Off the Beaten Track

Today I board the plane for Canada, thankfully I have finished my work for ABANTU so I have short amount of time for another blog. For now I will hold off any final thoughts regarding my trip to Ghana and working with ABANTU and give you another update in a few days.

I want to share with you some of my journey this weekend to Sabin Hills, a small village in the Central Region of Ghana. I was invited by Evan ( young man the worked at the guest house) to travel with him to meet his family and visit the village. In hindsight I now realize how significant that visit was for Evan and his family, and unfortunately I had to manage some expectations but more about that later.

I understood the trip would take perhaps three to four hours and the distance on google maps is about 283 kilometres. We took a Tro Tro from guest home to Keneshie Market at 4:30 am , the first bus was full and we finally got settled on the second bus at 7:30am. We arrived at Dunkwa On-Ofin at 3:30pm, but the last vehicle to the village had already left. After some serious negotiating we settled on a fare by taxi to the village, 45 km and 2 hours on a very bumpy dirt road we arrived at the village.

Evan's grandfather ( by namesake) travelled with us and led us through the town on arrival, believe me I completely underestimated the attention I would draw as we walked.

R-L
Evan, family friend, Grandfather & Chief, Auntie, Grandfather ( namesake)










After arriving and meeting the family we settled into a meal of bean stew, boiled yams and boiled plantains. I had to eat two meals; one served by Evan's Mother and one served my Evan's Auntie. Unlike Canada the men eat seperately from the children and women, as a guest I was expected to eat with the men. The meal was prepared with produce from his mother's farm on an open fire.




Cooking Kitchen










The evening was spent sitting on a log bench under a tree and under the stars, playing with the children meeting new people as they stopped by the meet the Obruyni. I made history that night, as I am the first white person to ever stay overnight in the village, previous visitors  come in for the day and take accommodations in the city. Off to bed early, as in Ghana everyone gets up either before or at sunrise ( 4:30am).

The next morning was spent drinking Milo, eating bread, bathing with a bucket in the bath house and cleaning up around the property. Grandfather arranged for a taxi and I spent the next few hours meeting the King, the Chief, other family members and church elders. There was a funeral that day in the village and there were many visitors, everyone dressed in either black or red. As a guest I found out I had to attend the funeral, meet and shake hands with the family and their elders, unfortunately I was not expecting to attend a funeral and had to go in my shorts and sandals .

The next stop on our tour was the gold mines. The Central and Ashanti Regions of Ghana are well known for their gold mining, unfortunately only foreigners and perhaps high level government officials really benefit from the gold mining. The government owned mine closed 15 years ago and now the Chinese run illegal gold mines. They pay the local land owner some money to extract the gold from their land, employ local men & women to work in the mine for a pittance. I was able to walk throughout the open pit mine, it was very very hot, terrible fumes, no safety equipment and generally intolerable working conditions. Once they have extracted the gold they are supposed to fill in the pits and return the land to a point where it could be farmed again. Surprise, no way the foreigners just leave this big hills and holes of dirt with no reclaimation efforts and too far away from the capital for the government to monitor the activities.

The ground is excavated and the dirt is shovelled into bags and carried by the women or put into the machines directly

Jan " Gold Miner" putting the gravel mixed with sand into a grinder, after which they run it through water several times.

A girl can work up quite an appetite after mining for a gold, so back to the village for lunch; fou fou and light soup ( ground nut paste, pepper, chicken & tomatoes).

With a full tummy we decided I better travel back to Dunkwa on Saturday evening since there were no vehicles travelling back on Sunday. Again after much negotiating we found a reasonable drive with a taxi driver and the lottery guy. In Dunkwa we staying with Grandpa and his family, a wonderful family and great hospitality. They sent me back to Accra with fresh oranges, papayas, coconuts, bananas and nuts despite me explaining it was too much to carry on the Tro Tro.

Sunday morning I left for Accra by Tro Tro at 9:00 and arrived home by 6:00 that evening, feeling tired, dirty and blessed that I had been treated to such wonderful hospitality and kindness.

See you all soon in Canada!



Asamankese cont'd---- Radio Stars and Children

So it is friday morning in Accra, I have finished drafting both the Strategic Plan and the Monitoring Plan. Yeah !! Next step; circulate, make changes and next week write the final reports.

I want to finish my story from the other day, before the power goes off and I lose access to internet. (three days already this week).

After spending a couple hours at the market we were wandering through town when we heard voices calling "Obruni" (white person) from above. We looked up and the young man that was sitting behind us on the Tro Tro from Accra was trying to get our attention. Our curious nature led us to respond to his invitation. We quickly learned that he had a recording studio and he wanted to tape us on his radio station. Right away Meliss and Jo-Ann were in the booth to play around with recording their voices.

Jo-Ann in the recording studio, later on Melissa, myself and Dewise all gathered in the booth to record the following message:

I am Jo-Ann, Melissa and Jan and we are from Canada. We wish Ghana a peaceful election in 2012, happy voting Ghana ...... cheering,clapping sounds..........





I can't leave Ghana without expressing my absolute delight and joy I have experienced with the various children that I have met. Everywhere we go the children call out "Obruni", they come running, laughing and full of curiosity. They absolutely love having their pictures taken and get so excited to see their image on the camera screen.

Saturday afternoon we decided it was time to have a football match with the children at a school very close to the guest house. I| know what you are thinking, does Jan play football?  No, you are right I don't, but I was the photographer and cheerleader. Melissa and Jo-Ann initially started playing against about 10-13 boys, when eventually someone came along, stopped the game and recruited a few more players for the girl's team. We gathered a large crowd and it wasn't long before the girls were scoring goals, much to the surprise of the boys!

Sunday morning we went to Church with Auntie Jo, owner of the guest house. I don't have the creative writing skills to adequately describe the beautiful fabric and dresses that the women wore to church that day, and it wasn't appropriate to take pictures. Church was three hours long and included dancing, singing, group bible study and an hour long sermon; all of course in Twi. Then all of a sudden we hear that word " Obruni" again, the minister is calling us to the front of the church to introduce ourselves, again we were reluctant celebreties.

While leaving the church everyone wanted to chat with us, have their pictures taken and then I received another marriage proposal.  hahahahah!

After lunch we walked to Melissa school, and then up the side of a mountain to visit a few families that live on the hillside.

Our trek up the hillside to visit the children

He is very curious and moment by moment he walks closer. :))

 

Pure Joy !

Look at the scowl - by the way this is how they eat oranges, peel with knife, slice of top and suck the juice out, then throw away!

Melissa brought colouring books, story books and stickers everyone was colouring and having fun.

She walked with me down the hill and to the roadside.

I am so grateful that humans have the ability to store memories and that I have a camera because I never want to forget that afternoon on the hill.

Cheers to a great weekend!

Asamankese - Markets and more !

I know I committed to updating my blog at least once a week and it is heard to imagine that three weeks has slipped by and I only have two weeks left in Ghana.

All is well, the weather continues to be hot, the dry winds blow dirt all around the city and there is still lots of traffic everywhere you go.  This statement is a fact not a complaint! I think I am too Canadian to ever adjust to extremely hot weather every day, and definitely learning some lessons around clothing that works best in hot weather.

This past weekend I travelled to Asamankese with Melissa (university student from Kingston Ontario) and Jo-Ann, a fellow volunteer at ABANTU. Asamankese is the village where Melissa is teaching for 8 weeks as part of her University Program.
  
I left the guest house at 5:30am in the morning to catch a Tro-Tro, I have mentioned before how bad traffic is on Saturday mornings. Evan the young man that looks after the guest house walked me to the Tro Tro as he was so nervous about me embarking on a journey to a place where I could not remember the name. My linguistic skills are not improving in Ghana, Twi is not an easy language to pick up as the sounds are not familar.

It is hard to imagine but it took almost 20 minutes to get a Tro Tro there were so many people out and about, finally got the right one to " Circle" where we agreed to meet. I got off at the Overhead stop at Circle but couldn't find the girls. Thank goodness for cell phones, we started phoning each other to try and figure out where we were. You would think it would be easy to spot three white women in a very large crowd of black people. Finally after 30 minutes we discovered our mutual locations, met up and bought breakfast snacks of fresh rolls, papaya and plantain chips for the long drive.




Melissa and Jo-Ann with FanIce

We need this in Canada - portable icecream sold everywhere, you just tear the corner off the package and suck in the contents! Thank goodness I was only introduced to this refreshing treat recently. It also comes in chocolate or yogurt flavour and a FanDango which is frozen juice.





Although the town is less than 100 km the roads are very bad so travel is slow, we finally arrived in Asamankese at about 10:30.



 Typical building that would include residences, small business and the stand in the front is where you buy top up's for your cell phone.

Vodafone, Tiga, MTN or Airtel, they are sold at small stands everywhere from 1 cedi and up. It is very convenient, cheap and efficient!

View of the street as we are walking to the market.

Need your hair styled, these small shops are also everywhere and open at all hours.













After a short tour, some red red and grilled plantain ( soooooooo good!) we went off to explore the market. It was such a fun experience, less crowded than Accra and all of the vendors and children were so excited to meet us and have their pictures taken that we spent about three hours around the market.

Anything you can imagine needing you can buy at the market; fabric, cosmetics, kitchen and cooking tools, herbs for cooking and medicinal purposes and of course food; fresh and local. I have adapted quite well to buying my vegetables and food on a daily, based on what is available. When electricity and fridgeration are neither  available or  reliable you are commited to purchasing local and fresh or canned.                                                                       

This market woman was so excited to have her picture taken, she was dancing, smiling and laughing; it was so fun!














Different varieties of rice and beans for sale.

These two boys are selling plantain which is used to grill, dried plantain chips or cooked and mixed with cassova for fou fou.

Top right corner, bowls from coconut shells
Bottom left medicinal herbs
Bottom right, straw like materiel used for washing dishes










A variety of dried and smoked fish usually used in making the base broth for soups, stews and bean dishes such as red, red.








I have to stop now; I haven't even talked about our trek up the mountain to visit a couple of families, our football game with kids or church on Sunday morning. It takes a long time to upload pictures and while I am writing and uploading pictures I am not getting my work done.

I hope you are all well and I will finish this story tomorrow.  

Three Weeks Already ??

Akwaaba - Welcome

It is hard to believe that I have been here more than 3 weeks and I can say with certainty that people in Ghana do their best to make sure you are Akwaaba - welcome!  When I am walking back and forth to work the neighbours say good morning and you are welcome,  any new people you meet always welcome you to Ghana and they always invite you to share in whatever food they may be enjoying at the time.

I even got a marriage proposal the other evening as I was walking home from work; actually invitations and proposals happen fairly frequently so I graciously decline and keep on my way!

I neglected to include my excursion to Kakum National Forest last weekend while we were in Cape Coast. Kakum has the only Canopy Walk in West Africa and my traveling mates wanted to try out this out on Sunday morning. For those of you know me well, you will understand right away that Jan was not going to walk 50 metres or more off the ground, on a rope bridge through the forest. I don't care how many monkeys or birds I was going to see, so I chose the guided nature trail.

Our guide was such a fascinating and knowledgeable man. He guided us through a regenerated forest and old forest for about one hour. As we walked he would stop and talk to us about the history of the forest and the trees. He explained how the forest was here before anything else so the ancestors got everything they needed from the forest, shelter, food, medicine; even some parts of the trees were used to make textiles.

Even though I did not brave the canopy walk I still had a snuggle with an elephant! The guide mentioned that there were not very many animals in this part of the forest due to all of the people. However, you can reserve a tree platform for the night, deeper into the forest and then go on a guided tour in the evening. Lots more wildlife and birds to view, maybe I will have a chance to go back and visit.












Work at ABANTU 
Things are starting to come together regarding my mandate, the Director returned from the Northern Regions and we have set a date for the Strategic Planning Workshop.In the meantime I am gathering information and getting prepared. We missed two Friday afternoons due to power outages and one day due to flooding. If you remember the rock path through the water in my first blog, you can imagine what happens with a serious rainfall.

There was a huge down pour last week last week which caused major flooding in parts of Accra, 43,000 people were displaced and 9 people died. It is not as serious as the problems in Bangkok right now but serious enough for the people impacted. The problem is more complicated than just too much rain, as in most countries hundreds of people are migrating to urban areas because the rural lifestyle is not life sustaining anymore. They arrive in the cities with no money, build shelters in crowded areas which are often in areas where the water typically flows during the storms. There is often so much waste and garbage in the gutters because there is inadequate waste disposal systems, so then when the rains are heavy the water overflows in the gutters. This of course leads to problems with contaminated water and crops that ultimately provide food and income for the market vendors. It is a very challenging  problem for the government to prevent people from settling in these areas and it is even more difficult to develop the services and infrastructure at the same pace as the population grows and migrates.

ABANTU hosts a coalition, Gender Action on Climate Change for Equality and Sustainability, they are building capacity to influence climate change policies from a gender perspective. For the last month they traveled to three Northern Regions of Ghana to create awareness and generate ideas regarding the impacts of climate change on women and gender and disaster recovery. Women are most impacted by disasters as a result of climate change; they do the farming, carry water, take care of children and shelter but they are not involved in decision making and finding solutions.   

Today I attended a meeting of the coalition members, despite a lack of funding they are working hard at increasing awareness of climate change,providing educational opportunities in schools and in the local communities on subjects such as alternatives to wood fire burning and recycling waste instead of burning waste. There is so much to learn and so little time!

Day Trip to Bojo Beach
On Saturday of last weekend we decided to find our way to Bojo Beach, highly recommended by Adusei one of the ABANTU team. Being a Saturday we thought we would get an early start so we arranged for the taxi to pick us up at 9:00am. I am not a quick learner, this city wakes up at 5:00am and is really busy on Saturday the most popular market day. It took us 2 hours to travel about 30km, but it was worth it.

Diana -CCI volunteer(left)
Attaah-friend staying at my guest house

You cross a fresh water lagoon by boat to reach the beach.This was Attaah's first time on a boat,she giggled all the way across.

View from the boat to the beach, the shelter also provides cold drinks and food. We shared Malt Guiness (soft drink) pizza, jollof rice and grilled red snapper for lunch.

Local fishermen were close by throwing nets into the water, catching very small fish. They did not speak English and the fish looked too small for eating, perhaps bait?
Did you know that there is as superstition about fishing on Tuesdays? They believe if you go in the water to fish or swim you will drown or have an accident. Yesterday was Tuesday and there was not a boat to be seen on the water for miles.


Home Pride
I have now spent more than two weeks at this guest house. Most of the guests come and go so I don't get an opportunity to meet everyone. However, Attaah and her Mother Beatrice have been staying at the guest house for awhile. They are Ghanaian and Attaah is home for her break from University in China, she is studying Medicine. Beatrice is staying at the guest house with her daughter, she is  in the  process of  moving to Accra. What a small world, Beatrice is a tax inspector and has worked with the Ghana Internal Revenue Authority for thirty years,we had lots to share. They are two beautiful people and everyday I look forward to our conversations in the evenings.

I also want to introduce you to Evan, hopefully by my next update I will have a photo. Evan replaced Micheal last week as the manager at the guest house, he is very conscientious, professional and always working hard. He came to Accra from a small village in the Central Region of Ghana. His mother is on her own raising 5 children, she is a farmer and deaf mute. I believe Evan, although young, is a storyteller. His grandfather was a chief in the village before he passed away and in the evenings he would pass on stories from the ancestors to Evan.

In the evening Evan shares life lessons with me through these ancient stories.  He starts with asking me a
question; If you could only rescue one of either; a human being, a lion or a rat from a pit which one would you rescue?  I said,"I would rescue the human so he could help me rescue the others.

The  Story:
An old man in the village is walking through  the bush when  he comes upon a very large pit in the ground. Deep in the bottom of the pit a human being, a lion and a rat are trapped.The old man is afraid of the almighty lion so he decides to rescue the rat and the human being. Being the kind person that  he is the old man takes the rat and the person back to his home and he takes care of them.

The rat decides he should help the old man so he burrows a tunnel to the rich King's castle.Every week he comes back with food or money for the old man.Eventually the other person finds out that the rat is stealing from the King, so he tells the King about the old man and the rat. The King banishes the old man from his home and the kingdom.

The  lesson: You can't always trust mankind!

Keep healthy and happy,I will write again soon.

Jan

Cape Coast and a Few Other Things

Good morning to my friends and family. 

It is Monday morning and I am back to work after a wonderful escape from the city this weekend.

Work at ABANTU. 

Last week I did not accomplish as much as I would have wanted to regarding my mandate, however we are settling in, getting to know the rest of the team better and exploring the neighborhood around the office.

One of our great discoveries close to the office is a small food stand called Glorious, they serve a variety of dishes but our new favourite is " Red Red" which is a bean dish with either fried Plantain or rice. The meal costs about 3 cedi (1.75 Canadian) is just on the spicy side and very delicious. Apologies to the Millroth clan, I would add a scratch, sniff and taste section if I could!

The Ministry of Women has started consultations in Accra this week regarding Affirmative Action in Ghana, the intention is to provide better representation of women in Parliament. Currently 11% of the parliamentary seats are filled by women, however women represent approximately 51 % of the population. Afua, a researcher with Abantu will be traveling with the task force to other regions within Ghana in the next few weeks. Elections are next year so this is an important time to advocate for policy and legislative changes.

Food

I am still working at trying to find a balance between pleasure,health and taste in my  diet. As mentioned we discovered Red Red last week, and I had some freshly made smoked mackerel soup with fou fou last week.

Beatrice and her Mother are staying at the same guest house and last week her Mom and staff at the house were preparing this meal when I arrived back from work. You are always invited or welcomed to eat with them. This is a favourite dish of Ghanians and is typically eaten with your hands; the broth is a spicy, smoked fish favour poured over the fou fou. Fou Fou is made by cooking Cassava and Plantain, combining and pounding them together until they form a ball of what looks like dough.

Take a look at this demonstration: Making Fou Fou in Accra

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HFhruMRfcM&feature=related

Trip To Cape Coast 

On Saturday morning Jo-Ann, Diana and Melissa left at 5:30 in the morning to find our way to Cape Coast. 

Left to Right 

Jo-Ann volunteering  with me at Abantu

Melissa ,University student from Hamilton working on literacy in a small town north of Accra

Diana volunteer with Pro Link- helping women in small businesses

I started with catching a Tro Tro at 5:30am, I figured everyone would be sound asleep and I would be the only one up that early. I have to say I was shocked to see how many people were already out, working and moving around the city. We met and took a taxi to the Keneshie market where you catch the bus or van to Cape Coast. We didn't have time to explore the market but at 6:30 am it was a bee hive of activity and people.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcgxhyEDp7o  This is a quick view of what you see at the market when you are looking for the bus or van to Cape Coast. We joined a comfortable air conditioned van for 5 cedi to take us all the way to Cape Coast. It is about a 3 hour drive partially due to very heavy traffic leaving Accra and traveling through different communities. We watched a Ghanaian film with English subtitles about a pastor, his new wife and evil spirits, apparently it was a comedy because most of the locals on the bus laughed throughout the film .

After settling into our budget hotel, the Mighty Victoria we started exploring the town. Our hotel was in a great location and it wasn't long before we found ourselves at the seaside. It was really fun walking along the shore; a cool breeze,very warm water and a huge sense of relief in getting out of the city. There were lots of things to discover on the beach, fishing boats, goats, children swimming and doing acrobatics and hawkers. 

Here's my attempt at trying to carry a tray of oranges on my head. There are so many women and children carry these huge trays or buckets of " whatever" they are trying to sell all over the place. They are very heavy and they manage to do this all day amidst heavy traffic and crowds of people.

Isaac and Joshua,two brothers that worked the beach and Cape Coast Castle.

These boys were playing in the water and performing different tumbling stunts on the beach. They were very excited to have us take their pictures and then look at the pictures on the camera. 

Following our stroll and a great lunch of grilled red snapper and cold beer we found our way to the Cape Coast Castle. The coast of Ghana where we are staying used to be called the Gold Coast prior to their Independence on March 6,1957. 

The earliest Europeans to arrive here were the Portuguese in the 15^th Century. On their arrival, they found so much gold between the River Ankobra and the Volta and subsequently named it “da Mina”, meaning The Mine. In 1482, the first castle was built in the Gold Coast by the Portuguese at Elmina. This was built to enhance their trading activities especially gold and slavery.

Many other European traders came to the Gold Coast to trade. These included the British, Danes and Swedes. These European traders built several forts along our coastlines. In 1872, the Dutch lost interest in the coast and ceded their forts free to the British. Thus ended a period of Dutch occupation lasting 274 years. By 1874, the British were the only Europeans in the Gold Coast and thus made it a crown colony. This in effect gave them total control.

The British government established their headquarters at Cape Coast Castle. This had been their headquarters since 1662 and is one of the greatest historical sites in the country. It has numerous dungeons which were used to keep slaves before being transported to the Diaspora.

Human beings have the potential to and do the most amazing and loving things in the world; Human beings also have the potential and do the most unspeakable things to other human beings in the world!

I am limited by my vocabulary and writing skills to properly describe for you the experience of touring the Cape Coast Castle. I tried to imagine how I might feel if I had traced my ancestral roots to someone in my family that had to survive the dungeons.

The tour guide explains that approximately 1500 slaves are kept in the dungeon for up to three months before they are auctioned and put on the ships to America. Following some history he leads us underground through this dark, musty and damp stone entrance way into the area where the men were kept. One space, the size of my living room would hold up to 300 men for three months. There was one very small opening high up on the wall that provided a miniscule amount of sunlight,when the tour guide turned off the light it was complete darkness and unnerving. 

You probably don't want to read this next part but I am going to tell you anyways. He explained that a few years ago they did not know that the floors of these dungeons were made of individual stones. Some archeologists took samples from the floors and found that the samples were made entirely of human waste. So picture this; there are some scraping on the walls, about two feet above the current stone floors were they first took the samples. That two feet of materiel was actually human waste that had accumulated during the time the dungeons were used for slavery because there was no other option. 

If you look up near the top you will see only place where light could enter the small space that 300 people would be kept for three months. 

The last stop of the tour is entering through the Door of No Return. On the other side of this door is the sea,where they would have been led to the ships through an underground tunnel. All of this is underground because the British, staff and Governor at one time were living in finery in the castle rooms directly above the dungeons.

This is a scene of the harbour just to the left of the castle.

It is almost lunch time now and I have spent a good portion of the morning writing about my experience. I need to get to work so I will write a new post soon and let you know about the rest of this adventure. 

My favourite quote this week: 

"Having children is like watching your heart walk around outside of your body."

 

Welcome to Accra - Week 1

Hi - I am really happy you decided to join me as I learn more about Abantu and Ghana; the country, the people, the culture and of course the food!

I will commit to keep you updated at least once a week or when the spirit moves me; I will not commit to perfect grammar and punctuation. I will try my best to share my experiences in a way that might hold your interest for a short while! Sorry, I have way too much to say to use Twitter as an option.

I have lots to share on this posting, so sit yourself down and get comfortable.

  

Why am I here? 

I am volunteering with ABANTU, as a strategic planning adviser in Accra Ghana.  ABANTU is one of the leading women's rights organizations in Ghana and in Africa and their mission is to strengthen women's capacities in decision making through movement-building to influence policies from a gender perspective. 

Their focus is in three thematic areas: Gender and Governance, Gender and Conflict/Peace Building and Gender and Climate Change. They focus on these areas by training and capacity building, advocacy and public awareness and networking; research and policy analysis. 

Link to ABANTU- www.abantu-rowa.org

The Work and the Office 

Accra is a very large city and the office is in a commercial/industrial area on Spintex Rd. If you go to You Tube you can actually get a view of the traffic and sights on Spintex. I am working with another volunteer from Canada, Jo-Ann and she is here for 5 months to conduct research and produce a research guide. 

We work in a meeting room, we each have laptops and thankfully we can access internet during the day. Hence, I will be able to keep you posted. There are nine staff with a variety of functions and several of them have been in Northern Ghana this week giving information sessions to women on the impacts of climate change and how to get involved in decision making in their communities.  

 The ABANTU OFFICE 

The office is in a low lying area so during the rainy season there is flooding. We have to walk along those blocks to get in and out of the office. 

Favourite Quote of the Week 

"Information is the oxygen of democracy"

On Friday morning we attended an information session organized by the Women's Manifesto Coalition to promote and increase awareness concerning impending legislation on Right to Information. A very impassioned youth activist spoke about the legislation, the issues and impacts. Unfortunately the legislation has been going through review since 2003 and has still not passed through parliament. 

Where I am staying?

On arrival we stayed at a hostel at the University of Legon, it was very simple, removed from everything and not many options available for food. I did have a great experience on Saturday evening I decided to walk to one of the street vendors to buy some fruit. I started chatting with my neighbour, a student from Nigeria. He invited me to join him and his girlfriend at the Healing Crusade being held on campus. 

We were busy chatting and walking to the crusade when all of a sudden I fell into a 3 ft gutter; several scrapes and a very sore leg later we head on to his girlfriend’s house.  Diana’s house is on the campus; her father is a professor and her mother Grace, a hairdresser.  After a treat of ground peanut soup and fufu we head over to the Healing Crusade.

The Healing Crusade is an annual Pentecostal event held at the University, and the preacher was a former student of the University. I was amazed at the number of young people in the crowd, probably more than a 1000 sitting on white plastic outdoor chairs lined up in neat, orderly rows. The stage was huge was three screens and a magnificent sound system. I have to say the preacher was an amazing speaker and storyteller, and used the concept of three key messages that you should not say to your soul. It really was a moving experience to listen to his stories, the music and watch young people go forward to give themselves to Jesus, it was peaceful and joyful. 

Back to accommodations, I am now staying at a guest house, Home Pride which is within walking distance to the office. It is very convenient to work but quite remote from any activities or sights in and around Accra. I feel safe and have access to a kitchen (with limited tools) to prepare my meals. I do have my own bathroom but my shower is a tap on the wall with cold water. Thank goodness the weather is always "hot" so I have adapted to cold tap showers. 

That same tap and a pail serves as my washing machine and the clothes line as my dryer. 

Transportation

There are cars everywhere, the streets are very crowded and it takes a long time to get anywhere. As I don't have a car I have three choices; walk, taxi or Tro Tro. Unless you are sharing a taxi it gets pretty costly so I with the help of Jo-Ann I am learning the Tro Tro system. The system and routes are unwritten, so you have no choice but to learn through experience. They are small vans that try to fit sometimes up to 20 people on the seats, of course not air-conditioned and often would not pass a Canadian safety inspection. But they are cheap, always available and the people are very friendly and helpful.

Check this out:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwII9NYhiXE&feature=related

 What have I done so far?

Our exploring usually takes place on the weekend, as it gets dark around 5:30 and it takes too long to go anywhere in the evening. The evenings can get quite long since I am used to working all day, taking care of a house and a social life.I have already read four books and we made a plan to meet once a week for supper at the Accra Mall.  Tonight is going out night, yeah! 

Last Saturday we decided to visit the Makalo Market in central Accra and then try to find our way to Jamestown. We took two Tro-Tro's, a taxi and two hours later  we arrived at the market. Honestly, it was overwhelming with sights, smells, texture, people and noise. I am sure you know that visiting markets is one of my favourite pass times but I have never experienced one like this before. 

We are standing on the second floor of a building to take this picture, the vendors and patrons did not like cameras at all. We were told it is a superstitious culture and some belief the camera could steal their soul.

The vendors were lovely, friendly and everyone wanted to meet us. This picture is just a small corner of the market, it covers several streets and buildings and there are thousand of small stands. Most of the vendors are women, some are farmers themselves and some sell for Market Queens. Almost like a pyramid system where the everyone pays a share to the Queen, so she makes the most money. 




After the market we wound our way through very crowded streets looking to find our way to Jamestown. I am constantly on the outlook for gutters, they are everywhere and I don't want to fall in another one! Most of them are full of dirty water, sewage and garbage.

We found our way to Ussher Fort, previously a place for holding and trading slaves and then a prison. The front door was open so we wandered in to find an older gentleman sitting on a plastic chair, mild mannered security guard:))


He offered us a tour and we negotiated a fee of 5 cedi each. The building is set on the west coast shore of Accra, which I guess made it a very convenient location for slave trading. There were remains of the cells, a kitchen, chapel, Mosque and an upholstery shop. He took us into the room where they tied the slaves, conducted the auctions and then kept them in the cells until they were moved to the ships. 
The fort changed hands between the British and the Dutch several times, it has also been a prison and served as a refugee camp at one time. The fellow showed us the cell where the first elected President of Ghana was kept for a year prior to his election. It was very eery and uncomfortable to be walking through this place. 

Prison Cells












Auction and holding room

Well the little adventure took us most of Saturday so we agreed to meet on Sunday and try to find a beach.
We had a late start and took three Tro-Tro's but we found our way to the shore; but not a beach that we could access. After a very long walk along the side of the road with extremely hot sunshine we finally found the entrance to a hotel. Diana ( another  volunteer) strutted her way through the place like she owned it. I meekly followed behind her until we eventually found our way, unchallenged to the pool and bar area. We sat ourselves down, ordered a cold beer and enjoyed a welcome reprieve from the heat. I happened to bring my bathing suit that day so as we continued to be treated as guests I slipped off to the washroom, changed and went for a wonderful swim in the pool. 

Last but not least: The Food 


Food has been an interesting challenge and since I have just arrived caution is the word. There are vendors on every street corner, down every street, on the side of the road and they even carry food on their heads at traffic circles and lights. However, any of vendors that prepare food at the side of the road don't have access to refrigeration or clean water so that is not an option. 


The staff at Abantu pointed us to a nice food stand close by that sells rice, grilled or fried chicken, grilled Tilapia, ground nut soup and banku along with a few other local specialties. The food is good, reasonable and the staff are very nice. If we don't take our lunch then we wander over there for some rice and maybe fish on a good day. We are trying to live on our allowance of 17 dollars a day so always looking for way to access local food at a better price. I have found two ladies where I buy my fruit and vegetables on a daily basis. I am very limited as to what food I can store and so far I have cooked everything in one pot. 

The one lady, Bernice is quite close to where I live, she has a few kids running around. Everyday after work when I stop to buy something the kids just can't stop laughing at me. A white woman in the neighborhood is quite a spectacle! I hope that she will grant me permission to take her picture, she has such a beautiful smile and I love that she says always has a friendly greeting for me.


We have tried two different restaurants, both times we had grilled chicken and rice. Accra has several international restaurants and hotels that offer meals at prices that are way above our modest allowance. 

The food in the grocery store is very expensive, even by Canadian standards. There is a strong tendency to processed and packaged food in the grocery store and certainly not the diversity that I have grown accustomed too. If I am to stay with the goal of a modest lifestyle for the next two months then I will have to adapt to meals that may lack variety but will be simple, affordable and hopefully somewhat healthy. 


Well if you are still with me, then I am surprised but pleased. I know there was a lot of information to share today, I expect the next postings will not be as lengthy. 


Please take care, stay healthy and you are in my thoughts.