GHANA – Coming to you from somewhere off the African coast heading south to Cape Town, this past week was a unique experience getting a chance to explore Ghana and interact with the people. Yesterday, the ship crossed a point of geographic significance; point 0,0 where the Prime Meridian and Equator meet. This may be hard to believe but there actually is a floating marker out there. I have pictures to prove it! Crossing this point you join a unique fraternity of the sailing community. In this case, you become Emerald Shellback and Royal Diamond Shellback depending which navy. We have four more days of class/at sea before we arrive in South Africa on Friday, Feb. 24.
The West Africa region is a very interesting place to travel to and especially Ghanaitself. Ghana was the first African nation to claim its independence and is a rapidly growing nation today which after being there for a week makes you pounder just what the conditions are like in these other African countries.Ghana considers itself to be the hope of the region.
First off the traffic in Ghana especially around Accra is awful. It takes forever to get around to places and the only real means of transportation is by car. And to add to that, the roads are really small and inadequate to accommodate how many cars they have on the road. One evening on a ride back from Accra to the ship, we were stuck in a jam for over an hour and a half barely moving. I also wanted to mention the concept of “Africa Time”. Everything is a little bit slower, not only just with the traffic but its evident when you get meals. It takes a bit to just sit back and relax a little bit when you’re so used to being on-the-go all the time. So it’s really hard to get around the area quickly. Finally, my theme for the five days was sweaty. It was just really hot out there. No matter what when you walked outside, it was guaranteed the sweat would be pouring down your face.
The first order of business once we docked in Tema was to head to Accra and make a visit to the Indian Consulate. There are (or I should say were) 66 people who did not have Indian Visas including myself and it was still in question whether I would be able to get into India when we arrived there. Semester at Sea had been working through various plans to get us Visas and the plan in which we would go to the Consulate in Ghana and give them 5 days to process the Visas seemed like the most logical choice. We were the first ones off the ship and had a police escort to the India High Commission. Note on police escort: In Ghana, traffic is so bad that they offer escorts to tourists now so tourists can arrive at locations on time. I didn’t realize it at first but then I saw that we were moving through all this traffic pretty steadily. Everybody on the streets were stopping what they were doing to stare at us as well. By noon, we had all turned in our applications and would have to wait until Friday to find out if they would be able to do all 66. To make a long story short, we got the Visas and we all will be heading to India. Special thanks to the people who worked at Semester at Sea to get it done, I know they worked very hard to get this done for us for something that wasn’t our fault under a situation they hadn’t seen before.
My first three days in Ghana were to myself to just go out and explore. I mainly stuck around Accra and saw what the capital city had to offer. There was a shuttle that ran from our ship to the city each day because even though it is closeit’s actually a long drive because of traffic sometimes taking two hours to go just 17 miles. The first afternoon I explored around the Osu area of the city where the bus dropped us off after the visit to the India Consulate. I really was unprepared for stepping off the bus because for some reason I had an idea that because Ghana was more developed that people selling items wouldn’t harass us. However, immediately I remembered my last visit to Africa and I knew that this wasn’t exactly going to be a fun part. The site of many Americans getting off a bus made the day for these people and people swarm you wanting to sell you so many stupid things. They try to pull you in by asking your name and shaking your hand. Of course wanting to be a polite American you do it. Over time you just learn to say hello put your head down and keep moving. The first day was a real adjustment day though learning to deal with these guys. After walking around for a couple hours in the very hot sun, drenched in sweat, Ineeded a break. So I spent the last few hours of the afternoon at a nice African restaurant trying a local dish and rehydrating. Exhausted, I was ready to head back to the ship and regroup for the next couple of days.
On Days 2 and 3, I went back to Accra deciding I would get to see everything in Accrabefore moving on to something different. On Day 2, I headed to a store called Global Mamas where they sell local crafts made by Ghanaian women. The storeprovides a nice break from the madness you have outside and is the shoppingenvironment we are more accustomed to. In the afternoon, we headed to an older part of town called Jamestown where we walked around and could see the coastal part of the city. Around this part of the city it turns into more of a shantytown area and it really is an unbelievable sight. While we were walking around school was beginning to be let out for the day. African children absolutely love saying hello to Americans and wanting their picture taken. So we would be walking down the sidewalk meanwhile everyone wanting to come up and say hello almost like you are a celebrity. I noticed that people in Ghana are truly happy to have you visit their country. One common saying that I heardquite often is that we are all brothers and sisters no matter where you come from. Escaping the onslaught of people, we stopped at Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park. This was essentially Ghana’s national mall. This is the location where Nkrumah declared independence and is buried.
Day 3 I wanted to make it to the Center for Culture and the Makola Market. The Center for Culture is an area where they sell local art like drums, masks, and other indigenous crafts. It is a very cool spot because you can see people makingsome of the items but once again it is not the easiest place to go into because people are so interested in getting your business. The best way to describe it is that when they see Americans they see you as a walking dollar sign whichafter a while gets just plain bizarre. They say things like, “Oh you’re American, you have money.” In the covered areas of the market people will grab your arm and try to pull you into their stalls. At times it’s hard because you want to see what they have but you also don’t want to be stuck in this persons stall for the next 15 minutes. Actually while I was in there I got to see the Ghanaian presidential motorcade go by which was pretty cool. Next I headed to Makola Market, the largest market in the city and it’s an amazing site. It’s just pure humanity for as far as you can see selling every single item you can think of. This is more of the place where locals come to buy their everydayitems. For dinner, I ate at a local chop bar, which basically means it is an authentic African restaurant that locals usually go to. This place called Asanka Locals was actually attended by Anthony Bourdain and I wanted to try the dish that he enjoyed. Unfortunately, that dish is only made on Sundays. Instead I tried a dish called Fufu with tilapia, a dish that you eat with your right hand only. It’s almost like a soup with a massive dumpling in it. The dumpling is made from a local crop that I’m not sure the name of and when you pull off a piece from the bowl you are supposed to swallow it whole. It was pretty spicy but I liked it, definitely a different eating experience. Just to offer another example of how kids love Americans, this little three-year-old kid just came up and sat at our table to sit with us.
Day 4 I headed to Cape Coast a city west of Accra and about a three-hour trip down the coast. Once again we had a police escort to help us get out of Accra on time. The trip down the coast provided awesome sites of coastal towns and the countryside. Cape Coast and Elmina is where you can see the slave castles and dungeons where slaves started their journey across the Atlantic to the Americas. We visited both Cape Coast Castle and Elmina Castle, which are similar in terms of what you see but designed differently. I honestly can say as a white American I felt a little uncomfortable being there witnessing the darkness where slaves were kept, and the smells in the dungeons that still are lasting to this day. Then there’s The Door of No Return (pictured) where slaves would say good-bye to their home for the final time and most likely lead to their death across the Atlantic. Forlunch though, we went to a hotel and ate lunch at a great spot just feet from the ocean. Massive palm trees swaying in the wind along with crushing sound of waves hitting the shore provided a nice afternoon break. In Elmina, they have nice coastal areas, which is something you don’t necessarily think of when Africa comes to mind.
On the final day, I had an obligation for one of my classes to go to Friends for Earth headquarters in Accra. They gave us a presentation on environmental issues in Ghana and a little bit on how they function. They are working real hard to raise awareness to their people on issues such as global warming and help lobby for more green ways to industrialize and develop. Unfortunately, the U.S.A.could be much more helpful but have refused to get involved with any globalagreements in relation to reducing carbon emissions. For my final afternoon, I walked around the Tema area. A lot of what you see is just lots and lots ofpeople selling things.
One of the best experiences of being in Ghana was meeting the people. I was amazed just how friendly these people are and they are so proud of their country. They want us so badly to come back to the U.S.A. and say great things about their country. There is a sense of community there that you just don’t have in the U.S.A. As I mentioned before, countless times I heard the saying we are allbrothers and sisters. It shows in how they act that people take care of oneanother and generally people were happy to see Americans.
Even though there are a lot of great things about Ghana it still is very poor and lacking in many areas. Getting a chance to see the region is a real eye opening experience and the southern coastal areas where we were are actually the better parts of the country. People live in structures that we can’t even imagine, sewage running down centers of villages, and trash thrown everywhere. And there’s dirt everywhere from the roads to just being on the streets. Coming back each day you could wipe the dirt right off your arm. Ghana has a lot of things going for them but at the same time they are nowhere close to where they need to be or what we would consider to be acceptable. Water issues and electricity still remain problems for some. For a lot of people on the ship, it was a real emotional experience seeing the poverty that many are not used to. It has been great hearing the stories from different peoples travels the last day or so and how they felt about Ghana. I think what made it so hard for us Americans is that we are so used to our way of life and we just can’t quite grasp why these people are so upbeat, cheerful, and helpful. Yes you can gohelp, visit children, have a great conversation with a local family, but at the end of the day we’re still going back to this ship and living our lives. It almost doesn’t seem fair. I’ve heard a lot of people say Ghana is awesome the past few days. I cringe when I hear that. I like to say it’s an interesting place with lots of different contrasts because its not awesome that people have to live that way but that poverty is actually the majority and we’re the minority.
Food ~ Bean stew with fish and fried plantains. Fried chicken and African rice. Fufu with tilapia. Goat meat on a stick (very tough and spicy). Piece of meat pie.
Drinks ~ Star Beer. Club Beer, both Ghanaian beers. Local Moonshine.
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