Hi everyone!!! 

I still have high hopes of writing a blog about my trip to the game park, Mole National Park where I got to see elephants and fend off some scavenging baboons. In the meantime, I thought I would share this reflections blog that I wrote for one of my scholarship organizations. They asked me to reflect on my time since returning home, so that is the focus of this blog. I'm focusing more on societal observations than personal relationships like family and friends, since this was for public consumption. Maybe I will go into the latter in a later edition. Enjoy!

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September 27, 2012

Dear Readers,

To give you a brief reminder, I am a MA International Studies candidate at the University of Washington, working over the summer with Women in Progress/Global Mamas in Cape Coast, Ghana. I previously shared some work and travel stories with you from my trip abroad, and now I’d like to take you through some of my reflections and experiences upon returning home to Seattle.

My internship ended September 14^th and I returned home on September 18^th. It has since been a week and half of adjustment, and I have a multitude of mixed feelings about my return. I think now might be a good time to give you a disclaimer: reintegration and reverse culture shock is HARD! Truthfully, it has been a lot more challenging coming home than I had imagined before leaving. I have a few theories on why this might be:

            1. Three months away is long enough to get settled into your new environment and start to adjust to their way of doing things. In my case, I am noticing that I assimilated to Ghanaian life so much so that I have forgotten how to be an American in America! The first time that I needed to take the bus from campus to my house, I couldn’t remember how much the fare was and it felt strange to be using dollars…  I’m used to brightly colored Cedi notes. Talking with my friends has been great but a bit strange, I feel like they are looking at me with expectations of a certain way I ‘behave’ or ‘am’ yet I can’t quite remember what that looks like..

            2. Everything looks different. Truthfully, things look a lot busier, inside of buildings is brighter, people look different and are wearing different clothing, and biggest of all, there is STUFF everywhere!!! I’m not talking about trash in the street or open gutters, because those are nowhere to be seen, nor are goats and chickens on any given street. Instead, I am talking about material possessions. I am so taken aback by how much stuff we have!! For example, I went to the UW Bookstore with some friends to pick out paper for a poster and I stood at the pen display for about ten minutes before realizing why I was stuck staring. There were at least ten different kinds of pink pens. Not to mention blue options, or even green! In Ghana, pens are few and far between even in the office, and when you have one, you take good care of it so as not to lose or break it. America has so many options for consumer goods, and I am really finding that difficult to deal with. Since when did we need so much? In Ghana, I learned that you can do a whole lot with a little, and I actually appreciated everything a lot more when I had less. I feel like I need fewer outfits now, less shoes, less stuff. I think I prefer it that way…

            3. Society behaves differently in Africa than it does in America or other Western countries. For example, human interaction and focus on building relationships is really important in Ghana. When you meet someone on the street, you take the time to stop and chat with him or her. Everyone is met with a greeting, from your taxi driver, to the lady at the fruit stand, to your friends. Good morning! Good afternoon, good evening. The phrases Wo ho ti den? (How are you?), and bocor (I am fine!), precede every conversation. In the short time that I was there, I was able to build numerous relationships. When walking down the street to the office in Cape Coast, people would recognize me and wave and smile. In the neighborhood surrounding our volunteer house, I knew the lady that has a gift shop, the lady that cooks in her restaurant, and the lady that sells food stuffs and drinks at her food bar quite well. I knew their kids. They all made a point to greet me every morning and evening when we saw each other. I felt welcome. Here in the US, we tend to get so caught up in our schedules, in our to-do lists; all of the things that we need to achieve in the day that we forget to greet others. I don’t mean to say that Americans aren’t warm people, we are! Especially in the Northwest, we have a friendly demeanor and I’d consider us to be social people. I guess the difference is in the small stuff. Taking time to help someone find his or her way that is lost, greeting a stranger, chatting with a neighbor. I loved that I wasn’t made to feel like an outsider in my community in Ghana, rather, people welcomed me into their lives and made an effort to get to know me. They wanted to know what had brought me to Ghana, ‘how do you find it here?’, and I hope you’ll come back! Perhaps in the US we could make more of an effort to welcome newcomers to our neighborhoods, our classroom, our sports team, and our offices. After all, we all came to America as immigrants at some point in history! (Lets stop here before I segue into politics…)

To be fair, there are positives to both societal structures. Yes, Ghanaian society is personable and not stressful, but we are a lot more productive here in the US. We get a lot more done in our workdays and are great at time management. We are a productive people!! 

Overall, there are differences between the places that we go to intern and volunteer abroad and our homes here in the US. That is why we left to go there in the first place, right? I think that the key to reintegration and cultural assimilation is balance. I plan to take the lessons I learned in Ghana and apply them to my life in the US, just as I took some lessons from American life to share with Ghanaians.  I will strive to be less wasteful, more resourceful, appreciate the small stuff, smile more, make strangers into acquaintances, dream big, work hard, persevere, give to those less fortunate, keep an open mind, and succeed. (Challenge, which of those are American values and which are Ghanaian? Which are shared values?)

Before I leave you, I’d like to share a few of my favorite moments in Ghana. They include the following:

• ·      Taking a hike up a lush mountain to the tallest waterfall in West Africa. Enjoying nature.
• ·      Riding on the roof of a safari jeep, through both monsoon rainfall and intense African sun within the same three hours.
• ·      Being approached by a 12 year old girl while buying a Fanta from her mothers shop. She asked, ‘can I take you as a friend?’ (This question was asked of my frequently and I am still a bit unsure of the meaning. I found it to be flattering, sweet, and sometimes strange depending on who the asker was.)
• ·      Realizing that I didn’t mind taking a cold bucket shower in the morning. Actually, it felt pretty nice.
• ·      Reading a book by kerosene lamp light when the power was out during a 2 week term of electricity rationing. Realizing that I liked the peacefulness and simplicity of reading by kerosene light.
• ·      Going to football (soccer) matches in the Accra Sports Stadium with friends. The crowd was so loud, lively and fun!!
• ·      Making dinner with two of the Mamas at their house then sitting down with a beverage and talking into the night.
• ·      Dancing in the street on any given Friday or Saturday night in Cape Coast. The music was blasting and people were moving to the beats. The energy was infectious. I love their culture of dancing. It can and should happen anywhere including the street, a bus, in the office, at home, with your neighbor, with an older lady, with a young girl…. You get the idea.
• ·      Hearing the phrase ‘you’re invited!’ from any coworker, friend, acquaintance that you pass who happens to be eating. The meaning of this is that they are eating and you aren’t so you should stop and have some of their food! This culture of sharing is so kind, I loved it!
• ·      Driving to work every day in a shared taxi full of strangers, watching the blue ocean waves hit the beach out the car windows. The palm trees against the white sand and blue sky are so striking!! What a commute.
• ·      Getting my hair braided by a team of about 5 ladies that seemed all business during the job and then proceeded to sit down with my friend and I afterwards to ask us all kinds of questions and giggle together over girl talk topics. They later walked us to the taxi and one yelled ‘bye friend, I love you!’ as we drove off toward our house.
• ·      Talking to two women that have been working together in their batiking business for over 20 years and asking them what they are most proud of. I later wrote this facebook post:  ‘Today I met with two women that have been batiking for over 20 years, and working with Global Mamas for 10 years. I asked them what their most proud accomplishment is, and they told me that they are proud of getting up every morning and going to work. They are proud that they can look back at their life and know they have worked hard. They have done their best. They have run a business and employed others. They are mothers and wives. They believed in themselves and knew they could run this business that has grown to be so successful. I pray that I will look back on my life with such clarity at their age, and be thankful for such realistic accomplishments. Thank you for reminding me of the grace in dedication.’

Thank you for reading my blog. I hope it doesn’t discourage anyone from traveling abroad, especially to developing countries, but rather gives you some food for thought about the process of self-reflection and personal growth. I’d encourage anyone to take the leap. You might be surprised what makes you feel fulfilled and what no longer seems so important.

Best wishes,

Colleen 

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Love you all!! Chat soon :) 

Travels

August 9, 2012

Hello again!!

I wanted to dedicate a separate blog to the traveling that I have been doing recently. Here are all the details! (I am learning this software more now, so I'm able to insert pictures with my posts.)

July 18-19 Koforidua

We had been hearing from many friends about a very large bead market north of Accra in a town called Koforidua. There are many artisans in Cape Coast that sell beautiful jewelry, and we learned that many of them get their beads from this market. Upon some further investigation, I've learned that beads have quite a long history and great significance in Ghanaian culture. Dating back to the 1500s, locals have been making beads that were used for trade, for celebration and funerals, and to signify tribe or family roots. Beads are traded around Ghana, as well as north into Burkina Faso, Mali, and from other coastal West African countries like Cote d'Ivoire. They are made from many different materials including stone, glass, wood, bone, clay, and now plastic. Naturally, I wanted to go and see this market for myself!

We planned with a few local friends to take the trip, which sounded like a great idea to me since they would be able to help us find our way and guide us at the market. It can be very confusing to get around, as the transit stations are large parking lots inside of bustling markets where up to 50 or so vans are sitting- each destined for a different route. Without knowing your way, this can get quite overwhelming! Luckily, our two friends, Sammy and Sonunu helped out quite a bit once we reached Accra and had to find our next van. The trip to Accra is about 2 1/2 hours- 3 depending on traffic, so we left Cape Coast Wednesday night and spent the night at our volunteer house in Accra. Thursday morning we got up early and got on the road to Koforidua. That leg of the journey took about another 2 1/2 hours, the majority of it trying to get out of the city, which is quite large. Once outside Accra, we traveled north up into some beautiful mountains. It rains a lot there because of the elevation, so everything is very green and lush. When we reached the market, Sammy called one of his friends that sells beads, and he was able to show us around. The friend owns the shop in the photo on the left.


There are about 50 shops in the market, each with different beads displayed. Some of them come from other countries around the continent and are sold with many beads from around Ghana. Standing inside one of the kiosks, I didn't even know where to start looking!! So many beautiful colors and types to explore. Some beads are already made into necklaces, earrings, and bracelets, while others are strung for you to purchase and make your own jewelry. Sammy knows how to make jewelry and has promised to teach us, so I purchased mostly beads to make things with. Here are some pics- R- me in front of a rainbow of beads! Below- Friend Sammy, myself, and a really friendly and knowledgeable shop owner with his beads.
More Koforidua pics here- http://s1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc477/colleenfulp/Ghana/Koforidua%20Bead%20Market/

July 27- August 1
Accra, Wli Falls, PramPram

Lauren and I decided to take a long trip over the weekend following the service day. We had been hearing a lot about Volta Region, which is in the eastern part of Ghana, bordering Togo. Volta has the largest man made lake in Ghana, created by a dam on the Volta River. It also has the largest waterfall in West Africa, Wli Falls (pronounced V-lee), so we wanted to go check it out!


Global Mamas had applied for a grant from the French Embassy to expand to a new location and was awarded the grant out of hundreds of applicants. We found out that there would be a reception for the French Embassador the Friday that we were heading to Accra, so it worked out very nicely. We were able to attend, and I even got to have a short conversation with him. He is a nice man that has been stationed in Ghana for 7 months, with previous posts around West Africa. I'm not ashamed to say that one of the most exciting parts about this party was the French wine and cheese that GM bought to serve at the reception! (I haven't had great wine or any cheese since arriving in Ghana, so that was quite a treat!)

We stayed overnight in Accra and headed out Saturday morning to Wli. We booked a guesthouse that previous volunteers had recommended by calling in advance. We traveled to Hohoe (pronounced ho-hoy) and took a taxi from there to the guesthouse. The trip took about 4 hours, so we got in in the afternoon. Volta is absolutely beautiful, so I really enjoyed the drive. I think this has been some of my favorite scenery so far! Here is one shot from the road (left). Upon arriving, it was quite rainy, so we decided to have some lunch there and rest for the afternoon. In the evening we walked from the guesthouse (which is between Hohoe and Wli) into Wli, which turned out to been about 3 miles. It was a beautiful walk down a quiet jungle dirt road. We passed people occasionally on the road, coming and going from their farms or collecting firewood. Everyone that we passed greeted us with a smile and a hearty 'Welcome!' I think that may be one of the only English words that some of the locals know, so it made me feel really good that they had made an effort to learn it in order to let visitors like us know that they were happy to see us there. :)

The following morning, Sunday, we slept in and had a nice breakfast at the guesthouse. This is all quite amazing considering that the power had been out through the night with a loud rainstorm thundering over us. The guesthouse is run by a nice Ghanaian lady, and she does have a generator. Unfortunately, the generator was not working that morning, despite several efforts by her groundsman, so she made us breakfast over a coal fire outside. Eggs, beans, and bread with butter. Yum! We hopped in one of the minibusses with some locals and headed into Wli to do the waterfall hike. The rain had let up a bit. We checked in at the visitor station and met this character (photo right), Kwame. We loved his shirt! He set us up with a guide named Wise, and we headed up the mountain trail. We got rained on quite a bit, but it was worth it. Wise pointed out cocoa beans in their pods, coffee beans, and pineapple plants all along the trail. Here are some more views of the hike-

And, of the waterfall!!
The wind was really blowing the water around, so it was quite beautiful but wet! haha

Here is a view of the falls from town (right). It is really striking, even from a distance.












We headed back to Accra Sunday afternoon, stayed overnight in the volunteer house, and shipped out Monday morning for our next site. More photos of Wli here-http://s1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc477/colleenfulp/Ghana/Wli%20Falls/ 

PramPram

PramPram is another one of Global Mamas' worksites, located on the beach about an hour east of Accra. They use a slightly different business model there, directly employing seamstresses and batikers in their office rather than contracting Mamas to sew and batik from their own shops as in the Cape Coast model. GM has asked me to do an assessment of the two sites, to try to help them determine which one is working better for the women. While in PramPram, I conducted 10 interviews with Quality Control office staff, seamstresses, and batikers both for my research for my program at UW and for GM. I'm asking questions primarily about decision making and financial independence, to try to learn about women's empowerment in Ghana overall, and try to learn if there is a connection to goal setting and financial independence when working with Global Mamas. I will then conduct interviews back in Cape Coast, as well as a control site at a textile factory in Tema or Accra. I will use the information from the three different sites to see what I can learn! Photo R- batiks drying in the sun at the workshop.

PramPram is very lovely, although quite small and lacking running water. For that reason, it is a bit of a challenging place to live! We have full time staff and volunteers at the site, as well as the Ghanaian employees that live there. There has been talk of moving to Tema, a suburb of Accra, where we could build a larger production site with better amenities. Photos- Left- Erika, myself, and Lauren with some of the office staff.  Right- me with a Palm :) Below- volunteers with some of the batikers.  More PramPram photos here-

http://s1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc477/colleenfulp/Ghana/PramPram/ 

That concludes my travel adventures to date! I am now back in Cape Coast/Elmina meeting with Mamas here and working in the office. I am thankful for this great opportunity and for the support of all my loved ones back home!

Take care,

Colleen

Service Day Project- A Great Success!!

Hello!!!

So first off, my apologies for a  long delay in between blogs! I have been traveling as well as having a few small computer/internet difficulties. I have a LOT of exciting updates for all of you, so lets get started. :)

When I last wrote, I was filling you in on the service day project that I had been planning with a colleague. We had the event Saturday morning of July 21 and it was an amazing success!! About 60 Mamas turned out at the hospital early in the morning around 7am, carrying their brooms and smiles. We had some lovely shirts made, one for each mama, out of some polo shirts donated by our supervisor. They are red, dark blue, light blue, and yellow, and we hired a local business man to screen print our Global Mamas logo small in the front and large on the back. We started handing out shirts as they arrived, which was met with a lot of excitement. (Photo above- early morning cleaners)The nurse that I had been working with to organize the event was not there that morning, so she set me up with another nurse to help set people up to clean the wards. We split into two groups, one to clean the children's ward and one to clean the maternity ward. As I walked around checking on people, I was so amazed with the women's energy and diligence for the project. Some of them took leadership roles over small groups, directing the cleaning of the floors, window glass, window screens, outside grass and gutters. One of my favorite moments was when one of the head Mamas pulled a hose into the maternity ward from outside and set up a few people to start spraying the screens from inside out. Can you imagine?!?! A hose inside the maternity ward.. amazing! The hose did work wonders though and you could literally see the dirt running off the screens. (All there is between the outside and the ward is a screen window.) There are some of our ladies cleaning the screens in the picture to the left.

We did a small dedication ceremony where I presented all of our donations to the nurses and the lead nurse also gave a thank you presentation. It was so moving to be in a room with so many wonderful ladies! The picture above is of our ceremony. The lady to my left is Kristin, one of the two founders of Global Mamas. She happened to be visiting Cape Coast one day during her 10 day trip here, so we made sure she could be there for the service day! In total, we donated: labor ward- 53 beautiful batik curtains (45 window curtains to provide privacy to the rooms from the outside and from the hallway, 2 large divider curtains, and 6 large curtains to hang between beds), 8 plastic chairs for the pregnant women to sit in (previously they would sit on the floor or stand!), and 3 plastic fans that they can spread out around the ward. We chose plastic because they will not rust like the metal fans, since the hospital is right across the road from the ocean! Children's ward- a hot water kettle for boiling water, packages of biscuits and juice boxes for the children that get admitted there, and a few small toys- plastic number and letter magnets that they can play with, which we chose because they can be easily sanitized. With the amazing donations from our families and friends as well as other volunteers and interns, we were able to donate such a wonderful assortment of items!! I am so thankful to all that supported this project. I can tell you that the ladies in the maternity ward and the nurses throughout the hospital were so so thankful for all the effort and love that was sent their way. From them to all of you, a very sincere thank you and God bless!

After the service day we all walked as a group down to a local park for the annual awards ceremony. We presented 6 awards to Mamas, which were voted on by all GM staff in Ghana and the US, as well as all the Quality Control staff that work in the Cape Coast office (about 10 people). The awards presented were: Global Mama of the Year, Initiative, Innovation, Leadership, Staff Member of the Year, and Dedication (which is a new award Lauren and I created to give to a Mama that we heard so many positive things about). We hired our dear friend Eli to cook for all of us, so she made some great chicken and rice for the event. (Eli is the lady that lives down the road from our volunteer house. She owns a restaurant and cooks us some lovely westernized dinners when we need them.) We were able to get the park for free, after speaking with the owner and explaining that we are an NGO with little $$, and we agreed to purchase 'minerals' from him in exchange. (Minerals are what they call soda or pop.. we bought Fanta, Coke, and Sprite for everyone, as well as water sachets) Our manager Mel and the QC Staff boss, Wisdom, were the MCs of the event, and it was great fun! We took some really great group shots after the awards.

There is one of the whole crew above, and one of the Quality Control office staff + volunteers + GM staff below. Top left- Kristin (founder), Erin (V), me (V), Matthew (QC), Lauren (V), Melanie (GM S), Amos (GM S), George (QC), Kennedy (QC), Cali (GM S), Tony (GM S). Second row starting next to Kristin- Christianne (QC), Roberta (QC), Annette (QC), Joyce (GM S), Katie (V), Grace (QC). Front row- Erika (V), Suzy (QC), Alberta (QC), Wisdom (GM S).

To get more views of these pictures plus many more, here is the link to my service day photobucket!
http://s1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc477/colleenfulp/Ghana/Global%20Mamas%20Gives%20Back%20Service%20Day%20and%20Awards/
(click the link or copy that whole thing and paste into your browser)

Since that day, Lauren and I have been back to the wards several times to ensure the curtains get properly taken care of and hung. This past Monday we went with Matthew, one of our staff members, to nail up all of the wires to hang the curtains on. We bought nails, hooks, and wire to hang the curtains, and with the assistance of Matthew, were able to nail up the wires in each window frame. We also donated plenty of the supplies to the hospital, so that they can fix any wires or replace them if ever needed. The curtains had been stamped by that time (each ward has their own stamp), washed, and were in the process of drying and being ironed. We went back on Tuesday to see the progress and were able to see how truly beautiful the place now looks! I have some wonderful pictures of the final product which I will upload and share will you all very soon.

Once again, thank you so much to all that were able to donate to this project and those that have been following our efforts and sending support. I feel so proud and happy with what we were able to accomplish together!

More to come soon!

Progress on Service Day and Now Opening a Fundraiser!

July 13, 2012

Hello hello!

I have good news to report for my work this week. Lauren and I have been able to make a lot of progress on our service day project!!  Since I last wrote to you, we have visited the hospital administrator two times, and visited the head nurse and the wards as well. The hospital administrator is a ‘big man’ as you would say here, meaning that he is very important. (He is actually quite small in stature!!)  The first time that we went to meet him was on Monday, and we had one of our local staff members to accompany us. It was quite a challenging visit, as he asked us all types of difficult questions about our organization. I was pulling answers out of thin air!! Haha. It seemed to go okay though, and he asked us to write a formal letter to the hospital stating our objectives and the items we would hope to donate. We headed back to the office and whipped up a nice formal letter. Tuesday afternoon we hand delivered it to him in an envelope, which are surprisingly hard to come by! He said he would send our requests around to the wards, and we would hear back from him on whether they would like to work with us. I spoke with him on the phone Wednesday, and Thursday, and finally today (Friday) we were able to go back and visit! We met the head nurse, and she had us taken around to both the children’s ward and maternity wards.  Based on the needs requested and what we have seen, this will be our service project:

*gather all of our Mamas, staff, and volunteers early Saturday morning (7am) to do a clean up of our two adopted wards. We will bring our own brooms, mops, and soap to clean all the screens (which they have in place of windows), the floors, and even cut the grass outside with cutlasses.

*donate yards of batiked cloth, that will be sewn into curtains. We will hang these colorful curtains in the maternity ward for the women, so that they can have privacy when giving birth!

*donate small snacks and juices to the childrens ward

I am very excited about the opportunity to work in the hospital, due to my interest in global health and women’s issues. As Americans, we are so accustomed to going to the hospital to give birth, and having everything there that we will need for safety and comfort. Here in Ghana, even the district hospital is lacking basic comforts like curtains between beds. The expectant moms and recently delivered moms + babies lack privacy during this very important time, which seems so unfortunate to me! Many beds are lined next to each other, and the women are in close quarters. As of now there is no air conditioning, and there was only one fan for the entire ward, which has now rusted.

My colleague Lauren and I are really dedicated to this cause, and we would like to be able to donate enough curtains to cover all of the windows and hang between beds. The cloth that we have is quite lovely, but it costs $4.40 a yard to cover the cost of the cloth + the payment to the woman that batiked it. (This is a discounted price for volunteers from the usual $6/yard price). When we visited the ward today, we took measurements for all the curtains that are needed. They need a total of 36 yards, in order to cover all 44 windows and 12 large room dividers. The total cost of that much cloth comes to $554.40!! So, Lauren and I want to run a fundraiser this next week, to see how much money we can raise toward this donation. Our organization, Global Mamas, doesn’t have much margin to donate the cloth, and we don’t want to completely burden them either. SO, I am going to donate $50 to getting the curtains for these mamas, and would like to extend the opportunity to all of you as well!! Absolutely no pressure of course of course. There are pictures below of the two batik cloths that we will have made into curtains. If you are interested in offering any small donation, you could send me a note at my email colleenfulp@gmail.com. I would absolutely love it!!

One of our staff members here will donate her time to the sewing for the curtains, and we will unveil them at our service day after the clean up, next Saturday, July 21. I feel so honored to be able to partake in such an event, and am so humbled by the great appreciation the nurses have shown towards our efforts already. Yayyy Global Mamas Service Day!!! J

In other news, we will travel this weekend to Kakum National Park, which is about one and half hours north of Elmina. Here is some info- http://kakumnationalpark.info/1.html.  We have rented a driver for the day, Kweku, who is the same man that brought Lauren and I from the airport in Accra our first night. He is very nice, and has a car with air conditioning, so we will be riding in style! It will be Lauren, Katie, Erin, and myself, all volunteers that live in our Elmina volunteer house.  Kakum National Park features a beautiful canopy walk through the jungle, and we leave by 7am to arrive before the crowds. We will also stop at a monkey sanctuary, and Hans Cottage which I hear is a cute little restaurant on stilts. It should be a great day. Stay tuned for pictures of the canopy walk!!

Have a great weekend all!

Xo,

Colleen

Exciting developments in work and play!

July 6^th, 2012

Hi all!

Week 2 has been a great week so far. We have been able to get started on our projects at work, and things are taking shape quite nicely! As some of you may know, my main project when coming here was to interview women that own small businesses and work with the NGO Global Mamas to better understand their decision making process, goal setting, business progress, and any gained financial independence and empowerment. When talking with my supervisor, Mel, earlier this week, I discovered that GM started a service day last summer that could be continued this year. Last year, the Mamas (what we call all the business owner ladies) all got together very early in the morning and cleaned the Kotokraba market. Many of the women buy thread, dyes, and other supplies from this market and have a very close connection with the stall owners. This service day was very well received! This year, the idea is to have the 2^nd Annual Global Mamas Gives Back service day at a local hospital. Lauren and I have decided to take this project on as the main coordinators. Yay! I’m very excited about planning this event, as I hope it will be a great way to get to know a lot of the mamas (there are about 80 of them in Cape Coast) as well as work with a local hospital. 

As the first step to this project, Lauren and I went to meet with Patience, one of the Mamas and a community leader. We talked with her about our ideas, and she gave us a lot of great direction and motivation. She said that we should focus on district hospital, and that we could potentially adopt the maternity ward and the childrens ward. She said that we could do an early morning cleaning of these two areas, as well as contribute in some way based on the needs of the hospital. To better understand their needs, Lauren and I will go meet with the hospital administrator on Monday. Patience said that in the maternity wards, sometimes privacy is an issue, in that they don’t have dividers up between the women giving birth. We brainstormed that we could potentially donate some of our ‘rejected’ (due to bloches in the pattern or imperfections) batiks to the hospital, to somehow hang dividers.  Patience is currently on maternity leave, as she just had a lovely baby boy named Yao in March, so she helped us get in contact with another woman that will go to the hospital with us. We thought it would be great to have a local lady with us when we go.

So, work is looking promising and I’m feeling very excited! As far as social/personal life, 2 new interns got here this past week now making us a crew of 4 female interns. I’m enjoying getting to know them! Our experiences all vary widely, (from religious studies, to MBA, to womens and gender studies) so it will be fun to work together. We discovered the pool at the hotel across the street yesterday. It is truly the most beautiful setup ever! The pool is quite large and deep so that you can actually swim, and it sits RIGHT next to the beach. You can lounge in a beach chair and read while glancing over at the rolling waves, palm trees, and Elmina castle out in the distance. (See pictures on my photobucket account here-  Lauren and I each bought a 3 month membership to the pool and gym at the hotel for a total of $20 USD. Yay! We hear that there are also often live music performances and pool parties on the weekend. Life is good!

Today is looking quite beautiful and sunny so we plan to go visit Cape Coast Castle today. I hear they give a good historical tour and the views from the top are said to be quite lovely. I’m sitting here now on our balcony/porch writing and sipping some tea. A great start to our Friday!

Sending you all my love from Ghana!

Best,

Colleen

Adventure Begins..

Hi everyone,

This is Wednesday morning and I'm at the Global Mama's office. We went across the street last night to Elmina Beach Resort to finally get internet. The resort is SO nice. Probably the nicest place I've been in Ghana so far. Very decorative woodworking and nice comfy lobby. The internet was fast and I was able to get my pictures uploaded! I've started an album here- http://s1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc477/colleenfulp/Ghana/  The majority of those pictures are from our weekend trip to Axim Beach Resort. It was a very nice place with beautiful beaches and great food. One of the days we took a long beach walk, through a fresh water stream and out to some tide pools. I enjoyed the time there, and am happy now to be back in Elmina/Cape Coast to get settled in.

I'm feeling like I'm getting a little more settled now. I'm unpacked, know my way around Cape Coast a bit, have been to the office, have a phone and internet, so things are coming together! I'm getting used to the taxi system. We walk a short distance out to the main road and there are tons of taxis that come by. We point toward the ocean, which tells the cab drivers that we're going to Cape Coast. (You can point the opposite direction to show that you're going to the next town.) A car will pull over and we tell him 'shared cab to Cape Coast?' he agrees, and off we go! We often pick other people up on the way, and make stops wherever people need to go. I'd say its about an 8-10 minute cab ride and its 1 cedi each way (.50 basically). 

There are food shops all along the roads in town that sell various items. This morning I picked up a loaf of fresh bread and bottle of water for breakfast. We go to a cart across the street from the office for lunch. Yesterday we had rice and beans (black eyed peas) with some sauce and boiled egg. There are a variety of items to choose from, so that will be fun! Last night on the way home we stopped by the kind of catch-all convenience store called Melcom's and bought some basic things like top-ramen packs, butter, chips, wine- you know, the essentials! haha. I also bought a big mango from a lady and am looking forward to having that tonight. :)  We have fresh (purified) water in the house that our house keeper Ellen makes everyday. She fills big waterbottles for drinking in the fridge and fills another big container on the counter for washing foods etc. Surprisingly the water situation is not nearly as bad as people had said, so we've been able to eat lots of salads and veggies! Last night we made group dinner of macaroni and cheese with fresh salad- avocado, green beans, carrots, and apples. Yum! 

We did an awesome batiking workshop yesterday with one of the mamas named Mary. We got to pick the stamp we liked, and then she showed us how to dip them in the hot wax and stamp the fabric. You can make any design you want, stamp the cloth and then the wax dries. Then we got to choose our color and Mary died the fabric for us. You let the fabric dry outside (takes like 10 minutes!) and then she dipped the fabric back in boiling water to remove the wax. She can then scoop the wax out and reuse it. Hang the sheet, let it dry, and you're done! There are pictures of mine posted on that website above. I got to keep it and can use it as a sheet, wrap, whatever! Pretty cool. 

Today I am doing some stuff on my laptop (like this) and then will help the workers here check the merchandise that is getting packed up to go to the Accra store. Its fun to see all the designs. Okay, I think that's all for now! 

Take care everyone, and stay tuned for more!

Colleen