August 15^th, 2006

It has been a while since I have last written. Internet is a little hard to get to at the moment. Well, there is an internet café across the street from the dorms, but the connection is reaallyyy slow most of the day, so I try to go in the evening. Once I get into a bit of a routine, with classes and such, I hope giving weekly updates on my travels.

In some ways my first two weeks have flown by, but in other ways I feel like I’ve already lived here for 2 months. EAP orientation is officially over. So we no longer have daily lectures, but there are still some organized field trips to come.

This weekend, our group took a bus to the coast to see two slave castles—Cape Coast Castle and ElMina Castle. It was an intense day, and to avoid recounting the whole day I will just say the trip was emotionally exhausting. I hope to forever keep the lessons I learned last Saturday—as we were standing in the pitch black slave dungeon, our guide explained that 300 people were forced to live (for 6 weeks) inside a room that was nearly big enough for 30. Our guide continued with more horrific details; but even without his words, I felt so much pain from just standing in that space.

Yesterday marked the beginning of registration. I think the best way to describe registration at the University of Ghana, is to imagine a deep dark chasm! I think I may be making it sound like a horrible thing, it is just different, in a good way. Yes the process is long and unorganized—involving several passport photos, confusing paperwork, and most classes don’t have times yet—however, this is the best lesson of patience I have ever gotten and I’m embracing it! One of my goals here is to roll with the punches, and try my hardest to make lemonade out of whatever is thrown my way. School is supposed to start the 21^st, however, I think the “real” start date with be the 28^th, or later…teachers tend to go on strike every year for the first couple weeks.

I’ve signed up for a lot of really interesting classes. I’m planning to sign up for about 7, but start dropping them like flies once I figure out what teachers I like best (apparently some teachers lecture by just reading out of the textbook). As of now I’ve registered for: Educational Psychology, Theories of Social Development, Agricultural Economics, Developmental Economics, Urban Sociology, School Social Work, and Traditional African Dance. Plus I will be taking Twi (the language of the Asante, although most Ghanaians speak it), and I will be working on a research project. I’m exactly sure what I will do my project on, I though I would first start volunteering in a local school, and then see what strikes me. But I have gotten really interested in literacy here. English is taught as soon as Ghanaians enter school, and although English is the official language it is by no means the national language. In fact, one professor said American students tend to do really well here, because we classes are taught in our 1^st language, whereas for Ghanaians, both the teachers and the students are communicating in their 2^nd or 3^rd language.

More to come! Stay tuned!