Ghana

Day 1:
My first day in Ghana was great! The port in Tema is about 45min from the main city, Accra. So Sally, Becca and I got a taxi to the city of Accra and got dropped off on the main street to go exploring and souvenir shopping!
We walked around for a while and then got lunch at the local fast food place, Papayes. After lunch we walked back down the other side of the street and found a few guys selling drums. I had thought about getting a drum as my souvenir from this stop, so we stopped and checked them out. I wound up buying one, but before I left Sally and Becca had maracas, and some more Ghanaians showed up and we all played our instruments together. We made friends and had so much fun!
Later, we grabbed a snack at the local grocery store and set outside to enjoy it. As we were finishing up we met some more locals around our age. We sat with them for awhile, played Mancala, and talked. They were security guards at a bank trying to make money to go to the university. They were very interested in America and what it had to offer.
 Then we went back to where we had been earlier in the day and wound up finding our instrument friends. We sat and talked to them again for awhile. One of the guys invited us to go to church and then to his house with him. I was excited about the opportunity, but we had several other locals tell us to be really careful with this guy, he was known for lying....so we decided it would probably be best not to go. We settled for dinner at Mama Mia's, a local pizza restaurant(my first time to have pizza since I have been gone!) and it was soo good!  Then we headed back to the ship for a much needed shower and some sleep.


Day 2:
We left Tema at 7:00a.m. drove about 5 hours north. Bumpy, unpaved roads for a good 2/3 of the drive! We hiked 45 min to the most beautiful waterfall I have ever seen. It was huge! We went swimming and stood under it. It was quite refreshing and a much needed break from the 90degree weather. It was amazing to stand at the bottom of the waterfall and look up. There were hundreds of really colorful butterflies around the waterfall too! Some compared it to a scene in Avatar! Then we hiked back and got back on the bus for another 2 hour ride to a small village to see the Mona Monkeys. I fed a monkey a banana! We held them out and then the monkey would come up to it and actually peel the banana and then eat it! While the monkeys were cool, I loved being in the village. They way these people live is really eye-opening. Most kids only wore underwear and many were naked. The women and children had to go get water from far away and then they carried it back on their heads. They all live in little mud shacks with thatched roofs. I live like a KINGat home, I am so blessed!
We left there for another 3 hour ride back to the ship! While it was a lot of driving and riding, we got to see a lot and I had the chance to get to know some new friends from the ship better!


Day 3:
Sally, Becca, Tyler, and I went on the Habitat for Humanity service trip in Chebi. It was sooo hott! I would say it was somewhere close, if not hotter than 90 degrees. We started off with moving cement blocks and then moved onto hauling dirt back and forth from a huge pile to fill in the foundation for the house. We worked hard and it was probably the sweatiest/nastiest I have been on the entire trip. However, I don't regret going one bit! It felt good to give one of our many days in port to help others.
After lunch we were walking back to the sight to start working again and I saw an older lady at the water pump about to get some water. I asked her if I could try to do it and she let me fill up her bucket for her. Then she invited us into her house! She brought us in and sat us down, then proceeded to get a papaya, peel it, and serve it to us. We were a little nervous about eating it, but we knew we had to because she had been so hospitable. It was not very good, it was hot and mushy, but we managed to get a lot of it down. We thanked her, took pictures, talked for awhild and got her address. I hope to send her a picture of us in her house! Im so glad we got the opportunity to actually see one of the houses in use. There were about 80 habitat houses in this village, but the houses are much much different than the habitat ones we build at home. They are concrete with a few rooms and concrete floors, but very appropriate for the town they were in.
We worked a couple of hours longer, played with the local village kids and then headed back! We got to stop at a little town on the way back to pick up some drinks(we weren’t provided with any water all day!). I think we made this little town's day. We bought a ton of drinks and ice cream from them and they probably sold more in the 5 minutes we were there than they do in a whole week!
We got back to the ship, took the best feeling shower, grabbed some dinner, and then all of our friends stayed in and played games! We played sardines on the ship! It was awesome and so fun to be old-school!ha


Day 4:
We went on a visit to the Torgorme Village. We arrived and were greeted by close to 200 village members! After shaking hands with most of the elders of the village, we were seated and then participated in a naming ceremony. Each one of us was called up individually by the chief of the tribe and was given a traditional African name, a hand-made pot from the village with our American and African name on it, and a strand of African beads by the women of the village.  Your first name in the tribe is determined by what day you were born on and your second name is given to you by the tribe/village. I was born on a Tuesday so my first name was Abla and my second name was Kpexdasi, meaning precious stone.  While other people were being given their names I got to know some of the kids of the village. I had one little 2yr old in my lap the whole time and then I really got to know my friend Phillip. He is 15, loves to play football, and dreams of coming to the U.S. one day. He was so excited when I showed him my United States passport because it had the flag and the bald eagle on it. Then I showed him my driver’s license and he was amazed that I could drive! I also showed him American money and he thought it was so cool! He was so interested in anything having to do with the United States! But throughout our whole time together he was very concerned about how he would find me if he ever came to the U.S. So I gave him my phone number and address and told him he was always welcome at my house!  A little bit later, he showed me around the village. We saw the women forming the clay pots and learned this village is one of the main producers for the pots we have in the states. Then we observed a man making the famous Kente cloth of Ghana. It is a really colorful and beautiful fabric. I was able to get a piece made right there in the village. As we were leaving the village, Phillip made sure to ask when I would be home because he really wanted me to call him or write him a letter. I hope we can stay in touch and maybe one day he will make it to the U.S.
Later in the afternoon, we went to Shai Hills Game Reserve. It was really funny because here we were in a huge, lime green, 40-passenger coach in the middle of the plains of Africa on a hunt for game. We saw some antelope and a few baboons but that was about it. The bus finally parked and we hiked to the Obonu Te and Se Yo Caves. It was actually a beautiful hike and the cave was really neat. Except for the fact that it was filled with bats! While we were in the cave, two people had bats fly into their face and of course who would be one of the two but ME! It was absolutely disgusting; I screamed and was out of there!


Lots of students and faculty were ready to leave Ghana and some didn’t even get off the ship on the fourth day. However, I really enjoyed Ghana! It was not touristy and I felt like I was able to really “see” Africa! I found the African people and culture to be very intriguing. I would love to come back some day!