Risks in Ghana

Day two of classes is finished, and oh what a day. It started insanely early with an 8am class for my internship. There are probably 10 of us in that class, which is an hour an a half a week plus 1 to 10 hours of interning at a local NGO. I'm not quite sure what my placement will be yet, but I'll keep you posted. Anyways, the class was...well, it went by eventually. The first 30 minutes or so were spent coming up with "Ground Rules" for our class. Being such smart NYU students, we came up with things such as 1. Be respectful,  2. Communicate and 3. Support Each Other. Time well spent.

The next period of time was writing down our expectations and fears of our internships. There was a very very specific way to do this--by folding a piece of paper in half, then writing "Expectations" at the top of one column, and "Fears" at the top of the other. 

If you get the gist, we were feeling a bit...unchallenged? It was a hard beginning to the day. The last activity was actually probably the most immature, but it was at least fun. We had to draw a picture of an animal that represented us and talk about why. I, of course, drew a penguin (hehe Fairy). It looked a little like an owl, but that's okay. We had to tell Jennifer, our professor, about our families and where we grew up. The drawing of pictures took us wayyy longer than it should have, but like I said, at least it was fun.

So that class will be interesting. I'm really happy with the people who are in the class, and think we'll have some really good discussions about our internships, the work that the NGOs are doing, non-profits in general, etc. I'm excited to get into all of that.

I was running on very little sleep, because last night my whole house was up playing games until about 3 am, then Whitney and I were chatting until 4. We're only together for 4 months, so you know, we've got to cram in as much bonding as possible. More on that later. But so I came back and had a wonderful relaxing nap before going to my one and only class at the University of Ghana, titled "Politics in Developing Countries in West Africa."

I was really hoping this would be a good course. Two of my closest friends here, Whitney and Holley, were going to take it with me. We got there on time, got good seats in the lecture hall, and were oh so excited for things to start. About 96% of the students were international students (there were less than 50 people too). I think there's a reason why Ghanaian's don't take this class though: Ghanaian's go to bookstores and read textbooks. Let me explain.

Our professor came in and started talking. He explained that he was going to start with the lecture, which was logical. He then proceeded to go to the podium and read each sentence of a book to us. We were expected to copy down each word he was reading to us. So basically, we were copying the book he was reading into our notebooks.

The three of us exchanged looks, but decided to wait a bit. Maybe this was just the intro, or maybe the material would be more challenging after the first few minutes. But no, it was not. A few questions came up from the group, but every time an interesting discussion of different cultures and perceptions of democracy came up, the professor would squash it like a bug. He did pose some questions to us though, like "Do you know what apartheid was?" and "Do you know what the Cold War was?" And the class was two hours long.

So today's classes were not nearly as good as my one was yesterday, but I'm still excited for the internship and I'm dropping the class at Uni Ghana. I'm sad not to take a class there--the campus is gorgeous and everyone seems so nice, but it's a 30 minute drive and the classes I have been interested in have been somewhat of a letdown. Tomorrow I'm taking an African Dance and Drumming class at the other local university, for which I am incredibly excited. Hopefully they won't laugh at me too much, although I hear that the locals just think we're hilarious when we try to dance.

Last night I was introduced to the lovely game of Risk, a manifest-destiny-esque board game. About half of my program was hanging out in my wonderful living room (we apparently have the welcome-to-our-home vibe going on) and some of the guys were starting a game. They taught me how to play and I am hooked! We took a break because two of them were going out, but sadly one of the other guys from my house knocked into the board late last night. It was a wreck, so we decided we had to start a new game! By that point, it was about midnight and everyone except the five people living in our house (me, Whitney, Joe, Camilo, and Parker) had left. So we thought it would be nice to start a house game, play for a bit, and come back to it tomorrow.

I don't know who of you have played Risk, but it is intense. It's not the type of game you can play for a half hour and then go to bed. Instead, it's the type of game that you play for two hours until you and Parker are completely wiped off the earth by Camilo, then stay up for another hour to watch him battle Whitney and Joe. The game is still going on and I am just so anxious for it to be over so we can start a new one, now that I know how to not die so quickly (I may not have lasted two hours, might have been more like an hour...maybe).

Anyways, Risk probably is not nearly as fun to read about as Ghanaian food, but no worries! I'm about to go eat dinner at my favorite place so far and the menu looks delicious for tonight!