Cape Coast continued/I could get used to this

I left the group early on Sunday morning to go visit the family I have been staying with sometimes in a town called Fadama. Its interesting because I’m pretty sure the departure times for most busses are pre-determined, but they won’t really leave until all the seats are filled, so we ended up waiting at the station in Cape Coast for an hour before leaving for Accra. Its funny because as much as I expected this, the whole not knowing when we were going to leave thing was a liiittle unsettling. It wasn’t that bad, but I still hadn’t completely internalized the patient “things happen when they happen” mindset, so I guess this was good practice. Anyways, I ended up having a really great conversation about Ghanaian and American culture with the man next to me (Eric). He was just as curious about the US as I was about Ghana so our discussion made the 2 hour trip pass by pretty fast.
Once we got to Accra, I had to catch a trotro to Fadama but wasn’t sure of exactly where to find one. The bus let us down at Nkrumah Circle, which is a common destination for lots of public transportation. It’s a pretty big area with a market, post office, and a bunch of other stuff I have yet to explore so finding the cars to Fadama would have been a project without Eric’s help. I was ready to go for it and just ask a million people like I usually do, but he insisted on showing me where they were. It turns out that we had to cross a bridge over the market, then walk through part of the market, and then do the asking around thing where the trotros were parked because there were probably close to 100 of them in the area. We found one really fast because people just pointed in the direction we needed go when we said "Fadama", but its just so amazing how people automatically wanted to help us out and went out of their way to do so simply because they wanted to. It's like how Eric walked around with me for ten minutes just to make sure I found my way. This wasn’t the first time someone took my hand and lead me in the right direction either…even taxi drivers…if you’re going to a restaurant or something and you don’t know exactly where it is, they’ll drive around and help you find it and not charge any more money. And people don’t treat it like some huge favor because its just what they do, they look out for each other simply because they exist and it’s the way things work. It was almost unbelievable when I first got here, but it’s becoming a very heartening reality.

cape coast

Two weekends ago we went to Cape Coast in the central region to visit the slave castles. I have difficulty finding words to describe this experience because what happened at the castle I visited (which is one out of many) is not just some terrible thing that happened to "Africa". The slave trade shaped the history and had lasting effects on the race relations of our country and many others. The effects won't disappear in time.


more to come

no wawa

-I wouldn't really say I'm a "clubbing" person, but I've been trying lots of new things here so why the hell not. Last night we went to this one called Aphrodisiac. Interesting place. I guess its kind of your typical club in some ways...music so loud it makes your blood shake, neon lights flashing and slicing through the clouds of artificial fog and cigarette smoke, expensive drinks, toilet paper in the bathrooms, you know. Its fun if you're in the mood though. Last night they played a lot of songs from Shaggy's first album, one that was dear to my heart from the ages of 10-12 probably. I didn't stay for long because I was really tired but people go until like 5am.

-When I got home I wanted to shower but there was no water and I hadn't filled my reserve bucket so I took a bunch of water sachets and had a sachet shower. Not the most economical, but it worked.

-Your basic needs can be met without water or electricity, its just harder. But when you get used to it, it doesn't seem hard anymore. I think that's why people are so resilient and resourceful here. I'm glad I have to pick up on it.

the gutters.

-I can’t believe I haven’t talked about the gutters yet. There are huge gutters, really more trench-like holes, that line pretty much every street. On campus, in town, in the city…all over. I have already accepted that I will fall victim to one of them at some point, but I’m still going strong. Pretty much everyone has a close call at this point.

-Its getting into that phase where everything isn’t so new and confusing…its still exciting and I have so much to learn but things are starting to feel more normal and habitual.

-Its funny how you have to work a little harder here to get things done that are so easy at home. For example, each professor has a set of readings for the class but they are only available at different copying stations throughout campus…the syllabus might be in one building and the readings in another. Then you go to where the teacher says the readings are, pay the copy man, and come back the next day to pick up your copies of the readings. Its quite the process (it feels like) because it involves a lot of walking around and searching.

-Other things…drinking water, showering, laundry, eating. Etc. The drinkable water here is sold in these things called sachets which are these little plastic bags of water with the amount equivalent to about one bottle of water. They are 5 pesewas each (less than a nickel) and if you buy them in bulk (these really big bags that have 30 sachets in each) its about one cedi (less than a dollar). You can either just rip off the corner of the sachet and drink it that way, or fill up your water bottle. So its things like that that take a little planning ahead because you can't really go without water duh.

-Laundry, too…there aren’t really washing machines available in mass so you can either pay someone to come pick up your laundry and do it by hand or do it by hand yourself. I don’t have laundry in my budget so I fill up a bucket of water, throw in my clothes and some detergent, scrub them, rinse them, hang them, and iron them. It’s more time consuming but it’s not a burden or strain…its just another thing you do. It has made me realize that having everything be so convenient all the time doesn’t make life that much better…Its fun to sit around and talk with your friends while doing laundry or walking around campus all day. Its slower…its less stressful.