To continue with my last post, I will just briefly summarize what has happened in the past weeks. I'm in the Development Studies Track, in which I take two classes at the University of Ghana (I'm taking Poverty and Rural Development and Sociology of Deviant Behavior), Twi, Development Studies course, and I have an internship for which I will receive credit. The classes here are not so good. I don't know how students do it here. I cannot understand one of my professors, and the other is alright. The classes are taking away from my experience here, because I could be learning more in the community, rather than walking across campus, which takes about twenty minutes, and being frustrated for two hours, because of difficulty understanding or hearing, and not learning much new material. I have in internship at a clinic in Dodowa. Dodowa is a rural community about an hour north by tro-tro. I'll be doing public health outreach, probably in the area of nutrition. It's been kind of irksome lately with getting the ball rolling with this internship. I went back for the fourth time on Thursday with the same outcome: I was told to come back another day because the person that we needed to see was not there, or they had nothing for us to do...again...It is times such as this I yearn for the organization of the United States. I even called prior to going to prevent something like this happening again, but the person I called had no idea what was going on.

I think this has given you an idea of how I'm living here. Now I'll get into some details of the week. Dan P from Whole Foods came last week to visit. He brought his friend, Jason (J. Smalls), along. They are staying with my friends Nana Kwasi and Kwame Wadada. I cannot believe how nice those two are. Dan was supposed to be staying at this place, Crystal Hostel. He asked me to find out where it was to make sure it was an okay place. So I asked Janet, one of the directors, a Ghanaian, who would know the area, and she said it was about 40 minutes away, by cab, that is without traffic. So that would mean that Dan and Jason, would be not only quite a distance away from my campus, but also in an area that I was not familiar with and if they were to come to campus, they would surely be ripped off by cab drivers daily. So I called Nana Kwasi up to see if he could recommend a hostel in which they could stay because some of his friends from the US were staying nearby him. Nana asked how long they were staying for, and I told him, and he said they could stay with him. I did not call him to ask him for this, and I was amazed that he suggested it! How I love those two. I was so happy they got to meet and get to know Kwasi and Kwame. They were good together, because all of them enjoy music. Jason owns a record label, so it was a good connection for Kwasi and Kwame to make. Kwasi and Kwame, and a few other friends of mine, are in a band called Gouda, yes like the cheese. They are fabulous! They were just collaborating with some Texans for the past month or two, which I have grown to enjoy the company of. Z for Zackariah and Kent, namely. You guys will definitely hear some Gouda when I return home! It's the only cheese I like.

Dan and Jason arrived on Friday morning. Angela and I were wound up from not getting sleep the previous night, and we were laughing hysterically as soon as we embarked on our journey. We took a tro-tro to an area near the airport. Angela and I were not sure where the airport was from where we got off because the airport was not in sight. I guess we looked like we were lost, because this man, Paul, as we discovered, asked us where we were going. He said he was an employee for one of the airlines there and he was going that way. So he walked us all the way to the airport. He asked us if we were from the Netherlands. I didn't know I gave off that vibe. When we got to the airport, we were on time, but Dan's flight was delayed two hours, which we were not aware of. Angela and I just sat around, and went into the giftshop, where we found some strange postcards, for which we were asked to pay 2.5 GH cedis a pop! Ridiculous. Some dude in the giftshop asked us where we were from and when we said we were from the U.S., he asked us if we were from Chicago or New York, as if those were the only two cities. Finally Dan and Jason arrived at around 9 A.M. We then went to find a cab to Nana Kwasi's house. I asked Nana how much it cost to get a cab from the airport to his house and he said it was to be around 3-4 cedis. The cab driver tried to tell us that 10 cedi was a good fare. Eventually, we got to American House, a point at which Nana Kwasi was to pick us up. Because there are no true addresses in Ghana, it's sometimes difficult to get around. Places are usually known for their proximity to another place. Nana picked us up in his pickup and brought us to his house. They're renting a house in East Legon. Dan and Jason got to meet Nana Kwasi, Kwame Wadada, Fire, and Zack, some of my favorite people on this planet. After dropping Dan and Jason's belongings at the house, we left for the bus station. Nothing was going right from the beginning. The tro-tro mate heard me incorrectly and thought I was going to Tema Station, not Tedu. So when we got off, a man helped us, who was going that way, and walked for about 5 or 10 minutes with us to help us get to where we needed to go. I still cannot get over how kind people are here. We got to a bus station, STC, which is the national public transportation service. But we were not at the correct bus station we discovered. After waiting around for two hours for a bus that was not to come because the chalkboard on the destinations and times for the day were incorrect. It was a holiday on Friday because of Easter. So a bus pulled up to the station, and the driver said there were no other buses running that day. We got on his bus, which was going to the main station, the station we were supposed to be at to begin with. I had planned a trip to go to Cape Coast, in the Central Region, 3 or 4 hours west of Accra, then up to Kakum National Park, then to Takoradi, Kumasi, and then back to Accra. So when we got to the correct bus station, they said that there were no more buses running. But before we could think of alternate plans, a man ran up to us in a hurry and asked us where we were going. We told him, and then he ran to the ticket window, got us four tickets, and told us to hurry to the bus that was about to leave for Cape Coast! Our luck was unbelievable for how unlucky we had been thus far. So after about 4 hours and a headache from a screaming baby, we finally arrive in Cape Coast. We got to our hotel, at which I had called ahead to make reservations. The woman at the front desk, was not aware that I had made reservations. I was tired, hungry, and not in the mood for this. Our room was not worth the price we paid for it. It was small, with no ventilation, and with a single bed. After we checked in, we tried to find somewhere to eat. We planned to go to Assase Pa, a vegetarian restaurant, but we found out it was closed for renovation. So then we tried to find a place called Vic Baboo's, a restaurant with all kinds of food everyone would like, but because I had been reading my guidebooks so much, I had thought of the wrong city (Vic Baboo's is in Kumasi...), and we wondered why the cab driver had no idea where it was. It was only about 8 hours north of there! So we ended up going to the Oasis Beach Resort to eat. I wish I had read about the slow service prior to our visit. We were all tired and hungry, the beer I had on an empty stomach was beginning to hurt, and I was growing more irritable by the minute. I'm not an impatient person, I've become less impatient with my stay in Ghana, but I was just not in the mood for this. Nothing was going right, which was upsetting because I wanted to show Dan and Jason the best time possible because they were only going to be in Ghana for ten days. It took us almost 3 hours for us to get our food. It was ridiculous. I was the most moody I had ever been in Ghana. We returned to our hotel and went to sleep so we could wake up somewhat early to go to Kakum National Park in the morning.

We tried to go to a juice bar for breakfast, but that place was closed. The woman who worked there wanted to open it for us, but we were not sure how long this was going to take, and I was a bit weary of this woman who had a terrible hacking cough making us food. So we got some bread and hit the road to the tro-tro station. We had a beautiful trip through the rainforest and some rural villages to Kakum. The rainforest was incredible and teeming with life. The noise was unbelievable because of all the insects and birds that were in the forest. The trees were enormous. We did the canopy walk while at Kakum. The canopy walk consisted of seven rope bridges suspended between trees 30-40 meters above the forest floor. It was kind of frightening at times because the construction of these bridges did not seem if they could have withstood the weight of the thousands of people before me. I would sing songs in Swahili with Angela when I was scared, to drown out the sound of the creaking bridge...It was the best experience though, and if you make it to Ghana, you should try it! We also had a guided hike through the forest, which I really enjoyed because the guide told us about all the different trees growing there, and their uses in traditional medicine.

Afterwards, we left to go to Takoradi, where we would stay for the night. Takoradi is about an hour west of Cape Coast. It is one of the larger urban centers in Ghana. I think about 300,000 people live there. On the way to our hotel, we witnessed an Easter parade, which was filled with people in colorful costumes and people playing all kinds of instruments. It was neat! We became more of a scene than the parade though, when we started taking pictures, because everyone wanted to be in the picture.

Something interesting that we experienced on our trip, was Angela and myself, two white females, received little attention compared to our traveling companions. Dan and Jason have sleeves (tattoos that cover the arms) and people were amazed by this. I saw one woman go up to Dan, run her finger along his arm, and then look at her finger to see if the color came off. It was nice to not receive the attention that Angela and I usually have to avoid!

We walked across the city of Takoradi to go to Monkey Hill, an eco-tourism project, near the tro-tro station. It was 5:00 pm, the recommended time to see the monkeys. We walked up the hill, and we did indeed see a few monkeys! We did not stay for long because once we were there, the monkeys hid in the trees. We then took a cab to our hotel, which was again overpriced. We then went to try to find a Chinese restaurant. I enjoy the times we go out of town because these are the times we can eat non-Ghanaian food! We were trying to go to this place called Twin Cities Chinese Restaurant, and we asked the driver if he knew where it was. He said he did, but he took us to the wrong place, which didn't even seem like a restaurant at all, and then overcharged us when we finally got to the right place, which Jason just happened to spot as we were passing it. The guidebook explained that this place was more like someone's living room than a restaurant, and boy was that description accurate. A man who owned the restaurant, came out onto the second-floor balcony when our cab pulled up and told us to come up through the side door. This seemed strange to begin with. When we came up to stairs, we found the "restaurant" which was indeed like someone's living room. There was a large round table in the middle of the room, at which we sat down. There was a calendar on the wall that was from September 2007, and we joked around and said that was probably the date of the last customers this place saw. The two owners, and I guess their son, I'm not sure, sat nearby. The people were so nice and talked with us the whole time. The food was amazing. The people even made Dan and I some tofu and mushrooms, which wasn't even on the menu! As strange as it was, it was a lot of fun.

Because of the holiday, traveling was difficult because a lot of public transportation was not running. The train that we planned to take to Kumasi stopped running in 2007 and then other people said rail workers were on strike. We thought it best to come back to Accra, because the train ride would have taken between 8 and 12 hours and then we'd have to get back to Accra before Tuesday. It would have been too much.

We finally got back to Kaneshie Market, Accra in the late afternoon. I hydrated too much on the way, and the 3 hour trip back without stopping tortured my bladder. Ghana doesn't really have public bathrooms (washrooms). If there is any facility, it is a urinal, which is just basically a drain in the ground. So I had my first urinal experience at Kaneshie. I paid five pesewas to pee all over my feet, have two women watch me and talk about me doing so (I heard the word Oburoni and I was the only one there), and feel awkward. We walked through the market so Dan and Jason could see it, but it we did not stay long because it was a holiday and Sunday there wasn't a whole lot going on. This was the first time meat truly bothered me here. The fresh meat had this smell that made me gag. I am not as bothered as meat in general though here because animals are truly free range, and there are no terrible factory farms like in the U.S. I did seem some live animals for sale at the market, which always makes me a bit sad.

That evening, we went to the dorm called Pentagon (which I like to call the Five-sided Polygon, or the Polygon, which is beginning to catch on with other people on the program, haha - which I'm not sure why it is called Pentagon, because it is not shaped like a pentagon and there are more than five dorm buildings there). Dan and Jason met my friends, and we all played Pictophone. Pictophone is like the game Telephone, only with pictures. Each player has a stack of paper, and writes a phrase on the first piece of paper, then you pass the stack to the person next to you. That person will draw a picture of that depicts that phrase on the next piece of paper in the stack. Then that person passes it to the person next to them and they write the phrase they think that picture depicts. This goes on until all the paper goes around to each person. You can imagine the funny things that come out of this game! I like being here, because it's limited as to what you could have brought in your suitcase, so there's more of an appreciation for simple games like this and enjoying the people around you.

The next day, I returned to Kaneshie with Nana Kwasi, and we picked up some fresh produce, rice, and spices, so I could prepare dinner for some of my friends that night. It's amazing how different the experience going out anywhere is when you are with a Ghanaian. I did not get ripped off and I got the best of produce. Nana Kwasi is great. Not only is he extremely nice, but he's also the Ghanaian I can relate most to. We stopped on the way back to Legon to say hello to his brothers and his friends. When we returned to Legon, Kwasi, Angela, Maddie and some others helped me prepare dinner by washing and cutting some vegetables for me. I made guacamole, mushroom soup, coconut curry rice, and groundnut slaw. I love cooking here because the there is so much inexpensive and fresh things to cook with!

Tuesday and Wednesday were pretty quiet. Everyone has been in a funk lately, so it's been a little rough. I think everyone is hitting that point after the excitement of being in a new place and now are getting a bit homesick. Angela was down. My neighbor, Nnamdi, was also down. To try to lift his spirits, I read him some Chinua Achebe, which Ben lent to me. Nnamdi, like Chinua Achebe, is of the Igbo ethnic group. It was neat reading this with him, because he could tell me what the names and places meant and how to pronounce them because he can speak Igbo.

I did not see Dan or Jason a whole lot during the week because they did some traveling on their own to places like Ho, Hohoe, and Kumasi. I saw them again on Thursday, when my friend Meghan, who is also a vegan!, celebrated her birthday. We were going out to a vegan restaurant that night. Unfortunately, the electric had been out for two days there and the food was spoiling, so we went to another restaurant at a hotel. Delicious western fooood!! The beach was rented out for Meghan's birthday, so it was nice not to be attacked by annoying fake Rasta Ghanaian men for once, which this beach, Labadi Beach, is notorious for. It was a fun night.

Friday, I tried once more to go to my internship. Again, after traveling an hour to get there, I was told to come back Tuesday instead. We asked if we could do something, anything!, while we were there. Luckily, an employee there showed us around the clinic, and the different areas in which we could work. We also gave him our availability, so hopefully we can start sometime before the semester ends. I wish I could be working here, doing something like this, rather than going to school, because I hate my classes so much. All of them are pretty terrible. The Development Studies class can be okay. On Thursday, there was a guest lecturer which talked about the political economy of Ghana and Africa, so it was interesting to hear how international financial institutions, like the IMF and World Bank, are affecting Ghana. Twi is impossible. Ugh. Friday night was the night we had been waiting for, for the past two weeks. Friday night was "Stripes 'n' Dots" an event at The Basement nightclub. You had to wear stripes and dots that night. Well, you didn't have to, but it was such as strange them, I felt compelled to do so. We had some wine before left, put on our stripes and dots, and headed down to the club. We CIEE people had a trip the next day for which we had to be ready at 6:15 A.M., but that did not stop us, for we got down all night at the club! I love going to the club because it's not my scene at all. It's just a place for me to be ridiculous with my friends. Michael made it rain on me. Michael had a ten dollar bill and was like, "I need to get some change!" He returned to the dancefloor with all ones and then proceeded to throw them into the air as if he were a high roller. I could not stop laughing! I have to go because my internet time is up, but I will continue to write soon. PEACE.