Akwaaba!!!

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Hello Everybody!

So given limited access to the internet and email and the amount of odd adventures I’ve had in Ghana, I figured a travel blog would be my best bet to keep in touch with you all. For those of you that didn’t know, I am now in Ghana working for an NGO that promotes sustainable business for women. I will be here for the next 2 months, and will head on elsewhere until the end of July to get ready for graduate school.

I thought when I backpacked in France and stayed in hostels I was really living a rough life, but in hindsight, that was like luxury accommodation compared to what life is like here! The first day I arrived, we had no running water, no electricity, and I think humidity was about 90%!a(MISSING)nd it felt like about 90 degrees. Welcome to Ghana!

But if these things are insufferable, I can deal with the situation because of the cast of characters I live with. There are 5 other women in the house - Renae, the founder of the NGO who spent years in corporate America as a consultant and got sick of it and moved to Ghana to incorporate what she learned to help out women here. Then we have a few other interns and volunteers from the States and Europe, mostly around the same age who are all here to either figure out what they want to do with their life or have a plan and somehow this fits into it. Added to this entourage, we have Kukuaa, our 19 year old day guard who sits around eating sugarcane stalks and laughs at us obrunis because we dance like fools, and Apiya, our grandfatherly night guard who gives us curfews and refuses to let male visitors into the house. Finally in the back we have our other roommates - Buswa the parrot that can now speak Dutch, American English, British English, and Fante, and soon enough, Korean. We also have a goat, Cabbage, and a South African dog named Toby. They all have identity crises - the parrot thinks he’s the goat, the goat thinks he’s the dog, and the dog thinks he’s a cat. So here are the cast of characters that make living in humidity and crazy heat with no running water somewhat bearable.

Outside the house, things get even more interesting. The people here are so amazing. You get such a mix of greetings from genuinely nice people that really validate the saying that Ghanaians are the friendliest people in the world. Then you get the shouts of “obruni” but in my case I don’t think they’ve quite figured out the word for Asian person in Fante, so I get called everything from “obruni” to “China” “Japan” “Sushi girl” and “Cheech and Chong” (my personal favorite). As lovely as these comments are, the best ones are the marriage proposals that come out of nowhere. I got 3 my first weekend here, but the best one was at the Cape Coast castle where I was in a replica of a slavery ship learning the horrible conditions of the Diaspora and the slave trade, and a Ghanaian comes up to me and asks me if I’d like to marry him. How romantic!!!

The food here is GREAT. Just like mama’s cooking, well with the added bonus of having worms in the food (albeit dead), and eating with your hands. But this whole not using your left hand thing is just killing me. I mean come on, I didn't stubbornly refuse to use my right hand my whole life just to stop now! That in itself makes me lose my appetite! But my stomache winds up growling just a few seconds later when I walk by stands with pineapples that cost about 40 cents and big beautiful avocadoes that only cost 10 cents! When I think of all those avocadoes I bought at Gristedes for $1.99 a piece I wonder how many can fit in my suitcase and if they'll still be fresh on my flight back to NY! They have lots of doughy things that are fried, fried plantains, fried yam chips, man I’m in heaven!

Anyway here is just a brief introduction on life here on the Cape Coast in Ghana. More to come very soon!

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Photos

Cape Coast/Elmina
Akwaaba (Welcome) to my new hometown!

Life at Home
Kukuaa and Apiya teaching us how to dance