June 29th - Boti Falls, CRIG, and Ewe
So
we finished practicum today. The students and teachers put together a little
goodbye ceremony for Lou and myself and they gave us each 2 yards of batik
fabric (which I have already dropped off at the seamstress to have a dress
made). A lot has happened recently but I have been too busy/tired to write
about it. We did go to the Ohoum festival on the 22nd but we didn't see any
traditional rituals. We just saw the chief being carried in a chair down the
street. Then the whole city turned into a dance festival.
On
the 24th we went to the Boti Waterfalls, which were awesome. We did a two hour
hike that was basically climbing straight up and down the side of mountains.
The views were unbelievable though and we even got pizza at the end.
Those
of you who have known me for some time know just how clumsy I can be... Well, I
managed to drop my phone that I bought here into a puddle of water. Now it
doesn't really work so I unlocked my smartphone that I brought from home, but I can't seem to figure
out how to get the internet to work.
My
family has been collecting snails which we are supposed to eat one of these
days. That should be interesting.
On
the 28th we went to the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG) to learn about
cocoa trees and harvesting them. They gave us all fresh cocoa which I love! It
comes in small football shaped hard shell type things and on the inside are the
cocoa pods. You don't eat the pods/beans themselves, but you eat the white soft
"meat" from around the pod. It tastes nothing like chocolate, but
it's sweet. They use all of the parts of the plant though and are able to make
soaps, lotions, cleaning supplies and cocoa gin.
I
found out that I'll be learning Ewe and going to the Volta region on the east
side of Ghana. Ewe is actually spoken in many areas of Ghana and across West
Africa. I am lucky because there is a man that lives in my house who speaks Ewe
so he is going to help me with my language skills.
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