Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Back in the US of A
I've been back in the US for almost 2 days. Besides my adventure in Amsterdam the trip was rather uneventful except for not having anyone sitting next to me on either plane allowed me to stretch out a bit and get some sleep. It's a little different being home. I'm not sure how to explain it...maybe in a future blog. Now I'm trying to find things to do...I went to Cafe de Paris - the restaurant I work at - to see if I could start working and I will start next week with a few shifts so in the mean time I need to keep busy. This gives me time to start my business - a group travel business for tours of Ghana, similar to the Concordia group. I really enjoyed putting the trip together and everyone had such a good time and several people have recommended I start a business doing just that so I'm doing it. I'm posting some slideshow videos to the blog of my trip. Enjoy! Now that I'm back I look forward to hearing from you all!
James
Monday, July 21, 2008
An Amsterdam Adventure!
I am in Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam right now waiting for my connecting flight to Washington Dulles. I'd like to share my rather humorous adventure here in the land of wooden shoes, tulips, bicycles, and a language full of deep throat gargling. I landed in this land at approximately 5:45AM and immediately noticed on the TV screen in front of me that the temperature outside was 57 degrees...Farenheit! Today is July 21st...right?? I asked myself. I looked out my window to see gray clouds and light rain falling then I proceeded to look at my jean shorts, sandals, and t-shirt and ask myself...why didn't I check out Amsterdam's weather before I left Ghana! (not that I had much warmer clothing...but pants, shoes and a long sleeve shirt would have been handy). Not wanting to be a wimp I decided to venture into the city to see what I could see. My first stop was the money exchange...for $100 I received 55.63 Euros! Next I bought a day-long train ticket to Amsterdam Centraal for 6.40 Euros and proceeded to the train. Amsterdam's airport is very nice and it includes a very nice train station. By now it is roughly 6:30AM and there is only 1 other person, that I can see, on the train...aren't people going to work today...it is Monday?? I get to Central Amsterdam and decide to find some breakfast and maybe a sweatshirt...cause I'm freezing and have been freezing since I entered Accra's airconditioned airport! I'm walking around, and by the way it is a gorgeous city full of canals with centuries old three and four story rowhouses along the canals, and there is virtually no one around...nothing is open. Finally I found a Coffee Shop that is open so I walk in...I'm met with a blue cloud of Marijuana smoke...in Amsterdam a Coffee Shop is a place to smoke weed...a Cafe is where you drink coffee...go figure? Well I walk around some more...see some shady characters...then I end up in the Red Light District! Just about everything is still closed but there were two places with 30-something heavy set women in skimpy nightgowns knocking on the glass, blowing kisses, and motioning for me to come in! There were a few places advertising live sex shows and very nasty things like animal sex!
After about an hour walking around I decide to head back to the airport cause i'm finding nothing and i'm freezing! I end up at Starbucks in the airport where I got a small Chai Latte with Soy Milk and a Croissant with chocolate...7.25 Euros - $11.60! I'm still hungry...After a while I end up at Burger King where I get the Hot Texas Whopper meal...5.70 Euros - $9.12! I've been walking around looking at things I will never be able to afford and now I'm on the internet where I just paid 6 Euros - $9.60 for 30 minutes! Well I have three minutes left so I will have to end this and finish it when I get back to US unless I want to spend another $10!!! Haaa...how I love Accra's prices...! See you all soon!
After about an hour walking around I decide to head back to the airport cause i'm finding nothing and i'm freezing! I end up at Starbucks in the airport where I got a small Chai Latte with Soy Milk and a Croissant with chocolate...7.25 Euros - $11.60! I'm still hungry...After a while I end up at Burger King where I get the Hot Texas Whopper meal...5.70 Euros - $9.12! I've been walking around looking at things I will never be able to afford and now I'm on the internet where I just paid 6 Euros - $9.60 for 30 minutes! Well I have three minutes left so I will have to end this and finish it when I get back to US unless I want to spend another $10!!! Haaa...how I love Accra's prices...! See you all soon!
Friday, July 18, 2008
Final couple days
Well, 2 more days till I come home...I've got mixed emotions. I really can't wait to see Audrey, get to work and school, etc but I've made some good friends here I'll miss and I've really had a good time.
This weekend I went to Kumasi with 4 volunteers. Two from the US and two from Holland. I drove them around Friday to Lake Bosomtwe and Saturday to Adanwomase - the kente weaving village - and Kejetia Market - the largest market in West Africa. They left for Accra on Sunday while I went to visit Holy Trinity Lutheran Church again - the choir performed there in May.
Tuesday I took the bus to Tamale in the Northern Region. The first half of the ride was quite bumpy and slow - about 5 hours. Then we stopped in Kintampo at the rest stop before continuing on a great road for another 3 hours. In all - 8 hours! When I got there I checked into Tamale Institute of Cross Cultural Studies (TICCS) Guesthouse. It is run by a Catholic group and they have a cross cultural library and I think classes were being held while I was there. It is a very nice, quiet place for only $14/night! I had a cheeseburger with a middle-aged British man who is volunteering in Tamale at the Jungle Bar at TICCS - not bad. Then I met up with our crew from WAAF who had just arrived to do CD4s and surveys across the north.
Wednesday the three guys from NYU med school called me to see if I wanted to go to Mole (pronounced Molay) National Park - of course I did! We hired a taxi for the day - $130 including gas. Its about a two hour drive to the park. On the way we drove past many villages where people live in very traditional style homes - round mud huts with thatch roofing. The mud huts are arranged in tight circles with a wall connecting the huts. Each hut is like a room in the house and the courtyard is used to do most chores and sometimes to keep animals. Most of these villages did not have electricity.
Mole was great! As we were driving to the park a Red Patas Monkey ran across the road in front of us. When we got to the park we paid the entrance fee - $4! Then went to the Mole Motel which is on top an escarpment or ridge with 2 water holes directly below the hotel where the animals come to drink. It is an amazing view. We had lunch by the swimming pool while watching elephants play in the water hole! After lunch we had to wait for the Safari Walk to begin so we just hung out at the hotel. Suddenly a gang of Baboons invaded the motel! They stole food off of peoples' plates, stole a ketchup bottle, tried to enter a motel room, one even jumped on a young lady to steal her package of biscuits (cookie/crackers). It was all quite humorous! A few Warthogs also came to graze on the motel's grass.
We took a 2 hour Safari Walk through the "Guinea Forest." There we saw at least three species of antelope - Kob, Waterback, and Bushback - including a large buck and a doe nursing her baby. We also saw a herd of male Savanah Elephants - I learned that there are two types of elephants - Forest Elephants and Savanah Elephants. Forest Elephants are smaller, have smaller ears and their tusks are straight while Savanah Elephants are larger, have larger ears and curved tusks. They travel in groups according to sex, males with males while females and babies travel together with the dominant male who protects them. They have an average life span of 70 years while some live up to 120 years. Their gestation period is 22 months and they are the second fastest land animals in the world traveling 90 kilometers per hour - the first is the cheetah at 120 kilometers per hour! These elephants were huge and we were able to get about 50 meters away from them. Their scent is powerful - you can smell 'em before you can see 'em! We followed the herd around for a while getting some good pictures. We also got up close to some Warthogs. That was it for animals species we saw on the walk - most of the animals are nocturnal. After the walk we drove back to Tamale.
Thursday I checked out of the hotel, had the worst pizza ever at Swad's Fast Food, met up with the WAAF group at a clinic - ironically, construction of the clinic was funded by the US Department of Defense?? - and had another lunch (the pizza was that bad!) at the STC bus station before I headed off back to Accra at 4PM. I was given the task of delivering the HIV-positive blood samples. After stops in Kintampo and Kumasi I arrived in Accra at 3:30AM this morning!! The ride was not as bad as I thought it would be. We watched several Nigerian movies - including one with Nigerians playing Americans which was just plain funny (the stereotyping was very humorous). At one point we directed off the road and waited for 15 minutes then a truck full of police escorted us for a stretch of road - apparently there has been a problem of armed robbery on that stretch. I was able to sleep some on the bus and now my neck is hurting! I delivered the blood to the clinic and walked home. I got to bed just in time to hear my usual 4:30AM walk up call of "Allaaaaaaahu Akbar, Allaaaaaaahu Akbar" blasting from the mosques in the next neighborhood over.
This morning I woke up around 8, did some laundry, and went to Ghana Immigration Service to pick up my passport - I can now stay in Ghana until August 13 if I want. By the time I got to WAAF all the volunteers had left. They went to Cape Coast for the weekend so I am here with the few staff who didn't go up north. I think I'm gonna go out with the Lab Technician - Rolland - and Emmanuel for some drinks tonight. Well, I probably won't be able to leave another post before I'm back in the US so...........see you soon!
James
This weekend I went to Kumasi with 4 volunteers. Two from the US and two from Holland. I drove them around Friday to Lake Bosomtwe and Saturday to Adanwomase - the kente weaving village - and Kejetia Market - the largest market in West Africa. They left for Accra on Sunday while I went to visit Holy Trinity Lutheran Church again - the choir performed there in May.
Tuesday I took the bus to Tamale in the Northern Region. The first half of the ride was quite bumpy and slow - about 5 hours. Then we stopped in Kintampo at the rest stop before continuing on a great road for another 3 hours. In all - 8 hours! When I got there I checked into Tamale Institute of Cross Cultural Studies (TICCS) Guesthouse. It is run by a Catholic group and they have a cross cultural library and I think classes were being held while I was there. It is a very nice, quiet place for only $14/night! I had a cheeseburger with a middle-aged British man who is volunteering in Tamale at the Jungle Bar at TICCS - not bad. Then I met up with our crew from WAAF who had just arrived to do CD4s and surveys across the north.
Wednesday the three guys from NYU med school called me to see if I wanted to go to Mole (pronounced Molay) National Park - of course I did! We hired a taxi for the day - $130 including gas. Its about a two hour drive to the park. On the way we drove past many villages where people live in very traditional style homes - round mud huts with thatch roofing. The mud huts are arranged in tight circles with a wall connecting the huts. Each hut is like a room in the house and the courtyard is used to do most chores and sometimes to keep animals. Most of these villages did not have electricity.
Mole was great! As we were driving to the park a Red Patas Monkey ran across the road in front of us. When we got to the park we paid the entrance fee - $4! Then went to the Mole Motel which is on top an escarpment or ridge with 2 water holes directly below the hotel where the animals come to drink. It is an amazing view. We had lunch by the swimming pool while watching elephants play in the water hole! After lunch we had to wait for the Safari Walk to begin so we just hung out at the hotel. Suddenly a gang of Baboons invaded the motel! They stole food off of peoples' plates, stole a ketchup bottle, tried to enter a motel room, one even jumped on a young lady to steal her package of biscuits (cookie/crackers). It was all quite humorous! A few Warthogs also came to graze on the motel's grass.
We took a 2 hour Safari Walk through the "Guinea Forest." There we saw at least three species of antelope - Kob, Waterback, and Bushback - including a large buck and a doe nursing her baby. We also saw a herd of male Savanah Elephants - I learned that there are two types of elephants - Forest Elephants and Savanah Elephants. Forest Elephants are smaller, have smaller ears and their tusks are straight while Savanah Elephants are larger, have larger ears and curved tusks. They travel in groups according to sex, males with males while females and babies travel together with the dominant male who protects them. They have an average life span of 70 years while some live up to 120 years. Their gestation period is 22 months and they are the second fastest land animals in the world traveling 90 kilometers per hour - the first is the cheetah at 120 kilometers per hour! These elephants were huge and we were able to get about 50 meters away from them. Their scent is powerful - you can smell 'em before you can see 'em! We followed the herd around for a while getting some good pictures. We also got up close to some Warthogs. That was it for animals species we saw on the walk - most of the animals are nocturnal. After the walk we drove back to Tamale.
Thursday I checked out of the hotel, had the worst pizza ever at Swad's Fast Food, met up with the WAAF group at a clinic - ironically, construction of the clinic was funded by the US Department of Defense?? - and had another lunch (the pizza was that bad!) at the STC bus station before I headed off back to Accra at 4PM. I was given the task of delivering the HIV-positive blood samples. After stops in Kintampo and Kumasi I arrived in Accra at 3:30AM this morning!! The ride was not as bad as I thought it would be. We watched several Nigerian movies - including one with Nigerians playing Americans which was just plain funny (the stereotyping was very humorous). At one point we directed off the road and waited for 15 minutes then a truck full of police escorted us for a stretch of road - apparently there has been a problem of armed robbery on that stretch. I was able to sleep some on the bus and now my neck is hurting! I delivered the blood to the clinic and walked home. I got to bed just in time to hear my usual 4:30AM walk up call of "Allaaaaaaahu Akbar, Allaaaaaaahu Akbar" blasting from the mosques in the next neighborhood over.
This morning I woke up around 8, did some laundry, and went to Ghana Immigration Service to pick up my passport - I can now stay in Ghana until August 13 if I want. By the time I got to WAAF all the volunteers had left. They went to Cape Coast for the weekend so I am here with the few staff who didn't go up north. I think I'm gonna go out with the Lab Technician - Rolland - and Emmanuel for some drinks tonight. Well, I probably won't be able to leave another post before I'm back in the US so...........see you soon!
James
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
A week since the last post...
Wow...I can't believe its been a week since my last post. Let me reflect on what happend over the last week...
Thursday...I can't remember :(
Friday...I went to Krobo Odumase in the Eastern Region to do CD4 tests and surveys for the NYU group. When we got there they said we couldn't do the tests because the person who arranged it didn't know they had to send a formal letter to the hospital administration blah blah blah! So we turned around and came back to Accra. Friday night Prince and I went to the NYU hostel to hang out with the NYU crew. For the record...It's not a hostel...its 4 mansions on 1 property with security, fully furnished houses, washer and driers, etc etc! After hanging out at the house everyone went to Ryan's Irish Pub which is just like an Irish Pub anywhere complete with "Spotted Dick with Custard" which I am told is a dessert! Prince was seriously hit on by one of the NYU guys we didn't know...in short it was hillarious! He handled it very well...he didn't make the guy feel bad in any way.
Saturday...I went to a pool party at Tesano Sports Club with Patrick and a couple of his friends. It was kinda boring at first...not many people were swimming (including us). Then the "show" started. A lot of people showed up and some famous Ghanaian singers/rappers performed. After a while we decided to go to Accra Mall because it was the "Launching" weekend and there was a big-time DJ performing in the food court. It was extremely loud and there weren't too many people...but it was fun. In the food court was a table of US Navy men in fatigues...I was curious what they were doing in Ghana but it was too loud to talk to them. We also saw Andrea and her two Dutch roommates walk into Rhapsody (a very nice restaurant) with a few guys. When I talked to her later she said that ...well first the entrees at Rhapsody range from $18-30!!...but she told me that they had gone to Champ's Sports Bar on Friday night and this guy was buying shots for everyone. He took a liking to one of her roommates and invited them to his house for dinner on Saturday. It turns out he is an Indian man who grew up in England. He moved to Ghana and started a company making .5 liter bags of purified water for 5 cents (everyone drinks them everywhere) and black plastic shopping bags and became a multi-millionaire. His house is amazing - jacuzzis in each bathroom, etc. He took the girls and his friends to Rhapsody and bought them all Filet Mignons and wine etc. It turns out the roommate is not interested in the guy...but they had a good time anyways.
Sunday I went to church at St. Paul's Lutheran Church again. Then had some Chinese food. That's about it.
Monday...I did some work at work. That evening I went to the NYU house again with Prince and saw Happy ( a young lady we work with) at the house. She came to cook them dinner and hang out with one of the future NYU doctors! We watched a movie - Eastern Promises - thats about it.
Tuesday...I delivered a few proposals with the two volunteers I work with. Hopefully we'll get some funding! After work I went to the tennis court with the guys and watched Patrick play tennis. I met 2 obrunis who came to talk to me. The guys were from Scotland and Switzerland. Fifi and Patrick and I went to Pizza Inn for our weekly ritual of 2 for 1 Terrific Tuesday and ate the pizza at the spot (drinking place) in our neighborhood. While we were sitting there the two obrunis I met came by with like 50 obrunis!!! The place is quite small and ran out of beer pretty quick!
Wednesday...today I am at work not doing much...I'm going for Indian food this evening and Salsa dancing.
This weekend I'm going to Kumasi and then Tamale. See you all in 12 days!
James
Thursday...I can't remember :(
Friday...I went to Krobo Odumase in the Eastern Region to do CD4 tests and surveys for the NYU group. When we got there they said we couldn't do the tests because the person who arranged it didn't know they had to send a formal letter to the hospital administration blah blah blah! So we turned around and came back to Accra. Friday night Prince and I went to the NYU hostel to hang out with the NYU crew. For the record...It's not a hostel...its 4 mansions on 1 property with security, fully furnished houses, washer and driers, etc etc! After hanging out at the house everyone went to Ryan's Irish Pub which is just like an Irish Pub anywhere complete with "Spotted Dick with Custard" which I am told is a dessert! Prince was seriously hit on by one of the NYU guys we didn't know...in short it was hillarious! He handled it very well...he didn't make the guy feel bad in any way.
Saturday...I went to a pool party at Tesano Sports Club with Patrick and a couple of his friends. It was kinda boring at first...not many people were swimming (including us). Then the "show" started. A lot of people showed up and some famous Ghanaian singers/rappers performed. After a while we decided to go to Accra Mall because it was the "Launching" weekend and there was a big-time DJ performing in the food court. It was extremely loud and there weren't too many people...but it was fun. In the food court was a table of US Navy men in fatigues...I was curious what they were doing in Ghana but it was too loud to talk to them. We also saw Andrea and her two Dutch roommates walk into Rhapsody (a very nice restaurant) with a few guys. When I talked to her later she said that ...well first the entrees at Rhapsody range from $18-30!!...but she told me that they had gone to Champ's Sports Bar on Friday night and this guy was buying shots for everyone. He took a liking to one of her roommates and invited them to his house for dinner on Saturday. It turns out he is an Indian man who grew up in England. He moved to Ghana and started a company making .5 liter bags of purified water for 5 cents (everyone drinks them everywhere) and black plastic shopping bags and became a multi-millionaire. His house is amazing - jacuzzis in each bathroom, etc. He took the girls and his friends to Rhapsody and bought them all Filet Mignons and wine etc. It turns out the roommate is not interested in the guy...but they had a good time anyways.
Sunday I went to church at St. Paul's Lutheran Church again. Then had some Chinese food. That's about it.
Monday...I did some work at work. That evening I went to the NYU house again with Prince and saw Happy ( a young lady we work with) at the house. She came to cook them dinner and hang out with one of the future NYU doctors! We watched a movie - Eastern Promises - thats about it.
Tuesday...I delivered a few proposals with the two volunteers I work with. Hopefully we'll get some funding! After work I went to the tennis court with the guys and watched Patrick play tennis. I met 2 obrunis who came to talk to me. The guys were from Scotland and Switzerland. Fifi and Patrick and I went to Pizza Inn for our weekly ritual of 2 for 1 Terrific Tuesday and ate the pizza at the spot (drinking place) in our neighborhood. While we were sitting there the two obrunis I met came by with like 50 obrunis!!! The place is quite small and ran out of beer pretty quick!
Wednesday...today I am at work not doing much...I'm going for Indian food this evening and Salsa dancing.
This weekend I'm going to Kumasi and then Tamale. See you all in 12 days!
James
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Arrested!
It finally happened...I've been caught! Monday...I was arrested! Fifi gave me his truck to drive the other two volunteers I'm working with around to the locations we are working with to do some work. We had been driving since 11am visiting the locations and we're headed to the last location, Madina. It's a long drive and we were within eyeshot of the location when we had to go through a police checkpoint. I thought they were waving us through when a police officer stopped us to point out that our vehicle registration (called the road worthiness license) had expired on Sunday. She jumped in the back seat and directed me to drive to the police station. There she said she was arresting me for driving with an expired road worthiness license. We pleaded with her that it had expired just the day before and since it was a Sunday we couldn't get it renewed. She said that since it was 2:20pm we had had plenty of time to get it done in the morning. She gave me a court date of Wednesday at 9am and bail of $1000 but released me on my own recognicence (spelling??). I had to give over my drivers license and the keys to the vehicle. We waited for Fifi to come. When Fifi got there he pleaded with the police officer. Then I and the other person left the office. Five minutes later Fifi came out to ask me for $20. I gave it to him and he came back out with my drivers license and the truck keys and said "lets go!" For $30 it all disappeared! Phew!
Yesterday, July 1, was a holiday - Republic Day. Its a day that everyone goes to the beach or pool. The guys and I went to the pool at Shangri La Hotel. For $7 we swam all day. Today we are back to work. Tomorrow we are holding peer educator workshop for youth in a couple communities. 4 new volunteers just arrived from the US. Now there are 9 Americans here! 1 of the group of 4 from NYU has already returned to the US.
Well, I'll be back in less than 3 weeks. Any gift requests?? See you soon!
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