Jane, Boys Remand, Groundnut Soup, Shugga popcorn

I have neglected the blog for some time now and I do apologize. Things started to feel dangerously like home so it was harder for me to keep updating!

-Today is Tuesday. Tuesday is good for a couple things. Tuesday is the day that you can buy two for one pizza at Pizza Inn across from campus and Tuesday is also the day that Jane comes to Pentagon with her lovely dresses and seamstress skills. Jane sells pre-made dresses of her own design, and will make custom dresses with your personally selected fabric. This is how the whole dress-making thing works here...Find a fabric of your liking, buy a few yards, find a seamstress, get measurements taken, pick a design, and out comes a dress in a week or so. It really makes a lot of sense...its pretty much guaranteed to fit and its way cheaper than buying something at any store in the US. And it can be quite addicting. Ladies, you will have many a dress to choose from when I get home :)

-Wednesday is the day I get breakfast with my friend Britney before going to the boys remand that I started volunteering at with my friend Malka about seven weeks ago. Malka leads art workshops with boys in a juvenile delinquent center at home, so she wanted to do something similar here. The boys remand we work at is sort of like a juvenile delinquent center, but more like a half-way house. It is a pretty low (non?) security "home" where adolescent boys stay after they are arrested and before they go to court. They all sleep in one room, are given three meals a day, and have schooling and chores as well. Our time with them is basically a break during the day to do something out of the routine. We play games, read stories, make murals, have dance parties, make forts, paint pictures, draw faces, make paper mache...let them free-style....anything and everything art related. It is helping me understand Ghanaian culture a lot because both Malka and I know activities that work with American teenagers and have to constantly be aware and adapt to the cultural differences that make certain activities more or less relevant to Ghanaian teenagers. Its been really enjoyable as time goes on because the boys really do enjoy getting to do something that is out of the ordinary. Painting and drawing isn't really something they have the opportunity to do very often or at all, and its exciting to see them get excited! Its cool too because we can see different boys take on roles as leaders as time goes on and their community gets to be more cohesive.

-Although we have fun there are definitely struggles. The level to which Malka and I can relate to the boys is definitely limited...we don't know what it is like to grow up in poverty, we don't know what its like to grow up on the street, we don't know what its like to grow up in Ghana, and we surely don't know what its like to grow up as a boy. We have established effective ways to communicate with them, but its hard to answer questions like "I am having so much fun, but why are you spending your money on art supplies for us when you could buy us better food which is what we really want?"
...Its difficult, but we have to explain to them that our role in their lives isn't to feed them. We come in to have fun with them and share new ideas with them but not to give them better food. Of course it has made us think, "well shit, if that's what they really want, why don't we just give it to them?" But we know that trying to create a community in the setting they are currently forced to be in wouldn't happen with bringing fried rice twice a week.
...Discipline is very different in Ghana as well. Children and young people are expected to be well behaved and RESPECTFUL to elders and there is a LOT less tolerance for any divergence from this. So when Malka and I stepped in with our soft American "Okay class, please sit down while I count to three" routine..not much got done. This was definitely an area that needed adjusting.
^As harsh as all that seems, the amount of temper-tantrum and fit-throwing children I have witnessed on a day to day basis is drastically less than in the US.

-Sunday is groundnut soup and rice ball day. This is in an excellent day as groundnut soup and rice balls is probably my favorite Ghanaian dish. Groundnut soup is like a spicy peanut butter based soup with a big ball of rice in it. I always get a piece of chicken thrown in there, too.
...I learned how to make it as well so I won't have to leave it behind.

-Mondays are the days that promise a free box of sugar popcorn along with a twelve cedi movie ticket at the theater in the Accra Mall. It is unfortunate that one has to sit through an over-priced mediocre movie to indulge in the pure bliss of sugar popcorn, but if you've saved up, its more than worth it.

-As I said above, Ghana has started to feel so much like home that its a little scary to think of going back to the US. I WILL explain this in my next entry.

-People dress so FLY in this country. Especially on campus. I'm talking pressed shirts, nice pants and skirts, steezy sunglasses, shined shoes...you won't see a single person walking to class with the typical American "just rolled out of bed" college student look. I'm grateful Marissa gave me tips about this before I left!

-Five people asked me if I was Latino last week.

-Last night I was basically rocked to sleep by the rumbling of this thunderstorm. I really have absolutely no problem with it raining here. The anticipation isn't drawn out with a day of clouds like at home, either. A sudden cool breeze will chill your skin as the clouds roll in front of the sun and then the little drops come until the sky finally opens up, washing away the hot air and red dust hovering above the ground. The only bad thing about rain is that it makes the internet go down for a few hours and it could potentially re-drench your clothes on the clothes line if you don't take them down.

-I haven't slept under any covers in two months.

-I really love the hostel/dorm I live in. There are four floors with four flats per floor. Each flat has a center room area, two bathrooms, a kitchen , a porch, and 3 bedrooms (2 people per bedroom). Its all very open and airy so the only thing separating suites is a little hallway or a flight of stairs so its like we all live in one big house. There are only 14 Americans (all from my program of 50) in all of Pentagon so we have good opportunities to meet Ghanaians and Nigerians (its still an international hostel) while having the support of a few Americans as well. And we lucked out with the Americans here...I couldn't ask for better people to be living with.

-I went to Makola market in Accra on Friday to search for some Ghana gear...Saturday was independence day so we wanted to get some red, yellow, and green. I found plenty of course, but I also stumbled upon this stand where this woman just had a gigantic pile of scarves to sell. It was funny because they were only 50 pesewas each and I was so tempted to buy a bunch for people back home but they were just like anything you could find at a vintage shop in Boulder,
just a great deal cheaper.

-There's this Chinese restaurant by our hostel (on campus) that has the most fantastic fried noodles I have ever tasted. There's also a pool table and a wall that the owner is always projecting random fashion shows on. I've had some very interesting conversations with this Nigerian guy who I keep bumping into there about how different American and Nigerian (Ghanaian, too) conceptions of beauty are. They really go for the curves here so its funny to hear his comments on runway models in New York City.

Cape Coast continued/I could get used to this

I left the group early on Sunday morning to go visit the family I have been staying with sometimes in a town called Fadama. Its interesting because I’m pretty sure the departure times for most busses are pre-determined, but they won’t really leave until all the seats are filled, so we ended up waiting at the station in Cape Coast for an hour before leaving for Accra. Its funny because as much as I expected this, the whole not knowing when we were going to leave thing was a liiittle unsettling. It wasn’t that bad, but I still hadn’t completely internalized the patient “things happen when they happen” mindset, so I guess this was good practice. Anyways, I ended up having a really great conversation about Ghanaian and American culture with the man next to me (Eric). He was just as curious about the US as I was about Ghana so our discussion made the 2 hour trip pass by pretty fast.
Once we got to Accra, I had to catch a trotro to Fadama but wasn’t sure of exactly where to find one. The bus let us down at Nkrumah Circle, which is a common destination for lots of public transportation. It’s a pretty big area with a market, post office, and a bunch of other stuff I have yet to explore so finding the cars to Fadama would have been a project without Eric’s help. I was ready to go for it and just ask a million people like I usually do, but he insisted on showing me where they were. It turns out that we had to cross a bridge over the market, then walk through part of the market, and then do the asking around thing where the trotros were parked because there were probably close to 100 of them in the area. We found one really fast because people just pointed in the direction we needed go when we said "Fadama", but its just so amazing how people automatically wanted to help us out and went out of their way to do so simply because they wanted to. It's like how Eric walked around with me for ten minutes just to make sure I found my way. This wasn’t the first time someone took my hand and lead me in the right direction either…even taxi drivers…if you’re going to a restaurant or something and you don’t know exactly where it is, they’ll drive around and help you find it and not charge any more money. And people don’t treat it like some huge favor because its just what they do, they look out for each other simply because they exist and it’s the way things work. It was almost unbelievable when I first got here, but it’s becoming a very heartening reality.

cape coast

Two weekends ago we went to Cape Coast in the central region to visit the slave castles. I have difficulty finding words to describe this experience because what happened at the castle I visited (which is one out of many) is not just some terrible thing that happened to "Africa". The slave trade shaped the history and had lasting effects on the race relations of our country and many others. The effects won't disappear in time.


more to come

no wawa

-I wouldn't really say I'm a "clubbing" person, but I've been trying lots of new things here so why the hell not. Last night we went to this one called Aphrodisiac. Interesting place. I guess its kind of your typical club in some ways...music so loud it makes your blood shake, neon lights flashing and slicing through the clouds of artificial fog and cigarette smoke, expensive drinks, toilet paper in the bathrooms, you know. Its fun if you're in the mood though. Last night they played a lot of songs from Shaggy's first album, one that was dear to my heart from the ages of 10-12 probably. I didn't stay for long because I was really tired but people go until like 5am.

-When I got home I wanted to shower but there was no water and I hadn't filled my reserve bucket so I took a bunch of water sachets and had a sachet shower. Not the most economical, but it worked.

-Your basic needs can be met without water or electricity, its just harder. But when you get used to it, it doesn't seem hard anymore. I think that's why people are so resilient and resourceful here. I'm glad I have to pick up on it.

the gutters.

-I can’t believe I haven’t talked about the gutters yet. There are huge gutters, really more trench-like holes, that line pretty much every street. On campus, in town, in the city…all over. I have already accepted that I will fall victim to one of them at some point, but I’m still going strong. Pretty much everyone has a close call at this point.

-Its getting into that phase where everything isn’t so new and confusing…its still exciting and I have so much to learn but things are starting to feel more normal and habitual.

-Its funny how you have to work a little harder here to get things done that are so easy at home. For example, each professor has a set of readings for the class but they are only available at different copying stations throughout campus…the syllabus might be in one building and the readings in another. Then you go to where the teacher says the readings are, pay the copy man, and come back the next day to pick up your copies of the readings. Its quite the process (it feels like) because it involves a lot of walking around and searching.

-Other things…drinking water, showering, laundry, eating. Etc. The drinkable water here is sold in these things called sachets which are these little plastic bags of water with the amount equivalent to about one bottle of water. They are 5 pesewas each (less than a nickel) and if you buy them in bulk (these really big bags that have 30 sachets in each) its about one cedi (less than a dollar). You can either just rip off the corner of the sachet and drink it that way, or fill up your water bottle. So its things like that that take a little planning ahead because you can't really go without water duh.

-Laundry, too…there aren’t really washing machines available in mass so you can either pay someone to come pick up your laundry and do it by hand or do it by hand yourself. I don’t have laundry in my budget so I fill up a bucket of water, throw in my clothes and some detergent, scrub them, rinse them, hang them, and iron them. It’s more time consuming but it’s not a burden or strain…its just another thing you do. It has made me realize that having everything be so convenient all the time doesn’t make life that much better…Its fun to sit around and talk with your friends while doing laundry or walking around campus all day. Its slower…its less stressful.

Melting Moments

-On my little adventure into Osu the other day, I went to a restaurant called Melting Moments. It is a slightly over-priced and air conditioned cafe that sells the most american-ish food I've found since arriving. They have quite the assortment of salads, panninis, smoothies, pasta, cake, and the closest thing to coffee I've had since I got here. Today I went back with some friends and ordered a latte and salad that had cheese and avocado on it. It was beyond satisfying and quite the mix up from the usual rice, chicken, stew, and plantains.
...All of which are delivious by the way, just a little monotonous.

-I decided to go on a little adventure of my own today. I went to Osu after my tourism and development class this morning and went to a couple shops and a restaurant my friend told me about. It was good to get out by myself, I felt like I had more time to observe everything going on and get a feel for how it all works.
…Its funny because as slow paced as everything is, the commotion of all the hustle and bustle is constantly abuzz. Women advertise the assortment of items they sell out of buckets on their heads, trotros drive by yelling various destinations, children stop their games and playfully shout out “obruni obruni!” bringing attention to my white skin, business transactions take place through car windows as vendors swiftly exchange their goods for some change as the vehicles speed off…its overwhelming for about a day, but the consistency of buzzing life is easy to adapt to.

Tuesday:
8:30am-9:30am Traditional African Dance
9:30am-11:30am shower, get life together, feed heavily.
11:30am-1:30pm Colonial Rule and African Response
1:30pm-3:30pm Gender and Archaeology
3:30pm-4pm walk to Twi class. yes, it takes the full 30 minutes.
4pm-5:30pm Twi class
5:30pm-6pm change for dance
6pm-7:30pm Traditional African Dance 2
7:30pm feed heavily.

-Tuesdays are hefty. Today was particularly lengthy because I had a few things to fit into the time period that's allotted to getting my life together. The one task I did accomplish was washing my sheets. This is note worthy solely because the girl next door from Westport was doing her laundry as well, and honest to god the last person on earth I would have expected to be stuck in a shower with (in Ghana), sharing laundry-in-a-bucket techniques with, would be someone from fing Staples high school. Seriously.

-Men hold hands with other men here. Just cuz they’re friends. No other reason. It’s quite sweet. Most people’s immediate reaction is to wonder why this is such a normality in a culture where homosexuality is an extreme taboo. My friend and I were discussing this and it actually makes a lot of sense. In a culture where the image of men holding hands has implications of homosexuality, any two men holding hands would be assumed to be exhibiting bahvior that "is" homosexual (for the most part). In a society where homosexuality is so taboo and thought (by some) to virtually not exist, there isn’t any implication attached to such an activity so it’s a normal practice that doesn’t faze anyone except those who are not used to it.

-They don't really have much cheese here. I like cheese. I don't miss it too much, though. Just miss coffee.

-Speaking of cheese, the only time I've eaten it since I've been here was this Tuesday night and last Tuesday night because Tuesday night is buy one get one free pizza night at the pizza place across the street. I like Tuesday nights.

-Wednesday night is reggae night at Labadi beach. We went last week. It was fun, but besides the whole live music on the beach thing, it was kind of a sketchy scene. There were lots of “rastas” (a little different from the ones in boudler) there who wanted to dance and praise Ja(?) and marry you and teach you how to drum and speak twi and eventually confiscate your money and valuables. We were warned about them. No need to worry. We stay away from the pretend rastas.

Lizards, Yiddish, and Nelly

-Lizards run around here like squirrels. They pop up in unexpected places and hang out just long enough for you to get a quick look and then they scurry back into the sidewalk cracks and gutters. Some are small and just chill on your window, but there are these really pretty ones whose bodies go from red to blue to white to blue to red. Or something like that.

-Three girls live in my dorm who are keeping kosher and I'm learning a lot from them. Like new Yiddish words. Hannah, you would be so proud. They have to cook all of their own food and they let me sing Passover songs with them. It's been fun.

-I think I'm getting the hang of trotros.

-If you want to hear some good stories, ask me about Nelly. I promise you won't be disappointed.

-I had a great conversation about Westport/Staples today with the girl who lives in the room next to me. Her name is Amanda and she graduated two years ahead of me and did indoor track the same years I did. We both decided that there are some things to be appreciated about Westport however much we wanted to get out of it.

-however slow paced everything is here, there is a ton of hustle and bustle that I feel like I'm getting used to.

I've done a lot since my last post but don't have time to talk about it all. Anticipate greater description of...
-my trip to Fadama
-Medina market
-benefits of having to work a little harder for things that are so easy in the US like
--showering
--bathrooming
--laundry
--drinking water
--traveling
--buying things
--getting things accomplished in general.

People are very happy here and I've thought a lot about that. I don't quite know how to put it into words yet, but I will share my thoughts soon.

When I get that feeeeeeling

-Yesterday I went to a dance class that I'm trying to register for. There were a ton of people and a good mixture of students who had taken the class and ones who had not. Since classes haven't technically started yet, the teacher had the experienced students just lead the class in dances they learned this past semester and everyone else just kind of followed along. I lucked out because the first two, Gahu and Gota, were dances I have learned but the next two seemed kind of hard. Regardless, I felt so happy my heart was about ot explode...people were whistling and shouting out of excitement and just going crazy on the floor. Nii Armah always talked about how this happens, but to experience it first hand...wow.

-We went to a bar called Champs tonight for karaoke. Champs is an English sports bar in Accra that’s usually (as I hear) filled with Europeans and Americans…not somewhere I’d like to go very often, but as I’m still adjusting, I guess it fulfilled my need for a little Amurica tonight. I suppose it’s part of the weaning process. Of course, this is only one night and one person’s perspective, but I noticed a few things.
One: American girls in Ghana like to sing pop songs in large groups. We (Americans) have such an individualistic mentality about so much, but when it comes to getting up on stage, considerable back up is necessary.
Two: American girls in Ghana like to sing the song “Like a Prayer” by Madonna as it was performed three times before I left.
Three: Ghanaians get down to Haddaway's "Baby Don't Hurt Me" form Night at the Roxbury just as hard as Americans, although the Americans were the only ones to join in on the synchronized head nod.
Four: Two people performed the song "Small Town Girl" by Journey at separate times throughout the night and it painfully reminded me of camp.
Five: I was disappointed in Champ's lack of Chumbawumba, but ended up doing a song with my friend, Nana, anyway. Turned out we only knew the chorus, but the nice man in charge of karaoke saved us. Apparently Marvin Gaye is deeper than we thought.
...It's funny how music crosses cultures. As bad as this is, when a bunch of people start joining in on "Believe" by Cher, it feels kind of good to have that commonality when you are still finding things to identify with in a new country. Who knows how long that will stick around for...

-I wish the US played more of the pop music they play here. It's way fun to dance to.

-I had a conversation with three Ghanians who had (separately) lived in the US for some time and they all had very contrasting opinions about the experience of living in Ghana and United States. Again, this is just one night and a handful of conversations, but I feel like I’m starting to get a better understanding of how diverse people's opinions are about Ghana. It’s all so much to take in…I had to take a few minutes to sit back and just observe what was going on for a while. My friend Bri and I joked about having to step back and be anthropologists for a moment, but I don't think either of us could resist.

-I also met a girl who goes to CU and is studying in Accra. That was pretty exciting. Yayyy Buffs.

-A Ghanaian girl told me she liked my hair in the bathroom. I'm still getting used to having short hair. It's been almost ten years.

-I had my first, hopefully last, but inevitable space cadet incident today. Left my water bottle at some fancy pants restaurant CIEE took us to. I'm really aiming high here and planning on this not being repeated.

-This morning, as like every morning, I woke up to the lovely chorus of a family of roosters who's home I can't seem to locate. Their cock-a-doodling surrounds the entire room. The first couple mornings it was annoying, but I'm pretty used to it now. I'm learning to embrace it because people get up way earlier here and I'm in the process of training myself to do so as well. The roosters are just like an extra little kick at 6am.

-That reminds me of how my coffee intake has basically ceased since I got here. I've looked, but not found. Its just not a hot item like it is in the US. If you want to buy some rice, there's basically nowhere you won't find it. A little caffeine to jump start your morning however...your best bet is picking up a red bull from the gas station across the street, but its just not the same.

So more random thoughts:

-the sandals I bought at the market to "remedy the blister issue" were doing great until I tripped and broke one of them...I trip a lot in general, but the sidewalks and walking areas are really bumpy everywhere so its been happening more frequently. Anyways, a man who witnessed this incident pulled me aside and fixed my sandal with a pocket knife and a push pin. I love this about people.

-On a similar note, I have to work on my bargaining skills. I thankfully went to the market with my friend Nelly who has lived in Ghana for a while, and he saved me from getting completely ripped off. The guy wanted 8 cedes for the sandals, I got it down to 7, (really impressive, I know) and Nelly stepped in with with an agenda that had a little more muscle and got it down to 3 cedes. Yaaay Nelly. I'll work on it.

-I went to Labadi beach yesterday with some friends from CIEE. Wowww. Traveling there was quite exciting because it was my first experience on a trotro! Trotros are the main means of public transportation here. They are these mini van things with (four?) rows of seats, not including the front. They pull over to the side of the road a man leans out the window yelling destinations, but I haven't gotten used to the sound of them yet so I just wait until they pull over and ask if they plan on stopping where I need to go. Soon we will all get the hang of the hustle and bustle of trotros and I can not wait for that day. They were quite intimidating the first time!

-Today I finished registering for classes. Its an interesting process...you'll be standing in line to sign up and then when you're really close to the front they'll say "okay, we're taking a break. come back later." or you'll walk into the registration room and the lights will be out and they'll say "the lights are out. come back later." So you wait for the electricity to come back, and carry on with your day.

-Power going out is not rare in any way. In the middle of the football game I watched last weekend, the entire bar's power just shut off. People just kind of carry on and a few minutes later, it's back! This has happened a few times in my dorm as well. My entire suite (three rooms) has had no electricity for two days now. I don't mind it except for the lack of fan. Lack of fan is a very bad lack.

-I did my laundry today. I don't think I did it completely right but I have plenty of time to practice.

-ALSO...last night we had the official CIEE "Akwaaba" (welcome) dinner on campus and an african dance troupe came to perform. I knew one of the dances they did and recognized a couple songs, which was pretty cool but more importantly, we got to join in when they were finished! I hadn't danced like that in so long. I was absolutely elated.

My first five days thus far

So I've been here for about five days now, which feels like 5 months and 5 minutes at the same time.  I don't even know where to begin.  This whole experience feels like a mixture between going to college for the first time, being at camp, and B3, except at a different age, in a different country, more confusion, and much more excitement.  There is so much to say I don't even know where to start, so I think I will make random points.

-Last night I went to this english pub called Honeysuckle with some people to watch the Ghana vs. Cote D'ivoire football match.  Very exciting.  It was a funny experience because I felt myself getting really invested in Ghana's victory which rarely/never happens to me with sports teams in the US.  And however inauthentic, Honeysuckle was also was flooded with posters and menu items that reminded me my delightful time in the UK.  One thing I like about it there was that there was toilet paper in the bathroom.  I quickly learned that the lack of toilet paper in bathrooms (public and private) is something I'm going to have to get used to.  i.e. bring my own everywhere I go.  

-Today I cut three inches off my hair because its so hot. 

-I live in an international dorm called Pentagon.  My roommate's name is Ogo and she is Nigerian.  She's awesome.

-On my second day, CIEE (the program I came on) had an arranged field trip for everyone to go to the first cocoa farm in Ghana, a wood carving village, and the botanical gardens.  Everything was amazing but I was still shocked to even be here so it was a lot to take in on day two.  

-Something I've been liking about Ghana is the pace.  So far, a few people here have told me not to expect to get too many things done in one day.  I've listened and some what shrugged it off only to find that this is entirely true.  I don't know what it is, but things happen slower and it just works.  

-The campus is huge and beautiful.  I've been walking a lot.  The only thing I don't like about this is the blisters I've gotten due to the dusty ground and poorly fitted shoes.  

-Today I went to a market in Accra (I don't remember what it is called) and bought sandals to hopefully remedy this blister issue.  The roads are so different from the US...I don't even know how to explain it. 

-I eat sweet bread and peanut butter for breakfast so far and there are cafeterias all over campus to eat lunch at.  They all tend to have rice of sorts with chicken, plantains, and other stuff that i'll explain in a later blog.

-Today I bought a bucket, a brush, and soap to do my laundry in.  I would rather do it myself than pay for someone to do it.  

-Our dorm rooms are all in suites with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a center area, a kitchen, and a balcony.  Its breezy all the time and I love it.  

-I need to work on my bargaining skills.

im tired, more later.