Time to go to Togo!

           Before we started into the final examination period, I was able to get some amazing adventures under my belt.  The second to last weekend of April (20^th-22^nd) some girlfriends and I were FINALLY able to go to Togo!  I stress FINALLY so much because we had been planning on going for weeks before, but ran into a lot of trouble with Ghana Immigration Services while trying to renew our visas.  My original Ghanaian visa was a multiple entry visa that does not expire until 2020; however when we arrived at the airport in Accra, immigration officers stamped our passports with a 60 day visa.  Unfortunately, we were unaware of this fact and had to scramble at the last minute to get it renewed by March 22—most international students who are here on a program had visa renewals taken care of for them, or were at least given ample warning, but that is part of the disadvantages of being first group of Pitt students to come here.  When we brought our visas to the Immigration Office we decided to only pay for a one month extension since we wanted to go to Togo, at which point our reentry to Ghana would have automatically extended our visa for another month.  To make a long story short, we spent entirely too much time and money traveling to and from the Immigration Office, sitting and waiting for hours on end to receive our renewed visas, and getting treated terribly by the officers who had total disregard for our requests.  Dealing with the Immigration Services has been by far the most frustrating and upsetting experience that I’ve encountered in Ghana, and I would strongly suggest to anyone traveling here on their own, to employ the help of a Ghanaian friend when attempting to sort out visa extensions and similar issues.  We ended up having to go through one of our professors who knows the director of Immigration in order to ever get our passports and visas back, and by the time we got them they were one day away from expiring again.

Sarah, Line, LaVonda and I at Hotel Le Galion in Lome, Togo

Despite all of the hassle with renewing our visas, once we got our passports back late Friday afternoon on April 20^th, we packed our bags, jumped on a tro-tro, and headed straight for Togo!  For the most part the ride was enjoyable and, aside from fearing that the refrigerator that was fastened to the roof of our tro-tro would fly off as we sored over the bumpy roads, I was able to relax and enjoy the view.  The tro-tro dropped Line, LaVonda, Sarah, and I off about 100 yards away from the border of Ghana and Togo and we thought we would be in the clear from this point on—silly girls!  Little do we know that the border actually closes at 10 o’clock every night and being it was 9:57 we were advised to sprint!  We filled out all of the necessary paperwork in the Ghanaian immigration office on the border as quickly as we could, got our passports stamped, every validated, and ran to cross the border just as the gates were closing.  Unfortunately, the gates were locked right before we could enter into Togo, and they would not let us cross until morning so we were forced to walk to the nearest town and find a cheap hotel for the night.  Although I was initially disappointed, this ended up working out just fine and we got up at the crack of dawn, exchanged our cedi to Central African Franc, received a lot of French stamps on our passports, and glided across the border to Togo.  I could not have asked for a more beautiful weekend to travel to Togo; there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and the sun was shining brighter than ever!

so many motorbikes along the main road in Lome that follows the coast!

Our hotel was just a short distance from the border and is a very popular place for backpackers, volunteers, and students to stay when visiting Lomè, Togo.  We arrived at Hotel Le Galion, got settled in our rooms, and ate a delicious breakfast as we took in the French atmosphere around us.  After a bite to eat, we walked down the main road that closely followed the coastline to Le Grand Marché for some shopping.  One of the things Togo is famous for is the motorbikes that zip around as the main form of transportation.  As we strolled to the Grand Marché with the sun beating down on us and motorbikes zooming past, I could not help but notice the gorgeous palm trees and aqua blue water surrounded by remnants of French colonialism that were decaying all around me.  Passing up and down the streets of the Grand Marché was one of the most enjoyable market experiences I have had in Africa thus far.  For one, it just seemed like so many less people than any given day in Accra markets, and I don’t speak much French, so if anyone was harassing us foreigners, I was unaware (and that was a nice change).  Overall, there seemed to be less emphasis on hawking and less pushiness on the part of the sellers, so as a buyer, I was much more inclined to participate.  The best part of shopping in Lomè was the French street food!  I must say I was a little disappointed that I could not get crepes with nutella—my brothers and I indulged in Paris—but the fresh baked baguettes filled with avocados, tomatoes, and onion were a delicious substitute.  At one point, we took a break from the market, and brought our baguettes to the beach where we sat under the little shade of a palm tree and looked out onto the Gulf of Guinea as we enjoyed our lunch.  That was true paradise!  Afterwards, we each hopped on the back of a motorbike and rode home along the coast back to our hotel—so much fun!

I got to ride on a motorbike back from the Grande Marche!

The next morning Line, Sarah, and I went to the Fetish Market that was a short taxi ride away.  My trusty guide book given to me as a Christmas present from my Dad had recommended the Fetish Market as one of the main attractions of Lomè, and I figured it was a once in a lifetime experience to witness the exchange of fetishes at the birthplace of voodoo.  Benin, which borders Togo on the east, is the technical birthplace of voodoo, but the founders of the Fetish Market are Beninese and prior to colonialism’s create of separate nation-states, many people from Togo and Benin originated from the same ethnic groups.  We had a friendly tour guide to walk us through the aisles of animal remains, skulls, bones, full heads, dried skins, and many other items that make you cringe.  Our tour guide was quite a comic and got a big thrill out of watching our reactions to the animated stories he would tell of each item he picked up, but he assured us that none of the items had the voodoo powers until they were blessed by a voodoo master for a specific purpose at which point they became fetishes.  At the end of our little tour, we were brought into a private fetish room where we had the opportunity to purchase certain fetishes that would be blessed for us specifically.  This was quite a unique experience and I cannot be fully sure what type of voodoo magic was occurring, but I’m so glad that I got to experience such a thing.  Later that day we packed up and headed back across the border to Ghana, but did not leave without getting a few baguettes for the road of course!  It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend in Togo where a very different culture thrives due to its French influence.  I am so glad that I finally got to visit Togo and I would love the chance to go back and explore more of the country sometime! 

The Fetish Market in Togo- the birthplace of voodoo!

                                                                              

The "Study" of Study Abroad

Now that classes have officially come to an end and we are well underway with final exams, I have some extra time to catch up on blog posts about my recent adventures.  The last two weekends of April were spent traveling and visiting some of my “must see” sights before I leave at the end of May.  As soon as I returned from my travels, I have to get down to business to prepare for my first round of final exams which I have now completed three of my total five.  Because the University of Ghana has a final exam period that spans from May 4^th to May 27^th (as well as a week of revisions from April 30^th to May 4^th), my finals have been fairly spaced out and I now have one more on the 16^th and one on the 25^th.  I was really nervous for my exams because, unlike at Pitt where I have gotten used to the process, I had no idea what to expect at a University that approaches academics quite differently as far as I am concerned.  So far I have been pleasantly surprised at the assumed success of my exams; however, the grading system here is very harsh and I do not fully know what to expect in that regard. 

My first final was a practical performance for Traditional African Dance, which took place during revision week and was by far the most nerve-racking testing experience I’ve had in a long time.  The dance class was probably my favorite class of the semester and although there were always days when I felt like I had two left feet, I always tried my hardest to learn the dances to the best of my ability.  For the final, we had to perform two dances—one was a war dance, the other was a celebration of life cycles.  The war dance was my least favorite of the semester because it was far less exciting and interactive than any others we learned, but I still mastered the moves and felt mildly comfortable about the performance.  Unfortunately, this particular dance requires one to have a keen ear for the drum patterns that dictate the order, length, and degree of the dance movements.  Personally I found that this was a real challenge and I could not differentiate the different drumming patterns for the life of me, like I could with our other dances.  My performance group consisted of myself and 3 other international girls, all of whom were apparently in the same situation with the lack of awareness of the drum transitions, so it was not our best performance by any means.  I was unhappy about this because I felt like I tried so hard every class, and I really hope they take that into consideration when evaluating us, but we will see.  Despite this, the second dance went flawlessly and I was even able to throw in some cartwheels during the freestyle section to “showcase my youthfulness” as the professors asked. 

Yesterday, I had two more finals—one at 7:30 AM and the second at 3:30 PM!  The first was an African history class about colonialism and nationalism and I am confident in my demonstration of my knowledge, especially because the class had prepared me better than any other throughout the semester.  After 2.5 hours of writing essays and a few shorter answer questions, I needed a little mental break before my next exam.  The next exam was on the music of North Africa and I had no idea how to begin to approach studying or what to expect on the test.  Like most of the courses at the University of Ghana, my music class did not have any textbooks, but we were also without any photocopied packets of readings which my other courses did provide.  Due to circumstances which I do not entirely understand, my class only met five times over the course of the semester, and only three of those times were lectures taught by our professors (the others were an exam and a presentation).  I acknowledge the fact that I did not choose to study abroad to get the exact same educational experience as I would have at Pitt, but situations like this are one of my many academic frustrations that I have encountered here.  Overall, I think I did as best on the exam as I could have given the about of lecturing and information that we acquired this semester. 

Additionally, the style of teaching and learning here is very different than what I am used to and I do not thrive in this environment.  The classes are usually quite large, but even in the eight person class I had, the professors do not engage discussion or promote critical thinking and analysis.  Instead, in almost every course I took, the professor read aloud to the class from his typed up sheets of paper which either came directly from a textbook on the subject, or an encyclopedia.  I observed how the Ghanaian students handled this bombardment of verbatim information, and discovered that they write down every single thing that the professor reads with no intention of extracting only the valuable information.  This came as a shock to me, because in the US I have been taught to focus on the critical information since a very young age—much time is spent on teaching kids how to sift through paragraphs of reading to highlight the main ideas and we even had standardized testing on the skill.  This has been hard for me throughout the semester (I have even been asked by a professor if I was actually taking notes because I was not writing as much as the other students), and especially when it comes to examinations where you are expected to regurgitate the abundance of information instead of prove your comprehension of the topic. 

Like I said, I chose to study in a foreign country and I have to accept all of the cultural differences I will encounter, including a style of education that I do not particularly care for or find valuable.  However, part of studying abroad is to learn things about yourself that you would not have discovered if you stayed within your comfort zone and didn’t push your boundaries.  Even realizing things like how you best absorb and learn information in school makes this experience worthwhile, and it is something that I can use to be more successful in the future!