Current Events in Africa

1. The President of Ghana was in a car accident the other day, he took the next day off. Do US Presidents get days off? I thought they were on duty 24/7...maybe given the circumstance he needed to rest. Before I came here I was not sure if my life would ever be in real danger, after living here for 2 months, I can say that if anything is going to happen to you it will be a car accident. Drivers are reckless here, drive very fast, and pedestrians do not have THE RIGHT OF WAY! Taxi drivers and tro's honk their horn to warn you that they are coming up behind you, they do not slow down or swerve around you, you are expected to move out of the way and if you don't well...
   Basically, you are fine if you pay attention!
2. Liberia will soon have their debt from the war (about $800 million) paid off by large banks all over the world, and help from other countries...this will help the country to continue rebuilding and become more stable. I have become good friends with a Liberian guy named MD, he is 22 years old and had to flee Liberia during the war. He has been in Ghana for about 10 years now and is doing great things with various relief organizations to help his people. He is very smart and determined, work always comes first! He is putting me in touch with a women's organization about 1 hour west of Accra that I will be volunteering for Saturdays. The women are learning English and need help with conversation skills so this will be another good experience for me!
   
3. Oprah's principal at her school in South Africa fled to the US, I am sure this is old news to all of you. Anyone looking to lead a school in SA?
   
4. Peace talks are stalled in Darfur between the rebels and the Sudan government, may not continue until the new year.
5. Oil found in Ghana, drilling will begin in 2009. Major business opportunity here for Ghana and foreign companies. This will greatly help the economy here and hopefully create jobs for Ghanaians and not just foreigners. You would be amazed by the foreign business community here. Sadly, made places I frequent when I come to Accra are not owned by Ghanaians. The Lebanese own many businesses and have for years...Koala (the Whole Foods of Ghana), paint companies, construction co., Popeye(very good fast food... chicken and fish), many restaurants, etc. If a place is nice you can almost bet that a Lebanese owns it. Things have not been stable in Lebanon for years and the people need jobs, the opportunities for new business in Ghana are endless. I have met many people from this country and they tell me that work is had to find and if you do work in Lebanon you are not paid well.
6. Big Sports News - Jack this is for you! Ghana is gearing up for the African Cup of Nations. This is like the World Cup for soccer. Teams from across Africa will all come to Ghana in Jan and Feb for 3 weeks to compete. I am very sad that I will miss this!!! There is a lot of talk about the tickets prices being too high, it does not allow for the average Ghanaian to attend. Unfair, uh? Of course, the Cup is sponsored by WHO ELSE? but the largest phone company in Ghana MTN. I have never seen such marketing in my life. You can not go anywhere without seeing a MTN billboard, flag, or sign. It is really over the top! All of Ghana is literally decorated by MTN.
   
7. My current wallet is a ziplock bag (snack size!). I have used this for weeks now. The wallet I came to Ghana with got wet and began to grow mold so I through it away. I will not tell you how this happened! In fact, much of my American money had mold all over it and I had to beg business owners and banks to exchange it. About $60 of it I still have and will have to spend when I get back to the US. I have the bills sealed in another ziplock bag as to not contaminate the air I breathe. hahah!
8. Finally was able to use the bandaids I brought with me. I was wondering when this opportunity would arise. I have been using them but on the students but not me. I stubbed my large toe on the street, tripped over something. Hurt like heck and took a huge chunk of skin off but it is amazing how quickly skin heals. I was worried about infection but all is well. I haven't stubbed my toe since my pool days when I was younger at Rollingwood Pool running (when I should not have been) on the concrete patio, here it happened all the time!
9. My students were just informed by me that things exist or did exist like, dinosaurs, earthquakes, volcanoes...taking them through a natural disaster unit now! They had never heard or seen these things before. It is very cool to see a child's reaction when you explain these topics to them for the first time. I also like that they are old enough to really understand unlike when you tell a 4 year old about dinosaurs. I bought a children's book in Accra on dinosaurs ($16, thank you very much! AHH!) so they could see what they look like, the kids were amazed!
   
10. Gotta go meet my friends, we are taking a private van to the Volta Region to take a cruise down the Volta River on the Dodi Princess! I am a lucky girl! A good mix of people too, Ghanaians, Aussie's and Americans!
    

Uniting the Nations in Cape Coast

Meet some of my new friends in Ghana...Left to Right...Me, Diana-American-Florida, Carolien-Netherlands, Sarah-Canadian-Toronto, and Ana-Germany
We are having lunch at Oasis on the ocean in Cape Coast after our tour of Cape Coast Castle.

One reason I love traveling is meeting such inspiring and highly motivated people along the way. I learn something from each person I come across and it makes me reflect constantly on my own life and where it is going. Everyday I hear a new story from someone walking down the street, in a tro tro, a taxi, or over breakfast at a hostel on the weekend. Here are a few stories...

Diana teaches Class 4 at Wisdom. Would you believe she taught English in Korea for 2 years, flew home to the US for a few days to see her family in Tampa, Florida and then hopped on a plane to Ghana? She is leaving Ghana in 2 days, seeing a friend in London for 3 days and then going to Bulgaria for a week to visit a friend in the Peace Corp there and then back to the US to find a "real job!" She has been my weekend travel friend for 2 months and I will miss her company. Diana graduated from University of Florida and wants to try living and working in New York for at least a year. Her dream would be Paris.

Carolien is from the Netherlands and very proud of being Dutch. Fasinating woman...she has been in Ghana for 9 months now and leaves in December. She is an eye doctor by profession. She met someone at home that wanted to fund a program in Africa that would do eye examinations on children and provide them glasses if needed at a small cost so she said she would go. She was orginally going to work out of Accra but found her way to Cape Coast instead. All equipment was shipped from the Netherlands which took many weeks. Carolien visits schools in the Cape Coast area and also pulls children from the streets to do exams. The other day she had an entire day of examinations in the Cape Coast Castle, any child living in the area could go. The lenses are bought at a discounted cost in Accra and the frames are shipped in from the Netherlands. She said that the glasses cost the children $1, $2, or $3 US. She has done over 1,000 examinations and about 100 needed glasses. She does not work alone. She contacted University of Cape Coast and asked if they would be willing to lend her some students studying to become eye doctors to go with her to the schools to do the exams. The University said yes so she has many students under her and also teaches a class at the university. Wow, uh?! She is keeping good records for a future book or medical journal and a friend of hers is doing a documentary on her work. When she goes back to the Netherlands in DEC she will become director of the organization she is helping. She will work on putting the website in English when she returns but for now here is her site....www.theopticalfoundation.com

Sarah is from Toronto in Canada. She attends McGill University and is taking a semester to study at University of Cape Coast. She is taking 5 classes for the bargain price of $500 US. What a deal! Met her in Kumasi one weekend over breakfast at the hostel and we have kept in touch. She lives in the dorms and was supposed to have a roommate but never got one so she told Diana and I if we ever came to Cape Coast for the weekend we were welcome to stay. We took her up on her offer and just got back from the Cape this past weekend. Loved meeting all her Ghanaians friends and loved the 35 cent fried egg with onion and tomato on whole grain bread I had for dinner SAT night at the market on campus. Many women stand outside and cook all night for the students. Sarah was going to study at Cape for 2 semesters but has decided to volunteer at the Liberian Refugee Camp instead and return to McGill for the fall 2008 semester. Sadly, I have heard from many university students that I have met (they are everywhere, mostly though at University of Legon. Sarah is 1 of 7 non-africans in the entire Cape university of about 10,000 students, it is like A Different World if anyone remembers that show!) that the professors basically read directly from their notes and the class copies, Sarah's professor even says, "OK, new paragraph!" and so the whole class skips one line in their notes, indents and keeps writing. So if you are coming to Ghana for the education you might want to study somewhere else and come to Ghana to volunteer or to just travel. I have asked many of the students at the university's this and they all agree that had they have known they would have studied elsewhere. Sarah's friend from Toronto is at Legon which is closer to where I live, about 45 minute tro ride, I am going to sit in on a few of her classes and learn more about African History.

Ana is from Germany and also studying at Cape Coast. I do not know much about her story yet but she is very nice and I will be seeing her again another weekend.

A Step Back in Time - CAPE COAST CASTLE

This past weekend was the most meaningful travel weekend thus far. Diana and I traveled about 3 hours to Cape Coast to see Cape Coast Castle in Cape Coast and Elmina or St George's Castle. Both of these castles were used to hold captured Africans as slaves for a period of time before transporting them onto ships to be shipped to Brazil, the Carribean, many parts of Europe, Java - Indonesia, what is now the US and Canada. It is argued that between 12 and 25 million Africans were shipped as slaves from the 1400-1800's. Between 1.5 and 2 million were placed in the US and Canada. Brazil received the most slaves.