Ghana

I am finally getting to Ghana! This is the last blog post before I am officially caught up, woohooooo. I still don't have pictures up from Spain, Morocco or Ghana but I will do that as soon as I get to South Africa. I get to SA on the 26th and leave on the 30th, its our longest stay in port. There is so much to do it is crazy! So far I am planning a hike up Table Mountain, elephant riding, a big 5 safari, and I have a field lab where I visit a penguin colony and go whale watching! I also want to squeeze in just a general exploring of Capetown, maybe the botanical gardens and I need to see a music performance for a class. If anyone has any suggestions for where I can go to see a great show or anything in particular in Capetown let me know.

So, Ghana was interesting. It was different than Arusha, where I was in Tanzania, because it was more urban. Accra was at least. But an African city is nothing like a regular one. The ship was in Takoradi for the first two days and in Accra for the second. On the first day I had a field program and I went to Kakum National Park which is a preserved rainforest and did a really cool canopy walk above and through the trees. The views were stunning. We also did a little hike but barely went into the actual rainforest. We saw some cool lizards and butterflies but the actual animals are deeper in the rainforest. They told us about a week long hike you can do to the northern part of the forest where you can track the elephants they have. We left the park for lunch at a hotel nearby.This being our first experience with the food in Africa we were all cautious. Several trips in Morocco got horribly sick, 50 students had to be quarantined or something crazy. No one wanted a repeat of that so we all knew what to eat and what to avoid. Fruits and salad that have been washed with local water is a no go. Anything cooked was OK. Lunch was good and then we had a walking tour of Elmina, a city on the coast. The bus left the ship around 9:30 am and we got back at 6pm but most of the day was spent traveling. Kakum National Park and Elmina aren't particularly close to Takoradi. Elmina was HOT. The poverty in Africa is astounding. Its crazy still to me that people live like that. No shoes, they take baths with one bucket of water and a rag, 5 people live in a two bedroom apartment. And there is a constant fishy odor. People are really against you taking their picture, but they call out to you and try and get you to buy something from them. They sell everything on the street from fish to toilet seats. The views were amazing, we had to climb a hill to this fortress and at the top you get a really nice panoramic view of Elmina. Our tour guide wasn't great, he just spewed loads of historical information. I tried to absorb it all but he just went to quickly for me to keep up. I did manage to get that Elmina is a fishing town, only the men go out and fish and then the women are in charge of marketing the goods. Refrigerators don't exist so they have to dry, smoke or salt all the fish. They keep it for days and sometimes weeks. Probably another reason we were warned about food. The method works for them but for Americans or others who have never been exposed to the water or type of food that Ghanaians eat every day just can't handle it and get sick. After our tour we went back to the ship. They expected lots of traffic but no one was on the streets because a huge soccer game was on; Ghana was playing Egypt in a qualifier game for the World Cup next year. We then got back to the ship earlier than expected and I just stayed there and didn't do anything that night. I didn't feel quite comfortable drinking and going out at night in Africa. Nothing really bad happened to the people that did go out, some got their things stolen, but I just wasn't up for it.
On the second day I hung out with my friend Alka. She had met a local girl the day before, her name was Linda and she was 15. We went really early in the morning to her house and met her family and the other family that lived in the same house. Her dad came out in boxer shorts and it was weird. But they were all very friendly. They had two little boys and a little girl, Coby, Rey and Maria. They were precious. They lived in a house that was separated into three two-room apartments. It didn't have air conditioning, just fans. They washed clothes by hand and hung them to dry. Cleaning plates consisted of splashing them with water. We went to the market to buy stuff to make lunch with. $15 was enough to buy enough food for seven people. The market was also smelly and so. freaking. hot!! We got back to her house and her "aunt" started to cook. I don't know if they were actually related. They have this traditional dish called fufu that she made. You boiled cassava which is like yucca and also plantains for 30 minutes and then you pound them with a huge wooden stick and wood bowl, adding little bits of water until it is a doughy consistency. Fufu is a staple dish in Ghana. That takes about thirty to forty five minutes. She made a fish stew that was spicy spicy ( the regular spicy) and it had some chicken in it as well. Then you throw this big lump of fufu in it. So she had boiled the cassava and plantains, I had helped to cut them up and I kept dropping all the pieces in the dirt on accident, no one washed their hands before making it I just kept thinking oh goodness please don't get sick. The soup was boiled, the fish and chicken were cooked, but I was worried because she put water in the fufu. I thought it was going to be more like bread but it was slimy! Linda said you aren't supposed to chew it, you just swallow it like a pill. I didn't really get the point of eating if you don't even taste it. It shows you the difference in attitude toward food. To them its just sustenance, we are so concerned with how it tastes plus we eat in such excess its almost gross at times. I forgot who I was talking to about this but they said Americans have a food fetish. I didn't really like the fufu at all but the fish was really good, which was shocking. We drank water from a pouch, which is how drinking water is packaged in Ghana. You just rip a hole in the corner and suck. I was kind of nervous I would get sick from the whole experience but I didn't at all! A boy selling Fan Ice went by the house and I bought everyone some to say thank you for lunch. Fan Ice is ice cream that comes in a plastic pouch, we were told it was safe to have by the people on the ship, they have chocolate and vanilla and it was delicious. Best ice cream ever. It may have had something to do with the fact that I was dying of heat and my mouth was still burning from how spicy the fish was. We went to the beach afterward because it was walking distance from her house and we all jumped in in our clothes. We saw other SASers down the beach and we hung out with them. I got a horrible sunburn in the shape of my tank top and bra straps and it looks awful!! lol other than that it was a really good day. I bought some cool stuff at the market area they set up right by the ship. We then sailed that night to Accra.
The first day in Accra I Didn't know what to do, Sumi and Amber had been on an overnight trip the past two nights and still weren't back. I missed the bus at 11 and the next one was at 1 so I worked out and relaxed until then. I needed internet to check on classes and registering for Miami and also to try and fix my phone which has conveniently locked me out. So I went by myself into Accra. We are actually docked at the city Tema and the shuttle ride to Accra was a little over an hour! I got off though and got a cab to an internet cafe and I spent the next 7 hours there haha I just had good food for lunch and some lattes and dinner and caught up on facebook. I made friends with the people that worked there, I watched Chopped on the TV for a while and I talked to a group of older white people. I was glancing at them and couldn't figure out why they were dressed the same. One of them asked me what I was doing in Ghana and we started chatting. I started to ask them what they were doing in Ghana when I saw it. On his white short sleeved button down was a name tag. It read "Elder William". Holy shit, actual Mormons. He answered that they were missionaries of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints. I was wondering if I was about to get lectured but they were really very nice. I asked them if they picked to come to Ghana and they were like, uh, no. The encounter was so funny. I asked them where they were from and they said Utah.. I was like oh duh. haha. Obama was on the TV because of the whole government shutdown thing and they were like oh we liked Romney. I told them I voted for him and I could tell I got major Mormon brownie points. They asked at one point if I knew about Mormons and, god knows why, I was like yeah I saw the book of Mormon on Broadway this year. The looks on their faces was unreadable. One asked if I liked it and I said " yeah it was funny". Why did that come out of my mouth? They looked exactly like the people in the play though!! The fact that I saw them in Ghana was just so funny. I wanted to ask how many people they have converted so far but I thought that would really be an ass-like thing to say. I was there until dark and I was a little worries about getting back to the place where the shuttle was. The cab driver that took me there was supposed to take me back at 4:30 but he never came back. The owner of the place though was so so nice and helped me get a cab back and I made the last shuttle no problem. I didn't go out that night either. Accra was apparently a fun place to go out, the shuttle drop off place was in an area called Osu which had good night life but at that point I was just ready to go to bed. Good day overall.
The next day I had a field program at an orphanage, we left early in the morning and came back around 4pm. We helped with random tasks around the orphanage, I mainly helped some kids write thank you notes to their sponsors who pay for their schooling. I had a nice time and then got back to the ship and just stayed on until we left. Ghana has the best economy in Africa I think, the cedi is only half of a dollar as opposed to a Russian ruble which is a thirtieth of a dollar. But the people are still so poor. School is mandatory through high school for kids and then they can choose to specialize after that if they want to. Lots of artisanal fishing. I had a good time though. The rest of the kids on the ship mostly chose to go to beaches and get drunk. So I am glad that I at least made an effort to get something more out of it. For me Ghana, and Tanzania are good places to go and work or volunteer. I don't know about being a tourist in these places. They have some nice resorts but its not really a vacation-y type of trip. I would much rather do something useful. My time in Ghana was sweaty and hot, but I am glad I met some locals and got a chance to help at the orphanage.