I can’t believe it’s February already. It’s kind of hard for me to comprehend how cold it is back home when it feel likes eternal summer here.
I’m in my third week of classes, and they are going fine. I’m learning that things move a lot slower here. Practically nothing is automated or done by computer. Good luck finding a pdf of course readings! Thus why I haven’t had any homework or class reading yet. Some of my professors have submitted readings to printers to have copies made for students to buy, but they haven’t been finished yet. I think for other readings, I’ll have to go to the library and look in the reserves. I’m not really looking forward to trying to figure out the library. Fat chance that there’s an online catalog. When I get back to IU, I will scoff at people who can’t figure out Wells Library. Hopefully things will get smoothed out. I still have one class that hasn’t met yet. The last two weeks, my professor for Economic History of West Africa hasn’t shown up. That’s not that uncommon though. Long story short, the university is one of the biggest culture shocks. I think if my advisors at home had any idea, they’d cut me some slack.
Besides the confusion that classes are causing me, I’ve been having a good time. Without homework, I’ve been reading a lot to fill some of my free time. I haven’t had so much time to read… ever. I read a textbook they gave us for orientation called Culture and Development in Africa. Since then, I’ve been borrowing books that people have donated to the EAP office. Books have accumulated there over the years but the pickings are slim. I picked up Twilight which was about as awful as a book as I expected. After that, I read the Hunchback of Notre Dame. Victor Hugo is one of my favorite authors, and it made me feel better after reading Twilight. But I’m embarrassed to admit that I’m going to try to finish the Twilight series. The library doesn’t have the second one, but I’m in the middle of the third right now. If anyone feels compelled to send me anything, I would suggest they send me a good book. There are only a few more in the library that I’d want to read, and at this pace, I’ll be done with them soon.
Enough about books… Last weekend our whole EAP program took our last trip to the Volta Region. It took about four hours to drive there, but when we got there we went to a monkey sanctuary. We got to feed monkeys bananas which was a lot of fun. They came right up to us and ate. The monkeys we saw there were Lowe’s mona monkeys. I didn’t catch all the details of the story, but the monkeys had been seen as sacred by a tribe in northern Ghana. The tribe had a fetish shine and the monkeys would always play around it. When the tribe was forced to move they set up another fetish shrine and the monkeys appeared again. The monkeys were thought to have followed them. When Christianity became a dominant force in Ghana, the monkeys were hunted in an effort to get rid of the pagan beliefs around the monkeys. But in the 1980s the sanctuary was created in order to protect them.
After the visit to the monkey sanctuary, we went to Wli falls. We stopped in a town just outside and got a guide that led us on a 45 min. hike to the falls. The hike was beautiful. Through the forest we could see lots of mountains. The air was also dryer and cooler in the area which felt amazing. The waterfall was beautiful, probably the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. The water fall was about 150 ft. high and on one side, you could see thousands of bats hanging from the cliffs. We all went swimming under the waterfall. At the deepest part, the pond below the falls was probably only 3 ft. The water was freezing but the feeling of being cold was a nice change. I never thought I’d feel that cold while I was in Ghana. Feeding monkeys and swimming under a waterfall wasn’t bad for one day. I was so psyched about the waterfall.
That’s about all my news. My weeks are pretty boring, but I’m enjoying getting to know more people in the night market and I’m starting to feel at home walking around. On Thursday, Emily and I are going to take a trip to a bead market. The bead market is about an hour and a half away but it’s supposed to be a great place to find jewelry and crafts.
Keep checking out my pictures. I upload new ones every week. I’m sorry I can’t post a link to flickr but it takes long enough to upload them to facebook that I don’t really have time. I’ve also uploaded some videos. Later!
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