The spelling I’m using is phonetic and not how you would write the language, because I can’t produce two of the characters they use on this keyboard. Also, the translation is not exact because I’m lazy.
Meh daasay = Thanks
Akwaaba = Welcome!
Ete sen = How are you?
Eh ye = I’m fine.
Na wo so eh = And you, how are you?
Wo din day sen = What is your name?
Meh din day John = My name is John
Meh re ko Legon = I’m going to Legon
Wo bay jay sen = What is the fare (for the taxi)?
Meh paa cho, te so = Please, reduce it
te so bio kakra = reduce it again a little
Yoo, Yenko = Alright, let’s go.
Way sen = This is how much?
Meh pay ankaa = I would like an orange
and the most popular word:
Oburoni = foreigner
About a week and a half ago, some bad waakye (spicy rice and beans) sent about 35 students to the hospital/toilet. Apparently, the seller had been incorporating the leftover waakye from the previous day into her batch for the current day. Even if you haven’t completed a course in differential equations to learn about mixing problems, you can probably figure out what is wrong with this money saving strategy. While waakye is my favorite meal here, I didn’t have any of the offending legumes, so I was fine. As a result of the incident though, they stopped selling waakye on campus while an investigation was conducted, and they shut down the seller responsible for the food poisoning. Today I noticed that they had started selling waakye again, and in a moment of weakness, I had a big bowl for lunch. I noticed a lot of other people eating it, and I’ve had it dozens of times before without any repercussions. So, what do you think? Am I making a bad decision?
Filed under: Uncategorized
For those of you who have been following my earlier posts, you will remember that I packed everything into two small duffles and a bookbag. I was the lightest packer for this trip among all of the American students in my program by far. Some people have asked me for packing advice, which I’ve started to prepare and put on a new page called “what to bring.” You can see the link on the left of the page, or by clicking here.
As of today, I only have 53 days left before I have to board a flight back to Minneapolis. I have a lot of things I still want to do before I go, and I’m going to have a hard time leaving Ghana. It’s been a challenging experience at times, but the positives have far outweighed the negatives.
Just to update everyone on some of my more recent adventures (I’ll make sure to get some photos up when I find a computer that can do that):
After my near crushing death in Togo, I went to the Volta Region in Eastern Ghana. There I stayed at the Taste Lodge Complex in Hohoe, which I would readily recommend to anyone traveling in the area. The rooms were spotless, the food was hot and good, and the owner was really helpful in answering all of our questions about the area.
With a good nights rest under our belt, Rohini, Preston, and I went to the Wli waterfall, which is the tallest in Ghana. They have a really nice trail to walk on, and along the way we had a really knowledgeable guide who had a pretty good tour to give. Some young Ghanaians came along the path with plastic containers with something moving in them. At first I thought they were crayfish, but when they opened the container I saw they were huge crickets, with bodies as big as a fun-size candy bar. The guide told me that they are very tasty when you make a stew with them. “Juicy and sweet with a lot of fat,” was his assessment.
After seeing the waterfall, the guide told us that there was a hike to the top, but it was pretty strenuous. Rohini went to go meet some other people at a monkey preserve, but Preston and I opted to make the trek to the top. We saw some friends of ours just coming back from it, and they called it “a two-hour death march” but we figured they were just being dramatic. It turned out to be about a 60 degree incline over sharp rocks that we were basically scrambling over for an hour each way. Preston’s watch had an altimeter, and it measured a 1000 foot elevation change, but the actual figure is probably higher due to the humidity affecting the reading. We had to stop several times to catch our breath, but when we finally made it to the top it was awesome. We had a quick swim under the falls, which was actually pretty painful due to the volume of the water crashing down, and then we hiked back. I’ve seen plenty of waterfalls, but the Wli waterfall was probably one of the most impressive that I can remember
The next day we caught a Tro-Tro heading towards the monkey preserve, but it could only take us as far as the junction that was 5km outside of the town. We figured that it would be a quick hike, but didn’t count on the heat of the midday sun. We were forced to improvise and fashion hats out of banana leaves.
Once we reached the preserve, we got to feed a troop (is troop the right word for a group of monkeys?) of mona monkeys some bananas. It was really awesome to hold onto the banana while they peeled it and ate it. To be only arms length from (sort of) wild monkeys was a real experience. They were very sneaky though and an especially quick one stole our last banana from right behind us when we weren’t looking.
Last weekend I stayed in Accra except for a quick day trip to another two waterfalls near about an hour and a half outside of the city. On Friday night I went to a local Jazz club, Jazz Tones, which had a two-piece group (Piano and Drums) that was a real treat to watch. The owner came out and sang a few numbers, and it was easy to imagine that I was back at home at the Artists Quarter in St. Paul.
If you’re considering a trip here, I would really recommend it. Ticket prices here can be a little extreme – a cheap one would be around $1300, and I payed around $2300 for mine. However, if you can scrape together the cash, It’s totally worth it. The people are very friendly, the country is safe, and travel within the region is relatively cheap. I also think that as the Dollar continues to fall vs. the Euro and Pound, Africa and Latin America will become more popular alternatives to the European vacation.
Every Tuesday evening, there is a migration of students towards the gas station across the street from campus. The event is Terrific Tuesdays, which means pizzas are half price. The pizzas aren’t terribly good, nor is half price especially cheap, but I go most weeks for the company and also for the strange people that I meet there. Last night I met a self-advertised arms dealer. He insisted on being called “president” and swore that George Bush is the most objective president we have ever had and that we needed to go to war with Iran “as soon as possible” to protect Israel. I pointed out that perhaps his arguments were a little in his own self interest if he really was an arms dealer. “There are more Christians than Muslims in the world, so we can’t let Muslims win, can we?” was his well-reasoned reply. At this point I decided it was probably best to distance myself from him. I’m actually kind of skeptical that he is actually an arms dealer. He was driving a Toyota Corolla, and hanging out at a mediocre pizza joint, which are not the sort of behaviors I associate with international arms dealers.
Filed under: Uncategorized
I’m tired of being sick all the time.
I’m tired of being yelled at because of the color of my skin.
I’m tired of the disgusting bathrooms.
I’m tired of waiting forever for internet pages to load.
I’m tired of waking up at 6:30 every morning because of that fricking bus honking its horn.
I’m tired of the nutritionally vacant food.
I’m tired of 2 hour long dictation sessions that are supposed to pass for my classes.
I’m tired of the smell of rotting garbage.
I’m tired of never receiving correct change.
I’m tired of getting ripped off.
I’m tired of a lot more things that are inappropriate to post on the internet.
But at the end of the day, I’m still glad to be in Ghana.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Over the weekend, I decided to take a quick trip to Togo. My entry permit for Ghana was expiring on Friday, and I didn’t want to pay $10 for a 30 day extension, so my plan was to leave the country for three hours, eat a sandwich in Lome and then cross back into Ghana and get a new 60 day entry permit. Since Lome is only about 4 hours away from Accra, this was going to be a pretty easy trip. The only problem with my plan was the fact I have the French vocabulary of a 18 month old. I know: “bonjour,” “merci,” and “au revoir.” I can also count to ten. Actually, considering my horrible pronunciation, I bet an 18 month old would do considerably better than me.
In the end, the border crossing went smoothly, and I decided to walk a mile along the beach while looking for a place to get a sandwich. About every five minutes, and new Togolese guy would come up to me and start asking me complicated multi variable calculus questions in French. (I’m just assuming what they were talking about here, because as I’ve said before, I am pretty much useless when French is spoken.) One guy was incredibly persistent, and kept showing me some postcards that I assume he painted and wanted me to buy for some wildly inflated price. He actually stopped me and made me look at them for a few seconds and kept forcing them into my hands saying, “You pay! You pay!” I extracted myself from the situation and started walking again only to see a truck back into a gigantic concrete sign and send it crashing down right where I would have been standing. It’s not usually a good sign when you almost die after being in a country for less than an hour.
With that thrilling experience under my belt, I ducked into a nearby restaurant, ordered a beer and a sandwich, ate, paid, and went on my merry way back into Ghana. I’m going to try to go back in a few weeks with some francophones, and perhaps then I’ll fare a little better.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 4x4, Antelope, elephant, ghana, lake, Mole, Safari, sunset, warthog, waterfall
This post has been long delayed, because I was hoping to get a chance to put some pictures up with it. Unfortunately, I can’t post high enough resolution photos to do the animals justice, but I do have some good scenery shots.
Way back in September, I visited Mole National Park, which is the largest game reserve in Ghana. It takes about 15 hours to get there by bus, mainly because a good portion of the route is dirt roads that have potholes that could swallow a Hummer H2. Fortunately for this trip, we had a brand new tour bus with two seats to each person.
On the way, we went through Kumasi, and visited Lake Bosumtwi, the largest natural lake in all of Ghana. Depending on who you ask, the lake was either formed by a giant meteor smashing into the ground a few million years ago, or a legendary Ashanti hunter who chased an antelope into the lake which protected the animal but gave him fish to eat so he settled down, calling the lake Bosumtwi, meaning “good antelope.”
The lake holds a lot of spiritual significance to the Ashanti, as they believe that the souls of the dead come to the lake to bid farewell to the god Twi. To honor this, they only allow wooden planks to be used as fishing boats, rather than the dugout canoes which are used everywhere else. (Though the locals have a huge motorboat that will take you out on the lake for 50 Ghana Cedis.)
After wandering around and taking some pictures, we headed off for the Kintampo waterfall. The caretaker of this beautiful three-tiered waterfall claimed that the volume of water increased as more visitors came, but we were unable to test this claim during our brief visit.
We spent the night in Kumasi and left early the next morning to start the ten-hour leg of our trip. By the tenth hour of a 20 mile per hour crawl over roads that NASA could have tested the Mars rover on, everyone was starting to get a little antsy. Later I heard stories that the trip can take up to 30 hours if your bus breaks down multiple times, so I guess I should be grateful. When we finally arrived at 9pm it was dark, so we went off to bed hoping the next morning’s hike would bring some exciting animals.
The hike began at 6:30 in the morning, and the ranger suggested we rent boots for $1 before beginning. I thought this was a great idea, but they ran out before I got a pair, so I was stuck with my running shoes. On the hike we saw lots of animals: antelope, monkeys, baboons, birds, and my personal favorite: Warthogs.
It looked like we were going to miss the animal that drew us to the park, but then across a lake and hiding behind a bush we saw it: The African Elephant. Honestly, it was kind of a let-down to see it so far away. The picture I took could just as likely be bigfoot or the loch-ness monster: a blurry gray speck peeking out of the bush. Later I heard about a group that almost got stampeded by three of them. No fair. On the walk back we had to tromp through a marsh and ford a stream, so I was pretty muddy and wet by the end, but I was really satisfied with the whole experience.
After a bucket-bath and some lunch, we headed to Larabanga mosque, which they claim is the oldest mosque in West Africa. The tour started with “the mystic stone” which as far as I can tell was a big rock. The tour guide told us that the stone had mystically appeared during the construction of the road, and each time it was moved, it came back in the night. On the third night the workers slept by the rock after it was moved, but then THEY disappeared during the night, never to be heard from again. At the time, it was a big slave trade road, so it’s kind of an uplifting story, but it really just looks like a big rock that three guys could move on their own. The mosque itself was beautiful, though we weren’t allowed inside. It’s made entirely of mud and sticks and has four entrances, each with a special meaning, though I promptly forgot all of them after we got back on the bus. I should really take better notes.
When we got back, we decided to take another safari, this time in a 4×4 truck. It was $10 a person, which I thought was kind of steep, but it did give me an opportunity to wear my sweet safari hat and sit on the roof of a truck. This is the first, and probably last picture you will ever see of me in safari garb.
The car safari kind of sucked. It was mid-day so it was really hot, meaning all the animals were taking a siesta. Plus, the sound of an engine makes most animals who aren’t asleep run away. Still, I think a 4×4 safari is something you have to do once in Africa, and I got this sweet picture of us about to caulk the wagon and float it.
I took plenty of pictures of animals running away from me, then went for a swim in the pool, grabbed a beer, and waited for the sun to set. All-in-all, a pretty great trip.
Filed under: Travel
UPDATE: Pictures!
Traveling west away from Accra, you might notice a sign pointing towards a ordinary junction. You might decide to follow that road and end up at the point where the pavement ends facing a dirt road hardly bigger than a hiking trail at a national park. You might implore the taxi driver to continue driving around the piles of trash and between street vendor stalls. After doing all this, you might end up at Big Milly’s Backyard, which was the nicest and most relaxing place I have ever stayed in my life.
For $8 a night, I got a small room, spotlessly clean with an electric light and a fan, only about 50 yards from a beautiful sandy beach. Oh, and I was only 20 yards from a 24 hour bar, but of course I didn’t spend much time there.
For two and a half days of dips in the ocean, dinners under the coconut palms, and drinks at the bar with people from dozens of countries, including transportation there and back, I spent $60.
The door in the middle is the room I like to stay in. When I’m not with the Earring Lady that is.
Some especially memorable moments of the weekend were:
-Pizzas and chocolate cake at the Kokrobite Garden
-Watching the sun rise after heading to the bar at 3am, getting breakfast, and then going back to bed until 1pm
-Traditional African Music on Friday night
-The phrases “sharing is caring,” “it’s nice to be nice,” and “buy me a beer” repeatedly heard from every rasta there.
-Almost stepping on a huge rat while walking through keneshi station on my way back. What a rude introduction back into my daily life.
I’ve been back two more times since I first wrote this, and each time has been as good as the first.
