Thursday, December 10, 2009
Finished!
I've now completed my final and turned in all my papers. I leave Ghana in 5 days, so it's nothing but party time now I guess. Or sleep. I doubt I'll post again on here, but photos will find their way to facebook when I get home, and I'll show them to all y'all. Thanks for reading yo.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Happy(?) AIDS Day
This Saturday evening was the culmination of Tom’s work with his NGO, the West African AIDS Foundation. They run a clinic here and do advocacy work for people living with HIV. The event, commemorating World AIDS Day, was at the Alliance Française, a French language and cultural center in Accra. It’s a really nice venue, as it’s a big courtyard with an outdoor auditorium and a bar. We arrived about an hour early with Tom, and helped carry boxes of donated bottled water and soda around, as well as putting up banners.
Hundreds of people ended up coming for the event, both Ghanaians and westerners. I hung around Tom and schmoozed with various important people that he was welcoming. When I wasn’t doing that, I played with the NGO head’s kids, three boys who desperately need less crack in their diet. We thought that they’d hit a wall at some point (figuratively, as they frequently literally ran into walls at high speeds and then bounced right back up) and get sleepy, but they were bouncing off the walls until they got taken home after 11.
The actual event started off with a performance by this drumming and dancing troupe. It was my first actual chance since I’ve been in Ghana to see something like this, so I really enjoyed it. They even did an HIV-awareness dance that told the story of why you should always use a condom. It was hilarious, intentionally and not. After that were acrobats, who we’d actually seen during our first week here at La beach. They did typical acrobat-contortionist things, but it really got impressive when they started juggling fire and jumping through flaming hoops. I’m not sure what any of this had to do with AIDS awareness, but that describes about half of the events that evening.
The informative part came next, with a speech by the head physician at the West African AIDS Foundation, as well as one by the president of NA+, the Ghana Network of People Living With HIV. We had a candlelight vigil, which Ghanaians were not interested in being quiet during, and then an apparently famous female singer came on to sing. She sang two “inspirational” songs, and then incongruously busted into a song about how she wasn’t in love, but she was going to be in love tonight. It was basically a song about getting some at the club, which was a great message for World AIDS Day.
This theme continued as a number of Ghana’s most famous rappers performed, including Screwface, Obomofuor, and Macho Rapper. These people are all famous here, I promise. Sonny, a Ghanaian who works at the Aya Center and hangs out with us a lot, got giggly-excited when he heard that Macho Rapper would be there. Anyway, they all sang songs about how gangster they are and how they get with lots of women, probably unprotectedly, so this was pretty funny but the crowd went nuts and had a great time. I got to meet most of these guys afterward, and they were all pretty friendly but had a long drive home so we didn’t get to go clubbing with them just that night. There was also free HIV testing at the event, and I passed on it, but my roommates Liz and Beth are now happily certain that they are HIV-free.
The final highlight of the evening happened while I was out in the courtyard during one of the rap performances. There was a projector set up here showing what was on stage so that those getting drinks or having a smoke wouldn’t miss it. While I was out, for two straight minutes the camera zoomed in on a dancing woman’s ass and just followed it around. No one except me found this strange. Also, during a poem read earlier in the evening on the subject of AIDS, the lines “Men, be careful. Women, stay faithful” were uttered. Ghana’s trying really hard, they are, but man they just don’t get some things.
Hundreds of people ended up coming for the event, both Ghanaians and westerners. I hung around Tom and schmoozed with various important people that he was welcoming. When I wasn’t doing that, I played with the NGO head’s kids, three boys who desperately need less crack in their diet. We thought that they’d hit a wall at some point (figuratively, as they frequently literally ran into walls at high speeds and then bounced right back up) and get sleepy, but they were bouncing off the walls until they got taken home after 11.
The actual event started off with a performance by this drumming and dancing troupe. It was my first actual chance since I’ve been in Ghana to see something like this, so I really enjoyed it. They even did an HIV-awareness dance that told the story of why you should always use a condom. It was hilarious, intentionally and not. After that were acrobats, who we’d actually seen during our first week here at La beach. They did typical acrobat-contortionist things, but it really got impressive when they started juggling fire and jumping through flaming hoops. I’m not sure what any of this had to do with AIDS awareness, but that describes about half of the events that evening.
The informative part came next, with a speech by the head physician at the West African AIDS Foundation, as well as one by the president of NA+, the Ghana Network of People Living With HIV. We had a candlelight vigil, which Ghanaians were not interested in being quiet during, and then an apparently famous female singer came on to sing. She sang two “inspirational” songs, and then incongruously busted into a song about how she wasn’t in love, but she was going to be in love tonight. It was basically a song about getting some at the club, which was a great message for World AIDS Day.
This theme continued as a number of Ghana’s most famous rappers performed, including Screwface, Obomofuor, and Macho Rapper. These people are all famous here, I promise. Sonny, a Ghanaian who works at the Aya Center and hangs out with us a lot, got giggly-excited when he heard that Macho Rapper would be there. Anyway, they all sang songs about how gangster they are and how they get with lots of women, probably unprotectedly, so this was pretty funny but the crowd went nuts and had a great time. I got to meet most of these guys afterward, and they were all pretty friendly but had a long drive home so we didn’t get to go clubbing with them just that night. There was also free HIV testing at the event, and I passed on it, but my roommates Liz and Beth are now happily certain that they are HIV-free.
The final highlight of the evening happened while I was out in the courtyard during one of the rap performances. There was a projector set up here showing what was on stage so that those getting drinks or having a smoke wouldn’t miss it. While I was out, for two straight minutes the camera zoomed in on a dancing woman’s ass and just followed it around. No one except me found this strange. Also, during a poem read earlier in the evening on the subject of AIDS, the lines “Men, be careful. Women, stay faithful” were uttered. Ghana’s trying really hard, they are, but man they just don’t get some things.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Your daily Ghanaian nonsense
On a trotro review mirror this morning:
Prosper Jingles
The Highlander
This makes even less sense than most broken English signs in Ghana.
P.S. For anyone who hasn't heard yet, I'm coming home in January to save money. I'm also going to Egypt, Thailand, and maybe South Korea on my way home. I don't know the details yet of when I'll be back in the U.S.A. but I'll keep you posted.
Prosper Jingles
The Highlander
This makes even less sense than most broken English signs in Ghana.
P.S. For anyone who hasn't heard yet, I'm coming home in January to save money. I'm also going to Egypt, Thailand, and maybe South Korea on my way home. I don't know the details yet of when I'll be back in the U.S.A. but I'll keep you posted.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Thanksgiving
The kids from the other programs here get it easy. CIEE, the largest study-abroad program on campus, threw a Thanksgiving dinner for their students, featuring turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and apple pie. Our house had the choice of doing it ourselves or not at all, so naturally we took that as a challenge and decided to go all out on Thanksgiving dinner.
On Monday we invited everyone who works at our program, as well as friends and coworkers. Cooking started on Tuesday, and I worked on pie. I searched every grocery store in Accra (there are three, and they have pretty much exclusively white people in them at all times) for pumpkin, canned or otherwise, but to no avail. I did find granny smith apples, and Z found a canned “summer berry” mix that looked like it’d make good pie filling. Liz took pity on me and helped with the pie, because apparently she wanted pie that tasted good or something. This was good, because otherwise I’m not sure what we would have ended up with.
On Thanksgiving, Z went out to get a turkey, and we thought that there was some sort of “precooked” turkey available because he’d seen it. As it happened, it was basically turkey lunch meat in the shape of a whole turkey. Gross. We ended up buying a frozen turkey and started defrosting it at about 2, when it needed to be served at 6. I was excited, assuming that this would never happen and we’d all get tons of turkey for the next few days since our guests would be long gone by the time the turkey was done. As it turned out, the turkey fit in our microwave, defrosted quickly, and was tender and delicious.
We ended up with turkey, sausage-apple stuffing, green bean casserole, infinite mashed potatoes, fruit salad, sautéed vegetables, mushroom and chicken gravy, two apple pies, and a berry pie.
Our guests all loved the food, which was great because previously most Ghanaians who have tried American food at our house or elsewhere haven’t been impressed. Dr. Williams, our program director, even came by, and talked about American football for much of the night, which made it a lot like American Thanksgiving. Three boys from Taryn’s school came as well and had a fun time making hand turkeys. Really, all of us college students had even more fun with hand turkeys. 
After the kids took off, we busted out the alcohol, and ended up playing beer pong for most of the night, which is a hilarious thing to do in Ghana. Our security guard walked up to return his plate of food, saw what we were doing, and we were all a little concerned he’d tell us to keep it down or to not remove our closet door and use it as a beer pong table. Instead, he picked up a ping pong ball and sunk a cup with his first shot.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Party Time, excellent
After not being too exciting when we first arrived, my household has started to discover the charms of the Accra nightlife. Which is pretty much the only thing Accra has going for it. On Thursday night, we discovered a place called Ryan’s Irish Pub in Osu. I was expecting a typical Ghanaian spot with Guinness on tap or something, but instead it’s a huge, green farmhouse-style building set into a verdant lot. Inside it looks like you’ve wandered into a trendy Irish-style bar back in the United States. The almost complete lack of black people inside really helped with that impression as well. We spent most of our time inside giggling at the fact that this place exists. We also drank draft beer and Soco, so as much as I kind of felt bad for hanging out in the least-Ghanaian place in Ghana, it’s still fun. Watching the creepy old drunk white men hit on dumb sorority girls studying here was also entertaining.
Saturday night was my housemate Beth’s birthday (actually it’s Tuesday, but Saturday was the party.) Everyone dressed up and we went to this club called Cinderella’s. For some reason there was a club right next to Cinderella’s as well, and it didn’t have a cover, so everyone was in there and we ended up spending the entire night in there. I never go clubbing in the US, so I don’t know how it compares, but it was pretty fun. There were a lot of Ghanaians there, unlike at Ryan’s, and by American standards the drinks were cheap. The great thing about Ghana is that everything is really cheap, but when I want to splurge on things that are fantastically expensive by Ghanaian standards, I just say “This would cost twice as much back home!”
We spent all night at the club, and ended up getting home around 5:30 in the morning. We ate canned spaghetti that one of my housemates thought was a good idea to buy, and then I walked around campus and watched the sun rise. It wasn’t very exciting.
From here on out, we’re planning to go out all the time. Also, I might skip out on most of my obligations next week to go to the Western Region of Ghana with some girls from another program at the university. Apparently the Western region houses the nicest beaches in Ghana, mangrove swamps, a stilt village in the middle of a lake, and an evergreen rainforest national park, so that sounds much more fun than going to class and my internship. Actually trying and behaving myself was fun for a while, but it’s officially party time now.
In spite of my last statement, I’m still reading books at an amazing rate. Here’s an update on what I’ve gotten through recently.
- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (good until the climax which was stupid)
- Enduring Love by Ian McEwan (he wrote Atonement, and yet this book is still good. Who’d have thought?)
- Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut (good drawings)
- Kafka on the Shore by a Japanese dude whose name escapes me (absolutely fantastic and I recommend it to everyone)
- My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult (a little too much estrogen but not bad)
- Invisible Man by Ralph(?) Ellison (Kafka-esque and good)
Right now I’m at work on Ulysses again. I’ve totally got the first 3 chapters memorized since I’ve read them like 18 times now, and never made it much further into the book. Will I make it anywhere this time? Check back and see.
Saturday night was my housemate Beth’s birthday (actually it’s Tuesday, but Saturday was the party.) Everyone dressed up and we went to this club called Cinderella’s. For some reason there was a club right next to Cinderella’s as well, and it didn’t have a cover, so everyone was in there and we ended up spending the entire night in there. I never go clubbing in the US, so I don’t know how it compares, but it was pretty fun. There were a lot of Ghanaians there, unlike at Ryan’s, and by American standards the drinks were cheap. The great thing about Ghana is that everything is really cheap, but when I want to splurge on things that are fantastically expensive by Ghanaian standards, I just say “This would cost twice as much back home!”
We spent all night at the club, and ended up getting home around 5:30 in the morning. We ate canned spaghetti that one of my housemates thought was a good idea to buy, and then I walked around campus and watched the sun rise. It wasn’t very exciting.
From here on out, we’re planning to go out all the time. Also, I might skip out on most of my obligations next week to go to the Western Region of Ghana with some girls from another program at the university. Apparently the Western region houses the nicest beaches in Ghana, mangrove swamps, a stilt village in the middle of a lake, and an evergreen rainforest national park, so that sounds much more fun than going to class and my internship. Actually trying and behaving myself was fun for a while, but it’s officially party time now.
In spite of my last statement, I’m still reading books at an amazing rate. Here’s an update on what I’ve gotten through recently.
- The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy (good until the climax which was stupid)
- Enduring Love by Ian McEwan (he wrote Atonement, and yet this book is still good. Who’d have thought?)
- Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut (good drawings)
- Kafka on the Shore by a Japanese dude whose name escapes me (absolutely fantastic and I recommend it to everyone)
- My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult (a little too much estrogen but not bad)
- Invisible Man by Ralph(?) Ellison (Kafka-esque and good)
Right now I’m at work on Ulysses again. I’ve totally got the first 3 chapters memorized since I’ve read them like 18 times now, and never made it much further into the book. Will I make it anywhere this time? Check back and see.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Building shit.
This last Wednesday we didn’t have classes and instead went to a school in an Accra suburb to help construct a library. This has been an ongoing project by the Aya Centre where they take whichever groups come through from the US and have them work on the library, which is getting built slowly but surely.
It was an interesting experience to build completely by hand. We spent our time mixing cement and then carrying the cement up to a worker who poured it into the frame that had been built. The building was about halfway complete and we were putting the final level of cement on above the windows, leaving just the roof to be done after.
Making the cement involved shoveling dirt into a large basin, mixing it with bags of cement, shoveling rocks on top, and then carrying water from a rainwater tank and pouring it on. After this we had to mix the cement with shovels. I couldn’t believe how inefficient this was, and at first I was thinking about how much a portable cement mixer would speed up the process, but I realized that just a wheelbarrow would have doubled the work we were able to do.
The main job that I worked on was standing on a rickety board supported by cement blocks and lifting very heavy metal bowls of cement up to the man who was pouring it. I got a lot of cement dripped on me, and nearly got hit in the head by the large rocks in the cement mix when it spilled over the frame. We didn’t really accomplish that much, which was discouraging, but at the same time it felt more gratifying than anything I’d done at my internship this whole term.
Speaking of my internship, I spoke to my program about how I hadn’t done anything there in a long time, and that what I had done was for my boss personally, not for the internship. So, I may end up with a different internship for the last month, unless AFAWI comes up with something for me. I really wouldn’t mind actually doing something, even if it’s just teaching math or English for a while. I’d even be happy doing construction compared to the sitting-around I do now.
It was an interesting experience to build completely by hand. We spent our time mixing cement and then carrying the cement up to a worker who poured it into the frame that had been built. The building was about halfway complete and we were putting the final level of cement on above the windows, leaving just the roof to be done after.
Making the cement involved shoveling dirt into a large basin, mixing it with bags of cement, shoveling rocks on top, and then carrying water from a rainwater tank and pouring it on. After this we had to mix the cement with shovels. I couldn’t believe how inefficient this was, and at first I was thinking about how much a portable cement mixer would speed up the process, but I realized that just a wheelbarrow would have doubled the work we were able to do.
The main job that I worked on was standing on a rickety board supported by cement blocks and lifting very heavy metal bowls of cement up to the man who was pouring it. I got a lot of cement dripped on me, and nearly got hit in the head by the large rocks in the cement mix when it spilled over the frame. We didn’t really accomplish that much, which was discouraging, but at the same time it felt more gratifying than anything I’d done at my internship this whole term.
Speaking of my internship, I spoke to my program about how I hadn’t done anything there in a long time, and that what I had done was for my boss personally, not for the internship. So, I may end up with a different internship for the last month, unless AFAWI comes up with something for me. I really wouldn’t mind actually doing something, even if it’s just teaching math or English for a while. I’d even be happy doing construction compared to the sitting-around I do now.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Important News!
I may be returning from Ghana early. I was checking out my finances, and discovered that next term will cost me $11,500 here. If I return home, I discovered that due to the fact that I only need 1 class to graduate, it will cost me ~$400 to finish my degree. Including buying a new plane ticket home, I’d save about $10,000 bucks by coming home early. That’s infinite money back where I come from, but I’m still not sure what to do. I’m set up to take out the loans to pay for next term, but I just don’t want to be in debt.
I also go back and forth on whether I want to stay at all, as I’ve liked my experience, but I don’t know how much more I’d get out of it next term. I’ve been told that the classes at the university are mostly terrible. But if I stayed here, I’d be more comfortable and have chances to do new things in Accra and in Ghana. I also wouldn’t feel like I’m wimping out.
My travel plans for when this term finishes up are also a mess, whether or not I choose to come home early. I wanted to go to Spain and visit Erin, but getting there looks like it’d be way more expensive than I was thinking. I’d also like to travel around West/North Africa in general, but that requires money too. Finally, I really wanted to go to this music festival in Mali, which is a) expensive and b) in the very middle of an area where a group called Al Qaida in the Maghreb (a word meaning North Africa) has been kidnapping European tourists and attacking Malian and Algerian army posts very successfully. The music festival sounds amazing and like a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but making a video about how much I love Allah while someone points an AK-47 at my head would be a pretty unique experience that I don’t want. I normally don’t worry about stuff like this and just say “oh, you have to know what regions to go to in countries like that.” In this case, the festival is exactly where the kidnappings and attacks have been occurring. Still, odds are I wouldn’t get killed by Al Qaida and I really want to go. It just seems like a terrible idea.
In summary, I’ll be home
- In the middle of December, if I decide I don’t have the money/inclination to travel around Africa and I want to not spent next term here.
- In the middle of January, if I decide to travel somewhere and I don’t want to spend next term here.
- In the middle of May, if I want to stay here and decide it’s worth $10,000, whether or not I do any of these travels in December .
I have to decide about all this very soon, like this week. Input is appreciated, because I don’t have a clue what to do.
I also go back and forth on whether I want to stay at all, as I’ve liked my experience, but I don’t know how much more I’d get out of it next term. I’ve been told that the classes at the university are mostly terrible. But if I stayed here, I’d be more comfortable and have chances to do new things in Accra and in Ghana. I also wouldn’t feel like I’m wimping out.
My travel plans for when this term finishes up are also a mess, whether or not I choose to come home early. I wanted to go to Spain and visit Erin, but getting there looks like it’d be way more expensive than I was thinking. I’d also like to travel around West/North Africa in general, but that requires money too. Finally, I really wanted to go to this music festival in Mali, which is a) expensive and b) in the very middle of an area where a group called Al Qaida in the Maghreb (a word meaning North Africa) has been kidnapping European tourists and attacking Malian and Algerian army posts very successfully. The music festival sounds amazing and like a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but making a video about how much I love Allah while someone points an AK-47 at my head would be a pretty unique experience that I don’t want. I normally don’t worry about stuff like this and just say “oh, you have to know what regions to go to in countries like that.” In this case, the festival is exactly where the kidnappings and attacks have been occurring. Still, odds are I wouldn’t get killed by Al Qaida and I really want to go. It just seems like a terrible idea.
In summary, I’ll be home
- In the middle of December, if I decide I don’t have the money/inclination to travel around Africa and I want to not spent next term here.
- In the middle of January, if I decide to travel somewhere and I don’t want to spend next term here.
- In the middle of May, if I want to stay here and decide it’s worth $10,000, whether or not I do any of these travels in December .
I have to decide about all this very soon, like this week. Input is appreciated, because I don’t have a clue what to do.
Friday, November 13, 2009
More pictures
Here's your 5,000 words for the day. There are better pictures of most of these things, especially the monkeys, but they're on other people's cameras, so I'll post 'em when I get 'em.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Picture Update
These are all from Mole. That's me and Tom with the chief and his translator, me inside a hollow tree, a big mosque in Tamale (not the really old once I mentioned in the post), an elephant, and our guide James leading us up a trail.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Last trip of the term
The last of our official trips was this weekend, and we traveled to the Volta region. It’s the easternmost region of Ghana, requiring a trip over the Volta River to get there. Sadly, I didn’t get to see the dam or lake, but the river is still large and impressive. This trip was also much shorter than the others, as everything’s closer and we didn’t do as much.
Our first visit was to Wlii Falls (pronounced “vlee”), where we parked and took a half-hour hike along a very pretty trail, crossing rivers and streams the whole time. All of us Pacific Northwest kids on the trip loved it, as everything was green and shady, as well as cooler than in Accra. The waterfall was pretty big, and Tom, Z, Beth, and I hopped in and swam around. We basically giggled the whole time because the mist was so strong that we couldn’t look at the falls, and it was like being in a wave pool. It was another of my favorite times here so far. There were also a multitude of bats living on the cliff next to the falls, and they were swooping around as we swam.
That was really it for Saturday, except we went to the hotel, swam, and played ping pong all evening. I surprised myself with how not-bad I was at ping pong after not playing for a while, but Z still won every game we played.
We left the hotel at 6:30 Sunday morning in order to make it to a sacred monkey sanctuary, because apparently the monkeys are only out near the village in the morning. There ended up being about 15 mona monkeys running around, and we had fun feeding them bananas. We met the “chief” of one monkey family, named Commando, who wouldn’t eat out of our hands but stole the bananas and then ran off to eat them with his back to everyone. I also managed to get a small monkey to sit on my hand while eating a banana. Pictures will come, I promise.
We ended up getting home around 12:30, making this trip the shortest and least educational, but nearly the most fun. I considered doing something useful yesterday like working on a paper or laundry, but instead hung out all afternoon reading and chatting, and then watched Superbad with my roommates.
Now, I’m at my internship again, and today is our monthly meeting with a group of HIV-positive locals, so maybe there’ll be something for me to do. Most likely not though. I need to remember to take this blog down before I start writing “Worked with a women’s NGO in Ghana doing all sorts of extremely important things” on my resumes and grad school applications; otherwise the truth will come out, which is that I haven’t done jack in about a month and a half.
Our first visit was to Wlii Falls (pronounced “vlee”), where we parked and took a half-hour hike along a very pretty trail, crossing rivers and streams the whole time. All of us Pacific Northwest kids on the trip loved it, as everything was green and shady, as well as cooler than in Accra. The waterfall was pretty big, and Tom, Z, Beth, and I hopped in and swam around. We basically giggled the whole time because the mist was so strong that we couldn’t look at the falls, and it was like being in a wave pool. It was another of my favorite times here so far. There were also a multitude of bats living on the cliff next to the falls, and they were swooping around as we swam.
That was really it for Saturday, except we went to the hotel, swam, and played ping pong all evening. I surprised myself with how not-bad I was at ping pong after not playing for a while, but Z still won every game we played.
We left the hotel at 6:30 Sunday morning in order to make it to a sacred monkey sanctuary, because apparently the monkeys are only out near the village in the morning. There ended up being about 15 mona monkeys running around, and we had fun feeding them bananas. We met the “chief” of one monkey family, named Commando, who wouldn’t eat out of our hands but stole the bananas and then ran off to eat them with his back to everyone. I also managed to get a small monkey to sit on my hand while eating a banana. Pictures will come, I promise.
We ended up getting home around 12:30, making this trip the shortest and least educational, but nearly the most fun. I considered doing something useful yesterday like working on a paper or laundry, but instead hung out all afternoon reading and chatting, and then watched Superbad with my roommates.
Now, I’m at my internship again, and today is our monthly meeting with a group of HIV-positive locals, so maybe there’ll be something for me to do. Most likely not though. I need to remember to take this blog down before I start writing “Worked with a women’s NGO in Ghana doing all sorts of extremely important things” on my resumes and grad school applications; otherwise the truth will come out, which is that I haven’t done jack in about a month and a half.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
I'll take that meal Togo
Thus far the only things to have happened AFAWI (the NGO I’m interning with, for the latecomers) have been getting online and finding out about the Beavers and Ducks stomping the Angelinos over the weekend. Also, Liz works right near me, but her school wasn’t meeting today, so she came by my internship and sat around. Now everyone is convinced she is my girlfriend. There are worse things.
Until my boss thinks of something for me to do, it’s Togo-writing time. I really enjoyed it there. I had wondered if the poverty would be noticeable, since by all measures they’re much less developed than Ghana, but it really looked exactly the same. The only sign of a difference was the border crossing itself. Aflao is on the Ghanaian side, and Lomé is on the Togolese side. It’s apparently one of the only national capitals which is also a border town, or so says my guidebook. At the actual border, the Ghanaian immigration agents have a building, while there are a series of broken down wooden shacks on the Togolese side. Except for that, Togo was quite nice, and had a good bit of colonial architecture – certainly more than Accra.
Taryn and I (the only two people on the trip) walked from the hectic border into Lome. It took me a while to get my French in order, but after a few random conversations with people I was doing alright. The road from Aflao goes right alongside the ocean and beaches, which were beautiful and strangely devoid of people. We wandered through the city, only knowing that eventually we needed to make it to the Station de Kpalime on the north side of town, in order to catch a car to Kpalime, about 3 hours away in the mountains.
The highlight of Lome was stopping in at a bar for a coke. As we sat there, various people came by to try to sell us things, and we declined. A man walked up with movies, we shook our heads, but he came over to show me one anyway. I looked down, and he’s holding out hardcore pornography for me, unsuccessfully trying to shield it from Taryn’s view. I busted out laughing immediately and apparently turned bright red as well, declining his offer.
We really did wander randomly for a while, and then eventually I stopped and asked a taxi driver where the Station de Kpalime was. I kept saying “gare,” French for “train station” rather than “station,” French for “bus stop,” so I confused him for a while, but we eventually figured out that it was about a block away and we’d wandered right to it. We got to Kpalime right around nightfall, so we couldn’t see much, and then got a shared taxi from there to Klouto, the village further up in the hills that we were staying in. There was a nice view of the lights from Kpalime on the ride, especially because the driver liked to go up windy mountain roads with his lights off, and at high speeds. Taryn was scared, but I thought it was fun.
We got dropped off outside a bar in Klouto, which turned out to be the bar in Klouto, and asked where the auberge we were staying in was. Two guys offered to take us, and figuring we’d either get mugged or actually get there, we followed. They did not mug us, and we ended up getting the cheapest room available (1 bed, 1 fan, 1 side table, cement floor, no toilet or shower or sink.) After a dinner of delicious spaghetti bolognaise, and staring at stars and fireflies, we went to sleep.
The next day was all hiking around Klouto, the main attraction. Our guide, a local 30ish guy named Apollonaire, took us all around to show us the cocoa and coffee farms, as well as a nearby small waterfall and to the top of a mountain for a nice view. It took about 6 hours and was a lot of fun, especially because in the mountains it’s actually cool. There were lots of butterflies and exciting plants, including two dye plants that Apo showed us, bright red and bright yellow. He also told us different medicinal plants. I don’t remember many details, but it was interesting at the time.
In the afternoon I discovered that Togo has delicious beer. They actually have some ambers and porters, something Ghana really lacks. Additionally, they have coffee in Togo, and good French-influenced food, so I wish I was studying there. Also, while drinking beer, when I went to grab another round, apparently Apo started telling Taryn that he wanted to marry her and they should meet and talk about their future together. This sucked for her, since he was one of the few African men who hadn’t done this to her. We decided to go to bed pretty early that night too.
The next morning was one of the highlights of my entire time over here so far. We were going to hike up the tallest mountain in the area (not what we Oregonians would call a mountain, more of a hill), and to get there we had to go down from Klouto into Kpalime and then up to the other village. Togo’s form of transportation for things like this is motorcycles that you just hop on the back of and go. I’d never ridden a motorcycle before in my life, and here I was riding helmetless down windy mountain roads, swerving to avoid potholes and the occasional herd of goats that ran out in front of us. They even cut the motors on the downhills to save gas, but then it got even more exciting once we got to the flat and they sped up. The view was fantastic, and I wasn’t even scared at all, which I probably should have been.
We bought bananas, avocados, and bread for lunch, and then began to hike. It was market day, so we passed a long stream of women going the other direction down from villages located on the hill, all carrying large amounts of produce on their heads while we were huffing and puffing and barely staying upright. The trail was literally a 3 km long stretch of 45-degree rock steps, or occasionally just a rock face at the same angle. And it was about 9:30 in the morning, and about 100 degrees outside. We made it to the first village, which was most of the way up, and I had sweated out all my water and felt like I might vomit, pass out, or both. Taryn was about to kill me as well, as I’d been much more excited about this mountain than her, so we decided to turn back there. The village was pretty scenic, made out of rock and sitting at a steep angle on the mountain, but we didn’t really appreciate it at the time.
We caught a van from the village to Lome, and it had all the seats filled plus 5 extra people packed in. We were also dripping with sweat and exhausted, so it was not pleasant. In Lome, we caught motorcycles to a hotel on the beach we’d read about, Chez Alize. It was pretty fancy, so we again chose the cheapest room, a bungalow outside with no facilities, 1 bed, cement floor, etc. The rest of the day involved swimming in the ocean and laying on the beach, which was fantastic.
Various Togolese people came by and talked, and it was great how friendly they were. The Ghanaians are famed for their friendliness, but it mostly involves random strangers telling you that they want to be your best friend and then spending a long time trying to figure out how they’ll see you again. The Togolese are normal friendly, and will just have a conversation with you and then say “bye!” and walk off. It was really relaxing to not have everyone trying to stalk me, and I think Taryn only got the 1 proposal, as opposed to about 3/day in Ghana.
The only people at the hotel restaurant/bar in the evening were Taryn and I, and a number of older male expats and the Togolese women they’d clearly paid to be there with them. It wasn’t as creepy as it sounds, as we just didn’t interact with all them. We did meet the owner of the hotel, who was a crazy looking 50ish Frenchman with lank blond hair and an eyepatch. He would have looked equally crazy if he’d had a crew cut and no eyepatch, so everything else was just icing on the crazy cake. He was very friendly and read the entire menu and explained it to us, and I ended up with a salad and fish soup, which was much more delicious than the same thing I’d had in France.
The next day we were supposed to spend more time in Lome, but instead we’d run out of money, so we caught a barely-running taxi to the border and then reentered Ghana. They almost didn’t let Taryn back in, because she got a guard who I’m pretty sure couldn’t read, type, or think, but we got it figured out. We then took a trotro back to Accra, which took 7 hours instead of 3 and was full of Togolese women who screamed at the driver in French/Ewe the entire time. We were relieved to get home and fall asleep.
Now I’m all caught up on my trips, so the 2 of you other than my parents who read every word of these get gold stars!
Until my boss thinks of something for me to do, it’s Togo-writing time. I really enjoyed it there. I had wondered if the poverty would be noticeable, since by all measures they’re much less developed than Ghana, but it really looked exactly the same. The only sign of a difference was the border crossing itself. Aflao is on the Ghanaian side, and Lomé is on the Togolese side. It’s apparently one of the only national capitals which is also a border town, or so says my guidebook. At the actual border, the Ghanaian immigration agents have a building, while there are a series of broken down wooden shacks on the Togolese side. Except for that, Togo was quite nice, and had a good bit of colonial architecture – certainly more than Accra.
Taryn and I (the only two people on the trip) walked from the hectic border into Lome. It took me a while to get my French in order, but after a few random conversations with people I was doing alright. The road from Aflao goes right alongside the ocean and beaches, which were beautiful and strangely devoid of people. We wandered through the city, only knowing that eventually we needed to make it to the Station de Kpalime on the north side of town, in order to catch a car to Kpalime, about 3 hours away in the mountains.
The highlight of Lome was stopping in at a bar for a coke. As we sat there, various people came by to try to sell us things, and we declined. A man walked up with movies, we shook our heads, but he came over to show me one anyway. I looked down, and he’s holding out hardcore pornography for me, unsuccessfully trying to shield it from Taryn’s view. I busted out laughing immediately and apparently turned bright red as well, declining his offer.
We really did wander randomly for a while, and then eventually I stopped and asked a taxi driver where the Station de Kpalime was. I kept saying “gare,” French for “train station” rather than “station,” French for “bus stop,” so I confused him for a while, but we eventually figured out that it was about a block away and we’d wandered right to it. We got to Kpalime right around nightfall, so we couldn’t see much, and then got a shared taxi from there to Klouto, the village further up in the hills that we were staying in. There was a nice view of the lights from Kpalime on the ride, especially because the driver liked to go up windy mountain roads with his lights off, and at high speeds. Taryn was scared, but I thought it was fun.
We got dropped off outside a bar in Klouto, which turned out to be the bar in Klouto, and asked where the auberge we were staying in was. Two guys offered to take us, and figuring we’d either get mugged or actually get there, we followed. They did not mug us, and we ended up getting the cheapest room available (1 bed, 1 fan, 1 side table, cement floor, no toilet or shower or sink.) After a dinner of delicious spaghetti bolognaise, and staring at stars and fireflies, we went to sleep.
The next day was all hiking around Klouto, the main attraction. Our guide, a local 30ish guy named Apollonaire, took us all around to show us the cocoa and coffee farms, as well as a nearby small waterfall and to the top of a mountain for a nice view. It took about 6 hours and was a lot of fun, especially because in the mountains it’s actually cool. There were lots of butterflies and exciting plants, including two dye plants that Apo showed us, bright red and bright yellow. He also told us different medicinal plants. I don’t remember many details, but it was interesting at the time.
In the afternoon I discovered that Togo has delicious beer. They actually have some ambers and porters, something Ghana really lacks. Additionally, they have coffee in Togo, and good French-influenced food, so I wish I was studying there. Also, while drinking beer, when I went to grab another round, apparently Apo started telling Taryn that he wanted to marry her and they should meet and talk about their future together. This sucked for her, since he was one of the few African men who hadn’t done this to her. We decided to go to bed pretty early that night too.
The next morning was one of the highlights of my entire time over here so far. We were going to hike up the tallest mountain in the area (not what we Oregonians would call a mountain, more of a hill), and to get there we had to go down from Klouto into Kpalime and then up to the other village. Togo’s form of transportation for things like this is motorcycles that you just hop on the back of and go. I’d never ridden a motorcycle before in my life, and here I was riding helmetless down windy mountain roads, swerving to avoid potholes and the occasional herd of goats that ran out in front of us. They even cut the motors on the downhills to save gas, but then it got even more exciting once we got to the flat and they sped up. The view was fantastic, and I wasn’t even scared at all, which I probably should have been.
We bought bananas, avocados, and bread for lunch, and then began to hike. It was market day, so we passed a long stream of women going the other direction down from villages located on the hill, all carrying large amounts of produce on their heads while we were huffing and puffing and barely staying upright. The trail was literally a 3 km long stretch of 45-degree rock steps, or occasionally just a rock face at the same angle. And it was about 9:30 in the morning, and about 100 degrees outside. We made it to the first village, which was most of the way up, and I had sweated out all my water and felt like I might vomit, pass out, or both. Taryn was about to kill me as well, as I’d been much more excited about this mountain than her, so we decided to turn back there. The village was pretty scenic, made out of rock and sitting at a steep angle on the mountain, but we didn’t really appreciate it at the time.
We caught a van from the village to Lome, and it had all the seats filled plus 5 extra people packed in. We were also dripping with sweat and exhausted, so it was not pleasant. In Lome, we caught motorcycles to a hotel on the beach we’d read about, Chez Alize. It was pretty fancy, so we again chose the cheapest room, a bungalow outside with no facilities, 1 bed, cement floor, etc. The rest of the day involved swimming in the ocean and laying on the beach, which was fantastic.
Various Togolese people came by and talked, and it was great how friendly they were. The Ghanaians are famed for their friendliness, but it mostly involves random strangers telling you that they want to be your best friend and then spending a long time trying to figure out how they’ll see you again. The Togolese are normal friendly, and will just have a conversation with you and then say “bye!” and walk off. It was really relaxing to not have everyone trying to stalk me, and I think Taryn only got the 1 proposal, as opposed to about 3/day in Ghana.
The only people at the hotel restaurant/bar in the evening were Taryn and I, and a number of older male expats and the Togolese women they’d clearly paid to be there with them. It wasn’t as creepy as it sounds, as we just didn’t interact with all them. We did meet the owner of the hotel, who was a crazy looking 50ish Frenchman with lank blond hair and an eyepatch. He would have looked equally crazy if he’d had a crew cut and no eyepatch, so everything else was just icing on the crazy cake. He was very friendly and read the entire menu and explained it to us, and I ended up with a salad and fish soup, which was much more delicious than the same thing I’d had in France.
The next day we were supposed to spend more time in Lome, but instead we’d run out of money, so we caught a barely-running taxi to the border and then reentered Ghana. They almost didn’t let Taryn back in, because she got a guard who I’m pretty sure couldn’t read, type, or think, but we got it figured out. We then took a trotro back to Accra, which took 7 hours instead of 3 and was full of Togolese women who screamed at the driver in French/Ewe the entire time. We were relieved to get home and fall asleep.
Now I’m all caught up on my trips, so the 2 of you other than my parents who read every word of these get gold stars!
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Apologies
The last post was what I swore I'd never write - the kind of super long one that makes everyone not want to read it. So to make up for it, here's a sign that I saw on a trotro today:
Allah is the most greatest
Oh, Ghana.
Allah is the most greatest
Oh, Ghana.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Why is everything in the Northern region named after Mexican food
First things first – I got my midterm back from my sociology of development class, the good one taught by Dr. Williams, the program director originally from Washington DC.
I got 100%, and I’m pretty sure that I wrote less on the 5 essays than everyone else in the class. Win.
This weekend, we made a trip to Tamale, Larabanga, and Mole National Park this weekend. All are in the Northern Region of Ghana, which is not actually then northernmost region (Upper West and Upper East), much as the Eastern Region is not the easternmost region (Volta Region). Still, it was a 12-hour bus ride, so we left at 6:00 AM on Thursday. This trip wasn’t just Aya Centre folks, and included about 8 other kids studying at Legon along with one German student, Lisa, volunteering at a school in Accra who just happened to hear about the trip.
The ride up included the usual mix of smooth roads, smooth roads with speed bumps every 2 km, and terrible dirt roads that slowed us down a lot. We arrived in Tamale around 7 PM in the middle of a rain and lightning storm, which was exciting and gave us something to stare at for the last couple hours of the trip. After a dinner of spaghetti (ordered from the “Chinese” section of the menu at the hotel restaurant) we all crashed early.
Friday morning we took a tour of Tamale guided by a member of the hotel staff, Mo(hammed, but he went by Mo.) We visited the regional chief’s village, a Dagomba chief. We brought him a gift of kola nuts and a few cedi, and we all removed our shoes and knelt down until he said we were welcome. The chief, very old, didn’t actually speak, but his spokesperson did, which is standard practice for royalty. The throne room, or whatever it was, wasn’t fancy, just large enough to hold 25ish people comfortably, along with a horse that was against one wall and decided to take a long, loud piss during our time there. The chief shared part of our kola nut gift with us, but I think I might have been the only student to try the extremely bitter nut. Mo spoke for us, and we asked questions through him about what region the chief ruled over, how the chief is selected, etc. Apparently relatives of the previous chief, both through matrilineal and patrilineal, put an ancient magic calabash on their head like a hat and then shake their heads, and the first person that it doesn’t fall off of has been chosen by the ancestor spirit to be the new chief.
Finally, we received Dagomba names from the chief, or his spokesman really, and mine was “Sonyuni,” meaning “one beautiful heart.” All the names were somewhat bland, except for one girl who got “chief’s wife.” All of us were hoping for “wrestles with goats” or something similar though. We then got to see the shea butter processing that takes place in the village as well as some of the compound in general, which was not too exciting, and a hollow tree that we could walk inside. Whenever we visit villages like this I feel somewhat ashamed, because a bus of white people just shows up unannounced and disrupts the regular goings-on. I always see the adults eyeing us ruefully, but the children love us, but then from what I hear those that ask for money or are too attached end up getting beat once we leave. It’s nice to see these places, and the money we bring certainly helps them, but I guess I just like to be aware of the effect it has on the place. In a lot of ways, it’s not too different from tourists taking over a resort town in the United States or anywhere else, and I don’t take that kind of locals’ complaints too seriously, so maybe I shouldn’t worry as much.
After this we dropped by a sacred baobab tree, though I forget for what reason it’s sacred. I believe they may have cut it down and then it reappeared whole the next day, which is a typical reason for things to be sacred or mystical around here. More importantly, we could climb the tree, so about half of us did and it was fun. I miss climbing things, since so far on this trip I’ve only climbed my house, while drunk, and now this tree. Next on our tour was a craft market, where I bought a couple things but I’m not telling what since they’ll be your gifts in 6 months. We had lunch, and I tried tuo zaafi, the northern specialty, which is corn mash with a spinach soup thing. It tasted just like fufu, banku, kenkey, omo tuo, and every other Ghanaian dish that is a ball of mushy carbs and a soup. Which isn’t to say I don’t enjoy them, they’re just pretty similar.
We stocked up on liquor at a store in Tamale, dropped Mo off at the hotel, and made for Mole, about 3 hours away. This was mostly on the smoothest dirt road I’ve seen, and we got to pass a number of communities with traditionally-built houses. I hesitate to say traditional villages, since everyone rides motorcycles and has cell phones and electricity, but they still live in traditional round clay/cob/somethinglikethat houses with conical grass thatched roofs. At 8 we arrived at Mole, and I managed to get us 2 rooms for 10 people, rather than the 6 that we told the hotel were in there, thus saving much money. It was dark and we were exhausted, so we skirted the warthogs hung out right outside the rooms and basically didn’t leave for the rest of the night.
Saturday was the big day at Mole, and we woke up early for the 7:00 safari. The hotel is built on a ridge overlooking the southern end of the park. The views were beautiful, as the savanna just stretches away as far as the eye can see, and it’s all part of the park. There’s also one other ridge a long way away, which is apparently a 2-day trip by motorcycle and only accessible in the dry season, but it contains a great waterfall. Right now it’s the wet season though, which means the animals are much harder to find since they’re spread out over the whole park rather than at a few watering holes that never dry up. It did, however, mean that the entire place was verdant and far more scenic.
Fighting off hangovers, we descended from the ridge down to the park, where we hiked around for 3 hours, guided by James, a park ranger who has been working there for over 30 years, and his rifle in case of emergencies. Between the morning safari and another that I went on at 3:30, we saw antelope, bush bucks (like deer with a few white stripes and spots), baboons, some sort of smaller monkey, warthogs, and 4 elephants. The elephants were happily eating some sort of leaves and fruit, and the pictures definitely don’t show nearly as much as we were able to see. The monkeys and baboons were my favorite to watch though, since they’re just so human in their mannerisms. They liked to stop by the hotel restaurant and steal food, and were quite successful at it. At one point a man shoed away a monkey from his stuff, and then the monkey came back and slapped him on the leg as hard as possible before scampering off, leaving a huge red welt.
Between the two safaris, we swam in the pool and then took the bus to Larabanga, the nearest town to the park. Larabanga contains the oldest mosque in Ghana, and one of the oldest in West Africa. It’s a traditional stick-and-mud building, which is still used for prayers. According to local tradition, the sticks were placed in it solely to mark where construction had reached, and each morning the walls were higher than they’d been left at night due to divine influence of some sort. We also saw the imam, who was quite old and sitting under a tree copying the Koran by hand. Also in Larabanga is the Mystic Stone, which is a large flat stone that was moved to build a road, but every night returned exactly to where it had come from, similar to the baobab in Tamale. They finally gave up and built a shrine instead.
In the evening we ate dinner at the staff canteen, which was where all the in-the-know visitors ate since it was cheaper and better than the hotel restaurant. I met a number of international travelers, including two Canadians who, unlike most white people in Ghana, are simply traveling and not volunteering or something. I liked the way that one of them, Josh, explained it, saying that he views that as more helpful than volunteering, since the more people viewing Africa as just another place you can visit instead of a place in dire need of outside help, the better. I ended up spending the night talking and drinking beer with the Canadians and two girls who came with us from the university, Naomi and Rachel. Naomi is in the university development program, which goes through the Aya center as well, so I see her plenty already, and she teaches with my roommate Liz at the same school, but it was nice to get to know her and a bunch of the other American girls who came with us. I say girls not because I was only macking on the ladies, but because every study abroad program here is 90% or more female. My house is 3 men, 6 women, but the CIEE students at the university number 48 girls and 7 guys.
I also found out some very good information. Josh, the Canadian, has traveled around North Africa and down across the Sahara through Mauritania already, and gave me a bunch of tips regarding my possible winter break plans, but he’ll also be attending the Festival au Desert in Mali in January, so now I know someone who will be there. In spite of how great the festival should be, I was starting to have second thoughts regarding the difficulties of getting there and the costs, but he answered a few questions for me, including telling me that the recommended travel packages on the festival website are a huge rip-off and I can sleep in a Bedouin tent for next to nothing. I took his email as well, so that was great luck and now going to the festival seems much less scary and more likely to happen.
Sunday morning came far too early, and we left the hotel at 8 AM. The bus ride back was uneventful, except at one point we stopped the bus to look at a chameleon on the side of the road, who refused to change color for us no matter how many times I implored him to. I finished The Confidence Man by Herman Melville, which I recommend to no one but now I can say that I’ve read it. I’ve been interested in it since junior year in high school when I did a report on Melville, and it’s basically an account of a number of conversations between men aboard a ship on the Mississippi in 1849, some of whom may be unsuccessful con men, some of whom may be the same man in different disguises. No character is in the book from beginning to end, or anywhere close to that, and there’s absolutely no plot. It’s described as “the first modern novel,” since nothing happens and they just talk about philosophy, but it’s a lot more like ancient writings in that respect than anything modern.
I did appreciate the philosophy espoused by the confidence men (or man, depending on your interpretation), which is eternal optimism in the human race, and that everyone should have complete confidence in everyone else. They’re clearly hypocritical, since they want people to trust them so their cons will work, but at the same time they’re gregarious, generous, and friendly to the point that their confidence schemes all fail. My general philosophy is to be completely trusting in and honest to absolutely everyone, so I liked reading about others who felt that way.
I still haven’t written about Togo, but I figured I’d get this trip recorded while it was still fresh in my mind, since Togo’s already stale. Sometime this week I’ll write about it. Next weekend is our trip to the Volta region, including a sacred monkey sanctuary, so I’d better catch up before then. And maybe start my huge term papers that are due in 6 weeks.
I got 100%, and I’m pretty sure that I wrote less on the 5 essays than everyone else in the class. Win.
This weekend, we made a trip to Tamale, Larabanga, and Mole National Park this weekend. All are in the Northern Region of Ghana, which is not actually then northernmost region (Upper West and Upper East), much as the Eastern Region is not the easternmost region (Volta Region). Still, it was a 12-hour bus ride, so we left at 6:00 AM on Thursday. This trip wasn’t just Aya Centre folks, and included about 8 other kids studying at Legon along with one German student, Lisa, volunteering at a school in Accra who just happened to hear about the trip.
The ride up included the usual mix of smooth roads, smooth roads with speed bumps every 2 km, and terrible dirt roads that slowed us down a lot. We arrived in Tamale around 7 PM in the middle of a rain and lightning storm, which was exciting and gave us something to stare at for the last couple hours of the trip. After a dinner of spaghetti (ordered from the “Chinese” section of the menu at the hotel restaurant) we all crashed early.
Friday morning we took a tour of Tamale guided by a member of the hotel staff, Mo(hammed, but he went by Mo.) We visited the regional chief’s village, a Dagomba chief. We brought him a gift of kola nuts and a few cedi, and we all removed our shoes and knelt down until he said we were welcome. The chief, very old, didn’t actually speak, but his spokesperson did, which is standard practice for royalty. The throne room, or whatever it was, wasn’t fancy, just large enough to hold 25ish people comfortably, along with a horse that was against one wall and decided to take a long, loud piss during our time there. The chief shared part of our kola nut gift with us, but I think I might have been the only student to try the extremely bitter nut. Mo spoke for us, and we asked questions through him about what region the chief ruled over, how the chief is selected, etc. Apparently relatives of the previous chief, both through matrilineal and patrilineal, put an ancient magic calabash on their head like a hat and then shake their heads, and the first person that it doesn’t fall off of has been chosen by the ancestor spirit to be the new chief.
Finally, we received Dagomba names from the chief, or his spokesman really, and mine was “Sonyuni,” meaning “one beautiful heart.” All the names were somewhat bland, except for one girl who got “chief’s wife.” All of us were hoping for “wrestles with goats” or something similar though. We then got to see the shea butter processing that takes place in the village as well as some of the compound in general, which was not too exciting, and a hollow tree that we could walk inside. Whenever we visit villages like this I feel somewhat ashamed, because a bus of white people just shows up unannounced and disrupts the regular goings-on. I always see the adults eyeing us ruefully, but the children love us, but then from what I hear those that ask for money or are too attached end up getting beat once we leave. It’s nice to see these places, and the money we bring certainly helps them, but I guess I just like to be aware of the effect it has on the place. In a lot of ways, it’s not too different from tourists taking over a resort town in the United States or anywhere else, and I don’t take that kind of locals’ complaints too seriously, so maybe I shouldn’t worry as much.
After this we dropped by a sacred baobab tree, though I forget for what reason it’s sacred. I believe they may have cut it down and then it reappeared whole the next day, which is a typical reason for things to be sacred or mystical around here. More importantly, we could climb the tree, so about half of us did and it was fun. I miss climbing things, since so far on this trip I’ve only climbed my house, while drunk, and now this tree. Next on our tour was a craft market, where I bought a couple things but I’m not telling what since they’ll be your gifts in 6 months. We had lunch, and I tried tuo zaafi, the northern specialty, which is corn mash with a spinach soup thing. It tasted just like fufu, banku, kenkey, omo tuo, and every other Ghanaian dish that is a ball of mushy carbs and a soup. Which isn’t to say I don’t enjoy them, they’re just pretty similar.
We stocked up on liquor at a store in Tamale, dropped Mo off at the hotel, and made for Mole, about 3 hours away. This was mostly on the smoothest dirt road I’ve seen, and we got to pass a number of communities with traditionally-built houses. I hesitate to say traditional villages, since everyone rides motorcycles and has cell phones and electricity, but they still live in traditional round clay/cob/somethinglikethat houses with conical grass thatched roofs. At 8 we arrived at Mole, and I managed to get us 2 rooms for 10 people, rather than the 6 that we told the hotel were in there, thus saving much money. It was dark and we were exhausted, so we skirted the warthogs hung out right outside the rooms and basically didn’t leave for the rest of the night.
Saturday was the big day at Mole, and we woke up early for the 7:00 safari. The hotel is built on a ridge overlooking the southern end of the park. The views were beautiful, as the savanna just stretches away as far as the eye can see, and it’s all part of the park. There’s also one other ridge a long way away, which is apparently a 2-day trip by motorcycle and only accessible in the dry season, but it contains a great waterfall. Right now it’s the wet season though, which means the animals are much harder to find since they’re spread out over the whole park rather than at a few watering holes that never dry up. It did, however, mean that the entire place was verdant and far more scenic.
Fighting off hangovers, we descended from the ridge down to the park, where we hiked around for 3 hours, guided by James, a park ranger who has been working there for over 30 years, and his rifle in case of emergencies. Between the morning safari and another that I went on at 3:30, we saw antelope, bush bucks (like deer with a few white stripes and spots), baboons, some sort of smaller monkey, warthogs, and 4 elephants. The elephants were happily eating some sort of leaves and fruit, and the pictures definitely don’t show nearly as much as we were able to see. The monkeys and baboons were my favorite to watch though, since they’re just so human in their mannerisms. They liked to stop by the hotel restaurant and steal food, and were quite successful at it. At one point a man shoed away a monkey from his stuff, and then the monkey came back and slapped him on the leg as hard as possible before scampering off, leaving a huge red welt.
Between the two safaris, we swam in the pool and then took the bus to Larabanga, the nearest town to the park. Larabanga contains the oldest mosque in Ghana, and one of the oldest in West Africa. It’s a traditional stick-and-mud building, which is still used for prayers. According to local tradition, the sticks were placed in it solely to mark where construction had reached, and each morning the walls were higher than they’d been left at night due to divine influence of some sort. We also saw the imam, who was quite old and sitting under a tree copying the Koran by hand. Also in Larabanga is the Mystic Stone, which is a large flat stone that was moved to build a road, but every night returned exactly to where it had come from, similar to the baobab in Tamale. They finally gave up and built a shrine instead.
In the evening we ate dinner at the staff canteen, which was where all the in-the-know visitors ate since it was cheaper and better than the hotel restaurant. I met a number of international travelers, including two Canadians who, unlike most white people in Ghana, are simply traveling and not volunteering or something. I liked the way that one of them, Josh, explained it, saying that he views that as more helpful than volunteering, since the more people viewing Africa as just another place you can visit instead of a place in dire need of outside help, the better. I ended up spending the night talking and drinking beer with the Canadians and two girls who came with us from the university, Naomi and Rachel. Naomi is in the university development program, which goes through the Aya center as well, so I see her plenty already, and she teaches with my roommate Liz at the same school, but it was nice to get to know her and a bunch of the other American girls who came with us. I say girls not because I was only macking on the ladies, but because every study abroad program here is 90% or more female. My house is 3 men, 6 women, but the CIEE students at the university number 48 girls and 7 guys.
I also found out some very good information. Josh, the Canadian, has traveled around North Africa and down across the Sahara through Mauritania already, and gave me a bunch of tips regarding my possible winter break plans, but he’ll also be attending the Festival au Desert in Mali in January, so now I know someone who will be there. In spite of how great the festival should be, I was starting to have second thoughts regarding the difficulties of getting there and the costs, but he answered a few questions for me, including telling me that the recommended travel packages on the festival website are a huge rip-off and I can sleep in a Bedouin tent for next to nothing. I took his email as well, so that was great luck and now going to the festival seems much less scary and more likely to happen.
Sunday morning came far too early, and we left the hotel at 8 AM. The bus ride back was uneventful, except at one point we stopped the bus to look at a chameleon on the side of the road, who refused to change color for us no matter how many times I implored him to. I finished The Confidence Man by Herman Melville, which I recommend to no one but now I can say that I’ve read it. I’ve been interested in it since junior year in high school when I did a report on Melville, and it’s basically an account of a number of conversations between men aboard a ship on the Mississippi in 1849, some of whom may be unsuccessful con men, some of whom may be the same man in different disguises. No character is in the book from beginning to end, or anywhere close to that, and there’s absolutely no plot. It’s described as “the first modern novel,” since nothing happens and they just talk about philosophy, but it’s a lot more like ancient writings in that respect than anything modern.
I did appreciate the philosophy espoused by the confidence men (or man, depending on your interpretation), which is eternal optimism in the human race, and that everyone should have complete confidence in everyone else. They’re clearly hypocritical, since they want people to trust them so their cons will work, but at the same time they’re gregarious, generous, and friendly to the point that their confidence schemes all fail. My general philosophy is to be completely trusting in and honest to absolutely everyone, so I liked reading about others who felt that way.
I still haven’t written about Togo, but I figured I’d get this trip recorded while it was still fresh in my mind, since Togo’s already stale. Sometime this week I’ll write about it. Next weekend is our trip to the Volta region, including a sacred monkey sanctuary, so I’d better catch up before then. And maybe start my huge term papers that are due in 6 weeks.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Post 1 for today
It’s travel time in Africa, which is why I haven’t posted much recently. All my roommates took off for Egypt last Saturday, and the Ghanaian power grid went to hell at about the same time. The power was off all Sunday, which would have been kind of fun maybe with everyone there, but with just me, Z, and Taryn it was pretty miserable. We did get to make candle holders out of spare wine bottles and a tequila bottle, and eat every piece of refrigerated food in the house. As Z predicted, the moment we finished off the last sausage, the power came back on. It did go off again in about 45 minutes though, so it’s probably for the best that we ate everything. Also, it gets really hot here with the power off since the fans don’t go.
In other news, I’ve become well known in my neighborhood. On the day of the soccer game I mentioned in my last post, I wore a Ghanaian jersey with “Essien” on the back, who is a star player on the team. Now everyone in the neighborhood calls me Essien, or Michael, since that’s his first name or they’ve actually learned my name. But basically now I can’t walk down the street for anything without getting hailed by freaking everyone.
Also, one of my classes has finished already, since the teacher is about as interested in teaching us as we are in going to his class (not very.) We have 3 weeks off now, and then have to show up and give our oral presentations on our paper topics. The paper also needs to be 15 pages, so I should probably get started on that. But it’s pretty nice to not have to go to that crappy class anymore, and there’s no final!
Tomorrow morning I head off for Mole National Park in the north of Ghana, but I’ll write up something about my awesome trip to Togo before that. Maybe.
In other news, I’ve become well known in my neighborhood. On the day of the soccer game I mentioned in my last post, I wore a Ghanaian jersey with “Essien” on the back, who is a star player on the team. Now everyone in the neighborhood calls me Essien, or Michael, since that’s his first name or they’ve actually learned my name. But basically now I can’t walk down the street for anything without getting hailed by freaking everyone.
Also, one of my classes has finished already, since the teacher is about as interested in teaching us as we are in going to his class (not very.) We have 3 weeks off now, and then have to show up and give our oral presentations on our paper topics. The paper also needs to be 15 pages, so I should probably get started on that. But it’s pretty nice to not have to go to that crappy class anymore, and there’s no final!
Tomorrow morning I head off for Mole National Park in the north of Ghana, but I’ll write up something about my awesome trip to Togo before that. Maybe.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Are you ready for some football?
As a red-blooded (possibly more like vermilion) American, I'm ashamed to say this, but I saw one of the most exciting sporting events of my life last night, and it was soccer. The FIFA Under-20 World Cup has been taking place in Egypt, so we've been following that as soccer is on TV all the time here, and Ghana is in the tournament. Last night was the final of the tournament, Ghana vs. Brazil, who was naturally the favorite since they're Brazil.
Early on Brazil was dominating the possession as well as looking far more prepared than Ghana. Late in the first half, a Ghanaian player got an undeserved red card (so says my roommates who watch much more soccer than I do), and was kicked out of the game. You also can't sub in another player when someone gets a red card, meaning that Ghana had to play with 10 men against Brazil's 11. The result was that Ghana had a much more defensive strategy and wasn't able to capitalize offensively because they had an extra man back defending. The second half had more opportunities, but ended with a 0-0 tie.
This meant the game went to extra time, and after the 30 minutes it was still tied. Ghana had to play about 80 minutes of the game down a man and still kept it tied. The goalie for Ghana was pretty good as well, making save after save. After extra time came penalty kicks, and out of 5, Brazil got up quickly. On the last set of them, Brazil had to miss, and they did, and then the Ghanaian player had to make his shot, which he did. This left the game still tied at 3-3, meaning that then it would be sets of 1 penalty kick, and as soon as someone made one and someone else didn't, the game would end. The Brazilians went first and missed, and then the Ghanaians made their kick, winning the tournament.
The entire city erupted at that point, and we ran out side and joined in an impromptu parade. Everyone was hugging everyone else and jumping for joy, or beating on pots and screaming. This was also Africa's first championship in any World Cup, so people were very proud of that. We followed the parade down a busy street, with all the cars honking their horns and flashing their lights. We ended up at a gas station, which is where Ghanaians like to party, and I bought liquor for some 10 year olds, which I view as my good deed for the day. Everyone danced and jumped around, but we ended up having to head off once the girls in our group started getting a little too much attention from elated Ghanaians. A few of us headed into Osu (the nightlife section of Accra) and danced and drank until the early morning. This was definitely an experience I couldn't have anywhere else, and everyone's still elated and talking about the game today. Now we'll see if Ghana can win the regular world cup too.
Early on Brazil was dominating the possession as well as looking far more prepared than Ghana. Late in the first half, a Ghanaian player got an undeserved red card (so says my roommates who watch much more soccer than I do), and was kicked out of the game. You also can't sub in another player when someone gets a red card, meaning that Ghana had to play with 10 men against Brazil's 11. The result was that Ghana had a much more defensive strategy and wasn't able to capitalize offensively because they had an extra man back defending. The second half had more opportunities, but ended with a 0-0 tie.
This meant the game went to extra time, and after the 30 minutes it was still tied. Ghana had to play about 80 minutes of the game down a man and still kept it tied. The goalie for Ghana was pretty good as well, making save after save. After extra time came penalty kicks, and out of 5, Brazil got up quickly. On the last set of them, Brazil had to miss, and they did, and then the Ghanaian player had to make his shot, which he did. This left the game still tied at 3-3, meaning that then it would be sets of 1 penalty kick, and as soon as someone made one and someone else didn't, the game would end. The Brazilians went first and missed, and then the Ghanaians made their kick, winning the tournament.
The entire city erupted at that point, and we ran out side and joined in an impromptu parade. Everyone was hugging everyone else and jumping for joy, or beating on pots and screaming. This was also Africa's first championship in any World Cup, so people were very proud of that. We followed the parade down a busy street, with all the cars honking their horns and flashing their lights. We ended up at a gas station, which is where Ghanaians like to party, and I bought liquor for some 10 year olds, which I view as my good deed for the day. Everyone danced and jumped around, but we ended up having to head off once the girls in our group started getting a little too much attention from elated Ghanaians. A few of us headed into Osu (the nightlife section of Accra) and danced and drank until the early morning. This was definitely an experience I couldn't have anywhere else, and everyone's still elated and talking about the game today. Now we'll see if Ghana can win the regular world cup too.
Monday, October 5, 2009
I got to Kumasi on a Friday, by Saturday I'd learned a thing or two
Our second trip of the semester occurred this weekend, with an excursion up to Kumasi, the traditional capitol of the Asante people in Ghana. It was about a 5-hour trip by bus, which wasn't too bad except for the usual poor roads and bad traffic. We got to enter the forested belt of Ghana for the first time, and it was very relaxing after the dust and dryness of Accra. Apparently Accra gets the least rain of any area in Ghana, so we also got rained on a few times during the trip. And there was plenty of lightning, comparable only to the kind of lightning storms I saw in Pinar del Rio, in Cuba.
Kumasi was razed by the British during one of the Asante-British wars, in 1874, and it shows when you arrive there. Unlike the disorganized sprawl of Accra, Kumasi's streets mostly are named, and they even have traffic lights. Kumasi is certainly more structured than Accra, and everyone seemed a little more laid back. I don't think I even saw any drivers screaming at each other. There also seemed to be many more large stone buildings, as opposed to the metal and wood shacks that dominate much of Accra and the rest of Ghana.
Kumasi bustle
After dropping our luggage off at the Treasure Land Hotel (which we were hoping would be shaped like a pirate ship with a name like that, but wasn't) we went to the former palace of the Asantehene (top chief of the Asante), now a museum. It is right next to the luxurious digs of the current Asantehene, which we got to see but not enter or photograph. Let's just say there were sculpted bushes and peacocks. Also, interestingly enough, the Asantehene-to-be is required to be educated now, and the current one has multiple doctorates from universities in England in engineering (I think) and does a lot of work planning development in Ghana.
The old palace was given to Asantehene Prempeh I in the 1920s as an apology for having imprisoned him on the Seychelles Islands during a rebellion. It was basically a nice older house with lots of wood furnishing, mirrors, and crystal. There were still a number of interesting Asante items dating from the 1700s on, including replicas of the Golden Stool (sacred throne of the Asantehene that is said to have come down from heaven), ceremonial muskets from the 1800s, golden pipes for the Asantehene's personal use, war drums, palanquins, etc. Sadly no pictures were allowed, but I think one of my room mates hung back and got some anyway, so if I get ahold of those I'll post some.
Afterwards we visited another Asante museum with a lot of similar stuff, including fantastically decorated golden jewelery made for various Asantehenes. They had pictures of an Asantehene on parade wearing so many gold rings it was a wonder he could wave at the crowd. No wonder they carry them on palanquins - I don't think they could manage to walk with all the gold.
Then it was time for dinner and relaxing at the hotel. We watched a Ghana vs Uruguay soccer match on TV (2-2, which was good for Ghana) and then took off to hear live music since it was a Friday night. We arrive at this place called the Sports Hotel, which had mainly an older crowd but fantastic live highlife music. No one was dancing, so Bethany and I got it started and eventually got most of the crowd up and dancing. They probably figured that if two oborunis were dancing they probably could too. Afterward we went swimming drunk in the middle of the night at the hotel pool, which is becoming a tradition on our trips, and then crashed.
Bethany stamps on adinkra cloth
Saturday involved visits to three different craft villages around Kumasi. We visited a kente cloth weaving center, a bead factory, and an adinkra cloth dying center. They were all interesting and had lots of pretty things for sale, but the adinkra cloth was the most interesting by far. Adinkra means literally "farewell message" because the cloth was originally worn for funerals. The word now refers to the dye, made from a certain kind of palm bark boiled for hours; the symbols that are dipped in the dye and stamped onto relatively plain cloth; and the finished cloth itself. We got to see all parts of the process and even all pick out a symbol or two and stamp them onto a cloth that we could take back with us. I picked out the symbols for forgiveness and humility and put them down, along with buying a book of the symbols, their names, and interpretations. I also was shown how to make kente cloth and got to sit down at a loom and weave for a very short time. Liz and Z also bought slingshots, which they had for sale for some reason. We've yet to hurt ourselves with them, but I'm sure it's coming. We keep saying we need to catch ourselves a turkey for Thanksgiving, so now we're armed for that.
Boiling dye
I learn to weave kente. Note the toes.
Saturday evening I had the option of going clubbing, but wimped out at the last minute, which is good because apparently they were out until 4:30 and I was about to fall asleep at 10:30, when they left. I hung out and watched Big Brother: South Africa with Liz and Taryn, which was the most terrifying thing ever, and then fell asleep. I also got to eat fufu that night, which I haven't liked much in the past but it's the traditional specialty of Kumasi so I thought I'd give it a try. It was served with groundnut (peanut) soup and goat meat, and was much better than before, so I'm glad I went for it. Not sure I'll have it again thought unless I find myself back in Kumasi.
On Sunday we drove to a lake near Kumasi. It's apparently the only large lake in the whole area other than the gargantuan, man made Lake Volta. About 18 fishing villages surround it, but on a Sunday morning it was very calm . We got to go out in canoes and paddle over to the next village just to take a glance at it. There was nothing very exciting about it, but the lake was relaxing and I got to show off my canoe-paddling abilities. Then it was a box lunch on the bus and the long drive back to Accra.
Taryn, Liz, and Z are on a boat. They're going fast. They've got nautically themed pashmina Afghans
I spent the trip planning my midterm break, which is only 2 weeks away. 5 of my roommates are going nuts and traveling to Cairo to try and pack in all the Egyptian sights they can see. I'd go, but I hope to make it over there during my long break in December/January. Zarif is going to Niger to visit two close friends currently over there with the Peace Corps, so that leaves Taryn and I needing to make plans. Right now we're thinking going over to Benin and Togo. Benin has the apparently ancient and fantastic palace of the Abomey people, while Togo has really good hiking in the center of the country, in beautiful forests filled with butterflies, says my guidebook.
Right now I'm at my internship working hard as always. I'm on to hour three without anyone having given me a single thing to do. In about another hour I'm going to see if I can make for the door without anyone noticing.
Kumasi was razed by the British during one of the Asante-British wars, in 1874, and it shows when you arrive there. Unlike the disorganized sprawl of Accra, Kumasi's streets mostly are named, and they even have traffic lights. Kumasi is certainly more structured than Accra, and everyone seemed a little more laid back. I don't think I even saw any drivers screaming at each other. There also seemed to be many more large stone buildings, as opposed to the metal and wood shacks that dominate much of Accra and the rest of Ghana.
Kumasi bustleAfter dropping our luggage off at the Treasure Land Hotel (which we were hoping would be shaped like a pirate ship with a name like that, but wasn't) we went to the former palace of the Asantehene (top chief of the Asante), now a museum. It is right next to the luxurious digs of the current Asantehene, which we got to see but not enter or photograph. Let's just say there were sculpted bushes and peacocks. Also, interestingly enough, the Asantehene-to-be is required to be educated now, and the current one has multiple doctorates from universities in England in engineering (I think) and does a lot of work planning development in Ghana.
The old palace was given to Asantehene Prempeh I in the 1920s as an apology for having imprisoned him on the Seychelles Islands during a rebellion. It was basically a nice older house with lots of wood furnishing, mirrors, and crystal. There were still a number of interesting Asante items dating from the 1700s on, including replicas of the Golden Stool (sacred throne of the Asantehene that is said to have come down from heaven), ceremonial muskets from the 1800s, golden pipes for the Asantehene's personal use, war drums, palanquins, etc. Sadly no pictures were allowed, but I think one of my room mates hung back and got some anyway, so if I get ahold of those I'll post some.
Afterwards we visited another Asante museum with a lot of similar stuff, including fantastically decorated golden jewelery made for various Asantehenes. They had pictures of an Asantehene on parade wearing so many gold rings it was a wonder he could wave at the crowd. No wonder they carry them on palanquins - I don't think they could manage to walk with all the gold.
Then it was time for dinner and relaxing at the hotel. We watched a Ghana vs Uruguay soccer match on TV (2-2, which was good for Ghana) and then took off to hear live music since it was a Friday night. We arrive at this place called the Sports Hotel, which had mainly an older crowd but fantastic live highlife music. No one was dancing, so Bethany and I got it started and eventually got most of the crowd up and dancing. They probably figured that if two oborunis were dancing they probably could too. Afterward we went swimming drunk in the middle of the night at the hotel pool, which is becoming a tradition on our trips, and then crashed.
Bethany stamps on adinkra clothSaturday involved visits to three different craft villages around Kumasi. We visited a kente cloth weaving center, a bead factory, and an adinkra cloth dying center. They were all interesting and had lots of pretty things for sale, but the adinkra cloth was the most interesting by far. Adinkra means literally "farewell message" because the cloth was originally worn for funerals. The word now refers to the dye, made from a certain kind of palm bark boiled for hours; the symbols that are dipped in the dye and stamped onto relatively plain cloth; and the finished cloth itself. We got to see all parts of the process and even all pick out a symbol or two and stamp them onto a cloth that we could take back with us. I picked out the symbols for forgiveness and humility and put them down, along with buying a book of the symbols, their names, and interpretations. I also was shown how to make kente cloth and got to sit down at a loom and weave for a very short time. Liz and Z also bought slingshots, which they had for sale for some reason. We've yet to hurt ourselves with them, but I'm sure it's coming. We keep saying we need to catch ourselves a turkey for Thanksgiving, so now we're armed for that.
Boiling dye
I learn to weave kente. Note the toes.Saturday evening I had the option of going clubbing, but wimped out at the last minute, which is good because apparently they were out until 4:30 and I was about to fall asleep at 10:30, when they left. I hung out and watched Big Brother: South Africa with Liz and Taryn, which was the most terrifying thing ever, and then fell asleep. I also got to eat fufu that night, which I haven't liked much in the past but it's the traditional specialty of Kumasi so I thought I'd give it a try. It was served with groundnut (peanut) soup and goat meat, and was much better than before, so I'm glad I went for it. Not sure I'll have it again thought unless I find myself back in Kumasi.
On Sunday we drove to a lake near Kumasi. It's apparently the only large lake in the whole area other than the gargantuan, man made Lake Volta. About 18 fishing villages surround it, but on a Sunday morning it was very calm . We got to go out in canoes and paddle over to the next village just to take a glance at it. There was nothing very exciting about it, but the lake was relaxing and I got to show off my canoe-paddling abilities. Then it was a box lunch on the bus and the long drive back to Accra.
Taryn, Liz, and Z are on a boat. They're going fast. They've got nautically themed pashmina AfghansI spent the trip planning my midterm break, which is only 2 weeks away. 5 of my roommates are going nuts and traveling to Cairo to try and pack in all the Egyptian sights they can see. I'd go, but I hope to make it over there during my long break in December/January. Zarif is going to Niger to visit two close friends currently over there with the Peace Corps, so that leaves Taryn and I needing to make plans. Right now we're thinking going over to Benin and Togo. Benin has the apparently ancient and fantastic palace of the Abomey people, while Togo has really good hiking in the center of the country, in beautiful forests filled with butterflies, says my guidebook.
Right now I'm at my internship working hard as always. I'm on to hour three without anyone having given me a single thing to do. In about another hour I'm going to see if I can make for the door without anyone noticing.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
I have a mustache!
First, I shaved off my beard and now I have a gunslinger mustache. Pictures will come, I promise. Tom also has a creepy Mexi-stache. They won't last long, I hope.
Secondly, since Bonnie asked, I went to church a few weeks ago and apparently forgot to mention it here. It was an Assembly of God church, which I thought sounded normal, but the service was pretty intense. We started off with hymns, which were mostly praise-and-worship style songs, but it turned into cacophony very quickly. There was a praise band, but they were the world's most avant-garde praise band. They just hit things out of time and a trumpeter went wild, with the preacher shouting. People were rolling around on the floor and flailing wildly or laying prostrate. Then everyone stopped singing and simply shouted out prayers, all different. It was as loud as a rock concert and my ears rang afterwards. After that, there was a sermon focusing on working hard and making money, I believe. There were 4 collections, and at the end they had all the new people stand up in front and say our names and why we were there. It was a good experience overall, but strange because of the music and the fact that there was no gospel reading and just one short reading at all.
Yet again, I'd write more but my computer is out of batteries.
Secondly, since Bonnie asked, I went to church a few weeks ago and apparently forgot to mention it here. It was an Assembly of God church, which I thought sounded normal, but the service was pretty intense. We started off with hymns, which were mostly praise-and-worship style songs, but it turned into cacophony very quickly. There was a praise band, but they were the world's most avant-garde praise band. They just hit things out of time and a trumpeter went wild, with the preacher shouting. People were rolling around on the floor and flailing wildly or laying prostrate. Then everyone stopped singing and simply shouted out prayers, all different. It was as loud as a rock concert and my ears rang afterwards. After that, there was a sermon focusing on working hard and making money, I believe. There were 4 collections, and at the end they had all the new people stand up in front and say our names and why we were there. It was a good experience overall, but strange because of the music and the fact that there was no gospel reading and just one short reading at all.
Yet again, I'd write more but my computer is out of batteries.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
This is feeling like more of a "life" blog than a "travel" blog
Time has sped up here considerably. The first week took ages, the second moved a little quicker, and now I just have my routine and nothing too exciting happens. It's not bad, but it makes it hard to find material for this blog.
My internship has gotten nice and boring as well. I got to spend Tuesday sorting huge folders of correspondance by date. I spent some time sorting old job applications as well, and it was really interesting that every one of them had things like "I am a strong believer in Jesus Christ" near the top. They also listed which church they attended and things like that. People here are very serious about their faith. One of my roommates got chewed out by coworkers for saying she was a Christian but not being able to recite any Bible verses other than John 3:16.
We've bought an absurd amount of movies since we've been here. There are a lot of pirated DVDs around, most of which have 10ish movies, all for 3 cedi, or 2 if you're a good bargainer. So far I have the complete works of Arnold Schwarzenegger on 2 dvds, a collection including all 3 Indiana Jones, all 3 Pirates of the Caribbean, and a few others, and a Bruce Lee/Jackie Chan collection. I know for a fact I'm going to buy a Chun Yow-Fat collection too, I just didn't have the money when I saw it the other day. It's basically amazing.
Finally, I'm currently reading The Second World by Parag Khanna. It's a discussion of how the countries of the semi-periphery must attempt to engage and use the three major powers of the world - the U.S., China, and the EU - in order to pull themselves into the first world. It goes on a region by region basis, and is pretty enlightening. At first I wondered why there wasn't a section on Africa, and then I thought "Oh yeah, it's called the second world..."
My internship has gotten nice and boring as well. I got to spend Tuesday sorting huge folders of correspondance by date. I spent some time sorting old job applications as well, and it was really interesting that every one of them had things like "I am a strong believer in Jesus Christ" near the top. They also listed which church they attended and things like that. People here are very serious about their faith. One of my roommates got chewed out by coworkers for saying she was a Christian but not being able to recite any Bible verses other than John 3:16.
We've bought an absurd amount of movies since we've been here. There are a lot of pirated DVDs around, most of which have 10ish movies, all for 3 cedi, or 2 if you're a good bargainer. So far I have the complete works of Arnold Schwarzenegger on 2 dvds, a collection including all 3 Indiana Jones, all 3 Pirates of the Caribbean, and a few others, and a Bruce Lee/Jackie Chan collection. I know for a fact I'm going to buy a Chun Yow-Fat collection too, I just didn't have the money when I saw it the other day. It's basically amazing.
Finally, I'm currently reading The Second World by Parag Khanna. It's a discussion of how the countries of the semi-periphery must attempt to engage and use the three major powers of the world - the U.S., China, and the EU - in order to pull themselves into the first world. It goes on a region by region basis, and is pretty enlightening. At first I wondered why there wasn't a section on Africa, and then I thought "Oh yeah, it's called the second world..."
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Catching up to today
-My internship has me doing some different things now, which is exciting. On Monday I helped distribute food to a group of people living with HIV that AFAWI (my internship) helps. I measured out 4 kgs of soy-fortified bulger wheat from USAID for each person. Also, I got to watch a sexual health educator show them how to put a condom on a big black dildo. Unlike sex-ed teachers in the U.S. who are always very serious, he was waving it around and making terrible terrible jokes. It was kind of scary. I also got to work on this month's newsletter, and I'll be learning how to update/improve the website on Friday. My boss and I also went over my grant proposal and he said it was "brilliant." If we get the money I'm going to be so sad since I have no idea what I'm doing.
-On Monday, my 50-year-old roomate decided to get black-out drunk at 2 in the afternoon. She then proceeded to pass out, wake up, cry, yell, embarass the hell out of us by ordering our security guard to clean the porch, and generally be incoherant. And then repeat most of those steps a few times. I'd say it was exciting except it was terrible and if it ever happens again I swear to god I'm finding a way to get her deported.
-One of my roomates got chased by a man with a stick for a long ways yesterday on the way to his internship. He's not sure why, but the guy was pretty much trying to kill him.
-I've been jogging and working out a lot with some of my roomates, which is pretty fun. Tom removed part of the window to get into a locked room in our house and turned it into his gym. He even found rocks to use as free weights.
-We cooked some Ghanaian/hippie food on Monday and it was delicious. It was kind of like groundnut soup, which is basically peanut butter and tomatoes plus whatever else, but then we made it into a stew with squash, oyster mushrooms, onions, and carrots. We put it over brown rice, and it may have been the most healthy thing I've eaten in years.
-I finally noticed that people had been commenting, and I may even reply. I have a question though - I know a lot of Alex-es, so next time put your last name, mystery Alex. I think I know who the rest of you are though.
-On Monday, my 50-year-old roomate decided to get black-out drunk at 2 in the afternoon. She then proceeded to pass out, wake up, cry, yell, embarass the hell out of us by ordering our security guard to clean the porch, and generally be incoherant. And then repeat most of those steps a few times. I'd say it was exciting except it was terrible and if it ever happens again I swear to god I'm finding a way to get her deported.
-One of my roomates got chased by a man with a stick for a long ways yesterday on the way to his internship. He's not sure why, but the guy was pretty much trying to kill him.
-I've been jogging and working out a lot with some of my roomates, which is pretty fun. Tom removed part of the window to get into a locked room in our house and turned it into his gym. He even found rocks to use as free weights.
-We cooked some Ghanaian/hippie food on Monday and it was delicious. It was kind of like groundnut soup, which is basically peanut butter and tomatoes plus whatever else, but then we made it into a stew with squash, oyster mushrooms, onions, and carrots. We put it over brown rice, and it may have been the most healthy thing I've eaten in years.
-I finally noticed that people had been commenting, and I may even reply. I have a question though - I know a lot of Alex-es, so next time put your last name, mystery Alex. I think I know who the rest of you are though.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Weekend Adventures III: It's over a week late, but tough
On our final day in Cape Coast, we got up bright and early after a late night to go to Kakum National Forest. It's one of the few chunks of tropical rain forest left in the region, and it's beautiful. The main attraction is a canopy walk - a series of bridges and supports about 40 meters up in the air so that you can walk around the canopy of the forest. The bridges swung around a little while you walked on them, but were clearly safe. It was a lot of fun, and it's apparently pretty unique in the world. 
There was also a nature walk available, but we didn't have time that day. Some of us are planning to head back to Kakum on one of our three-day weekends and go on a long hike and camp. Hopefully that actually happens, because we'd probably get to see elephants, and maybe monkeys.
After the park, we drove back to Accra. We stopped at places on the side of the road to buy pineapples, because apparently the best ones come from the Cape Coast. We also bought kenkey, a sort of fermented corn dough wrapped in plantain leaves eaten with soup. I didn't have any, but apparently it wasn't too good. That might have been from the 4 hours it spent in the hot bus before we had a chance to refridgerate it though. And we bought palm wine, which is delicious. It tastes kind of like Sprite mixed with coconut vodka. Kind of. I snapped a photo of some shops on the street just to give you an idea of what Ghana looks like.
The entire country (that I've been to so far) is basically this. Clothes shops, general stores, food stalls, produce shops, the occasional internet cafe, repeated forever. Cape Coast looked a lot like Accra, although they did have better named shops, including "Blood of Jesus Sewing Supply."
Once we got back to Ghana, George, one of the Aya Centre staff members, had managed to get us tickets to a Black Stars game. They're the Ghanaian national team, and they were playing Sudan that day. The game started late because it's Ramadan right now, so they wanted to wait until the Sudanese players would have a chance to have a drink of water. We got to sit very close to field level about halfway between midfield and the goal. Fantastic seats. And Ghana won 2-0.
The game was very exciting, and the crowd was like nothing I'd ever seen. There were various bands throughout the stadium representing different supporters clubs, along with dancers, shouting, and a number of plastic trumpets that sounded like the apocalypse when the entire stadium decided to blow them at once. We also managed to sit in what looked like the "riot section," with people arguing over seats the entire game and throwing water on eachother and almost starting fights. Ever other section seemed to be enjoying the game, but ours really just wanted to fight. Fortunately I think everyone assumed that we were sitting in the correct seats since we were white, when in fact we were supposed to be up in nosebleeds somewhere. Apparently no one ever sits where they're supposed to, but I think I might if I go again.
Then it was home, where I went to sleep at 9 and crashed.
There was also a nature walk available, but we didn't have time that day. Some of us are planning to head back to Kakum on one of our three-day weekends and go on a long hike and camp. Hopefully that actually happens, because we'd probably get to see elephants, and maybe monkeys.
After the park, we drove back to Accra. We stopped at places on the side of the road to buy pineapples, because apparently the best ones come from the Cape Coast. We also bought kenkey, a sort of fermented corn dough wrapped in plantain leaves eaten with soup. I didn't have any, but apparently it wasn't too good. That might have been from the 4 hours it spent in the hot bus before we had a chance to refridgerate it though. And we bought palm wine, which is delicious. It tastes kind of like Sprite mixed with coconut vodka. Kind of. I snapped a photo of some shops on the street just to give you an idea of what Ghana looks like.
The entire country (that I've been to so far) is basically this. Clothes shops, general stores, food stalls, produce shops, the occasional internet cafe, repeated forever. Cape Coast looked a lot like Accra, although they did have better named shops, including "Blood of Jesus Sewing Supply." Once we got back to Ghana, George, one of the Aya Centre staff members, had managed to get us tickets to a Black Stars game. They're the Ghanaian national team, and they were playing Sudan that day. The game started late because it's Ramadan right now, so they wanted to wait until the Sudanese players would have a chance to have a drink of water. We got to sit very close to field level about halfway between midfield and the goal. Fantastic seats. And Ghana won 2-0.
The game was very exciting, and the crowd was like nothing I'd ever seen. There were various bands throughout the stadium representing different supporters clubs, along with dancers, shouting, and a number of plastic trumpets that sounded like the apocalypse when the entire stadium decided to blow them at once. We also managed to sit in what looked like the "riot section," with people arguing over seats the entire game and throwing water on eachother and almost starting fights. Ever other section seemed to be enjoying the game, but ours really just wanted to fight. Fortunately I think everyone assumed that we were sitting in the correct seats since we were white, when in fact we were supposed to be up in nosebleeds somewhere. Apparently no one ever sits where they're supposed to, but I think I might if I go again.
Then it was home, where I went to sleep at 9 and crashed.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Weekend Adventures II: Little Kids Suck, but the President of Ghana is Pretty Cool
After leaving the crocodile pool, we made it over to this large New Year festival taking place in the city of Cape Coast. We found ourselves in a large parade that sadly reminded me most of the Country Fair, except it was authentic this time. We were following one of the local chiefs who was being carried on his palanquin with drummers and dancers all around.
After this we made our way towards the central area where speeches would be taking place. As we approached the square, the crowd/parade was forced to turn right, and we ended up being crushed together. I had already placed my wallet in my front pocket to be safe, and I had my hand right on top of it. I also noticed a few little kids ducking under people, and figured "Oh, that's nice, they're small so they can squeeze by." Then the crowd opened up, and I noticed my wallet was gone. I was doing everything right and they still got me, so I guess they know what they're doing. I didn't lose too much money, but it was embarrassing and inconvenient.
Here's a picture of a queen mother and her retinue. We weren't really supposed to be taking pictures so that's why all the people are in the way.
This is the president of Ghana. Zarif and Sonny (one of the Ghanaians who works at the Aya centre and accompanied us to Cape Coast) ran out to the "official press area" and acted like they were supposed to be there and got a number of great photos of the president and other people. Sonny even got in the way of the president as he was making his rounds waving, and got lifted up by a security guard and moved. After a number of speeches in Twi, we took off and waited for our bus. I got a picture of this little girl selling bananas. I shoud have bought one too, but I didn't.
There were more bands and music, including some trombones here. It was pretty catchy and I wished I had mine.
That evening we swam back at the hotel and made trouble, then we went to a party at a gas station down the street. I'm not sure why it was at a gas station, but there was a bar and live music, including apparently some of the top hip-hop groups in all Ghana. I couldn't tell what they were saying, but it was good. A couple of the girls from the program, Bethany and Beth, also managed to make their way on stage once a performer noticed them and yelled for them to get up there. I'm not sure what it was about, but I spent my time pretending not to know them.
Come back for part III tomorrow, which I haven't thought of a title for yet, but it involves a rainforest preserve and a soccer game.
After this we made our way towards the central area where speeches would be taking place. As we approached the square, the crowd/parade was forced to turn right, and we ended up being crushed together. I had already placed my wallet in my front pocket to be safe, and I had my hand right on top of it. I also noticed a few little kids ducking under people, and figured "Oh, that's nice, they're small so they can squeeze by." Then the crowd opened up, and I noticed my wallet was gone. I was doing everything right and they still got me, so I guess they know what they're doing. I didn't lose too much money, but it was embarrassing and inconvenient.
Here's a picture of a queen mother and her retinue. We weren't really supposed to be taking pictures so that's why all the people are in the way.
This is the president of Ghana. Zarif and Sonny (one of the Ghanaians who works at the Aya centre and accompanied us to Cape Coast) ran out to the "official press area" and acted like they were supposed to be there and got a number of great photos of the president and other people. Sonny even got in the way of the president as he was making his rounds waving, and got lifted up by a security guard and moved. After a number of speeches in Twi, we took off and waited for our bus. I got a picture of this little girl selling bananas. I shoud have bought one too, but I didn't.
There were more bands and music, including some trombones here. It was pretty catchy and I wished I had mine.
That evening we swam back at the hotel and made trouble, then we went to a party at a gas station down the street. I'm not sure why it was at a gas station, but there was a bar and live music, including apparently some of the top hip-hop groups in all Ghana. I couldn't tell what they were saying, but it was good. A couple of the girls from the program, Bethany and Beth, also managed to make their way on stage once a performer noticed them and yelled for them to get up there. I'm not sure what it was about, but I spent my time pretending not to know them. Come back for part III tomorrow, which I haven't thought of a title for yet, but it involves a rainforest preserve and a soccer game.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
An awesome weekend, Part 1: Slavery sucks
After a fun night of climbing on my roof (not easy, and apparently it wakes up my roommates) we left for the Cape Coast in South-Central Ghana on Saturday. In Ghana, they put speed bumps on their highways. It's absolutely terrible, and as we passed a Ghana Department of Transportation building on the way I considered stopping to complain. Once in Cape Coast, we went to Cape Coast Castle, built by the British in 16?? to do terrible things to slaves. It was an awfully depressing place, but the town nearby was very scenic. I got a few other nice photos. They had some cultural artifacts in an interesting museum, and pictures from the Obama's recent visit. There was a great one of Malia picking her nose (seriously.)
Then it was on to Elmina Castle, which was equally depressing, only built in 14?? by the Portuguese. It included the first church in Ghana, which was kind of cool but not in any way pretty or anything. There was even a sign saying a Bible verse about how God was in the room - the guide explained that it implied that God was not in the rest of the castle, where they were busy killing and raping slaves. We also got a sweet group picture.
Fortunately it was time for crocodiles next. We got to visit a cheesy restaurant built on a croc pond, and had entirely too good of a time taking pictures and being scared by the large, toothy animals. This one was my favorite.
After that, it was on to a big festival in Cape Coast. My com
puter is about to run out of batteries and I can only post 5 pics per blogpost, so wait for part II, entitled: Little Kids Suck, but the President of Ghana is Pretty Cool
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
The internship wheels never stop turning
In another sneaky move, my internship has changed again. At about 11:30 the night before I was going to go to internship #2, one of my roomates got a text message telling her to tell me that I was actually doing something else. Something else ended up being working for the Alliance for African Women Initiative - Ghana (AFAWIGH, probably the worst acronym ever.) There, they do things like build toilet facilities in schools in the Northern half of Ghana, along with starting teen clubs were they can talk about sexuality and things like that, and doing research related to those things. That's cool, right? They put me to work on day one filling out an application for an ungodly amount of money from the UN Development Fund for Women. You can check out just how over my head I am here - http://www.unifem.org/partnerships/fund_for_gender_equality/application_guidelines.php
They aren't really doing anything too related to what the fund is asking for, I don't have a clue what to write, and best of all, they went with my idea of what to do in the proposal. Which was training women from underserved communities in Ghana to be sexual health teachers, thus enabling the young women to stay in school and thus be more successful later. It seemed sort of related to what they'd already done, now I just have to phrase it in a way to make the UN give us $100,000 or so. I am so not qualified, although their previous reports were filled with crimes against grammar, so maybe I won't be so bad.
Also tonight I got to go play with the Brass ensemble at the University of Ghana - Legon. It's all music students, but they haven't been playing the instruments for long, so it doesn't exactly sound good but we can get through the music. Mostly chorale type stuff and the University Anthem, which is rousing and kind of fun. I played the bass line in the chorales and was easily the best player, but it's still enjoyable and a good way to make sure I keep playing. Much of what we played was written in Ghana and used hemiola frequently, so that was a challenge at least.
Friday I get to go suck at my internship more, and then this weekend we're going to the Central region on the coast, where we will visit old castles built by Europeans, slave forts, some sort of large festival, and a jungle. Pictures will be forthcoming.
(Also I can't make this unbold, and I'm not sure why. Tough)
They aren't really doing anything too related to what the fund is asking for, I don't have a clue what to write, and best of all, they went with my idea of what to do in the proposal. Which was training women from underserved communities in Ghana to be sexual health teachers, thus enabling the young women to stay in school and thus be more successful later. It seemed sort of related to what they'd already done, now I just have to phrase it in a way to make the UN give us $100,000 or so. I am so not qualified, although their previous reports were filled with crimes against grammar, so maybe I won't be so bad.
Also tonight I got to go play with the Brass ensemble at the University of Ghana - Legon. It's all music students, but they haven't been playing the instruments for long, so it doesn't exactly sound good but we can get through the music. Mostly chorale type stuff and the University Anthem, which is rousing and kind of fun. I played the bass line in the chorales and was easily the best player, but it's still enjoyable and a good way to make sure I keep playing. Much of what we played was written in Ghana and used hemiola frequently, so that was a challenge at least.
Friday I get to go suck at my internship more, and then this weekend we're going to the Central region on the coast, where we will visit old castles built by Europeans, slave forts, some sort of large festival, and a jungle. Pictures will be forthcoming.
(Also I can't make this unbold, and I'm not sure why. Tough)
Monday, August 31, 2009
Picture roundup!
We seriously sit around and read a lot. It's sort of lame. But I just finished Lamb by Christopher Moore, and it's very very good. As was whatever article about native granary construction I was reading here. Actually it was boring.
Z, Bethany, and Taryn dance the night away at Chez Afrique.
Freaking delicious. The food here is awesome except when it's mostly fish heads, which happens sometime. The Star beer is also good, except when it's totally skunked, which is sometimes as well.
Doing laundry in a couple of buckets is hard work man.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
180
So my internship confusion is kind of worked out. It turns out that WISE wanted to send me to this refugee camp that is around 40 miles west of Accra. My program director objected, so now I'll be working with a different group, teaching children math and English, I believe. I'll be working with my roommate Taryn out there as well. I don't know any more details yet, but while this is slightly less exciting, hopefully they'll like me more than the last place did.
In other news, there is a man who is always in the internet cafe near my house who does nothing but play Mafia Wars on Facebook. Constantly. Hooray bringing modern technology to the third world? Right next to the internet cafe there is a video game parlor which I have resisted going into, but I did notice someone playing Madden 2010 in there yesterday. The temptation to go beat some people down is great. They don't even know what American football is right? I mean I don't know how soccer works, so that must be the case.
In other news, there is a man who is always in the internet cafe near my house who does nothing but play Mafia Wars on Facebook. Constantly. Hooray bringing modern technology to the third world? Right next to the internet cafe there is a video game parlor which I have resisted going into, but I did notice someone playing Madden 2010 in there yesterday. The temptation to go beat some people down is great. They don't even know what American football is right? I mean I don't know how soccer works, so that must be the case.
Maa Ha (good afternoon)
Things I have noticed that are very different about Ghana:
- It gets dark at 6:30. I feel like it's about 10 PM at around 7.
- Ghanaians have their own secret handshake. You shake, then snap with your and the shakee's middle fingers. It takes a while to get, but I feel really cool now that I can pull it off.
- The toilet paper doesn't have perferations.
- I bought soy sauce, and it doesn't taste like soy sauce at all.
- I bought hot sauce, and it tasted like slightly spicy salad dressing.
- I met a man on the street - Aziz - and now he wants to take me to the beach. I talked to him for under 5 minutes. Friendly guy or will I be mugged to death? You decide.
We also had our first round of classes yesterday, and it looks like it's going to be a good bit of work. Lots of reading, plus two 12-page papers that I need to get working on soon. My classes meet once a week each - Ghana Today and Sociology of Development in Ghana on Wednesday, and a class relating to our internships on Thursday, which will require a 10-page paper. Best of all, we can't check anything out from the University of Ghana library, so I imagine I'll be living there most of the time.
This week though, it's still slacking left and right. I need to do laundry tomorrow, which will involve two buckets, some soap, and much confusion and probably not very clean clothes. Perhaps more pictures soon?
- It gets dark at 6:30. I feel like it's about 10 PM at around 7.
- Ghanaians have their own secret handshake. You shake, then snap with your and the shakee's middle fingers. It takes a while to get, but I feel really cool now that I can pull it off.
- The toilet paper doesn't have perferations.
- I bought soy sauce, and it doesn't taste like soy sauce at all.
- I bought hot sauce, and it tasted like slightly spicy salad dressing.
- I met a man on the street - Aziz - and now he wants to take me to the beach. I talked to him for under 5 minutes. Friendly guy or will I be mugged to death? You decide.
We also had our first round of classes yesterday, and it looks like it's going to be a good bit of work. Lots of reading, plus two 12-page papers that I need to get working on soon. My classes meet once a week each - Ghana Today and Sociology of Development in Ghana on Wednesday, and a class relating to our internships on Thursday, which will require a 10-page paper. Best of all, we can't check anything out from the University of Ghana library, so I imagine I'll be living there most of the time.
This week though, it's still slacking left and right. I need to do laundry tomorrow, which will involve two buckets, some soap, and much confusion and probably not very clean clothes. Perhaps more pictures soon?
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Internship update
I found out that I'll be working with WISE - Women's Initiative for Self Empowerment - and that I'll be working in a refugee camp for Liberians just west of Accra. I don't know what I'll be doing yet - I showed up at my internship on Monday, and then they acted really awkward, took the staff member I was with aside for like 20 minutes, and then he told me to come back Monday. Everyone else apparently got a nice warm welcome, and they seemed like they didn't even want me there, but oh well.
Also Matt Hawkin found this online for me when I told him about my internship
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1181734500/tpod.html
This isn't the organization I'll be working with, but it is the same refugee camp. Doesn't look as miserable as I was thinking, but I'll see next Monday. Probably.
Also Matt Hawkin found this online for me when I told him about my internship
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1181734500/tpod.html
This isn't the organization I'll be working with, but it is the same refugee camp. Doesn't look as miserable as I was thinking, but I'll see next Monday. Probably.
Awkwardness and goodness
In the pre-departure packet for the program I'm in, they forewarned us that Ghanaians will sometimes serve white people first at restaurants, let white people onto cabs first, etc. This is either out of friendliness to visitors, since white people are obviously visitors here, or out of a sense of deference to the "masters." I've definitely noticed people letting me pass them on the sidewalk or letting me off of trotros first, and it's made me start thinking about those possible race issues. I wish I'd never been told that it was a possibility in the first place, but I at least try to defer to Ghanaians when I can now.
In other news, I went to the University of Ghana-Legon yesterday, which is about a 15-minute walk from where I'm living, and talked to their brass instructor, a Mr. Wauku. Apparently there's a brass ensemble that meets Wednesdays at 5 PM, and he'd love to have me. Also, he has some beginning brass students that if I have time I can help out with. I then practiced trombone yesterday for the first time in a looong time, and sounded like crap, but the group first meets next week so I have some time to brush up.
In other news, I went to the University of Ghana-Legon yesterday, which is about a 15-minute walk from where I'm living, and talked to their brass instructor, a Mr. Wauku. Apparently there's a brass ensemble that meets Wednesdays at 5 PM, and he'd love to have me. Also, he has some beginning brass students that if I have time I can help out with. I then practiced trombone yesterday for the first time in a looong time, and sounded like crap, but the group first meets next week so I have some time to brush up.
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