Kumasi, Ghana

My name is Bijan Makarechi and I’m a rising sophomore in TD.  I am currently in Kumasi, Ghana doing a public health internship organized by the AIESEC Chapter at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology (KNUST) and teaching French in a local school. 

When I arrived exhausted at the Accra airport two weeks ago, I thought that Tony, a VP from AIESEC KNUST, would take me straight to his house where I could get some sleep before leaving for Kumasi the following morning.  Instead, Tony had brought along another AIESECer, as well as two interns, and told me we were going to go have dinner at the mall.  The other interns, one German and one Canadian, were eager to give me a “Ghanaian experience” right away, and convinced Tony that we should get to the mall by Tro-tro. Tro-tros are the main form of public transportation in Ghana, and they are essentially vans with benched seats and a “mate” who constantly yells the final destination of the particular route out of the window.  The rides are incredibly cheap, but incredibly crowded as well.  In that first night, our first Tro-tro scraped against another one, and the drivers got into such a big argument that we decided to get off and take the next one.  Our next Tro-tro got pulled over for speeding, and we all had to get off again and wait in the dark for another one. While it was quite a hectic night, I felt comfortable and safe traveling with the two locals and two interns.  We ended up spending the following day in Accra and going to the beach, which provided me with some much needed refreshment from the heat and humidity. 

Idum and Some Tro-tros

 Now that I’ve been living in the Local Chapter (LC) House for two weeks, I have settled into the routine and I know my way around. We have quite an international family living here: two Americans, one German, one Canadian, three Ivorians and a few of the Ghanaian AIESECers.  I know my way around Kwamo, the area of the LC house, which has some small shops and food vendors of different kinds.  I have been able to adapt fairly easily to elements of the Ghanaian daily routine that are quite different from what I’m used to back at home, such as showering and flushing the toilet with nothing but a bucket of water (though I’m still struggling with hand-washing clothes).  We have electricity in the house, but the power goes out very frequently, and usually stays off for 12 to 24 hours at a time.  I have tried a lot of Ghanaian foods from vendors and small restaurants (which is almost always spicy), but the other interns and I also like to cook together for dinner.  We even made dumplings with the help of the Canadian intern who is of Chinese origin.  Some of the Ghanaians brought us to a go-cart place last week, which was a ton of fun. We often take trips together to Idum, the center of Kumasi, which is filled with markets and shops and thousands of people and Tro-tros in the street.  Last weekend we went to the Kejetia market in Idum, which is said to be the largest market in West Africa.  It was incredibly crowded and quite overwhelming, though we were told it wasn’t as busy as usual because it was Sunday and many vendors were closed.

The project I am supposed to be working on is called Embrace HIV+. It is a project organized by AIESEC KNUST that aims to prevent the spread of HIV and also reduce the stigma against its victims.  They do this by organizing testing days in rural districts, during which they give free HIV testing.  Due to the stigma against HIV positive people in Ghana, we know that no one would show up if we were only providing HIV testing, so we market and offer free Malaria and Hepatitis B testing as well.  Last week I traveled with Tony and another intern to one of the districts we were hoping to work with. We talked to the District Director, and he was very supportive our efforts and agreed to help out by providing some materials as well as marketing.  After that successful visit, we unfortunately heard that the health director of the district canceled the testing day because he did not think it was necessary.  In my preparation booklet from AIESEC KNUST, I remember the phrase “patience is certainly a virtue in Ghana.” And I now understand how true that is.  As I have seen and heard from other interns, it is very hard to accomplish things that require approval or support of public officials or even headmasters of schools.  Bureaucracy slows the pace of all our efforts.  Despite this, we are trying to organize more testing days.  

Cape Coast Castle With My Fellow EPs

In the meantime, because my Embrace HIV+ internship does not require that much of my time, I have started teaching French at a local public Junior High School.  I teach two to four classes a day, five days a week.  This is a far more challenging job than I had expected, and I am sure that I am learning more from my students every day than they are learning from me.  From what I have seen, in my school at least, the teachers in Ghana rely very heavily on the government textbooks.  My students are used to very simple teaching methods and simple tasks. They are so used to repeating what their teach says, that sometimes they repeat after me even when I don’t ask them to.  I think that the French teacher at the school pushed through the textbook material even when the students did not understand or absorb the material, because some of my students that are in their second year of French still cannot conjugate basic verbs, understand simple sentences or remember common words such as girl, boy and house.  Most of the students are respectful and attentive, and enjoy talking to me before and after class, but there are definitely some troublemakers as well.  I am trying to change the structure of the class to make it more interactive and engaging, but I can tell that many of my students would rather copy down a list of words and complete written exercises than participate orally in class or do partner exercises.  The younger students (11-12 years old) seem enjoy and benefit from some class games and competitions.  So far, teaching has been a positive challenge for me, and it has been interesting for me to learn about the school environment in Ghana.

Canopy Walk at Kakum National Park

This weekend five of us interns went on a weekend trip to Cape Coast, a fairly touristy town on the coast, where colonists built many forts and slave castles.  After seeing very few foreigners in Kumasi during my first two weeks, it was surprising to see so many Americans and Europeans in Cape Coast, but fun as well. Our hostel was right on the beach and it was full of young volunteers such as us.  We visited and toured the Cape Cost Castle, which used to be a British slave castle during the slave trade.  We had a very good tour guide, who described with brutal details the conditions of the slaves in the castle, waiting to be shipped off to the Americas. This initial phase of slavery is one we do not often consider or discuss in the US, and I found the tour powerful and educational.  We also visited Kakum National park, where we did the Canopy Walks (40 meters above ground), and had amazing views of the forest.  We spent our last hours in Cape Coast on the beautiful beach right outside our room, with the biggest waves I have ever seen.

The interns and I are starting planning a weeklong trip around Ghana, hoping to go to every single region before we come back.  I look forward to exploring more of Ghana, and I am very excited for the World Cup to start in just a couple days (USA plays Ghana in the first round!).  

Cape Coast! (and new shorts)