Me, the morning of the first day of my trip

My family and I packed pictures and other things to take with me.

My family sorting pictures to take with me

I am standing in front of our lovely home.

Me, at home in Avon, getting ready to leave

This is a picture of flowers in front of our front door.

Flowers at my home in Avon

This is a picture of the Field across the street.

Across the street from our house

We drove to Rochester and that is where I took the first plane. Here is a picture of my family and me at the airport.

My family and me at the airport, saying goodbye

written by  Ruth on August 10, 2008 from Avon, United States
from the travel blog: Ghana, West Africa
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xoxo
ruth

written by  Ruth on August 23, 2008 from Accra, Ghana
from the travel blog: Ghana, West Africa
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I'm am sitting in "Busy Internet" paying 1.80 cedis per hour for some fairly high speed internet. its extremely nice to be able to have several pages open at one time without having the net quit. In order to get here a friend and i took our first trotro ride unaccompanied by one of our Ghanaian friends. it was quite an adventure, luckily my friend has a much better sense of direction than i do. i have nearly firgured out how to navigate campus but when it comes to greater Accra and the outlying areas, im at a total loss. i have however seen a great deal of it from the windows of tour buses and trotros (trotros are the cheapest and bounciest form of transportation i have ever riden in. they are vans in which are packed as many humans as possible and then drive a little too quickly for comfort to your destination.) i am living in an incredibly beautiful part of the world. things are green here in a way ive never seen. yesterday we took a very big tour bus (which broke down both on the way there and the way back) to the Aburi Gardens. we had to drive high up into the hills (the reason for break number one) and the view into the valley was breathtaking. it was one huge expanse of green dotted with beautiful trees and the occasional house or goat. the drive into the gardens was equally beautiful. the lane is lined with incredibly tall palm trees. its difficult to describe exactly what these gardens are like. contained there is one of the oldest trees in ghana, one of the original cocoa trees, stands of bamboo, coconut trees, and a old abandoned helicopter, i never did figure out what that was doing there though. i'm having some trouble with downloading pictures but i will try to post them as soon as possible.
after the trip to the gardens we visited TK Beads. This is a small bead manufacturer where all the beads are dyed and made carefully by hand. it was incredible the craftmanship contained in some of the jewelry. i bought a few things and am looking forward to going back to do a good deal of my christmas shopping;)
last week i went to the beach and yes i wore sunblock (impressive no?). the waves were great and i spent a lot of time in the ocean body surfing and having Africans ask me to teach them to swim. its strange to me since they are so close to the ocean, but a lot of Ghanaians dont know how. it was a lovely day though and i look forward to going back.
so right before i left for my trip i cut off my hair and now its down to my waist again thanks to about five young Ghanaian women, two packages of fake hair, and three hours. i currently have reddish braids most of the way down my back and cornrows in the front. i also had them leave my bangs out so i have some braids in the front too. i really like it. its a bit itchy and incredibly heavy but i love that i dont have to wash it!
the no washing is a wonderful thing too because the water in my dorm is less than reliable. the first two weeks of our stay it worked about 20% of the time. just when i thought i could take a shower...i would be foiled!as a result though i am very good at washing myself with a bucket. the fact that when the water is running its very cold has also succeeded in greatly shortening my shower. these little inconveniences are exactly that though, little. overall it has been completely worth being a little dirty or a little sweaty most of the time.
people here are by far some of the nicest i have ever met. they are ever ready to help and extremely pleased when i use the little bit of Twi i have learned so far. its a simple language compared to english grammatically, but its a bear to pronounce most of the time. we have lessons though four days a week for two hours so hopefully soon ill be able to have more lengthy conversations then "how are you? im fine and you?"
hmm...oh yes classes! that other thing im here for. my dance class is absolutely wonderful. i love learning the traditional dances and it is definately a workout. it meets twice a week and even at 8:30 is worth getting up for. my drumming class is a challenge for my somewhat limited two-hand coordination but it still fun, im hoping to buy a drum before i leave here. my acting class has not met yet but the professor seems lovely. i have just registered for voice lessons and those will also start next week.
oh yes...i have been cast in a show at the national theatre of ghana. in a major role in a Nigerian play called "Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again." I though when i auditioned that it was for my school...i was mistaken. i am playing a young american-educated Nigerian...figure that one out, i havent yet.
ok, my time here is almost up and i am going to try again to post some pictures. thank you all for reading and please send me updates on you! miss you and love to all!

ruth (now called Princess Abena, thanks to mama's status as Queen Mother!)

written by  Ruth on August 31, 2008 from Legon, Ghana
from the travel blog: Ghana, West Africa
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love
ruth

written by  Ruth on September 27, 2008 from Accra, Ghana
from the travel blog: Ghana, West Africa
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the beautiful and hilariously cute richard!

This past weekend we traveled to the Volta Region. On Saturday we went to the Wli Falls in Ho. The falls are 60 metres high and the pressure from the spray is astounding. We hiked about 40 minutes to the falls and we started feeling the mist when we were still about a minute out. Most of us on the trip then stripped down to our bathing suits and went in. It was a little painful but mostly really spectacular. We had to walk backwards because the spray was so strong and we couldn't look at the falls once you got in the water. There were also hundreds and hundreds of bats flying over head which was a beautiful site but a little disconcerting because it was the middle of the day. In fact as I was walking in the water I saw a poor little bat swimming for its life toward the shore. It was sad but not sad enough for me to even think about going to help it. I think getting bitten by a bat in Africa is not something I needed to experience. Malaria was definitely enough. We stayed at the falls for a while and after we all got out a bunch of Ghanaians turned on some hip-hop and we had a dance party on the bank. All in all a good day.

After the falls we drove back to our hotel. Chances hotel is probably one of the nicest in Ghana. It was beautiful and very accommodating. The next day we had the whole morning to do as we pleased. What pleased me was to sit by the pool with my journal and a book and work on my tan! I got some great color by the way! We swam and chatted until lunch and then ate and boarded the buses again. This time we were headed for the Monkey Sanctuary. We walked a little way down a path into the woods and then started hearing them. They were the cutest things ever! We all got bananas and held them up to them. The monkeys would come up cautiously and peel as much of the banana as your hand would allow, then grab it and head back to the trees. I fed a few small ones and then this big grand-poo-ba monkey started coming toward me. He was very calm and seemed quite cocky to me. I didn't risk not letting him peel the whole banana and take it. He was really big and very confident in himself. It was an incredible experience and I have some excellent pictures. Unfortunately I won't be able to post them right now but hopefully soon. I know I promised the same about the Cape Coast pictures, but the computer that my pics are on wont charge so I have to wait a little in order to get them. Soon though I hope. The weekend was great an I am looking forward to more travel before my trip is over.

This Thursday is the opening night of the show I have been rehearsing for. I don't remember if I mentioned that I am no longer in the Nigerian play. It was really unorganized and I wasn't enjoying myself. Which to me was a very good reason. I am however the lead in "Witness for the Prosecution" by Agatha Christy. As I said we open this weekend and my picture is going to be in a Ghanaian news paper! I'll be sure to get copies to bring home. The show has been good. A very new kind of experience and frustrating at times but over all very fun.

I am having clothes make and am very excited about picking them up on Friday. I'll try to put pictures of those up as well.

Thats about all the news here. I am well and happy and having the time of my life. I miss you all but I know that I'll be back there before you know it.

Lots of Love,
Ruth

written by  Ruth on October 7, 2008 from Accra, Ghana
from the travel blog: Ghana, West Africa
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