Nick's Semester @ Sea: So this is Ghana …

Facts about Ghana
Location: Western Africa, bordering the Gulf of Guinea, between Cote d'Ivoire and Togo
Population: 23 million
Languages: English, African languages including Akan and Ewe
Climate: Tropical
Religions: Christianity, Islam and indigenous beliefs
Government: Constitutional democracy
Economy: Largely agricultural. Exports include cocoa, gold and timber, metals and diamonds.
Famous people: Soccer star ~ Freddie Adu

Ghana was a very interesting country…and I now understand why they wanted us to go there.

Our visit was surely in part to show us a country with an emerging international economy but still struggling with a slew of social, educational and technological issues. You can tell when your there in the middle of it all that they have the resources to compete on the global level. They are held back by their subsistence economy which doesn't create enough goods for their own day to day consumption (I read that somewhere).

The MV Explorer was again docked in a industrial port area, This time we were in the city of Tema. We had to walk about a half a mile to get to the front gate and ultimately the Taxies. It was an interesting set up to say the least. At the gate there was this scary looking Army type guy, who looked just like General Juma in "24" (hahaha). For those who don't know, "24" is my favorite TV show.

On the first day we took the SAS provided shuttle into Accra, it was about a 45 min drive. TIA (this is Africa), none of this fake Africa stuff like in Capetown. The roads were the worst we'd seen in all of the countries we have been to so far! When we got to Accra we realized that since it was a Sunday there wasn’t really anything open, except for the Central Market. So there we went to cruised around for a while.The dusty roads that lead into Central Accra are lined with open-fronted shacks and stands selling everything from cooked foods, clothing, electrical goods, cast iron gates and services like haircuts. Most have colorful signboards advertising the names of their shops. Women sit at the road side with their babies strapped to their backs and basins of oranges, yams and plantains for sale in front of them. This is how most people who live in the shanty towns make a living. The central Makola Market is very big and very busy. Market women sit under huge straw hats, with babies strapped to their backs, behind piles of tomatoes, yams, beans, plantains, peanuts and rice and basins of dried fish and meat. The residential areas are to the north and west of Accra. In the afternoon we checked into the hotel we were going to stay that night called the La Palm Royal Beach. We had lunch and hung out by the pool for the rest of the afternoon. Since there was nothing open that night, we all went to the Bar/Casino at the hotel. Okay..., so maybe this semester has turned into a big party. So what..., at least I went to bed reasonably early that night... I had Habitat for Humanity in the morning.

Our Habitat crew

In the morning I headed out on my habitat trip with my buddy Greg. Our 2.5 bus ride turned into 4 hours because of traffic and the really poor condition of the roads. It was SOOOO HOTTT! I fried and there was nothing I could do about it. All the sunscreen in the world wouldn't have helped. Every bit I put on just sweated off ... instantly! I probably lost 20 lbs of water weight and my pants were falling off at the end of the day (hahahah). We mainly moved these 30lbs cement blocks to where they were going to be laid. I Personally moved 100+ of those bad boys and then we wheelbarrow-ed dirt to fill inside the foundation to level out the floors. Sunk into the mud in the rooms were these huge boulders that we had to excavate out of there. There was even a tree growing in the back bedroom floor (lol). Griffen the lucky dog got to chop it down with a machete.

HFHG homeowners are mostly farmers who own small plots, which they cultivate by hand. Even with a good harvest, these farmers don't earn more than US$50 a month, and they struggle to care for their families. However, the farmers are able to afford a mortgage with HFHG, which is never more than 20 percent of their monthly income.

A typical house is made up of two bedrooms and a hall, with an external johnny and washroom. Walls are made of sun-dried earthen blocks, plastered with cement and built onto the concrete foundation and cement floor. The houses typically have an aluminum roof.

I walked out of there soaked in sweat and beyond dirty, but feeling great and very proud of what we accomplished! So there you have it..., I was happy and that's all that counts. (LOL) Everyone of us went to bed early that night.

Definitely one of the hottest places I have ever been to! But... all in all it was a great day!

The next day Kyle, Sara, Jenny, Rob, Greg, and I went to Volta lake. The largest largest man-made lake in the world in terms of surface area. The Akosombo Dam and the associated hydroelectric system consist of a rock-fill dam and spill way and a powerhouse. Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, the then President of Ghana commissioned the first phase of construction, on January 22, 1966. The dam is 433 feet high and 2165 feet long. It has created a reservoir of water, of about 301 square miles of surface area.

Hydroelectric power from this dam is key to Ghana’s development, producing energy for domestic consumers as well as for export. The construction of the Akosombo Dam resulted in the formation of the Volta lake. It stretches practically along the entire length of Ghana.

We had a great lunch of fresh fish (bones and all) at a restaurant overlooking the lake and dam. The view was priceless and lunch was followed by a boat ride on the lake. After lunch we headed back to the ship for more food (dinner) and waited for some friends who still hadn't come back from a SAS trip. Afterward we went out for the night… again... just a little party... we hit up the casino bar … and then we all headed to this rather large purple building were there was a much larger SAS'r party……

The last day we slept in after which we walked around Tema for a little bit and had lunch and chilled at a bar for a while, went to a “post office” and got back on the ship a little early. Overall it was an interesting experience to see a country developing and trying hard to do it right …I appreciated coming here because from now on whenever Ghana in the news…its not going to be some no named little African country that has no meaning to me, I will turn up the volume and be interested because I was there and I know what it is like….and someday it's going to have a pretty decent economy….and I can say that I have been there before!

“You can't do anything to help your team win when you don't play.”

Freddy Adu quote