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!