One Month Anniversary in Ghana

I'm going to start off my blog by saying that everyone should check out my fellow YES Abroaders blogs. They are all wonderfully written and explain Ghana much better than I can.

Here is Sarah's: http://www.lifehomeandabroad.blogspot.com/

Emily's: http://goneghanaian.tumblr.com/

Jeneni's: http://jeneni.tumblr.com/

Ann Elise's: http://annelisetoghana.blogspot.com/
Oh and check out my tumbr, I put some pictures up there: http://ghanagoforit.tumblr.com/

My lovely view from the porch complete with a rainbow.

The other day was my one month anniversary being here in Ghana. I cannot believe it has only been a month. This month has been the longest, hardest, most overwhelming, exciting, and astonishing month of my life. I have yet to start school here, much to my chagrin. I swear I must be breaking some sort of record for how long an exchange student goes without actually being a student. It is all because I do not have a uniform and even though I have sat in the headmaster's secretary's office for hours on end on multiple occasions, I am not much closer to getting to school than I was before. All the other exchange students have been in school for weeks now and I am still school-less which gives me ample time to get bored. And with boredom comes homesickness.

This first month, I have been suffering from an intense case of homesickness. Everything in here in Ghana is so different, which I knew it would be, but I couldn't even imagine how different it was. The hardest difference was the stark contrast of my host family compared to my natural family. Being here has truly taught me how blessed I was to have my upbringing and has given me insight into my own values that I didn't even realize I had as an American. In the U.S., time is money and spending time with someone means that you care about them. I came from an upbringing where family time was of the utmost importance and it was a requirement to be part of certain family activities such as eating and attending church together. My natural family spends a long time preparing healthy meals and spends at least an hour each night around the dinner table eating, talking, and usually finishing a crossword puzzle. Here, I eat alone for every meal. Until coming here, I did not realize how much value I put on eating with people. As in a book that I read for English class stated, eating together is very sacred, and inviting people to have a meal together is allowing someone to an intimate association with you. Eating together gives you time to connect since you are partaking in a common activity. Yet, here in Ghana, eating together is not often done since people eat at the time of their convenience which makes sense since people arrive home at different times and leave for work at different times, but at first it was something that I had a very hard time adjusting to.

Another thing I had a hard time adjusting to is people not asking me about my day. I did not realize how that American value is embedded in my psyche. I was raised to believe that expressing interest in someone's day shows that you care about them. I did not realize how I placed knowing the going-ons of someone, however trivial they are, as a way of caring about someone. Like I said, I am constantly learning about my values that I didn't even realize I had. At first, the lack of people caring about my day hurt me and I felt personally afronted by what I felt was a lack of consideration of my well being, but then I realized that it wasn't their lack of caring, it was just a cultural thing that I had been raised to expect as a sign of caring. Here people ask, "Are you fine?", which I believe is their way of caring. They don't need to hear about your day-it was probably pretty mundane and boring. As an American, I want to share my experiences with people since sharing is caring, but here that might seem silly. Who knows, I am still new to this culture, so I have yet to have a really comprehensive view of how to show someone you care, but hopefully I will learn the Ghanaian way of caring.

I have spent most of my time in the house in a living room area where my host sister and the "house help" also spend their time at home. They entertain themselves by watching T.V. which consists of African Movies, Ghanaian music videos, hilariously dubbed Latin American soap operas, and one news channel whose international news was that Chris Brown appeared in court. Another thing that I really valued in the U.S. was being connected & in the know of what was going on in the world. At home in America, my family does not have T.V., but we always have the radio playing NPR, and each morning, I read the newspaper during breakfast. Also, I would religiously watch Al Jazeera online to know more about what's going on in the world. Here I often feel very far away from the world. When I didn't have a modem, I had no international news, and the first week that there were Muslim protests I didn't even know about it until my family back home contacted me to see how the situation was in Ghana. Here in Ghana, I do not believe the news of the Anti-American protests ever reached the populous's attention. If people did get wind of it, nobody cared since they are too concerned with surviving each day to get riled up over such issues. The main focus in the news here has been the prayer for a peaceful election here in December.

Ghanaian Muslims are some of the nicest people I have met here. I have often spent time with Samira, a YES alumni, and her family who have so graciously allowed me to spend time with them to escape from the boredom of having nothing to do. On the second Friday of intense Anti-American protests, I spent my day with a Muslim family, learning how to pray, and then attending a mosque to pray. There was not even a hint of animosity in anyone there that I was a white, presumably American girl, praying at their mosque. They were there to worship Allah and to humble themselves before Allah, not to create a fight over the righteousness of their religion or their anger over the defacement of their religion by some hateful people. Given, the news of the video probably had not reached their ears, but being here in Ghana, I have never felt that there was any animosity towards me from Muslims.

Samira and her sister, Rukaiya. They are my saving graces here.

Rukaiya and I after we prayed at the Mosque

Being here has already taught me to be more independent. In America, I relied on others, but here I have increasingly been relying only on myself. Here I have figured out how to take tro-tros, how to get around my area, and how to get to know my neighbors on my own. Back in the U.S., we rely on rules & regulations, taking comfort in following them. Here there is a sense of freedom that I have not felt in the U.S. At first it was shocking, but there is something exilerating about the blatent disregard of regulations. What I am talking about mainly concerns roads & driving. The tro-tros, which are the best way to get around, would never, ever pass an inspection in the U.S. to deem them street worthy. Another example of this is the way my host dad drives on the wrong side of the road to bypass the traffic honking and pointing to his sticker stating he works at the hospital anytime anyone questions him. (I believe he is pretending to be an ambulance)

Another thing I love here is the sense of community I feel when I walk around with Samira greeting everyone with "Qualaffia" or "Salam Allah kum" (please disregard my butchered spelling) or the joy children get from acknowledgement from the Obruni Abena. (Note: Obruni=Foreigner/white person and Abena is my day name). I love the call to prayer and the fact that everyday there is a God Sky. I love that there is fresh fruit to buy everywhere and how independent I can be here. I enjoy the new plants and the fact that everyday I see something new that I didn't know about before. Now that some of the foreigness of everything is dulling into a backdrop of the semi-familar, I hope to make a routine for myself and become more purpose driven, hopefully I will start school soon which will give me something to do.

Mary and I pounding fufu

See Mom, Dad, & Melody-I am not crazy for not liking the seeds in cucumbers. Here in Ghana they cut out the seeds!

Cheesy picture of me being super excited over salad.

Grinding some pepper :)

My beautiful host mom. I respect her so much. She is the manager of a bank and has to travel around with an armed guard while on business. Talk about a strong African woman. On the weekdays, she doesn't get home until it is way too late to cook, but on weekends she has cooked up some delicious meals.

Ghana is very incredible and I love it so much here, but I have really struggled with this intense homesickness. I have missed my family, my church, and my access to news so much. I have been so blessed to have grown up in the place I did with the people I did and attend the church I did. I do not know if I could do this without the support of my wonderful family and church- you guys have helped me so much. Thank you!

Sarah & her host brother on a walk we took the day I visited them.

The Europeans and I at our weekend Twi lesson

First Days in Kumasi (Written on 9.18.12)

I have safely arrived in Kumasi. I am with my host family which actually consists of only one kid not three as my host family info says. Both of my parents work and are rarely home, there is no internet here which is why I have yet to post anything on my blog yet. For the first week here, Jeff, the AFS chaperone who accompanied us to Ghana, stayed with my family. It was very nice to have some company. It must have been take your host children to work week since Jeff and I accompanied my host dad to work everyday. He is the manager of K.A.T.H., the  teaching hospital. Which is a very beautiful location but my first impression wasn't the best due to the first place we visited being the morgue. My host dad asked us if we wanted to see dead bodies and Jeff wanted to so we did...Welcome to Africa! From what I have perceived so far, people pretty much do whatever they want here from the reckless driving such as sticking your whole car into the middle of the street you are trying to cross to pretty much every guy peeing where ever & when ever he wants to.
This week, Jeff and I accompanied my host day around, visiting his village, attending an engagement ceremony, and then a wedding. Which I have stories to tell about all of these events-which are coming I promise! I am sorry I have been so bad about updating this blog, but hopefully I will get better.

Observations on the top of the Iceberg

Ghana is loud. Every hour of every day, the outside world floods your ears with noise. Be it the beautiful call to prayer, the neighbors blasting some azonto, or the church behind our house loudspeakering their service all throughout the night including a two hour long broadcast to the world of the congregation speaking in tongues. This church seems to have a service every night of the week. There seems to be at least one church having a service whose noise cannot seem to be contained in the church. It spreads throughout the town permeating everyone's half asleep ears making sure you too hear the word of God, even if you don't speak Twi and are trying to sleep. Or if the word of God didn't hit you in the evening, maybe the 4:00 wake up call by the evangelist preaching right in front of your house will do the trick.
It isn't only at your house that you are bombarded with noise. The streets here are filled with honking cars, vendors announcing the names of their goods, and the music flowing from random shops. Noise is not the only sense that is ever present in Ghana. Every sense here is bombarded with the new & exciting as well as the not so exciting. The eyes are treated to continually amazing skies which makes one understand why people here are so religious. The sky here holds so much beauty and almost everyday there is at one point or another what I call a "God sky". And it is not just the sky that invites staring. Everywhere I turn, there is something new to observe. The brightly painted houses, the fauna, the wandering  livestock, and best of all the clothing full of every color under the sun. The smells of frying food, burning trash, and exhaust overwhelm you as you meander through this city.

The view from my porch

Orientation in Ghana

 I have safely arrived here in Ghana. I apologize for the lack of blogposts, but internet is not an easy commodity to come by here.
We flew via London to Accra. On the plane, I sat in between Emily and Sarah. We were all alight with excitement as we landed and headed down the stairs just like in the old version of "Parent Trap" into Ghana. We walked inside and waited in a long line for immigration and then headed to the hostel where we were staying for orientation.

The next morning we were told to grab a little bag for an overnight since we were headed to Cape Coast! It was great to be able to see some of the country. My initial reaction was excitement over everything. Everything was so beautiful and so African. Everyone really does carry everything on their heads, wear wonderfully vibrant colors, and there are villages with traditional huts. There are animals roaming the streets, herds of sheep, flocks of chickens, and stray goats all foraging for food. The sad thing is there is trash everywhere. 

When we got to Cape Coast, we toured Elmina Castle which was beautiful, but gave everyone a shock since there were these people who talked to us briefly before we entered the castle who later on, when we exited the castle, they pounced on us. They handed us these shells with our name on it and demanded that we give them money. I was thoroughly scared and just walked to the bus. Even when I got on the bus, he wouldn't leave me alone. When he finally realized I wasn't going to give him money, then he wanted his shell back which I was more than happy to give to him since the only reason I kept it was because it was in my hand and I didn't know what else to do.

The view from the top of the castle was so breathtaking. Pictures do not do it any justice. The sun enhanced haze made the picturesque village seem so unreal and so alive at the same time.

That night, we ate supper at a resort that was right on the ocean. While we were waiting for our meals to come, we were able to run barefoot through the warm waves together. I was so excited since many a time on cold winter nights, one dreams of the balmy tropical beach with white sands and palm trees. That night we stayed at a very ritzy hotel. Expecting a similar beach to the one we strolled on the night prior, Emily and I woke up early and went for a morning walk. To our dismay, the "beach" was ridiculously trash ridden.

After a delicious breakfast, we traveled to the Kaukum Canopy Walk which was amazing!! I was on cloud nine. I could not believe I was actually up in the air over a jungle in Africa. :)

After we toured Cape Coast Castle, we returned then to Accra and that night I was able to connect to the internet long enough to skype with my family and Arden <3 The day of orientation was what I expected this whole orientation to be: workshops, which it thankfully was not. We went to the US Embassy that morning which was super exciting and the charge d'affairs spoke to us! After that we walked around Accra a little. It was super exilarating to dive into the streets with the constant noise, smells, and sights so completely different from anything I had ever experienced before. After our walk, we went to the AFS office for workshops.

The Kids From Belgium

The AFS Bus that took us to Kumasi

The next morning, we said our goodbyes to the exchange students staying in Accra and Teme and boarded the AFS bus to Kumasi. En route to Kumasi, we dropped of my roommate in Kfuradura and two other girls in Nkrauwkrauw, a beautiful city nestled in the mountains. We then headed the rest of the way to Kumasi, which will be home to 5 exchange students this year. When we arrived in Kumasi, we said goodbye to the two exchange students going to Suyani, which is even further north than Kumasi, and met our host families.

My American Summer

As the days till my departure flash by as if through the window of a shikansen, bullet train, I thought I would share what I have been up to this summer. The summer after one graduates from high school is special time, often seen as the one last hurrah with school friends before everyone heads off their own separate ways. This summer was indeed special, usually for me summer is an idle time where not much action occurs but this summer was an exception. My summer was jampacked, starting off with my family's annual trip to 'the County' to celebrate Midsommar. Since my family is Swedish, in the American sense of the word meaning the predominate part of my ancestors came from Sweden, we celebrate a few Swedish holidays from St. Lucia's day to Midsommar. For Midsommar, we travel up to the Northern corner of our state to the town of New Sweden for their festivities. This year before we went all the 6 hours up to New Sweden we stayed with some friends on our way up for a couple days at their beautiful cabin on East Grand Lake. It was wonderful to slow down from the hectic school year and ebb some of the frenzy of graduation.

Maine is known as Vacationland for good reason!

Midsommar is a Swedish holiday celebrating the solstisc/midsummer. Complete with our flower adorned hair we watched people decorate the majastang, maypole, the 'little swedish dancers' perform their dances such as Danse al ering, and then joined in dancing around the majstag ourselves. This year there was a band and dance group that came all the way from Ourst, Sweden to dance and perform which was awesome. Usually my mom calls the Swedish dances but this year she didn't have to since the real swedes were here to do that.

Right after Midsommar I went to DC for YES Abroad's Pre-Departure Orientation which I detailed in the previous post. It was so great to be with all the YES Abroad Scholars. :) Then after I returned home, I started working at a summer camp set beautifully on a lake. Working there was really fun and I enjoyed meeting and getting to know the other counselors but it was hard since it was an overnight camp and I knew there was so much I needed to do to get ready to go to Ghana. I knew I would be away for a year and I wasn't expecting to start my away time so soon. After the summer camp, some of my family from Virginia came up. It was great to spend time with them around Maine, from our house to the cottage they rented on a lake to the Clam festival that has become a tradition to attend together. I love being around my relatives and especially love playing board games with them.

Cousins

One of the best things I did this summer was go up to my friend, Sammie D., camp up on the most beautiful lake I have ever been on: Lake Webb. I even got to waterski again which is one of my favorite things to do even though I have only done it when I am at Sammie D's camp.

                       


On the 4th of August, I went to my first concert. It was the Gentlemen of the Road's first stopover which happened to be right in Portland, ME on the Eastern Prom! It was the most spectacular thing ever to see my favorite band, Mumford & Sons live. And best of all, we got there so early we were in the front!

The next week was taken up by my church's Vacation Bible School which we call Summerfest. My mom runs it every year so I have been volunteering each year since I was too old to attend it myself. It was great to spend a week volunteering, spending time teaching children, and being around the people I have grown up with in my church.

After Summerfest ended on Friday, we packed our bags and headed out on a family road trip to visit our family in Chicago. It was extremely exciting to do so since we hadn't visited them for 4 years and the last 2 visits had been for my grandparents' funerals so we hadn't visited for an happy occasion in many, many years. My aunt and uncle had both bought property this past year so it was really exciting to see their new abodes. We stayed with my aunt in her new house in a beautiful suburb that had an amazing Polish bakery which Melody & I went to during a morning run-Great idea, right? We jampacked our visit with so many exciting, amazing things. We went to "Little India" and had a delicious Southern Indian meal at a restaurant and then walked around for a couple of hours, soaking in the atomosphere of this part of the city and I even bought an awesome Indian top.

"Little India"-Chicago, Illinois

 The next day we wandered around the city that my dad grew up in: Evanston, the first suburb north of Chicago. We started at the art institute where my grandmother used to paint and followed Lake Michigan up to Northwestern University. We then visited my uncle's apartment building he bought and is renovating, and then headed to a Korean spa called King Spa.

The Art Institute in Evanston which my Grandma painted at

My Dad and his sister, my aunt, Laurie in front of the Art Institute 

Lake Michigan with the Chicago Skyline in the Background

My Family <3

The next day we had a kayaked the Chicago River for 3 hours! Who knew you could even kayak on the Chicago River?  We then had dinner with some of my dad's best friends including the guy who I stayed with in Japan. It was really nice to see him and his two daughters again.

The next day, we visited Lincoln Park Zoo in the morning and had an amazing lunch of Falfel, which is probably my new favorite food. We then headed to downtown which I was so excited for since I had never seen Millieum Park. It is exteremely amazing! There is an aMAZing ampetheather there and most importantly that is the location of the Cloud Gate or as the locals call it, the bean. It is soo cool! We then walked down the Magnificant Mile and boy, it really is magnificant!

Sadly, the next day we had to embark on the two day journey back home. On our way home we took a different route, this one skirting Lake Erie. We were hoping to find a place to get to the water and sure enough we did! It was splendid! I had never seen Lake Erie before and it kinda looks like the ocean!

The next day we took a detour to see Niagara Falls! And we also visited a family friend in Vermont.

We arrived home at 2 in the morning and had to get up early to drive the to UMO, the University of Maine (Orono), for the Mitchell Scholar Brunch. It was so exciting to see Senator George Mitchell in person and meet the other Mitchell Scholars. Three other of the Mitchell Scholars had happened to be in my "town" at Girls State and it was really exciting to see them all again.

The next day my cousins arrived from Virginia. The next day we visited Maine's most famous lighthouse, the Portland Head Light, and then that night I had my going away party. It was so strange to say goodbye. 

The next day we headed to the beach. I ended the day by having a lobster. Thursday, I turned 18. I'm now officially an adult which means I can vote in the next election-even though it will be through an absentee ballot I am so excited to do so. I started my day in the best way possible; with breakfast and coffee with my dad at the village store just like old times. When I was young, my dad and I would have the Saturday routine of going out to eat for breakfast, going to the library, and the dump which actually is a redemption center but I grew up calling it the dump and I cannot shake that habit. 
My cousins left yesterday morning, forcing another goodbye and now I am writing this post. I have 10 days left before I leave. Time to get packing!