Go Ghana!

Happy Thursday! Pictures are slowly going up on Facebook...enjoy!

GHANA JUST WON the game vs Nigeria! We are all sitting here crammed into our living room right now and just did a major victory dance. The city is going crazy, its almost like Obama night in New York...no exaggeration. Were on our way to the African Cup, I would suggest you start paying attention.

Had a wonderful week, went to Karaoke all night last Friday, very cultural experience indeed. After we went to the beach around 2 in the morning, and we jumped around in the waves, met a lot of local Ghanaians and rastas, and had a lovely evening. The nights are so gloriously warm here, it is so nice to be able to not have to think about any kind of sweater or anything to go out, it just make things less complicated. Jumping in the ocean is effortless, and expected, when you know youll be dry in minutes.

Went to the beach both weekend days, and on Saturday we went to a big Durbar orientation at the University of Ghana for special admission students. Basically, they fed us and we got to see a lot of cool dance and drumming performances, so no complaints here. What was really cool is we got to volunteer at Ghana’s solidarity concert for Haiti through a connection that our program director has. We got to personally meet all of the most famous musicians, dance groups and pop stars of Ghana, it was a fantastic night. We even got to meet the Ambassador of Haiti, which was incredibly humbling and an invaluable experience.

This week has started to feel much more real, and has been sinking into our systems. Literally. We had about 8 people in the hospital this weekend, everyone has diarrhea and other...issues. Nothing has been too serious, its just a crazy symptom of our bodies adjusting to new food and new bacteria in everything. I was actually sick ALL DAY yesterday, a 24 hour bug to the minute, and feel so good now, probably because i was feeling so persistently nauseous yesterday. As all of you know, being sick is NOT my thing, I don’t think I had thrown up in about 5 years before yesterday. Too much information? Sorry. But you might have to get used to it.

Besides yesterday, when I was sick and had to miss my African dance classL things have been going really well and I really like my classes. Guess what? This might not mean anything to some of you but for those who know our family shrub very well, in my African art history class, my teacher quoted SKIP COLE. I was like, um, “he is kind of like my uncle( because it would have been complicated to explain exactly)” and my little professor got SO excited. It was bizarre.

We are just getting ready to go to dinner now, and then I think we are going out tonight in celebration of the victory game. Oh, and tomorrow, a group of us is going to meet a King. Of Jamestown, a community on the coast of Accra. I know, a king! What century am I in? We have to dress very conservatively, greet from right to left, and absolutely under no circumstances cross our legs. It should be exciting.

As always I send my love to you all, please keep sending emails, posts, comments, I love hearing little pieces of your lives.

Classes and coconuts

Welcome to my second attempt at bloging! Or it is blogging? Oh no, I think the heat is going to my headJ you should feel extremely lucky that you have even anything to read, considering the entire country of Ghana had no internet for most of the day yesterday. It was wonderful to not be bothered by that at all.. except that it delayed my birthday wishes the the most glorious SOPHIA! Who turned a blissful 20 years old yesterday. Much love to her as she departs, I believe, from Peru today, and back to school. Safe flight my dear.

 Everything is going great, I feel so comfortable here already. Me and my friend Molly are just blogging here at the academic center where there is actually internet, on our way back from meeting with the seamstress! I just put in two orders with her, from sketches that I made on a piece of paper earlier. It is so easy here, I told her exactly what I wanted, gave her three yards of fabric that I bought at Makola Market the other day, and my dresses will be ready by tomorrow or Monday. A lot of people have gotten clothes already, and they are just beautiful!

 Some other highlights:

Reggae dancing on the beach again, every Wednesday! So that was really fun again. The warm air at nighttime is magic. We found a huge endangered sea turtle last time, and some guy asked us if we wanted him to kill it and then buy turtle meat from him. No thank you!

We’ve had a few of our classes this week, and I am having a great time, the professors are phenomenal, and really Ghanaian. Most of them have grown up here in Accra, and are great to talk to and ask about interesting things to do. We have so many field trips too in every class, which is exactly what we should be doing while we are here.

 My volunteering has been finalized and I will be working at New Horizon school helping teachers and students in the classroom in the mornings when `I have afternoon classes on `Tuesday and Thursday, and then `I will be working at the Micro Finance and Open Heart `agency on Fridays, and maybe Monday as well. Then friends and `I will be going to the Touch a `life orphanage on `Saturdays to volunteer and spend time with children of refugee women.

 Our program director, Christa,  the Tyra equivalent, is so cool. She has this country in the palm of her hand. She helped organize  events to support the relief effort in Haiti and we are invited to concerts this `Saturday and next Saturday nights, as “volunteers” where we get to see the biggest `hip life artists in the country and the rest of west Africa perform! `Rumor has it that Kofi Anan we also be there, but Christa has BBC, CNN, and all the media lined up to cover the concerts. I cant wait.

 We found a wonderful new restaurant, called “Melting Moments” that, literally, almost everyone has eaten at everyday this week for lunch in between classes, and trips to the beachJ. Its fantastic, we cant say enough good things thta its turned into  a big joke between everyone. it has everything that were missing, fresh salads, sandwiches, omelettes, and fantastic teas, cookies, iced coffee… stuff that’s harder to find. its my friends birthday today so we are going to lunch there AGAIN, and getting her one of their famous cakes from there I believe. All this said, don’t worry we are eating typical west African food every night at dinner, our meal plan is FANTASTIC, I cant say enough good things about the places that we are eating, and I will definitely make a point to coax everyone to branch out from this melting moments routine and try more local things! But it has been a wonderful adjustment place.

 I have a lot of friends that we have gone out with a couple times that `ive met at `ashesi and `University of Ghana, weve going to the beach, they join us for lunch sometimes, its been really fun. There a guy who just came from Cameroon, telling us all about his trip, and a girl who just came from Botswana. It great getting multiple perspectives.

Hm…I have been feeling great, no more Malarone side effects! And I have not gotten malaria or typhoid yet, so im good. (Sorry mom, bad joke.) Ive actually been going on a morning run everyday before it gets too hot, and it is a wonderful way to get to know the local vendors and neighbors. I just do a couple big loops weaving in and out of the neighborhood that we are in, and school children chase me sometimes, run with me, laughing and asking my name. I wave to the man who sells fresh coconuts and the women at the barbershop with the fantastic signs.  There are other students on the trip that do similar loops around the same time of day, and its fun running into them on the way.

I hope everything is great there, I hear SB is getting rained on in a major way, and probably most of California im assuming. Its most definitely not raining her, except we had one afternoon  lightning storm and it was so dramatic!

Sorry about lack of pictures, I think that there is something wrong with my memory card now, but at least I have them on my computer for now. I will ask Christa about a local place that I can go maybe to get it fixed? (mom, well talk details)…um the thing missing from my life at the moment is a guitar! My fingers are getting antsy! but I just made a plan while I was sitting here in the course of typing this blog, with a girl doing the same thing next to me, and we are going to go to a cool music store near `makola market tomorrow and see what we can find.

All my love to you, again, happy birthday to the loveliest Sophia, and I will blog again as soon as I get the chance.

Elena 

First Week

So sorry that it has taken me this long to say anything. Ghana is incredible. It is beautiful and overwhelming and HOT and welcoming and foreign and different, it is both everything and nothing that I was expecting. I feel so blessed to be here.

I can only say that this first week has been one of the most eye-opening experiences I have ever had. I am not usually very quiet, but we are all close to silent driving or walking around everywhere, soaking up everything around us...it's all been so wonderful and new. So many colors and fabrics and foods and people...I'm actually enjoying feeling out of my element at times.

After an airport mishap and lonely hotel room my first night in london, I arrived in Accra, late, late at night, but that first step off the plane and drinking in that warm humid air was magic. I arrived at the apartments we are staying in and collapsed on my bed, not even meeting my new roommates yet. The next week was completely full of meeting new people on the trip( who are fantastic, and from all over) in a million orientation activities. Our director is a beautiful woman who looks and asks like Tyra Banks. She has her stuff together. She dresses like an African Princess, with clothes made with the beautiful local fabrics tailored for her. We all secretly want to be her.

Orientation was exhausting, up at seven everyday, then a walk to the academic center for workshops on Twi, the local language, cultural assimilation meetings, sessions on health, safety, lectures by famous professors from the University of Ghana on religions of Ghana, the history of accra by the former mayor of the city and a whole city tour! We've had wonderful food, yummy fresh fruit juices and great dishes, chicken, yams, plantains, papayas, fufu!, fish, yummy stews of beans, onions, Red Red...Mmmmm. Restaurants take about 3 hours here, but everything here is more relaxed...We have danced our way around the city so far, there is a huge Reggae festival every Wednesday night on the beach, so we all went and ran in the ocean, and danced until we had a thick layer of bug spray, sand, sweat, the typical stickiness of our everydays. We have danced until 2 in the morning at least half the time we have been here, and its liberating, fantastic, and a perfect way to get to know other Ghanaians. They approach you and are so friendly, asking about you...I have made a lot of friends, both ghanaian and other international students, and its wonderful because i keep running into them around the city. Everyday feels more and more comfortable. We've had a fantastic African dance lesson the other day, and when you can shake your butt in front of other people like that, it cant help but put us in the right mindset.

What else? We spent all day at the beach yesterday, playing soccer with the locals, eating fresh fruit, swimming for hours in the warm ATLANTIC ocean. We had kids climbing all over us, it was so so wonderful.

I am going to be starting volunteering tomorrow with WISE, West African AIDS Foundation, and the Osu CHildrens home orphanage. I am taking an African Dance and Drumming Class at Ashesi University every Wednesday, with all Ghanaian students. I am also taking Human Right in Africa at the University of Ghana! I am taking Health and Society at NYU’s campus, about health care on a global scale, and also Topics in Non-Western Art, with a wonderful professor where we get to shadow Ghanaian artists, who we get to choose, and visit their studios and profile them, and create our own art with them as well. I am really looking forward to this week.

I am thinking of all of you, as I embark on this crazy adventure. Let me know about what you want to hear from me, there is so much going on, I am sure I have left out something important! Update ME on the wonderful things YOU are doing too. I will be better at posting I promise. ALL my love.

Elena Goes Ghanaian

Elena is in Ghana. Four and a Half Months. Awkawaba indeed.