Week Three!

So, it's been a while since my last blog post. This internet is very unreliable and UNC webmail hasn't worked in about a week.

I had my first week of classes last week. I'm signed up for traditional African dance, post-conflict peace building transitional justice, comparative ethics in religion, social work and law courts, social work and human rights and U.S. policy towards Africa.

Taking classes here has been an interesting experience. I've come to realize that most things here are very relaxed and hardly ever on time. I've had my comparative ethics in religion course twice so far, and the professor has yet to show up. It's very aggravating because the campus is sprawling and it takes me about twenty to thirty minutes to get to class, only to sit in a classroom for over an hour waiting/ The classes I have had are very different from classes at UNC. Without technology like laptops, projectors or power point, most of my classes have been comprised mostly of direct dictation. In my U.S. policy towards Africa class, we spent forty five minutes copying down word for word what the professor was saying, as he repeated half of each sentence twice. I felt like I was in high school again. I guess it makes sense that without reliable access to the internet or computers this is the most efficient way to teach.

My traditional African dance class has been fun but lots of work! African dance is so different from ballet, cheerleading or any other form of dance or movement I've experienced. The posture is hunched over and our hands are supposed to be constantly limp. There is much stomping, jumping and rolling. There are no counts for the moves and the teachers never break down the movements for us. We're expected to watch them a few times and then jump right in. I promise to get Michael to video tape Catherine and I in our dance recital so y'all can all have a good laugh. :D

As of an hour ago, we have running water again!!! The water here goes out approximately every day or every other day. When we do have running water, about 70% of the time it's brown. I'm hoping that the brown water is somewhat safe, because there's really no way of getting around it. If anything, this semester abroad will make me appreciate basic things like running water.

The UNC study abroad group has formed a ritual every week. This sacred ritual is called terrific Tuesdays. The only American fast food restaurants we've found are connected to a gas chain called Bonjour. Connected to the Bonjour are the Pizza Inn, Chicken Inn and Creamy Inn. On Tuesdays at the Pizza Inn, pizzas are buy one get one free. Unfortunately, there is no way of calling ahead or getting delivery. We normally go and wait for about an hour and a half to two hours for our pizzas. Many of the food places here take about an hour from the time you order to the time you get your food.

Other than Terrific Tuesdays, we've been eating multiple times a week at the night market, which is just down the road from our hostel. The night market consists of about half a dozen food vendors who open at night to serve dinner. When you order your good, you specify how much of each dish you would like in terms of cost. I generally always get fifty pesewas of noodles with spicy (pepper) sauce, thirty pesewas of salad, and a hard boiled egg. This meal generally comes out to cost around one CD, or eighty U.S. cents. When you get your food, you sit at large picnic tables under covered tents. The night market is noisy and I enjoy the bustling atmosphere.

Saturday, a group of us traveled to the Accra Mall to see "Up". It was weird being in a movie theater, it was super Western and probably nicer than most of the theaters in Greensboro (but much smaller). The movie was great! I recommend it to everyone!

Interesting story:
On Sunday, Catherine, Katy, Michael and I (the four of us are always together), traveled to Cocoa Beach to lay out at the pool at the Ramada Inn (this is the beach that is covered in trash, feces, etc. so we stick to the pool). We hailed a taxi on campus, as usual, and agreed on a price, seven CD. It's very important to always agree on the price of the ride before you get into the taxi, or else the driver can charge you whatever she or he wants. The taxi ride seemed normal until our taxi driver pulled over twice to ask directions to Cocoa Beach. We were irked because the driver had told us he knew where he was going, and he was taking a long time. After he spoke to the second person for directions, he got back in the taxi and starting driving, only to inform us that the beach was farther away than he thought and that the price of seven CD was no longer good. We started to argue with him, we've been to this pool two other times and never paid more than seven CD for a ride. We finally told him to pull over so we could find someone else to take us. This is when things got ugly. He refused to pull over and started yelling that we needed to pay him more. We asked him to pull over again, and he sped up and continued to drive. Things escalated and soon we were yelling at him to pull over. He finally pulled over then Michael flung open the door and acted like he was going to jump out of the taxi. As soon as he pulled over, he yelled that we had to pay him for driving us there ( he had only driven us a short distance to ask for directions). We refused and soon we were arguing with him on the side of the road. A security guard and two random street vendors joined in. Eventually, we paid the driver a few CD in coins so he would leave us alone. We ended up taking a tro tro the rest of the way to the beach.

Anyway, not much else interesting has been going on. We are traveling to the Volta region on Friday morning for four days. I'm really excited! We will be hiking up a mountain, seeing waterfalls and visiting cities in the region. I'll have much to report when I get back!