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.