Hi all! So tonight is the night we leave Ghana after 5 days of the most culturally shocking experiences thus far in the trip. I am not exactly sure what I was expecting upon our arrival to Ghana, but it was definitely different than whatever I was envisioning. I was of course expecting some poverty stricken areas but not to the extent that the country really has. I will get right into my experiences so that you can all understand where I am coming from.
The first day I went on a visit to a local fishing village. That may sound to you like it sounded to me, a developed area where they are catching and selling fish. But it was NOTHING like what I thought. The first thing I noticed as I stepped off the tour bus was the muggy, foggy air covering a compact area of huts and hundreds of people. As we began to walk through the village I looked at “houses” which were the size of our pantry at home, no actual furniture, maybe a wooden stool and a handmade cooking hole, basically falling apart from the outside in. The next thing I noticed was hundreds and hundreds of children running straight at us. The amount of children in the village was unreal; they obviously don’t have a cap on the number of children they are allowed to have in Ghana. I couldn’t help but question where they all sleep; since there aren’t too many houses and the size of the sizes I couldn’t imagine fitting more than 2 people. The children in the village were extremely interested in our cameras; every child would come up and ask to take a picture with your camera. The fear I had of one of the children dropping it or running off with my camera was present the entire visit. We saw how the people in the village make their boats to go fishing, still without any power tools, and these boats are NOT small. The lack of technology really didn’t seem to phase them, the boats were well made and they have been doing it the same way for hundreds of years. After seeing this it seems like America doesn’t really hold onto what their ancestors taught them, we just try to improve everything. When will the say come when we can’t improve it anymore and we haven’t learned anything from our ancestors, then where will we be?
The second day my friend Sarah and I went to a local beach resort with 8 of our friends. It was a beautiful and quaint resort, it almost looked like a scene out of lost. It is not too important that I go into details about this stay since it was similar to staying in a hotel in America. The one cool thing that happened was I skyping my parents in a community area and a waiter had never seen video chatting. He was soooo excited to say hi to my parents. He didn’t really understand how I was talking to my parents in America but he wanted to tell them his name and ask theirs like a hundred times! It was really cute.
The last two days was my cultural immersion trip. This trip was incredible in multiple ways, including: eye opening, shocking, new, emotional, and uncomfortable. Let me go into some detail… We arrived in the village at 9 am and the entire village was waiting for us with musical performance, dancers and children in their school uniforms. We were to sit down for our naming ceremony, to be initiated into the village basically. They called us up in groups of 10; Samantha and I were in the second group. In order to get your name you had a few things to do, you had to pour water into a cup while a prayer was chanted and then drink the glass of water, then pour another beverage provided into the cup while another prayer took place, drink it, then take a medicinal leaf, a bracelet and put it on our left wrist. Then you faced the head speaker as he said your name and then you were to repeat it, when you got it right the entire village would scream and yell and clap. The name I was given was Ama Adomwuru. Ama is for all those born on Saturday and the second name is given to tell you apart from all the rest of the babies born on Saturdays. I obviously pronounced it wrong so that was a little embarrassing, the village laughed but then cheered.
When we were done with the naming ceremony it was time to meet our host families for the night. I was placed with the girl that is in my extended family on the ship, so that was cool to get to know her a little better. Our dad was one of the head elders in the village, he spoke very little English and I would guess his age at around 65 or so. We were staying with his wife, their 3 kids and their grandchildren. There was a 15 year old girl, Ivy, who was already in college at Cape Coast University; a 12 year old boy, Ivans; a 8 year old girl, Sondra; a 2 year old girl, Fredika; and a 2 month old girl, Josephina. Ivy spoke the most English so when she got home from school it was much easier to communicate. The “house” was made of cement blocks, no doors, no windows, and no furniture. The living room had a wooden bench and a plastic chair. Our rooms were nicely made up but I have a feeling semester at sea provided some of the makings of the room. I had a bed with a mosquito net around it and a plastic chair.
It’s hard to see people living in this sort of poverty and being just as happy as anyone I know at home. I would say it was really hard for me to wrap my mind around. While walking around the village with the kids I found myself almost crying multiple times because not only were kids coming up to me holding my hands like they were my own children but also because I cant imagine living there. I wanted so bad to appreciate the surroundings and understand how they truly love their situation but I cant tell you how difficult that was for me. When I asked about the village and life their, the girl said we are all family and we help each other. They are truly the definition of a collectivist community. I was talking with Ashley, the girl I was with from SAS, and speaking about how in America collectivism barely exists; it is truly everyone for their own. The people that live around you aren’t your family; they are just your neighbors, and some of them you don’t even know. That’s truly what means the most to these people…family and their village.
I wish I had more ways to describe how this whole experience was for me, but all I can say is that I was an emotional mess. IT WAS HARD AND I HAVE THAT IT IS EVEN HARDER IN INDIA; AT THIS POINT I CAN’T IMAGINE IT BEING WORSE THAN THAT. Let’s hope I find some way to deal with how overwhelming this all is by then. I am now on my way to SOUTH AFRICA. I am extremely excited to see both MY ROOMMATE OLIVIA and the SAFARI I’m going on. If anything outstanding happens on the boat in the next 6 days I will update.
Xoxo
-me-
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