Cashew Workshop.
I will be in the southern half of Ghana and therefore for three days I had to be in a conference room talking about cashews. Cashews do not grow near me. I have nothing to do with cashews. They tried saying it wasn't all cashew because there was a business aspect to it, although the business part was a bit entertaining for about 10 min because me and my counterpart would get the worksheet done in two minutes and then talk about how to do it better. I felt bad that he left from a training for our farmers to come to this workshop that had very minimal application our project. He had such a wonderful attitude towards the whole thing it made me feel bad about feeling bad. His perspective was that any training is a training and you can get at least the experience of sharing ideas out of it. Im telling you I have lucked out on getting an amazing counterpart. Although I was half heartidly trying to pay attention and get something out of the training I was not happy, I did not feel great and the food was pretty bad, the vegetarian plate (that was just the rice without the chicken) was always 20 min later then everything else. This led me into the habit of scarfing down an entire plate in 5 min because I just wanted to get out of there and begin the digestion process of vegging out a while. I did like meeting some of the volunteers that were involved with the cashew project mostly to hear their stories about being at site and their projects. OH I remembered a highlight, Cash and Carry. Now I know what you are thinking and no its not an actual cash and carry. BUT it is a larger street shop that does carry some obruni items like SHAMPOO something I have wanted to get my hands on. They carried almost everything you need to get by including spices, noodles, tomato paste, ect. the basics and then some. The biscuit selection was pretty large and included digestives which I almost went for but somehow I held back because the prices are a bit high. How could I forget the bar up the street from Cash and Carry its called Hooters! Once again not the same, however, they did have cheaper beers than at the hotel and it was on the second story of the building making it a prime place to people watch. It was somebodies birthday while we were in town and so we went and had a few beers. Although im sure its hard to believe the place was not all that packed (or at all) because it was a Tuesday night. The obrunis had the run of the place. I can say that we were glad to be moving on from Techiman. Excited to head north and excited to see something new, not excited about the van ride.
Spiritual revival center
Yep, for a whole week we would be staying at the spiritual revival center. It was so much better then it sounds. The area was absolutely beautiful the draw back was that we were in the upper east. It was extremely hot but in the morning until about 8 or so and in the evenings after 4:30ish the temperature was really very comfortable. The scenery is very different from the south with more grasslands and less green trees. There are not as many hills so you can see for miles. I was looking forward to seeing the northern part of Ghana because I don't think I will be able to get up there very much. It really is a whole different place, one of our trainers went as far as to joke that we were in Burkina Faso and welcomed us back to Ghana when we traveled back down south. Our first night at the center was so quite because there was only half the group, it was so peaceful, just what we needed after a long uncomfortable bus ride. I really enjoyed the evenings when we were done with dinner it was pretty dark out and it made for great star gazing. Looking up at the stars remindes you that you are somewhere different it was odd to not see the ushuall sky that Im so used to seeing. It made me a little sad because I loved it so much but also made me want to learn about the constalations that we can see from here.
Bees!
So people in Ghana take care of their bees at night. Kinda creepy right, especially if you have never worked with bees before, but it was actually quite nice. In the evening its cooler so your not dieing in the suits and supposedly the bees are more relaxed. About 15 of us set out on the bee hive harvest mission and man oh man we learned a lot. We learned about Ghanaian culture, their attitudes towards bees, how not to harvest honey, and that walking in the dark for 10 min not knowing where you are going is rather surreal from the safety of a bee suit. After we arrived at the bee hive and opened the rather rotten top-bar hive the bees were not as aggressive as we anticipated. African honey bees are supposed to be more aggressive than honey bees back home but these were not. There wasn't any capped honey in the hive and no brood. This is pretty odd for the amount of bees that were there so we think that maybe the hive was abandoned and the bees that were there were robber bees stealing what was left of the honey. It makes sense that the bees were not as aggressive because they were not protecting their hive just stealing from it. I believe that I learned a lot from getting to go out to the hive see the bees and the comb but we learned more from the people in our group that have kept bees before. Without their knowledge I think we would all be confused and would make lots of mistakes if we decide to start hives. Later in the week we were able to talk to an "expert" about how to take care of bees and it only added to the confusion so I think a lot of us will be talking to others in our group and doing our own research. Although the whole bee keeping topic was confusing I think many of us still want to keep bees and do it correctly, at least im excited about it!
Thanksgiving Crocodiles
Thanksgiving was a day off but it was scheduled to take a trip up to Paga home of the crocodile ponds. Its a tourist trap alright but hey its ok for us to take one day to be tourists for heavens sakes we will be here 27 months integrated into the community! Anyways it was pretty great we got a small talk about how they came to have these crocodiles and the importance they serve in the community. It is believed that they protect the people of Paga and the locals even swim around in the same ponds without any incidents. So after their speal they called one of the largest crocodiles out of the pond by making whistling noises and carrying a chicken. A few of the smaller ones came out first and were sent back in because we wanted to touch the big one! It finally came and all of us got to pick up the tail and squat over the back end of this croc. It was cool but thats kinda all we did. A few people bought chickens to feed them which was entertaining and a horse came by to give little rides. Overall it was cool but really an odd series of events. But hey I can say Ive touched a crocodile now!
Thanksgiving dinner was amazing. After we got back from the ponds we all chipped in and cooked up a storm. It was great we had sweet potato dish, biscuits, veggie stew, turkey, guinea fowl, apple pie, apple crisp, wine, beer, mashed potatoes. It was a feast! We also dressed up for the occasion which meant putting on our two yards and sticking turkey feathers in our hair! The lights went out right before dinner which made it a beautiful candle lit dinner. Very relaxing but kinda hot because the fans weren't on. It was amazing how everybody worked together to get dinner done and it turned out perfectly! Not excactly the thanksgiving at home but the best thanksgiving Ghana has ever seen I think! That evening I called home to everybody at the Eide thanksgiving, it was great to hear everybody in such happy spirits and ready to get to eating! I miss thanksgiving at home but as my mom says there will be more holidays back here so make the most of them in Ghana. Not going to lie its kinda hard but realizing I have strong support back home makes it all worth it.
