Gaining perspective

Hello! It’s about time that I fill you in some more on my exciting new life in Ghana.

Student life

The past 10 days that I have lived on campus have mainly been spent figuring out what classes to take and, even more so, how to take them! It’s funny because for the last month that I was home before coming here, I had almost forgotten completely that I was coming here as a student to study and go to school. But now I feel relieved. Because in a place where I am so out of place and at times very confused, being a student is a role I know. It is so familiar to me because that is my primary role at home and it is no different here. Having so much down time in the first few weeks, I had becoming very scattered and lost. Getting into a routine and realizing my purpose and that I AM in fact building a life here is so grounding.

I’ve learned that I most definitely take for granted the easy online registration that I am so accustomed to at Clark. Here, I flipped through the course handbook to find what I wanted to take. Then I walked around campus for days on end to all the departments to see if the classes I wanted are actually offered. If that information was even posted, then I would have to find the time tables for when the classes are offered and plan my schedule accordingly. But apparently no one really gets the ball rolling early here. Many students don’t attend classes or even register for sometimes two weeks after the semester begins. (Example: Through much confusion, my Ghanaian roommate still has not arrived. Who can she be!? I can't wait to not be alone in this room anymore!) It is very bizarre to me, but this results in the departments being very delayed in putting out time tables. So once I see what I want is offered, I register for the classes at their respective departments. I registered for about 16 classes on the first day. While I’m only planning to take 4 academic electives, plus Twi language, and dance or drumming, I needed to make sure that I’ll have enough credits so that if any of the 16 overlap, I can decide what to drop. I can also audit any classes that are of interest to me. This basically means I just sit in on lecture and do the readings if I want to, but don’t take the exam or receive any credit. This is a new, and awesome, concept to me. After this add/drop period that lasts until February 25, I submit my final concrete schedule to the registrar. Talk about a process!!! So this week I’m attending any and all classes that I registered for or want to take, and next week I’ll drop what I don’t like, and solidify my schedule. This needs to be solid and figured out so that my internship can be set up.

I am participating in a for-credit internship at a local school. I requested to work with kids ages 5-12, elementary school aged. So they are placing me with the Tot-to-Teen program. Two other girls on CIEE are also interning there. Those are really the only details I have about my internship, but I can’t wait to work with kids!

This past weekend was fun-filled and exciting. On Friday after registration, I walked with three of my friends to my friend Genna’s homestay in East Legon. This was about a 30 minute walk from campus. The neighborhood where she lives is fairly well off. Much bigger houses than the one I live in at home, and they have their own security gate keepers. It was awesome to walk there. Getting out of the campus bubble is so exhilarating! One of the reasons why I initially wanted a small program NOT at a university was to get more cultural immersion. Doing the homestay option of this program would have probably been the best of both the student and non-student lifestyles. So Friday we had our welcome dinner for CIEE kids at Chez Afrique, the bar/restaurant we went to for my birthday. Before going to the dinner, we met up with the other home stay kids at their favorite hang out, Jerry’s and had a few drinks. It was nice to catch up with them and trade stories about living on or off campus. We then went to Chez Afrique for a spicy yet delicious dinner of rice (duh), plantains, chicken, beans, etc. We finished it off with cake and ice cream and fruit! After digesting, many of us went to the dance floor and boogied to the live music. It was a blast and none of us could stop smiling.

Adventures!

Saturday I went to Medina Market, about a 20-minute TroTro ride away. The tro tro is a shared taxi. It’s like a van or small bus that picks you up at a stop. They yell out the direction and destination of where they’re heading, you tell them where you’re going, and rush to get a seat on this crowded van. It is VERY chaotic the first few times you take it. But trotros are great because they’re so cheap! A 4GHC (Ghana Cedi) charter cab ride to the mall would cost .25GHC (Pesewes) on the tro tro. Our tro tro ride round trip to Medina cost 60 pesewes, or about $.40. The first thing we did at Medina was get a fresh coconut off the side of the road. Our UPals assured us that this was safe to eat. The funniest part about this experience was figuring out how to eat this coconut. They chop the top off with a machete, and you are supposed to drink the juice. Then they cut it in half and you eat the inside meat of it. We did not realize this so when they cut off the top we said thanks and walked away. Medina is not a touristy market at all. It’s where all the smaller shopkeepers go to stop up for the week for their shops. Being white, anywhere you go in Ghana you will get looks. This I’ve gotten used to, but especially in a non-touristy area when you’re consuming a coconut in a completely wrong way, people were laughing at us and staring like we were aliens. We got a kick out of this and I’m glad I now know how to eat a coconut. Little experiences like this are what make it so worth it to go out and endure the craziness of a marketplace or township. You really must be adventurous when you travel to a new place. That is how you learn the customs and can begin to be a part of the culture.

Sunday we had the city tour of Accra and woodcarving/drum-making workshop. This was a particularly nice day because we got to sit in an air-conditioned bus and have our UPals show us the city. It helped so much with understanding our surrounding Greater Accra region. I took a lot of pictures on this day. The link to my Facebook photo album is:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2073617&id=1082700030&l=802ab0fef3 I have made it public so hopefully you non-facebook users can see… While it was great to see the football (soccer) stadium and American embassy, the most powerful and humbling part of the tour for me was when we drove past (not even near) the largest slum in Ghana, Fadama. It is on government land and consists of mainly refugees and expatriates. When you look at the area, all you see is trash and waste everywhere. The shacks stretch as far as you can see. Our UPal told us that the government has been trying to move them for many many years, but until there is a better solution where them to settle, they are unmoveable. There was an extremely somber mood as we drove past and we listened to the problem of rape and disease in Fadama. Read more about Fadoma from Amnesty International here: http://www.slumstories.org/episode/ghana-–-uncertainty-fadama. Sometimes I can’t even describe how unbelievably privileged and secure I feel. Some things that I’ve seen in just two weeks here have reminded me of how different life is for so much of the world.

Thanks for reading! I promise to start writing more often so that I don’t have to write so much at once, and so that you don’t have to read so much at once. My next shorter entry will hopefully be describing the simple way of life that I have adopted, and to tell you about the awesome interactions with the locals that I’ve experienced!!

I love and miss you alllll. And again, please please check out my first Ghana photo album!!!