Blogs from Legon, Greater Accra, Ghana, Africa

It rained yesterday. A lot. If I didn't have to walk all the way back to ISH, to use the bathroom, I'd tell you about it. I guess it'll have to wait.... read more

Ok, Ok... I know I said I'd try to update at least once a week. That probably won't happen. I'm working (or have started working on) a rough draft of my next blog because I don't have enough internet time to sit here and compose. Life here is interesting...and different. Let it suffice to say that it is definitely not as culturally acceptable to be as hobo-ish as I am at home. So, to tease you and get you excited about my upcoming posts, here's a sneak peak of what's happened so far: -I've been proposed to. -I've gone out dancing in a Ghanaian club. -I've thrown up my malaria medicine. -I've started to like cold showers. -I wash everything by hand. -I've ridden a tro-tro. -I've seen hairy legs. on women. -I've been to a ... read more

As soon as I stepped off of the plane, my hair grew a halo of frizz. It was hot, humid, and dusty. I was tired, and had just been on a seven hour flight with about 3 hours of turbulence that brought me dangerously close to puking all over the place. But I didn't so it was all good. The airport was all decorated for Christmas, which was bizarre because it was so warm and smelled so much like Africa (cooking oil, dust, and other, less distinct odors) and so little like evergreens or cookies. We picked up all of our stuff from baggage claims, and then we met our program leaders, who helped us load into a van to set off towards our hotel. At this point I was past being tired and was simply ... read more

11/29/2010 Only two weeks until my semester abroad is officially over. There hasn’t been much time for traveling outside of Accra these past weeks which was ok because I still had a few places to visit within the city. I have spend most of the past week shopping for souvenirs, visiting James Town, Ussher Town, and Independence Square, and of course enjoying the beautiful weather. James Town is a little historic town in Accra and has several colorful markets and colonial-era houses and shops. I visited the old lighthouse of Fort James and was given a quick history lesson of the town by one of the locals, then went down to the old fishing harbor before settting off for Ussher Town which is just northeast of James Town and within walking distance. There wasn’t much to ... read more

(If your money's small, your say is small.) To begin, I’d like to apologize for the long delay in posting. It’s been a busy month, but not THAT busy. I’m happy to report that my health is good, I’ve managed to avoid getting malaria so far, and there’ve been a few days of rain breaking up the “dry season”, so the heat isn’t too bad. And now to recap five weeks’ worth of happenings. Back in mid-October, the week after Kirk left, our CIEE group went to Kumasi, capital of the Ashanti Region and arguably the biggest cultural hub in all of Ghana. My Twi professor, Prof. Kofi Agyekum, swears that one cannot truly say s/he has been to Ghana without first paying a visit to Kumasi. Of course, he’s from Kumasi, so he may be ... read more

10/18/2010 The rainy season is officially over and the weather is starting to get very hot. Now I see the use of the freezing cold showers! I no longer can wear my long hair down, wear pants outside, or drink hot tea in the mornings. Thank goodness we have a pool next to our dorm. The professors are finally done striking so the Ghanaian students are back on campus and everything is back to normal. I was able to get tickets to the Black Stars v. Sudan soccer game in Kumasi last weekend so I went with three friends of mine for the weekend. We have a friend who works at the French Embassy in Kumasi so she took us in for a couple days. I had never been to a real professional soccer game before ... read more

29/09/10 Last weekend, I went to Togo. I went with another girl, Stella, from my CIEE group. We both spoke enough French to get around so we thought, “This will be fun!” We left at 4:00 a.m. on Saturday morning to catch a cab to the STC Bus Station at Kwame Nkrumah Circle. We stood for about half an hour in the wrong queue before I asked someone if it was the wrong queue, and was quickly redirected to another queue. We didn’t trust the queues anymore, so we went instead to the information desk. For once, the information desk actually provided helpful information. We were at the wrong bus station. Fortunately, the bus going to Aflao, the border town close to Lomé, Togo, was leaving from STC Bus Station to the Accra Station so we ... read more

True to the old Chinese curse, I am living in interesting times. I went to the market Saturday before last, looking for cream-colored silk fabric with no pattern. Ha. Such a thing is not easily found in Ghana. Almost all of the material I saw was cotton or synthetic. The few swaths of silk available were in bold, vibrant floral patterns. Dresses here are certainly not boring. It didn’t help that many traders in the market places speak somewhat limited English, especially the older women. This meant that I often had to gesticulate or find another girl to translate. Fortunately, Carolyn came along and was able to help me through my fool’s errand. I was not successful, by the way. Not even with Carolyn’s help. Ghanaians really like to party. The Friday before last was Eid ... read more