Address: Denkyira, Ghana 6/3/14 - 8/3/14

Words cannot describe all the invaluable and mesmerizing experiences I've had in Ghana for the past two months. I will not forget all the lessons I learned, friends I made and laughed with, and the inspiring love I received and witnessed from Ghana's people and culture. Just like any other incredible moments in life, time has flown by so quickly and per usual I continue to carry on. Mother Ghana, I will surely revisit you!

[ghanabethebest]

Takoradi/ Nzulezo

7/12/14 - 7/13/14

After the trip to Cape coast last week, we set out on another journey farther west of the country. We decided to go to a floating village that exists in the Western Region. In the morning around 7 AM, Sarah and I met up with Anaman to take a trotro (van that works as a joint taxi) to Mankessim. There we got a taxi to Cape Coast.

At Cape Coast, we walked around briefly to exchange some currency in the black market. It was quite easier to find a black marketer than I thought as Anaman explained the trick behind it. Apparently, most black markets in Ghana regarding currency are controlled by the Muslims. So how do you spot them? You look at the foreheads of the store owners and if one of them has a distinct mark then he is most likely to be a Muslim. Anaman's trick worked so well and it took us no time to get a good deal on currency exchange. Afterwards, we went to the gate of Mfantespim to meet up with Will and his crew. This trip was exciting because Will is a fellow Penn student who interns in Accra! I was also introduced to Fred from Sweden and Ashley, another Penn student. From Mfantespim we took a trotro to Takoradi (third largest city in Ghana) which took around 2 hours. Then, we took another trotro to Nzulezo, the floating village in the west. The ride from Takoradi was probably the most challenging ride I've ever had in Ghana. It took us four hours to reach our destination and the roads we travelled were all unpaved which made it dusty and restless; when we got there my hair was so coarse because so much red dust had gotten all over my body through the open windows of the van. To make matters worse, my feet were constantly hot because the trotro's engine was right underneath my feet. Oh well if you cant avoid something, you better enjoy it. The ride was an interesting experience.

Upon arrival, we went inside the reception area for the Nzulezo tour. The reception area was pretty much a small room with no tour information but just a woman collecting the fees for the canoe ride (yes, in order to get to the village you need to canoe!). Before the canoe ride, we decided to get lunch. There was a nice beach right next to the reception area and we found a restaurant. Our dining experince was again interesting because the building was unfinished with no walls and it only offered jollaf rice with no other menu options. The jollaf rice was 15 cedis, almost twice the price you'd normally pay for it in a regular restaurant.

After lunch, we went to the docking area for the canoe ride. Our paddler's name was Monnich and we paddled through a lake/ bog for for 45minutes until we reached the floating village. The water was very brown and maybe it's because the lake consists of only rain water during Ghana's rainy season. In fact, the lake starts disappearing completely once the rainy season passes by. Our canoe ride was very fun. Water kept leaking into the canoe and I had to often use a cut milk carton to get the water out of the boat.

When we got to Nzulezo I was very surprised by the small size of the village. But most importantly, I was shocked at the impoverished state of the village. Littering was not well taken care of at all and and I even saw babies with bloated stomachs for the first time since arriving in Ghana. Of course, there were no set up for tourism and the tour felt more as if we were walking around the village peeking and infringing on others' privacy. We left the village soon after.

That night, Anaman, Sarah, and I parted ways with Will'a crew after returning to Takoradi. We stayed the night in Takoradi while the others went back to Cape Coast. So after saying goodbye, we got a hotel then went to a spot called Vienna City to enjoy Ghanaian live music and some dance. We had done a lot that day.

The next day, we slept in. And we spent most of our time at the Takoradi Vienna Beach Resort. We ordered some food, drinks, and even played a few game of Pool. Then we returned back to Denkyria. On our way back, we couldn't help but deeply fall asleep in the bumping trotro. At one point, we were introduced to the wonders of Daddy Lumba and his high life music.

[ghanabethebest]

Cape Coast

6/29/14

Waking up around 7:40 AM, Sarah and I left the house around 8:20 to head over to Edjumanko. I decided to carry only a small satchel with myself. It was a long wait until we got our cab partially because there had been a raise in price for gas in the whole district the night before. We met up with Anaman around 8:45 AM at the Adjumako gas station, where he had already gotten a cab for us. Then we drove to Mankessim to catch another cab that would take us to Cape Coast. Our next ride was a big van that could hold up to 25 people or so.

On the way to cape coast, we passed by quite a few noteworthy places including many beach resorts such as Cocobongo, and Salt Pond. We also saw Anaman’s hometown as well as his father’s hometown. They are all right next to the coast, which we saw a little glimpse of. What was interesting is that the villages in the coastline look like slums; the houses were all so tightly packed with one right next to the other. However, some beautiful scenery included the tall palm trees and green fields right next to the ocean, where Ghanaian children were playing football. It was my ideal kind of football pitch. Lastly, we also saw a few remnants of forts and castles on our way to Cape Coast.

When all three of us arrived at Cape Coast I was very surprised to see other obronis (Ghanaian word for “foreigners”). I genuinely suggested that we keep a tally of how many we see but soon that became meaningless because we ended up seeing so many of them. Cape Coast definitely was a lot more touristy than Denkyira, Edjumanko, and even Mankessim, a very large market town in the Central Region.

Our first destination of sightseeing was to Mfantsepim High School, the first high school to be built in Ghana. It was founded in 1876 by Methodist missionaries from Britain. Many famous Ghanaians have schooled in this prestigious high school. Some of them include the current vice president of Ghana and the famous Kofi Anan, past UN secretary of general before current Ban Ki Moon. The school had a very serene atmosphere that seemed apt for serious academics. I was again surprised at Anaman’s intellectual prowess as he told me that he had been admitted to go to this school after his completion of SHS. However, similar with his case with LeGong’s School of Business, he and his family did not have the financial means to support Anaman going to Mfantsepim. It’s true that this high school is where all the Ghanaian social elites attend school. The campus is as big as a college and it consists of beautiful buildings with intricate traditional Ghanaian designs. It had a huge field that reminded me of an ancient Greek arena and it even had an artificial turf that students can play football on (you rarely ever come across turfs in Ghana – rarely). In fact, the students’ Sunday clothes looked very nice and the students tended to be bigger and plumpier than most people I had previously seen in Denkyria region. We were lucky with our whole tour because we were guided by a Mfantsepim student named Brony. His willingness to just take us around the campus showed how most Ghanaians are very friendly. Interestingly, you could even tell from the way he spoke English that he was from a well-educated family. He was slightly chubby with glasses as well.

After the high school tour, we walked towards the cape coast slave castle. On the way, we stopped by at a local souvenir shop called Baobab Tree. The shop was very nice with various Ghanaian items such as fabrics, instruments, Oware games, necklaces, bracelets and etc. It even had bags made from the plastic materials of satchel water. There, I bought 2 yards of fabric and a very nice green brown bracelet. By the way, the worker at the Baobab shop was a German lady with a thick German accent and rather curly blonde hair. She had a very comfortable and shy smile I’d say. At the shop, we also came across a group of British obronis who were in a dispute between local cab drivers over taxi fare.  It almost got really ugly but Anaman rescued them and settled the whole issue.

Our tour at the Cape Coast Castle was definitely my favorite part of the whole day because it was a historic, meaningful site. Before entering the white castle, it was interesting to see that there was a huge price gap between the Ghanaians and Non-Ghanaian visitors. For example, Anaman had to pay 5 cedis while Sarah and I had to pay 15 cedis each. They even demanded that we pay 10 cedis to take pictures, which we disagreed to; we ended up taking lots and lots of pictures anyway.

The British built the beautifully white Cape Coast Castle solely for slave merchandise. This was where they would keep the slaves before they were sent to various places all over the world, mainly around North and South America. We had a tour guide who explained the significance of different parts of the castle. We first walked underground to see five dark chambers with almost no ventilation except for a tiny barred window on top of the tall chamber. It is said that 200 Africans from all over the West African region were kept in one chamber, totaling an inventory of 1000 male slaves in the entire castle. The slaves would on average spend around 2 months in the dark chambers before the merchants come to pick them up on the ship. They would urinate and take care of their toiletry business all inside the chambers as well and no one would come inside the chambers to clean. This also meant they couldn’t wash for two months. It was extremely unhygienic. On the other side of the castle, around 300 female slaves were kept.  Truly only the strongest could survive. Such barbaric and cruel crime against the humanity continued for over 300 years.

Some other chambers were used for punishment. If the female slave would not concede to sexual harassment than she would be kept in a dark chamber until she would concede. If male slaves resisted they would be kept in an utterly dark room with no ventilation, food, or light until they would die. The slave traders were so cruel that they intentionally made the tunnel to the ships’ docking area extremely long so that the tired slaves would not resist at the end of the dark tunnel. The castle had many other symbolic elements as well such as the blocked tunnels that are supposed to represent the complete end of slave trade now as well as the door of no return that slaves had to crawl under (for head count). The door of no return was named so because once you left the castle, your identity, culture, heritage, and everything about you becomes obliterated. Another interesting part of the castle was the church that so blatantly illuminated the hypocrisy of the Europeans who claimed themselves as Christians. On Sundays, they would spy the slaves in the chambers through tiny holes on the floor right before entering the church to have service and prayer. It was disgusting. After looking around the castle, we visited the museum that briefly captured the history of Ghana.

Around 2 PM, we went to a restaurant right next to the castle to get some lunch. I ate some Fante Fante with Eba and oh WOW. It was absolutely delicious. Later, we shopped around a little bit until we went to the University of Cape Coast, third best university in Ghana. 

On our way back, Sarah slept through while Anaman and I excitedly read live commentaries off Anaman’s phone about the World Cup quarter finals between Holland and Mexico. It was a good end to the trip.

[ghanabethebest]

Ghanaian Funeral/ Brasil vs Chile

6/28/14 

On this very sunny Saturday afternoon, Sarah and I finally got to attend Prince’s (Prince is one of my colleagues at Heritage who teaches Social Studies) father’s funeral. I really do like Prince a lot because he’s an extremely amiable and hospitable man who’s quite aged and well educated as well. This funeral was long waited for and it took Prince about a month to prepare everything.  Prince’s invitation alone to the funeral was given to me about two weeks ago.

Sarah and I left around 11:30 am and DeGraft and Anaman picked us up at the taxi station. I thought we were going to a gathering “site” but DeGraft randomly stopped the car next to the road when we came across a huge line of people, wearing only red and black, parading to a certain destination.  The people in front of the whole parade were carrying a casket and then it hit me instantaneously that it was a march to the burial site. What was extremely surprising was that most people in the parade seemed very light hearted, with the exception of one or two people who mourned heavily (interestingly, people who mourn always walked in the opposite direction of the parade). There wasn’t much a sense of solemnity and there were actually a batch of people running around with various percussion instruments singing passionately in Fante. 

When we arrived at the burial site I was surprised once again because the burial site didn’t look well taken care of; it was just right next to the road and it looked more like an abandoned forest. Mr. Nyame, DeGraft, Anaman, Sarah, and I waited alongside the road while the elders went deeper inside the woods to bury the body. Even during this process, some people were wildly playing their instruments while some were mourning intensely. There was even high school brass band playing vicariously. After, we walked back to Mr. Ansah’s (Prince’s) place where they had prepared a festival. We waited at the reception area and then were served with some Guiness and Malta drinks. I can assuredly tell you that Ghanaians love Guinness. Cann, Anaman, and I also had a rather fervid discussion on the matter of people’s perception of different body hair in different cultures. Apparently, all Ghanaian men shave both their arm pit and pubic hair. I told them Asian people don’t and they were pretty darn shocked.

Later, we were invited inside the house to be served with some amazing Ghanaian delicacies: Tilapia soup. It was spicier than most other Ghanaian food and it perfectly suit my appetite. They also gave us some jollaf rice and fried chicken to take home. Then shortly after, we left.

I took the jollaf rice and fried chicken to Adjumako to eat dinner at Anaman’s while watching the WorldCup match between Brazile and Chile. Oh, what a match it was. I was supporting Chile but unfortunately Brazil beat them in the penalties. Chile deserved to win. I also witnessed some heated arguments made between Anaman and this other guy on the issues of Muntari and his slapping of a Ghanaian Football Association official. I’ve just got to say that it was very loud and I was even half worried that there would be a fight. Of course there wasn’t one. That’s just the Ghanaian way of arguing maybe. But then Ghanaians are also serious with their football.

While coming back home, I came across Sadia and Ebenezer in Denkyira’s main road and we talked for a long time. Especially with Ebenezer, we talked intensively on how to most effectively notify DeGraft of our plans to go to Cape Coast tomorrow. When Sarah and I later talked to DeGraft about our travel plan, we actually ended up talking more about the issue of Sadia and her salary. It seems like DeGraft is most certain that he will stop hiring her as the 2nd floor assistant. I’m deeply concerned for Sadia.

[ghanabethebest]

Korea in Ghana

6/27/14

Today I found out that Scientific (a nickname given to one of the students -- Ghanaians like calling each other by their nicknames) in SHS 2 was not lying to me at all, when he first introduced himself as someone from Korea. That was two weeks ago when the students and I all introduced ourselves in my first class. I didn't believe Scientific then. So, how is Scientific from Korea? An outsider could believe that a Ghanaian could be from anywhere else in West Africa but no one in their right mind would guess Korea to be a Ghanaian's hometown.

Basically, there’s a nearby village called Kormem here in the Central Region of Ghana. People have given the village a nickname, "South Korea.” A few years ago, only a few boys called the village South Korea but now most everyone uses the nickname instead of its actual name. Even the cab drivers refer to Kormem as Korea rather than Kormem. It’s extremely random but I’m very happy and proud that my country’s name is said so often by so many Ghanaians in a rural village in West Africa.

The town of South Korea is not the only place in Ghana where I've been seen traces of my homeland, however. It’s surprising how many Korean products, objects actually from Korea, and Korean writing I see on a day to day basis here. It arrays from cars, phones, clothes, to even backpacks. For example, Hyundai cars, Kia cars, Samsung phones, and LG electronics are things I see every day. Even the Heritage Academy school bus has an inscription of 아기햇살, which means "baby sunshine." Sadia’s (a girl of our age that helps out with our housing at DeGraft's) purse says 베이블레이드, Kweku (DeGraft's son) along with so many other people wears the Korean National football jersey.  I literally see Korea in Ghana everyday, and I think it's mainly because of two reasons. 1) Ghana would engage in active trade activities with South Korea because of our quality products that are relatively cheap compared to other rival products from places such as the U.S, Germany, and Japan. (In fact most cars you see in Ghana are used cars bought from Korea) 2) Many Korean people must donate different items such as clothing and school supplies. 

By the way, today I gained further insight into Sadia’s interesting family history. There seems to be much drama associated with her mother’s former husband as well as the inheritance issues with her step brothers. I don’t understand all the complexities involved but I pray the best for Sadia.

[ghanabethebest]

Music/ Classes/ Anaman

6/23/13

Ebenezer gave me all of his collection African music. I’m sure when I listen to the tracks outside of Ghana in the future, they will remind me of all the precious memories I made in Ghana. Today, I also learned from Cann about the three genres of Reggae; of course, he taught me a little bit of Pattwa, Jamaican broken English. Anyway, the three genres include lovers’ rock, version excursion, and roots & culture. Today, I also sang in front of the SHS students (“And I want to meet your papa oh yeah” by Fuse ODG).  

6/24/13

Today has been a long day as I taught three classes all in the morning: Elective SHS 3, Core SHS 3, and SHS 1. I’m very glad that I’m teaching mathematics at Heritage Academy because it enables me to have more teaching time throughout the day; Sarah has been struggling with getting a fair amount of teaching hour because the school is overloaded with English teachers.

So what is teaching at Heritage Academy like for me? Well, I’ll just talk about a few things that pop up in my head at the moment. My voice most always suffers from trying to have everyone hear me during classes. I have to talk pretty loudly. The classrooms are exposed to all kinds of outside noise because it does not have any sound barriers but with huge open holes for ventilation. Luckily, I have yet to teach during a heavy rainfall (Ghana’s is at its rainy season right now, which typically lasts from June to August). When it rains, it becomes very loud in the entire building due to the roof that is made with single layered steel. Anyway, Cann missed school today because he was feeling not so good. I was missing him at school because he’s a great friend who can talk music with me. I thought today was going to be just like an ordinary day.

My day ended extremely well, however. I spontaneously suggested Anaman that we watch the Italy vs. Uruguay game together in Adjumako. Although telling DeGraft of the plan was somewhat awkward and difficult, we were able to go on this little excursion and we watched the game at a local bar. Anaman ordered Guinness, of course. Ghanaians are obsessed with Guinness. I wasn’t able to pay too much attention to the game because I was facing him more than I faced the TV during our long conversations but I did gain some great insight into the everyday life of Anaman as well as his upbringing. Listening to an individual Ghanaian man’s story, I definitely experienced a set of mixed feelings.

Anaman’s an intelligent man who has a family that lives a very average fishing village life. His father unfortunately passed awy after his first year in college, and thus he and his siblings had to go through a lot since then. Anaman is the youngest child and his brother was the one who solely supported Anaman’s education (Ghanaian families tend to be large with a lot of sisters and brothers); his brother paid for all his tuition at Legong. His brother used to be an insurance worker in Ghana but now he and his family have moved to Germany -- an extremely rare yet common case, where a Ghanaian immigrates to a first world country. He is now working as a waiter at a restaurant. Anaman’s brother also helped him get a job as a teacher at Heritage. He has been a teacher for around 4 years now but Anaman is determined to get his graduate school education. He has applied numerous times to universities outside of Ghana, especially in Scandinavia for school tuition and scholarship reasons. His stories about all this made me feel very empathetic. One time, he was accepted to University of Helsinki with a full scholarship but he could not make it there because he could not provide them with a bank statement that proves that he has 7000 Euros in his bank account; it was just one of those pre-admittance requirements that most people never worry about before going to college. So, he is waiting for another opportunity. This is similar to how he could not go to University of Legong as a business student, rather than a political science major. Right after high school, even when he was accepted to the best department within the best school of the nation, Anaman had to forgo and take a gap year due to his family’s financial inability. I wish I could be of even a tiny help to Anaman and I’m extremely grateful with all the things that my family has provided me with. I like Anaman a lot as he has a very bright and easygoing personality. I truly hope the best for him.

[ghanabethebest]

During my cab ride to Denkyira. 

[ghanabethebest]

Departure/ Arrival

6/3/14

At 4:30 PM, I left the house in Busan to head over to Gimhae International Airport. It was the beginning of my journey to Ghana, a place filled with the unexpected and wonderful. My flight to Gimpo Airport was at 7 PM, however. So my mom, grandma, grandpa and I decided to each have a chilled bowl of naengmyeon – me taking the bibimnaengmyeon of course. I said bye to my family and went inside the terminal at 6 PM and to arrive at Gimpo around 8 PM. I had to take the bus limousine to Incheon International Airport, where I was able to check the internet for the last time for the next five days. I also purchased two packs of Juicy & Fresh gums. After looking around the duty free shops for a while, I then took the Turkish Airline to Istanbul.

6/4/14

After 11 hours of flying or so, I finally arrived at Istanbul around 6 AM local time. The last few hours of the plane ride were quite interesting as I was deep asleep; honestly I was still out of it while getting off the plane. But Turkish Airline was delightful with great food including Turkish delight, Bibimbap and even the comfy slippers to rest my feet in. I eventually took the slippers to Ghana and that was one of the best decisions I’ve made. Istanbul International Airport was not too great of a place. They did not provide any free Wi-Fi and one of the shops would not refund the outlet converter I bought for 6 Euros. While the plane ride to Accra was at 2:50 PM, I tried to creatively kill some time, which proved to be more difficult than I expected. But I did eat at least 15 free Turkish delight samples or so. I also found out that Turkish women were very beautiful. Later, while waiting for the Accra bound plane at my designated Gate, I also met different groups of Ghanaian people for the first time. That is when I first experienced the unique smell of Africans as well. I think I’m very much used to the smell already as I write these journal entries six days after arrival.

On the plane ride to Accra, I was the only Asian person apart from another guy, who I later found out was from Singapore. As I sat at the very last passenger seat by the windows, the two people next to me happened to be 1) a UN employee from Bangladesh, who liked drinking alcoholic beverages  2) a nice Christian Ghanaian from Kumasi, who I had great conversations with throughout the trip. The Ghanaian’s name was Prince and he was an incredibly nice person. We even exchanged our contact information upon arrival. In terms of the plane ride itself, I had a rough time because not only were the seats incredibly tight, but the window by my face heated up immensely due to the scorching sunlight of the Mediterranean Sea and the Saharan Desert.

I finally arrived in Ghana at 7:30 PM local time. When I stepped outside the airplane, every part of my body was telling me that the place is extremely humid. The customs process took a very long time because Ghana’s national airport seemed a little bit ineffective with its arrival procedures. Finally around 8:20 PM, I was able to fully enter the country and find myself in front of many Ghanaians who were waiting for various visitors of their country. I looked for Ebenezer who was supposed to meet me at 7:30 PM. However, I could not find him. Then, this random guy came up to me saying that I should follow him as he will help me find Ebenezer. He was not even a worker of the airport, and he kept saying random things that were to convince me that Ghana is full of friendly people. Very befuddled, I followed him around for about 3 minutes, but then overwhelmed by his sketchiness, decided to avoid him and go back behind the arrival gate. There, I met two more people who tried to take advantage of my status as a first time visitor of Ghana/ Africa; I eventually ended up giving a total of ten dollars to the two. What’s ironic was that they were officers who actually worked at the airport. Basically, it was extremely hot and I was very tired from a 40 hour long trip to Accra, but I could not find Ebenezer. And the only number I could call was the Headmaster’s. One of the officers had me buy a TIGO SIM card for 9 dollars and change 100 U.S dollars into 295 Ghana Cedis. However, my SIM Card kept causing me trouble (never worked ever since my first day In Ghana) and that made it very difficult for me to contact and communicate with the Heritage Headmaster. (On a side note, while trying to charge my phone, the lady who was working there also asked me for money. And my first impression of Ghana was becoming exponentially worse and making me very irked and dubious.) When my call went through, DeGraft gave me Ebenezer’s phone number but his phone number was unavailable due to battery. I honestly started getting very worried but was too tired to be mad.

Finally, around 10:30 PM the Headmaster sent me a different taxi driver and he took me to Denkyira. During the car ride, I experienced the rhythmic, groovy, happy, and upbeat African style music for the first time. And the messy, unorganized streets of Accra reminded me very much of my stay in the Philippines 11 years ago. During the cab ride, I tried to stay awake as I was worried that the driver might be one of those people who would want to take advantage of me, like the other I met at the airport. However, I was too tired and during the last 40 minutes of the two hour cab ride, and I completely passed out. The driver happened to be an extremely kind man and I could thank him enough. Upon arrival, I used the Ghanaian currency for the first time in action. I gave him 20 Cedis as a token of appreciation.

When I arrived at the house around 12:30 AM, I met the headmaster and we talked for about 30 minutes. There was no light in the entire village so we talked under a flashlight, placed on the food table. He then took me to my room and let me settle. It was completely dark and I had with myself one flashlight. The tap also didn’t work and I soon realized that I had to use the buckets. That night, as I took that bucket shower in the dark, I couldn’t help myself from laughing. Things were already so different from what I was used to but I thought it wasn’t all too bad. I actually liked it. So I just laughed, happy that I had arrived safely. Damn, I’m in GHANA! Then I just passed out until I woke up around 3 PM the next day.