Photos! Photos! Photos!

Well, it's taken weeks, but finally yesterday afternoon I successfully got to Busy Internet (the nice cafe downtown), brought some memory cards and spent a few hours uploading photos to my photobucket account. So now I'm in the process of inserting them into my blog. So far I've only got as far as the Cape Coast/Kakum trip, but make no mistake, they're worth seeing.

More to come soon. Thanks for waiting!

Riding the Lion to Keta

After realizing my professor had cancelled Friday's class and that I hadn't taken a weekend off with the Carleton girls in a month, I joined in an adventure to wherever they wanted to go. That turned out to be a town on the Western coast of Ghana not very far from the Togolese border known as Keta.

So on Friday morning, myself, Adrienne, Lisa, Meghan, and honorary Canadians Katherine and Lucas hopped on a bitchin' tro-tro called the Lion of Judah and headed West. I even got to ride shotgun. Sweet.

After a switchover at Ashaiman, we rode all the way West to the Keta Peninsula. Basically, it's a long strip of land bordered on the North by the Keta Lagoon and to the South by the Atlantic Ocean. The towns on the way - Segbu and Woe, were some of the most picturesque, idyllic villages I had ever seen. Certainly retirement living-material. It seems like all people do there is grow tomatoes in fields irrigated by the lagoon.

We went up to the Northern edge of the land bridge and went to the ruins at Fort Prinzenstein, built by the Dutch and Norwegians for the slave trade and now half-eaten by the sea. Compared to the castles at Cape Coast and Elmina, it's not much to see, but the son of a local chief gave us a detailed tour for a decent rate. Afterwards, we went to the Keta Beach Guesthouse, which was not quite on the beach, but we went there anyways for a little pre-sunset water fun. The compound itself was decent, as were our rooms, but the service at the restaurant left a lot to be desired. (Lucas' meal took 2 hours to get to him) It's clear that Ghanaian service ideals are much different from North America's. I was not keen on tipping.

We drank a fair bit, went to bed early and got up before 6 to see the sunrise on the beach. The fishermen were out in full force to bring in the nets on the beach, singing songs as they pulled their ropes in. The strange thing was that for all the work that goes into casting and drawing in a giant net like that (many people, perhaps over an hour in total?), they only get maybe a barrelful of tiny fish, with a few larger species as well. Clearly, Ghana's coasts are being overfished, because yields are so minute, and yet fish is still very cheap here in the markets. I wonder when the bottom will fall out for that industry.

We returned for breakfast at the hotel. They always seem to have plain oatmeal wherever we stay and I'm definitely getting a taste for it. Afterwards, we went to the local market in Keta and if you plan on going to the area, I would totally recommend it. It was decent-sized (apparently much, much larger before floods came), hassle-free (nobody in your face) and they had a large selection of fabrics, for much less than here in the city.

We headed South to Woe for the Abruri Guesthouse, which was similar, but had a nicer ambiance for sure. The main attraction in Woe is the Lighthouse, which is on stilts, like a water tower. We played on the beach for a few hours (my first beach experience in three years!), which was a blast, and then went up the stairs for a lovely view of the area. Two caveats: 1. the beaches there, since people work there, have a fair bit of debris (i.e. garbage and crap) and 2. the lighthouse-keepers weren't helpful at all.

Anyways, the rest of the evening was spent going to the Happy Corner Restaurant, which had decent food and ridiculously cheap liquor. We got back to the hotel in the evening, got some sangria and bread and had a great time sitting around and bonding.

Sunday:

Breakfast was great (french toast!) and cheap. We decided to head back by tro-tro to Accra, but with a plan: instead of travelling the long way around the lagoons, hire a sailor to get us across the lagoon in his canoe with a boat engine! It being Sunday, there wasn't much choice in the tiny village (Anynui), so we had to argue over a price for a while. But when we got on the water, it was fantastic, like being on a lake at home - but instead of cottages there were palm trees and beach huts! The whole ride took 45 minutes, but was as much an adventure as it was a way of getting home. We caught a tro-tro from the town of Ada Foah and got home by late afternoon.

The weekend was nice and relaxing. I'll definitely go back there sometime when I need to take a load off. And I only spent about 360,000 cedi. Not bad at all.

Oasis in my Desert

"I've got to admit it's getting better,
It gets a little better all the time"
-The Beatles

Since I got home early today and had the day off, I decided to make the most of it. I had a leisurely pancake breakfast in the kitchen downstairs (the pancakes here are strange, more info to come soon) with friends, I washed my clothes by hand, also with friends and my iPod playing Western music on some speakers.

Adrienne, who had spent the last week with bona-fide malaria, wanted to pay back all of the people who took care of her by getting some lovely and rare Western goods and brought me along downtown to a beautiful oasis in the desert of Africa: Koala Market.

Picture a nice little grocery store that has every fruit you could possibly need in the world, candies of all sorts, a bakery, cheese and ice cream. Then picture another floor on top of that which sold lovely kitchen goods, appliances, tvs, stereos and knick-knacks - and there you have Koala Market, the haven of the obruni.

I think about half of the people there were white and the rest were wealthy Ghanaians. The prices were about the same as in Canada or the US, but the poverty curve is just that much greater that not many could afford it on a regular basis, save for diplomatic workers and the business elite. They even had real ground coffee (the only time I've seen it in a month here) and delicious pastries served in a cafe, for about $3US! It was fantastic and I hope that I can go back there again in a little while for some specialty groceries and comfort food.

Apres, I went to the Balme Library to study for the rest of the afternoon and got a fair bit of work done. Methinks I should spend a lot more time there, since I really haven't been doing much reading and haven't done any schoolwork. The library system is a joke here, compared to Carleton's, but like with many things here you just gotta roll with the punches. Everybody needs a system to get through life and me being here in Ghana is no different. Once I can get one going, life will be a lot better here.

Misty Mountain Hop

Since I had to stay at home last weekend, it was time to exact my revenge on my illness by finally going up to the Volta Region. Meghan, Meaghan and I were ready to go from Friday to Monday.

Getting There:
Was trickier than expected. After our fruitless search all day Friday for a tro-tro, we took the STC bus to Ho, a three-hour ride, (plus a long delay). We didn't get in until 8pm and we still had to get to Tafi Atome, the monkey sanctuary that Lucas and Charlotte were waiting for us at. The tro-tro wouldn't go where we wanted, so we chartered a cab for an alright deal. We drove for an hour and drove through surfaced and not-so-surfaced roads. Whilst in the bush, a giant something crossed the road and we drove right over it. "It" turned out to be a giant rodent they called a "grasscutter", which the driver and his friend went back to pick up and take home, "for dinner". Yum. The car broke down three times on the way, but somehow each time it was fixed and we made it to Tafi Atome by 10:30, with rooms waiting for us. Sleep!

Tafi Atome:
Awoken at 6AM, about 10 of us tourists congregated for our tour primer. (Apparently we had missed dancing and storytelling the night before, damn) We only had to walk about five minutes into the forest before we encountered a pack of mona monkeys. They jumped from tree to vine to tree and took bananas right from our hands! Since it was an eco-tourist venture that shares the profits with the village, we didn't feel bad feeding them and they didn't seem to mind checking us out, so it was win-win for tourists, villagers AND monkeys. After about a half-hour, we returned to the village to eat breakfast. We commandeered a tro-tro and by 8:30 set off for our next destination...

Kente Cloth Village:
The five of us, along with three Americans, headed for the local kente cloth-weaving village. In Ghanaian culture, the kente cloth is a highly-regarded artform, which looks like a long, colourful Scottish tartan. We were welcomed by the villagers (note: we did not hear "obruni" once while in the Volta region... only "You are Welcome!" How friendly is that?) and taken to the weaving centre, where we watched some men weave at the machines and bought some of our favourite cloths as souvenirs. We took the tro-tro out and decided to head to the mountains...

Hiking Adventure the First:
We found ourselves at a lovely small inn (the Mountain Paradise Inn, to be exact) on a ridge out of town, less than 15km from the Togolese border. The rooms were very new, inexpensive and featured the most comfortable beds we've seen in this country. (No electricity though, but life goes on) We decided to hike the trails to look for the fabled waterfalls of Amedzofe. It took two hours before we hiked in a giant circle. So we asked for directions and found the right way. The waterfalls were beautiful, probably as much as 40 feet high in a giant canyon. We had the gall to go swimming under the waterfalls (and after a few hours of hiking, it was worth it!) and relaxed for a while. We got back to the inn before sunset.

Hiking Adventure the Second:
Dinner wasn't going to be ready before sunset, so we thought, "why not go for a walk and see the sunset?" This quickly turned into a hike up a nearby mountain peak. We trekked through the bush until it was just grassland near the top. We reached the summit just before the sun went behind the clouds just over the horizon. The view was spectacular, truly one of the ones that you remember for many years to come. But it was going to be dark soon (yay mosquitos) and so after a miscommunication, found ourselves in the bush in the dark. We got to the road, just as a raincloud had passed over the mountains and began to downpour on us. It was the most wonderful rain that we couldn't escape, so we embraced. Meaghan and I danced in it and when it was over, a full moon rose over the mountains in time for dinner, which was delicious and plentiful. We had some great conversations with the other Americans, one who had been in the US Peace Corps for almost two years in Niger and his sister and her boyfriend who were visiting him. He had many tales of what it's like to live just under the Sahara in a traditional society assisting an agricultural program. It didn't take long for us to fall asleep that night.

The Return:
Lucas woke us up at dawn and I watched the sun come over the mountains (a common theme?) through the mist that had settled over the range. Breakfast came and was delicious as well and we relaxed, wondering what our next move would be. After much deliberation, we decided that we had squeezed all the juice out of the weekend that we could and decided to tro-tro it home. Meaghan, Charlotte and Lucas met some more Americans who gave them a ride back to Accra in their car. Meghan and I decided to wait for a tro-tro to head back South. Eventually, one came by that would take us all the way back to Accra! We got home in a little over 3 hours, which was great and we even beat the others in the car. We celebrated with dinner and ice cream at Asase Pa, our favourite vegetarian restaurant.

Epilogue:
I really needed this weekend to remind myself why exactly I was in Africa - to see Africa! I've been feeling low since I got sick and have been thinking about home a lot, so this helped put my stay here into perspective and I'm feeling a lot better. As a destination, I totally recommend the Volta Region - in fact, we may return there soon for the big Yam Festival in Ho. The people were the friendliest I'd met and we didn't spend a whole lot for three days: about 420,000 cedi ($55 CDN)!

"Man, I love Koreans!"

Thank God for the Koreans. They come here to Ghana, put on a free film festival, give us free wine and food, give us free hats to wear from Daewoo and tell us to come back again tomorrow. We watched "My Heart", a sentimental film about a woman who learns to become a mother. It was set against the lovely Korean countryside and was accompanied by a South Korean commercial. Now I want to go there. Our next plan: go to every embassy and find out when they have free functions so we can crash all of them.

This weekend is our trip to the Volta Region out East, between Lake Volta and the Togolese border. We leave tomorrow morning and return on Monday, so hold all of my calls until then.

One Month and Still Alive

Well, I've been feeling better since Sunday morning (I decided to wait a bit before considering myself "healthy") and so it looks like the malaria - or whatever it was - has passed through my system. My temperature is normal, my muscles are fine, my appetite is back and I haven't blacked out since that episode in the bathroom. And just in time, because...

I've been here for a month and I'm still sane!

Yes, it's been 31 days since I touched down and it feels like it's been forever. I've had my highs (trips, parties) and my lows (being sick/homesick - they seem to come in pairs) but I've made it this far. One down, eight to go. It's still a long ways away, but I feel that I can make it now.

Thanks to everyone who has been reading this and leaving comments. It's always great to get them. I'm going to try and spruce up the blog soon, probably with outside help. And maybe soon I'll go downtown and upload some photos from my camera...

Ill Communication

This morning was the worst yet. I woke up at 8, went to the bathroom and suddenly my vision got fuzzy and I fell over and conked my head. I stumbled back onto my feet and tried to go to the sink. Then I blanked out and found myself lying on my back on the floor. I was feeling very sick to my stomach (a sign of malaria) So I went straight back to bed to clear my head and by 11:30 I was on my way to the hospital for testing. 4 hours later I find out that they can't see any malaria parasites in my blood, but that doesn't mean it's not somewhere in my system. So I have to take some meds until Monday and then we'll see what happens from there.

I'm kinda pissed off and it's not because I'm sick, but that even after going to the hospital, I don't know exactly what is happening with me. Is it malaria? Is it some other disease? Is it just some wicked fever? Who knows. Unless something interesting happens, I'll stop writing about this ordeal for now.

Licensed to Ill

Thanks a bunch for the e-mails I received last night. And a bigger thanks to Maleaha for calling me. Yesterday evening I started feeling better and my temperature had dropped all the way to 96.8F. Great news, right?

Not really. When I woke up, I was boiling and was all the way up to 102.5. Yikes. (Today's forecast: a high of 102.5 and excessive fatigue) So the trip to Volta Region had to be canned. I spent most of the day lying in bed, sipping on water and groaning, wondering where Maleaha was to nurse me back to health. Then my temperature started going back down. I went out to get a malaria test done, but apparently 2:30PM is too late for the doctor. Come back tomorrow. (No wonder there's a private system here)

Anyways, all of that walking just brought my temperature back up to almost 102, but I'm bringing it down with more water and ibuprofen. Apparently malaria symptoms come in cycles throughout the day. This bites. I've been hot, tired, achey, coughing and sneezing, but I haven't got nauseous or the chills, which is good.

Friday's film du jour: Hitch. Why do I keep watching these lame comedies?

On Real Sickness

Last night's adventure at the hospital was something else. My friend Festus - a Nigerian Englishman with a love of death metal and a severe attention deficit - had a fever and was getting worse and worse until by midnight, he was weak as a kitten and very nauseous. So we took him to a Ghanaian private clinic and by 1AM he had an IV in him and was being treated for a possible malaria infection. Myself, Meghan, Meryl and Erika slept on couches in the lobby overnight to make sure he was okay. By morning, he wasn't much better, but at least he's getting attention from professionals.

To add to this, now I am nursing a wicked fever. I had a bit of a cough last night and trying to sleep on a couch under a giant fan did not help my situation. When I got home I slept all morning, tried to go to my afternoon classes and found myself feeling weak, hot and disoriented. Meaghan took my temperature and it was at 101.5F. So I spent the afternoon in my room sleeping, drinking lots of water and munching on Malt n' Milk biscuits as the motherlike Meaghan took care of me. I'm not feeling nauseous, so I don't think it's malaria, but it looks like tomorrow's trip to the Volta Region is in jeopardy. Bugger.

On the upside, whilst watching Ice Cube's seminal film, Are We There Yet?, I realized that there are much worse things than having malaria.

On Homesickness

"How to fight loneliness
Just smile all the time"
-Wilco

One thing that I definitely haven't given enough lip service to is being homesick. When people ask how I'm doing, I always say "having an awesome time" and "everything is amazing", etc. but It's been over three weeks now, almost a month, and I'm definitely feeling a bit homesick thinking about what's happening back home. I rarely get into the subject on how much I miss everything back home, which I do greatly. Maleaha made me a lovely scrapbook of photos that I look in all the time and show to my friends and I stocked my iPod full of music before leaving, so I've got a good soundtrack for my trip.

I could probably write a list of things that I miss and it would be a mile long, but here's a few of the things that stand out:

Maleaha: I miss her more than anything else. I miss the closeness, the walks, the chinese food, the going to church together... you name it and I miss it. Even though this trip is for my own personal development and it's something that I feel I'm being called to do by the powers that be, I know that I'm leaving some people hanging and I'm doing it the most to her. Putting a relationship that's based on closeness and constant interaction into a long-distance mode is perilous - and while I'm not the only one out here pushing a relationship to it's limits, I certainly wouldn't advise it to the average person. We talked a lot about this trip and tried to find the best solution for us and no matter what, I'm going to be totally committed to her and do my part, but no matter what, there's always that feeling that I'm hurting someone else by my actions and that I'm powerless to do a lot of things. Needless to say, Maleaha should go down in the books as one of the most compassionate people ever.

Family and Friends: Last summer was really great and I got a lot of quality time in with my parents. While the landscaping rag (my summer job) was tough this year, I still enjoyed the time I had coming home and having a lovely dinner and relaxing on the couch for the evening with the 'rents. As for my friends, we reconnected quite a bit over the last summer as well and had some great times. By the time I left for Africa, I was sad to have left a really good deal that I was having. I've never been particularly fond of Markham, but it's the people who make it feel like home.

Ottawa: Clearly one of the greatest cities in the history of mankind, I'm starting to really miss it and my friends who live there, especially now that September's rolling in and everyone else is busy moving into their new places and the weather is starting to get a bit colder and soon the leaves will be changing. Ottawa's best seasons, in my opinion, are fall and winter and I'm really going to miss them while it's sweltering here in Ghana. I also miss Parliament, the Market, Old Ottawa South, Sunnyside Ave, Bank St., Patty's Pub and Penan Wok. And Dairy Queen.

Miscellaneous: You never really now what you're going to miss when you go away. A girl I met in Costa Rica on an exchange once told me that she missed Snack Packs (pudding cups) the most. A lot of the kids out here are missing North American cuisine and things that aren't made with rice, beans or fish oil. I admit to missing Kraft Dinner, pasta, homemade hamburgers and - believe it or not - doughnuts and tea. Even the Tim Horton's kind. Doughnuts suck here.

Other things I could think about include hot water, highspeed internet and not being afraid of the mosquitos carrying malaria. So, the moral of the story is: no matter how great Africa is, I'll always miss home.

Will someone please turn down the Snoop Dogg in the internet cafe?

This morning I realized that I'm riding a high off my Arabic class.

We've gotten past the letters and accents and now we're putting words together and I think I'm doing pretty well, because whenever the professor asks me to read anything (which is often, since everyone knows my name), I get it! So I'm pretty stoked about it. I'll be taking it for the entire trip, but I'm going to see if perhaps the University of Ottawa offers Arabic courses, so that I could build upon what I'm learning now. I'd love to have a basic working command of the language (and in Ottawa, where there's a shawarma or falafel place on every block, that could be useful!), but we'll see...

Also, I sat in on my first Globalization and Society. It's taught by an angry African feminist, which is a rarity in this country. It's exactly the kind of class that I'm looking for: something that I've learned from a Western perspective and now something that I'm seeing from the African point of view, shattering many of my misconceptions. In Ghana, globalization hasn't been about McDonalds and prosperity and sunshine for all, (in fact, I have yet to see a McDonalds in Ghana) so you really get a feel for what's going on at the other end of the stick. So us white folks try and sit in the class without feeling like Satan. Ah well, such is life.

Beautiful Music and the Beautiful Game

SATURDAY: There was a giant free anti-poverty concert held in Independence Square in downtown Accra. It was to feature the biggest names in Ghanaian music and stars from around the continent (although none of us would know them!). So all of us Canadians went down to check it out. For an anti-poverty event, there sure was a lack of groups out there raising awareness - only one, Actionaid, had a stand and was distributing information on African debt relief, AIDS info and promoting women's rights.

Regardless, the music was pretty good. Ghanaian highlife music (and its rap cousin hiplife, which I'll try to upload some examples when I find them) is pretty catchy Afrobeat and there were possibly 10,000 in attendance at it's peak. My favourite was Mac Tontoh, who seemed like Carlos Santana with a Trumpet. We had to leave at 10PM, before the international artists came on (it went on until 4AM, I'm told) and so we missed the taped messages from Kofi Annan and Nelson Mandela, but we had bigger fish to fry for the morning...

SUNDAY:

Finally, the big football match between Ghana and Uganda. For the Ghanaians, this was a golden opportunity: to win this qualifier would virtually assure that their team earned a spot in next years World Cup in Germany, something that had never happened before to the tiny African nation. When we heard about the game in Kumasi, we knew we had to be a part of it.

After about 2 1/2 hours of sleep, I was awoken before 4AM and we hopped a taxi to the bus station. Our specially-chartered luxury bus (which wasn't really that great due to the frigid AC and terrible Nigerian movies blaring on the screens) left an hour later and arrived at 9 at the stadium in Kumasi. We moved quickly to get some tickets, some swag (hand-made flags and football jerseys, mine of Chelsea star Michael Essien) and then to the bar for libations. That's right, we were drinking at 10AM while most people were just getting out of church. Jon, Adrienne and Meghan danced with some adorable children and it was a total Kodak moment. (Festus, Meghan and Priscilla)

We got some seats at about noon (they were almost gone) even though the game didn't start until 4:30. When it started, Ghana came out guns blazing. Ten minutes in, star midfielder Michael Essien knocked in a goal from a corner kick. Five minutes later, they scored again! After that blitz, Uganda woke up and started fighting back, but it was no use; the Black Stars were outpassing and outmaneuvering their players, looking like they deserved to play in the World Cup. While I was standing, cheering next to 40-year old Ghanaians who were going nuts, waiting for each kick to hit the net, rejoicing when they did, I think I finally got a glimpse into what football looks like to the rest of the world: not, as Robin Williams put it, "a strange sport played by damaged peoples", but rather as "the beautiful game".

When the final whistle was blown, the crowd went insane. Thousands ran onto the field in celebration and there was nothing the police could do about it. (Imagine what would happen if they lost!) However, our bus was waiting for us, so we got out of there as soon as we could, but when we got outside to the front, everyone was dancing and cheering, so until our bus took off, we joined the party. People were thrilled to see obrunis wearing the Ghanaian national colours and kept yelling "Ghana! Ghana!" or "Essien! Essien!"

One man even yelled, "Are you Ghanaian?"

I laughed and replied, "Today, I am!"

Next mission: somehow get to Germany for next summer? I wish.

Adventures in Bureaucracy pt. 2

Goodness, with all of the things that are wrong with this university's administration, I could write a book. Here's a few of my latest issues:

-I went to a classroom to find no class. I walked to the department to find out what happened. The professor said, "oh we changed the room to upstairs". So why didn't you change the bloody timetable, so that people will stop going to the wrong classroom?

-There weren't enough syllabi (plural of syllabus) for each student in my class, so people were acting like animals, snatching them from the pile. How about giving professors a photocopying budget?

-The microphones for the professors rarely work. How am I supposed to hear them in a class of 300 in the back row?

-I went to the bookstore to find none of my listed readings for sale. Now I have to go to the library to compete with hundreds of other students for the books. Since there's only a few copies of each reading in the library, only a few of the students can read them in time for class. Also, with so few sources, doing a proper essay is impossible, so all of the grades are based on the final exam. Here's a thought, why not stock the bookstore with useful books so that kids can get a decent education?

-I went to the Balme Library (perhaps the most beautiful building on campus) to take out some books, since I couldn't buy them. It was 4:30. I went to the librarian to ask if I could take it out. He said I need a library card. Could I get one? No, not today. Come back tomorrow. Well could I photocopy the relevant chapters? No, the photocopying room is closed for today. How about this, make my cutting-edge student ID card my library card and keep the photocopying room open later, so that students could use it?

-I have a class on Friday nights from 5:30-7:30. The students don't like it, the prof doesn't like it, so why not change it to a more hospitable time? Because some professor who was supposed to teach the class was a lawyer and preferred teaching night classes, so he set it for that time. Can we change it? No, because the department doesn't allow that.

I can't even remember the other things that drove me crazy in the last week. The bureaucracy at the University (and in Ghanaian society in general) is so incomprehensible that you really have to do it your damned self to create change. I'm currently working on the History class, trying to get it changed to Wednesday, or at least before dark.

Anyways, this weekend is going to kick ass. There's going to be a big anti-poverty concert on Saturday and the biggest football match of the year on Sunday in Kumasi. And we bought bus tickets for 5AM that day. Kick. Ass.

Re: Hurricane Katrina

In a recent e-mail, my mother asked me if I had been following the news and what I thought of the disaster that was brought upon Louisiana and Mississippi by Hurricane Katrina. Here's my two cents:

The hurricane was a terrible disaster that has permanently altered the lives and landscape of Louisiana and Mississippi. The death toll is still unknown and won't be for a long time, though this event will be remembered for many years to come.

What surprises me the most is the reaction to the hurricane by residents and the government: in the streets of New Orleans, there is chaos. People are looting businesses and taking advantage of other's misfortunes, even if under the guise of "survival". The government has been unacceptably slow to react (even the president acknowledges this) and thousands of lives are depending on it. Things have gotten so bad that thousands of soldiers on relief duty are now acting as law enforcement in the anarchic cities.

This got me thinking: Are Americans so different from Africans? When there was chaos in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993, we saw the images on television and thought, "oh those Africans, so primitive... that would never happen here". Now, we see a similar situation in New Orleans, (albeit without the warlords) and we are left to eat our words, watching civilized people act like barbarians. It just goes to show: no matter where we live or how well off we are, when the situation becomes dire, desperate people do desperate things. God Save America.


Here's an interesting thought, courtesy of the CBC:
"Thursday night, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin lashed out at federal officials, telling New Orleans radio station WWL "they don't have a clue what's going on down here." Nagin said he was "pissed" at the lack of help.

"We authorized $8 billion to go to Iraq, lickety split. After 9/11 we gave the president unprecedented powers, lickety split to help New York and other places," he said. "You mean to tell me that a place where most of your oil is coming through ... that we can't figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need," said Nagin."