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!