Ahhhh!
There is so much to say and I have limited time in the Internet cafe and it will be closed tomorrow and I leave to travel Morocco on Tuesday, and I don't know when I'm gonna be able to get online again, and I know when I get back I will tons of MOROCCO stuff to say, and I will have forgotten all my GHANA stuff to say. Yeeeeeeesh.
So: Out of an original group of 60 people there are about 15 of us left. The day that most everyone left was TERRIBLE. Oh my god. I haven't cried so much since I said goodbye to Tyra and Melody outside Holy Cow at like 2am my last night out in the city. So...there were a lot of tears. SO many tears. My handkerchief ( I have several--to wipe sweat, not tears or snot) was DISGUSTING. It got quite the scrubbing in a bucket of cold water and bar soap in between my jeans and one of my 5 wife beaters. Let me tell you.
I realized as I was hugging goodbye all these incredible fascinating people I have met here that I am always the one leaving. I don't think there has ever been a time when I have been left. That was the strangest feeling. I mean, I left Sweet Home for San Francisco, I've left like 6 jobs on my own, and have left really wonderful friends behind. I left San Francisco for Ghana, and now 45 people left me in Ghana to figure out how to function without this huge group around me. They shifted my reality and perception of what my Ghana experience IS. The second half will be infinitely different from the first. Different people, a new sense of belonging, the fear that I will do something wrong has been numbed, it's still there under the surface...but Ghana has become my home...at least for the time being. Wow.
All of these people leaving also made me realize that I am leaving eventually. I still have 6 months, which is longer than I've even been gone...but that time is only going to get smaller, and that is SO terrifying. There is so much to do and see and feel and experience in such a small amount of time. I find myself wishing I didn't have to go to school...even though that is the purpose for my stay.
The last 3 weeks here have been really intense. I finished my finals, maybe not with flying colors...but then again, a 70% is an A here...so who knows? I finally finished that research paper, with my advisor being horrible and heartless until the end. In the process of finishing that paper I got to meet and interview the former First Lady of Ghana, Nana Rawlings. She is the president of a women's organization I was writing my research about, and a total feminist. I really liked her, even though I was a little afraid of her. I travelled to Ada Foah (Adda Fo) Estuary, where the Volta river meets the ocean (it was practically a calendar picture, perfect beaches, palm trees, hammocks, amazing) and climbed Wli (Vlee) Falls. This is maybe the hardest thing I have done in a long, long, time--4 hours up and back down an incredibly steep mountain to see both the upper and lower falls, but totally worth it because we totally got to SWIM in the water fall pools. It was wonderful. And then just hanging out with people until they boarded planes to go back to a world I am starting to blur with everything I've grown used to here.
After everyone left campus (international and Ghanaian students alike) the National People's Party (NPP) held their election on campus to pick their candidate for the upcoming presidential election in 2008. 19 men covered the campus in their campaign posters and billboards, and in a matter of about 2 days, 2300 delegates from around the country arrived to cast their votes on Saturday. With them came what seemed to be half of Ghana in the form of supporters, merchants, protesters, and general ass-holes. All of us oboruni (white/foreign) girls hid in our dorms for the majority of the weekend in order to save ourselves from the inevitable harassment. (not being able to blend in EVER can really be a pain) The elections are over, and now campus is covered in garbage. Tons of food remains, campaign posters, water sachets (pure water is sold in about 16oz plastic bags for 5 pesewas--not sure I mentioned before...) among the mess.
I've also been planning a 3 week trip to Morocco with Elena. We leave on Christmas day (4:00am flight--yummm) and are visiting Casablanca, Rabat, Fes, and Marrakesh, and might pop over to Spain for a day or two. It is going to be a really nice vacation from everything. Different from both Ghana and the States. We're hoping that the different cultural climate will be fun, but won't put us through a new form of culture shock...here's hoping.
I will write about my Morocco adventures when I get back--possibly along the way, depending on the availability of Internet cafes.
Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!
I love you.
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Thursday, November 22, 2007
And then there were 9...
Hola!
This has taken a little longer than I wanted it to...but this blog site has been a little finicky as of late. I just got back from a 5 day trip to Northern Ghana where Elena, Megan and I visited Mole (Mole-lay) National Park. Like it usually goes, the journey was as exciting (if not more so) than the destination.
The whole thing was to start Friday morning at 8am when our STC (stands for intercity travel or something...) was scheduled to leave. Due to IMMENSE traffic, we didn't arrive at the bus station until 8:30. Thinking we had missed our bus, we were pretty panicked and ran into the station wondering if it had indeed left without us. Thankfully, the bus hadn't even arrived yet. We sat down to wait, and were pleasantly surprised to see our friends Tristan and Michael show up, with tickets to the same bus, and plans to travel to Mole as well.
We proceeded to make plans, book hotel rooms for Friday night in Tamale, the main transfer point when travelling from Accra to Northern Ghana, including Mole. The drive takes about 14 hours, and there are only a few buses going from Tamale to Mole, so we had to stay the night in Tamale. Then, as the bus still hadn't arrived, we proceeded to play card games, and had a Speed tournament, which Megan won, but had to stop pretty quickly because apparently we were being so loud we were disturbing everyone else. Whatever.
At 10:30, the bus finally arrived, and so by 11am, our journey had finally begun. Unfortunately, after getting to Achimota, which is literally like 15 minutes outside Accra, the bus broke down. We waited for almost 2 hours before a mechanic finally saved us, and so by 1pm, we were back on the road. We drove about 3 hours before getting to a rest stop where we proceeded to pay 10 pesewas (10 cents) to use the bathroom, and were then informed that the bus was unfit to make it to Tamale, and another one would be sent. From Accra.
We sat down in a small restaurant at the rest stop for the next 3 hours and played Egyptian Rat Screw and Spoons (more card games) with a young German girl who had just arrived in Ghana and was volunteering at a childrens home in Tamale. What a welcome for her I'm sure. So, at 7pm, the adventure had REALLY begun.
We arrived in Tamale at 4:30 in the morning to find that our hotel reservations had been given away. (Big surprise) Just when we were about to panic, one of the many boys who hangs around the bus station offering to take your bags for money informed us that a bus would be leaving at 6am going to Larabanga, which was just 6km from Mole, and we could walk or take a taxi from there. We bought our tickets, crammed onto this incredibly packed bus, and were off. By this time, we hadn't slept in nearly 24 hours--except a few stolen naps on the pretty uncomfortable bus--we hadn't showered or changed our clothes, hadn't brushed our teeth, and had eaten nothing except the snacks we had brought, mainly peanuts, cookies, crackers and tangerines.
On the bus to Larabanga, I sat next to this young Ghanaian man, Osmand, or Ishmael as you prefer, who proceeded to tell me that he really liked me, and wanted my contact information, etc, etc. Seriously, the fact that this kid could even look at me much less handle my ridiculous morning breath shows a firmness of spirit. Anyway, I proceeded to lie, and tell him that not only did I have neither a phone nor address, but that I was leaving Ghana in a mere 3 weeks. Oops. Osmand was not discouraged. He told me that God-willing we would meet again, and that if I decided to stay in Ghana he would buy me a Cannery.
"A Cannery?" I asked, confused.
"Yes. A Cannery." replies Osmand.
"Wha...? I don't know what that is..." say I, confused and less amused than I should be. (24 hours! No sleep!)
"A Cannery! A Cannery! You don't know a Cannery? It sings and it is yellow..." Somewhat desperate to be understood Osmand.
"A Canary? Like the bird?" I am a little taken back by his passion to be understood.
"Yes! Yes! You know a Cannery?" Relieved Osmand.
In my head I am thinking: That's all I'm gonna get for staying in Ghana FOREVER with this guy? Incredible. Anyway, the ride continues with Osmand continuing to win originality points for telling me that he plays basketball and that he knows Michael Jordan. In fact, they chat online, and he was on his way to go home and chat with MJ right at that moment. Yow.
Eventually, after the bumpiest ride of my life we arrive in Larabanga, and I say goodbye to Osmand forever. (although if God wills it...) Then, the boys Tristan and Michael and their Ghanaian friend Matthew, in their wisdom decide that it would be a GREAT idea to walk along the dirt path to Mole in the 6000 degree heat. (FYI: Northern Ghana is not nearly as humid as Southern Ghana, but is also SO much hotter) I lost interest in this idea pretty quickly and Elena, Megan and I hop in a taxi to the park.
We arrive and it is wonderful once we finally get our room. It had 3 separate beds and was huge and very nice, definitely did not have running water all the time, but you learn to live without that stuff when you need to. Besides, management left us 3 buckets full of water to shower with. Which we did.
After lunch and a much needed nap, we got up for a 3:30 Safari walk through the park. It was SO incredible. We saw elephants, kob and bushbuck (from the Antelope family), baboons, warthogs and a lot of beautiful birds. We were the only group to see elephants in the last 2 days because it was their mating season, and most were further into the park where humans don't get to go. After the walk we showered, ate and fell asleep at like 7:30. It was amazing.
We had another walk at 6:30 the next morning, which was much less successful than our walk the day before. We didn't actually see anything for the first 90 minutes of the 2 hour walk, and didn't see elephants at all. However, after the walk, we were about to get lunch when 2 elephants appeared at the watering holes which are perfectly visible from the hotel restaurant and pool, so we were able to watch them drinking for a while.
After a refreshing swim in the chlorine filled pool (seriously, eyes burning after 65 seconds) we were sitting around continuing to watch the elephants, and decided to order french fries to munch upon. While we were waiting, 3 Pettris Monkeys wandered out of nowhere and started walking around the pool, eating bugs and being really cute and we were all damning ourselves for not bringing our cameras with us, and wasn't it so cure when that monkey tried to take that girl's purse and we all laughed heartily when the girl tried to get it back and then the monkey kind of swung at her, ha ha ha. Right?
Well, the fries arrive, and literally 2 seconds after they are set on our table, we see this monkey walking up to us. Surely he won't get closer right? WRONG! Just as we're kind of giggling about how the WILD MONKEY will not jump on our table, THE WILD MONKEY JUMPS ON OUR TABLE AND BEGINS TO EAT OUR FRIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The monkey is quickly shooed away by restaurant staff who look a little put out by our request for more fries. (Monkeys carry RABIES and probably Ebola too, FYI) However, the monkey returns, tries to take our stuff now, and it is a little less funny--I might venture to say really scary--when the monkey hisses and swipes at US. Yeesh.
So, the day continues. Megan and I go on one last Safari walk while Elena takes a nap, where we are put in a group with 4 of the rudest Dutch bitches I've ever met in my entire life. (probably the only ones...but still) They talked at loud as they could the entire time, scared off all the animals, made fun of us when we asked them POLITELY to please just shutthefuckup, and were really rude to our guide. Lame end to a very fun/terrifying day.
The next morning (at 4:30) we boarded a bus from the Park back to Tamale, where we decided to take a Tro Tro to Bolgatanga (further north) and then continue on to Paga at the very north of Ghana on the Burkina Faso border. Paga is the home to a sacred pool of crocodiles which are said to have never hurt a human. We were about to find out.
After taking 2 tros--the first threatened to BLOW UP (I kid you not) leaving us in Walewale (wally-wally) where we were befriended by the local Postmaster, who ended up inviting us to stay the night at his house, and sleep in his wife's bed (we politely refused) and then went on to try and charge us 65 cedis ($65) for a taxi from Walewale to Paga. (about an hour away=ridiculous) We then took our second taxi which was at least a million degrees and which we were forced to sit in for at least an hour before actually going anywhere. Thank god for men on bikes who sell Fan Ice (frozen chocolate and vanilla milk and strawberry yogurt= amazing) Anyway, we finally get to Bolgatanga, take a taxi to Paga (for 6 cedis, FYI) and then go see the crocs.
In order to get the crocodiles out of the water we were forced to buy a LIVE chicken which was repeatedly thrown into the water where it floated like a bath toy while more and more pairs of black eyes popped to the surface and slid toward the shore. In total, 5 crocodiles came out of the pool to meet us--and by meet us I mean hold completely, creepily still while we held onto their tails and posed for pictures. Then, all of a sudden as Elena was holding the tail of this huge crocodile, one of the men who works at the pool threw the poor chicken into it's mouth, and the chicken is no longer. Poor Elena, she is definitely a vegan.
After that, we took some ridiculous pictures at the Burkina Faso border which we did not cross, and then hopped a taxi back to Bolga, and then a tro (the most uncomfortable tro in the entire world which was horribly overcrowded) back to Tamale. Upon arrival in Tamale every hotel but this super gross and pretty creepy hotel--which we obviously took--was booked. I mean, my door wouldn't open from the INSIDE! Then, we found dinner, went to bed where we proceeded to simultaneously sweat through our clothes and get eaten my mosquitoes, until 4:45 am, when we got up to catch a bus back to Accra.
Our bus to Accra was highly uneventful except for the ridiculous Nigerian movies played, for which we were grateful. We finally left the bus, caught a taxi, just in time to miss a HUGE rainstorm! Yay! Unfortunately, our cab's windshield wiper broke, then the sun roof leaked all over me in the front seat, and then, stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, the battery died.
Like the adventurers that we are, Elena, Megan and I hopped out of the taxi in the pouring rain and proceeded to push it (in the rain!) until it eventually started. Much laughing ensued at the sight of 3 Oboruni women pushing a cab in the rain and dark in the middle of Accra. Ha ha indeed.
We arrived home, took bucket baths, as the water was out in Volta Hall, and went to sleep. Oh yes, and in all this ridiculousness, I lost a second toenail. Not sure I mentioned before, but I lost one a few weeks back, which has eventually regrown, but now I am down to nine once more. Alas.
I love you.
This has taken a little longer than I wanted it to...but this blog site has been a little finicky as of late. I just got back from a 5 day trip to Northern Ghana where Elena, Megan and I visited Mole (Mole-lay) National Park. Like it usually goes, the journey was as exciting (if not more so) than the destination.
The whole thing was to start Friday morning at 8am when our STC (stands for intercity travel or something...) was scheduled to leave. Due to IMMENSE traffic, we didn't arrive at the bus station until 8:30. Thinking we had missed our bus, we were pretty panicked and ran into the station wondering if it had indeed left without us. Thankfully, the bus hadn't even arrived yet. We sat down to wait, and were pleasantly surprised to see our friends Tristan and Michael show up, with tickets to the same bus, and plans to travel to Mole as well.
We proceeded to make plans, book hotel rooms for Friday night in Tamale, the main transfer point when travelling from Accra to Northern Ghana, including Mole. The drive takes about 14 hours, and there are only a few buses going from Tamale to Mole, so we had to stay the night in Tamale. Then, as the bus still hadn't arrived, we proceeded to play card games, and had a Speed tournament, which Megan won, but had to stop pretty quickly because apparently we were being so loud we were disturbing everyone else. Whatever.
At 10:30, the bus finally arrived, and so by 11am, our journey had finally begun. Unfortunately, after getting to Achimota, which is literally like 15 minutes outside Accra, the bus broke down. We waited for almost 2 hours before a mechanic finally saved us, and so by 1pm, we were back on the road. We drove about 3 hours before getting to a rest stop where we proceeded to pay 10 pesewas (10 cents) to use the bathroom, and were then informed that the bus was unfit to make it to Tamale, and another one would be sent. From Accra.
We sat down in a small restaurant at the rest stop for the next 3 hours and played Egyptian Rat Screw and Spoons (more card games) with a young German girl who had just arrived in Ghana and was volunteering at a childrens home in Tamale. What a welcome for her I'm sure. So, at 7pm, the adventure had REALLY begun.
We arrived in Tamale at 4:30 in the morning to find that our hotel reservations had been given away. (Big surprise) Just when we were about to panic, one of the many boys who hangs around the bus station offering to take your bags for money informed us that a bus would be leaving at 6am going to Larabanga, which was just 6km from Mole, and we could walk or take a taxi from there. We bought our tickets, crammed onto this incredibly packed bus, and were off. By this time, we hadn't slept in nearly 24 hours--except a few stolen naps on the pretty uncomfortable bus--we hadn't showered or changed our clothes, hadn't brushed our teeth, and had eaten nothing except the snacks we had brought, mainly peanuts, cookies, crackers and tangerines.
On the bus to Larabanga, I sat next to this young Ghanaian man, Osmand, or Ishmael as you prefer, who proceeded to tell me that he really liked me, and wanted my contact information, etc, etc. Seriously, the fact that this kid could even look at me much less handle my ridiculous morning breath shows a firmness of spirit. Anyway, I proceeded to lie, and tell him that not only did I have neither a phone nor address, but that I was leaving Ghana in a mere 3 weeks. Oops. Osmand was not discouraged. He told me that God-willing we would meet again, and that if I decided to stay in Ghana he would buy me a Cannery.
"A Cannery?" I asked, confused.
"Yes. A Cannery." replies Osmand.
"Wha...? I don't know what that is..." say I, confused and less amused than I should be. (24 hours! No sleep!)
"A Cannery! A Cannery! You don't know a Cannery? It sings and it is yellow..." Somewhat desperate to be understood Osmand.
"A Canary? Like the bird?" I am a little taken back by his passion to be understood.
"Yes! Yes! You know a Cannery?" Relieved Osmand.
In my head I am thinking: That's all I'm gonna get for staying in Ghana FOREVER with this guy? Incredible. Anyway, the ride continues with Osmand continuing to win originality points for telling me that he plays basketball and that he knows Michael Jordan. In fact, they chat online, and he was on his way to go home and chat with MJ right at that moment. Yow.
Eventually, after the bumpiest ride of my life we arrive in Larabanga, and I say goodbye to Osmand forever. (although if God wills it...) Then, the boys Tristan and Michael and their Ghanaian friend Matthew, in their wisdom decide that it would be a GREAT idea to walk along the dirt path to Mole in the 6000 degree heat. (FYI: Northern Ghana is not nearly as humid as Southern Ghana, but is also SO much hotter) I lost interest in this idea pretty quickly and Elena, Megan and I hop in a taxi to the park.
We arrive and it is wonderful once we finally get our room. It had 3 separate beds and was huge and very nice, definitely did not have running water all the time, but you learn to live without that stuff when you need to. Besides, management left us 3 buckets full of water to shower with. Which we did.
After lunch and a much needed nap, we got up for a 3:30 Safari walk through the park. It was SO incredible. We saw elephants, kob and bushbuck (from the Antelope family), baboons, warthogs and a lot of beautiful birds. We were the only group to see elephants in the last 2 days because it was their mating season, and most were further into the park where humans don't get to go. After the walk we showered, ate and fell asleep at like 7:30. It was amazing.
We had another walk at 6:30 the next morning, which was much less successful than our walk the day before. We didn't actually see anything for the first 90 minutes of the 2 hour walk, and didn't see elephants at all. However, after the walk, we were about to get lunch when 2 elephants appeared at the watering holes which are perfectly visible from the hotel restaurant and pool, so we were able to watch them drinking for a while.
After a refreshing swim in the chlorine filled pool (seriously, eyes burning after 65 seconds) we were sitting around continuing to watch the elephants, and decided to order french fries to munch upon. While we were waiting, 3 Pettris Monkeys wandered out of nowhere and started walking around the pool, eating bugs and being really cute and we were all damning ourselves for not bringing our cameras with us, and wasn't it so cure when that monkey tried to take that girl's purse and we all laughed heartily when the girl tried to get it back and then the monkey kind of swung at her, ha ha ha. Right?
Well, the fries arrive, and literally 2 seconds after they are set on our table, we see this monkey walking up to us. Surely he won't get closer right? WRONG! Just as we're kind of giggling about how the WILD MONKEY will not jump on our table, THE WILD MONKEY JUMPS ON OUR TABLE AND BEGINS TO EAT OUR FRIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The monkey is quickly shooed away by restaurant staff who look a little put out by our request for more fries. (Monkeys carry RABIES and probably Ebola too, FYI) However, the monkey returns, tries to take our stuff now, and it is a little less funny--I might venture to say really scary--when the monkey hisses and swipes at US. Yeesh.
So, the day continues. Megan and I go on one last Safari walk while Elena takes a nap, where we are put in a group with 4 of the rudest Dutch bitches I've ever met in my entire life. (probably the only ones...but still) They talked at loud as they could the entire time, scared off all the animals, made fun of us when we asked them POLITELY to please just shutthefuckup, and were really rude to our guide. Lame end to a very fun/terrifying day.
The next morning (at 4:30) we boarded a bus from the Park back to Tamale, where we decided to take a Tro Tro to Bolgatanga (further north) and then continue on to Paga at the very north of Ghana on the Burkina Faso border. Paga is the home to a sacred pool of crocodiles which are said to have never hurt a human. We were about to find out.
After taking 2 tros--the first threatened to BLOW UP (I kid you not) leaving us in Walewale (wally-wally) where we were befriended by the local Postmaster, who ended up inviting us to stay the night at his house, and sleep in his wife's bed (we politely refused) and then went on to try and charge us 65 cedis ($65) for a taxi from Walewale to Paga. (about an hour away=ridiculous) We then took our second taxi which was at least a million degrees and which we were forced to sit in for at least an hour before actually going anywhere. Thank god for men on bikes who sell Fan Ice (frozen chocolate and vanilla milk and strawberry yogurt= amazing) Anyway, we finally get to Bolgatanga, take a taxi to Paga (for 6 cedis, FYI) and then go see the crocs.
In order to get the crocodiles out of the water we were forced to buy a LIVE chicken which was repeatedly thrown into the water where it floated like a bath toy while more and more pairs of black eyes popped to the surface and slid toward the shore. In total, 5 crocodiles came out of the pool to meet us--and by meet us I mean hold completely, creepily still while we held onto their tails and posed for pictures. Then, all of a sudden as Elena was holding the tail of this huge crocodile, one of the men who works at the pool threw the poor chicken into it's mouth, and the chicken is no longer. Poor Elena, she is definitely a vegan.
After that, we took some ridiculous pictures at the Burkina Faso border which we did not cross, and then hopped a taxi back to Bolga, and then a tro (the most uncomfortable tro in the entire world which was horribly overcrowded) back to Tamale. Upon arrival in Tamale every hotel but this super gross and pretty creepy hotel--which we obviously took--was booked. I mean, my door wouldn't open from the INSIDE! Then, we found dinner, went to bed where we proceeded to simultaneously sweat through our clothes and get eaten my mosquitoes, until 4:45 am, when we got up to catch a bus back to Accra.
Our bus to Accra was highly uneventful except for the ridiculous Nigerian movies played, for which we were grateful. We finally left the bus, caught a taxi, just in time to miss a HUGE rainstorm! Yay! Unfortunately, our cab's windshield wiper broke, then the sun roof leaked all over me in the front seat, and then, stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, the battery died.
Like the adventurers that we are, Elena, Megan and I hopped out of the taxi in the pouring rain and proceeded to push it (in the rain!) until it eventually started. Much laughing ensued at the sight of 3 Oboruni women pushing a cab in the rain and dark in the middle of Accra. Ha ha indeed.
We arrived home, took bucket baths, as the water was out in Volta Hall, and went to sleep. Oh yes, and in all this ridiculousness, I lost a second toenail. Not sure I mentioned before, but I lost one a few weeks back, which has eventually regrown, but now I am down to nine once more. Alas.
I love you.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
This is for the one I love
Dear Trader Joe's,
I miss you. I miss your marinated tofu. I miss your eco-friendly re-useable bags. Things are different here. I go through black plastic bags like they're water. I tried buying a reusable bag...but the zipper broke. I still use it though. I use it when I don't have time to do my own laundry, or its raining outside and I can't hang my clothes. I put my dirty laundry in this plastic re-useable bag and take it to Akuafo Hall and pay 9 Ghana Cedis to get my laundry washed and dried. It really is nice not to have starchy underwear. I'm sure you understand.
Sometimes when I am eating Jollof Rice for the third day in a row I find myself thinking of Morning Star Farms fake chicken patties. Sometimes I crave whole wheat bread so much I convince myself that the white bread that has been dyed brown actually has nutritional value. I dream about brocolli flourets sometimes. Not every night. No, its not that bad, I just...miss them. I miss you. Your know what's funny? I used to love plantains so much! I would only eat them like twice a year, sometimes I would get them with a salad when I had long breaks between classes at school. I used to think about fried plantains. Now I just think about how many plantains I have eaten in the last week. Its a lot. What wouldn't I do for canned corn? For almond butter? For soy milk?
Trader Joes? Do you still sell soytzels? They were so good with organic peanut butter! The wonderful burnt taste...it took awhile to get used to it...but once I did I was hooked for life. It was like that scene in Mr. Hollands Opus when Mr. Holland is explaining to his wife how he felt when he first heard John Coltrain. It was just like that!
I watched When Harry Met Sally last week. It was so funny. I don't know if I ever really appreciated how much I love that film until it was the first film I'd seen in awhile. Billy Crystal is not even remotely sexy, but I would fall in love with him in that film, just like Sally does. I've been reading Harry Potter over and over. Maybe I can't admit that its over? I think I appreciate that I know what's going to happen, but it doesn't take away from the excitement at all! It is still so wonderful. I found a copy of Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince last week and now I've been reading that one too. Its so amazing, J.K. Rowling is a genius. I hope you don't think I'm crazy.
When I travel for my winter break, I might have to eat meat. I really want to climb Mt. Cameroon, but to do it I will have to put my diet directly in the hands of my guides. And, it seems pretty obvious that jerkey and dried fish is easier to carry around a mountain than eggs. That's okay though...my cholesterol must be really high right now.
I'm being brave...my body really hates it here. I think it might hate me more when I get back to you...but you'll win it back over quickly with your fiber cakes, your organic strawberries, your wonderful coffee, your cheese. Oh, your cheese! How I miss calcium! In little more than seven months I will be full of wonderful memories and a once in a lifetime experience that I appreciate more than I could ever, ever express. I will also be full of starch. But, you'll help me fix that. I know you will.
I love you.
I miss you. I miss your marinated tofu. I miss your eco-friendly re-useable bags. Things are different here. I go through black plastic bags like they're water. I tried buying a reusable bag...but the zipper broke. I still use it though. I use it when I don't have time to do my own laundry, or its raining outside and I can't hang my clothes. I put my dirty laundry in this plastic re-useable bag and take it to Akuafo Hall and pay 9 Ghana Cedis to get my laundry washed and dried. It really is nice not to have starchy underwear. I'm sure you understand.
Sometimes when I am eating Jollof Rice for the third day in a row I find myself thinking of Morning Star Farms fake chicken patties. Sometimes I crave whole wheat bread so much I convince myself that the white bread that has been dyed brown actually has nutritional value. I dream about brocolli flourets sometimes. Not every night. No, its not that bad, I just...miss them. I miss you. Your know what's funny? I used to love plantains so much! I would only eat them like twice a year, sometimes I would get them with a salad when I had long breaks between classes at school. I used to think about fried plantains. Now I just think about how many plantains I have eaten in the last week. Its a lot. What wouldn't I do for canned corn? For almond butter? For soy milk?
Trader Joes? Do you still sell soytzels? They were so good with organic peanut butter! The wonderful burnt taste...it took awhile to get used to it...but once I did I was hooked for life. It was like that scene in Mr. Hollands Opus when Mr. Holland is explaining to his wife how he felt when he first heard John Coltrain. It was just like that!
I watched When Harry Met Sally last week. It was so funny. I don't know if I ever really appreciated how much I love that film until it was the first film I'd seen in awhile. Billy Crystal is not even remotely sexy, but I would fall in love with him in that film, just like Sally does. I've been reading Harry Potter over and over. Maybe I can't admit that its over? I think I appreciate that I know what's going to happen, but it doesn't take away from the excitement at all! It is still so wonderful. I found a copy of Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince last week and now I've been reading that one too. Its so amazing, J.K. Rowling is a genius. I hope you don't think I'm crazy.
When I travel for my winter break, I might have to eat meat. I really want to climb Mt. Cameroon, but to do it I will have to put my diet directly in the hands of my guides. And, it seems pretty obvious that jerkey and dried fish is easier to carry around a mountain than eggs. That's okay though...my cholesterol must be really high right now.
I'm being brave...my body really hates it here. I think it might hate me more when I get back to you...but you'll win it back over quickly with your fiber cakes, your organic strawberries, your wonderful coffee, your cheese. Oh, your cheese! How I miss calcium! In little more than seven months I will be full of wonderful memories and a once in a lifetime experience that I appreciate more than I could ever, ever express. I will also be full of starch. But, you'll help me fix that. I know you will.
I love you.
Sunday, October 14, 2007
22 Years...and then some
Hihihihihi,
I haven't written in awhile, and there is so much to say!! Unfortunately, as is generally the case, the fun and different generally takes a back seat to the ridiculousness that is my life. The 22nd anniversary of my birth was no exception.
So, after traveling 2 weekends in a row (one trip to Kokro Bite Beach--lots of fun, beautiful beach, HORRIBLE sunburn, great pancakes and pasta--and the other to Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary--crazy rainstorm, potential Tro Tro accident, walking 5km in mud and god-knows-what-else, FEEDING MONA MONKEYS BANANAS, great game of Kings Cup in our room) I was looking forward to staying home the weekend of my birthday, especially as I had 2 papers due the next week, and trying to print your stuff out can get pretty intense, so some of my friends and I decided to have a great burrito night b-day celebration. We invited our whole group of Californians, and some of our new Ghanaian friends. Unfortunately, for the party, the electricity went out about an hour before the cooking was supposed to commence, a huge thunder storm appeared out of nowhere, and, to top it all off, in our efforts to make green chile for the party, Elena and I burned our hands (on the peppers) so badly they were on fire for literally 6 hours. The power finally came back on around 8, and my friends had gotten me a BEAUTIFUL cake (with my name on it and everything!) and the burrito eating commenced! I was still trying to cope with my intense chile burns (we tried everything to make it stop: milk, tomatoes, hydrocortizone cream, ice, cocoa butter, gin, etc, etc and nothing worked) so I didn't really eat that much, but the party was fun in the end. So much for a perfect African fiesta.
Anyway, moving on. Since then I attended a CRAZY toga party for another birthday, the theme was that everyone had to wear African cloth, and there was NO STITCHING ALLOWED. It was really amazing what some people came up with. I cheated a little, and wore leggings under my bright green fabric tied into a tube top and skirt-thing, but no one seemed to care. What was really amazing was that no one wore the same fabric at all! A bunch of Ghanaians were there too, and it was just a fun college party, complete with a game of flip cup (I didn't participate, I was too busy dancing) and it was great to have a laid back night with everyone.
I have also been playing Rugby in the past 6 weeks. We are in the process of creating a women's rugby team at the University of Ghana, however, only Oboruni girls have shown up to play. We had our first game last weekend, against a team of secondary school girls, and we were KILLED! These girls (who all looked like they were about 9) were SO fast,we just couldn't keep up with them, and, they played SO dirty! I was punched in the face twice, a girl tackled me and then elbowed me in the face, and another girl picked me up and dropped me on the ground!! It was insane. A bunch of our friends showed up to laugh at us and cheer us on, and it really was a lot of fun. We are supposed to have one more game before the end of the semester, so hopefully we'll be ready!
In addition to all this, I am SO behind in school! I have only just begun my field work for my research project, which is due in a month, and all of a sudden I have tons of papers and projects to do for my classes, which is ridiculous because we seriously haven't been doing anything in any of my classes for the entire semester! Oh well...its my fault to delaying so long on my project, a fact that my adviser is pretty ready to point out at any available opportunity. Eeesh.
Tonight all the international students are having this huge Halloween party, it should be a lot of fun. I am dressing up as one of the boys in my program, he is super tall, has long hair, a mustache, and wears bright colored pants, so my costume will not be remotely sexy, of which I am grateful, as the party is shaping up to be about 80% male. Okay, I am off to do research, I promise I will not delay so long on the blogging again.
I love you.
I haven't written in awhile, and there is so much to say!! Unfortunately, as is generally the case, the fun and different generally takes a back seat to the ridiculousness that is my life. The 22nd anniversary of my birth was no exception.
So, after traveling 2 weekends in a row (one trip to Kokro Bite Beach--lots of fun, beautiful beach, HORRIBLE sunburn, great pancakes and pasta--and the other to Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary--crazy rainstorm, potential Tro Tro accident, walking 5km in mud and god-knows-what-else, FEEDING MONA MONKEYS BANANAS, great game of Kings Cup in our room) I was looking forward to staying home the weekend of my birthday, especially as I had 2 papers due the next week, and trying to print your stuff out can get pretty intense, so some of my friends and I decided to have a great burrito night b-day celebration. We invited our whole group of Californians, and some of our new Ghanaian friends. Unfortunately, for the party, the electricity went out about an hour before the cooking was supposed to commence, a huge thunder storm appeared out of nowhere, and, to top it all off, in our efforts to make green chile for the party, Elena and I burned our hands (on the peppers) so badly they were on fire for literally 6 hours. The power finally came back on around 8, and my friends had gotten me a BEAUTIFUL cake (with my name on it and everything!) and the burrito eating commenced! I was still trying to cope with my intense chile burns (we tried everything to make it stop: milk, tomatoes, hydrocortizone cream, ice, cocoa butter, gin, etc, etc and nothing worked) so I didn't really eat that much, but the party was fun in the end. So much for a perfect African fiesta.
Anyway, moving on. Since then I attended a CRAZY toga party for another birthday, the theme was that everyone had to wear African cloth, and there was NO STITCHING ALLOWED. It was really amazing what some people came up with. I cheated a little, and wore leggings under my bright green fabric tied into a tube top and skirt-thing, but no one seemed to care. What was really amazing was that no one wore the same fabric at all! A bunch of Ghanaians were there too, and it was just a fun college party, complete with a game of flip cup (I didn't participate, I was too busy dancing) and it was great to have a laid back night with everyone.
I have also been playing Rugby in the past 6 weeks. We are in the process of creating a women's rugby team at the University of Ghana, however, only Oboruni girls have shown up to play. We had our first game last weekend, against a team of secondary school girls, and we were KILLED! These girls (who all looked like they were about 9) were SO fast,we just couldn't keep up with them, and, they played SO dirty! I was punched in the face twice, a girl tackled me and then elbowed me in the face, and another girl picked me up and dropped me on the ground!! It was insane. A bunch of our friends showed up to laugh at us and cheer us on, and it really was a lot of fun. We are supposed to have one more game before the end of the semester, so hopefully we'll be ready!
In addition to all this, I am SO behind in school! I have only just begun my field work for my research project, which is due in a month, and all of a sudden I have tons of papers and projects to do for my classes, which is ridiculous because we seriously haven't been doing anything in any of my classes for the entire semester! Oh well...its my fault to delaying so long on my project, a fact that my adviser is pretty ready to point out at any available opportunity. Eeesh.
Tonight all the international students are having this huge Halloween party, it should be a lot of fun. I am dressing up as one of the boys in my program, he is super tall, has long hair, a mustache, and wears bright colored pants, so my costume will not be remotely sexy, of which I am grateful, as the party is shaping up to be about 80% male. Okay, I am off to do research, I promise I will not delay so long on the blogging again.
I love you.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Just a Quickie
Wo ho te sen?
I have literally 20 minutes and 17 seconds left to write a quick blog, so forgive the hastiness. Things have been good here on the equator, except it is so hot now, all the time I have no motivation to do anything but read books in my dorm room. I have finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (twice), Long Walk to Freedom (Nelson Mandela's Autobiography--amazing) and Drop City by T.C. Boyle. (I don't recommend) and have now started The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, which is supposed to be amazing, and so far, is.
I know. I am so lame. I am in freaking Africa and I am reading American novels. In my defense I did also read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, about the beginnings of colonization in present-day Nigeria. (also amazing) and, it is SO HOT. We are talking 100 degrees (at least) with 100% humidity. It gets unbearably hot by 8:30, and doesn't quit until at least 7pm, and even then, its too hot to sleep, and we can't leave doors and windows open because of the mosquitoes. Needless to say, I smell great all the time.
This weekend I am escaping campus to go to Kokobrite (cocoa-breetay) Beach with Elena, Megan, and our friend Heather. It should be a lot of fun, and will give me a chance to even out the incredible wife-beater tan I have acquired.
Today has started out okay (its currently 9am) I went running with Megan, (something that needs to happen all the time seeing as my Ghanaian diet is starting to consist of white bread and rice) then got breakfast with Elena, which was good except the fly that committed suicide in my coffee--killing my soul a little with it--and am now going to drop some fabric off at my new favorite Seamstress's' place to get two pairs of shorts and a new dress. (I need something to wear in all this heat, jeez) Later I have a presentation for my independent study project...we'll see how it goes.
I'll write about my weekend soon. I love you.
I have literally 20 minutes and 17 seconds left to write a quick blog, so forgive the hastiness. Things have been good here on the equator, except it is so hot now, all the time I have no motivation to do anything but read books in my dorm room. I have finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (twice), Long Walk to Freedom (Nelson Mandela's Autobiography--amazing) and Drop City by T.C. Boyle. (I don't recommend) and have now started The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, which is supposed to be amazing, and so far, is.
I know. I am so lame. I am in freaking Africa and I am reading American novels. In my defense I did also read Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, about the beginnings of colonization in present-day Nigeria. (also amazing) and, it is SO HOT. We are talking 100 degrees (at least) with 100% humidity. It gets unbearably hot by 8:30, and doesn't quit until at least 7pm, and even then, its too hot to sleep, and we can't leave doors and windows open because of the mosquitoes. Needless to say, I smell great all the time.
This weekend I am escaping campus to go to Kokobrite (cocoa-breetay) Beach with Elena, Megan, and our friend Heather. It should be a lot of fun, and will give me a chance to even out the incredible wife-beater tan I have acquired.
Today has started out okay (its currently 9am) I went running with Megan, (something that needs to happen all the time seeing as my Ghanaian diet is starting to consist of white bread and rice) then got breakfast with Elena, which was good except the fly that committed suicide in my coffee--killing my soul a little with it--and am now going to drop some fabric off at my new favorite Seamstress's' place to get two pairs of shorts and a new dress. (I need something to wear in all this heat, jeez) Later I have a presentation for my independent study project...we'll see how it goes.
I'll write about my weekend soon. I love you.
Monday, September 17, 2007
Take Two
Wo ho te sen? (this is Twi for "how are you?" it literally means "how is your body?" the response is: Me ho ye. Or, "my body is fine" I can honestly say that this is one of very few phrases I can mutter with correct accent and one I can reply to with confidence. Anyway...my body is fine, and I hope yours is too.)
I have SO many stories! Most are general ridiculousness that would probably only happen to me. For instance: that time it was literally like 100 degrees (Fahrenheit, only like...35 degrees Celsius?) and I was in the hottest classroom in the world (where 3 of my 5 classes are...) and like 17 Ghanaian students all squeeze into MY row, even though there was really only room for about 8 of them, and I was wearing a 100% linen shirt, so I was IMMEDIATELY the really gross white girl with a total sweat band around my shirt and down my back. Gross. And also hilarious in about 10-12 months.
There are also the things like the fact that I might have a toe fungus (they take about a year to go away...too bad its flip flop season ALL THE TIME here,) How my Africa Under Colonial Rule professor hasn't shown up in 2 weeks, however has gone far enough to A.) give enormous reading assignments, and B.) Call the TA in the class after we have been waiting for him for nearly an hour, and tell us that he is on his way and is stuck in traffic, and no one is allowed to leave. This class is 2 hours long, so after an hour and 45 minutes, I decided I needed to leave. I mean seriously. There is also the time when I went into Accra to pick up the package my parents sent me (4 boxes of tampons!!!) and this ridiculous thugged-out Ghanaian guy who apparently thought that a white girl from Sweet Home Oregon would be impressed with his thuginess, (even though neither she nor he probably know anything about WHY "thugs" wear really baggy pants and "bling-bling") and decided to play this third grade game of tag with her (meaning he got up from the counter he was leaning against and tapped her on the shoulder as fast as he could, and then went back to leaning against his counter, maybe hoping she wouldn't see?) But she saw and was completely unimpressed with both the thuginess AND the game of tag she once played with boys on the playground at Oak Heights Elementary School. Sadly, this girl, ME, did not come to Ghana to act like she is 11. Crazy. I know.
Besides the ridiculous, which, let's face it follows me everywhere, things have been pretty tame around here. School has really started, and besides the pretty large amount of reading I have to do for both my Colonial Rule class and my Black Diaspora class, things are very mellow. I did decide to drop my African Literature class as it was both 3 hours long and also the most boring class I have ever taken in my life. I have replaced it with Gender Issues in Religion and Society. Which might turn out to be the most interesting class EVER. Why? You might ask. Well, this class is made up of about 50 people. About 15 are oboruni (white--spelled correctly this time) women, and the other 35 or so are Ghanaian men and women. (Apparently oboruni men know better?) Anyway, the oboruni women and Ghanaian men represent too very opposite sides of the gender spectrum. For example: at one point during the discussion, the scenario was raised that if a Ghanaian family had one boy and one girl, but only enough money to educate one, who would they logically choose? (Obviously they would choose the boy, as men are seen as the providers and women marry and leave the family, so it is the boy who will provide for the larger family unit, etc, etc.) These ideas were voiced in various ways, and then one man raised his hand to say "Well, it would be a waste of time to educate the female." WHAT!!! I could barely believe my ears! To be fair, in the context, and after the other before-mentioned ideas were expressed, this is a somewhat valid statement, however, WHO JUST SAYS THAT???? The answer: Apparently a lot of people. As was soon proven. when "power" was described as a man being able to provide for his family, financially stable women were described as being "disrespectful" to their husbands, and when someone (a guy) made the statement that every woman he knew with children had thoroughly enjoyed being pregnant. I think I am about to learn A LOT about gender culture in Ghana. I am so excited!
Today has been pretty decent thus-far. I took my friend (and by took, I mean accompanied her in a taxi--which she paid for) to the hospital to get her ankle looked at (she tore a ligament during a football game last week) then we went to lunch, talked a lot about ourselves--I learned Becky's mom died when she was 13, and about her religion, Baha'i. I told her about all my plans for the future (which are a forever fluid group of ideas that change intensity and priority almost daily) and later today I am going shopping for food and dishes to accompany my new HOT PLATE! This thing is going to change EVERYTHING! (I hope it will at least help me eat vegetables without getting sick--that would be a pretty big accomplishment.) In other news, I decided not to go forward with Cross Country, but I might be playing women's RUGBY soon. I'll keep you posted. I love you.
I have SO many stories! Most are general ridiculousness that would probably only happen to me. For instance: that time it was literally like 100 degrees (Fahrenheit, only like...35 degrees Celsius?) and I was in the hottest classroom in the world (where 3 of my 5 classes are...) and like 17 Ghanaian students all squeeze into MY row, even though there was really only room for about 8 of them, and I was wearing a 100% linen shirt, so I was IMMEDIATELY the really gross white girl with a total sweat band around my shirt and down my back. Gross. And also hilarious in about 10-12 months.
There are also the things like the fact that I might have a toe fungus (they take about a year to go away...too bad its flip flop season ALL THE TIME here,) How my Africa Under Colonial Rule professor hasn't shown up in 2 weeks, however has gone far enough to A.) give enormous reading assignments, and B.) Call the TA in the class after we have been waiting for him for nearly an hour, and tell us that he is on his way and is stuck in traffic, and no one is allowed to leave. This class is 2 hours long, so after an hour and 45 minutes, I decided I needed to leave. I mean seriously. There is also the time when I went into Accra to pick up the package my parents sent me (4 boxes of tampons!!!) and this ridiculous thugged-out Ghanaian guy who apparently thought that a white girl from Sweet Home Oregon would be impressed with his thuginess, (even though neither she nor he probably know anything about WHY "thugs" wear really baggy pants and "bling-bling") and decided to play this third grade game of tag with her (meaning he got up from the counter he was leaning against and tapped her on the shoulder as fast as he could, and then went back to leaning against his counter, maybe hoping she wouldn't see?) But she saw and was completely unimpressed with both the thuginess AND the game of tag she once played with boys on the playground at Oak Heights Elementary School. Sadly, this girl, ME, did not come to Ghana to act like she is 11. Crazy. I know.
Besides the ridiculous, which, let's face it follows me everywhere, things have been pretty tame around here. School has really started, and besides the pretty large amount of reading I have to do for both my Colonial Rule class and my Black Diaspora class, things are very mellow. I did decide to drop my African Literature class as it was both 3 hours long and also the most boring class I have ever taken in my life. I have replaced it with Gender Issues in Religion and Society. Which might turn out to be the most interesting class EVER. Why? You might ask. Well, this class is made up of about 50 people. About 15 are oboruni (white--spelled correctly this time) women, and the other 35 or so are Ghanaian men and women. (Apparently oboruni men know better?) Anyway, the oboruni women and Ghanaian men represent too very opposite sides of the gender spectrum. For example: at one point during the discussion, the scenario was raised that if a Ghanaian family had one boy and one girl, but only enough money to educate one, who would they logically choose? (Obviously they would choose the boy, as men are seen as the providers and women marry and leave the family, so it is the boy who will provide for the larger family unit, etc, etc.) These ideas were voiced in various ways, and then one man raised his hand to say "Well, it would be a waste of time to educate the female." WHAT!!! I could barely believe my ears! To be fair, in the context, and after the other before-mentioned ideas were expressed, this is a somewhat valid statement, however, WHO JUST SAYS THAT???? The answer: Apparently a lot of people. As was soon proven. when "power" was described as a man being able to provide for his family, financially stable women were described as being "disrespectful" to their husbands, and when someone (a guy) made the statement that every woman he knew with children had thoroughly enjoyed being pregnant. I think I am about to learn A LOT about gender culture in Ghana. I am so excited!
Today has been pretty decent thus-far. I took my friend (and by took, I mean accompanied her in a taxi--which she paid for) to the hospital to get her ankle looked at (she tore a ligament during a football game last week) then we went to lunch, talked a lot about ourselves--I learned Becky's mom died when she was 13, and about her religion, Baha'i. I told her about all my plans for the future (which are a forever fluid group of ideas that change intensity and priority almost daily) and later today I am going shopping for food and dishes to accompany my new HOT PLATE! This thing is going to change EVERYTHING! (I hope it will at least help me eat vegetables without getting sick--that would be a pretty big accomplishment.) In other news, I decided not to go forward with Cross Country, but I might be playing women's RUGBY soon. I'll keep you posted. I love you.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Clean Laundry and Football
Hello again,
So...I have calmed down considerably since the last blog/rant. My schedule has finally been figured out! I am now taking Twi, Economic History of West Africa 1700-1860, The Black Diaspora, Colonial Rule and African Response, and Masterpieces of African Literature. Along with my independent research project (which has changed for the fourth time) examining the creation of women's NGOs in Ghana in the period of 1982-1992(ish...) when Ghana was under a pretty dictatorial government. Who was saying what women's roles were under this military regime? Etc.
In other good news, I gave in to temptation and paid to have 2 loads of laundry washed and dried in machines for me. I think that it was 6 cedis well spent. Especially considering that one of my purses has started to mold...Also, my towel is now both soft and clean, when, up until now it has either been soft and damp (and subsequently kind of smelly) or clean and sand-papery. I can tell you that after a 3.5 minute ice cold shower, neither of these options are that appealing. Oh well.
I have been in Ghana for 6 weeks! I am starting to realize how quickly the year will go by. Now that I have reading assignments, research to do, and football games to attend, I know that this first semester will be gone very quickly. Its both good and bad. In some ways I am so ready to go home. I want to dry my clothes, and take warm showers, and know that the toilets will flush, and not get stared at everywhere I go. But also, there are so many amazing things here. The break down of infrastructure makes everyone work so much harder. This is not a bad thing. People relate to one another in ways that would never happen in America. There is a level of comfortable that I can't describe other than say that people are so open here. About everything. The number of times I have had conversations about bowel movements is huge. Because you have to! Everyone is so willing to help out, and go further, and try harder, because that is just what you do. I hope I will remember those things when I leave.
I bought an orange yesterday using Twi! What an accomplishment! The woman just laughed at me the whole time, but she understood me, and it was amazing! (it was a very good orange too) Also, I watched the live broadcast of the U-17 world cup. The match between Ghana and Spain played on Wednesday morning, in Akuafo Hall, one of the dorms here. It was SO FUN! It was mainly Ghanaian men there, and then me and about 7 other white students, but everyone was screaming and singing and yelling at every call! Ghana lost 2 to 1 in the second overtime, which was heartbreaking but I am now VERY excited to attend some of the Africa Cup games, which will be held in January in Ghana. And, Ghana is the best football team in Africa, so its gonna be CRAZY! I can't wait.
Speaking of crazy. The weekend in Cape Coast was really fun. Elena's birthday was Friday, and so we all drank a lot (I held back as to take care of the birthday girl--who desperately needed it) and then went dancing on the beach. Because I am the best roommate ever, I shoved about a liter of water down Elena's throat, along with a loaf of bread, and she did not vomit and did not have a hangover the next morning. (Thank you, Andrea) The lack of hangover was a good thing because we ended up spending all day Saturday dancing in the streets of Cape Coast in the middle of this huge parade celebrating Cape Coast's New Year. It was wet and cold and so much fun. Other than the fact that some drunk Ghanaian teen poured Guinness in my hair...
On Sunday, we went to Kukum National Park to do the canopy walk. We walked through the top of a rain forest. I have some pretty incredible pictures. I will definitely show you. In 9 months when I come back. Wow...I love you.
So...I have calmed down considerably since the last blog/rant. My schedule has finally been figured out! I am now taking Twi, Economic History of West Africa 1700-1860, The Black Diaspora, Colonial Rule and African Response, and Masterpieces of African Literature. Along with my independent research project (which has changed for the fourth time) examining the creation of women's NGOs in Ghana in the period of 1982-1992(ish...) when Ghana was under a pretty dictatorial government. Who was saying what women's roles were under this military regime? Etc.
In other good news, I gave in to temptation and paid to have 2 loads of laundry washed and dried in machines for me. I think that it was 6 cedis well spent. Especially considering that one of my purses has started to mold...Also, my towel is now both soft and clean, when, up until now it has either been soft and damp (and subsequently kind of smelly) or clean and sand-papery. I can tell you that after a 3.5 minute ice cold shower, neither of these options are that appealing. Oh well.
I have been in Ghana for 6 weeks! I am starting to realize how quickly the year will go by. Now that I have reading assignments, research to do, and football games to attend, I know that this first semester will be gone very quickly. Its both good and bad. In some ways I am so ready to go home. I want to dry my clothes, and take warm showers, and know that the toilets will flush, and not get stared at everywhere I go. But also, there are so many amazing things here. The break down of infrastructure makes everyone work so much harder. This is not a bad thing. People relate to one another in ways that would never happen in America. There is a level of comfortable that I can't describe other than say that people are so open here. About everything. The number of times I have had conversations about bowel movements is huge. Because you have to! Everyone is so willing to help out, and go further, and try harder, because that is just what you do. I hope I will remember those things when I leave.
I bought an orange yesterday using Twi! What an accomplishment! The woman just laughed at me the whole time, but she understood me, and it was amazing! (it was a very good orange too) Also, I watched the live broadcast of the U-17 world cup. The match between Ghana and Spain played on Wednesday morning, in Akuafo Hall, one of the dorms here. It was SO FUN! It was mainly Ghanaian men there, and then me and about 7 other white students, but everyone was screaming and singing and yelling at every call! Ghana lost 2 to 1 in the second overtime, which was heartbreaking but I am now VERY excited to attend some of the Africa Cup games, which will be held in January in Ghana. And, Ghana is the best football team in Africa, so its gonna be CRAZY! I can't wait.
Speaking of crazy. The weekend in Cape Coast was really fun. Elena's birthday was Friday, and so we all drank a lot (I held back as to take care of the birthday girl--who desperately needed it) and then went dancing on the beach. Because I am the best roommate ever, I shoved about a liter of water down Elena's throat, along with a loaf of bread, and she did not vomit and did not have a hangover the next morning. (Thank you, Andrea) The lack of hangover was a good thing because we ended up spending all day Saturday dancing in the streets of Cape Coast in the middle of this huge parade celebrating Cape Coast's New Year. It was wet and cold and so much fun. Other than the fact that some drunk Ghanaian teen poured Guinness in my hair...
On Sunday, we went to Kukum National Park to do the canopy walk. We walked through the top of a rain forest. I have some pretty incredible pictures. I will definitely show you. In 9 months when I come back. Wow...I love you.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Bureaucracy is a four letter word
Hello,
I must preface this rant disguised as a blog with the statement that I really am having an amazing time here. I am leaving for a weekend long festival in Cape Coast, and will then be on my way to Kukum National Park to do the canopy walk. I succeeded in buying wheat bread and oatmeal today, and I really enjoyed my first Twi class today. Not all is lost. However, despite the good, today was one of the longest days of my life. It is only 7pm.
Soooo, one of the reasons it happened to be ridiculously long is that I woke up at 4:20 (in the morning) today. By choice. In an effort to get fit, hang out with new friends, and make more, I have decided to join the Volta Hall (my all girl dorm) cross country team. This week is training for all the Volta ladies teams, including table tennis. The training involves a 20 minute run and then some crunches, sit ups, and stretching. AT FOUR IN THE MORNING. After the workout, I was sweaty and awake, so after my shower I decided to do my laundry. At 6am. Ridiculous? Maybe. Because we will be in Cape Coast all weekend, I will miss my usual Sunday morning ritual of washing all the weeks clothes under the thinly veiled judgement of all the girls going to church. (They all get up at around 5 on Saturday morning to do their washing. No thanks.) So, I washed all my clothes, and then me and Elena went to breakfast, where I only had to wait about 5 minutes (instead of the usual 20) to get my oatmeal and coffee. I have realized that oatmeal is my only chance for fiber here, and I am willing to wait for my colon's health.
Moving on. After breakfast I went to my first Twi lesson. The class is special for the people in my group, and is held in our own special study center located at the top of campus. Today my orientation journal and my ridiculously brown-nosing essay on "What I Learned from Orientation" were due. Our orientation, which really was immensely helpful, has also succeeded in reducing the 60 of us college age men and women into children, not to mention has continually saddled us with innumerable spur of the moment meetings with a million random people, not to mention tons of ridiculous (Orientation journal?) homework. So, I go to my Twi class. This class is scheduled to be in two groupings. The first is Monday and Wednesday mornings at 9:30 and the second is Tuesdays at 11:30 and Thursdays at 9:30. I have a class during Mondays lessons, so the second option works better because I have my African Literature class from 8:30 to 11:30 on Tuesdays (no kidding. 3 hour lit class at 8:30. Gross) and no classes on Thursdays. So, I get to class and find out that not only am I REQUIRED to turn in my class schedule TODAY, before leaving for Cape Coast, but Twi has been moved to 9:30 on Tuesdays.
This is frustrating for several reasons. First, and more obvious, I have another class during the Tuesday lesson. And since I also have a class (African History to 1500) on Mondays, it is now apparent that I will be unable to take Twi. The more complicated, is that some of my professors have yet to show up for class. I am serious. Not to mention, the add/drop date is not until Sept. 7th, AND the exam schedule is still not posted. Let me clarify. I am required to turn in a paper that says, in finality, what classes I will be taking, and with who, when I have not even had some of my classes yet, and I don't know when any of my final exams are, so I am unaware as to whether the classes I have signed up for yet will be feasible when it comes to exam time. And then, to make everything just a little more complicated, they have changed the time of the class that I was working my entire schedule around. I hated everyone.
This is where the bureaucracy really kills me. I am suffering under the demands of this goddamn study center, who changes its mind all the time, and doesn't bother to tell me until the day before I have to drop something, or change something, and it is all because the study center that I am being screwed over by here in Ghana is being screwed over my all the different schools in the States that are making it turn in copies of our registration BEFORE THE ADD/DROP DATE OF THE SCHOOL. Is this ridiculous to anyone else????!!!!??? God.
Moving on, again. To make my frustration even more dense, I was also informed that I would have to do a presentation, complete with literary review, of my independent study project, next week. You may be wondering: "what is this special study project?" I will tell you. I am required to write a 30 page paper about a topic that I will individually research and execute, under the supervision of a campus Professor, who I must find. This project does nothing for any requirement at my school. I repeat: this 30 page paper, that I am required to spend AT LEAST 10 hours a week researching, DOES NOT FULFILL ANY REQUIREMENT AT SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY. Ahhhhhhhhhh! To make matters worse (yes, it gets worse) I had a project set up, and had found an advisor all on my own, but my ridiculous (and terrifying) orientation advisor woman who is in charge of all of us, told me I could not do my project, and gave me an entirely new one. Granted, her project is better that mine was. Unfortunately, I have to do EXTENSIVE background research, not to mention, find a new professor to advise me in a week. Oh yeah. I will be gone all weekend.
And, to top everything off, it starting pouring (we are talking torrential downpour here) in the middle of me crashing a new African History class that I am forced to take instead of African History to 1500, (as I must take Twi. Schedule completely fucked? yes.) so all my laundry, that I needed for the weekend will never dry in time. How are you expected to hang dry clothes during the rainy season??? How??!
In good news, I can hear again, I am finally done with my antibiotics, so I can actually eat without wanting to kill myself, and tomorrow is Elena's birthday, so its gonna be a 3 day party in Cape Coast. After today I really need it. I love you.
I must preface this rant disguised as a blog with the statement that I really am having an amazing time here. I am leaving for a weekend long festival in Cape Coast, and will then be on my way to Kukum National Park to do the canopy walk. I succeeded in buying wheat bread and oatmeal today, and I really enjoyed my first Twi class today. Not all is lost. However, despite the good, today was one of the longest days of my life. It is only 7pm.
Soooo, one of the reasons it happened to be ridiculously long is that I woke up at 4:20 (in the morning) today. By choice. In an effort to get fit, hang out with new friends, and make more, I have decided to join the Volta Hall (my all girl dorm) cross country team. This week is training for all the Volta ladies teams, including table tennis. The training involves a 20 minute run and then some crunches, sit ups, and stretching. AT FOUR IN THE MORNING. After the workout, I was sweaty and awake, so after my shower I decided to do my laundry. At 6am. Ridiculous? Maybe. Because we will be in Cape Coast all weekend, I will miss my usual Sunday morning ritual of washing all the weeks clothes under the thinly veiled judgement of all the girls going to church. (They all get up at around 5 on Saturday morning to do their washing. No thanks.) So, I washed all my clothes, and then me and Elena went to breakfast, where I only had to wait about 5 minutes (instead of the usual 20) to get my oatmeal and coffee. I have realized that oatmeal is my only chance for fiber here, and I am willing to wait for my colon's health.
Moving on. After breakfast I went to my first Twi lesson. The class is special for the people in my group, and is held in our own special study center located at the top of campus. Today my orientation journal and my ridiculously brown-nosing essay on "What I Learned from Orientation" were due. Our orientation, which really was immensely helpful, has also succeeded in reducing the 60 of us college age men and women into children, not to mention has continually saddled us with innumerable spur of the moment meetings with a million random people, not to mention tons of ridiculous (Orientation journal?) homework. So, I go to my Twi class. This class is scheduled to be in two groupings. The first is Monday and Wednesday mornings at 9:30 and the second is Tuesdays at 11:30 and Thursdays at 9:30. I have a class during Mondays lessons, so the second option works better because I have my African Literature class from 8:30 to 11:30 on Tuesdays (no kidding. 3 hour lit class at 8:30. Gross) and no classes on Thursdays. So, I get to class and find out that not only am I REQUIRED to turn in my class schedule TODAY, before leaving for Cape Coast, but Twi has been moved to 9:30 on Tuesdays.
This is frustrating for several reasons. First, and more obvious, I have another class during the Tuesday lesson. And since I also have a class (African History to 1500) on Mondays, it is now apparent that I will be unable to take Twi. The more complicated, is that some of my professors have yet to show up for class. I am serious. Not to mention, the add/drop date is not until Sept. 7th, AND the exam schedule is still not posted. Let me clarify. I am required to turn in a paper that says, in finality, what classes I will be taking, and with who, when I have not even had some of my classes yet, and I don't know when any of my final exams are, so I am unaware as to whether the classes I have signed up for yet will be feasible when it comes to exam time. And then, to make everything just a little more complicated, they have changed the time of the class that I was working my entire schedule around. I hated everyone.
This is where the bureaucracy really kills me. I am suffering under the demands of this goddamn study center, who changes its mind all the time, and doesn't bother to tell me until the day before I have to drop something, or change something, and it is all because the study center that I am being screwed over by here in Ghana is being screwed over my all the different schools in the States that are making it turn in copies of our registration BEFORE THE ADD/DROP DATE OF THE SCHOOL. Is this ridiculous to anyone else????!!!!??? God.
Moving on, again. To make my frustration even more dense, I was also informed that I would have to do a presentation, complete with literary review, of my independent study project, next week. You may be wondering: "what is this special study project?" I will tell you. I am required to write a 30 page paper about a topic that I will individually research and execute, under the supervision of a campus Professor, who I must find. This project does nothing for any requirement at my school. I repeat: this 30 page paper, that I am required to spend AT LEAST 10 hours a week researching, DOES NOT FULFILL ANY REQUIREMENT AT SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY. Ahhhhhhhhhh! To make matters worse (yes, it gets worse) I had a project set up, and had found an advisor all on my own, but my ridiculous (and terrifying) orientation advisor woman who is in charge of all of us, told me I could not do my project, and gave me an entirely new one. Granted, her project is better that mine was. Unfortunately, I have to do EXTENSIVE background research, not to mention, find a new professor to advise me in a week. Oh yeah. I will be gone all weekend.
And, to top everything off, it starting pouring (we are talking torrential downpour here) in the middle of me crashing a new African History class that I am forced to take instead of African History to 1500, (as I must take Twi. Schedule completely fucked? yes.) so all my laundry, that I needed for the weekend will never dry in time. How are you expected to hang dry clothes during the rainy season??? How??!
In good news, I can hear again, I am finally done with my antibiotics, so I can actually eat without wanting to kill myself, and tomorrow is Elena's birthday, so its gonna be a 3 day party in Cape Coast. After today I really need it. I love you.
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Maybe, baby.
Hi, hi, hi, hi, hi.
Soooooo, since the Mountain Biking adventure much more, much less fun stuff has transpired. Basically, my left ear still doesn't work. However, that may not be the biggest of my health worries. On Monday I woke up feeling ridiculously lethargic and kind of dizzy. I soldiered through my morning, but by around 10am, my dizziness was getting worse and I had developed a fever. I made the command decision that maybe I should return to the hospital and find out what was going on. On the walk there, I started getting achy in my joints. You may not know it (as most of you reading this DO NOT live in Sub-Saharan Africa) but these are all symptoms of Malaria. I was a little freaked out, and feeling worse by the minute, so Elena escorted me to the hospital where it was complete and total chaos. I am talking lines and lines of people waiting for I-don't-know-what. I joined the line for registration thinking it would take at least 20 minutes to get through it. I was very, very wrong.
I have not yet explained the complete inability of Ghanaians to form a line. As an American, I thrive on order and form, and JUST DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW IT COULD POSSIBLY BE OKAY TO JUST JUMP TO THE FRONT OF A LINE WHENEVER YOU WANT TO. But here it is. It is okay for random people who do not want to wait to simply get in front of a service window and be helped. Immediately. It was ridiculous. I waited and was pushed to the back over and over and over for over an hour. I was near tears several times as I felt like I was about to faint, Elena had left me to go to a class, and I could neither understand the different conversations around me, nor could I hear any of the conversations in English because of my ear. If it hadn't been happening to me it would have been a situation worthy of a sitcom.
But...it was happening to me, and I wanted to shoot someone. Finally the 10 or so people who had shoved in front of me took pity on me and let me register, where I was given my patient card and sent to wait in a more orderly line to actually see a doctor. I waited here for 45 minutes, and finally got in to see the doctor. After I told her I had been in a few days before, she stopped listening to me explaining to her that I might be DYING of malaria in front of her, and told me I had to see my original doctor. Ahhhhhhhh! I completely lost it. Sobbing, I let the nurse take to to yet ANOTHER line, where she (thankfully) told the doctor that I needed to be the next patient inside.
Finally inside, I am pretty sure that my obviously emotional state made people take me a little less seriously when I started explaining my very real symptoms. However, the doctor did take my temperature, and was did look in my ear again, and at least concluded that I did have both a fever and an ear infection. He then explained to me that because I had been in Ghana almost a month, and was a foreigner, I had to be put on anti-malarial drugs. I then had to have my blood taken, and was told to come back on Tuesday to find out the results. After hearing how frustrated I was with the hospital system, the doctor, Dr. Bulcari, gave me his cell phone number to call if I needed help with anything saying: "I don't want you to be frustrated anymore." I hope he doesn't think I am a spoiled American...
Tuesday I returned to the hospital, where no one could find my patient card, and I was forced to sift through stacks of previous day's cards looking for it. (Seriously) Upon its continued failure to turn up, and my growing frustration (for lack of any other word to use) with the continued ridiculousness, I was finally given a new card. Then, I was told by the douche bag lab guy that I had to see my doctor before I could get my test results. So...I waited in line to see Dr. Bulcari for almost 2 hours, and when finally getting inside I was told to wait longer while my doctor went to yell at the lab guy for not giving me my lab results. Christ. My test was negative. However, only 10% of people with Malaria actually test positive for it...so...
On the bright side I have been feeling much better since taking the huge amounts of medication I was prescribed. Unfortunately, they also make me VERY drowsy and nauseous...so that sucks. However, since none of my classes have actually been attended by those teaching (yes, none of my professors have shown up to class yet...) including my 7:30 am Political Science class...I have had ample time to recover.
In some miscellaneous news, I took my first bucket shower today. The water stopped running around 7pm last night, and has yet to come back on. I doubt I did it right, apparently there is a type of method for bucket showering...I just sort of threw water around...oh well. I hope your health is less sporadic than mine has been lately. I love you.
Soooooo, since the Mountain Biking adventure much more, much less fun stuff has transpired. Basically, my left ear still doesn't work. However, that may not be the biggest of my health worries. On Monday I woke up feeling ridiculously lethargic and kind of dizzy. I soldiered through my morning, but by around 10am, my dizziness was getting worse and I had developed a fever. I made the command decision that maybe I should return to the hospital and find out what was going on. On the walk there, I started getting achy in my joints. You may not know it (as most of you reading this DO NOT live in Sub-Saharan Africa) but these are all symptoms of Malaria. I was a little freaked out, and feeling worse by the minute, so Elena escorted me to the hospital where it was complete and total chaos. I am talking lines and lines of people waiting for I-don't-know-what. I joined the line for registration thinking it would take at least 20 minutes to get through it. I was very, very wrong.
I have not yet explained the complete inability of Ghanaians to form a line. As an American, I thrive on order and form, and JUST DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW IT COULD POSSIBLY BE OKAY TO JUST JUMP TO THE FRONT OF A LINE WHENEVER YOU WANT TO. But here it is. It is okay for random people who do not want to wait to simply get in front of a service window and be helped. Immediately. It was ridiculous. I waited and was pushed to the back over and over and over for over an hour. I was near tears several times as I felt like I was about to faint, Elena had left me to go to a class, and I could neither understand the different conversations around me, nor could I hear any of the conversations in English because of my ear. If it hadn't been happening to me it would have been a situation worthy of a sitcom.
But...it was happening to me, and I wanted to shoot someone. Finally the 10 or so people who had shoved in front of me took pity on me and let me register, where I was given my patient card and sent to wait in a more orderly line to actually see a doctor. I waited here for 45 minutes, and finally got in to see the doctor. After I told her I had been in a few days before, she stopped listening to me explaining to her that I might be DYING of malaria in front of her, and told me I had to see my original doctor. Ahhhhhhhh! I completely lost it. Sobbing, I let the nurse take to to yet ANOTHER line, where she (thankfully) told the doctor that I needed to be the next patient inside.
Finally inside, I am pretty sure that my obviously emotional state made people take me a little less seriously when I started explaining my very real symptoms. However, the doctor did take my temperature, and was did look in my ear again, and at least concluded that I did have both a fever and an ear infection. He then explained to me that because I had been in Ghana almost a month, and was a foreigner, I had to be put on anti-malarial drugs. I then had to have my blood taken, and was told to come back on Tuesday to find out the results. After hearing how frustrated I was with the hospital system, the doctor, Dr. Bulcari, gave me his cell phone number to call if I needed help with anything saying: "I don't want you to be frustrated anymore." I hope he doesn't think I am a spoiled American...
Tuesday I returned to the hospital, where no one could find my patient card, and I was forced to sift through stacks of previous day's cards looking for it. (Seriously) Upon its continued failure to turn up, and my growing frustration (for lack of any other word to use) with the continued ridiculousness, I was finally given a new card. Then, I was told by the douche bag lab guy that I had to see my doctor before I could get my test results. So...I waited in line to see Dr. Bulcari for almost 2 hours, and when finally getting inside I was told to wait longer while my doctor went to yell at the lab guy for not giving me my lab results. Christ. My test was negative. However, only 10% of people with Malaria actually test positive for it...so...
On the bright side I have been feeling much better since taking the huge amounts of medication I was prescribed. Unfortunately, they also make me VERY drowsy and nauseous...so that sucks. However, since none of my classes have actually been attended by those teaching (yes, none of my professors have shown up to class yet...) including my 7:30 am Political Science class...I have had ample time to recover.
In some miscellaneous news, I took my first bucket shower today. The water stopped running around 7pm last night, and has yet to come back on. I doubt I did it right, apparently there is a type of method for bucket showering...I just sort of threw water around...oh well. I hope your health is less sporadic than mine has been lately. I love you.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
My left ear
Hello again,
So in the few days since my last blog, a lot has happened. Among the more boring, I successfully registered for way more classes than I actually am allowed to take, because I have NO IDEA when the hell these classes are offered. I do need to add here, that if I can't take the classes I need...I might never graduate. EVER. hmmmmm
In the more interesting, and much more ridiculous, I woke up on Wednesday feeling like my left ear was full of water, and finding it very difficult to hear out of it. Eventually, the clogged feeling subsided, and I felt fine. That same evening, Elena and I met 8 of our new neighbors. They are all "freshers" and have just completed secondary school. I don't remember all their names...but some were: Debbie, Sylvia, Rose, Emanuela, and a set of twins who said we could call them "P" and "K."I have recently put up some pictures in my room, and among the various things I had, my "George Bush's dumb-ass head on a string" air freshener was taped to the wall. This inspired much discussion, and our neighbors were incredibly curious about why, if we hated our president, had we voted for him. We tried to explain that we hadn't, and they countered with the fact that the majority of our nation had. We attempted to explain that a small portion of people in the US actually vote at all, but it became pretty garbled in socio-economic stuff. At the very least, they think we are: A.) interesting. B.) heathens. C.) going to hell. The answer is C. And it was confirmed when we were invited to a youth group function scheduled for Saturday morning. We had to decline, we had an international student orientation to go to.
Thursday morning I woke up without the ability to hear out of my left ear at all. I had a jogging date planned with my neighbor Sylvia, but decided to cancel, as I felt my ear trouble somewhat serious. Elena, who has had a lot of ear trouble in her life suggested olive oil to break up the fatty lipids (mucus) in my ear. We tried it, twice, with no success other than me being completely embarrassed to be seen by the unusually large amount of visitors who came to our room to see me with cotton balls in my ears. I then tried a decongestant...with no success. In desperation (after the refusal of the Pharmacy guy to sell my ear drops) I tried Hydrogen Peroxide. No luck.
I was pretty frustrated with my ear ridiculousness...but did not let it stop me from going Mountain biking on Friday. Me, Elena, Megan, and Becky went to Aburi, a small town about 40 minutes from Legon and rented bikes to take a tour of these amazing botanical gardens. We decided to take the easiest tour (since none of us have mountain biking experience) but also decided not to take a guide. After a few wrong turns which incredibly nice townspeople helped us out of, we were on the right trail. We were zooming through this incredibly beautiful area, huge palm trees everywhere, a pond to our right, a stream just ahead, and then I crashed in a corn field. No joke. The trails were very narrow, and pretty rocky in some places and if you swerved in one direction you were bound to swerve in the other. My crash was not the last (for me or anyone else) of the day. I succeeded in crashing in random fields at least 3 more times. But the prize for crashing goes to Elena. This girl started the day face-planting in dirt, and ended it by launching herself into a palm tree where she received some pretty deep lacerations on her right arm and all over her breasts where a branch punctured through her shirt and did its damage.
Along the way we took a wrong turn and ended up going about an hour the wrong direction--through a corn field--until we finally turned around, found our mistake, and got back on the correct trail. During this, we were trying so hard to navigate what we were trying to believe was a bike trail, resulting, not only in a multitude of crashes and falling off bikes, but also in me treading through an ants nest and looking down to find at least 20 biting my leg and wriggling into my sock. Momentary freak-out ensued. In the end, this 1.5-2 hour trail took us 4.5 hour to complete. Not to mention none us had eaten for about 8 hours at this point, and we had probably burned through about 1500 calories. In short we were exhausted. On the way home, we stopped at a Shell station (the first I've seen here) and each spent at least 5 cedis on complete, wonderful, crap (Mars bars, chocolate croissants, ice cream, Pringles, candy coated peanuts, and a lot of water too.)
When we returned to campus we went to the hospital, to get Elena's wounds cleaned--she still had quite a bit of tree stuck in her various cuts--and to get my ears looked at, as my left was useless, and my right starting to throb. After a 3 hour wait, Elena was cleaned and given pain killers, and I was told the unnatural amount of "fluid" in my left ear was the result of allergies, and the throbbing in my right the result of over-excited Q-tipping. Ooops. I now have antibiotics and allergy medicine, so if I still can't hear in 3 days, I guess I should be worried.
It probably seems like the biking adventure was not fun. Quite the contrary. In the midst of the falling, the ants, and the impalements, we were laughing the whole time. Even though I am SUPER bad at it, Mountain Biking is SO fun. I am definitely going back soon, and its something I think I could really enjoy in the states. This was my first, true, African adventure. I plan on having many more. I love you.
So in the few days since my last blog, a lot has happened. Among the more boring, I successfully registered for way more classes than I actually am allowed to take, because I have NO IDEA when the hell these classes are offered. I do need to add here, that if I can't take the classes I need...I might never graduate. EVER. hmmmmm
In the more interesting, and much more ridiculous, I woke up on Wednesday feeling like my left ear was full of water, and finding it very difficult to hear out of it. Eventually, the clogged feeling subsided, and I felt fine. That same evening, Elena and I met 8 of our new neighbors. They are all "freshers" and have just completed secondary school. I don't remember all their names...but some were: Debbie, Sylvia, Rose, Emanuela, and a set of twins who said we could call them "P" and "K."I have recently put up some pictures in my room, and among the various things I had, my "George Bush's dumb-ass head on a string" air freshener was taped to the wall. This inspired much discussion, and our neighbors were incredibly curious about why, if we hated our president, had we voted for him. We tried to explain that we hadn't, and they countered with the fact that the majority of our nation had. We attempted to explain that a small portion of people in the US actually vote at all, but it became pretty garbled in socio-economic stuff. At the very least, they think we are: A.) interesting. B.) heathens. C.) going to hell. The answer is C. And it was confirmed when we were invited to a youth group function scheduled for Saturday morning. We had to decline, we had an international student orientation to go to.
Thursday morning I woke up without the ability to hear out of my left ear at all. I had a jogging date planned with my neighbor Sylvia, but decided to cancel, as I felt my ear trouble somewhat serious. Elena, who has had a lot of ear trouble in her life suggested olive oil to break up the fatty lipids (mucus) in my ear. We tried it, twice, with no success other than me being completely embarrassed to be seen by the unusually large amount of visitors who came to our room to see me with cotton balls in my ears. I then tried a decongestant...with no success. In desperation (after the refusal of the Pharmacy guy to sell my ear drops) I tried Hydrogen Peroxide. No luck.
I was pretty frustrated with my ear ridiculousness...but did not let it stop me from going Mountain biking on Friday. Me, Elena, Megan, and Becky went to Aburi, a small town about 40 minutes from Legon and rented bikes to take a tour of these amazing botanical gardens. We decided to take the easiest tour (since none of us have mountain biking experience) but also decided not to take a guide. After a few wrong turns which incredibly nice townspeople helped us out of, we were on the right trail. We were zooming through this incredibly beautiful area, huge palm trees everywhere, a pond to our right, a stream just ahead, and then I crashed in a corn field. No joke. The trails were very narrow, and pretty rocky in some places and if you swerved in one direction you were bound to swerve in the other. My crash was not the last (for me or anyone else) of the day. I succeeded in crashing in random fields at least 3 more times. But the prize for crashing goes to Elena. This girl started the day face-planting in dirt, and ended it by launching herself into a palm tree where she received some pretty deep lacerations on her right arm and all over her breasts where a branch punctured through her shirt and did its damage.
Along the way we took a wrong turn and ended up going about an hour the wrong direction--through a corn field--until we finally turned around, found our mistake, and got back on the correct trail. During this, we were trying so hard to navigate what we were trying to believe was a bike trail, resulting, not only in a multitude of crashes and falling off bikes, but also in me treading through an ants nest and looking down to find at least 20 biting my leg and wriggling into my sock. Momentary freak-out ensued. In the end, this 1.5-2 hour trail took us 4.5 hour to complete. Not to mention none us had eaten for about 8 hours at this point, and we had probably burned through about 1500 calories. In short we were exhausted. On the way home, we stopped at a Shell station (the first I've seen here) and each spent at least 5 cedis on complete, wonderful, crap (Mars bars, chocolate croissants, ice cream, Pringles, candy coated peanuts, and a lot of water too.)
When we returned to campus we went to the hospital, to get Elena's wounds cleaned--she still had quite a bit of tree stuck in her various cuts--and to get my ears looked at, as my left was useless, and my right starting to throb. After a 3 hour wait, Elena was cleaned and given pain killers, and I was told the unnatural amount of "fluid" in my left ear was the result of allergies, and the throbbing in my right the result of over-excited Q-tipping. Ooops. I now have antibiotics and allergy medicine, so if I still can't hear in 3 days, I guess I should be worried.
It probably seems like the biking adventure was not fun. Quite the contrary. In the midst of the falling, the ants, and the impalements, we were laughing the whole time. Even though I am SUPER bad at it, Mountain Biking is SO fun. I am definitely going back soon, and its something I think I could really enjoy in the states. This was my first, true, African adventure. I plan on having many more. I love you.
Monday, August 13, 2007
Seriously Ridiculous
Hello hello.
So since the Slave Castle drain, its been pretty slow-going around here. The big news is that I have an incredibly bad sunburn. Shocking I know. Since this is maybe the 600th really bad sunburn I have received in my nearly 22 years, I guess it isn't that exciting. I guess the story behind the sunburn is better.
While the majority of the California students were out adventuring Ghana, Elena and I decided to explore Accra, the capital and nearest city to the small Legon, where the University is located. I know I have briefly explained tro-tros, however, I don't think I explained the ridiculousness involved. Tro-tros are the main form of public transit here, and they run like busses, with designated stops, and go to different areas of Accra/Ghana. These large mini-vans are operated by a driver and his "mate" who leans out the window of said vehicle calling out the destination. Unfortunatley, Ghanian English is like another language, so I have some trouble understanding what the hell is being said most of the time. For instance, a tro-tro going into downtown Accra to the main markets simply yells out "Accra" but in Ghanain English it is pronounced "Ack-craw" which is easy enough, but shouted over and over it sounds like "craw, craw, craw." The other major destination is Nhekruma Circle, which is like a turnaround, or station for many tro-tros. It is simply known as "Circle" and so the tro-tro mate yells out what sounds like "sek, sek, sek" which literally took me a week to figure out. After someone took mercy on me and explained it. So....this said, Elena and I decided that figuring out the tro-tro ridiculousness needed to be done before Canopy Walks or seeing Monkeys.
We jumped on a car going to "Circle" and found ourselves about an hour later the new friends of two Ghanaian men. The guy following me around offered to take me to Singapore. About 6 times. We escaped by jumping on a new tro-tro to Accra, which let us off at a very pungently smelling market, which we thought was near a vegetarian restaurant we wanted to try. We started walking through the market, bought bags of water (pure water is sold in plastic bags here for about 4 cents) and assumed we were going in the right direction. We were not. After 20 minutes of walking around in the burning sun we found ourselves at the ocean, and Ussher Town, (home of more historical forts) which under different circumstances we would have found interesting as anything. Unfortunately, we were hot, hungry, and starting to realize we had not applied sunscreen. We decided to take a cab, but in total ridiculousness, every cab that drove by was full. If you had any idea the amount of harrassment we endure EVERY DAY from cab drivers trying to take us places, the irony would be much more apparent. Eventually after walking into some random construction site, we flagged down a cab, which took us to the sight of the restaurant. Or so the cabbie thought. We then wandered around in the baking sun until some poor man took pity on us and practically escorted us to the restaurant. Luckily for us, it was delicious. What was NOT delicious was the dawning realization that the sun had successfully removed much or out epidermuses. Ouch. We decided to head home, which of course included more aimless wandering in the direction of some other "circle" and then a 30 minute tro-tro ride back to campus.
Upon return we surveyed the blistering...which is contained to my shoulders, Elena's shoulders and back suffered more than I did. However, in a lucky twist of fate, we hade puschased Cocoa Butter just that afternoon, which may have been the best spent $2.50 spent thus far.
Today was the beginning of registration for classes. If I had only unlimited money to buy unlimited minutes at unlimited internet cafes so I could relay the ridiculousness. Jeeeeeeez. I can sum it up mostly by saying I was expected to (and did, FYI) sign up for all my classes today, which are in 4 different departments without the slightest idea when the hell these classes might actually be offered during the week. I am talking about how I don't know the day, the time, the frequency during the week, anything. Good thing class starts in a week. Because that's apparently enough time to figure it all out. Seriously, everyone in the whole world who gets to register for online is insanely spoiled. In-SANE-ly. I will never be ungrateful ever again. This week. I love you.
So since the Slave Castle drain, its been pretty slow-going around here. The big news is that I have an incredibly bad sunburn. Shocking I know. Since this is maybe the 600th really bad sunburn I have received in my nearly 22 years, I guess it isn't that exciting. I guess the story behind the sunburn is better.
While the majority of the California students were out adventuring Ghana, Elena and I decided to explore Accra, the capital and nearest city to the small Legon, where the University is located. I know I have briefly explained tro-tros, however, I don't think I explained the ridiculousness involved. Tro-tros are the main form of public transit here, and they run like busses, with designated stops, and go to different areas of Accra/Ghana. These large mini-vans are operated by a driver and his "mate" who leans out the window of said vehicle calling out the destination. Unfortunatley, Ghanian English is like another language, so I have some trouble understanding what the hell is being said most of the time. For instance, a tro-tro going into downtown Accra to the main markets simply yells out "Accra" but in Ghanain English it is pronounced "Ack-craw" which is easy enough, but shouted over and over it sounds like "craw, craw, craw." The other major destination is Nhekruma Circle, which is like a turnaround, or station for many tro-tros. It is simply known as "Circle" and so the tro-tro mate yells out what sounds like "sek, sek, sek" which literally took me a week to figure out. After someone took mercy on me and explained it. So....this said, Elena and I decided that figuring out the tro-tro ridiculousness needed to be done before Canopy Walks or seeing Monkeys.
We jumped on a car going to "Circle" and found ourselves about an hour later the new friends of two Ghanaian men. The guy following me around offered to take me to Singapore. About 6 times. We escaped by jumping on a new tro-tro to Accra, which let us off at a very pungently smelling market, which we thought was near a vegetarian restaurant we wanted to try. We started walking through the market, bought bags of water (pure water is sold in plastic bags here for about 4 cents) and assumed we were going in the right direction. We were not. After 20 minutes of walking around in the burning sun we found ourselves at the ocean, and Ussher Town, (home of more historical forts) which under different circumstances we would have found interesting as anything. Unfortunately, we were hot, hungry, and starting to realize we had not applied sunscreen. We decided to take a cab, but in total ridiculousness, every cab that drove by was full. If you had any idea the amount of harrassment we endure EVERY DAY from cab drivers trying to take us places, the irony would be much more apparent. Eventually after walking into some random construction site, we flagged down a cab, which took us to the sight of the restaurant. Or so the cabbie thought. We then wandered around in the baking sun until some poor man took pity on us and practically escorted us to the restaurant. Luckily for us, it was delicious. What was NOT delicious was the dawning realization that the sun had successfully removed much or out epidermuses. Ouch. We decided to head home, which of course included more aimless wandering in the direction of some other "circle" and then a 30 minute tro-tro ride back to campus.
Upon return we surveyed the blistering...which is contained to my shoulders, Elena's shoulders and back suffered more than I did. However, in a lucky twist of fate, we hade puschased Cocoa Butter just that afternoon, which may have been the best spent $2.50 spent thus far.
Today was the beginning of registration for classes. If I had only unlimited money to buy unlimited minutes at unlimited internet cafes so I could relay the ridiculousness. Jeeeeeeez. I can sum it up mostly by saying I was expected to (and did, FYI) sign up for all my classes today, which are in 4 different departments without the slightest idea when the hell these classes might actually be offered during the week. I am talking about how I don't know the day, the time, the frequency during the week, anything. Good thing class starts in a week. Because that's apparently enough time to figure it all out. Seriously, everyone in the whole world who gets to register for online is insanely spoiled. In-SANE-ly. I will never be ungrateful ever again. This week. I love you.
Friday, August 10, 2007
Tough Day
This is a somewhat graphic blog retelling some of the horrors I learned of when visiting the preserved Slave Castles yesterday...if you are faint of heart don't read. <3
So today is Friday, the first of 3 free days we have been given from orientation ridiculousness. The original plan was for me, Elena, Megan and Becky to go to Kukum National Park, but we were informed that our whole group would be going there at the end of August and we have already paid for it...so we decided not to go.
Yesterday, was by far the toughest day we have faced in Ghana. The whole group of us (58!) went to Cape Coast to visit the Slave Castles there. It was one of the most emotionally draining experiences of my life. We first visited Cape Coast Castle. Our tour guide took us around, starting in what used to be the Male Slave Dungeons. It was so insane. Literally hundreds of men at a time were shoved into these small limestone rooms, only3 little openings to give any light at all. They were only allowed to leave and see sunlight for a few hours a day. Then we visited the female dungeons. This was terrible. These poor women were forced to stay in this underground hell where no wind or light reaches, unable to bathe, bleeding on themselves during their periods, no privacy whatsoever. The only opportunity they had to see the outside was when they were dragged out with only a loincloth around their waists, for the governor of the castle to decide which one he wanted to rape. That woman was allowed to bathe before she was violently assaulted.
The second castle was the Elmina Slave Castle. It is 525 years old and marks the first spot Europeans (Portugese) landed on African soil. Yeeesh. Anyway, the most gripping part of this tour was when we all crammed into the cell reserved for slaves who resisted capture, or rebelled against the Europeans in the dungeons. This cell was usually filled 30 at a time (it was big enough for 30 people with standing room only) the persons inside were not given any food or water, and there were no windows whatsoever to allow sun or air. These people were kept in there altogether until they all died. I almost vomited hearing this story.
After all of this we had a pretty somber bus ride home. I hate so much that these acts of hatred have created a world in which Africa is at the bottom of the world economically, many African Americans are living in poverty, and racism still exists in so many different forms. I hate that I am part of a system that guarantees I will benefit, because I am white, but guarantees that others who are not, won't. The stories about the women's exploitation were by far the worst. I don't understand that kind of greed and hate and violence. The whole time we were in both castles all I wanted to do was leave...but I knew that it was important that I stay and understand that this is a real part of the world's history, and a part of mine as well.
In some sort of bizarre coping method, I found myself missing stupid things that I won't get a chance to do for a long time. Like watching The Office. I miss burritos and pancakes and strawberries. I miss wearing jeans and feeling comfortable. I all of a sudden wanted to watch The American President so much. I haven't seen that movie in about 3 years. I think I miss things being easy...because things are pretty hard here sometimes. I know why I am here though. I want to be better than those who can hurt others the way African Slaves were. I want to educate people about ways they hurt each other without realizing. I am here to learn, and while it hurts a little I know I am getting stronger.
I hope this sad blog finds you well. I love you.
So today is Friday, the first of 3 free days we have been given from orientation ridiculousness. The original plan was for me, Elena, Megan and Becky to go to Kukum National Park, but we were informed that our whole group would be going there at the end of August and we have already paid for it...so we decided not to go.
Yesterday, was by far the toughest day we have faced in Ghana. The whole group of us (58!) went to Cape Coast to visit the Slave Castles there. It was one of the most emotionally draining experiences of my life. We first visited Cape Coast Castle. Our tour guide took us around, starting in what used to be the Male Slave Dungeons. It was so insane. Literally hundreds of men at a time were shoved into these small limestone rooms, only3 little openings to give any light at all. They were only allowed to leave and see sunlight for a few hours a day. Then we visited the female dungeons. This was terrible. These poor women were forced to stay in this underground hell where no wind or light reaches, unable to bathe, bleeding on themselves during their periods, no privacy whatsoever. The only opportunity they had to see the outside was when they were dragged out with only a loincloth around their waists, for the governor of the castle to decide which one he wanted to rape. That woman was allowed to bathe before she was violently assaulted.
The second castle was the Elmina Slave Castle. It is 525 years old and marks the first spot Europeans (Portugese) landed on African soil. Yeeesh. Anyway, the most gripping part of this tour was when we all crammed into the cell reserved for slaves who resisted capture, or rebelled against the Europeans in the dungeons. This cell was usually filled 30 at a time (it was big enough for 30 people with standing room only) the persons inside were not given any food or water, and there were no windows whatsoever to allow sun or air. These people were kept in there altogether until they all died. I almost vomited hearing this story.
After all of this we had a pretty somber bus ride home. I hate so much that these acts of hatred have created a world in which Africa is at the bottom of the world economically, many African Americans are living in poverty, and racism still exists in so many different forms. I hate that I am part of a system that guarantees I will benefit, because I am white, but guarantees that others who are not, won't. The stories about the women's exploitation were by far the worst. I don't understand that kind of greed and hate and violence. The whole time we were in both castles all I wanted to do was leave...but I knew that it was important that I stay and understand that this is a real part of the world's history, and a part of mine as well.
In some sort of bizarre coping method, I found myself missing stupid things that I won't get a chance to do for a long time. Like watching The Office. I miss burritos and pancakes and strawberries. I miss wearing jeans and feeling comfortable. I all of a sudden wanted to watch The American President so much. I haven't seen that movie in about 3 years. I think I miss things being easy...because things are pretty hard here sometimes. I know why I am here though. I want to be better than those who can hurt others the way African Slaves were. I want to educate people about ways they hurt each other without realizing. I am here to learn, and while it hurts a little I know I am getting stronger.
I hope this sad blog finds you well. I love you.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Kumasi and such
Hello again! After a somewhat long hiatus I am back to relay my adventures in Kumasi. Kumasi is located in the central part of Ghana and is known as the cultural center of the country. After a 6 hour incredibly uncomfortable bus ride we arrived at KNUST University, where 4 of the students in my group will be attending school at the end of the month. (They are participating in the orientation in Legon, though) The campus is beautiful and the dorms are amazing. Compared to the small and somewhat crowded rooms in Volta Hall where I live and take communal showers and share 3 toilets with many people on my floor, in Kumasi, the dorms have bigger beds and desks, and have private bathrooms with split toilet and shower. However, in defense of the place I will call home for the next 10 months, I must say I prefer the communal showers where water pours from the tap like a hose to the private and better pressurized water in Kumasi. The simple reason is this: no matter how fancy the shower or private the water, there is no hot water in Ghana. Period. And because of this, a shower that covers more area at a time--such as the pressurized shower headed ones I used in Kumasi-- provides for more breath caught in your throat, wanting to scream, trying to dance the goosebumps away, clenching your teeth as you try and shave your legs-ness than does one with a simple and constant stream falling a close distance from you if needed.
Moving on. After our arrival we set out to find food. However, it is not some cheap trick to find a restaurant in Ghana prepared to feed 65 people with no sort of notice. This resulted in much adventure around Kumasi looking for any type of food, from fancy hotel food, to roadside grub. Eventually out of apathy and a feeling of lingering full-ness from lunch, I decided that dinner would be unnecessary. We eventually ended up all back a this really cute outdoor restaurant that sold beer and had plenty of room for dancing. We stayed, almost all 65 of us dancing and drinking until midnight. It was great.
The next day, Sunday, we visited many of the craft villages in the area. We watched people making Kente cloth (beautiful, and VERY expensive) we saw this traditional printing done on Kente with an ink made of tree bark, and we visited many shops full of jewelry, carvings, and paintings. I bought a few things for myself as well as a few gifts.
Later, we met the Treasurer of the Asante Kingdom. Its tough to explain, but basically, when what we now call Ghana was carved out artificially by the British, it forced together many different ethnic groups under one nation state. Many people hold their first allegiance to the King of their ethnic tribe. The Asante tribe is the biggest and most powerful in Ghana. So, basically, the Asante King is the most powerful man in Ghana, more so than the president, John Kufour. Anyway, we met his treasurer, which is like Condoleeza Rice coming to talk randomly to a bunch of kids who don't really understand what she does. Super crazy.
Today, Elena and I went to the market to buy a bunch of stuff we needed, and ended up buying a bunch of stuff we wanted, like necklaces. However, I did finally succeed in buying a phone. The phone I brought with me couldn't be used because it needed a SIM (sp?) card, and was not set up to use one. So I had to buy one and it is now officially charging. I haven't gotten a chance to talk to my family or anyone I love yet, so I am super excited.
Tomorrow we are moving into our new room, Elena and I will still be roommates, which I am excited about. Then, we have a conference on the slave trade. On Thursday we will be going to Cape Coast to visit the old Slave Castles. Ghana has some of the best preserved slave forts in Africa. Which is super interesting from a historical perspective, but kinda scary from a human perspective. After that, Elena, me, and our friends Becky and Megan are going to stay overnight in Cape Coast and then spend 2 days at Kukum National Park, famous for its one-of-a-kind canopy walk through the rainforest. I can't wait. Hopefully I'll be talking to you soon! I love you.
Moving on. After our arrival we set out to find food. However, it is not some cheap trick to find a restaurant in Ghana prepared to feed 65 people with no sort of notice. This resulted in much adventure around Kumasi looking for any type of food, from fancy hotel food, to roadside grub. Eventually out of apathy and a feeling of lingering full-ness from lunch, I decided that dinner would be unnecessary. We eventually ended up all back a this really cute outdoor restaurant that sold beer and had plenty of room for dancing. We stayed, almost all 65 of us dancing and drinking until midnight. It was great.
The next day, Sunday, we visited many of the craft villages in the area. We watched people making Kente cloth (beautiful, and VERY expensive) we saw this traditional printing done on Kente with an ink made of tree bark, and we visited many shops full of jewelry, carvings, and paintings. I bought a few things for myself as well as a few gifts.
Later, we met the Treasurer of the Asante Kingdom. Its tough to explain, but basically, when what we now call Ghana was carved out artificially by the British, it forced together many different ethnic groups under one nation state. Many people hold their first allegiance to the King of their ethnic tribe. The Asante tribe is the biggest and most powerful in Ghana. So, basically, the Asante King is the most powerful man in Ghana, more so than the president, John Kufour. Anyway, we met his treasurer, which is like Condoleeza Rice coming to talk randomly to a bunch of kids who don't really understand what she does. Super crazy.
Today, Elena and I went to the market to buy a bunch of stuff we needed, and ended up buying a bunch of stuff we wanted, like necklaces. However, I did finally succeed in buying a phone. The phone I brought with me couldn't be used because it needed a SIM (sp?) card, and was not set up to use one. So I had to buy one and it is now officially charging. I haven't gotten a chance to talk to my family or anyone I love yet, so I am super excited.
Tomorrow we are moving into our new room, Elena and I will still be roommates, which I am excited about. Then, we have a conference on the slave trade. On Thursday we will be going to Cape Coast to visit the old Slave Castles. Ghana has some of the best preserved slave forts in Africa. Which is super interesting from a historical perspective, but kinda scary from a human perspective. After that, Elena, me, and our friends Becky and Megan are going to stay overnight in Cape Coast and then spend 2 days at Kukum National Park, famous for its one-of-a-kind canopy walk through the rainforest. I can't wait. Hopefully I'll be talking to you soon! I love you.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
One Week
Today is the official 1 week anniversary of my time in Ghana. As I mentioned before, it seems like so much longer. My roommate and I figured out that we have been living 16 hour days since we've been here, which does not include any after hour gossiping or messing around or going out. This means our orientation is SCHEDULED to have back to back activity, 16 hours a day. Needless to say, I am exhausted. This is a syndrome made worse by the fact that I attended a reggae festival on the beach last night with almost my entire group of travelers. (60 college students!) There was something absolutely un-pass-upable about dancing with a beer in hand on a beach in Africa. Seriously. It was so much fun. I came prepared with my dancing skirt, 5 cedis ($5) hidden in my bra (petty crime like robbery is an issue here, especially among female albrunis (white people) like myself), and a smile. That was all I needed.
The 50 or so of us boarded 2 tro-tros, which are basically glorified mini-vans, which fit around 20 or so people and run all over the country. They are extrememly dangerous on highways and going long distances quickly, but within cities, like Legon or Accra, the cities I occupy, they are unable to travel at dangerous speeds. We paid 15 pesawas (15 cents) each and were on our way. The festival was very laid back, we bought cheap beer and danced on the beach, and were periodically harrassed by Ghanaian men claiming love and affection. My favorite potential suitor was the one who actually rapped a song at me for about 5 minutes talking about how I was a gift from god for him. I was amused, then supremely uncomfortable, then I ran away to another group I knew.
Today Elena (my roommate), and our friends Bridget, Elliott, and Angelie (sp?) took a tro-tro to Medina, an outdoor market where I purchased BEAUTIFUL fabric to make 2 skirts and a shirt, and hopefully a head scarf to cover my very frizzy hair. The humidity in the air here is maybe my worst enemy. Alas. I also bought pens and a bag to do my shopping in. Plastic bags are a virtual epidimic here. They choke all the sewers, and are literally all over Accra. I have decided to make my best effort to not contribute to the pollution. Elena also bought a pineapple and a huge knife to cut it with. The fruit here is amazing.
Tomorrow I have HELLA (Nor cal? haahhaha) research to do. I have decided to do my independent study on the factors contributing to the high percentage of women with HIV/AIDS here in Ghana. So I must go and sleep. This weekend I will be in Kumasi with my group hopefully having an amazing time. I'll report the craziness soon. I love you.
The 50 or so of us boarded 2 tro-tros, which are basically glorified mini-vans, which fit around 20 or so people and run all over the country. They are extrememly dangerous on highways and going long distances quickly, but within cities, like Legon or Accra, the cities I occupy, they are unable to travel at dangerous speeds. We paid 15 pesawas (15 cents) each and were on our way. The festival was very laid back, we bought cheap beer and danced on the beach, and were periodically harrassed by Ghanaian men claiming love and affection. My favorite potential suitor was the one who actually rapped a song at me for about 5 minutes talking about how I was a gift from god for him. I was amused, then supremely uncomfortable, then I ran away to another group I knew.
Today Elena (my roommate), and our friends Bridget, Elliott, and Angelie (sp?) took a tro-tro to Medina, an outdoor market where I purchased BEAUTIFUL fabric to make 2 skirts and a shirt, and hopefully a head scarf to cover my very frizzy hair. The humidity in the air here is maybe my worst enemy. Alas. I also bought pens and a bag to do my shopping in. Plastic bags are a virtual epidimic here. They choke all the sewers, and are literally all over Accra. I have decided to make my best effort to not contribute to the pollution. Elena also bought a pineapple and a huge knife to cut it with. The fruit here is amazing.
Tomorrow I have HELLA (Nor cal? haahhaha) research to do. I have decided to do my independent study on the factors contributing to the high percentage of women with HIV/AIDS here in Ghana. So I must go and sleep. This weekend I will be in Kumasi with my group hopefully having an amazing time. I'll report the craziness soon. I love you.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Finally
I have finally gotten the chance to actually use the internet since I've been here. It's officially been 5 days in Ghana. It feels like weeks and weeks. Not in a bad way at all. It's just been so insanely busy since we stepped off the plane. We have been to Accra, the capital city, which is the absolute busiest thing I have ever experienced in my life. It makes downtown San Francisco the week before Christmas look tame. I have not really been a successful haggler yet. I tried to haggle with some woman for toilet paper. She was adament I pay 20,000 cedis, about 2USD for 5 rolls of toilet paper. I felt a little jipped. However, I did buy a 24oz Blue Arrow beer at La Pleasure beach for like 1.50 USD....so it comes and goes I guess.
I am here with 8 girls from my school, and then about 50 other college kids, mostly from UC schools. Its so crazy to do anything with the whole group. At the moment I am living with this girl Elena, from my school. However, I don't think I we will be living together once school starts, I think they are going to split us up to live with Ghanaian students, which will be good, but it will be sad to not be roommates. We've had a lot of fun gossipping about the silly So Cal girls in our group and washing our clothes by hand in our dorm. Turned out there is an actual laundry room. Oops.
I have started to learn Twi (pronounced Chwee...sort of) but it pretty much just results in giggles from the locals. However, I have succeeded in being able to at least greet people without having to ask them how to reply, which is a pretty big accomplishment in my opinion.
The beginning of the adventure was a challenge to say the least. My flight left just after noon on 7/25, and we didn't arrive in Accra until after 9pm on 7/26 Ghanaian time. So basically we were travelling for about 30 hours. Yessssss. It is pretty hot here. However, its the rainy season so it is cooler right now, which makes me nervous for the dry season. In accordance with my life, I have not had the easiest time here. I came prepared with $200 in travelers checks, but NO ONE takes them and I have been very hard pressed to find a bank that will exchange them into cedis for me. AND to make matters worse, my debit card mysteriously doesn't work in the ATMs...so I was completely broke. However, Elena saved my life and let me borrow some money to get the things I needed, and we have been fed almost every meal my our program directors, and I should mention that Ghanaian food is excellent. Sometimes too hot and sometimes too bland, but overall I've loved everything I've tried, but it is a little bit of a problem asking for no meat constantly. There are about 10 other vegetarians in our group, so the cooks are less frustrated. I hope.
To add to my frustration is the fact that I have not been able to get ahold of my parents at all. My lack of funds have kept me from getting a phone, and every pay phone I have tried with a phone card wont dial out to an area code that starts with 5. Its been pretty irritating. However, all is looking up. I myspaced Elizabeth to tell Mom and Dad I am alive and having fun, and finally got the chance to get my travelers checks exchanged into cedis, so I will have a phone soon.
There is so much to say and I can't even remember what it is! I am currently staring at the countdown on my computer at an internet cafe on campus which is counting down rapidly. Tonight we have dinner and then Dance and Drumming. We have a "performance" on Wednesday night. Some students in the group are dancing, others are drumming, others are playing flutes and some, like me, are singing. The culture is amazing and even though everything takes longer (a lot longer) than in the US the people are so willing to help you out, its not too bad. Okay time is out, I love you!
I am here with 8 girls from my school, and then about 50 other college kids, mostly from UC schools. Its so crazy to do anything with the whole group. At the moment I am living with this girl Elena, from my school. However, I don't think I we will be living together once school starts, I think they are going to split us up to live with Ghanaian students, which will be good, but it will be sad to not be roommates. We've had a lot of fun gossipping about the silly So Cal girls in our group and washing our clothes by hand in our dorm. Turned out there is an actual laundry room. Oops.
I have started to learn Twi (pronounced Chwee...sort of) but it pretty much just results in giggles from the locals. However, I have succeeded in being able to at least greet people without having to ask them how to reply, which is a pretty big accomplishment in my opinion.
The beginning of the adventure was a challenge to say the least. My flight left just after noon on 7/25, and we didn't arrive in Accra until after 9pm on 7/26 Ghanaian time. So basically we were travelling for about 30 hours. Yessssss. It is pretty hot here. However, its the rainy season so it is cooler right now, which makes me nervous for the dry season. In accordance with my life, I have not had the easiest time here. I came prepared with $200 in travelers checks, but NO ONE takes them and I have been very hard pressed to find a bank that will exchange them into cedis for me. AND to make matters worse, my debit card mysteriously doesn't work in the ATMs...so I was completely broke. However, Elena saved my life and let me borrow some money to get the things I needed, and we have been fed almost every meal my our program directors, and I should mention that Ghanaian food is excellent. Sometimes too hot and sometimes too bland, but overall I've loved everything I've tried, but it is a little bit of a problem asking for no meat constantly. There are about 10 other vegetarians in our group, so the cooks are less frustrated. I hope.
To add to my frustration is the fact that I have not been able to get ahold of my parents at all. My lack of funds have kept me from getting a phone, and every pay phone I have tried with a phone card wont dial out to an area code that starts with 5. Its been pretty irritating. However, all is looking up. I myspaced Elizabeth to tell Mom and Dad I am alive and having fun, and finally got the chance to get my travelers checks exchanged into cedis, so I will have a phone soon.
There is so much to say and I can't even remember what it is! I am currently staring at the countdown on my computer at an internet cafe on campus which is counting down rapidly. Tonight we have dinner and then Dance and Drumming. We have a "performance" on Wednesday night. Some students in the group are dancing, others are drumming, others are playing flutes and some, like me, are singing. The culture is amazing and even though everything takes longer (a lot longer) than in the US the people are so willing to help you out, its not too bad. Okay time is out, I love you!
Monday, July 23, 2007
2 Days
I leave for Ghana on Wednesday. Tomorrow mom, dad, Allison, Elizabeth and I will drive all day to San Francisco where I'm sure I won't sleep at all in a hotel in South San Francisco waiting for a 20 hour flight that will take me to a completely different world. HOLY SHIT.
Anyway, I made this blog so I can keep people updated on my life for the next year. I am hopeful that I will keep this up. It would be good to have a record of my life in Africa to look at later. However I also hope that I am so busy doing so many amazing things that I won't remember to record them. I am terrified and so excited and the fact that it is all so real is the scariest part of all.
I have so much to do today. I am not surprised, just mildly irritated with myself for leaving a million things to do until the last minute. But just like packing up my bedroom in San Francisco, everything will get done. Because it must. I probably won't update again for a little while. Who knows when I'll have internet again! (Oh my GOD) but I will be positive and say it will be soon.
Anyway, I made this blog so I can keep people updated on my life for the next year. I am hopeful that I will keep this up. It would be good to have a record of my life in Africa to look at later. However I also hope that I am so busy doing so many amazing things that I won't remember to record them. I am terrified and so excited and the fact that it is all so real is the scariest part of all.
I have so much to do today. I am not surprised, just mildly irritated with myself for leaving a million things to do until the last minute. But just like packing up my bedroom in San Francisco, everything will get done. Because it must. I probably won't update again for a little while. Who knows when I'll have internet again! (Oh my GOD) but I will be positive and say it will be soon.
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