Ghana: Culture Shock!

Today was probably the craziest day I have had so far on this trip. I literally broke down into tears because of the culture shock.

This morning Lauren and I went to a dancing and drumming workshop which was incredible! We saw many traditional African dances and got to partake in many of them. We were also taught how to do some drumming. We met many amazing people and had a good lunch and headed back to the ship.

This is where our day took a turn. Upon arrival back to the ship we decided to take the shuttle into Accra. First off, Ghanaian traffic is terrible. It takes 1 1/2 hours to get to Accra which is a distance of only 16 miles. However, our trip took longer because we got in an accident. A semi in front of us stepped on their brakes and we missed rear ending them but took off a side mirror on the bus. The drivers had a heated conversation outside and when our drivers came back, they acted as if nothing had happened and continued us on our drive.

The moment we stepped off the shuttle we were swarmed by young and old African men and women (mostly men) trying to make money on the streets by selling their paintings and jewelry. The painting were beautiful but were too much for me to spend today since I had no money. Maybe I'll buy one later this week. We walked into town from our bus stop with several African guys and were again swarmed by people. A young guy named Frances (his American name) took a liking to me and decided he wanted to hang around me all day. Everyone was grabbing us and touching us and harassing us for money because we are "rich Americans." If only they knew what Wisconsin was like....no money there! (at least not for me.)

I got a picture with the guy who was hanging around me all day. Except he surprised me when he stepped behind me for the picture. Dacotah had to wait for my face to calm down and me to compose myself before she took the picture…the guy was such a creep. Especially since he started talking to Lauren about how he got some weed from his friend and just got done smoking it (but he doesn't abuse it so he says...right). Then he wanted me to kiss him and I refused and he kept calling me his girlfriend to everyone. None of us could handle it anymore....we were all ready to be back on the ship and experience that pacifying effect we've been told about. The shuttle was running 1 1/2 hours late so we decided to take a taxi because we could not stand being in the area with everyone anymore. I felt like I was in a parade of circus animals...really sad how much they look up to us just because we are white and from America. Apparently they have been preparing for our visit for 2 months and looking forward to it.

6 of us girls (including 2 we just met from SAS) crowded into a taxi for a 1 1/2 hour drive back to the ship. It was beginning to get dark out and we didn't want to stick around....good thing because as we saw from the taxi, Ghana gets crazy at night. Not sure I could have handled that after a day like today. I am really looking forward to our 13 hour trip to the national forest tomorrow and the canopy adventure that awaits....even though breakfast is at 6:15am for us....ick. But we'll have at least 2 hours to sleep on the bus.

Jenna's roommate was holding someone's baby and was joking around about taking her home with her....the dad of the little girl say okay go for it and began to walk away from her. She yelled out to stop him and explained it was a joke. She ended up spending 3 hours carrying the baby around the market and later brought her back to her dad....Kinda scary how willing he was to give up his daughter so she could have a better life as he put it.

To top it all off, I was proposed to at least 5 times today outright. And asked by many to take them back to America with me….supposedly another form of proposal.

Attached are some pictures of the dancing and drumming and one of the guys I met in Ghana.