GHANA: 2 vastly different experiences

Torgorme Village 

Twenty students and faculty selected to participate in the Torgorme Village Home Stay along the lower Volta River in Ghana.   The Elders and the families in the traditional Ewe village of Torgorme have chosen to host foreigners from Semester at Sea twice annually for overnight stays and occasionally for day visits with SAS and other groups.

We began our stay in Torgorme at a formal presentation ceremony with the paramount Chief including drumming, dancing, traditional prayers, and a naming ceremony.  
A day-of-birth and a local name was given to each visitor:  mine is Akosua Mawusi
which means “Sunday Born and Loyal” (I believe….)

500 children attend the schools in the village of approximately 800-1000. In their green school uniforms, the primary students were allowed to watch the ceremony and then, upon command, they all turned and ran back to the school area. 

At the school we were introduced to the teachers who displayed their school books and attendance ledgers for us to see including “Our Daily Manna” which is a book of daily prayers for every occasion including prayers for job interviews, prayers for banishing evil spirits, and

While the teachers were friendly and gracious with us in the shaded central shelter, in the unmonitored classrooms the golden yellow-clad middle school students were playing and jumping and horsing around – some things are consistent the world round!

During this 22-hour overnight home stay sometimes I knew what was taking place and some times that was not the case.  Before he left us with “our families” the tour company guide sometimes translated and sometimes explained the proceedings.  With “my family” the children spoke careful and proper English (as they must do in school) but their communication was sparse and infrequent.  My hostess Victoria and her 20-year old daughter Norah spoke English nicely when they were present.     

A flock of young children took me on a walk to the river, to see the banana and plantain trees and to the cocoa trees. Ghana is the 2^nd producer of cocoa in the world.  Stella, age 11 organized a group of the kids to pull down the branches so we could taste the sticky cocoa seeds.  Thereafter she shimmied up a different tree to fetch other cocoa pods. The 6-8 kids and I sucked on seeds from 1/2 dozen pods they collected.

Almost all the women of the village hand build pots in a variety of sizes for sale in the nearby markets.  At various places in Torgorme the clay is sifted and processed, the pots are built and fired by the women.  I watched huge pots being loaded into a pickup truck and I was gifted a small pot with my African name painted onto it.

Time S~L~O~W~E~D down ~ ~ waaaaaaaaaaaaay slowed down. 

I put my watch away and accepted that THIS is what IS happening today. 

As I sat fanning myself during the hot afternoon in the yard, there were a couple old Grannies, several women, and many children taking care of a variety of tasks. The Grannies oversaw the girls as food was washed, plucked, mashed and boiled.  Little girls washed pots and pans or swept the dirt with a reed broom. Sometimes there was food such as rice or kassava and some of the children would eat using their hands while chickens and goats milled around waiting for kernals or crumbs to drop on the dirt. Victoria proudly showed me Amanda, age 5 who was cooking and bagging Bedja in a metal pan over hot coals.  Sitting on a reed mat off and on for 3 hours Victoria braided her sister’s hair into the traditional “do” using black rubber threads while the 2-year old twins played at their mothers’ knees.

Occasionally some young man would appear on a bicycle either bringing or collecting a bill of small money.

I put my watch away and accepted that THIS

Lilly age 10 and Amanda age 5

is what IS happening today. 

I amused the children by taking photos and videos with my iPhone, showing them pictures, and playing music like “Waka Waka (This time for Africa)” by Shakira.

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Norah, Victoria' older birth daughter.  Age 20, she attends an advanced school
in the Government village an hour's daily walk away.  She is going to be a Nurse.

Food was brought in from the government cafeteria at a nearby village for the visitors to eat (so that we, hopefully, would not get sick from the local bacteria of the food and the water. I mostly ate only plantain and rice and yam since all the rest of the foods are spiced with garlic (which I cannot eat).  The villagers brought their own food which was a variety of starches dipped into spicy sauces or crawfish.

Sunset at 6 p.m. in the village.  My room was in a house to the left.
The piles of clay powder will be processed into clay pots. 

View from my plank bed at 9:30 p.m. when I went to sleep. 

Africa Beach Hotel

At the other end of the personal comfort spectrum:  Louise and Julie and I retreated for two days to the Africa Beach Hotel “resort” in Sekondi near Takoradi.   Thoroughly relaxing and enjoyable, we gave this establishment a “ 2-and-a-half star” rating, which was fine and dandy! 

Comfortable, clean, quiet, and very friendly; the overnight stay at this hotel along side the beach was a delightfully pleasant (privledged)  experience.