I'm Back!

Greetings, Sojourners!
It's been over six months since my last post. My only excuse is that I was enjoying the most wonderful summer that we've had in Chicago in quite a few years. Then, at the end of the summer, on August 3rd, I was blessed to be present when my second grand daughter made her entrance onto this plane. I've been truly enjoying this little Golden Child. Check out her blog:   kalimaaorixa.blogspot.com  We also were blessed with a beautiful autumn in Chicago and I loved it.

And now it's winter again and my thoughts are turning to planning my next trip. I'm researching an extended African Sojourn. I want to visit every country in the Motherland. Going back to the Motherland, experiencing as much as I can in as many places as I can has been a dream of mine most of my life. The concept Sankofa, meaning “go back and retrieve what we’ve forgotten” is really at the root of why I want to take this Sojourn. Sankofa teaches that there is wisdom in learning from the past to build for the future.

I want to witness a game migration and Safari in Kenya; visit the Slave Factories in Senegal; work for a while in the camps in the Sudan; travel to Rwanda to see gorillas; and visit Robben Island where Mandela was imprisoned. So far I've traveled to Morocco, Egypt and Ghana. And of course, the main activity will be photographing my African Sojourn. I'm thinking 12-18 month, maybe more, so that I can spend as much time as I like in each location, experiencing cultures, meeting people and exploring cities and villages, all the while photographing my journey.

I imagine that traveling to a few countries, such as Somalia, the Congo, Cote D'voire and Libya, will be impossible, but I want to visit as many countries as I can and experience as much as I can in each.

I'm going to work on an itinerary and start saving. Do you have suggestions where I should start my journey?? Let me know; I'd love to hear your suggestions.
Soooo....here I go!

I'll keep you posted.

Worldwide Travel Warning!

In light of the recent news concerning Osama Bin Laden, the State Department has issued a warning for U.S. Citizens traveling abroad. Please feel free to pass this information along to colleagues, friends and family.

We wish everyone safe travels.

 

"In the wake of the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, the U.S. State Department has issued a worldwide advisory to U.S. citizens traveling abroad amid fears of possible reprisal, media including Stars and Stripes report.

Washington, D.C., has already stepped up its police presence at hotels, federal buildings and on the Metro, the city's subway system, ABC News reports."

Source: USA Today.

For additional information visit the U.S. State Department:
http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/pa/pa_worldwide.html

The Times They Are A'Changin'....

Greetings, Sojourners ~

These last few months have been very challenging, all over the world: the people of the world are realigning themselves socio-politically and socio-economically in the North Africa and the Middle East; the Earth is realigning itself in the form of geotechtonic eruptions in New Zealand, Japan, Hawaii and Arkansas; flooding along the East Coast and in the Midwestern United States the cost of gas is now over $4.00. I truly believe that we are in the midst of a transformational phase in our life, world and affairs. As some things change, others will remain the same - at least on the surface. As some things change, oppurtunities will increase for those of us in the travel and related industies smart enough to be paying attention.

However, as a travel professional this provides an opportunity to capitalize on yet another niche in the travel industry: Promote StayCations versus Vacations. A staycation refers a period of time in which an individual or family stays and relaxes at home, or vacations in their own country, possibly taking day trips to area attractions (Wikipedia). With travel advisories and artificially inflated air fares and the cost of gas preventing families from taking trips a StayCation might just be the answer.

Egypt - The Revolution is Being Televised

Pardon me while I delve into a bit of political observation.....

Last April I led a small group of travellers to Egypt. One of our stops was the Cairo Museum which is across the street from Tahrir Square or Liberation Square, the epicenter of the recent demonstrations. I remember seeing women sitting on the grass in the Square children chased each other around in circles. Men lounged around smoking, gathering in small groups as men often do in Muslim countries. I remember the Square itself being dusty and dry, hazy with the familiar smog of Cairo. Over the past weeks, I've somberly watched news coverage of the brave ones in Tahrir Square enduring tear gas, water cannons, rocks, sniper fire and mobs storming in on horses and camels (one report said that the camels were those stationed at the pyramids for tourists. I know its silly, but I fleetingly wondered if "my" camel was now being called away from his mundane tourist attraction duties in Giza into the service of the anti-democracy forces).

The current revolutionary movement taking place in Egypt has the world abuzz and speculation is rampant in the media and in the blogosphere as to what is really going on there. In my view, the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa over the last month or so is a clear signal that the people of this region are fed up: fed up with corrupt leaders; fed up with wealthy families running their governments and benefiting from nepotism and heavy-handedness; fed up with unemployment and with hopelessness. this movement is

reminiscent of the "Domino Effect" Liberation movements which swept across Africa in the 50's and 60's. 

All over the Middle East the young people are speaking. They're pouring into the streets and are expressing the frustrations of a generation. They want jobs, a share of the abundant wealth denied to the masses in one of the wealthiest areas on the planet.

Fifteen thousand Egyptians aged 10-29 from across the country were recently queried various aspects of their lives, from female circumcision to civic participation. The survey found around 20 percent unemployed, less than half satisfied with their schooling, more than a quarter of young men planning to immigrate at the earliest opportunity. Only 12 percent of eligible youth were registered to vote, fewer than half even talked about politics and less than 5 percent participated in any sort of organized activity.

They want self-determination and they want change. Youth who a few weeks ago seemed to have no direction are now leading an organized and determined movement for change. The Mubarak government's actions in shutting down the internet (how they managed to accomplish this is still a matter of conjecture and shrouded in secrecy) and access to mobile phones in an effort to quell the movement was a failure. If you've been paying attention, there has been a Day of Rage, The More Than a Million March, The Day of Departure. Men AND women are takin' it to the streets! It is quite inspiring!

My heart is filled with concern for my those I met in Egypt: Nancy and "MeeMaw", our Guide and Egyptologist and Tour Manager in Cairo, Hasan, our Nubian guide and Egyptologist in Aswan and Luxor and our wonderful driver, whose name escapes me), for the two young sisters I met in the papyrus shop. I lift my prayers up for my friends.

Visiting With Our S.I.S.T.A. Scholars

 Greetings, Sojourners.....

We arrived at the school yesterday morning and spent time with our S.I.S.T.A. Scholars, taking photos, exchanging gifts, paying school fees, and making sure we covered any last minute requests for needed items before saying goodbye and boarding the coach for Mole National Park. We had a wonderful time last evening; the welcome celebration was inspiring, emotional and uplifting.

 Aminatu took me on a tour of the campus and the classrooms; I was able to see through her eyes, how she lives on the BOGISS campus. Like Aminatu, everything here seems so fragile, so temporary. As I walked around the campus, holding hands with my S.I.S.T.A. Scholar, I was reminded of the lengths that people will go to in order to secure an education. Being from the southern United States and having been born at a time in our history when the education of black folk was not a right, but a blood-soaked, hard fought priviledge, I shuddered just thinking about what we squander and waste in the US. Education is of pivotal importance to these girls, just as it was for young black kids growing up in the southern United States. It is still important, but you wouldn't know it considering how it is taken for granted these days. Although BOGISS is a public school, it is evident that these girls are acutely aware of the priviledge they have been blessed with to attend.

These girls understand how blessed they are to be in school. They represent the sacrifices made by their families. Mothers, fathers, aunties and uncles, grandmothers and whole villages have placed all their hopes on these girls.

I witnessed the girls push over each other to grab a desk and a chair to use in their classes. I was told that the First Year girls had to grab their desks and chairs, for if they didn't they would have to sit on the classroom floor for the entire school year. BOGISS is not blessed with the most modern technology or the sleekest school facilities. They don't have iPads or cell phone apps or flat screen TV's, laptops or even the most up to date lab supplies. What they have is sad, woefully inadequate, and beyond outdated. Head Mistress explained that the books in the library were from BEFORE Ghana gained its independence! There were reference books and encyclopedias from 1957 on the shelves.

The condition of the library caused all of us great concern. There really was no reason for it to be in this condition, even if the girls were just coming back from vacation. I felt that these rooms were not used at all, but were probably opened up for show for our benefit. The dust was thick, books obviously hadn't been opened and desked hadn't been used in probably years. Pages and pages from books were piled up on the floor as if torn and discarded by some very large, angry child. Something felt very wrong about this. I was very disturbed and very saddened by this scene. The stacks of books on pallets in the photos were current years' school books which were to be distributed to the students when classes resumed.

The chemistry lab and biology classrooms were just as bad. Everything was so outdated and in such a state of disrepair. Again, I had the nagging feeling that these rooms were never used by the students, but were opened up for us visitors. Even in light of the fact that the school had been on winter break, with classes scheduled to starte within a few days of our visit, I find it hard to believe that these classrooms had been used in the recent past.

I was left with a determination to help the girls at this school as much as I can and in any way that I can. We each paid the year's school fees for our S.I.S.T.A. Scholar and were told that the government had taxed an additional $60 CEDES or about $41 USD on to the tuition fees. This additional money was for 'construction improvements'. Aminatu's yearly fees, including the improvement tax was $197 CEDES or about $137 USD.

We were all very quiet as we left BOGISS. A myriad of emotions, thoughts, feelings, observations. The state of the classrooms, the educational environment, the dire need, all weighted heavily on each of us.

Welcome To Ghana!

Now I know what they mean when they say, sarcastically: “Welcome to Africa”. No matter how well you plan, you should always be prepared for something or someone to change your agenda for you. This morning on the way to pick us up from our hotels (we’d stayed overnight in two different hotels or lodges (or as we jokingly called them: Motel 6 and Motel 4), our coach had to stop to get air in one of the front tires. No problem; we were good to go and excited to be able to visit with our S.I.S.T.A Scholars again. We were all eager to continue our tour of the campus buildings, attend a class session with our young scholars, pay their school fees for the school term and say our goodbyes. 

Well, as I said, Welcome to Africa! About 10 minutes from the school, we blew the same tire we’d earlier topped off with air. Fortunately, we were in the middle of town and were able to pull into a petrol station. A tire shop was steps away and the owner sold our driver a ‘new’ tire. Brothers came from all directions converged to help with the tire. Folks are always eager to assist you in Ghana with a genuine expression of “how can I help you my sister or my brother?”

While we waited, I wandered around taking photos and taking in the early morning sights and

sounds and smells of Bolga’s main thoroughfare. Women prepared to open their stands for business; children rode bicycles and motor bikes to school; adults raced to work, school and

who knows where; children and toddlers sat on back seats of motor bikes, holding tight to the waists and shirts of parents and older siblings or held firmly onto handle bars of motor bikes and bicycles; and babies snoozed while wrapped tightly in colorful cloths on the backs of helmeted motor-bike mamas.  

Twenty three people are gonna get into THAT?????



Our guide arranged for us to ride to the school in a TroTro, one of the rickety mini-buses and vans crowding the roads and highways across Ghana and used by most Ghanaians to get around. All 22 of us and our photographer piled into the TroTro; more than a few of us were a bit reluctant. Riding in a TroTro is an adventure. It is hot and crowded, the seats were sticky vinyl and about 12 inches across with about 6 inches of leg room between the rows. There were 4 seats in each row and a jump seat at the end of each row which you pulled down and unfolded after each row was fully occupied. The windows only opened on the sliding door side of the mini-bus. The floors were lined with some sort of metal, maybe aluminum or shiny tin. However, when the driver started up and we were off, the floors proved to be very thin and vibrated in waves under our feet.

But I have to say, it was amazing!! It was so much fun!! The driver blasted some Ghanaian Hi-Life music and we danced in our seats, laughed like we were out of our minds, song along with the music as if we knew the words and had a crazy good time. We all roared with laughter, the driver turned up the music (at our request) and we set out for Bolgatanga Girls Senior High School. We had such fun! This was just another of the priceless adventures and experiences we’ve had on this Journey. Never in a million years did any of us imagine that we’d be riding in one of those dusty little vehicles we’d seen blasting along on the roads and streets of Ghana. And I’m sure none of us ever imagined that we would look just as ridiculous piled in on top of each other like the many TroTro passengers we’ve seen along our way.



Tro Tro Riding!

 

You Gotta Have Soul

I was reflecting this morning on my experiences so far on this Journey, the images, the sounds, the smells. My reflections automatically took me to my travels to Morocco, Egypt and the Caribbean. I’ve heard several times on this Journey, as I have on others, that we (meaning those of us from the West, especially from the US) are very “Blessed”. Yes, we are very, very “Blessed”. We are “Blessed” with material possessions and symbols of status and prosperity. That is indeed very true, and I believe that is what people mean when they say “we’re so fortunate” or “we’re lucky” or “we are so blessed”, and so forth.

But on reflection, we are not so blessed as all that. Yes, we have “things”; we have many “things”. Outwardly we are a prosperous and powerful nation. But we have no spirit. Our spirit as a people and as a nation is empty. We have no soul. We’ve lost out essence, our soul.

Sitting in the garden of my hotel, looking over rooftops, there are shacks, shanties, and other fragile structures dotting the hillside in the distance. It is 6:15 in the morning and I know that the women and girls in these little places are probably in their yards, bent over from the waist, a small tradition broom, no more than a bundle of straw tied together with a strip of bamboo string, sweeping away the blessings received and the lives lived in the dusty golden-red dirt yard yesterday, creating a vacuum for God’s grace and goodness to bless their lives today. There is order, there is form and there is substance in these humble lives in contrast to our own more “blessed” lives.

Rolling through the country in our air conditioned luxury coach (as Westerners how could we travel in anything less?), looking out the windows of its protective shell, the mud, tin, concrete and wood structures stream by. Everywhere I look there is order, there is life and there is soul.  

To God Be the Glory Fried Yams

January 7, 2011

Greetings, Sojourners –

Finally!! Internet access!! This has been an incredible couple of days and there has been so much to share, but no way to do so. It’s been fast-paced, intense, emotional, purposeful, moving, enlightening and so many sights and experiences pulling forth a myriad of feelings. There has truly been a lot to process. In the last few days, I’ve been a surprised witness to a woman giving birth in a military hospital; I’ve experienced the chaos, vibrancy, joys, life and abject poverty of the Agbogbloshie market in Accra;  received a truly exhilarating Coming Home celebration in the Village of Torgorme in the Volta Region, and over the course of twenty–four hours there received my Ewe name at a naming ceremony, spent the night in the home of a sister and her family in the village, took a bucket bath, became the brunt of laughter among the women and children of the village as a result of my lack of dancing rhythm, and had the chief of the village personally welcome me home and tell me he loved me and ask me not to forget about them. We visited the BaBa Blankets & Crafts studio in Accra and met the women who create these beautiful items; had a deeply moving visit and healing ceremony in the Female Dungeon at Cape Coast “Castle”, walked through the Door of No Return and walked back through the Door of Return; viewed the sacred site a few miles outside Cape Coast where slave catchers forced their captives to take their last bath before taking them to the dungeons of the Cape Coast Slave Factory (now known as Cape Coast Castle) and where the unearthed bodies of two African slaves era found in America in the last few years were brought home to rest; and took a canopy walk high above the rain forest at Kakum National Park. And these are just the highlights! There has been so much to process that I think I will just share some lighthearted observations of our journey while I come to terms with what we’ve experienced over the last couple of days.

I’ve noticed since coming to Ghana that religion and spiritual references are everywhere, and I do mean EVERYWHERE. On the taxi cabs, on the Tro Tros (small buses or vans used for urban transportation), as part of the names of business and shops, even on the side of canoes. I really sort of noticed them at first in passing, but they didn’t register with me one way or the other. But then I noticed that these names and scriptural references were everywhere and there seemed to be a reason behind the practice. I began to think about how many of these names, references or whatever you might call them I might find if I wrote some of them down. Our guide explained that the reason behind these distinctive names of businesses and services is simply marketing. The business owner wants to make sure that when you buy dry goods at Pray Hard Provisions Store or take a taxi with God in You Taxi, you will remember them and come back again. So I started writing down as many names as I could as we traveled through villages and towns and so far I’ve written three full pages and counting!

Here are some of the ones that I collected over the last couple of days – just for fun:

1.       Believe in Him Body Shop

2.       God in You Taxi

3.       Mustard Seed Co-Op

4.       No Weapon (with scriptural reference on side of a Canoe in Elmina)

5.       With God Computer Shop

6.       Still God Tro Tro Service

7.       Victory is Ours Tech Service

8.       Jesus My Redeemer Cold Shop

9.       Blood of Christ Barber Shop

10.   God’s Way Electrical

11.   Anointed Tires

12.   Saints Guest House

13.   God First Caskets

14.   Good is Good All the Time Cold Shop

15.   Messiah Enterprises LTD

16.   Jesus Says Catering & Messenger Service

17.   Pray Hard Provisions Store

18.   Glory Be to God Photos

19.   Amazing Grace Shop

20.   Abundance Grace Shop

21.   My Joy is Divine Stationary Shop

22.   God Our Redeemer Store

23.   Messiah Phones

24.   God is Good White House

25.   God in Control Shop

26.   By His Grace Barber Shop

27.   Trust Him Chop Bar

28.   Our God Reigns Enterprises

29.   God is Our Light Shop

30.   To God Be the Glory Fried Yams

And that is just the FIRST page of the collection. More later….

Abundant Blessings

Women's Journey to Ghana - A Voyage of the Heart

Greetings, Sojourners....

On January 3rd, I journeyed to Ghana, West Africa with 22 other women and E. Aminata Brown, founder of Ba Ba Blankets www.babablanket.com. We each are matched with a S.I.S.T.A. Scholar attending school in Bolgatanga, Ghana. I had such fun gathering donations and purchasing items for my S.I.S.T.A, Aminatu Mohammed, a first year secondary school student at Bolgatanga Girls School.  During our journey, we'll have opportunities to share cross-cultural experiences and observations and gain insight into our commonly shared statuses as females in Africa and America, and tour the country which is the ancestural home of millions of the African Diaspora.

During our Journey we will visit women's collectives throughout the rural and urban areas of the country, visit the Agbogbloshie market where Aminata first meet the Kaya Yo girls, or load carriers, who were the inspiration for the forming of BaBa Blankets. We'll attend a naming ceremony in the village of Torgorme in the Eastern region, Elmina Castle built by the Portuguese in 1482 and Cape Coast Castle built by the Swedes in 1653, the departing points for millions of Africans sold into slavery. Here we'll visit the slave dungeons, and the final holding cells of those taken forcibly from their African homeland and we will take part in a sacred healing ceremony in the women's dungeon at Cape Coast Castle. 

We'll visit Kakum National Park, West Africa’s,  most noted tropical rain forest and drive through the forest region of Kumasi, the seat of the Ashanti Kingdom. I'm hopeful that we will be able to attend the Akwasidae Festival, which is held every 42 days, at the discretion of the Ashantihene (or King) to honor the special relationship between the Ashanti and their ancestors. Other highlights on our itinerary are visits to Ashanti craft villages (lots of shopping is going to get done there!), Kintampo Waterfalls, the Boabeng-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary, and spend time at the BaBa Blanket studio to see how the beautifual Baba Blankets and crafts are being produced. Then we'll travel North to Bolgatanga and visit our S.I.S.T.A Scholars, deliver our gifts to each of them and attend classes with them.

There are so many more activities on our itinerary, and I hope to share them here - The Creator and stron internet service willing. That said, my posts may be a day or so delayed, but I'll try my best to keep you up to date on our Women's Journey to Ghana, a Voayage of the Heart.

Abundant Blessings

Greetings....

Greetings, Sojourners....

My wish was to start this blog prior to my journey to Ghana, but like most "good" plans (mine anyway), there were some hiccups; namely technological hiccups. And then, I am also a last minute planner so of course that had something to do with it. But anyway, we're up, running and good to go...for now. The internet service is intermittent here.

As the statement above says, I will be stopping here from time to time and sharing my journeys, discoveries, random thoughts and information regarding the world of travel. Feel free to share your own comments, related to the blog itself. This is a place to gather together around the topic of travel, all aspects of travel. But, in the end, this is simply a stopping over place where I get to do my thing. So here are a few ground rules: 1. No ads or postings for internet businesses (except mine, of course "smile"). 2. Whether you agree or disagree with what is written here, you are welcome to join in the dialogue, as long is your comment is related to the subject or issue we're discussing. 3. Disrespectful or offensive posts will be deleted. 4. This blog does NOT accept anonymous posts.