Today I Fell in Love With Ghana

Today, somewhere in between dancing with villagers and painting a kindergarten classroom, I fell in love with Ghana. 

Working with an organization called Disaster Volunteers of Ghana, my classmates and I  traveled to Abutia Agodeke in the Ho Municipality of the Volta Region.  In this small village, our mission was to complete the construction of a 3 block school for kindergartners. 

Early this morning, as our bus pulled down the bumpy dirt road and into the village, we were greeted by an overjoyed crowd of adults and children. With our wheels still rolling, they ran along side the bus, waving and chanting as the men of the community beat their drums. It was the kind of scene that leaves you endlessly smiling. 

Immediately upon stepping off the bus, the women of the community ran to hug as all. We were ushered over to rows of plastic chairs, where we sat and watched as the villagers welcomed us with a traditional ceremony, mostly consisting of dancing. 

Some of the little girls of the community could really break it down.

I got a total kick out of that orange dress the young girl is wearing. Everyone was dressed to the nines for our arrival.

After a period of dancing and introductions, the women of the village decorated our wrists with beads and sprinkled some sort of white powder on our wrists, as a kind and traditional gesture to welcome us.

When some of us shook the powder off of our hands, the women were quick to sprinkle more on. Due to the fact that no one in the village spoke English, or Twi, we relied entirely on make shift sign language and their sign language was telling me not to shake the powder off. It didn't quite matter anyway, I was already covered in dirt and soon to be covered in paint.

We got right to work on the school. Classmates went with the little girls to fetch water (which they carried on their heads) to mix the paint. The paint was mixed with the water by hand. 

I worked along side one of my resident assistants, Kalvin, to paint the interior of this classroom. I was so happy to be working out of the sun and Kalvin served as my entertainment as he listened to his ipod and sang soprano to the top 100 hits. We rolled coat after coat onto the cement walls, but it quickly became clear to me that the walls would never have an even coat and that the cement would always show through. The perfectionist inside of me was tormented. 

I was entirely spotted from head to toe by the time I finished. You can see in the picture above the bracelet that was tied onto our wrists.

At the end of the day, our bus driver, Sammy, decided to purchase two baby goats, which he strapped onto the roof of our bus. We were forced to listen to their little hooves on the roof as we sped down the highway.... At first everyone was horrified and begged Sammy to let us keep them in the bus with us and not on the roof, but he claimed that they would be fine up there and we had no other option but to blindly believe him. Welcome to Ghana. 

We pulled away from the village, looking back the whole way, waving goodbye to the villagers.

Back to Beacon House

After a FABULOUS trip to Morocco it was back to Ghana, but this time I had my Mummy with me!!!!!!!! Very exciting.  We had such fun adventures in Morocco, and I was excited to bring my mother to Ghana and introduce her to the sights and sounds of Accra....I left out smells.... but those certainly exist here too. 

The first day we braved the chaotic Makola Market and the Art Center, where we did some shopping. It was fun to feel like the tour guide instead of the tourist. I was surprised at the fun facts I could whip off and how, for the most part, I really knew my way around.

Wednesday we went to volunteer at Beacon House. It was like bring your mummy to work day!!

It was so great to introduce her to all the kids, who welcomed her with open arms... literally.  

We have some new babies at Beacon House that are quite possibly the cutest little babes in the world...

The kids are all about the pictures. Except they call it "snapping". They all say "Please snap me"...and then of course they want to see it....

I am working currently on getting pictures together of all the kids, as a very kind organization has volunteered to draw portraits of all the kids for them to have!

Hotel La Mamounia

Tonight we walked around the corner to the legendary La Mamounia., the finest hotel in all of Africa! It stands on the site of a residence that in the 18th century belonged to the son of the sultan Sidi Mohammed. It was a wedding gift given to him by his father... beat that Daddio! Many famous people have stayed there including Winston Churchill, Richard Nixon and most recently Hilary Clinton. It is scheduled to host the upcoming Marrakech Film Festival.

 They now have a "Winston Churchill Bar" in the hotel, which my mother and I visited. We made friends with the bar tenders and they gave us free pens and mini leather wallets that say La Mamounia on them... talk about hospitality, these gentlemen were so kind.

You can check out the hotel website below and see how beautiful the hotel is, as these pictures are just of a statue that we thought was slightly scary.... (everything here looks like the dink-dink characters from the movie Space Balls)

http://www.mamounia.com/uk/index.php

Yassine and I in front of the scary statue!

The gang of us having a lovely time...

Pinch Me

My mother and I ventured through The Place Jemma el-Fna the other evening and observed all the crazy things going on. I mentioned in my last blog that the area was very hard to photograph at night, so my apologies for the poor quality of the photo below. 

You might notice in the photo a blue streak in the sky, and I am surprised there are not more of them, as there were street venders slingshotting these light up toys into the air that would then spiral down through the air back to them. Twas very neat. You can also see the bright lights and smoke coming from the food vendors in the center of the square.

We have been having breakfast in our room every morning here in Marrakech. THE BEST.

Below is one of the pools at the hotel, it is totally beautiful. Picture does it no justice...I know I keep saying that, but it is just so true.

Yesterday we toured around Marrakech and visited the Majorelle Gardens designed by the French artist Jacques Majorelle. The gardens are most well known for the fact they they were purchased by Pierre Berge and Yves Saint-Laurent in 1980. The gardens serve as the final resting place for the famous designer, Yves Saint Laurent.

After visiting the gardens I decided it was about time I ride a camel. So my mother and I did just that. We found us some camels and rode them around. Loved it.

We rode the two camels around the palm groves in Marrakech. My mother had rode a camel before in Dubai, but it was my first time and I was pretty pumped about it. I could not stop petting the hump of the camel, I was so surprised at how soft and fluffy she was. I must say, I was feeling pretty bad about all the camel leather products I had purchased in the medina. 

Then of course we went shopping in the souks....it is a mother daughter trip after all.

Then it was back to the hotel for some much needed rest. The picture below romanticizes this idea, but in actuality I passed out face down and drooling on my pillow....hot. 

Man oh man travel can be tiring...But today is all about relaxing by the pool for me, hence my time to blog and inform the world of my adventures! Love this life....So I think I shall go live it.

Marrakech Sites and Sounds

 From our rooms terrace we look out to the Koutoubia Mosque, which dates back to 1147....if you can believe it. The minaret is 70 meters high and is the highest building in the city, by law no building is allowed to be higher.

This afternoon we decided to venture around the Place Jemaa el-Fna, a square that serves as the nerve center of Marrakech. It is a UNESCO world heritage site, and certainly a site to be seen. In the past, the square had been used for beheading criminals, but today it is a large market by day and a bustling arena of culture by night. In the evenings the air is filled with smoke from grilling meat and the aroma of spices. The square fills with musicians, dancers, fortune tellers, snake charmers and a large number of people looking to make a buck. It is totally wild at night, but incredibly hard to photograph, so I have posted our photos from the afternoon. 

There are snakes just chilling everywhere around the square... It was amusing to watch my mother dodge them all in a frenzy. She is not a big fan of snakes.... to say the least.

There are also monkeys on leashes walking all around the square.....They are creepy looking little-ish guys... they really were not that little. They weighed a lot, but had no problem climbing all over me as you can see. The one on the right was really loving the strings on my shirt.... and the one on my shoulder was big into styling my hair... he did not do a very good job.

Mummy with some water serving men! They were pretty silly.

Sunset in Marrakech! Gosh, I am in Morocco and I have been living in Ghana.... is this really my life?

Pinch me.

Welcome to Marrakech!

Greetings from Marrakech! Yesterday we made the 6 hour journey from Fes to Marrakech... From our train window you could see the beautiful landscape pass by, although admittedly I slept nearly the entire way, as I most often do. I did however wake up for an hour long unexpected stop... when my mother and I asked why we were stopped, we were told that a man was under the train. Yikes. We wished we hadn't asked. Apparently, this was not a terribly uncommon occurrence.  

We arrived safe and sound at our riad, which is just as beautiful and fabulous as the one we stayed at in Fes. The riad has two swimming pools and tons of fabulous little rooms on the first floor, or floor zero as they call it. Once again, my pictures fail to do Morocco justice. 

Our room is lovely, a real treat. We are positioned perfectly, in such a way that we don't hear the loud street just beyond the walls of the riad. My favorite thing about Morocco is that you can be walking down a dingy ally, but just behind the doors that line the ally are gorgeous riads, or spacious beautiful houses. Everywhere is a secret garden. 

The stairs in our room lead up to our own private terrace! It is official, we are never leaving.

From our terrace we look out to the Koutoubia Mosque, built in 1147! Through out the day we can hear all the calls to prayer from our balcony. It is in those moments that I say to myself "Wow, I am in Morocco!"

My mother and I thought the hotel robes were hysterical. I couldn't stop laughing from the moment I put it on. If you have ever seen the movie Space Balls, I totally felt like one of the dink-dink guys from that movie....

Exploring Morocco

Monday afternoon we went on a day tour of Volubilis and Meknes!

Our first stop was Volubilis which dates all the way back to the 3rd century B.C.  the roman ruins there include the Arch of Caracalla, the Basilica and the Capitol, as well as the remains of roman houses and mosaics, some of which are shown below. 

"Diana and the Bathing Nymphs"... in the house of the cortege of Venus there is a mosaic which depicts the nymphs admiring Diana as she receives water from pegasus. 

Triumphal Arch

Clearly in my natural habitat...

And then on to Meknes!!!

While in Meknes we went to this great big ancient looking building, and to be totally honest, I have no idea what it was called, or what it was for, but I do know that they filmed the Passion of the Christ there, and that the building was fantastically huge and quite enjoyable.....

God I am a terrible tourist.

I also know that this place was fun to photograph! good enough for me.

This photo shows the ablution room which is next too the burial chamber in the Mausoleum of Moulay Ismail...

We went to the medina in Meknes and toured around the market area.... there were fabulous colored pastries everywhere...

exhibit A: Fabulous colored pastries

SOO many olives everywhere.... if only I liked olives.

yep... you guessed it... that is a cows head.....

nothing like walking around where the streets literally run red..... 

Today we shopped around the medina and purchased lots of fun stuff.... Tomorrow it is on to Marrakech! Yippeee! 

Exploring Fes

This morning we woke up at 7:30 and had breakfast at the hotel before departing on our tour of Fes. We started our tour at the palace gates which were huge and grand, as are most doors around the city. The craftsman ship and detail that goes into the art here is jaw dropping. 

We then went to the top of the hill from which you could see all of Fes. Our guide pointed out each area to us, the old city, new city and modern city. Following that we headed over to the area of the city that makes mosaics. Our guide took as to the second largest mosaic craft house in Fes.  We watched men throw pottery, paint it and we watched in amazement the men that chiseled away at tiles making mosaic tiles one by one.

We then ventured into the medina, where we saw the oldest university in the entire world, an overwhelmingly huge rug shop and last but not least the tannery. Of course our guide took us to this shop and that shop where he wished for us to shop, so as to be able to earn a commission, but so it goes. He was not so pleased when we didn't need any rugs or coffee tables....

After our tour we ventured around the medina on our own and did some shopping. I got henna on my hand and purchased a great pair of leather shoes for 100 MAD...AKA $12.50.

Pretty sweet.

But that is all boring to read, so here are some pictures, which are perhaps less boring.

I like to think so anyways.

Here is a convenient store in the medina.

 These men hammer at little pieces of tile and make the shapes that go into the mosaics. They sit here and do this for hours....talk about tedious.

The only way to travel or get things through the medina is by donkey. They are very startling when they come up behind you on the particularly narrow path ways. everyone jumps out of the way. Poor wittle guy has to carry all the stuff :(

These women were weaving a carpet. It will take them 4 months, or more, working every work day to complete a single carpet. Mind boggling. They gladly invited me to join them and help, for a tip of course, but it was fascinating. It actually hurt my fingers to do it for one minute, so I don't know how they do it all the time. It is truly insane. Now I fully understand why those rugs cost so much.....

This man is making a brass plate with beautiful decorations. You can see people doing this all around the medina. 

Mummy and I in front of one of the seven heavenly gates to the palace.

That is one big handle.....

This is a camel head, in case you could not tell. They hang the head outside the shop so as to indicate that they have camel meat for sale. yucky.... well at least the eyes are closed, I could not say the same of the goats heads I saw around.

The tannery smelt so terrible, but seeing it was incredible. The men that work here have trouble finding women that will marry them because they always smell so bad from work. The yellow things you see in the corner of the photo are goat skins that have been died bright yellow.

Trying my hand at rug weaving...

Fun with henna! This women drew a design on my hand so fast, although, sadly, I did not leave the henna on my hand long enough, so the final result is very light on my skin. But that is all right, I can not say that hand tattoo's are really my thing anyway, I did it more for the experience and what a fun experience it was!