My first time in Ghana - part 8 (the end)

July 28, 2015

KWAME NKRUMAH
To our joy the Kwame Nkrumah memorial park was open. It was a really beautiful place with seven statues of horn blowers blowing water into the fountain. The memorial park is a bit controversial since Nkrumah is likened to God in many ways that some find sacreligious. The seven horn blowers representing the fact that God created for six days then rested on the seventh....just like Nkrumah. Kwame Nkrumah's mausoleum viewed from a distance looks like a tree. He is merely resting under a tree. Not dead. Many think of Nkrumah as immortal. Nkrumah's body is finally laying where it should be. He died in a hospital in Romania from prostate cancer. He was buried first in exile in Guinea where he was co-president after having been overthrown in Ghana, and could not be returned home. He was buried in a metal coffin for many years and this is taboo. According to custom he had to be buried in a wooden case so that his soul would eventually be able to escape after the coffin decomposes. Later on his body was allowed to be brought back into Ghana and be buried in his home town. It was finally dug up for the last time and buried in the now Kwame Nkrumah memorial park in Accra.
The museum was quite interesting and the guide was very informative. On the exterior of the museum there was Egyptian drawings, a tribute to Nkrumah's wife who was Egyptian. There are many pictures of Nkrumah with Fidel Castro, the very handsome Patrice Lumumba (Congo's first president- who was killed by the Belgians and supposedly by the CIA for his friendship with communist leaders and his great work in opposing colonialism. He was only seeking help from stronger nations after the US refused to support him. It makes one wonder how much of a threat the CIA and Belgium thought Lumumba was for them not only to have killed and buried him under a tree, but then dug him up again to dissolve his body in sulphuric acid. The good are killed off young.
The symbols on Nkrumah's monument are interesting. There is the lady with an egg showing that power is fleeting. There is the upward pointing sword depicting political power. The place left me pretty sad, but also hopeful in a strange way. Great people die or are killed, but great ideas can never be erased. Forwards ever, Backwards never.

BLOOD DIAMOND
I had told all my group mates about blood diamond, and we decided to go watch it. We saw a place called the "movie theater." Turned out to be a bar that has a big screen and some benches. I found it so amusing, that there are really no movie theaters in Accra. This is a plus for Nairobi.

CUPID'S ARROW
I am smitten by a certain Ghanaian man. That is all I will say for now. I think I was given some juju. He is the sweetest human being I have met. For more details ask me.

DEPARTURE AND AMSTERDAM
Leaving Ghana was pretty sad. We had lunch at a vegan restaurant "Asasse Pa" then spent the rest of the afternoon shopping. I have grown so attached to the place and my new peaceful way of life. I love the people. People are really unbelievably nice, and I feel like I found a warm part of myself that I had sort of forgotten for a while. A part of me that makes me human. I feel like I have found a second home after Kenya. There were two blackouts at the airport. Was a bit amusing. We spent yesterday touring Amsterdam in the morning. It was fun. Amsterdam was really beautiful but cold. We arrived at 6am and tried finding a coffee shop to warm up with coffee before touring. Funny.....none were opened at 6am. At 8am we finally found one. I ordered an Irish coffee thinking this would be coffee with baileys. Turned out to be coffee with whisky (not the best morning drink if I may say so myself.) It warmed me up though

My first time in Ghana - part 7

July 21, 2015

RETURN OF THE GRASSCUTTER
As I walk back to Pastor George's I pass a grasscutter on the middle of the road that has been slaughtered and is having its organs taken out one by one. As a meat eater it is very ironic of me to be saddened by this, but I was. It was enough of an experience to make me want to become a vegetarian. The man gutting it, dug his fingers dip inside its abdominal cavity and pulled out his bloody hands which he then took to the dog's nose. Pastor George said they do that to let the dogs be able to track them by looking for the scent of their blood. I am happy I am not a grasscutter.

DOWNTIME
Today we woke up at 2:30am to drive out to Bui National Park. Each of us and our translators were going. We were 15 in total with the driver. We hopped onto the back of a pickup and began our three hour journey there. The ride there was unbelievably cold, and uncomfortable. The back of a pickup is only fun in warm weather and when you have leg space. We got to the park around 6am. Our first stop was the beautiful lake to see the hippos. It was exciting. Afterwards we got off the pickup and started walking around. This was when I lost respect for the park. No park worthy of being called a park can have people walking around. I instantly knew that the most dangerous animal they could possibly have in the park was a gazelle or some other herbivore. Kenya still beats Ghana in this arena. We have real wildlife. Can you imagine the only animal we saw was a grasscuttter. How annoying. The ride back home was hot and tortorous. It was now unbelievably hot. I cut myself on a jutting metal piece, and only began to bleed much later when we got home and drank lots of water. It was like being in the Sahara.

BACK TO ACCRA
Our host’s son in law picked us up, and drove us to Kumasi. In Kumasi I realized that there are more cabs than people. Cabbing is the normal mode of transportation. Shared taxis are more common than trotros/matatus. We hoped into a bus to take us to Accra. The first hour in the bus we had the luck of having a street preacher with us. He got up, and preached and preached and preached. Then he passed around a collection box, but he wasn't obnoxious about it. He didn't harass anyone or anything. He was a nice street preacher after all. After five and a half hours of riding in the bus, I really began to hate Ghanaian courtesy of dropping everyone off at their various locations. The bus would stop every 3 minutes or so.

A NAME SO SWEET
It was Friday night, and we had gotten back to Accra. We were staying again at the pink hostel, but this time it felt like the Ritz Carlton to us. Big bed, lights, shower, soap, toilet paper. We were now living large. Our Saturday plan was to go shopping for kente cloth and crafts, but our plans were cut short.

THE DEATH OF A CHIEF
The Ga paramount chief had died six months earlier, and in Ga fashion he would be buried today. Everything in Accra was closed in respect for the Ga chief. The whole city wore mourning colors of black and red. None of the shops we planned on visiting would be open. We chose to go to the one open place- the ocean. Standing there at the gulf of guinea I felt so alive. So fulfilled. Accra is simply beautiful. It is like having Mombasa as our capital city.

My first time in Ghana - part 6

July 14, 2015

OF DREAMS AND CHILDREN
The kids in New Longoro are so cute and sweet. I felt like I would leave Ghana with a few of them. One of my team-mates had a dream. She was pregnant, and gave birth to a black baby (note: she is white). It was quite funny. We asked her if the baby was mixed. She said the baby was black. I interpreted this to mean that she will probably adopt an African baby in the future. Strange that the kids in New Longoro don't scream when they see a camera flash. They calmly stand when pictures are taken. My new best friend is called Nico Nico and he is Pastor George's goat herder's son. He is 13, but could pass for 8. It is pretty sad that many of the children here are malnourished. Not due to lack of food, but due to lack of nurses to teach new mothers the importance of giving their children a balanced diet. There is quite a bit of marasmus and kwashiakor in the area. The most ironic thing is that the child with the most distended belly in the village is a fisherman's son. The kids here don't get enough protein even though peanuts are grown in the area (they are sold and not consumed by the families.) I keep on getting the strange feeling in Ghana that the government actually cares for the people. John Kufuor the current president seems to have a heart. There is a new school feeding program, and children in all primary schools get lunch. Enrolment in schools has gone up due to the feeding program, and I think it is a wonderful undertaking.

THE GIRL WITH A WOODEN DOLL
Today we taught the kids in the hall. They stood up to move to the other side of the room, and I saw a little wooden doll on the floor of the room. The little doll was dressed in the yellow school uniform that the rest of the girls had. I slowly walked to the doll, and picked it up. I wondered whose doll it was, and where it came from. Something about the doll made me feel really sad. All dolls are lifeless, but this one was dead. One of the boys walked up to me, and told me that the doll belongs to one of the young girls. He told me the doll looks just like her. I inquired why. He told me it was carved out for her after she lost her twin sister, and she went everywhere with her doll. Tears stung my eyes. I turned, and saw a limping girl come towards me. She looked just like the doll. I gave her her doll, and gave her a warm comforting touch on her wrist. I knew it was a cold comfort. I felt for her, but knew there was nothing I would be able to do to take away the sadness from her eyes. I was curious about her limp, her loss, her, but all I could do was sadly watch her limp away.

My first time in Ghana - part 5

July 8, 2015

NEW LONGORO
We moved on to our final destination. A village right on the border between Brong Ahafo region and the Northern region. A village basically separated from Ivory Coast only by a range of mountains. In New Longoro we would be staying with families so as to get the whole community experience rather than living isolated from the community. I ended up living with Pastor George. He was a sweet old man, and the main opinion leader in the community. He had made so many preparations for our arrival. We had been learning Twi in MIT, but in Accra people mostly speak Ga. In Ashanti region people speak Twi, and in New Longoro they speak Mu. We each had our own translator who would be living with us in the homes. His house was the poshest in the village. Granted we didn't have electricity, but he had his own water tank. He even had an indoor toilet even though you had to fetch water into the bucket to flush it. My first shower in New Longoro was a bit funny. The house had an outdoors bathing room, but it was definitely built for someone shorter than me. I went in with my bucket of water, and realized I could see people on the road pretty clearly. It was pretty strange having people say hi to you as they passed by the shower. It was equally funny when a goat would walk into the shower. My poor team-mate had a chicken watching her shower. Pastor George kept grass cutters, cows, bees, goats etc. I noticed that in Ghana all the goats are fat, and all the cows are really thin. Fresh milk is not available in Ghana. They use powder milk and evaporated milk. It was interesting noting some minor differences between African countries.

SUNDAY SCHOOL
Having Pastor George as our main host meant that Sunday would be a church sunday. It was pretty amusing considering only 20% of our group was remotely Christian. We were asked to give a sermon, and our professor gave a wonderful sermon on development. The pastor is a genius, and planned out what we should tell the folk before church. He said our sermon should involve talking to the people about sending children to school, good hygiene etc. It was interesting to see how much power the church holds in a community. One of my team-mates (a medical student) decided to deliver a sermon on the benefits of breast feeding, and Pastor George being a very practical hands on person decided that people learn best by example. He asked a lady in the back who was breast feeding her baby to come to the front. I thought it would be an awkward moment for the rest of the group, but it turned out none of us is faint of heart. I think my time in the village I saw more boob than I have even seen on Girls gone wild ads.

A BUG'S LIFE
I worry for my health considering that when we were in New Longoro we got bitten by tsetse flies, onco flies, mosquitoes, bees and other insects of unknown origin. So worst case scenario we braved getting sleeping sickness, river blindness, malaria etc. Let me not forget to mention my varucca/fungal infection growing on the sole of my foot. Quite adventorous I must say. I got it from going barefoot into the Black Volta (not really sure why that seemed like a good idea.) In Ghana I noticed a strange habit. Before meals a bowl of warm soapy water is brought before you, and everyone washes their hands in the same bowl. We tried not to think too much about how many germs we might be sharing between us.

My first time in Ghana - part 4

June 30, 2015

LAND OF THE LEARNED
One of the things that amazed me in Ghana was how well educated people are. Everyone we met seemed to have a Bachelors, Masters and perhaps even a Phd. It was plain to see that having a forward-looking first president like Kwame Nkrumah has given Ghana a head start on some other African nations. On Monday we went to a neighbouring town called Wenchi, and went to visit the district hospital. It was pretty well equipped, but had mostly Cuban doctors. The head of the hospital told us that brain drain has taken so many of Ghana's doctors and nurses that now they get doctors from Cuba. I spent the time in Ofuman testing water samples from the rivers, and testing plastic bottles versus plastic papers in solar water disinfection (SODIS.) It was pretty interesting work for me. Our host was a layman in the Methodist church and took us to visit the Bishop in Wenchi. Yet again he was a highly educated man with huge plans for the country. Ghana really felt like a forward moving nation to me. He was educated in Wheaton college, and we had some German tea at his place. It was really sad that in two weeks the Bishop's lovely house would burn to the ground due to an electrical fault. Luckily no one would be hurt, but all his earthly possessions would be no more.

INTO THE DEEP
Our last days in Ofuman were spent working with agriculture students in the region showing them how to make charcoal from waste materials e.g. coconut husks, corn cobs, sugarcane bagasse. It was a really worthwhile experience considering what a big problem deforestation has become for developing nations. Our last night in Ofuman we had amazing tofu kebabs (I have a new found respect for tofu after having it Ghanaian style.) During one of the charcoal demonstrations one of the university students kept winking at me, and making me slightly confused during my presentation. Boys!!!! There are lots of grasscutters in Ghana, and they are eaten in quite a few places. I remember seeing one, and I totally freaked out. It is a huge huge rodent. It is fatter than two rabbits, but looks like a huge rat. I have not yet eaten a grasscutter to my knowledge. The night we left Ofuman the host family were having marriage negotiations with their daughter’s fiance’s parents. He was a really cool computer engineer who was about to marry our host’s daughter- who is only 26 but is an importer of agricultural materials and has her own store. Her fiancé loves her so much that he moved to the village to instead manage his soon to be father in law’s farm. He is a really nice guy with a habit of telling stories that are built up to sound like jokes, but never have a funny ending. We just called his sense of humor "special." This calm guy randomly decides to tell us how much he hates pedestrians on the road who don't move when they see a car approaching. He calmly tells us that he carries a cane in the car to hit people on the road who don't move off fast enough. We were all silent, and wondering whether to laugh or run. I still think he is a nice guy. Just probably suffers from suppressed rage. Every human being has their own mental disorder.

My first time in Ghana - part 3

June 23, 2015

BRONG AHAFO
After our mission in Kumasi was done we began our task into the deep lands. We took a trotro/matatu/ tiny minivan to our next destination. We would be living on a farm working on our projects with a famous farmer who is the uncle of one of the Ghanaians at MIT, and was the two time winner of Ghana's best National farmer award. He got two pickups for his brilliance in farming. He is no regular farmer. He is highly educated (having studied in Ghana and abroad.) He had his PHD and is a farmer by profession. His farm was definitely one of the most productive farms I have seen. He lives in Ofuman, and he is the town itself.

LUNCH TIME
Ok I would not do my trip to Ghana justice if I didn't talk about the food. Now I take a small break, and talk about the heavenly meals we ate there. Pineaples, Mangoes, Pawpaws, coconuts, Coconut rice, jolof rice, red-red (fried sweet plantains with beans cooked in red palm oil), banku (fermented flour that is used to make a sort of ugali that has a slightly tangy taste....yum yum), foofoo (pounded yam/cassava), palava/problem sauce (Morenga or spinach mixed with egusi (watermelon seeds) and fried in palm oil. Peanut sauce, gari - cassava that has been grated, dried then roasted and is sprinkled on food in a salt like manner to increase carbohydrate intake. All types of fish. I don't know what has become of me. I lost myself in Ghana and really started loving fish. Sole, tilapia, red snapper etc. It was amazingly good.
Our breakfast usually consisted of tea bread, sugar bread, Hausa coco (yummy fermented porridge with a hint of pepper), cocoa tea, tea tea or coffee tea. Ghanaians use tea to refer to any hot drink. Don't ask me why. Sodas are called "Mineral." Yep English came by ship.

BACK TO BUSINESS
Huge lizards were a normal thing to see all over Ghana. Huge green lizards with red stripes. Apparently they are harmlesss. In Ofuman life was amazing. We were living in the village, but not really in the village as our host was much wealthier than the average villager. We had electricity, water, radio etc. Our host owns so much land, and took us for a tour the first night. He grew everything from Morenga (miracle tree) to cashews, to mangoes, cassava, cocoa, coconuts etc. He is a huge exporter. It was lovely taking a ride on the back of his pickup to see his farm, his lake, his cattle, sheep, goats, chickens etc. Riding in the back of the pickup in the setting sun made me long for years gone by when we would ride on the back of dad's pickup from Nairobi primary and would be flying on Uhuru highway. Being at one with the wind. I still believe that my favourite mode of transportation is on the back of a pickup.

My first time in Ghana - part 2

June 16, 2015

KUMASI BOUND
We woke up at 6am to catch our 9am bus to Kumasi. There was a blackout, and I grabbed a shower in torch light. As soon as I had soaped myself the water ran out. I calmly dried myself and came to terms with the fact that for the rest of the day I would smell like a bar of soap. We took a cab to the train station, and it worried me that we were riding in slow traffic with our windows open. Later I was to find out that Accra is one of the safest capital cities in Africa. Pickpocketing is very unusual. In fact the guide book contrasted Accra to Nairobi. We got to the bus station at 7:30am forgetting to account for African timing of buses. The buses were running a little late. To be precise, the 5:30am bus left at 8am. The 7:30am bus left at 9am, and our 9am bus left at 11am. Luckily someone had brought some cards for a game called "apples to apples" and we killed some time playing that. I remember having to use a public toilet, and it cost me 7000 cedis (0.7 dollars.) The toilet was really clean and the cashier gave us toilet paper, and I started to wonder if Accra just might be slightly more advanced than Nairobi. The journey lasted five hours with a stop in a town somewhere in the middle. I tempted fate and had a meat pie at the stop. Luck was on my side, and I did not get a case of the bad diarrhoea or anything like that (excuse my french .) The scenery was beautiful and even though we were northwards bound the tropical climate of Ghana made all the towns look coastal. Everywhere I saw palm trees, coconut trees etc. The humidity got a bit less, but the heat was intense.
On the air conditioned bus we took I saw two video screens descend, and was very excited to realize that one of them worked. I was very pleased that they would be showing a Nigerian film. It was in true Nigerian counterfeit fashion. The beginning started with the whole beginning of 20th century fox films with roaring lion included. In place of the title "20th century fox" was "Dj productions." The movie even had an FBI warning to it about not pirating it. Heeeeee heeeeeee. So just as I am excited about watching "In love with a thief "(you have to love those self explanatory titles) the screen freezes, and thus ends our movie. Well they tried............
We arrived at the Kwame Nkrumah university of Science and Technology (KNUST ) school of medicine guest house which would be our home for the few days in Kumasi. The campus was lovely. The hostels were beautiful, and the grounds were really well kept. Getting off the bus was a bit of a hassle because as soon as the cab people saw foreigners they rushed to try and get our luggage into their cabs. Everyone was trying to get us into their cabs. Our group consisted of two Ghanaians (a guy and a girl), a British Indian guy, a Chinese American girl, a Polish American girl and our female American Professor who was quite africanized. She had been in the peace corps for five years. Lived and worked in Botswana as the bee keeping regional officer and high school teacher. Has lived and worked in 47 different countries. Strict vegetarian. Now an MIT professor. Me (who fitted in quite well since everyone thought I was Ghanaian – Ashanti to be precise. Amidst excited shouts of Browni (the generic Ghanaian word for white person) we finally managed to get to our hostel with all our bags. I was quite surprised that even in the chaos no one had tried to steal any of our bags. Ghana is unbelievably safe. We took a walk and looked at the lovely grounds. There was a tree with many bats, and one of our hosts told us the famous bat story. Some of the locals eat bats, but they are pretty tricky to eat. Once they are in the stew they keep on soaking up all the soup, and one has to continuously squeeze the flesh to get back their soup. All the trees were covered in dust since it is Harmattan season, and the winds blowing from the Sahara bring lots of dust into the country.
The next day we went to Suame Magazine which is Africa's largest jua kali area. Tens of thousands of local artisans work in the hot sun and one can find anything in Suame Magazine. Beds, car spare parts, heavy machinery etc. It is the largest artisan engineering cluster in Africa. We spent the day in one of the workshops getting parts for some of the agricultural machines we would be taking into the villages.

My first time in Ghana - part 1

June 9, 2015

Date: Early 2007
Context: Thekenyanexplorer went to Ghana with a team from uni on a 3 week trip to Ghana. Her team was focusing on some development work in energy and water. This is an email that was sent to her friends and family after the trip. The full story will be in a few separate consecutive blog entries.
Well what can I say. I just got back from my three week developmental field work in Ghana. Ghana was amazing. It was what I could describe as a life changing experience for me. The country is wonderful. The people are amazing, and unbelievably nice. Just thinking back to my past three weeks makes me love my continent even more. Such a beautiful, albeit disturbed continent. Africa was once a utopia. Africa will once again be a utopia. A wealth of heritage, culture, music, dance, beauty, history, customs. It is indeed sad that currently our utopia is plagued by civil wars, political strife, famines, droughts, disease and poverty. In my opinion Africa is the most beautiful place in the world.

THE JOURNEY THAT ALMOST NEVER WAS
So probably the beginning of my journey was not the best ever. After the Ghanaian embassy in DC held my passport for really long, and did not send it back in time, it looked like I would not be entering my promised land. As a desperate measure my professor still hoped to get me to board the plane, but that failed. Anyone with my suspect genes knows that it would be a snowy day in Khartoum when a Kenyan left the States without a passport (unless they are being deported.) Feeling slightly dejected I waved goodbye to the rest of my team and was pleased to find out I would be able to travel a few days later, and meet them. I travelled a few days after my group, and I was really excited and anxious to get to Accra. I remember sitting in the Amsterdam airport, and hearing on the loud speaker "Kenya airways flight no. blah blah to Nairobi will be boarding at gate abc." It made me really homesick to know that a plane to my home was leaving from the same airport I was in. It was however comforting to know that I would be in the continent although in the extreme Westerly point from Kenya. The Amsterdam airport was nostalgic. Many Africans seated at the gate. I remember a Ghanaian woman next to me who had a daughter and a young son who were fighting next to me. It brought back childhood memories of my sister and me. The girl slapped her little brother, and he came running to me in tears. I just lifted him up, and sat him on my lap. It was so odd not having to worry that the child's mother might mistake me for a creepy stranger trying to kidnap her baby. I realized I felt quite at home. I arrived at Accra the next evening, and the airport reminded me of JKIA (Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.) Many people. Many bags. Many screaming toddlers. It was refreshing. My first suspicion that I was not in Nairobi was the fact that everyone including the customs officials was extremely nice to me. No one tried to get some "chai kidogo/bribe" from me. It took me a whole five minutes to get out of the airport since I made friends with a Sudanese guy as I got off the plane who turned out to work for the UN in Liberia. He took me through the diplomatic exits, and told them I was his co-worker. It was indeed the royal treatment. I kind of felt like Djimon Hounsou in Blood Diamond in the scene when he has to pretend to be a photographer. I got out of the airport, and was met by my team. There was a layer of mist in the atmosphere and I assumed we were in a glass encased room before I realized we were actually in the outdoors. Accra was amazingly humid. It is said you can look directly into the sun without hurting your eyes thanks to the layer of dust and humidity around you. We hopped into a cab, and went to the Pink Hostel that would be my abode for the night. My professor told us that we would be waking up at 6am to head off to our next destination- Kumasi in the Ashanti region.