It’s a lift…it’s a tank…oh, it’s the village women

My experience in Ghana thus far has been a pretty even mix of good and bad. One thing, though, that has been consistently intriguing to me is the village women. They never seize to amaze me with their fun-loving attitudes, incredible strength and the most infectious laughs. For the past few days we have been working on the buildings’ foundations. Every morning the women would arrive bright and early with buckets, make no mistake these ladies aren’t here to spectate between their house hold choirs, but they are here and ready to do some heavy lifting. From the gravels to the mixed concrete or even the concrete blocks, they seem to be able to transport bucket full of stuff with unbeatable stamina while keeping up with the chatters and laughter. It inspired me to try to do the same, but all I accomplished was a head full of sand that made our already disastrous hotel bathroom even worse. I think there is something tremendous about these women, they don’t live materially rich lives, but they certainly seem to live rich spiritually. In many ways, Canadian visitors to Ghana are perceived by the villagers to be people who live wealthy and educated lives. While there might be some truth to the stereotype, I felt much more comfortable in this environment where people are simply genuine and honest. It is amazing when they feel that they can relate to us (i.e. when we clumsily try to learn their language and their culture or when we try to bring buckets on our heads), because it is a true honor to see and in a small way part-take in these women’s lives.

put your back into it!

For the last 3 days excavation work has been on the front and centre of our agenda. Each morning we dragged our tired asses unwillingly into the hotel restaurant before we are graced by Bob Marley and his Jamaican tunes in the bus. It takes about 45 minutes for us to commute to the village, which gave most of us a chance to actually wake up before we get to the work site. The excavation is done in preparation of the foundation pouring for the two classrooms and the latrine. Clay soil, occasional encounter of bedrock, the sizzling sun, and the funky surprises (ants, snakes and other earthly creatures) makes digging this nearly 3 foot deep trench extra exciting. Many locals, children and adult alike, eagerly chime in to the excavation and our entertainment. Their slander bodies delivered surprising strength and endurance which had allowed us to move quickly. In the end, "Ho House" (AKA the southern classroom) pulled ahead and finished the excavation first. On our way home, fatigued, muddy, and down right smelly, were once again accompanied by the ever-repeating Bob Marley tape. As the mini bus full of us drive back on the road we have traveled twice a day for the past 5 days, I can't help but to bask in the amazement of just how far life can take you. 

Kpedze-todze

The village where we are building the school is about a half hour drive away from our hotel. The road to the village is surprisingly well paved, but within the village it was more like a roller coaster ride down muddy puddles. Much like our other experiences here, we attracted many curious eye of villagers and commuters along the way. We drove pass the site of the school that looked like it was briefly cleared prior to our arrival, it is barely recognizable from what we seen in the pictures. The kids in the village are delirious to see so many visitors of so many different colours (like a bag of M&Ms). They waste no time to cozy up to us and they are always ready to pose for the cameras. We went into the chief’s house and were seated in the living room for our final design consultation with the village chief and the elders. It was a long and intense meeting in a small space that seemed warmer with every breath we take. The women and the children casuals hangs around the yard, occasionally peak into the living room with curiosity. There are chickens and kittens running around in the yard, the whole picture reminds me much of my childhood growing up in the countryside of Taiwan. Couple hours went by before the chief and our group leaders finally shook hand in agreement of the design. We headed for the site just a couple minutes away behind the chief’s house, it was a piece of land about 30 meters x 30 meters with a beautiful breeze coming from the northeast. The beautiful surrounding, the incredible hospitality, and the very warm and lovely people paint an entirely new impression of Africa that goes much beyond my expectations…oh by the way, the guy in the last picture has been missing since Wednesday! (PARENTS PLEASE DON’T PANIC!)

Wild Ghana

We packed our bags yet again to leave Accra for our final destination Ho (As the Ghanaians smirked politely when I mentioned my last name). Many of us are still haunted by the fatigue and hunger that came as a result of the adjustment period. We got on to the familiar mini bus and headed off for Volta Region of Ghana. The mini bus navigates through the streets and highways that are bustling with mobile venders (by that I mean dry goods, cold beverages, toys, even ties balanced on peoples’ heads) As we leave the city, the scenery outside the windows became greener and greener until eventually human occupation becomes a rare element in the vastness. Like all the other day, this drive was estimated by the locals to be 2 and a half-hours but we barely made it halfway by then. Along the way it is hard to ignore the obvious signs of deforestation. Many magnificent old trees are found standing alone in the low-laying tropical vegetation. We arrived at Chances Hotel in Ho shortly before noon; to be honest the hotel is more like a holiday resort than I have ever imagined it would be. Luscious tropical plants, scenic paths and near pristine natural surroundings all suggest that this should be a vacation in paradise, but I don’t think we will be doing much of relaxing this time around.

Ghana...the good and the bad and everything in between

It's the end of our second day in Ghana, strangely, it felt like we have been here for much longer than 48 hours. We have had the pleasure to meet some incredibly nice people in these past two days, and Ghanaians are exceptionally friendly and lovely people. Even a simple exchange of glances as we drive by on a mini bus are most often accompanied by waving hands. The multi-nationality nature of the group has also been a point of interest for a lot of the children here, evident by the fact we were swarmed by young children who nicknamed us "Power Rangers" (which I misheard as "Asparagus") when we visit the local schools. It's astonishing how bad traffic can be in Accra, any road at any time of the day can easily rival that of LA rush hour traffic. Even the parking lots can often entail more than half an hour of traffic to get through. Another surprising encounters in Ghana has been the amount of Chinese restaurants that can be found in the city. When Mr. Chance (our gracious host in Ho - not me, but the city) told us the first thing he wanted us to experience was to have the famous Ghanaian Chinese food and beer for lunch, I must say my heart was guiltily delighted by the nostalgic soya sauce tasty deliciousness.
It is refreshing to be able to so intimately experience a culture that is so entirely different than ones that exist in Toronto. As my heart has suspected, there has been lots of true delights about this lovely country, but there has also been things that are very tough to see. As we journey forward, I can't help to wonder how the delights and let-downs will affect everyone of us...

Ghanaian Handshake...oh snap!

I have not been this eager to spread a news since my acceptance to university years ago, but I just have to share with everyone the Ghanaian handshake I have just learned!

Step 1. You shake hand like you usually would

Step 2. Hang on to the middle finger as your hands slide away from each other

Step 3. Snap using each other's middle fingers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OpQsQ2PeIo

Everyone does it here! It's super cool.

People in crowded places...for many many hours!

Finally came the much awaited departure Sunday, most of the team would journey together from Toronto and transfer through Amsterdam to get to Ghana. We are on KLM0696 for the first leg of the trip, thanks to the wonder of personal entertainment system, most of us survived with our sanity intact despite the constant cries of children. 

I have to give credit to Amsterdam's airport, under any other sleep deprived state I wouldn't have been in the mood to explore but there was something inviting and personable about the airport that I simply couldn't resist. For one, I witnessed the brilliant industrial design in the most unsuspecting place: man's washroom. A fly is printed inside the urinal where the point of least splashing occurs, the designers knowingly did so because the gents tend to go right for the fly. The result, of course, is less work for the clean up crew and less embarrassment for the gents. The second flight from Amsterdam to Accra seemed to have taken a lot longer than the first flight, although I completely blacked out from fatigue minutes after the plane left the runway. The only times I was awake was to catch the meals and catch a glimpse of the vast African Plain glistening in the sunset (before the man in the window seat returns from his washroom break). 17 hours, 3 meals, 2 movies, 2 snakes, 1 stop-over and way too many washroom breaks later, we finally arrive to Accra (Capital of Ghana) to find a small airport with a mini bus and a pick-up truck from the hotel waiting for us. Just as we loaded the mini bus and the pick-up truck and cheered to the thought of ending our long journey, someone smashed the Mercedes Benz that accompanied the our cars to delay our arrival to the hotel for another hour and half. The night seemed never-ending, and we are so tightly packed into the mini bus like frozen Wontons, but it was all okay, because I am with this great group of people at the beginning of a truly extraordinary adventure.