January 10th, 2007

Right now it's almost 4 in the morning. I fell asleep around 8:30, which I realize is ridiculously early, but my intention was only to take a nap. Jackie was supposed to wake me up to go to a reggae party on the beach, but either she never woke me up or she did and I unconsciously told her to let me keep sleeping. Oh well.

So I'll start with Oxford Street. Today I was in Osu on Oxford Street walking around with Jackie and Thelma. Although Oxford Street seems like a really fun place to hang out, it's impossible to actually go anywhere. We were stopped by a guy name Paul who apparently had met a few of us yesterday. He said he was going to change his name to John Francois so that he could be the brother of a girl in our group. That confused me a bit. Then I met a guy who called himself Black Africa. He told me about being a Rasta, meditation, loving Ja (God), and then he invited me to that reggae party on the beach I mentioned earlier. He also said something I liked - he said when you mix the black and the white, it's like a piano, and we make beautiful music together. Apparently some students had already met him because he gave some paintings to Henry to sell to us. They were pretty sweet, some colorful ones of palm trees and African women carrying things on their heads. But I'm so strange about buying things. I just don't really buy stuff unless it's something for consumption, health, education, practical need, etc. It always seems nice at first, but then it dawns on me that it's just stuff and I really have nothing to do with it except maybe stick it in the garage (*wink*). I did, however, buy a bracelet from a man on the street who claimed to be a professor at Legon. I say, if he's a professor at Legon, why is he hanging around Osu selling bracelets? Anyway, it's a very pretty bracelet, black/very dark blue with white specks on it. He said it stood for unity and he wanted to give it to me so that whenever he saw me, it would be a symbol to remind him of our friendship. Well, that sounds nice and everything, but when someone is on the street with over a hundred bracelets and the first thing he does when meeting you is try to give you a bracelet, you know friendship is not his top priority. He put the bracelet on my wrist and then asked me to give him something "out of the kindness of my heart." I tried to explain to him that my heart had not enough kindness to give him money, so I tried to give the bracelet back, but he was so persistent. I would have just walked away, but both Jackie and Thelma were talking to people right next to me, and I could nt tell if they were enjoying their conversations or not. The only other option would have been to be rude, but I don't like to be rude, so I just gave him 10,000 cedis. He wasn't satisfied with this, but I refused to give him more. (For the American folk, 10,000 cedis is about $1 - unfortunately the largest bill here is the 20,000 cedi bill, so when I go to exchange $120, I am a millionaire and I have this fat wad of cash that can't fit in my wallet - although I don't carry it all at once, so don't have a heart attack, Daddy).

We finally headed back for the bus once these three (or maybe four) children started grabbing on to our arms and asking us for money and food. The situation is so difficult to deal with. I want to help them out, but then they and all other beggars will see me and know that I give money away. It's so different in New York. There they don't follow you and persistently ask - they just accept defeat. 'Tis a tragedy on both sides. So yeah, I'm not sure what to think of Oxford Street. Like I said, it seems like it could be fun, but I don't enjoy being harrassed for 20 minutes.

Today we visisted (well, yesterday really, the 10th, whatever) Ashesi University. The campus is fairly small, with about 250 students. It's the first private university in Ghana, and it has been open since 2002. The founder and president of the university, Patrick Awuah, took some time out of his schedule to talk to us about the university and it's goals. He gave a very inspiring talk. He paralleled Africa's situation today with Asia's situation in the 1960's - underdevelopment, poor institutions, and global discrimination against. Then he stated that Africa needed strong black leaders that would work for the good of the people. The goal of Ashesi is to train these leaders and also create some competition among universities to produce the highest quality graduates possible. Fascinating, indeed. Then he asked us why we were here. Heh, good question. I do have some answers. Adventure, exploring the "dark continent" that we in the West hear so little about, or at least so little good things about, the community service component, and for me in particular, I'm also excited to experience education not only at the university level through Ashesi and Legon but also at a primary or secondary level through a community service partnership. But then when it all comes down to it, the reason I'm here is I just applied one day after class. Whatever I was thinking... I'm sure it was those things I mentioned. But I've also discovered from my hiking experience this summer that sometimes it's best to not let those why questions get in the way of living.

After Ashesi, we talked about cultural do's and don'ts. Other than specifics, the main points were to always be polite, greet people, be considerate of people, and be patient. The staff keeps telling us about Ghana time, which really sounds a lot to me like McDonald time. If someone says supper's ready at 8:00, give it a good 2 hour breathing room. Just be patient and don't ask too much when it's going to be ready, and have a snack if necessary.

Then we had a bit of free time, so Tania and I went for a little walk. I told her some things about my hike on the AT because she was curious. The whole experience still feels like a really long dream I had. I wonder if Ghana will feel like that for me one day. As we were walking, we passed by this little store with tables and chairs in front of it. A guy and a girl were sitting down, and the guy shouted out to us, "Hey, Romeo and Juliet!" Then we told him that they were Romeo and Juliet and he said, "No, this is my sister!" It was just his friend, but saying she was his sister was saying that she was his friend. We sat down with them and chatted for about an hour. They were really nice. The guy told us his name was Albert, although I thought he said Abit at first. The girl's name was Maude. She works at the store. Albert gave us his whole life history, how he left home at 14 to start travelling the world, living in Baghdad and Berlin, and he said he didn't tell anyone he was leaving. So when he came back three years later, everyone was surprised to see him because they thought he was dead. He asked me if I was married. I'm pretty sure that it was the first time I've ever been asked that outside of an application of some sort. I told him I wasn't, and he said he wasn't either because Ghanain women were no good, they are only interested in money. Maude assured us that this was not true of all Ghanain women. It was all in good fun. After the chat, Tania and I had to catch the bus to go tour the University of Ghana at Legon. The campus is huge, although it makes sense with 28,000 students. I'm very excited about taking a course or two there as well as at Ashesi. I feel that I'll find better Ghanain companions in my classmates at those two institutions than in the hustlers on Oxford Street. The rest of the day was somewhat uneventful - hanging around the NYU center, information on IT here, dinner at Tante Marie (although a few students and I had some great laughs brainstorming ideas for a backpack that dispenses soft serve ice cream through a tube, because we all know, after you reach the top of a mountain, nothing quite refreshes like the Backpack-backfat soft serve dispenser... reminds me of an SNL commercial), and then passing out early. I wish I had just stayed up for a little while so that I could have experienced the beach blast, but I guess everything happens for a reason. If God wills it, so be it. Can't complain too much about sleep, although now that I'm up so early, I'll probably get tired really early again. Eh, whateva. I be coo'.

Hmmm... I'll conclude my post with some randomness to give people a better picture of this place. The wildlife in the city here is very interesting. Lots of bats, chickens, lizards, and of course people have cats and dogs. I noticed a funny smell the other day and I realized it was the open sewage ditches that are on every street. People here get very excited when you say something to them in Twi (the local language here, even though many people, most people in the Accra area from what I gather speak English), even if it's not so right. That so does not go down in the States. If a foreigner speaks English, everyone gets disgusted and wishes they would go back to where they came from. Bitches. Everything is so much more personal here. I went with a few students to a little store down the road owned by Auntie Maggie. She's so cool. She's so happy to see you and she wants to know your name and get to know you, and of course, supply you with water, eggs, phone cards, or whatever else she has to sell. I think that's my favorite thing about being here so far. Everything's very friendly and personal. That's one of the reasons I fell in love with Portland, Oregon so much. Although people don't go as out of their way to be nice in Portland as here, people are generally just nice and they don't mind saying hello to you on the streets. One time when I was in a store looking around, the guy working there asked me if I wanted an apple and so he gave one to me. Just random kindness. 'Tis a beautiful thing, a beautiful way of life. I think the AT also had that feel. Everytime I met someone, it was this huge production and we'd talk for a few minutes or a few hours or maybe we'd see each other a lot for several days and become great friends. I think the lack of this sort of attitude is what bothers me about New York. I grew a little weary of the city last semester because of that feeling of loneliness, the feeling that no one cares about anyone else, even though it's really more on the surface than it is in people's hearts. And I realize it's a practical thing not to greet every person one sees on the street, but it's hard to call a place like that home. Anyway...