First, some bad news…my camera memory card got a virus (thanks, internet cafes), so I can’t upload any photos from it until I get back to the US and get it fixed…and we’d taken most of our photos on that one. But, that just means you get even more detailed blog posts from us :-)
Now the awesome good news! We’ve been here in Sumbrungu for almost 2 weeks, and have been in Ghana for almost a month. It’s incredible how the time has flown. We’re really settling in now and have a lot on our to-do list for the libraries in the coming months, including full inventory of books, follow-up on this summer’s reading camp research, a new evening program for upper primary students, and much more. To be honest, if we get at least half of our list done, I will be ecstatic.
As Laura said last time, we’re holding evening classes with the equivalent of 5th grade students 3 times a week. After the first week, the classes seem to be working well. We’ve been focusing on some of the reading strategies Francesca and Nico (previous FAVL volunteers) used this summer in their reading camps. For example, one strategy is “Look at the cover and try to predict the story”. The strategies are meant to help improve reading comprehension and make reading more fun. Laura and I are both extremely impressed by all the amazing work Francesca, Nico, and the Ghana FAVL team put into creating the camp materials. We can only hope we’re doing their work justice as we share their great strategies with other students.
To be expected, there has been some confusion across the language barrier even with our trusty translator Darius always on hand. But, many of the students have been faithfully coming in to the library during their school breaks to continue reading and working on the small assignments we’ve given them, which is a great sign! It’s also a great chance for us to spend more time working with individual students since we tend to be very time-limited at night (we don’t want to keep them out really late and get in trouble with their parents or be tired for school in the morning). For any Colby College readers out there, we also taught the students how to play WAH! They LOVED IT. And they now show up to class randomly shouting “WAH!” We’re going to have to get a video of this in action sometime (after the Macarena, of course).
During the day around the Sumbrungu Women’s Center (where we live and work at the library), we’ve become quite the attraction. Almost like zoo animals, if you will. The children never cease to be amazed by the “solmias” (our new Frafra word for “foreigner”). Sometimes students will show up before 8am, peering in through the windows to see if we’re up yet, ready to play a game or hang out with us reading in the library. As excited as we are for them to want to come to the library…some seem to have started cutting class to do so…we’re on the look out for it now and make sure they’re in class when they should be!
Speaking of school…we’ve had some very thought-provoking and enlightening conversations with a few people (mostly teachers) about their thoughts on the state of education in Ghana. Some of the issues discussed: teacher’s low salaries, extremely high student to teacher ratios, attempting to teach computer skills courses when your school has zero computers to practice on, school food program supplies being diverted to other parts of the world for disaster relief but never being transferred back to Ghana afterwards and leaving many students without food and unable to focus, and the high cost of attending school in Ghana. When we hear Ghanaians talk about these issues so passionately, by the end most start to look very sad and disappointed, almost dejected, in a way that says “We try so hard, but what is really changing? Nothing”. My thoughts: while it may take a very very long time to change these systemic problems with formal education, non-formal education (like community library activities!) can help fill in some of the gaps and continue to support students and teachers during the waitin’ on the world to change. At least that’s what I hope is happening… just some thoughts.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Home Away from Home
So we're finally settled in at our home away from home in Sumbrungu. We LOVE it here! It's only a short shared-taxi drive to Bolgatanga (read: to internet access), which is an adorable small 'city' with none of the hassles and annoyances of Accra. I suppose I need to clarify that; despite my initial praises of this country for not staring at us and shouting, a few more days in the city, especially when we were by ourselves, brought out the negative. Some people just can't resist stretching out their arms to touch us as we pass, and will sometimes go out of their way to do this, resembling sea anemones or some other type of tentacled animal lying in wait.
Our rooms are part of a square compound with a central courtyard - well, a central expanse of cement at least. It looks like drab concrete from the outside, but the inside is painted in a cool geometric design. We're sharing a room so the other one will be available for other guests, and we're right next to the library and Lucas' office. Our hopes were raised when we saw a bathroom with a sink, showerhead, and flush toilet; but alas, there is no water hookup yet, so we depend on a nice man named Fredo to bring us water every day. The library is very different from the one in Jordan Nu - it is more geared toward children, so there aren't as many adult novels, which is unfortunate for us. It is actual a favorite study spot in the evening for students from the Polytechnic across the street. Readers can choose from one of four tables to read quietly at, which is a marked contrast from the madhouse of children sprawled across the floor that we're used to dealing with.
We hope to have a clearer idea of our agenda after a meeting tomorrow with the librarians from the three libraries with which we'll be working. For now, we're working with Darius, the Sumbrungu librarian, to organize a 90-minute evening reading session with 5th graders, combining teaching reading strategies with games and fun activities that make them learn without realizing it. We're looking forward to teaching them the basics, such as how to sound out words. And again we find ourselves facing a language barrier, which hopefully will improve as they get used to our accent. Our favorite moment with the kids so far was last night, after the demonstrated some fast-paced dances that they do, and they asked us to share an American dance with them. After racking our brains, we presented the Macarena, which was greeted with peals of laughter. We think they liked it though - we saw a few of them continuing to do it as they walked away.
We're slowly trying to pick up some key phrases in Frafra, the local dialect, though Lauren has much more aptitude than I do - my phonetic approximations of what I hear them say never seem to come out of my mouth quite the right way. Oh well.
Our rooms are part of a square compound with a central courtyard - well, a central expanse of cement at least. It looks like drab concrete from the outside, but the inside is painted in a cool geometric design. We're sharing a room so the other one will be available for other guests, and we're right next to the library and Lucas' office. Our hopes were raised when we saw a bathroom with a sink, showerhead, and flush toilet; but alas, there is no water hookup yet, so we depend on a nice man named Fredo to bring us water every day. The library is very different from the one in Jordan Nu - it is more geared toward children, so there aren't as many adult novels, which is unfortunate for us. It is actual a favorite study spot in the evening for students from the Polytechnic across the street. Readers can choose from one of four tables to read quietly at, which is a marked contrast from the madhouse of children sprawled across the floor that we're used to dealing with.
We hope to have a clearer idea of our agenda after a meeting tomorrow with the librarians from the three libraries with which we'll be working. For now, we're working with Darius, the Sumbrungu librarian, to organize a 90-minute evening reading session with 5th graders, combining teaching reading strategies with games and fun activities that make them learn without realizing it. We're looking forward to teaching them the basics, such as how to sound out words. And again we find ourselves facing a language barrier, which hopefully will improve as they get used to our accent. Our favorite moment with the kids so far was last night, after the demonstrated some fast-paced dances that they do, and they asked us to share an American dance with them. After racking our brains, we presented the Macarena, which was greeted with peals of laughter. We think they liked it though - we saw a few of them continuing to do it as they walked away.
We're slowly trying to pick up some key phrases in Frafra, the local dialect, though Lauren has much more aptitude than I do - my phonetic approximations of what I hear them say never seem to come out of my mouth quite the right way. Oh well.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
live from bolga!
soooo. we finally made it to bolgatanga/sumbrungu!!! this is where we will be staying for the next 2 months. the internet is also significantly slower (apparently we were using the fastest cafe in accra before!), so expect less polished posts...
the bus ride was looong but we are so glad to be here. it's hot, but practically no humidity. it is wonderful. our guestroom is literally right next to the library, and it sounds like Darius, the sumbrungu librarian is super excited about things we can do while we're here. :-)
bolga/sumbrungu has a very large bicycle/motorbike presense, and we're hoping to get our hands on a bike we can use to get around soon.
one final note, just because i have to brag about it, i made my first home-cooked meal in ghana two nights ago! boiled yam and cabbage with a tomato/garden egg (like eggplant)/onion/sweet pepper/garlic sauce. simple, but as always i was excited to be back in the kitchen :-)
more to come once we're settled.
ps congrats to BC women's hockey on the beanpot win woooooo!
-Laura and Lauren
the bus ride was looong but we are so glad to be here. it's hot, but practically no humidity. it is wonderful. our guestroom is literally right next to the library, and it sounds like Darius, the sumbrungu librarian is super excited about things we can do while we're here. :-)
bolga/sumbrungu has a very large bicycle/motorbike presense, and we're hoping to get our hands on a bike we can use to get around soon.
one final note, just because i have to brag about it, i made my first home-cooked meal in ghana two nights ago! boiled yam and cabbage with a tomato/garden egg (like eggplant)/onion/sweet pepper/garlic sauce. simple, but as always i was excited to be back in the kitchen :-)
more to come once we're settled.
ps congrats to BC women's hockey on the beanpot win woooooo!
-Laura and Lauren
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Drumroll please....
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| First Fufu! |
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| Feeding mona monkeys at Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary |
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| Laura reading to Kids |
Mama Mary
Saturday, February 12, 2011
No! We're not playing Red Light Green Light anymore!
So, we're back in Accra! What a week in Jordan Nu in the Volta Region. There is so much and we're still working on the photo-upload situation, so we've each decided to hit our personal highlights:
-having our first fufu meal! pictures to come soon. fufu is extremely filling. And we differ on our methods: traditionally you do NOT chew your fufu....I do....oops!
-the community was extremely welcoming. we miss our "mama" Mary who took very good care of us and made sure we were always very well fed. Definitely different for us two self-described independent women to have all of our meals brought to us...
-learning lots of Ewe words and phrases....which we sadly probably won't use again since it is Volta Region-specific. Common responses to questions like "How are you?" sound like "yoooooo" and "ehhhhhh", very different from their English meanings. There is an incredible amount of linguistic diversity in Ghana (and Africa for that matter)!
-Speaking to the students at the local schools during assembly (aka all the students are lined up outside), trying to communicate the importance of reading and libraries...quite intimidating! And then your Ghanaian friend (Lucas) has to repeat everything you just said (again, still in ENGLISH) because NO ONE understands your silly American accent.
-attending church services Sunday morning in an outdoor grotto with palm-leaf thatch roof. We missed the memo that everyone wears just white...but we clapped loud and enjoyed the singing/dancing/drumming!
-learning a whole slew of new African children's games!!! we still have these songs stuck in our head as we speak. hopefully they have "Hokey Pokey" and "The Wheels on the Bus" stuck in their heads too :-)
-visiting the nearby monkey sanctuary, feeding them while they stood on our arm!
-had our first trotro breakdown on the way back to Accra, watched Lucas help the driver change the tire from the shade on the trees with the other passengers (one of which was a baby monkey we think was stolen from the sanctuary...)
And of course, working at the Jordan Nu Community Library. Well, regardless of what the kids heard during our school visit, they got the message that their "yavoo" (white person) sisters were going to be at the library. The first day I think we were a bit shell-shocked by their sheer numbers. Attempting to control such a large unweildy group was a pretty big challenge. Another HUGE one was the language barrier, which was much greater than I think any of us anticipated. This was particularly true with the little kids I took outside to play (to clear up space in the over crowded library). Example: I tried to teach "Red Light Green Light", realized there were just WAY too many kids to do that with. When I told them to stop playing and split up into groups....no one moved. The kids that did moved were yelled at by the other kids saying "No green! No green!". NO ONE would even budge because I could not in anyway get them to understand that the game was over! Pretty hilarious to see about 40 3-5 year olds standing stock still while I wildly gestured for them to move it.
When we did have a moment when we weren't busy distacting young ones so older ones could read, there were other challenges as well. Most striking was that the concept of phonetic pronunciation of certain letters was completely lost on most students, even at a 4th or 5th grade level. This made assisting them with reading much more difficult, since we often couldn't even get them to sound out the letters in a word.
A big reward though: seeing some of the older 5th and 6th grade students really try to read a lot of books while we were there. At the end of the week we handed out prizes like cookies and workbooks with Barack Obama on the cover (note: don't think we've mentioned this yet but they REALLY love Obama over here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L85YF0pyPH0). We hope that these students are able to continue reading after we have gone and that these small rewards for their hard work encourage them and their peers.
More to come tomorrow, and hopefully with photos!
Much Love,
Lauren and Laura
-having our first fufu meal! pictures to come soon. fufu is extremely filling. And we differ on our methods: traditionally you do NOT chew your fufu....I do....oops!
-the community was extremely welcoming. we miss our "mama" Mary who took very good care of us and made sure we were always very well fed. Definitely different for us two self-described independent women to have all of our meals brought to us...
-learning lots of Ewe words and phrases....which we sadly probably won't use again since it is Volta Region-specific. Common responses to questions like "How are you?" sound like "yoooooo" and "ehhhhhh", very different from their English meanings. There is an incredible amount of linguistic diversity in Ghana (and Africa for that matter)!
-Speaking to the students at the local schools during assembly (aka all the students are lined up outside), trying to communicate the importance of reading and libraries...quite intimidating! And then your Ghanaian friend (Lucas) has to repeat everything you just said (again, still in ENGLISH) because NO ONE understands your silly American accent.
-attending church services Sunday morning in an outdoor grotto with palm-leaf thatch roof. We missed the memo that everyone wears just white...but we clapped loud and enjoyed the singing/dancing/drumming!
-learning a whole slew of new African children's games!!! we still have these songs stuck in our head as we speak. hopefully they have "Hokey Pokey" and "The Wheels on the Bus" stuck in their heads too :-)
-visiting the nearby monkey sanctuary, feeding them while they stood on our arm!
-had our first trotro breakdown on the way back to Accra, watched Lucas help the driver change the tire from the shade on the trees with the other passengers (one of which was a baby monkey we think was stolen from the sanctuary...)
And of course, working at the Jordan Nu Community Library. Well, regardless of what the kids heard during our school visit, they got the message that their "yavoo" (white person) sisters were going to be at the library. The first day I think we were a bit shell-shocked by their sheer numbers. Attempting to control such a large unweildy group was a pretty big challenge. Another HUGE one was the language barrier, which was much greater than I think any of us anticipated. This was particularly true with the little kids I took outside to play (to clear up space in the over crowded library). Example: I tried to teach "Red Light Green Light", realized there were just WAY too many kids to do that with. When I told them to stop playing and split up into groups....no one moved. The kids that did moved were yelled at by the other kids saying "No green! No green!". NO ONE would even budge because I could not in anyway get them to understand that the game was over! Pretty hilarious to see about 40 3-5 year olds standing stock still while I wildly gestured for them to move it.
When we did have a moment when we weren't busy distacting young ones so older ones could read, there were other challenges as well. Most striking was that the concept of phonetic pronunciation of certain letters was completely lost on most students, even at a 4th or 5th grade level. This made assisting them with reading much more difficult, since we often couldn't even get them to sound out the letters in a word.
A big reward though: seeing some of the older 5th and 6th grade students really try to read a lot of books while we were there. At the end of the week we handed out prizes like cookies and workbooks with Barack Obama on the cover (note: don't think we've mentioned this yet but they REALLY love Obama over here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L85YF0pyPH0). We hope that these students are able to continue reading after we have gone and that these small rewards for their hard work encourage them and their peers.
More to come tomorrow, and hopefully with photos!
Much Love,
Lauren and Laura
Friday, February 4, 2011
Accra II
So on our last night in Accra, I just wanted to record some more observations. I know I need to do it now, before I get used to the way things are and forget how different they really are.
One cultural difference that absolutely blows my mind: the kissing noise. The dreaded sound that causes my teeth to involuntarily clench after 2 years of living in South America. However, here it is simply used to get someone's attention, or to inform someone that they are in the way and need to move. I learned this difference the hard way, getting irrationaly upset at a man on a bicycle who simply wanted me to move out of his way. Another attention-getting gesture is snapping, which of course can seem offensive to Americans at first.
Another pleasant surprise, and a stark contrast to Chile, has been that no one stares at us. We can be spotted miles away in a crowd, yet no one pays any attention to us. No cat calls, whistles, nothing. I love it. I figure that we're so obviously foreign that the locals simply observe that and move on.
I've also noticed that Ghanaians rarely yell. The 'mates' in charge of shouting out the destination of their tro-tro don't speak much louder than a normal conversation. When someone wants the tro-tro to stop, it seems to me that they almost mention it off-handedly, but somehow both the driver and the mate hear, and the vehicle stops. Irate drivers communicate their displeasure toward others by leaning out the window and speaking to them; this isn't to say that they are any less upset than drivers in the States would be, just that they feel they can make their point at a lower decibel.
Lauren and I have yet to tackle a meal in true Ghanaian fashion, but it's only a matter of time. When we first entered a restaurant for the first time, we were confused by the presence of a basket on the table, containing dish soap, lotion, and a towel. The waitress brought over a dish of water with a spoon in it for Lucas, who had ordered a traditional fufu dish. He removed the spoon and washed his hands thoroughly, consumed his meal with his right hand (the left is considered unclean, as it is used to wipe the bottom), then washed it again afterwards. Lauren is threatening to film our first attempt at this.
One aspect of life here that Lauren and I are finding hard to swallow is the commonplace practice of littering. There is trash everywhere, and no one thinks twice of tossing a plastic bag into the bushes, or of picking their way through scattered mounds of trash on their way to their destination. We haven't noticed any sanitation service in existence, and we're pretty sure everyone is responsible for burning their own trash. I'm not sure how city dwellers manage this.
Ok, that's all until next week!
One cultural difference that absolutely blows my mind: the kissing noise. The dreaded sound that causes my teeth to involuntarily clench after 2 years of living in South America. However, here it is simply used to get someone's attention, or to inform someone that they are in the way and need to move. I learned this difference the hard way, getting irrationaly upset at a man on a bicycle who simply wanted me to move out of his way. Another attention-getting gesture is snapping, which of course can seem offensive to Americans at first.
Another pleasant surprise, and a stark contrast to Chile, has been that no one stares at us. We can be spotted miles away in a crowd, yet no one pays any attention to us. No cat calls, whistles, nothing. I love it. I figure that we're so obviously foreign that the locals simply observe that and move on.
I've also noticed that Ghanaians rarely yell. The 'mates' in charge of shouting out the destination of their tro-tro don't speak much louder than a normal conversation. When someone wants the tro-tro to stop, it seems to me that they almost mention it off-handedly, but somehow both the driver and the mate hear, and the vehicle stops. Irate drivers communicate their displeasure toward others by leaning out the window and speaking to them; this isn't to say that they are any less upset than drivers in the States would be, just that they feel they can make their point at a lower decibel.
Lauren and I have yet to tackle a meal in true Ghanaian fashion, but it's only a matter of time. When we first entered a restaurant for the first time, we were confused by the presence of a basket on the table, containing dish soap, lotion, and a towel. The waitress brought over a dish of water with a spoon in it for Lucas, who had ordered a traditional fufu dish. He removed the spoon and washed his hands thoroughly, consumed his meal with his right hand (the left is considered unclean, as it is used to wipe the bottom), then washed it again afterwards. Lauren is threatening to film our first attempt at this.
One aspect of life here that Lauren and I are finding hard to swallow is the commonplace practice of littering. There is trash everywhere, and no one thinks twice of tossing a plastic bag into the bushes, or of picking their way through scattered mounds of trash on their way to their destination. We haven't noticed any sanitation service in existence, and we're pretty sure everyone is responsible for burning their own trash. I'm not sure how city dwellers manage this.
Ok, that's all until next week!
A Little Bit of This, A Little Bit of That
So, final day in Accra, headed to Jordan Nu Library in the Volta region tomorrow. I have to say that I feel on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster with this city; sometimes I like it, other times I cannot wait to get out of here and get to the village. In our travels to get to books stores, libraries, banks, etc., we've been able to take in quite a bit of the city. Laura and I keep talking about the difficulty of trying describe this sprawling city so full of contrasts. Here's a bit about some of the different parts of the city we've been to these last few days.
After that first night at the beach place we moved to a great little area on the west side of town, called Asylum Down (don't worry Mom, that doesn't mean it's next to the Accra version of the Vermont State Hospital :-)). The New Haven Hotel is great, has a nice little courtyard where we take our breakfast and there's a cheap restaurant attached. And it's only a block away from one of the major roads and a key tro-tro station. Some of the sights and sounds of our awesome spot: a bird that for some reason sounds like a vibrating cellphone, a very large church/mission across the street with music so loud into the night sometimes you think there's a nightclub nextdoor, skinny kittens hanging out in the courtyard, and hearing the rhythmic pounding of fufu around lunchtime.
Another area we visited was one of Accra's biggest markets, Makola Market. We just walked through it today, but it was just as sprawling as the city itself. Almost every inch of sidewalk was covered with stalls or blankets spread out with sellers' goods. In Accra's market places and trotro stations, there are so many people you'd think that every one of Ghana's 24 million residents must be there at that moment. They make NYC and DC subways at rushhour seem spacious.
This evening we got to go visit Lucas' sister, Melanie, again. She lives in West Legon, north of the city center and in sort of a "suburb"-y area. But don't go picturing white picket fences and cul-de-sacs; fewer of the roads are paved up there, so deep red dirt colors the landscape. Melanie's colorful one-bedroom house is situated away from the main road, in a dense grove of plantain trees. Chickens run around between the other houses in the grove, and a huge home next door appears to have been halted mid-construction (half-finished houses are a common sight here).
I could go on talking about the "rich" areas of town where government buildings and expats live...but this is long enough already!
On another note, today I had my first successful "purchase something off of someone's head out the window of a moving trotro" moment! I bought us a bag of water (yes, that's a BAG of water). We were pretty pleased with ourselves.
We probably won't have internet access up at Jordan Nu, so this may be the last post for a while. It's unclear whether we will return in a week or on Wednesday. We may try to do a mini-camp after school, similar to the summer camps FAVL held this summer. However, this is pending community approval, so we'll see what happens. But stay tuned for stories about village life!
In the lull, I recommend checking out the FAVL website and blog to learn more about this awesome organization (http://www.favl.org/blog).
After that first night at the beach place we moved to a great little area on the west side of town, called Asylum Down (don't worry Mom, that doesn't mean it's next to the Accra version of the Vermont State Hospital :-)). The New Haven Hotel is great, has a nice little courtyard where we take our breakfast and there's a cheap restaurant attached. And it's only a block away from one of the major roads and a key tro-tro station. Some of the sights and sounds of our awesome spot: a bird that for some reason sounds like a vibrating cellphone, a very large church/mission across the street with music so loud into the night sometimes you think there's a nightclub nextdoor, skinny kittens hanging out in the courtyard, and hearing the rhythmic pounding of fufu around lunchtime.
Another area we visited was one of Accra's biggest markets, Makola Market. We just walked through it today, but it was just as sprawling as the city itself. Almost every inch of sidewalk was covered with stalls or blankets spread out with sellers' goods. In Accra's market places and trotro stations, there are so many people you'd think that every one of Ghana's 24 million residents must be there at that moment. They make NYC and DC subways at rushhour seem spacious.
This evening we got to go visit Lucas' sister, Melanie, again. She lives in West Legon, north of the city center and in sort of a "suburb"-y area. But don't go picturing white picket fences and cul-de-sacs; fewer of the roads are paved up there, so deep red dirt colors the landscape. Melanie's colorful one-bedroom house is situated away from the main road, in a dense grove of plantain trees. Chickens run around between the other houses in the grove, and a huge home next door appears to have been halted mid-construction (half-finished houses are a common sight here).
I could go on talking about the "rich" areas of town where government buildings and expats live...but this is long enough already!
On another note, today I had my first successful "purchase something off of someone's head out the window of a moving trotro" moment! I bought us a bag of water (yes, that's a BAG of water). We were pretty pleased with ourselves.
We probably won't have internet access up at Jordan Nu, so this may be the last post for a while. It's unclear whether we will return in a week or on Wednesday. We may try to do a mini-camp after school, similar to the summer camps FAVL held this summer. However, this is pending community approval, so we'll see what happens. But stay tuned for stories about village life!
In the lull, I recommend checking out the FAVL website and blog to learn more about this awesome organization (http://www.favl.org/blog).
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Accra
I imagine our desire to blog constantly about every detail of our time here will wane after a few weeks, but for now we want to share EVERYTHING.
It's the strangest feeling to be in a place so different from anywhere we've ever been, yet be able to communicate in English. Sometimes I unconsciously realize I've started planning out what I'm going to say to a waitress in Spanish, before I realize that's not right. It just seems too easy.
We've spent the past two days driving all over the city of Accra. Yesterday we visited the Osu Children's Library, the 'mother' of all libraries that was started by a Canadian woman in 1992. It's fairly small, but is run by a passionate woman who's been with it since 1992, and it's immensely popular with the local children. Talking with the librarian, and seeing a young boy's face light up while we did a puzzle with him, made me feel really excited about what we're going to be doing in our library. We tried to visit another library a little farther out of town, but it had closed early, so we had to settle for peeking through the windows.
Today we went to a couple of bookstores and searched through shelves of books for ones that would be appropriate for the FAVL libraries, keeping an eye out for African themes. We also stopped by the University of Ghana at Legon to peruse their bookstore, which I was surprised to find boasted an extensive selection of children's books. Of course Lauren and I were super excited by the zoology and sociology sections of the bookstore, respectively. If my suitcase weren't already so full I probably would have walked out with a few of those. Sigh. The campus itself was beautiful - it was a boulevard with beautiful white buildings with the red tiled rooves that I love so much. It was kind of cool to see all the students and think that they were most likely the future of Ghana, the ones who will hopefully pull it out of poverty.
Over the past few days, I've been trying to think of how to describe Accra, and it's difficult. The traffic is horrible, with people constantly cutting others off, etc. And every intersection has people milling among the cars selling various things, in addition to the countless stalls by the side of the road. We've also concluded that the laws of physics don't apply in Ghana, based on our observation of the women with massive loads balanced on their heads that appear completely secure. The tro-tros (see Lauren's previous post) are everywhere, and the passengers usually have a head or arm hanging out of each of the windows. They present another example of defying physics; according to my estimation, taking into account distance, speed, and time, there is no possible way the tro-tros can squeeze through the gaps that they do. Around 3:00 the schools let out, and small clusters of students with brightly-colored uniforms cover the streets. As for clothing, there's a mix of Western style, with pants or skirts and shirts, sometimes quite fashionable, with traditional African styles: bright fabrics wrapped and draped in various styles, or sometimes tailored into a dress. I love seeing the babies wrapped securely to their mothers' backs, never fussing, just chilling. It also makes me laugh when I think I see a stray dog out of the corner of my eye, only to discover it's a goat, just running around.
Ok, more later. Much love to everyone, we miss you!
It's the strangest feeling to be in a place so different from anywhere we've ever been, yet be able to communicate in English. Sometimes I unconsciously realize I've started planning out what I'm going to say to a waitress in Spanish, before I realize that's not right. It just seems too easy.
We've spent the past two days driving all over the city of Accra. Yesterday we visited the Osu Children's Library, the 'mother' of all libraries that was started by a Canadian woman in 1992. It's fairly small, but is run by a passionate woman who's been with it since 1992, and it's immensely popular with the local children. Talking with the librarian, and seeing a young boy's face light up while we did a puzzle with him, made me feel really excited about what we're going to be doing in our library. We tried to visit another library a little farther out of town, but it had closed early, so we had to settle for peeking through the windows.
Today we went to a couple of bookstores and searched through shelves of books for ones that would be appropriate for the FAVL libraries, keeping an eye out for African themes. We also stopped by the University of Ghana at Legon to peruse their bookstore, which I was surprised to find boasted an extensive selection of children's books. Of course Lauren and I were super excited by the zoology and sociology sections of the bookstore, respectively. If my suitcase weren't already so full I probably would have walked out with a few of those. Sigh. The campus itself was beautiful - it was a boulevard with beautiful white buildings with the red tiled rooves that I love so much. It was kind of cool to see all the students and think that they were most likely the future of Ghana, the ones who will hopefully pull it out of poverty.
Over the past few days, I've been trying to think of how to describe Accra, and it's difficult. The traffic is horrible, with people constantly cutting others off, etc. And every intersection has people milling among the cars selling various things, in addition to the countless stalls by the side of the road. We've also concluded that the laws of physics don't apply in Ghana, based on our observation of the women with massive loads balanced on their heads that appear completely secure. The tro-tros (see Lauren's previous post) are everywhere, and the passengers usually have a head or arm hanging out of each of the windows. They present another example of defying physics; according to my estimation, taking into account distance, speed, and time, there is no possible way the tro-tros can squeeze through the gaps that they do. Around 3:00 the schools let out, and small clusters of students with brightly-colored uniforms cover the streets. As for clothing, there's a mix of Western style, with pants or skirts and shirts, sometimes quite fashionable, with traditional African styles: bright fabrics wrapped and draped in various styles, or sometimes tailored into a dress. I love seeing the babies wrapped securely to their mothers' backs, never fussing, just chilling. It also makes me laugh when I think I see a stray dog out of the corner of my eye, only to discover it's a goat, just running around.
Ok, more later. Much love to everyone, we miss you!
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
5,300 miles later...
We're here! I think it really hit me that I was actually going to Africa when the plane was finally over the continent. I was watching the map on the screen up until we could see land out the side. I think I just kept looking out the window for the next 3 hrs until we reached Accra.
The airport was just as hectic as all the books described, but I think I handled myself pretty well. I successfully turned down a bunch of taxis and was able to meet up with Lucas, the FAVL regional library coordinator. Begin the tro-tro adventure and welcome to 93 degree heat!
For those of you familiar with tro-tros, let me start by saying I had 3 LONG tro-tro rides in my first 5 hours in Africa (I felt brave). For those who don't know what I'm talking about, tro-tros are converted VW vans with a zillion seats in them into which you cram as many people as you can. But, you can get across town for less than a cedi (less than a dollar!) along a specified route. There's a lot of what seems like unspoken signals, so I have a lot to learn about the tro-tros. Thank you Lucas for not losing me on the tro! :-)
After we made it to me and Laura's hotel on the BEACH and I checked in, Lucas agreed to let me tag along to visit his sister north of Accra near the University of Ghana. I got to see a lot of the city riding on the tro up there. And, to my surprise, I was treated to my first home-cooked Ghanain meal, courtesty of Lucas' sister! Tomato-onion-fish sauce with rice. It was DELICIOUS.
Later on, Lucas's brother stopped by and graciously drove us to the airport to collect Laura. Accra was much different by night. The "piiiiirr" (read: pure) watah girls, the bread sellers, everyone hocking their wares on the street by day disappeared when the sun went down. Good thing, too, since they wander between the cars in the daylight and probably would have caused an accident.
It was great to get to spend some time talking to Lucas about his work at the libraries up north, and what plans he has for the future. He's a really smart guy and I look forward to working with him. We came up with a tentative plan for this week: spend a few days in Accra visiting the Osu Children's libraries and purchasing books for Sherigu Library in the North, then head to Jordan Nu (library in the Volta region) on Saturday. Laura will take over from here, but expect more info from us this week while we have internet cafes readily available.
Love and miss you friends and family!
PS I got into OU for grad school! yay! now time to make the big decision....
The airport was just as hectic as all the books described, but I think I handled myself pretty well. I successfully turned down a bunch of taxis and was able to meet up with Lucas, the FAVL regional library coordinator. Begin the tro-tro adventure and welcome to 93 degree heat!
For those of you familiar with tro-tros, let me start by saying I had 3 LONG tro-tro rides in my first 5 hours in Africa (I felt brave). For those who don't know what I'm talking about, tro-tros are converted VW vans with a zillion seats in them into which you cram as many people as you can. But, you can get across town for less than a cedi (less than a dollar!) along a specified route. There's a lot of what seems like unspoken signals, so I have a lot to learn about the tro-tros. Thank you Lucas for not losing me on the tro! :-)
After we made it to me and Laura's hotel on the BEACH and I checked in, Lucas agreed to let me tag along to visit his sister north of Accra near the University of Ghana. I got to see a lot of the city riding on the tro up there. And, to my surprise, I was treated to my first home-cooked Ghanain meal, courtesty of Lucas' sister! Tomato-onion-fish sauce with rice. It was DELICIOUS.
Later on, Lucas's brother stopped by and graciously drove us to the airport to collect Laura. Accra was much different by night. The "piiiiirr" (read: pure) watah girls, the bread sellers, everyone hocking their wares on the street by day disappeared when the sun went down. Good thing, too, since they wander between the cars in the daylight and probably would have caused an accident.
It was great to get to spend some time talking to Lucas about his work at the libraries up north, and what plans he has for the future. He's a really smart guy and I look forward to working with him. We came up with a tentative plan for this week: spend a few days in Accra visiting the Osu Children's libraries and purchasing books for Sherigu Library in the North, then head to Jordan Nu (library in the Volta region) on Saturday. Laura will take over from here, but expect more info from us this week while we have internet cafes readily available.
Love and miss you friends and family!
PS I got into OU for grad school! yay! now time to make the big decision....
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