Ghana - Days 1 and 2 ...Making New Friends!!

I had no knowledge or expectations for my time in Ghana, all I knew was that I would be venturing into a land that most Americans had not visited and we knew little about. I would be meeting up with family and friends of man that I work with at UMass (Stanley) who is from Ghana. I would be bringing multivitamins, Tylenol and Ibuprofen to his family. I am now officially a drug mule!!!! NO I am not, I am just kidding, they were all legal over the counter drugs. So we arrived to Tema, Ghana on Sunday morning and we cleared the ship pretty quickly and pain free and then it was time to meet my new friend Michael and his friends. It was quite the adventure just getting out of the port because we had two options; to take the shuttle to the port gate (5 minutes) or to take the shuttle that we were providing in to Accra (the capital of Ghana) that would take between 45 min and an hour. It was a little bit chaotic but I think once the flown was down everyone was less stressed. Also, except for the first day in Ghana there were a lot of people who would be on Semester at Sea trips. I only had to use the shuttle out to the gate since I would be meeting my new friends there or would be on a Semester at Sea trip. I will describe at later points some of the interesting transportation I experienced.


Laura, Janelle and I waited outside the gate area to be picked up not sure of what to expect but we were greeted by Michael and his friends Peter and Eugene. So we left the port area with the three of them cramped in the front seat of the car and the three of us in the back. We were excited to spend the day with our new friends and let them know that we needed an ATM and to eat. So we drove to an ATM and then proceed to the Ave Marie Hotel/Resort that was right on the water.
Here is the view we experienced:

We think they thought we needed to eat at a fancy place (and this was kind of fancy for Ghana) but we would have been content with street food!!! I ate here the first of many chicken and rice dishes I will eat (I am pretty sure that every meal I bought in Ghana was Chicken and rice). It was a good meal and we got to know the guys; what they do, where they live and they expressed their excitement to be hanging out with us. We also ran in to a man who we had seen at the port earlier who we mistook for Michael and he chatted with us a little bit and ended up paying for our meal. People in Ghana are very, very nice!!!

After lunch the plan (I say plan but there is also a very slow pace in this society so every plan was quite tentative) was to go meet Michael’s mother who lives in Tema. But first they wanted to show us this pub type place that they sometimes gather at. It was in an alley and we tasted the beer type beverage because it was the nice thing to do but I am not sure any of us actually enjoyed what we tasted.

This is the first of many women we will see carrying there child like this:

Some street scenes:

We left here and went to visit Michael’s mother and sister who were overwhelmed with excitement to see us. We received such a warm welcome that it was difficult for us to leave when Michael gave us the signal that it was time to go. Here is Michael, his sister and mother:

This was the courtyard attached to their home:

From here we headed to Accra which was about 45 minutes away and the first place that they took us was to the mall. Which looked very similar to a small US mall which the guys were so proud to show us though we were more interested in going to a market. They seemed a little disappointed when we did not show much interest in shopping in the mall. The funny thing about the mall was that they were doing some sort of promo encouraging people to visit South Africa and people were walking through the mall with South African flags…this is funny because I was just there!!! After the mall we asked if they could take us to a market and since it was a Sunday there was really only one option. We walked around here a little bit and picked up a few small things. Since there were three of us and three of them we each had our own body guard following us around to ensure that nobody was ripping us off, it was kind of funny. After the market we walked around Accra a little bit and since it is the capital of Ghana we were able to see some court buildings and the capital building.

We headed back to Tema to go to dinner at a place that had live music. When we got to the restaurant Janelle mentioned that she had wanted to get her hair done and one of the guys recommended a place so before we ate we all got back in the car so we could check out the hair place. We did that and then Michael decided he wanted to introduce us to his Brother and his family. So we went there and I wish I took pictures because it was a great little home. We entered into a courtyard and then went through a door to a living room. The living room was small but they some how managed to squeeze in to the room a couch, loveseat, oversized chair and TV on a TV stand. These were all flushed next together around the 4 walls and our knees almost touched while sitting there. There were separate doors from this courtyard to the kitchen, bedroom, toilet and shower. The kitchen though tiny probably had more pots and pans then I have ever seen in anyone’s kitchen in the states. From the outside the conditions did not look great but once we entered into the space it was quite nice and they looked quite content with their possessions.

One thing I noticed while in Ghana was that there always needed to be some sort of outside stimulation beyond conversation. Either the music was playing loud in the car (Boys II Men on repeat!) or there was a TV on in the bus station or on the Cho Chos (small busses) we would travel on or the big screen broadcasting the latest soccer game in the restaurant we would eat in… there was always something going on.

After our brief visit with the family and a pit stop for some street popcorn which was the best kettle corn type popcorn I have ever eaten it was time to return to the restaurant. This would be where I would eat the best of the chicken and rice dishes of the trip. All of the other rice I ate was fried rice and this was a more traditional Ghanaian rice dish jalufi and it was very tasty.  Here it is:

Laura was daring and got a whole tilapia with a sticky dough like starchy substance which I cannot remember the name of but it was another traditional food we were encouraged to try and eat with our hands.

When the band started playing we noticed that it sounded remarkably similar to some sort of American country music that they were playing and we thought this was quite odd. When we asked the guys if they came here a lot they said they did and then we asked if this was the kind of music that was usually played. They told us that it was not and that they thought it was only being played because we were there (he pointed at Laura and I – the two white women in the place). I thought that was pretty funny especially because we were really hoping to hear some Ghanaian music. After a little bit they transitioned into some more traditional music and we danced a little bit.
Here is the band:

HTe singer was wearing a Brooklyn shirt and I am from Brooklyn!

We recognized that we would be heading out pretty early so it was time to head back to the ship. We parted ways with our new friends but Laura and I made plans to meet with Michael and Peter early the next day to head to the Cape Coast area of Ghana.

Day 2

We awoke at the crack of dawn to meet Michael and Peter to travel to the Cape Coast area of Ghana to visit the Castles and Slave dungeons. The plan (notice I used that word again) was to meet them at 6:10am, well around 7ish they finally arrived in a taxi. We did not know how we were going to make the 2 plus hour drive to Cape Coast since Michael and Peter did not have a car (we used a friend’s the day before) so we just followed along. The first stop we needed to make was for Laura to exchange money. They told us they would take us to a ‘black market’ to do so and since we figured they would not stear us in the wrong direction we went with it. It turned out to be the best exchange rate we could have gotten so we did not complain.
Here are pink chickens by the "money exchange".  We were really unsure if they were dyed or natural:

After the money exchange we drove to a spot in Tema and took a Cho Cho to Accra. These cramped small busses/large vans were all over the roads and seemed to be the preferred mode of transportation for most Ghanaians; probably because of the cost and the ease of finding an available one.
One of many women we will see carrying her goods on her head:

Cho Chos:

When we arrived at the bus terminal in Accra we realized that the next bus was not until 10am and it was currently 8:30, so we sat and waited and watch an awesomely bad Ghanaian soap opera in this outdoor waiting area until our bus arrived. Once on the bus I was able to watch the landscape and views change from city to small villages and see a different side of Ghana. We arrived to Cape Coast and got in a taxi to take us to the castle. For those of you keeping track of today’s transportation (and you should) that is now a taxi, a cho cho, a bus and another taxi.

When we entered the Cape Coast Castle the mood shifted quite quickly to one much more somber.  This reads: IN EVERLASTING MEMORY of the anguish of our ancestors.  May those who died rest in peace.  May those who return find their roots.  May humanity never again perpetrate such injustice against humanity.  We, the living, vow to uphold this.

This Castle was used in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. It is interesting to me that Brazil happens to be the next country that we are visiting and they were a large ‘importer’ of the enslaved people from Ghana. We arrived at the Castle in time to be added to a tour that had just begun and learned of the history of the castle and then were brought into the dungeons where the enslaved people were kept for 3 months before being sent to other countries.
Here are some outside views:

Here is Laura and I with Michael and Peter:

The tour guide turned the already very dim light off to show us what the space felt like for the people who had stayed there and a chill ran up my spine. Up to 1000 people would spend their days and nights in this little space eating and taking care of bodily functions without room to move let alone lay down and sleep. We looked in the men’s dungeon first and then moved on to the woman’s dungeon and heard stories of torture and abuse of these women. We then saw the door that was considered the point of no return, they knew that once they crossed through this door all hope was gone and they would be shipped off to an unknown place. We walked through this door:

Once through the door now we discovered fishermen repairing their fishing nets:

We were also shown how now crossing back through symbolizes the ability to return.

 Ghana was the first (and maybe only?) country visited by Barack and Michelle Obama in Africa and when they came they visited specifically Cape Coast and this Castle.
This plaque was displayed at the castle:

The people of Ghana are very proud of their country, their heritage and are strong people because of their struggle. They are also grateful that the Obama’s chose their land to embark upon. While walking around the Cape Coast area we saw many welcome signs that were still up from last year's visit. (Akwaaba means welcome)

It was interesting to walk around such a tragic site with 2 Ghanaian men, it made me feel uncomfortable and self conscious. This may not have been all that bad of a way to be. At one point Peter made a comment along the lines of ‘you see what the white people did to us’. I also heard stories of the emotions that were stirred up in some of the students and staff of color and if I was filled with emotion there is absolutely no way that I can even begin to understand how they were feeling. I wonder if I were to go to a concentration camp in Auschwitz or somewhere else in Europe if I would have been shaken and moved in this same way. At this point in the day I think we were all physically and mentally exhausted. I also did not mention that it was in the 90s and probably 100% humidity, so we were consistently soaking wet (from sweat) from head to toe. We walked around the Cape Coast town a little bit, grabbed something to eat (chicken and rice) and then started our long journey back to the ship. This time we took a cho cho from Cape Coast to Accra and then got on another cho cho from Accra to Tema and then we took a taxi from Tema to the ship. Transportation count for the day: 1 bus, 3 taxis and 3 cho chos.
More street views:

Two of many street goats we will see:

One of the Cho Chos we were in decided to stop so someone could by pineapple...and why not!

I said my goodbyes at this point to Michael and Peter because the last 2 days I would be participating in Semester at Sea trips and I think they were disappointed that I would not be hanging out with them anymore, but Laura made plans to meet up with them the following day. Laura and I grabbed something from the grill on the ship to eat for dinner and I headed to bed fairly early…tomorrow will be another early morning.

My first Documentary Film

So I now have a youtube page and here is my first short film:

Spiritual Dance Video

So for anyone wondering what is this crazy thing called "Spiritual Dance" that Stacey has done on the ship this video does a really good job of explaining it:

Cape Town, South Africa - Days 3 and 4 and Stacey makes her first film!

Tricia and I started our day with another delicious breakfast and then headed out to meet some of my SAS friends in the Winelands. Our first stop was the Spier Wine Estate which houses a Cheetah Outreach program that rehabilitates Cheetahs. So though these animals were not in their natural habitat I still got to see a wild animal and one of the African big 5 that is.

I opted out of paying to pet the cheetahs and proceeded to sample some of the wine here. It was great to spend some time in beautiful Winelands of South Africa and with some great friends. We stayed for a while at Spier and decided that hunger was upon us so proceeded to Boschendal Wine Estate where we had heard a rumor they made these awesome picnic baskets. The rumors were correct and we had cheese, bread, curried chicken salad, different meats and salads. It was delicious and we spent a couple of hours here enjoying the ambiance eating and sampling some of the wine here.
Here I am with my friends:

The last stop of our wine tour was at the Tokara Winery and we chose this one because they also sampled olives and olive oil and I loved the olive tapenade so had to pick some up to eat as a snack on the ship. This was a very chill day and needed after yesterday’s outdoor adventure. We also met up with some of Tricia’s friends who drove down from Zimbabwe to meet up with us.

Just as to not forget the reality of a good portion of this country I took this on the way back to Cape Town from the wineries:

After the time in the wineries Laura, Tricia, her friends and I headed to dinner…pizza again.

Then it was the time we were very excited for…smores making. I bought marshmallows (white and pink ones), a variety of Cadbury chocolate bars (because that’s what they had), biscuits (their cookie equivalent and I could not find graham crackers) and fire wood. There was grill/fire pit at the Guest House and we invited some friends back to partake in a little smore making. It was a little challenging for them to find where we were staying but when they finally did we all enjoyed the evening and it was nice to spend a social evening off of the ship.

The next morning would be my final day in Cape Town. We ate our final breakfast, said an emotional goodbye to Fatima who treated us amazing our entire stay and then Tricia and I headed to the Waterfront so she could do some final shopping. Tricia and I parted ways – me to the ship and she to the airport. It was so great to be able to have someone from home to see a little bit of what my world at sea looks like. I know that it is always difficult to explain to people what I am doing and how this is so much more than a cruise around the world and I think she was able to gain that perspective. After I unloaded my belongings on the ship I knew that before I left all I really wanted was fish and chips to end my time in Cape Town. I met up with Midhun (another LLC) and his cousin who was studying in Cape Town for a final meal of fish and chips. After lunch we walked to Nobel Square- this is life-sized statues of four Nobel peace prize winners (Luthuli, Tutu, de Klerk and Mandela).

I walked around a bit more and tried to soak in my last little bit of Cape Town. This was a hard country to leave (for many of us); there was so much to see and I feel like I only scratched the surface. I do feel that I had a fairly well rounded experience given that I was only here for 5 days. I learned about history, met and spoke with some South African people, explored nature, spent quality time with friends and truly tried to take in all that was around me. I am excited to return here one day because I am sure that I will.

The days between South Africa and Ghana flew by pretty quickly but there is one thing that I want to share about. Before arriving to South Africa there was an announcement that there would be a one, two or three minute film festival and anyone could participate. One day Jenny (the LLC who does spiritual dance) and I were sitting watching an advertisement for the film festival and talked about the talent we had on the ship and how we wish we could do something like make a film. Then someone mentioned since Jenny had a Mac she could use something called imovie, so we played around with that for a little bit in shear amazement that we just may be able to make a movie too!! Anyone who saw us would have thought we were two little old ladies looking at a computer for the first time; it was pretty hysterical. So at that point we said we would make a movie and submit it to the film festival, though I was not convinced I would actually do it. When I was in South Africa I took a few video clips of some things that I saw, not really thinking about making a video, and lots of pictures. The first night back on the ship after South Africa I discovered I had something called Windows Movie Maker on my computer (who knew!) and proceeded to make my first movie entitled “A Little Piece of Cape Town” and enter it into the Film Festival. It was a combination of video of people singing, pictures from the townships, a quote and African music. I know that there are a lot of things that I am good at and I also know that there are a lot of things that others are better at then me. Making films is definitely a strength of a handful of people on this ship and some of the videos they have produced (like this one; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DS4oz8XJme8&NR=1) are amazing so it took a lot of stepping out of my comfort zone to submit my slideshowesque film. But I did, I pushed myself to do something different (as did Jenny I might add!) and it brought me great joy. It happened to be the first film aired and was received with an overwhelmingly positive reaction (remember I have said that this is a super supportive community). I was very proud of myself for doing this and now when people ask me what I do for fun I will say snorkel (read Mauritius!) and make documentary films. I now do both of these things!!! 

(I am not quite sure how to upload a movie so I may need to wait until I get home to do this)

Cape Town, South Africa - Day 3...the day Stacey exerted lots of energy going uphill!

We awoke this day to another fabulous breakfast and knew that today we would be exploring nature!!! We headed first to go up to Table Mountain and since I was not all that interested in hiking up we took the cable car up to the top; this cable car can hold up to 65 people and transports up to 80 people per hour. If it was up to Tricia we would have hiked but after hearing some storied about how strenuous it was for some this out of shape body thanks Tricia for being OK with taking the cable car. That point slightly right of center is where the cable car goes to:

Here is Lion’s Head which can be viewed wonderfully from the bottom of Table Mountain:

Here is the cable car we took up to the top as you can see it is proudly sponsored by Visa. If you did not take note in yesterday’s blog there were even some things in the townships that seemed to have company sponsorship...look back at those photos.

Here are some of the views from the top:

Here is a great pic that Tricia took of me with the city behind me:

After our time here we headed back down the mountain and I received a call from Emily (one of my LLC friends) who had just finished running a 5k in Cape Town and we went and picked her up from the ship to join us in our afternoon adventures. Our end goal was to make to the Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope (the southwestern most point on the continent of Africa!) but we knew there would be stops along the way. Our first stop was in the town of Kalk Bay where we stopped to get lunch at Satori a fabulous restaurant whose only downfall was that because they brought me the wrong pizza to start with our quick lunch break turned into a 2 hour ordeal.

This is from the inside of the restaurant, I thought it was pretty:

We walked around Kalk Bay for a little bit and it was as if we were transformed to some sort of beach town in the US and I almost forgot that we were in South Africa. We then continued our journey South and went to Simon’s Town and Boulder Beach…I am in Africa and I was on a mission to see animals in their natural habitat even if they were penguins and not elephants and giraffes. Not sure why but this is where the largest colony of penguins reside in South Africa. We did not visit them on their beach but instead walked around with them at the Boulders.

I can not believe that I was able to capture such a beautiful picture:

We also saw this thing; it is called a Rock Hydrax (dassie) and it is some sort of small mammal (in its natural habitat:

As we continued south we entered Table Mountain National Park and stopped for some photo opps. So we had been warned that as we traveled between Simon’s Point and Cape Point to watch out for the baboons (100s of them). We were told that we will see them all over and that if we stopped to photo them they would most likely try to get into your car and look for food. This actually happened to people I know. I was kind of excited to get up close and personal with baboons but guess what I saw none. Every other person I spoke with who went here had some sort of baboon encounter and this I was deprived of it was kind of bizarre when I looked at pictures of the same places I visited and took pics of and other people had baboons in theirs and I did not have any. Even the guidebook I have in a section called “Things to Avoid” between Snakes and HIV/AIDS is listed Feeding the Baboons. Now that I have gotten that out I will move on to what I see.

An ostrich in its natural habitat:

Some pretty awesome trees:

 A memorial to Vasco de Gama:

 

We continued on and finally reached the Cape of Good Hope and discovered that the cable car that usually runs to the top where the lighthouse is was being repaired and we would need to hike up to the top. I took some pictures of the lighthouse, me in front of the sign and some surroundings and said OK, I have seen the lighthouse. I got a look from both Tricia and Emily and proceeded to climb my way up; that’s OK I worked off the pizza I ate for lunch.

Emily and I pausing for a moment so I can catch my breath on the way up to the lighthouse:

Note the line of cars parked towards the top right corner of this picture that is where we started our walk from and then we ended here at the lighthouse:

We then headed to our final destination; the Cape of Good Hope – this is where the Atlantic and Pacific collide (well not technically but that is the best way for me to describe it!) We watched the beginning of a very beautiful sunset here as well.

his is a Kadu in its natural habitat:

e headed back north after a great day of exploring nature to meet up with Cindy and Jim for dinner back at the Waterfront. We went to Belthazar Restaurant and Wine Bar which claimed to have the longest wine list in the world and best steak in South Africa. The steak did not appeal to me but I was excited to see this wine list. A long list it was but a bit overwhelming. I ordered an awesome chicken kabob that showed up on a sword and also got to sample Jim’s game kabob (kadu, impala, wildebeest and one other gamey meat). I rather enjoyed the impala but was still very happy with my chicken kabob.

Here is my sworded kabob:

The night ended well and as we left the waterfront we saw this mural that was created out of recycled bags and bottles...I love it!!!!

 And tomorrow there will be wine…tasting that is and cheetahs!!!!