So it's exam period here. For those of you who have gone to college at home, the exam period lasts for 2 maybe 3 weeks correct? And usually you're done within the first week. Well at the University of Ghana in Legon the exam period is about 5 weeks. I have only four exams (one of them was taken earlier). Yet i need the entire month of may to take them. very interesting...
On top of htat the campus is slightly out of control. The University decided that they were only going to offer campus housing to freshmen. They don't have the facilities to house such a large campus and they felt that freshmen are the most vulnerable. It does make sense (no matter how inconvenient it is to the rest of the school population). Anyway, the campus was in an uproar with protests going on everywhere.
Some students took it that extra step and wrote threatening letters to professor on campus. Threatening not only them but their spouses and children as well. They were also written in blood (a bit too dramatic don't you think). So they had to send out notices saying that exams were going to continue as normal. The first exam was on a saturday and students woke up and went only to be thorouly disgusted by their exam rooms. Some exams had to be cancelled because there were dog feces smeared everywhere in each of the testing areas. It was pleasent. Worst part? I don't think they really disinfect here.... I'm bringing things to sit on...
So the university and the government has fought back. It's pretty much martial law here. Outside of all the major buildings there are about 6-7 officers decked with sticks, guns, tear gas and gas masks. about 4 containers of tear gas each actually. They're quite obnoxious in all reality. a bit power hungry and i've had more than one taxi driverget harrassed for no reason. oh well, it's ghana!
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Waagaadoogoo ; )
You know those places that you here about and are like "I have no desire to go there"? Places like russia and Uzbekistan?... Well Burkina Faso was kinda like that for me. But I really like passport stamps... A lot! So when someone mentioned that it was an okay place to go i jumped at the opportunity. So this past week i spent my time in Ouagadougo (pronounced waagadoogoo. maybe the most amazing name ever). It might be one of my most favorite cities now.
Anyway, after a few false starts (we were origionally going to leave from togo. btw, i went to togo. it was alright, not all that exciting). We finally purchased tickets and we left on a bus at 5 pm on monday. the bus ride is 24 hours. It wasn't that bad except for the horrifically grotesque cankles that i've developed. Kinda looks like elphantitus. I took a picture don't worry. Anyway, hot doesn't begin to explain the temperature when we got off the bus tuesday evening. It's dry heat too so it was kinda like sticking your head in an oven... it actually made Ghana seem cool. But luckily i think that was the most stuffy it was the three days we were there.
Anyway, we got a taxi to drive us to this little backpackers hotel that we rread about. At first glance it looked awful but after a couple of days we realized that it is a well run place. Clean, no rodents, electricity all the time. Really not much to complain about. it was a bit warm though. Anyway, we just kinda wandered around that tuesday night. it was a french colony so they have french influences everywhere, especially the food. A major thing for us is that they gave us french bread as an appetizer before our food came. That NEVER happens in Ghana. Needless to say we were more than a little excited.
The next morning we went to a bakery and had some fabulous pastries and then spent the rest of the day wandering. I can't say that we visited important Burkinabe places or national monuments but we just wandered. I don't know how to explain it but it was just a nice friendly city. We weren't hassled, we weren't harrassed people were just friendly. We were basically able to eat and shop our way with out any problems. They ahve amazing metal work there. We were ableto talk them down quite a bit.
The next day was pretty much the same we just wandered and met people. It's a french speaking country so my friend Georgie and i kinda stumbled through french the entire time. It's amazing how far really bad french can take you. We made a lebanese friend named Omar. He owned a restaurant that we'd been getting dessert at. Not only did he give us discounts, but he offered to drive us to the opening of the Ouagadougou Jazz festival! It's actually a big deal and we had seen posters for it but they said that it started on friday. But omar told us that the actual start was on thursday. So he drove us to the hotel. The tickets were the equivilant of $10 (which in africa is quite a bit of money) so he said that if we just sat in the bar we could hear the music without actually paying and having airconditioning. So here we are in are chocos and tivos with dirty tank tops and dirt on our legs sitting in a fancy hotel bar, sipping juice (cause it was the cheapest thing on the menu). Boy did we feel classy. But we got to hear amazing jazz by Rido Bayonne and his orchestra (if you get a chance look him up, really great music).
After awhile we decided to leave and we went outside. Of course there are NO taxis at this hotel in the middle of no where. I saw a guy standing next to a ministry of education bus and so i went and asked him where we could get a taxi. We got to talking (in my broken french and his broken english) and it turns out he had seen our group before earlier. He talked to the driver of the bus and the driver agreed to drop us off at our hotel. When we got on we realized that it was the band's bus!!! So there we were four random americans sitting in the bus with this Parisian band who were utterly confused as to why we were there. They were really nice though and invited us to dinner but we declined. Anyway, this e-mail has gotten way to long so i will stop here. Needless to say we had an amazing trip! We jsut got back this morning and my cankles ahave yet to disappear....
Anyway, after a few false starts (we were origionally going to leave from togo. btw, i went to togo. it was alright, not all that exciting). We finally purchased tickets and we left on a bus at 5 pm on monday. the bus ride is 24 hours. It wasn't that bad except for the horrifically grotesque cankles that i've developed. Kinda looks like elphantitus. I took a picture don't worry. Anyway, hot doesn't begin to explain the temperature when we got off the bus tuesday evening. It's dry heat too so it was kinda like sticking your head in an oven... it actually made Ghana seem cool. But luckily i think that was the most stuffy it was the three days we were there.
Anyway, we got a taxi to drive us to this little backpackers hotel that we rread about. At first glance it looked awful but after a couple of days we realized that it is a well run place. Clean, no rodents, electricity all the time. Really not much to complain about. it was a bit warm though. Anyway, we just kinda wandered around that tuesday night. it was a french colony so they have french influences everywhere, especially the food. A major thing for us is that they gave us french bread as an appetizer before our food came. That NEVER happens in Ghana. Needless to say we were more than a little excited.
The next morning we went to a bakery and had some fabulous pastries and then spent the rest of the day wandering. I can't say that we visited important Burkinabe places or national monuments but we just wandered. I don't know how to explain it but it was just a nice friendly city. We weren't hassled, we weren't harrassed people were just friendly. We were basically able to eat and shop our way with out any problems. They ahve amazing metal work there. We were ableto talk them down quite a bit.
The next day was pretty much the same we just wandered and met people. It's a french speaking country so my friend Georgie and i kinda stumbled through french the entire time. It's amazing how far really bad french can take you. We made a lebanese friend named Omar. He owned a restaurant that we'd been getting dessert at. Not only did he give us discounts, but he offered to drive us to the opening of the Ouagadougou Jazz festival! It's actually a big deal and we had seen posters for it but they said that it started on friday. But omar told us that the actual start was on thursday. So he drove us to the hotel. The tickets were the equivilant of $10 (which in africa is quite a bit of money) so he said that if we just sat in the bar we could hear the music without actually paying and having airconditioning. So here we are in are chocos and tivos with dirty tank tops and dirt on our legs sitting in a fancy hotel bar, sipping juice (cause it was the cheapest thing on the menu). Boy did we feel classy. But we got to hear amazing jazz by Rido Bayonne and his orchestra (if you get a chance look him up, really great music).
After awhile we decided to leave and we went outside. Of course there are NO taxis at this hotel in the middle of no where. I saw a guy standing next to a ministry of education bus and so i went and asked him where we could get a taxi. We got to talking (in my broken french and his broken english) and it turns out he had seen our group before earlier. He talked to the driver of the bus and the driver agreed to drop us off at our hotel. When we got on we realized that it was the band's bus!!! So there we were four random americans sitting in the bus with this Parisian band who were utterly confused as to why we were there. They were really nice though and invited us to dinner but we declined. Anyway, this e-mail has gotten way to long so i will stop here. Needless to say we had an amazing trip! We jsut got back this morning and my cankles ahave yet to disappear....
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Elephants, Jack Nicholson and Rice
Hello all!
well this past week i went to see elephants!!! Now as relatively simple as that sounds, it wasn't. Far from it actually. Basically if i didn't see elephants it might have been the worst weekend of my life, but since i did see elephants it was amazing!
It all began last Monday when Lauren and i tried to go and by tickets to the nearest town near the park. There weren't any left. We had been planning to go on Wednesday. They told us that they had some middle seats left on the Thursday morning un-airconditioned bus (i should probably mention that this trip is between 12-15 hours depending on the driver). We really wanted to see the elephants so we said sure!
Anyway, we get to the bus station at 7 am cause our bus was supposed to be at 8. 8 rolls around, no bus. 9 rolls around, no bus, until finally at 12 pm the bus comes. We had to just sit around the bus station cause all the people would tell us is "it will come". So we sat at the hot bus station for 5 hours.
Anywho, lauren and i had a premonition that our bus ride wasn't going to be very comfortable when we noticed that not all the passangers' luggage fit into the storage under the bus. We kept seeing people lug large suitcases and huge bags of rice into the actual bus. We also realized that by "middle seat" they didn't just mean non window. It meant that the aisle had wobbly fold out seats that only reached a third way up your back. So when we got on the bus i couldn't put my feet all the way on the floor cause there was a bag of rice there, i also couldn't lean back cause there was no where for most of my back and my head to go. so i had to sit up straight. for 15 hours. with my backpack on my lap. couldn't really sleep. it was not cool....
In addition to the cramped conditions, are bus driver was a bit reckless in driving and it started to rain. He slowed down after we passed our SECOND over turned truck.....
So at 4 am we reached Tamale. The bus to a Larabanga (the village next to the national park) was leaving at like 5ish so we just walked to the bus station and waited around for another bus. At 5:30 we were off (luckily with actual seats this time) we were so exhausted we didn't even notice the bus ride was 3 hours long on dirt roads. Actually some like 20 year old guy fell asleep on me and i could have cared less : ).
So when we reached Larabanga we were met by some guys who managed to convince us to stay at a house as a "homestay". they told us that it benefitted the community more if we stayed with community members. By community he meant his sister. So we quickly left and found a guesthouse to stay at. I use the term lousely. Actually there were termite hills on our "ceiling". i have pictures... it was definately an experience! But the owner was really nice and some of his family gave us a tour around the village. They have the oldest mosque in ghana. it was actually really pretty. totally made of mud and such. it's apparently the only 100% muslim village in ghana.
The next morning we took motorbikes up to the park. It was a walking tour so we just wandered until we found animals. So we basically walked around for 2.5 hours without seeing anything besides antelope (which are basically deer and not all that interesting....) Finally we saw elephants going to this watering hole. It was really hot and they all wanted to cool off. I think we saw like 20. it was an entire herd! At one point in time i was talking to Lauren and we turned around and there was an elephant basically charging at us. we didn't run. we treated it as a picture taking opportunity ; ). lucikly the elephant took a sharp left and just went into the water. It was honestly one fo the most amazing things i've ever seen. they're so graceful!
After that. we caught motorbikes back to Laragbanga to get our bags. Then we took motorbikes to another town about an 45 away. From there we just caught a bus that was leaving for Tamale. this ride was not as pleasent as the first one. it was slower, more crowded and seemed not to have shock absorbers. luckily i hadn't eaten anything : )
Basically the rest of the trip went like clockwork. The hotel we stayed at kinda reminded us of a scene in the Shjning though... it looked like there were blood smears on are walls and i felt like jack nicholson was gonna show up any moment. Anyway, i love you guys and when i get my camera i'll try to post some pictures! love ya!
well this past week i went to see elephants!!! Now as relatively simple as that sounds, it wasn't. Far from it actually. Basically if i didn't see elephants it might have been the worst weekend of my life, but since i did see elephants it was amazing!
It all began last Monday when Lauren and i tried to go and by tickets to the nearest town near the park. There weren't any left. We had been planning to go on Wednesday. They told us that they had some middle seats left on the Thursday morning un-airconditioned bus (i should probably mention that this trip is between 12-15 hours depending on the driver). We really wanted to see the elephants so we said sure!
Anyway, we get to the bus station at 7 am cause our bus was supposed to be at 8. 8 rolls around, no bus. 9 rolls around, no bus, until finally at 12 pm the bus comes. We had to just sit around the bus station cause all the people would tell us is "it will come". So we sat at the hot bus station for 5 hours.
Anywho, lauren and i had a premonition that our bus ride wasn't going to be very comfortable when we noticed that not all the passangers' luggage fit into the storage under the bus. We kept seeing people lug large suitcases and huge bags of rice into the actual bus. We also realized that by "middle seat" they didn't just mean non window. It meant that the aisle had wobbly fold out seats that only reached a third way up your back. So when we got on the bus i couldn't put my feet all the way on the floor cause there was a bag of rice there, i also couldn't lean back cause there was no where for most of my back and my head to go. so i had to sit up straight. for 15 hours. with my backpack on my lap. couldn't really sleep. it was not cool....
In addition to the cramped conditions, are bus driver was a bit reckless in driving and it started to rain. He slowed down after we passed our SECOND over turned truck.....
So at 4 am we reached Tamale. The bus to a Larabanga (the village next to the national park) was leaving at like 5ish so we just walked to the bus station and waited around for another bus. At 5:30 we were off (luckily with actual seats this time) we were so exhausted we didn't even notice the bus ride was 3 hours long on dirt roads. Actually some like 20 year old guy fell asleep on me and i could have cared less : ).
So when we reached Larabanga we were met by some guys who managed to convince us to stay at a house as a "homestay". they told us that it benefitted the community more if we stayed with community members. By community he meant his sister. So we quickly left and found a guesthouse to stay at. I use the term lousely. Actually there were termite hills on our "ceiling". i have pictures... it was definately an experience! But the owner was really nice and some of his family gave us a tour around the village. They have the oldest mosque in ghana. it was actually really pretty. totally made of mud and such. it's apparently the only 100% muslim village in ghana.
The next morning we took motorbikes up to the park. It was a walking tour so we just wandered until we found animals. So we basically walked around for 2.5 hours without seeing anything besides antelope (which are basically deer and not all that interesting....) Finally we saw elephants going to this watering hole. It was really hot and they all wanted to cool off. I think we saw like 20. it was an entire herd! At one point in time i was talking to Lauren and we turned around and there was an elephant basically charging at us. we didn't run. we treated it as a picture taking opportunity ; ). lucikly the elephant took a sharp left and just went into the water. It was honestly one fo the most amazing things i've ever seen. they're so graceful!
After that. we caught motorbikes back to Laragbanga to get our bags. Then we took motorbikes to another town about an 45 away. From there we just caught a bus that was leaving for Tamale. this ride was not as pleasent as the first one. it was slower, more crowded and seemed not to have shock absorbers. luckily i hadn't eaten anything : )
Basically the rest of the trip went like clockwork. The hotel we stayed at kinda reminded us of a scene in the Shjning though... it looked like there were blood smears on are walls and i felt like jack nicholson was gonna show up any moment. Anyway, i love you guys and when i get my camera i'll try to post some pictures! love ya!
Friday, April 6, 2007
PICTURES!
As you probably figured out, the monkey is from the monkey sanctuary... isn't he cute?! The picture of james and i is from when he came to visit. No joke the kid lost like 10 pounds when he was here. He's a freak ; ).
The bottom two are from the waterfalll. I don't have any pictures of me under it cause well... I still wanted to have a camera when I left. I didn't get the top of the waterfall in the pictures but it goes way higher than that. Hope you like them!
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Monkeys, Waterfalls and Passover oh my!
The past couple of days have been awesome! on saturday we took a trip to a monkey sanctuary in the Eastern region of ghana. The monkeys were so cute! ew all had bananas to feed them and we just held them out.They were picky though. They only took the bananas that were half peeled. they liked the act of peeling them themselves. They'd grab them right out of our hands, it was cute. I promise i'll bring pictures but it was raining today and I didn't wanna risk gettingmy card wet...
The next day we went to Wli falls. I think that has got to be one of the prettiest places in the world hands down! After a 45 minute easy walk, we got into this clearing. The waterfall is the tallest in West Africa. Luckily we all wore our bathing suits. The water was freezing cold but we got used to it. We were able to actually get underneath the waterfall. It was AMAZING! Now don't be fooled. it kinda hurts. That much water falling that far can make ur skin kind of sore but it was really invigorating. It was a little creepy though cause there was kind of a bat cave a couple of hundred feet up. There were literally thousands of bats circling around our heads as we were frolicking in the water : ). Actually some guy found a dead one. a bit grotesque actually...Anyway, the water fall was definatley one of my highlights of the semester.
To top off those couple of days, we had a Sader. For those of you who don't know what it is. It's basically the passover dinner. Jewish people have this dinner to acknowledge the things that God did for them during and after their time in Egypt. There is a lot of symbolism involved in the process. Actually the the Lord's Supper was a Sader dinner. Anyway, we did it at the CIEE house. The girls who put it together worked their butts off! There wasn't any power so we had it out side, they put 4 tables together in a straight line and had candles covering it. Because there wasn't much room we were sitting like 2 to a chair (there were about 30 of us). It was actually quite amazing. It felt like a big family dinner. It was also cool because a lot of the sader focused around social justice and there is a lot of discussion involved. It was nice because some of the girls who put it together had never been apart from their families during Passover. We've pretty much become a family here so i think our Sader dinner made it a little less sad. If anyone ever gtes the opportunity to go to one, i totally suggest it!
Anyway, i gotta run but i love you all!!!!
The next day we went to Wli falls. I think that has got to be one of the prettiest places in the world hands down! After a 45 minute easy walk, we got into this clearing. The waterfall is the tallest in West Africa. Luckily we all wore our bathing suits. The water was freezing cold but we got used to it. We were able to actually get underneath the waterfall. It was AMAZING! Now don't be fooled. it kinda hurts. That much water falling that far can make ur skin kind of sore but it was really invigorating. It was a little creepy though cause there was kind of a bat cave a couple of hundred feet up. There were literally thousands of bats circling around our heads as we were frolicking in the water : ). Actually some guy found a dead one. a bit grotesque actually...Anyway, the water fall was definatley one of my highlights of the semester.
To top off those couple of days, we had a Sader. For those of you who don't know what it is. It's basically the passover dinner. Jewish people have this dinner to acknowledge the things that God did for them during and after their time in Egypt. There is a lot of symbolism involved in the process. Actually the the Lord's Supper was a Sader dinner. Anyway, we did it at the CIEE house. The girls who put it together worked their butts off! There wasn't any power so we had it out side, they put 4 tables together in a straight line and had candles covering it. Because there wasn't much room we were sitting like 2 to a chair (there were about 30 of us). It was actually quite amazing. It felt like a big family dinner. It was also cool because a lot of the sader focused around social justice and there is a lot of discussion involved. It was nice because some of the girls who put it together had never been apart from their families during Passover. We've pretty much become a family here so i think our Sader dinner made it a little less sad. If anyone ever gtes the opportunity to go to one, i totally suggest it!
Anyway, i gotta run but i love you all!!!!
Friday, March 30, 2007
Bugs
So i had a little extra time on my hands so i decided to post again. I haven't travelled yet, but i'm going up to a waterfall tommorrow so i'll be sure to write about it : ). Now you guys know that although i don't run and scream when there are bugs, i don't take a general liking to them. have no compassion for them and unlike some of my friends i will be more likely to kill a bug then put it on a piece of paper and set it outside. Which is why last Tuesday was such a problem....
Imagine the hottest indian summer day in Maryland and that is what it feels like all the time here. So imagine my surprise when it rained during one of y classes. Not just a little bit of rain, but a torrential (i know i can't spell...) downpour. It was enough wind and rain that a window pain fell into the room and water was blowing in. I was really excited cause the rain brought about cool weather....LIke cool enough that I slept under my sheet for the first time in two months.
The next night was bug night. Apparently every time it rains, flying termites come out and look for a queen mother (i don't know how true that is). This meant that these bugs flew to everywhere where there was light. I'm not talking about a couple bugs or even what we experienced with cicadas. I'm talking like biblical locust amounts. Enough so that the floors were covered with wings and bugs that had lost their wings. The bugs were everywhere. in our showers all over our sinks on the floors. The more common areas, you couldn't step anywhere without getting at least 20 dead bugs undreneath your feet. I felt like i was in a bad dream. I live in a sweet so we have a common room. When we closed the doors, these bugs still managed to crawl underneath our doors. The ones outside would beat against your window if your light was on. It was disgusting because there were so many that there was an audible beating on the windows. It was horrific.
So I just tell you this story so that next time you see a bug you will realize that it's not quite that bad... ; )
Imagine the hottest indian summer day in Maryland and that is what it feels like all the time here. So imagine my surprise when it rained during one of y classes. Not just a little bit of rain, but a torrential (i know i can't spell...) downpour. It was enough wind and rain that a window pain fell into the room and water was blowing in. I was really excited cause the rain brought about cool weather....LIke cool enough that I slept under my sheet for the first time in two months.
The next night was bug night. Apparently every time it rains, flying termites come out and look for a queen mother (i don't know how true that is). This meant that these bugs flew to everywhere where there was light. I'm not talking about a couple bugs or even what we experienced with cicadas. I'm talking like biblical locust amounts. Enough so that the floors were covered with wings and bugs that had lost their wings. The bugs were everywhere. in our showers all over our sinks on the floors. The more common areas, you couldn't step anywhere without getting at least 20 dead bugs undreneath your feet. I felt like i was in a bad dream. I live in a sweet so we have a common room. When we closed the doors, these bugs still managed to crawl underneath our doors. The ones outside would beat against your window if your light was on. It was disgusting because there were so many that there was an audible beating on the windows. It was horrific.
So I just tell you this story so that next time you see a bug you will realize that it's not quite that bad... ; )
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