First, let me preface this posting by apologizing for not posting for a couple days. Internet access isn’t readily available like it is at UCSD and we have had so little personal time, that getting to a café has been near impossible. So these first few posts during our orientation will actually be multiple posts combined into one. Ghanaians run on a much slower clock than we do, so I guess the wait for this first post is just a little taste of what it’s like here.
Regardless, it’s been an amazing few days…
Somewhere in between New York and Dubai, on Emirates Air flight EK 202
Aside from waiting on the tarmac for an hour, the flight from San Francisco to New York was uneventful. Most of the kids slept for the majority of the flight. At one point (so I’m told), my entire row was asleep with our heads on our tray tables. No pictures were taken. Thankfully.
After the seemingly short flight to New York, I met up with my brother, Adam, in the International Terminal of JFK. Because of our 5 hour layover in New York, Adam and I were able to catch up over dinner. Naturally, as with everyone else, Adam pelted me with questions about my upcoming 5 months. We shared a good laugh over all the diseases I could potentially get. Needless to say, the list is extensive. It was good to catch up with him; I hadn’t seen him since his wedding in May, and if I hadn’t seen him now, I wouldn’t be able to see him for a while.
Crossing through security was my first realization that I was entering a different world. As I walked through the international terminal, I left behind the white-bread world of Los Gatos and quickly became a part of the white minority. Like New York itself, the international terminal is a hodge-podge of people Throughout the terminal, different languages could be heard, different wardrobes worn, peoples of different color bleeding into one.
At around 10:30 PM Eastern, we boarded a spectacular Emirates Air Airbus 340-500 series. Simply put, this is the most amazing airline and most incredible plane I’ve ever been on. The plane goes eight seats across, the technology is impeccable—not only does each seat have a nine-inch screen, but the plane itself has two on-board cameras—all the flight attendants are dressed to the nines, and we are supplied with a menu of options for light meals and brunch. Ridiculous. Realization number two of entering a new world came when the on-board announcements were spoken in both Arabic and English. Once again, us white kids are in the minority, but as is often the case, many people think I’m Arab. I guess I blend in pretty well with this crowd.
Dubai
We arrived in Dubai on time, around 8 PM Dubai time. The flight was largely filled with eating and sleeping, along with the occasional movie. Walking off the plane, it was mild 93 degrees with near 100% humidity. Luckily, we had a bus to the hotel. Amid some confusion, we checked into the Millennium Hotel, a four-star hotel just a mile away from the airport. My roommate for the night and I immediately crashed, figuring 5 hours of sleep was better than none.
The next morning, we boarded a significantly smaller Airbus, but still rather luxurious. Finally, just another seven hours until arriving in Ghana.
Ghana Day 0: July 30, 2006
1:30 PM Accra time, we arrive. It’s raining. Great. After talking to someone, we found out that this was the first day it has rained in a long time. Just our luck. Regardless, it is still beautiful. The light rain is actually quite refreshing. Today, it is 77 degrees—not to bad. The two things that really strike me are a) how green Accra is; and b) how much of a minority I’m in. This definitely isn’t Los Gatos or La Jolla.
So far, everybody has been extraordinarily friendly, from the other students to the locals to the people helping us into the university. Our digs are small, but adequate. We move into a new room after orientation. For the next two weeks however, we’ll all be staying in one hall.
Day 1: July 31, 2006 – First Impressions
The folks here at UG like to get us into the swing of things right away. We’re in for a full day. We have three hour-long lectures: one on cultural differences, one on the history of Ghana, and one concerning Accra, the capital city of three million people. Each of the three have interesting tidbits, but for the most part these lectures were rather boring. Ghanaians have a way of speaking in circles, so an hour lecture really feels like two hours.
After lunch (discussed in a moment), we head into Accra. This was the real first culture shock other and I endured. I was approached by a “professional friend”—a person who tries to become your friend only to take advantage of you; I recognized the situation (as we were taught to do) and gave the person a fake name. Whatever works. The city is packed with people. There are very few buildings higher than 5 stories, which speaks to what Jerry told me: the sky goes forever. The sky isn’t interrupted by any buildings, any smog, nothing. Just the clouds. It’s beautiful to look at.
Back to culture shock: one of my new friends overheard a local saying “Go home, white people.” In a country that’s 99% black, it’s quite simple to recognize that he was talking about us obruonis.
The night began with a lovely meal of spaghetti. Who knew that Ghanaians ate spaghetti! And thank god for it—we really needed the carbs. After dinner, we had an hour and a half of Ghanaian dancing. And let me put the rumors to rest—white people can’t dance. Period. Everybody struggled while we watched a couple locals in amazement. Post-dancing, a group of twenty of us went out drinking—on a patio outside of a gas station convenience store. One of the local beers—Star—tastes like Heineken. And at the low, low cost of 8,000 cedis—85 cents—it was worth it.
Other observations
Food: UNBELIEVABLE. Anyone that knows me knows that I’m a picky eater. I’ve decided that I’m going to have a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy concerning food: I won’t ask what is in the food, you don’t tell me what’s in the food. So far, everything has been fantastic. Luckily, people in Ghana really love their chicken—good news for me. This morning, we had a corn-based porridge. It tasted just like cheerios. For lunch, we had a peanut-based chicken soup with fried plantains. It was SOOO good. The food here is pretty spicy, also good news for me. At this point, I’m thinking that what we’ve had so far has been pretty tame. But considering the experience from the first few meals, I’m really looking forward to trying some more foods. We also tried some ice cream today while in Accra—not half bad. Not as good as in Cuba, though.
The People: everybody here is charming—that is the best word to describe them. Everybody greets you with a smile. It’s something that people in America should pick up on. The other thing—everybody looks much younger than they actually are, but not in a good way. There are many people that look like they are 15 when they are actually 30. It’s not because they are so youthful—it’s because they are so malnourished that they actually have the bodies of younger people.
The Mosquitoes: shockingly, I got bit. I think I was the first person in the group to get bit. No malaria though. Thank god for prophylaxes. I also woke up this morning to the sight of a couple mosquitoes caught in my bed netting. I think I’ll be using that for the rest of the semester.
Day 2 – August 1, 2006
I’m not feeling so well today. The breakfast was really good, but I barely had any of it. We had rice in this porridge—really good. Too bad I wasn’t feeling so great. And with 5 hours of lecture before lunch, it was only going to get worse.
The five hours wasn’t so bad. We actually learned some pretty interesting things, like some Pidgin English and a bit of Twi (pronounced chwe). It went by quite nicely. Lunch was on the way.
New food time. Today’s meal was red red—black-eyed peas and fried plantains in red oil. Not bad, but not my favorite. I was still not feeling so good, but I still managed to eat a lot of it.
Immediately after lunch, I ran down to the bank to get money for a cell phone. I pulled out 500,000 cedis—just a little more than 50 dollars worth. I actually needed to pull the money out in two transactions because the limit for the ATM was 400,000 cedis. I looked at the receipt once I pulled the money out—only had 17 million cedis. I don’t think anyone thought I would be a millionaire by 20. Haha.
In the later part of the afternoon, we took a tour of campus. This place is huge. And we got plenty of stares. There really is nothing like a group of white people walking through a nearly all-black school.
For the evening, another chicken dinner with rice and some spicy sauce. Outside of the red red this afternoon, the food here has been fairly American. My stomach has calmed down since the evening, so another night of dance and drumming won’t be a complete disaster.
Thus far, it’s been amazing. It seems like such a long time—four and a half months. But we don’t even start classes until the last week of August. It looks like there will be sufficient time for travel—within Ghana, to the refugee camp and to other countries. I already know that this is going to be an incredible experience.
I will try to post with more regularity in the coming weeks. The university has us so busy with orientation that we have little time to ourselves.
Keep in touch. I’ll do my best to hold up my end of the deal
LDG
Regardless, it’s been an amazing few days…
Somewhere in between New York and Dubai, on Emirates Air flight EK 202
Aside from waiting on the tarmac for an hour, the flight from San Francisco to New York was uneventful. Most of the kids slept for the majority of the flight. At one point (so I’m told), my entire row was asleep with our heads on our tray tables. No pictures were taken. Thankfully.
After the seemingly short flight to New York, I met up with my brother, Adam, in the International Terminal of JFK. Because of our 5 hour layover in New York, Adam and I were able to catch up over dinner. Naturally, as with everyone else, Adam pelted me with questions about my upcoming 5 months. We shared a good laugh over all the diseases I could potentially get. Needless to say, the list is extensive. It was good to catch up with him; I hadn’t seen him since his wedding in May, and if I hadn’t seen him now, I wouldn’t be able to see him for a while.
Crossing through security was my first realization that I was entering a different world. As I walked through the international terminal, I left behind the white-bread world of Los Gatos and quickly became a part of the white minority. Like New York itself, the international terminal is a hodge-podge of people Throughout the terminal, different languages could be heard, different wardrobes worn, peoples of different color bleeding into one.
At around 10:30 PM Eastern, we boarded a spectacular Emirates Air Airbus 340-500 series. Simply put, this is the most amazing airline and most incredible plane I’ve ever been on. The plane goes eight seats across, the technology is impeccable—not only does each seat have a nine-inch screen, but the plane itself has two on-board cameras—all the flight attendants are dressed to the nines, and we are supplied with a menu of options for light meals and brunch. Ridiculous. Realization number two of entering a new world came when the on-board announcements were spoken in both Arabic and English. Once again, us white kids are in the minority, but as is often the case, many people think I’m Arab. I guess I blend in pretty well with this crowd.
Dubai
We arrived in Dubai on time, around 8 PM Dubai time. The flight was largely filled with eating and sleeping, along with the occasional movie. Walking off the plane, it was mild 93 degrees with near 100% humidity. Luckily, we had a bus to the hotel. Amid some confusion, we checked into the Millennium Hotel, a four-star hotel just a mile away from the airport. My roommate for the night and I immediately crashed, figuring 5 hours of sleep was better than none.
The next morning, we boarded a significantly smaller Airbus, but still rather luxurious. Finally, just another seven hours until arriving in Ghana.
Ghana Day 0: July 30, 2006
1:30 PM Accra time, we arrive. It’s raining. Great. After talking to someone, we found out that this was the first day it has rained in a long time. Just our luck. Regardless, it is still beautiful. The light rain is actually quite refreshing. Today, it is 77 degrees—not to bad. The two things that really strike me are a) how green Accra is; and b) how much of a minority I’m in. This definitely isn’t Los Gatos or La Jolla.
So far, everybody has been extraordinarily friendly, from the other students to the locals to the people helping us into the university. Our digs are small, but adequate. We move into a new room after orientation. For the next two weeks however, we’ll all be staying in one hall.
Day 1: July 31, 2006 – First Impressions
The folks here at UG like to get us into the swing of things right away. We’re in for a full day. We have three hour-long lectures: one on cultural differences, one on the history of Ghana, and one concerning Accra, the capital city of three million people. Each of the three have interesting tidbits, but for the most part these lectures were rather boring. Ghanaians have a way of speaking in circles, so an hour lecture really feels like two hours.
After lunch (discussed in a moment), we head into Accra. This was the real first culture shock other and I endured. I was approached by a “professional friend”—a person who tries to become your friend only to take advantage of you; I recognized the situation (as we were taught to do) and gave the person a fake name. Whatever works. The city is packed with people. There are very few buildings higher than 5 stories, which speaks to what Jerry told me: the sky goes forever. The sky isn’t interrupted by any buildings, any smog, nothing. Just the clouds. It’s beautiful to look at.
Back to culture shock: one of my new friends overheard a local saying “Go home, white people.” In a country that’s 99% black, it’s quite simple to recognize that he was talking about us obruonis.
The night began with a lovely meal of spaghetti. Who knew that Ghanaians ate spaghetti! And thank god for it—we really needed the carbs. After dinner, we had an hour and a half of Ghanaian dancing. And let me put the rumors to rest—white people can’t dance. Period. Everybody struggled while we watched a couple locals in amazement. Post-dancing, a group of twenty of us went out drinking—on a patio outside of a gas station convenience store. One of the local beers—Star—tastes like Heineken. And at the low, low cost of 8,000 cedis—85 cents—it was worth it.
Other observations
Food: UNBELIEVABLE. Anyone that knows me knows that I’m a picky eater. I’ve decided that I’m going to have a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy concerning food: I won’t ask what is in the food, you don’t tell me what’s in the food. So far, everything has been fantastic. Luckily, people in Ghana really love their chicken—good news for me. This morning, we had a corn-based porridge. It tasted just like cheerios. For lunch, we had a peanut-based chicken soup with fried plantains. It was SOOO good. The food here is pretty spicy, also good news for me. At this point, I’m thinking that what we’ve had so far has been pretty tame. But considering the experience from the first few meals, I’m really looking forward to trying some more foods. We also tried some ice cream today while in Accra—not half bad. Not as good as in Cuba, though.
The People: everybody here is charming—that is the best word to describe them. Everybody greets you with a smile. It’s something that people in America should pick up on. The other thing—everybody looks much younger than they actually are, but not in a good way. There are many people that look like they are 15 when they are actually 30. It’s not because they are so youthful—it’s because they are so malnourished that they actually have the bodies of younger people.
The Mosquitoes: shockingly, I got bit. I think I was the first person in the group to get bit. No malaria though. Thank god for prophylaxes. I also woke up this morning to the sight of a couple mosquitoes caught in my bed netting. I think I’ll be using that for the rest of the semester.
Day 2 – August 1, 2006
I’m not feeling so well today. The breakfast was really good, but I barely had any of it. We had rice in this porridge—really good. Too bad I wasn’t feeling so great. And with 5 hours of lecture before lunch, it was only going to get worse.
The five hours wasn’t so bad. We actually learned some pretty interesting things, like some Pidgin English and a bit of Twi (pronounced chwe). It went by quite nicely. Lunch was on the way.
New food time. Today’s meal was red red—black-eyed peas and fried plantains in red oil. Not bad, but not my favorite. I was still not feeling so good, but I still managed to eat a lot of it.
Immediately after lunch, I ran down to the bank to get money for a cell phone. I pulled out 500,000 cedis—just a little more than 50 dollars worth. I actually needed to pull the money out in two transactions because the limit for the ATM was 400,000 cedis. I looked at the receipt once I pulled the money out—only had 17 million cedis. I don’t think anyone thought I would be a millionaire by 20. Haha.
In the later part of the afternoon, we took a tour of campus. This place is huge. And we got plenty of stares. There really is nothing like a group of white people walking through a nearly all-black school.
For the evening, another chicken dinner with rice and some spicy sauce. Outside of the red red this afternoon, the food here has been fairly American. My stomach has calmed down since the evening, so another night of dance and drumming won’t be a complete disaster.
Thus far, it’s been amazing. It seems like such a long time—four and a half months. But we don’t even start classes until the last week of August. It looks like there will be sufficient time for travel—within Ghana, to the refugee camp and to other countries. I already know that this is going to be an incredible experience.
I will try to post with more regularity in the coming weeks. The university has us so busy with orientation that we have little time to ourselves.
Keep in touch. I’ll do my best to hold up my end of the deal
LDG
posted by Lee Gerston at 3:05 PM
4 Comments:
hey lee!!
now that i've got you looking up, how about a smell check? does it smell lush, diesel-like, vegatation heavy, wafts of exotic spices on the breeze??
whose cars drive down the street...french probably?
and how cool is it to plug a piece of plastic into a machine, and get money out...halfway around the world!! lee's a millionaire!! can i be your 'professional friend'?? HA!!
stay safe buddy....and savor 85 cent beer!
The fact that most of us are painfully jealous of you right now should be no surprise...
But we're also glad for you. Proud of you.
Looking forward to your many adventures and lessons learned. And pictures. Can't forget the pictures!
lee - yer beautiful and we're happy that you're there safe and healthy. and what a difference some proper care can make when it comes to a mosquito bite. your attitude and sense of adventure is great for a "picky" eater, and i hope you get to observe much outside the university, especially those kids you've been working to supply lunch program for.
bless your heart my friend, you're in our love and prayers. blog when you can.
stay close,
sammi
oooooh! Dubai!!! Did you to see any of it? Did you fly in during daylight?! I'm simply DYING to go there....i hear they are doing freaking amazing things there...did you see any of the Island "complexes" they are building out in the sea?
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