From GU to UG

Ok. I arrived at the University of Ghana on Tuesday and there is so much to tell. Let's start off with the fact that this school is HUGE. It is definitely about 5x the size of Georgetown as far as distances are concerned. It has over 25,000 students where Georgetown has only about 6,000 students. It is the best university in Ghana, everyone in the country wants to go here. I live in the International Students Hostel II and I have an American roomate who goes to American University in D.C. named Laurie. She is cool and she is also a rising junior. There are other international students living in my building and Ghanaians as well. I just didn't get a Ghanaian roommate myself. My room looks like any other American college dorm room. I have a desk, a bed, a bureau, a nightstand, ceiling fan and three shelves on the wall. I even have a balcony. The bathrooms with showers and toilets are like five steps from my door. I bring tissue and hand sanitizer everywhere because most bathrooms do not provide it for you, even the one in my dorm. Oh did I mention how the security officer for the dorm is armed with some big scary looking gun, I think an AK-47. I don't think he will ever use it but it's comforting. Lol. Also, right across the path from my dorm is the campus' Night Market. It is what it is called, a market that opens in the wee hours in the morning and closes at about 10pm which is late for Ghanian standards (it gets dark here by 6pm and everyone is usually off the streets by like 9pm). There are stands with people selling just about every thing from egg sandwiches to buckets to shoes. Further up the path there is also a minature supermarket (equivalent to Vital Vittles @ GU) which sells my favorite soap(Irish Spring), my favorite deoderant (Secret) and even my favorite lotion (Palmer's Cocoa Butter) so that was comforting. If I ever run out of any of my toiletries or feen for an almost American style snack I can go there. Besides those two places across the yard is International Students Hostel I which has an internet cafe where I can use the internet for one hour for 1 Ghanian Cedi. That is really cheap but I don't like the idea of paying for internet. So what I do is draft my blog, emails, and everything else first and have them all ready to send out before I actually pay for the internet. Otherwise I would run out of time lol.

That brings me to internet. I will forever appreciate wireless internet being almost everywhere at Georgetown and having it at home. There are internet cafe's here everywhere but you gotta pay and the internet runs pretty slow. I can go to the Office of International Programs here on campus and use it for free. It's slow there too but it's free! Yay. Ok so now that I mentioned the OIP office I should definitely mention how far it is and everything else on campus. Oh my goodness! It takes me about 15-25 minutes to walk everywhere on campus. I'm about to be so slim when I come back lol. We have been really lucky though because the weather here has been so cool and breezy and today it was raining lightly so that felt good. Anyways, Tuesday I had to go to the OIP office for registration and to get my UG student ID. Think again. They didn't assign me a PIN number so I had to come back the next day. I came back the next day and they had a PIN but they didn't refresh it in the system so I had to come back today to try and get my picture taken. I go back today and everything is working fine, they were able to access my account and take a picture. But then the card printing machine broke like five minutes later so I have to go back tomorrow. Patience, patience, and more patience is very needed in Ghana. I must continually remind myself that this is a developing country. The internet will not be everywhere and will not run super fast. Things will break down without forewarning and everything will not be completely organized.

Hmm, organization. That brings me to class registration. It is very different from US class registration. At Georgetown we do everything online. Look up the classes, add it, 123. Here at UG we have to go to each and every department, fill out a registration form with the classes we are thinking about taking, drop off a passport size photo and move on to the next department. It's not so bad except for the fact that you wind up registering for every class in the department that sounds interesting to you because the time schedule is not posted and you don't know which one you will be able to actually take. Just writing about it makes me tired. Then before Sept. 4^th which is the end of the Add/Drop period you have to go back to that department and make sure they cross your name off the list or pull your name out the file to drop any course you don't want to take. Today I went to the History, Sociology, English, Religions and Political Science department. From the looks of it, I will be taking most of my classes from the Poli Sci department which means I have to go back to all the other departments sometime soon to drop the courses. Monday is the start of classes and it is also the day that the schedule and lecture locations go up. We'll see how that all works out lol. I still have to register for some type of dance, drumming, or theater class tomorrow too. Today was a long, long day. We also are taking a Twi language class and Sociological Foundations of Development as part of CIEE and today our program director walked us to the building where the class will take place. It is off campus and will be about a 25minute to 30 minute walk every Tues, Wed., and Thurs. from my dorm ISH. Fun. However, the building-the Aya Center is really hooked up. There is AC in my class room, Praise God and the building has wireless that we can use for free. This center is also the center which coordinated our internships. I found out today that I will be volunteering at Save Them Young orphanage which I heard is a phenomenal place to intern. We have to intern 135 hours in the semester. It is very far from campus they say. About one hour by tro tro AND taxi. All I know is that I am really gonna know the city by the end of my stay. I am a little weary about the distance honestly and don't know how comfortable I feel about having to travel so far off campus all alone especially when I fell in love with another orphanage, the Hope Orphanage which is right in the same area and I will be able to help teach the kids teach the deaf kids American Sign Language, which is so near and dear to my heart. I don't know what I will do, I will probably talk to the program coordinator. Do you think I should ask to be switched? God will work it out though. I will trust Him and know that wherever He puts me is the place that He knows is the best for me. I am going to keep praying on this situation. I have some time because we don't have to start for another two weeks. Nonetheless, I am extremely happy to be placed in an orphanage because that is where I really wanted to intern. I hope to have my own orphanages one day so I am excited to learn the ins and outs of orphanages and if I can, change just one child's life.

“I can do this, I can do this, I can do this.” That is what I have to tell myself sometimes when I get scared of stepping out my comfort zone and when I get frustrated. Thankfully, I have not cried yet out of frustration or homesickness. I told myself before I got here it would be difficult and that it would be the hardest thing I ever had to do in my life. I prepared myself mentally for that and prayed on it often but still when you actually get here it can be overwhleming. However, I still do not doubt my decision. I am happy, I am well, I am proving to be a stronger me everyday. God has been really comforting me. Everywhere I turn I see something that makes me feel more at home and I say “this is comforting.” Whether it is seeing Irish Spring soap at the supermarkt or finding a building with free wireless. God is here, everywhere.

But really, God is here. Almost every other store name or taxi sticker has something to do with God. Food stands called “The Lord is My Shepherd Est.” and the DVD stand “God is Good Ent.” and the taxi sticker that simply stated “Angel”. I'll be sure to try and write down some more of the store names and taxi stickers I see. And there is this little little blue Bible with only the New Testament that keeps following me. I saw it in the OIP office and I just saw it here in the internet cafe. Now do you understand what I mean by comfort and God is here? We're going to church on Sunday. I can't wait. I'm excited.

Actually I can't wait for a lot. Like the African dance show tomorrow that is going on at the National Theater or for Che Afrique Restaurant which will have a live Ghanaian band playing. I also can't wait to get out of Accra and vist Cape Coast and Kumasi. I plan on being off campus as often as my wallet allows. I am tired of seeing campus. It's like its own little world or its own little city. I feel like I need to get outside of the campus gates and see other things. Also, I noticed that I don't like to be alone here. I don't like to stay inside my room AT ALL. I don't like to be left to my own thoughts because that just causes unwarranted and unneccessary homesickness. It is good that everywhere I go there are people hanging out so I can just join them. I am never really alone here. Thank God for that.

I also don't eat a lot here. Not because the food is not good. It is. I just have NO appetite. I eat nothing for breakfast which is bad I know. For the past two days I ate grilled chicken and jolof rice for lunch and an egg sandwich for dinner. Maybe I need to switch my meals around and I'll be okay. It could be the devil Malari pills which make me have no appetite. I started taking them at night like 1 hour before I go to bed so that just in case I do get nauseous it won't intefere with my plans for the day and I can just lie down. That planned work, the medicine no longer makes me nauseous. However, it does make me have a knot in the middle of my chest that can be really painful when I swallow. I don't know what it is and I think I will call my doctor soon if it doesn't go away. I was going to say that I haven't even been bitten by mosquitoes but I'm literally getting bit up by one as I write this. Oh Ghana lol.

Oh yea, I actually spoke to my grandma, aunt, sister and niece yesterday on the phone which was really great. It was nice to hear their voices. I miss my mother tons. She has been emailing me daily. She is the greatest. I don't think I have more to say. Wish me luck on class registration and on the whole orphange thing. Pray for me. I hope all is well with all of you. To my family and friends reading this: I love and miss you all very much.