registered for classes and school is officially in session. Lectures meet only once a week for two hours unless you have an additional tutorial for one hour a week, which just one of my lectures has. The first week most professors, profs as they call them, didn't even show up, let alone the students. But anyway, I am taking African Indigenous Religions, Art History of Ghana, Literature of the African Diaspora, and Twi. If you couldn't tell, I am an African Studies minor and what better place to fulfill my requirements than in Africa!My typical day on campus starts with me leaving ISH and walking to campus, which takes about twenty minutes depending on where I need to be. Class is two hours long, and then I usually spend time in the IPO computer lab to use their internet since it is heaps faster than the internet at ISH. Internet in ISH has cut out for days at a time and sometimes it might as well just not be there since its so slow, but I honestly never miss it. Its nice to not be constantly connected elsewhere and to just live in the present. So if any of you try and contact me and I don't respond promptly it is probably because I either don't have internet connection or I don't have patience to deal with internet connection so slow it makes dial up look fast. But back to the topic of a day on campus, if I have other errands like the post office, bank or picking up readings for a class and such I take care of those as well. And of course there are plenty of options to grab food on campus. My go-to meal is Red Red and plantains. And my go-to drink when on campus is and iced Milo drink, which is this delicious chocolate drink from Coffee Queue.
Meals at night are either eaten in the kitchen downstairs, at Tasty Treats across the way in ISH2 or at the Night Market. The Night Market is my favorite place to be. It is a small market right by the hostels where ISH 1 & 2 are located. I can see it form my balcony on the fourth floor. It is made up of a number of different stands that sell all sorts of things at really incredibly cheap prices. They are run by local women and their families. Some stands sell bananas, coconuts, oranges, and other fruits and vegetables. Other stands sell things like brooms, plates and bowls, silverware, close pins, loaves of bread, and canned or packaged items. The most popular stand is the egg sandwich stand. The family who runs it make a bomb egg sandwich! One egg, two cheese, vegetables, all on half a loaf of sweet bread. Its delicious! Auntie Mary, her husband, and her two sons Henry Jr. and Kodjo run it. Henry Jr. and Kodjo speak Twi with us and we try and speak Spanish with them because they want to learn. The sandwiches are only 1 cedi 60 peswas and that is only because I get two cheese instead of one.
Meals at night are either eaten in the kitchen downstairs, at Tasty Treats across the way in ISH2 or at the Night Market. The Night Market is my favorite place to be. It is a small market right by the hostels where ISH 1 & 2 are located. I can see it form my balcony on the fourth floor. It is made up of a number of different stands that sell all sorts of things at really incredibly cheap prices. They are run by local women and their families. Some stands sell bananas, coconuts, oranges, and other fruits and vegetables. Other stands sell things like brooms, plates and bowls, silverware, close pins, loaves of bread, and canned or packaged items. The most popular stand is the egg sandwich stand. The family who runs it make a bomb egg sandwich! One egg, two cheese, vegetables, all on half a loaf of sweet bread. Its delicious! Auntie Mary, her husband, and her two sons Henry Jr. and Kodjo run it. Henry Jr. and Kodjo speak Twi with us and we try and speak Spanish with them because they want to learn. The sandwiches are only 1 cedi 60 peswas and that is only because I get two cheese instead of one.
The Night Market also has stands where you can get a full meal (anything from jollof rice and plantains, or cassava/yams, to kebabs and boiled eggs) for any amount you want. 50 peswas worth is what most people get and its super filling. And whats even more amazing is when I traveled to the Volta Region recently, we stayed in a town called ho and everything there was even cheaper. Accra is more expensive beause it imports a lot of products from other regions and yet it is still super affordable. For example, a bag of water in Accra is 10 peswas but its just 5 peswas in Ho. And when we asked for 1 cedi of bananas we thought we would get about four, but instead we got a whole bunch. More like seven or eight.
I moved out of my ground floor room to the fourth/top floor my second or third week here. I was supposed to get a Ghanaian roommate but as of this morning I still had not gotten one so I more or less had a massive single. But this morning, September 20, almost a month or more into classes, I finally got one! I only talked to her for about two minutes because she isn't moving in until tomorrow night. But from that short time I would say she seems pretty cool. Her name is Anne. It was a bit of shock of course since I had already more or less decided I wasn't going to get one at this point, but when she left I was all smiles and felt really happy. I have a good feeling about it. I think its going to be super fun and interesting!!! And I love the fourth floor. It is really airy and has an open feeling to it. Whenever I wear a skirt I have to wear spandex shorts underneath because it literally flies up to my face. My friend Jared has taken to calling me
Marilyn Monroe. And the view of the city from the fourth floor at night is beautiful! When the moon is out its so bright over the city. I hang out on my balcony a lot with my friends and we always try to catch the sunset. They tend to be very red here.
I guess you could more or less say I'm falling in love with my time here. I have felt at home from the start and I have met so many amazing people that open my eyes to so many beautiful things. I feel unbelievably blessed and thankful for this opportunity.
Peace.
Katie
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