Maakye! (Good Morning)
As promised, here's an update on the actual "study" part of this study abroad experience!
I'm sure all of you (unless you've been living under a rock) have heard the unending reports on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. While Ghana remains unaffected, the surrounding countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria all have reported cases. As an one of the premier institutions on the African continent, The University of Ghana naturally gets student from all over Africa, including these countries. To stem the spread of Ebola (and any other infectious diseases) to the University and the rest of Ghana, the University suspended the beginning of the quarter by two weeks in order to do preventative screenings of inter African students coming to the university. In addition to all of this going on, there was also threat of a union strike by UTAG (the professors union) that threatened the start of the university by ANOTHER week or two. Long story short since many of you have heard this already, we had two weeks off for the Ebola screenings where we traveled a bit and then they set up some special classes for international students in case the strike dragged on. It ended up ending after a week and we were able to enroll in our actual classes. I'll be taking Twi (the local language), Tradtional African Dance, Environmental Ecology, Management of NGO's, Coastal Management and conducting a research project on coastal erosion here in Ghana. More on the classes to come!
But during that two weeks of delay we took a trip to one of my favorite spots we've hit, the Wli Waterfalls in the Volta Region. To begin, the day started out at about 5 am on a wednesday morning. For once, all of the Cali Crew made it down relatively on time, so we were actually able to watch the bus pull up. I use the term bus loosely however. During the first two weeks we were here in Ghana we had a bus drive us around for orientation, an actual large, air conditioned bus. What pulled up, is best described as a large tro tro (high speed small mini buses, main mode of public transport here). We tentatively climbed in only to realize that not only was it a cramped space, there were also 5 unlucky poor souls that had to sit on these crickety fold out seats in the middle part. Thank the lord I got on early and did not have to sit on one of those, but I was in the back of the bus, which didn't seem to pose a problem at the time, but it would come to. We started out, a group of sleepy, excited and cramped Californians. It became evident early on, before we had even gotten out of Accra, that our bus driver was a bit of a dare devil. He was a particularly speedy one and liked to wait until the last second to hop back into our lane when passing other cars. As we left the Greater Accra Region behind us and booked it through the Eastern Region towards the Volta, the roads began to get worse and worse. Paired with our bus driver, the ride was quite an adventurous one. Every bump sent us in the back flying into the air, making for a harrowing five or six hour journey. As we pulled up to the start of the hike we piled out of the bus, thankful for some solid land. The hike to the waterfall was a pleasant one, through refreshing rainforest and across a series of 6 bridges. By the third or fourth bridge we could begin to hear the roar of the falls. As we turned the corner, the Wli falls loomed out above us. I don't know how many of you have seen anything quite like a waterfall rising up hundreds meters above you, but it is quite a humbling sight. We passed the first few minutes just looking up at the falls, so natural and mighty, falling down in front of us. Our tour guide informed us that we could all swim in the pool at the bottom so all us didn't hesitate to jump in. The water was so fresh and clean and all of together spent quite a bit of time right in the mist of the falls and traveled under them to this little cave in back and just sat in awe for a little while. Here's a pic of the Cali Crew in the pool
We ended up only spending about 2 hours in Wli before hopping back in to the bus for the rise back, but it was so incredibly worth the short amount of time we spend there. As we made our way back into the bus, I decided to be a nice person and take the middle "seat" on the way back. It was, believe it or not, even more bumpy on the way back and to top it all off, it got dark about half way back which made the whole ride that much more nerve-wracking. Highlight of the drive back was that once we got to the edge of the Volta, there was a considerable amount of traffic, so our driver turned into the jungle on a narrow path and decided it was in our best interests to take that road instead, to avoid traffic. Another hour or two of hair raising turns and bumps and we were finally in the familiar traffic of Accra (never thought we'd be so happy to be sitting still in traffic!).
Starting from now, I'll update this once a week, to fill ya'll in on my weekly goings ons!
Thanks for reading!
As promised, here's an update on the actual "study" part of this study abroad experience!
I'm sure all of you (unless you've been living under a rock) have heard the unending reports on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. While Ghana remains unaffected, the surrounding countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria all have reported cases. As an one of the premier institutions on the African continent, The University of Ghana naturally gets student from all over Africa, including these countries. To stem the spread of Ebola (and any other infectious diseases) to the University and the rest of Ghana, the University suspended the beginning of the quarter by two weeks in order to do preventative screenings of inter African students coming to the university. In addition to all of this going on, there was also threat of a union strike by UTAG (the professors union) that threatened the start of the university by ANOTHER week or two. Long story short since many of you have heard this already, we had two weeks off for the Ebola screenings where we traveled a bit and then they set up some special classes for international students in case the strike dragged on. It ended up ending after a week and we were able to enroll in our actual classes. I'll be taking Twi (the local language), Tradtional African Dance, Environmental Ecology, Management of NGO's, Coastal Management and conducting a research project on coastal erosion here in Ghana. More on the classes to come!
But during that two weeks of delay we took a trip to one of my favorite spots we've hit, the Wli Waterfalls in the Volta Region. To begin, the day started out at about 5 am on a wednesday morning. For once, all of the Cali Crew made it down relatively on time, so we were actually able to watch the bus pull up. I use the term bus loosely however. During the first two weeks we were here in Ghana we had a bus drive us around for orientation, an actual large, air conditioned bus. What pulled up, is best described as a large tro tro (high speed small mini buses, main mode of public transport here). We tentatively climbed in only to realize that not only was it a cramped space, there were also 5 unlucky poor souls that had to sit on these crickety fold out seats in the middle part. Thank the lord I got on early and did not have to sit on one of those, but I was in the back of the bus, which didn't seem to pose a problem at the time, but it would come to. We started out, a group of sleepy, excited and cramped Californians. It became evident early on, before we had even gotten out of Accra, that our bus driver was a bit of a dare devil. He was a particularly speedy one and liked to wait until the last second to hop back into our lane when passing other cars. As we left the Greater Accra Region behind us and booked it through the Eastern Region towards the Volta, the roads began to get worse and worse. Paired with our bus driver, the ride was quite an adventurous one. Every bump sent us in the back flying into the air, making for a harrowing five or six hour journey. As we pulled up to the start of the hike we piled out of the bus, thankful for some solid land. The hike to the waterfall was a pleasant one, through refreshing rainforest and across a series of 6 bridges. By the third or fourth bridge we could begin to hear the roar of the falls. As we turned the corner, the Wli falls loomed out above us. I don't know how many of you have seen anything quite like a waterfall rising up hundreds meters above you, but it is quite a humbling sight. We passed the first few minutes just looking up at the falls, so natural and mighty, falling down in front of us. Our tour guide informed us that we could all swim in the pool at the bottom so all us didn't hesitate to jump in. The water was so fresh and clean and all of together spent quite a bit of time right in the mist of the falls and traveled under them to this little cave in back and just sat in awe for a little while. Here's a pic of the Cali Crew in the pool
We ended up only spending about 2 hours in Wli before hopping back in to the bus for the rise back, but it was so incredibly worth the short amount of time we spend there. As we made our way back into the bus, I decided to be a nice person and take the middle "seat" on the way back. It was, believe it or not, even more bumpy on the way back and to top it all off, it got dark about half way back which made the whole ride that much more nerve-wracking. Highlight of the drive back was that once we got to the edge of the Volta, there was a considerable amount of traffic, so our driver turned into the jungle on a narrow path and decided it was in our best interests to take that road instead, to avoid traffic. Another hour or two of hair raising turns and bumps and we were finally in the familiar traffic of Accra (never thought we'd be so happy to be sitting still in traffic!).
Starting from now, I'll update this once a week, to fill ya'll in on my weekly goings ons!
Thanks for reading!
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