Ghanaian Trip Diary: Axim and Beyin

The night before at Axim was fabulous. We stayed in adorable chalets right by the beach and it was glorious.

Tuesday morning we were up and ready to move on to Beyin, where the boys would make a move to take a canoe trip to a small village on stilts that my dad had been *dreaming* about since he was a wee lad.

After they left, my mom and I had a nice lunch and headed out to the beach to get some nice work done. Now, the main reason we chose the beach was because our cabin was, uh, on the rustic side. To be honest, when we went to sleep I definitely thought there would be a repeat of the great cockroach incident of 2014 (when I woke at 2 am to a cockroach climbing on my face).

The boys got back safely a few hours later and we all had a light dinner together in the open-air dining room (while fending off hungry cats and ants). Before dinner however, the boys and I headed down to the beach where we spotted some coconut trees.

Determined, we set out to bring some coconuts down.

Ayande found a sturdy palm frond that was large enough that it required all three of us to hoist it up high enough to just brush the coconuts in the tree.

After way too many frustrating attempts and waning natural light, a nearby Ghanaian hotel worker took pity on us and grabbed an official coconut-getter-thingy.

Ayande and I hurried off to grab a cedi to may him from putting us out of our misery. When we got back, he had taken down a HUGE coconut. He brought us to the reception desk where he cut open the coconut for us to enjoy. The fruits ;) of our labor were very much enjoyed.

Next morning, it was time to head home back to Accra!

Ghanaian Travel Diary: Kakum Canopy

Canopy Walk Day! Man, I was SO excited for this walk, if not for the thrill of the heights, then for the thrill of the possible Instagram photo-ops! (I mean, come one :)) 

We headed out to Kakum National Park, hiked up to the canopy walk, and waited anxiously in line for our turn. 

Now, I have a propensity to rile myself when it comes to seemingly daunting events, but there was not an ounce of fear in me! (I promise) 

The walk was glorious and it felt pretty powerful to be so high up in the trees (and think of my peers who were stuck in classrooms while I chilled with monkeys and elephants). 

It's moments like that which really put life into perspective for me. Why stress myself out about AP Biology when I'm on a once-in-a-lifetime trip? Exactly. 

After the walk, we headed back satisfied and carrying numerous Instagram gems.

We headed to Axim, one of the nicest and cutest resorts I have ever been to. 

Ghanaian Travel Diary: Cape Coast

We headed off to Cape Coast where our first stop was the Cape Coast Castle. This was a site that was extremely important for me and my brothers to see and become aware of.

Slavery began in Africa, and it's important to learn about what happened and who tried to stop it and who perpetuated it. There was definitely the appropriately serious tone among me and my family, which was a nice contrast to our normal jokey manner. The trip was a necessary one and one that I'm glad we took.

We headed back to our hotel (Kokado) and went to sleep with exciting thoughts of the canopy walk we would go on the next day. 

World Cup Madness!

Ghana is a HUGE football (soccer) country. They love the sport and take it very seriously. Soccer pitches are ubiquitous. Now, when I say soccer pitch, I don’t mean a field with freshly cut grass. Here, a majority of the fields are not fields at all, and more of a cleared space of dirt or dust on which kids and teens can place a couple of nets and a ball and play. Unfortunately, sports here are more of a male-dominated aspect of life, but soccer is still an important facet of Ghanaian life nonetheless.

The excitement about the World Cup in Ghana started about 7-8 months ago, when Ghana beat Egypt to qualify for the Cup. This sparked the excitement and anxiety for the start of the World Cup, in which Ghana would be competing. This was the first time I would be in a country where their main sport is football for the World Cup. Of course, my family and I were incredibly excited! As it got closer and closer to the start of the World Cup commercials on the TV became more Black Stars (the Ghanaian team) and football related, Ghanaian flags began to pop up on shops and cars throughout the country, and the general feeling of hope for the team began to rise.

The first game of the World Cup that Ghana played in is one that I will never forget. They were set to play the US (how ironic), a team that they had beaten twice previously in other World Cups. My family and I were rooting for Ghana and the US, but would’ve liked to see Ghana win the match. There were high expectations for the Black Stars, but most Ghanaians had no doubt that they would win, easily. The time finally came for the match. My family and I had traveled to a city in Ghana called Kumasi by plane earlier in the day, and were settled in the hotel to watch the match. It was a tense 90 or so minutes to say the least. The US came out strong with an insane less-than-a-minute goal scored by Captain Clint Dempsey. This weakened Ghanaian resolve as they desperately tried to equalize. They were able to, to the relief of every fan in Ghana. The game ended up going into a couple minutes of injury time with a second US goal, and those few minutes of injury time were some of the most heart-attack inducing of my life. Ghana just needed to equalize to gain a point but, in the end, weren’t able to. It was a devastating 2-1 loss for Ghana, but an incredible achievement for the US.

I finally got a taste of watching Ghana play among Ghanaians during their next game against Germany, which they tied 2-2. We decided to venture out to a favorite roadside spot which sold drinks and showed World Cup matches on a giant screen with a projector. This was probably the best choice ever. A ton of Ghanaians turned up and created this awesome, thrilled, revved up atmosphere that made watching the game 10 times more exciting.

Let me help you understand exactly what it’s like watching a Ghanaian World Cup game with Ghanaians. CRAZY. Ghanaian football fans LOVE to shout “PENALTY!” a n y t i m e the ball comes anywhere near the penalty box. They also love to yell “GOAL GOAL GOAL!!!” anytime there is even a run made towards the goal. And when there is a goal scored, especially a Ghana goal? Say goodbye to your functioning ear drums because the Ghanaians LOVE to cheer/scream/yell and celebrate like they’ve achieved world domination and not only kicked a ball into a net. The game was probably the most fun I have had in a long time and it felt so great to be right there cheering along with all of the passionate fans.

The fact that the Black Stars were able to tie the machine that is the German team was an incredible accomplishment and, although they did not make it past the group stage, many Ghanaians are extremely proud of how their boys played in the Cup. Watching the Cup in a country where soccer was their number one sport was incredible. The fact that Ghana was also contending made it an amazing experience that I will not forget. 

Life in Ghana: Housing Situation

Housing here in Ghana is very different from most housing in the US. In Ghana the social classes are very different and it shows in the housing. Here, you have the very rich living side-by-side with the very poor. An example is Oxford Street, one of the richest streets in Accra, filled with shops, a mall, and large billboards that may be a faint cousin to those in Times Square. On one side of the street are these attractions and nice restaurants, visibly very clean and well kept, and on the other side, are the slums. It’s a very strange sight to see such a prosperous area to your right and be able to look to your left and see the exact opposite.

Another example is one that really surprised me. The Flagstaff House in Accra is the White House of Ghana, and one of the most ornate buildings in the country, yet across the street are many low income buildings. Imagine that in America. Right across the street from the White House you see a grouping of run-down buildings right there. My dad works towards mixed-income development but this is very different. Instead of mixing the people of different incomes in a single living area so that their income differences are indistinguishable, here it is obvious to see who lives where.

What really frightens me is that a majority of the people live in places like the slums and run-down buildings. The poverty here is much easier to see as it is sprinkled everywhere. When I say slums, I mean one or two room homes that are literally made of mud and tin. They are EVERYWHERE. In the city, along the roads, there are miles of little shops and right behind them lie a neighborhood of these tiny homes that make up the slums. Unlike in the US where there are specific areas that are more poverty-stricken, here, everywhere you look, even if you’re enjoying a nice night out at the mall or a nice restaurant, it is right there. Even houses that may look nice on the outside aren’t as pristine and put-together as one may assume on the inside.

In addition to the established expensive homes and homes in the slums, there are many homes under construction throughout the city of Accra. Because of the bureaucracy in the country, it is extremely hard to get anything done in a somewhat quick manner. Unfortunately, this results in half-finished homes and buildings that may not be finished for years. These unfinished homes scatter the city and largely subtract from the obvious progression that a majority of the city is working towards.

My African Teaching Experience!

My experience here in Ghana has been very different from my brother’s experiences because they have been fully immersed in Ghanaian life by attending a Ghanaian school for the full six months (January-July) while I finished my semester with online classes. Because of my online education, I was missing out on being around kids my age and learning from them while here. After finishing my classes online, it was arranged that I could “tutor” at my brother’s school for grades 4 and 5. I was quite apprehensive about what the tutoring would entail, but decided to give it a go and help out in the Maths and English classes. My first day was pretty uneventful; I was introduced to the class (“Good Moooorning Auntie Layla”) and sat in the back of the Grade 4 room to observe the class. It started to look like I would just be observing for the hour of Maths class, but the teacher motioned for the students to turn their homework in to me to be marked. I had a minor freak out about whether or not I was qualified to grade the student’s work, but I called back my memory of long division and got to work.

After this first day, things went more smoothly. I would go into each class for about an hour and listen to the lesson, walk around and help students with any questions, and mark the student’s work when they finished. This all changed a couple of weeks into my teaching when the Grade 4 teacher was nowhere to be seen when I showed up. Grade 4 is Ayande’s grade so as soon as I arrived he ran to tell me that I would be teaching the class in the absence of his teacher. I went straight to the school administrators’ office to figure out what to do (and buy myself some time) and he informed me that he had always wanted me to teach the class, and this was a prime opportunity to do just that. We headed back to the Grade 4 classroom and picked out a simple enough lesson for me to teach; multiplication using boxes and dots. By the time we had settled what I would teach and I was in front of the class at the board and writing out the lesson, the teacher arrived. He informed me that I was more than welcome to continue, so I did. The lesson was easy enough and I had been with the class for a few weeks then, so I felt comfortable standing in front of them and teaching them the lesson. Never in a million years did I think that I would be teaching a fourth grade class in West Africa how to multiply, but there I was, and it felt pretty great. The kids were extremely responsive, which allowed me to ask them questions and invite them to come up to the board, making the lesson a lot easier for the both of us to understand. I finished the lesson, thanked the class, and headed over to Year 5, where I would continue to observe and mark papers.

After the teaching incident, I felt an itch to do more, to teach more, to help out more. A young Year 4 student, Minella, came to me after class one day and asked if I could help her understand improper fractions. I met with her in the modest school library and that sparked a revolution of kids coming to me for math help. It was starting to feel like I was really making a difference and, even though I was regressing to my ‘observe and mark’ routine, I felt that I was helping the kids out in the best way I could.

The next time I taught the Maths class went a lot smoother. The class was working on handling and interpreting data, and I was able to teach them terms like Median, Mode, and Range. That was the first class where I was teaching the students concepts that they had never known before. I think it was then that the magnitude of what I was doing hit me. Even though there was a bit of an accent barrier that made it harder for the students to understand what I was teaching, I taught for about 1 hour and administered a test after the lesson, which all of the students passed.

In no way have I had the in depth experience at the school that my brothers have had, but I’ve been able to experience and learn from the differences between schools here and back home in the US. The teaching and tutoring I have done has allowed me to transfer my love of Math to the students, something that I hope will stay with them for a long time. I only have a few weeks left, and I am doing all that I can to teach as often as I can and help the students out in any way possible. I’m not quite used to being called Auntie from students as I roam the halls of the school, but I know for sure that I will miss it when I’m back home.

Halfway Mark: What I'll miss and What I won't

A few days ago marked the three month milestone of my crazy Ghanaian experience. My family and I are now on the downhill slope of our trip and because of this I have compiled lists of the things that I will miss and won't from Ghana.

What I'll Miss:

·         The genuine hospitality and overall niceness of Ghanaians - Seriously. I can't count the number of times we've been helped out by Ghanaians. The people are so willing to help out someone they may not even know, and it's extremely refreshing. 

• Being around all the black people - Now I think every black person has heard Africa being called the "motherland" or "homeland" for them and most of us embrace that. I completely embrace diversity and am incredibly lucky to live in a place like Shaker Heights where almost all races are represented, but there is something about being a minority and traveling to a place where that isn't the case. Sure, the Ghanaians refer to my family and me as foreigners or "obruinis" (I'd like to point out that we've been confused for South Africans and Saharan Africans, not just Westerners, which counts for something right?), but we don't see ourselves sticking out like they might, we simply see ourselves surrounded by "our" people, so to speak. 
• The weather - The weather here is glorious. I'm not too much of a hot weather person (to my dad's great displeasure since my direct heritage is Caribbean, so I should be an "island girl"), and I'm not sure how I'm feeling about the whole 9 months of summer weather year I'm having, but, for now, the weather is fantastic. A normal day has temperatures of about 90 degrees at midday and maybe 80 at night and hot days are usually 95+ degrees during the day. We are entering the rainy season (May-November) where, in Accra, it rains about once or twice a week, which is a nice way of cooling down the ubiquitous hot air. 
• Break from "real life"- I'm not sure if this is the same for all travels, but something about being distanced from my normal life and routine makes me feel like I'm not really partaking in "real life". And, let me tell you, it's pretty nice. The fact that I'm taking online classes which give me an extreme flexibility and allows me to choose my own work hours and days (too much freedom for a teenager? Don't worry, parents still have me on a tight leash :)) is definitely a contributing factor to the whole "unreal" feeling I'm getting. A change of pace and scenery every once and a while is definitely good.
• The beaches - Accra is on the coast of Ghana, and the beaches are some of my favorite things about the city. Sundays are usually the Joseph Family beach day which means we pack up the car and head off on an hour drive to the beach and spend the day out there. Cleveland isn't exactly a beach city, so we are really savoring these weekly beach trips.

What I Won't Miss:

• The smells - There is a mixture of many different smells that one comes across while driving around Accra and, unfortunately, a majority of them are not pleasing to the nose. Ghanaians are strong believers in burning trash and leaves, which emits a quite foul smell and contributes greatly to the ever-present pollution of the area. In my blog about driving in Accra I mentioned the ditches that run alongside the road. These tend fill up with sewage in certain parts of the city, particularly those near the slum areas, and, well, it smells. Bad. Needless to say, I won't be missing the smells of the city when I head home. 
• Impatient drivers - My feelings towards the drivers of Accra are pretty well laid out in my 'Driving in Accra' blog post. The drivers are incredibly impatient here. The too-frequent honking of taxis, cars, and tro-tros will not be missed. 
• Insects in the house/Mosquito nets - Apparently, our shower is extremely alluring to all kinds of bugs and insects, as shown through the numerous centipedes, few spiders, couple lizards, and single tiny scorpion that decided to take up residence there. But! The accumulation of these insects is not limited to the bathroom! They also love to make appearances in the living room, bedrooms, and kitchen when they please. Has this increased exposure turned me and my mom and brothers into Bear Grylls-esque characters? No. (My dad is pretty rugged in this regard - he just opens the door and kicks the critters out with his foot.) Do I still jump at that tiny lizard snaking its way up the wall? Definitely. Although this exposure may limit my squealing at the sight of a spider back home, I'm not yet comfortable with the thought of sharing my home with creepy crawly hosts. 

It feels like just yesterday my family and I were arriving to Accra to begin our incredible 6 month journey, and here we are, at the halfway mark, speeding towards the end of our trip. There is still so much to and see while we're here and I'm trying my best to savor every moment that we're here.