Ok, before I start talking about Monday, one omission from Sunday's adventures must be noted. On our walk, we encountered an elephant. The elephant was snacking on a tree by the watering hole beside the main road we were walking on. We were about 100 yards away and it turned around and looked at us, then went back to eating it's tree. No big deal. Apparently what is a big deal is when the eleph. ant turns around again and four pi-peds are now 40ft away. Oh. So, Kaivan runs from the front of the line of us, leaving Nisha in front, me behind her and Liza quite a bit behind all of us. When an elephant moves toward you, you're supposed to stand your ground, call it's bluff. Kaivan ran, and the elephant began to gallop. It didn't take many steps because Nisha and I literally screamed at Kaivan to stop running, and he did. When Kaivan stopped, so did the galloping elephant.
Crisis Averted.
Now, on to Monday. We slept in just a little bit, although I found it impossible to sleep past dawn, which happens right around 6:30am. I went to the observatory to wait for the others to wake up - that became our standard meeting place. If you were looking for people right after you woke up, best bet was the observatory. That morning I finished the book Purple Hibiscus. Liza Nisha and I had two novels with us between the three of us (plus another book of Nisha's) that we all finished. It was a good book, about a B+. It could have been great if it hadn't glossed over some vital details, and tied the ending up like there wasn't another option. Anyway. I finished that, and started Devil in the White City, which was a historical fiction about the Columbian Exhibition, or World's Fair in Chicago in the early twentieth century. Great read if you like character studies. I've clearly been distracted by books. What else is new? So. Burkia Faso, right. After everyone was up, we watched the elephants for a bit, and then went to the dining hall for breakfast/spaghetti.
And there we sat from 8am to 3pm. It was an absolutely fantastic day of relaxation and activity, conversation and quiet. All of us brought things to do - homework, books, string (to make bracelets!) journals, cards and bananagrams. So that's what we did, all the while watching the elephants romp in the watering hole. We talked while Liza taught us how to make string bracelets (yep...like we were ten at day camp), and then just spent some time hanging out, reading, writing, whatever. All of a sudden it was lunch time, so we ate around one, and went back to our bungalows to sleep at three. Around 4, I was semi-asleep and I heard someone walking outside. I thought this was kind of weird because the camp had been really empty all day. I was right. I look out the window of our bungalow and see the back half of an elephant. I yell to Nisha (repeatedly) to come that there was an elephant, right now. We got our cameras, and went onto the porch to see this huge elephant just strolling by. We wanted to get Kaivan and Liza, in the other bungalow to make sure they saw it...but we couldn't walk those 20 feet because there was an elephant in the way! We soon heard and saw them being excited about the huge grey critter that looked about to chomp on their roof. It passed by and snacked on a nearby tree before lumbering to the water to cool off. We couldn't get over it. We're STILL not over it - that elephant walked right next to our place of residence...it's footsteps woke me up from a nap. Absolute madness, I tell you.
The rest of the evening was pretty normal - we ate dinner, charged up our batteries on the few hours of electricity, played cards and went to sleep. I think this was the day that we taught Alhassan (the guy who ran the dining hall) how to play the card game ERS. This was quite a feat considering we speak limited french, and he doesn't speak English. We really befriended this guy - he seemed to like us a lot, and we figured it was probably because most people don't stick around too long. Most people in the camp just stay for one nigh - safari in the morning, and then out. We stayed for five days, four nights. There was one other party doing much the same as us, except they had a car, so they headed out to the bush to set up their table and chairs to drink and play cards. Anyway, we got to be as good of friends with Alhassan as we could, considering our communication was incredibly limited.
So that was Monday.
I do apologize for the gap/delay/lack in postings. It was a busy week, and we don't have internet at our house anymore, so I need to make more time at the Academic Center (where internet is surprisingly reliable) to make sure these get up. Thank you for your patience!
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Sunday
So, official day one of Spring Break. The night before, if you've been keeping up, we managed to communicate with the front desk guy that we wanted a safari in the morning, with a car, driver and guide. Funny side note. None of the four of us know how to drive stick shift. I've driven it once, through a parking lot for about fifteen minutes. Because of this situation, and the fact that we were unsure of what exactly our transportation accommodations would include, I thought it prudent we educate ourselves to the nuances of stick shift. So I wikihow'd it. Yep. Thursday night before we left I went to the Academic Center and printed out a French grammar primer and the steps to successfully driving a manual car. This was the extent of our preparation, so (as you can imagine) we were happy the car for the safari came with a driver. [I have to say though, the wikihow was pretty thorough - I feel that with my minute previous experience and extensive written directions, I would have been fine...ok...fine may not be the word...I think we probably wouldn't have crashed. Decreased the lifespan of the transmission? Definitely.] Sunday morning, 6:20 am, we roll out of our Bungalows and traverse the 30 feet to the reception center, where we find waiting a pickup truck with a board across the back. Super - exactly what we were hoping for. Neither the driver, nor the guide spoke English, but it was gestured to us (we did a lot of gesturing - surprisingly effective method of communication, I must say) that he had an illustrated book of the animals that he would use for us. Sweet.
We set off. African sunrises are the best I have ever seen. It gets nearly totally light out, and then this perfectly circular ball of fire just appears. That morning, it simply appeared and then rose high in the sky, transforming from a bright white into a blazing yellow. On this safari, we saw water buck, roan antelope, gazelles, warthogs, baboons and this beautifully blue-colored bird called an absynian roller. Every time we, or our guide or driver saw an animal, we stopped the Land Cruiser and watched, while the guide handed back the book to Kaivan to show him what we were looking at. The four of us were sitting in the back on the board, facing forward. Nisha and Kaivan sandwiched Liza and I - Liza and I had to hold on to the metal bar fixed right behind the glass window of the pick-up, while Nisha and Kaivan braced themselves in with their legs. They also had to dodge foliage, which was pretty funny. Out of this constant need to duck or get out the way of branches, trees and assorted grasses, the phrase "tuck and roll" was born. This turned into a great continuing joke throughout the week - all you needed to do was tuck and roll out of any situation. As we looped back around the camp and wound up on the main road we traveled the day before, the sun was getting hotter and we could see our bungalows. Liza and I had been standing up, enjoying the wind in our face and the dust coating our skin, mostly because it was a bumpy ride to take on a wooden plank, and because we felt absolutely super-cool. Just before entering the reception area, just about where the bungalows began, and just past the watering hole and baboon lair, we had to stop. Why did we have to stop, you may wonder? Because there were elephants crossing the road. No joke. We stood in the back of this white truck while about a dozen elephants crossed the road less than 40 feet in front of us. There were some little ones in the group (relatively speaking of course), and then a whole lot of really large, dopey looking elephants. We took pictures like it was the last time we would see them, and we did wind up with some really cool shots. They just kept coming across the road, completely unperturbed at the car chillin so close by. Thus we arrive at 8:30 am Day 1 of Spring Break, Burkina Faso. Score.
The rest of the day is really spent watching elephants. We went to the observatory (round stone hut that jutted onto a peninsula slightly into the watering hole with tiered benches for [get this] observing the animals) where the rest of the visitors of the camp were already gathered (about 20 people or so, definitely no more). We sat there for a long time and just watched the elephants. There were between 20 and 24 (it's remarkably difficult to count looming grey critters when they're playing and half submerged in water) elephants in this watering hole. They were cooling off, playing and bothering one another. The old ones were just sort of hanging out alone, not really moving and not really caring what was going on around them. The ones that looked like full adults were all together, much as you would expect parents at a play ground to gather on the outside of the fence to converse and enjoy adult company. Then the young and adolescent ones (it's pretty easy to get a read as to how old an elephant is in terms of size and skin texture) were seriously just playing around. They were wrestling, dunking each other, walking over one another and tugging their playmates underwater. It was fantastic to watch, an absolute ball. This is not the last time I'll make a note of how much like humans the elephant interactions were - it was uncanny.
We got hungry, so we went to the dining hall/restuarant for breakfast. Petit Dejuner (breakfast) consisted of a lot of baguette, cheese, jam, butter, tea and coffee. Kaivan usually got spaghetti, Liza and Nisha usually went for the p.d. and I split my time. The cool thing was that because the dining area overlooked the watering hole as well, we could watch elephants as we sat there and ate. Wonderful.
We ate snacks for lunch, and then napped and went for an exploratory walk in the afternoon. We saw some warthogs chasing gazelle, and some other deer like creatures. It was cool to just walk around - we stopped about every 20 minutes for a water break, and walked for about an hour and a half. Liza and Kaivan stopped as we were walking about the watering hole to break up and bottle some dried mud. We figured we could add water to it and make it into clay - this turns into a great story for the next post, so stay tuned. Super. We thought dinner ended at seven, so we went back (having skipped lunch, save for some plantain chips and peanut butter sandwiches) around 5:30. Well, we were wrong. Dinner is served at seven. This makes sense - they make all the food at once, because there isn't enough people at the camp at any one time, and there aren't that many choices to warrant making each dish by itself - they cooked all the food and served it at generally around 7 pm. So, hence began our period of regression. We brought cards, bananagrams, our books and string to nearly every meal, in some combination, from that point on. We really felt like we were five, needing to be entertained while waiting for food to be served, but we got to be ok with it relatively quickly. It was actually a great way to enjoy the passing of time. We watched elephants, talked, laughed and played games as we waited for the food.
After eating, we went back to one of our Bungalows and all hung out and played more bananagrams, until 9:30 or so when we retreated to shower and get ready for bed with the luxury (and light) of electricity. It was an exhausting, and early day, so I think we mostly all just fell right asleep. We planned to allow ourselves time to sleep in the next morning, because we weren't going on a safari until Tuesday. Monday we decided we would just hung out, which turned out to be an awesome decision. We thought we would sleep in, watch elephants all day, and then take an afternoon walk, since we hadn't done that yet. It was a great day one (technically speaking), but I assure you, the best is yet to come.
By the way - going back to school after spring break sucks. I love learning, and being in class - but after spending a week chillin' with elephants playing in a watering hole...lecture just doesn't quite cut it. It also isn't so cool that I have a quiz, midterm, paper proposal and a group presentation during the course of this week, either. Such is life - at least I'm enjoying what I'm learning about.
:)
We set off. African sunrises are the best I have ever seen. It gets nearly totally light out, and then this perfectly circular ball of fire just appears. That morning, it simply appeared and then rose high in the sky, transforming from a bright white into a blazing yellow. On this safari, we saw water buck, roan antelope, gazelles, warthogs, baboons and this beautifully blue-colored bird called an absynian roller. Every time we, or our guide or driver saw an animal, we stopped the Land Cruiser and watched, while the guide handed back the book to Kaivan to show him what we were looking at. The four of us were sitting in the back on the board, facing forward. Nisha and Kaivan sandwiched Liza and I - Liza and I had to hold on to the metal bar fixed right behind the glass window of the pick-up, while Nisha and Kaivan braced themselves in with their legs. They also had to dodge foliage, which was pretty funny. Out of this constant need to duck or get out the way of branches, trees and assorted grasses, the phrase "tuck and roll" was born. This turned into a great continuing joke throughout the week - all you needed to do was tuck and roll out of any situation. As we looped back around the camp and wound up on the main road we traveled the day before, the sun was getting hotter and we could see our bungalows. Liza and I had been standing up, enjoying the wind in our face and the dust coating our skin, mostly because it was a bumpy ride to take on a wooden plank, and because we felt absolutely super-cool. Just before entering the reception area, just about where the bungalows began, and just past the watering hole and baboon lair, we had to stop. Why did we have to stop, you may wonder? Because there were elephants crossing the road. No joke. We stood in the back of this white truck while about a dozen elephants crossed the road less than 40 feet in front of us. There were some little ones in the group (relatively speaking of course), and then a whole lot of really large, dopey looking elephants. We took pictures like it was the last time we would see them, and we did wind up with some really cool shots. They just kept coming across the road, completely unperturbed at the car chillin so close by. Thus we arrive at 8:30 am Day 1 of Spring Break, Burkina Faso. Score.
The rest of the day is really spent watching elephants. We went to the observatory (round stone hut that jutted onto a peninsula slightly into the watering hole with tiered benches for [get this] observing the animals) where the rest of the visitors of the camp were already gathered (about 20 people or so, definitely no more). We sat there for a long time and just watched the elephants. There were between 20 and 24 (it's remarkably difficult to count looming grey critters when they're playing and half submerged in water) elephants in this watering hole. They were cooling off, playing and bothering one another. The old ones were just sort of hanging out alone, not really moving and not really caring what was going on around them. The ones that looked like full adults were all together, much as you would expect parents at a play ground to gather on the outside of the fence to converse and enjoy adult company. Then the young and adolescent ones (it's pretty easy to get a read as to how old an elephant is in terms of size and skin texture) were seriously just playing around. They were wrestling, dunking each other, walking over one another and tugging their playmates underwater. It was fantastic to watch, an absolute ball. This is not the last time I'll make a note of how much like humans the elephant interactions were - it was uncanny.
We got hungry, so we went to the dining hall/restuarant for breakfast. Petit Dejuner (breakfast) consisted of a lot of baguette, cheese, jam, butter, tea and coffee. Kaivan usually got spaghetti, Liza and Nisha usually went for the p.d. and I split my time. The cool thing was that because the dining area overlooked the watering hole as well, we could watch elephants as we sat there and ate. Wonderful.
We ate snacks for lunch, and then napped and went for an exploratory walk in the afternoon. We saw some warthogs chasing gazelle, and some other deer like creatures. It was cool to just walk around - we stopped about every 20 minutes for a water break, and walked for about an hour and a half. Liza and Kaivan stopped as we were walking about the watering hole to break up and bottle some dried mud. We figured we could add water to it and make it into clay - this turns into a great story for the next post, so stay tuned. Super. We thought dinner ended at seven, so we went back (having skipped lunch, save for some plantain chips and peanut butter sandwiches) around 5:30. Well, we were wrong. Dinner is served at seven. This makes sense - they make all the food at once, because there isn't enough people at the camp at any one time, and there aren't that many choices to warrant making each dish by itself - they cooked all the food and served it at generally around 7 pm. So, hence began our period of regression. We brought cards, bananagrams, our books and string to nearly every meal, in some combination, from that point on. We really felt like we were five, needing to be entertained while waiting for food to be served, but we got to be ok with it relatively quickly. It was actually a great way to enjoy the passing of time. We watched elephants, talked, laughed and played games as we waited for the food.
After eating, we went back to one of our Bungalows and all hung out and played more bananagrams, until 9:30 or so when we retreated to shower and get ready for bed with the luxury (and light) of electricity. It was an exhausting, and early day, so I think we mostly all just fell right asleep. We planned to allow ourselves time to sleep in the next morning, because we weren't going on a safari until Tuesday. Monday we decided we would just hung out, which turned out to be an awesome decision. We thought we would sleep in, watch elephants all day, and then take an afternoon walk, since we hadn't done that yet. It was a great day one (technically speaking), but I assure you, the best is yet to come.
By the way - going back to school after spring break sucks. I love learning, and being in class - but after spending a week chillin' with elephants playing in a watering hole...lecture just doesn't quite cut it. It also isn't so cool that I have a quiz, midterm, paper proposal and a group presentation during the course of this week, either. Such is life - at least I'm enjoying what I'm learning about.
:)
Monday, March 22, 2010
Friday and Saturday, Traveling
We had tickets – thanks to Nisha’s endeavor on Thursday, we had tickets in hand that actually cost half the fare. Good work. The bus was set to leave at 12:30 – now, this system of transportation (who am I kidding – the entire country/continent) is notorious for running hours late. I go to class Friday morning (7:30-9:30, 40 minutes away) and return to pack. Liza comes over at around 11 and the four of us discuss what we’re bringing, remind each other of vital missing items and generally make sure we’re all on the same page. We’ve already exchanged our money into the African Franc, or CFA (see-fa), and we are set to go. We arrive at the bus station at around 12:30. The lady at the desk says the bus will leave no later than 2:30. Seven bags of 1Gh Cedi rice, three Fan Ice, 10 water sachets, and 10 bags of plantain chips later, we pull out of Accra at 5:42pm. We didn’t eat all of that food – most all of it got shoved into black plastic bags in the overhead storage compartment for later, which was definitely a useful idea.
So the journey went. The bus was much more comfortable than anticipated – good seats, leg room and a/c – we were definitely pleasantly surprised. On the TV, there were ridiculous Nigerian movies playing/blaring until about two am, at which point five popular Ghanaian Hip-Life songs began looping. Five songs looping over and over again – while we do love this music…that was a bit much. The four of us managed to get some sleep, at some point, though with varying degrees of success, throughout the night. As it became light outside, it was obvious the landscape was much different than in Accra. There were circular and square adobe huts with thatched roofs situated in small groupings of perhaps 10-20 or so, and sometimes smaller. There were also a lot of Mosques, indicating the increased Muslim population of Northern Ghana. At 7:15am, we pulled into St. John Station in Bolgatanga. After trying to determine if the bus was continuing to Paga, a town still closer to our destination and finding that this was indeed the last stop, a man came on the bus and offered to take us to Paga, and then the border. This was the ticket. He overcharged us – by a lot. We wound up paying twice what we realistically should have, but in our defense, we were tired, didn’t have a very steady plan of the next step and weren’t sure what other cars we could get to go where we were going.
Smo was the taxi driver’s name, quite a jovial young man. We were all snacking on our wonderful plantain chips, and he apparently felt left out. After asking for one to share, Liza continued to feed him chips for the duration of the half hour or so ride, which was just sort of bizarrely funny. We made it to the border, and went into the Ghanaian customs building. The officers there were awesome. They were really nice, joked with us and turned out to be really helpful. They hassled Kaivan because he was traveling with three ladies – they apparently thought he should be share. We filled out our forms, used their restroom and walked into Burkina Faso.
After crossing the border, it wasn’t long before we found that English really wasn’t spoken at all – it’s a Francophone country, but we weren’t sure if people living close to the border would be bilingual. Nope. We were lucky enough to meet this man who spoke enough English and understood enough of my French to convey that one of the customs guys had called him and told him we were going to Camp Nazinga. This is just a testament to how cool the Immigration guys were – one of them said he knew of Camp Nazinga, but when we went to find him to figure out if he knew how to get there, he had vanished – he had called this guy, and told him to take care of us. Sweet. So anyway, we pay much less than we planned on for Mahamo (sp?) to drive us in a small, white Volvo to Camp Nazinga. This turned out to be a full two hour drive through Po and the park. Po was a neat little border town, but we didn’t wind up getting to spend any time there. Most of the journey (about an hour and half or so) wound up being down the main road of the Camp. This was a bumpy, dusty, hole- filled road – we’re still not sure how that little car survived, but it did. Along the way, we saw warthogs, a gorilla and elephants. Seriously. Before we had even gotten to the actual camp, we saw elephants in the watering hole.
Upon arrival at the camp, we checked in, were shown to our Bungalows and realized it was a really good thing that I a) spoke a little French b) brought a French in West Africa Vocabulary book along. There really was very little to no English spoken, so it was an interesting experience. The bungalows were awesome. We had to rent two because only three people were allowed to stay in one of them, and we were traveling with four. It worked out well. They each had beds, dressers, a table and a bathroom with running water, which was extremely comfortable and much more than I had expected. A pretty cool thing about the camp was that the electricity only turned on from 6-10 at night. We think it may have been on around noon as well, but we never wound up being able to confirm that. Since no one was around the camp during the day, the electricity was only turned on when they needed it to cook, or in the evening when people would need to see. Great idea for decreasing expenses, and it wasn’t any sort of inconvenience.
There was a restaurant at the camp, which was good, because the next closest place that we could have secured food was two hours away in Po. The prices were really reasonable, and the food was absolutely delicious. They had great rice that came with a delicious, flavor rich vegetable stew with cabbage, carrots, peppers and various squash, spaghetti with a fresh, water based sauce and chicken. The chicken was probably the best chicken I’ve ever had – incredibly fresh and perfectly done. More about that later in the week. So, we eat, watch the elephants play in the watering hole right in front of the dining hall, and take a walk around the camp. We just eat some snacks for dinner because we’re full from lunch, and find that the man at the front desk and I communicated well enough to get us a Safari tour for the next day at 6:20 am. Success! We were all exhausted and managed to fall asleep even before the fan turned off at ten.
So this was day 1 and 2, but they were mostly travel. The rest of the posts will probably be just one day, except for the last one, which will just be all the travel.
So the journey went. The bus was much more comfortable than anticipated – good seats, leg room and a/c – we were definitely pleasantly surprised. On the TV, there were ridiculous Nigerian movies playing/blaring until about two am, at which point five popular Ghanaian Hip-Life songs began looping. Five songs looping over and over again – while we do love this music…that was a bit much. The four of us managed to get some sleep, at some point, though with varying degrees of success, throughout the night. As it became light outside, it was obvious the landscape was much different than in Accra. There were circular and square adobe huts with thatched roofs situated in small groupings of perhaps 10-20 or so, and sometimes smaller. There were also a lot of Mosques, indicating the increased Muslim population of Northern Ghana. At 7:15am, we pulled into St. John Station in Bolgatanga. After trying to determine if the bus was continuing to Paga, a town still closer to our destination and finding that this was indeed the last stop, a man came on the bus and offered to take us to Paga, and then the border. This was the ticket. He overcharged us – by a lot. We wound up paying twice what we realistically should have, but in our defense, we were tired, didn’t have a very steady plan of the next step and weren’t sure what other cars we could get to go where we were going.
Smo was the taxi driver’s name, quite a jovial young man. We were all snacking on our wonderful plantain chips, and he apparently felt left out. After asking for one to share, Liza continued to feed him chips for the duration of the half hour or so ride, which was just sort of bizarrely funny. We made it to the border, and went into the Ghanaian customs building. The officers there were awesome. They were really nice, joked with us and turned out to be really helpful. They hassled Kaivan because he was traveling with three ladies – they apparently thought he should be share. We filled out our forms, used their restroom and walked into Burkina Faso.
After crossing the border, it wasn’t long before we found that English really wasn’t spoken at all – it’s a Francophone country, but we weren’t sure if people living close to the border would be bilingual. Nope. We were lucky enough to meet this man who spoke enough English and understood enough of my French to convey that one of the customs guys had called him and told him we were going to Camp Nazinga. This is just a testament to how cool the Immigration guys were – one of them said he knew of Camp Nazinga, but when we went to find him to figure out if he knew how to get there, he had vanished – he had called this guy, and told him to take care of us. Sweet. So anyway, we pay much less than we planned on for Mahamo (sp?) to drive us in a small, white Volvo to Camp Nazinga. This turned out to be a full two hour drive through Po and the park. Po was a neat little border town, but we didn’t wind up getting to spend any time there. Most of the journey (about an hour and half or so) wound up being down the main road of the Camp. This was a bumpy, dusty, hole- filled road – we’re still not sure how that little car survived, but it did. Along the way, we saw warthogs, a gorilla and elephants. Seriously. Before we had even gotten to the actual camp, we saw elephants in the watering hole.
Upon arrival at the camp, we checked in, were shown to our Bungalows and realized it was a really good thing that I a) spoke a little French b) brought a French in West Africa Vocabulary book along. There really was very little to no English spoken, so it was an interesting experience. The bungalows were awesome. We had to rent two because only three people were allowed to stay in one of them, and we were traveling with four. It worked out well. They each had beds, dressers, a table and a bathroom with running water, which was extremely comfortable and much more than I had expected. A pretty cool thing about the camp was that the electricity only turned on from 6-10 at night. We think it may have been on around noon as well, but we never wound up being able to confirm that. Since no one was around the camp during the day, the electricity was only turned on when they needed it to cook, or in the evening when people would need to see. Great idea for decreasing expenses, and it wasn’t any sort of inconvenience.
There was a restaurant at the camp, which was good, because the next closest place that we could have secured food was two hours away in Po. The prices were really reasonable, and the food was absolutely delicious. They had great rice that came with a delicious, flavor rich vegetable stew with cabbage, carrots, peppers and various squash, spaghetti with a fresh, water based sauce and chicken. The chicken was probably the best chicken I’ve ever had – incredibly fresh and perfectly done. More about that later in the week. So, we eat, watch the elephants play in the watering hole right in front of the dining hall, and take a walk around the camp. We just eat some snacks for dinner because we’re full from lunch, and find that the man at the front desk and I communicated well enough to get us a Safari tour for the next day at 6:20 am. Success! We were all exhausted and managed to fall asleep even before the fan turned off at ten.
So this was day 1 and 2, but they were mostly travel. The rest of the posts will probably be just one day, except for the last one, which will just be all the travel.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
Lazy Sunday
When you’re in school, some things never change. We’ve returned from an epic Spring Break, and are currently indulging this day as a lazy Sunday. It’s pretty dreary out, and as the rainy season approaches, we think there are going to be more and more overcast, cloudy dim days to come. So Nisha and I are sitting in our pajamas tackling a fairly large amount of homework, reading and studying punctuated by Bananagrams and Fan Ice runs (and blog writing). For those of you unfamiliar, Bananagrams is a word game similar to scrabble with a free-form twist. It’s a blast to play, and great for rounds between readings. It’s also good for playing for hours and hours on end, as we’ve discovered in the past week (and yesterday). As for the Fan Ice runs – these are just fun. So, Fan Ice, if you’ve forgotten, is a delicious ice cream like substance that is packaged in a small bag that you tear open and kind of suck/push/drink out of. In addition to the vanilla ice cream, they have Fan Choco, which is frozen chocolate milk and a fantastic addition to any breakfast. The Fan Ice vendors (they push little ice box carts with Fan Ice inside, and pastries and muffins on top) have what amounts to a bicycle horn that they blow as they walk or ride around. From our room, we can hear when they get close…and we sometimes feel the urge to go buy Fan Ice, which turns into a nice little snack and cute little jaunt around our street hunting the guy with the ice cream. It’s a good time. Presently, I’m between readings, eating a Fan Choco and preparing to continue working.
A few things, first though. Spring Break. In order to really give you all the details and amazing things that happened, I’m going to write a blog for each day, and hopefully post them one or two days apart. There isn’t really any other way to capture or explain what happened, so I hope you don’t mind bearing with me as I continue to make posts. I’ll hopefully have the first one up today, and if I get them all written later this evening, I can post one a day for the next week. Sound good?
Also, this weekend we happened to meet a great group of kids from NYU. The CAS Scholars Program brought a group of sophomores to Ghana for the week. They flew in, did a whirlwind tour of Accra and Cape Coast and flew back out last night. Nisha, Kaivan and I got to hang out with them, share our experiences and hear their reactions. It was interesting to hear what they had to say, because their experience was very different from ours – they were driven around in a bus, stayed in the nicest hotel in Ghana and rarely got to venture out on their own; such is the nature of a one week visit. I wonder how they are going to process everything that they saw and learned once they get back to new York, or if it’s just going to be a mash-up of the lectures, market and food they had. Interacting with this group really made me appreciate the experience of living for an extended period of time in a different country – I’m not a tourist – this is my home. Although I’m glad the Scholars got to see Ghana, I really hope the trip piqued the interest of at least one or two of them that they will come here to study for a summer or semester, because it really is a life-changing, invaluable experience.
Alas, it’s time to keep working. I’ll post at least the first day of our journey today, if possible, and then the rest will be short in following. Feel free, as always, to drop me a line, comment or email – facebook messages are hard to access most of the time, so email is your best bet for a speedy reply. Enjoy the day!
Thursday, March 11, 2010
So, it's been a while...
It has been a while, I realized. Time is flying here. The days are long (they start around 6:30 with the sunrise, include a nap between 5:40 and 6:40 before dinner while the sunsets, and then continue until usually eleven or twelve at night), but the weeks have become incredibly short. The past few weeks have been really occupied with Spring Break. Naturally, college students are all trying to figure out what they are doing for that week of respite in the middle of the semester. While most students are deciding between Florida or the Outer Banks, or which European countries to hit, we've all been discussing the plights of African air travel, safaris, elephants and sleeping on roofs under the stars.
Our group (consisting of Nisha, Kaivan, Liza and myself) has planned four complete spring breaks, and three of them have fallen through, all in a pretty big way. We've finally pulled one together in an impressive three days. We have reservations, bus tickets and ... well, that's all we've got, but we think that's all we need. We're headed to Burkina Faso to stay at Camp Nazinga. Google it. It looks cool, and I promise another Animals post afterward.
In other news, I've started volunteering at a nursery school (or creche) for the kiddos of women who sell goods in the street. This is a charity organization that provides really really reduced and cheap (but still not necessarily affordable, unfortunately) childcare/nursery school for women who might not otherwise be able to swing it. This is important not only for the child to be taken care of during the day, but because in order to gain entrance into a primary school in Ghana, you have to had been enrolled in a nursery school. We go and just kind of help manage kids - lots of crying ones - for about two hours before they start school. Today Nisha and I went and played/comforted/took care of kids for about an hour and a half and then helped feed them breakfast before their lesson. It's a lot of fun, but also a lot to take in - there are probably about at least 70 kids and less than 10 adults - I don't know how accurate my numbers are, but there are a lot of little people, and not so many big ones. It's definitely an adventure.
We literally leave for Burkina Faso in about 13 hours (supposedly...these buses are notorious for being wayyy late. Like, four hours late) and I have a class at 7:30 in the morning before that, in about 8 hours. The week of midterms and spring break planning has finally caught up with me. As much as I would love to blog real time about our animal adventure (that's all we really want to do...see animals), we're not going to have access to internet (or phones) while we're at the camp (in our Bungalows...isn't that cool?!), but I'll be sure to post a full update upon my return.
Comments, requests and general hellos are always welcome!
Our group (consisting of Nisha, Kaivan, Liza and myself) has planned four complete spring breaks, and three of them have fallen through, all in a pretty big way. We've finally pulled one together in an impressive three days. We have reservations, bus tickets and ... well, that's all we've got, but we think that's all we need. We're headed to Burkina Faso to stay at Camp Nazinga. Google it. It looks cool, and I promise another Animals post afterward.
In other news, I've started volunteering at a nursery school (or creche) for the kiddos of women who sell goods in the street. This is a charity organization that provides really really reduced and cheap (but still not necessarily affordable, unfortunately) childcare/nursery school for women who might not otherwise be able to swing it. This is important not only for the child to be taken care of during the day, but because in order to gain entrance into a primary school in Ghana, you have to had been enrolled in a nursery school. We go and just kind of help manage kids - lots of crying ones - for about two hours before they start school. Today Nisha and I went and played/comforted/took care of kids for about an hour and a half and then helped feed them breakfast before their lesson. It's a lot of fun, but also a lot to take in - there are probably about at least 70 kids and less than 10 adults - I don't know how accurate my numbers are, but there are a lot of little people, and not so many big ones. It's definitely an adventure.
We literally leave for Burkina Faso in about 13 hours (supposedly...these buses are notorious for being wayyy late. Like, four hours late) and I have a class at 7:30 in the morning before that, in about 8 hours. The week of midterms and spring break planning has finally caught up with me. As much as I would love to blog real time about our animal adventure (that's all we really want to do...see animals), we're not going to have access to internet (or phones) while we're at the camp (in our Bungalows...isn't that cool?!), but I'll be sure to post a full update upon my return.
Comments, requests and general hellos are always welcome!
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Refugee Camp
I haven’t told you yet about the Budumburam Refugee Camp. Referred to in Ghana as Liberia Camp, and situated about 2 hours (give or take an hour, depending on traffic and time of day), this is a settlement of at least 42,000 people from all over West Africa, including Togolese, Cote d’Ivoirians, Nigerians, Ghanaian (we’ll get to that later), and last and most prevalent, Liberians. The camp was established originally in 1990 as a refuge for Liberians during the conflicts there in the 1990’s, and then 2000’s as well. Most of the inhabitants of the settlement are Liberian. The camp was sponsored from 1990 to 2007(ish) by the UNHCR (United Nations High Commission on Refugees), but since the conflict in Liberia ended, they have since begun to pull their support. We’ll come back to this. The camp is situated on Ghanaian land leased by the UNHCR, and has a designated Ghanaian government official that has an office there and is responsible for all the workings of the camp, but obviously non-citizens don’t have access to the public education that is available in Ghana. There is a Government Social Welfare office that operates in the camp, but they seem to have little resources, and honestly, there isn’t much they can do.
So, Question One: How did I end up at a Liberian Refugee Camp two hours away from where I live? Answer: An organization called WISE. Women’s Initiative for Self Empowerment is an organization that works in Accra as primarily a domestic-violence combatant. It provides counseling and help with finances (micro-loans and business planning) for women (and men) that are survivors of domestic violence. WISE has developed a network of partners all over the area that includes the police, doctors offices, hospitals and lawyers that they work with, both to find women who might be in need of services, and to provide those services. A woman referred to WISE through the police station because of a shady story or report of violence would be provided counseling and medical care through WISE’s partners. They have several new initiatives they’re working on as well, including mentoring programs for boys (to address the root of the problem, before it’s a problem) and aid for youths in difficult or abusive situations. Awesome organization, for sure. One of the places they work is the Camp. They have counselors there three days a week available for residents of the camp to come in and receive help. These clients can walk-in, or be referred by the clinic or social welfare office.
The problem, however, is the social situation of the camp. Psycho-social counseling aims to address the psychological impacts of a situation, and also the social aspect of their life. Well, a person living in a refugee camp encountering a domestic violence situation has more to deal with than simply that horror and difficulty; they probably need food, access to clean water, and a way to educate or take care of their children. Keith, a Liberian who began working for WISE almost five years ago said it best, in that counseling can meet their psychological needs, but they literally can’t do anything about the social deficits. The World Health Organization (WHO) calls this the Social Determinants of Health. The theory is that even if you can treat someone’s medical problems, sending them back to the social situation in which that problem began will likely end with the same result, again. It’s the idea that the environment is highly influential of health, both mental and physical. Case in point; Liberia Camp.
Keith was saying that WISE was having trouble getting people to come in for counseling. This isn’t exactly surprising; while I definitely understand the importance of counseling and concentrated mental health, especially in instances and situations involving domestic violence, how likely is it that a person who can’t eat or feed their children will come in to talk about their emotional issues. They literally have more important things to worry about, or at least that would seem to be the case. Maslow’s hierarchy rates physical needs above emotional ones – shelter, food – these are necessary for survival.
Question Two: What goes on in the camp, and how do people survive? These are questions that we asked (five of us are attached to WISE, and four of us will be working at the Camp) as well, and I’ll give the best answer I can. From what we can gather, (and this has been pieced together from the five of us talking to different people), Liberians produce and Ghanaians buy, remittances are sent from family abroad, and some of the Liberians charge rent for spaces they acquired in the early stages of the camp. So there is money, just not enough of it. Ghanaians are in the camp (which is weird, right? That Ghanaians would be living in a refugee camp in their own country) because it’s cheap living space, and there’s a market to sell to. So, in addition to buying goods from the refugees, they supply their own market as well.
Question Three: What does it mean that the UNHCR is pulling out of the camp? Well, I think it’s going to continue meaning more and more as time progresses. The UNHCR was the main funder of the camp, and it’s overarching organizing force. This is not something to take lightly, because it is a huge amount of people – at least 42,000. One implication of the UNHCR’s withdrawal is the lack of recognition for the refugees. Because the UN ran a Voluntary Organized Repatriation operation back to Liberia, and it is considered now a peaceful state, the UNHCR doesn’t recognize anyone new coming into the camp. Previously, they would be issued a UN ID, and be granted official refugee status. Now people who repatriated are coming back to the camp, and more people continue to flow in, both from Liberia and other nations in turmoil. Any newcomer after 2009 was not recognized, and is not included in the 42,000 number that’s often tossed around. Another implication of the UNHCR’s withdrawal has been seen at the clinic. There is a Catholic Clinic on the camp (the only medical facility) that lost it’s funding for drugs and supplies, and is now having to find alternate sources of funding. Also, the HIV/AIDS clinic at the camp was funded by the UNHCR, but since funding is being cut, they are integrating into the Ghanaian government, with the understanding that they will now provide services to not only the camp, but surrounding Ghanaian communities. I’m not sure what else will happen, but eventually it stands to reason that the UNHCR won’t rent the land from the Ghanaian government, and then these people will either need to integrate, or move on from their home of 20 years.
Something I realized, and it’s part of the reason I haven’t written about this yet, is that there is no solution. Massive, systemic change impacting political and international law is needed to adequately solve the problem of displaced persons. Sadly, this is not the only congregation of people alienated from their destroyed homes and forced into a stable-temporary exile; it is occurring all over the continent. Services are needed, yes; medical care, food, clean water, bathing and toilet facilities – but ultimately there needs to be a solution. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know how to go about it. I have absolutely no idea. Right now, all any of us can do is try to help who we can; education, supplies, materials – whatever they need. A few of us are working on potentially setting up a donation drive or some such fundraiser – rest assured the details will be here.
On that note – think about what you have, and what we take for granted. It’s easy to think about situations like these; much harder to walk into them and realize that there is absolutely no solution. Comments, thoughts and insight are welcome.
So, Question One: How did I end up at a Liberian Refugee Camp two hours away from where I live? Answer: An organization called WISE. Women’s Initiative for Self Empowerment is an organization that works in Accra as primarily a domestic-violence combatant. It provides counseling and help with finances (micro-loans and business planning) for women (and men) that are survivors of domestic violence. WISE has developed a network of partners all over the area that includes the police, doctors offices, hospitals and lawyers that they work with, both to find women who might be in need of services, and to provide those services. A woman referred to WISE through the police station because of a shady story or report of violence would be provided counseling and medical care through WISE’s partners. They have several new initiatives they’re working on as well, including mentoring programs for boys (to address the root of the problem, before it’s a problem) and aid for youths in difficult or abusive situations. Awesome organization, for sure. One of the places they work is the Camp. They have counselors there three days a week available for residents of the camp to come in and receive help. These clients can walk-in, or be referred by the clinic or social welfare office.
The problem, however, is the social situation of the camp. Psycho-social counseling aims to address the psychological impacts of a situation, and also the social aspect of their life. Well, a person living in a refugee camp encountering a domestic violence situation has more to deal with than simply that horror and difficulty; they probably need food, access to clean water, and a way to educate or take care of their children. Keith, a Liberian who began working for WISE almost five years ago said it best, in that counseling can meet their psychological needs, but they literally can’t do anything about the social deficits. The World Health Organization (WHO) calls this the Social Determinants of Health. The theory is that even if you can treat someone’s medical problems, sending them back to the social situation in which that problem began will likely end with the same result, again. It’s the idea that the environment is highly influential of health, both mental and physical. Case in point; Liberia Camp.
Keith was saying that WISE was having trouble getting people to come in for counseling. This isn’t exactly surprising; while I definitely understand the importance of counseling and concentrated mental health, especially in instances and situations involving domestic violence, how likely is it that a person who can’t eat or feed their children will come in to talk about their emotional issues. They literally have more important things to worry about, or at least that would seem to be the case. Maslow’s hierarchy rates physical needs above emotional ones – shelter, food – these are necessary for survival.
Question Two: What goes on in the camp, and how do people survive? These are questions that we asked (five of us are attached to WISE, and four of us will be working at the Camp) as well, and I’ll give the best answer I can. From what we can gather, (and this has been pieced together from the five of us talking to different people), Liberians produce and Ghanaians buy, remittances are sent from family abroad, and some of the Liberians charge rent for spaces they acquired in the early stages of the camp. So there is money, just not enough of it. Ghanaians are in the camp (which is weird, right? That Ghanaians would be living in a refugee camp in their own country) because it’s cheap living space, and there’s a market to sell to. So, in addition to buying goods from the refugees, they supply their own market as well.
Question Three: What does it mean that the UNHCR is pulling out of the camp? Well, I think it’s going to continue meaning more and more as time progresses. The UNHCR was the main funder of the camp, and it’s overarching organizing force. This is not something to take lightly, because it is a huge amount of people – at least 42,000. One implication of the UNHCR’s withdrawal is the lack of recognition for the refugees. Because the UN ran a Voluntary Organized Repatriation operation back to Liberia, and it is considered now a peaceful state, the UNHCR doesn’t recognize anyone new coming into the camp. Previously, they would be issued a UN ID, and be granted official refugee status. Now people who repatriated are coming back to the camp, and more people continue to flow in, both from Liberia and other nations in turmoil. Any newcomer after 2009 was not recognized, and is not included in the 42,000 number that’s often tossed around. Another implication of the UNHCR’s withdrawal has been seen at the clinic. There is a Catholic Clinic on the camp (the only medical facility) that lost it’s funding for drugs and supplies, and is now having to find alternate sources of funding. Also, the HIV/AIDS clinic at the camp was funded by the UNHCR, but since funding is being cut, they are integrating into the Ghanaian government, with the understanding that they will now provide services to not only the camp, but surrounding Ghanaian communities. I’m not sure what else will happen, but eventually it stands to reason that the UNHCR won’t rent the land from the Ghanaian government, and then these people will either need to integrate, or move on from their home of 20 years.
Something I realized, and it’s part of the reason I haven’t written about this yet, is that there is no solution. Massive, systemic change impacting political and international law is needed to adequately solve the problem of displaced persons. Sadly, this is not the only congregation of people alienated from their destroyed homes and forced into a stable-temporary exile; it is occurring all over the continent. Services are needed, yes; medical care, food, clean water, bathing and toilet facilities – but ultimately there needs to be a solution. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know how to go about it. I have absolutely no idea. Right now, all any of us can do is try to help who we can; education, supplies, materials – whatever they need. A few of us are working on potentially setting up a donation drive or some such fundraiser – rest assured the details will be here.
On that note – think about what you have, and what we take for granted. It’s easy to think about situations like these; much harder to walk into them and realize that there is absolutely no solution. Comments, thoughts and insight are welcome.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Friday (note that this is the fourth post this week...applause is appreciated!)
So, let me tell you about my Friday, from start to finish.
6:00 Wake up
6:30 Leave, take a taxi (bartered down, of course) to University of Ghana, Legon for my 7:30 AM class
8:05 The professor shows up and says we won’t be having lecture today. The rest of the classes starting in two weeks will be seminar style, with a group of students presenting a topic each week. The groups will be posted on the notice board later that afternoon; he would have had them up earlier, but he can’t get a complete class list from the registrar’s office, because some software crashed. The groups will be 15-20 person in size (this follows, because it is at LEAST a 400 person lecture), have to write at least a three page paper TOGETHER, present it seminar style and field questions on the topic for a grade. Also, all of this presented information is exam-able at the end of the term. We get graded on participation in the group work as well; we’re to find our group by writing our number on the notice board next to our name and then calling everyone else. They did say it would be a different style of education; they were right.
8:30 Lecture is released, and I go mail letters and find the examination time for the class (7 AM the day before I fly out)
10:30 Gym to run with Nisha
1 pm At WISE (Women’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment) for a case conference that occurs every week with a psychiatrist from Military Hospital 37 named Erica Dixon. We hear cases from each counselor and discuss them, courses of action and potential issues. There’s also a lot of laughter and frank discussion of sex as it relates to the cases. Never before have I been in a room with so many women who could be my mother talking and laughing uproariously about sex. Great experience, I tell you what.
3 pm Fan Ice at Fan Plaza (right next door to WISE) with Lizzie and Nisha (there is a Lizzie, Liza and Elizabeth/Liz [the last one is me] and Lizzie and I ALWAYS wind up next to each other, usually introducing ourselves to confused looks) – we had a vanilla Fan Ice, a Fan Yogo, and a tropical fruit drink that was super sugary and definitely supbar. Better luck next time.
3:45 pm Sitting at a table at Tawala Beach overlooking the ocean, having a drink (Fanta’s in a glass bottle – so good!), and almost doing homework. We talk for a while before reading for class and then napping. Shaggy was playing from the “bar”, that also has an incredibly and obviously slanted pool table, yet it’s never really free. We sat there, looking at the ocean, and really seriously wondering how we got there – sitting on the West Coast of Africa, reading about Pan-Africanism and African philosophy and legitimately living in Ghana. Thank you, Study Abroad.
6 pm Nap before dinner
7 pm Dinner at Tante Marie’s, on the upper deck because of another group below (in our usual spot). They served rice, pasta, salad, chicken kebabs, some sort of maise and palm oil paste (great though), boiled/seasoned vegetables and keiley-weilly (Kelly welly, I don’t really know the spelling) which are seasoned/fried plantain cubes, with mixed fruit for dessert.
9 pm Reading Kurt Vonnegut and hanging out with Nisha and Kaivan in our room, listening to some music
10:15 pm Going to Osu with Nisha to meet a Ghanaian student at a sushi place/bar/club place called Monsoon. They played (amongst some other songs: Mambo No. 5, No Satisfaction, I Gotta Feeling, I’m Blue (yeah, Eiffel 65?), YMCA and some Ghanaian hit songs. It was an interesting, eclectic mix.
12:30 am We got tired and went home, bartering for a taxi again, after two different cabbies deliberately tried to way overcharge me – I got them down though (taxi fares are not fixed here. There’s kind of an understanding of how much one should be, but it can really vary depending on distance, time of day, traffic and the amount of people. By now I know how I can bargain with the drivers, when to just say “keep moving, I’ll get the next one” and when to quit and take the price. It’s a lot of fun, actually – I’m enjoying myself) and we went home.
1 am Sleep?
So that’s a day – oddly enough, Friday’s are really busy – start early and end late (usually) – every now and then when I’ve had a great day, I’ll post one of these, just for a little insight.
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