On Safari!

I am glad to say that 2 1/2 weeks into my time in Ghana, I was able to achieve one of my big goals while here, and see elephants at Mole National Park! But before I get to the elephants, I will talk about the baboons! I feel as though every person I have ever known who has been to Africa, returns with crazy baboon stories. Within 2 hours of arriving at Mole National Park, I had mine. We were sitting out by the pool just before dusk, when all the sudden I head something run up behind me, I turned around expecting a person or small child only to be surprised that it was two baboons! Me, and several of the other tourists standing around shrieked, and the baboons backed off only for a second. They turned around and darted towards the pool, swinging around on the umbrellas over the tables and then running up onto the roof, as seen in the photo below.

After causing quite a commotion, they ran off, and about 20 minutes later a very shaken up American tourist came out to the pool explaining to his friends that he just walked in on baboons rummaging through his bag in his hotel room. When he entered the room, they looked up, scowled as if to say, "you got a problem" and then slapped the tourist on the arm on the way out. How rude!

Despite the encounter with the baboons, the rest of my time at Mole National Park was very enjoyable! The morning after we arrived, I went on a walking safari around the motel. While we saw several different kinds of monkeys and plants, the highlight was definitely seeing the elephants! We were able to hear the elephants munching on trees, long before we could see them. Once they came into view, there were about 4 or 5 of them hanging out together. The guide explained that all of the elephants we would see would be male. Female elephants are much more reclusive as they hang out in larger herds together with the young baby elephants. Female elephants only allow male elephants in their "prime" to hang out with them. All other male elephants are not allowed!

After watching the male elephants for a while, we walked down to the watering hole, where we were lucky enough to see another 8-10 elephants bathing in the water. They were so fascinating to watch as they splashed mud all over themselves to protect their skin from the sun, not even elephants want to wrinkle early!

After awhile, the elephants all decided to get out of the water and move onto the land. Once there they munched on trees and played with each other by locking tusks and pushing each other back and forth.

The elephants were really amazing to watch, and I felt so lucky to see them. Several other tourists we spoke with said they had spent several days at Mole and either seen no elephants or only 2 or 3. Watching the elephants will definitely be something that I will remember for years to come! (Originally typed September 1st, 2011).

On the road to Mole National Park

I just returned from a long weekend at Mole National Park in the northern part of Ghana. After only two weekends traveling in Ghana, I think it is safe to say that traveling to a destination provides just as much adventure (if not more), than the actual destination itself. While Mole is no more than a few hundred miles from Krobo, and in the U.S. the distance could easily be covered in a few hours, it took us 24 hours by bus to reach the park! So to all of you back in the U.S. appreciate those paved roads, and multi-lane freeways!

The first leg of our journey begin in Accra with a 12 hour over night bus to Tamale, a major city in the north. We opted for the luxury bus option with reclining seats, air conditioning and 6 hours of Nigerian films! The films were definitely interesting, unfortunately I am not sure if it was the quality of the films or a problem with the movie equipment, that made them difficult to understand. For 10 minutes the volume would be perfectly fine, and then it would go to mute and then come back blaring you would have to plug your ears. Despite the difficulties, I am pretty sure we watched a trilogy about a man who gambled himself into debt and then made a deal with a witch doctor to resolve the debt which required several sorts of sacrifice, human and animal (although none of those scenes were depicted) which brought shame on his whole family for generations to come!

Once we reached Tamale, we boarded another bus, much smaller but with more people and no air conditioning, for another 3 1/2 to 4 hour bus ride to Damongo. After I sat down, I had a young boy, probably 12 or 13 years old sit down next to me. A few minutes after he sat down he turned to me and said, "Hi. Do you have any books?".

I politely responded that no I did not have any (well except for the guide book, which I didn't think he would be interested in). And then he asked me where I was from, and I said America to which he responded, "Oh, well can you tell me something about your culture or history so I can help Ghana be more like America?".

I sat there dumbfounded and amazed. I had no idea how to answer such a big question, and I was as impressed as I was dumbfounded that a 12 year old was the one asking it. So after a few minutes of stumbling around, we found our way into a very pleasant conversation in which I learned a great deal about Ghana, and the boy (whose name is Benjamin) hopefully learned a little bit about America. Benjamin explained that he liked to read books about history, specifically about "Ghanaians who helped to organize their people to achieve independence", and pointed out local forests and rivers that were preserved by such individuals for the community. Although he loves history, he is going to study biology and chemistry when he goes to university so he can become a doctor "to help people and make Ghana a better place for everyone". He told me that his mother was a fruit trader (no father around) and he has three siblings of which he is the youngest. His favorite football team (not the American kind) is Barcelona, although the majority of Ghanaians support Chelsea. I told him a little about the civil rights movement in America, to which he said he would have to read more about. On a lighter note, he was amazed to learn that Americans let dogs live in their homes and sleep in their beds (I thought telling him that some people even put their pets in outfits would be too much of shock all at once, so I kept that to myself). I have to say, I was thoroughly impressed an humbled by my encounter with Benjamin, he was well spoken (even in his third or fourth language), mature, and extremely bright for a person of any age. When the ride came to an end, he wished me well, and said he hoped the elephants would put on a good show for us!

Once we got off the bus in Damongo, we had to catch a taxi to the entrance of Mole, less than 20 km away. There was only one taxi in the town at the time, and we took it gladly, knowing we were almost there! 10 km down the road the taxi started having some issues and came to stop. Shortly thereafter it started smoking to which I turned to my fellow travelers, and said "you know, I think we should really get of the car". They responded that since there were no flames, only smoke it was probably ok, and I said, "are you sure, I think smoke means it is time to get out". The taxi driver was unable to fix the problem on his own, and when a friend on a motor bike came going in the opposite direction he said he ride back into town and be right back. Here is a photo of Erin, a fellow Global Mamas volunteer and myself on the side of the road, waiting for our taxi driver to return.

While we were waiting, another motor bike road by, and the man driving it pulled up next to the side of the taxi and asked us what happened to his brother, the taxi driver. We explained the situation, which I think he found quite amusing and said he would wait with us until his brother returned. For which I was grateful. While Ghana is a pretty safe country to travel around, I did feel a little vulnerable along the side of road with no town in site. Sure enough, 20 minutes later his brother was back and was able to get the taxi working again by pulling something quite large out of the engine but not replacing it (???). Almost a full 24 hours after we left Accra, we finally made it to Mole! And as you can see, it was quite an adventure and took me a little longer to write than expected, so I am going to head to bed, and write another post about the elephants tomorrow! (Typed up on August 30th, 2011).

Bead Making Workshop

Ok! Time for my first in country blog post! I apologize to any of you who have been anticipating a post sooner (which I doubt is many), but access to fast internet is fairly limited in the town where I live, so I think I will have to type up blogs and post them when I travel into larger towns (like I am right now). It is hard to know where to begin, because in such a short amount of time Ghana has provided me with numerous ideas for blog posts, from exciting and sometimes nerve-wrecking travels on public transportation to learning to speak Krobo (the regional language where I am living) from the local provision store owner. But since I came to Ghana to help develop small businesses, I think that would be a great place to start!

The region I am living in has been known for several hundred years for their glass bead making. With Global Mamas, I am working with local bead makers and assemblers to produce and export beaded products to America, Europe and Australia. This past week, Moses one of our local bead makers with 25 years of experience, lead me through a bead workshop so I could learn a little about the craft!

The process begins when bead-makers take glass bottles and crush them down into tiny sand-like pieces (many of the beads Global Mamas uses are made from glass bottles collected from the U.S. Embassy, British High Commission, and other diplomatic offices in Ghana as a form of recycling). This process is very labor intensive as the majority of bead makers have little to no access to electricity to power machinery that could grind the glass down.

Once the glass is broken down it is sifted through, any pieces of glass larger than sand go back into the cylinder for further crushing.

Then, my favorite part, the powder die is added and mixed in with the glass.

The glass and die mixture is then placed in clay molds with a cassava stem in the center to insure the bead has a hole that rope or twine can be strung through.

The molds are placed in this pizza-like oven for 20-30 minutes. I am not sure how bead-makers can handle working in the hut all day, the oven makes it incredibly warm in addition to the 85-90 degree weather (plus humidity).

Once the beads are finished "baking", like any batch of cookies or brownies, you must let them cool before touching them, or you will badly burn yourself. :(

Then all that is left is rinsing them off and stringing them onto a necklace, bracelet or whatever creative project you have going on!

Since this was my first time making beads, I made a very simple design. Many of the bead-makers produce much more detailed beads in a variety of shapes and sizes, with different painted designs on them as well. I will try to post more photos in the coming weeks and perhaps, I can work up to the more complicated designs, as seen below! Many thanks to my fellow volunteer Erin who took this photo, and let me steal it!

I am spending the night in Accra, and tomorrow I head out to Mole National Park for the remainder of the weekend to see elephants! Wish me luck! (Written on August 25, 2011).

Thoughts Before Departure

Welcome to the Global "Jo"Mama blog! For many of you, this may be the first time you have heard about my international travel plans, so here is the scoop! In just a few hours I will be leaving the country and heading to Krobo-Odumase, Ghana for four months. While in Ghana I will be a volunteer for the organization Global Mamas, which helps women in Ghana to develop and grow their small businesses. The majority of women are in the textile, bead, or beauty product industry. While I hope to be of assistance to the women in Krobo, I have a feeling that they are going to teach me a lot more about life than I could ever teach them!

Over the past few weeks, I have been asking friends and family who have traveled abroad for basic tips about what to do and what not to do. I have received many helpful suggestions, but one that stood out to me was to keep a list of all the personal goals you hope to accomplish by traveling. That way, when you are really frustrated or really homesick you can look back on your goals to see how you are doing. Here are some of my personal goals for my time in Ghana:

1.) Embrace and enjoy living a simple lifestyle.

2.) Laugh at myself more frequently. I would never say that I don't have a sense of humor, but I think I am often guilty of taking myself too seriously.

3.) Learn to cook a new kind of food.

4.) See an elephant in the wild.

5.) Learn a new skill. African drumming, anyone?

As I was packing away the final items into my carry-on bag, I noticed after a while that my hands were really sticky. When I looked down, I had purple ink all over my fingers, and somehow, I even got it on my face! So in the spirit of goal #2, here is a photo of my last minute packing mishap!

Ok, that is all for now, I promise more exciting posts in the future, but I have to work in a last minute In-N-Out dining experience with my family before departure!