Random...

Here are some random pictures for you all to see...

A store a few minutes walk from the hostel (in fact you can see ISH2 in the background) commonly called "Chop" or "Jesus" by the members of the Calvin group...




The night market, where I purchase most of my food
(located just outside of the hostel...I can see it from my window)




Esther's fruit stand...I buy all my fruit from her, including my daily pineapple...




You can buy lattes at the little cafe in Max-Mart...we went there last week while studying, I've missed good coffee so much, it was one of my happiest moments in a long time...




The epitome of Tuesday nights: Star Beer, cigarettes, and buy one get one free pizza at Bonjour

its been a while...

As the title of this entry suggests, it has been a while since I last wrote to you all...and much has happened since then. The following is the abbreviated version of what I would have written had I blogged every day these past few days...
Thursday began as a celebration...since we have readings and papers due for History and virtually no class on Fridays, Thursday nights feel somewhat like Friday nights. On the recommendation of our High-life music professor, we decided to try Bywell Bar which has a live band every Thursday night performing covers of popular songs as well as Ghanaian music. I had a really good time dancing and hanging out with the group and hope to turn Bywell into a Thursday night tradition...
On Friday, after a night of dancing at Bywell and our morning drumming class, we decided to take a day trip to Asenema Falls (a waterfall and hiking area located not too far from Accra). The waterfall was amazing...but surrounded by large slippery sharp rocks (ones that Brad eventually cut his face on) which we proceeded to climb until we got halfway up the waterfall and behind it. This was probably not my most intelligent decision but the experience was worth the few scrapes on my arms and legs. The most interesting part of Asenema falls was the journey there and back. Unless we were willing to pay an arm and a leg for a taxi (which was not the case) we had to take multiple modes of transportation to get to Asenema. First we took a tro-tro to Medina (tro-tro's are large eighteen passenger vans that cruise along the roads here picking up passengers as they go, they usually have a final destination but no set schedule, a passenger can get on and thus get off anywhere along the way...tro-tro's are also usually packed full of people and can become hot and uncomfortable, especially if you are sitting in one on a tro-tro yard waiting for it to fill up before take-off). In Medina we got off at the wrong stop and had to walk a half mile up the road to find a connecting tro-tro to Adrukum (the village closest to Asenema Falls). Most of us ended up sitting on the Adrukum tro-tro for nearly 45minutes as the driver waited for it to fill up. After about an hour's ride we reached Adrukum where six of us shoved into a taxi which took us on the last 5 kilometers of the trip. The way back home was even more interesting since Asenema falls in out in the middle of nowhere--which meant we had to hitch-hike back to Adrukum where we grabbed a tro-tro home. We walked about a half-mile before some Ghanaian workers picked us up in their covered pick-up and took us into town.
Having survived Asenema (beat up yet in one piece) we spent most of Friday night hanging out in Erica's room...while most of the boys bought cheap nasty boxed wine for the night, Sam and I decided to be classy and go with the bagged vodka. That's right, you can actually buy vodka pre-packaged in shot-sized bags here...I have included a picture if you don't believe me. The fifth that Derek's holding up cost us about $2 dollars, real classy...they made probably the worst screw-drivers I've ever tasted.
The rest of the weekend was spent on random affairs, Saturday a few of us went down to "Circle" (a shopping area of Accra) where we explored the Hocker's Market as people tried to coerce us into buying all sorts of random paraphernalia.
On Sunday, Emily, Lydia, and I spent most of the day in search of a chick-flick, which was incredibly hopeless... but in the process ended up eating at a great restaurant called Papaye and finding a little Gellato place which sells both Gellato ice-cream as well as other European desserts...yay!
Overall these past few days have been a great learning experience, I've been busy traveling here and there but in the process have gotten quite used to riding on tro-tro's and bargaining with taxi drivers. Hopping on a tro-tro to a rather unfamiliar place is no longer as scary as it was a few weeks ago. I'm also more on my guard than I used to be. I still struggle with knowing when to be polite to harassing street vendors and when it is culturally acceptable for me to respond with a comment as equally rude as the one directed at me. The one thing I cannot stand here is that people (mostly men) feel that they have permission to touch and grab at us ladies. It is not uncommon for a street vendor to grab at my arm or wrist while he is trying to get my attention... At first I was shocked when this happened, then I tried to be polite, now a days I either rip my arm free or attempt to slap their hand away (which sadly is yet to be successful). Overall, I love that I am finally getting used to being here, I'm more used to the culture and how I am expected to act in certain situations.

mating frogs...

It is about time to mention the crazy mating frogs they have here right now. After dark, the sounds of (the loudest I've ever heard) frog croaking fills the air. Every now and then the frogs get silent (or you stop noticing them) and then they get going: one frog starts and the rest follow in response. Some of the girls have had a difficult time sleeping at night just because the frogs are so loud. We finally figured it all out, the trench gutters on the side of the road are filled with tadpoles...they're mating. Which can only mean that a few months from now we will have a thousand times the frogs we have now...the croaking will only get louder until we all go mad!

there and back again...

We've been told by multiple people to expect power-outages quite frequently. Since the rainy season is coming to an end, the Volta is drying up, which means the dam we went to visit (the one that feeds power to all of Ghana, Togo, Benin, and part of Burkina Faso) cannot provide as much power as is is needed and thus there are random power-outages. The rainy season went a little long this year so we hadn't yet experienced a power-outage, that is until last night...
Most of us from the Calvin group had been planning (for a few days now) on going to a Karaoke bar called Champs last night...the other international students had told us it was a good time so we decided we'd give it a try. Most of us girls had been planning on showering and getting all dressed up (since we usually feel dirty and frumpy) before leaving--which would have been fine if the power hadn't gone out as it was getting dark at 6:30pm. Most of us ended up showering in the pitch dark of the girls bathroom and I will probably never forget the time I had trying to apply my make-up in the dark while Sam was shining a flashlight into my face. Magically we all ended up looking great! Even more magically, the lights flickered on as we were about to walk down the stairs and out of the hostel...timing is everything.
We all had a really good time at Champs. The atmosphere was a little strange since there were mostly only white people there and it was so packed that most of us couldn't sit down. I spent most of my time at Champs lingering around the bar (with most of the group) mingling with the other internationals. (The very fact that I couldn't sit down made for an interesting night because I had broken the strap on one of my heels as we were getting out of the cab in front of the restaurant.) We ended up meeting some really interesting people who we hung out with for the rest of the night... We got to know an Italian guy (David) who is our age and is the manager at a gold mine a few hours from Accra. We also met a Afrikaans guy who had just come from South Africa (also our age) to work as a distributor of merchandise into Ghana--his name is Paul. There was also a teacher from Switzerland named Berit who lives with the aforementioned two men.
The night was long, but to make a long story short, Joy and I ended up singing "Wonderwall" by Oasis in front of about a hundred or so people, we also danced to other ridiculous songs sang by random drunk people including Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On" performed by Brad, Matt, and Berit. Most of the group spent much of the rest of the night with David, Paul, and Berit as they took us around and introduced us to more of the town.
My favorite moment: When we were dancing there was this creepy guy who kept coming up to me and wanting to dance with me, I kept saying no and dancing away into a crowd of my friends but he kept coming back throughout the night. So I told Matt: "For all practical purposes tonight you are my boyfriend." He quickly got the hint and began to hover over me to shoo off this dude whenever need be. As we were leaving the place he walked out next to/behind me as this creepy guy went to grab my arm to ask me to dance with him once again. All of a sudden, Matt breaks in and shoves this dude against the wall away from me as he escorts me out of the building... it was great. Thanks goes to Matt, He's a trooper... his girlfriend back home would be proud!

Ghanaian men...

Most of us females have quickly caught onto the fact that Ghanaian men are more forward about their feelings than American men... All of us women have had awkward encounters with random guys cat-calling to us, asking for our email addresses and phone numbers, and even occasionally grabbing us (which is definitely crossing the line as far as I'm concerned). I feel relatively safe because I seem to only attract the kind of men that ask for my contact info... which I had decided (after giving it out once) not to give out to anyone ever again. However, while sitting at Afronet a few days ago, I had a guy approach me and ask me for my email address--and since I was checking my email it was difficult to lie and say I didn't have email, so I gave him the email address (which may or may not have been a good idea).
I have since decided to henceforth give out my email address freely just to get a kick out of reading the ridiculous emails I receive from these guys... I have also decided to post these emails (or at least the really funny ones) just to give you all a little cultural experience, a taste of the specimen of men at the University of Ghana (many of them are nice though...) so here goes, happy reading:

Dearest One,
I am so delighted to reach u through this medium.how are going?.it's my fervent believe that you are well and kicking.mine is as usual.by way of introduction i am a level 400 geography and resource development student who which to befriend a person of calibre.infact for the first time i set ma eyes on you i was really moved to an indescribable destination.in short i really admire your personality and calibre and i wish to click it with you.what do you say about that?
i am the guy who took your email just yesterday(tuesday).u are so beautiful and cute.looking forward to hearing from u soon,bye.
Simon(0243080200).

something new...

I survived the first week of classes this semester. We only had one morning class today (African Drumming) and now that it's over I am free for the weekend. Classes here have not been very difficult at all, the only homework we have had was for Professor Jelks (who gives a hefty bit of reading and writing to do) and Twi (which usually takes about 5 minutes to complete) so most of us have quite a bit of time to spare.
Life is becoming so ordinary to me here that I have a hard time thinking of things to write about. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find things that people in the states would find different and interesting about Ghana...
Food is continuing to be an issue for the group here. It seems that whenever we go out to a cafe to get some food, something goes wrong. Either there's lack of communication regarding the kind of fruit drinks they carry or there is some mix-up with some one's food. Some places that we go to keep playing the same reggae song over and over again (it's become quite a little theme song for us by now). Anyways, there is always something funny that happens. A few nights ago we decided to try TacoBell which is a cafeteria (that serves absolutely no tacos) in Akuafo Hall on campus. All the Ghanaian girls said they have the best food and that it is the cheapest place to go. At TacoBell, made us sit down right away (although students usually order at the bar where the menu is located) and when we asked if we could order at the bar they wouldn't let us (this was the bright red caution sign there to tip us off that something fishy was going on that we missed). We ended up getting ripped off... the food at TacoBell was quite good and we all had a good time until it was time to pay and they charged us what seemed like too much (but at that point, what can you do, you're not about to argue about prices at a restaurant). When we told our Ghanaian friends how much we spent they were really angry, they said we payed a little less than double what the food should have cost us. Partly I feel like a stupid American but I'm also angry about the whole thing. Yes we should have been smarter, but none of us expected to be ripped off in a restaurant on campus which is supposed to have fixed prices. The market is always a different story and there we are on our guard, but none of us expected to be cheated in a restaurant. I guess next time we'll know.
The thing is, although we're getting used to things, everything is still so different to us here. Sometimes the way they do things here seems jankey to us but we try to go with the flow in order to stand out less than our white skin makes us stand out already. It seems like we can never tell the difference between what's shady here and what just seems shady to us (and is just how things are run)... therefore we are easily taken advantage of. It's frustrating that people think it's ok to cheat us just because we don't know any better. Well, I guess you just learn from your mistakes, take it in stride, and keep going.
I still love Ghana...although not so much TacoBell.

(Emily getting her finger stuck in a coke bottle at Taco Bell, only a few minutes before we got ripped off...)

classes etc...

Although we had one lecture last Friday, classes (full blown) really only began for us today. This morning we had Politics and Development in Africa followed by a People and Cultures class. Right now the rest of the group is in the African Literature class, but I decided not to take that one because I do not need the credit. The few of us that are not taking Literature are planning on going to Medina (a part of Accra close to campus) to tutor during the afternoons when others have class. Hopefully we can set that up and start going by Wednesday. Classes have been really good but slightly frustrating. It's difficult for me to understand the Professors sometimes because of their heavy accents. Its seems we are all struggling with this though and I think it will pass. We did not end up going to a soccer game yesterday. By the time church was over in the morning and we ate lunch, it was just too late to go. Besides, Erica was not feeling well and we did not want to leave her behind. There are soccer games every Sunday though so I'm sure we will have more than enough chances to go. A few of us wore our jerseys in the afternoon anyways...
I had a good time with the group hanging out last night, Audrey decided to make us all dinner and we spent some of the night in the dormitory kitchen eating spaghetti with vegetables, sweet bread, and pineapple. We all had a good time.

The food situation has been quite a bit better as of late, the night market is amazing! I buy roughly one pineapple per day (for approximately 70 cents). I also buy and eat a lot of bananas (had four little ones for breakfast). Some stands sell omelet sandwiches (which have been a hit with the group this past week). There is also a kabob stand (at which I have been instructed to ask for a non-spicy stick). Other than all of this, I've fallen in love with Digestive cookies--which are apparently all the rage in Britain(and here) but are difficult to find in the States. Apart from being amazingly delicious, they are also enriched with fiber (and other vitamins), which I am assuming is the reason that they are called Digestive cookies. If I gain weight here, it will be from all of the cookies I've been eating.

African...Rhasta...Calvin

We went to the most interesting beach today, it was called Kokrobite Beach and we hung out most of the day at a resort called Wild Bill's (or something like that). The entire day was nice, amazing, relaxing but also unsettling. After driving through a small fishing village so poor and rural that the sheep didn't even want to move for us, we arrived at this resort (sort of) full of Rasta and tourism. It was like three cultures colliding next to the large boats on the sand looking out over the rough Atlantic. There were little shops and stands where visitors could buy their African/Rasta attire, and African children running around asking us what our names were (we also saw some older men with the coolest dreads, they were basically ankle length, it was intense). Although I had a great time playing in the waves and laying in the sand, there was something weird about today: I didn't (and still don't) know how to feel about being a rich white person wearing a bikini in a place where many local women (a large part of that particular village is Muslim) walked around with head-coverings. How am I supposed to feel about being a privileged woman going to a beach resort and driving through immense poverty to get there? Should I feel bad? Should I ignore it as a fact of life? I felt sort of like I was spitting in the face of Jesus...
So this presents the struggle of every well meaning American who visits the third world... how do my riches meet their poverty? I could not have gotten out of the van and handed out money. What should we do, how should we respond to, the immense riches we have been given? I've begun to think that we are called to enjoy, be thankful for, and use wisely the riches we have been blessed with...but what does that even mean? Where is the line between thankfully enjoying and extravagance? Even if I find this line, I'll still feel guilty...

Osu

We finally had a nice enough day to go to Osu today (third times a charm). It was both very fun and rather irritating. Osu is a touristy part of town where they have lots of good restaurants, sell souvenirs, and have a really nice fabric store. We looked around in the little shops and spent some time buying things we needed or wanted (including Ghana soccer jerseys we will be wearing to the Sunday afternoon soccer games). After a few hours of being hassled by street vendors we got irritated with the shopping experience and settled for lunch at a little outdoor restaurant...where I drank the best juice of my life. Yesterday when we went out to eat on campus I had issues getting fruit juice (there was slight miscommunication between apple juice and pineapple juice and after a while the waiter just didn't seem to want to give me juice at all) so I was very excited when I tasted the pineapple-orange fruit juice mix the waiter in Osu made especially for me, it was the best juice I have ever had in my life. When I go back to Osu, that is what I will buy (granted it stays down all night...we're wary of saying any food is good until we realize that we still feel good the next day).

never will i ever...

Never will I ever wait a week before getting down and dirty with the laundry again! A bunch of the group had planned to go to Osu today but it was raining yet again so we decided to hang around the hostel and get some chores done. We all had laundry to do and I decided that washing a week's worth of clothing is just too much in one sitting, from now on I'm going to wash my clothes every other day, that way it will take just a half hour every other day rather than a few hours once a week. Most of us had not had much hand-washing experience either so we put too much soap in the water...I'm convinced there's enough soap left in the fabric that I won't need to use any next time. Clean clothes are wonderful, Im learning how to appreciate them more and more with the amount of work I'm now doing to get them that way. I'm just hoping my clothes will dry within the next month...I'm not sure though with all of this humidity.

We have spent the past few days on our very first excursion in Ghana. We left the university after church on Sunday and headed up into the mountains to the Akrofi Christaller Institute (Ghana's very first Christian seminary). Here we spent time getting to know one another better, listening to various lecturers (including famous Dr. Bediako), and walking around the village of Akropong. It was really nice to get out of the city for a while, the Akrofi Christaller Institute has an incredibly peaceful atmosphere and the entire weekend seemed to rejuvenate me. Today we also visited a bead factory (where most of us girls bought lots of hand-made beaded jewelry) and the dam on the Votla river which supplies most of the electricity for Ghana, Togo, and Benin. Before leaving Akropong in the afternoon we spent some of our free time hanging out with kids in the village, they were really cute. They made us play all sorts of funny games with them, including one where we had to stand in the middle of a circle and shake our hips... boy did we put on a show! All the Ghanaian adults thought it was hillarious (apparently it is widely known here that white people can't dance... maybe the next wave of missionaries aught to bring videos of that show Dancing with the Stars to help break the stereotypes).
To update you all on the health of our group: Sierra was released from the hospital early on Monday (only to be brought back on Monday night). She was still feeling a bit lousy that whole day but by the night-time she had begun puking again. All I've heard was that she's a bit better now... Pearl did not have malaria. They ran tests on her and determined that she must have caught some sort of bug and put her on antibiotics. She's fine now. Dan is doing a bit better now (after being in bed for 3 or 4 days) although I think he's still not quite back to normal. Kristen also caught something this weekend. A few of us were up with her for quite a while last night (she had a high fever) but she seems to be better today. We would all appreciate prayers for health right now as none of us have all been healthy all at once yet.
Pictures are coming soon, I promise... including ones of my shaking it in front of Ghanaian villagers!
Peace

and it begins...

Besides the occasional stomach ache etc most of us have been generally healthy. We've even spent some time joking and chatting about the time that we will each take our turn being sick with one random disease or another. The inevitable moment when part of the group splits off to the hospital has finally arrived... We were planning on going to Osu (one of the nicest areas of Accra where they supposedly have great food and beautiful fabric) today but woke up to the news that the trip was cancelled because Prof. Jelks had to take Sierra to the hospital earlier this morning. Apparently she got so dehydrated that by this morning she could hardly even walk... A few hours later we heard that another one of our girls, Pearl, was also feeling sick. She had a high fever and was getting intense pains in her arms and legs (which are signs of malaria). We sat with her for a while (trying to make her feel better) before Prof. Jelks came to take her to the hospital as well. We haven't heard anything else yet...but we're hoping it's something other than malaria. Dan is also having some trouble with his digestion, but at least he's sleeping now so we think he's getting better...
Today has been quite uneventful thus far, we've spent most of it worrying about our sick friends and sitting inside watching the mud thicken as it continues to rain. It's been raining on and off for a few days but since last night there has been intervals of constant down poor with misting rain in between... On the upside, I'm learning how to walk in the mud without splashing up the back of my legs... (I just realised how selfish and childish this last paragraph sounds in light of the previous one...sorry)