Only 5 Weeks Remaining...

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I can't believe my computer just restarted. I had a wonderful, very long update written. And I thought I was all set since travelblog.org auto-saves as you go along. But alas, my whole looong update was just lost.

Hmph.


Okay, here's the gist. (Updated at of November 12th so that the "gist" has become a fleshed out essay.)

:-)

Election night was awesome. I stayed up all night at an event off campus (hosted by New York University's study abroad program here- their only one in Africa; isn't that kind of sad?). We watched CNN (they kept saying we'd switch over to BBC and AlJezhira but they never actually did which was a little disappointing) and finally got to see Obama's acceptance speech on a larger-than-life screen at 5:30am. I thought it was pretty funny that they had to wait until all the polls were officially closed (and everyone had cast their votes) before they could announce Obama as the projected winner. The west coast closed and he was it! It was pretty cool. They played the Barrach Obama song right after he was announced; it's from Nigeria and written in pidgin English but it's very catchy.

Biano went with me and stayed the whole night. He didn't really have much choice since his hall is locked from 12mid-5am; some people had things stolen from their rooms fairly recently. He slept part of the time. People tend to get up earlier here (probably because it's light from 6am-6pm every day and midday is too hot to do much).

I need to bring a copy of the Barrach Obama song home. "Mama. Mama. Come make we talk about. Come make with talk about Barrach Obama. Papa. Papa. Come make we talk about. Come make we talk about Barrack Obama." Pigin English is very strange for me because I feel like I should be able to understand what's being said but most of the time it makes no sense to me. Biano speaks four languages: English, Pigin English, Mossi, and Twi.

I went to church last Sunday. It was okay. I had trouble understanding what was being said between the microphone and the accent. I'm still having a lot of trouble with the differences in accent at times. I looked beautiful and Ghanaian in my new matching slip and blouse. I wrapped my hair and everything. I'll post pictures once I'm home (4 1/2 weeks...) and can do so easily. And I had a typical experience with the seamstress Saturday night when I was trying to pick up my outfit (i.e. "almost finished" = an hour later when it's too late to go see the play I was dying to see).

This past Friday night was another failed play attempt that turned into a fun dinner out (kenkey for the first time). We found the off campus venue (on the way to Circle, across the street from the Presedential Palace) but it turned out that the performance was canceled due to low attendance the previous two nights. Kenkey with pepper (a spicy sauce) was good. It tastes a bit like sourdough bread. But the texture is very strange to me (like uncooked dough) so it doesn't really sit well in my stomach.

I wrote a review for my Dramatic Theory and Criticism course (per the teacher's request) last week. He read it aloud (like he did with our group assignments) so people could comment/revise it as he went along. It got a good amount of praise, and he didn't tell them it was mine until the very end, so I felt really good about it. My coursemates clapped for me and one of the women came over and gave me a "tap on the back" (a joke from a previous class when one group said someone deserved a "tap on the back" in their review). I was really nervous and then really pleased. It was a really good last class, but a little sad since I love my professor. He's really animated and energetic- always gesturing and getting up out of his seat- plus he was just very articulate and his lectures were well thought out.

Josh is still good. I won't see him for a week unfortunately, but I look forward to maximizing my time with him as soon as I get back from Bawku.

Yep, that's right. Biano and I are going home to Bolga/ Bawku (Upper East, the most northeastern region in Ghana) for a week. It should be an awesome trip. I'll meet the family and all. I'll write more next week, I'm sure. 😊

Twi finals this week: written tomorrow, oral Wednesday. Wish me luck. (Update: They went pretty well. I'm satisfied.)

All in all, I'm alive. And still doing very well.

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Comments

[Dad/Dave]

Church?
I can't believe that my baby girl went to church!