Log 40

I didn’t so much in Ghana. For starters, we were only there for four days, and when the city is an hour bus ride away, you don’t really have time to do much. The first day, all of my friends were busy so I took the bus into the city. It was about 98 degrees outside. I walked around with some people, explored the mall, found a Shoprite and got some snacks. But I was another taxi ride away from all of the other stuff and at that time, I didn’t have any money on me. Not in local currency anyway. On the second day, I went to a village. Well, one the way to the village, we planned on driving over the dam. When we got to the gate, we find out that the Austrians were fixing the dam and so there was a giant crane in our way. The guards predicted a two-hour wait. So, our guides were talking between the dam guards and the chief of the village to see what we should do. We were just about to pull away to go around and take the bridge, when the guards to the dam told us if we waited another ten minutes we could go over the dam. In the end, we took the dam, but not after wasting an hour trying to figure out what to do. This meant that our time in the village was shortened.

When we got to the village, we did things follow the leader style. The tour guide went first, and we just copied everything he did. We got off the bus, and walked over to wear the villagers were making a big square. In a very long line, we greeter the elders by shaking their hands. Then we filed into the seats they had prepared for us. After watching a local dance, the children were performing, we began the naming ceremony. The first part of the ceremony was a prayer, led by one of the elders. After that, the village priest blessed the grounds with water and milk. The water could have been alcohol; I couldn’t really tell. Then, they called us up in grounds of five. I was surprisingly not in the last group. I was in the second last. They gave us our names, gave us a pot, and tied beads onto our wrist. My African name is Abla Akorfa. Abla means that I am a female, born on Tuesday. That is considered my birth name. Akorfa is then my local name and it means comfort.

After we all received our names, the kids pulled us in the dance with them, African style. This was followed by two tutorials, one on pottery making and the other on basket weaving. We were supposed to also see how to weave the Kente cloth, but because of the dam debacle, we had to cut that out of the program and instead go to lunch.

When I got back to the ship, I found my friend and we went to dinner. She told me that the temperature that day had gotten up to 109 degrees. Now add in some humidity and that equals hot, sweat, and exhausted college students. It was a good day overall.

The plan for the next day was to go to Accra with my friend and roam around. Well, that didn’t exactly happen. We did go to Accra, but only to take money out of the bank. Since it was a Sunday, nothing was open. So we went back to the ship after getting money. Outside of the ship, for many of our ports, including Ghana, merchants bring their tents and items and set up shop right on the dock. I have often been getting most of my souvenirs from these people. Ghana more than others though. What happened with Ghana was that some of my friends got grabbed and harassed in the cultural markets. People just swarmed them and wouldn’t leave them alone. To avoid this, I did my shopping in front of the ship.

Ghana was a cool place to visit, but I am not sure I got the full extent of what it is to be in Ghana. We only had four days, and it took an hour to get pretty much anywhere. That did give us a lot of time to visit places and get to know the people. If I had more time, I may have gone up to Big Milly’s two hours away, where they teach people how to surf. That would have been really cool. Also, with places like this, you don’t normally want to travel by yourself. Being by yourself for five minutes to walk to the shuttle to go back to the ship is usually fine. But we are advised against traveling alone overnight, or even just for a few hours. Not to say that we aren’t allowed to travel alone, but that it is safer not to. So, with all of my friends out of programs and classes, I didn’t really have anyone to travel with, so I didn’t want to venture to far from our “safe zones”.

My time on semester at sea has been incredible. The things I have seen and learned are priceless, and I could not have learned them in the States. And as our time at sea is coming to an end, I am not sad. I am grateful for my opportunity to experience the world around me. I will miss my friends that I have made, but as we are all adults, and all of us have some means of transportation and communication, I know we will stay in touch. I love to travel, but to travel is to discover something away from home, and in beings so, must at some point come to an end. I know I will travel again, and so I welcome home with open arms.

Days until I come home: 16 days