HEy Eeryone

Well, yesterday, thanks to 2 million dollars of our canadian tax money, our great governor general arrived in Accra, took a 'tour' , which seems to have consisted of a fast drive around in the dark, and then made her way to where we were, the embasadors house. The party was great, the band was good, the drinks were free, and just when we thoought they had no food, the food came out, thanks guys. The place was full of candians, I met a lot of millartary men and also some NGO workers and things like, Candians only, she wanted to tell us that we are making a difference, instead, oh, perhaps making a difference her self, or tlaking to the Ghananian population, or even better still, not wasting 2 million dollars to travel around africa and tell canadians that we are doing a good job. BUt the evening was a success and we finnaly made it home (only 10:30, still late here) and all had a nice debrief about what she was acctaully saying and what purpose that might serve.

THere were some millartary dudes who trying to convince my friends to join their little team but generally they were all nice people, some RCMP some poster children who dig boar holes (wells), the whole things seems a little fishy to me, if you can't tell by my tone, but i guess thats life, and besides, this governer general is a lot more pretty than the last one.

So I made it school today on my bike, which is now in shambles, the back wheel doesn't spin very well and the bolt conecting it to the bike is red hot after each ride, but soon I will ahve a new one.

PEACE
and LVOE
ALEX

HEy Everyone
Well, aanother nice day today, jsut chilling out again, having a sweet relaxibng day,
I have a new thing i do, I call it church, i Go out on sundays at the time that most p[eople are at church and hang out in the city when it is empty, today I biked all the way down town, not to bad in the enbd, but most days the traffic would be too much, really a nice day.
I also got a sweet deal on some necklasses from a dude their, one dollar each for 20$, he cut me a good bulk deal.
So I am feeling ngreat and rady for the next week of school, but most excitingly is that My Dad is comming to visit, and that is quite exciting. SO I will be in touch still.
PEACE and LOVE
ALEX

This one is jsut some pictures my firensd took, i hop you like the limited selections
Maybe more to come?
PEACE

Hello everyone

How is it going? I am still doing fine, but have decided not to travel this weekend. I feel a little low the last few days, not anything sever but a sort of low moral, I think it is just the time on the programme, a sort of limbo time of classes and getting ready for next semester work projects and getting really used to life here, but still not quite understanding what is going on all the time. But the days are still rich and fun and I learn a lot from everyone.

Yesterday I went swimming at a swimming pool at a hotel, it was very nice, I haven’t been so clean in weeks, or months, and the refreshing feel of the water really relaxed me, along with some good exercise from some laps. So now I am relaxing, finishing some home work, listening to Neil young and trying to normalize the situation, relax, eat well, and do some nice things over here, maybe some bike adventures and the like.

Last week I bought some really nice materials and have one more shirt being made a the tailor’s but also I bought 6 yards of nice batik material to make me and Kate matching out fits. The clothing making culture here is great, the fabrics are all beautiful and some are incredibly random, but all are cheep and all are good. It would cost me 7-10$ for a shirt or pants to be made.

The air is getting hotter as the dust moves in, but the wind in our costal region is also nice, the raods are getting sandier and sandier as some small plants seem to be drying up, it is defiantly a season change, one season I have never felt before, Hammatan.

I wish you all the best, peace and love

Alex

HeyALL

Well, Another week is done, almost, TOmmrow I go traveling agian to the west to see that part of the coastal area.
TOday we went to a community called Madina ZONGO, The name means a lot, as it implies large Muslem population, I was looking at the drainage situation and met some very interesting people. THere are no good drainage systems, people are supposed to biuld little ones in front of their house and the governemnt will help if the community puts some money up front, but there is no money, and the poor draniage makes for two things road errosion and more problematic really really bad sanitation, green and white liquades run down the street adding to it as they go are more house holds. Kids run around in bear feet and the smeel is attocious, but yet people are happy and attempting to do something, they know this is a problem and solutions are being looked for, even with little to no money available, and maybe the governmetn can do somehitng, slowly but surly.

I wish you all the best, PEACE adn LOVE
ALEX

HEy All
HOw is it going?
I am just back from a really nicve trip to the volta region. The first day I was sick and ended up throwing up my lunch and sleeping a lot with a pained stomach but it all worked out for me and the next day I was ready to go, we traveled upwards into the highest mountain village in Ghana, Adzamafe, it was great, the people theer are so nice and it turned out to be the paramount chiefs birthday, so we went to huis funneral where me met many people over some afternoon beers, as the tradition at these events. The palce was packed and we had to get a ll the help we could from the fierd old hotel manager to get us a room somehow.
JUst pirched atop a high (for Ghana, or ontario) mountain, the hammertan winds are here and the views are all obstucted by sand and dust fromt he sahara, we all were snezzing a little more, but that was okay.
This morning we took a nice hike down to a town to get a car to Accra and now we are back agiaon in the is buslting metropolitain. After another great weekend.

We also got some ants in our pants last night and needed some fast work to get them all out, it is not the best -poalce to have bitting ants, eh/

PEACEnad L:VOE
ALEX

‘There is a white man on my street, royal palm street. He lives with the water delivery people, we all know his name and yell after him, “Alex, Alex, Alex,” when ever he goes past. He looks funny, in his straw-hat and oversized sunglasses. HE rides a funny looking green bike with two lights and always smiles and waves as he goes past.

I find it funny that he can say hello in my language but cannot say anything else, but how are you. MY mother really likes Alex and talks to him often as he buys toilet paper or bread at our store, and my grandmother, who cannot talk to Alex because of his funny language says that he is her son. All my friends and other kids on the street also yell after Alex and he always answers but he doesn’t know all our names. Sometimes we don’t see Alex for days, but he always seems to come back, with that same smile on his face, always friendly. My mother tells me to call him Uncle Alex, but I never do, but it doesn’t mean I don’t like him, that funny looking man.’

I like to think that is why the kids are always calling after me; I am just so out of the ordinary here, sometimes the kids cry and other times they run over and hug me, it is always something though. Always something. It is a great dimension to this trip. In different towns kids will all yell the same thing, sometimes it is Obruni, while other s it is hello helo hello hello etc, and others still will ask for money, dollars or Cedi’s or even Chinese dollars (?).

Well, class has also started again, and it is kinda nice, but I did like our time off and sometimes feel that I learn more walking around and meeting people than I do in class. But I have always felt that, and I do learn in class, and what I am learning supplements so well the walking around and meeting people, so maybe I am, the lucky one, who learns through both, but we all do here, I think. What a learning expiernce.

Two of my friends have just bought bikes here, so now I have some bike adventures to take, so I can look forward to that.

PEACE

ALEX

Hello All
Well, it has been a while, eh? But I have been doing a lot and having so much fun that it has been hard for me to get to the computer, but I will try to do better.
Well, since I last wrote, I have two credits, we have begun looking into the organiztions that we will work for after Christmas and most excitingly, we took a great trip to the north of the country. We stopped for the night in Kumasi, the second biggest city in Ghana, it was huge and there was a lot of money their, but we only spent one night and didn’t get to see a lot, but we did, at least get to see some streets in the morning as we are all up at 6 or 7 every morning. Pretty fun times, but the real fun came as we continued up to Tamale, this city is beautiful, and where I would like to live.
Picture as small city of 300,000, it is hot in the day and slightly colder than Accra at night, there are a few main streets but as you get off the streets there are poor, poor villages set seemingly right in the down town. It is very interesting set up, but it is very easy to see the poverty. As we all bike around on the bikes that more than half of my group has rented from various bike dealers in town. We can bike for 10 minuets and see villages with no water or electricity, there are no c ash crops here and it seems the only rich people are the bankers and the big business men. But the people are so increadably nice.
One of my friends here, Maria from Ecuador, is very good at making cool friends, and I went with her on some of her visits to them. We met Sala, a 30 year old with two kids who does drama and owns a small food shop, but is hoping to turn it into a car parts store when more capital is available. She has cooked us so T-Z, a dish with corn that you eat with your hands, it is pretty much like the Fufu or Banku, and eaten with a great soup with some leaves of the cocoa yam. We talk and she is very nice. Then we meet Hafiz, he takes us to his family with a huge bag of sweet potatoes and we cook them and eat them, meeting his family and friends. We bought a live Guinea foul, and took it home on the bus. Maria wanted it for her host family. The times are nice and we slowly make our way back home to converse more with our new friends.
Tamale has many bike lanes. It is safer than Accra to bike in, but that doesn’t mean it is safe, along all the main roads there are sectioned off portions where people walk and bike, or sometimes motorbike. It is wonderful; it almost feels like Amsterdam, in that sense. Also Tamale has the highest proportion of NGO’S THAN ALMOST ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. It is strange how many actually, and there are many issues surrounding this, like how to coordinate them, that some of them are out for money and grants only, and to look at the impact some of them are making in unintended ways. Almost 200 in a city of 300,000. Very interesting.
I got some clothes made too. A matching pants and shirt with some great batiked material and I also got a man-dress, the type that the Muslims where, very comfortable in the heat, and pretty much all the bikes are ‘women’s’ bikes with the low cross bar.
Arriving back in Accra after a long 14 hour bus trip we are all tired and can smell the air again in this dirtier city, as happens when returning to Toronto after a nice amount of time elsewhere. I slept well after sitting all day and today am off to accompany one of my friends to the hospital, and then do all my laundry later on and get ready for the start of our new semester on Monday, I hope this one is as nice as the last.
Well, that is that, that’s why I have not been writing, and unsure internet access, so I do apologize, but you can see how nice it is, the time here, how wonderful a country and how nice my friends are…
PEACE and LOVE
ALEX