aripeskoe
(living in ghana)
16 June 2006
Into The Real...(sort of)
Summarizing my life in blog form is proving to be difficult. At this point, I've only been here 7 days, but 100 new things happen everyday. I will try to keep these short and hopefully interesting (even if onlyto my mother).
So I've finally left the capital city of Accra, by far the most developed part of Ghana. I woke up at 4 AM yesterday to take a bus to a city about 10 hours away to visit a current PC volunteer. There were one of two things out the window during the ride. The first is wide open fields with trees/bushes/hills/etc. This was interesting only because it was wide open fields in Ghana with Ghanaian trees/bushes/etc. Different from Jersey but probably not unique to Ghana. Nature can be very entertaining for a while (we killed amonster-sized scorpion with a stick yesterday - not deadly but supposedly they hurt). The second is the poverty that is rural Africa. Hard to describe exactly what I saw, but of course I could only see what's visible from the main roads. Hopefully I will be able to upload pictures soon.
Now I am in a city of about 30,000 people visiting a PC volunteer. He has an atypical experience. He is teaching computers at a nursing college. He is living in a house that is normally used for foreign doctors. It has three large bedrooms, a huge living/dining area,indoor plumbing, electricity and a full kitchen. All are not quite up to American standards, but for a PC volunteer, this guy is living in luxury. The purpose of this trip is to get a sense of what my next 2 years will be like. Because this guy has such an unusual setup and is teaching at a college and lives on a large campus, I'm not getting any sense for what the next two years will be like, but it's interesting anyway.
Today, I went with Melissa, a girl in my training group who will also be a computer teacher, for a walk around the city. We started out at the nursing college and talked to students in the computer lab. All that I spoke to had not used a computer until they got to college. The PC volunteer I was visiting had taught them how to use Windows and the basics of the standard Office programs (this is essentially what I will be teaching for the next 2 years).
We're pretty much the only white people here (except for a few people at the hospital) and we attract a lot of attention. We're basically like celebrities. Most people are very friendly, especially small children. Small Ghanaian children love white people. We're like Disney characters. They come up to us and want to talk to us and laughwith/at us, hug us, etc. Then we went to the market. Again, lots of attention. A few people call us "obrooni," which is the equivalent of a reverse N-word. Some people probably don't know it's derogatory and others may not know any better.
We ended up sitting with a woman who was chopping and selling cassava in the market. We spent at least an hour with her. She, along with the other women and children around her, were trying to teach us Twii, the local language. Some spoke English, many did not. Again, we're like celebrities and everyone wants to be our friend and get our address or phone number. They all loved having their pictures taken. That was an interesting experience for a while, but being the center of attention is exhausting.
I will be here in this city until Wednesday, and then it's on to another city to meet up with the rest of the group for official training. I will be moving in with a Ghanaian family. Hopefully I willbe able to tell you about it when I get there, but the rumor is that the city's only Internet cafe is broken...
Addendum #1: There is a kiosk in this city that has a ton of Stephon Marbury/Knicks merchandise. Hopefully, the Knicks will send him to Ghana ASAP. Other fun jerseys I saw today - Larry Johnson on the Larry Johnson on the Hornets, Drew Bledsoe on the Patriots and Michael Strahan. This may cease to amuse me, but so far this is still a fun game.
Addendum #2: Matt asked me to compare the college campus we we're staying on in Accra to Hotel Cosmos in Athens. No comparison. If Cosmos is a 2-star, the college is half-star. Unless you're in thefanciest places, there is no hot water here. Most of the sinks did not work in the college and the electricity shut off a few times. I think the rooms at the Cosmos had A/C. The college had ceiling fans, which will be a luxury for me for the next two years.
Addendum #3: I saw a monkey the other day at a restaurant. The waitress tried to hand it a banana, but the monkey wasn't going forit. So she threw it at him. The monkey thought it was being attacked and curled up into its pouncing position. So be careful about feeding monkeys. There is a great monkey sanctuary near the city I am travelling to next. Hopefully I will be able to go.
¶ 3:07 PM
So I've finally left the capital city of Accra, by far the most developed part of Ghana. I woke up at 4 AM yesterday to take a bus to a city about 10 hours away to visit a current PC volunteer. There were one of two things out the window during the ride. The first is wide open fields with trees/bushes/hills/etc. This was interesting only because it was wide open fields in Ghana with Ghanaian trees/bushes/etc. Different from Jersey but probably not unique to Ghana. Nature can be very entertaining for a while (we killed amonster-sized scorpion with a stick yesterday - not deadly but supposedly they hurt). The second is the poverty that is rural Africa. Hard to describe exactly what I saw, but of course I could only see what's visible from the main roads. Hopefully I will be able to upload pictures soon.
Now I am in a city of about 30,000 people visiting a PC volunteer. He has an atypical experience. He is teaching computers at a nursing college. He is living in a house that is normally used for foreign doctors. It has three large bedrooms, a huge living/dining area,indoor plumbing, electricity and a full kitchen. All are not quite up to American standards, but for a PC volunteer, this guy is living in luxury. The purpose of this trip is to get a sense of what my next 2 years will be like. Because this guy has such an unusual setup and is teaching at a college and lives on a large campus, I'm not getting any sense for what the next two years will be like, but it's interesting anyway.
Today, I went with Melissa, a girl in my training group who will also be a computer teacher, for a walk around the city. We started out at the nursing college and talked to students in the computer lab. All that I spoke to had not used a computer until they got to college. The PC volunteer I was visiting had taught them how to use Windows and the basics of the standard Office programs (this is essentially what I will be teaching for the next 2 years).
We're pretty much the only white people here (except for a few people at the hospital) and we attract a lot of attention. We're basically like celebrities. Most people are very friendly, especially small children. Small Ghanaian children love white people. We're like Disney characters. They come up to us and want to talk to us and laughwith/at us, hug us, etc. Then we went to the market. Again, lots of attention. A few people call us "obrooni," which is the equivalent of a reverse N-word. Some people probably don't know it's derogatory and others may not know any better.
We ended up sitting with a woman who was chopping and selling cassava in the market. We spent at least an hour with her. She, along with the other women and children around her, were trying to teach us Twii, the local language. Some spoke English, many did not. Again, we're like celebrities and everyone wants to be our friend and get our address or phone number. They all loved having their pictures taken. That was an interesting experience for a while, but being the center of attention is exhausting.
I will be here in this city until Wednesday, and then it's on to another city to meet up with the rest of the group for official training. I will be moving in with a Ghanaian family. Hopefully I willbe able to tell you about it when I get there, but the rumor is that the city's only Internet cafe is broken...
Addendum #1: There is a kiosk in this city that has a ton of Stephon Marbury/Knicks merchandise. Hopefully, the Knicks will send him to Ghana ASAP. Other fun jerseys I saw today - Larry Johnson on the Larry Johnson on the Hornets, Drew Bledsoe on the Patriots and Michael Strahan. This may cease to amuse me, but so far this is still a fun game.
Addendum #2: Matt asked me to compare the college campus we we're staying on in Accra to Hotel Cosmos in Athens. No comparison. If Cosmos is a 2-star, the college is half-star. Unless you're in thefanciest places, there is no hot water here. Most of the sinks did not work in the college and the electricity shut off a few times. I think the rooms at the Cosmos had A/C. The college had ceiling fans, which will be a luxury for me for the next two years.
Addendum #3: I saw a monkey the other day at a restaurant. The waitress tried to hand it a banana, but the monkey wasn't going forit. So she threw it at him. The monkey thought it was being attacked and curled up into its pouncing position. So be careful about feeding monkeys. There is a great monkey sanctuary near the city I am travelling to next. Hopefully I will be able to go.
¶ 3:07 PM
Comments:
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1. Oren loves monkeys. They are the coolest animals.
2. No animals in the fields for your 10-hour drive? no heards of Zebra, wild hippos, giraffes...?
3. What is cassava? http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/CropFactSheets/cassava.html
Oren
2. No animals in the fields for your 10-hour drive? no heards of Zebra, wild hippos, giraffes...?
3. What is cassava? http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/CropFactSheets/cassava.html
Oren
# posted by 
: June 16, 2006 5:22 PM
: June 16, 2006 5:22 PM
Have you seen food carts with exotic foods, like BBQ-Scorpions on a stick, or bugs by the kilo?
# posted by : June 16, 2006 5:24 PM
: June 16, 2006 5:24 PM
What are the bunks like at Ramah Ghana? Is it true the counselors sleep on bunk beds, too?
Seriously though, these posts are amazing. You've officially been bookmarked!
-Simmy
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Seriously though, these posts are amazing. You've officially been bookmarked!
-Simmy
# posted by : June 19, 2006 3:11 PM
: June 19, 2006 3:11 PM<< Home