I was quite excited this week to have a short break for Easter! Most Ghanaians are very religious and very Christian, so there was much celebration all around. I decided to stick around Accra for the weekend and sightsee in the capital city. On Thursday I went to the Kwame Nkrumah Memorial Park, celebrating this Pan-Africanist leader and his efforts in making Ghana the first African country to gain independence from colonialism. Afterwards we went to a vegetarian restaurant called Rising Phoenix, which was positioned on a cliff overlooking the ocean.
This weekend I also went to Jamestown, which is a low-income ex-colonial area of Accra. We visited an NGO called JayNii foundation that took care of street children and orphans in Jamestown. We talked to this couple that had began the organization, and the two of them take care of fifty children! To find out about their funding troubles was sad, but their story nonetheless inspiring.
On Easter I enjoyed coloring egg shells with some American friends and celebrating on the Coco beach in Accra. One crazy moment at the beach was when a man set his baby girl down next to us and went for a swim! He did not even ask us to watch over her; he just assumed that we would take care of her while he was enjoying himself! This moment is definitely an illustration of the culture of social parenting and trust in Ghana. I definitely missed my own family and friends a lot over Easter, but still enjoyed the holiday. During the week I was very excited to start my internship in Ghana! I am working for the Ark Foundation, which is a Ghanaian women’s advocacy organization. They do social and political advocacy for gender equality, governmental accountability, education and leadership seminars for women and a crisis response center for victims of violence. They are an incredible organization and I am really looking forward to the experience. Plus I am very passionate about women’s issues and gender equality. I am very proud of myself for taking this opportunity!
