KPONG! KPONG!

It's been a whole week since we last put up a post, but never fear! We are still alive and well, yet to be kidnapped by bandits or eaten by a pack of goats. The last week has been quite busy. Sunday, we climbed a nearby mountain. They call it a hike, but when you have to use rope to climb straight up rocks, I call it rock climbing. It took about 2 hours to get up to the top, and 1 hour to get down. There was a lot of falling and a lot of dirt, so my running shoes may not make it home.

At the beginning of the week, I got a chance to go to the other CCS site in Woe to spend a day with a traditional bone healer. The two hour drive to Woe was nothing compared to the 15 hours to Mole, so we go to the fly-infested, sandy beaches of the Woe house in no time. After spending the night in supposed bed bug-infested beds in a room beside the chickens and roosters, another volunteer, Julia, a translator, Promise, and I headed to see the bone healer. We were given strict instructions to be ready at 7:30am to get there at 8am, in order to see a whole day. In usual Ghana fashion, we pull out at 10 after 8.

Most patients go to the bone healer after going to the hospital hasn't helped. Either the bone hasn't been set properly or there was nothing they could do. They see the old woman, who treated the bones by setting them then applying different herbs for healing. If the bone isn't healed the next time they come, 'dirty blood' is drawn out by making cuts with a razor in swollen places and using a lighted match in a jar against the skin to draw out the blood. The whole process was very interesting, although a bit creepy.

People are coming in one after the other to be treated. The bone healer works every day from 7-12 and sees each patient every 2 or 3 days. The woman herself is very animated when she talked, not that we knew what she was saying. Apparently she goes on and on, saying the same things over again about all the places she's gone and all the people she's treated. She went through some of the x-rays of patients and was able to talk about all the patients she's had over 20 years.

Wednesday, Janelle, Kristen and I went to Accra for the day to visit HelpAge Ghana and the day centre they run. We were able to meet with one of the staff and learn about their community awareness programs as well as see the day centre for seniors that they have set up. Although it's good to have a centre set up, there are only about 12 people that go every day because they each have to be mobile and find their own transportation to and from the centre. It was a really great trip overall; Janelle is bad at the name game.

Today (Saturday), Janelle, Lisa and I made our way back to the Cedi Bead factory, which we went by on one of the earlier weekend trips. What we thought would be a short 3 hour trip, turned into 6 hours, but it was fun nonetheless! We sharpened our tro-tro hailing skills, didn't overpay and got some mighty fine beads by the end.

Tro-tros are a funny business. We got on a tro-tro (big vans that people can hop on and off of, meant to seat 12 but fitting up to 22 people, which we discovered when riding back from the mountain hike) to Kpong (I'd write out how to spell it, but I'm pretty sure we don't use that sound in English), but had to wait 45 minutes at the station for the whole van to fill up. The ride there was about 1 hour 40 minutes. Then we took a tro-tro to Somanya because the taxis were overcharging us. This took us about 15 minutes. We managed to find Cedi Beads, spent about an hour there, then made the long haul back to Ho. This time we had to flag down a tro-tro on the street. The driver's don't actually stop, they just brake a little and you shout where you're going as they drive by. "KPONG!" "KPONG!" ends up sounding similar to a fly buzzing loudly past your ear. Success! We got on a tro-tro to Kpong, then got on one there to Ho. After waiting 30 minutes for it to fill up, and about an hour to get back, we were dropped off nicely right outside the CCS driveway. Maybe it was too much of an effort for beads... but they're just so darn pretty.

I am le tired and I still have to do some laundry tonight. Sigh. The first thing I'm doing when I get home is throwing my clothes into a nice quick and easy washing machine. Then I'm pretty sure I'm going to take a shower to rinse off 2 months of Ghanaian dirt and sweat. It's a daily ritual at the house to spend hours talking about what we're going to do when we get back home. It's usually very detailed and entails food. Janelle and I have 3 weeks to go and some days it doesn't seem like long enough!

Where has the time gone?

We've now been in Ghana for exactly four weeks and one day. Crazy eh? It's flewn by. It seems like just yesterday we landed in Ghana and were trying to find our way through the throngs at the airport to find our group of CCS volunteers. Today the next group of new volunteers arrived. We all had to try and keep the staring to a minimum. Not everyone was home when they got here as several had left early this morning on a hike up Mount Adaklu.

I stayed home and rested because of my cough and cold. This was the first weekend we've had at home and it felt good to just rest and hang out. I don't know where yesterday went. We ran some errands, got some clothes made, and then spent the rest of the day around the house. We played a pretty fine game of Charades. I think we might have scared one of the new volunteers that arrived last night. First, we played a round of Charades written by Kristen. Then we tried one where we each put in something. Everyone kept yelling out what the answer was for the ones that they had written down. Apparently it's really hard to resist screaming out your answer.

This past Wednesday, I decided to go to another school, Royal Nursery and Preschool. I've really enjoyed there and I think I'll be going there from now on. The children are a little older than at Victoria and the staff is equally friendly. There are these two kids that I'm absolutely in love with. I think their names are spelled Sedem and Adziji. Both of them are a bit shy but I'm making progress. On Friday, we walked around the playground together. They are both two years old so I'm not teaching them but I still get to see them during recess.

In my own class, I help out Sister Rose (who happens to be only 18!) with whatever she needs help in. Sometimes, the class of 30+ four and five year olds are split in to two groups and I try and work with the more advanced ones. I've found I really like teaching math...even though I thought I hated math. Tomorrow, Ashley and I are going to teacher about Nature. I think we're going to do sea creatures. The kids love it when I try and draw because I'm so horrible at it. I can't wait to see them tomorrow!

I know we haven't put pictures up in a while but I promise I'll try next time. Right now, I believe it is nap time :)

Satisfactions

On July 7, Janelle said:

And then there were 9...

Today is a very sad day. Three weeks ago, 13 volunteers arrived in Ho. To get acquainted with everyone, we'd ask the usual slew of questions. Where are you from? Are you still in college? And then the most important question, 'How long will you be here for?' Back then, three weeks sounded like forever. Yet here we are, with four volunteers going back to the US :( Steph, Doug, Courtney, and Ben. Steph, the recent college graduate who's going to save the world one day. Doug, the seventeen year old with the best pants ever and who's best line was "Y'all have such weird accents" in a strong Texan accent. Courtney who knows more about American politics than most politicians. And Ben, the diabetic who has taught us all about diabetes and what happens when your blood sugar is too low.

Unfortunately, with their departure, we are left with only one boy. Which might as well be no boys. It's been a rough couple of days with everyone sick and then the thought of people leaving. I hope that when we leave, we are able to enjoy the last couple of days instead of lying in bed, hoping that the bathroom doesn't call on you again.

Almost everyone isn't quite 100%. This virus has attacked almost all the volunteers. Some of the great symptoms include diarrhea, vomitting, fever, headache, body aches....Exciting eh? Due to this our trip to Mole has been postponed one day and the numbers dwindled from 9 to 6.

* * * * *

Silan says:

After travelling 15 hours and 53 minutes in a van, you start to wonder why the hell you're doing what you're doing. But 15 hours and 54 minutes after leaving at 4:30am that morning, you remember why. There we were, at Mole National Park, home to elephants, crocodiles, antelope, baboons, warthogs and more, and all the horrors of the unfortunate bathroom situations and uncomfortable sleeping positions along the way seemed to disappear.

Please let me explain the unfortunate bathroom situations along the way. We drove north through Kumasi to get to Mole, and although Kumasi was city almost as big and busy as Accra, wouldn't you know it, we didn't stop to use the bathroom there. One "bathroom" was a slanted room into which the urine drained into the corner and out of the room... pleasant. Another was a 2 square inch hole in a wooden cubicle, in which I had to perform some magic. Others vaguely resembled toilets, but none flushed or had toilet paper - a key commodity when travelling in Africa.

We stayed two nights at the Mole Motel. Don't worry, this was no botel. 3 to a room, a bathroom (though not always running water), and real mattresses! None of this latex foam nonsense that we've slept on for weeks. So after restless hours trying to discover how to sleep sitting up, I slept like a log. Janelle, on the other hand, has mastered the art of sleeping on unpaved roads and spent most of the night coughing pleasant phlegm.

The next morning, bright and early, as things go in Ghana, we set out for a safari walk through the park. Seeing as the park is over 400 square kilometres, we only scratched the surface, but were successful in seeing many elephants bathing in the waterholes, warthogs, baboons, antelope, green monkeys and a crocodile, which our awesome guide, Yeboah, scared into the water so we could see it jump in. The walk was amazing early in the morning when it wasn't too hot and the animals were out and about. Don't worry parents, we don't get too close to the animals, the lions stay deeper in the park and our guide has a gun, which he was very proud to carry.

Later that day, we rented bikes and biked about 5 km to Larabanga, which houses the oldest mosque in Ghana. The ride was great, although it was mid-afternoon and the sun was heavy, the only problem were the hoards are people from the village crowding around us the whole time trying to get us to pay them to take us on a tour of the village. At least 15 people followed the 6 of us around as we tried to take pictures of just the mosque. After too much more hassling, we decided to leave and opted against coming back to Larabanga that night to see the dancing and drumming entertainment they were prepared to show us. Even as we walked back to our bikes, a boy was telling me that he loves to play football and he's number 12 on his team. But his football broke so he can't play anymore. The last Canadian who had come by gave him 10 000 cedis to contribute... I was not the only one who got that story!

The motel overlooked the vast park that ressembled an ocean in that it seemed to go on forever into the horizon. Even from the pool, you could see the elephants in their waterhole and the antelope and warthogs behind them in the plains. We sat and watched the forest, astounded that the only noise you could truly hear was the bushes rustling and birds tweeting, and not a hint of a car motor... then we saw the warthogs mating... don't worry we have video and plan to synch it with the techno version of 'Satisfactions' by Benny Benassi.

Along with the rest of the football world, we watched the world cup final that night, then proceeded to pass out after such a tiring day. After all, we were leaving at 4am the next morning...

14 hours later, we arrived back in Ho, never so happy to our functional toilets and to see our fellow volunteers who we've all grown close with. Although the long drive was definitely worth it, I hope that next time, the elephants come to visit us.

Lifeguards can drown too

Things we've learnt so far(written by Silan):
1. Ben the diabetic tells good pun jokes when his blood sugars low
2. Denise abuses the comment section
3. Sam needs to send Janelle and I a message in a bottle... think of the madness (don't think of the outrageous shipping costs or the time it would take to get here)
4. There is such thing as a botel - not a hotel, but not quite a motel
5. Never sit in the back row of a tro-tro
6. An out-of-tune a capella rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen never gets old
7. Janelle's hat is very popular among the merchants at the Accra Cultural Market
8. Everyone needs to buy a drum (and yes, yes we did)
9. This computer has a webcam!
10. Frosted Flakes cost $15 CAN in Accra

An FAQ guide to our weekend(written by Janelle)

What is a botel?
Well, scientifically speaking, we only have one botel from which we can describe the true essence of what a botel really is but one botel is all you need. The Hans Cottage Botel, located approximately 10km from Cape Coast, was everything you could want from a jail cell. When I think of jail cell, the first thing that comes to mind is the Rock. Nicholas Cage and Sean Connery trying to escape. I imagine Mr. Connery was very creative when he thought about using the legs on his bed to break open the doors of his cell. Unfortunately, our beds didn't even have legs. Two boxes, side by side, well equiped with bed bugs etc. The white washed walls and single desk with chair fit perfectly into this budget room. There was a communal and questionable bathroom at the end of the hall for atleast 20 people to use. The botel also had a pool and a crocodile pond but after our late night experiences hunting for bed bugs with Deet and sleeping with bug spray at the ready, we couldn't have been more excited to go home.

Why shouldn't seventeen year old boys be allowed to go on canopy walks?
This is a very good question. I myself would've thought that this would be a great experience for a young strapping boy. Viewing the world from 40 metres in the air would be quite amazing and speechless adventure for most boys but not this one. Oh Doug. Not only did Doug jump with two feet onto the canopy walk, he attempted to run from one viewing platform to another without the use of the railings. Everyone else walked with one foot in front of another, trying to stabilize the walk but not Doug. He'd see how far on each side he could step without touching the netting. In the future, be aware of who you walk behind and maybe more importantly, who's walking behind YOU.

What should you do if you see a big wave coming and it is too late for you to go over and too late for you to go under?
This question would've been best answered before we ventured in to the water at the beach. We'd been warned of the possibility that while we went swimming, some friends may disappear due to the strong undertow. We did not take this seriously. Instead, we swam out there, happily enjoying the MASSIVE waves and the strong undercurrent. It was all fun and games until we realized what was really going on. First I lost a contact; this is rather usual for swimming. Then Steph lost her hair tie. I'm not talking about it falling out of her hair or something. I'm talking about the strength of the wave pulling it off her arm. Then, as Silan likes to put it, the "tumbling and molestation began." That's really what it was. You'd see a wave and we'd all be yelling, "OVER, UNDER, OVER, ahhhhh" and you just had to make the best judgement. We did alright until we'd make the decision too late and the world would go black (or white if you're weird like Silan) and you wouldn't know where the ground was, where the sky was, how you were going to make it out, what (or who) in the world you were ramming yourself in to. We got quite shaken up several times and yet we kept going back in. It was hard to resist getting back in the warm water where you get closer to fellow daredevils after going through near death experiences together. In the end, Becca taught us how to save ourselves. When you start to see the wave break and it's too late to just dive a little under the surface or go over the wave altogether, go straight to the bottom of the ocean and grab a hand full of sand. It worked like a charm and we'd go back to the waves in a heartbeat.

Bargaining 101
The Accra cultural market was just another form of the molesting at the beach. Everyone tried to get our attention by saying things like "looking is free" and "Ni hao ma?" thinking we spoke Chinese (or even "Konichiwa"...maybe we ARE Japanese!). We dipped our feet in the tepid waters of bargaining with a small wooden sculpture. From there it escalated in to drums, flags, t-shirts, even a few paintings!! To avoid persistent merchants, try saying "Maybe later" or "I have to go eat lunch." To get a lower price, one of the most effective ways is to say "I have to go eat lunch! What if I don't have money to eat!!" Walking away and shaking your head are also very useful. We managed to get several things down to 50% off, sometimes even 60% off. To a merchant, we look like typical tourists but we were well taught by Yao. Trust Yao.

Why is it unsafe to sit in the back of a tro-tro?
The back row of a tro-tro might look inviting at first glance. You have more head space. You can lean forward on the seat in front of you. You can even see everything because you are higher than all the other passengers. DON'T BE DECEIVED. This row, particularly the middle seat where you are unprotected from flying straight through the windshield, is downright dangerous. Silan and Christie both have war wounds from their backrow experience. Post-traumatic stress has also seemed to overwhelm Silan. She is no longer at ease while in the car on the way to placement. This may come from the fact that on several occasions, she bounced off of the chairs, the ceiling, and the back of the car. The last straw was this massive bump where I flew almost a foot in the air and looked back to see Silan mid-bounce flying over into the seat in front of her. Also, these seats are not cushioned very much. They are mostly just leather over a metal frame. Now that we have learned, we know that on our 14 hour drive this weekend, DO NOT SIT IN THE BACK.

It may only be 8:30 but in the Ghanaian way of life, "Rest first, just sleep." That's what we're off to do!

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