koforidua trip, osu visit

hi, lots to report. the internet cafe has been off and on and when it's been on it's not fast enough to access the blogger site. but they say they've fixed the problem so....

just to warn you, it's going to be a very long entry as a lot has happened.

last friday night several of us went to a club in downtown accra. The city streets were deserted on the cab ride there, an interesting contrast to the bustle during the day. but the club itself was a happening place, even if there wasnt much going on around it. there were sleek cars out front and enormous bouncers at the entrance. before getting there, we were planning to try to bargain down the cover charge but when one of the bouncers, who ressembled the incredible hulk, demanded $10 USD there was complete and immediate compliance. inside, the club was very bizarre, it was slightly reminiscent of a laser tag arena, but with worse music. it was an odd crowd, mostly aging expats though some ghanaians showed up later. i really was curious what they're stories were, how they ended up in accra, ghana. i can't say the club was really enjoyable, i don't think clubs are really my thing, it's kind of difficult to have a conversation with anybody when shakira is busting your eardrums, so people seem to just either dance or sit around trying to look suave. im bad at both.

last week four of us visited osu, a neighborhood in accra that catering to oburoni's (foreigners). there are still open gutters and trash strewn everywhere but the main street is lined with two story, air-conditioned "western" hangouts and food spots with clean tiled floors. we went at night and found an outdoor bar to sit at and watched these three incredible gymnasts, not older than 14 years old, performing on the street, dodging taxis and traffic while doing back flips and forming these human pyramids. when we sat down we were swarmed by very desperate-looking kids, dressed in rags, asking for money. here we were enjoying a beer and kids didn't even have enough to eat. it's strange, but it was really here, in the most Westernized and "developed" part of the city where i was first struck by the poverty here. everyday on my walk to school i pass shacks and huts but i dont get a sense of desperation, there appears to be some type of communal safety net. it's so cheap to live in that neighborhood that most people seem to at least have enough to eat. shop owners regularly give food away free, making us feel stingy for not indulging everyone person who asks for money. the generosity here is impressive, our house is an example, our host parents have taken in at least twenty people and are supporting them. but in a more western environment like osu, the poor seem much more vulnerable. i dont know whether it was simply the contrast of their situation to the relative affluence of osu (which would make them more aware of their own poverty) or if, in an environment where people are urged to strive to improve their material situation, they're less likely to give as generously. but anyway, we were all quite uneasy and headed back.

also this week we attended a cultural dance night at the university performed by a ghanaian dance troupe. it was held in this outdoor amphitheater surrounded by palm trees and looking up at the night sky through the palm leaves as the african drums beat, i really felt as if i was in africa! the dance groupe were all from northern ghana, which the exception of a 7 foot tall danish white guy who had joined the group a year ago. as you can imagine, he kinda stuck out and it was hard to watch anybody else. during one intermission, the m.c., a ghanaian student, called the danish dude to come to the stage and the m.c. interviewed him, asking him what country he was from, what he'd learned. the m.c. concluded by saying how this showed that oburonis could do african dances as well. it was quite awkward, as it seemed to unnecessarily mark this danish guy, and all of us in fact, as different and as outsiders. but zach pointed out that in the u.s. we do the same to african-americans, interviewing african american corporate execs or minority scholarship students. while it is done with usually the best of intentions, perhaps we are really only highlighting their outsider status.

also, we went to this place nearby called the living room, which is a really cool idea for a movie theater that i'm surprised hasn't caught on in the u.s. anyway it consists of a lot of smaller viewing rooms which fit maybe ten to twenty people so you go with a group and rent a room and pick from a list of movies. on the walk back, it was late and it was a full moon and the streets were empty save for feral dogs skulking around. these two guys emerged from a dark gap between two shops and started following us speaking in hushed voices and walking quickly and nervously, with straightened legs as if to conceal that they were trying to catch up with us. all our hearts started pounding as we were pretty sure we were going to get mugged. as i was looking at the road in front of me, i swear i could see every single pebble and grain of sand. all i could think of was how well my sympathetic nervous system was kicking in. but i didnt need it as i guess they decided against the mugging as there were four of us. or maybe they were just trying to scare us.

on a more upbeat note, im starting to get to know to know the neighborhood better. there's an elementary school around the corner with a dirt soccer field and apparently on monday afternoons a group of retired and current professional soccer players play on this school field just for fun. unfortunately ive got twi language class during that block but im definitely going to skip the class at least once to check it out. a lot of professional footballers live in east legon, including Pele, whose name sounds familiar. he actually lives two houses down from ours and our host father is good friends with him. i'll have to google him.

on the subject of football, the whole country got all geared up for an international friendly match between ghana's national team, the black stars, and their archrival nigeria, who ghana has not beat in 14 years. we went to jerry's (the outdoor patio bar across the street) and watched the game. since this was the only place nearby with power, the whole neighborhood crowded onto the patio and crowded at the gaps of the lattice partitions which seperate the patio from the street. a vendor cooked kabobs on the street and everyone passed around star beers. people came wearing the green, yellow and red Ghanaian flag draped over their shoulders. ghana scored 4 goals in the second half and after each goal people got up and danced ecstatically and uncontrollably, just out of pure joy. it was almost like being at an evangelical church service, everyone was being touched by the football gods and practically speaking tongues. ghana ended up winning and afterwards cars sped down lagos avenue honking their horns and holding the flags out the window.

also this week, i was eating lunch at the night market, (an outdoor collection of vendors situated on the edge of campus, overlooking an expanse of dry, shrubby land) and all of a sudden a woman started screaming and ran out of one of the cooking tents about twenty feet away. a crowd gathered and two guys holding clubs ran into the cooking tent. a very long, skinny green snake promptly slithered out and started booking it for the brush. they caught up to it and killed it then held it up, it was probably around 4 or 5 feet long but quite thin, certainly the biggest snake ive ever seen. from then on i've stuck to the paths.

this past saturday, zach, myself and five other CIEE kids (mollie, dan, ariel, lauren and sabrina) headed off to Kofidura, a city about two hours inland from Accra. We'd heard that there was a very nice waterfall near the city and we were all itching to get away from the chaos of Accra. We took a tro-tro (van) there and soon we left the mutilated, chaotic landscape of the metropolitan area and after about forty minutes reached some large hills which just seem to spring up suddenly from the flat coastal plain. the ride up these hills was great, passing herds of cattle and overlooking the dotted plain below. as we got further inland, the landscape became more lush, hilly and rural. we passed by several villages with mud huts, shaded by palm trees. the scenery was incredible, distant green hills formed the backdrop to closer plains with the occasional, enormous, top-heavy tree. african xylaphone music played on the radio and as we bumped along in the crowded van, I felt quite exhilirated by the complete newness of the experience. at one point, we heard sirens around a bend in the road and a second later a police motorcycle flew around the corner, nearly clipping our trotro. the trotro driver swerved off the road just as a police suv came around as well. the police cars kept coming, all going ridiculously fast then came some luxury suvs with small ghanaian flags flapping from the hood, tinted windows and tires screeching. according to the tro tro driver, it was the president of ghana, kufour. i hope he was wearing his seatbelt.

eventually we rolled into kofidura, a city surrounded by hills. we pulled into the busy trotro station and after walking through some narrow streets packed with wooden shacks selling things, we got some lunch. after lunch we decided to try to get to the waterfall, where there was supposed to be a hotel. the city and surrounding hills were sunny but behind the hills the sky was black. i almost felt like i was in some holy city or something. as we hunted for a tro tro that would take us to this obscure waterfall, the clouds moved in and the wind picked up. all the vendors' wares which were hanging from the trees began to blow off so soccer jerseys and wind pants were flying everywhere as the vendors tried to grab them. we approached an empty tro tro and asked if they were headed towards the fall and they initially said no. but as we walked away the driver and his friend exchanged some words then said, "get in." usually trotros have designated routes and you just hop on, they dont usually do charters so we were a little suspicious but since it began to pour we started to pile in. two more guys arrived, who appeared to be friends of the driver. they talked in twi for a bit. we were all in the trotro, feeling a bit uneasy and vulnerable. then they told the biggest guy in our group, dan, that he had to sit in the back of the trotro, which also seemed odd. the driver and his friend got in front, then the two large friends got in with us, sitting in a backward facing seat at the front, which most trotros dont have. at this point i had a really uneasy feeling, a kind of charged restlessness, as did everyone else in the group. they closed the sliding door and we realized all the windows were latched shut. before we got going one kid in our group said, "we forgot something at the restaurant, we need to go get it. can you let us out?" a couple people outside were looking at us so after some more unintelligible conversation, they let us out. who knows what they were up to but we'd been warned of robbings of oburonis.

we eventually bit the bullet and took a taxi, which are more expensive, to the waterfall, which was a half hour out of town on a windy, remote road through a misty valley. it was late afternoon by the time we arrived, at which point we were informed that there was a funeral in the village and so all the rooms of the hostel were taken. just wanting a place to crash we inquired further and they said there was a large utility closet where the seven of us could stay. we checked it out, it was a concrete floor with stacks of plastic chairs, a bicycle and a few bags of concrete but we said we'd take. the rate was reasonable, $5 USD total for the seven of us. after dropping our stuff off, a tour guide took us from the campsite down a couple hundred stone stairs through the jungle to the swimming hole at the base of the waterfall. since the waterfall wasn't actually running since it's the dry season, the swimming hole was actually a stagnant, shallow pool. but zach and dan were determined to make the most of the experience and so we climbed up underneath the massive ledge where the water would fall if there was water. the waterfall must be a couple hundred feet up and really must be really impressive during the rainy season. standing well below the ledge, if you looked straight up at the overhang there was a real sense of vertigo. looking out from our perch we could see the thick canopy off the distance. it was a really beautiful and almost mystical area, but i was too tired and thirsty to really appreciate it. on the way down we saw a snakeskin. good lord, the thing was at least six feet long! one of the girls in our group, lauren, who is from the mountains of colorado, said that the skin probably belonged to a rock python. i asked how she knew this. "because i have one," she replied. so we learned a little about lauren on this trip. anyway, after returning from the falls i took a nap and when i awoke it was time for dinner. it was dark and we brought our lantern to this tin-roofed lean-too with a picnic table and a women from the small village across the street from the campgrounds brought us rice and stew. huddled around the picnic table in our lantern-lit leantoo (the park didnt have power), outside was pitch black, I felt as if I was in the middle of nowhere. the campgrounds were deserted save for the campground manager and the campgrounds were surrounded by wilderness except for the small village across the street. we began to hear the beats of music coming from the darkness in the direction of the village. we asked the park manager, a recent graduate from the university of ghana who was doing his year of civil service, if the music was from the funeral and he said yes. dan asked if we could go to the funeral and the manager initially said that it wasn't safe as a lot of random and questionable people showed up to these funeral parties but then said that he and the tour guide would accompany us there but that we shouldn't stay for long. the park manager grabbed a flashlight and our waterfall tourguide brought up the rear with the lantern and we left the park grounds into the steamy darkness. the tourguide, who was in his sixties, stopped at a makeshift bar across the street to take a couple shots then we proceeeded down the country road. i could barely make out the silver of the pavement, everything else was pitch black. lauren, mollie, sabrina and ariel all held hands and all talked in nervous whispers but i honestly wasn't that nervous, just excited and alive. every so often a dark silhouette would emerge immediately in front of us on the road (we couldnt see very far) and it would startle us. as we neared the music, there were more and more people standing on the road, all staring at us for even in the dark they could tell there was something different about us. we turned off the road onto a narrow path through some vegetation towards the music. the music was quite loud now and we could hear shouts and laughs. i caught glimpses of light and fires through gaps in the trees and almost felt like i was on treasure island or something. we passed more people on the path, solemnly staring at us, and i certainly felt a bit out of place. i was also a bit worried that we were going to be intruding on something and taking the focus away from the deceased. the path opened to a clearing, revealing a dirt dance floor packed with kids and old women. lamps, powered by a generator, hung from the thatched roof above the dance floor and provided light, as did a couple fires at the edges of the clearing. there were a lot of plastic chairs set up going up the hill to the right and probably about twenty men sat in them, facing the dance floor. the camp manager had us greet some of them though the loud, upbeat pop music made introductions difficult. we were then pulled onto the dance floor and started dancing with the women and kids. the beat of the music was incredibly fast and i pretty much was just flailing about awkwardly but it was still fun and the little kids were great dancers and everyone made us feel quite at ease. after awhile, we left and headed back. by now the moon had risen above the ridge to the left (east?) and was a very dark orange. it was quite a sight, as were the clear stars above and we got all felt pretty fine.

the next morning around seven we awoke and the village spokesmen came to greet us. he took us through the bright morning to the clearing again to meet the elders of the village, a customary practice for visitors to a funeral. he took us through the village, past the mudpacked huts, to meet the elders and the village chief. the village chief was dressed in a traditional robe but the other elders were in t-shirts and shorts. we thanked them then the village chief wanted us to have our picture taken with him then we had breakfast back at the campground. after breakfast our tourguide took us through the jungle, past a cave filled with massive spider skeletons, then up a steep hill to "umbrella rock,"which is a massive, flat rock perched on a smaller rock situated at the peak of a grassy hill. from the top we had a nice view of the hills and valleys around. in the valley to the west we could see a couple red roofs in the midst of the dense vegetation and could hear music coming from here. apparently it was a church service. dan wanted to see the church service, which again i thought was a little intrusive, but the tour guide said no problem so off we went to this new village. we got to the village, which was dug out of a hill, and we were ushered into the church which was packed, the women in colorful dresses and head wraps and the men in shirts and ties. the sermon was in twi but it was interspersed with songs, which were led by a band with an electric guitar, a drum set and a bass. we made a donation to the church then they warmed up to us quite a bit and wanted us to dance in the aisle and the band stared playing and there we were dancing in the aisle surrounded by smiling faces and clapping hands. we eventually danced on out of the church. i felt very bad about intruding on their church thing but they really didnt seem to mind. after that we took a trotro back to accra.

ok that's all for now, i'll try to post some reflections on my trip so far and fill in some of the gaps with another blog entry soon but right now im kind of tired of writing. hope alls well, i miss you all!