Pack your bags U.S.A.

Shortly after meeting my host family, Angelina and I put our Ghana jerseys on, grabbed my Ghana flag, and walked out of the Kwaw’s home. Our destination? A theatre in town where many were gathering to watch the U.S.A. vs Ghana game. We met up with Ken, a Global Mamas co-worker, who seemed to take it upon himself to keep us safe. We showed up early so we were guaranteed good seats. The other Global Mamas volunteers walked in, sporting their white, red, and blue. I had warned them earlier that day that, although I understood they wanted to support their country, when it comes to the world cup it’s not just a game.  I told them that futbol is passion and after all they were in Ghana so they needed to be ready for humiliation, taunting, and good old fashioned trash talk. The Ghanaians of course liked Angelina and I right away as we were arduous supporters of the Black Stars. I have adopted them as my own team, seeing since Nicaragua has very little chances of ever qualifying for the preliminaries (but one can still dream…).

I can’t even describe how fun and exciting this experience was! I screamed and danced along to the drumming during the entire game, jumping off my seat after the goals were made and biting my nails whenever the US attempted to make a run for it. The guys sitting in front of us would constantly turn around to taunt the American girls and tell me “you are supporting Ghana well” (I was yelling and clapping a lot). After the game, there was crazy celebrating in the streets…obviously! I held my Ghana flag high and chimed in to the “Ose Ghana!” chant, making Ghanaians smile and laugh with me. Or at me.

Apart from the occasional tugging of my flag by strangers, and our taxi driver having to drive through herds of people (literally) who, upon seeing us inside, began yelling and talking to us about the game, slowing down traffic even more, we made it safely home. As we walked into the living room, where Mr. Kwaw was watching T.V., I greeted him with an “Ose Ghana” as I waved my flag. He got a kick out of my Fanti attempt, laughed, and gave me a high five. I congratulated him on a game well played and we proceeded to tell him about our experience in town.

With Mr. Kwaw we get to watch all the games and talk about soccer, our countries, other countries, cultures, languages, etc… I don’t care that I’ve had to take bucket showers and do bucket flushes because the water has been out for almost a week at their home. It’s great to be in a family atmosphere and getting to watch every possible game is the icing on the cake.

Moving to a new home

Tomorrow I will be moving in with the Kwaws. Another volunteer, Angelina, began living with them a few days ago. When she began telling me about living with the family so far and how she gets to watch soccer with Mr. Kwaw every night made me regret not asking to be placed with the host family. I want to learn more about Ghanaian culture and the Fante language while I'm here, and living with a Ghanaian family will definitely help me achieve that. So Angelina told the Kwaws about me and they said they would love to have me. She says Mr. Kwaw wants to learn about Nicaragua and they're both glad Angelina will have a sister. So tomorrow I move in with my new Ghanaian parents. I'm very excited!

Also, tomorrow Ghana plays the U.S. I am going to wear my Black Stars jersey and bring my Ghana flag to watch the match in a movie theatre in Cape Coast. It's going to be absolutely crazy! The Black Stars better pick up on their goal shots and BRING IT!

Obruni

“I want to marry the short one” a Ghanaian man commented loudly as Jessica, Jordan, and I walked past him towards the street where all the taxis hang out. As we waited inside a taxi for a fourth passenger, two guys hanging out by the passenger window, where I was sitting, began talking to me.

“You are beautiful. I love you,” he repeated. “Do you love me?”

“Sorry,” I replied “I have a husband”.

“Oh I am sorry, forgive me” he responded very politely.

I have been pleasantly surprised to find that the mentioning of my fake husband is always followed by respectful apologies by the men showering me with compliments and marriage proposals. Other men (especially latinos) I’ve encountered have never been so respectful to my (non-existent) husband and left me alone.

Obruni is fante for “white person”, the Latin American equivalent to gringo (although gringo is considered specific to people from the U.S.) I have had the feeling that some Ghanaians aren’t sure if they should classify me under the Obruni category. Maria, who heads the Global Mamas office in Cape Coast, is from Spain and says that despite her brown skin and Spanish features, she is called obruni. I am very short, have brown skin, dark curly hair, and what I consider some distinguishable Latin American features. I have been taken aback by women calling me out in the street and telling me “You are beautiful! I like you” with such sweet enthusiasm. Although friends and family are constantly telling me, I don’t consider myself all that beautiful, especially when I’m walking around in the humid sun wearing no makeup and sweating all over. My instant reaction when these beautiful Ghanaian women stop me to shower me with compliments is that of humility. I stand there, humbled, thank them, and shower some compliments right back.

I love telling Ghanaians where I’m from. Naturally, most have no idea where Nicaragua is and they ask me a lot of questions about it. I love telling them how it is very similar to Ghana. How we also eat rice, beans, fried fish, and plantains. I tell them how Nicaragua has very similar topography and we grow a lot of the same crops. How our climates are very similar but Ghana is a lot more humid. I tell them how our country is also very poor. 

Tonight Eli is cooking goat meat for me. I am very excited!

Lots of time on my hands...

A group of volunteers went to visit the Volta region this weekend, but seeing as it was the end of my first week here and I was still a bit tired from the trip and getting adjusted I decided to stay in our Elmina house, reading and relaxing. Like I said before, we live right by the Elmina Beach Resort and we all have pool passes. So most of Saturday was spent at the pool, reading and taking occasional swims. 


I have done a lot of reading. There isn't much to do anyway, life is very slow here which can be nice. I tried sleeping in saturday and sunday but found it surprisingly difficult, waking up constantly to all sorts of noises, mostly from the surrounding animals. Sunday at about 3am I woke up to the sound of chickens fighting right outside my window. One of these chickens apparently flew or hopped away from the group and the fighting stopped. I closed my eyes again. Then I heard what sounded like an awful, loud, chicken cry. I opened my eyes to see Appia (our groundskeeper/night watch) walking past my window holding the chicken by its legs (at least that's what it looked like). The chicken was wailing loudly, one of the worst sounds I've ever heard in my life. Then it sounded like Appia threw the chicken where it belonged. And then, silence. So after the commotion was over, I closed my eyes and tried to go back to sleep.


I found myself really missing my close friends and family at the end of my first week. Not because I don't like it here, but because... well, I miss them. But I'll say this, praise the Lord for Skype and the opportunity to have internet connection. Calculating the 6 hour difference, I was finally able to talk to my family.


It is going to get a lot busier around the office as we are designing and testing out new stuff for the 2011 Global Mamas catalog. Obviously, I will not be able to show any design development due to confidentiality. So you'll have to wait until the catalog comes out.


One week down. 7 to go!

Batik

     Yesterday a few of us had a batiking workshop at Eli and Em’s batik shop, they are two of our Global Mamas. Batik is a form of wax fabric printing that is very common to the West African region. Global Mamas has a number of batikers that create the fabrics for the products. I am glad I got the chance to go through this workshop on my second day on the job because it gave me the chance to ask a lot of questions about the process and color manipulation. Now I have a better understanding of batiking so I can create new stamp and print ideas more efficiently.

     I bought “red red” for lunch from a food stand across the street form the office. “Red red” consists of white beans with pepper and ripe plantains. It was very good! If you know me, you know that ripe plantains make me happy. So I loved “red red”! The beans had an extra spicy flavor thanks to the special Ghanaian pepper concoction. I also realized today that apart from the meat pie (pastry with meat) I had Monday from a bakery in Accra I haven’t eaten meat since I’ve been here. Therefore I must find some protein soon, hopefully in the form of chicken, beef, or sausage (which apparently they sell in front of our house). Tonight I made myself fried plantains and I ate them with refried beans I brought from Nicaragua. So once again, a meal with no meat. But like I said, plantains make me happy.  

Stamping with the wax.

The fabric after the stamping

The fabric drying in the sun after being dyed and having the wax removed (by dipping it in boiling water)

The bowl of "Red Red" I had for lunch

Settling in...

Phillipine (another volunteer from France) and I rode a bus from Accra to Cape Coast on Monday. Emos, a global mamas employee picked us up at the station and took us to the volunteer house in Elmina. The volunteer house is my new home for the next 8 weeks. It’s about 15 of us living together in this house. We share 4 bathrooms, a kitchen, and a “living room” area. My roommate’s name is Hillary, she studies apparel merchandising at Iowa State. We share a very small room and sleep in bunk beds. I’m getting used to climbing up to my top bunk, setting up my suitcase as an extra step. After fixing my mosquito net with my swiss army knife, I was finally able to comfortably lay in my bed (without feeling suffocated). I’m getting used to taking short showers, which is difficult, not so much the using less water part, but the part about having to hurry up. I hate taking cold showers, but it so hot and humid here that the cold water actually feels really good! 

Today was my first day at work at the office. The other volunteers have been showing me the ropes around here. Around 7:30am we leave the house, walk down a path behind our house, which is a short cut to the Shell station on the main road. Here, we hail a taxi for four of us at a time to drive us down to Cape Coast. George, another Global Mamas employee gave Phillipine and I were given a walking tour of the city so I (Philliphine leaves tomorrow for Accra) can get accustomed to my surroundings and know where I need to go for whatever I need. Maria, one of my new bosses, briefed me on the company’s history, production process, etc. The rest of the design team was here before me so I'm jumping into what they have been working on and starting to develop specific ideas for new home décor print patterns and designs.

Around 5 pm we head back to the house. The “Elmina Beach Resort” is literally a really short walk away from our house, so the girls told me all about getting a pool or gym pass for the whole time I’m here, this way I can enjoy their pool and wireless internet. So I went over there and got myself a pool pass, although I think I will mainly be using it to access the internet when I need to.

For dinner, you can make your own food or sign up to eat at Eli’s, a Ghanaian lady’s restaurant down our street. I will probably do a good balance of cooking for myself and enjoying Eli’s cooking. Last night I went to bed at 10pm, which if you know me is very rare. I woke up at 6:30 am which to my surprise was not too hard. I always knew that once I started working “office hours” my sleep would regulate. There are also less distractions here. I can just read my bible or read one of my books until I fall asleep.

Ghana - 1 Serbia - 0

I had the best first day in Accra, Ghana’s capital. I have not felt culture shocked at all. Driving through the streets of Accra has not been too different from driving through some streets of Managua and other Nicaraguan cities. Ghanaians are famously friendly, and today, not that I ever doubted it, I have found this to be true. I even got a marriage proposal. 

But the highlight of the day was Ghana’s win over Serbia in their first game of the 2010 World Cup.  Renae Adams (Global Mamas co-founder) and I watched the Black Stars dominate Serbia, along with other ecstatic Ghanaians in the Paloma Restaurant. Afterwards we drove to the Global Mamas store in the area of Osu and as expected, all over the streets people were dancing, yelling, blowing horns, madly waving their flags, and even occasionally running around wearing nothing but a Ghana flag wrapped around them like a diaper.    

Later in the afternoon, Renae and her husband Dave put Ghana jerseys on their dogs to go out for a walk in Osu, where the victory party was still going. This was quite an experience. You see, Ghanaians don’t like dogs. Correction, they really don’t like dogs. This is mainly due to fear. Granted, the Adams’ dogs are huge and look intimidating, but they are very friendly. But apparently it doesn’t matter how small or cute a dog is, most Ghanaians will still be scared. So you can imagine the reception we got walking down the crowded streets. Some walked away scared, others were mad, and much to my surprise a few people actually felt insulted. But there were also many that were amused, taking pictures, and laughing “Ghana dog, Ghana dog, I like your dog”. We chilled at Duncan's, a bar owned by Duncan, a funny and very hospitable Ghanaian man. He told me to tell others to go visit his bar.


Tomorrow, after a late morning business meeting, I will be going on a 4-hour bus ride down to Cape Coast where I have been assigned to carry out my internship work. As I sit here writing this, I can hear the music in the streets from people still celebrating. I already love Ghana.

Watching the Ghana vs Serbia game

 Walking through Osu with the dogs

And the journey begins...

The photo to the left is the last meal I had with my mom and grandma in the Managua airport, before leaving home yesterday. A yummy Nicaraguan quesillo (although I like mine rolled up), a perfect farewell.

And now, it feels like an entire day later (even though technically because of the time difference it's not). As I sit here, killing time and browsing overpriced merchandise in the London Heathrow Airport, the reality that I'm hours away from arriving in Accra, Ghana, hasn't fully sunken in yet.

I have felt a yearning in my heart for working with women from the third world (being one myself) for some time now. I have read books, news articles, and seen documentary films but I knew (although being informed and educated is a good thing) it doesn't mean anything unless I actually went out and did it. Put my words and desires into action. I'm hoping that what I'm about to experience in Ghana is only the beginning, God's first job for me of much more to come.

The last two weeks I spent home in Managua before my departure were great! Having doctors as parents means that of course they took extra measures to try to keep me healthy during my stay in Ghana. In one day I got 8 vaccinations with 7 shots, two on my left arm and right arms, two on my right leg, and one of my left leg. Among them, hepatitis A & B, Meningitis, Tetanus, Yellow Fever,... and others I can't remember. I'll also be on weekly Malaria medicine during my two month trip and two weeks after I get back. I don't mind the shots or the medicine (lucky for me I don't usually react negatively to medication), they're all part of the "technicalities" of flying to "exotic" countries.

Anyway... I have a tendency to blab sometimes. I hope to continually update this blog with all the adventures, stories, tales, experiences, discoveries, world cup experiences (Go Ghana!), and wonderful people that I meet during my time in Ghana. For those of you who don't know, I will be doing a textile design/product development internship with Global Mamas. So stay tuned!