Quick update, I'm just running out the door to my first day at my internship with New Horizons, the special school for children and young adults with disabilities. I am going to be working out my schedule, and see when I can teach music! I am really looking forward to it.
This week has been really great, and I can really feel myself sinking into the culture more and more. We met the king, last friday which I told you about, and it really was like stepping back into the past. That afternoon, i bought a bike between me and two friends of mine so we can explore that way too, it has been a great way to get around, and my internship is perfect biking distance away.
Saturday, my friends and I were itching to get out of the neighborhood that we live in and wanted to see more of Accra. We ventured into `jamestown, an old colony of the British in the 19th century during the slave trade. It was a phenomenal experience. we just walked into these tiny villages of metal siding shacks, goats were running free, chickens, children were naked, taking bucket showers, eating jollaf rice wrapped in banana leaves...the smells, colors, were overwhelming, and I was really struck by how different this place is from home. I felt saturated, and exhilarated. We then climbed the Jamestown lighthouse and looked out over the entire city, and the ocean, at the shack towns along the coast, at the more affluent areas interspersed with churches and mosques peaking out over rooftops...We then ventured to the beaches, and were immediately surrounded by thirty young children, climbing all over us, asking our names, we played in the sand, sung songs, splashed around for hours. On our way home, we poked our heads into an old fort and ended up getting a full tour of Saint James fort, an old prison originaly built for slaves in the eighteen hundreds. There were some rooms that we walked in, and had to immediately exit, the feelings inside were so powerful and strong. You can tell that a lot happened there, a lot of unresolved tension was in the air. We were pretty quiet on the taxi ride home.
I found myself thinking of this day alot this week, as we get into the schedule of classes and everything going on.
Also, Sunday was a great day, even though `ghana lost the African cup. We went to the center of town in a huge group, dressed in appropriate colors of green red and yellow and watched the game with hundreds of local ghanaians on a huge jumbotron screen. We ate fan ice( yummy vanilla ice cream in plastic bags) and cheered like crazy americans that we are. As I went off to the side to find a trash can, these young ghanaians were painting flags on their arms, and asked if they could paint me. `of course i said `yes! but i got stars on my face, my chest, and the local TV station filmed it all. Everyone is so friendly here, they loved that i cared enough about ghana to do that. It was really sweet actually:)
NYU paid for everyone to join the gym here, which is actually the best gym in the country, it is beautiful, and my friends and I went to yoga last night. It was bizarre, that was something I thought I would not be doing on my study abroad experience. It was lovely.
Oh and guess what? I am very allergic to something here, for four days this weekend I broke out in a red, welty, full-body rash, and it would come out for a couple hours in the morning and at nighttime. hmm...i could not figure it out, especially because i have never been allergic to anything in my life. We actually traced it back to my Malarone, the anti-malaria medication that I am taking, and so i had a nice, few hour trip to the hospital for a consultation to get it changed, what an experience. the hospitals here are very different from at home, as you would expect. There were so many steps. reception to check in to the temperature room, to waiting room 5 where you are called to the consultation room where you then take your prescription to the office and wait for it to be filled. needless to say, i was there for a while, but i had a book and was armed with the key word here: Patience.:) Honestly, just seeing the way the system worked was really interesting, i just cant imagine going through it if i was feeling sick or anything, the wait would have felt a lot longer.
Time is going by so fast already, we are headed to Cape Coast this weekend to visit elmina castle and do the canopy walk at Kakum national park. It should be wonderful, past students have said that this is one of the best trips that we do.
Sending so much love to everyone, thank you so much for the lovely notes and well wishes!
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