hi there folks....dani here with my last update from ghana....two years is swiftly coming to an end and i wanted to get out my last bunch of pictures and thoughts from this interesting, crazy, annoying, wild, overwhelming, fun, eye-opening adventure here in ghana before i left.....i have also included some shots from my quick weekend trip to togo (country #76) over easter....we didn't do much but eat good food, play in the ocean and relax in a lounger....but it was a nice place to do that....
folks have been asking where i am headed next year....and i wanted everyone to know i am headed back to the states for the next year or two....it looks like i have a job doing science....but not in my own classroom....so it should be a welcome change and a new adventure....one that allows me to reduce the number of things that make teaching not as much fun....meaning no crazy, unnecessary meetings, no emails from parents or to parents about their children, no grading, no writing comments, no meetings with kids about how to improve work and then not have them turn in that work.....so it is exciting...i will be in a classroom, teaching science and not dealing with all the periphery stuff....i am also headed back to the states to hang with my parents and family and just take a break....i know i am doing this at a crazy time in the states with the election, but it is the right time for me.....so, i hope that i connect with some of you i have not seen in awhile, as i am in the states for at least the next year....fingers crossed that meeting up happens....
after the year....who knows.....maybe sticking around, maybe moving back into the international world....but i will wait to figure that out when i get closer to then.....as for now, i am in the process of wrapping up my time here in ghana....it has been a crazy and wild ride and one that i am glad i have had...i have met some amazing people and have gained respect for many in this country....but i also know this was not the best fit for me....both professionally and personally....and from that i have grown and know just a bit more of what i am looking for the next time i am looking to change.....one of my friends described this place well for herself and it fits for me.....ghana has been like the ocean waves...you get out there and are excited and swimming around, you get knocked over and get back up to get knocked over again.....and over time you get tired and need to climb back out of the ocean....you love the experience, but know it is a lot of work to keep getting back up....and in a way ghana has been that for me....its been a great test, i have loved the ghanian smiles, music and fabrics along the way and have learned much about what i can and cannot handle these days in my life....to ghana and it's people and my ghanian friends, who i will miss very much, i say - medase pa pa pa.....
togo is first....here ya go.....
we stayed at a place called the madiba hotel....madiba is the "nickname" and clan name for nelson madela....so it was a lovely place, run by a frenchman and togolese woman....they have been there for many years and you could tell they knew just what they were doing....the boats you see are fishermen boats, although the front one is an advertisement for where we stayed....
just like in ghana...in togo, people - men, women and children - all carry things on their heads....it was explained to me that this is a wonderful way to carry things, as it keeps your hands free, and works quite well in crowded places...i have to say, i have not mastered this ability in the slightest...but i have been amazed as to what i have seen people carry on their heads....mind-blowing!!!!
this is the surf in togo, but right where the wave is breaking is a wall....we couldn't decide if it was natural or human-made...but you could actually swim to it and climb it...we saw locals doing that....we also thought it would have been funny to watch someone walk on the wall....because it would have seemed as if they were walking on water....as the wall was just below the water's surface....
and then here i am, after a relaxing three days, hanging with the man himself...madiba....also known as nelson mandela....it was a lovely little weekend into togo....which was a french colony originally, so the food definitely had a french flair, which was a nice change from ghana....what a fun weekend....
back in ghana we went to the beach up near cape coast for an evening when a friend was visiting....this was our lovely beach, which we had literally to ourselves....it was a nice visit, but i got food poisoning, so once again, for the third time, i did not make it to kakum canopy walk or the slave castles....i guess it was never meant to be....
here are kelly and i celebrating april fools day....a place with draft beer is usually hard to come by here in ghana...but this is where we started....very tasty....and the night went on from there :)
i LOVE this picture....because west africa seems to be the place where jerseys come to their end....and of course this jersey is of the philadelphia eagles...my hometown american football team....as anyone knows...when you see a jersey you associate with, you tend to get excited and tell the person wearing it that you are a huge fan.....and they politely look at you, smile, like the man above, and shake their head like you are a crazy person....because 9 times out of 20, they have no idea what you are talking about.....this jersey was in pretty good condition....and it is rare that an american football jersey makes it this way....so i was verrrrrrrrrrry excited....and of course this man thought i was a crazy obruni (foreigner)....
one really cool thing that happened in my last few months here, was i was invited to a boy scout troop launch of a weather sized balloon....two of my students invited me....and it was way cool....i watched the launch and they let me know what happened during the flight.....the balloon actually ended up 2.5 hours away....luckily they had a GPS system on it....but it was in a huge tree....so they had a local kid climb the tree and retrieve it.....so cooooooool....here is one of my students holding the balloon just before launch....it was an exciting day....
another exciting event was the orange party....where we celebrated the king's birthday for the netherlands in complete orange style....the guy in the blue suit, joas, and his wife to the right with the glasses, are actually dutch, but joas is not in orange....but that is because his suit actually had tulips all over it, the national flower there....joas & suzanne were also part of the live band....we had a blast....
i made it to the beach one last time in may....and this is a shot from our women's night away from the city....i love the fishing boats used here, and am amazed at how much they can withstand from the ocean....they leave very early in the morning and usually bring in their catch by late morning....fun to watch them bring it in....
one of the main things on my bucket list was to see a local soccer/football game here in accra....and boy did we choose a doozie....it was between the hearts of oak (accra) and kotoko (a kumasi team)....it was he biggest and most attended game of the season...and just trying to get in was a story....let's just say we scalped tickets...which we never got, but used that as a way for people to take pity on us and ended up in the media seats to watch the game.... here are the players on the field...white is the accra team....they ended up losing 1 - 0...and their own goalie scored on himself....not a good way to lose...
but more important than the score was that we were sitting in the media seats....literally....the guy to my right is actually broadcasting the game and the guy to his right was his stats and color commentator guy....supposedly they were broadcasting to a station in the states - 99.9 fm....yankee radio (in NJ or NY)....i have no idea if this is true....but i was interviewed by them about what i thought of the game...it was hilarious....and because we were the only obruni in the seats, we were interviewed multiple times by different commentators...it was a hoot!!!!
also coming to a close was my time at DUNK....here i am with the girls i worked with off and on for the past two years....i really will miss these girls and can only hope that i helped them somehow....they really helped me...as it was nice to be appreciated and wanted as a teacher for them...and in the end, i do think my time here was a success because of them....i can only hope they succeed in the future, but i probably will never really know how things go for them....which is a wild thing to think....
from my last afternoon at DUNK, i headed to a cinco de mayo party with some friends.....as you can see it was a women's only party....what a blast....they had mexican food, tequila flights, sombreros (as you can see) and were playing salsa and having salsa dancers on the floor of the restaurant....we had a blast :)
one of my last big events here was a dinner at a tasty sushi place, followed by a drink at a place called the sky lounge....i just had to take a picture of accra at night, as i thought it was quite nice....no tall buildings to note, but nice none-the-less.....sooooooooooo different from the skyline of shanghai....
plus, i had to include a shot of me and my favorite ghanian teaching partner....mr. thomas acquah....thomas bought me this lovely ghanian shirt, with a cool symbol on it....which i do not know what it means....but he is one person who i will really miss, as he is the nicest man on the planet and cares so much about what he does for all....such a rockstar....i will really miss working with him next year....medase pa thomas....you rock!!!!
and for my last shot....an oldie, but a goodie.....me in one of my ghanian shirts and my ghana flag glasses....this was taken while we were wactching ghana lose in the finals of the african football/soccer cup....a good time was had by all though...
and so i come to the end of my post and have just a few days left in my time here in ghana....it is a very different place....with things to see and do, but it is also west africa....which other africans often refer to it as the most backwards place of africa....but the people are kind and really do have the best smiles in the world.....and as my time ends here, i would like to thank ghana for pushing me to some of my limits and for challenging me to do my best....i miss will miss people from here...incluing kids and adults and am glad i spent my time learning and growing here.....
this weekend i am off to paris for five days, with my friend misty, who has never been....so excited and am hoping the river has receded.....i just need to get through the next couple of days....and fingers crossed we do not have a massive storm like we did last year....people lost everything, and in some cases their lives....it was wild....so think happy, stable weather thoughts and i'll be in touch in a few weeks when i know more about my plan for the future....hope everyone is well and happy....
peace out....and all the best :)
dani
