Epic trip #2: The Green Turtle Lodge

Hey all of you beautiful people. I hope that life is going well for all of you. Things have settled down here a little bit, so I figured that it was time for another update from Ghana. I had a great trip this last weekend, but first let me tell you about the week before the trip.... Not much happened. You are now up to date. That is part of the reason it has been so long between blogs. I did, however, have 2 quizzes last week (and also 1 today and 1 tomorrow) that have kept me a little busy. Those ended on Wednesday though, and we didn't have class Wed-Fri because of Kwame Nkruma's birthday (the first president of Ghana) and graduation. So, basically on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday I read a lot and took naps. I also did laundry too, which takes about 4 hours here (all by hand remember) and I am attempting to do P90X. Other than that, I mostly prepared for our epic trip.

This all started on Wednesday when Molin acquired the Ghana section of Lonely Planet. Of course we all had to copy it and start reading about the endless possibilities. One of the things that we read was the possible surfing and great beaches of Busua. We were all in the mood for a nice and relaxing weekend, so a trip to Busua sounded like a plan. (Btw, Busua is a town that is about 2 hours West of us, opposite direction of Accra)  Actually the original plan was to go to Takoradi (halfway between Busua and Cape Coast), but we found out there is not much to do there. So, we decided to mostly skip it. We made the plan to leave Cape Coast on Friday. I wanted to leave early, because I wanted more time at the beach.... I thought that was a pretty straight forward plan. However, Madeline had to do some homework. So, we decided to split up. After some errands and other random Ghanian tasks in the morning, Steve, Shelby and I headed out at about 10 on Friday morning for the beached of Busua.

We managed to pick up the first TroTro pretty easily. Aparentlly it is a 1:30 drive to Takoradi. Not bad considering Accra was 3 hours (remember TroTros are totally not built for 6'3" Americans). Once in Takoradi, the TroTro dropped us off (seriousally, it pulled up to a random street coner and told us to get out) After some wondering and asking a few people directions, we found the Silver Pot to eat lunch at (thanks Lonely Plant). I was actually able to have a bruger and fries and a coke :) Then we made our way to the next TroTro. Another hour and we arived at the next station. We had to get on one more TroTro and we would arrive at our destination. They told us it would be about an hour, what they didn't tell us is that 45 minuets of that would be on a dirt road with massive pot holes basically going through the jungle. I hit my head multiple time on the roof. Our stop was the Green Trutle Lodge. Again, we heard about it in Lonely Planet, but it is technically in Akwidaa, which is about 5 miles from Busua, so we were going to spend 1 night here and then head to Busua.  Then, the TroTro droped us off on the side of the road next to a wodden sign that said "Green Turtle Logde" with an arrow pointing in the dirrection. We were basically just droped off on the side of the road and the TroTro drove off. Normally I would be freaked out, but we were all so excited about how awesome this was that we didn't even care. This truely was an adventure. So, we followed the sign...

After about 5 minuets of walking, we arrived at a clearing. We were welcomed by a very nice rustic looking village place. It was full of really cool looking buildings that were made with bamboo and other cool things. It had a bar that was shaped out of a boat and several pavilions that had straw coverings. In addition to the buildings, ther was a ping pong table, a pool table, a small gift shop and a hammock. It was full of great ways to relax. This place is awesome! We had truely gotten away from everything (45 minuets in a TroTro to the middle of no where will do that). When we got to the registration desk, we were welcomed by a very nice reception staff. We got our (fairly cheap) room and we wasted no time in changing into our swim suits and hitting the beach. There is a great beach there with an awesome view. Cocont trees were everywhere. I may or may not have climbed a couple. We spent the rest of the day (we got there about 4) relaxing in the sun and exploring this new place. I also made sure to play some ping pong and pool. Then I had a delicious dinner of stirfry with rice and shortly after that, the Swedes found their way to the lodge. We all chilled for the rest of the night and played some games (Mostly cards and pool). We also decided that we liked this place too much, so we were going to stay here for the whole weekend. No surfing this weekend :( but it was worth it.

On Saturday, I got up a little early to read the Bible and grab some breakfast. There was some great french toast, but the best part was REAL COFFEE!! It was great, I actually got to enjoy a cup of real coffee. (Not that I don't love the instant coffee nana :D) I might have to go back again just for that. After a while, the rest of the gang got up and had breakfast too. We hung out at the beach for a bit, then we decided to check out the village nearby. First, I had to beat Emanuel (the Ghanian bartender, who is awesome!) at a game of Ping Pong. Then we walked down the beach to the village. And when I say village, I mean several mud houses, not much contact with the outside world, village. It was really cool to see, but the people were a little too aggressive for my blood. Apparently white people don't come around too often and they think that they are all loaded. We only stayed there a little while before heading back to the Lodge. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and doing typical beach activities. The night consisted of some dinner, more games and a bonfire made by some (sketchy) South Africans. I had a great conversation with Emanuael about life. Then I took a walk on the beach to see the stars. Call me what you want, but this was my favorite part. We were in the middle of, literally, no where, so the stars were awesome. I have never seen so many in my life. I felt like I could see another universe. It is amazing to truly see that part of Gods creation. I just sat and stared at them for a long time. On every trip I have taken, I wanted to get far enough away from civilization to really see the stars, but this is the first time I felt like I actually far enough away. The whole trip was worth that.

On Sunday, we relaxed by the beach again for a while and then moved out. The TroTro station was back at the village, so we hiked down the beach again. We had to wait for a while for it to show up, but we managed to catch the other TroTros pretty quick, so we were able to make it back just in time to watch the Lions game. Not a bad end to a farily awesome weekend. Monday brought more classes, but I will tell you about that later this week. Btw, I will hopefully post pictures to facebook today, so you can see where I was. Thanks for reading. Until next time,
Jordan

1 Month

            Today is a special day here in Ghana. I have now officially been in Ghana for one month! What a crazy month it has been. As I look back on it, it is amazing how much I have adapted to the lifestyle here. Things that bothered me the first week barely faze me know. For example, I have (finally) just accepted living with ants and lizards. I hardly react when I see a line of ants in my room (except when they are in my sugar). Also, I was weirded out of lizards when I first got here. Now, I just kick them out of my way. It is amazing how far your standards fall after a certain amount of time.

            Life here just seems to be growing on me. I don’t have the same sense of time that I had when I arrived. The first week, I couldn’t stand how slow things move here. Nothing happens quickly and it is impossible to even do simple tasks in a timely manner. However, I have adopted a ‘go with the flow’ mentality. Now, things aren’t as bad when I have to wait forever. (Even if you have to spend 3 and a half hours trying to get one package like I did on Monday. There went my morning) However, I still find it easier to deal with life here. My biggest struggle and greatest gift has been the amount of time I have had here. It is a struggle because it is very easy to be board, but it is great because I have time to do many things that I would not normally have time for. I have probably read my bible more this month than any other month in my life. I get to read all my books (I am reading Jesus Freaks right now) and I can just relax and be. Please pray that I continue to enjoy this gift of time and can use it to the best of my ability. Also, that I can continue to strengthen my relationship with God in my time here and that I don’t waste my time.

            So, now for the update of my fun and exciting life…. Ok this week has not been very eventful. Monday was filled with classes, like usual. I finally met my permanent religion professor. He seems really nice and very intelligent. I also believe that he knows biblical Hebrew. I found out that I have 2 quizzes coming up in 2 of my classes next week, so I will sure to let you all know how that goes. One is in AFS 101 and I am not quite sure what we have covered so far, but it should be alright. Tuesday- Thursday consisted of mostly reading, studying, going to class, playing basketball and hanging out with some of the people here. (I also had my first cup of coffee since arriving in Ghana! Is it a bad thing that that is what I am probably the most excited about?…) It is a bonus that everyone likes soccer here because there always seems to be a game on, so I can always go down to the lobby and watch a game if I am super board. Basketball is always another good way of killing time. I have successfully made the hall team and our first game is on Tuesday. Hopefully that will go well. Too bad our first game is against the defending champs…. Friday we celebrated Molin’s birthday by going to Oasis. I was actually able to get a hamburger and French fries (totally worth the money I spent on them) Saturday I relaxed most of the day, studied a bit and hung out with a guy from my history class. I also attempted to watch some football. I was able to watch most of the MSU game, so it was a good day. Hopefully the Lions game happens to be online tomorrow.

            One more thing that I have really realized since being here was something I did not really expect. While I have been in my religion class, I really have been able to appreciate how much my trip to Israel meant. We are talking about Moses and the Israelites wondering in the desert, or Joshua and the attack on Jericho and I can see the pictures of these places in my head. It is amazing how real it makes the things we talk about. I can understand more fully what we are talking about. Also, this time that I have had to read my bible has helped as well. It is great to spend some time to really sit down and read the word. This semester I get to have hours to read and study the word and there is not very much to distract me. I can’t help but get the feeling that this trip is about me trying to find who I am in the LORD and what his plans are for me. As much as I was expecting this to be a trip where I help people, I feel that I am supposed to spend more time being quiet. I guess that I needed to go to Africa to fully appreciate Israel and that sometimes you need to get (far) away from your life to find out who you really are. Hmm, just a thought. Until next time

Jordan

Fight for Accra

Hey everyone,

I am just sitting and relaxing with a cup of tea listening to John Mayer, so I thought it would be a good time to update you on my recent adventures. This past weekend, some of us decided it was time to make our first adventure to another city in Ghana. Road trip! After some minor discussion and maybe a bribe or too…. we (me, Steve and the 2 Swedish girls) decided to take a trip to Accra. (Accra is the capital of Ghana for those of you who don’t know).

            We started our trip on Saturday morning, so we had to wake up at 6. I know that sounds early, but here it is actually sleeping in. We met at 6:30 and took a taxi to the bus station. The bus was supposed to show up at 7, but didn’t come until 8:15 and we left at 9… typical Ghana time. After a nice and relaxing 3:30 bus ride (totally sarcastic, the busses suck), we made it to Accra. And when I say we made it to Accra, I don’t mean we made it to a nice bus station and the bus pulled into a spot and we all calmly got off the bus. No, the bus stopped in the road at a random point and I was basically pushed onto the sidewalk by 50 other people rushing off the bus. (Ghanaians don’t have the same concept of personal space that Americans do). So, we weaved our way through a few streets of crowded markets to get to the next “bus station”. The one thing I really noticed about Accra is it is far busier than Cape Coast. People are all over the place and people selling every odd and end are on every open part of the sidewalk. I even found out later that I was in the Greater Accra region and not the main part of the city. However, we got on 2 different trotros (15 passenger busses that they fit 20 people into) and finally got to our destination, Osu street.

            When we got to the street, I saw a Popeye’s and my heart skipped a beat. This is the first American restaurant I have seen since I got here. So, we all went inside and I had a hamburger. Let me tell you, I could not contain the excitement of having American food. I wanted to dance, but I held back. To be honest, the food was one of the top reasons I wanted to go to Accra. We rested there for a while, then met up with Tina (one of the German students) and went to the American mall. This is the closest I have seen to America since being here. They had a full grocery store and I got a Snickers bar. They had a lot of other stores, but everything was really expensive. A pair of Puma shoes cost $200 (300 Gh). Nothing was worth it… except I couldn’t contain myself from getting a pizza with tons of toppings. Totally worth it.

            After the mall, we went to the market. It basically was an endless amount of people in little shacks selling almost everything under the sun. It ranges for locks to bathroom supplies to phones. There is even one whole area that sells nothing but shoes. The girls wanted to buy some clothes. I really didn’t see anything I wanted because 90% of the stuff is cheap Chinese knock offs. However, I did get a really cool tea cup from this really nice lady whose name is very hard to pronounce…. and I can’t really remember what it was.

            After shopping, we went back to our hotel room, which was this one guy’s back yard. He has 3 guest rooms in his back yard, but they were pretty nice and very cheap. We rested for an hour and then went out on the town…. Ok we went to a few places by our room. We first grabbed some dinner and I got some French fries J Then we went to this outside bar club thing. We had a few beers and danced to some live reggae music. Things like that are far more interesting when you are the only white people in a club of over 500. We also went to a couple other places that were similar. Then, when we got back to our room, and the guy who owned it wanted to kick us out because we had a broken screw on the door. Pretty sure that was not our fault. It took us 20 minuets to calm him down and convince him not to kick us out. I had to give him 10 more dollars. It was a total buzz kill to a fun day.

            We got up early the next morning to get away from that guy because we didn’t want to have to pay him more money for a cheap fix. Steve and I walked to the beach, which took about an hour. Then we walk down the beach for another half hour. There was a lot of really cool shells and beach glass, not to mention the ocean. Then we found a resort type place. We were able to grab some breakfast, rest in the shade and take a nap on some lawn chairs. It was a great way to spend the morning and afternoon. Then we met back up with the Swedes, went through another awesome bus ride and got back to Cape Coast. Not a bad first adventure.

            I have some more stories about this week, but I will update you later, because this is getting a little long. Please pray for me that I may have strength and that I may know God’s will for me in Ghana. Until next time!

Jordan

P.S. Please let me know how I can pray for you too J

Hey everyone,
Sorry about the delay in updating you all. I haven't really been able to create a new post...... ok I have been lazy. However, I thought that it is finally time to give you all a glance at my last week and change.

So, I am now through 3 weeks of my classes, and they are finally starting to take shape. My first class is African Studies (AFS) 101. This is a basic class about the broad topics of culture and the study of culture, specifically here in Ghana. The class has been a little weird so far because my professor keeps talking about incest and makes many really weird crude jokes. However, the class does seem to be coming along. The major problem is that it starts at 6:30 a.m. on Monday, so I probably am not as engaged as I should be. The second AFS class is AFS 301. This class is based around the slave trade. We have talked about how the slaves were captured, where they were sent and the details around the journey. It is a really interesting class, but I feel a little weird being an American in that class... I do have 2 other Americans in that class as well, so it makes it not as weird. (btw, that is the only class that I am taking that has white people in it). My last AFS class is 424. This is probably my favorite AFS class. The subject is Africa in world relations. It is abut the Cold War and the role that Africa had during the power struggle between the US and USSR. It is really cool, but we are still on just the basics of the cold war so most of it is review right now. I also have a History class (206). It is West African Politics, but my professor has been sick so more details to come. The last class is Religion 323. This is my favorite overall class. The class is called Old Testament Studies. We have taking an objective look at the narratives of the Bible and examining weather common beliefs have any empirical evidence behind them. It is really awesome and I always seem to look forward to that class. Overall, it should be a good academic semester.

Along with my restless schoolwork, I have been trying to keep myself busy outside of class. Steve and I have been playing a lot of basketball. This past Monday we had out championship for the fresher games. Our hall (Kwame Nkruma) took on Casford for the title. After starting the game at 4:45 (it was supposed to start at 2), we lost 23-20.... It was a good game though. I thought that myself, Steve and Dominick all played very well, so I can't be too upset. I scored 10 points, so at least I had a good showing. Also, Steve, Dom and myself are all on the hall team now. Practice starts next week :)

I have also been starting to feel like I am starting to become more used to Africa and the life style. I have now successfully washed my clothes by hand twice. It really sucks to do and takes over 2 hours to do half of the dirty clothes. That one will take a little getting used to. I also got my first African haircut yesterday. It is basically a buzz cut, but I can now fit in with the Africans..... ok I still stand out, but I feel better. Last Monday, I got to watch a soccer game too. Ghana and Brazil was on, so they put it on the big screen. You have not truly watched soccer until you watch soccer with Africans. They go crazy for every play. It is great to see 1000 people cheering for a successful pass. Maybe I will try and play some football with them soon. At least I am getting used to the ants and bugs. I have officially accepted ants as a way of life here, but I will still try and fight them.

Anyway, I believe that is all for now. I think that I am going to Accra this weekend, so I will let you all know how that goes. Until then, take care :)
Jordan