and I am exhausted

Friday I went to Buduburah, a Liberian refugee camp, for their flag day celebration. It isn't that far but with traffic takes about 2 hours. At first I thought that this is like LA, just more honking. But really, you could never go grocery shopping on the 405 or buy ridiculous things or look out the window and see someone with a massive case of elephantitis. The camp wasn't what I was expecting. I honestly wouldn't have known I was in one except for the police checkpoint, but those are everywhere here anyway, especially once it is dark out. There were so many kids too. We waited a while for the "parade" to come by. At first I thought, I always have to play with all these kids that are all over me all the time, but I realized that it is ok to just stand there. You know those cliche pictures of white people with African kids all around them and red dirt in the background. They are unavoidable. You can't help it.
Well the parade turned out to be the top students in each class in different parade uniforms marching in place when it was their turn to go into the circle. The interesting part was the neighborhood watch people in blue jumpsuits who would run around the inside of the circle of spectators (kids) and whip their legs with switches if they were getting too close. I was a little freaked out because I am pretty sure they would have whipped me, but they were laughing and the kids were laughing and it all seemed to be some type of surreal game of chicken. I have noticed that the children here are just generally more hardcore. I was walking with a four year old girl the weekend before at the Homowo festival and she stepped on a wooden plank with a nail sticking out of it. The nail went through her flip flop and into her heel, but she didn't even say anything. She just pulled it out of her foot and kept walking.
The best part of the day was the performance in the community center. All the drummers and dancers were probably ages 4-18. It was the most amazing, passionate, fast, loud dancing I have ever seen. I think I just stared with my mouth open for 2 hours. I really can't describe it, but it definitely put ballet class when I was little into perspective. A few of the performances were about health education which was really interesting because I studied forms of art activism at UCLA and it was exactly what we were talking about...but there I was in a refugee camp actually seeing traditional Liberian dance used to educate about AIDS. so amazing : ) Halie and I were talking about how being here has really made us think about how our bodies have held us back from true expression and that here art and expression are intertwined so closely with dance and music which is such a part of everyday life and we have already noticed that we feel more connected, body and soul here.

The weekends traveling are so different from the days at school. I have never felt freer in my entire life...just to pack everything in a tiny backpack and get on a tro tro and all of a sudden be winding up the hills away from Accra into the dense green jungle and fresh air. Last weekend four of us went about 3 hours north to Boti Falls. It was actually two massive waterfalls that were so powerful you could feel the wind and spray from the standing far away at the edge of the pool. We went swimming there after a crazy hike, mostly vertical, where we passed a cave, a three headed palm tree, a phone unit vendor and his booth in the middle of the forest (well it was on a hill so I think maybe that is where villagers can get reception?), and this awesome rock on top of a rock. We climbed a shady bamboo ladder for 10 cents up to the top for an amazing view of jungle and hills. The waterfalls were so amazing when we got to them. There was a rainbow that went form one side to the other and it was safe to swim in. WE stayed the night there and even went for a swim in the morning.
The next day we went to Aburi to rent bikes. Some friends went the weekend before and recommended it as a crazy adventure. It definitely turned out to be hardcore mountain biking through the jungle. We opted to go without a guide but made it ok with the help of...kids again... through peoples yards and farms and more jungle. It was so much fun. Once I tried to ride my bike over a log bridge but it got suck and I fell off into the water. All of a sudden while all of us were cracking up this women with yams on her head and a baby on her back pulls me out of the water, saying "sorry!" "sorry!" and because the mud was so deep I lost my shoe but she wouldn't let me retrieve it. Instead she got a bucket and my shoe and washed off my shoes, leg and hands for me.
It was really easy getting back to campus. Every time I come back it really feels like a comfortable home with running water and a bed that won't fall apart and I am so happy to be back but so happy to go on another trip too.

This week I have actually had a lot of class. Some things still need to be worked out, like some professors have two classes at the same time or one classroom has 3 classes scheduled to be in it at the same time, but its getting there... I had an African traditional ethics class today that was pretty good. The professor engaged discussion which got really interesting when a few American students raised issues about being "Africans living in America" and just really interesting thoughts were happening. I am taking drumming and dancing too which is so much fun.
Yesterday, today and tomorrow I have/will have mandatory intramural sports training at 4:30 AM. Yes, I got up at 4 yesterday...and today. Yesterday really felt like 2 days. I got in bed and was about to pass out thinking it was 11 but it was only 7:45. o man. Anyway I'm thinking about soccer and cross country. I'm happy that I am finally meeting some people because I was starting to feel so isolated as an international student.
There are a lot of people waiting for the Internet as usual so I have to go. We are leaving for the Cape Coast festival tomorrow morning.

Still no class

I wasn't really expecting to have class this week so I have been experimenting with cooking and napping in between waiting to use the internet. The electric tea kettle shocked me a few times and everyones hot plates have been melting into the wall so I have been sticking to sandwiches.
Today I went to the central market for some cloth. Everyone is getting these amazing dresses made, but I can never decide on which fabric I want. There are a bizillion choices. Interacting with the market women can also be pretty interesting. I am definitely used to being called Obruni...but it is usually followed by a question in Twi and then a lot of laughing. Oh well.
It is really interesting figuring out what you are supposed to do as a girl here. After about 6 or 7 I never see any girls my age aound. They stay in their rooms and always cook their own dinner. Last night I watched part of the England Germany U17 Soccer Cup in the dinging hall and the entire place was packed. People would watch football through a keyhole if that was the only way. Anyway there was not one girl, except for us Americans. Same in the Bush Canteen, the tiny market compound at the base of campus that serves food. Not one girl.
I am hoping this weekend to go to a Liberian Refugee Camp for a festival, and then mountain biking and hiking to a waterfall. Besides that, this week has been just a lot of waiting around.

Homowo! some more libations...

Francis, our drumming teacher, mentioned a music festival somewhere on the outskirts of Accra, so Saturday I ended up getting off a tro tro right in the middle of the annual Homowo festival in Abeka. We ended up marching, walking, and dancing for a few hours to La Paz and back, through the streets, peoples yards, wherever...There were a ton of kids, musicians and the Prince of the Ga people. He took us to see the chief and we poured some more libations. It was strange to have no idea what is going on while marching around trying to avoid the giant open trenches of greyish greenish sweage and then all of a sudden villagers are feeding you palm nut soup with a pound of cassava flour. We spent the evening with the Prince. He wasn't that impressive but very hospitable. It was interesting to hear his plans when he becomes chief. Basically it is to build a new palace. The next day he invited us to come back for lunch. I think within a week Halie could be one of his wives, maybe even the favortie one.
Today is my first day of class. Really that doesn't mean anything here, as I have no idea when the classes I signed up for are scheduled or what rooms they are in. Thats just sort of how things go here so it can be totally stress free if you want it to be.
Another exciting thing is that mom told me someone from the State Dept. called. I don't know much about it yet but I am soooooooo excited. I almost hugged everyone in the internet cafe when I found out. I was really preparing myself to spend a year here and was excited to go to this crazy remote music festival in Mali in January, but now I have this to figure out. Yay!

Wassa Domama Village and the best weekend of my life

Last weekend, well starting on Thursday, all 60 of us left Legon for Cape Coast. We went to a slave castle where some of the slaves were held before the middle passage. I was expecting it to feel a bit like the concentration camp I visited, but it was a completely different feeling to be in this amazing white castle on the ocean where it was so beautiful, yet also at the same time be in a place that was tainted with unimaginable cruelty. After lunch we were supposed to go to another slave castle in Elmina but I joined a group that left early to travel for the weekend.
We started out walking down the road towards a tro tro station and I finally felt free from the massive spectacle we were of 60 Americans. People here are so helpful we saved a lot of walking time and ended up at the Hans Cottage Botel, a very nice German owned hotel on a pretty large pond of crocodiles. It was so cool to see them gliding through the water. The next day we went to Kakum National Park for the only canopy walk in Africa. It was a series of 7 rope bridges through the canopies, I think 140m high. The view was amazing, and the forest just went on forever. It is this misty blue green color where the canopy meets the sky. There were lots of bird sounds and tiny butterflies but besides that everything comes out at night. After a guided walking tour where we learned a lot about traditional medicine from certain plants we found a driver that would take us to Wassa Domama Village. It was the closest place we could stay to the Domama Rock Shrine we were trying to get too.
On the way to the village we would pass little hamlets of people working and cooking. I saw a woman with a tree on her head and a baby on her back. The village was very welcoming. It is about 1,000 people with no electricity or running water. Almost everything that was there came from the area, so the huts were all natural mud and bamboo. I felt like we were in a historical recreation of some anthropological ethnographic study. It was amazing. The whole weekend we had Kofi as our guide. He took us through people's farms and cocoa groves to see how the beans are harvested for cocoa powder. The fruit is actually very sweet. You break open the pods once they turn yellow and there are a ton of squishy tropical starburst tasting beans inside that you can suck the fruit off. They are so good I can't stop thinking about them! The whole time kids would follow us and want to be carried or sung too. I will never forget this one girl in a blue dress, probably about 6 years old who was on my friends back smiling and holding on so tight with her eyes closed, as if she was trying to hold on to the moment forever, and at the same time I think all of us were doing the same thing. We spent the rest of the day playing with the kids in the village who would move us around like puppets and make us dance for them, and then they would dance for us. That night we were invited to meet the chief of the village. It is customary to bring a bottle of schnapps, so when we went we could drink and pour libations to the ancestors. The chief was very welcoming and eager to hear our input about his eco-tourist village and what could make it better. He had had peace corps volunteers in the village before who had helped to create a eco-tourist "attraction." It was so cool to see the impact the volunteers had, and find their projects as successful and self sustaining. I have seen so much cynicism around those ideas and it is nice to see and be part of the positive effects in real life. Anyway, I couldn't believe I was there on the chief's porch, meeting the village elders, pouring libations and sharing blessings, and talking about the future of this village that had welcomed us in, as if they truly didn't know what tourism was. The chief wanted to know our mission and how he could help us. When we told him we were there to find the rock shrine and just experience the culture he invited us to stay another night for free so we could meet more of the elders and have a small festival with food and dancing. All 8 of us just looked at each other and knew that we had no way of wrapping our minds around this place and each minute amazing things were happening that we had never seen before so we just kept smiling and of course said yes.
The next morning we left early for the shrine. All we knew was that it was a giant rock in the jungle. We drove for a while and then walked a kilometer or so through this amazing jungle that was so dense and varying in so many plant species, all a brilliant green. None of the plants were poisonous and the ground was wet and soft. The vines made everything look that more prehistoric looking. It was beautiful how they twisted around everything in huge swooping spirals all over the place. Every now and then we would walk through a farmers field of cocoa or plantains, sugar, mangoes... Approaching the rock was like finding a treasure. All we had seen was plants and trees that went on forever and then all of a sudden, there was 2 huge 50 foot tall smooth dark gray and mossy green rocks leaning up against each other, with a third on top to make a cave through the middle. There were lots of schnapps bottles and offerings inside and the rock is believed to have medicinal benefits. Twisting roots and vines came down from the top of the rock and we used them to climb straight up the rock face. We climbed two more levels and then from the top you could see the canopy once again. My shoes were slippery so I climbed it barefoot. The earth was so soft and on the way down I grabbed a vine and swung off like Tarzan. Halie and I agreed that it is the best mode of transportation.
Once we got back to the village it poured. I stood out in the rain, eating oranges, trying to feel every drop because it was an amazing rainstorm in the rainforest and because it was the only shower I was going to get in a few days. That night the elders from farther way couldn't make it because of the rain, but the chief mother was there. It was amazing to see how revered she was and how the society was matrilineal. This time the elders chose to appoint us positions in the tribe. Halie was made the Queen of the Footsoldiers and I was made the Linguist Chairwoman to the Queen Mother. The Queen Mother also gave her bracelet that has her mark on it to another one of us, who she appointed Queen Mother as well. It was amazing to be sitting there with the light of an oil lamp and fireflies. I realized some village children had fit their faces between the slats of the porch walls and were watching the ceremony too. Because we had brought more schnapps, more libations were poured. This time Halie was asked to say them. It is really hard for me to explain what happened because I think the whole time we were pinching ourselves, but it was definitely real. The chief and elders invited us back for a ceremony where we would be presented to the village with our village positions and they want to post our names and pictures in the guest lodge. That night lying on the floor (every bed I slept in that weekend broke...) in complete darkness where we couldn't even see our hands a centimeter from our faces I heard the most hysterical crying and screaming. The mourning went on through the night and before the sun came up I heard drums. We found out later that a mothers 3 month old had died after being sick and not responding well to treatment.
The next morning we set off for home. We were about 4 0r 5 hours from the university and we were really lucky and avoided the broken bus we were supposed to be on and and even switched to our orientation university bus that had been driving behind us later . Some more people from the program had luckily found their way onto that bus too. We were almost back and starting to hear about everyone elses crazy adventures from the weekend...

Kumasi

Hi everyone, I have been really really busy since we got here and everything has been wonderful! Last weekend we went to Kumasi. There are about 60 of us on the EAP Program and 4 are going to the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi. It is supposed to be a 4 hour bus ride but it took us about 6. There was a lot of drumming and dancing and singing on the bus and the greenery was amazing. It is a lot more jungle like inland. The campus is newer and very beautiful. Legon, my campus has a more colonial, plantation feel. There is an amazing industrial arts and crafts program in Kumasi and we got to see some student work. Driving in Kumasi is crazy. It is a huge city and has the biggest market in West Africa. Everyone uses their horn here all the time so it is kind of funny when there is gridlock and people are yelling and honking and physically moving tro tros out of the way by getting out of their cars and pushing them. Our bus driver is pretty amazing at negotiating the streets. To road to the Kumasi University can only be accessed by going the wrong way down a one way street...but there is always so much traffic it isn't really that dangerous. For dinner I had the best fried chicken and rice I have ever had, and I have had fried chicken and rice everyday so it was really really good.

Saturday is funeral day in Ghana, so you see the majority of people wearing black. Funerals are huge and public to celebrate the dead. Luckily we got to attend one of the biggest ones in Kumasi that day. There were two chiefs there, a village chief and the chief of the whole region. Although the chief invited us to come, it felt strange for so many of us to crash this funeral. Tents were set up to make a rectangle of spectators. All the elders sat in the front row and we went around and shook all of their hands. It was reall facinating to shake the chiefs hand. He was surrounding by elders and teenage boys were holding huge umbrullas over their heads and some where kneeled in front with golden staffs. In the middle there was the memorial of the woman who died and everyone was dancing to the drums and chanting. Then there were fetish priests who were women painted with red. Most of the people were very welcoming and wanted to know why we weren't dancing and taking pictures...so you can see how different is from our funerals. That was definitely one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.

The next day we went Lake Bosumtwi. It was a crater surrounded by mountains in the jungle and it was so beautiful. It is the largest natural lake in Ghana and an old man from the village told us a story of the lake. I could have stayed there forever. Then we went to the craft villages to see a lot of Kente cloth weaving and cloth dying. A small blanket takes at least a couple days to make. There were a lot of amazing sculptures too. I didn't buy anything because I really want to go back there when we aren't a spectacle of 60 Americans. Later that night another chief came to visit us. You can't speak directly with him so one of the student leaders acted as a translator. It was very interesting to hear about his daily life (he has chiefs specifically assigned to keeping his sandals and another one, his underwear). When somebody asked why people have so many children when they can't feed them all (we saw a lot of poverty in the villages, and even kids who were told to sell their siblings to us for 2,000 GC about a little over 2,000 USD) the chief sort of deflected the question and said that he has many wives and that a lot of children come here from Chad. It was really interesting to see how traditional practices mesh with how modern Ghana is, and how the chiefdoms are almost completely sovereign from the state government. The next day we were lucky to tour the Asante King's palace and see him presiding over a tribal court, where a dispute over who was to be the chief of a region was settled.