Earthquakes/no electricity or running water/ and white boy

Hello all!

First of all, I would like to apologize for not being able to update this blog as frequently as I had originally intended. I have so many stories/experiences that I would like to share. Yesterday I wrote for 2 and a half hours and was just getting ready to post a huge blog and the electricity went out across campus so I am going to give it another shot. Hope you enjoy!

To be a minority...
For the first time in my life everywhere I go I am a complete minority. The girls giggle as a I walk by and the boys shout out "Ubroni," (meaning white boy). I am constantly stared at everywhere I go and it is hard to say if they are stares of contempt or just curiosity. I am completely lost about 90% of the time. While English is the national language - their "African" accent is extremely hard to understand. EVERYTHING here is different and simply does not make much sense to me. Example - it is socially acceptable for professors to just not show up for class or show up like 50 minutes late. Everything here in Ghana is in slow motion - the way people walk/eat/EVERYTHING (likely because it is like 105 degrees all day with humidity and if people move fast they would die of heat stroke. If a class starts at 4pm that really means 5pm or later. Being the only white person is some of my classes of 400+ has been quite an experience. In my political science classes anytime the professor mentions Obama or the US he stares directly at me or, on occasion, asks in front of the entire class "Lets see what the Ubroni (white boy) thinks." It is difficult to explain but the culture here is strongly family and friend based. EVERYBODY goes out of their way to be extremely nice and hospitable to me. Example: a couple days ago I was completely lost and this Ghanaian student approached me and asked if I was OK (I must have looked in a panic). After explaining how I was lost - the guy stopped whatever he was doing and walked me about 20 minutes to my dorm and told me that I shouldn’t walk alone at night. He offered to buy me a beer with his friends on the way home and I hung out with about 8 other Ghanaian students before he walked me the rest of the way home. Since the beers are only about 30 cents I bought everybody a beer and they were SOOOOO grateful. Their perception of the US is only from what they hear in music/ see in movies. So as you could imagine they think we are all hard-core rich gangsters with beautiful women everywhere - it is pretty interesting.

Living, food, housing, friends

I have been without running water and electricity for about 5 days at the dorms. It didn't really hit me hard that I was in Africa until I took my first bucket shower in the pitch black showers. Culture shock hit me like a brick wall as I stood in the corner of a dark shower, stark naked and poured little cups of water on myself, unable to fully rinse off the soap and shampoo from my body. I am getting used to living in a constant state of sweat and grime. Gross, I know, but it is just the way things are over here. The heat is overwhelming. My one complaint about my experience in Ghana is the constant heat- about 105 degrees without air-conditioning. When I am lucky and am blessed with electricity I can plug in my fan/ but most of the time i sleep in a pool of sweat. Yummy - It sounds bad but I am starting to get used to it.

Food
The food consists of 2 ingredients, fried chicken and rice. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. I love sampling every bit of food and am starting to find my favorite food joints. One restaurant insists on giving me free food every time I drop by. Again, people here are ridiculously nice. They also have fufu (another name for this spicy soup and ball of wheat mix). On the bright side, an entire meal costs about $1. It's amazing. It's not too bad but I am really craving Carls Jr. and Sushi and Panda Express.

Housing
About two days ago at 4am I awoke to mass chaos, screaming, and pandemonium through the dorms. The porter (security guard) pounded on my door an said a major earthquake was coming and we must all evacuate or the building would come down on us. My first reaction when I heard the pandemonium was that Ghana was under attack and I was very freaked out. After all 400 or so students evacuated, we huddled around a radio which explained most of Legon in Accra, Ghana had been evacuated but it was just a prank.
Some UC students have found cockroaches in their beds – others have found bed bugs. I was pleasantly surprised by a foot- long iguana in my cabinet so that was nice. About a week ago I saw a monkey in the trees and am pretty sure I heard hyenas attack a dog last night. It reminded me of the "Circle of Life" song in the Lion King.

Health
I am feeling pretty good, probably dehydrated. I was bitten by a spider and have two pretty gross looking cankers on my arm. I went to the university hospital which was quite an experience. The clinic was hot, stuffy, full of mosquitoes and VERY sick people. When I finally got called in to the dimly lit doctor's office there was blood on the bed, and knives sitting out- likely from the last operation (Which I heard for about 20 minutes of hard core screaming) which made me a little nervous to go in and see the doctor. A little different from Kaiser Permanente. One of the girls from my program said that she went in to that same hospital and complained of a bad sore throat. The doctor said that her tonsils were inflamed and she might have tonsilitis. The only problem is that the girl didn’t even have tonsils ( had them removed a year earlier) So, long story short I don’t know how much to trust the doctors here. They said my arm looked septic (whatever that means) and I should go on antibiotics. I decided a give it a few more days to heal and save the antibiotics for when I really need them .
About 8 people out of 30 students from the UC schools have gone to the hospital with symptoms of malaria. But I am going strong and smother myself with repellant every day!

Friends/experiences
Beach trip. On Sunday a group of my new friends and I traveled about 3 hours by tro-tro (a bus that fits about 12 people but crams about 20). After nearly getting in about 8 accidents we made it to the beach. We played with about 10 little Ghanaian children about 6 years old. One little girl probably 5 or 6 yr/old would not let go of me and was infatuated with my hair. I asked where her parents were and she said she didn’t have any. I saw her eating a left over plantain that was left on the ground and my heart melted so I went and bought her some chicken and a bottled water. She pleaded with me to stay or take her with me when I told her I had to go back to school. I spent the rest of the day feeling real depressed because I felt that there is so much poverty and starving children yet I was basically helpless and could not help all of them/ buy all of them lunch. It is truly amazing how these children and even adults that live in extreme poverty/ sleep in shacks without roofs have a culture centered around hospitality. Some of the children made me a bracelet and when I offered to give them a few dollars they said, "No." It was a gift.
On Saturday we went to the outside market which was literally packed with thousands of Ghanaians scurrying around shoulder to shoulder. It was an amazing experience, but am still not used to everybody staring at me like I was bigfoot or something.
I played football (soccer) with the locals and got showed up. I think that their under 12 team could beat our UCSB college team.

We went to see the slave castles where much of West Africa exported slaves during the trans Atlantic slave trade. This was a very emotional experience . You read about the slave trade in school but actually seeing the cells and inhumane conditions the slaves were kept is truly a life changing experience. We followed the route the slaves took in the dungeons, rape rooms , underground cannals and sewers, the path the slaves took and ended by the ocean where the ships took the slaves to the Americas and Europe. That experience is still weighing heavily upon me – and I am ashamed of the cruelty of mankind.

I have a Ghanaian roommate who is VERY cool. He looks a little like Cuba Gooding Jr. and am pretty sure he is extremely popular. He seems to know EVERY Ghanaian and in turn I am meeting so many new Ghanaian friends through him.

My UC EAP friends are amazing. Everybody is so adventurous and down to go out and travel. I think I am definitely making some lifelong friends. We have gone out to the clubs a couple of nights and are pretty much celebrities everywhere we go. One bartender said I looked like Eminem and asked if I could rap in front of the bar. On my trip there are 26 girls and 4 boys which sounds amazing right? Well I have come to the conclusion the rule of diminishing marginal utility also applies to the amount of girls you live with. You reach a saturation point where there is just to much girl talk.

Starting next week I plan on volunteering at a school for Orphans and the mentally challenged. I think I am going to teach English and am VERY excited to get out into the community!


Classes
I started classes on Monday. Yesterday, my professor for political research showed up and told everybody class was canceled because Ghana was playing in a soccer match. I understand only about 20% of what is said and feel a little out of the loop when a professor makes a joke and EVERYBODY laughs except for the 2 or so white students whom are completely confused. In fact, I am in an incessant state of confusion here in Ghana. Nothing ever works correctly the first time. Registering for classes took about 11 hours and I still have no clue if I am actually registered. Apparently you don’t really know if you are in the class for sure until after the semester is over and you wait to see if you received a grade. Pretty crazy. It sounds weird but I sort of LOVE the mass confusion, I think its really entertaining and funny. If you I didn’t have a sense of humor about nothing ever working – I would go crazy.

Culture
When I go exploring I feel like I am stepping right into a National Geographic photo shoot. It is sort of surreal and it often takes by breath away that I am really in the heart of Africa. I see women carrying massive, heavy baskets on their heads. I unfortunately see starving children with large pot bellies. I see mud and brick huts. My favorite part of the culture here is the traditional dress. The men and women wear these beautiful colorful togas and are always very well dressed. I find it amazing that amongst such poverty much of the nation puts a lot of care into how they look.
Apparently giving the thumbs up sign is equivalent to flipping someone off so I am pretty sure I uninintentionally offended some people.
In one conversation with a local Ghanaian she asked what the tribes were like in the US, and I explained that we are not really separated into tribes which was an interesting conversation. EVERYBODY here absolutely loves OBAMA and I definitely saw a billboard here of Obama shaking hands with Jesus and the sign said, "One World."

Closing remarks!
I know this was long but it a decent summation of my past few weeks. I know I will remember and experience more adventures in the days that come so I will try and update the blog whenever I am able. I miss all of you so much. I didn’t realize how much I took my family and friends for granted until I came here. Even though I have been away from reality (ex when Josh, Sam and I went to Costa Rica) I feel so much farther from everybody. When the plane landed I felt like I was stepping down onto a completely different planet. The soil is red like Mars and yes, I look completely different from everybody. Anyway, I love and miss you all. I hope to spread what I learn here when I come back to the states. I already feel like I am changing which is weird to self reflect and think about but is such an amazing feeling. Keep in touch. While homesickness creeps up on me a little more every day, I know that I am having the experience and adventure of a lifetime, which helps me cope.

Best,
Jason