Hey!!!
So I know I said that I would keep up with the blog, but it just has not been happening. This blog entry will finish up the third day in Ghana.
On to the third day in Ghana.
Today we decided to head to the water village. The water village is a community who built their huts over a lake that runs along a river. Jason, Kevin and I headed out together on this one. Jason and I called Herman, the immigration officer we met the night before, who picked all three of us up and took us to a private driver who he knew. Our driver for the day, Francis, drove us to the water village, went there with us, ate lunch with us, and drove us all the way back to Takoradi. The drive to the water village took about 2 hours. The drive was extremely beautiful. Francis also introduced us to Ghanaian rap and gospel music, which is very good. (Francis ended up giving us four CDs of them, very great music, still listening to it) After about an hour and a half of driving, we ended up having to drive on dirt road. The infrastructure of Ghana is not the greatest, once you get off the main roads that connect some cities, especially in the north part of Ghana, you start to drive on dirt roads. We had to drive about 20 miles per hour in order to make it safely from the time we left the paved until we returned. After arriving at the bottom of the river to head to the water village, we began our adventure for the day on small canoes. We had to paddle for over an hour to reach the water village through jungle. It reminded me of the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland, only it was real life and no animatronics. I was freaking out some of the time because I was in the smaller of the two canoes and the canoe kept acting as if it was about to flip over. Our driver, who was steering us, actually got so mad at me for “almost” tipping the canoe (I swear to you, I was not tipping it, the canoe did that all by itself) that he and the other driver from the other canoe that was near us switched cause he was getting mad. After almost an hour of paddling we reached the village. SAS trips had already been and gone (with over 50 people coming into the village) so some of the village were in their homes not wanting to see us. The thing about the SAS groups is that when they travel, they travel in large groups, so for places like the water village they receive looky-loos who really do not care about them, but rather want to see what it is like to live on a lake. In my Contemporary Social Issues (CSI) class we discussed how by having “tourists” like us visit every time we come, we feed into their poverty because since we pay to get there, they become an attraction. It was almost sickening how we, and I say we because I felt like I did this too, treat them as if we are at a zoo where we go in, look around, take pictures, then leave. Whenever I visit places I try to connect with whomever is there, whether it be the kids there, or adults who are willing to share their stories. Even though for most of this trip to the water village I acted like a tourist and not a “traveler” (which my professor for CSI asked us whether we are 1. Tourists or 2. Travelers or 3. Transformers, and to define what they are. I argued that when SAS travels in these large groups of 50 to places like this, or help out at events like the Habitat for Humanity project with huge numbers that do not add but hinder the progress, then we are tourists. Tourists is when we go into a country, town, village and all we want to do is see monuments or famous places there. For example, most people who visit Paris go and see the Eiffel Tower, go visit the Louvre and visit Notre Dame. What people do not do is interact with locals, get to know the people, and actually immerse yourself whether it be 5 days or a year. One can still be able to learn aspects of a culture instead of just being a looky-loo. I find it more beneficial to travel in small groups, 3 or less, to get the most out of one‘s travels), I was still able to connect a little with the locals. We visited the school which had only a few functional desks while the others were in disrepair and a single blackboard. The guy who took us around was from there so he described daily life. One of the kids came up to me asking for a pen, (I knew this from Francis who translated what he was saying), and I reached in my backpack to take out a pen. All of a sudden a HUGE mass of kids swarmed me all wanting a pen or pencil. I ended up giving away all my pencils and pens in my backpack. I found it weird that of all material things, that is what they were asking for. After an hour in the village we headed back to dry land. Francis and the three of us headed back to Takoradi. We got back around 1800, 1900. Amanda, Kelsey and another girl named Bria were heading to the “African Beach Hotel” where I said I would go with them earlier in the day and stay the night. I did not feel like heading there after returning, but after some persuading I went with them. We arrived some thirty minutes later and tried to book a room. None of our cards were working so we ended up just staying there and using their internet for free, and got a few drinks. We all talked for awhile then headed back to the ship around midnight and that ends the third day in Ghana.
I will continue updating this blog over the next 2-3 days. Tonight has been a rough night for we are going through a pretty rough storm. The rocking of the ship is making me a little queasy so I am going to stop for the night. Good night and sweet dreams everyone. (Also, Saving Private Ryan is on the circuit of the televisions in all our rooms)
Until my next post,
“The earth is as dependent on us as we are on it. Our dominion over earth is not ownership but guardianship.”
-Marvel Harrison
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