Alright, Spring Break, Here We Go

---We took what was supposed to be a 12:30pm bus, but which actually was a 6:30pm departure. We drove directly north from Accra to Bolgatanga for 14 hours. Driving through the north was one of my favorite parts of the trip, so different from anything I had seen on my travels thus far. Mud huts, animals, tiny communities smooshed together hundreds of miles away from actual towns. It was remarkable. That part of the trip reminded me a lot of Steve, and I wished he had been able to stay for longer so I could've taken him there.
---We made it over the border so easily, a quick pay of about 20 USD for a visa, a walk through a gate and poof--we were in Burkina Faso. We made it to Camp Nazinga about two hours later, after traveling on an incredibly bumping dirt road. The camp was about 15 bungalows, 1 dining hall, 1 reception building, and 1 watering hole filled with elephants. We had breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the dining hall every day, rotating between the little food they had: spaghetti, rice, cous cous, stew, and chicken. As they were 2 hours from a village it was very difficult for them to get food, they needed food that they could buy in bulk, and would stay fresh for a long time. The chickens ran around the camp, and when you ordered chicken they picked one up, killed it, plucked it, grilled it, and served it. It was the most delicious chicken I had ever had in my entire life, and I don't think I'll ever eat chicken as good. Over the 5 days we relaxed, went for long walks, and saw lots of animals. In the end, my animal sights consisted of elephants, warthogs, baboons, monkeys, antelopes, water-buck, white-backed vultures, and lots of other deer like animals. Surprisingly I saw lots of really cool birds, and each time I went out on safari I would come back and look at a chart to try and figure out what birds I saw. The most beautiful was probably the Abyssinian Roller, check it out on google image. The elephants were the best though. I would be about 10 feet away from them, watching them move and splash around in the water. It was wild. They're amazing--giant, strong, powerful, slow and gentle but still so fierce. I couldn't stop saying to myself, these guys are dinosaurs!! I think they might've become my favorite animal.
---We tried to watch sunrise and sunset every day because they were so beautiful and wildly different compared to anything we'd ever seen. Sunrise was fantastic. It was dark out, and gradually it got lighter until poof, the sun was already up and out of no where 1/8 above the horizon line. It was cloudy and looked more like the moon then the sun, and I was shocked that instead of rising, it just appeared. There also weren't any colors like there are in the United States. Sunrise and sunset are merely light to dark, no pinks purples blues--its light, and then its dark. In the bungalow it would get so pitch black, and only a sliver of light from the moon was sneak in through the bottom of the door, it looked like a freeze frame of a fallen shooting star.
I have so many anecdotes and stories to tell about my spring break, but as I flip through my journal there are just too many to tell and too many favorites to tell just one. You'll all just have to hear about the rest of my trip when I come home and have a giant slideshow of me standing next to 15 elephants : )

Building Suspense

I can't wait to write all about my Spring Break in Burkina Faso, there were tons and tons of elephants and adventures and it was the best!! Unfortunately I have midterms week this week, so I am going to try to upload pictures this week, but don't expect a blog post till next week. Sorry! But it'll be great when it comes I promise!!

Hospital Trip

---Before leaving for Spring Break '10 I realized I wasn't feeling quite well. Before heading off on a big excursion I knew I should get checked out before jumping off on adventures. I took a trip to the hospital, which in short was just lots and lots of procedure. First I sat in a reception area, where I was handed a number and a form to fill out. When I handed in my form they also took my number and my health care card, and told me to be seated. About an hour later I was handed a laminated ID card for the hospital, and they even laminated my health care card for me. Then I was directed to another room where I waited to get my weight, blood pressure, and temperature taken (which they did through my armpit, that was a first). After that I was directed to a waiting room where I would eventually see a doctor. It was only about an hour before I was called in, and I sat down and told him what I thought was my diagnosis, which he thought was very brilliant. He told me I would have to go to a few more rooms, then report back to him later. Slightly confused, I headed out the door where a nurse directed me to the billing room, where I waited some more. I went to the lab to get some tests done and waited for two hours for the results to come out. I was given a form which I was told to bring back to the doctor I was originally seen by. The doctor read the form, wrote me a prescription, and wished me good health. The pharmacy in the hospital filled my prescription and told me that was it, I was all done.
---Things to be noted. The hospital was clean, nice looking, and most notable--very spaciously open. The whole place was filled with courtyards and open room with no walls. The hallways and reception area were all just covered by awnings, otherwise open. There were lots of male doctors, female nurses, and I kinda felt like I was in a 1950's hospital because of that. It felt very World War II. However the thing that shocked me the most was that as I walked out the door, I couldn't stop thinking about the fact that my wallet was still located at the bottom of my bag. Not because it had been made much lighter by paying hundreds and hundreds of medical fees. It wasn't touched. It wasn't manhandled by Ghanian health care! I was completely shocked, and thrilled. Ghana, Canada. United States, I think it's time we jump on the free health care train because I love it!!

Spring Break

I remember being at Loyola in the spring of last year, reading a blog called about a girl in Ghana. I remember specifically her posts about spring break and wondering where I would end up planning my break a year later. Well it's official that I am off to Burkina Faso for spring break! I leave tomorrow morning on a long long bus ride up to the north (on the opposite side of the big meningitis outbreak), and finish getting to Burkina on Saturday afternoon. I am staying at a great camp where I'll be sleeping in a bungalo for five nights and four days before heading back to Accra. I'll hopefully see lots of wild animals and have lots of adventures to write about on my return. Until then, wish me luck!!!!!

"I am not a pretty girl. Least last time I checked. I am too easy to roll over, I am too easy to wreck. I just write about what I should have done, sing what I wish i could say, and I hope somewhere some woman hears my music and it helps her through her day."--ani
"I am not a pretty girl, that is not what I do. I am no damsel in distress and I don't need to be rescued. So put me down punk, wouldn't you prefer a maiden fair? Isn't there a kitten stuck up a tree somewhere?"--ani
I think this is the transformation I have magically made while I've been here. I've grown from ani lyric one to ani lyric two. I've always had a boyfriend. I don't know how to say that without seeming cocky. I like boyfriends, I like having them, I've had them for a long time. I never liked to dive too deep into why, for fear of finding out that I am insecure or unconfident or, worse of all, that I need a boyfriend. Yet coming to Ghana has fully revealed to me that I am not ani lyric one, but ani lyric two. Now, don't get confused, because I do have a boyfriend back in the States, and he is absolutely fabulous, best boyfriend so far in fact. But I don't need him. I like him, I want him to be my boyfriend, but I don't need him. I am alright on my own. Its just a very comforting thing to know, and I am realizing I haven't known that for a while now. I am so comfortable, happy, and in love with me.

Somebody's Heart is Burning

---Hm. Lets see.
---First thing that is on my mind is simply a chapter I read from a book I picked up today, Somebody's Heart is Burning by Tanya Shaffer. The book tells the story of a white woman exploring Africa, and the chapter that is clinging with me was called Telegram. It was about the authors interaction with an African-American woman in Ghana named Nadhiri. Nadhiri came to Ghana with Marcus Garvey imprinted on her mind, a man who believed that African's and those of the diaspora should all live together in one country, without any obruni. Nadhiri believed in Garvey so deeply, and fully supported complete segregation between blacks and whites. I was blown out of the water. Unfortunately when I read or hear about someone supporting segregation I immediately picture a Southern, white, messy red headed hic with bad teeth and a bad education. You have to be completely ass backwards to believe in segregation, if I may be so blunt. To read about an African-American, highly educated woman who refused to go to school with people of white colored skin was just mind blowing to me. I was so sad and weary after reading the chapter. It's so sad and confusing to me that some people can honestly still believe in a thing like segregation. We are humans. Why and how do you separate one from another?

A Week with My Man

---This past week my boyfriend came all the way to Africa to visit me. Just to think, a guy traveled around the world for little old me! That'll be a confidence booster for years to come. It was a fantastic time and it was great to be able to show someone around instead of feeling like the tourist. I felt like I really knew what was going on, and I was very in control of my environment and situation in life. I took Steve on all the adventures I felt were really necessary while in Accra, and although it was very adventurous and a lot of travel I think he enjoyed himself. Sometimes I think I am too adventurous for the poor kid, but he stays around all the same and comes with me on whatever adventure I say. Truly a great guy.
---Having Steve here felt like home was coming to Ghana. It was bizarre. Coming to Ghana I was completely estranged and alone. I knew no one, knew nothing, I was a newborn. Having Steve come was bringing something that I was so comfortable with, and knew so well, into a place that was always surprising me with wild new things. It was bittersweet. Having him leave was really hard, yet I soon realized it was just a return to normalcy to be alone in Ghana. It helped to remind me that its important to be alone. I need that alone time to get back to myself, back to my roots. Yet as I thought about this on the tro-tro today I realized that coming to Ghana, I was not as far from myself as I thought I was. I came to Africa thinking I would recharge my batteries--be stripped of everything but my necessities to again expose my core. I often feel the need to do this. Go somewhere new and different to help get back to myself, my inner core, the real raw me. Being in Ghana has helped me realize that for the first time in my life, I feel as if the raw me, and the me in the United States with all the glitz and glamor, were not too different. My change of self was not so drastic after all.
---God I feel good in my skin.

My Homestay Experience...

---So I had a homestay. I knew that expectations were a dangerous thing to have, so I made sure the only thing I was expecting was a family. Who knew if I would have water, electricity, dogs with rabbies, it could be anything, so I let my brain only expect a family. SImple as that. Well it turns out such was too high an expectation. I, along with my friend Liz, were placed with Denise. Denise was a 40 something year old single man. He picked us up from the bus stop in his Mercedes Benz and took us into the compound his mansion was in. As we walked into the house we asked Denise to tell us about himself. "Well," he immediately replied, "I am looking for a nice young woman to marry so I can go to America." I knew from that moment I should worry. We sat down on his leather couches and told him a little about ourselves. He asked if we knew any Twi, the local language, and we said we did know a little. He said, "Let me teach you some. Let me teach you for the word for come. What is the English word for what you use to hold those luscious tits in?" Bra. The Twi word for come is bra. I almost started to cry when he showed me our room and I saw there was no lock on the door. I don't like to think back to that house, so let me quickly and briefly tell what I learned from my homestay. The rich are all about show, appearance, how people perceive of them. When uncomfortable in an elite home, make friends with the house help (Denise had five house help for himself and his brother). I dont know. It sucked, I didn't learn alot, and I will never go to their town again. I will do a homestay again in March, and I know it will be better than my first experience. Ghanians are the friendliest, happiest people I have ever met, and I refuse to let Denise and his creep show deter me from making a great relationship with a great family for a weekend.

Beads and Red-Red

---I went to a bead making class last week. You would think I would continue to describe a super cool experience where I made real African beads, eventually creating some necklace or bracelet or some accessory. I expected that too when I showed up to the class, but we can't have expectations friends! I did not make beads. I made a necklace out of beads bought from a market. It was a little disappointing, but I was taught by one of the most famous jewlery designers in Ghana, she even held a class for Obama's children when he visited Ghana! So I was upset that I didn't get to make my own beads, but I made really pretty earrings for myself and a great necklace for my Mother (hope you'll like it Ma!)
---This same weekend I had my first attempt at cooking Ghanian food on my own. I cooked with my friends Liz, Neisha, and Kevon. We made red-red and fried plantain. The red-red was pretty tricky, but came out great. (A spicy bean dish) The fried plantain were easy and delicious, and I can't wait to make it for my roommates next year.