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.