Hello All!
In the internet cafe with some intense Christian Rock music playing in the background. Tonight we have a dance performance and mini party where our host families are invited for fan ice and kabobs after - should be really ridiculous and awesome. Since we have been here I have experienced so many things and have become so desensitized to so many things as well - like the herd of cattle crossing the four lane highway, the goats I watch out the window as I take tests, the lizards that are everywhere etc. etc.
Last week we went to a village to meet a priestess and she became possessed by multiple spirits that made her dress move and talk differently- it was unreal to say the least. But what was even crazier was the priest in training that was dancing to the possession drumming and began having spirits take over his body and he began seizing for around 10 minutes. It was amazing. To greet everyone they gave us a shot of the local gin that you give part of to yourself and then offer the other part to the gods. We stayed and danced and drummed and had private meetings with the priestess where she gave advice and told us answers to questions we had for her. Then we all piled back into our tro tro 23 or 24 of us in a car made for 18 or 19 it was tight but bonding and fun.
On Saturday I had plans to go to the zoo and a funeral with my friends but my mom told me no we had other plans. So we went to a funeral of her brothers wife. (Funerals in Ghana are a HUGE event- hundreds of people and often are a bigger deal than weddings. my mom said she goes to one every saturday) So I dressed in all black dress that was my moms with a black head scarf. As i was walking down the street with my mom and her sister we looked pretty awesome in all black. As we got the the funeral I stuck out only...the most. I was with none of my SIT counterparts and was the only ubroni (white person) amongst hundreds of ghanians. One man I met was a big steelers fan!! So nice and comforting! We stayed at the funeral for 5 hours with good drinks, dancing- there were 3 different bands and a DJ, and food.
AHH So much more to say but only 2 minutes left on the internet - I need to plan this better!
Tomorrow we leave for the all Twi speaking village and we are split into 3 small groups for 2 weeks. I am so excited! Hopefully I will be able to fill you in on more of my adventures!
Love love love
Friday, February 24, 2012
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Ghana Ghana Ghana
I am in Kumasi! Internet is even harder to get to here because we have class all day then go back to our homestays. I live in a suburban area next to one of the people who work for SIT and my two friends - so I always have people to go to and from school with!
My homestay has SO MANY BABIES! I have a host sister who is 16 and is teaching me Twi my mother is wonderful and said I could sleep in her bed if I ever felt homesick. At night three babies uncle ben, baba, and joseph who are 3, 4, and 7 all sleep on the floor next to the bed. But at the house there are so many other kiddies that all play with me. There is no running water but it really is not a big deal - except last night when the power went out and I was stuck in the bathroom in the pitch black taking a bucket bath! Everything is cooked outside on a small fire and tastes AMAZING. It is so interesting to see the difference in parenting styles from the US and here - for instance uncle ben likes to play with knives that are larger than his left leg. But the funny part is that after all the knife playing and wandering around near open flames, the thing he hurt himself on was a plastic bead he got stuck up his nose. What an adventure that was. 15 different people all tried to help him get it out coming from all over the neighborhood as the word spread. In the end his sister got it out with a pen.
This homestay gives me even more food than the last - for breakfast I get 6-8 slices of dense bread and am expected to "eat all" so i eat 2 and take the rest to school for people or for my lunch!
Anyway so many more stories and adventures to tell but for now I am off to Dance class (woah)
love and miss
My homestay has SO MANY BABIES! I have a host sister who is 16 and is teaching me Twi my mother is wonderful and said I could sleep in her bed if I ever felt homesick. At night three babies uncle ben, baba, and joseph who are 3, 4, and 7 all sleep on the floor next to the bed. But at the house there are so many other kiddies that all play with me. There is no running water but it really is not a big deal - except last night when the power went out and I was stuck in the bathroom in the pitch black taking a bucket bath! Everything is cooked outside on a small fire and tastes AMAZING. It is so interesting to see the difference in parenting styles from the US and here - for instance uncle ben likes to play with knives that are larger than his left leg. But the funny part is that after all the knife playing and wandering around near open flames, the thing he hurt himself on was a plastic bead he got stuck up his nose. What an adventure that was. 15 different people all tried to help him get it out coming from all over the neighborhood as the word spread. In the end his sister got it out with a pen.
This homestay gives me even more food than the last - for breakfast I get 6-8 slices of dense bread and am expected to "eat all" so i eat 2 and take the rest to school for people or for my lunch!
Anyway so many more stories and adventures to tell but for now I am off to Dance class (woah)
love and miss
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
woop!
Okay okay okay
So here will be an attempt to describe what it is like in Ghana. So far, amazing. The people are so friendly, the food is amazing, and everyone is constantly "Enjoying their lives". Currently I am in Accra - until thursday- then off to Kumasi the cultural center of Ghana and 2 weeks in a village outside Kumasi for a homestay where they only speak Twi. SO hard to learn but for only being here a week we are doing pretty well (I literally feel like I have been here for months). So we have class in the day time and then somedays we dance and such other times we just have time to stretch and walk around.
We have been to the beach twice the first time as a group and we played in the waves and sand. A lot of the men ask to marry you or have your phone number- usually proposal comes first. After explaining simply that I am engaged or already married they just want to hang out and talk. The second adventure to the beach was an adventure for sure. Mimi and I got off on the wrong tro tro (public transportation the size of a school van) stop and then we walked towards the beach through a market area. Then the market area turned into a slum area and people kept telling us to keep going. By this point we were pretty deep into the slum and just kept walking not saying much to each other. Meanwhile, a little girl was following us the whole time silently until she told us she could take us to the beach. So with not much other option we went for it. Crossing a rickety bridge over a river full of trash and a little bit of water and chickens etc. we made it out onto a main road. Walking a mile ish down with the girl who was named Sophia we made it to the beach and found our friends. We bought Sophia a coke and she ended up spending the whole day with us running around the beach and rolling in the sand. SO AMAZING. In the end we got a taxi that would take her back to where she lived before we went home but it was a strange kind of parting and very sad.
FOOD
Anna and I ordered fufu for lunch during our lunch break. First of all again there was so much food. Two small football sized dough balls chillin in some groundnut soup. It is eaten with your hands (but only the right hand the left is used only for the bathroom and offensive in other use). Initially my fingers burned from the heat of the food and then as it cooled they tingled from the spice of the food. But I loved it! I love spicy food and beans (I know you are proud dad). My favorite meal so far is Red Red - beans and sauce and some powder stuff (?) and then fried plantains. Sometimes the food can be overwhelming and a bit too similar. I never realized how many different kinds of food I ate at home. Along the road there are plantain chips sweet or salty, popcorn, water sachets, fried dough balls (woah), and hot pocket/ chicken pot pie things not to mention fresh friut MANGOS, pineapple, oranges, and eggs?
Anyway, I have so many bug bites. Emily i don't know how you didn't get attacked by mosquito's but I am glad I have my net. Also I am sorry I didn't believe the amount of showering I would be doing. I shower once or twice a day with a bucket. Fun fact, I only need as much water as it takes to flush a toilet to shower myself. CRAZY RIGHT?
Anyway off to home for the night to attempt to hand wash my laundry hardly anyone here has a washing machine - sun power!
love love love to all MISS YOU A LOT
So here will be an attempt to describe what it is like in Ghana. So far, amazing. The people are so friendly, the food is amazing, and everyone is constantly "Enjoying their lives". Currently I am in Accra - until thursday- then off to Kumasi the cultural center of Ghana and 2 weeks in a village outside Kumasi for a homestay where they only speak Twi. SO hard to learn but for only being here a week we are doing pretty well (I literally feel like I have been here for months). So we have class in the day time and then somedays we dance and such other times we just have time to stretch and walk around.
We have been to the beach twice the first time as a group and we played in the waves and sand. A lot of the men ask to marry you or have your phone number- usually proposal comes first. After explaining simply that I am engaged or already married they just want to hang out and talk. The second adventure to the beach was an adventure for sure. Mimi and I got off on the wrong tro tro (public transportation the size of a school van) stop and then we walked towards the beach through a market area. Then the market area turned into a slum area and people kept telling us to keep going. By this point we were pretty deep into the slum and just kept walking not saying much to each other. Meanwhile, a little girl was following us the whole time silently until she told us she could take us to the beach. So with not much other option we went for it. Crossing a rickety bridge over a river full of trash and a little bit of water and chickens etc. we made it out onto a main road. Walking a mile ish down with the girl who was named Sophia we made it to the beach and found our friends. We bought Sophia a coke and she ended up spending the whole day with us running around the beach and rolling in the sand. SO AMAZING. In the end we got a taxi that would take her back to where she lived before we went home but it was a strange kind of parting and very sad.
FOOD
Anna and I ordered fufu for lunch during our lunch break. First of all again there was so much food. Two small football sized dough balls chillin in some groundnut soup. It is eaten with your hands (but only the right hand the left is used only for the bathroom and offensive in other use). Initially my fingers burned from the heat of the food and then as it cooled they tingled from the spice of the food. But I loved it! I love spicy food and beans (I know you are proud dad). My favorite meal so far is Red Red - beans and sauce and some powder stuff (?) and then fried plantains. Sometimes the food can be overwhelming and a bit too similar. I never realized how many different kinds of food I ate at home. Along the road there are plantain chips sweet or salty, popcorn, water sachets, fried dough balls (woah), and hot pocket/ chicken pot pie things not to mention fresh friut MANGOS, pineapple, oranges, and eggs?
Anyway, I have so many bug bites. Emily i don't know how you didn't get attacked by mosquito's but I am glad I have my net. Also I am sorry I didn't believe the amount of showering I would be doing. I shower once or twice a day with a bucket. Fun fact, I only need as much water as it takes to flush a toilet to shower myself. CRAZY RIGHT?
Anyway off to home for the night to attempt to hand wash my laundry hardly anyone here has a washing machine - sun power!
love love love to all MISS YOU A LOT
Friday, February 3, 2012
Another short blip
hello!
I have only 10 minutes left on the computer during lunch break! We are soon going to paint or batike (still can't spell) had a great morning today woke up and had an orage and a "filling coffee drink" for breakfast - the water is sooo hot that my homestay family makes me for breakfast sometimes i have to pour it before i shower and it is still almost too hot to drink. SO in the morning I sit and blow and sip and blow and sip on my tea as sweat drips down my face. ALso, here everyone showers twice a day!? I told my homestay sister/ aunt/ i dont know what to call her that I would shower in the morning and she told me ew no no no I must shower at night and in the morning because I was in the market. She also sends me to bed at 7 30 after we are done watching our tela novella together (its called alma you should google it Tay). ANYWAY a typical day here for me begins at 6 or 5 45 when I wake up and shower and then eat sometimes eggs, or fruit, DELICIOUS bread, one morning infant cereal (i channeled baby harrison as I ate). Then I walk a few blocks to blue gate where I get my taxi that costs 50 pesewas (about 30 cents) to get to school and then walk around a construction site to school. I usually arrive about 30 minutes early and sit on the steps or under a tree and read or write in my journal. Then we have class FOREVER from 8 -9 we share stories and confusions of our day and then language study from 9 to 11 lunch till 12 and then 2 very long lectures till 4 ish then we go home or chat outside together then as soon as I get home my homestay family fills me with so much food and if i dont eat fast enough vivian says "oh oh you dont like." "oh oh you are not eating fast enough" "oh show me your plate". She is very funny and comforting.
So far being here is great accra is very large and overwhelming but I love it. Everyone even those who ask to marry me or have their children or ask me for money usually just want to chat or "be my friend". we are here for one more week until we depart for Kumasi - super excited for that. Then we live in a village for 2 weeks where we only speak twi yeiks!
at school the workers are on strike so there is no running water - ehh. Most homes dont have it but mine does and an outside shower!! So nice.
I have only 10 minutes left on the computer during lunch break! We are soon going to paint or batike (still can't spell) had a great morning today woke up and had an orage and a "filling coffee drink" for breakfast - the water is sooo hot that my homestay family makes me for breakfast sometimes i have to pour it before i shower and it is still almost too hot to drink. SO in the morning I sit and blow and sip and blow and sip on my tea as sweat drips down my face. ALso, here everyone showers twice a day!? I told my homestay sister/ aunt/ i dont know what to call her that I would shower in the morning and she told me ew no no no I must shower at night and in the morning because I was in the market. She also sends me to bed at 7 30 after we are done watching our tela novella together (its called alma you should google it Tay). ANYWAY a typical day here for me begins at 6 or 5 45 when I wake up and shower and then eat sometimes eggs, or fruit, DELICIOUS bread, one morning infant cereal (i channeled baby harrison as I ate). Then I walk a few blocks to blue gate where I get my taxi that costs 50 pesewas (about 30 cents) to get to school and then walk around a construction site to school. I usually arrive about 30 minutes early and sit on the steps or under a tree and read or write in my journal. Then we have class FOREVER from 8 -9 we share stories and confusions of our day and then language study from 9 to 11 lunch till 12 and then 2 very long lectures till 4 ish then we go home or chat outside together then as soon as I get home my homestay family fills me with so much food and if i dont eat fast enough vivian says "oh oh you dont like." "oh oh you are not eating fast enough" "oh show me your plate". She is very funny and comforting.
So far being here is great accra is very large and overwhelming but I love it. Everyone even those who ask to marry me or have their children or ask me for money usually just want to chat or "be my friend". we are here for one more week until we depart for Kumasi - super excited for that. Then we live in a village for 2 weeks where we only speak twi yeiks!
at school the workers are on strike so there is no running water - ehh. Most homes dont have it but mine does and an outside shower!! So nice.
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