Orphanage

During the past two months I have been working in Akuapem hills in an orphanage. It is a more rural area with cooler climate, nicer people, and a better placement. I love working at the orphanage. It is a great place to volunteer because I feel like I am making a difference every day. I love the kids, They are all nice, though occasionally obnoxious and sometimes cannot concentrate to save their lives. So…they are normal kids! The young kids sneak out of nursery and come and sit on our laps because if they are with us usually they get away with not being in class. They love drawing and painting. I brought out some of the art stuff I brought the color pencils, markers, and a large roll of paper. By the end of an hour they had used up all 50 feet of the paper!

One black spot in this picture is abuse. They beat the kids daily with willow braches and canes. During class if they don’t pay attention, after class if their uniforms are not perfect and if they were late for class. For something small it is a whip on the hand, for more – a harder hit on the ankle and finally on the backside. If you got 2/20 on a test you get 10 lashes, 6/20 you get 5. All dependent on the teacher’s particular whim. They make up new reasons to beat them. The look on the teachers face is not sadness or regret, no they seem happy and empowered by what they are doing. It is the same cycle, as with so many things in Ghana. These children will grow up and suddenly they are the ones with the cane, they are the ones who feel like they can make themselves feel better through this act. I have seen a child dance and sing one moment and then the next find them crying after being beaten for an inexplicable reason. What was the teachers response- Stop crying or I will beat you more.

It is sickening and is against the law in Ghana. According to the Children’s Act of 2006 this form of abuse (corporal abuse) can only be used in rare and special cases and only administered by the headmistress. But once again lack of enforcement allows it to continue. One of the hardest moments in Ghana for me was seeing the look in the eyes of a child after being beaten. They looked at their tormentor with hatred. For a younge child to feel such an emotion is contemptible. Children should not learn to hate. I do not know a how I can stop this kind of abuse. I now refuse to let it happen in my class. But this is such a small measure. I will speak to the headmistress, but she does not seem willing to change. She was brought up through the same orphanage under the same system. The teachers view it as the only way to teach the children. They see white people as weaker and toss their concerns aside as such.

Another way they punish children is through their peers. If a child gets a question wrong in class the teacher will call "shame" the class will turn around and sing a chant of "Sha-sha-sha-shame and a wild dog woof woof and a fat cow mooo….." with hand motions pointing the child. I’ve seen many children during my short stay who have broken down in tears because of the chants. In many ways this latter form of abuse is the more harmful. It is effectively teaching the child not to try.

Every day after school the children all line up in their classes to say some chants and be inspected. As part of this routine two older children say the different announcements and keep the kids in order. It is hard to sit back and watch the teachers tell the older children to be harder with the children. They tell them they are not being strong enough with the younger children. Saying this to pre-teen boys has the desired effect. They are in a very moldable state and they want to please the teachers. They do not beat the other children but they do pretty much everything up to that. It is sad to see it come full circle,

There is hope. Those that I teach have begun to realize that I do not need to beat them to teach them. We have gained a mutual trust, and while it is still difficult, it is working. One child said after seeing his friends beaten, " Their must be a better way. If I was a teacher I would not beat the kids. It does not make sense". A child age 11.

Child Trafficking

 

This week I was given the opportunity to travel  to the Volta Region with my human rights organization. It is a region in the north of Lake Volta where fishing is one of the main industries. It is also a place where child trafficking is commonplace. The region has many small islands with fishing communities therefore it is difficult to regulate. This is compounded by the fact the police do nothing to inhibit the trading. In fact they helped cover up a rape murder of a trafficked child in the community. The police in Ghana can be easily bought.

            The workshop received a good response from the townspeople. We had a few role-plays talking about child labor and child trafficking. Even though it went well I can’t help but wonder if we reached the right audience. The townspeople already know that this practice is wrong. Regardless they received a bit more information on more of the details surrounding this subject. Hopefully it will reach the ears of the fishermen. 

The most important part of the trip for me was going to an island which had some trafficked children.  Powerful stuff. I talked with one child, Jacob, for an hour about his life there. How he had wanted to become a football player and about what he does now. He is sixteen years old and has been working for three years. He enjoys mechanics, carpentry, and Ghanaian music. He has big dreams of becoming a Ghanaian footballer. And he is stuck here. He has a sister and two brothers. In fact one of the reasons he stays here is to provide his sister with schooling. His brother was freed by an advocacy group last month. I do not know which is worse- those children who are sold when they are three or four and grow up in servitude without the ability to really find out what they enjoy, what they are good at, what there dreams are, or those like Jacob- who have dreams but cannot get out. He has no idea when he will be able to leave. His family is separated. Yet he is strong, he does not give up, he still has pride in who he is. It was touching. I think that it is something that will have an affect on me in my future. It is so sickening that these children were sold by their parents for the equivalent of thirty dollars. Thirty dollars for a human life. A child's life. Some of these children work 12 or 13 hours of hard labor a day. They get one meal of Banku a day. They do not receive proper schooling and are not given anything other then rags to where. They are simply expendable to there masters. The advocacy group tries to go through the law but it can take up to three months to get the child freed. By this time many have already drowned. The other method is to try to convince the masters to free the children willingly. If they comply they give them fishing equipment. It is sad to see that the law cannot be enforced rather criminals must be bartered with. After the children are released the advocacy group houses and educates the children and brings them back to the parents, where they moniter them. It costs the group an average of six hundred cedi (dollars) to reintegrate the child. Leaving was not easy. I just wanted to take the trafficked children away. It makes a whole lot more sense. But this cannot be done without the help of police, something which is impossible to gain. 

Slave Castles at Elmina and Cape Coast

Elmina Slave Castle (ruled principally by the dutch)

Reflection on Slave Castles at Cape Coast and Elmina.

The slave castles showed me a side of my culture that is often laid aside, swept into a corner. Sure, we celebrate those African Americans who had a great impact on the culture of the Americas. We are told of some stories of the hardships faced by the African- Americans. But we do not personalize this history. We hold it at armslength. It is more comfortable there-safer. I think this is one of our greatest weaknesses, that we find it so easy to critique others failures yet so difficult to apply them to ourselves. Obviously I do not think that slavery will be repeated but discrimination is ever present. The principle fault of the slave traders was that they did not see the Africans as people. The ignorance shown by the Europeans is hard to believe. That they did not recognize the abilities and nobility of this race, inexcusable. Something as flippant and insignificant as skin colour was enough to stop them from realizing their similarities. Still does. There is no small form of discrimination. There is no form which can be forgiven. 

Cape Coast Castle (ruled principally by the English)

View of battlements at Cape Coast

            Walking through the slave castles and seeing the disgusting practices that were carried out here really brought it home. The only history I learned in school was the short description of the African slaves in the Americas. It was so much bigger then that. Here I learned about the cultures in Africa before the slave trade. The cultures that were abruptly halted as a result of the slave trade. In a culture where family group and ancestry was even more important then in Western society, being separated from your relatives and ancestors is a nightmare.  This was compounded by livestock-like living conditions, and cruel treatment. One room was set aside for those who were sentenced to death because they broke a law. They put twenty slaves in this small room. They would wait until the last person was dead before removing the bodies. In the ships they were stacked head to toe with other slaves. Chained to the ground. Because they were cramped so closely in the slave castle, and they were deathly tired, they were forced relieve themselves on the ground where they slept. The males and females were separated until they were put on the slave ships. Families were separated even within the same castle. Slaves were branded on the forehead for which country they belonged.  These are only some of the atrocities that were done here. 

It was an eye-opening experience and not one I will soon forget. 

Culture, Sports, Food

Bywel’s is a local hotspot with live music. Music here was a fusion between Ghanaian traditional and jazz music providing for a really interesting mix. The Ghanaians seem to devote a lot of time to their music as well. One group here practices for eight hours a day. I guess it isn’t too much of a surprise that they are so talented. Their natural rhythm is also impressive. Even children seem to be able play music with relative ease. It was a bittersweet night as my roommate left. It is weird how quickly one becomes friends in part because of the shear number of new experiences that forge people together. We can relate to the others ignorance! Someone once told me that you like those who are like yourself. Rarely do I make an effort to know people if I don’t like them. Therefore finding common ground is essential if I am to really find out about this culture.

            During a walk down the beach in Cape Coast we found a group of three Ghanaians children playing soccer. We played with them for more then two hours. The three of our group vs. the three Ghanaians. Even though they were half our size and half our age they still managed to show us a thing or two. (That’s about as much as I can say without further damage to my ego) It was a lot of fun and we were all good friends by the end of it. This was one of the best parts of my time so far. These kids wanted nothing more than to play soccer and make friends with new people. Soccer was something that we shared in common, and was a base through which we got to know each other.

Something else that I saw through this is how much these kids could do with so little. The pure joy that kids get out of playing soccer was great to see. Even children back home still get a thrill out of playing sports. But they become bored with it. They are so overloaded with video games, movies, and other technology. They have become so accustom to it that they feel like they deserve it. For that matter we all believe we deserve more in life, no matter what we already have. This can have merit, as we push towards a better future. But at some point there must be a balance between bettering one’s self and satisfaction in what we have. I cannot believe that these two things are incompatible. I think in our society satisfaction is viewed as weakness.

 

The food: There are a large variety of traditional foods in Ghana. Most often used are yams, cassava, and plantains. Yams are often used in place of potatoes. Cassava is like a small yam, like a small yam, taste is similar to turnip. Plantains are like a hybrid between bananas and sweet potato. One can purchase them both raw and ripe. The raw plantains are used for plantain chips (like potato chips), fufu, and banku (described later). The ripe plantains are fried and have a more banana like taste.

         mashing Cassava for Fufu

   We went to a cooking class in Cape Coast. A friendly Ghanaian lady and her brother ran the workshop. It was another view of their society, plus we got to eat it. It shed a bit of light on why restaurants take up to two hours to bring dinner as well.

Fufu is a mixture of plantain and cassava. Both the plantain and the cassava are pummeled seperately with a big stick until they form a paste. They are then mixed together to become Fufu. It does not have much of a taste, which is why it is often eaten with soup and fish. It reminds me of raw dough. Banku is similar though with a slightly different taste and less firm. You can't chew Banku, something that takes a bit of getting used to. Red Red is basically Black Eyed Peas, spices, garlic, and onions. It's my favorite Ghanaian dish. Light soup has vegatables, chicken, palm oil. Groundnut soup is the same as Light soup but with peanut butter (groundnut paste) added. Two favorite ingredients here are garlic and ginger. They lack salt and it is something I find myself craving.

From top Palava Sauce, yams, Light Soup, Red Red, Fried Plantain, Groundnut Soup

Inauguration

The inauguration of Atta Mills did not pass without incident. My group went as invited guests to the ceremony. Unfortunately the crowds were thick and uncontained. As we tried to find our way to the ceremony we were literally pushed into a mob of people. They were trying to pick-pocket on every side. In this case they did not even have to hide their actions. They simply grabbed at us because they knew we couldn’t get out. We took refuge behind a vendors stall teetering on the brink of an open sewer. Luckily a police officer came after a few minutes and escorted us to where we were supposed to go. We were seated and everything seemed to be going as planned. Even though we weren’t in the best viewing, after being in that mob, we all counted our blessings (and our money).

            After about half an hour the new president came to be inaugurated. The crowd went wild at the sight of him. After ten minutes of the ceremony the weak barriers could not hold them back and a hoard of supporters ran into the main arena. Another example of Ghanaian exuberance. I am happy that this exuberant crowd didn’t change into an angry mob, something which was all too probable.  

First Travels

The voodoo village, Togoville, was interesting. To see a religion founded at the same time as their culture is a great learning opportunity. For example the voodoo statues put certain things at the forefront. The symbol for Togoville was the hawk. According to legend the hawk led their ancestors out of a large maze. This religious development shows that they were moving into a more developed infrastructure. The woman guardian of the village was larger than her male counterpart, indicating her importance to the community. This community mentality still runs strong today. Even Accra, the capital of Ghana, is broken up into many smaller communities that are loyal to the others. The bond is almost palpable in the streets when you see their interaction. After only two weeks in my neighborhood, they have already begun to accept me. (the lady on the street gives me two omelette sandwiches for the price of one) There is an identifiable strength in each community. There are trees that protect the village, recognizing natures importance to health. Their main religious ceremony shows that hospitality must always be given.

On the weekend I traveled to Mampong with some others from my placement. This was a great opportunity to see the natural beauty of Ghana. Here you could feel how much purer the air was. The landscape was beautiful everywhere around us. It is in the region where I will be placed for my orphanage work, Akuapem Hills.

We visited a cocoa plantation in Mampong. Ghana is the second largest produer of cocoa. The guide took us through the first plantation in Ghana, showing us how cocoa is produced. As with the voodoo village it was interesting to see this history. I find that here their history is not just in the past but it is a part of the culture, especially in rural area. In Western society we seem to look only to the future and forget about our past. Or we smooth things over, mentioning only the things we like about what we’ve done. This also shows me that Ghana has more dimensions then just the part that I am helping. There is more then meets the eye. It is exciting to know that I have only scratched the surface of what the country has to offer. The pricing for the Botanical Gardens was interesting. For locals it was about tenth of the price. This encourages the locals to come and enjoy their site. It makes the site part of the community rather then just a tourist attraction. There were family reunions and children playing. In Canada I find that people rarely go to their own heritage sites and attractions simple because it is too expensive.

This weekend I went to a soccer game in Accra. Wow. I was more interested to see the fans then the game itself. - the loud side. Even though the stadium wasn’t filled they still made their opinions known J It was good to see their fun side.

On Sunday I went to a soccer game in Accra. This showed me another part of Ghanaians- the loud side. Even though the stadium wasn’t filled they still made their opinions known J It was good to see their fun side.

Enjoying every minute of it.

Passion

This is just one example of how passionate Ghanaians are about democracy and their role within in it. The only comparison is hockey fans after a winning games. Except for this passion is behind the government. It is a little aweing. Democracy new, with tyrany still fresh in the minds of some. This makes it all the more precious to them.