January 18th, 2007

Yesterday was a pretty cool day. I got up at 6:50AM to go swimming at Wangara Hotel with Ariel. However, the pool was pretty gross. There's no water in the area for about a week which is why the hotel couldn't clean it. I found this out when Kenneth, one of the NYU staff members, came over here to Church to fill up buckets to take home. Apparently we have a water reservoir under our compound so that we can't run out of water. Oh, the privileges of being an NYU student... at least our tuition is good for something, although it would be fun to go somewhere and fill up water and carry the buckets home on my head like other Ghanains do. I really want to learn how to carry things on my head. It looks so graceful, that balance, that skill. So, after the failed mission to the pool, I sat around and read a book called The River Between that Robbie gave me to bring with me. It's a nice easy enjoyable read. It's about these tribes that live on these two ridges with a river in between in Kenya. The white man comes, brings Christianity, denounces tribal customs, and ultimately divides the area into followers of the new way and the old way. There's more to it, but that's all I'll say for now.

Then I just wandered around for a few hours down some roads. Me ne nam (Twi for "I'm just walking around"... comes in handy when everyone asks where I'm going). I talked with some nice people on my walk. If you go for a walk for any amount of time in Ghana, you will talk with lots of people. It's kind of nice, if you're ever lonely, just go for a walk. Although it's kind of hard to just go for a walk and not talk to people, if one's goal is just to wander in solitude, because someone will call you out and start talking to you. Although I've found if I sing while I walk (which I do a lot), people won't talk to me. I almost got really lost when I entered a community of dirt paths. I seriously have no idea where I'm going outside of this neighborhood. The streets aren't set up in the convenient grid-like fashion of New York City. However, the good thing is, it would be kind of hard not to find my way back since I can always ask people. On top of that, cabs always stop for me even when I don't want a ride. I'm obruni, so I must have money and I must not know where I'm going, right? Well, that's actually pretty true, but I like to walk it out, explore the area. I bought some really ghetto fabulous flip flops on my walk. I wasn't smart enough to bring sandals to Ghana where it's always between 75-95 degrees, so I had to buy some.

After my walk, I was pretty exhausted, so I went to get lunch with some NYU buddies, Henry and Meagan. Then I napped... mmm... nap. I might be doing that soon actually. Then I went to my Conflicts in African States class. The class is held at Ashesi University. The vibe of the classroom is so much different from an NYU class. It's very high-schoolish... kids talking in class, laughing when the professor says something in a funny way, just being goofy. It's pretty refreshing to be in this kind of class, although I'd be a little upset if I were the professor. He's a pretty good lecturer, knows his stuff. Don't get me wrong about the Ashesi class, though... I didn't mean to say Ashesi students don't care about their studies or anything. It's just a different vibe. Then I went to Documenting the African City which I'm really excited about. In the class, we're going to learn about documentaries, representations of the African city, and a lot of practical work about making films. Throughout the semester, we'll be making a documentary about some aspect of life here in Accra. We watched several documentaries from past years. Some of them were really quite amazing. The equipment we get to use for the class produces quite high quality productions. We work in groups of two or three, so that we don't have to venture into film-making all by our onesies.

Then I went to dinner... same old, same old, but still good. After dinner, I went to a reggae party at La Badi Beach. It was pretty awesome. At first it kind of sucked because there was hardly anyone there, but once people started to come, the party became very fun. People were just chillin' on the beach, talking, meeting people, dancing (I was doing a lot of dancing... hard to stop my body from responding to the music)... all good things, very free and fun. And, of course, being on the beach the whole time just enhanced the experience. What's crazy is how many of the same people I see at different places. I'll have a conversation with someone one night at some bar and then I'll see them at the beach again on a different night. It's really cool, though. There's some pretty awesome people here who just want to have a nice conversation and/or dance and/or whatever.

Oh, I almost forgot about the scary taxi ride to La Badi Beach and the creepy ride back. Both were pretty funny in retrospect. So the way over. We stopped a cab and negotiated 20,000 to go to La Badi Beach. La Badi Beach is a pretty popular spot, so we don't even question whether or not the cab driver knows where he's going. So we all pile into this rickety-ass cab and he starts driving us down some street that is in the opposite direction of the beach. We're all a little confused as to where he's going, so we ask him, "Do you know where you're going? La Badi Beach?" And he looks at us like he doesn't understand what we're saying. All of a sudden he turns around and starts going back in the other direction. Then a few minutes later he turns down a random side street and asks for directions to La Badi Beach. It was pretty funny, but at the same time, if you're a cab driver in Accra, it would be helpful to know where the beach is. So after he gets directions, he starts driving us towards Legon which is in the opposite direction of the beach. It was all very sketchy. So we just told him to let us out at a Shell Station. So we got another cab to La Badi and that cab driver did know where he was going.

So now for the way back... so creepy. First of all we're waiting by the side of the road with this guy who works for La Badi Beach, or I guess the hotel there or something... he had an official looking name tag, anyway. He was stopping cabs to sort of screen them before we got in (he was doing it for everyone who was leaving. He told us, "Cab drivers these days, some of them are just crazy, so we make sure we know the people before you get in." I thought that was very nice of him, although I don't like to hear that the cab drivers are crazy. So he gets us a cab, and I take off with three girls to go home. So the driver starts driving and after only a few seconds he turns on this tap of sex noises. It took a moment to register what we were listening to, but when it did, we were all extremely creeped out. We were all so in shock, we didn't really know what to say. We sat there a second looking at each other like "Is this guy for real?" and then finally we asked him to turn it off. He said, "Oh, you don't like this?" And we said, "No, it's making us very uncomfortable, please change it." I mean, it was uncomfortable for all of us, but I can't imagine what it was like for the three girls... So he turns on the radio and immediately we here, "Jesus is my savior, Christ Christ God is good, holy holy..." I died laughing. It was so friggin' hilarious. I mean, of course, we were all still creeped out, but just that change and that tension-breaker... I haven't laughed that hard in a while. So anyway, those are my creepy taxi stories. I'm sure I'll have more.