Lots of updates!!

Hello hello everyone!

I’m really excited I was able to post some pictures last time! The internet I get from the modem I bought is not too bad and its really nice to be able to have it in my room! A few exciting things have happened.. we went on our first tro-tro ride!! Tro-tros are what Ghanians call busses. But really, they’re just REALLY OLD vans that are packed with people and always in a hurry! It is the most commonly used public transportation to and around Accra. (Just for clarification.. the campus of the University of Ghana is actually in Legon, which is a town/neighborhood that’s part of Accra. It’s kind of like how Eureka, Wildwood, Ballwin, etc are part of St. Louis) Anyways, our lovely student guides helped us along on our first ride and I was definitely thankful for them! There’s a trotro mate, who is hanging out the side and yelling the location of where that one is going. So the key is understanding what he is saying and finding the right one, then beating everyone else that’s rushing to get on!! It was an adventure and once I know the names of places I’m sure I’ll be a swift trotro rider!

We took the trotro to the Medina market.. which was a whole other adventure! It was probably the dirtiest place I have ever seen! There are these huge 3 foot wide gutters on the side of the street that were FULL of trash and stagnant water. Needless to say, the smell was less than desirable. There were soo many people and people trying to sell you things and the smell of sweat and of fish and of garbage. It was very overwhelming! Anything you wanted at all could be found somewhere in that market, I’m sure. I’m glad I got to see it, but I’m not planning on going back anytime soon. They told us to be very careful with our belongings so I didn’t take any pictures after we got off the trotro!

Here you can kind of see the huge gutters.. super nasty when they're full of trash! Definitely don't want to fall in!

These are pictures of the market I took from the trotro.. it's hard to capture it on camera, but trust me, it was crazy!

 Yesterday we got to tour the places that we can volunteer at. There was one orphanage, two schools and an AIDS clinic. The first school was really interesting to me because it's a Ghanian NGO, totally supported and run by Ghanians without any foreign aid. The other school was also cool because it was started by a previous international student!! The AIDS clinic didn't seem to be super exciting, but that may have been because we were too big a group to get a tour. The first school has outside projects like testing for and treating malaria, organizing events with other schools, fundraising, grant writing, etc. All of those things sound pretty cool to me! Once I get my school schedule figured out I can talk with the directors and get a volunteer schedule too! :) 

The first picture is from the school that has the cool outreach programs, and the two kids at the bottom were a brother and sister in the orphanage!

Today we registered!! I got my official University of Ghana ID card! Yay!! We also were supposed to register for classes, but everything is backed up because the computer technicians were just on strike. So we walked around to each department and tried to see the timetables of when classes were being offered. I was only able to register for 3 classes: Psychology of Personality, Religion in Ghana, and Indigenous Religions of Africa. I have the information for a few interesting sociology and history classes, but I don’t think we’ll sign up before classes begin on Monday. IF they begin on Monday! The late president’s funeral was yesterday and today, so we heard rumors that classes would be starting late since the professors have not been able to prepare. We’ll see what next week brings! 

Officially students!! yeaaah!!

In the afternoon two friends and I went to the pool!!! It costs 2 cedi to get in (about  $1) and you can stay as long as you want! We met a guy who graduated last year but used to be on the swim team. He told me I would most likely be able to be on the school’s swim team!! I definitely need to practice a lot, but that would be a great opportunity. Apparently a past international student was on the swim team and got to travel to Nigeria! That would be awesome!!! 

My friends didn't have swim caps, but theyre required at the pool. Those lovely pink ones were sold to them! :) The one on the right is my roommate!

 Tomorrow we are going to Cape Coast! There we'll go to a national park and see a slave castle! We're staying there overnight and coming back on Saturday afternoon! I'm very excited!! :))