A Visual Summary, vol. 1

Seth asked me to post some additional shots of our trip. Here's a small sampling of the 400+ photo album.

This is Farmer Charles with some of his bounty. This casava was uprooted in the recent heavy rains. Later it was our dinner.

It's surprizing you can't see more children in this shot, as we were surrounded. Both extreemly shy and very curious the kids alone form quite the welcome wagon.

Forming a greeting party in similar mob fashion, were the mona monkeys. Call this guy Mr. Photogenic.

Fifi doing his daily chores - mostly gathering water and usually with a silly grin on his face.

Poor little fishies at the market. So fresh, they're still gasping for...air?

The sourse of all those fish - Elmina's fishermen community.

Freedom!

After much toil, I have arranged to rent a car for next week. This will give me more freedom than I have ever experienced here in Ghana. This will be the first time I will not have to rely on Charles, a taxi or trotro to take me around. I will still be limited in where I can go because I wont be taking the car into the capital, Accra. There is a police barrier on the main road headed to town and they would likely pull me over and force me to pay them some money to let me go. (The police are notorious for taking kickbacks and a foreigner is a potential gold mine for them)

My friend Nathaniel, who arrived on Tuesday evening, will be splitting the cost of the car. It worked out to be a little under $15USD a day. This will allow me to drive out to the bush a bit more in search of school sites as well as let me drive to the beach at any time. I kinda wish I had the car starting today but we really don't have much use for it till Monday.

This weekend we have some fun things planned.

Friday night we are going to go to a club around Kasoa/Liberian Refugee Camp with Amos and his friends. (Amos is the head attendant at Zappo, Internet Cafe). Saturday we are going to go into Accra and explore. I have a few things I need to pick up and Nathaniel hasn't yet seen the Capital. On Saturday night we are thinking of finding a club in town to hang out at unless we are exhausted.

Sunday!! Sunday is Election Day here in Ghana. Nathaniel and I are going to try and stop by some of the campaign offices to see whats buzzing as well as view some of the local polling stations. Becky, Charles' wife is a National Prisons Officer and will be maintaining security at one of the polling stations so we will be able to have VIP access to watch as the votes come in. I am excited to see who wins the presidency. You can read a bit about the candidates on my earlier post: There is no escape

Morning Walks

Every morning I walk from my hotel to Charles house. It takes about 20-25 min but it is a nice way to get the blood flowing, unfortunately by the time I get to the house I am sweating like a Christmas chicken, as they say.

Today, as I walked to the main road from the hotel I had two encounters. The first was with a man who was talking to himself and decided that it might be more entertaining to talk to me. He said he lived in Minnesota at one point. He seemed a little off but who knows. The second encounter was with a woman who expressed her love for me. Its always nice to know that someone out there loves you :).

As I round the corner and head up the main road I immediately pass a sign on the right that warns passing traffic. It states: Overspending Kills! Over three people have died here. A big Toyota logo is just below the text. Advertise and advice in one stroke. Just opposite the Toyota sign is a rubbish heap that is usually burning (including a few truck tires).

I continue up the road towards a Liberian refugee camp. Along the way I see a swath of men with pickaxes digging a trench for phone lines. One of the men yell at me "Obruni." I turn and wave. The same man then asks how I am doing in the local language. When I respond in kind, he shouts and says "Hey! Obruni Te Twi" Or the white man can speak twi! I continue on my way thinking how nice it would be for them to have a ditch-witch, but then again, they wouldn't be able to employ such a large amount of locals that way.

my local bar

When I get to the Liberian refugee camp I cross the road and head south through the "neighborhoods" to Charles' house. There are plenty of children along the way calling me out and keeping my hands in the air waving in recognition. I round a few corners and pass by my "local spot" small bar/restaurant (its not mine but i like to patronize). A few hundred meters later, I arrive at the house and start searching for the coolest location to hang out.

Charles' House

Ghana Has Obama Fever!

This song can be heard on a daily basis blasting from shops, internet cafes, tro tros or restaurant/bars




A local bar named after Obama and a bookmark made from traditional weaving (Kente)

What's next?

Now that I have 5 days on my own, I am planning out the next steps in my search for school sites.

I would like to find a small town further outside of the city that doesn't have any school at all. There are supposedly a number of such towns but finding them without a car will be difficult. I am negotiating with one of the Internet Cafe workers (Ken) to secure a scooter for me to rent. He said I could buy one for about $200 but I would rather not spend that much money especially if I will only be using it for the next two and a half weeks. A scooter would also give me a lot more freedom here because I wouldn't have to rely on others to get me from place to place.

This is the type of town I would like to find.

One is the loneliest number

Well Amy left last night so it is just me now. I have spent a lot of time here alone in past years but it was especially nice to have a friend from home to talk to and bounce ideas off of.

Currently Charles' car is down and out. There were a couple problems with it. First the starter went out and then the transmission box lost a seal so it is losing fluid. This all happened yesterday so we were in a rush to find another mode of transportation so that we could make the haul to the airport for Amy. We ended up taking a taxi all the way to the airport and back from Kasoa. We opted out of taking a tro tro because of time constraints and the fact that Amy had just showered. If we had taken a tro tro we would be crammed in like sardines and therefore, so much for a shower. With about 24hrs in a plane, starting out sweaty and dirty would not be pleasant.

Now I have 5 days till Nathaniel arrives.

One thing about coming to Ghana is it makes me LOVE Oregon even more.

Oregon
vs

Ghana

Kokrobite

Saturday Seth and I took Kobe out to the beach with us. Charles had a tour to run for the day and Becky was working, so he would have been home alone. It was good to have him along and Seth says Kobe probably hasn't been to the beach since the last visit, a year ago. Getting there was a bit of a challenge and required 2 tro tros and a taxi. Once you arrive though, you can find a private palm shack to rent for the day. The shacks sit right on the beach and provide plenty of shade along with some basic benches and a table. Locals wander by with food and drinks every so often and we were able to buy some bananas and peanuts to add to the minerals (sodas) we had brought in a cooler.



It was almost impossible to get Kobe out of the water to have some food. He could have spent all day in the ocean. I don't blame him! It's so warm here. The water was perfect, warmer than Hawaii but plenty refreshing after a long trip in the sun. We met a man named Johnson who is a structural engineer and he spent some of the afternoon with us. Seth and I did our best to teach him and Kobe how to float on their backs. Kobe was definitely wary of getting very deep in the water and had a death grip on Seth's neck. Showing Johnson was easier and he at least got the feel for it, even if he hasn't quite gotten it down yet. Swimming is not a skill that is taught here so both of the guys were impressed that both Seth and I could swim. They kept reprimanding us for how far out in the water we went. It's true that the current is pretty strong, but once you figure out the wave pattern it's perfectly manageable. Also there were sandbars some distance out from the shore, so even if it seemed far, we were only in up to our hips. That said, if I didn't feel confident in my swimming skills and know to follow the shore rather than fight the tide, it would be easy to be intimidated by the water. The waves are similar in size to those on the Oregon coast.



The unfortunate thing was in all our aquatic merriment, we lost track of our shack. Although we were trying to keep an eye on it someone managed to slip off with some of my money and my sun glasses. It could have been worse - they didn't take it all and they left my camera and ipod. It was still frustrating though because it could have been helped and I've spent the last few days glaring at the sun. Luckily I have a visor with me and only a couple days remaining in the trip, so my funds should make the duration.

Even with this frustration though, I would love to spend another day on the beach. It was so relaxing and nice to be able to spend some time in the water. Even better was to see Kobe let his guard down and have some fun with us. I'm glad he was able to come along without his parents. Meeting Johnson could be helpful as well - hard to build a school without an engineer!