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This week has been pretty mellow. Classes haven’t officially started yet so we’ve mainly just been registering and auditing. I did attend a couple classes -intro to African drumming, which was fun, and the twi language class that ISEP is requiring us to take. The language class is interesting and will surely be helpful, but we don’t get any credit for it so I’m not too stoked on doing the homework or studying for it. The other classes I’ve registered for are -international conflict resolution & human rights, political economics of African colonialism, history of the black diaspora and traditional African religions. We still have time to change classes if we don’t like the class or the lecturer but I’ll most likely stick with those.

We spent a couple days this week going to a few orphanages and schools in the area to check out volunteer opportunities. Most of the places we visited are in the city and are pretty easy to get to by using tro-tro’s. there’s one that is a couple hours away in the rainforest and volunteers can go and stay for days at a time. I’m definitely planning on going back to a few of them throughout the semester.

On Wednesday we went to labidi beach for reggae night. There were a lot of locals, live music and everything was set up on the sand so it was easy to go play in the ocean. Very cool. Ha and somehow we ended up on stage at one point.. I’m not too sure what to think of that.
on Saturday the university hosted a welcome durbar for all the international students -there really are a lot of us and it was nice to see some of the students who are staying in different dorms.

So far I haven’t had a problem meeting or making friends with the local people. We get approached pretty often on and off campus and most people have been really friendly -but sometimes too friendly. We’ve been warned to be cautious and a bit skeptical when first meeting people, as some will claim to be interested in friendship when they have other motives. It’s kind of frustrating not knowing what anyone’s intentions are when they start talking to you. My experience with a lot of the men has been of them being forward, persistent and at times really aggressive. I haven’t talked to a lot of local women, they tend to be more reserved. There are a couple groups of guys that we’ve met who have been helpful and sociable without being disrespectful. I hope it stays that way.

I’m having a great time and am looking forward to seeing how my classes turn out. We’ll start traveling soon so I should have something more interesting to write about before too long.

hope all is well in the states.
much love, lyssa

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Comments

[Rick & Jane]

Interesting
Hi Lyssa, Your dad shared this blog address with us. We were very interested in reading of your experiences so far. We hope for your safety and that you enjoy being an international student in such a far away and foreign country! We'll continue to check the blog periodically. Love, Uncle Rick and Aunt Jane