My oh my does time fly! As I sit here I have only 16 days left in Ghana.... and only 2 more days of work placement. And now the time that is the hardest for me... The Goodbyes.
I love Cape Coast so much and all the wonderful people I've met here, so it will be very hard to leave them on Thursday. I had my work party yesterday and my lovely boss, Auntie Baaba, made me my three favourites... Wakye, Fried Plantain and Ground nut soup with rice balls. As well as octopus, fish, salad and rice. I ate like a king. They then gave me some very sweet and amazing gifts! I will truly miss them all.
On Thursday I head to Kumasi to meet up with my group, whom I miss very much! It will be great to catch up with them after having this solo experience for the last 2 months. Together we will rest and reflect for the weekend in Kumasi, then hopefully a visit to Kuapa Koko (a fair trae cocoa co-op). Then it's back to Nkawkaw and Tweapease to see the fathers and my village family, which entails equally hard goodbyes.
I guess everywhere you go in the world, you're bound to miss somebody. (I miss everyone from home so much!)
This may be my last blog entry before arriving home in Canada!! Hard to believe that 5 months have gone by so fast. As much as I'm dreading leaving, I am equally looking forward to being home and catching the tail end of Winter. Then I've got bigs plans afterwards, that will see me continue to work with Ghanaian youth in BC!
I have to keep this short because there was a huge electrical problem yesterday and they are shutting the power of from 10-5 today, and it's 9:42, and I've still got a few things I need to get done!
See you VERY SOON!!!! Love ya all!
Matty
PS You may be wondering what a furlong is... well it's an old english unit of measure that equals just over 200 metres. The 55, 749 furlongs refers to our flight to amsterdam, then toronto... Peace!
Monday, March 14, 2011
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
The Oxymoronic Shrimp...
Happy March!
Time is flying by (I think I write that in every blog), and with only one month left, I'm living my life here to the max, and trying to accomplishment everything I wanted months ago! Things have been going really well! I've only got 2 more weeks left here in Cape Coast then I head back to Nkawkaw and my village for one last visit before coming home.
I had to the opportunity this weekend to hang out with my friend Steve Day (who is here working for Canada World Youth) and living in Salt Pond, which is about 30 mins from Cape Coast. We had a great weekend and spent time it in both Cape Coast and Salt Pond. Steve is staying with a wonderful family in Salt Pond, and we hung out, played guitar (which I haven't done in 4 months!), watched movies (not in a few months!), played ludo (kinda like the game sorry) and had a gymnastic competition (complete with human pyramid... see photos on facebook.) I can't explain how funny (and amazing) it is to see a bunch of kids dancing to Steve playing Rod Stewart on the guitar, and 5-year old Prince basically learning the lyrics to the chorus (now you need to imagine a small boy, with little english, forming the sounds of I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger)! I equally can't explain how fun it is to have a pur water satchet fight.
The highlight of the weekend though was travelling to the beach and encountering a group of fisherman beginning to haul in their nets. Steve and I jumped at the opportunity to lend a hand (it was on my goals list!). It was tough work and I'm still feeling in my arms as I type this. Imagine over a kilometre of net having to be hauled in painstakingly slow by a group of 30-40 people... one step at a time. Singing along the way, to what I could only make out to be a repetition of 'mosquito, mosquito'. This entire expereince took over an hour and it was incredible to see slowly, one by one, how a few fish would be yanked in caught in the net, until the eventual end, when a pile of fish (and other sea creatures; crabs, jellyfish, lobster, shrimp, etc) were finally brought in. The fish are left to die, then the net owner takes the fish, while giving everyone their fair share for helping. Steve and I got 3 fish, 1 flounder and a giant jumbo (epidemy of oxymoron) shrimp. It was awesome to see such a strong sense of comraderie and community among the workers.
We took another quick swim in the ocean before returning home with our catch, where Mercy (Steve's village mom) made us an incredible light soup and fufu. Yummy.
I am sure that I'm inadvertently omitting some things from the weekend, so be sure to check out the facebook pics!
See you in a Month!
Peace and Love,
Matty
Time is flying by (I think I write that in every blog), and with only one month left, I'm living my life here to the max, and trying to accomplishment everything I wanted months ago! Things have been going really well! I've only got 2 more weeks left here in Cape Coast then I head back to Nkawkaw and my village for one last visit before coming home.
I had to the opportunity this weekend to hang out with my friend Steve Day (who is here working for Canada World Youth) and living in Salt Pond, which is about 30 mins from Cape Coast. We had a great weekend and spent time it in both Cape Coast and Salt Pond. Steve is staying with a wonderful family in Salt Pond, and we hung out, played guitar (which I haven't done in 4 months!), watched movies (not in a few months!), played ludo (kinda like the game sorry) and had a gymnastic competition (complete with human pyramid... see photos on facebook.) I can't explain how funny (and amazing) it is to see a bunch of kids dancing to Steve playing Rod Stewart on the guitar, and 5-year old Prince basically learning the lyrics to the chorus (now you need to imagine a small boy, with little english, forming the sounds of I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger)! I equally can't explain how fun it is to have a pur water satchet fight.
The highlight of the weekend though was travelling to the beach and encountering a group of fisherman beginning to haul in their nets. Steve and I jumped at the opportunity to lend a hand (it was on my goals list!). It was tough work and I'm still feeling in my arms as I type this. Imagine over a kilometre of net having to be hauled in painstakingly slow by a group of 30-40 people... one step at a time. Singing along the way, to what I could only make out to be a repetition of 'mosquito, mosquito'. This entire expereince took over an hour and it was incredible to see slowly, one by one, how a few fish would be yanked in caught in the net, until the eventual end, when a pile of fish (and other sea creatures; crabs, jellyfish, lobster, shrimp, etc) were finally brought in. The fish are left to die, then the net owner takes the fish, while giving everyone their fair share for helping. Steve and I got 3 fish, 1 flounder and a giant jumbo (epidemy of oxymoron) shrimp. It was awesome to see such a strong sense of comraderie and community among the workers.
We took another quick swim in the ocean before returning home with our catch, where Mercy (Steve's village mom) made us an incredible light soup and fufu. Yummy.
I am sure that I'm inadvertently omitting some things from the weekend, so be sure to check out the facebook pics!
See you in a Month!
Peace and Love,
Matty
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
529 years of history...
Hello Hello!
So another week has gone by, and more and more adventures! The highlight of the past while was definetly Jennifer and Hannah coming to visit over the weekend. It was so nice to see my group mates and introduce them to my life here in Cape Coast.
We ventured to Elmina Castle for the afternoon on Saturday, a UNESCO world heritage site. It was a very powerful afternoon to say the least. Elmina Castle is the oldest Slave Trade castle in the world and the largest. It was built 529 years ago by Portugal, then taken over by the Dutch, then traded with the Birtish and evenutally was given over to Ghana at the time of thier independence in 1957. It began as a trading post in African goods for European goods, until it inevitably began trading in humans. This trade in human lives continued until 1814.
It is pretty powerful to stand in the 'room of no return' where slaves were sent just prior to getting on the ships. Equally as powerful to stand in the jail cell (with skull and cross bones above it) that once someone entered, they never left. They were starved to death.
Over 1000 people were kept at a time in the Castle. Only 25% made it across the sea. And to think this only ended 200 years ago.
The rest of the weekend was great, hanging out with the girls and mingling with my new friends here.
So the increase in fuel prices' ripple effect has now begun to be seen (other than the obvious increase in taxi prices). Pure water satchets have doubled in price now from 5p to 10p. I have yet to see an increase in food, but i'm sure its not far off.
I think that's about it for now. I have just over 3 weeks left here in Cape Coast, which saddens me because I really love it here. Though it will be so nice to see my village family again and to see Uncle Andy and Obed as well as finally pick up my mail, and see the group!
I know that I'm home soon, but I don't wanna count the number of days! So I will see you soon!
Peace and Love!
Matty
PS Check out new photos of Football and Elmina Castle and Work Stuff!
So another week has gone by, and more and more adventures! The highlight of the past while was definetly Jennifer and Hannah coming to visit over the weekend. It was so nice to see my group mates and introduce them to my life here in Cape Coast.
We ventured to Elmina Castle for the afternoon on Saturday, a UNESCO world heritage site. It was a very powerful afternoon to say the least. Elmina Castle is the oldest Slave Trade castle in the world and the largest. It was built 529 years ago by Portugal, then taken over by the Dutch, then traded with the Birtish and evenutally was given over to Ghana at the time of thier independence in 1957. It began as a trading post in African goods for European goods, until it inevitably began trading in humans. This trade in human lives continued until 1814.
It is pretty powerful to stand in the 'room of no return' where slaves were sent just prior to getting on the ships. Equally as powerful to stand in the jail cell (with skull and cross bones above it) that once someone entered, they never left. They were starved to death.
Over 1000 people were kept at a time in the Castle. Only 25% made it across the sea. And to think this only ended 200 years ago.
The rest of the weekend was great, hanging out with the girls and mingling with my new friends here.
So the increase in fuel prices' ripple effect has now begun to be seen (other than the obvious increase in taxi prices). Pure water satchets have doubled in price now from 5p to 10p. I have yet to see an increase in food, but i'm sure its not far off.
I think that's about it for now. I have just over 3 weeks left here in Cape Coast, which saddens me because I really love it here. Though it will be so nice to see my village family again and to see Uncle Andy and Obed as well as finally pick up my mail, and see the group!
I know that I'm home soon, but I don't wanna count the number of days! So I will see you soon!
Peace and Love!
Matty
PS Check out new photos of Football and Elmina Castle and Work Stuff!
Monday, February 14, 2011
Kickin' around...
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
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
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
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