More classes! Yesterday I went to an African Music and Dance class at Ashesi University. My professor is this little old Ghanian man with a hippie mind. His philosophy on war is that conflict exists because people don't dance. He thinks dance is a way to have a mind-body connection and express ourselves in a non-violent way. I love him.
The class is going to be...interesting. It's made up of about 8 NYU students, some kids from CIEE (another study abroad program) and some Ghanians. We had to go around and say why we were taking the class, and the biggest reason why was because we can't dance and want to learn how (one of my reasons). We're graded on participation, so we basically just have to try. My professor thinks everyone has rhythm, but I don't think he has seen me try yet. It's going to be interesting! Yesterday was awesome though. We had an hour and a half of introduction and lecture, then an hour and a half of practical stuff. We're starting with basic beats on instruments to get ourselves to internalize the rhythm. I got to play a beat on a bell, but there were also those shakers with the beads on the outside, and some amazing drums. We're going to learn how to play all three :-D I'm so excited. We have to do a public performance at the end of the semester, wearing traditional clothes and everything. I'll have to try to get someone to record it so I can show everyone my killer moves.
I also randomly joined the Twi language class. I was really nervous about doing it after my experience with Arabic being so difficult last fall, but I'm so glad I went to Twi! It is taught by the director of my program. She is amazing. The class was incredibly unstructured and really focused on conversational Twi. We started out learning all about ways to barter, then moved to names of foods, then how to barter with a cab driver, etc. It's all just really useful.
Today I had my last class, Health and Society. Not much to report on it, since it was mainly just a basic history of health advances in societies and whatnot. It seems interesting though, and a lot of my friend are in that class.
Last night we went out to a salsa dancing place, then to reggae music on the beach. It was this crazy place right on the water with a huge stage and Rastas playing reggae all night! About half of our program went. Everyone we met was really nice, and it was so much fun being by the water all night.
Today we went to a mall. When I say a mall, I mean a mall. It was really bizarre, because we expected there to at least be some sort of twist to make it different from the malls that we are used to in America, but you could actually pick up this mall and put it in Maryland and it would fit in. I managed to buy some food for my house!
Walking up to the mall, all of these little kids who look Middle Eastern kept running up to us and grabbing our hands. They would ask us to "dash" (give) them some money or food. It was really sad because they were so cute, but you could see their parents close by and it's obvious that they were trained to beg to us. As much as we wanted to give them something, we were told that we shouldn't, because it encourages their behavior and their parents. If we give them something, it's supposed to be pens or markers or something that encourages them to go to school. :-/ it's hard not to give them anything though.
Today's food update: vegetable curry for dinner. I wanted to eat it all!
A few more pictures below:
I love your dress!!!!!! was it the one you had made?
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