Phew--orientation is finally over! Not....
The past week was a whirlwind of acclimating our minds, bodies, and lives to the city of Accra, the country of Ghana, and the continent of Africa. As we spent about 6 complete days doing so, one would expect us to have somewhat of an idea of what the next four months have in store for us, right?
That would be too easy.
Being the tired old person that I am, I have found that I am definitely the home body of the group. While all of these 18-20 year olds are ready to party hardy every night, I, in my decrepit old age of 21, am asleep by about...11:30. I am also the first to wake up--any where from 5am to 7am to practice yoga before the day begins. The one day I slept in until 7:30 and couldn't practice I had the misfortune to have the worst caffeine headache of my life. I was grumpy to the extreme and warned everyone I met that I was not pleasant. Bad things coming in pairs, that also happened to be the day that we had to make an emergency trip to the University of Ghana to register for classes, skipping lunch.
Yes, JS skipping lunch. I think you know me well enough to know that that hunger and lack of coffee+J is lethal.
When we were finally able to come home for a 15 minute pit stop before our trip to the US Ambassador's house I used that time to brew up a nice, delicious, hot cuppa Joe. I used a napkin and a strainer. Talk about resourceful! My mood changed considerably as my headache dissapated, and after chowing down on some digestive cookies (so good!) we headed over to the Ambassador's house where we, all 41 of us, devoured the "refreshments" that had been provided.
One of the CRAs (resident assistants), Julia, has already deemed me the foodie of the group. The University of Ghana had an introduction dinner, the Durbar, involving a free meal--the minute I heard food and free I was there. Julia tried to ban me from coming, but I snuck my way onto the bus and into the front of the food line :) Last night I tried to find my way over to the other housing facility using a "map" and my memory...another girl and I got a little lost, but finally on our last attempt before dark we found it. Once at Solomon's Lodge, Naa (another CRA) taught us how to make jolof and kelliwelli. Jolof is a rice dish containing various degrees of chilis, pepper, vegetables, tomatoes, ginger, and garlic--amazing! Kelliwelli is a dish of plantains, ginger, and red pepper powder, fried in a pan. Eating that meal made the entire trip worth it! When I get back to the States, I'll have to attempt to make it.
I have a feeling that the hardest thing to get used to in this country (slash the developing world) is shopping for groceries. There is a grocery store in Osu, but I haven't dared to step foot in it. Cereal is 12 bucks, laundry detergent in the 20s, and everything pretty much out of my realm, budget wise. The places to go here are open markets and street vendors. On Saturday we went to the open air market called Kaneshie. There are three levels (think a parking garage), each containing a different genre of supplies.
The outside and first floor is the area for food. These areas are FILLED with people selling various varieties of okra, garden eggs, eggs, ginger, garlic, chilis, etc. There is fresh ground nut paste (peanut butter) and different varieties of fruits. Oranges, tangerines, avocados, and grapefruits are green, even when ripe. I feel like a complete idiot, but I have no idea what any thing is. The fruit in the country is amazing. The mangos, papayas, pineapples (better than Hawaii), and watermelon are so incredible. So far I haven't had any allergic reactions--I can even eat apples here with skin!!
The second floor is filled with house supplies--shampoos, lotions, soap, detergent, etc. I'm not so sure about how much I like my shampoo or conditioner, nor do I think that it works. For future travel: bring your own shampoo and conditioner! Since the Ghanaian women have their hair braided, there is really no need for any of that nonsense. But for us white folk, brunis...hair braids would just look silly.
The top floor is (I think) for fabric, but I didn't venture up there on the last trip. I had my hands full of detergent, shampoo, and fruit.
Up the main road there is a place called Labone Coffee Shop. I don't think they serve real coffee (everything is Nescafe here!). But up the "coffee shop road" a ways there are some street vendors. I took a little trip up there with some people that I dragged along--I bought tomatoes, chilis, ginger, garlic, okra, garden eggs, chicken, oatmeal, soy sauce, and rice. I figure that I can throw it all together some how. While they may have charged me more than the locals, I purchased an entire bag of the vegetable items for 1cedi 20pesoe (the exchange rate is equivalent to the US...go Dollar!)--a pretty good deal in my opinion. Buying the chicken was quite interesting....it was 3c for a kilo. The girls selling the chicken couldn't have been older than 10--to cut a piece, she grabbed a machete and started hacking away. In the end, the chicken I bought was frozen so I'm not too worried. I'll definitely be cooking every thing thoroughly.
To clean vegetables, fruits, etc, you let them soak in water with a bit of salt for about five minutes. Who knew?
In the end, the grocery shopping trips to be made will sort them selves out. It's a good thing I shopped in Chinatown!
Classes begin today. So far I will be taking Community Psychology and the Internship Seminar at NYU, and Urban Sociology at Legon. I'm planning to audit Medical Geography at Legon also (it meets at 8:30am and I'd be leaving my home at about 7:45...doable, but it would have to be a very interesting course). I expect to intern for 15-20 hours for the West African Aids Foundation...things are still being sorted out as my professor did not arrive in the country until today. C'est la vie. I am trying to upload photos, but a) I'm a slacker at taking photos and b) our internet isn't ever around long enough to upload them. All in good time.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Greetings from Accra!
We finally have internet access! Yes, I did go through slight withdrawals.
Upon our arrival in Accra on Sunday evening, the telephone lines were down--no calls to the US, no internet. While it is still spotty and chooses to work whenever it wishes, I currently have access!
So a mumbojumbo of the details you never thought you needed to know...(let me know if you want to UNSUBSCRIBE ;))--this is not eloquent and written on sleep deprivation and caffeine withdrawals. Sue me.
The Flight (s):
Reno--SFO: pit stop in San Francisco with the lovely Aunty Lorraine and Randy to indulge on some delicious dim sum during my layover. You have no idea how glad I am that I did that--not only do they give you ONE meal on the flight, but the portion size is about that of a Lean Cuisine. Mind you this is an 11 hour flight to Frankfurt. I would have possibly died from starvation if it weren't for the quick thinking brilliance of Aunty Lorraine :)
SFO--Frankfurt: Altogether not as bad as expected. The people on the plane were strange--everyone was very standoffish and rude...not to JUDGE or anything, but I certainly did not have any desire to visit the country. I watched four movies, all of them bad, and slept for about 2 hours. I've already mentioned the lack of food.
Frankfurt--Lagos: Lufthansa is an interesting airline. The flight attendants actually wear hats, full uniforms, and are constantly smiling. It's sick! They also get extremely excited when they are about to serve the cocktails. Now, as a smart individual, I avoided such beverages as a flight dehydrates you enough as it is. The pasta on the flight was pretty good, but the portions were quite small yet again. This time I didn't have the dim sum to ride through with.... The airplane had ridiculous amounts of electrical glitches--I'm just going to assume it's because they refused to turn off the cabin lights for the entire flight....
Lagos--Accra: Well, the lovely flight crew didn't tell us ANYTHING about staying on the plane, EDT, etc, so we just sort of...looked confused. Flying into Lagos was the most amazing sight I have ever seen. I have never seen so many houses/shacks/living quarters in my life. It was a sea of corrugated metal and tires--there were people everywhere and the streets were layed out in this haphazard chaos. It was amazing! Flying into Accra, one could see the difference--while there was still a sea of houses, there was slightly more order in the streets. Additionally, there was a semi-clear ratio of paved roads to unpaved. When I got off the plane, we went through immigration, got our bags, and met up with NYU after customs--everything was surprisingly organized. When we rounded up everyone from the flight, we headed to our living quarters.
The House:
I live on a compound called Church Crescent. There are 2 sets of 2 houses--3 of girls, one of boys. There were only 6 boys in the entire program so they got their own house. My house has two rooms upstairs: a triple (mine) with a patio and a double with a patio. Downstairs there is a room of two girls, an extra bathroom, a large living/dining room, a kitchen (which was stocked with bread, cookies, juice, water, and groundnut butter) and a dirty little meeting room. If that room was clean, I would totally use it as a yoga room. But it's not.
My room consists of a bunk bed and a single. One of the roommates got there a few days ahead of time and had the single--she is a slightly larger African American girl that attends Spellman University in Georgia. So far she refuses to leave her room, eat anything that is not American, and talk to people. She stays in all the time and talks (quite loud) on her cell phone and/or to one of us in the middle of the night. I don't really know how I feel about that--her attitude is so negative, all I can think about is "Debbie Downer...." I suppose she's just adjusting. I do hope that she starts to emerge from her shell of negativity though...we can only encourage her so much before school starts and we're all bogged down with school, internships, and volunteering!
My other roommate is a junior at NYU --while at first I was a little nervous that she was going to be super high maintenance, she's turned out to be a pretty chill girl. She hasn't traveled much and is super cautious, but there are worse things in life. She is a nice, considerate person (so far) so we can only hope that nothing changes.
I don't have the best room mate track record.
The room is attached to a porch which I thought would be perfect for yoga until I realized that the properties on either side of my room have groundskeepers (with machetes) that can see up--I quickly found a new spot. Right outside of the kitchen is a perfect little J sized patio that is surrounded by enough walls/grass to me comfortable. As long as I go out there with my bug spray, I'm good to go! I have become that "token yoga girl" with my two mats and exercise ball. Unfortunately (or fortunately...) for me, the bad malaria bugs come out at night, forcing me to practice in the morning. Quite a change from my usual early evening practice, but I guess it's best to avoid malaria at all costs!
Accra:
The climate here is something I have never really experienced. It's super humid day and night, but in the shade it's almost cold. There are clouds in some parts of the sky and hot hot hot African sun in others. For a good part of the day the sun beats down upon you--talk about dripping in sweat. It threatens rain (it's the rainy season) daily but we have yet to experience a downpour. The majority of roads are dirt and the sewage system is wide open. GLORIOUS! Cars will hit you so you can't be day dreaming (too much).
The pace is quite different from NYC so everyone generally "strolls" along. I was thinking about purchasing a bike but was informed that the ride to the University of Legon was too dangerous/long--so I'll probably stick to my two feet. I do like walking.
The food here is quite delicious--everything is INSANELY spicy. Some of it too much: this is when you can pick the people with a palate from those without. The fruits and veggies are unbelievably fresh and I have yet to have an allergic reaction (touch wood). The street food looks and smells absolutely delicious--future care packages: Pepto Bismol tablets! (I'm semi-adventurous, leading to negative reactions....)
The people in this program are quite interesting--a lot of International kids, military brats, etc. There are only a few of us old seniors who are making a last gasp effort to get SOMETHING out of this institution, so our priorities are slightly different than the rest of the students, but all in all this is a good group of kids.
The Ghanaians are quite wonderful people. Always friendly, smiling, just wanting to say hi...the vendors are quite pushy and have perfected the "pout" more than me, but I'm not one to be fooled by such trickery! The kids are so cute with their "Good Afternoon!"s, staring at us like we are aliens. It's great.
Over the next few days there are SO many things to do. Register for classes at Legon, meet with the President of Ashesi, figure out what's going on with the internship program, begin classes, figure out the best routes, grocery shopping, etc etc etc. Of course NYU has packed our orientation week from 7am til 9pm leaving very little time to stock any thing in our apartments.
Oh yea, and I need a coffee maker. My caffeine withdrawals are completely insane. I have found a not so small group of people in the same boat, so tomorrow the hunt is on!
So this is it so far. My first impression of the city is nothing but wonderful--in fact, the only down side is that I feel far more comfortable than I would have liked. I suppose my mother will appreciate that :) I have high hopes for the next four months and hope that this experience is as enriching as it can be. I do apologize to all of you that I promised to keep in contact with after NYC--for such an internet addict, I am absolutely terrible at remembering to return e-mails. I wish you all well in the world! Keep in touch (I'll try try TRY to be better--blame the faulty internet connection!)!! Hopefully my future emails a) exist and b) are not filled with so many monotonous details. I'll be sure to forward along some stories :)
Upon our arrival in Accra on Sunday evening, the telephone lines were down--no calls to the US, no internet. While it is still spotty and chooses to work whenever it wishes, I currently have access!
So a mumbojumbo of the details you never thought you needed to know...(let me know if you want to UNSUBSCRIBE ;))--this is not eloquent and written on sleep deprivation and caffeine withdrawals. Sue me.
The Flight (s):
Reno--SFO: pit stop in San Francisco with the lovely Aunty Lorraine and Randy to indulge on some delicious dim sum during my layover. You have no idea how glad I am that I did that--not only do they give you ONE meal on the flight, but the portion size is about that of a Lean Cuisine. Mind you this is an 11 hour flight to Frankfurt. I would have possibly died from starvation if it weren't for the quick thinking brilliance of Aunty Lorraine :)
SFO--Frankfurt: Altogether not as bad as expected. The people on the plane were strange--everyone was very standoffish and rude...not to JUDGE or anything, but I certainly did not have any desire to visit the country. I watched four movies, all of them bad, and slept for about 2 hours. I've already mentioned the lack of food.
Frankfurt--Lagos: Lufthansa is an interesting airline. The flight attendants actually wear hats, full uniforms, and are constantly smiling. It's sick! They also get extremely excited when they are about to serve the cocktails. Now, as a smart individual, I avoided such beverages as a flight dehydrates you enough as it is. The pasta on the flight was pretty good, but the portions were quite small yet again. This time I didn't have the dim sum to ride through with.... The airplane had ridiculous amounts of electrical glitches--I'm just going to assume it's because they refused to turn off the cabin lights for the entire flight....
Lagos--Accra: Well, the lovely flight crew didn't tell us ANYTHING about staying on the plane, EDT, etc, so we just sort of...looked confused. Flying into Lagos was the most amazing sight I have ever seen. I have never seen so many houses/shacks/living quarters in my life. It was a sea of corrugated metal and tires--there were people everywhere and the streets were layed out in this haphazard chaos. It was amazing! Flying into Accra, one could see the difference--while there was still a sea of houses, there was slightly more order in the streets. Additionally, there was a semi-clear ratio of paved roads to unpaved. When I got off the plane, we went through immigration, got our bags, and met up with NYU after customs--everything was surprisingly organized. When we rounded up everyone from the flight, we headed to our living quarters.
The House:
I live on a compound called Church Crescent. There are 2 sets of 2 houses--3 of girls, one of boys. There were only 6 boys in the entire program so they got their own house. My house has two rooms upstairs: a triple (mine) with a patio and a double with a patio. Downstairs there is a room of two girls, an extra bathroom, a large living/dining room, a kitchen (which was stocked with bread, cookies, juice, water, and groundnut butter) and a dirty little meeting room. If that room was clean, I would totally use it as a yoga room. But it's not.
My room consists of a bunk bed and a single. One of the roommates got there a few days ahead of time and had the single--she is a slightly larger African American girl that attends Spellman University in Georgia. So far she refuses to leave her room, eat anything that is not American, and talk to people. She stays in all the time and talks (quite loud) on her cell phone and/or to one of us in the middle of the night. I don't really know how I feel about that--her attitude is so negative, all I can think about is "Debbie Downer...." I suppose she's just adjusting. I do hope that she starts to emerge from her shell of negativity though...we can only encourage her so much before school starts and we're all bogged down with school, internships, and volunteering!
My other roommate is a junior at NYU --while at first I was a little nervous that she was going to be super high maintenance, she's turned out to be a pretty chill girl. She hasn't traveled much and is super cautious, but there are worse things in life. She is a nice, considerate person (so far) so we can only hope that nothing changes.
I don't have the best room mate track record.
The room is attached to a porch which I thought would be perfect for yoga until I realized that the properties on either side of my room have groundskeepers (with machetes) that can see up--I quickly found a new spot. Right outside of the kitchen is a perfect little J sized patio that is surrounded by enough walls/grass to me comfortable. As long as I go out there with my bug spray, I'm good to go! I have become that "token yoga girl" with my two mats and exercise ball. Unfortunately (or fortunately...) for me, the bad malaria bugs come out at night, forcing me to practice in the morning. Quite a change from my usual early evening practice, but I guess it's best to avoid malaria at all costs!
Accra:
The climate here is something I have never really experienced. It's super humid day and night, but in the shade it's almost cold. There are clouds in some parts of the sky and hot hot hot African sun in others. For a good part of the day the sun beats down upon you--talk about dripping in sweat. It threatens rain (it's the rainy season) daily but we have yet to experience a downpour. The majority of roads are dirt and the sewage system is wide open. GLORIOUS! Cars will hit you so you can't be day dreaming (too much).
The pace is quite different from NYC so everyone generally "strolls" along. I was thinking about purchasing a bike but was informed that the ride to the University of Legon was too dangerous/long--so I'll probably stick to my two feet. I do like walking.
The food here is quite delicious--everything is INSANELY spicy. Some of it too much: this is when you can pick the people with a palate from those without. The fruits and veggies are unbelievably fresh and I have yet to have an allergic reaction (touch wood). The street food looks and smells absolutely delicious--future care packages: Pepto Bismol tablets! (I'm semi-adventurous, leading to negative reactions....)
The people in this program are quite interesting--a lot of International kids, military brats, etc. There are only a few of us old seniors who are making a last gasp effort to get SOMETHING out of this institution, so our priorities are slightly different than the rest of the students, but all in all this is a good group of kids.
The Ghanaians are quite wonderful people. Always friendly, smiling, just wanting to say hi...the vendors are quite pushy and have perfected the "pout" more than me, but I'm not one to be fooled by such trickery! The kids are so cute with their "Good Afternoon!"s, staring at us like we are aliens. It's great.
Over the next few days there are SO many things to do. Register for classes at Legon, meet with the President of Ashesi, figure out what's going on with the internship program, begin classes, figure out the best routes, grocery shopping, etc etc etc. Of course NYU has packed our orientation week from 7am til 9pm leaving very little time to stock any thing in our apartments.
Oh yea, and I need a coffee maker. My caffeine withdrawals are completely insane. I have found a not so small group of people in the same boat, so tomorrow the hunt is on!
So this is it so far. My first impression of the city is nothing but wonderful--in fact, the only down side is that I feel far more comfortable than I would have liked. I suppose my mother will appreciate that :) I have high hopes for the next four months and hope that this experience is as enriching as it can be. I do apologize to all of you that I promised to keep in contact with after NYC--for such an internet addict, I am absolutely terrible at remembering to return e-mails. I wish you all well in the world! Keep in touch (I'll try try TRY to be better--blame the faulty internet connection!)!! Hopefully my future emails a) exist and b) are not filled with so many monotonous details. I'll be sure to forward along some stories :)
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Non harming
I'm in a battle with logic and reason.
Who and/or what decides what can or cannot be done?
Who can tell me why?
Who am I to say no, yes, maybe?
Who am I to decide?
Should this battle be fought?
Or has it already been won?
Is there a purpose for contorting my brain
More than I contort my body?
Should both be left alone in a sedentary manner
Or is contortion the key to the battle?
Is the pain of unknowing the price of the fight
Or a failure of acting non-harming?
I think the answer is in yourself
What you really want
versus what you want yourself to want.
When that question is answered
the battle will have been won.
But first
you have to practice non-harming.
Who and/or what decides what can or cannot be done?
Who can tell me why?
Who am I to say no, yes, maybe?
Who am I to decide?
Should this battle be fought?
Or has it already been won?
Is there a purpose for contorting my brain
More than I contort my body?
Should both be left alone in a sedentary manner
Or is contortion the key to the battle?
Is the pain of unknowing the price of the fight
Or a failure of acting non-harming?
I think the answer is in yourself
What you really want
versus what you want yourself to want.
When that question is answered
the battle will have been won.
But first
you have to practice non-harming.
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