Thanksgiving

The international program here put on a Thanksgiving dinner for the foreign students, complete with everything we expected plus Ghanaian dishes. It was nice to get a taste of home.
Exams here are drawn out over a month, so I have been taking an exam a week. The exams here are usually 100% of the grade, which makes it a little intense. All of mine have been essay based, and I had a pretty good idea what would be on them, so I think I did well. I will end on Dec. 13 and then I will get to travel to a national park in the north to see baboons and elephants. Then, I may continue on to Burkina Faso and Mali.
Me and some friends played some disk golf around campus recently. Some Ghanaians are interested, some are scared, some are just angry about us playing.
Everything here is going well. About 3/4 of the students are going home after this semester is over, only the true adventurers will remain.
I hope everyone had a good thanksgiving and know that i miss you all.
love, Forest

Ho

Over the weekend three friends and I traveled about 5 hours to the northeast near a town called Ho. (Not to be confused with Hohoe) From there we headed north to a hotel deep in an area of mountainous rainforest. We got up around 5AM to do some exploring. We walked down the dirt road for a while a turned down a trail that looked interesting. We were astounded by how lush and humid it was. We explored about a mile down the trail, having to jump across streams and dodge massive spider webs. Just as we concluded that this was the craziest most remote place we had ever been, two locals came up the trail, warmly greeting us. We were blown away to think that this was home for these people, that they walked these trails everyday. We must have looked crazy to them, just 4 white guys not knowing where they are but excited to be in the rainforest. The locals eventually pointed us to a village, where we decided we should just go where they tell us, and do what most other white people do there. We were sent on another trail, climbing a mountain by way of a trail cut into a cliff. Sweating freely, we enjoyed the amazing views of rolling hills of dense rainforest. We finally made it to the top, where large metal cross had been erected. We took a break there for a few hours and ate lunch. From there we went to a village where a festival was happening with lots of singing and dancing. There we met a guy who said he would led us to a nearby waterfall. We headed down a new trail for about two miles until we found it. We took a swim and a break, enjoyed the unusually strong wind that came off of the waterfall. We then hiked back to the village, where we hired the most beat up car I have ever seen to take us back to the hotel. We passed out exhausted, and headed home the next day. It was one of the best times I have had in Ghana.
Other than that, class are ending, Finals take a month here so I have some time to relax. Hope everyone else is enjoying life too.
Love, Forest

benin and togo

I have just returned from a trip to Togo and Benin, the two countries directly east of Ghana. It was my first time outside of Ghana, and also my first time in a place the spoke French instead of English. The trip was organized by the sociology dept. but everyone was allowed to go. We left on Thursday, 4 hours late (typical for Ghana, some call it living on “Ghanaian Time”), crossed Togo after a hassle at the border, and arrived very late at the dorms at a Benin college. After watching the sun rise and getting a couple hours sleep, we headed to northern Benin to visit a museum. There we saw some gruesome artifacts left over from tribal wars, including a throne mounted on human skulls. We then headed back to the dorms. The next day we took boats out to a village of 30,000 people all living on houses built on stilts over the water. All of the children came to see us and beg for money in small open canoes. After that the tour went back to Ghana, but a friend and I got off in Togo near the Togo-Ghana border. We got a cheap hotel right on the beach and spent the night.
The next day we walked along the beach, watching groups of 20-30 people pull enormous fishing nets out of the ocean. We then met this goofy looking rasta guy out for a tan in a speedo. After talking to him for a few minutes of talking he invited us to his house to give my friend his secret hair treatment. We then walked around the city of Lome, passing through yet another insane market. This one was particularly crazy since everyone was speaking French and occasionally a motorcycle would zoom through the crowd.
We then went to the rasta’s house where I watched as he applied avocado, egg yolk and coffee powder to my friends hair. The rasta was very insistent that we keep it a secret, so don’t tell anyone. After that he took us to his village where we met dozens of his friends and relatives. After walking around to various villages for about 4 hours, it was time to head home. From the village we took a taxi with 8 people-4 in the back, 2 in the passenger’s seat, and two in the driver’ seat, back to the city. From there we took a “taximoto” or motorcycle taxi back to the border. Taximotos must be the most dangerous thing I have ever seen. 2-3 people on a motorbike without helmets zooming around traffic with no laws on roads that are littered with potholes and debris. Luckily, we made it back to campus alive.
Sorry I haven’t been posting, the internet here doesn’t let me a lot of the time, which is frustrating.
Wish everyone well
-Forest

29 sept.

School is in full swing now, I am taking 5 geography classes and a xylophone class. I have also gotten an internship with a group called A Rocha, Ghana. They are a christen environmental organization with chapters around the world. Right now they are having me design a calender for them, which is a bit boring and tedious. Hopefully in the future I will be able to help with more interesting projects, like planting fruit trees on school campuses.
We threw a big party for a fellow students birthday, it gave us the opportunity to meet and talk with some of the other Ghanaians in our building. I live in an all male dorm, americans take up about half of one of the 6 stories. We just discovered that the floor has a kitchen, but a few guys are living in there since there are not enough rooms available.
I have been thinking about what to do for my 6 week winter break, I think I will travel to Senegal with two of my friends from Santa Barbara. That involves traveling through some french speaking muslim countries, which would be new and interesting.
Everything else is working out fine, It is nice to be getting to know how things work around here.
love, Forest

cape coast

This past weekend the EAP group that I am in that includes about 50 other Americans traveled four hours to the west to the medium sized city of Cape Coast. An annual festival was being held there. The first day there was a sacrificing of a bull. We participated in a crowd that ran through the streets chasing the bull as a man lead it by a rope. The local chief then arrived to slit the bull’s throat. The crowd was too dense to get a good view, but just being in the crowd was exciting enough. Later that day we traveled to a place with a rope bridge above the canopy of a rainforest. After scaring those who were scared of heights, we headed back into town. We stayed at a nice hotel (hot showers and air conditioning, unheard of!) and later explored the city by night, sampling the local palm wine and cocoa liqueur. Saturday was the main festival, which consisted of an all day parade. Local chiefs were carried in coffin shaped chairs on the heads of servants. Large drugs and all kinds of instruments were being played and everyone was dancing. The streets were packed with people, and the mile long parade inched along slowly. We had been warned that pickpockets were rampant. When one was reaching in my back pocket, he was caught by other Ghanaians, who surrounded him and beat him, eventually chasing him out of the parade. After we had had enough, we went swimming in the ocean. The temperature was perfect, but there was garbage everywhere. The next day we headed back to Accra exhausted.
I now feel like I know what is going on with my classes, and everything is falling into place. I have been playing chess with another American, which is nice since I have not really had good competition in years.
One of my favorite parts of being in Ghana has been playing with children.
That’s all for now, leave me comments of what has been going on in your life, or email me.
Love, Forest.

trips

Since there was no school the first week due to a teachers strike, I went on a 5 day trip with two of my friends. Our main destination was Bui national park, which is in the Northwest Region of Ghana. It took us two days of riding buses to get there. One of the highlights was getting to ride on top of a bus through rural roads, getting a good view of the passing scenery. We arrived, and found out that we had to hire an armed guard to escort us around the park. Poachers are dangerous I guess. So we camped on a ridge and got eaten by biting flies, and pitched our tent. That night we encountered a large storm, soaking us and all of our possessions. Our guard, somehow survived without a tent. The next day we hiked our soggy butts a few miles to a village, where we were taken in and fed fufu by the fire. We met a man who told us how the upcoming dam construction was forcing the whole village to move, with a government compensation of only 300 cedi. After listening to his story, we went on a canoe ride in the river, seeing birds and bugs and other wildlife. The are usually hippos there, but not at this time of year. We left at 5AM the next morning, and later arrived at a monkey sanctuary. There we toured the rainforest filled with monkeys and got to feed them. We entered a village, and got swept up in a local funeral celebration. Funerals here are big events with much celebration. We donated a few cedi to the believed family and met everyone important in the village including the chief. The trip continued with exploring waterfalls and bat caves.

School has finally begun, I think my classes will be interesting, but it is hard to understand the professors sometimes

Hope everyone is well

Love, Forest

Ps I hope to post pictures soon.

First Day of School

Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday, it is nice to know that I have so many loving people supporting me.
My birthday included some traditional hazing, an event called ponding, in which everyone throws water at you out of a bucket. It was pretty fun. I reieved a few gifts of massages and candy, and got to go to Accra's enourmous soccer stadium to watch a game. All in all it was a very good birthday.
School starts today, even though most classes have not even announced when they will take place. In ghana most people dress semi-formally to go to class, so I have done the same, which is different than I am used to.
Some of my friends have been getting robbed, one at tazer-point and one from his room while he was sleeping. So we all have to be on our toes.
I am taking 5 geography calsses and an intro to drumming class. The geography classes include Tourism, rural resource development, hydrology, and african geography. They all sound pretty interesting.
Keep posting comments, it helps to know that someone is out there reading this.
love, forest