Koforidua - an Experience of Fun, Sports and Spirituality

Just after finishing the vacation classes and having our photo exhibition, we set off for our new adventure: this time we went to Koforidua, the capital of the Eastern Region of Ghana, with the youth fellowship of the church. The way took us about five and a half hours, during which just for the adventure our bus almost broke down, too – at least we waited about half an hour until they got it fixed. Then since we left late in the afternoon, it soon got dark, so by the time we were driving through some mountains I could hardly see anything. But also, it wasn`t just because of the darkness, but there was fog everywhere – they told me that it was African snow. :) By the time we got to Koforidua it was already around 11 p.m., so we soon had dinner and went to bed. The place where we slept, looked something like a youth camp, where 10-15 people shared a room and we had two places to have a bath – one for the men and one for the women, but these places didn`t have a roof or anything, just a wall around it (believe me, it`s not that hard to get used to this as it sounds for the first time :)).

The next day started pretty early in the morning: we got up around 4:30 a.m. just so that we could leave for our early morning hiking / jogging already around 5 in the morning. Unfortunately I had just slippers on instead of shoes so the jogging became a bit complicated after my slippers got spoiled on the way… Anyway, it all looked like that, that our whole group (I`m bad with estimations, but I think there was about 50-60 of us) was jogging through the town and up to a small mountain by it, early in the morning, while some people were running up and down with horns and all kinds of loud instruments to encourage the ones in the back to catch up. It was all really fun! When we got to the top, we had a pretty nice view of the towns and mountains around, even though we still had a bit of the `African snow` and also, we still had some exercises to do there, too. Coming down was already easy, only my torn slippers made a bit more complicated, that we tried to tie together with some plastic bags that we found on the way.  When we got back, after having breakfast and a bit of rest time, it was time for games (though most of the girls stayed in their rooms to get some sleep after the short night). Well, we had football, volleyball, basketball, everything, we only had a little problem with finding the right pitch to play them, but at last we found a nice football pitch just by the foot of the mountain. Here again, I became the photographer, since I just started snapping the guys playing football.

In the afternoon, we had a talk that was actually the main program for the weekend. It was held by a pastor who was a pretty big person in the region and the topic was `Generational thinkers`. Well, from the title I would have associated to something else (at least including the generations above us), but actually as I understood, the main point was that you have to plan your future today and take steps today, that will ensure your future and the coming generations as well. And all this you can achieve together with God, who will show you the path and give strength as well, to walk on it. The talk was very interesting, though to be honest I felt a bit that `being a big person` was a bit too much defined by having money and power, according to the speech… The talk was still followed by a long praying section, after which the day was pretty soon over again.

The last day again started pretty early, since we had a gathering in the morning, after which we went to a service at a local church. Most of the service was in twi (local language, there`s a lot of them, but this one is spoken by everybody), but I could still kind of follow it. Well, it seems I still have to improve my twi knowledge (I already know a very little bit, but it`s far from enough).

Anyway, after all these we set off for home. This time the bus driver seemed to take a shortcut, because on some of the way we were going through villages, among mountains, on a road that was pretty much full of holes – which actually I really enjoyed, it was just like a theme park. Also, this was I could get a sight of the villages where people were sitting in front of their adobe houses, sometimes with some animals in the house. I also saw a scene that again would have been a great picture, I just couldn`t take it: two women were sitting by a stand, selling some goods by the road. One of them had a baby on her back, while at the same time she was putting some haircream onto the other lady`s hair. I was just amazed by how somebody can do this many things at the same time, probably even without realizing that she is doing all these activities.

Photography Classes - Hopefully Not Just About Photography

During the vacation classes I really started teaching photography to the kids, which was really-really fun! Alright, I started the program with the kids in class 5 and up, which means that the youngest ones were about 10 years old, while the oldest children were about 15 years old. I decided to use an analogue camera with them, for which I had lots of reasons. One is of course that it`s not so sensitive as a digital one – considering that it would go through several kids` hands. But at least this important was also the reason, that I do believe that if you really want to learn something about photography, you really have to start with learning about the analogue camera. Besides, I think that analogue photography can also teach you a lot – not just about photography, but kind of about life, too. In our modern world we are too much used to getting what we want right away, and that`s what we expect, too. That if we have a wish, it will be fulfilled right away. Like we just take a medicine and we expect all our problems to disappear in instance. And in fact, digital photography serves this need, too: you just set your camera to AUTO setting, press a button, and in the next second your picture is right in front of you – without any planning, any hard work, and maybe also without any real appreciation to your picture (while of course obviously there`s a good side of all these, too). Well, it`s this process, that`s a bit different when you are using an analogue camera: you learn to plan, you learn to work a lot for a good picture, after which you still have to wait to actually hold your picture in your hands. I think it`s this process that we have kind of forgotten about in our modern world: to work hard for a certain goal and to be patient until the result of our work is actually `touchable`.

Anyway, getting back to the photography classes: I had a workshop for all the classes and then I also went to the individual classes separately during which we talked about why we actually take pictures at all, we learnt a bit about focusing and also about controlling the aperture and the shutter speed. After all this we put the children into three groups, who all had the same assignment: each group had ten pictures to take while they were told that there would be a competition between the groups, so they should take all their pictures so that it could be a winning picture. We had so much fun, during taking the pictures and I was also impressed by their creativity: we had some pictures of the kitchen staff, some teachers, the school building and many more. On the last day of the vacation period we also had a photo exhibition, where every group presented a poster of their pictures, and five teachers had to give scores to them according to different aspects, like the beauty, the influence and the quality of the pictures.

It was really a lot of fun, and this time I really felt that I had actually something to give to these children, something that I was actually good at, so I`m really looking forward to continue with the classes when we reopen in September.

A Different Way of Living

The other day my dad asked me, if we also had teachers here taking care of the kids after school, during the afternoon. Just like at home… Especially since here we have children who actually live by the school (since their parents live too far away…) And this made me realize that I even found this question strange. I mean, I just find it so natural that we don`t need teachers like that, that I have never thought about it before. Here after school the children spend their time together: the bigger ones are playing together with the smaller ones, this way also taking care of them. I can`t really see groups here that would be defined by age (of course except for the classes) – like right now there are four kids next to me playing Barbie dressing on the computer, they are aged about between 5 and 11 and they are all playing together. They really enjoy getting to the computer lab sometimes and playing games like this, but of course besides that they have a whole lot of outdoor games too, that they can play together. These include for example clapping in different ways while singing, playing familiar games like `London bridge is falling down` and then there are some others that include jumping or dancing. Or having competitions of jumping with legs in a bag or moving on their hands while somebody is holding their legs… A lot of games that the smaller and bigger ones can all play together. They all like dancing a lot, too (and they are very good at it!), but reading stories together for example can be a common activity, as well. This way it`s just easy to spend the time. And also, like I said, being Africa doesn`t mean that they would use the computer, or watch TV sometimes, too…

Also, at the same time I wouldn`t say that they are without adults here. The school founder and her adult children, and some of the kitchen staff too, all live together with these kids in the house by the school. Also some of the teachers spend a lot of their freetime at the school together with all these people. It`s all more like a huge family living together and not an officially organized thing like having teachers at the school in the afternoon to keep the children occupied.

On the other side while people are in some ways a lot closer to each other here, this kind of unity also makes the unity of the family less important – or at least less visible. I mean that since the adults are taking care pretty similarly of all the kids, it took me quite some time to figure out who is actually related to whom. So as I see right now, while people here are all working together to maintain a good life and take care of everybody and while everybody knows their role in this unity, too (like when they are supposed to help with preparing the food without even being asked to), all this dusks the importance of family unit – that we usually place before the unit of the community in our European world.

Mount Afadjato and Tagbo Waterfalls - a Spontanious Adventure in Volta Region

Good news: it`s time to write about a new excursion that we just took to Volta region (if I count it well, I think it`s about 200 km from Accra)! :) Well, it happened like that that we had a group of visitors from Kumashi (it`s around the middle of Ghana, and it`s a pretty big city, too) and they had an excursion to Volta that – as a last minute decision – we just joined to.

The day started pretty early: after we got up at 3 a.m. we left for the church around 4 o`clock where we still had a gathering before leaving. This time we took a big bus – it looked just like an ordinary bus in Europe except for the fact that it was as loaded as possible: at least four people were sitting at every seat that was meant to be for two and we even had people standing in the middle. For quite some time the road again was pretty nice, it was only at the end of the journey that we didn`t have any asphalt on the road and our big bus was pretty much struggling with the holes.

On the way we passed through Akosombo which is located by Lake Volta (the biggest lake in Ghana – it`s indeed pretty huge) and also has a bridge over the lake form which the view is amazing: just imagine a huge lake with small islands on it that are covered with deep green bushes and trees.

Altogether after about five and a half of ride we got to our first destination: to Mount Afadjato which is with it`s 880 m (2900 ft) the highest mountain in Ghana, and actually also in whole West Africa. (Well, I thought that Hungary was pretty flat with its highest peak of 1014 m, but now it seems that I should reconsider it :)) Since the village where we started climbing from was around 2-300 m above sea level, it was quite a hike to get to the top (it took us about 45 minutes), but we did it!! And it was worth it, too: from the top we could see the surrounding mountains covered by deep forest, and also our next destination: the Tagbo Waterfalls.

But still before that, coming down from the mountain was at least as big of an adventure (and fun, too!) as getting to the top. Since the way was pretty steep, we were coming down holding each other`s hands, branches, rocks and anything that seemed stable around.

After about another 45 minutes of bus ride we arrived to a village by Tagbo Falls. Here we all had a great lunch of kenkey, which again looks like a ball of pasta, but it`s actually made of corn that they let to ferment before cooking and then they wrap in banana leaves after which they serve it with pepper sauce. It`s really good, too. From here it takes about half an hour of walking to get to the waterfall, but this time we took this distance jogging since we wanted to get there in time to still be able to take pictures and bath in the water – although it made the jogging a bit harder that we had a rich lunch of kenkey and that I also had my camera bag with me… But still, it was worth it: after passing through nine bridges on the way, we got to the waterfall which was pretty high and as a bonus you could even see a rainbow over the water. After quickly taking the pictures we went swimming in the pool of the water which was pretty much fun. Soon I found myself surrounded by like ten guys from our group, which is no wonder why: I just realized then that again I was the only women in the water. Well, but right then I didn`t care too much: it was really fun and a great experience as well!  :)

We left the waterfalls around 6 o`clock, so on the way home it got dark pretty soon. But still just leaving the fall I could still see women and children walking around the road – some of them with buckets to get water from the river around the falls, some others probably walking home after selling all kinds of goods during the day. Some sheep and goats also passed the road – just as an extra challenge for the bus driver who was already trying to avoid the holes on the road.

By the time we got home by 11 p.m. and had supper by the church, too, for the first time since I`m in Ghana, I even admitted that I was tired. It was a really long day, but full of fun and really great experiences.

An Unforgettable Long Weekend

This weekend we had a real three-day-long-trip to Cape Coast and some places surrounding it. I hardly know where to start my story, because it was so full of great experiences, but I think soon you will see that, too!  

Day 1: Cape Coast and Elmina Castle

On Saturday, we left right after the graduation: we got a car to Kaneshie Market, from where we took a trotro again to Cape Coast, which is about two and a half – three hours of drive from Accra. Time passed pretty fast though since there was a lot to see on the way. After leaving the traffic jam in Accra (during which people were walking among the cars selling their goods) we got onto a very nice highway. To be honest, a lot of roads in Hungary could be jealous of this one: it was very nice and flat, with no holes on it at all. When we got closer to Cape Coast, we saw more and more bushes and also because of the forest there were a lot of people selling all kinds of animals by the road.

After actually getting to Cape Coast, we took a taxi to the famous Elmina Castle, which is near Cape Coast. The way there led by the ocean shore which was amazingly beautiful: just imagine the deep blue color of the ocean with a sandy beach, with palm trees on the beach and also some fishing boats left among them. It was really a great sight. Then now, do you remember that I wrote that there`s something very ancient in this country and also something very modern and that I didn`t know if there was anything in between or what it was? Well, now I know the answer: there were Europeans. First the Portuguese came here in 1472 for trading (they took gold for guns and gun powder), and it was also them who built Elmina Castle in 1482. But pretty soon their purpose of trade turned into slavery and the castle was used as the center of it: people were held in the castle among very poor circumstances (like a hundred woman kept in a room of about 40 square meters with no bathroom facilities whatsoever) and then also shipped away from there. The Portuguese were here for 155 years after which the Dutch became the major power who also continued the slavery. Then after another 235 years the English took over who at last stopped using the castle for the purpose of slavery (which doesn`t mean though that they didn`t continue it at other places by the shore). Now the presence of Europeans here seems pretty much contrary to me. On one side – just as a university professor told us on our tour around the castle – the European presence here and all that happened during that, was one of the biggest mistakes of the History. But at  the same time they also had a major effect on the culture and the political system of this country! Before that there were only independent kingdoms in this area, but it were the English who against the attacks from the more powerful kingdom, Ashanti, started to take control over more and more kingdoms and that way, create a unity. It was also them who gave the area Ghana`s previous name, Gold Coast. So I see that besides everything stands for the independence and against the European regime in Accra, Europeans left their heritage here as well: just look at the importance of Christianity for instance.

Anyway, besides all that, the castle is indeed very beautiful, not to talk about the sight of the ocean shore that you can see from there. Also down by the castle you can see hundreds of colorful fishing boats waiting to be pulled out to the ocean.

Cape Coast itself is a very beautiful city, too, with a pretty much different atmosphere than Accra. I felt like that it`s a bit similar to a Mediterranean town by the see, when I realized that no wonder why: Portuguese were here. See, we are again at the question that what was actually left here by Europeans.

After our tour at the castle we left for a small village where Richard`s (remember, he is my `project manager` here, who actually also takes really good care of me!) father lived. Although it was already dark on the way, but I could still see that apart from some villages there was only deep forest around. That`s why that`s why that most people are farmers in that area while further, around the village where we were heading to, they are mostly producing palm oil (since the area is full of palm trees).

Though while we got to the villages it was already very dark, and we didn`t even have too much time before going to sleep, I already had the feeling that we were at a very beautiful place again…

Day 2: Chief Palace, football match and many more

… And next day it turned out that I was right! The place was just very friendly and calm, with people sitting in front of their houses and with bushes and palm trees surrounding them. It was really amazing! And then, the best part of it is still coming. I soon found myself in something that felt almost like a tale. Maybe not a fairy tale, but a chief tale. Alright, I think I got to know a lot more about Ghana`s culture this weekend. It looks like that besides the government control there`s also another system that takes the control in this country. Ghana is divided into regions that all have their Kings and Queen mothers. These people are there to deal with all kinds of problems so that people don`t actually have to rely just on the government. By problems we also mean things like arguments between a wife and a husband – and these things are all supposed to be solved locally: the Queen mother takes care of all the women in the region while the King who she works hand in hand with, is responsible for all the men. Alright, they also have their chiefs in all areas of the region, so that since the Queen mother and the King can`t get to every place, the chiefs there can take care of the problem locally, too. Well, now, the main Queen mother of the Central Region happened to live right next door, and on Sunday morning they took us to the chief palace! At first we went to an older building that used to be the chief palace before. Well, here besides the Queen mother and the King there were other chiefs too from smaller areas who came to the meeting. They were all dressed in very fancy, royal dresses and the King was sitting on a golden chair, whole the Queen mother had an also nicely decorated wooden chair. And then the whole thing started and I just felt like that I got into the middle of something magical where I didn`t know how this magic worked. Well, I think it all started with that some of the chiefs went into the house (we were sitting at a place that was something like an inner garden) and told the spirits that we, visitors were there and asked their permission for us to stay. I think it was after this (but I`m not sure, things got a bit mixed up – which can represent how mixed up I felt) that there was some very was some very expensive kind of liquid that everybody had to pour on the ground. Then, there was also the libation to the spirits: in every 40 days they have this to say thanks to the spirits for taking care of their people and helping them avoid sickness and death. This looked somehow like that that they brought very expensive food that everybody had to taste, after which they through the food all around the place to feed the spirits and say thank you to them. Probably it was after this that we also had to introduce ourselves (as visitors) and tell them about our `mission`. I really enjoyed the ceremony, just also at the same time, as I said: I didn`t know how this magic worked. After having the ceremony here, we went to the actual chief palace, which looked almost like an average house from the outside, but it was very nice inside, with leather armchairs and everything. Here there was no ceremony anymore, but mostly chatting and things like that. I was again amazed how these traditions are represented in a modern world: just imagine these important people sitting there, in their fancy traditional dresses, while they are taking pictures with their cell phones and drinking Guiness and Sangria at the same time! I really find it amazing how all these things get mixed together. Like I said, there`s something traditional (like the chief system and  the libation to the spirits), something left here by the Europeans (like Christianity) and something modern, that stands against the Europeans, but at the same time wouldn`t exist if the hadn`t been present - and all these paths of the history are present right now, living by each other.

After this experience we also went for a walk in the village during which I had again about fifteen kids who started following us, we saw a little river, where women were washing their clothes and just as a contrast to the experience at the chief palace, we even took part of a church service (though it was in twi, so I didn`t understand so much...).
Then just to really mix the ancient with the modern, we went to see the Manchester City vs Manchester United match! It was a small room with two TVs in it, where they showed the match, you just had to pay half cedis to get in. The atmosphere was pretty much like at a match in a pub in Europe except for that here there was no alcohol and also that by the end of the match I realized, that I wasn`t just the only white person in the room, but I was also the only woman. Strange feeling... I guess I`m still not so used to being this much different...
Anyway, in the afternoon we even went to a town near, called Pastru, where we saw a huge river, surrounded by rainforest, and an oil producing place, and with a few islands in the middle. We even got stuck in the mud while we were trying to get a bit closer, after which it was again another adventure to get ourselves clean.
It was just really a great day that also left me a lot to think about.

Day 3: Kakum National Park

On the last day of our trip we left the village and got a car in the way of Cape Coast, just to get off in the middle and visit Kakum National Park. It`s a park of a unique rainforest where you can also find a canopy walk built in 1995 by two Canadians and six Ghanaians. We had a tour guider who took us to the canopy walk, which is about 40 meter above the ground, but actually is absolutely not as scary as it sounds. We had lots of fun on it, and the view of the rainforest that you could see from there was really amazing, too! It`s really worth going there, believe me (though it`s not so cheap, especially not for foreigner – for whom everything seems to be a bit more expensive here…).

Altogether,just as it stands in the title, it was really an unforgettable weekend, with a lot of great experiences, that I`m really thankful for! :)

Graduation

Right now we are already done with year 2010/2011 and we just had the graduation last Saturday. Also before that, the last day of school was all about celebration: it was our day. The kids all came to school very nicely dressed up (not in their school uniforms) and they brought a whole lot of candies, biscuits and drinks to share with each other and the teachers. I think I haven`t even seen this many sweets since I have been here… Then, during the whole day there was music on, the kids were dancing around (even I danced a bit with them) and they were all asking me to snap them. They all looked so beautiful so I think I snapped like hundreds of pictures that day. It was really a great and fun day!

Then on Saturday we had the actual graduation. Alright, I think at first we have to get this clear: by graduation we don`t mean graduation from the secondary school, since right now we don`t have any big ones who would be leaving the school: they are just all moving one grade higher. But we had a class who just finished kindergarten and who is moving to primary school now (but they still stay in this school). So the graduation was actually for them, but it was all taken very seriously. The parents were invited and we had a lot of things to entertain them during the ceremony: like dance performances, sketches in French and all that kinds of things, that had been practiced thousands of times before this day. And the best part is, that before the end of the ceremony the graduates were all dressed up in uniforms that people usually wear at home when they graduate from university. They all looked so cute in it. At the end they even got a certificate that they have finished kindergarten.  

An Unusual Experience at the Ghanaian TV

Imagine, if you had watched the Ghanaian TV3 on Sunday, probably you could have seen me, because we went to see a very popular TV program, The Pulpit form inside! We set of with about twenty children in the afternoon (who were all wearing their very pretty church dresses), we all sat in a bus, and left for the TV, where they were already waiting for us. After taking some group pictures outside of the building, we walked in, passing by all the rooms where they tell the news and everything like that. We got there early, just in case, so we had to wait for a while till we actually got to go in the place where the program was recorded. 

Alright, The Pulpit is a program to which I have never seen anything similar before! The script is the same as in any kinds of shows, like X-Factor or Megastar: you can vote for the candidates and this way from week to week you have less and less of them. But a the theme is pretty much different: instead of singing or dancing there are young kids worshiping God, performing a pastor`s speech concerning certain topic that are given to them! Alright, before and between the speeches there was some singing and dancing, too: there was a quire performing church songs that everybody was clapping and dancing for. It was really great! Since I`m pretty bad with music, at first I was a bit worried, concentrating on how I should dance, when I should clap and everything like that (since I was in the TV!), but it was so great that pretty soon I forgot about all these and found myself dancing in the front with all the other people. Then about the speeches: today`s topic was faith and it was to children`s job to decide what they want to say about that. There was one for example who was talking about how we rely on the reality of things that we can touch and sometimes forget about the other reality that we can`t see or touch… Or then there was another one who had an example of a mobile phone and a SIM card: they have no use without each other – just like faith has no use without work and work has no use without faith either… It was so great, they really had such good thoughts though they were just kids!! And this whole idea about having a show like this… I think here religion is really just naturally part of people`s everyday life, it`s there in every movement and absolutely not something that you just practice maybe once a week in church. And it`s also about freedom, too: all the church songs that you also dance to and everything – they just make it become all a really fun thing.

Weija Lake

This Saturday we went out again: we visited a lake called Weija Lake. We wanted to leave early to avoid the traffic since the road to Weija Lake is also the road leading to Cape Coast and it`s very busy almost all the time. Well, we still got to wait in a traffic jam for a while, but it wasn`t too bad. Already on the way I could see that we were leaving the city: there were more and more bushes around, and you could also see sheep and goats passing the road. Anyway, Weija Lake is a fishing lake, where they also purify water and it seemed pretty much a restricted area. We met a guy before, who would take us around, because you are not really supposed to go in alone. Also, after entering we were told at least three times that you are not supposed to take pictures in the whole area – it turned out that the reason for that is, that before some people have already used pictures against them. The lake looks beautiful anyway, it`s really huge with some small hills surrounding it. Though it turned out that most of the fishermen don`t work on Saturday, we still found one who would take us on the lake in a canoe – of course in turn of some money. It was a great experience to sit in the canoe that was sometimes bending from one side to another with the waves, while the fisherman also told us a bit about their fishing methods: for example fishing with a net or a hook. Altogether it was really a beautiful area with a kind fisherman, while at the same time I could also `feel` the strict rules surrounding all of it – it was kind of similar feeling as having seen the soldiers by the Independence Square in central Accra before.