Since we last posted we have had a few more adventures! Julie and I got up at 3:45am and took a taxi to the metro station (nothing like you have ever seen!) to purchase tickets for Mole Natl Park that day. You can't buy them a day ahead of time and the station was very very crowded. They had told Julie that they started selling at 4am. However you have to understand that they were talking Ghanian time. The lady showed up at 6am. Julie was second in line for 2 hours. We purchased our paper tickets for the 1:30 bus and went back to the hotel We did get some bofrut( donut like food that a woman was cooking on the side of the road.So it wasn't a wasted trip. In the meantime Sheryl and Julies friend Beth were at the hotel. Sheryl was getting a little nervous at how long it was taking.
We arrived at the station at 1:30since Julie said it's always late and as usual she was right. We left at 4pm and arrived at the park at 8pm. We had dinner and took quick showers since the water was going off at 10pm. Nezt morning wentona walking safari. It was a dream come true. First thing we saw was an elephant, right in front of us. Then all of a sudden there were 3! UNBELIEVABLE! We saw baboons, warthogs, crocodiles,and many kinds of antelope. Just amazing.
Next morning left at 4a.m. (standard time for busses in Ghana and arrivedat 9 a.m. to our destination filthy, sweating, exhausted. Along the way we were stopped at customs and had 20-25 boxes of DVDs & home sound systems confiscated, then we ran into an accident between 2 trucks which held us up again. Really too much to tell.
We finally arrived at our wonderful bed & breakfast. It is our garden of eden after our bout in hell> Hot water, air conditioning, comfortable bed, not to mention absolute beautiful rooms.
Had a wonderful day in Kumasi today. Will keep you posted on our future adventures.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Update on Sheryl and Gail's trip to Ghana
We arrived in Accra safe and sound. The flight was very nice and uneventful. It was a difficult city to get around in but we managed to get to our hotel walk around Osu area and immediately were bombarded by the market people following us around and trying to get us to buy things. That was a bit annoying so we returned to our hotel for a while and went out again to purchase our tickets to Tamale. At the ticket office we met a lovely woman from Tamale who told us where we should go in Accra and she also owned a hotel in Tamale which is where we are staying tonight and it is very nice.
Back to Accra we went to a museum, and art centre then walked around a bit and went to a restaurant on the beach and tried our first Ghanian food which was very good. We may have had a couple of beers while we were there.
The flight to Tamale was great but we had to leave the hotel at 4:30am to board at 5:45. That taxi ride was eventful but will take too long to tell you about.
Julie met us at 7:10 am what a great sight!! We went to her village and stayed there for 5 wonderful days. the people were very welcoming in fact for the first three days we constantly had people coming by to greet us and give us Ghanian food. I must confess we thought we would take to it better than we did especially since Julie likes so much of it. Well we didn't but we tried.We were also welcomed by the children anywhere from 1 to 20 at a time. They were lots of fun they entertained us as much as we entertained them. They are beautiful!
Staying at the village was a wonderful experience we survived no electricity or running water. Julie and her village people cetainly made up for that.
We were given gifts from the family of Julies counterpart Sadiq and from the Chief. Sadiq's family gave us a guinea fowl and the Chief gave us 4 yams and a rooster. So what do you think we did with them. We had already slaughtered the guinea fowl and had started preparing it for dinner that night so we had to tie up the rooster in the other room for the next day. It kept up a constant dialog with the guinea fowls and roosters outside. But we did prepare it and had it for dinner the next night and it was delicious!!! We didn't name him!!
It;s late and we have many stories to tell. This is an amazing experience so far. We are off to Mole natl park in the morning.
We are all safe and happy.. Sheryl and Gail
Back to Accra we went to a museum, and art centre then walked around a bit and went to a restaurant on the beach and tried our first Ghanian food which was very good. We may have had a couple of beers while we were there.
The flight to Tamale was great but we had to leave the hotel at 4:30am to board at 5:45. That taxi ride was eventful but will take too long to tell you about.
Julie met us at 7:10 am what a great sight!! We went to her village and stayed there for 5 wonderful days. the people were very welcoming in fact for the first three days we constantly had people coming by to greet us and give us Ghanian food. I must confess we thought we would take to it better than we did especially since Julie likes so much of it. Well we didn't but we tried.We were also welcomed by the children anywhere from 1 to 20 at a time. They were lots of fun they entertained us as much as we entertained them. They are beautiful!
Staying at the village was a wonderful experience we survived no electricity or running water. Julie and her village people cetainly made up for that.
We were given gifts from the family of Julies counterpart Sadiq and from the Chief. Sadiq's family gave us a guinea fowl and the Chief gave us 4 yams and a rooster. So what do you think we did with them. We had already slaughtered the guinea fowl and had started preparing it for dinner that night so we had to tie up the rooster in the other room for the next day. It kept up a constant dialog with the guinea fowls and roosters outside. But we did prepare it and had it for dinner the next night and it was delicious!!! We didn't name him!!
It;s late and we have many stories to tell. This is an amazing experience so far. We are off to Mole natl park in the morning.
We are all safe and happy.. Sheryl and Gail
Friday, January 8, 2010
Waiting for Mom and Sheryl and Fire Festival
I'm in Tamale now, waiting impatiently for tomorrow morning when my mom and sheryl get here. They arrived safely in Accra and called me from the hotel this morning. I hope they enjoyed their day in Accra and didn't get ripped off too many times for cabs and whatnot. They arrive in Tamale around 7:15 tomorrow morning and I will be at the airport waiting eagerly. Then in the afternoon we will leave for Mole National Park and see the animals. On Monday we'll make our way to my site and stay there for a while. Then we'll make our way south back to Accra, seeing Kumasi on the way. More details will come, I'm sure, but I've changed the plans too many times so far to think they won't change again.
As for my life recently, there was a great festival a couple of days after christmas, well named as the Fire Festival. The history of this festival is that a long time ago the chief's son was lost and the village all went out looking for him at night and carried torches for light. After a long time of searching, they found him up in a tree and they were so excited they had a celebration. So, now every year they have this celebration where the traditionalists sacrifice animals during the day to get "juju" from them that will protect them from any harm. At night, everyone dresses with their juju items and carries torches. They parade down the street with their torches, burning everything and everyone (not badly) on the way, and throw the torches into a tree outside the village. Somehow, the tree does not catch fire and all the grass that catches burns out without spreading to houses or anything. Then, they pick fresh branches from another tree and carry them to the cheif's house and other leaders houses. At those houses, people have made concoctions that they sprinkle/pour on the villagers while the villagers dance and people play the drums. The next day you are supposed to boil water with the leaves from the branch that got concoction on it and bath with that water so that you will be protected for the year. It was a ton of fun and dangerous at the same time.
Before the fire part of the festival, I watched some traditionalists sacrifice chickens for the juju. For the first chicken, they did a chant and cut its throat and dripped the blood onto they're juju items. For the second chicken, they did a chant, cut its throat, and let it flop around to see how it landed. Depending how it landed it may or may not give them juju. However, I think they told the chicken to get me before they killed it because when it was flopping, it kept landing on my feet and when I would hop out of the way it would turn towards me and land on my feet again. I couldn't get away from the thing. So, I had some chicken blood on my feet and leg and had a dying chicken flopping all over me. I think I must have extra juju for that.
Sorry it's a blurry picture, but its hard to get pics of people and fire at night while walking. But this is the parade of people about to throw the torches into the tree.
This is the traditionalists bleeding the chicken onto their juju items.
As for my life recently, there was a great festival a couple of days after christmas, well named as the Fire Festival. The history of this festival is that a long time ago the chief's son was lost and the village all went out looking for him at night and carried torches for light. After a long time of searching, they found him up in a tree and they were so excited they had a celebration. So, now every year they have this celebration where the traditionalists sacrifice animals during the day to get "juju" from them that will protect them from any harm. At night, everyone dresses with their juju items and carries torches. They parade down the street with their torches, burning everything and everyone (not badly) on the way, and throw the torches into a tree outside the village. Somehow, the tree does not catch fire and all the grass that catches burns out without spreading to houses or anything. Then, they pick fresh branches from another tree and carry them to the cheif's house and other leaders houses. At those houses, people have made concoctions that they sprinkle/pour on the villagers while the villagers dance and people play the drums. The next day you are supposed to boil water with the leaves from the branch that got concoction on it and bath with that water so that you will be protected for the year. It was a ton of fun and dangerous at the same time.
Before the fire part of the festival, I watched some traditionalists sacrifice chickens for the juju. For the first chicken, they did a chant and cut its throat and dripped the blood onto they're juju items. For the second chicken, they did a chant, cut its throat, and let it flop around to see how it landed. Depending how it landed it may or may not give them juju. However, I think they told the chicken to get me before they killed it because when it was flopping, it kept landing on my feet and when I would hop out of the way it would turn towards me and land on my feet again. I couldn't get away from the thing. So, I had some chicken blood on my feet and leg and had a dying chicken flopping all over me. I think I must have extra juju for that.
Sorry it's a blurry picture, but its hard to get pics of people and fire at night while walking. But this is the parade of people about to throw the torches into the tree.
This is the traditionalists bleeding the chicken onto their juju items.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Off to Ghana for a visit
Sheryl and I are leaving for Accra tomorrow at 4:35pm and should arrive 7:35am on Friday morinig their time. They are 5 hours ahead of us so the trip is about 10 hours. We are Sooooooooo excited and will try to post a couple of time if possible. We will meet up with Julie on Saturday morning in Tamale. Should be interresting, adventurous, exciting, emotional and a great experience. I understand many of the people in the village are going to prepare ghanian food for us. Once again should be interresting. I figure if Julie can eat it I certainly can because she is much more fussy than Sheryl and I. In fact we'll probably like it.
If your reading the blog please comment even to say hi Julie loves to hear from you!!
If your reading the blog please comment even to say hi Julie loves to hear from you!!
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Merry Christmas Julie
Julie was certainly in our hearts this Christmas we missed her but were also very happy that she is following her dreams!!! Sounds like she and her friends made a very special Christmas for themselves!
Julie made the angel for the tree when in grade school and Paul and I talked and laughed about it, and our memories of the great deal of teasing every year when we place it on the tree. Once again our tree is decoratedwith many memmories and Julie was certainly with us when we did it. Happy New Year to all her followers.
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Merry Christmas
Christmas here was obviously much different that at home, but my friends and I still made it a nice Christmas. I didn't feel like the holiday was really coming, being in a Muslim village and all, but on Christmas Eve, a bunch of us came to Tamale to celebrate together. There were 10 of us and we did stockings stuffed with things from packages we received from home and a grab bag gift exchange of cheap gifts. One of the volunteers here, Hannah, is also a very good cook and made a delicious lasagna dinner for all of us. We all sat around the table and had a family style dinner together. We also listened to christmas music and even watched some christmas movies. Overall, it was a pretty good Christmas. I still missed everyone at home and hope you all had a good holiday too!
On another note, I haven't been receiving a lot of letters that people have been sending me, so I am going to revert to the original address I gave people for sending letters. So, send letters to:
Julie Bordua, PCV
Peace Corps Ghana
P.O. Box 5796
Accra-North, Ghana
You can still send packages to either address though.
On another note, I haven't been receiving a lot of letters that people have been sending me, so I am going to revert to the original address I gave people for sending letters. So, send letters to:
Julie Bordua, PCV
Peace Corps Ghana
P.O. Box 5796
Accra-North, Ghana
You can still send packages to either address though.
Friday, December 11, 2009
Life Update
I’m sorry it has been a while since my last entry, but the internet has been down a lot at the Tamale office and I don’t have a lot of patience for slow internet cafés. Things have been going very well though. I did some HIV/AIDS work in the community for a couple of weeks. I taught about the biology of HIV/AIDS and how HIV is transmitted in the junior high school. I did a bunch of condom demonstrations, and we had a testing day where 98 people got tested, which is really good. I was excited that it went so well.
All of the HIV work was in preparation for the testing day and for a film showing that we also had. The girl that I replaced at this site was a videographer and made a film about Kayayo when she was here. Kayayo is a term for when young adults travel to Kumasi or Accra (the big cities) to work in the markets. They do this because there is not much work for them in the north and there is not much money in farming like their families do. In theory it is a good idea, but in practice it can be very dangerous. They live near the markets in very poor areas that have high crime rates and frequent fires that destroy dozens of their homes at a time and often kill people. They also tend to find significant others while they’re there and may come back with an unwanted pregnancy or an STD.
Alicia, the girl I replaced, came to show the film and another RPCV (returned Peace Corps volunteer) who is a photographer, and took photos of Kayayo, came to show his photos with the movie. They also brought a crew of singers/actors to put on a show for the village before the movie. Literally half of my village showed up to the movie and then we had the very successful testing day after. It was a very eventful two days, but the village loved it and I was really happy to see that people here are very willing to work with me.
Another project I am working on is the Village Bicycle Project. This is an organization that gets bikes donated from the US and Britain and fixes them up for people living in poor villages in Africa. They sell them to the villagers at about half the price of a normal bike and have an 8 hour workshop to teach bicycle maintenance. It’s great for the villagers because they can farm in areas farther away and therefore have bigger farms. It also makes life easier in general, considering our closest market is at least a 20 minute bike ride away (if riding fast). It is turning out to be a lot of work already though, and I am just starting it. However, if I successfully do this, I think my village will love me forever.
Outside of work stuff, I went to Accra for Thanksgiving, along with about 70 other volunteers. The US Ambassador invited all of us to his house for Thanksgiving dinner. It was incredibly generous of him and a delicious dinner. We had all the traditional Thanksgiving foods, along with an open bar with beer and wine (and sangria that the Ambassador kept making). He also let us swim in his pool before the dinner. He also invited some people who work at the embassy and Fulbright scholars that are working here.
The peace corps was great about getting accommodations for us when we went there, too. We were all hosted by Peace Corps or embassy workers. I ended up staying with an embassy worker who I have a connection with from home (not by coincidence, I called him on my way down). It turns out that my pediatrician’s son works at the embassy, and since my mom is a labor and delivery nurse, she is still friends with my pediatrician. So, she got his contact information for me and I called him to say I would be in Accra. He offered to let me stay with his family at their house, which is gorgeous, and they were wonderful to me the whole time. I was worried that I would be sad to be away from my family on Thanksgiving, but it was actually a great holiday.
That’s it for my update, but I have heard that people also want to know what I would like for Christmas packages. People have done really well with sending good packages so far, but here’s what I can think of off the top of my head:
Candy (chocolate especially), cookies (not homemade, they don’t travel as well), parmesan cheese, mac-n-cheese packets, drink mixes, snack foods, spices, any food items you think will travel well, photos of all of you, news magazines (not celebrity gossip), and random surprises are always good.
All of the HIV work was in preparation for the testing day and for a film showing that we also had. The girl that I replaced at this site was a videographer and made a film about Kayayo when she was here. Kayayo is a term for when young adults travel to Kumasi or Accra (the big cities) to work in the markets. They do this because there is not much work for them in the north and there is not much money in farming like their families do. In theory it is a good idea, but in practice it can be very dangerous. They live near the markets in very poor areas that have high crime rates and frequent fires that destroy dozens of their homes at a time and often kill people. They also tend to find significant others while they’re there and may come back with an unwanted pregnancy or an STD.
Alicia, the girl I replaced, came to show the film and another RPCV (returned Peace Corps volunteer) who is a photographer, and took photos of Kayayo, came to show his photos with the movie. They also brought a crew of singers/actors to put on a show for the village before the movie. Literally half of my village showed up to the movie and then we had the very successful testing day after. It was a very eventful two days, but the village loved it and I was really happy to see that people here are very willing to work with me.
Another project I am working on is the Village Bicycle Project. This is an organization that gets bikes donated from the US and Britain and fixes them up for people living in poor villages in Africa. They sell them to the villagers at about half the price of a normal bike and have an 8 hour workshop to teach bicycle maintenance. It’s great for the villagers because they can farm in areas farther away and therefore have bigger farms. It also makes life easier in general, considering our closest market is at least a 20 minute bike ride away (if riding fast). It is turning out to be a lot of work already though, and I am just starting it. However, if I successfully do this, I think my village will love me forever.
Outside of work stuff, I went to Accra for Thanksgiving, along with about 70 other volunteers. The US Ambassador invited all of us to his house for Thanksgiving dinner. It was incredibly generous of him and a delicious dinner. We had all the traditional Thanksgiving foods, along with an open bar with beer and wine (and sangria that the Ambassador kept making). He also let us swim in his pool before the dinner. He also invited some people who work at the embassy and Fulbright scholars that are working here.
The peace corps was great about getting accommodations for us when we went there, too. We were all hosted by Peace Corps or embassy workers. I ended up staying with an embassy worker who I have a connection with from home (not by coincidence, I called him on my way down). It turns out that my pediatrician’s son works at the embassy, and since my mom is a labor and delivery nurse, she is still friends with my pediatrician. So, she got his contact information for me and I called him to say I would be in Accra. He offered to let me stay with his family at their house, which is gorgeous, and they were wonderful to me the whole time. I was worried that I would be sad to be away from my family on Thanksgiving, but it was actually a great holiday.
That’s it for my update, but I have heard that people also want to know what I would like for Christmas packages. People have done really well with sending good packages so far, but here’s what I can think of off the top of my head:
Candy (chocolate especially), cookies (not homemade, they don’t travel as well), parmesan cheese, mac-n-cheese packets, drink mixes, snack foods, spices, any food items you think will travel well, photos of all of you, news magazines (not celebrity gossip), and random surprises are always good.
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