Thursday, August 6, 2009
So I haven’t written anything in a while and so an update is needed. I will be leaving Ghana in exactly a week from today and I am not at all sure how I am going to spend that last week here.
Yesterday I went to Cape Coast and visited the slave castle there. It was interesting to see the place and hear the history of it. After the tour of the castle I went to a National Park and went to the canopy walk which is pretty amazing. Basically you hike up this big hill (It’s a workout) partially through the bush (jungle) and then arrive at a big cliff which is basically the side of the hill. I need to look it up on the net or something but it looked as though we were at least 100ft up from the plant covered ground below. The canopy walk is pretty much a net with a board-covered ladder laid on it that is attached to a bunch of ropes, which are attached to trees. The ladder/board combo is no more than a foot wide and it moves A LOT!! As does the entire net/rope contraption. There are about six of these “walkways” each separated by a very small platform built onto the trees the ropes are tied to. I am pretty sure you need to see thing in order to understand so I will post them asap. Ideally, the canopy walk gives you a birds eye view of the jungle at the canopy level of the trees and you are suppose to be able to see animals below. Unfortunately we didn’t see any animals, usually there are monkeys but there were some really loud people there too which may have scared them off. Going on the canopy walk is a total mixture of adrenaline rush and peacefulness. While we were there it started to mist and birds were chirping everywhere and it was really, really nice.
I spent last week in the Ashanti Region of Ghana which is about a 4 hour drive north of Accra where I live. On the way we stopped at All Nations University in Kumasi where I met with a couple of people and had a tour. (I worked in the study abroad office at Baylor last year and the director said they are interested in setting up an exchange in West Africa so I am working on that). We went to the Ashanti Region because Philip (my boss) was teaching at an evangelism conference there. Most of the participants were middle-aged men who were either pastors or leaders in Presbyterian churches. After a long drive we arrived Monday evening. I spent Tuesday and Wednesday going with him to his classes and then interviewing various participants afterwards to include their comments in the office newsletter I have been working on. The conference was at a retreat center and the rooms had no radio, TV, etc. and the schedule for the day went from 7:30am to about 7:00pm. Needless to say I spent a lot of time doing nothing. . . literally nothing and sleeping.
Since my last post I have also been on the radio and been to Bojo Beach which is amazing!! After church one day Karen, Pearl, Philip Jr. and I drove like an hour or so to Bojo Beach where you park your car, pay a fee, walk over a bridge then get on this little boat that takes you across like a little bay to a tiny island if you can call it that. On the little island there is a bar/restaurant and a bunch of palm covered shade areas and of course the ocean! It was absolutely gorgeous!
A Little Note on my interaction with people here. . .
I don’t think I have really talked about it but being at the conference made me especially aware of something that I have briefly taken notice of before. While people here are generally friendly, most of them don’t seem to know how to handle me. Other than a basic greeting people seem very hesitant to speak with me and it is slightly frustrating. I haven’t had the opportunity to meet many people here other than a lot of pastors and I have noticed that younger people seem more eager to speak with me than older people but that is only after they have gotten used to me. The last night of the conference there were several people that wanted me to eat with them/ talk with them but it was the final night we were there.
I have also gone to the same church several weeks in a row and I have “met” (shook hands with) a lot of people but only talked to maybe 2 or 3. Janet and Karen also teach Sunday school at church where the children age from 2 to 10. Normally kids are drawn to me, but most of these kids have just stared at me in wonder. I finally had a major breakthrough last week with some of the kids. I stayed at Sunday school the whole morning rather than going to “big” church and made a couple of friends. There is one boy who is about 3 who never wants to leave his mom and she literally has to threaten to beat him for him to stay there and he even then usually runs after her as there are no doors to the structure. . . well no walls period. Anyways he was doing his typical routine and his mom finally got him to stay in the general area of Sunday school while she escaped. Other people were trying to get him over with everyone but he wouldn’t go. Finally I talked to him in Twi and called him over and he came right to me and sat on my lap and that is where is stayed for the next hour or so until he had to pee. After that he kind of wandered around and wouldn’t come back to me or anyone for that matter so he was replaced by a 2 year old girl who fell asleep on me for the remainder of Sunday school. Unfortunately she didn’t get down like the little boy when she had to pee. . . not the first or last time I will have been peed on so oh well. When Sunday school ended the kids all left to go find their parents but my new friend from earlier stayed around. (I later found out his name is Earnest (Poor kid!!)) He didn’t say anything but just followed me everywhere. Finally his mom came looking for him and he wouldn’t go to her. She kept calling him but he just came and hid behind me. Everyone was shocked because this kid never wants to be there but I finally had to pick him up and hand him to his mom! It was so funny!
I knew I would be a minority in Ghana but I didn’t quite anticipate the amount of attention it would draw. Unless I go to a touristy kind of place or somewhere like the mall, I don’t usually see any other white people unless I randomly pass one while in the car. I honestly don’t think I would notice I am the only white person around if I wasn’t constantly reminded of it. Everywhere I go people just stare at me, like really stare and the more bold people either yell “Obruni” (white girl) or “white woman/girl” as if they have to verbally announce my presence to themselves and those around them. I haven’t had much activity here so I went running one morning. You wouldn’t think running/walking would attract a lot of attention especially when you definitely don’t have the body of a fitness model but let me tell you it can. When I passed by kids would run to their house and get their parents who would then come out as well to look at me. Awkward!!! I already knew they were looking at me because of my skin color but I also later found out that exercising in Ghana is strange. . . especially for girls. Apparently only footballers or other big athletes are suppose to exercise. . . well run that is. “Gyming” is very popular with young guys here who lift weights like crazy.
