The Marathon of Registration

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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 drop/add 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 taking. Since classes supposedly started August 17th and the deadline isn’t until Sept. 4th, many seniors haven’t moved in yet and many students haven’t started showing up to classes yet.
Registration is pretty frustrating. It is a pretty unorganized process that is relatively chaotic. The different departments are located all across campus in different buildings. To register for a class in a certain department, you must find the office of the department in each of the buildings and fill out an information form and write down the info for the class(es) you want to register for and give them a passport picture. Since I am taking 5 classes at five different departments, I am still in the process of completing my registration. The frustrating part is that we all registered for classes before they started, without any timetables given. Essentially, we were all running around campus trying to find classes in the right groups and at the right levels so that our final exams wouldn’t overlap and we had to do this without knowing the time or the location for any of the classes. The timetables were released Aug. 17th, on the first day of class, which meant we all got up at 6 am so we could walk to each department and check times so we didn’t miss our early classes.
After finding out my classes times, I then had to go around and drop certain classes because they were at the same time as other ones. I’m now in the process of finding and adding one more class that doesn’t conflict. The first week of classes was ridiculous because even with the timetables finally posted, most of my professors didn’t even show up. The only classes that I have officially started are my Twi language class, which is Monday-Thursday from 4-5:30 but it is only 6 weeks long. I also started my drumming and dance classes as well which are each twice a week. Most classes are only once a week for two hours. I will be taking a class called School Social Work covering issues in education in developing countries like Ghana, and another one called Gender Politics, which is covering topics like gender roles, homosexuality, and the family in today’s society. I’m definitely ready to start my classes. It has been a little boring since not everyone has moved onto campus and we don’t really have any homework yet. I do have some Twi homework, but it’s pretty minimal. My professor, Kofi, is great. He is constantly laughing and jokes about how he is going to “kill us all” and “throw us into the bush” if we don’t finish our sentences in class. Since certain sounds in Twi are really confusing and all sound the same to us, he tries to entertain us and help us to learn them better by throwing down some beats and using a desk as his drum. Kofi also loves his FuFuo (a traditional Ghanaian food) and uses that in his examples at least three times a class period.

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