I'm back (kind of)

I don't want to be here right now... I want to go back to Ghana.  It's officially really hard coming home after an experience like the past 2 months.  Honestly, I am tired of traveling, but at the same time I think that I could get really comfortable in a place like Ghana if I stayed in one spot for a while.  Coming back to a place like this is overwhelming to say the least and to be honest with you I don't even have the words to explain why.  But I think that I will try anyways.

Travel was relatively easy yesterday (and the day before that haha).  No major bumps along the way.  Spent a couple of hours in London's Heathrow airport just people watching.  My immediate impression... people are so content with their lives in the West.  You can see it in their faces, in the ways that they walk alone to their next destination, not having to rely upon others to make it to that destination.  Being content, I feel that we gloss over the interesting parts of life, of people.  We have the resources and the ideas to do just about anything that we please in life without really thinking about it at all.  It is all handed to us and we have ABSOLUTELY NO APPRECIATION FOR THAT!!  To struggle is to come into contact with real people, with the core of what makes us human... just some thoughts.  It is strange being around white people again... and Indian and Asian etc. too.  I miss being the minority... life is too easy being a member of the majority race.  

It was strangely natural being back in the city again.  Everything is in its same spot and not much has changed as far as I can tell.  Upon getting back to my apartment I immediately went out to Potbelly's to get a turkey sandwich and a potato salad, the meal that I had been planning for the past month and a half literally.  However, now I am fantasizing about Ghanaian food... a big plop of fufu or banku with okra stew or groundnut soup and chicken would be amazing right now.  Oh yeah... and to eat with my hands again would be a luxury.  After dinner I got out my drum and played for a while.  It felt really good to do that again.  Frankly I don't want to unpack my bags and wash my clothes and have avoided so until now... I guess that I am avoiding the fact that I am not traveling anymore.

This morning I woke up around 3 am... 8 am in Ghana haha and forced myself to go back to sleep until 6.  It is going to take a while just to get over this jet lag thing and even longer to get over the culture shock part.  Immediately went to Dominicks to get some eggs and bread in order to recreate a typical Ghanaian breakfast... still some work to do here.  Tried my first North American banana again... I miss the tiny but delicious Ghanaian bananas that haven't been pumped up with god knows what.

Everything is too orderly and clean here.  Traffic is too organized and the sidewalks are too polished.  The stores have too many things and too much of each.  What is our society hiding with this excessive cleanliness and orderliness.  Maybe there is something inherently wrong with America that we try to gloss over by portraying our wealth and organizational capabilities.  I miss the tro-tro stations where one could assemble a reasonable lunch by buying snacks from 3 or 4 different women carrying crackers, ground nuts, plantain chips, fried dough balls and popcorn in bowls on their heads.  I miss getting a hearty and healthy meal for under a dollar... bought a pair of scissors this morning for the the price of 4 Ghanaian meals.  I miss chickens and goats wandering freely in and out of traffic and vendors on the sides of the streets.  I miss people bending over backwards to help you out.  PEOPLE ARE TOO INDIVIDUALISITIC HERE!!  I used to think that this was okay, but now I am not so sure.  There is hardly any community besides a person's group of friends.  My immediate impression was that people here are too comfortable, that they have everything provided for them, that they can get everything that they "need" by themselves and with relative ease.  Everything is right in front of you and you can see it in peoples' faces.  You can see a sense of satisfaction in a person's face, but at the same time you can also sense that they are missing something.  Yet again still trying to find the right words here.  I believe ( and could be wrong) that there is some sort of happiness that comes from having to struggle a little in life, from having to work to make a living and having to interact with one's community to get by.

Don't get me wrong, I feel privileged to be a well-off Westerner (trying not to just say American anymore... don't forget about Canada!).  It gives me a chance to live in a free society where I can live the life that I chose and be who I chose to be.  However, I am frustrated all the same.  I think that each country, society and individual needs to question itself and potentially make changes.

Most of all I just miss people.  I miss the amazing people I traveled with and all of the Ghanaians that I crossed paths with.  The more I travel I realize that people are people.  I see people doing the same thing just in ways that are new and fascinating to me.  Culture often times prevents outsiders from realizing this basic fact.  We all do the same thing just in different ways.  I may jump forward over a line while screaming and waving about while another man may simply walk forward over that same line.  In the end we all end up doing the same thing, whether it be stepping over the line or saying good morning.  As so many Ghanaians (especially rastas haha) explained to me, "We are all one people."  While this statement may seem incredibly cheesy, I think that there is some sort of truth within.

Anyways, these are my initial jet-lagged reactions to being back in the states.  Many more to come I am sure.  

I have said it again and again.... I am so glad that I went to Ghana this summer and feel incredibly fortunate to have done so.  I hope that I will end up back there or someplace else in Africa in the future.  Now I just need to figure out how to play the cello again... haven't even opened to case yet.  Hoping to experiment a little with incorporating some West African ideas, rhythms and instrumentation into my cello playing.  Hmm... we'll see where that goes.  Also need to start figuring out grad school... after going to Ghana I am even more excited about the idea of studying ethnomusicology either next year or in 2010.  Much to figure out here.  Oh yeah... peace corps?!?!?  So many options so little time.  

Anyways, thanks for reading.  I have gotten a lot out of writing this blog and I hope that my friends and family have too.  Might even write some more over the next couple days.  We'll see.  Ciao.

Patrick

I suck at goodbyes

I don't even know where to start. Hmmm... could start with waking up to elephants outside my hotel room at Mole National Park. Or sitting on the back of a crocodile in far Northern Ghana. Or oh yeah... camping in a rainforest. I have a predicament... I dont even know how to write this blog.

The past three weeks have been awesome. After madly rushing to finish my papers and research in the village I headed off to do some traveling around Ghana. Met a really cool Canadian, Gloria, in the village who happened to have the same flight as me and decided to travel together. We ended up along the Western coast to visit some of the slave castles (spent an evening at Cape Coast Castle on Ghana's Emancipation Day... quite the moving experience) and camped in one of Ghana's largest rainforests... Kakum. Sleeping in the rainforest is very loud and very dark... cant even see the hand in front of your face. Had the chance to walk along the canopy on rope bridges early in the morning.

A couple of weeks ago we met Gloria's friend, Leah (also a very cool Canadian), in Kumasi to head up to Mole National Park. All in all it took us 3 days to make it up to Mole in the north, taking a combination of hot and crammed tro-tros and a metro bus. It takes a long time to travel here even though the country is about the size of Illinois. You know that you're in Ghana when you are crammed between a man with a live chicken at his feet and a woman on the other side who is breast feeding her baby. Oh yeah and when women with dried catfish heads and bananas run up to your vehicle at every stop trying to sell you a mid trip snack. When tros, taxis and buses fail there is always a kind Ghanaian willing to toss a couple of people on the the back of his motor bike for a terrifying ride down bumpy roads... haha.  Besides all of this I have declared riding in a crammed tro with 30 strangers while listening to Reggae music to be my new favorite past time.   

Anyways, Mole was awesome. Actually saw more animals around the hotel than on the actual safari walk. There is nothing quite like waking up to elephants ripping leaves off of trees 20 m from your hotel room. Packs of monkeys, baboons and wart hogs also roamed the grounds. Besides Mole we also visited a couple of monkey refuges. They have been protected in many places to bring in the occassional tourist. I officially really like monkeys especially when they eat bananas from your hand!

We spent a couple of days in the far north, making it as far as the Burkina Faso border. It was really cool seeing the huge diversity in people and landscapes here. The north is primarily Islamic and we definitely got our fix of prayer calls. Very hot and dry... too many sunburns equals a very brown Patrick. After that we made our way down south and crossed Lake Volta on a ferri and a leaky motor boat. This was definitely the coolest part of the trip. Much of the area around Lake Volta is quite undeveloped and seems very genuine. Not many white people make it to this area. It amazing being around Ghanaians in the daily course of their lives and not doing the typical tourist things.

Over the past couple of days we have been in the Volta Region in Ghana's far east. Absolutely beautiful... tall mountains and lush forests. Spent a night camping on a ridge overlooking one of Ghana's tallest mountains (which we climbed today!!) and incredible forests. It was nice to get my camping fix and to enjoy some cool mountain air.  

We have done so much over the past 3 weeks that I cant even comprehend it.  Slept everywhere from the roof of a guest house in a small village to where we are now, a resort-like place on the coast.  It is nice to slowly integrate our selves back in Western society. 

Anyways, it has been an incredible trip and I am not ready to go home... although a turkey sandwich and my bed and my cello sound incredibly nice right now. Oh yeah... friends too!! 

Now... off to the airport here in a couple of hours.  It is really going to be hard to say goodbye to Ghana and to my awesome travel partner.  I can't even guess what it is going to be like to be back in Chicago in 48 hours... pretty overwhelming I imagine.  All well, that's life.  Anyways, time for my last lunch overlooking the Gulf of Guinea.... ahhh I can't do this!!  Ciao.

malaria

So malaria sucks... On Thursday I woke up with a high fever and terrible aches and chills.  I ended up having to stay in the village while the rest of my group travelled to the city of Cape Coast for the weekend.  A very nice Canadian couple staying in Dagbamete, our village, took time away from their busy weekends to help me out and take me to the hospital.  They are doing some really cool development work here in Dagbamete and in a nearby village called Dzogodze.  Both are working to bring clean water to the area and are working to build up the village's ailing schools and libraries.  The government of Ghana doesn't really do much here.  It is mostly up to nice couples like Lilian and Peter and small NGOs to get any work done.  Even then work is slow.

Anyways, I am much better now.  The clinic/hospital was quite the experience.  We had to wait for an hour for the only doctor to get off of his epic lunch break.  The building was under construction and dust covered many of the surfaces.  (Hmm... maybe I shouldnt be sharing this with my family... all well).  Anyways, I had to go in for an iv drip that day and the next morning... don't worry Mom the needles were clean.   Within a couple of days I was feeling much better.  It was actually nice being in the village and having a quiet weekend away from the rest of the group.  People in the village were able to provide for all of my needs.  All is well now.

Dagbamete, the village we are staying in, is quite the experience.  Many of the buildings are still built with mud and sticks.  However, at the same time there is a relatively strong wireless signal and phone connections are good.... thanks to Lilian and Peter.  Everybody is incredibly welcoming here and there is a definite willingness to share and explain culture.  Immediately upon our arrival we began to participate in the funeral ceremonies of two women who lived well over 100 years of age.  Funerals here last for days.  In fact more than a week.  Every night last weekend there was drumming and dancing with various community drumming groups.  Music is a community event that everybody participates in.  Hundreds of people from around the region crowded under two large trees in the center of the village to participate in traditional dancing and drumming.  This would sometimes continue until dawn.  This is the way it was done generations ago and the way it will be for generations to come.  Funerals are celebrations and there is very little actual mourning.  People believe that their ancestors are present in their daily lives and that the spiritual world is active in the lives of the living.  All of this was quite overwhelming as the entire village was swamped with dancing and singing people for a number of days.  The village prides itself as being a stronghold of tradition where Christianity has not had its Westernizing influence.

On Sunday we also had the opportunity to participate in the local shrine ceremonies.  People came from as far as Accra to take part during the day.  Hundreds of chickens and goats were brought to sacrifice to the gods.  People drummed, people sang and people danced... the trinity of all communal events here.  After people confessed their sins (there are officially 400 of them in the traditional religion) in front of the entire community and asked for guidance in their lives the animals were sacrificed and their blood was spilt on the stones representing the gods.  While all of this may seem incredibly foreign and exotic, it is actually quite similar in many ways to the religion often practiced in the West.  Quite the moving experience.

During the days here we drum and dance for anywhere from 4-6 hours.  Sometimes we perform for the villagers who crowd around in masses.  Sometimes we go to nearby villages for people to perform for us.  There is much ceremony at all of these events.  Time is not defined as much by the clock but by the presence of all that must be at a certain event.  Therefore there we end up waiting a lot.  It is also very hard getting work done here.  Whenever you sit outside kids swarm around.  We usually end up playing games with them and talking with the villagers late into the night.  I am learning to focus amidst while 4 or 5 kids play around me.  It is so nice to be away from the cities.  We are right on the edge of the bush and there is very little traffic in the area.  The dirt roads are bumpy and small.  

Much work to do over the next couple of days.  2 essays, a fieldnotes journal and our musical change research project.  It is all fascinating but overwhelming being surrounded by all of this.  I can't keep up with the new info and all of the conversations and things that I experience on a daily basis.  All well... that's life i guess.  On Sunday the program in over and we will all head back to Accra.  After that a couple of us are going to spend a night at the beach in Kokrobite, drop some bags off at the university and head up north to Tamale and Mole National Park.  Shall be a good time.  Anyways, sorry for the randomness of this post... my brain is fried.  Ciao.

Patrick

Ghana time

So... we have been waiting for the past 4 hours to go to the village. Apparently our van broke down. Things here happen slowly. There is no rush to get places and to accomplish the daily tasks. It is amazing how easy it is to get in this mindset. Hopefull over the next couple of hours we will take off... nobody seems to be worried about it. Things always work out in the end. We're on Ghana time... you just need to sit back and take a deep breath, we will get there tonight somehow I guess.

Last night was great. Our farewell dinner took place outdoors with amazing food, good music and lots of dancing. Later in the evening we went to a high-life bar that has live music on Thursdays. High-life band music is my new favorite genre. Nothing like dancing the night away with a bunch of Canadians and random Ghanaians.

Anyways... off to check on the van... probably not there, no worries though. Later.

Kumasi

This past weekend was different from anything I have experienced thus far. We took a trip to Kumasi in the central region of Ghana. The drive took us through Ghana's incredible country side. The forests are dense and the trees are huge. Driving here is a painful and uncomfortable experience. The roads are not in good shape and are covered with potholes and ruts. Imagine 6 hours of that each way.

Kumasi is insane! Urban chaos is something to experience in West Africa. We were able to spend a couple of hours in the largest outdoor market in West Africa. Picture a sea of people rushing about between vendors selling various foods and clothes and women balancing baskets of water and other goods on their heads. The most overwhelming part was the meat section which in itself was the size of any normal market in the states. Every kind of meat you could imagine (and many that i had no clue about) in various states of freshness and decay was piled on tables and on the ground on mats. The smell was intense to say the least. The market probably covers 4 or 5 football fields! All of this happens amidst choking fumes from thousands of tro-tros battling the traffic on the streets. People walk amidst the tro-tros next to the market and knock on your window to try to sell you various things. It was really interesting seeing people go about their daily lives, not the "lives" that people see on the typical tourist tracks. There were very few westerners in Kumasi so we definitely got our fair share of attention. I am still getting used to being the minority. One can never really get used to being stared at constantly and being called out because of the color of your skin. It still is a great way to meet people though... many jump at the opportunity to talk with a white person or to help us out when we are lost.

Had my first scary moment of the trip in Kumasi. We were filling up our van tires at a gas station right next to a really busy road. All of the sudden a car catches on fire a couple of meters away. As smoke and flames were pouring from the engine a bunch of men ran over to push it away and begin to douse the flames. Luckily no explosions occurred... otherwise we would have had serious problems. Our driver took us out of there quite quickly. Different standards of safety here haha.

Over the weekend we visited various sites in Kumasi dealing with the famous Ashanti empire. People are so proud of their heritage and ethnic ties here. Also had the privilege of having a private performance by Koo Nimo, a pioneer and famous composer of palm wine music in ghana. his music is mainly guitar based with more traditional rhythms in the background. Heard some incredible music and did our best to learn dances to the songs that he played for us. Thus far we have been able to meet and experience the music of the pioneers of nearly all of ghana's musical traditions.

Tomorrow is our final performance and farewell dinner here at the University of Ghana. We will be putting on a performance of 3 or 4 traditional pieces. I am dancing in one of them and drumming in the rest. We are going to do our best to make it through the performance without messing up too much haha. It can be quite humbling trying to learn such rhythmically complex music that most Africans began learning at birth. Later in the evening we will gather with all of our professors and lecturers for a farewell dinner and lecture by Nketia, one of the founders of African ethnomusicology. I can not believe that tomorrow is our last day. My roommate and I were recently talking about how comfortable we have become here. Now it's time to try something new I guess.

On Friday morning we leave for the village of Dagbamete. I have no idea what to expect there. There will be much drumming and research and I have a feeling that we will get to know a lot of the locals very well. On Friday and Saturday we will be taking part in funeral celebrations and on Sunday we will have an opportunity to observe the traditional religious rituals (including animal sacrifice.... hmm) at the local shrine. This is going to be interesting.

I am not sure what internet is going to look like for the rest of the trip. I am guessing that there will not be internet in the village... but who knows, Ghana keeps on surprising me. So my apologies in advance if there are no updates for a while. After the 2 weeks in the village I will be hanging around in Ghana for a little more than two weeks. I will definitely head up to Mole national park to check out the elephants and other big critters. Other than that I am hoping to spend some time in the Muslim north of the country and hopefully get a little off of the beaten tourist track. Who knows what the next month is going to look like. I hope that I will get a chance to make some updates on the blog. Anyways, I am off to write a paper and start doing some packing. ciao.

off the beaten path

so this is the part in the trip where i start worrying about the trip ending too soon. i am still going to be here for over a month, but it doesnt seem like enough time. it is my goal over the next 5 weeks to get as much as i can out of Ghana and to get to know as many people as possible.

this past weekend was incredible. there werent any planned events through the program so we had a free weekend. on friday a couple of us went a couple of hours north of Accra to Koforidua and Boti Falls. it was my first time riding tro-tros, the main form of public transportation around here. basically a tro-tro is a converted van that holds about 10 sweaty passengers all packed in together. it is a great way to get to know some Ghanaians up close and personal. the tros take preset routes but will drop you off anywhere along the way and are incredibly cheap... 2 dollars for a 2 hour ride. Koforidua was beautiful... much different from accra. lots of rolling hills with palm trees and rainforests. women sell pineapple, coconut and mangoes at all tro stations and villages. it was nice to get away from the campus for a while and to be more in the daily lives of Ghanaians.

We took an incredible hike at boti falls... steep paths of jagged rocks and red dirt with giant trees and shrubbery all around. the path took us through a cave and up to a lookout over the rainforest and nearby villages. the falls were muddy because it had rained earlier in the day but were still beautiful. can't wait to show the pictures.

on saturday 4 of us were invited to the wedding of a music student here on campus. it took place in a shanty-town on the edge of accra. this was my first taste of poverty here in ghana. the living conditions are crowded and dirty but i definitely get the impression that people still manage to make a reasonable living and are relatively comfortable. people get by with so little.

the wedding was different from anything i have ever seen before. it was really cool being in a family environment and watching people interact with the local chief. we started off with the grooms family and walked in a procession through the streets to the bride's gathering. weddings here are marriages between families as much as they are marriages between individuals... kind of an interesting perspective. there was much singing and dancing along with some Western Christian traditions. like i have said before, this country is an amazing combination of West and African, old and new.

On sunday i was invited to teach English in an orphanage about 45 min from campus. a man i have gotten to know who works in the outdoor market next to my hostel just got it started up in his village about a month ago. a lot of the kids do not have opportunities to learn in the community as the government often times does not help to set up decent school programs. the kids here are incredible. i was the first white teacher that they had had so it was an amazing experience for all of us. we went over basic english grammar skills. we had a great time together. their favorite part was definitely my camera haha. they love having photos taken of themselves. i am hoping to go back over the next week.

school is winding up. on friday of next week we head to the village of Dagbamete in the eastern region to do field work. we will be compiling an oral history of the village and doing drumming and dancing for 4-5 hours a day... man that's a lot. i can't wait to see the village. we will be there for two weeks! anyways, tomorrow we are taking off for Kumasi in central ghana for a weekend field trip. internet time running out....ahhh! ciao.

lessons with Moustapha Tete Addy

Okay... so Ghana is pretty cool (definitely not in the temperature sense though haha). We spent the weekend in a small village called Kokrobite just west of the capital of Accra. It was really nice to get away from the insanity of urban living here. Traffic here is insane. It can literally take you 30 minutes to drive a couple of miles as many of the roads are in poor condition and are far too small for the number of cars... lanes are definitely not paid attention to. Anyways, that's just a taste of daily life.

Kokrobite was paradise... definitely not the Africa portrayed in Western media. Palm trees, incredible beaches etc. I spent way too much time on the beach reading and hanging out with the local kids. I did my best to teach them hacky sack but they ended up using it as a soccer ball haha. Also had a chance to do a little body surfing. We stayed in an incredibly cheap place ($5 a night) where there was no running water and you had to take showers with water drawn from the well... I am convinced there is no better way to shower. Friday night they had a performance of traditional drumming and dancing and Saturday an African Reggae group performed. It was a lot of fun talking with the various people who pass through Kokrobite... various African travelers and a ton of Rastafas (is that how you spell that?). Only regret for the weekend... not wearing more sunscreen... ouch!

In the afternoons we studied drumming with a famous master drummer in Ghana... Moustapha Tete Addy. He is really an incredible man and it was enlightening to study with him. He lives on a compound right along the sea with a massive palm tree grove. There is nothing like coconut milk fresh from the tree!! A lot of his teaching is interspersed with life wisdom which was really fascinating. Very wise and charismatic man. We were able to hear a performance of his yesterday evening.

Time is already flying by. This is only the second week of classes but time will be speeding up soon. However, I know that this won't be my last time in Ghana! I am getting to know people in the group really well... Canadians are really cool... very laid back. School is going to be getting busier here fairly soon with a couple of upcoming papers. I am learning more than I can handle in terms of culture and music. The topics we are dealing with are really challenging but are incredibly mind opening. Everybody in the group is finding it hard to stay up to date with the readings and all since the culture is much more laid back than in the West. Caffeine, power, personal success and wealth don't drive society here. It is a very communal society where people will bend over backwards to help each other and where there is no rush getting from one place to another. Just being immersed in this society on a daily basis puts you into contact with amazing people and ideas.

It is funny... I came here expecting to learn about the conflict of Western and traditional African styles of music. But much of the music in Ghana doesn't have those barriers. The interaction and sharing of ideas between the two has been really mind opening. There are so many musical genres here it is overwhelming. Traditional drumming mixes with jazz which mixes with soul, reggae and everything that you can imagine. I have started taking lessons on the Seprowa (spelling?) a 10 stringed instrument used in a lot of Ghanaian highlife and other genres of music. Learning that and various drumming styles is giving me a feel for the wealth of Ghanaian music.

Getting in the flow of life here. I have officially broken my caffeine addiction! Ghanaians usually don't drink caffeinated beverages in the morning. Life is so much better without caffeine. Still haven't gotten sick even though I am eating everything that I shouldn't here. Usually go through a couple bags of fresh mango and pineapple a day. It is so good. Newest food... fufu... a giant blob of yam and cassava paste in a bowl of spicy tomato broth... a new favorite.

Classes are done for the week. We have a free weekend. Off to travel to a famous waterfall in the morning a couple of hours away from here. Then going to a wedding on Saturday... should be really cool. Hope everybody is well!