The shortest explanation of what I did in Ghana:
We had no plans for Ghana except the fact that we had to get from Tema to Takoradi at some point. After a day spent being driven around by our random Ghanaian guy friends, and one crazy night in some bars that were full of treetop lounges and wood-fire pizza pits, we made it to our field lab the second day. My class traveled together to have a personalized drum lesson with a master drummer in Ghana. We sat around in a circle and learned drumming patterns and had a blast.
The next morning a huge group of us traveled together in a bus toward the Kakum National Forest, where we prepared to stay the night in a hostel. We got there when it was dark, and they happened to have a treehouse that we could stay in-- so obviously we said YES! So, no one was prepared to camp, I was in sandals, but it didn't matter. We took a 30 minute intensive hike into the forest with no lights, and only our voices to guide each other (God knows what we stepped on). There were stairs at first, steep hills, trees everywhere, and the constant hissing of bugs and animals- and black. We stumbled across some treetop canopies that we happily helped ourselves to in the middle of the night. We ran across the foot-wide wood planks and held onto the ropes to gaze up at the thousands of stars we were seeing. What a site. I've never seen so many stars. We could find our way because the trees weren't blocking the light of the moon anymore, we were above the trees. Finally we made it to our treehouse, which was 8 flights of stairs up to the top. The guides lit candles and placed them around the ground and we made a bonfire. We saw spiders bigger than my head, ants so large they had pinchers, along with red ants that flooded our treehouse, but it didn't seem to bother us too much (maybe the spider a bit haha). We had mosquito nets, and all we cared about was not getting Malaria. It was Hudson and D's 21st birthdays, and the festivities commenced. At one point we ended up all around the bonfire singing and harmonizing to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" from The Lion King. (Originally "Mbube" by Solomon Linde, as learned in Global Music) It was hilarious. We spent the night guarded by the trees, and comforted by the sound of insects singing in the night. We cooked hot dogs, sang together, and enjoyed life together.
Most importantly enjoyed life together.
The next day I woke up to the sound of Dick's voice saying "Is Amanda here?" and my closest friends jumping on me! They weren't a part of the group I was with, and they came to find us to say hello, their happy birthday's and tell us where to meet them in Cape Coast. We spent the morning on the canopies, actually viewing the forest we couldn't see the night before. Incredible.
A sketchy taxi ride, where we had to travel through certain stops to be greeted by military men with some sort of rifle on their back, who we paid off because we had 5 people in the taxi instead of 4... a taste of the system out there... brought us to Cape Coast. We stayed at a lovely place called The Oasis right on the beach where all of our friends were. We spent the day going to the markets, swimming on the beach, and soaking up the sun. The beaches were full of life, where men were playing soccer, children were swimming, people were trying to sell foreigners objects, and giant pigs roamed around. We also spent the day exploring the Slave Dungeons, which was extremely heavy. Both Marissa and I cried.
The next morning Miles, Taylor, Sydney and I traveled to Takoradi and had a lovely lunch on the beach. After the markets that were full of hanging raw meat and rude people, we decided to head back to the ship.
We had no plans for Ghana except the fact that we had to get from Tema to Takoradi at some point. After a day spent being driven around by our random Ghanaian guy friends, and one crazy night in some bars that were full of treetop lounges and wood-fire pizza pits, we made it to our field lab the second day. My class traveled together to have a personalized drum lesson with a master drummer in Ghana. We sat around in a circle and learned drumming patterns and had a blast.
The next morning a huge group of us traveled together in a bus toward the Kakum National Forest, where we prepared to stay the night in a hostel. We got there when it was dark, and they happened to have a treehouse that we could stay in-- so obviously we said YES! So, no one was prepared to camp, I was in sandals, but it didn't matter. We took a 30 minute intensive hike into the forest with no lights, and only our voices to guide each other (God knows what we stepped on). There were stairs at first, steep hills, trees everywhere, and the constant hissing of bugs and animals- and black. We stumbled across some treetop canopies that we happily helped ourselves to in the middle of the night. We ran across the foot-wide wood planks and held onto the ropes to gaze up at the thousands of stars we were seeing. What a site. I've never seen so many stars. We could find our way because the trees weren't blocking the light of the moon anymore, we were above the trees. Finally we made it to our treehouse, which was 8 flights of stairs up to the top. The guides lit candles and placed them around the ground and we made a bonfire. We saw spiders bigger than my head, ants so large they had pinchers, along with red ants that flooded our treehouse, but it didn't seem to bother us too much (maybe the spider a bit haha). We had mosquito nets, and all we cared about was not getting Malaria. It was Hudson and D's 21st birthdays, and the festivities commenced. At one point we ended up all around the bonfire singing and harmonizing to "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" from The Lion King. (Originally "Mbube" by Solomon Linde, as learned in Global Music) It was hilarious. We spent the night guarded by the trees, and comforted by the sound of insects singing in the night. We cooked hot dogs, sang together, and enjoyed life together.
Most importantly enjoyed life together.
The next day I woke up to the sound of Dick's voice saying "Is Amanda here?" and my closest friends jumping on me! They weren't a part of the group I was with, and they came to find us to say hello, their happy birthday's and tell us where to meet them in Cape Coast. We spent the morning on the canopies, actually viewing the forest we couldn't see the night before. Incredible.
A sketchy taxi ride, where we had to travel through certain stops to be greeted by military men with some sort of rifle on their back, who we paid off because we had 5 people in the taxi instead of 4... a taste of the system out there... brought us to Cape Coast. We stayed at a lovely place called The Oasis right on the beach where all of our friends were. We spent the day going to the markets, swimming on the beach, and soaking up the sun. The beaches were full of life, where men were playing soccer, children were swimming, people were trying to sell foreigners objects, and giant pigs roamed around. We also spent the day exploring the Slave Dungeons, which was extremely heavy. Both Marissa and I cried.
The next morning Miles, Taylor, Sydney and I traveled to Takoradi and had a lovely lunch on the beach. After the markets that were full of hanging raw meat and rude people, we decided to head back to the ship.
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