Elmina

Last weekend I visited Elmina, a coastal town about 3 hours west of Accra. I really wanted to get out of the city for at least one whole day. Plus there’s a castle there that the Portuguese built (later taken over by the Dutch, then the English) that I really wanted to see. There’s one in Cape Coast too, and there are a few more scattered around the area, but I had heard that the Elmina castle was the most interesting. It’s also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. So Raphael graciously offered to take me.

Raph checkin' the oil

Raph checkin' the oil

First stop was Elmina Bay Resort to get some rest. It’s right on the ocean, so as soon as we got out of the car, we could hear the waves crashing very loudly on the beach, and could feel the cool, strong winds that were blowing the palm leaves high above us. It was quite dark so I couldn’t really appreciate the view until morning.

view from my room at Elmina Bay Resort

view from my room at Elmina Bay Resort

 not a bad view to wake up to

not a bad view to wake up to

In the morning after breakfast, we checked out and headed to Elmina town to visit the castle.

view from the breakfast table

view from the breakfast table

Elmina Castle was built in 1482, and served as a trading post for gold, ivory and… slaves. I knew that this would be a hard place to visit. We joined a tour group that was just getting started, and found our guide to be very knowledgeable and passionate about the history of this haunted place.

standing in the courtyard of Elmina Castle

standing in the courtyard of Elmina Castle

punishment cell. not many came out of this one alive.

punishment cell. not many came out of this one alive.

One of the first stops was the dungeons that the female slaves were kept. We walked through, silent, overwhelmed by a smell so vile you cannot imagine that still permeates the walls and floors of the dark and airless chambers. Our guide waited until after we exited to tell us the conditions in which the women were kept, and what happened to the ones who fought back or were chosen to be consorts of their captors.

courtyard just outside female dungeons

courtyard just outside female dungeons

Then on to the male slave dungeon. It’s through here the infamous “gate of no return” is. I’m not sure if you get an idea of scale here, but it’s tiny. I’m not sure I could pass through it without a struggle. It’s here where the slaves were brought out to waiting boats, never to return to their motherland again.

gate of no return

gate of no return

view of the beach from the ramparts

view of the beach from the ramparts

cannons and ... damn I forgot to ask what that structure in the distance is

cannons and ... damn I forgot to ask what that structure in the distance is

All in all it was a very powerful tour, and a very important part of my time here in Ghana.

amen.

amen.

hold up

Just a brief update while I’m waiting for someone to show up. One thing about Ghana, you have a lot of time to think, because you wait around a lot. You really have to get over the idea that anyone might care about your time. I’m not saying it’s disrespectful, our notions of “wasting our time” just don’t apply here. People take care of what’s important, and sometimes your opinions of what is important may differ. And above all, noooooo stress!

are you wondering what's in the big bowl?

are you wondering what's in the big bowl?

There’s a bit of a holdup with the FAWE site, as the company hosting it has some funky CMS goings on and I cannot edit the actual design of the site at all, meaning I cannot implement many of the requested changes they had. So I’m back at the GEU today to discuss their website with Divine. He wasn’t around all last week so I was unable to sit down and discuss content with him. I’m hoping we can get some more content up and at least have a solid plan for our next steps on getting the site up live. I think Patience and I are coming back on Friday to do a final report.

new week, new mandate

Hey y’all. It’s been awhile, I’ve been keeping busy! I’ve unofficially finished my time with the GEU but we do have more work to do together. The website design is done and now I await feedback on content. I’ve made arrangements to go back on Wednesday to speak to Divine directly, so hopefully we can get most of it done.

Today Patience took me to Fotobi to visit FAWE Ghana (Forum for African Women Educationalists), the second organization I’m partnering with. They also need help with their website, which currently exists but needs to be updated. I got a tour around the headquarters, which includes their very own radio station!

FAWE Ghana

FAWE Ghana

FAWE DJ spinning some Afro beats

FAWE DJ spinning some Afro beats

They play music as well as educational programs that have a focus on gender issues. What an amazing idea! I promised them I would try and find out how to broadcast their station on the internet once I’m back home. That’s gotta be easy, and free, right?

FAWE FM's broadcast tower

FAWE FM's broadcast tower

let's hear it for the girls!

let's hear it for the girls!

Picco and I discussing website stuff

Picco and I discussing website stuff

Patience and I then traveled up the road a bit to visit one of the schools in the area, Nsaba Diaspora Community Senior High School. From the FAWE Ghana website:

FAWE founded this school in response to a request from the local community. Most local girls do not attend senior high school, instead dropping out to work on pineapple plantations. This often leads to a lifestyle that exposes them to sexual abuse and teenage pregnancy. FAWE Ghana founded Nsaba Diaspora Community Senior High School (NDCSHS) in an attempt to remedy this problem.

The main mission of the school is to rescue girls from environments that offer few prospects of success, and to enable junior high school leavers in the Nsaba Educational Circuit and other deprived communities in Ghana to access secondary education. The school offers opportunity to local girls who would otherwise not receive secondary education. FAWE Ghana also uses its country-wide network of Focal Point Contact Persons to identify girls living in high-risk and educationally deprived environments throughout the country and enroll them in the school. Room and board at the school is provided for these girls, free of charge whenever possible.

students of Nsaba Diaspora

students of Nsaba Diaspora

Turns out another Canadian WUSC volunteer is stationed here for a year, acting as a guidance counselor for the girls. She also lives in the dorms on the school grounds. She wasn’t around to chat with though, hopefully I will get to meet her this week sometime. In the meantime, I have newsletters, reports and funding proposals to read in order to prepare some feedback on website updates.

2 minutes of trotro

Just a little taste of Accra, and part of my commute home. I take a quick tro ride to Station, where I get another that goes straight to Haatso. Tros don’t depart until they’re full, so sometimes you sit there for a long time. Other times there can be a huge queue. Lots of people selling stuff here, from booths or just walking around.

You can see a bit of the inside in the video, this tro had a tv in it! We watched a movie on the way home (about an hour and half ride), which was subtitled in English when the actors spoke Twi, so I could follow along. It was Ghanaian made and quite funny, about a greedy banker and his exploits.

working at the GEU

GEU logo

GEU logo

My day at work at the GEU was very quiet and productive. I have the wireframe done for the website and had some time to insert some copy supplied by Divine. I talked to the receptionist to get a digital version of their logo, it’s pretty cute. The power only went out once, and only for about 10 minutes. Believe me, this was a huge factor in my productivity.

It’s going to be a very basic website, outlining their mandate, activities they are involved with all over Ghana, their partnerships and even general FAQs to address common socio-cultural negative attitudes towards girls’ education. Aside from disseminating this information to the public, the website will also serve the purpose of providing a directory of important contacts within the GEU – a lot of work goes to ‘head office’ (Ministry of Education) and must get re-routed by snail mail, because people don’t have a way of looking up the GEU on the web right now.

work in progress

work in progress

I’m keeping it simple and clean so it will be easy to update once I’m gone. Tomorrow’s plan is keep on truckin’ with inserting the rest of the content I have, and then asking for feedback. My plan is to have the basic structure totally done before I leave, and to do a quick orientation with Earnest on how to update it from here on out, how to register a domain, etc.

happy birthday, Ghana!

Yesterday was Independence Day, celebrating 54 years of freedom from colonial rule in Ghana – the first nation in Africa to do so. Akum, Raph and I drove up to the mountains just north of Accra. Beautiful views on the way, we passed Rita Marley’s house (and recording studio) on the way up, and many fruit stands.

view of Accra from the mountains

view of Accra from the mountains

fruit stand

fruit stand

Fruit stands are everywhere – actually stands in general are everywhere. Phone credit, drinks, fruit, prepared food, random goods like irons or booty magazines or sandals. Most have names that are spiritual in nature (“Clap for Jesus”) or hilarious WTF names (“Don’t Mind Your Wife”).

Rita's gate

Rita's gate

one good thing about music... Bob was right

one good thing about music... Bob was right

There was an artists market where I bought a few pieces and enjoyed bargaining for the first time. There was a fun workshop around back that I got a snap of:

power house doesn't look too inviting, eh?

power house doesn't look too inviting, eh?

We then headed a house of some friends to watch the Man U vs Liverpool match, drink wine and celebrate Independence Day. We ate (rice and coleslaw salad with a very spicy goat stew) and drank lots of cold red wine from the box. It’s cheap here and Ghanaians love it! After the football game another show came on, a very popular Nigerian preacher named TB Joshua who heals people through the word of God.

One of the guests, Obinna, is a beautician and really wanted to play with my hair and to take some pictures for his portfolio. This was a bit hit at the party, and everyone wanted to take snaps of me and my updo.

Obinna fixin' me up

Obinna fixin' me up

As for today, it’s officially a holiday in lieu of yesterday being Independence Day. Both the GEU and WUSC offices are closed, so I decided to stay in my hotel room and do some work. Not very exciting, but I have a lot to do and a short amount of time to do it all in.

my doin’s on Saturday

I’m running a bit behind… I guess it’s because I’m busy doing stuff! Which is good!

Wild Gecko is a really nice spot, lots of cool crafty stuff. I had to show a bit of financial restraint and only buy a couple of things. They have all these tents set up with artists doing their thing, mostly wood and iron work. They also have some monkeys and guinea pigs and tortoises hanging around. Pretty damn cool.

We then went down to Osu next to check out Woodin, a bit of a high-end store that specializes in beautiful fabric. I dream of getting a custom made dress while I’m here, but I didn’t see a cloth pattern that called out to me. Plus, kind of expensive. When I got back to Suma tonight, the woman that runs the place told me to wait and go to Makola Market, I will find something I like there for a fraction of the price.

waitin' in the tro

waitin' in the tro

We headed to catch a trotro at Station, which took FOREVER due to nutty traffic. Seriously, it was painful. But at the end was my first go at fufu and several Club beers with Akum and Raph.


Fufu: an immensely popular dish.


Fufu: an immensely popular dish.

There’s a doughy ball of either plantain or cassava, sitting in a tasty (spicy) broth, topped with meat. I chose tilapia which was AMAZING. Akum got goat which came in a very close 2nd. You get a bowl of water and some soap for washing your right hand (right hand only please – left hand is for dirty business) and once you’re clean, you dive in. Cut a chunk of dough off with your fingers and shape into a scoop of sorts. Sop up some soup and slop it back, not chewing the dough very much. I actually tried this again tonight, but with banku (instead of doughball in the middle, you get a slightly firmer doughball on the side, this time with cornmeal mixed in the with cassava/plantain and fermented, so it’s got a tang to it).

it’s the weekend!

Akum and a friend of his are picking me up in a couple hours to sightsee and take me to Wild Gecko, an arts & crafts market here in Accra. I’m in my room doing a bit of work in the meantime. I’d sit out at the common area at the hotel but I have A/C in here and power for my laptop. Although the lights seem to be flickering a lot, so I’m not sure if it will hold out.

I’m absolutely covered in mosquito bites. For some reason I forgot my insect repellent at home. Let’s hope the Malarone (antimalarial) I’m taking does it’s magic. Every night one of the boys (the 4 or so young guys that work here) sprays my room but I fear that the majority of the bites came from the one night I stayed outside at dark, drinking wine with Akum at the store down the road.

The owners of the hotel have a child, Nicolas, who’s 3 and a little rascal. He runs around and harasses everyone in the cutest way. We often have a hard time understanding each other, but we make up for it by playing and him showing me all his Spiderman stickers. He calls me ‘Aunti Nicole’ which is ADORABLE.

Nicolas

Nicolas, striking his favourite pose.

He offered to take some ‘snaps’ of me and ordered me to pose like that as well. He didn’t manage to get any of my face though.

I’m also reading up on some other places I could visit next weekend. A few recommendations have came in (thanks everyone!) so I’m mulling them over. I wish I had more time to explore this city and this amazing country.

a few snaps

trotro!

trotro!

Rubby, Akum and Aunti Patience

Rubby (admin assistant at WUSC), Akum (fellow volunteer) and Aunti Patience (Sectoral Officer at WUSC)

Ghana Literacy House (location of Girls' Education Unit)

Ghana Literacy House (location of Girls' Education Unit)

Chickens everywhere!

Chickens everywhere!

power struggles

So it turns out I’m an idiot, I didn’t actually blow up my power supply. My power bar was the issue, I looked at the bottom and it can’t handle the voltage here. So my compy is fully operational (other than it’s Windows and slow as molasses) and I can do my job.  Oh, I know what my job is now!

I did end up talking to the Director that day (we call her ‘Madame’) after waiting around for 5 hours. Welcome to GMT (Ghana Maybe Time). We talked about the GEU’s most pressing ICT needs, what my skills are, and how I might be of service. She identified three possible areas, and suggested that I speak to their recently hired ICT guy, Earnest. After doing so, we decided that the best thing for me to do would be to develop a website for the GEU.

I had prepared a bunch of materials beforehand, anticipating I would be actually training staff there. Turns out most folks there are pretty comfortable with their computing skills and they are well supported with Earnest there. There are about 8 employees at this office, including Akum. The office consists of two separate rooms in a building called Ghana Literacy House, which contains different organizations that are variously dedicated to education (formal and informal) in Ghana. Like everywhere else in Accra, the power regularly goes out, but sometimes only in one office. So I work until my battery drains, then go to the other office across the hall and plug in and work there.

Today Akum and I went to the office only to find there was no power in the whole building. Apparently it was scheduled, and would be out for the entire day. He had to stay for a meeting with someone, but suggested I  go back to the WUSC office to work. After confirming with him that I was ready for my first solo trotro journey, I went all the way back to Haatso (my neighbourhood). Now here I sit, in a small conference room all by myself, full of yummy take away salad and chicken,  ready to work, A/C blasting.