Thursday, June 27, 2013
My assignment for the day was to get some interesting
pictures of the children at Challenging Heights School. Jackie was my guide and helped me get to the
school. We took two different taxis to get there. Each taxi cost each of us 60
pesewas.
The school is on a different taxi loop than the Challenging
Heights Office. So we took the taxi from the office to where the two loops are
close; walked the short distance to the second loop; caught a second taxi and
rode it to a location a block or so from the school. The walk from the taxi
drop to the school was an interesting walk behind houses and over rocks.
I had thought that it would be pretty easy getting the
pictures I needed of the children but I found that it was far more challenging
than I had anticipated. All the children wanted their pictures taken and as
soon as I pulled my camera out, I got swamped with children yelling at me to
take their picture. I had hands waving in front of the camera and faces so
close that I had to back up.
I finally got a few individual pictures of the children by pointing
my camera one direction and then quickly turning to capture a picture of a
child in a total different direction.
While I was at the school I tried to upload the Run-Off
Restaurant Video to YouTube and kept getting an error message after several
attempts. I ended up waiting till I got back to the states to upload the video.
The problem turned out to be that the account was fully registered.
Part of the GVSU group got a turn of the school while I was
there so I tagged along on their tour and took pictures of them for the
Challenging Heights Facebook page.
Swedish Dignitaries Visit Hovde House
Friday, June 28, 2013
Today I rode with James to Hovde House. Several Sweden
dignitaries were visiting for a few hours and during that time they toured
Hovde House, Challenging Heights School and the Run-Off Restaurant. I photographed
the whole visit.
Hovde House is where the children who have been rescued from
slavery in the fishing village go for their rehabilitation. The length of time
that they stay varies on the child. It could be a few months or a year or more.
I was touched by my visit to Hovde House and I had trouble
falling asleep back at Lagoon Lodge that evening as I thought of the children I
met that day. One of the dignitaries asked James why there was such a difference
in the number of girls to boys in residence at Hovde House. There were 30 boys
and six girls. James explained that the slave masters prefer the boys for the
fishing tasks. They get the boys young. A five-year old boy is a lot easier to
control than a 15-year old or older boy. So the slave masters buy some girls to
keep the older boys happy. The girls end up doing the fishing tasks as well as
serving as sex slaves.
Elmina Castle
Saturday, June 29, 2013
The outing to Elmina Castle was the pinnacle of my trip to
Ghana on several levels. I had been here for three weeks, developed friendship
and gained confidence in getting around. So I organized the outing and invited
Jackie, Natalie and Nicola. I arranged with Gideon the taxi driver, to pick all
of us at Lagoon Lodge and take us to Elmina Castle. The cost for the whole day
for his taxi service was 80 cedis which we split among the four of us along
with buying Gideon’s lunch. I thought it was a very reasonable outing. In the
end, I paid less for the taxi for the whole day to Elmina Castle then I did for
the tro-tros and taxi I took for my first trip with Amy to the Canopy Walk.
Elmina Castle was our primary destination for the day. It
cost 19 cedis to get in and another 20 cedis for the right to take pictures. We
were also expected to tip the guide and pay a fee to use the bathroom. But it was worth it. I took tons of pictures
of the Castle, the boats, the river, and the ocean. My hardest task now will be
narrowing down which photos I will share.
Some Random Thoughts
While I was in Ghana, I used MTN as my internet connection.
It was convenient. It really made me appreciate our internet connection at home
though. The Challenging Heights office had wireless but only enough for five
people.
Upon arriving I had paid for a month worth of interest from
MTN. That came in very handing for both the office and at the lodge. The lodge
had internet but I was never able to connect and the office was always needed
by others. So though MTN was a lot slower than home, it became my connection to
home and my connection to the work I did for Challenging Heights.
To use the MTN internet connection, I had a usb device that
I plugged into my computer it was then my connection to the internet. The speed
varied, as you can see from the various screen shots I took of the MTN Pocket
Internet panel.
Thoughts on Souvenirs
I’m not much into buying souvenirs. My souvenirs are my
pictures and memories that I bring home. But I did buy some fabric and I wish I
had bought more. It is so beautiful.
The first fabric I bought was a beautiful blue and white,
which I got at Cape Coast. I purchased two yards for 20 cedis. There was a
second purple and white fabric but the vendor was not willing to negotiate if I
bought the two. Gideon advised me that the vendor was asking a lot more than
what I would pay in Winneba. So I bought only blue one because I was definitely
taken with it.
The second piece of fabric which I bought was from Winneba
along one of the streets not too far from the lodge. It was predominantly
orange and complimented the blue fabric which I had already bought. I got two
yards for 10 cedis.
***
A new point of view
I truly believe that this international volunteer experience for staff adds to Grinnell College’s rich tapestry and commitment to social justice. Right before I left for the trip, I happened to meet Larry Asante Boateng through email. He was an incoming first-year student from Ghana. After exchanging a few emails, my husband and I checked with Larry to see if we could ask the Office of International Student Affairs to pair us with him in the host family program.
Suddenly I was viewing Ghana and home with a new point of view. As I walked the streets of Winneba, making friends, eating the food, melting in the heat, and seeing the sites, I thought of Larry. This was his home; this is where he comes from. I thought how different the streets of Grinnell are to the streets of Winneba and I was suddenly thinking how Grinnell must appear to Larry and other international students. Our streets must look like a ghost town at times compared to how alive the streets in Winneba were.
As I experimented with eating unusual dishes, I thought about how though I liked the food; I was missing the food I was familiar with; I was missing my husband and his cooking; I was missing home. Suddenly I was appreciating what Larry would go through when he arrived at Grinnell and what all our international students go through every year.
Now that I am home, it has been wonderful introducing Larry to Iowa but at I have also been more aware of how he might be missing home and what is familiar to him. It has been Robert’s and my pleasure to try making Ghanaian dishes with Larry in order to bring a little of home to him.
My time in Ghana was a wonderful experience… not only was I able to volunteer at Challenging Heights I gained wonderful friends, I learned about myself and I gained a greater appreciation of what our students go through when they come to Grinnell, leaving all that is familiar behind.
Meet Larry:
