AKWAABA to the mall !

I was up this morning at 6 am; yeah I know it was brutal. The first eventful morning adventure was when my roommate Hannah’s blow dryer sparked and almost went on fire. I guess the converter was a fail! Also the showers do not always work, the water starts coming out, then it stops, and then it turns back on really strong. The toilet then starts to make the worst noises, which it is currently making right now! However, I have no complaints about it, I am just thrilled that water has come out of the spout for my first two days in Ghana. The next thing we did was take (Ghanaians replace eat with take) a delicious breakfast, which consisted of fresh papaya, watermelon, pineapple, and bananas. There was also a juice that none of us had never seen before; we found out later that it was made out of a leaf not a fruit. It left everyone’s tongues feeling almost numb. We then continued on t orientation were we learned some valuable information about the basis for names in Ghana. Everyone is named after the day they are born so I would be Julie Akosua, because I was born on a Sunday. Also the head of the family is the one who gives the names to the children. We also made a large circle, which resembled a conga line, and then Kwasi our director told us to message. This is just one instance where the kindness of Ghanaians is demonstrated. We then had a break where we traveled to the mall.

Everyone will be astonished to know that today’s mall could have passed for a small American mall! That may be a small exaggeration due to the fact there were about thirty stores in total, but it was so much nicer than I expected. However, we were informed that is designed for tourists, which was proven by the easy access to the cell phones we bought today and temporary Internet connection. Also, there were many foreigners in the mall and very few natives. Our u-pal informed us that we should abstain from purchasing items at the mall because it is the most expensive place to obtain any supplies we may be in need of. There were about five different cell phone stands, a Shoprite (which sold everything, not just food), a couple of clothes stores one being Nike, and a store called Game (which is essential Wal-Mart).

It was a fascinating experience to travel too and from the mall. We took a taxi to the mall that we had just learned how to flag down during orientation. You point your finger strait down. To give you some ideas of the differences in culture I will describe some of the situations we have encountered as strangers to a very cultural country. It is extremely rude to use your "toilet hand" (your left hand) when doing almost anything in the country. If you raise your left hand in class your professor will choose to ignore you, if you take food from a communal plate with your left hand no one else will eat from it, if you take money with your left hand or receive a gift people view you as disrespectful, waving a taxi down or waving hello with your left hand will lead to you being ignored. Additionally giving someone a thumbs up is equivalent to giving the middle finger referring to the persons mother. If you put your thumb up and then down it is even worse! The first thing you do when approaching anyone is greet him or her with good morning, afternoon, or evening. When you are speaking with a taxi, which you bargain with before you enter you must first greet them before speaking. When sitting next to someone on a bus, asking for direction, or just passing someone who looks your way on the street. When you enter a room you should greet everyone in it, if you do not and you need something later on they will choose to ignore you. When you ask for directions people do not use maps or street names. They will give you some landmark and then you will get there and ask someone else where to proceed too. When you are eating something and someone walks in the room you always say, "you're invited" and they reply with thank you. In theory they are then invited to share your plate; however, no one ever shares the meal. In the taxi the driver stopped for food, he proceeded to invite us!

While you drive on the roads where there is always terrible traffic and no designated lanes, people swarm the windows asking you too buy just about anything, from fruit to toilet paper! The women are extremely inventive and not only are they able to balance gigantic buckets on their heads; they also tie material around their waist with infants hanging on their back. They then have two free hands to use at their leisure. I have never seen anything like it, these women are the future, it is as if they have four hands!

All of the people were extremely kind when we were at the mall, but again it was not a very common mall. It was indoors and had a play ground in the center of it, which was outside. It was thrilling to see the vendors surrounding the walls waiting for foreigners to rip off as they walk by. Thankfully every three people in the program were assigned to a u-pal, I was with Gifty, that is a University of Ghana student, so they were able to guide us in how much things should cost. We will not be returning to that mall, but it was necessary since it is the only place to get prepaid phones.

We also learned that the taxi drivers do not like it when you slam the doors shut, we were informed that was because the cars are weak and the doors may fall off. We also informed that after dark it is better to find a hotel and stay there, even if it means missing class, rather then drive on the roads. The group leaders told us that the streets at night are extremely dangerous and not worth driving on, under any circumstances. We saw the president’s house today, which the president does not live in. The current president does not condone the building and refuses to live there, so it is currently empty. Many people speak English, however, there are just as many that do not. They speak many different dialects of Twi, which we have just begun to learn.

On the way home we traveled in a tro tro, which is a common source of transportation in Ghana. They are like small busses that seat about twenty people, but many times about thirty are squeezed in. Seat belts are almost unheard of here, and no tickets are given out in Accra. So the driving is questionable and very much so a different experience than in America.

When we returned we went again to orientation where we discussed health. Essentially the doctor told us to take our malaria pills because they don’t like when students die. We then went down to dinner where I ate my first traditional Ghanaian meal; it was so spicy I thought my mouth was going to light on fire. We continued out to the pool area where Ghanaian music was playing. Atsui is one of the u-pals and he is a dance major at the university. He began performing amazing steps that everyone sat in awe just staring at. He recognized our pleasure when watching him dance, so he proceeded to teach who ever wanted to join a couple of simple traditional steps. We then had the most amazing dance lesson, which about ten of us participated in. Atsui patiently demonstrated each step. I am sure we all looked like a bunch of white kids and the u-pals got a great kick out of our performance, but it was exhilarating ☺ It is definitely nothing like any dance I have done in the past. We were exhausted and drenched in sweat so we quickly ran uo the four flights of stairs to our room, which is secluded with no other students around it, to change into our bathing suits. We swam for a while and then just relaxed and began talking with one another. Our u-pals soon informed us that they were unable to swim. We attempted to teach them the proper technique when it comes to kicking your feet, but we failed miserable. I presume it is a lost cause, but we will keep up the efforts in hopes of improvement in the future.

This is where my first view of the nightlife began. The u-pals asked if we wanted to go to Ebo, which is one of the more American clubs in the city. We of course accepted the invitation. There is about 50 CIEE students and 15 u-pals. About 30 of the students decided to travel in five different taxes to the club. Thankfully, the u-pals bargained our taxi fairs down to a good price (only 3 cedis, which is less than 3 dollars to travel about 15 minutes) and made all of the taxis wait until everyone was inside a car and they could follow each other. When we got their five of us went strait inside, where we discovered that 11:30 is way to early to show up to a Ghanaian Club. We were the only people there; it was terrible, at first. It ended u being a blast, more people showed up at around one and the place began to get packed. Also, more CIEE students entered the club, which the Ghanaian women were not very excited about. The DJ was trying to be kind by playing American music; finally we got one of the u-pals to tell him we wanted Ghanaian music. At about 2:00 the Ghanaian music began and both the CIEE students and the natives danced along side one another and everyone was having a blast. The Ghanaians are much more respectful then Americans, they never just come up behind you and start dancing. They take your hands and dance almost like we would dance a slow dance in America they just speed up the tempo. They were all very nice to us and no one tried anything disrespectful. We all decided to leave the club; we traveled back in our five respective taxicabs and made our way to our rooms.

We have to be up early tomorrow again and we have to be packed this time, because tomorrow we move into our dorms. I am going to get to bed, Good Night!!