So what am I doing here???

This question has one answer and one aditional question:)

Let me start with the answer. AIESEC is an international platform for young people to discover and develop their potential, the core of which is a unique learning cycle with the main focus on leadership and exchange. Now my role is to be a leader and do exchange:D Today is a very good day to tell you what I'm doing - I'm changing people's lives not to be modest:D I've just got the answer from one of the companies that they are willing to take a Romanian girl for internship:D:D:D My first TN (company) matched in 2 weeks;) I'm quite proud of myself:D

A joke that just a couple of people will understand - before comming to Ghana I had 100% raising rate, now I have also 100% realization rate:D I'm improving:D:D:D

Apart from this, I also will be dealing a great deal with local committees, which is where the real challenge begins! Of course you know that people here are a bit different than in Lithuania, they think different etc. but sometimes I get quite shocked and speachless... I'm sorry I'll not give an example for purposes of discretion...

Currently we are in the middle of planning - we already have a national plan and the MC plan and this weekend we're kicking off with LC plans... So the real work has already begun;)

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The question - why am I really here? is a hard one. I'm sure most of you have read Paulo Coehlo's Alchemist. The idea of that book was that a guy had a dream that he should go to the pyramids in Egypt and find a treasure there. So he went and experienced all kinds of things along the way and when he finally reached the pyramids he didn't find a treasure, but had a dream that the real treasure is back home... The reason I'm telling you this is that I feel pretty much the same, except, that I already know that my treasure is back home. So what am I doing here??? Let it be rhetorical question, though I'm trying to find the answer...

The ugly

Well I think I've feeded you enough information to think that Ghana is quite a nice place to be in, so now I can share something that is not so nice:) So the ugly...

One of the first things that strike my mind when thinking "what is wrong with this country?" is the gutters, trash and, of course, poverty. I really don't understand why (and nobody has yet explained me) they have open gutters in most places. I have to admit I keep thinking how not to fall in to one of those one day:) And of course it's worse at night when the lights are off... and the worse stories are connected with somebody loosing something there, a sliper for example:)

Trash. Well trash cans are not a common invention around this place, so there are places like around the famous "circle" where all you see are trash trash and more trash. Oh and the shitting people... now that's not a very pretty sight, trust me;)

As for poverty, I find it kinda interesting here. There are a lot of people who really earn way below any normal wage for living, but they don't seem to care that much... They have their own small business' selling some stuff and just live like that. Don't think much about the future, keep having babies one after another and live. Every like second woman you see is carrying a baby on her back. It does strike me, because they really don't have what to offer to that child. And it's a closed circle: poor women have babies, who grow up with little education and go for the same "small business" and stay poor and have more babies... I find it very very sad...

On the other hand the government has tried to take all those people away from the streets by not letting them sleep all around, minimizing those "small business'" etc. But it all ended up as a very unpopular policy when the elections were comming as a huge part of population where those "poorer" people.

I cannot stop wondering what can and needs to be done to change this situation for the better? And how long it would take Africa to be closer to Europe? And the thing is that it is really possible. There are places in Accra with tall buildings, clean streets, where you don't see the gutters etc. That's of course where the government sits and embassies are. But it does imply that if they'd really want to they could clean up the whole place. Or at least that's what I'm getting...

I'll write about my job here in the next post as it does not really correspond to the topic:D

Random, but interesting

After this weekend I have these topics to share with you:
- church
- football
- shopping:)

I know I've already written about church positioning in Ghana, but this is a different topic. Yesterday I finally did it - went to church:) The charismatic one I've already told you about. It was really interesting and fun. First of all building is not really a church, it's more like a big conference or concert hall with a balcony. In front, on the stage, was a huge poster with horses and saying "advancement" and a big screen for multimedia:)

I wouldn't be exagerating saying that it had at least 600 people there (I'm measuring according to IC in India:), I'd say maybe even more... Church is one of the few things in Ghana that start on time;) And so it began: first 40 minutes or so we were singing:) It was really lots of fun, the words were written on the multimedia screen and everybody was singing and clapping hands:) it was really cool. Next 30 minutes pastor was talking about prayer saying that "one should pray and not be discouraged" and he kept saying quates from the bible and everybody looked at their bibles and some wrote down what the pastor was saying. I have to admit it was interesting to listen to him, as you might imagine he's quite a charismatic person:) and was talking so freely, saying things like: "if God would answer all your prayers at one time then you wouldn't pray anymore. just imagine what would happen if God gave you not your daily bread (the one we ask), but annual bread at the same time" etc.

Yet next 30 minutes scared me a bit... it was a time for prayer itself and everybody was praying the way they want, so it was some kind of chaos hearing all those mumblings, one guy not far from me was even shouting "praise the Lord, praise the Lord, praise the Lord"... During this time I just sad with my eyes shut and had my personal thoughts...

After this the "ceremony" ended with announcements on the multimedia screan:) And pastor said that it is going to be the best week in our lives:) kinda nice:)

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I'm sure you all know that yesterday was the final match between France and Italy. We were watching it in a bar called "bus stop", small but nice place. I was supporting France because they have Zidane and Bartez, to whom it is the last championship, so I thought it would be nice for them to win... but I guess we all saw what happened...

Zizu - What happened there???? I have to say I was really disappointed with that... My friend had all story about conspiracy prepared that the coach was paid to take Henry off field and that Zidane was paid to do what he did:) who knows... My sister's guess is that that guy said something about Zidane's mother:D

Anyway, four years till next championship;)

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On Saturday I had a very good "find out":) we went to a shopping center (like a grocary store). I was so happy to see that "normal" shops do exist:) Of course they are highly expensive, made specially for obrunies:) But I was so happy to see that there is cheese (which I am not able to afford:p), whole wheat buns, even cottage cheese!!! I bought only local replacement of "Cini minis" and have already tried it with "powder milk":) tastes good;)

Also on a shopping subject - yesterday we were in a market of local arts, so I can say that for presents you most likely to buy beads, something carved from wood or bags made from leather or reptile skin (saw one horrible purse with small crocodile head and hands...brrr)

Stay tooned for more updates and please share your comments;)

On the more boring day:)

For more pictures from Boti falls - www.imagestation.com. Username: burundas, Psw: burundas.

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As promised, on a more boring day:
- Religion and how big it is in Ghana
- Girls' hair - it's all a fake
- Football and Black Stars

Religion. Well when I found out that Ghana is a very religous country I actually didn't expect it to be THAT religiuos... Everybody here goes to church. And you can choose from a huge variaty - we've got all the religions possible: most of them are catholic (I didn't know catholics had so many different "branches"), some muslims, Jehova witness', seven Aposthels or something similar ETC.ETC.

Meeting some Ghanaian person usually sounds something similar:
- Hi, what is your name?
- Where are you from?
- Which church do you go to? ...

Ok, I am exagerating a little bit, but the subject comes up in the first conversation. Guys instead of inviting a girl to a cinema, dinner or something similar - invite to go to church together:) This is really true:) One of my Nigerian friends went for "a singles breakfast" to the church, where they had "sessions" on young leadership, some sort of goal setting, how to find that special one or something similar. And he spent HALF of the day there (from 8 to around 14...). I'm not suggesting anything, I just find it very very interesting...

The funny side of this religious country is that all those small business' usually have something to do with God - for egzample - "God is great fast food", "Jesus hair salon" etc. I'll take some pictures of these;) you really have to see this:)

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One thing that I have to say I am shocked to find out is that almost all obibini girls have fake hair!!! Really almost all... they use "extensions" to do all sorts of "haircuts". If you see a girl with nice hair longer than up to her shoulders - you know it's fake - it just doesn't grow like that. And almost all of those holiwood and pop stars - it's not their hair... I cannot believe it - IT IS ALL FAKE...

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Football is really big here:) Ghana team is called the Black Stars. Before the match with Brazil you could see all people wearing their flag somehow - tshirts, whistles on the neck, "jewelry", scarfs etc. All - young and old, men and women - were showing their support for Black Stars:) It's really nice to see:) And even when they lost - everybody celebrated as if they had won:) there were people everywhere just happy, shouting, whistling... I wonder what would have happen if they had won:D

Just a short notice - I'm very happy that Italy won against Germany 2:0:D I hope to see France playing agains Italy and I would bet for France to win:p

Weekend trip

On a more boring day I will tell you about:
- Religion and how big it is in Ghana
- Girls' hair - it's all a fake
- Football and Black Stars
- Ants and other nice creatures we live with

If you want to hear about something - please comment and you can read about it in the next edition:)

So, the weekend trip. The trainees here led by Saulius (our very own Lithuanian trainee in Ghana:)) have came up with the plan to work all week and do something cool during the weekend. This weekend five of us set out to Boti Falls to see two water falls, umbrella rock and three trunk palm tree.

Traveling in Ghana is the fun part - you can get these small micro busses - called Tro-Tro - to go to almost anywhere in the country. The bad thing about them is that they don't have a schedule and leave only when they get full, so most of the time you have to wait for some time, sometimes more than an hour (happened twice on this trip:)

July 1st Ghana is celebrating Republic Day and every year there is a big celebration near the Boti Falls where tons of people come. It was really lot's of fun to be the only obrunies (that's the white man in Twi) in this huge crowd of obibinies (that's dark skinned people in Twi - local language). People don't get to see white people so often here so most of the time they look at you and call 'obruni, obruni'. I don't mind when the kids do that - they often look very excited to see a white person:) But I don't understand the grown ups...

The walk to the umbrella rock was not the easiest one - an hour one way going through 'forest', down a rocky path and then climbing up a rocky hill. I was half dead when we got there, but as always - the scenary pays off all the efforts:) they charge you 2000 cedis to climb up the umbrella rock:) it's gorgeous when you go up there... but comming down is not a fun part, especially for someone like me who's kinda scared of hights... but I made it safe to the ground:)

Me and Misha (my roomate) up on the umbrella rock

Luckily three trunk Palm tree wasn't that far:) Here again they wanted to charge us 5000 cedis for taking pictures, but we didn't pay for that - instead we asked them to give us some palm wine. Pure alcohol if you ask me, but more experienced drinkers were very satisfied with it, so objectively it's probably good:)
For Eric's (the guy on the right) sake I have to tell you - the first of July is CANADA day - so Happy Canada day everybody;)

We spent a night at Eric's friends place in Tafo village and in the morning set out to see the oldest cocoa plantation in Ghana. It was planted in 1879 and by 1911 Ghana has become the second biggest exporter of cocoa in the world and stays to this day. Well the plantation was nothing really special, but the guy told us how they gather the fruits and we tasted some cocoa beans, which taste like dark chocholate without sugar.

Yet the fun part was to come - this cocoa plantation is in a small small town and to go from there to Accra was not an easy task:) we spent like an hour waiting for a right Tro-tro, but all of them were full, so then we decided to walk a bit and wait a bit and walk a bit again... Finally we took a taxi to a bigger town near by and there after skipping three Tro-tros (as we were by the end of the que) we finally made it!

Waiting and waiting and waiting...

All in all it has been a great weekend - looking forward to more of these;)