Pictures!!!

Copy and paste the links to see my pictures!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2053550&l=38917&id=9804442

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2053551&l=a91f9&id=9804442

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2053556&l=b0fd7&id=9804442

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2054319&l=f5558&id=9804442

Enjoy :-)

Wrap it up like kenkey in plantain leaves

WLI

Ariel and I took a day trip to Wli waterfalls, West Africa's highest falls. It was really beautiful and fun because it was sunday so we were the only ones there (everyone goes to church). It's about an hour hike to the falls and our tour guide showed us cocoa trees and I got to each from a cocoa pod! It does not taste like nutella as I had originally hoped...more like a tropical fruit. The waterfall itself comes out of a cliff that is COVERED in bats. At first they look like part of the rock, and then you realize that the rock is made of thousands and thousands of bats. Getting to Wli falls involved a 4 hour trotro ride each way. I don't think I have adequately explained trotro rides, so I will do so:

TROTROS

Trotros are similar to a subway station in their function, but do you abide by any similar rules of personal space. A trotro is a 16 person van that has a few extra seats shoved into it and is forced to fit about 25 passengers. To get a trotro, you go to a huuuge station filled with them where the mates (driver's assistants) yell their destination at you as you walk through the main rows of vans. When you finally find your trotro, you climb into the hot interior and sit down next to a hot, smelly Ghanaian. The trotros don't leave the station until they are COMpleTely full (4 babies, half a zoo, and maybe some duct tape for good measure). Due to the romantic atmosphere, at least two Ghanaians usually ask to marry you. After waiting for 1/2 hour in the 90 degree weather, squished between 24 other passengers, you finally begin the trip. Since some of the seats were added to the vans and aren't actually meant to be there, each turn that the van takes tips over the seats and you fall onto your neighbor, whose baby is already screaming because you are white. Then, instead of heading towards your destination, the trotro decides to go get gas.

END OF THE PROGRAM

I finished my final project and my presentation went pretty well. Some students did really cool things such as learning African drum communication (you can speak to people using different beats) and learning how to live on $1 a week. We went to Accra a day before our flight and I met an artist who taught me how to repaint some traditional masks that I bought. I watched people constructing drums and wood carvings for a few hours. Also, I spent an afternoon in a batik studio and learned how to make the fabric!

The last night, our group had a final dinner together at a restuarant near the airport before our flight. We all ended up getting the chicken, because of course Ghanaian menus are just formalities and they usually don't have what the menu says they do. Then, as a last gift from Ghana, the food poisoning set in. Thankfully, I didn't get mine until I landed at Heathrow.

Buuut, now I feel MUCH better! And I am currently in PARIS with Ariel visiting Chantel!!!! It is beautiful here and I am busting out my french and eating many croissants. I will officially be home May 22nd :)

While Ghana was an extremely difficult experience, I am very glad that I did it. I don't think there is any way to adequately convey everything from my past 3 1/2 months, but hopefully you have a taste of it. When I get home I will put up manyyyy pictures and will post the link on this page and on facebook. Thanks for reading!

Certain People Rely Too Much On Blogs For Entertainment

MEZMERIZE ACCRA

If you were a rapper on the down slope of your career, what would you do to reinvent yourself? Make a cameo at the Ghana Music Awards? Ja Rule was thinking EXacTly the same thing! TODAY, the "Livin it Up" master will in fact be making an appearance in Accra at the lesser known (but still popular among sub-saharan traditional-hiphop/rap fusion music lovers) Ghana Music Awards! I'm not sure what he's trying to accomplish by doing this, but I know I'm trying to get tickets and bring a sign that says "put it on me" in big letters.

In honor of JaRule, I will name all of my subject headings in this entry after his songs. You can bypass this by avoiding reading the subject headings.

NOT QUITE LIVIN IT UP

So my two friends and I have been residing in the lovely YMCA Accra. The accomadations are pretty nice and we have a kitchen we can use (cockraoches included, of course). Now, there is an airconditioner in the room but we use it minimally at the YMCA's request. However, our 'landlord' still likes to come to our room roughly three times a day to tell us to turn it off. We then proceed to show him that is it not on at which point he claims that we turned it off when we heard him coming. We have encountered a variety of other ridiculous situations with this man and now he wants to overcharge us even more. So I think we will leave, but I'm not sure where we will stay. Possibly in a cheap hotel or in a hostel farther out of town which will be very inconvenient.

IT'S MURDA -PAIN IS LOVE

I had visitors yesterday!! A family friend, Lisa, came with her mother to tour Ghana. Lisa was on a similar SIT program four years ago and so we got to compare notes. We went out to dinner and then to an African drumming/dance performance. Lisa confirmed my suspicions that people in Cape Coast are extremely aggressive in comparison to other parts of Ghana. I haven't talked much about my honest impressions of the country, but I was quite upset with the people in Cape Coast and my subsequent perceptions. In Cape Coast, it's like they can get away with murda. However, I am starting to separate Cape Coast culture from Ghanaian culture which is extremely helpful for my state of mind.

ALWAYS ON TIME

Guess who is always on time? Chabad! By searching the Chabad website I found that there is a Chabad in the Democratic Republic of Congo and they organized for a Rabbi to come host a Passover Seder in Accra. So my two friends and I got to go to a kosher seder that was led by a hilarious New York Rabbi. They brought us famous Shmura matzah and even hired a chef! We were a small group, but it was really nice to have a Seder here. There are a few African Rabbis in Ghana (Lost Tribe stuff) but we weren't able to travel to get to them which I'm sure would have been very interesting.

RACE AGAINST TIME

The end is near! I am almost done with my research and about to start writing my paper. Speaking of my research, I recently interviewed a man who explained to me, "you know why we have a water shortage in Accra? It's because we don't have enough trees here. The trees are like people who call for water when they are thirsty. The government must plant more trees if they want it to rain."
And I will close with that.

Where are you going??

BACK TO THE 90's

Once upon a time, I realized I was on the Oregon Trail. My friend Will came down with Typhoid fever. No, seriously. It's really rare for travelers to get it, but he did. We should never have tried to ford the river.

ACCRA
We are finally in Accra! Getting here only took 4 hours longer than it should have. My friends and I are staying in a hostel and bumming around/avoiding doing research. There are about ten goats living outside our room which means that we own livestock/we're rich! The food here is soo much better-I actually had pancakes the other day. The people are still crazy though. The head of the hostel comes to our room at least three times a day and asks us a variety of pointless questions: where are you going today? are you here? why didn't you leave?. I am at the University of Ghana right now doing some internet research/writing my blog. This month I am researching alternative sustainable sanitation efforts. I don't know what it means either.

FANTE
In my fante lessons, I have learned that there is no word for "feel". They literally cannot express feelings. That is why people don't hug here.

I'm going to go stop for supplies.

"We're the muffins in the muffin joke"

I spent the past week and a half in Accra and Cotonou, Benin. Much ridiculousness ensued:


DEPARTURE
I left early on a Monday morning with my big red hiking backpack. As I walked pass the makeshift taxi station at the end of my street, I was stopped by a man sitting with his boy. The man asked if I was leaving town and for how long. Upon my response, the man glared at me and angrily asked me why I did not introduce myself to him and ask him how he was doing before I left Cape Coast for two weeks. I quickly apologized profusely for not sharing my life story with him before departing and asked about him and his son. What an embarrassing social faux-pas!

ACCCRA:
Accra was a whirlwind. We honestly all went through culture shock being in a city where there were vehicles from after 1983 and roads that weren't made of dirt. Let me tell you now that you take pizza for granted. My friends and I went to a pizza place (called 'pizza inn' next to 'creamy inn' and 'chicken inn') and it was no joke an emotional experience. People shed their first tears.
I had incredible ('real') food after that which of course made me feel really sick because I have been living off of fish and rice for 2 months.
We went to two museums in Accra and learned about Kwame Nkrumah who was Ghana's first President. Nkrumah was famous for his pan-african ideas. Unfortunately, he was corrupt and was overthrown by militia. However, the citizens of Ghana tend to breeze over this fact as demonstrated by our tour guide who declared that Nkrumah was one of the world's greatest leaders and can be compared to the likings of Mao Ze Dong, Castro, and J.F.K.

There's a strange Asian influence here. Most of the world leaders have pictures of them on display with Mao Ze Dong next to them. Also, all of my pirated dvds have Asian subtitles.

ANOTHER TAXI STORY
Since there is no night life in Cape Coast, my friends and I decided to venture out to explore Accra on our last night. I am too angry to write about the debacle of an afternoon that led up to the taxi ride, so just assume that we were already in a bit of a bad mood. We had heard of a club and upon entering a taxi, the driver told us "yes, i've seen it, it is not far from here." We drove around and arrived at a club that was not the correct one but he assured us that he had "seen the club many times and would get us there." He asked for directions and took us across town to the shopping district. Upon realizing that we were not in the right place, he asked again for directions and said "i promise, I have seen it, I know it." During our tour of Accra, our driver told us that he had traveled to Spain last year and preceded to pop open his glove compartment and show us his photo album. Each picture showed him on a boat with an expanse of ocean behind him. Apparently, each new picture was a different country that he had visited.
We finally arrived at the apparent club at which point the driver demanded that we pay TRIPLE the fee because he didn't know how to get there and he used extra gas in the process. We paid double the price because we were feeling nice and he had showed us his life travels.
So we walked up to the club entrance where we were told that flip flops were not allowed and the cover fee was the equivalent of about $80. We all laughed. And then they suddenly let us in for free, flip flops in-tote (I don't ask questions). Inside the club, we found ourselves to be the only ones there, except for seven grown men napping in arm chairs. My friend Ariel and I got into a fight with the DJ. And then we went home.
Oh Ghana.

Three of my friends got malaria the next day. Here, malaria is treated like the common cold. It's a very "walk if off" attitude. Meanwhile, my friends had fevers and were hallucinating. Naturally, we had a 9 hour bus ride that day to Benin in at least 90 degree heat, and when I asked my director to put on air conditioning for the girls with Malaria, he said "this is not necessary."

BENIN
The fan in our room didn't work so we didn't sleep for most of the trip. However, Benin was amazing. Mostly because of the fact that they were colonized by the French and NOT the British. For some reason, this made the culture much less harsh and much more vibrant. I got to exercise my french which was fun and I also got to ride on a Moped! (Mopeds are taxis there). Also, Benin adopted french food so I ate AMAZingly there. There were some issues that occurred however I will talk more about them when I am home and my mother can't worry (I'm FINE, I wasn't anywhere near the open fire). Benin really was beautiful though. The colors there are extremely vibrant and the people (at least seem) much nicer and calmer. Then we came home on a 12 hour bus ride and spent 3 hours going through Togo borders (for a country that is falling off the map, they have a huge narcissis complex and getting in is like trying to order from the 'under 12' menu at Friendly's (near impossible in case you didn't get that).

BACK IN CAPE COAST
When I returned to my host home, my host mother happily exclaimed, "you have gotten fat! Benin must have been very good"

I have three close friends from my program here: Ariel, Alanna, and Shira. Unfortunately, Shira is going home because of complications with her malaria :(

Anyways, I'm sure I am forgetting things that I will add later, but that's all for now. This is my last week in Cape Coast and I am hoping to move with my friends Ariel and Alanna to Accra!!

Don't Look Down

VACA!
My friends and I went on a mini-vacation this past weekend to Green Turtle Lodge. To get there you have to take two trotros (15 person vans that could fall apart at any minute in which 20+ people are squished into). In our first trotro, two Ghanaian men got to asking us if we were married (as usual) and if I had children. (Most of us wear fake wedding rings around). He believed that I was married but he didn't believe that I didn't have children, i'm not sure why. Then I was asked what color baby I want to have at which point I pretended to fall asleep.

THE INFAMOUS TROTRO
About an hour into the ride we began to pass through a funeral celebration. In Ghana, death is celebrated in consideration of a person's life and accomplishments. Aka hundreds of people gather in the street to get drunk and dance in their black and red traditional clothing. However, this funeral had a particularly large amount of people in attendance and so the road was essentially blocked for our trotro to pass. All of a sudden people from the crowd started climbing on our trotro and yelling at us. People grabbed at our arms and legs through the windows. If you have ever seen Dawn of The Dead, it was exactly like the scene where all the zombies climb on top of the van. It got a bit scary, but in true Ghanaian fashion, the driver pretended as if nothing was out of the ordinary and very slowly drove through the crowd. We were later told the a trotro driver had died and the funeral goers were mad at our trotro driver for not attending the funeral.
Then we had to pay.

GREEN TURTLE LODGE
The lodge was founded by an English couple who wanted to create a hotel based on eco-tourism. The toilets were completely self-composting which was cool... I know you'd be curious, but don't look down the hole. Ever. It moves.
Sea turtles are endangered in the area so the owners of the lodge pay fisherman to release any that they catch. Also, the lodge employs many people from the local town and pays children to take tourists on canoe rides through the swamps. We woke up at 530 one morning and went on the canoe ride which was really nice. The hotel even provided mosquito nets for our matresses on the beach! (let it be noted that while the intention was there, the mosquito nets were widely ineffective). Another plus was the amazing food. They actually made chocolate covered bananas. I was in heaven. Since it is a tourist spot, there were lots of foreigners and it was reallly weird to be surrounded by white people. Regardless, it was a nice break from Cape Coast which doesn't have many activities to do.

Ghana is Larger Than it Appears in Most Maps and Rearview Mirrors

My group and I spent the past week traveling in Northern Ghana. The following adventures ensued:

SILLINESS:
Wa: Wa is about a 10 hour bus ride from Cape Coast which is brutal in 90degree weather on dirt roads that allow the bus to only travel at 20 miles an hour. I'm not exactly sure why we went to Wa. I think it was as kind of an overnight rest stop to go farther up north. My friends and I therefore spent our evening in hot pursuit of FanChoco (amazingly delicious frozen chocolate milk in a bag that is the only thing keeping me from going crazy). We found a taxi at the edge of the road. He wanted to overcharge us, so my friend Ariel told him that he could continue on his route without making any money, or he could make 80 pesuars by taking us. They got into a heated argument which involved her chanting "80 PESUARS 80 PESUARS!" and the driver decided that he could not morally take a small fee and would HAVE to take us for free. In the spirit of messing with him, Ariel told him she was from Australia and we each chose a different country. We bonded with him over the fact that we were a mini Model U.N. and sang our national anthems. I don't think he spoke english.

Needless to say (because it's Ghana), once we got to Wa we were told that FanChoco cannot be found in town after 8pm. It was 8:30.

Later, at the hostel, we came across a sign that said laundry was not allowed to be done in the rooms and it should be submitted to reception for washing. Now, while in America, this might imply that the laundry service was complimentary, this is Ghana, and they of course charged us. Even that would have been fine, but our clothes came back a lovely shade of pink. We spoke to 4 different personnel in hopes of merely a discount. Unfortunately, each blatantly laughed at the ridiculous idea that laundry should be returned in its original color and the further inconceivable notion that we should have a discount. oh ghana.

HISTORY AND IMPOVERISHED TOWNS
Gwollu: We traveled another 8 hours roundtrip to Gwollu, a town on the Burkina Faso border. This town is famous for a wall it built to protect the village from slave raids during the 1800s. The town was extremely depressing because we were clearly some of the only visitors all year. Futhermore, most of the children appeared starkly malnourished. I saw one boy curled up in middle of the ground looking very tired and sweating profusely. It must have been 110 degrees in the sun. However, I later learned that he was sick with epilepsy and his family believed that the best thing for him was to lay out in the open.

Sankana: Sanakana is a village famous for the caves that locals hid in to escape the slave raids. We met with the elders and drank Pitu (a maize based slightly fermented beverage) out of Calabash bowls (hallowed squash halves).

THE BEST AND THE WORST OF GHANA:
Mole National Park:
Good-
Mole (pronounced MOLAY!) is a HUGE preserved park in north eastern Ghana. Out of the 420,000 square km, there is one 'resort/tour site'. The first day I encountered numerous baboons sitting right on my front stoop! They had blue rears and all. While walking out of my room one day, i literally tripped over a warthog. He gave me an angry look, but then walked away. We went on two tours of the park in search of animals with our guide "DK." DK was awesome. He was dressed in a full safari outfit with a gun and looked very "1930's I want bushmeat"...until his cellphone rang so he could share where the elephants where located. A group member asked him what was in his gun and he replied "......ehhhhhhh....bullets." We saw a variety of birds, crocodiles, and deer-like animals whose names i dont remember. The coolest part was seeing a real live elephant! Did you know that the African Elephant is the second fastest land animal on earth?? It is, and I stood 30 feet away from it! Also, I later saw about 5 elephants bathing in the pond. Apparently, they sometimes climb up to the resort to drink from the swimming pool. It was overall a really cool experience.

Not so good:
The power went out a variety of times during our trips in the north. However, the most noted was in Mole. My friends staying in the room next door to me had a cockroach problem. And by problem I mean guerilla style invasion. We asked the front desk for assistance and we were handed a single can of Raid. That's when the power went out. And the water. The next hour was spent tip-toeing around the room in the dark and hitting everything that moved with a shoe and then spraying it 4 times over. There were at least 30 casualties, but the army certainly was not defeated and we spent the evening in fear.

KUMASI
Kumasi is the 2nd largest city in Ghana. Despite this, it has barely any American influence and is filled with the usual raw food vendors and markets. We spent two days there and it is veryyy polluted. Interestingly, they decided to put a zoo directly in the middle of the city. That is why at any time you can see thousands of bats flying above a patch of trees. Even better, you can see them up close on the sidewalk being roasted on kabobs! Delicious.

We also went to a carving village nearby which was really interesting and had beautiful sculptures. However, the sellers are like vultures and will literally grab you and push you into their shop. I enjoy explaining that concept of 'personal space' to them.

HAIR SAGA:
It's really really hot up north. So my friend cut my hair again. The first person to guess what it looks like gets a prize.

A Slice of Life

I am online today for the SECOND time this week which is pretty cool so I'm writing a little. I just took a classic taxi ride to the market: first of all, the taxi drivers stop and do errands for themselves without telling you. Second, the windshield always looks as if it was just in a gang shootout. And third, the infamous windows. So you know the manual handles on old car roll up windows? In this taxi there was only one handle for all four doors so the driver passed it around for each of us to attach to our doors and use it like a wrench to roll down our windows. and then they make you pay. oh Ghana.
We ate lunch at the University Cape Coast campus today and it was the best restaurant yet(out of the three that are safe to eat at in cape coast). Our orders took less than 2 hours AND the sauce wasn't spicy enough to burn straight through clothing. The highlight was at the end of the meal when I saw a door that said "washroom". The door led to the outside. Do the math.

My little sister, Kiki, is nuts. She runs into my bedroom at 630am every morning and yells, "You need to bath!" I mumble, "I bathed last night" Then she says "LIAR!"
she recently discovered the song "Umbrella" and sings it all day while dancing to my ipod. She also enjoys sitting on my lap while I try to do my homework while she draws pictures all over it.

Food is going well now because I am sticking to rice. When I have a stomach ache, my host mothers consoles me and says "I'll make you fried fish!"

Komenda

KOMENDA!
We spent the past week (and my Bday) in Komenda, a small village 40 minutes from Cape Coast. It was kind of a ridiculous week.

MY FAMILY
I stayed with a new family with two of my friends. The family comprised of a mother, a father, and about 20 other people who may or may not have actually lived in the house (family situations are very unclear here). There was a baby named Angel who is the CUTEST baby in the world. Unfortunately she was terrified of cameras and burst into tears when she saw one so I dont have a picture of her. Then there was another very cute baby but unfortunately he was terrified of white people and burst into tears when he saw me. Our house had a strong light on the porch and so every evening kids from the neighborhood gathered at our house to do their homework. After homework, we broke out some music and we had dance parties. My brothers really liked PSquare (a Nigerian rap artist), Destiny's Child, and The Beatles. One of my brothers, Ebo, recently learned the word 'fantabulous' and enjoyed integrating it into his fante.
My family owned multiple animals including chickens, roosters and Peace, the pig. Peace is 7 years old and is HUGE. Wednesday afternoon, four people lifted Peace by his hind legs and dragged him downtown to get preggers. My sister, Madua, said Peace will have 20 babies!

THE VILLAGERS
Since we were the only white people in town, we were the subjects of fascination for the school children. When they saw us they would start yelling and running to jump on us. I've never been more afraid of children. Once they attacked us, they began with the typical english questions that they learned in school:
"HI-OBRUNYI(white person)-HOW-ARE-YOU?
before you can answer they make sure to tell you how you are:
"I-AM-FINE-THANK-YOU"

I worked a lot on my fantse greetings but the villagers had a tendency to laugh whenever I spoke fantse...

Other villagers inculded donkeys and sheep which I think outnumbered the people.

MARRAIGE
I got my first marraige proposal! A 45 year old man said, 'good afternoon, what is your name? I am looking for someone to marry my son'
he then asked me if I go to church and when I replied no he said 'oh...nevermind.'
sighhhhh guess I'll just have to wait. he didnt offer me enough donkeys anyways. this girl is worth atleast 12.

THE TOWN:
The town was small and harbored a health clinic for the region, a couple schools, and a teacher training college. But being in the middle of nowhere/Ghana apparently has its advantages because Komenda has a cave that was used during WWII as a hiding place for Queen Elizabeth!
The town itself is on the ocean which was great except for the town's HUGE sanitation problem. Since there is no running water, citizens often do not have toilets in their homes. Public restrooms are disgusting and cost a small fee for each use. Therefore, most people either go in the gutters, on the streets, or (a favorite) on the beach. Thankfully our home had a non-flushing toilet and a section for bucket showers. In addition, there is a cultural trend to throw trash on the ground/burn it. This not only creates large amounts of air pollution, but also masses of trash around town. I had to climb what we called "Mt. Trashmore" to get to my teacher's house every day. There was a trashcan right next to our house but no one used it and so I spent a large portion of my week doing research on how the town handles trash and I might look into studying sanitation for my independent research project.
There wasn't much to do in the town after we finished our research. It's amazing the games you can come up with in extreme states of boredom. I'll teach everyone 'hocheckin' when I get home.

AIM
We met a couple people in Komenda who were part of an NGO. They were originally there to teach Komendans about computers, but their mission changed dramatically when they realized that computers were the least of their problems. AIM invited me to an HIV/AIDS education lecture by a visiting educator for kids ages 9-15 on Saturday. The talk was very interesting because it was blatanly abstinence-only education. The educator explained that if someone had to choose whether or not to have sex, the right choice was to abstain because if one did have sex they would get AIDS and never succeed in life. I enjoy being obnoxious, so I raised my hand and asked 'what if this person decides to have sex and uses a condom, is that a good choice?' He replied that one in a million condoms are defective and you should never take that risk.
I spoke with the NGO leaders afterward and they had big issues with his presentation so I felt better.

MY BIRTHDAY!
My friend Alanna also had her birthday in Komenda, so to celebrate, our group went to a local (cleaner) beach 'resort' on Thursday night and camped out. The evening was really fun and we bought some Star (Ghana's beer) and danced to cheesy african music coming from the bar and swam in the ocean. Also, our program director made us banana cake and it was awesome. I have lots of pictures dont' worry.

This one time, I realized that I am not as rustic as I thought I was. Sleeping on the beach is NO easy feat due to the following factors:
It was uncomfortable
it was cold
there were goats.
sand was actually rock at one point. this is a fact no one tells you until its too late.
the mosquitonet/tents we brought were too close to the beach and half our group got hit by a huge wave around 4am.
Since I was up all night, I noticed two sketchy men walking around the area with flashlights. I assured my friend Ariel that they were just patrolling and she said, "....yeah, I bet they're just here to protect the white people...."
that was a joke in case you didnt get it. if you had gotten it, you would have laughed.
To add insult of injury, they made us pay in the morning for camping out. Oh Ghana.


I'm stilling having a wonderful time and I want to thank everyone for their Birthday wishes be it through facebook or e-mail or cards. It's really hard to stay on the internet long enough to reply to everyone, but I am getting the messages so thank you!

Quick post!

Time for a very quick post because I have a 6 o'clock curfew.

THE SAGA OF MY HAIR
so short hair was nice for a while, but back to long hair. I just got it braided with my friends, so yes, i have a weave. and no, i didn't bring my old hair to be put back on.

LIZARDS
There is a lizard living in one of my bedroom walls. He visits sometimes and is very nice.

OUR WATCHMAN
I mentioned our watchman in my last post. Since he is so old and senile, he reintroduces himself to me every night when I turn on my bedroom light. We chat for a while between the window curtain. I tell him my name again and then he speaks for a while in Fantse and I say 'yeaaaah' 'gooood' 'ooooohh i seee'. I think we will be good friends.

THE ROOSTER
There are lots of roosters and chickens roaming around Ghana. However, I think the one that lives outside my house is blind because he does not understand the concept of morning and he crows at 1pm, 7pm, and 3am. Sometimes I want to make him into Rooster soup, but I'm afraid to tell my host mother because I may have already eaten rooster and not known it.

SIIIICK
I had enteritis all last week which was not fun. It's a bacterial infection of the stomach/intestines. So i had my first Ghana hospital experience. It was actually pretty good, I just had to wait a while. I am on lots of antibacterial drugs now in addition to my malaria medication so I am super super clean on the inside.

VILLAGE STAY
This sunday we are going to live in a new village for a week! I'm not sure exactly what this entails but I hope it involves huts. I will be living with a new family and learning about their economy.
aka I wont be able to blog next week but I'll tell you all about it when i get back.

ok, gotta go! thanks for your comments guys!

I'm Here!

It is fabulous here! We arrived a week and a half ago to Kakota Airport which is not a grass landing in contrast to popular belief. It is about half the size of the Albany airport. I will title the following paragraphs so you can skip over what you dont feel like reading because this will probably be a long entry. Quite a lot has happened!

HOSTELS:
We spend the first 4 or 5 days staying in hostels with 4 people to a room. I really like our group, everyone is very chill and we all get along so far. The bathroom in our hostel was the best part of our stay. Allow me to describe:
1) lizards seemed to enjoy our bathroom
2) yay for bucket showers! there was actually a shower head but it didnt work
3)the toilet leaked and so the floor was perpetually covered in water
4)the shower didn't exactly...'drain'
5)and finally, there are no doorknobs on the inside or bathroom doors, and so getting in to the bathroom is easy, but getting out requires knocking. I have found this to be true of my current home as well. It's interesting when there's no one who can hear you knocking.

CAPE COAST:
Cape Coast is great. There are people everywhere carrying things on their heads and babies on their backs. The most impressive feat I've seen so far is a woman carrying about 120 eggs on her head in crates, but i also see suitcases and televisions regularly defying gravity. The market is swarming with cars, workers, and fruit stands. Everything is used and rundown. Gutters line the streets with sewage and the smells are less than pleasant. It's very dusty and the city seems permanently hazy and very hot. But, the slave castle is eerily beautiful and right on the coast. We went to the beach which looks as if it is out of a movie with hundreds of palm trees!
We also went to a national park rainforest where we crossed a 40 meter high rope canopy bridge aboves the trees. It was beeeaautiful!

AFRICA CUP!!:
Right now there is a HUGE football (soccer) tournament in Africa which is comparable to the superbowl. It is being held this year in Ghana's capital: Accra and Ghana made it to the quarter finals which are tonight! People get SOOOOO excited for the Africa cup. Everyone wears Ghana flags around town and we had a field trip cancelled because of tonight's game. Ghana's team is called the Black Stars because of their flag and so people yell it on the street. A recent news headline was:
"2008 Games Causes Shortages of Alcoholic Beverages in Accra"

MY HOME:
My host mother is named Victoria. She is a fashion designer and her shop is right next to her home. She lives with two apprentices named Elizabeth and Rose. Also, Elizabeth's daughter, Kiki, lives with us. She is 5 years old (adorable) and enjoys calling me 'obrunyi' or 'white girl' (There is also a song that accompagnies this comment that children sing to me on the street). Kiki enjoys 'doing my hair' which involves knotting it and wrapping it with a ribbon. I live in a very nice home and have my own room. The running water is on and off and the toilets flush when they are in the mood. The stoves are lit with matches and I am hoping to learn some cooking. Yesterday I was taught how to do bucket laundry which is harder than it looks! The first few nights in my new home I heard a man talking all night outside of my window. I asked and was told that we have watchman named Edouwin who comes at night and stays outside. When we watch tv he watches through the window and talks to me, but he doesn't speak much english. He is very old and not all there in the head so its funny that he is 'protecting' our house.
I was born on a Saturday and so my Fantse name is Amma. Sometimes my host mother calls me that. It will take me a while to get used to the food here. Things are very spicy and a food staple is "kenkey" which is fermented cooked corn. People who like kenkey often like the taste of very sour milk if that gives you an idea. Fish and rice are also staples. The pineapple is AMAZING. It is totally different from what we're used to. It is white and it tastes like candy. Also, you can even eat the core because it is so ripe.

SCHOOL:
I walk about 20-25 minutes to school everyday along the chicken's and goats on the streets. I am hoping to make a photojournal of my walk to school to put online for you. I am beginning to learn Fantse which is difficult because we are going so fast but I am getting it.

CUSTOMS:
In Ghana, like in India, it is very rude to use the left hand. Being left handed I have found this quite difficult as I usually eat and gesture with my left hand. When I was doing my homework my little 'sister' told me that I was not allowed to write that way and that my mother would be angry.

KEEP UPDATED WITH HOW I LOOK:
I cut my hair! That's not true. My friend cut it. After two days here I decided it was too difficult to wash my long hair in the bucket showers and i've been meaning to donate it to Locks of Love so my friend cut 10 inches right off. I hope customs doesn't ask about the ponytail in my suitcase when I go home...


I miss you all!!!! Internet is on and off here so I will write again as soon as i can!

Love,
Danielle

Leaving soon :)

Hi all! I'm not sure of what kind of internet access I'll have once I get to Cape Coast but I am going to try to keep a blog. I leave January 29th and I'll update as soon as I can!