Hello everyone!
This is my first official blog post from Ghana. I am writing
you from the bus on my way to Kumasi. I woke up this morning around 4:30 to
leave just after 5:00 for the bus station. There is a
guy standing on the front of the bus who has been yelling, apparently to
advertise some product he is trying to sell, since we left at 6:00 AM. It’s
times like these that I am thankful for earphones and an ipod.
I arrived in Accra on Saturday afternoon. The flight went
smooth and all my luggage arrived, so I was happy to have had such an easy trip
getting here. I was met at the airport by Yaw, who I met last year when I was
studying in Ghana, and Shannan, who is a Cultural Affairs Officer at the
Embassy. Yaw works for the School for International Training (SIT), which is
the company through which I studied abroad last year. It was a comfort to see a
familiar face and I was glad to meet Shannan. Yaw then took me to Magdalene’s
home, where he arranged for me to stay and also where I am still currently
living. Magdalene is fantastic; she is kind and friendly with a warm, welcoming
personality. She is a fantastic mother to her children and has made me feel
like one of her own. My host family follows suit. I have a host brother, Nana,
who is 19 and has proclaimed himself my bodyguard, and four host sisters, Kate,
25, Ama, 18, and Florida and Rebecca who are both roughly 10. Ama and I have
become quite close; we do yoga together and went running together Monday
morning morning. She also taught me how to hand wash my clothes properly,
despite her having malaria. My transition to Ghana has been a smooth one and I
have had a great start to my time here and I largely have my host family to
thank for that.
I feel as though this past week has flown by. On Sunday morning, I went to church with Magdalene, Ama, Rebecca, Florida, and Aunt Adwowa. Now those of you who haven’t experienced a church service in Ghana for yourself, it is quite the experience. The service seems to never have a definitive end- I’ll put it to you this way, in the times I have traveled here and have accepted invitations to church I have received, the shortest service I have sat through was an hour and a half and the only reason it was so short is because I left early because I was sick. So, when Magdalene emphasized that we would leave at exactly 12:00 pm because as she put it, “these people don’t close early at all and I have cooking to do,” I should have realized that she meant 12:00 Ghana time. We arrived around 10:00 in the morning and not to sound pessimistic, but by the time 10:30 rolled around, I began a countdown to keep myself optimistic. Spending more than an hour in church just isn’t my thing. We ended up leaving around 12:15, which, to be fair, was the only real choice given that at 12:00 they took the second offering since I had been there and then the pastor began to give announcements, so we couldn’t really leave until he had finished. After church, we went back home and Magdalene taught me how to make jollof rice, one of the most popular rice dishes here and one of my personal favorites. When Nana returned from church, we went to the mall so I could get my phone and internet set up, which over the course of the next two days proved to be a continual adventure, but more on that later. While waiting for the tro-tro to fill so it could leave, I learned something new: blowing bubbles when chewing gum apparently means you’re a hooker. I was chewing gum and happened to pop a bubble. As soon as he saw me, Nana told me, “You shouldn’t do that.” I asked him why. And he told me that in Ghana, if you pop bubbles it signals to people that you are a hooker. Good to know. How’s that for cultural differences?
The following day, I left in the morning to go to the University of Legon with Magdalene. She works in the performing arts department. I was having problems with my Internet and needed to go to the mall, which is more accessible from the university. To give you a visual of the mall, think of a mall the size of that in Dover, complete with a food court, clothing shops, Game and Shoprite (the Ghanaian equivalents of Target), and even an Apple computer store. I went to the phone store where I bought my internet and the woman fixed the problem I was having. Then, as I left, I received a text message from Vodafone (my service provider) stating that I needed to go to update my registration in order to keep making phone calls. I was conveniently still in the mall so I walked back into the store and hopped back into line to talk to an associate about the message. She did something to my phone, which I thought had updated my registration, but I came to later find out must have deactivated my sim card. I went back to campus to use the internet café there and meet with Magdalene. Remember how I just mentioned my sim card deactivated? Yeah, well I found this out when I returned to campus and Magdalene told me that she had tried calling me, but I hadn’t received it. I then proceeded to try to make a phone call and it didn’t work. So, for the third time that day, I went back to the mall to get my phone fixed. I had been in the store so many times by this point that when I walked in, the woman knew me by name and said, “how can we help you, Chelsea?” How’s that for some customer service? Anyway, many trips to the mall later, I got my phone fixed and that’s what’s important, well until it started doing the same thing today at least.
On Tuesday, I had a mandatory security briefing at the Embassy. I was to be at the embassy at 9:00 AM, so Magdalene arranged a taxi to come to pick me up to take me at 7:00 because traffic is so bad. It took roughly 45 minutes to get there, so I arrived super early, which turned out being beneficial. Shannan came to greet me and take me through security, then gave me a tour of the embassy grounds. I learned I have access to services in the embassy, including their resource center, which has computers, free internet, reference books and apparently, access to databases that only the embassy has. I was pretty excited about that. Then, I met some of Shannan’s colleagues and since we had spare time, she took me to the USAID office next door to introduce me to people working in their water and sanitation project department. I met Emmanuel, who from what I could gather, was the main person in charge of projects in the country. He sent an email introducing me to organizations that USAID partners with for their projects, which was very kind of him and I appreciated a lot. I then went through my briefing, which was surprisingly short. Based on the country guidelines provided by the State Department that I had received from my Fulbright grant administrator, I was expecting the officers giving the briefing to paint Ghana as a place one should not traverse at night (there are parts where you absolutely shouldn’t, but there are places where traveling at night isn’t as much of an issue) and where one should exercise caution at all times. In my experience, Ghana is an incredibly safe place and people here are very friendly, you just have to be smart and aware of your surroundings, as you have to do anywhere you travel. However, I was pleasantly surprised that they didn’t give that portrayal. The officers were very frank and honest without overexaggerting the risks of living and working here. After the briefing, I was issued my own photo ID that gives me open access to the embassy whenever it is open. After my briefing, I went back home, receiving a few marriage proposals along the way. Ama and I ran errands and she taught me how to hand wash my clothes properly. We got into a discussion about relationships and gender roles in Ghana. I learned last semester that it is not uncommon in Ghana for a man have a wife or a girlfriend and to have affairs outside of their relationship, so I asked Ama how women in Ghana view this. She told me that it depends on the situation and how the guy replies when it is brought to his attention that his actions are causing the woman pain (so essentially, just like any relationship anywhere, it is a matter of what one chooses to put up with). I asked her about the differences between a if a woman cheats compared to if a man does it. Essentially, if a man cheats it’s dismissed without much thought, but if a woman cheats she is looked down upon. The discussion reiterated the differences in cultural perceptions and views around and functions of love, relationships, and marriage. It made me reflect a lot on my own culture and my views on these topics based on my upbringing and environment. I am thankful that I was born a woman in the US because though women face challenges still in US society, I have many privileges and opportunities not afforded to others in the world simply because they are a woman.
For my last day in Accra, I decided to journey to Jamestown, which is roughly one hour from my home in Achimota. Jamestown is home to Fort Usher and Fort James, which were part of the slave trade. As I was walking from the station to town, a man named Emmanuel approached me. We exchanged all the basics of an introductory conversation: names, where we’re from, etc.. I told him I was in Jamestown for the day to see the forts and to explore. He offered to take me around, so I said yes. Now, disclaimer for those of you freaking out about me walking around a foreign place with a stranger: in Ghana, this type of hospitality is normal and part of the culture. He didn’t seem threatening, it was in the middle of the day and seeing a new place is always better when shown around by someone who knows the area well. Plus, it was nice to have a traveling companion. It was a great decision. We went to Fort Usher first. The security guard there gave us an informal tour of the grounds. As I mentioned, Fort Usher was part of the slave trade and until recently, 2007 to be exact, was used as a prison. I learned that Kwame Nkrumah, first president of Ghana and leader of African independence, and Jerry Rawlings, a president in the 1980s, were both jailed at Fort Usher as political prisoners. The guard also told me that in 2007 the prison was order to be closed and declared a historical site, which apparently receives funding from UNESCO for upkeep. However, the fort is rundown and poorly maintained on the inside, which leads me to believe that this aid isn’t going to its intended purposes. I found so much about the place depressing: its historical significance, the fact that it had been regarded so little that it was then used as a prison, and the fact that now it is not maintained as well as it should be. We then went to Fort James. It amazed me how people had built there homes into these structures. Emmanuel showed me his home, the exit of which was a gateway through which slaves would pass on their way to ships awaiting their fate. A cell once used as a holding room for slaves, was now used as a place for storing unwanted items; a courtyard one traversed by colonizers was now a place where woman washed laundry. I had never seen anything like it. We then walked and saw the outside of the king’s palace- Jamestown has its own king- and went to the top of the lighthouse for an aerial view of the city. Perhaps the best GHC 5 cedis (the local currency) I’ve spent so far. Emmanuel then took me to walk through the fishing village that is on the beach. The dynamics of human-environment interaction were unfortunate in that the beach was littered with trash and the old nets of fisherman. Sanitation is also a huge problem. When Emmanuel was showing me a set of railroad tracks that are now used as a sort of platform for beached boats, but once led from the ocean to different parts of the country where people were captured to be sold in the slave trade, a woman came to the side of a boat near where we are standing to urinate. This didn’t really bother or phase me, but made me wonder about the implications of such habits on the general health of the population in the area. After touring Jamestown, I went to see the national theatre. I had never been there and wanted to see the inside. Magdalene told me to ask for her former colleague, William, who now works as the stage manager at the theatre, when I arrived. When I initially tried to enter, they tried to charge me 2 cedis to enter. But once I told them I had a message for William and spoke to them in Twi, they graciously let me in, for free, and took me to see William. It’s always amazing to me how far knowing the language, even only conversationally and not fluently, goes to show that I respect the culture and am interested in learning more. The national theatre was beautiful. I learned that the Chinese had built the theatre 20 years ago. There were three stages apparently. I only saw the main one, which had three floors and a huge stage. I am definitely going to try to go to a show while I am here.
My time in Accra was great and I am very thankful to Magdalene and her family for helping me with my transition. I am excited for the adventures that await me in Kumasi.
Until next week,
I feel as though this past week has flown by. On Sunday morning, I went to church with Magdalene, Ama, Rebecca, Florida, and Aunt Adwowa. Now those of you who haven’t experienced a church service in Ghana for yourself, it is quite the experience. The service seems to never have a definitive end- I’ll put it to you this way, in the times I have traveled here and have accepted invitations to church I have received, the shortest service I have sat through was an hour and a half and the only reason it was so short is because I left early because I was sick. So, when Magdalene emphasized that we would leave at exactly 12:00 pm because as she put it, “these people don’t close early at all and I have cooking to do,” I should have realized that she meant 12:00 Ghana time. We arrived around 10:00 in the morning and not to sound pessimistic, but by the time 10:30 rolled around, I began a countdown to keep myself optimistic. Spending more than an hour in church just isn’t my thing. We ended up leaving around 12:15, which, to be fair, was the only real choice given that at 12:00 they took the second offering since I had been there and then the pastor began to give announcements, so we couldn’t really leave until he had finished. After church, we went back home and Magdalene taught me how to make jollof rice, one of the most popular rice dishes here and one of my personal favorites. When Nana returned from church, we went to the mall so I could get my phone and internet set up, which over the course of the next two days proved to be a continual adventure, but more on that later. While waiting for the tro-tro to fill so it could leave, I learned something new: blowing bubbles when chewing gum apparently means you’re a hooker. I was chewing gum and happened to pop a bubble. As soon as he saw me, Nana told me, “You shouldn’t do that.” I asked him why. And he told me that in Ghana, if you pop bubbles it signals to people that you are a hooker. Good to know. How’s that for cultural differences?
The following day, I left in the morning to go to the University of Legon with Magdalene. She works in the performing arts department. I was having problems with my Internet and needed to go to the mall, which is more accessible from the university. To give you a visual of the mall, think of a mall the size of that in Dover, complete with a food court, clothing shops, Game and Shoprite (the Ghanaian equivalents of Target), and even an Apple computer store. I went to the phone store where I bought my internet and the woman fixed the problem I was having. Then, as I left, I received a text message from Vodafone (my service provider) stating that I needed to go to update my registration in order to keep making phone calls. I was conveniently still in the mall so I walked back into the store and hopped back into line to talk to an associate about the message. She did something to my phone, which I thought had updated my registration, but I came to later find out must have deactivated my sim card. I went back to campus to use the internet café there and meet with Magdalene. Remember how I just mentioned my sim card deactivated? Yeah, well I found this out when I returned to campus and Magdalene told me that she had tried calling me, but I hadn’t received it. I then proceeded to try to make a phone call and it didn’t work. So, for the third time that day, I went back to the mall to get my phone fixed. I had been in the store so many times by this point that when I walked in, the woman knew me by name and said, “how can we help you, Chelsea?” How’s that for some customer service? Anyway, many trips to the mall later, I got my phone fixed and that’s what’s important, well until it started doing the same thing today at least.
On Tuesday, I had a mandatory security briefing at the Embassy. I was to be at the embassy at 9:00 AM, so Magdalene arranged a taxi to come to pick me up to take me at 7:00 because traffic is so bad. It took roughly 45 minutes to get there, so I arrived super early, which turned out being beneficial. Shannan came to greet me and take me through security, then gave me a tour of the embassy grounds. I learned I have access to services in the embassy, including their resource center, which has computers, free internet, reference books and apparently, access to databases that only the embassy has. I was pretty excited about that. Then, I met some of Shannan’s colleagues and since we had spare time, she took me to the USAID office next door to introduce me to people working in their water and sanitation project department. I met Emmanuel, who from what I could gather, was the main person in charge of projects in the country. He sent an email introducing me to organizations that USAID partners with for their projects, which was very kind of him and I appreciated a lot. I then went through my briefing, which was surprisingly short. Based on the country guidelines provided by the State Department that I had received from my Fulbright grant administrator, I was expecting the officers giving the briefing to paint Ghana as a place one should not traverse at night (there are parts where you absolutely shouldn’t, but there are places where traveling at night isn’t as much of an issue) and where one should exercise caution at all times. In my experience, Ghana is an incredibly safe place and people here are very friendly, you just have to be smart and aware of your surroundings, as you have to do anywhere you travel. However, I was pleasantly surprised that they didn’t give that portrayal. The officers were very frank and honest without overexaggerting the risks of living and working here. After the briefing, I was issued my own photo ID that gives me open access to the embassy whenever it is open. After my briefing, I went back home, receiving a few marriage proposals along the way. Ama and I ran errands and she taught me how to hand wash my clothes properly. We got into a discussion about relationships and gender roles in Ghana. I learned last semester that it is not uncommon in Ghana for a man have a wife or a girlfriend and to have affairs outside of their relationship, so I asked Ama how women in Ghana view this. She told me that it depends on the situation and how the guy replies when it is brought to his attention that his actions are causing the woman pain (so essentially, just like any relationship anywhere, it is a matter of what one chooses to put up with). I asked her about the differences between a if a woman cheats compared to if a man does it. Essentially, if a man cheats it’s dismissed without much thought, but if a woman cheats she is looked down upon. The discussion reiterated the differences in cultural perceptions and views around and functions of love, relationships, and marriage. It made me reflect a lot on my own culture and my views on these topics based on my upbringing and environment. I am thankful that I was born a woman in the US because though women face challenges still in US society, I have many privileges and opportunities not afforded to others in the world simply because they are a woman.
For my last day in Accra, I decided to journey to Jamestown, which is roughly one hour from my home in Achimota. Jamestown is home to Fort Usher and Fort James, which were part of the slave trade. As I was walking from the station to town, a man named Emmanuel approached me. We exchanged all the basics of an introductory conversation: names, where we’re from, etc.. I told him I was in Jamestown for the day to see the forts and to explore. He offered to take me around, so I said yes. Now, disclaimer for those of you freaking out about me walking around a foreign place with a stranger: in Ghana, this type of hospitality is normal and part of the culture. He didn’t seem threatening, it was in the middle of the day and seeing a new place is always better when shown around by someone who knows the area well. Plus, it was nice to have a traveling companion. It was a great decision. We went to Fort Usher first. The security guard there gave us an informal tour of the grounds. As I mentioned, Fort Usher was part of the slave trade and until recently, 2007 to be exact, was used as a prison. I learned that Kwame Nkrumah, first president of Ghana and leader of African independence, and Jerry Rawlings, a president in the 1980s, were both jailed at Fort Usher as political prisoners. The guard also told me that in 2007 the prison was order to be closed and declared a historical site, which apparently receives funding from UNESCO for upkeep. However, the fort is rundown and poorly maintained on the inside, which leads me to believe that this aid isn’t going to its intended purposes. I found so much about the place depressing: its historical significance, the fact that it had been regarded so little that it was then used as a prison, and the fact that now it is not maintained as well as it should be. We then went to Fort James. It amazed me how people had built there homes into these structures. Emmanuel showed me his home, the exit of which was a gateway through which slaves would pass on their way to ships awaiting their fate. A cell once used as a holding room for slaves, was now used as a place for storing unwanted items; a courtyard one traversed by colonizers was now a place where woman washed laundry. I had never seen anything like it. We then walked and saw the outside of the king’s palace- Jamestown has its own king- and went to the top of the lighthouse for an aerial view of the city. Perhaps the best GHC 5 cedis (the local currency) I’ve spent so far. Emmanuel then took me to walk through the fishing village that is on the beach. The dynamics of human-environment interaction were unfortunate in that the beach was littered with trash and the old nets of fisherman. Sanitation is also a huge problem. When Emmanuel was showing me a set of railroad tracks that are now used as a sort of platform for beached boats, but once led from the ocean to different parts of the country where people were captured to be sold in the slave trade, a woman came to the side of a boat near where we are standing to urinate. This didn’t really bother or phase me, but made me wonder about the implications of such habits on the general health of the population in the area. After touring Jamestown, I went to see the national theatre. I had never been there and wanted to see the inside. Magdalene told me to ask for her former colleague, William, who now works as the stage manager at the theatre, when I arrived. When I initially tried to enter, they tried to charge me 2 cedis to enter. But once I told them I had a message for William and spoke to them in Twi, they graciously let me in, for free, and took me to see William. It’s always amazing to me how far knowing the language, even only conversationally and not fluently, goes to show that I respect the culture and am interested in learning more. The national theatre was beautiful. I learned that the Chinese had built the theatre 20 years ago. There were three stages apparently. I only saw the main one, which had three floors and a huge stage. I am definitely going to try to go to a show while I am here.
My time in Accra was great and I am very thankful to Magdalene and her family for helping me with my transition. I am excited for the adventures that await me in Kumasi.
Until next week,
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