Feb 16- 17 Ghana

Feb 16- 17 Ghana

We also had the awesome chance to meet a couple girls that were studying their semester abroad at the University of Ghana. They had wanted a really different experience for a study abroad. It was really nice to share our different study abroad experiences and ask each other multiple questions about our experiences!

We ended the evening by walking about a half hour to the mall, crossing streets and getting a good look at the surroundings that we would have missed if we just drove by in a car.

The most prominent physical feature of Ghana is the dirt. There is only grass around nice fancy buildings but everything and everyone is covered with dirt. Also, so many people are idle, sleeping on the streets or just waiting for someone to come along to buy things.

I feel that this trip is the start of what I wanted out of my experiences in these countries and I am starting to get the hang of it. Many agreed from the Semester at Sea trip, they enjoyed Ghana a lot more than Brazil and I think that is because it was more of a culture shock which is what many of us expected on this trip. The other places we visited was not that unusual from the norm. I like the people interaction but I want to know what they want to change about their government. The guys I talked to (jay) said they don’t care about elections or politics because nothing that they say will matter to the guys on the top.

The Ghanaians have a very interesting handshake where they end the shake by snapping each other’s finger. Our tour guides were really trustworthy. At first, I was hesitant to become too close of friends but they were really trustworthy and never kept us in the dark. They also emphasized sharing among ourselves. We would switch meals and we made sure to purchase for their food. We got their emails and facebook names to keep in contact with our friends.

The fourth day was probably the most difficult and uncomfortable day for me. I had wanted to get my hair braided or twisted in a salon. I made plans to meet up with one of the guys and we had a lot of different expectations for how the day would play out. He had the taxi driver wait for me while I got my hair done and didn’t negotiate a price beforehand. In the salon I went to ,the women doing my hair would not really talk to me. It could have been a language barrier but it was frustrating because I was sitting there for an hour and a half and was really hoping to get to hear about Ghana from a woman’s point of view. My hair was perfect, it was still curly but kind of doubled up so there was significantly less volume. It did not stay long! Later that night we went out to a local bar that had an outside dance floor.

The last day we went to the City of Refuge which was a place that tried to help stop human trafficking. They are doing a lot of community development with single mothers and the fisherman that are purchasing the children.

They also had just started a school which is where we worked for the afternoon. I got to organize the soccer uniforms, they were going to have their first soccer game the next day on their new field. They were in the process of building a school that was funded by donations from other organizations, including one that was started by Semester at Sea students, Finding Refuge. The organization was just beginning its projects with big hopes to expand.

There are hundreds of child slaves in a fishing village that were sold there because their moms could not afford to raise them or they were orphaned. The owners have people working in the village talking with the community and are there to show that the organization is not there to get them in trouble with the law or to take away their livelihood. Many of the fisherman do not give up the kids easily because they think they are teaching them a trade and also many of them were slaves when they were younger. It is a really complicated situation and it is a system that many survive off of and that has existed for so long that it does not seem wrong to those who live with it.

Many of the children are malnourished, do not receive education, beaten and some die from the work they do. The organization we visited had about thirty children. They had living there after they had been taken from the fisherman. They do not ever pay for the kids because that encourages the cycle. I got a chance to work in the classrooms with the children. I helped a young boy with subtraction and I played with the preschool kids. They were all beautiful and loved being with us. I also went with two boys to put sand on the soccer field to make lines. They did most of the hard work but I enjoyed trying to help. One boy took my camera and was taking pictures and videos of everyone. That was one good way to get myself in pictures! Many of the kids love not only being in pictures but also taking pictures. We take it for granted that we have such easy access to cameras.