I'm baaaaaaack

So it's been 2 full weeks since I've left Ghana. This is just sort of a "how it's been now that I'm back" post. Ghana was amazing and really affected me in a positive way, as you could probably tell in the most recent post. The first week I was home was sort of difficult because I was really Ghana-sick and missed everything and everyone there, especially the warm weather. That first week I was back it was absolutely freezing in Texas... not pleasant. I'm sort of used to it now, especially since it's now in the 60s and 70s. :) Everything still reminds me of Ghana: movies, TV shows, songs, even certain foods. I can't eat scrambled eggs anymore without thinking of how often I made them in our kitchen, and how Holly and I tried to show everyone the heavenly-ness of breakfast tacos. The movie, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, will forever be associated with watching it with the girls in Kate's room, laughing at some of the crazy quotes. 

I miss everyone I met there like crazy, even the people I didn't originally click with very well. It's hard because I know that I may not see some of these people ever again, and that's incredibly difficult to accept. Thank goodness for facebook! I love that I still keep in touch with some of the girls in my program and I feel that if we ever see each other again, nothing will have changed and we'll still get along just as great. I'm planning on trying to find plantains somewhere and making some fried plantains. yum! I also want to print off a ton of my pictures and put them all over my room. This was the trip of a lifetime! Swimming in a waterfall, hiking through rainforests, going on a canopy walkway, feeding monkeys, going on a safari (!), buying traditional cloth, bargaining in the markets, riding on trou-trous, going to the beaches, learning African history and philosophy, meeting amazing people, volunteering with the most precious children, and becoming what I hope will be lifelong friends with people who I know will accomplish a great amount in the future. This experience has taught me more about myself and the world than 4 years in the same college most likely will. I will treasure it, and the people I met, for the rest of my life. 

The weirdest part about being home is how so little has changed, at least compared to what I expected. At least gas prices are finally down... only $1.50 a gallon!! Praise the Lord!! The economy is still dreadful and probably will continue to worsen until it can improve. However, compared to this time last year, I'm happier than I have been in a long time. I'm content, which is an amazing feeling. I still want to go abroad, anywhere, after I graduate and will most likely try to find a job in which I can do so. I really loved my experience in Ghana, still want to go back for an extended period of time and truly appreciate everything in that region. My best advice that I can give anyone now is that if you have the means and the chance to do so, go abroad. Anywhere. I've talked to friends that studied all over the world this past semester and I have not once heard a single bad account. Everybody I've talked to had a great time and misses it a ton. So here it is: Study Abroad. Take the chance. Go someplace completely different than what you are used to. Gain a different perspective of the world. Meet new people who have lived and experienced things that nobody else you know has. Just go for it. Take the leap. 

Love from Sherman!

Tidbit of the day: Be polite on airplanes. You can meet fascinating people on long flights. 

me pe wo ghana

I'm so sorry that I've been so terrible about updating. We had finals this week and I had a test, paper, or performance everyday. I've also been busy doing the last minute things before I leave, which is today. Leaving is going to be so bittersweet. I'm excited to see everyone back home and have more variety in my food choices rather than pasta, rice, and eggs. I'm really going to miss all of the friends that I've made here. It'll be tough going home and have people NOT understand all my inside jokes and phrases. Everyone in my program became so close to each other. We know everyone's most shameful stories and best moments here as well as our entire life histories. It's been such a great and rewarding experience being here and being such a noticeable minority. I've really enjoyed observing such a drastically different culture and being a part of it. I definitely appreciate the States so much more. I'm warning everyone now, I have picked up a few words and phrases that I replace others with. For example, I say chips instead of fries; queue instead of line; filling station instead of gas station, among others.

Quick recap of the past week or so: 2 papers, 2 tests and 1 performance later, I'm done with finals!

Election day was Sunday. The NPP and NDC are in a runoff because there is controversy concerning the votes and the election is ridiculously close, which is cool because most people thought the NPP would win by a landslide.

We had our goodbyes to our various bars and restaurants that we frequent on a regular basis. Champs, Venus, Purple Pub, Monsoon, Osu Food Court, etc. etc. etc.

I apologize for never putting up pictures. The Internet is crazy slow and if I try at school, it's almost guaranteed that the power will go out.

I realized that I really do know a good majority of the obronis in Accra. I walked into a fair trade shop the other day to buy souvenirs and realized that I knew the cashier from Champs! Anywhere I go now, just to walk down the street, I see someone I know. I absolutely love it and I've grown to love being a "regular" at some of the restaurants and bars I frequent a.k.a. Champs and Purple Pub.

This trip has been so great. I think I've become a much more patient and independent person. It'll be interesting to go back home and try to readjust, repatriate. I'm going to miss Ghana like crazy. I love the city of Accra and loved our trips around the country. It is unbelievably gorgeous here. I can't imagine going home and not coming back for awhile. It's really sad to think about, even though I'm ready to see my family and friends. Y'all are definitely lucky to NOT be on the plane next to me on the ride home. I will most likely be bawling my eyes out. The Frankfurt airport will be the worst since most of us are going to that airport before our connecting flights to all over the States. I love the people I've met here and I love this country, despite its faults.

Well I'll be home sometime Sunday night. I'll update next week with my experiences on the flights and being home so far.

(for the last time) Love from Accra!

Thanksgiving, Volunteering, and Shopping, oh my!

I really apologize for not updating as often as I should. Things have been busy and the Internet has been flakier than usual. Anyway, past couple weeks in a nutshell.

Thursday 11/27: Had my Steve Biko presentation. It went really well and my prof said it was the most rewarding presentation of the semester because it showed her how much we all had grown! That night was Thanksgiving. At first I was disappointed that I wasn't home, but we were invited to a chief's house for Thanksgiving dinner. He and his wife provided us turkey, gravy, potatoes, corn, REAL Greek salad, rolls, and some Ghanaian dishes. Yummmm. I sat at a table with two young American boys that had moved to Ghana the same time we arrived. Their Ghanaian mother decided it was time to move the family back. They were precious little ones.

Friday 11/28: Music and Dance as usual. We ended the class with improvised solo dances. It was actually a lot of fun. Probably because my professor wasn't there, just his professional dance students. That afternoon I went to Osu Children's Home with Kate to volunteer. I absolutely love those babies. The 2 year olds sort of annoy me, but the babies are amazing. I was able to talk with an older American woman who has lived here for a few years and is trying to adopt one of the babies. I'm going to try to buy supplies - such as diapers, wipes, and baby powder - for the orphanage next week and give them to her because I know she'll make sure all the kids get them. After the orphanage, we showered and then had a girls dinner at Champs with Holly and Montana. That place has provided a lot of great times for us this semester.

Saturday 11/29: I finally went to a Saturday practice for my Music and Dance class. The prof was an hour late and then we went over and over our Final Performance for 2 hours in the hot sun. After that, he sprang on us that we'll be having our practical final exam that day. Great. Hopefully I did alright. It was nerve-racking: being in a room, by yourself, with just your serious professor and professional musicians and dancers. Ugh. Anyway, that night I went to Champs and hung out with a bunch of NYU friends for awhile. One of the girls has a bartender that's in love with her and sends her free food all the time, which means they share with me. It's fabulous.

Sunday-Monday: Nothing of significance. Just schoolwork and such.

Tuesday 12/2: I woke up incredibly early to go to the Arts Center with Evelyn to go souvenir shopping. Although I spent a bunch of money, I got a ton of stuff. Mostly wooden things, but I love being able to bargain prices down. You get a great feeling of accomplishment when you get something for half the price of what the guy originally proposed. Anyway, we also had our class evaluations in my Africana classes. It was great realizing that we were the guinea pigs for our brand-new teacher, and also to see how people's perspective have drastically changed this semester. That afternoon/evening I just hung out with the girls and watched too many episodes of Gossip Girl.

So far Wednesday 12/3: I've been at school for most of the day working on my rough draft for my philosophy paper due tomorrow. Unfortunately, the Internet has been down all day so I had to move to the Internet Cafe and now I'm procrastinating. I have to admit though, the more I study Steve Biko and apartheid, the more interesting it becomes. I've been reading a lot of old articles and books about it and it's just mind-boggling how far South Africa has come since then, and how much further they still have to go.

Rest of this week: Tomorrow I have to go to the seamstress to make sure my dress fits and get another one made. I really should stop doing things at the very last minute. There is also an NYU farewell party/dinner thing that I've been invited to, which should be interesting. Friday we have OUR Farewell dinner, but since we're so small we're only allowed to bring 1 friend each. I'm bringing a girl that lives on my hall that I went to church with the beginning of the semester. All of us CIEE girls have decided we're throwing an unofficial Goodbye party at Champs on Saturday and are going to try to get all of our Ashesi friends to attend. Should be a fun night, no matter what.

As of today, December 3, I leave in 10 days. Scary!!

Love from Accra!!

Tidbit of the day: I'm not sure if I'm completely ready to come home and leave all of the friends I've made...

You know you're in Africa when...

... 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.

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.

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.

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