What's up Everyone!
Since you have last heard from us, our group has had some pretty cool interactions with Ghanaian culture starting with our last night in Kumasi to our homestays, which began on Saturday evening upon our arrival back to Accra. In our last night in Kumasi, our trusty, yellow Trotro (Ghana's mass public transit system/similar to local bus transportation in USA) and friendly escort from the Treasure Land Hotel led us on an exciting night on the town at a live band performance. Our group was open to the Ghanaian culture mix of live music, dancing and conversation, and enjoyed immersing into the culture in a fun and relaxing atmosphere. The next morning, before departing Kumasi, we were able to travel back to the locations where we placed our plastic recycling bins and assess how the Ghanaians had responded since Friday afternoon. We observed some new plastic waste in some of the bins, but we became more aware of the need for more time to spread our project and see concrete results and progress from the local people. Leaving Kumasi, we felt we put in tremendous effort and hope that in talking with the representatives from the local waste management company, ZoomLion, our project will be sustained with their continued support.
After putting in a lot of work this past week, the 5-hour bus ride to Accra gave many of us an opportunity to catch up on our rest. At some points along the ride, some of us were able to take in the beautiful scenery and were in awe of Ghana's lush greenery, mountains, and lots of palm and banana trees. Touching down in Accra, we rode into the city by way of the only highway in Ghana, which was constructed about 50 years by Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, as one of his plans for the country since its independence. Finally reaching the University of Ghana's Guest House, we anxiously anticipated the first meeting with our host families who were there awaiting our arrival.
Since Saturday night, we have spent all of our evenings with our host families, where we have had some exciting and adventurous experiences. Justine and Jen's host family prepared Fufu in peanut soup with goat meat for dinner last night. Unlike our first introduction to the traditional Ghanaian dish, they enjoyed their meal, which was a pleasant surprise. Kristen, Andrew Swain and Lo-Hua will have their Fufu experience tonight, among the rest of us who have had some great dinners. Reyna and I have been spoiled by our host family, who have served us twelve-person meals for two, ending with trips to the local creamery for ice cream or tea and hot chocolate at home while watching old episodes of American Idol. Andrew Lapin and Nelson are being hosted by Ghanaian celebrities, as their host mother is a broadcast journalist for Ghana TV and a local Ghanaian radio program. Their host father is a professor of Psychology at University of Ghana, where we are working on our recycling project as you know. In hearing about Kamayani and Kyra's homestay, their host family owns a hotel, which is adjacent to their home. They have enjoyed being transported by their host family's driver, fresh laundry and air conditioning (basically Ghanaian royalty). Last, Ellie and Margaret have had interesting experiences in their homestays with their host family's daughter, nicknamed Obama in lieu of her first name, Michelle, which is pretty cool. We will be staying with our host families until we leave Accra on Friday morning, so look out for more cool updates. Thanks for tuning in to our blog!
Until next time,
Peace, Love and Happiness
-Lyndsey
Monday, July 20, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Ghana, Meet Recycling
Another update!
The last two days have been fairly recycling-heavy. Yesterday morning we met to finalize our plans for the waste bins that had been donated by ZoomLion (the local waste collection company). Some of us went to get supplies to paint the bins to distinguish them from regular trash bins. The rest of the group tracked down some computers and made fliers to hand out to vendors and customers around the bins. This took a little longer than we had planned because our T.A.'s abandoned us at the computer lab and instructed the man working there not to let us leave till they got back. At one point he told us he would lock the door if we tried to leave. Naturally, we used this valuable down time to sing Simon and Garfunkel songs and talk about Harry Potter and cheese.
Once the T.A.s got back, we walked to the Guest Center and began painting the bins. (Side note: it is currently the rainy season in Ghana and has rained just about every day since we got here except for the one day when we were doing physical labor outside- yesterday it was about 90 degrees and sunny.) The girls expertly painted and adorned the bins with recycling symbols and pictures of water bottles, while the boys found any excuse they could to use Kristen's Swiss Army knife. We labeled all ten bins, and no one lost any fingers.
By the time our artistic endeavor was finished, it was too late in the day to set the bins in their designated spots, so we called it a day with high hopes for the remainder of our time in Kumasi.
Today was equally productive. We managed to put all of the bins in place, hand out tons of fliers and talk to a lot of people about our project. We even saw some real live Ghanaians recycling without being pestered or threatened into it by one of us overzealous Obrunis (Twi for white person). We ended up adding a few extra bins onto the ten we had originally set out because there was so much interest and support from ZoomLion. It was really great to see some concrete results after a lot of planning and hard work. Hopefully this is just the beginning of a comprehensive recycling program at KNUST.
We had our last dinner at the luxurious(ish) Treasure Land Hotel, where we've been enjoying the finest in the cutting edge arena of Ghanaian-Italian fusion food. Our fearless tour guide, Linda had promised to take us out one night, so we are about to leave for a night of dancing and live music. Let's call it "cultural immersion."
Tomorrow we return to Accra for our homestays, and hopefully the completion of our project at the University of Ghana. We'll try to post another update soon. In the meantime, the 15 of us will be over here, navigating the "selectively paved" roads in our bright yellow, 12 person van, often mistaken for Scooby Doo's Mystery Machine.
Hope all is well stateside.
-Ellie and Kristen
The last two days have been fairly recycling-heavy. Yesterday morning we met to finalize our plans for the waste bins that had been donated by ZoomLion (the local waste collection company). Some of us went to get supplies to paint the bins to distinguish them from regular trash bins. The rest of the group tracked down some computers and made fliers to hand out to vendors and customers around the bins. This took a little longer than we had planned because our T.A.'s abandoned us at the computer lab and instructed the man working there not to let us leave till they got back. At one point he told us he would lock the door if we tried to leave. Naturally, we used this valuable down time to sing Simon and Garfunkel songs and talk about Harry Potter and cheese.
Once the T.A.s got back, we walked to the Guest Center and began painting the bins. (Side note: it is currently the rainy season in Ghana and has rained just about every day since we got here except for the one day when we were doing physical labor outside- yesterday it was about 90 degrees and sunny.) The girls expertly painted and adorned the bins with recycling symbols and pictures of water bottles, while the boys found any excuse they could to use Kristen's Swiss Army knife. We labeled all ten bins, and no one lost any fingers.
By the time our artistic endeavor was finished, it was too late in the day to set the bins in their designated spots, so we called it a day with high hopes for the remainder of our time in Kumasi.
Today was equally productive. We managed to put all of the bins in place, hand out tons of fliers and talk to a lot of people about our project. We even saw some real live Ghanaians recycling without being pestered or threatened into it by one of us overzealous Obrunis (Twi for white person). We ended up adding a few extra bins onto the ten we had originally set out because there was so much interest and support from ZoomLion. It was really great to see some concrete results after a lot of planning and hard work. Hopefully this is just the beginning of a comprehensive recycling program at KNUST.
We had our last dinner at the luxurious(ish) Treasure Land Hotel, where we've been enjoying the finest in the cutting edge arena of Ghanaian-Italian fusion food. Our fearless tour guide, Linda had promised to take us out one night, so we are about to leave for a night of dancing and live music. Let's call it "cultural immersion."
Tomorrow we return to Accra for our homestays, and hopefully the completion of our project at the University of Ghana. We'll try to post another update soon. In the meantime, the 15 of us will be over here, navigating the "selectively paved" roads in our bright yellow, 12 person van, often mistaken for Scooby Doo's Mystery Machine.
Hope all is well stateside.
-Ellie and Kristen
Thursday, July 16, 2009
What Up USA
Hello there to all of our friends,
Our last two days in Kumasi have left us a little drained but have nonetheless been very exciting. Yesterday was our day of tourism around the city. We first visited the cultural center of Kumasi, which included a small museum and market. This market experience was fortunately much smoother than the first, not only was the group hassled less but we were all more confident in our bargaining skills this time around. Common items sold at the market included carvings, jewelry, metal work, and your standard Obama basketball jerseys.
The next place we visited was the museum of Ashanti heritage, where we were introduced to the traditions and lineages of the region's rulers. The nobility of the Ashanti is inherited through matrilineal ties, so the King rules with the Queen mother who is not his wife but rather his mother, sister, aunt, or cousin. When a new king is appointed it is done so by the Queen mother who selects him from a male relative on her side of the family. Though the King can marry and have many children none of them will be able to inherit the stool (throne). Though the group now has a much clearer knowledge of the customary rulings of the Ashanti, many were more impressed by the large number of peacocks roaming outside the museum. There may have been word of capturing these beautiful creatures as gifts, but to the group's dismay and your relief we were thwarted before the plan was carried into action.
So anyways the next adventure included a cloth stamping instruction called Adinkra. The group walked into the gates of the Adinkra village and was immediately flooded with excitement and of course a few hagglers. We were all able to pick out a strip of cloth and our own selection of stamps to mark with black ink. The cloth was called Kente cloth, which is still weaved by hand on looms in the village. Once the cloth is made, stamps are picked out coordinating meanings. Some of the symbols included messages of harmony, sacrifice, strength, faithfulness, and power. There was also a large selection of pre-made Adinkra to purchase including the typical Ghanaian Obama embroidered Kente strip with American flag accents. Meanwhile while the majority of the group was casually browsing cloth samples, Professor Asibu was kindly explaining to a young Ghanaian boy that Reyna was not available for marriage or purchase at the present time.
After the Adinkra, the group continued onto a traditional Kente village, which focused most of their efforts on the weaving process and then its sale. We saw large groups of looms manned by young males very skilled in the art of Kente weaving. Some of the group was able to try their hand at the rather complex art. We were told that the boys learn how to weave around the ages of 10-12. The reason that girls are not taught is because they are unable to weave pregnant, and they fear that it will hurt the babies. While at this village, the group met a young man from Georgia who was assigned by the Peace Corps to help the village with tourists. Good news for Jeremy is that despite his three years in Africa is that he is still able to finely groom his goatee.
The last adventure of the day was the group's visit to a carving village near by. To be perfectly honest the group was pretty tired at this point so it was somewhat overwhelming. Do not fear however because Andrew Swain was able to buy 40 cedi worth of lion carvings...thank goodness for that.
So looks like we have to leave for the hostel...will update you soon. Hope all is well in the land of cheese cubes and cereal.
Peace Out,
Marge and Justine
Our last two days in Kumasi have left us a little drained but have nonetheless been very exciting. Yesterday was our day of tourism around the city. We first visited the cultural center of Kumasi, which included a small museum and market. This market experience was fortunately much smoother than the first, not only was the group hassled less but we were all more confident in our bargaining skills this time around. Common items sold at the market included carvings, jewelry, metal work, and your standard Obama basketball jerseys.
The next place we visited was the museum of Ashanti heritage, where we were introduced to the traditions and lineages of the region's rulers. The nobility of the Ashanti is inherited through matrilineal ties, so the King rules with the Queen mother who is not his wife but rather his mother, sister, aunt, or cousin. When a new king is appointed it is done so by the Queen mother who selects him from a male relative on her side of the family. Though the King can marry and have many children none of them will be able to inherit the stool (throne). Though the group now has a much clearer knowledge of the customary rulings of the Ashanti, many were more impressed by the large number of peacocks roaming outside the museum. There may have been word of capturing these beautiful creatures as gifts, but to the group's dismay and your relief we were thwarted before the plan was carried into action.
So anyways the next adventure included a cloth stamping instruction called Adinkra. The group walked into the gates of the Adinkra village and was immediately flooded with excitement and of course a few hagglers. We were all able to pick out a strip of cloth and our own selection of stamps to mark with black ink. The cloth was called Kente cloth, which is still weaved by hand on looms in the village. Once the cloth is made, stamps are picked out coordinating meanings. Some of the symbols included messages of harmony, sacrifice, strength, faithfulness, and power. There was also a large selection of pre-made Adinkra to purchase including the typical Ghanaian Obama embroidered Kente strip with American flag accents. Meanwhile while the majority of the group was casually browsing cloth samples, Professor Asibu was kindly explaining to a young Ghanaian boy that Reyna was not available for marriage or purchase at the present time.
After the Adinkra, the group continued onto a traditional Kente village, which focused most of their efforts on the weaving process and then its sale. We saw large groups of looms manned by young males very skilled in the art of Kente weaving. Some of the group was able to try their hand at the rather complex art. We were told that the boys learn how to weave around the ages of 10-12. The reason that girls are not taught is because they are unable to weave pregnant, and they fear that it will hurt the babies. While at this village, the group met a young man from Georgia who was assigned by the Peace Corps to help the village with tourists. Good news for Jeremy is that despite his three years in Africa is that he is still able to finely groom his goatee.
The last adventure of the day was the group's visit to a carving village near by. To be perfectly honest the group was pretty tired at this point so it was somewhat overwhelming. Do not fear however because Andrew Swain was able to buy 40 cedi worth of lion carvings...thank goodness for that.
So looks like we have to leave for the hostel...will update you soon. Hope all is well in the land of cheese cubes and cereal.
Peace Out,
Marge and Justine
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
A new location; new stories to tell
It's been almost a week since our last update. We have a handful of new stories to tell, and a new place from which to tell them.
We ended the first part of our recycling project on the University of Ghana campus with a group meeting with Ato. We planned out our tasks and goals for continuing with the implementation of a plastics recycling program within Commonwealth Hall after we return to Accra on Monday, July 20th. We have already written the proposal letter, ordered the bins, and designed the fliers for advertising the new recycling project. We also took a two-hour tro-tro ride across very bumpy mud roads to visit the City Waste Mangament Co., Ltd. recycling site. We were only able to visit the company's temporary recycling site because the main plant is undergoing reconstruction, but it should reopen soon. We saw the Agglo and extruder machines and the final bags of pelleted recycled plastics. Although the recycling facility was much smaller than what we had imagined, it is nevertheless exciting to know that there are working recycling plants in Accra. In terms of our Commonwealth recycling project, we are mainly just waiting to garner the support and assistance of Commonwealth Hall's officials and the local city sanitation department.
We were originally scheduled to leave for Cape Coast on Friday, July 10th. However, thanks to Professor Kathleen Sienko's assiduous work prior to our Ghana trip, we managed to get tickets to President Barack Obama's "Farewell Ceremony" at the Kotoko Airport on Saturday, July 11th, so both our recycling group and the maternal health group went to Kotoko Airport and witnessed Obama's final few minutes in Ghana before he boarded Air Force One back to the United States. The Ghanaian President, John Atta Mills, also spoke.
Sunday morning, we boarded a resilient tour bus (I say "resilient" because it broke down three times during our trip, but managed to start up again each time within less than half an hour) and headed for Cape Coast. We were all thrilled to experience Kakum National Park's Canopy Walk. During the Nature Walk that followed our traipse across the rope bridge, we viewed a myriad of trees and learned about their cultural and medicinal values. Later in the evening, we drove to a gorgeous beach on the Atlantic Coast where many of us played in the waves. We had a seafood dinner by the beachside.
We continued with our tour of Cape Coast on Monday morning, visiting first Cape Coast Castle and then Donko Nsuo, the Slave River. It was a physically and emotionally trying experience for many of us. We went into the dungeons at Cape Coast Castle where millions of slaves were imprisoned before being sent off as another parcel of the TransAtlantic Slave Route. At Donku Nsuo, we were asked to take off our shoes before walking the narrow and seemingly endless path to the river where slaves had their last bath before being sent across the ocean to the New World.
We are now at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi. This morning, two teaching assistants, Mike and Ebeneezer, took us on a tour of the huge campus. We scoped out a busy junction area just outside the campus side gate, where we have decided to attempt to initiate a plastics recycling project. While I was typing up this post, another team of students from our group went to speak to a couple of the vendors and shopkeepers at the junction, to get an idea of how they might respond to us setting up plastic recyling containers near their businesses. They seemed to be fine with the proposal. We also have the full support of ZoomLion, the local sanitation company. ZoomLion has even promised to supply us with ten dustbins. So although we only have a few days left in Kumasi, I do believe we'll be able to make a positive impact while we are here---hopefully it will be a lasting one!
We will send another update when we get Internet access again.
Hasta!
Lo-Hua
We ended the first part of our recycling project on the University of Ghana campus with a group meeting with Ato. We planned out our tasks and goals for continuing with the implementation of a plastics recycling program within Commonwealth Hall after we return to Accra on Monday, July 20th. We have already written the proposal letter, ordered the bins, and designed the fliers for advertising the new recycling project. We also took a two-hour tro-tro ride across very bumpy mud roads to visit the City Waste Mangament Co., Ltd. recycling site. We were only able to visit the company's temporary recycling site because the main plant is undergoing reconstruction, but it should reopen soon. We saw the Agglo and extruder machines and the final bags of pelleted recycled plastics. Although the recycling facility was much smaller than what we had imagined, it is nevertheless exciting to know that there are working recycling plants in Accra. In terms of our Commonwealth recycling project, we are mainly just waiting to garner the support and assistance of Commonwealth Hall's officials and the local city sanitation department.
We were originally scheduled to leave for Cape Coast on Friday, July 10th. However, thanks to Professor Kathleen Sienko's assiduous work prior to our Ghana trip, we managed to get tickets to President Barack Obama's "Farewell Ceremony" at the Kotoko Airport on Saturday, July 11th, so both our recycling group and the maternal health group went to Kotoko Airport and witnessed Obama's final few minutes in Ghana before he boarded Air Force One back to the United States. The Ghanaian President, John Atta Mills, also spoke.
Sunday morning, we boarded a resilient tour bus (I say "resilient" because it broke down three times during our trip, but managed to start up again each time within less than half an hour) and headed for Cape Coast. We were all thrilled to experience Kakum National Park's Canopy Walk. During the Nature Walk that followed our traipse across the rope bridge, we viewed a myriad of trees and learned about their cultural and medicinal values. Later in the evening, we drove to a gorgeous beach on the Atlantic Coast where many of us played in the waves. We had a seafood dinner by the beachside.
We continued with our tour of Cape Coast on Monday morning, visiting first Cape Coast Castle and then Donko Nsuo, the Slave River. It was a physically and emotionally trying experience for many of us. We went into the dungeons at Cape Coast Castle where millions of slaves were imprisoned before being sent off as another parcel of the TransAtlantic Slave Route. At Donku Nsuo, we were asked to take off our shoes before walking the narrow and seemingly endless path to the river where slaves had their last bath before being sent across the ocean to the New World.
We are now at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Kumasi. This morning, two teaching assistants, Mike and Ebeneezer, took us on a tour of the huge campus. We scoped out a busy junction area just outside the campus side gate, where we have decided to attempt to initiate a plastics recycling project. While I was typing up this post, another team of students from our group went to speak to a couple of the vendors and shopkeepers at the junction, to get an idea of how they might respond to us setting up plastic recyling containers near their businesses. They seemed to be fine with the proposal. We also have the full support of ZoomLion, the local sanitation company. ZoomLion has even promised to supply us with ten dustbins. So although we only have a few days left in Kumasi, I do believe we'll be able to make a positive impact while we are here---hopefully it will be a lasting one!
We will send another update when we get Internet access again.
Hasta!
Lo-Hua
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Plastic Bottles, Packed Auditoriums, and Fufu
Since our last blog post, we've really started to make ground on our recycling project. After touring the campus on Monday, we established three distinct locations to focus recycling pilot projects the University of Ghana campus. After much deliberation and discussion, we developed a rough plan for what bins should be used, where bins should be placed, and what educational materials need to be made for this project to be sucessful.
Today, we've worked to set our plan in motion. A few students went to the market today to research materials and itemize possible costs. Another group of students met with administrators from the sanitation department and Commonwealth Hall (the site of one of our projects) to work out necessary details. A final group drafted fliers to post on campus while also beefing up our website with additional information and resources about our project and recycling in general.
On campus, we've been lucky to have the help of two University of Ghana teachers assistants, Ato and Richard. Not only have they been kind hosts, showing us around campus, they've also helped with a lot of the leg work needed to get the project off the ground. We're very thankful for their dedication to the project.
In addition to working on campus, we've also done some education in local secondary schools. Yesterday morning we rose with the sun, venturing out to PRESEC, an all boys school in Legon. By 6:30 AM we left for our trek to the school. We were told we'd be presenting to about 50 students. We were also told the walk was only about 20 minutes from our hostel. 50 minutes later we finally arrived at the school to find an auditorium of 1000 students sitting and waiting to hear our presentation.
After quickly altering our presentation to suit our much larger audience, we took the stage. While presenting, it was hard to gauge just how interested the students were. Many were talking through the presentation and it was clear that not all the students could hear us with the microphone we were given. The students were reluctant to answer questions (Ato later keyed us into the fact that it would probably be embarrasing for us to answer questions in front of 1000 of our classmates too), but we did receive some feedback from the large group.
Perhaps the most popular part our presentation was our singing of "Hail to the Victors" to close out our presentation. The students really enjoyed it and followed our performance by singing their own school song.
After our presentation, the students filed out and returned to their classes. We toured the school and also met with members of the school's science club. The interactions with the students turned out to be the most valuable part of the experience. The students were extremely intelligent and well spoken. They were eager to speak to us about recycling and seemed interested in setting up a program on their campus. In our next week in Accra, we hope to meet back up with the students and determine the feasibility of extending our efforts to their school as well.
In our down time, we've had a lot of time to bond as a group. Much of this bonding has involved food. Everyone is addicted to the fresh fruit sold at the market across from our hostel (thankfully, its totally safe to eat). We've made frequent trips to buy mangoes and pineapple. Usually when someone returns with a black bag from the vendor filled with fruit, its gone in a matter of minutes.
Last night, we also bonded over our first experience eating Fufu. Fufu is a starch made from casava. Traditionally, its eaten with your hands and served in a bowl of soup accompanied by fish or meat. Everyone had an interesting experience last night, dipping their hands into the gloopy, doughy substance. While the Fufu wasn't everyone's favorite dish, eating the Fufu defintitely proved to be a truly unique cultural experience for our group.
As we continue to progress on our project (while also having a great time in Ghana!), be sure to check back with our blog for updates. Pictures are hopefully forth coming.
Best,
Kyra (your friendly student fellow)
Today, we've worked to set our plan in motion. A few students went to the market today to research materials and itemize possible costs. Another group of students met with administrators from the sanitation department and Commonwealth Hall (the site of one of our projects) to work out necessary details. A final group drafted fliers to post on campus while also beefing up our website with additional information and resources about our project and recycling in general.
On campus, we've been lucky to have the help of two University of Ghana teachers assistants, Ato and Richard. Not only have they been kind hosts, showing us around campus, they've also helped with a lot of the leg work needed to get the project off the ground. We're very thankful for their dedication to the project.
In addition to working on campus, we've also done some education in local secondary schools. Yesterday morning we rose with the sun, venturing out to PRESEC, an all boys school in Legon. By 6:30 AM we left for our trek to the school. We were told we'd be presenting to about 50 students. We were also told the walk was only about 20 minutes from our hostel. 50 minutes later we finally arrived at the school to find an auditorium of 1000 students sitting and waiting to hear our presentation.
After quickly altering our presentation to suit our much larger audience, we took the stage. While presenting, it was hard to gauge just how interested the students were. Many were talking through the presentation and it was clear that not all the students could hear us with the microphone we were given. The students were reluctant to answer questions (Ato later keyed us into the fact that it would probably be embarrasing for us to answer questions in front of 1000 of our classmates too), but we did receive some feedback from the large group.
Perhaps the most popular part our presentation was our singing of "Hail to the Victors" to close out our presentation. The students really enjoyed it and followed our performance by singing their own school song.
After our presentation, the students filed out and returned to their classes. We toured the school and also met with members of the school's science club. The interactions with the students turned out to be the most valuable part of the experience. The students were extremely intelligent and well spoken. They were eager to speak to us about recycling and seemed interested in setting up a program on their campus. In our next week in Accra, we hope to meet back up with the students and determine the feasibility of extending our efforts to their school as well.
In our down time, we've had a lot of time to bond as a group. Much of this bonding has involved food. Everyone is addicted to the fresh fruit sold at the market across from our hostel (thankfully, its totally safe to eat). We've made frequent trips to buy mangoes and pineapple. Usually when someone returns with a black bag from the vendor filled with fruit, its gone in a matter of minutes.
Last night, we also bonded over our first experience eating Fufu. Fufu is a starch made from casava. Traditionally, its eaten with your hands and served in a bowl of soup accompanied by fish or meat. Everyone had an interesting experience last night, dipping their hands into the gloopy, doughy substance. While the Fufu wasn't everyone's favorite dish, eating the Fufu defintitely proved to be a truly unique cultural experience for our group.
As we continue to progress on our project (while also having a great time in Ghana!), be sure to check back with our blog for updates. Pictures are hopefully forth coming.
Best,
Kyra (your friendly student fellow)
We've got a new blog address!
Due to some technical difficulties, we've moved our blog to this site. We've reposted our first entry from our previous site to catch everyone up. Stay tuned for more news from Ghana.
Our First Look at Ghana
Testing, testing, one, two...
Hello and akwaaba, everyone. At long last we've been able to find an Internet Cafe at the University of Ghana, where we were able to set up this blog and update you all on our progress so far. There's a lot to cover in these first three days, so take a deep breath.
We landed early in the morning this past Friday and progressed immediately from the airport to the University of Ghana campus. We got ourselves situated in the International Students Hostel (ISH), bought cell phones at the Accra Mall and became acquainted with the leaders of Galaxy Tours. The main tour guides are named Linda and Kate, and they have been charged with the task of keeping all of us in line while showing us around their country. So far, they've done a great job. We didn't see too much of Professor Asibu, because he was feeling ill.
On the second day we visited a museum on the country's history, then went to Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, erected in memory of Ghana's first president following their independence from Britain. Following that we visited a large market selling clothes and other souvineers; the proprietors of the stands were aggressively friendly and eagerly showed us their wares. It is customary in Ghana to barter with merchants over the price of objects, and most of us did a good job with this, though we're still novices: I ended up buying a soccer (football) jersey for 15 cedis when others bought the same for 10. But it's all part of the experience. Many of the vendors were also legitimately friendly with us and chatted with us about their family, football, and Obama. Something we learned quickly is that Ghana is an incredibly friendly country.
That night we took in a performance by a traditional African dancing group, and we were all greatly impressed by their energetic, choreographed movements. Nearly all of us ended up participating in their dances.
On the third day we took a walking tour through old Accra, which included the neighborhood of Ussher and Jamestown. The residents of this densely populated area were clearly not as well-off as those in the main city. We saw kids bathing in the street and many run-down, boarded up buildings. One of the more surreal experiences of this trip so far was driving up to Jamestown in our elevated, air-conditioned bus, as the people in the streets stood in a downpour and watched us through the windows. I personally felt a sense of intrusion on their property, as well as a false aura of entitlement that we didn't ask for. I didn't feel truly at eye level with the people and their culture until we had all exited the bus and started walking around with them in the rain.
For many of us, the best part of the trip so far came later on in the third day when we attended a football game. Some of us arrived sporting our Team Ghana jerseys we had purchased from the market. The game was between two local Ghanaian teams. The home team, Kotoko, scored the first two goals and set the crowd ablaze, which gave us the time to wonder why Michigan football fans never get this excited at their games. But the opposing team, Liberty, came back in the second half, scoring three goals in succession. In the last few seconds of the game, however, Kotoko put one in the net, and the final score was a 3-3 tie. We noticed how the fans would often throw empty water bottles or bags of purified water on the field to express their displeasure at something. It's fairly plausible that none of the bottles were getting properly recycled, and this only strengthened our resolve to help establish a proper recycling program during our stay.
We had an opportunity to begin brainstorming this idea today, during our tour of the University of Ghana. In the initial steps of our plan, we will place recycling bins at various spots around campus and spread the word about their locations and purpose. Throughout the rest of this coming week we will observe the effects of plastics recycling on the campus, and we will also be making trips to recycling plants in Accra to determine the best course of action for these plastics and where to deposit them. We are still in the early planning stages for all of this right now.
Our group is starting to become very closely knit, always a good thing when traveling in unfamiliar land. Kyra, our student fellow, was often the only "authority figure" watching us in the first few days due to Prof. Asibu's illness, but she was great at keeping all of us out of trouble and I think we've all really benefitted as a group because of her. Several of the girls were very excited to get custom-made dresses from a woman at our hostel. They are pressuring us guys to buy matching MC Hammer pants.
We have been staying with the other Ghana-Kumasi group, Maternal Health, though they just left for Kumasi this morning. We will be meeting them again in Cape Coast. When our two groups are together, we total around 24 students, 2 professors and 2 student fellows, and all of us get along great. We wish our fellow student travelers the best of luck in Kumasi- they have a lot of tough stuff to cover in the coming days.
Tomorrow morning and the day after, we will be visiting nearby high schools to educate the students on the values of plastics recycling. We are preparing lesson plans as I type this. It is sure to be an enlightening experience, for both us and them. We will remain at ISH until Friday, when we will progress to Cape Coast. There has been a handful of changes to our initial rough itinerary; for one, we are now only staying with host families during the last leg of our trip, when we return to Accra. We will be in a hotel in Cape Coast, a hostel in Kumasi, and a guest house in the coastal village of Seneh Breku. There was a shortage of volunteers for host families in all other locations, which led to the change.
My apologies for our restricted Internet access at the moment. There was a lack of coordination with laptops before the trip and we're stuck using Internet cafes for the time being, which prevents us from uploading pictures and other files to the main site. Hopefully the epic length of this blog post makes up for it a little.
Be sure to keep checking this site in the coming weeks for more updates on our trip.
-Andrew Lapin (not the other Andrew, though he's also awesome)
Hello and akwaaba, everyone. At long last we've been able to find an Internet Cafe at the University of Ghana, where we were able to set up this blog and update you all on our progress so far. There's a lot to cover in these first three days, so take a deep breath.
We landed early in the morning this past Friday and progressed immediately from the airport to the University of Ghana campus. We got ourselves situated in the International Students Hostel (ISH), bought cell phones at the Accra Mall and became acquainted with the leaders of Galaxy Tours. The main tour guides are named Linda and Kate, and they have been charged with the task of keeping all of us in line while showing us around their country. So far, they've done a great job. We didn't see too much of Professor Asibu, because he was feeling ill.
On the second day we visited a museum on the country's history, then went to Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, erected in memory of Ghana's first president following their independence from Britain. Following that we visited a large market selling clothes and other souvineers; the proprietors of the stands were aggressively friendly and eagerly showed us their wares. It is customary in Ghana to barter with merchants over the price of objects, and most of us did a good job with this, though we're still novices: I ended up buying a soccer (football) jersey for 15 cedis when others bought the same for 10. But it's all part of the experience. Many of the vendors were also legitimately friendly with us and chatted with us about their family, football, and Obama. Something we learned quickly is that Ghana is an incredibly friendly country.
That night we took in a performance by a traditional African dancing group, and we were all greatly impressed by their energetic, choreographed movements. Nearly all of us ended up participating in their dances.
On the third day we took a walking tour through old Accra, which included the neighborhood of Ussher and Jamestown. The residents of this densely populated area were clearly not as well-off as those in the main city. We saw kids bathing in the street and many run-down, boarded up buildings. One of the more surreal experiences of this trip so far was driving up to Jamestown in our elevated, air-conditioned bus, as the people in the streets stood in a downpour and watched us through the windows. I personally felt a sense of intrusion on their property, as well as a false aura of entitlement that we didn't ask for. I didn't feel truly at eye level with the people and their culture until we had all exited the bus and started walking around with them in the rain.
For many of us, the best part of the trip so far came later on in the third day when we attended a football game. Some of us arrived sporting our Team Ghana jerseys we had purchased from the market. The game was between two local Ghanaian teams. The home team, Kotoko, scored the first two goals and set the crowd ablaze, which gave us the time to wonder why Michigan football fans never get this excited at their games. But the opposing team, Liberty, came back in the second half, scoring three goals in succession. In the last few seconds of the game, however, Kotoko put one in the net, and the final score was a 3-3 tie. We noticed how the fans would often throw empty water bottles or bags of purified water on the field to express their displeasure at something. It's fairly plausible that none of the bottles were getting properly recycled, and this only strengthened our resolve to help establish a proper recycling program during our stay.
We had an opportunity to begin brainstorming this idea today, during our tour of the University of Ghana. In the initial steps of our plan, we will place recycling bins at various spots around campus and spread the word about their locations and purpose. Throughout the rest of this coming week we will observe the effects of plastics recycling on the campus, and we will also be making trips to recycling plants in Accra to determine the best course of action for these plastics and where to deposit them. We are still in the early planning stages for all of this right now.
Our group is starting to become very closely knit, always a good thing when traveling in unfamiliar land. Kyra, our student fellow, was often the only "authority figure" watching us in the first few days due to Prof. Asibu's illness, but she was great at keeping all of us out of trouble and I think we've all really benefitted as a group because of her. Several of the girls were very excited to get custom-made dresses from a woman at our hostel. They are pressuring us guys to buy matching MC Hammer pants.
We have been staying with the other Ghana-Kumasi group, Maternal Health, though they just left for Kumasi this morning. We will be meeting them again in Cape Coast. When our two groups are together, we total around 24 students, 2 professors and 2 student fellows, and all of us get along great. We wish our fellow student travelers the best of luck in Kumasi- they have a lot of tough stuff to cover in the coming days.
Tomorrow morning and the day after, we will be visiting nearby high schools to educate the students on the values of plastics recycling. We are preparing lesson plans as I type this. It is sure to be an enlightening experience, for both us and them. We will remain at ISH until Friday, when we will progress to Cape Coast. There has been a handful of changes to our initial rough itinerary; for one, we are now only staying with host families during the last leg of our trip, when we return to Accra. We will be in a hotel in Cape Coast, a hostel in Kumasi, and a guest house in the coastal village of Seneh Breku. There was a shortage of volunteers for host families in all other locations, which led to the change.
My apologies for our restricted Internet access at the moment. There was a lack of coordination with laptops before the trip and we're stuck using Internet cafes for the time being, which prevents us from uploading pictures and other files to the main site. Hopefully the epic length of this blog post makes up for it a little.
Be sure to keep checking this site in the coming weeks for more updates on our trip.
-Andrew Lapin (not the other Andrew, though he's also awesome)
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