Ouidah (Wee-dah) and Beyond

The school has a two week vacation for the holidays and I planned on using this time to travel and obtain some knowledge. My original plans were to travel to Cape Coast, Ghana about 6 hours from where I live on December 26th and stay until December 31st. Well Ghana had other plans…the Togo/ Ghana boarder was closed from the 26th to the 29th for the run-off presidential election (remember this fact as it will come up in a later), so I had to revise my plans. One of the revisions was to take a one day visit to Ouidah, Benin (about a two hour rive). This turned out to be a very interesting trip (all in French of course…I am certain a lot was lost in translation). The other revision to my travel schedule was a two day visit to Cape Coast, Ghana.

Ouidah (Wee-dah) and Beyond

The school has a two week vacation for the holidays and I planned on using this time to travel and obtain some knowledge. My original plans were to travel to Cape Coast, Ghana about 6 hours from where I live on December 26th and stay until December 31st. Well Ghana had other plans…the Togo/ Ghana boarder was closed from the 26th to the 29th for the run-off presidential election (remember this fact as it will come up in a later), so I had to revise my plans. One of the revisions was to take a one day visit to Ouidah, Benin (about a two hour rive). This turned out to be a very interesting trip (all in French of course…I am certain a lot was lost on translation). The other revision to my travel schedule was a two day visit to Cape Coast, Ghana.

Malaria, Mayhem, and Civil Unrest: Part 4

Lesson 4: African politics are unpredictable….so stay clear!!

As I am on my exodus out of Cape Coast, the radio is filled with emotion and unrest among the people. As of December 30th the president had not been announced based on the votes from the run off election on December 28th. The people were very upset because the media announced the projected winner based on the information they received from the polling commissions and the government refused to give the actual results. The results were supposed to be officially released on December 30th at 12 noon. The issue: The man who got the most votes is not from the ruling party and it seems the ruling party does not want to relinquish power…since Ghana just found oil and all. The banks were sending their employees home, the military was being called into Accra for reinforcement, and British Airways was delaying flights to Accra until the winner was announced. I was well outside of Accra at 12…but with the come of noon did not come the winner of the election. The government officials were still meeting. Announcing the winner has been pushed back to Friday, January 2, 2009…the government wanted the people to have a peaceful New Year. I see nothing god coming from this. I returned to Togo without delay and am recuperating on the couch. HOME SWEET HOME!!! Hot running water, electricity 80% of the time, and a fan…what more can a girl ask for.

Malaria, Mayhem, and Civil Unrest: Part 3

Lesson 3: Never travel alone.

I thank Nadim and Meagan for taking care of me and hunting down medicine by any means necessary. It is always good to have somebody watching your back while you are traveling.

Malaria, Mayhem, and Civil Unrest: Part 2

Lesson 2: I am so not the Peace Corp type (I say this with the utmost respect for the Peace Corp…I wish I was this hardcore).

We stayed in Samoos Guest House for 12 Cedi a night and I cried inside when I saw the rooms. The people I travelled with are amazing and they work and live in a village in Sierra Leone doing NGO work (the village means no inside plumbing and generator electricity one a week), so this Guest House was a step up from their normal accommodations. Details of the room: no toilet paper, cold running water, a fan bolted to the ceiling, bed with a mattress cover and pillows (no sheets or towels), vanity, and chair. I am sure you all are thinking…Shelley is being a bit dramatic; it does not sound that bad. Well, I say to you hear the rest of the story before you pass judgment!!!

At around 10 PM after I had been heavily medicated for malaria and was about to doze off, the electricity goes out. This is normal for Africa so I did not think much of it until 1AM when I woke up in a cold sweat. The fan was not on, which meant the electricity had not come back on…WHAT!!!! 6AM rolls around and still no electricity and no running water. See…I told you too wait before passing judgment. I gather up enough energy to walk downstairs and see when the power and water will be in working order.

In regards to power I was told that they ran out and the owner went out to buy some more…yeah I know…I am confused also. Does that mean he did not pay the bill or he went to buy a generator? The next order of business was running water and she said she would take care of it. About 5 minutes later there is a knock on my door and there she is with a bucket of water!!!!! I politely asked her what this was for and she told me the water in the pipes didn’t come up in the mornings (I was on the third floor). Needless to say I packed my bags and hopped on the first bus back home.

Malaria, Mayhem, and Civil Unrest: Part One

Where do I begin???? Okay, I will just start by saying I learned several lessons about life on this trip.

Lesson 1: If you are not feeling well when it is time to travel…DO NOT TRAVEL.

I was feeling a little fatigued when I started my six hour trip to Cape Coast, but I had knowledge I wanted to obtain (I was not going to be stopped) and OBTAIN KNOWLEDGE I DID. I felt really out of sorts the entire trip, which started at 8 AM, December 29th. We arrived at Cape Coast, Ghana at 4:30 PM. I had not eaten this entire time and was completely drained of energy. We found a Guest House (will discuss this further in lesson 2) for 12 Cedi a night and unloaded our bags. We went to the roof top restaurant for dinner and guess what???? I could not eat my food…NO APPETITE. I returned to my room to lie down and in about an hour my muscles began to ache severely…I had a fever. To make a long story short I had come down with a case of malaria…OMG!!!

Temple of the Python (Ouidah, Benin):

How do I explain this place…it was very simple and understated (not what you would imagine a temple to look like). There was a tree at the entrance of the temple that was over 400 years old and massive. The temple consisted of about 3 thatched roofed buildings what were used for prayers to pythons and were sacred, so entrance was not permitted and a python cemetery. The main building of this temple was a larger thatched roofed building that housed over 50 pythons…WOW!!!! It seems that the pythons are pretty inactive during the day and at night the door is left open and the pythons are allowed to roam around the city. The local people return the snakes in the morning!!! I will answer the question before you even ask…NO I did not touch or carry the pythons. I did, however, step into the pit…PROGRESS.

The most interesting part was the building directly across the street that towers far above the small temple and can be seen from the temple…the Catholic Church. According to the guide (who spoke English), the Python Temple was built in 1663 and the Catholic Church in 1909. The local people pray at the Catholic Church during the day and worship at the Python Temple at night. This was amazing to me: the co-existence of two religions among the same people. In a place where successful kingdoms existed for centuries, the slave trade suffocated the people for centuries, and colonial rule replaced African kingdoms and empires until the 1960s…I guess God is needed in massive doses from all sources to keep the spirits of the people above water.

Portuguese Fort (Ouidah, Benin):

This tour was given in French, so I had to rely solely on my limited French vocabulary and translations. The slaves who left this Portuguese Fort were sent to Brazil and took with them the religion of Voodoo, which can be found and practiced in present day Brazil. Many Brazilians can trace their ancestry back to Benin. This fort was a functioning post in the African Slave Trade until 1737…over 300 years. The fort has been restored into a museum. There are 13 rooms filled with artifacts found on the beaches or in the forest. There is an outdoor section of the fort that was used to store slaves for 15 days in heat, rain, and minimum food; if the slaves survived these 15 days it was determined they were healthy enough to make the journey.

After surviving the 15 days the slaves were chained together and marched to the “Point of No Return,” which is about 3 km. The “Point of No Return,” is where the slaves were told to forget their former lives and anything related to the past. I actually got the opportunity to walk the last 300 meters of the slaves’ journey…I was speechless and still am. Irony: This is the most beautiful beach I have ever seen and in this beauty so many souls were tormented and abandoned…in such beauty lies immense ugliness.

In 2001, a “Door of Return” was built for people returning back to their ancestry. I RETURNED!!!!!!! It is a feeling that I wish my ancestors could have experienced.

What is in a name???

Sunny Lady...Pretty Girl...??? I give you unitl the count of five to guess what these names are for...5...4...3...2..1...0...WRONG!!! These are names of sanitary napkins!! I was sitting in the van at the market waiting and I just happened to see a stand where the lady was selling feminine products. What baffles me is why in the world would someone or something give sanitary napkins such names...I know I am not only speaking for myself when I say, "I DO NOT feel sunny or preety during that time of the month!" So cut the crap and give them names that accurately describe how women feel...Pain Pads...Bloated Butt...Cranky Girl...just to name a few!
If you come up with a good one please share:)

Perspective

This morning I was included in a conversation with a parent and the dicrector of the school...in French of course...so the director did some translating for me. The parent was discussing the conditions of one of the local public schools. From what I could gather...in one class of students ranging from ages 5 or so to 10 there were 150 STUDENTS, 1 TEACHER, 1 CHALKBOARD, and 0 SUPPLIES (no books, pencils, chalk, etc). The government told the school that it did not have the funds to fund it...so there is no money. Normally the families are required to pay a yearly fee to send students to public schools, but I guess not in this case. Some of the high school students at my school will be going to do service work at there and will let me tag along...I have found my life's work!!!

I title this perspective because I constantly remember myself, as a teacher, complaining and moaning about school facilities, decreasing personal supply budget, and so on... Or watching the news and seeing that classrooms are overcrowded with 36 students, not enough books for each child, under qualified teachers, lack of attendence, and so on...

And here is a school with one very underqualified teacher, NO books or supplies (by the way there are no textbooks in the local schools...all notes from the blackboard), no bathroom facilities, 150 sets of parents who send their 150 students to this school, and the students are sent daily without complaint because they recognize that without EDUCATION there is NO PROGRESS...So you make the best out of what you have.

I shall say that we as Americans need to take some perspective, stop complaining, and recognize!

HOT!!!

Where do I begin to attempt to explain the intensity of the heat in Lome this time of the year. The weather is currently in the dry season and man it is hot. The mornings and evenings are cool (80 degrees F or so) and all the time in between is well over 100 degrees F. Even the water at the pool is consistantly warm... When I walk to work I feel as if I am walking in the misdt of fire sometimes. I start the trek to school with huge smile plastered across my face...7 minutes later that smile is turned upside down and I am suffering from heat stroke. For those of you who now me very well get a hold of this...I sweated through a shirt. I mean dripping wet...like I just stepped out of the shower. Now I know why some people here change clothes two to three times a day (unfortunately I do have this luxuary as I only brought enought clothes for 10 days):-)

Outside My Window Part Duex

As I rise from my daily nap, I hear the most bizarre noise. The sound was a mix between a rooster crowing and a baby crying...so being the "curious" person I am I peep out the window to check out the situation. I will give you one guess about what I saw when I went to the window. You have until 5: 1...2...3...4...5. Okay here it goes... two men were tying together the legs of a goat and the goat was crying out in agony. It took about two minutes for me to register why they would be tying up the goat in such a manner...well it soon became very appartent what was happening before my very eyes. If you already have not figured it out...after tying up the goat, the two men proceeded to cut the goat's throat and drian out the blood.

At first I was a bit disgusted by this whole scene, but then I had to remember the journey the beef cubes had to take to get in the rice I ate for lunch. This is a part of the process I stayed voluntarily ignorant to until now. Reality: In order for me to live something had die!!! The circle of LIFE!

Saturday at the Market

6 plates = 800 CFA
24 rolls of pink two-ply toilet paper = 3600 CFA
4 dishwasing sponges = 900 CFA
1 block of dark chocolate infused with coffee beans = 1200 CFA
4 advacados = 350 CFA
1 sweat soaked shirt after spending 5 hours in 100+ degree heat shopping = PRICELESS

Note: About 430 CFA equals 1.00 USD...YOU DO THE MATH

The Birthday Fund

As you all well know...my 28th birthday is fastly approaching and I am super excited. Every year my sisters (Courtney, Priya, and Adora) and I celebrate each others birthday by either purchasing or assisting in the purchase of a gift that we would normally never purchase for ourselves...i pods, Tiffany's jewelry, Ugh boots, and cell phones just to name a few... But this year year we have a taken a new step in the Birthday tradition. This year I have asked my sister not for a tangible gift, but rather CASH MONEY... This money will go towards funding the education of local children in Lome, Togo. Parents have to pay a yearly fee to send their students to public school, which are commonly overcrowded, under funded, under trained, under staffed and so on. The fees range from 10.000 CFA to about 25.000 CFA a year, which converts to about $20.00 USD to $50.00 USD per year. While this may seem like an insignificant amount of money, ponder this thought... most people here live on less than $1.00 USD a day. School is a luxuary not a neccessity! So the BIRTHDAY FUND has been created...This fund will provide school fees for as many students as possible here in Lome and in local villages. The fund will send students to school for the remainder of this year and next year. After pooling the birthday money together we have about $350, which will allow us to fund about 20 children or so( I know it is not much, but we have to start somewhere). We are always looking for more money, so if you would like to contribute to the BIRTHDAY FUND...let me know and I will tell you where to send the funds. I will keep you updated on the progress of the BIRTHDAY FUND. Thanks for your support.

Obama Just May Rule the World

Moment of Reflection... I went over to my friend, Juliette's, Aunt's house on Sunday. Juliette is Ghanain and her Aunt is from Togo. I spent about 4 hours there talking and learning!!! One of most interesting things I learned is the love for Barack Obama across the world. These women spoke of Barack Obama with such enthusiam, passion, and hope that I forgot they would not be voting in the election today. Despite this fact they have taken a vested interest in the outcome of this election...as they told me...Africa loves Obama!!!! I was told that Kenya (the country in Africa, not the girl next door:-) had a mock election today and Obama won by a land slide. America is on the world stage today and I hope we have a performance that will change the state of the country as well as the world!!!

Note: It is about 10:40 PM and Juliette just called me screaming with excitement. As I was riding to my friend's house tonight I saw four seperate TV stands (4 TVs per stand) on the streets with people gathered around waiting for the news. THE WORLD IS WATCHING!!!!