Sunyani, Ghana 5-15-2009

Hi everyone!
Time has been flying by lately! Ive been trying to take it slow for my last 47 days in Ghana but my urge to get home is a bit unbearable! Luckily Ive been traveling alot lately and plan to do some more. When I get done with my travels, Ill write a blog about the places Ive been and compare cities! But its hard not to think about going home when its just right around the corner! To be honest, Ive caught myself Wikipedia-ing Boeing 747's and checking and re-checking my return flight itinerary! haha. Ill try and write as much as I can before I leave!

Before I start Id like to thank Aunt May and Rich for sending me a care package! I thoroughly enjoyed it(and couldnt put down the books either!).

Second, Id like to congratulate J and Kristen on their new baby boy, Nathaniel Pon! Hes got a great set of parents who will raise him well!

Ill give you a prelude to this blog. The closer I get to going home, the more I reminisce about this trip and also the things I regret doing or not doing. Im not a person who regrets alot of things, but I found 5 that came to mind very quickly. And Id like to give you 3 of them.

Number 3: Not writing in September.
Ive kept a pretty detailed journal in Ghana, something Ive never done before. Ive filled five full journals and have dubbed them "The Gladelife: Ghana, editions 1-5". Ive found myself writing about things that have happened, school, family life, Ghana in general, and all sorts of miscellaneous things. I write about 4-5 pages a day-usually its just nonsense things that keep me occupied. But in September I really did not write at all. The reason I regret it is because I cant even remember anything from that time, it was all a gigantic Ghanaian blur. Which obviously I wont remember 10 years down the road. I was so depressed and homesick that I had no urge to write. But now that I think about it, I think it would've helped my homesickness as a way to vent, like it does now. At that point I would write a line a day, sometimes, and even skip a few days at a time. Ill give you a couple entries that I wrote in September (note, I arrived in Sunyani 9-9-2009):

9-11-2008
"Im so constipated!"

9-12-2008
"THIS FOOD SUCKS! I miss home and dads cooking!"

9-13-2008
"Only 286 more days til I go home!"

9-14-2008
"Oh, I just took my first dump in 6 days!"

9-16-2008
"Did host mom just fart at the dinner table?"

9-17-2008
"I dont want to say I regret coming, but I think I might regret it! School sucks!"

9-24-2008
"Who knew Africa could be so hot!"

9-27-2008
"I wish I could get two double cheeseburgers, a Mcchicken and a sweet tea. Maybe I should ask Beep to send that to me."

9-29-2008
"Im finally able to get my fufu down with out gagging! Even its name is derogatory: f-u-f-u?!?!"

9-30-2008
"I woke up last night to mice and roaches in my room. I killed about 6 roaches. It took me like an hour to go back to sleep, I ended up having to put my noise canceling headphones on! Then of course Adu has his African music blasting at 6am! WTF?!"

Now you get an idea of my September 2008. The most writing I did was for my blog!

Number 2: Constantly being with obronis.
When I first arrived in Sunyani, there was already Barbel, an AFS volunteer from Italy, and of course Iris and Wesley came with me. Barbel and Iris live on a different side of Sunyani than I. But Wesley lives in Baakoniaba, the same part of Sunyani as I, about a 10 minute walk away from me. It was very comfortable being with each other at first because we are both Americans in the same situation. But we got into such a routine that we were together constantly, other than when we were at home. On school days we'd get our egg sandwiches, go to school, sit in the same class, after school we'd go to the Internet cafe, then we'd go home. And the first while I was in Sunyani I would just stay home on the weekends because it was my niche. So constantly Ghanaians would only see me when I was with another white person. It got to the point where we were asked if we were twins. TWIN?! Now, don't get me wrong, I am very pleased that I got put with Wes. We get along very well! But I think that after that transition period, we should've done our own thing during the week, then just gotten together on weekends. Our routine was just so perfect that I didnt even think that maybe Ghanaians thought we were secluding ourselves. But in fact we were just trying to live our day to day lives. And by the time I realized this, I was thinking to myself "Well, I leave in another couple of months, there's no point in changing now!" But also when I think about it, I would've been friendless if it weren't for Wes. Its not that I don't like Ghanaian teens, but we come from such polar opposite backgrounds that its very hard to find common interests. And then when it seems you've found a cool person, they want something from you. Its happens all to often. Kids at school either: 1)completely ignore me(my favorite...no sarcasm) 2)make fun of me 3)want something from me. So its a very hard loose loose situation for me. But from what Ive seen, when whites come to Ghana they seem to stick together.

Number 1: Not trying hard enough to learn Twi.
My biggest regret is not trying hard enough to learn Twi. When I first arrived in Sunyani, I was a bit overwhelmed to even try to learn Twi .But after that same transistion period, I started learning Twi. Everyday I'd try to learn a couple of words and I even started a notebook for my Twi. By the end of 2008 I had all the basics down and was able to understand some of the things people were saying. But by mid January I got into this attitude where I felt like I had seen everything and experienced all of Ghana. I felt like June was so far away and I was constantly in a pissed off mood. I hated everything about Ghana: food,school,language, weather,the people, everything. And if you read back on my blogs you can really tell that I wasnt very happy. I was always criticising things and I was in a very negative mood daily. I was homesick and it just felt like I had been in Ghana an eternity and I felt I had even longer until I was able to go home. I didn't really snap out of this trance until mid March. Thats when I started traveling, and it started realistically feeling like going home was soon to come. That's when I was feeling much more positive and I got back into trying to learn Twi. But by then I had already forgotten some of the things I had already learned. So I had to kind of re-learn what I had forgotten. The reason I regret it is because now Im quite decent at speaking it. I've been complimented by both Ghanaians and other Obronis. If I hadn't have stopped for two months I would have been so much better at it, maybe close to fluent. I realize its not the most useful language in the States, but it still leaves an impression on Ghanaians that I am trying to learn their language. I would have been able to understand more things and I think I would have gotten a better experience. It is a shame that when whites come to Ghana, not many try very hard to learn the language-whether it is usefull or not, me included.

So in conclusion, if I were to redo my trip to Ghana I would have worked on those areas. But I do feel good for being able to realize what I did or did not do and learn from those mistakes. Lifes all about learning, right?

God bless!

Photo update of my recent travels!

The pictures are a bit sporadic, but so is Ghana. Nonetheless, enjoy!

Unloading a ferry.

Another colorful sunrise.

Our luxurious sleeping arrangements. I slept on the bench nearest to you. Queen sized beds are overrated!

The lake was endless.

Yams.

You can't get much better of a sunset!

The bull's "I wasn't ment to be a seaman" pose.

The Yapei Queen on the Volta Lake.

Mole National Park.

Me and the Ghana.

A Warthog. Who knew Ghana had such an influence on Halo?

Baboon.

Elephants.

Ghana versus Benin, March 29, 2009.

Celebrating after the victory!

Baba Yara Sports Stadium:Kumasi. Ghana versus Benin in a World Cup Qualifying match. Ghana-1 Benin-0
National Pride.

Selorm, my host brother for the weekend in Accra.

The Monkey Sanctuary in the Volta Region.

Guys will laugh, maybe not the girls. haha.

Belgian Joris, Wesley, Me and Boris from Belgium as well, on the Volta Bridge.

The usual stampede of vendors trying to sell their goods to people in a trotro.

The Volta Bridge; it's on the back of a 1 pesewa coin.

The House Of Parliament in Accra. We watched the budget reading: quite an experience.

Me, Ama, my long lost host sister Rebecca(I call her Adwoa) and Kwame ti so (his head size is disproportionate to his body, so I like to call him Kwame big head, it's all in good fun though!).

Boris, Wes and I on our way to Yeji to catch the ferry which took us to Akosombo.