... at least 5 of your friends have typhoid in the same week.
That's right... typhoid. Last week all of a sudden everybody became quite ill. At first a bunch of people thought it was malaria, but once two of them got tested and found out it was typhoid, everybody else got tested. Typhoid is passed through contaminated food and drink. I was afraid I had it too because I had some of the symptoms last week so I went and got my blood drawn. Thankfully, MY vaccination worked, unlike some people's. Although when my test results came back, it showed two positives and 6 negatives. It sucked because the guy who analyzed my blood sample told me I had to see the doctor to see what to do. Well I spent 47 cedi to talk to the doctor for 5 minutes where he told me that I don't have typhoid, those two positives are from the vaccination. Grrrrr. At least I don't have typhoid. Although I'm sort of bummed that I can't be a part of the Cool Kids Typhoid Club. Obviously Africa has messed with my mind. I'm still going to tell my African Music and Dance teacher that I have typhoid b/c I used that as an excuse to sleep through our extra practice Saturday afternoon. In my defense, I truly have not felt well recently, although it may just be a virus.
Friday night was a pretty chill night. I got my blood test results back, which at first were inconclusive until my 5-minute doctor's visit today. I'm still bitter. Anyway, after getting the results with a friend, we met up with another friend, bought some pirated movies and dinner ingredients and went back to his house. It was a lot of fun. Leah and I made dinner for Josh and his brothers. We made teriyaki chicken, mashed potatoes, and boiled veggies. Yummm. We also watched the Bourne Ultimatum. AWESOME movie.
Anyway, Saturday night was supposed to be a fun experience. I had tickets to the Wyclef Jean, Eve and Mario concert and was planning on seeing it with a bunch of friends. Well we got there around 11:30 p.m. and all of the gates to go inside were padlocked. Red flag! All of the people in there were locked in. None of the artists had even gone on stage yet and it was supposed to start at 5. T.I.A. The volunteer girls and I decided there was no way we were going to be locked inside a stadium. Absolutely not. Instead we and the other people we were with decided to go to Honeysuckle where I had some chips (French fries!) and went over to a friend's house to watch TV. SNL's Best of Christopher Walken is classic.
Sunday was a pretty lazy day. Just hung out and lazed about most of the day. Later in the evening I went to Champs for dinner and watched their Sunday night movie. I was exhausted though so I fell asleep 3/4 of the way through in one of the booths. The part I watched was good though! I made sure to be home pretty early that evening.
Monday so far: I woke up pretty early and ran some errands before my pointless doctor's appointment. At least my doctor was very nice and I went to a clean, respectable clinic. The perks of knowing people who have lived here for most of their life...
Anyway, hopefully I'll be pretty productive this week. I have a presentation coming up as well as some final papers. Eek! Hope everything is going well for everyone else. I'll be back in Texas in less than 3 weeks!!! What a bittersweet thought...
Love from Accra!
Tidbit of the day: 10% of the number of people ever born are alive today... according to BBC.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
My week of no classes
Ok so I'm going to try to update more often. I know I keep saying that, but I only have 3 and a half (!) more weeks here.
Tuesday: since I had no class, I got up early, did some laundry and volunteered at the Osu Children's Home again with a volunteer friend of mine. We were there for 4.5 hours. This time it was a more fun b/c all we did was play with them, feed them, bathe them and put them to bed. They were a lot more pleasant and we could give them snacks! Apparently she brings vitamins and biscuits (cookies) every day. The children are soo sweet, but they definitely tired me out from picking them up and running after them so much. I also found a few that I want to adopt. After we were done with volunteering, we went to our respective homes and showered off baby filth, then met up with a guy friend of ours for dinner. He took us out to this AMAZING Chinese restaurant and picked up the bill!! I even tried duck. It was delicious.
Wednesday: Again, I had no class. More laundry by hand (holla!) and stopped by campus to pick up the lovely package my mom sent me. :) I was going to volunteer again that evening and do the night shift, but I started feeling ill after I got there so I only stayed for a couple hours. I got to do the fun stuff though: feeding the babies and loving on them. I also found out that 4 of my friends have typhoid. That's cool. After I got home, I spent the rest of the night watching movies.
Thursday: I was SUPPOSED to have my first class of the week today (my Africana prof has been in Ethiopia all week), but her flight was rescheduled again so she cancelled it the day of, which I didn't find out until AFTER I got to school. At least I was finally somewhat productive. I met up with some friends later and watched Thomas Crowne Affair (great movie), got dinner and was going to watch Thunderball (the Bond movie), but fell asleep during it.
Friday: Today was the first time I've had class all week. Music and Dance is... interesting. It never fails to give me a headache, especially since some of the people can't carry a rhythm whatsoever. At least we didn't have to go outside today and were let out early.
Tomorrow will be exciting!! A group of us got tickets to this concert at the National Stadium. Wyclef Jean, Eve and Mario will be performing along with a bunch of Ghanaian artists. I can't wait. :)
love from Accra!!
Tidbit of the day: Many people here have belly buttons that protrude much further than usual. They look like golf balls under their skin. It's b/c the women don't have time to breastfeed their babies and get them started on solid foods too soon.
Typhoid canNOT be contracted by sharing drinks, but rather by consuming contaminated food and drinks.
Tuesday: since I had no class, I got up early, did some laundry and volunteered at the Osu Children's Home again with a volunteer friend of mine. We were there for 4.5 hours. This time it was a more fun b/c all we did was play with them, feed them, bathe them and put them to bed. They were a lot more pleasant and we could give them snacks! Apparently she brings vitamins and biscuits (cookies) every day. The children are soo sweet, but they definitely tired me out from picking them up and running after them so much. I also found a few that I want to adopt. After we were done with volunteering, we went to our respective homes and showered off baby filth, then met up with a guy friend of ours for dinner. He took us out to this AMAZING Chinese restaurant and picked up the bill!! I even tried duck. It was delicious.
Wednesday: Again, I had no class. More laundry by hand (holla!) and stopped by campus to pick up the lovely package my mom sent me. :) I was going to volunteer again that evening and do the night shift, but I started feeling ill after I got there so I only stayed for a couple hours. I got to do the fun stuff though: feeding the babies and loving on them. I also found out that 4 of my friends have typhoid. That's cool. After I got home, I spent the rest of the night watching movies.
Thursday: I was SUPPOSED to have my first class of the week today (my Africana prof has been in Ethiopia all week), but her flight was rescheduled again so she cancelled it the day of, which I didn't find out until AFTER I got to school. At least I was finally somewhat productive. I met up with some friends later and watched Thomas Crowne Affair (great movie), got dinner and was going to watch Thunderball (the Bond movie), but fell asleep during it.
Friday: Today was the first time I've had class all week. Music and Dance is... interesting. It never fails to give me a headache, especially since some of the people can't carry a rhythm whatsoever. At least we didn't have to go outside today and were let out early.
Tomorrow will be exciting!! A group of us got tickets to this concert at the National Stadium. Wyclef Jean, Eve and Mario will be performing along with a bunch of Ghanaian artists. I can't wait. :)
love from Accra!!
Tidbit of the day: Many people here have belly buttons that protrude much further than usual. They look like golf balls under their skin. It's b/c the women don't have time to breastfeed their babies and get them started on solid foods too soon.
Typhoid canNOT be contracted by sharing drinks, but rather by consuming contaminated food and drinks.
Monday, November 17, 2008
T.I.A. - This Is Africa
Sorry it's been so terribly long since the last time I updated. I tried to last week, but the power went out and the next 2 days I couldn't find an open computer for an extended period of time. Ohhhh Ghana. Anyway, I've settled into such a routine here that it's hard to remember what's worthy to write about. I'll try to give a somewhat brief account of the past couple of weeks.
Thursday - class and such. After class got out at 4:30, Holly, Montana and I went to happy hour at this very nice bar called Honeysuckle. It's one of those places where we can only afford happy hour-priced drinks, which means it had a nice atmosphere. After Honeysuckle, we went to Champs for quiz night. That was fun trying to answer all the quiz questions aka I didn't pay attention and socialized with some NYU girls at a different table while my team won, which means the next week we/they made up the questions for the next week!
Friday - This was my night of fraternizing with the enemy... aka white people from other programs besides my own. I met up with some friends from the CIEE Legon program and NYU kids at Monsoon's. It was really fun hanging out and getting to know new people. However, Emily and I had to go back to the hostel pretty early in the evening since we had a CIEE trip the next day.
Saturday - Woke up at 6:45 a.m. to be on the bus by 7:30 to go to Bojo Beach. This beach was absolutely gorgeous. It was clean, empty, and one of the prettiest places I have ever seen. I love hanging out with the other students in my small program so we had a great time playing in the ocean (with no trash in it!), laying out, and playing beach volleyball. Most of us obronis ended up getting really sunburned, except they were some really splotchy sunburns. Weird. I had my hair band on my wrist so I was able to see how pale I was BEFORE I got some color. Sad really. Since we got there so early in the morning we were able to leave and be back in Accra by late afternoon. After a refreshingly cool shower (I was grateful that we have no hot water), I met up with a friend and went out to eat at his mom's restaurant. One of the few times that I can truly say that I went out to eat and had GREAT food. Afterwards we went to Champ's and hung out with a bunch of people. It was a pretty empty Saturday night, which was nice. I was able to carry on a conversation with my friends comfortably and without the music being too loud. I sound like an older person. :)
Sunday - Went to a friend's beach house about 45 minutes away. Absolutely gorgeous, but not as pretty as Bojo Beach. Spent the day there having yummy food, playing in the pool and pretty much being spoiled. Lovely.
Monday-Wednesday - class and such. Tuesday was my last day of Twi and Wednesday was my last day of my leadership seminar! Yay!! Wednesday night I did a 10-hour shift at the Osu Children's Home which is an orphanage nearby. That place nearly broke my heart and spirit. I worked at the nursery. The women who work there treat the babies terribly. There was one child who was 2-3 weeks old and a woman just picked her up by her arm and handed her to me! We woke the babies at 10 p.m., fed them and changed them and put them back to bed. We then slept until 2 (but the stupid women didn't wake up until 2:30. I don't know how they slept through the screaming babies) and woke up all of the children. Holly and I held the youngest and fed them by hand, but they laid many on a rug on the floor and put a bottle in its mouth, keeping it in place by towels. After the babies were fed, they began bathing the tiniest ones and dressing them. They put all of the babies who could hold their heads up and many who couldn't on training potties and waited until they pooped before they were bathed. It was absolutely terrible. So many of them couldn't hold their heads up so they kept sliding over on the wall and falling down in their own urine and feces. I thought I was going to cry. The women were so rough with the children. This took 4 hours to feed, bathe, and dress all the babies and toddlers. They give the HIV-positive toddlers blue cups to drink milk out of and the others red cups. What the hell? Holly and I didn't leave until after 6 a.m., absolutely exhausted and filthy from our shift. It broke my heart though seeing how many of the kids were malnourished. There were some that were soo tiny. Apparently the Home gets plenty of funding, but it isn't always distributed to where it needs to be... the children. Disgusting, really. I'm going to try to volunteer again this week when I don't have class.
Thursday - Helped to host quiz night. All I did was read the first round of questions and then grade the answers every 2 rounds. They had some great categories. One such round was Brussell Crillis. Good job guys for great rounds.
Friday - The lovely day of Music and Dance. We spent an hour and a half in the blazing hot sun preparing for our final program. One thing that was cool was that I was chosen early on as one of the best bell players. :) It was like gym class all over again. Unfortunately, b/c I was chosen early, I was in the hot sun the longest with the rest of the good bell players constantly playing the same damn tune. Gannett was chosen too so we stood and talked while playing. What a great skill. Our program should be fun. I don't have to dance in front of people so I'm excited about that. After M&D, I walked home soaked in sweat and met a lovely person who asked me how I liked the weather here. Jackass. That afternoon my Twi professor planned a field trip for all of our class. Sadly, once again I was one of 3 students who went. Even worse, 2 of us were part of the 3 that went last time. It was cool though. We took a taxi out to Nungua, stopping here and there to meet some friends of his who owned various shops and such. We met some weavers in Tema before continuing to Nungua to the Chief's palace. That was amazing. We were introduced to a bunch of the villagers at the palace and then were served red red at the palace. The Chief was supposed to eat with us, but had to make a meeting so he made sure to stop by, introduce himself and take pictures with us. We received a history of chieftaincy in Nungua and were able to meet prominent leaders that work with/for the chief. After red red, they served us yams, plaintains and palava sauce. After that we were served some really good watermelon for dessert. Yum. We were supposed to go on the bone shaker - the wooden truck thing I spoke of earlier - but our professor took pity on us since 2 of us have already gone on it. A friend of us drove us all the way to Tema and then paid for our cabfare back home. Once I got home, I made the rest of the CIEE girls jealous by telling them our stories, then went out to our beloved Purple Pub for drinks and companionship. Once again, I was reminded how lucky I am to have such a small program. We know each other so well and are so close.
Saturday - Great day. A friend had a party at his beach house. I was picked up at 3:30 by a different friend so we could go out there, but weren't able to leave Accra until after 5 b/c he had to run so many errands. We finally got there a little after 6. The guy whose beach house it is provided amazing food. Yummy homemade pizzas, delicious kebabs (maybe goat meat?), miniature cheeze pies, deliciousness. His house is right on the beach too so we were able to sit by the pool and watch the tide. He also set up a projector screen on the roof of this tower building thing so some of us went up there and watched 300. Such a fun time. I never would have guessed I would be doing things like this in Africa of all places. Just goes to show, preconceived notions are usually proved false.
Sunday - A bunch of volunteer girls and I stayed the night at the house. We spent the next day hanging out around the pool, playing ping pong, and being spoiled with delicious food. I have to say though, some people are just ridiculous with their wealth. This guy has OSTRICHES for goodness' sake. Those things are mean. If you get close enough to them (don't worry. there was a fence) they hiss. They also look like they could be mythological creatures. Anyway, on the way back to Accra there was a political rally for the NPP (New Patriotic Party) so traffic was crazy. People were wandering around in NPP shirts banging on car windows and handing out flyers. Their candidate is Nana Akufo-Addo who many believe will win the election in December. After I finally got home, I had a great girls' night with chick flicks and chocolate. So much fun.
Monday - Since I no longer have Twi or Leadership, my Mondays and Wednesdays are free. Today I spent most of the day reading. I'm going to try to volunteer at the Children's Home for the next few weeks though since I've become friends with a lot of the volunteers there.
I apologize for such a crazy-long post. I understand if nobody reads this. I'll try to update more often, but once again, TIA. Internet is unreliable and it's hard having to pay by the minute. Hope everything is going well! I'll be back in Texas December 14! YAY!!
Love from Accra!
Tidbit of the day: More people are killed by falling coconuts than sharks.
Thursday - class and such. After class got out at 4:30, Holly, Montana and I went to happy hour at this very nice bar called Honeysuckle. It's one of those places where we can only afford happy hour-priced drinks, which means it had a nice atmosphere. After Honeysuckle, we went to Champs for quiz night. That was fun trying to answer all the quiz questions aka I didn't pay attention and socialized with some NYU girls at a different table while my team won, which means the next week we/they made up the questions for the next week!
Friday - This was my night of fraternizing with the enemy... aka white people from other programs besides my own. I met up with some friends from the CIEE Legon program and NYU kids at Monsoon's. It was really fun hanging out and getting to know new people. However, Emily and I had to go back to the hostel pretty early in the evening since we had a CIEE trip the next day.
Saturday - Woke up at 6:45 a.m. to be on the bus by 7:30 to go to Bojo Beach. This beach was absolutely gorgeous. It was clean, empty, and one of the prettiest places I have ever seen. I love hanging out with the other students in my small program so we had a great time playing in the ocean (with no trash in it!), laying out, and playing beach volleyball. Most of us obronis ended up getting really sunburned, except they were some really splotchy sunburns. Weird. I had my hair band on my wrist so I was able to see how pale I was BEFORE I got some color. Sad really. Since we got there so early in the morning we were able to leave and be back in Accra by late afternoon. After a refreshingly cool shower (I was grateful that we have no hot water), I met up with a friend and went out to eat at his mom's restaurant. One of the few times that I can truly say that I went out to eat and had GREAT food. Afterwards we went to Champ's and hung out with a bunch of people. It was a pretty empty Saturday night, which was nice. I was able to carry on a conversation with my friends comfortably and without the music being too loud. I sound like an older person. :)
Sunday - Went to a friend's beach house about 45 minutes away. Absolutely gorgeous, but not as pretty as Bojo Beach. Spent the day there having yummy food, playing in the pool and pretty much being spoiled. Lovely.
Monday-Wednesday - class and such. Tuesday was my last day of Twi and Wednesday was my last day of my leadership seminar! Yay!! Wednesday night I did a 10-hour shift at the Osu Children's Home which is an orphanage nearby. That place nearly broke my heart and spirit. I worked at the nursery. The women who work there treat the babies terribly. There was one child who was 2-3 weeks old and a woman just picked her up by her arm and handed her to me! We woke the babies at 10 p.m., fed them and changed them and put them back to bed. We then slept until 2 (but the stupid women didn't wake up until 2:30. I don't know how they slept through the screaming babies) and woke up all of the children. Holly and I held the youngest and fed them by hand, but they laid many on a rug on the floor and put a bottle in its mouth, keeping it in place by towels. After the babies were fed, they began bathing the tiniest ones and dressing them. They put all of the babies who could hold their heads up and many who couldn't on training potties and waited until they pooped before they were bathed. It was absolutely terrible. So many of them couldn't hold their heads up so they kept sliding over on the wall and falling down in their own urine and feces. I thought I was going to cry. The women were so rough with the children. This took 4 hours to feed, bathe, and dress all the babies and toddlers. They give the HIV-positive toddlers blue cups to drink milk out of and the others red cups. What the hell? Holly and I didn't leave until after 6 a.m., absolutely exhausted and filthy from our shift. It broke my heart though seeing how many of the kids were malnourished. There were some that were soo tiny. Apparently the Home gets plenty of funding, but it isn't always distributed to where it needs to be... the children. Disgusting, really. I'm going to try to volunteer again this week when I don't have class.
Thursday - Helped to host quiz night. All I did was read the first round of questions and then grade the answers every 2 rounds. They had some great categories. One such round was Brussell Crillis. Good job guys for great rounds.
Friday - The lovely day of Music and Dance. We spent an hour and a half in the blazing hot sun preparing for our final program. One thing that was cool was that I was chosen early on as one of the best bell players. :) It was like gym class all over again. Unfortunately, b/c I was chosen early, I was in the hot sun the longest with the rest of the good bell players constantly playing the same damn tune. Gannett was chosen too so we stood and talked while playing. What a great skill. Our program should be fun. I don't have to dance in front of people so I'm excited about that. After M&D, I walked home soaked in sweat and met a lovely person who asked me how I liked the weather here. Jackass. That afternoon my Twi professor planned a field trip for all of our class. Sadly, once again I was one of 3 students who went. Even worse, 2 of us were part of the 3 that went last time. It was cool though. We took a taxi out to Nungua, stopping here and there to meet some friends of his who owned various shops and such. We met some weavers in Tema before continuing to Nungua to the Chief's palace. That was amazing. We were introduced to a bunch of the villagers at the palace and then were served red red at the palace. The Chief was supposed to eat with us, but had to make a meeting so he made sure to stop by, introduce himself and take pictures with us. We received a history of chieftaincy in Nungua and were able to meet prominent leaders that work with/for the chief. After red red, they served us yams, plaintains and palava sauce. After that we were served some really good watermelon for dessert. Yum. We were supposed to go on the bone shaker - the wooden truck thing I spoke of earlier - but our professor took pity on us since 2 of us have already gone on it. A friend of us drove us all the way to Tema and then paid for our cabfare back home. Once I got home, I made the rest of the CIEE girls jealous by telling them our stories, then went out to our beloved Purple Pub for drinks and companionship. Once again, I was reminded how lucky I am to have such a small program. We know each other so well and are so close.
Saturday - Great day. A friend had a party at his beach house. I was picked up at 3:30 by a different friend so we could go out there, but weren't able to leave Accra until after 5 b/c he had to run so many errands. We finally got there a little after 6. The guy whose beach house it is provided amazing food. Yummy homemade pizzas, delicious kebabs (maybe goat meat?), miniature cheeze pies, deliciousness. His house is right on the beach too so we were able to sit by the pool and watch the tide. He also set up a projector screen on the roof of this tower building thing so some of us went up there and watched 300. Such a fun time. I never would have guessed I would be doing things like this in Africa of all places. Just goes to show, preconceived notions are usually proved false.
Sunday - A bunch of volunteer girls and I stayed the night at the house. We spent the next day hanging out around the pool, playing ping pong, and being spoiled with delicious food. I have to say though, some people are just ridiculous with their wealth. This guy has OSTRICHES for goodness' sake. Those things are mean. If you get close enough to them (don't worry. there was a fence) they hiss. They also look like they could be mythological creatures. Anyway, on the way back to Accra there was a political rally for the NPP (New Patriotic Party) so traffic was crazy. People were wandering around in NPP shirts banging on car windows and handing out flyers. Their candidate is Nana Akufo-Addo who many believe will win the election in December. After I finally got home, I had a great girls' night with chick flicks and chocolate. So much fun.
Monday - Since I no longer have Twi or Leadership, my Mondays and Wednesdays are free. Today I spent most of the day reading. I'm going to try to volunteer at the Children's Home for the next few weeks though since I've become friends with a lot of the volunteers there.
I apologize for such a crazy-long post. I understand if nobody reads this. I'll try to update more often, but once again, TIA. Internet is unreliable and it's hard having to pay by the minute. Hope everything is going well! I'll be back in Texas December 14! YAY!!
Love from Accra!
Tidbit of the day: More people are killed by falling coconuts than sharks.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
well well...
So life has been ... interesting lately. Tuesday night was election night! I went to a big election coverage party hosted by the NYU study abroad program. They invited all study abroad students as well as African students from University of Ghana (Legon) and Ashesi. They had expensive drink specials named after a couple of the swing states and a bunch of food. I was even interviewed on TV! I don't have a TV in my hostel, but I'm pretty sure since I was one of my maybe 5 McCain supporters, they'll broadcast my responses to the questions asked. I think the station was called Africa Today or something like that. We arrived at the party thing at Headlines (a restaurant/bar type of place) at 10:30. Unfortunately I had been sick earlier that day so I wasn't fully ready to stay up all night waiting for the results, but I (sort of) did it! I fell asleep on the grass in front of the big projector screen around 3 and didn't wake up until people started counting down to the announcement of the results. It was 4:15 when the news was broken. :( Anyway, it was really cool to be in Ghana, in Africa even, when Obama won. Even though I was disappointed with the results, I have to admit it was somewhat rewarding to see everyone else celebrating and dancing. The next day I walked down the street to go to the ATM and grocery shopping and when we heard, "Are you from US? US?" instead of vendors trying to sell us stuff, they just yelled "OBAMA!!!" At least other countries respect us more, for now. Although I was sad not to be in the US for the election, I know I'll look back on this for years to come and realize what an amazing experience it was to be in Africa.
love from Accra!
Tidbit of the day: I'm famous!! My friend, Kathryn Sharkey, works for the SMU online newspaper and interviewed me about what it has been like being an American in Ghana during the elections. Here's the link: http://www.smudailymustang.com/?p=3270
love from Accra!
Tidbit of the day: I'm famous!! My friend, Kathryn Sharkey, works for the SMU online newspaper and interviewed me about what it has been like being an American in Ghana during the elections. Here's the link: http://www.smudailymustang.com/?p=3270
Saturday, November 1, 2008
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to update. I have been somewhat busy recently with school and such and not a whole lot has been going on. In the past week I had a group presentation that went pretty well for us putting it together in 2 days. Our teacher moved up our presentation date from Thursday to Tuesday and didn't tell us until Sunday. It still went well though> i was able to present information about foreign aid in West Africa and why throwing money at an issue does not solve it.
Interesting news though: I saw the President of Ghana in person! My International Setting class went to a book launching about The Economic History of Ghana and President Nana Akufo-Addo (who's running for reelection this December) was there! He walked right past us. Pretty cool. All the American kids were really excited.
Last night was Halloween. My apartment mates threw a big cake and ice cream party for the class of 2010 and CIEE kids. It was really fun actually. They changed out the lights in the main room of the flat to colored lights and served a TON of ice cream and snacks. Yummm. Everyone was dancing to all kinds of music. I like that Halloween music in Ghana translates to Michael Jackson. It was really cool watching everyone dancing, although not so cool when they pulled all the CIEE kids into the middle of the room to make us dance to... the Captain Planet theme song. What in the world?? It was funny though. I'm sure we looked like the goofy white kids we are. They even played musical chairs which was super cute. Holly and I decided to make it more fun by dressing in our Halloween costumes for the party. She was a pirate and I was Tom Cruise from Risky Business. I even had some Ghana crew socks and Ray-Bans that I got from Tamale for 2 cedi. Unfortunately Ghanaians haven't seen Risky Business so I kept being asked why I wasn't wearing any pants or shoes. Later on, Holly, Emily and I went to a Halloween party that was hosted by a friend of a friend. More people understood my costume there. Tonight a TON of people, including most of our program, are going to this bar called Champs for another Halloween party. I'm going as a gypsy which should hopefully be a lot of fun.
Not much else has been going on. I'm still trying to plan a trip to the village on stilts and find time to go fabric shopping so I can get Africa dresses made. Oh and the weather here is sweltering. It's getting hotter and hotter, but at least it doesn't rain as often as it did when we first got here.
Ghana is still going great! I'm enjoying it so much and can't believe that I'll be back home in 6 weeks. Oh and this restaurant/bar called Headlines is having an election coverage night Tuesday night for all the American students. The NYU director planned it and they are even providing us a shuttle to/from the hostel. Apparently CNN and al-Jazeera are invited! I'm really excited. :)
Hope everything is going great everywhere else!! Love from Africa!
tidbit of the day: Many babies, especially in regions further north with more indigenous populations, receive cuts on their faces that depict what tribe they belong to. We noticed it EVERYWHERE when we did our big trip to Kumasi, Mole, and Tamale, although I'm not quite sure exactly how they do it to make it last for so long. The scars are pretty deep. Interesting...
Interesting news though: I saw the President of Ghana in person! My International Setting class went to a book launching about The Economic History of Ghana and President Nana Akufo-Addo (who's running for reelection this December) was there! He walked right past us. Pretty cool. All the American kids were really excited.
Last night was Halloween. My apartment mates threw a big cake and ice cream party for the class of 2010 and CIEE kids. It was really fun actually. They changed out the lights in the main room of the flat to colored lights and served a TON of ice cream and snacks. Yummm. Everyone was dancing to all kinds of music. I like that Halloween music in Ghana translates to Michael Jackson. It was really cool watching everyone dancing, although not so cool when they pulled all the CIEE kids into the middle of the room to make us dance to... the Captain Planet theme song. What in the world?? It was funny though. I'm sure we looked like the goofy white kids we are. They even played musical chairs which was super cute. Holly and I decided to make it more fun by dressing in our Halloween costumes for the party. She was a pirate and I was Tom Cruise from Risky Business. I even had some Ghana crew socks and Ray-Bans that I got from Tamale for 2 cedi. Unfortunately Ghanaians haven't seen Risky Business so I kept being asked why I wasn't wearing any pants or shoes. Later on, Holly, Emily and I went to a Halloween party that was hosted by a friend of a friend. More people understood my costume there. Tonight a TON of people, including most of our program, are going to this bar called Champs for another Halloween party. I'm going as a gypsy which should hopefully be a lot of fun.
Not much else has been going on. I'm still trying to plan a trip to the village on stilts and find time to go fabric shopping so I can get Africa dresses made. Oh and the weather here is sweltering. It's getting hotter and hotter, but at least it doesn't rain as often as it did when we first got here.
Ghana is still going great! I'm enjoying it so much and can't believe that I'll be back home in 6 weeks. Oh and this restaurant/bar called Headlines is having an election coverage night Tuesday night for all the American students. The NYU director planned it and they are even providing us a shuttle to/from the hostel. Apparently CNN and al-Jazeera are invited! I'm really excited. :)
Hope everything is going great everywhere else!! Love from Africa!
tidbit of the day: Many babies, especially in regions further north with more indigenous populations, receive cuts on their faces that depict what tribe they belong to. We noticed it EVERYWHERE when we did our big trip to Kumasi, Mole, and Tamale, although I'm not quite sure exactly how they do it to make it last for so long. The scars are pretty deep. Interesting...
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