The First 24 Hours

Howdy. How are you? You look so beautiful today. Me? Oh, I'm doing fine. I've been in Ghana for a little over a day, and I thought you'd like to read what I've been up to. Cool.

So, I'd like to start off by saying one thing: it's pretty humid here. I've told that to everyone, and I can't really get over it. It's so different than the ever-so-mysterious weather of Syracuse, where most know that it could be a beautiful summer day and the next begins with snow. The weather has been pretty consistent (then again, I've only been here for a day), even at night. It may have cooled, but I don't think I ever would know. Considering the extreme lack of sleep I obtained on my flight to Ghana, I spend the rest of the day in a lazy existence, moving about sluggishly and acting unusually antisocial. Perhaps it was the superstorm of fatigue and perfect no-blanket sleep weather that led me to crawl into bed around 8:00pm.

 I woke up a few times in the night, once to the room being lit (the room I slept in also housed some other people, including their luggage), the other out of confusion (the light was still on and gave the appearance of daytime), and the third time around 3:00am because I was pretty well rested. I woke up in a pool of my own sweat, hair sticking to my face like flies on fly tape. I moved my hair and wiped off what I could with my sheet. I tried to connect to the wifi but I couldn't get a signal. Giving up, I plugged my cell phone charger into my adapter and inserted it into the wall. No charge. It appeared as if the power was out.  I turned on my laptop and plugged my cell phone in the USB port. Awake and sweaty, I decided to play a game of Solitaire on my computer. I won on the first round, undoubtedly the only time in my life that will ever be accomplished. Not about to press my luck, I moved onto Mahjong. Believe it or not, I groggily won on the first round as well. Figuring that I peaked on computer games, I decided to try to fall back asleep. I was successful. Third win of the night.

HOLLA.

I woke up again to the sun, not the room light, and the bawking of chickens outside. It seems like the sound of chickens is as frequent as crickets in nighttime or dogs barking during the day. It was around 9:30am or so and I checked my fully charged phone. After that, I dug my toiletries out of my backpack. The worst part of using a hiking backpack is getting things out. It fits so much, but damn. I mistakenly packed my towel on the bottom and in order to get it, I had to weave through a full arm's length of clothing and other things. I grabbed my towel after a bit of struggle and found my toiletries. I had to fill a bucket with water from outside and use that as my shower.

Close, but no cigar.
[trendir.com]

I went into the designated shower room and took my first bucket shower. The water was cool but manageable, it felt incredible on my skin, especially considering that I'd been coated in a nice sheen of sweat since I left JFK. I dipped as much of my head as I could in the bucket to wet my hair, figuring it would be the most efficient way to do so. I started shampooing and realized how much water I was going to use to wash everything out. I ended up using about half of my bucket doing that alone. Not wanting to waste any more water, I just bit the bullet and washed my hair in the rest of the water in the bucket, making the rest of my shower smell slightly like Herbal Essences Drama Clean. I used soap and conditioned the bottom half of my hair, not only to conserve water but to save me the extreme headache of seeing my baby hair curl on top of my head. I rinsed the rest of myself off and dried off with my new microfiber towel (thanks, Amazon).

I got dressed and had my first true realization. I successfully bathed using about five gallons of water. What? Showering in the US is a completely different story; I'd be willing to bet that a five-gallon shower is around one or two minutes of constant water streaming out. How incredibly wasteful of the developed world to take fresh water for granted, it literally slips down the drain. It makes me think about other parts of my life that I could be practicing more sustainably, especially with water.

After the shower, I drank some water.  The first rule of coming to Ghana is that you really shouldn't drink from the tap. They sell pouches, called sachets, of water containing purified water. They're like mandatory Capri Suns and I really like it. The pouches prevent people from making a quick buck by rebottling water from the tap. This ensures that you're getting something safe to drink without a doubt.

After that, I read for a little while in the main room in the AIESEC house. The heat was steadily increasing outside and everyone seemed to be moving at a snail's pace, including myself. The afternoon was spent lounging: napping for some, browsing the web for others, or reading (like myself). I ate large slices of bread that had the consistency, weight, and texture of sponge cake. Very light. It had swirls of brown around it but tasted like regular bread. I also had some tea, complete with canned tea creamer (I think that's only in Ghana, someone please correct me if you've seen it elsewhere) and sugar. I spread orange marmalade on the bread. Two pieces filled me completely.

Afterwards, I continued reading. I haven't read for fun in such a long time, I almost forgot what it feels like to be immersed in a book and the plot. The Life of Pi is an excellent book and an easy read. I haven't finished it yet, but it should be finished shortly.

After a while, I went with an AIESEC member to exchange my currency.  It was a nice five minute walk from the house, down the road and to the right. I saw a bit of town then. It was just around the time that school was let out, because I saw a ton of kids walking home in school uniforms. There weren't sidewalks, per se, and the sides of the roads had red sand. Taxis flew by (most of the cars are taxis, it seems) and the side of my maxi dress flowed to the breeze created by the cars. As we walked, I saw two dogs. They looked pretty small, compared to what I'm used to. They also have a higher pitched bark. The AIESEC member told me that most of the dogs that walk around in the street during the day belong to different people in the neighborhood - they just let them roam knowing they'll come back before night time.

We get to the exchange place and I give the teller money. He gave me a wad of cash in return, and for a quick minute I forgot that the exchange rate is in my favor, effectively doubling my money. It's mostly in five cedi bills so the pile of money I have is a good three inches tall. I jam it into my small wallet and sort it out when I return to the house.

During my walk back (and there for that matter), I noticed how foreign I was. Every person we passed looked at me for longer than I would experience at home. Crowds of people would turn around to look at me, and a brave few would say hello. It was never a menacing stare, it looked to be fascination. I'm not sure how often you see a six-foot tall White woman walking around the back roads of Ghana, but I'd be willing to bet it's more unusual than the norm.  I was told that staring will happen almost every time I go out, so it'll be something that I need to get used to...

Once I got back, I started writing this post. The power went out for a few hours, preventing me from writing much. I walked across the street to buy water, I was pretty thirsty. I bought the satchets instead of the bottles, and 50 satchets cost me 1 cedi, which is roughly 50 cents. That's 25 liters of water right there, folks. I drank two right off the bat and filled my two water bottles. It took two to fill my big Nalgene and only one to fill my glass water bottle. That leaves me with 45 until I need to buy more. I think that'll do for a while. Knowing that water is pretty cheap is wonderful, especially considering that I need to drink it profusely; I'm convinced I'm sweating everything out. Hopefully my body gets used to this humidity quickly (which, apparently, is cool weather in comparison to January).

Also, some interesting noticings I've experienced recently:
1. I'm taller than most people here.
2. The humidity doesn't stop. Ever.
3. It gets dark really early.
4. There's a goat outside and every night it seems to baa. What?
5. When children call me Obruni (an affectionate term meaning White person, and apparently this is going to happen often), I am supposed to say Obibini (meaning Black person) in return.

Flights and First Impressions

A trip that I take wouldn't be complete without a glorious story attached, would you agree? I agree with myself. I'm currently in Ghana and have been so for a little more than two hours. However, I left house (and more importantly, Gary) around 20 hours ago. So what's been going on during the time between? Let me give you a little insight.

I get to the Syracuse airport at 2:00pm for my 4:00pm flight. We check my hiking backpack and my mother starts welling up. She told me that it's not too late to turn back, I rolled my eyes and received my boarding pass.  They walk me up to security and, considering that it's the middle of the day on a Wednesday, I'm through security in about ten minutes.  So I have 1 hour and 50 minutes to kill in the most boring airport I have been in. Luckily there was Wifi, but unluckily Netflix wasn't streaming. Thank goodness my opponent in Words with Friends was replying back as quickly as I was. The heat was on in that match, but he eventually came out on top because I'm pretty terrible at Scrabble-type games.

The plane boards, and I have to literally duck into the aircraft. I'm as tall as the ceiling and my backpack doesn't fit under the seat. I channeled Zoolander in that moment, questioning if this plane was made for regular-sized people, and not ants.

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I grumble, crush my legs against the wall, and buckle in for the measly 38 minute flight to JFK. The time goes by quickly, but I couldn't help but be distracted by an adorable toddler that would smile every time our eyes met. What a cutie. We land successfully and I get off the plane. This was my first time in JFK and woah. That airport is a monster. I get my boarding pass for Ghana and the attendants tell me to take a shuttle to my terminal. So, me and fifty or so other people hop on a bus and go to Terminal 4, the newly opened section. It's around 5:30pm and my flight doesn't take off for another five hours. I figured I would have Netflix here, surely I could pass the time with a few episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Unfortunately, in order to get internet you had to purchase it, and I'm not about that lifestyle. So instead, I looked at my life and knew that I had about 3GB of data on my phone that was going to last me the entire month. I just used data for five hours, knowing that I wouldn't need it until August. In between walking around from boredom and browsing Facebook from boredom, I started The Life of Pi and I'm about half-way through it now.  Starving, I literally inhaled dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings, costing me a pretty penny. Stupid airport restaurants.

After dinner, I sit down at the gate and continue reading. A ton of people for that flight were at the fate with me at that point, and an attendant announced a gate change. Everyone grumbled at the same time, and herded to the other gate as one mass.  Just getting settled in there, another gate change was announced and the grumbling became significantly louder, including my own. We all moved there and soon enough, the plane was boarding.

This was the biggest plane I've ever been on. My parents made me wait until my visa was approved to buy a plane ticket, which was until about a week before I was scheduled to leave. This gave me two seat options, both in the middle row and in the middle seat of that row. I always wondered what it would be like to be a sardine, and I was about to find out. I created a rough seating diagram for you in case you're still confused.

I board quickly, ensuring that I could squeeze my backpack under the seat before the plane got too crowded. I sit and mentally prepare myself for a 10.5 hour flight without any freedom.  A man sits to my right, and a boy around twelve sits to my left. I sensed the man to my right didn't want to be there, mostly because I overheard him asking the flight attendant if there were any open seats in Economy Comfort.  He left promptly after and the flight became significantly more enjoyable. I moved to the right for aisle access and propped my backpack in the middle seat. We take off at 11:00pm and I was ready to go to sleep. However, the flight crew wasn't because they gave out customs forms and announced that they were going to be serving a hot dinner. Great. Had I known they were going to serve food at midnight, maybe I wouldn't have spent $20 at Buffalo Wild Wings.

This is where I get sassy, mostly out of fatigue, but also because I appreciate good cooking. The hot dinner rolls around and from the get-go, something smells off. There was definitely beef in it, I could smell it from a mile away (I don't eat beef for people that don't know). I got nervous. The mention of food made me hungry, and there were too many people talking to even consider going to sleep (which I will talk about in a minute, hold your horses). I see the flight attendant mouthing "chicken or beef" down the aisle and I am calmed, for a little while. She gets to me and I choose the chicken. It comes in a plastic-sealed square of sorts, there's a few chunks of fruit, a cold squash and celery thing, and a roll. I open the seal and see rice with small bits of chicken covered in a sauce. Initially, I thought it was fried rice, but upon further, cautious, investigation the sauce on top tasted like chili or tacos. Taco chicken fried rice? Interesting. Considering that no menu was provided at any point, every passenger approached their meal as timidly as mine. It was a pretty bad meal, and I think a lot of that is due to the extreme mystery behind it.

After that challenge, I tried to fall asleep. It was around 1:00am. I woke up at 3:30am or so completely restless. Sleeping on a plane is not very fun for an extended period of time, especially during a red eye.  I couldn't fall asleep again, even though I was exhausted. I found a pen and filled out my customs forms, played some Tetris, and read some more. It was around 4:45 or 5:00 that I fell back asleep. I dreamt that my friends wanted to hang out, but I was too tired to do that. I fell asleep in my dream, that's how tired I was. I was awakened not much later by the rustling of the cabin; breakfast was going to be served soon. I prayed for oatmeal or yogurt, something that they wouldn't ruin.

It's virtually impossible to mess up oatmeal.
[ashleydietrich.com]

How wrong I was. Breakfast comes around and is given in a rectangular dish. Four or five chunks of fruit and a hot half moon-shaped pastry of sorts. I had no idea what it was, but the smell was all too familiar.  I opened the plastic package and the smell became significantly stronger. I asked what it was and the lady said "some sort of meat pie." Oh. Oh no. I opened it, and the color was too familiar. It smelled and looked exactly what I had eaten just six hours: breakfast was taco chicken fried rice meat pie. No, this couldn't be real. I took a reluctant bite, only to confirm my thoughts. They added hot sauce to mask the flavor. I can handle spice, please trust me on that, but this was too much for 6:00am. Especially considering that I ate the same meal, just not in to-go form.

Egads. After that hell breakfast, I continued reading. I would have fallen asleep, but two girls sitting kitty corner to me befriended each other quickly and made it known to the entire plane. I usually don't complain about people, but this was bad. It was their first time to Ghana and they were anthropology majors (put that picture in your head). Their conversation reminded me too much of the infamous Gap Yah video on YouTube. My eyes couldn't stop rolling, it was uncontrollable.

Not soon enough, the plane landed in Accra. The plane moved fast, scraping half an hour off the flight time. The plane was deboarding on both ends, so I stepped outside and instantly regretted wearing a sweater and black pants. The humidity struck me first, then the sheer heat. It's a lot different than Syracuse, where weather can change in the blink of an eye. I grabbed my checked bag and met my fellow AIESECers for a pickup. We hopped in a taxi and drove to the AIESEC house in Ghana. Here are my first impressions of Ghana, I'm just going to spitfire them off as I saw them.

1. The dirt is red. It's pretty cool, everything's red or green. Looks like Christmas. It also reminds me of the red sand beaches on PEI.  Most roofs are also red.

[wiki]

2. A lot of the roads are unpaved and there seem to be little rules on the road.

3. Sidewalks by the airport are brick.

4. I saw a pack of goats near a dresser on the side of the road. Don't know what that's all about.

5. People are on the side of the road selling anything you could possible imagine. Women have huge baskets on their head filled with toiletries and bottled water, men come up to the car and try to sell you maps, nightstands, shoes, etc. Anything is for sale.

6. I saw a chicken for the first time today chilling next to the AIESEC house. I hope to become friends with her.

7. My hair is slowly curling due to the humidity. It's going full-on Jungle Hair on me. Alas.

8. Everyone is really friendly here, I think it's going to be a great time.

Oh Mama (I'm Going to Ghana)

You read that right. Do you know how hard it is to plan a trip and land an internship during the end of the school year? Pretty hard. I pulled it off, as gracefully as possible, and will be heading to the lovely West African nation of Ghana in one week. Seven days.

In exactly one week, I will be just taking off from JFK heading to Accra, Ghana. Pretty crazy. How did all of this come to be? Well kids, let me tell you. Travel with me back in time.

It all started off in March 2010, when I went to the accepted student open house at Ithaca College and saw my current professors trying to coerce high schoolers to attend IC, specifically the Department of Environmental Studies & Sciences. They must have done a pretty decent job because I've been at Ithaca ever since. One of the most interesting requirements my department has is a Cultural Immersion requirement. Translation: you need to spend 40 hours or more in a place that isn't Ithaca so you can get out of your comfort zone. Great idea, but there's such a thing as time that is extremely precious as a science major. This limits me to summer and winter study abroad; there's absolutely no way I could go abroad for an entire semester and graduate on time. Around March of this year, I took a look into the future and tried to figure out my summer plans. After not getting the job I hoped for in Ithaca, I checked my email noticing one from our department's lovely administrative assistant Carol.

It was a forwarded message from the college on the other hill (Cornell) and short-term internships abroad through an organization called AIESEC. Knowing that I needed that cultural immersion and that having awesome summer plans could be formed, I sent them an email. And here I am.

I secured an internship with an NGO called Care Net Ghana. I'll be working with a few projects, including helping out with the current healthcare and environmental conservation ones. The healthcare project focuses primarily on maternal health care and educating women about safe traditional birthing practices because of the high infant mortality rate in Ghana. The environmental conservation project focuses on wildlife conservation and local education in the Agumatsa Wildlife Sanctuary.

Featuring West Africa's tallest waterfall, the Wli Waterfall
[amazingplacesonearth]

So, where is Ghana? For the geographically challenged, let me provide a map for you:

The internet never fails me.
[wordpress]

I'll be living in eastern Ghana, between Lake Volta and the border to Togo. I'll be staying in apartment complexes or in a host family situation, depending on how many other interns are there with me. Other than that, I'm not really sure what else I'll experience. I'm open to anything and everything. I heard the food is pretty spicy, but luckily I trained myself this past semester to increase my tolerance for spicy foods. How? I put more hot sauce on my eggs every morning. That's the trick, kids. Slow and steady wins the race.

Anyway, this will be the blog that I'll be posting everything on. Some posts will be long, others will be a quick little blurb to give people information. I'll be posting the big guys to Facebook, but if you want to stay tuned during the entire trip, I highly recommend following this blog through Google+ or the email listserve.

Also, I recently got an Instagram and I think the pictures I'll take will be pretty cool, so if you'd like to see Ghana through pictures, follow me (erosekrans). These posts will get more interesting as I travel. I plan on going to a few places around the country and hopefully you'll be with me every step of the way.