Part II of my Ghana Trip in a nutshell
“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.” – Anthony Bourdain
Reflecting on my Ghana Trip has been fun. I found myself smiling as I scrolled through the hundreds of pictures that I've taken, trying to make a decision on which pictures would make the cut on my blog. Some of the details of my trip that were forgotten have now been remembered and looking at all the beautiful beaches, people, and food made me realize that I miss Ghana more than ever. Life has been super busy for me lately; between wrapping up graduate school, adjusting to my classes and internship, and updating my resume so that I can start job searching I really don't have much time to rest or relax. I appreciated my time in Ghana because it was the only point where I was truly able to relax and take in the sites around me. I couldn't rush something that's beyond my control, right?
My Greatest Hits list continues with some more highlighted experiences from Ghana (again, in no particular order):
Winneba, Ghana
Winneba is where we spent most of our time while in Ghana; it was where the students had their internship sites and the place we called home. We stayed in this family owned compound, Manuel's Guest House which had a kitchen and dining area for the group I traveled with to eat breakfast and dinner together, a bar, and a garden area to chill out. I had my own room, bathroom and front porch which was dope because I love having my own space. My introversion definitely showed during this trip; being with 19 people for 6 weeks in another country will cause you to appreciate any amount of alone time that you may get.
Winneba was a smaller rural city with many villages and local shops. Most of our food came from the compound we stayed at, but because the students had varying schedules for their internships, lunch was totally up to us. So basically, lunch was exploration time. Many of the food options were local street shops that you could just walk to. There were a few restaurants, but eating at a restaurant was a bit of a luxury, so the prices were way higher than that of local shops.
You could go up the street and grab some waakye, which is a dish consisting of rice, noodles and chicken in a tomato sauce, or just plain jollof rice which is a spicy rice with chicken or fish on the side. I was surprised to see that they had fries, which they call chips. A lot of the food options also consisted of fish (because Winneba is a fishing community) so a favorite while there was banku and talapia. Banku is a fermented dough-like substance which is mainly eaten with fish, similar to how we eat dinner rolls in America. Talapia comes whole, head and all. This definitely made for a unique experience. I ate everything but the head of the talapia, I couldn't bring myself to eat fish eyes.
The Ghanaian meal of choice is fufu in either goat soup, peanut soup or vegetable soup. Fufu is also a dough-like substance, but is placed in the soup with chicken (or the meat of your choice) and eaten with your hands. There's a whole process to eating fufu: you use a bowl of warm water and soap to wash your hands before and after eating (this is done at the table, not in the bathroom), and simply putting your hand in a big bowl of hot soup to eat it. The fufu is used to scoop up the soup so you would break off pieces, scoop up some soup and eat it. Here's the trick though: fufu is not to be chewed, only swallowed. The consistency of fufu doesn't break down when being chewed, which means you're supposed to swallow without chewing, unless you want to chew forever. Yeah it's different, different. And they give you a lot of it. Like, a whole lot and Ghanaians will devour large amounts of fufu in short amounts of time. I was struggling to keep up, but the experience was worth the while.
The market, which is where you would do all of your main shopping is one of the highlights of Winneba. You can get any and everything from the market like fabric, food, toiletries, electronics, minutes for your phone, whatever you need. Though you could go to the market any day of the week, there were designated Market Days: two days out of the week where literally everyone from town was at the market, either buying items they needed, or selling items. Most of the street shops would shut down on the Market Days so you would have to go to the market to get what you need. The Market was a great experience to be part of because you were in the middle of authentic Ghanaian culture - watching people interact, seeing beautiful prints and fabrics, watching women carry baskets on their head with babies on their backs, seeing fresh vegetables and fish, hearing different languages, and hearing great music.
Manuel's Guest House was a 5 minute walk to the beach, so of course we visited often. Unlike the beaches in the States, the beaches we visited in Ghana were much more secluded and didn't have as many people on them as I would've thought. I didn't expect this because their beaches are BEAUTIFUL. It was never crowded which was a great thing for us, but also very surprising. The wave currents were too intense to swim in so we barely got in the water, except to get our feet wet. I remember days that we would just go to the beach to hammock or stop by a local shop to get rice and beans for lunch. We almost always walked to get around in Winneba, unless our destination was too far to get there by foot, which we would have to use a taxi.
Taxis were real fun because you had to bargain prices, similar to that of the Art Market in Accra. The banter from negotiating prices to get to our destination will always be remembered. What I miss most about Manuel's besides the view was the simplicity of everything. I would sit on my porch every morning and watch the same chickens, goats and dogs come into the compound and stay until late at night. The people were so friendly and always willing to help you in any way they could.
Visiting Local Schools & Meeting Community Chiefs
By far, one of the best highlights of my trip was getting the opportunity to visit different schools in varying communities, which were right outside of Winneba. The students who came on the trip had an option to choose their internship site at either Ghana Health Services, which involved a hands-on experience in hospitals, and maternity homes or ISHEW which was a government agency that focused on issues surrounding clean water, and education and ways to resolve these issues. As a graduate intern on this trip, one of my responsibilities was to accompany students to their sites, and observe the work they're doing while at their site. One of the cool things about the students who worked at ISHEW was the collaboration with varying communities and their schools on specific projects. In order to work in these communities and schools, ISHEW would have to get permission from the chief of that community to start their project. The first few weeks of their internship consisted of meeting with chiefs, explaining their projects and getting the green light to be able to collaborate in that community.
Though I didn't attend every meeting the students had with community chiefs, I did get an opportunity to meet one. This was super dope! We were in the same room with a chief, someone of high power and respect in their community. I was super hype about this. To be able to dive so deep into the African culture that we would be in communities, not only meeting other people who live in those communities but meeting chiefs was such a humbling and intimate experience. I really loved this. Like, how many people can say they've met a chief in their life? I was honored to have been in this space. The chief (picture above) gave ISHEW permission to work in his community and allowed us to visit the local school so that we could properly introduce ourselves to the school and explain the work that would be done in their community.
We were welcomed with a wonderful greeting song that the students sang to us. The students were very excited and very welcoming. I loved the warm encounter. It was great seeing children that were full of life and happy. We were also able to meet the teachers and the principal, and introduce ourselves to the students. While there, ISHEW explained to them the projects that they planned to implement with the help of our students.
So I'm sure you're wondering about the picture above with all of the smiling children. It's actually a pretty cool story to tell. As we were leaving the school to head to the next destination, and our ISHEW representative, Joshua was wrapping up with the teachers and principal, the students were released to play recess outside of the school. When they saw us, they all came rushing over to us, but instead of talking to us, they just....stared. Here we are, surrounded by about 100 Ghanaian school children who were too hesitant to get close enough to talk to us. They knew that we were different and treated us as such; they were happy to see us but also scared to interact with us. This may have been the first time that they've interacted with White people or people from America and it showed. They were amazed, like we were truly one of a kind specimens. They were talking and interacting among themselves but they wouldn't come and talk to us or walk up to us. They just...stared. I suddenly felt uncomfortable with them staring, because I know that I am in no way different than they are. Many people in Ghana felt that Americans were better, richer, and in some instances smarter than they. We were often treated and looked at differently. But we were in their homeland, and we were not in any shape or form better than they are and I wanted them to realize this. As we continued to have this staring contest with the students, I decided to seize the moment and break the ice. I wanted more than a surface level interaction and I wanted them to see that Americans are no different than Ghanaians. I walked up to them and asked if they were wanted to take some pictures with me. After I got a resounding "yes" from all of them we took us some hype selfies:
The most beautiful pictures that I've taken while in Africa. The children were so excited and yelling, so happy and full of life. I enjoyed every second of this encounter.
The Bead Market
The Beads Market was a unique and colorful place to visit, with similarities to that of the Market in Winneba and the Art Market in Accra, except of course, beads EVERYWHERE. There were all sorts of beautiful beaded jewelry ranging from earrings to necklaces, bracelets, anklets that were made with large, medium or small beads. Sooo many choices! It was fun to just walk through these shops and look at the colorful options, talk to the people who made the jewelry and to negotiate prices of my beaded choices. We visited this place during our stay at Adi Lake. I bought so many beads that I don't know what to do with them.
When I found out I was going to Ghana, I was scared, shocked and worried. I didn't know if I would adjust well to a new culture (even though that culture is in some ways similar to mine). I didn't think I would do well away from home in another country for 6 weeks, especially with people I barely knew. I surprised myself when I climbed that mountain, hiked through forests, walked to local shops, bargained for art and beads, ate different yet
delicious food and interacted with wonderful people despite the very small language barrier. I surprised myself when I developed relationships not only with the students who traveled with us, but the people from Ghana. I don't give myself enough credit, but I did that. And I'm super proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone and trying something new.
My trip to Ghana was dope, and I am super blessed and grateful for having the opportunity to partake in such a unique journey. I had some ups and downs while on this trip, but I wouldn't trade this experience for anything in the world. Although this trip was part of my graduate coursework, it has exposed me to so much in the world and opened so many doors towards seeing other parts of the world that I never would've imagined seeing. I was already bitten by the travel bug, but this trip put me on the map. I'm ready to continue traveling internationally and learning about different cultures. As for Africa, I will definitely return; the people that I've met along the way were so great that I have to go back to visit. It's kind of sad that my trip had to end but it's exciting to know that my journey hasn't. #LetHerB
