Elmina Slave Castle and the Rainforest!

So this weekend was really fun. We had a field trip to Cape Coast in the Central Region. Contrary to Ghana's geography, the Central Region is actually along the coast in the southern part. It is called the central region b/c 1) the original capital of Ghana was Cape Coast and was the center of Ghana's commerce and 2) This region was the Central Region before the Ashanti Region joined.

Anyway, Saturday we woke up super early to be on the bus by 7:30 a.m. so we could leave by 8:00 a.m. sharp. I ended up sleeping almost the entire 2 and a half hours to our first destination: the Elmina Slave Castle. I would like to preface the following statements by saying that I never knew the extent of what occurred in the slave trade and feel guilty for never attempting to learn more. We arrived at the Castle and took a tour of the Men's and Women's Dungeons as well as the chapel and the living quarters for the soldiers and religious leaders. It's shocking how close the soldiers and missionaries lived to the slaves. We were discussing at dinner later that night how atrocious it is that people could actually see the living conditions for these people and still allow it.

Later on in the day, after the tour of the Elmina Castle, lunch, and a nap, we drove to the location of many slaves' Last Bath: the Assin Manso Slave River. This is where the soldiers and slave traders herded the slaves that were to be traded soon for their last bath. Right before they got to the river where they bathed them, they inspected the slaves and if they had any cuts or injuries, they were killed and thrown into a mass grave nearby. If a woman was carrying a baby, they smashed the baby's head and threw it in the pit as well. They then herded the slaves to the river, shaved off all of their hair and rubbed oil on them to make them look more attractive to potential buyers. Our tour guide told us that there were 25 million non-Ghanaians involved in the slave trade, and those were the ones that lived. He also told us that the path on the way to the river used to be a virgin forest so many Africans were bitten by snakes, eaten by wild animals, or stepped on thorns. Even though it started raining while we were by the river, nobody minded and told him to continue his spiel. It was a really interesting and emotional day. I knew close to nothing about the slave trade except for the diagram they show us in the history books of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. Apparently Ghana was one of the major trading posts. There is also a Cape Coast Slave Castle that we were supposed to tour, but Mr. Gyesi took us to Elmina at the last minute b/c Cape Coast is supposed to be much more emotional. According to Akuba and Akosua (2 of our U-Pals), you can see on the walls how high the piles of human excretion rose to - about waist-high in some areas. The castle was probably a third of Elmina's size, but housed nearly twice as many slaves. It's disgusting really.

After our tour of the Last Bath, our tour guide took us to a house and showed us how heavy the chain was they used on the slaves as they led them to the bath. While he was doing that, some of the local children followed us and were chattering to us. They held our hands and kept asking questions. It was fun to practice our Twi with them. They were sooo adorable. Later that night, during dinner, Mr. Gyesi asked us our reactions to the field trip that day and Ghana so far. We shared some great stories about our interactions with the locals and had a lot of laughs, as well as some deep discussions about how our trip today related to other atrocities in the past and today and what we can do when we get back home. It definitely made me think.

On Sunday we went to the Rainforest! We had breakfast at the hotel then drove to Kakum National Park. Once there, we hiked through the rainforest to a canopy walkway, which was incredibly high up. Yes!! Kate and I had fun scaring other people by bouncing up and down on the walkway. Don't worry, it's pretty much a bunch of two-by-fours nailed together as the bridge with nets on either side and is strung between some really high trees. There are 5 separate ones you have to walk on until you get back on solid ground. It was a lot of fun. Apparently 6 Ghanaians and 2 Canadians took 6 months to build it. The rainforest is absolutely GORGEOUS.

Speaking of gorgeous, it is so... unreal to see the disparity between the lush, beautiful landscapes of Ghana and the poverty that surrounds it. On the bus ride to Cape Coast, the view of the countryside and seaside was amazing, but there were shantytowns everywhere. Barefoot children running in the dirt with the goats (speaking of, this trip goats were everywhere instead of chickens like in Accra) is something that you don't see as often in Accra. When we were driving up to Elmina, the fishermen had just brought in their catches of the day so the city was filled with people buying and selling things. Once again, women were walking around carrying the most absurd things on their heads. I saw the ultimate multi-tasking mom: She had a baby tied on her back, a baby on her hip, and was carrying I don't even know what on her head. I was impressed. I am still intent on learning how to carry a baby on my back before the end of the semester. Aileen - one of our program directors - promised she would teach me one weekend while I babysit her twins and she'll cook me dinner. :)

This weekend was great. We were able to leave Accra again and do the whole touristy, informational stuff. I took some great pictures, but unfortunately still can't figure out how to load them on here/don't have enough time to do so. Also, Tuesday is the end of Ramadan, which is a national holiday! That means we get off of school!! I doubt I'll do much more than sleep and watch movies, but it's better than going to my Africana classes.

Tidbit of the day: Children love pens b/c they can sell them for 2-3 pesewas. It's also getting tougher thinking of things that are drastically different from culture back home.

Love love love from Accra!!

"basketball," karaoke, and Ga

This weekend was definitely a blast. Friday night I ended up going to an Ashesi "basketball game" with some girls from my hall and other CIEE girls. There was a team from each year and they all played each other. "Basketball" is in quotations because that was the saddest game I have ever seen. It was like watching 3rd-graders play. No joke. We at least had a good laugh at their expense. One of the Ashesi girls is trying to set all of the white girls up. She picked out a boy for me that's technically my age, but a "fresher" (a freshman). Greaaaat.

Saturday was pretty productive. I woke up early and cleaned the apartment with my roommates. After that, I went grocery shopping with Busola (my Nigerian roommate) and Evelyn (CIEE). I ended up getting a TON of groceries, which was much needed. I also got my own, reasonably-priced bucket to carry my shower stuff in. Hooray!! Our cab driver helped us negotiate prices. Once I got back I went to some shady-looking Chinese restaurant that actually had really good, really cheap food. Later on that evening, a big group of us went to a sports bar called Champs. 10 GHcedi all you can drink on Saturday nights. At first I thought that was crazy and wondered how they made any money from Saturday nights until I realized that Ghanaians and Africans in general usually can't drink that much. Bars would go out of business in the U.S. if they tried that. Let's just say I felt sorry for the boys that came with us. Two drinks and they were done for. However, I ended up meeting a ton of great people there. I met who I want to be in 7 years! She did the Peace Corps for 2 years in Togo and is now living in Ghana with her adopted 9 year old daughter. She also has a husband back home so it's a legitimate family she's started. She's getting a job with UNAID while she's here. Can you say my future dream? Anyway, became friends with her and her Canadian friend.
Quick side note: in this sports bar I saw a DALLAS STARS JERSEY!!! I semi-freaked out and once again, nobody I hang out with really watches hockey. Sad day. :(
Anyway, I ended up doing karaoke only once to Madonna's Like a Prayer. It was originally supposed to be only my friend Emily and I, but the new friends I made as well as all the Ashesi guys we came with jumped up on stage. What a mess. No worries, I didn't sing into the microphone, but I did keep it away from one of the guys who was intent on screaming the lyrics into the mike. Crazy.

Sunday I went on a field trip to Tema with my Twi professor and a couple of other CIEE girls. We went to a town called Nungua and met the First Lady of the town as well as a lot of the lesser chiefs. We also went to a coffin shop. They make the COOLEST coffins here. They shape them into anything you want pretty much with a hollow part in the middle for the body. We looked through books of pictures of what they've made. I saw a chili pepper, lots of birds and cars, an elephant, and even a statue of Samuel Adams holding the United States Constitution. We also walked through an indigenous village. Unfortunately my Twi lessons didn't help at all since in this village they spoke Ga (another local language). We were able to ride in a wooden truck thing. It's hard to describe. It's like a truck, but in the bed of the truck, it's wooden with some benches that people sit on. I realized that some of the national sports here are dodging potholes and bargaining. After our trip, Evelyn, Tomoko and I navigated the trou trous back home. Even though I should have done laundry and hw all day, I'm glad I skipped out because honestly, when else am I going to get these experiences?
One of the saddest things though is I saw my first severely malnourished child in person. Her limbs were virtually stick thin and she had the protruding belly. :( Once again, I heard the word obroni everywhere I went.

Tidbit of the day: When people say "I'm coming" they actually mean they're going somewhere.

Love from Accra!

this white girl CAN'T dance

So I've been feeling a lot like Bridget Jones all day. First off, when I was climbing off my bunk bed this morning to get ready for school, I accidentally smacked my head on the ceiling. Ouch. It's also been raining all day so I've nearly wiped out about 4 times. As long as the time I wipe out it's not in front of anyone I know, I'm fine.

This morning I had my African Music and Dance class a.k.a. my Absolute Mortification and... I can't think of a synonym that starts with D. Anyway, today we learned a lot of little routines. I am awful at keeping track of all of them and putting them in order. Two of the white girls in my program are the best in class by far. The guys were freaking out. At one point we had to split up into pairs so those 2 were a pair and I paired up with an African American girl from NYU. After all of us performed, including the Africans, the guys deemed the other 2 the best and said my group did pretty well. I'll accept that, especially since I had no idea what I was doing. hahaha. It's an amazing workout though. Everybody was dripping in sweat after class. Tasty. Maybe I'll have some sort of rhythm, or at least more coordination by the time I get back!

After class I ended up stepping in a huge puddle of mud and nearly losing my shoe. Eww. Also, you know in movies where someone is about to step off a curb and a bus or a big truck drives by and splashes a huge puddle of water on them? You know how it's really funny and cute in the movies? Yeah well it's not. Not funny. Not cute. It pretty much sucks. I didn't even have a nice cab driver to take me by a shop and help me pick out a new outfit! (Bridget Jones' Diary reference)

I've been quite full of movie/pop culture references this week. Somehow I went on a tangent in my Africa in the International Setting paper about Howard Beale and his instant catchphrase of: "I'm mad as hell and I can't take it anymore!" (from the 1976 film Network. come on people!) How I got on that subject, I have no idea. I do know it was relevant to what I was discussing in my paper though. Promise.

Anyway, that's about all that's significant this week. A girl in my program got her hair braided a few weeks ago and we finally took it out the other night. We made a big party out of it. I accidentally cut some of her original hair off so instead I was put in charge of setting up the movie. Oops.

Tonight will most likely be a chill night since it's so rainy outside. I'm thinking movie night. Tomorrow a group of us girls will probably go to this karaoke bar with the guys that live upstairs. That'll be interesting. I'll make sure NOT to sing. I don't want to hurt anybody's ears. :) We also have a field trip with our Twi professor on Sunday. He's going to show us around a Ghanaian village. Should be fun!

Tidbit of the day: If a little kid comes up to you yelling "obroni! obroni!" and you respond with "obibini! obibini!" it'll definitely shock them into silence. Obroni means white person. Obibini means black person. bahaha.
Another tidbit: If you tell your roommates you're bad at cooking, they won't try any food that you offer them unless you assure them you did NOT cook it.

Love from Accra!!

Opportunities Galore!

Sunday was a very busy day. I woke up really early (6:30 am!!) in order to go to mass by 7:30. Although the basic structure was the same as Catholic masses everywhere (imagine that!), there was more music and some clapping with the music. I spent a lot of the time looking at all of the women's traditional Ghanaian outfits. Aileen, one of our CIEE program directors, told us girls that she'll connect us with her seamstress so we can get some outfits made. It's pretty cheap for both the fabric and labor so I'm excited about that. I'll just need to go fabric shopping soon. All of the women at church had such interesting patterns and styles of dress. The children, of course, were adorable as well. However, even though I spent a great amount of time studying the dresses and outfits, I couldn't help but think about how the only reason there IS a Catholic church in Ghana - and in Africa for that matter - is because of the European missionaries that invaded the villages in order to convert as many people as possible from their "heathen" ways. Thank you Chinua Achebe and Things Fall Apart.

After Mass, I tried to do hw, but instead fell back asleep until it was time to go to the lunch at my professor's house. The 5 selected students took a half hour cab ride to McCarthy Hills. 4 of us were squished together in the back. Hot and sweaty half-hour cab ride before a lunch with faculty? Fabulous. Anyway, we got there and were introduced to a bunch of professors and others who work at Ashesi. I ended up spending a great amount of time talking to the Economic Development prof from Germany and his Mexican wife. They were so sweet. It's interesting. Most of the professors are from all around the world: Norway, Germany, Ecuador, etc. I was also able to talk to my Africana professor, who I'm liking and respecting a lot more now, which is good. She gave me some ideas about where I could try to volunteer that helps children and is a legitimate organization. We spent a good 4 hours there eating traditional Ghanaian food and conversing with everyone. We then took another half-hour cab ride home with 4 people in the backseat. So much fun. :)

Later that night, I watched The Kingdom with some people. It's a really great movie. If you haven't seen it yet, I would definitely suggest it. Unfortunately, I studied for my Twi test I was supposed to have today instead of reading for my Africana classes so I have that to do tonight as well as write at least my Philosophy Critical Response. Yayy!!!

Tidbit of the day: Most of the cabs and trou trous have something about God or Christianity on their back windows. Decals that say God's Gift, etc. Each one is different. It reminds me of how people name their boats.

Love from Accra!!

Ok I cannot figure out how to do this picture thing. Whatever.
Anyway: another update. Yesterday was a somewhat relaxing day. My 8 a.m. Music and Dance class was cancelled. Unfortunately, we didn't find that out until after we showed up for class. It's my only class on Friday so I went out to breakfast with some of the girls then went home to go back to bed. I had a lovely long nap/slept all day. Once I finally woke up, a bunch of us decided to go to the Labadee Beach. We took a trou trou (pronounced: tro tro) which is a 15 passenger rickety van. It was... interesting. The beach was fun I suppose. It was really dirty. Definitely makes Port Aransas look like a 5-star resort and the Bahamas look even more like paradise. I'm terrified of the ocean so I was put in charge of watching everybody's stuff while they played in the ocean with all the trash. Montana lent me her crossword puzzle book so I could have something to do while sitting there. Later on, a kitten that was wandering around came over so I played with it for a bit. The girls wouldn't let me take it home b/c apparently those things have diseases. Who knew? haha. I took a few pictures with it though and when I figure out how to upload pics, I'll post them. We ended up staying at the beach until 7, then took a bus back home.

Since I slept all day, I was definitely ready to get out of the hostel and do something. A few of us girls went to dinner and then to the pub. After about an hour, some guy friends of ours showed up (which was good in case those sketchy guys came back). We all sat around talking and goofing off while a few of them played pool. Later on, they decided they wanted to go to a club, so a few of us went with them. This is where I become lame. We get there and I sort of danced for awhile, but got really tired since it was so late and didn't want to be around the crowd of people and music that was too loud. The guys wouldn't let Gannett and I walk home by themselves and told us to wait 10 minutes on the couches with them. Long story short: we all ended up falling asleep until 5ish then woke up and went home. I felt like such an old person (no offense) - I did crosswords at the beach instead of laying out, complained about loud music, and fell asleep in a club (it was wayyy past my usual bedtime here). It was fun. I'm excited because I'm actually making friends with a lot of Ashesi students. I feel like I'm in first grade again.

Tonight will be my chill night watching movies or Friends reruns. I have mass at 7:30 a.m. tomorrow (ouch. That's ridiculously early) then lunch with some of the faculty. I'll probably do research between mass and lunch. Lame, I know, but I want to make a good impression.

Hope that the storms from Ike aren't too terrible!!

More Ghanaian tidbits: Everyone LOVES spicy food and will eat all of a fish, including the bones.
Rice is a staple here. I have had more rice in the past month than I have in my entire life.
They import EVERYTHING, even their toothpicks. However, random things are extremely expensive. I saw a package of baby corn in the supermarket the other day for 33 cedi.
We're in the minor rainy season right now, which means it'll rain for about an hour every once in awhile. It's like Texas. It'll pour for an hour or so and then all of a sudden be sunny again. My umbrella has become my new best friend. :)

Love love love from Accra!!

lost wallet and political views

Accra has definitely been full of adventures. I lost my wallet the other day. Thankfully I only had 20 cedi in it, but my closet and room key were attached to it as well as all of my credit and ID cards. However, the library lady told me that some guy called Ashesi (my Ashesi ID was in my wallet) and said that he found my wallet, but refused to tell her the contents or give it to her to give to me. He said he would meet me in person to give it to me either at Ashesi or Frankie's. Sketchyyyy. I brought another CIEE girl and the token CIEE boy to meet him with me b/c he would only meet at 10 p.m. When Montana and I walked up, the sleazy guys were excited it was a couple of girls, but changed when they saw Sherrick, thinking he was Ghanaian. Anyway, the guys tried to talk to us for awhile and see if we would go hang out with them at a bar or something and were very determined to get our numbers. Long story short: got my wallet back, minus the cash that was in there. Even though they were sleazy towards us, at least he was nice enough to make an effort to give it back. :)

Also, I have a little rant:
Wednesday night I went out with 4 other girls to the Purple Pub to try it out. For some reason, all of a sudden I was attacked for my political views. I was completely outnumbered b/c they were all voting for Obama and decided it is a travesty and a sin pretty much to vote for McCain and actually like him. No matter what I said they didn't listen and kept shooting down my arguments, convinced that there is only one way to believe. I'm going to say right now: People need to shut up and stop trying to convert people to their beliefs. It is a HUGE pet peeve of mine when someone tries to change my opinion about politics or religion. I will have civil conversations about it and share ideas, but when someone tries to convert me, it infuriates me. I finally stopped talking b/c there was no point. Thankfully Holly shut them up by cheers-ing me for standing up for my beliefs when I was outnumbered and not succumbing so easily. Even though she believes differently, she can respect that. Emily told me the same thing and apologized for just sitting there while I was verbally berated. Note to everyone: do NOT try to change what I believe in. I will have a conversation about politics or religion, as long as we can agree that people have different opinions and there is no clear-cut right or wrong view. It's NOT black and white and if you try to change my beliefs, it will only infuriate me and make me lose respect for you. For the love of Jesus Christ, get off your high horse and accept that people think differently than you. Just b/c I agree with more of McCain's policies and not Obama's does not mean I'm a horrible or uneducated person. I don't think that Obama fans are horrible or uneducated either. Ughhh. Ok, I'm finished with my rant. Everyone: keep that in mind. I have my views, you have yours, let's agree to disagree and get over it. The end.

Everyone in Texas and around the Gulf Coast: Please be safe. Hopefully Hurricane Ike won't completely demolish everything. That is one good thing about Katrina and Rita - we as a nation learned from our mistakes then and can prevent it from happening again now.
Also, I'm going to try to upload some pictures from my flash drive either tomorrow or Sunday afternoon. :)

Love from Ghana!!

Crazed Chickens and more Adventures in Accra

OK so obviously I'm not very good at keeping up with this thing. Here are my updates from the past 4 days:

MONDAY: After I updated, I went to my leadership seminar where we had a very.... interesting conversation about women's roles in society. Let's just say that many Ghanaians and Africans are under the impression that 1) Women have too much freedom and should stay home after they have kids, and 2) Women in America are too free and "have wings". I have no idea what they mean by wings, but apparently it's a bad thing. One guy even said that women should be the submissive ones in a relationship. Let's just say the rest of the CIEE students were freaking out about that sexist comment. A girl in my program turned 21 on this day so we had a little party at the hostel with pizza and cake! Some people ended up taking her out to a bar to celebrate in true form, but we all had a ton of hw and reading to do so not as many people came.
TUESDAY: Twi, Philosophy, and Africa in the International Setting. All fun-ish classes. Not much happened that day, although my two critical response papers turned out a lot better. Blah... boring. We had no running water all day. That was a great time. Also, there was a group of us white kids walking back to the hostel from campus. We walk through prison guards' barracks where they stay with their families to get home. When we were walking home on Tuesday, a bunch of little kids started singing this song in Twi and following us. The only word we understood was obronis. OH! And later that night I was watching Friends episodes with some of the girls and we started hearing this chanting/singing thing that was really loud. I walk out on the balcony and realize it was the guys apt above us. I go upstairs to return the speakers I borrowed and started crying laughing b/c it was a group of about 6 guys sitting around a table singing at the top of their lungs this new R. Kelly song. Definitely not what I was expecting when I walked through the door.
WEDNESDAY: This was actually a good day. In my Leadership class, I was one out of 5 that got the highest grade on our test/quiz. I'm really excited b/c it means that we all go to our professor's house for lunch on Sunday where other faculty members will be!! She's sending her driver to our hostel to pick us up and everything. This same professor will be gone a few days in October b/c she was selected to be on the Africa panel at some UN thing. She's an expert on many social problems occurring in Ghana, especially when it comes to street children. I'm loving that class. After class, Gannett (a CIEE girl) and I went on an adventure to find the post office to mail our request forms for our absentee ballots. We ended up getting terribly lost so we had to take a cab and were able to successfully bargain!!! Afterwards we took a 20 minute walk back to campus in the blazing hot sun. Grosssss. I was excited b/c when I got back, we FINALLY had running water so I was able to take a shower. Rejoice!! Later that night a group of us found a NICER bar than our nasty one we went to for a couple of weeks. It's clean, the music is not blaring and obnoxious, and it's not swarming with Rastas and hookers. Yayy!!! We were able to just sit around, have a couple of drinks and bond.
THURSDAY: Went to Melting Moments today for breakfast with some of the girls and had my philosophy class. I'm missing my hot pink rainboots. It was really stormy outside when I woke up. Definitely one of those days that I just want to curl up in bed in my pj's with a good book. Unfortunately school gets in the way of that. Tomorrow is Music and Dance so that should be fun/embarrassing.

Fun little tidbits: I do not feel bad in the least bit for eating so much chicken. Those things are EVERYWHERE. For some reason I thought that roosters really only crowed when the sun rose and that was it. Not here. Those things don't shut up. I'm pretty sure one of my greatest fears here (besides being hit by a car and falling off my bunk bed) is being attacked by a crazed chicken. I want to start making bets as to a) who's going to be the first to kick one, and b) who's going to be the first to get bitten/pecked by one.
Also, I tried goat meat for the first time last night. Not bad. Very chewy. Sort of like deer meat. Oh and I'm horrible at cooking. I burnt myself when trying to fry french fries the other day. The oil splattered and it hurt like the dickens.
That's about all I can think of. Life here is pretty boring. Same as in the States, minus the fact that I have to take a malaria pill every day and it's consistently hot. If you have any questions about anything about Ghana, let me know!!
Love from Accra

history, adventures, and pie! oh my!

Soooo here's another post. I'm trying to post as often as I get the chance so I don't go too long without one. As I mentioned yesterday, I did quite a bit of laundry. I am becoming somewhat good at washing all of the soap out of my clothes. I tried to do some hw, but unfortunately my African philosophy reading is extensive and boring. I love my International Setting reading, but for some reason we don't have as much. We're learning Egyptian and Ethiopian history right now. I may check out a book from the library about Egyptian history once I finish another book I'm reading right now.
Last night was full of adventures. After the Internet Cafe, I went to get dinner with Kate and Holly (2 girls from my program). We decided to find this Chinese food restaurant that is supposed to be really good. Well we walked up and down a bunch of streets in the area where we heard it was. Unfortunately, one of my roommates called while I was doing that b/c I had accidentally locked her out of the room. I had to run back to the hostel to let her in. Oops. Bright side: I was able to lock and unlock my door on the first try!! I have a skeleton key for my lock so it was a bit difficult for a bit. I went back to the Chinese food restaurant that Kate and Holly settled on, which was gross. Then came back to the hostel to do some more reading for class. Unfortunately, almost right after I finished a chapter for my leadership class, an Ethiopian guy in my Music and Dance class decided to come visit us and stayed for a few hours. It's really fun learning about different cultures around Africa and the world. He also has an oven in his off-campus house so Holly and I are going to try to make an apple pie one day.
So far today I have had my Twi class and have my Leadership Seminar in an hour and a half. Classes are going really well and it's fun meeting more Ashesi students and getting to know them. Oh and my Twi professor is this tiny little man. His name means big warrior, which is funny because he is a teeny pacifist. Anyway, I'll try to update again. Here are some more tidbits about Ghana and some Twi vocab.

me pe wo - I love you
wo ho ye fe - you are beautiful
maakye - good morning (pronounced: maa-che)
maaha - good afternoon (prounounced: maa-ha)
maadwo - good evening (pronounced: maa-jo)

life expectancy is now estimated at 60 years compared to 54 years in 1988 and 57 in 1998.
the current occupancy rate in a house is about 7-12 persons per unit.
in 1995, there were 10,000 street children registered in Accra. It is now estimated to be 15,000.

Cheese is ridiculously expensive and I haven't seen any broccoli in any of the grocery stores. Fruit and rice are abundant. I never thought I would ever have a craving for salad and broccoli... and steak. Yum!

Ok, I must review my text for my next class. Me pe mo!! (I love y'all)

learning my A B ... D's!!

Sorry I haven't updated in such a long time. I haven't had much reliable Internet access in the past 5 days or so. Anyway, everything is going well in Ghana. We started our Twi classes last week and learned the Twi alphabet. They have most of the same letters, but it doesn't include c, j, q, x, z and some more but I can't remember. It's been fun practicing. Classes are going well. My Africana classes with the American teacher is going a lot better, which is great. She's figured out how to control the discussions so it's not just a free-for-all with everyone's opinions. In African Music and Dance on Friday we learned how to play on this bell thing. I can't remember what it was called, but we banged it with a stick and played different tunes. It was funny, the American girls in the class did a lot better than some of the Africans!! They can still dance better than us though. haha.
Everything is going great back at the hostel too. I can only take cold showers, but I'm getting used to that. I just run around the apt for a bit right after I wake up so I get all hot and sweaty and then jump in the shower. It wakes me up too. hahaha. Cooking is somewhat difficult here. We only have a gas stove, no oven, no microwave, no grill. I'm getting alright at cooking things in a skillet and one of my apt-mates has a rice cooker she said we could borrow so I may try to cook some rice tonight. Both of my roommates said they would teach me how to cook. One is Ghanaian, but was born and raised in the UK and the other is Nigerian. Thursday night a bunch of the CIEE girls got together and had a pasta dinner. It was fun.
Friday night was the all-school Akwaaba dance for the "freshers" (the freshmen. isn't that a fun word?). Before the dance, a bunch of us wanted to go shopping and find some cute going-out clothes. Well, that was an ordeal within itself. Kate, Holly, Montana and I shared a cab to the mall, but for some reason the cab driver didn't understand us or didn't know where it was so he took us to a big market place... 30 minutes away. He tried to drop us off instead of taking us to our destination so we finally got out, gave him half the money we told him we'd pay to take us to the mall and got in another cab. We paid that guy 5 cedi to take us 45 minutes back to the mall. He was really nice though and put in a mix CD that was perfect white girl music. Fun times.
Anyway, at the akwaaba dance here were some performances and a fashion show for us. There is a guy here that has a fashion line called noon moon. It pretty much consists of various t-shirts and polos that he's decorated himself, but they're actually good quality. I'm definitely wanting to buy a few to take home. After the dance, we went to this club called Cinderella's, but most of us weren't let in b/c there is a dress code - no flip-flops and no shorts. Instead we got cabs back to our regular bar that is affectionately called the hooker bar. The first time we went there, we saw a bunch of girls walking around in tight, skanky clothes and thought "hey, our clothes aren't bad at all! ghanaian women go out!" and were later told that they are hookers. It's technically called Purple Pub, but i like the term hooker bar better. Anyway, we went there with some other Ashesi guys that we've become friends with and just hung out for awhile.
On Saturday we had a field trip to the W.E.B. Dubois Center, Omanye House, and some museums. I ended up having my first trip to a Ghanaian hospital. Don't worry, I wasn't diseased. I just didn't eat enough with my malaria pill that morning and got sick. Aileen, one of our program directors, got really worried and made 2 of our U-Pals take me to the hospital where I saw the doctor and got some tests done. Again, DO NOT WORRY. When they took my blood, the guy took the STERILE needle out of a package. All of my blood tests came back clean so I'm going to look at it as a check-up to make sure I don't have malaria yet. Yay! The doctor said that my tonsils were large (I need to get those out btw) and I may be coming down with something so he prescribed me some antibiotics and painkillers. I've taken the antibiotics, but the painkillers were a bit excessive. It only cost a little over 60 cedi for the entire trip - doctor visit, blood tests, meds - which is AMAZING. If only healthcare in America was that cheap. :) Later that night I just hung out with a bunch of the girls. We got pizza since everyone was exhausted and didn't want to cook then watched Cruel Intentions.
Today was actually somewhat productive. I did my laundry (by hand! yay!!!) and some hw. I still have a ton more reading to do, but I finished one of the books that I needed read by this week. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe is an amazing book. I read it freshmen year for class and really liked it. One of my apartment-mates has a book that includes three of his so I'm going to borrow that from her later.

I'll try to update again sometime soon!! Oh, and interesting tidbit about Ghana: they drink water out of bags here. It's much cheaper than water bottles and same quality. 90 pesewas for 30 bags vs. 50 pesewas for a small bottle. sweeeeeet. ALSO, the AIDS rate here is 3%, less than New York City. What an interesting little fact to chew on. :)

Love love love from Africa! If you have any questions or want more details on anything, don't hesitate to ask!

a whole new alphabet

Last night we had our Akwaaba (welcome) Dinner. It was an absolute blast. We were served real Ghanaian food such as banku, fried plaintains, and jollof as well as a ton of other things that I have no idea how to pronounce. Then we all went outside and watched a performance of traditional African dances. They showed us 3 of those and then 1 modern dance. Afterwards, the dancers dragged us all on stage to teach us a few moves. Let's just say there is a reason that many say that white people can't dance. Hopefully my African Music and Dance class this semester can help me with that ... or my apartment-mates. Once we got home, some of us were talking about Ethiopian dancing (there is an Ethiopian guy in my Music and Dance class that showed us how he dances back home. Lots of shoulder moving.) and we asked our Ethiopian apartment-mate to show us how it's done. Holly (the other CIEE girl living in my apartment) and I probably looked ridiculous, but it was a ton of fun.
This morning we woke up bright and early for our very first Twi language class. It's held every Monday and Tuesday at 8 a.m. Greeeeat. Our professor is this tiny Ghanaian man who is very happy all the time. He taught us how to say a bunch of the basics. For example, Ashesi means beginning. He also explained the reasons behind naming a child. One of their names is either the male or female name for whatever day of the week they were born. For example, I was born on a Monday, so my name would be Adjoua something something something. Afterwards I had my Leadership Seminar where we talked about the reasons many people get into leadership positions, especially related to politics. It's interesting comparing the American and Ghanaian views. I also sort of made some rice tonight, although Kate and I put wayyy too much rice into the rice cooker. Oh well, I'm still learning. I think Holly and I will make a huge batch of breakfast tacos for dinner tomorrow. They were a hit last time and this time we'll make them properly.
Tomorrow I have 2 Africana classes with an African-American professor that I (as well as most if not all other students) am not very fond of. We'll see how this week goes. It's very frustrating to take a class about AFRICA and have to constantly have it related to the African-American experience. If I wanted that, I would take African-American studies back at school. That is not the reason I chose to study in Africa for the semester.
Ok. Enough venting. Positive thinking is key. Hopefully it will get better. Everything else is going well. It's been fun getting to know other Ashesi students and the CIEE students have another field trip this weekend! Once I get my computer hooked up to the internet, I'll post pictures.
Hope everything back in the states is going well!

Love from Accra!

p.s. here's a youtube video that sort of shows ethiopian dancing. notice the shoulder movements! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoAaTcPQnxs&feature=related