Last Week in Ghana

Well, this is officially my last Sunday in Ghana, and tomorrow is my last Monday, making all of this my last week here.  I'm leaving in six days and could not be more excited.  It's not that I hate Ghana and can't wait to get out of here (as many people think is the case of those of us leaving early), but rather that after four months of being away, I'm ready to go back to the States/have a ton of stuff to do for the summer/life in general. 

Lately, I've been ridiculously bogged down with work.  I've lived in the editing room making a documentary about ice cream and have been paper writing out the wazoo.  Amidst all of this work, I'm trying to make sure I have gifts for everyone and still have fun.  

Yesterday, we took a group trip to Wli Falls.  It was phenomenal.  Really, so much fun.  The group was great, the waterfall was beautiful, and it was just generally a nice break from everything.  Once we got back, the other dorm, Solomon's, had organized a party, and again a great time.  As time is coming down to the end, I've realized that I really genuinely like everyone at NYU in Ghana and I'm really happy about that.  Even though I'm not besties with everyone, I think that I can count everyone as a friend and I'm thrilled that we'll be able to see each other in the city. 

Okay, off to do work.  Six Days! AHHHH! 

Ghana just keeps getting better...

So after the lovely experience of being sick and just generally out of commission for a week, my laptop was stolen. Out of my house. PRETTY FREAKING LAME if you ask me.

It wasn't even just my laptop. My roommate's was taken too, along with her purse and another girl's purse in my house. And of course, Ghana being the incredibly modern/civilized/efficient/developed/really insert any word here that is used to describe Ghana place that is, a great investigation was started straight away.

Now at my house we have 24 hour security guards, an alarm system, and a CCTV (or something like it system). And at NYU in Ghana we have this lovely (ineffective) guy named Victor in charge of security (and community service at which he had already proved himself incompetent). Victor and our security company, G4S start a crack investigation, which five days later, had resulted in them not yet watching security tapes and essentially looking around our houses to make sure we didn't misplace our computers. Okay, seriously NYU? I've gone so far as to refer to my laptop as my baby...I totally just misplaced it.

This whole experience has also allowed me to get acquainted with the Ghanaian Police Department. If I had to choose one word to describe their investigation tactics, I'd have to go with illogical. After Leah and I gave statements saying that our laptops were Macs, they call us in to see if a Sony laptop that they confiscated from our security guard's house (it was his roommate's) was ours. Seriously? Yesterday morning, I'm woken up to find our investigator at our house who tells us that she's there to "help us look" for our laptops. Again, seriously?

Blah. The whole this is just really frustrating. Luckily, my dad took out what I'm convinced is the greatest insurance policy ever and my laptop was covered by it. Now I just have to deal with the extreme inconvenience of having to write multiple papers and finals without my computer or any of the information on it. So much to do for the two weeks that I have left here.

So I've been back in Ghana for a month since Spring Break...

Here's an abridged version of things that have gone down:

• I am no longer working at the LRC for reasons not worth mentioning.
• I'm getting really, really tan from going to the beach. Seriously. It's not really me. I'm not glowing in the dark. Amazing I know.
  
• Continuing with schoolwork. Time to start writing term papers and whatnot. YES! So excited!
• I went to Benin (and Togo, but only because you have to go through Togo to get there) with Anna and Jackie. It was pretty cool. It's a Francophone country which meant awesome baguettes. In other news, I rode many Motos (their form of taxis) and did not die. I also stayed in a stilt village which was semi-unsettling, but again I survived, and it was very cool.
• I possibly got malaria. I guess this one is kind of a big one. I went to the hospital here and they decided to treat me for malaria. I finished the treatment, but am still sick so now we're on to antibiotics. Sweet deal.
• I have seriously started craving bizarre American foods. Despite the fact that I am sick right now, there is nothing more in the world that I want than a Taco Bell Chicken Quesadilla. Hopefully, I will not be lactose intolerant by the time I get home from this severe lack of dairy products in Ghana.
  
• I will be returning home in less than three weeks (there's a countdown for you mom.)
  

An Even More Delayed Spring Break Post, Part 2

Flying into Namibia and the drive from the airport to Windhoek was so cool to see. If there was one word to describe Namibia I think it would have to be empty. It makes sense because it’s like the least densely populated country in Africa, but it was just shocking to see something so barren after coming from such a city. After about a 45 minute ride, we got to Windhoek and our accommodation there (Chameleon Backpackers).

Chameleon was really freaking nice. There was a huge self-catering outdoor kitchen, a pool, lots of communal space and the rooms were really great too. We ended up staying in a six-bed dorm with two very strange (and kind of rude guys). After locking up all of our luggage, we went to hang out by the pool for some time and then decided to nap for the afternoon. We didn’t really feel bad about doing this because Windhoek isn’t the greatest tourist destination in the world…it’s really kind of a sleepy city. We made dinner for ourselves that night (which was so cheap! Only US$1 a person!) and then called it pretty early because the next morning we had an early pickup for our safari.

The next morning, we got up early, had the complimentary breakfast at Chameleon and at 7:30 were met by Martin, our lovely safari guide. He showed us out to Sexy Beast, our Safari-mobile where we packed in all of our stuff and got in. We waited for a while in the car because we were told that two other people would be joining us on our Safari. Soon enough the two others showed up. They were two eighteen-year-old British boys named Henry and Hamish. We got off to a really amusing start with them because right away Griffin started sassing them. One of the first things she said to Henry was “Do you really need that window open right now?” Which came out way meaner than she meant it to, but it was pretty hilarious. We definitely posed all questions to each other in the same way for the rest of the time.

Anyway, we left Chameleon and headed over to Thimbi Thimbi (our safari company) to fill out some paperwork. Afterward, we stopped at Game (which is a strange store and also in Ghana) for some snacks and were on our way. Driving through Namibia was absolutely gorgeous. Again, there was so much open space it was pretty unbelievable. We stopped for lunch in a place called Solitaire and as the name might suggest, it was the only thing around. Martin and his assistant Safari guide Vares prepared an awesome lunch for us (lots of cheese!) which we downed quickly. Post-lunch, we were on our way again to the Agama River Camp, where we would be staying the next two nights.

Upon arrival at the campsite, we were put to work. We had to set up our own tents which we did so masterfully. Monica and I might have had a little help from Martin with our tent, but we still have ace camping skills. After set up, we all put on our bathing suits and spent the rest of the day by the pool at the campsite (it was not necessarily the cleanest pool in the world…you could really see any of your body when in the water). That night Martin and Vares made us dinner and we laid on the ground looking at the stars for a while (there were so many!) and then headed to be bed.

The next morning we were woken up at 4:30am to head to Sossusvlei. We wanted to get there before sunrise so we could see the sun rising over the dunes. We got to Sossusvlei around 6am and were the first in line outside the gate. It reminded me of the time (I think this happened unless I am making it up) that we got to Disneyland before it opened and were the first in line. Finally after about an hour we were let in and we sped our way to the first dune. Martin told us to get out and we went running up the dune…for a short time at least. The thing about sand dunes is that they’re really ridiculously hard to hike. Regardless, we made it partially up and watched the sunrise which was absolutely beautiful. Then we headed back down for breakfast to fill up before we continued our way through Sossusvlei.

Driving through the park we saw ostriches and springbok and lots of sand. Eventually we hit a point where four-wheel drive was necessary and kept going. We made it out to Crazy Dune which Martin led us on a hike of. We all hiked up barefoot (shoes just filled with sand) and took some awesome jumping off of dune pictures. We then ran down the side of the dune on to Dead Vlei, which is like this weird dried valley but really cool. I climbed a tree which I thought would be like petrified wood but was definitely really splintery and took a ton of pictures then we all headed back to Sexy Beast. We left Sossusvlei and headed out to Sesriem Canyon which was outside the Sossusvlei gate. We hiked down into the canyon a short way and found a river that ran through it. It was ridiculously hot, so we all semi-stripped down and went for a swim. We also partook in some mad fun cliff jumping. After our fun, we rode back to our campsite soaking wet and were lazy for the rest of the day.

The following day we headed to Swakopmund which we had heard was the “resort destination of Namibia.” First we stopped in Walvis Bay which certainly looked like the party destination of Namibia from all the empty beer and Smirnoff Ice bottles. We continued on to Swakopmund, passed Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s house and got to our really adorable guesthouse that we stayed at. We went into the town to go to a craft market we heard about and it was pretty much like a ghost town. Seriously, no one was around. We found the craft market, bought some stuff, saw some Himba People, and went to the beach (which was quite cold). That night we went out to dinner where we all ordered waaaaay too much food. Oh! But before dinner, our guesthouse had a really awesome happy hour where beers were only 7 Namibian Dollars or about 70 cents. We wanted to get the full value of this deal and downed many beers each. When in Namibia… Anyway, we tried to go out after dinner (and bear in mind this is a Saturday night) and the bar we went which was also a club like sort of deal had golf on…WITH COMMENTARY. Not like music or anything. It was fine though because we were pretty beat and called it a night after that disappointment.

The next day we went Quad Biking and Sandboarding in the Dunes in Swakopmund. It was definitely one of the cooler parts of the trip. I managed to hurt myself on the quad before we even made it on to the sand (no worries, just a small amount of blood). After an hour or so of Quading we got to some dunes were we meet some guys who had the sandboards. Now sandboards are pretty much just pieces of plywood that they grease up on one side. You lie down face first, lift the front and well just glide down the sand. It was pretty fun aside from the massive quantities of sand that end up everywhere you can imagine. After we all went a few times, we headed back to the homebase. It was on the way back that Monica got thrown from her Quad which then ran over her (she proved to be alright though). Our guide went back to help her and left me, Caroline and Griffin in the middle of a bunch of dunes. We got kind of nervous after a while because we realized we had no idea where we were or how to get back. Luckily, our guide returned with Monica safely, although shaken up, on his quad. We all made our way back to the base and then returned to our guesthouse to meet up with Martin and Vares to go back to Windhoek.

We spent the night in Chameleon again, in an even nicer room than our first, and this time, no nasty roommates. We decided we wanted some dinner that night, but failed to get to the supermarket before it closed. Our only choice was to order pizza from this place that delivered. It was our only choice because at that point, we were really freaking broke. I mean, we were so out of money, we were counting change. It was really amusing though and after emptying out every pocket we had enough for one pizza, which was enough for us. That night at Chameleon we hung out with some pretty cool people. One guy was from England and was biking from Ethiopia down to Cape Town. He had been doing it since January and had a month left to go. He kind of put us to shame in the way we traveled.

The next morning we had to get to the airport to fly back to Accra. We took a shuttle and had another very stress-free experience at check-in. We also had a stress-free flight getting to Joburg, where we had to connect to get to Accra. In the Joburg airport, we met up with the girls from our program who had spent their break there and exchanged stories. Again we had another awesome flying experience with a very empty plane with an empty seat next to each of us. It was pretty sweet. In the end we made it to Accra safely (although one bottle of my wine didn’t) after an amazing trip.

A much delayed Spring Break entry...Part 1

Spring Break as previously mentioned was phenomenal. It’s way too much to write about, but I’m going to attempt to recount the most amazing parts.

Flying to Cape Town was pretty stress free. It was kind of annoying because it wasn’t a direct flight, but the transfer in Joburg was pretty much the easiest thing in the world. None of us checked any luggage so there was no reclaiming or anything. From Accra to Joburg (which was basically a redeye flight) I had the luxury of sitting next quite possibly the most talkative man in the world. He was an Afrikaner named Martin and spent a substantial amount of the time that I would have liked to have been asleep showing me pictures of everything from his grandson to the goldmine he built in Ghana. He was very nice though and offered to show me around South Africa on my next trip there.

Our arrival in Cape Town was pretty seamless. I had arranged for an airport transfer through our Backpackers and we were met at the gate. The driver was really great and gave us a little tour of Cape Town pointing out cool stuff on the way to Carnival Court. Carnival Court, our backpackers, was awesome. It’s right on Long Street and right away we all fell in love with the location. We checked in, checked out our room (fireplace and balcony! All for 100 rand ($10) per person a night), changed from our airplane clothes (all of us put on clothes we had made in Ghana…we looked kind of silly, but whatever), and went to the reception desk to figure out how to get to Robben Island (where Nelson Mandela was held as a political prisoner during Apartheid).

The rest of that day was spent visiting Robben Island, hanging out at the V&A Waterfront, and then meeting up with Emma, Katie and Jackie for dinner. Robben Island was a lot to do on our first day but it was really interesting. Our tour guide of the prison was a former political prisoner so it was really interesting to hear about his personal experience there. The Waterfront was pretty touristy (really touristy), but really nice as well. It kind of reminded me of Kierland or Desert Ridge with a mix of restaurants and shopping, only this was on water. Dinner the first night was amazing and definitely a highlight. We got LEGIT Mexican food at a place called Fat Cactus. We all ate way too much food to the point that we were uncomfortably full afterwards but it was well worth it. It was awesome and the start of our culinary delights in Cape Town. After dinner we headed back to our Backpackers and hung out in the bar there. We ended up meeting quite a few South Africans, who on the whole, were really nice (a couple introduced me, Caroline, and Griffin to a delicious South African shot called a Springbok). In addition, we met some ridiculous(ly drunk) South Africans who said some of the funniest things. One approached Caroline and said “Sit up” which she did, “Stand up” which she did, “Hug me” again she complied, then he looked at her and said “You’re a badass” and left. Hilarious. Meanwhile, I was talking to his friend who told me he was playing an American in a play and needed to practice his accent. I thought it was funny and offered to listen and a short way into the conversation he looked at me and said “You’re sassy!” and for the rest of Spring Break I was pretty sassy.

The next morning we were up hella early to head to Simon’s Town to go sea kayaking. We found out that it was really far away and would be a R300 taxi ride…it was really expensive, but split four ways, it was more reasonable and we really wanted to kayak to see penguins. Our drive to Simon’s Town was so beautiful. The Cape peninsula is really one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. Simon’s Town itself was absolutely freaking adorable. It was so quaint and built into a hillside (and when I move to Cape Town I will have a weekend home in Simon’s Town, obviously).

We arrived at the harbor and immediately got ready to kayak. In a matter of minutes we had our life jackets on and our cameras in waterproof containers and were heading into the water. Caroline and I took one kayak and Monica and Griffin manned the other. In the nonexistent competition that was sea kayaking to see the Jackass penguins, Caroline and I totally owned. Monica and Griffin put up a valiant effort, but just couldn’t master our skill and coordination (I attribute it to Caroline’s singing of African songs as work songs). Anyway, the penguins were adorable and the water was freezing, but we had a lot of fun. After our return kayak trip, we decided to get lunch in Simon’s Town at the most stylish restaurant ever. If Anthropolgie were to magically turn into a restaurant, it would be The Meeting Place in Simon’s Town. I got some great pastries (half price!...still delicious even though they were a day old) which I enjoyed on our ridiculously cheap train ride home (only R12…so our transportation for the day evened out). There was a troupe of children on the train (Caroline’s phrasing) making a lot of noise, but we al managed to nod off on the ride to Cape Town.

That night we went to dinner at a place called Greens where we all enjoyed an entrée, a bottle of wine, starters and dessert all for less than $10 a person. And it was freaking good food. Afterward we met up with Emma, Katie and Jackie to go out, but they ended up calling it an early night so we headed back to the bar at our Backpackers. We talked to some really annoying Americans (one of whom was from Mesa) and then called it a night.

It was a good thing we called it a night because we had a huge day of wine tasting ahead of us. It was really a 9-5 job. We were picked up from the tour company bright and early and then went to pick up a Polish couple who were joining us on our tour. After an hour or so drive out to Stellenbosch we made it to our first wine tasting location. It was a cellar rather than a vineyard, but it was a good start because we learned how to properly taste wine (and arbitrarily assign numbers to how pretty the colour of the wine was). After our first six glasses of wine (these were definitely not tasting portions and we definitely didn’t spit), we headed to the second winery. At the second one we got not only five glasses of wine but unlimited cheese samples…well maybe they weren’t unlimited but Griffin certainly took it that way and feasted upon probably fifty pieces of goat cheese. I bought a few bottles of wine (4 bottles of Goats-Do-Roam….goofiest name for a wine brand, but oh so tasty). Next we headed to Franschoek where Isaac, our adorable tour guide, prepared a picnic lunch for us. The picnic would have been perfect had it not been for the freezing cold rain we were greeted with. After we stuffed our faces, we went to pet some cheetahs. Funniest story: Robert and Hanna our lovely Polish couple were fairly shnockered (sp?) at this point and Robert said the funniest thing…There was a pretty cute South African working with the Cheetahs and Robert caught us ogling him slightly and looks at us and says “Which one do you want to pet?” Maybe it was funnier when it happened….After a successful cheetah petting session (not the cute handler) we headed to our third and final winery where we polished off six more glasses of wine. I bought two more bottles (only one of which made it home, thank you very much baggage handlers at Kotoka International Airport) and then we headed back to Cape Town. Overall it was a very successful and classy day.

Upon returning to Cape Town we met up with Emma, Katie, and Jackie for Happy Hour and dinner. The Happy Hour we went to was RIDICULOUS. It was buy one get one free cocktails, but these were the biggest cocktails of life. I don’t think any of us finished them alone. After we went to a Kurdish restaurant called Mesopotamia. We sat on the floor and had delicious food…so good that we kept ordering more and more naan. Right as we were about to get our check though, a belly dancer came out and we got charge 10 rand a piece for this entertainment. It was pretty annoying, but the menu warned us about it. Still the meal was really, really reasonable. We tried to go out afterward, but were asked for ID at the first place (even though the age is only 18 in South Africa) and then Caroline and Monica were singled out and carded at the second place. We headed back and hung out at the Irish pub below our backpackers for a while then called it a night.

The next day we got up bright and early pumped to go skydiving. Unfortunately, the weather conditions were too windy and the trip was cancelled. We decided to ask the really nice front desk guy for suggestions as to what to do instead. Per his suggestion, we decided to hike Lion’s Head later in the day. We spent the morning hanging out on Long Street shopping and whatnot and getting lunch. After lunch, Caroline, Griffin and I took a taxi to the Lion’s Head trailhead. We hadn’t even hiked the mountain and still wanted to take mad pictures because the scenery was so beautiful. We asked someone to take a picture for us which he did happily but then as we were walking away he asked us for a favor. Turns out the guy was a journalist writing a story about muggings on the mountain. He wanted to take picture of us looking super touristy with our cameras…basically targets for potential muggers. So pretty much, we’re famous and in the Cape Town newspaper. After our little photo shoot, we started to hike the mountain and were reminded of how out of shape we were. Regardless we persevered and actually found that the beginning was the most difficult part. On our way up we ran into some German hikers who told us they didn’t get all the way up (and these people looked like experienced hikers…they had on hiking boots and everything) and there was rock climbing and all sorts of shenanigans. We got slightly discouraged but kept going. After much longer than it takes the average hiker of Lion’s Head we made it to the top. Most beautiful views of life. Cape Town is just such a striking location and it was awesome seeing it from the top of a mountain. We headed down and while waiting for a taxi met two locals who offered to give us a ride back to our place. We accepted and had a terribly amusing car ride talking about the supposed danger lurking in Cape Town. One of the guys told us that his brother bought his girlfriend a stun gun as gift. We shared stories of Ghanaian Tro-Tros and other funny things.

Back on Long Street we met up with Katie, Monica and Jackie and headed to dinner. Emma met us at the restaurant as she had spent the day in Stellenbosch and was running late. Another superb meal. Seriously amazing food. I got a chicken burger with sundried tomato pesto and roasted Mediterranean veggies (and am currently salivating thinking about it). Everyone wiped their plates clean. You seriously would have guessed we had never eaten before in our lives. After dinner we parted ways and headed back to our Backpackers for St Patrick’s Day shenanigans. There were rumors of green beer so we were totally excited (not really for the green beer because it looked kind of gross, but we were stoked to have a good time our last night in Cape Town). We decided that since we were getting picked up to go to the airport at 5:30 the only logical thing to do would be to stay up all night. Okay, logical maybe not, but fun definitely. We started at the bar in our backpackers and met a bunch of people. Caroline and I got a lesson in Afrikaans and in one of the clicking languages. We than attempted to teach our South African friend some Twi but kind of failed due to our supreme lack of knowledge on the subject. Afterward we went to the Irish pub downstairs which was crazy, but because we had the goal of staying up all night we were there when it started to shut down. So we decided to head back to our room to nap for an hour or so before we were to be picked up.

Our transport was there on time and we left hella early for the Cape Town airport. On the way, we saw a fire burning on Table Mountain which had been started the night before (suspected arson I think). We got to the airport, had our box of wine shrink-wrapped and sealed and had probably the easiest time in an airport ever. We were ridiculously early so we napped in the empty terminal until it was time for our flight. When it came time for our flight to Windhoek, we found out that there were only 12 people on our plane (which could sit 50). Great news considering all we wanted to do was sleep. After a short flight we landed in the Windhoek airport.

Pictures!

Spring Break was unbelievably amazing. It'll take me a while to write down all of the amazingness, so for now, some photo albums:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010164&id=1018770080&l=3194f94091
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010168&id=1018770080&l=766add8899
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010173&id=1018770080&l=44d677facd
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010237&id=1018770080&l=899e8fd50f
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010248&id=1018770080&l=71f807d68f
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2010282&id=1018770080&l=8d7474d195

SPRING BREAK

I'm off to South Africa and Namibia.

Back 23 March.