Finally a few visual highlights of our trip thus far

The road to Adoteiman. About a 45 minute walk from the trotro station to home. Absolutely beautiful view! You can see the Akuapm (not sure of spelling) Escarpment, or 'mountains' as they were called in town in the distance. At the top is where we went for our bike ride.








On our bike trip through the rain forest. So difficult to capture the beauty on camera!













This is the dump in Medina (a town close to Adoteiman). Do it make you want to eat beef?












In Adoteiman, our sister Maame taught us to prepare a few great Ghanaian meals. Here, they are cutting the onions and about to grind them in the mortar and pestal to make tomato stew. You can see to the right the pot on the charcoal fire that is boiling yams (bairre ampesi - my favourite).











This was a shot of around town in Bawjiase (the second town we stayed in).













A view of Elmina harbour taken on our weekend trip to west.










The town we most recently stayed in, called Mpeseduadze (mmm-PEH-say-doo-AH-jey).

We are sorry-oh!

On Monday, we finished in Adoteiman and decided to move to Bawjiase, a town about an hour drive from Accra. I must echo Lindsay's comments about people here being so friendly; trotros and trotro drivers are some of my favourite people in Ghana! They'll ask you where you are going and even if you aren't taking their trotro they will make sure you get to the right one, escort you to it and let that driver know your destination. All you have to do is tell everyone your name and say Medasi (thank you in Twi) and they like you. And trotros are so great to travel in, I could sit in one the whole day. I love looking out the window to see all the sites. Every time we pass a new town I think "This is Ghana", like a farming town with mangos everywhere, but then we pass a totally different place with mud huts and fire pits, and then we pass apartment buildings while beautiful stone porches. So things here are varied, everything is such a contrast.

I am in a small Internet cafe that is very slow and I have a 5 guys behind me reading everything I am typing so I will keep it short but I must tell the story of our trotro ride on Monday. While we were sitting enjoying the views on the highway, I heard a snap, and then felt wind behind me. We I turned around, the trunk, or the "boot" of the trotro had opened and my bag, my huge backpacking pack with all of my possessions was about 100 metres behind us! After a few seconds, the driver stopped and we ran back to check out the damage. Luckily, only one pocket had ripped open. The contents of the pocket, namely suncreen, bug spray and all of my feminine hygiene products were then sprawled all over the highway, and the driver and mate (the person in the trotro that collects the money) were running around collecting them all. We eventually got the bag back in the boot and this time, I made them tie the trunk shut so that it couldn't fly open again! The guys felt very badly and the people on the trotro were pretty mad at them but Linds and I thought it was pretty funny. At least it makes for a good story!

I'll have to leave now, but I love hearing from you and miss you all!
Hope things are great in Canada!

Love Amy

Cape Coast Castle, Cape Coast from above, Josh and I on the Canopy Walk at Kakum National Park...

The Legend of Assae Paa

After a second solid week in the office, Josh and I decided to take a weekend trip to Cape Coast, an oceanside city about 150 km west of Accra.  There are several touristy things to see in Cape Coast, so we decided to take advantage of another free weekend and make the trip.  Our experience, to steal the words of Josh, was a unique combination of blatant Obruni-ness and some of the old “Team Guyana” luck.  Overall a solid weekend, and there are inevitably some good stories to tell.

We decided to take a State-Transit bus there on Saturday morning (because it’s supposedly more comfortable and more reliable – more on that later).  So, high on our newly found tro-tro savvyness, we hopped on a tro-tro to Tema station at 6am.  At Tema, we discovered the STC buses don’t run from there.  We were sent to the Metro Mas station – also no STC.  One of the men there pointed us toward a tro-tro which would take us to Kaneshie where there’s another station (on completely the other side of the city).  This man would be the first of many to help the silly kids with their bags and sunglasses (no one else here wears sunglasses). 

We soon realized we had gone too far.  We had to signal the mate to stop, and try to find our way on foot.  After walking all the way up the road, a taxi driver told us where the STC station was – we had walked past it nearly 10 minutes ago.  

We traipsed back, found the station (behind a bank!), found the counter – tickets sold out!

At the help desk, the woman bent over backwards to find us unwanted tickets on the 9:30 bus to Takoradi – more expensive, but could drop us off in Cape Coast.  We got to be Naana (Josh) and Paa (me) – at least that’s what our tickets said.  Finally, 3 ½ hours into the trip, still in Accra, we boarded the bus.  All was well, until about an hour into the trip.  We stopped for what I thought was a pee break in the bush, but as time went on, I went outside to see what was going on.

The bus broke down.

Around 3:30, after an awkward scene where 3 taxi drivers were fighting over us and we were fighting them all to bring down the fare, we finally dropped our stuff in our Guest House in Cape Coast.  We made it down to Cape Coast Castle for the museum and tour.  The castle was built by the Porteguese in the 1500s, and eventually taken over by the British.  It was really powerful to stand in a pitch-dark smelly dungeon, where thousands of slaves were kept and died, during the colonial slave trade.  I am learning a lot about this part of history and the African-European relations over the last handful of centuries.  The implications this history has for our societies today is mind-boggling and has lead to a lot of new thoughts and discussions.

We decided to wander through the streets after the Castle, to get a feel for a different Ghanaian city.  It really was quite different from Accra – the first thing that struck me was that most buildings had more than one storey, following the old colonial design with balconies and shutters.  In contrast, Accra is incredibly flat and sprawling.  The town was altogether much more quiet and relaxed.  The fishermen down at the water were sewing their nets; several “drinking bars” were blaring some good old reggae.  I liked the feel very much, however it also made me feel significantly more intrusive and out of place.

We were set on trying a vegetarian restaurant (a huge rarity here) that we read about in our travel book.  We tried to direct our wandering toward the guest house because we knew we could more or less find the restaurant from there.  Finally, tired and hungry and pretty much lost, we decided to just grab a cab back to the popular guest house around the corner from ours so that we could get our bearings.  I stopped the next taxi that came by (which didn’t take long) and asked to go to Sammo’s.  The driver looked at me, slowly looked out his window, then looked back at me. 

“You mean that place?” he pointed directly across the road from where I was standing, to the big sign that said Sammo’s.  I sighed.  Oh, silly Obrunis.

For all we would have known, the guy could have let us get in, driven in a complete circle, and charged us 3 cedis for the ride.  But he didn’t.  So we figured while we were at it, we’d ask him to direct us to Assae Paa, the vegetarian restaurant.  He said he thought he knew, indicated down the road and to the right a bit.  He offered us a ride, but we thanked him and headed on.

By the time it was dark, we were still wandering down the road, at a lagoon, with no restaurants in site.  We asked some women but they hadn’t heard of the place.  Soon, another cab pulled up and stopped.  We were sick of being asked for rides all day.

“No thank you, NO THANK YOU!” I said to him.  But he got out of the car and walked towards us.  Who could it be?  The same guy from the Sammo’s cab.  Even though we were too cheap to get a ride, he had followed us out of town to make sure we got there ok.  He pointed us on our way – we were nearly there.  What a guy.

People here just so much want to help you.  While it is always appreciated, it can also get frustrating because even if someone doesn’t know a place, they’ll just point their hand in some direction anyway.  But our trip to Cape Coast was full of genuine, helpful people, and we wouldn’t have gotten out of Accra without them.

At long last, Josh and I arrived at Assae Paa.

It had closed an hour ago.

In the end, we found another great place on the other side of the lagoon.  Despite the loud music and eating in the complete dark (literally, we had to get a flashlight to read the menu), we had a view of the water and the banku and tilapia was fresh and delicious.  We ended our night by finding a stand that sold coffee!  A first for this trip, and a major treat for those of you who know mine and Josh’s coffee habits at home.

I’m completely hogging all the good stories, so I think I’ll cut this blog off and let Josh talk about day 2. 

I’m happy to be able to say all four of us have been staying relatively healthy; we’ll hope that blessing stays.  Of course, I'm not always so cheerful as when I write the blog; but overall doing well.  We're just SO lucky to be here and be experiencing all these amazing things.  We heard from Lindsey and Amy yesterday, who arrived safely at their second host family and third eCARE centre in the Central Region.  We didn’t get many details, but we understand that it is different from their first place, but good.  

I LOVE hearing from all of you.  I miss you all, and it’s nice to be able to picture what you’re up to. 

Love Lindsay 

Also, to answer a question that was asked of me: Chop bars are not like cafes.  Much more like your average hot dog stand, but instead of tube meat, they sell all sorts of amazing cooked dishes.  No regulations on street food like in Toronto!  If you're getting it to go, they put it in a plastic bag and you eat it with your hand. 

ehy!

Well Amy has done a nice job of filling you in on our week, but I’ll add in a few thoughts.
Village life is quite different from the hustle and bustle we had been getting used to in Accra. The days are quite quiet here with the major activity of the day being people coming and going from the bus stop (which is right outside of the center). We have met many interesting people in the village including the mayor, the traditional tribal Ga chief, a woman who lived in Montréal for many years and of course the family we are staying with!
Staying here with a Ghanaian family, we have been exposed to everyday Ghanaian life. While there are some obvious differences, with the largest one being the delicious Ghanaian meals that are prepared every night, the overall dynamics aren’t so different from what you would find in Canada. For example the kids had a great time poking fun at their father for a failed handy project of making a certain rod. Definitely a scene you may encounter at my house on a Sunday afternoon. We have been welcomed into the family, and are often referred to by our Ghanaian names, which are based on the day of the week which you were born. Amy’s name is Ya (female, Thursday) and mine is Aquia (female, Wednesday). However, at times around the house Amy and I don’t really know what to do with ourselves. We are always trying to offer to help cook or clean (even though we have realized we don’t do either of these things well), but as their guests they say its stranger for us to help than to relax.
Ghanaian hospitality is quite incredible. Everyone is so willing to help you with whatever you may need, or offer to bran di di (come and let’s eat!). We are often trying to refuse people’s offers not wanting to be any trouble but it is really to no avail (For example, one of Mr. Paintsil’s friends is a designer and made us beautiful african wrap skirts that we went and picked up today).
Some of my favorite times here are going to the market and riding in the tro tros. there are so many things to observe and take in. Although the constant "obrunis" yelled at us can get quite tiring, were going to practice our twi so we can have some things to say back and take people by surprise!
Work at the center has been good. The entrepreneur Mr. Paintsil is a very kind man and has lots to share about Ghana but also many questions about Canada. He is a smart man, and I have learned some interesting things from him. We have been working with him teaching him computer basics, and he is learning quite fast. His center is newly opened this week, and with all of the great plans Mr. Painsil has, Amy and I would love to try and make it back to Adoteiman for a day towards the end of the summer to see how everything is going.
One thing I’ve definitely figured out this week is that life in Ghana is not as strictly scheduled as a day would be at home, sometimes a planned meeting can be delayed for hours, and a regular 20 mintue drive needs to be scheduled for at least an hour and a half, but during those quiet times you can have some pretty interesting encounters.
Today we commuted to our next center Dodowa, but are still staying with the same family we were in adoteiman. Actually, they told us if things dotn work out with our project, we can just live with them all summer and travel around as we wish, wayyy too nice. The first day at this center went much smoother than our first day at adoteiman, I guess Amy and i are establishing a successful groove pretty fast. We are returning there tomorrow and saturday and hopefully will have our next center secured by monday.

Hope everyone and everything at home is good, please send me some emails with updates!
Love Lindsey

Do you know how to ride a bike?

Another blog post so soon!

Things are still going well in Adoteiman, we'll now be leaving here on the weekend so we get to spend a few more days with our family.

Linds and I took the day off yesterday and had an amazing day that I must share. We thought we would go into the mountains to visit Aburi (pronounced Eh-bree). This is a small town at the top of the escarpment and among other things, had a botanical gardens and a bike shop.

So we decided to take a bike "tour". It was a 3-hour tour with a local guide. But they didn't warn us that it would be 60% mountain biking!! Harry, you would have died of joy!

It was probably one of the coolest things I've ever done and I highly recommend anyone in Ghana to check it out, as long as you are prepared for a pretty great work out. It started out biking through Aburi and seeing some of the town, which was very beautiful. Then, you take a turn and suddenly you are biking through the jungle down a single, rocky path! It was pretty surreal, we were biking on a little path in this valley and when we looked up on either side of us all we could see were cliffs covered in rain forest. We went over streams, up and down huge, muddy, rocky hills, and around farmers fields of maize and cassava. Our guide stopped at many trees and bushes to explain how cassava is grown, or what a cocoa pod looks like (I had no idea they grew on trees!). We met farmers on their way to their fields with machetes and women coming home from the stream with a bucket full of crabs. We biked by the town where Bob Marley's wife, Rita, lives when she comes to Ghana. She has built a health centre and school and brought light there so she was named the Queen Mother. We walked by a little rasta shop where apparently, Bob Marley's personal body guard lives and works.

By the end of the three hours, we were totally covered in mud and dripping with sweat, although of course guide exactly the same as when we stared, even though that was his first tour in three months. When we got back to the shop they gave us fresh pineapple, and of course the taste is so much better than home!

It was truly a lovely day and gave Linds and me a little boost in morale.

Then last night, we tried to bake our family some banana bread. We had to go on a sort of wild goose chase to find baking soda, so we felt a lot of pressure to make this bread worth the trouble. But, it turns out many Ghanaians aren't big on the baking, and their oven only had a broiler!! If you can believe it, we ended up microwaving it, and it tasted ok, so I guess all was not lost. But we might not try to bake anything again for a while.

That is all of the update from my end. We are sort of feeling uncertain about our next location, since as of now we don't have any place confirmed, so if we aren't sure, I guess we'll head back to Accra after this weekend. If all goes well, though, we'll be in Central Region on Monday!

Amy

Visiting Adoteiman

Lindsey and I have begun our travels! We are traveling around the southern part of Ghana, visiting different communication centers. These centres aim to increase access to communication to local communities, and Lindsey and I will visit different centres to learn about what services they are offering.

And so we find ourselves in Adoteiman. Don’t try to look it up on any map.

This is a very interesting town. It is about 30 minutes or an hour outside of Accra, and is a mixture of very rural mud-hut village and wealthy business people commuter town. It is growing very quickly, and once they finish paving the road that runs through the town, I think it will expand even faster. Two years ago they got "light" and "pipes" (power and water) and there is already an internet café here. We have been here for four days and we have been living with a family. They are GREAT! They are so friendly and welcoming, and they will not stop feeding us. They keep saying "I want you to be fat". And we certainly will be. We’ve learned to prepare so many delicious Ghanaian meals! Often, we’ll make stew with fresh tomatoes, onions, sometimes garden egg or cocoa yam leaves, and of course pepe, which is the natural spice here. Add some fried fish and either boiled yam, cocoa yam or banku and you’ve got lunch and dinner. We are always so "satisfied", as they say, and I know I’ll need to do a lot of exercise when we get back.
They are a lot of fun and keep us very entertained. The youngest two, Nanayaw at 9 and Afia at 12, are so witty and intelligent. Nana kept us up late one night drilling us on our Twi, trying to teach us the different between Toum Toum (up inflection), which is ‘black’, and Toum Toum (down inflection) which is ‘mosquito’. We still have a lot of work to do. Mame is our age, and she teaches us how to cook anything and everything. We’ve had so many great conversations with her and we’ll miss her a lot when we leave. Last night, the whole family sat down to eat Aponchi Cra-cra (goat stew) and watch the football match, Ghana vs Lybia. Everyone was all decked out in Ghana gear, including Linds and me, who now have our own Ghana flag scarves. It was equally as fun to watch the game as it was to watch the family react to Ghana scoring three times! We won, of course, so everyone was quite happy.

Spending time with the owner of the centre, Mr Paintsil, has been quite inspiring. He has lived in Adoteiman for ten years now and is very passionate about helping the community. He runs a bakery and has just opened this communication centre (last week!). He says he doesn’t really want to make a profit, but only sustain the centre so that the community has better access to communication services. Right now, people have to take a bus into town to send a letter, photocopy a document or make a telephone call. As the centre continues to grow, he hopes people will save time and money because they won’t have to travel as far to access these services. He has a lot of ideas about how to support community members and works very had to do so.

All in all, our stay has not been as sugar coated as we sometimes describe. It has been filled with many ups and downs. People are very welcoming and friendly here, and we certainly feel part of the family. But speaking to community members about the advantages and difficulties about living in a more rural community, and also about dealing with a Ghana that is changing and developing very quickly is tough. Some people ask us to bring them to Canada with us, and believe that Canada is the perfect country. We are learning a lot here and I will not forget the people we’ve met.

We will be leaving here on Thursday and moving to another town. We’ll miss the beautiful view here, though; as I look out the window I can see the gorgeous "mountains", which are a little taller than the Niagara escarpment and covered in rainforest. I can't describe how lovely is it! You look out and can see palm trees and red dirt roads, mango trees everywhere and trees with red or yellow flowers, lizards everywhere, beautiful bright red birds, etc. I wish you the best for the month of June and hope things are well at home!

Love Amy

PS Unfortunately we can't post pictures while we are on the road, so maybe they'll be a few more from Linds and me in June!

After a somewhat lengthy hiatus, I'm back for another post. The girls have kept things well up to date with how things are going, the huge range of sights and sounds, the great people we've met, and the many things we've been learning. One thing, however, that we haven't done too much of is take very many photographs. As a friend in Kingston described to us before leaving, it is difficult to photograph places and people before you can truly appreciate their meaning. Hence, our first few weeks were filled with very few photographs as we learned the landscape of Accra. However, we've taken a few up to this point, and I'd love to share them with you.

This is a shot from our trip to the beach last weekend with Eddie and Kofi Daniel. What I find so striking about it is the beauty of the ocean and the waves paired with the startling amount of garbage and trash. As those of you who know me as the environmentalist, this has been something I've thought a lot about since being here. There is a lot of litter on the streets, and minimal effort in reducing material. Additionally, it does not appear there is any municipal recycling system in Accra. It has made me think about how challenging it must b

e for the government to place priorities on expensive waste management strategies, when there is still a struggle in economic growth and improving people's quality of life.

I hope these two photos can give you a sense of where Lindsay and I were at in Kade the week before last. The first shot is of a phenomenal sunset just outside of the guesthouse where we were staying. The geography is very lush and green. It reminds me a lot of my time on the west coast, with some interesting new tropical sub Saharan plants. The second is of the guest house where we stayed in Kade.

This weekend was very nice in Accra. Lindsay and I made it to the heart of Makola Market where we both picked up another piece of clothing to wear to the office. It is phenomenal how professional everyone dresses, and how consistently well pressed and clean their clothing always is. We're trying to get in the habit of ironing clothes more often, but we still appear as the somewhat dirty and run down Obrunis.

I think Lindsay's given a pretty good update below, so I don't want to repeat too much. The tro-tros have been great, and I'm really glad we have started to take them. I can't emphasize enough just how friendly everybody is, and how welcome we are made to feel. We will definitely update before heading out of Accra. (Potentially later this week).

Thanks for all the updates, and be sure to keep them coming. I hope everyone had a great time at convocation--wish I could have been there! Enjoy the rest of your travels, work, and relaxation, and talk soon!

"heeeeey PigFarmPigFarmPigFarm!!"

It’s another Sunday evening at Busy Internet – time for another post!

Josh and I had a relatively relaxed weekend here in Accra. It’s our third weekend here; our first without our QPID pals. We had a packed day yesterday, hitting up the supermarket for some staples (and I bought myself a treat – cheese!), the market for some fresh fruit, and the National Museum. We tried a new Chop Bar for a dinner of Watchi (sp?), which is rice and beans with egg or meat - one of my favourites. We chilled at an outdoor patio called Strawberry on our way home through Adabraka, the region in which our guest house is located. Today has been characterized by sleeping, reading, and laundry.

We spent this week entirely at the KITE office. We have been helping to consolidate the data from our recent survey-making in a village, as well as preparing the report which will follow. I have been really happy to have the chance to spend some more time in the office, in order to get to know some of the staff a little better. They’re incredible! At this point, plans are still up in the air, but we will most likely be heading back out “into the field” by Tuesday or Wednesday, to conduct the same survey in a neighbouring village. One thing I’m getting used to is not bothering to try to plan more than a day ahead – I kind of like it.

Successes of the past week include

1. Kicking my stomach bug with the help of the “Cipro-man”

2. Successfully riding the tro-tros to and from work for the first time – despite the scary stories, it was fairly painless. We only got lost once – we wandered around the Achimota station for a good 15 minutes, everyone we talked to pointing us in a different direction, and getting significantly covered in red mud. In the end, we found the right tro-tro, and were only 15 minutes late for work. We have decided the “Pig Farm” route is the best one. The ride has quickly become my favourite part of the day – the best part is the “mate” constantly yelling where we’re going out the window to potential passengers.

3. GOING FOR OUR FIRST RUN! For anyone who knows me even a little, you’ll know how happy it must have made me. We found a route we could trust which takes us down to the beach, along the Oceanside, and back up to the YMCA. Beautiful!

Since they may not have access to internet, I’ll fire a quick update on Lindsey and Amy, for those of you wondering about them. They’ve made it safely to their first project location. They are staying with a friend/family of the owner of the rural business centre. We hear that the family has been wonderful, and that they have been learning to cook all kinds of Ghanaian dishes. During the day, they are training the owner of the Rural Business Centre, and his employee, with some computer skills. Like us, their plans for moving to their next project location are uncertain, but will likely be at some point this week.

I’m looking forward to digging in deeper to our project in the following week, and perhaps another trip north. There’s so much to learn and think about. As always, I send all my love and best wishes home. Thanks to those who have been keeping up with the blog and sending emails – it means tons!