Accra...no bo ye dzen

Things have been great here since we moved to Accra. We got to our hostel late last Monday, and the staff there are so great. They are giving us a great deal to stay for the month, and with all the discounts counted for its 6.50 a night for me. Our hostel is about a 20 minute drive from the main part of the city, an hour if you go by tro-tro (which is much cheaper and worth the hassle). It took a few days to adjust to the city, but we've all got the hang of it now, I think. Research for my ISP has been going kind of slow, but its picking up now, which is promising. It feels so strange that I'll be back in the States this time next month, and I know the next three weeks are going to fly by. One of my friends here, Maria, has a cousin who lives in the city, and he and his girlfriend Barbara have been great in showing us around the city. Tomorrow the six of us in the program plus Maria's cousin and girlfriend plus another couple we've gotten to know are all going to a beach resort called Kroko Bito. It should be pretty amazing, we're going to stay the night there. The only down side to Accra is that it is so much more expensive than living in Cape Coast, but its more managable now that we have some sort of concept of how to work the city. I'll be happy to be back home and be with my friends and family, but I'm really not looking forward to leaving Ghana, I love it so much here. It will be stange going back to a community as restictive as PC when I've been able to live almost completely on my own with only my friends here to rely on one another. The relationships I've made here have been so monumental, and its not going to be fun to have to say bye to these people. But, thats still 3 weeks away, so no need to worry about it now. I hope you're all well and I am looking forward to catching up when I get back.

Back in Cape...oh wait, nevermind...

Well, we got back from Benin last Thursday. How to descirbe Benin...well, lets just say that its a place I would really like going back to. While there in Cotonu, we learned that Benin was where Vodun (Voodoo) originated from, and we got to go visit a Sacred Forest and the Temple of Pythons. The forests was alright, but it was mostly just there for tourists...we only saw about a 50 meter patch, and since we aren't members of Vodun we couldn't go to the actually sacred part. One the other hand, The Temple of Pythons was incredible. When we got there, someone explained the layout of the Temple and showed us some drawings of what a ritual might look like. Then he led us to a room with scores of pythons just chillin', all piled up on one another in different corners. Then he picked one up and preceeded to put it around his neck. After that, we thought it would be fun to put it around all of our necks, one by one. It was a really strange feeling to have this 3 foot long piece of muscle just hanging around my nech, mostly because i could feel its muscles contracting and expanding as it moved around. So that was really cool. Another really cool part of Benin is their taxi system. There are very few taxi cars, but lots and lots of motorbike taxis. So one afternoon a group of 6 of us created a motorcycle gang and cruised around the city on the backs of motorbikes. So like I said, I really want to go back to Benin. Now its Monday, I just finished a research paper on Vodun in Benin, and in about 3 hours I will get on an intercity bus with 5 of my friends and we are all moving to Accra today for our ISP's. We managed to find a short term hostel for us to stay in tonight, and from there we are still in he market for a permament housing option, so wish us luck. I hope everyone is doing well back home and I can't wait to show you some of the pictures that I'm getting (sorry, none with me and python, my hands were otherwise occupied at the time). Peace.

Relief

After several long months a stress and doubt, my hope and my belief in America has started to be restored. At 5:15 am this morning, in a dining room in a hostel in Cotonu, Benin, I saw confirmation that Barack would become the 44th President in the US. We still have a lot of work to do, but this is a huge step in the right direction. Thank you so much to the campaigners who ,ade this happen, especially Kristin, Alliy, Brandi, and Juilien. You guys are freaking amazing, I can't wait to talk to you all. Anyways, take care everyone, and don't think that this movement ended last night. It's only beginning. Peace and love.

And the travels begin...

So we just got back to Cape today from our 10 day trip to the northern regions. The trip was incredible. We stayed in Kumasi, about 4 hours north of Cape Coast, the first night, then made the 7 hour drive up to Wa the next day. Wa was really cool, we saw into Burkina Faso (neighboring country) and saw evedince of how the locals resisted the Slave Raiders during the Slace Trade (Trans-Saharan and Trans-Atlantic). From Wa we went to Mole National Game Park where we went on a walking safari. We didn't see anything too exotic, just antelope, baboons, and warthogs. The elephants were hiding, unfortuanately. Then the next day we went to Tamale, which was an awesome town. We mostly chilled and talked about ideas for our ISP's, the big final research paper, and I hammered down a topic there, so that was productive. I'm going to be researching the Historical Development of Pan-Africanism as A Political Force in Ghana and Beyond...so we'll see how that goes. Then we go back to Kumasi, but on the way there, our bus hit a cow crossing the road, so we had to drive the rest of the way with the front windshield cracked and almost shattered and a cowq indent on the front. Anyways, we get to Kumasi, which the the cultural and arts cent of Ghana. Kumasi is an amazing city, the people are great, the food was amazing, and the market there was insanity but so much fun. Now we're back in Cape until Saturday, then we go to Accra, spend the night, then drive the 10 hours to Benin (two countries over) on Sunday, were we will find out if I know any French at all. Then we get back to Cape on November 6, then I move to Accra for ISP on November 11. So things are busy. But I am so happy and having a great time here, I can't wait for ISP time to begin, I think its going to be a lot of fun. Anyways, time is up, and I gotta run. Take care and I hope to talk to you all soon. (Oh, and PS, make sure Barack wins, I will be 6 hours ahead of the East Coast with no internet or TV access on the election day, so I will be freaking out.) Peace and Love!

Will - 1...Africa - 104

So things have been pretty busy. We had our rural visit to Komenda last week, during which Africa dominated me and the rest of the group. We were all having a lovely time exploring the village and getting another glimpse of what real life is like, when lo! I start feeling ill. This was Thursday. Friday, the group convinces me to go to the local clinic when my fever reaches 102. Okay, fine. SO it turns out I got malaria. Apparently our anti-malaria medicine isn't 100%. So I get the medicine and move on with life. But wait, then comes Saturday. So i'm feeling a little better in the morning...then the afternoon roles around. I decide it is time to go to the hospital in Cape Coast, a quick 1/2 hour taxi or tro-tro ride away, coincidentally because my current temperature is at 103.5. So a friend and I climb into a taxi and meet some of the SIT staff at the hospital...2 hours later, when the one doctor on staff has still seen 0 new patients since our arrival, we decide its time to find a private clinic. Long story short, we find a clinic, get the fever down, and now one week from the outbreak of malaria I am completely healthy and happy again.

On more exciting avenues, our Academic Director, Prof. Naana Jane Opuku-Agyemang (Aunty Naana) was made the Vice-Chancellor (aka President) of the University of Cape Coast this week. She is the first woman in Ghana to ever achieve this rank at any college or university. Simply put, Aunty Naana is awesome.

We had our Fante final today. A short written exam and an oral exam, and we are done with classroom Fante. So we are all excited about that. We leave for Accra on Sunday and get back on Thursday, so I am very excited to see what the capital city is like.

I still love Ghana. The people are friendly, the food is an adventure, I love the lecture topics, and my group is amazing. We are all starting to get to be very close and I can see a lot of these relationships lasting longer than just this semester. I am so happy here, it's a little ridiculous. Anyways, thats all for now, hopefully I can post again on the trip to Accra. Peace and Love to you.

Will

Oh Ghana...

So the last post was from a different day I was typing, but didn't have time to post it, that's why there are two posts on the same day. So a lot has happened over the past few days. Fante lessons are starting to get intense, but I like it. We went to El Mina Castle yesterday, and that made me re-realize how evil the things the West have done are. But more on that later when I've processed it.

The highlight of this post is what happened on Wednesday. So me and another girl, Maria, live close together on the 3rd Ridge. Another friend of ours, Stephanie, was visiting Maria and decided to come by my house on her way to get a taxi. So I step out of our gate so Stephanie knows which house it is, and then we walk in the gate. About two seconds after we walk through the gate, one of our dogs decides to dart forward and lung at Stephanie. Me and my host mom yell at the dog and I try to kick it, then I turn to continue walking with Stephanie. Lo and behold, the dog had managed to bite her, neither me or Stephanie knew this until we both looked down and saw her left leg covered in blood. So we take her to the hospital, to Stephanie's unfortunate discovery that pain killers aren't used in this hospital. She is fine, the dogs have their shots and she got treated for anything possible just to be safe, but Stephanie is absolutely fine. So we've had our first Ghanaian hospital experience, and it is enough to last for quite some time, most likely forever. But we are all good today, we had our first Fante test today, and it went well. We're all going to the beach tomorrow so I'm very excited about that. Everyone stay safe and thank you for checking in with me. Peace.

PS: My description of the dog bite incident is very surface level and the basic facts. I can't express what a weird and surreal day that was and I can barely express it in person. If your curiosity persists, let me know and I will try to explain it, most likely when I get back, because in person is the only way it gets close to what it was like.

Update 2

Things have been ridiculously busy here. The jungle canopy walk was incredible, though a lot shorter than I expected it to be. My host family is very interesting. We don't really talk much yet, but after the initial awkwardness is over I expect things will get a lot better. There is also a girl from Ohio State living with us, so that has made things a lot easier to adjust to. Internet access is a lot less available than I expected, so I will probably just be checking my email a couple of times a week. We've been taking classes for a couple of days so far, and I am really enjoying what we are learning and how we are learning it. Our first rural trip will be in a few weeks, so that will be really cool. So far I've only been to the beach once, but it was awesome, and we're planning on going again for the day this Saturday, so I am excited about that. I think I accidentally left my spare memory card for my camera at home, so unless I come across one here, expect very few pictures. I am still loving things here, and initial speculations that my group was cool have been confirmed. I hope everyone is well and having fun.