#but have you ever met a ghanian bee?

[mytortoisegotstuckinatupperware]

entomology taught by bruce the menace

[hanleykayla]

July 25, 2018

Saturday, July 21

I arrived in Accra, Ghana around 8pm local time. Upon landing, the flight attendants walked up and down the aisles spraying bug repellent so mosquitos wouldn’t enter the plane when the doors opened up at the gate. Not having any bug spray on myself, I was real pumped for what I was about to walk into. We were warned that we could be prosecuted or fined for taking pictures at the airport (which explains why I don’t have any to share) and we exited the plane in the middle of the runway.

The two gentleman that I was sitting next to for the ride was the first example of “Ghanian hospitality” (which is a huge part of their culture) that I experienced. They knew a staff member who worked in the immigration process and took me straight to this officer so my visa processing could be efficient and not as hostile as I was warned it could be. While I was grateful for the quickness of getting through immigration, I felt so bad once I realized how long it was taking for my bag to get off the plane and to the baggage claim. Michel and Paul were one of the first to receive their bags, and after waiting 2+ hours (!), my bag was the very last one off the plane. I tend to be a dramatic person when telling stories, but I am not kidding with this one. It was the very. last. bag.

My mind was all over the place while we were waiting. On one hand, I was worried about my bag never showing up and therefore, having to take on 22 weeks in Africa with only the two outfits in my bag and the two granola bars in my backpack. On the other hand, I was also felt incredibly anxious and guilty about Michel and Paul waiting with me. I kept apologizing and telling them how grateful I was for their care, especially because their uncle was patiently waiting outside to pick them up and they could have left to go home hours ago. I felt like my issue was taking over other individuals’ nights and that did not sit well with me, but the Ghanaian men did not seem to care at all. They said they would be more affected if they left me and spent the next couple days worrying if I ever got my bag and if I felt comfortable in their country. I just kind of stared at them and thought, “if everyone in this country is going to be this nice, I am going to be more than okay.”

Finally, I was outside the airport and met the Volunteer Coordinator from the Cheerful Hearts Foundation, the organization I will be working with throughout my time here. His name is Oppong, and his smile and patience immediately made me feel welcomed. On the car ride to our house in Peace Town, Kasoa, I learned that Oppong will be one of the five people that will be my current housemates. The program I am in is very customizable, which means that throughout my time here, the number of roommates I will have will be ever changing since people can constantly come and go from different countries.

Sunday, July 22

I spent my first morning unpacking and getting settled in. Here is a picture of my pretty-princess bed :) my sister joked that I should have ordered a pink one.

Afterwards, I went on a walk with my roommates to get food from a local stand. We ordered Kenkey, Fufu, and Red Red. KenKey is a some sort of cold blended corn soup with condensed milk and fried peanuts, and I don’t think I ever want to eat it again. But! Fufu was a boiled corn and maize mixture that almost acted as a bread that one could dip in a VERY spicy sauce and/or wrap around fried fish. This wasn’t too bad, although I cannot say that I ate much of the spicy sauce. However, I did eat all of the Red Red - which is simply just rice and beans, and is typically served with plantains.

On our way to and from the food, the children in my town could not stop pointing and yelling “obroni!” (which means “white person!”) at me as I walked past. They would run up to me and try to hang on my arms and/or they would want to rub my skin because it was so unusual to them. I loved every second of it.

Following our meal, we went to the mall which reminded me a shockingly amount of America, I felt like I was walking around Yorktown and I kept thinking “this is not at all what I pictured Ghana to be.” There, I exchanged money and bought a mifi with 6 GB on it for the cost of 177 cidi (about $45) as the office I will be working in does not currently have wifi like they said they would. I can also use this wifi on my phone and to upload these blog posts.

To get to and from the mall, we had to take a TroTro - which is a shared “bus” that is actually the size of a SUV. Men hang out of the windows and keep the doors open so they can stand and ask the people they are driving past if anyone want a ride. While the trotro only has 8 seats in it, they can cram up to 14 people in these cars. For the price of 1 cidi, or 25 cents, I could take a trotro for a 15 minute ride from my town to the closest mall.

We came home, had Red Red for dinner, watched The Secret Life of Bees (weird, I know), and went to bed.

Monday, July 23 - Wednesday, July 25

Throughout my time here, I will be working with the Cheerful Hearts Foundation in Kasoa, Ghana to assist them in their Child Labor and Trafficking project. The goal of the project is to get children off of the shore where they work for/potentially sold by fisherman and back into school. The Foundation does this through three ways: research, sponsorship, and awareness, and my work began this past Monday.

I spent most of my time on Monday and Tuesday in the office reviewing materials and analyzing survey data. The intention was that through this I would get a better understanding of the organization overall, and the issue of child labor/trafficking.

At home, I’ve been adjusting to the Ghana lifestyle - wake up, go to work, show up later than you should, come home, eat dinner around 4:30pm, sun sets by 6:30pm, find something to do until you fall asleep. On Monday, our power went out (which is apparently a normal thing as it is only two days later, and again here I am sitting in the dark...at 6:45pm) so I took a shower in the pitch black and found a cockroach that apparently decided to shower with me. On Tuesday, I showed up to the office at 8:30am as instructed, and my first coworker - who had the key to the office - didn’t show up until 10:30am. My Irish skin and I really appreciated it. On Wednesday, the power went out at work and no one even flinched, but rather just continued working. If this happened back in Chicago, we would have all called it quits and went home.

On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to visit 3 schools in the neighboring fishing villages and I visited the shore in Nyayano where children go to work instead go to of school. While at the shore, I was able to talk to some fisherman and children. I learned that the highest rate a child has been sold in to trafficking for, at least that they knew of on this beach, was 300 cidi. To put that in context, that is less than $100. Due to poverty, threats, and unemployment, families feel “forced to sell their kids to fisherman” as they see it as what is best for them and their future. In their minds, the adults receive money, and their children receive a mentorship to learn a specific skill that they can specialize in, and hopefully use to get a job in the future.

I am only here to learn and not to judge, and that calls for a change in perspective. I am not familiar with this culture, I am not familiar with this environment, and I am not familiar with this lifestyle. So, it is really hard for me to understand how parents could sell their children into slavery basically, and for such a cheap price. But, it is hard for me to believe that anyone would chose to do this unless they felt like it is the last absolute option. They have to believe that any other situation would be worse for them and their children. I may not understand it now, but I have 22 more weeks to figure it out.

But, what I do have to understand is that the scale of privilege and advantage has been extremely tipped for a long time. It might not be my fault, but I could easily say that it is partially my responsibility to tip it back. What I am coming to learn is that it takes a disproportionate effort from our side - our more advanced culture, environment, and lifestyle - to lean the scales back to equality.

Throughout all of this, I have been having a lot of first impressions during my first couple of days in Ghana. And, each impression is fleeting. I can go from feeling passionate and motivated to overwhelmed and lonely in a moment’s instance. What this fleeting-ness teaches me is that none of these perspectives are yet to be true; they aren’t rooted in anything. I am excited to take this experience one day at a time and to continue to figure out what I will learn from this community and what they can learn from me.