Week 13

Tuesday
Spent the day in bed recovering. Was feeling  a little dehydrated, so I just drank down a bunch of Gatorade and sugar/salt water. Decided to make it to dance class in the evening though. The new dance we are learning is called Bamaya. We finally finished it up and we should be getting tested next week. Can't express how much I love dance class, I think it definitely made me feel better after a tough weekend! Had some plain rice for dinner after.

Wednesday
Coastal Management in the morning. We watched a video on ballast water and the impacts of the shipping industry on the coast. Pretty standard from what we've learned in the US. More excitingly Professor Nyarko finalized our field trip, which will be next Friday out to the Tema Port, just East of Accra. Stoked on that. Decided not to stay for seminar today as I wasn't feeling 100%. Headed back to ISH to eat and relax. Had Twi class in the afternoon, where we learned basic questions. In Twi, there is no different sentence structure for questions, it is all simply in the inflection. For example, Wo pe aborobe is "you like pineapple" To change that into "do you like pineapple?" you simply elongate the end of the word aborobe. Confusing, in my opinion...After Twi we had a palavar session with Auntie Rose and Uncle Albie. We watched the movie Big Men, on the oil fields and business here in Ghana. Short discussion afterwards followed by dinner, courtesy of the study center (hallelujah!), of avocado and chicken salads. Headed back to ISH and off to bed afterwards.

Thursday
Decided to play hooky from class this morning to go into town. (Hey, I deserve a break!) Came back and just hung around downstairs for the afternoon. It was ridiculously hot all day, so ISH was pretty much full of us internationals trying to avoid the heat. I hung out with one of my good friends here for the majorityof the day and we headed off to dance class after lazing away the afternoon. Dance was fun, we just rehearsed Bamaya some more. The end of the Bamaya dance has a freestyle portion where everyone has to do a solo, which is basically my worst nightmare. Of course, the cheif drummer looked right at me and i had no choice but to come to the front of the circle and move. SO embarrassing... I think we're getting tested next week and then on to the next dance! Had dinner downstairs at ISH with other internationals and hung out with some poeple in the room for the evening.

Friday
STarted out the morning with a meeting with Dr. Alhassan, my research supervisor. I don't think I've said much about him yet, but he is awesome! He is a Professor of Geography within the Kwame Nkrumah Institute for African Studies and has pretty broad interests, focusing on patterns of the Ghanian diaspora and humanitarian and environmental relief with USAID.   He is extremely helpful and interesting and just an all around great professor. He actually reminds me of my dad, one, because he wears a lot of really loud, fun shirts (and we have definitely gifted my dad enough loud and crazy tops over the years) and two, because he is an academic but can still crack an absurdly corny joke and get away with it. We chatted a bit about my research and he gave me pointers on writing and organization and about my trip to Ada. After my meeting with him me and a friend headed over to MaxxMart for lunch and groceries. We ran into some other internationals who were also escaping the heat in the AC of the store. Headed back to ISH for the afternoon to stay out of the heat. That evening a few of the Cali Crew went out to dinner for one of the guy's birthdays. He was craving Chinese so we hit up a place called Spadana out in Osu and had a big family style meal. We hit up Pinnochio for ice cream afterwards (because none of us are capable of walking by without going in), stopped by one of the bars for a little and then headed back to Volta Hall to chill out for a little.

Saturday
Spent the day doing some souvenir shopping in Osu. Got some shea products and fabric from Global Mama's, and awesome fair trade NGO and found a place called Trashy Bags, which makes all of it's products out of recycled water satchets or billboard fabric. Super awesome! We also stumbled upon a pretty cool place called Pure Essense which makes super great shea products that I want to hit up next time. All the natural African shea you find here is so amazing! After a few hours of trekking in the heat up and down Oxford Street, we hit up El Paso, our favorite Mexican hideaway for lunch. Always delish. We all had either a burrito or fajitas with Spanish Sangria. refreshing! Headed back to campus, and good thing we did because as soon as we got back the sky just opened up. One of the bigger storms I've experienced here. Th thunder was earth shattering and the lightening just illuminated the entire sky. And the sheer amount of rain paired with the strength of the wind was unreal. And i think the big difference is, that when it rains here it's not like a dinky one hour storm, it dumps for HOURS. amazingly the power stayed on all night (first time for everything, wooooo!) but it hasn't gone out for about 4 days so it is inevitable. We decided against cooking, fearing that the power would go out midway through, so we ordered Thai food in. Spent the evening indoors watching movies and talking!

Sunday
IA's (midterms) are in the coming weeks so everyone spent the day studying. I spent the morning on my research paper and the afternoon on Environmental Ecology. Around 4 me and a friend went down to the track and ran some laps and did cardio since no one wanted to do insanity. I find it interesting because the track is always filled with Ghanaian men and obruni women, never Ghanaian girls. It's definitely not apart of their culture for women to work out. For dinner, me and my roommate cracked open a box of Kraft Mac n Cheese. Excellent study food.

Week 12

Monday
Monday started out with soccer practice bright and early! Did some passing drills and scrimmages. Not much else to report on the day, I honestly can't really remember. (oops!)

Tuesday
No classes in the daytime so I just kind of lazed around all morning and early  afternoon. Around lunchtime, me and a friend went down to the Accra Mall to do some grocery shopping and snag some lunch. We had ham and cheese sandwiches (so American, it was fantastic) and ice cream. After spending some time in the shops we headed back to campus. A group of us did Insanity (a ridiculously exhausting workout video, but I'm committing to do it everyday for the rest of the time that I'm here! ) After wearing ourselves out doing that, we headed off to dance class. Dance class was fun, as always and we started learning the new dance after our midterm. This one is much harder and calls for some more precise hip movements that I have not yet mastered. Video to come though! After dance class me my roommate and some of the guys from the Cali Crew headed to our favorite restaurant in Accra for dinner; DNR Turkish Cuisine. Literally the best food ever. We always go with about 5 or 6 people and order enough food for 10. It's such a chill environment (right on the roadside) and really does have amazing grub. We probably come here at least once a week (and if we don't come, we get it delivered). We were there until they kicked us out at closing (11, so early!) and then had a chill evening back at ISH.

Wednesday
Headed off to Coastal Management in the morning. Class was good but I felt the mood was a little more subdued than usual today. I found out that the Ghanaian students have to turn in their thesis proposals tomorrow, so it now makes sense. Class was a little more stressful today, as Professor Nyarko could tell people weren't quite paying attention to him and proceeded to shoot exam questions at us, and singled people out, making us stand up and answer questions aloud. After class though I stayed for the seminar that is optional for international students; it was on coral reefs. Super interesting lecture done by Dr. Appeaning Addo who I met with last week, he's a great lecturer, I kinda wish I had taken one of his classes as well! After that I headed back to ISH to finish my assignment for Twi. We had to type out a one page dialogue on a conversation in the market ( It was fairly repetive - how much variety can you really have in a market? Everyone is there to buy something or another - Ex: Wo wa ankaa? Do you have oranges? Aane, me wo ankaa. Yes I have ornages! Wo wa kontomire ni boyare? Do you have palava sauce and yam? Aane! Yes! ....You get the point) Grabbed Mama Tantalizing food for dinner ( peanut soup and banku) and had a fairly relaxing evening.

Thursday
Lots of class today, started out with NGO's. Spent 2 hours talking about how to name your NGO. My one gripe with the Ghanaian teaching system is that they sometimes literally spend the ENTIRE class period talking about something that should really only take 30 minutes to explain. Fairly boring. Came back to ISH after only to be greeted with no power. Went down to the night market and had red red (fried plantains and beans cooked in red palm oil) and hung around downstairs talking to people for a few hours. Power came back on around 3, right when I was leaving for class. Environmental Ecology was standard, although we found out we have a field trip for the class! Professor Attua mentioned they usually take the class to Kakum (the rainforest canopy walkway that I visited when I first arrived in Ghana. See second post for deets. ) which is super exciting! That was one of my fav places and I would love to go back. This week has been ASPA (Association of Students in Performing Arts) Week so there has been a lot of fun activities going on within the dance department. Today for class, instead of being in the studio, many of the dance students, from levels 100-600 (undergrad to masters), all met outside and we started out having a huge dance parade where we all joined in. After about 45 minutes of that, Kofi, our instructor called each level up to do their dance in front of the department. We (level 200) performed Gaun, which is the one we had to do for our midterm. Watching everyone dance out on the street by streetlight and joining in a cheering people on was so much fun. I feel like it is experiences like this, where you're surrounded by culture, is truly what makes study abroad. I really felt like I was in Africa, with the rhythm and drumbeats going and seeing all the truly impressive dance moves.

Friday
Woke up hot, sweaty and with no power. BIG SURPRISE. Power stayed out almost all day. Headed to the mall for groceries and just hung around town for the day. As the closing event of ASPA week, the Dance Department had a banquet in the evening. Me and a few friends decided to hit it up, if for nothing else than the food. Event was supposed to start at 7, we got there around 7:30 and were still among the first to arrive (that Ghana Man Time though...). Event was nice, they had an emcee and the stage was decorated nicely.They gave out a lot of student awards, a few to people we know from dance class, which was cool to be there to cheer them on for. Just headed on back to ISH afterwards and had a chill evening in.

Saturday
Started the morning out with a dance workshop at 8 to make up for the class we missed on thursday. After that, a couple of us decided to head out to Kokrobite Beach, just West of Accra, for the night. Per the usual, the journey there was eventful, confusing and ridiculous. We knew we  needed to get to Kenishie Station, but no one informed us that there is a difference between the Kenishie tro tro station located at Kwame Nkrumah Circle and the actual suburb of Kenishie. Naturally, we turned up at Circle, only to realize we had to take yet another tro to get to the real Kenishie and then found out that we could only take a tro as far as Bojo Beach and then taxi. Long story, short, we made it by mid afternoon to our little hotel, the Kokrobite Garden which was AMAZING. It is owned and run by the sweetest Italian-Spanish couple and there are only 5 rooms, all little bungalows and a one person treehouse. Super cute. We spent the day having drinks and swimming and buying more souvenirs at the beach and headed back to the hotel for dinner, where I had the best Italian food i have EVER had. Literally salivating just thinking about it now. After dinner, we headed back to the beach for some live Reggae Music at one of the resorts. Very mellow and fun and we spent the rest of the night there.

Sunday - Monday
Proved to be an interesting day. Started out by spending some more time on the beach having drinks (10 am in Ghana, but it's 5 o clock somewhere, right?) and chilling. Decided to head on back to Accra around 1. It was on the second tro tro ride that I started to feel kind of funny. As we made it back to ISH i felt downright sick and proceeded to spend the next three hours throwing up every 30 minutes or so. It was terrible. At the prompting of my friends I finally decided to call Auntie Sharon and go to the hospital. They made me stay the night (UGH) since it was already 8 and gave me something to stop me vomiting. Next morning, I saw the doctor and she informed me it was a gastrointestinal infection. I am now back at ISH and on my meds, still not eating anything too major, but feeling better nonetheless. They made me stay in the hospital to monitor me (much to my chagrin) until Monday evening, so I spent Monday bored to tears in the hospital room. When they finally discharged me I felt as if i had been sprung from prison (not that they weren't all nice people in there). Spent the rest of the day recuperating in bed. Feeling better though, and updates for next week are to come!

Yebehyia bio!

Week 11

Monday
Today was a national holiday, so no classes! Yay! The California Study Center had our monthly wellness breakfast this morning, so bunch of us headed over to IPO at 8:30, bright and early. Auntie Rose had a delicious breakfast our granola, yogurt, pita, bananas, hard boiled eggs and REAL CHEESE. I can't emphasize how hard non laughing cow cheese is to come by people. It's a struggle. We ate and had a discussion on continuing phases of cultural adjustment. Afterwards a friend needed to head to the art supply shop, Acrylics, in Osu to get some supplies for her internship. We taxied down and did some exploring in Osu for a little while. We went into this awesome store called Global Mamas, it's a non profit, fair trade organization that sells clothes, jewelry and lotions, all produced here in Ghana. It's an awesome store and I will definitely be making many trips back for souvenirs! ;) After that we headed over to Acrylics, only to see it was closed for the holiday. We instead headed over to one our favorite spots, Pinnochio's, an ice cream shop. They have the most delicious ice cream in such a variety of flavors. I had a double scoop of some sort of french fruit and a delicious dark chocolate. So worth the 11 cedis. After that we headed on back to ISH and just hung around for the rest of the day. That evening, it was one of the girl's in the groups birthday so we went out to dinner back in Osu at a Japanese restaurant called Monsoon. It was pricey but delicious! I had salmon and avocado spring rolls (no raw fish for me) that were excellent. I came back and did a little bit of writing for my research project and then headed to bed.

Tuesday
I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that I did absolutely nothing of importance until dance class today. Soccer in the morning and then I wasted my internet away watching Gilmore Girls on Netflix, and the heat was so intense that I couldn't even bring myself to leave ISH for lunch and just ate at the kitchen downstairs. So I hid inside all day, basically. We were supposed to have our IA (interim assessment AKA midterm) in dance but (big surprise) it was once again postponed. We practiced the dance we're being tested on on thursday a few times and then began to learn a new dance. The new dance is significantly harder with much more intricate body movements, but I'm looking forward to getting more into it!

Wednesday
Coastal Management in the morning. Today me and the other girl from the California program in that class did a presentation on coastal management in the United States. I think it went well, the students chuckled at our accents throughout the presentation but they seemed interested in what we were saying, nonetheless. Lecture was interesting, we discussed different coastal habitats and how different human activities effect them. I felt pretty smart because Professor Nyarko talked a lot about the SOngor Wetlands where we went last weekend and I could connect that well. That afternoon I had a meeting with Professor Appeaning-Addo to talk about the natural science behind wetland destruction and erosion. He was awesome and interesting and I ended up talking to him for about an hour. I left are meeting super jazzed to start writing and headed back to ISH. I was just walking up to the parking lot when I ran into a friend who inquired as to why I wasn't in Twi class. In my excitement at my project, I totally blanked on going to class. Oh well (sorry Mom and Dad). No new Twi phrase for ya'll this week! Spent the evening writing and then when outside for Mama Tantalizing for dinner (she had mashed potatoes!!!)

Thursday
Started out with soccer practice and then NGO's. We started talking about how to establish a mission, in preparation for our group projects. Headed back to ISH for a little while afterwards to rest and avoid that intense noonday African sun. We headed to Environmental Ecology afterwards where we talked about the carbon cycle, pretty much review from ENVS 24 back in Santa Cruz. After that we had our Dance IA! I think it went well, I mean I'm taking the class Pass/No Pass so I just need a 60%, but i'm pretty sure I got a solid "pass". Headed to the Night Market for dinner (jollof rice, shito, boiled egg and a pineapple) and hung out with friends for the rest of the evening.

Friday
Swung by the post office and IPO early and then headed back to ISH only to realize that the power was out. I secretly had plans for another Gilmore Girls filled morning but that was obviously thwarted. I headed downstairs with my iPod and a book, deciding to just hang out, snack and read outside since there was a breeze and the room was too stuffy without the fan. Power stayed out all day and into the evening so I spent the day downstairs out at the shady tables in the quad alternating between reading and chatting with people who came by throughout the day. I played a little bit of Owari with some of the guys from the Cali Crew (a game similar to Mancala) and realized I suck at it. I've decided to get a board and practice. Mid afternoon, the water also went out  which was actually kind of comical since a lot of the Cali Crew was doing Insanity (a work out tape) outside and were all sweaty and gross only to realize there was no water for a running water shower when they were done. Spent the evening hanging out and went to bed early since me and 2 others decided on a hiking trip for the next morning. (Still no power)

Saturday
Me and two of the other girls from the Cali Crew left ISH at about 7 to head out to the Shai Hills Resource Reserve. It's 3 short tro tro rides away from Accra so it didn't take us too long to get there. However, the entire way there we couldn't help but glance up at the threatening looking clouds in the sky. As we sat on the tro tro on the way there, suddenly we saw baboons on the road! We were soon at our stop and as soon as we stepped in the gates of the park we were surrounded by baboons! We got our guide and decided on the shortest of the 5 trips offered for time and money purposes. We set off (clouds still looked menacing) and soon encountered ostriches! They are such cool animals,, that I've never really payed much attention to before. We continued on after encountering them, along a fairly flat savannah terrain. Even though this turned out to be the easiest part of the journey, it was nice because I felt that we were getting a tatste of the landscape you typically think of when you think of Africa; that wide open savannah. As we were walking, our guide, George, pointed up at a pretty decent sized mountain in the distance and informed us that that is what we would end up on top of at the end of this. Slightly surprised we continued after him, as he announced that the rains were coming and sped up his pace. At this point we were getting to some pretty steep rock faces to climb up and he was flat out jogging to make it to the cave at the foot of the summit before the rains. As we hauled ass up the mountain face, through crevices and up steep rock faces, we managed to make it into some dense jungle just as the sky opened up. It was pouring rain and we were still only about 3/4 of the way there and slowing down. Soaking wet, I looked up at this next rock face, slightly discouraged when suddenly I heard a growl. Alarmed, we all looked around, thinking of lions and the like. George calmly stated "oh no it is just a monitor lizard! They are big lizards, maybe 5 feet with sharp teeth and very aggressive. Do not worry!" Let's just say that was enough for the rest of us to scamper up the next set of rocks without a look back. We finally made it to the cave, which was absolutely amazing It's just so fascinating to think about how some of these things are formed over time! We waited there for awhile, hoping for the rain to die down so we could head up to the summit. It didn't so we decided to go anyway. As we sat in the cave we looked around and inquired as to how we would make it to the top of the mountain from here. George pointed to a pretty narrow crack in the ROOF of the cave, indicating for us to climb up there.Not sure how, but we managed to get up there and shimmy on through. The sight was one to behold. As we sat up on the summit, drenched to the bone, with the rain still coming down on us, looking out on to the African savannah I couldn't help but be reminded of the opening scene from The Lion King where Circle of Life plays. It was absolutely beautiful. Because of the rain I didn't get too many pics, but I guess that's just a reason to go back, right? After sitting out there for a few, the rain got the best pf us and chased us back inside (also I swear I heard another growling monitor lizard in the bushes and I'm not one to overstay my welcome!). We then proceeded to slip, slide and clamor down the mountain back to the main gate. It was an adventurous trip and I'm kind of glad we got to see it once in the rain, because it gave us a different perspective. I should also point out that we thoroughly amused/annoyed every tro tro that we took back to Accra (sopping wet, muddy obruni's are apparently not a common sight.).
A few pics that I managed to get!

Sunday
Woke up quite sore today from our journey yesterday! Also woke up to the power still being out. I just lazed around for awhile and it ended up coming back at around 9. That afternoon, Auntie Rose and Uncle Albie had gotten us all tickets to the Accra Hearts of Oak v. Asante Kotoko game here in Accra. They are the two big country rivals (think Dodgers v. Yankees) and people get quite passionate about the outcome. We first had lunch at one of the beach resorts on the coast in Accra. We spent about 2 or 3 hours there, just hanging around and eating. The lunch buffet was delicious, one of the best we've had since being here; it had a nice eclectic mix of Ghanaian, Asian and American food. After we headed on over to the stadium! It was quite exciting, pulling up to the crowded stadium; there were people all around selling a myriad of souvenirs. I was already wearing a jersey so I didn't buy anything else, but it was fun to see. We started the hike up to our seats (we were in the sky box) which were incredible. About half the group was for Accra (whooooo!) and the other half was for Kumasi (booooo!) and Auntie Rose had promised us all ice cream form Pinochio's should Accra win. The game was a good one, with Kotoko scoring early and dominating the field. We all had a good time watching the game and buying cheap beer from downstairs. With about 10 minutes left Accra got a goal in off a penalty kick, tying it up. The game ended 1-1, good enough for Auntie Rose, so we did indeed head over to Osu for ice cream! The game had a lot of good energy and I'm looking forward to trying and making it to a Black Stars (the Ghana national team) game before I leave as well! 

Week 10 continued

Friday
So as i mentioned before, while I'm here, I'm doing a research project about wetland destruction in Ada Foah, a village about 2 hours east of Accra. What better way to conduct research than a site visit with friends, right? RIGHT. So on Friday me and four good friends of the Cali Crew decided to spend a weekend out in Ada. We started out from campus about 1:30, a little later than we were hoping for but still doing good on time nonetheless.  So here we are, all happy and jolly waiting at the Okponglo tro tro station, we even managed to secure a tro tro to Central Accra in about 15 minutes (an IMPOSSIBLE task on a Friday afternoon) to actually fit all five of us. About 6 stops from Tudu station (where were supposed to pick up the tro to Ada) our tro tro suddenly breaks down in the middle of the road. I've heard of such things happening but it never really occurred to me it could happen to me. So we all piled out and waited for another tro tro to come; it took a little longer to find one with enough space to fit us all, but we finally did and we were on the way again! However, the driver of this tro wasn't nearly as friendly as the other one. We told him multiple times we needed Tudu station, and when we passed it he just kept right on going, saying he was going to Tema station instead. The other passengers on the tro tro stood up for us though and made a commotion and he let us out 2 stops later. We walked back (stopping to ask directions many times, and surely looking ridiculous and full on obruni, walking through the streets of downtown Accra with all our backpacks and things) and were met with another problem. The tro tro to Ada wasn't currently there and there were already 15 odd people waiting for it. The guy standing in front of the open slot told us about a half hour, but that could literally mean anything in Ghana time. About an hour and a half passed, it was now about 4, when suddenly a tro tro appeared to be pulling into the empty slot in front of us. That's when literally all hell broke loose. I'd like to compare this with perhaps what it would be like to shove ones way onto a lifeboat of a sinking ship; no rules, full on pushing and shoving and a women and children first mentality. The five of us managed to fight (and i mean FIGHT) our way on, all sitting in equally uncomfortable positions with goods and people shoved in all around us, but not too concerned as this was only supposed to take about an hour and half. After finally pulling out of the station (hooray!) we started out on the road, only to be met with deadlocked, bumper to bumper traffic. It took us about an hour and half to make it to the Accra Mall roundabbout (a usual 5 minute trip) and once we made it there, naturally, it started to pour (by pour, I mean monsoon style rainstrom, wind and all.) The back of the tro tro was open so water just streamed in for the next half hour or so. It took us about 3 hours to make it to the city of Tema (usually about a half hour away) in traffic and the roads finally opened up and the rain stopped. After that we careened (quite dangerously, it was an experience comparable to that of the Indiana Jones Adventure rise at Disneyland) down the dirt roads to Ada. We finally made it there around 9 and were met by two awesome people from the place we were staying at, Maranatha Beach Camp, we walked us down to the river's edge to the boat that would take us to Maranatha. Walking through the trees and getting the first view of the Volta River open up in front of us with the moon glistening over it was enough to pull all of us out of our tiredness. The boat ride was absolutely gorgeous, about 20 minutes of pure bliss. We had clearly left the light of Accra behind and could actually see the stars We pulled up to Maranatha and Robert and Desmond kindly offered to whip us up something quick even though the kitchen had closed already. After eating we headed over to our beach hut, which was one of the coolest rooms I've ever had. It was a thatched roof, thatched wall, hut standing on the sand. Mosquito nets hung around the three double beds and the floor was simply the sand of the beach.

Most of us were pretty pooped after dinner, but me and one of the other girls decided to go for a walk on the ocean side of the property. (Maranatha is near the Ada Foah Estuary and the Songor Wetlands, so one side is on the Volta River and the other on the Gulf of Guinea.) We spent an hour or so sitting on beach talking to Lanny, one of the workers, who gave us a lot of info on the wetlands and how many of the local still regard these areas as sacred, even though people have come in and built these multi million dollar resorts. He also gave us some interesting info on the turtle population here, as it is prime breeding grounds for leatherbacks and Olive Ridley's. After our chat, we finally went off to rest up for the next day.

Saturday 
Started the morning off with a lovely breakfast of pineapple pancakes and fruit! During breakfast we ended up making friends with two older women from Iowa, a super sweet Australian couple about our ages and a friendly young Dutch guy. We ended up chatting a lot over breakfast and then decided to all split the cost of a 3 hour boat tour around the surrounding islands. We started out by taking the boat to the estuary where the Volta River and the ocean meet and then continuing on to Rum Island. The Chief of Rum Island is a jolly old man who grows sugarcane and distills the rum in hand cranked machines. After getting a tour of the process, naturally,we had to sample some of the good stuff for ourselves. The white rum made on the island is the basic form, but he also makes red rum, flavored with the bark of mahogany! Super interesting (and strong!) , I bought some to bring home (thought good 'ol Dad would appreciate it) so look forward to that. We next proceeded to Crocodile Island. On the way there, however, we passed an oyster fishing boat. We were talking about how interesting it was when Lanny simply waved them over and some of the group bought oysters from them. They dumped in about 4 or 5 pounds into the bottom of the boat and we were on our way again. We bought coconuts on Crocodile Island and saw a few crocs (sadly, not in the wild, they were in a pond on the island, not in the water, as we were expecting.) We headed back to Maranatha after that and spent the afternoon resting and swimming in the ocean and river. Come dinner time, we all gathered again and had a relaxing dinner (accompanied with some red rum of course ;)) After dinner, Maranatha hosts a bonfire, which was a chill event. We talked to some of the other guests around and just took it easy and headed off to bed fairly early, exhausted from the day. Group pic on Rum Island

Sunday
We awoke Sunday and spent the morning eating breakfast and jut hanging aroound. We also spent a large portion of the morning in typical Ghana fashion; waiting for our bill for the weekend. It took about an hour and a half and it was about 11 by the time we were ready to head out. We bid our new friends goodbye, with hopes to see them in a few weeks in Accra. The boat ride back was rainy (obviously) but miraculously, there was already a tro tro waiting for us in Ada Foah when we got off the boat (apparently, Robert had called them, we knew this was no coincidence!) we hopped on to the tro tro and were on our way home after a lovely weekend. Of course a weekend as killer as this, couldn't be without some sort of chaos to begin and end with. About 20 minutes outside of Accra, our tro tro broke down again. At first we decided to try and stick it out as we were literally on the middle of the highway, but as the mate and driver were fiddling with parts, the engine started smoking and we decided to high tail it out of there. We didn't have to wait too long, and finally managed to squeeze on to another one, which ended up being more convenient because it was going in the direction of campus instead of Tudu station so it saved us an exchange; guess that worked out in the end! We finally made it home and all quickly ran to the showers (forgot to mention no showers there, and we were covered in a solid layer off sand and dirt, trailing sand behind us on all the tro tros, much to the chagrin of all the passengers and drivers we encountered.) and ordered delivery from my favorite restaurant here in Accra for dinner. It was an excellent weekend and I hope to head back to Ada Foah before I leave Ghana (in 10 short weeks, ahhhh!)

Week 10

Madwo (Good evening) all! This week has been a good one, starting with a regular week of classes and ending with a little vacation for the three day weekend. Keep readin' for

Monday
Started out with soccer practice bright and early at 6 am. It was a productive morning; we worked on our passing and moving as a team and ended with a little 3 on 3 practice. After practice me and friend decided to go swing by the Accra Mall, as she wanted a pair of shoes and I have no class till 3:30 on Monday so I tagged along. We walked down to the Okponglo tro tro station at the corner of campus only to see a sea of deadlocked traffic. We quickly decided the mall wasn't worth it and decided to walk over to MaxMart (A small Lebanese chain of grocery stores, that are very popular here.) to grab some groceries and food since we hadn't eaten after practice. The journey was a hot one, but we rewarded ourselves with chicken shawarmas when we finally arrived. Picked up some little groceries and found chedder cheese sauce(a major success!) so I decided to make some mac n cheese for dinner that night. We headed back to campus and had Twi class later that afternoon. We spent much of class reviewing, practicing constructing sentences (Mine was Me kumm ntonton "I killed the mosquito") After  class me and a friend decided to get to work on our mac n cheese treat. We had also stopped by the vegetable market on campus on the way from Twi and grabbed some green onions, bell peppers squash to mix in there. The kitchen was busy that evening, another few of the Cali crew were making pineapple fried rice as well as a Ghanaian student making fresh banku, and right as we were all getting into our cooking, in true Ghana fashion, the power went off. It has become a regular occurance at ISH for the power to go off, so we all groaned and crossed our fingers that the porters at the front would spare us and turn the generator on tonight. We lucked out and they did, and there was mac n cheese for all!

Tuesday
 As I've mentioned before, Tuesday's are my lazy days and I ended up doing very little today. We had Twi lab in the morning where we watched a movie in Twi (a most ridiculous film whose plot twists would surprise even the most avid Hindi movie viewer) and then a few of us ended up being recruited by the International Programmes Office (IPO) to pose as student models for the admissions booklet for the University of Ghana. They took a picture of three of us sitting on the grass pretending to read and talk to eachother. SO any prospective UG freshmen out there, keep an eye out for me! ;) I wasted away the afternoon in the Study Center, talking to people as they dropped in and out and went down to Akuafo Hall (one of the residence halls) for some palava sauce for lunch and then headed back to the Study Center for ice cream and cake. The Program Coordinators at the STudy Center put on this event at the end of the month for who whoever had a birthday during the month. They basically buy American style cake and ice cream for everyone and we all come together and sing for the people whos birthdays occur during the month. It's an optional event but it is the one event that all 35 of us UNFAILINGLY show up for. Cali kids need our cake fix! Dance class that evening and our midterm was pushed back until next Tuesday, because the dance department is paying to take all of us to a performance at the National Theatre on Thursday! We're all so psyched to see some real dancing, not this simple (but fun) obruni style dance! It should be a lot of fun. Amusing anecdote from dance class: One of the student came up and asked me and another student to be in amusic video for her friend this week. From dance class to MTV? Deets next week on how that turned out. After Dance some of us went over to Volta Hall (some of the Cali girls live on the other side of campus in a local hall. We all lived at that hall for a week and half during orientation so it brings back memories of all hanging out during orientation.) to celebrate one of the girl's in my programs' birthday. It was a relaxing night, we all just hung out, played cards and drank some beers and then headed back to ISH at the end of the evening.

Wednesday
Started the day with my favorite class, Coastal Management. We leaned about Integrated Coastal Management, stuff i've learned about extensively in Santa Cruz but it's fascinating to hear it from a West African perspective. While I'm here in Ghana I'm writing a research paper comparing the increased intensity of tropical storms in Lousiana, USA and Ada Foah, Ghana and how they are a result of wetland destruction. My Professor for coastal management set up a meeting for me to talk to one of the other professor's here, Profoessor Appeaning, for next week so I'm looking forward to that! After that I had Twi class where we learned how to negate verbs, (Ex: Me ndi ankaa "I will not eat the orange") After Twi, our soccer coach wanted us to go watch a Champion's League game so that we could observe tactics and apply it to our own playing. We went out to one of the sports bars in town, right near Okponglo and grabbed some dinner and watched the Atletico Madrid v. Juventus game. The place we went to was really nice, it had great local food and a more laid back vibe then a lot of the bars in town. I will definitely be going back!

Thursday 
My class heavy day, I started teh day with socccer bright and early. Nothing too eventful, we just ran the usual amount of laps and did some drills and practiced in our positions. I have Management of NGO's soon after practice so I usually run back to ISH to hop in the shower and change. Ghanaians always look their best for class, so to avoid looking like even more of an obruni, we try and dress up best we can to fit in! NGO's is my largest class, about 70 people. Our professor, Justice (literally, in Ghana if you're not named Kofi, you're Justice or Wisdom!) is an animated man and gave an interesting background of the structre of NGO's. Our main project for the class is to construct our own NGO's and we're going to start that next week. After that I swooped by the Bush Canteen to pick up my fav, Palava Sauce w/boiled yams, and headed back to ISH. That evening, instead of Dance class, the Dance Department decided to take all of us to a performance at the National Theatre. It was an awesome experience to see a show and see the amazing dance moves and styles of the national theatre company!

Hope you all had a lovely week! See my next post for Friday - Sunday, which I spent traveling!