University of Ghana

This is the University's Balme library, which is also coincidentally the image on Ghana's 5 cedi bill.  During finals I trekked to the library to view old examinations from past years that had been bound into enormous leather books over the last 15 years. 

These are photos taken on my last journey around campus before my final examinations.  This the night market that sits down the road from the International Students Hostel (where I live) and where I frequented for most of my meals.  My friend Julia and I befriended a woman named Cecilia who would dash us a free orange whenever we came to get fruit at her stand. 

Cape Coast/Elmina part deux

The pic above was taken in Cape Coast, a small but energetic fishing town a couple of hours west of Accra. Even though I had already been to the slave castles in Elmina and Cape Coast several weeks ago with my group, my parents wanted to see the capital of the Gold Coast from the colonial era.  (My parents visited me for a week - it was great to see them and pretty entertaining to watch them experience Ghana for the first time as I did over two months ago).  The car ride from Accra to Cape Coast was just as fascinating the second time around.  We passed through, what seemed like, hundreds of villages.  The lack of development in these villages never ceases to amaze me.  The villages don't appear to have any of the most basic modern appliances that we are so accustomed to in the U.S., little conveniences that I know I take for granted every day.  Even still, the area is undeniably gorgeous.  It is impossible to try to take it in all at once.  At any given moment one might look outside the car and see women balancing huge baskets on their heads (their sense of balance is incredible) full of various foods while goats and chickens weave in and out of huts and into the oncoming traffic.

Below is a picture I took of Elmina in the evening.  When the sun starts to set around 6 pm the fishing ports become a lot less hectic and the coast appears peaceful.  So so beautiful.

Adinkra printing

I'm exhausted from a long but exciting day in Kumasi.  Even though Kumasi is supposedly smaller than Accra, it seems much busier (probably has to do with the hours we spent stuck in traffic) and incredibly hectic.  Early this morning we drove to a nearby village that specializes in printing the Adinkra symbols of Western Africa.  The Adinkra ink is made by boiling Badie tree bark for a couple of days.  We each took turns printing some of the symbols on the traditional "kente" cloths.  I spent such a long time pouring through all of the symbols, and probably would have stayed longer but I didn't want to drive my group crazy, before deciding on:

-Ntesie-matemasie - "I have heard and kept it" A symbol of wisdom and knowledge. 

-Odo nyera fie kwan - "Love does not get lost on its way home" A symbol of love and devotion.

-Sunsum - "The soul"

Kumasi this weekend!

On Thursday my group is leaving early in the morning to head to Kumasi, the country's second largest city located in the center of Ghana.  I'm very excited because, as Mercy (our Ghanaian group leader) recently informed us, the largest market in Western Africa is in Kumasi!  Kumasi is considered to be the modern capital of the Ashanti people, one of Ghana's prominent tribal groups.  While we're in Kumasi we're going to a market, a local elementary school, a small neighboring town where the traditional "kente" cloth is woven, and a butterfly sanctuary.  I took a ton of pictures on my trip to Cape Coast but my camera card mysteriously fried midway through the trip and I lost over 200 photos :( Hopefully the new one my mom sent me will get here before we leave for Kumasi!

The image below is an example of an Adinkra symbol (also produced in Kumasi) that represent different Ghanaian proverbs.  There are over 50 symbols, each with its own meaning.  This one is the "Aya" or fern and it represents endurance and resourcefulness because the fern can grow in difficult places.

Elmina and Cape Coast Castle

A week and a half ago, my group took its first trip out of Accra to Cape Coast and Elmina.  Cape Coast and Elmina, which are about a 3 hour drive to the west of Accra, are home to Elmina Castle and Cape Coast Castle, two of the oldest buildings remnant of European colonialism in Ghana.  Cape Coast Castle was one of the largest slave-holding sites in the world from the colonial era.  Thousands of Ghanaians were forced into cramped dark dungeons as they waited to board merchant ships that would take them to Europe and the Americas as slaves.

Viewing the castles from the outside, you can't help but acknowledge their architectural beauty.  However, upon entering the castles walls and walking through its incredibly small dungeons, these castles became two of the more horrible and sobering places I've ever been.  One room in particular, near the castle's exit to the sea, bears the name "the door of no return," where slaves were lined up in chains before they boarded ships to the Americas, never to return home to Africa.

Madina Market

Twi

In Ghana the national language is english (which is why Wesleyan's abroad office would let me study here) yet many Ghanians speak a dialect of a language called "Akan." It has 5 major dialects, Akyem, Fante, Akwapim, Asante, and Borong. Asante, otherwise known as Twi, is the dialect most commonly spoken by traders and people who live in Accra and is also the language I'm learning throughout the semester. Before beginning classes, my goal was to be able to keep up in a basic conversation with a Ghanian student about their life, studies, etc. Now that I'm actually learning Twi, I'm starting to think this is a much harder goal than I originally anticipated.

I consider myself to be fairly good with languages - I have taken Spanish for 8 years, can almost consider myself fluent, and it's always my easiest subject. Twi is much more challenging. Many of its tones are sounds that are not part of english, so I have to train my tongue to make the new sounds. Take "Twi" for example: the tw is actually pronounced chw with pursed lips so it sounds like "chwi." Here are some of the words we've learned so far:

Mepa wo kyew - please
Mepaakyew yefre wo sen? - what is your name?
Wo ho te sen - how are you?
Yebehyia bio - we will meet again/see you