March 24

Sorry everyone it has been such a long time since I have posted.


The last couple of weeks have been so crazy in Ghana with midterms and class work. However I still have been doing a lot and exploring a lot of regions in Ghana. 

A couple of weeks ago we went to Echoing Hills Village which is center for people children and adults who are physically and mentally disabled. This was one of the best experiences I have every had. We started the day by cleaning and mopping the bedrooms, cutting the grass with machetes, and painting the outside of the buildings. This was exciting because it was the first time I got to meet the University of Ghana, Legon CIEE group and work with them to clean and paint. 

Later on in the day I meet a couple of young girls who live at one of the local orphanages in Accra. They were so sweet and really fun. In Ghana there is a particular type of music called hip-life which is a combination of American hip hop with a stronger dance beat. Me and the girls began dancing to hip life music and every time I wanted to stop dancing the girls would continue to dance and would get made at me when I began to stop. I danced for almost 5 straight hours with the girls.They were so sweet and so fun to get to know and it was really sad to me to think that they live at the orphanage. 

This last week was spring break which was the only time we had in Ghana to explore. We began at the beginning of the week in Kumasi. Kumasi is where the Asante kingdom is currently still located and where the gold in Ghana has its historical roots. In Kumasi we went to the market which is the biggest in West Africa. It was so neat to see all the different fabrics and things to buy including full chickens and pigs. 

In Kumasi we also went to a kente cloth factory where many men were looming thread to create kente designs.Each piece of Kente cloth has a particular meaning which is displayed through the designs that the weaver puts into the cloth. It was really neat to learn about all the different designs and to see how the weave the thread. Kente cloth can be woven into single,double or triple weave. I was able to buy some kente cloth while I was here and meet a nice man named Kwame who allowed me to try weaving kente myself. 

In Kumasi we also went to an adinkra village. adinkra symbols are very important to Ghana and each symbol represents a particular proverb and or saying in Ghanaian culture. At this village we saw how they make the dye/ink for the prints and were able to try and make our own adinkra cloth. Adrinka symbols are traditionally put onto Kente cloth. 

In Kumasi we also went to the Asante museum and to a traditional Asante village which was really neat to learn about the Asante people and their royal history and reign in Ghana. The Asante people where a particular group who has remained separate from west African globalization and has remained to carry a strong voice and leadership in Ghana. The Asantehene   is the leader and king of the Asante people and carries a lot of power in the central region of Ghana. He is always seen covered in gold jewelry and very expensive kente cloth. 

After Kumasi a group of us decided to travel up to Northern Ghana. From Accra to Tamale (in Nothern Ghana) is a 15 hour bus trip! It was quite the adventure. After Kumasi we traveled to Tamale which is only a 6 hour trip. Tamale is very dry and dusty compared to southern Ghana because it is close to the dessert. Tamale is a particular Islamic city where people are fully clothed and women wear veils in 100 degree weather. It was interesting to see the difference in architectural design in the Northern region because of the influence of Islamic traders and culture. It felt as though I was in a new country being in the Northern region because of the difference in language as well then in southern Ghana. Tamale is also know for creating things out of leather including beautiful leather bags and sandals. 

From Tamale we traveled to Mole National Park which is a national reserve for animals in Ghana. I loved going here! The first day we got in we saw elephants at a watering hole right outside of our window in our hotel room. That night we also saw warthogs and baboons right by our table at dinner which was really crazy. 

 That next day we took a very early walk through the park with an armed ranger. We saw waterbuck, antelopes, more warthogs, monkeys, and beautiful colored birds. But no elephants at this point close up. So, later that afternoon we took a jeep safari and we saw an elephant so close. It was so neat to see and elephant in its natural environment. It was also neat to see all of the tracks and damage that the elephant actually does to the park from tearing down trees to making large holes in the ground.  

After Mole we headed back to Accra and took a bus all the way back which was a 20 hour adventure. But we survived and are now staring a new week at school all over again. 

Community Service Day

 Kente Cloth

 Adinkra Prints

 ELEPHANT!!

 Warthogs

 More Elephant 

Antelope

2/24/2011

Hi everyone,


I am currently at Ashesi University college. It is pretty warm and sunny today which is nice since the last couple of days has been pretty cloudy and rainy. Tuesday night was really rainy. There was alot of thunder and lighting during the night. The Lighting was so crazy that it lit up the sky. 


This last weekend we went to the Nkruma museum. It was really cool! He was the first president of Ghana. This museum was really neat to see because they have preserved things like his desk from the presidential office as well as a large collection of photos from hist time in office. There are also beautiful statues of Nkruma their as well which were really cool.


We also visited the W.E.B. Dubois center which was so exciting to see. Dubois was a Pan-Africanist from the United States who later moved to Ghana to finish his work in race issues and history. His home in Accra, Ghana is now a museum and a place for African Americans to come back to Africa. There is also a really neat library there with a lot of African and race history book there. These next couple of weeks I hope to go back and do some research while  I am in Ghana. 


We also went to a place in Accra, Ghana were they make coffins. In Ghana many people in the Ewe and Akan ethnic groups make coffins for those who are deceased shaped as objects. Some people may have coffins made shaped as crabs, fish, beer cans, planes and cars to resemble something that they want to bring with them in the afterlife. A women who wanted to travel before death may have a coffin made for her in the shape of a plane or a fishermen might have a coffin shaped as fish as well. 


This weekend we will be going to an orphanage to help clean and to talk to the kids there. We will be helping them create a recycling program. 


March 6th in Ghana is Independence day which will be really exciting. There is a large parade where children from local schools practice and create their own unique march for Independence day. A lot of people in Ghana also go to the beach on Independence day. 

I am also planning a couple trips for the next couple of weeks/month I am going to go to Mole National Park in the Northern Region of Ghana which is 12 hours away from Accra. I also am hoping to go to the Eastern region during Spring break to go para gliding. 

 Nkruma statue 

 Dubois Center

 Coffins shaped as soda bottle, Star Beer and a Camera there is also a robot in Back 

 Fish Coffin and Eagle coffin to the left side

 Nkruma Museum , Burial site inside

 Elmina Slave Castle This is the inside of the Castle the building in the Middle is the Church in the compound

 Cape Coast fishing boats

 Cape Coast fishing community 

 Elmina lookout on to Cape Coast Area 

 Lizards that I see all around Ghana they scare me!

Me petting a crocodile

Feb. 16th

Hello,
This past weekend was so fun at the Cape coast. It was so great to finally put some images to the things I have read about throughout my history classes throughout my life. We visited Elmina castle which was a major slave castle that housed thousands of slaves throughout the Atlantic Slave trade. It was so shocking to see how the castle was constructed. In the middle of the slave castle there is a church. This really made me sick to think about the injustice and lack of humanity that these slave traders were taken part in and then to see that the church in the slave castle. The church was reworking biblical passages to view what they were doing was okay since the Africans were seen as nothing more then primitive and that enslaving them would do good for these pagan thinking people. One thing that shocked me at the castle was the smell and stains that were still ingrained into the castles walls. The smell in the female dungeons were so much stronger then in the male dungeons because of the lack of hygiene and cleanliness that women were allowed. 


We also visited one of the slave forts with my history class this last week as well. We visited Fort Usher which housed enslaved people in the city of Accra throughout the Atlantic Slave trade and in the 1900's became a place were political prisoners were  held who fought against the British during their control in Ghana. 


I also visited Kakum National park which was so exciting. I got to climb on a canopy walkway which was so high up and was at the top layer of the trees at the rain forest. It was really neat because I was at the same level on the bridge with beautiful birds. However thank goodness I am not afraid of heights it was so high up that it was a little scary at times. We also went to a restaurant that was surrounded by crocodiles. I got to pet one which was really cool.


My favorite thing about the weekend was that I finally went to the beach. The sand in Ghana is really soft and the waves are really calm. I went swimming in the ocean which was really great. I also got to see the fishing community in Ghana. Fishermen in Ghana don't fish out in boats. They have canoes that they place very large nets in the ocean. They tie the net to a palm tree and then get a team of some 10-15 men and pull the large nets in. I was so hoping to get to pull a net in but it was too late by the time we finally got to the beach.


This week at school and in Accra have been really good. I have not yet gotten my dresses that I had made but I have bough some things of the streets. I also found this really neat NGO group called Global Mamma's that provides jobs to women in the city and in Local villages to create cloth and clothing items for sale and pays them at high wages. I also found a great little ice cream place (not as good as american ice cream places) by my hostel which does the job for a nice dessert sometimes. This last week it also rained quite a bit on Thursday which took me for a complete surprise. In Accra all the side roads and the places you walk are clay and when it rained it was completely mud all over the city. Which was really weird since in Ghana it is currently the dry season. 


This weekend I will be visiting the W.E.B. Dubois center which is so exciting because Dubois is one of the reason I decided to come and study in Ghana to begin with. He was a pan-africanist who decided that racism in the US was too much for him to life through. He decided to move to Ghana to escape american institutionalized racism and to continue his studies in race issues aboard. The center in Accra is a place for African Americans to "come back to Africa" and serves as a place in the city to discusses racism and race relations between Ghana and the United States.


I hope in the next couple of days to post again and to post some pictures from my past weekend. 

Feb. 3rd

Hi everyone,

On Friday I went to the large market in Central Accra. It was really crazy and a lot of people selling everything on the streets at the market. If any of you have watched Amazing Race this was the market people had to sell sunglasses at last season. People were selling everything from fish that was smelly with lots of flies as well as caged chickens and birds that were being used for food and many other craft goods. Everyone there calls you obruni which means white person as well as making lip smacking noises to get your attention. I also had a couple of women and a man grab my butt to get my attention which was awkward but really funny to me.  

At the market the others girls and I bought tons of African fabrics in all sorts of colors and prints. It was only 2 cedis a yard which is really cheap. I bought 12 yards of fabric which will allow me to make 3 full size dresses. I will most likely make some skirts and a dress with the fabric I purchased. In Ghana there is a big industry for seamstress to make dresses. I am meeting with a seamstress tomorrow. She will sketch out the designs I want and make clothes for me which will be really exciting. 

One thing I keep seeing while I am here are these little lizards with bright orange heads. They make these creepy hissing sounds and are always hiding in the grasses or on walls when I am walking to school. They keep jumping out at me while I am walking and really freak me out.  I also see these black birds with white bellies that are really pretty and make a really cool howling noise. I also see a lot of roosters and chickens as well as goats all over Accra which is super fun.

This weekend Saturday-Sunday we are going to the Cape Coast. The Cape Coast has the slave castles which will be really interesting to see as well. I am also going to Jamestown next week with my Atlantic Slave Trade class to learn about the formation and the beginning of slaves in captivity in Ghana which will be such a unique and educational experience for me especially with my interest in African American History. 

I am also as part of the Cape Coast weekend going to a section of rain forest in Ghana as well as to some of the waterfalls in Ghana. We are going to Kakum National Park which is full of exotic animals and which is so exciting to finally see some African animals. What is really cool about this park is that there is a  canopy walkway which is  a series of walkways of varying lengths suspended from the trees 40-45 feet above the forest floor which makes you feel like you are in a jungle of some sort. If you have seen any pictures of Ghana this is the long suspension bridge. We are also going to Hans Cottage Restaurant which is built on stilts in a lake with crocodiles which will be really fun as well. I hope to be able to blog and post pictures after this weekend.


 My computer freaked out this last week which has allowed me to only write on my blog on campus which is difficult to access the websites. If anyone would like to talk to me via email it is easier on Amy.Campbell @ashesi.edu.gh while I am here in Ghana. 

Monday Jan 24

The internet is so slow! Everyone in Ghana buys a internet modem which is a usb jump drive that picks up cell reception. It is so frustrating because it takes forever to load a page on the internet and then doesn't wan to post anything are send messages to anyone when I am in IM chat with them.

Yesterday I went to our resident directors house for dinner. All 8 CIEE students went and it was a 40 minute drive from where I am staying. It was really fun and his wife cooked us alot of Ghanian food. I loved it! She made jollof rice and plantains which are my food of substance in Ghana. We also watched some Ghanian films which were super interesting the one we watched started off as a comedy and ended as a drama. It was like 3 movies in 1.

I feel like I am getting into the grove of things a little more. My roomate finally moved in which is good so I can finally move all of stuff around and finally get situated. I have met some really great friends in Ghana and my apartment mates have been so helpful in helping me get fimilar with the area. The one thing in Ghana that makes me laugh more then anything is the amount of young people who watch twilight and Vampire diaries. Everyone at Ashesi has seen it knows all about it ansd knew washington state from the movie.

Cooking dinner for myself has been quite a challenge. There is no stove in our apartment and the the stove requires you to light a match over the burner which sparks sometimes. I have just been eating alot of bread and fruit. I have been buying pineapple in Ghana and it is so good! It is only 1 cedi (which is cheap!)

I have posted some pictures of around my apartment so you can see some the things that i see while I am here. Most of them are pictures around the area but there is also a picture of some ghanian cedis so you can see what the money looks like.

One week in Ghana

Hello Everyone

Getting the Internet finally set up took such a long time! Well I have been in Ghana for one week and it has already been a earth shattering experience. Every morning people in Ghana wake up with the sun which is 5 am. They are in their homes by 6-7 pm because that is when the sun comes down. This has been a definite switch. Every morning  I wake up to roosters that are outside as well as a church which is right across the street from my apartment. The church blares music in the morning.

I am constantly surprised between the division of wealth in Accra, Ghana. There are many people who drive very expensive and imported vehicles. while others are living in very poor and unhealthy conditions. The students at Ashesi University are the very wealthy and come from very rich families. All of my suite mates have very nice phones and computers.

I live in an area called Danquah Circle and I am across the street from Oxford Street which had alot of street sellers and stores that I can buy things down. Shopping in Ghana is so different! Everything you need is not just in one store like in a Walmart or Target you my have to search all over town to find pens or paper.

I am taking African Literature, Music and Dance of West Africa, A course of the Atlantic Slave Trade and Pre-Calculus. My Africana classes are interesting because the other international students are the courses but my math class I am the only one who is not African in a class of 60. I stand out like a sore thumb and students in the class treat me differently even though they are wearing very expensive clothing and jewelery.

Walking down the street being a white girl has been an awkward and funny experience. Today me and my friend Cara were walking back to the apartment and a group Ghanaian men were playing football. They all stopped there game to say hello to her and I. When I walk down the street many men also stop to tell me and the other international students how beautiful we are which is really uncomfortable for me.

My apartment mates are so great and are so helpful. They are really nice and help me understand Ghana's culture. They are also so interested in the culture of the United States.It is so funny to me though when I am here and all I hear is American R and B music or American country music.

Being on my own for meals everyday is a challenge but I am finding things I like which is good my favorite things so far is oranges in Ghana and there is a different way you have to eat them by squeezing them in your mouth also fan ice which is like a milkshake in a pre-packaged bag it is so good!

I have been trying to upload pictures so I will try again tomorrow.

One week in Ghana

Hello Everyone

Getting the Internet finally set up took such a long time! Well I have been in Ghana for one week and it has already been a earth shattering experience. Every morning people in Ghana wake up with the sun which is 5 am. They are in their homes by 6-7 pm because that is when the sun comes down. This has been a definite switch. Every morning  I wake up to roosters that are outside as well as a church which is right across the street from my apartment. The church blares music in the morning.

I am constantly surprised between the division of wealth in Accra, Ghana. There are many people who drive very expensive and imported vehicles. while others are living in very poor and unhealthy conditions. The students at Ashesi University are the very wealthy and come from very rich families. All of my suite mates have very nice phones and computers.

I live in an area called Danquah Circle and I am across the street from Oxford Street which had alot of street sellers and stores that I can buy things down. Shopping in Ghana is so different! Everything you need is not just in one store like in a Walmart or Target you my have to search all over town to find pens or paper.

I am taking African Literature, Music and Dance of West Africa, A course of the Atlantic Slave Trade and Pre-Calculus. My Africana classes are interesting because the other international students are the courses but my math class I am the only one who is not African in a class of 60. I stand out like a sore thumb and students in the class treat me differently even though they are wearing very expensive clothing and jewelery.

Walking down the street being a white girl has been an awkward and funny experience. Today me and my friend Cara were walking back to the apartment and a group Ghanaian men were playing football. They all stopped there game to say hello to her and I. When I walk down the street many men also stop to tell me and the other international students how beautiful we are which is really uncomfortable for me.

My apartment mates are so great and are so helpful. They are really nice and help me understand Ghana's culture. They are also so interested in the culture of the United States.It is so funny to me though when I am here and all I hear is American R and B music or American country music.

Being on my own for meals everyday is a challenge but I am finding things I like which is good my favorite things so far is oranges in Ghana and there is a different way you have to eat them by squeezing them in your mouth also fan ice which is like a milkshake in a pre-packaged bag it is so good!

I have been trying to upload pictures so I will try again tomorrow.