Tarkwa 18 Feb 08

This was my first real weekend in Tarkwa, last weekend I went to a funeral in Kumasi. Ashanti funerals are really quite interesting.
Anyway, I posted some pics from this weekend. Saturday is wash day here. Everyone does their laundry by hand with buckets. There are no washing machines anywhere in town! As you might guess, laundry is a hard and time consuming process. I went over to my friend Victoria’s house so she could teach me how to wash my clothes properly. In her mind, washing is an art form and not something to be done half-ass. The process takes a very long time. First you wash and rinse, then hang the clothes on the line to dry for several hours. After this, you have to iron everything.
My hands were red and sore after a few items and Victoria found my technique very hilarious.

After a couple hours of this, I needed a break. We had a typical meal of rice and a red sauce fish stew. She gives me very large portions because she doesn’t think I eat enough! Well, with the heat, I don’t have much of an appetite, but she is right to think I need to eat more.

Her husband came home with his friend Henry and asked if we would like to go out for a while. There was a football game (soccer) on at 5 pm (Ghana revolves around football). So we traveled by taxi to a local restaurant/bar. I ordered a Star Beer, which comes in 625 mL bottles. The electricity was out so it was desperately hot in the restaurant, but luckily the beer was cold. We sat and chatted for a while, then went off to The Club House to watch the game. It was Manchester United vs. Arsenal. I don’t really know anything about football so I just sort of watched and talked to folks who came by to introduce themselves to the Broni (White Woman) and find out my life story. Air conditioned places are hard to come by and I was hoping that this popular place would be cooled, but alas, not to be. So I just had another Star!
The Club House has a grill that cooks goat on skewers and Henry bought me a couple of these for dinner. They were very good. I don’t think I have ever had goat before, but it is really the only red meat around. They cook meat very well done to guard against parasites and other things I don’t really want to think about, so the meat was a little like jerky, but it was very good none the less.
Manchester won handily and then they switched the TV to another football match from the French league. By this time I was pretty tired of football, but please don’t share this with me Ghanaian friends…they would be very disappointed in me. I took a taxi home and slept well with my belly full of goat and beer!

Of course, Sunday is church day. My friend Joe and his family pick me up at some horribly early hour and we go to church.

Church starts at 7:30 am and continues until 10:30 am. This is a lot of church for anyone to handle. I go to a Baptist church which is similar to what you may see in the southern US. Lots of singing and dancing. It is at least entertaining!
After church, Joe invites me home and his wife cooks us lunch. She never eats with us, but spends about 1 hour cooking for us. Joe wanted to introduce me to fufu, a local meal with fish. Fufu is a doughy substance. This is placed into a fish soup and you eat it with your hands. I can’t say that I liked the fufu, but I ate as much as I could. They serve the fish with the head on it and this really grosses me out.

After the fufu, I went home to take a nap! So nice!
Around 5 pm Christiana, a little girl who lives down the hill, came to my door for her daily dose of cookies. She is very cute and very sweet. Her English is not very good, but we try to communicate as much as we can. I would say she is about 8 years old and she tells me that her father is sick and her mother takes care of him so they don’t have very much money. She usually waits outside my door for me to come home from work. I give her cookies and offer her whatever I can find in my fridge (which is not much).
Well, that was about it. Today is another hot day in Ghana and i am procrastinating at work by writing my blog!

Joanna in Tarkwa, Ghana 11 Feb 08

Greetings from Tarkwa, Ghana, West Africa!

I am having a great time and the people are wonderful. I live in a smalbrl room near the University of Mines and Technology campus. I arrived late on Tuesday, February 5th in Accra, Ghana (the capital of Ghana) and after a bit of struggle managed to find a hotel room for a reasonable rate of $60 US. Unfortunately, the water was not running, but was on by the next day (although no hot water). A big bonus was that the air conditioning actually worked! It is hot here. Most days are around 90 - 95 F and really humid. Accra was a typical large 3rd world city. It was noisy and there was a lot of trash around, but the people are wonderful and compassionate.

There was even more energy around the city because of the Africa Cup (soccer) was been held in Ghana and there was a game held that evening in Accra.

On Wednesday morning, after a cold shower and a breakfast of scrambled eggs and baked beans, I made my way to the bus station to figure out how to get myself to Tarkwa. Sammy, a very nice man on the hotel staff, drove me into the city and gave me a breif tour of the major sites. On the busy ring road, you can find vendors selling everything from oranges to hub caps to car floor mats. They stand in the middle of the road holding the items up and when you slow down for traffic they come by your window and quote you a price. Ghana has recently changed their monetary system to make transactions easier. It used to be about 9500 Cedis to one US dollar. Now it is about 0.97 Ghana Cedis to one US dollar. this makes things a lot easier for me to calculate and you don't have to carry dozens of Cedi notes around.

My hotel was also a jazz club and there was live music each night. I met some Nigerians who were in town for the soccer matches and they invited me to have a drink with them that evening at the hotel. They asked me if I have ever been to Nigeria and after I said "no" they said I should go sometime while I am visiting Africa. I told them I was concerned about the safety in Nigeria, but they assured me that the US press has blown everything out of proportion and if I would allow them to be my host, I would be more than safe.

Even with their assurances, I don't believe I will put Nigeria on my list of thing to see while in Ghana!

That evening I enjoyed a Star Beer and listened to songs like "You Are Wonderful Tonight", by Clapton in a sort of elevator music sound.

Well, the following day I traveled by bus to Tarkwa. The bus left at 2 in the afternoon, so I knew it would be dark by the time I arrived. Since we are so close to the equator, the sun rises about 6 and sets about 6. My host in Tarkwa, Dr. Richard Amankwah, said that he would be sending his student, Victoria, to collect me at the station.

The bus ride was long, about 6-7 hours, but fairly comfortable. I arrived in Tarkwa without incident and after a bit of a wait at the stop, Victoria found me and drove me to the University Guest House. I did, and continue, to get a lot of attention here. I am the only Broni (White) in the whole town..I think. I get a lot of looks and people want to ask where I am from, etc. I don't ususally mind, they all have good intentions. The kids, in particular, come up to me often saying "Broni, broni, what is your name?" They like to touch my skin and sometimes ask for money. I don't give them money just because then I would have dozens of children following me around town. So I tell them that I don't have any money today, but I will be in Tarkwa for 5 more months and that I will be sure to give them something before I leave.

English is the official language, but most people speek Twi (pronounced Chwee) or fanti. The accent they speak english in is very strong and it is often difficult to understand them. I am learning, but slowly.

My room is small but comfortable...and has hot water! I do have to get used to the bugs and other animals running around. I am trying to live in peace with the insects and geckos in my room. Here is a picture of Mr. Spidey, he lives on the wall by my door. We had a talk and I told him as long as he doesn't come into my bed, we won't have any trouble.

Outside my house/apartment there are also many goats and chickens. I took this picture from my front doorway:

The goats don't really bother people and will run if you try to get too close. There are also lots of chickens. The only problem is that the roosters crow all day, beginning at about 6 am. this is a problem!

Tarkwa is a heavily forested tropical rainforest. There are lots of palm trees, coconut trees and orange trees. The back of my place is all jungle, but it is being removed rapidly for building. Here is a photo from my back porch:

Since I have been in Tarkwa, I have been to a true Ashanti funeral in Kumasi and to church...Yes, church. Folks are really religious here! I went to a baptist church where there was a lot of singing and dancing.
I will write more of my experiences as time goes on, but for now I should try to do some work!