Never Ghana Forget and Welcome Mr. Obama

September 22
Ghana Day 1

Today we arrived in Ghana a little late at about 8:30am. After breakfast, my roommate and I headed down to our bus for the Accra city tour. We unloaded from the ship (I was the third student off the ship into Ghana if that means anything) and got into our buses. The weather was slightly humid but definitely not uncomfortable. We left after 10:00 and drove out of the port. We actually arrived in Tema, Ghana which is a port city about 30 minutes away from Accra the capital. They have a shuttle service that takes people between the port and a gas station in Accra.
On our tour bus on the way to Accra I saw a ton of cool things. First I saw the women and some men carrying baskets and assorted objects balanced on their head. We’ve all seen this in documentaries and movies, but it’s so cool to see in real life. Our tour guide, Ni, said it is a very habitual thing. Starting at a young age, Ni said he held water buckets on his head with 2 hands, then 1, and finally none. He said when he first realized he was doing it he got excited and dropped the bucket. Also, I saw a bunch of signs for shacks and small independent restaurants with religious “undertones”. This includes God’s Holy Light Barber Shop, God’s Century Batteries, (the list includes things from tires to Holy Mother’s Vacuums) and also a Coca-Cola sign that had an attractive African woman drinking a Coke and next to her in white letters it said “Fear God”. Throughout the day, also, as we drove through Accra, we saw many (gigantic) welcome signs for President Obama who had visited about a month earlier. Ghana is a ‘star’ of democracy in Africa and our tour guide told us that they just copy what America does (and it shows). Anyway, people here were (and still are) ecstatic about Obama and his visit. Also, they sell water in small plastic bags here on the streets which are fresh.
Our first stop was a monument/burial site of Kwame Nkrumah, the first leader of Ghana. We arrived a day after the centenary of his birthday in 1909. There was a large celebration the previous day. The area of the monument (which was quite large) was like a large private yard. After getting off the bus we spotted a statue of him which had been defaced apparently during a period in which he was not so popular (they said they got the head of the statue back but they’re still missing the arms). We walked to a fountain area which had statues of people playing horns with water shooting out of them. There were seven on each side to symbolize perfection. The statues led up to a large statue of Nkrumah in traditional robes pointing forward. The monument itself looks like a giant symmetrical statue- you can walk under it and inside is the grave of him and his wife next to him. We then went through a miniature museum which contained various photos of him with various influential people (Nelson Mandela, Mao Zetung (misspelled but who cares), Fidel Castro). Afterwards, we departed for a brief stop at the market and also to exchange money.
The venders are a lot more respectful and less persistent (that’s not to say they’re not persistent). The currency here is the cedi which is a little less valuable than the U.S dollar. We only got a brief chance to look around and got back on the bus for lunch. Our tour took us through the consulate/embassy area of the city. We had lunch at a nice hotel called Coconut Grove. Afterwards, we went to the W.E.B. Dubois center which was where he lived and is buried. Inside are pictures and private libraries, etc. We left heading for the university (I forgot what it was called). They actually have a pretty decent education system similar to ours with the different grades and levels. English is the primary language here and everyone speaks it.
The campus of the university was very much like a UC campus in California. We visited the ATM there, went to the book store, and then drove through the rest of it. It’s already a large campus and it only has buildings on a quarter of its land. The area surrounding the campus is also in heavy development. There are many large concrete structures that will be hotels like a Hilton Hotel. Anyway, my roommate and I decided to do this field program called the Welcome Reception which was an official welcome by a local university. We weren’t originally planning on it but I’m so glad I did because of all the Ghana university students I was able to meet. When we got dropped off by the bus, there was a brief welcome, followed by a cultural dance, and then food while we mingled with various students from the university. The first and really only student I met and talked to here was a first year named Albert Mensah. He said he was a computer science major that likes to do animation and wants to make video games. I told him I like to animate a lot too and we talked about animation, movies, etc. for a long time. My roommate (who wants to be a game designer) and my friend (who is a film major) joined the conversation and I could tell Albert was just as excited as we were to be talking with someone from a distant country that shares the same passions. When the reception was over, we exchanged emails and Facebooks (Facebook is very popular in Ghana) and my roommate decided to go back to the ship.
Accra is a completely different place at night. I had thought it was a mostly beggar free area in the city and during the day (for the most part) it is. However, at night white people are fair game for beggars and scammers (more about this later). Two girls asked me and my friend if we wanted to go to a certain part of Accra (called Osu) which was sort of like a main strip. We got dropped off by the bus after the reception and met up with some students we met at the reception who were going to show us around. We walked up the street and got some delicious fried plantains with ginger on them (one of the girls was determined to get some food from street vendors). We walked down a side street with our student friends who took us to a bar where we sat down and had a drink and talked. One of the students (Benjamin) and I got into a very deep conversation and talked about our lives from our respective countries. I asked him a ton of questions about education, culture, law (to me Ghana seemed safe during the day and very unsafe at night; however, Benjamin told me it is very safe at night and there are very few problems), family, friends, future career ideas, female relationships (people usually get married in their early thirties), traveling to America (many Ghanaians have been to New York and love it), and more. After we finished our drinks, we walked back towards the gas station to explore a little more before getting picked up. On the way back, I bought some lamb with ginger and pepper from a vendor (needless to say, it had a strong but good spiced taste (no diarrhea to speak of). It was cool looking down the streets all over because everyone had their food tables set up with kerosene lamps that illuminated their own tables. It took about 5 minutes to get back to the ATM.
There was a crazy “occurrence” while we were waiting for the girls to use the ATM (this before going to the bar). As we were standing in front of the ATMs, a huge amount of SAS students (who were all pretty inebriated and representing America loudly) were heading our way to use the ATMs too. At the same time a poorer-looking man came up to my friend and I telling us he deeply believes in God. He asked us if we believed in God and then said “Look friends. My name is Samuel and I have been starving for 4 days. Can I please have one cedi?” We thought there was no harm in one cedi and we made him assure us that he’d use it on food (which I think he would’ve). As my friend opened his wallet, the SAS group finally made it over to us and I saw many of my friends who were being led by a local guy who was 20 too. My friends introduced me to him and when I shook his hand he pulled me close and asked “Did that man tell you his name was Samuel?” (nodding towards the man). I told him yes (it was then that I was sure he was scamming my friend) and he asked if he told us he’d been starving for 4 days and I told him yes again. The local walked over to my friend and pushed him behind him and started telling the man about how he’d seen him try this before. A man who owned the local business next door who was standing in front of his shopped walked over and started to “escort” the man way from us. As he was being led away he asked our new local friend what he saw in the White man and said “They are only human beings. They are not Gods. Why do you think they are Gods?” to which our local replied “They are human beings. We are human beings. We are all human beings” (quite poetic). Before moving on I wanted to mention a thing about the locals- they are very protective of tourists. For example, I heard some girl that night had a man try and grab her purse and run, however some locals nearby instantly grabbed the guy and wrestled with him to get the girl’s purse back. Also, another girl who had way too much to drink (please don’t get the wrong idea about SAS) had just about passed out and was left behind by the group (this was later that night with a different group) so our local friend (his name is Fred) picked her up and took her back to the shuttle at the gas station (needless to say, some of you (specifically my dad) are scratching their heads wondering how dangerous these things were and I’m here to say that if you haven’t noticed in my writings yet, there are some extremely idiotic people on SAS whose sole purpose is to get ‘wasted’ every night in port and consequently forget everything from that night (sorry just venting here). I am not associated with any of these people.
ANYWAY, after the ATM-God-beggar, my friend decided to go back to the ship so it was just me and the two girls (yea) and the 3 students whose names were Benjamin, Kwadwo, and Kwadwo (both pronounced Kujo, they were both born on a Monday). We went to another bar (I didn’t get anything else to drink) and hung around. We were continuously talking throughout the night and having a good time. Later in the bar when an American rap song came on (‘Big Pimpin’ by Jay-Z), the three students taught me a cool dance that they use in the clubs (ask me when I get back to show you). When it was time to go we made our way back to the gas station to catch the last shuttle, only to find out that we were lied to and the shuttle left an hour earlier. Our only option was to catch a cab. The students told us we had to be careful because we (as tourists) didn’t know where they would take us. Luckily, the students were nice (and smart) enough to talk to the driver before us to tell him where we needed to go and negotiate a really decent (local) price for us (it sounded like they interrogated him as well- they said he was OK). So we got in the taxi and headed back to the port in Tema. The streets were empty (it was 12-ish and very foggy as it was a coastal route back). Because there was so much fog, it gave a really creepy look (don’t worry, mom, everyone had their brights on). The three of us made it back to the port gate safely (I think the locals don’t give the taxi drivers enough credit) where one of the security guards let us into the bed of a pickup truck and brought us the rest of the way back to the ship. I know a lot of this seems unorthodox and there’s no denying that it is, however it makes for a great, unique experience that I’ll probably never forget. The connections I made that day with the other students (Albert, Kwadwo, Kwadwo, and Benjamin) are indescribable and when you immerse yourself like this, you can’t predict what will happen but you’re assured a memorable experience. I only knew them for a night and we were talking in depth about each others personal lives. Everyone here is so welcoming (welcome is Akwaaba in Tre, the most common language after English) and treats you as their friend (you’d think that everyone was trying to get on your good side to sell you something). Speaking of selling, they always introduce themselves when asking you to buy from them. When people ask you how are you doing, they are really wondering how you are. Here a simple “Good” would not suffice whereas in America that’s the norm. I could go on about the hospitality but my next day (I’m finishing this on my second day because I was too tired on the first night to finish) was spectacular and truly a testimony of the legitimate welcoming nature of the Ghanaians. I’ll leave you with this till my next post: The first night, the local, Fred, invited myself and the two other girls to dinner at his house which his mom would prepare (the other SAS students had already had dinner with them that night) and we accepted. We’d only known the guy for an hour and a half and he was willing to let us into his house. I joked with my friends that when I get back to America, I’d be inviting foreign tourists to my house and have my mom making dinner for them. Hopefully I emphasize the previous point through my next point which I am too tired to type. It is truly amazing and indescribable and I can only hope I can do Ghana a ounce of justice.