The next morning we woke up at 4:30 to the sound of roosters and hens
and chickens and any and every other animal. It was funny because all
night we had heard what sounded like pretty dangerous dogs but just a
few hours later they were all gone for farm animals. When I say we woke
up to the sound of animals, I don't just mean one or two, I mean
literally coming from every direction. It was pretty crazy, and I
imagine it sounded pretty similar to a chicken farm in the early mornings.
Anyway, we woke up and asked to use the toilet, which turned out to be a
shed with a hole dug into it (needless to say I held it). We then asked
where to brush our teeth, and were told wherever since obviously sinks
aren't an option. So we stood on the porch and brushed our teeth with a
bottle of water. It felt rather uncomfortable to just spit out on the
front of someone's home, even though the family did it too, but I think
it would have been worse to walk away to do it on grass. Our family
asked us if we wanted a "bath" (see later in this entry), but we said
after we go to the schools and instead went inside to change and grab
our bags.
Our Dad walked us over to Fred's, and continued to try to communicate
with us on the 15 minute walk despite the language barrier (though the
dad knew a few words of English, the wife knew none). During the
daylight, it was very different to see Senase than it had been the night
before. We walked past the library and 2 schools. Both were quite in
shambles, but all of the children there were happy as can be and all
waved at us. We also walked past tons of goats just EVERYWHERE. Like
people have dogs at home, there were goats here! There was also a soccer
field. There are not paved roads and instead their are dirt paths. We
saw maybe 5 cars drive down roads in Senase in our entire 3 days, so it
clearly isn't very common. Senase also doesn't have waste disposal, so
there are literally just these piles of trash in certain areas of the
village. They must have been 10 feet high and 30 feet wide, and there
must have been 10 of them that we passed, where years of trash just
rots. There is also trash all over other spots of the village, but the
majority did seem to be consolidated here. The smell was very
overpowering, but more than anything it made me realize how lucky I am
that a trash person comes to my house every single week to pick up my
mess. These people live in their own dirt. Another luxury I have never
truly appreciated.
By the time that we made it to Fred's it was breakfast time. Breakfast
was bread and a sauce, so I again tried to pretend I had already eaten
like the night before. This time, though, I wasn't so lucky. The
children left for school about ten minutes in (after playing soccer with
a bunch of us) and so it was pretty noticeable I was the only one
sitting there without a plate. Fred's brother came over to me and asked
why I wasn't eating. I had expected him to be insulted, but the truth is
he was genuinely concerned. I told him I get sick from a lot of foods
but not to worry, I brought my own. But he actually tried his best to
understand what the problem was and if there was any accommodations that
could be made for me. Wow. I told him it was okay and that I brought
enough food for the whole trip, but he really did seem anxious to help
me. This wasn't what I was expecting at all, and it took a lot for me to
win the argument. It was hard because I knew the plates and cooking pots
weren't clean and it wasn't worth the risk, but that's not something I
could explain and therefore it was quite a process. I am beyond touched
by how hard he wanted to try to make sure I eat. I had expected an
offensive remark when I wasn't eating, but what I got was genuine
concern for my need-to-eat. The people of Ghana never ceased to amaze
me. And I will not forget that hospitality.
After breakfast we walked to a meeting place of the village to meet the
tribal elders that we were supposed to meet the night before. When we
got there, the elders were all sitting in chairs against the far wall
and we were instructed to form a line, put our left hands behind our
back (the left hand is taboo in Ghana) and shake each one of their hands
(people shake in Ghana, they don't hug or kiss like Americans) before we
took a seat. I was surprised at what the elders were wearing -- only 1
was in "traditional" African attire, and the other 7 were in jeans and
polo shirts! I have no idea where they got these shirts (especially
since half of the shirts I saw people wearing they seemed to have no
idea what the idea was on it -- for example, I saw a few Mickey shirts
but no one knew who Mickey was), but I guess that's the Western
domination in action.
The elders spoke in Twi and Fred translated for them. They talked a lot
about the Senase Project, an organization started by the first SAS group
to visit Senase. The group has already raised the money to build one new
school and were working on funding for a second. However, the group was
debating upon if a school was the best choice for the village because
they don't have a hospital. It was completely heartbreaking to hear this
debate about building a school or a hospital. Why should they have to
choose one or the other? This is when I made it a plan to help with the
Senase Project upon my return home. This village NEEDS this (Tweek: For
anyone reading it, google the Senase project. You can see videos of
where I went and the amazing work they have done. You can also donate.
Trust me, they need it. We aren't going to miss $5).
When the elders were done we were treated to a traditional Ghanaian
dance by a female dancer and 2 male drummers. I caught the dance on
video, so hopefully I can upload it upon my return in May. It was very
different than I expected in that it involved some more provocative
dance moves I didn't anticipate in a place I had a per-conceived notion
of traditionalism in. It was nothing like the pop and grinds of America,
but still more than I had anticipated. The performance was quite
enjoyable and that, along with the CDs we heard on the bus ride, fueled
my desire to buy some Ghanian music when we hit Accra.
Following the performance we were divided into 5 groups to visit our
schools. My group had about 10 people and we were being led by Fred's
sister, Ophelia. The school was about 2 miles away and took us about an
hour to walk to. This school wasn't in Senase, but in a neighboring
village. Some groups went to schools in the village and some groups went
even further than we did. One group even went to the Senase Project
school. I'm happy with the school I went to, though. The previous two
SAS groups hadn't been to this particular school, and so for most of the
students it would be the very first time they even saw a white person. I
wondered what type of images they had of us in their heads and whether
we would live up to their expectations. I wondered what the school would
look like and what we would be doing. And I wondered if the kids would
even like us.
Along the way we learned a song that the children at the school like to
sing. I'll try my best to spell things correctly:
Ghanase Ghanase
Oh na na net tah se
Ghanase Ghanase
If we say, oh yay....satsooahh
... a bunch of words I won't even try to spell
I could never have imagined what happened next. The second we got within
eye sight of the school hundreds of children just came SPRINTING towards
us. They completely ignored all their teachers yelling at them to come
back. All of them just wanted to touch us. To say hi to us. To meet us.
We were like this foreign object that they just wanted to feel and talk
to and hold on to for as long as they could.
The headmistress tried her hardest to get the kids to go back to class,
but that wasn't happening. She even tried to bring us in to meet her,
but the kids just followed. Eventually, she brought us over to watch a
group of selected students rehearse a marching routine to celebrate
Ghana's independence day. Independence day is in March, but the students
were rehearsing a special routine because the country's president would
be coming to watch it.
Though this tactic worked for about 4 seconds, all of the kids soon came
running after us. We tried to watch the march, but it just wasn't
happening with all the attention the kids were giving us. So everyone
caved and we walked back over the school zone and took pictures with the
kids, blew bubbles with them, sang songs with them and just met as many
as we could. At one point, a bunch of the kids got in the middle of a
circle and sang a song for us. So, in response, we got in the middle of
the circle and sang "if you're happy and you know it" for them. I think
my smile could be seen in Nigeria it spread so far. This welcome was
more than anything my small brain could ever begin to fathom. It was
unreal. I don't think I will ever fully comprehend it.
After the singing and dancing, we were led to some chairs at the edge of
the field to sit while the classrooms regrouped. Here, we met a few of
the teachers and most of them just started listing everything that they
wanted for their school. One even asked us what we were going to "give"
them and that she really wanted a computer lab. I don't think anyone
really understood why we were there (including us - of course it was
incredible to be able to go, but we weren't really sure what our
expectations were), but the perception that all of us were completely
loaded Americans definitely was showing through.
Once all the classes were settled we were separated into 3 groups to go
into classrooms. My group was Jordan, Kendra, Dain and I. Unfortunately,
since the school was so far away we really didn't have much time in the
classrooms. We were going to be seeing 3 classrooms and only had 1.5
hours to do it. Our first stop was the little kids classrooms where we
met a group of 5-8 year olds. There were about 20 kids in the class.
They sat 2 per desk and each had their own pencil but not one of them
had a notebook. The classroom itself was held up virtually by just wood
pillars, and the ceiling was an open mess of wood as well. The floor was
quite possibly made of mud and the chalkboards were so dusty they must
have been older than I am. The two teachers were doing their best, but
even they didn't own a notebook.
The lessons the young children were learning mostly consisted of English
vocabulary. It is a goal of the Ghanaian education system to teach all
students English. This is being made easier as the education system has
improved in recent years (basically, students are encouraged to stay in
school like never before because food is provided for them, whereas
before the work needed at home outweighed the benefit of school). We
sang head, soldiers, knees and toes with them and handed out some of
goodies. I was able to give each kid a Mickey sticker and we made it a
lesson by teaching them how to spell mouse. I also had to hand out a
piece of paper to each child to do so because they don't have any of
their own. It was really crazy to me because none of them knew what a
sticker was! Again, American luxuries like kids having stickers. Some of
the other SAS kids handed out pencils, or things like that and before we
knew it Ophelia came in and told us it was time to leave. Before we
left, Dain set up his tripod and we took a class photo. I also pulled
out my Polaroid and took a photo of the class for the teacher which she
really seemed to love.
Our next class was of the older kids 8-12ish. This class was learning
sentence construction and the teacher asked us to help them with it.
Unfortunately, we only had like 10 minutes so virtually all we did was
pass out some of our goodies. This time, Dain took Mickey sticker duty,
while I gave out pens, pencils, highlighters and markers. The kids had
no idea what a stickers or highlighters were! So crazy! The teacher
actually asked me for a pen for herself too. It's unbelievable to hear
how even the teachers don't have proper materials. I went into my bag
and gave her two pens, a marker, a highlighter and a folder. I realize
that's absolutely nothing for a teacher in America, but this teacher was
so, so thankful. Before we left we took another class photo and when I
gave this teacher the Polaroid she reached over and gave me a giant hug.
It's insane how some small thing like a pen can truly make someones day.
The third classroom we went to was also of older kids, but it was a very
different experience. The teacher felt like we were interrupting her
teaching and had us just sit in the corner and watch. They were learning
sentence structures and verbs and this one kid kept volunteering to give
examples of new words. Every sentence he used involved the subject "the
white people." "The white people like to drink," "the white people play
guitar," and "the white people are going to graduate" are examples. They
had never seen anyone that wasn't black before, as we were the first
Senase group to visit this particular school, but I still thought it was
a bit strange.
Schooling in Ghana is quite different than in the U.S. Despite the
inferior build of it, it's focus is all different. Where we learn
biology and calculus, they learn mostly English. Since so many people
speak Twi or other tribal languages, English fluency is a goal.
Another note about the school: I did a project a year back for People's
of Africa on the educational system in Ghana. There are two things I
remember from this project:
*1 - students have to walk to school no matter how far it is and
often have to wake up as early as 3am to get ready and make it there on
time.
*2 - a government initiative to keep kids in school is to provide
free lunch. This would make it more cost affective for kids to stay in
school rather than be pulled out to work.
Schooling is only free for the primary years, and after that people must
pay. Therefore, a lot of people don't make it to a high school level
which is quite sad, but it's a vast improvement over many students not
even finishing primary school that existed before the food program.
When we left the classrooms all of the children swarm back out to say
goodbye to us and didn't want us to leave. They were also all holding
out their hands and saying "give me." I know they think we are all
loaded with goodies to give them, but truthfully we had given out
everything we brought in the classrooms and even if we did give 1 kid
something the rest would have jumped on us for more. It's not been easy
saying no to children, but I know I'm not done with it yet.
-After school we walked the distance back to Fred's house where all the
groups were meeting for lunch. There were 2 groups already there, and it
took another 2 hours for the rest to come. So we had to eat lunch very
fast because we had to make it to our dance lessons!
By the time everyone had gotten back the children had gotten out of
school and were naturally all hanging with us at Fred's. So when we got
up to go to a place to learn our routine, all of the kids grabbed our
hands and walked with us. So, so, adorable.
We would be learning the dance at this place that I have no idea what it
was. It was basically a slab of cement with benches on both sides and a
building in the back. We were divided into drummers and dancers (we got
to choose which we wanted - Dain drummed, I danced). Our two teachers
introduced themselves, they are friends of Fred) and the drummers
learned their part first. Meanwhile, a bunch of us dancers walked up the
street to buy some drinks at a little shack. In Senase, there really
aren't stores, but people have set up little tents where they sell
things. The tents are also common in the major cities, but there is
stores in those as well.
By the time we got back, dance lessons had already started but only
within a few minutes. So we joined one of the two sides and learned our
routine. It was really short and probably only about 1.5 minutes, but it
took us 3+ hours to learn because it was so different than any style of
dance we have seen. After the three hours we weren't even pros at it,
but it was dark and we were out of time, so it was more or a less a hope
that we could do it right the next day.
It was 2 hours after we were initially scheduled to end (because school
took a lot longer than planned) so we only had 45 minutes instead of 3
hours to go back to our homes. We had absolutely no idea how to get to
our house, so we walked back to Fred's and hoped to get someone to take
us. Lucky for us, our dad had come back to pick us up (aww), and walked
us back for a bit.
The first thing we did when we got back to the house was give our family
the first part of their gifts. We had brought for this a Semester at Sea
stuffed animal, Necco Waffers, Mickey Stickers and a Donald keychain. We
saw the daughter playing with the bear the next morning, so we think
they liked them ;).
After that, we were asked again if we wanted to take a bath so we said
yes. We were taken around the house to three walls where people in the
surrounding houses bathed. I went first and was given a bucket full of
water. Thankfully, I had brought soap, shampoo and conditioner, but no
towel, oh well. You literally just reach inside and start patting
yourself with water to clean yourselves. And if more than one person was
going to bathe (which usually happened) the next person and anyone else
after you also shared that same bucket of water. The water is also
contaminated so it isn't exactly clean, but like I said before most of
the people in the village do smell dirty (i'm sure I did by this point
too). I did feel somewhat refreshed after my bath though (though not
like the feeling of stepping out of a shower at home after a long day of
sweating). It was definitely an experience to wash myself with nothing
but a bucket in the open. Sure, there were walls, but no ceiling or
anything. Apparently, people in Senase do wash themselves once or twice
a day, but I wonder what it must be like to never fully be cleansed. I
am curious if they do have soap and shampoos here or if people just
rinse themselves off. On the ship, I have been upset at how dry my hands
have been from all the Purell I have used both on and off the land, and
here there are people in Senase that have no idea what the kind of
luxury is. It makes me re-think the little things even more. Had I known
about the extremity of situation, I would have brought purell, toilet
paper and soap instead of candy and toys.
We were rather rushed after our showers because we were already past our
45 minutes before dinner. We felt confident we could find Fred's
ourselves so we grabbed our flashlights and started walking. However,
the mother chased after us and took us. It's a good thing she did
because it was pitch black at night (no streets, so definitely no street
lights) and we never would have found it. It's so unbelievably sweet
that our family walked back and forth with us so many times. Some people
on the trip never even met their home-stay families and were entirely on
their own, but we got a family who treated us like their guests, and I
couldn't stop smiling.
We were supposed to go into town (I don't know which one - but it was a
bit away) to explore some of the nighttime stuff in the area, but the
electricity was out for a pretty wide radius and neither Senase or the
other villages had power. Fred told us nothing really works without
generators so we weren't going to go and instead were just going to stay
at his house for a few hours. A few hours ended up being like 1 before
we were walked back to our house for the night. The family was already
asleep when we got back, so we just went right to sleep, unbelieving
that this experience was basically almost over.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
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