Way Up North

The last several days have been very busy as we made our way up North.

It was about a seven hour bus ride from Accra to Kumasi. Leaving my host family was pretty sad, and my host mother even cried as I left. I’m happy I’ll be coming back to visit them in December.

Kumasi was fun. We were supposed to tour a cacao farm on our way there, but there was a miscommunication with the tour guide, so that didn’t end up happening.

We did, however, see the museum at the Chief’s Palace. It was a nice museum, and the palace was quite opulent because this chief is the ruler of the whole Asante kingdom, which is the largest in all of Ghana.

I had to miss out on going to the Kente village and a lake that was apparently gorgeous because I was sick.

We found a restaurant with really good Indian food and delicious ice cream. I had fresh lime soda like I haven’t had since I was in Sri Lanka. It was nice. Sarah and Rockson and I also braved the largest open air market in West Africa in order to find costumes for our Halloween party. It was so huge and crowded and crazy, but I held my own. I was very impressed with myself, actually. I bargained the price of the dress I bought down to almost half the original price, and when Rockson was wandering off, I got his attention (in typical Ghanaian fashion) by hissing, which was oddly fun. I felt like I was starting to fit in. I even bargained in Twi!

And then we hopped on our bus and drove for another seven hours north to Tamale. There we got all dressed up to celebrate Halloween in a country where most people have never even heard of such a thing. I dressed up as a pink panther. The dress was ugly, but it was only about five dollars, and it was perfect for the costume.

One of the first things we did when we got here, actually, was to go to the regional Chief’s palace. It’s customary to greet the Chief and explain your reasons for coming to a community when you arrive, and to thank him when you leave. It was a very interesting experience, and it was very awkward and scary for a lot of it, but I’m really glad we went. We were given water, which looked extremely questionable, but we couldn’t refuse without causing grave offense, so we all just took the bowl and touched it to our lips before passing it on. We were also given kola nuts to chew. They were a pleasant texture, and I wasn’t sure if we were supposed to swallow them or not, but I didn’t see anyone else spitting, so I did. They were very bitter. They tasted almost exactly like the bitter aftertaste that tea gets when you let it steep for too long. The chief seemed nice, though we only spoke to him through Rockson’s interpreting. He got dressed in his Regalia and invited us to take lots of pictures, so we did. It was nice.

The guesthouse we stayed at in Tamale was not so nice. The fan prevented me from putting up my mosquito net, and the door didn’t even pretend to seal, so I got about a trillion mosquito bites, despite spraying myself and my sheets with deet before bed every night. Furthermore, the ceiling was almost uniformly polka-dotted with white circles of mold, and I think I was allergic to the spores. The accommodation was arranged and paid for by the Trent in Ghana program, so we didn’t have a choice in the matter. But the beds were comfy, at least, and the bathroom was clean, except for the moldy ceiling.

We went on a daytrip to Bolgatanga, which is the capital of the Upper East region. It’s pretty close to both Burkina Faso and Togo, so there was a lot of French. It was a really nice city, and we had an NGO fair that I really enjoyed. Katie and Sarah and I all found NGOs that we were interested in. I found one called TAWODEP, the Talensi Women’s Development Program. It’s a really cool organization that puts women in the community who engage in income generating activities (like shea butter production or batik fabric dying) into groups to help maximize efficiency and to help them negotiate loans with the banks. It also serves as a not for profit middle man for larger orders that any one producer in the community would not be able to meet. It provides capacity building workshops and vocational training for the women too. It’s especially cool because (unlike a lot of NGOs and charity projects) it doesn’t introduce or try to teach activities that aren’t already practiced in the communities, it just facilitates the cooperation of smaller producers and helps them engage with markets on a larger scale. The woman who runs the program seems really nice, and she said that she could help me find accommodation either in the community of Talensi or in nearby Bolgatanga, and that I could bike between the two. I think this would be a really good place for me.

The only thing I’m concerned about is that there was another girl from the program who also had her eye on this place, so I just have to make sure I keep on top of things to make sure I get it first. There was another NGO that did similar work, but specifically with widows in Bolgatanga that I could fall back on, but its main mandate was advocacy instead of economic empowerment, so it’s not quite my cup of tea. Still, I’m sure I would enjoy it. We’ll see how it all turns out.

The next day we had The Great Race: Tamale, a series of activities organized by our non-academic coordinator to get us familiar with the city. It was a lot of fun, and very helpful. We learned the sharetaxi routes (they run regular routes like buses, but they’re taxi cabs, and you pay between 20 and 80 peshwas depending on how far you’re going) to get around. Our tasks included going to the new hospital and finding the cost of a Malaria test, the cost of the most recommended malaria medications, finding Kooseh (deep fried bean-patties sold on the street) and asking about headache remedies at the Herbal Garden. In performing the last task we actually got invited into Madame Tamaiko’s living room. She runs the herbal garden, and is pretty much the authority on traditional medicine. She sat us down and talked to us for a good thirty minutes (contributing to our defeat in the Race) about the value of traditional medicine and how important it is that traditional healers and western doctors learn to work together to provide safe, adequate, and affordable healthcare for Ghana. It was really interesting, and well worth losing the race for.

Now we’ve finally moved into our more permanent residence here. Thirteen of us girls are sharing a house. It’s pretty big, and I share a room with Sarah. We share a bathroom down the hall with the two other two-person rooms. On top of that, there’s a room of four and one of three (each with bunk beds) that each have en suite bathrooms. We all share a kitchen, but it’s relatively spacious, and the living room is quite large. There’s a porch and a large yard with a bunch of trees, one of which produces mangos, so we’re very excited. We’ve been told we’ll have hammocks for the trees too, but I’ll believe that when I see it. We still haven’t gotten the bicycles that we signed up to rent, but that’s because Rachel and Rockson (her assistant here in Tamale, not to be confused with Rockson our classmate) have had their hands full with last-minute repairs to the carpentry and plumbing and the like. Patience, as always, is the name of the game here.

I’m interested to see how our field course (titled Local Dynamics of Change) will go here in Tamale. It’s also going to be an adventure cooking and cleaning and taking care of myself again, especially here where shopping is such an adventure on its own. I’m sure it will be fun and awkward and hilarious. I’ll keep you posted!