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Excited to start!
For my senior project I will be interning at People’s Light and Theater in Malvern, PA. During my time there the theater will be getting ready to open a new show called Dear Elizabeth. The play follows the letters of the poets and best friends Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell. It is a subtle story of friendship, poetry, and two separate lives joined by writing. I read the script and really enjoyed it. It will be very interesting to see it performed! Continue reading “Excited to start!”
10 Things I Will Never Take for Granted Again
My time in Ghana has just about come to an end. Tomorrow at 10 p.m. we get on the plane and head back to the U.S. I’m feeling a lot of different emotions right now. I’m super excited to head home and see my family but I also think that the culture shock coming back will be even bigger than the culture shock was coming here. I’m going to appreciate everything a lot more. From my teachers (I now fully understand how hard they work) to cold refrigerators, this trip has really made me realize how much we take for granted. I tried to make a list that was different than things you usually think of.
Some things that I know I take for granted that you shouldn’t are:
1) Clean Bathrooms- We really do have nice bathrooms in America. I won’t go into detail on this one but just trust me. They’re nice. If there’s toilet paper and it flushes, then give thanks. Continue reading “10 Things I Will Never Take for Granted Again”
Dinosaur Poop
Over the end of last week we powered down and finished most of the smaller samples that we had to get through. During my last week, we’re finally going to break into the specimens that got the “dinosaurs and oversize” department its name. There are some things that I’m still not really experienced enough to do much with, like these brachiosaur vertebrae:
…but I did get to attempt to fix about half of a rib and the lower quarter or so of a femur, which was cool.
We also found what we thought may have been an egg until my manager informed me that it was a coprolite which added a little, uh, excitement to the morning.
(Coprolite = fossilized poop, for those of you who don’t know. That there? That’s a turd.)
We spent the entire afternoon on Friday and today cleaning this massive pelvis. It hasn’t been identified yet, but my manager seems pretty sure that it’s a brontothere, which is a mammal from the Eocene that looks quite a bit like a modern rhino despite being a much closer relative of a horse. We’ve had a lot of scattered pieces of brontothere teeth, ribs, and even a few reasonably intact leg bones, so it’s definitely a possibility.
I talked about cleaning fossils in my last post, but apparently that sort of cleaning is reserved for the weaker bones. In this case, you wash it as usual in the big industrial sink, but for bigger, sturdier fossils, especially ones that are as caked in mud and sandstone as this one was, that’s only step one. While the matrix around it is still wet, you scrape off everything you can with a dental pick, and then let it dry overnight (or, in this case, over the weekend). Then you squirt it with acetone to dissolve any glue that might have been sprayed on it on-site to keep the fossil in one piece.
(Acetone is really intense and you have to spray it in the industrial sink because it will destroy the paint, the floors, your nail polish, and your soul)
Then you go at it with the dental pick again. Once everything that can be removed has been removed, there’s a chisel and a high-powered hose that you attack it with. We didn’t have to use the hose–since it’s so aggressive, it’s something of a last resort. After it’s at its best state, you rinse it in water, then in acetone again, then in water again. Then it has to sit for an hour or so (time for lunch break) and then we have to glue all the pieces back together that fell apart during cleaning. You end up with something like this:
(That’s the rib in front, for some scale)
Anyway, going into my last week here. The second of the two cousins that I’m staying with just started his spring break, so we’re going to a local ice cream place as a welcome home. Adieu,
xx
liicranberry
Ghana Day 17
What a day. This was our last day of teaching, so Minji decided to do something new and fun for the kids. In other words, we taught them how to play Ultimate Frisbee. It was a blast. Once we had established that you can’t run with the Frisbee, if it falls you have to give it to the other team, and that just chucking it as far as you can isn’t a good strategy, things really got fun. They love throwing the Frisbee, and they caught on well. I played with all three of the classes and am exhausted now. Not only are my feet tired, but the combination of my sweat with all the dust floating around coated my feet in dirt, and there are stripes of white where my flip-flop straps are. It was so bad, the kids kept scolding me to wash my feet!
Afterwards, some of us went for a last stop in Ajumako where it was market day! I know I haven’t talked about the markets so I’ll do that now: it’s certainly an experience. Today, we went with T. Melissa, which definitely makes it more fun. She can speak some Fanti, and whenever we say medasi (thank you) they smile and laugh. She brings a fun, practical attitude and always laughs with the people sitting around in the market. We hopped on the first taxi we saw then waded through the crowds into town when we got out. The market is basically a bunch of wooden scaffolding to separate the stalls (they’re barely even stalls), where wares are generally spread out on the ground or in baskets. My mission: find the cloth, and stay away from the stalls selling fish. (They smell and there are lots of flies. Trust me, you don’t want to eat those fish.) We don’t really bargain, because cloth prices are generally the same. If you want to test your bargaining skills, the best place for that is the touristy craft shops near the beach and slave castle.
I was very successful with my cloth-buying mission. I’m sitting here now, clean, tired, hungry, and happy, but it’s dinner time now and the food is going fast, so I’m signing off for now. Until next time!
Laura
A Perfect Trip
The good news: Our fantastic group of 21 has safety returned to their homes after two amazing weeks in the small town of Ollantaytambo, Peru. The bad news: It’s over.
Looking back on the past two weeks is such a whirlwind of happiness, amazement, fresh air, and friendships. The best two weeks of my life flew by and the lessons we learned and people we met will stay with me forever. Because of our “unplugged challenge,” we did not have internet on the trip, so I will be sharing my favorite experiences in chronological order.
A First Glimpse: Day 1
I could see the them the second I jerked awake from my hours of unconsciousness on the plane and I was immediately in complete awe. Mountains were never really on my mind in terms of the things I thought would take my breath away, but as I stared, jaw dropped, I realized that I had never seen a mountain before. My family has never gone skiing, and we usually revert to our little New Jersey beach house that we all love so dearly. But this was something so new, and so incredibly beautiful that I had not expected to be so astonishing. They were everywhere, surrounding me in all directions and at incredible heights. They completely tower over the small towns that reside in their narrow valleys, and seem to rise at a vertical angle out of flat ground. They were monstrous, obstructing the view of the sky, and they were so especially beautiful. 
This is a picture I took at a rest stop before we reached the hotel. You can even see the snow peaked mountains in the distance!
Day 2:
We hustled and bustled throughout our new hometown all morning long. Javier and Randall, our two guides, gave us a scavenger hunt that both made us work together, and attempt to navigate the town of Ollantaytambo. As we walked around the town, I loved seeing how people lived, and their everyday wear. Many of the women wore traditional clothing, decorated with countless colors and intricate patterns. I had so much fun wandering the streets, observing and trying to communicate with the towns people. Although I don’t speak Spanish, one of my favorite parts of this day (and throughout the whole trip) was finding ways to communicate with people in other ways besides language. Going into the trip, I knew that the language barrier would be my hardest obstacle and biggest setback, and being put in these situations forced me to learn and grow.
Day 3
My favorite part of the third day was the Despacho Ceremony. We all met in a hostel near our hotel, called the Full Moon Lodge. When we walked in, there was an older looking man sitting on the couch wearing a poncho covered in magnificent colors and designs. He wore a hat too, and had a thick beard. The hostel was beautiful, and there were dream catchers hanging from the ceiling everywhere. We all sat in a circle on the ground around him. He began to speak in detail about our world, and T. Maria translated. He compared the North to an eagle and the South to a condor, explaining that eagles kill and devour their prey without any appreciation, while the condor honors their prey, and fills the land with spirit. He urged us to learn about the Native Americans that live in the north, saying that we are too wrapped up in our material things. At one point he looked at us right in the eye and said, “Look at what you are wearing, you have no memory.” He then pointed to his clothing and said, “Look at what I am wearing, this is my culture.” He told us that if we went and learned our culture, we would then “receive our memory.” Listening to him was very humbling. In that moment I was so glad that I didn’t have my phone or my computer, and that I was taking part in the unplugged challenge. I felt saddened that our society relies so much on our material world, and because of that we are missing a huge part of our culture. He said, “When the day comes that the rich material north collides with the poor spiritual south, that will be the day that we save the world.” It made me think a lot about the unimportance of the things we own, and about the importance of the people we are. After about an hour and a half, he proceeded to lead us through a ceremony, where we each had to wish on coca leaves (a plant that is used for many spiritual and healing purposes), and place them in a pile of things that represent things like good health and happiness. After we each presented out wishes, he blessed it, and then burned the package in the campfire, releasing our wishes into the atmosphere. Many people in the group were moved to tears during the ceremony, and I felt like I walked away having learned an important lesson. Maybe the wishes will even come true. The Despacho Ceremony was a very cool experience, and I am so grateful that I was able to experience it. 
This is the picture of the shaman, who was wrapping up our pile of leaves and other natural substances that represented our wishes.
TGIF!
In Ghana we get as excited about the weekends as we do at Westtown. Teaching is fun and I have been learning a lot, but there is no denying that it is exhausting and that by the time Thursday hits we are longing from a break from our energetic students. Ghana is a much slower paced place than America but that doesn’t mean there is a lack of work. Everything simply takes longer because it is done by hand.
On Saturdays we travel to visit historical places in Ghana. We take a cramped, bumpy van ride to the coast to visit slave castles or the rainforest. What I have found the most interesting about these trips, besides visiting the castles themselves, is seeing how the coastal village people live. Ghana has not caught on to the tourism trade and the slave castles have tours but they are not built up in the way you would expect to accommodate tourists; you get to see the local life and markets. The people on the coast live off the ocean, and you can smell the fish in the air. The men are thin and wired with muscle from controlling sails, and the woman are muscular from carrying the fish. Everyone is working hard. There are groups of young children sitting along the rocks sewing nets and drying fish and old sea-worn men patching sales in the shade. They live in grass and wood huts crammed together off the rocky shore. What I thought was really cool about the coast was the boats. They make long wooden canoes and then use a pole and patched together fabric as sales. They are beautiful boats and are often painted by their owners who move them with comfortable skill over the rough waves.
The slave castles dwarf the fishing towns, sitting high on a cliff. They serve as a sad reminder of what happened to Ghana not long ago. The tours are interesting and sad. We are taken through the dungeons and the rooms of no return before we go up and see the contrast of the governor’s quarters. After the tour, we get to shop before heading home for a relaxing evening of hanging out and playing cards with are local friends. This Saturday after touring a slave castle we went to the rainforest to walk on canopy bridges. The bridges are built high above the ground with just ropes and some wooden planks laid across ladders reaching from tree to tree. It was really fun and the people who felt comfortable loved to mess with everyone else by bouncing the rope, luckily we all made it out alive. Sunday is beach day!! We get to travel to one of the few resorts on the coast, eat pizza, swim in the ocean, and relax. I am nice and sunburned so I will have to lotion a lot tomorrow!
I can’t wait to get back to school tomorrow and see all my kids, I can’t believe this trip is almost over!
Erin
Transitions
March 14, 2014
Wow. As I am writing this I am lying on my mattress on the floor, listening to music and eating plantain chips. Our group had a meeting about transitioning last night and my head has been spinning ever since. I can’t believe that the downhill of my senior project has begun. It feels like I have been here for months, but at the same time, I feel like I could stay here forever. The simplicity of life here is going to be impossible to forget. I have come to love when the power randomly goes out and when a soccer ball or uniform is somebody’s most prized possession. I am going to miss relying on only my feet for transportation, and not having to worry about what I look like to other people. I feel comfortable here, like there is always somebody looking out for me, just because I am a human being. I love being forced to say “hi” to every person I pass on the street, or hearing cars honk as I walk to school, just because people are so friendly. I will miss being called “obroni” even though I hate it. I will miss being able to buy Fanta in a reused soda bottle for $0.40 or a loaf of bread for $0.80. I’m going to miss being expected to do service every afternoon, no matter how hot it is outside. But most of all, I will miss the kids. Even if some of them can get on my nerves, I feel so much compassion for them. I can’t imagine what it would be like to be born here, into a family of who knows how many people, and be expected to fight my way out of poverty. Through all of their struggles, I still see their smiling faces getting off the bus in the morning, see the accomplishment in their eyes when they finish reading a page of a book, or their gigantic smiles when they get a 100% mark. They are so dedicated to education. To getting out and making a life for themselves. I will never look at a student the same way again. I now know what commitment to school really looks like. It means waking up at the crack of dawn to walk to your bus stop, it means shouting “keep quiet” every five seconds to be able to hear what your teacher is saying, or spending $75 (possibly all you have) a year for your education. One of the group members brought something up that has stuck with me. I will never be able to look at anything that costs $75 again without thinking about what a year’s education could do for a child. There is no better way to spend your money. Empowering a child with knowledge is unbeatable. With my yearly tuition at Westtown, I could pay for the tuitions of more than 600 students at Heritage Academy. I will never look at my belongings the same way. I will never take what I have for granted again. I know that I will feel sick when I come home to a room full of things I don’t need, with a fancy mattress and a closet full of clothing and shoes. I will never again think that I don’t have enough. If I have clothes on my back, a roof to sleep under, and an education, I have more than enough to live a good life.
I will never forget this experience. A life-changing experience is an understatement of my time here. I plan to change many lives with the experience I have gained here. My life has changed forever. All because of the smiles I see on the kids faces every day.
124 Feet Above Ground
March 16, 2014
Yesterday our group went on another outing. We spent our morning at Kakum National Park, and our afternoon visiting another slave castle and shopping. Kakum was awesome. One of its features is a series of canopy rope walks over the forest. The height of the 8 suspension bridges began at 10 meters but the highest one was 40 meters above the forest floor. Of course, some of the group decided to freak the others out by jumping up and down, shaking the entire bridge, and getting screams out of some of the members of our group. It was pretty walking over the forest. We didn’t see many animals, but we did see what the guide told us was a green viper hanging from a tree branch on the way up the mountain. We ate peanut butter and jelly for lunch in the picnic area, and packed into the van for the drive to the slave castle.
The slave castle was pretty much the same as the one before, just 200 years younger. After listening to a monotone voice for 45 minutes, we got to shop. Heather and I were on a mission to find backpacks and a Ghanaian flag. Luckily, we were successful and many of you will see me sporting my backpack at school. I spent the night hanging out with the four Emmanuels, Bright and Godsway (some of the high schoolers) Overall, it was a good day. Now for a long day at the beach….
A Life-Changing Experience
3/15/14
I can’t even begin to explain how meaningful this Senior Project has been to me and how heart breaking it is for me to leave my team at the The Huffington Post. Blogging, working on projects, meeting new people, and attending panels and events has just influenced me in a way that words can’t explain and I truly wish that I could have stayed longer. My internship has opened many doors for me in terms of experiences and insights and Julee Wilson has become a life-long mentor to me. Not only did I discover a teacher in her, but I also found an immense support system in the rest of the writers for the Black Voices crew.
After having such a life-changing experience, one of the biggest things I took away from this Project was that everything is an opportunity to learn. Take the time to appreciate where you’re at, what you’re doing, and how that moment is impacting you. Don’t be afraid to take risks and to put yourself out there; you have a team of supporters who are waiting to catch you and help you back up if you fall. Open your eyes; all the resources you need may be right in front of you or sitting around the corner. Lastly, make connections with as many people as you can. No matter who they are, everyone is a wealth of knowledge that has something valuable to offer you.
I want to thank everyone at The Huffington Post for welcoming me and giving me this amazing Senior Project. I’m sad that our time together was so short, but I do plan on coming back for a longer internship as soon as possible! As for the readers who have been following me on this experience, here are some pictures of the office building where I worked (photography courtesy of Julee):
Thanks so much for reading!
Taylor 🙂
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