"Feel Free, This Home is Your Home"

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I finally have time to write!! But I'm rather overwhelmed with everything I have to tell you about. It's getting increasingly difficult to convey with words what I'm feeling and experiencing here in Ghana to people on the other side of the world! I've been avoiding writing a blog 'cause I have no idea what to say that will do anything justice! The last time I wrote was almost 2 weeks ago and so much has happened since then! In short, I visited Cape Coast and the slavery castles/dungeons, enjoyed a few days in paradise on the beaches of Winneba and Cape Coast, hiked in Kakum National Park and "survived the canopy walkway," finished Poisonwood Bible (best book to read while actually in Africa), moved in with a new crazy rabbit raisin' homestay family in Accra (the capital), attended amazing lectures on University of Ghana's campus, experienced Accra's live music scene (almost every night), and I turned 21! So prepare your self for a long one!

Cape Coast and Elemina Dungeon/Castles:
I think visiting these castles is what was keeping me from writing this blog. There is no way I can really describe what it was like to visit the dungeons where approximately a third of all slaves from West Africa were held until shipped as human cargo to the New World and the West Indies. These castles played such an important but horrifying role in the roots and history of most African Americans and there is no way to describe how it felt to see these places in real life. In school we always learned about the "middle passage" on the ships from Africa and what it was like to be enslaved on a plantation, but there was never any discussion of what happened after the slaves were captured from their villages while they were waiting in Africa to be exported to an unknown place on the other side of the world. Built by the Dutch and Portuguese and later owned by the British these white fortresses stick out of the rocky coast of Ghana surrounded by white beaches, palm trees, and hundreds of colorful fishing boats. At one point during the tour, our guide locked us in the punishment dungeon where rebellious slaves who were fighting for their freedom were locked up to suffocate and starve to death. There was a scull and cross bones above the door. The guide didn't give us much warning and my heart stopped and I took one big gasp of air and didn't breathe until he opened the door 2 minutes later. It was pitch black and dead silent with my group of 7 American students in there with me. I will not forget these 2 minutes for the rest of my life. In the main dungeons there was a line on the wall about 14 inches above the floor where a combined substance of straw, blood, feces, urine, and food scraps combined to cover the floor. Food was dumped down a hole in the ceiling every other day and mixed with whatever was on the floor already and due to lack of toilet facilities the conditions were horrifying. Hearing stories of rape, beatings, and all the whole day. The only time a female slave was allowed out of the dungeon was when they were paraded around the court yard below the governor until he decided which slave he wanted to rape. He would choose one, the soldiers would shower and disinfect here with harsh soap and send her up the private back stairs to be raped. If any slave refused rape she was put in the punishment dungeon to die. At the Cape Coast Castle the first Christian church in Ghana was built within the castle walls. The ironic and shocking part was the fact that the church was built directly above the male slave dungeon. While the Dutch and British men attended mass singing "the Word of the Lord," below them one of the greatest atrocities in the history of the world was taking place and innocent men were dying and suffering awaiting their exportation.

At both castles there was a door that leads to the awaiting slave ships in the harbor labeled "The door of no return." We walked through this door into the fishing harbor and then turned around and walked back through the door to symbolically represent that the door is no longer a permanent barrier. Just recently the British government put a sign on the other side of the door leading back into the castles that read "The door of return" to show their support of the castles being preserved for hundreds of thousands of descendents of slaves all over the world to come in search of their roots in Cape Coast. I feel very lucky to have been able to visit these castles and know that this visit will have an impact on me for the rest of my life.

My Accra Homestay Family:
I was not looking forward to this homestay in Accra at all; I was actually dreading it. I've already had two homestay experiences and although they were really positive overall, they were draining and frustrating most of the time. The memories of the lack of freedom in Kumasi due to my family's strict rules and the inability to communicate with my village homestay was combining in my head with all the homestay horror stories from the other kids in my group to create this foreshadowed horrifying homestay family that was awaiting me in Accra. My whole SIT group and I felt we had already had enough homestay experience and we were just anxious to just get out there and start our independent research. But, now after 10 days in my homestay here in Accra, it has turned out much better than expected. My family may be a little strange, but I'm pretty content with a lot of freedom. I'm staying with the Anang family beyond the Adenta Barrier in Accra about 45 minutes from The University of Ghana, Legon. My father Daniel picked me up from campus last Saturday and drove me home with "his driver," (who I later found out was actually his son Kwei). The whole way home he told me about how he was the "leading producer of rabbits in Ghana" and also raises cows, chickens, turkeys, goats, and grass cutters (ground hogs). I asked, "Oh wow, how many rabbits do you have?" He responded "4 to 5,000" and I immediately went into panic mode. I was pretty anxious/worried to see what this "animal farm" was going to be like. The images in my head were very scary. He continued to tell me that he has visited 11 different states and 5 countries in Europe and has taken many classes in the U.S. on animal raising and poaching. My nerves were eased a little bit. He told me that he really wants to visit Chicago to learn about dairy and beef cows and hopefully get some "Chicago cow" sperm to artificially inseminate his female cow from Holland. I told him he was aiming for the right place; "the Midwest has a lot of nice cows!" When we arrived at the house he exclaimed "Feel free, this home is your home." So, I was pretty sure everything was going to be ok. My father was not lying, there are actually 5,000 rabbits surrounding the house I'm living in along with all these other animals. Falling asleep at night is like listening to a "farm animal symphony."

I just finished my dinner of coco yam leaves (like spinach) with red palm oil and fish with boiled yams and plantains which is new after most nights of eating rabbit. I have actually reached the point where fish bones no longer bother me and they just go right down with the rest of it. (Papa Leo-I know you're cringing right now). My first homestay family in Kumasi tried to get me to eat all the bones because they said they're a good source of calcium. But when I told them "NO thanks" they would just eat my fish and chicken bones right off my plate! At my new homestay, I am served dinner by my self, so I have to take on the bones like a true Ghanaian. Luckily, my new family has 2 computers in their house!! No internet access, but with my pen drive I can type anything I want here at night and then just plug it into an internet cafe during the day. It saves a lot of expensive and slow internet time and it's much more comfortable to type at home. Despite their nice house and two computers and 5 refrigerators (4 of which hold raw rabbit meat) and a microwave and sandwich press, their toilets don't flush and the water gets cut off frequently! Oh Ghana! They drink purified water that comes in bags (the water that is ok for foreigners to drink) which is nice so I don't have to buy my own, but they keep it in the rabbit fridges. The plastic bags and the water in them taste and smell like raw cold rabbit meat. Not exactly a refreshing, pleasant taste. Right now I'm in the main living room typing away while the whole family watches a Japanese soap opera dubbed over in ridiculous English. Actually pretty entertaining! My 5 year old brother Joshua is listening to my iPod (which I haven't seen since I arrived 10 days ago), my 11 year old sister Drobo is playing games on my cell phone, and my 10 year old sister Mercy is looking at my little photo album I brought from home while playing with my hair. She saw a picture of my cousin AJ with long blond hair and thought he was a girl! haha. I don't think I've ever met kids who talk more than these three. They are constantly telling me crazy stories about their dad's turkeys that got stolen, the rabbits that have so many babies, purple school uniforms, how they hate one of the cows 'cause he got tangled up with Mercy's bike, the other homestay students they've hosted (I'm their first American), chewing gum and ice cream, TV shows, how I should clean my messy room, how they like my pretty friends in my pictures (especially my "girlfriend" AJ) and all these questions about U.S. rap artists. They speak English a little too well! I say a lot of "oh cool!" "Wow that's amazing!" and "no way!" They love it! Their parents must have trained them because when my cell phone rings they immediately close their mouths mid sentence and run to the couch. Sometimes I wish it rang more often. They're the sweetest little kids despite their big mouths. I've been getting a lot of good hugs from them and Joshua has fallen asleep in my lap two nights in a row; both give comforting feelings which are much needed these days.

There are two other boys in the fam; Kwei who's 23 and stays at home to take care of all the rabbits and Gideon who's 20 and at boarding school (I'm living is his old room decorated with American football, basketball, and old-school rapper pictures.) I'm not quite sure the exact situation, but I think Kwei has a learning disability or is just a little slower than the rest of the kids. His brother Gideon was sent to this expensive boarding school to study science and Kwei's stuck here waking up at 4 am to sweep rabbit poop from under the cages and drive his parents and little siblings around. His family kind of bosses him around like he's not part of the family. When he's not in front of his parents and his little sisters tell him what to do he snaps back and calls them fat. (Despite the fact that it's really true, it's still kind of uncomfortable for someone not in the family). Every member of the family is rather plump and Kwei is as skinny as a stick and his bedroom is even in the garage. He couldn't be nicer to me though. He's the only family member who remembered my birthday and the few nights that I've come home really late, he waits up and opens the gate for me and wants to hear all about my night. He must have friends though, because the past two nights I was at home and he called my cell phone after 2am to wake me up and open the gate for him. I guess he thinks if he opens it for me, I can open it for him. I feel like it’s the least I can do, the poor guy, life's really not fair! I'm going to make sure I get him a really nice present and give it to him when his family's not around.

My 21st birthday, Ghana style:
November 5th was so happy but kind of overwhelming! My family called me from Jersey while I was at a wedding of one of the SIT "friends", I got two phone calls from Paris and one from Germany as I was helping the bands set up for my party, and tons of E-mails and cards in the mail the next day! I heard rumors of a few packages on the way too! I definitely felt loved while all the way here in Ghana. The party was the most outrageous and fun party I've ever had, but rather overwhelming and uncomfortable considering where I am. During my first days in Ghana our SIT group found a really awesome summer hut bar restaurant near campus surrounded by tropical gardens, a drum circle, and traditional African instruments. It's owned by a woman named Dilores and her brother from the Bronx, New York City who runs an NGO called 'One Village, Our World' which is a music and dance enrichment program for under privileged children in the area. She feeds 50 children 2 meals a day and is basically a mother to all of them. It was pretty comforting to meet some one from NYC when I was so far from home and we became good friends right away (especially after she made us a real American meal!) She tells some pretty wild stories of being an ex-UN consultant for India and Ghana, graduating from FIT, owning a fancy boutique in the village in New York, and being under "country arrest" for 9 years in the U.S. after an 81 million dollar UN grant fell through in Ghana because of the past militaristic regime. We're not so sure how many of her stories are true, but we've decided she's just an eccentric artist and disenchanted African-American who's trying to help here in Ghana and head the Pan-Africanism movement. She does have some pretty cool friends here and this is how the idea of my birthday party began. She introduced me to W.E.B. Dubois' grandson Preston who is living in Ghana working on the Pan Africanism movement and managing reggae bands. One of his clients is Rita Marley, Bob's wife, who lives here in Accra. Rumor was she might have shown up at my party, but I think it was better that she didn't. It was very overwhelming as it was. I proposed to Dilores with the encouragement from Preston Dubois to have a birthday party that doubled as a fundraising and promotion party for Dilores' NGO and her restaurant bar. Our SIT group fronted the money for the party expenses and the bands and all the profits from the night would go straight to the children's music enrichment program. It sounded like an awesome idea, but it ended up getting really out of control and not exactly what I wanted for my birthday. Dilores and Preston got 2 live bands to play including a well know traditional West-African drumming group, Afrika Obonu, and a rather famous Reggae artist, Black Prophet, who just finished his tour in Europe. The DJ from the main radio station in Accra came to spin between and after the bands and the Accra TV station covered part of the show. The radio station announced the party on the air the 3 days before so Black Prophet's name attracted quite a huge crowd. On top of the 17 SIT kids, a hand full of SIT employees, a bunch of American and Ghanaian friends of mine from the University of Ghana, and friends from Kumasi who traveled down for the party, there were hundreds of Ghanaians there to see the bands. It was supposed to be a fundraising party, but there was a huge emphasis on my b-day which was really overwhelming and unexpected. Even though I told Dilores I didn't want people to know the party was for my birthday except for the friends I invited, she thought it would be special for me to have a huge party as a way of saying thanks for the fundraising help. The two bands sang Reggae and African versions of happy birthday to me and made me come up on the stage, there was a huge birthday cake that was presented to me on the stage, some of my Rasta friends sprayed me with beer (which I can now drink, now that I'm 21) which is supposedly a tradition in Ghana, and it was just really crazy all night. Dilores made a huge buffet of gourmet American food which I could barely enjoy because there were so many people. The little kids in her music enrichment program performed during dinner, but I felt so guilty eating all this amazing food and being the "reason" for this lavish party getting so much attention while these little kids don't get lunch or dinner unless they come to Dilores' program. We did make $200 for the NGO, which in Ghana is quite a lot. In the end, even though the party got a little overblown, the music was really amazing, I danced all night (I have some pretty nasty blisters to show for it), and fell asleep exhausted, overwhelmed, but happy. There are some really awesome pictures from the night that I hope to post soon. Through planning the party and going to all his rehearsals and a few other live concerts with him the week before, I became close to the Reggae artist 'Prophet.' He's a really positive uplifting guy and actually used to be a street child himself. He has invited a few of us over his house for a Ghanaian vegan dinner in a few nights, and after all this rabbit meat, I'm pretty excited! I told him I'll be one of his groupies when he comes to do a U.S. tour. His band members all had these beautiful Dutch girls they brought with them to the party they must have acquired during their European tour. They arrived riding on the back of motorcycles with these Rasta guys with dreds. I felt like I was kind of in a movie and I was the girl who got sprayed with beer.

Tro-Tro Gods :
I am now convinced that the Tro-Tro spirits are foretelling my life here in Ghana. Some more timely tro-tro slogan spottings popped up in the past two weeks which appropriately narrated what was going on with my life. Painted on the back of the Tro-Tro we drove to Accra was the phrase "You Have Not Seen Anything Yet." This lit a little excitement in all of us as we traveled to start our last leg of the trip before the independent month, but it secretly worried us all too. Another appropriate Tro-Tro phrase was spotted the other night while in a taxi trying to get home to my homestay house from campus. It was late at night and the cab driver and I got really lost. What should have taken me 30 minutes with out traffic took an hour and 45 minutes of a scary and expensive cab ride. The taxi drivers here will pick up anyone even if they are not really sure of where you need to go. If you ask them "I need to get beyond Adenta Barrier, do you know where that is?" they will always say "Yes" even though most of the time they have no idea. So this night I definitely found one of the clueless ones and we started off on a wild goose hunt late at night, or should I say rabbit hunt. I knew almost the whole time we were going the wrong way, but there was no stopping this guy, he was determined to find the "poaching farm." I can only imagine what he thought this blond Oburuni girl was doing at a poaching farm at 11 at night. After I convinced him that the poaching farm out in the scary dark country side was not my house, I began to beg him to just bring me to the closest phone. Of course my cell phone was out of minutes so I had no way of calling my family to get directions. I finally convince4d him to give up and drop me at a phone, I handed over a stack of cedis and exploded out of the cab choking back tears. In Ghana, since most people don't have land lines, there are these "Communication Centers" which are little shacks on the side of the road where a person is sitting with a phone. You give them the number you want to call, they dial it and then you talk and pay at the end. Just my luck, my father's cell number didn't go through, so plan C was to find a place to recharge my minutes on my cell. Some more wandering and 75,000 cedis later I got through to my father on my cell and basically begged for him to come get me. He said he was the only one home and couldn't leave but could give me directions to the house. "Bless you, how did you get there?" he asked. I had no idea! Long story short...I caught a tro-tro with a lump still in my throat and what was painted on the back but, "All the rest of my life shall be better!" The Tro-Tro gods knew I needed a little encouragement. I made it home and was greeted at the door by my homestay father laughing and asking me how I got so far away! We laughed for a while as I tried to explain to him my lack of a sense of direction and then I collapsed in bed from exhaustion.

Halloween in Ghana:
There wasn't one. Unfortunately I didn't get to celebrate Halloween, but it was OK because my hot dog suit is at home and it wouldn't have been Halloween with out it. I was going to attempt to get a sausage suit made by a seamstress here, but I was scared away by the potential confusion I might cause and I already encounter so much frustrating confusion every day that I figured I could just wear my suit when I get back to Chicago. I did receive a Halloween CD from Cousin Connie that arrived on October 31st and had sausage for dinner! Cheers to living with a poacher's family and to loving sausage!

Classes at University of Ghana, Legon:
The classes here have definitely been the best since I've been here. The professors are by far much more qualified and interesting. What's so great about being here with SIT is the amount of awesome connections they have and the fact that they've organized the program so we get one lecture from almost every amazing professor or intellectual in the country. I've attended classes this week on everything from Ghanaian Politics taught by the campaign manager for the current president, Kufuor, The Woman's Manifesto and Female genital mutilation, more traditional West African dance performances and classes, and the state of the African economy. The one professor that was my favorite was Dr. John Collins who is a British citizen but has lived in Ghana since he was 4. He's the leading expert on music history in Africa and spoke to us about the fusion of all different forms and origins of music that came together to help form and develop every genre of music in Africa and the States today. So interesting! To accompany his lecture, he brought tons of instruments (of which he could play all of them) and an awesome slideshow. He played songs on the guitar and showed us techniques that date back to the first finger picking techniques that were introduced to Africa by the first Dutch seamen who employed Liberian sailors. These Liberian crewmen then migrated to all the major ports in Africa and spread their version of guitar playing that has influenced Reggae, High Life, Hip Life, Blues, Jazz, Country, Rap, Ska and others. Such an amazing and interesting lecture. He explained why Africa has such a deep rhythm built into all people here. "They were in tune to their bodies from day one," he explained. He described the origin of rhythm through "The Human Instrument" explaining that Africans realized early on that we walk in a 2/4 beat, our heart beats in a 3/3 beat and everything in nature exists in rhythm. "Everything here is in multiplicity, there is never just one thing going on, especially in their musical rhythms." He gave us a schedule of all the "don't miss" live music events in Accra for the rest of the week and along with my new Reggae playing friends and drummer friends we met our first week in Accra, I went to a different live music show each night last week that proved Dr. Collins lecture and were some of the best dancing experiences of my life. Thank the Tro-Tro spirits that my family is really trusting of me and doesn't care if I'm out really late "enjoying life." On nights that I don't stay out late, my mom Matilda asks me why I'm not out having fun. I tell her it's because I am exhausted! (Which is the exact truth!)

Speaking of exhausted, my eyes are glassing over and my whole family is passed out on the couches. I have to travel to Kumasi tomorrow morning to meet with my research advisor at Kwame Nkrumah’s University of Science and Technology (KNUST) about my proposed Art Therapy project for my last month of independent research. I'm feeling pretty anxious about this last month because I don't have any concrete plans yet and my research time in the field is supposed to start in 5 days! A lot of my contacts have fallen through or ended up being bogus and I really don't know what city or area I want to spend my time in. Trying to get a hold of any one here is 20 times as hard as networking and planning anything at home. I would die to be on NU's campus right now with all the amazing resources to plan my research. Despite my busy, exciting, and interesting past few weeks I've been more homesick than usual and very overwhelmed by trying to plan my last month on my own while handling every day life here in Accra. Hopefully this trip to Kumasi will help sort things out. I convinced one of my SIT friends to make the 5 hour Tro-Tro ride with me up to the center of the country so I don't have to travel alone and I hope to stay with my homestay family from Kumasi to save some cedis and get a homey feeling catching up with then and sharing my adventures since I saw them last at the wedding. I'm going to try and be better about writing more often. Hopefully the next time I post something I will have my research figured out.

Asomdwe ne pe, (Peace and Love from Ghana)
Kate

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