Futbol

In Ghana, soccer is the national sport. But it's more than just a sport; it's a way of life, an adherence that unites the country together. All of the guys here play futbol, and even when they say they don't, they always have some skill at the game. So when I decided it would be fun to play on a team, I figured it would be easy to find some girls to play with. However, very few girls play here and it took me until a few weeks ago to find a girl who played for her hall. She enthusiastically invited me to play on the team so I went out to their practice...and found out that most teams practice at 5 or six in the morning. After one morning of waking up at 4:30, I played in their first game (unfortunately we lost) but it was a blast. The one difficult part about being the only white girl on the team is the language problem. They prefer to speak in their native tongue, Twi, which means that often I have no idea what is going on or where I am supposed to be. I also found out that their season is only three games long, so after two more games we were finished. Despite only playing for about one week, it was definitely worth it.

Adventure to Koforidua

This past weekend, a group of 12 of us girls from CIEE decided to adventure up north a bit, to the town of Koforidua. We departed on Friday (which to our surprise was a holiday and we ended up not having classes) and took two tro-tros to arrive at our destination, which was about an hour and a half away. When we got there, six of us piled into a small taxi and took us to the hotel we had booked for Friday and Saturday, which was in a small area called Two Streams, a few miles from Koforidua. The hotel was at the end of a bumpy dirt road and we settled in to our small but comfy rooms.

After walking down the main road of Two Streams – which consisted of a few stands every block selling very similar items – we took a taxi into town to eat at Linda Dor Restaurant, which the guide book informed us had an array of choices besides just typical Ghanaian food and most people were ready for something different than jollaf and fufu. Looking at the menu, we realized Lidyas was all that we hoped for; pasta, hamburgers, soup, sandwiches, Chinese food, etc. When the waitress came to take our orders, she informed us they did not have any beef, and when we inquired about a few other dishes she seemed surprised that we would even think they had that item. I settled on pasta with vegetables since I haven’t been eating too many veggies here. After a very filling meal we headed back to the hotel.

We were awakened the next day early in the morning to loud voices and multiple slams of the screen door near our room. Next thing we knew, we were all being kicked out of our rooms because the hotel accidentally overbooked. So at seven in the morning, we piled six Americans plus a driver and another random Ghanaian lady (later we found out she worked at the new hotel) into a very small five person car and headed off to another hotel down the road. The new hotel was quite nice – a king-sized bed, TV, even toilet paper in the bathroom (which is very uncommon)!

Our initial reason for this trip was to visit Boti Falls, a 30-meter high waterfall with a hike in the surrounding areas. We told the people at the hotel we were heading there and somehow, without us knowing, they set up the whole trip for us and picked us up in our personal tro-tro. They took us to the falls, about 30 minutes away, and then set up a guide for the hike. The day was perfect for hiking. We passed by some caves, saw an umbrella rock, and admired the three-pronged palm tree. I also sat on an old rock beneath the tree with intricate designs that supposedly will cause you to have twins.  I’m curious to see if this will come true...After the hike we went down to the waterfall and had a refreshing swim in the water before heading back.

Everyone was pretty exhausted when we returned so we all rested for a bit then ventured out to find some food. The only place we could find in Two Streams was this little chop bar called Mat’s, so we ordered enormous portions of jollaf rice and chicken. The four of us sharing a room left first and on the way out began talking to this lady named Christine, who, coincidentally, had a husband who was working in St. Paul. Before we knew it, she had invited us to her house and wanted us to return tomorrow and learn how to make typical food she was preparing for her brother’s wedding. That night, we ventured to her house a few blocks away and sat on her porch for a while and chatted. Her daughters gave us a great little performance they learned at school and we met her exuberant sister, who reminded me of an American city girl.

The next day we returned at eight in the morning and Christine gave us a few chairs to sit in. It was a very interesting and unexpected morning. We thought we would help prepare for the wedding, but they just wanted us to sit in the chairs and random people would stop by and chat for a little while, then leave and say, “I’m coming, okay?”  We became very used to this phrase and I soon discovered it translates roughly to, “I’m going and I probably wont come back, okay?” Finally we went to the other side of the complex and watched ladies make soup and fufu, and helped out a little bit. At one point, a car came into the driveway and the lady driving (A friend of Christine’s I think) was heading to Legon so we hopped in and Christine sent us with a container of groundnut soup and rice balls. The cozy ride home in an air-conditioned car was a great way to end this exciting weekend.

Doin' Laundry

My first experience with hand washing laundry turned out to be quite an event. After going down with my bag of clothes to the center courtyard (since the water was out in our room) I began to wash my very dirty jeans, not very successfully. I had just finished and was working on my next load when a young lady came up and could obviously tell I had no idea what I was doing. She proceeded to teach me how to do laundry for the next hour and a half. Every so often she would check my clothes to see how I was doing and usually she decided, “Oh, dis is no good” and I would have to keep scrubbing. I finally finished and I must say, my white shirts have never looked this white in my whole life.

I am now a much better and more efficient clothes-washer than this first experience and I realized it is much easier to do a few items every few days rather than having the dirty laundry build up over the week or weeks. I also have discovered that I really enjoy doing laundry by hand – it can almost be meditative. Sitting out on my porch and cleaning clothes while watching people in the courtyard below is surprisingly satisfying.

Day in Dogobom

On Saturday September 4, the group of us with CIEE traveled to a little village about two hours from Accra called Dogobom. Our mission was to build three water purifiers for the town so they could have clean drinking water. We set out early and arrived at this small community at around 10. They first showed us where they got all their water - it was a very brown, murkey lake where they bathed, did laundry, and drank. It was eye opening to remind myself how lucky I am to have clean drinking water every day.

To build the water purifiers, we used large blue barrells and filled them with a layer of large rocks, then smaller stones, then sand. The water filters through, is pumped out and when this type of water purifier was tested they found it was 98% free from all bacteria! Pretty amazing for such an easy item to make.

We were there for most of the day and besides building the purifiers, we spent much of our time playing with the children. The community put on a small drum performance and everyone danced and sang. I also played some soccer with the Ghanaians and ate coconuts with the children. This experience was benefecial for the community, but I also took away so much from being immersed in the lives of these people for just one day.