It is amazing to look at the piles of debris and to make some sense of it. Who really cares what I look like on the voyage, but it is fun to have some "real" clothes to spark up the washable travel clothes options. Going on a Spring voyage has the added challenge of trying to plan for the holidays and a long absence from home at the same time. My mindset is a bit different each time that I embark on the full voyage. The Spring 10 voyage was an attempt to recalibrate myself. I found that I repeated some of the same time-budgeting errors on board as I do at home. I overcommitted in a big way and did not have enough time to dangle my toes off the fantail. On Fall 11, I felt a bit overwhelmed by the huge LLL community. This voyage has many alums as LLLs, so it will be an interesting mix of folks. I will be off the ship for awhile in Tibet, if all works out well, so that will feel a bit disjointed, but not insurmountable. I am being a bit more realistic in what I am packing for any Community Colleges that I present. Hopefully, I remember all the crucial components. Happy packing to all Spring 15 voyagers.
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Kumasi and the Asante Tribe
KUMASI AND THE ASANTE TRIBE 10/9/11
Ghana is one of the success stories of Africa and is considered the best democracy on the continent. Industry is developing here and the government is working to help its people. Many of the people are considered middle income, which in World Bank terms means, they make more than $1000 per year. It has grown from a population of 6 million in 1957 to 34 million today. However the history of the country is what one must look at in order to uncover the magnitude of this development. Many tribal groups lived in the area that is modern day Ghana. In fact, there have been as many as 46 languages spoken in the area and 76 ethnic groupings. The Akan people make up half of the people of Ghana - two of the tribes in this group are the Asante who speak “twe” and the Fanti There also Ewe in the east of Ghana. Tribal battles through the centuries sometimes forced tribal groups to shift their habitat and rebalance in terms of power. Captives of these wars were traded as slaves. Through the centuries, different European countries stopped on their way around the continent to find food resources for their ships. Portuguese, Dutch and British established footholds here and battled each other and the local population. Gold was taken as a resource for the colonial powers and eventually as they expanded their holdings in the new world, slaves from the area were exported to the Americas. The colonials had built forts on the coastline to protect their forces and these became holding dungeons for the slaves before they were shipped out.
Thousands died in the cramped quarters of the “slave castles” and maybe only half ever made it on the ships. It is estimated that 10 million captured and put in the slave trade. Many of our student trips traveled to these sad locations to hear the story of this devastating industry. I traveled north leaving the coastal savanna area and heading into more hilly rainforest areas. In 1957 there were 8 million hectares of virgin forest and now there are only one million hectares. Resources need to be protected. Water is usually provided by bore holes. A large dam, small dam and a generating plant near Tema, struggle to provide power to industry, Ghana and several neighboring countries. Precious trees like the neem which helps with malaria and the mahogany which can help with anemia need to be guarded. Subsistence farming involves slash and burn techniques to produce: maize, rice, casava, manioc and other food staples.
Ghana is one of the success stories of Africa and is considered the best democracy on the continent. Industry is developing here and the government is working to help its people. Many of the people are considered middle income, which in World Bank terms means, they make more than $1000 per year. It has grown from a population of 6 million in 1957 to 34 million today. However the history of the country is what one must look at in order to uncover the magnitude of this development. Many tribal groups lived in the area that is modern day Ghana. In fact, there have been as many as 46 languages spoken in the area and 76 ethnic groupings. The Akan people make up half of the people of Ghana - two of the tribes in this group are the Asante who speak “twe” and the Fanti There also Ewe in the east of Ghana. Tribal battles through the centuries sometimes forced tribal groups to shift their habitat and rebalance in terms of power. Captives of these wars were traded as slaves. Through the centuries, different European countries stopped on their way around the continent to find food resources for their ships. Portuguese, Dutch and British established footholds here and battled each other and the local population. Gold was taken as a resource for the colonial powers and eventually as they expanded their holdings in the new world, slaves from the area were exported to the Americas. The colonials had built forts on the coastline to protect their forces and these became holding dungeons for the slaves before they were shipped out.
Thousands died in the cramped quarters of the “slave castles” and maybe only half ever made it on the ships. It is estimated that 10 million captured and put in the slave trade. Many of our student trips traveled to these sad locations to hear the story of this devastating industry. I traveled north leaving the coastal savanna area and heading into more hilly rainforest areas. In 1957 there were 8 million hectares of virgin forest and now there are only one million hectares. Resources need to be protected. Water is usually provided by bore holes. A large dam, small dam and a generating plant near Tema, struggle to provide power to industry, Ghana and several neighboring countries. Precious trees like the neem which helps with malaria and the mahogany which can help with anemia need to be guarded. Subsistence farming involves slash and burn techniques to produce: maize, rice, casava, manioc and other food staples.
The Gold Coast
THE GOLD COAST 9/27/11
Our first day in Ghana took us on a city tour of the capitol of Accra. We drove by the modern and very interesting government building, built in the shape of a king’s stool, the curvilinear opera house and on to the Kwame Nkrumah monument featured in this picture. It was interesting touring the museum about his life and political career as both the first president of a free and united Ghana and a major world player during the Cold War years. Fascinating pictures of him with Kruschev, Patrice Lamumba, Nixon and others told much about the political environment of the time. Nkrumah is considered the George Washington of the nation of Ghana and we did recognize his importance but as he leaned left and affiliated with the Russians, we got nervous and helped engineer a coup which overthrew him. He went into exile in Guinea and became a co-president in that country. He died outside of his home country, was initially buried in Guinea and then his body moved to this mausoleum. His Egyptian born wife was also brought back to be buried here with him. The Horn Blowers and Drummers around his tomb are Asante musicians playing in his honor. Drums in Ghana were used as a form of communication and have a language of their own, to a certain extent imitating the sounds of speech. They would have been used before telephone and so forth as a means of communication between villages. They were also used ceremonially to announce the arrival of a tribal king or to proclaim his process towards a festival. Dancing and drumming are still part of tribal rituals. Another statue of Nkrumah was decapitated and both pieces are placed separately in the garden appearing almost as a piece of modern sculpture. The sun was directly overhead at the moment we were at the monument and the huge sundial shaped mausoleum cast very little shadow. The park is also home to many trees planted by visiting dignitaries and country presidents, a virtual botanical who’s who of the world. It is interesting to see who has come to pay their respects to the first president of up and coming Ghana.
Our first day in Ghana took us on a city tour of the capitol of Accra. We drove by the modern and very interesting government building, built in the shape of a king’s stool, the curvilinear opera house and on to the Kwame Nkrumah monument featured in this picture. It was interesting touring the museum about his life and political career as both the first president of a free and united Ghana and a major world player during the Cold War years. Fascinating pictures of him with Kruschev, Patrice Lamumba, Nixon and others told much about the political environment of the time. Nkrumah is considered the George Washington of the nation of Ghana and we did recognize his importance but as he leaned left and affiliated with the Russians, we got nervous and helped engineer a coup which overthrew him. He went into exile in Guinea and became a co-president in that country. He died outside of his home country, was initially buried in Guinea and then his body moved to this mausoleum. His Egyptian born wife was also brought back to be buried here with him. The Horn Blowers and Drummers around his tomb are Asante musicians playing in his honor. Drums in Ghana were used as a form of communication and have a language of their own, to a certain extent imitating the sounds of speech. They would have been used before telephone and so forth as a means of communication between villages. They were also used ceremonially to announce the arrival of a tribal king or to proclaim his process towards a festival. Dancing and drumming are still part of tribal rituals. Another statue of Nkrumah was decapitated and both pieces are placed separately in the garden appearing almost as a piece of modern sculpture. The sun was directly overhead at the moment we were at the monument and the huge sundial shaped mausoleum cast very little shadow. The park is also home to many trees planted by visiting dignitaries and country presidents, a virtual botanical who’s who of the world. It is interesting to see who has come to pay their respects to the first president of up and coming Ghana.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Early Preparations
September 30
Preparations for my voyage are filtering into my everyday activities. As I get Peter ready for his internship in Chile, I consider what I did to help Ash, JB and Peter to get ready for SAS and remember that usually it was all done in a mad rush at the last moment. Being an "older" voyager, some things are a bit different.
- Must get my house in order, literally. I cannot leave with the messes that exist in each room. For some reason, I feel the need to clean all the drawers and closets and organize the basement before the holidays - reasonable? Maybe, in part.
- I am definitely technically challenged, hence my early attempts to blog, so my children can rescue me if I fail. Also trying to really learn my new computer and IPOD so I don't have to tax the computer people on board ship with my incessant questions. Thank god for Apple's one to one tutoring program!!! Also installing SKYPE and updating all my contacts.
- I am trying to keep the packing light - ha, ha for all who know what I usually drag along with me. So I am actually thinking of staging my stuff as I do my seasonal clothing switch - that way I'll be able to find things when I need them.
- Passport and visa updates have to be done in a timely manner and we must get on it as soon as we return from Chile.
- Reading in preparation for the trip and its emphasis on China
- Getting advice from my more experienced children on what field study practicums make sense or are good.
- Parents always ask me about communication and money. For me, leaving a well organized bill paying and money management plan in place will help Dean and kids manage without constant phone calls.
- Inoculations and updating medical records and getting necessary trip medications put together. Always a challenge not to take a whole drug store along with but to consider the sometimes more obvious choices like Vicks Vaporub and Immodium and band aids.
Know the nuts and bolts are uninspiring but its good to ruminate over how to get up to speed ahead of time.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
The computer came from Shanghai!!!
This is my first blog entry for the commencement of my Semester at Sea experience which will actually begin in January of 2010. How appropriate it seems that my new Mac computer, ordered online to get that great matte screen, has been shipped from Shanghai! If I had bought it in the store, I might not have noticed its point of origin, but in checking the shipping orders, I saw quickly, that these babies are built in China and Shanghai, specifically. Now what does that have to do with my upcoming SAS adventure? Our voyage's focus will be on Sustainability but along with that, the Tung initiative, incorporating Chinese scholars and students will be of equal importance. How apropos. Do you think my computer will whistle and chirp when we dock in Shanghai, knowing it is back home? Anyway, I'm sure those of you readers who do join my blog will skip over these early posts, but for me its practice before I'm on the high seas, trying to beat the learning curve before it gets to me. So, my first few posts are for practice and to get the bugs out and my mind in the game. Bear with me.
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