Blog Number 1
January 7, 2008

Night before the first day of teaching.
Prior to arriving in Accra I was almost sure that life here would be much like the brief time I spent in Nigeria. From the stares that I would receive, to the driving, and especially the food and fruits. Because of this, I was sure that the adjustment wouldn’t be that bad for me because I have already briefly experienced this and was sure to be a bit prepared. It has been 4 plus days since then, and I have discovered that I was wrong. Any huge lifestyle change, one cannot be totally prepared for what it would be like. From the lack of running water (due to Hamatan (sp?)-Dry season) to the overall people in general. This has definitely been a huge change for me. Our host mother is absolutely wonderful, like many people had previously told me, and the weather is extremely hot.
We went to school on Friday to meet all the teachers, and listen to them go over administrative stuff before the term begins tomorrow. It was extremely interesting listening to them speak (from what I could understand) about the discipline practices. Some teachers were pushing for the use of canes, while the administration (headmistress and deputy headmistress) firmly stood against it. I also found it extremely interesting that there are more male teachers then female, including in the primary school. After the meeting closed with prayer, the faculty all stayed to socialize and drink. They were opening many bottles of wine and champagne. We were actually told, that if we held onto our drinks too long, or set them down on the table that it was bad luck, so we had to drink up. One of the teachers also brought everyone lunch, and Jenny and I had our first experience with Ghanaian food, eating without utensils and all. Jenny did just fine with this, me on the other hand, coming from a family that obviously loves food dug in with both hands. It was only after the group of teachers sitting across from us could control their belly laughs was one able to tell me that we always only eat with one hand, the right. To conclude that adventure, we live only about a 10 minute walk from the school but still managed to get lost and had to return to school for the head mistress to have to drive us home.
Since then, we have toured Accra. We have seen Independence Square, the memorial of Kwame Nkrumah, their first president, the football stadium, the university of Ghana (which was the first university in the country) and the beach. Auntie Agnes has been a wonderful tour guide and knows a ton about the city. We also got a private tour of the National Theatre because she “knows people” since her work with the Minister of Finance, allowed her to be part of the negotiating team to finance the project.
:) Chelsea (: