Part Two of my long-overdue blog update

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Another update on Saturday, 08/21

Ugh, I apologize for taking so long to update my blog. Internet is not consistent and the computers I manage to access internet on are certainly not reliable. It has been two weeks of power outages, faulty USB ports, slow internet, inability to access the site itself, and swift dwindling of personal internet time.
David, Helen, and Albert, the dynamo, left early this morning for the U.K. It’s much quieter in the house now. I have finally gotten to meet Mrs. Asante. She arrived in the middle of the night bellowing “MENA!”, or “mother”, which is the summons the Asantes use when they are in need of Carolyn’s assistance. She brought with her one suitcase of luggage and two enormous buckets full of live crabs and dead tilapia. The crabs struggled feebly as she tossed a few into a smaller bucket and stuck it in the fridge to eat for lunch the next day. A few more are currently munching on slices of cassava in a white bucket under the kitchen counter. She is a strong-willed lady, and she enjoys seafood very, very much.

On Tuesday, I went to Madina Market to purchase a backpack. Getting there was most of the fun. I hopped on a tro-tro that I hoped was going the right way and struck up a conversation with some of the other passengers in hopes that perhaps one of them was also going to Madina. To clarify, tro-tros are old vans which have been converted to hold more people. Four people will be squeezed onto a single bench seat in a vehicle with the width of a mini-van. It was raining. I looked up at the ceiling and saw mud splattering on it. I looked down and saw that the mud was coming from several holes in the floor right above the back wheel, which was where my feet were resting. I moved my feet quickly and did not look at the hole again. The tro-tro mate, as it turns out, deceived us. We were not going to Madina Market. I and several other passengers got off in a state of mild irritation and hailed another tro-tro, paid another fare, etc. When we finally got to Madina Market, I was stunned by the sheer size and density of it. There were corridors of vendors barely wide enough for me to fit through, and I’m fairly slender. They sold everything I could possibly have imagined, and several things I couldn’t ever have imagined. I bargained successfully to get a lower price for my back pack (woot!) and made it back to campus in time to meet up with some friends at a restaurant and then go home.

It has rained hard several times the past few days. The streets in my neighborhood are almost all made of red dirt. They take their mud seriously here in Ghana. American mud is positively wimpy by comparison. On the bright side, wet, muddy, red chickens look hilarious. And the baby goats throwing themselves in and out of the paths of hurtling taxis are always exciting.

Today, CIEE arranged for our group to go to Aburi Botanical Gardens. It’s a forty-minute drive out of Accra and into the rainforested mountains to the west of the city. The hills themselves reminded me a bit of Kentucky, but the flora was all different. And everything was covered by a thin mist which was made even mistier by the overcast weather. The gardens were like something out of a dream. There were fantastic trees and flowers, as well as little mossy stone walkways which led here and there through the foliage. I wish we could have spent the whole day looking around. My favorite part was the spice lawn, where all of the trees and plants had medicinal or culinary uses. And all over the place was Mimosa Pudica, whose leaves tremble and close themselves when you stroke it along the spine. I was excited to see it in its natural habitat!

After that, we went to see the first cocoa farm in Ghana. Fresh cocoa fruit is delicious. It tastes like mango. And then we got to eat some of the fermented cocoa beans, which were just 100% dark chocolate. That was the first Ghanaian chocolate I’ve had since my arrival in Ghana. : (

Tonight, there was a “Welcome Durbar”, or Dinner followed by Dancing. We saw a couple of displays of traditional dancing, and then everyone started breakin’ it down on the dance floor. We danced until we could dance no more, and until the mosquitoes started swarming. Then most of the CIEE kids headed back to ISH to drink cheap sangria, locally brewed gin (nasty, nasty stuff), and beer. I headed home to keep Carolyn company, since she’s been alone most of the day today, and since I’m not in Ghana to party like an American. And also, it gets dark a lot earlier here, and it’s not a good idea to be on the streets too late. I’ve not felt threatened by anyone yet, but there’ve been a couple of encounters that may not have happened, had it been daylight. Young guys like to make stupid comments when there aren’t any old women around to glower at them disapprovingly.


Update before Upload, 08/22

It is Sunday night after a long, long day. Grandpa and Grandma Asante left early this morning to pay a visit to some friends in a remote village, leaving Carolyn and me alone in the house. However, they need not have feared mischief from us. We were busy scrubbing, by hand, all of Grandma Asante’s travel clothes as well as all of the clothes Carolyn forgot to grab from Grandpa Asante’s room last weekend, as well as all of the family’s clothes from this week. We were washing clothes from 9:00 a.m. ‘til 5:00 p.m. It was nice, getting to hang out with Carolyn without her ever-present cell phone. In Ghana, it is not considered rude to carry on lengthy conversations on your phone while someone else is sitting right next to you, or to interrupt them in the middle of a sentence to answer your phone and then never resume the conversation. This means that although I spend more time with Carolyn than with any other person here, I don’t actually talk to her all that often. That has taken some getting used to.
After we finally finished washing the clothes and the dishes and the door mats and the knick-knacks and the paddiwacks, etc., we decided to go out for dinner. We had watched part of a Bollywood movie earlier while we took a short lunch break in between laundry loads, so I expressed an interest in trying the Indian/Chinese restaurant down the road from our house. Carolyn had never tried Indian food before, and this is about how the exchange went.

Before Indian Food (B.I.F.):
Claire: “Hey, let’s go to Noble House! It’s an Indian restaurant, and you were telling me how much you liked Indian movies (and boys).”

Carolyn: “Oh no! I’ve never eaten it before! I’ll get sick! I’ll never get full from this food. Claire, you’re really trying to kill me!”Etc, etc.
…………………
During Indian Food (D.I.F.):

Claire: “Ooh, would you like to try some of my Lhassi? Or my saag paneer? It’s just like cocoyam leaves. Or perhaps a delicious piece of garlic naan... Okay... What DO you want to eat?”

Carolyn: “Ugh, what is that? It looks disgusting. I don’t want to try it; I can’t try it, no! No! I—mmm, okay, maybe it’s not that bad. But what’s this! It’s green! It looks horrible! You’re trying to kill me, aren’t you? I won’t eat it! This bread is not very nice. I’m going to get rice with egg. I don’t like anything else here. I’m going to buy kenkey after we leave! Ooh, is the cook Indian? I want an Indian husband (long story). Waiter! Come here. Please, is the cook Indian? Yes? Oh good. Please tell him that I am looking for a nice Indian husband, and give him my number. Thank you.” (I am not making any of this up.)
……………….
After Indian Food (A.I.F.):

Carolyn: “Hurray, I’ve eaten Indian food! I’ve been to an Indian restaurant! Tralalalala!” *does a shuffle dance walking down the street* “I have to call Kobe (flirtatious gentleman friend) and tell him I’m going to marry an Indian man (Kobe will be jealous) who can COOK!” *calls Kobe*

Claire: “Gaaahh… So...Full....”


I am not as young as I used to be, so this exchange, combined with the walk to and from the restaurant and the day spent wringing clothing again and again and again has left me a hollow shell of my former self.

08/27/10

Lots more things have happened this week. I'm getting more comfortable bargaining in the market/with taxi drivers, and I'm getting better at gauging what is a fair price. I'm really enjoying most of my lectures. Emphasis on "most". My Francophone African Literature class is a bit of a disappointment. The professor, instead of teaching, makes us get into groups and then present simple ideas that we already know to the class in French, which makes learning incredibly difficult.

And in Medical Geography, when the professor brought up depression in men and women and asked the class if men and women were equals, there was a resounding "No!" from the Ghanaian male population. Bear in mind that these are some of the more educated men in the country. The Ghanaian female population looked at each other uncomfortably and remained silent. The American female population looked outraged and responded "YES!". There aren't any American males in our class but if there were, I have a feeling they probably would have looked at each other uncomfortably and remained silent.

I saw a Ghanaian movie on campus with my friends about the slum, Sodom and Gomorrah, located on the outskirts of Accra. The sound quality left something to be desired and the choice of music was...interesting at times. But the film angles were very good, the plot was entertaining, and they inserted a lot of humor into the story. The acting wasn't too bad, compared to some of the Ghanaian and Latin American soaps I've been watching lately. They love their soap operas here, particularly "Second Chance". The American sitcoms "Friends" and "Girlfriends" are widely watched, and everyone loves "Ghost Whisperer".

Hehe, I was watching the Ghanaian news broadcast a few nights ago and there was a special about teenage girls who opt to help their fathers and brothers illegally mine gold instead of going to school. It showed two of the teenage girls laughing loudly and hugging each other, and the news anchor narrated severely, "This is the way the young girls conduct themselves. As you can see, their lifestyle leads to loose behavior and often sexual promiscuity and teen pregnancy." Thus, 'Laughing Loudly' = 'Social Ruination'.

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Comments

[Barry]

Great job on the blog. I know with the whirr of activities- academic, domestic and otherwise, you must often be running on adrenalin.

[Eclaire]

Adrenalin!
When I first got here, it was a lot like that, but since I've settled into a routine, it's actually pretty laid-back. There seems to be a lot less stress here than in the U.S. I like it. :)