Thursday-Sunday: Final Days in Kumasi and onward to Accra again!

7/20/17 

Today was a more relaxed Thursday, followed by a full evening! It started with DeAnna’s lecture on emotional and social wellness. It was quiet well done, alas the students showcased their college level STEM centric ability to read closely and (mostly) missed the key points of social wellness; it is better to live in harmony with your community and to consider the needs of others rather than ONLY oneself. However, given their development it is unsurprising that they would dislike something that challenges them to consider the symbolic relationships we have with our social communities. They have done well in their previous discussions and I have faith that in the years to come most of them will recognize the need to consider the wellbeing of others and their impact on that wellbeing as well as their own.

After the lecture we explored a local market and church. The church was lovely, filled with stained glass and opaque shades of red and brown. The market was overwhelming for many of the students. I took a group in search of ice cream and after two blocks of meandering they were over it. After dropping them off I ventured back into the crowds and found a vender selling ice cream out of a blue cooler, carried of course on his head. I throughly enjoyed the van-ice.  Vanilla ice cream in a bag. It’s quiet fun to eat. You bite a corner off the bag and then squish the ice cream through the corner into your mouth— or onto a cookie which is also delightful.

We had lunch at the guest house and in the afternoon most of the students shadowed various departments at the local area hospital. A few students stayed back with the TA’s and got work done. I was hoping to get a lot of writing done for some of the projects we have here. Alas, it took over an hour and most of my energy to write up my references for two projects. Luckily, I was able to catch up on journaling and edit most of my recent photos so it was a well spent afternoon.

After dinner we went to the Golden Tulip which is a high-class hotel next two a casino with a lovely poolside view. Most of the students spent the evening chatting by the pool and enjoying summer cocktails. However, a few discovered the attraction of the casino, primarily its free drinks. I was thrilled to discover that the inside bar made Iced-Latte’s! This beauty was made with thick, creamy foam and rich milk and came with a delightful, buttery biscuit (cookie).

7/21/17

This morning we got a brief tour of Garden City University College  (GCUC), a private college that trains health care professionals. They primarily train nurses, pharmacy technicians and physicians assistants. (The PA’s are a relatively new type of medical professional in Ghana. They hope that by training PA’s with more specialized skills that they will be able to help provide more coverage by reducing the number of medical staff who leave for higher paying jobs. Many of the students who end up earning their MD’s in Ghana do not stay in Ghana. The PA’s can serve under a doctor but are able to fill most of the need. After three years of serves as a PA they can either specialize in an area or continue on to earn their MD). 

We met with a number of administrators and professors and toured their lab space.  I was a little disappointed we didn’t get to meet with any students. However, it was still an excellent morning. The school was founded recently and they have just graduated their first year of students— 8 students who came in with an International Baccalaureate High School Degrees and were able to skip year one of the core science classes that make up the curriculum.

Michaela is super excited about this lab

The students and two of our hosts at GCUC

For lunch we explored a local area mall. I was happy to discover the local ice cream shop had an  “Cream Ice” cappuccino which reminded me vaguely of a frappachino. I enjoyed it throughly after weeks of “Nescafe” for breakfast. Most of the students had light snacks for lunch because we are going to a Chinese restaurant for dinner. 

This afternoon was quiet enjoyable. We explored the Centre for National Culture which reminded me of a small artisan fair. There were tents filled with carvings, paintings, leather bags and drums. After exploring the various shops we got lessons in beading and painting. The painting group got gourds that we covered in indikra symbols. I attempted to paint the moon and a star. However, the paint did not entirely cooperate. It was a lot of fun and a number of the students are quiet talented.

Tonights dinner was fantastic— some of the best Chinese food I’ve had. There were platters of fried rice, spring rolls, chicken wings, seafood lomein, fried shrimp, steamed vegetables, orange pork… you name it they fed it to us and the students gorged them selves.

7/22/17

Saturday’s thus far have been fairly relaxed. However, due to the usual weekday rigamarole rescheduling we’ve managed to cram a fair amount of activity into a day of relaxation. Our first order of business was the usual morning workout (winnowed down to 3-4 students and two TA’s regularly) followed by breakfast. At which point I then had to wrangle the guest house staff to get them to give me my laundry. 

Our first stop of the day was the Ashanti King’s Palace. It was built by the British to replace the original palace (now the Ghana Armed Forces Museum) which the British had competed into their local fort and imprisoned various Ashanti royals. This Palace primarily serves as a museum to showcase the history of this ancient kingdom, it’s matrilineal line of succession and various artifacts. The building it self was used by three different kings during the 20th century before being turned into this museum. Kings typically do not rule under their own name— they have a naming ceremony using a stool room. In the room are stools with the old kings names. You enter the room in the dark, select the stool and the name that is written on the stool is the name you rule under. There have been 15 kings and as such their are now 15 stools in the room, including a golden stool. If you select the golden stool, you get to use your own name to rule and a new name is added to the linage of Kings.

One of the many peacocks outside the place.

For lunch we went back to the mall and I enjoyed my first Ghanian Pizza— it was much like any other pizza but they added corn to the cheese for a little extra sweetness.

This afternoon we went to the Kumasi Children’s Home. This orphanage is home to over 150 children. They were so excited to see us, hang on us and take pictures with our cameras. After a quick tour, which was often sidelined by children running into our arms, we presented our donations of books and then proceeded to read and play with them for a few hours. I spent most of the time with Charles teaching him how to use my camera and reading a folk tale about the Tortious and the Eagle. The Tortuous wanted to learn to fly and offered half his gold to the Eagle for lessons. The eagle flew high in the sky and dropped the tortuous who was thrilled until he realized he didn’t know how to land. The eagle promptly responded, landing lessons cost the rest your gold— be careful what you wish for. Charles is probably 10 years old and wears a faded red and black checked button down shirt. He’s eager, earnest and walks next to me often holding my hand or wrapping his arms around my side. It is an afternoon that few students will forget, each holding at least one child for the majority of the afternoon.

Charles is on the right along with his stalwart friend who took many photos with us

The following are a few of the many photos taken by the boys who sat with me.

Caroline from the vantage of Charles

Wearing Vishals leather hat and Adrians sun glasses

It is difficult to look back at this photos want to do more for them. They share and love so freely.

Our next stop was a return to the leather shop for the students to pick up the shoes they had ordered. They all returned wearing the shoes— they were proud of the new sandals. We then returned to the guest house for a short break and dinner before an evening of live music and dancing at Plus Two. The music was loud and the dancing full of sweat and laughter. Of course there were the occasional frantic gesture and rescue from the various individuals who wanted to dance with the students. They were not ready for the pursuit by many of the patrons of the dance hall— but that did not deter them and a few students found their way up on the stage and danced with the band. It was an eventful night, not entirely surprisingly, a phone was lost and there were some tears. With a group of this size it is unfortunately inevitable that someone would lose something— but it should be a learning experience for many of them as they reflect on this evening in the weeks to come. 

7/23/17

Today we drove from Kumasi to Accra. Yesterday was such a full day it was nice to have some time to recharge our energy for the final week in Ghana! We had a minor breakdown, an extended lunch where my food never appeared and a lovely rain storm. Alas, traveling is always more exhausting than one anticipates. Despite having a late morning breakfast and a long bus ride to read and write, I’m still ready for bed!

The restroom at the rest stop... Paradise washroom!