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Published: February 20th 2008
Our trip to the beach on Saturday was very nice and relaxing. Shane and I wanted to get out to the beach early that day, but we needed to get some cash first, which one would expect to take only the smallest amount of time considering there is a bank barely 200 yards from the ISH… but that’s not how it works here. lol The bank starts letting people in the bank at 9am, but doesn’t “open” until 9:30am (and I use the word “open” loosely because I have yet to actually see this be true.) We got there around 9:20, and were the first people in line at the currency exchange window, but when the little bank man did actually decide to serve us (around 9:55), he didn’t actually do anything. He asked us what we wanted, but when we handed him our $50 USD, all he did for the next 15 minutes was run around back and forth between three computers and a printer. It wasn’t until we stopped him that he told us “the system is down” and could be down anywhere from 10 minutes to two hours until it’s functioning. He said the ATM outside was working… but it wasn’t until Shane ran all the way to the hostel and back to get his debit card that we found that that was a not at all true. Moral of the story: American banks aren’t as bad as you think they are. lol
Because such a delay was put into our beach outing, another one of the girls in our group, Alex, was up and ready to go to the beach too. She has spent the past three or four months in Ghana staying at a friend’s house, so she took us under her wing and got our tro-tro to the beach, so it wasn’t at all as traumatic as we might have thought, and the day at the beach was a lot of fun.
On Sunday, Shane and I went to the Catholic church on campus… although we got incredibly lost on the way because this campus is so ridiculously big, even if we had taken the most direct path from the ISH to the church it is still a good 20-30 minutes walk. The church was not at all as elaborate as the Catholic churches at home, or even as pretty as the Interdenominational Church we attended the week before. The mass was really really nice, and combined the familiarity of a Catholic service with the culture and dancing of Africa, so I really couldn’t have asked for more. The only thing that was slightly alarming was shortly after we arrived, only about 10 minutes into the service, while everyone was singing an African hymn, people started getting up and going towards the altar. We couldn’t see what they were going up to do, but when our turn came to go up we jumped right into the line of people dancing up to the altar (which only had minor resemblance to a dancing conga-line hahaha) Once I was about four people away from the front of the line, I realized people were putting money into a collection box... but I didn’t have any money on me. So what did I do? Yes, I pretended. I clenched my (white) fist, giving it the illusion of having money inside and put my hand deep into the box to drop my invisible money. I note that my fist is “(white)” because everyone who is white here is automatically assumed to have infinite amounts of money at their disposal, and I’m pretty sure that a white person snubbing the church collection would start a mild uprising of angry African Catholics. (…although, up to this point that would have been bad, but at my Twi class today I learned to say “mepawokyew” meaning “I beg you” which the teacher assured us carries great power and will calm down even the angriest Ghanaian… but I hope to never have to find out. lol) They took a second collection later in the service, which I was ready for this time and got money from Shane to put in, but when I went up the second time I noticed that most people had very conspicuous closed fists like mine was the first time. Shane and I decided that there was a fair sized percentage of people who seemed to have phantom money clenched in their fists like mine was, but did so knowingly. It was kind of a funny thing to watch once we made that observation.
On Monday classes started… kind of. My first class was at 9:30am on the complete other end of campus, but once I got there, I couldn’t figure out which room the class was in. I stopped someone to ask them, and they told me that none of the 400 level classes would be likely to have class for the first two weeks, nor the 300 level, and that my class probably wasn’t even assigned a classroom yet… although the first day of classes was officially today. Some of Shane’s classes weren’t even assigned times yet, which makes it very frustrating to plan out a schedule. So to make a long story short of what these past three days have been:
first class- I went, class didn’t meet
second class- class met, but I wasn’t there because I was told the professor wouldn’t be there
third class- I went, but the professor never showed
fourth class- first real class. Political Science class titled Human Rights in Africa. The professor was difficult to understand but it seems to have a lot of reading, so hopefully that will be good so I don’t need to rely on lectures too much
fifth class- second real class. Amaaazing, I loved it sooo much. It’s a sociology class titled Social Structure of Modern Ghana. The professor is excellent, even came up to the few “obruni” (meaning “foreign”) students to meet us after class and tell us he hopes we continue to attend his class. He even clarified a question I had about the lecture. Needless to say, I’m so so so excited about this class.
Overall, I think I have my schedule worked out such that I will only have classes on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, or Wednesdays and Thursdays, such that I can travel around and not worry about missing lectures. I plan to audit some of the other interesting classes I have signed up for, so if I am on campus I am still welcome to attend the lectures and do the readings, but am not required to and will not receive credit.
Shane and I and a few other students are trying to plan a trip to Our Lady of Lourdes Shrine in Kpando, a small town about an hour or two away from campus. It is the third largest Christian grotto in the world, and many people have experienced visions from Mary there. We are planning to go the first Friday of March, because there are all day services and vigils on the first Friday of each month. We are going to try and stay overnight there because there is a monkey sanctuary nearby that we will definitely want to check out. (oh that reminds me!! my roommate, Susie, had one of her classes interrupted today… by a MONKEY!!! no joke!! she said it came in through the window, someone shooed it back out a window, and then it came back in again a few minutes later!!!! gosh, what an amazing place… class being interrupted by monkeys. hahaha)
Alright well that’s pretty much all for now. The only other notable thing I can think of is that a guy at a restaurant on campus called me over to try and convince me, the naïve white “obruni” girl, that he was Jesus. lol It was really fun though because he clearly knew that I was with Shane, so he wasn’t hitting on me or anything, just goofing around. So Shane and I laughed with him and his friends for probably 10 minutes, during which he tried to teach us a few words in Twi, told me he’d been to Michigan when he was five, and spoke fluent Italian to me when I told him I took two semesters of the language at home. lol There are definite horror stories about the bad things that can go on here, but I absolutely believe the significant majority of the people here are absolutely wonderful. For instance, tonight a woman at the market named Margaret gave us free red red, which is a really good soup like mixure of beans and other veggies and spices. We were just chatting with her about the difference in weather here than at home while we ate, and then when we went to pay her she wouldn’t tell us how much. Shane and I still gave her money, but I just thought that was so amazing. I know that market stand is her entire life and her only source of income. Those people even sleep on the floors of their market stands at night. But she still wanted to give it to us for free. The people here are so kind, it’s really quite overwhelming.
So, in other words… I’m still LOVING it here!!! :-D
hope all is well back in the states!
peace,
Lauren =p
P.S. I’d like to send a shout out to Colin’s dad (Colin is a friend I’ve made who is also here through the SUNY Brockport program). Colin said you have been reading Mr. Rynne, so I thought I’d say hello!! haha ☺
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Mom
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Great story!
I loved "hearing" about the mass on Sunday. I will definitely pass along the idea of two collections to Fr. Cap. He is going to love that! Classes 2 days a week! You mean you will have a 5 day weekend?! LOL Hmmm I thought this was called, "study abroad." I misunderstood . . . Thanx for the update - keep 'em coming. Still cold here. Send us some of that sun! Luv ya - Mom