That was the mantra we heard this entire past weekend... hanging out with Rastafari guys and chilling on the beach, heading to cape coast, always, "Be free," "No Worries," "Keep the spirit moving."
This will be the longest, funniest, most random blog post I have ever done, as it was the longest, funniest, most random weekend I have ever had! I will try to make it easier to follow by putting headers...
The Journey to Cape Coast, begins on Thursday.
We were to stay each night in Green Hills, an accommodation that Louis secured for us that he assured would be great for us, "I want to keep you girls safe and make sure everything is ookey," as he kept saying. The place was in "Addison Square Gardens," owned by teh Addison family, and home of "African Footprint," a drumming/dancing/cultural group with people who are deaf.
After checking into oruu *lovely* lodging, we went to Oasis Resort on the beach to hang out and jam. There was a bonfire, and it was Diane's first time having a camp fire! We sang songs with Rasta guys, and had a really great time! There was a little cultural clash at the end, but we learned a LOT from it:
It was 2:30am and Diane and I had worked at the Autism Center all day... we were tired and ready to get back and go to bed. Neither of us wanted to make Louis or Mensa leave their friends at the beach, to whom they introduced us, so we approached them and considerately said, "We are feeling very tired and would like to head back. We are happy to take a taxi, as we don't want to make you leave your friends here if you want to stay."
Unknown to us, in the Ghanaian culture, if you come with someone, you leave with them. It is absolutely 100% insulting to offer to secure a different ride home. It is flattering, and EXPECTED to request that the person who brought you take you home when you feel like leaving. Well, we had NO idea of this, and were just trying to be considerate of our friends who so generously drove us up to Cape Coast with their group. There was a large fight that lasted for a good while, where the guys just would not listen to our take on the story and were completely insulted by our actions. We learned a lot, and at the end of the night, drove back together to Green Hills.
Louis, Diane, and Mensa
We left the Autism Center Thursday afternoon, and it was VERY hot. We were carrying a lot of things, and sweating profusely, and really wanted to stop. We saw this "fancy" hotel, and decided to walk in and check it out. We went in ,and just sat and de-sweated in the fancy fancy restaurant, without ordering, haha! We just used the air conditioning, sat for 20 minutes or so, and then left.
When we got back, we dropped off our fabric we bought at Circle to the Sweing Lady right around our corner, and then went to get a taxi to meet Louis, the Ghanaian drummer with whom we were traveling ot Cape Coast. Mary, the dress-lady's daughter, insisted on carrying my guitar and being our escort to the taxi! We were to meet Louis at the Art Center, a place where people sell lots of cultural items, right by the water. When we got there, of course we had to wait an hour... but while we were waiting, we watched a practice of this show with intense dancers and drumming/singing/flute!
Finally, around 8, we left for Cape Coast, about a 3 hour drive. Mensa, Louis's friend, drove us, with Louis in the passenger seat and Diane and I in the back. In the trunk were oru bags, foru drums, and my guitar. One of the great things about Africa is you don't ever have to plan ahead of time for bringing snacks on a trip... while sitting in traffic, Louis and Mensa got us water, plantain chips, chocolate, and other snacks right from the car window. The ENTIRE ride, they kept saying, "Are you feeling worried? Be free, no worries. That's what I like to hear. Just keep the spirit moving..." those same few sentences OVER and over again. The "Rastafari culture" is big here, and is very repetetive in their constant mantras of "keep the spirit moving," and reassuring themselves and others all the time that "Everything is positive."
Along the way, we passed a police check where the driver paid the policeman one cedi, for no apparent reason. We could not get an answer out of our drivers, besides the fact that they kept saying, "It's just old tradition here." We kept finding out what would happen if you DIDNT pay the police at a checkpoint, but they didn't really understand our inquiries. It's just what they do, apparently.
When we got back, we dropped off our fabric we bought at Circle to the Sweing Lady right around our corner, and then went to get a taxi to meet Louis, the Ghanaian drummer with whom we were traveling ot Cape Coast. Mary, the dress-lady's daughter, insisted on carrying my guitar and being our escort to the taxi! We were to meet Louis at the Art Center, a place where people sell lots of cultural items, right by the water. When we got there, of course we had to wait an hour... but while we were waiting, we watched a practice of this show with intense dancers and drumming/singing/flute!
Finally, around 8, we left for Cape Coast, about a 3 hour drive. Mensa, Louis's friend, drove us, with Louis in the passenger seat and Diane and I in the back. In the trunk were oru bags, foru drums, and my guitar. One of the great things about Africa is you don't ever have to plan ahead of time for bringing snacks on a trip... while sitting in traffic, Louis and Mensa got us water, plantain chips, chocolate, and other snacks right from the car window. The ENTIRE ride, they kept saying, "Are you feeling worried? Be free, no worries. That's what I like to hear. Just keep the spirit moving..." those same few sentences OVER and over again. The "Rastafari culture" is big here, and is very repetetive in their constant mantras of "keep the spirit moving," and reassuring themselves and others all the time that "Everything is positive."
Along the way, we passed a police check where the driver paid the policeman one cedi, for no apparent reason. We could not get an answer out of our drivers, besides the fact that they kept saying, "It's just old tradition here." We kept finding out what would happen if you DIDNT pay the police at a checkpoint, but they didn't really understand our inquiries. It's just what they do, apparently.
We were to stay each night in Green Hills, an accommodation that Louis secured for us that he assured would be great for us, "I want to keep you girls safe and make sure everything is ookey," as he kept saying. The place was in "Addison Square Gardens," owned by teh Addison family, and home of "African Footprint," a drumming/dancing/cultural group with people who are deaf.
After checking into oruu *lovely* lodging, we went to Oasis Resort on the beach to hang out and jam. There was a bonfire, and it was Diane's first time having a camp fire! We sang songs with Rasta guys, and had a really great time! There was a little cultural clash at the end, but we learned a LOT from it:
It was 2:30am and Diane and I had worked at the Autism Center all day... we were tired and ready to get back and go to bed. Neither of us wanted to make Louis or Mensa leave their friends at the beach, to whom they introduced us, so we approached them and considerately said, "We are feeling very tired and would like to head back. We are happy to take a taxi, as we don't want to make you leave your friends here if you want to stay."
Unknown to us, in the Ghanaian culture, if you come with someone, you leave with them. It is absolutely 100% insulting to offer to secure a different ride home. It is flattering, and EXPECTED to request that the person who brought you take you home when you feel like leaving. Well, we had NO idea of this, and were just trying to be considerate of our friends who so generously drove us up to Cape Coast with their group. There was a large fight that lasted for a good while, where the guys just would not listen to our take on the story and were completely insulted by our actions. We learned a lot, and at the end of the night, drove back together to Green Hills.
Louis, Diane, and Mensa
Friday: Touring the Cape Coast Castle, shopping, cooking
We woke up to drumming around 7am, although Diane slept through it. Louis and Mensa made breakfast for us: bananas, eggs, bread, and tea. Diane and I toured the Cape Coast Castle in the morning, and to get in, Diane walked up and paid 5 cedi total for two tickets, although for foreigners it is much more expensive. ;) This was the headquarters of the slave trade from the Gold Coast.
**** Here begins our crazy adventures of meeting lots of people and seeing them AGAIN at unexpected places. I will use " * " to refer to those instances. ;) *********
At the castle, we met some African American ladies* from Illinois, and also befriended a girl from Ireland*. In the Museum, the lights went out... pretty flipping scary being in a slave quarters with no emergeny lights. (I had my key-chain flashlight, thank goodness!) It CERTAINLY was not an American or European museum. After the castle, we met up with Louis and Mensa and went walking around the area. Lots of bargaining, i.e. never bought earrings for more than one cedi, way to go Diane. Later, we went to a LOCAL market to buy food. Also got some fabric. We went back to Green Hills and cooked a Ghanaian meal.
It is STILL Obama Mania in cape Coast! That is where he visited with his family.
We went to Oasis on the beach again to jam, and this time,
We went to Oasis on the beach again to jam, and this time, we saw a group of American-looking kids. While walking behind the group, we saw one of the boys was wearing a kippa!!!! The group** was from AJWS, American Jewish World Service. They were 17-18 year-olds doing a summer group community service trip building a school in the Volta Region in Ghana. We talked for a little while, and then they had to get rushed out to get on with their itinerary for the night. We were so excited to see them, but also sad that we may never get to see them again. (We continued to see them at FIVE random, unplanned occasions in the next few days.)
We continued to experience another (more severe) culture clash that night, of which I won’t explain the details, but it was another adventure and learning experience nonetheless. We went out on the beach and played more songs, mostly Bob Marley, with Rasta guys and other random foreigners. *On the beach, we met the Danish girl that we jammed with earlier that week at the Art Center with Louis. Upon leaving, TOGETHER, we saw an ice cream truck, serving soft-serve! There were also street kids dancing around to the music, that were incredible Michael Jackson impersonators. We shared ice creams with them.
After another lovely bread and egg breakfast, we got in a tro-tro to go to Panafest, the big cultural festival in Cape Coast that weekend! The tro-tro was almost full, and short one seat for our group. Diane got on first, and I squeezed into the back and just plopped on Diane’s lap without really saying anything. The other passengers thought that I had just sat on a random Ghanaian lady, and were totally appalled by my behavior. I got so many dirty looks, like, “Who does she think she is, just sitting on someone’s lap!”
Louis’s group was supposed to play at the opening ceremonies at 10am, but his show got changed to 7:30pm. While it was disappointing, it was really not surprising because EVERYTHING in Ghana happens the opposite way that it is planned, in a completely unexpected fashion. We walked around the Panafest area, which included a large stage with huge speakers, and a whole expo of hundreds of Ghanaian vendors with various cultural items. I bought bags/purses made out of Fanice (ice cream in a bag) bags!!!
Later, we saw the opening ceremonies of Panafest, and bumped into... the **Jewish group! As usual, they were rushed away by their chaperones, but it was so nice to bump into them on Shabbat again.
Diane and I walked up "close" to watch the dignitaries, and to TRY to understand the Ghanaian English. We met the rest of the Ikando volunteer group who had just arrived via tro-tro, and then continued to walk around with Diane while they toured the Castle. We also bumped into another volunteer, Elizabeth, and her friend from Japan who is deaf*. Now that Panafest was officially open, it cost 2 cedis to get into the expo. No way Diane and I were going to pay... we walked up to the gate, and I said, “Hey! Remember me? We were just in here. I was the guitar player, she was the drummer?” The people at the gate said, “Oh yea! Can we please just see some ID?” I showed them my Vandy card and we just marched through into our Panafest adventures.
Inside, everyone was our friend from somewhere. People we jammed with on the beach, back in Accra, etc etc. One guy followed us around for most of the day, a Ghanaian university student. While bargaining (two large necklaces for 6 cedis, oh yea) we saw the ***Jewish group again!
After a great deal of shopping, we walked up to the stage, and Diane really wanted me to play. I declined, insisting that they had professional bands lined up and I would not just impose into their set. Diane marched onto the stage and said to one of the guys, “See my friend over there? She plays guitar.” They pulled me up on the stage, gave me the Stratocaster, and I just started jamming reggae and jazz on this huge stage at Panafest!
Then, the Jewish kids saw I was on stage, so a durummer, bass player, nad two singers from their group come on the stage and join me! We played a rousing, African "Od Yavoh Shalom Alienu," for the crowd!
While I was on the stage, I looked out and saw *the group from Michigan that I had sat with for hours delyaed at the JFK airport!
Later that evening we took a tro-tro to Kakum National Park. When we got there, it was pitch black dark, and the stars were by far the clearest, most beautiful stars I have ever seen... even compared to those in Carrollton, Ohio. Hard to believe! We hiked up to our platforms in the rainforest, where we stayed that night.
I was the first to check out the toilet, and the first one had a mountain of poop piled HIGH when I opened the toilet seat. Then, I brought Diane with me to look at the second toilet, because I was scared (rightfully so), and it had not only a gigantic mountain of poop but a mouse standing on the top of it peeking out at me! We slept three girls on one mattress under a mosquito net, and all night long heard animal noises: monkeys, and who knows what else. The next morning, we did the canopy walk. It was exhilarating!
On the top of the canopy of the rainforest, who did we bump into but... ****the Jewish group! Also, crossing the canopies, we saw **Elizabeth and her friend! Additionally, the previous weekend we traveled to the Volta Region, and our group adopted a *Canadian solo-traveler we had met on the bus. We also saw him at the bottom of Kakum park. On our way out, we bumped into the **group from Illinois we met at the castle.
We stopped on the main road on the way back to eat at Hans Cottage, a place I had heard about from my lovely tro-tro mates on the ride to Kakum park. (I had a good hour of love proposals and conversations with eager Ghanaian men on the way to the park. I explained to them that I was married already. I’ve gotten good at this!) There, at this random stop on the road midway between Kakum and Cape Coast, we saw *****the Jewish group again! It was really just meant for us to travel together the entire weekend; although each time we saw them they were always being rushed out to their next activity. It was a lot of fun to make friends with them in Ghana.
We convinced our tro-tro to drive us not only back to Cape Coast but all the way to our Ikando house for seven cedis per person! On a squished, extremely hot ride back, Diane and I wrote up this entire blog to remember all of our crazy occurrences of the weekend.
**** Here begins our crazy adventures of meeting lots of people and seeing them AGAIN at unexpected places. I will use " * " to refer to those instances. ;) *********
At the castle, we met some African American ladies* from Illinois, and also befriended a girl from Ireland*. In the Museum, the lights went out... pretty flipping scary being in a slave quarters with no emergeny lights. (I had my key-chain flashlight, thank goodness!) It CERTAINLY was not an American or European museum. After the castle, we met up with Louis and Mensa and went walking around the area. Lots of bargaining, i.e. never bought earrings for more than one cedi, way to go Diane. Later, we went to a LOCAL market to buy food. Also got some fabric. We went back to Green Hills and cooked a Ghanaian meal.
It is STILL Obama Mania in cape Coast! That is where he visited with his family.
We went to Oasis on the beach again to jam, and this time,
We went to Oasis on the beach again to jam, and this time, we saw a group of American-looking kids. While walking behind the group, we saw one of the boys was wearing a kippa!!!! The group** was from AJWS, American Jewish World Service. They were 17-18 year-olds doing a summer group community service trip building a school in the Volta Region in Ghana. We talked for a little while, and then they had to get rushed out to get on with their itinerary for the night. We were so excited to see them, but also sad that we may never get to see them again. (We continued to see them at FIVE random, unplanned occasions in the next few days.)
We continued to experience another (more severe) culture clash that night, of which I won’t explain the details, but it was another adventure and learning experience nonetheless. We went out on the beach and played more songs, mostly Bob Marley, with Rasta guys and other random foreigners. *On the beach, we met the Danish girl that we jammed with earlier that week at the Art Center with Louis. Upon leaving, TOGETHER, we saw an ice cream truck, serving soft-serve! There were also street kids dancing around to the music, that were incredible Michael Jackson impersonators. We shared ice creams with them.
Saturday... where we saw EVERYONE!
After another lovely bread and egg breakfast, we got in a tro-tro to go to Panafest, the big cultural festival in Cape Coast that weekend! The tro-tro was almost full, and short one seat for our group. Diane got on first, and I squeezed into the back and just plopped on Diane’s lap without really saying anything. The other passengers thought that I had just sat on a random Ghanaian lady, and were totally appalled by my behavior. I got so many dirty looks, like, “Who does she think she is, just sitting on someone’s lap!”
Louis’s group was supposed to play at the opening ceremonies at 10am, but his show got changed to 7:30pm. While it was disappointing, it was really not surprising because EVERYTHING in Ghana happens the opposite way that it is planned, in a completely unexpected fashion. We walked around the Panafest area, which included a large stage with huge speakers, and a whole expo of hundreds of Ghanaian vendors with various cultural items. I bought bags/purses made out of Fanice (ice cream in a bag) bags!!!
Later, we saw the opening ceremonies of Panafest, and bumped into... the **Jewish group! As usual, they were rushed away by their chaperones, but it was so nice to bump into them on Shabbat again.
Diane and I walked up "close" to watch the dignitaries, and to TRY to understand the Ghanaian English. We met the rest of the Ikando volunteer group who had just arrived via tro-tro, and then continued to walk around with Diane while they toured the Castle. We also bumped into another volunteer, Elizabeth, and her friend from Japan who is deaf*. Now that Panafest was officially open, it cost 2 cedis to get into the expo. No way Diane and I were going to pay... we walked up to the gate, and I said, “Hey! Remember me? We were just in here. I was the guitar player, she was the drummer?” The people at the gate said, “Oh yea! Can we please just see some ID?” I showed them my Vandy card and we just marched through into our Panafest adventures.
Inside, everyone was our friend from somewhere. People we jammed with on the beach, back in Accra, etc etc. One guy followed us around for most of the day, a Ghanaian university student. While bargaining (two large necklaces for 6 cedis, oh yea) we saw the ***Jewish group again!
After a great deal of shopping, we walked up to the stage, and Diane really wanted me to play. I declined, insisting that they had professional bands lined up and I would not just impose into their set. Diane marched onto the stage and said to one of the guys, “See my friend over there? She plays guitar.” They pulled me up on the stage, gave me the Stratocaster, and I just started jamming reggae and jazz on this huge stage at Panafest!
Then, the Jewish kids saw I was on stage, so a durummer, bass player, nad two singers from their group come on the stage and join me! We played a rousing, African "Od Yavoh Shalom Alienu," for the crowd!
While I was on the stage, I looked out and saw *the group from Michigan that I had sat with for hours delyaed at the JFK airport!
Later that evening we took a tro-tro to Kakum National Park. When we got there, it was pitch black dark, and the stars were by far the clearest, most beautiful stars I have ever seen... even compared to those in Carrollton, Ohio. Hard to believe! We hiked up to our platforms in the rainforest, where we stayed that night.
I was the first to check out the toilet, and the first one had a mountain of poop piled HIGH when I opened the toilet seat. Then, I brought Diane with me to look at the second toilet, because I was scared (rightfully so), and it had not only a gigantic mountain of poop but a mouse standing on the top of it peeking out at me! We slept three girls on one mattress under a mosquito net, and all night long heard animal noises: monkeys, and who knows what else. The next morning, we did the canopy walk. It was exhilarating!
Sunday: Kakum Park and back to Accra
On the top of the canopy of the rainforest, who did we bump into but... ****the Jewish group! Also, crossing the canopies, we saw **Elizabeth and her friend! Additionally, the previous weekend we traveled to the Volta Region, and our group adopted a *Canadian solo-traveler we had met on the bus. We also saw him at the bottom of Kakum park. On our way out, we bumped into the **group from Illinois we met at the castle.
We stopped on the main road on the way back to eat at Hans Cottage, a place I had heard about from my lovely tro-tro mates on the ride to Kakum park. (I had a good hour of love proposals and conversations with eager Ghanaian men on the way to the park. I explained to them that I was married already. I’ve gotten good at this!) There, at this random stop on the road midway between Kakum and Cape Coast, we saw *****the Jewish group again! It was really just meant for us to travel together the entire weekend; although each time we saw them they were always being rushed out to their next activity. It was a lot of fun to make friends with them in Ghana.
We convinced our tro-tro to drive us not only back to Cape Coast but all the way to our Ikando house for seven cedis per person! On a squished, extremely hot ride back, Diane and I wrote up this entire blog to remember all of our crazy occurrences of the weekend.
This is all truly amazing. YOu had dad and I hysterical, how is the mouse? I am glad you are back safe...it will be interesting to hear about the 2nd cultural issue...or maybe not...keep saying you both are married, smart, buy a wedding band!! You two certainly are adventuresome. Can't wait to hear where you see the ajws group next, maybe they are following you. Glad you are not on their"schedule" thanks for writing...Diane and Jess you are the best!
ReplyDelete