I didn't get a good sense of Kumasi because we were only there a short while, but I did start to get a feel for Tamale. The biggest difference that people will tell you about is the weather. It gets much, much hotter during the day, but it's also a lot drier, so I wasn't sweating for once (most of the time). It also gets a lot colder at night. The first night in Tamale, I went took of my jeans to go to sleep and I woke up at 3AM feeling very chilly and noticed I was wearing my jeans again. I think I must have gotten up while I was sleeping and put on jeans because I was so cold. It was very bizarre. But I've been known to do those things. About a month ago I woke up in the middle of the night, thought it was morning and started getting ready for school. I've done that a lot.... Anyways, aside from temperature, I was able to note a few other key differences that really made Tamale feel different than the bustling life of Accra. First of all, Tamale's population is in the thousands, whereas Accra's population is around 2 million. Second of all, the infrastructure is much, much better. Almost all the roads are paved, unlike in Accra (the innercity is paved but a lot of other roads are not) and there are significantly less potholes. Also, there are streetlights on every street and they actually work. There are also functioning traffic lights, which is a rarity in Accra, to say the least. I can't comment on running water and electricity issues because I only knew that they weren't problems in the guest house we stayed in, but I would assume it's better than in Accra, and I believe I heard a few people say that as well. The people were also much less aggressive and much friendlier, probably because there are less white people in the North and when they are there, they're there for NGO's. The North has the highest density of NGO's in the country. I noticed that the biggest difference in terms of feeling safe was that in Tamale, I didn't fear being mugged on the street at all, I just feared armed robbers in the more rural areas, because that is a problem. Whereas in Accra, I'm always very aware of where all my things are and never being alone and this and that, but I wouldn't worry about armed robbers there, because they tend to flock to the less crowded areas, obviously. The main place that you must watch out for them is on the highway going between Kumasi and Accra, and only at night. It happens very regularly that busses and cars are held up and robbed, and most people blame the Nigerians (they have a LOT to say about the Nigerians here, usually a mix between commending their strong-wills and bravery and also categorizing them all as criminals). Anyways, you can bet your bottom dollar I will never, under any circumstances, be traveling outside the city at night.
On a lighter note, I will just briefly run over a few highlights from the trip. The first great thing to happen was our visit to an NGO called TaWoDeP, which stands for Tallensi Area Women's Development Project, and it basically gives women business skills to use in the market, does some training and manages money and some micro-loans. They mainly deal with women working in Shea Butter production. We had the most incredible welcome from them. They're located out in a very rural area and when we got there there were about 50 women sitting around in a circle singing and dancing traditional northern songs and dances. It was spectacular. My friend Bernice, who is on my program and Ghanaian, pulled me and another girl out in the circle to dance with her because all the women were taking turns dancing. After that, we got to see a few women actually making the Shea Butter, which was incredible. They de-shell them, roast them (they look like cocoa) and then somehow turn it into a liquid that looks like melted chocolate. At this point, they start adding small amounts of water and beating it with their hands (really difficult looking), they do this for about an hour (we didn't watch the whole thing, they had a few different stages set up to show us), and it starts turning into a white, thick, paste. When it's at the right stage, they add a ton of water to it and it separates into a buttery mixture on top and liquid on the bottom. Then they scoop out the buttery part. I bought some of it from them also. It's pure, 100%, nothing added, shea butter. Very cool.
The next highlight was that our program coordinator set up dance lessons for us and a performance with some of her old friends from when she did the program five years ago. The dancing was really fun and watching them was in. cred. ible. So amazing.
The last major highlight is almost unbeatable. I bought fabric from a women in the market on Thursday and we started talking and she said she would teach me how to make the fabric if I came back the next day. So I went back with two of my friends and we made tie and dye fabric. Basically the process is as follows: choose wooden stamps, dip them in melted wax, shake very well and press it in the pattern you want on the cloth. Then you mix the dye and gently turn the fabric in the dye for about 15 minutes (I was sweating doing this in the hot sun, one of the few times I sweated in Tamale) and then you let it dry in the sun. After that you take the fabric and dip it repeatedly in boiling water to get off the wax and finally you wash it (by hand, duh, because that's how laundry is done here in case you forgot). Then you let it dry and ta-da! Beautiful fabric. It was so cool, we were just in a little stall making fabric for the whole day with this woman and her baby and my 12 year old friend Jason (Ghanaian) that I met and then another 11 year old girl joined us. We ate beans and rice while we waited during different steps and the women who was teaching us said we were very hardworking! So I gave myself a good pat on the back. I'll post pictures soon. Unfortunately, my camera died before we even got to Kumasi, but I plan to snipe some pictures from my friends. That is all for now!
Posted by lib at November 9, 2008 04:35 PM