http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Africa , Ghana , Greater Accra , Legon en-us Wed, 09 Dec 09 05:21:21 +0000 Wed, 09 Dec 09 05:21:21 +0000 Hey everyoneI havnt had time to go through my photos or shrink any of them and thats why the're not up yet. I ll try to get to that soon.Today i am the official medic at a rugby tournament i have not the slightest clue as to how i got into that. Someone asked if people knew a little first aid i said yes and they said im now the official medic... YIKES i hope there are no serious injuries o http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-447749.html Step By Step Directions on How to Cook in Ghana1 Walk 15 minutes to the front gate of school get hassled by the cab drivers for ignoring them and proceed to wait for an indefinite amount of time until you hear a trotro the Ghanaian hybrid of public transportation and carpooling ldquomaterdquo guy who collects the money yelling out ldquoAccra lsquocra lsquocra lsquocra Te http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-436432.html dear family and friendshow are you all doing i think the school year had started for some of you and i wish the transition will be smooth and stressless. i went to the Cape Coast Castle and the Elmina Castle last week with my travel mates from Calvin. it was truly an eye opening and heart twisting experience. Those are not castle of the king or queen prince and princess but of the slave maste http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-435268.html dear family and friends it is almost been a month since i am here in this red dirt country Ghana. life is definitely a lot busier with school being in full swing. i might even dare to say that i study more here than back home at Calvin College. even my roommate was amazing how hard i study... haha... or more like he was surprise by how hard a exchange student can study. my roommate and i had sur http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-435003.html dear friends and familyhow are you all... life here been well... with the ghanan way ofliving here wake up early and sleep early... had make me a earlyriser tooover the last few day... we been around the city accra and all kind ofmarkets big or small the market here is so lively and energetic.there are always noise music and laughter. i love the market. thereare so many people in one sma http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-433309.html 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 dropadd 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-432971.html After orientation was over on the 11th we moved into our dormshomestays. 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-430388.html I finally think I am able to post stuff. Here are some of the first pictures I took and some pictures of the campus. Will add more pics of the campus laterEnjoy http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-429718.html here goes a second time I thought I saved the last one but apparently not.I went to Commonwealth Hall the other day it is an all male dormitory on the top of campus. Before we went in we were told that woman are not allowed to wear any red inside. I guess red is a color of power and authority and therefore woman cannot where it in this hall... Anyways the hall was beautiful there were a bunch http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-425873.html Soooo...everything is going well here...the power hasn't gone out for a week now knock on wood. The water is another story though it goes out about every other day. Fortunately we have been making a few trips to the markets down town...will tell you about those details later so we can get buckets for storing water when it is running. Either way the showers are cold in my dorm so no matter http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-425276.html Wow I canrsquot believe that I will be in Ghana in 1 week It seems like I have been preparing for this day forever and all the hard work in getting to this point is finally being rewarded. I feel like I have prepared my self as much as possible for the culture shock both mentally and physically that I will experience for the next 5 12 months of my life. I am so excited for this adventure and http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-421798.html So in case any of you are still convinced I'm going to be living in a a hut surrounded by lethal insects and one misstep from contracting AIDS this will keep informed that I'm still alive. I leave in three weeks.What have I gotten myself intoPat http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-420852.html I was out at a restaurant the other night and a man sat down to chat with us. Later into our conversation he asked us all to go around and name the best and worst experiences each of us has had in Ghana. For the life of me I could not think of a single thing about my time here that I will remember as being bad. Donrsquot get me wrong I have been frustrated filthy exhausted and ready to f http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-398334.html I would first like to thank everyone for all the amazing school supplies that you have sent First Jarod Leleux and the school board for donating some MUCH needed textbooks. Now when we teach we can actually have a lesson plan Bethany has been working with the teachers at GCP and showing them the basics of teaching like how to write a lesson plan and how to use a textbook and the supplementals http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-396487.html A pack of gum a water sachet plantain chips even apples or super glue or posters of Ghana all have the potential to be impulse buys right Now a parrot on the other hand is not something I would classify as an impulse buy. I was in a taxi driving through Osu the other day and there was a man trying to sell me a parrot in a cage. I donrsquot know about you but Irsquom not sure how many http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-395851.html Whew what a rough couple of days.I guess we should have taken it as a sign from above to expect a less than perfect trip when we set out to find a cab at 6 in the morning in the pouring down rain. Last Monday 3 of the girls and I took off for the Ghana border to travel across Togo and into Benin for a little whirlwind trip. As it started we woke up at 530 am to pouring down rain and screamin http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-395849.html Well this weekend was a great example of the randomness of life in Ghana.So as the story starts the girls and I were standing outside a nightclub called Tantra in Osu on Friday night. We were debating and admittedly arguing about whether it was worth it to pay the 10 cedi cover charge to get in. We were pretty split down the middle and on the verge of just going home when one of the bouncers http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-392666.html This weekend the girls and I skipped the border and spent our Easter in Togo.For those of you who donrsquot know Togo is the long skinny francophone country to the east of Ghana. I loved Togo the closed gutters and wider streets were a nice change as well as scalding hot water in our shower at the Hotel Copacabana. Haha ldquoHer name was Lola she was a showgirl...rdquo There are t http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-390891.html Volunteering at the primary school didnrsquot work out for me unfortunately. However Irsquove just begun a new volunteering project at an orphanage in East Legon fairly close to campus. It seems to be one of the nicer orphanages from what Irsquove heard of other places so they may not need the most help but with just over a month left in Ghana itrsquos the only place organized enoug http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-390606.html Maybe itrsquos the way she dances around with one gigantic flip flop on or maybe itrsquos the way she spins as fast as she can and then tries to crawl and collapses in a fit of giggles instead or maybe itrsquos the way she looks at you and somehow you just know she understands. Whatever it is Irsquom in love with a baby girl named Mina who is just shy of 2 and lives in an orphanage in http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Ghana/Greater-Accra/Legon/blog-388247.html