Luxuries of home

At this point in the semester I have realized things I have missed the most and truly appreciate back home. I'm mainly listing material things and some ideas. I won't do people because that list would get pretty lengthy. I don't mean to complain here either. This is just from some of the major differences I've noticed. I thought some of the things on this list might amuse some people.

toilet paper provided in stalls
hot water
clean water
easy internet access
laundry machines
power outage being an unusual event
customer service
an organized school system
no oburoni traps (***see bottom for explanation)
air conditioning
my bicycle
my banjo & harmonicas
Campus Crusade
bluegrass
bacon
dairy products
D.H Hill Library at NC State
sarcasm humor
That's what she said jokes
Dolly's Ice Cream
Cook Out
Camp Tekoa

***no oburoni traps- So in Ghana the sewage system is covered in some areas, but mostly it runs along the side of the road completely open. It's usually about a foot or two deep and and about a foot wide, just enough room for someone to fall in when trying to step across from the sidewalk to the road. The Twi word for white person is 'oburoni', and who else besides international students would not be use to the trenches along side the road? I luckily haven't fallen in one yet but plenty of my friends have, and they can scar you up pretty bad if you fall bad. Hence we have given them the name "oburoni traps", and it has definitely stuck.

Language barriers

It's true that the official language in Ghana is English, but that is really more for political and educational purposes. I will say though that I have been fine getting around with English because everyone does indeed know it, just some more than others. I was just so taken back at how little Ghaniains use English between each other on a regular basis. Around the university area and in town I'll usually here Twi, Ga, Ewe, and Pigeon English being spoken. The only one I can really recognize is Twi and sometimes Pigeon. It gives off such a weird vibe when I hear something I don't understand and I see the people talking staring at me. But I've gotten that feeling before at home when it looks like Hispanics are talking about me nearby. Really should have taken Spanish. Oh well. I've been enjoying my Twi class though. It has been very helpful. I'm still learning but I can communicate every now and then when a local initiates a conversation in Twi. The usual "how are you?" "good and you?" "pretty good" sounds like "Wo ho te sεn?"  "Me ho yε. Na wo nso ε?"  "Me nso me ho yε."  With phrases like this people can generally understand the American accent, but for more in depth conversations a small error in pronunciation could change the whole meaning of a sentence because Twi is a tonal language unlike English which is positional.

So I was thinking how hard could class be if the language is English? In two of my classes I understand about half the things the professors say sometimes because of the Ghaniain accent and the poor acoustics of the lecture hall. Luckily the material in the classes isn't that hard. I'm just gonna have to read a lot more than rely on lecture notes. I find it really funny when people ask me to slow down when I'm talking. In the US we usually talk a little bit slower in the south, but here my slurred accent has confused so many Ghaniains. But I've started to adjust and develop a slower and more articulate speech when talking to Africans. All in all most locals have been very patient with all of us international students on language problems and sometimes they give out some good pointers.

Soccer game & Festival

Wow it's been over a week since the last post. I'm really slack about this. Anyway, this weekend was pretty neat. I went to my first international soccer game ever (never even seen the US team play). Ghana played Swaziland and won 2-0. It was really exciting. The soccer atmosphere here is so different. The game definitely has much more appreciation than back home. It wasn't completely packed but it was plenty loud. I don't think there was one second with the absence of the sound of one of those plastic horns you hear at the world cup. And it was so funny when our group sat down because from that moment on vendors came swarming around us trying to sell food and drinks and souvenirs. But by this point I'm not surprised anymore when that happens.
On Saturday I went with a group on a bus to a festival in Cape Coast. I feel really dumb because I can't remember the name of it, but it was so much fun. There were lots of costumes and music, which was paraded down the streets. On the end of the parade people were carrying the 'Queen Mother' on a massive chair under an umbrella. I can't remember exactly her role in the town but I'm guessing she is some sort of political or spiritual leader. What I find funny is the fact that most people and Ghana are either Christian or Muslim and they have a festival that celebrates the indigenous beliefs. Guess it goes to show how much they hold strong to their traditions. Cape Coast is a pretty interesting town. The first time we went there we just took a tour of the slave castle (which was mind blowing) and didn't see much of the town. This time we definitely got to see the downtown area. It's so different from Accra (the capitol). Accra is so mixed because there's areas of poverty while there's also huge modernized American style buildings for phone companies and resorts and other things. Cape Coast is still very colonial and not so 'in your face.' And from what we experienced on Saturday, it can be very festive and colorful.
If there's one thing I've really enjoyed about culture outside the university, it's that at events like these everyone is generally in a very happy mood and pretty friendly. It's so unlike America where on holidays families might kind of do their own thing. Sometimes it feels as though I'm observing one big giant family. Definitely a more communistic culture.