Sunday February 6, 2011 Finally in Ghana

Returned from Takoradi, Ghana today!  Quite the eye opening experience I received. I once again woke up at 0630 on the 6th of February to watch us arrive in port.   It was very foggy in the morning and we were unable to actually see the port until we were pretty close.  I literally laughed when I saw the dock we were docking at, but should not have expected anything different.  We were placed directly between two shipping vessels that were loading and unloading goods and shipping crates off of their ships.  This certainly was not the touristy San Juan port which contained only cruise ships.  In fact I would not be surprised if we were one of the first cruise ships to ever dock there.  Regardless, I’m in Africa.  The best part was finally stepping off of the gangway and my first foot landing on this continent I doubted I would ever make it to. 
After a 20 minute walk to the end of the port, (yes 20 mins because SAS for whatever reason did not provide us transportation to the gate at the front of the port…we were literally walking through a shipping yard trying to get to the taxis… Get with it SAS) we were bombarded with locals trying to get us a cab or selling us anything that they could.  It did not help that we were the very first group to reach the end of the dock off out of the entire ship. And there were only 4 of us.  This was ridiculous… like I have experienced this type of deal in countries before…having to say no no no but never like this.  In their culture, a handshake is extremely prized and from an American, even more so.  People were pulling our hands and trying to hold them in different directions towards their cabs.  At this very moment, I seriously thought of Courtney.  Like you would have started crying I think.  I was so overwhelmed with people around me and wanted to scream, I could not imagine what would have happened if you would have gone through that hahaha. 
This is only the second year that Semester at Sea has gone to this port in Takoradi, and they only come here twice a year; so for the locals who live in Ghana, it a very important week to be ready to sell their things.  I was able to grab a local kid who got us in a taxi and took us in town.  His name was Amos and he lives 3.5 hours away from Takoradi.  He came simply for the business that they would make this week.  Amos showed us around town for about 2 hours and made us bracelets on the way.  When we first arrived in town I smelled things that I never have before, and never want to again(but am not keeping my hopes up because India is still on the itinerary).  The town was very small and easy to do the entire thing in about an hour and a half.  It was just one huge circle market with people selling a whole variety of items.  The best thing that I got to see was a warehouse in the middle of the market.  The day before in food and culture class we had learned about food that was popular in Ghana called Bushmeat.  If you don’t know what it is, it is worth it to research so you know exactly what I am talking about.  The term bushmeat tends to be used to describe unsustainable hunting of often endangered wildlife in West and Central Africa and the humid tropics, but basically it is local animals and jungle wildlife who are killed and sold in their markets.  This practice of killing and purchasing of bushmeat is causing problems not only because of the killing of the animals, but also the disease it causes.  It would seem like a simple problem to fix, but what is being asked of the locals, is to give up their eating habits for the animals…something we in the United States may understand, but not there in Ghana.  This warehouse we were taken in had everything from full bulls to impala dead lying on the tables, and butchers chopping them up with large machetes.  I tried to take a picture of one man doing it, and Amos quickly threw his hands over my camera and pushed my hands down.  The locals know that it is an issue and frowned upon in other countries.  I’m sure there was much more exotic meat hidden away that they only bring out when asked for, because I know a big part of the bushmeat industry is the selling of Chimpanzee and ape meat.  I am sure they put it away when they see all these Americans walking around.  I wanted to eat me some ape so I was really disappointed.  That was a joke. But seriously.
After we left the town of Takoradi, we went back to port to go on our Overnight Visit to Winneba, which was a FDP (Faculty Directed Practica).  We paid Amos for taking us around for a few hours and he wanted to trade a bracelet he had for my “In Memory of Flight 3407” wristband I had on.  For whatever reason everybody who sees it wants it.  I could have diamonds lining my arms and fingers and they will still point the stupid red silicone wristband haha.  Although I did not want to give him this one because it is my original, I promised I would be back in an hour when leaving for our trip to give him one (I brought a pack of 100 with me to give away in Cambodia).  Unfortunately I saw we were taking a bus to the end of the port on the way out, and would not be stopping.  When the bus passed where all the locals were standing on the way out, I yelled out the window to him and got his attention.  With no hesitation he ran up to the moving bus and I threw a wristband out the window to him.  He was so happy and gave me the thumbs up as the bus drove away, damn I wish I got that moment on video, it was so funny and everybody on the bus was laughing. 
Side note: the last movie they played on the tv “loop” the night before reaching Ghana was “Blood Diamond,” so all weekend references and lines were made from the movie.  We tried our hardest to impersonate Leo’s South African accent.  It was sweet. “Where is de diamond eah?” Gotta see the flick.
Our trip to Winneba was not quite what everybody was expecting.  It was simply a small town and we had to sit though a few ceremonies welcoming us.  I know that sounds bad that it was boring but it was just too long.  We wanted to explore the town and we were stuck in meetings all night.  The other problem was that we needed to find somewhere to watch the Super Bowl which would be aired at 2330 that night.  Afterwards my roommate Charlie and I went to this bar near our hotel to find out who would have an international sports station which could pick up the Super Bowl.  We walked in to find about 50 locals watching a futbol match on a huge 22 foot projection screen and figured we were out of luck.  We talked to the guy and said we would return at 1130 with about 40 kids to try and convince him to play it.  Thank god when we arrived he had it playing on the big screen.  It was pretty amazing that we had a better Super Bowl experience in the little town of Winneba, Ghana, than I would have if I were home in the US.  After the game ended at around 0300, I went to bed. I was supposed to share a bed with a random roommate named Kevin…I don’t know what ever happened to him but I decided to go to bed by myself…nice. J-