I think it's really to my benefit though to not work on it right now and instead update this little ol' blog. I just paid a visit to Josh's website and watched the interview he linked to: Katie Couric interviewing Sarah Pallin. So hilarious. I had never heard her speak before, and clearly for good reason. It's a little scary though, because I had a sudden realization that she could possibly be second in line to being the president. That's scary. Or, as my Twi Professor would say "it's killin'."
We just had our last Twi class last Wednesday and I think I know about as much Twi as I know Greek. Which is basically none. But I can answer simple questions on the street, like what's my name, where am I from, where am I staying, how am I, blablabla. I can also say that I eat pineapple, orange and banana and that I sleep everyday. So I mean I can say basic things, but even that has been very helpful. People always appreciate when you try to speak Twi. If they aren't already feeling friendly, then a few words in Twi will automatically put a smile on their faces. So it's neat.
Oh... Today marks exactly one month since I arrived here! Pretty crazy. I guess that's all for the moment, perhaps I'll try to write my essay now.....
Anyhoo, onto subjects I actually have the knowledge to discuss... I have been trying to keep up with the news at home, since clearly there's a ton going on! So, I have actually been reading the New York Times headlines I subscribed to by email a few years ago, instead of deleting them upon arrival. Although, I find myself constantly drawn to the kind of news that isn't exactly news. And on that note, I thought Dad, Martha, and Mom would really appreciate this article on the increasing visibility of tattoos in the professional world.
Now, on a completely unrelated note, here are my adventures for the weekend: On Saturday we bunch of us are going to Labodi beach to hang out, maybe in the evening, cause that's the place to be (Reggae nights happen multiple times throughout the week), although we won't be there late because we're still enjoying a our high-school flashback courtesy of the 10PM curfew... On Sunday, we'll be writing essays all day, hooray! But we'll be rewarded in the evening with red-red for dinner, yummm! Red-red is a delicious dish that is made of beans in some kind of red sauce with plantains that are fried and sometimes a little spiced. I've never had my host-mom, Becky's, red-red, so I'm very excited to try it, because she's an amazing cook! Finally, on Monday, I'm going into Accra with one of my friends to pick up our drums! Yay! So it should be a fun weekend! As long as I don't melt before it gets here...
In other news, pictures will be coming soon (I know, I should stop saying it and just do it). I uploaded all of them to my computer, so it's just a matter of getting them online. I was gonna upload them to Flickr last night, but when I realized it was going to take about ten hours to download all sixty pictures, I decided to call it quits for the night. I've never used Flickr before, can I upload that many at a time? Anyhoo, I'll get it all figured out soon! Tonight I'm going to meet Emma Vick (my friend from UVM who is doing an exchange here) for dinner because it was her birthday last Wednesday. We're going to an Indian place that I hear is phenomenal. Can't wait! (I know, Indian food and an upset stomach? Eh.. Can't say no to good food!)
Our first stop was supposed to be at the Aburi Botanical Gardens (dad you would have loved that I'm sure), although we ended up not going in because when they saw the bus of white kids they kind of upped the prices a bit. So, after our first failed attempt, we went on to see Ghana's first cocoa farm. We were surprised however, when we pulled up into a group of probably, I don't know, a gazillion people all milling around the cocoa farm looking very festive. They were even more surprised to see us though i think. We all laughed and wish we could dig a little hole and climb into it, but we ended up getting off the bus to find out that it was their first annual cocoa festival! So we took a tour, tried fresh cocoa seeds (you suck on them and they taste sour, very yummy), and dried cocoa, which tasted like incredibly bitter chocolate. Me and my friend Emma then found the free samples of chocolate milk and bought some chocolates and candies and giggled from our much needed sugar high. (She is generally my partner in crime when it comes to delicious food. We hadn't hung out for a few days and when she saw me she said "I miss you, I've lost like three pounds from not hanging out with you!" You can see why were' friends).
After our adventures at the cocoa farm we headed to our final destination, Boti Falls. We walked down through the beautiful forest to a secluded little sandy area with drooping trees all over, it was very beautiful. And falling into the relatively small pool of water were these two beautiful falls (they say one is supposed to be male and the other female... I don't know why). It was pretty much a straight drop for the water because there was an overhang at the top. I am horrible at estimating, but if I had to... I would guess 70 feet? It was very cool. Oh, and finally we visited Umbrella Rock, which is this cool rock that over looks a valley and sort of sits on top of these other smaller rocks. Hard to describe, I climbed a sketchy 30 foot ladder to walk around on top of the rock. It was very neat. Since I was on top of the rock my pictures don't show it very well, but as soon as I steal some of their pictures, I'll put them up. My pictures should be coming along very soon too!
In other news, I wrote an essay this weekend and got a marriage proposal. It was pretty funny actually, cause my roommate, Carly and I made friends with this guy Nana who does work for my host parents sometimes, and he was over last night with two other guys doing some work and before they left they stopped in the dining room where me, Carly, and my host brother and the girl that helps around the house, Mesi were hanging out. They were asking Carly to take their pictures and eating the fruit my host mom had set out, when out of the blue (I think Mesi put him up to it), Nana comes over and starts saying how much he'd like to marry me and we're all cracking up. I let Carly handle the situation for the most part... She was trying to negotiate a good price for me, and we laughed, but he assured us he was serious and eventually got down on his knees. That's when my host mom walked in laughing and told them all to get out of the house. So it was amusing.
I've spent today mostly finishing my essay and "skyping" with my parents, and talking to Alice online! It has been lovely. Oh and I pounded fufu today, but I'm not good at it at all. But that's all, and my last task for today is to at least upload my pictures to my computer so I can put them online soon!
But I would venture to guess that you didn't wait all this time for my page to load so that you could read about my feet. So I'll move on. (Oh and just a quick note, my updates might not be quick as frequent in the future, I'm just enjoying wireless internet at my homestay house right now, but when I move out, they'll probably be a little less consistent). Did I ever describe what my homestay was like? I kind of don't think so, so I'll do that very briefly. I'm living in East Legon which is on the outskirts of Accra, the capital city. I want to call it a suburb, but that's just going to put the entirely wrong picture in your head. Most of the houses are walled or gated in (which explains our 10PM curfew...), and there are little market stands set up at every intersection and at various points on the road. The road itself is a very wide, dirt road littered with potholes (my host dad credits the poor road maintenance to the party currently in power, saying that they don't believe this region votes for them and therefore they're ignored). The house itself is bright orange and looks like a store front in the front because it's the future home of our host mother's salon. There is a little courtyard inside the gate and, well I'll post pictures sometime. We have two host parents, and they have a son who is 15 and a daughter who is 19 and currently at university in Canada.
Anyways, for fear of repeating myself, I think I'll move on... The Ghanaian people I've met have been incredibly friendly and welcoming (even when they're ripping you off in the market, which is all the time). As you would expect, the guys here are very eager to be friends, but it was pleasantly surprising to see that the women were equally as excited to say hello and meet us. I thought that was great, because I think we all know that women are the real leaders and if the women don't accept you, then you don't stand a chance. That said, there is probably a higher proportion of guys hailing us down saying "tss tss obruni!" (obruni means white person in twi, and they find it hilarious if you say "obibini" back to them, which means black person). Although the "tss tss" call doesn't have the same negative connotation that it would at home, because they do that to other Ghanaians, male and female. It's really just to get your attention, and you can hear it from surprisingly far away too. Anyways, there's my sampling of Ghana for the day. A rather scattered and rambling entry, but I hope you found something entertaining or worthwhile in it. Well, that's all folks!
Oh, but before I close entirely, I just thought of one more interesting cultural tid-bit to share! When we went to the beach last weekend (kokrobite beach, outside of accra), a lot of the girls (including myself) got waistbeads. Waistbeads are worn by almost all girls and women in Ghana and their main purpose is to gauge whether you are gaining weight (I don't think I'll even need the beads for that, after all these plantains, it's kind of a given!), and they are only supposed to be seen by yourself and your boyfriend or husband, which fits with their conservative dress style. A few people have explained to us a phenomenon around the waistbeads called "I-am-aware" girls. The girls get that name when their waistbeads are showing because maybe they're wearing low rise pants or a cropped shirt and someone goes up to them and scolds them, saying "your waistbeads are showing!" and the girls just reply "I am aware." (Don't worry, I'm not one of those girls). So that was an interesting cultural thing to learn about.
And finally, while I'm talking about gaining weight, I should mention that we have the first member of our group feeling terribly ill. She's lost about 10 pounds in 12 days (which is the opposite of gaining weight, but weight related nonetheless) and has missed the past two days of classes. Her roommate is guessing that maybe she has a worm (ew), but we don't know. She went to the hospital today, so I'm sure they're sorting it all out. As for me, I'm still feeling healthy as a clam. I know, the saying is happy as a clam, but I couldn't think of something particularly healthy. It was either clam, doorknob or whistle. (Dumb as a doorknob, right? and clean as a whistle? Well now I'm afraid that non of those are right, haha, but I think you know what I mean). No malaria for me yet. Thanks to my anti-malarials and my canopy, which serves a second, lesser known purpose of making me feel like a princess! And now I am done. I seem to be rambling. Maybe it's a good thing I won't have reliable access to the internet soon. Goodnight and good luck!
In other news, school work is suddenly starting to pile up here! When your first two courses only last eight weeks they have to jam in a bunch of material and assignments all at once. I'm sure I'll get it all done, I just hope it will be done well.... After our courses end, we take a ten day trip up north to start researching which NGO we want to work with. After that we do another course, less academically intense, and we do a mini week long placement with an NGO. Then comes December break! I will keep you updated with my plans, because they only exist in my imagination right now and change daily... We shall see....
This weekend we'll be traveling to the Volta region which is on the Eastern side of Ghana and home to the Ewe ethnic group (pronounced eh-wey). There are supposed to be some beautiful waterfalls there so I'm pretty excited to check them out. I've been trying to take some more cool pictures as actual evidence that I'm here, so hopefully I will post those after this weekend (might as well wait till I see the waterfall). I took some awesome videos on my camera tonight of the dancing, so I'll try to post those as well... (Josh, where would be the best place to post videos?).
That's all the news I have for now! Life is good and I'm so happy to be here. Although... when I think back to my mother's homemade chocolate chip cookies, I kind of wonder how I ever could have left? My sweet-tooth has been feeling a bit neglected lately...
Food: Delicious. I was a little worried that I wasn't going to be crazy about it but I've been pleasantly surprised! My favorites by far are fried plantain, fried rice (notice a theme?), red-red (which is beans and plantains), mm, basically anything with plantains. I've also tried some Ghanaian staples like fufu, banku and kenke (sp?). Fufu is pounded plantain and cassava, and looks and feels like a bread dough. You eat all these dishes with your hands, and fufu is served with soup. Banku is similar, is made from corn, although you would never guess it (at least I didn't). It is also pounded into a starchy blob and then wrapped in leaves of some sort and boiled, served with sauces of various kinds. Finally, we have kenke.... I don't know what it is.... But it's mushy and rancid. Clearly not my favorite.
As for snack food (maybe I should just make this a food blog)... There is this stuff called Fan Ice that I'm obsessed with (at only 790 calories a pack!). It's vanilla ice cream, but much creamier and incredibly flavorful. They also have these little balls of dough that taste almost like doughnuts and finally they have plantain chips. You can get all these things for 50 peswas or less (which is less than 50 cents American). They're wonderful.
The atmosphere overall is... busy! I live in East Legon which is near the capital, Accra. I wouldn't call it a suburb exactly, because that would give you a very different picture. I'm staying with a host family (two parents, two kids, and relative who helps around the house). We're in a neighborhood, although there are lots of little markets set up all around. The road is a dirt road (as many of them are), but it's all red dirt, because it's West Africa. There are occassional power outages, but mostly it's a pretty plush life in this house, compared to many of the Ghanaian houses. Our host dad blames the unpaved roads and power outages on the political party that's now in power, saying that this area is not perceived as voting for that party and they're therefore ignored. There's a huge presidential election going on here which people are very excited about. Although they seem almost equally excited about our election!! Everyone asks me who I'm voting for and I can proudly say Barack, and thank god because I think they would kick me out if I said McCain (I might not be allowed back in Vermont either, but we needn't worry about that).
The program I'm doing is pretty good so far, although it's awfully hard to concentrate on work.... But I guess that's true at home too. The kids on my program are all cool, and all Canadian. It's been interesting being the only American. In the beginning I almost felt like I was doing a double exchange, Canada and Ghana! Though after the first two weeks, which is how long they say it normally takes to adjust to a place, I'm finding myself to be a lot more comfortable here and in general! I had no physical issues adjusting to the environment and life here (because I eat an entirely carb filled diet at home too), with the exception of the heat. It is supposed to be their colder season right now, but it's also very humid, so looking sweaty is pretty much my job.
In the miscellaneous category, I guess I'll mention that I'm buying a drum (a medium sized djembe), which will have my name and an elephant carved into it! I'm pretty excited. I've also been scouting out fabrics and gifts for people at home! But I have plenty of time for all that so I'm trying not to rush it. Oh and finally, if you're not jealous about anything else, you can be jealous that I eat fresh pineapple every single day. Delicious. But you have doughnuts and breakfast sandwiches and all the maple you could dream of... So I guess the feeling is mutual. Anyways, it is just about bedtime here. Everyone here wakes up ridiculously early, and it's kind of rubbing off on us. Plus we have a 10 o clock curfew (because most of the houses are gated in, or walled in and they don't want to stay up late waiting to let you in), so we've developed an early bed time. But living situations may change next month, so I'll keep you updated. Also, I hope to upload some pictures before too long, so I'll let you know how and when you can see those as well.
This was not brief at all. My apologies. Lots of love from Ghana!!