A slow week in Ghana news...

Well friends,

I don’t have whole lot to say this week. I had a fantastic Easter weekend in rural Ghana. My friends and I traveled to Nkawkaw, which is northwest, about 3 hours on a bus from Accra. We had nowhere to stay, as that is the place to be on Easter in Ghana, so all hotels were overbooked. That didn’t matter, however. We’d been in town a grad total of 10 minutes before we asked someone to show us where the hotels were, and when they were all full our new friend Harriet decided she would take us to her father’s house. The family hosted all 5 of us for 3 nights, and, of course refused to let us pay them. They fed us, taught me traditional dances, took us around town, etc. They were incredible, and we made many, many friends from around Ghana, as the father allows students who are completing their practicals from other Universities throughout Ghana to board in his home. We made traditional food from scratch for Easter dinner (meaning we slaughtered a goat and pulled Cassava root out of the ground- that kind of “from scratch”) which turned into Goat Pepper soup with Fufu, a very nice dish. Although, goat is still not my personal preference. We also went to a live Highlife concert (Highlife is a uniquely Ghanaian musical blend of trad. Music, regge, and pop/rock) which was an absolute blast (y’all know how much I like to dance!) Nkawkaw sits at the base of the Kdhwu plateau. Up on the mountain is a cluster of small towns were all the Easter street partying was taking place. The mountain is also the site of an annual Paragliding festival. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the cash on me to do it, but we had an excellent time watching people drift off the top of a grassy slope and sail peacefully over Nkawkaw.

After 6 weeks in the harsh, very western city, it was truly wonderful to get out into rural Ghana. For one, it is stunningly green. It was also fascinating to experience a culture that is rife with Western influence, but still not nearly to the extent of Accra. This is interesting to me, as the people I have encountered in Accra- especially the wealthy students who can afford to live on campus in a double room (most students sleep 11+ to a room…) think there is some huge difference between themselves and rural people. Many of them have grown up in the bigger towns or cities, and have never really lived in “the villages.” I participated in a particularly interesting conversation with my roommate and her friends that centered on the “national service” that all state university students must complete after they graduate. They said “they just put you on a bus, take you out to some village far, far away, with no lights or water, and just leave you there all alone.” They were absolutely not looking forward to the experience. My Sociology professor even commented on that today as well. We were talking about Domestic Violence, and students were arguing that the reasons for doing so would be different in a rural area… long story short, the professor told everyone off for thinking themselves as having some “essential difference” between themselves.

And besides… we live in the money capital of Ghana, Accra, and we oftentimes don’t have power or water, by the way. The power went out again in my building this morning. It’s really no big deal. It’s really only a nuisance as far as my ceiling fan goes off. It’s hysterical to me, that here when the power goes out, we get really hot and miserable, and at home, we get all cold and miserable… Anyway, the only things that run on power here are air conditioning and fans, lights, refrigerators (that most people don’t use) and computers. We all own flashlights for the night… The water getting shut off is a bigger deal. That means no showers or laundry. But since we don’t rely on the tap for drinking water, it’s really not a big deal either. Amazing how it sounds so serious to not have to water, but it’s really not that big a deal, in the city anyway. Out in the village this weekend we got our water from a well, which was kinda cool in its own way, but we also could not drink that, considering there is no septic line out there, so the water is, well, contaminated.

There will certainly be more to say next week, as I will be traveling with my program this weekend, so take care until then!