Grills and Grades

Sunday October 15 – Straight Grillin, Part I

Today was all about killing time. Auntie Irene – the woman in charge of the EAP program here – decided that it would be a good day to hold the “maiden barbecue” at her house at 3 PM. The email said there would be “large quantities of meat.” So I cancelled all my plans for the day and made this priority number one.

So we had 5 hours to kill. Duncan and I made our way over to On the Run (like 7-11) and Pizza Inn, where we would use the fine restrooms and dine on French bread pizza. Yes! (Our bathrooms haven’t been cleaned for a while, and no running water means no flushing toilets). We killed solid hour and a half not really doing anything except eating.

From On the Run, we took an adventure to MaxxMart, which is an actually supermarket. Everything is important, so a thing of grapes is like 6 dollars, and a small thing of cheese is almost 8 dollars. Outrageous. We were going to buy some hotdogs, but all of the dogs were either way to dark to be normal hotdogs, horribly freezer-burnt, or both. We passed on the hotdogs, and continued to marvel at some of the things that we could buy – brie, waffle mix, salsa, etc. – and then we came across something we actually couldn’t find in the U.S. – Cuban cigars!! After some debate, we each decided to get one; I got a Cohiba, he got a Romeo y Julieta. It’s been a while since I’ve had a Cuban, and this made me very happy. Nothing like beer, stogies, and barbecue.

O yes, beer. We tried to buy beer at Tyme Out, an on-campus bar/internet café/pool hall. But they wouldn’t let us take the bottles away because they return the bottles to the bottling company for a deposit. They wouldn’t even let us pay the price of the return deposit – something most people will do. Pricks. So we returned to On the Run, picked up some brews, and were on the way. Or so we thought.

Like no one else, EAP runs on Ghanaian time, so we didn’t even leave for the barbecue until 4. It was worth the wait though. There were large quantities (and varieties) of meat, including filet kabobs, burgers, chicken and fish, if you can call that meat. Seeing that much food forced me to eat as much as humanly possible, plus some. To put it nicely – I would have kicked Kobiyashi’s ass in an eating contest tonight.

We capped the night with a couple games of pool, and some more beer. Mmmm. Beer.

Monday, October 16, 2006 – Straight Grillin, Part II

Another productive day by Ghanaian standards. I shot off a bunch of emails to people who I needed/wanted to speak to. Duncan and I went back for more pineapple-filled Rich Love (the whole Rich Love story will be coming soon, I promise). I also bought a new pair of sunglasses – some slick gold, rimmed brown-shaded aviators, for 30,000 cedis – a tad more than 3 dollars (I was told by a Ghanaian that I overpaid. Whatev).

Internet was finished in the International Programs Office, so I jumped online at Volta, sent some more emails, and scoped out places to live in San Diego for the winter.

We were teased with electricity this afternoon. It came on for half an hour before it was abruptly shut down. We were told thought that it would be back at 6AM. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Nothing really exciting happened today. After dinner at TacoBell, Duncan and I returned to Tyme Out for some more billiards and beer. I finally surrendered a game to him – he’s getting better with practice. I’m sure he will beat me more in future days.

Tuesday October 17^th – Return to Refugees

For the first time in a couple weeks, I made a return to Buduburam Refugee Camp. (begin rant) I haven’t gone for a couple weeks, mostly because the organization at home apparently is completely dysfunctional. They are just now putting together an outline for the economics of the school lunch program, something that should have been done months ago. It’s really bothersome and quite concerning that the unorganized, slow group is on the side of the United States, and not that of Ghana. It would be understandable if the camp was slow to get things together; in fact, they are amazingly on top of things. It is the organization at home that is holding things up. And to be quite honest, I don’t know how much longer I will be working with AfricaAid (end rant).

The refugee camp was great. It gets better every time I go there. Finding my way around is not as intimidating, I’m comfortable with a lot of people on Camp – especially the people at SHIFSD – and being around the sheer poverty has gotten easier with time.

I had a brief meeting Jeremiah, the Director of SHIFSD. I expressed both my anger and disappointment concerning the progress – or lack thereof – on the San Diego side of things. He understood that it wasn’t my fault, and thanked me for all that I have done thus far (more appreciation than I’ve got from the SD side. Grrr!).

Jeremiah told me in the last few weeks that he had finished going over the curriculum with the other teachers, and they were all thoroughly satisfied. He had concerns that students would ask questions that we failed to answer; the truth is that this would actually be a good thing. If they are asking questions, it means they are engaged, plus it will give us a starting point to editing the curriculum for future years.

On the way out of camp, I went on the hunt for cloth. I’m bringing home a lot of clothing, for my friends, my family and myself. After looking through a couple shops, I found a perfect cloth for a skirt for my sister. It’s teal, with some dark brown and some lighter brown. Rach is a big fan of teal, so I’m sure she will like it.

The tro-tro rides to and from camp were silky smooth, except for the mate who overcharged me by 500 cedis (6 cents) to get from Circle to Legon. Outrageous.

Power is still finished, but this was our scheduled day to have power out, so it’s forgivable. Another night by candlelight won’t be so bad. It actually hasn’t been so bad. While it is frustrating that we need to go elsewhere to charge phones, computers, etc., the situation as whole hasn’t been tough. We’re out and about during the day, and at night, it’s sleep time anyway.

As always, Tuesday means Two-for, Two-timer, Terrific Tuesday Pizza. Duncan and I split a couple pizzas, which were pretty tasty, especially after a long day of travel and walking on camp. A couple games of pool, and a bit of internet time, and I called it a night.

Wednesday, October 18^th – And I Thought the Exchange Rate was Good…

I’ve been waiting for this day for a week now. Today was the day that our papers for Org Theory would be returned. I was eager to see how I stacked up against other students here. Returning the papers was chaotic – ironic considering the class is about efficiency. Before the papers were returned, Professor Anebo (uh-NEE-bo) read out the ID numbers of the top 6 or 7 scores. Mixed in the middle, I hear “ten twenty-three thirty-nine forty-four” – my number. Alrighty, we’re in business. He told the people not to stand up and to get the papers from him later.

It was a long wait while the other papers were returned, so I put my head down for a bit, knowing my number wouldn’t be called again. As it turns out, Anebo cancelled class because it took so long for the papers to be returned.

With about 45 minutes left in class, Anebo walked up the side that I was sitting, and asked if I was Lee. With a name like Lee Gerston, it was pretty easy to figure out. Everyone else has very Ghanaian/African names. Clearly, “Lee Gerston” is not African. He told me that I wrote an excellent paper and that one of the students asked if it could be photocopied – I told him “of course.” I asked him if I could look at my grade – 22 out of 30. Wow. Hello. Confused, I returned the paper to him, and started chatting with the people surrounding me.

Once all the papers were handed out, someone asked what was the highest score. Anebo said “I think it was 19 or 20…” Then he looked at my paper: “No, it was 22” He then said something along the lines of “I don’t mean to embarrass you, but it’s something that the highest score in the class comes from a foreigner.” This turned heads, mostly toward me. “And just to show you the physical imparities don’t mean anything when it comes to academics, the second highest score was recorded by this gentleman,” a deaf kid. Double slap in the face. Hahaha.

The scale of grading for the paper was just crazy. Out of 30, 15 was a passing grade, and 18 and above was an A+. For all you math majors, that means 60% is an A+. I can work with this grading scale, for sure

After that, many people asked to see my paper, talk to me about it, etc. There may have been some bitterness, but for the most part, they were eager to know what I did.

Walking back from the PoliSci department after lunch – I gave Anebo a fresh copy to photocopy – I was called “White Man” for the first time. Not angrily, just matter-of-factly. It was actually refreshing from hearing “obruni.” He wanted to know exactly what I wrote to earn a top grade, so I explained in easy terms. It all made sense to him, which was good. Hopefully he will improve his writing.

Duncan and I got some Rich Love, and then he left to do some research for his research paper on palm wine. He’s going to get wasted this week.

On a not so good note, I haven’t felt so well the last couple of days. I had a minor fever a couple days ago, but worse than that, my stomach has just been reeling. The condition of our bathroom is a complete wreck – with no running water, toilets haven’t been flushed for the last week. You can imagine the odor. I think I’ve been sick due to a combination of bad food, an irregular number of bug bites and the bathroom. There are so many germs in there its disturbing. It’s created a sick cycle because having to use the restroom makes me more sick, which makes me need to use the restroom more. Hopefully I’ll get over it quickly.

For the evening, I just relaxed. I had a couple phone calls to make – Ryan and my brother Adam both via Skype. Skype is a miracle of technology. It allows me to call anywhere in the world for .017 Euro per minute. It’s nothing. It was good to talk to people who are living under regular conditions.

Thursday October 19^th – Water and Power? What?

Yes, we have power and water. But let me lay out my day first.

I knew today would be busy. I didn’t know just how busy. But busy is good. I was up at 6:30, not knowing whether my 7:30 class would meet. Mark and I were about to walk down the stairs when a guy walking up to the fifth floor told us that class was cancelled. Excellent – more sleep for me.

Another bit of sleep, and I was awake – again – at 9 for 9:30 class. Class started on time for a change, and was released early, which made me happy. It gave me sufficient time to print my paper for my advisor, which I subsequently dropped of. I haven’t had a meeting with my advisor that lasted for more than 5 minutes, which is sweet.

I got some lunch, which really isn’t important. But coming back from Akuafo Dining Hall, I could hear the water running. Whooooo! I ran up to my room, grabbed my bucket, 17 shirts, and my Woolite. (Sidenote: it’s an odd feeling to have water for the first time in 8 days – which means no running water showers for 8 days – and to have my first impression be, “Wow, I get to do laundry!) After five loads of laundry, I rewarded myself with a glorious shower.

While I was in the shower, Duncan called, looking to go to Rich Love. Will joined us, and we destroyed a 30,000 bowl of rice and chicken. The bowl was literally filled to the top with rice, vegetables and 6 pieces of chicken. We were all feeling pretty sick after. While the meal was good, the entertainment was better. Duncan brought back a gallon of palm wine from wherever he did research, and we got some of the employees at Rich Love absolutely wasted! It was one of the funniest moments of the trip.

Upon return, I stopped into Joe’s room to plan our trip to Togo. We won’t; be straying very far from the capital, so we found some things to do. Joe is going pretty much just to practice his French, which is fine. I’m looking forward to standing in Place de l’Independance (Independence Square), checking out the National Museum, and just relaxing on the fine beaches of Lomé.

Dinner is definitely not happening tonight – I still feel full from Rich Love. So I went to sleep at 5:00. “Why,” you ask. NLCS Game 7 is tonight, and running concurrently will be the Sharks game on Comcast, which is doubly good news.

Oh yes. The water and electricity are both on. At the same time. Quite possibly for the first time this semester. Absolutely incredible – it’s so novel.

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I’m gone for the “weekend” until Tuesday. I should be back at some time Tuesday afternoon, so look for a full update with pictures from Togo.

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LDG