This weekend was an absolute blast. A group of about 10 spent the long 4 day holiday weekend at the Green Turtle Lodge in Dixcove, a small town outside of Takoradi. We had planned on going into Takoradi and spending one afternoon there, but we pretty much ended up just hanging out on a beautiful beach not wanting to leave. It was amazing to me how cheap it was to stay there (approx $3 a night in a tent) and have only maybe 30 people at most on a 2 mile long stretch of beach. Palm trees, sand crabs, outside showers, [View Full Entry]

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On day two of our CIEE excursion, we visited the Kakum National Park. Kakum is a small rainforest containing many different kinds of trees, monkeys, birds, insects, and my favorite, the forest elephants (unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to see any monkeys or elephants, but the giant millipedes made up for it). At Kakum, they have a high ropes course through the trees, which consists of seven “bridges” or hanging planks of wood with netting and ropes. They were a little scary and rickety, but overall, a fantastic view and great experience to add to our adventures in Ghana [View Full Entry]

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I just got back from a weekend trip my program CIEE took us on. We left early on Saturday morning heading to Cape Coast. Since I had been there the weekend before, we had a little better idea of how to pack and what to expect. But unlike our solo trip, we got to stay in a high-class hotel. Once we arranged our roommates and dropped off our stuff at the hotel, we got back on the bus and headed either to the Cape Coast Castle or the Elmina Castle. I chose to go to the Elmina Castle because it is [View Full Entry]

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Today we got to go to the Black Star Football Game. The Black Stars are the National Ghanaian Football team. They were playing Sudan in the qualifying game for the World Cup. The game started at 5 pm, but we were advised to arrive early so that we could experience the pre-game activities. We got to the game around 3 pm. We had VIP seats which were in the front sections (we were the fifth or sixth row) right at the centerfield line. It was definitely one of the best views in the stadium. A part of our group was directly [View Full Entry]

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This weekend a small group of six of us CIEE students decided to take a short trip to Cape Coast. There was a festival in Cape Coast on Saturday that we wanted to partake in. With our last minute plans the evening before, we booked rooms at a hotel approx 45 minutes outside Cape Coast via Trotro. We left Friday morning around 11 am and squished all six of us into a taxi and took it to Keneshe, a market place where we could connect up with a taxi/bus station. We ended up taking a three hour trotro ride to Cape [View Full Entry]

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Today we took our first day field trip with CIEE. It started off a little rough, as it always does in Ghana. We were supposed to have two buses for our group of 50 students, but unfortunately the larger bus decided not to show up, therefore, the students in ISH had to wait until Sunday to go. Since it was the smaller bus that did arrive, all the home stay and Pentagon kids got to squish on. Finally, after an hour and a half of debating and waiting, we set off on our adventure. Our first stop was the Obruri wood-carving [View Full Entry]

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Today was the first time I think I really realized how beautiful this country is. After a few weeks here, traveling and living within the hustle and bustle that is Accra and Legon, I no longer see the markets as vendors on the side of the road. I see them as entrepreneurs who have worked hard to make their own businesses. The women in these markets started up from scratch and used what they had and their talents to create their own private businesses. Ghana is a developing country and it is amazing to see this countries progress. So many new [View Full Entry]

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These first few weeks of school have been really layed back. The reason for this is that registration has not yet been finalized. Unlike registration at St. Olaf, where we have a deadline to register before classes actually start, then another deadline for drop/add classes, there is only one deadline at the Uni. Of Ghana. By September 4th, all students have to be registered for the classes we are taking. Since classes supposedly started August 17th and the deadline isn’t until Sept. 4th, many seniors haven’t moved in yet and many students haven’t started showing up to classes [View Full Entry]

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After orientation was over on the 11th, we moved into our dorms/homestays. I am in a dorm called Ghana Hostel, or Pentagon by students. It is a dorm with flats instead of corridors. It is sort of like Ytterboe at St. Olaf but only has three double rooms connecting to one main common area that has a table and chairs, a "kitchen" which is more like a small room with empty cupboards and counter space, a small deck where we hang our laundry and two bathrooms. The 15 CIEE students that are living in Pentagon this term are the only Americans [View Full Entry]

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We began orientation the next day. We ended up sitting in a room listening to different speakers talk about everything from safety tips to life on campus with a Ghanaian roommate. Overall, it was pretty good, but a little long. We did get to take a break and go on a “scavenger hunt” through the city in groups. We had to locate different places all over the city and figure out how to get ourselves there. This wouldn’t have been very difficult, except for the fact that street names apparently don’t exist. But no worries, we had experienced group leaders. My [View Full Entry]

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