Wednesday 3 November 2010

Coconut Rugby and Ghana Travels

Time: 9.09pm
Location: Eleanor’s bed Yaabim, Agona Swedru
Blogger: Eleanor
Co-Bloggers: Jyo and or Ellie
It has been a few weeks since I last blogged and it seems like it was yesterday that we were hiking in Kakum national Park and watching monkeys and other animals at the sanctuary. Since then all of us seemed to have settled into our various schools after a few of the pairs switching to more appropriate schools. Georgina, Hanna, Sophie and Bec have all moved to their new schools and are settling in well.
The first weekend of October, our group were in two minds about where to travel so Mj, Siobhan and I went to Big Milly’s at Kokrobite beach with some volunteers from America, Sweden, England, Germany and Swizerland. The rest of the Girls visited the Volta region with a German Ghanain called Emmanuel to witness a traditional festival. Date: 30/10/2010

Siobhan, Mj, Matt (a medical volunteer from England) and I booked a room at Big Milly’s to sleep five but when we arrived we met up with some other volunteers from Swedru who had hired a house with their friends for 100 cedi a night. We ended up moving rooms and sharing the fully contained house with that group. For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant down the street which had REAL ITALIAN food made by an Italian Chef! It was so exciting to have real pasta and PARMISAN CHEESE which are almost impossible to find in Swedru! When we arrived back at Big Milly’s there was traditional drumming and dancing which had attracted all the other Obroni’s to the bar! During that night and the rest of thee weekend we got to know the other Volunteers well enough to plan subsequent weekend holidays with them. Sadly Tom the Pom from Swedru who was staying in the house with us left that Sunday. We had a nice farewell at the tro tro station and decided to travel on the next weekend with Tony (from America) and Jesper (from Sweden). Saturday was spent on the beach and Tom decided we should all play touch rugby with a coconut. His team included MJ and Siobhan and unfortunately they won (mostly because of Tom’s very serious coaching and strategy). We relaxed for the rest of the weekend, spending our money on multiple dresses and trinkets from the beach market.

This weekend just past, Mj, Siobhan, Hannah, Georgina, Matt and I all travelled to Cape Coast with another tom who we met in Swedru who comes from Tasmania. On Friday we had Pizza for lunch at Sammo’s Guest house which is on top of a building overlooking the ocean. Siobhan was very observant and spotted two whales swimming off the coast so we ate Pizza and watched whales dance all afternoon. After lunch we visited Cape Coast Castle and went on a short tour through the dungeons, the condemned cell and the Door of no return. The Castle was very confronting but it was lovely to see that there was a plaque on the wall which stated “In everlasting memory of the anguish of our ancestors. May those who died rest in peace. May those who return find their roots. May humanity never again perpetrate such injustice against humanity. We. The living. Vow to uphold this.” It was a nice way to end the tour and put a positive spin on the lessons learned by the Ghanains and Europeans involved in the Slave Trade. There was also another plaque which was unveiled by President Obama and Michelle Obama who was the first president and First lady to visit the Cape Coast castle on 11th July 2009. I found the tour very interesting. Later on we met up with Tony and Jesper and Tony’s friend Joeva who came to our hotel for drinks that night. We had a very fun and late night which made us exhausted the next day when we went to Elmina Castle.
Elmina Castle was very beautiful and the Town of Elmina was a gorgeous fishing village with hundreds of colourful boats moored in the lake just off the coast. The Castle was Built by the Portuguese for housing produce but was used later for the slave trade by the Portuguese and Dutch. After we visited the castle we spent the afternoon at the craft markets buying more Ghanaian trinkets and Jewelry. We also found a Rasta Farian to dreadlock Mj’s hair and we spent all afternoon in the back of his shop watching the process which involved using egg yolks to bind the hair. She would have to wait a week before washing her hair by which time it would have begun to knot and form Dread Locks. Unfortunately he did not do such a good job and the next day she took them out before they began to knot. Dinner was delicious Pizza at Sammo’s Guest house down the Road from Oasis where we were staying. We went with the entire group and had to phone order in the morning so that they had all of the ingredients for the 7 Pizzas that we ordered.

While we were at cape coast the rest of the crew were near Takoradi at a resort called Green Turtle which is recommended by many volunteers as it is very secluded and the hotel is lovely. The girls highly recommended that we go there at some point and they said they all had a wonderful time.

It was back home on Sunday and back to school the next day. We are finding teaching rewarding but extremely difficult at times with limited facilities and poor discipline. The kids know we will not cain them so they behave badly. Thankfully they respond well to positive affirmations and stickers and stamps are a good substitute to the corporal punishment that the Ghanaian teachers use.

Our next few weekends have also been spent at beach resorts. We went back to Big Milly’s on the 15th with Tony, Jesper, Joeva and Joeva’s friend Arouna from Burkhina Faso. The girls decided to stay in Accra that weekend and come to Big Milly’s on Saturday night so it was lovely to catch up with them on the weekend. Friday night was incredible. We had drinks with Arouna and his friend who could only speak French. As I studied French at school it was lovely to practice me rusty language skills with him. Most of the night I was adamant that “je ne le parle pas bien” (I don’t speak it well) but he thought I did ok. Later on, we walked down the beach where some locals were playing drums. We played with them until the early hours in the morning and it was amazing to see the drumming skills that the locals had learned at a young age. Kate, Iszy, Hannah, Bec and Georgina turned up on Saturday night. Sophie, Hayley and Ellie stayed home that weekend as they needed rest after recovering from malaria. I’ve spoken to them since and they said it was a quick illness and they are fine now. The girls that came were able to enjoy the Rasta farian band playing inside the hotel. They tried to go to bed early as they had been up partying in Accra the night before but their accommodation was an open loft style room right next to where the band was playing. We ran into Jyo and Diane the next day at the beach markets. Diane was in a little shop playing drums and Jyo was wondering around taking lots of pictures of the beautiful beach.

This past weekend, while the other girls spent their weekend exploring the streets of Accra. Siobhan, Mj, Jesper and I travelled 10 hours to stay in a small seaside Village called Beyin. We were greeted by the owner of our accommodation, Steven, who showed us to our beautiful secluded hut right on the sand. We then walked through the candle lit streets of Beyin to find some local food for dinner. We ended up eating a very spicy bean stew with rice which was very tasty but left our mouths yearning for water! Our accommodation was basic but sat right upon a stunningly untouched beach next to the Newest Slave fort along Ghana’s coast, fort Apolloina. The next morning we took an hour long canoe ride to an ancient village on stilts which was created by immigrants from Mali during tribal wars in Ghana. It was interesting to see the village but the Canoe was definitely the highlight especially when on the way back it… sank. Mj, Siobhan and I were all carrying phones, expensive cameras, camera lenses and so forth so once we started sinking we frantically looked for trees to hang our belongings on. Nothing got damaged and Siobhan could not stop laughing! We swam around for a while until we managed to retrieve the canoe from the bottom of the lake! It was definitely the highlight of our weekend.

This weekend we decided to stay home but we decided to visit the Accra Mall on Friday for some R&R. We had visited the Mall with Jesper and Tony the previous Wednesday to watch a movie and decided to go back for some air conditioning and chocolate! We have discussed however that it is good that we only found the Mall ¾ of the way through our trip and we had spent two months totally immersed in Ghanain Culture. We heard from the other girls that visiting the mall had heightened their feelings of homesickness however we found that it had the opposite effect on us. While we were away (on Thursday 28th October) our host brother’s (Kelvin) mother gave birth to a beautiful little girl Emmanuella! We can’t wait to see her but so far she has been sleeping a lot and we haven’t met her yet. We were overwhelmed this morning when Kelvin’s mum gave Mj, Siobhan and I custom made dresses as presents.

Today we took our host family to Winneba beach! Many of them rarely travel so it was a special treat. Kelvin, who is 4 years old, has never seen the ocean and he was terrified! He said “it is big big big” and wouldn’t go anywhere near the water after the foam from the waves tickled his feet the first time. We had a lovely lunch and I made everyone try French fries which they had never eaten as they have to import potatos in Ghana! We then returned to Swedru and went to swim in the pool at Greenland hotel with Iszy, Hannah, georgina, Jyo, Sophie, Hayley and Ellie. It was a nice time to catch up and hear stories. Also to discuss the last two weeks of our trip where we get to travel up north after finishing our teaching placements in 10 school days!
Until next time! Ciao! Love Eleanor

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