It is my second day in Ghana, and I am still exhausted from the long flights and jet-lag since leaving LAX Saturday evening. After bidding farewell to my family (especially the cats who I dearly wish I could take with me), I hopped in the car with my luggage and father who drove me to the the airport. We stopped on the way to get some sushi as my last meal in America and then arrived about two hours before my flight left for London Heathrow at 5:35pm, but to our dismay had to stand in line for 45 minutes just to leave my bags with security after checking them. I then managed to get through security in a record 20 minutes (for LAX, I mean) and found my gate just as it was beginning to board. The 10 hour flight was not as bad as I was expecting, since I spent most of it either watching movies on the individual screen provided or attempting to sleep (though uncomfortably), and plus I am quite used to long flights across the Atlantic by now after travelling to Europe many times.
Anyway, I got to London and waited until the gate appeared for the 7 hour flight to Accra, Ghana before making my way there and meeting up with my very good friend Daniella, who I was ecstactic to finally see after 6 weeks. We had reserved seats together on this plane and so passed the time catching up and watching movies together before we landed in Accra and met up with the rest of the NYU in Ghana group. After loading all our suitcases on top of and inside the bus that we now take everywhere, we drove to our dorms (I was changed from the larger one, Church Crescent to the smaller one called Solomon's Lodge) and were given a short tour before going out to get something to eat. We didn't get back to sleep until after 11pm (4pm CA time), so I had not properly slept in over 24 hours and was ready to pass out.
However, we had to be up early Monday morning so my roommate, Sarah, and I woke and showered, then joined the rest of our dorm-mates in the kitchen downstairs for a quick breakfast with a choice of: tea/coffee, yogurt, bread with jam and peanut spread (which is similar to peanut butter but not as sweet), cereal, and fruit juice.
We then started our strict orientation schedule that we have planned for the week beginning with a long discussion of safety and security while living here and a tour of the academic center (with refreshments in between!) and then a huge lunch of typical Ghanaian dishes like fried plantains, peanut soup with chicken, eggplant cooked in a tomato sauce, mashed up corn that was soaked in water for three days and then pounded, joloff rice, and a few other dishes that I can't quite remember. They all have Ghanaian names, but I have yet to learn and remember those as well.
That night we also had a large buffet of Ghanaian dishes at one of the restaurants where we have a meal plan three days ago called Tante Marie. The other is Sunshine Salads, where I will be eating tonight for the first time and onward every Tuesday and Thursday.
Today we woke even earlier to walk down to the Academic Center at 8am for a long lecture on the history of Ghana by one of the professors here who actually used to the be the mayor of Ghana, and then we were given a tour of the city on a bus that took us into the oldest section of Accra where we were allowed to get off and view where slaves were kept in dungeons before being shipped off the continent, as well as a view of the ocean. It was interesting to see all the poverty around the area and we felt like we were intruding since many people lived right where we were walking through, but our guide assured us that they live very openly and are more in awe of our appearance than annoyed. The children were all adorable though and ran after us waving as we boarded the bus and drove away.
We then returned to the Academic Center for a quick course on the Twi language, which I can tell will be difficult since it is not really similar to the romance languages, but I am looking forward to the challenge. After only a couple days here, I am beginning to fall in love with this entirely new culture that Ghana embodies and am excited to see more as time goes on.
No comments:
Post a Comment