January 8 at 1:02pm
je suis ici! im here in ghana, i am at a really nice hotel right now and i have met a few of my fellow ciee travelers all is well. today we took a long walk in the sun to an internet cafe where i am writing to you from. the weather is hot and sweaty but i wouldnt have it any other way. I am working on getting a phone but this is best for now. the flight was fine but long, and no i did not sleep because there were two screaming babies on my flight fro frankfurt to Accra. Tamsin met me at the airport which was so nice, and i got all my luggage and there werent any issues. thank goodness. i think i like it a lot here so far. we have orientation all weekend and then we pick classes on wed. and classes start monday. on the tenth or eleventh i meet my host family and im so excited. please everyone keep me up to date. i love and miss you all. ♥ claire
January 9 at 9:06pm
So today was the first day of orientation and people are still arriving. It sees so crazy to think that I have already been here three days. tomorrow i am getting a phone and today i ate the biggest mango at lunch, it was so sweet and creamy just like a mango lasse (the indian drink.) it was totally amazing. i also tried this fruit that looked like the south american bread fruit but it tasted like sour patch kids, so sour. i learned about my host family today and i meet them tomorrow. they have a clothing store and lots and lots of family members. i am also living there with one other ciee person, i am the only one to do it that way. i am going to bed i will write more tomorrow!
January 12 at 11:48am
so today is the third day with our host family. they are so sweet and really warming up to rachel and i. she is my roommate in the house. its funny her best friend lived in that house the semester before and there is another rachel in the house who lives there. the little girls are so sweet. they are named abigal and stephanie. its crazy at this house all the timethere are so many family members to keep track of and some help and then the workers. the mom/ aunt named grace has a faberic shop where she and her workers dye, stamp and then sew fabrics int clothes. i am so excited to learn how to do it. and then a can bring it back to bard and we can have the most fabulous costumes ever! the campus is the biggest place in the world. you have to take shuttles everwhere or else you will always be late. there is also a market on campus called the niught market and some of the dorms are half an hour a way but still on campus. i on the other hand walk and take a tro tro to school. i dont really have to take the tro tro (a small bus with a millon seats and people basically sitting on one another. its an experience) but the road is getting expanded and its not safe to walk on that portion of the road.mom, i like the name ruby and i like the name rumor and phoebe. ta ta for now! computer time is up. its 50peswes for half an hour.
January 12 at 6:09pm
no pictures yet, computers are are slow and thus it is hard to upload photos also i feel like in most situations its really inappropriate to take photos. like on the street with peoples stands or at the tro tro stop. i have some pictures of my host family and will have more but for now there are not a ton due to courtesy. i had my first twi (pronounced like tree) class today. i learned how to say
wo din de sen? =what is your name?
me din de claire= my name is claire
na wo nso e? = and you?
yefre wo sen? =we call you what?
yefre me claire = we call me claire
wo he te sen? = how is your body/ how are you? ete sen?
me ho ye.= my body/ i am good. eye.
and thats all for now. about to walk home with some friends i live near, and of course... take the tro tro.
January 14 at 5:07pm
today i am writing from my friend Courtneys computer rather than the internet cafe on campus and i have to say that it is such a relief. in the internet cafe it takes 20mins to load a page and as you type the words dont appear and then when you are done typing the letter slowly fill in. today we went to the first coco farm in ghana. it was up in the mountains and it was so refreshing to get out of the city and see the rural part of ghana for a change. we saw how cocoa was made and we got to eat some of the final product. its nuttier than normal chocolate but very tasty. we also saw a group of preschoolers playing with blocks at school. they were very cute but the people in our group ambushed them with cameras and poses. that wasnt to cool in my book. then we went to this wood carving place where we got an introduction to woodcarving and mask making. interesting note: out of one log they split it in half and make one half a male mask and the other half a female mask. so cool. after that adventure of learning and buying we went to the mountain gardens which have these trees that are not very old but look like they are dinosaur trees. lots of pictures will come from these adventures. going home soon. dinner last night made me so sick. i could not even smell if for fear of throwing up. something like rotten fish. thinking about it makes me sick too. hopefully it will just be plantains or red red (black eyed peas and red sauce) tonight. thats whats good. yams are good to but totally different than what we get in the states. anyway more on food later.ttyl
January 18 at 12:18pm
so far i am registered for "human rights in africa," "dance technique 2," "basic drumming," "traditional dance 2," and "twi (pronounced like tree)," and politics of identity in ghana." there are other really interesting courses i would love to take, like african lit, the development of tourism in third world countries, comparitive religions, religion and human rights (only offered in the fall) and the list ogoes on. i also want to take classes that i have already had and compare. but i wont get credit for them so its a no go. as far as adventures go i have had so many already. on friday i played hooky from a lecture on politics in ghana and went to meet Tamsin and Faisal and Tamsin's friend Isaac at a tro tro stop called shiashi (i am sure that i am spelling that wrong) and we went to Faisals shop at this artists community, off the beaten path. this place is beautiful. there aer all these shops of wood carvings and drums that the artists make, and paintings and jewlery. there are monkeys there and the people are so nice. its crazy because it is literally off the high way but it is so peaceful. from there we went to see Faisals dance performance with africana dance ensemble at the comunity center. and oh my goodness they are amazingly talented people. it is a mixture of dnacers drummers and everyone sings. they do traditional dances and perform the compunity and other schools. that night was we were running back to the 37 station the clouds started to swirl and the bats, which live here like the birds, begain to circle and it poured. 37 was a lake, people were elbowing each other to get on the tro and the mate, who is the guy who calls the stops, sat on my lap because there wasnt any room. this put everyone in stitches, i was an obroni (white) chair. good fun, i think it is my best story i have to tell ghanians so far.
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