That's the Way of the World

"And then there are things in life that you see that are just so incredibly beautiful. And how can we explain that?" Nathan and I were standing on his balcony. It was nighttime and the air was cool, but muggy. We talked about everything; how he is pretty positive that his girlfriend back home is the one, how I didn't know what I was doing with my life anymore, how we think we've changed since coming here. If there's one thing that Ghana has shown me, it's that life isn't as complicated as we make it.

My mind has been running rampant lately. Before coming to Ghana I pictured myself working for an NGO within the next two or three years. Now I don't. I feel really lost at this point. I'm wishing I would have gone into the arts. I'm contemplating making my Global Studies major a minor and then tagging on a Music Minor if at all possible. It seems as though that the only thing that has been constant in my life has been music. There's always been music. It's something that we can all share.. maybe we don't all agree on what is enjoyable, and what isn't, but we all share a love for music. The arts seem to be the only solid thing I see now. They're so integral to human creativity. It's humanity at it's finest.

I see so many different dynamics in Ghana. A guy on my floor drives a Jaguar, while across the street at the Night Market, the people who work at those stands sleep in their stands and their children relieve themselves in a nearby field. Nathan and I think it's strange how humans have set up things in the way that they have. Like the concept of careers. All we need is shelter, clothing, food, water. Why can't we just work for those things for each other? Why complicate it further? When I wonder how we would get all of these other things.. like electronics, cars, etc.. I really realize how materialistic I am. I've become angry with myself lately because I realize that I feel like I need these things. And I can't stop myself from feeling like I need these things. I really don't know what I'd do without my iPod. When I'm at home, I love to buy clothes. I know I'm not the only girl my age that does that, but I still feel terrible. I can't help myself. Even here I constantly wish I could just go clothes shopping. Well, it doesn't help that the girls on campus dress up way more than we do, but regardless. I was telling my friend what I was thinking, and he said that there are a lot of things that we can do to help others, but it seems like sometimes doing things like that wouldn't help anyone even if we didn't indulge.

The one luxury that I've struggled without here is my car. When I'm at home and want to clear my mind, I go driving. I drive and listen to music and just soak in everything. It really bothers me that I don't have that outlet here. I've come the conclusion that I would see so much more of Accra if I did have a car. I would just go drive everywhere, find out where everything is, see everything. As of now I don't have a clear map of the city in my head at all. I take public transportation so I just know some major roads and what some things look like. I feel I could experience so much more if my transportation was unlimited.

To clear my mind here I usually just go on my balcony, burn some incense, and sit down. My recent revelations on life have come in conjunction with meeting a specific person. Whenever I'm with this person I feel very carefree. Life seems simple and enjoyable. This person has had a lot happen to them in their lifetime, but doesn't let it keep them down. I just want to live life. I think that's what everyone really just wants to do. There are so many rules made by governments, religions, societies. And I think that a lot of them are unnatural. It just seems like a game of controlling the next person. That's the thing about humans. We hate to be controlled, but at the same time we try to control everyone else. Everyone deserves to just live their life. Take pleasure in simple things. Be happy with your immediate surroundings. We get so bogged down with societal pressures and other worries that we forget to cherish what we have in front of us.

The people I've met here, who are right in front of me now, are what have made my experience in Ghana. People from all different backgrounds, classes, races, nationalities, sexualities. Definitely there are things that I've learned from just being here physically, but it's mostly the people that make Ghana for me. Even after only being here for a short time there are people I feel I can tell anything. My eyes have been opened like never before. One thing that Nathan and I concluded on was that we've both loosened up a lot since coming here. Neither of us were very uptight in the first place, but we have relaxed quite a bit. Things we weren't able to tolerate before are now normal. However, we feel that when we get back to the States, we think we'll find that we can no longer tolerate other things that we did before. In particular, close-minded people. I know that I won't allow myself to be surrounded with people that can't tolerate difference. I won't have any patience for them.

I don't know what I'm going to do without the people that I'm with right now. I realize that my viewpoint on things is very different from everyone else going home after this semester. I don't know what I would do if I was only doing a semester. There are so many relationships that I've recently acquired that I want to expand on, and the fact that I'm coming back makes it possible. I don't know how I'll handle the end of next semester, though. I think the hardest thing in the world is to be physically detached from those you love. I feel like I've dealt with it quite a bit. And it never gets easier. You just have to believe that if you were meant to be together again, you will be. But you have to make that effort.


That's the Way of the World
by Earth, Wind, & Fire

Hearts of fire creates love desire
Take you high and higher to the world you belong
Hearts of fire creates love desire
High and higher to your place on the throne

We’ve come together on this special day
To sing our message loud and clear
Looking back we’ve touched on sorrowful days
Future pass, they disappear

You will find peace of mind
If you look way down in your heart and soul
Don’t hesitate ‘cause the world seems cold
Stay young at heart ‘cause you’re never (never, never, ..) old at heart

That’s the way of the world
Plant your flower and you grow a pearl
A child is born with a heart of gold
The way of the world makes his heart so cold

Pictures

Hey everyone!

So I've gotten some pictures up on the internet over here. I didn't have time to upload them to all sorts of different sites, so I just put them up on my Facebook account. Here is the link to the photo album so you can all see them!


http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2505756&l=740ff&id=6856067



These are not really updated yet, so there should be more photos to come sometime soon.
Enjoy!

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!

Imagine

“It’s crazy. Not long ago there were people running around here hunting for slaves.” I looked out the bus window and tried to process what Julie had just said. It made my skin crawl and gave me a lump in my throat. When we got to the slave castle I just felt numb. I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I wanted to cry but there were no tears. I wanted to vomit, but my stomach just felt like a void. Never before have I felt like I did that day.

Two weekends ago CIEE, my program, took us to Cape Coast, which is a town on the coast of Ghana that is home to two slave castles, Elmina Castle and Cape Coast Castle. We went to Elmina. It was originally set up by the Portuguese, but then taken over by the British. Its purpose was to hold captured slaves until either death or their shipment to the Caribbean, U.S., or other places of servitude.

We were given a tour of the place and were shown the many different parts. We went into the female and male holding cells where men and women would be shoved tightly into small rooms for about 3 months at a time. We also went through to the door of no return. This door was the last they saw of the Ghanaian shore before being piled into the slave ships. It was one of the narrowest doors I’ve seen. Upstairs there were the governor’s quarters and his colleagues’ living space. It was disgustingly nice. There was a fireplace and his bedroom had painted walls and wood floors. I can’t imagine how evil a person must be to be able to enjoy a nice fireplace when there are men dying and women being raped downstairs. There was even a Bible verse posted on the wall of one of his rooms.

The hypocrisy of it all is baffling. The English, Dutch, and Portuguese that operated out of that castle all considered themselves men of God. There’s even a Portuguese church in the middle of the courtyard. There were priests integral to their operations and who lived on the grounds. It’s absolutely disgusting. Our tour guide said that he had thought about it for a long time and came to the conclusion that they had no connection with any Christian God. It’s amazing how perverted religion can be to commit some of the greatest crimes of humanity.

There was also a room designated for the rape of women. The children of those rapes were outcast as Mulattos and were rejected by both the white and black in Ghana. Another room was a death cell. Above the door is a skull and crossbones. As I stepped in I was overcome with the odor of death. It still smelled of death. They would cram up to 60 people in this room of maybe 10x15 feet. They were left in there until every last human died. There are etchings and scratches on the walls. Now the only occupant of the room is a heart wreath left by an African-American who came to visit the place of their ancestry.

The castle is such a repulsive place but at the same time, a visitor’s first impression is its beauty. It’s a giant white stone castle on the ocean, surrounded by palm trees. It’s eerie how something can be so incredibly horrific and beautiful at the same time. It’s almost like you feel guilty for noticing the beauty.

After we left the castle we went to Slave River. Most of the slaves collected were captured in the northern and central parts of Ghana, not directly on the coast. As part of their journey to the coast, they were taken to this particular river to be bathed one last time. We went down to the waters and stuck in our fingers to remember those who were shackled. As we did this there were Ghanaian children mingling with us, trying to get money. It makes me sick to see what the world has done to these people.

After this trip we had a group discussion about all of it. Different things stuck out to different people. The thing that struck me the most was the realization that such deep divisions still exist. The average human mind seems almost incapable of seeing the fact that we’re all human. The divisions between race, ethnicity, nationality, sex, sexuality, etc, are so incredibly strong. It seems to me that the many of the people in the world can’t see past these minor differences and just open up their arms. I feel that there is a real lack of empathy in humanity. Humans are unable to fathom horrors that they haven’t either witnessed or experienced. None of us really can, but we can realize that there is an unimaginable pain that needs to be stopped. We hear through the media or through word-of-mouth that there are ridiculous amounts of child soldiers in Burma, or there is mass raping in the eastern DRC, or that 100,000 civilians have died in Iraq. People will see that these are horrible things, but I don’t think enough of us really realize how terrible it is. I feel as though too many people see these as just distant images, removed from their own society, something that doesn’t affect them directly; something that can be dealt with by political leaders, if they can fix anything at all. It really affects us all, though. All these atrocities reflect humanity. And we are humanity.

I just kept staring out the window on the way back. There was a little boy squatting to defecate on a large pile of trash. A minute down the road was a resort with a waterslide. In my ears all I could hear was John Lennon.

Imagine there’s no heaven

It’s easy if you try

No hell below us

Above us only sky

Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there’s no countries, it isn’t hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people living life in peace

You may say I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one

I hope some day you’ll join us

And the world will live as one

Imagine no possessions

I wonder if you can

No need for greed or hunger

A brotherhood of man

Imagine all the people sharing all the world

You may say I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one

I hope some day you’ll join us

And world will live as one.

Finally 20

“Whenever you have your birthday in Ghana, people ‘pond’ you. They pour water and flour on you to make sure you appreciate the pain your mother went through for child birth.” This seems a bit harsh. Another one of my friends here said that he was ‘ponded’ when he was a freshman and that they basically threw water at his back so that it was like a whipping. That doesn’t seem like a happy birthday to me! Luckily, they don’t really do this to girls, and my Ghanaian friends don’t seem like the type to do this. But today is my BIRTHDAY! I’m really excited to celebrate tonight with my new amazing friends here. We’re not sure what we’re doing yet, but I know it will be one to remember.

Things here are starting to fall into line. I finally understand the tro-tro system a bit better, and I’m meeting more people. I like walking around alone because then I always meet more people. When we travel in groups we probably seem intimidating or isolated. When we’re alone I would imagine we seem more approachable.

We went to a beach called Kokrobite Beach this last weekend. We spent the night in houses basically on the beach for only about 8 USD. The people there were so nice. There were two guys I met who are from Burkina Faso and they were there with a Frenchman. They both played the kora and they taught me how to play a song on it (although I’ve already forgotten it). It is such a beautiful instrument. When I was playing it, the sound and the look of the strings really reminded me of a harp. Now I really want to buy one here!

On Saturday we went to the Aburi Botanical Gardens. We had to drive into a mountainous region and it was gorgeous. Unfortunately our bus broke down on the way there and also on the way back. However, we were still able to go to the gardens and also to a bead market. We got to see how they make the beads here and then buy some of them.

So this morning for my breakfast, one of my Ghanaian friends, A.B. (real name is Abraham), made me basically an English breakfast. It was egg, beans, and corned beef. I ate part of it because I didn’t want to waste it, but honestly I felt like I was going to have a heart attack! The British influence here is very apparent. Ghana gained their independence from them in 1957, but the British culture still lingers. The Ghanaians may not think so, but we Americans can definitely notice a slight British accent in the Ghanaian English. And their word choice for things is very British. For instance, they call bars, drinking pubs, pants are trousers, and lines are queues. I bet when I go to London later on, I’ll find even more parallels.

The other day I switched around my classes so now instead of taking African Traditional Religion and Identities and Conflicts in Africa, I’m taking a class on Pidgin and Creole Languages. We’ll study countries including Haiti, Jamaica, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Nigeria. I really can’t wait! Maybe I’ll learn how to speak Ghanaian Pidgin.

I’ve found their main indigenous language Twi (pronounced somewhat like chrwee) to be quite difficult. First off, the pronunciation is difficult to get down. There are just the slightest differences in pronunciations that will completely change the meaning of the word. There are also two symbols that are not found in the alphabet we’re used to. One of them is causing problems for me because it looks like an E written in the way where it looks like a backwards 3. I’ll do this on my regular e’s a lot, so I have to be careful when writing in Twi because it could change the word or make it completely wrong. And we’ve learned that what is written isn’t even really how you say it. They really just mush it all together. And there are vowels which you nasalize sometimes. It will be a challenge pick up, but hopefully by the end of my first semester I’ll have it down pretty good.

Well, I tried uploading some pictures but it wouldn't go through because the internet is so slow, so I will try again later. Now I must go off to celebrate my birthday! I am no longer a teenager…

Nante yie! (Goodbye/Safe Journey)

PS- Here in Ghana, many of the people have several names. Most have a name that is in accordance to the day on which they were born. For instance, a man named Kwame was born on a Saturday, and a man named Kofi was born on a Friday. My Ghanaian name would be Afia because I am female and was born on a Friday. Here are the names so you can figure out your own name!

Day- Male Name- Female Name

Monday- Kwadwo - Adwoa

Tuesday - Kwabena- Abena

Wednesday- Kwaku- Akua

Thursday - Yaw- Yaa

Friday - Kofi- Afia

Saturday - Kwame- Ama

Sunday - Kwasi -Akosua

Salsa Dancing

“Barack Obama.. Barack Obama.. Barack Obama!!” The radio in the tro-tro is blaring and the Barack Obama song by Blakk Rasta is on. The next song is in Japanese, Maiko tells me. We’re on our way to the Madena Market and I look out the window, take in all my senses, and just smile.

I can’t even explain how happy I am right now. I just absolutely love being in Africa. We’ve only been here for about a week and a half, and all of us are already dreading the day we have to leave. There are parts that are just so different from what I’m used to, yet there are times when I feel like I’m at home.

I met a large group of U.S. students coming to Ghana also on the plane from Chicago to Heathrow. I met my good friend Mike, whom I met in Tanzania last year, at Heathrow and it seemed so surreal. We both couldn’t believe we were going to Africa again.

We landed in Accra (pronounced with an emphasis on the last a) and after being ripped off by the Bureau de Change we got outside and there was that smell. Tanzania smelled the same. I don’t know how to describe it, but a friend said it smells like “burning sage.” It felt like déjà vu.

We spent our first few nights in a hotel called the Coconut Grove Hotel. It’s actually owned by a man running for president. He’s part of a third party so he will probably not win, but from what I’ve heard he has a large portion of the youth vote. He just leisurely walked around the grounds. Our last night there, there was actually a salsa dancing night. Apparently salsa dancing has become really popular here. I never expected to learn salsa dancing in Ghana.

After two nights in the hotel we finally moved into the dorms. Where I’m staying is called the International Student Hostel and there are students here from the U.S., China, Nigeria, Benin, Germany, Ghana, and probably other places. The living isn’t as sterile as we’re used to, but it’s more than sufficient. We don’t have hot water, but in the heat it actually feels good to take a cold shower. We have to wash our laundry by hand, and it’s kind of a pain, but it’s manageable. Probably the biggest inconvenience will be next week, when starting on Tuesday there will be a water shortage for 10 days on campus. A lot of people are complaining (and I’m not going to lie, I did too), but I think it will show us a side of life we wouldn’t experience otherwise. And it’s not like we’re going to die or anything.

So the last week that we’ve been in the dorms has been filled with getting adjusted and figuring out campus. Campus is really quite big. I think it’s probably about the same size as U of Minnesota as far as walking distances goes, if not bigger. To go from one side to another it takes at least a half an hour. My dorm has a market we call the “Night Market” really close by, where we can get food and drinks and such. And there’s also another market called the Bush Canteen on campus that has just about anything you’d need.

After moving in we registered for classes. This proved to be a bit of a headache. We didn’t realize how nice and easy it is to register online. First we had to go to each department to find class listings and then go into their office and fill out a form and give them a passport picture. Sounds easy, but with thousands of other students doing it, it was pretty crazy.

So this was supposed to be the end of the first week of our classes, however, there were no classes Monday through Wednesday because the teachers were on strike. It was really interesting because the news of no classes was just spread by word of mouth.. no email alerts or anything.

While I’m here I have an internship with an NGO called FIDA (Federacion Internacionale de Abogadas). It was started in Mexico in the ‘40s, but has since spread worldwide. They provide legal services for those who cannot afford it. It used to be that they only helped women and children, but they have just opened up their services to men, also. I start there next week and I’m really excited. They provide a lot of legal aid clinics in and out of Accra, and the woman there said that they will take me out to rural areas when we do clinics outside of the city. Walking around their offices, there were many posters addressing problems of domestic violence, so I’m assuming that a lot of the work being done will be centered on such cases. Plus they are currently working towards legislation that will give women the rights to property they shared with a significant other for more than two years. I’m really excited to learn about the process of fighting for women’s rights in a developing country.

Well, daily life here is always an adventure. Of course if we drink the tap water we’d probably get really sick so we have to stay to packaged water. Bottled water is okay, but the cheapest water you can buy, and the most popular water to buy, is water that comes in a small plastic bag. The size of the bags is about 5x5 inches, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but it always seems to satisfy. We can get a “sachet” of about 25 of those bags for only 90 pesewas, which is about 90 cents in USD. To drink out of them you bite a small piece off of a corner and then just drink from it.

The food here is really good. Some of it, though, seems to be for an acquired taste. There are two traditional meals in particular, called fufu and banku. They are somewhat similar in their texture, in that they are basically doughy balls that you dunk in a soup. Banku is bitterer though because it is slightly fermented and made of corn millet, whereas fufu is made of potatoes (I think). Unfortunately, I really don’t like either of these. My favorite food I’ve tried here so far is beans and plantains. The beans are black-eyed peas and they’re mixed with palm oil, spice, and this grainy stuff and then the plantains I think are either fried or boiled. The bread here is phenomenal. There’s this kind they call sugar bread and it’s really fluffy and moist and tastes like there’s spices like nutmeg or cinnamon in it. For a lot of breakfasts we get this bread with a veggie omelet inside of it. Now the chocolate here is the best. I’ve heard that Cote D’Ivoire and Ghana provide the world with 90% of its cocoa. This could be wrong, but it is true that the northern regions here produce a TON of cocoa. The chocolate we get here that is locally made is not as creamy as American or European chocolate, but the flavor is perfect. They put a few less ingredients in it, so it’s a bit more natural than the chocolate we’re used to in our candy bars. It’s definitely worth the taste.

Transportation here is not for the weak. There are taxis which are really widely used, but you have to haggle for a price before you get in. The cheapest way to get around is in tro-tros. Tro-tros are their version of a bus system. They are basically big vans that drive routes like buses. To find out where the tro-tro is going, you have to listen to the driver’s assistant (they call him “mate”) who is hanging out the sliding door as it pulls up to the stop. He yells where their final destination is and that’s how you know where it’s going. I love how interactive everything here is.

This last week I registered for three classes through the university. I am taking a Political Science class called Identities and Conflicts in Africa, an African drumming class, and African Traditional Religion. Along with these classes I have the internship, a 7-week Twi class, and a course to supplement the internship called Sociological Foundations of Development Studies. Although it sounds like a lot, I still have Fridays off, and the courses through the university are only once a week for two hours. Once the Twi class is over I’ll also have a lot more time on my hands.

So to explain my opening quote, Barack Obama is a big hit here. There is that song called Barack Obama by Blakk Rasta (you can youtube it), and a lot of times when I tell people that I’m from America they’ll immediately ask about Barack Obama. The excitement of our upcoming election is affecting both us Americans and the Ghanaian population. Ghana actually has their presidential elections a month after ours, so it will be interesting to see if it affects their elections. We found out recently that we can vote in-person at the U.S. Embassy instead of doing an absentee ballot which may or may not arrive. The last few days has been filled with all of us scrambling to find out whether or not Obama picked his VP yet. Looks like it’s Biden.

It looks like I’ve written enough for now (sorry it’s so long!). I figured I could just give you guys a rundown of my life here and then in future entries elaborate on things. Hope you enjoy!

5 days and counting..

My summer now has 5 days left on it.

Working at a warehouse this summer made it drag on forever, especially after an amazing year up in Minneapolis and this trip to Ghana in my future. This last Saturday I was in Chicago for a Bloc Party concert, tickets of which were an early birthday present from my parents. I went with an amazing friend, and it was an amazing concert--not to brag or anything, but the lead singer, Kele, bodysurfed above me twice :) .

The excitement of a Lolla-crazy Chicago and the International aura of the concert (Bloc Party is British, and the opener CSS is Brazilian) has made me even more anxious to leave than before. Another great friend of mine, Chelsea, is going to be in London for her study abroad, and so I'm also looking forward to visiting her for maybe even two weeks before going back to Ghana for my second semester.

So here I am sitting in my living room on my laptop dreaming of what it will possibly be like. Before college, the only place outside of the US I'd been was Tijuana and Ensenada in Baja California on day trips from San Diego. Then last summer I had the opportunity to go to Tanzania to volunteer and it was the most magical month of my life. I didn't know that life could be so exciting and raw at the same time. Now I guess you could call me a travel junkie that's been in withdrawal. I lack the funds to travel a ton, but I have enough to take advantage of the occasional opening. And my next experience starts in 5 days.

While there I will be attending classes at the University of Ghana in Legon. Legon is just outside of Accra, the main city in Ghana which is right on the coast. Campus, from what I hear, is about 12 kilometers from the center of Accra. U of Ghana has about 28,000 students and former UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, was just named Chancellor of the University. I am part of a Development Studies track, so along with taking classes I will also have an internship with an NGO, or other humanitarian or developmental organization. I expect to see many different sides of life for Ghanaians.

I've started this blog for a few reasons. I'll be able to look back on it later and reminisce. My friends, family, professors and advisors will be able to keep up with my experiences and get to see how it's helped me grow as a person and as a student of global and racial studies. Mostly, though, I think this will help me vent my thoughts. I have this habit of overanalyzing things and thinking about them for long periods of time. Now I will have an outlet through which I can let others know what I'm thinking and allow my thoughts to develop even more.

Well I hope that you enjoy my future posts. I may not be able to get pictures up until the ends of each semester, but hopefully my posts will be interesting enough to keep you checking up on me. I anticipate my blog to be a bit more analytical than purely descriptive, just to let you all know. My free writing tends to gravitate towards my passions and emotions than anything else, so if I start to rant, I apologize ahead of time.

Next time I write, I'll be in Ghana!
I hope you all only the best this year...