Days 72-77

This last week has been pretty eventful, so this post is one of my longer ones & it took me about 6 hours to upload the pictures onto it, but it was a good week for me here!

Wednesday morning I woke up & realized I was just about out of cash, in fact I didn’t have enough left to get a taxi to the orphanage. I ran all over campus trying to find an ATM that actually works & takes MasterCard. Most ATM’s here only take Visa so I had a little trouble but finally found one. I got a cab to meet the kids at chapel, but there was no chapel that day because it was spring break for the American International School where they go for chapel so I just walked to the orphanage instead. I taught the younger kids school that morning & then went to get some lunch. I ordered a cheese sandwich thinking it would be like grilled cheese, but it was just two slices of white bread with one piece of cheese in the middle. I ate it anyways & actually liked it, the oddest things taste good to me now since I’ve been eating food that I don’t really care for over the last 3 months. I ate while reading one of the books my grandma sent me about Chelsea Handler’s trip to Africa. It was hilarious. The end even had a part about her skiing at the Yellowstone Club in Montana so I could relate to it very well, not that I’ve ever been to the Yellowstone Club but I’ve been to Big Sky plenty of times & she accidentally ends up there too so it’s close enough. I finished it that night & laughed through the whole book. I finished my day with a night class & then tried to go to bed early again.

Thursday morning I woke up early for my class & got my usual breakfast on the way. This time on my way to class there was a man in front of me that kept turning around waving & yelling something that I couldn’t hear because I had my headphones in. I assumed it was to a person behind me so I just kept walking. Ghanaians walk at an incredibly slow pace so it wasn’t long before I passed him. He stared very intensely while I passed him & then began to follow me. I sped up my walking pace so it turned into more of a chase. He was carrying a bible & finally started to use words to try to talk to me. I don’t believe he was a danger at all but that early in the morning I’m not really up for having a conversation with someone who is most likely going to try to make me believe in a God that I already believe in. I don’t know why they seem to think that American’s here aren’t Christians. I’m always open to conversations about Christianity, but not the way they do it here. They remind me of the street preachers that go on campus yelling at people about how they will go to hell & need to repent & all those things. So, I told him I was in a hurry & couldn’t chat. Class went as it usually does, it was my finance class & today we were talking about checking & savings accounts. Ghana isn’t very advanced in their banking yet so I was the only person who had either of these things so it was more like 2 hours of the teacher asking me questions about them & the rest of the class half listening to us. When I got back to the hostel I got a message from my director saying I had a package in the office so I made my way back across campus again. When I set out it wasn’t raining at all, but within the first 10 minutes of my walk it began pouring rain. I had about 20 minutes left so I just decided to finish walking. I was absolutely soaked head to toe once I got there. It looked like I just jumped in a pool with my clothes on, but I had the sweetest package from my Aunt Shanna, Uncle Bob, & cousins Grace & Ryan when I got there so it was worth the rainstorm. I wasn’t expecting it at all & they very rarely come directly to campus so I was very happy that I didn’t have to go to the post office. They sent me some sweet treats & all wrote me a letter & added some extra goodies for the kids at the orphanage. I am so blessed to have a family that takes care of me when I’m so far away. One of our student guides was at the office with his car so he offered me a ride back to the hostel so that I didn’t have to walk all the way back in the rain. Class is cancelled when it rains, and I can see why. I have never experienced rain like this before. I just read & listened to the storm until it cleared up & then made my way to the orphanage. I read them books & we colored. One of the girls played with my hair the whole time I read to her. Her hair is so different from mine, I think the difference fascinates both of us. I always find myself touching them on the head & feeling their hair too. I talked with my dad that afternoon & he told me that I still have a job working for him when I get home. I was happy to hear this because I’ve actually really missed working & I enjoy my job at his office. I miss him too so I’ll be looking forward to getting to see him everyday again.

Friday morning I woke up & got my usual breakfast again. I spent a couple hours reading at the coffee place & made it back to the hostel just in time for it to start raining again. This time the storm was even more intense. The thunder literally sounds like a bomb is exploding. I talked to my roommate through the storm & then did some more reading & watched Friends. You really can’t do anything while it’s raining here so I get pretty lazy on the rainy days. Once it stopped I got some crackers & peanut butter to take with me on my trip that weekend. We were set to leave at midnight that night so I did my best to stay awake until then but didn’t quite make it. Luckily I set an alarm & met everyone downstairs at midnight, but like most things in Ghana, we didn’t leave on time. The bus finally came to get us around 2 am & we had a 7-hour trip ahead of us.

We were headed to the village built on stilts. I quickly learned that I was the only one who thought that “stilt village” meant they walked on stilts, & was made fun of for it all weekend. I tried to sleep on the bus but didn’t have much luck. There were a lot of people & not much space. I have never been claustrophobic before but I definitely felt like it on that trip. It reminded me of when we went to New York over Christmas during my senior year of high school & my grandpa would get so claustrophobic every time we got in an elevator, all his comments were really funny to all of us who weren’t bothered by it but after that bus ride I can see where he was coming from. There are also a very insane amount of speed bumps on all the roads here & they are huge. I have theory that there used to be elephants all over Ghana & then when they built the roads they couldn’t move them so they just built them right over top of the elephants. (Totally joking, but the size is about right.) All the bumps can make sleeping very difficult. Being on the bus also reminded me of taking the ski bus up to Bridger Bowl in middle school with my friends Alex & Rachel. I think I also had too many memories going through my head to get much sleep. 

 Most of the way there was lined with houses looking like this, just pieces of trees & mud holding it together. There were several villages filled with houses like this. All the pictures we see of poverty in Africa come to life here. It’s crazy how real they are.

We arrived at the beach where we were staying to drop our stuff off. We stayed in huts made out of branches & leaves. We had no cell service, electricity, or running water but that was actually really nice. 

 

We ended up all napping on the porch for a couple hours before we set out for the stilt village. We had to walk pretty far to get the lake, then we loaded into a couple canoes & set out for an hour-long boat ride to get to the village. The beginning was more like a marsh, very shallow & extremely dirty. The water was close to the same color as coffee & we all have open wounds from our mosquito bites so we decided it might be a good time to take pills to get rid of any parasites we may have collected over the last few months. I haven’t bought one yet but probably should soon. They gave us little plastic water scoops that resembled the fry containers they give you at McDonald’s to try to keep water out of the canoe. It wasn’t long before ours started to sink so we had to go through a pretty extensive process to get rid of the water & switch around boats & passengers to keep us all afloat. Once we finally figured all that out we were on our way again & it turned out to be one the most peaceful things I’ve ever done. The lake was beautiful. I’m used to being on the water with a motor going & music playing so it was a nice change of pace to be in a tiny little canoe where we had to paddle ourselves to get anywhere. 

 

The village was another incredibly beautiful & humbling experience. All the houses there were just like the huts we were staying at on the beach, all branches & leaves without many resources. They were all built up on stilts obviously so it kind of felt like we were on a giant dock that had houses on it. The children were of course my favorite. They were running around in the mud having the time of their lives. I love that the simplest things satisfy them. Most were barely covered by clothes that didn’t fit them, some weren’t clothed at all, but they were all so happy. 

This is my favorite picture. These 2 sisters were so adorable, they made me miss my sister even more than I already did. Most people would think it isn’t appropriate at our age to hold each other like they are, but we do weird things. And if I remember our relationship correctly, I would probably be in the baby’s place & she would take the place as the older sister. 

All the little kids see our cameras & yell “Pik-chaw! Pik-chaw! Take my pik-chaw!” They don’t really get that you have to hold still for them to turn out right, but they’re too cute not to try.

Their chief spoke to us & we asked many questions about the village. It has been there since the 14^th century & they just now have a school for children through 6^th grade. The children were so proud of their school & showed us the classrooms, there were only 3 of them, that are shared by multiple grade levels. I have started to get stingy with my money here because I get asked for it quite a bit, but this village seemed like a good place to make a donation so I gave some to the church & some to the school. After our tour we made our way back by boat. We left during an incredible sunset & finished the ride in the dark. We walked back to huts in the dark too & for a second I thought I was going to pass out because I kept seeing all these flashes in my vision, but then I realized how stupid I was & that they were just fireflies, which added a little more beauty to a dark walk. 

 

We had to bring our own food for this trip because there aren’t many places to get it there so once we got back we built a fire & ate our food. My friend Micah brought his guitar so we all listened to him play & the waves crash onto the beach until the rain came & we all went to bed. I slept on a mat that was about and inch & a half thick on the floor made out of branches of one of these huts. I used to be the queen of complaining when it came to sleeping on the floor at the lake & now it doesn’t even phase me. My way of living has changed so much since I got here. I can hardly recognize the way I used to live back home.

 

Sunday morning we hung around the beach until about 1:00 & then set out on our trip back home. Somehow the bus was less crowded this time, and we added a nurse from Spain who we met at the beach to our bus so I’m really sure how that happened. But we made it home safely later that night. I was exhausted from the lack of sleep & fell asleep pretty quickly.

I slept in again this morning before setting out for class. I got coffee & breakfast before class again but this time I got French toast instead of oatmeal. It didn’t quite measure up to my dad’s French toast, but it wasn’t bad. I used to love it when he would make it on the weekends. Even if I had already had something for breakfast I would still eat it. I thought about him the whole time I ate & then set out for class. I really did not like class today. We divided into 5 groups & were given topics to present to the class. My group’s topic was the legalization of homosexuality in Ghana so there was some obvious controversy between my beliefs & the rest of my groups. I kept quite while they gathered most of the information they wanted to present & then they tried to get me to present it all. I told them that I didn’t want to present because I didn’t agree with their argument & then made my points as to why. They still insisted I present, but I finally won the argument. When our presenter went up to share our information, she was asked to say everyone’s name in our group. When she got to me no one in our group knew my name so they just called me Obrani until I told them what it was. It made me a little upset that they practically begged me to present yet they didn’t even know what my first name was. After she finished, she mentioned that I didn’t agree with keeping homosexuality illegal so the teacher asked me stand up & say why, so I ended up presenting anyways with an argument that I wasn’t prepared to make. I mentioned that it has never once bothered me in the US that homosexuality is legal & that it doesn’t affect my life at all. I also mentioned that I’ve been to the castles where the British enslaved thousands of Africans & they were discriminated against for their skin color, yet they are still willing to discriminate against homosexuals for something that they did not chose. The class didn’t really listen to me so it was pretty awkward. It left me a little frustrated but I understand that I won’t be able to change their minds about it in one tiny little speech so my frustration didn’t last long.

I’m still regrouping from the weekend. I am definitely starting to wear down here. The heat & the traveling are starting to exhaust me so I think I will be ready to go home in 7 weeks. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be, but there’s really only one more trip that is on my list & then I’ll be ready to head home. It will be weird spending Easter here without my family. I haven’t been away from them for any holiday before so I don’t really know what that will feel like but hopefully I’ll come up with something fun to do over the weekend.

Love to you all,

Kasey