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Published: October 24th 2005
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Kate and Joel
Infront of our Tie & Dye work in Krobo Odumasi Art Workshop Greetings from Winneba, a small laid back coastal town, the "city of flags," with more palm trees than people, halfway between Accra and Cape Coast. The British named this little place
Windy Bay after the amazing constant cool breeze that blows all day and night, but the name has morphed into the
Ghana version over the years to become Winneba. I just completed 4 days of Batik, tie and dye, and glass bead art workshops learning ancient art forms from master artisans under a thatched summer hut workshop with all recycled or natural materials in Krobo Odumase. Now in Winneba I had a full day of ceramic pot throwing and tomorrow clay sculpture. My creativity is at its prime! (Haven't figured out how to get all my art work home yet, but I have plenty of time to come up with that solution.) Krobo Odumasi is the bead capital of West Africa and I have never been more overwhelmed in paradise! The market had endless rows of the most incredible beads and jewelry I have ever seen. I only had about 200,000 cedis ($20) on me and felt horribly unprepared. I bought as many beads as I possibly could, but there
Krobo Odumasi Bead Market
Largest bead market in West Africa - sooo overwhelming! were just so many amazing ones I could have spent all my Ghana money at this one market alone. (Don't worry Leo - I will not be needing any more Western Union assistance, I practiced extreme self control) Combined with the beads that I made my self during the workshop I still have quite a West African bead collection. Can't wait to get home and make presents for EVERYONE!!
I've had a few more days to reflect on my village experience, so before I tell of my new adventures, I want to complete my village thoughts.
I have figured out the aspect of my village experience that was missing and in the end impacted my overall experience. Giving back. Sure, I gave my homestay family soap and bread and other gifts, and gave as many of the little village kids toys and pens, but that's not really helping them. That was actually just reinforcing the concept that Westerners give things away for free and they have so much that they just come to villages to hand pretty things out to everyone. But what happens when there aren't Westerners there to hand out bread and soap, does that help
Kate and Termite Hill
These are everywhere! the villagers learn to get things they need on their own or encourage them to be self sustaining? I've been thinking about my Ghana rural experience comparatively to my Ecuador experience this past summer building homes with Habitat for Humanity Global Village. My mission in the village of Dunkuraa, here in Ghana, was to study Traditional Birthing Attendants and experience the village culture and people. In Tosagua, Ecuador, our mission was to build homes for families that did not have adequate housing and work alongside the Tosaguan people towards the same goal. My Ecuadorian experience was so much more rewarding compared to my time spent in the Ghanaian village because my mission there was to directly help the people through service work and in return I learned about their culture, their needs, and helped them work towards bettering their lives. Many times in the Ghana village I felt helpless and guilty for just walking around with my notebook and expensive camera taking notes and interviewing people. My research did not benefit the community; it was for my pure academic enrichment. We were welcomed in the village, but not as warmly as the entire community of Tosagua celebrated our arrival, all
Paradise
Rachael and Kate on the beach in Winneba, wrapped in the tie & dye we made that day with fresh coconuts knew we were there to help and were so grateful for our work and time spent living in their town. Many times in the Ghanaian village people would come up to me and ask, "What is your mission here?" My only response was, "I'm a student studying your culture." A few would respond, "Why" with a blank stare.
So the bottom line is - I am still very thankful for my Ghana village experience because I learned a lot about my self and a different culture, but I would have changed a few things if I did it again so others would have benefited from me living in their community for 2 weeks. I learned what I can live with out and still be happy, and a lot about Ashanti village culture and Traditional Birthing Attendants, but I could have helped the people more. I hope to suggest to SIT to change this part of the program to include a service project in the village on top of our research. We did donate 30,000 cedis for school books at the end of our stay (about $30 between the 3 of us Americans) but there is so much that we could have done with our man power and educated minds to help their community.
This definitely influences my decision to spend my last month in Ghana working with an NGO or community development organization conducting my research while I volunteer so my findings not only benefit me, but also the population of Ghanaians that I work with. I'm in the process of contacting as many NGO's and other organizations in Ghana to find one that will let me volunteer for their cause and spend a month researching with them. I've been at the Internet cafe ALL day e-mailing non-stop. If any one reading this has any suggestions of organizations in Ghana that would be good opportunities to conduct research and community service - please let me know! I'm really interested in utilizing Art Therapy or promoting art enrichment with street children or maybe Liberian refugee children. We'll see, my preliminary proposal is due on Halloween.
The day after I posted the blog about my time in the village, lamenting about not getting any mail, I received 5 more letters! Thanks to all who sent me snailmail! It really means a lot! I'm working on writing you good 'ole fashioned letters back, so be on the look out! One in particular has helped so much in facing the reality of the death of my friend Brendan. My friend Mike sent me a photo of Brendan and I and it really hit me and helped spark the realization that he's actually gone. Prior to seeing the picture, I was devastated the day I found out about Brendan's death, but it was easy to push the sad feelings out of my mind when submerged in Africa. So I've been dealing with a lot more real feelings about Brendan and thinking about him even more than a few weeks ago. My mom sent me the little card that was handed out at his service and the more I look at his picture and read his life summed up in one paragraph, despite how hard it is to believe, the idea is becoming reality. I constantly think about Brendan stories and more and more come to mind every day. Mike said something in his letter that I replay in my head all the time. "If I've learned anything from Brendan, it's to live the hell out of life." As I sat in the Tro-Tro leaving Kumasi and choking back more tears after my second good cry of the trip, with Brendan's photo in my lap, I looked up and read the Tro-Tro in front of ours. It read, "In Him is Life" painted on the back. Despite the fact that who ever painted that was probably referring to Jesus, I could not have read a better phrase at that moment. In Brendan was the strongest life I had ever met and through him I learned in many ways how to live life to the fullest. That's what I'm doing here in Ghana, for myself and Brendan.
My time is up here at the Internet cafe. So much more to tell of this amazing little beach town. I will try and add more soon!
Asomdwe ne pe! (Peace and Love)
~Kate
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betserrrr
non-member comment
so amazing
well kate, i've just caught myself up on the last couple entries, and must say they are wonderful. your reflections and descriptions help me closer understand you and your experience, and feel like i'm almost there too. these entries will sure be great for you to keep and read later on when you're back in the US too. keep it up! hope we can chat soon. love you!