Finally in Africa

After three weeks of living here in Ghana, I haven't felt like I've really seen Africa until recently. There were a few days at the beginning where I noticed the way people carry themselves here that definitely differs from the U.S., and other aspects of the culture that I am unfamiliar with, but I still felt very sheltered by NYU with vans driving us everywhere and someone accompanying us everywhere we go. Now we have more freedom to explore on our own and see more of the city, and even other towns as some people have already done. Yesterday the former mayor took our Global Connections class on a short tour of parts of the city where slavery was very prominent. Another professor gave us the history as he showed us where slaves were kept after being captured and transported here from all over Africa, and then where they were forced to march down to the shore where the ships awaited to take them towards America. I was speechless the entire time, imagining the horrific circumstances back then, but it was interesting to see how the area has changed over time. People still live in these homes where slaves were trapped a couple hundred years ago, and children roam the beach as though no tragedy had occured there. While most Africans tend to avoid speaking about slavery, since it is definitely a very sensitive subject for them, it is interesting that they do not stay away from where much of the trading took place.

Today I accompanied my roommate Sarah and another friend named Alex to a beach in Jamestown (which is known as a sketchy area of Accra, though I did not feel uncomfortable there) where we met with the organizers of a new program to educate children in Ghana. The leader, another girl named Sarah who studied in Ghana a few semesters ago and just graduated from NYU last spring, came here to start this organization that imports books from the U.S. to use with Ghanaian children in after-school sessions so they can become better educated. I greatly admire that she took the initiative to start this organization herself (and with some others who are in NY), so I went today to find out more about it and perhaps help out during the semester. We ended up meeting most of the children (close to 100 of them!) and playing with them for a couple hours, which made me feel again like I was really in Africa. They tugged on me, poked me, held my hands, as though they had never seen anyone with light skin before. They were mesmerized by all of us and insisted on playing games with us and teaching us phrases and words in their language, teasing us when we messed up. It just made me realize the difference in attitudes toward races; in the U.S., historically people of darker skin were feared or avoided, whereas here those of light skin are admired and objects of fascination. Wouldn't the history of slavery have made these attitudes opposites? I find myself wondering. In any case, I am looking forward to spending more time with children, especially meeting the ones at the autism center where I am hoping to volunteer soon.

I forgot to mention that this past weekend I got pretty sick again- a 101 degree fever on Sunday. I am unsure of what happened, though the nurse seemed sure that it was from some food I ate, or water; there is bacteria in almost everything here so it is not difficult to get sick from something. Nearly everyone has in some form or another, so I at least don't feel alone. I took some medicine and rested in bed all day and by yesterday was pretty much recovered. I was still pretty weak yesterday, especially after getting up early to take an exam at Legon (which I unfortunately could not miss), but by dinner finally had an appetite again. You'll never guess what they had for dessert, which totally made my night- chocolate mousse! I had actually been wanting to make it the weekend before, but since I got sick I couldn't, so what a surprise it was to have it at Tante Marie where we usually only get either fruit or ice cream. Plus for the regular meal they had roast potatoes instead of plantains which made me so happy; I have definitely been missing potatoes and hope that they are served more often. Oh, and I forgot to mention that my angel of a friend Daniella gave me a few bites of her roasted eggplant Sunday night (knowing that it is one of my favorite foods), so that helped me feel much better. Tonight at Sunshine Salads they are actually serving vegetable lasagne, which most of us are very excited about, since we don't get pasta very often either. Ah, it's so nice to have my appetite back again! Just in case you're interested, Daniella and I are planning to make a charred tomato bisque in a few days (recipe courtesy of Mark Bittman's cookbook that I brought with me) and I'm hoping to make my mom's breadstick recipe if I can manage to find yeast somewhere. :)

Oh, and about the party Friday night, there were a lot of people (mostly men) from the University of Ghana and other places where NYU students had met them who came and mingled with us. At first we all stayed kind of segregated with NYU students in one group and Ghanaians in other small groups, but after awhile people started dancing (we had a couple DJ's blasting music) and then getting more comfortable chatting together. A couple hours after it began, the acrobats performed for us (I wish I had taken pictures, but you'll just have to take my word that they were pretty exciting to watch) and then the CRA's revealed a cake welcoming us to Ghana that we all had some bites of. It ended around 11:30, though it was supposed to go until midnight, but I was relieved because I was exhausted from dancing and not feeling well most of the week.

I am very excited for this weekend because we're going on our first field trip out of Accra to Cape Coast, where the bulk of the slave trading took place. It takes between 2 and 5 hours to get there, depending on traffic, so we're staying the night in a hotel on the beach that NYU arranged for us (how spoiled we are, hehe). I don't have the itinerary yet, but I from what I hear we're leaving about 6am Saturday morning and spending the day taking a tour of the slave castles and doing a canopy walk in Kakum National Park. Then Sunday morning we have time to either relax on the beach or go into town to shop and look around until 1pm when we drive back. I will give you more information about it once I know more; if I don't get a chance to update before then, you'll just have to hear about it when I get back.

I think that's all for now; except that internet has been working for a few hours, woohoo! Let's hope this lasts..