Ghana First Three Days Journal

 April 30 - May 1 2012

My flights were from Spokane to Denver, with a five hour layover, and then Denver to Washington DC, with another five hour layover. Good thing my mom packed me lots of food (although I honestly could not eat a lot of it since I was struggling with waves of nausea from motion sickness each time the planes landed) and the airports had wifi. I texted my closest friends goodbye and talked to Kiah, Paige, Lindsay, and Rika each on the phone briefly. I told my friends to email me, so when I get access to the internet we’ll see if anyone did. While waiting in DC a lot of Ghanaians sat around me. The other three BYU girls did not show up until within the hour we were boarding. They seemed, just like the Ghanaians in Provo, to be extremely friendly and laid back. One woman asked if she could borrow my cell phone. I said yes and she probably talked on it for a good solid several minutes. I had to laugh to myself just thinking how between Americans this might seem weird or rude, if the borrower did not only take a minute or two. But I did not mind, as long as she was not making an international call! On the plane I took two ibuprofen and a Dramamine. Best decision ever, because the Dramamine knocked me right out, helping me to sleep in the weirdest positions for most of the flight.

(Just a note, I am writing this at 3 am, because my internal clock has obviously not yet changed to Ghana time, and it is so so hot I am just constantly sticky with humidity. Same thing happened last night. I think for my next bedtime I will definitely take the sleeping pills my mom gave me)

When we were landing in Accra, I fought throwing up, and Lauren actually did throw up. Thank goodness I was not sitting by her – that may have been too much. Usually after getting sick from landing, I am relieved when I finally leave the airplane air for some cooler and thinner air. However, instead I stepped outside into the West African air – thick and so hot and so humid. Needless to say I did not get over my nausea for a while after that! Customs was quick enough, although the woman checking me asked “What are you doing here?” The field studies people at BYU had told us to answer with tourism, and to never say we were studying as students as our main purpose. The woman asked me skeptically “for three months?” And when I answered yes she let me through.

Shannon Dunn, a white woman Jackie knows was there to meet us right away. She was very kind and was prepared to drive us wherever we were planning on staying, which was very convenient because taxi rides from the airport can be very expensive. I had arranged for us with my Ghanaian friend Barima, to stay with his family the Kwartengs. His parents are temple workers at the Accra Temple, and serve at the MTC in Accra as well. His dad is assistant to the MTC president. Barima told me just to have Shannon call Bro. Kwarteng when we got there, and he would give her directions on how to get to his house. However, as Shannon led us all to the money exchange office, a Ghanaian man stopped Natalie and asked her something. We have a hard time sometimes understanding the thick accent of Ghanaian English, and we just kept walking, assuming he was asking about a taxi or something. Natalie did insist though, that he had said something to her about Provo. A few minutes later he walked into the exchange office where we were and again said something, this time we understood him to be asking if we were from Provo. It finally hit me that this was Bro. Kwarteng! He had been nice enough to also show up at the airport. At first I felt bad because both people had come to get us, but Shannon did not seem upset at all by it. Bro. Kwarteng had a large, nice truck and a driver, and Jackie and I wondered how wealthy he was for a Ghanaian.

He first took us by the Temple. It is very pretty, and has these wonderful fan-like palm trees all around it. We took a lot of pictures, and Lauren dropped off something for Milly, our Twi teacher, in the visitor’s center because Milly’s mom works there. We then briefly stopped by a hospital and the MTC for Bro. Kwarteng. Driving around took a while, because of crazy taxi drivers and people everywhere!! However, I don’t know if it was because we were in a truck, or because I have experienced Third World taxi driving before in Peru, but I did not feel very scared. From what I remember, Peru seemed to be a lot scarier driving-wise. We stopped at a small market place in Tema I believe so that Jackie could buy a go-phone to get in touch with our host families. It was getting dark already although it was only around 6 pm, but it was still bustling. So far I have been extremely amazed by the sheer amount of people walking and sitting every possible place. While Jackie waited for her phone, I attempted to take a picture of two women selling fruit, and I turned the flash on since it was pretty dark. This turned out to be a mistake. Right away everyone looked at me, and an extremely tall Ghanaian man yelled at me in Twi. Everyone started laughing so hard, and Lauren and I just laughed along, not knowing whether I had been truly offensive or if they were just teasing. Bro. Kwarteng was helping with the phone and did not see. The tall Ghanaian also yelled out in English “You don’t do that again!” I still could not tell if he was joking. However, I decided I should probably be more careful when and how subtly I take my photographs. Lauren and Natalie had a pretty good laugh at me getting scorned like that, though. When we left we heard a couple “Obrunis!” (white person) and one girl with a huge bowl of fruit on her head who was adorable kept giggling at us and said “bye, bye!” to me as I headed towards the car. So many people carry huge packages or bowls of food to sell on their heads. They have a cloth somehow rolled between their head and the object to help with balance, but besides that they are just incredibly good! I know I would not be able to do that with or without the cloth! We even saw a slender girl balancing her full sized luggage (without the cloth), up to the bus yesterday.

When we finally left for Bro. Kwarteng’s house, we drove through some dark alleyways and did not really know what to expect. However, when he opened his double gate we realized we were staying with one of the extreme upper class families of Ghana. His house was huge, much bigger than my own, and there were several cars out front. The living room was amazing, with granite covering (probably faux, but still) and a huge, glossy entertainment system that looked like some swank, James Bond movie set piece from the 1970s, and a fainting couch with a fur on it. It was funny to see Mormon pictures randomly thrown in here or there, like the picture of Nephi on the boat, or a Mormonad with a red glitter frame. Sis. Kwarteng had made dinner, beef sauce over rice. It actually tasted fairly American. We drank the apple juice, not knowing if their water was from the tap, or originally bottled. We all talked and laughed, and Lauren and I even made the connection that we knew their other son, BafoÉ from our Twi class.

After dinner Bro. Kwarteng took us back to the MTC for a real visit. We threw on skirts although we joked about how awful we still looked. We got to walk around to each of the classrooms and say hello to all the elders from different West African countries, and even a few sisters. They were excited to see us! We said hello and shook hands, and many who spoke French as their first language loved when I said Salut! And answered commecicomme ca when they asked Ca va? Good ol high school French. There were only two white elders who we met, and we all laughed after about how they probably realized how disgusting and sweaty we were compared to the Africans who probably found it more common. That night we all slept in the same room where two queen mattresses were provided, and even got to shower, which was amazing since we were sweaty and stinky (a condition we will have to get used to being perpetually in I am guessing for three months). All the girls loved my cool Book of Mormon Lindsay gave me, and we all decided to read the Book of Mormon in 90 days together! It is just a couple or few chapters a day. We are going to discuss what we learned at our weekly meetings as well.

I fell asleep before eleven, but woke up at 2 am, and could not sleep after that (just like this night!). However, we all got up at 5:30 am and Bro. Kwarteng took us to the bus station in Tema to catch a bus for Kumasi. He told us we could stay with him anytime, and we were very grateful for his hospitality. He told us the time to Kumasi was around 5 hours, which we were surprised to hear because one of the facilitators back at BYU had told us to expect about 8 hours. However, we soon learned that she was correct, because we needed to factor in African time (a concept none of us will get used to for a while I am sure, especially coming from the hustling and bustling of America). We waited at the bus station for at least 2 hours just waiting for enough people to buy tickets to leave. I walked around a little bit to look at some of the food stands, and fought nausea from my malaria pill and the ride there. Natalie and I crossed the road to where some small children laughed and waved at us. Across the road was what looked like a huge shanty town of some sort, which I have seen very often while here, even right up next to new houses being built that are bigger than large American homes. It is strange and sad seeing extreme poverty right next to extreme wealth. The shanty town, or whatever it was, consisted of tons of little shacks made from aluminum or tin walls that look like small garage doors propped up together to make shelters. There were chickens and goats running all around, and trash everywhere. The kids were running around by themselves, even a baby who had taken off his diaper and was running around in the dirt and trash with the chickens, completely naked. The kids we walked up to were very excited to see us. A young girl told us they were talking to us in their language, so I said “Etesen?!” (How are you?) and they all chorused back “Îye!” (I am fine!). It was so adorable, and I got a great picture of their smiling faces. I also took a few other pictures of my surroundings, and noticed one woman who was washing her baby eyeing me. I wondered if I was being condescending or offensive by taking pictures of their very common and normal lives. I definitely do not want to make people feel like animals in a zoo just for my entertainment. I walked back to where Jackie and Lauren were waiting for the bus and asked a Ghanaian man we had become friends with if it is offensive for me to take random pictures of people. He replied not at all; however, I still asked him how to say “Can I take your photo?”  inTwi (Betumitwa wÉ photo?) so that I can ask people and hopefully not offend, if I can not get a subtle photo without them noticing. I realized that I do not want to exploit the powerlessness I see, because most people probably would not ever tell me not to take a photo if I do not ask, but there is a reason I am more confident snapping a picture of people in the Third World than I ever was while in Japan, and the reason is probably not good.

When we finally got on the bus, I was very thankful to Jackie that she opted for V.I.P bus travel over a trotro for our first time. The tickets were 25 cedis, about 15 US dollars. That was well worth having room to lean the seat back and have air conditioning. I probably would have puked stuffed into a trotro for 8 hours, and I have no idea what we would have done with our luggage. As soon as we got on, a Ghanaian man with a limp started giving a sermon to the bus. I do not know if he was hired to do so, or if it was spontaneous, but people seemed accustomed to it and it was quite the exciting experience for me! He prayed and sang a hymn, which many people joined in on, then gave a fiery, vein-popping, yelling, pointing sermon about the power of the word of God and righteousness. He had this small girl (who I later was shocked to find out was 17 years old) read verses he would ask for out of her Bible, but would constantly interrupt her quiet reading yelling and repeating the words of the apostles. It was spectacular! He was sweating all over, and kept mopping his face while talking with a kerchief. When he was done he simply prayed and got off at the first stop.

The bus stopped probably an hour into the drive at a gas station. We all got out to use the bathroom, and found that they were just little stalls with a little bit of water squirting out of some old pipes and a drain in the floor. So you better only have to pee, and you just squat over the drain and go. It was funny to see Natalie and Lauren’s reactions, since they have never been exposed to Third World bathroom situations outside of the US. The bus was stopped forever, and finally we were informed we had to switch buses, which meant switching everyone’s luggage as well. In contrast with the obvious way in which Americans would have acted, the Ghanaians seemed to take this in measure and almost expectantly. African time could not be more different from American time.

I slept for a lot of the bus ride, although I tried to stay awake to watch all the fascinating market places and shanty towns we passed. I do not think I will ever get bored of watching all the people just going about their days. I am so interested to know their mentalities and thoughts. They are so incredibly different from me, not in a bad way at all, just different. During the bus drive a movie was played and some soap opera type shows that were hilarious. The acting was obviously subpar, and the production was cheap of course, but it gave us some good laughs. However, it seemed very violent, and to glorify violence, which I would not be surprised if this was highly influenced by Western media (cinema did start in Hollywood, so most film media probably is), which is sad.

When we finally got to Kumasi, after about 8 hours of driving, we got out to get our luggage and people were being crazy!! Yelling and crowding trying to get bags. We finally got ours and just went with the first taxi driver who offered us a ride to Wiamoase, although we probably could have gotten cheaper fare had we let them all duke it out. It was only 55 cedi for us all anyway, about 8 dollars a person. We took the expensive route again for convenience. Later when we travel, a trotro can take us to Kumasi for less than a dollar. It took close to another two hours to get to Wiamoase with traffic and an accident along the way. I felt sad because a couple beggars who came up to our windows, including an old woman in a wheelchair being carted around through the dangerous traffic by a young boy. I am not sure exactly how to deal with these situations quite yet. People waved and smiled at us who noticed us and some said obruni. Almost everyone we have encountered is extremely friendly and good-humored about us silly Americans coming to Ghana for our “African experience.”

Anyway, Madam Esther, our host mother, was very kind and welcoming, as well as her son Emmanuel. She had food waiting for us and water bags. I was very grateful for this because I feel constantly dehydrated here, because it has been a struggle knowing if we should drink some of the water we do find. We took a risk and drank some at Bro. Kwarteng’s house because we needed to take our malaria pills, and I bought a large bottle of sealed water at the bus station. Esther’s meal was a yummy rice with red seasoning and some hard boiled eggs. I don’t know if we were supposed to eat the eggs, but we figure we can’t turn down most things when prepared for us so we just did. So far, I have not felt sick at all. They left us alone as we ate, which I have heard is pretty culturally common. Then we went into the house to chat, and Emmanuel asked us about cooking and washing our clothes. We told them we would just have to be taught how to do those things and we would be happy to do them ourselves. He very kindly told us if we were confronted with any obstacle, to not hesitate to ask anyone for help, which was very comforting. I was also pleasantly surprised when they told us that if we shared a room, our rent would be shared. Instead of 240 cedis each, it would just be split between us. I gladly took this offer, since both rooms have multiple beds, and I had been worried about rent and food costs before I came, as I am on an extremely tight budget. Now, instead of paying 140 American dollars (I originally thought it would be 160!), I will only be paying about 70! I will thankfully have more than enough for food.

Our room is nice, with three beds and two chairs and a table. It is old and worn, and has a tile floor, but definitely is not a mud hut. There are locks on our door, and right outside is a small outside stove for us and cabinet space. There are three other rooms alongside ours, one empty since we opted not to use it, one for Emmanuel, who is just visiting for a week from another town, and one for Esther’s daughter who we have not yet met. This building is separate from the main house, just a few feet away. Connected to the main house is the toilet, washrooms, and sink which are semi-outside, but have doors. The main house has a living room with an old TV, a kitchen, and Esther’s room. She said we could come in the house at any time, even when she is at work during the day until four.

The mosquitoes were not out last night, which I was extremely grateful for. However, we still tucked in our mosquito nets around our beds. I love this because it helps me not be scared about bugs being in my bed or crawling on me while I sleep. I do not know if it was just because I was so tired, or because I have just realized that I have to suck it up since I am here for three months, but although there were bugs flying around outside, a couple small beetles on our floor, and even a HUGE beetle outside our door, I did not feel very scared, and even went outside in my PJ shorts to wash my face and brush my teeth. Oh! That is another thing. Natalie and I were both very relieved that the bathroom is NOT a hole in the floor! I do not know if it is a new installment, because none of the facilitators said anything, but there is a nice porcelain flush toilet and a sink and even a shower head! This is a wonderful luxury.

Well, it is now  almost 5 am. I am hoping that the sun will either come up soon so I do not feel scared to go outside, or that I get really tired really soon (don’t see that happening till later on today, of course at some inconvenient time), because I am getting bored of laying on this bed sweating and listening to the roosters. I am excited to tour around the village today and get a feel of where I will be staying for the next few months! 

May 2 2012

I got up when it got light around 6:30 or so to shower. Esther’s daughter Abenaa was cleaning the toilet and shower so she said to wait just a minute. I went back into the courtyard and on the wall a few feet away from my room door I saw a giant spider. And this is not according to Cassie exaggeration standards. It was one of the biggest spiders I have ever seen. Oddly I was pretty calm, God has been blessing me to remain relatively nonchalant about the bugs here. I still don’t want to kill them myself but I don’t have the urge to scream or runaway and I don’t feel panicky at all. I told Abenaa about the spider and she came and looked and said they are harmless. So it just stayed there. When I came back from my shower into my room, Natalie and I found one in our room. It was smaller than the one outside, but still huge. It was on the wall right next to my bed. Thank goodness for mosquito nets! We tried to kill it ourselves (Well Natalie with a shoe) but she missed and it was directly behind my bed. We were afraid we would lose track of it so I went to get Emmanuel. Madam Esther was outside so I asked if she would kill it. She got a strange broom thing, walked in and laughed, “That is a small one!” She killed it right away and picked up the dead body with her fingers and threw it outside. Usually in the states I would have been paralyzed after that experience but we literally just laughed and moved on and I was fine. I scan the room for them when I walk in, but I don’t feel scared. I have also seen several centipedes that look exactly like mukade. Emmanuel swears they are harmless, but I will still shake my shoes out like in Japan just in case. They have the same red legs and pincers and everything. Also, while we are on this creepy critters section, when Matilda (another woman who lives in one of the next door rooms – I don’t know if she is related to Esther but she boards here) was cleaning out the cupboards and started yelling something like “Ai! Ai! Ai! Cockroach!” I came outside and she had half killed the biggest cockroach I have ever seen. I still didn’t even feel scared, although I obviously would have freaked out had it scared me like it did her. Also, there are lizards everywhere here! Natalie doesn’t necessarily like them but I think they are so cool! They can get super big. Like one we saw was probably at least a foot or longer. And some of them are cool multicolored like red, yellow, and bluish. I love seeing them, except when I used the bathroom last night one was in the corner of the ceiling and I was afraid it would fall on me while I went or something. Good thing it didn’t!

In the morning Emmanuel taught us how to cook a simple breakfast of fried eggs and oats and peeled mango. The mango was so so good. There are mango trees growing everywhere. I really love Emmanuel, he is so kind to us and teaches us everything step by step and laughs a lot. He is only here on vacation visiting his mother, so he will leave on Monday sadly. He said he would leave us alone to eat, and we asked if we could eat in the courtyard, because at least it is a tad bit cooler than in our room, which can never be aired out except through the screen windows because if the door is left over bugs will get in. He thought we were very funny and strange to ask but said he did not mind at all, but that neighbor kids who saw us might come and watch us while we ate, we laughed and said we didn’t mind.

After we ate, Emmanuel took us on a tour of the village. We walked a long, long way in the heat, but it felt good. I have never experienced anything like going through the village. Everyone stares, most people greet us, and the children go crazy “Obruni! Bruni!” and “Howareyouuu??” (that is the phrase they know best in English. We reply “Îye, how are you? Or WÉ ho te SÎn?” And they say “I am fine!” With huge grins. They wave and laugh and try to follow us. Emmanuel would tell them to leave sometimes because it would slow us down so much. The kids like to touch our hands when possible sometimes, and a tiny girl with a baby strapped to her back came right up and held my hand and started walking with me. I obviously feel extremely undeserving of such attention from everyone, but I can’t help loving these adorable kids wanting so badly to interact with me. They are so beautiful and kind! And the friendliness of everyone, young and old, makes it that much easier for us to not be so scared to chat with anyone and start our research soon. Many of the adults gaves us a hearty “Akwaaba!” (Welcome) which we kept replying “Medaase” (Thank you) to, however sometimes they would chuckle.We were finally told by a guy named Gideon that that response doesn’t really make sense, instead we should say Yaa edga  Or Yaa ena.

Gideon gave us a tour of the clinic where Natalie will be interning. It is so tiny, but we met the doctor, the lab scientist, and many of the nurses. If I get sick, this is where I will come. It is such a tiny facility and obviously not well equipped like in the United States. A tiny (literally like 4 foot 5) gray haired old woman works there from the UK. She talked to us and was so cute! I think I will have to go back and find out why she is in a tiny village in Wiamoase alone working at this little clinic. We also met Samuel, Esther’s husband. He is an eye doctor at the clinic. I did not even realize he was the man of the house we were living in until while I was shaking his hand he said “do you know me?” with a huge grin on his face. I was like “uhh no?” but Natalie finally made the connection of who he was and we all had a good laugh.

We also got to see the secondary school where I may volunteer. They were having exams so I could not go in the classroom, but I did meet the headmaster. He laughed at how little I knew in Twi, as do a lot of the adults! Esther has been so great, she called ahead to the clinic and school just to talk to the authorities, even though she was at work, and got us instant connections in. Both places said we were very welcome to volunteer.

I also saw a cocoa farm. It looks nothing like I imagined. It is tall trees, with a fruit looking thing growing from each one. There were some old woman walking through, and usually the adults love their picture being taken, and even ask me sometimes to take their picture and then want to see. So I tried to take a picture and the old woman said something and put her hand up and I stopped. Emmanuel was dying with laughter and the other old lady was. I asked what she said and apparently she said something along the lines of that I was not going to take a picture to take back to America and make money, and then walked off the path to avoid me. For some reason Emmanuel was laughing about that for a very long time, and I laughed to. We met a man in a cocoa shed, where they weight it and ship it off to Europe. He was a hoot. He showed us the beans, and cola beans, and kept telling us to bite them and would bite huge chunks off himself to make us laugh. Then he would say something and start laughing and when we left he took our hands and kissed them. The men are never creepy, just being good sports and obviously teasing us for being American. A man right outside the shed said take my picture! I am a farmer with a knife! And he did have a machete. When men ask me to take their picture it is hilarious because they put their arms to their sides and stand rod straight and stare straight ahead not smiling, and then I show them and they said good or thank you haha.

The people are very funny and always looking for a joke. Young men will say joking marriage proposals to us, or when we answer kids in Twi they will laugh at our silly accents. One old woman asked me to take her picture and she said “let me get ready” and started primping and dancing and posing and then said “yaaaaa!” everytime she saw the pic. I took a video of two little girls pounding fufu and they giggled everytime they saw it. If neighbors see us carrying in things from the village they will come help. Two little boys grabbed our bags from us after we went to the market for food and then stayed in the courtyard to watch us. They were about seth’s age or a little younger and so cute. I asked if I could take their picture and they immediately did ninja poses and laughed hysterically. We bought water in bulk last night for less than a dollar – it will literally last us probably 4 or 5 days if we drink a lot. And an older boy saw me struggling to carry it in my arms because it was very heavy, and he came up and said he would help and hoisted it right up onto his head and carried it into the courtyard. I seriously love how everyone is so loving and helpful towards one another.

Last night was our first cooking lesson. Christiana, Samuel and Esther’s niece used to cook for BYU students a couple years ago, until the girl’s last year asked if they could do it themselves (at first I was like ok, thanks a lot, but now I am happy because I will be forced to learn, and Ghanaians without fail will cook you way too much food, and it is bad to waste). I felt bad because Emmanuel called Christiana and she said she would be at the house in about 45 minutes. Natalie and I said we would like to take naps, but then everyone was too scared to wake us up so Christiana ended up staying at the house for 2 hours while they waited for us to wake! I felt very bad, and told them to not feel bad waking us up at any time! They are too hospitable sometimes! Christiana took us to the market, and tried to take back roads through where people live (and they actually live in tiny huts, the family we live with is obviously more wealthy than many in the village) but it ended up taking just as long because we had a following of probably around 10 kids. They were circling us and touching our hands. We tried to say bye!bye! and they all said it back, but as soon as we turned and walked away they all ran after us laughing. They were all adorable. The market place had some gross things as usual, and flies were flying all over a lot of the food, but that’s what we have to cook, so we just hope boiling everything will help!

Christiana taught us how to make an absolutely delicious chicken tomato stew over rice. We wrote down every step and ingredients. I will have to make it when I get home! We are going to try to make it by ourselves very soon. We had to grind peppers and onions and such in a cool grinding bowl. We decided another perk of cooking by ourselves is that no one will be offended if we start wiping down our plates and utensils with Clorox wipes. Because they wash dishes but the water is very dirty. Anyway we are very excited to cook for ourselves, and I’m being honest! Also, Emmanuel got us a small refrigerator for our room! This is amazing so that we can have colder water and store leftovers to use again.