Back in an English-Speaking Country

Evening, Monday October 23

Back from Togo, I scarffed down the baguettes that I brought back, hoping it would be enough to hold me over until Rich Love tonight. Duncan, his dad – who arrived in Ghana a few days prior – a late-arriving Lily (aka AJ) and I destroyed a 30,000 cedi bowl of food. We then moved briskly to On-the-Run to get some beers – a brief pre-game for our night.

While drinking, I played a couple games of pool, winning each game, and eventually giving the table up to the last person. We had plans for the rest of the night.

I slammed a rather large beer on the cab ride over to JazzTones, a very cool, American-owned place with live music. The four of us – especially Duncan and I – each enjoyed our drinks, which included a double Baileys, a rum and orange juice, and a kamikaze, which absolutely destroyed me. The conversation was easy going and the music – just a pianist – wasn’t half-bad.

I was going to need a recovery day, for sure.

Tuesday October 24

Being back in Legon was relaxing to say the least. It was nice just to be able to sit around and do nothing, regardless of the water situation. I slept in, and for the most part did a whole lot of nothing. Duncan, his dad, and I had lunch at TacoBell, where the shredded beef sauce, their best dish in my opinion was asaa, so we settled for rice and chicken. Nothing special.

The rest of the afternoon was just a whole bunch of nothing and waiting until Pizza Tuesday. The pizza was mediocre – thick crust was asaa – but it didn’t really matter. I was busy shooting pool, which I’m not so bad at. I won 5 out 6 games and eventually gave up the table.

The better part of the evening was devoted to an absolutely hysterical conference call between myself, and my two best friends, Joe and Ryan. Just as the webcam has helped “keep my parents sanity,” as my dad would say, Skype has definitely helped keep my sanity. Being able to keep in touch with my family and friends has made this trip so much easier. It was a beautiful thing to be able to laugh with my friends. It was one of those nights that made me realize how grateful I am to have them as friends and how much I’m looking forward to living with them in a few months.

After being forced to bring the conversation to an end – the internet server went down – I joined Duncan and his dad at The Neighborhood, a very cool little pool bar (are you noticing a trend?). We shut the place down, and I didn’t have to pay for a game because, well, I kept winning – haha.

Duncan went back to the hotel with his dad and I returned to a powerless Legon Hall. It didn’t really matter – I fell asleep pretty quickly.

Wednesday October 25

Panic. Total Panic. The big deal was that there was an apartment, seemingly open. It is a spectacular place in La Jolla. I called the person in charge of leasing to try to get the ball rolling. It seemed that everything was fine after my conversation with the person, but things changed once she started talking to my mom.

I called Ryan, and magically, Joe got online prior to going to the AS Roma football game. We had a three way conversation about the housing situation while we had a five-way AIM conversation between the three of us, Joe’s mom and my mom.

In the end, it was all for naught. They would not hold the apartment until December 15. Bummer, but not a big deal. It’s a very interesting experience trying to find housing when you’re 8,000 miles from home. Luckily we have plenty have helpers. 7 people, in 4 countries are all working hard to ensure that Joe, Ryan and I will have a great place to live.

Other than that, a very mundane Legon day.

Thursday, October 26

Class. Blah Blah. Nothing really interesting in class. It goes by so slowly. After class, I had to meet with my project advisor. He told me that he would have corrections on my paper today, but when I walked in he was caught by surprise. Clearly, no reading of my paper was done. I’ll just wait until next week.

From Legon, I took a tro-tro down to Circle, on a mission to find airfare for Egypt. After 8 or 9 different travel agency gave me a relatively similar price, I found one that was 80 dollars cheaper, with layovers in Casablanca, Morocco. Wooo! The trouble is that it is during my examinations weeks, and while I am scheduled not to have finals during those days, anything can – and usually does. Currently, I am devising a sneaky plan to ensure I can take my finals as scheduled, regardless of the times being changed.

Upon return, Duncan, his dad, and I went to Rich Love for some outrageous food, the Lee and Duncan special – rice, chicken, grilled pineapple, onions, tomato and pepper sauce. This would be Duncan’s dad’s last meal in Ghana, so we sent him off in style. While eating, a young man selling belts walked through the restaurant. I really needed a new belt – the first one I bought here is now too big on me. He showed my this beautiful, black belt, which I wanted. I told him that I would “bring 10,000 cedis” He wanted 45,000. Please. I told him I would bring 10,000 and he dropped his price to 25,000. I told him I would bring 10,000. This really pissed off these two ladies eating at Rich Love, and they starting bargaining on behalf of the salesman’s behalf. “Bring 15. Bring 18. Give him a fair price.” I gave him 20,000, 2 dollars and change, for the belt. I’m very happy with my purchase.

On the way back, we jumped into the small campus market so Duncan could buy some akpoteshie. We are legally allowed to bring a certain amount back, so Duncan asked his dad to take a liter and a half back with him. We pounded some water, so he would have a bottle to take it home. 30,000 cedis later, Duncan had some fine akpoteshie. That stuff is something like 80,000 alcohol and probably blinds 1 out of every 10 people – haha.

Walking back to the room, I gave my old belt to some random guy, who seemed very happy to have a new belt.

The evening started slowly, until I got a call from AJ. I had forgotten that she was going to cook dinner for some of her obruni friends. She made delicious groundnut (peanut) soup with beef and rice balls. Dinner was followed by fresh smoothies, made with just-sliced pineapples, oranges, bananas and grape juice. So good. I was very much full.

I thought I was I for a relaxing evening. But I got myself into a very heavy conversation about homosexuality. It is something that is really frowned upon by Ghanaians, who, as I’ve stated in the past, are very Christian. The one Ghanaian was surrounded by seven liberal Californians, so it made for quite the battle. Eventually, it just came down to Alfred and me. After telling me that homosexuality was a “disease,” I asked him to find me one physical consequence that was exclusive to gay people. He has seven weeks to find one (which he insists he will find immediately). I told him that if he does find one, I will join him on his mission to try to change gay people to become straight. That’s how confident I am in winning this battle. I think I did open his mind a bit, and we’ll see what he learns. Hopefully, he will be able to put aside his bias – which is tough to do – and maybe look at things differently.

The next couple days should be interesting. On tap for the next couple days: Aburi, which is known for its woodcarving, Madina, which has a great market for cloth, and the refugee camp.

LDG