First Week In Ghana!

Akwaaba to my new blog!!!

Goodness, where do I begin? Getting here to Accra, Ghana was seriously a fiasco. After having my initial flight from SeaTac to JFK cancelled, I was already getting a lesson in how to be flexible and go with the flow. That's really big here in Ghana...When I finally got to New York for my connecting flight, it was delayed 4 hours. Fantastic. So I was feeling really depressed about the whole thing and no one around me was speaking English. They were mostly calling their friends and family back in Africa to let them know about the flight changes. I was near complete breakdown from lack of sleep and just generally being concerned that my bags would be lost on top of all this. Then the Ghanaian man next to me asked if I would hold his son for him while he changed his other son's diaper. He handed over this little baby, maybe 18 months or so. I was shocked. I mean, nowhere in the U.S. would you find an American so trusting of a total stranger with their kid! Even the baby looked at me like he knew me already; he was completely comfortable in my arms and didn't cry or fuss. This just goes to show you how community is valued, even from a young age. Ghanaians are all so accommodating and kind to one another and to us foreigners. Everyone is your brother or sister or uncle or auntie. That's just how it is, they share everything. I wish things worked like that in the U.S. because everyone is just in a generally good mood here as a result.

Not much to say about the flight, I passed out and woke up...in AFRICA. The heat and humidity hit me right away as I stepped off the airplane. It was like being in a sauna, but worse. Since then I've adjusted a bit to the temperature but its certainly no Seattle weather, or even New York summer weather, for that matter. Sammy was the driver who took me from the airport to my new home in Accra. The area where we live is called Labone (pronounced with an "e" sound at the end). From there, I went directly to the academic center to join the rest of the NYU in Ghana group, who had arrived the day before and already begun orientation. All week we received orientation from about 8 in the morning to 8 or 9 at night. It was busy and tiring, but it forced us to adjust to the time change. In short, we learned some Twi (pronounced "Chwee," it is the local language), cultural and social customs (like not using your left hand and how to wave down a taxi), visited some prominent sites (such as the burial place of Kwame Nkrumah, Ghana's first president) as well as some local markets, shops and restaurants. On Thursday we visited the U.S. Embassy in Ghana and were able to meet the Ambassador and his staff. I was even asked by the associate director (Christa) of the NYU program if I would give a speech of thanks on behalf of all the students in front of the microphone! Ok, not such a big deal (there are only 43 students in our group), but still pretty cool.

Registering for classes has been an interesting journey...things are much different here than in the states. Instead of doing everything electronically and through the internet or email, registration is done by paper in the offices of the university. As a result, things can take a couple of days or more to get straightened out. (I won't have my schedule finalized until February 2nd, but when I do I will be sure to post it on here.) Thursday night a bunch of us went to a club in a nearby town called Osu. It is a well-known venue where locals and foreigners come together for live music and dancing. It was unlike anything I have experienced in the U.S. They charged us a cover of 1 Ghana cedi and 50 pesewa...That's about a dollar and twenty cents (for my New York friends, you can appreciate how small that charge is compared to the $20 cover in most clubs in Manhattan)! The men were very forward with us gals, asking some of us to marry them, take them to America or make them our partner. Still, it was a blast and the music was fantastic. By the end of the night we were all so sweaty and gross from dancing outdoors in 80-degree weather. None of us really cared though.

We have been eating the most amazing food! Some people have gotten sick from it, just because there are a lot of spices in everything, but luckily I haven't had a problem with it yet. Fried plantains and rice seem to balance out the chicken, lamb, goat, beef and spicy vegetables we've been devouring. There are names for all these foods but I haven't memorized them yet. And the fruit...oh the fruit. It tastes like fruit was always supposed to taste. Not artificially sweetened and dried out like it is in America. Wow, I could spend a whole blog entry on the fruit and juice. Altogether, this week was seriously exhausting but seriously fun. Stay tuned... I will try my best to keep this up as a weekly thing. Until next time, take care!!