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!