Monsoon Madness

Today I walked out of the International Programs Office to discover that basically a monsoon had hit campus. This morning I left my room and looked up at the blinding light and made a confident decision that there was no chance I would need my umbrella. Now, I trudge through the thick red mud which is flicked all up my legs by my flip flops- all the Ghanaians stare at my embarrassing appearance and chuckle to themselves- and I wonder why did I not bring an umbrella again? I swear I did not even hear the rain but the flooding of the drains that has overflowed into the streets means that it must have been some intense rain. Now for the recap of my past couple weeks…

Around two weeks ago, my three of my friends and I decided to go to the beach. We had our hearts set on trying out a new beach that should have only taken an hour and a half to get to by tro-tro. Instead, the adventure to Big Milly’s beach took around four hours and we only had a couple hours of sunlight there. But the story gets better. First, this beach resort is incredible! The beach was a white sand paradise where you could rent out a hammock or a camping tent for cheap to spend the night. Even better, the menus at one of the restaurants had desserts- apple pie, ice cream sundaes- sweets I had not dreamed of finding in Ghana. The two-story tiki bar had seating that gave you an incredible view of the Atlantic Ocean as well as the tropical mountains in the opposite direction. As the sun went down we decided to head back to Legon instead of staying the night. It happened to be just our luck that there was a tro-tro of Ghanaian guys and German girls heading back into the Accra area. Our ride back was pure entertainment- the Ghanaian guys would play American songs such as “Fresh Prince of Bel Air” and they knew all the words to Lil Wayne’s latest album. They liked us so much that they drove their tro-tro (which isn’t allowed on campus) through the security gates and straight up to our home base. Good deal.

In order to get to know us better, the head of our program, Dr. Rose Walls has set up a bunch of activities. Mostly, the outings revolve around food but some have gone to the beach or shopping etc. A couple of weeks ago, I went to a restaurant and the botanical gardens with my group. It was raining the whole time which made for some good memories. We ate a delicious lunch where two kittens kept distracting me from my meal. On our drive to the gardens we pulled off the road and looked at a resort that had a pool with an invisible edge that looked out into the tropical forests- it looked like a five star hotel in Hawaii! The botanical gardens were awesome. Basically, the gardens consist of a HUGE plot of land with plants that are indigenous to Ghana as well as some brought over from the Europeans. We got a tour of the land from a local Ghanaian. Some of the trees were just plain magnificent- there was one tree that was completely hollow on the inside due to a parasite and we were able to climb all the way to the top- definitely not something that would fly in the U.S. Our final stop before our arrival home was at some merchants in a small town. Apparently, the region was notorious for its wood carvings so I ended up buying a unique looking mask that is from the Asante region.

This past weekend I went to the National Museum in Accra where I looked at the exhibit on indigenous slavery. It was super interesting because they had all of the real shackles used to transport slaves from the interior to the coast. That night we had the International Students Durbar which was basically the University welcoming all of the international students. We all got dressed up and went to the Great Hall which is at the top of the hill in a beautiful courtyard. They provided us with a delicious traditional meal and entertainment- including fire dancers! All of the important members of the University were there to invite us to be a part of the Ghanaian culture. It has been really neat to see how welcoming Ghanaians are as well as how much they LOVE foreigners.

There are many artsy events on campus that I have been attending. First, my friend Marj is a super talented musician who was accepted into a band. I went to her outdoor performance at the Music Department where her band played Afro-jazz music…everyone was up dancing by the end. Last night I went to a dance performance. I love how all performances here are in outdoor theaters. The dances were absolutely incredible! The traditional Ghanaian dances are always entertaining but I got a huge kick when they played some American music, walked out with a boom box, and gave a hip-hop performance that got the crowd on their feet. Also, Ghanaians love their football (soccer). One dance piece was representative of a soccer game- pretty awesome. The best part was that most of the choreographers are teacher assistants in my dancing classes so it was cool to see their artistic abilities and technical skills at their finest.

School is officially in full swing. I had my first and last midterm this past week- fingers crossed that it went well! I started tutorials this week which is like class discussions. The best part is that my class discussions are held under a huge tree in the History department where we sit in plastic chairs and only two or three people show up. My favorite Teaching Assistant is Clifford, a charismatic guy who was born in Jamaica, received his Masters in the U.S. and is now working towards his doctorate at University of Ghana. He asked me what my favorite part was about Thanksgiving and when I said “turkey” he responded “Turkey tastes like cardboard. It is only good if you fry it!” My other tutorials are okay. I struggle to understand the other students and the TAs  often focus too much attention on me, constantly asking if I understand or they are always very curious about my opinion on one thing or another- it can be a little intimidating sometimes.

I started volleyball and tennis two weeks ago. Volleyball is at 5AM to 7:30AM and all the girls are super fun and jokesters. They love to call me “hittin’ Hidin”…they can’t seem to grasp that there is no “N” at the end of my name. The tennis team loves to mess with my head. They tell me practice is at one time, I show up at the courts and I call the captain, Nana, and he claims to be there too. One of the most valuable lessons I have learned here is that when a Ghanaian says “I am coming” that could honestly mean he or she will be arriving where you are supposed to meet in 6 hours or so. Basically, I am still working on figuring out what times tennis is ACTUALLY happening at.

The electricity has been on and off for the past couple days meaning it gets dark at 6PM and reading my book with a flashlight can only keep me entertained for so long. The water has officially been out for over two weeks…AND our water tanks ran out so we were showerless for quite some time. Hopefully this monsoon will get the water running again.

One more random story: The security guard who sits under our rooms, Uncle Lucas, is just like a big teddy bear. I have snuck peaks out of my room only to discover him feeding and speaking quietly to the two kittens that live by our building. I asked him the other day whether he has named them and he gave a sheepish smile and said “the girl is Julie and the boy is Solomon.” So cute!

Hope that is enough to satisfy you for a while, time to trek back to my room in the mud!