The beauty of Ghana

Written by Gabriella Barnett- GapBreak Ghana 2009

I can't believe we're in week 4 of our 3 month placement! That's almost a third of our placement done! It all suddenly seems so short, but we've experienced so SO much. It was strange seeing so many Africans around for the first couple weeks (I think white ppl only make up 5% of the pop? -very very little), but now it's a total norm -it's very exciting to see other 'obruni' ('white' people).

Last Friday, we had our last day at Nyamkye (na.meh.chi) Orphanage, although we were only able to see the kids for a short while as Madam Charity took us all to one of the orphan worker's villages who died last week. We thought we were going to pop over to the funeral for an hour or so, so we were all caught in total confusion when they made us girls move buckets of dirt from one place to another about 5m away, and Max and Harry dig up dirt. After about half an hour, we understood that we were evening the ground out, and the boys were helping build a marquee, which was all for preparing for the funeral that was to happen on Saturday. Afterwards, we sat with the elders of the village who thanked us and were really grateful and nice.

We arrived in Cape Coast Friday, late afternoon. It was a 2 hr tro-tro ride (the furthest trip so far). We stayed in the Oasis Beach Resort, set on the beach where the waves wash very close) and spent the night around a couple tables just chatting. The next day, I went out to buy something small very quickly, but took a little detour along the ocean front shops just to have a quick look to see if there was anything nice to buy. I played drums with a couple guys, then guitar with one other guy in the stall next door, and then bought a bag, 2 bracelets, a necklace, and a med-sized drum from Tas who taught me how to play later that day.

The Cape Coast Castle was an incredible experience. We felt so close to the African slave history -something you could never experience through reading books or looking at pictures. The tour guide made it very interesting and was very informative.

We got to have banana pancakes for breakfast, which was so exciting..

On Saturday night, we went to Charlotte's friend's b'day party that was at least 20 mins. away. We met some other volunteers but left early as it was bucketing down with rain. Poor Phoebe got locked in our tiny, wet bathroom for about 1/2hr! Cate managed to grab the security guard who hacked his way to the lock that he then took out. Brighid unfortunately got mugged while with Max and Sophie. It was a wake-up call for all of us and we'll definitely be more careful from now on. We cut the trip a bit short, then, and left on Sunday after midday. We gathered at the pool in Agona Swedru (a 5 min walk from Brigh., Clauds, and my home) before finally splitting off to go home. Our trip may have been cut short, but I felt like we'd spent 2 days in one that Saturday. We'll go back anyways because we want to do the canopy walk at Kakum National Park.

We're all so used to things in Ghana now, that when we're away on our weekend trips, we feel homesick! The thought of going back home scares me already! Brighid, Claudia, and I have our little routines at home that we love so much. For our meals that we eat at home around our little dinner table (we always sit in the same spots and don't intend on changing!), we spend at least an hour eating, talking, and digesting. Dinner is ready at 4pm and that's when we like to eat it.

As of last week, we've started waking up at 6am to sweep the back landing before doing anything else -we were a bit naughty this morning and slept in because we were so exhausted!

Almost everyone is friendly. You will always hear people shouting 'obruni!!!' when you walk around. Everyone wants to be your friend and have your phone number or e-mail. Your very likely to learn so much and have deep conversations with Ghanaian guys in cafes or shops or in a taxi. You can ask them anything about Ghana and you can learn so much about their culture that way (I learnt a bit about their tribes in Cape Coast).

There are noticeably more men than women around the main parts of town because of their very different lifestyles. We needed time to adjust to this at first -Emma, Biggie, and Amma stay at home almost all day,mostly cooking and cleaning.