Cape Coast

Before returning to Canada, Julie and I took a quick trip to Cape Coast. Cape Coast is located in the Central Region in Ghana and is about a three hour drive from Accra. It is a tourist destination in Ghana due to it’s horribly sad history of being the centre of the slave trade. It is a beautiful area of the country and very different then the Eastern Region (where Koforidua is located). We spent time viewing the interesting architecture in the town and learning about it’s history. Since we no longer had to worry about work – we also managed to have a lot of fun. It was a great way to end the trip!

Thank you to all of those who have been following my blog. I really appreciate all your interest and support. I will take some time and reflect on the experience as a whole and then try to write one or two more posts. So keep your eyes open!

The Cape Coast castle - thousands of slaves were held at this castle before taking the long and horrible trip overseas.

A guided tour through the castle - one of the many dungeons that held slaves.

Cape Coast is a fishing town - fishing is finishing up for the day.

Myself and Julie on top the watch tower then lighthouse now tourist destination.

Cape Coast - view from above.

Catching up…

My apologies… I let myself get very behind on the blog at the end of my trip. We were very busy!! I have arrived home safe and sound. I have a few quick blog posts to catch everyone up on the end of my trip.

The final event that we organized and implemented in Ghana was  a Health Community Initiative. Throughout the project we split up the work evenly between the five Canadian volunteers and the YMCA staff and volunteers. This meant that I did not have a lot to do with the Health event. I helped where I could and I was the photographer for the day. I cannot take a lot of credit for the event itself,  though!

The Health event took place at a community centre. We invited members of the community to come and learn information about health. We had speakers come that focused on everything from Malaria to STI’s. We also had interactive booths for the community members such as a condom demonstration. Overall, it appeared to be a successful day!

With the Health event complete we then had to focus on our final report. We spent our last few days writing the report and doing a debrief with the YCI staff.

Please see the pictures below!

Male condom demonstration

Female condom demonstration

Children watching the health related skits

Most of the organizing crew!

 

Shai Hills Resource Reserve

This past Saturday we took the day off of work to go to Shai Hills Resource Reserve. It is a park similar to National Parks in Canada. It is a fenced off area with natural plant life and animals. The Shai people lived in the area a long time ago and you are able to see some of the remnants of their way of life. We took a guided tour through the beautiful park. It was a lot of fun and we saw some cool sights! I really enjoyed the hike itself as well as the caves and the lookout that the Shai people used during times of war. The hike was a little difficult at times but definitely worth it. The guide was knowledgeable which made it very interesting. I enjoyed sitting at the top of the lookout and viewing the surrounding landscape.

We were also able to see antelope and baboons. To be honest, the antelopes weren’t all that exciting; they are very much like deer at home. The baboons were pretty cool though! They do not fear people at all and they seem to recognize that fact that we are foreigners. They came right up to us expecting food. If food was offered they were brave enough to snatch it right out of our hands. I was surprised how gutsy they were!! They are clearly very intelligent animals and I found them really interesting to watch. Ghana is not known for having a great deal of large animals (elephant, giraffes) so baboons are about as exciting as it gets!

Enjoy the pictures!

Myself, Kierra, and Allison

The whole crew posing - Sasha, Allison, Kierra, myself, Julie

Beautiful view from the Shai lookout!

Mom and baby baboon

Baboons chilling on a bench - so human like!

Busy, Busy

*Note… this blog was supposed to be posted on Tuesday, June 7th.. sorry!*

The past week has been our busiest time in Ghana so far. We had the Youth Summit last week, followed by the Environmental Community Initiative this Monday. The Youth Summit was a workshop for members of the YMCA mentorship program. As I mentioned before, the main purpose of YCI working in Koforidua is to support the mentorship program. Volunteers come from Canada a few times of year to facilitate training for the mentors on a number of different topics. The mentors use this information to help better themselves and their communities. The ultimate goal of YCI in Koforidua is for the mentorship program to become self-sustainable. The Youth Summit was similar to the Assembly-member workshop in that it focused on Good Governance and Active Citizenship. The purpose of these topics is to give the mentors some insight into what they can do to affect governance in their country. The Youth Summit also had an evaluation component to it that focused on how effective the mentorship program is to date. Overall, I felt that the workshop went very well! The mentors appeared to participate well and to appreciate the information that they received.

Together with the YMCA mentors we planned a Community Initiative this past Monday to celebrate World Environment Day. World Environment Day was initiated by the UN and is celebrated around the world on June 5^th. The focus of this initiative was waste management as Ghana is lacking a sufficient waste management system. We started out the day with a community clean up. This involved walking around a busy area in Koforidua cleaning up garbage and educating people on waste management. We then held a program at a local Primary School that also focused on waste management education. The school children then helped us decorate a banner and waste bins that their schools received as a gift (and hopefully a reminder to Keep Ghana Clean). It was a very fun day and I hope also very effective!

We are now focused on our final event, a Health Community Initiative, which will take place this Saturday. After that we are expected to complete a report summarizing our entire project. It feels good to be so close to completing the project but also kind of sad. It’s amazing how time has flown by!

Thanks for reading, check out the pictures below!

Mentors at the Youth Summit - a team building activity.

Kierra and Sasha with a lady from Zoom Lion (Zoom Lion is a garbage colection comany, they helped us with the community clean-up).

Fred (YCI Staff) and Joe (YMCA Mentor) hard at work!

Wonder (YMCA Mentor) also hard at work!

Food in Ghana

Because I love food so much, I had to dedicate one blog post to food! As is true in most developing or middle-income countries, there is not a lot of variety in Ghanaian food. The thing that I miss most about Canadian food is the variety. From what I understand, Ghanaian food has a lot more spice and flavour compared to many countries in West Africa. This is something that I really appreciate!! Food in Ghana mainly consists of rice or dough-type carbohydrates (fufu, banku), vegetables, fruit, chicken, and fish. They tend to use the same red pepper spice in most dishes, which makes everything taste similar.

There are a lot of delicious fruit and vegetables available in Ghana, though they are relatively expensive compared to other foods. I absolutely love the bananas, plantains, pineapple, and avocado. You can buy plantains in all forms – fresh, fried, stewed, chips. I also love groundnuts (peanuts) that you can also buy in every form. Ghanaians eat a lot of yams as well, though I am not really a huge fan of yams. You can buy pretty much any kind of food on the street, which is very convenient. (None of us have been sick yet!)

A wonderful lady, who we call Mama Augusta, cooks breakfast and dinner for us everyday. She makes some traditional Ghanaian dishes, but also cooks what we like. None of us are very big fans of the chicken in Ghana and two of the volunteers are vegetarians so we eat a lot of rice, vegetables, and beans for dinner. For breakfast we have oatmeal, toast, fruit and eggs. One of our favorite Ghanaian dishes is called groundnut soup. It is a spicy, peanut based soup that is served with a rice ball. Some other favorites are jollof rice, which is spicy rice cooked with vegetables, and waakye, which is a rice and bean dish. Most of the other volunteers also enjoy palava sauce, which is made from spinach, and red-red, which is a bean dish served with fried plantains. I personally love the spicy vegetable stew that Mama Augusta makes. I also really enjoy the fish that I’ve tried, especially tilapia.

Another thing to mention is that Ghanaians seem to eat and drink almost anything from a bag (sache). I can imagine it’s because things melt so quickly in the heat. We drink our water from sache’s, eat ice cream from sache’s, and you can even get alcohol in sache’s. (I have yet to try that…) One of our favourite snacks is called Fan Milk. They are ice cream, frozen yogurt, or frozen chocolate milk that you suck out of a sache. They are delicious and refreshing in the heat!

I have had a lot of fun trying new food and drink and Ghana! I hope you enjoy this post.

Tilapia

Jollof rice

Red-red

Groundnut Soup

Life as a volunteer in Ghana

I thought I would create a post focused on my life in Ghana. I have been here about a month and I feel that I have a pretty good understanding of what it is like to volunteer and travel in Ghana. My experiences and opinions are obviously unique. Other people may have very different experiences from my own.

Ghana is technically a middle-income country. It appears that the majority of people in the country have a home, enough food to eat, and are literate and healthy. The education, health care, and infrastructure in Ghana have pleasantly surprised me. Roads and public buildings are relatively well maintained and there are a lot of them. The government, like any, has it problems but it seems to be a well-organized democracy. Both education and health care have greatly improved in recent years. This is apparent in the many young children that look healthy and speak surprisingly good English. (English is the official language in Ghana and school is taught in English.)

On the other hand, Ghana relies heavily on foreign aid and still has a great deal of poverty. The wealth in Ghana, like most countries, is unequal. There are many people who still live in extreme poverty, especially in the north. Compared to Canada and most of the other countries I have travelled to, Ghana is poor and underdeveloped. One thing that I continue to feel is that I am incredibly lucky to live in Canada. We are truly blessed to live like we do.

Ghana is a very safe country. I have met quite a few other foreigners who are travelling, volunteering, or working and I have not heard of any serious crimes. The people are incredibly friendly and will help you out as much as they can. Ghanaian men are a little too friendly at times, but they usually listen to the word ‘no.’ Unlike Canada, everyone treats each other like family. To be honest it is smothering at times. In Canada we are used to our independence. It is nearly impossible to be alone in Ghana. Though I miss my alone time, I think that I will miss the ‘togetherness’ culture when I get home.

Except for a few specific and luxury items, everything is very inexpensive in Ghana. It is possible to live and travel in Ghana without spending very much money, which is very nice!! The accommodations in Ghana are definitely not five-star (at least where we are staying) but they are livable. The water and electricity in most places are inconsistent. The homes and rooms are very small compared to what we are used to in Canada. It is always hot and most places do not have air conditioning. I am not complaining, only commenting on the lifestyle. All of the above take a little getting used to, as these are things that I take for granted at home.

In my opinion, one thing that Ghana really needs to work on is sanitation. Most places do not have proper sewage systems. Waste disposal is also a major problem. Most garbage is just discarded in the street. Many toilets also go into the ground or directly into the public sewers. I imagine that these issues lead to many health and environmental problems.

There is a lot to do and see in Ghana, it is incredibly beautiful, it is safe, and the people are lovely. Unlike many countries in West Africa, most people in Ghana speak English.  These are all reasons why I would strongly recommend Ghana as a travel, work, or volunteer destination.

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments. Check out my next post where I will focus on food in Ghana!  :)

Halfway Done!

Wow, my time in Ghana is halfway done! The time is just flying by!! It finally feels like I am beginning to get used to Ghana. I don’t notice the heat and other differences as much and we are settling in to a routine. The local Ghanians also seem to be getting used to us, we do not draw as much attention as we did at the beginning.

As I mentioned in my last post, we had our first workshop last week. The workshop was attended my assembly-members and focused on Good Governance and Community Mobilization. It went very well, I think! We were all a little bit nervous because it is difficult to know what to expect in a foreign country. In the end, it turned out really well. I learned a lot from meeting assembly-members and they all seemed to get a lot out of the workshop. The Youth Summit workshop begins tomorrow. We are busy preparing for it and for the upcoming Community Initiatives.

We travelled to Accra this past weekend. It was very busy and a lot of fun!! We did a ton of shopping, ate at some nice restaurants, went out dancing, and spent time at the beach. It was a nice break from our busy work weeks! As I mentioned earlier, Accra is a large and relatively modern city. It is a lot different then Koforidua. It is interesting to see a different side of Ghana!

Thanks for following my adventures and for the very kind comments. Check out the pictures below!

Assembly-member Workshop - Myself with the four other YCI volunteers, YCI and YMCA staff, and the four assembly-members.

The whole crew in Accra - Allison, Kierra, Myself, Sasha, and Julie