White Ghanians.

Eeeks, I need to post more often! Lots has happened this week so far. Take a deep breath--this is a longgg post.

Sunday we had our cooking class with the CRAs. I was being taught by Debbie, who is probably the sweetest person in the world. She taught us how to make red-red, which is beans and plantains. It's probably my favorite dish here in Ghana. One thing we realized about the food is that it is all made with a TON of oil. It's not vegetable or olive oil either, it's called palm oil and it's bright red. I think that's one of the reasons that the food here is so hard for all of us to eat--so much oil! We did use a different oil to fry the plantains. The beans were made with palm oil, garlic, ginger, onions, peppers, and tomatoes (I think), and the plantains were simply fried. We shared our food with the other houses, so I also got a lot of fruit and some eggplant soup. All of the food was incredibly good, as always!

After the cooking class, almost everyone in our program went to the World Cup Qualifying Game of Ghana vs Sudan. It was insanity. The stadium apparently holds 40,000 people, and it was overflowing. People were sitting on the stairs in every available space. Somehow, for 5 cedis (which is about $3.5), we got tickets for seats right by the field. A few people ended up having to move up, because they couldn't see what they were watching, but because I'm tall, I had no problems. It was incredible. I have never been to a professional soccer (or futbol) game, but everyone who had said that they are really different here. First of all, while probably every obruni within 50 miles came, there were still so few of us. The fans are moving absolutely the entire game. While they all took breaks, there was always thousands of people dancing. You know how at sports events in the US, people start the wave? It typically makes it around once (maybe) then dies? Here it got started, went around the entire stadium with 40,000 people four complete times (as in every single person did it), then continued for about 4 more times with half the people still going, before finally dying. Fantastic.

There were some crazy dedicated. I have a picture of one below--they paint their entire bodies and just dance around in front of everyone for the whole game. Other Ghanians would just get excited and start dancing back and forth in front of everyone. Like I said, people were always moving. The guys behind us kept getting mad when people would walk in front of us and they couldn't see. They even got mad at the cops, yelling at them to move.

There was just so much energy in the whole place. Whenever Ghana would score the people would erupt. At the end of the game, the players ran right by us and waved and people were squishing us all into the glass barrier that separated us from the field. The cops on the other side of the barrier threw a couple of extra jerseys or something over the top, and there was practically a brawl for who was going to get it. Actually, while we were trying to back up and get out of the fight, a couple of people were trying to pickpocket us. My friend Joey caught a guy right in the act and managed to keep his stuff. Parker got his wallet and phone taken, and I actually turned around and a guy was holding my insulin pump. It was the only thing in my pocket and I'm sure he thought it was a phone or MP3 player or something. I need to figure out another way to carry it in crowded places--I'm lucky he gave it back!

By the way, Ghana won 2-0. Weeeeee. A group of us decided to walk home (it took about a half hour). Most of us were wearing either tee-shirts or flags or something. Everyone we saw looked at us and yelled, "GHANA GHANA GHANA!!!" People were so excited! At one point, we got called "white ghanians." It was glorious. 

So my Sunday was really great. I could not have asked for a more amazing experience or more amazing food.

Monday was pretty amazing too. For my Global Connections class, we went on a field trip to what my professor called "Danish Osu." It's called that because that is where the Danish set up trade forts in pre-colonial times, and where they had slave forts. We had done some reading about it before going, so it was pretty insane to actually see the places that we were reading about. There were 16 of us on the trip, so it was hard to hear the guy leading us (who is an architecture  professor I think at UG). All the sudden, we looked up and we were at a slave castle right by the water. It was kind of startling. The castle was originally a trading post, then taken over by locals, and eventually reclaimed by the Danes. Then, it became a slave castle where slaves were kept before being marched out to the sea and taken across the Atlantic. Now, it actually is where the government resides. Ironic? We weren't allowed to take pictures, since it is a government building. At one point when walking back, Sarah pointed out that there were holes in the huge stone wall surrounding the castle. Sticking through the holes were guns, with guys constantly holding them, ready to fire if attacked. Right outside the walls, all these little children were playing soccer and running around. The two pictures shouldn't really fit together, but they did...

We also went walked through some of the old original Danish houses. Now, they are homes to local people. It was weird, walking with a group of 16 obrunis though these people's houses and just staring at the architecture. The people were all really nice, but the level of poverty was just so apparent, and we were walking around in our nice clothes with our nice jewelry and nice bags...it's just hard. It's had to see people living in such slums and feel like you're just a tourist (which we really were).

Overall though, it was really interesting. I wish all history classes were like this--you read about something, then go see where it took place. Alas, they are not, so I must make the most of this one while I can.

Tuesday I went to my internship again! To get there, I rode in a trotro! Trotros are kind of like mini-buses and the major form of public transportation here. They seat about 25 people and go from one stop to another, making a few other stops along the way. To get from Accra to Tema, it cost me less than one cedi, whereas it would have cost 12 or 13 cedis in a cab. The one issue with trotros is that they can take quite a while to leave, because they wait until they are full to leave. So, for the ride back, we had to wait almost 45 minutes in the trotro to leave. It's going to take some getting use to, but it was actually decently comfortable to ride in and a really easy way to get back and forth from City of Refuge. The trip will take at least 40ish minutes each way, so I think I'm only going to be able to go one day a week. That's okay though, because it sounds like I'm going to get to do a lot of research-type things, which I have to do here anyways (where I can get internet).

So for my internship, I got to work with one of the two little boys who doen't know enough English to go to school yet for a little while. He knows the colors pretty well, but doesn't yet know all of the letters in the alphabet. John and Rachel are going to be working with both him and the other boy during the days to get them up to speed so that they can start school as soon as possible.

The rest of the kids started school on Tuesday. Apparently, they thought they were starting on Monday, and were all so excited that they got up at 2am and put their uniforms on. They were quite disappointed when the bus did not come to get them at 6:30 Monday morning. Tuesday they were all just as excited though, and the two boys who didn't get to go were apparently quite sad. It was a strange experience working with the little boy, because I was doing things that I'm used to doing in Jumpstart with 3 year olds. He has just never been taught English, and he's trying really hard to learn (I think he's 7 or 8). I really hope he catches on quick, because I know he wants to be at school with the rest of them.

After that, I talked to John and Rachel for a long time about the story of City of Refuge and what their role is going to be there. Like I said, I think a lot of what I'm going to be doing is research-oriented and doing things like recording data electronically. They're going to be doing a lot to try to further develop the organization, so I'm going to get to help a lot with it. It's going to be an interesting experience--I don't think it will be especially structured, because there is just so much to do but we don't really know what to start with or what things that we see as issues are really just cultural differences. I'm excited though--I think I'll really get to see the impact of my work, and it's a really intimate organization.

Then the other kids got home. When we asked if they learned anything in school, they all said, "Noooo, tomorrow! Tomorrow we will learn!" I ended up playing with one little boy for a long time, just rolling a tire back and forth and seeing how far it could go. Apparently the kids don't really have toys, but Rachel was saying that she didn't see that as a problem. They seem to be able to amuse themselves quite well, and they aren't even concerned about toys. I think I'm going to make some play-doh to take in on Tuesday. If anyone is interested in sending me a package with some stuff for these kids though, let me know. I talked to John and Rachel and we came up with a list of some things the kids could use. I'm going to double check the list before telling anyone what to send, but it would be so wonderful to be able to help them out. 

If anyone wants to look at the website for the organization, it's http://www.cityofrefugeoutreach.com/City_of_Refuge/Freedom_Has_A_Face.html

I think that is actually a page within the website, but you can explore it and see what they do. It's pretty amazing.

Then today I had my music and dance class, and it was the first one where we actually danced! Aka, the first one where I got to make a complete fool of myself! At least I'm not the only one who can't dance very well. We learned three different parts--one that was a step, one that is a shoulder movement, and one that is a hand movement. Each one individually was not a big deal, but doing them all together was wayyy beyond me. It was really fun though, and a decent little work-out. A bunch of us girls in the class are hanging out tomorrow night for bonding time, and we're going to try to practice it some so that we can learn the new stuff next week. The teachers were really nice though--a bunch of our Professor's students from a dance group or something came to help out. They kept saying "Smile for me! Smileeee!" And I did.

The crowd at the game.

A few of the players right after the game.
Me and Holley eating FanIce, aka the greatest thing ever invented. It's like little bags of fluffy ice cream. Mmmm so good! And only about 15 cents a bag.
One of the crazy dedicated fans.
Cooking! The beans were in the red schtuff, and you can see us frying plantains.