Adventure to Busua!

Since we had no classes all last week, some girls on the program and I decided to venture down the coast for a few days. We left on Thursday morning and took a bus to a town called Takoradi, then a taxi to Busua, a small fishing town which ended up being about five hours from Accra. We got in after dark and decided to stay at the Alaska Lodge, since one of the girls was from Alaska.

The next day, we met the Alaskan who owns the lodge and his Ghanaian wife, as well as their monkeys, turtles, and parrots. We had no plans for the next few days, we simply wanted to relax on the beach. After getting some breakfast from the street, we decided to swim out to this small island. However, when we got there we discovered many sea urchines in between the rocks as we attempted to climb on shore. I made it without any urchines in me but some girls were not so fortunate. On the swim back we also encountered some jellyfish, but the swim was definitely worth these small setbacks. For the rest of the day we surfed and body boarded a bit and had some delicious burritos for lunch. At one point, I was out on the water surfing, the sun was setting in one direction, and there was a rainbow in the other...a picture perfect moment. We spent two more nights in Busua, swimming, surfing, eating, and relaxing, then headed back home to campus.

Overall, the weekend was an amazing getaway from the bustle of Accra and I felt so relaxed and rejuvinated apon returning home. I do hope I'll be able to return before my time is up...

Strike on Campus

Going to school in Ghana comes with a few setbacks. Last Monday, I was ready for a normal week of classes after missing some for the dance productions, and when I arrived at my first class I found out all the teachers were on strike. I figured it would be a one day strike and classes would resume the next day, but I quickly found out this was not the case. Some Ghanaians told us that the last strike lasted for three weeks and in the past they have closed for a whole semester! The reason for the current strike is a problem between the government and the professors: the teachers were supposed to have a salary increase last year and it never happened, so until the government agrees to pay them they will continue with the strike. Many teachers here have multiple jobs so they can support themselves and their families.

We are in the middle of week two of the strike and now they are making special arrangements for international students so we can still receive credit for classes. Most of the classes are meeting again, but only with the non-Ghanaian students. My friend Molly and I have had some of our dance classes so far and it has been us, our teacher Mr. Newman, and three teaching assistants. Probably the best teacher to student ratio I will ever have. The class was an absolute blast, but I really miss my Ghanaian colleagues. Everyone is waiting to hear about a stirke update but no one knows for sure when it will be resolved. Until then, I guess I will continue to have nearly private lessons in dance!

Kodzi

Near the beginning of the semester, Molly and I were sitting outside the dance department when a dancer friend told us to go audition for a dance in one of the rooms. Despite the fact that I had no idea what I was auditioning for, I entered the room and did a 10 second solo and they also had me do a short improvised dance about eating. A week or so later, even though we didn’t know too much about it, Molly and I found out we each had a part in the dance!

Our first rehearsal was slightly more helpful in informing us on what exactly we were doing, however, a mixture of English and Twi made it quite difficult to catch everything that was going. In the end, we did piece most things together and figured out more or less what our roles were. A graduate student, Steph, was creating a dance to be performed in her home village, near Cape Coast. The name of the project was Kodzi, which means go and eat, although I never really figured out why that was the title. The name Kodzi also has some significance in storytelling, and the idea for the project was to keep the tradition of storytelling alive in the town while adding contemporary African dance movements to enhance the performance. The story we were dancing was about Ananse the spider and how money came to be scattered around the world.

And here is the story: The King of the Land, who possessed all the riches in the world, would give all his money to whoever could win a race against his falcon. Ananse decided to enter the race and begin gathering individuals to help him. This included the fastest cheetah in the land, a man who could hit anything with his bow and arrow from miles away, an incredibly strong man, and an individual who could make thunder and lightening strike with a turn of his cap. At the race, the cheetah runs against the falcon, but halfway through he falls asleep. The hunter then shoots his arrow to wake up the cheetah who continues the race and wins. The group Ananse rounded up is very excited and when Ananse goes to collect the money from the King, he uses the strong man to carry all the gold. At nightfall while the group is sleeping, the King, who is extremely angry that Ananse outsmarted him, encircles the group with flame. They wake up to find burning flames everywhere and soon the thunder and lighting man turns his cap over and the rain puts out the fire. After that everyone begins to fight about who deserves the money, each with a reasonable argument. The thunder and lightening man’s hat gets turned over in the chaos and when the rain comes, all the money is washed away to different parts of the globe. That is the story of how money came to be.

My part in the dance was the thunder and lightening man. Some of the movement was choreographed, but a large part I made on my own and had to improvise in the town because the space was very different from where we rehearsed. After a few late night rehearsals, it was time for our adventure to the village.

Since we were leaving so early in the morning, I slept over at a girl’s room who lives closer to campus. We got up at 4:30am to be ready for a 5:00 departure, but of course we left a little later than that, a little closer to 6. All 25 of us squeezed onto a tro-tro with the costumes, props, and lights for the show and took of down the coast. Steph told us when we were leaving that as soon as we got there, we would unload the stuff, begin putting the set together and then have rehearsal. We arrived in the small village at about 8:30, unloaded the van, then took a short walk around town to pay a visit to the chief and check out the space for our performance. The chief was out of town so we said hello to some other important people in town (not quite sure of their role) and found the small circular performance space, which had a lower center stage and a few different levels for sitting or performing. We headed back to the house – the home of the Queen Mother with a large living room and a few separate rooms for sleeping – and just when I was ready to begin rehearsing, everyone took a nap. No one really even talked about it, but one by one people lay down and slept for a few hours. After a little while they gathered all the girls together and had them begin preparing food. By the end of the few days we learned how to make rice and stew, pollava sauce and yams, jollaf rice and meat. 

This trip opened my eyes to a side of Ghanaian life that I had not encountered living with another American. First, the very defined gender roles were present during our entire stay. The women would cook all the meals, the men did the heavy lifting, we even ate separately. I became a little frustrated at times when they wouldn’t let girls carry large objects even though we were perfectly capable. Another part of their culture I became aware of was showering. We all did bucket showers, which I was very used to from the times when our dorm runs out of water, but I was not used to their frequency of showering. Even though we really didn’t do vigorous activities, they still found it necessary to shower two or three times a day, and they continuously asked when we were going to shower. In the end, we decided it was just easier to shower a few times a day rather than explain why we didn’t think we needed to bathe after doing nothing.

On the first day, after everyone napped and ate, we went back into town to rehearse. But when we got there and began setting up, there appeared to be some miscommunication with the chief about us being there and they didn’t want us to make any noise. Our rehearsal, which was supposed last for a large part of the day, ended up not happening at all. Back at the house, we set up for bed and we all decided to sleep on the living room floor since it had a working fan.

The next day the girl went out to find breakfast and we ended up buying all the bread at one little store. It is truly amazing how much bread we can go through here. The morning was quite lazy, so Molly and I went on a little walk to find the nearby river. We were unsuccessful in our trek, but we did come across a gorgeous view of the ocean and saw more parts of the village. After more napping, we followed some kids to go fetch water from a small pond since our supply was running low. I successfully carried a bucket of water up a steep rocky pathway without spilling too much. Some of us went into town to find a generator because the lights were not working on the set. The priest in town had the only generator and he let us borrow it for the night. However, this also came with a proposal in Twi, which took me a while to understand, but I politely declined his request. Later that night a toothless man also wanted me to be his wife and again I had to say no. I am getting quite used to declining proposals here in Ghana.

The night of our show came, and we never really rehearsed our dance in the space. We walked through it a few times, but there were always so many people watching and we didn’t want them to see. The storyteller we had for the night was a small man missing a few teeth and we could all tell that he definitely liked to spend a lot of time at the bar. I was a little worried that he wouldn’t make it through the night, but it all worked out. When we got there, people were slowly gathering and we began with a small dance contest, which Molly and I both participated in, as well as many young kids. When it was time for our dance piece, we put on our costumes – mine was a silver unitard – and began. For never having rehearsed it, the show ran very smoothly. At parts I had to do major improvising because the kids were sitting right where I should be dancing but it didn’t matter. We also had a major unplanned fight seen at the end and the audience loved it. Back at the house, we had a late dinner and I think I ate more rice than I have ever eaten in one day in my life but it was delicious. We only got a few hours of sleep that night since we wanted to leave at 3am but we did get to sleep on the tro-tro ride home.

This trip left me with a glimpse into Ghanaian life that I probably wouldn’t have experienced on campus. I became much closer with some of the dancers and can now cook a few different meals. But perhaps the greatest part of their culture I took away was their relaxed and calm attitude towards life – why stress about small things throughout the day? Why not just enjoy every moment and be happy with the people you are with?

Dancing Every Day

My schedule for classes is pretty steady now – and I absolutely love it! I am taking three dance classes, which means I have a minimum of one dance class per day, some days I have three.  A friend from St. Olaf, Molly, is also taking almost all dance classes so for most of the day we hang around the dance department. Our teacher for two of the classes is quite a character and I don’t even know where to begin to describe him. He is an older man who doesn’t look like he has much energy but once he starts dancing he suddenly seems to be about 20 years old. For the first week I don’t think I heard him say one word, except for calling role. He would just go to the front of the class and begin the dance moves, which we were expected to follow.  For two of the classes, we have live drums since they are traditional type dances. These classes are an absolute blast and always put me in a good mood.

One great advantage of always being near the dance building is learning about other happenings in the department. Molly and I heard about something called Future of Dance, although we weren’t quite sure what it was, but some teachers invited us to the rehearsals. The first night, we showed up ready for anything and not knowing what to expect. I’ve come to understand that not many people have clear answers for what is going on and usually the best way to find out is to jump right in and figure it out for yourself. We arrived when the rehearsal was supposed to start and, as usual, there were very few people there. After about a half hour people slowly started showing up and we began about an hour after the scheduled time. The dancing started, and soon Molly and I were told to go learn one of the pieces in another room, so before we really new what was going on, we were a part of one of the dances.

Later we discovered what the show was all about. The same show, Future of Dance, was performed last semester after one of the professors in the department died. The first piece, titled Tribute, was in memory of this teacher. Since it was such a hit, they decided to do the show again, but they needed to add people to some pieces and change some parts. In the end, Molly and I were a part of two of the dances (and there were about eight altogether) and the only white people in the show.

The rest of the rehearsals were very similar to the first. Molly and I knew they wouldn’t start on time so we would show up fashionably late, but we still were almost always the first ones there. The week before the show most of the rehearsals went until past 11 at night but it was definitely worth it. Our final rehearsal before the show was on a holiday, so we were told to show up at 9am. Molly and I arrive at about 9:30 and find…no one. At about 10:30, some people start showing up but they begin working on the set or getting their hair done for the show or helping sew costumes. By noon, we see more people in the show and chat with them for a while and finally at around 2, we learn that we probably will start rehearsal around 7pm. Being on time is simply not part of the culture here.

Another fascinating part of being in the production was my role in publicity. I have helped do publicity before in my small town, which usually involves putting some posters up around town. I didn’t think I would be very helpful with lights, set design or costumes so I volunteered for publicity. One quick side note on Accra is that although there may be a few street names, nobody uses them or knows where they are. This makes it very difficult to have addresses or get clear directions so you simply need to know how to get to your destination. This also makes it very difficult to send invitations to a dance production. Instead, we hand delivered all 25 invitations to different businesses around Accra. I went with one other Ghanaian and we traveled to four different parts of Accra in tro-tros, taxis, and on foot and located the different businesses to hand them the invitations to the show. About four groups went delivering and it took almost the entire day. Efficiency is also not a huge part of the culture here, although it was a great way to tour the city.

Our efforts in publicity must have paid off. We had three performances and they were pretty full every night. The shows were outside and on the last night it began to rain a bit but it actually made the dances more exciting and intense. I’m so glad Molly and I decided to go to that first rehearsal because I may never again have an experience like that in my life.

Cape Coast

These last few weeks have been quite hectic and adventurous, but have been an absolute blast. Campus is a great place to live and has many attractions but it always feels nice to leave campus and explore another part of the country. Our CIEE group took another trip a few weekends ago to Cape Coast, a town on the ocean about 3 hours west of Accra. We left early Saturday morning to begin the gorgeous drive along the coast. On the way we stopped and I got five pineapples on the side of the road (for less than $2!) and I got one cut up and I still am delighted by how juicy and sweet they are every time. On all of our group trips they feed us amazingly well and lunch was no exception. We had a buffet with jollaf rice, fried rice, chicken and fish, yams with pollava sauce (a cooked spinachy-like dish) plantains, salad, and ice cream for desert. After lunch we split up into two groups to visit either the slave castle at Cape Coast or the one in Elmina, even though they are virtually the same. I hopped in the van going to Cape Coast since there were less people in the group.

The slave castle was enlightening. Learning about the slave trade in school is tragic and I can try to imagine what the Africans had to go through but after visiting and getting a tour of a slave castle a whole other emotional level is added. Standing in a place where Africans lived, died, thought their last thoughts in Africa before being separated from their families forever and shipped out west made this part of history feel so close and personal. Its hard to imagine that people committed these horrible atrocities only a little over a century ago.

After the tour of the castles, we drove to our hotel – a beautiful place called Coconut Grove right on the beach. For the rest of the afternoon we sat around, jumped in the water, walked down the beach, played volleyball and soccer, and had another delicious meal for dinner. The next day we woke up early and headed out to Kakum National Park and went on a canopy tour through the rainforest. We walked on eight suspended bridges, some so high it was difficult to see the ground and despite my fear of heights, I had a great time enjoying the gorgeous scenery.  After lunch at a crocodile observation spot, we piled on the bus for the drive home from a very eventful weekend.