Random Thoughts, Riots, and Hot Dancers

Today we had oral presentations in class about what we have learned in Ghana and how life will be different when we go home. For the first time, I realized how quickly the semester is really ending and how hard it will be to go back, although at the same time, I am so excited to see everyone. Some things, like being able to dance everywhere at any time, I will miss so badly. The friendly faces and generosity, Fan Ice and marriage proposals will also be sorely missed. But I know that I just have to come back. Maybe this coming winter if possible... Sigh. I love Ghana too much.

In other news, we had riots on campus! University of Maryland style! Some guy was voted SGA president but then the school disqualified him because of past examination scandal. So the people from Commonwealth Hall started rioting and running around to the various halls breaking things. They came into the international student hostel...where we all know like zero about elections...and broke the glass, screaming and throwing flower pots. It was really exciting and confusing and strangely reminded me of home. Especially when the police came with pepper spray and all...just like the riots on route 1 really..

Have had some really intense rain storms recently and am keeping busy with dance classes at the cultural center and other random errands. The guys who teach dance are some of the most attractive men I have ever seen... Team 808, I will frame pictures... Seriously... Trying to tie up loose ends and study for finals and take some last minute trips before I go back to the US of A. So much to do...so little time.

TOGO AND BENIN AND #3 IN THE NATION

The Togo and Benin trip was so good...got to see great places with a really hilarious group of people. Went straight to Cotonou, Benin by car which is this fantastic place and the largest city in Benin. This guy, Rodrique, hooked us up with a cheap, decent hotel in town. The next day, we went about exploring and took motorcycles all around town. They are used instead of taxis and are much more fun. That is until you severely burn your leg on the exhaust. After this, it stays pretty well in your head to get off on the left. Went to the grand market where there was so much cloth it was ridiculous. Overall, I loved the city and the French influence in language and maybe food too (haha im such a prop). From there, went to Ouidah, the center of Voodoo culture in Benin. Didn't see much evidence of Voodoo, but did take the Route des Esclaves to the beach. Such a beautiful walk and beach and a monument to the people lost. From Ouidah we went to Lome which was quite a hit. Went to a fetish market where they had heads of all sorts of animals for magical purposes. Gorillas, horses, dogs, hippos, cats, birds, etc etc etc. I was a tool and bought a good luck charm and a stick for potency in bed for a gift back home...Apparently you will have the strength of a buffalo. Be excited. Went and took illegal pictures of the Presidential Palace and to the beach before going to Kpalime for the night. Found a fantastic hotel for like ten bucks for all four of us. Really heaven. Didn't see much of the place because we left early for a hike through the rainforest and this mountain of butterflies. The butterfly man was the cutest ever and showed us how he makes paints of natural materials and taught us about the flora and fauna. Highlight was seeing a green mambo snake...one of the deadliest snakes in the world...and right near my face. SO cool. Saw waterfalls and talked with some people in the nearby village before setting back to Kpalime and then to Accra. On the way back, found out that rugby made it to #3 in the country this weekend at Nationals. Such good news and the bitches even put me in the role call. Nice to feel included...love u guys. Good trip overall.

Leaving the Country

Oh yeah I'm leaving for Togo and Benin for a week or so.

Rough Day

Woke up this morning planning to go to drumming class and then to get my hair braided at a nearby shop. However, just after drumming, my arms, legs, and stomach began to itch like there were tiny bugs everywhere biting me. The pain spread onto my back and neck and I started buying bags of pure water and dousing myself with them. I began to panic and rushed back to the dorm where I took a cold shower and used some disinfectant from the cleaners to wash off (probably not my best idea but i was desparate). After a bit, I was able to relax and forget about it and even fell asleep until Audrey cleaned the windows and got dust all over my skin and bed. Finally I decided to just go to the hospital with Alix and have them look at my predicament. We waited for like 5 hours before being evaluated and I was told that it was an allergic reaction of some sort. They gave me medication for an injection and some pills to take. The injection was not my favorite thing ever. I think that I am way pampered at home. Here they just told me to drop trow (I had a really nice lacy thong in this old Ghanaian woman's face...nice...) and stuck me while standing up. I started to pass out and felt really shaky so they let me lie down for maybe 2 seconds and told me to go. If I still felt dizzy, I could find a chair somewhere...Haha I need to get over my babyishness and fear of needles. So much poorer, sorer and more tired, we returned home for pizza, which is about all I could deal with... Alix and I are getting to be such pros at dealing with sickness and laughing it off for the most part. But anyone who wants to fly here and give me a hug will be greatly appreciated...

Easter: Animal Sacrifice, Skinny Dipping, and Malaria

When I decided to go to a village for Easter weekend, I thought that it would be a really nice holiday to spend in a rural setting with families and all. The plan is a great one, except that the Ewe village that we went to was largely animist. Although I didn't get to celebrate Easter this year, the weekend was absolutely amazing. There were celebrations going on throughout the time that we were there for 2 funerals that were occurring during the weekend. Since it was my friend, Junior's village, we were not only invited, but integrated into the whole thing. We got to watch the whole ceremony, doing traditional African dance with the rest of the people. The ceremony was really a big event. People came by boat from all over the region to mourn and bury the dead. On the night before the funeral, people danced all the night and there was a spiritual service to honor the deceased and his spirit. The next day was full of dancing, and animist family members would go into the shrine and "get the spirit in them." The would come out and go all over the village pouring libations and speaking in strange languages. Furthermore, when the spirit was in them, they would inflict pain on themselves which apparently they could not feel. They stabbed at themselves with knives and beat their heads on stones with no response to pain. After a period of dancing, the body was brought out and then they went to the site of burial. Mourners and family members danced all around the body and a service was performed in which a priest prayed for the spirit of the dead. We were able to suit right in the front which was absolutely amazing except when the chicken was sacrificed. Its head was cut off and it continued to flap around bleeding just in front of my feet. I tried not to show my dismay, but I'd never seen anything like it and I think that I wore my sadness on my face. After this, the coffin was carried out and the mourners dispersed. On the way out, I was a little overwhelmed and ran into a sacrificed goat bleeding in front of the burial area. The whole ceremony was extremely interesting and something that I had never thought I would see in Ghana. The dancing made the whole thing seem less sad, although some of the dancers danced while crying. A friend of mine, an elderly woman named Comfort, told me that when I die, they will bury me there with a traditional funeral...yesss. Although mine might skip the sacrifice.
After the funeral we went back and had dinner before deciding to go to the Volta River to take our baths late at night. Sarah and I went with Junior and his friends to bathe and automatically thought that bath meant naked. So we show up in just towels at the river with shampoo and soap, but no one else apparently gets naked. We ultimately decided to go for it since it was so dark out and skinny dipped in the Volta... SO nice and refreshing...I think I will become a nudist. And luckily, the tons of children that followed us throughout the day had gone to sleep in time to miss the naked obrunis.
At night, we went back to sleep under our mosquito nets outside on straw mats. We had to share nets since we had many people and so few mats. It was hard to sleep with the heat from the nets and from the other person you were sharing with, but it was better than the bed bugs of before. I woke in the night to hear my friend being sick and spent the night playing doctor for my poor malaria patient. Morning couldn't come soon enough for us when we told some people about her sickness and the village tended to her. But before we took a tro tro out, I was able to go into the animist shrine, where foreigners are not allowed, as a friend of Junior's and experience their prayer for our studies, for the deceased, and for other occurrances in the village. It was all in Ewe, so afterwards Junior explained to us what had occurred and the significance of it. So I did go to church on Easter...kind of...
Went back to Legon totally exhausted and amazed at what I had seen and done Easter weekend. It makes me so sad that my plane ticket can not be changed and that I have to go in May and not stay for some of the summer... Found out on Friday that this is the case. So I will have to try to get the most that I can out of this small amount of time that I have here. And of course come back soon.

Shopping is so great when they make your clothes for you

So the past couple days I have been running around Accra shopping and it is so much fun! You just go into a market, make a million new friends, pick out some cloth and bargain for it and take it to a tailor to sew whatever you want. My new favorite thing in life. Haha all of my new clothes are going to be SO loud though...like all of these bright batiks and stuff. Good thing I don't care so much about American fashion... but seriously I am addicted. The other day I went on my friend's moped into town to shop for stuff and the tire blew while we were weaving through traffic on a busy road. Not such good timing... but we were able to pull over to the side and load it up in a little taxi and take it to a mechanic. So mechanics are not the same as home. There was this cute old man who ran around with the most adorable steps and assessed the tire damage. The only way that I could tell he was a mechanic was this HUGE stack of tires near where he was sitting and some pump looking thing. He couldn't fix it and needed a new tire so we had to go shopping for a new tire. We finally got all of this shopping done and came back to a fixed bike. Haha this is the most rambling thing I've written yet...

So Happy Easter early. I am going back to the Volta region village for nights of bed bugs and days of fun and swimming. So excited to go back...and I think that it will be really nice to spend Easter in some sort of family environment. No Easter Bunnies here though. Just Jesus.

Accra Adventures

Woke up this morning and felt not so great, so I decided to skip class...especially since I am not registered for it and just go for fun. As I was returning from buying massive amounts of water, I ran into a friend who suggested that we go to a local market. I decided to suck it up and go since I had not yet been and wanted to get some fabric and things to cook with...yes i am learning slowly... It was like the best morning yet. All of the people selling various things were calling out to the two obrunis and we were able to great them and make small discussions in twi. I guess that class did pay off some. Such a hustle and bustle out there with people selling raw meat, live crabs, fabric, tissues candy, toilet paper, tomatoes, dried fish...everything. AND i even figured out that they will smoke the goat meat at the market for me so that I can bring it to the states. I will do my best on this one... SO much to get home...a drum...a wooden stool...goat meat. The market just felt so good. It was so alive and vibrant and people were genuinely so nice to us. A woman, Abena, who sells pineapple at a stand near school was loading up fruit to take back and offered us a place in her cab to get back and even bought water for us sweaty obrunis from hawkers along the road...refusing to take any money for any of it. Ah such generosity. When I got back, I decided to go with Mel to the Nigerian Embassy to try to get a visa but by the time our cab found the spot, it was closed. But at least we know where it is and its hours and all. So much to do...changing plane tickets, buying plane tickets (which i think might go through Kenya...so maybe a trip there?!) and visas for Togo, Benin and Nigeria. We will have to try to get Cameroon's in Lagos I think. AH what a good day...and only on like 4 hours of sleep. Also...sorry for last nights harrassment and ridiculousness to anyone and everyone that I talked to. About that...

GHANA IS HOT

Global warming is all fun and games...until you live in Africa...

DARK AND LOVELY

This past weekend I went home with my roommate to stay with her family in Accra. Their house was BEAUTIFUL with satellite TV, hired help, and air conditioning (until it broke bc they arent as wimpy as me and never use it). I got to watch movies, an entire rugby match, eat with the family and wrestle some crazy children. All in all a very nice time.

The BEST part, however, was my decision to dye my hair, which clearly can only be done using Dark and Lovely hair dye. I went to this salon and they did it for me...laughing all the while at my obruni hair. When I was finished, they stuck rollers in my hair and put my under a dryer before adding massive amounts of some black hair product that made me look like the biggest greaseball ever...Cornrows and a weave to come maybe next week...I have to ease into this slowly...

PS I think my trip is going to flyyyyyyy

Excited and Anxious

So it's time to start thinking about this summer and next semester and making plans. I can't believe that I'm considering leaving Ghana so soon. I just got here in January! If all goes as I hope, I will be able to stay out here until mid June and then come back to a USAID internship. But I'm not sure if it will work out, or if I will have to come back in May, or even if I'll be offered something in West Africa for the whole summer. It's frustrating having no idea what is going on but the possibilities are all good in their own ways I guess. Just registered for classes for next semester with some much appreciated help. Apparently, it is fun to put a registration block on students across the world to give them a real head ache. Strange thinking about my rugby schedule as I am choosing classes but it's making me excited to get back for senior year. Classes only on Tuesday and Thursday as of now :) It's a weird feeling wanting to go home and to stay here forever all at once... I guess time will tell.

Going out tonight to a club with friends from the school's volleyball team and then probably going to my roommate's house in Accra for the weekend. I'm trying to fit so much into these last 6 weeks. Trips to villages in the Volta region, to Kumasi, to the beach and to a million places that I haven't been yet. Running out of time...

Happiness from Home

JUST got the best phone call ever. Vee called me from Richmond to tell me that the team beat Kutztown and is going to NATIONALS IN FLORIDA!! It is such great news and to make it even better, I got to talk to a bunch of people on the team...not exactly sure who due to a bad connection but I think I heard from Alina, Kara, Ashley and Christmas. SO good to get such good news and to hear from so many friends back home. Made my night. I am so impressed with the team. You've worked so hard and come so far to do this. Wish I was there to cheer you on while you show everyone who UMD rugby is. Believe me, I am decked out in Women's Rugby gear and bragging to strangers. I can't wait to get your pictures and updates. I am so obsessed with you guys...you have no idea.

Also, my little sister just left for CA for the weekend to check out USC one more time before deciding on a school. She is doing so well and I am the proud big sister. Looks like a road trip to Cali when I get back. Going out to celebrate tonight and maybe watch the Final Four at a local sports bar. So happy and homesick it is ridiculous. I love Ghana and I love home.