Akwaaba, welcome!

Hello! The orientation has been so packed-in that I have had little time to write in my journal, let alone find an internet cafe to post here. But I am still alive, and I love it here SO MUCH. Its the rainy season, so overcast most of the time but HOT and humid...its going to take a little getting used to, but most of all the heat makes me tired. And the shower is cold water from a pipe, which sounds bad but it feels SO nice after a long day of lectures and adventures.

We get up at 6:30 or 7 in the morning for breakfast, head to the lecture hall for various instructional seminars (health, security, cultural differences, the history of Accra). After that yesterday we went on a tour of Accra, going through the different townships and ending at the du Bois center, where WEB du Bois lived when he immigrated to Ghana, where he was Kwame Nkrumah's mentor and actually introduced him to the philosophy that brought about ghanean independence...it was really interesting. Today (Sunday) we all went to church with the student advisers who are helping us adjust and get oriented. I went with four other students and Desmond to a presbyterian service that was amazing. Afterward the ministers met us and talked to us for a little bit about how we were finding Ghana. Everyone who sees us seems to say Hello or Welcome to Ghana or Akwaaba, which is welcome in Twi (to which you reply Medassi, thank you).

My malaria pills do not make me sick anymore. I figured out that if I take it right before my shower at night (after dinner) and then write in my journal, I have no problems at all. I am sharing a room with Mikela, another santa cruz student, and there are a total of 58 of us on this program from UC, cal state schoools and Indiana University. The EAP people here have this organized SO WELL!! They feed us (delicious ghana food) three meals and a snack every day, bus us around places we cant walk, get the heads of health and security on campus, the dean, and an ex-mayor of Accra to talk to us, and generally go out of their way to be helpful, friendly and amazing.

Yesterday we went to the giant market in Accra, and it was overwhelmingly amazing. Total sensory overload! Its in about six square blocks of falling-down buildings covered in signs for anything you could imagine in every color. Spilling our of these buildings are piles and heaps and stacks of cloth, buckets, clothing, food, kitchen supplies, rope, nets, and a thousand other things. In addition to the stores there are stalls everywhere and people camped out on the sidewalks and walking around with giant bundles on their heads walking in between honking cars hawking wares to passengers and pedestrians... there are people yelling and talking and bargaining and singing, music playing, and SO MANY people and cars that the noise is deafening. The cooking food smells so good and the open sewers smell so bad, and the sun pounds down on everything, or else the humidity makes everyone sweat, which only adds to the atmosphere. We were walked through the maze by our student guide Angie, who is funny and fun-loving and really good at making sure none of us obruni (white people) get lost.

At night we have the head of the african dance department here teach us basic dance steps, songs, and stories. It is so amazing to dance around in a circle to drums and song under a full moon in the middle of this place...It is amazing and wonderful and fantastic and exciting and yes, I am so glad I came you cant believe it.