Roommate!

I have a roommate as of yesterday! And she is amazing. I feel really blessed. The whole roommate situation was one thing I was really worried about. She is a sweetheart though. Her name is Afia. She is from Accra and is in her senior year of school. She is a banking and finance major but is thinking about going to law school in the U.S. I told her to come to Wisconsin, and she laughed at me. She has family in the U.S. and has been to Ohio and New York. She also has a brother in Canada and one in the U.K. I’m very happy because she is going to let me use her fridge and microwave! And I now have curtains in my room :) She also has a car which is a pretty big deal in Ghana.  She said she would love to visit Kakum National Park with me because she has never been there, which I am excited about. I get to go again!

I also did laundry for the first time today! It was an experience for sure. My arms are still sore from wringing the clothes out. I hung them out to dry at about 10am and they are still not dry and its 7:30pm… I guess I didn’t do a good enough job wringing them out. I’m just hoping I did a good enough job scrubbing them to get them clean.

We went out for terrific Tuesdays at the Pizza Inn. It has amazing pizza and it’s two for the price of one on Tuesdays! We split two large pizzas between six people and it only cost me 3 cedi, which is less than 2 American dollars. And it filled me up!

I also went to my first class this morning. It was a geography class called Resource Analysis and was at 7:30am. We waited there for an hour and the professor didn’t show up, so we left. I guess that if fairly normal for the first week of classes. It just sucked getting up early and making the 20 minute trek across campus for no class. But hey, this is Ghana.

Cape Coast

I had a great weekend! We took an excursion to Cape Coast, which is usually about a two hour drive but took us closer to four because of road construction. It was interesting to learn that the road construction was funded by the U.S. government. We were also told that if Ghana isn't able to finish it by the deadline the U.S. is pulling out the funding and they will have to find their own funding to finish it. Once we got to Cape Coast, our first stop was lunch at a restaurant on the beach… and it was beautiful! We met some young boys who were fishing for crab and sea urchins to sell at the market. They all wanted their picture taken, it was really adorable. After lunch we went to the slave castle located in Cape Coast. The tour guide told us that it was one of the smallest slave castles built but it was still very large and magnificent. Especially to think it was built hundreds of years ago.  Our tour guide was one of the best tour guides I have ever had. He was very compassionate about what he was telling us, and still had a great sense of humor. It was very interesting to learn about the slave castles. The slave dungeons were built right under the church, which seems ironic to me. The British were in heaven praising the Lord, who speaks about treating others as you would like to be treated, while the slaves were in hell below.

After the slave castle we went back to our hotel, which was called a botel because part of it was over water. In the water were crocodiles! We walked on a trail that went around the water. You should have seen the ant hills! They are tons of gigantic ant hills in Ghana. I have seen a few that are at least 4 ft tall!

On Sunday we went to Kakum National Park and experienced the canopy walk! It was amazing… Our tour guide walked through the forest with us and told us about some of the trees. One type of tree, I wish I remembered the name, was used to build huts. The hut would be built around this tree because it had a trunk that's shape would help form rooms. This same tree was used during war to hide behind because the shape of the trunk almost wraps around you. He also told us that there were no mosquitoes in this particular forest because of a certain kind of tree. There was also another type of tree that he pointed out to us that Elephants use to scratch their back on. It was all so interesting! But then again, I’m kind of a nerd. The canopy walk was my favorite part of the entire weekend. There are seven walkways that extend between trees. It was a little nerve racking at first, and I was very scared. The farther I went the less nervous I became and was able to really enjoy the view. The view—BEAUTIFUL! You could see for miles and across the top of the trees… My camera died right before we got to Kakum National Park so sadly I don’t have any pictures, yet. I do plan on going back and also all of the friends I have met through ISEP took pictures for me.

My first 7 days..

I have survived my first week in Ghana! And I’m still loving it. It has been a very busy week.. I wish I would have had more time to blog.

DAY 1: I was met at the airport by two of the student guides. They warned us to not let anyone help us with our bags on our way out of the airport. As soon as we got out the doors there were men following us, almost grabbing at our bags wanting to help. You had to forcefully say no. If you allowed them to help you carry your bags they would expect payment for their services. It was defiantly an eye opener to the fact that I wasn’t in the U.S. anymore. Ghana is full of surprises. That first night there was a power outage. We had gone out for dinner and in the middle of dinner the power went out. When I got back to my room I had to search through my bags in the dark to find my flashlight.

DAY 2: On Saturday we toured the city and visited the mall. This was also the first day I experienced the market. It was overwhelming and I feel like I may never get the hang of how to bargain, but then again maybe I will. We went to a market in Osu, which is a tourist area of Accra. We also saw a museum and the monument for Ghana’s most famous leader, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah.

DAY 3:
On Sunday we went to church with Shadrack, our student guide. It was a very small church, maybe about fifteen people. The power was out in the small building it was located in so the music consisted of just tambourines and drums. It was a great experience and we later found out that the pastor was Shadrack’s father.

We also went to the Lambodi beach that afternoon. It was a cloudy day, but it was still great to see the ocean. They had chairs and umbrella’s set up along the beach to relax in. There was lots of vendors going around trying to sell you things. There are vendors everywhere in Ghana. Another thing that surprised me at the beach was the amount of garbage. There were plastic bags floating in the water, and broken bottles stuck in the sand.

DAY 4:
On Monday we started our orientation. We sat through an informational meeting about registering for classes. Let me tell you, registering for classes is very frustrating. You have to walk to the department and find an informational sheet posted on a bulletin board to find out if the class is being held and at what time. Then you register on a computer for which classes you want, but sometimes the classes that were posted are not on the computer.

We also took a campus tour and this campus is huge! There are 26,000 students that attend this university. That is over 2x the size of UWEC. A lot larger than I was expecting, but as the days go on, and places become recognizable it is not seeming quite as large.

DAY 5:
On Wednesday I took my first trotro ride, which is the public transportation system in Ghana. Trotros are basically large vans that fit about 10 people. There is a man, who is called the maid, that sits buy a window and yells out and gestures where that trotro is going as they pull into a trotro stop. You quickly, and I want to emphasis quickly, get on the trotro. Once on the maid will take your money and you let him know where you would like to get off. We took a trotro to Madina Market which is a very large market. I tried my first fresh coconut here. It was delicious and cost only 70 pasways.. Which is about 50 cents in American money.

DAY 6:
On Thursday we went to a store called Melcom, which is similar to Wal-mart. I was able to get my own bucket so I no longer need to borrow a bucket for my bucket baths. I got silverware, a bowl, a pot, a knife, and a cutting board for cooking. I also got laundry detergent to do my own laundry by hand, which I am a little excited for is that strange?

DAY 7:
Thursday night was the last meal provided by ISEP, the program I came through. So on Friday morning I had a fruit salad that Emma, Kelly, and I made from fresh fruit from the market. Our fruit salad consisted of pineapple, mango, and apples. The pineapple is amazing here. It is so sweet and flavorful. It is also a lighter yellow color, almost a white color on the inside. The mangoes are also delicious. I have never had a mango that I liked, until now. A few people have gotten sick while being here and I have been trying to keep healthy. You can eat cooked meals from the markets for really cheap, about 1 cedi a meal, which is less than 1 American dollar. But food from the market isn’t always safe and you need to be careful. So for now I am sticking to eating from restaurants and cooking on my own, at least for a week or two until my system gets use to the new environment.

It was a busy week and I am in for a busy weekend- We are taking an excursion to Cape Coast. It should be a fun and exciting weekend. Stay tuned, I’ll be posting again when I get back.

My first bucket bath..

Yesterday was hot! We spent most of the day touring the campus. I was really sweaty and dirty. All I really wanted before I went to bed was to take a shower. Every shower here is cold, they don't have hot water. It has turned out to be amazing because I have been so hot and sticky, it just feels good. Well, last night the water went out. I'm not sure why, it happens from time to time. I had to take a bath from a bucket filled with water from the reserve tanks. I washed my hands, face, and feet and went to bed hoping the water would be on when I woke up. Luckily it was :)

Awaakba—Welcome to Ghana

I made it! And finally have internet. Everything is a little overwhelming but defiantly interesting. I’m not sure if I can explain to you what it is like here. It is very different from the states, but at the same time more like the states than you would expect.

Driving in Ghana is just chaos. There isn’t a speed limit and cars drive down the middle of the road even though there is a center line. Not to mention there are hardly any sidewalks so pedestrians walk along the side of the road. And there are vendors at every stop light selling items.

There are markets all over the city, selling almost anything you can think of. A lot of times, while you are walking, vendors will come up to you and ask multiple times if you want to buy their items. It makes me a little uncomfortable, and I’m not sure what to do. I don’t know what’s better, to ignore them, or to say no. It’s one thing that is going to take some getting use to.

As different as everything is, it is so much like the U.S. For example, you see Audis and BMWs driving all over the place. There is a shopping mall almost exactly like the ones in the U.S. except instead of Verizon there is MTN and instead of Target there is Game.

There are so many things that just surprise me. For example, there is no toilet paper in the bathrooms in our hostel; therefore you have to bring some with you every time you go. You also need to bring soap and a towel to dry your hands when you go to wash them. The power went out during our first night here. We were in the middle of dinner and then came home to a completely dark hostel. It took me forever to search through my bags and find my flashlight. I was really glad I packed one.

I just wanted you all to know, as scary and unfamiliar as everything is, I feel safe. I may not be doing any traveling around the city by myself for a long time, but I do feel safe in my hostel. I’ve made my little room pretty cozy and am waiting for my roommate to come.

Why Ghana?

I’m not sure if I can explain how badly I wanted an experience like this but I’ll try. Being the list maker I am I still have a goals list I made when I was a sophomore in high school and written in bold letters and underlined twice is goal number two: to study abroad. When I first realized that the opportunity to study abroad was possible for me, I began thinking about all of the countries I could visit and what they would have in store for me.  I thought about Europe and visiting the Eiffel Tower in France, walking the beautiful streets of Greece, and chasing bulls in Spain. I thought of Australia and scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef. But then I thought what do I really want to gain from my experience abroad? I hope that at some point in my life I will visit all of these places and experience all of their cultures, but I feel that at this point in my life I am looking for an experience that will help me grow as a person in a way I wouldn’t be able to find just anywhere. I also feel that at this point in my life, I am available to experience more than I will be later on. I am single, without children, and in great health. I feel that I need to travel to a place that I will not be able to when these aspects of my life change. To me, this is the perfect time to challenge myself and visit a country that isn’t a conventional choice. And that’s why I chose Ghana, Africa.