Ghana part 1

Coming in to the port of Ghana was beautiful.  The contrast of the small fishing boats with the big tankers, the scent of cookfires, and the big swells that tipped the ship back and forth (staff captain:  “stay in place, do not move your location”) all combined to an exciting entry.  I was signed up for the 2 day trip to Winneba, which is a village outside of Accra.  Winneba is the sister-city of Charlottesville, Virginia, and we were essentially going on a tour of their education system with their minister of education, Elizabeth.  Gift-giving is big in Ghana, so I brought lots of chocolate and Peadoodles to give away.  Our tour began by welcoming 60 folks from Winneba on to the ship for lunch and a tour, which I really appreciated.  So often we just pop into other’s homes and lives and don’t get to share the ship at all or invite anyone over for lunch—it’s like we’re in a gated community that we can’t share with anyone, so getting to invite folks on and share a meal with them was really cool.  Our trip also included:  the 2 hour drive to Winneba and being mesmerized by seeing Ghana for the first time, being welcomed by the village elders (who prayed to our ancestors and their ancestors that we have a safe trip and that our mission be fulfilled, and included pouring out libations for the ancestors), a traditional Ghanaian meal at our hotel which, for Ghana, was a 3 or 4 star hotel (I discovered that I like “Malta”, a non-alcoholic malt drink made by Guinness.  It tastes like raisin soda).  It was clean and had air conditioning and a shower with Christmas/Santa Claus curtains.  Christianity is big here—many things were named after Jesus—(Sweet Jesus Entertainment, the Lord Jesus Hair Parlor, His Glory Grocery Store), a visit to University of Ghana in Winneba with a performance by the local choir, which did end in a big group dance.  One of the Winneba students gave us all bracelets (colorful glass beads are a signature craft of Ghana), which was really sweet.  There was a mix of 23 staff, students and faculty who went on this trip, and one of the highlights was spending time with one another and becoming a high-functioning team— Fay Slaughter (former Mayor of C-ville, environmental professor and all around cool person) led our group wonderfully and also we had to do a lot of reciprocal speeches and gift-giving which Fay gracefully shared amongst the group.  It was cool to see students step up to the front and share what our mission was and to thank our guests. 

Market in Winneba, boy selling belts

Fay Slaughter and Minister of Education, Elizabeth

boy at Fisherman's house

enthusiastic classroom in Winneba

beach 10 minutes from downtown Winneba

Kids at one of the schools we visited

Being welcomed by the village elders in Winneba

It is bizarre to step off of a multi-million dollar ship and step onto a fancy air-conditioned bus and drive around areas where many people live on less than a dollar a day.  I am glad when we get off of the bus and get to walk on our own two feet and meet people eye-to-eye.  I was also glad for the air-conditioning, because Ghana is hot, but being on the bus definitely was a distancing privilege.  I roomed with Jessa, who works at the field office, at our hotel, and it was cool to get to know her a bit better and hear about her time in the Peace Corps in Honduras.  Emily and Jacques were also on this trip, and it was really great to share this experience with them.  There are so many good people to meet on the ship in addition to getting to meet good people in the countries.  The second day in Winneba we visited 6—6! amazing schools, one after the other—some private some public.  In each school we spread out to drop into a classroom and watch how teachers taught and were also invited up to the front to say something about our mission and to teach something.  For me, I didn’t know we were going to be asked to teach something, and the first class I taught a bit about California and what fruits and vegetables we grew there.  I realized that even though we were all speaking English, I was getting some blank stares, and I finally asked them “Do I sound funny to you?  Do I have a funny accent?” upon which everyone nodded and laughed in relief.  As we went to all 6 schools, we also learned from our fellow Sassers what they were teaching and what was successful in the different classrooms.  We also had practiced singing some songs before we left, which came in handy.  Just when I thought I was set for the next class, I would get an entirely different age group and I never ended up teaching the same thing twice.  In one class I taught art (this was the one classroom where the teacher, who was sweet, had absolutely no control over the kids at all).  Imagine that you are a rock star, and everyone wants to be close to you & to reach out to touch you or hold your hand and that you are surrounded by people on all sides who scream as soon as you begin to sing a line—substitute me with a piece of chalk and a blackboard and it was the same thing.  I would start to draw an animal and have them guess it (“a goat!  A llama!  A giraffe! Yes!”) and then they would finish the drawing, and immediately erase it to start over again.  One little girl held my hand in the chaos and said quietly, “will you please teach me how to draw?”  I did my best in the 5 minutes that we had left.  I think originally we were supposed to split up in to 6 groups and spend about 2-3 hours in 1 school, but somehow, perhaps due to transportation issues, we all ended up doing the 6 schools in 3 hours.  It was hard to say goodbye to the kids even after only 30 minutes.  Pretty much everyone wanted their picture taken &  to see their pictures.  I ended up handing my camera over to the kids & teaching them how to take pictures themselves, which worked really well with the older kids and was fun because I briefly got to teach them how to use the camera.   One of the younger boys almost managed to erase everything on my memory card—I am so grateful that didn’t happen.  After the 6 schools we headed back to the hotel for lunch, and then back out to go briefly to the beach (beautiful—only got to spend 10 minutes there—the shells were amazing), and then we headed to the fisherman’s council (more greetings, more pouring of libations, more well-wishes on our mission here, and a humble request for investing in their infrastructure as well).  After that we headed over to the market and met with the market queens (women who are elected leaders to keep peace in the markets) and we got to explore one of the markets—an amazing maze of fabric, fruit, fish, and food.  After that we headed back to the hotel for a dinner banquet with drummers and dancers, and then after that we drove the 2 hours back to the ship, with an interesting choice of vignettes playing on the bus’s dvd system (I can’t do it justice, it was hard to follow, it was like watching a soap opera with a moral to each story at high volume, and it was one of those insights that just when I think I have a place kind of figured out there’s a layer that I totally don’t understand/is very different from my cultural consciousness).