Fun Facts in Ghana: Part One

1. A Bishops Church is located next door to my dorm. Every Sunday I wake up to Gospel music.
2. Ghanaians make a hissing noise to get someone’s attention.
3. Restaurants move at a sloth-like pace (I once had to wait 30 minutes to be told they were out of what I had ordered). But there is no tipping and the food is really cheap.
4. Ghanaians will sell miscellaneous items on the sides of major roads including water, food, maps, flags, and bike pumps. Oh, and also hedge clippers (I guess you never know when you need that).
5. Many small shops include phrases that pertain to Christianity like “Praise God Beauty Shop.” Large decals of these kinds of phrases are on the back windows of cars.
6. There seems to be a lot of small beauty parlors and barber shops in every neighborhood.
7. Stray cats and dogs are all over our neighborhood. Some have owners since I have seen some with collars—the just roam around all day.
8. Some of my daily routines in Ghana include boiling water every night so that is alright to drink throughout the following day (wish I had brought a canteen), taking about three showers, putting suntan lotion in the day and mosquito repellant lotion (called Odomos) in the evening, and making omelets often since they are easy to make and eggs are sold nearby at a convenience store called “First Choice.”

Various Events

So here are some interesting things that have happened in the last two weeks:

This was something i typed earlier this week but was unable to post because internet was not working-- “No Water!!! We have not had water since last night so no showering for me this morning! We were told this happens from time to time; we were suppose to fill up these buckets that are put in the bathrooms and take a “bucket shower” when this happens…but I forgot to fill my bucket up (a lot of people did). I had been taking 3 showers a day usually because of the humidity and heat. the last few days have actually been pretty pleasant though. Oh well, maybe the other dorm still has water and they’ll let us take showers in their bathrooms…

Last night I went to Labadi Beach; every Wednesday night is reggae night—they had live music right by the water. it was pretty cool; I wish I took pictures. I went there last Sunday too and even though I usually don’t like beaches that much, it was probably my favorite thing I have done here—the water was so refreshing to swim in and the weather was much cooler over there. It’s not exactly beautiful (the water isn’t that clear sparkling blue water, it reminds me more of some beaches on long island like Robert Moses) but it’s really close and nice. We’ve heard that beaches about an hour outside the city though are gorgeous.

Ugh and now my internet doesn’t work! so this message wont be posted until later…”

Anyway, last night all of us at NYU went to a Haiti benefit concert. The music was really great (awesome) and I volunteered there selling t-shirts (not awesome). Again, sorry for not taking pictures!! I promise to finally upload tomorrow (really, i do!).

It's amazing how many obruni's (foreigner's) there are in accra. There were particularily a lot at the concert last night. I guess many college students study abroad in Accra.

Everyone's doing classwork now but i have none to do (hence why i'm blogging). i think other than my history class i won't have a lot of reading to do this semester which is great because of the insane amount of readings i did last semester.

Sorry for the delay

So it's been a long delay. I'm sorry! I hope now that i am getting into a routine and classes have begun, I can now blog more often.

Some info:

Part of the reason that I have not uploaded pictures (besides having a slow internet connection) is that many ghanains do not like to get their picture taken, especially the people in the markets. Also many landmarks and government buildings cannot have pictures either. So most of us here haven't even taken our cameras out yet, but i promise to and at least show you all my home.

the curreny here is the cedi (dollars) and pesewas (coins). the exchange rate is something like $1U.S. gets you 1.45 cedis. so i usually think of it as units here being %70 of what they would back home (1o cedis= about $7 so 70% rule) which is awesome! everything is very inexpensive except some american products but apparently this was only at the Kwala supermarket where cereal costs something like 20 cedis! theres a shoprite that some students have gone to already and said it was cheap, so hopefully i can get some american food there (craving cranberry sauce, ketchup, and junk food!).

People speak twi (pronounced chwee) but this is only predominant in Accra, the city i'm living in. There's also about 6 other languages spoken in ghana but apparantly many of them are very similar. it's surprisingly easy to learn (at least compared with learning spanish haha) and i'm taking a class on the language so i should get pretty good at talking with the locals.

Courses I'm probably taking, all of which, in some way, had a problem this week.

Monday--Issues in International Relations at the University of Ghana. This is my one class that is not at NYU but with an NYU-affiliated university. This place is huge--one of the biggest in all of west africa with a student body of about 35,000. the humanity's department has been known to have professors that don't show up the first few classes...and that happened this monday. But it was ok since i audited another class that i might take instead about human rights issues. It's amazing that although this is a public university and only 4% of the student body are international students, the human rights class was only white students! The international relations class has a bunch too but there are some ghanains as well.

Tuesday--Documenting the African City. This is a film class (the class i'm most excited for!) in which we learn how to film We watched two of the four films from last semester--one was about a deaf school in accra and how they are treated in Ghana. The other was about the LGBT community and how they have been treated in ghana as well (answer--both groups haven't been treated well, haha). both were pretty sad. can't wait to start filming!

Wednesday--Twi language class. Not much to say here, should be pretty simple and fun. Akwaaba! Oh, one thing that is interesting is that people go by the day they were born. There is a specific name for every many and woman depending on the day they were born--for instance our professor was born on Friday so his name (and any other who was born of Friday) is Kofi. I checked online--i checked online and found that I was born on a thursday, which is cool because thursday names are different from all the others:

Male Female

Monday Kwadwo Adwoa
Tuesday Kwabena Abena
Wednesday Kwaku Akua
Thursday Yaw Yaa
Friday Kofi Afia
Saturday Kwame Ama
Sunday Kwasi Akosua

Thursday--African Popular Music--I might not take this class, but it sounds interesting because we get to learn some drumming and also learn about the history of music and certain genres in Ghana. Also this professor is the one non-Ghanain professor at NYU. He's British.

Thursday--Survey of West African History. I love history so I am also excited about this class! the class only has 3 or 4 students including me so it should be an interesting experience...

Ok that's all for now. i might post again tonight.

Cell Phone

My phone number is 0543793794. I will buy units tomorrow, but anyone can call me now! (I think...)

Food and Weather

I had good chicken, rice, and fried plaintains! Much better than where we ate for lunch. Also Fruit juices here are amazing! Our dorm came stocked with a bunch (as well as a lot of cookies)

The weather isn't too bad, just a little bad in the afternoon. It's very humid though but it hasn't bothered me as much as oi thought it would. Our director says it's suppose to be the hottest in February though!! But March and April are nice and I leave before the rainy season starts so that's good.

I promise to finally take pictures/videos tomorrow! Also I'm going to learn about the different volunteer programs--they're so many to choose from, a lot of interesting work.

I'm Here!

Hey everyone,

There's so much I have to say but i don't have much time because this is orientation and we have constant events. The internet is ok here in my dorm but is better at the compouters in the academic center. Skype though seems great--the sound is perfect and the video quality is worse but not terrible ( i will be able to see you fine really)--so everyone get a skype or get someone to teach you it (and try and go pon it as often as possible since i don't know exactly when i can talk). This will be the best way to keep in touch with some of you (as well as this blog). I'm getting a cell phone tomorrow but here are some points about the cellphone
1. it's a pay as you go nokia phone with different fares depending on the day (director advised us not to use during the day since very expensive)
2. Outgoing texts (meaning I can text all of you) are extremely inexpensive
3. Incoming calls are free!!! But that is for me--for you all, it will probably be expensive, but Mom: DIdn't you say you have an international plan now? This should be good for you then (but call to make sure before calling me).
I will know more info on the phone when i get it (i think tomorrow)

Also the food here is pretty good, haven't gotten sick yet! We had a big meal today--i had chicken in curry with rice, some fish, tons of fruit and fruit juices (all very very yummy) and some other things that I didn't know what they were. Also, its very easy for me to exchange money--Bank of America is accepted at every bank! (only bank like this, and absolutely no service or exchange charges) and visa is used more than mastercard.

Hopefully I can upload pictures and videos later but the internet may not be fast enough (especially long videos). I have to go now for a dorm meeting, will explain more later tonight! (it'll be the afternoon though for all of you, haha)

Love/Miss Everyone!



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