Thursday, March 24, 2011
This morning I got up without a problem, got ready and went to the junction to start my journey to get to work. I found a ride straight to work very rapidly and I arrived forty minutes before schedule. I am becoming spoiled with the transportation; I know that in the future when I am waiting an hour before I find a ride I will be miserable. For now I am just enjoying the fact that I have not had to deal with the hectic transportation although the traffic is terrible no matter how easy it is to get in a car or bus. I finished up my assignment at work, so I will be given a new one starting on Tuesday. I am excited to start something new, my boss said it will be more challenging, which will be nice.
After work I went over to the Holiday Inn, which is vastly different from in America. It is the nicest hotel in Ghana and it is gorgeous. There is the Internet, a pool, air conditioning, and showers with more than one spout. It is incredible. My friend Hannah’s parents spent the night here and left this morning, so she has the room until six and kindly invited me to join her! I am so glad to be here it is magnificent and the Internet is quicker than any other Internet we have encountered here. I also got to eat Gold Fish a food I would never think could excite me so much. I then had to find my way back to school because I had dance class. Unfortunately, the bus stop closest to the hotel is foreign to me making it difficult to get anywhere in a timely manner. I did eventually get into a bus, but from there on out it was a disaster.
It took me longer than predicted to get a ride and once I was on the bus I figure that if I got off at the stop closest to the dance studio I could make it right on time. However, this is not how the ride progressed. A fight broke out, over what? I have no idea considering the entire bus was screaming in what was probably four different languages none of which were English. I was not sure how to react, but the bus pulled over and people screamed for over fifteen minutes. People starting getting off so they could find an alternative ride, but we had already paid and I was worried if I got off I wouldn’t know how to get back and it would take me even longer than waiting the fight out. It was not a physical fight, no one was hurt; however, the amount of screaming was overwhelming and the argument seemed pointless to me. The bus finally got moving again and by the time I got to dance I was about ten minute late and warm ups had already begun. I jumped right in although I know Uncle Jerry, the professor, noticed by late appearance.
After dance I had to stay behind to help Mickey carry drums from the drama studio to the dance study. It turned out to be a great use of my time because I finally got to have a real conversation with some of the TAs. I know that some of them recognize me, but now most of them know my name and I have faith that we are beginning to build a relationship. This is essential because it is the TAs who guide the professor in grading us and let them know how we have improved. Additionally, they are all such great people I would like to build friendships with them even if they do not positively improve my grade. After dance I went back to the dorm, did some work, and headed off to bed.
Friday, March 25, 2011
I decided not to go away this weekend, so it was a quiet weekend where not much happened. I went to the pool with Demola and laid out, while he worked out. I was suppose to get laundry done, but when we got back we learned that not only was the water not flowing, but the poly tanks were once again drained of water. This left us with no options for ways of obtaining water, so laundry was not a possibility. Instead, I did work until it was time to venture off to dance. It was a great class we learned a new dance, which was very interesting and I confirmed that some of the TAs do officially recognize me by name. After dance I went back to the dorm and got ready to go out. We had planned to go to Twist, but changed our minds last minute. There was an after party at East Legon, so that would be the party we would attend. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but two of my friends came down to my room to convince me to go out. I decided that I would although I did not really want to go to the after party. Then I received a phone call a couple of minutes later letting me know that they were no longer going. Now I was ready with make up on, not going out, and there was no water available to wash my face, what a night it was!! I got ready for bed, hung out with some of my friends for a bit, and once again went off to bed.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
I woke up and got ready to go to the pool, but on our walk over we were informed that there was an event happening and the pool was closed to the public. So with great disappointment we began to get work done instead. I did reading for several hours, than went to the mall with Peter to get supplies for his birthday. It took forever to find an ATM that was working and then the traffic was horrific so the process took much longer then predicted. We had to make several stops and then we made it back in time to set up the kitchen for a drink up. I then went to get ready and we ended up having a great night. We started the festivities with a drink up, continued on to Golden Tulip for people to gamble, which I refrained from doing, and then we went to Twist. There were so many people so many taxis were involved, but the night was exciting and we ended up returning a little after 4:00 AM.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
I woke up this morning at eight to get ready for church and we left right in time to head over to Pentagon. Three of us had decided to go to church with one of our friends who was preaching this morning. We waited there for a little while until everyone had assembled and our ride arrived. He showed up in an average size car and all seven of us hopped in as if was normal. Church was very different from any other church I have been to here in Ghana. It was a very small Presproterian Church where a bible study was interweaved in mass. The dancing was limited and the music less modern. It was my favorite church so far, which may have something to do with the fact that everything was translated from English to Twi as opposed to being solely in Twi.
At the summing up of church the minister called us to the front and we were told to give our name, major, and anything else we would like to say to the people. We were told to use both Twi and English, which we all attempted to do. The parish was clearly entertained and when we returned to our seats everyone was very kind and thankful for what we attempted to do. After the service we were invited to join the minister in her house. She greeted us, bought us Fan Ice, and cookies, and we sat for a little while and talked. We were all very glad for the food considering we didn’t eat breakfast at it was nearly twelve thirty.
We went back to the dorm, got ready to go to the beach, and headed out immediately. Sarah, Peter, Daro, Courtney, Donica, and some others all went and we met up with Unous at her friend’s place. Some of us went to lay out for while and we sat right in front of a band, which played great music. We were not harassed greatly and I was able to fall asleep in the sun. When the clouds expanded and the rays disappeared we headed back to Unous and got some food and drinks. We then decided to play spin the bottle. When this was first suggested we all looked at each other sideways and replied no. We soon found out that in Ghana, spin the bottle is equivalent to truth or dare. Peter had to climb on a table in the middle of a crowd, dance, take his shirt off and swing it above his head. I had to ask a guy to play the guitar for me and sing me a song. People had to ask random men for their numbers, kiss then on the cheak, ask someone if they could put there head phones on and say hi to the person they were skyping with, dance with a random boy, ask someone for a hug, and other interesting things that were the basis for great entertainment.
After the beach we got back to running water, which in turn led to much needed showers, and we all went our separate ways to grab dinner and get work done. Although I did not actually get any work done, I did shower and read for my own pleasure before bed.
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