Ghan and back again.: Akwaaba!!

Akwaaba is welcome in Twi (pronounced 'schwee').

I've been in Ghana over three weeks, but you never stop hearing this word. As an obruni (foreigner, literally "person from the west/horizon"), one is always welcomed, whether you're here two days or two years. This blog is late in coming, but welcome!

There is no actual word for "hello" in Twi, instead one always greets people with "how are you?" (wo ho te sen?) or a more casual "what's up?" (εtε sεn?). So whether it's your best friend or the guy selling you a mango, you're gonna have a conversation. So please, feel free to comment, reflect and question. This blog is always a conversation.

I guess I should start with a general overview of what the hell I'm doing in Ghana anyway. I'm taking part of a program by the School of International Training (SIT) called Ghana: Social Transformation and Cultural Expression (official link). This program focuses (obviously)on culture and society, and includes a variety of features from lectures, language classes, art/dance/drumming workshops, excursions, performances and projects.

The most prominent feature is that it's a very mobile program. The first two weeks of the program were spent in Accra, the capital of Ghana. A crazy hectic city of four million people and not a single street name. The first few days were a basic orientation on cultural dos and donts, how to avoid/aid/recognize malaria and other sickness, a few lectures and basic Twi. We each lived with host families all over Accra, I lived with an awesome "Grannie", Auntie Vivian, Auntie Mary and Sister Deborah (Everyone is family here, it doesn't matter how long you know them for, of if you're related or not. Although calling people by their first name is just fine, any title shows respect and connection. To quote one of our staff, Sister Juliana Ama: “I am your sister, I am your mother, your auntie, your everything, because we are in Ghana now, and we’re all family").

Grannie (who's actual name is Aunt Jemima...no joke, like the syrup) is nurse who is retired from 27 years in the military. She is absolutely lovely, we spent many hours talking public health, food, family and other crazy stories of life. With over 13 years of hosting students, she has an entire book of the many students from all over the world that have lived in her house. So she was the perfect balance of a 'mother' yet hands off to let one acclimate and stay sane. It was a lovely home, I was very lucky, with a short 10 minute commute to campus, (or the better option, a 35 minute walk), my own room, not too much or too crazy of food (people tend to force feed you here like crazy...more on food at a later time), even had running water!

[Although that is very very rare throughout Ghana, in 3 weeks I have pooped and peed in so many holes and bushes and have completely mastered the art of the 'shucket' (shower with a bucket), a full shower, toothbrushing, shaving and washing of underwear with less than 1.5 gallons of water. Yeah, go ahead and try that at home...]

Overall, Accra was pretty crazy, but we shall all return there soon. After two weeks in Accra we moved to Kumasi, a less hectic, and more ecologically beautiful city. It's quite large, but one can see more of the traditional culture here, unlike Accra, not everyone speaks English here. In fact, in the middle of the Ashanti region, everyone speaks Twi. (Twi is only one of many languages spoken throughout Ghana...more on that also later).

Institute of African Studies at the University of Ghana in Legon (Accra)

Here I live in a very different household, newlyweds Maxwell and Beatrice, who is eight months pregnant, and their absolutely adorable two-year old girl, Nasawa. (If I'm calling a toddler adorable that has to be one hell of a freakin' cute kid). In Kumasi we only had a couple of lectures, mostly on field research techniques as the next phase of the program commences our fieldwork, but instead it has been intense Twi classes in the morning and lots and lots of dancing in the afternoon. On Friday we shall have our performance of all this crazy dancing (there's even going to be costumes!)

On Saturday we shall move on to the most intense part of the program so far. We will move away from the city, separate into small groups and spend two weeks in a rural village. No English. No electricity. No water. We will take part in a variety of village projects, teaching in the schools (there aren't always actual schools, so classes may take place under trees), cleaning, cooking, and taking part in any community happening. Our afternoons will be free to use our field research techniques and complete our mini-ISP (independent study project) on any topic of our choice, and write a 10-15 page report on our findings. The evenings will be "game time" when we shall teach the local community an American game and they will teach us one of theirs.

After the village we will spend a week in the Muslim community of Tamale and follow it with safaris in Mole, excursions and workshops with art groups in the Central and Eastern regions, visit villages in the Volta region, and a week in historic Cape Coast- where dungeons and castles from slavery days still remain standing. For the last 4 weeks, we separate to complete the climax of the program- our ISPs, on anything and anywhere in the country, culminating in a 30-40 page report on our findings, and a 30 minute presentation.

There are 18 students in the program from all over the U.S and with a wide range of majors and academic interests. We also have quite a bit of staff who work all over the country with and without us to make this program function. Most of the staff have decades with the program or SIT, and have so much experience making this a great program.

The whole group

A few important ones (pictured below) are Dr. Yemi (ie "the storyteller"), the academic director. He is actually Nigerian, but has been working with this program for over 30 years, as a non-native-Twi speaker, he is a lot of help in learning the language. He's the main guy overseeing everything and everyone, and quite a talker. He spends a lot of time with us, and leads "Life in This Ghana" (our daily morning story time sharing the ups and downs, questions, and concerns of the things that happen to us).

Papa Attah (Attah means twin), he is the program manager. We call him Papa for a reason, according to him he "breastfeeds" us, and makes sure everything from our diarrhea, to our money, and assignments are in good order.

Kwame*, he is everyone's brother and the guy we go to for drinking, joking, and general fun. Others in the picture include Kokoroko, the very patient sweetheart uncle, Jiliana (quoted above), Magdalene and Rose, dance teachers that welcomed us in our first 3-day intense orientation and are now like family.

*Kwame is the name given to Akan males born on Memenada (Saturday). People have several names here each with a particular meaning, however, everyone has their day of the week name. The day of the week one is born is very important. I was born on Kwasiada (Sunday), so my name is Akosua. If you'd like to know what your Ghanaian name is follow this link

That is all for this first, very long post. I promise I will put a few more up this week, but after I leave for the village I can't make any promises. Internet connection is very very slow here, and I have no cable for my camera (I usually use a card reader at home). So pictures shall be rare. However, I will copy as many as I can with friend's laptops and use some of my peers to give everyone some visuals when I can. Here are a few: