New Address

So in a couple weeks I am moving to Tamale and I thought I would post my new address here:

Claire Ryan
P.O. Box 59
education/ridge
Tamale, Ghana
West Africa

and that's it! I cannot wait to move because Accra is extremely crowded and humid and busy, whereas Tamale (about 7 hours North) is much calmer and dryer. Although...it is even hotter.
Classes are finally finished! Exams are next week and then I'm very free of academics.

I know that never again will I go without recognizing my privileges. The privilege of eating raw vegetables, drinking tap water, feelings safe, trusting the system, being able-bodied and white and western. Everything. Every day I learn something new about what it means to be privileged and it changes my thinking in a really positive way.

Assignments and the Like

It's been a while since Elmina Castle - the days are flying by. It's hard to believe at home Thanksgiving and partridge hunting is happening, along with the changing of the seasons. Here the only change is that it has gotten hotter and more humid, and not a second goes by that I'm not sweating so hard the back of my shirt could be wrung out. We have three assignments due this week and an enormous amount of readings, but it's not really that bad because after October we pretty much are done with academic assignments.
It's hard to concentrate in school when it's so hot. In Canada I have never had formal education during the hot months so I inevitably associate hot weather with relaxing or doing non-academic work. It's just a mind thing that I've had to overcome but at least now I know I can study under any conditions (even beneath a slow moving ceiling fan, or during 35 degree heat and a power outage).
I bought a guitar! So exciting! I was wilting without one, I feel sort of lost when I'm not making music. I had to walk in circles and bribe a school girl and haggle with a Ghanaian gentleman, but I finally got a capo and a guitar for about 50 Canadian dollars. No tuners in sight but luckily the top string was in tune so I could do the rest by ear. It's not perfect but it's certainly blissful.
If by some miracle it makes it back to Canada with me it will be my first very own guitar. I'm not sure about it's travelling abilities though, the case is about as protective as wrapping it in kleenex. We'll see in April.
I am writing a paper about sustainable livelihoods and access. It's going alright but I have to get back at it.
All for now.
Claire xo

An Experience of Humility

Yesterday our group took a field trip to Elmina Castle - the slave castle the stands in Cape Coast. It was the most intense experience I have had in Ghana yet. I wanted to cry the whole time but I didn't because I wasn't sure if they were my tears to shed. I also just read "The Book of Negroes" which happened to be about the slave trade in the 18th century from the Gold Coast to the US so it was all just too surreal. You could feel the evil that lay in the air of that place, it gave me goosebumps. It occurred to me that as white people, we were lucky to even be allowed into the castle to learn about history. I also wondered how much blood was beneath the white paint, considering 8 million African people died there or on the ship to America. The ocean is beautiful, but as I was looking out at it I could only imagine it as a large, unmarked grave. It has swallowed so many individuals quietly, only a few hundred years ago.

I learned a lot through the silent tour that we took. I remembered why I am here and why I am in International Development Studies. There's nothing I can do with the knowledge that I acquire here except mourn the past and do what I can about the present.

We were all so tired after the trip we fell asleep without brushing our teeth. I would recommend the Book of Negroes to anyone who will listen - it is remarkable and tragic and informative.