hey there folks...trying to get another ghana update out today at the end of my october break....chillin' at home and trying to catch up with sleep before heading back to school in two days....have just been in dubai and abu dhabi....whoa, what a difference from ghana....a welcome break and great to see folks...i will send an update out about there, but felt i needed to get out about some stuff from ghana....so this one focuses on ghana....and the next one will be the UAE....crazy different....
things in ghana are going well....it's a much harder place to live in than shanghai, but i am adapting....and things are coming together...plus, i am feeling much better now that i have left and come back from break....rested and relaxed....woot!!!! and in the few weeks leading up to break i did some really fun stuff....which is what this post will focus on.....i went to the beach, two different places over two different long weekends....i went to a bead making place....we did not make them, but we learned and watched how they are made....beads are HUGE here in ghana....and i have some pictures from the new place i am volunteering at called DUNK....this may be the main reason i am supposed to be in ghana i think...i am working with girls from grades 8-10, from local schools, on math and science....tons of fun....they appreciate that i am there and really need the help me and three other teachers provide....so it really feels good to work with these kids....they go to the community center to play basketball....hence why it is called DUNK....and if they study for two afternoons, they are allowed to play....it's a great concept and the kids really seem to love it...
so, onto the pictures from ghana.....
this first shot is of a coffee shop i have found at one of the grocery stores here....and they actually sell chai tea lattes....just a slice of heaven....and if you go when they open on sunday mornings, there is no one else there....because ghanians spend all of sunday mornings in church....ALL of sunday mornings...so there is actually very little traffic and you can go shopping without tons of people....lack of traffic though is the best part....as traffic here is insane....
a bunch of weekends back we went to a bead making place....there they make their beads out of glass....we did not make our own...but i guess there is a place to do that here....although i hear it is very hard to do....but in the shot above, you can see some of the glass they have collected to use for this process....a very labor intense type of job i might add....
this picture is the daughter of the woman who showed us around the place....she was really cute and got very into doing work while we were all around wanting to take her picture....i guess this is her "job" at the bead making place...look cute and stay busy :)
what you see in this picture is the bead make ceramic containers - the white disks in the front of the picture, and the guy who melts the glass in the disks to exactly the right temperature...and my favorite aspect...no safety gear....and wearing flip flops....argh....but he sits here all day in front of this fire, watching over the glass...
once the beads cool and get popped out of the ceramic mold, then then are hand painted....yes, i said hand painted, by the artists....you can see one of the guys doing this....and he is painting the stars on each bead....crazy!!!!
in this shot above you can see the stars he has already painted....very labor intensive and very pretty....if i remember correctly, there are 10-12 individual beads on each stick that they paint....
this is my artistic shot from the bead place....loved the color of the glass and the shadows, before they crushed the glass, by hand, without safety gear, into a powder for the molds....
here are strings and strings of the finished products....i went a bit crazy and am planning on putting together strings of beads....still have not done that, but the beads sure look pretty in the bowl i have them in....love 'em....
we also headed up to another market....and they had some great fabrics...but who am i kidding...all of the markets have good fabrics....love those colors....
one of the other things i have done in the past few months is go to a play at the national theater....and what an experience it was...it was part play, part musical in a karaoke style, part revival, part advertisement and finally at the end, the playwright's son proposed to his girlfriend (the very religious crowd went wild!!!!!) it was an.....experience....this was the box for the gum on the way in....very 1940's feel to me....when we walked in you could tell the national theater was beautiful when it was built....but no one has taken care of it....so it is not in the best of shape....
and i loved that there were projectors on either side of the stage that had this message when we walked in....yet, during the play they were also used to play commercials at least five different times....and to welcome people back from trips abroad and to congratulate people celebrating anniversaries and birthdays....it was crazy....they also used them to project the words of the music on the walls, so that people in the audience could sing along with the actors...it was definitely a cultural experience....one that i am not sure i need to do again....but the live band at the beginning and throughout the show were great....as was the wedding proposal...it was a different experience.....
i have started going to this local fruit and vege seller...beatrice....and i love her little girl....i don't remember her name off the top of my head, but i thought she looked great just sleeping here....this is the way all moms carry there kids here in ghana....the kids are squished up to the mom's backs and held in place by sarong type material....seems to really work well...and look at that adorable face :)
since i last updated, i had two long weekends and went away to two different beach places on them....the one above is called sankofa....and was quite nice....this one was to the east coast away from accra...up by where i sent previous shots from....this was the outside bathroom...and yes, all of those shells were found on the beach in front of the resort....
we were at this place with a bunch of teachers....actually the whole place was people from my school...which made for a fun time....we had a few game nights, which is always fun....the beach was interesting and you can see from the shot above that it is slowly eroding away....the line of palm trees that had collapsed was all the way down the beach toward the local fishing village....
the place made excellent food and had a great open space....that was rented by a company one of the days we were there....so it was pretty intense, but a good time was had by all....and as you can see the weather was really nice.....
two weeks later i was off down the west coast of ghana away from accra...to a place called meet me there....i loved this place....so chill...it is owned by a brit who is trying to bring compost toilets to this part of the world....starting with this ecolodge....they were incredible....the toilets i mean.... you can see the small beach he has that leads to a saltwater lagoon in front of his place....
and across the lagoon is the beach....so you can swim or canoe across and then get out and walk the beach....the beach, unfortunately, was covered in plastic garbage....so i was really glad we had the lagoon to swim in....we did hear and watch the locals pulling in fish both mornings we were there....they were not very successful with fish, but caught a lot of very small shrimp, which i guess they sell to a local place to crushes them for flavorings and seasonings....not very much money for all of the hard work....but it was cool to watch them and listen to them sing and drum as they hauled in the nets...but it was quite depressing to see all of the plastic they caught in their nets as well....
our last night there had a spectacular sunset....as you can see from here...it was uber relaxing and then on that monday when we didn't have school, i actually got my internet working....so i have now had it for a few weeks....although i wasn't here for this past week....amazing how much easier life has become.....
these last two shots are from DUNK...in the first one above you see my co-worker karen from school....she brought some stuff for us to be able to run pH experiments....which the girls had never done....they loved it....they even got to try their own saliva....some interesting results.....
and the last shot is of the three other teachers i go with and me with the girls....this was taken just outside of the community hall where we work with them....they were extremely sad when we told them we weren't coming for a week....but we will get back to them this week...woot!!!! i do think this will be the saving grace for me in ghana....as so far i have loved working with these girls....
and there you have it....things have definitely calmed down and become more the norm for me...my shipment has come, my internet is working, my visa has been attached to my passport and my routine is becoming normal....we still lose power every night at 6pm, i am still frustrated with the lack of academics from my kids and i don't like having to haggle for taxis constantly....but that all comes with the territory.....overall, i am getting comfortable and understanding how to make my way successfully here...i think leaving for a week really helped clear my head :)
my next update will be about dubai and abu dhabi....complete worlds away from ghana....it was great to catch up with folks....ride a metro and jump in a cab that was clean and had a meter....but i do not think i could live there...too weird...i also wanted to let folks know i will be in the states for the first time in a long time for the xmas holidays....i am not sure about timing, but will get in touch with folks in that part of the world as i know more.....
i hope everyone is well and happy and be sure to enjoy fall for me....because we certainly do not get it here....also, for those still concerned about ebola....nope, no cases here recorded....they have gotten the word out and issues that are here that are more ever-present are chloera and malaria...much more common in ghana....but thanks to all of those who have voiced concern....happy halloween!!!!!
have a fab day :)
dani
