Julie Returns to Africa!

JULIE IN GHANA!

Alright, so Julie was supposed to arrive on Saturday morning- however, there was a mix up with the airport. She got to LaGuardia and went to check in but didn’t bring the exact credit card she had used to purchase the ticket. They wouldn’t let her on the plane. She had to cancel that ticket, buy another, only to find out that by this time it was too late to check her bag in (you have to check your bag in 60 minutes before departure). Luckily, they were able to change her ticket AGAIN to the next day. I felt terrible. But, like my dad says, what can you do?

So, instead of picking up Julie on Saturday morning, I slept in, worked out, and went to the International Students durbar. Quite the event, let me tell you. A few kids from CIEE were recruited to learn a dance number from one of our UPals in the program who is a choreographer. After rehearsing for weeks, we had reached the performance. We all got dressed up in pretty dresses, and took a cab to the top of campus, which conveniently rests upon a very high hill. Thank god we did not walk. It was very hot, as usual. We also brought along our costume (pants with various “African” fabric and white tees/tanks.  The place was gorgeous. I still cant believe that this is on our campus. The trees are beyond beautiful- their bark was white and the branches were lower than the others- weaving a maze. It was gorgeous. The outside was all set up in front of the building including a mini stage for performances later in the night. We got there and staked out our tables (that had beautiful napkins and glasses) and headed to a secret area to rehearse with everyone.

We then ended up changing to our costumes after getting a few pictures of us in dresses and sat back down to some appetizers, soda, and bottles of water. I love that whenever you go to a program thing, they hand you a billion water bottles. Its like they know we feel like we are constantly dehydrated. FYI, my program is not the only one here on campus. There are over 200 international students here- CIEE only making up 55 of them or so. A lot of people showed up which was nice. Btw, we obviously did not have dressing rooms so we used a hallway. Classy. Also, we get soda served in tall bottles. So awesome!!!! Our performance went really well. Someone got a video, but these are the pictures of some of the moments:

After we all got changed again and got some dinner. It was DELICIOUS. They had a vegetarian table (which was a first- not many people in Ghana understand vegetarians). I got plantains, noodles, rice, vegetables, lasagna (first time ive seen it here) and a few other things. For dessert we had strawberry yogurt and fruit on a stick (GRAPES!). I also had a peach slice for the first time in awhile. Its amazing how one gets excited over seeing something vaguely familiar. I mean, its just a peach, but I flipped. We got to see more performances that included a belly dancer (from berlin, yikes- but she had some sick abs), a few songs, people from the university performed as well. They danced, sang, etc. Then someone from our program played the harmonica and did some Beatles songs, which was a nice touch. Everyone loved our number. Some people came up to us and asked to take pictures with us. A little odd, but whatever. Then I had to peace out because I had to see a dance show that both Maggie and Kim were in. We were required to see it for our dance class and write a review.

I headed down with a few other girls and walked straight to the theater. The show was supposed to start at 7:30. It began around 8. Haha. I tried to videotape Kim and Maggie, but I got in trouble…twice. So I decided to stop being a rebel and stop resisting the stupid rules. They were in a piece about foreigners joining together with Ghanaian culture. It was cool and they both did a great job! The other pieces were very interesting…My favorite was a piece that included “Bust the Windows” from Glee, (TWO OTHER SONGS). It was nice to hear some American music. The dancers here are outstanding. Top notch. I would kill to be them. The lighting sucked, but it seemed to always accentuate the male dancers ridiculous upper bodies. Haha convenient for me to admire (Sorry eth).

The last piece may have been my favorite though. It was  two males who collaborated and created the piece- a poem was placed over it. It was extremely powerful and I want to find the words so I can post them. I will try my best. Another thing that is cool here is how genuinely happy everyone looks to be onstage. They are completely at ease and love audience participation. Yes, that happened during a dance show as well. In one part, a male ran his hand up a girl’s body and the audience whooped and screamed “ey ey!” I just laughed.

After the show I just went back and chilled waiting for the morning to come so I could get Julie. I left the dorm around 10, and got to the airport around 10:20 (her flight got in around 11:10. I just sat there, got hit on, and thought about the fact that I hadn’t been at the airport since I had gotten here. It was really weird to be back. Probably because the airport is such a liminal space. It scares me. Sometimes I feel like I am never going to leave her. Like, Ill get on the plane, and it wont take off. But regardless, it was weird being there and knowing I wasn’t leaving but instead was picking someone up. I cried a bit too, because the anticipation of seeing a family member is intense. Especially since I know when she leaves, I wont see another one for two months or so. My family is extremely close for those who don’t know. Not being able to see my siblings…and my parents is really rough. We tell each other everything and I love them all incredibly much. Whenever we are all together- it is a gift that we treasure. When I finally saw her, I cried. Not surprised. But I was able to stop which was good. We grabbed a cab after much bargaining and finally got Julie to campus. We got some food (She was starving) and then she passed out from 2 till 5:30. Oh, I forgot to mention that we lost power around 9 am and didn’t get it back till 6. I think we had no water as well at this point. A great welcome to Ghana experience for Julie.

While she slept, I painted my nails. Cool. Especially since I decided to paint them black because I get so dirty here, black is the only color that stays on the longest. After she woke up, I made peanut butter French toast (BEST IDEA IN THE WORLD) and we just hung out. We ended up just hanging on my porch (just Julie and I) talking for awhile. It was so nice to lay on someone shoulder and know that they are family. I miss human contact so much here. It is very lonely sometimes. But we just sat there talking about boys, life, family, marriage, religion, everything. Watched New Moon with Maggie and Kim (Maggie hated it) and then we passed out.

MONDAY! (this is going to be a long entry…whoops)

Julie, Kim and I had planned on going to Makola Market. However, Kim had a class at one thirty, and when we started to wait for a tro tro and none showed up for about an hour, she peaced and Julie and I kept waiting. Then it began to rain. Rain storm number one of the day (there were three). We finally got on a tro tro, pretty wet because we had no umbrella, and headed to Tema Station. We got there in a bout forty five minutes. I was used to the ride taking forever, but it was funny because this week I began to notice a lot of things I had gotten used to here that Julie found different. Such as the constant beeping cars and taxis accosting you, the men yelling in your direction, sometimes grabbing you, everything taking FOREVER, etc. I have just learned to relax and take things as they come. We waited for over an hour, the trip took about an hour and then we walked and had to find out where the market was. It was my first time there, and we wanted to get some fabric so Julie could get a skirt made at the seamstress that Kim, Maggie, and I had been using. The second we arrived at the market, it started to rain again. Yeah. Pretty awesome, right? But after navigating our way through the stands, we found some fabric for Julie and I got two more things of fabric that I plan to make into a dress and perhaps a romper. We shall see. We headed back and another rain storm hit as we got back to campus. We huddled under a tree for awhile until we decided to brave it. I had a 3:30, so we couldn’t wait it out that long. We got back to the room and saw our legs and feet…

After that, Julie napped while I went to Twi. I got back, and we got egg sandwiches for dinner at Pentagon (my dorm) and hung out with some people. Then we watched a few episodes of our favorite show, Gilmore Girls, and then went to bed.

TUESDAY:

I had an early class, so Julie slept in. I got up around 6, talked to Ethan (awesome :) ) and went to Play Analysis. It was rough. We just started doing debates which conveniently have almost nothing to do with our course description. The topic of the debate was whether plays make a society or if society makes the play. Yeah. It makes sense, right? So. My group was today and it was our job to defend the idea that plays make a society. Luckily, I was not one of the fortunate speakers. However, I did make a comment pertaining to the idea that as international students, a play may be the only thing we see from a culture, and can therefore lead to us assuming that the society and community dictated within the play is how the culture is played out in real life. My teacher loved the comment, but most of the Ghanaians did not. One student came up to me after class and said, “I disagree with everything you said.” I literally just stood there and said, “okay.” And walked away. Haha.

After class I picked up Julie and we went to Coffee Cue for breakfast. This is a place on campus that has coffee, sandwiches, oatmeal, etc. she got the iced milo (hot chocolate), orange juice (which is actually squeezed directly from an orange, in other words, heaven) and chocolate on pancakes.  Maggie joined us, and Julie kept saying that we are definitely not suffering here. Haha. We headed to ISH (International Student Hostel) and picked up veggies and fruits to make guacamole and some headbands for Julie (which unfortunately didn’t end up fitting).

I had planned on going to class that afternoon, but after skyping with Wesley, there was another huge rainstorm with awful thunder so loud that even Ethan on skype could hear it. It was crazy. So we walked back and made guacamole instead and I LOVED IT. It was my first time having it. Yum. Then we went to dance class and Julie got to observe which was pretty cool. That night we grabbed food at Pentagon again, and she witnessed how much I eat here. It was disgusting. Vegetable pasta is officially my favorite though. Whatever. After we watched more Gilmore Girls, and I went to bed because I had another early class (730 am).

WEDNESDAY:

Today I had two classes in the morning and Julie just slept and read,. Luckily she brought a very long book. We ate lunch in the room, and then she came to my afternoon drumming class and ended up recording some of it (check facebook for the video). After class we went back to Pent, we both got packed up, and I dropped off all my laundry to get done (it had been almost two weeks…yikes.) and we headed to our hostel. The taxi driver was being so rude, but I finally bargained him down to 9 cedi for the trip to our place- Pink Hostel. However, we ended up getting dropped off at the place across the street called the Paloma Hotel. The man there gave him directions to our Hostel and after I asked him, he insisted that it was customer service and he wouldn’t charge us more. However, then he got lost again, and asked formore directions. When we finally got there, he demanded five more cedi. I wanted to punch him in the face, Because of the circumstances, I gave in, but next time, that will not be happening. I am so sick of taxi drivers taking advantage. NO MORE! Haha.

We got to our hostel and at first I thought it was going to be more like a hotel. But once I got over the fact that the internet took a while to upload, and we had to retrieve the air conditioning remote, another towel, and our safe didn’t work, I got over it. It was perfect for what we needed. It had running water (something that I hadn’t had for awhile) and air conditioning (AMAZING). We skyped with my parents which made me super emotional. That sucked. I think I underestimated how much seeing a family member would make me homesick. I just kept thinking that she was going to leave soon, and then I wouldn’t see my family till December. It was a rough week for me emotionally. I am still experiencing some of the aftermath here. I also think I wanted everything to be perfect for Julie, so I got stressed when things were working slowly and angry because sometimes I get sick of how the way things work here. It happens. Some days are better than others. I just found that I need to have patience with myself. After we skyped, we got dressed nicely and went out to dinner in Osu at Bella Romas. I wanted to die of happiness. Elice and Little Kim joined us, and we all decided to indulge (the dishes are close to 20-25 cedi here). I got an awesome pizza with mozzarella cheese, and the other three got various types of pasta. We all shared our meals with each other at the end saving th cheese for last. You would have thought we had never seen cheese before. I am sure we looked ridiculous. After we went to Frankie’s for dessert and got dark chocolate ice cream with chocolate ice cream and a piece of cheesecake and split it. It was the perfect ending to the night.

We parted ways, and Julie and I went back to the hostel discovering that the location of it was called Asylum Down. We both took long showers, I got to skype with Ethan which was a blessing (always is) and then we both went to bed.

THURSDAY:

We got up early for breakfast and saw some other kids who were staying at the place. I wish I had talked to them more because I was so curious to see what they were doing in Ghana. Staying at the hostel convinced me that when I get out of school I want to do Europe for two months- backpacking and doing the whole hostel thing. Its cheap, and I want to see the world so badly now.  After breakfast, we headed to Osu to check out a store called Global Mamas. It was a fair trade organization that basically sold clothing that women made and gave them all of the profits. Every tag on the clothing tells you which women or woman made it and lets you know how your money is being used. It was really cool, and really nice to be in a store setting again. Julie got a skirt and a bag while I got a long sleeve purple tunic. Then we went to Nourish lab, a smoothie place and got some more breakfast before heading to the seamstress. I picked up my clothing (Which took about two hours because she had many adjustments to do) and we ordered Julie’s skirt which she graciously decided to make more quickly than usual, to ensure that Julie would have it before going back to the states.

After we got back- I went to class and Jules hung out in my room on campus. After class we hung out in my room and I laid on Julie. Haha. I miss her so much. We decided to have a chill night and grabbed a bottle of wine,, went to Frankies to pick up some sandwiches (TURKEY SANDWICH!) and dessert and we ended up watching part of Harry Potter 6.

the amazing sandwich. do not mock.

Julie really wanted this picture to happen. 

same with this one ;)

im messy. your welcome, mom. 

I was super tired, so we both passed out and woke up super early for breakfast.

FRIDAY:

I skipped both my classes and Julie and I finished watching Harry potter after breakfast and then prepared to go to the beach called Labadi. After we survived the hassle of getting there (good thing everyone is so friendly- a woman got us a cab and bargained for us on the street- love her) we walked along the beach and found some shells. Then we encountered a monkey.

And a few other people. I refused to touch the monkey by the way. Apparently, it was her first time at the beach, and she was terrified, poor monkey. Then we met this man named Don D. He proceeded to talk to us for three hours. Yeah. He was super nice though. It was funny because Julie and I had just had a conversation about how it was hard to be nice to people sometimes because a lot of people attack you with questions and forward remarks and I have turned out to be extremely callous towards them now. Which is good, for the most part, but what about the people who are genuinely nice?

Don D. kept emphasizing how even though we are white and black, we are one people. I liked him a lot if you cant tell already. He took us to a place on the beach to get food. Julie got to try joloff rice and red red (beans with plaintains). Everything was very good and he even ended up bargaining with a man to get Julie to ride on a horse for only 5 cedi (he was going to charge us 30).  I have a video! I will soon put it up. I would have gotten better pictures, but I had too much stuff and I didn’t want to leave it behind at the table. Don D. kept having me listen to music to see if I knew it. Surprisingly, I knew a great deal of the music he was playing (just shows you how long Ive been here haha). Then we asked him how to get back to Asylum Down and he said where are you staying? Pink Hostel? We laughed because no one seemed to know it, and of course he would. He said he would go with us because he knew everyone that worked there. He got free food at the place we were eating at because he brings them so many customers. When we refused to eat with him (we were already so full) he invited over another man to join in on his food. Meanwhile, Julie and I continually had people coming up to us to see if we wanted to buy their trinkets. They kept saying, “it’s nice to be nice”. I hated it. Haha Because I am nice, I just am poor and don’t want your things.

Don D. showed us his paintings and Julie ended up buying a very pretty one. We learned how he paints and he told us about his process. Very cool. After we walked back and caught a tro-tro to our hostel. He ended up paying for our fare, which was very nice. We left him, and showered before heading to the seamstress. I also took a mini nap. I was telling Julie that I am so tired all of the time because usually at school if I go out once during the day, I am all set. Its such a process and always exhausts me. And on top of that, while I was with Julie, I was constantly bargaining, asking people for directions, and it was the most exhausting thing I ever had to do.

BTW some weird things about the beach:

They caught a mantaray and sliced it open on the sand. I saw body parts. Gross. Also Ghanaians trash the place. Luckily it wasn’t too bad, but we found some syringes (gross) and empty bottles, occasional glass, etc. you had to really look where you were walking. Besides that, the beach was amazing and very gorgeous. I cant wait to see more beaches here.

We ended up waiting too long for a tro tro so we decided to go to the seamstress the next day instead. We went to osu for dinner at the Chicken Inn, THEY HAD REAL KETCHUP! The food there was actually amazing. I got a great chicken burger with fries and we got ice cream afterwards. It was funny because we saw obruni and I wanted to ask them where they had come from. Julie told me it would be rude, so I didn’t  : ). The chicken inn is paired with a pizza place as well as ice cream. Its kind of like a kentacohut. But not really. By the way, in Osu they have a three floor KFC. Weird. After dinner we got someone at a gas station to open our wine bottle (we cracked up laughing about that for awhile) and went back to our hostel. We drank some wine, showered, I skyped for a bit (I wanted to take full advantage of the internet here) and we watched the Holiday. A MacBeth girl favorite.

SATURDAY:

Julie’s last day :( we woke up got breakfast and packed. Headed to the seamstress and grabbed Julie’s skirt and headed back to campus. Then we picked up my laundry, discovered we still had no water, but we just hung out in my room anyway and watched harry potter 7 part one. Another rainstorm occurred (WHY DO WE HAVE NO WATER WITH ALL OF THIS RAIN?!) the true irony of the situation. I took her to Bush Canteen and we ran into Kim who I persuaded to come drop off Julie with me (I didn’t want to go alone).  Bush Canteen is basically a small market on campus next to the Theater arts department. Its kind of random, but student favor it for eating because its cheap. You can get a meal for under 2 cedi. We headed back and grabbed pizza for dinner and then took a cab. I have become an expert bargainer now so I got the cab driver to take five. We dropped Julie off, and it was sad. Im so glad kim was there because she helped me get right back up again. It took us twelve cabs and our walking to the main road to get a cab to take us back to campus for five cedi. The definition of ridiculous. I wanted to punch someone. I proceeded to get back, and pass out. It had a been a very long week.

Sorry for such a long post, but I didn’t want to leave anything out.