I just got back from Heaven.

WHAT an amazing weekend. This was what I needed, in life. I seriously, can not even describe to you how unbelievably wonderful Green Turtle Lodge was. Let's see if I can think of some accurate descriptors... AMAZING. Gorgeous. Relaxing. Picturesque. Unbelievable. Paradise. Unreal.

Okay so I'll start at the beginning of the adventure. First of all, getting there is not for the fainthearted. We began by waking up at 4:30 AM. Well, my alarm went off at 4:30 AM. I was actually awake at 4 AM (with only 4 hours of sleep.) because my malaria medicine seems to be kicking in and I am getting some nasty dreams. I had 3 terrible nightmares last week that woke me up at the wee hours of the morning. So I was up at 4 and we were out of the dorm by 5. After a taxi and a tro-tro ride and a 15 minute walk we ended up at the bus station where we took a 5 hour bus ride. I slept and read and stayed very dehydrated so as not to suffer through hours of no bathroom availability. Then off the bus we went and another walk to another tro-tro (this ride was an hour long).

This is where it gets exciting - We get off the first tro-tro to get onto another one that will take us to Green Turtle. This is a van meant for... say 18 people. We definitely had 20 people in the car, plus the 6 of us had all of our bags. Oh, and the woman behind me also had a live chicken in a plastic bag (with the head sticking out, all you PETA people. Don't be up in arms!) in a basket in her lap. Yep. Just your everyday tro-tro ride. Until I looked out my window and saw a pair of feet dangling next to my head! Apparently we also had two passengers on the roof!

But this tro-tro was on it's very last leg. I swear, the amount of noise it was making would make me pull over immediately. But alas we ventured forth. That is, until we broke down. The first two times we broke down, the tro-tro just stalled and took a long time to restart. As we put-putted up the hills, more bad noises were coming from the engine. We stall again. This time, there is no restarting it. Everyone is ushered out of the tro-tro where we wait for the driver and the mate and a couple of other men to figure out what's wrong and fix it. And we wait. And we wait. It's getting hot. I'm dehydrated and cranky and hungry. After 15 minutes of waiting I start to mutiny and try to convince the girls that we should walk because we'd get there faster. As soon as I do convince them and try to make the driver understand our plan, a small breakthrough is made with the tro-tro and the engine will almost turn over. Almost. But not quite. Because we are on a hill we need to push it to help get the engine to start. I swear I was in a Ghanaian version of Little Miss Sunshine. So all of the guys pushed the tro-tro up the hill so we could get it started and jump back in. We were good to go for another 10 minutes, until the same thing happened again and we all had to pile out and pile back in once they could push start it.

UGH, so frustrating. But, after an hour and a half of this we FINALLY made it. And holy crap was it worth it. This lodge is set directly on the beach. My bungalow was about 100 feet from the ocean. The whole of the lodge sat idyllically beneath the spread of hundreds of palm trees, shading you from the bright, bright sun. The whole place is all about Eco-tourism so everything runs on solar power, is made out of local and sustainable materials, the toilets are self-composting, etc. So that was pretty great, I love helping the environment and local community. I also love being pampered and laying on the beach all day and night.

Here are a few of the highlights of my amazing weekend.
- Sipping cheap but delicious tropical drinks while laying on a straw mat sunning myself.
- Playing in the ocean where the waves were gigantic and probably could have swallowed me whole.
- Getting slowly sunburned throughout my 12 hours of laying out.
- Reading a trashy romance novel (well... The Other Boelyn Girl. So kind of a trashy romance novel) in the comfort a cushioned net hammock strung between two palm trees. While I looked out at the ocean.
- Walking down the beach to a small village about a half mile away where a bunch of kids asked if I could take their picture.
- Eating delicious food served to me on earthenware plates while watching the sun set... and then when dusk becomes too dark, eating by the light of small kerosene lanterns.
- Stargazing at the millions of stars you can see when there are no artificial lights for miles and miles by the side of a small campfire on the beach.
- Drinking my hot cocoa and eating my eggs in peace until I feel a giant THWUMP on my head/ back. I think I've been hit by a coconut falling from the palm tree above (which is quite ironic considering we had just discussed the fact that more people die per year from coconuts falling on their heads than from plane crashes). But no, it's actually a lizard which lost its grip from the palm tree and fell 30 feet onto my head. I gave it a mean glare and it ran away when I stood up.

These are just the highlights. So obviously I died and went to heaven. Who knew heaven was only a taxi, 3 tro-tro's and a bus ride away? We are DEFINITELY going back during finals. (Ha! I will be on a tropical beach vacation during NQR. Take that Tufts!!) Seriously, I highly encourage anyone who is brave enough to make it there to move their next tropical vacation from the Carribean to Ghana. I'm not kidding. It's better. I swear.

So now I'm back and have 2 more days left of my weekend. Tomorrow was declared a public holiday here (it's the last day of Ramadan and as Islam is the second largest religious tradition in Ghana, they get public holidays just like the Christians do). Which means I don't have class until Wednesday at 11:30. RIDICULOUS.

What you are about to read is NOT a parody or exaggeration. It is the true account of an hour of my life yesterday afternoon.

My “New Religious Movements” class meets Tuesday afternoons. Now, I really, really enjoy the subject matter. I find so-called cults to be extremely fascinating. But the class itself isn’t anything great. I have found here that most classes are set up so that the lecturer speaks slowly enough that you can write down his exact words. Because that is what is expected of you as a student – to memorize the exact words of the professor and then spew them out on the final. Students also hate answering questions because if you do volunteer something in class and another student thinks what you said is stupid or ridiculous, they will just laugh at you. Seriously. So no one wants to answer any questions because they will just get made fun of by the rest of the class. I would probably attribute this behavior to the way that children are taught in preschools and primary schools. Corporeal punishment is kind of the norm in Ghana. Kym is volunteering at a preschool on campus and one of their class rules is "No talking in class." These kids are 2 and 3. There's no free play. There's no room for creativity or curiosity. This is not an environment conducive to inspiration or love of learning.

So last week the professor passed around 6 copies of a chart he made grouping the class into sections to do fieldwork on specific new religious movements. (I got Zetaheal. Not sure what it is exactly... but that's what this project is for!) He basically passed them around, said "make sure your name is there and if it's not write it at the bottom and pass it back".

Well, so yesterday I go to class and at 3:30 a student stands up in front of the class and says these exact words: "Everyone, we have a serious problem with the professor." I'm thinking the professor has gotten sick or something really bad has happened to him. He follows that statement with, "Professor only got 5 of the 6 sheets back at the end of class last week. And he's furious. He's refusing to come to class. So if you have this paper in your notebook, please return it to me so we can fix this situation."

Now at this point I thought there had been some sort of cultural misunderstanding. There has to be more going on here than meets the eye, right?

Nope. I'm understanding this situation quite clearly. Although it makes no rational sense to me whatsoever, my professor is refusing to come to class because he believes a student "stole" one of the six papers he passed to the class last week. (Note- these papers were made in Word. So he MUST have a copy on his computer. Nevermind the other FIVE copies he has in his possession.) I found this situation completely and utterly ridiculous. But none of the Ghanaian students did. They all took this situation to be completely normal, albeit quite grave.

The first suggestion was made by a student that we send an envoy to our professor's office to go apologize. I think this is a stupid idea because 1) I think he's being more than childish by reacting to what was almost certainly the accidental taking of a replaceable paper. 2) I would have no idea what we would be apologizing for. 3) Groveling to the professor only reinforces that his behavior is acceptable and can only lead to further tyranny in the classroom. Yes, I said tyranny.

But everyone in the class thought this was a perfectly rational idea. So they decide to send two boys and two girls to his office to apologize and ask him to come and lecture to the class. They leave. I seethe for half an hour until they come back.

They come back at 4:15 to tell us that he is not in his office, but his office is unlocked. Another girl in the class stands up and says, "Everyone, this is really serious. I bet he is out there right now talking with the vice-chancellor about all of this. We need to show how serious we are about this situation." Ummmm, honey. You're on crack if you think he's over at the Great Hall talking to the vice-chancellor about a missing paper.

She continues with, "I think we should march over to the department and wait in his office to show how serious we are about this situation." I think this is the stupidest idea I've ever heard. Everyone else in the class thinks it's a great idea. So they all get up and start walking to the department! At this point I had had enough. It was an hour after class had started. I was more than done with the circus that was going on in that classroom. I took this moment to exit the situation and go home. So, for all I know, they could still be sitting in our professor's office... waiting for him to show up.

But what I don't understand is how the University allows things like this to happen. I've NEVER heard of a professor not showing up to punish the students. Showing up is his JOB. We are paying him to educate us. No education was had yesterday. And he's still getting paid. Is he trying to discipline the class? Because that's not his job. He's not our father. At Tufts I would go to the head of the department or some member of the administration to complain. But there seems to be no structure for that here. I could talk to Dr. B but he couldn't actually do anything more than just agree that it's a sucky situation.

It's a strange line drawn between students and teachers. Professors/Lecturers respect themselves quite a bit. One must always learn and use the proper title when talking with a Mrs. or Mr. or Dr. or Professor or Lecturer. If you use the wrong one, you are liable to get your head bitten off. So they demand quite a bit of respect and kowtowing. But this is bordering on insane. I don't know if he's drunk on power or what. And the fact that students take this kind of situation as normal is not okay. You should not be used to and accommodating to this type of behavior from your professor.

Granted, it's possible that the initial student was combining the fact that we were missing a paper from last class and that the professor was not going to come to class, creating a huge mess. But all signs thus far point to their direct correlation.


Okay, now that that rant is done. I'm going to move onto happier subjects. Last night the Tufts girls took our roommates out to an Indian restaurant in Osu. And it was tons of fun. Indian food is such a nice change of pace from the constant stream of Jollof, Fufu, and Wakkye. During the ride there and through most of dinner, Rosie kept trying to convince me to get my hair braided. It's something like $6 to get your whole head done, so it's not all that expensive. But I have seen some ridiculous braids on some Oboronis around campus. Not so pretty. I don't want to look silly, but Rosie assures me that I won't. I'm not so convinced. Comment with your vote: yay or nay on the braids. And/or suggestions for certain braid styles.

Also, this weekend we are going on a tropical vacation to the Green Turtle Lodge (www.greenturtlelodge.com). I can't wait to relax, tropical drink in hand as I laze about the beach for three days. Ahhhh, that will be the life.

Planet Earth: Ghana Episode

Back from Dagbe and I can't tell you how sore I am. You remember my last entry about Dagbe? The massive amount of sweat it produces in anyone trying to do even a modicum of aerobic activity? Yeah, it's still like that. Possibly even worse. However, the dancing to drumming ratio was far smaller this time - thank god. We finished working on the dancing for Gahu (that's how you actually spell it, I found out...) and got to learn a lot of the drumming parts and the singing part for it. Then, yesterday, we moved onto a stylish war dance. Yes, stylish is the actual word they used. Do you know what that means? PROPS! We got wooden swords which we tied to ourselves with cloth and these furry/fuzzy stick things that are supposed to be spirit sticks that tell you what to do in the heat of battle. How can you hate dancing in 100% humidity when you have a sword and a feathery spirit stick? You just can't.

Dagbe is home to a new resident, Michael, who will be there studying for 6 months. By himself. Poor guy, he hasn't seen anyone outside of the Dagbe staff in 3 weeks. So we befriended him. But on Saturday night, when I went out to brush my teeth(you go into the backyard, they don't have running water), I see Michael, Kym, and Denise all staring at the wall of the building. What are they staring at??

Well, we seemed to have our very own Planet Earth moment on our hands... minus the slow motion filming and voice over. There were hundreds of these bugs that looked sort of like dragonflies (but not as pretty) walking all over this wall. One would chase after another one and as it did - all of it's wings would fall off! Just like that it would go from having four wings to none. And it didn't think anything of it as it continued to chase another bug whose wings have also fallen off by now and then they would mate. This was the most bizarre animal mating thing I have ever seen in real life. The sad part of this love story was that a lot of these bugs would fall off the wall before, during, or after mating. And if they fell onto the ground there were at least 2 really big frogs and 4 lizards there to snatch them up. The whole thing was fascinating, I was mesmerized. Except when I went to the bathroom (actually an outhouse - it's also behind the main building) and saw the insect tragedy being played out there...

All of the flying bugs that lost their wings and fell near the bathroom fell into a puddle where they were half drowning. Taking advantage of this situation were a huge number of ants, of all sizes and types, who were ripping apart these bugs and taking them back to their colony, I guess. It was a sad state of affairs and I couldn't watch for long.

So Dagbe-the-warzone was not so stylish after that. Poor bugs.

In other news, I am basically taking this semester to walk all of Accra. For anyone familiar with Accra (or handy with Googlemaps) these are the walks I have done(/will do in the case of the last one):
Osu to Campus
US Embassy to Campus
Campus to Shoprite to Campus
Osu to Nkrumah Circle to Campus

Annie and I don't have anything to do on Wednesday afternoons so we pretty much spend all afternoon on Wednesday walking places. It's way fun.

Things I Have Decided

1) Fresh Pineapple > Pineapple Juice. Far superior
Fresh Guava < Guava Juice. Every guava I get here is soapy tasting. Not my thing.
Fresh Mango > Mango Juice. This was a tough call. I actually would have said greater than or equal to, but they don't make that key on the keyboard.

2) The moment you say that you haven't gotten many mosquito bites is the moment you will be attacked. I was doing so well so far! I guess Murphy's Law is like Gravity in that it applies everywhere on earth.

3) I need to learn how to walk. I've now officially broken every pair of Old Navy flip-flops that I brought with me. Plus a nicer pair of sandals that I bought here. I don't understand how I could be that uncoordinated! Actually, after living with myself for 20 years, I kind of understand. But still!

4) I've initiated a don't-ask policy with my food. Last night I got wakkye with stew at the market. They asked if I wanted vegetable stew and I said yes. After I started eating I found a slimy black substance in the stew. There was a heated debated as to its origins - what animal it came from and what body part it may have been attached to. The conclusion was that it was either stomach lining or a layer of fat from an unidentified animal. I've decided I don't want to know.

5) I miss American banks. After working in one for two summers and seeing the inefficiencies and imperfections first hand I thought that they had a lot to work on. Thennnnn I became acquainted with EcoBank - the most inefficient, unfriendly, roundabout, ridiculous establishment that dares to call itself a bank. I will spare you the excruciating details about my unpleasant interactions with them but suffice it to say that I have had it up to HERE with these people.

6) My letter writing campaign is dwindling out. Ghana just raised their postage a whole 50 cents for both letters and postcards. I love you all - but $1.40 to send a letter? That's just a little excessive. My normal dinner costs 70 cents. That's two dinners. If you have been receiving mail from me, you'll probably still receive some... just not as frequently. However, as far as I know, it's still just 94 cents to send a letter from the US to Ghana! And as far as I know, you can't even get a Junior Bacon Cheeseburger for 94 cents. (Well, if you are in West Springfield you can't get a Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger at all. RIP Wendy's) So my slow down of letters should not deter you from sending your long, heartfelt letters my way.

Okay, that's it. My life is pretty boring right now. I'm going to Dagbe this weekend to do more artsy things and dance my butt off (literally).

A quick plus/minus

+ TGIF! Four day weekend...
- Not seeing a baby born on a tro-tro
+ Discovering delicious and REAL coffee at Max Mart (a little expat grocery store/cafe)
+ Drinking said coffee slowly and relishing it.
+ Also having a delicious samosa and falafel sandwich at said cafe
+ Walking with Annie from the US embassy in Accra to our dorm. Googlemap it. It's over 10 km. But it was so much fun.
- Getting hurt on that walk and bleeding all over my flip flop. I really need to learn how to walk.
- Buying cookie mix and then realizing we don't have an oven to cook them in.
++ Making said cookie dough and eating it all raw.
- Actual assignments and reading for classes
+ Four day weekends.
+ Seeing the Sex and the City movie in our own private "living room" in Accra.
+ Making my own ratatouille and pasta in my dorm
- Smelling like garlic for days
+ Reading about cults for a class. I love cults. I wish I could study cults for my job. I might go to grad school for psychology and just do that.
+ Hot bucket bath showers

So I think we're on the positive side for now...
In other news, Northwest Airlines cancelled their direct route from Amsterdam to Hartford. So they rebooked my flight without talking to me. Which means I have two layovers instead of 1. Which sucks. I have to go from Accra to Amsterdam, Amsterdam to Detroit, then Detroit to Hartford. Boooooo.

Possibly the Best Ghana Story So Far

Okay I need to preface this story with I wasn't actually there. I was invited to come along with Kym and Lauren to go fabric shopping but I had a class and couldn't go. So Lauren and Kym came back to tell us this harrowing tale. But I am going to tell it in the royal "we", as if I went with them, because it's so much better that way...

So yesterday we wanted to go fabric shopping... There are two places that are normally good for this - Medina and Makola Market. Medina has a smaller selection but isn't as scary as Makola. But we decided to go to Makola. So we get on a tro-tro and everything's dandy. Then after 15 or so minutes... something starts happening. Everyone in the tro-tro starts talking loudly in Twi and a woman two rows ahead of us looks frantic - like she's going to be sick. Everything is so loud that we can't ask anyone around us what is going on. Then, suddenly, a passenger in the very front seat jumps out of the tro-tro and into traffic. We're stopped at a traffic light, thank god! But he runs darting through cars yelling at the top of his lungs in Twi. He runs so far ahead of our tro-tro that we can't even see him any more... He runs back to our tro-tro and jumps in. As soon as he does, the light turns green. Just as the red light switched off... I don't even think the green light had turned on yet - the tro-tro rips out of traffic and begins swerving around cars and other tro-tros and all of traffic. The driver begins yelling out his window for people to let him pass and he whips around the corner, putting pedal to the metal.

Mind you, we still have no idea what is going on.

So we're speeding down Accra roads at what had to have been 60 mph. If you've ever been to Ghana you'd know that this speed is almost impossible to achieve because of ridiculous traffic and even more ridiculous road conditions. But they did acheive it. Finally (I say finally as if this all didn't occur within the span of 2 minutes) we pull up to the hospital. The woman two rows ahead who began this whole ruckus quickly gets out of the tro-tro. She stops with a terrified look on her face and begins to squat. Is she doing what I think she's doing? Yes. Yes she is. She's. having. a. baby. Yes, that's right. And she's having it RIGHT NOW. Another woman in the tro-tro realized the true direness of the situation when she saw the head. So suddenly all of the women sprung into action - taking off their head wraps and their baby fabric (the fabric you tie around yourself to strap the baby to your back) and begin shielding this woman as she starts to give birth just outside of the entrance to the hospital. I'm talking 20 feet from the hospital door. They stand around her with this fabric to cover her from the obvious crowd of people that has begun to form. And after a minute or so, someone comes out of the hospital with a stretcher to collect her and bring her inside. Thankfully, she had the baby within minutes of taking her in, instead of in the parking lot of the hospital where it looked like she would.

And after a minute or two of silent reflection on whether or not that really happened... we went on our merry way once again.

Now tell me that is not the best Ghana story so far.

A Weekend in Kumasi or (What happens when you spend too much time in the van).

I'm on Day 4 of my longggg weekend. Which means much internet time and little else. Perhaps a book or two.

We spent the weekend in Kumasi, a city in central Ghana (the heart of the Ashanti region!). Kumasi has a lot of things to do and we were only there for three days so things were action packed. However, I wasn't feeling very well on Friday when we were about to embark on a harrowing 5 hour van ride. I'm pretty sure I didn't boil my water for long enough when I was making my oatmeal that morning. So, anyway, I was not a happy camper by the time I got to the hotel.

It's still rainy season, despite what the guidebook says, and it rained a lot on Friday. We went to see Lake Bosumtwi, the largest natural lake in West Africa. It was pretty big, I'll give them that. But it was foggy and rainy so you couldn't really see much. We did have a lot of fun frolicking in the rain, to the dismay of the Ghanaians trying to shield us with umbrellas.

The next day we did a whirlwind shopping trip to a craft market where there are carvings and wooden things and jewlery and such. That was way fun, despite the jacked up prices we were being quoted. When they were orienting us for Ghana back at Tufts they really stressed how much we were going to be bargaining. I have to say that there is very little haggling or bargaining done on an every day basis. You don't bargain for food. You hardly bargain for housewares. Clothing, cloth, and souvenirs are the only things I've found to be flexibly priced. So I bought some carved things and have begun to stow things away for Christmas presents. The nice thing about coming back right before Christmas (besides getting to be home for Christmas) is that I can just not give people souvenirs and just give it to everyone for Christmas. Which is great.

So we sat around and finally drove to our next station - this place that makes Adinkra prints. Adinkra symbols are all symbols used in textiles and carvings that have very specific meanings. To put Adinkra prints on fabric, one must use these stamps and this ink/dye. So we learned how to stamp the fabric and then got to keep the part that we did. Which was fun.

More sitting around, more driving.

Next up - Bonwire. Bonwire is the birthplace of Kente cloth. It looks something like this. It's very hard to make and therefore quite expensive. Each pattern has a story behind it. It's really cool. The plan was to get off the van, go see the weavers at work and then spend some time shopping for kente. Well, the plan didn't account for the 50 street hawkers that would attack us as soon as we stepped foot in Bonwire. Seriously, I've never felt more like a tourist in Ghana. They followed us to where the weavers were and crowded us so much that we couldn't even take pictures of the looms. Then when they saw that we were beginning to go into shops and stalls, they flipped out and started grabbing this person to get them into their shop as quickly as possible. This was really putting me off as I was worried about getting my purse stolen or getting forced into buying something I really didn't want.

I ended up buying a kente bedspread for my room at school from a guy named Elvis Presley. Who promptly proposed after hearing that I was from the US. When I broke his heart by telling him that I already have a husband he asked me if I'd "birthed" already. Oy vey. My proposal count is only a paltry 6 after over 6 weeks here. I must be quite an unattractive Oboruni. But the ones I do get are on par with Elvis's romantic proposal.

FINALLY back in the van for more sitting and more driving. Next up, the Prempeh Museam. By this time I'm cranky and car sick and tired. I'm kind of acting like a petulant child. You know, the usual. (I missed my nap time!) So I didn't get much out of the Prempeh Museam other than Kumasi is the center of the Ashanti culture and that's great.

More sitting, more driving. And then the sweet sweet relief of a HOT shower. Yes, that's right. Hot water. It was more than I could have asked for. We also had a TV where we could watch CNN and bad Nigerian movies. (You think Step it Up 2 was bad? I dare you to sit through 2 hours of a Nigerian movie. It makes TUTV look like Paramount.)

Sunday we did A LOT of driving around Kumasi before we actually began the trek to Accra. Now, we didn't do anything strenuous on Saturday. A lot of shopping and sitting and driving. That's it. So why, may I ask you, was everyone in our group sore on Sunday morning? Did you know that you can be sore from being jostled around in the car from too long? Neither did we! But in fact, you can.

6 hours after leaving Kumasi we returned home to our beds and promptly fell asleep.

The. End.

short but sweet

Not usually how you would describe my posts but I have very little time before class.

I. Am. Bored. I have never had so much free time in my entire life! Me - 4 jobs, theater-obsessed, too-many-classes, not-enough-time-to-sleep ME is going crazy with all of the nothing I have to do here.

I have four day weekends. My classes begin at 11:30 AM on Tuesdays and end at 3:30 PM on Thursdays. I have virtually no reading or homework for those classes. No papers to write. I also have no jobs or extracurriculars to distract me or stress me out. The lack of stress is stressing me out!!! I'm not used to this.

Combine this with the fact that internet is hard to come by and I can't watch TV and I am starving for entertainment. I would KILL to watch a movie right now. ANY movie, be it cartoon or horror flick or romantic comedy. I don't care. "You should read!" you might say... I read four books in the past 4 days. Seriously. I already finished Anna Karenina, (what should have been) my big accomplishment of the semester. I then blew through Brave New World, The Red Tent, and A Thousand Splendid Suns. What to do?? I am going to run out of books soon!!

I talked to our Program Director about getting an internship possibly with an NGO. Maybe that will fill my daysssss. Otherwise I am going to come back with fluent ASL skills as I am forcing Kym to teach me while I languish.

Alright, I told you this one would be short.