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Published: February 16th 2008
Sorry I haven’t updated for a bit, we’ve been so busy with our orientation that when there is spare time, taking a nap always trumps blog writing.
In the past few days we’ve gone to so many crazy places. The orientation is so wonderful with teaching us how to live and be self-sufficient in this culture rather than supplying everything to us so that we are able to do it on our own. When we first came, all of our meals were at the orientation director’s home, which is actually right on campus as are all university employee homes. Then she and our student guides began by taking us to the various eating places on campus (i.e. Tasty Treats, Bush Canteen, Akufo Hall, and Taco Bell which is not at all like the Taco Bell we know in the States) that all serve pretty much serve the exact same thing.
The staple foods here, rice, fried rice, jollof rice, chicken, fried chicken, beef, peanut soup with fufu (which are pretty much big dense balls of rice), sweet bread, and incredibly amazing fried egg sandwiches on sweet bread rolls which I enjoy most of all. The women make the egg sandwiches by mixing one or two eggs in a small Tupperware container that looks like an butter container, and mixing in small chopped up onions and peppers, with a dash of African palm oil. Then they pass the mixture to another woman who is sitting on a really tiny stool bent over the smallest makeshift barbeque you’ve ever seen which is really nothing more than a really thin pan over a candle and incredibly few coals. When your egg is cooked, you have to specify if you would like “cheese.” To be quite honest, we are not at all sure what this “cheese” is. It’s spreadable, and resembles cream cheese, but tastes much more like genuine cheese than cream cheese. It’s alarming though because it doesn’t need to be refrigerated...? It’s even sold in the stores unrefrigerated. It’s a mystery, but a very good. Next, you have to tell the lady how much sweet bread you want because all of the bread is all in uncut loaf form. This may sound quite simple, but to the untrained, this is always the most difficult element of the transaction. You are expected to buy bread in price quantities such as 30 pesewas, 20 pesewas, 10 pesewas, etc. (30 pesewas = $0.30 USD). I still am not exactly sure how many pesewas of bread we really get, we’ve just gotten good at saying “egg sandwich” instead of “egg and bread” like the locals do, because it seems to prompt less questions about the quantity of bread. lol One of the first times we ordered “egg and bread” and were asked how much bread, we ended up communicating that we wanted one cedi worth of bread each (1 cedi = $1 USD), and almost got one whole loaf of bread for Shane and one whole loaf of bread for myself. Luckily a kind local customer overheard and said, “I’m not sure if you realize, you just said you wanted two loaves of bread for your two sandwiches.” lol When your sandwich is done she gives it to you in a small plastic bag like at grocery stores, which is a little strange the first time, but now seems quite normal. All in all the entire sandwich is about 60-90 pesewas.
The drinks here are basically Coke and Sprite (with the occasional Pepsi or 7up), and Fanta, all of which come in glass bottles. When you buy a drink in a glass bottle you are expected to finish it in the vicinity, and return the bottle to the vendor. Soda in cans or plastic bottles can be found, but are always more expensive because the vendor gets money back each time they reuse a glass bottle, and therefore can charge less for them. Milo, a really popular chocolate milk drink, equivalent to Ovaltine, is also prevalent, as is Malta. Malta looks like an a Guinness beer, but is non-alcoholic, and tastes “like a gross combination of cream soda and what I imagine beer to taste like” as Shane stated. the locals here seem to love it and drink it all the time, and claim it to be rich in vitamins and other good nutrients.
The only place we’ve eaten off campus thus far was at a restaurant called “Frankie’s.” The day we went to Frankie’s was a very intense day of experiencing the markets, which can only be described as “intense.” People are grabbing at you from every direction trying to get you to buy their products, and you are in a continual state of feeling like cattle weaving through the various market stands. Our guides were completely unphased by the market, but for us, after a several hours of that, it starts to wear you down. I think our orientation director knew that would be an overwhelming day for us because we were told specifically to “eat at Frankie’s.” Frankie’s was air conditioned, playing American MTV on TV screens, and the customers were entirely Europeans and Americans. Our group walked in and literally started laughing because it was just so incredibly different from everywhere we had been thus far. All the food was hot dogs, hamburgers, salads, milkshakes, etc. It will be a most perfect place to escape to once culture shock sets in.
Other notable experiences thus far:
-My roommate, Susie, wasn’t aware that when they told us, “Watch out. Ghanaian men are um… very forward” that they really meant it. She, another kid from our group named Colin, Shane and I went out to get dinner after dark (it gets dark here at 6pm on the dot) with our friend Dennis’ (a Ghanaian student) friend. Apparently once we got back from getting food, he came into our ISH with Colin, but once he left Colin’s room he came looking for Susie… apparently with intentions of marrying her! Susie heard him calling for her and shut off the lights in our room, hoping he would assume she wasn’t there. I came to the room to find her in the room, about a half an hour after he left, sitting in the dark. lol Needless to say I’m glad I brought a fake engagement ring, and advised Susie to say the same of one of her rings. All the girls in our group get proposed to alllll the time, but most of them don’t mean to rea
-Shane squirted 100% DEET bug spray (which is incredibly lethal) in his eye today… and then proceeded to run to the bathroom to rinse it with tap water, which also isn’t safe to drink, let alone put in your eye. I chased after him with my contact saline solution, and flushed his eye out for about 10 minutes per the directions on the bottle. His eye is only just barley pink on the one side, and he says it doesn’t hurt, so I’m sure he’s going to be just fine (but I’ll admit my first instinct was that he was going to go blind. Not good.)
-We got cell phones!! Cell phones are very different here than in the States because there are no phone “plans.” You buy any phone you want at any store or stand, go to a different store to buy a SIMcard, and then buy small flimsy cards to pay as you go. All phones follow the pay as you go format, and the phone minute card vendors can be found basically one to 15 vendors every 30 feet, on or off campus.
-We went to the beach!! The name of the beach is Labadi beach, and is apart of the largest tourist resort in Accra. I had no idea what to expect of the beaches here, because I’d heard so many different things, but it really was very enjoyable. We are going backi to the beach tomorrow, but when we went earlier our orientation director sat up on the beach to watch over all our things, so I’m not really sure how that is going to go this time. We will have to see.
-Registering for classes here is ridiculous. First of all, you are told to sign up for many more classes than you plan to take, then there is a two week “shopping period” when you then drop the classes you don’t like until you have the correct number of classes (i.e. I signed up for 12 classes, but am only planning to actually take 4-5 classes). The time schedules of the classes are not up when you sign up for the classes, so you have no idea if there is a clash in class times, and have to go back a day or two before classes start to see the time schedule and class locations. You physically have to walk to each department you are taking classes with to register, and wait in a really really long line to go up and fill out your class request paper, and staple a passport sized photo to the paper. It wasn’t horrible because having to walk all over really helped familiarize us with the campus, but if I could do it all over again, I would bring a stapler. Although every student signing up for classes needed to staple their picture to their paper, many of the departments didn’t actually have a stapler. It was a little frustrating to be told you had to “go find a stapler” after waiting in line in the hot sun for so long.
Alright, well that’s all for now. Got to go to bed and be ready for our first post-orientation day, using public transportation and just pretty much living without a Ghanaian guide by our side. Shane and I want to leave early for the beach, earlier than the rest of our group does that is, so we will be engaging in our first adventure by ourselves and meeting up with the rest of the group later… needless to say, I’m sure we’ll have some interesting stories. lol wish us luck!! …and mom I know I just made you worried, lol but I promise we’ll be fiiiine!!! ☺ hahaha
love you all and wish you could be here!!
peace,
Lauren =p
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Mom
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Worried . . . Me?
Great update! Thanks - we have been waiting! Send me more info on that resort! Sounds like a destination . . . So, how is that sun screen working? Going on smooth? LOL Do not be telling us you have a sun burn! Tell Shane we are waiting for his perspective. I bet he has a few stories to tell on you, too! Glad you guys are adjusting to the food and environment. Can't wait to hear about classes - that is why you went, right?! Let us know what classes you are taking. Lots of luv - and we wish were were there, too! It's cold here. Mom