Reflections

After flying on 4 different flights across 5 cities that involved spending the night at an airport and passing through customs and immigration during crunch time, I finally made it back home last night. I'm honestly surprised jetlag hasn't hit me hard, but I guess I should be thankful. But now that I'm back from Ghana, I'm sure the first question on everyone's mind was, "How was it?"

Honestly, there's no way any of you are going to truly understand how Ghana was unless you actually go there yourself. I'll probably say something like, "Oh it was amazing, definitely a life changing experience," but that doesn't even begin to capture the essence of my trip. It goes so much more deeper than that, more than I can describe in a blog post or in a few seconds. Really, I'd have to sit down with someone who's interested over lunch or something to talk about it, and even then I'll probably forget telling some important stories or details because there's so much that happened the past 4-5 months. Heck, it would probably be better to sit down and go through all my photos together.

Most of my stories from Ghana largely focus on the so-called negative aspects of it: no running water, horrible bathrooms, mosquitoes, dealing with constant sweat and dust caked on the skin, language and transportation barriers and so on. But the way I see it, those negatives are what makes Ghana so interesting. Being in Spain for 6 days made me realize that studying abroad in a developed country is so much like living in America essentially, there's not much to talk about other than cultural differences. With Ghana, there's another dimension to it; the fact that I was living in a country totally unlike America, something that many of us haven't experienced.

Sure, we might go to Asia and many countries there aren't on the level of modernity that America has but we're often sheltered from the reality of life in those countries because our families there are well off. Whenever I go to India, I know that poverty exists on a grand scale and life is tough for many Indians in the cities, but I don't have many memories of it because I was never exposed to those sights. Many of my fellow study abroad members would ask me to compare Ghana to India and many of them asked about India in general and I would often say that Ghana is exactly like India, only less chaotic. I would also tell them that poverty and social strife exists there but I couldn't recall any memories of stories as proof. I believe this was because I was always traveling via private car or plane and I always went to the nice places, many of them specifically for tourists. In other words, my cousins in India were able to shelter me from those things. In Ghana, while I lived in a university, I was still able to get a good look at daily life for Ghanaians because I immersed myself in the culture and had nothing to hold me back. In a way, I was rather forced to let myself go in Ghanaian culture or remain hostile towards Ghana until I left. I allowed myself to rely on slow and packed trotro's instead of taking speedy and comfortable taxi's everywhere, I did most of my shopping at wild and hectic Ghanaian markets instead of air conditioned supermarkets owned by Lebanese immigrants or South African conglomerates, I took a class on one of the local dialects rather than choosing to speak English everywhere I go, I even chose to live in one of the Ghanaian student hostels rather than the international one because I wanted to fit in with the locals as much as possible and not remain closely attached to America.

Being sheltered in India made me realize I had nothing really to talk about other than all the touristy stuff I did. I couldn't really talk about the lifestyle there. It's one thing to travel as a tourist and another to travel as a traveler. In Spain, I considered myself a tourist because I was there to see the sights and I kept hopping from city to city each day, never really stabilizing myself anywhere. I rarely got time to try and understand Spanish culture fully. Spanish nights start pretty late, say 12-1AM and I didn't allow myself to go out at night and experience it because I didn't think it was worth it to stay up late, but who knows what would've happened. I think it's important to try to follow the lifestyle of whatever country you're in because you're playing by their rules now, not American ones. If I tried to get Ghanaians to eat fufu with a fork and knife instead of their right hand, I would be considered an idiot. It's none of our business to meddle with another country's culture. That's why the next time I come to India, I want to be considered a traveler, actually living and immersing myself into the country and not as a tourist just trying to see each landmark, snap a picture and move on.

The point is, the major differences in lifestyle between the US and Ghana forced me to adapt to Ghanaian standards and in turn, I learned a lot about the world and myself in general. That's something I'm sure you can't get in a developed country because nothing is different. There's nothing to adapt to. I mean, Spain was great and all but nothing interesting happened to me there. Because it's developed, I was able to navigate my way easily though the country. In Ghana, things weren't spoon fed to you and you have to rely on a more naturalistic approach, using your senses and asking people for help rather than pulling up Google Maps. It's really just like studying abroad in, let's say, French America or Australian America. Just add the country label in front of America.

I have to insist, don't imagine Ghana as some backwards country with no infrastructure or intellect whatsoever. It's not like that at all. Many people around the world believe that LA is absolute trash but I don't think that's true at all, at least not everywhere. Ghana has it's positives. The sense of family and community there is unlike any other I've seen. There's no such thing as doing things alone really, everyone is in it together. It's not like the individualism we have in the states, with all of us competing against each other for spots in graduate school, even trying to sabotage each other over grades and all that. It's pretty depressing for me personally, coming back to that attitude. All we care about is trying to get a good job with high pay, a hot husband/wife and kids, retiring by 50 and some other really stupid stuff but no one in the states ever takes the time to just chill. Let things go, take it slow and easy, there's never any rush to do anything. If any of you have seen 3 Idiots, you should remember the line, "Don't chase success, let success chase you instead." It's important to work hard and all but sometimes it's good to just sit back and take a break. I'm definitely going to miss that vibe. That alone makes up for all the negatives I faced in Ghana, and honestly, conditions there weren't even that miserable. I barely used any of my DEET for mosquitoes and the weather was bearable despite being covered in sweat within 2 minutes of being outside. Okay, maybe the toilets were awful but still.

It definitely takes a certain kind of person to want to go to Ghana, which is why I'm not going to try to persuade anyone to go. It takes a certain kind of person to be able to deal with an inefficient "university," being called obroni or Jesus or Osama (yes, people did call me those things), average infrastructure, lack of Internet, lack of late night meal options, strange insects, scary driving and so on. I think that's why many of the California kids were from Santa Cruz, because banana slugs have that kind of "change the world and be different" mentality. And I like that. I'd love to see someone I know well decide to go to Ghana, but if not I'd be glad to assist in anyone interested in studying abroad in general.

So then, how have I changed? What have I learned here? The answer? I have no idea. There are the obvious ones, like learning how to bargain and my beard of course, but I believe that Ghana left an impression on me that won't reveal itself in plain sight, not just yet anyway. I think that it's a more underlying effect, and that time will have to pass for those effects to show. I've only been back in the states for 2 days, so give me some time to figure that out!

But looking back to my first post, I talked about how I wanted to try to figure out what I wanted to do in the future. I'm positive that Ghana has helped answer that question through a via negativa process. Rather than explicitly seeing what I wanted to do, I ended up narrowing down my potential interests. I learned that I do not like working with children and that I don't belong in a hospital setting. I think I'm more geared for a therapist/psychiatrist/counselor kind of role. Even that grouping just shows how far I am to being specific about what I want to be, but it is narrowed down somewhat. Also, I have to keep telling myself that I am pretty young still. I was the youngest person out of all the international students to study abroad and I was pretty surprised when I figured that out. I thought more sophomores would jump on the chance to come to Ghana their 2nd year but talking to my older study abroad friends, they all remarked about how I had my act together to be able to go my 2nd year. And because of that, I'll be able to go abroad again my senior year (Thailand '17!). While everyone else was taking classes for their major, I was taking classes for my general education requirements and I was really just relaxing. Part of the reason I didn't do any volunteer work or internship there was because I had no intention to do any of that. I just wanted to travel, learn and explore on my own rather than put in the time to do something I probably have no interest in. So while I have figured out a direction I want to go in, I still can't place a specific title for what I want to be.

To conclude, Ghana left a lasting mark on me that is difficult to put into words right now. I just know inside that I've changed for the better. I wish everyone could understand what I've been through but it's just not enough to convey it through words and pictures. I'm glad I didn't get malaria or get pick pocketed throughout my entire time abroad. There was only 1 weekend where I felt miserable and of course I had diarrhea and I got ripped off bargaining a few times but those are little things compared to what some of my fellow study abroad mates went through; I've heard many horror stories about their times in the hospital. I'm also glad that I got to be able to do all of this before I even turned 20. I think that itself is something pretty special, to have a life-changing trip while still at a raw age. To the California group, I don't know if all of you guys will read this but almost all of you have left a positive impression on me one way or another and I'm thankful for all the wisdom and memories I've received from all of you. There were times I've embraced being that little kid of the group but for the most part, I think I've been able to hang with all of you. I'd be glad to talk more about Ghana if any of you readers are interested, preferably in person. Even after writing this post I've probably forgotten a few things that I wanted to write about but too late now. But lastly, thank you to my family and friends for being supportive while I was away and for looking out for me and keeping in touch in general.

November Update

It's been a while since I've posted anything and part of that is because nothing major has happened this month that deserves a post all by itself. Another reason is that I've just been busy with school and midterms and all. But here's a quick (lengthy) overview on my November with a little bit on what I'm expecting to occur during my last 2 weeks here in Ghana.

One of the first things I did in the month was travel with my roommate and one of my floormates to his hometown in Kumasi. I wanted to go just for the opportunity to see Kumasi again, through a local's viewpoint this time. It was definitely a great experience to stay with his family in his compound. I noticed immediately how it wasn't just the nuclear family living there, there were many different people who were extended members of the family living there as well. In the middle of the compound was a giant courtyard where many family members would do laundry or dishes and it fostered a lot of outdoor communication between other members of the family whenever one of them would come outside and walk by. I thought the nicest part of it all was that my floormate's mom cooked me local foods that were specially made vegetarian for me, and they were absolutely delicious. It honestly might have been the one time where I didn't feel skeptical about my meal having bits of fish or chicken in it. It really added to the hospitality they went out of their way to give us, and I'm especially grateful for that.
As for the overall trip, my floormate took us around Kumasi and we saw some of the main touristy sites like the zoo, but also went to some of the more lowkey ones, such as this sacred mountain where the Virgin Mary is supposed to appear if you spend the night at the mountain. We also did a little bit of shopping at Kejetia market, which is so much more hectic and crazy than the markets in Accra. My floormate navigated us through the market, dodging minibuses and pushing our way through narrow passages full of vendors grabbing our arms and trying to pull us into their stalls. I got called Jesus a countless amount of times because of my beard and I promise, I'll shave it once I come back home. However, we did get to see how bargaining is really done, when my floormate was able to get a pair of jeans from 50 cedis ($17) to just 5 cedis (less than $2). Overall, it was a humbling experience to get to live among a Ghanaian family for a few days and get a glimpse of their overall life and to be able to participate in it.

As I said a few posts ago, I traveled to Togo for one weekend just to be able to go outside of Ghana. This time, I took it a county further and went to Benin for a weekend. I would write a post just on the travel but my blog focuses on Ghana, not other countries. To sum up Togo, there really wasn't much to it. The capital, Lome, was pretty run down and looked more like a main city than a capital and there wasn't a lot of touristy things to see. The only interesting part about that trip was going up on top of this mountain to this monastery which had a very eerie feeling because when we got there, it was dark and stormy and the sky kept flashing white, like a typical horror movie setting. The monastery was like a refuge from the bad weather and it had that typical smell of incense and old books. There was even a neat little gift shop with homemade biscuits and special herbs and oils and coffee and all that. The drive down the mountain was something because our taxi driver just plowed through the muddy, pothole infested road and our car was getting poured on by rain to the point where we couldn't really see anything past maybe 6 feet or so. But other than that, Togo was just...Togo.
Benin, however, had a lot more to it in my opinion, and I was more excited to go there than I was with Togo. Literally right from the start of Benin, like at the border, there was drama. I tried taking a picture of the border on my camera just because, you know, it's the border. One of the guards saw me take the picture and started yelling some stuff in French and I didn't think it was directed at me until some other guards at the immigration office came up to me and demanded to see my camera. So I gave it to them and showed them the picture I took, which was literally just a giant iron gate pained red, green and yellow, and they made me delete it. They then wanted to see through my other photos, which I showed them, and I think they were just curious at that point to see what else I had. They saw a photo of the "Welcome to Togo" sign at the border with Ghana but I told them that it was just a sign, nothing else, and they let me go. I thought about trying to get a photo on my phone on the way back since it would be harder to catch but I decided against it. It makes sense though, Africans are pretty picky when it comes to taking pictures of national monuments or anything like that.
Anyway after that, we spent the night in Cotonou and saw the Ganvie stilt village on a canoe. The story is that the Tofinu people were escaping from the Dahomey people who wanted to capture them to sell them as slaves and so the Tofinu's went out onto the lake since the Dahomey people were banned by their religion to enter the water. It was cool to see how a population can flourish on living on water for so long. We then visited the python temple and slave walk in Ouidah, a town famous for its role in the slave trade and for voodoo. There was a nice memorial for the slaves at the end of the walk on the beach but I wasn't able to get a close up look at it because some people wanted me to pay. I don't even think they were real guides or anything, I think they just wanted to make some cash. I don't really understand why we should pay to see memorials like this either, they should be open to the public like the Vietnam Memorial or the one for 9/11, but I still snagged a picture while they weren't looking so I guess I'm content.
Benin definitely had tourist infrastructure in place and it satisfied the history nerd in me with the countries role in slavery. The language barrier wasn't too much of a problem as I traveled with two people who knew some French back in high school. It was nice to enjoy some crisp French baguettes compared to the uninspiring loaves of white bread we have here in Ghana. The people there were also very friendly and it added to the overall experience of traveling through those countries.

Lastly, my Thanksgiving weekend was a blast as my study abroad program hosted a special dinner for all of us filled with good food and great musical performances and laughter and all. I even got a copy of the book that one of the papers I wrote for my orientation class got published in! The day after, I went up to Akosombo with one of my Ghanaian friends who was first a friend of my brothers when he was in Ghana. I helped organize and host a sort of Farewell Party for my study abroad group and we chartered a bus to his sisters place where there was a lot of food cooked just for us and where we played a few games and played with his sister's baby and walked around the town. I ended up spending the night to see more of Akosombo, and luckily, his brother in law was able to give us an exclusive tour of the Akosombo dam since he worked there. The dam is what pretty much makes Ghana what it is today. It was built in 1965 by damming the Volta River, which resulted in creating the largest man made reservoir in the world. Without it, there would be no power in Ghana and everything would just crumble apart.
After, we went to this private beach on the Volta River where there were people splashing around in the pool, playing volleyball, table tennis, football, or just chilling underneath some umbrellas. It felt like being at those typical college spring break party things. We chilled there for a bit to soak it all in, and then went on a speedboat which went up and down the river for almost an hour. On the way back to Accra, our trotro got pulled aside by policemen and us foreigners were told to come out of the trotro as they wanted to go through our bags. When the policeman opened my bag, the first thing that popped up was my dirty boxers but he seemed unfazed and kept digging around. He opened my camera pouch and saw that I had money in there and he ruffled through the bills but still didn't say anything. He also patted me down and at that point I couldn't tell if he was looking for something to use against me or if he was just curious to see if us foreigners had anything interesting. I still think it's the latter reason but I'll never know. The whole process took about 20 minutes of our time and eventually we were on our way without any problem. In the end, was a nice little vacation that probably would've been better than anything else I would've done over Thanksgiving break back home.

So as December has rolled in, there's now 2 more weeks till I leave Ghana. It honestly hasn't been on my mind that much and I don't know why. I feel like the excitement about leaving and seeing my family and friends back home isn't there, at least not yet. I still have final exams to worry about (as my first two are this coming Saturday) and the academic life here has been pretty frustrating. Classes here are so disorganized and inefficient it's hard to get an idea of what exactly we're learning in class. Then again, it's almost a joke to try and learn something since all professors want you to do is spit out everything s/he said in class word for word, so its not really like we're learning anything. To put it simply, it's like being in high school all over again instead of being in a university. There's no room for personal opinions or analysis, it's just pure memorization. We don't memorize the significance of something, we just need to know the definitions. That concept of learning killed me on one of my midterms but hopefully I'll learn from those mistakes and apply them towards the final to give the professors what they really want. I've heard that professors here tend to grade international students easier but I haven't seen that happen to me yet. Of course, I shouldn't be thinking that school here was going to be similar to how it is in the states, nor should I be banking on professors giving me star treatment, because nothing will be the same when you're on the other side of the globe. But it's still something I needed to vent about.
As my time in Ghana is coming to a close, I've started trying to process how I'm going to put my 5 months abroad into words because, as you can see from my posts, there's just SO much to talk about. I've also thought about how will I be able to reintegrate myself back into American society because I don't think it'll happen overnight. Being out of the country for 5 months is a long time and things change. It's something I'll go into more in depth when I come back home and reflect on my time here. But for now, wish me luck on my finals and I'll be back home in 3 weeks! And yes, I did mean 3 weeks instead of 2.

A Typical Day in Ghana

So I figured I should talk about my daily life here in Ghana, since most of my other posts have been about traveling trips around the country. I'll talk about my Mondays here because I have a good balance of free time and class that day. Tuesdays and Fridays are free days for me, Wednesday is my busiest day with 4 classes (soon to be 3) and Thursday is my easiest day with 1 class. So Mondays are in the middle for me.

On Monday I have 3 classes: Biochemistry, Twi (pronounced "chwee") and Biological Psychology. I set an alarm for 7:59AM, just so I have a minute to lie in bed and stare blankly at the ceiling and ponder about the day ahead of me before actually getting out of bed at 8. I'll go to the bathroom, brush my teeth, maybe chat with one of my hallmates for a bit, shower, eat some toast, and walk with one of my hallmates, Timo, to class. Sometimes, I spend a few minutes trying to find the best toilet to do my business in or shower stall to shower in because some of them get clogged up and smell pretty bad, especially when there's no water (like this dry spell right now, day 10 of no water and counting).
Biochem isn't that far of a walk from my building, maybe about 10 minutes or so. I love how Legon is so centrally located in campus, as nothing is really "far" from my building.  I used to leave around 9:10 for class since it starts at 9:30 but Timo said I should leave earlier so I can get a seat, since for some reason, Ghanaians like to show up particularly early for this class. So I started waking up an hour and a half before class and arriving to class at 9, killing the remaining 30 minutes by chatting with the people around me, listening to music or browsing through my notes in case of a pop quiz.

Ghanaian students come to class looking so damn nice, it's ridiculous. The guys will be wearing button up collar shirts, sometimes tucked in to their slacks with polished shoes and a big, shiny watch on their left hand while the girls will come in wearing heels or flats and fluttery, colorful dresses or blouses or skirts or other girl clothing I don't know the name to. The key point is, they look spiffy. On the other hand, I'll walk in to class wearing flip flops, basketball shorts and a tank top with my untamed hair and growing beard (lately I've been getting called "Indian Jesus" because of that). They're also meticulous note-takers, writing down everything the professor says word for word. I've had a few students ask me if I ever take notes or tell me I'm a fast writer because I paraphrase everything the professor says or only write down what I think is important. Sometimes it's annoying because the professor for my history class slows down his talking and repeats things a lot just so the students can write down what he says. It's definitely a stark comparison to the states, as people will come into class in their pajamas or sweats with baseball caps or hoodies and that professors NEVER slow down when they lecture. They pretty much make us look like slobs in terms of attire.

The classroom is honestly not big enough for a class this size, as seeing two people to one desk is pretty common. Also, if you're sitting in the back, it's hard to see up front since the classroom floor doesn't elevate the further back you go, so all you see is a bunch of heads. So I try to get a seat up close and push myself through the two hours of lecture.

Class ends at 11:20 and now I have about 4 hours till Twi. During this time I'll usually get lunch with my roommate or walk over directly to IPO to use the Internet or chill in the AC. If I need something in particular, I would walk over to the trotro station just outside of campus and take a trotro to my destination, usually Madina Market, about a 5 minute drive. I have to be careful when going out though because traffic is so unpredictable here, it can take 3 hours to get somewhere when it should only take 20 minutes. So I try not to go into central Accra unless I absolutely need to. Otherwise if I don't need to go to a market, I usually go to the little general stores around campus to shop for food or toilet paper or other necessities. I don't spend time doing homework because homework is virtually non-existent here. At most, I've had to write short papers or prepare presentations but those don't take out much time from my day.

My Twi class starts at 3:30 and goes on until 5. This class is pretty chill because everyone in it is from my study abroad group, so we're always laughing at each other when we're reading passages because we just sound so American. The professor is a pretty hilarious guy too who absolutely loves fufu, declaring it the only real food in the world. His lectures aren't always structured though, as he'll usually throw out a bunch of vocabulary words or grammar rules and expect you to get it on the spot. That's pretty much how the first day of class went as well, just giving us a bunch of random words and explaining the sounds and differences between Twi and English. It's all good, but I would've started with learning the word for "to be" and then using that to describe yourself, family, food, directions, body parts, emotions, and so on.

So now that it's evening time, you'd expect me to be done for the day, right? Nope, I have my last class, biopsych, from 5:30 to 7:20. Honestly though, its not that bad since the material is my kind of thing, learning about the brain and its anatomy, neurological disorders, cognition and learning and all that good stuff. The professor has a major accent which makes it hard to understand what he's saying. There have been countless amounts of times where he says something and everyone starts laughing and I'm just sitting there like, "Wait, what?" He's pretty funny in a strict manner though. The location is much more like the lecture halls we're used to back home, with elevated seats and all. However, it sometimes reminds me of a church because the seats are basically wooden pews and I start getting fidgety after a while because my butt will start hurting. Can't do anything else but power through it. When class ends though, it's nice and cool and dark outside, which is a nice relief from the heat of the day, so I usually take my time walking back to my room.

When I get back to my room I'll put my stuff away and rest on my bed for a little while, just to relax. Then I'll go out and try to find dinner from the nightmarkets on campus or from the auntie located near ISH who always has food for me and my roommate, as we're kind of her main customers. I'll either stay for a little bit at ISH to see what's up or maybe even shower when there's no water and I feel like it's time I shower, or I go back to my room to read for fun or watch stuff on my roomie's laptop, such as The Simpsons or other movies.

In essence, my days here are pretty chill since classes are definitely not as stressful as back in the states. I think the UC system prepares you well for education here, as you're more on edge about studying and grades and all but here it's somewhat the opposite. It's nice having some free time to myself as well to get errands done or to just bask in the AC of IPO. Although the next 2 weeks are going to be busy for me, as I have 2 midterms (I've already taken 2 other midterms, don't know how I did yet), a short research paper, and enrollment for classes back home to think about, but so far, it's been smooth sailing. My next post will probably be about the Togo trip. I'm also planning on going to Kumasi and Benin after all that is out of the way as I only have 6 more weekends left! Time is just flying by...

Murder at Cape Coast

The Cape Coast Festival, also known as Fetu Afahye, "is a festival of the people of the Oguaa traditional area which comprises of Cape Coast and its neighboring villages such as Efutu, which used to be the capital of the original state, while Cape Coast (Oguaa) was a fishing village. Through trade with the Europeans, Cape Coast became the capital of the Oguaa state, later the seat of government for the Gold Coast, and now the capital of the Central Region of Ghana. The festival marks the beginning of the new year for the Oguaa people. It is a six week celebration with many components ranging from religion to preforming arts." Because I was in Mole, I actually missed the day where we went over the festival in more detail, so I can't really explain more about it. Basically, the festival showed that there is still traditional Ghanaian culture in these modern (and Westernizing) times.

So we had a decision to leave on Thursday or Friday and I decided to leave on Thursday despite being exhausted because I didn't want to miss out on any of the festivities. Looking back at it, I wouldn't have missed out on much. It took most of the afternoon to reach our hotel in Cape Coast because of traffic ("Lawless country!"). The hotel looked more like a palace from the outside but inside was pretty standard. That night we were supposed to see these priestesses become "possessed" and when we saw here dancing and singing, it was cool for about 10 minutes; then the novelty wore off for most of the people there. Eventually, enough people got tired of it and we were able to form a group for those who wanted to head back early.
The next day was the bull sacrifice, where a bull was led out from inside Cape Coast castle (another slave castle) to the same place where the priestess was doing her thing. The people leading the bull out had to keep whipping and hitting its hind leg to get it to consistently move, and it was all pretty harsh to witness. When the bull finally got to the shrine, a huge mob of people (mostly children) circled the area, so I couldn't see the actual slaughter, not that I really wanted to. I was able to see a pool of dark red blood once the people had cleared out and looking at pictures other people had taken, I saw the bulls slit throat, body, flesh, bones, everything you can imagine anatomically with blood just oozing out from it. Pretty gruesome indeed. In some of the pictures my friends took, you could see in its eyes the bull start to become agitated and frightened as it was at the shrine, like it knew something wasn't right. Apparently there was a sheep and a chicken that was also slaughtered. Maybe I'll get a picture from one of my friends and post it later.
After that, we were free to explore around the city and by nighttime, exhaustion from Mole set in and I feel asleep around 8 or 9 while the majority of the people went out clubbing. I ended up sleeping for around 14 hours or so. Sleep is so much better than partying, I don't understand why people undervalue it.
The next morning, we saw the procession of the local chiefs from the area walk to this park where they made speeches and organized plans for the upcoming year. Once again, it was cool for the first 10 minutes or so, the chiefs coming in on these little container things held up by four people; basically a parade atmosphere, but the novelty wore off because it just kept getting repetitive. Eventually I made my way across the crowd to the more mellow section near the castle and ended up doing some souvenir shopping. After, I went with a small group to a nearby beach where I became super lazy and did nothing, kind of like a fat cat napping in the shade. It was a nice beach with beautiful weather and hammocks, I'm sure you would do the same. Plus what beach in California has hammocks?
I returned back to the hotel from the beach around the evening and got ready to check out this party that was held at a gas station. You read that right, a party at the local gas station. Alcohol, smoking, hordes of people and gasoline certainly does make an excellent combination. Nothing blew up and it was actually pretty mellow with a live band playing decent music but again, I was over it in about 10 minutes and went back to the hotel to chill with some other people and sleep more. Can't go wrong with crazy dreams about being chased by a giant frog trying to eat me. We went back to campus the next day.

Finally, the last trip before school officially started was in the bag and I could start to prepare for my classes. I'm pretty glad I went out and did all these things because a month in and I've quickly realized how hard it is to find adequate time to travel, especially to the farther places. I strongly believe I won't be able to return to the northern part of Ghana, as well as travel up north to Burkina Faso, but I have been going to nearby places outside of Accra and I am planning a trip to Togo and Benin soon! I'll probably write a post on that trip as well as writing a post on my daily routine here soon so you guys can see what life is like as a foreign student in Ghana, and on the cuisine here, an idea given to me by my roommate. Then again, the cuisine post would probably be better with pictures, so maybe I'll save that for when I return to the states, as uploading pictures and videos is a pain here. Hopefully, all of that will come around soon and this blog will be more than words!

We the North

The next trip, and probably the most adventure packed trip out of the three, was to Mole National Park in the northern part of Ghana. I was a little skeptical about going on this trip because I didn't want to miss class, but since school hadn't technically started yet, I went anyway. I figured it would be the last time I would get a good amount of time to travel around instead of going out on weekends. And despite the entire trip being completely impromptu, it was definitely worth going.

Mole Park is Ghana's biggest wildlife refuge which is famous for its abundance of wildlife, especially elephants and monkeys. I was looking forward to seeing an actual, wild elephant the most. It was supposed to be a sizable group that would go, but it got trimmed down to four of us (myself included) because none of us really knew what we were doing. Plans weren't definite, information on how to get to the park was scarce, and we were essentially going to wing the entire trip and hope for the best. The original plan was to take an 8AM bus for Tamale, the main city in the north, and then take another bus to Larabanga, a city about 5km away from Mole, where we could take a cab to the Mole Motel, spend a few hours in the park, and then take the 16 hour bus ride back to Accra. Long story short, none of that happened.
It started by waking up at 4:20AM on a Monday, dragging myself out of bed and stumbling over to the bathroom where I brushed my teeth and freshened up to go meet with one of the people who was coming from Volta. From there, we would all walk together to ISH to meet up with the last person and walk to the edge of campus to get a taxi to the bus station. It was nice walking through campus when the sky was still dark and the lack of streetlights because it was the coolest part of the day before the sun would rise up and starting roasting everything. We found a cab who charged us 40 cedis for the fare and I don't know why we didn't bargain with him because that was a total ripoff; it should have been around 20-25. Maybe we were all too tired still and wanted to just go leave but it's something that still puzzles me.
By the time we got to the bus station, the sun had come out from its slumber and the city became alive with vendors selling vegetables and the incessant honking of cars trying to get by the pedestrians. The bus we had planned to take was going to leave at 8AM for Tamale, the main city in the north, but we couldn't get tickets because the bus was full and we had to had come a day in advance. So we went to another bus station close-by but we ran into the same problem there. Then we went to another bus station across the street and they didn't even have buses that went to Tamale. The people there told us of another bus station that might have what we're looking for, so we went there and the first thing we saw was a sign that said "Tamale bus departure times: 8AM and 3PM." We were ecstatic and there wasn't any crowd at the station either.
We approached the ticket counter and the guy told us there was no 8AM bus. Despite having a big sign that says 8AM bus, it's apparently not in service anymore or something. The only other option was the 3PM bus which had seats, but we would be stuck in central Accra for 8 hours waiting to leave. After talking it over and not wanting to give up so easily, we bought the tickets for the 3PM bus. We would've seemed like total failures had we gone back to campus and I'm glad that "never give up" attitude spread among all of us when I personally was a little doubtful of going anymore.
So now that we had 8 hours to spend, we got a cab to Osu, which is basically a total foreigner hotspot because a lot of foreigners live there and its a very rich district of Accra, filled with nightclubs and fancy restaurants. We went to one restaurant which was surprisingly open so early and had some coffee and water while enjoying the news that was playing on the TV. Then we walked around Osu to various shops trying to kill time while finding a cheap place to grab lunch. We ended up eating some waakye (beans and rice) from a street vendor, and that dish would soon become the theme of our trip. Eventually time passed by, we went back to the bus station, got our seats, and soon left for Tamale.
Inside the bus was pretty nice: spacious and cool with big windows. I was fortunate enough to have my own seat since the seating was a 2-1 arrangement. All I did on the bus was eat, sleep and listen to music, trying to make the 12-14 hour ride a breeze. It got pretty hard to do so at night because all ride long, these mini-movies kept playing on the TV until maybe an hour before our ride was over. So in essence, I only got one good hour of peaceful sleep. Thankfully the road to Tamale was pretty nice and smooth, so it could have been a lot worse. I didn't really pay attention to the shows but apparently they were pretty funny in a weird way. The one that really cracked me up was this show called "Baby Police," which was about this little boy becoming a policeman and taking money from people who would pass this toll booth. It's funny because any of those people who passed the booth could have easily pushed the kid to the ground but oh well. Seriously, go YouTube it or something, its ridiculous.
I think we got to Tamale around 4AM and we took a cab to the other bus station which would take us from Tamale to Larabanga. We had 2 hours to kill at that station and we played cards and watched an Insanity workout that was playing on the TV's there. We soon got on the bus and spent another 3 hours on it, getting off at Larabanga. As soon as we got off, we were swarmed by the locals, all of them telling us they could take us to Mole. We had a choice of taking a taxi or this wagon kind of thing where we sat in the back in the open air and of course we decided to go with the wagon. After nearly 20 hours of traveling on buses, we were still able to enter the park in style.

In the park, we first spent some time freshening up and changing and relaxing, letting the fact that we had made it sink in. Then we went with some other foreigners who were staying at the motel on a 3 hour safari tour, where we sat on top of a jeep with the guide while the driver took us through the park in search of animals. Within the first hour, we saw a lone elephant just chilling next to a river, some kobs, exotic birds, warthogs and some antelope looking things. The next 2 hours were pretty uneventful but the drive was nice, driving through a flat, green land. I think I got a few tsetse fly bites because there are tsetse flies in the park and their bite was painful and left a tiny red dot of blood, but here I am a few weeks later alive and well with no sleeping sickness. We came back to the motel and saw a congress of baboons walking around, not knowing that they were being photographed a lot.
We got lunch (waakye again) and spent the next few hours enjoying the view and playing cards. The tour guide invited us for dinner where he made some tuo zillet (kind of like fufu) and three different soups: groundnut, baobab and okra, which were all very spicy. Now that we had eaten and darkness had come on, we had nothing to do but to wait until about 5AM to get back on the bus to Tamale. We didn't want to spend extra money on a room since we weren't even here for that long and thought we could get away with it by sleeping at the restaurant. One person had an idea that we could go sleep on the bus that was parked outside the motel, and some guy (don't know if he was the driver or what) let us in. But one of the workers saw us, told their supervisor, and she made us get off the bus and get a room. There wasn't anything wrong we were doing, we were simply sleeping on a parked bus. There was nothing to steal and we didn't have the keys to run off with the bus, so I think she just wanted to make money off of us. We ended up conforming after arguing a little bit and realizing there was no point. We were angry, but we needed sleep as well so we were happy that we had actual beds to sleep on now.

It got a little bit worse with that supervisor once we woke up. Apparently the alarm we had set never went off and we had to scramble to make it to the bus in time. While quickly grabbing everything, I noticed the receipt we had of our room on the table and I thought that maybe I should bring it just in case, but I thought, "What's the worst that could happen," and left. Well, that supervisor was demanding that we presented the receipt as proof that we paid for the bus and room and I said that I had left it back in the room. She was threatening to make us get off at the park entrance and we were all trying to reason with her, telling her the receipt would still be on the table back in the room. She lessened up and let us go on but she was a complete jerk, yelling at us early in the morning for not having a piece of paper she gave us the night before. I was more angry at myself for not bringing that stupid thing but I realized that in all other instances, that receipt wouldn't have been necessary anymore.
So we took the bus back to Tamale and on the way I got splattered by some water that was leaking into the bus because it was raining outside. Free shower I guess. Anyway, we got to Tamale in the morning and faced the same problem we had in Accra: no bus leaving early to our destination. We ended up buying tickets for a 4PM bus to Accra and had 7 hours to kill in Tamale. We essentially did the same thing as in Osu, walking around and exploring what Tamale had to offer. It's such a chill city with a lot of motorcycle riders and barely any cars. It's relatively quiet compared to the hustle and bustle of central Accra and the people there didn't try to rip us off or take advantage of us. Traveling in a small group or even by yourself is the best.
Time passed by and we got back on the bus to head off for Accra. The ride was more or less the same, TV shows at full volume even when everyone was trying to sleep and a comfortable bus overall. Again, all I did was eat and sleep because that's all I could do. Somehow, we made it back in 11 hours even though the driver kept stopping at random places for no reason. It was funny, the other passengers noticed and began threatening to throw the driver off the bus. But we made it back to Accra, took a cab to campus, and came back to our dorms exactly 72 hours after we left campus.

As you can see, I barely spent any time talking about actually being in Mole because we spent more time on buses than we did in Mole. But it's okay because it was all definitely worth it, seeing that wild elephant, eating some delicious waakye, and being with some amazing company. Seeing how long buses take to travel really makes it hard to plan a trip to the north because you need more than a weekend to really experience everything up there; you probably need a full week. And the best part was I didn't suffer from missing classes. The negative, however, was that I didn't have time to recuperate from the long trip because after taking a 5 hour nap and waking up at 10AM, I would have to leave 2 hours later to go on another bus ride (supposedly 3 hours long, ended up taking 5) to Cape Coast for the Cape Coast Festival.

The Best Way to Shower

So I'm no longer going to do the whole day by day entry kind of thing because it's too much and my days after those first two weeks were uneventful. From now on, I'm basically just going to post entries whenever I feel like that entry would be significant and interesting to you all. After those two weeks, orientation was pretty much over and we were free to do whatever we wanted. And in the span of three weeks, I took three separate yet crazy trips around Ghana: Wli Falls, Mole National Park, and Cape Coast. This first post will be about the falls.

The Wli waterfalls are supposedly the highest waterfalls in Ghana and West Africa. It consists of a lower fall which is only a 40 minute hike to get to, and an upper fall, which is another two hour hike. However from the upper falls, you can get a good view of Lake Volta and Togo since its right next to the border. Anyway, it started with waking up at 5AM to get ready to leave campus by 6AM, only to end up leaving two hours later. Nothing is ever going to be "on time" here in Ghana. But we departed for the 4 hour drive which was pretty nice at first. It was cloudy and cool and the road was surrounded by greenery all over. But then the road got super bumpy and our bus slowed down to a crawl because the driver kept trying to avoid all of the potholes. To give you some sort of idea of how bumpy it was, imagine being on a road that's speed bump after speed bump after speed bump. Basically the road is an endless road of speed bumps with no flat surface. That's literally how we were for the majority of the ride, just jumping up and down in our seats.
We got there after a while (and constant stops from the driver to ask for directions) and getting off the bus woke a lot of us up. At the tour guide station, they said that if we wanted to bring in a camera they would charge us 5 cedis but I didn't want to pay so I decided to use my phone camera. Of course, I didn't stick with that either and snuck in my camera without paying the fine. I stayed towards the back of the group where the guide wouldn't see me with the camera but I don't think he really cared if I had brought it in secretly or not. Either way, I got away with it and saved about $1!
The hike wasn't tedious at all in that there weren't any inclines or declines. When we got to the falls, it was a sight to see: in front of us was the splash pool that looked calm but towering it was the waterfall, cascading down with a thunderous splash. Surrounding the fall were a bunch of slippery looking rocks covered with moss. It reminded me a lot of the waterfall I had hiked to in Costa Rica because it was the exact same setting, walking through a rainforest to see a pool of cool, clear water surrounding by green rocks. The only difference was that it didn't rain like mad while hiking back and the mud on the path didn't go up to my knees. Higher up, I could see a bunch of little brown and white dots on the cliffs, which were apparently bats that were sleeping since it was daytime.I must have been standing there admiring the falls for a while because I felt a sharp sting on my foot and I look down and see a few fat ants crawling up my leg and biting me some more. I had been standing in the middle of an ant train all this time. I was able to brush most of them off but I really had to put in a lot of effort to pull the fattest (they seriously were fat) ant away from my skin and when I did, I saw a tiny dot of blood coming out from my leg. At that point, I quickly took off my shirt, removed the things from my pockets and hopped in the water, hoping the water would ease the stings.
The water sure did help because it was pretty cold at first, but the further I waded out, the better it got. For the next hour or so, we would all be splashing around in the splash pool like children, jumping on each others shoulders and getting each other wet, laughing and screaming at the same time. The pool wasn't deep either, it went up to my chest at the most. Because of that, we were able to swim over to right underneath the falls and it was intense. It genuinely hurt a little bit when the water came splashing down and there was so much water coming down and the noise was so loud that you couldn't see or hear a thing. I was relying exclusively on touch to guide me around the area. Honestly, its hard to describe exactly what it was like standing right there because so much was going on. Half the time I just stood there tying to keep my eyes open for more than two seconds and trying to catch what the people right next to me were saying. I was able to go all the way back to where the rock wall was, and it offered some respite since the water didn't fall in that area as much, but I still couldn't see or hear any better. After a while, it became too much for me and I waded back out to the calmer portions of the pool. When you float on your back and look up, it's like seeing a river of water falling out from the sky; it was really cool. Thankfully my roommate had a waterproof camera he used to take a ton of photos so they'll come up on Facebook soon.
Once the novelty of the falls had worn off, we got out and that's when the sun came out and started heating everything up. Because the sunlight had poured out onto us, the bats above us started going crazy and kept flying and screeching around the cliffs, but they didn't swoop down to our level. I dried off and put on my clothes, careful to avoid the fat ant trails and we walked back to the bus, all feeling exhausted but in a good way. The ride back was more or less the same, only we nearly hit a lamb or sheep or something and everyone freaked out. But like when we hit that empty taxi, I calmly adjusted my earphones and increased the volume on my iPhone because I just did not care. It's one sheep, its okay. Also, the driver decided to take some random detour because there was some traffic up ahead and because it was nighttime, it looked like we were driving through space because we couldn't see a thing from the windows. We were surrounded completely by darkness with only the headlights guiding us. The road on this detour was so much worse as well, kind of like sitting in a violently vibrating chair in a way, and it became so narrow that some of the branches and bushes began scraping the windows, so it gave that part of the ride an eerie feel. We didn't pass any other cars on this route either and some of us began to question what the driver was doing, but after a while we got back on the main road in front of the traffic jam, so I guess the driver knew what he was doing for once, without asking for directions.
We got back to the city late, around 10ish, and we stopped at a complex to get some dinner to go. The restaurant I went to apparently ran out of everything on the menu, and they stuff they did have left had meat in it, so I was forced to get french fries for dinner. I was too exhausted to really care though and I ate a few more snacks in my room before falling into a deep sleep. But all in all, it was one of my best days here in Ghana so far, and it was definitely one of the best showers I've ever had: showering under a waterfall.

Week 2 - Going Around Ghana

8/4
So last time, we left off at the movie 12 Years a Slave and how it set the tone for this week. We wouldn't be leaving for the slave castles until tomorrow, so for today, we started off with a lecture on how we can stay healthy in Ghana. As a vegetarian, we were essentially told that we would have to eat a lot of vegetables. Surprise, surprise. We had a few more discussions after that, ate lunch and then went off to this school in Jamestown (I think, it was somewhere around there) where we would be doing some community service.
When we got to the school, the kids immediately crowded around us and started holding our hands and legs. It's like all of them wanted a certain piece of us to grab on to. Either that, or they just wanted to touch a foreigner. It was all pretty cute and we started playing with the kids a little before we walked inside this classroom and the kids all sat on one side while we sat on the other side. In the middle, the principal of the school began talking to us, thanking us for coming. He then introduced several groups of kids, who danced and sang and preformed skits for us. I have one particular video on my camera that I will upload eventually, but it's really cute. Some of us got up from our side and began dancing with the kids who were preforming with us and eventually, it just turned into a dancing session which the principal loved. I saw one kid standing outside a window who wasn't in the school, but he looked so sad that he couldn't come inside and join us. I talked with him a little bit to try and make him feel better and even took a picture of him and showed it to him. But I realized since the window had bars on them, the picture made him look like he was in a jail cell. At least I tried.
All of that fun ended temporarily and we began to repaint the walls of the school with a fresh new coat to cover up some of the markings and stains that had been there. Thankfully, painting didn't take too long since we were able to team up and finish it within an hour and we were soon able to play with the kids again and take lots of pictures. The kids I played with seemed to be obsessed with my camera and sunglasses and began taking selfies and trying to make poses with my sunglasses on. I was actually surprised they didn't run off with my stuff or refuse to give it back to me and I was glad I could walk around and talk to my group members without having to worry about my things. Soon, it was time to go and we reluctantly said bye to all the kids. It really was a good way to get our minds off the looming visit to the slave castles and I think we all needed something like this to recharge ourselves for the week again. I know as a fact that I'm not good when it comes to entertaining children, but these kids were something else entirely.
We went out for dinner at this place called Star Bites, which, looking at the logo, seemed like a rip off of Starbucks. The only reason I'm writing about this dinner was because they had this amazing pasta with alfredo sauce and mushrooms and it made me feel super happy. It was weird, I can't really explain it, but since it was vegetarian, I took a lot of pasta.When we're catered food, the vegetarians always go first just so we can get enough to eat (and because we're VIP's obviously).

8/5
Today was the day we embarked on a four day trip across the Southern part of Ghana. Before we left, we got breakfast and had some lectures on the history of slavery in Ghana and the experiences that captives went though in their journey from Africa to wherever they were shipped off to.
We left for the three hour bus ride to Elmina Castle, which is the most prominent slave castle in Ghana. On the ride however, our bus crashed. It wasn't really anything serious, no one got hurt, but it was just bizarre. Basically, this empty taxi that was barked on the other side of the road somehow rolled onto the road and it hit the bus on the side. I saw it all happen from my window seat and I'm a little scared because my reaction was very slow but when I poked my head out the window, I didn't see any scratches on the bus. The bus jerked to the right to try and avoid the cab and some guy on the sidewalk had to jump out of the way to avoid getting hit by the bus. The driver and some of the orientation leaders got out to try and get everything settled and within 20 minutes we were on our way. Some of us sitting in the back kept looking out the back window to see what was going on but I had lost interest by that point and continued listening to music, waiting to continue on with our journey.
We made it to the castle and the tour guide took us through most of the rooms and chambers inside. There was one part where he had us all go inside a dungeon and locked us in it, telling us that this room was where they would starve certain captives to death. It was pretty nerve wracking to be in the same exact room where probably hundreds of people died in. I kept wondering how the tour guide, who was a Ghanaian, was able to give the same tour everyday without showing any emotion. The last part of the tour involved us going to the "point of no return," which is where captives would walk out from the castle onto the beach and become loaded onto ships headed for the Americas. It's called the point of no return because it was assumed that the captives would never return to see their homeland again. In essence, their last view of Africa would be as they exit the castle, since they didn't get access to go outside on the ships. Each of us walked out a little bit one by one and this was where the majority of us let our emotions go. Once again, it was a very emotionally charged atmosphere, and we all held a moment of silence for those who had passed away during the whole process.

8/6
We had breakfast in the hotel and before I go on talking about the Kakum Rainforest Reserve and the canopy walk experience, let me talk a little bit about the hotel because it was REALLY nice. I don't mean it was a five star hotel, but it was literally on the beach. I pretty much fell asleep last night listening to the waves crash and recede over and over again. The rooms were essentially huts but the best part was how the showers had hot water. Man, when I took a shower that night with the hot water, it made me realize how much I had gotten adapted to the cold showers here. It's crazy to think how hot water is such a luxury here.
Alright, now that I'm done gushing over the hotel, we can move on. I got on the bus and we drove for about an hour to the Kakum Rainforest. Kakum is a famous tourist attraction in Ghana because it's the only national park in Africa with a canopy walkway. Remarkably, the guide told us there has never been any accident on the walkway and when I began walking through the seven bridges, I started to see why. Yeah, they swayed here and there but there were so many ropes and wires connecting the trees to the bridges that it would take a lot for the bridges to collapse. It was so cool looking around and down at the forest because it was all so green and lush. The weather was perfect too, slightly foggy and drizzly, so it gave the forest an eerie mist to it. It reminded me a lot of walking through the cloud forests in Costa Rica because they were both so similar. The only difference was that Costa Rica had zip-lining across the canopy as an option. And after walking through the bridges, I think zip-lining would have been more fun.
Afterwards we returned to the hotel where we had a free afternoon to do whatever we want. I went with a big group to get lunch from the hotel restaurant but it ended up taking almost two hours to get our food because there was apparently only one chef and a lot of orders. So when we were finally served food, our lunch ended up becoming an early dinner. Once I finished eating another delicious spaghetti dish, I just spent some time on the beach, staring at the view and pondering the meaning of life until nighttime came. A few other friends joined me and we all started remarking how we had been over a week in Ghana and how we already feel like we're different people. It was all a really nice evening just chilling on the beach with some good friends, enjoying a few drinks and talking.

8/7
On this day, we spent about five or six hours traveling to Kumasi, the other major city in Ghana. I couldn't wait to go because the night before, I had accumulated a ton of bug bites on my feet and around my ankles and it ended up raining hard as well, which turned the chill vibe into a dreary one. I actually haven't been getting bitten as much as I thought I would, but part of that is because it's still the rainy season here. Anyway, Kumasi was the capital of the Ashanti nation, a rich and powerful group of people who resisted British colonization for a while until they were finally overwhelmed.  They are also the basis for a lot of culture here in Ghana. Our first stop in Kumasi was this village called Adanwomase where we got to see how kente cloth was made. Kente is cloth woven from silk or cotton and is adorned with many colors and symbols, each of them with a special meaning. It was mainly worn by the kings of the Ashanti during important and sacred festivals and it is still treated like so. We saw little kids, probably ten years old or so weaving the cloth on these rickety wooden machines and the guide explained to us that they don't work once school starts, but it was still interesting to see these young boys having the knowledge to make such intricate cloth. We also got a tour of this cocoa plantation that just happened to be next to the kente weaving place, which I thought was pretty random, but we got to try some cocoa beans that were pleasantly sweet, but not like the chocolate I had been missing.
Once the tour ended, we did a little bit of shopping in the area, where I bought a cloth that meant togetherness. Then we came to our hotel and checked in. Our room this time was also pretty nice, as we were the only room to have two windows, which for some reason was a big deal for some people. The showers also had hot water but it didn't last for more than three minutes, when it just became lukewarm. We had some free time until dinner, so most of us decided to go in the pool. I didn't feel like going in the pool so I ended up going to this room that we ended up calling "The Wi-Fi Room" because there would always be a good chunk of us in that room staring blankly at their phones or laptops, taking advantage of the exceptionally good wi-fi that was there. We then got dinner at the restaurant across the street, and walking across the street was kind of difficult to do because there were these guys trying to sell us these paintings that they probably didn't paint themselves. I ended up becoming known as "Bombay" to them, so whenever I walked by, they would always yell, "Hey Bombay!" to me. It actually hasn't been the first time I've been called Bombay or Indian by the locals before, but I honestly enjoy the fact that over here, it's seen as humorous to call someone by those names, but if you did that in America, you would be seen as a racist. All in all, it's good fun.

8/8
In the morning, we had a lecture on the arts and crafts in Ghana and I'm not gonna lie, I did not pay any attention to that lecture at all because I was seated in the way back and I couldn't see or hear much. Oh well. We then left for the Manhyia Palace which is the seat of the Ashantehene (the main king) as well as his house. We got a tour of the whole building and learned a lot about the history and practices of the Ashanti people. We got lunch and went to another small market which I liked a lot because the vendors wouldn't try and harass you into buying something. They would say hello and invite you to come in to their store and at least look around, but that's it. I also liked it because they had Ghana rubber wristbands I had been looking for my entire time here. I ended up buying five or six for about a dollar. You have to love the cheapness here.
The shopping went on for another hour or so and then we came back to our hotel, where once again, the majority of our afternoon and our evening was to ourselves. I stayed in the wi-fi room for the most part because of the constant messages from the group chats I was in blowing my phone up. I decided to go the restaurant across the street for food and once I finished eating and walked back to the hotel, the vendors hollered at me again and I said, "Okay fine, I'll at least take a look." So the vendor took me over and showed me his paintings and there were actually a few that I liked. I heard from another person in the group that he got a painting for 13 cedis, so I was determined to get to a price around there. I ended up doing some hardcore bargaining that lasted nearly 30 minutes because the vendor was taking forever to lower his original price of 50 cedis. I mean to say that he was lowering his price for me, but he was doing it very slowly and most of the time consisted of me chipping away at the price until I finally coaxed him to do 15 cedis. He didn't seem very happy with it but I guess it was better for him to make a sale than to lose out on one.

8/9
During breakfast this morning, we were watching CNN and they were talking about the progress of Ebola in West Africa. A lot of us have been keeping tabs on its whereabouts and not much has changed. The Ghanaian government is doing everything in its power to prevent Ebola from coming by tightening their borders and having hotlines to call in case someone is showing the symptoms. It's sort of hard to tell if the symptoms match up with Ebola at first because it starts off a lot like malaria but by the time you can differentiate, the Ebola virus is already on the verge of killing you. But once again, I stress that Ebola isn't in Ghana and the nearest case is some 300 miles away (Yes, I actually looked that up on Google Maps). If Ebola does come to Ghana though, our program will most likely get cancelled and we will be flown back to the states as soon as possible. So let's hope that doesn't become the case.
The majority of the morning and afternoon took place in the bus, as we were headed back to school from Kumasi. The drive was six hours long and I was not feeling well the entire ride because I ended up getting diarrhea that morning and there was a war raging on in my stomach. I knew diarrhea was inevitable but I didn't think it would happen this late into the trip. But I felt pretty horrible on the ride and I didn't eat much out of fear that it would act as a nuclear bomb in my stomach. It was also the first time I truly felt homesick, probably because I kept thinking I wouldn't be suffering from this if I was back home and that I could get access to a good toilet that would always have toilet paper whenever I wanted to. That's another thing that's been a little difficult over here, finding bathrooms with toilet paper. Thank goodness my sister recommended that I brought my own toilet paper and wet wipes. But yeah, that ride was just horrible and when we got back I just stayed in my room and rested till dinnertime.

8/10
Completely free day today! I don't really remember what I did that day. If I remember, I'll come back and edit this. I wanted to go to the Aburi Botanical Gardens but I figured I should stay close to campus since I still wasn't feeling a hundred percent. I also couldn't go to the computer lab because it was closed on weekends. Sundays are pretty quiet days on campus because most people are in church or are staying at home. I just remember going out to dinner at this very swanky restaurant that had a bar, pool table, dance floor and giant booths. Once again, I waited an hour for the food to come out and it became more complicated when the waitress couldn't really understand what I was trying to order. But it all turned out fine and I got my food, which was so good it almost made the wait worth it. The bulk of our orientation was finally over and next week, we would begin the process of registering for classes. Or so I thought.

Week 1 - Getting Acclimated

Finally, some time to write some entries in! Sorry it's taken so long, right from the start we started this three week orientation class which kept me occupied my entire time here. It ended up getting dragged another week because of a professor's strike and the mandatory Ebola screenings implemented by the school, but things have turned out fine (somewhat) and hopefully I can get a lot in today. I'll give more information on the strike and the whole Ebola ordeal later on. I will say this now though, Ebola is NOT in Ghana and is nowhere near Ghana and I strongly believe it won't come to Ghana.
I've had free days earlier but things always seem to pop up and I only end up getting a paragraph in. Like earlier this week on Tuesday, I was free all day but it started raining heavily and the power in the computer lab went out. Good thing my work got saved. But here's week 1!

7/26
Day of departure! Some of my friends and I went out to Denny's as a last meal kind of thing before I left, which was sweet. My dad and sister dropped me off at the airport, goodbyes were said, and I watched from the security check line as they both began to walk away. I was finally on my own. I breezed through security in a few minutes, thankful that I was traveling light and that I had tons of experience going through airports. I got to the main terminal and I have to say, the international terminal at LAX looks really nice now. I was impressed with all these high-end shops and restaurants and artwork, and walked around the terminal gaping most of the time. I decided to head over to the gate and immediately found two other people I remembered meeting from the orientation in Santa Cruz. We chatted a bit about why we were going to Ghana, what we were excited about, and gradually more and more people came and sat with us. It was nice to run into people in the group right off the bat so I could make friends even before I got to Ghana.
There isn't really much to talk about during the first flight from LA to Frankfurt since it was pretty standard in my case: no sleep, funky tasting food, and a large person seated next to me who was encroaching in my space. Once at Frankfurt, we ran into the other group flying from San Francisco and walked over to the next gate with them. Our layover there was about 3 hours so most of us got some coffee and used the wi-fi that was in the terminal. On the flight from Frankfurt to Accra, I was sitting next to a Ghanaian from Tennessee who was returning home to visit his family. We began chatting and he gave me a lot of advice about the food, people, things to see, even bargaining tips. Afterwards, he said that if he didn't have a broken arm, he would have loved to take us around Accra. This kind gesture caught me off guard at first because here was a guy I had barely just met on a plane and he was already offering to show me around. Little did I know, it would be the first of many offerings from Ghanians to show me around and help get me acclimated to Ghana.

7/27
We landed in Accra sometime at night and the moment I stepped off the plane onto the tarmac and took one deep breath, I felt like I was in India. I smelled some combination of burning ash and gasoline that I honestly loved smelling whenever I was back in the motherland. I made my way through customs, found my baggage, and went outside with the group to find the orientation leaders waiting for us. They took us to the parking lot where we loaded our things onto the bus and drove off to campus.
I don't recall much from that ride since it was dark outside and I was pretty exhausted from some 17 hours of flying but when we got to campus, we unloaded our stuff into our temporary rooms in Volta Hall (we had been assigned to live in the all-girls dorms before moving to our permanent rooms). The room consisted of two parts. One part had two beds and two cabinets with a sink in the middle and the other part was were the desks were. My temporary roommate and I set up our things and went to the dining hall where we were introduced to the program staff, ate dinner (pizza and salad) and played several icebreaker games before finally going off to bed.

7/28
Breakfast was served in the dining hall at nine and after that, we went back on the bus for a tour around campus. The campus reminds me a lot of UC Santa Cruz and UC Davis mixed together. It has the greenery and abundance of wild animals of Santa Cruz with the flatness and size of Davis. The program coordinators showed us the buildings on campus as well as the gym and offices we needed to know. We also saw some of the restaurants on campus where we could get food. The school doesn't have traditional dining halls like back in the states where you swipe your ID card and you're in, so we either have to buy our own food or cook it.
Afterwards, we went to the Accra Mall which is a brand new mall that just opened only two or three years ago. It wasn't as big as the malls back home but it still had the same types of stores you would find in any other mall. There, we were able to exchange our American dollars for Ghanaian cedis and bought new phones and SIM cards so we would have Ghanaian phone numbers. I didn't need to do the latter part because I had bought an international SIM card from T-Mobile and I was also able to keep an American number. While the number works here, it has caused some problems with some of the locals here because they don't believe it works or they think I'm too cool to get a Ghanaian number and just have to keep my American number.
We went back to campus where we were able to rest for an hour, and then it was time for our first dance class. Most of you should know that I am not a dancer at all, but I tried to keep an open mind when I got to the studio and remain positive. Well, it didn't really work. That first day was so bad for me because I was still getting acclimated to the time change and I just wasn't into it. I think the instructor noticed this because he kept giving me weird looks while I was dancing and I tried my best to shrug it off.
We finally ended session an hour and a half later, went to eat dinner, and return to our rooms where I immediately went to bed, dreading the next three dance classes.

7/29
This day was a pretty calm day overall. Breakfast was slightly earlier at 8:30 and after that, we sat through lectures that discussed culture shock, challenges living in Ghana and the differences between American and Ghanaian values. A lot of Ghanaian values such as always using your right hand and addressing elders as auntie or uncle wasn't new for me because it was the same thing in Indian culture. In fact, being in Ghana has been like being in India: the smells, the giant crowds of people, the chaotic markets, the congested roads where traffic laws don't exist and drivers don't stop for pedestrians, the random animals running around the streets, the prevalent poverty and so much more.
The people treat us kindly for the most part and are interested in our backgrounds, but as foreigners, or as they like to call us, obronis, we are subject to special treatment because we are seen as rich and successful. Often times we get requests to take people back to America, so extreme to the point where some of the women in our group have gotten marriage proposals and countless amounts of phone numbers. Even I've gotten a few proposals to take people back to America (from guys, sadly), but I just laugh it off and say, "Maybe one day." Sometimes it's a hassle being the obroni because we have to convince the locals that we aren't made out of money, especially when it comes to bargaining for a taxi or for crafts. But it's understandable, because if we can afford to spend around $2000 to come to Ghana, why wouldn't we be able to pay a little extra?
After the lectures, we went to another smaller mall right across campus where we ate lunch and did a little shopping. I should've paid more attention to the prices there because when I bought my electric stove from there a few weeks later for 90 cedis (around $28), I found cheaper ones that had two stoves on them for 50 cedis (around $15) at other marts. You live and you learn, I guess.
Anyway, we returned and had another rest period for 2 hours, which is when I walked around campus with some other people from the group. We didn't stray that far because we had no idea where we were going still but it was nice to get a little feel for the campus and the surroundings. Afterwards, it was time for dance class again, and I'm proud to report that I actually had fun dancing! Unbelievable, right? We did some traditional Akan dances and I guess I finally realized that who cares what people think? If everyone else is dancing with you, it isn't so bad. That's not to say that I like dancing now, because I still don't, but at least I'm a little more comfortable with it if I have to dance. One of the orientation leaders who's my unofficial big sister, Mina, gave me a D for my performance. Guess I'd have to do better than that.
Afterwards, we got dinner and returned to our room, where I contacted family and friends to let them know I was safe. Then I went with some other people to check out the night market, which is basically a bunch of stalls near the International Students Hostel (ISH) that sells all sorts of things, from food to bug sprays. On the way back, we were walking through complete darkness since the campus doesn't have a lot of lights and I couldn't tell where I was going. As a result, I ended up falling into a gutter.
The gutters here aren't like back home where it's just a small depression on the side of the road. Over here, they're actually ditches, like two feet deep, sometimes even more. So when I fell in the gutter, I got a pretty bad wound on my left leg just below my knee, and my friends had to place their arms around me to support me as we walked back. My friend helped apply some rubbing alcohol and clean off the blood that had dripped down my leg and I put some Neosporin and a band-aid over it. I guess that was a pretty good introduction to the infrastructure here in Ghana.

7/30
Another relatively calm day. At this point, the schedule is starting to become repetitive: breakfast, lectures, lunch, more lectures, dance class, dinner. And that precisely what happened today. We did, however, have our first unofficial lesson in Twi, one of the main languages and most widely spoken one here in Ghana. It wasn't anything too serious, the professor mostly went over the history and syntax of the language. Afterwards, we went with our orientation leaders around campus to buy ingredients to make palaver sauce, which is basically green leaves, egg pieces and veggies thrown together into a stew and eaten with steamed yams. It's become one of my favorite foods here in Ghana, not only because its vegetarian, but also because it's really, really good.
Making the palaver sauce actually took longer than expected so we were able to rest for a little bit before dance class. Dance class was especially interesting for me personally that day. The instructor first split us up into three groups: singing, drumming and another group that did something similar to drumming but I forgot what exactly. It's okay though, it's not that important. Anyway, I went to the singing group and the instructor taught us this song where once he would say this special word (I think it was something like bombasa), one of us would have to give out an African country. Of course, knowing my geography pretty well, I gave it a shot and was able to rattle off around 20 countries before I couldn't think of any more in time. But this made him genuinely impressed and we kept having a go at it as well as singing other songs. He said this was all in preparation for a "big" performance tomorrow where he had invited around 200 people, but we all could tell he was joking. Thankfully, my moment of glory also caught the eye of Mina, who gave me a B+ for the day. I honestly would have taken that for dancing and left but I decided I might as well go for the A tomorrow, especially since it would be the last dance class. Also, my leg didn't really hinder me while I was dancing, which I thought was a good sign.

7/31
Same old, same old. Breakfast, lectures and lunch. The theme today was the development in Ghana and how even though Ghana is dependent on aid, Ghana still remains in debt because other countries such as the US and China continue to exploit the resources that Ghana has. It was a little complicated to understand and I could probably do a better job at explaining this but I'll come back to that another time. However one of the other things we learned was that even though Ghana has roads and schools and clean water, it's still classified as a developing country because it isn't as good as the West. It should be emphasized here that while poverty does exist in Ghana, that doesn't mean everyone is poor and all the children are hungry and malnourished. It's not the stereotypical Africa that we hear about when we watch The Lion King or Tarzan, or those commercials that keep featuring beady-eyed African children begging for food. Ghana and Africa can't be used interchangeably because Ghana is totally different from the whole entire continent of Africa. I've said earlier that Ghana is essentially like India, and when we think of India, we think of this big, prosperous country that's supposedly rising into a world power. That's not the same for Ghana though, and that's only because Ghana's economy isn't as diverse as India's. But in terms of internal development, I could make a case saying that Ghana is on par with India, or even China.
Anyway, after all the lectures we again had a little break before our last dance class. We danced, I did my country singing thing in front of everyone, and we all had a great final day. Everyone was sad that dance class was ending but I was secretly glad that we wouldn't have to dance anymore. It was fun and I learned that it doesn't matter what other people think of your dancing because everyone else is doing it and there really isn't a "right" way to dance, but it just wasn't my thing.

8/1
Looking back at this day, I don't really understand why we had to go to some random house in the outskirts of the city to learn the same things that we had been learning the past few days. We had to dress formally and be ready by 7:30 to leave and once we got there, we ate some breakfast before going inside the house where we sat at this conference table and began getting lectured again. The lectures went on for quite a while, until 4 o'clock I think. I took notes but as the lectures went on I slowly began losing interesting and started doodling on my papers, constantly wondering when lunch would be.
Afterwards we came back to International Programmes Office (IPO) where the program coordinators gave us some fake Ghanaian money (cedis) and we "purchased" some of the items that former students had left over for us. At that time, my priority was getting a bucket so I could shower without having to borrow other people's buckets, so I got that and a plate and bowl for food. Once that was over with, we came back to our original rooms in Volta and packed our things to finally move into our permanent rooms. During the application process, we had three choices of where to live: ISH, Volta Hall (girls only) and Legon Hall (boys only). At first, I applied for ISH but at the recommendation of my brother, I changed my housing to Legon Hall. I was totally fine with it too because I would be rooming with another UC/CSU student and we would be living amongst other Ghanians, so it would be a good experience. Also, from looking at the campus map, Legon Hall was more centrally located in campus compared to ISH, which was way off to the side.
When I got to Legon, the first thing we had to do was carry our belongings up four flights of stairs because our room was on the fourth floor, so that was pretty exhausting. But we got to our room and immediately my roommate and I threw our stuff on the bed and lied down to rest. The room was pretty nice at first glance. It was big and spacious with a balcony that had a nice view of campus. But the walls were dirty and the paint was chipping off in some places and there was an abundance of little critters like ants and lizards. That part didn't bother me though because I knew they wouldn't really get in our way. The only real problem though was the bathrooms.
I went over to take a look and the first thing that hit me when I walked in was the smell. It smelled so bad to the point where I had to hold my breath as I walked past the stalls. I then realized it was smelling because the toilets couldn't flush, so there was still human excrement sitting in the toilets. I guess this is what my brother meant when he said I would be squatting a lot. The other thing I realized was that the shower stalls had no shower curtains. This stressed me out a little bit because I was not used to showering without privacy but as I'm writing this four weeks later, it really isn't a big deal. Maybe it's because the other students haven't moved in yet but if they're all doing it, then there shouldn't be anything wrong with it. I just had to suck it up and realize that this is what I signed up for. Other than that, the bathrooms had a lot of sinks, toilets and stalls so it didn't seem like I would need to wait for something to open up in the mornings.
Afterwards, I got ready and went out to meet with the group for dinner, where we talked about our new rooms and when we came back, I decided to shower just to get a feel for showering in those stalls. The water was extremely cold (colder than those ice bucket challenges) but it felt good after a long and warm day. Another thing I realized was that our building didn't have any wi-fi, so if I needed Internet, I would have to go out and get it. This didn't bother me much because I didn't have my laptop but it would be nice to be able to lie in bed in the mornings and check whats going on in the world on my phone.

8/2
Today was a pretty cool day. We got breakfast back in Volta and went on the bus to tour around Accra. Accra could be said to have "turned it's back to the sea" because it doesn't really take advantage of its seaside location. I read somewhere that the water is too shallow to have any ports so maybe that's why. But it's not like Los Angeles where you have a lot of development and fancy beach houses along the coast. In Accra, it's mostly poor fishing communities that are along the coast. I'll write down the places we visited and give a short description of each.

• 37th - Basically a vegetable market along the main road that is popular with foreigners because they have vegetables you wouldn't normally find anywhere else such as avocados, cauliflower, chili peppers and more. I forgot why it's called 37th though.

• Du Bois Center - WEB Du Bois' house transformed into a museum. We had to pay to get a full tour so we just stood around and took pictures outside the building.

• US Embassy - We didn't go inside the embassy, the bus just drove past it so we knew where it was. But there were signs on the back side saying "NO PHOTOGRAPHY ALLOWED" and one of the security guards stopped us because he claimed that one of us sitting in the back side of the bus took a picture. I was sitting in the back but he said someone with a large camera supposedly took a photo so I was excused to go. He ended up taking two people with him inside the embassy where they had to show him proof that they didn't take any pictures or video. It was all a strange ordeal. When the two people came back, the group gave them a round of applause for getting in trouble I guess.

• Independence Square - This is the world's second largest public square, behind China's Tiananmen Square. It's the host of a lot of national events, such as independence day. There's also this imposing arch called the Independence Arch which is pretty much similar to the Arc de Triomphe.

• Jamestown - Jamestown is the oldest community in Accra. There's a big market there where the vendors are super aggressive in trying to get you to buy something. They'll grab your arm, pull you to their shop, ask you where you're from and all that so you really have to be on guard sometimes. I ended up buying a Ghana FIFA jersey with a little bargaining of course. One guy dragged me over to his drum shop where he made drums and kept showing me different ones and having me play them a little. I was in a hurry to leave because we only had 10 minutes in that market and I knew I was going over. When I did get my chance to leave, I couldn't find the bus or anyone from my group anywhere and I guess I made my panic too visible because the vendors began closing in on me. But thankfully, one of the orientation leaders came back and pulled me away from them, and the bus was standing not too far from where it had dropped us off. I came back on the bus to another round applause from the rest of the group.

• Artist Alliance - This was an art museum in Jamestown that had a lot of paintings and sculptures for sale at ridiculous prices. I guess this was more for show than for actually doing some shopping.

• Kwame Nkrumah Masoleum - A memorial to Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana. Outside the memorial were two pools with statues and at the center was a giant statue of him. Inside was his tomb, along with his wife's.There was also a museum that had pictures and artifacts documenting his life.

Afterwards, we finally returned back to campus to rest for a little bit, and then we went out again to eat dinner. We ate at this place called "La Hacienda," which, sadly, was not Mexican. I've been missing Mexican food way too much here.

8/3
We were supposed to go to the beach but since it had rained pretty heavily last night and into the morning, I didn't think we were going. I was wrong. We left for Bojo Beach, which is this private beach resort just on the outskirts of Accra. Of course, I was wearing jeans and a shirt, so I ended up rolling the bottom of my pants up and just dipping my feet in the water. It got worse when all I had for lunch was fries and salad because I couldn't eat the rest of the food since it had meat. Being a vegetarian in Ghana hasn't been too bad since IPO does a good job of catering specifically to our needs, but on my own, it's been difficult. You really have to specify that you don't want meat or fish in your food, because fish isn't considered to be meat in Ghana. But I'm surviving so it's not like I'm starving! Later on we played volleyball for a long time which was a lot of fun. It got me thinking about trying to join one of the sports teams on campus, either for volleyball or basketball. I'd have to look in to that later.
We came back to campus and had dinner at IPO. Then, there was an optional movie we could watch and I decided to stay since I had nothing else to do and I didn't think I had seen the movie. It was called 12 Years a Slave, and it turns out, I actually had seen it. Once the movie was over, the mood in the room was very quiet and it soon became emotionally charged when people started discussing the movie. Some people had broken down crying and others were at a loss of words. I personally felt somber and quiet but not as bad as the others. We discussed the film and how slavery has impacted all of us, even if we aren't directly connected to it for another two hours because a lot of us really had a lot to say, especially the African Americans in our group. It certainly set the tone for next week, when we would be visiting the slave castles in Elmina, a former trading post set up by the Portuguese.

Again, sorry this was super long and late, but I really had a lot to write about and little time to write it. I still have a lot more to say for the other weeks so hopefully I can get on those posts soon, but this should keep you all satisfied for now. Please feel free to ask me questions or give me feedback on my stories or writing style, I appreciate it!

Prologue

After a tumultuous week of preparation that involved a lot of shopping, arguments, sacrifices and goodbyes, I'm finally ready to leave for Ghana. I know what you're thinking: "Of all the places you could go to in the world, you choose to go to Ghana? Really?" Don't get me wrong, it's a valid question. The answer to that is much more complicated now that I think about it, but I'll try my best to explain it.

It really boils down to two main reasons. The first one is that my older brother also studied abroad in Ghana back in 2005 or 2006 and he came back a changed person (for the better). He had so many amazing stories, made tons of friends and really seemed to learn a lot about himself while he was there. He definitely played a part in convincing me to go. That, and having a limited selection of countries to go to as a sophomore led me to go to Ghana. I was debating between Ghana and Turkey when I started this decision back in December, and while Turkey is nice and all, I just had to go to a country that's much more...unknown. This leads in to the second reason, which is, "Why not Ghana?" Sure, you can go to countries like the UK or France or China, but I see those as countries you can go anytime in your life. Going to Africa is more of a once in a lifetime kind of thing to me. I mean, once you're older and you have a husband/wife and kids, are they really gonna react positively to the idea of going to Africa for vacation? It's much easier to go as a college student when you're mature and just beginning to understand the world than as a settled down person who has other priorities. Because then you would have to get proper medication and shots for the family, it's a long plane ride, the weather isn't favorable most of the time and so on. Also, I'm not going to lie, it will be pretty cool to tell people, "Oh yeah, I've been to Africa before."

So what are the details of this trip? What do you hope to get out of it? I'll be gone for 5-6 months from mid-July to December, depending on if I decide to extend my trip into winter break or not. Aside from the fact that I want to get my general education requirements finished while I'm abroad and that I want to use this as an opportunity to travel and experience new things, I'm really hoping this trip gives me an idea of what I want to do later on in life. For now, I'm a neuroscience major hoping to do something related to the brain. I wanted to go to medical school once I completed college but I'm not sure I want to go through medical school anymore because I don't know if I belong in that setting. Lately, I've been thinking about being a social worker as an alternative, but I don't really know much about what they do. I just know I want to help people by talking with them, listening to their problems and giving them feedback, and while that sounds like a therapist, it's a long and tough path to becoming one. Maybe I'm just being a little picky and that I need to focus on one thing since no path is "easy." But that's what going to Ghana is for - finding what that one thing really is for me. I asked my brother and sister when they had solid ideas of what they wanted to be in the future, and they both knew by the time they were my age. With seeing all my other friends knowing what they want to do and pressure building up from parents, as well as college, I know it's about time I figured out what I want to do.

Pretty darn complicated, huh? I know I'm probably not the only one who doesn't know what they want to do in the future either, but I'd just like to have a concrete idea now, just so I can confidently say something at parties whenever an aunt or uncle asks, "So what are you going to do after college, hm?" They never really ask how are you or what have you been up to, it's just straight to business for them.

Anyway, I'm not sure how often I'll have Internet there since I'm not taking my laptop with me, but I know they will have Internet cafes so I hope I can keep updating this blog often. This is more like a journal for me to keep records of what I've been doing every week, as well as for my friends and family to update them on how I'm doing. Here's hoping that while I try to find the pieces to my future, I also get to immerse myself in Ghanaian culture and make tons of new friends without suffering from those disease-ridden mosquitoes!