Akwaaba to Ghana!

Akwaaba! Welcome! The notoriously friendly Ghanaian people were excited to welcome us to their country, and after over 15 hours of travel time we were equally thrilled.  The flight itself wasn’t too bad; food was served and each passenger had a personal tv to watch movies.  The occasional turbulence and a woman laying sick in the isle with fellow passengers (nurses) trying to help her, were a bit nerve-racking, but altogether a decent flight.   Our plane landed in the Accra airport around 1:30 pm yesterday (Sunday) and as soon as I stepped out of the air-conditioned craft, I made my first declaration about Ghana—it HOT!  Although a drastic change from the snow storm that hit Philadelphia on Saturday prior to my departure, the weather was surprisingly pleasant at first.  However, I have absolutely no idea how people walk around in long pants, jeans, and long sleeved shirts here, because I only foresee skirts and dresses for my stay.  By the time we got through immigration, got all of our luggage, and found our way through the sea of people at the airport we met Akua who took us in a bus to the University of Ghana.  On the bus ride we had our windows open (the breeze was phenomenal) and at a stop, two adorable young boys came up to the bus asking for money and food.  This made me so sad, because if I was capable, I would feed all of the children I meet in Ghana (and all over the world for that matter), but it reminded me of why I came to such a country—to experience something I never have, or may never again.

Upon arriving to the University, we were dropped off at the International Student Hostel 2 (called “ish” like the sound not the letter abbreviation by the local students) where we were given our rooming assignments.  The four girls from Pitt expected to room together in two doubles, but the U of G chooses to pair international students not traveling with an exchange program with a Ghanaian student as a roommate.  The Ghanaian students won’t move in until the weekend so I have a few days to get situated, unpacked, and hang out my mosquito net before my roommate comes.  Like most buildings I’ve seen so far on campus, the hostel is set up with an open courtyard in the middle and each room has a balcony that overlooks the outside as well as one that looks into the courtyard.  That being said, the rooms are by no means luxurious (although apparently a giant step up from the other dorms around campus where 10 students cram into a 4 person room).  One of the biggest surprises so far was the lack of toilet paper anywhere!!  This is fine now that we’ve gotten some from the local market and know to carry a bit around in our bags, but it was an unpleasant encounter at first.  After getting our luggage into the rooms we immediately had to go to dinner with the dean of the International Programs department where we met a few other students living in our hostel.  The dinner was a traditional Ghanaian meal of joloff rice, chicken/pork, fried plantains, yam balls, and some more questionable options that I was not brave enough to try.  After dinner and a few musical performances, a large group of us international students from ISH 2 went to a local bar to celebrate the birthday of one of the girls.  My favorite part was when the taxi didn’t start and two guys had to push it for a while until the engine turned on.  It was an outdoor bar filled with Ghanaians just sitting and enjoying the music, so we did the same.

This morning we had to get up bright and early for an orientation which was supposed to go until noon, but as “Ghanaian time” goes it lasted until about 1:30 and we will have another tomorrow morning to cover what went unfinished today.  They explained how to register for classes on Wednesday and how the examination period at the end of the semester works.  Then this information was repeated for about 4 hours with a quick snack break in the middle.  I’m sure the information will be extremely helpful, but the jetlagged audience was not very interactive this morning.  Afterwards, Dr. Adjaye (my prof. from Pitt who brought us over) introduced us to Hilda who is a Ghanaian graduate student here and will be helping us set up bank accounts, get phones, and learn our way around.  When we finally got a chance to rest later in the day, we all took a long nap.  In the evening we went to the night market which is located right behind ISH 2, and I tried “red red” for dinner which is basically rice and some spicy bean mixture in a red sauce.  I thought it was delicious, especially compared to the yam and some spicy green sauce I attempted for lunch.  The night market (which is open all day actually) is a wonderful place for us to get food because it is usually only 1.5 cedi or less for a meal.  We also buy our water there which comes in a giant bag of 20-30 little baggies of water for 1.5 cedi—it’s funny to see people take a baggie of water out of their purse and tear it open with their teeth to enjoy!

At night, the international students organized a soccer competition and we watched while the self-declared teams took turns playing in the parking lot for a few hours.  Then we did a bit of exploring the other International Student Hostel (ISH 1) and bought some time on the internet before settling in our rooms for the night.  So that is all for my first 24 ish hours in Ghana! So many new experiences already, and so many more to come (but I’ll try to keep the blogs on the shorter side). Also when we figure out a better internet situation I will add pictures!! I am truly grateful to have this opportunity and am so excited to see what Ghana has in store for me!