a week in ghana

first, thank you very much for all the emails and comments i received. i can't tell you how much it meant to me.

anyway today i finally moved into my homestay along with zach, another ciee kid who is living in the same house. i was initially a bit disappointed that we were both going to be living there as it had the potential to perhaps lessen the degree of immersion i'd feel. but we get along well so far its actually been nice to have someone to bounce ideas off of and to talk with about our experiences. another plus is that we are within walking distance of the university. the walk takes us through a small market and past several small shops run out of shacks. im hoping to eventually start to recognize some of the residents. we are also only about a ten minute walk from the ciee house, which is a house that ciee rents which ten ciee kids share. it's like real world accra. we've been there a couple times and its become kind of the communal hangout for ciee kids. so while i was worried about being isolated from ciee kids, i dont think that is going to be a problem.

as for our homestay house, it's quite big and luxurious. im not sure im getting the typical ghanaian experience in terms of living conditions. there's ac and power and the house is seperated from the surrounding neighborhood by a tall white wall. my host mother, grace, runs an adjacent textile mill, batique (sp?) shop and clothing store. so although all my host parents children are currently in the US studying (one's at gw) the compound is always bustling. often the driveway is covered with colorful fabrics drying in the sun. additionally, my host parents have taken in a bunch of neices and nephews and other relatives so there are plenty of kids around. there's a big fruit stand across the street which sells mangos, papayas, bananas, pinepples and other stuff that i dont recognize. also there's a small supermarket down the street a bit run by a friendly guy named jerry.

we got a tour of the university the day before yesterday and began registration yesterday. the campus is enormous and spacious, home to 27,000 students. it is really its own little town, with markets, vendors, a bank, food court, etc. the buildings are white with red roofs. im pretty sure they were built during colonial times (which ended 50 years ago) so they are elegant though a bit tired and neglected. the library similarly has some nice courtyards and open balconies but relatively few books and the ones they have are very outdated. all the buildings are very open with lots of open windows and doors so there's always a breeze. large trees provide plenty of shade. everything is pretty dry because of the time of year. the main road gradually climbs a hill that circles around a big lecture hall at the top. while the view from the top isnt great at the moment because of hamatan (dust from the sahara), it's got potential, with the increasingly rural landscape to the north.

the registration process is interesting, you have to go to each department, look at bulletins for what classes are being offered, wait in line, then sign a book to get a class. luckily english, history and philosophy weren't particularly popular so i didnt have to wait in line for too long. our director recommended signing up for more classes than you plan to take since the quality of lecture apparently varies quite a bit. at the moment im signed up for Intro to African Literature, African philosophy, history of western medicine in ghana, medical sociology, a polisci class called africa and the global system and a twi language class. i'll probably drop one of these. each class meets for a two hour block once a week, so i think i'll have plenty of free time. i plan on finding at least one place to volunteer once i finalize my schedule.

many of the ciee kids seem like very interesting people. some people ive met so far are zach, who's from wolfeboro NH and goes to vassar. mollie, whose brother went to middlesex school and dated harry's sister, and lauren who goes to the university of colorado. im trying to figure how to balance developing friendships with ciee kids while still getting the full ghanaian experience. i think part of the interesting aspect of travel for me is being isolated from my own culture. i think this helps me uncover which parts of my personality and identity are real and which are a result of trying to conform to societal expectations. anyway, im not sure that can happen to the same extent if im surrounded by americans. at the same time, i dont want to miss out on making friends with some seemingly neat people. it is very nice to have people who you feel comfortable with and this is much more easily accomplished with people who are at least in some way similar. but all the emails i have gotten have reminded me that ive got people back in the states so its not the end of the world if no friendships develop. that was a very big reassurance. so thanks again

just some general observations on ghana so far. ive obviously not been hear long so these may be completely inaccurate. it's quite a patriarchal society and it seems kind of rare for friendships to exist between guys and girls that aren't romantic. the girls in our program get endless catcalls and even frequent marriage proposals from guys. some of the girls bought cheap wedding rings to deflect some of the attention. anway its getting late and my coherence is decreasing so im going to call it quits.

thats all for now, im sorry its very difficult to fully describe what its like here, love phil