Mt. Afadjato and Mona Monkeys

It’s hard to believe that I’ve almost been in Hohoe for two weeks. Time is flying by.  I’m still maintaining my morning routine at Happy Kids, and having lots of fun with them. This week we spent most of our time on math, specifically multiplication, long division and simple word problems. My class loves division, but has taken some time to get the hang of writing problems out the long way. They love the challenge and ask me to leave them problems to work on before I leave everyday. Next week we will spend more time on English and the class will start writing their autobiographies.

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Mt. Afadjato

Tuesday afternoon the group hiked to the top of the highest mountain in Ghana, Mt. Afadjato. Mountain climbing isn’t exactly my thing, but I was excited to make it to the top with the group. As our van approached the mountain we got a beautiful view of the challenge ahead. As we headed to the trail we passed a sign that finally answered the question of just how high up we were going. 885 meters (about 2900 feet) above sea level. Our energy level was high and it seemed as if we all wanted to run right to the top. Now seems like a good time to remind everyone that climbing a mountain or hiking of any kind really just isn’t my thing. As we started the climb, we realized that our path was a steep one filled with rocks and lots of leaves. I couldn’t help but think that this would be one of the few times in my life that a walking stick would actually be useful. While I made it to the top, the trek was certainly no easy one for me. I’m not sure if I would have  even wanted to go the whole way if it wasn’t for one of our staff members, Ruth. Although I’m certain Ruth could’ve jogged the whole way up, she hung with me in the back and took on my ‘slowly but surely’ motto. She helped me over the loose rocks, pointed out the sturdy branches to grab onto during the especially steep parts and played the perfect mix of Rihanna and Akon on her phone. I should mention that Ruth was wearing a long skirt and flip flops and barely broke a sweat. The view at the top was beautiful and filled with lots of mountain ranges overlooking Togo, Ghana’s neighbor to the east. With the whole group at the top we took some pictures, relaxed our legs a little bit and then made the trek back down. While not at all as strenuous, going down the mountain was much scarier than going up. 

The group at the top

Ruth and me at the top

  

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Thursday afternoon the group loaded up the van once more to head to the nearby Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary. I wasn’t really sure what to expect from a monkey sanctuary, but was told that we could feed the monkeys which sounded like fun to me. We got there (after stopping to buy some bananas), met our guide and headed into the woods. It was at this point that we learned that the ‘sanctuary’ these monkeys live in is really just a part of the woods that the village has agreed to leave untouched. The monkeys are able to play and roam around naturally, although they often venture into the village to look for berries or other treats. It took a little bit of time to find their exact location in the woods, but we eventually found a large group of them hanging out by an old cemetery. Our guide taught us how to properly feed the monkeys, holding the banana a certain way if you wanted them to jump on you. It was here in this cemetery where I had a pretty intense stare-down with a few monkeys, got chased by a mother monkey carrying a baby around her neck, and allowed a monkey to eat a banana out of my hand while resting on my arm. I realized that my camera was dead as soon as we got there, but will be sure to share some of the pictures the other volunteers took once I get them.

This week we also had another Ewe lesson, learned how to make the traditional Ghanaian Batik design on fabric and spent an evening at Obama Gardens cheering for Ghana in the African Cup of Nations. Ghana won 1- 0 against Botswana, so it was an exciting night.

Random things I’ve noticed/learned:

• Roosters crow all day long, not just at sunrise.
• It’s always good to carry toilet paper or tissues in your bag. Sometimes behind a tree is the best restroom option.
• Country music is quite popular here in Hohoe. The staff members love it and I frequently hear Taylor Swiftish music blasting from passing cars/taxis. 
• Most people have two names - a traditional Ghanaian name and more European-inspired name. Some of the names of the kids in my class are Kodjo Roland, Yayirah Bless, Amewoga Emmanuel, and Asem Holly. They all call each other by their Ghanaian name, but introduced themselves to me with the other one. They are all slowly revealing their full names to me. 
• The food has been delicious, but food in Ghana is 85% carbohydrates. Look for a full food update soon.
• We were able to see the moon for the first time last night!

Cape Coast

It's been far too long since an update and there's a lot going on. I'll eventually get everyone caught up, but let's take it back to Friday. This weekend the group made the 10 hour drive from Hohoe to Cape Coast to spend some time at the beach, do a little sightseeing and most importantly experience first hand a piece of Ghanaian history. 

Cape Coast, formerly known as the Gold Coast, was established as a trading city by the Portuguese in the 15th century. The discovery of gold along the coast has caused the city to pass from the control of the Portuguese to the Dutch, the Swedish and finally the British. The city was built around the Cape Coast Castle which became the hub of British colonial rule and one of the biggest trading posts for the trade of human slaves. 

As an African and African-American Studies minor, I’ve spent time studying the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade and have even researched the Middle Passage. Throughout these studies, I’ve been exposed to information about both the Cape Coast Castle and the nearby St. George’s Elmina Castle. I’ve seen pictures, read descriptions of the abhorrent conditions people were subjected to and watched various films that attempt to recreate the ugliness of it all. I’m sure everyone has heard about the horrible things that were done to millions of Africans before they were shipped as cargo to the Americas. Hearing the retelling of these stories doesn’t even come close to spending time walking around these castles, standing in the dungeons and walking through the Door of No Return.

We went on a guided tour of the Cape Coast Castle and then drove to Elmina where a few of us decided to walk around St. George’s Castle on our own. Wandering around Elmina without a guide, gave the castle a completely different feel. Myself and another volunteer found ourselves walking through dark hallways and finding passages from the female cells to the outdoor courtyard. Quietly wandering around and realizing what each room was used for was super eerie and definitely an emotional experience. What really struck me was seeing just how close the Portuguese and British churches were to the dungeons of their captives. At Elmina, the church is right next to the male holding cells, at the Cape Castle, it is literally right above the small, dark room they forced 100 of the strongest males to stay in. In both locations, they could hear the screams coming from the dungeons while in church. 

Cannons at Cape Coast

Map of Cape Coast Castle

Hallway to the Male Dungeons - Cape Coast

Door of No Return - Cape Coast

The group in front of Cape Coast Castle

Entrance to Elmina Castle

Elmnia Castle

Inside Elmnia Castle

Cells at Elmina

The Church is the building in the center,
surrounded by cells at Elmina

The sign says "Slave Exit to Waiting Boats".  We found this
tunnel while wandering around the female dungeons

Visiting these castles was one of the things I was most looking forward to doing while here in Ghana. After leaving Elmina, the group spent the rest of the day lazying around at a beautiful beach resort. It was here, that I had an interesting conversation with a young African artist selling his paintings and jewelry that seemed to bring everything full circle. After the typical introductions, he realized that I was in fact, a ‘Black American’ and immediately asked me if I had felt at home yet here in Africa. After sensing my hesitation in answering his question, he continued with, “You should. My family is your family.” That small statement triggered an incredibly complex conversation about my connection with the people I come into daily contact with here and the people who spent time in those horribly beautiful castles before boarding the ships that would forever separate them from their homeland. Our discussion in short... there’s a shared history and common heritage between us. I’ve definitely felt this link and it’s something that has been made clear by the way the young Ghanaian women call me “sister” and the children so easily differentiate between me and the “Yobos” in my group. It’s hard to explain, but a sort of centering experience. 

In both castles hung a plaque sharing a poem written in the voice of the African people after the slave trade was put to an end. You can check out the picture, but it reads...

“IN EVERLASTING MEMORY OF THE ANGUISH OF OUR ANCESTORS. MAY THOSE WHO DIED REST IN PEACE. MAY THOSE WHO RETURN FIND THEIR ROOTS. MAY HUMANITY NEVER AGAIN PERPETRATE SUCH INJUSTICE AGAINST HUMANITY. WE, THE LIVING, VOW TO UPHOLD THIS.”

Cape Coast and Elmina are both extremely beautiful cities that carry such a tainted past. I thought it was interesting to see the hundreds of fisherman and boat builders working in the shadows of both castles. Here are some pictures:

Fishing boats next to Cape Coast Castle

Looking onto the rooftops of  Cape Coast
from the Castle

A few of the boat builders working outside of the Elmina Castle

Sunset at the beach near Elmina

"Why Worry? Int."

First, a quick update on Happy Kids. Remember the other volunteer that was teaching P4 with me? She’s now at a different placement and will only be joining us every once in a while. That means I’m the only teacher with the class most days. I’m starting to really enjoy this teaching thing... which I guess is a good thing! Oh and I’ve learned that this group of kids was really two separate classes. One of which was left without a teacher and joined P4. The new challenge is planning lessons for kids on two very different levels. The easy part is that these kids really do want to learn and have been super helpful in learning the daily routine of the school. I’ll be focusing on English and Math and during our breaks they’ll be teaching me Ewe and soccer. I promise a picture of the class is coming, but pulling out a camera must be perfectly timed or lead pure chaos. Here are a few pictures I took today while on break. 

Moda on the left is P4 with me!

Nelson

A few of the P4 Boys and Moda

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I’ve quickly settled into a bit of a routine as I come close to the end of my first week in Hohoe. Every morning, I wake up around 7am to get ready and eat breakfast consisting of bread/peanut butter, hard boiled egg and the most delicious pineapples I have ever tasted. Around 8am, we load up the van to carpool everyone to their placements. From 8am to 11:45am I am teaching at Happy Kids until I get picked up to make it home in time for lunch at noon. 

After lunch is when we are able to roam around town and go on mini-excursions. The past two days have been especially interesting as we celebrated a birthday amongst the  group and the departure of two volunteers who have been in Hohoe for the past 5 weeks. Wednesday afternoon we got a chance to visit the Wli Waterfall, with an 80meter drop is the highest waterfall in West Africa. We were only able to see the lower falls and are currently planning the hike to the higher pool to go swimming. I wasn’t planning on getting in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall, buuut after some effective peer pressuring by our staff member Mary and some other volunteers... I was in. 

Wli

In order to properly celebrate a birthday on Wednesday, we returned to the Home-Base for a quality meal. Our coordinator George planned a dessert surprise for Mike which consisted of a bucket filled with Coca-Cola, Fanta, Sprite and Hohoe's finest ice cream. We were excited to have ice cream, but quickly realized that the chocolate was frozen chocolate milk, strawberry was frozen yogurt (as in yogurt that had been stored in a freezer... not the Cuzzins or Orange Leaf kind) and vanilla was the way to go. We quickly finished dinner in order to head to Sunset Gardens... the little ‘bar’ on the corner that we pass everyday going to and from the house. Considering it was 7pm on a Wednesday night and we were the only ones there we all had a quick beer and were ready to head back home to get ready for the day ahead. 

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This afternoon, a few other volunteers and myself went to a local orphanage with one of the volunteers who is leaving tomorrow. She’s spent most of her time here in Hohoe with these kids and wanted us to meet them before she said her goodbyes. These kids, like most I’ve talked to so far in Hohoe, were super polite and excited to see a new face and spend time with us. After realizing that we knew the 'secret' handshake (with the snap), they held our hands and showed us around. I realized immediately how independent this group of about 30 kids are. While their 2 house moms lead the effort to cook meals, they all (ages 6 to 17) seem to just look out for one another. They've definitely created a strong family unit amongst themselves. We didn’t get to spend much time with them, but after the hour or so we were there... the group agreed that we would definitely be back.

Two of the boys

 Two of the Girls still in their school uniform

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We’ve spent a good amount of time at the market and in the shops around town. The atmosphere ‘downtown’ is really interesting to me. Even with the mixture of car horns, kids running to and from school and pedestrians carrying things on their heads there is an extremely welcoming feeling. This could be due to the naming of the stores - “Thank Jesus Ent.” “His Grace Beauty Shop” “Babyface Barbershop” “Grace and Love Fashions” "Why Worry? Int.", but I think it’s much more than that.

Life at the market

The most common way to carry a baby.
These women keep busy so this is quite useful.

That's a sewing machine up there!

Fabric on Fabric on Fabric in the market

Random Things I’ve noticed/learned:

• Kids love getting their picture taken because they rarely get a chance to see what they look like. There aren’t too many mirrors around Hohoe. 
• The traditional naming of children in Ghana has many rules. Babies aren't named until 7 days after birth and are given a name for a variety of reasons. Names could be inspired by the day of the week, weather conditions at the time of birth, or prosperous family members. Naming sometimes involves consulting a soothsayer.
• Both Star and Stone both claim the title of ‘Best Lager in Ghana’
• A rooster is a male chicken and a hen is a female chicken. This may be common knowledge, but was news to me.
• Hohoe is currently experiencing unusually cold temperatures due to the dry winds blowing in from the Sahara I’ve seen our security guys wearing knit hats and long trench coats at night. Its been at least 90 degrees everyday and the nightly low is no less than 75. 

Happy Kids. Happy Drumming.

The Kids
The past two days have been jam packed with new things in Hohoe as we all have started working at our various placements. CCS places its volunteers and interns at different sites around town. In Ghana, most placements are in schools, health clinics, women's empowerment groups or orphanages.  I will be spending my next 8 weeks working at the Happy Kids School with another CCS volunteer. Promptly at 8am Monday morning, we all loaded our trusty van "Big Blue" and began the drive around town to drop everyone at their placements. There was a sense of excitement and anxiousness in the van as we all realized that we had no clue what to expect or what exactly our responsibilities would be once we arrived. I felt comfortable enough helping classroom teachers with any age student and was excited to finally met these 'Happy Kids'.

Happy Kids is a Prep School of about 100 pre-K to 6th grade students and as we turned into the school we saw lots of kids running around the yard and getting their last minute playtime in before class. Apparently, the kids had been awaiting our arrival. As one of the staff members opened the van door for my co-worker and me, tons of the kids ran up to us waving to give us hugs and say "You are welcome!" Look at these kids and just imagine. After the pack of students were done hugging us, we took a quick tour of the 5 room schoolhouse. During the tour, we noticed that the 'P4' classroom seemed to be without a teacher. Long story short... they needed a teacher, we were there, now myself and another volunteer are the teachers for P4.


So there we were, two twenty somethings standing in front of a class of sixteen 10 to 15 year olds in a classroom with no books, no materials and a small language barrier. (The official language in Ghana is English but because most people speak the Ewe dialect, most kids don't learn English until age 4 or 5) We were just supposed to be observing classrooms and getting the feel for things, so I wasn't at all prepared to lead a class and am extremely thankful that the other volunteer (who has had experience teaching English to Japanese students) was with me.


Luckily, this P4 class is unlike any other group of elementary aged kids I have ever seen. After reminding us that we should feel welcome there and doing some brief introductions we went out on a limb and asked them what they wanted to learn. They immediately told us that they wanted to learn more English and hear about America. Some students told us they were really good at math or science, but could use some more practice. The oldest proudly told us he was the best at math. It was amazing and these kids really seemed happy to be at school. They giggled with their friends at their inside jokes, laughed at our American accents and eagerly participated in the name-games and intro activities we could think of on the spot.


This morning, as promised we came prepared with paper, markers, flashcards, dice for multiplication and Uno. We busted out some multiplication tables, spelled animals in English, and by request taught them a few words in Spanish. For tomorrow, they have requested more English and some sort of science. There aren't too many things that make waking up at 7am everyday enjoyable, but I'm looking forward to my mornings with P4 for the next 8 weeks. Expect lots of updates about the class and Happy Kids. Also, I've learned that Happy Kids doesn't have a standard curriculum for each grade, so that's something I hope to work on while I'm here. Any help from the educators out there would be greatly appreciated... (I'm looking at you mom)


The Drumming
Monday evening CCS arranged for us to have a tradition African welcome from the one of the most popular choral/drumming and dancing groups in Ghana. They we fantastic and played us a few traditional celebration songs, songs used for hunting rituals back in the day, and a few contemporary favorites. Their performance was great (it's all about the footwork), but things really got started when they asked us to join in. Be on the lookout for a video!


Some of the volunteers were a little wary about dancing with the group, but most of us had a great time learning the moves. I was obviously all for it... but I guess I've never really been that shy. After the dancing we got a chance to learn how to play some of the drums. I loved it and some of the staff members said I was good enough to get my own drum. One of the younger girls in the choir wasn't as impressed and during our goodbyes came up to me to say that I did a great job, but need to work on getting lower with the dances. Maybe next time.


We're heading to the Wli Waterfall tomorrow! Check back for an update on that and life at the local market.

Much Love!

 

View from the house. Notice the chickens and volleyball net!

 
Down the street                                                         Staff Members - George & Mary  

  

Ruth lives next door.  I promise she's shy.

Ruth's friend

Wezon! Welcome!

After an 11 hour plane ride from New York to Accra, a 2 hour effort to get through customs and baggage claim and a 5 hour bumpy car ride... I made it to Hohoe. It was quite the adventure and needless to say, I was glad to make it to the 'Home-Base' where I'll be staying for the next 8 weeks with 7 other CCS interns and volunteers. Once at the Home-Base we took a quick tour, met the staff members who will make this place my home away from home, and tried to catch up on sleep. While I slept through the roosters that apparently woke everyone else up, I was excited to take a tour of the village and check out Hohoe during the daylight. Because most people were in church until late afternoon, most of the shops were closed so we won't get the full market experience until tomorrow.  We did get a chance to talk to a few of the local Ghanaian people and learn the standard Hohoe handshake. The key is the snap as your releasing the other persons hand. Trust me, it's complicated. The snap can't be too hard or too light and must be done using both hands.


Here are some other fun things I learned today:
- Almost every family has their own goats and/or chickens. These goats and chickens freely roam the streets during the day, but always find their way back home.
- "Colored People Time" or "Black People Time" is real, but really "African Time". African-Americans have learned this trait from our ancestors.
- Driving in Ghana is crazy. There are rocky dirt roads without lanes, street lights, stop signs or enforced speed limits. The horn is used to notify other drivers that you are going to pass, stop, speed up or just to say hello. The proper response to someone beeping their horn at you, is to beep back. It's just the friendly thing to do.
- It is unheard of for parents to only have one child. I told someone I didn't have any brothers or sisters today and he immediately responded, "Nooo, you need a brother. I'll be your brother."
- It is common for kids to call the white people "Yobos" which means White Americans. Apparently there is no special word for black people because the kids just call me "Black American".
- During the dry season in Hohoe it's always 90 degrees and breezy :)


Tomorrow is my first day at the Happy Kids School and our first drumming/dancing lesson. I have a full week ahead so stay tuned for more updates! Here is a picture of the Home-Base. I'll upload more pics once I can get faster internet connection.

Here Today, Ghana Tomorrow

The title is corny, but you get it. Tomorrow night I fly to Ghana where I will be spending the next 8 weeks. I'm traveling with Cross Cultural Solutions and will be staying at their home-base in Hohoe, Ghana in the Volta Region of the country. I will be working in the Happy Kids School, spending lots of time exploring the village, taking a few weekend adventures, getting to know the Ghanaian people and learning about the beautiful West African culture. Don't worry, I'll be sure to tell you all about it. I hope to use this blog to share pictures and stories with everyone back home. Thanks everyone for all of the support and well-wishes!

Much Love

**If you're thinking, "Where exactly is Ghana?" or "What is a Hohoe?" check out the maps below for some clarification.