Paradise, Kumasi, and big summer plans!

Hello all! On the weekend of March 4th I traveled with 6 other friends to Ada Foah, a little peninsula where the Volta river flows into the Atlantic ocean. If I could describe this place in one word, it would be "Paradise". We drove just under two hours east of Accra to Ada Foah, where we had to take a boat on the Volta to get to our isolated beach resort. We stayed one night in a hut with sand floors right on the beach for 10 Ghana cedis a night per person. This was the weekend of Ghana's independence day so it was a big beach weekend for Ghanaian families who all brought quite the party to the peaceful beach. It was absolutely beautiful and very relaxing. A few things that threw me off: (1)Ghanaian (and Indian!) men taking pictures of us white women in our bikinis with their camera phones, without asking us. (2) Later finding out that swimming in the Volta is not healthy because it's fresh water and there are parasites that go through your skin and live in your liver. But we spoke to our travel doctors and they said to wait and see if we have symptoms of worms, and if we do to just take a deworming pill. Lovely.
Right when I got home from Ada I accidentally deleted all of my amazing pictures from this beautiful place. But I'll be sure to steal the photos my friends took to show you all.

This past weekend I went on our CIEE trip to Kumasi, one of the other major cities in Ghana. It was a 5-hour bus ride away. The first day we went to a traditional Ashanti village and saw the home of a very important woman Ashanti warrior. Then we went to the Kente Weaving village and I got hassled into buying some authentic Kente cloth. I think it will make great gifts and serve as a wonderful souvenir. We also got the chance to stamp our own Kente with Ashanti symbols that mean things like unity, peace, family, and wisdom. That was pretty cool. The next day we went to the Manhyia Palace (pronounced Man-chyeah) museum where the Ashanti kings have lived, followed by the Kejetia Market, which is the biggest (and probably smelliest) open market in all of West Africa. We went there for two hours, wandering through a labyrinth of beads and cloth and shoes and pig heads and cow legs and pretty much anything else you can think of. It was surprisingly less "grabby" than I expected. The vendors were all actually very nice and just happy to see us and try to speak Twi with us. I didn't buy anything at this market because I was really overwhelmed, and if you know me as a shopper- I tend to get easily overwhelmed in Kohl's, let alone a bustling African market place. Needless to say, it was an awesome cultural experience and probably one of the coolest places I've ever seen.
That night we were taken to a "fancy" Chinese restaurant that was very overpriced, but CIEE had given us each 15 cedis which pretty much covered my meal (of the least delicious chinese food i've eaten in a while). Though it didn't cover the 38 Cedi ($25) bottle of South African Cabernet Sauvingon that Kelsey and I split. It was worth it. We had a free morning until noon on Sunday so instead of rushing back to the market, Kelsey and I walked around the neighborhood of our hotel, and spoke with children walking to church in the villages nearby. I also chased some baby goats, which I find as cute and exciting as little puppies or kittens. I'm also sorry to say that I've probably accidentally eaten goat once or twice here when I thought it was beef.

My final point in this entry is to announce my summer plans. I had been applying to some internships and jobs back in Worcester for the summer, but at the same time I applied to a program through Indiana University to participate in an Ethnographic Field School in Belize. I was accepted to the IU program and have decided to go! I will be working with a professor and a few other students to research food anthropology in the Mayan region of Belize, and also research the tourist restaurant industry. So i have three weeks in a village home stay cooking and seeing what the farmers grow, and then three weeks in a rented house with other students on the main strip of the tourist district conducting interviews of tourists and restaurant owners. It was really hard for me to make the decision to be abroad for ANOTHER 7 weeks this summer. But I realized that I won't have many other good times in my life to take up an opportunity like this, and I will also get some amazing research experience in food anthropology, which I am really interested in! I will also have all of August to come home, decompress, and process the past seven months outside of the US before I start my senior year of college. I will be home from May 29 to June 11 before I leave for Central America, so I hope in those two weeks that I can see as many of you wonderful people as possible.