Day 10 & 11

First, let me apologize for not posting last night. I had no money to buy internet cause I ran out of Cedis; I also completely ran out of minutes on my phone. So, yea … I was pretty much broke last night. But here’s the update.

Yesterday was Sunday and apparently on Sundays like NOTHING is open.  But anyhow, my day started off pretty interesting. I went to a Methodist church here on campus with some other ISEP students. I’ll be the first to admit that I was incredibly uncomfortable and very confused throughout the service. First off, I was a few minutes behind the group getting ready, so they left without me. When I got to the church they were seated in the middle, but I really didn’t want to walk in late and try and sit with them, so I sat all alone in the back. Second, the service apparently starts at 6:30am which is crazy so we were all like super late, since we showed up at 9am. But it goes until 10. (And I thought the Mormons were nuts for getting up at 9am.) Third, I’ve never been to a Methodist church, but I think this one was very different from ones in the states, according to the Methodists in our group. Fourth, there is still a huge language barrier (not because they are speaking English) but I can’t understand the accent yet like at all, so I didn’t understand like 85% of the sermon. Fifth, I didn’t recognize any of the melodies of the songs, which I was really hoping I would, so it was awkward to stand and just sway when everyone else was like all into the song part of the church service. And Lastly, I didn’t know what was going on like most of the time and because I couldn’t understand the accent I thought everyone around me was speaking in tongues the entire time. So that was freaky, but when I finally figured out that it was English it got even more confusing cause I realized they were all saying different things in the “song”. It was like there was music playing as if people were supposed to be singing, but everyone was singing something different. Someone explained to me later that that was actually praying. To top it off, they did offerings, and I didn’t know what that was and because I was all alone I was just following the people in front of me, and then halfway up to the front I realized that I had nothing to offer up and felt really embarrassed so I tried to sneak back to my chair. To make it worse, someone caught me sneaking back to my chair and told me it was time for offerings, and I told him I didn’t have anything so he sent me back to my seat. It was really embarrassing and awkward. But I guess overall it was an interesting cultural experience. Perhaps it’s not one that I would like to experience over and over again. Nonetheless, it is a good story at the least.

After church, I hung around for a bit trying to get someone to walk around to classes with me, but then for the second time that day I got left behind at the hostel, so in the end I went alone. I still don’t feel like I really fit into any groups here. I know it’s only been 10 days, but I honestly only feel comfortable just hanging out with this one guy, Wilder, who I’ve been able to talk to a bit. But I feel like I need girl friends. I have trouble connecting with girls in general, but this is really not in my element. More on that later though.

So, I ventured out to figure out my class schedule on my own, which was actually pretty cool. It was nice to just be on my own schedule and not waiting around for anyone else and not feeling rushed by anyone either. I ended up walking to the theatre department with another group of international students who were really nice. So, I talked to them a bit. Then I spent a bunch of time trying to figure out my classes, because 3 of the classes I wanted to take were offered during the same time slot. I was so bummed. So after everything, moving around classes and trying to figure out what to take I have a drumming class I am auditing, a traditional African dance class, directing, playwriting, and history and dev. of theatre in Ghana. I am also thinking about taking a course called Indigenous Religions of Africa which my roommate is taking. It sounds really cool, and I was originally planning on taking one more course. ALSO, I was debating about taking choir while I’m here. I haven’t been in choir for a few semesters. But I enjoy it, and I feel like it would be an easy grade and a good way to meet people. I’m not sure, but I am gonna check it out tomorrow morning. Which, I have to go by the theatre department and register for all of my courses tomorrow, since I didn’t get the chance to do that today. I heard from someone that registration closed today, but then someone else said you could go tomorrow, which made me a little nervous. But either way, I think ISEP would help me figure it out.

While I was figuring out my dance classes schedule I actually ran into a couple of music professors (which is who told me about the choir), and they were really interesting. The woman, named Jemma, was really cool and nice; but there was this guy named Cofi, who I didn’t really know how to take. He was joking around a lot, but it was that kind of joking where you’re not sure if it’s serious or just a joke. That plus only being able to understand what he was saying half the time made it difficult to determine how serious the conversation was. But it was a funny experience because they ran into me after church so I was kinda dressed up, and I was wearing like the only blouse that I brought with me. And they said it was really pretty, but then they like asked me for it. And I didn’t know how to react, or how to say no without being rude, so I just treated it like a joke. But then they seemed serious about it and were like arguing over who deserved my blouse more which kind of cracked me up. But then they were joking about it a bit later so I wasn’t really sure how serious it was. I found out later from my roommate that her professor told her that there is some cultural thing in Africa that if someone says they like something you are wearing then you are supposed to just give it to them. But like to counter-act that you have to say “I wear it in honor of your father”. I’m not sure, but it was funny, cause then I started to think that maybe the professors were trying to really get me to take off my blouse and give it to them. Weird huh?

After figuring that out, I basically just walked around campus a bit. Took some pictures of some buildings on campus. Then walked back to the hostel before it got too later in the afternoon and stopped to buy another egg sandwich (delicious) and then did a bit of shopping at the market. I bought a bag for my notebooks and some bracelets.

My new school bag

Campus buildings (super tropical looking)

My new bracelets

The monkey I walk by on my way to classes

A statue outside the Balme Library

The Balme Library

The boulevard I walk down to class

More Campus Buildings

Campus Buildings

After all that, I just hung out for a while. Took a nap instead of doing laundry (lol). Then I tried to hang out with this group of girls that my roommate is close with, but I just don’t really fit in. For instance, one of the girls bought some coconut and was sharing with everyone, and even though I was standing right there, she offered it to everyone but me, until like 10 minutes later when it was almost gone and she noticed that I was standing there, like part of the group. It’s just awkward moments like that. Like grade school all over again, where I am always the last one picked and never in the “IN” group. I’m always the 5^th wheel. Always the one who is walking alone when everyone else is paired off in twos. I guess I’m getting used to it now, but I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing. I really just don’t get along with most girls, and I don’t want all guy friends when I have a boyfriend waiting for me at home. I think they’ll get the wrong impression. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I feel like I talk too much or too little. Or I share too much personal information than people are comfortable with. It’s always something. I feel as if now I am starting to try too hard to make people like me. Like I said, it’s grade school all over again.

Full moon at Mama Mia

Full moon at the Italian Restaurant

Anyhow, so the group all went to a pizza place called Mama Mia cause we were craving Italian food. But the girl who told our group about it evidently didn’t tell us about the prices cause it was pretty expensive. It was like one pizza about medium size for 18 cedis at the cheapest. That’s about $12 US which is an expensive meal. Personally I don’t think the food was THAT good, but we were already there and we didn’t know where else to eat so we had to suck it up. So that is way I had no money, because between the 18 cedi for food and then 4 cedi for taxis there and back, I used up everything I had left. So then I talked to Ross on the phone for a bit, and ended up running out of minutes on my phone as well. It was pretty crazy, but I got over it.

Side story, after I posted last time I hung out in the internet café with the guy who sits at the desk, Daniel. Well, I had met this other guy, Chese (pronounced like Jesse with a ch), a few days before there. And he was there again. So I was talking to both of them and my friend, Wilder was also there like helping Chese fix his resume or something. Well, all of a sudden out of nowhere Chese looks over at me and tells me that I need to lose some weight on my tummy. At first I didn’t even understand what he said, cause I didn’t really think he said that. But he repeated himself, like totally seriously and then started showing me how to do these crunches in your seat. Needless to say I was a little taken aback. But we had been warned that some Ghanaians can be randomly blunt to the point of seeming very rude, but not really trying to be hurtful most of the time. So I just said, “thanks I’ll have to try that” and then changed the subject. But Wilder was like MORTIFIED. He just sat there for a second with his mouth open. It was actually kind of comical. And Daniel, I think also realized that there had been a blunder and he just started cracking up laughing at Chese, and Chese didn’t even have a clue. It was, yet another, amusing cultural blunder.

Moving on, today was pretty chill as far as my days have gone so far. I didn’t have class, even though classes officially started today. So I actually just got up and went to the ATM then hung out with Wilder and this girl from Colorado, named Evelyn. We hung out like most of the day. Found out that I get a meal stipend from ISEP that is $800 US worth of cedis. And I’ll be getting that tomorrow, so I will be rolling in the dough. Also, I found out that I don’t have to do as much as I thought when it comes to registering for classes, cause they said they would just register us online instead of having us do it, cause they already know that it’s really confusing. Also found out that there is 2 free hours of internet at a place called the ITC next to the library. AND I found out that the international offices I think have free internet and maybe even black and white printing for international students. So that’s pretty awesome. On top of all that, I am thinking about volunteering while I am here. Cause I really wanted to do that, but I was worried about how scheduling that would work. But I talked to our ISEP coordinators (which are freaking amazing here btw) and they said that once I’ve officially registered for all my classes online and have my final schedule then all I have to do is stop by the office and let them know what kind of service work I want to do and how far I am willing to travel and then they will give to contact information to set up a schedule directly with the organization. So, I heard about one where they are helping to build a school, which is pretty close by. That would be awesome. I also heard about another one that’s close by where they are affiliated with the ones building the school but they also read to the kids and make food for them and stuff. So I think I might volunteer with that organization and hopefully get to do all of that stuff, like working with the kids one week and then building another week or something. I don’t know exactly how it will work out, but it sounds amazing. And since it’s working around my schedule I can make it so that I still have time to travel on the weekends when I want to, which is really exciting.

After talking to our ISEP coordinators (p.s. their names are Suzy and Auntie Theresa, so I may just refer to them like that from now on), I went back to eat lunch, then just hung around doing a whole lot of nothing for a long time. Then finally around 3:30 or so we left for Accra Mall. First off let me say that Accra Mall is a sorry excuse for Ghanaian culture; however it is the only place that I know of to exchange money. I had originally thought that Ghana would be more like Mexico where there was lots of exchange places but not very many ATMS, however I soon found out that Ghana is the complete opposite. So, I had to go to the mall today to exchange the rest of my US money. It started out fine. All five of us in our group got in the same trotro to the mall. It was really scary crossing all the streets to actually get to the mall, but we survived. (p.s. there are no speed limits and next to no traffic laws in Ghana, so cars go really fast, everything is manual transmission, cars change lanes like crazy, almost no one uses their blinkers, everyone follows to closely, and cars break down in the middle of the road with nowhere to pull off. Pretty insane. And to top it off there are always people with merchandise balanced on their heads running around on the streets trying to sell things to the people in the stopped cars and trotros. You can buy pretty much anything you want right off the street and from the comfort of your own car.)

After getting to the mall, I got more minutes on my phone, gawked at some pretty cute little kids, went to the Ghana equivalent of Wal-mart only to decide not to actually buy anything there. Funny story about exchanging my money there- so I go in with $220 US. I was just exchanging all of it cause I really didn’t want to make multiple trips back to the mall. So I go to the bank ask to exchange the money and this woman gives me a HUMUGOUS stack of 5 cedi bills. Literally, she gave me 320 cedis all in fives. So I had a stack of 64 bills piled up in front of me. I totally freaked out cause I looked so ridiculous and like a huge target with so much money. It didn’t even fit in my money purse, so I just shoved it really quick into the bottom of my bag and was really hoping that no one wanted to steal from me that day. After that hilarity, I went to the fabric store and bought 6 yards of two different, really cool fabrics. I’ll post pictures so you can see. But I made a bunch of different designs of dresses that I think I want made for me while I am here if I can. But I was told my Awushi, my student guide, that I should buy from this place called Woodin, which is more expensive than off the street but it’s high quality fabric that doesn’t fade and fray if you wash it in the washing machine. Awushi is also gonna hook me up with a seamstress that she said is really good so I can get these dresses made. Right now, I have enough for two knee length dresses, and then I am gonna buy some solid colored fabric to make two more dresses that are half patterned fabric and half solid colored. I’m excited. :D

The sache water I drink

Sheep we passed walking home

My fabrics

After buying my fabric, I met back up with the group and we all went to try and take a trotro back to campus. Funny thing about that though is that at rush hour (which was when we were trying to get back) there is like no way to get on a trotro. There were literally people elbowing each other out of the way to get on. It got pretty intense. Also, usually when you go to get on a trotro there are these guys who are yelling out where the trotro route is going. So like they will yell “Osu, osu, osu, osu” about a billion times, and you know that that trotro is heading on the road to Osu. If you need to travel in that direction then you can get on that trotro. You aren’t always getting off at the last stop, so it’s important to know which direction you are going and then where you want to get off to get close to where you need to be. So, in other words I am pretty screwed on my own, because as anyone who knows me well will tell you, I am THE WORST at remembering directions or having any sort of mental map in my head. I get lost like ALL the time. So, yea trotros are my next Ghanaian hurdle.

After running around trying to elbow our way on to a trotro and always being thwarted by much more seasoned trotro riders. We gave up and walked back to the mall to find a cab, where a Ghanaian cabby totally tried to screw us over and asked for 10 cedis just to drive us like down the street to Legon where the school is. Which regularly would only cost like 3-5. We ended up paying 6, but it was rush hour and we squished 4 people into the back of the cab which is apparently totally illegal in Ghana. Needless to say, quite an eventful couple of days.