One Month Anniversary: Part 1: African Outings

Happy Anniversary! Our group arrived in Ghana exactly one month ago, and since it's been a while since I last posted, I'm going to make two separate posts so you can pick and choose what you feel like reading about.

I'd like to say I've been busy, but that wouldn't be the truth. I've basically just been waiting for something exciting to happen that I can share with everyone. But then I got to thinking, it's Africa: everything's exciting!

It's been a very chill couple of weeks here. Last weekend, I did absolutely nothing. Which was great, you definitely need weekends like those, but I didn't come to Ghana to do nothing, and by the end of last weekend, I was becoming rather restless and frustrated for not making the most of my experience here. So, instead of hanging out with everyone on Saturday night, I stayed in and did laundry, which literally took about 6 or 7 hours because the washer is SO SMALL, and you cannot use the washer and dryer simultaneously and the dryer takes at least two cycles to dry anything! Don't worry, doing laundry is not how I intend to make the most of my
experience here. My point here is while I was doing laundry, I read through about half of the Ghana guidebook that NYU provided each of the students here. I had attempted to read it several times before I arrived, but never read it long enough to learn about all the cool things to do here. So then I made a list, of all the places I'd like to go while I'm here - everything from local markets to museums to small suburbs of Accra - and now I'm tasked with checking them all off over the next three months!

On Monday, I went to my African dance class in the morning, which unfortunately I won't be able to take for credit because you're required to go twice a week while I'm only able to go once. They don't really want too many people auditing the class, but my friends and I are going to continue going on Mondays and hope they
won't notice. Which is a funny thought in itself, because no matter where we go, how we dress, or how we act, we always stand out as "obrunis," the term the Ghanaians have playfully coined to describe the "foreigner."

After dance at Legon, a bunch of us ate lunch at the canteen at Ashesi University, which I frequent almost every day of the school week. For 10,000 cedis (which translates to about a $1.50), you can get a plate full of jollof rice, bean stew, french salad and fried plantain. Auntie Vic runs the canteen, and she looks forward to seeing us every afternoon. After lunch, I decided to take an excursion with my friends Arielle and Ben to the nearby suburb, James Town. Theatre for a Change is working with a community in James Town, which I had planned to check out the day before, but I was unable to get in touch with Ryan, the guy in charge of the operation, in time. So with James Town on the mind, and having recently read about a historic lighthouse there, and hearing about a traditional medicine market, Arielle, Ben and I ventured to check it out Monday afternoon.

Exploring Accra is quite an adventure, because it's hard to find out how to get where you want to go. The Ghana guidebook didn't offer any tips for getting to James Town, so we just went for it, without any specific plan in mind. We walked to the main road and after getting all kinds of directions from a few locals, we located the nearest tro-tro stop. A tro-tro is pretty much an old rickety mini-van that packs in as many people as possible to take them from A to B for 1,000 to 2,500 cedis (10 to 25 cents). We hopped on a tro-tro to Thomas Station, where we were supposed to connect to another tro-tro headed to James Town. However, we decided
we'd had enough tro-tro for one day and took a taxi the rest of the way - which is still a great deal: 15,000 cedis, split three ways, it equates to a little more than 50 cents per person!

When we arrived in James Town, the taxi driver asked where we would like to go, and we didn't really know, so he dropped us off at the lighthouse, which we found as a good start and finish point, because it seems that's where all the tro-tros were leaving from.



And then we just walked around for an hour or so. Vendors lined the
streets, selling all sorts of delicious foods and fun trinkets. Everyone was very friendly and welcoming.



We stuck out like sore thumbs, especially me with the manual camera I borrowed from the NYU Academic Center hanging from my neck. Like I said earlier though, we stick out regardless, so I might as well take pictures while I'm at it. I'm still getting the hang of this manual camera. I've never worked with one before, but we're learning how to develop film tomorrow for photography, so I wanted to try to get a few good pics. People are funny about cameras here. Almost everyone likes getting their picture taken, and digital cameras are great because you can show them the photograph, and Polaroids are even better because you can give them a copy.



But then there are a select few that look at you like you're going to steal their soul. We're learning in my photography class that before you ask to take someone's photograph - and you ALWAYS ASK - you should make conversation with
them. Even a simple, "Hi, how are you?" makes a person feel so much more at ease, and so much more receptive when it comes to having their picture taken.



Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, depending on how you look at it, our adventure was cut short when a couple of guys approached us, and after making general conversation, warned us that someone had been following us, and to stay aware of criminals and robbers. And with that, we decided that it might be best to
finish exploring James Town another day. I'm sure we would have been fine had we
continued on our little excursion, but when you receive a blatant warning like that, it's probably best to heed it. But I definitely plan on going back, because we didn't get to go up the lighthouse or find the traditional medicine market, so there
is much more of James Town to be explored. Arielle, Ben and I have decided to reserve Monday afternoons for exploring Accra and the surrounding area, which we are calling "Flockstaff Mondays," in honor of Arielle who mistakenly kept calling James Town "Flockstaff," for whatever reason - we love her for it.

I am no longer taking Pidgin and Creole at the University of Ghana-Legon because the class time was moved. Instead I am taking African Art: Past & Present, with Uncle Joe, who is the coolest man alive. He is so laid-back and SO HAPPY, ALL THE TIME - his joy is literally contagious. Plus we haven't had a smidgen of work so far (but I'm sure we will now because I totally just jinxed it!), but we are going on some pretty cool field trips. Last class we visited the shop of a metal sculptor, who collects scrap pieces of metal and welds them together into incredible sculptures. He demonstrated his art for us, and several students stayed in the afternoon to learn how to do it hands-on. I unfortunately couldn't because I had class that afternoon, but we asked if we could learn from him another time, and he was more than willing. He is going to Nigeria very soon to work on an exhibit there, and won't be back until the beginning of November. Just one more exciting thing to look forward to!