American Burgers

“Oh, it’s the Nigerians.”

There’s this bad stereotype of Nigerians here. There are these girls on our floor who always scream and run around and stomp their feet early in the morning. When we complained about them to some of our Ghanaian friends, their explanation was that they’re Nigerian. That’s the typical feelings towards Nigerians. They’re seen as partiers and obnoxious. It gets really old hearing Ghanaians say that a person’s annoying because they’re Nigerian. I’ve made friends with some guys on the floor who are Nigerian, and while I can tell that they are definitely different from Ghanaians, they are just as sweet of friends as my Ghanaian buddies. I don’t really know if the stereotype carries outside of campus, but I have a feeling it does. Sometimes I find it refreshing to talk with the Nigerians because they also don’t know Twi. And I’m starting to be able to tell the difference between a Ghanaian accent and a Nigerian accent. There is a huge Nigerian presence on campus. I believe it’s the largest group of non-Ghanaians studying here. It’s definitely interesting to see the differences between the Ghanaians and Nigerians.

Another thing I’m trying to get used to is the intenseness of Christianity. I will get extremely irritated by the Christian Right Wing/ neo-Conservatives in the States, but here it’s on a whole new level. So now I’m just trying to accept it, but it gets hard when people start judging you. Now not all of the people here judge you because of your religious background by any means, but there are the few that kind of attack you for it. I was not raised religious, and I don’t consider it a big part of my life. Once, I was sitting in the hallway of my dorm with my friends Kara and Sanny. A guy and a girl approached us and asked if we had declared Jesus as our Savior. Kara and Sanny are both Christian and replied yes. I didn’t want to lie so I said no, and that I’m not Christian. The two made a face and then asked me if I was Muslim. I said I considered myself Agnostic. I said that I was not raised religious and that I wasn’t too worried about it, and that I am just trying to lead a good life right now. He wouldn’t accept that for an answer. He said that he has studied all the religions, and they all have good parts, but no matter what I do the only way I’ll get to Heaven is through Jesus. I really wanted to reply with, “So, I could go kill 80 people in cold blood, but as long as I declared Jesus as my Savior, I’m good to go?” I didn’t say that. I tried to be as polite as possible without me losing my cool. I told him that I respected his religion and his beliefs and other religions, but I wasn’t going to change myself. He didn’t like that answer either. We eventually got him to go away, and I got really upset after that. Normally I would have just gotten really angry, but instead I ended up crying in front of my friends. They are both very religious, but they were also really upset with the guy. My friends are Christian, but they don’t judge. It was just really hard to hear from someone that no matter what I do, I’m going to Hell. I have two Jewish friends in my program. They’ve also had some hard times dealing with people. It seems to just be something I’ll have to learn to deal with here. And again, the large majority of Christians here are not like that guy; it’s just those few that always seem to stick out to you.

So the last few weekends have been really fun. Two weekends ago I went with about 10 friends to a place called Ada Foah. It was seriously the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. We stayed in huts on the beach and didn’t shower all weekend. And the stars at night were amazing. We were far away from any city, and it was absolutely beautiful. I also saw the most intense shooting star I’ve ever seen. It was just basically a weekend in paradise. We also went to this island where they brew rum from their own sugar cane crop. It was a really surreal little island with sea shells embedded in the ground, kind of giving the effect of a walkway, but they were there naturally.

This last weekend our program went on a trip to the Volta Region. On Saturday we went and swam in this waterfall which is the tallest in Ghana. It felt like being in a hurricane! It was quite magical because there were also hundreds, if not thousands, of bats circling maybe 75 feet above our heads. Then on Sunday we went to a monkey sanctuary. It’s this village that used to see the monkeys as sacred, but with the influx of Christianity, they kind of abandoned their beliefs. But about a decade ago, they decided to turn the area into an ecotourism spot. We were given bananas and then the monkeys would come and either grab them really fast, or, if you were lucky, it would peel it with it still in your hand and then grab the banana from the inside. They were soo cute!

This next weekend I’m going with friends to the qualifier football game for the 2010 World Cup. It’s in an outside town so we’ll probably go there the night before and then wake up early to stand in line for tickets. It’s against Lesotho, and from what I hear we’re pretty much expected to win. It will be amazing to see the Black Stars play (they’re the national team here). Here, as in many other countries, football is way more than just a sport. It’s like a national obsession, a way of life. It brings everyone together in a way that many other things cannot.

Today I went to the Accra Mall to get stuff for burgers (me and three others are making American food tonight), and on our way back we took a taxi because I was running late for something. Driving up the hill towards campus there was a protest. They were students protesting for peaceful elections (the presidential election here is Dec 7), and they were completely infesting the road. These big flatbed trucks full of people drove by and guys were running all around the traffic. They were coming to the cars and asking for money (God knows where the money would go). Guys were running past us yelling, “White ladies! White ladies!” and went up to the cab driver and said, “You have whites in your car, you have a lot of money! Why don’t you give us some?” And one guy tried opening my friend’s door. So we quickly locked the doors and rolled up the windows. It seemed pretty crazy while it was happening, but I guess looking back it wasn’t that bad. It was quite the experience though.

Well… off to make American burgers! Bye!