Good bye Ghana

Almost Ghanaian

Hi everyone!

Guess what? I'm back in the good ole US of A! I flew into Detroit yesterday afternoon and now I am basking in the luxuries of a real mattress, Michigan blueberries, and speedy unlimited internet. It feels so good to be back on (and in) Gull Lake! Most of all, I can't wait to reunite and catch up with all of you!

Now that I'm home, and my pictures are all downloaded to my computer, I wanted to augment my previous blog posts with some images:

Team Ghana

(Standing: Allison and Elizabeth, Kneeling: Emmanuel, Mozhgon, Rachel, Sowah, Charles) This is at least most of "Team Ghana" (sans Kaylee and I) hanging out after our last day of surveying.

Kids of Kejetia

Here's our questionable use of child labor--haha! The kids loved carrying our backpacks and research stuff for us (Gifty is wielding our 7 foot "height stick" on the right).


This is Kaylee with the twins (Alhassan is the boy and I can't remember the girl's name). They waved "bu-bye" to us every time we went past because I don't think they knew "hello..."

Allison brought these Dollar Store sunglasses on our last day in Kejetia. The "specs" were a big hit. (*Side note: I don't know if you can see, but Kelvin's yellow shirt says "Obama" on it. The Ghanaians love Obama!)

Land of the Lumps

Fufu in Groundnut soup

Banku with fish (above) and Banku with Okro Stew (below)...yum...

Mole National Park

Warthog (just like Pumba!)

Bushbuck

Baboons (right outside my window)

ELEPHANTS!

Patas Monkey

Sharing American Culture

We made Sowah, Charles, and Emmanuel try pizza at our favorite restaurant, Swap. (It wasn't exactly like American pizza, but they got the idea.)

We also made the translators try guacamole! Although there are no tortilla chips in Ghana, plantain chips sufficed. The Ghanaians said they liked both the pizza and guacamole (maybe we'll start a guacamole sensation in Bolgatanga).

Crusader Fellowship

This is 14-year-old Crusader Nancy and I when I visited her house. She was very disappointed that I couldn't pay for her to "follow me" to the US. I hope someday she can get a scholarship or some other opportunity to come and visit.

Chinese Miner Picnic

Sadly, we were not able to have a second picnic with the Chinese miners, but the memories from this one are indelible.

Number 8...

Throughout our 7 weeks of travel to and from Kejetia and Gorogo we had 10 flat tires... This photo captures the tire-changing-efficiency of our driver, Akailija (kicking the tire in the foreground) and our group's general enthusiasm for flat number 8.


Good bye Ghana!

I hope these pictures give you a little better sense of how I spent my last 2 months. It was quite an adventure. Without a doubt, I am happy to come home. I missed the amenities of the US (toilets that flush toilet paper, the ability to drink tap water, actual soft beds and chairs, seat belts, mosquito-free showers), but my greatest challenge was the cultural unfamiliarity (the food, the lack of a sense of time, the religious fervor). Living as a minority was difficult, even though we were genuinely welcomed. The kids would wave and call, "solomia!" (which means white person). Everyone on the streets of Bolga and in the communities of Kejetia and Gorogo wanted to meet us, to get our contact information, to "be our best friend" because we were white. They expected us to be rich, give them medicine and money, and bring them back the US.

I have grown up as a white, English speaking, educated, upper-middle class American girl. In the US, I am pretty "normal." Ghana gave me a new perspective. Although it was waring, it was invaluable for me to experience standing out in a crowd. I got a small dose of the prejudice that minorities face. Except instead of people assuming that I was lazy or violent or a great athlete or stupid or a terrorist, people assumed that I had money to solve their problems. I wish I could have given the people of Ghana more. I wish I did have ample funds to set up Mercury-free gold extraction methods for the miners, feed the malnourished farmers, distribute bed nets to protect people from malaria, install pit latrine toilets, pipe in clean drinking water, fund more public school teachers and the improvement of public school facilities, pay for students' university tuition, and buy plane tickets to the United States.

I wish I could have made a more tangible impact on the communities where we surveyed. I hope that our research will result in not only scientific papers but some real changes in Kejetia and other small-scale gold mining communities. I hope that our findings in this area will also spark the awareness of the Ghanaian government and NGOs to implement infrastructural changes. Sigh.

For now, I have to say good bye to the beautiful people, languages, animals, trees, and fruits of Ghana. I will miss the delightful families that I met, our wonderful translators, the precious children, and all of the Ghanaians who looked out for us and helped us along the way. When we left, the Ghanaians all asked: when will you return to Ghana? I don't know the honest answer to this question; unfortunately, it might be never. But living in Ghana has re-sculpted the way that I look at the world. In a way, I will return to Ghana often as I face "the real world"* in my future.

Thank you all so much for sharing in this Ghana-experience with me. I hope you have enjoyed the stories and pictures. Your support means so much. Thank you.

I hope to see all of you this summer and have some beach-going, group-cooking, Russa yoga-ing, SELMA-breakfasting, family-camping, rock-climbing, and general-singing-frolicking adventures! Stay tuned if you're interested in future blog updates. Sending my (almost-Ghanaian/future-Virginian/always-Michigander) love to you all,
C#

*"The real world" = real job, real apartment, real budget, etc... I can't believe I am moving to Virginia at the end of this summer! I already have an apartment in Arlington, VA (less than 5 miles from DC)--it's an exciting time of life :)