I just arrived back at the hostel after spending the week in Apemanem, a small village in central Ghana with a population of about 400 people. I have about 20 pages of journaling from my experiences but I need a shower and a meal so I’m only going to post the “greatest hits”, if you will.
First off, the most surprising thing was how well I was able to eat. The chief hired a local woman to cook for us and she was keen on my veganings. In fact, I think the food I had to eat was better than the food the omnis got simply because they were eating things like fried chicken while I had Ghanaian delights such as peanut-mushroom soup, friend plantaine, rice with mixed veggies and all kinds of beany goodness. Kind of sad to be back at the hostel as I’ll be back to my regiment of 50 cent red-red. I’ve been thinking about food a lot lately. In fact, I’m pining for a tofu-ceasar salad so badly right now, oh man, like you wouldn’t believe. But this week is my last, so I plan to get as much fresh mango and pineapple in as possible.
Ok so, village. It was nestled in the middle of a lush canopy of trees. Lots of palm and coconut growing on the outskirts of the perimeter of the town that was probably no bigger than 8×4 city blocks . Some sugar-cane also grew amongst maize and these other weird root things that the locals pound into a pasty-doughy thing for fufu. A couple of us stayed at the chief’s house while the others stayed in a gigantic place about a block away. There was running water, during the day, but no shower. There was, however, a bucket. The bucket quickly became my best friend as the +35 degree heat brought the funk out of my pores, and there’s nothing worse than a stinky sleeping bag liner.
To have an African bucket shower, start by placing the bucket beneath the tap. Turn the tap on, marvel at the small stream of lukewarm water flowing from the tap into the 4L bucket. Since it will take about 5 minutes to fill the bucket, feel free to get your space ready for showering. If you realize you forgot your soap at the hostel, do not worry. Your 2 in 1 shampoo bar from Lush will clean your butt and armpits just fine. If you left your towel at the hostel, now is the time when you should be deciding if you’re going to use your kind-of-sweaty, kind-of-dirty shirt from today to dry yourself, of if you will run back to your room (while the bucket is still filling) to get your drier, but dirtier shirt from yesterday. Once you hang your selected, ratty shirt on the non-functional showerhead, undress and don’t worry about the concrete floor. It does not matter that you forgot your shower-sandals because as far as you know, bacteria probably aren’t much of a problem in these infrequently used shower stalls.
With the bucket finally full of water, use your hands to cup some water to areas that need to be cleaned. Your thighs are probably good, as are your upper arms. Do not miss your arms because sweaty, filthy kid hands have been all over them, all afternoon. Since you saw one kid holding a dead bird, make sure to wash the arm he touched extra well. This will ease your paranoia as the Chemist (see: pharmacist) has been closed for 3 hours and if you get sick, you’ll be on your own with your head in the toilet until dawn when a ride can be arranged. Next, soap wet areas with bar shampoo. It smells nice. Nicer than some of the other smells in the stall. The toilet is only flushed when necessary and the licorice smell definitely trumps the pee smell.
After regretting not shaving your head before coming out, dunk your filthy hair in the bucket. This is quicker than putting it under the tap. You cannot forgo washing your hair out here. The humidity has made it far too disgusting and your scalp is crying for some tlc. Next shampoo hair. It feels great! What a wonderful feeling! But the next step in the bucket shower is even better. You should lift the bucket up to eye level, wedging the corner on a bump in the cement wall and let ‘er flow. Not too much, you’ve got a head and a few soapy bits to rinse off. Use about half the water for this, check body for more soap and use another liter to take care of that. Refreshing!
Next, check out your Spikolis. Make a mental note to move them further from you next time so they stay dry. Soap and rinse one foot at a time. After each foot is rinsed, put it through leg hole of underpants and directly into shoe thus avoiding getting any dirt, bugs or other assorted grossness into your clean pair of underpants. With a layer of grease and filth removed from your body, head to your room for an excellent sleep.
The kids were crazy. There were so many of them and they’d follow me around, sometimes 10 at a time! After a while this got kind of old and I turned into a bit of a recluse. Hey, in Canada you get accustomed to your space and while they were awesome and good natured, sometimes I just felt like not having to perform the whole “I’m from Canada, my name is (VT) and I’m 27″ rap.
The insects were huge. I saw a gigantic beetle, bigger than any living beetle I’ve ever seen. After a few days, the group members got used to my “why did you kill that _______ for no reason?” questions and the beetle, though it scared one of the group members pretty good, lived to see another day. The centipedes did not however as the villagers instructed anyone who saw one to stomp it. Why? I think it was a superstitious thing. The villagers are very superstitious. In fact, I sat in on a meeting with the chief wherein a woman was complaining about another woman cursing her unborn baby for some reason.
So, while I was at the village I made one enemy. Actually, there were two. They were both roosters who would start crowing (outside of my window) at about 4 in the morning. I would awaken to the crowing of one and they would do this little call and response thing I’m sure they thought was totally cute. I hated them for it. To the point where one morning I left my room to find the closest one and chase it away. This doesn’t work by the way. I ended up spending that morning on the porch, stewing in the twilight.
We went into the city half way through our stay where we went to a museum and ended up seeing the King of the Asante region, which was pretty neat. It’s interesting how the King and the President co-exist in Ghana. The King takes most of the property affairs and the president does most of the international politicing. But that is a huge topic that I’m not going to post about now.
The last few days were spent teaching in the village elementary school. I had a grade 6 class one day, and a grade 5 class the next. The kids had a very basic grasp of the english language and I think much of my material was lost on them. Regardless, I taught them about canada one day and soil degradation (it was in their curriculum!) the next. We ended both days with games. Duck Duck Goose and Red Rover were hits. We stopped Red Rover after one kid totally got clotheslined though. He was ok, surprising since he basically did a backflip trying to break through the line.
Then a bunch of other things happened which I wrote down, analog-style, in my journal.
Then it was today. We departed at 6 for Elemina Castle, a major port during the slave trade. We took a tour of the 500 year old castle and it was pretty intense. Actually, it was really intense. Especially when we were in the small dark, dank room with a small door that they called the Door Of No Return. You can probably guess why they called it that. I’ve never been to S-19 in Cambodia or any of the Concentration Camps, but I imagine you feel the same way standing in a place where so many bad things went down. I swear I could feel something weird in the female slave dungeon. It was pretty messed up. However, incredibly educational and I got a heck of a history lesson.
So here we are. Got a week to go. I’ve got to go forage for food. I didn’t really eat that well today since we spent most of it in the bus, but at least I’m not sick like 4 of the others. I wonder if there was something in the fish last night? Tomorrow I’m going into the city as I need a real cup of coffee, then I think we’re off to the beach again. Got class a couple times this week and were teaching a couple more times as well. I’ve got to find someone to give me a few more drum lessons while I’m here because I totally bought a drum (from a drum master). I’m not, or rather haven’t ever really been a fan of the jembe, mostly because idiot hippies in the city have given it a bad rep for not being able to play it. But after I saw how they were made from a log and took a few lessons, I decided I should probably bring one back with me. It was a blank too, so I’ve spent the last couple of days carving it while waiting in the shade for the sun to go down. Kind of neat.
Crap, internet time running out.
To any relatives who may be wondering why I you haven’t heard from me, the cell phones we have do not seem to be able to get through to the old YT. I’ve tried on several occasions, but you might not hear from me until I touch down at home next week.
Love from the sauna to the south.
