Ghana

The first day I had a field lab for my Elements of Ecology class. We went to the Shai Hills Game Reserve and the Akosombo Reservoir. It took us about 2 hours to get to the Shai Hills Game Reserve. There we saw African wildlife such as baboons, monkeys, ostriches, and bats. We hiked up a mountain (not a huge mountain thank god) and went into a cave where tribes would hide their families. We went inside a bat cave and climbed up to the top of the cave and had an amazing view of the game reserve. The bat cave was SO gross. I was crouching down 
the entire time because i was afraid one of 
the bats were going to hit my head. It smelt so bad in the cave too, just thinking about it makes me cringe. It was really interesting going to the Shai Hills Game Reserve. There were baboons literally 2 feet away from us. It was funny to watch them interact with each other and how they strut around. Our bus almost tipped over too when driving through the game reserve in the rain. Ghana has two seasons; wet and dry. It only rained once while we were in Ghana but it was still so hot. I can't even imagine how hot it is during the dry season. After the game reserve we went to a beautiful resort on a lake and had dinner. I was surprised that we actually went to a resort for lunch. We had traditional Ghanian meal and then headed over to the Aksombo Reservoir. The reservoir in Ghana is the 2nd largest man made dam in the world. We only were there for 10 minutes but it was definitely really interesting. 


The next day I signed up for a Habitat for Humanity trip with Semester at Sea. I have only done one other Habitat for Humanity trip before and it was in high school. I painted a wall and that was about it. I didn't really know what we were going to be doing or what to expect. We left the ship at 6am and took a 2 hour bus to the site. We met the representative and got to work. We were putting down the foundation of the house and built up the concrete blocks up to the window. There were about 40 other people in the group and it was very hectic. Everyone wanted to help but there weren't enough materials for everyone to have. A lot of people had to take turns lifting cement blocks and spreading the cement. There was NO breeze at all and was probably 90 degrees at 10 o'clock in the morning. We were supposed to stay until 5 o'clock at night but we cut our trip short because a few kids one our trip were feeling sick from the heat. I was a little disappointed with Habitat for Humanity, there weren't clear instructions and too many people with strong personalities. It was still a great experience though. 

My sneakers used to be white!

Outside the ship, there were a lot of vendors who set up camp at the port we were at. I walked around there and did a little shopping and was so overwhelmed. All of the vendors would come up to us and just start talking so loudly. I couldn't even think I kept on trying to walk away and the kept following us! After a while I got the hang of bargaining and was able to get a few things. That night we stayed in because we were so tired. 





The third day in Ghana I signed up for a school visit through Semester at Sea. I was so excited to visit a school! The school we visited was Morning Star, it is a private school in Accra which was about a hour away from where the ship was docked. There are kids from kindergarten to ninth grade. We walked into the school and immediately all of the kids started running up to us. All of them were so excited to see us and talk to us. Their faces lit up when I asked them questions and took pictures of them. They were the happiest kids I have ever seen and loved my hair. Most of them had shaved heads so all they wanted to do was touch my hair. I got a lot of comments like "you have a lot of hair" or "its so curly!" One of the girls, her name was Juliet, asked me if I wanted to see her classroom. After I said yes she took my hand and started skipping over to where her classroom was. She introduced me to all of her friends and wouldn't let go of my hand. I don't think I can even put into words how I felt at that moment. After we met a majority of the kids, our group played soccer against some of the students. After either team scored a goal, the whole school would cheer and jump around and the band would start playing. 

We went to meet with the principle of the school after. She told us about the history of Morning Star and how her mother started it. Her mother started the school in their house at the kitchen table. That then turned into a room in their house and they started building the school. She said that even though it is a private school, they still give scholarships to a majority of the students. They even take students from the orphanage down the street and give them all the materials they need for school along with a free lunch. What was really cool about Morning Star is that students from NYU who are studying abroad in Ghana do an internship with the school. The women said that the only students who visit Morning Star are from Semester at Sea or NYU. There are 3 NYU students studying in Ghana right now. 
We went through the school and walked into each of the classrooms and talked to all of the students. They were learning about all different subjects like English, French, Computer Science, Visual Art, Baking, and other classes. I was really shocked by the variety of classes they were taking. The students at Morning Star were learning four different languages! When we walked into the classrooms all of the students would stand up and say "Good morning Mr/Mrs _____ and visitors" the teacher would then say "How are you doing today?" the class would respond "I'm fine, thank you. How are you?" They would stand until the teacher told them to sit down. They were the most well behaved kids I have ever met. When we were walking around the school all the kids that we met at the beginning would say hi to us and all of them remembered our names! 

One thing that really stuck out to me was when a kid from SAS tried to start a pen pal with his cousin. He asked one of the girls to write her a letter and what she wrote was "Hello, I am humble but not very happy. I hope you are doing well." It was sad to read that, the girl seemed so happy and was always smiling but was so unhappy inside. I really just can't put into words how I felt when that happened. When we were finishing our tour, it was lunch time for the students so they were all outside their classrooms. All the SASers were mobbed by all the students. I had about 5 girls attached to me by either holding my hands or grabbing onto my arms. They just wanted to be around us. After we had lunch we gave the students books, pens, pencils, and other materials. It was sad to leave the school and say bye to all of the students. They probably won't remember me in a week but I'm going to remember this experience for the rest of my life. All of the kids I met don't know how much of an impact they had on me.

The last day we had in Ghana we went to Accra which had a big market. I was a little nervous about going to Accra because of how overwhelmed I was outside the ship. We got to Accra and were, yet again, bombarded by vendors asking what our names were and showing us all of their paintings. Everyone in Ghana has a phone and is on Facebook! All of the vendors wanted our phone numbers and wanted to be friends with us on Facebook. We were only in Accra for a little more than 2 hours and by the end all of us just wanted to go back to the ship. Don't get me wrong, all of the vendors were so nice but the atmosphere was hectic. Well....most of the vendors were nice. 

Ghana was amazing and an eye-opening experience. I'm so happy Semester at Sea chose to include it on the itinerary.