the next town, Wa, where the hippopotamus are located. The boys made
sure we were out waiting, as the "bus" can come anywhere from
8:30-10am, and it only stops for a second for people to pile onto. This
was the better of our two bus rides on this trip, but we did not know it at the
time. I had a seat on this one, Nathan did not. The seats were
"finished", so the let him sit on top of the luggage of suitcases,
bags of cloth, yams, corn etc, that was piled on the floor between the driver
and the first row of seats. (These buses, different from
tro-tros, look like old "city" buses, as we are familiar to,
with 2 seats on either side of the isle, and a metal bar on the top to hang
onto if you are standing in the isle for a short distance--as you would in a
"city". ) Now, these buses are no longer city buses, but
cross-country buses, piled approximately 7 feet on the roof with everything
from luggage, to goats, chickens, yams, all tied over with a net to keep it
from blowing off. The seats are usually missing half the stuffing, and
maybe don't have backs, and your "seat" is probably a piece of wood
replacing the original, however it keeps you on usually with 10 minute
adjustments. Windows are usually missing in 25% of the spots they should
be. The next village we stopped in more people piled
and squished on in the isles for the 5 hours bus ride. Did I mention
the road is not paved? oh, that may have been the funniest part, dusty,
hot, really bumpy road, traveling about 30 mph. We did stop
once to relieve ourselves, stretch and prepare for the rest of the trip.
Several stops were made in small villages, and one for quite a while because
they were yelling and arguing about a bag of coal that was to be
delivered but was not on the roof. Despite this uncomfortable ride,
the scenery was nice to take your mind off things, the way of living is
different in the north, with small round huts and thatched roofs, and one
family all living in the one enclosure of these connected small huts.
There was also a random "herbalist" that had a powder to cure almost everything,
and would lecture for an hour at a time about the power of it. to prove
his scorpion bit powder was really effective he even had a live scorpion on his
hat to prove his point, dangling it in front of my face for a bit, and
laughing. haha.
Arriving into Wa in the
afternoon, after the long bus ride, we were short on time, so decided
to charter a taxi to the hippo sanctuary. Although it was quicker
than using a tro-tro, we should have realized by the condition of the car, and
the fact that we had to stop every 1/2 to refill something in the engine with
water, that it would surely fail. Driving through the country side and
really rural areas makes one realize how strange it for them to see white
people. some just stare, others run, wave and shout "hello!"
Finally arriving, in a long thin wooden canoe, we paddled down a
narrow river, with Ghana on one side, an Burkina Faso on the other. There
were high trees and vegetation all around, and the water was very calm.
We quietly paddled to the side and watched a few hippos rise up and down in the
water until the sun began to set. Because of the vicious nature of
hippos, we couldn't paddle out to them because they would kill us in a second
if we invaded their territory. Our guide was telling us a story how they
were paddling along about a month ago and suddenly their boat rose out of the
water, and it was a hippo under them coming up for air..they held still and it
set them down shortly. Coming back from the canoe ride, we were glad to
see our driver still waiting around for us, all 6 of us piled in his car to
head back. The car broke down about 15 minutes later. With nobody
around, we tried pushing the car forwards, backwards, poured
water...everything,, but it was "finished" the driver said. we
sat in the dark, with a flashlight and used the last of the bread to
make peanut butter / jelly for everyone. We decided either we're
sleeping in the bush, or walking. Taking everything, we trekked to the
next village where a small cooking fire was happening, and I passed out on the
life jackets. we were fully exhausted and didn't know how we were getting
back. apparently someone went to wake the one person up with a vehicle
a few villages away and we paid them an enormous amount to bring us
back to Wa, in the back of their truck. arriving about 1am, our bus to
our next destination left at 5am, meaning we got about 3 hours of sleep.
Arriving to the station
early at 4:30am, the Muslim calls on the speakers all over the town were
already beginning. it was still dark out, but we were looking forward to
our comfortable bus, and were slightly disappointed when we saw it: it was in
worse condition than the one we rode the previous day for 5 hours. Oh,
and also, ALL the seats were "finished". This meant we
both were offered a seat on the metal between the passenger seat and the few
steps leading to the sliding door that would be open the entire 10 hour bus
trip (we were told it was 6hours) to Bolgatonga. Our metal
seats, with a shared piece of thin foam between us, turned out to be a
blessing compared to the people standing in the isles for 10 hours, and
especially the two guys who not only were standing the entire time, but only
had one foot in the bus at all times. 1/2 their bodies were in the
doorway, the other out, squished against each other with one arm each wrapped
around the broken door. not knowing how this was physically possible, and
seeing everyone just enjoying the ride, not complaining was something to
witness. We were so squished with people, luggage, and a few live
chickens that I had several butts in my face at one time, and only had room to
set one tip of one shoe down on a surface, because of the amount
of people on this bus, this involved almost our whole bodies numb at a time and
a constant kick of my leg to wake up the sweaty head of the man curled up in a
ball sleeping on it..finally I gave up, thinking he must be extremely tired to
be able to sleep on a ride like this, and if he really found my shin that
comfortable it was fine with me. This was absolutely the most
interesting/uncomfortable bus ride we have ever been on, and this
caused a burst of laughter at many odd times thinking of the
situation. this is probably the closest I have ever felt in my life to
going insane. We decided that we felt as if we were prisoners of war or
something comparable. not wanting to ever voluntarily experience this
again. Needless to say, our one stop to get water was heavenly, and we
were extremely lucky to be riding on the one, daily bus heading the
direction we were going. Passing through rare small villages, there were
tons of families and people packed with luggage waiting by the road, in
hope that the bus might have room for them..only to be honked at and left in
the dust and hot sun,,,hoping there will be room tomorrow. We considered
ourselves lucky.
Arriving in Bolgatonga was
the beginning of our favorite part of Ghana, perhaps it was because it
signified the end of the 'bus ride we don't ever want to talk about again' ,
but surely it was for the reason of the Northern part of Ghana holds many
different aspects than the south. A quaint, big enough, but not too small
town, the streets are lined with huge trees, goats, dogs and pigs run as free
as the people, we began to know people on the streets after only a few days,
and the Muslim influence had an interesting aspect to the town. Our first
side trip was to Tongo-Tenzuk, an eco-tourism site, it is a small village about
20 minutes away, we paid 2 people in the close by village to hire their bicycles
for the day, the area is rocky, hilly, and quite pleasing for the eye to look
at . Tenzuk is all traditional beliefs and living, the only place I have
experienced anything like this. We had a tour by the one person that
spoke English, and saw their school that he attended, a open dirt area next to
a large rock that the teacher would write on. the cafeteria was simply a
small cave under a rock formation close by. recently, with a grant, a
school was built. Continuing, we looked down on an area about the size of
my backyard, it is completely surrounded by mud walls, with small round
enclosures making up the whole area, with high mud walls looking like a
maze. This is where one family line stays, with 300 people in this small
area. Another family line was behind us the other direction, in a similar
enclosure, with 150 people in that one. Quite incredible to view, we
entered the large enclosure, through the one entrance. The walls are
about 2 feet wide, and 10 feet high, and we felt as if we were in a live maze,
we never could have gotten out without our guide! Above many of the round
mud houses are animal skulls, feathers and other items sacrificed.
Children running naked, smiling and hiding, the women are topless preparing the
days food. the top of the round buildings are flat to sleep on, and
the doors are only about 3 feet high to enter the house. Most men
have several wives, with the top man having 20 wives. the chief was
traveling, so we met his assistant, and our guide translated for us. it
was somewhat intimidating at first; however he laughed a lot, but was serious
when he asked me to be his wife. when I asked how many he already had we
said he wouldn't tell because it would scare me off! Continuing, we saw were
the past chiefs were buried, and noticed all the animal sacrifices on piled
up. Trekking up the rocky mountain, we stopped at the Donkey Cave, where
only donkeys are sacrificed, and their skulls are all lined up in a count to be
used as a ritual. Moving up to the tip of the mountain, we saw many shoes
lined up, and were told their was a sacrifice going on, so we had to wait to
enter the grand shrine (people from all other Ghana come to this particular
one). we patiently waited, listening to the squawking of some fowl being
sacrificed. the view was gorgeous, we could see the white Volta river in
the distance, with many hills, mountains and small villages all around.
the air is much cleaner and fresh than in Accra. we were signified to
enter, 20 men were all sitting around, and a few important ones by the gigantic
pile of feathers from past animals, and some other interesting articles.
staying for about 15 minutes there was only so much to see, we could feel how
sacred this was for these people and felt fortunate they let us come to view it. we
descended down the mountain with more questions and amazement of this
traditional and spiritual culture. Being there for a day was not enough
time to fully learn, but getting a glimpse was intriguing and
fascinating. the ride on the bikes was great, all down hill, with our one
speed bikes and no brakes, hearing "hellos" from every bore-hole well
we passed where children were gathering water.
Serigu, the womens
development center in another village, was an inspiring look at a traditional
group of women forming an area for fellowship and encouragement of local
arts. they paint all the round mud houses in this village, with natural
colors from the dirt in the area. the mud houses are made from first from
water and cow dung, then a final finish put on, and the women paint designs on
them, also creating and decorating pottery. it provides many great
aspects for this community and was inspiring to see women forming bonds like
this.
the rest of the time in
bolga was spent watching massive rainstorms, reading books, wandering around
the markets and discovering a resource center for disabilities, where Nathan
and I spent a long time speaking to a women about the services provided.
I was thrilled to find something like this, as part of my independent study
here is researching special education in Ghana. they also have 2 shops
here that employ people with disabilities, women sew, and men repair
shoes. I wandered around til I found them and spent some time there as
well.
Time in the north of Ghana
was brilliant, and our 15 hour, comfortable bus ride, back to Accra seemed
like nothing compared to our travels during the week before. Arriving
back to campus, I was informed that my roommate, 25 year old Egyptian-American
(who also arrived in January with me), got married on April 16th , to her
Ghanaian boyfriend. he is 28 years old and a Rastafarian. they've
been dating for about 2 months, and we actually just had their celebration
party a few days ago. This seems quite quick I know, but they do seem quite
happy together! I was just a little shocked to find out they went through
with it so soon! she is leaving for America in a week, and the estimate
the visa papers for him will take a year before he can come also. her
parents do not know yet!
the following week I came
down with malaria, and really haven't ever felt that bad before, within hours,
my fever soared, nausea set it and my joints were so incredibly paining me
that it hurt to lay still. taking an excellent Chinese herbal remedy, I felt better
after 3 days, and am ritually sleeping under my mosquito net every night
now. Nathan is lucky to be naturally repellent to mosquitoes, with our
bug bite ratio between us being about 40:1 (no joke).
feeling better, the next
weekend a few girls and I did a home stay with a family in a small village. the
seven of us stayed with separate families, usually about 30 people to a
extended family, all living in 3-4 mud houses. their was no electricity at my
families house, and one water well in the village; where I attempted to
carry the bucket of water on my head to shower with, but ended up spilling half
of it one me on the way back. the 17 year old girl in the family, one of
the 2 people that spoke English, can carry it without spilling a drop, and not even
holding onto it! we helped prepare meals on the coal fires with the women,
visited the watermelon and cabbage farms, played with the kids (which
make up 70% of the village!) and took on a match of volleyball with some guys,
and the entire village sat around and cheered. Staying in a village for a
weekend and getting to know a family was an unforgettable time, enjoying the
simple things in a family which we often get busy doing in our bustling
lives.
Time in Ghana is slow, which
makes the days so enjoyable. Being and feeling settled here is a luxury,
as I remember how confused we were about things the first few weeks.
Most are taking exams now,
and leaving next week sometime to fly home. Nathan leaving the 16th, I
will be staying with 3 people from the U.K, in a village called Tafo, set in
the rainforest, I’ll be volunteer teaching at a school for 3 weeks.
Write back when you have a
chance! Love, Kathleen
For those of you that have
taken interest in making donations to the Osu Childrens Home, where we have
been spending a lot of time in the nursery with the newborns to 2 year
olds....I now have some detailed information for you.
They can use all the help
they can get!
3 easy steps
1. To make a donation, the easiest
way to do it from abroad is to make a direct payment from any bank, into the
Osu Childrens Home account with to the Bank of Ghana with the account
number 0125660057004 . Your $US will be converted
to the Ghanaian currency: cedis.
2. email the orphanage
either to the contact person Helena Obeng Asamoah, her email is [email protected] or directly
to [email protected] They want
to know how much money you donated and what you would like it to be used
for. (at the bottom of this email I have a list of things on the needs
list)
3. email me with your
home address so I can mail you a special thank you!
If anyone would like
to call about more information the Orphanage phone number is 23321776773,
and address is:
P.O. Box 640
Accra, Ghana
West Africa
Our volunteer time has been
fabulous lately with so much time on our hands..our classes are finished.
Nathan and I are becoming very close with the little munchkins running around,
and they all have such distinct little personalities. some are taken from
poor homes, and are really still scared to be at the orhphange, just wanting to
be held, they'll burst into tears if you put them down. we found that if
I wrap them on my back with fabric as the African women do, they fall asleep
and are content for a while! We are taking the digital camera tomorrow
when we go, so I will put some photos on our website. There are two sets
of twins: Eric/Erica (2 years) and Prince/Princess (6 months).
Gifty is a new addition to the home, about 9 months, and so chubby, actually
just normal baby fat, but the others don't have that, she is so smiley and
happy all the time! Abagail is new as well, but is so scared and misses
her family, she’s a little under 2 years, and barely eats anything, and wakes
up screaming for her mom at night. Noah is a energetic little mischievous
one, always running around full of ambition. Sissiti is the little boy
who I’ve become quite attached to, he has Down Syndrome and is so smiley and
fun to play with. Yohanas has to be the most adorable little boy, he has
really curly hair and I think one of his parents may have been Spanish.
there are many more I can go on about ...but I’ll try to capture some of their
faces on camera for you to see!
Anymore questions, please email me, THANK YOU SOOO MUCH!!
Kathleen & Nathan
"You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who
can do nothing for them or to them." -- Malcolm Forbes