The Northern Trip

Being a participant of the AFS organization, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to be a part of the AFS trip to the North.  This trip allowed us to have the opportunity to travel to Kumasi and Tamale and learn more about Ghanaian history and be exposed to more Ghanaian culture.  Although it is only the fourth day of the trip I have learned a lot about the Ghanaian people in Kumasi and realized how different the Accra life is from some places in Kumasi

On the first day of the trip we left Accra around two o’clock in the afternoon and arrived in Kumasi around seven in the evening.  We stayed at the Champion International Hotel for the night.  The following morning we headed out to go to Ntonso and Ahwia, which are two locations where Kente is made in Kente Village.  Kente is a colorful cloth made in Ghana.  It can be woven as a single stitch, double stitch, or triple stitch.  The process for making Kente is very tedious and the weavers can sometimes work on making Kente cloth for days at a time. 

The first stop we made in Ntonso was at the trademark village, Bonwire, and is the traditional home of Kente.  History says that the man who started weaving Kente cloth had learned how to do so by watching a spider weave its web.  At Bonwire we were shown how Kente is woven on the loom after which I was given the opportunity to weave Kente cloth.  Under directions from a weaver, I sat in his loom and he showed me how to continue weaving a strip of Kente. The process was simple; first you have to put these two strings in between your big toe and the toe next to it on your right and left feet respectively.  Next, you put the string wrapped around a wooden handle through the Kente attached to the loom.  Lastly, you pound the string that you just wove with a vertically lined block to ensure that the stitches are compact.  During this process you alternate pulling your right foot down and then your left foot like your pedaling, which makes the loom actually weave the string you are feeding it. 

Also at Bonwire we had the opportunity to buy Kente cloth and different souvenirs.  Once everyone was done with their purchases we gathered outside the building and waited for the group before getting on the bus.  We were greeted by little children who wanted to hug the “obronis” (that means foreigners in twi, one of the local languages in Ghana).  The little kids were so adorable and I loved being able to interact with them and see their faces brighten when I would say hello.  Once everyone was ready we got on the AFS bus and headed to the wood-carving place in Ahwia.  Here we were shown how Kente dye is made.  It takes about two weeks to get just a pot of black Kente dye.  The process involves getting “bade3” bark from a tree in the North and soaking it for about three days, then pounding the bark, boiling the bark, and extracting the color out of the bark.  We also were shown Adinkra symbols.  These are blocks of wood that have Ghanaian symbols carved into them.  Each participant picked a symbol and dipped it into the Kente dye and stamped it on a strip of kente cloth for AFS.  I also bought my own strip of Kente and made my own design with the symbols meaning: go back to your roots, the power of God, and love.

That concluded our Kente portion of the day and then we moved onto having a tour of the Manhyia palace museum where we learned about the Asante hene (which is the Asante regions chief).  It was cool to find out the history of the Asante chiefs and see how the traditional system of chieftaincy is still engrained in the Asante people even though Ghana is under a democratic rule of John Dramani Mahama.  The Asante region is honestly like its own little part of Ghana—it even has it’s own flag.

The following day we visited Kintampo Falls which is a gorgeous waterfall in Ghana.  We got to learn the history of the three parts of the Falls and we got to go into the waterfall.  It was a beautiful sight where lots of Ghanaians just came to have fun and play in the water.

On the fourth day of our trip we went to Mole National Park.  Although we didn’t get to see any elephants, we hiked through the park and got to see baboons, monkeys, bush pigs, kobs, and wild deer.  The land was beautiful and I felt as though I was one with nature as I was able to walk alongside the animals.  Preceding the hike we headed out to Tamale and stopped in a small Muslim village of about 4000 people.  Here we were shown the oldest Mosque in Ghana.  It was so amazing to see this mosque still standing and in use after all these years.  I got a sneak peak into the inside of the mosque was actually pretty spacious inside even though it looks quite small from the outside.

Pictures

A motorcycle transporting water sachets (bagged water)

Cow herding in the East

Akwatia, Ghana

A Village in the East

Payless came to Ghana

Swimming Pool

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Me, my host nephew, and my liason

My Host nephews 1 yr old bday

Crepes are the best

Teachers sitting and watching the Interhouses

House 3 vs House 1 Volleyball

Coaching Volleyball

WASSARIANS

In our Classroom

Form 1 Block

Football field in the Distance during Interhouses

ICT Block

Form 1 Block

Form 2 visual arts and Business Block

Administration Block

Form 3 block

The road to WASHS

Patriotism

Just wanted to shine some light on schooling.  So as I said before in Ghanaian schools they have four different programs you can participate in.  There’s Science, Visual Arts, Business, and General Arts.  Each program has a selection of electives that you can pick from.  I am in the General Arts program.  The electives I take are Geography, History, Government, Economics along with the core classes of English, Math, Science, Social Studies, ICT (Intergraded Computer Technology), and PE.

In each class there is a head class prefect and assistant class prefect.  They are in charge of collecting homework, passing out papers, informing students of what’s happening in the school, keeping the class in order, calling the teacher to come to class, taking attendance etc.  This is a different dynamic of Ghanaian schools that American schools don’t have: Delegating a select few to have power over the whole class without resentment.  I think it’s pretty cool.  There are prefects for everything: house prefect, disciplinary prefect, entertainment prefect, sports prefect, cleaning prefect etc…

Forms:  In Ghana there are three forms: Form 1, Form 2, and Form 3.  It’s basically like Freshman, Junior, Senior.  Seniority is big in Ghana so Form 3’s have the power to do a lot in terms of punishing Form 2’s and 1’s.  You can differentiate what form people are in based on the belt that the person is wearing with their uniform.  There are form specific belts.  The form 2’s and 3’s start their first term in September and continue throughout the school year.  On the other hand the form 1’s admission starts in November and December due to the fact that their results (result’s from the test the took in Middle school or junior high school, as it is called here) do not come back until those times.  Therefore all form 1’s don’t appear on campus until the second semester.  Each form is divided into blocks (buildings) based on what program you’re in.  For example there would be separate General Arts form 2 block and the General Arts form 3 block.  And in each block the classrooms are divided based on what electives you take.  So in my General Arts form 2 block I am in Classroom C because of my electives.  Classroom B takes Christian Religious Studies instead of Geography so they are differentiated.  Each Classroom has a Form master who is the teacher or administrator in charge of performing form activities and they are the support system for those students.

Houses:  There are Five Houses: House 1, House 2, House 3, House 4, and House 5.  Every student is placed in a house.  I am in House 3 (The Knights) and we honestly are the best house.  Each House has a plot, which is a section on the school campus that they are responsible for tending too.  Students may be required to weed (which is done by cutting the grass with a machete), sweep, clean, scrub etc.  The workload is given out by seniority.  Form 3’s will oversee the Form 2’s and when the Form 1’s come the Form 2’s will oversee the Form 1’s.  Another exciting part of houses is that the school hosts interhouse competitions.  This is when the houses compete against each other in sports and it is a huge event.  House three won that too!!!  During interhouse competitions there are “scouts” who pick the best players from the whole school to compete in interschool competitions, which is when all the different schools in the Accra region compete against each other.  There are also house meetings and House head mistresses and masters.

Typical Mon-Fri schedule:

Monday- arrive at school between 5-8.  Go to work on your plot if needed.  Drop your bag off in your classroom.  Go to Assembly.  History. Government. Social Studies. Geography.  Close from school.

Tuesday- arrive at school between 5-8.  Go to work on your plot if needed.  Go to classroom and meet with Form Master/Class prefect and discuss and problems.  English. Government. Math. Science. Close from school.

Wednesday- arrive at school between 5-8.  Go to work on your plot if needed.  Drop your bag off in your classroom.  Go to Assembly Hall for Worship.  Economics. ICT.  Geography. History. Close from school

Thursday- arrive at school between 5-8.  Go to work on your plot if needed. Go to classroom and meet with Form Master/Class prefect and discuss and problems. History. Science. English. Geography.  Close from school.

Friday- arrive at school between 5-8.  Go to work on your plot if needed.  Drop your bag off in your classroom.  Go to Assembly.  Government. PE. Economics. Math.  Close from school.

Arriving to school:  Yes there are kids that show up to school at 5am.  That is one thing I might never understand because that is entirely to early when classes don’t start until 8am.  And then there are the student’s that stroll in at 9am, 10am, 11am or better yet they don’t go to school they just come for sport’s training after school.  I on the other hand show up at a “normal” time of 7:30am.

Assembly: On Monday’s and Friday’s we have assembly.  On Monday’s you line up outside on the grass by your class.  On Friday’s you line up by your house.  Everyone from Form 1 to Form 3 is there so it’s a ton of people and you’re all out in the hot sun.  During Assembly the school song is sung, the national anthem is sung, the Lord’s prayer, the pledge of allegiance is said, and a student preacher delivers a sermon.  After that the administrators say what’s happening in the week and can announce things.  Businesses frequently come it and try to get kids to register for things such as Banks wanting students to open up accounts.  After we are dismissed from assembly we all go back to our respective blocks and classrooms.

I entitled this entry Patriotism because during assemblies I feel ‘some type of way’ when the national anthem and pledge of allegiance happens.  Like it’s funny because I’m like well I can’t pledge allegiance to Ghana when I’m an American, but then everyone’s is looking to see if I’m going to say it, but I’m not.  Usually me and the other exchange student at my school look at each other and chuckle and we just don’t say it.  I mean it’s not really like we could because we don’t know the pledge and anthem, but yeah I just find that funny.  Go America!!  But I still love Ghana!


Worship:  Another really big deference in Ghana is that religion plays a huge role in school.  We have a mosque on campus and the Muslims go to pray during second break (around noon) and then they can choose to pray after closing or wait until they get home to pray.  For the Christians (and even if you’re not a Christian—but mostly everyone is) the assembly hall is the “church”.  On Wednesday’s everyone goes into the hall including the Muslim students and they dance and sing and praise God.  The school band is live and it’s just a joyous time.  There’s the school choir and preacher.  The student preacher preaches and then an actual adult preacher preaches a short sermon.  There’s offering and everything.  You would never find this happening in America, but I find it really cool that the teachers and students and Muslims and Christians can all come together in peace and be able to sit through assembly.

A Mosque Between Two Churches

On October 4^th AFS put together an excursion that allowed us to observe the Muslim holiday Eid Al-Adha and learn about the Islamic religion.  Since we were going into the Muslim communities we were all instructed to wear a hijab to be respectful of the Muslim religion.  We were all picked up by the AFS bus in the morning and driven to a mosque.  The mosque we went to was very close to a military base and it was nice to see the military men mingling with the Muslims and talking to them.  Another gorgeous aspect of this mosque is that it’s between two churches.  I found that so beautiful because it goes to show that religions can tolerate each other and get along even if you don’t practice all of the same things.

We were able to go into the mosque and sit with the rest of the Muslim ladies at the top of the mosque (the men were downstairs).  I learned that the reason Muslims celebrate Eid-Adha is to commemorate Abraham's faithfulness to Allah when he was commanded from Allah to kill his only son. Upon hearing this command, he prepared to submit to Allah's will. But when he was all prepared to do it, Allah told him that his "sacrifice" had already been fulfilled by him showing that he would lay down his own life or the lives of those dear to him in order to submit to God.  After the service we witnessed the slaughtering of two cows at the back entrance to the mosque.  That was a very interesting thing to watch, I had never seen a slaughtering before.  The symbolism behind the sacrificing of an animal shows the willingness to make sacrifices in our lives in order to stay on the Straight Path. The animal meat is sectioned into three parts.  One-third of the meat is eaten by immediate family and relatives, one-third is given away to friends, and one-third is donated to the poor. 

After the festivities concluded at the mosque, we met up with a Muslim man who acted as our guide for the Islamic religion.  We took the bus to his home and were able to ask any question we wanted about Islam and discuss the religion.  This part of the day was very intriguing.  I enjoyed hearing a Muslims point of view on certain issues and understanding the misconceptions people have about Muslims.  Many times non-Muslims will say that the Muslim women are being oppressed and they don’t have rights etc.  But what I came to understand that day was that choosing to be a Muslim is a choice—therefore if you choose to become a Muslim and follow what Allah, it’s not oppression at all.  You have subjected yourself to following Allah’s word and you have agreed to do what the Quran says.  Moreover people have a bad perception of the Islamic religion and always reference terrorist groups and Muslim extremist, but in fact those acts that are done do not line up with the Quran at all and that is not what the Islamic religion represents at all.  All and all the day was great an I’m grateful that I had this opportunity to look into the Muslim way of life.

Some Pictures

My first Day of Senior High School

I’ve been in Ghana for about two weeks now and today was my first day of school.  I am going to West Africa Senior High School, which is located about 10min away from my house.  When I got to school at about 7:15am, I met up with Katherine (the other AFS student near me) and Paul (an AFS volunteer) and we all entered the school together.  Katherine and I were dressed in black skirts and white blouses, because the school was not able to provide us with uniforms before we started, so we really stood out.  As we were walking onto the school grounds tons of kids said “hello” and “good morning” and we had a warm welcome to school.  We all went to the admissions building where the head mistress had told us to meet her, but she wasn’t in yet.  After a bit Paul left and we were directed to a waiting room on the top floor of the admissions building.  Katherine and I waited for about 30 min until the head mistress got there.

When the head mistress came she escorted us to the downstairs portion of the administration building and we were handed over to the sir in charge of the bookstore.  He took us up the school bookshop and we were supplied with some books and notebooks and part of our uniform.  Since everything wasn’t in stock at the time he said to check back in later for the rest of the items.  After that we were escorted to our classes.  I am in General Arts C (class 3).  When I walked to the door of the classroom, I saw about 15 kids in the classroom and they were all greeting me and welcoming to their class.  As soon as I was introduced everyone started yelling out that I should sit near them.  It was great to feel accepted and I enjoyed my peer’s enthusiasm.  The class prefect (the student in charge of keeping order in the classroom) ushered me to an open seat near the back of the class and I thanked him.  As soon as I sat down a bunch of kids came over and wanted to chat.  So I sat around talking for a long time and explaining why I was here in Ghana and what America was like.  It was really interesting to see their perceptions of America and I enjoyed getting to know some of the students.  As I said there were only about 15 kids present that day out of a class of about 40 kids.  I found out that the first week of school isn’t really serious.  Teaching starts the second week of school.  The first week is just used for teachers from the previous year to “pop in” and review last years exams; the students also take their own initiative and refresh themselves on what they learned last year.

I was shown the school cafeteria, which is called “The Canteen”.  It’s really different from American cafeterias.  There are seven different “stations” that serve different foods.  The foods are prepared on the spot so you receive your traditional Ghanaian dishes warm and ready to eat.  This being said, it takes a bit of time to serve people so there are usually long lines.  There is also a drink station (water, soft drinks…) and a snack/dessert station.  It was really cool to see how this cafeteria worked.  I had never experienced anything like it.  For the first day of school my host mother had actually packed me a lunch, so I didn’t buy anything that day but I ate in the canteen with a group of students from my class. 

After that we all went back to our classroom.  In Ghanaian schools the student’s stay in the same classroom for the whole day and the teachers rotate based on when they are teaching your class.  Back in the classroom, I continued to chat with different people and I looked through some of their previous exams and notes (just to get a feel of what school was like here).  At about 2:30pm some of the kids that I had been chatting with suggested that we leave school to go home for the day.  I was a little confused as to why we would be leaving early when school ended at 3:00pm and they explained how no teaching was actually going on so its okay to leave early during the first week.  They wanted to escort me home so I went to get Katherine and we all set off to walk towards the Adenta station (a parking lot where people can catch cars or tro tros to multiple locations around Accra).  As we all walked (about eight of us) we chatted some more and talked about different places in Accra.  Once we got to the station, Katherine and some of the others in our group caught tro tros home.  The rest of us proceeded to turn down the streets leading to our houses.  It just so happened that two of the boys in my group live on the same street as me so we all walked together and they walked me to my house, then veered off to theirs.

All together it was a great first day of school.  Looking back on it I really enjoyed the fact that today was a chill day because I got to know some of the kids before being thrown into the rigorousness of school.  I definitely think I’m going to like West Africa Senior High School!!

A bit of Culture

Power outages: Yep that’s a thing in Ghana.  Ghana Electric is the electric company that provides electricity to the Ghana population.  Their methods right now does not allow them to supply everyone with electricity at they’ve come up with a strategic form of power outages.  Ghana is gridded into sections and every three days certain sections will have no electricity while the rest continue to have electricity.  It rotates day and night: for example if you don’t have power on Sunday night you can expect not to have power on Wednesday morning and Saturday night…  Many people are accustomed to this and just have lanterns and flashlights lying around so that there will be light.  I too came prepared with a powerful LED lantern and flashlights too!  It’s actually not that bad…I’ve experienced about three so far and you just go about your business as usual.  The one downside during power outages during the daytime is it gets really hot and sticky in the house because the ceiling fans can’t run.  The power outages can last from 30 min to a couple of hours.  Ghana Electric is trying to change their methods and supply constant electricity to all and they hope that this plan will go into effect soon.

Water:  Most people do not have running water.  In my instance we have a tank that the water company comes and refills.  There are a ton of buckets in the house so that you can fetch water from the tank whenever you need it.  Since a lot of people use tanks most people’s water bills will show the water they’ve used from the tank.  Although sometimes the water companies are able to have a surge of water flow through the pipes connected to the water sources and this allows for water to flow through people’s taps.  Even though this is rare, when water is flowing through the taps people have to pay for that regardless of if they are not using it (so it’s better to use it when it happens).  The reason why tap water does not run continuously is because the water companies are still working on getting a solid route so water can travel from water sources into the cities and villages so people can get water directly from their taps.  It’s interesting to see how easy it is to manage without running water.  If you want hot water for a shower or bath, you just pour water into a kettle and then mix it with cold water in a bucket and tada!  When using the toilet you just pour water in the toilet to flush it because all you need is water pressure!  These are all things I didn’t think of often before I came to Ghana and now it feels like second nature.

School:  It’s interesting to see the amount of kids that go/want to go to boarding school.  In Ghana, going to boarding school is the norm and most kids want to leave home and have fun in boarding school.  It’s a way to leave your parents and get involved in more school related activities and clubs since you will be housed at your school.  Sometimes kids who go to day schools but don’t live close by may not have the urge to get involved with school activities and clubs because by the time that finishes and they travel home, it’s pretty late and they still have to do schoolwork—boarding school affords them the luxury of staying on campus.  Here they have primary school, junior high, and senior high.  High school is the equivalent to Senior High here.  It is broken up into four “paths” you can take: Science, Business, General Arts, and Visual Arts.  Based on what path you decide to take, it restricts what electives are available to you.  For instance if you do the Science path you can have the options of elective Physics, Elective Biomedical…  Visual arts would be Computer graphics, photography…General Arts would be government, economics… Business would be marketing, public speaking…

First Week!!..Loving Ghana

Hello All, I’ve been in Ghana for about seven days!  For those of you who don’t know, I am studying abroad with the department of state’s program called the YES program.  This program is apart of the AFS International Exchange Programs, which sends high school students from all over the world to different countries and states.  When I, along with four other American girls landed in Ghana after an 11-hour flight, we were met by AFS Ghana staff and transported to the University of Accra to have orientation for five days.  The orientation was very helpful and we were ushered into Ghana’s culture and introduced to the Ghanaian way of life.  We did several activities such as going to the mall, the market, and taking a tro tro (a very crowded mini van which shuttles people to various destinations-if you don’t have a car this is usually your form of transportation).  We also had some Twi language lessons (a common Ghanaian language).

On Tuesday, I was dropped off at my host family’s house.  My host family lives in Accra (the capitol of Ghana), but a quieter region, called Adenta Municipality.  I live in a four-bedroom house.  I have my own room with a bed, a chair, a refrigerator, and a table.  Two of my host siblings live in the house (my host sister and host brother).  The other three host siblings (1 female, 2 male) have kids and live in their own homes, although I see the older host sister and her two kids almost everyday because she’s just down the street.  And then there is my host mom and dad.  My host dad works in the city of Accra and my host mom runs the shop in front of our house, which sells beverages, toiletries, gifts, cards, and several other items.  My host family is very welcoming and loving! 

Ghana is similar to America in some ways and sometimes I forget I’m not in the US.  But there are plenty of differences.  One in particular is GMT.  GMT is “Ghana man time”.  It’s actually quiet funny—many times a Ghanaian can say that we are leaving in 20 minutes or they are coming at 10am and they will show up 2 hours later and not think anything of it.  As opposed to America where everyone is on a schedule and is moving constantly, Ghanaians are relaxed and have no sense of time.  Often if someone wants another person to meet them on time they will say “meet in 1 hour American time”.  Another difference is the sunrise and sunset.  The sun rises and sets at six, so it will be pitch dark at 6pm yet everyone is still up having fun and hanging out.  Furthermore the driving in the city is different from America.  Many times there will not be lane markers and cars, buses, tro tros, and motorcycles will weave in between cars not caring if pedestrians are in the street.  Cars are also constantly beeping.  Beeping can signify several things such as: telling a pedestrian that they are behind them, announcing that they can pick up a pedestrian, telling a car that they are going to cut them off, alerting a car that they are behind them, and also avoiding accidents.

It is interesting to notice some slight differences in things that the younger generation value as opposed to the older generations.  For instance my host family is pretty well off, they own their house, and another house right next to ours (which houses other family members), and a shop along with growing their own plantain trees and cassava plants out back.  They do not have running water, but there are huge tanks in the yard that gets filled with water from a water company and you fetch water from the tanks and can heat it up if needed.  They have electricity and a television and stereo system.  These are things they value and have worked very hard to get.  They pride being able to take care of their family and help out their extended family.  On the other hand, the younger generations sometimes seem to value more materialistic things: having the latest iPhone, or Galaxy, having a nice car (which are very expensive in Ghana) and being able to hang out with their friends after their jobs.  Because of the Internet and social media, a lot of the younger generation watch and follow American shows and celebrities, and dress like Americans too.

Right now school has not started, I will probably start in the middle of next week.  So a typical day for me so far is waking up whenever I want (usually 8am) and then taking a shower and getting ready.  By the time I’m done my host mom has prepared me breakfast (usually an egg sandwich with vegetables and fruit on the side).  I have my choice of tea or Milo (Ghanaian hot chocolate).  Then I go to the shop and sit with a boy in the shop who is 16 and say hello to the customers.  Usually my older host sister will be over and have her little baby boy (he’s 10 months) and I will play with him.  Then there’s lunch and then I might go walk with my older host sister and get her oldest daughter from kindergarten.  In the evening my other host sister and brother come home and we all just sit around outside and talk and hang out.  People will stop by and just sit around the shop and talk about the latest news in Ghana.  Then I will have dinner and then go back out to sit around or relax inside.  Afterwards I help close up the shop.  Then my host dad gets home from work and the socializing is moved indoors while he eats dinner.  Finally I get ready for bed and then go to my room and go to bed.

So far Ghana’s is pretty cool.  I love talking to people and learning about the culture!!