Sept. 17
Back to classes today. The good news is that I only had one
class today. After my class in the morning, I spent most of the day at the Institute
so I could take advantage of the free Internet. I got quite a bit of homework,
blogging, and Facebooking done.
In the evening, we decided to try a new place on campus. We
heard that they served burgers. So we walked all the way to the other side of
campus (which is an incredibly long walk) to Tyme Out. Long story short, they
don’t serve burgers—even though the sign outside says they do. They serve
really expensive Chinese food. Disappointed, we walked to another place not far
away. The thing I wanted was finished. (Here, when you run out of something,
you say “it’s finished”.) Feeling even more let down, I walked all the way back
to my dorm to get my usual of kabobs and fries at Tickles. In an effort to make
the night better, a few of us decided to watch a Harry Potter movie before bed.
Sept. 18
Tuesdays are long. To start off my day, I have to sit
through a 3-hour long Political Science class. It’s not really my thing, so
it’s pretty hard to listen. The professor is also a little intimidating. After
that class, I have two more hour and a half long classes. In short, classes on
Tuesdays are draining.
On the bright side, we have dinner at Roland’s on Tuesday
evenings. I always look forward to those. We take turns cooking and it’s
usually really good. It’s also usually American-ish since we eat Ghanaian food
every other day of the week. Tonight we ate pizza and brownies.
After dinner I walked to the pharmacy to get some medication.
My eyelid is still pretty swollen, so I wanted to see if there was anything I
could do for it. The nice lady behind to counter sold me some ointment for 1
cedi…which is the equivalent of .50 cents. Can’t beat the prices here!
Sept.19
Today was pretty good as far as Wednesdays go. I didn’t have
one of my classes today, so it gave me a really long break in the middle of my
day, which was nice. I got a bit of homework done in that time. With some
people gone on their home stay, class is a lot less overwhelming. Our classroom
is really small and with everyone there, it’s really crowded. So this week I
feel like I can breathe when I’m in class, which is kind of refreshing.
Tonight we had African Drumming and Dance. Our dance
instructor picked it up a notch. We were jumping and singing and flailing our
heads up and down. It was crazy, but pretty fun. By the end, I was drenched in
sweat. I went back to my room hoping for water so that I could shower, but it
wasn’t there—as I expected. Good thing the water was on in our floor kitchen so
that I could at least take a bucket shower.
Sept. 20
I am one step closer to achieving Ghanaian status after
today. I traveled all the way to Adenkrebi all by myself. The other girls that
I usually go to the school with are on their home stay right now, so I was left
to fend for myself. I got a tro-tro from the first stop to Madina. They said
they would go to Madina Station, which is where I’m supposed to go, but they
didn’t. So I had to walk to find Madina Station. I found it without much of a
problem; I just had an older man following me trying to talk me into marrying
him. So that was fun. When I managed to find the mass of tro-tros that make up
Madina Station, the people were really helpful. They showed me where I needed
to go. One guy basically put me in the tro-tro I needed, which was heading to
Aburi. Once I got to Aburi, I found a very eager taxi driver who was more than
willing to take me to Adenkrebi. I don’t know if I can even call it a taxi. It
was more like the skeleton of a taxi…the interior of the car almost didn’t
exist. I mean it had seats, but that’s about as far as it went. It made it to Adenkrebi,
so it all worked out.
When we pulled up to the school, a man by the name of Atta
found me and told me that I was to go to Daniel’s house first. So I did. I got
to see all the people who are there for their home stay before they left for
their activity for the day. After visiting for a bit, I went back to the school
At the school, I observed a science class and graded an
English spelling test. After that, I spent the rest of my time chatting with
one of the teachers that I hadn’t met yet. After our conversation, we ate yams
and stew then I went back to Daniel’s. I was informed at the end of the school
day that there would be no school the next day, so there would be no reason for
me to stay over night. I stayed to eat dinner with the Calvin group and then
embarked on my journey back to campus. I made it without a problem. I’m really
proud of myself. J
Sept. 21
I had nowhere to be today, so I got to sleep in. Sleeping in
here means I woke up at 7:45. I went to bed last night at like 9:15, so I got a
good night’s rest. Krista didn’t have her internship today either, so we went
to breakfast at our favorite café on campus. We had oatmeal porridge. Best
oatmeal I’ve ever had.
 |
| Oatmeal with Milk and Sugar |
My water was on for a bit, so I took a quick shower. After
that, I found an army of what looked like termites on our nightstand. So…I
sprayed them with my bug spray and then pulled the nightstand out onto my
balcony. I didn’t know what else to do.
The rest of the day, I’m hoping to get all of next weeks
homework finished. I have to get it done before I leave for my home stay on
Sunday. Wish me luck!
Sept. 22
 |
| Obviously enjoying the oatmeal |
Today was a really good day. Krista, Josh and I went to get
oatmeal for breakfast again. That stuff is seriously so good. After that, we
decided to go to Osu for the day to do some shopping. I went a little crazy.
Osu is the home of Global Mamas—I think I’ve talked about this store before,
but it’s the best. I want to buy everything in that store. Then there are the
street vendors. I’ve gotten a little bit better at bartering, so I think my
newfound confidence made me want to buy more things. I don’t regret it, I got a
lot of my Christmas/souvenir shopping done. I still have more to get, but it
felt good to check some things of my list. Also, I just love shopping in
general, so I enjoyed buying things all day.
While we were shopping we made a few other stops. We got the
most delicious smoothies ever, we found a grocery store that has all things
American, and we found a coffee shop that has actual coffee and pastries (I got
a chocolate chip muffin—yum.) Later on, the others in our group met us for
dinner. I had an actual cheeseburger. So good.
After dinner we walked to this pub that’s pretty quite so we
could sit and talk. Since a large portion of the group is gone on their home
stay, we decided it would be good to hang out as a smaller group to try and get
to know each other better. So that was fun. On the way home we managed to snag
a taxi back to campus for really cheap, which was just a lovely way to end an
even lovelier day.
I leave for my home stay tomorrow. No internet for me for an
entire week!
No comments:
Post a Comment