By: Laura Gattis
I’ve tried to start this blog post half a dozen times, but how do you write about a place where everything feels so new? How do you write about a place where some of the starkest examples of poverty, friendship, and community are so deeply intertwined? I’m not sure I can ever do an entire country justice, but I have found myself drawn to the late Anthony Bourdain’s quotes on travel and experiencing new cultures. This blog post serves both as a reflection on my first week and a half of experiences in Ghana as well as an ode to Anthony Bourdain’s quotes and how I have embraced his love of travel.
“The journey is part of the experience – an expression of the seriousness of one’s intent. One doesn’t take the A train to Mecca.”
― A Cook’s Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines
When Anthony Bourdain said this quote, I can’t imagine he pictured anything close to a group of University of Oregon students and faculty moving into apartments in East Legon, Accra, carrying suitcases with (probably) too many snacks, clothes, and dreams. For me, my experience of joining the group actually begins 4,568.3 miles away in the parking lot of Schipol Airport in Amsterdam.
On the morning of July 2nd, Sam Lorenzo and I woke up in our hostel, packed our bags, and dragged them down the tiny stairs of our small hostel near the city center of Amsterdam. We’d been here for several days, enjoying the nightlife, museums, palaces, and people. We’d been warned about the ‘chaos’ of Schipol Airport, understaffed with long lines lasting hours in the beating sun just to check bags. So, with long lines in our future and anxious with the excitement of landing in a new place, we arrived at the airport 4.5 hours before departure and got into the baggage drop line.
Then it was 3.5 hours before departure.
Then it was 2.5 hours before departure, and we were finally in the security line.
Then it was 1.5 hours before departure.
Then it was less than 60 minutes before departure, and they were delaying our flight because of the security line.
I can’t possibly explain the kindness of the international community around me in line, as I sent Sam on without me with a “Run! I’ll try to catch up!” As she cleared security and then customs before me. The plane was boarding, texts from other students on the flight said the gates were closing, and then, with the kindness of a large group of retired British men, I was through customs and at the final passport check. At the final check, a customs officer told two Ghanaians and I that the gate was closely in 60 seconds and was too far away to make it. An older Ghanaian man looked at me and said “Ghana is waiting. We need to run.”
Suddenly we were sprinting through the airport, gasping for air as he held his arm out and pulled me forward. Six minutes later, we saw the gate in front of us – and they were keeping it open for us! Sam waited by the gate, and as I slowed to a walk, my breath was loud as I gasped for air. I am not a runner, and a six minute all-out sprint nearly ended my trip before it started. A flight attendant refused to let me on the plane until she’d given me water, and the Ghanaian man who had dragged me onto our flight disappeared into first class. “Ghana is waiting – but we need to run” has become my motto for this trip, as opportunities to stay in safe and familiar spaces has been replaced by new experiences, faces, and memories take over.
Do we really want to travel in hermetically sealed popemobiles through the rural provinces of France, Mexico and the Far East, eating only in Hard Rock Cafes and McDonalds? Or do we want to eat without fear, tearing into the local stew, the humble taqueria’s mystery meat, the sincerely offered gift of a lightly grilled fish head? I know what I want. I want it all. I want to try everything once.”
― Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
After landing in Kotoka International Airport and passing through customs and baggage claim, we connected with Dr. Leslie Steeves, the true hero and coordinator of our program every year, and boarded a bus to our apartments in East Legon. After eating takeout and sleeping like a rock, we woke up the next morning to a cook in our kitchen preparing breakfast. This was a luxury we knew we wouldn’t have for long, and we took advantage of every slice of mango and coconut bread that she put out on our dining room table.
Filled with local fruit, oats, and a mix of both local and American breakfast ingredients, we loaded onto an air-conditioned bus and hit the road for our first real look at Accra.
East Legon is one of the wealthier suburbs of Accra, making the large mansions feel jarring when a quarter mile away there are families doing laundry in river water and struggling to make ends meet. Just over 13% of Ghanaians live under the poverty rate of $1.90/day USD. To see our large apartments, filled with furniture and luxuries not afforded to many locals, can sometimes feel akin to the ‘popemobiles’ that Anthony Bourdain talks about in his quote above. For the first few days, we were largely afforded the opportunity to ease into the culture through educational lectures, dance lessons, and driving tours of the city.
On Thursday of our first week, that changed. While the rest of the group went to Nima to visit a school, I took a taxi with Leslie and was dropped off at my internship. This summer, I am interning with the University of Ghana’s Institute for Environment and Sanitation Studies.
At the end of my orientation, I was invited to a dinner held at the house of a well-respected Doctor in the department. When I accepted the invite to join the group at her house the following day, she asked if my stomach was strong enough to handle the local food. “It’ll have to be” I said nervously.
The next day, I was served Kenkey and fish with a variety of local dishes, topped off with fresh fruit juice and good company.
Among the highlights:
-The principal investigator of the project I’m interning with saying she did not want her food served until she was done dancing to the music.
-Asking if I was supposed to eat the fish eyeball and having another person offer to eat the eyeball so I wouldn’t feel bad
-Laughter, beer, and music so upbeat that people would stop eating to dance in their seats
-Getting my hands dirty (truly) with fresh food that’s been eaten by Ghanaians for hundreds of years and feeling fully welcomed into a community of incredible academics and researchers trying to make their city a healthier place
As I walked home from the host’s house, filled with kenkey and hands freshly scrubbed clean, I looked around the University of Ghana’s campus, the words “Ghana is waiting – we need to run” flowing through me.
Ghana was waiting – and I felt ready to ‘run’ into every experience I’d have over the coming several weeks.
As Anthony Bourdain said:
If you’re twenty-two, physically fit, hungry to learn and be better, I urge you to travel – as far and as widely as possible. Sleep on floors if you have to. Find out how other people live and eat and cook. Learn from them – wherever you go.”
― Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook
This not goodbye, but rather a see you later – I hope you follow along my journey over the next four weeks!