2-13-09
Yes, we made it to Ghana safe and sound.
We arrived in Ghana on time and got our luggage without incident. We still weren’t sure who, if anyone, was meeting us at the airport. The other girls stayed inside with our luggage while I went outside to look at the signs people were holding. I saw John, K’s friend, and his cousin first and spotted Dr. Ayidia’s son Evan and a graduate social work student name Karim second. All four of them ushered us out to the SUV Evan had brought. We were relieved it was a big care, because we had a lot of luggage between the four of us. Other men kept walking up and started loading our bags and talking to us and we couldn’t remember who was who and who was with us. They started demanding money for helping. In the confusion we each ended up giving them a couple dollars and the “security guard” stole a twenty dollar bill out of Rachel’s wallet. My watch was stolen as well, though that was due to my own thoughtlessness. I had it hanging from my back pack because I didn’t want to wear it on the plane.
Once Evan heard what they were doing he yelled at them all to leave. Evan dropped us off at the International Student Hostel at the University of Legon. It is just like a dorm, but they charge per night. Dr. Ayidia still hasn’t worked out how much we will be paying per night. We were each assigned different rooms. It was really awkward because none of our room mates were there and Janine’s room mate and mine had spread their things all over both sides of the room. I ended up just unfurling my sleep sack and pillow and taking the rest of my things to Michelle’s room. She has a single room because the second bed that was in there had broken. Rachel met her room mate, who is a law student here. However, Janine ended up sleeping on the floor in Michelle’s room the second night. We have since worked it out so that Janine can stay in Michelle’s room.
Yesterday Karim, who is our guide regarding everything Ghana, met us and John at ten to walk us to Dr. Ayidia’s office to meet him. We wanted Dr. Ayidia to meet John since we will be traveling with him to Kumasi. It is about a 20-30 minute walk from our dorm to the social work department. The campus is enormous! It is like a little city within the city of Accra. Internet cafes, restaurants, night clubs, a marketplace, convenience stores, a mechanic. If you went to school here you would never have to leave campus.
Dr. Ayidia welcomed us to Ghana and gave us a brief tour of the social work department. He also gave us our field placements. Rachel and I will be interning at the Center for Public Interest Law. We will be doing a lot of law analysis and then meeting with different government ministries and departments to discuss them. None of us brought the types of clothes we will need for these internships. I brought two professional outfits. Luckily it is very easy and inexpensive to have dresses and skirts made here. We are even underdressed for everyday life here. Everyone wears designer jeans or slacks and shirts. Most of the women have skinny jeans and dresses on. I don’t know how they do it?! We are dressing in shorts, t-shirts, and sandals and I am completely wilting and just oozing sweat from every pour. It is so hot and humid that at mid-day it is practically impossible to breathe. My clothes are completely soaked through with sweat after just a half hour walking around – and we were walking around for 5 hours yesterday and 7 today.
The rest of the day was spent orienting us to campus and getting some basic errands done. When we got back I met my room mate, who is a very nice girl from Berkely. She is here taking classes for the semester.
We met back up with Karim, John and his friend after a brief rest. Karim’s friend works for the Coca Cola company and brought his Coca Cola pick up truck with him. We all went over to Pentagon, another area of campus, to walk around and see a different part of campus. They wanted to hail a taxi, but we all wanted to ride in the back of his truck, so we piled in and enjoyed the breeze.
There was no water when we woke up this morning. There are big cisterns outside of each dorm that are filled with water. When they become empty you are out of luck. My room mate said that earlier this semester they were out of water for four days. The water is not heated, but the cool water feels amazing after being so overheated. I went to the market across the street to pick up a banana for breakfast. It is no wonder everyone loses weight when they come here. You never feel hungry because it is so hot and you are constantly walking.
Today Karim took us to meet with Dr. Ayidia again. We had a brief meeting just to see how we were adjusting. Afterward we caught a tro tro into the city. A tro tro is this big van into which the drivers squeeze as many people as possible. It is a lot less expensive than a taxi, but a lot more confusing. It is hard to figure out where exactly they are going. Karim wanted to show Michelle and Janine where they will be working, which is about an hour and half away. We took the tro tro into the city and then walked for about a half hour to 45 minutes to their internship. It is a good thing they have to be there so early, because doing it at noon today was pretty tortuous. We were all about to fall over from so much exertion in such hot temperatures.
After that we got lunch and went to buy cell phones that would work here. There are no pay phones here, so Michelle and I bought phones for 37 cedi, which is about $29. I still have to buy a phone card to put minutes on my phone however.
People are always yelling “Abruni” or “Coco” when they see us. The spelling is phonetic, I have no clue how the words are really spelled. Abruni means white people, and coco means red, in reference to our tomato red faces flushed from the heat. It is difficult to tell whether it is teasing or derogatory. Regardless, it is really awkward and embarrassing when a huge group of people starts yelling to you.
Most people drink water out of plastic bags. They are square sealed plastic bags that are filled with clean drinking water. You just bite one corner off and drink it. I bought a giant plastic bag filled with them for 90 pesawas as opposed to 90 pesawas for one bottle of water.
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Everything here is so vibrant – the clothes, grass, trees, flowers, even the dust. The dust is a vivid red, which completely covers our feet within minutes of being outside. It shows up marvelously against our white skin, making us look filthy in comparison to everyone else.
I hope everyone is well!