Ghana! A Travel Journal of Ghana and West Africa

I made it! Beyond all odds, I had almost no problems after re-aranging the flights on sunday, no concellations, re-routes, day long delays, or anything.

De-boarding the Emirates plane under the miday tropical sun onto the baking hot tarmak at the Accra airport I had a mini-panic attack. My thoughts went something like this:

First step off the plane: "oh shit, I'm really in Africa"
Second step: "oh shit I'm really in Africa and I don't know anyone!"
Third step : "Maybe I can run back into the plane and hide in the toilet until it flies back"

However, after showing up in the middle of this huge Africa city I find out that two of my high school friends are living here. One's working for the Canadian embassy and the other's doing medical research (kinda puts my ego in check!). So we arranged a little CAC reunion.

There's nothing better after a long day(s) of traveling to a strange and completly foreign land than to see a friendly face. So we kicked back and had a few of the local Star beers and got to talking about who's doing what, in what country, who's married, who's pregnant, etc. Then we got on to what they're doing here, it's my favroite part of my high school friends, they're all over the world doing pretty intersting stuff.
Kalya, the one at the embassy, is in charge of granting student visa's to Liberians trying to get into Canada, a heartbreaking job when she has to turn down smart, dedicated and determained kids just because they're too poor, while letting in the rich ones in just because they have the money (Canada's worried that the poor one's wouldn't leave once their visa's up....I wouldn't). Maria's working in a local hospital with kids infected with this flesh eating bacteria, the symptoms of which she kindly described over pizza. I don't think I couldn't handle her job, there's no cure and it's a bloody, messy and painful disease. In between describing her job and eating, she keeps giving out snipits of warnings, what not to do, not to eat, not to touch, least I contract various types of diseases (I think I got up to wash my hands in between every slice of pizza). Overall it was a great welcome to the country! Note to travelers: do not hang out with anyone in the medical field on your first day in a new country unless you want to spend the rest of the day trying to buy a return ticket home for tomorrow!

Don't worry though mom and dad, most of this stuff you can get anywhere in the world, and as long as you keep good hygine there's really no danger- just thought I'd better put that in!

Going back my hotel I was greeted to a nice tropical downpour. When it rains, damn it really rains! However with the rains came the bugs. I noticed my bed looked kinda sandy, then I noticed the sand was moving, then I noticed the sand were flees....hmmm. I was so jetlagged that I almost just said 'screw it' and slept on it, but I dragged myself to strip the sheets and cover it in my dirty cloths (I dont know why i didn't use my clean cloths, the dirty ones just made sense at the time!)

But now I gotta go take a wonderful ice cold shower (thats not sarcasim!) and get ready to meet the Chilren Better Way people), seeya!

This may not be the most objective, scientific or eloquent observation that I've ever made, but airlines suck! I realize that everyone has airline horror stories about being screwed over, but the Phelps name just seems to precipitate bad luck out of any airline experience. If a Phelps is traveling with you, meeting you, or is in any way, shape, or form connected with your travel plans, you're in trouble (just ask Jen R!) So it shouldn't be too surprising that I got an email on the morning of my flight telling me that my flight into Ghana was moved to Tuesday, giving me a 25 hour lay over in Dubai instead of a 2 hours, and saying that my return flight in August will now be returning to Perth at 1 a.m. on the 18th instead of the 16th. As my flight from Perth to Chicago leaves at 5a.m. on the 18th, my total return trip would look something like this:

8 hour flight Accra - Dubai
11:30 hour flight Dubai - Perth
4 hour flight Perth-Sydney
14 hour flight Sydney - L.A.
4 hour flight L.A. - Chicago

giving me a total of 41:30 hours flying time, not including layovers or the inevitable and much enjoyed delays.

Calling Emirates Airlines to sort things out I learned that the original flights I was book on never existed. I thought that this was interesting as I had the original tickets with these non-existent flights in my hand. A little more inquiry revealed that indeed the flights had existed in February when I made the reservations, but had been discontinued that same month. The travel agent who was supposed to notify me of this change in February decided to wait until this morning, which incidentally meant that it was too late to get a free hotel room from Emirates for the 2 nights I would have to spend in Dubai due to the flight changes.

Now I feel a little silly complaining about such matters. Here I am, soon to be surrounded by people who have lived without water and electricity for years and I'm complaining about the airline delays? Oh to have such fantastical luxuries as airline travel! How can I get upset over one night's accommodation when the people I am going to go help have had no such security for years

Invariably getting pissed off at the airlines gets you nothing except high blood pressure (unless your flying business where it gets you free hotels, drinks, or an upgrade). And that feeling that you have been somehow deeply wronged, that the airlines have upset the natural balance of the universe, the way things should be, by giving you the one over lies rooted in some natural sense of entitlement cultivated within us by growing up in a world of plenty. My flight was delayed therefore I should get a hotel room- that's whats fair, its the way the world works according to my spoiled 1^st world logic.

Everything was settled with the help of my dad, so I have one more night in Perth instead of spending it in Dubai and don't leave until Monday night now

I'm sure my airline complaining will find plenty of sympathetic ears at the refugee camp. They've been waiting for their proverbial hotel room for 16 years and counting, while their flight...well, they gave up waiting on that long ago. At least I have a 1-800 number to call and bitch too; who listens to the refugees?

Ghana in the news: Fast food in Ghana

Just though I would post some pictures of Ghana that I found on the photo-sharing site 'flickr.com' taken by Stig Nygaard. Click on the image to take you to the flickr site where you can explore and look aroudn at other photos

I also found this cool search engine: flyr. It lets you search for pics that have been geotagged (given longitude and latitude coordiantes) on the 'flickr' site. Then, if you have Google earth (and if you don't you need to get it!) you can click on the Google Earth button and it will fly you to the locations of various pictures. It seems kinda finiky (as does almost anything to do with computers), and although I have some geotagged photos of Australia and Egypt they don't show up in the searches.

Oh, I found this piece of news and couldn't resist posting it, if you ever need something to laugh at check up on this guy's latest antics: Robertson says he leg-pressed 2,000 pounds

Still a couple days before I leave. Its that time period of time, a couple days before your trip, that I hate. I feel like I should be packing or preparing, but then I know that if I pack now, I'll just end up taking everything back out cause I still need it for some random thing before I leave. So I inevitably put it off until its too late and I'll be running around 5 minutes before i need to catch my flight desperatly searching for my Ipod charger or my passport.

Since a bunch of people were asking what i was packing here's some pictures of everything I'll be taking for my 2 month, 2 week trip

Here's all the med's I'm brinign with me to hopefully avoid the complete West African experiance!

I have to say I'm excited to be able to use my brand new backpack for the first time, Kareem (my roommate) was making fun of me earlier last semester when, the day I got it, he came back to the apartment to find me proudly strutting around my room with it stuffed full of dirty cloths 'cause I so excited to try it on...and Allison wouldn't let me walk her home that night through with the pack on, they just doesn't understand! I think I get it from my dad...he'd be happy to sleep with his road-bike

I don't know how I feel about this whole thing now. I'm glad I'm doing it, but what can I do? I'm a HISTORY major; giving them a lecture on the causes of the Franco-Prussian war isn't going to help. Though I guess (or I've heard) that most people feel like that before they start a new job/internship/career or whatever; you just gotta jump in with both feet.

I'd really like to get on the Water and Sanitation program, helping the camp get clean safe water. Right now the sewers run basically through the street I'm told. Although i'm sure a fair amount of down and dirty work is involved, I think (and hope!) that we also get to do some water education for the Liberians as well. The problem with just cleaning and doing the grunt work is (besides smelling like shit after your done) that after we leave everything will go back to how it was before, so we need to get the local people interested in doing the work themselves, we need a sustainable program.

If not that the HIV/AIDS program also sounds promising, but I think i need some kinda of health background for that one. Too bad though because I'd love to help with that issue, the statistics of AIDS in Africa are morbidly amazing.

I hope I'm not put in the education program, i just can't see my self as a teacher! I would have no idea how to teach somebody to read, or do math, or do anything! I guess thats the challenge though?

But right now I'm really hazy as to how the whole volunteer program works in the camp, but I guess I'll figure it out soon!

Here's a funny random photo from the theather near us here in perth...it was too good. Those crazy Aussie's.... My heart goes out to any man that was dragged to see this!!

P.S. today is National Sorry Day in Australia

You're probably wondering why there are 42,000 Liberians camped out in the middle of Ghana (and if not you should be!). Well, after the civil war broke out in Liberia in late 1980's early 1990's, and again in the 2002 (I think), many people fled the country. Ghana, being one of the few English speaking countries around (the same officail language as Liberia, most other speak french due to different colonial overloards), ended up as the end destination for many of these people.

The camp I'll be in is called Buduburam Refugee Camp, but is classified by the UN has a settlement. I'm not really sure what the difference is, except that its some bureaucratic way of saying that they don't expect these people to be going anywhere anytime soon (and I'm sure it means they don't get as much AID relief as officially designated refugee camps do).

Actually, there's no real point in making a post now about this place since i haven't even been there yet, so I might as well wait tell next week. I'm just so excited to have this blog site up that I feel like I need to keep posting something!

I did find this video from this guy Andy who went to the camp last July (2005), its worth a look to give you a better feel for the camp. Its about 9 min and 50mb

Ok, right now I'm still at my parents house in Perth, Australia (beautiful place, but deadly boring if you don't know anyone here!). I've got a few days here before I leave for Accra on Sunday and now that its getting close to time I'm definatly getting a little nervous...but no use dwelling on that!


So, if your going to be living vicariously through this blog, lets get you started on a little background information of Ghana. Ghana is the country with the placemark on it, just to give you an idea of where is is in the world (you can click on all the pictures in my blogs to enlarge them in an new window). I'll give you a quick run down on the more important ideas

Interestingly Ghana gets its name from the ancient 8th century West African kingdom called the Empire of Ghana, yet no part of modern day Ghana lies within the boundaries of this old kingdom (ok, “interestingly” by my definition! But I bet at least Aunt Susie and Jen R. find that interesting!) The name Ghana was chosen by the people on the eve of their independence from the British, who called it the Gold Coast, because they trace their ancestory back to migrants from the old Empire (INERSTINGLY, Ghana was the first African nation to break away from their colonialist overlords).

Modern day Ghana is relatively stable and prosperous compared to the rest of West Africa, but thats not much of a description in a region were civil wars and coup d'etat's are sprinkled in between the years of famines. Ghana's northern neighbor, Burkina Faso is listed as one of the poorest in the world and has has 5 coup d'états in the past half century. Ghana's western buddy, Cote d'Ivoire, teeters on the brink of civil war. Cote d'Ivoire in turn borders Liberia from whence the refugees I will be working with fled during the civil wars (yes thats plural). This civil war had also spilled over into Liberia's neighbor, Sierra Leon which then spilled over into.... I think that gives you the general idea. So if you're in West Africa, Ghana's not a bad place to be. With that in mind understand that when someones says Ghana is stable and prosperous it means that its GDP per capita is $2,642, ranked 127^th in the world, right behind Angola (The U.S. GDP per capita is $41,400 for comparison), it means that the string coup's in this country happened in the 1980's instead of last month, it means that you have to adopt a whole new world view when thinking about this torn region of the globe.

Oops, I didn't mean to be so melodramatic. The group I'm with, Global Volunteer Network, would never place a program in a dangerous area, and all the travel literature I've read about the country gives it good recommendations. Its easy to get around in as they speak english (mostly, with a faire share of local afican languages used all over the country), and its pretty cheap due to the devaluation of their currency, the cedi. I think now 1US$ = ~10,000 cedi! Plus some well know figures such as Kofi Annan hail from Ghana (ok, to be honest thats the only one I know of) But I'm not sure how much Ghanaian culture I'll experience during the 2 months at the camp as I'll be living with and surrounded by 30,000 Liberians... So next entry I'll devote more to that aspect. And i promise, once I start actually traveling, the history leasons will stop!

TESTING just seeing how to post: this--------------------> is a picture from my photo website (Flickr) its a great site, and ill probably be posting my high quality picts on that site (with thumbnails to this site). But ill wait and see which site works better in Africa, I may just post them only to this site. But that dosnt make any difference to you, any time you see a picture or a map or icon, you can click on it to get a larger version

just seeing if this thing works,...i gues im talking to myself
<---here's me...I have to load this image in order to post it to my profile, I really don't just like posting lots of pictures of my self!