Obamania in Ghana?!

As our voyage continues, it becomes harder and harder to capture and summarize my experiences. The further we sail from home, the more eye opening and indescribable each moment becomes. Ghana was so different from anywhere or anything I’ve ever been or seen. Since it was Semester at Sea’s first visit to the country, we were not given a very detailed picture or what to expect before we arrived. The four days that we spent docked in Tema (near the capital city of Accra) certainly exceeded any expectations I may have had! Although colonized by the British (Ghana gained its independence in 1957), roaming the streets or driving down the country’s numerous dirt roads, it’s hard to see the lasting effects. Nearly everyone speaks English as a result of British rule, but it oftentimes felt as if people were speaking a foreign language. In some ways, it appeared that the country had not been touched by Western civilization – the dirt roads, the women carrying everything from pineapples to plastic bags of drinking water atop their heads, the outdoor bars with plastic chairs and tables, goats and chickens along the street and the telephone wires attached to tree trunks rather than metal poles to name a few. However, while spending a day outside of the city, we saw a young child whose cell phone’s ring tone was a popular Akon song in the U.S. It’s truly amazing to see what fragments of Western culture hold up in a society with such a rich traditional culture of its own.

Remember how excited everyone got this summer when the Obama family vacationed on Martha’s Vineyard? Well the Ghanaians have taken their infatuation with President Obama to a whole new level. Forget about the shirts that Vineyarders sold in August – Obama has billboards in Accra, U.S. flags and traditional Ghanaian garb with his face imprinted, soccer jerseys, key chains, bumper stickers and the list goes on. The friendly faces that we met all over Ghana were thrilled to have visitors from the U.S., and very eager to tell us time and time again just how much they love Obama. I think Obama has more popular support in Africa than in his own country!

What we did

On Tuesday, our first day in Ghana, we explored the city of Accra for the afternoon. On our shuttle ride from Tema to Accra, we saw the following being sold by people on the streets: water, plantain chips, ties, full-size flags, bed linens, baby toys, poster maps of Africa, jewelry, cuff links, newspapers, and more…Ghanaians can never have an excuse for showing up to a party empty handed with all of the crap they can buy en route! We also saw several signs for the Ghana Marathon, which we only missed by two days – too bad! I’m not sure I would have held up in the heat though…very different from the icy streets of Philadelphia last November!

We visited a market where locals shop for food, clothes, and pirated DVDs (Ghana does not have copyright laws like the U.S., so they can sell ANYTHING – we saw Lost Season 5 for sale, for example. A friend of mine bought a copy of the Hangover, and to our surprise it actually worked!). I swear that I saw some of the clothes that I’ve donated to Goodwill over the years for sale there! That night, my friends and I met up with my long-time friend Ezra, who is spending the semester in Ghana. Ezra and I have known each other for upwards of 15 years at this point, but we haven’t seen each other in probably 3 or 4 years – it was wild to see him halfway around the world when we only like about 30 minutes away from each other back home! He and Annie, both studying abroad in Ghana and traveled to Israel with me in 2005, showed us around Osu, a newer district of Accra.

The next day, we awoke bright and early to volunteer for Habitat for Humanity Ghana. One of the most important lessons we learned while in Ghana is the lack of appropriate estimation of time – what our bus driver told us might be a two-hour ride turned into 4 hours through some of the bumpiest, unpaved roads I’ve ever seen! Although travel took up most of our day, we did make some good progress on one of the houses in the community. I like to think of myself as a pretty hardy, fairly strong gal – I quickly learned that I am not cut out for the African heat, OR manual labor. We spent our time there mortaring the bricks for the foundation of a small home (which will take 2 weeks to complete), eating lunch prepared by inhabitants of the community, playing with some of the kids, and sweating profusely! On our long drive back, we stopped off at a cocoa farm, one of Ghana’s main exports. After a long day of travel and hard work, we stayed near the ship and explored Tema instead of venturing back to Accra.

I spent much of the day Thursday propping up the Ghanaian economy by buying gifts and souvenirs! My favorite stop of the day was at a store called Global Mamas, an organization that helps female entrepreneurs open small businesses throughout Africa. Not only were the handmade crafts unique, but what better gifts to bring home than those whose proceeds go to help better the lives of African women? We also tasted plantain chips from the local grocery store and drank water from plastic bags like the locals do!

On our final day in Ghana, we visited the Osu Children’s Home, a very chilling experience. The Home provides housing, food and education for nearly 250 children aged infant to 23. We did some painting and cleaning there, and visited with the young children who were not off at local public schools for the day. The children were so eager for attention from us…there are so many of them that it is clearly too hard for each to be held and receive individual attention daily. It was truly heartbreaking to see them cry when we had to leave. After lunch, we returned to donate Semester at Sea t-shirts and school supplies to them. We were able to walk through the nursery, where there were dozens of babies in cribs. It is very hard to put this day into more words, but it was definitely one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen.

What we ate

As Ezra and Annie shared with us on the first night, Ghanaian food is nothing to write home about. They don’t have many special dishes, but chicken, rice and fish are the staples of their diet. Plantains in all forms are available everywhere on the streets. We actually had really good Chinese food in Ghana! The best thing I ate in Ghana was a pineapple that I bought on the street…it certainly rivaled our favorite fruit cart in Philadelphia! After the kind lady peeled and cut it up for me, I tasted the sweetest pineapples I’ve ever eaten! Too bad they wouldn’t pass through customs to bring some home…

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Ghana is one of those places that I would LOVE to visit again to see how it is different in the future. It seems to be on the verge of enduring a multitude of changes, as it is one of the more advanced African nations. Hopefully my Malarone pills and my 98.99% DEET insect repellant did the trick to ward off Malaria! Ghana was great, and I can’t wait for our next stop: Capetown, South Africa!