Just passed 0 degrees Latitude 0 degrees Longitude!!

Yup! We were on our way down the Prime Meridian and we passed the
equator! Zero degrees latitude and Zero degrees longitude!! =] Jessey,
Miles, and I took pictures out on the deck so I'll upload those when I
can! Just thought I'd post a blog about it! Officially in the Southern
Hemisphere till after Mauritius!

Miho =]

Will write about Ghana....eventually!

Hey everyone!

So Ghana in a few words were: overwhelming, heartbreaking, and
eye-opening. <<<---Yes, all of those. I'll have to take a whole day to
write out everything that happened. You hear about the starving kids in
Africa? Yeah, I saw them. That was the craziest thing I have
experienced/witnessed. I don't have time for the next few days because
it's exam time (Yayyy!!....Noooott). And so I have about 6 pages of
essays to write and a midterm in class to do in the next 5 days. Soo
I'll get to writing about Ghana eventually. There is so much I want to
say right now, but I want to be able to get it all out on this blog and
not just rush through it. I promise I'll do it before Cape Town, South
Africa!

Miho =]

"Let not what you cannot do tear you from what you can do." - Ghanaian
Proverb

Ghana - Day 5 (Last day in Ghana!)

Day 5 - I couldn't believe it was the last day in Ghana already and I had done soo many things, I was already exhausted! 5 days in port, jampacked with activities, long bus rides, and people talking to you anywhere you walk. I was glad to go on an FDP, relax a little, and not have to worry about where we're taking a taxi or what we're doing afterwards. I went on an FDP to Global Mamas with Professor Heather Paxson who is my Anthropology of Food professor, but I was using it as an FDP for her husband's class, Professor Stefan Helmreich's Cultural Anthropology class. We drove a little over an hour to Accra where they dropped us off at the same little store I went to the day before. We got to look around a bit more and I ended up buying a few more things =/ (It's for a good cause!) No really it is. As I said before Global Mamas is an NGO and fair trade market organization that helps support women and their families. The reason why they support women and not men is because most of the time when a women earns money, the money goes towards her family or the community and when you support Ghanaian men, the family often times doesn't see the money at all. They empower women to rise out of poverty by buying printed fabrics (their signature and you can distinguish their products from all the rest in Accra and maybe even in Ghana) giving it to the women and telling them how many orders they have to fill by a certain date. Some women only do dresses or only do bags. It just depends from women to women and each woman usually has her own fabric print that is her own signature. When the order is done, the products are quality checked which means your product is of the highest standard goods and you know you're getting a good deal. They then export it to their US stores or sell it in their store in Osu. They don't waste a lot of fabric either. They try and use every single scrap. Whatever is left over from the dresses, they would make into a bag or something smaller. Whatever is left over from that, they would use it to say a tie and even then the strips that they have, they weave it to make woven pot holders. They use every bit of fabric they can because that's more money that can go to the women. 95% of the money made goes back to the women and the rest is used to buy more fabric and help run the organization. They also have bead jewelry makers and they buy the jewelry from people who make the beads out of 100% recycled glass. It's a really cool organization and you can check em out at their website. Just google "Global Mamas Ghana." Afterwards we headed to Makola market which is near the Natural Culture Center and this is where people said they really grab you and pull you into their shops, but since we were in a big group, we had to stay in the non-congested areas so we could come back easily. Makola market is more for the locals and had fabrics and household goods. We left the market at about 1 and headed back to the ship. When we got back I still had about 34 Cedis left so I went to the shops that had been set up right by our ship especially for SAS and bought 3 more paintings for 34 Cedis. The rest of the night just consisted of getting some laundry done and cruising on the ship till we left Ghana! We watched as the ship moved farther and farther away from the city. Off to South Africa!!

Miho =]

Ghana - Day 4 (Accra)

Day 4 - Rachel, Kyle, and I were on our Accra at 9am. They said it takes about 2 hours with traffic, 20 minutes without >_< It's only a 18 mile drive, but you see how long it could take with all the congested traffic in Ghana. It ended up only taking us an hour and 15 minutes to get to Osu, which is a neighborhood in Accra. The three of us went to Global Mamas, which is an NGO that helps support women in Ghana by having them make things from clothes to blankets to necklaces. The store was amazing with soo many things to look at. I was going to Global Mamas the next day for an FDP (Faculty Directed Practica, they're required for classes) so I'll explain how the organization works and everything in the next blog. The three of us were in there for at least an hour looking at everything they had. I ended up buying a couple bags, but I knew I'd be back.

We headed to downtown where it's really congested and the markets are there. We took a taxi to downtown for 7Cedis which is about $4.50. Every single place we've gone so far for SAS, you should decide on a price with the driver for the taxi before you leave. This is because a lot of the taxis are not metered and drivers give you outrageous prices. Like the guy at first said 25 Cedis ($8), but we got him down to 7 Cedis. When we got there we decided to head towards the Natural Cultural Center for souvenirs. We had been warned that this was the place that people grab your arm and drag you into their shop so I was a bit anxious to go there. When we got there there was a bunch of guys hanging out side of the shops and had Kente cloth which is a type of cloth woven out of silk and cotton known to Ghana. We talked to them and saw the loom and a man demonstrated how to use it. They said it takes 2 days to make one the strips that are about scarf size. We eventually made our way into the market and I think because it was early in the day, a lot of the shopkeepers weren't aggressive at all. I mean every stall you pass they yell at you to come and look at their stuff. Not every person is like that though, some ask to come and look and say "no pressure, no pressure" The three of us walked around and I didn't buy anything that I really liked. I was looking for paintings because I saw a Life Long Learner buy some and they were realllyyy nice.

 Leaving empty handed, we started to get overwhelmed so we took a break and tried to find somewhere that we could eat lunch. We ate at this restaurant near the market that served Ghanaian food. A lot of SAS students were there too so it was good to have some comfort in what we were eating. I still wasn't feeling well from the night before so I just got plantain chips to fill my stomach a little. Everyone else got spicy chicken and rice. We joined another group on their venture to Dr. Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park and Museum which was right next to the market and restaurant. Nkrumah was Ghana's first president and helped get Ghana their independence from the Europeans. Everything was really interesting and we learned that Nkrumah was close friends with Fidel Castro of Cuba. A lot of the pictures in the museum had Castro in them. We thought this was pretty interesting and we learned that Nkrumah was actually ousted from the presidency. Nkrumah had made Ghana a one party state and this angered many and so he was overthrown and it seemed at first that Nkrumah was the most liked guy in the country, but then you hear that he was overthrown cause he turned "bad."

We went back to the market because I was determined to get paintings and ended up buying two for 20 Cedis. Rachel, Kyle, and I were really tired at this point and the next shuttle to take SAS students back to the ship was at 7pm. We decided to head back to Osu where it would leave from and cruise around there until it was time. We ended up going back to Global Mamas and buy whatever else we wanted >_< Headed to Koala Market which is the local grocery store and soo many SAS students there buying snacks and whatnot to bring onto the ship. We found out that the imported US goods are RIDICULOUSLY expensive. A small box of Special K protein bars (I think there were 6 in there) were 18 Cedis! Woodin was the next stop which is a higher end fabric store and we all bought fabric for various purposes. I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with mine yet, but we see! We caught the bus at about 6:30 and finally headed back to the ship. It was a supppper long day in the hot sun and being asked to buy something every second. I got back ate on the pool deck and passed out in my cabin. Successful day of walking around and exploring Accra!

Miho =]

PS. The picture of the Door of No Return was from Cape Coast Castle. I forgot to post it in the other blog.

Ghana - Day 3

Day 3 - 7 hours later, Alisa and I are up, sadly checking out of our room and heading to breakfast. Breakfast was an international style breakfast. With fruits such as pawpaw(papaya), white pineapple, and grapefruit. All kinds of toast, U.S. brand cereal and a made to order omelet bar. They did have a pineapple ginger juice that was interesting. It was more ginger than pineapple and cleared up your sinuses if you were congested. I briefly talked to the roomies, Emily, Ana, and Shelley on the phone. Em was sooo confused when I called her because it was restricted and she didn't know who it was. Got to talk to them for a little bit, then I hurriedly and called Daniel. Talked to him for about 10 minutes catching up and seeing how he's doing. We had to get on the bus so I had to cut the call short.

We went to Cape Coast Castle which was a castle that housed slaves before they were shipped out to the Americas. They were also used to house goods. We had a tour guide take us down into the slave dungeons where the slaves would be kept for months at a time till the ship came that would take them across the Atlantic. Walking down into the dungeons, it was really dark, slippery and you suddenly felt congested. The tour guide told us that these dungeons would hold hundreds of people and there was no room to lay down and even if you did lay down you would be laying on human waste. There was a channel dug in the floor that would be used for the human waste, but he said that the human waste so high it was as high as your knees. You could see the line in the walls where it was significantly darker compared to the rest of the whitish walls. The dungeons had little light with one small 1 square foot hole that had light from the outside wall of the castle. When the ships came all the slaves would go through a dark tunnel that went directly to the outside gate where they board the ship immediately. This tunnel would have posts about 7 feet above it where soldiers would make sure the line of slaves were still moving. Males and females had different dungeons they would be in. The female dungeons were significantly smaller, but still had the small amount of light pouring in. The female dungeons were visited often by soldiers who would rape them and then they would take the "beautiful" ones to their officials upstairs. It's just so crazy to think that in those dungeons, where I stood, hundreds of people died every couple of months and once one group was gone off to the middle passage, hundreds more would come in and take their place. You couldn't fight back either because they even thought of different cells where the the ones that would fight would go and that's where they got no food and water and would die there. The smell was bad even in those dungeons even after soo many years had passed.

Afterwards we went to Elmina Castle which was used the same way Cape Coast Castle was. The dungeons in these castles had a little more light for the males and the females were on one of the higher levels of the castle and would have bars in the big windows so they at least had fresh air. Females were often presented in the central courtyard where the governor who was looking from a balcony would choose which women he would want to sleep with. If a women would refuse and fight back they would be tied to the cannonball and would have to stand there for days till the governor decided to release them. It was horrible what living conditions they would have to be in and again many would die in those dungeons and wouldn't even make it to the ship. These castles look so beautiful and majestic on the outside, but there were a lot of horrors going on underneath the castle.

We left the Castles and went to Mabel's Table, a restaurant and had local Ghanaian food. I totally forgot to take a picture of my plate, but there was really good fish, chicken and fufu with peanut soup and meat. Fufu is a kind of white paste that is either made out of cassava or rice. I think this one was made out of rice and the peanut soup is really oily with lots of peppers and made with mutton. I didn't drink much of the soup because I was afraid my stomach wouldn't be able to handle the oiliness, but it was really spicy too. After we ate we made the long ride back to the ship which was about 5 hours. I was hanging out with Rachel most of the time and she invited me to go with her and some friends into Accra (about 2 hours away from the ship) and spend the night there so we can get up early and go shopping in Accra. When we got up and meeting at the gangway to leave, we found out that people were just going into Tema to go out. Rachel and I ended up going with them. They played Shakira's song, Waka Waka (We're in Africa!) and Wave Your Flag. It was amazing they played that and a lot of SAS students were there with us and started dancing too. We can actually sing it cause we were IN AFRICA! =] Rachel and I got back at about 11:30 because we had an early morning the next day =]

Miho =]

Ghana - Day 2

Day 2 - Through SAS I went on an overnight trip that shows you three of
the "must-see" places near Ghana's coast. One is Kakum National Park
which is famous for being 1 of 4 treetop canopy walks in the world! The
others are the Elmina and Cape Coast Castles and their slave dungeons.
We boarded the buses right outside the ship and headed off to Kakum
National Park. It was about a 4 hour bus ride with a stop at a washroom
halfway through. Restrooms and bathrooms are called washrooms by
Ghanaians. There were washroom signs and not restrooms signs. It was
interesting to just look around while we were riding through Tema and
Accra and also on the outskirts of both. We had a police escort as well.
I'm thinking because we are on a coach bus and I didn't see any other
coach buses except for SAS ones. I'm not sure if people were staring at
our bus because we had a police escort or if we had a huge bus, or both.
The houses we saw weren't really what we call houses. Most of them were
more shacks. The houses that were prevalent along the highway, were all
concrete houses of every color you can think of. There were houses that
looked like a castle (it was purple too!) and there were also houses and
buildings that were cut in half because in order to make room for the
highway, they didn't take down the entire building, but just took off
just what they needed to make more space for the highway. We saw some
shantytowns which are pretty much slums of the city. You see a lot of
metal roofing used to just cover their shack from the hot sun. Oh yeah!
And many, many, many people were carrying things on their head! We all
thought it was really cool. People coming from the market and store were
carrying their goods on their head in bags. Most people that carry
things on their head were selling things though. In our cultural
pre-port we found out that many people sell things right on the road (in
between lines of cars) right before toll booths because there are long
lines. It is illegal in Ghana to buy things out of their car, but it
isn't enforced at all. People were selling all kinds of food such as
bread, plantain chips, and candy to household goods such as weight
scales (yeahhh not even joking), and cleaning supplies. People were also
selling maps, clothes, and I just can go on forever how many different
things I saw over the course of 5 days. Pretty much everything you can
imagine that can be sold, we on someone's head in a platter style and/or
stacked up pretty high. A lot of people in lines didn't want you taking
pictures of them (they would bang on the window) so I didn't get much of
people. What's interesting is you think these people selling things,
wouldn't make that much money and how do they survive on this kind of
job? In Ghana, selling commodities this way actually gets them more
money than if they were to open a business on the street. So a lot of
people live like this and are on the highways everyday trying to sell
whatever is on their head on in their hands.
We stopped at the washroom and thankfully by the time we started getting
antsy on the bus, we got to Kakum National Park. Kakum National Park had
the same feeling as Parque do Mindu in Brazil. The forest was densely
packed and we had to walk up man made stairs and treehouse to get onto
the treetop canopy. The canopy is fibrous netting that is attached to
cables that are attached to trees. There was the netting and in the
middle there was a ladder with a 2 by 6 board on it (picture). There
were 7 bridges in all and at first I was a little hesitant, but it
helped that the netting was at least mid-waist high. These canopy
walkways are about 50 meters (150 feet) high and the view was alright,
but all you could see are the tops of tree which is pretty cool. After
all 7 walkways we headed back to the bus and went to lunch at an inn.
They had a mushroom soup, stir fry, two different kinds of rice (white
and some kind of red-orange), and plantains. It was all really good food
and I learned there that their sodas such as Coke, Sprite, and Fanta
came in glass bottles. They aren't the new style coke bottles but some
of these bottles were scratched up and weren't new. Restaurants and
shops that sell these bottles take the bottles back to be refilled by
the companies (after they wash it of course). This is because the bottle
is valued more than the actual soda in it. The water was bottled though.
The water in Ghana isn't safe to drink, though the locals drink it
because they're use to it. I got a sprite just because it was out of a
cool bottle =P
Afterwards, we headed to our hotel, Elmina Beach Hotel, got our rooms (I
roomed with Alisa!) and just hung out till dinner. There was free wifi,
which we were all excited about and I called a bunch of people. If I
didn't call you, I'm sorry! I was talking to people the entire time till
dinner and after dinner as well. I video chatted with Zoey most of the
time and it was really nice being able to talk to him for a few hours on
Valentine's Day. Some people went out before dinner into Cape Coast, but
I heard there wasn't much to do other than a few shops and stores.
For dinner we had Ghanaian food such as banku, really really spicy
chicken, flavored rice with roasted plantains on top, fried fish, and
this really really really spicy ground beef sauce. I found out a lot of
Ghanian food is really spicy. They like to use a lot of peppers in most
of their dishes. You know me, I don't like spicy things as much or I
have a low tolerance so I was only able to eat a little of the ground
beef sauce before my mouth was on fire! The banku was my least favorite.
It has the consistency of uncooked dough and it's REALLY bitter. I heard
you're supposed to eat it with that ground beef sauce, but I could
hardly eat one of them so I didn't try with both of them.
After dinner, people went to a pub down the road, but I decided just to
stay in and talk to Zoey. I went to sleep at about midnight and our room
was really nice! Ocean-view room with a balcony. The ocean was pretty
much right at the base of the hotel and you could hear the waves in our
room with all the windows and doors closed. It was really nice to fall
asleep to the ocean =]
Miho =]

Ghana Day 1 - City of Refuge

Finally! I can write out everything that happened in Ghana now that I'm done with midterms and papers! I'll try my best to remember everything that happened.

Day 1 - We had an early arrival into Tema, Ghana at about 6:30am. I went up to the deck and when you look at where we're headed, it's heavily industrialized, and there is kind of a haze over Tema. I didn't realize later that this was more of a smog than morning haze =/ We're the only cruise ship styled ship in and around the port, the rest of the ships we're huge cargo ships from Panama and elsewhere in South America. In anticipation for my trip to the City of Refuge that day, I got ready early and was ready to go at 8am. Come to find out, we're not getting off the ship till at least 10am >_< Everyone is getting anxious (especially me!) to get off with their backpacks and sun gear ready to go! My City of Refuge trip is an independent and not SAS-sponsored trip so times aren't as accurate, but it is a bit cheaper. After gathering everyone and figuring out whose not coming and coming in place of those missing people, we were finally getting off the ship as soon as they announced they're letting us off. About 60 people filed off the ship and walked all the way over to the parking lot where the City of Refuge founders, John and Stacy, would be meeting us. The buses we got on aren't the nice coach buses with lots of leg room and little TVs inside. Nope, these were the buses that were used in Dominica and Brazil that first fit about 20 people, but then there are aisle seats that fold down to use pretty much every single space that is available on the bus (picture). We stopped at an ATM on the way to pay the minimal fee of $48. When we got to the City of Refuge about a couple hours later (Tema is far away from everything and Ghana in general has really bad traffic so it takes three times as long to get anywhere). When we arrived it was in a dry area similar to Kawaihae. Along the dirt road in, there is a military training area where soldiers were being briefed which looked like it was about weapons. I thought this was pretty weird because the City of Refuge is a place for trafficked children and there is a school on this property too. When we arrive a couple minutes after that the kids we're playing soccer in their uniforms (picture) and it was about noon so it would've been about lunch recess for them. We took a tour of the place and the City of Refuge organization just started on this 2,000 acre property that was given to them a year ago. There were 2 houses (one that housed the founders, their children, and some volunteers and the other that housed the kids that actually lived there with the other volunteers), a soccer field, basketball court, and an in progress school building that was just concrete and had the holes for windows and doors, but no actual windows and doors. The children were in class when we walked through the school building and some were learning shapes, math, or even having nap time (picture)! The school is using an American system more than a Ghanaian system and they are starting to add on to the building so that they can offer junior and senior high school. Many Ghanaian students get up to junior high school but because of the limited financial support, many of them don't see senior high school. City of Refuge is trying to offer a K-12 education to encourage students to enter colleges and universities.

The City of Refuge is mainly based upon to rescue trafficked kids who have been usually sold by their family members to pay off old family debts. These kids are forced to work, usually as fishermen, in a area called Lake Volta. This practice is illegal, but many people deny any wrongdoing and/or justify this by saying they don't want to make their own children work so that they can go to school instead of these enslaved kids. I found out that one of the girls I was playing, Mary (picture), with had been rescued a couple years ago and she was a trafficked child that was sold to settle her uncle's debt to a fisherman. After several of us helped paint a shed, help in the classrooms, or make 600 meals, we all got together to go to a nearby community (about 5 minutes drive) and give out the 600 meals to local kids. When groups visit the City of Refuge, part of the fee is to sponsor meals for kids in a nearby village and part of the experience is to do a "feed." Originally, the fee with our amount of people is enough to sponsor 300 meals, but Rosemary, the trip coordinator, increased the trip fee to feed 600 instead. We all got on the buses and followed John and Stacy in their SUV that held the 600 meals. When we arrived, there were 100s of kids jumping up and down, yelling, and some even rushed the bus. They were really excited to see us. Seeing all these kids, I was thinking in my head, "I don't think we have enough." Enough as in food for every single kid that was there, so excited to see us come, because this means that they'll get a meal. The meals prepared were only one scoop of rice and one piece of chicken. It wasn't much, but they wanted to spread the food out as much as possible. When we got out of the buses, a couple adults were yelling at the kids to get in line and to wait their turn (picture). The leaders tried their best to order the kids from shortest to tallest, but there were so many kids you could do it accurately. When the kids settled down a little, John told us to get 10 plates each and to give them to 10 kids. I thought, okay, simple enough. As soon as the SUV opened, the kids abandoned their lines and rushed the SUV. We started handing out our 10 plates, but who to give it to? As soon as I got my plates out and turned around, kids surrounded me, trying to grab at the plates and begging me to give it to them. They were pushing each other, even the older kids were pushing the little ones out of the way. How are you supposed to choose what kid you give food to? How are you supposed to know which child needs the food more than the other. I handed it to whichever kid grabbed onto the plate first and I got through 6 plates before John and the other students had to close the SUV and have the kids settle down again. By this time, other SASers were crying and feeling overwhelmed at being rushed by kids who were starting to push and fight over the food. SASer's faces were all just a look of shock and trying to process what just happened in a matter of a few minutes. Half the meals were gone and some kids had gone home, few kids were actually eating their food, and most of the them who didn't get food, were being hurried back into line away from the SUV. This time, coordinators tried to have the little kids (from 3 to 5 yrs old) in a separate group right by me and the SUV. After about 5 or 10 minutes, we opened the SUV again and hurriedly starting giving the little kids food, but not a minute later, big kids ran out of line, surrounded the little kids and started pushing their way through, little kids were being pushed against the SUV and ones that just got their food couldn't get out of the crowd. I had tell the older ones to get back in line several times. Some listened to me, but most just stayed and tried to get food. I started passing more food out to the little ones and would tell the older kids to be patient and just wait till the little ones get it. This went on for about 5 minutes and we quickly ran out of food. I was holding a kid's hand, waiting for another plate, and another SASer was telling me it was all gone. I had to tell the kids that we didn't have anymore and I just kept on saying I'm sorry I'm sorry. There was so much dust in the air with kids anxiously trying to get food and fighting for it. More SASers were crying and we all just stood there not knowing what to do. After a while we all got back on the bus and rode home in almost complete silence. I think we were all just numb from the feed and at the same time sick to our stomach. A full dinner was waiting for us with fried chicken, salad, and fried rice. I don't think any of us were hungry, but we forced ourselves to eat because we didn't know what time we were getting back to the ship. After buying some City of Refuge shirts, we got on the bus and made it back to the ship.

When I think of Ghana, my mind goes back to this day automatically. The kids who were so excited to see us, the chaos that ensued just because we had meals that may have been the kid's only meal of the day. We had no idea if every single one of these kids had a home, had meals 3 times a day, if at all. I know there are starving kids in Africa, but I think I mentally blocked it because it is so sad. This feed was like a slap in the face to make me really realize these kids are not just in minimal numbers. It gives me a sickening feeling in my stomach every time I think of what happened and I don't think I've been able to process it fully. I still feel numb. All SAS students are so lucky to eat three times a day and students complain about pasta and potatoes on a daily basis. We're sometimes ignorant to the fact that kids age 12 and below would fight over this food that we can eat everyday and there is not limit to how much we can eat. I'm thankful that I had such a good childhood with as much food as I wanted and that I even have this opportunity to go on this trip of a lifetime. After Ghana, I am thankful for the simpler things in life such as food and I was thankful before, but not nearly as much as I am now.

I know this is a long one, but this experience had the biggest impact on me thus far this voyage. Google "City of Refuge Ghana" to learn more about them and what they do.

Miho