*This is a piece I wrote for my Travel Writing class. It is a first draft, and has yet to be critiqued by my class and professor. Take it easy on me! haha*
I had no idea what to expect as we drove an hour and a half to the Ghanaian village of Atonkwa, and I liked it that way. The last time I did a service visit to a ‘village’ was in Nicaragua, five years ago. I learned my lesson about expectations then. No, the village I was staying in was not comprised of small grass huts, but rather a town on the outskirts of the city, complete with paved roads and tin houses. I knew Atonkwa wasn’t going to be like Nicaragua, but I also knew not to draw up a preconception in my head because I would not see it come to life.
Our bus pulled up to the village center, and thirty-one American college students stepped off. We were greeted by Nana, the chief of the village, about six African drummers, and extreme heat. On the bus ride there, we all signed up for the area of the village we wanted to spend time in. I signed up for a third grade class in the elementary school, with one other guy, Joe. We were told we were just going to observe. When we got there, the teacher Mr. Francis handed the class over to us… completely. I have no teaching experience what-so-ever, so I was at a complete loss. I let Joe take over most of the time, and I jumped in whenever I could.
There were four girls sitting on a bench for two in the front row, to my right. “Madame Lilly” they whispered every two minutes, “come help us.” The first few times I would slowly sneak over to them and see if I could help, only to be pelted with quiet questions: “Where are you from?” “How is your mother?” “Your father?” I thought it was adorable that they were so curious, but I told them to find me after school and I’d tell them everything.
Finally it was time for the kids to go home. I figured they would all rush back to their houses for a meal or to get out of their crisp green uniforms, but they were much more interested in us: American college students who, for some reason, decided to visit their village. My four girls immediately latched onto my arms, and about five others tried to latch on as well, grabbing any piece of me they could. My pinky, my thumb, my shirt, my leg, my elbow… I have never felt more like a jerk for itching my nose! It meant I had to tug my arm away from at least 4 kids, and who knew if they would get their spot back?
On the walk back from the school to the center of the village, I started to notice one girl. She was smaller than the rest, and didn’t speak much. All the others were still asking me questions, rubbing my arms, telling me how beautiful I was, fighting for my attention. This small girl just held my hand and walked in silence. At this point, I had stopped asking the kids for their names. Not only could I not understand most of them, but a lot of the faces blended together for me. They were all wearing the same clothes, same shaved head, and about the same height. I couldn’t remember if I had asked this girl her name before or not, so I didn’t bother.
When we got back to the village center, I took my camera out and asked the kids if I could take their picture. They all loved seeing their faces on the screen, but after a while they got a little too grabby. They all wanted to use my camera, and take pictures for themselves. This camera cost me half the amount of my car, so I was very hesitant. I let a few kids take a few pictures, but then more kids started running towards me wanting to do the same. The small girl pushed her way through the crowed, smiled at me, turned towards the kid’s and said “NO!” She took my camera from one of the kids and handed it back to me. From then on, every time someone asked for my camera, she told them “No” and created almost a barrier with her tiny body.
The small girl did other things as well. Whenever someone asked me my name, she answered before I could open my mouth. “She is Madame Lilly,” And they all took turns practicing my name. She would correct most of them until they got it right. I insisted that they just call me Lilly, I didn’t want the powerful title of ‘Madame,’ but they wouldn’t stop. She also made sure that there weren’t too many people fighting for my arms. One time, a little girl bit another so that she had to drop her hand and she could take her place. The small girl calmly removed the biter’s hand, and put the other girl’s back on. I let them figure it out on their own, I didn’t want to be the mean older white woman that decided who was better than the other.
We walked to a soccer field, and watched some of the older kids play. The small girl could tell that I was tired and overwhelmed, so she asked me if I wanted to walk back with her and have a seat. After a while we (the small girl and the three others from the school) walked back. By this time, the small girl’s even smaller sister had found us. On the walk back, the small girl made her sister hold my hand, and didn’t let anyone push her away. I found myself always looking back to see if she was still close, and she always was.
When we got back, it was dinner time. I told my new friends that I’d be back in a while, and went into the community center with the rest of the group and ate and talked for a while. After about two hours, I came back out. The small girl was there with her sister, both in nice clean dresses, while the rest of the kids were wearing old torn apart shirts and shorts. She calmly made her way over to me, put her little sister’s hand in one of my hands, and she took the other.
We walked around and played with all the other kids for a while before bed time. I told the small girl that I had to go to another school the next day, but I’d see her when I got back. I spent at a special needs school the next day. I had an amazing time, but I found myself missing my own little bodyguard. I couldn’t wait to get back to the village and see if she would be there waiting for me.
When we finally got back, she came running over to me “Sister, sister, you’re really back!” This was the most excitement I had seen out of her! For the first time, not only did she not call me ‘Madame Lilly,’ but she called me ‘Sister.’ Our almost silent connection made the day before felt like it had been created over months. We spent the next hour together, again she fended off the camera hungry kids, and made sure they all knew my name.
When it was time to go, I looked around and realized that all the students in my group had made their own connections with a small group of children. The original four girls all said their goodbyes to me, but the small girl just stood silently holding my hand. She didn’t smile or try to hold me back, like the other girls, she just stood there. I realized that I didn’t know her name. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to pronounce it, so I decided that I shouldn’t ask. I didn’t want to disappoint her by not being able to say it. I got down on my knees and hugged her. By this time, all the kids were standing by the bus windows, jumping up and down, yelling their goodbyes. After hugging the small girl, I threw my previous decision out the window. “Forgive me,” I said to her, “But I can’t remember your name.” I needed a name so that I could stop thinking of her as the small girl who became my sister. She answered in a very small voice: “Patience.” She hugged me one more time, turned and walked away.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Patience is a Virtue.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Ghana- Day 4/5, February 9/10, 2011.
We woke up early, and got ready real fast. We had no idea if we would stay the night or not, and I had no idea what I would even need if we did. All I took was my toothbrush, pajamas, and a towel. Kelly, Jojo, Rolando, Ben, Eric, Rachel, Lillie, and Hannah, and I took a cab to the tro-tro station, and got one to take us to Busua Beach. We told the driver to drop us off at the Busua Beach Resort, where we thought we would try to spend the night. The rooms were about $170 USD for one night. The place was really nice, but we kind of felt out of place. We went to lunch there and talked about what we wanted to do. We waited over an hour for our food to come, and meanwhile decided that we’d walk down the beach after lunch and see if there was a better place to stay. For lunch, I had pizza with bacon on it. Wait, let me rephrase that: I had bacon with some pizza underneath it. I never thought I’d ever say this, but there was way too much bacon!
After lunch, we walked down the beach, and found this place called “The Alaska.” No words that I write will ever do this place justice. It was amazing, in an incredibly strange way. We got a bungalow for 5 of us, and only paid 10 cedi (Ghana currency) each. When you walked into the bungalow, it smelled like a grandmothers basement. It had concrete sandy floors and two beds. They threw a mattress on the floor too. These weren’t nice beds, by the way, just beds. We all decided that we felt like we were in the middle of a very strange movie. We were so glad that we happened upon this place, instead of the luxurious place down the beach.
There were about 20 or 30 other SAS kids there, but most of them had spent the night before there, so they just hung out for the day and left by dinner time. There was also a group of people a little older than us from Germany hanging around. We spent the day hanging out on the beach and in the ocean. Later in the afternoon, some local kids showed up on the beach so we hung out with them until it got dark. I was with three brothers most of the time, John, Jacob, and Joseph. We danced with the kids to the music that was coming from the “bar.” Teaching them silly American dance moves while they taught us how they dance in Ghana. For the most part though, we just danced like fools and laughed with the kids. We spent a lot of time in the ocean too. The water was so warm, but so refreshing! Every once in a while, someone would snap our attention to the fact that we were in AFRICA. It was an awesome feeling.
Some people in our group decided to rent surfboards from a local surf shop and spend a few hours trying to catch some waves. Kelly and I had never surfed before, so we didn’t want to spend money when we probably would never even be able to stand up. Instead, we noticed a Ghanaian boy out in the water surfing on his own board. We decided we were going to get him to teach us. We made a plan: We were going to go over and ask him what he was doing. We would pretend that we had no idea what the big white thing he was riding on was even called! We carried out our plan, and he thought we were crazy. “You don’t know surfboards? Here, let me teach you!” Our plan worked! We spent the next hour or so trying to learn to surf on a beaten up board made of styrofoam and plastic. It looked like a shark took a chunk out of the front. Kelly went first, and eventually stood up and rode a wave all the way in to shore! It was my turn next, and I had a harder time. Frank, the boy, told Kelly “I think she has a hard time because she is… big,” pointing to his chest. Thanks Frank. Hahaha I did stand up once though! We said goodbye and thank you, and headed in to rinse off under the outdoor shower and try to get dry.
We hung out and relaxed and then had dinner. Jojo and I shared chicken stir-fry, and it was delicious. Some people had lobster, and I tried it and immediately regretted that I didn’t get one myself. I had to teach Ben how to eat one… his excuse: “I’m from Montana. Do you think I’ve ever eaten a lobster before??” Jojo and a few other people left after dinner because they had an 8am FDP in the morning, and the rest of us went back in the ocean. We had no concept of time through out the day, which was very refreshing. It had been dark for a few hours, and we were all getting pretty tired so we headed back to our bungalow to try and dry off and change. On our way back though, a tro-tro pulled up and Francisco, Travis, Will, Kristin, and Michelle got out! We were SO excited that they finally made it and found us, so we all pulled them to the ocean and jumped in again! We stayed out there for a few hours and came back to the beach to be greeted by a bonfire that Zach (the guy running the place) has started for us! We all sat around the bonfire talking, telling stories of our past few days in Ghana. Brian and Max showed up and sat with us, they were staying a place down the beach with a few other people. Slowly a bigger group of people came together and went swimming again. We could not stay out of the ocean!
I’m guessing it was 2 or 3 in the morning by the time we went to bed. Some people slept in hammocks, some slept on the beach, and some of us slept in the bungalow. At 6:30 in the morning, Ray (Rachel) came in and woke us up saying that there was a tro-tro waiting for us, and we could get our stuff together now or struggle later trying to find one to take us back. It was thunder and lightning, so we decided to just go. (The tro-tro was there because another sas kid, Michael had called them the night before because he had an 8am FDP.) We got our stuff together, and got into the tro-tro. I had no idea that there were still this many people left at the Alaska… but we managed to pack 18 kids into this thing. They fit 11, but 8 comfortably. EIGHTEEN KIDS and all our stuff in this tro-tro! I was sitting on something that was NOT a seat in the front-ish, and Michael was pretty much on top of me. This should have been about a 40 minute ride, but it turned into about 2 hours. We got stopped by the police, our driver was smacked around a bit, and we had to pay the police off. Then we ran out of gas on some sketchy back road, and our driver had to find someone to get us gas. He didn’t really speak English, so when we ran out of gas, he just stopped… got out of the car, and ran. We all sat in silence until someone said “What…?” We were pretty scared but it was all part of the adventure!
We finally made it back, at about 8:15am. It was my our last day in Ghana, so we went to find an internet café so we could skype and upload pictures and whatnot. I got to skype with my Mom, which was really good. I don’t get homesick like I thought I would, but it is really nice to be able to talk to my family and friends once in a while!
Ghana, you were too good to me. On to South Africa!
Ghana- Day 3, February 8, 2011.
We finally all got up at about 6:30 and got ready for breakfast. We ate in the same place that we had eaten the night before, and then went out to see the kids go to school. Some of our group went with them, but I had signed up for the special needs school, so 9 of us walked about 20 minutes to this little community in between our village and another. This is a community that a nun, Sister Patricia started building 30 years ago. It is a place for people with leprosy to come and live. In Ghana, people with leprosy are just dead to their families, communities, everything. I think this mentality is changing now, but it is because of people like Sister Pat. The community also has a school for kids with special needs. Some of them live on the premises, or they live in the surrounding villages and take a bus to school everyday.
When we got to the school, we were given a choice of what classroom we wanted to sit in and help out in. I chose the “babies” room, and was the only one of us in there. There was a girl named Lucy in there, from London. She was doing a gap year before University and living in Ghana for 6 months. She had been there for a month already. It was really fun talking to her, and she seemed to appreciate it too! There were three little boys, Michael, George, and Junior. Junior slept pretty much the whole time, so I didn’t get to interact with him much, but I fell in love with George and Michael. Michael was about 4 or 5, and George was 7. They both couldn’t speak, or even really move on their own. Very limited motor skills. Auntie B was the women that was in charge of their room. She was so lovely and so kind. She let me try to feed Michael right away, but he was a little unsure of my new face.
After a half hour or so of being in the classroom, the boys warmed up to me. We took their play mat outside and brought the boys outside to play. I played with Michael on a big yoga ball for a while, he loved laying on his stomach being rolled back and forth. He laughed and laughed. He had the greatest laugh I think I have ever heard. I video taped him laughing later on, and ever since then, when ever I am in a not so great mood, I watch the video and it makes me so happy. Good Idea on my part! Hahah
I held George, who had pretty severe cerebral palsy for pretty much the rest of the day. I figured out that he loved to hit things because it made a sound. He would swing his arm around hoping to make contact with something that made a sound…sometimes that was my face. I found this toy that was a ring, and had little balls inside, so when you shook it, it made a lot of noise. I put it around his arm, and he just shook and shook and shook, laughing the entire time. These boys, along with my friend Patience, definitely have been the highlight of my trip so far.
We had to leave to head back to the ship, so we went back down to the village to say goodbye to all the kids there. My four girls ran to me as I was walking down the hill and clung on. I could always count on them to find me wherever I was. We said our goodbyes, and headed to lunch. After lunch, we made our way back to the ship. The first thing that I did was shower and nap. I was exhausted, physically and emotionally. I went out that night with some friends to a local bar, and made plans to go to the beach the next day.
Ghana- Day 2, February 7, 2011.
I had an FDP service trip for my Altruism and Social Justice class. We were going to this village called Atonkwa for an overnight. I had absolutely no idea what to expect, or even what we would be doing there. When we got on the bus, Jeffrey (my professor) told us that there were three different things we could sign up for, and we could sign up for something different both days. We could go visit an elementary school, a special needs school, or go on house visits with some nurses. The first day, I signed up for visiting a third grade class at the school with a guy named Joe. The second day, I signed up to visit the special needs school. I still had no idea what to expect.
After about an hour and a half drive, all 31 of us arrived in Atonkwa. We were greeted by the chief and a few drummers. When we got off the bus, we shook hands with the Chief, Nana. We then went to our respective places. The village is on a very gradual incline, so there were irrigation ditches everywhere in order to try and keep the water running down contained. The colors were very brown and tan everywhere you looked. The houses were mostly made of mud or clay. There were little goats and chickens running around everywhere. When we got up to the school, all the kids were hanging out of their classroom windows trying to get us to come say hi to them. We were led to the classrooms that we signed up for, and handed over to the teacher. Joe and I were in the 3rd grade class, with Mr. Francis. When we got there, we expected to just observe the class or something… but Mr. Francis expected us to teach his entire class… all day. He gave us an English book, and a Science book. Joe and I have never had any kind of teaching experience, so we were pretty lost… but we pulled through. The kids had a bit of a hard time understanding our “accents” and our fast speaking, so we had to slow it down a lot and go to Mr. Francis for help translating in Fanti for them.
Eventually, they got to go on recess. They said their prayers and sang a song before they were allowed to go out. We went out to play with them, and this group of three or four girls told me they wanted me to come dance with them. We ran back down to the center of the village, where the drummers were still drumming. We danced and laughed for about half an hour, when it was time to go back up to the school. The same group of girls held my hands/arms while we were walking back up. They called me Madam Lilly, even when I insisted that I was just Lilly. I didn’t want them to think of me as someone that had power over them… and I felt that “Madam” made it seem that way, but they just wouldn’t stop.
When we got back to the classroom, the girls wanted me to take pictures of them so they could see. They loved posing for me! Slowly, more students started filing in, and of course they all wanted pictures as well. I LOVE photographing children, so I was just as happy as they were. One of the little girls in that original group of our was named Patience. I have a travel-writing piece to write within the next few days, and I’m writing about her… so I’ll spare the details here and post my finished piece about her later. Just know that she was special.
After break, Joe and I continued with our lessons, and then Jeffrey came to get us because our group was leaving for lunch. We ate at this beautiful beach resort about 20 minutes away from the village. It was amazing and delicious, but it felt a little strange that we left the village to go to this luxurious place, and then we had to go back to questions of “did you bring me food?” When we got back, the kids were SO excited to see us. They were all out of their uniforms and playing football. They ran to the bus and my 4 little girls found me immediately and clung on. It seems as though everyone had their solid group of children that loved them. We played with them for the afternoon, playing football (soccer), dancing, singing, anything to keep us entertained.
At one point, all the kids started pulling us down this path in the woods behind the village. We had no idea where we were going, and every time I asked “where are you taking me?” they just said “Yes!” I went with it though! When we got to our destination, all the kids threw their clothes on the ground and jumped into this… watering hole. It looked like a scene straight out of National Geographic. Amazing. I had stopped carrying my camera around with me by now, but I wish I had it then! After playing with the kids all afternoon, we had dinner in the village at the community center, and then got to meet with the Chief, Nana. We all sat in a big circle and talked to him. I wish we had more time with him, but Jeffrey wanted us to talk about the day with just our group before bed so that we had time to process everything we were feeling.
Overall, it was an incredibly overwhelming and amazing day. During the day, I was so overwhelmed and didn’t know how to handle all the emotions and feelings I was having that I wasn’t sure I was enjoying it. But that night, when we got to reflect on everything, everyone was pretty much feeling the same way, and I decided that what I was feeling was only natural, and I got over it. We all went to sleep on little mats on a hot concrete floor of the top floor in the community center. At about 4am, we were woken up by the villages Imam reciting the Muslim prayer over a loud speaker… repeatedly until 6:30 am. AWESOME. (sarcasm) I actually thought it was cool the first time, to hear something like that… but when it didn’t stop and all I wanted to do was sleep, It got really annoying.
Ghana- Day 1, February 6, 2011.
We arrived in Takoradi, Ghana early in the morning. So far, no port has been as beautiful as Dominica, but this was pretty rough looking. We were in an industrial port, so there was no need for it to look special. I had an FDP this day, so I had to wake up extra early to get ready and head out by 8. My trip was to the castles and slave dungeons. We rode on a bus for about an hour and a half, while our tour guide talked the ENTIRE time. It wouldn’t have been as bad if the microphone he was using actually worked properly. It sounded like one of those little kid toys that just makes you echo really loudly. He was pretty interesting though. I was in and out of sleep the entire ride, so I don’t remember much of what he was saying, but I do remember that he was acting out bits and pieces of Ghana’s history. I couldn’t understand what he was saying, but it was pretty funny. We passed a few fishing villages, they are very interesting. Lee (our tour guide) told us that the sea is a “she” and her day of rest is Tuesday. Fishing is not allowed on Tuesdays. I thought that was interesting.
We finally got to Cape Coast, where the first castle was. These castles held and “exported” 25% of the world’s slaves. This is where they waited to be shipped out to whatever country had bought them. Brazil had the largest amount of slaves. It was strange, because we just took the exact route that the majority of slaves took when we crossed from Brazil to Ghana… only backwards. There were all these dungeons that we walked through. Each dungeon held about 200 slaves. They were dark and extremely hot. Even with 30 of us in there for 5 minutes, we were miserable. The guide showed us the line on the wall that looked like a line we would draw on a building to show how far the water came up during a flood or something… only this was a line to show how far up human waste had piled up and solidified. The ground that we were standing on, he told us, was still covered in solidified human waste.
After the first castle, we went to eat lunch and move on to Elmina, where the second castle was. We got a tour, and it was pretty much the same story with a different lay out. We headed back to the chip, and I slept most of the way home. That night was my relaxing night, because I knew the next few days were going to be a whole lot of action and not enough sleep. It was Superbowl Sunday, so a lot of SAS kids were out watching it at the duty free shop (that we pretty much turned into a bar) right next to the ship. I stayed in and went to sleep, so that I could be well rested for my village trip the next day!
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Sea Olympics- Feb 3, 2011.
There were a lot of really clever chants, and a few that were seriously lacking. One of the favorites was the “Sea Salt’s” chant. The Sea Salts are the life long learners, and their color is white. The joke that had been passed around the ship all day about them being called “The Dead Sea” was put to shame when they got up and danced to Thriller, the oldest man being Michael Jackson with his silver glove! They followed their chant with their banner that said “Age ain’t nothing but a number, kiddo!” After the opening ceremonies and the normal nightly festivities, Gina, Idin and I came back and watched a few episodes of Entourage before bed. (This has become a nightly habit for the three of us. Something doesn’t feel right if we miss a night! hahah)
Because there were no classes the next day, Gina and I slept in until about 11:30. When we woke up, we got some last minute homework done, put on our colors, and went up to the 7th deck to watch the first event of the day: synchronized swimming. We got up there a bit early, so we had front row seats on the pool deck. I took some awesome photographs and videos of each team. Everyone was really good and funny, but I have to say my favorite was the Baltic Sea. This is Idin’s hall, and of course he was on the swimming team! It was Idin and 5 other guys, all in extremely tight spandex or leggings. One of the guys was wearing a long black wig with cheetah print leggings, two of the guys were wearing very… interesting leggings, one guy was wearing my spandex shorts, a girls sweater, and a headband, and Idin was wearing tight denim looking leggings. They “danced” to songs such as “Baby I like it,” that Brian McKnight song that goes “one… you’re like a dream come true, two… just wanna be with you” etc. and the Lion King songs. They were absolutely hilarious, everyone’s favorite for sure. Unfortunately, they went over the allotted time so they were disqualified.
After the synchronized swimming, I walked around with some friends watching some of the other competitions going on, before I had to compete in a relay race. Sadly, my team lost the race. We were really good, but the other team was REALLY fast! Unfortunately, I had to take about an hour break from all the fun because I still had to fill out all my immigration forms. They gave us two days to do it, but of course I left it until the last minute and it took forever! As the day wound down, we had a barbeque on the 6th and 7th deck outside, and talked for a few hours until it got dark. Finally, at 9:00, we had closing ceremonies. The Red Sea ended up winning, followed by the Agean and the Baltic. The Carribbean (my sea) came in 4th my one point! The winner’s not only get to brag for the rest of the voyage, but they will be the first sea let off the ship in San Diego! The rest of us have to wait. I’m actually kind of glad we didn’t win. I mean, it would have been amazing to win! But now I get more time to spend on the ship with my friends! After a long day of sun and fun, I watched some Entourage and went to bed! Three more days at sea until Ghana!
