Shai Hills Resourse Reserve

This weekend, I and 3 friends took a trip to Shai Hills Resource Reserve. I’m not entirely sure how far it is from campus, since it took us about 3 hours to get there and 1 ½ hours to get back. We received directions Saturday morning from the front desk man in our building, who basically said:

Take a trotro to Madina, then one to Dodowa, then another to Doryumu. And from there, walk to the hotel.

From campus to Madina was fine. Madina to Dodowa was fine. Then we ran into some problems… the only tro in Dodowa took us to Ashaiman, where we were directed to a tro that would take us to Doryumu.
This extra leg (from Dodowa to Ashaiman) was a long trip in the wrong direction, that we backtracked later on the way to our destination. Granted, it was somewhere around 80 cents each and an hour of our time – we hadn’t planned anything else that day – so it wasn’t really a problem.
Upon arrival, we got a double room for all 4 of us for 34.50 cedis. (The beds were put together, and we slept horizontally… does that make sense?) We spent the afternoon/evening relaxing in the air conditioning – luxury! – and were asleep by 10pm.

The next morning, we woke at 5:30am and left for the reserve once the sun had risen at 6. We had read in the guidebook that the best time to see animals was early in the morning, so we made our way down the long road to the reserve. There, we saw baboons and took a long tour that ended at a bat cave. The baboons we saw were right at the entrance. The guide said that they were almost like domesticated animals because they had gotten used to eating food from visitors. There were others in the reserve, though, that stayed far away and didn't approach us. It was very cool. I’m so glad we went because it was so nice to go somewhere without 40 other American students. It also gave us a feeling of accomplishment because we did this whole trip on our own (except for the bad directions from the guy at our front desk).

Update re: Terrible Day

The re-registering thing has (hopefully) been resolved.
My friend from my Tuesday morning class went with me to re-register and was such a huge help. She’s originally from Boston, but was in the northern part of Ghana over the summer, volunteering at an orphanage, and has come back for her final semester of university. She is so comfortable here, and has mastered how to talk to people and get things done. Plus, when we were told to wait an hour until everyone was back from lunch, it was so nice to be able to talk to her to pass the time.

So, she helped me maneuver the re-registering process and that ended well. Today, the woman from the IPO said I am in the system now, so everything should be fine.

I still haven’t gotten my mail (I think Thursday I may venture out).

And I still haven’t gotten my history readings, but I’m just going to be patient with that and keep checking, but not really expecting it. That should relieve a lot of my stress.

I really just need to learn how to let go and accept the fact that there is very little I can control here.

Sometimes, Things Get Rough...

Today was one of the most frustrating days I’ve had since coming here. I’ve been sad and homesick sometimes, but this was the first time I’ve just been angry and felt out of control.

1. I’ve been trying to obtain a packet of readings for my history class since last week. It was supposed to be ready (copied and bound) by Wednesday, so I went there that afternoon, and the readings weren’t ready. I went back this morning (because we were having an open-book test at my 9:30am class) at 8am and was told that they were out and I should come back in the afternoon. Luckily, the test didn’t happen because not enough people had been able to get the readings.
2. I went to the CIEE office today to see if the package my parents sent had come yet. I got a slip of paper that said to go the post office in Accra to retrieve it.
3. While in the CIEE office, one of the women who works there informed me that I (and 2 others in our group) are not actually registered with the University of Ghana and do not exist in the computer system. The International Programmes Office had told her that day. And I have until Wednesday to re-register. This process involves going to the Registry building (which has to be like a 40 minute walk from my room, UPHILL) and finding a specific woman and telling her that I need to be re-registered. I’m not sure what “re-registering” includes or how long it will take. But, then I have to walk BACK to the other side of campus near my room to the International Programmes Office to tell a woman there that I’m now re-registered.

So, after all this news, I went back to the History Department to pick up the readings around 3pm. I asked the woman in office if I could get the readings for my class. And she mumbled something, and I asked her to repeat it. She said that the man who does that isn’t in and could I go and come back. “What time?” I asked. And she said in 30 minutes. So I just walked out and had a little breakdown outside the office, out of frustration and disbelief that things which should be so easy are so difficult. I walked to the bank to get 1 cedi bills in exchange for my 10s (since no one ever has change, it’s easier to pay for things with 1s). I made my way back to the History Department, and the man was in, and he had me put my name on a list to get the readings and told me to come back tomorrow to pick them up.

This whole combination of things happened to me today, and tomorrow I will tackle the re-registering process (Also, I’m not sure how this happened, since I registered a month ago with the rest of my 45-person group and got an ID card and everything.) and hopefully get my history packet. Then, I think Wednesday, or shortly thereafter, I’m going to venture to the post office.

I think there are some social rules with which I am not familiar. This whole “run-around” thing is bringing me down, but I wonder if there is anything I can do to make things run more smoothly. I’m trying not to take it personally, but it sometimes feels like since I’m a foreigner, people are not trying to help me. But I’m sure I’m just frustrated and that’s not really the case. These things should be so easy to do though! I’m just having trouble understanding why they are so difficult and taking so long.

Also there’s no water today.

Belated Photos from Cape Coast Trip

Sorry, the internet has not been fast enough to upload pictures this week, but I'm going to give it another try tonight...



A view from the Canopy Walk in Kakum National Park. (You can see the rope bridge in the middle.)


A few of the girls in my group helping the fishermen pull in their net.

View of the ocean from Cape Coast Castle.

Cape Coast Weekend Trip

Last night, I came back to my first water outage. I don’t know if that’s the right phrase, but when I returned to my building, it was to find that there was no running water. So, I filled a bucket from the tanks outside and used that to flush the toilet and take a bucket-bath. It’s surprising the small amount of water that is really necessary to bathe. Running water is one thing I will not take for granted again (to be added to the previous list).

In other news, CIEE took us on a trip to Cape Coast this weekend. On Saturday, we left campus at 6:30am aboard a very fancy bus. Cape Coast is so beautiful, with coconut-tree-lined beaches and magnificent ocean views. We saw a group of fishermen pulling in their net, and they let us help them for a few minutes. To do this, they have a rope that goes out to sea, and you can’t see where it ends. There are about 10 of them, singing and clapping a rhythm, and they pull the rope every few beats. Literally, they pull in the net an inch at a time. The rope is wrapped once around the trunk of a coconut tree and some men are sitting on the ground, keeping it tight around the tree after each pull so that the net won’t pull the other men out to sea. My hands were sore after only a few minutes, and they told us that it would take another 3 hours or so before it is completely pulled in.

Saturday, we went to Cape Coast Castle, which was where Europeans kept African slaves before shipping them off to Europe and the Americas. It was a sobering experience, and the place was so hard to see. There was such beauty there, but there was such cruelty as well. We went on a tour which took us into the dungeons for men and for women. Directly above the men’s dungeon was the castle’s chapel. The dungeons were crowded, dark and poorly ventilated. There was also no sewage system except trenches in the floor and a box. We also saw the “Door of No Return” which opens up to the sea. Slaves were led through tunnels to this door, and then they were loaded on ships and sent across the Atlantic Ocean. Seeing this place was a difficult experience for me, and I only wonder what people today can do to rectify the injustices of the past and make sure they aren’t repeated in the future.

On Sunday, we went to Kakum National Park, and I saw my first rainforest. We went on the “canopy walk,” which involves rope bridges between trees, high up in the rainforest canopy. It was amazing. I’d like to go back with a smaller group of people because 50 students can be pretty loud. We didn’t see much wildlife, but perhaps we would with fewer people. It’s about 3 ½ hours from campus, so some of us could plausibly go as a day trip.

Today, it’s back to classes for me, and running water.

A Few Things I'm Thankful For Now...

I know it’s only Groundhog Day, but I thought I’d make a posting about some things I’ve taken for granted that this trip has made me thankful for.


Washing machines
To be sure, there is something therapeutic about taking a few hours on Sunday to wash your clothes by hand. You get to know them a lot better. But it is HARD… So hard to get them clean and then to get all the soap out.

Reliable 24/7 electricity
I was basically without electricity in my room the whole weekend (but it came on for Saturday night and then turned off again Sunday morning). This has made me thankful for a whole host of other things – including air conditioning and showers with the light on and refrigerators – but they all come of the availability of constant electricity.

Blending in
On campus, it’s not so bad. But when my friends from the program and I go anywhere else, we stick out so much. I’ve been called “oburoni!” (which means “white person”), “white lady!” “Allison!” and some other random girls’ names, just while walking down the street. Men seem to call us by whatever girl’s name they can think of, even when it’s definitely not right. When children should “oburoni,” it’s pretty cute – they just want to wave at us. But when it’s adults, it gets old. I just feel it’s so ironic that generally, at home, I try to find unique clothing and haircuts and whatever to look different, and here, all I’d really like is to go somewhere and get no attention.

Being busy
There is so much downtime here, and I find myself needing something to do. I went to the first rehearsal of Beauty and the Beast today on campus as an attempt to alleviate my free-time problem. I’m so used to being busy all the time at home, and now I just wish I could occupy my time better, but there really isn’t that much to do between classes, or after dark (since we can’t go out alone, I always need to have someone willing to go with me to do anything after 6pm).

Knowing the rules
We always joke that there’s nothing that we can really do to make ourselves more awkward than we already are. But it’s so frustrating to know that there are social rules and expectations that are not the same as the ones with which I’m familiar. And no one will explicitly tell me those rules, so I just have to stumble around and mess it up until I figure it out. Until you have to leave the place where you’ve always lived, you never think about those rules, but getting around is so difficult without then.

Cheese (milk in general)
There is no milk here! Only at the western grocery store, and it’s terribly expensive. But more than milk, I miss cheese. Mac and cheese. Grilled cheese sandwiches. Quesadillas. Cheddar cheese. Cheese and crackers. Cheesesteaks. So many foods with cheese that I love. I don’t think I could have ever imagined a place without cheese. All there is is Laughing Cow cheese – the spreadable kind – that I usually get on my egg sandwich. (An egg sandwich costs .60, but with cheese, it’s 1.00, so cheese is somewhat of an expense.)


Those of you with all these things… be thankful! You don’t what you’ll miss until you no longer have it. In the meantime, I’m enjoying “sweet bread,” which is like white bread, but sweeter. And a suntan. And plantains. And papaya. And the insanity of riding trotros. And church/a rooster outside my window at 5:30am… except that one not so much. But really, there are some very nice people here, and I’m enjoying getting lunch for the equivalent of $1.

So, there are ups and downs, but I expect to learn a lot more about myself from this experience…