Happy Holidays, it's Christmas Eve and I am sitting in an internet cafe in Northern Ghana. Who would of thought.

Yesterday the group and I spent our time volunteering for a doctor who runs a free medical clinic called Shekhinah. Every Christmas they provide a free meal for the poor, mostly disabled. We sorted out used clothing and handed it out to about 3000 Ghanaians. We were told the clothing mostly came from The Netherlands. It was disturbing to see some clothes that were in horrific condition even stained, I was embarrassed to give it, even to those who really needed it.

We began by sorting through a mound of clothes, trying to pair things and make outfits and classify pieces by gender and sizes. The gates were opened sporadically and only a specific number of people were let in at a time. They began by only letting the disabled in. Some had leprosy, some without a limb or some blind or deaf. we handed out two pieces of clothing to each, we tried to give them a bottom and a top but we quickly ran out of pants and skirts.A crowd began to form at the gate, some just spectators from the neighbor others were also poor but consider healthy by the standards of the running the event. There were men watching the crowd and were to keep them under control but I believe that they helped contribute to this small almost riot. They used sticks and rope to hit people if they got to close or what they considered rowdy. Trucks would arrive and bring more people from the inner city to eat and the men would yell at the crowd and hit them. All I could do was stand and watch as I handed out clothing to the "more needy?". A few times they handed out small amounts of pure water or candy to the crowd. Picture ten pieces of small candy being given to 250 hungry people. A tease is what I would call it.

At the end of the event, after all the disabled and their families had eaten they let those who spent the entire day hovering the gate in. They received all the left over food and the scraps of clothing. Hours earlier all those who entered were each given a bottle of pop, now these people were passing one bottle down the line taking quick swigs of it. I was handing out the left over socks to this line of leftover people trying to pair them with at least a similar size when a Ghanaian volunteered came to me and said just give them anything it doesn't matter, I quickly yelled back to him, I'm not just going to give them one sock. This exchange happened multiply times in the last minutes of the events. But soon we ran out of clothing, even the scraps of material were gone, and the line of people continued. We were given shirts from the phone company that had sponsored the event. I quickly took mine off and gave it to a girl aged about 12 at the end of the line, then I was quickly swarmed by men who wanted one. Finally, the dinner ended, I know that some still went home hungry.

I think that this Christmas dinner does good. It DOES feed the poor. But I continue to ask myself 'why can't we help them all'. Why do those who arn't hungry get to pick and chose who is needy enough to get feed. These are questions that I have no answers to.


I really did feel good about myself when I gave a blanket to an old woman, or a baby shirt to a woman with a young child on her back. But every time I turned to the gate and saw a bigger and bigger crowd forming I felt sick to my stomach. There were instances when I really felt tears coming to my eyes, it just wasn't fair.

Tomorrow is Christmas. Today we are at the market buying a "feast" that we will make tomorrow, fried rice for lunch and pasta for dinner. Tonight we will also share a Christmas meal with some other foreigners we have met, A Canadian girl about my age, a Swiss woman and an American Family. I will also buy small gifts for Aryn, Marc and Amanda as they will for me that we will put in the stockings we made under our paper Christmas tree. We will do this as people around Ghana wake up to no new gifts. We will do this as people around Ghana eat Banku for the 15th consecutive day. We will have a special day, as people around Ghana live like it's any other day. One Worlds goals include to live in solidarity. We've lived with Ghanaians, traveled beside Ghanaians and bought food from the same places as Ghanaians, but are we really living in solidarity? This is a struggle I will continue to examine, hopefully I will find an answer that I can be proud of.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays
Peace and Love from Tamale Ghana

Travel time has begun, we left Ada on Monday and arrived in Cape Coast late that night. We just stayed there for two nights. We went to the Cape Coast castle where they held, catagorized and sold slaves before they were shipped to Europe and the Americas. We looked through the musuem where they gave a basic history of the forced African migration to the Americans and Black history to current times. We also recieved a tour of the castle where they showed us the holding block, the cell where the people who fought with the guards were left to die as well as the door of no return that led to the ships and the horrific future for the African Slaves. We accidently left the Coast early and arrived in Tamale yesterday after a horrific day of travel. We are in Tamale for Christmas and we will be spending our time volunteering at a free medical clinic that serves a meal on Christmas to those who cannot afford it. We couldn't find an avaiblable place to stay. so we went straight to Shekhinah medical clinic to see if we could spend the night there. Thankfully we were found a room. There was two single beds so we pushed the beds together and shared a moment as the group looking up at the fan and quickly thinking back to the day and falling asleep to the sounds of Ghana. Today we went to Aryns volunteer placement, Anfani Childrens home to check in. It was a beautiful place and the smiles on the children who thankfully were not afriad of us and just wanted us to hold them was great. We will hopfully find a place to stay and spend our time volunteering. Next we will go to Mole National Park and hopefully see some wild life! I will hopefully get on the internet when we are at our retreat in Kumasi.

Peace & Love

"I try"

So much as happened in the last little while that I don't know if it's possible to write about it all. I think it all began with our tro tro ride home from Nkawkaw, we were fast approaching our stop of Kasseh Ada and I said okay, everyone make a goal. I quickly thought of one. A few weeks earlier I had traveled to a market with my Mother, we had to take a boat there and they spoke Awe . It was a horrific experience as I was followed and harassed by a man who I believe was crazy for lack of a better word. I spent most of the day in hiding and my mom would just bring me food. It wasn't just this man that made the experience hard, I was in a new area where I didn't know anyone and everyone just treated my like a tourist and yelled yevu (white man in Awe). So my goal was to go back to this market with my head up and actually help my mother this time. After I said this goal I quickly regretted it, I knew it would be hard to go. I wasn't even sure my mom would want me to go because I saw myself as a hassle last time. So I put these thoughts and this goal aside for now. A few days later I was in a taxi with my papa waiting to go home from the local market when my mother quickly arrived, I asked her if I could go to the local market with her next time, i like it there, i know most people and feel safe. She misunderstood and thought I meant the Awe market I tried to explain but there was no use I was going to that market on Wednesday, the next day.

That night I helped my mother fill bags of Cassava dough. I asked her if tomorrow I could help carry the dough on my head, she looked at me like I was insane and said, dabi (no). I pleaded I just want to try, and she said okay. So the next morning She woke me up at 4:30 or so I got ready fast and we walked to wear the tro tro would pick up us and our dough. They prepared me for carrying the dough, put a plastic bag and head wrap on my head. Now, I must explain what a bag of cassava dough is like. Its huge, Aryn and I came to a consensus that it weighs more then 150 lbs. It takes four women to lift it, one to carry it on her head. The other women there could not believe I was going to carry it, I quickly said, "i try". And I did just that, i tried. For my own safety though, I did not carry it. I cannot explain what it felt like to have that weight on my head, i think I could of broken my neck, seriously. So i just helped lift it onto other women's heads and tried not to get into the weight. So we drove to the boat launching area and got into a big canoe like banana boat...filled with cassava dough, I'm surprised it didn't sink. It took about 45 minutes to get to the market and as we arrived all i could see was piles upon piles of fire wood waiting to be sold. We went to my mothers stall and waiting for the dough to follow.

I spent the day either filling bags of dough or helping a women who sells corn. Basically we lay the cord in a strainer and pick out all the bad pieces. She tried to pay me for my work that day, but I refused and told her she did pay me, she taught me. My mother and her cousin also made me get my hair washed and put in curlers. it was just neat to get my hair done in a market. We left the market at about 4:30 and started the journey back, while we were on the water it became dark and lights began to go on in places with electricity. It was neat to see the contrast between those villages without electricity and the city of Big Ada that just reminded me of Ottawa at night. We took the tro tro home and arrived at about7:00. It was a very fulfilling day and I learned a lot. I hope to go again next Wednesday.

I have done so much more that I am excited about that I will right about when I have more time. We leave our villages in just over a week and then began our travel time when I hope to learn more about the history of Ghana and see the beauty.

I'm back in the lovely village of Luhuor. We spent our time in Nkawkaw relaxing and learning from Father Paul Lawer. He spoke to us of Africa traditional religion and it was quite interesting to hear about the rituals and beliefs including about witches. After four trotros' and one taxi I made it home around six on Friday night. I was greeted by hugs and smiles. I have been experiencing fatigue the last few days this is probably due to the fact that I havn't been able to sleep much the last few days. After sleeping on a very comfortable bed in Nkawkaw and going home to a bed which allows me to sleep in limited positions due to springs sticking out of the mattress can be difficult. Oh well, I will adjust.

Anyways since arriving home I have begun to admire my four Yayos' (mothers) even more. I watch them go about their work each day, looking after so many children, carrying huge loads of water, wood or other goods on their heads and taking time to laugh even when it is so hard. I want to tell them how much I admire them and am in awe of their strength but it is difficult due to the language barrier. I hope I can think of a way to show this admiration to them.

I was also able to 'try' and pound fufu yesterday. for those who don't know fufu is just another way to eat cassave, you pound it with a heavy log and it becomes quite gooey. This was an achievement that my Yayo allowed me to try and Pound the fufu.

Anyways, I must go as my time is ending on the computer and I am off to the market.

Peace & Love
Cait

Princess of Luhuor

I wake up each morning to sounds that make me realize that I am actually in Ghana. First at about 5:00 am the roosters crow. That then tells the goats that its time for them to start their day and they start to talk to each other. Then my family wakes up at about 5:30, I hear yelling in Dangme, buckets of water being poured and scurrying around. Finally someone next door turns on the radio to the local radio station, 93.3, radio Ada. I throw my sheet over my head, toss and turn for about another hour, I then know it's time to wake up. I quickly changed into my sarong grab my bucket and go outside to get water that we fetched the day before from the pond about a 5 min walk away. I go behind the cement wall that covers about up to my shoulders and take a bath with dirty water. Next I have tea. Some morning I have fried egg, bread and Milo (like hot chocolate but 10 times better) and the odd time I have Wachee (rice beans with a hot pepe sauce on it). I eat my breakfast and was my dishes with the same water that I used to bath. My task during the day change from time to time. At times I spend taking the tops off of pepe which my family, usually my young brothers spent time farming. My Yayo (mother) then drys the pepe and will sell it when the price is right. Others days I remove kernals from dry corn it's hard work that usually ends with blisters. My Yayo currently sells this at the market, people grind it and use it to make a variety of food. On Tuesdays and Fridays I go to Market with my Papa, he is 96 yrs old, the oldest man in my Village called Luhuor, and still going strong. He is well respected. We run errands in the market and usually I find time to sneak away to see friends including Amanada, Ayrn and Mark. I've also started attending the Jr. school where most of my siblings go to school. I am lucky enough that I met a teacher there from Accra, the capital, who speaks perfect English and really wants me to come to his class. It also helps that he is probably the most beautiful person I have every seen in my life. I hope to get more involved in the class, maybe do some marking for the English class. After or during any of these activitys I will eat lunch. Usually a ball of kenkay, which is made with the dried corn, with pepe. By 2:30 my siblings have come home from school and spend the afternoon playing games with them. I often just watch the women cook and try to help them in any way I can. So much preperation goes into a meal. My family feeds 18 people including myself. Each night we eat Bonku, it's the staple food in Ghana, with some kinda of stu or just pepe. Bonku is made from Cassava and Corn dough. We eat a small amount of fish and its always divided equally between my entire family, all 18 of them. We eat in the dark as there is no electricity in Luhuor. I really enjoy this because, well sometimes the food taste sooo good but doesn't look as appealing. After dinner we turn the lanterns on. Some of my siblings complete homework, while others just sit and chat. At times the radio comes on and we dance. My sisters and cousins taught my how to dance to traditional Dangme music so I was able to repeat this the other night with my other Yayo. Finally at about 7:00 or 8:00 I go to bed. I dream all night, sometimes of home, other times of my new home. Then I start it all again.


Thats my day, seems simple but I learn a lot. Ghana is a beautiful country with a lot of pain and suffering. Hard work doesn't even begin to explain how people in the village spend each day. Everything is worked for, nothing comes free. Something as simple as water is valued so much because of the amount of time and effort it takes to get it. I enjoy fetching water, I have improved my carrying capacity and have moved from a small bucket to a medium sized basin. My family sometimes drinks the water, this scares me because I can only dream of all the bacteria that is present in this dark grey liquid.

The food in Ghana is delicious, repetative but delicious. It also comes at the cost of blood and sweat. My family spends hours at farm in order to make the food they eat. They earn an income only after of spending hours and hours of labour working with hot pepe or corn.

I believe that education is the key to success in countries like Ghana, but when I attend classes I see that it can be difficult. Not only are some students not present in the classroom because they have to work for their family but there are limited teachers. the teachers in Ghana require two years of education after they complete secondary school. Sometimes I notice that lack of education. One day when I was sitting in class, the teacher was teaching english to a level three class. He asked the students to name of verbs, one girl said thinking. He laughed and said can I see thinking. Sometimes I find it difficult to go to school because they practice caneing of students. One day Aryn and I went to class and the teacher caned a male student for not being able to speak English properly. His native language is Dangme and she is teaching the English class. I kinda thought it was somewhat her fault that he didn't understand what she was teaching. I was curious to know what caneing felt like, was it really that painful. So the other day Aryn and I were in our newly befriened teacher Ben's class. It was break time and we were talking to Ben about Canada, Ghana etc. Aryn was holding the cane in her hand just examining it. I said Aryn cane me. And she did, on the back 'lightly' as she says. It really did hurt, left as mark aswell. I was happy I was able to experience this first hand.

My family is beautiful. I think it was fate that I was placed with them. I live with four strong women, two under 45 and two over 70, who do all the work for the family minus some of the farming the boys do. But they are controlled by and answer to my papa. I struggle with this and will continue to struggle with it.

I have so much to learn in such a small amount of time. In a few days we are off to Nkawkaw where we will have our first retreat. Not sure what to expect, hopefully just some down time and good times with Aryn, Mark and Amanada.

Hope all is well with everyone.

Peace and Love

Here I am..

well, I've made it. Finally--Africa. Well, thats a huge lie.. Yes, I'm in africa, but I'm not experienceing Africa. I'm not even really experienceing Ghana. I've just seen a small part of the Southern tip of this beautiful country. Still hard to believe. We arrived in Accra on The fourth of October at about 7:00pm. We were recieved by Sister Bernedette, Eric and Jackson (Our godsend "tourguide"). We then were taken to a hostel called the Salvation Army.There we were roomed with a women named Claudia who travelled from Togo to study English. She is hoping to move to the United States to live with her Husband.

We were typicl tourist in the capital of Ghana. We to the first presidents musuem, walked through markets besing *tst*ed at to come and buy things. We also went to the "dead White Man's Markets" where North American second hand clothing is sold. We also made our way to Shiny Beach where we swam in the Giant Waves. We tried new foods and met new people. We then were picked up by Eric and Sister Bernedette and came to Ada where we would begin our language lessons. We stayed at Dinahs house with her nieces Happy and Sala. We traveled to the school which teaches a wide range of students from young children, six of so to 20 yr olds. We sat in on Dungba lessons and picked up what we could. We also had a private teacher, Dinah's Niece Vida come and teach us every evening. I will be the first to admit that this language is extremly difficult to learn. Their are many sounds involved that we never use in the English language.

While in Ada we were also given local names. Mine is Akutu Yayura. The Akutu was given to me from Dinah and it means first born female. Yayura was given to me from Jackson, it means blessing. The names Jackson gave us are all names parents give to their children at birth which my symbolize what the childs brith meant to them at that time.

Today we are off to Battor to visit Sister Bernedette, then on Sunday we will be immersed into our vilalges. I will be living in Luhuor which is the furthest village, it will be about a 45min bike ride to Amanda and Aryn.

Anyways, that is about it for not. The next time I will post will be in about 3 weeks we will just be begininng our first retreat in Nkawkaw.

:)

Counting down the hours...

Tomorrow the adventure begins. Hard to believe, so hard I don't think I actually DO believe yet. These last few days that I had with my family and friends were wonderful. I was able to spend time with some of the people who I love and most importantly able to say bye for now.

Tomorrow at 10:20 pm I fly from TO to Amsterdam then to Accra, Ghana. Yes, Thursday I will be far away from those I love, the comfort of my home and western life. But I will be closer to the new beauty that I will discover, the friendships I will make and the knowledge I will gain.

I will write on the blog as much as a can but my access to the internet is limited. Thank you to everyone for the support, I will be thinking of all of you in the coming months.

Until next time.

No Difference

No Difference

Shel Silverstein

Small as a peanut,

Big as a giant,

We're all the same size

When we turn off the light.

Rich as a sultan

Poor as a muite,

We're all worth the same

When we turn off the light.

Red, black or orange,

Yellow or white,

We all look the same

When we turn off the light.

So maybe the way

To make everything right

Is for god to just reach out

And turn off the light!

Quote

I really enjoy quotes. I believe it is a quick way to learn from other people's wisdom. From time to time I will post quotes that I find knowledgeable, inspirational or just beautiful kind words.





"Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate,but that we are powerful beyond measure.It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?You are a child of God.Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.It is not just in some; it is in everyone.And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

--Nelson Mandela
1994 Inaugural Speech, (a quote from Marianne Williamson)

As I sit in Sarnia on my weekend off, I am starting to think about the challenges that we as a group faced.

We went for a 35km, 5 day hike at Algonquin park. It rained, it was cold and I was tired. The packs were heavy, the food barrel was...unbearable. To quote Amanda '[about barrel] a doctor would not approve carrying this'. As we reached Maggie lake on the second day it was only 1:30 and we decided to hike on to Oak lake, our destination for the next day. We went to bed with a little bit of conflict and a lot of pain. The next day we agreed to stay the night at the final campsite and hike out the next day. Due to accidental pen marks on our map by an unnamed source we missed the campsite and hiked out of the park. Thats right, we completed a 35 km hike in 3 days. We came out of the park and drove to Amandas' in Parry Sound feeling a sense of accomplishment only to find out that we have to re-enter the wild and continue with more uncomfortable hiking. The idea behind this challenge was to feel comfortable in being uncomfortable and it was more about being together for 5 days in the wild then completeing the loop. So we went to kill bear where we took attention to the wonds that some group members had and hiked without backpacks. Not saying that it was easy, we hiked along to beach jumping for rock to rock.

We completed this week feeling closer and more comfortable with eachother then ever. As I learned more about each group member my love, admiration and respect for them grew.

We then headed to our weekend off; Everyone was being dropped off at their place where they were staying for the weekend then Maria and I were heading to Kitchner to exchange cars and travel to Sarnia. After making it through intense Toronto traffic we headed to find Bresleau, just outside of guelph. Its a small town yet we drove around aimlessly for about an hour. After finding out destination and dropping off Aryn we headed to Kitchner. I was driving and as we pulled up the the house to trade cars, i kinda..somewhat "skimmed" the side of the curb and the tire went flat. After the tire was changed it was discovered that Marias car keys had gone missing for the mail box. We were stuck in Kitchener, with a car but no keys and no way to Sarnia about 2 and a half hours away. As Maria and I finished being upset, Maria called her boyfriend to drive to Kitchener and bring the extra set of keys. I was thankful for him. We finally arrived in Sarnia at about 1:15ish in the morning. What a day.

I am currently relaxing at my Aunt and Uncles house and will be going back to Guelph on monday.

Explanation

This blog has been created in order for me to transform the experiences I will have in Ghana into a readible format that you as a loving friend, family member or supporter can read.

My journey began three weeks ago in Eramosa where we gathered at a lovely cottage for the retreat that began prep month. I met the four miraculous individuals that would become my support group for the next 8 months and friends for the rest of my life. At this retreat we begun group bonding and building workshops that would bring us closer together to forming the FLOCK we have become. We also particpated in workshops that educated us about consenus decision making, conflict, white privledge, West African economy other issues facing Ghana.

That week then led us to our urban placement in Kitchener. We volunteered at a local soup kitchen where we learned much beyond the simple kitchen within the old building. I met many inspiring people. Some who lived pay check to pay check or on the street and where brillant and willing to share their knowledge with me. Other people like Gretchen the kitchen's cordinater who are willing to give time to allow people less fortunate then them the ability to eat lunch. Although the kitchen does take donation, they are in no way eating second grade food. Anything that we would chose not to eat because of expiry date etc, Gretchen would never serve. Within the kitchen was a friendly man from Guyana who comes to the kitchen every day with a smile on his face and love in his heart to wash the dishes. There was also a Nurse from Nigeria who volunteers her time to cook. What I was really impressed with were the amount of people who both use the soup kitchen and also volunteer there. This was truly a learning experience that I am greatful for. I truly believe that it is important to be aware of the poverty within our country before we go out to learn about world-wide poverty.

We have just completed our hiking week where we became comfortable with being uncomfortable. I am still recoperating so I will write about that in the next few days.