School is Over, Thank God We finished our last academic course with some field work and a final presentation. Based on the whole semester, I had low expectations for how the field work would play out, but it ended up being just fabulous. I was in a group with my four best friends (coincidence?... kind of yes, I wanted to be in another group but it was getting full so I volunteered to switch). The class was split into four or five different topics; ours was water and sanitation. We went to Nima and Maamobi (two adjacent parts of the city, I think the most densely populated and perhaps poorest). We met with some people from the water company there which supplies water to the entire city and surrounding areas and one of the guys there volunteered to take us on a walking tour of Nima. He took us to one of the cleaner areas because he said he would even be too embarrassed to take us to some of the worst. The compounds (little walled in areas with lots of rooms, usually housing between 10-20 people) were so close together that not even a motorbike could get through and there were open gutters running throughout. We saw the public toilet facilities (probably used by about 75% of the people there) and the public showers (used by about 50%). People pay between 10 and 20 pesewas (cents) for these facilities and the toilets at least, are just disgusting. All over the city, and this was no exception, you see chickens jumping into the gutters, goats occasionally falling in and flies of course moving from the gutter to the markets. The issue is that the gutter system was probably built for a population about 1/8 of the size it is now, if not less. All the gutters drain into one large gutter which drains into the ocean. I can't remember if I already did an update on this... Sorry if this is repetitive. I have some great pictures from that day (that Liz took) and when I get back to the states, just let me know and you can see them.
Is Vacation Supposed to be Relaxing?When school ended, I started off on a little adventure with Carly, Emma, Erin and Emily. The plan was to travel west of Accra stopping at some major points along the way and eventually going to Abidjan, in Cote d'Iviore. But, when you don't plan at all, mm, things don't go as planned. So we made it Takoradi on Thursday and planned to stay two nights because Erin had an interview there on Friday. Takoradi is a small city with a huge fishing industry. We sat at a little spot to drink on the first night and visited a pretty typical market the next day. The best part for sure was the beautiful, beautiful beach we went to that day. Unlike most of the ocean along the coast of West Africa, the waves here were relatively small and calm so you could actually enjoy the swimming and not fear total domination by a wave. So we took lots of pictures there with Emily's camera that could get wet (coolest thing ever, just a little plastic pouch you can put your digital camera in and it's protected completely). I thought the city was cute overall, but I couldn't get past the gutter smell that followed me everywhere.
On Saturday morning we went to the tro-tro station to try to get to Abidjan. The tro-tro cost more than we expected so I called a Ghanaian friend for suggestions. He said we could go to Elubo, a border town, right past Ankasa village and walk over the border there. Unfortunately, one of the girls was convinced that we needed an "escort" to get over the border because that's what someone wanted to charge us more for. So they said no to Cote d'Iviore. So, we half took my friend's advice and went to Ankasa Village. He warned me that when the tro-tro dropped you off, there would be no taxis and you would have to walk 6k to get to the nature reserve, which is the big attraction there. I didn't really believe him, but as usual, he was right and we walked 6k on a little dirt road through the jungle. We saw some small huts on our way but feared that we would never get there. Finally, we saw a man in the distance with neon green shirt on who said when he saw us " ohh, I've been waiting for you! I'm the tour guide for this reserve!" So, we followed the man that had no idea or warning that we would show up that day and he took us to a place to drop our bags, told us where we could stay later that night and asked if we wanted the 1 or 2 hour tour (we took 1 hour, seeing as we had already taken ourselves on a nice little tour on the walk in). He geared up in his long pants and giant mud boots and we followed him in our shorts and flip flops right into the jungle. It's a newly started nature reserve I guess and has over 800 plant species, many of them unidentified by scientists. More hilarious times ensued with the tour guide and then he took us to our "guest house" with no running water or electricity. It was lovely.
Next day we decided we were so close to Elubo that we might as well just go to Cote d'Iviore. So, we found a car and walked right over the border, sans escort and entered the beautiful french-speaking country. We negotiated a car to Adibjan and arrived with only a hotel name under our belt. West Africans are known (at least by me) for being friendly and generous for the most part, so we found an Ivorian to take us to our hotel. He hopped on his motor bike and we got into a taxi, all five of us and we were off. In Ghana we overstuff taxis all the time, because it's just not a big deal. I don't think it's a big deal in Cote d'Iviore either, but apparently when you're a car full of 5 young white girls, it attracts a little more attention. So, a jeep full of police men with machine guns pulled us over and told us to get out. While the Ivorian helper man and the taxi driver were speaking to them in French and babbling on about the getting the Canadian ambassador involved or something, the policemen were asking where we were from. We found that Ivorians had an unusual affinity for Americans, so I told them I was American (which I can say proudly now with our new prez) and then they asked all the routine questions: what are you doing here, do you know how many seatbelts there are, do you know this isn't allowed, are you married, what's your number, I like you. Then we went off again and arrived at the first hotel... At which point they told us that if we stayed there, we could not leave the room really at all, because it wasn't safe. Ok... Hotel 2: way too expensive. Hotel 3: juuust right. We stayed in Treicheville, which is a poorer part of the city, right across the lagoon from Le Plateau, which could easily be mistaken (at least in design and buildings) for a European or American city. We went to a little drinking spot that night and ate Lebonese food for dinner, topped off at the end with some delicious ice cream. The next day we visited the markets and walked around the city some. I did miraculously well communicating considering that I don't speak a word of French. The drive back the Ghana the next day was juusttt beautiful. I'll post pictures soon.
Don't Swim After you Eat Finally, we got to spend two days just relaxing on the beach. We went to Busua, which is about half way between the border and Accra and has the most beautiful beaches. There's absolutely nothing there really, so most things revolve around tourists. Thus, we had Frank the juice guy #1 and Frank the juice guy #2 (both claiming to be the one from the guide book) following us around trying to get us to buy fresh fruit juice, which we eventually did (an old, big water bottle, filled with chunky fruit juice and a little sand and dirt... mmmm). But mostly we just ate and swam the whole time. We were supposed to go to Cape Coast next, but we were all sort of ready to end the trip, because we were all headed to do different things anyways (Emily had already left to meet her family, Erin was headed to Tanzania to meet her family, Carly went to Cape Coast and then met her family, and Emma and I held down the fort in Accra with our makeshift family).
Happy New Year!! On new years, I went with Nana to church. The church we went to had a huge courtyard out front (probably the size of a football field) and it was absolutely jam packed. People in the middle were sitting (church started at around 8 or 9, but we went at 11) and there were just tons of people milling around there. We were just standing and talking to people the whole time and when it hit the new year, everyone waved their white hankies in the air and there was music and afterwards people were just dancing and enjoying and some were just talking or walking around. So we went off and met one of Nana's school friend's and his girlfriend and then some of my friends and had street meat (sausage and goat skewers) and drinks. We stayed out super late and I called my friends at home right when it turned to the new year for them. All I really heard over the phone was "OH MY GOD LIIIIIBBBB, HHHAAPPYYY NEW YEEARRR AHH WAIT WAIT BLBJDFDKLBKFSD YYAAYY." It was just what I was hoping for. So, that brings us up to 2009 and now I'm just preparing for my internship next week. I will be working with the Society for Women Against AIDS in Africa (SWWA ghana, look it up online). It is located in Accra, at circle. I'm very excited although I don't really know what I'll be doing. Anyways, this is an obscenely long entry and I'm as tired of writing it as you are of reading it. Hopefully I'll get my pictures together soon to post and as I will have more of a solid routine, hopefully I'll update more regularly. Happy New Year!!