Shit Happens

So I thought I had lost this blog and just realized that luckily, the website saved it automatically for me. I had meant to post it right after I got robbed but of course, I got robbed so I lost all of my pictures and what I thought was my blog. I managed to find it though and rounded up some pictures. This was the week before my birthday, so the last week of November. Here it is...the long lost blog. 






So Tamale has been filled with surprises. Not entirely sure what I think about Tamale but one thing is for sure, it definitely likes to keep our lives interesting. We didn’t exactly have the greatest start to Tamale so my roommates and I decided that this past week would be the week where Tamale would redeem itself. So the week of Tamale began, and let’s just say, it kept us on our toes as usual.

A brief recap of the week:

Monday-Grumpy Roommate Day

Tuesday- This was the day that we got locked out of our house for 3 hours and pulled our professor away from important meetings to let us back in. Not only was he mad but unknown to us, he also pulled his wife out of her Masters exam to get the keys. It was a great bonding day with my roomies but not so much with the professor :

Wednesday-We were split into groups and went into a community to assess the Ghana School Feeding Programme at a Primary School. This was my first time doing fieldwork and I was really excited but really nervous. It was a great experience but we had some difficulties. We had some ethical issues because we took the teachers, pupils and community members away from their schools, learning and farms when the information that we would gather wouldn’t be used for anything.

Thursday-We had the day off school so we decided to go to the pool. However, someone had decided to pull the latch across our gate so we had to lift Elise up to let us out of our house.

Needless to say, the week didn’t really improve our view on our time in Tamale so we decided to give the week one more shot with a weekend trip to Mole National Park.

So after class on Friday, we made our way towards the Metro Mass Station to catch the bus. We of course, made the mistake of getting there at 12:30, a whole hour earlier in an effort to get the tickets and get a seat on the bus. They always sell more tickets than there are seats and so most often, people have to stand the entire way. We didn’t want to do that and hadn’t taken a Metro Mass yet so we were unsure of the protocol. We were all happy to have the tickets and be there early and ready for the bus to pull in at 1:30. Of course, as you learn quickly here, not very many things happen on time. For some reason we thought this time would be different….it wasn’t. Instead of the bus arriving at 1:30, it arrived at 4 and pulled out of the station at 4:30. We were in the heat for 3 hours and it was probably one of the hottest days since we have been in Ghana. Let’s just say, I wouldn’t have made it through without the two FanDango’s and FanIce. FanIce is vanilla ice cream that they sell everywhere and I have been recently introduced to Fan Dango which tastes like frozen Sunny D. It’s heaven. Eventually though, we all managed to get seats and were on our way to Mole. Once again, we were optimistic that the rest of the weekend, now that it was officially underway and we would be out of Tamale would be incident free. How wrong we were.

On the way to Mole, we made various stops so that the bus could fill up and people were lined up the aisle. There were definitely a few heads hit by elbows and lots of yelling, making it hard to sleep. The road to Mole wasn’t very good, although the bus driver approached it like a regular tar road. It was a dirt road filled with bumps and he was still driving at least 100km/hour. There was so much dust that when I looked out of the front of the bus, I couldn’t see the road. At that point, I decided to keep my eyes on the back of the seat in front of me or on my friends. The Metro Mass buses’ don’t have air conditioning so the windows were all open, bringing in so much dust that I could feel it in my mouth. Also, the buses don’t have any bathrooms so we made a scheduled bathroom stop.

Warning: For people easily grossed out, please skip this part. Also, what happened is so much worse than how I am about to describe it.

Like I mentioned above, there are no bathrooms on the buses so we made a scheduled bathroom stop for the passengers and for the bus driver to eat dinner. I decided to go to the bathroom and it was a really bad decision on my part. Three girls, Lynsey, Amy and Brigitte had gotten off the bus a few minutes before Val and I decided to go so when we got off the bus, we had no idea where the bathroom was. It was pitch black which, later turned out to be a blessing. I approached someone and asked where the bathroom was. He got up and took us down a dark street and then pointed to the field on the right and then to a concrete structure. Most of the bathrooms in Ghana, especially in rural areas consist of 3 concrete walls, a door or piece of cloth and a concrete floor. Val and I decided to use the concrete floor as opposed to the field and made our way towards it. The smell was not pleasant and on the way to the bathroom, I stepped in mud. No big deal. Then we saw Amy, Brigitte and Lynsey who didn’t know that the concrete bathroom was there and were squatting. Only thing was, they were squatting in a field of shit. Literally. Then I realized, what I thought I had stepped in was mud was definitely not mud. No, that would be too easy. I had not only stepped in shit but when I did, my shoe had slipped and I managed to get it under my toes. I looked up at the girls when they told saw that Lynsey was about to cry. She had also managed to get some on her feet. I couldn’t help it, I just burst out laughing. I have learnt that sometimes if you don’t laugh, you will cry. We then paid 10 pesewas to pee on a concrete floor and for the rest of the bus ride, the back of the bus smelt like a public restroom. It was disgusting. Whenever Lynsey and I looked at each other for the remaining hour (thank god it was only an hour), we laughed. When we got to the hotel, the first thing the pair of us did was wash our feet and then wash our shoes. It was at this point that I almost cried. It was soo gross. I am glad that I was able to share in this moment with Lynsey though, otherwise I really would have lost it. As Lynsey said, “Not only were my ankles covered in my own pee from the splash but my toes were covered in someone else’s shit.” A high point in both of our lives. That night though, Becca, Elise, Lynsey and I all managed to laugh about it and we still do today. 

 We did manage to get to Mole, eventually and that night when we were washing our shoes outside, antelope were right outside our door. I couldn’t wait to see what kinds of animals we would see in the morning and try and forget about what happened to Lynsey and I.

Sad faces-cleaning our feet

Not Happy

So that was all that autosaved. What comes next is from memory....




After replaying the incident of the day and laughing until we were crying we decided that that was the last thing that Tamale Week was going to throw at us. So the next morning we got up early for a walk in the park. We were really lucky as we were able to see not only monkeys, antelopes and other animals but an elephant! It was amazing. Afterwords we spent the morning and afternoon in the pool and had a great time. I really thought that that was the end of Tamale Week....oh no. Ghana had other plans for us.

Elephant 

After chilling in the pool all morning and early afternoon we decided to take a jeep safari drive in the park. I was really excited because we were able to sit on the roof of the car!

Jeep Safari! 

Dorothy, Elise and I 

Elise and I 

Love this

Val and I 

Tamale Week strikes again

So the picture above brings me to how Tamale Week strikes again. While on our jeep safari, the jeep broke down. And in true Ghanaian style, we waited for the driver to fix the car to find out that it couldn't be fixed and we would have to walk back to the lodge. So we made our way back to the lodge.At least we managed to see the sunset during our walk!

So after making it back to the lodge, Tamale Week once again decided to throw us a curve ball. Upon our return, we were told that we were expected to pay the full price for the jeep safari because we had taken up the allotted two hours regardless of the fact that the jeep broke down within the first 20 mins of the drive and the rest of the time was spent waiting on the driver to fix the car or the walk back to the lodge. Elise and I were so frustrated at this point that we were not having any of it. So, we argued for a good 20-25 minutes and still had to pay half the price we originally were supposed to pay. It was incredibly frustrating because if we had been at home we would not have been expected to pay. That night I did have a good dinner date with Lynsey and Becca and then went to bed to get up and leave early the next morning.

The bus that goes to Tamale from Mole leaves at 4am so we were up early and on the bus by 4am. Uncharacteristically, it left on time. Did I mention that this also happened to be my 20th Birthday?! I was super excited but also a little sad because I this was my first birthday celebrated away from home. On the way back to Tamale I feel asleep and woke up to Lynsey who told me that the bus had broken down and they were trying to fix it. Another curve ball. Luckily, they managed to fix it in about 30 mins and we were on our way back to Tamale.

When we got back, everyone in the program came over to my house to celebrate my birthday with me. It made the fact that I wasn't at home a lot easier, to know that I was surrounded by such great people who I shared some great experiences. We had really been through some shitty times together (literally!). It was a great way to end Tamale Week. I even had a cake baked for me!

Ghana colours too!

The cake baker

Love everyone of these girls....we've been through a lot together

So Tamale week was challenging but we managed to end it on a high note. Sometimes you have to enjoy life and laugh through the good times and the bad.