asomdwee

It’s been a while since i’ve had internet access so i haven’t been able to blog, so this one is going to encompass all that’s happened since I last blogged. After leaving Accra we went on a sweet Canopy Walk, and although there wasn’t a lot to look at it, swinging the bridges and making waves, made it worth it. Then we went to Han’s Cottage, and went around a little lake in paddle boats and saw crocodiles lounging around, in fact, Patrick and I got within 5 feet of one and got a sweeet polaroid (that polaroid camera has SAVED MY LIFE!) While in cape coast we visited the Cape Coast Slave castle which was a pretty intense experience. It wasn’t really fun for me, but it was interesting to see where millions of slaves were imprisoned.

After Cape Coast, we journeyed to the Green Turtle Lodge, and to the disappointment (and later great satisfaction) of all of the boys, we were unable to stay there due to the lack of rooms. So the boys, Predko, and I stayed about 10 minutes away at the Safari Beach Inn. The first night at GT there was a dance performance by some of the local villagers. Got up and learned some new moves with the help of one of the girl dancers. That was interesting. It was so nice being on the beach and being able to go out into the ocean and just chill, plus the Safari Beach Inn had outdoor showers, which i have discovered are the best thing since sliced bread. Went on a canoe ride through the mangroves, supposedly to see some monkeys, no monkeys, i was bummed. Oh yeah i almost forgot, before we got to the Green Turtle, we went to the Jesus Is King Orphanage and dropped off some donations (hackysacks, clothes, frisbees). It was great to see how happy the kids were. Back to the GT, the same day as the mangroves we walked through the village to see the JSS and JHS schools (Secondary and Highschool). Only one school was still open at that hour so we made some more donations of books and supplies.

last day at the Safari Beach Inn/GT we went on a day trip to see a stilt village, which was kind of a waste of time, it seemed like all it was, was a tourist attraction and they only wanted our money, that made me a little disappointed, but we got to hang out with some college volunteers who tagged along and who were staying at the Green Turtle Lodge.

HOMESTAYS!!!! Met our family (the Barnes): Kojo (the Dad), Efuei (the Mom), and Awompa (aka baby 2years). Such a nice family. The whole week at the homestays we were working on a community service project at a local school, building rooms for volunteers. The kids there were crazy about us. The entire time they called us “obrunis” which means “white man.” and after hearing that about 1,000,000 it tends to get kind of tiring. They also always ask you what your name is, your age, and how you are doing… multiple times. Two of the six days were spent at an orphanage where we helped clean and also gave some donations. It was hilarious how when we gave the kids supplies like mops and buckets,they seemed grateful. but when we gave them soccer jerseys they went nuts, screaming for seriously 10 minutes before they kind of calmed down. The best part was the food, the homestay mom made the best dinners and lunches and we got to try fufu (plantains and yam beaten into a dough). Last
day in Agona Swedru (where our homestays were) we went with the mom to pick up our clothes that we had had made, which are by far the coolest pants and shirt i have ever owned, and earlier we had played the kids at the school in a game of Football (we lost of course 3 – 0).

Now we are in Kumasi for 2 nights and the best part is, WE GOT TO GO TO A FOOTBALL MATCH!!! We convinced the group to go to the craft villages when we stop back in Kumasi and instead went to see the Asante Kotoko played the Libyan team in the Confederation coup eliminations! It was insane to see the match, the Kotoko won of course and the crowds were like the crowds at a basketball game in the US.

Africa has been such a great experience and it’s hard to believe that over half of the month has gone by. Psyched about the rest of the trip, but i do miss Willie’s milkshakes… yum.

-Kalen

It is me again i just had a few things to say. We were staying in Cape Coast at a beach resort called Green Turtle Lodge, and I really enjoyed it there. I got to swim relax, eat really good food and meet a lot of new people which was nice. I stood in a hut with mosquito nets which was exciting. I think I got the best sleep of the whole trip there. What I liked about the hut was laying in bed with the front doors to the hut open and just relax and listen to the waves crash against the shore. While we were there we drove to a canoe port in the open savanna, and took an hour long canoe through marshes, and mangroves, and little patches of dense forest before finally arriving to a big open lake and getting closer to the stilt village and taking a tour there. I think i got a little rush the whole canoe ride to the village knowing that there were crocodiles in the water under our canoe. I also got to row, and the whole time i risked falling into the crocodile infested water, because a certain person kept rocking the boat but that only added to the thrill. Once we got to the village i was very excited but the overall environment felt a little to touristy, but i had fun.

After cape coast we traveled to a town called Swedru where we were going to do our homestays. I was very nervous the day we got there because I did not know what to expect. But when we were dropped off at our new homes our new family was very welcoming and friendly so I felt comfortable. We had dinner and then presented our gifts to them which they really liked. During the homestays I got to learn how to make fufu and observe how a typical middle income Ghanaian family lived, and I also learned how to wash clothes Ghanaian style, and I got all of my clothes spotless. Ryan and I were paired up to the homestay, and we got to go out and see the city and meet our host families family, and experience Ghana from the street instead of the bus. I had to dash busy taxis and trucks at the same time avoiding accidentally falling in to a sewer. In Ghana there is open sewers and that is going to take a little getting used to.

while we were doing our homestays we began our work project which was pretty intense. I learned to juggle heavy pans of sand on my head and be bombarded by kids yelling obruni which means traveler, and asking a million questions, at the same time being exhausted. By the time the week was over the whole school knew my name. We also went to an orphanage and did chores as well as donated supplies, the kids were extremely happy and it made me feel good inside. to end the week we played a soccer game which was the U.S. vs. Ghana, and although i fell and scraped my knee i had a lot of fun and the final score was 3 to 0 and we ended up losing but it was fun.

thats all for now.

bye Robert Z

Since the last blog we have been through a few ups and downs but everything is going well now. We accomplished our community service, which consisted of digging a hole about five feet deep and roughly seven feet in diameter. We then hauled all the dirt up a hill and either mixed it into concrete or spread it around the base of a building that was being constructed.

The whole team worked very well together and I think it was partly due to having a break from each other and the chaperons at night while we stayed at our homestays. Pat, Kalen and I enjoyed our homestay very much and have terrific African outfits to prove it. We were a little sad to leave but after the five hour bus ride to Kumasi we are all happy to say that this is probably the nicest hotel we have stayed in. The best part is easily the hot showers. My first since Sacramento. Today, thanks to our lenient chaperons, we cut out the planned activities and attended a soccer match. The local Asante team against a Libyan team. It was very exciting to say the least but didn’t come close to a CKM game. The Legion easily out ranked the Ghanaian locals in pride and spirit. Another great part of Kumasi is that we have had western food two days in a row. After many meals of chicken and rice cooked in about a million different ways I was delighted to have a double cheese burger. Thanks for the comments on the other blog and I look forward to seeing everyone at home.

Sincerely,
Ben

It’s been a while and there is a huge plethora of experiences to blog about so lets get started.

JIKO orphanage – This place was awesome! i loved playing frisbee with the orphans, getting to see how they lived, and of course, donating things to them. It was an incredible feeling to help these people that need our help. I would definitely come back here, if I return to Ghana.

Green Turtle/Safari Beach – By far the most pleasant experience thus far has been the quality of The Safari Beach Lodge. After being bummed about not being able to stay at Green Turtle, it was great to find out we had decent lodging as well. I think our group bounced back from the shenanigans well, and I am not going to further about that! Oh yeah, and that beach was Sweet!

Agona Swedru – The homestay experience was arguably my favorite experience up to this point. I love the Barnes Family! Awompa, Ife, Kojo, Efua, and all those other Barnes’ men there for the funeral, you are missed already! Working at the T.I. Amidiyhaa school was a good character building experience, as well as a school building experience ( i crack me up sometimes). I dont want to embellish a lot, because i want to tell these stories at home!

Time’s dying now gotta jet!

Patrick A Redford

Last I left off we had visited the Castle in Cape Coast and Elmina. the group then would find themselves in one of Ghana’s most beautiful landscapes, the vacant and beautiful beaches along the coast near Takerati. The girls stayed at the Green Turtle Lodge, and the boys stayed down the beach at Safari Beach Lodge. I felt that this escape into such an amazing tropical paradise was both a blessing and a curse. The blessing was that we were able to take a break from being in the large group at all times, which seemed like it was beginning to aggravate people. the curse was that people within the group including myself began to lose site of the trips main purpose, to come to Ghana for a majority of educational and humanitarian causes; yet the beach and other guests at the lodge made everyones mouth water at the idea of a few days of touristy relaxation. I think that people left those lodges with a lot of mixed feelings on their minds. I personally hit an emotional low, and began to wish for the plane ride home.

My home sickness did not get better with the move to our home stays. Living in a complete strangers house is a difficult thing to get use to the first few nights. It was especially difficult for me because I wasn’t getting the best nights sleep, certain things kept me awake: Chickens, Pigs, Bugs, and loud church services. All seemed to begin to make as much noise as possible right outside our bedroom window; Yet it was a true Ghana moment because this is what you get when you are in Ghana, lots and lots of loud and beautiful sounds.

George, Gladice, and Justice are three of the nicest Ghanaians I have met along my trip, and I am so greatful that Robert and I had the chance to stay at their house in the busy little town of Swedru. We had a few really great experiences while staying with them, two being when we pounded fu-fu and hand-washed our clothing.

Outside the house we were having loads of great experiences. All week long the group hauled sand, dirt, and rocks; mixed cement; and played soccer. We did all of this hard labor to help build a new kindergarten room for the kids at a school in Swedru. We also helped clean up an orphanage nearby, as well as donate around $350 worth of goods to them. It was such an enlightening and euphoric week. I felt true joy in my heart when our hard work made kids chant with joy. I had a blast, and stopped feeling so homesick. On Saturday we hit the road for Kumasi.

Kumasi has been a blast, especially the football match between the city’s home team and a team from Libya! I’m sure there will be some great blogs about the match and the crazy Ghanaian crowds that were partying in the parking lot after their teams victory.

until next time
—Ryan…FONGEE!

So many,many things have happened in the last couple of weeks since our last chance to blog. Of course I am referring to the slave castles, Green Turtle Lodge, spending a week with our host families, and the work project. However great, inspirational, mystifying, fantastic, and emotional those things were, the thing that is sticking out the most in my mind right now is soccer (or football as the rest of the world calls it). First off, there was out little pick up game at the J.S.S (Junior Secondary School which is our equivalent to Jr. High) where we lost 3-0. But that is beside the point. The fact of the matter is that I played soccer in Africa! I don’t know about anyone else who played, but I find this so freaking amazing! It was so much fun being able to get out on a pitch again however bad it was (and believe me it was bad–it made Cal’s field look look like a God send) and just play for the love of the game. And the boys we played with were great athletes–they were ready for another 30 minute half when we were all ready to fall down and sleep. Then again, they weren’t the ones who were doing hard labor for five straight days. Today, we decided to attend a soccer match instead of visiting the craft villages, and I’m sooooo happy we did! It’s wild how loyal these people are to their country and their football (you see a Africa Cup billboard every other block)! It just makes me laugh because if I were to wear so much America paraphernalia I’d be called a red-neck back home or asked if I’m from Texas, not that I have anything against red-necks or Texas. But the game was great, even though I think Libya was cheated out of the tie because an offsides wasn’t called on Ghana, and I really wanted to see some PKs. My favorite parts had to have been all of the dancing the group of guys in front of us did. I wish I had recorded some of it! The most exciting thing was watching the players get into it with each other and the refs and then having the police charge out on the field, and then the one Libya player be chased off by an officer! There’s nothing like that in the states or on Fox soccer! I love Ghana!

In the past week or so, we went to the Cape Coast Slave Castle and had a tour. We were able to go inside the slave dungeons on our tour and I was suprised at how horribly the slaves were treated. The dungeons were very dark with a tiny bit on sunlight from a window. The next day, we went to Elmina Slave Castle to eat lunch. We went around the fishing village which was so cool. The boats and nets we saw the fishermen use are so simple. After Cape Coast, we stayed at the Green Turtle Lodge on the beach. It was beautiful! We visited a few schools and donated lots of school supplies. The children were very excited about our donation. We also went on two canoe trips, one just down a little river to see the mangroves and the other one was to the stilt village, which was pretty cool. Next, we went to Swedro to have our homestays. Lucy and I stayed together with a very nice family. They were so kind and generous. Some of the meals we had include red red, rice pudding, pancakes, fruit, rice, and eggs. The community service we did at the school was hard but fun. Most of the days, we carried containers of sand to the site to make cement. We also mixed sand to make cement. One of the days during the week we were in Swedro, we went to an orphanage to help out. We did lots of laundry and cleaned up. Later, we returned to the same orphanage to drop off lots of things, such as food and baby supplies. The kids were sooo excited when they got soccer jerseys and were cheering for about 5 minutes straight! Everyone was so happy and felt good after this visit. Now, we are in Kumasi and we just got back from an AMAZING soccer game. It was Kumasi versus a Libyan team and Kumasi won 3-1. It was so exciting and the stadium was full of enthusiastic fans. Tomorrow we leave for Mole!

Lindsay Taylor

Kumasi is my favorite town in Ghana, well so far. The Hasta Hotel is great, very accomodating, and the soccer game we attended today was so much fun. The people just seem a lot friendlier here, or maybe it’s just my perception. Today has marked the ten day mark in which we are going to leave Ghana and return home. We are leaving Kumasi tomorrow and heading to Mole, a new adventure.

Before Kumasi, we had our homestays and I stayed with Lauren. We stayed with Jemimah and her daughter Lauretta, both extremely nice people. We had a wonderful time there because the food and company was great. During the day we worked at a local school helping to build a volunteer house. Personally, I didn’t really enjoy the manual labor aspect of our work project, but at the end I was officially glad to say that I had actually helped build a building with my two bare hands. I don’t think I will be saying that again any time soon.

Ghana has been good to me, but I’m looking forward to returning back to Sacramento. My thoughts as the trip is coming to a close: wonderful people, silly friends, fabulous.

It has been a very long time since i last blogged, and so much has happened since then. I could rattle off about a million activities that we have done, but it would take a very long time, and i only have 33 minutes left to email about 5 people. So for now I will just talk about the last few days. We arrived in Kumasi yesterday night, and today we went to a soccer game. It was really fun and Ghana won 3-1! But before arriving in Kumasi we were in homestays for a week, and doing community service. The construction work was really tough, but the cheerful greetings from all the school children helped make it exciting and different everyday. Terren and my homestay parents were very kind and I had a wonderful time getting to know them.

I must admit though, i am feeling a little homesick. I miss my family, and want to share with them my experiences. I have a feeling i will miss Ghana very much after I leave though. The people here are very friendly, and the food is really good. Not to mention the beaches and the amazing sites. I can’t wait to see what the next 10 days bring me.

WE are in Kumasi right now after leaving our homestays.

The homestays were very interesting to say the least. I was staying with Mikaela and we had a blast with our homestay mother Monica and her daughter Anna. During the week we worked at a school building a new wing for it. We hauled sand, dirt and concrete for the laborers for four days. I think that my head is now permanently flattered, but the kids at the school were really nice, and we did make a lot of progress on the building. We also went to the orphanage and donated some stuff and did some work for them.

When we presented the boys at the orphanage with their soccer jerseys, they cheered and were so excited, so that was really nice. We also went to a club, but we were the only ones there, because it was 7:30 in the evening, but its supposedly THE party place in Swedru, which was our homestay town. WE are now in Kumasi. we just went to a soccer match which was so much fun. The Kumasi team beat the Libyans 3 to 1. Everyone had so much spirit and was crazy.
We’re off to Mole in the morning and I’m really excited.