So again I’m sitting at my internship with hardly a thing to do. I got to the office this morning and was immediately informed that I was going to an RBA training at the other office. I thought “Okay Great. What am I supposed to do there?” Whatever, I’ve only got like a hundred more hours that I need to do here. Wahoo.
So last Friday, after I updated, I went to the Burkinabe Embassy. I’ve decided that people who work in embassies only serve to make your life difficult and refuse to help at all. Five of us (me, Caroline, Andrea, Amanda, and Katja) went to get our visas, but first everyone but me needed to go to a Forex Bureau because the Burkina Faso Embassy only accepts American Dollars or Euros (Thank you Dad for making me pull out American money before I left. I didn’t get screwed with an exchange rate that way.). So we went to one Forex Bureau, but they didn’t have any American money. We started walking and finally after about fifteen minutes found another one. We then took a taxi back the embassy, but they informed us that we would have to wait for over an hour because they were going to take their lunch in 20 minutes. We filled out the forms and still had five minutes to spare before their break, however, being the accommodating people that embassy workers are, they refused to take them. Three of the group stayed behind to wait and turn in our stuff after the break, while me and Caroline headed back to church because we needed to get ready for our homestay.
The homestay was a very interesting experience. I’m really pleased that I did it because it really opened my eyes to a large aspect of Ghanaian culture, but it made me really, really, REALLY happy that we get to live in dorms rather than doing a homestay the entire time.
On Friday afternoon, I was dropped off at my host mom, Auntie Thelma’s job where I met up with Marta who I was paired with for the weekend. Auntie Thelma is the deputy manager of a bank branch and we ended up waiting there for her to finish up for an about two hours. After she finished, we drove home which took another hour and a half (traffic is worst in Accra on Friday nights). Her house was pretty far away and in an area of town that I had never been to before. It was really interesting to see how relatively wealthy Ghanaians live. Our host family’s house had four bedrooms and two bathrooms. They had three cars and were in the process of purchasing a fourth (while only two of them drive), yet, they didn’t have any sinks with running water (there was a working toilet and shower though, which was weird).
When we got home, her youngest son Lord was there (her two other sons are away at school) and she began to prepare dinner for us. Shortly after, her husband also came home, and he immediately sprawled out on the sofa in front of the television and waited for his wife to bring him dinner. This was the beginning of my annoyance with Ghanaian society. She had basically worked a twelve hour work day and had not had a chance to rest, yet was still expected to have food ready for him – this was definitely something that would not fly in my house. Marta and I kept offering to help her in the kitchen, but she refused on the basis that we were guests. After dinner we went watched some television with Lord and Auntie Thelma and went to bed pretty early.
The next morning we woke up really early because our host family had a rooster that really enjoyed Cock-A-Doodle-Dooing at dawn. We went out into the kitchen and found Auntie Thelma already working at the stove. She had started preparing some soups and stews that the family would eat throughout the week because she doesn’t really have time to cook after work. Again she prepared breakfast for her husband and didn’t receive so much as a “Thank you” in return. Most of the morning, Marta and I hung out in the kitchen learning about what Auntie Thelma was cooking (she was making Groundnut Soup – my favourite!). In the afternoon we went to class with Auntie Thelma (she’s taking classes to get a degree) and then went over to her aunt and cousin’s house. Again it was really cool to see how Ghanaians live. Her family’s house was pretty nice and big as well. While there we had some Groundnut soup and Fufu that her Aunt had prepared for us. After we headed back home and I went to bed really early because I had a killer headache.
It was good that I went to bed so early though because we had to leave for church Sunday morning at 6:30. The family goes to a charismatic church and I have to say it was certainly an experience. The church was HUGE and complete with projectors with power points of the lyrics to all the songs. It was definitely something that could have been found in the United States. I definitely had never seen anything like the service before. It was really intense how into prayer everyone got – everyone there was hollering “AMEN” with their eyes shut and their arms raised toward the sky and praising Jesus. Toward the end of the service Marta and I had to go up in front of the entire congregation because we were new to the church. We were taken to a back room where we were each paired with a congregant who asked for our information so they could stay in touch with us. The guy I was with asked what church I went to in the US and I knew that if I had told him that I was Jewish, I wouldn’t be able to get out of there very easily. (In one of our orientations, we were told that Ghanaians don’t really understand how people don’t worship Jesus) I instead told him that I don’t go to church because I’m away at school…immediately he responded with “THERE’S NO CHURCH THERE?!?” and I said “It’s a private non-religious institution,” but that wasn’t good enough for him so I told him I was always too busy with classes. I have to say I felt quite uncomfortable. The guy that Marta was with told her that he would come pick her up if he had to in order to get her to return to church. Nevertheless, it was a good experience.
We went back home where we made Omo Tuo (rice balls) to go in our Groundnut Soup which we ate for brunch. Again, the dad wanted something different, so Auntie Thelma pounded him an individual serving of fufu (which is a huge undertaking and really really physical). He didn’t say thank you or anything. For me that was the most frustrating part. It’s just such a patriarchal society and it’s way unfair in my opinion. I don’t know how the women are so diligent. I would be out of there so quickly if I was ever treated like that by a man. It’s just the way the society is here though, and thankfully enough, it’s not the way I will have to live.
It’s Monday morning now, and I can’t wait to get through this week. I’ve got Burkina Faso this weekend and as of today it’s only 18 days until Spring Break. I’m soooooo excited for that, but still have so much planning to do.
peace and love
Monday, February 23, 2009
Friday, February 20, 2009
I apologize in advanced for the poor organization of this post.
So I’m currently at my internship at the LRC trying to kill the last half hour of the day before I go home. I really hope that I end up in some profession where I don’t have to work a traditional nine to five job in an office. While the work that I’m doing is interesting enough, I’m just too antsy for it. Perhaps that will all change in the future, who know?
The past few days have been really lazy for me. I’ve not been feeling too terribly well, but at least I don’t have malaria. On Chocolate Day, I took some more fabric to Marjorie, our resident dressmaker. Normally she comes to us, but a group of us went to her place this time. It’s pretty unbelievable how she works. She has a small hut which she and another woman share. There’s pretty poor lighting and definitely no air-conditioning. I guess it’s good that she even has a space, but I know I for sure would never be able to work in those conditions (that’s what years of Arizona living with constant AC will do to you). When we were there we met her two young daughters, both of whom were the spitting image of her. I never really thought about whether or not Marjorie had kids before, but now that I know it makes me feel kind of bad that I only pay 5 cedi for a dress. I have to guess though that that is a better per hour wage than a lot of jobs in Ghana. The other week I met some foreigners who had been in Ghana to volunteer. They had been stationed in Cape Coast and were in Accra because they were headed home. They told Griffin and me that where they had been working, many of the families lived on only 50 pesawa a day. That’s whole perspective makes me think that Marjorie might not have it so bad compared to other Ghanaians, but it still makes you wonder.
On Saturday, Caroline and I walked to Osu to get dinner. We ended up getting some pretty awesome Indian food. After eating dinner, we walked outside of the restaurant, which had no windows, come to find it was pouring rain out! Neither of us was dressed for rain or had an umbrella (it has only rained once before the entire time we’ve been here), so we had no choice but to take a taxi back. The taxi driver was being kind of annoying and wouldn’t take us all the way so we got out and still had to walk a couple blocks in the rain. Needless to say, we got laughed at by a few people as we were soaking wet obrunis.
Oh! Last Thursday, Caroline, Griffin and I totally brought Mexico to Ghana. We made a phenoooooomenal Mexican feast. We had homemade tortillas (not perfectly round, but delicious none the less), incredibly spicy salsa, Mexican rice, and fajitas. Surprisingly enough it was all really, really good. I was kind of expecting it to be not so good, but it was great!
I’m totally posting this several days late after it was written, so here is some of what has happened since:
Tuesday night a bunch of us went to a Seun Kuti concert at the Alliance Francaise. Seun Kuti is the son of Fela Kuti, who basically invented AfroBeat. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fela_Kuti ) It was really, really good but only white people (mostly) were there! We asked our CRA why more Ghanaians didn’t go and he said it was because of the location. Regardless, I had a great time.
On Wednesday day, I got two of my dresses from Marjorie. They are absolutely beautiful and I am in love with them. PEOPLE - SEND ME YOUR MEASUREMENTS SO I CAN GET THINGS MADE FOR YOU. DO IT!
This weekend I’m doing a homestay in Accra. Since we do dorm living while abroad, NYU works with an organization called AFS to organize weekend homestays while we are here. I’m pretty excited, but a little nervous. I’m being placed with Marta, another girl from the program, so at least I won’t be alone. I leave for that this afternoon and return Sunday night.
As for right now, I’m off to the Burkinabe embassy to get my visa to go to Burkina Faso next week for FESPACO! I’m so excited. Hopefully getting this visa won’t be too much of a hassle.
peace and love
The past few days have been really lazy for me. I’ve not been feeling too terribly well, but at least I don’t have malaria. On Chocolate Day, I took some more fabric to Marjorie, our resident dressmaker. Normally she comes to us, but a group of us went to her place this time. It’s pretty unbelievable how she works. She has a small hut which she and another woman share. There’s pretty poor lighting and definitely no air-conditioning. I guess it’s good that she even has a space, but I know I for sure would never be able to work in those conditions (that’s what years of Arizona living with constant AC will do to you). When we were there we met her two young daughters, both of whom were the spitting image of her. I never really thought about whether or not Marjorie had kids before, but now that I know it makes me feel kind of bad that I only pay 5 cedi for a dress. I have to guess though that that is a better per hour wage than a lot of jobs in Ghana. The other week I met some foreigners who had been in Ghana to volunteer. They had been stationed in Cape Coast and were in Accra because they were headed home. They told Griffin and me that where they had been working, many of the families lived on only 50 pesawa a day. That’s whole perspective makes me think that Marjorie might not have it so bad compared to other Ghanaians, but it still makes you wonder.
On Saturday, Caroline and I walked to Osu to get dinner. We ended up getting some pretty awesome Indian food. After eating dinner, we walked outside of the restaurant, which had no windows, come to find it was pouring rain out! Neither of us was dressed for rain or had an umbrella (it has only rained once before the entire time we’ve been here), so we had no choice but to take a taxi back. The taxi driver was being kind of annoying and wouldn’t take us all the way so we got out and still had to walk a couple blocks in the rain. Needless to say, we got laughed at by a few people as we were soaking wet obrunis.
Oh! Last Thursday, Caroline, Griffin and I totally brought Mexico to Ghana. We made a phenoooooomenal Mexican feast. We had homemade tortillas (not perfectly round, but delicious none the less), incredibly spicy salsa, Mexican rice, and fajitas. Surprisingly enough it was all really, really good. I was kind of expecting it to be not so good, but it was great!
I’m totally posting this several days late after it was written, so here is some of what has happened since:
Tuesday night a bunch of us went to a Seun Kuti concert at the Alliance Francaise. Seun Kuti is the son of Fela Kuti, who basically invented AfroBeat. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fela_Kuti ) It was really, really good but only white people (mostly) were there! We asked our CRA why more Ghanaians didn’t go and he said it was because of the location. Regardless, I had a great time.
On Wednesday day, I got two of my dresses from Marjorie. They are absolutely beautiful and I am in love with them. PEOPLE - SEND ME YOUR MEASUREMENTS SO I CAN GET THINGS MADE FOR YOU. DO IT!
This weekend I’m doing a homestay in Accra. Since we do dorm living while abroad, NYU works with an organization called AFS to organize weekend homestays while we are here. I’m pretty excited, but a little nervous. I’m being placed with Marta, another girl from the program, so at least I won’t be alone. I leave for that this afternoon and return Sunday night.
As for right now, I’m off to the Burkinabe embassy to get my visa to go to Burkina Faso next week for FESPACO! I’m so excited. Hopefully getting this visa won’t be too much of a hassle.
peace and love
Saturday, February 14, 2009
In honor of Chocolate Day, some pictures!
In Ghana, Valentine's Day is actually Chocolate Day. I much prefer this version.
Griffin, Me and Caroline at Kakum National Park
Canopy Walking!
Palm Wine...Our faces after weren't as happy.
The location of my school sponsored field trip, duh.
The view of Elmina from the Castle
My awesome tan lines from falling asleep on the beach in Winneba. Note the tag that was sticking out.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Slave Castles, Tree Tops, and Prisons...it's always an adventure in Ghana.
Today is Tuesday. That means it's Terrific Tuesday. Five of us went today and looked absolutely hilarious sitting at a table with six pizzas. That's right. More than one pizza per person. Mmmm....buy one get one free.
The past few days have been really awesome. Last Friday, we had a woman come to do some lovely womanly maintenance for like ten of us girls. She did some very affordable threading/sugaring right in our living room. A leg wax here is only 10 Cedi! That is so ridiculously amazing. Currently me, Griffin, Caroline, and Mallory are partaking in a few No-Shave weeks so we can delight in cheap leg waxing. Beauty is pain...c'est la vie.
On Saturday I woke up at 5:45. A.M.! It was terribly early, but I managed to wake up, make some toast with amaaaaaazing bread (one of our CRA's moms is a caterer and we can place orders weekly), get dressed and be on a bus by 6:30 A.M. After drifting in and out of sleep for the whole bus ride we arrived in Elmina at the Coconu
t Grove resort just in time for brunch on the beach. It was phenomenal. Lots of breads, eggs, fresh fruit, and juice. It would have been a great meal if my stomach wasn't killing me the whole day and I hadn't been in agonizing pain. Regardless, I didn't want to miss out on the day so I soldiered through the pain. I'm so happy I did because it was really cool to do what we did. We started by going to the Elmina Slave Castle (which actually counted as 10% of my grade for one of my classes!). It was a slave castle that had been occupied by the Portuguese, Dutch and English since it was built. It was really great to be able to visit such a historic site and we had a great tour guide who took us throughout and was really informative. It was so hot at the castle that one of the girls in our group fainted. It was pretty scary but she was alright in the end.
After the castle, we left Elmina and made our way up to Kakum National Park. The rainforest and park are most famous for the canopy walk there. Having done a few canopy zip lines in my day, I wasn't too sure if I would be so impressed with it, but it was really different and really cool. The bridges were a little shaky, but that's all part of the fun! Also, it started to rain while we were on the bridge which I found so cool. It rained on me...in a rainforest! Afterward, we headed back to our gorgeous resort, hopped in the pool, spent some time on the beach, and had a beach buffet, bonfire, and palm wine. The next morning we had another great breakfast and then got to do one of my favorite things in Ghana yet.
We had a batik lesson from some local women which was so incredible. We did everything! We designed our stamps, carved them out of foam, stamped wax on cloth, dyed the cloth, and hung them up to dry. I was the first one out of the group to finish and we were all so stunned at how great mine came out. The woman running the show called me her star student. I attribute my success to my years of tie-dying. It's just a gift that will never really come in useful. Oh well, it was great experience.
On Monday, I had a full day at my internship at the LRC. It was really intense for my first real day of work. I went with the executive director, Edward, to visit a prison to check up on some UNDP programs being run there. We were mainly visiting classes which were part of the UNDP funded prison education program. When we were in the last of the classrooms we were to visit at the prison, I was truly astonished by what one of the prisoners said. A prisoner had asked a question and mentioned that he had been in prison for ten years as a remand prisoner. I was shocked and appalled. This man had not even stood trial and yet was been kept as a prisoner. Edward was also shocked and gave out his business card and truly seemed to want to help the people with the injustice they were facing. After the classes, we were taken to see a remand block of cells. It was absolutely despicable to see the conditions these men lived in. In a cell meant for less than 10 people, 43 people were living (possibly even more) without any beds or mattresses. I really didn’t have much to say because I was just in such a state of shock that people could be forced to live in such inhumane conditions. It's just so hard to imagine the conditions these people, who are possibly innocent, must live in. Hopefully, I'll get to do some more work on it through my internship.
Tomorrow I've got my photo class. For my next project I'm doing a series of photographs of Richard, one of the security guards at Church Crescent. I'm excited because he's really a great guy and was so happy to help me out. Hopefully my photos won't be called "coke light" this time around.
peace and love
The past few days have been really awesome. Last Friday, we had a woman come to do some lovely womanly maintenance for like ten of us girls. She did some very affordable threading/sugaring right in our living room. A leg wax here is only 10 Cedi! That is so ridiculously amazing. Currently me, Griffin, Caroline, and Mallory are partaking in a few No-Shave weeks so we can delight in cheap leg waxing. Beauty is pain...c'est la vie.
On Saturday I woke up at 5:45. A.M.! It was terribly early, but I managed to wake up, make some toast with amaaaaaazing bread (one of our CRA's moms is a caterer and we can place orders weekly), get dressed and be on a bus by 6:30 A.M. After drifting in and out of sleep for the whole bus ride we arrived in Elmina at the Coconu
t Grove resort just in time for brunch on the beach. It was phenomenal. Lots of breads, eggs, fresh fruit, and juice. It would have been a great meal if my stomach wasn't killing me the whole day and I hadn't been in agonizing pain. Regardless, I didn't want to miss out on the day so I soldiered through the pain. I'm so happy I did because it was really cool to do what we did. We started by going to the Elmina Slave Castle (which actually counted as 10% of my grade for one of my classes!). It was a slave castle that had been occupied by the Portuguese, Dutch and English since it was built. It was really great to be able to visit such a historic site and we had a great tour guide who took us throughout and was really informative. It was so hot at the castle that one of the girls in our group fainted. It was pretty scary but she was alright in the end.After the castle, we left Elmina and made our way up to Kakum National Park. The rainforest and park are most famous for the canopy walk there. Having done a few canopy zip lines in my day, I wasn't too sure if I would be so impressed with it, but it was really different and really cool. The bridges were a little shaky, but that's all part of the fun! Also, it started to rain while we were on the bridge which I found so cool. It rained on me...in a rainforest! Afterward, we headed back to our gorgeous resort, hopped in the pool, spent some time on the beach, and had a beach buffet, bonfire, and palm wine. The next morning we had another great breakfast and then got to do one of my favorite things in Ghana yet.We had a batik lesson from some local women which was so incredible. We did everything! We designed our stamps, carved them out of foam, stamped wax on cloth, dyed the cloth, and hung them up to dry. I was the first one out of the group to finish and we were all so stunned at how great mine came out. The woman running the show called me her star student. I attribute my success to my years of tie-dying. It's just a gift that will never really come in useful. Oh well, it was great experience.
On Monday, I had a full day at my internship at the LRC. It was really intense for my first real day of work. I went with the executive director, Edward, to visit a prison to check up on some UNDP programs being run there. We were mainly visiting classes which were part of the UNDP funded prison education program. When we were in the last of the classrooms we were to visit at the prison, I was truly astonished by what one of the prisoners said. A prisoner had asked a question and mentioned that he had been in prison for ten years as a remand prisoner. I was shocked and appalled. This man had not even stood trial and yet was been kept as a prisoner. Edward was also shocked and gave out his business card and truly seemed to want to help the people with the injustice they were facing. After the classes, we were taken to see a remand block of cells. It was absolutely despicable to see the conditions these men lived in. In a cell meant for less than 10 people, 43 people were living (possibly even more) without any beds or mattresses. I really didn’t have much to say because I was just in such a state of shock that people could be forced to live in such inhumane conditions. It's just so hard to imagine the conditions these people, who are possibly innocent, must live in. Hopefully, I'll get to do some more work on it through my internship.
Tomorrow I've got my photo class. For my next project I'm doing a series of photographs of Richard, one of the security guards at Church Crescent. I'm excited because he's really a great guy and was so happy to help me out. Hopefully my photos won't be called "coke light" this time around.
peace and love
Friday, February 6, 2009
The internet is GHAN in Church Crescent...BOO.
This post actually should have come earlier, but the internet is completely out in Church. Note: If you ever come to Ghana and are shopping around for internet providers, completely avoid Busy Internet. Anyway...
Ever since school started I feel like I’m soooooooooo busy even though there’s tons of free time. I guess it’s just the feeling that since I’ve got to get up everyday and go somewhere it seems like my days are packed. I feel pretty exhausted at the end of each day, in large part due to the extreme heat/humidity. I swear I must sweat like ten gallons a day.
Regardless, a lot has gone down since I last wrote. I’ve been going to class and going out and generally having a good time. In my free time, I’m also in the process of trying to figure out what do to with my spring break and think that I’ve come to a conclusion. After seriously considering Egypt and Morocco, I asked a friend of mine who backpacked through Africa over the summer where she would go if she could go anywhere. She suggested Cape Town and Namibia, and after researching it I think we’ve (me, Griffin, and Caroline) have pretty much settled on that. Anna, my backpacker friend, said Namibia was one of the most beautiful places she had gone in Africa and absolutely raved about it. It seems really awesome and we’re hoping to book our plane tickets in the next few days. Airfare is hella expensive, but I’ve accepted the fact and am ready to pay it. Plus, I spent most of my free time with a four-year-old last semester (babysitting) so I could have a freaking awesome spring break. And who knows when I’ll even have the opportunity to do this all again?
I’m definitely not saving all my traveling for spring break though. Last weekend a big group of us went to Winneba (a town about half way between Accra and Cape Coast). It was very easily the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. When we got there, we dropped our stuff in our…accommodations (it can’t really be called a hotel, and it wasn’t quite a hostel. It was for lack of a better word, interesting) and headed straight to the beach. We were the only people on the beach except the local fisherman who were hundreds of feet away. No other tourists or anything. AND palm trees were growing out of the sand. I don’t really know why I thought that was so cool but it was…trust me. So we spent the whole day on the beach. After going in the ocean for a while, I was lying out on the sand and like the brilliant person I am, fell asleep on my stomach. Needless to say, it was pretty difficult to sit the next day because of the terrible sunburn on my bum. After the beach, we got some food at the hotel where half the group was staying. They had the most amazing pineapple juice ever. It was literally a pineapple that was juiced…I watched the guy making it. It was absolutely phenomenal and definitely one of the highlights of Winneba. The rest of the trip was low key and we headed back to Accra the next morning. Traveling there and back was pretty fun too. We took a bus, rather than a tro tro, and spent most of the time playing games. I got owned at GHOST several times, but oh well, fanice was present so life was good.
My classes have been pretty interesting so far. Last week in my Atlantic Slave Trade class, our professor took us on a field trip to the national museum where we got to see a lot about Ghana’s role and place in the slave trade. This weekend we’re going as a group to Cape Coast and Elmina where we’re going to visit an old slave castle/fort situation. It’s really cool being here and actually getting to experience history in that way. It makes it so much more interesting than just reading it out of a book.
My favorite class so far is my Documenting the African City class. Last week we learned the basics of using the cameras. A lot of it was review for me thanks to Mrs. Spitzer in seventh grade video production. It’s surprising how much I remember from that. This week we went on a field trip in class. We went to an area of Accra called Jamestown. Years ago there was an earthquake that hit Jamestown really badly and it never really got built back up. Even though there was so much damage, it’s still one of the most populous areas in the city. We went to an agency that is working on redevelopment in the area and then had the director take us around to film things. It was really amazing to see a different part of Accra. Living in Labone, we’re so spoiled and it’s easy to forget that the rest of the city isn’t as nice as our neighborhood. I really hope to go back with my SLR so I can take pictures.
My photography class is all right so far. I can’t say I’m particularly thrilled with the way it’s taught. I feel like the professor assumes that we all have some knowledge of photography even though many of us told him we’ve never taken a class before. Also, after the critique of our first project (portraits of a fellow classmate), I was kind of soured toward the class. The TA, Mawuli, is really great though and seems like he’ll be a lot of help. We’ve got another portrait project assigned for this weekend, so we’ll see how that goes.
I don’t really have much to say about my other two classes (Internship Seminar and African Popular Music). Next week should be a big week for African Popular Music though…I think we’re organizing a field trip to go see a couple of Highlife shows.
Aside from school, I’ve been making my way around Accra a bit more. Twice last week I went to Makola Market. It’s huge and outdoors and a bit smelly at times (Griffin was leading the way at one point and took us through the fish section). I bought tons of fabrics and am really excited about what I’m going to make with them. Tuesdays are “Terrific Tuesday” at a place called Pizza Inn. It’s a pizza chain in Ghana and on Tuesdays it’s buy one get one free. Caroline and I are well on our way to making it a weekly routine. While it’s not New York pizza, it is peri-peri chicken pizza and delicious. We’ve taken a couple trips to ShopRite for food. Last night Caroline and I made a really awesome Sweet and Sour Peri-Peri Chicken Stir Fry. It was a meal plan night, but Tante Marie has gotten really old really quickly. Tonight I think we’ll be hitting up Champs. It’s this weird British Sports Bar that doubles as a Mexican restaurant and on Thursdays has really good half price Margaritas.
That’s all for now. I think I hear the honk of a fanice vendor.
peace and love
Ever since school started I feel like I’m soooooooooo busy even though there’s tons of free time. I guess it’s just the feeling that since I’ve got to get up everyday and go somewhere it seems like my days are packed. I feel pretty exhausted at the end of each day, in large part due to the extreme heat/humidity. I swear I must sweat like ten gallons a day.
Regardless, a lot has gone down since I last wrote. I’ve been going to class and going out and generally having a good time. In my free time, I’m also in the process of trying to figure out what do to with my spring break and think that I’ve come to a conclusion. After seriously considering Egypt and Morocco, I asked a friend of mine who backpacked through Africa over the summer where she would go if she could go anywhere. She suggested Cape Town and Namibia, and after researching it I think we’ve (me, Griffin, and Caroline) have pretty much settled on that. Anna, my backpacker friend, said Namibia was one of the most beautiful places she had gone in Africa and absolutely raved about it. It seems really awesome and we’re hoping to book our plane tickets in the next few days. Airfare is hella expensive, but I’ve accepted the fact and am ready to pay it. Plus, I spent most of my free time with a four-year-old last semester (babysitting) so I could have a freaking awesome spring break. And who knows when I’ll even have the opportunity to do this all again?
I’m definitely not saving all my traveling for spring break though. Last weekend a big group of us went to Winneba (a town about half way between Accra and Cape Coast). It was very easily the most beautiful beach I have ever seen. When we got there, we dropped our stuff in our…accommodations (it can’t really be called a hotel, and it wasn’t quite a hostel. It was for lack of a better word, interesting) and headed straight to the beach. We were the only people on the beach except the local fisherman who were hundreds of feet away. No other tourists or anything. AND palm trees were growing out of the sand. I don’t really know why I thought that was so cool but it was…trust me. So we spent the whole day on the beach. After going in the ocean for a while, I was lying out on the sand and like the brilliant person I am, fell asleep on my stomach. Needless to say, it was pretty difficult to sit the next day because of the terrible sunburn on my bum. After the beach, we got some food at the hotel where half the group was staying. They had the most amazing pineapple juice ever. It was literally a pineapple that was juiced…I watched the guy making it. It was absolutely phenomenal and definitely one of the highlights of Winneba. The rest of the trip was low key and we headed back to Accra the next morning. Traveling there and back was pretty fun too. We took a bus, rather than a tro tro, and spent most of the time playing games. I got owned at GHOST several times, but oh well, fanice was present so life was good.
My classes have been pretty interesting so far. Last week in my Atlantic Slave Trade class, our professor took us on a field trip to the national museum where we got to see a lot about Ghana’s role and place in the slave trade. This weekend we’re going as a group to Cape Coast and Elmina where we’re going to visit an old slave castle/fort situation. It’s really cool being here and actually getting to experience history in that way. It makes it so much more interesting than just reading it out of a book.
My favorite class so far is my Documenting the African City class. Last week we learned the basics of using the cameras. A lot of it was review for me thanks to Mrs. Spitzer in seventh grade video production. It’s surprising how much I remember from that. This week we went on a field trip in class. We went to an area of Accra called Jamestown. Years ago there was an earthquake that hit Jamestown really badly and it never really got built back up. Even though there was so much damage, it’s still one of the most populous areas in the city. We went to an agency that is working on redevelopment in the area and then had the director take us around to film things. It was really amazing to see a different part of Accra. Living in Labone, we’re so spoiled and it’s easy to forget that the rest of the city isn’t as nice as our neighborhood. I really hope to go back with my SLR so I can take pictures.
My photography class is all right so far. I can’t say I’m particularly thrilled with the way it’s taught. I feel like the professor assumes that we all have some knowledge of photography even though many of us told him we’ve never taken a class before. Also, after the critique of our first project (portraits of a fellow classmate), I was kind of soured toward the class. The TA, Mawuli, is really great though and seems like he’ll be a lot of help. We’ve got another portrait project assigned for this weekend, so we’ll see how that goes.
I don’t really have much to say about my other two classes (Internship Seminar and African Popular Music). Next week should be a big week for African Popular Music though…I think we’re organizing a field trip to go see a couple of Highlife shows.
Aside from school, I’ve been making my way around Accra a bit more. Twice last week I went to Makola Market. It’s huge and outdoors and a bit smelly at times (Griffin was leading the way at one point and took us through the fish section). I bought tons of fabrics and am really excited about what I’m going to make with them. Tuesdays are “Terrific Tuesday” at a place called Pizza Inn. It’s a pizza chain in Ghana and on Tuesdays it’s buy one get one free. Caroline and I are well on our way to making it a weekly routine. While it’s not New York pizza, it is peri-peri chicken pizza and delicious. We’ve taken a couple trips to ShopRite for food. Last night Caroline and I made a really awesome Sweet and Sour Peri-Peri Chicken Stir Fry. It was a meal plan night, but Tante Marie has gotten really old really quickly. Tonight I think we’ll be hitting up Champs. It’s this weird British Sports Bar that doubles as a Mexican restaurant and on Thursdays has really good half price Margaritas.
That’s all for now. I think I hear the honk of a fanice vendor.
peace and love
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