So I have a few extra mins here on the computer and thought I'd give a brief synopsis of what's be going on since I left my village stay!
The first place (and where i wrote my last blog from) was Tamale in the North. I had a very amazing time there. We met up with our fellow canadian firends Chelsea and Aryn and had ourselves a very merry Christmas. We spent two days prior to christmas preparing for a giant meal piut on by Dr Abulai and the Shekina Clinic. He is one of the most interesting people i have ever met! I don't have enough time to discuss it here though!
So the day of the dinner, we served 3550!!! It went on all day. It was truly a spectacular, albeit humbling day. My main responsibility was to hand out second clothes. As a sidenote, we helped prepare over 700kg of chicken, and served a bull, who incidently almost ran us over a few days prior as he got loose from his ropes (he flipped our bags far away, and let me tell you i have never run so fast!)
Since then, The group has split up for the rest of our travel time. The first day, Jennifer, Hannah and I (along with Chelsea and Aryn) headed back to the south of the country. We said our goodbyes to our friends and stayed the night in Nkawkaw with Father Andy (THE COOLEST MAN!), and played the bean game... (Very fun, I'll teach you when I get home).
We then left early in the AM to head to HoHoe. After a brief lay over in Accra (and a stampede for the trotros...) we made it to HoHoe and our hotel for the eveneing.
The next day we hiked to Wli falls and I jumped in and went under the falls (and got a picture for sadie!). These falls are boasted to be the Highest in West Africa (I can't upload photos and this cafe so you'll have to trust me, they were!).
AFter that we headed to Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary!!! IT WAS AWESOME! We fed the endangered Mona Monkeys BANANAS! They ate right from our hand! It truly was an incredible moment!
Also, for the last little bit of the drive there are no trotros, so we had to jump on the back of motor cycle taxis! (DOn't worry mom, I wore a helmet.)
After that we ended our day in Ho. A small city... this morning we got up and hiked Mount Adaku. Our guide saw a snake, and he knew I didn't like them, so he didn't tell me until after w got down.... probably for the best. I still haven't seen a snake!
Anyway, that's all for now. Tomorrow we're off the Butre, on the ocean with a brief stopover in Cape Coast to see the slave castles. Should be incredible.
I've also gotten in touch with my work placement and they are anxiously awaiting my arrival, which is very good to know!! It's a big weight off my shoulders. So after Butre, we go to Kumasi to meet up with the group one last time, then off to Cape coast for me for the duration of work placements (2 months)!
I miss you all very much, and as I sit here typing, I realized that I miss egg nog alot... a strange thing to miss!
Love ya all!
Have a safe and Happy New years!
Matty
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Make Fufu, not war.
Hey Folks!
It sure has been awhile! I'm officailly done my stay in the village now and am currently in Northern Ghana in a city called Tamale. The group and I will be staying here for christmas and helping out with the massive free dinner preparation over the next few days at the Shekina Clinic. I'll blog more about this at some later point, but I want to talk a bit about the village while its still fresh in my mind!
My last four weeks in the village were amazing!!! I've become really close with my family and have officially met all th emmebers, with my two other village brothers, Francis and Richard, coming home for seperate weekends. I've included (or will be trying to include) a photo of the whole family (minus Mr Nartey) in this blog. ***Well I couldn't add the photo, so check out facebook.
Hmmm sooo... maybe I'll just go over the highlights and what comes to my mind:
The other day I got to kill and prepare a chicken from start to finish. It was really cool to be able to do. I slowly learned how to cook some of my fabvourite meals so that I can make them when I get back (I hope you like to eat with your hands... well your RIGHT hand)
I made a friend named Joseph. He's such a great guy... he's 22 and lives in Tweapease with his grandfather. It was really nice having someone to hang out with it, and on my last day he gave me 30 bananas, which was really nice... but who can eat thrity bananas in 12 hours?? I tried... (By the way, bananas here are so incredibly awesome!... all the fruit is for the matter.
Baby Denzel is 3 years old ( I think I may have mentioned him in my last post) Anyway, he used to be afraid of me, but now LOVES me!!! We hung out all the time. One day, and the greatest memory I have of him, he showed up with a CAR TIRE to my compound. Now this may not seem like such a feat, but there are practically now cars in my town, no one knows where he got it from, and, most impressively, it's bigger than him. That sheer fact that he could lift it was incredible (and very funny to watch... I have some good videos of his struggle).
I taught all the kids how to play the ukelele!!! They caught on so quicly and learned to play Knan!
I learned all about the processes to get the cocoa to market and made palm oil! I also learned how to carry water on my head! Though practically everyone was laughing at me I managed to stay pretty dry.
My family also had a tv so I was able to watch the news every once in awhile. We also watched some pretty radical ghanain films and even 'who wants to be rich!', the Ghana version of who wants to be amillionaire... very interesting.
Soon upon my return to the village, i went to a wedding in Tema with Monseigneur Paul... alot of funny stuff happened along the way, but I'll tell you some other time. The coolest (or saddest?) thing though was that I returned to a slaughtered goat!! His name was Billy aka Highjump (becuase he would jump over the half door to the Ktichen and start eating things). Anyway, he was delicious. And it was neat to watch it being prepared. Though it is strange to eat something that you have named.
Speaking of goats, my favourite goat, Belinda, got to the point where I could pick her up without a fuss and she would come around and hang out with me. Also, Mama had her twins. It was cool having two tiny goats running around!
My family was fantastic. All 3 boys surpirsed me and showed up at home for my last weekend there. We played a lot of cards (Spar, a ghanaian game, and I taught them Speed) and a game called Ludu (like Sorry!) and one called Ouare. Both very fun.
We also acquired a new child about 2 weeks ago. One of my mother's aunts died and after the funeral, the girl she was taken care of came to live with our family indefinetly. Things are different here... her name is Portia and she\s ten. She's very nice and now her and Pricilla are best friends! Also, i was very glad to not go to the funeral. Some of my group mate's have been and there are quite interesting stories.
Other than that, my day to day life consisted of alot of reading, chatting, washing my clothes by hand or going to farm. Overall, it was a very good time and I already miss it. As a going away gift they gave me a VERY nice shirt.
I guess that's my last month in a nutshell. I'm forgetting more than i remember to write, but these stories will slowly come out when I get back home.
I'll leave it a that for now.
I hope all is well back home. It's 39 degrees where I am right now during the day and only 15 at night, which belive it or not, is pretty cold. I have to wear long sleeves.
I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy new year! I wish I could be there to celebrate, but know that you are all in my thoughts! I really am missing the snow and cold right now (honest!)... it really doesn't feel like christmas, though I do hear a lot of carols and I sang to my family a killer rendition of Santa Clause is Coming to town.
Cheers,
Peace and love everyone.
Matty
It sure has been awhile! I'm officailly done my stay in the village now and am currently in Northern Ghana in a city called Tamale. The group and I will be staying here for christmas and helping out with the massive free dinner preparation over the next few days at the Shekina Clinic. I'll blog more about this at some later point, but I want to talk a bit about the village while its still fresh in my mind!
My last four weeks in the village were amazing!!! I've become really close with my family and have officially met all th emmebers, with my two other village brothers, Francis and Richard, coming home for seperate weekends. I've included (or will be trying to include) a photo of the whole family (minus Mr Nartey) in this blog. ***Well I couldn't add the photo, so check out facebook.
Hmmm sooo... maybe I'll just go over the highlights and what comes to my mind:
The other day I got to kill and prepare a chicken from start to finish. It was really cool to be able to do. I slowly learned how to cook some of my fabvourite meals so that I can make them when I get back (I hope you like to eat with your hands... well your RIGHT hand)
I made a friend named Joseph. He's such a great guy... he's 22 and lives in Tweapease with his grandfather. It was really nice having someone to hang out with it, and on my last day he gave me 30 bananas, which was really nice... but who can eat thrity bananas in 12 hours?? I tried... (By the way, bananas here are so incredibly awesome!... all the fruit is for the matter.
Baby Denzel is 3 years old ( I think I may have mentioned him in my last post) Anyway, he used to be afraid of me, but now LOVES me!!! We hung out all the time. One day, and the greatest memory I have of him, he showed up with a CAR TIRE to my compound. Now this may not seem like such a feat, but there are practically now cars in my town, no one knows where he got it from, and, most impressively, it's bigger than him. That sheer fact that he could lift it was incredible (and very funny to watch... I have some good videos of his struggle).
I taught all the kids how to play the ukelele!!! They caught on so quicly and learned to play Knan!
I learned all about the processes to get the cocoa to market and made palm oil! I also learned how to carry water on my head! Though practically everyone was laughing at me I managed to stay pretty dry.
My family also had a tv so I was able to watch the news every once in awhile. We also watched some pretty radical ghanain films and even 'who wants to be rich!', the Ghana version of who wants to be amillionaire... very interesting.
Soon upon my return to the village, i went to a wedding in Tema with Monseigneur Paul... alot of funny stuff happened along the way, but I'll tell you some other time. The coolest (or saddest?) thing though was that I returned to a slaughtered goat!! His name was Billy aka Highjump (becuase he would jump over the half door to the Ktichen and start eating things). Anyway, he was delicious. And it was neat to watch it being prepared. Though it is strange to eat something that you have named.
Speaking of goats, my favourite goat, Belinda, got to the point where I could pick her up without a fuss and she would come around and hang out with me. Also, Mama had her twins. It was cool having two tiny goats running around!
My family was fantastic. All 3 boys surpirsed me and showed up at home for my last weekend there. We played a lot of cards (Spar, a ghanaian game, and I taught them Speed) and a game called Ludu (like Sorry!) and one called Ouare. Both very fun.
We also acquired a new child about 2 weeks ago. One of my mother's aunts died and after the funeral, the girl she was taken care of came to live with our family indefinetly. Things are different here... her name is Portia and she\s ten. She's very nice and now her and Pricilla are best friends! Also, i was very glad to not go to the funeral. Some of my group mate's have been and there are quite interesting stories.
Other than that, my day to day life consisted of alot of reading, chatting, washing my clothes by hand or going to farm. Overall, it was a very good time and I already miss it. As a going away gift they gave me a VERY nice shirt.
I guess that's my last month in a nutshell. I'm forgetting more than i remember to write, but these stories will slowly come out when I get back home.
I'll leave it a that for now.
I hope all is well back home. It's 39 degrees where I am right now during the day and only 15 at night, which belive it or not, is pretty cold. I have to wear long sleeves.
I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a safe and happy new year! I wish I could be there to celebrate, but know that you are all in my thoughts! I really am missing the snow and cold right now (honest!)... it really doesn't feel like christmas, though I do hear a lot of carols and I sang to my family a killer rendition of Santa Clause is Coming to town.
Cheers,
Peace and love everyone.
Matty
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