Advertisement
Published: March 17th 2008
Marie braiding my hair
it took 8 hours. I really don't think I will do it again lol, or if I did I would have to have at least 4 girls on it!Since the last time I have written I have yet again embarked on the incredibly long journey to Northern Ghana - apparently I can’t get enough of 12 hour + bus rides! I have also managed to run myself into a confused circle about thesis and get my hair braided (crazy rasta style!) - however neither of these things are as exciting as my trip, so I will begin with that!
The purpose of my trip was for the WUSC Annual General Meeting (the first one of which I attended in October in Wa) which was being held in Bolgatanga. Well, considering I was taking a 14 hour bus ride to get there and have obruni friends in the North, I wasn’t going to let this opportunity to travel pass me by! I hopped on the STC in Kumasi on Saturday (after a Friday night traveling fiasco from Accra!) and made it to Bolga by Saturday night, where Renee picked me up and we enjoyed a cool beer and a much needed debrief (even though we had seen each other only a month ago? We are destined to see each other every month!). I stayed at Renee’s place and after
sleeping off my traveling, Renee, myself, and some of her friends took a trip on Sunday to a town called Paga, which is famous for its crocodile pond that for a small fee you are allowed to enter the pond and actually touch the crocodiles! As you can see, I couldn’t pass up the chance to touch a croc! These ones were really tame, but it still felt insanely unnatural to be touching such a beastly animal! A part of the fee that you have to pay is to buy a guinea fowl so that after everyone has touched/posed with the crocodile they throw it live into the crocodile’s mouth, which you get to watch it eat. I’m sure this seriously grosses some people out, but I was strangely fascinated and sort of stood there with a dumbfounded look as it took three chomps and then swallowed it whole. Crazy animal. Anyways, from there we stopped in a town called Navrongo on the way back to Bolga in order to taste “peeto” a fermented drink made out of guinea corn that is a specialty of the North. Renee’s friend Cletus took us to his favorite stall in the market, it
How many crocodiles can you see?
Apparently this pond contains over 300 crocodiles, as it is one of the only protected areas near by (and I'm sure the ready supply of guinea fowl doesn't hurt either!) was great! It has a very distinct taste and is served warm, unless you bring a bottle and refrigerate it at home which allows it to ferment even more and has a very different taste. The rest of Sunday was spent in a reunion dinner as by 6pm the rest of the volunteers had arrived in Bolga.
The meeting took place from Monday to Tuesday and went well. It was nice to see all the volunteers again (and meet some new ones as our number had increased from 7 to 13!) and I feel like I am always learning new things about WUSC and my job. The work that I am doing with GNECC is very different from the bulk of WUSC’s programs which operate with the Ghana Education Service (part of the Ministry of Education) in the North of Ghana working in advocating for girls education. Within the districts a lot of really interesting projects go on, namely Girl’s Clubs and community mobilization activities which bring better awareness to communities about the importance of the education of girl children as well as educating girls themselves on their rights. I got a better idea of these activities as well
Drinking peeto
L to R: Cleetus, Renne, and I drinking peeto in the Navrongo market out of calabashes (bowls made out of the calabash seed). Very tasty! as met the newest GNECC volunteer, working in the Eastern Region helping build the fundraising capacity of the organization.
On Tuesday when the meeting finished, the three students without borders and I (Jen, Kate, and Katie) left for our travels to Mole National Park. This began with a very long tro tro ride to Tamale only to arrive and find that no guesthouses had spaces for us! After an hour and half of walking around, we convinced one place to let the four of us sleep in one double room where we promptly passed out. The next morning we were up at 4am to make it to the bus station to catch a bus to Mole where we discovered all the tickets had sold out the night before! Unimpressed with our luck, we decided not to waste the early start on the day and bartered for a taxi to take us to the park - another bout of bad luck! We should have known by the look of the broken down wretched car that it would not get us there quickly considering the roads were rough and unpaved! Not only did it break down probably five times on the
trip and take us twice as long as the bus, but when we finally got there, we were COVERED in dust! As poor of a choice it turned out to be, our looking like bush people when we arrived at the park provided us with some serious amusement -- I looked like the colour of someone who over enjoys a tanning bed, Jen had a serious dirt moustache, Katie looked like a coal miner and Kate... well, she looked like some weird kind of cabbage patch doll with clay features! The next two days we spent at the park, which we discovered is tailored to the expat tourist, but fun regardless, a major highlight being the swimming pool! The majority of people stay at the Mole Motel which is located on a bit of a hill and overlooks the park with two watering holes right below the hill so that you can see elephants and antelopes right below the hotel! We went for a driving safari the first day and a walking tour the next morning, of which we were told Mole is one of the only reserves on the continent where you can do walking tours (probably because the
big scary animals like lions don't come that close to the hotel!). It was a really interesting experience as we were able to get really close to lots of animals like elephants, antelopes, bush bogs (essentially antelopes lol), baboons, green monkeys, birds, crocodiles, etc. It was really neat, especially the elephants, who are incredibly graceful animals for their enormous stature. I don’t think I will ever be able to go back to zoos as I hated them before and it is a wonderful experience to be able to see animals in their natural habitats. The second afternoon we ended up vegging by the pool drinking beer and having a hair removal party. I couldn’t stand my braids any more - they were itchy, dirty, and just plain uncomfortable despite how cool they looked. I started the process by saying I would buy a round if they helped me and then it snowballed into the four of us removing Kate and Jen’s as well. It felt great to take them out because my head was KILLING, but it was also incredibly depressing because I think I lost half of my hair. Those braids are tight and although you lose a lot
of hair each day, that was just terrible. I feel like I'm bald (not really but the size of my pony tail has seriously diminished!).
On Friday morning we headed back to Tamale (on the 4am bus! - we were destined not to sleep) where we did some serious shopping and then were supposed to meet up with some friends of Jen's in the evening. We got a bit delayed though as another volunteer named Penny was staying at our guesthouse and invited us for some wine... well, it was a very interesting evening! Penny is 68 and absolutely crazy -- the things this woman has done and seen is unbelievable! Not only did she travel the world by herself all throughout the 60s and 70s, but she lived in Zimbabwe for 22 years until the political violence against whites nearly got her killed and she came back to Canada only to continue going back to Africa year after year... this is her second year in Ghana and yeah, the woman just had some amazing advice and some really cool stories. The first part of the evening was good fun and then we headed out to meet Jen's friends...
Attack of the bush people
this was us attempting to capture how dirty we were during one of the many taxi break downs... unfortunetly you can't see the contrast as well because we are pretty much the colour of that road! we ended up drinking a lot more, met some cool people and eventually found our way to one of Tamale’s dance clubs where we closed the place down! All in all, it was a really good week - and my return STC ride went as quickly and uneventfully as possible which I was grateful for!
Since I have gotten back from the trip, I have been pretty busy with work. This past weekend I did a second re-orientation workshop for a DEFAT team in the Central Region, which also included 3 nights of serious overtime to get the program ready and re-create 7 questionnaires that should have been done months ago! The program happened in the Agona-Swedru district of the Central Region (the region directly to the west of Accra), and I think all in all in went really well. I learned a lot from the first workshop I did in the Eastern Region and was much better prepared this time, plus I had the support and assistance of Kofi, the new program officer. Once I get back from Easter, I am hoping to be able to tag along with a few of the DEFAT members to go into
the schools and see how the questionnaires are distributed. I will keep you posted! Two weeks ago I also got to particiapte in a roundtable discussion with policy makers from the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education with the Government of Ghana. The purpose of the discussion was for civil society (GNECC) to present their findings on research they undertook regarding issues of teacher deployment and education. It was an interesting discussion and a good opportunity to see how GNECC has become a credible civil society actor so that the government listens to what they say. Three communiques for action were created, so we'll see if any concrete policy changes occur!
As for now, I am busy making preparations for my next holiday - the visit of the one and only Anne Strutt! (Aka. Mum!). As I have seriously delayed writing this blog, she is actually arriving tomorrow! The next blog will be full of the antics we get up to while she is here! I can’t believe how fast time is passing… I officially reached the halfway point of my placement at the start of March and am now entering my last 5 months. I will be home before
I know it and itching to leave again! The more time that passes, the more I realize how much I enjoy my life here…. The market, the people, tro-tros, fufu, informalities of life, fetching water, lazy Sunday’s with the neighbors. I feel so fortunate every day for the opportunity that I have been given in coming to Ghana. I have learned so much; about development, about myself, about how there is always more to the world then what you know. It is becoming clear to me the reality of what people say about the power this continent has in drawing you in - there is no doubt in my mind that I will be returning to Africa in the near future! On that note, I am sending my love to all of you and hope that you are enjoying the mounds of snow gracing southern Ontario this year!
Lots of love,
Courtney
Advertisement
Tot: 0.107s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 15; qc: 60; dbt: 0.0618s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Angela Cruz
non-member comment
I love your pictures! Glad to hear you're loving it.