THIS Chick

• I was in a cab with 8 people. 4 grown men in the front, 4 grown women in the back (I may be 5 ft, but I’m grown).  There were two men in the driver’s seat. STICK SHIFT PROBLEMS, anyone?! I don’t know.
• I walked right through the center of a funeral.  Not sure if that was rude or not, but it happened.

Celebratory bucket shower when I get back home!

May 25^th-27th

Steph and I made the 5 hour journey down to Cape Coast again this weekend.  The first time we went, we traveled with Nivole, a Peace Corps volunteer, and that trip deserves its own blog post later, so I’ll get on that eventually.  But anyway, it was the first time Steph and I traveled alone and we made it back alive, so it was a success!!

First off, I’ve gotta say that people in Ghana sure are friendly.  The Ghanians, the foreigners, everyone.  I take my “obruni” status and work it like no other, asking people for directions, help, anything, because people here are so nice that they’re always willing to help.  That’s one of the greatest things I’ve found out about Ghana so far, and I always feel safe where ever I go. 

Back to Cape Coast: So Steph and I left around 8 A.M. to leave for Kumasi, and then once we got there, we waited for hours for the trotro to fill up and leave (trotros are vans that don’t leave for their destination until all the seats are bought, picture inside of one soon to come).  We got to Cape Coast around 4:30 and checked into our hotel (Sammo Guesthouse – dirty and filled with mosquitoes, but cheap), and then went to eat dinner.  We ate at Baobab Restaurant, which is a cute little vegetarian place filled with foreigners and has free wifi  (say whattt), and I got fresh pineapple juice and an omelet with toast for dinner (breakfast for dinner - no fucks given).  After dinner, we stopped by our favorite place Oasis (a “beach resort” that’s filled with foreigners) and people watched with some drinks.

The next day, we headed over to the trotro station to get to Kakum, and there we met Paul.  Paul is a 23-year-old dude from Vancouver who is in Ghana for 6 weeks (I think) volunteering at an orphanage in the Volta Region.  He was spending his first few weeks here traveling around and he joined us (or we joined him, who knows) on our adventure to Kakum.  Kakum was awesome, and probably the most exciting thing we’ve done in Ghana thus far.  I love rainforests and getting to walk on the canopy was really thrilling.  I was a bit bummed that we didn’t see any monkeys, but oh well, hopefully we’ll see some cool things when we go to Mole National Park in a few weeks.

After Kakum, we went with Paul to a hotel where you could see crocodiles swim in the lake and ate lunch.  The crocodiles were pretty cool and we saw some school kids take pictures sitting on them, which was pretty insane and nerve-racking.  I took a picture safe from the balcony.  No crocodile attacks for me!  I had some yummy fried plantains with beans for lunch and we got to talk more to Paul about (or aboot, lol Canadians) his adventures (he’s been to so many places!), which was pretty sweet. We headed back over to Cape Coast, and said our goodbyes to Paul.  Hopefully he has a great trip and maybe we’ll see him soon in the Volta Region!

Steph and I decided to do a round 3 of tourist adventures and went over to Cape Coast Castle (or dungeon) for a tour.  It was pretty shocking to see the dungeons where slaves were kept and to hear the history of the slave trade.  It was a really powerful and eye-opening experience and I’m glad that we were able to see it.

After chilling for the rest of the day, we went up to the rooftop of our hotel and met Max and Sara(h?), two volunteers from Canada (gotta love those Canadians) who were teaching in schools in the Volta Region.  They were living on an island (they had to canoe there… awesome!) with no electricity and were teaching various ages at a school in their community.  It’s crazy to see how different our experiences are, and I can’t imagine seeing kids get caned and not having electricity for three months.  It makes me appreciate all that I have in Yonso, and hearing about their passion for their work makes me want to do even more in my community.

In the morning, we saw them again at breakfast and said goodbye, and then headed back to Yonso.  I had a wonderful bucket shower when I came back and I must say, even though this weekend was fun, it’s great to be home!

According to Danso: “He wants to give you hot sex!”

Oh…

May 24, 2012

So I’m chilling in the office, alone, listening to some Lykke Li, waiting for everyone to come back from where ever they went.  I believe they are in the town over (Akrofonso) collecting repayments, and I finished the bulk of my work for the day, so I decided, why not write a blog post! 

            Today I went back to the bamboo workshop and saw that the bambooseros had cleaned it up even more and that there was no longer bamboo on the floor (woohoo!).  They had placed all the bamboo that they were going to use for charcoal on an empty shelf and even swept for me (I feel like such a proud mother.  Even though these dudes are like in their late 20s / 30s).  They first told me all of the stuff that they would need for the workshop, which included some really unnecessary items that they will never get (i.e. computer, refrigerator, etc. really though?), and then we went on to put up the inventory sheets.  I had made some charts on Excel for them to put up in the workshop, which included the current amount of each type of bamboo they have, how much they take out or throw away, when they would need to order more, how much they ordered, etc.  We put those up and they started filling out the information on the sheets, and I must say, the place is much more organized than it has probably ever been.  Looks like I’m actually making some progress here:).

            They asked me a series of interesting questions, yet again, and this time, Edward kept trying to talk to me in Twi, and even though I told him that I had no clue what he was saying, he just kept on going.  I asked some people later what he was saying and apparently he was telling me that he would find me a strong boyfriend (not so sure if he was referring to himself, but good luck with that), and then later on he said something about finding me someone who would shake me (not really sure what that means, not sure if I wanna know), wtf.  After I left the workshop, Joe started to walk me back and told me yet again that he loved me in Twi, and I told him that I had a boyfriend.  He wanted to know his name, but I told him not to worry about it, but speaking of that, I’ll take any suggestions for a boyfriend’s name (I’m sure he’ll ask me for his name again). 

Good times pretending that I have a man, when I’m actually oh so lonely.  Fuck that, I don’t need no man.  See Independent Women - Destiny’s Child.

Sorry about the lack of blog posts.  I haven’t had Internet (or at least a strong connection) in the past couple of days.  I’ll try to update now, anddddd

THIS IS OFFICIALLY A GHANA BLOG (with some random tumblr shit on the side).

Enjoy!!