Batiking for Global Mamas

Although it doesn’t really look it, batiking is a difficult job. You have to mix the dye and hope that the consistence of the colors will produce the final color that you want. Then you have to draw out a design using precut stamps, wooden or foam. After laying out the white cloth and heating the wax you have to soak the stamps in the wax for a few moments. Then you have to be really careful when pressing the stamps on the cloth and make sure that you don’t drip wax on the cloth. You have to be precise when stamping on the cloth because you can’t go back and erase the wax that has been stamped on the material. After the wax has dried the cloth is soaked in the dyed water until every part of the cloth has the same color consistency. The cloth is then left to dry. After the cloth is dried it is taken to the inspectors in the Global Mamas shop where at least two inspectors search the cloth for mistakes. If it isn’t up to par then the inspector will show you where the mistakes are, a little wax dripping here, a stamp that wasn’t pressed hard enough into the fabric, a dye color that doesn’t come out correctly. After you are told of all the mistakes, you wonder why it didn’t turn out like you wanted. After all the design plans and what you thought were careful batiking practices. Then when looking at the original white cloth, you realize that it is of poor quality and never would have sustained long term.

"50 peswa jollof, please?"

I made peanut butter cookies for everyone in the office and gave one to our house keeper and Renae’s personal assistant, Sam, who had never had a cookie before. He said it was too sweet. It is hard to imagine that people don’t eat things like that, but here they don’t. Cakes, cookies, pies and other bakery items aren’t popular here, neither are desserts. Only in western shops do you see these items. Even prepackaged cookies here aren’t sweet like the ones we have. The only real desserts here are kelewele, rock buns and fan ice. For being a major produced of the cocoa bean, Ghana’s people don’t use chocolate much. When they do it is the cheap very poor quality Kingsbite-which has a very artificial flavor to it and an odd after taste. I went to a birthday party with my friend Gifty, surprisingly they had cake, but even that wasn’t really sweet. Most of the good quality cocoa beans are exported.

I miss fresh food the most, the closest I come to fresh food is a salad from the local salad lady, but even that is loaded down with mayonnaise. The food here is good, not superb but good. Staples in almost every dish are palm oil, tomato paste and peppe-the local name for cayenne pepper. Starches consist of fufu-pounded plantain and cassava until it resembles a ball of dough, banku-a combination of cassava and fermented corn dough, kenkey-which is similar to banku, rice, jollof-a spicy mixture of rice, palm oil and tomato paste, and boiled/fried yam or plantain. These starches are eaten by hand with stews and soups. Fufu and rice eaten with soups: light soup, groundnut soup (peanut) and palm soup. Boiled or fried yams and plantains are often eaten with stews, okra stew, palava sauce (made with spinach leaves) and seafood stew. Red red is a favorite dish here, it is a sauce made with black-eyed beans, palm oil, tomato paste and many spices and served with fried plantains.


When ordering food at the local chop bar, you say how much you want to pay and then they give you an amount equal to the price. So 50 pesewa rice would be approximately 1 ½ cup cooked rice. Even in the market place you say how much you want to pay, 1 cedi bananas would be about 6 bananas. When buying food in the market place, vendors will always dash you a little extra of what ever you are buying. Buying a cup of beans in Ghana is completely different than buying a cup of beans in the states. Here a cup means a 14 oz tin can, piled high. I made the mistake of asking for 5 cups of flour, when I was really thinking 5 actual measuring cups of flour. Needless to say that flour lasted us quite awhile!

The market is a bustling place of vendors hawking merchandise from make shift stalls, tables, their heads or even their arms. Sounds of bartering and calling of items being sold by head sellers float through the market, along with the constant beeping of taxi horns. Girls walk down the isles with containers balanced on their heads, announcing, “Pure Water”. When you hand her a 5 pesewa coin she will give you a plastic sachet, which holds about 2 cups of water. My favorite place in the market is when you get deep inside the crowded halls and stalls. There you will find no obrunis and no curios or trinkets. Strong scents of what is commonly called stinking fish, fill your senses. The people selling these items are so friendly, the women call out to you “Obruni! Et te sain?” White person! How are you? I respond with “Eya” I am fine and a smile. She asks my name and I tell her Aba, Thursday born. We chat for a little while, “Where are you from?” “Oh Washington DC!” “Obama!” Are all common responses I hear when I tell them about myself.

Walking through the fabric isles I see beautiful arrays of bright and colorful materials. I walk up to a stall with a fabric I like and warmly greet the vendor. She tells me to step into her shop, which is about 3 ft by 5 ft. I ask her how much for the fabric, she tells me 18 cedis for 6 yrs. I tell her that is too much I only want 4 yrs. She thinks it over awhile and tries to explain to me why I need 6 yrs. (Here fabric is sold in 6 yr increments, enough for the traditional dress-cover and slip, which is a full length skirt and top) I end up walking away with 4 yrs and 14 cedis lighter. What I will do with all the extra fabric I don’t know.

Walking out of the market I am constantly stopped by “Obruni, How are you?” If I am lost, everyone is polite and very helpful, some will even take me to the place I need to go. When I was in Makola Market (Accra’s largest open market) with Cora, we were stopped by a gentleman who told us we should see the lighthouse in Jamestown and explained to us how to get there, even though we didn’t ask. (Jamestown is a tourist spot in Accra)
A day in the market is exhausting, even if it is only for 3 hrs. However, it isn’t exhausting like going to the malls in the US during Christmas time. I don’t have a headache after shopping here. Besides shopping here is excited, you never know what you will find. From cow carcases to fetish items to chalk (which is something pregnant women apparently love-it tasted like dirt). I don’t think I could ever be bored in the market!

Travelocity and Analyze-ity

At a "coffee stand" on the way back from the North.
It's kinda hard to see but there is an elephant in the background!
Elmina slave castle.
At the village on stilts.


The two weeks have been a whirl wind of adventures. From tro tro rides, to elephants to lovely beaches to birthday celebrations. I traveled up north with 4 friends, the trip took 10 hrs to the large city and then another 5 hours to the Mole National Park. After much trekking through brush-and falling in a couple muddy holes-we finally saw an elephant! It could not have been more than 40 ft. away! And it was huge! Heading back to Cape Coast, was a blur of trees and children screaming “Obruni! Obruni!”.
Tuesday I began work with Eli, the chef for the volunteers in Cape Coast. We spent the week making recipes that would go into the cookbook. Cooking here is much more of an ordeal than back home. Although Eli has a blender she prefers to use the traditional blender, which consists of 2 smooth stones. Even though we both speak English, I realize that culture plays a significant role in communication. In America a measuring cup is completely different from a measuring cup in Ghana, which is a tin can and pilling it as much as possible.
Last weekend a couple friends and I decided to spend to weekend at a beach hotel in the western region. We visited a village built on stilts, the only way to get to this village is to take an hour long canoe ride there.
Back in Cape Coast I visited one of the slave castles, built in the 14th century. It was very intense, in the female dungeon you could still smell the strong scent of the inhuman conditions the Africans were forced to endure. It was difficult seeing the place, but I can’t imagine what it would be like if it had been part of my family ancestry.
I finally returned to Accra on Monday night. The next morning we went on the Market and Spice Tour, which I had designed with Gifty. It went so well! It was so exciting seeing the project in its final stages, especially since I had started with a simple idea!
Although transportation is long and tiring, it does give me time to analyze my time here, and what I think of my work in Ghana. On my last tro tro ride, I analyzed what I have learned.
• I have learned to accept that my clothes, hair and body will never be truly clean here.
• I have learned to accept that there is no means of comfortable transportation here.
• I have learned to respect the differences in Ghanaian culture and mine.
• I have learned patience.
• I have learned that “I am coming” could mean anything from 20 minutes to 2 hours.
• I have learned that an internet connection is never going to be as fast as in the US.
• I have learned that a Ghanaian dish includes cayenne pepper, a starch and at least 2 cups of oil.
• I have learned that while a capitalistic approach has its advantages it also has its drawbacks.
• I have learned that family is much more important in this culture.
• I have learned that people are generally good and trustworthy.
• I have learned although one minute a strange, in Ghana, the next minute you could be a brother or sister.
• I have learned to expect the unexpected.

East Side

1) Christi, Me, Christina and I walking to the entrance gate for Wli falls, the little boy was guiding us.
2) On the bridge heading towards Wli falls: Me, Christi, Cora and Christina
3) Eating cocoa from the plant! Yum Yum!
4) The falls...and if you look closely you can see us!
5) No mom I am not really falling into the water! ;)
6) A true Ghanaian.

“Obruni, come”

Cora and I found a taxi from our home in Labone to the trotro (bus) station, Tema Station. Even before we entered the station we were bombarded with trotro drivers who wanted us to ride their trotro. Overwhelmed with the “Obruni, come” phrase we somehow managed to pull away from the mob and figure out where we needed to be. We were going to meet with Christina and Christi who were coming from Cape Coast (2 hours to the west of Accra). Apparently, there are actually at least 4 trotro stations all within 2 minutes of each other. After we found them at a different station, we finally found a nice trotro that would take us to HoHoe (at least 4 hours away) in the Volta Region. For 7 cedis we got to ride in an air conditioned, country blaring trotro! After dropping in the HoHoe station, a whirlwind of vehicles zooming by, girls selling bread, eggs and water sachets from their head and the bombarding of taxi drivers all vying for our attention, we found our way to a taxi that would take us to Wli Waterfalls (another 45 min. away). I shouldn’t really say “we found our way”, because everyone was so helpful, telling us how to get to our destination, all we need to do is say where we want to go. The taxi we took to Wli, was a shared taxi, meaning that when the car fills with people then it will go to set destinations (a dropping taxi is one that will take you directly to your destination-more expensive). So the four of us girls crammed in the back (the taxi is a little hatchback), a gentleman, lady and three little children plus the driver all rode up front (mom, I saw your cringe!). We had to stop quite a few times one for dropping the other passengers and also so that the driver could fix his door, that looked as though it was about to fall off. The ride wasn’t so bad-in Ghanaian terms! Finally he dropped us girls off at the Waterfall Lodge, we hadn’t had any reservations but managed to get into a tent for the night. It was such a tranquil and lovely lodge and the owners-a couple from Germany-were very sweet and helped us with directions. Dinner of pineapple chicken and rice was amazing, topped with chocolate FanIce and fruit for dessert (FanIce is the local ice cream here). In the morning we had eggs and toast and coffee-and none of that Nescafe stuff-thus stuff was good! (Nescafe is the most commonly drunk coffee here) Apparently, it was too good for me- 3 cups and one caffeine high later- we started our 45 min. walk to Wli Waterfalls. Our guide showed us raw cocoa and we tried it and it was delicious! Wli falls was amazing, magnificent actually! It was about 40 meters high (no idea how high in US terms) and ended in a pool of water no deeper than my stomach. After we enjoyed “running” under the waterfall, we snapped a few more pics and headed back.

“Obruni, what happened?”

On the walk back to the lodge my pants got wet from the underclothes I wore in the water, so it basically looked like I didn’t make to the ladies room in time. A Ghanaian lady passing us on the trail took one look at me and said “Obruni, what happened?” I guess I must have been a funny sight! We wanted to go to Tafi Abuipe, a kente cloth weaving village so we left for HoHoe as quickly as possible. After learning that we did not have enough time to go to the village and make it back to our lodge-it was now about 4:30pm and it gets dark about 6ish-we decided to take a tro to Fume. The guidebook says that you can walk the 45 min. trail to Mountain Paradise Lodge, where we were staying for the night, the book did not say that it was a 45 min. arduous walk up the mountain! Since it was getting later in the day I was afraid that we wouldn’t make it to the lodge before dark, so Christina and I booked it up the mountain. Finally after about 40 min. we saw a building! It was on the other side of the valley!! 30 min. later we finally saw our first sign! I was so happy and relieved! We made to the lodge before dark. When Christi and Cora finally met up with us 5 min. later they said that they took lovely time-why was I so paranoid?! All Christina and I could think of was after the sun goes down movies! The lodge was surreal! So peaceful, I could stay there indefinitely! Later, we met a young man from the Netherlands, he joined us for dinner and went with us to Tafi Atome (the monkey sanctuary) the next day. We all went to bed about 9pm.

Monkeying Around

Tafi Atome, a little village that hosts the monkey sanctuary, is situated right next to a rainforest. Sometimes the monkeys will actually come down from the trees and eat bananas from your hands, we weren’t so lucky but they did come part way down the tree to snatch a banana out of your hands before booking it up the tree again. It was interesting to see the Mona Monkeys so close in their natural setting. Our guide told us that, although the monkeys have a vast rainforest to sleep in, they sleep in a field close to the village. Back on the main road we hopped a tro to Accra. This one wasn’t as nice as the first-no air conditioning and cram packed seats. At one point on the drive back we even had a tire blown, these guys should be the pit crew for the racecar drivers, they were so fast changing that tire! Well after haggleing a price for the taxi ride to Labone, we finally made it home.

Adventures in Cape Coast

1) Spiderman on the bike.
2) The bridge going from Elmina to Cape Coast had completely given out, this was the remains.
3) Batiking my own material.
4) This was the public bathroom (or half-bathroom) that we used. Cora wasn't even standing up fully!
5) Eating Fufu for the first time!

Friday:
My weekend in Cape Coast was quite eventful. We, Cora, Kristina, Maki and I, left for Cape Coast on Friday and took a cab all the way there, which was about a 2 hour drive. The other girls are also interns here, although Maki is a volunteer with JICA (Japan's version of the Peace Corps). After meeting all the volunteers and workers in the Cape Coast office, we decided to do the Batiking workshop that Global Mamas hosts. It was really cool and batiking is much harder than you would think. Batiking is using wax to make prints on cloth and then dying. I kept on dripping my wax on to random spots of the cloth so my supposed 'sailor' print looks more like the night sky! Oh well it is still very pretty, I think I might have an outfit made out of the material. Afterward we went to Eli's for dinner (she is the chef for the volunteers in Cape Coast), the dinner was amazing-other volunteers boasted about her delicious food. I guess she even makes grilled cheese sandwiches with groundnut soup (Peanut butter soup), I didn't have the luxury of trying it, maybe next time! One of the volunteers, decided to go to the Shell station to get some peanuts so we accompanied her, little did we know that Shell is apparently the happening spot in Elmina. There was a live DJ outside the gas station and a huge party! They even had a projector screen and people were sending in text messages which would appear on the screen! Back at the volunteer house we all got ready to crash, but there is a bar right outside of the volunteer house compound and since there was a festival going on all week they were playing really loud music. I could even feel the vibrations in my bed!
Saturday:
The next morning I woke to the rooster cock-a-doodle-dooing. I checked my cell phone for the time-it was 4 in the morning! It did that every hour until I finally rolled out of bed at 7am. Besides that little disturbance, the morning was very peaceful. There is a balcony on the upper floor which faces the water. It was so relaxing sitting up there with my breakfast and a book. I could have done that every morning. We went to Cape Coast, in hopes of seeing Obama. No one really knew where he was landing (he took a helicopter from Accra to Cape Coast), so we just kinda followed the crowd. We ending up standing in front of Victoria Park (which consists of a concrete open space and no grass). After waiting for about 3 hours we finally started seeing helicopters fly by, everyone cheered. Literally the whole town was there plus people from other cities, like Accra. He didn't land in Victoria Park but he did drive by, in a black SUV with super tinted windows so I didn't even see anything! Oh well! it was an interesting experience! ;) Before we got to Vitoria Park, Cape Coast was also having its chief's festival (I don't remember what it is called) so the chiefs were marched down the street, sitting in coffin like boxes and men carried the box on top of their heads! Anyway as we were standing there, Alice, the coordinator in the Cape Coast office, got her camera stolen. She put it in her bag and apparently someone just snatched right out her bag. She noticed it was gone right away and grabbed the person that had pushed up against her. Somehow in all the commotion the camera ended up on the ground and a policeman picked it up. To make a long story short, we had to go to the police station to report with the policemen and the thief, even though the camera was obviously hers (she had pictures of herself on the camera). That was a different experience, there was only one jail cell in the building and the barred door faced the office which was no bigger than a regular sized kitchen. All the prisoners were clamored around the door, I can't imagine what it must be like in that cell. As I was spacing off, thinking about the conditions of the place, I suddenly felt a tug on my handbag. I freaked out, only to find that one of the policemen decided to be funny and tried to scare me! The nerve considering why we were there! : )
At Eli's we had these amazing black-eyed bean burgers (I don't remember what they are called). I can't wait to try and make them when I get home!
Sunday:
On Sunday morning we left the house pretty early to meet to other volunteers (not with WIP). We found a tro tro (bus) that would take us to Kakum National Park. Originally we wanted to go to Abura, then from there go to Kakum, but the tro tro driver just heard Kakum and just said yes when I asked if the tro tro was going to Abura. After all 6 of us loaded up he told us we were going to Cape Coast and from there we could catch a tro tro to Kakum. Oh well, tro tros and taxis are much harder to come by in Elmina then Accra. While in Kakum we did the canopy walk which is about 100 ft. above the ground. It was so cool! I wasn't really scared just nervous that I would drop my camera! After that we did the nature walk. Which was interesting, we learned about plants but since it was the middle of the day, there were no animals out, so we didn't see any wildlife, unless you count millipedes, colorful crickets and termites! Our guide was pretty interesting, even though I talked for a little too long. Apparently he used to hunt in the forest with his father when he was young and then became a guide when there turned it into a park and outlawed hunting in Kakum. His father was also a medicine man so our guide explained the different uses of some of the plants. There was one you could chew if you had the runs. He also explained how there are these climbers (like branches) that grow down from a tree and then end up strangling the tree. The "branches" surround the tree and then it basically kills the tree). It is kind of hard to explain without the picture. But anyway the sap from the climbers can kill someone within 5 minutes if they ingest it! After Kakum we went back into Cape Coast were we wondered around until our cuisine workshop. We were going to just quickly find the place and then wonder around town, but it ended up taking us an hour and half to find it. No one could remember the restaurant were the workshop was going to take place and no one that knew was answering there phones. So finally we found it, I had looked in the guide book but hadn't seen anything that would help us, although later after we got back to the volunteer house, we were looking in the guidebook and the restaurant was right there on the map! Oh well, at least we discovered the whole town of Cape Coast. The workshop was a lot of fun though! Besides taking the workshop for fun I was also doing it to get a better idea of how to formulate the workshop in Accra. We ended up making-and eating-lite soup, groundnut soup with fufu (pounded cassava-a root-and plantain), boiled yam and palaava, and red red (bean stew with fried plaintain). It was so much food I thought I would explode! But still all so delicious! While we were doing the workshop some children were playing in the courtyard outside. A plane flew by and all the children cheered "Obama! Obama". It was pretty cute!
It was so interesting seeing the differences between the city atmosphere of Accra and the coastal village of Cape Coast. One thing that really stood out to me was the children, in Accra there aren't as many children running around, in Cape Coast, however they were everywhere. Another was how peaceful the coastal villages were. Accra is so busy and hectic.
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Please check my facebook page for more pictures. I am only allowed to upload 5 pictures per post.

So I went to the Holiday Inn to meet Rada and her mother for dinner. The meal was good...for 30 cedis!! (approx $20) I couldn't believe how much it cost. But it was the only place to eat, well there was but we didn't see that until after the meal! Oh well! I enjoyed a good gourmet meal, even if it was expensive. :) I had a good time talking with Rada and her mom, Lucia. I tried to have a conversation with Lucia in French since that is our only common language. She doesn't speak English and I don't speak Romanian. Appearently she asked me at one point if the people I am staying with were the ones who meet me at the airport. I said I live twenty minutes away from the Holiday Inn. Oh communication barriers! After dinner I took a taxi home. Unfortunately I spent all the money I brought on dinner. All I had to give the taxi driver was a $5 bill. Oh well he still took the money, although that means I over paid. I guess that's what I get for spending too much on dinner!
I am starting to experience how the men are here. I think every tax ride I have been on I have been hit on. Although being hit on here is different, they usually start by asking about marriage! The man who took me to the National Cultural Centre explained to me how he wanted an American wife and asked me if I had a boyfriend, I lyed and said that I did, just to avoid the awkward convo. He also looked like he could be my dad.

(1) Obama fabric. This is apparently very popular here. One of the seamstresses here was asked to make a dress out of this Obama Fabric.
(2) Upper Left: The drum makers at the National Cultural Centre. The drums were pretty cool, especially watching them being made!
(3) Bottom: The sign says "Welcome to Ghana" with a picture of Barak and Michelle Obama.
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I have had to learn how to separate feelings from my surroundings. I have to take things that happen to me light heartedly. I took the tro tro (bus-see the bottomw picture) for the first time today and I didn't exactly understand what the driver said, but I thought he said that the fare was 2 cedis (approx. $1.50). I was obviously wrong though, because suddently the people sitting next to me told me that it was actually 25 pesswas (approx. 25 cents)! Since I already stand out as an obruni (white person) everything else I do seems to get noticed! Everyone is really helpful and nice though. I could have paid about 4 times as much for the tro tro ride!
I went to the National Cultural Centre, it is a tourist-y place but I did find a couple nice souvenirs for some people. The market though was a little overwhelming. Walking through the stalls, I was constantly pulled into a shop by one person while someone else was calling me to come into there shop! I only stayed at the centre for about 2 hours but it was pretty exausting! The vendors are pretty pushy but I guess that's because tourists are there income here and there are so many people selling every similar things. I had to laugh a couple times though. It seemed that every vendor claimed that the paintings were through own, even though I saw the same painting at almost all stalls! One person even told me that he had a nickname that was "Joe", since that was the name on the painting while he told me his name was something else! Even though I am pretty sure I did get cheated on the price a couple of times I am still glad I went it was a pretty cool centre with so many trinckets! I am going to go meet Rada and her mom for a drink later tonight. She is the gal I meet on the plane and stayed with in Nigeria.