Pictures from Jordan, Palestine, and Israel

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Jerusalem and Bethlehem 2

Nazareth Sites and Sounds
Jordan and Tel Aviv

Sights of Israel

Jericho and Mount of Olives
Looking for God's House?: Churches

Sepphoris and Herodian
Water, Water Everywhere: Seas and Rivers of Note

My Time in Ghana

Hi family and friends!

My year of traveling has kept me very busy. I am only now processing what happened to me over the summer.

As most of you know I spent 3 weeks in Ghana, Africa during August. I attended a University of Massachusetts abroad class to study Ewe dancing and drumming. My whole trip was spent exploring Ghana's coastline, traveling from its boarder point with Togo all the way to its border with Cote-d'Ivoire. On the first day, we flew in Accra, Ghana's capital city. We recovered at a hotel next to the ocean and near Accra's famous Arts District, which is really a HUGE open area market where you can buy any craft, art piece or trinket you could imagine.

We as a group started to try all the Ghanaian food we could. Ghanaians like a large starch portion and an equally large sauce/stew portion as a meal. The starches ranged from steamed cassava to fried plantains to banku. Banku is not for the American faint of heart. It looks and feels like flour-colored play-dough and tastes like library paste. Banku is served with fish (like tilapia) or stew (like okra stew). Okra stew is also not for the faint of heart. It is goo-y and the liquid strings off your spoon after each bite. GROSS! My favorite meal was fried plantains (called kelewele) and curried black-eyed peas. I also loved fresh pineapple, which was usually white, not yellow. The group's favorite food was ice cream in a bag. Many things are bagged (in order to save space, since trash is just thrown on the ground), like water and ice cream. You just bite the corner off and suck out the contents.

After a few days in Accra, we were picked up in a huge van and carted off to Kopeyia, the village where we would be studying. Accra is the the center of Ghana's coastline; Kopeyia is all the way to the right, on the Togo boarder. At the village we spent hours practicing and "experiencing village life". We studied at the Dagbe Cultural Center. We spent 2 hours dancing in the morning, had a 2 hour break, then went into a 2 hour drum class. I also took Djembe lessons with a few other UMass students and our teacher's name was Odarte. We had no running water (the showers and outdoor toilets ran off of rain water and we washed our hands in a bucket). You cannot drink the water and it's a tropical climate so I was drinking close to 5 liters per day. The whole trip I had to take malaria medication. At the end of it we had a final performance of the 2 Ewe dances we had learned (Gahu and Achabecor). Because dancing and playing are not separated things to Africans, we performed both parts.

After the Dagbe center, we went to the other side of the country and stayed at the Green Turtle Lodge on the Cote-d'Ivoire boarder. Eco lodges are great ideas but in practice are really awful! Once again, no running water. But this time there was no electricity (beyond the 4 hours your solar panel gave you), and no RAID to keep the bugs away. Let's just say I've seen a lifetime's worth of cockroaches. On the drive we visited the Cape Coast (slave) Castle and Kakum National Park (a rainforest). We finished our trip going back to Accra, hanging out with the National Dance Ensemble, going to a highlife club, Bywell, and getting our handmade drums back home with us. The whole last week I was sick, first food poisoning and then I got my roommate's cold. The saving grace of the last week was the flight home. I got bumped to first class and had the stewardesses get me refills of peppermint tea the whole flight. I flew from Accra to JFK but because of a hurricane my flight to DC was canceled. So I rushed to the La Guardia airport. After 22 hours of traveling, I was picked up by my mom and dad.

I think my favorite parts of the trip were the performances. I drummed with the National Dance Ensemble. Luckily the piece we played was the same one I was learning when I was taught the Djembe at the Dagbe Center. I danced to "Take the A Train" in an Accra highlife outdoor club. I danced at a funeral near Kopeyia. I tried to dance (but mostly watched in awe) at a Ewe Vodoun shrine festival, where people had costumes and face paint on and were falling into trance. I drummed and danced 2 Ewe pieces (Gahu and Achebecor) with a bunch of other white Americans for an audience of our Ewe teachers and community members. Ghana is very different than America but enjoyable too!

Love, Ray

P.S. to Maggie: All the Coke (and the rest of the sodas) were served in glass bottles.

My Photos from Ghana!

I spent the month of August (2009) in Ghana. Check it out!

Dance-OFFS in Ghana

Coastal Ghana Before Kopeyia

Kopeyia, Ghana...or the village where I studied Ewe drum and dance at the Dagbe Cultural Center

Cow Sacrifice and Shrine Festival...this shrine festival happened in Kopeyia

Coastal Ghana After Kopeyia

Goodbye and Good Riddance

Today the American group, to whom all my kitchemates belong, leaves. WHOOT!

Now that may sound callous. But wait until you here what happened this morning. I go into the kitchen for cereal. My soy milk has my name on every side of the carton, a name I do not share with anyone in the kitchen. A soy milk container I bought last night and had not opened yet.

This morning finds it opened and half gone. Plus all the dirty dishes are stacked on the counters presumably because leaving gives you an exemption from cleaning up your own mess.

I will get no revenge or retribution. No apology, certainly no confession. Why do we treat other people like that?

All I can think of at all this is "you b*tch, you b*tch."

So long Americans. May we never meet again.

And They Say the Portions Are Smaller Here

I just had a fry-up, otherwise known as an English Breakfast. Since I'm at a pub, the full English has a special name: Matt's Breakfast, named after Ellie's husband. Served on a ceramic piece that should be used as a platter, not a single serving plate, it has:
2 sausages
2 rations of bacon
2 pieces of Lancaister Black pudding
2 eggs (once over easy...always)
baked beans
mushrooms
2 grilled tomatoes
2 pieces of toast
orange juice and tea

Bank Holidays are for everyone...

As I found out, just because this is not a very religious country, does not mean that people do not do loads of traveling around Easter. This weekend is a four day weekend for the whole country: bank holiday. Everyone gets Good Friday and Easter Monday off. Pretty sweet deal, right?

Except for travel however. Everyone was at Euston station this past friday morning I was trying to get to Wigan. What should have been a 2 hour direct train ending up being a 5 hour journey on 3 different trains. Unfortunetly there had been a worker who died on the track near enough to Euston station so no trains were allowed to leave from Euston. So I went across London to Marylbone to start my crazy journey, no doubt zig-zaging accross England. But eventually I made it and have had a relaxing time ever since.

Right now I am not to be found in London: I am visiting another former au pair of mine, Ellie, at her home/pub a 15 minute drive from Wigan.


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She lives above the White Lion Pub which she (basically...it's complicated) owns with her husband. The White Lion is on the side of the road with a tiny smattering of houses around it. Other than that there are farms and rolling hills with the occasional patch of houses and a local pub or two. Yet even without much of a town center many people come to the White Lion. Spending all your time in a country pub does lead to some interesting experiences. Like being praised for your accent. Or meeting all the locals and then preceeding to get many bad jokes and history lessons of the local town. And then getting included in the locals' rounds because you decided to listen. Keeping up with the rounds can be quite a challenge. I don't know how people do that more than 1 night a week. Being able to order anything you want off a menu and not worry about the price. I got a pudding sunday (warmed up cake covered in syrup, ice cream and whipped cream). There was so much whipped cream that most of it fell off the sunday before I could eat it. It was tasty though.

Today Ellie and I went to Southport and tried to see the sea. The tide goes so far out that even with a pier that is so long there is a tram ride from one end to the other you must squint to see it. But it was a nice walk.

Germany... AGAIN

Hello all!

I have just gotten back from Harsewinkle. It is going along as good as ever. Lots of eating and playing with deb's 2 yr old kid and her dog. It was really adorable: both the kid and the dog remembered me from staying a year ago. We went out of sausage, ice cream and then the next day had a roast (which basically is the best meal ever). A sunday roast consists of a huge plate topped with more food than should be possible that is then covered in gravy. Yorkshire pudding, sausage wrapped in bacon, mashed potatoes, vegetables, chicken....the list goes on. And to think that some people have these every sunday.


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Germany itself was great. It was much warmer than London. Everyone was biking around. Their bikes are a tad different: everyone has baskets on the front and back of their bikes and hold groceries or wicker baskets with flowers. Also unicycles are really popular to ride. We went to a toy shop for the kiddy and I was pleased to see that it has a whole section on circus toys! The only problem was getting home. I didnt realize how important it is to take a break between traveling and daily life.

Getting to class the next day was horrible (my travel card had expired, I hadnt brought any money with me and class was at a museum in the middle of nowhere london). But I am glad I went. I just wish I could stop being so tired.

Next weekend: WIGAN!