This week has been one of the most eventful over all since I have arrived in Ghana!! I apologize for not writing sooner! Last Wednesday was my first day volunteering with an NGO called S AID – Street Aid for girls. Basically the organization takes teen girls off of the streets, most of whom were former prostitutes and have small children, and give them a place to stay and a basic education. The organization is funded by goods the girls make out of plastic water sachets which we drink out of and typically pollute the streets of Accra. All of the funds that the girls save while staying at the facility are matched when they leave. The girls sew the sachets together and add fabric swatches to create aprons, bags, and they also use beads to make necklaces. The goods they make are sold through a partner organization in the US. Check out http://www.said-ghana.com/ for more details.
Volunteering was an amazing experience, and I will definitely continue to go back each Wednesday. The girls speak little english, and most have small children under a year old. What volunteers do is make sure the babies are less of a distraction to the girls as they learn basic english and math skills. I also got to teach the girls a few sentences and subtraction last Wednesday. It is interesting because they get frustrated when they can’t do the problems or write sentences for themselves, but then get so excited when they get the correct answer. They like whoever is teaching to write “very good” or “great job” on their papers after they are checked. It is a little depressing to see 16-19 year old girls who have infants and cannot read, write, or do basic math. Despite this it is extremely rewarding to be able to teach girls how to function in society. This week I was with the elementary level girls, but when those girls improve, they move to an upper level curriculum where they are also taught basic business and entrepreneural skills so that they can start their own craft or food business when they leave S AID. I’m sure there will be a lot more stories to tell throughout my experience volunteering with the girls.
Friday night a few of us went to an upscale bar in Accra called Citizen Kofi. It was crazy to go from such an African atmosphere to such a Western/American one. It was a nice break and after the happy hour at the bar, we got food at a restaurant called Frankie’s which has the biggest menue I’ve seen since I’ve arrived! I got hummus and pita which was a welcome break from rice and eggs!!!
This weekend was definitely my favorite so far! We went to Cape Coast to see the slave castles and to Kakum national park to do a canopy walk. Check out the pictures on Facebook they are amazing!!! My group went to the Elmina Slave Castle, which was the older and larger of the two. It was built over 500 years ago and was run at various points by the Dutch, Portuguese, and British. The castle was eerily beautiful and was set on the beach, so the view from the towers was phenominal. It was hard to imagine hundreds of slaves being crammed into the small dungeon rooms our guide showed us. The female dungeon disturbed me the most. When we walked in there was a strange smell, which the guide told us was because the women had nowhere to relieve themselves and had no way of dealing with menstruation. The lived in feces etc. over a foot high at points. The fact that a hint of the smell still remains after 500 years is a testament to how terrible the dungeon actually was.
While our first day at Cape Coast was a bit depressing, the second was amazing! We woke up and journeyed an hour to Kakum National Park. The park is home to the largest canopy walk way in West Africa. It was probably one of the coolest things I have ever done. We hiked to a tree house type things where the canopy walk began and were basically walking on a rickety wooden plank attached to trees with ropes. There were posts around the trees that connected the walkways where you could stop to look down at the rainforest below. It was definitely an adrenaline rush! Jake faced his fear of heights, along with a few others and everyone braved the walkway. After the park, we went to a restaurant called Han’s Botel, which was built up on stilts over a lagoon famous for crocodiles. This was where I faced my fear. The crocodiles come up on the land around the buildings where the restaurant is and you can even pet them. They told us that they are very tame and no one ever gets bitten, but I was still terrified at first to touch the crocodile! I felt like at any point it could just turn and snap my head off. One girl touched one and it moved a little and everyone screamed! Jake just bent right down and touched it, but I had to convince myself for a while that it was safe! Overall it was an amazing day.
We came back to our hostel to unfortunately find that the water was out in the building, which meant I got to take my first bucket bath. Luckily the water came back on this morning so I can finally wash my hair after two days. Pleasant I know.
Check out my Facebook for a visual of what I just described! Happy reading!
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