Advice for Future Travelers to Ghana

Reverse Culture Shock
Being back in America is definitely different. The first shower I took shocked me a bit with the hot water and high pressure. No more buckets! Pineapples don't taste as good here and I do miss Ghana (and speaking Twi and Ikpana), but I can finally eat cereal for breakfast again and I'm happy to be home.

I've graduated with a B.A. in Linguistics and Honors in Multimedia Scholarship from the University of Southern California and am now looking for the next step (hopefully involving a job and then graduate school). Ending my undergraduate career abroad in Ghana seems like it was a good decision. I'm happy I did it.

Advice
I've had some people ask for recommendations for students who will be studying abroad in Ghana in the future. The most important piece of advice I could give is this: 

Go with an open mind! Before you leave and while you are there, if you have expectations they will only be disappointed, but if you are willing to accept new challenges and opportunities you will definitely have an amazing experience. It truly is what you make of it.

There are, however, a couple things you should know before you leave.

1) Bring large denominations of US currency if you want to exchange money over there. You get a much higher exchange rate for a $20 bill or a $100 bill than for a $1 bill (it is not even worth exchanging $1 bills, as you will lose money).

2) I'm not a doctor, so take my advice for what it is, but from what I was told by doctors in Ghana, Doxycycline is not the best malaria prophylaxis. It is an antibiotic which will reduce the effects of malaria on you should you get it, and it apparently helps slightly in preventing malaria, but I think that the majority of the people on both my study abroad program and the CIEE study abroad program who got malaria were taking doxycyline. Use a mosquito net/tent, and don't forget to take your malaria prophylaxis, whatever it is!

That's all. There's lots I could say, but I really believe that if you have the right attitude you will do fine, and learning the rest for yourself is part of the experience.

"Enjoy your life!" - Papa Attah

Blog
I will continue this blog, most likely with updates on my research plans and adventures. I've tagged all of the posts from this semester abroad as "Ghana" so they can be easily organized/found by clicking on the label "Ghana."

Feel free to check back in the near future! I've begun work on a potential project with some local Native American groups... I'm excited!

Photos

Unansanango (Paramount Ruler of Logba Traditional Area), Dela (his daughter), me, and his wife. Their son just got married today! This photo was taken right after they adopted me into the royal family and asked me to return to continue my research. They gave me the beads around my neck. I'm wearing the Essien football (soccer) jersey that Claire gave me.

Nat playing a kpanlogo at the Kotoka airport in Accra when she saw us off.

Paco at London Heathrow airport sporting the beads he made using the traditional Krobo method and the shirt he had sewn out of the batik fabric he made. Ismatu's foot is making a cameo.

Rachel being excited at London Heathrow airport. We had just watched her favorite movie, the Addyeboat video (of Claire's drunken basket-weaving instructor, Addyeboateng - o ha dwene! "He is trouble!"), which will be uploaded onto the Internet eventually...

Ismatu and I at London Heathrow Airport. Ismatu is rockin' her batik hoodie (yeah, I'm kinda jealous).

Growing Up In Africa

Leaving today!

I definitely have mixed feelings. I am completely drained. I managed to get sick with a persistent cough, probably from spending 9-11 hours every day in a cold computer lab then going outside into the heat, not sleeping much, and stressing about this independent study project. And here I thought that I was leaving all those fun habits back in LA. Thankfully, that wasn't characteristic of my entire time here - just the last two-three weeks. Overall, not bad!

However, the last two weeks I was pretty busy working on my research project, which instead of being a simple 30-page paper ended up being 111 pages (including the appendix, which was single spaced, but included over 50 pictures). Oi. But....it's all done now. Printed (the pictures didn't print so well), bound, and handed in. And we all presented. It was definitely really interesting to hear about all the things everybody else had learned about during their research time. One of my advisors came to my presentation, and then about an hour after I'd finished Unansanango (the paramount chief of the Logba traditional area) showed up, too. That was so cool!

I'd gone to speak with him earlier in the week about the project and he welcomed me warmly. He runs an NGO in Ghana which promotes the use of traditional medicine and educates herbalists about safe practices (for the people and for the environment) and his daughter got her degree in traditional medicine. They were very interested in my project, which was all about the names and uses of plants (the majority of the uses that people told me about were medicinal). Although my focus was more on the linguistic aspects of the plant names (especially how they relate to language loss), I gathered a good amount of information that's relevant to the community and put it all in my appendix. After explaining the purpose of the project and everything I had done and would be doing, he told me that although I called my project "small" it was very important to them. He seems to understand pretty well the issue of the children not being able to learn in their own language at school and told me that the names of plants weren't being taught to children in their own language, so having a resource like what my appendix now is will contribute to the development of teaching materials for Logba chilrden... in Ikpana (Logba). He is encouraging me to return and continue the project, since it's very much a preliminary study as it is.

After our discussion, he seemed very pleased. His daughter came out with a beautiful necklace of Krobo beads and put it around my neck as Unansanango declared me a part of the royal family of Logba and adopted me as his daughter. I was touched. And I really would like to come back and continue the project in the future. I have hundreds of ideas for research here. As one of my advisors, Prof. Dakubu, told me, the nice thing about doing research in a place like Ghana is that you will never run out of topics or new things to study. It's so true.

However, today is Sunday: the day most of us leave. Two people are staying longer and two already left. Sunday is my least favorite day of the week in Ghana. Nothing is open. Nothing happens. It's hard to find food... It's the worst. It probably wouldn't be so bad if I prepared in advance on Saturday and stocked up on food, but I usually forget and then spend most of Sunday morning wandering around with a sad, hungry look on my face trying to find any place that's open. It's tragic, haha.

Will I ever eat fufu again? That lovely blob of pounded cassava and plantain that takes 30-40 minutes of pounding to prepare. After it's been pounded that much, you actually don't need to chew it, so you just pinch off a little blob of it in your fingers, dunk it into your soup, and swallow it.

And kenkey? My regular lunch-time meal of slightly fermented corn dough. It's a big ball of dough wrapped up in leaves (corn husks or banana leaves). You pinch off a bit (carefuly - it stays super hot and I've definitely burned my fingers before), dunk it in stew (tomato sauce palm oil, with onions, pepper, and maybe some other vegetables), and eat it. Yes, with your hands. Everything is eaten with your hands. Salad, too. I've actually decided that kenkey is kind of like the Ghanaian equivalent of pizza. You've got the dough, the tomato sauce, the vegetables, and you can kind of count the palm oil as cheese (which doesn't really exist in Ghana). Anyway, I'm a fan.

There are plenty of other dough-like things to eat here. Banku, kafa, akple... it goes on and on. They're all a little bit different, but all are kind of the Ghana equivalent of bread. Carbs. We bake ours, they pound theirs.

I'll miss it. I'm definitely going to miss the readily available, cheap, fresh fruits, too. Less than 50 cents for a fresh coconut. I spent about $1.50 on five little pineapples yesterday that were deliciously sweet. Huge, juicy oranges for about ten cents or less. The oranges are green, and they cut off the outside skin with a knife so that the bitterness from the skin doesn't make the orange less sweet when you eat it. Except you don't eat it. You drink it. They cut the top off and you squeeze the orange and suck all the juice out. Then, if you want, you can split it open and chew out the remaining pulp. Kind of fun.

I bought a drum - a kpanlogo. Natalie (who is actually good at drums - and gave an awesome presentation from her research - ask her about it) has been teaching me kpanlogo rhythms to play on it, which I'm sure our neighbors really appreciate. Haha.

Last night we got to play drums while the other students danced, one last time. We had our going away party and were presented with beautiful kente stoles made by Kwakuche, one of the staff members who is also a kente weaver. My homestay family showed up to say good bye, which made me really happy. I hadn't gotten to see them since I left Accra back at the beginning of the program, because when we came back we pretty much all ended up staying in a hostel near campus because it was much more convenient to be close to campus than to have to commute for over an hour each way. I came back to visit once, but only my uncle was there so I didn't get to see my auntie and cousin.

I told a Ghanaian, "I wish I'd grown up in Africa, then I would know six or seven languages like you do." He responded, "Oh! You are still young. There is plenty of time to grow up in Africa! Stay. You will learn." He kind of has a point. When I first arrived in Ghana I didn't speak the languages (and I couldn't understand Ghanaian English), I couldn't find my way around, I felt really lost and uncomfortable most of the time, and I wasn't sure how to interact with Ghanaians in culturally appropriate ways (e.g. learning how to respond to marriage proposals and being called obruni). I was essentially a child. But, discomfort leads to growth. And I've tried to spend the last three and a half months "growing up in Africa."

My perspective has definitely changed, which makes me glad, since that was one of my goals in coming to Ghana. I've learned about therich cultural and artistic beauty that fills Ghana. I've learned to have an appreciation for "no rush." I've experienced a bit of the satisfaction (and frustration) that comes from doing everything by hand (pounding fufu, carrying water on your head, doing wash in a bucket or a sink) and hearing, "You have done well!" right after the encouraging, "Oh! You are trying!"  I've seen new places, had new experiences, met new friends, partially learned new languages, tried new foods, and found all sorts of inspiration for future research while being here.

I want to come back. I've barely even scratched the surface and it's been an intense past three and a half months. So, in spite of being sick and tired and missing home, I am definitely a little bit sad to leave. I hope that I've brought with me to Ghana (aside from the obvious economic benefits) a positive image of "obruni" (Westerner) as someone who is curious and friendly more than cold and aloof, and that I've brought a little bit of hope to the Ikpana/Logba language situation. I think that I'm taking with me (aside from the drum and the beautiful cloth) a better idea of what it means to me to be an American (it's much easier to appreciate the benefits after leaving the country), a bit of an understanding of this little part of Africa, and also a connection to Ghana, through the people I've worked with and the time I've spent here.

Language Shift Gets Personal

As I write my final Independent Study Project report (which is not nearly as fun as gathering the data was, let me tell you), I occasionally have access to outside sources to back up the things I make up out of my head (not easy with limited Internet and no ability to check out any books). After reading a little more about language shift, I've realized that it doesn't just apply to indigenous languages being pressured by dominant languages. It actually also applies to immigrant families who move into an area with a dominant language, and the language shift which occurs with their children, grandchildren, etc.

In fact, it actually applies to me. And maybe even most Americans within surprisingly recent generations.

I was always a little bit sad when Grandma told me how she tried to learn Italian as a young girl from her uncle, who died before she could finish learning the language (Dad and Grandma, feel free to add more details - my memory is not so good). Her parents came from Italy and Ireland, making her half Italian and me (at least) 1/8th. It's entirely possible that if she had learned it, and taught it to my dad, he could have passed it on to me as well, and then I would know Italian, hurrah! Didn't happen, though, and the closest we got was my grandmother being able to understand "English with a really heavy Italian accent" (or so she jokes - I believe I've actually seen her translate letters written to her in Italian by relatives or other genealogical researchers in her quest to uncover the deepest roots of our family tree).

It's hard to say what all of the factors affecting a family's decision not to pass on the language to their children are, but for many immigrant families coming to a "land of opportunity" there are several major reasons. One, to get a good job in the US of A you usually have to speak English. Two, there is a widespread (and incorrect) belief that speaking another language limits a child's ability to learn English (which, as mentioned above, is number one priority). Three, there often is a lot of pressure put on immigrant families by their new neighbors not to speak their first language - this can be due to some sort of stigma attached to the language, or just unhealthy fears/paranoia that people often have when they can't understand what's being spoken around them. In this case, a  foreign language is somehow seen as threatening. Four, there may simply not be enough other people to talk to in the language. It's one thing for a child's parents to be able to speak to her/him in the language, but who is the kid going to talk to at school? The other children probably don't understand the language and are fairly likely to laugh and make fun of what they don't understand. Then, not only does the child not have anyone to speak to (other than Mom and Dad, but we all know kids go through phases of not really wanting to talk to them), but she/he also just got made fun of for trying to speak to her/his peers. Lack of domain plus negative stigma. Is there any hope?

Well, yes.

In Los Angeles, for example, Korean is actually making a pretty good effort, in my opinion, at fighting all of the above. There is a large enough population of Korean-Americans that the domain for language use exists (physically embodied in the form of Korea Town) and it is perfectly possible for a Korean immigrant to live her/his entire life without needing to learn English. However, the children of these families are still facing all the above pressures, and many grow up understanding Korean but not fluently speaking it. At some point, many of them (possibly at the insistence of their parents or grandparents) decide that they want to get more familiar with the language of their heritage and either take a class in it at school (that was the story of almost all of my classmates when I took Korean I and Korean II at USC) or at the Korean Cultural Center, Los Angeles (KCCLA).

Personally, I think the KCCLA is amazing. I took part of the 8-week Korean language class they offer there this summer (it was cut short by me moving back to Walla Walla), which symbolizes to me the great community effort to share their culture, not just with Korean-Americans, but with anybody who's interested in it. When I took the class, it was $50 for eight, two-hour language sessions, including free parking, free food (if you got there early enough), and free teaching materials. The instructors are great (and there are many different levels offered, so you will definitely be placed in a challenging but not too-challenging section) and the homework isn't stressful (you're graded, but unless your university is somehow offering you credit, it really doesn't matter, does it?).

Is it working? I can't say for sure, but it certainly is a valiant effort and I really wouldn't be surprised if 4th or 5th generation Korean-Americans in the future are able to fluently speak Korean with their friends, family, and random people like me who are trying to learn Korean, too.

As for Italian, I'm still looking for the ICCWW (Italian Cultural Center, Walla Walla). Any suggestions?