Sum up of an AMAZING summer

From the sponsorship of the "Eyes on Africa Initiative" from Pomona College, and the hard work, time, and commitment that so many people contributed to making this summer and the work I did possible, I am forever thankful. Special shout out to James Taylor, Deborah Asiimwe, Arielle Brown, Emelie Pinamung Asiedu, and Elizabeth Sutherland.

My To Do list before beginning my journey, this is how it ended up looking at the end.

                                 OH THE PLACES I WENT!!!!

                                     Finally got back to Claremont, California,but I wasn't ready to let go of                                        Ghana yet or ever, so I was still rocking Ghana's flag for international students!

The museum of Uganda, Independence monument

Friends made abroad

 This guy was such a life saver, serving as a friend and my personal bobaboda(motorcycle driver) to and from work

Goodbye with a poem

Ghana (ma baa bumom, I have come again) 

Akwaaba, the warm wind whispers to me as I step off the plane 

voices composedof that familiaily, ancestral tongue of twi 

I have come hoe to findi t waiting changed and unrecogniable at times,  

yet still home 

still grasping at my heart 

hugging my head with tiny recalling of memories triggered from random acts, spontaneous smell and welcoming wanderers my spirit has forgotten 

faces forgetten  

memories mesmerized to the backdrop in my brain 

I feared, I will forget you grandmother, but now I know that could never occur 

I feared, I would not recognize you father, but now I know amidst a sea of strangers, your face is in mine and shall never fade 

land where my blood was made spilled and blessed 

I feared you would regret me, would not recognize the new, fresh skin, the filled in meat on my bones. the ages featrues, the americanized tongue 

but I promised I will come back, so ma baa bumom( I have come back)  

the brightest black star of Africa 

Maama Yaa Feniba 

Owusu 

Fobih 

Kwame Nkrumah 

in all this, I came back.  

I felt your love tugging at my being, 11 years had been too  

our secret sorrows were turning distant and objective 

our helpless hope fleeting without resistance 

our tongues slowly detangling  

To you I have retruned, from you I shall leave once again with the lesson, always SANKOFA.  Though I may go from coast to coast, The Gold Coast, whose riches will forever bless me 

whose ocean will forever purify me whose land will forever ground me 

me da see (Thank you always) 

Akwaaba photos

Every time a family member went back to Ghana, they took this picture which was their akwaaba (welcome back) pic, dressed fully in kente, I was definitely excited to take mine.

Nile River and Bungee Jumping in Nile River

Me bungee jumping into the nile river!!!!! 

These turtles can grow up to 150 years, hopefully when I return, it will still be alive

Standing at the source of the Nile river right after it intersected with Victorian lake was magical

Ndere cultural center

These performances were amazing in person, I know the video quality is not the best but enjoy

Internship with Deborah Asiimwe at the National Theatre and Bayimba Cultural Foundation For Kampala International Theatre Festival 2015

In my four weeks while working with Deborah Asiimwe and the Bayimba foundation, I read 61 projects proposed from all over the world, and with the assistance of Deborah selected 8 projects that will be at the Kampala International Theatre Festival 2015. In addition, I contacted through both phone and email with all of the designated contact person for all the projects submitted. I managed the Bayimba google mail in order to send the chosen artists information about the festival and to answer any questions they may have had. I also went around with Deborah in order to select the location for all performances. Finally, in order to keep organized I created and managed multiple google sheets and google docs that included contact information of all submissions, an additional sheet with only the selected and backups contact information, and a  google document with all the technical needs of both selected and backup perform

Me at work reading submissions from all over the world for KITF 2015

The beautiful Bayimba foundation office

                                             The national theatre


For more information about KITF 2015 and the Bayimba Cultural foundation visit
http://kampalainternationaltheatrefestival.com/
http://bayimba.org/

My departure

July 20^th,

Before I get into Uganda, I must properly end my journey in Ghana. There are clearly experiences I had that I did not record, but it was truly an amazing, eye opening experience for me. In my few days in Ghana, I was able to go back to the town where I was raised before coming to the States, Assin Fosu, I spent some days with my grandmother, the one and only true love of my existence, and I saw my father whose presence was definitely a mere memory in the back of my mind. There were tears, laughs, old stories retold to me of ridiculous things I did in my childhood, people whom I had grown up with who now had careers and children. And so many other things too personal to share. But this was a well needed trip back to my blood land. 

Internship with Accra Theatre Workshop

The Internship

Though it started it bit late due to construction, I learned a lot from working with Elizabeth Sutherland at the Accra Theatre Workshop. The environmental awareness needed, costume and set planning, experimental theatre, and talking and planning with Elizabeth and Emelie about future projects that I probably will not be directly involved with, but that I am sure will continue to do good for Ghana.

The need for environmental awareness evident even at the beach: Labodia beach

Me: practice modeling with Elizabeth for when the ACTUAL model for the show comes through

Photo Cred: Elizabeth Sutherland

Photo cred:  Des Clarke
The fierce woman in the middle is Elizabeth Sutherland, the woman I worked with over the summer in Ghana

For more information visit:
https://accratheatreworkshop.wordpress.com/
Also like it on FB at https://www.facebook.com/accratheatreworkshop?fref=ts

Cultural shock

I did not know that I would have cultural shock from a place I call home but there were a few.

The genuine friendliness of people, on several occasions while me and Ma B were going out, they would be someone who pulled to offer us a ride. I told her about how in the States, it is highly discouraged to get in a stranger’s car, and she said something like I am Ghanaian, he is Ghanaian, he’s not a stranger; he’s family. Of course, there are bad people everywhere, but there seems to be a genuine recognition of strangers as humans in Ghana not someone with devious intentions who may hurt me.

Going back to Assin Fosu, where I lived before heading to the States, people were living in extreme poverty, seeing little kids carrying buckets of water twice their size. Everything just looked so small compared to how I remembered it.

The straightforwardness of people was soo refreshening, people say what they are thinking without sugar coding. 

Kwame Nkrumah's memorial/ Parilament

Going to Kwame Nkrumah’s memorial was very powerful and beautiful to me, as I have read numerous of his works on neocolonism and liberations, seeing his tomb and his pictures was incredible. Doing it with my grandfather was definitely a plus, as he shared with me stories of his youth, while he was a teacher during the revolution for Ghana’s independence. It was so interesting talking to him as went through Ghana’s independence and the rise and fall Nkrumah. It definitely made me realize that all these things that I regard as history occurred not so long ago. 

In Ghana:

“Dum so Dum so” which literarily translates to turn off, turn on. The sum up of Ghana electricity and a running joke amongst Ghanaians, but when I first arrived, I didn’t find it so funny.

I lived with my grandfather and his wife in their house on the outskirts of Accra, the capital. When I arrived the electricity was off, and slowly but surely, I learned to get use to the 12 hours of electricity and the 24 hours of no electricity cycle. It’s so easy to forget how much I depend on electricity back in the states but living somewhere, where electricity is not guaranteed 24/7 definitely allows to organize your daily life strategically so that you don’t end up with a dead phone for days or wrinkled clothes to work.

I had completely forgotten about this but I was quickly reminded of it.

The food, oh the food! Even though I cook Ghanaian food in the states, there is nothing like fresh produce turned into a delicious meal in the kitchen by my grandfather’s wife, Ma B.

Because I was too busy eating, to take pictures, I found some pictures online of foods I helped make and ate. Enjoy the images, don’t get too hungry!

   

My first meal in Uganda: