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.
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.
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