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.