To the North!

I just spent an amazing ten days in the Northern Region. It was awesome. Really hot, but really good. So, enjoy my journal entries from the trip! :)

Oct. 26

I woke up at 4am so I could take advantage of the Internet. It works so much faster in the middle of the night/really early morning. I had to get one last Facebook check in before I left for the 10-day excursion.

We left at 7am from our dorm. Our goal for the day was to make it to Kumasi, which is a huge market town kind of on the way to the Northern Region. The roads were crazy. Some were paved, but others were dirt and covered with the biggest potholes I’ve ever encountered. We made 3 stops on the way up. The first was to a village that makes Kente cloth. Kente cloth is a fabric that has been woven for over 400 years (according to our guide) and there are 3 different types of weaves and all sorts of different patterns. Each pattern has a different meaning. It was pretty interesting stuff. We watched some people weave it and then were given time to buy some cloth if we wanted some.

The second stop was really similar. It was a village that made ink and then used it to stamp Adenkra symbols onto fabric like Kente cloth. The ink begins with tree bark that gets soaked in water for 24 hours. After that it is pounded into finer pieces and then the juice is drained from the bark. The juice is then boiled. It has to boil for about a week before it can be used. We were able try our hand at stamping. Now we have our very own Adenkra symbol cloth. Neato.

Our next stop was a strip of stands that sold wooden carvings. The sellers were extremely eager to have us visit their shops. I walked into one and when I turned around to exit, there were 6 men lined up saying variations of, “My sister, please come to my stall. I have something I want to show you. Free looking.” It was a little overwhelming, but I had fun trying to bargain with some of them.

We were in the bus for a long time, so naturally we had to make some stops for the restroom. My original thought was that we would just be using bushes at the side of the road. I was wrong—that comes later on in the trip apparently. Today, we stopped at the nicest restroom I’ve encountered in Ghana. We had to pay to get inside, but it was totally worth it. It was even nicer than most rest stops in the States. It was super clean, had a restaurant, and people selling all kinds of things outside. It was impressive.

Anyways, we made it to our hotel in Kumasi at around 4pm. The city is really big and really busy. The hotel we stayed at is really nice. I roomed with Krista and Kristi. We had running water (even an option for hot water!), a fan, and a TV. I think I was the most excited about the fan. We don’t have those in our dorm rooms. It just felt really good to sleep with a fan on.

We had pizza for dinner at the restaurant in the hotel. It was delicious. I was really tired from being in the bus all day, so I went to bed super early.

Oct. 27

Today I woke up at 6am…as usual. I really have a hard time sleeping past then. Breakfast was served at 7:30. We had fried eggs, toast, and a choice of tea or coffee. It was good. We didn’t have to leave the hotel until 10am, giving us some time to hang out.

Once we departed, the rest of our day was spent in the bus. 8 hours of riding. It really wasn’t that bad. It was cool to see the scenery change from hilly to flat land. The houses also changed from cement structures with tin roofs to circular mud huts with thatch roofs.

Our rest stop experience was slightly different today. We only stopped once and it was in the random village that happened to have restrooms. The restrooms were more like trenches. They did have walls and separate male and female sides, but it was essentially like going to the bathroom in a nice gutter. I found it pretty amusing, especially because we had to pay for it. Watching everyone’s face as they walked out of the bathroom was also the best.

By the end of the trip we were all getting pretty restless. When I start feeling restless, I start to think that everything is funny and then I start laughing and then I start crying because I’m laughing so hard. Once that happens, I have a hard time stopping. It gets to the point where I’m basically weeping from laugher when nothing is actually funny. Luckily I started feeling this way just a few minutes before arriving at our destination where I was able to compose myself. 

The place we’re staying in Tamale is not a glamorous as the last place, but it works. We have a fan again, which is really awesome because it is HOT here. Accra has nothing on the North when it comes to heat. Our toilet and sink work, but our shower does not. Good thing we’re used to this sort of thing. There is an outdoor faucet just a short walk away from our room where we can fill our buckets for showers.

We had a typical meal of rice and chicken for dinner. After dinner, I filled up my bucket and took a shower and then the group just hung out and played games for the remainder of the evening. The power went on and off several times due to an incoming storm. It rained for a while, which was awesome because it cooled the temperature down quite a bit.

Tomorrow we are taking a 3-hour drive to Yendi—the witch village.

Oct. 28

What an incredible day. We left Tamale at around 8:30am and arrived in Yendi at about 11am. When we arrived, there were chairs under a tree for us. A man from the village then told us about his NGO that he started. I’m not sure what it’s called, but the acronym is BIRDS. It started up after some ethnic conflict in the 80s or 90s (I can’t remember which) and has since stayed in the town as a peacekeeping organization. It was actually extremely hard to hear him talk in the outdoor setting, so I’m not sure how they are connected with the witch village, but one of his coworkers accompanied us there.

When we got to the village we were swarmed by a mass of children. I’m not sure that there are many things in this world that are cuter than African children. My heart melts into a puddle when they hold my hand. Anyways, these kids crowded around our bus and grabbed our hands and walked us into the village. We arrived at a large tree where benches were set out for us to sit at. People from the village were also sitting under the tree with us.

 

The village is made up of mostly women (most of them look older) and a few men. We were given the chance to ask them questions and they could then ask us questions. We worked through 3 different translators, which was crazy but that’s just what had to happen. We learned that most people arrive at the witch village under very similar circumstances.

When someone dies in a community and the cause of the death can’t easily be explained or understood, it is then believed that some sort of witchcraft was involved. Usually (but not always), the blame falls on a woman and she is then accused of murder through witchcraft. Because of this, she is no longer accepted in her village and has to find somewhere to go. The witch village in Yendi is a place they can escape to.

Because they are so ostracized, they are extremely poor. They farm for their livelihoods, but it often is not enough to feed themselves and their kids. (When a woman leaves her village, apparently she is allowed to bring her children or if the woman is older, she can bring a grandchild). They explained to us that it is hard to be happy where they are because their basic needs of food, clothing and shelter are barely met. My heart broke for them. They are beautiful people forced to live in extreme poverty for something they didn’t really do.

The woman in the middle is Sana

After our meeting, we were able to distribute some soap to the people. It was horrible because there wasn’t enough for everyone. I felt really bad. I did however meet the most wonderful woman. Her name is Sana and she was the only one that spoke English. I don’t know how I even managed to start talking with her, but I instantly loved her. She greeted me with “AYY, My Sista!” She showed me her house and I got to meet her son. I really hated leaving because I wanted to talk with her more. I did manage to get a picture with her. I couldn’t help but feel like there was a reason that I met her. I’ll be praying for her everyday. I hope that the Gospel reaches that village because I think Christ is the only one who can bring them the hope they’re looking for. 

We got back on the bus and went back to our first stop of the day. The people of the village gathered in a huge circle and performed for us. A group of men played fiddles and shakers and sang. A woman started dancing in the middle. After she was done, each person from our Calvin group was asked to dance individually in the middle of the circle. What an experience. Most of us just busted out our best (or worst) moves and others tried their hand at imitating the woman that danced earlier. I’m a horrible dancer, so when I got up to dance, I decided to go for the "I’m obviously not from Ghana” approach. It seemed to work. When the dancing was over, I got to try playing the fiddle! I couldn’t do it. It was too hard, but it was really fun trying.

When we got back to Tamale, we ate dinner and had a group bible study. I went to bed shortly after that because I was exhausted from the day. It was a really eye opening day for me. I’m really grateful for the experience.

Oct. 29

This morning was one of the only times that I actually slept solidly until my alarm when off. I probably could have slept for about 5 more hours, but we had to get up for breakfast and be on the bus by 8:30am. Our first stop today was at the headquarters of the Presbyterian Church for Northern Ghana. An NGO called Presby Agric works out of the headquarters. They help communities develop their agricultural businesses. They also help women get involved in agriculture, which I thought was awesome. We went to a village about 20 minutes away and got to talk with them about their community, what they grow, and how Prsby Agric has been involved. Our translator was amazing. He did a great job at making the conversation flow really well. The community received us really well. They especially loved Nick from our group because he’s a farmer. We had a lot of questions for them and they even had a lot of questions for us. Afterwards, I went around and shook a bunch of people’s hands. I ran across this mom with the most adorable child, so I asked if I could take a picture.

We got back on the bus and went to a chicken farm next. We were off the bus for about 5 minutes and then we returned back to Tamale for lunch. Lunch was really late today, but that happens. After lunch we went to the location of a youth development organization. They primarily help young women gain vocational skills so that they can later create a living for themselves. Currently, they teach sewing and hairdressing. The women are usual from the area, but sometimes they come from far away.

Often, young women from the North will move south to do whatever it takes to make a living. This sometimes ends up with them living on the streets or just in really poor conditions. This organization tries to minimize that phenomenon by training them in a vocation so that they don’t have to move south and endanger themselves. It seems like a really cool organization.

After our visit with them, we came back to our guesthouse and ate dinner. I tried to do some research for my Literature paper, but didn’t make a whole lot of progress. Oh well. After playing a game with the group, I went to bed.

Oct. 30

Breakfast at 6am! We had to leave Tamale by 7am in order to be in Bolgatonga on time. It took us about two hours to get there. We met up with a lady by the name of Doris who runs an organization called TAWODEP. It’s an organization that helps women in the area expand their businesses. They make jewelry out of recycled newspaper and magazines and they make their own Shea butter. Doris decided that we needed to see all kinds of aspects of the community. First, she took us to a rural school. It was actually a lot nicer than the school I work at in Adenkrebi. We got to go to each classroom and exchange songs. One class even danced for us, which was really impressive.

Stirring the Shea butter

After the school, we got to hike up a hill for about 20 minutes to a village that is the home of Shea butter making. We were able to observe the entire process and even got to participate. I got to crush Shea nuts and then got to help with a later step by mixing/beating the blend until it looked like brownie batter. I really enjoyed myself.

After the Shea butter demonstration was finished, we got to see inside one of the family homes. It was a mud and thatch house. I just think they are so pretty. I wish everyone had a thatch roof.

Our next stop was to a village that brews some sort of beer from millet. We all got to try some. It was pretty good. Not my favorite, but it was good to try. After we finished drinking what was given to us (which was quite a bit I might add), a dancing circle broke out. There was a lot of stomping and some of the Calvin people got involved. It’s hilarious because we really just can’t dance the way they do, but they like it when we try. 

Charles with our Guinea Fowl.

The village gave us a guinea fowl as a token of their gratitude for our visit. That’s right. A live bird is now traveling with us in our bus. We offered it to one of Doris’ coworkers, but we’re all staying at a retreat center for the next two nights, so I think it’s just going to be hanging out on our bus until we leave Bolgatonga. So that’s pretty weird, I guess.

The place we are staying at is called the Social Center. We arrived around 3pm and ate a late lunch. It’s a pretty nice place. We have fans again, so that’s a plus. I’m staying in a room with six other girls. It feels a lot like being at summer camp.

The last activity for the day was a visit to the Bolgatonga Craft Village. It was a really nice place to walk around. I really enjoy shopping and bargaining, so it was a nice way to end the day.

I tried to do some homework when we got back to the Social Center. I made some progress but not much. We were given a snack to eat at 7pm in the dining area and then some of us went out to find FanIce. After that, we tried watching a movie but we’re so tired that we called it quits and turned in for an early night.

Oct. 31

Doris had another full day of activities planned for us today. We got on the bus in the morning and went to a pottery village. We watched a few women paint on traditional cloth. They paint using mainly black, red, and white because those were the colors that their ancestors used originally. All of the pictures have meaning. For instance, a crocodile in that area is the symbol for savior. Legend has is that their original chief had to flee his initial village because his brother was plotting to kill him. While he was running he came across a river he couldn’t cross. A crocodile then appeared and the chief was able to ride it across the river, becoming his savior.

After watching the women paint, we were able to shop. I swear I can’t go anywhere without buying anything. Everything was super cheap though, so I don’t feel too bad. I’m just hoping that I can fit everything in my suitcases when I go back home. 

Doris took us to a really small market after we left the potter place. I liked this market a lot. I like smaller markets because they aren’t as overwhelming as the bigger ones. Markets are really cool because they make buying and eating food a really relational thing. You get to know the people that sell and eventually price doesn’t always matter because you have a relationship with the seller. I think it’s a pretty nice concept. Also, prices aren’t set in stone. You can bargain for anything and it’s awesome.

While we were at this particular market, Doris really wanted us to try bean cake. It tastes a lot like a less crunchy elephant ear without any powdered sugar. I liked it.

The group in Burkina Faso.

After that, we decided that we wanted to cross the boarder into Burkina Faso. So we did. We were able to convince the boarder security people to let us go across without passports. We walked around, took some pictures and then left.

We got back on the bus and went to Chief’s Pond. It’s a crocodile pond. It’s a taboo to kill a crocodile because of the legend I mentioned earlier. If you don’t recall, a crocodile helped the chief cross the river and is not considered a savior. If you kill a crocodile, your punishment is the same as murdering a person. It’s a big deal.

Anyways, we went to a crocodile pond. We walked to a smaller pond where our guide offered a live chicken to a huge crocodile. It came out of the water, sat on the shore about 4 feet in front of us. We were then told that we could basically sit on the thing. He was a big dude and his mouth was wide open. I touched it. I felt like Steve Irwin. The crocodile was really well behaved. He responded to some commands. I think they are just so used to people that they just don’t care. They also get a chicken for their services. So it’s really not a bad gig for them I guess.

After the small pond, we went to a really big pond that was home to a larger number of crocodiles. No fences, no nothing. We ate lunch on the platform on the edge of the water. I fed my left over chicken to a crocodile that was hanging out close by. SO COOL.

There was also a man with a horse offering rides for 1 cedi. I just went up to him and asked if I could pet him. I ended up spending more time paying attention to the horse than the crocodiles. Typical.

Across the road there was a “museum” that was free to walk through so we did. It really wasn’t super exciting. We saw what was supposed to be the original huts of the village and some old sculptures and other artifacts. I think it would have been more enjoyable if it hadn’t been so hot, but we’re in Northern Ghana and it’s supposed to be really hot here.

We opted out of going to our next planned stop and went to a really old Catholic basilica in a different village. Apparently, German missionaries built the church in 1906. It looks a lot like a traditional Catholic church, but it was painted with traditional colors (black, red, white) on the inside with several different designs. It was also surprisingly large. The guy that was showing us around told us that although it was large, it wasn’t’ big enough to accommodate the number of members, so they built another church nearby. That church looks a lot like a modern church in the States.

Thankfully, we went back to the retreat center after the church visit. After dinner, we all piled into a room, listened to Shannon’s testimony and then shared scary stories—it is Halloween after all. My Grandma Cavanaugh sent me a package that arrived right before coming on the Northern trip. So, I had everyone trick or treat at my door and handed out pieces of pull n’ peel licorice to everyone. Shannon also had mints to hand out. It wasn’t much, but it would have felt weird not to do anything at all. I can’t imagine what Thanksgiving is going to be like.

We’re going back to Tamale tomorrow to spend the day with World Vision. I’m excited.

Shoutout to Jacquline Englund. Hope you had a great birthday!

  

Nov. 1

Happy November! We spent the entire day with World Vision. They took us around to a couple different communities to show us the different projects that they have in the area.

Mother-to-Mother support group

The first community that we went to had a few different groups that had started. They have a mother-to-mother support group, a financial savings group, and a group that’s in charge of water sanitation. I got to sit and talk with the women in the mother-to-mother support group. I had so much fun, and learned quite a bit as well. They talked about how the group has helped them to learn about proper breast-feeding and childcare. They also gave us some advice. To quote one lady, “Breasts are not for advertisement, they are for children.” I think they believe that American women are too concerned with their body image and that they should instead be using their bodies to care for their children. There’s a lot of truth to that.

After our chat with the women, we went to visit the chief’s house. A bunch of kids followed us there. While we were standing there, we started dancing with them. After a while, we decided to show them the Macarena—it was fantastic.

We left that village and then went to a drip irrigation project in a different village. 40 farmers benefit from this land. The water comes from the dam nearby and goes into 2 huge tanks that feed the tubes that drip over the crops 24 hours a day. It can drip like that for up to 10 days before the tanks have to be refilled. It was pretty interesting, but it was extremely hot. I guess it’s good to experience it, though.

When the tour was over, we got back in the bus and made a lengthy bus ride to eat dinner. We didn’t have a place to stay for a while, so we ate somewhere different from where we ended up sleeping. Eventually, we got things figured out and we stayed at a guesthouse nearby.

Nov. 2

We headed to Mole National Park today. It was about a 3-hour drive from where we stayed in Tamale. We were on a crazy dirt road for 2 of those hours. The nice thing about this was that we had originally thought it was going to take 6 hours to get there—some really bad calculating on someone’s part. We ended up getting to Mole early.

When we got there, we found out that there was a pool. It wasn’t long before we were all swimming. It was just wonderful. We played pool games for a few hours and then had to get ready to go on our first safari walk. The pool water did something crazy to our hair. I’m not sure what they put in the water to treat it, but I felt like I had dread locks. Even after washing my hair, I couldn’t brush through it.

 

The afternoon safari walk started at 3:30pm. We saw lots of wildlife. There were warthogs, antelope, baboons, a huge lizard thing, a water bull, several types of herons, and lots of bugs and plants. Our guide was trying to track the elephants, but it turns out we missed them by a few hours. It was fun trying to track them. I felt like I was on Animal Planet or something.

I tried washing my hair again after the walk and it still felt weird after that. Oh well.

We ate a dinner of chicken kabobs and French fries and then Caitlin shared her testimony. After that, I chatted with a few girls for a while before going to bed.

Nov. 3

We went on a morning safari walk at 6:30am. We had the same guide and we were on a mission to find the elephants. We walked for 2 hours in complete silence. We didn’t want to scare off the animals. Personally I think our clumsy and loud footsteps were enough to scare any creature away. We found nothing other than what we saw yesterday. We did see a crocodile, but those are less exciting now since we got to touch those the other day at the crocodile pond.

Breakfast was waiting for us after our walk. I had some hot cocoa, eggs, and toast. It was good. I then attempted to wash my hair again. It still feels gross. I think it’s going to be a few days before it feels normal again. It’s okay. I don’t regret swimming in the pool because it was fun.

By 10: 30am, we were back on the road. We made a stop at an old mosque on our way to Kumasi. It was built in the 1400s and is still being kept up and used today.

 We made it to Kumasi at around 7:30pm. It was a long day of riding on the bus, but it wasn’t too bad. We ate pizza at the hotel and then I worked on some homework. I did my very last journal assignment for my Peoples & Cultures class. Now I just have to write the final paper. That’s all I have left for most of my classes. So the next week is going to be filled with writing.

Anyways, we head back to campus tomorrow. I’m going to miss having a fan to turn on at night. I currently have an air conditioner in my hotel room. If only that could come with me to my dorm room.

Nov. 4

It was a long day of driving. We made one stop at a bead making village, but other than that we just drove all day.

We got back to campus around 4pm, but since it was Josh’s birthday, we all left to go out for sushi. It was delicious.

I went to get a smoothie afterwards and then headed back to my dorm.

I did some laundry, unpacked, and did some homework before going to bed.

It’s my last week of class this week! Can’t believe it.