Biz and Biz in Ghana
We're going to Ghana! Laura and Lauren are embarking on a 3-month adventure in Africa. Most of our time will be spent volunteering with Friends of African Village Libraries in one of their rural community libraries in Northern Ghana. We also hope to do a bit of travel and explore this country from the Sahel to the coast!
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
The final hours, and a wrap up
We spent yesterday meeting with Marilyn and Joanna at OCLF, which was fantastic. We're so glad we got to meet Marilyn and chat with her about our experience at Jordan Nu and Ghana in general. Disappointing though, was the narrowly missed opportunity to meet Kathy Knowles of OCLF fame, as she is in Accra but very busy coordinating the opening of a new library in Madina.
We promise to post photos as soon as Lauren recovers in the US (maybe next week?). This has been an incredible experience (that's not even really a word to do it justice, but whatever), ups and downs, all of it. Laura will hopefully continue to post about her travels in Spain and Italy on this site, so keep coming back! And, finally, we would appeal to you to check out the FAVL website and possibly make a donation. We've seen the great work they do over here first hand, and they need our support, however big or small.
MUCH LOVE!!!
Sunday, May 8, 2011
And then we fell off the face of the earth...
After all our hard work, we deservered a break...a highlight reel of the two weeks' vacation that followed: First, let me say that in our whirl-wind tour of the Southern parts of Ghana, we realized what a small and unique part we got to experience in Sumbrungu. The Upper East Regions (the rest of Northern Ghana for that matter) are drastically different from the remainder of the country. This vaca was an eye-opening adventure to the rest of this deeply diverse country.
So, the highlights!
-Ferry ride from Yeji to Akosombo. Talk about epic adventure! 36+ hours on a boat traveling the length of the largest man-made lake in the world. Lots of yams loaded on to the boat along the way, and lots of cool heat lightning to watch at night. A nice way to wind-down our brains after a really hectic final week in Sumbrungu.
-Chillaxing on the Volta River at a great little hotel. Got to watch the British Royal wedding on a HUGE TV and spent the afternoon swimming in the river, jumping off a rope swing. Also visited a bead market in Agomanya with an overwhelming selection of beads...and the market wasn't even in full swing by then!
-Trotro to Kumasi through beautiful hills. No one told us the Eastern region was so dang gorgeous! Got lost in Kumasi's Kejetia Market (allegedly the largest in West Africa....12ha) and failed (twice) to find kente cloth for sale. Also got stumped by a public holiday (again), and the football match we wanted to see was cancelled. We walked a LOT in Kumasi.
-Cape Coast: somehow we made a ton of friends here, including a former pilot for Ghana Airways and a very ebullient British-Ghanaian woman named Adriana. Trekked up to Kakum National Park's canopy walkway, saw a lot of interesting trees (yay plants). Visited the beautiful slave castles, but the dungeons were a chilling reminder of the atrocities commited there. Also had some great street red red in Elmina.
Butre gets a special paragraph. This was the village where we hung out at the beach for 4 nights. We a lot of friends here as well! We got to hike up to Fort Batenstein, a now severly overgrown but charming fort built by the Dutch in 1640. Another day we hiked to Busua, a neighboring village, and took surf lessons. And of course, there was lots of relaxing on the beach. The coolest part of this amazing 4 days was at the very end, when we had the chance to visit Butre's brand spankin' new (4 weeks old!) community library. It was opening by a Swedish volunteer, apparently all on her own dollar she saved for years. We were thrilled to impart some of our new library knowledge on the librarian, a very dedicated young man named Moses who is teaching in Butre for his National Service year. Disappointingly, there were no children around as they are not really in the habit of coming to the library yet, and at the time most were running around fetching water for their families. But, we taught Moses a few fun word games to play with the kids and took his email to continue to stay in touch with him. The library has sadly lost one of it's big supporters, the chief of Butre, who was said to be very progressive and keen on developing Butre; he unfortunately passed away 2 weeks after the library opening. Despite the challenges, the library is off to great start with a good (if small) selection of books and a beautiful space with lots of great maps. This was a great way to end our vacation...we just can't get enough of Ghana libraries!
We're running low on time, but we're off to meet Marilyn Deer (patron of Jordan Nu library) and visit the Osu children's library one more time. We still hate Accra, but it's great to be able to chat with Marilyn. Later!
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
It's Electric!
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Laura’s Schisto-Swim, or, the Bath of Bilharzia…yet another epic blog post
This week has been full of “it’s the last time we do fill-in-the-blank". One of those was our final monthly librarian meeting. Frustratingly, we were never able to have a meeting where all 3 librarians were present…either due to sickness or other commitments or who knows what. However, this last meeting was definitely our most productive yet and for me, one of the most exciting. After postponing it twice, we FINALLY got to have our book club discussion about Wife of the Gods by Kwei Quartey!
The book is written by a Ghanaian author and takes place in the Volta Region of Ghana. It’s a detective novel, a mystery about two similar murders in a village, separated by 20 years or so. The title comes from the references to the “trokosi” system in some parts of Ghana, where a traditional priest takes several wives, often immediately after puberty. I was SO excited to hear how much Jennifer, Bernard, and Lucas (he loves a good debate/argument) had to say about the book. There’s too much to detail it all here, but one thing both Laura and I learned is that the book is a lot more Western or American than meets the eye. The Ghanaians thought the book jumped around too much because it used the “cliff-hanger” chapter endings common in Western novels and would switch to a different plot line for the next chapter. Lucas and Jennifer were frustrated by this writing style and preferred the straightforward style of classic African novels like The Gods are Not to Blame (ok actually a play) and Things Fall Apart. In contrast, I really struggled with Things Fall Apart when I read it because of this “tell it like it is” style; to me it was a little bland, which was a big disappointment since it’s THE premier novel of classic African literature. But hey, the Ghanaians love it that way. Another interesting part of our discussion was when Bernard described how he used one of the Reading Strategies (!! J) to think about what would happen if a murder like that happened in his community. We ended with a lesson on traditional marriage practices and rites in Ghana, and learned that in some places, even if a Christian ceremony has taken place, the families won’t consider a marriage valid until the traditional rites have also been performed. This involves the bride jumping over a cow into the new husband’s home, and sometimes a large bride-price of many domestic animals. All in all, it was a great discussion, everyone had something to contribute, they seemed to enjoy the book despite the foreign writing style, and we hope the book club continues. And, if Quartey writes a sequel, they said they’d definitely read it.
Another one of our “lasts” was our last week of Phonics Mini-Camp at Gowrie. There was one student in particular, Awinbila, a good reader from the start who really stretched himself to take on harder books at the end of the week. This was really exciting to see. And, during our final review day almost everyone had “Bossy E” down pat. We are doing quite a few revisions for our next rounds at Sherigu and Sumbrungu, and it’s difficult to tell how much will stick with them given the short time we had, but overall I think it was a success. Our final day in Gowrie in particular was a blast, beginning with Laura finally taking the plunge into the reservoir nearby. She wanted to do this since we first went to Gowrie, and after I made her take the necessary precautions to avoid contracting potential parasites, she embarked on what I call her Schistomiasis Swim, or Bath of Bilharzia. She was very happy, and I was very happy she was alive after she ALSO jumped off a 20ft tall concrete piling into the lake…Unfortunately after this great start we were displaced from the library by screaming-baby-weighing for the morning (just like during inventory) and were forced to camp out under a tree, entertaining a horde of 4 year olds and attempting to keep them from beating on each other too much. We grew weary of this and headed into the main part of town to get some lunch and have a well-deserved drink at a spot to celebrate the last day of camp. Little did we know some members of the community would surprise us with more drinks and a traditional TZ meal at the end of our class! It really touched us to see that they appreciated our efforts and was a nice ending to a great two weeks at Gowrie.
Last but not least, we went back to Navrongo to visit our friend Roland and his family yesterday. I’m sort of speechless about how generous and welcoming they were. And they were SO delighted to entertain Roland’s new “fella” (word for white person #7?) friends. We spent the first part of the day relaxing inside, watching a very confusing Nigerian movie and one of hundreds of “prophets” on TV. That was when the copious amounts of food began to roll out…Roland’s trio of sisters-in-law, Esther, Beatrice, and Rebecca, made us popcorn and fresh cut mango and melon. Then they began the preparations for TZ with leaf stew. We tried to “help” and they let us pound some groundnuts and stir the TZ once or twice…but mostly we hung around the extended family compound and chatted with these really cool women and their children. They’re all fairly young, late-20s-ish, and are really modern, stylish, and rather progressive, Esther in particular. Her husband (Roland’s brother Benjamin) is currently in the Western Region at the University of Development Studies campus there, and Esther stays in Navrongo raising their children, Pearl (6) and Ludovic (2, called “Lu” for short). She only speaks English to her children because she wants them to have a head start when they get to school. Everyone else in the compound, however, speaks Kassem (the local language) to them, so they are growing up bi-lingual. I thought this was pretty neat, and I wonder if other young Ghanaian couples are starting to do the same thing…
The kids were a hoot to play with. Lu, one of the youngest of the cousins present, was terrified when we first showed up, but soon got his confidence and started treating Laura and I like his own personal jungle gym. He was clearly going through some “terrible two’s” moments and threw a few fits, but each time we briefly left the compound, he and his little cousins would come running out to give us a big “welcome back” hug…even if we were only gone for 2 minutes. So. Cute. Once we did leave for a longer stretch to go sit with Roland’s friends at a spot across the street to have a few drinks, and to discuss something they could not wrap their heads around: polygamy is illegal in the US. Roland loves to ask us questions about what things are like in the US and usually accepts the answer, but this one in particular he couldn’t understand. “You can’t even have just 2?”. We brought up how some sects of Mormons practice polygamy, but they were still a bit confused. Ah, cultural differences.
After we chowed down on the TZ and a delicious “fruit salad” (more like fruit puree), we took our gluttonous selves for a stroll to visit the famous cathedral and mission site in Navrongo. The cathedral (over a hundred years old!) was beautifully decorated with the traditional, red-black-white Northern-style paintings inside, as well as a marble copy of the Pieta we were told was sent to them by the Pope! Navrongo is the epicenter of all things Catholic in the Upper East and I think was the site of the first Catholic mission to Ghana so it’s a very important place. We ended the night with a trip to the nearby Teaching College campus to meet Roland’s mother, a super sweet woman who cooks for the dining hall there. We made sure to tell her she raised a very nice young man and tell her how generous her family had been all day. It was an AWESOME day, and we would love to take them up on their invite to come back if we have the time…so much to do, so little time, stay tuned for more exciting final-week adventures!
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Hiking around the Bongo Hills. One of these rocks makes a cool sound like a drum when you hit it, but we never did determine which one it was... |
Us with the children from our first 'Phonics Camp' at the Gowrie Community Library. Sorry Lauren - I didn't realize your face was blocked in this one! |
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Camps, Crocodiles, and 'Cycles
Friday, April 1, 2011
Happy 2 Month Ghana-versary To Us!
Confession: I <3 Burkina Faso. As much as I have also come to love Ghana, I’ve always had a soft spot for baguettes and Francophone countries (we’ll see this get me into an interesting conversation later)… so this was a special treat for me. It was also a chance to visit the “vowel-tastic” capital Ouagadougou. Any Stowe High French graduates out there surely remember Madame Austin’s love of this word!
Unfortunately my high school French was pretty darn rusty, but I’d like to think it improved dramatically throughout the week given all the talking I had to do. I was the de facto spokeswoman in Burkina, a role which culminated in a visit to the mayor, education inspector, police station, and the “prefecture”, or President’s representative to the district on our final day in Bereba. I got into a long drawn-out conversation attempting to tell the prefecture that, no his position did not exist in the US, no the president did not dictate the actions of governors or individual states (up for debate right now? Maybe), and yes the individual states were far more autonomous than Burkina provinces. The result of these 7 days of complete immersion is that I was still extracting my brain from “French mode” two days after we returned to Ghana … and now I’ve forgotten 80% of my FraFra…”tant pis” as they say.
A few exciting things for AFTER our amazing village stay in Bereba:
We got stuck in an African-style traffic jam no more than 30 minutes into our 3+ hour journey back to Ouaga. Most people were alternately peeing in the bush or chasing after their bus/car/truck which had begun to roll up farther in the queue. We spent the time hiding in the shade of larger vehicles, worrying about the poor chicken trapped in our hot trunk, and embracing this facet of West African travel. Thankfully the accident that caused this delay wasn’t gruesome; it just took up 2/3 of the road.
Once rested, showered, and rehydrated in Ouaga, we went with Charley to visit the Village Artisanal. This was a huge craft “village” next to the grounds for SIAO. Expansive concrete stalls where you can see artisans practicing their craft and displaying their products are set up around a central fixed-price store. The main wares are bronze statues, embroidered tablecloths and napkins, hand-woven clothing and bags, batik prints, and leatherworks. I unsuccessfully haggled and apparently grossly overpaid for some REALLY nifty things; our chauffeur Francois said he could have gotten a certain item I bought for 1/3 the price I paid…AFTER I had already bought it. Sigh. At least I’m in love with my purchases. Laura made up for my lack of thrift with superior bargaining skillz.
We also got our Western food fixes by eating pizza, a club sandwich, and fries at a nice restaurant called Paradisio. Afterwards, the power miraculously turned back on just in time for my favorite activity of the entire week: catching a Burkinabe flick at an outdoor cinema (see Charley’s FAVL blog post about the movie). Nothing could beat this quirky ambience. In the parking lot, people were selling bananas and mangoes presumably for movie snacks. The comfortingly familiar Big Dipper was clearly visible, hanging upside down directly above the screen. Occasionally, a HUGE airplane from the very very nearby international airport would pass right behind the screen. The evening temperature was enjoyably cool while the metal chairs were unbearably hard and uncomfortable. All this for the low low price of about $1! Bonus: I think I understood most of the French/the movie.
If you are still reading this, you are a trooper. I’m about to launch into some long-winded stuff on cultural differences, so go grab some snacks.
To provide some background (or at least my basic understanding of it) on the aforementioned “interesting conversation”: there were some…um…”interesting” things going on at the national level for Burkina while we were there. First, there had been student demonstrations that turned a bit violent in the weeks leading up to our visit. The students were upset about another senior high student who died in jail, allegedly due to mistreatment. We actually headed to Bereba village really early Saturday morning to avoid a planned student demonstration near the FAVL office in Ouaga (but this one was pretty subdued). Second, military personnel in Ouaga were unhappy about a comrade being jailed, so they decided to riot (meaning, shoot guns in the air and loot stores) the night before we returned from Bereba. Third, the following day merchants were demonstrating in protest of the looting from the previous night. *NOTE: we ourselves never actually witnessed these things, but were given great updates from FAVL/Peace Corps and felt very safe our entire trip.* Fourth, set this against the backdrop of the uprisings in North Africa this past month. President du Faso Blaise Compaoré has been in power for the last 30 years via a combination of coups and elections…sound a bit familiar? Throw in the fact that historically Burkina has close ties with Libya. Compaoré and Colonel Gaddafi are close friends.
While hanging with a few Burkinabes who will remain nameless, I stated that I enjoyed speaking French and visiting Francophone countries. One became a bit ruffled by this statement, and the two started discussing in rapid French. When I finally heard “Two Frenchmen died, that’s good,” I decided to interject myself into the discourse. “Ce n’est jamais bon quand on est mort! Francais, Burkinabe, Americain…jamais bon!” I said.
It’s difficult to retell the whole thing in detail since I only understood about half of what was said to me, but an extremely simplified version of what followed: “No, no, France sucks, they abandoned their West African colonies who now suffer. But France sometimes still keeps its armies there, why are they meddling now in Cote d’Ivoire and Libya?? Libya is great. Everyone gets free water, health care, and electricity. The world needs more people like Gaddhafi. French is much more difficult to learn than English. Do you think Ghana is a bit more stable than Burkina? But really, we should just destroy all arms and let there be peace. Libraries and increased education can help create peaceful societies.”
This was a lot to absorb, and I definitely don’t claim to have understood all pieces of the arguments. Mostly I’m just throwing it out there as an interesting interaction for those who like these things. For me, I took it as yet another point of view. I’ve gotten so used to the American perspective, it was somewhat refreshing to hear a different one, regardless of my feelings about it. We've had a lot of chats with Ghanaians about education issues and their perspectives, but less so on international politics so this was a big change from our usual discussions. Food for thought…
Ok and if you made it THIS far…you are a saint! Look forward to upcoming blog posts about our first week of phonics camp, watching Ghana play England on TV, and visits to Navrongo, Paga, and Bongo Hills. :-)