Northern Trip!

Hi everyone!! I’m in Cape Coast again, after our 11-day trip to Northern Ghana! This is just a brief 4-day lull, before we head out again on Monday, this time for Benin! But that will be a shorter trip, coming back next Saturday. The trip to the North was pretty neat; we saw a lot of different places. First we went to Kumasi, just for a night before heading out at 4 am for Wa, a small city in the Northwest part of Ghana. We stayed at a hostel there for several nights, and spent each day venturing out to small villages relatively close to the city. By relatively close I mean about a three and a half hour ride each way, on bumpy dirt roads, in the case of the first village we visited! That was Gwollu, a village which has become well-known, at least within Ghana, for building a huge wall that surrounded the entire village, in order to keep slave raiders out. The wall has mostly fallen down at this point, but a portion of it is preserved for public viewing. The coolest part of our visit there was that, because the SIT students visit Gwollu every semester, the chief and elders there are familiar with our program, and they were waiting for us when we got there. First, we greeted all of them and they offered us what they called welcome water, which was actually not water but a fermented millet drink, served in calabashes, that is apparently always used in greeting visitors. It was pretty sour and not the tastiest drink ever, but we forced it down! Then the chief and elders spoke with us, and we were given the opportunity to ask them any questions we wanted to, about Gwollu, the slave trade, etc. We talked to them for about an hour, and then were taken around the community to see, among other things, the pond where crocodiles slither about underneath the water lilies, and the grave of the man who proposed and went about constructing the famous wall.

Pretty soon we were told that it was about time to go, but some of us had landed on the idea of undertaking the short walk from Gwollu, which is a border town, to Burkina Faso! Our program coordinator laughingly consented, and walked with us down the hot dirt path until the telephone poles switched from wood to metal—and that signals the border into Burkina Faso! We took pictures on the Burkina Faso side, said hi to a few boys riding bikes down the path between the two countries, and headed back. Maybe it doesn’t mean much, but it was still an exhilarating feeling having been to another country! One interesting thing to note, that is much supported by the Africa class I took at Macalester a few semesters ago, is just how meaningless African country borders really are. Ethnic groups continue across country borders; lots of friends and relatives of Gwollu residents live across the border in Burkina Faso, and they all speak the same language, dress the same way, and trade amongst each other all the time. Gwollu residents who don’t speak English, though, would be hard pressed to communicate with other ethnic groups living in other parts of Ghana.

The next day, we went to Sankana, a village close to Wa where community members showed us the caves that people hid in when slave raiders came near. We also saw the mountain where villagers kept watch from (sounding the alarm with talking drums and horns when they saw a dust cloud on the road, indicating a nearing raiding team on horseback). Then we got to talk to the chief and community elders under the shade
of a huge tree, and ask them whatever questions we wanted to. It was pretty cool; we took a picture with them afterwards. They invited us back in April, when they have a festival that reenacts the slaveraids, and half of the villagers pretend to be "raiders" while the other half go hide in the caves. I think it would be amazing to see it, although I would hope they wouldn't automatically label us "raiders" and expect us to join in the fun and pretend to round up slaves! I don't know if I could handle that! It would be really
interesting to see, though, even though the distance to get here will probably make it impossible to go back.

Then we went to Mole National Park for a night! This was an amazing stay for several reasons. First, that afternoon we went on a hike around the grounds and saw tons of bushbuck, a few warthogs, kod deer, and elephant and hyena footprints!!!! Second, that night the OTHER SIT group from Accra arrived!!!!! We hadn’t known we would overlap. It was just wonderful to see Susanna and catch up about our last two months, commiserate about a few program frustrations, etc! We walked around for a long time during this crazy thunder storm, had a hilarious run-in with this British man who was by far the rudest person I have ever met in my entire life, etc! It was a fun night. And the next day, we headed off for Tamale! Tamale is a really bizarre, which I’m sure I would understand better if I’d spent longer there. But my initial impression was an about 90% Muslim city, with all these veiled women jetting around the city at breakneck speed on motorcyles!

Our last few days were spent in Kumasi, having some art lectures and traveling to an amazing carving village outside the city. And now we’re back in Cape Coast! I’ve been having fun spending time with Georgina and Auntie Hettie again, and yesterday I had a nice afternoon walking around the entire city of Cape Coast with my neighbor/cousin Kojo! I saw a lot of parts of the city that I hadn’t seen before. I have a cold and I think I’ll try to take it easy the next few days, but one thing I’m definitely doing is going to a street carnival with my friend Fred tomorrow night! That should be interesting. And then, we’re in Benin until next Saturday, at which point we begin our ISPs!!! More details on that later. I’ve done about as much Internet as I can for today!

It’s amazing that we’ve now done over half of our time in Ghana. We’ve been here for two months today, and we only have seven weeks left. My major goals for the rest of my time here are to hang out with as many Ghanaians as possible, spend lots of time with my host family, and do an awesome ISP! Oh, and keep improving my Fante – I speak it a lot with Georgina, but on my Northern trip it was of no use at all, so I’m working to get it up to speed again (not that it has ever been very good)!

I hope everyone is doing wonderful! Write!

Love,
Sara