The weekend of a lifetime!

We have had a busy last couple of weeks here in Ghana! Last week we continued to go to our internships. I went with a different mobile teller to an area close to where we are living in East Legon. I also have been doing more book keeping and transactions in the office. One afternoon I joined my roommate Beth at her orphanage! It was fun to play with all the boys! On Wednesday night we went to a place to watch the football game and eat with a bunch of students from the CIEE group. Afterward, we went to the beach for Raggae night! It was super fun! There is a live raggae band with dancers and tons of tables, chairs, and such right on the beach. It was so relaxing and peaceful! That night when we were back at our home stay getting ready for bead, Beth saw something in a what looked like a bad mosquito bite move in her skin. Long story short, we ended up pulling a worm/parasite thing with treezers from her leg. I spent the rest of the night in a hospital with her and one of our professors. The swelling has gone down a lot now, and they say it was a fly bite and that fly laid larvae in her skin. On Thursday we had class and then departed for the Cape Coast! We stayed at a beautiful beach resort. There were little huts, that we stayed in, scattered along the beach with palm trees everywhere. Simply beautiful. Then we toured Elmina Castle. The tour was very informative and it was so sad to see the conditions that the slaves suffered through. You could smell many of the same scents in the dungeons and cells that were once so dominant. The dungeons were very small. Depending on the dungeon, there were at least a hundred people in one room. No one could even stand straight. People had to do everything in the dungeon and were there for about three months. On Friday, we went to Kakum National Park and participated in the canopy walk! It is probably the coolest thing I have ever done in my life! We walked up to the first platform in a tree and from there we walked across seven bridges between the trees! We were about 100 feet above the ground and trees! There were elephants and birds under us (even though we weren't able to see the elephants). The bridges would move a lot and sometimes swing as people walked across! The views were amazing!!! In the afternoon we toured Cape Coast slave castle which was also very saddening. Many of the same conditions existed, but the dungeons had two hundred people per room in the dungeon for a total of about a thousand people. That night when we got back to the resort, Beth found out that her laptop was stolen from our room. On Saturday, we went and visited with village elders and it's chief. We offered them a gift, they offered us bananas, oranges, and coconuts, and they prayed for us and poured libations on a tree. It was fun to visit with the village. We spent the afternoon swimming in the ocean and relaxing on the beach! We have a two days left of our internships and home stays and then we are in the Volta Region for a couple days before leaving on Saturday. This week will fly by!

I don't have enough time to write about everything that we have done since the last time I blogged. However, we will be at a hotel with wi- fi in about a week or so! The wedding we went to was really neat! The service itself was about 2.5 to 3 hours which included a regular church service with a 45 minute sermon. Afterward, we went to the reception and the cutest children did the Azuntu dance which is very popular here! I can't wait to upload the video. We also went to Kumasi this past weekend! It's about a six hour car trip that is beyond bumpy and long. We went to a kente cloth village, adecrey symbol village, and the 2nd largest market in Western Africa! It was HUGE! At my internship, I've been doing a little bit of hand written bookkeeping things, dormant account stuff, and for two days I went into the field with the mobile bankers (tellers) and we went to people's homes, businesses, and shops. So, I walked quite a bit through Medina market. We absolutely love our homestay! This weekend we are going to Cape Coast! One of my roommates, Emily, and I took a drum lesson with someone, too! We also had drums made for us recently and just picked them up. They look beautiful!!

Homestays and Internships!

This past Sunday the group went out separate ways after attending International Baptist Church. It was a super cool experience! It was very upbeat and lively! There was lots of dancing and singing! Although we couldn't understand much of the sermon. We moved into our homestays. Emily, Beth, and I are rooming together in one homestay and two door down is another group of girls. We absolutely LOVE our host family! They have hosted many other students over the years! Another student from Wisconsin is staying there now and leaves tomorrow and another student is staying for the semester! It has been nice to get to know both the students and the family! The three of us live in one room and have our own bathroom. It is kind of cramped, but we definately can't complain. It is different showering with buckets and a limited water supply. We also always brush our teeth with bottled water, which takes some getting used to. Our family is SO nice and friendly! They do everything in their power to make sure we are happy, healthy, and having a great time! We have eaten a lot of porridge type breakfasts', although they each are slightly different and have various names. They are pretty bland until you add a little milk or sugar! We have had banku, joluf rice, yams, plantains, and more!Beth and I helped prepare the banku, too!  I love it all! Although, it can get a bit spicy...Many of the extended family live on the same property as the family in little buildings. So, there is always something going on! We also did our laundry by hand which was a process and experience! It took about two to three hours...I had not expected to have roosters waking me up every morning! They are found all over just wandering near peoples property. My internship is at Mail Finance! It is a Co-op Credit Union which is part of a micro finance place. The term mail is because mid morning to early afternoon people from the business go to people's houses and do deposits and withdrawls. The withdrawls they bring to the members the next day. They also do some loans. It is very different than working in the credit union back home. A lot of the book keeping is done by hand and they only have one main teller in the building, while the other ones go to the homes. I have mainly helped with the bookkeeping side of things. The differences are kind of overwhelming at times, but it is a great learning experience! There are also some cultural and speaking difficulties that I have encountered thus far. To get to and from the internship, I take a tro tro or a troski (as the teens call it!) which is a van which always feels like it could fall apart at any minute, that crams as many people as possible in it. They are very hot, smelly, loud, and crowded.  I walk from my homestay to the main road and then take a tro tro to a junction. Then from there I cross an intersection and get a group taxi which takes me to the intersection my internship is near. To get home, I take the same type of transportation, but a different route. However, the way home as had some difficulties. One day it worked okay, after a little work, the next I was able to take a group taxi, and today my tro tro didn't stop at the stop it was supposed to stop at to drop me off and I was unable to have them stop. So, I ended up riding it way into the city with everyone to the big tro tro station/market place. From there, everyone got off and the driver was able to help me get to the correct tro tro to take me back. The silver lining is I got another little tour of Accra and I got to sit in the front seat on the tro tro on the way back (not nearly as crowded!) So, I had a little adventure added to my day! Although it was a little nerve racking and I made it, it hopefully won't happen again. Today we also found out that One Direction was in Accra!!! They were shooting a music video at some of the slums! We had driven by the slums on our tour and some people have their internship near there! If we would have known (no internet access...) we would have been there!! But, we are able to say we have seen where there next music video is from! But, meeting or seeing them in Ghana would have been something! Tomorrow we have class and then are going shopping for a bit! On Saturday we are going to a wedding! Our homestay family has a friend getting married and we look forward to participating! The Ghanaian chocolate is FANTASTIC! I can't get enough of it!

"Obruni, Obruni!" These are the words that adults and young children shout towards us as we pass by them. Obruni means foreigner or literally white man. When they say this phrase it is not meant to be a negative conotation at all. It is a welcoming nickname in a way for us. The young kids are more than excited to see us walk past, give a wave and smile as we greet them good morning! The Ghanaians are very welcoming and polite. As we walk to class or around the streets we always greet people with a hello, good morning, and a how are you today, and vise versa. The majority of the people are very smiley and enjoy getting to know us. Today we had breakfast and class as normal. After class we walked to the University of Ghana where one of our professors teaches history. We ate at the Guest House for lunch. I had 'red red' which consists of plantains, beans, red sauce, and a couple other vegetables. It was pretty spicy, but just enough. It was delicious! Afterward, we continued our tour of the University by visiting the library, bookstore, and walking up a hill (just like Augie!) to the President's house. The view was spectacular! There were trees, flowers, and gorgeous buildings. For dinner tonight we went to a Ghanaian families house. We met a family on the airplane on our way to Accra also leaving from the Chicago airport. We got to talking and found out they lived in East Legon, which is where we are staying at our hotel currently, and they own the cinema, tv station, and radio. They offered us an exceptional meal which consisted of sallad, fried plantains, chicken, julof rice, small pieces of beef, vegetable appetizer things (I am not sure the name), and more! Their house was beyond beautiful. Their family and some extended family was there to chat with throughout the evening. I enjoyed talking to Kofi, the nephew of the hosts who is 17. It was nice to chat with someone roughly our age about Ghana and learn different things! There are many stories! This was my favorite night in Ghana thus far!

Akwaba! (Greetings/Welcome!)

We have officially landed and been in Accra, Ghana for a few days now. The wi fi at the hotel and Aye Centre (where we have class) has not been very good. It has been really slow, we haven't had the plugs we need, and cannot access it from my roommates and my room. But, we have gotten everything we need and can now access the internet at the hotel! (At least a few more days.) Thus far, we have toured Accra via bus, toured a couple museums, and walked around town! We walk to school everyday which is about a 25- 30 minute walk. The afternoons have been free so far. Today we went to one of the bigger markets! It was definately agressive and stressful, but very fun! I bought a small drum and small xylophone! We plan to go back there very soon! We also are going to a cleaner beach this weekend.I found out my internship is not where I thought it was at. From my understanding (we haven't started them yet), I will be at a micro- finance business office, not the finance department of the newspaper.  We are pretty exhausted and wore out by the end of the days with walking a lot, the weather being hot, and the jet lag. We have been eating lots of rice, chicken, and plantains! I hope to write again soon while we are still at the hotel (until Sunday). We are not sure of the internet situation at our homestays.

After taking the first two malaria pills, picking up Emily (one of my Ghana roommates from Colorado!) at the airport, meeting with Alex (my roommate from Augie for a quick dinner!), we are officially ready to venture to Ghana, Africa! I look forward to opening my letters from friends, when I miss certain things, and on holidays from the lovely Alex! We are all very excited, and a little nervous about the adventure to Africa, yet it still seems so surreal. I will hopefully write again in Ghana! See you then! 

Getting ready to depart

December 26, 2012

The days are numbered as my fellow students, professors, and I prepare to depart for Accra, Ghana. We will have an internship three days a week, along with a class on the history of Western Africa. On the weekends, we will take part in various excursions. We will be in Ghana for about six weeks. I will hopefully write about once a week, depending on internet access. We depart from Chicago on January 4th. I will write again once we are there or closer to the departure date.