Six Weeks and a Day

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Hello All!

I'm sorry I've been neglecting to update everyone. As you may have figured out, the internet on campus is often very slow so internet is still a great means of getting in touch with me for free but ti takes me a while.

Let's see... I'll just start with a really brief recap of the past six weeks and then the next time I write I'll pick up with more specifics.

Basically, I'm living in a great little international bubble on campus called the International Students Hostel (ISH). There are 10 people in the group that I came with (University Studies Abroad Consortium- USAC) and we've been sticking together a lot. They're all really cool and we've been exploring and hanging out together.

I've done some traveling. The 10 of us went to Kumasi and Mole National Park in the north one weekend and to Cape Coast (a few hours to the west) the next weekend. I took a weekend off from travel and just went to the beach. Then this past weekend we went to Ada Foah. It was gorgeous! We stayed in little huts ($10 a night so $5 each if you share a bed and the beds were definitely big enough to share). If I walked out of my hut and looked to the right, it was about a 10 second walk to the river and if I looked to the left it was about a 50sec walk to the ocean with just sand and palm trees and the huts in between. It was so beautiful; six of my USAC folks went and we had a fabulous time.

Classes are going well. They only meet once a week for two hours (some also have an hour long tutorial in addition, but those haven't started yet for any of my classes). I've had some reading for homework and one paper but no big assignments yet. Since I haven't been drowning in schoolwork, I've been traveling and hanging out and cooking. I learned how to make vegetable stew to go with boiled yam (like boiled potatoes) from the women at the night market across the street from ISH; it's delicious.

Unfortunately, I haven't made as many Ghanaian acquaintances because classes only meet once a week and I'm living almost exclusively with international students, but I'm started to see some familiar faces so hopefully I'll get to know people a little better in the coming weeks.

My Twi is coming along slowly. I had my first full greeting in Twi with a seller at the night market this morning. It was just good morning and how are you, but it was fun to do the full exchange all in Twi. I also ordered a banana in Twi but with less confidence.

I'm also volunteer once or twice a week with a boy named Joshua who just turned eight and is autistic. His family is working with him under the guidance of the Sonrise Program (based in Sheffield, Massachusetts). From what my mom has said, the approach falls under the "floor time" approach. Basically, I spend time joining Joshua in whatever activity he is doing, celebrate him a lot when he does something I want to encourage (like eye contact or speech), and occasionally make requests once I've built up his trust/enthusiasm. It's fun but there's a lot of talk surrounding the work so I'll be there for hours but only spend one of those hours in the room with Josh. And the father is a born-again Christian minister, so that can be challenging. I sat through an hour and a half long personal sermon last week, but he has been good about my lack of interest so far (aside from talking forever).

So I'm having a fabulous time overall. It's often overwhelming, but I have a safe little international community in the dorm so I always come home to a comfortable place.

Until next time... Me din de Anna. Mefiri Melrose wa Massachusetts wa America nanso mete ISH 2 wa Legon wa Ghana.

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Comments

[Dill]

hello
Great to hear from you Anna - sounds like a good place to be. I'll make sure Barb (who's stayed in Ghana) reads your blog. Dil