Hey Everyone!
Happy Valentine's Day first of all! Hard to believe February is already half over! The last few weeks have been very great for me here in Cape Coast! I've settled into a nice routine and am getting to know the city very well. And I'm still meeting more and more people... from Ghana and all over the world! Germany, Britain, America and even Canada.
Work is going very well. This past weekend, we had our quarterly family event where 10 families from the deaf communtiy came out and we visted Kakum National Park. It was a very powerful day for me. It was so great to see all the families together and the beginningsof a new community. It was also hard to see all the problems and challenges that deaf children/young adults and families face. One thing that particularly struck me was that we ran into the father of one of the deaf girls at Kakum (completely accidentally, he didn't know she would be there - she came with us with her mom...) and he completed IGNORED her. Tough to see, I wanted to say something and do something, but didn't know what. It's pretty sad, and shows some of the stigma and socetal views here. Other than that though it was a great day.
On Sunday, I went to my first ever Football (Soccer for us Canadians) game! It was the local Cape Coast team (The Dwarfs) versus the Kumasi team (The Liberty). The game was exciting, and ended in a 1-1 Draw. It was a good Sunday Afternoon with Kwame, my boss' son (after an amazing meal at their house of ground nut soup and rice balls!).
I also went to Accra last weekend to visit some of the girls in my group. It was a great time, and it was so good to see them. We toured historic Jamestown (described as 'the bronx') of Accra. Friends of Jennifers took us there and gave us a really good overview of the histroy. We saw the lighthouse and the old English fort, converted to a Ghanaian prison, that was closed only 5 years ago. And I found out that Accra used to be divided in two: The British Accra and Danish Accra... and it is very evident in the architecture.
Also, while there, I picked up a copy of the Lord of the rings! (I've never read it before, but I have to say it is quite good!) Also a copy of George Orwell's Animal farm. I am really enjoying reading while I'm here; it is a very good escape. And a vast array of books, really anything I can get my hands on. From a self described book of 'Alien meets Jrassic Park' (which was good!), to Tom Robbins, to WWIII books and everything in between! I hope I can find the time to continue to read while I'm back home!
Last week, I went swimming for the first time here. The ocean is so warm... and the waves are so big (10-15ft!)!!!! It's so great to be tossed around in the surf!
I'm craving pizza like I never thought I would! And Doritos!
That seems to be all for now! I'll try to add some photos to facebook in the next couple days.
Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much, Learn Always. (that's for you mom!)
Matty xo
Monday, February 14, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Happy Grasscutter Day! If Gary the Grasscutter sees his (or her) Shadow, six more weeks of Harmattan.
I realize that only westerners who know what Groundhog Day is and that have been to Ghana will understand the title. So here goes:
The grasscutter is an animal here in Ghana, that people eat. I have yet to eat one, but would like to, just to try it. So thus today has been dubbed as Grasscutter Day, mainly becuase it's the only animal the even remotely resembles a groundhog (and it's a way to for me to implement part of my life back home [however insignificant] to here.) And the Harmattan is the dry winds that come from the Sahara and venture all the way to the Gulf of Guinea (right outside my bedroom) during the dry season. Thus if Gary sees his/her shadow, our dry season will last for another 6 weeks (though Harmattan usually lasts until mid-march I've been told anyway, so it may be redundant if he does see it.)
Well with that out of the way, I can get on with the blog.
This weekend I had the chance to visit Kakum National Park with Kwadwo and Kwame, which was very exciting! First of all, being a Parks and Protected Area Major, it was neat to see a glimpse of the National Park system in a foreign country. I must say that it is fairly similar to what occurs in Canada (and the US for that matter), with interpreters, canteens, the same sor tof mandate, museums, etc.
Anyway, Kakum's biggest attraction are 7 rope bridges that span across the canopy of the Rainforest. At a height of 40 metres (that's 120 feet!)... I tried not to look down. Being slightly anxious with heights, this was nerverwracking (those of you who went to eagle canyon with me may remember!). There were also 20 people on the bridges at a time, and although the guide assured me you could fit two fully grown elephants on them, it was still very shaky and sketchy. Though it was that good kind of scared, and SO MUCH FUN! And it was such a graet view of the rainforest! Everyone should do this. Unfortunately, no Elephants or other animals... though I did get to see a crocodile on Sunday (from a safe distance, though they claim you can pet them... I didn't wanna find out. In fact in the North, they have a crocodile you can ride like a horse... but that's another story).
Check out the pics from Kakum on facebook!
This weekend I'm off to Accra to visit with some members of the group and check out Jamestown and the Mikola Market (which is where all our used clothing gets sent aka 'dead white man's clothing', so I can see the implications of this.)
As for Simple Living, one of the mandates of the program, it's been an interesting idea to balance now that I'm back in the big city away from the village. If I look hard enough I can litteraly find everything and anything you could imagine. When I tell people I live off of 2 Cedis a day for food, they think I'm crazy. Then I tell them I usually have change leftover (because, it is in fact, very manageable to live of 2 Cedis a day on food - about 1.40$ Canadian). The hardest thing I'm finding is having any sort of a social life, it can be difficult to do this without spending money (which is terrible to think...)! Though not impossible... you just have to be creative! And have friends that understand this. Needless to say, it will be interesting to see how I implement these ideals to my life back home.
As a side note, I can't believe it's February and I've been away from my village for over 5 weeks now... that's almost as long as I stayed in the village. I miss my village family alot and am looking forward to seeing them in March!
That's all for this week, I'll check in with ya soon. I hear Southern Ontario is getting its biggest storm since 2007 today. Ha!
Peace and Love,
Cheers!
Matty
The grasscutter is an animal here in Ghana, that people eat. I have yet to eat one, but would like to, just to try it. So thus today has been dubbed as Grasscutter Day, mainly becuase it's the only animal the even remotely resembles a groundhog (and it's a way to for me to implement part of my life back home [however insignificant] to here.) And the Harmattan is the dry winds that come from the Sahara and venture all the way to the Gulf of Guinea (right outside my bedroom) during the dry season. Thus if Gary sees his/her shadow, our dry season will last for another 6 weeks (though Harmattan usually lasts until mid-march I've been told anyway, so it may be redundant if he does see it.)
Well with that out of the way, I can get on with the blog.
This weekend I had the chance to visit Kakum National Park with Kwadwo and Kwame, which was very exciting! First of all, being a Parks and Protected Area Major, it was neat to see a glimpse of the National Park system in a foreign country. I must say that it is fairly similar to what occurs in Canada (and the US for that matter), with interpreters, canteens, the same sor tof mandate, museums, etc.
Anyway, Kakum's biggest attraction are 7 rope bridges that span across the canopy of the Rainforest. At a height of 40 metres (that's 120 feet!)... I tried not to look down. Being slightly anxious with heights, this was nerverwracking (those of you who went to eagle canyon with me may remember!). There were also 20 people on the bridges at a time, and although the guide assured me you could fit two fully grown elephants on them, it was still very shaky and sketchy. Though it was that good kind of scared, and SO MUCH FUN! And it was such a graet view of the rainforest! Everyone should do this. Unfortunately, no Elephants or other animals... though I did get to see a crocodile on Sunday (from a safe distance, though they claim you can pet them... I didn't wanna find out. In fact in the North, they have a crocodile you can ride like a horse... but that's another story).
Check out the pics from Kakum on facebook!
This weekend I'm off to Accra to visit with some members of the group and check out Jamestown and the Mikola Market (which is where all our used clothing gets sent aka 'dead white man's clothing', so I can see the implications of this.)
As for Simple Living, one of the mandates of the program, it's been an interesting idea to balance now that I'm back in the big city away from the village. If I look hard enough I can litteraly find everything and anything you could imagine. When I tell people I live off of 2 Cedis a day for food, they think I'm crazy. Then I tell them I usually have change leftover (because, it is in fact, very manageable to live of 2 Cedis a day on food - about 1.40$ Canadian). The hardest thing I'm finding is having any sort of a social life, it can be difficult to do this without spending money (which is terrible to think...)! Though not impossible... you just have to be creative! And have friends that understand this. Needless to say, it will be interesting to see how I implement these ideals to my life back home.
As a side note, I can't believe it's February and I've been away from my village for over 5 weeks now... that's almost as long as I stayed in the village. I miss my village family alot and am looking forward to seeing them in March!
That's all for this week, I'll check in with ya soon. I hear Southern Ontario is getting its biggest storm since 2007 today. Ha!
Peace and Love,
Cheers!
Matty
Thursday, January 27, 2011
What's that in the sky??? It's a bird!... It's a plane!... it's rain?...
'Change, life-altering change rarely comes through the front door... Change occurs when you're trying to decide if this week is garbage and recycling, or just garbage. Change is a sneak.'
This is paraphrased from, in my opinion (and probably a lot of peoples), Canada's best story-teller, Stuart McLean from one of his Vinyl Cafe Story's on CBC. I write this today, because I was reading some previous blogs of mine from the beginning of this trip (which seems like ages ago!). I guess what I'm saying is, I think I've changed (or at least my views and thinking have) more than I know.
As a sidenote, I brought along a copy of Stuart McLeans Vinyl Cafe Stories in which we took turns reading to eachother out loud... for those of you who don't know the Vinyl Cafe, its a series of short stories about Dave and Morley and their familiy and friends. Now we've finished the book, which is sad because I looked so much forward to these stories at night before bed. (It has come to be a comfort thing for me so I'm rereading it on my own...)
Anyway, the point of this blog when I sat down was to write about interesting things I've found (mainly just an incoherent ramble of things I've been meaning to write about).
-This morning I saw a goat tied to the back of a motorcycle (on the seat, not dragging behind, but still wailing, at first I thought it was child form the sound)...
-The other day while I was walking to work, I got tangled up in a sheep stampede... it was pretty cool.
-It is amazing to see bulls being herded down the street (50 or 60 of them at a time). Now this is still a soft spot for me and I must admit it does scare me ever since the charging of the bull last month! They've got big horns! So I walk on the other side of the road.
-Three days ago, I was out to get my dinner (Banku!) and a kid hollered at me and said 'Obruni, look up'... didn't quite understand what it meant... but I looked anyway. There was a plane. Now this seems insignificant, but then I noticed on my way home that litterally everyone was looking up to the sky... then I realized, I hadn't seen a plane since I was in Accra in October. So yeah, it was kinda a big deal.
-It's amazing and baffles me how many people can fit inside (outside and on top of) a trotro.
-Speaking of driving, I could never drive here. People are very aggressive, and it seems to work, though I have seen my fair share of accidents.
-Two weeks ago I was awoken by a fight in my apartment building at midnight... turns out it was a man refusing to pay a woman money owed to her... nervewracking at the time.
-My Grandma Saide always says, 'you make friends everywhere you go'. And how true. I've realized you just gotta put yourself out there... and it helps that Ghanaians are very outgoing. I met a lot of friends here in Cape Coast, especially from Germany where a lot of volunteers of volunteers come from. I miss my group, but its nice travelling on my own because I'm forced to make these new connections.
-Yesterday I went to the bank to cash some travellers cheques, and they wouldn't beleive that I was me. It was very frustrating trying to explain that just becuase my signature is slightly different than it was 4 years ago in my passport, it still is clearly me. Then they had me sign what my signature used to be (the one in my passport which is very similar to my signature now!) and I was so nervous I messed it up... Anyway, after all the trouble and an hour later, they finally gave me the money.
-Also yesterday it rained. May not seem like a big deal, but I haven't seen rain since November (Maybe early December). I was hoping it would bring the temperature down a little, but alas no, still sweating through my shirt on the walk to work at 7 am. (Mind you it's an hour and half walk)... and I guess I shouldn't complain... it beats shovelling :)
-I've been able to listen to alot of Canadian Music lately which is nice, but I am also listening to a lot of ghanaian music. A friend of a friend named Lord made me my very own Hi-Life CD, with some of my favourites on it!
I guess that's it for my rambles now, I thought I had more to say, but apparently not! This weekend I'm heading to Kakum National Park which I'm super excited for. It'll be interesting seeing how the Park System differs from Canada's (as this is what I studied) and they have this sweet 20 metre rope bridge Canopy hike in the jungle.
Work is going great! We just hired a new office adminsitrator and work together closely and he's really nice! We also had our first outreach program on Saturday and it was a complete success!!! Over 60 people came, along with doctors who checked out all the people who showed up for free.
Time is flying by, I can't beleive it's almost February, and we all know how fast that month goes by. I have a lot I still wanna do here, so I'm trying not to think about home too much, though I do find it hard not to. I am so excited to see everyone! And to eat alot of Cheese, which as you may know is my favourite, and I haven't had any here (except for this pseudo cheese thing 3 months ago.)
Peace and Love, I'll see ya sooner than ya know it.
Matty
PS My office is attached to a school classroom (I came in early today to write this blog) and the kids are very cute. The thing is, they are watching BARNEY right now... who woulda known barney was popular in Ghana?
Cheers!
This is paraphrased from, in my opinion (and probably a lot of peoples), Canada's best story-teller, Stuart McLean from one of his Vinyl Cafe Story's on CBC. I write this today, because I was reading some previous blogs of mine from the beginning of this trip (which seems like ages ago!). I guess what I'm saying is, I think I've changed (or at least my views and thinking have) more than I know.
As a sidenote, I brought along a copy of Stuart McLeans Vinyl Cafe Stories in which we took turns reading to eachother out loud... for those of you who don't know the Vinyl Cafe, its a series of short stories about Dave and Morley and their familiy and friends. Now we've finished the book, which is sad because I looked so much forward to these stories at night before bed. (It has come to be a comfort thing for me so I'm rereading it on my own...)
Anyway, the point of this blog when I sat down was to write about interesting things I've found (mainly just an incoherent ramble of things I've been meaning to write about).
-This morning I saw a goat tied to the back of a motorcycle (on the seat, not dragging behind, but still wailing, at first I thought it was child form the sound)...
-The other day while I was walking to work, I got tangled up in a sheep stampede... it was pretty cool.
-It is amazing to see bulls being herded down the street (50 or 60 of them at a time). Now this is still a soft spot for me and I must admit it does scare me ever since the charging of the bull last month! They've got big horns! So I walk on the other side of the road.
-Three days ago, I was out to get my dinner (Banku!) and a kid hollered at me and said 'Obruni, look up'... didn't quite understand what it meant... but I looked anyway. There was a plane. Now this seems insignificant, but then I noticed on my way home that litterally everyone was looking up to the sky... then I realized, I hadn't seen a plane since I was in Accra in October. So yeah, it was kinda a big deal.
-It's amazing and baffles me how many people can fit inside (outside and on top of) a trotro.
-Speaking of driving, I could never drive here. People are very aggressive, and it seems to work, though I have seen my fair share of accidents.
-Two weeks ago I was awoken by a fight in my apartment building at midnight... turns out it was a man refusing to pay a woman money owed to her... nervewracking at the time.
-My Grandma Saide always says, 'you make friends everywhere you go'. And how true. I've realized you just gotta put yourself out there... and it helps that Ghanaians are very outgoing. I met a lot of friends here in Cape Coast, especially from Germany where a lot of volunteers of volunteers come from. I miss my group, but its nice travelling on my own because I'm forced to make these new connections.
-Yesterday I went to the bank to cash some travellers cheques, and they wouldn't beleive that I was me. It was very frustrating trying to explain that just becuase my signature is slightly different than it was 4 years ago in my passport, it still is clearly me. Then they had me sign what my signature used to be (the one in my passport which is very similar to my signature now!) and I was so nervous I messed it up... Anyway, after all the trouble and an hour later, they finally gave me the money.
-Also yesterday it rained. May not seem like a big deal, but I haven't seen rain since November (Maybe early December). I was hoping it would bring the temperature down a little, but alas no, still sweating through my shirt on the walk to work at 7 am. (Mind you it's an hour and half walk)... and I guess I shouldn't complain... it beats shovelling :)
-I've been able to listen to alot of Canadian Music lately which is nice, but I am also listening to a lot of ghanaian music. A friend of a friend named Lord made me my very own Hi-Life CD, with some of my favourites on it!
I guess that's it for my rambles now, I thought I had more to say, but apparently not! This weekend I'm heading to Kakum National Park which I'm super excited for. It'll be interesting seeing how the Park System differs from Canada's (as this is what I studied) and they have this sweet 20 metre rope bridge Canopy hike in the jungle.
Work is going great! We just hired a new office adminsitrator and work together closely and he's really nice! We also had our first outreach program on Saturday and it was a complete success!!! Over 60 people came, along with doctors who checked out all the people who showed up for free.
Time is flying by, I can't beleive it's almost February, and we all know how fast that month goes by. I have a lot I still wanna do here, so I'm trying not to think about home too much, though I do find it hard not to. I am so excited to see everyone! And to eat alot of Cheese, which as you may know is my favourite, and I haven't had any here (except for this pseudo cheese thing 3 months ago.)
Peace and Love, I'll see ya sooner than ya know it.
Matty
PS My office is attached to a school classroom (I came in early today to write this blog) and the kids are very cute. The thing is, they are watching BARNEY right now... who woulda known barney was popular in Ghana?
Cheers!
Friday, January 14, 2011
To my right a castle, to my left...
Good Day Folks!
I've arrived safely in Cape Coast and have been here for 5 or 6 days now. It's the time in this program for the group to go our seperate ways for our volunteer placements. So where to begin?
We had an amazing retreat in Kumasi and a good time reflecting on our experiences in the village... This made me remember how much I love facilitating workshops and debriefing things (good ol' Katimavik)... The wekk there was so good for group bonding! And we got to watch oprah...
I'm now living in a small apartment called the Baobob House. It's really nice! The organization that owns it runs an orphanage that teaches kids various skills in arts and more. It's a German NGO that started in 2001. They also have a vegetarian restaraunt and craft store to help raise funds. They are doing some pretty great things. And my room is.... cozy! But great! It's all I need, and you can't beat the view. Cape Coast Castler is to my right and the Gulf of guinea crashes to the shore to my left. Very beautiful, and I get to watch the fisherman go out and come in everyday. (Also, I've heard that if you go and help them bring in the nets, they give you free fish.... I'll have to check it out!
Now, more importantly than that, I've begun my work placement at the Ghanaian National Deaf Children's Society. It's located about an hour and half walk from my place downtown (I enjoy the walk, gives me time to think, and excersise). I'm really enjoying my time here thus far! It's risen beyond all of my expectations. They are doing such wonderful things and I'm learning so much already. Things about successes and challenges (ie lack of funding, lack of assessment tools, society's view, etc). It really is a great place to work. The people are fantastic (I'm going over to my bosses house for dinner right after this!) and I'm given a lot of responsibility and autonomous working. I get to research funding, attend meetings, do outreach programs, make partnerships and more. It's awesome! And Mom, they could really use someone like you here! I've told them all about your job.
Anyway, I think I'll leave it at that for now. I'm in a good head space and embracing this new part of my journey. I miss the group though, it was so nice having people to bounce ideas off of... but hey, i guess that means I need to make new friends!
One interesting (bad?) thing is that the price of gas essentially went up 30% overnight (or at least what seemed like overnight to me) and has increased significantly the cost of transportation (at first I thought they were just trying to rip me off cause I'm a tourist, but no! Prices have gone up!) It will be intersting to see how the rest of society copes with this and how prices will change for food and other things... And all this when Ghana has just begun its dealing in oil... Anyway, I don't know enough about it, I'll have to find out more.
Anyway!
Love and Miss you all, I hear there's alot of snow.
Live. Laugh. Love and Learn.
Matty
I've arrived safely in Cape Coast and have been here for 5 or 6 days now. It's the time in this program for the group to go our seperate ways for our volunteer placements. So where to begin?
We had an amazing retreat in Kumasi and a good time reflecting on our experiences in the village... This made me remember how much I love facilitating workshops and debriefing things (good ol' Katimavik)... The wekk there was so good for group bonding! And we got to watch oprah...
I'm now living in a small apartment called the Baobob House. It's really nice! The organization that owns it runs an orphanage that teaches kids various skills in arts and more. It's a German NGO that started in 2001. They also have a vegetarian restaraunt and craft store to help raise funds. They are doing some pretty great things. And my room is.... cozy! But great! It's all I need, and you can't beat the view. Cape Coast Castler is to my right and the Gulf of guinea crashes to the shore to my left. Very beautiful, and I get to watch the fisherman go out and come in everyday. (Also, I've heard that if you go and help them bring in the nets, they give you free fish.... I'll have to check it out!
Now, more importantly than that, I've begun my work placement at the Ghanaian National Deaf Children's Society. It's located about an hour and half walk from my place downtown (I enjoy the walk, gives me time to think, and excersise). I'm really enjoying my time here thus far! It's risen beyond all of my expectations. They are doing such wonderful things and I'm learning so much already. Things about successes and challenges (ie lack of funding, lack of assessment tools, society's view, etc). It really is a great place to work. The people are fantastic (I'm going over to my bosses house for dinner right after this!) and I'm given a lot of responsibility and autonomous working. I get to research funding, attend meetings, do outreach programs, make partnerships and more. It's awesome! And Mom, they could really use someone like you here! I've told them all about your job.
Anyway, I think I'll leave it at that for now. I'm in a good head space and embracing this new part of my journey. I miss the group though, it was so nice having people to bounce ideas off of... but hey, i guess that means I need to make new friends!
One interesting (bad?) thing is that the price of gas essentially went up 30% overnight (or at least what seemed like overnight to me) and has increased significantly the cost of transportation (at first I thought they were just trying to rip me off cause I'm a tourist, but no! Prices have gone up!) It will be intersting to see how the rest of society copes with this and how prices will change for food and other things... And all this when Ghana has just begun its dealing in oil... Anyway, I don't know enough about it, I'll have to find out more.
Anyway!
Love and Miss you all, I hear there's alot of snow.
Live. Laugh. Love and Learn.
Matty
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
A fee she yay paa!
The title means Happy new year! Spelled phonetically of course (I don't know how to spell it in Twi)... it's always interesting saying that to Ghanaians and they Laugh because they are so excited that I can speak Twi! (It's equally interesting eating Banku on the street and having all the trotros drive by and people stare at you and laugh!)
Things are going very well here! I'm know in Kumasi on a week long retreat to reflect and debrief and prepare for the upcoming work placement period, where we will all separate as a group until March. I'm very much looking forward to this part of the trip.
Before I get into that, let me start from where I left off. After leaving Ho, we headed to Akwidaa Beach and the green turtle ecotourism outfit. They do some really cool things there and a lot of the profits go directly to helping the turtles. It was a BEAUTIFUL place and we camped on the beach. It was awfully strange being completely surrounded by foreigners... but we befriended some folks from Syngapore and had a real good time. We spent alot of our time at the lodge exploring the town nearby, which was a quaint (and amazing) fishing village off the coast... (we also ate here because the lodge was charging 10 Cedis a plate... where we can eat all 3 meals for far less than 2 in town... and better food.)
This experience at green turtle helped me appreciate the awesome experience I'm having here in Ghana... though it was a great experience in itself (a 20-foot bonfire at midnight on New years on a beach... very nice!)
Anyway, we changed our plans and headed to Cape Coast for a night after having spent enough time at the lodge. Cape Coast is VERY exciting. It's a big city, but smallish. Right on the ocean. I'm looking very much forward to moving there! While there, we visited Cape Coast Castle. It was, in a word, intense. The Castle is where slaves were kept during the slave trade. It was powerful to see, I'll leave it at that.
That's it for now! Only three more months here and I know it will pass far too quickly. I hope everyone had a great and safe new years! I can't wait to see you!
Oh and how can I forget! For all you Katimavik employees who know us, I met up with Steve Day for a couple days! It was nice to hang out with someone from home!
That's all for now!
I'm still happy, healthy, learning a lot and having fun! What more can I ask for?
Peace and Love!
Matty
Things are going very well here! I'm know in Kumasi on a week long retreat to reflect and debrief and prepare for the upcoming work placement period, where we will all separate as a group until March. I'm very much looking forward to this part of the trip.
Before I get into that, let me start from where I left off. After leaving Ho, we headed to Akwidaa Beach and the green turtle ecotourism outfit. They do some really cool things there and a lot of the profits go directly to helping the turtles. It was a BEAUTIFUL place and we camped on the beach. It was awfully strange being completely surrounded by foreigners... but we befriended some folks from Syngapore and had a real good time. We spent alot of our time at the lodge exploring the town nearby, which was a quaint (and amazing) fishing village off the coast... (we also ate here because the lodge was charging 10 Cedis a plate... where we can eat all 3 meals for far less than 2 in town... and better food.)
This experience at green turtle helped me appreciate the awesome experience I'm having here in Ghana... though it was a great experience in itself (a 20-foot bonfire at midnight on New years on a beach... very nice!)
Anyway, we changed our plans and headed to Cape Coast for a night after having spent enough time at the lodge. Cape Coast is VERY exciting. It's a big city, but smallish. Right on the ocean. I'm looking very much forward to moving there! While there, we visited Cape Coast Castle. It was, in a word, intense. The Castle is where slaves were kept during the slave trade. It was powerful to see, I'll leave it at that.
That's it for now! Only three more months here and I know it will pass far too quickly. I hope everyone had a great and safe new years! I can't wait to see you!
Oh and how can I forget! For all you Katimavik employees who know us, I met up with Steve Day for a couple days! It was nice to hang out with someone from home!
That's all for now!
I'm still happy, healthy, learning a lot and having fun! What more can I ask for?
Peace and Love!
Matty
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Monkeys, Motorcycles, Mountains and More!
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
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 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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