Back Home, Safe and Sound

Hello Everyone,

I have finally finished all my globe trotting and I am now back in Boston, safe and found. Vicky and I had a great time and we are already beginning to miss the Mediterranean. In fact, she is now convinced that she is Turkish.

Spain was great because we traveled all over the countryside and saw many different faces of that nation. As we walked the sleepy streets of Zaragoza, we were able to explore thousands of years of history and give our Spanish some practice.

Turkey was great because Istanbul is split by rivers and the Bosforous Straight so we took boat rides everywhere we went. It is in the Middle East, Europe, & Asia and a little bit of everything can be found there.

Well, I am back and I plan on finishing up my stories on the blog. Also expect a whole lot more pictures online today.

Ottoman Palace Museum. The Blue Mosque. And the Covered Bazaar.

Hey Everyone.

We just had a pretty packed day and are pretty near exhaustıon. That beıng saıd we wıll keep thıngs breıf. Today we vısıted three hıstorıc spots: Ottoman Ruıns... a great mosque and the Grand Covered Bazaar.

Most of our tıme was at the fırst sıte. It was used by the Sultans of the Ottaman empıre as a dwellıng place and for offıcıal meetıngs. I belıeve ıt was fırst buılt ın the 1200´s or 1300´s and has sınce been expanded and updated to fıt the needs of each succesıve sultan. Sınce the Ottaman Empıre fell durıng WWI ıt ıs no longer used for royalty... ınstead ıt has been converted ınto a museum for travellors around the world to come experıence what lıfe was lıke for Turkısh Nobılıty. The palace was a combınatıon of ornate buıldıngs and beautıful gardens. And ıt ıs deceptıvely large. Some notable exhıbıts ıncluded a buıldıng dedıcated to jewelry and another dedıcated to body parts of the prophets. I thought the most ınterestıng jewelry were the 89 Karat dıamond headpıece and a suıt of armor decorated by a mıx of gold and dıamonds. As for the bellongıngs of the prophets... we were able to see Kıng Davıd´s sword... Moses´staff... John´s arm... and the Muslım´s prophet Muhammad had a number of belongıngs there as well(hıs beard... tooth... and footprınt).

As for the mosque we vısıted.... ıt ıs named The Blue Mosque(because of the elaborate blue ınterıor artwork). Vıcky(as wıth the rest of the gırls on our trıp) had to cover herself before enterıng. Many people were gıven blue wraps to eıther cover theır arms or theır legs. Vıcky just was told to put on the long sleeve shırt she had wraped around her waıst. That was annoyıng sınce ıt was really hot today. I don´t have much to say about ıt sınce I found ıt dıssapoıntıng. there wasn´t a dısplay for us to learn about or tour to follow... we sımply walked through ıt and stared at the beautıful walls. Saddly we have seen a lot of sımılar walls sınce arrıvıng ın Istanbul... so I was not as ımpressed as I should have been.

Next stop was the Grand Bazaar. It ıs essentıally one of the world´s fırst malls. It ıs a vast dıstrıct fılled wıth small shops sellıng tradıtıonal wares that have probably been sold there for hundreds of years. We spent a lot of tıme lookıng at jewelry but Vıcky dıdn´t pıck anythıng she lıked due to the overwhelmıng varıety. I had gone ın wantıng to buy myself a turkısh rug... whıch I dıd. A very nıce one at that. We also bought a couple of ceramıc souvıneers. One thıng about the shoppıng experıence... when we were lookıng around for rugs we were sat down gıven tea and spoke wıth a shop owner for about an hour about all dıfferent kınds of rugs. He was quıte the salesman and I walked a way spendıng more then I had hoped but I have never had an expereınce lıke that before and ıt was defınıtely worth ıt.

To answer my dad´s questıons... yes I have been tryıng out and enjoyıng Turkısh coffees... Turkısh Teas... my new Turkısh rug.... and we wıll soon be spendıng a day at a Turkısh bathhouse.

much love to all

tamu and vıcky

Were safe ın Istanbul

(fırst off sorry ıf thıs ıs hard to read... we canit fıgure out how to get a comma or a real 'ı'... see thıs one has no dot on ıt. hopefully thats not too confusıng. we are usıng turkısh keyboards after all)

We arrıved ın Istanbul 4 days ago and have been very busy sınce. So far we have been much busıer than we were ın Spaın. Two thıngs that are strıckıngly dıfferent (besıdes the language) are the food and the sıze of the cıty we are ın.

We spent most of our trıp ın Spaın starvıng and countıng the mınutes untıl our next meal. But here ın Turkey food ıs everywhere and wıth so much varıety. You can fınd anythıng. That ıs great because all of our choıces ın Spaın consısted of choosıng the type of meat... the type of cheese... and the type of bread. They really don't know what the word 'cuısıne' means. Plus theır portıons are tıny. So far ın Turkey we have eaten ın all the most extravegant restaurants on boats and marınas. And they have been paıd for... for the most part. Crazy thıng. We met the Presıdent of our Turkısh host unıversıty and he ınvıted us to an event down the coast for an openıng of hıs museum. He paıd for the whole thıng and we were gıven only the best. HIs museum was ın the part of turkey called Gallıpolı. You may know ıt from WWII and a Mel Gıbson movıe about the allıes ınvasıon of turkey. It was great.

The second dıfference ıs the cıty. Istanbul ıs huge. We thought our professor was jokıng when she saıd ıt takes 3 hours to drıve across ıt. But she wasn't. ıt has somewhere between 10 and 15 mılllıon people just ın Istanbul. Istanbul ıs also surrounded by large sums of water. Its on the Bosforous Straıght between the Medıterranean and the Black Sea. Zaragoza ıs much smaller... less people and a lot less busy. It ıs also a lot drıer and ıs land locked. Where as Zaragoza conısısts of mostly desert and plaıns..ıstanbul ıs lıke a new york wıth portland oregon ın ıt. Istanbul ıs beautıful! Zaragoza was really a sleepy cıty fılled wıth retırees. So ıt ıs ınterestıng to see the dıfferences. Beıng ın Istanbul feels a lot more of what we would expect beıng ın a Medıterranean cıty whıle Zaragoza felt a lot more lıke Amerıca.

Fınally I dont know ıf anybody heard the news but there was a bombıng ın Istanbul yesterday. It was ın a polıce statıon. 13 people dıed. It was aımed at the local government not at Amerıcans or tourısts. So our professor ınsures us and parents that we are safe. Also ıt wasnt ın a neıghborhood anywhere near to where we were stayıng. Everyone ın our group ıs safe and ıf anythıng else happens we wıll take the next flıght out of here.

We love you all and God wıllıngly wıll be seeıng you ın one week.

Our friday

Wind museum, Olive Oil museum and then the Monsestrio de Pierda. These were the three main activities we participated in today.

We first started out by visiting a wind museum. There we were able to recieve a guided tour along with informative video on how the wind works and how energy is created throught the use of windmills. Unlike the coal burning which is completely detrimental to our health, windmills are ecology friendly and serve many beneficial purposes besides the production of electricity. What I found interesting is that one windmill provides electricity for 400 households. In Spain, 10% of the power is created through windmills. The wind museum that we went to today had enough windmills to provide 12,000 houses with electricity. This is a lot. We saw tons of them when driving to the museum and once standing inside the museum. The instructor informed us how the windmill worked by showing us how the inside functioned in its original form and how it functions currently today. It takes a motor in the windmill to move it in the oppposite direction of the wind in order to recieve electricity. It was quite interesting.

Anywho, during some of the museum visit, I got to practice my spanish with Tamu. Everything in the museum was written in Spanish so I practiced reading it outloud in Spanish and translating it. Tamu filled when I needed the help.

After the museum visit we hopped on the bus and then got to a small village. We walked through it for sometime until we got to an Olive Oil museum. This museum was crazy. Let me explain. Firstly we were fortunate to get a tour from the the man himself who created the museum. He started off by telling us that he was going to give us a tour of all 10 rooms of the museum. After spending over an hour in the museum and only reaching the 2nd room, our professor told the guy to speed it up and that we didn´t have a lot of time. So we were saved to say the least. But to summarize it in full...we got a whole lof of information about OLVIE OIL. This guy was crazy about olive oil. I mean he knew everything there was to know about it. How it was made by the Arabs and Romans, how it is made now, the smells and the plants in which it comes from. The different types of oil, the many different forms that it could take (whether it be something you put on your bread, to hair oil, lotion, or soap). He knew everything and had a ginormous storage of oil. Then at the end he gave my professor a book on olive oil - which he had written- and then he showed us historical paintings he had done around the museum - of which he had placed himself in as well. tehehe. It was insane but fun.

After this museum we went to lunch. It took us near an hour to drive to this resturant which was not that good at all in my opinion. As a group, we sat outside to eat, but the bad thing was not only the menu..but it was the fact that there were so many bugs. Yup..thats right..the flies here are ridiculous. As soon as we got our food like 7 flies swarmed to our plates and started fighting and working together in order to take some of our food before we did. It was terrible. And naturally I freaked out. I was in such a bad mood I was about to throw my hands up and say "Ive had enough..Im out of here" or just move to an inside table by myself. But Tamu pulled me close and both of us took turns swinging at the flies while the other was trying to eat. Naturally I was a lot less calm however... (side note: today I was able to get a close up look at disgusting flies and I noticed that they rub their hands together while tasting whatever they are tasting. Yuck..disgusting little creatures. They look like little devils while they are tasting your skin or tasting your food for that matter. Thank God that fish were created. For those who don´t know..fish eat these flies among other insects)

After lunch was over we then headed to the Monesterio de Pierda (aka The Monestary of Stone) to do some hicking. This park as Tamu calls it..I just call it a really big forest with a ginormous rainfall..was soooo beautiful. I loved it because the paths were easy to walk on, there were places to sit and rest, and the scenery was just gorgeous. The coolest thing we got to do there was to walk under a waterfall. It was amazing. The waterfall was massive. Yeah we got somewhat wet, and it may have been freezing at times..but it was worth it. It was so cool. It was my first time being under one. We also got to go in caves as well. It was good stuff. Tamu thought it was the best park he had ever been to. After spending 2 hours there..our day was finally coming to an end. We hopped on the bus and headed back to the dorms. This time Tamu was knocked out sleeping while I was awake reminising on all our adventures thus far.

What a good way to end the day :)

Out to Wine Country

Today our group took a trip out to Spain´s wine country. It took about 2.5 hours to get there by bus from Zaragoza. Most people tend to sleep on those sorts of trips, but I spend the time reading.

Currently I have two books on my plate. One of them is for class; it is a history of the Mediterreanian. That book is not all that fun, but I you cant choose everythig you read. My other book is a lotmore fun. It is called ´Who´s Your City?´ It is a study of how regions and cities really organize themselves and we as people can choose which city is best for us to live in. Its really interesting. I don´t think I´ll be moving any time soon, since Vicky and I are planning on continueing our educations at Northeastern for a few more years.

Well, back to wine country. Wine is important to teh mediterreanian because it originated there and has been one of the stable foodstuffs for centuries. Other staples of the region are olives, chickpeas, cereals, nuts, fish, pork, and lamb. Prior to irrigation, hardly anything else could grow here.

Because of wines importance to the region and in order to learn about another aspect of water(as agricultural input), we went to a vinyard and were shown around. We watched movies abuot the process by which they cultivate the land and process the grapes. Then we saw the storage tanks, barrels and bottles, where the wines sits for months and years brewing to perfection. We also took tours of art exhibis that hadbeen set up to show off the company´s artwork used for labels.

I was thinking two things the whole time I was there. First was how everything we were being shown was completely manufactred for tourism and I found itodd that so many people must come through thatwine factory. I kept wondering waht it is about wine that make people so passionate. Noone would ever go visit a peach farm because they love peaches or an apple orchard because their just that interested in ciders. But here was this place where dozens of people come every day just to get a better understanding of the wines they drink. It was strange how well rehearsed our guide was. I assume she has given many of these tours. Especially since they had built seperate passageways for the worker and the tourists(so they won´t run into each other).

The second thing I pondered was how high tech food production has become in the developed world and how the processes here compared with a plce like Ghana. The farm I saw in Ghana could never even hope to compete with a Spanish firm. They just can´t afford the technology and wouldn´t be able to find an invester who could help them do so. The wine producer showed us the computers that automatically keep track of everything and run unaided by human hands keeping the wines within 1 degree of the target temperatures. it was crazy how efficietly everything ran on its own. If a problem ever would arise though... the computer would sound an alarm so that someone could walk over and fix it. Once every minute at continuously louder intervals.

After the winery, we stopped into a cathedral which was important during the middle ages to defend agaist French attacks and to push the Moors out of Spain. There was a priest there who was surprisingly knowledgeble about the building and its history.

We then ate at a magnificent restaurant. I had a tuna-stuffed-pasta and a pork steak, followed by a sort of cream stuffed pastry. Everything was great.

On the way home we were given a sort of guided tur of what used to be Europe´s only desert. Now adays it is a semi-arid terrain filled with farmland. We saw some pictures of what t used to be like before rrigation was introduced during this past century... and the difference is drastic.

That was all.

oh and i tried to upload pictures, but, i guess eveyone will have to wait because this internet cafe doesn´t have any way for me to do so.

peace and love

Finally found an Internet Cafe

We have been wondering the city looking for a place to connect with that throbbing mess of an interweb that I love so much. Well, Vicky and I finally have so we should have some post for you soon. We will tell you all about the roman ruins, the basilica at the center of Zaragoza and the hike through the Pirenes mountains. Keep checking in on our adventure and we´ll do our best to keep you posted.

Much love all.

and congrats to ty on graduating. I saw the pictures Irene sent, today and I´m sorry I missed it.

Hey peeps

Hey everyone!!!

I am soo sorry that it has taken us so long to send you an email, but contrary to what the professor of the trip told us, the internet cafe's are very hard to find in Zaragoza, Spain. So both Tamu and I were able to borrow someones computer and I am finally able to send you an email tell everyone that we are alive and well.

We miss you guys!! We arrived here in Spain around noon on Sunday the 6th. Since we have arrived our trip has been muy ocupada. Every day the professor has had our day scheduled out from 8:30am to 7:00pm. Here the days are very long. It doesn't start getting dark till 10:00pm here - its crazy, but cool. So everyday this week, Tamu and I have not had too much time to ourselves during the day. But so far the trip has been every enjoyable. The Country is beautiful, people are nice, temperatures are extremely hot, and the food - generally the "tapas" are very very good.

Anywho, we have to go. But, I love you guys, we love you! Hope all is well with everyone. Thank you for all your prayers. We will be sending postcards and trying to stay in touch as much as possible. Please keep us in your prayers as you all are in ours. Pray that God will continue to keep us safe and guide our foot steps. In about a week, we will be heading off to Turkey for more adventures....

Love Vicky and Tamu

Spain And Turkey Trip

All the Spain/Turkey posts are now on Tamu's blog, but, if you would rather read a dedicated blog for only the Mediterranean, here is the link to Vicky and I´s blog for our trip to Spain and Turkey:

http://tamuandvicky.blogspot.com/

back home again

I´m back in the states now. It was a great trip and I´m sure I´ll keep ghana in my heart for a long time to come. But, it´s back to be back in Boston with Vicky.

Goodbye Ghana family. Thanks for everything.

Last Days

Last days, and my host made me a great birthday dinner and gave a wonderful send off to the airport.

On my b-day we had mexican food and they poured beer all over me.

Then on the send off it was very sweet. They tried to make it a surprise, but i was wise to their ways. They threw a big party with the whole family and told me how much they'd miss me and told me I must never forget them, since I am now part of the family.


peace out all

Sorry I've taken so long...

Apologies everyone. I've just been really busy with wrapping up my time here.

So, where I had left off was... right before my trip up North. I wanted to see the Northern half of Ghana because it is home to the nation's best wildlife reserve. Its name is Mole National Park and, if anyone is ever in the region, I highly recommend you going up there. It is a must see for anyone who is in Ghana, or one of the surrounding countries for that matter. I loved it. I started by leaving Accra on a Thursday morning.

I took a bus up to Kumasi and spent the night with a host-brother-in-law. To be had never been to a majority Muslim area before. There were mosques everywhere and most of the women wore head scarfs. Disembarking from the bus, I met a kid named Muhammad Zakaria. Hehonest, I can't remember his name, my sister just instructed me to call him 'pastor'. I feel bad about not knowing, but I did genuinely attempt to pry his name out of her when putting his number into my phone. His wife is the one at my house with the new born baby. She normally is living with him up in Kumasi, but came down to Accra in order to get the help of her mother during the first few months of the infant's life. Because of their situation, I now understand why Cid's daughter-in-law wanted to move back to Germany to be with her family. American families are just so isolating. Here in Ghana, a family is made up of around a hundred members and they all keep very close contact with each other, whether that means calling to check in on you or coming over to spend a few nights. I no longer understand why we choose to live in such isolation. These giant families keep things really welcoming and interesting.

After leaving my brother-in-law's, I took a bus up to Temale. That's the largest city in the North and any travel in the top half of the country stops though it before going on. It was an interesting place. I works a a guide for students who come to Temale; simpling meeting us at the bus station and taking us around(interesting enough, he did the same thing for 5 other students from my program on that weekend alone). He took me to a famous boabab tree, to the oldest mosque, a palace and to his community where I ate with his family. Oh he also found me a place to sleep. I slept at the police barracks. Temale's police station rents out extra rooms to travelers. Nothing special, but it got the job done.

The next morning, it was off to Larabanga(the city next to the park). I found a guest house operated by some very highly recommended brothers. It was really cool because I was able to sleep in a mud hut(nicer than it sounds). After that, it was off to the park. My pictures really explain the rest. We all packed into 4x4s and went out into the bush to check out the wildlife.

Then in the morning I headed back(20 hours of bus riding).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MAN!!

Sending you love on your B-day!

I love you so much my sweet! You are fantastic and I am so thankful that God has blessed you to see another one of your Birthdays! I am so glad I could talk with you multiple times today and let you know how very special you are to me and loved ones. Although we are physically apart I hope you are having an amazing day in Ghana!!! I can't wait to celebrate us together in 18 days!! I miss you...and today, among the other things sent, I wanted to send one more thing your way.

For you mu - with much love :)

http://www.yahoo.americangreetings.com/ecards/display.pd?prodnum=3022772&path=41060

B-day Love

Thank you baby for all the love you sent me on and around my B-day. The love you have for me makes me feel so special and fortunate. I love you so very much and I can't wait till we celebrate both of our days further when you return. You are so missed and so loved and I hope you are able to feel that on your special day which is coming up this Friday. Even though you are far away, we are very close to each other. You are in my heart and my prayers. I pray that God blesses us to see many more Birthdays!!! I love you bunches mumu.

And you are the best birthday gift I could ever ask for. Mwah! :)

I will send your more love on your special day. Although u told me that you only consider your b-day to be when you return to me, I still want to show you the amount of love you showed me on your Friday!

Kumasi Trip

Our program went up to Kumasi this weekend(sorry for the belated post). While we were up there, we saw an adinkra work shop, a kente work shop, swam at a crater lake and had fun at a pool. It was a while ago and most of the stories are mixed in with the photos that I took, so, I will largely be glossing over the details on this blog post.

Kumasi is the cultural capitol of Ghana. It is home to the Ashanti people. They are Ghana's largest ethnic group and live in the center of the country. Their language, Twi, is the most widespread language in the country. This is significant because it is more popular then English, dispute English being the country's official language. There has long been a debate about changing the national language to fit the reality on the ground. Some argue that Twi will boost national unity, because nearly everyone already speaks it and it would thus be an easy transition for the country to make. Opponents say that switching to Twi will give preference to the Ashanti people at the xpense of the rest of the tribes. Those who want to keep English argue that it is an internationally recognized language spoken through out the world and will give Ghana a step up when it comes to international issues, plus, due to its foreign origins, it would have no affect on intertribal relations. Opponents of English point out that nations develop fastest when their people are able to be educated in their mother tongues. Hardly anyone speaks English in their homes... Twi is by far more popular and its popularity would only increase if it became the national language.

Another interesting thing about the Ashanti is the power they held during the pre-colonial era. Ashanti were the dominant group. They were the only tribe that was able to challenge the European powers and went to war defending their lands. Those wars lasted many decades and because the British were never truly able to suppress them, the Ashanti kingdom marked the norhtern limit of their colony. So when someone goes farther up to a city like Tamale, they will see very little European influence.

The Ashanti were also the domestic group that benefited most from the transatlantic slave trade. Due to their dominance, they forced many of the other tribes to pay them tribute. Those tributes often came in in the form of slaves. And since the Ashanti could only use so many slaves, they sold the rest to Europeans and profited handsomely. In the process they destroyed what would later become the Northern and Southern portion of their country. Either way, Kumasi and the surrounding region is very wealthy. Their king layers himself in gold any time he goes out. His jewels are quite heavy, luckily he conserves energy by being carried everywhere he goes.

We went to the King palace and took a tour of a museum devoted to the history behind the kingdom.

We also went to a few workshops that made local crafts. I took a lot of pictures so check those out.

My Brother's Getting Married!

Ty(my actual/biological) brother back home has decided to get married to his, now, fiance Cimone. Just wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS! to the happy couple. I wish you the best. I think you'll be great. Rock it! Just remember that you have to work your entire lives to keep the love fresh and strong. If you get comfortable and ever going that extra mile for each other, problems will inevitably bubble to the surface. But, that's just a problem that all couples face... other than that you both shouldn't have any problems because I your great for each other. Welcome to the family Cimone. Hope your warming up to our traditions(The Simpsons, 'int', made you are, and all the rest). Much love and I send my warmest across the net.

Trip to Cape Coast

This weekend, my group took a trip to Cape Coast. Its probably the third largest city in Ghana and used to be its capital(back during the colonial era) because it was the country's center of commerce and (almost) in the middle of the country's coastline. During the trip we visited Slave River, Elmina Castle and Kakoom national park.

Slave river was the final resting place for captives of the Transatlantic slave trade before they were sold and boarded the ship that brought them to the Americas. The path that led down the river held so many foot prints that it was noticeably lower than the rest of the terrain. The grove made by their feet was probably about three feet deeper. We were given a tour of the area and told about how Ghana is trying to welcome back Africans in the diaspora. Some examples of this were the graves of people who had their families send their remains back to Africa and a wall the park constructed for diasporans to write their names on. I would have written mine, but the park was charging $100 for the honor of doing so. And that explains why the wall is empty.

The castle we went to is called Elmina. It is the oldest European structure outside of Europe. It was built by the Portuguese during the 1400's(i think). Since then, it has been owned by the Dutch, British and now Ghana. I can see why they chose to build it on that part of the coast. It is gorgeous. Right on the ocean line with a great view and the castle itself is beautiful. Inland, up the adjacent hill is a fort that was built to protect the castle. The castle was originally built as a trading post for ivory, gold and food stuffs that were needed to refill whips as they sailed on to southern Africa. Gold was so prevalent in Ghana that the colonial powers named it the 'Gold Coast'. Elmina actually earned its name because of the Portuguese term for 'the mine'.

Eventually the castle was converted into a center for the slave trade. They took out the inventory and converted the stores down below the castle into cells for slaves. Slaves were much more profitable then gold, so the trade of most other goods nearly collapsed and they turned their attention to trading people. Elmina, and the neighboring Cape Coast Castle, were home to Ghana's largest slave market. Or at least that's what people from the South will tell you. Northerners claim their Salaga market was the center of Ghana's slave trade.

We were given a guided tour of the castle. Our guides were very knowledgeably and we learned a lot. There were two parts of the trip that stood out to me. The first was the 'ripe' smell of the female dungeons. All the slaves in the castle had to relieve themselves inside their cells because no attention was paid to their sanitation. But for women, it was especially bad because they were given no way to clean up their menstruation and even 150-200 years after the last slave left the castle, it still holds a disgustingly pungent smell. The other notable was a view from the 'door of no return'. This was the door through which slaves were brought to ships waiting to transport them across the Atlantic. Today it is a cold dark cell with a broken steel gate. When you look out the gate, you see a picturesque beach and a bright beach umbrella. Looking out there, I just imagine what slaves would have thought if they were starving to death in there and looked out to find a family of tourist building a sand castle on the beach below.

After the castle we walked down the beach to the town's other castle, Cape Coast castle. Words really cannot do this beach justice, it is a beautiful sight to behold. and the sand is so soft, the water so warm. I kind of wish I lived there. I walked the beach with a few friends from my program, one of whom, had been visited my he farther. I talked to him because he's from Oregon(he grew up in Hood River) and everyone knows how much I love my Oregonians. MY camera was full so I don't have many pictures from this weekend, but I will upload the ones Rihana took with her camera.

The next day we went to Kakoom park for a canopy walk. I was afraid it would be as disappointing as the one we did in Costa Rica. I was afraid it would be a dinky little foot bridge connecting a few low trees. But that wasn't the case at all. We were really high up. I'm not all that afraid of heights(having gone bungee jumping and sky diving) but I did have trouble catching my breath at a few spots. At the highest, we were 150 ft up, looking over the forest. There was one guy, Micheal, who was mortified during the walk. He was shaking the entire time. It was a really good experience and our group, took a lot of pictures. Whenever I get my hands on them, I'll post them with the rest.

peace out - tamu

My First Published Article

As promised, here is a copy of the first article that I published over at the Statesmen Newspaper. If you click on the images it should bring you to a larger version of them... one that's actually readable. Enjoy. This article was the peak of my very short career as a journalist. Oh, and I plan to keep this post here for only a week or two. After that, I'll be sending it back to the posts of April, since that is when it was published.

Morning At Dance Class

I'm in a dance class. It is called Introduction to Traditional African Dance. We meet twice a week, Wednesday evenings for two hours and Friday mornings for one hour. The class has a live band that plays music for us. Two or three drummers, a cow bell, sometimes one other instrument. Sometimes they teach us songs, as well. I think by the end of the class we will need to sing and dance at the same time. I'm dreading that because I can dance, and I can sing, but I can't do both at the same time. It just doesn't work for me. I get so off beat, it looks as if I'm dancing to a different song that only I can hear.

Since its Friday, I went to dance. the class started as usual. We did a warm up. This generally involves following along with what ever one of our teachers does(similar to an aerobics class). We use that time to practice the various moves. Nothing too difficult. There's just this one teacher who enjoys watching us go crazy. Well, this teacher will tell the drummers to go at double speed. On top of that, he switches between the various dance moves at double speed. So the class is left frantically trying to figure out which move to do and as soon as we have, he's moved onto the next move. Despite feeling the urge to collapse afterwards, I really enjoy it.

After the warm up, we'll do a run through of our dance routine. This includes one practice round, then they split us up into groups so they can see how well we actually know it. Following the routine, we'll generally learn something new.

But that didn't happen today. Class was ended early because the performing arts students were holding an and our teachers told us it would be great, so we all had to go. We did. It was a waste. No food, no dancing. All the Africans in our class skipped out. The one good thing... no great thing was the entertainment. They had this student come with a keyboard and they must have just instructed him to fill time because he had no routine, he sang no songs.

What he did do was sing about whatever thoughts popped into his head. My favorite songs were "to the lady in the front row drinking some sachet water... enjoy your sachet water" and "my phone is ringing now, someone must be calling my phone now. Mmmm, maybe I got a new text message." Those two songs were classics. The rest of his act was equally random and I laughed the whole time. But that still didn't really make it worth the stay. We were there for about 45 minutes and other then that wonderfully thoughtful serenade, nothing happened. At one point, a few of us tried to leave but a man at the gate guilted us into staying. It was reminiscent of the Simpsons episode where they all join the cult. The cult leaders gather the town together to watch a movie about their beliefs. Before the movie began everyone was told that they could leave at any time, if they didn't find the message to be pertinent or believable. Well, after a few minutes of the film someone decides they've had enough and want to leave. The moment he stands up, the movie is stopped, a spotlight is cast down on him and over the intercom, someone asks him if anything is wrong/embarrasses him into sitting back down. The movie continues and spot light goes out. Then, when any subsequent people tried to leave the same thing would happen and in the end everyone stays until they are all brainwashed into believers.

Luckily, my fellow classmates and I weren't subjected to the same fate. We escaped with our lives by sneaking out the back. That was on our second attempt. Actually, we almost didn't make it because on the way out we ran into our head dance teacher. The moment I saw her I ducked away from her disapproving glare and quickened my pace.... we had gone too far to let freedom slip out of our grasp.

When I returned home, it was laundry time. I always do laundry on Fridays. Its done by hand and takes forever, so Fridays are the only day when we(Rihana and I) both have enough time. Its not very hard work, it just takes a really long time. There is one casualty though... my cuticles. They bleed every laundry day. After a couple of hours of rubbing clothes together, they can't help it.

By the way, I love Fridays. Because after laundry is done, i have no more work for the the week and get to relax with my siblings and watch movies until Monday. Fridays are sweet.

Off to Court

This week I went into the field for The Statesman Newspaper. It was pretty cool. We(co-worker Gilbert and I) went to Ghana's Fast Track High Court. We also walked around the court grounds to catch a glimpse of some of their other courts. We saw the Commerce Court, Supreme Court, a Circuit Court, and some others. Accra is the capital of Ghana and thus the home of their Judiciary. The vast majority of the nations lawyers and judges and courts are in this city. So I basically was able to see where most decisions are made.

The case we were there to write about was concerning 23 Liberian refugees that were detained by Ghanaian police. The police never allowed them to be tried for their offenses or talk to lawyers. Only one of them had spoken to anyone since being arrested 1-2 months ago and a group of lawyers was arguing that the police needed to allow the refugees to seek legal council.

We arrived a little late and missed the trial, but the judge ruled in favor of the refugees. We gathered our information from a group of reporters who had been to the case and all huddled around each other to discus their notes.

An interesting thing about their court system is that are still completely basing it off of the British system... right down to those powder white wigs. There are seasons designated for wigs and gowns and some where you don't need them. In the ones where you do need to wear the costumes, those who don't are legally considered naked and risk being held in contempt.

I think that's crazy. But oh well. If they like tradition...

Volta Region

Hello Again,

Another week, another story. This week was pretty good. I wrote my first piece at the newspaper and CIEE group took trips. We split up into two groups (a big group of 30+ and a small group of 20). The big group went to the Central region, Cape Coast(third largest city in Ghana), Elmina Castle(an old slave trading post and fort Europeans used), and the Slave River(the place slaves being sold into the external trade went to take one last wash before being shipped to the Americas). My group was the smaller one. We went to the Volta Region, where we visited West Africa’s highest water fall, a mona monkey sanctuary, and I attempted to go on a really cool hike(more on that later).

The piece I wrote was an editorial about Ghana’s police mishandling evidence. The police had confiscated large amounts of cocaine from a bust in 2007. Then, in a recent internal investigation, they found a crate was missing. Plus in another crate, bags of cocaine were replaced by with bags of flour. It was a nice article to write, I enjoyed it. But sadly it wasn’t published. They say it was too short for what they were looking for and thus lacked details. The next day I saw they had a similar editorial that was clearly not written by me. Not used, but it still felt good to do something. Yesterday, I wrote another article, this one was about an insurance agency that was moving their head quarters. I have no idea if I did a good job on this article, so we’ll see if it gets published. Either way, I ‘m heading down the path towards becoming a real journalist. So, that’s cool.

On to my weekend trip…. It was a good one, a little rushed for my taste, yet the sights were still interesting. Our group hopped onto a bus at 6 am to travel to the part of the Ghana that lies to the east of the large man-made lake north of Accra. Our first destination took us on a 30 minute hike to a really beautiful waterfall. We swam around in it for a while and took a bunch of pictures. I tried to take some pictures of the bats, after I upload them, we’ll see if any came out well. Ghana has a lot of bats, these ones where living on the cliff side that the water was rushing down. I also took some pictures from inside the fall, which is really cool since I had bought this waterproof camera bag before the trip and finally had the chance to use it. The pool below the fall wasn’t very deep but it was cool and mist in the air was fantastic. It was a very hot day and we needed to cool off.

In Ghana, March is the peak of the dry season. It gets hotter and hotter, until I’m dripping uncontrollably with sweat everywhere I go, regardless of what I do. Then, just when its about to become unmanageably hot, clouds roll over head and the rainy season starts. Well, this weekend we got to experience those super hot days right and it was crazy. My shirt was soaking all weekend and I never really did anything to deserve it. Even thinking made me sweat. So I loved the chance to float around in some nice cool water (actually it was quite cold). Then, after the last person stepped out of the water, our CIEE organizer began herd us away to lunch. The meal was good. I enjoyed my first real French fries, since arrival and they also had a great salad. Ghanaians don’t really do the whole ‘vegetable’ thing (their meals consist of carbs, sauce and meat), so whenever our group gets together for an event everyone goes crazy over at the salad bowl.

After chow, it was off to the monkeys. This part of the trip was a little like a bubble. It kept inflating into a better and better experience… and suddenly it popped and vanished into thin air. I say this because we set off on another hike through the jungle. 5 minutes in, we encountered our first pod of monas. Setting out I was afraid we might not see them, because our guide told us they mainly come out during dusk and dawn (we were there at 4pm). But, there they were. And then they became really comfortable with us and crawled closer and closer (which I didn’t think would happen at all). Next thing I know, I’m reaching my arm out and feeding them bananas. Sweet stuff. I think nearly everyone in the group gave at least one banana to a monkey and if one holds on to the fruit firmly, the monkeys will peel it in your hand then either break off pieces or just do a face plant and gobble it up. I thought we would continue hiking around the area, checking out other groups of monkeys, but that didn’t happen. As soon as we ran out of bananas, our guides took us right back to the bus, so 15 minutes after we entered the sanctuary, we were gone. That sucked. But now I have nice, new monkey sanctuary t-shirt and pictures with African Monkeys. So how could I be sad? (sarcasm = we were such tools)

When we arrived at the hotel, I was tired. So I unpacked, ate and went to bed in front of the warm glowing stare of cable tv. The hotel had some 50 channels. To be fair, half of them were blacked, so we really only had 25. Then, to be honest those 25 channels were just rebroadcasts of the first 4 or 5 channels over and over again. Haha. Seriously. If you channel surfed the airwaves, you’d find one of the same five shows happening on which ever channel you stopped. Example: you could watch MSNBC Africa on channel 4, 6,7, 12,15, 21, 27, 36, etc. Well, I thought it was funny. I awoke in the morning and went for swim. Growing up on a swim team ha sort of ruined the whole pool experience. People just stand there, partially submerged and splash around. I don’t get it. When I go to a pool, the only way I can enjoy myself is if I’m swimming laps, teaching others how to properly swim (because that just rewarding) or maybe playing a variation of Water polo. Nothing else really does it for me. So, when my group hit the pool the night before, I hit the hay. I thought, if I were to wake up early enough, the pool would be empty, and I could get in a really good swim. I swam for about an hour and a half. Then at the end some girl joined me and started talking to me because she had mistook me for someone participating in the same program she was. In the course of our conversation, she recommended that I use my free time to go hiking at a mountain that’s just down the road. It sounded like a great idea and yesterday’s rushed monkey excursion, left me wanting for more. So, during breakfast I recruited some friends and we set off.

Our first problem was that I couldn’t remember the name of the mountain. We asked one of the hotel workers and he told us if we took a taxi to the village named Ho, we would be able to get there without problems. Easy enough; we continued on. The first taxi we stopped knew Ho, so while we were driving there we attempted to find out where the tourist information center was (my pool mate had told me to look for it). We zigzagged town and eventually found a sign for the ‘tourist board’… close enough. Only problem was that we hadn’t thought through our trip enough to realize that we were looking for an office on a Sunday morning. It was closed and the security guards weren’t any help. We found another taxi driver. This one knew the mountain and told us he could get us there for “two five”. We hopped in and were on our way. The taxi driver asked us if we wanted him to stay while we hiked. Because he told us that it would be easy to find another taxi at the base of the mountain, we told him he didn’t need to. Logistic problem number 2: we believed the driver, but really he was just driving us into a situation, where we would have to use him if we wanted to return. Then, 5-10 minutes into the drive the pavement disappeared and was replaced by a bumpy dirt road. Similarly, our taxi’s speed disappeared and was replaced by that of a brisk walk. 20 minutes into it and the mountain didn’t look any closer. We began scheduling our time, trying to figure out just how much hiking we could get in before our bus back at the hotel needed to leave. That was our next logistics failure. I thought we were leaving at 1pm, my friends informed me we were to check out at noon. One less hour for our fun adventure. Plus there was all the time it was taking to get there… so by the time we had arrived at our destination, it looked like we’d only have 20 minutes to walk around, before we needed to head back. We asked the driver if he could just wait for us while we explored the village for twenty minutes. This meant renegotiation of our bill. We told him we’d give him another ‘two five’ to drive us back(in addition to the ‘two five’ for the first half of the trip) and then an extra two cedi for him to wait the 20 minutes for us. At this point we were encountered with logistical problem number 4: lost in translation. Our driver had meant 25 cedi when he told us ‘two five’. We thought he meant 2 cedi, 50 peswas($2.50). So now we were screwed. We had told the man we’d pay him 70 cedi for the round trip, when we thought we would pay him 7 cedi. (by the way, Ghana just redenominated their currency in January, so price confusion is common) There was no way we could pay him 70 cedi, which was far too much and we didn’t even have that kind of money on us. We were trying to argue with him over the price, but he was holding all the chips, since (judging by the size of the village) we could see that there was no way we were going to find another taxi to drive us home. And at the same time we were trying to explain to our guide that we wouldn’t have enough time to go on the hike. Then… out of nowhere… an American woman shows up. She tells us she’s been living in the village for 7 years and her arrival adds one last peculiarity to the mix. Her and her friends join our fight against the taxi driver. Everyone agrees that he is expecting a ridiculously high price. For 70 cedi, we could easily charter a taxi to bring us all the way to Accra and back. (when I eventually returned home, I told my brother how much the taxi driver wanted to charge me, and his response was “where was he going to drive you to? America?) The locals in the village told us they normally pay 1 cedi each for a taxi ride from Ho. By that price, our offer of 15 cedi was twice what he should be paid and the guy still wouldn’t accept it. Eventually, with the help of the townspeople, we brought the price down to a disgruntled 20 cedi, said goodbye to our new village friends and were on our way

The whole event led me to a greater appreciation of meters. They’re great. When it comes to price of the trip, there’s no arguing, no bargaining; you just look up at the meter and pay whatever is on its display. If it has counted to high number, you pay a high price. If its number is low, so is your bill. It’s that simple. Beautifull, really.

Back to Awisa

We(my host family) went back to Awisa this weekend. That's the village we traveled to for the funeral. It looks like they go there a lot. I already know of the next trip they'll make. It will be in three weeks for a one year anniversary of an uncles death. This week's trip was more celebratory, though. It was for Easter and the confirmation of three of my brothers(Bediako, Omega and Kwame).

It started on Thursday. We wanted to be there for as long as possible, so Rihanna and I skipped our afternoon classes. I still had to go to my internship. We had a staff meeting and I did some typing for the business editor. Because of those things, I returned home a bit late. I was agonizing about my tardiness on the tro-tro ride home. Plus, it was a swelteringly hot ride of the stop and go nature, which didn't help in the least.

I guess this is a good time to discuss an aspect of Ghana that is unique to the country... in Ghana, you can buy anything you want on the street. They sell everything on the street(other than pharmaceuticals, although I'm sure you can find herbal remedies and illicit drugs). So much of their economy is street based, that it is actually harder to find objects in brick and mortar establishments. This is important because it allows you to do some shopping while your stuck in traffic. Need a new dress shirt? No problem, roll down your window and start bartering with the man standing at the intersection. Thirsty? Why pull into a convenient store(or Quick-E-Mart) when there are women(and some times young girls) carrying baskets filled with ice cold water walking between the cars. I hadn't ever partaken in this street economy, I wanted to get a feel for their prices before I bought anything. They always try to rip off obrunies, with high prices. Well, today I was hot. I was thirsty. I was hungry. And my water bottle only had warm water in it. So I looked around between the cars and found a man selling ice cream. I bought FanIce(that's the vanilla flavor) and it was divine. It was so good. It hit the spot perfectly. So much so that I stopped worrying about being late.

Which was good because when I finally arrived, my family was sitting around watching Pirates of the Caribbean. That wasn't at all what I was expecting. They told me that my brother Micky had been diagnosed with malaria and was at the hospital on an IV drip. They postponed the trip to the next morning. No problem, I sat down and ate lunch. Your probably reading this thinking that its horrible, I should be more concerned for Micky. But its cool. Malaria in Ghana is like the flu in the US. Everyone gets it. Typically once or twice a year. They go to the doctor, get some medication and are sent on their way. Most people heal in about 3 days.

So the next day we headed out.

We spent most of the weekend swimming. I guess I should mention that Easter is a national holiday and the University canceled classes on Friday and Monday to allow students to go home and visit their families. We swam three out of the four days we were there. I've been teaching my brothers to swim and they've gotten pretty good. The only things their missing are endurance and confidence. Both of which go hand in hand. They didn't improve too much this weekend because the pool we went to operates as more of a party in the water then an actual pool. Most Ghanaians can't swim, so I think they use the pool as nothing more than an excuse to hang out with friends and a way to stay cool. There was loud music and dancing(in and out of the pool). Then in the midst of it all was me teaching lesson. It wasn't too hard to do so the first two times we went. But on the third day, the place was packed. You really couldn't move without running into someone. That is everywhere except for the deep end and when I was tired of teaching people, that's where I hung out. I taught a lot. Teaching your siblings is one thing, but others kept coming over for lessons and my brothers kept finding friends who they thought needed to learn a thing or two. I was glad to help, I think basic knowledge of swimming skills is necessary for everyday life. But on Monday, I totally burned out. I had taught at least something to about 1/5 of the pool and everywhere I looked was someone looking up at me to critique their stroke or show me the next step and since the pool was so hopelessly full(as to be impossible for me to effectively show them anything useful), I just stopped all together.

I guess it didn't help that I had almost been robbed and was a bit perturbed at the time. It happened when Rihana(obruni sister) walked away to meet up with some brothers who had arrived late. Well, it was her job to look after our stuff and when Bernard(youngest brother), told me that she wasn't around, I rushed over to our stuff to make sure everything was still there. Everything of mine was, save for my cell phone. I searched all over and when she returned with our brothers, they helped out. Eventually(like 15-20 minutes later), I accepted the loss and dove back in the pool(at least the water has never betrayed my trust). While I was swimming my brothers found some boy outside of the pool who had 'found' my phone. We don't know if he was the one who took it or if we were just really lucky and he found it after it had fallen out of my pocket. Either way i ended up paying him a $1 out of gratitude(and because my bro's said they boy had insisted on a reward). 'Boo' to that.

The rest of the weekend.....

we had to awake at 3:30 am to go get my brothers confirmed on Sunday. I don't know if this was because of Easter Sunday and the rest of the day as booked with services... or they just do all their confirmations really early. who knows.

Service was alright. There was a lot of dancing and I wore a traditional wrap, so that was fun. But they didn't speak in English and it lasted 3 hours... so that was bad.

I'm really tired of typing and must be going home so i guess I'll have to cut this short. My sister just told me I have to go.


peace and love -tamu

Wrote My First Piece

Today I was asked to write a piece by Cynthia, one of the writers on staff. She was reading an article on My Joy Online about police mishandling contraband. She told me to research the story and write an editorial about it.

Turns out that the Ghanaian police department has been having a pretty decent sized problem with 'misplacing' large quantities of confiscated cocaine. There was a recent internal audit looking into an old investigation that found several bags of cocaine missing from one of their crates; several other bags had been replaced by flour; and on top of all of that, they couldn't even find an entire crate of cocaine.

I'm thinking that someone in the police department must be taking these drugs and selling it back into the streets, fueling the very crime and social destruction that they are supposed to be fighting. That's what I wrote my price about.

Sadly, the editorial I wrote never got published. When I checked the editorial page the next day, I saw a piece about police mishandling cocaine, but it didn't look the way I remembered. It didn't even look like it could have been a result of being ripped to shreds and rewritten by the paper's editors.

I was nervous since I'd never worked at a paper before, never written anything for a paper and I wasn't even a journalism major. So, I asked Cynthia what she thought of my piece. She said it was well written, that was a relief. What it lacked, though, was depth in analysis. It was then that I realized how tough it was for journalist on foreign assignments. Here I was writing a piece about what I thought was an isolated event, and it turns out that it was an institutional problem. I thought I had done my research about the subject, but I guess I had just scratched the surface.

From this day on, I decided to start each day off by scouring the previous day's news.

A Conversation on Dependency Theory

4:17 AM Vicky: baby!! mwah

4:18 AM me: hey love

Vicky: how has your morning been so far besides stiff waking up?

4:19 AM me: class was good

4:20 AM we(i) got a ton of handouts to read

and you know how i love my reading

its rare to have things to read here because resources are so low

so i'm quite happy

4:21 AM and us international students get special treatment when it comes to those sorts of things(which is nice for me) probably so the school can get good PR

4:24 AM Vicky: hehe ah yes I know your first - reading material. That is good! I bet that made your day! oh special treatment for obruni's. Yeah no doubt..it actually does help their PR

I mean I know u're first LOVE - your reading material...oh and what are the readings about?

4:25 AM me: your my first love

but the readings are about history of ghana

Vicky: aww baby!!

mwah!!!

me: and then a couple of others on more widespread african history

4:26 AM Vicky: ooo i see...u are going to be an expert on everything when u get back. Have you been reading a lot apart from class?

4:27 AM me: 'ive read some

but the only place to get books is the library and i always forget to bring my ID card

4:28 AM i really only get onto campus on Mondays

so its a small window of opportunity

4:29 AM Vicky: oh i see

4:31 AM me: but, i should also get a lot of great readings from my development studies class, because that's one is run through CIEE

4:32 AM and they can print plenty of copies without killing their budget

there was one i read last week(from that class)

4:33 AM it was so good

it was about dependency theory

Vicky: ooo do explain...

me: which i had learned about before (the general 'how the west underdevelops the rest of the world' sort of stuff)

4:34 AM but it was just so diffreent to read about it while i'm here

Vicky: oh i see..is it because you saw exactly what they were talking a bout in the reading?

me: because for everything they wrote about, i could think of real life examples proving that it was all true

yep

4:35 AM Vicky: oh yeah..wow..that must have been an emotional read

how do u feel about dependency theory generally?

me: it was crazy just how true it was

4:36 AM well i think that what africa's experiencing right now is due in part to dependency and in part to bad governance

they did have some horrible leaders

4:37 AM Vicky: yeah

true

4:38 AM I think most problems with places like Africa is double - folded like u said

4:39 AM its because of its infrastructure. It seems easy to infiltrate, mess up and weaken

4:43 AM me: the was that the article was teaching it, they were showing that the way the global economic structure is set up, the only time the developing world is developing is in reflection of expansion made in the rich countries

so they do move upwards but only to the extent that we allow them to facilitate our expansion

4:44 AM Vicky: hmm i see

me: and did you know that Ghana has no factories?

4:45 AM they don't actually make anything

other then hand crafts

Vicky: no...

are u serious?

wow..thats no good

4:46 AM me: in order to receive foreign aid they have to aggree to spend it on on things like roads, shopping centers, offices, housing, education

and never investing into their economic infrastructure unless other wise told so

4:47 AM they have to send all their unprocessed goods to the places we tell them to

Vicky: that is horrible! its like all a ploy to keep them dependent

4:48 AM me: then after we're finished manufacturing/processing... we ship it back to them and sell them the finished products

so ghana has to import everything

Vicky: omg...omg...that is so upsetting

4:49 AM wow..I mean u hear of these things..but it has never been broken down to me the way u just h ave

me: and the port here is gigantic

its like the size of a city

and out on the coast line all you see is cargo ships waiting to enter

4:50 AM and of course finished goods cost a lot more than raw materials

so we make a huge profit

4:51 AM keeping us rich and them poor

4:52 AM Vicky: :(

we need to get into politics so we can help change this

4:53 AM me: plus they have to work so hard to make enough raw materials to sell to us, so that they can afford the finished products

4:54 AM but the good side is that they have tons of the goods that are necessary to survive

4:55 AM so they won't starve or anything

the country produces so much food and such that its ridiculously cheap to live here

4:56 AM but if you want any of the finished goods(like a tv or a car or computer) you have to save up money for a really long time

Vicky: boo...

4:57 AM it's just so wrong. we already owe them so much

and yet we continue taking from them...

don't we get that enough damage has already been done

4:58 AM people and labor land resources like anything else..can eventually be depleted...

and then what will we do...?

5:00 AM me: i don't think people will ever be depleted

there are always ways to make labor more efficient

5:01 AM with proper technology one person can increase in efficiency indeffinitly

5:02 AM and as long as we are able to find countries to sell the excess goods to... then the system will prosper

Vicky: boo

5:03 AM me: add to that the trend of disposability (where people replace functioning things so that they can have something slightly better) and you'll never run out of paying customers

5:05 AM Vicky: sigh, u're right. The africans should just refuse to go by the system and develop their own economies. These people have been exploiting them the same way since the begining. We learned about it. this is exactly what happened and what lead up to the slave trade

but yeah I know they need someone to trade with and I know they need cash and and credit but can't Africa as a whole do that within themselves?

5:06 AM just like they did in the tran-saharan trade

me: they can as long as they don't want any complex goods

5:07 AM Vicky: i mean not every aspect of Africa was very very colonized and suffered from imperialism. there has to be enough wealthy to get them to our level . It just has to be distributed better

me: it takes a lot of money to set up a factory, especially if you want it to be efficient enough to compete with established firms

5:08 AM because if they start building things and selling them amongst them selves

someone is going to figure out that they can buy the chinese version of it for half the price and sell it in africa to their compatriates at a nice profit

5:09 AM or if that doesn't happen then everyone has to deal with huge inflation

and they won't be ableto afford anything

Vicky: boo...!

5:10 AM thats why I think all of us should move back there and contribute out wealth, labor and mind to everything there...of us blacks I mean

then they could tax us and everything

me: but since jobs pay so little

Vicky: its ok..we will just have to live off of much less for a time

me: very few want to be here

5:11 AM all the educated in ghana(and most poor places) move to the western world to make their moeny

same thing happens in Jamaica and Dominica

5:12 AM Vicky: :(

5:13 AM Vicky: people just need to have more pride. They need to get educated and come back to help where they've come from

5:25 AM me: i'm totally cool with moving out here
but i have to get a western style pay grade in order to pay off my student loans.
but once thats done, i'd love to help out

and move to a developing country

Vicky: :)

I would too

5:26 AM specifically Africa and or a spanish speaking country

but def western Africa

me: or a spanish african country... like madagascar?

Vicky: :)

oooo

me: i love that place

5:27 AM Vicky: yeah

that would be two dreams wrapped up in none

*one

why do u love that place?

me: i don't know if the people there actualy speak spanish or if that died when they stopped being a colony

they have great wild life

that's why i love it

5:28 AM Vicky: oh hehe...oh west coasters

me: its a very natural, unpoluted country

Vicky: u can take a person out of Portland but you can't take Portland out of someone

hehe

5:31 AM me: of course