The Hood

At this point I have been in Ghana for over one month, how time flies! It has been wonderful to stay put in one place for an entire month and have the opportunity to fully adjust to my surroundings. Particularly, it has been a joy getting to know the neighbors and chatting with them nearly every day.

So first the house. The house isn't actually in the town of Cape Coast and is nearer the smaller town of Elmina. Elmina is about a 10 minute walk down the street whereas Cape Coast is about a 20 minute taxi ride. Elmina is a fascinating little village with several large old churches and an old slave castle. Maybe that will be another posting. Rumor has it that the old, concrete house was a brothel at one point. However, I try to avoid thinking about this as I come home for the evening. We are lucky enough to have two locals living with us. Ellen, actually lives in the house and takes care of stuff during the day. She will do the dishes, clean, and even do our laundry for a small fee. We share the kitchen so it is often interesting to smell and see what African cuisine she is cooking up. Appiah is our nightwatchman. He is older and has a family of his own in Elmina. Despite this he tends to hang out at the house a lot during the day as well. He has a small shack in the backyard where he lives and I believe he sleeps on the porch during the night. He has a small plot of corn he farms in the yard and maintains the coconut and banana trees. Additionally, we have several chickens that run around the yard, however I am still unclear of their purpose, they don't lay eggs! (that or Appiah is eating them all).

The neighborhood itself is pretty quiet, with the exception of the Silver Cup in front of the house. This seems to be a pretty popular local hangout where there is alcohol, food, and a fella who grills fish along the road. The music is blaring all evening and it is hit or miss whether it is pleasing music or not. Although, last night we were spoiled with endless Bob Marley. Across the street is the Elmina Beach Resort (should be "Beach"), a resort that caters to the wealthier. The next couple of weeks are going to busy around there, I understand that Obama's crew is starting to pour in there. And of course, there is Eli, who lives down the street and cooks us dinner every night. She is an amazing cook who can cook up anything perfectly from grilled cheese to mac and cheese, to local dishes like fufu and red red. There are so many others that make the hood the hood, like the banana girl and of course One Stone, but I have to stop somewhere.

The rainy season seems to be in full swing here, it seems like nearly forever since I have seen the sun. The good thing is that it has cooled off some, I managed to survive an entire night without the fan on! I hope everyone is doing well. Have a wonderful 4th of July!

Our simple, not drafty enough house

Our nearby slice of ocean front heaven (I am not being entirely sarcastic, it is interesting)

The all too rare sunset

Weekend football match in Elmina

A weekend in the Volta

This weekend finally brought about the opportunity for me to get out and do what I love to do, explore. A small group of us broke out of our sheltered lives here in Cape Coast and headed to the Volta Region. The Volta is claimed to be the largest man made lake on earth and lies in Ghana’s mountainous region (mountainous being about 3,000 feet at the highest). However, despite the fact that I have turned into a mountain snob (thanks alot Nepal!), I found these small Ghanaian mountains to be very impressive and beautiful. They were much more rugged than I was expecting, thickly forested down low with open green pastures around the tops. Our journey took us to the highest waterfall in the country, Wli Falls (pronounced Vlee). We decided to take a hike up to the upper part of the falls, which turned into a pretty grueling and sweaty hike due to the steep terrain and humidity. Ghana apparently doesn’t incorporate switchbacks into their trails like we are spoiled with back home. But it was well worth the hike, not only for the falls but also for the various strange insects and the superb views of the valleys and villages below. The highlight of the entire falls though was at the lower section where we were able to swim out underneath the falling water. What an amazing feeling to have water crashing down on you from 150 feet above, so much power and intensity.

Besides the natural environment that the falls and the mountains provided, another wonderful part of the region is the people. We spent the night in small village near the falls, also called Wli. I found a lot of joy in just strolling around the simple village and interacting with the young kids and other villagers. What was most appealing about these people was their warmth. Unlike Cape Coast, where a common greeting to a white person is to yell “obruni“(white man), everyone in the village would say “welcome”. And it truly felt sincere which made it that much more enjoyable to walk around.

So from Wli we headed over to Volta Lake itself for a night and stayed at what I thought was a pretty swanky hotel right on the lake. I say swanky because my hotel room budget is generally between $2 and 6$. But a room here was $30, but fortunately I only had to pay $15 since I shared a room with Paul. But the place did have wonderful swimming in the lake and a rope swing, so that eased my expensive room tension.

Before I finish this off, there was one more African moment that was pretty interesting. During the tro-tro ride to the region we made a pit stop in a village. As the van pulled in to park it was ambushed by probably 25 women all selling something different from the tops of their heads. They literally slammed into the van with their bodies and rocked it. They were selling everything from bread, yams, eggs, crawfish, smoked fish, and a lot of unidentifiable food products. It is common for Ghanaians to carry stuff atop their heads and is downright amazing how they are able to balance it all in often crowded situations. But these women ran to the vehicle in a large compact mass, were able to keep all of their goods balanced on their heads, were able to grab what was needed from their head, and receive payment, without dropping anything to the ground. It was a very impressive sight.

So at the very least, this little weekend getaway opened my eyes to what the rest of Ghana has to offer. I have certainly been inflicted with some wanderlust so I am looking forward to getting out and experiencing more of the country.

Fishing the Volta

The local Wli characters

"Really? It's safe to go in there?"

Wli village and the surrounding mountains

The stone that the builders rejected

Continuing with a glimpse into the projects that I am working on, I will introduce you to One Stone. One Stone, owned by Sam and his wife Judith, is a wonderful handicraft shop. They sell a wide variety of goods from jewelry, to wooden masks, clothing, and their main items, carved furniture and Djembe drums. Sam creates wonderful carved furniture, from beds to coffee tables to chairs. From what I understand, the furniture is constructed of mahogany and he carves wonderful African scenes. In addition to the furniture, he also carves drums. The drum bodies themselves he buys from a supplier but he carves the design and hands the building of the drum to his "brother" Lamin. Of course, they are not the only ones producing these drums (or any of their products for that matter), they do have a workshop in Accra where he has employees turning out drums as well. My time spent with the entire One Stone family has been great. More times than not, work around there turns into a round of drumming. Lamin is a wonderful drummer and he has certainly been showing me a thing or two. Sam (aka RastaSam) is a great guy to work with and is never lacking a good Bob Marley quote. Judith essentially holds the group together and has been touted as the best saleswomen on earth. She is also responsible for giving me my first taste of goat. I will just say that I will not be replacing elk with goat in my diet anytime soon. There is also young Marcus Garvey, their son, running around terrorizing the shop. Oh yeah, can't forget about their dog George Bush. So that is the crew that ensures there is never a dull moment when working on this project.

My role there has essentially been consulting the business and finding ways to bring them more business. Unfortunately, they do not have the best location. There are a couple of nice "beach" resorts nearby but the people visiting places like these do not get out and explore their surroundings. Many of the tourists pass in a car and never take the time to stop and take a look around. So we are looking to increase their sales through the internet and marketing to specific drumming groups and organizations. Initially we are concentrating on moving more drums but will eventually try to sell more of his furniture. It is great to be working with them because they are thrilled to have the help and are passionate about their business. So if you are in the market for a new bed or table and chairs, I know a great place to start looking!

Sam's fine furniture and Djembe drums

Drums built and ready to be shaved and tuned

Marcus ensuring that I do not lose my place while reading the sign

Smiley Lamin and the shop

A bit about the fellow volunteers

By request, I will briefly write about the volunteers I am spending so much time with and roughly what projects they are working on. I am not entirely familiar with the other projects (or with name spellings for that matter) but I am going to give it my best shot. This should bring some additional clarity on what Global Mamas does.

The biggest bunch (8) of common volunteers come from West Point. They are here for about 3 weeks and have been working on various projects including Fair Trade certifications and follow ups, marketing aimed at recruiting volunteers, and business consulting. Katelyn, whom I am working with on the fishing village project, comes from Notre Dame and is also working on a project that involves creating a workbook that teaches the women basic computer skills. Ina, from Duke, seems to be mostly working on fashion and design. In order to make the clothing produced marketable, the women must have up to date designs. Then there is Emi. She has been here for over a year now and is a volunteering with the Japanese equivalent of the Peace Corp. She is also designing. The only other longer term male here is Paul. He is also coming from the UM and I will be working on two projects with him doing business consulting and teaching business management. In addition he is working on the computer workbook. We are all managed (or maybe mothered) by Alice. She was a volunteer last summer and got hired on in December. Prior to this she was working as a designer in New York. In addition to the Cape Coast volunteers, there are several volunteers in Accra, and a Peace Corp volunteer in a village northeast of here called Krobo. Krobo has women that are producing beads made of recycled glass. There is also another Peace Corp volunteer living near Cape Coast that we do see occasionally and is loosley associated with Global Mamas.

So that is the scoop on the diverse, happy, and sweaty group.

Village Excursion

Forgive me if it feels like I am skipping important aspects of this trip, particularly Cape Coast, the people, and life as a Women in Progress volunteer. I feel like these should come before anything else but I am still learning about the culture here and I would like to do it all justice when I do post. With that said...

I have been assigned three projects while I am here. I have begun working on all of them and I intend to share with you each project at beginning and end. One project involves creating a village excursion for tourists. The village is a small clustering of huts on the beach East of Cape Coast. Its not an old village, I believe it was established around 60 years ago. It was established as a fishing village and people could join the community and operate as a kind of co-operative. Currently there is around 200 people that are part of the village, however all 200 aren't there at any one time. The village's primary income comes from the sale of smoked fish in the surrounding towns. There are two rivers that flow into the ocean near the village that the people fish with nets. And of course there is the ocean itself. They tie long nets onto palms and send them out to sea with boats. I am not sure how long the nets are, but they seem to disappear on the horizon, so they are pretty darn long. After the nets have sat for awhile a group of men will pull them in. Unfortunately, now isn't a good time to fish because of rough seas so I was unable to observe the process.

I am working on the project with Kate, a student from Pennsylvania, so I am not alone on this one. Our plan thus far is to have visitors come to the village, experience the fish smoking process, pull in the nets, take a canoe ride along the river, enjoy a freshly plucked coconut as a refreshment, and experience African village life. A majority of the fee that they pay will go towards the village and help the people improve their facilities. As I am finding out, traditional African life is disappearing rapidly as the world is becoming more globalized and westernized. So it is important that villages like these are able to continue operating so that the culture doesn't become lost. On that same line, it is important to design this excursion in such a way that the western influence is minimized. So this is certainly going to be challenging project and has already turned out to be a lot of fun. I am looking forward to spending time in the village and interacting with the villagers.

Of course there is so much more to this village but that should give you pretty good overview. Hope you are all doing well!

Within the village

Gathering the appropriate refreshments

I love my job

Weekend in Kokum N.P.

Life has been pretty good thus far in Ghana. Saturday a small group of us made a quick trip to a surrounding national park, Kokum, which has a network of walkways in the the canopy of the trees. It was pretty neat, the trees were huge! Some of the highest walkways were well over 100 feet above the ground. And I will actually admit that it was a little scary. The walkways were suspended by cables but were built with rope and wood. Particularly creepy is the fact that there is no word for "maintenance" in the local language. It all worked out just fine though. Would I go walking on these bridges 5 years from now?? In addition to the walkways we went on a nature walk through the jungle. Turns out the Ghanaian jungle plants have many medicinal properties including antibiotic and "viagra". Seemed that viagra plants were the most common and our tour guide was certainly quick to point them out. Unfortunately we didn't come across any wildlife. A few insects but for the most part the forests felt pretty empty. Overall it was a good first weekend in Ghana. It is so strange to be thinking in weekends, it feels like I have a job or something!

Upcoming blogs will include more on how my days are spent as a volunteer, the specific projects I am working on, and more about life in Cape Coast and Ghana. I am still trying to figure out the people and the culture. Given some time though I will be able to better grasp the culture and therefore be able to supply more accurate information. This place is truly fascinating. So that is just a little look into the future of this blog. Oh the suspense...

The surrounding forest

Canopy walkway

Also, please let me know if there is anything in particular that you want me to post about, I do take requests.