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I've had one class so far that actually met, which was Medical Sociology. Apparently professors rarely show up for the first week of classes. The one class I did have it was quite difficult to understand the professor since the lecture room has open sides and back and is right next to a road so there was a lot of noise. So I'll try to get closer to the front. We've also had lectures that CIEE organizes just giving us a general introduction to different aspects of Ghana. The one we had on Tuesday was about Religion in West Africa and was fascinating. While it was probably just skimming the surface of things it touched on traditional beliefs and how these have influenced how Christianity is interpreted (Ghanan is over 60 percent christian). Very interesting way of seeing the world! They believe that there are Gods behind nearly every natural phenomenon, for example the River God is responsible for making the rivers flow. Nothing is purely physical. Even tradecrafts have Gods. For example there could be a carpentry God and if you do a bad carpentry job then you offend this God. All these subservient Gods answer to a Supreme God, who people rarely address directly, except in case of emergency. Then we also learned about the role of ancestors in villages, how people who live lives according to the morals and beliefs of the village join a community of ancestors after they die that looks after the village and protects against evil spirits. Anyway, I found it interesting.

Yesterday was our day to lose power (everybody loses power once every 5 days to conserve) so, after dinner, Zach and I hung out at the house and sat with a lantern in the kitchen talking with Ayaow and Ablenyo, two of our "sisters" (both in their twenties) as well as with Stephanie, Abigail and Jaden, three of the small kids in the house. Stephanie and Abigail did performances for us, singing everything from Shakira to christmas carols, all with syncronized dances, using flash lights for microphones. they tried to teach me some shakira dances, and everyone got a kick out of that, watching the "obruni" or foreigner dancing terribly. Jaden, the five-year old, is fascinated by the guitar so earlier in the day we spent some time playing, me fingering the chords and Jaden strumming away. I think he has better rhythm than I do. I feel that the family is gradually warming up to us, at least the younger members. Grace, our host mother, came into our room a couple days ago and said, "hello, I am going to Kenya." Surprised, we asked, "when?" She said, "Now." So Grace is off in Kenya, coming back sometime in February. Part of the reason for the liveliness last night was that Charlie was gone. Charlie, the elderly head of the household, is a large man with a deep, intimidating voice. He sits and yells for Ablenyo or Ayaow to come and get something for him. Eating with him is quite an experience, as he eats incredible portions and expects you to do the same, shoveling food on your plate, all the while yelling for people to get him various things. Its not the most relaxing thing in the world. But since it's his house and he supports everyone who's there, they all wait on him quite loyally. And I think he's a nice guy deep down. But when he leaves, people come out of the woodwork and can finally relax and the house livens up a bit.

The food so far has been mostly good, with a couple exceptions. Usually for breakfast we'll just have some bread and maybe fruit from across the street along with Milo, a hot-chocolate-esque energy drink. But we've tried a couple more traditional dishes for supper and those have been a little iffy, particularly since I don't like fish. We tried fufu, which is gooey, tasteless dough made from plantains covered with palm nut soup. Sounds better than it is, unless you really like fish. But pretty much anywhere you can get fried chicken with jollof rice, which is kind of like spanish rice and that's always a safe bet. While initially I was a little worried, I'm starting to be very glad I got a homestay. We are also becoming friends with Alex, one of our host brothrs who is also a student at the university.

On Sunday, Zach and I took a tro-tro into Accra to explore. Tro-tros, as I think I mentioned earlier, are big vans with odd biblical quotes in bright yellow letters stuck on the front and rear windows. Anyway, they drive along and the "mate" or drivers assistant leans out the window yelling the destination. There are a variety of hand signals that people on the side of the road make to indicate where they want to go and the right tro tro will pull over if there's space. Anyway, tro-tros are incredibly cheap at 3000 cedis which amounts to about 30 cents. Anyway, in Accra, which, without traffic, is about 20 minutes from where we live, we walked towards the coast, through Jamestown, the old colonial center of Accra. We soon got to this huge covered market with filled with people selling vegetables from booths. There were chickens and goats all over and a lot of people just sitting around, some playing checkers, some listening to the radio. It being Sunday, we passed a couple church services, held under tents with all the women on one side in matching black and white dresses and all the men on the other side, listening to music played on the stereo. The covered market opened to a wide dirt street filled with kids playing and adults sitting on the sides. Kids would run up to us and hold our hand which was nice but I also felt a little uneasy with it feeling like "why do we deserve their affection more than anyone else?" But i guess they were just curious, us looking so different and all. Eventually the dirt road came out on High Street, right by the old Jamestown Fort and lighthouse. These are both perched high above the ocean and, standing next to old rusted cannons pointing seaward, we looked down at the fishing market and harbor below. In the harbor, there were probably a hundred of the long wooden fishing boats mored around a long pier. The ocean was quiet and faded into the haze after about half a mile. It was quite a sight but almost didn't seem real, it was like I was watching a movie. My cousin Emily gave me some very good advice which I am trying to follow and that is not to be too introspective and try to revel in simply being here. Anyway, we walked along High Street which follows the ocean until it came to the sign for a bar that had been recommended to us by another CIEE kid. To get there you walk towards the ocean past a couple dirt soccer fields with kids playing then down some stone steps to a patio built into the seaside cliffs. You can sit just above where the waves break on the rocky cliffs and sip a beer or have some food. On the right is the fishing harbor and on the left the coast curves first in then out. Very cool place. Afterwards we headed back.

Also on Sunday we washed laundry by hand for the first time. I was a failure. After two hours I'd finished a pair of pants and three t-shirts.

There are times where I love it here and also times when I really want to be back home. It's getting hotter and hotter as the hamatan is lifting, making the sun more direct. As I'm getting more settled I find I have less and less desire to hang out with the CIEE group. There are definitly some kids who I enjoy spending time with and want to take some trips with but I definitely don't feel like I have to spend every waking minute with them. I think the people are more likely to engage you if you're by yourself and personally it's sometimes nice not to have to worry about making conversation with anybody and just taking it all in. Anyways hope wells with everyone
love
Phil