Saturday, January 22,2011
Off too the International Student Hostel We Go !
Friday morning we had breakfast at 8:00, yes a late morning, for Ghanaians anyway. After breakfast, which we finished late once again, African time is a lot like Spanish time, never on time! We then continued our orientation where a police officer came and spoke to us about how to remain same if Ghana He assured us that everyone would be safe as long as we stick together. Our director than spoke to us about bridging the gap between cultures, he explained that any individuals in the program that is homosexual should inform any one else of their orientation. On a scale from 1 to 100, Ghana is about a two on how tolerable they are on homosexuals. Couples whom are heterosexual will rarely hold hands or kiss in public, but friends will commonly hold hands or wastes while walking. We are also referred to here as abrunis, which means white person. We stick out everywhere we go, but we are improving our skills of communication. To demonstrate the how becoming acquainted with a new culture is frustrating by giving out math problem with directions that indicated that a + means x and x means – and so on. As we tried to complete the problems quickly it was difficult to get the right answer.
We also learned that when people see someone getting robbed they always step in to help because they work hard for their money and can picture that thief stealing the things they have worked hard for.
Then we had an hour to pack our bags and bring them downstairs. It took us two trips each to get everything down the four flights of stairs. They then stacked our bags on top of the trucks about four feet high. When we finally arrived on campus we saw gigantic anthills, about four to five feet tall. They are gorgeous and the campus keeps them intact just for the ascetic look. One bus saw a monkey in one of the trees just hanging out there. The land here is full of lizards of all different colors and sizes, palm trees, and beautiful landscapes. Although everywhere you walk is red dirt, which gets your shoes and eat filthy. Between the constant sweating and the dirt we never feel clean even after a shower.
We got our pillows and sheets from the CIEE office, which were so much worse than we could have predicted. I am ecstatic that I have my own pillow and sheets with me. I could not image sleeping on the pillow that is provided by the program. We also received mosquito nets that are astonishing colors; they give our rooms a vibrant look since everything else in them is dull. We plan on going to the market to look for posters and other things that can be used o decorate the walls.
We spent some time exploring the dorm, which is very different from a dorm at home. The bathrooms have no toilet paper and no one comes to clean them although they are communal. Also the building is opened and you walk outside of your room to the outside. I room is positioned in the most ideal spot. It is o the bottom floor right in front of the laundry lines and water reserves for when the water goes out. The bathrooms are also about ten feet away from my dorm entrance. We still don’t have roommates, but I am crossing my fingers that I get someone I get along with : ) I cannot wait to finally meet her. The bottom floor is all girls, the second floor all boys, and each proceeding floor alters sexes.
We then traveled to the night market, which is an accumulation of outside vendors who live in their stands and are there twenty four seven. We bought one large bag of water which has thirty small baggies of water inside of it, hangers, laundry detergent, a bucket to wash our clothes in and bath with, some people bought mirrors and garbage cans, others bought air time for their phones. We also found toilet paper, which people stock up on in great quantities here because it is not always available. Later on that night be walked to Pentagon, which is another dorm that CIEE students are living in. It was about a forty-minute walk. We ate dinner there, I got red-red (white rice and red beans that taste nothing like Spanish rice and beans) and chicken. The chicken also does not taste like the chicken at home; because you cannot order a certain piece of the chicken it is more of the luck of the draw. Also the restaurant did not have a menu, you could ask what they had, they would tell you and then you ordered. However, it seemed as if we were the only ones that were asking what type of food the sold. Everything here is also so spic, so my stomach is having a hard time getting used to the change. Also the bathrooms at the restaurants did not have toilet paper or hand soap either and the food took about an hour to come. Everything in Ghana is slower than in America. The u-pals always say that if you walk somewhere in American speed you will arrive in about ten minute and if you walk at a Ghanaian speed you will arrive at your destination in thirty minutes. And it seems that this statement is not an exaggeration, Ghanaians walk much slower than the typical American. They are more likely to stop and make small talk with people they pass on the street. The campus is huge and a lot of it is uphill. But it is beautiful everywhere you look, our views from the dorm are spectacular.
It was then time for a shower, which was not cool, it was cold! I first stepped in and thought I was going to have to get out right away. However, I dealt with the temperature and finished showering as quickly as possible. The Internet has been down so we cannot get on to post blogs, sorry for the delay.
Later that night we went out to Chez Afrique, which unbeknownst to us is more for older individuals. Therefore, it closed at 12:30, which is about thirty minutes after we arrived. Although the small amount of time we did spend there was fun, there was a live band and it was one of the CIEE students birthday. We danced and sang for a short time then one of the girls got sick from something she ate. She went to the bathroom and a Ghanian woman followed her, held here tight and said an intense prayer in her ear while holding her stomach. This was something we had never seen, but the women was attempting to heal someone she saw that needed help, even though we were abrunis (white people). We then went back to our dorms where we stayed up talking until about six thirty just telling stories and getting acquainted with one another.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Discovering the means of Dance in the Ghanian Culture
It was difficult to sleep through the night, the heat is almost unbearable at times, and the mosquito nets block out any breeze that comes in from the window. This morning I woke up at ten and I was infuriated because once again my alarm clock didn’t go off and I missed church! It may have been a sign from God, telling me to buy traditional African clothes before going into someone else’s church. Although I was disappointed I did not allow the one incident to ruin my day. We had a dance work shop later on and I was still thrilled about that opportunity. At 4:00 we all went together to a dance hall (which we have finally mastered how to find on our own). I have never listened as inspiring as our instructor whose name was Oh! Yes the exclamation point is a part of his name. His speeches were phenomenal and his head was filled with inspirational stories.
Pause: I would like to briefly mention some new things I have learned about the culture I am attempting to submerge myself into. Most of the knowledge I have gained is from the dance class I was describing, so I decided to interject some interesting information within my description of the African dance lesson.
1. Ghanians shake hands with almost everyone to demonstrate that everyone is on the same level and that the two people respect one another. To increase the meaning of such a simple action Ghanians always shake hands by traveling in a circle counter clockwise. The reason for this action is that you show the person your palm, which is washed clean. It also represents the openness and the truthfulness of the locals.
2. When a child is born they are not considered a human until eight days after he or she is born. Within those eight days the baby is just a spirit and the human does not come to earth until it is given a name by the father and the name ceremony is performed by the head of the family.
3. Ghanaian’s dance to show the differenced between families and to demonstrate similarities between different tribes. They dance at every occasion and by the time a child can walk they have already begun to learn how to sing, dance and in the near future they will obtain the skills necessary to play a set of instruments (if they are male). The Ghanaians dance at funerals, weddings, naming ceremonies, festivals, church, and any other occasion you can think of.
4. Dancing is a celebration of life and the Ghanian’s say, “if you haven’t danced, you haven’t lived” and “those who cannot dance, do not spoil the Earth.” Oh! was trying to convince us that even if we did not master the steps at first, we would not make the world come to a stand still.
5. Ghanian females usually do not tell you if you make them angry, they choose to ignore you instead. It is easy to offend people in a country where you sometimes forget typical aspects of their lives.
6. Aunts and uncles can have as much or more power over the biological parents of a child. A child is not just for the parents or the family, they are for the community as well. The community supports the child and aspects that the child will return to the village when they are adults and support the community. Every child has a charge and they must give back to the community to fulfill it.
7. When people say hi they refer to people hey are not related to as aunt and uncle as a sign of endearment and they call people their own age brothers and sisters.
Continuation: The men would perform dances and then they would show us each step slowly and we would attempt to replicate the steps. We had a blast and did several exercises to try to build trust. In America we do trust falls where a person just falls back, in Ghana a person jumps back and hopes someone can catch them. After they land they are flung out and then they continue jumping back. We did an exercise where we jump into our group and traveled counter clockwise jumping into each proceeding group until we got back to our original group. We also learned a combination that we had to perform in groups of three! There were probably fifteen locals standing outside the door looking into the room- proof that we looked like fools. I am not sure I have ever sweat so much in my entire life, so I must have looked beautiful.
After the class we sang one of the girls Happy Birthday and then dumped water all over her. In Ghana they “pound” (throw water on) people on their birthdays!
After the class we went to the night market and I got my first egg sandwich. All of the students eat egg sandwiches for any of the three meals and you can get them at pretty much every stand. The good thing about them is that they cook them in front of you so they are hot when you receive them. We are not supposed to eat cold food from street vendors because then the germs are not killed. We then went to Champs which is a bar that is made for Americans !! They streamed the “American football” game onto a screen and the food and alcohol was as expensive as a typical sports bar. To put this in perspective realize that I spent 50 pesewas (35 cents) on lunch and for dinner I spent 1 cedi (75 cents); therefore, Champs was expensive compared to everywhere else we buy food. Traveling to the bar was also a production and it cost more than most taxi rides. I think that was because the taxi driver had no idea where it was and when we got in the car he began calling everyone to attempt to find out the location! But we did eventually get there and we had a great time. They had two flat screen tvs and they sold Mexican food (I didn’t eat) and there may have been two locals there. They made fun of football and said it should be called handball. They explained they hate watching it because they don’t understand the rules. We finally got back at around 4:30 and one of the boys we were with fell in the gutter (there are gutters that are about 1 to 2 feet deep on both sides of every road) and scraped his leg up. It looks like we will only go back there one more time to watch the Super Ball! I love and miss you all I will try to get another blog up as soon as I can get back to the Internet.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Today was another early morning we had orientation with all of the international students attending the University of Ghana this semester and it was no fun at all. I could barely stay awake because the Dean of the School and the other speakers just repeated everything CIEE had already told us plus they attempted to explain registration. It is nothing like college in America because there is no Internet. You have to walk to each department, which are much further than you would expect, to talk to the instructors and find out what time they are having their class and which classes are being offered. The explanation was confusing and during the speeches we were informed that women are not permitted to carry handguns on campus and that two people were already robbed! However, we have been well trained on how to avoid getting ourselves into situations that would end in getting robbed.
The rest of my day can be explained in just one word: HOSPITAL (Mom and Dad don’t worry it wasn’t for me).
First we went to the bank and it took an hour! While we were waiting a women came in and I remembered that you have to stand as soon as someone older does not have a seat. Everyone on the bench stood up until the omen decided which seat to take. Once she sat everyone else proceeded to sit back in their seat.
I was at the hospital for the next 5 hours waiting with one of the girls on the trip, Kylee, to get admitted. Her ankle is swollen from some type of animal bite. The waiting area is outside, so we were sweating and so tired. When we finally got close to the front of the line people got to go in front of us because they had more vital problems. We eventually got our turn and we were in the office for about 2 minutes. The doctor made small talk and Kylee told him what happened. He did not even look at her foot he just prescribed her medicine and sent her on her way. I did meet the cutest little girl and her mom let me take a picture with her ☺. Although I don’t think the mom actually understood what I was asking her, but when I took the camera out she understood and did not seem to mind.
By the time we got back it was really late and I was hungry so we went to eat at somewhere different then usual. The Bush Canteen, which is right on campus serves traditional food. We got fufu, it was my first experience with this type of dish, and I did not enjoy it. You have to grab dough with your fingers and roll it (which is much more difficult than it sounds because the dough is very sticky) and then you dunk it in a spicy stew and swallow it. You don’t chew the dough! There is also a piece of chicken, beef, or goat in the stew that you pick apart with your hand and eat. People share one bowl and keep dumping their fingers in it and licking them after each bite. It was gross and I couldn’t eat more than one bite of it. Plus it is hard to eat because you can only use your right hand. Also you wash your hand with soap and water that they bring to the table with a towel, before and after the meal.
On the way back to the dorm we have to walk through the Night Market and Hannah my neighbor was carrying cookies in her hand. A young boy kept touching her bag and trying to stop her so she gave him a cookie. In about ten seconds she had a trail of little kids following her waiting for a cookie. Needless to say, she did not have those cookies for very long.
When we got back to the dorm there was a seamstress in the kitchen who called us over. She took our measurements and we picked fabrics and ordered dresses in the style of our choice. I bought one for me and one for Lori, and I also got a wristlet made out of material. We then played a card game called spot it for about three hours, it is made for seven year olds, but it was a blast. Then we went off to bed because we were exhausted.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
A quiet day
Today we had to be up early for part to of the useless banter, they called orientation. Although many groups found it helpful, it was useless to CIEE because we were already given that information.
After orientation we went around to different departments to look for our class, ate lunch (red-red and maduros which were amazing), and we went to a lector by a political science professor. We returned to the dorm with a lot of new knowledge about politics in Ghana.
It was a long day so we were drained and just stayed in and talked until it was time for bed.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Art Market
Today was full of excitement and adventure! We went to the art market in the morning, which only took us about thirty minutes or so to walk to from campus. On the way there we saw a large part of the city. First we passed a baby goat that was just walking on the side of the road, then we saw a rooster, and on the other side of the road was Obama Hotel (they seem to think he is great here, many people stayed up until 2 am to watch the State of the Union Address) I got a beautiful painting to match my bedroom (the mistake was letting the storekeeper know it matched my room- he proceeded to tell me that he would like to get to know what my room looks like!) Not to worry we were with one of our new friends Abuku, who is Nigerian. I also got a new satchel that has tons of different African fabric. I got Annette and Lori each a bracelet that says Ghana, it was the only thing I saw so far that says Ghana on it. We were harassed by every storekeeper, but it was certainly a blast and we are getting much better at bargaining.
When we finally got back to our rooms everyone was exhausted so we went to our rooms to get water. I plopped down on my bed and fell asleep! When I woke up everyone was gone and I was running late for our lector at 3:00. I walked as quickly as I could as I tried to figure out where to go. The campus is gigantic, bigger than some towns! All of the buildings are beautiful, but the all look the same and there are cars driving all over the place. Some people take taxis to class, but that gets expensive and the shuttle has not started running yet. However, I think that we will get used to walking long distances to class and just make sure to leave thirty to forty minutes to be on time depending on the building we are in. I have made a lot of new friends here from the program; conversely, Ghanaians are sparse because they haven’t moved in yet. I have one Ghanian friend named Chief and the Nigerian friend I spoke of earlier. I am still attempting to remember names; they are sometimes hard to understand making them impossible to remember! Our roommates are expected to move in on Friday, so we are going to attempt to do laundry tomorrow, so they move into clean rooms with no dirty clothes or shoes around : )
After the lector which was on the History of Ghana, we went to Bush Canteen where I ate white rice with white beans (they tasted nothing like yours mom- they scooped them right out of a can : ( - and maduros that did not taste very good either). The vegetables that can be found in Ghana are sparse so I haven’t had a salad in a very long time. So that is something I am really craving. They sometimes have cabbage but they put ketchup on it because they don’t have dressing. However, I have been really careful to take things slow and not try to many new things all at once. My stomach has not bothered me at all although I do have hives all over my arms. Someone said it may be heat rash, but I think it is hives I just took medicine so they should be gone soon.
When we got back we got dressed and went out to Coconut Grove Hotel, which has salsa dancing. Mom you would have been so disappointed, I could not keep up with the men. Although we do plan on going every week and improving exponentially by the time we return. The djs play about three formation dances songs in a row where everyone at the hotel stands up and dances in lines with the exact same motions. The locals say that you learn the moves by watching and standing in the back while trying to replicate the steps. However, this is much more difficult than it sounds and I was very disappointed that I couldn’t get the steps straight. Then they play regular salsa music that couples dance to for about twenty minutes. The formation dances then start again and this process goes on all night. We were told that if we go early at around seven they give out informal lessons, so we are going to try that out next week. We had a hard time getting to the hotel in a trotro so we hope by next week we have the system down better. And on the way home our taxi driver got into an argument with the security guard at the front gate of campus and we thought we were going to have to walk the rest of the way. But the argument was resolved and our driver returned to drive us the remaining distance. We had such a great time tonight and Dad you would have been proud of me because instead of going to the beach which is known for being unsafe with all of the students on the program I went with Chief and four other girls to the hotel which is one of the most expensive places to stay in the city. We were completely safe and although the men were very anxious to teach us how to salsa, they never made us feel uncomfortable.
We got back at a decent hour, so we decided to go to one of the Internet cafes that we were told would have wireless available so we could use our own computers. However, what I am doing currently is sitting on my computer in the café with no Internet typing my blog, it is very disappointing. I was hoping to be able to post the entirety of my blog tonight. We are returning to our dorm now, but I will write again soon, if you ever get to see this!
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