Ghana pause

It seems its been a while since my last update, oops guess I was too busy taking it easy and what not.  I may have mentioned earlier that classes run at a slower pace here, that was an understatement. Professors at the university were on strike for about 3 weeks which made going to class (or not going) a breeze. But the strike ended just in time for our last week of classes. And now that classes are officially over, all I have to do is pass my exams (worth 100% of my grade) which span through the month of May. No pressure!

A few weekends back I visited Cape Coast. There we went to the Elmina slave castle and Kakum National Park. At Kakum I did my first canopy walk and ate lunch with some alligators.

Off the topic of Ghana, Katy, Gabby and I decided to take a mini adventure to Spain and then Morocco. We stayed in Sevilla and it so happened to be the Feria de Abril, a wicked fancy festival of women wearing huge ruffly dresses and vaqueros (spanish cowboys) riding horses throughout the city. Luckily we were prepared and had dresses made in Ghana beforehand to try to blend in. I think we somewhat succeeded. If we didnt succeed at that, we did at eating all types of tapas and drinking all variations of sangria jars.

                                     

And Chefchaouen was too pretty (and terrifying at times) for words, so I'll mostly just show pretty pictures of it.  We didnt arrive in Chefchaouen until about 930 pm due to the 4 hour bus ride from the ferry port, which was ehhh lets just say I'm happy the bus didn't tumble over the vertical mountain as we winded around the sharp turns. As scared as I was, it was also hilarious with the guys behind us playing Arabian music from speakers and lots of conversations going on, where I understood 0% of them. When we got to the center, we were on the hunt to find our bed and breakfast that was situated on the mountains overlooking the city which of course had breathtaking views. Traveling in a place where I speak little of their 3^rd language (spanish, sorry abuela) had me worried at times because if theres one thing I've learned in Ghana, miscommunications for sure happen. Anyways, I'm happy to say we found our room and the next day Katy and I spent walking around the city going up and down every blue alley we came across, and my calves definitely felt it for that the following days. Enjoy the blue!

this was bound to happen

Welp, 84 days later and I finally fall in an oburoni trap (open gutters on the sides of roads)

remedy

I have a cold. Sneezing 50+ times a day and always having a sachet hanging out of my mouth, my host dad gives me some words of advice, saying that if I keep drinking cold water Ill be sick for years. Hot tea is the only cure. So, I sit at the table in the darkness (no power = no fan = sauna), and I drink hot hot tea. He makes a comment about how good the tea smells, which I obviously could not smell at the time. 20 minutes or so later, the smell of pomegranate and raspberry reach my nose. If host dad wasn't right, I must've I sweat it out.     

entrepreneur?

Inspiring words of a very creative mind and business woman~

[starting your own business isn't easy, and as it grows you may feel its becoming too much to handle and you are unable to manage it. But think of it as your child, the first years require a lot of labor, and then it becomes an out of control teenager, but you can't abandon your troubled child, can you?]

GMT

Ghana man time - where everything starts at least 20 minutes late, if at all

stores > markets

The most common way to shop for your everyday needs is at markets, not stores mostly because they sell anything and you can bargain. In Kumasi, I went to a Kejetia market which was an experience that I guess I can say I'm perfectly okay with never having again. Very similar to Madina market which is down the street from where I live but on super steroids. Unfortunately I only have 2 pictures documenting my experience because the first picture I took while in the market, atleast 8 people yelled.

 a view from the street 

Lesson 1 – Cameras are a no go.

So paint a picture of it yourself:

-Its the biggest market in all of West Africa

-People sell things in half fallen down tin huts, and of course out of giant buckets/crates/bowls/cages/coolers/fabrics/etc on their heads. Saw a lady carrying what seemed to me a twin sized mattress and box spring atop her head,(but this is Africa so who knows)

Lesson 2- “Agoooo” means get the hell out of the way.

-90% of the traders are women.

-Some of these women like to relax while at work. Visualize large ladies lying/some sleeping in tightly squeezed areas covering and covered in brightly colored and designed fabrics. It actually looked very comfy, out of the way of everyone else, shaded, cushiony, and still making money.

-You can buy anything, seriously. Clothes, jewelry, soap, dishes, animals (dead or alive), food, shoes, fufu pounders, etc.

-You have about 1 inch of personal space while walking.

Lesson 3 – watch you step, you might hit your head on someones bowl, or you might step in fresh cement (woops)

-Its loud, men walk around preaching in microphones in long African traditional jumpsuits, people yelling what they’re selling, crying babies.

Lesson 3 – White people cheer babies up.

-People like to acknowledge the white people, my favorite name being “vanilla”

-It has the wonderful combined aroma of meat, fish, leather, spices, shoemaking materials, etc.

Lesson 4 – Try not to get lost in the meat section, (fail)

-And its just about 100 degrees

Kumasi

During the 4 days in and around Kumasi, I visited Bonwire village, a cloth stamping village, traditional Asante homes, and a great organization. I enjoyed this area of Ghana, it seemed a bit cleaner than Accra and many many more trees and luscious green grass.

In Bonwire, I stayed in a home with “Uncle Ben” and the queen of the village with Katy and Adjoa. I got to help pound traditional Ghanian dishes, pepper and fufu, both of which have a special technique which I did not master. So I left the pounding to the (rather large) half dressed women wrapped in a fabric wearing an intricate headpiece. The first night, we ate fufu with mushroom and pepper soup (spicy and delicious). We were told by the lady cooking (we think the queen's sister) that it was a vegetarian house because of her church so we were all very thrilled for our next few meals, until we got more fufu with soup and mystery meat..we think grasscutter rodent. Luckily there were 2 cats who made it disappear.

 Pounding fufu

Before consistency

And after

 Learning to mash pepper

dinner

breakfast

the cat who helped us finish

There was no power for 90% of our time there so it was a very quiet village with not much activity, except for kids dancing Azonto style.

Katy and I with the family, queen to the left of me, they all came from a funeral, hence the black

Kente cloths!

trying it out

The weavers hard at work

I went to an ink village where they make ink out of tree bark and then stamp fabrics with it. The ink process was actually pretty cool, basically pounding tree bark, then soaking it, then heat it for some time, then it eventually turns into dark ink, made only out of tree bark. 

The organization we visited was the Yonso Project, a micro finance group that helps the rural areas of Kumasi. Started by a guy 7 years ago, they are currently working in 15 different communities helping traders and have a bamboo project where they make things, bags and bikes, out of bamboo. His story is very inspiring and one thats worth listening to. Here's a link to the site if youre interested - http://www.yonsoproject.org/

The bike shop

Traditional Asante homes

 

Some traditional symbols and their meanings:

"Not all days are equal, some are good, some you suffer"

handcuffs between the symbol of peace

"All feathers of the bird flock together"

Wearing a skirt that the priest wears during religious ceremonies, 

possibly the same skirt in both pictures

turtle turtle

Wedding time

Last weekend I got invited to my friend Rita's friend's wedding, and I gladly accepted. It was at a Pentecostal church and was exactly what I expected of an African religious wedding. Women were dressed in long printed fabrics with matching headpieces and men were dressed in baggy Kente cloths. The wedding started off with about an hour of dancing, then an hour of singing, then an hour of waiting, then the bride and groom came, followed by prayers and vow exchanging, and then proceeded to end with 3 more hours of dancing and the reception. Everyone loved that 3 white girls were dancing in front of the alter, pretending to fit in. I think this was probably the only time Ill get to pop a bottle of champagne in a church.

  Even the babies got to dance!

Rita and her younger sisters

 After the wedding we went back to Rita's home where her parents and siblings live. The tiny road to the house was hmm, Im not sure how to describe it, but I was very impressed that the taxi car made it in one piece. Rita's mother was the sweetest, she made us boiled plantains and spicy cocoa yam leaf (spinach-like) goodness.

And almost stole a baby