End of Week One

To continue my last post:

Last Saturday we took a driving tour of Accra, the capital city in Ghana. We also attended a funeral in a rural area of Accra. This was a very interesting experience. Ghanaian funerals are days long, and each day is a different event. By the time the burial and reception occur, it is a joyous occasion to celebrate the deceased's life. Many of the children in the village seemed to be amazed / afraid of us. At the house where the reception was held, we made friends with a few local children who talked to us about soccer and let us take a picture with them. While at the reception, we were served rice and a spicy sauce, fried chicken, and soup with an entire fish in it. No joke, apparently the heads are the "best parts", especially the eyes. I did not partake in this dish, but I did capture the moment on my camera.

On Sunday we headed to a beach near Accra. The sand and water are beautiful! We were given beach chairs to sit on and many local artists came around and displayed their artwork and handicrafts. On the more exotic side, teenage boys walked around carrying ball pythons (much bigger than Baby snake!) and small monkeys. There was also a troop of boys who looked to be about 13-16 in age who put on a show by eating broken glass. I really couldn't watch it, and it upset me imagining how painful it was for them to earn money. On the brighter side, the sun is INTENSE!! We were there for about 2 hours, and I used sunscreen, and I am still burnt today. We also met a few locals on the beach who invited us to come to the beach tonight for live Reggae music!

I finally finished signing up for classes today. It was a long process in which you had to physically travel to each department to sign up. I am particularly excited about taking a traditional African dance class.

We were able to go to the grocery store yesterday, and I bought CHEESE!!! and pb&j, also chips and fruit. Needless to say, I am very excited.

Anyway, my time is running out AGAIN! This internet is painfully slow. Sorry to everyone who had been emailing / facebooking me, it's hard to get everything done on these computers! Hopefully I will be able to upload pictures soon!