Trip: $52, Bananas: $2, Feeding Monkeys: PRICELESS

What a day. I am exhausted!!! This would be a pretty normal statement for any other day considering how tiring sweating is but today was definitely special and one that we won't forget for a long time. It started off a little rough. Usually that's pretty typical of a day that starts at 4:45 AM. Yes. We were up and ready to go by 5:00 as we waited for the Woe group to join us. They arrived shortly after five and we were off! We tried to sum up the hours we spent in the car and I think it came up to something like 6.5, maybe 7, hours of being on the road and just waiting for people to get ready.

I don't really know how long it took to get to the monkey sanctuary because I passed out as usual in the car. That doesn't matter. We arrived at Tafi-Atome monkey sanctuary and before we knew it, we were walking along what looked like any dirt road. But this wasn't just a dirt road. Less than five minutes in, with our guides Patrick and Sylvester making this weird, prolonged kissing noise, the monkeys showed up!!!! They were all over the trees. I think if I could be any animal, I'd be a monkey because they get to swing from branches and slide down vines and do other crazy things. The guides gave us each a half of a banana and we all took turns feeding the monkeys. Some of us didn't realize that you had to hold on really tight because monkeys are strong! They'd rip it out of your hand and scamper up the tree. We even witnessed one monkey stealing from another monkey and then a there was a bit of a fight. The volunteers from the other site didn't seen to want to feed them (which Silan really did not understand....I don't really understand it either). We had breakfast, walked around the town, and then we were off to the falls.

These falls aren't just any falls though. We're talking about the LARGEST in West Africa and the SECOND LARGEST in all of Africa. Cool eh? They are called Wli Falls. It was like a 40 minute drive from the monkey sanctuary. We then had to walk another 45 minutes to get there. Nothing too hard to cover but still, it felt like forever. I kept thinking that we'd turn around this corner, hear the rushing of the water, and the falls would just appear. AND THAT'S HOW IT WAS!!! It was phenomenol. We all went for a swim in the water. It was definitely colder than we would've liked but it wsa like nothing before. We all tried to get to the back to touch the face of the wall and I think everyone succeeded. Not without some difficulty though. It felt worse than a tornado. Though I've never been in a tornado so I can't really say that. The ground was mostly sandy...very shallow. Except for this one part that was around 5 or 6 feet deep. Everyone tried not to touch the ground because it felt like the ground was enveloping you. This wasn't just normal mud. It was freakishly soft mud that could've very well not been mud and just a lot of bat guano.

I FORGOT THE BATS!! While we were swimming we all looked up and the sky was so dark because of the bats that were flying around. They covered wall after wall near the waterfalls. It was so beautiful. I probably am not even giving the waterfalls credit because it was just so gorgeous. The picture below was taken by Silan. She's recently mastered the art of self-photography. It is an important skill. It will come in handy when we travel the world together and don't want to be the annoying tourists asking locals to take our picture. We'll be tools instead.

Silan says: This may have been the coolest experience of my life. Hiking through Ghaniain rainforest to swim in a waterfall 1000 ft high.

We are leaving tomorrow for the Cape Coast. It is going to be more time spent in a tiny van but I'm sure it'll be just as beautiful as today. Hope you enjoyed the pictures!!! AND KEEP COMMENTING!!! They make our day.

SIDE NOTE: I forgot to add that in this oh so shallow water, I still managed to fall. And fall. And fall. We tried to take a picture of the five of us on this log and everyone was at the log, ready to take the picture except me. Because I slipped on a rock. Then I couldn't even get up in the water because it was so shallow. Only that would happen to me. I also fell in the mud. Atleast I wasn't like Emily and fell on CONCRETE because she was running to get in line for food. She wins.

Finally some pictures to go with our ranting

Silan and Janelle at the Coast near Fort Prinzenstein (slave fort)

Silan at Victoria Nursery School

The Ho volunteers! Woe and Akatsi were there as well, but they're boring so they're not in the picture haha

Little Efe sleeping at Victoria Nursery School

Kids eating lunch. The food is too messy so they have to take off their shirts when they eat! We noticed that when if one kid is finished and he still has some food, he spoons it into the dishes of the kids beside him. Very cute

Sometimes we all need to ponder

Janelle and Mautwo at Victoria

Scorpian fun: we took some herbal pills which were supposed to deter scorpians from stinging and snakes from biting for 10 years

Look Ma!

it's a fluffy kitten, it's a fluffy kitten

There's no place like Ho

Click your ruby slippers together and say, "There's no place like Ho, there's no place like Ho." Though our house is astoundingly similar to a retirement home (see below), it's our home for now. On Saturday, we took a day trip to the southern coast of Ghana, visiting a slave fort, a kente weaving place, a slave memorial and a traditional bone healer. We also made a short stop at one of the other CCS home-bases. After about 5 minutes, we were pretty sure we wanted to go back. Sure, it may be near the beach, but there's sand and bugs everywhere, and let's face it, the people just aren't as great.

Why does the CCS Ho Home-base ressemble a retirement home?
1. We sleep early (staying out for one of the volunteer's birthday parties meant staying out past 10, then promptly going back)
2. We wake early (everyone's up by 7:30 at the lastest - the scariest part is that we don't mind)
3. Everything we eat is a soft solid (for example, rice, yams, plantains, bananas, red red, FanChoco)
4. We spend all day reading
5. We discuss and pay careful attention to the regularity, consistency and colour of our bowel movements
6. With the addition of Ghanaian time, we move extra slow

What does the CCS Ho Home-base not have in common with a retirement home?
1. We play full-contact Spoons
... that's pretty much it

This weekend, we head to Wli falls and the monkey sanctuary (this is my chance to steal one), then to Cape Coast and Kakum National Park. We're also planning to go to Mole (mole-A) National Park, where Silan plans to bait the elephants with Janelle... just to get a better picture. In case you didn't know, Janelle is deathly afraid of elephants, which makes for a more enjoyable trip for everyone else.

Until then, "just relax..."

P.S. We've been having trouble uploading pictures because apparently it slows down the whole system at the internet cafe, hopefully we'll be able to show you some pictures of our many Ghanaian adventures!

Unda thee beeg umbrelaa, unda thee co-co-nut tree

I've yet to get into my placement at the Volta Regional Hospital, but they hope we'll be able to get there by Monday. The last two days, I've been going with Janelle to Victoria where we help in the nursery school. All the kids are very cute and very beautiful. As soon as one sits in your lap, all the rest want to climb on. When you lift one up, they all want to be lifted up. When we sing their nursery rhymes, we find ourselves singing in Ghanaian accents. We have to, really. We stick out too much singing with our Canadian accents. "Unda thee beeg umbrelaa, unda thee co-co-nut tree", we sing.

For those of you who don't follow soccer, Ghana beat the US in the World Cup yesterday and it was havoc on the streets! There were parades of people singing (even when the pouring rain started) and cars honking everywhere. No riots, just really happy people. Ghanaians kept asking us, "Are you American? Are you American?" I'd tell them I'm Canadian and was rooting for Ghana and they'd say "We love you!" and give me a hug and their crazy handshake, which I've yet to figure out. It was an exciting game, but next the Black Stars play Brazil... we'll see how that goes.

Things WE miss:
1) Washers and Dryers - You would not believe what it's like to do laundry without these amazing inventions. First of all, it uses like every muscle in your body. Wringing out clothes is not easy. And it's not quick either. It took us like forty minutes to wring them out the first time...and then there's the second time, after the clothes have been in clean water. Right now, all our clothes are out on the line drying. With bug eggs on them. And they are starting to smell because it takes so long to dry. So much to look forward to. In case you didn't know what the weather is like here, it rains. Everyday. Lots. So think about that, combined with drying clothes outside. That's right. It doesn't work.
2) Protein and fibre - These are two very important aspects of a person's diet. Two very important aspects THAT WE DON'T HAVE. People become very constipated here. But then they get travellers diarrhea. It's this never ending cycle. Irregular bowel movements are the talk of town.
3) Street signs - We thought it was hard to navigate through London. We were so wrong. Someone pointed out at dinner that it must be hard to mail things here because honestly, how do you give away your address? "Second dirt road on the right, past the sign that says 'Aids is real. Use a condom.'" It amazes me that they even have traffic circles because no one slows down when they enter one. They drive eighty kilometres per hour on side streets that aren't paved.
4) Plans - There is no such thing as plans in Ghana. I don't think they even know what it means. So far, we haven't done anything that was on the proposed schedule at the suggested time. As we already mentioned, "Just relax." It's hard though! We are all so used to following our little planners. Almost all of us are list makers. Obsessively writing down what we have to do and when we're going to finish it. Going from that to having nothing to put on a list is a bit different.
5) Wine gums - care of Silan. She doesn't feel like the Americans can sympathize with her because they don't even know what wine gums are. Blasphemy. I know.
6) McDonalds - care of Janelle. I don't think I really miss one particular food. I just miss the concept. Of going. And having a menu. And being like "Oh, today I want this." Maybe I just miss restaurants in general hahaha
7) 'Feeling Clean' - We aren't saying that everyone here is dirty but just the fact that everyday starts with a layer of sunblock then mosquito repellent throughout the day just ruins the feeling of normal skin. And that combined with the sweat throughout the day just makes for unpleasantness.

Discussing all these things we miss is torture but I think it'll just make us appreciate everything we have at home. The next time I do laundry at school, with our two washers and dryers, I will remember what it was like to hand scrub everything. We sound miserable but we're actually having a good time. Tomorrow we're going on an adventure to one of the other home bases that's near the coast and on Sunday, we may venture to the cultural market in Accra! Can't do things like that at home, can we?

Again, sorry if this entry sounds weird. We took turns.

Red Red

As I'm sure you've already read, we've arrived safely and in one piece. I wasn't sure we were going to make it on the treacherous flight from London here. I don't know if Silan mentioned the fantastic (and by I mean fantastic, the scarriest) turbulence on the flight down. The stewardesses were laughing at us while people were screaming. Of course it had to be in the middle of a meal. Wine went flying. Trays were sliding all over. Silan looked like she was going to puke. It was great.

We got to the arrival area and it was the great awardness of trying to figure out whether or not any of these white people were actually on a CCS trip or if they were just, well, white people in Ghana. We eventually got our stuff together and went to find Yao outside.

I think Silan wrote about the Beverly Hills hotel so I'll skip that part....I've now been to my placement twice. I'm volunteering at the Victoria Christial Nursery with kids like 1 years old to 3 years old. They yell 'YEVU' which basically means white person. Over and over and over. 100's of times a day. Silan on the other hand gets called "China". Not "China man", not "Chinese", just plain CHINA. It's great.

Silan: Today it was announced by word of mouth (that's how things roll here) that the industrial action was over and health workers were starting to come back to work today. 3 of us, hoping to work at the hospital didn't go for our placements today; however, we did go to the Volta Regional Hospital and were given a tour of all the wards. There were 4 of us there (one was just coming along) and our names are Kristen, Christie, Rebecca and Silan. But to the woman taking us around and introducing us to the staff we were Christine, Christine ("2 Christines!" they would always say), Becky and Sarah. Sarah? Ok. I can be a Sarah. Thanks, Mom and Dad for giving me a name that no Ghanaian can pronounce haha. Apparently all of us (2 of us in reality) were nursing students as well. The hospital is huge and very nice as it is the hospital for the enitre Volta region. The physio unit has machines and equipment very similar to what is seen in Canada.

Janelle: We've just moved to another internet place because the power went out. Hopefully this will last longer. Power outtages are common here. I guess it doesn't really bother people here that much because everything moves so slowly. SLOOOOWWWWWLLLYYYYYY. When we get back to Canada, it's going to be culture shock like no other. What is this rushing business people talk about? I do not understand!

Besides passing the time with lots of reading, card playing, discussions about poo, we do a fair amount of eating. So far, the only real pattern that I've seen is red red. What is red red? I don't know. Someone said it was tomatoe sauce with oil. And yet it is spicy and has a kick to it. They put this in/with everything. Beans. Vegetables. More vegetables. Rice. There's also plenty of salad. ANd peanut butter. I've been avoiding the latter obviously but everyone else eats it like no tomorrow. Unfortunately, I can't eat any of the three fruits they serve here either. No mangoes, pineapple, or watermellon for me :( I've been eating the itty-bitty bananas with cereal in the morning. ANd laughing cow cheese. The two are my saviours.

I should get going as we have to go to a 'typical Ghanaian village' this afternoon where we get to practise our Ewe with the local children there. I'm not quite sure what that means but the continuing volunteers told us that we should look forward to meeting the chief! We'll get pictures up eventually. We promise!!

In Africa, there is always time

"Just relax... just relax"

This is pretty much all we hear from Besa, the country director of our program in Ghana. He's the friendliest guy you've ever met with the typical Ghanaian smile which makes you think half the population is taking prozac. The most important thing Janelle and I have learnt since arriving in Africa, is that there is always time. There is no rush, and no such thing as making a "to do" list. It's how the roll, and it takes some getting used to.

I'm writing on behalf of Janelle because she's at her placement right now at a nursery school called... something. She switched from being a 'professional social worker' (with all the experience she has right?) to teaching little kids. I'm still doing physiotherapy work but the doctor's are on strike right now, so the health sector volunteers got the morning off and are sitting here in an internet cafe. Talking to Besa about my placement, I also hope to be able to set up a program at a local pool (there are 2) to teach some swimming lessons to the kids who frequent it a lot or for parents who want their kids to learn how to swim, so we'll see about that. Also, because we're staying for 8 weeks, we may be able to go to another site (Woe or Akatchi) for a week or so to do some other week. Anyway, that's the news on what we're doing here.

Everyone has been really nice, including the other staff and the volunteers. We stay in a compound just outside of Ho (about a 20-30 minute walk) with about 25 other volunteers. Everyone has gotten really close in such a short amount of time. An example of this is the poo log posted in the bathroom. Everyone, other those who have the guts to share, write the time, the description and their own deep thoughts during their... 'contribution'.

Yesterday, they served grasscutter for lunch, though not many people tried it. It's a large rodent for those who don't know. Speaking of animals,

dog:Mexico
as
goat:Ghana

I've seen one dog so far and it had a collar, otherwise, it's been small goat on the sidewalk, which are really cute, and lots of lizards. No snakes mom, and no big spiders, but lots of mosquitoes at night. During the day it isn't too bad, and there are screens on all the doors, so they hardly get inside.

My new love? COLD SHOWERS.

The first night we arrived, we stayed for a night in Accra in the Beverly Hills Hotel. Where, even though there were bars on the windows and barbed wire on the fence, it is considered a palace because of the air conditioning, tv, stereo and hot water in every room! I was even cold that night! In the house, it's much more hot, with only fans in our rooms, but it's still alright at night. There's a tv in the office which is on all the time because of the World Cup fever and there's always a couple volunteers watching at a time.

Besa, who I mentioned before, likes to talk. And he takes a while to say things so his 'talks' are about an hour or so. He has cool pants though, which we named Besa pants, and we all plan to get a pair in our own choice of bright Ghanaian fabric. Needless to say, Besa is cool.

We've met lots of Ghanaians, including on the plane. We were in the air when the pilot announced that Ghana had won the football game against the Czech Repulic, there was a lot of celebration. Although it wasn't all fun and games, especially when we hit some turbulence and the plane dropped for a long 3-4 seconds. There were many screams and, as we had just gotten dinner, a few chicken casseroles flying through the air. This is why I don't like to fly.

There'll be no pictures in this post, because this computers kind of ghetto, but there's another internet cafe in town that even has a dvd rom. Do you think netflix delivers to Ghana? If anyone is sending mail, know it takes 3-4 weeks to get here, unless you use fedex.

Thanks to people who have left comments! They really brighten our day! We always reply so ask us anything and keep in touch!

Anyway, until next time! Janelle may post soon and share her lovely stories of the Ghanaian children, who are all incredibly adorable.

No malaria or awkward bowel movements yet, but I'll keep you posted haha!
[edited June 21st] Lucky streak promptly over this morning. Janelle is still on her lucky streak - we'll see how long that lasts

If I weren't so excited, I'd be scared

Oh jetlag, why have though forsaken me??? I think that's how our day started on Wednesday. We were both up ridiculously early. Of course, being the well trained child I am, I fell asleep after a little breakfast and woke up at a more decent hour (Silan did not - but she did get through a good amount of a Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld). We ventured out into the great city of London to see what we could see. See ALL that we could see. We started in Trafalgar Square. From there, it was a whirlwind of London by foot. The National Museum, Covent Garden and Leicester Square all in quick succession. We then took our time walking along the Thames from the London Eye all the way to the rebuilt Globe Theatre.

The world of art welcomed us in again at the Tate Modern. The gallery was calling us. The first room we went in to had artwork by a Canadian artist. It was this giant red wall of cloth made from all sorts of clothing. Different shades of red. It was inspired by his Native-Canadian heritage. Some of our favourite pieces (I'm speaking for Silan here...she may correct me later) include: the egg shaped sculpture almost 6 or 7 feet tall with the a slice of light that symbolized the creation of the universe AND we can't forget, the wall of music. It look like blank staff paper (music with 5 lines on it for writing) only the lines were made up of newspaper clippings about news in the world and the gaps in the lines symbolized the notes heard when the news was read.

After the Tate, we walked over the millenium bridge and tried to see St. Paul's Cathedral. Lucky for the Queen, it was closed for her birthday service. Instead, we sat on the steps and watched this little boy chase after pigeons. This kid looked like he was having the most fun in the world with these pigeons. He's run after them, flapping his wings, yelling 'AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.' It must've been fun because his sister caught on and imitated him as well. [Look for a video soon to be posted of our rendition of 'The Pigeon on the Rocks'].

We decided that we hadn't walked enough yet and walked all the way back to Covent Gardens, then Leceister Square to pick up our tickets for Avenue Q and grab dinner, then back to Covent Gardens for a bit, then back again to Leceister Square for the show.

The musical was amazing. Think muppets gone wild mixed with family guy and queer eye. With Ernie and Bert-esque characters, one discovering his homosexuality, porn-obsessed monsters, and muppet strippers, what could possibly be missing??? These are some song titles to get the idea: "The internet is for porn" and "Everyone's a little bit racist", and some quotes: "If you were gay, that'd be okay" and the first line of the show "What do you do with a BA in English".

The next day we had a mini-adventure to Oxford. On the tube on the way to the bus station, we learned that just because taking three different lines on the tube has less stops, doesn't mean that it's faster than taking one tube with many more stops. We got to the right bus about 20 minutes after our booked tickets were for, but luckily someone had been hit by a car and the buses were delayed so we didn't actually miss it. Was that inappropriate? Too soon?

We got to Oxford safe and sound and made our way to a few attractions, most importantly Christ Church where the Great Hall in Harry Potter is as well as the staircase where Neville found his frog in the first movie haha. We met up with Miriam and had dinner in the park where we were attacked by a small flock of flies. At first we thought it was because we were near the grass, then we moved to the middle of the field and thought it was the pizza, then when the pizza was gone we realized it was Miriam. Like an old lady with cats, Miriam will grow to be an old lady with flies. The day ended far too soon and we had to make our way back to London.

Don't you wish your dining hall looked like THIS?

This picture was taken moments before we missed our

bus (too busy saying goodbye and the driver drove away)
and had to wait 15 minutes for the next one

Today, on Friday, we made our way to St. Paul's Cathedral, where we 'visited our relative, Sir John Ren fnie' and got inor free, waving the 10 pound fee and the line to get in. Of course we paid our respects to our great great great grandparent as well as Sir John A. Macdonald (Cool guy eh?). We then made our way to the British Museum (pictured below), which unfortunately was too close to closing, however we did get to go through a few exhibits and see the Rosetta stone.

Our day came to an end with some Indian food and the show, Chicago. Tynan and Carolyn (Silan's brother and his girlfriend) joined us in the city for dinner and the show. We got to have a nice sit-down dinner with superb fresh naan. The show was great. I think it may have been ruined because I already saw the movie but it was still good nevertheless. The highlights of the show include men in velour pants and women on ladders...you shoud go and see it :) [Personally, I, Janelle, think that it wouldn't win over Avenue Q. Mostly because, could you turn down a show with a song about the internet and porn? I think not!] [Silan agrees - muppets and racism over murderers and all that jazz]

We're off tomorrow afternoon to Africa. I have to keep saying it out loud because otherwise it doesn't quite feel real. We've gotten our placements over the last couple of days. We'll both be working at the Volta Regional Hospital; Silan in the physiotherapy department and Janelle in the Social Welfare Unit.

It may be another long flight, Silan may freak out again and Janelle may just sleep the whole flight, we may be throwing ourselves into an unbearably hot climate, but at least...

at least...

... at least we won't be jetlagged?

Nontheless, Africa is Africa, and we're far too excited to be worried about long flights, the wings falling off the plane [That's all Silan's paranoia], and hot weather.

written by Janelle AND Silan (if you were confused on who 'I' was... sorry we took turns writing throughout)

look at Silan being so rebellious

look at Janelle being so stupid

When in England, Do Like the English

So we've arrived safe and sound in London after a "quick" 9 hour flight on the death machine- I mean plane. Is it really natural to be going 900 km/hr 40 000 ft in the air in a tube of metal? Some people *cough* Janelle *cough* fly something like 20-30 times a year and so have become immune to the hurtling-through-air-idea. Some people fall asleep as soon as they board and pass out right through the take-off and leave other people twiddling their thumbs and wondering whether that noise was the wheels going up or the wheels falling off. To add to this, pre-flight, the man sitting directly behind me said to the flight attendent "um... I have a problem with vomiting. What do I do if I vomit?" Great.

But it wasn't all bad, we did watch a movie called Duma about a cheetah (MOMS CAN WE HAVE A CHEETAH???).

After getting to my brother, Tynan's apartment, (yes mom, he got a haircut. yes mom, his apartment is nice and clean) we headed into central London to try and catch Janelle's stepmom before she left town. After seeing her fancy-schmancy-Sultan-of-Brunei-owned hotel, we felt a little out of place with our backpacks, sandals, and the classic post-flight glows (ie. sweaty and exhausted) so we went out to discover the many opportunities in Hyde park.

We chose the opportunity to lose our way in London's largest open space, get caught in a short rainstorm, walk an extra half hour to the wrong tube station, and find our way again, with only the airplane's questionable breakfast sandwich in our bellies.

Things we've learned so far:
1. Look right when crossing the street.
2. Pedestrians do not have the right of way.
3. The tube during rush hour is like sitting in an armpit.