Week 17

Okay many apologies for skipping two weeks! Got swamped with IA's but long story short, the power was out almost every day,  so it was a bore, but I went in to Makola Market for some last minute fabric buying and such and spent the weekend hanging around Accra with some people. You're basically caught up woooo! ;)

Monday
Group project due in Coastal Management so we all met up to work on it. Surprisingly productive! We got all our work done within 2 hours and I felt like I bonded with my group, which was all Ghanaian students. Afterwards, we had our first soccer game! We played Akuafo and I can just cut to the chase and say it wasn't pretty. We went down 4-0 but discovered that two of the girls on their team play for the NATIONAL FOOTBALL TEAM, the Lady Black Stars. And that's just unfair so i don't even count that as a loss in my head....And the game wasn't as one sides as the score would have you think, those 2 girls were the only two players that were above us, skill wise. We held our own quite well, it was just whenever either of them got the ball, there was no going back. Another game tomorrow!

Tuesday
Woke up no power or water. typical ughh. Decided to make the trek to IPO only to discover no power there either. UNBELIEVABLE. Stopped into Dr, Alhassan's office for a little to use his generator to get a little bit of work done, but then just headed back to ISH to bum around. We had our monthly ice cream and cake celebration this week, which was nice, and then hightailed it over to the field for the game (poor choice of the day: eating chocolate cake and fan ice before a soccer game. whoops.) Game went excellent, with us winning 3-1! Yay! Ran straight from the game to dance class, ew, but the power was out in the performing arts department. We had class outside, which is always somewhat of a disaster in my opinion. It's hard for the TA's to really have control in a dark quad of like 40 students so it usually ends with one of them getting frustrated and telling us to leave, but we lasted most of the time for once. Pretty tired and gross when we got back, so basically scarfed down dinner, did a lil bit of work d headed to bed

Wednesday
Started out in Coastal Management. It was our last day of class which is kind of a bummer in my opinion!I have immensely enjoyed that class, both because of the material and the people. We did our group presentations and then discussed our IA's and the final which is coming up. A few of the people in that class are going to give me a cooking lesson next week though so I'll look forward to that! Afterard, I just headed to IPO because (unsurprisingly) it was lights off at ISH. DIdn't do too much, but grabbed lunch from bush canteen (palava sauce) and headed on back to be greeted with power! Whoooo!

Thursday - Friday
Started out with class in the morning (ew) and afterwards headed back to ISH to pack. I made a long anticipated trip up to the North this past weekend with a few people, which was awesome! We headed up to Mole National Park which is one of the premier game viewing sites in West Africa. No giraffes, gorillas or zebras but they're known for their elephants. It isn't an easy trip though, and we started out by taking a tro tro from Okpongolo to Kwame Nkrumah Circle to catch one of the big buses that goes up there. I had booked the bus ahead  of time so we had tickets, we just has to locate the station in good time. We finally stumbled upon it, thinking we were going to be late, but we ended up leaving about an hour and a half late (typical). It's about a 12 hour bus ride from Accra to Tamale, the big city in the North. Fairly eventful bus ride, with our tire blowing out around Kintampo (about 4 hours out of Tamale) and then an hour later, the buses stabilizer busted, so it was quite the bumpy journey. By the time it was light, we were well into the Northern Region and were able tot ake in some of the beautiful scenery. So my good friend Jenna had gone up last weekend and met a really friendly young tour guide at the park named Inusah. She told me to give him a call before we left so I did. He was very sweet and really made sure we had all the directions correct and offered to pick us up from Tamale to come with us on the bus from Tamale to Larabanga (where the park is. Another 4 hour bus ride. Safari's ain't easy!) But so we're about 5km from the bus station in Tamale and the silly thing breaks down. Like what the heck. You made it from Kintampo missing a tire and without a stabilizer, but a little speed bump took ya on out? But anyways, Inusah wasn't in town yet, so he called and had a friend of his pick us up from the bus and take us to his house, where he proceeded to cook us breakfast and give us a little tour of the town. Seriously, so nice! We made scambled eggs (with real cheese, praise the lord!!!) and Lebanese tea. After that, Amin very graciously drove us to the other bus station so we could pick up the bus to Mole Park. We met Inusah there and we knew right there that he was going to turn out to be a blessing for the weekend. Right away he bounded up to us excitedly and took us to a delicious Nigerian restaurant for lunch . I have to try and get some of it in Accra, I love it! We then made our way back to Metro Mass and piled on the easily one of the most run down buses I have EVER been on for that 4 hour trip. It was a rickety and bumpy ride and we could't be happier to finally arrive. We got to the motel and checked in and sat down for dinner only to realize about half of ISH was here too. I guess this is one of the last big weekends before the semester kids leave so a lot of ISHies decided to make the trip! It was nice bumping in to many people we knew and we had a nice dinner under the stars. Went to bed kinda early, b/c me and Cathy decided we wanted to get up early and watch the sunrise.

Saturday
Woke up at around 5 and headed on over to the lookout point at the motel. The motel sits up on a hilss and look down on to a watering hole and the whole of one side of the park. It was absolutely gorgoues. Since we arrived in the evening, we got a real nice view of the stars but didn't really get to see this side of the park until just then. Just savanna as far as the eye could see. There were already quite a few bush buck and kob and antelope hopping around down near the watering hole and right behind us on the grounds of the motel were a bunch of baboons, patas monkeys and warthogs. So cool. We grabbed a seat and kept an eye out for elephants as we took in the sun rising over the park. Didn't see any, but it was still pretty. We grabbed some breakfast and then met up with Inusah, who took us into town for the day. We went on a canoe ride on the White Volta River through the village of Mognori and then into Larabanga to see the oldest mosque in West Africa. Small but beautifully built! We headed back on over to the Mole Motel after and all went swimming for a little bit before our evening safari. We befriended a group of Canadians who are also studying at Legon and split the jeep with them. We got to sit on top of the jeep which was super fun. We took off bumping thorugh the park and saw so many antelope and bushbuck. Even though they might not be as exciting as elephants, they are so prety, especially the males with their winding horns. We drove in search for about an hour and then hopped out of the jeep when we got to one of the watering holes so that we could get a little closer to some of the animals. We saw some really awesome waterbucks (which are HUMONGOUS, bigger than horses!) and water buffalo down at the watering hole and of course, some crocodiles and patas monkeys and the kob and antelope. As we hopped back into the jeep we got to drive around and find  a nice clearing to watch the sunset in. Beautiful! No elephants today but it was still a fun safari! It was Cathy's birthday so we had a nice big dinner and of course, embarassed her by loudly singing happy birthday which the assisstance of our new Canadian friends. We spent the evening at the lookout point, looking at the stars and trying to see hyenas. Beautiful stars, and lotss of warthogs as well! ;)

Sunday
Started out the morning with the early morning walking safari. It was a lot of fun with an eclctic group, 4 cali kids and 3 older but very sweet German couples. We did the 2 hour walk (they were sprightly for old folk!) and it was nice, because it was a different experience from in evening; the different time of day as well as the fact that we got to go much deeper into the bush since we didn't stay on the roads. We saw a lot of different landscapes that we didn't get to see on the other trip. We again, however saw no elephants. Headed back to the compound for breakfast, and afterwards split up; a few wanted to go swimming but me and Cathy were determined to get some elephants in! So we went with Inusah back to the lookout point on the bluff and lazed around there for the better part of 2 or 3 hours. And we were rewarded! Just as one of the other guides had come down to say hello and we were lamenting at our lack of luck, he suddenly pulled both of us to our feet and pointed out in to the distance and the further water watering hole. And there they were! Two HUGE elephants just wandering back into the bush. It's really amazing how big they look, even at a slight distance. Didn't get any pics unfortunately, because we were too caught up in the moment to whip out cameras so enjoy all the pics of deer and baboons instead! ;) We spent the afternoon and evening lounging at the compound, alternating between the lookout point and sitting in the shade. We ate at the bush canteen on the compund (perhaps not the best of ideas as I ended up accidentally chowing down on some bush meat . sorry Auntie Rose, I know you told us not to! and to you mr bushbuck! It was good though! And I'm still standing!) Inusah had some of his friends from the area come by and we enjoyed talking to them about Larabanga and Tamale and living there. It was nice to talk to locals who are our age but not from the hustle and bustle of Accra. That evening we went to Inusah's family's lodge and met some of his family and got to enjoy another spectacular view from the roof. They host many international students that are doing volunteer work in the area so they were all used to obruni's and the few volunteers we met were all awesome! Super fun!

Monday
Only way to get from Mole to Damongo, Larabanga or Tamale is the Metro Mass Transit bus service. It leaves once a day from the Mole motel at 3:30 AM. We hauled ourselves out of bed and on to the bus for the rise back to Tamale. Equally annoying, is the fact that buses from Tamale to Accra leave only at 5:30 in the evening. So we arrived in Tamale at around 7 AM and had all day in front of us. We started out by Inusah taking us to his apartment in the area (literally our savior all weekend, he took such good care of us!) and getting us some breakfast. We spent some time relaxing there for awhile and then we went out and ventured around town. Tamale is literally everything Accra is not. It's relatively clean, the roads are not very crowded, it is safe to ride motorbikes, people know each other, they wave to one another as they pass. Now I'm not saying Accra is some heinous place we should all hate, but this was a nice change of pace. I think that if I came back to spend any amount of time in Ghana after this, I would definitely come settle myself down in Tamale or Damongo. I think we also had a good experience however, because we were traveling with someone who is obviously well known and respected in the community; everywhere we went we were smiled at, or he greeted them and children happily trailed along behind us simply for the sake of walking with us. We went to the market and got a few things each and then we headed to the cultural center to do a little more of the souvenir shopping. After that we headed to the same Nigerian restaurant for lunch (yum yum yum!) and then spent the heat of the afternoon back at the apartment. We met more friends as they came in and out during the day and at around 4 we headed to the bus station for the ride home. It was an uneventful drive and we were thankful to be off it when we finally got back to Accra (at 4 AM, we made pretty good time for once!) I had such a great weekend this weekend, and while I still rank Akosombo as my favorite place in Ghana, I definitely rank this as my favorite trip! I think it made me wish that I had more time here since I really don't have time to come back, but now I have a reason the return to Ghana soon! I'm getting nostalgic and I haven't even left!

Week 15

Monday
Here's something you've read before, I woke up today hot, sweaty and with no power. BIG SURPRISE RIGHT? ugh. Headed to our monthly healthy breakfast at the study center where I had some delicious pita bread and real cheese (hallelujah!) . Along with yogurt, granola, fruit and all the other healthy things. STayed at IPO afterwards since the power was still out at ISH. Did some work until lunch time and then headed out to MaxxMart for lunch. Me and Cathy also stumbled upon a bookstore on our way. We walked upstairs and it was basically a Barnes and Nobles! Where has this place been hiding?! We spent about an hour in there and bought one or two books each. Super nice! We headed into get our food after and spent some time eating and getting groceries. Braved the heat to heat back to ISH afterwards only to arrive and be greeted with no power AND no running water. Ugh. Decided to take a taxi (not even sorry, the heat was unbearable!) back to IPO and hung out there until 5 when they closed. Went back to no power at ISH and it stayed that way until about 7. It came back on for about and hour and then went off again for the rest of the night. boooo. Went down to the night market for dinner and then headed off to bed around 11.

Tuesday
Met with my group for Management of NGO's. Still dislike our group leader, but we got through the meeting okay and then dispersed. I headed to IPO where I attempted to work. Didn't get a whole lot done, but I got to chat with people I haven't seen in a few days, which was worth it. Headed over to the bush canteen to get lunch (palava sauce obviously) and then back to IPO. Got more work done this round. It started to pour in the afternoon though which was unfortunate. A few of us split a taxi back to ISH and spent a few hours relaxing there (with no power obviously because it ALWAYS goes off when it rains) and then headed over to dance class at 6. We started learning a new dance this week. It's a little more involved than the others and involves a lot of jumping and such. Lots of fun though. I really like the song that goes with it as well. I really want the dance instructors to give us like a CD of all the songs we do cause they are all so beautiful! Power was back when we got back to ISH so me and Cathy made ourselves some pesto pasta. It was great and we spent the rest of the evening going over some loose plans for Germany (which is coming up sooner than it seems! 5 weeks!).

Wednesday
Another rainy day here in Legon. Headed to Coastal Management in the morning for our IA. It wasn't too hard, but Professor Nyarko is a tough grader so we'll see how it turns out. Headed back to ISH after because I decided I didn't want to go all the way to IPO. It was a risk, since it was pouring rain, and that usually means the power is about to go out but it miraculously stayed on all day. Wooo! Did a combination of work and watching movies staying in bed. At dinner time it was still pouring rain so me and Emily took the lazy way out and ordered a pizza. So worth it. We watched a movie and enjoyed our dinner and then lazed around until bedtime.

Thursday
Started out the day with Management of NGO's. We learned about grant writing and getting funding. Pretty interesting and highly relevant! After class I headed over to IPO to get some work done on my research paper. Per the usual, I spent the first hour being distracted since many of the Cali Crew were also in the study center but I my favorite couch on the balcony was open so I set up shop there and got a good amount of work done. Stayed there until Environmental Ecology at 3:30. Class was the usual;boring. Headed off to dance for our IA on Bamaya. I think it went well! Headed back to dinner (an no power, surprise surprise) after.

Friday
Woke up with no power. Ugh. But me and a freind decided to head over to Aburi to the NGO that I mentioned last week, Aban. We left Ish and hopped on a tro tro. Got off in Aburi and the directions to Aban are well signposted. We wound throuhg the village and up and down a ginormous hill (no kidding it was like a mountain like this ^ ) and finallly made it up to it. We went in and were greeted by Emmanuel, who had come to class. He showed us around and we ended up hanging out there all day, chatting with the girls and helping to teach. We bought a few smal products before we left and then headed back to ISH. Came back to no power. How surpising. Decided to go out for dinner to Osu and then headed back fairly early since we were leaving early the next morning.

Saturday
Headed to Winneba for the night for my friend Ryan's birthday. Winneba is known for its beaches and turtles that come there to lay eggs. It;s about 2 hours away, and is adorable. It looks exactly like Cape Coast, but is much less crowded which is awesome! Our lodge was super cute and about a 10 minute walk from the beach. We arrived and ate at the lodge then  headed to the beach for a few hours. We then came back and hung around before dinner and headed out on a turtle viewing eco walk around 9:30. We drove out to the Ramsar site, about 30 minutes away, and then proceeded to take a 3 mile hike along the coast in search of turtles. Not one was seen. We saw lots of nests (6 feet in diameter! Leatherbacks are HUGE!) and TONS of crabs, but no turtles for us. We saw a gorgeous lagoon and me and Nicole (who is in Coastal Management with me) walked down to the edge where the lagoon meets the sea and waded in a little. It was so cool and natural. We started the walk back and no turtles, but still lots of crabs. I gess you can't predict nature right? Still a fun walk. Outr drive back was eventful. I was in the 2nd of 3 cars and all of a sudden we saw the car in front of us swerve over to the right to reveal a giant ANACONDA ( or boa constrictor. who knows really... big snake is my point.) I mean HUGE. It was as fat as my thigh. So this snake pops into vision and we're careening towards it and our driver tried to swerve but couldn't and we hit it. So, to make a long story short, we killed a snake. Oops.

Sunday
Headed back to Accra in the morning. Got back around 2 (to not only no power, but no water! ARG.) and spent the day studying for our Twi final tomorrow. Lots of stuff to review; no fun. Ordered chicken avocado wraps for dinner and called it a night! 

Week 14

Monday
Spent the morning on my research paper. Spent the afternoon wandering around ISH, just talking to different people, since I needed a break from the room. Walked down to the night market for lunch and grabbed banku and tilapia. Had Twi class in the afternoon. Our final is in two weeks, so we just reviewed and learned a little about family customs. After Twi a couple of us headed over to the mall. Some people needed groceries and little appliances. The mall is like our Target, we go there for everything we could ever need. Grabbed dinner from Shopright, chicken and mushroom pot pies mmm, and headed back. Did Insanity and then hung around and went to bed.

Tuesday
Started the day with a group meeting for NGO's. Our NGO is going to be called Go Green Ghana and will focus on improving the management of waste disposal in the country, specificallly in recycling. Should be interesting. Only concern is with our group leader, a supremely patriarchal, obnoxious and typical Ghanaian man. He is actually ridiculous. Won't listen to anyone's opinion but his own and is controlling s ever. We'll have to bring him down a few pegs. After that I headed back to ISH to head out to go fabric shopping in East Legon. Another international told us about this place that sells not only the traditional African cloth that we see so much of, but also just some regular, lighter fabriccs that we could get regular clothes made out of. Ended up spending about 70 GHC (whoops, it was all so mice though!) on stuff for friends that i'm going to have made into skirts ans shirts. Super excited, it's all awessome! After that we had our monthly ice cream and cake celebration for October bdays! Little bit of a bigger deal this month, because Auntie Dorcas, the program coordinator here at the UCEAP Study Center, just had her baby! She brought little Kojo in and of course everyone just fawned over the little cutie pie! They had more food than usual and we had it in the big semiar room downstairs, so it was a lot of fun! We headed back to ISH to change for dance and headed out again. Dance class was short as there was no power on that side of campus (TYPICAL) so we headed back after, did some Insanity and then me and a friend started studying for an IA (midterm) that we have on Thursday.

Wednesday
Started out with Coastal Management. Professor Nyarko got there about a half hour late since he had to take his kids to school so we didnt do much. Talked a little bit about our field trip Friday and he gave us a pop quiz, which really was pretty easy. Makes me feel good about our IA next week. Headed back to ISH after and wasted away most of the afternoon with one of my friends, both talking, watching Netflix and sitting downstairs in the little kitchen area. Went to Twi and learned our final is in 2 weeks, so we didn't do too much, just reviewed a little bit. After that headed back to ISH and went over notes a little bit with a friend for our Environmental Ecology midterm tomorrow. Went t bed pretty early after some Insantiy.

Thursday
Started out with Management of NGO's, which has descended from one of my favorites, to one one of my least favorite classes. Today was redeeming however. We learned about this AWESOME NGO that was started right in this class called Aban (Aban is an andinkra symbol meaning protector and love) which takes water satchets and other things and makes them into bags and things. They also hand stamp the traditional Ghanaian batik fabric, which is all cool but the best part is that they house and have a school for the girls that are a part of the program. They provide a safe space for girl's that would otherwise be living ont he street. It's truly a great program and I plan n visiting the site sometime next week. Please check them out at aban.org! Me and one of the other Cali students spent the rest of the afternoon at a cafe on campus, snacking and studying for our IA. Headed over around 3:20. It was pretty easy, questions came right from the lecture notes and we were all done within 45 minutes. Afterwards we headed back to ISH and had a good evening just relaxing and celebrating being done with our IA! Went to bed fairly early, as I had to be up at 5 the next morning for our fireld trip for Coastal Management.

Friday
Showed up to the Marine Science Dpeartment at 6am, as instructed, for our field trip. Professor Nyarko made it very clear that we would be leaving promptly at 6, so naturally we were rolling out of the parking lot at about 7:45, much t me and Nicole's chagrin since, as the obruni's of the class, we had showed up at 6. But we made it to our first site, Jamestown Beach in Central Accra. Jamestown is easily the most polluted beach in Ghana and our goal for the next 2 hours was to set up a perimeter and sort through and calculate just how much trash was within a 100 x 100 meter space. We were supposed to take about an hour and a half but it took us the better part of two and a half hours to finish. It was interesting because right next to us people were fishing, from the same beach that all this trash was washing up on, to sell in the markets around town. After about two hours we all collectively rebelled and sat down for a break to wait for the bus to return. It was nice because we had time to jsut sit and talk with the students in our class, something we don't always get to do on Wednesday mornings. It's such a good group of people within that department, I enjoy them all and always look forward to seeing them on Wednesdays. After we FINALLY finished at Jamestown, we all loaded back on to the bus to head over to Bojo Beach. At this point it was about 12 and we were supposed to have been back on campus at around 11 (I know, what a joke.) Started out to Bojo, which is a pretty clean beach, made it there in about an hour. We took the world's smallest fishing boat across the Densu River to the beach (literally squeezed 10 of us on to a "boat" no bigger than a twin bed) and sorted trash there for about an hour. It was more like us standing around pretending to pick up the same piece of trash for 10-20 minutes since there is so little in the area but it was still a good time. Me and Nicole were amused by how amused the Ghanaians were at the attention we get in these smaller villages. Children come running with the typical cries of "obruni obruni!" aka foreigners, villagers gawk and stare and men wolf whistle. It was hilarious how shocked they were. But to us, we felt as if we were getting less attention than usual since we were with such a large group of Ghanaians. Made it back across the river afterwards and headed back to the bus. Sat in traffic for awhile, but made it back to campus by 4:15ish, a full 5 hours and 15 minutes behind schedule, in true Ghana fashion. Took an extra thorough shower (since I was basically covered in trash and dirty water (can you say cholera?) and then headed to DNR (because where else would we eat than our fav Turkish restaurant?? ;)) with Jenna. Had a lovely dinner and then headed back to ISH to watch a movie and headed to bed. What an eventful Halloween night! ;P

Saturday
Left bright and early to head to spend a night in Akosombo with Jenna and Lorraine, from the Cali Crew. Started out from Okponglo and attempted to find our way to the infamously elusive Tudu Station (see week 10!). Finally located it after being dropped off a few stops too far (again). Made it on to an Akosombo tro and only had to wait about 10 minutes for it to fill up. Should mention that we had no hotel booked since none of them were picking up their phones so we had decided to head out and hope for the best! We made it to the town just south of Akosombo, Atimpoku in about 2 hours and proceeded to locate a good place to rest. We decided on an awesome place called the Adi Lake Resort, which was situated right on the Volta River. I must say that the Akosombo area is hands down my favorite place in Ghana. It was absolutely beautiful, and the town was small, but not too small, but also not big enough to be overwhelming, The people were all amazing and it just had a really good vibe. The Eastern and Volta Regions are by far the most beautiful in the country. After relaxing at the lodge for awhile we ventured North into Akosombo proper and saw the eponymous dam. The Akosombo Dam provides power not only to all of Ghana but also to parts of neighboring Togo and Cote Ivoire. The imposing clay and rock structure was built in the early 1960's, a project spearheaded by Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah. We spent some time there and then proceeded to head back to  Adi Lake. We decided to take a little canoe ride on the river in front of our hotel. Of course, 2 minutes after we got on the water, it started pouring. We docked at a little jetty in front of one of the 5 star hotels and spent an hour or so there, waiting out the storm. By storm, i mean monsoon. It was INSANE. Rain pouring down, but the wind was so strong that many of the canoes were blowing off their ties into the river. After the wind stopped enough and the rain lightened up a little we hightailed it back up the river to the hotel (thank god Jenna rows crew! ;)) Spent time drying off and relaxing and then headed out to dinner at our hotel. Had a killer view of the water and just enjoyed the evening. Joe, one of the workers at the hotel, also runs the hotel's catfish farm. The Akosombo area not only is the energy hub of the country, but also where almost all the tilapia and catfish eaten in the country comes from. After dinner, Joe was going to perform a procedure on some of the catfish and invited us to come watch. I have learned a lot about aquaculture last year in my marine policy class so I was stoked to go. It was super cool, as we got to see them take the eggs out of the female and watch them make an incision and take the sperm out of the male to fertilize the eggs. Super cool. We were all exhausted though, so we stayed for about a half hour and then headed off to bed.

Sunday
Woke up in the morning and relaxed around the grounds for awhile. We had breakfast at the hotel and then spent some time deciding what to do with the rest of the day. One of my friends from Coastal Management is from the area and she had told me to hit up the Sajuna Beach Club so we decided to do that. The hotel manager of Adi graciously drove us over and we spent some time just habging out there. It was absolutely gorgeous. It borders the big luxury hotel in the area, the New Senchi Resort, so the area was absolutely pristine. I kind of prefer the more wild, unkept feel from upriver at Adi, but this was beautful as well. It was a purely Ghanaian place, we were the only obruni's there for most of the day. We found a cozy spot and spent the morning there. Jenna and Lorraine wanted to go out on a boat tour so we went on a short ride up the river and then came back to Sajuna for lunch. After that we started out toward Accra, but decided to stop at one of the bead markets. The Agomanya bead market is the oldest in the nation and hosts Cedi's Beads, the most popular shop in the area. We spent quite a while there just looking at beads and I ended up buying almost 120 GHC worth (oops. not even sorry, they were so amazing) After that we headed towards home, which should have taken about an hour but took about 3 because of traffic (naturally). Got back around 9 or 10 and spent the evening around ISH talking to others about places they had hit up over the weekend.