Last day at the orphanage? Bittersweet. I couldn't work up the courage to tell all the orphans that I was leaving, but I told the 19 year old one that I have bonded with (the one that told me the hour-long story about how she ended up there). She looked disgruntled and said they would all miss me, and that I needed to stay longer. She insisted she would be seeing me on Monday. Today the medical volunteers came and dealt with the open sores and ringworm, which was nice because I needed a dose of Catherine. She's from Alabama, a nurse, and one of those people who I can immediately tell cares about people (ie. instant in with Julia, no matter your temprament). It's nice to have someone I can always be honest with, and not have to continually focus on the positive and always watch what I'm saying. We instantly bonded when we went to Green Turtle.
Speaking of Green Turtle, that's how I've lazily decided to spend my last week of travel. We're going in a group of 9 tomorrow morning, and going home monday. I'll spend monday night with my host family and then leave for accra sometime on tuesday. Then my flight is wednesday morning! To be honest, I think I'm ready to go home. I feel very emotionally drained and I'm not sure how much I really have left to give to the country of Ghana. I think you mentally prepare yourself for your stay, no matter how long it is, and eek out your energy bit by bit until by the end you have nothing left. I feel like that, but not in a depressing way. Like I've given everything I have - in a satisfying way. It will be a relief to come home and feed off of the energy that you guys provide...parasite Julia here we come! I might need a couple hours to like chill out, get used to the reverse culture shock, look at my pictures, etc...but after that I will probably be up for a reunion which will hopefully involve every food group that is not simple carbs.
I haven't received any mail yet, which makes me sad as many of you said you wrote so I hope things won't arrive like a day after I leave or something. I asked my coordinator to tell me if I get mail up until next tuesday, so I'll remind him of that and hopefully your thoughtful letters will find a home. :[ Stupid ghana mail. Also sorry about the lack of postcards. I think this is the first vacation in like 5 years that I haven't sent any postcards out, but there are literally none to buy. I hope keeping this blog up was an okay substitute, even though sometimes I found it tiring to update and I think you guys are getting bored of reading it. Good thing I'll be going home soon! There are so many pictures to go through, but I will narrow it down to only the semi-interesting ones and host a slideshow/story telling night as promised. If you guys are interested. And don't worry, I know some of you have the attention span of a 2 year old and I will give you a shortened summary as applicable. :]
There are so few volunteers around now. Only about...10? Catherine got a new roommate today, who is apparently going to Green Turtle with us, so hopefully she'll be a fun last person to meet. I really cannot tell you how nice it is going to be relaxing on the beach this weekend and not having to worry about anything but a mounting tab. I'm not particularly anxious for all the goodbyes, though. Mum and dad, that's mostly what I meant when I said I didn't want to deal with it all. I don't like the fuss and stress and sadness and awkwardness of goodbyes, especially when you're never going to see people again. I'll be happy once I'm sitting on the plane from JFK to SFO, with nothing more to worry about.
So, I guess this will be my last post in Ghana, unless I get bored in Accra and find an internet cafe. Again, bittersweet. I thought of the one liner I'm going to tell people when I get back: I didn't expect anything, but it wasn't what I thought it would be. Only you priviledged few will have any idea what that means, so if you hear me saying it feel free to laugh to yourself. I'm curious to see who I am upon my return. I'm fairly sure some things have changed, but the backdrop of Ghana is not quite a fair one. I've been forced to do some things I never thought I would, and I've thought about things I never thought I'd have to. I'm not sure it was the experience I wanted before I left, but I think it will be the experience I want after I return. I know for sure I've stretched myself in ways I've never thought possible. The one thing I hope is that I haven't been hardened and jaded by such an unguarded view of this place. But I don't think I have. If anything, I know more now what we need at home. I have learned things from the Ghanaians - not only things I know I want to never, ever see again, but things that can be remembered and brought back with me. Things like courage, and things like hope.
Is this the cheesy summation that was required? I do hope so.
I can't tell you how much I have missed all of you, how excited I am to be back and to hug and to be hugged, and how thankful I am that you all continued to read this and comment on it and pretend, for the sake of my sanity, that you still miss me. Thanks again and I'll see you soon!
Love,
Julia.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Pool Boys
Today was an exceptional day in that we managed to execute a plan we've had in the works for weeks. We connivingly convinced the staff at the orphanage to let us take 3 boys out for the day! We went swimming at a "fancy" hotel, which actually turned out fairly well. It didn't last long, but the boys seemed to enjoy their venture into the real world, if you will. They'd never really been outside of the compound before, so they looked a little shell-shocked as we drove by taxi through Kumasi. The strange thing about orphans is how surprisingly well behaved they are...in that they'll sit still for ages because that's what they're used to - no stimulation. It was so nice to see these kids looking like actual normal children for once. Outside of the filth and ambivalance of the orphanage, they fit in quite nicely with the rest of the world. Somehow their ringworm wasn't as worrying and their strange sores could easily have more reasonable explanations.
Unfortunately I wasn't a whole lot of help today as I'm still not feeling top-notch. I passed out while asking inside the hotel for towels, which was quite embarrassing as I fell onto the wall and had to be propped up on a chair. Still feeling fairly rubbish, and it will be nice to get home and into bed. But I thought I'd stop by here quickly as I pass by it anyway...
Recently I've lacked the energy for a good, in-depth post. Luckily I'll be home soon to have some proper rest and tell some better stories. For now, hope everyone is a bit better than I am. :]
Unfortunately I wasn't a whole lot of help today as I'm still not feeling top-notch. I passed out while asking inside the hotel for towels, which was quite embarrassing as I fell onto the wall and had to be propped up on a chair. Still feeling fairly rubbish, and it will be nice to get home and into bed. But I thought I'd stop by here quickly as I pass by it anyway...
Recently I've lacked the energy for a good, in-depth post. Luckily I'll be home soon to have some proper rest and tell some better stories. For now, hope everyone is a bit better than I am. :]
Monday, August 24, 2009
Boring post
So Mallory, I think I predicted my schedule here quite well. First few days: discomfort coupled with intrigue, week one: I want to go home NOW, week 2: This is pretty okay, week 3: I think I will miss it here, week 4: Acceptance of imminent homecoming. I'm guessing week 5 will be acceptance mixed in with excitement and a bit of stress at not having done everything. Kelly, I definitely still remember you saying "Uh...do you plan to have any fun at all, then?" after I told you about this time table, and yes. I did and and I did. However, right now I'm a bit exhausted by everything now. Like I've just gone for a long run. It feels good, but I'm ready to go home. But not particularly anxious about transporting myself there. I can't even describe to you how amazing the thought of being in my own bed is. There are so many simple things that will feel amazing. I will list some, for funsies. Drinking a cup of ice cold milk, having first treat yogurt, eating sliced cheddar cheese. Boneless meat. Wheat bread. Vegetables. Fruit. Using a washing machine, smelling freshly washed clothes, putting on entirely fresh smelling items after showering. A warm shower with regular water pressure, and that dry clean feeling after stepping out of the shower and into a soft towel. Collapsing on my leather couch and watching a good movie. Using a seatbelt. Drinking out of a cup. Washing off my "tan". Calling faraway friends. Driving. Waking up after 6. Going to bed after 9. Opening a fridge. Ice water. Guitar. Cats. And obviously people. Everything is going to feel so grand and comfortable.
This weekend trip was cut short by efficiency. On saturday we went on a hike to the bat caves, which was thrilling and terrifying. The caves were very claustrophobic and smelled like bat feces, and the constant flapping and screeching of the bats gave me the willies. But it was worth it, I think. The guys who do the hikes were overly nice and chased down the taxi that brought us there, insisting that he had cheated us and we needed our money back. We said thank you of course, and they thanked us for thanking them. Itchy plants grew rampant along the hike, it turned out, and we were itching ourselves like crazy on the drive back (during which, by the way, I could feel the ground on the bottom of the tiny taxi). So they gave us cocoa butter and baby powder, which is their solution to anything skin related. It didn't help but it was nice. Then we drove 2 hours to the monkey sanctuary, where we fed mona monkeys peanuts and saw black and white colobus monkeys in the trees. The guide said there were zebras in the forest, but we didn't see any...When we got back to Techiman I suggested we go to the bus stop and see if the last bus for Kumasi had left, just to save us having to spend the night. Luckily, Ghana is Ghana and we were able to catch the 6 o'clock bus at 6:40. All this enabled me to be home by 9, to drink sangria with francis and watch harry potter!
Mum, you will absolutely thrilled to discover that this also allowed for a trip to church. Not really as exciting as one would expect, but worthwhile all the same. They made fun of me and Alice with some story about how fire is hottest when it's white, so they wanted to gather around the white bits and get fire from them. Bizarre. Managed to get a sneak video of the singing. The things I do for you people...:] Only lasted about 2 1/2 hours, so we were lucky!
More later...Maeve just got here so I'm going to talk to her for a bit.
Still can't believe I come home so soon.
This weekend trip was cut short by efficiency. On saturday we went on a hike to the bat caves, which was thrilling and terrifying. The caves were very claustrophobic and smelled like bat feces, and the constant flapping and screeching of the bats gave me the willies. But it was worth it, I think. The guys who do the hikes were overly nice and chased down the taxi that brought us there, insisting that he had cheated us and we needed our money back. We said thank you of course, and they thanked us for thanking them. Itchy plants grew rampant along the hike, it turned out, and we were itching ourselves like crazy on the drive back (during which, by the way, I could feel the ground on the bottom of the tiny taxi). So they gave us cocoa butter and baby powder, which is their solution to anything skin related. It didn't help but it was nice. Then we drove 2 hours to the monkey sanctuary, where we fed mona monkeys peanuts and saw black and white colobus monkeys in the trees. The guide said there were zebras in the forest, but we didn't see any...When we got back to Techiman I suggested we go to the bus stop and see if the last bus for Kumasi had left, just to save us having to spend the night. Luckily, Ghana is Ghana and we were able to catch the 6 o'clock bus at 6:40. All this enabled me to be home by 9, to drink sangria with francis and watch harry potter!
Mum, you will absolutely thrilled to discover that this also allowed for a trip to church. Not really as exciting as one would expect, but worthwhile all the same. They made fun of me and Alice with some story about how fire is hottest when it's white, so they wanted to gather around the white bits and get fire from them. Bizarre. Managed to get a sneak video of the singing. The things I do for you people...:] Only lasted about 2 1/2 hours, so we were lucky!
More later...Maeve just got here so I'm going to talk to her for a bit.
Still can't believe I come home so soon.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Hehr nem is JULIAHN.
Let me take a moment to assert how much I appreciate that you all have continued to read and comment on this. You have no idea how much it has helped to reduce and rationalize the absolute insanity that it is necessary to simply come to terms with.
Well, where to start. Yesterday the lady who is charge of the care placement for all of the ghana locations came to the orphanage to help us confront them about their issues. We set up a system for diaper dispersion so that the staff will be more accountable for the diapers they steal and volunteers will no longer be asked/feel obligated to buy diapers for the children. I tried to find a solution to the lack of basic medical attention that is paid by the house mistresses (things as simple as putting a band-aid on a large, deep, and infected wound), but this is more difficult. I am trying to set up a placement position that would involve someone going around to the different schools and orphanages and giving them this basic care, as the current attempt at this - "outreach" once a week for medical volunteers - is merely proving ineffective. It was nice to talk to someone who understands instead of denies the problem, but I'm not sure things will be amended as we would like. There are simply too many people who are not on our side. However, progress was made and that itself is an achievement.
Joined by Andrew and our directors, Alice and I left work early to visit Maeve's school. They were putting on an Open Day, which means the children did some dances and poetry recital in the hopes (or well, as I will explain, certainty) of raising money. Ghana is so very strange. As children read poetry, sung, or danced, parents would come up and rub or smack a cedi note on their face. The man in charge would announce ocassionally over the microphone that not doing so would psychologically damage the children. After each performance, the children were forced to remain on stage until someone paid for them to go. Imagine picking teams for PE on an even grander and more mortifying scale...
Last night I had a bit of a scare as I was driving home from going out with my host parents. I felt really hot and all of a sudden my lymph nodes felt as if they were going to eat me alive. I took my temperature, assuming I had a fever again, but it was 94.9. I took it repeatedly and tried Alice's ear thermometer with similar results. I decided to go to the hospital today, in order to definitively be diagnosed with malaria and perhaps receive some stronger drugs. Which is where I have just returned from. What an odd, terrifying experience. Luckily I was able to go with Andrew, who works there, and got to skip the lines (which made me feel horrible, as people were waiting on benches all around and looking at me with wide eyes). Gabby (one of our coordinators, luckily the best one) kept me company for a while, but most of the time I was alone while I waited to be shunted from one annoyed, rude caregiver to the next. They took my blood from the top of my hand (?), and I sat there shaking, overwhelmed by a flood of Twi and needles, as he pulled the plunger (connected to a STERILE needle, mum) in and out for about 5 minutes. When he pulled out the needle, he sucked up the residual blood that dripped from the injection site, and cavalierly waved me out of the room. Or should I say wooden rectangle. Then I sat and waited for 2 hours until they tossed me into another wooden rectangle, in which a doctor (I think) said my blood contained the malaria parasites. Then he tried to tell me I had a sore throat (which grew into tonsilitis) and swine flu. I'm pretty sure he wrote that on my folder, but I will definitely not be taking whatever having that entails. In the end they gave me some more antimalarials, a slip of paper for things to get from the pharmacy, and some very vague directions. I think I'm the better for my trip? Certainly an experience...but probably not one I'd like to have again.
This weekend is a short trip - just saturday and sunday with 3 other girls to see the monkey sanctuary, bat caves, and a waterfall. I hope that after confirming my malaria I can relax, knowing that I don't have the plethora of other things I read about in my guidebook. Never thought I'd say "I hope I have malaria!" but that's what I was thinking as I awaited test results. There are so many more horrible things I could have had, so I am quite grateful.
By the way, I think I've had vivid dreams about all of you by now. Malaria pill dreams are great. I had one dream in Mole that I came home and hid in the bathroom until I had fixed my hair. Then I hugged everyone and someone gave me a donut and as I bit into it I woke up grinning. Only to realize that I was in Africa...at the beginning I also had dreams that Alice was sleepwalking and woke me up. We still don't know if that was a dream or not. OH! I totally forgot. So like a week ago, Alice and I kept hearing banging in the night. I joked that there was a shoot-out going on, but when we asked Francis in the morning he said the bangs were him, shooting at robbers outside the house! The next day, I went out and bought a machete. We have been sleeping better.
I also can't wait to tell you about all the funny/cool/weird people I have met here. It's quite a good set up, really, because you have the opportunity to feel like a local during the week and a backpacker during the weekends. A bit of both worlds. Anyway, I'm surprised at how easily I've learned to trust everyone and how nice it has been exploring Ghana with them. If it weren't for the other volunteers, I wouldn't miss it here quite as much as I'm realizing I will. Kumasi has really become like home, in a really strange and comforting way. I will miss fratenizing with locals and foreigners and I will even miss the devilish children.
Speaking of the devilish children - despite being gone so much this week, I've actually had a few mini breakthroughs. They might not sound like much, but here they are significant. On tuesday I was tickling some girls on the swings, which they find endlessly enjoyable, when one lept off, hugged me (which is distinct from clinging), and breathed an overjoyed "thank you!" as she grinned up at me. I was so taken aback that she had recognized my playing with her as nonobligatory kindness. Additionally, I have been teaching the girls to say please and use my name in place of obruni. Now, they shout at each other "Hehr nem is JULIAHN!" which just about breaks my heart. They also seem to be following my example in the way they interact with the younger ones - I even caught one gently comforting a crying toddler! While these developments, so long in coming, will make it harder to leave, they also help to remind me why I came.
Alright, now I'm going to attempt to respond to some emails. I responded to all the comments! Thanks everyone! Have a wonderful weekend.
Well, where to start. Yesterday the lady who is charge of the care placement for all of the ghana locations came to the orphanage to help us confront them about their issues. We set up a system for diaper dispersion so that the staff will be more accountable for the diapers they steal and volunteers will no longer be asked/feel obligated to buy diapers for the children. I tried to find a solution to the lack of basic medical attention that is paid by the house mistresses (things as simple as putting a band-aid on a large, deep, and infected wound), but this is more difficult. I am trying to set up a placement position that would involve someone going around to the different schools and orphanages and giving them this basic care, as the current attempt at this - "outreach" once a week for medical volunteers - is merely proving ineffective. It was nice to talk to someone who understands instead of denies the problem, but I'm not sure things will be amended as we would like. There are simply too many people who are not on our side. However, progress was made and that itself is an achievement.
Joined by Andrew and our directors, Alice and I left work early to visit Maeve's school. They were putting on an Open Day, which means the children did some dances and poetry recital in the hopes (or well, as I will explain, certainty) of raising money. Ghana is so very strange. As children read poetry, sung, or danced, parents would come up and rub or smack a cedi note on their face. The man in charge would announce ocassionally over the microphone that not doing so would psychologically damage the children. After each performance, the children were forced to remain on stage until someone paid for them to go. Imagine picking teams for PE on an even grander and more mortifying scale...
Last night I had a bit of a scare as I was driving home from going out with my host parents. I felt really hot and all of a sudden my lymph nodes felt as if they were going to eat me alive. I took my temperature, assuming I had a fever again, but it was 94.9. I took it repeatedly and tried Alice's ear thermometer with similar results. I decided to go to the hospital today, in order to definitively be diagnosed with malaria and perhaps receive some stronger drugs. Which is where I have just returned from. What an odd, terrifying experience. Luckily I was able to go with Andrew, who works there, and got to skip the lines (which made me feel horrible, as people were waiting on benches all around and looking at me with wide eyes). Gabby (one of our coordinators, luckily the best one) kept me company for a while, but most of the time I was alone while I waited to be shunted from one annoyed, rude caregiver to the next. They took my blood from the top of my hand (?), and I sat there shaking, overwhelmed by a flood of Twi and needles, as he pulled the plunger (connected to a STERILE needle, mum) in and out for about 5 minutes. When he pulled out the needle, he sucked up the residual blood that dripped from the injection site, and cavalierly waved me out of the room. Or should I say wooden rectangle. Then I sat and waited for 2 hours until they tossed me into another wooden rectangle, in which a doctor (I think) said my blood contained the malaria parasites. Then he tried to tell me I had a sore throat (which grew into tonsilitis) and swine flu. I'm pretty sure he wrote that on my folder, but I will definitely not be taking whatever having that entails. In the end they gave me some more antimalarials, a slip of paper for things to get from the pharmacy, and some very vague directions. I think I'm the better for my trip? Certainly an experience...but probably not one I'd like to have again.
This weekend is a short trip - just saturday and sunday with 3 other girls to see the monkey sanctuary, bat caves, and a waterfall. I hope that after confirming my malaria I can relax, knowing that I don't have the plethora of other things I read about in my guidebook. Never thought I'd say "I hope I have malaria!" but that's what I was thinking as I awaited test results. There are so many more horrible things I could have had, so I am quite grateful.
By the way, I think I've had vivid dreams about all of you by now. Malaria pill dreams are great. I had one dream in Mole that I came home and hid in the bathroom until I had fixed my hair. Then I hugged everyone and someone gave me a donut and as I bit into it I woke up grinning. Only to realize that I was in Africa...at the beginning I also had dreams that Alice was sleepwalking and woke me up. We still don't know if that was a dream or not. OH! I totally forgot. So like a week ago, Alice and I kept hearing banging in the night. I joked that there was a shoot-out going on, but when we asked Francis in the morning he said the bangs were him, shooting at robbers outside the house! The next day, I went out and bought a machete. We have been sleeping better.
I also can't wait to tell you about all the funny/cool/weird people I have met here. It's quite a good set up, really, because you have the opportunity to feel like a local during the week and a backpacker during the weekends. A bit of both worlds. Anyway, I'm surprised at how easily I've learned to trust everyone and how nice it has been exploring Ghana with them. If it weren't for the other volunteers, I wouldn't miss it here quite as much as I'm realizing I will. Kumasi has really become like home, in a really strange and comforting way. I will miss fratenizing with locals and foreigners and I will even miss the devilish children.
Speaking of the devilish children - despite being gone so much this week, I've actually had a few mini breakthroughs. They might not sound like much, but here they are significant. On tuesday I was tickling some girls on the swings, which they find endlessly enjoyable, when one lept off, hugged me (which is distinct from clinging), and breathed an overjoyed "thank you!" as she grinned up at me. I was so taken aback that she had recognized my playing with her as nonobligatory kindness. Additionally, I have been teaching the girls to say please and use my name in place of obruni. Now, they shout at each other "Hehr nem is JULIAHN!" which just about breaks my heart. They also seem to be following my example in the way they interact with the younger ones - I even caught one gently comforting a crying toddler! While these developments, so long in coming, will make it harder to leave, they also help to remind me why I came.
Alright, now I'm going to attempt to respond to some emails. I responded to all the comments! Thanks everyone! Have a wonderful weekend.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Mole, Malaria, Fun!
So of course this is Ghana and yesterday did not go as planned. Sorry to disappoint. Hah. Instead Alice and I went to Vic Baboo's to say goodbye to Maggie, who is flying home today, and then to the market to pick up some stuff. The market is unbelievable. I see entirely new little alleys each time. It's really exhausting but satisfying in the end because I got everything I needed. I was in really high spirits afterwards, and Alice and I decided we were exquisite market buddies. I'm not sure that anyone has ever enjoyed shopping with me before...interesting. So I got home and as we were eating dinner Francis said "I don't think you get malaria" in his cute little whimsical way. So Alice and I conducted a really sneaky conversation basically telling him that I had all the symptoms and wanted to know if I had it ("but what if you have a cough too? And what if your fever is only a little one?") but he really didn't get the hint until I blatantly told him I wasn't feeling well. I hate mentioning that I'm sick, or talking about my symptoms a lot, but I realize that I have a very high tolerance for sickness and pain in general so I have probably driven Alice crazy with constant updates of my wellbeing. But I can't ignore it as I would at home, because if I do wait too long then I could get into quite a bit of nasty trouble. Luckily she understands and is being really cute about asking if I need water and stuff. Francis convinced me to go the pharmacist last night and get some antimalarials, so hello my friends I have malaria. Not to worry, we have caught it early and although I did not go to work today I am feeling well enough to make the 20 minute taxi ride to get here and I will be going to the weekly meeting for dinner tonight. I avoided going to the hospital today (I won't bother trying to cover up how terrifying a prospect this is), but might go tomorrow if I feel worse. Not to worry mum, Alice says she watched the phlebotomist (if you can really honor them with such a title?) open the needle in front of her so they're not going to jab me with a needle that's dripping with AIDS. I've made sure to read all the information on my medicine and it's not going to kill me either. So yeah, other than the horrid combination of confusing symptoms known as malaria, I'm happy and healthy.
Mole! Pronounced like the mexican sauce, btdubs. Which is so much more festive than the burrowing animal. I'll give you a little background on how to get there. You first take a nice bus at 10am to Tamale (lots of mexican influence, eh?), which is 6-7 hours away. From there it gets difficult - it is 4 hours to Mole from there, but there is only one daily bus to get there. It leaves at 2, technically, so there's no way you can make it if you got there that day. So you must "organize" your own transportation to the park, which for us meant following a boy for 20 minutes who said there was a tro leaving. Turns out the tro was full when we arrived. We were flooded with various offers from men who were eager to fit 9 people into a small taxi, and after an hour of dark and stress and crowd and annoyance, we were forced to accept the most auspicious offer - a man offering to take us in a truck for 80 cedi. We squished an impressive 6 people into the cab, but 3 people (me and two german boys) offered to ride in the back in case the backpacks got lonely. Well...it was kind of a thrill for about 5 minutes. Then the paved road went away, and we entered what is known as the worst road in west africa. Manuel was quite a trooper and entertained me by singing the entire discography of queen, pink, and rammstein, and by the end we got Eric to join us in a chorus of beat boxing. The high speeds and ridiculous holes were terrifying, but worse of all was when we slowed down through the villages and all the townspeople swarmed us and tried to "take us as friends". The stars were amazing though, and the milky way was quite apparent. At the end of the 4 hours, we finally arrived in our guesthouse and my fellow travelers found my appearance hilarious. My face, clothes, and hair were absolutely covered in red dirt and my hair was a huge dry tangled mess. Imagine someone coming out of the mines with teased hair, and there was Julia on friday night. I'm happy it was me, though, because I really don't mind uncomfortable situations but I would have been bothered by someone else complaining about it. I was slightly displeased at the lack of shower at the establishment, but c'est la vie. I no longer feel any cleaner after showering, anyway...
The next morning I had my first motorbike ride ever, which was fairly exciting. We then went on a walking safari and were greeted immediately by baboons, warthogs, antelopes, and other monkeys. And then elephants! I tell you, disneyland and zoos have spoiled us. We all felt as if there should be a guy with peanuts hiding behind the tree, but no! Real, wild elephants just chilling out in Ghana. Amazing, terrifying, surreal. We spent the rest of the day at the pool, where baboons and monkeys regularly approach you. One approached my Irish friend and she responded quite casually, slapping the chair in order to prevent him from sharing her pineapple. Wish I could have got it all on video, but everytime it happened quite suddenly. Cheeky little devils. The motel there ($10 a night! luxury!) even had filthy towels, a scorpion, and a connected bathroom for us! I almost felt like I was back in the first world. When we woke up the next morning (at 6, naturally) we went and had breakfast, leaving one person in the room. She ran to get us, exclaiming that there were elephants outside our room! Realists, we assumed she meant she could see them in the savannah. But, much to our surprise and joy, elephants really were parading about in front of our bedroom door! We took loads of pictures and videos and watched for a few hours as they ate and walked and eventually went back down the hill for a swim. Amazing. I have now been 10 feet away from a wild elephant, and lived to tell the tale.
In the afternoon we went for a bike ride to see the oldest mosque in ghana. Oh dear. 2 of 6 had to turn back as either their bicycle broke or the heat and exercise was to much for their poor malaria-infested bodies, but the rest of us survived the trip, which involved a piggy back ride through the bog and plenty of heavy hassling from rude men. The mosque was tiny and could not possibly have been built in 1421, especially so conveniently close to a national park, but it was something to do and the bike ride was funny.
The only bus out of Mole leaves at 4am. The bus to Kumasi leaves at 7am. Convenient, yes? We thought we had arranged for a guy to pick us up at 2pm on Monday, but he called at 2:05 to say that his tro had not been fixed at time. The funny thing about Ghana is that nothing ever turns out how you expect, but things always manage to come together. Perhaps because our standards have dropped to about negative 3, but still. Eventually our guide for the safari called his friend, who an hour later brought an enormous and rickety bus for 170 cedi. We picked up 2 austrian girls we had met and were well on our way to Tamale by 4. Luckily crew has enabled me to sleep absolutely anywhere, and I even took a quick nap despite legitimately wondering if 1)I would fall through the hole in the floor 2)the side of the bus would collapse 3)we would be struck during the insane lightning storm that began shortly after departure 4)we would have to get out and push the bus through the washed out streets. We got to Tamale by 9, and were followed to dinner by the workers at our guest house. They turned out to be very creepy but harmless, telling us that one day the blacks would make slaves of the whites (which was already beginning with Obama as president). An amusing night...
The next day on the bus I felt really horrid and headachey but when we got home Alice and I were quite productive - we did our washing, went to the internet cafe, and visited Andrew. And, well, I told you about yesterday!
Well, we're going to be Ghanaianly late if we don't leave for the meeting now. So until later!
ps. I can't believe I've only got 2 weeks left...it feels like time has gone by so fast. I need to buy so many more souvenirs!
pps. I've been reading the comments and as much stuff as possible on facebook but it just won't let me respond quickly enough. But I do appreciate the correspondence and will reply asap! Miss you all.
Mole! Pronounced like the mexican sauce, btdubs. Which is so much more festive than the burrowing animal. I'll give you a little background on how to get there. You first take a nice bus at 10am to Tamale (lots of mexican influence, eh?), which is 6-7 hours away. From there it gets difficult - it is 4 hours to Mole from there, but there is only one daily bus to get there. It leaves at 2, technically, so there's no way you can make it if you got there that day. So you must "organize" your own transportation to the park, which for us meant following a boy for 20 minutes who said there was a tro leaving. Turns out the tro was full when we arrived. We were flooded with various offers from men who were eager to fit 9 people into a small taxi, and after an hour of dark and stress and crowd and annoyance, we were forced to accept the most auspicious offer - a man offering to take us in a truck for 80 cedi. We squished an impressive 6 people into the cab, but 3 people (me and two german boys) offered to ride in the back in case the backpacks got lonely. Well...it was kind of a thrill for about 5 minutes. Then the paved road went away, and we entered what is known as the worst road in west africa. Manuel was quite a trooper and entertained me by singing the entire discography of queen, pink, and rammstein, and by the end we got Eric to join us in a chorus of beat boxing. The high speeds and ridiculous holes were terrifying, but worse of all was when we slowed down through the villages and all the townspeople swarmed us and tried to "take us as friends". The stars were amazing though, and the milky way was quite apparent. At the end of the 4 hours, we finally arrived in our guesthouse and my fellow travelers found my appearance hilarious. My face, clothes, and hair were absolutely covered in red dirt and my hair was a huge dry tangled mess. Imagine someone coming out of the mines with teased hair, and there was Julia on friday night. I'm happy it was me, though, because I really don't mind uncomfortable situations but I would have been bothered by someone else complaining about it. I was slightly displeased at the lack of shower at the establishment, but c'est la vie. I no longer feel any cleaner after showering, anyway...
The next morning I had my first motorbike ride ever, which was fairly exciting. We then went on a walking safari and were greeted immediately by baboons, warthogs, antelopes, and other monkeys. And then elephants! I tell you, disneyland and zoos have spoiled us. We all felt as if there should be a guy with peanuts hiding behind the tree, but no! Real, wild elephants just chilling out in Ghana. Amazing, terrifying, surreal. We spent the rest of the day at the pool, where baboons and monkeys regularly approach you. One approached my Irish friend and she responded quite casually, slapping the chair in order to prevent him from sharing her pineapple. Wish I could have got it all on video, but everytime it happened quite suddenly. Cheeky little devils. The motel there ($10 a night! luxury!) even had filthy towels, a scorpion, and a connected bathroom for us! I almost felt like I was back in the first world. When we woke up the next morning (at 6, naturally) we went and had breakfast, leaving one person in the room. She ran to get us, exclaiming that there were elephants outside our room! Realists, we assumed she meant she could see them in the savannah. But, much to our surprise and joy, elephants really were parading about in front of our bedroom door! We took loads of pictures and videos and watched for a few hours as they ate and walked and eventually went back down the hill for a swim. Amazing. I have now been 10 feet away from a wild elephant, and lived to tell the tale.
In the afternoon we went for a bike ride to see the oldest mosque in ghana. Oh dear. 2 of 6 had to turn back as either their bicycle broke or the heat and exercise was to much for their poor malaria-infested bodies, but the rest of us survived the trip, which involved a piggy back ride through the bog and plenty of heavy hassling from rude men. The mosque was tiny and could not possibly have been built in 1421, especially so conveniently close to a national park, but it was something to do and the bike ride was funny.
The only bus out of Mole leaves at 4am. The bus to Kumasi leaves at 7am. Convenient, yes? We thought we had arranged for a guy to pick us up at 2pm on Monday, but he called at 2:05 to say that his tro had not been fixed at time. The funny thing about Ghana is that nothing ever turns out how you expect, but things always manage to come together. Perhaps because our standards have dropped to about negative 3, but still. Eventually our guide for the safari called his friend, who an hour later brought an enormous and rickety bus for 170 cedi. We picked up 2 austrian girls we had met and were well on our way to Tamale by 4. Luckily crew has enabled me to sleep absolutely anywhere, and I even took a quick nap despite legitimately wondering if 1)I would fall through the hole in the floor 2)the side of the bus would collapse 3)we would be struck during the insane lightning storm that began shortly after departure 4)we would have to get out and push the bus through the washed out streets. We got to Tamale by 9, and were followed to dinner by the workers at our guest house. They turned out to be very creepy but harmless, telling us that one day the blacks would make slaves of the whites (which was already beginning with Obama as president). An amusing night...
The next day on the bus I felt really horrid and headachey but when we got home Alice and I were quite productive - we did our washing, went to the internet cafe, and visited Andrew. And, well, I told you about yesterday!
Well, we're going to be Ghanaianly late if we don't leave for the meeting now. So until later!
ps. I can't believe I've only got 2 weeks left...it feels like time has gone by so fast. I need to buy so many more souvenirs!
pps. I've been reading the comments and as much stuff as possible on facebook but it just won't let me respond quickly enough. But I do appreciate the correspondence and will reply asap! Miss you all.
Monday, August 17, 2009
More tomorrow
Well, I've officially experienced Africa. Yup, I can die here now and be fairly content. And really, I am starting to make a list of the ways I could quite easily die here. But don't worry, it's a fun thought! Not a morbid one.
I'm using today to try to respond to as many emails and stuff as possible because in keeping this blog I've neglected to be more personal. There just isn't enough time to do it all...anyway I'll blog about my experience at Mole tomorrow, if everything goes as planned, because it will probably take a while to write about. But for now, I'll tease you with the fact that it was wonderful and ridiculous and stressful and cool. Yup. Are you enticed? Also, I'm having a bit of a malaria scare at the moment but I think it's just the combination of headache and cough and soreness and dizziness. Whatever else that could be...But if I disappear for a while, don't be worried. Lots of volunteers get malaria and it's mostly gone within a week. Speaking of, Alice felt better and was able to come along to Mole, which was lucky as otherwise she'd be stuck at home sleeping all weekend. But yeah, proof that it's not that bad!
More tomorrow.
I'm using today to try to respond to as many emails and stuff as possible because in keeping this blog I've neglected to be more personal. There just isn't enough time to do it all...anyway I'll blog about my experience at Mole tomorrow, if everything goes as planned, because it will probably take a while to write about. But for now, I'll tease you with the fact that it was wonderful and ridiculous and stressful and cool. Yup. Are you enticed? Also, I'm having a bit of a malaria scare at the moment but I think it's just the combination of headache and cough and soreness and dizziness. Whatever else that could be...But if I disappear for a while, don't be worried. Lots of volunteers get malaria and it's mostly gone within a week. Speaking of, Alice felt better and was able to come along to Mole, which was lucky as otherwise she'd be stuck at home sleeping all weekend. But yeah, proof that it's not that bad!
More tomorrow.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Off to Mole!
I'm using a new internet cafe today! I went to lunch with the other girls who work at my orphanage and now I'm waiting in central kumasi with maggie for our weekly projects abroad meeting. We're splitting a half hour just to kill some time, so this is a quick update to say that I am going to be in Mole national park looking at wildlife fri-mon. I'm excited! It's super far north and it takes like 12 hours to get there, but I heard it's worth it. Plus, my favorite catch phrase...only in Ghana once! I shall blog about it next tuesday probably. Be excited.
Alice went to the hospital yesterday and they tried to get her to stay overnight! Oh dear. That would have been horrible. They gave her something labelled as blood strengthener, which she says just tastes like blood. I wouldn't be surprised if this was an informal bloof transfusion...
For now I hope you all are well! We're getting more innovative at the orphanage and we're hanging out more with the boys (because the other volunteers there help pass the time), even though we're only supposed to be with the girls...but no one really cares what we do, so it doesn't matter. Later!
Alice went to the hospital yesterday and they tried to get her to stay overnight! Oh dear. That would have been horrible. They gave her something labelled as blood strengthener, which she says just tastes like blood. I wouldn't be surprised if this was an informal bloof transfusion...
For now I hope you all are well! We're getting more innovative at the orphanage and we're hanging out more with the boys (because the other volunteers there help pass the time), even though we're only supposed to be with the girls...but no one really cares what we do, so it doesn't matter. Later!
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