Baboons

At Shai Hills Reserve

Banku with groundnut soup

This past week, I saw baboons ate banku, and bought a blender. I visited Shai Hills Game Reserve, just an hour out of Accra. It was a very bumpy ride there but it was definitely worth it. It was gorgeous, open fields of trees, boulders, and baboons, a good break from the beeping taxis of the city. After our mini safari ride, we went to Bush Canteen (sp?), a market on campus and I ate banku for the first time. It was very similar to fufu, except this is a ball of fermented corn dough instead of cassava. (Fufu and banku are paired with the same groundnut (peanut) soup). The spice is a bit to handle, especially when you somehow manage to splash the soup in your eye..It happened to me while eating fufu, ouchies.

All classes start this week. Or next week, I'm not quite sure. Rumors are that some professors don't show up the first week, so I'll see how that pans out. Also, I thought registering for classes at RIT was a pain, now I completely regret ever complaining. To register at the Univ of Ghana, you have to walk to the different departments (the campus is huge) and refer to a bulletin board to see what classes are being offered, and then register. I plan on visiting the departments tomorrow morning so I'll finally know what classes I'll be taking! And Since classes haven’t fully started yet, there has been a lot of down time. To occupy some time, some friends and I decided to bring Bikram to Ghana. Since its already 100 degrees outside, there was no need for a heated room so we did some yoga outside of our hostel. We had a few people mimic and laugh at us and even take a video. Also, walking around campus the other day my cool friend Gabby and I got smoothie cravings, so decided to go to the mall and buy a blender, which was probably the greatest idea since being here. Mangos in Ghana are extremely delicious, and they make wonderful smoothies.

Fun fact-my dreams have gotten crazy. Theres a malaria pill which is known to have this side effect, but I'm pretty sure I chose the medication which did not have this effect. Regardless, I'd like to blame my weird, vivid dreams on my malaria pills because that just makes sense. When I say vivid, I mean vivid. I wake up every morning confused to where I am because the dreams feel so real.

Fufu and palm wine!

This is a wonderful sachet. 10 peswas. 

First day at the beach and my face looks like a tomato. I also got the first of my proposals. I went to Labadi beach (apparently the more touristy of beaches) and the second we arrived we were swarmed with people trying to sell us things.  We tried to move further down away from the crowds of people, but within 10 minutes the 20+ sellers found us, and did not leave until for hours later when we left. Kofi, my beach friend introduced me to palm wine.  I have heard of it before so was excited to finally try it, Im not sure how to describe it other than it was good and I'll probably be drinking that often.  I saw a bit more of poverty on the beach than I had expected, but all in all atleast the ocean was in front of me. 

Despite all the weird food I have been eating, I've remained to stay healthy so far!  I tried fufu for the first time.  A ghanian dish that is made up with pounded cassava that is put with soup and some type of meat. (Its really cool how they make it they have these giant wooden poles that they smash it with to get it to the consistency that it is. And they make it right in front of you!) When its served to you, it looks like a giant dough ball like the size you would use to make a pizza in a bowl drowned in soup and your choice of meat.  Being a vegetarian, I didn't get meat in it which is very uncommon among Ghanians.  All in all, it was spicy and the texture is a bit odd.  I didn't finish it, mostly because Evans, a U-pal through our program warned us not to eat it for a while because it apparently takes 10 hours to digest and he said we were not ready for it so I decided to take it easy. 

I  visited my internship site the other day.  It's a micro finance organization, Alliance for African Women Initiatives (AFAWI ) so it should be interesting once I start.  And if its not interesting, atleast the drive to and from will be.  It's about 2 hours from where I'm living so I had to take 4 trotros and a taxi to get there.  Getting dropped off at a station with about 20 trotros and crowds of people is a bit intimidating.  The drive goes through some rural areas so I get to see a lot of different things going on which makes it worth while, I did hit my head a few times due to the potholes and what not but I'll be getting used to that I suppose. 

I also went to Ashesi University, where I will be taking Entrepreneurship 2 twice a week. I love the drive there, its about 45 minutes but its on top of a mountain so the view is gorgeous! The last 15 minutes of the drive up to the university is a dirt road going through really remote villages and tons and tons of trees.  The class is an Entrepreneurship class, and the 8 other people in my program and I should not be in this class. Its basically the last class business students take before they graduate and its a continuation of the first semesters class, meaning were jumping into a class half way through, so we have no idea what is going on.  Should be funny.

My light in my room finally works! It was out for the past 3 days so it was super exciting to have it back.  I've been using a tiny flashlight to get around my room, which wasn't bad except for the fact that I would always misplace the thing and it would take me a good 5 minutes to find it in the pitch black.  Now that I have my light back, I realized that where mosquito nets exist, clap on lights should also exist.  After I make sure my mosquito net is all tucked in, I have to still get up and turn my light off, which makes me untuck it, and then its hard to tell if its all the way tucked in the dark!  Im sure this is just an obruni problem which I'll get over tomorrow.

Oh another thing that went out was the water stopped working! It was the same day as my long journey on the trotros to my internship so I was hot, sweaty, and ready for a long cold shower, but that didn't happen.  Luckily I had an abundance of sachets of water because I had just bought a giant bag of them, so I tried to use those to shower.  It was a very inefficient shower because half of the water didn't end up hitting my body. Bags of water are harder to aim than you would think.   Even though it wasn't the shower I had hoped for alteast it was still semi cold and satisfying.

Now that I've been here over a week, time to do some laundry.  I've got my bucket and and some Dr. Bronners. This should take me...all day.

The first days

I left home this past Thursday and have experienced and seen a ton in the past 5 days, starting with a 6 hour layover in Amsterdam and ending with eating ice cream out of a plastic pouch. From Amsterdam to Accra was a 6 hour flight so I landed in Ghana at around 8pm on Friday. Luckily after I grabbed my luggage I was so relieved to see my new friend holding a CIEE sign..happiest moment ever!

I am now in my permanent housing, the international student hostel at the University of Ghana.  Some things I have to remember while living here..to tuck in my mosquito net under my bed before going to sleep (the first night I failed to do so and got attacked by a mosquito), bring toilet paper with me to the bathroom, don't freak out when lizards decide to join me for the night, and the lady at the entrance will most likely be my new best friend (so friendly and nice!).

My favorite thing I've experienced so far are "trotros,"  basically mini vans that are way too overcrowded for their own good. Theres a guy who serves as the drivers mate who hangs out the window yelling which direction their going in, so you have to listen carefully (especially because they don't say the full word. "Accra" = "cra cra cra").  So you listen, wave em down, and hop on and your on your way!  Around rush hour the trotros become way too intense for me right now.  Yesterday a couple people from my program and I went to the mall around 5pm and where planning on taking a trotro back.  When we saw the amount of people running towards the trotros at a time, we decided itd be in our best interest to take a taxi.  I think I'll need a little bit of practice with the trotros before traveling during rush hour.  One big surprise to me is the language.   Although english is the official language, no one speaks it!! The locals all speak Twi, and I know about..2 phrases.  Luckily I'm taking a Twi language class so I won't be the typical obruni who only knows english.

So far the things I have learned:
1. The term vegetarian does not exist
2. A smile and a hello goes a long way
3. A bar is referred to as a spot
4. I will be eating a lot of rice
5. Red Hot is not spicy..Ghanian food is spicy
6. There are very few rules when driving. So far it seems you can drive on whatever side of the road to avoid potholes
7. Road rage does not exist.
8. Being called an "obruni" is not offensive.
9. Must watch out for the obruni traps (gutters on the side of the road)
10. You can get all of your shopping done while waiting in traffic
11. Ghanian women have impressively good posture and balance (carrying giant bowls of anything on their heads)
12. There are no street names or maps. Know landmarks and a local will be able to point you in the right direction.

So this is my first time blogging.  I decided that if I ever do have a blog in my lifetime this is a very appropriate time..I'm living in Ghana, Africa for the next 5 months!! I am doing a study abroad program through CIEE at the University of Ghana.  The program is a business, development, and social entrepreneurship program where I will be taking 5 classes and doing an internship with a local organization.  I'll be posting pictures/experiences as my time goes on, so read on!! Thanks!