Senase Homestay Day 2, Ghana

Day two got off to an early start. Aside from being woke up by a chorus of everything from roosters to radios, someone also tried to come into our room at 6am. The four-click lock woke us up and then the guy must have realized we were still sleeping in there. We had to get up at 6:30 anyway to make sure to be at Fred’s for breakfast at 7. Only a few people were there so we went to find one of the only porcelain toilets in the village. It was kind of a tease actually seeing as you couldn’t even put toilet paper in it and it didn’t flush. At least it wasn’t the hole.

We went back to Fred’s after our morning adventure and had a breakfast porridge of beans, maize and ground nut (peanut butter). It was like the consistency of really finely mashed oatmeal. You were supposed to put sugar and condensed milk in it and scoop it up with this delicious bread. It actually wasn’t that bad and I ate the majority of it, but after a while I couldn’t handle the texture and surrendered with the rest of the group.

The first order of business that we needed to take care of was announcing our presence in the village and asking permission from the elders to stay there. Once again, we were late, but so were the chiefs so it was okay. We got to the town hall and had to go through the greeting process again. We went through and said our hellos in Twi (the native language pronounced Ch-wee), then they came through and said theirs to us. We stated our case, our plans for our visit and then got their approval. As nice as it was to experience such a traditional ceremony, it went on and on and on. The kids behind me kept me occupied so I didn’t fall asleep.

After the greetings, we jumped on the bus and went to the farms. We divided up into three groups and each went with different guides. My group went to Fred’s mother’s farm which was really cool. We got to see plantain plots, cocoa trees, banana trees, the leaf we ate the night before, the huge seed pods they use to make palm oil, and how they weed with machetes. We got to try a banana right from the tree and a raw cocoa bean. The banana was unlike any I’ve had before. It had a slightly harder texture and it wasn’t as sweet as the bananas we’re used to at home. The cocoa bean was interesting too. When the pod is broken open, it’s all white inside. The individual seeds are coated in this stuff and you’re just supposed to suck it off. It was slimy and tasted nothing like the chocolate we’re used to. 

Once back to the village, they made us lunch with the palm oil. It was beans with this cornmeal type thing and then the oil over the top. It was actually really good. We toured the school there too if you could even call it that. The building itself was made of little more than firewood and tree branches. The wall wasn’t more than four feet high and the “roof” was so worn the teacher said when it rains, all the kids go running. They had one chalkboard per room and shared textbooks with Obama on the cover. By the way, they absolutely LOVE Obama here. Ghana was the first African country he visited after becoming President and they won’t forget it. They have his picture everywhere including on cookies. They’re called Obama Biscuits. Too funny. Anyway, back at the school we handed out stickers and they loved that, and then they put on a little dance show for us. It was all pretty cool, but we had to go on to more schools.

At the next school, we were put into classrooms and the teachers just expected us to teach. I was put in with three-year-olds who didn’t quite understand English yet. They could recite the ABC’s but when you pointed to a specific letter, they didn’t know what it was. So we sang songs and finally, after time seemed to stop, someone finally came to get me bearing raw sugarcane for me to munch on. After all of the members of our group were gathered and ready to go, the principle wanted to show us one last thing; the computer lab. We got there and they had 5 old school computers in this room with a wood bench to sit on. Only three of the worked, none of them were connected to the internet. After giving us this whole spiel and having this kid demonstrate using them, the principle straight up asked us to buy them new computers. I totally understand the need, but I thought it was totally inappropriate. It’s like any white person who went there was expected to just give and give and give because we’re all so rich. I was just so taken aback by it and felt very manipulated by it. As a side note, the demonstration the kid gave was something in itself. He played an American police target practice game, shooting people in the streets. Nice right? And we were supposed to provide more of that?

Thanks to that whole deal our group was late for our drum and dance lesson with the village cultural leader. He was so tough on us. He expected us to learn the dance the first time even though it was confusing and hard to hear the beat from the lead drum or whatever. It wasn’t a typical eight count either so we were totally out of our element. Once we got it down good enough, we finally got to go back to Fred’s for dinner. That night it was a fish stew that you ate with your hands by scooping it up with a cocoa yam, a white potato type thing. It was reaaallllly good but pretty messy. Kinda of gross too seeing as we washed our hands in a communal washing bin (thank god I was one of the first people to go). We all sanitized hardcore that night.

After dinner, Fred wanted to show us a bit of Senase night life. We went to this local bar and there were only three other people there. I guess it was a Tuesday after all. When we walked in, one of the guys goes, “Where’d you get all these white people!?” It was pretty funny. We danced for a while but we were all so pooped from the day, we called it a night around 11:30 and went back to our blue brothel room.