So I've realized that I'm not yet totally prepared to write a post about my feelings upon returning home to Canada from Ghana, but what I can do is tell you about my last days in Accra, which ended up being pretty amazing.
As it turned out I wasn't alone at the Crystal Hostel, I was just the only one staying in the main house with Seth and Auntie (the couple that owns the hostel). Outside were two other guest houses, one of which had a rooftop pavilion overlooking Accra where I spent a lot of time journaling, doing beadwork, and hanging out with the "vicious" guard dogs. Some really cool people were also staying at the hostel including a musician who was collaborating with locals artists on an album, a film-maker, a student writing his thesis on the evolution of childhood in Ghana, and a group of girls from London who were trekking across Ghana to learn leadership skills and build self-confidence. I ended up eating breakfast with the English girls both mornings and helping them plan different excursions around Accra. They were spending 28 days in Ghana and had already travelled through 11 villages and worked on various community projects and participated in a number of cultural activities. What I thought was really cool about their trip was that these girls were only 15-18 years old and were in total control of everything that happened. They had 3 adult chaperones but they were responsible for managing their budget, finding transportation, planning activities, and looking for food and lodging. They took everything one day at a time and would wake up each morning to decide where they would go that day. I was really impressed with how mature they all seemed!
On the Monday I spent my morning doing beadwork and then caught a tro tro through Kaneshie Station to Osu. I met up with Sophia and her roommate Marine and we headed to a new Thai Restaurant called Zion. The restaurant is owned by a legit Thai woman and her cooking is SUPERB! If you plan on heading to Accra I would highly recommend this place, especially if you're vegetarian (she had real tofu!!). After lunch I browsed around Global Mamas and got some shea butter products, wrote an extensive apology email to Ms. Francois at New Horizon Special School and then grabbed a massive salad from Frankie's for dinner before heading back to Darkuman. This fellow named Delight (the names in Ghana are wonderful!) helped me catch the right tro tro back to Kaneshie and was definitely one of the nicer guys I met during my time in Ghana. He was really disappointed to hear that I was leaving the next day and made sure to give me three different phone numbers where I could reach him the next time I came back to Accra. Even though I have held onto these numbers most Ghanaians change their phone numbers on a regular basis so I'm not going to hold out too much hope that they will still be valid two or three years from now!
I got lost after reaching Kaneshie Station and picking a cab to Darkuman because the streets have no names in the neighbourhood I was staying in and I had not memorized my way around the complex maze of roads and back alleys overnight. I ended up calling Seth who directed my cabbie to a filling station and sent his buddy NaNa over to meet me. NaNa is this really friendly guy who owns a craft shop behind the Crystal Hostel. Apparently Auntie and Seth really helped him get back on his feet after a difficult time and he's become very close friends with them, helping them out whenever he can. Aside from leading me back to the hostel in one piece he also called one of his buddies and organized a ride to the airport for me for the following night. I was so grateful for his help! That night I called mom and dad to let them know the cockroaches were the biggest threat at Crystal Hostel and I would be able to happily stay there for another night. I slept like a friggin' log.
Tuesday got off to a crazy start. The English girls talked to me over breakfast about costs for chartering vans and were disappointed to hear that the driver they had been using for the last three days had been hugely ripping them off and lying to them left, right, and centre about the costs of driving in Ghana. I told them they should definitely re-negotiate prices for the next leg of their journey so when their driver arrived that morning four of the girls approached him about bringing down his price. The driver was not happy and was definitely the rudest and most aggressive business person I ever encountered while in Ghana. The girls offered him more than necessary for a 3 hour drive to their next destination considering he was driving a rusted out box with no luggage room, broken windows, no A/C, and broken signal lights, but he wouldn't budge on his initial price. First he tried to guilt trip them explaining how he was a poor man just trying to scrape by in this awful world. When that didn't work he accused them of being racist, which was amusing considering the group consisted of three white girls, two black girls, and about 10 brown girls. His next move was to tell them that they were being horrible Christians and God would smite them for their greed and meanness. At this point he was screaming at them and Daryl (the girls' male chaperone) got involved. The driver began outright insulting Daryl calling him every name under the sun and making very aggressive gestures towards him. I told the other girls to forget this driver, even if he came down in price he couldn't be trusted and didn't deserve their business after being so rude. I sent them over to NaNa to find a new driver with a better vehicle and fairer pricing. NaNa came over a few moments later to try and calm this guy down. The driver then ran inside the hostel to tattle to Seth and look for back-up. An intense debate ensued and the driver lunged at NaNa and Daryl repeatedly while Seth tried to calm everybody down. NaNa was just laughing at the foolishness of this driver and then left to bring the girls' new driver over. It took almost an hour to get this disgruntled driver off the property but the girls were then placed in much better hands, which made me happy. I said goodbye to them and wished them luck on the rest of their journey before hopping on a tro tro to the University of Accra at Legon.
My plan was to spend the day wandering through the botanical garden where I could spend time reflecting on my trip and collect some of my thoughts before leaving. I also wanted to check out the library (the largest and oldest in West Africa), the bookstore, and the Museum of Archaeology, which houses some of the skeletons of pre-human species and has been heavily involved in the human genome project. As usual, my plan quickly fell apart (all a part of some greater power trying to teach me the benefits of being flexible)! I arrived on campus and headed in the direction the Bradt Guide indicated the Botanical Gardens should be. Along the way I stopped students to double check I was headed the right way (this campus is huge and really stunningly beautiful). One of these students happened to be Gideon who decided not only would he show me the way but, like a helpful Ghanaian should, he would give me a full-fledged guided tour of the Gardens. At first this really ticked me off because I had come here specifically for alone time, but I had been reading "Me to We" and decided to embrace their reminder about the importance of gratitude and be thankful for the company. Gideon spent most of our walk grilling me on Canadian culture, politics, and my personal life--he was extremely interested in learning about a foreign country. What I found amusing was he frequently spoke as though he knew Canada saying things like "It is such a beautiful country", "the people are so friendly", and "I love Toronto". When I asked if he had traveled there he said "Yes, somehow." He hadn't of course, but in general Ghanaians do not like to admit to not knowing things, so he acted as though he had been to Canada and knew the country. He also pretended he knew his way around the Gardens and managed to get us lost 3 times. His third strike was asking about my favourite kind of pet, to which I replied "Chinchillas". He said he also loved chinchillas, but when asked what they looked like he said he had forgotten so I laughed and explained what they were. I then decided it would be a good time to tell him that he didn't have to pretend to know everything--nobody knows everything! I felt bad that Ghanaians were always so afraid of being judged if they got something wrong or didn't have an answer. I was constantly reassuring people that admitting to a gap in knowledge or asking questions wouldn't cost them our friendship! After our walk, which included seeing the experimental farm, the fish breeding grounds in the man-made lake, and the donkeys and horses in the orchard, I bought Gideon lunch to thank him for his kindness and help. After lunch he insisted on taking me to the internet cafe so I could see his family. I was hesitant because my time was almost up and I hadn't done half of what I had planned but he insisted so off we went. After looking at hundreds of photos of his mother, father, nieces, nephews, and 6 sisters and being told repeatedly that I would "know them very well soon" and "meet them in the near future" we finally signed off and headed out. He then wanted me to meet his friends so he took me over to the boys' dormitory, which by the way reeked of urine. He took me into this one room where two of his friends were standing in their underwear to introduce me. Out in the hall boys were cat-calling at me and Gideon was happily accepting the high-fives and suggestive comments from them. I was very uncomfortable and told him I was leaving. We said our goodbyes and I quickly ran off to the bookstore where I indulged my obsession with classic literature at half the price I can pull off in Canada. I never made it to the library or the museum.
Back at the tro tro stop I stood around for 45 minutes while tro tro after tro tro passed by me full of people. I was getting anxious because it was after 3 PM and I knew the tro tro ride back to the hostel would take over an hour. My ride to the airport was going to be picking me up at 6 PM and before then I had to finish packing, shower, eat dinner, and settle my bill. In desperation I sent out a prayer and to my astonishment it was answered only moments later! A taxi pulled up with two young guys and a girl in it. They asked where I was going and told me they could take me to Achimota Station. I kept asking how much because if you don't negotiate a price BEFORE getting in the vehicle cab drivers will frequently rip you off. They just laughed and said "Don't worry, it's free"! I found this hard to believe but didn't have much choice at that point so I took a leap of faith and hopped in. To my surprise the guy in the front passenger's seat was listening to an iPhone and when he started up a conversation used North American sarcasm and humour. He introduced himself as Mol and told me the driver, Selorm, was his buddy and the girl in the back seat, Karen, was his daughter, which confused the hell out of me because she was so close to his age! I just assumed he meant he had a young daughter with the same name as this girl (Ghanaians frequently refer to those around them with family titles if they have the same name as one of their family members despite lacking any biological relation--for example a man in Hohoe had a sister named Jessica so he always referred to me as his "little sister" and he became my "big brother"). This assumption turned out to be very wrong. Mol realized I was confused and explained that the three of them had grown up in a Christian Community just beyond Achimota. In essence this community was a squatter's settlement where everyone lived in complete poverty. Mol had grown up working odd jobs to put himself through school and was so passionate about the people in his community that at 20 years of age he founded an NGO called Global Ghana Youth Network to assist the kids who struggled so much. Mol provided schooling to these kids 5 days a week, gave them clothing and shoes to wear, and provided them with two meals a day. He referred to Karen as his daughter because he had literally raised her over the past 5 years. Today his organization supports more than 75 street children in Accra and has attracted volunteers and sponsors from around the globe. Most of Mol's support came from the U.S. where he used to travel to frequently to give educational seminars on poverty in Accra and raise funds for his project. Unfortunately much of this support has ceased following the economic crisis and Mol is struggling to keep the program together while jumping through hoops to gain registered charity status under the 501 (C) Bill in the U.S. Soon we were talking about the possibility of him traveling to Canada in the coming year to give presentations to various community and University organizations I had connections to and he was giving me advice on how to proceed in starting up a Vocational Training Foundation for the students at Gbi Special School. I could not believe my good fortune at having been the one to climb into this cab! We exchanged contact information and when I tried to hand Mol gas money for the ride he refused saying "What goes around will come around" and climbed out of the cab to hug me goodbye and wish me a safe journey home. Mol, Selorm, and Karen were each so inspirational and so incredibly self-less. I'm blessed to have been able to stay in touch with them since arriving home and we email back and forth almost every other day. I would highly encourage everyone following this blog to take a moment to check out Global Ghana Youth Network's website because they are doing amazing things in Accra!
Global Ghana Youth Network:
http://www.ggyn.org/
I didn't get back to the hostel until after 5 PM and quickly scarfed dinner, showered, and packed. I was pretty impressed that I managed to fit everything into one suitcase (minus my drum)! I settled my bill (only $40GH for two nights, three meals, and bottled water! I would highly recommend the Crystal Hostel to anyone traveling to Accra on a tight budget!) and ran out to say goodbye to NaNa and catch my cab. The drive to the airport took an hour and a half including a ten minute stop at the grocery store for airplane snacks. Check-in was pretty quick, thank goodness, but I had to laugh as I watched a bunch of Ghanaians cutting lines and the reactions of disgruntled diplomats and ex-pats waiting patiently to enter our flight gate!
The flight to Frankfurt was an interesting one, mostly due to my seat partner, a Ghanaian guy who looked at least 25 and who was traveling with his sister and mother seated in front of us. His concept of personal space was non-existent. To go to sleep he constructed a tent using his blanket, swung his legs over the arm rest between us, and settled his elbow into my ribs. To top it all off he would occasionally peak out of his tent and glare at me as though my presence were preventing him from getting his beauty rest. At meal times (despite having only a six hour flight we managed to have supper and breakfast!) he would trade food items over the seats with his mother and sister, frequently spilling. His most glorious moment arrived when the plane hit turbulence. His response was to undo his seat belt, stand, jump up and down, hit the seats, and shout at his mother in excited Twi. I swear every eye in economy class seating was trained on him and I got a few pitying looks from the elderly ladies across the aisle from me. For his sake I hope it was his first time on an airplane and he was just overexcited about the novelty of hitting air pockets.
During my 7 1/2 hour layover in Frankfurt I played some sudoku, read a mac magazine, and spent almost three hours spilling my guts into my journal. I realized that I had a lot of pent up emotion from my trip and now that I was finally alone and in an environment separate from my experiences all of the emotions were swelling and tearing through me.
To be honest I still haven't been able to sort out how I feel, so until I do I will avoid posting about it. I was overwhelmed with happiness to be back on Canadian soil where I understand the people better and can function within the culture without making a million misjudgements or mistakes every time I turn around. Since getting back home I have spent a lot of time talking with friends and family about my experiences and I am often upset to discover that I tend to dwell on the more challenging things I confronted in Ghana, rather than the pleasant things. The pleasant things are just so easy to accept and I never needed to come to terms with them, whereas the negative experiences I had currently lie in a grey area and I was never given an opportunity to reflect on them or attempt to deal with them while in Ghana. One thing I can say is this trip opened my eyes in ways I never anticipated. I saw both the beauty and the darkness of Ghana, which I am so thankful for. My views on development and westernization have become much more complex and I am now sure that my life is headed in the right direction.
The question I am always asked is "Will you go back?" My simple answer is "Yes". I fell in love with the kids at Gbi Special School and made some really amazing friends in Ghana--I can't imagine having to go through life without seeing them again. My more complicated answer is "No". Because the person I am right now won't go back. The next time I travel to Ghana I hope that the person I am will have grown into something better. I will have to make sure to mentally and emotionally prepare myself for being completely unprepared for what I am about to walk into. I will have to figure out better ways of coping with my frustrations and my failures. I will have to accept how little I know about the world around me, and I will have to be okay with it. I will have to drop my judgmental attitude and take more time to stand in the shoes of those I meet.
In conclusion, I have a lot of traveling to do to places within myself before I will be ready to travel to places outside of myself again.
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Sunday, August 1, 2010
A Note on CCFC & The Last Post from Ghana!
So this is a little delayed but I just wanted to say a couple things about the Christian Children's Fund Canada program in Ghana. First of all, the staff here are absolutely amazing and totally dedicated to making the lives of these children a little bit better. They literally spend hours upon hours hunting hundreds of kids down in their communities to deliver letters and messages from donors abroad and send word back on how the kids are faring.
Secondly, the program is extremely well organized considering the lack of infrastructure in Ghana. They partner with community programs to service those families most in need with programs that are relevant to the culture and lifestyle of the area. In Abdul-Malik's community CCFC is partnered with Gumani Family and Child Care Program which not only looks out for the most needy kids in Gumani through the sponsorship program but also runs a number of community support projects. They organize educational workshops for the children in the community schools, fundraise and find grants from international bodies to support community facilities, and run a credit union that provides microloans to entrepeneurs and farming families. The women's cooperative is only one of the many businesses that has started as a result of the microloan program and now includes over 20 members. These ladies sat with me and spoke with such pride about the success of their business processing rice and producing shea butter. Currently they do everything by hand, but they were happy to tell me that they have been able to build a warehouse to work in along with a eletric motor and two grinding machines to expand business! They are now financially independent and able to support their families during seasons of poor harvest yields (which is happening more and more frequently due to the torrential rains and desertification of the north--the ground is deteriorating into sand and clay so when the rainy season arrives the water just sits on top of the land and drowns the crops). The women also mentionned how thrilled they were at being able to give their children things they always wanted but never had--like an education and a small treat from time to time. This sentiment really got to me because I hear parents in Canada say this all the time, it's one of the many universal feelings I have become more aware of during my time in Ghana.
Third, the organization IS talking about changing their name from Christian Children's Fund to just "Children's Fund" because having a religious affiliation has caused some major misconceptions about their organization. CCFC works for families from a variety of religious backgrounds. Their mission is not a prejudiced one, they simply want to help those who need it most. In Abdul-Malik's community 70% of the families in the program are Muslim, with the other 30% a combination of Christian and traditional tribal sects. I found this really reassuring and relieving.
Lastly, CCFC works in tandem with other international NGOs like UNICEF and World Vision to ensure that services do not overlap in any community. If World Vision is already serving one community in Ghana CCFC will look for a community that is not being supported to work in. This makes their programming a lot more efficient.
The thing that surprised me the most about my visit with Abdul-Malik was the incredulous looks on the faces of his peers as I pulled up to the school and the disbelief his family showed when shaking my hand. After our visit I asked the CCFC staff about whether or not my visit would make Abdul-Malik's friends jealous because very few sponsors ever visit (I was the first one here since spring of last year!). They just laughed and said no, absolutely not. My visit would do many things: it would raise the status of Abdul-Malik and his family in the community, it would raise the status of his school, but most importantly it would shatter the myth that sponsors don't really exist! HUH?! Apparently people in Ghana think the entire sponsorship program is a complicated hoax. They believe money is sent to the programs by faceless organizations and governments and then "sponsor families" are created to make them think somebody out there actually cares about their well being. This broke my heart, especially since many families refuse to participate fully in the program based on grounds of mistrust. It is often a struggle to get families to write response letters because they think they are just sitting in the staff office and being replied to by other Ghanaians. So my appearance in the community was a shock--they didn't believe I was really coming because they didn't believe I existed! I'm hoping my appearance will boost the trust in CCFC's programs and will send the message that people from North America DO care about their brothers and sisters in Africa.
All this being said, I would just like to note that I now fully endorse CCFC as a worthwhile organization to support. If you are interested in sponsoring a child and their community you should check out their website and consider choosing CCFC! (http://www.ccfcanada.ca/)
So currently I am in Accra, but I have had a crazy week! I made many new friends in Tamale which made my time much more enjoyable. My trip to Mole on Thursday was pretty interesting. I went to the Metro Mass Transit station for 6:00 AM to purchase a seat on the 9:00 AM bus to Damongo, which is a village about 5 km away from Mole. The bus arrived on Ghana time, which means 2 hours late, so we didn't arrive in Damongo until 2:30. (Side note: The road to Mole is not HALF as bad as the Bradt Guide makes it sound. The roads running through Hohoe were much worse!) At the Damongo station I bumped into two German volunteers who had the same plan as I did so we shared a cab to Mole. When we arrived at Mole it turned out I had been placed in a family suite alone, so there were two empty beds in the room. I offered these to the Germans (Dennis and Julia) for the same price as they would pay for a dorm bed and they leapt at the offer, saving me money and ensuring there would be someone to benefit from the included breakfast which I would miss! I was just in time for the 3:30 safari walk around the park. The walk was great and the reserve is absolutely stunning! I didn't see any elephants (although I did see evidence of their existance including tracks, tusk marks, and lots of dung!) but I saw many other creatures including antelope, bush bucks, wart hogs, three different types of monkey, parakeets, and wild hare. I was amazed how close the animals let us get before they would freak out and run away. Apparently the baboons and the wart hogs have become most accustomed to humans--they hang out around the staff community and have been known to seek into homes to steal food if the compound gates are not closed. The children living in the park are forbidden to eat food outside after some of them were attacked by the monkies for it! Most of the park seems untouched by humans though, which I liked. There was a beautiful silence about the whole place. All you could hear were wild animal calls and the grass rustling in the breeze. It was exactly the break from people I so badly needed. My guide was really knowledgeable about everything from animal tracking to national park laws so I learned a lot. Unfortunately he also took the opportunity to flirt incessantly, show off, and hand me his phone number in case I "needed him for anything". I just had to laugh!
My trip back from Mole was a bit of a nightmare. I was woken up at 3:30 AM the next morning to catch the 4:00 AM direct bus from Mole to Tamale, which is essentially a filthy, rusted, metal box on wheels. Myself and a handful of other tourists sleepily piled in and tried to get comfortable in order to catch a little more sleep before daybreak. WISHFUL THINKING! We also stopped to pick up a bunch of park staff and then stopped in Larabanga to fill the rest of the bus with villagers. As people piled in and filled every last square inch a number of fights broke out. Men outside the bus were pushing and shoving our female conductor around trying to get into the bus. Inside the bus a crazy old man was yelling at everybody in Hausa and banging his fists on the seat in front of him--it took half an hour to physically remove him. Then an argument started between the villagers and the park staff over why more buses didn't run through that area. All this at 4 in the morning! We didn't pull out of Larabanga until just before 7:00AM. We had been there for almost 3 hours and we still had to drop people off in Damongo and get through the 3 hour drive back to Tamale. It was brutal! I rested pretty much all day Friday and then went out that night to say goodbye to some local friends I had made. We had drinks at Crest on the rooftop patio under the stars while listening to a live band and doing some dancing. It was a great way to end my stay in Tamale.
I was up early again Saturday morning to catch a 6:30 AM bus to Accra. This time I traveled STC, which meant larger seats, cleaner interior, and A/C! I was in heaven ...at first. Our bus seemed a little dated as it chugged along and struggled to make it to the speed limit. In Kumasi we were stalled for two hours because one of the tires needed to be refilled and rotated. Our rest stops weren't great either offering filthy washrooms and canteens selling cookies and pop. My three meals consisted of digestive cookies and oranges that day. When we reached Accra we were stuck in traffic for over an hour and our driver managed to take the front ends off of three taxis. The main highway running through Accra is currently no more than a dirt runway because city planners thought it would be a good idea to expand and resurface the entire road in one fell swoop. Well, without any sort of lane markers or traffic control this road is now just like a large parking lot where hundreds of accidents occur everyday. Good one Ghana! On top of this we had passengers screaming out "BUS STOP!" (the command commonly used to get tro tros to drop you at the correct location) every 500 metres through town so then we would have to sit and idle while the driver dug through the luggage to find their belongings.
We were supposed to get to Accra at 5:30, but we actually arrived at 10:00. I was exhausted and just wanted to go to bed. I caught a cab to the Crystal Hostel where I am now staying. I was dropped in an alleyway in a dark neighborhood and told to walk down a pathway to a metal gate--the hostel apparently. I knocked and yelled "hello!" and was answered by angry guard dogs barking. Finally a lady came to open the gate and showed me into a house. My room was pretty shabby and not very clean. I went to check out the bathroom and two cockroaches scuttled under the wall. I was not in the mood to deal with pests all night. I went to lie down and realized the bed had no sheet on it. At this point I started crying and called my mom. Thank goodness for moms. She somehow managed to calm me down and I promised to get some sleep in hopes of seeing things a little brighter in the morning. And I did! It turns out the sketchy back alley is not the main entrance to this place and the house has a beautiful courtyard out front! The staff are super friendly and served me a lovely breakfast. Plus, the shower is one of the best I have been in while in Ghana. And the guard dogs are actually pretty docile. One of them curled up with me this morning!
Well I'm out of time! See you in Canada on Wednesday!
Secondly, the program is extremely well organized considering the lack of infrastructure in Ghana. They partner with community programs to service those families most in need with programs that are relevant to the culture and lifestyle of the area. In Abdul-Malik's community CCFC is partnered with Gumani Family and Child Care Program which not only looks out for the most needy kids in Gumani through the sponsorship program but also runs a number of community support projects. They organize educational workshops for the children in the community schools, fundraise and find grants from international bodies to support community facilities, and run a credit union that provides microloans to entrepeneurs and farming families. The women's cooperative is only one of the many businesses that has started as a result of the microloan program and now includes over 20 members. These ladies sat with me and spoke with such pride about the success of their business processing rice and producing shea butter. Currently they do everything by hand, but they were happy to tell me that they have been able to build a warehouse to work in along with a eletric motor and two grinding machines to expand business! They are now financially independent and able to support their families during seasons of poor harvest yields (which is happening more and more frequently due to the torrential rains and desertification of the north--the ground is deteriorating into sand and clay so when the rainy season arrives the water just sits on top of the land and drowns the crops). The women also mentionned how thrilled they were at being able to give their children things they always wanted but never had--like an education and a small treat from time to time. This sentiment really got to me because I hear parents in Canada say this all the time, it's one of the many universal feelings I have become more aware of during my time in Ghana.
Third, the organization IS talking about changing their name from Christian Children's Fund to just "Children's Fund" because having a religious affiliation has caused some major misconceptions about their organization. CCFC works for families from a variety of religious backgrounds. Their mission is not a prejudiced one, they simply want to help those who need it most. In Abdul-Malik's community 70% of the families in the program are Muslim, with the other 30% a combination of Christian and traditional tribal sects. I found this really reassuring and relieving.
Lastly, CCFC works in tandem with other international NGOs like UNICEF and World Vision to ensure that services do not overlap in any community. If World Vision is already serving one community in Ghana CCFC will look for a community that is not being supported to work in. This makes their programming a lot more efficient.
The thing that surprised me the most about my visit with Abdul-Malik was the incredulous looks on the faces of his peers as I pulled up to the school and the disbelief his family showed when shaking my hand. After our visit I asked the CCFC staff about whether or not my visit would make Abdul-Malik's friends jealous because very few sponsors ever visit (I was the first one here since spring of last year!). They just laughed and said no, absolutely not. My visit would do many things: it would raise the status of Abdul-Malik and his family in the community, it would raise the status of his school, but most importantly it would shatter the myth that sponsors don't really exist! HUH?! Apparently people in Ghana think the entire sponsorship program is a complicated hoax. They believe money is sent to the programs by faceless organizations and governments and then "sponsor families" are created to make them think somebody out there actually cares about their well being. This broke my heart, especially since many families refuse to participate fully in the program based on grounds of mistrust. It is often a struggle to get families to write response letters because they think they are just sitting in the staff office and being replied to by other Ghanaians. So my appearance in the community was a shock--they didn't believe I was really coming because they didn't believe I existed! I'm hoping my appearance will boost the trust in CCFC's programs and will send the message that people from North America DO care about their brothers and sisters in Africa.
All this being said, I would just like to note that I now fully endorse CCFC as a worthwhile organization to support. If you are interested in sponsoring a child and their community you should check out their website and consider choosing CCFC! (http://www.ccfcanada.ca/)
So currently I am in Accra, but I have had a crazy week! I made many new friends in Tamale which made my time much more enjoyable. My trip to Mole on Thursday was pretty interesting. I went to the Metro Mass Transit station for 6:00 AM to purchase a seat on the 9:00 AM bus to Damongo, which is a village about 5 km away from Mole. The bus arrived on Ghana time, which means 2 hours late, so we didn't arrive in Damongo until 2:30. (Side note: The road to Mole is not HALF as bad as the Bradt Guide makes it sound. The roads running through Hohoe were much worse!) At the Damongo station I bumped into two German volunteers who had the same plan as I did so we shared a cab to Mole. When we arrived at Mole it turned out I had been placed in a family suite alone, so there were two empty beds in the room. I offered these to the Germans (Dennis and Julia) for the same price as they would pay for a dorm bed and they leapt at the offer, saving me money and ensuring there would be someone to benefit from the included breakfast which I would miss! I was just in time for the 3:30 safari walk around the park. The walk was great and the reserve is absolutely stunning! I didn't see any elephants (although I did see evidence of their existance including tracks, tusk marks, and lots of dung!) but I saw many other creatures including antelope, bush bucks, wart hogs, three different types of monkey, parakeets, and wild hare. I was amazed how close the animals let us get before they would freak out and run away. Apparently the baboons and the wart hogs have become most accustomed to humans--they hang out around the staff community and have been known to seek into homes to steal food if the compound gates are not closed. The children living in the park are forbidden to eat food outside after some of them were attacked by the monkies for it! Most of the park seems untouched by humans though, which I liked. There was a beautiful silence about the whole place. All you could hear were wild animal calls and the grass rustling in the breeze. It was exactly the break from people I so badly needed. My guide was really knowledgeable about everything from animal tracking to national park laws so I learned a lot. Unfortunately he also took the opportunity to flirt incessantly, show off, and hand me his phone number in case I "needed him for anything". I just had to laugh!
My trip back from Mole was a bit of a nightmare. I was woken up at 3:30 AM the next morning to catch the 4:00 AM direct bus from Mole to Tamale, which is essentially a filthy, rusted, metal box on wheels. Myself and a handful of other tourists sleepily piled in and tried to get comfortable in order to catch a little more sleep before daybreak. WISHFUL THINKING! We also stopped to pick up a bunch of park staff and then stopped in Larabanga to fill the rest of the bus with villagers. As people piled in and filled every last square inch a number of fights broke out. Men outside the bus were pushing and shoving our female conductor around trying to get into the bus. Inside the bus a crazy old man was yelling at everybody in Hausa and banging his fists on the seat in front of him--it took half an hour to physically remove him. Then an argument started between the villagers and the park staff over why more buses didn't run through that area. All this at 4 in the morning! We didn't pull out of Larabanga until just before 7:00AM. We had been there for almost 3 hours and we still had to drop people off in Damongo and get through the 3 hour drive back to Tamale. It was brutal! I rested pretty much all day Friday and then went out that night to say goodbye to some local friends I had made. We had drinks at Crest on the rooftop patio under the stars while listening to a live band and doing some dancing. It was a great way to end my stay in Tamale.
I was up early again Saturday morning to catch a 6:30 AM bus to Accra. This time I traveled STC, which meant larger seats, cleaner interior, and A/C! I was in heaven ...at first. Our bus seemed a little dated as it chugged along and struggled to make it to the speed limit. In Kumasi we were stalled for two hours because one of the tires needed to be refilled and rotated. Our rest stops weren't great either offering filthy washrooms and canteens selling cookies and pop. My three meals consisted of digestive cookies and oranges that day. When we reached Accra we were stuck in traffic for over an hour and our driver managed to take the front ends off of three taxis. The main highway running through Accra is currently no more than a dirt runway because city planners thought it would be a good idea to expand and resurface the entire road in one fell swoop. Well, without any sort of lane markers or traffic control this road is now just like a large parking lot where hundreds of accidents occur everyday. Good one Ghana! On top of this we had passengers screaming out "BUS STOP!" (the command commonly used to get tro tros to drop you at the correct location) every 500 metres through town so then we would have to sit and idle while the driver dug through the luggage to find their belongings.
We were supposed to get to Accra at 5:30, but we actually arrived at 10:00. I was exhausted and just wanted to go to bed. I caught a cab to the Crystal Hostel where I am now staying. I was dropped in an alleyway in a dark neighborhood and told to walk down a pathway to a metal gate--the hostel apparently. I knocked and yelled "hello!" and was answered by angry guard dogs barking. Finally a lady came to open the gate and showed me into a house. My room was pretty shabby and not very clean. I went to check out the bathroom and two cockroaches scuttled under the wall. I was not in the mood to deal with pests all night. I went to lie down and realized the bed had no sheet on it. At this point I started crying and called my mom. Thank goodness for moms. She somehow managed to calm me down and I promised to get some sleep in hopes of seeing things a little brighter in the morning. And I did! It turns out the sketchy back alley is not the main entrance to this place and the house has a beautiful courtyard out front! The staff are super friendly and served me a lovely breakfast. Plus, the shower is one of the best I have been in while in Ghana. And the guard dogs are actually pretty docile. One of them curled up with me this morning!
Well I'm out of time! See you in Canada on Wednesday!
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