Ghanain Food

We were finally permitted to try out some hardcore Ghanain food for lunch after lectures last Wednesday. I'm sure that I'll write more about food as time goes on because I value it so much (I miss fresh produce!). But for now I want to give a brief introduction to Ghanain food with the meal that we had:
This is a table of us at Tasty Treats, a resteraunt that is just out of walking distance of campus on a hot day, but I've heard it's doable. They always have a good assortment of foods and it's classically Ghanain, so it was a proper place for our first Ghanain meal (we've been having Ghanain breakfast, but it's usually porridge or rolls or something not terribly exciting, so this felt like the true first). From left to right: Andria, Alicia, Emily, Katie, Secily.


This was my meal. On the right is a plate of white rice and two types of fried rice with red tomato/palm oil sauce (referred to as gravy), some chicken and a very small portion of cabbage salad. There are hardly any vegetables here, so that cabbage is like gold. The rice, chicken and sauce are a staple of almost every meal. If you order chips (french fries), it comes with rice and chicken unless you ask them specifically for just chips. On the left is fufu. The pale blob is a dough made from mashed cassava/yam and it's in a slightly spice goat soup. You grab a little of the dough with your right hand, put it in your mouth and swallow without chewing. You can also chomp on some of the goat meat if you need a break. Then drink the soup when you're done. It's very heavy and filling so I barely made it through the half-portion pictured above, but it's a classic dish here. I just thought the foodies among us might appreciate it.

Two Religions

Last Sunday before the lectures and the tour of Accra we experienced two of the major religions in Ghana. The first was Christianity. A group of us went to church with the student guides. Note that we look significantly more sweaty/dumpy than the guides. Ghana is a pretty religious nation. The south (where we are) is predominantly Christian and the north is predominantly Muslim. I have yet to meet or hear of a Ghanain atheist. It is a shocking notion to people here that I am not a Christian and even more so that I do not have any particular religious affiliation. It's usually about the 5th question I get asked after my name, where I'm from, etc, and the fact that I am not religious really sets off a twitch or something. I'm going to experiment with some different responses until I find one that communicates what I'm trying to say. At church we caught the last 15 minutes of Bible study and then sat down in a big obvious group. The service was long but included plenty of singing and drumming. At one point the reverend asked all of the people joining the congregation for the first time to introduce themselves. Emily Aeschleman bravely stood up and took the microphone to explain that we are students studying for a semester and to thank them for making us feel welcome (not mentioning that most of us are not religious). The design of the building and the fans made it way more comfortable than the lecture halls we've had to sit in which is a little upsetting to me. But people really like God. They say if you come to Ghana and don't go to church, it's like you never came. It's such a part of the culture here. It's all I can do to bite my tongue and not make too many references to 'Jebus'.

During the sermon the congregation was asked to pray for two things: 1) That the violence in Kenya subsides and that the people there can live in peace and 2) That the Ghanain national football (soccer) team play with integrity and their maximum effort. This brings me to the second religion: Football.

Nii was able to score us tickets to the Ghana vs. Nigeria game on Sunday night in Accra through the black market. The tickets were very expensive for here (about $20), and not a single one of us was willing to miss it. We drove as close as we could get through the the masses passing vendors, clowns, honking car horns, etc. Making our way into the stadium was a battle, and uniformed military men and women searched people as they entered (sidenote: apparently security is so high because Ghana has undergone four major military coups since independence. The current governmental structure has only been in place since 1993! That's why they don't like pictures of government/sensitive areas, but the stadium is apparently ok). I had a ticket all by myself, but my friend Kelly put her arm over my shoulder and pretended to be my wife so I tagged along with a small group of other students. The stadium had numbered seats and everything, but order is no match for a traditional society that's enthusiastic. I ended up sitting on the stairs behind two trombone players and a bunch of drummers who played through the whole game. The crowd cheered at every shot that the Ghana team (the Black Stars for the black star in the center of the Ghanain flag) made, no matter how much it missed by. We were talking about how in the US people boo when their team comes close and doesn't make it. Another interesting difference- Ghana and Nigeria have had political bad vibes in the past. I'm not sure of the exact history, but this was a heated game. But somehow at the stadium, the cheers were not divisive. The Nigerian supporters got a bit of flack, but the point of the African Cup of Nations it seemed was to bring the entire continent together, to show that Africa is not just the home of sand, AIDS and under-development, but that the people are passionate and can get it together to host a great tournament. It was a very empowering place to be. Even more so because Ghana won 2-1 (for those who care- Nigeria got the first goal on a penalty kick and everyone was disheartened, but right before half-time Ghana scored a great goal. At the beginning of the second half, the captain of the Black Stars was given a red card and stress was high. Then, with about 10 minutes left in the second half Ghana scored again. People threw water every time a goal was scored (a big deal b/c it's such a valuable commodity here) and screamed/drummed/danced/embraced all over the place). I screamed myself hoarse.On the way home all the cars honked in celebration, people shouted, and one man started running next to our van and kept up with us for a good 45 seconds even though he lost his two flipflops. He was just shouting 'Go Ghana!' We went to a resteraunt in the boys dorm called Tyme Out to buy some beers to celebrate and went off to bed for lectures early the next morning

Student Guides

I feel the need to introduce you (in the most impersonal way possible) to the four student guides we have. Three are students at the University of Ghana in Legon (one just graduated), and we honestly would not make it very far without them. They have made themselves available to answer all of our questions which must sound rediculous and to take care of us when something goes wrong. They've also taken on a lot of the logistics of our trip.

From left to right: Lizzy (the graduate), Nii (my age, he runs track and does the high jump and gives the meanest high fives), Angie ('Mama Angie', she's a senior, I think she's 26 and we're her children in the most loving way- she always asks if we're taking our malaria medication and that we're eating enough), and Irene (a freshmen, but still more on the ball than the rest of us). To be fair, these are the guides in their church going outfits, so they don't always look so formal, but they are all lovely and if you ever through some bizarre twist of fate get to meet them, you are a lucky human being.

Orientation Activities

Our orientation continued last week mostly with lectures from professors, heads of departments and local reverends. Topics ranged from the history of Ghana to gender roles and inequalities to linguistics ("flirt" here means "have an affair with" and there are about a million other differences in Ghanain English), music, Twi (pronounced Tchwee a language spoken by almost everybody in the nation. Some think it should replace English as the national language), and descriptions of various festivals and celebrations (which include funerals). We have, however, partaken in some exciting outside activities. For example, to the left you will see all of us piled in a van to tour Accra. We looked at the different neighborhoods and identified a we (pronounced like "whey") which is a collection of families who gather at celebrations or to make political decisions. This was amid the modern era Koala supermarket, but they say Ghana is the land of contradictions. There were also some fantastic store names of a religious nature such as "Almighty God Loves You Hair Salon". We saw landmarks such as Independence Square, Kwameh Nkrumah's masuoleum and the Seat of the Government Castle. There are not more pictures because 1) I'm a bad photographer and 2) Pictures of "government property" are forbidden. We were pulled over by a military man in full uniform because one of the girls took a digital picture of the castle. He had a large gun and almost confiscated her camera, but was satisfied when she deleted the picture. Nuts!

Our other excursion was to Makola Market. It was insane. It's a huge outdoor market that spans several city blocks with crowds of people and a string of 20 white kids in single file line looking around timidly. I only made two purchases- the bucket which I am attempting lamely to balance on my head on the left (for storing water, doing laundry and for the imminent bucket showers when the water shuts off) and some clothespins. Quite an experience in a big group, but I would feel comfortable going back with one other person. Now I just have to work on my feeble bargaining skills

A few more basic photos

From left to right: Grace (UCSD), Kelly (UCB) and Wes (UCSD). These are the guys I met at the Wok Inn at the airport, and we hopped the first ride in an International Students Program van to the U of Ghana campus. It was a very important ride and we compared notes about how it feels to really be starting such an outlandish adventure.



Moving in our bags to the porter's lodge, the entrance to the dormitory. Everybody had to bring enough to last six months, and none of us really knew what to expect, but that lead to some exciting suitcase lugging




"For Women of Vision and Style", this is the largest wing of Volta Hall, our temporary dormitory. After orientation, the three guys will move to an all-male dorm called Legon Hall. That will be a big adventure, and I'll be sure to keep you updated




My bed in our temporary room. Note the several heavy books on the case, sunscreen in the foreground, and the fairy-tale poison hanging bed draping (mosquito net). The three guys (Wes, Aaronson and myself) are staying in one of the standard dorm rooms which has 5 beds and is about the same size as my double at Stebbins. Let's think about that. I come from a family of 6 and we can sometimes barely share an entire house, let alone a single cramped room. There's one desk and a balcony that looks onto clotheslines surrounded by barbed wire. The bathroom is right across the hall, but that's a longer story for another day.

Overdue Pictures from Day 1

Here are some photos from my first wanderings around Accra. You should all know that uploading 5 photos here never takes less than ten minutes of watching a blank screen, so I hope they are valuable:
Fishing boats in the harbor

View of Accra from the Lighthouse (the tallest point)



Children playing at the beach (they get really excited about cameras)


The Lighthouse



A disgrace to the mega-churches of the middle of the United States :-) There are a lot of ironically named shops here, most of them having to do with religion

Akwaaba

Which means "Welcome" in Twi, the largest tribal language spoken in Ghana. I'll be taking a class this semester, so more fun foreign words to come. Here's your quick update: I checked out of the hotel yesterday and was told that it would take an hour and a half to get to the airport. In reality, it took twenty minutes so with the extra time I went over to the "Wok Inn" Chinese resteraunt where I met three other Californians. We hung out and after a while a woman came up to us and said "Akwaaba". Her name is Anjali and she's on a year-long program here and came to welcome everyone at the airport because she said when she arrived it was really tough, she was confused, and almost got conned into an unnecessary taxi. We got bottles of water and a ride to campus, and the rest of the group followed behind. We got rooms in Volta Hall (the female dorm where we're staying for orientation for "women of vision and style" according to the sign). We met our guides and they showed us to our rooms and gave us cool welcome tote bags. We had a big group dinner (jollof rice, chicken, lettuce and a red sauce that's very popular here), and went up to bed. There are a grand total of three boys, so we're all in the same room with one key. Everybody had a rocky night sleep interrupted by the Campinile-style clock, a buzz of mosquitoes (yikes!), the heat, and the "jungle noises" outside. Half of us woke up early for breakfast at 7am (thick porridge with condensced milk, cold fried eggs and wonderbread rolls- I admit it, I'm a food snob). We then ventured out to the bank and Anjali showed us around campus- we bought some water and then walked to the EAP study center with free internet. It's pretty slow, but I'll still do my best to keep y'all in the loop. I miss you a lot, but everyone seems well adjusted here. We have a free morning and then the two week orientation continues. We're working on getting tickets to the Ghana vs. Nigeria football (soccer) game on Sunday as part of the African Cup of Nations, so there's a huge amount of national pride and the flag is everywhere. We're also making a trip to Kumasi, and several other surprises which I know and you will have to tune back in to find out. Still working on pictures. With love.