Picture roundup!

We seriously sit around and read a lot. It's sort of lame. But I just finished Lamb by Christopher Moore, and it's very very good. As was whatever article about native granary construction I was reading here. Actually it was boring.
Z, Bethany, and Taryn dance the night away at Chez Afrique.
Freaking delicious. The food here is awesome except when it's mostly fish heads, which happens sometime. The Star beer is also good, except when it's totally skunked, which is sometimes as well.

Doing laundry in a couple of buckets is hard work man.

180

So my internship confusion is kind of worked out. It turns out that WISE wanted to send me to this refugee camp that is around 40 miles west of Accra. My program director objected, so now I'll be working with a different group, teaching children math and English, I believe. I'll be working with my roommate Taryn out there as well. I don't know any more details yet, but while this is slightly less exciting, hopefully they'll like me more than the last place did.
In other news, there is a man who is always in the internet cafe near my house who does nothing but play Mafia Wars on Facebook. Constantly. Hooray bringing modern technology to the third world? Right next to the internet cafe there is a video game parlor which I have resisted going into, but I did notice someone playing Madden 2010 in there yesterday. The temptation to go beat some people down is great. They don't even know what American football is right? I mean I don't know how soccer works, so that must be the case.

Maa Ha (good afternoon)

Things I have noticed that are very different about Ghana:
- It gets dark at 6:30. I feel like it's about 10 PM at around 7.
- Ghanaians have their own secret handshake. You shake, then snap with your and the shakee's middle fingers. It takes a while to get, but I feel really cool now that I can pull it off.
- The toilet paper doesn't have perferations.
- I bought soy sauce, and it doesn't taste like soy sauce at all.
- I bought hot sauce, and it tasted like slightly spicy salad dressing.
- I met a man on the street - Aziz - and now he wants to take me to the beach. I talked to him for under 5 minutes. Friendly guy or will I be mugged to death? You decide.

We also had our first round of classes yesterday, and it looks like it's going to be a good bit of work. Lots of reading, plus two 12-page papers that I need to get working on soon. My classes meet once a week each - Ghana Today and Sociology of Development in Ghana on Wednesday, and a class relating to our internships on Thursday, which will require a 10-page paper. Best of all, we can't check anything out from the University of Ghana library, so I imagine I'll be living there most of the time.
This week though, it's still slacking left and right. I need to do laundry tomorrow, which will involve two buckets, some soap, and much confusion and probably not very clean clothes. Perhaps more pictures soon?

Internship update

I found out that I'll be working with WISE - Women's Initiative for Self Empowerment - and that I'll be working in a refugee camp for Liberians just west of Accra. I don't know what I'll be doing yet - I showed up at my internship on Monday, and then they acted really awkward, took the staff member I was with aside for like 20 minutes, and then he told me to come back Monday. Everyone else apparently got a nice warm welcome, and they seemed like they didn't even want me there, but oh well.
Also Matt Hawkin found this online for me when I told him about my internship
http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/lilti/eth-wafrica2007/1181734500/tpod.html
This isn't the organization I'll be working with, but it is the same refugee camp. Doesn't look as miserable as I was thinking, but I'll see next Monday. Probably.

Awkwardness and goodness

In the pre-departure packet for the program I'm in, they forewarned us that Ghanaians will sometimes serve white people first at restaurants, let white people onto cabs first, etc. This is either out of friendliness to visitors, since white people are obviously visitors here, or out of a sense of deference to the "masters." I've definitely noticed people letting me pass them on the sidewalk or letting me off of trotros first, and it's made me start thinking about those possible race issues. I wish I'd never been told that it was a possibility in the first place, but I at least try to defer to Ghanaians when I can now.
In other news, I went to the University of Ghana-Legon yesterday, which is about a 15-minute walk from where I'm living, and talked to their brass instructor, a Mr. Wauku. Apparently there's a brass ensemble that meets Wednesdays at 5 PM, and he'd love to have me. Also, he has some beginning brass students that if I have time I can help out with. I then practiced trombone yesterday for the first time in a looong time, and sounded like crap, but the group first meets next week so I have some time to brush up.

FIrst Impressions

Ever since we arrived in Accra it's been cloudy and warm. About the same as Oregon was before I left actually, except this is their coolest month and it's the warmest back home. It rained a bit today, also like Oregon. I'm living in East Legon, Ghana, which in light traffic is about a 10-minute ride to the center of Accra. Unfortunately light traffic never happens, and the whole city seems to be in perpetual gridlock.

This is the outside and living room of the house, featuring Tom, Alicia, and Zarif. Tom is from Detroit and his charming personality reflects it, while Zarif is from Bangladesh by way of New Jersey. Alicia is from Oregon, and is thus relatively normal. All told there are nine of us living here and in the program. So far said program has consisted of orientation, touring the city, and our class in Twi (pronounced Chwri, sort of.) We learned to ride the trotro, Accra's unique form of transportation involving 12-seater busses packed to the gills with riders, and rode it to Medina market, Accra's largest market.

This is the view down the street from my house. The little stalls sell basically everything, and I've made friends with some owners already, especially the man that sells delicious fried rice, coleslaw, and fried chicken. Ghana is clearly poor, but not so poor that anyone appears to be starving or dying in the streets. In guidebooks and such it's often called "Africa for beginners," and I can see why between the friendly locals and relative stability and prosperity.

Thursday night a local dressmaker came by at our request and everyone played dress up for a while. Most of the women ordered beautiful and cheap dresses, and I bought a Ghanaian-style shirt. I'll leave you with this picture of Taryn (this is the only time I've seen her not smiling) and Zarif wearing traditional African hoodies. Thuglife, yo.