3 hours worth of internet cafe time...

Hey Everyone! I hope all is going well back in the states. I am currently in the second week of my month long travels. I spent a week in Amsterdam/Switzerland with my Dad exploring history and a potential college. I think that I have come to the conclusion that I don't want to go to Franklin College in Switzerland, it is definitely international based education, but more on a self involved diplomatic way. I want to be working and learning about more developing nations, as opposed to Europe.

Anyway... on to the cooler news. I am in GHANA. I met up with the team in Amsterdam last Saturday, Feb. 16th, and we explored the town a bit. Other than accidently setting a vespa alarm off... hahaha.... everything went rather smooth. I said goodbye to my Dad and headed with the group to this amazing country. We arrived in the evening to the airport. It is hot and muggy, a striking difference compared to the 30 or so degree weather I had gotten used to in Europe. We wizzed "Ghanaian whizzing...." through customs and baggage claim in their cramped small airport and made it outside to be greated with an awesome sign, the pre crew, the media, and some students and supporters of our contacts. We left and went to a large house in Accra where we slept... and well.

Feb. 17th
We woke up to Nescafe coffee and cornflakes (the universal breakfast) and sat on the porch as we watched street kids playing a game of football (soccer) and women walk by with large buckets and bowls of everything from smoked baracuda to bread, to firewood. We met up with two medical doctors Farhah and Ben who are in Accra to help people in the community for a few months. They came with us to a large market in Accra as well as to Kwame Nkrumah's memorial. In the market there are stalls after stalls of arts and crafts and football jerseys and the team had an interesting time learning how to bargain and how to stand up to the countless vendors who keep calling "Hey Friend!" (no, I am not your friend...) After that we walked to Kwame Nkrumah's memorial park and museum. Kwame was the first president of Ghana and the man that declared independence from the British in 1957. I guess you could say visiting his memorial was much like visiting the grave of George Washington. What may have been even better was that the little museum where they displayed much of Kwame's things (such as books, pens, pictures and even college dorm furniture) was air conditioned! That evening, we went back to the house where a party had been planned in our honor, and we ate great food (including this really hot pepper sauce that I wish they had warned me about) and had a great little dance circle. We went to bed late that night after playing several "bonding games" in the girl's livingroom. The team is amazing in that there really aren't any "clicks" in the group, we all just get along great.

Feb. 18th
Today we took the long bus ride to Dunkwa-on-Offin where Boa Amoponsem Secondary School is located - the school that we are working at. On the way, we met up with Nils and Sam P. and stopped at Winneba beach where we swam in the ocean for hours and ate a picnic lunch on the beach. We took tons of hilarious pictures, rode tons of waves, and only got a tiny bit sunburned on the cheeks, and thoroughly covered in sand. We then went the rest of the bus ride to Dunkwa. We didn't arrive until evening. We were greated by tons of students there to see the Oboruni "White people". We introduced ourselves to the staff and a few students and went to bed. The girls are staying in a little house with three rooms and a shower and bathroom - the guys have a similar situation, only one room just has all of our tubs in it. They are great accomadations. The people here want nothing more than to please us. They bought us all mosquito nets, and are feeding us incredible food.

Feb. 19th
Today we went to Kyirenkum, Nana (cheif) Labi's village. There we say all of the cheifs dressed in their regal dress and Nana Labi wore his crown. All the other cheifs did not wear their crowns as a sign of respect to Labi and Ram - Labi's development cheif and good friend. Many people on the team had not seen a village or community that far in poverty before and I think it really opened their eyes. While we were seated with the cheifs and respected, my thoughts kept going out to all the children with the malnourished, bloated stomachs that sat by in the sun watching us with wonderment. We had a small dance party... and got in the bus where we drove a ways and ate a quick lunch (the school packs us lunches) and we went to the paramount cheif - essentially the wise king of all the land. We had a visit with him in all of his regalness. You first must go around and shake the hands of all of the cheifs and then kiss the cheek of the Ama Hini (paramount cheif) - I think he enjoyed all the kisses from the ladies he got :D. The meeting took quite a while but it was endlessly amazing to see that we were there amongst such culturally and diplomatically important peoples. I learned that in the old days when the nana came to his village once a year or so they would have a huge ceremony and sacrifice a small child. This I learned after seeing a horn instrument made from the skull of a human. It is so amazing to see that such horrendous and indigenous acts that are not humane were happening so recently in a place that is only two days travel from my own home. Now the cheifs just talk and banter (what about I have no clue unless interpreted since they speak Twee). Now, they sacrifice a goat. Later that day I was talking to some of the adults and learned that when were at the beach the previous day a small child had been found dead on the side of the rode. That is such a hard thind to take in... that there are people dying all around in this world - innocent people, young people that have not yet had a chance to live fully. Life and death take on different meanings over here than they do back home. Perhaps that is why much of the music is so beautiful here - people have a lot to wail about. At the same time, in the middle of all of this poverty, everyone has a birght smile, and a hand to share. Never before have I seen so many loving and beautiful faces.

Feb. 20th
We went back to the villages today. Again we had a visit with the Paramount Cheif, and attended a dance party... We played with some chidren in the village, they loved seeing us. Once, there was a small rodent, I am not sure what, maybe a rat, that the kids chased after and caught and played with it. It was hilarious and a little freaky at the same time. On the way back, Nana Labi took us to one of the small villages and we all ate goat. It tasted so delicious! I got asked by one of the cheifs if I would ever marry a black man, I said maybe some day. He proposed it be him. Later that day another cheif asked me to be his Queen Mother (or first wife that bears his first children) while I was honored, I declined. Seriously though, I wonder how many goats I am worth.... haha. It was a long bus ride back, and on the way we slept as best we could on what has been nick-named "Old Yellow" - it is the school's school bus and is just a big hunk of metal that begins to hurt a lot ater a 3 hour drive on bumpy unpaved roads. We went back to the school and ate some dinner that they had prepared for us. Nana Labi was very happy to say that once again we had been invited back to see the paramount cheif. He could not believe what a big deal it was to be able to see him so many times. So we got well rested up for another long, hot, bumpy ride out there to the villages.

Feb, 21stWe have been eating breakfast with the students every morning in their cafeteria. I feel really bad though because they serve our team amazing food, and the school kids eat only porrige in the morning. We have been eating with one GTA student per table, so I have been drinking hot cocoa, eating eggs, beans, sausage, bread, and fruit right in front of them. We have asked that we get served food earlier so we can still sit with the students as they eat, but we don't have to eat in front of them. I tried thier porrige today though, and it is actually pretty good - I mean it isn't that bad, I would be more than willing to just eat that, but oh well. I have made so many friends already, but it is so hard to remember their names since they all wear the same uniform and have the same haircut. Anyway at the villages today, Labi was finally given full control and ownership of all his land by the paramount cheif, something that his family has been trying for 40 some years to do. In addition we are trying to make a mape using GPS readings of his land for him so he can more closely regulate if their are poachers, who lives there, if deforestation is occuring...etc. After the meeting with the paramount cheif, we had a FAT dance party, I can only describe it as this "I danced with all of Ghana tonight" - Sam Potter. They had a stack of what must have been fifteen fat stereos just blasting music. The whole team danced and danced a lot with many of the little children. I know that for them, that made a huge impact. Just that these tall Americans would want to know them and do something with them. We went back to bed that night exhausted but all around happy for the difference that had been made simply by our presence.

Feb. 22nd
We woke up early this morning and attended the morning assembly at school here. Every morning at 6:30 the students meet to pray and sing and hear a small sermon. The sounds of everyone's voices as they sing is incredible - and just a side note, they also have a midnight church service where they go out on the field and sing. For the last three nights, I have been falling asleep to the beautiful sounds of their voices. Anyway, after the assembly we got on "Old Yellow" and headed south to Cape Coast and Kakum. Kakum is the rainforest reserve. We went hiking into the canopy of the forest where we walked on rickity suspeded bridges over the forest. It was a little scary. Especially when Sam Galey and Mr. Rye made it swing a little... We bought some coconuts before loading back onto the bus and heading to Elmina Slave Castle. We arrived at Elmina Castle where we went on the 45 minute tour. We went inside the rooms that hundreds of Africans women and men were left in to essentially die or live in a hell on earth. We saw the governer's room, how he would punich women that refused to be raped by him, and finally the point of no return, where the African captives would be loaded from their two month long prisons and loaded into one on a boat. We saw where they would throw those that died out into the sea. It was a very sombering place to be, and a place that taught me a lot about the African perspective on the slave trades that essentially made my country. We met Peggy and her tour group outside of the castle and then we headed to Coconut Groves (a hotel beach) where we swam in the ocean and the pool and played pool. We headed back around eight from Cape Coast and finally arrived in Dunkwa around midnight - where again they had food for us, although I slept through it.