Long Overdue Update...

I apologize for not posting in so long. I've been pretty busy with end-of-the-semester activities, studying, traveling, etc. Since I last posted I've fallen in another ditch (this time putting about a 3-inch gash in my shin and a huge lump; both have since subsided), traveled to Togo and Benin (the countries east of Ghana), taken 2 of my 5 finals (next final is Dec. 3rd), and I am currently in Tamale in the norther region of Ghana waiting for a bus to Mole National Park. Although I don't have much time to elaborate on the trip now, I will give a brief summary of the nightmare of the past 24 hours for Brandon and myself. So, we left campus around 8:30 a.m. yesterday after I picked up my laundry, which I wanted to do earlier, but the laundry people were late (a recurring theme as you'll soon find out). We took a tro-tro into Accra to catch a bus up to Tamale. When we arrived at Circle, we found that all the morning buses for Tamale had left about 20 minutes earlier and the next bus wouldn't leave until 12:30 p.m. With no other option, we purchased our ticket, bought a soda, and waited at the bus terminal. Of course, the bus was late leaving because they had so much stuff to pack onto the bottom of the bus (that's the problem with trying to make a passenger vehicle into a tractor trailer of sorts). So, we ended up leaving Accra around 2 p.m. in what was supposed to be our "air-conditioned" bus to Tamale, a 12-hour drive north. The bus was so hot that people were sweating just sitting there and the windows didn't open, of course. We had to ride in the bus for about 4.5 hours until we reached Kumasi where we had a rest stop. The 15 minute rest stop turned into two hours because they were working on the engine of the bus. They finally fixed the AC and we took off again around 8:30 p.m. Then, out of nowhere, the bus started rocking back and forth uncontrollably and the driver had to pull over to the side of the road...the axle was bent because the weight on the bottom of the bus wasn't evenly distributed. So, we had to drive back to the station in Kumasi (about 30 minutes away...1 hour of lost time total) to switch buses. We had to wait at the station for another hour and a half for the next bus to arrive and for them to transfer all the cargo over. If that wasn't bad enough, the nex bus was smaller so they had to put some of the cargo in the seats in the back, aisles, and overhead compartments, meaning our bags had to sit on laps for the rest of the trip (approximately 8 hours)! Oh yeah, the air conditioner on the new bus worked a little too well and it was blasting cold air on Brandon and I because the vent about us was broken and couldn't close. We barely had any leg room, so needless to say, neither one of us got much sleep. Fortunately, the last leg of the trip went relatively smooth (despite our uncomfort) and we arrived in Tamale at 6:00 a.m. (4 hours behind schedule). Because we were late, we missed the morning bus from Tamale to Mole and we have to wait until 1:00 p.m. for the next bus. From there, it is another 4.5 hours to Mole. So what was supposed to be a trip with 2 days at Mole is going to only be 1. I better see some elephants! I might cry otherwise. Well, that's all for now. We're going to go find some breakfast because we haven't had a substantial meal since yesterday morning. If anybody is still reading this (I would be suprised due to my lack of recent posts), please pray that our return trip is a little less disheartening. All I can say though; this is Ghana...

More Pictures...(Hopefully)

So the last time I tried posting pictures on the blog the Internet was acting up and once I got the first two uploaded, it completely freaked out and I couldn't put anymore up. I'm going to try and post some more now, but I can't make any promises...

Me and Albert outside the Chief's Palace in Jamestown

"Heaven on Earth" - Maranatha Beach Resort in Ada Foah

Mary Beth and I sporting my awesome "mosquito suits"

Southern Wall of Cape Coast Castle, built in 1653 by the Swedish Africa Company and was later used by the British as a major trading post for their Gold Coast colony

Crocodile in the pond of the Hans Cottage Botel; I was about five feet away when I took this picture (a little close for comfort, but at least the picture turned out well)

Elmina Castle Church - built by the Portuguese in 1471 (2nd oldest Christian Church in Ghana)

Me and some of the boys from the Kumasi Children's Home

Top of the Boten Rock formation in Techiman; the view from up there was amazing

Beautiful Ghanaian sunset

Mona monkey from the Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary; that's a banana that I'm holding in the foreground to feed to the monkey, which ate from my hand

Waterfall in the Volta Region

Typical classroom at Mr. Evans's, Golden Child Complex School in Asamankese

This picture reminds of me of "Where's Waldo?," but instead it would be called, "Where's the Oboruni?"

Me in traditional African dress

Children after classes let out for the day at Mr. Evans's school

Well, that's all for now. Hopefully I'll have some more to post soon. This is just a small sample of what I have to show everbody when I get home. Can't wait to share my adventures with everybody! 6 weeks and 2 days remaining...

Pictures

Well, I thought it was about time that I uploaded some pictures from Ghana, so here we go...

My half of the Room 015 in ISH 2...I hate sleeping under that stupid net!
My first Ghanaian meal...Jollof Rice with Chicken and (no lie) "Shitter Sauce"

Let's Go State...

Forgot one thing...#3 Penn State @ #9 Ohio State tonight at 8 p.m. EST on ABC! Even if you're not a Penn State fan, let along a college football fan, watch the game and try to enjoy it for me. I know that tomorrow morning, irregardless of the outcome, I will feel the most homesick yet during my trip. So much rides on this game; Big Ten title (most likely), Penn State's chance at an undefeated season, Joe Paterno's future with Penn State, etc. After last weeks thumping of Michigan (first time Penn State has beat the Wolverines in 9 match-ups over a 12 year span), I know that the Nittany Lions have it in them, but they are going to have to lay it all on the field tonight if they want to win in Columbus and break a three decade losing streak at the Horseshoe. Aunt Lynn, you know I love you, but "Go to Hell Buckeyes!"

Let's Go State!

Check out the pre-game coverage at - http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/clubhouse?teamId=213

Update

My apologies for the lack of posts the past few weeks. This is only the second time I've been on the Internet in the past week and a half. Last weekend, there were black outs throughout Accra that lasted several hours at a time and the networks at the Internet Cafes were all down. Last Saturday (18.10.08 - I'm getting used to the European style of writing the date), the power was out from 1 p.m. to almost 8:30 p.m. Not having a fan during the hottest part of the day was a bit intense. When the sun went down, I had to go buy some candles to burn in my room so I wasn't in complete darkness. It made me think back to my world cultures class senior year when Mr. Pegg showed us a picture of Africa at "night" to see the lack of lights in comparison to the rest of the world. I distinctly remember Kyle Perez saying, "it's the Dark Continent," and knowing Kyle, we all interpreted what he meant differently, but he was right. I can't remember a time when the power was out in the U.S. for more than an hour or two, let alone 8! But the power outages were just the beginning to my Internet hiatus.

On Monday, I traveled two hours north of Accra to Asamankese with Selorm John, the son of Mr. Evans Agyei, the gentleman that my grandparents met this past summer at their conference. We were going to visit Mr. Evans at his home. We left around 6 a.m. to avoid some of the early morning traffic in Accra (but we still sat in traffic for about 30 minutes before getting out of the city limits). The scenery on the drive was beautiful, which helped take my mind off the incredibly uncomfortable position I was stuck in on the tro-tro. I thought a 30 minute tro-tro ride in Accra was bad...2 hours is much worse! Anyways, Selorm and I had a nice discussion on the way up about our lives and plans for the future. Selorm in enrolled in an accounting program in Accra that is overseen by Oxford. He's in his third year and plans to go to either Britain or the U.S. for his master's degree. Once we arrived in Asamankese, we walked abut a mile down a dirt road to the Golden Child Complex School, Mr. Evans primary school. There, I was greeted by Mr. Evans, his wife, the faculty, and the student's of the school. After receiving a tour of the facilities, which included going to all of the classrooms to take pictures of the children, Selorm and I left the school to go to the family's orange orchard. They own about 20 acres of farmland outside the village. We walked around there for awhile as Selorm pointed out different things about the agricultural practices they used. We picked some of the oranges to bring back to Accra with us. After leaving the orchard, we went back to the school and had a late lunch (around 2 p.m.). Immediately after lunch, a photographer who was a family friend of Mr. Agyei arrived and dressed me as a traditional African chief with a kente cloth robe, sandals, jewelry; the whole nine yards. He took several photos of me with his camera and my own. I've got to admit, I clean up pretty well as an African chief; unfortunately, my "lack of pigmentation" didn't contrast very well with the white robe. But Selorm said, "you could be fooled for an African chief with that black robe on..." (long, awkward pause), "if you weren't so white!" We shared a laugh and then went inside to enjoy a cool refreshing glass of pineapple and ginseng juice, made from the fruit at the family's farm. After classes ended for the day, several of the children gathered around while waiting for the bus to ask me questions, vice versa. They asked me things like my favorite color, food, football (soccer) team, if I had any brothers and sisters, questions about the U.S., etc. My favorite was one little girl who asked me to show them a dance from the U.S. I just started laughing; I had no idea what to teach them. Then it hit me...the Macarena (or however you spell it). I showed it to them and the kids were rolling on the ground laughing, especially during the last move, "hip-gyrating." But it was only a matter of minutes before all the kids were doing it. I grabbed a few last-minute pictures before Selorm and I left to head back to Accra. It was an exhausting day, but very rewarding! Mr. Agyei told me before I left how he was trying to establish a sponsorship with a school in the U.S. during his visit this past summer, but had not been successful. He asked for my help in establishing both a "pen pal" program with an elementary school back home and possibly setting up some sort of financial assistance program for the school. The school was ranked #1 in it's district this past year based off of nation-wide exams taken by the children. Mr. Agyei hopes to be ranked #1 in the region in the upcoming years but the school is running low on funds. They've been working on constructing a second floor for the school for the past six years to increase the number of classrooms, to cut down on the student-teacher ratio per classroom. Some of these classrooms had 60 students in them and they were comparable to size of most classrooms in the U.S. After being here in Ghana for about 2.5 months, I've realized that this is the sort of "development funding" that the country needs more than anything. These kids are the future of Ghana; the future of Africa! Mr. Evans is a very hard-working, caring, Christian man who is sincerely interested in the well-being of the children at the school; he even allows some of the poorest, orphaned children live with his family and allows them to go to school for free. In fact, nearly half of the children that go to the school don't have to pay the school fees, but Mr. Evans said that the school won't be able to financially afford this much longer. Hopefully, with my connections with the Danville school board and my grandmother's connection to the CSIU I will be able to allocate some funds for Mr. Evans' school!

That aside, I can now quickly go over the events of the past few days, which have kept me away from the Internet. Tuesday started out like any other Tuesday, lecture at 11:30 followed by lunch. However, on my way to the political science department, I fell in another ditch! I know that sounds clumsy, falling in a ditch in the middle of the day, but this was a very poorly constructed ditch. I saw it as I was walking along and when I went to step over it, the cement reinforcement on the one side came loose and it threw me off balance. My right leg fell all the way down to the bottom of the 3-4 foot deep ditch and I landed on my ankle funny. The pain shot up my leg into my abdomen, I could have sworn that I had broken my ankle (and some swearing I did). It was one of the most painful injuries in my life. I feebly limped to the ATM to take out some money, which was fortunately nearby, so that I could pay for my second visit to the Nyaho Clinic in the past week! Well, long story short, my ankle wasn't fractured...at least according to the clinic's x-ray machine that has to be from the 60's. The doctor said that I had stretched the ligament in my ankle and also sprained my foot. After prescribing me some pain pills and anti-inflammatory ointment he sent me on my way (after racking up nearly a 50 cedi tab) but told me that I should use crutches for the next 10-14 days. Unfortunately, as I later found out from the pharmacy, the clinic was fresh out of crutches and told me that I would have to go to another clinic to buy them. Just great! (On a side note to Eric Yale: I really wish you could see the condition of the pharmacies here. I'll divulge you with that information when I get home in December) Thankfully the cab driver knew where the other clinic was because I had never heard/seen of it before. I bought the crutches for 50 cedis...such a rip-off! Makes me appreciate insurance a bit more now. Most of my medical expenses will be reimbursed by HTH Worldwide Health Insurance, but only from approved hospitals/clinics; this place isn't one of them. Thankfully, the guy who sold them to me said that I can sell them back to him for a "reduced rate." I'm hoping to get maybe 25 cedis back. Anyways, I've been pretty immobile since then. I only get out to the Night Market for food/drinks and now today to the Internet Cafe. The pain medicine is helping and the swelling has gone down some, although my foot still looks a bit deformed (especially with the bruising...I'm thinking of submitting a sample of the color, a sort of purplish-blueish-yellowish-black, to Crayola; I'm suggesting the name "Bruise Blue"). I can put a little weight on it now without it hurting, which greatly helps in showering. I'll probably be on the crutches for another 5 days or so, but for now, it takes a lot of energy to get anywhere. Yesterday, I went to get something to drink/eat around 1 p.m. and when I returned to my room my shirt was, no exaggeration, completely soaked with sweat. I only went about 150 yards total. That's African heat for you! The temperature here is only getting hotter. At night, I sleep in just my boxers with the fan on high power and I still sweat up a storm.

To make matters worse, on Wednesday evening, I got really sick! I threw up a couple times, felt feverish, and the following morning I had a terrible headache accompanied by light-headedness. At that point in time, my ankle was a second-thought to me as I was trying to figure out what could be wrong with me. I thought it could be my malaria resurfacing (thankfully it wasn't and I am fully recovered from the malaria, by the way. Don't want anybody to still be in suspense from my last post). I rested the whole day Thursday, drank lots of water, and started to take my Ciproflaxin (which is normally to treat Traveller's Diarrhea, even thought I wasn't experiencing any diarrhea) to try and kill whatever bug might have been in me. I still don't know exactly what caused it, but I'm feeling better now, although I haven't fully regained my appetite. I'm keeping a close eye on it to make sure it doesn't re-surface. The last thing I want is another expensive visit to the doctor, but I may not have a choice if I feel like I did on Wednesday night/Thursday morning again. I'm hoping that it was just food poisoning from my dinner Wednesday night, which did taste a little funny as I was eating it. Please, everybody just pray that it doesn't come back again! Thanks!

Well, that's all for now. I've got to head back to the hostel soon. Hopefully I'll be able to make it to the Internet more often in the coming days to report my condition. I don't want anybody to be worried about me though. Trust me, my mom is doing enough of that for everybody. There are a lot of people that stop in and check on me and I am truly feeling much better, so I don't think it is going to be a problem. All of these experiences, while not entirely appealing, have taught me a lot about myself and make me appreciate my normally good-health and "luxurious" amenities (by comparison) that I take for granted back home.

Alliance Francais and Volta Region

Last Thursday, several of us went to Alliance Francais to watch a musical performance by Duende Aire from Spain. They played eight or nine songs that were Latin-like, although they claimed that their music was a blend of multiple genres. An international student from Brazil sang with the band for three of the songs. They were amazing! Their second to last song was "A Night in Tunisia," which my high school jazz band played my senior year. Duende Aire's rendition was much better of course. I purchased their CD after the concert and I will be sure to share it with jazz/latin music lovers when I get home. Speaking of being home, I just realized the other day that I have less than nine weeks left here in Ghana. I'm already past the halfway point. Kind of depressing to think about, but it also makes me look forward to my first home-cooked meal when I get home. Of all the things that I miss right now though, Penn State football is by far on the top of my list. 7-0! I would have never believed that we would be this good at the beginning of the season. Not to jinx them, but as long as we can beat Ohio State, which is not going to be an easy task at all, I think we have the ability to go undefeated! By the way, if you're reading this Butto, Penn State is now ranked #3 in the nation...where is LSU? Oh, there they are...#13. Took me awhile to get that far down on the list. Anyways, back to last Thursday. After the concert was over, we all headed down to Osu (the "ritzy" part of Accra) to go to Bywell's, an outdoor bar. I wasn't feeling too well, so I only stayed for a little bit and came back and went to bed.

Friday morning, we left for the Volta region around 9 a.m. On the way, we stopped at a research center for traditional herbal medicines. One of the spokespersons for the center gave us an hour long lecture on traditional herbal medicine in Ghana and worldwide. Being the argumentative conservative skeptic that I am, I questioned the guy and debated with him about herbal medicine's effectiveness and the impacts it had on society's mentality toward orthodox medicine. He didn't seem to be offended by my comments/questions and actually seemed to agree with me on some of my points. He gave us a tour of the facilities before we left. Next, we went to the Aburi Botanical Gardens. Not really much to say about this. We saw a lot of cool flowers, trees, plants, etc. and took pictures. There was one tree there that is believed to be over 600 years old. I thought that was worth noting. We ate lunch there and then traveled to the Cedi Bead Village. There, we were taught the process for making traditional African beads, using recycled glass. Our guide seemed very informative, but was very difficult to understand, so I only picked up a little of what he was saying. We (and I guess I forgot to mention it up to this point..."we" is our Penn State group) stopped by the gift shop and I bought a couple bracelets and necklaces as gifts for some people back home. The rest of the day Friday was spent driving to Ho, where our hotel was.

Saturday morning, we woke up early and drove about an hour northward to the Tafi Atome Monkey Sanctuary. There, we got to feed wild Mona monkeys that live on the outskirts of the village. The local people regard the monkeys as sacred and so the monkeys are accustomed to humans feeding them. We would hold out an unpeeled banana and they would come and peel it and take the fruit to eat. Once one monkey started to eat the bananas, the rest of the group, which consists of between 65 and 70 monkeys, were soon all around us. There were monkeys everywhere. I got a couple pictures of the monkeys themselves, but I was disappointed because I wasn't able to get a picture taken of myself feeding any of them. Oh well, I'll always have the memory. Later, we drove another two hours northward to the Wli waterfall. We had about a 45 minute hike back to the falls. It was incredible! The Wli waterfall is the highest waterfall in Ghana (and amongst the tallest in all of West Africa). It was so powerful that it made a mist that felt like it was pouring rain. It was difficult to take pictures without getting my camera soaked, but I did manage to get this one incredible picture. After taking some photos, I changed into my bathing suit and went swimming as close to the waterfall as I could get. The mist was so powerful that it stung when it hit your skin. The rocks were also covered in algae so they were really slippery and I didn't want to risk falling on them by getting too close to the base of the falls. Anyways, it started to rain while we were at the falls, which is where we were supposed to eat lunch, so we had to hike back down for lunch. That was all for Saturday because we had a three hour ride back to our hotel. We had a lecture at our hotel from Prof. Dodoo Saturday night. The activities of the day were pretty exhausting so I went to bed pretty early, but some people went swimming in the hotel swimming pool.

On Sunday, we woke up around 7 a.m. and left for Akosombo. There, we boarded a "cruise boat" (more like a three story pontoon boat) and went for a 5.5 hour tour of Lake Volta (the largest man made lake in the world). The lake used to be a river that has filled up a large valley after the construction of the Akosombo Dam, which generates much of Ghana's electricity. There isn't really much to note about the boat ride other than we saw some beautiful landscape scenery. It was very relaxing as well. After the tour was over, we left to come back to campus. We arrived back at campus around 7:30 p.m. and I was in bed about an hour later. Little did I know, but I was in for quite a surprise the following morning.

Monday morning, I woke up around 6 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep. I felt terrible! I had been sick throughout much of the weekend, but I tried to not let it get to me. Well, it finally caught up to me Monday morning. I decided I would head to the doctor to get everything checked out. I had a pretty nasty bug bite on my arm as well that looked like a spider bite that I wanted to get checked out. I took a taxi to the Nyaho Clinic in Accra for 5 cedis. Then I had to fill out some paperwork for registration to the clinic, which cost me 8 cedis. The consultation fee with the general physician was 20 cedis. When I finally got to see the doctor, after about 2 hours of waiting, he asked me what my symptoms were. I told him: light-headed, occasional nausea, fever, and some joint pain in my fingers, knees, and hips, all of which flared up mostly in the evenings and early morning. He didn't even need the blood test to confirm the diagnosis: malaria. He sent me to get blood work done to verify that it wasn't anything else. The lab fees cost me 17 cedis. When the results came back, my white blood count was normal so the doctor knew it wasn't another type of infection. Although my malaria test came back negative, he said that the test isn't very conclusive, especially because I'm on doxycicline, which is actually an antibiotic that treats a wide array of malaria strains, but apparently not this one. He said that the doxycicline was probably killing some of the malaria, but not all of it, which is why I was exhibiting the symptoms. He prescribed me two other malaria treatments, which cost me 13 cedis, and sent me on my way. With the taxi ride back, another 5 cedis, my total expenditures came to about 68 cedis; pretty expensive to get malaria diagnosed and treated. But, I guess it beats the alternative.

Well, all that said, I'm not feeling 100% right now and I need to head back to my room to study for a test that I have later this afternoon. I've taken an exam with the flu before, but this will be the first time with malaria. I'll just have to wait and see how that turns out. At least I'll have somewhat of an excuse if I don't do well!

Trip to Champs

So, I wasn't able to travel again this weekend because I had a ridiculous amount of work to do. My HIST 309 group decided to pawn off our entire project on me. Therefore, I've been working on writing a 10 page paper this weekend and preparing a 30 minute presentation for class this Thursday. I didn't get it all finished, but I have all day today and Wednesday (no classes) to get it finished. On Saturday, I decided I needed a break from "The Protestant Reformation" (subject of my group project) and there were rumors that Champs, the sports bar in Accra, was showing the Penn State vs. Purdue game on ESPN. I rallied a small group together and we grabbed a tro-tro into Accra. Unfortunately, upon arriving at Champs, we discovered that they were merely rumors; they weren't showing the Penn State game. They were however, showing the Oklahoma vs. Baylor game (not really much of a game). Brandon, Andrew, and I decided there was no reason to stay and pay the $8 cover if they weren't showing the game we wanted to watch. We decided to explore the neighborhood around Champs and try and find a place to eat. As we were walking, we came across one of the most disturbing things that I've seen in Ghana thus far. Along the side of the roads there are these drainage (a nice way of saying "sewage") ditches that people throw their trash in and frequently defecate in. In the distance, I saw what I thought was a naked man, but as we got closer realized was a naked woman bathing in the ditch. The water was black (hence our common nickname for the ditches, "tar rivers") and must have been teeming with bacteria and parasites, not to mention a breeding ground for malaria infested mosquitoes. It was one of those things that you really, really do not want to see, but your curiosity gets the best of you and you simply can't look away. Makes you appreciate those hot showers that we so often take for granted back in the States.

Once we passed the woman and had been walking for a good mile without coming across any restaurants, we stopped and asked two security guards in front of a tax collection building which direction the restaurants were in. As we later found out, they must have been confused by our question because we continued to walk quite a ways before realizing there were no restaurants around. We decided to just walk back to Champs and eat there. On the way, we were walking along, talking and laughing amongst ourselves, when we came across this man that does shoe repairs. With a labor surplus in Ghana, people will resort to the most bizarre jobs to try and make some money. Imagine: a traveling shoe repair man. Anyways, he was hitting his wooden crate with a wood block and the sound caught our attention. When we turned to look, we must have all be smiling/laughing because the guy quickly became very angry at us because he thought we were laughing at him. He wound up and threw his block at us without a moments notice. He missed Andrew and Brandon, but hit me square in the rib cage. Fortunately, he's no major league pitcher, but it still hurt a little. I was more stunned than anything at the moment. We were all nervous that this guy was going to do something else so we just stopped dead in our tracks and prepared to defend ourselves. The guy was yelling at us, but we couldn't understand a word he was saying. We were in a pretty crowded part of the neighborhood, so there were a lot of people around, and this one bystander yelled at the shoe repairman. Feeling reassured that somebody was watching the situation, we cautiously started walking again and the guy let us alone. Hindsight is always 20/20 and if I could go back in time now, I would have picked up the wooden block and thrown it as far away from us as possible. Maybe that would teach the guy to calm down and not threaten tourists; but in all likelihood, it would have probably just made him more angry. Oh the things you'll do and see in Ghana!

Back at Champs, we ordered dinner and watched the football game. Manchester United was playing a match as well, which proved more entertaining than the #1 team in college football's trouncing of Baylor. I ordered a cheesesteak-like sandwich and french fries that were delicious! For dessert, Andrew and I each ordered apple pie and ice cream. The ice cream was just Fan Ice, essentially it's ice cream from a plastic tube. But, the apple pie was warm and delicious. It doesn't compare to one of grandma's home-made apple pies, but it was a nice reminder of home. We left Champs around 8 p.m., when the game was over. Other than that, my weekend has been spent working on my assignment and hanging around the hostel. Aquinaldo, a grad-student from Mozambique, made some of his world-renowned guacamole (that's an exaggeration, but it is quite good) last night and we sat around and talked about International Law as we ate. Good times at ISH 2!

Life

I'm recycling a message that I sent to Genevieve Kelly, a friend from back home, earlier today. After I was finished writing it, I realized it might be a bit "over the top," but it is an excellent description of my experience in Ghana thus far and I figured I would share it with everybody. In response to Gen's inquiry about my life, I responded:

"'The unexamined life is not worth living.' - Socrates

Ghana has been fantastic thus far! I've met some really awesome people from all over the world, but few are nicer than those sweet Southern girls from UNC. I've been able to travel nearly every weekend throughout Ghana. My classes, while not that academically stimulating in and of themselves, have afforded me the opportunity to do some independent research into the subject matters of refugee movements and international conflict, which has been incredibly insightful. I'm reading more, thinking about the future more, thinking about LIFE more! I'm examining myself, who I am, and what I want out of life. I'm listening to the words of Socrates. This has been one of the most important undertakings of my life! Thanks for asking..."

Last night, I sat out on my porch with the lights turned off, listening to Miles Davis go to town on his trumpet and tears began to well up in my eyes. I'm not homesick. In fact, I've loved every minute that I've been in Ghana thus far (with the exception of Saturdays when I know I'm missing a Penn State football game or during my occasional bouts of 'Ghanarrhea'), but for some reason the tears came. I was thinking about my childhood; how I miss that old "Sunday ritual," of waking up early to go to church, coming home and having a delicious home-cooked lunch complements of Mom, playing backyard football with the guys in the neighborhood, and not having a care in the world! Then it hit me. I wasn't sad because I missed those moments from my childhood, but because I didn't fully appreciate them back in the day. Memories will stay with me for a lifetime and can always bring a smile to my face, but as much as I want to, I can never go back to those good 'ole days. Never again in my life will I be as carefree as I was back then. I will always have something on my mind, something that worries me (student loans, rent, groceries, electical bills, a marriage, kids, etc.), that keeps me distracted from fully enjoying life.

I've been having a very difficult time lately figuring what I want out of life. Should I go to grad school, law school, get a job right out of college? What career should I pursue? How will I pay off my student loans? Where will I live after college? Who will I spend the rest of my life with? Will I spend the rest of my life with anybody? How can I provide my kids with the life that I always wanted? I've been trying to figure out the answer to these questions all on my own, which was the wrong way of going about it. Right in the middle of my thoughts, tears, and music, I started praying. I asked God to show me a path for my life that fits His will. After about a half an hour of sitting in complete silence (as I turned my computer off at this point), I felt at peace. A peace that I haven't felt in years. I wasn't worried about ANYTHING for the first time since I was probably ten years old! Now, I still don't know what I want to do after graduation (or even when I will graduate; a year early, a semester early?), but I know that everything will work out the way it is supposed to. Together, God and I will find a way for me to serve Him that will bring me the satisfaction of my childhood. Someday, I will find the peace of mind that I felt on Sunday afternoons during my childhood. I will relive those good 'old days!

Zebra and Champs

I had the best meal since I've come to Ghana last night: zebra! It was absolutely delicious. Brandon, Mary Beth, Andrew, Ben, Kristine and myself went to El Gaucho Steakhouse in Osu and chose from an assortment of South African game meat. Brandon got Kudu, which is an antelope-like animal with long, spiraling horns/antlers. Ben got the Ostrich. It was a bit chewy and I was surprised because I thought that ostrich would be "white" like chicken or turkey, but it was red meat. Kristine and I got the zebra. I got mine medium-rare and it was perfectly cooked. It's hard to describe the taste; it's similar to a beef steak, but it has a different aftertaste. Mary Beth had an order of frog legs and Andrew ate before we left, so he didn't have anything. It was pretty pricey; my zebra cost $30 plus the 15% national sales tax (which is only ever charged at nicer restaurants and stores). Brandon and I were a bit disappointed because our Ghana guidebook said that they served crocodile there, but it wasn't on the menu. I hope to go back there once more before I leave and have another type of meat. My apologies to any horse-lovers out there, but zebra tastes pretty damn good and I might need to try an Appaloosa or a Quarter Horse when I get back to the States.

After dinner, we went to Champs Sports Bar at the Paloma Hotel to watch some college football. They were showing the Alabama vs. Georgia game. It was really nice being able to see some American football for once. The game didn't start until midnight here, so we only saw the first hour and a half of the game before we got too tired and came back to campus. I really wish they were showing the Penn State - Illinois game! After reading up on the game this afternoon, I really miss being back home. I also missed the Bloomsburg Fair, which makes my stomach even sadder than it already was from eating Ghanaian food. Anyways, at the bar, they were having there own version of the "Price is Right." They had a product from Ghana and there were three contestants, each guessed it's price and the person with the closest bid without going over won the prize and got a turn to spin the "Wheel of Fortune." Well, when they were calling up the contestants for the first round, the M.C. mentioned the name Nick 'something' but the guy didn't stand up. So everybody at the table started to pretend like I was that guy. They were yelling "come on Nick," and lifting my arms up, so the M.C. was convinced that I was the Nick guy and I went up on stage. Our item to bid on was a box of tea bags from India. The two other contestants, a girl from NYU and a woman from London, guessed 4 cedi and 4.50 cedi/pesewas, respectively. I guessed 9 cedi and the actual price was 10.60, so I won! When I spun the wheel, which was actually an animation on the D.J.'s laptop, I had to read a tongue twister to win my prize, two six-packs of Hunter's Gold Cider. Everybody at the table went nuts when I was right the first time and they nearly died when I tried reading the tongue twister. It was so much fun! Thank God the real Nick didn't go up!

In one of the later rounds, another girl from the NYU group went up on stage. He asked them where they were from and the one girl said, "about an hour north of Harrisburg." I was shocked! When I try to explain to people where Danville is, that's how I describe it (that, and, the town next to Bucknell University). The M.C. asked the name of the town and the girl said Sunbury. After the round was over, I went over to their table to talk to her and as soon as I sat down I knew I recognized her from somewhere. I asked if she went to Shikellamy High School and she had and then it struck me...she competed in forensics. It was Elise Brumbach. I never really talked to her much back in high school because she was two years ahead of me but we have a lot of mutual friends. The whole thing just made me think how small our world really is! I mean, randomly running into a girl from red-neck Central PA in a sports bar halfway around the world in Ghana. We exchanged numbers and we'll probably meet up and get dinner sometime. Yesterday was just a great day all around (excluding my minor bout of "stomach issues" in the afternoon). Everything else is going well here in Ghana. It was a typical week and this weekend has been incredibly relaxing (it helped that I have the room to myself for the next week and a half because Simen is traveling in Mali until next weekend). It was the first weekend that I haven't traveled since being in Ghana. I got my hair cut by my friend Becca this afternoon and she did a really good job. Otherwise, I threw a frisbee around with Brandon for a little, watched two episodes of House, and got some work done for classes. In the words of Forrest Gump, "that's all I've got to say about that."

Greg

Kumasi

So, I've spent the past two weekends in Kumasi, which is about 6 hours north of Accra. Two weeks ago, I went with Carly, McKenzie, and Maggie. We met up with Sammy, Eric, and Kristine at the Guestline Lodge Hostel, which cost 15 cedi/night (not too expensive, but we've stayed in nicer rooms for less before). The STC bus there was 10 cedis, but it was well worth it for the air-conditioned ride. We left Friday around noon and arrived in Kumasi at 5:30. We checked in to our hotel and went for dinner at Vic Baboo's Restaurant (a delicious assortment of Ghanaian, continental, and Indian cuisine). We were hasseled by street vendors outside the restaurant for a few minutes, but didn't buy anything. On Saturday, we went to the Kumasi Children's Home and played with the children for a couple hours. They were so excited to see "oborunis" and they ran down to us and jumped in our arms upon our arrival. I played soccer with the boys while the three girls played with the girls and carried some babies around the way Ghanaians do (on the back with a cloth wrapped around their bodies). The kids all loved having their pictures taken and they asked us for a copy the next time we to Kumasi. I still haven't found a place to get pictures developed, but Carly (who is involved with Project Polaroid) might take her Polaroid camera up with her next time to take pictures of the children. After we left the children's home, we went to the largest open-air market in all of West Africa. It was rather intimidating, not to mention filthy, so we didn't stay very long. We went to the Kumasi Cultural Center to look at the craft shops there, but everything was really over-priced, so we ended up going back to Vic Baboo's for a late lunch and got some crafts from the street vendors there. Saturday evening, the seven of us went to this amazing Indian restaurant, claimed to be one of the best Indian restaurants in the "West," and it lived up to the hype. Now I'm not an expert of Indian cuisine, but the Chicken Tikki Marsala and Garlic Naan was delicious. It was rather pricey, but definitely worth every pesewa! I had a long talk with Kristine that night, about life, love, our futures, and everything in between. I was pretty tired so I went to bed early. Our bus left at 12:30 Sunday and we arrived back in Accra around 6:30.

I went back to Kumasi this past weekend with the Penn State group. We left this past Thursday and came back last night. Here is a rather brief description of what we did each day:

Thursday - 6 hour ride to Kumasi. I listened to my iPod almost the entire time (thanks Ben). Upon arrival, we went to the Arts College located just outside of Kumasi and met with a world-renowned ceramic artist who has artwork in the UN office, the Ghanaian embassy in the U.S., and several art museums throughout Europe. Afterward, we went for lunch. Next was a trip to the Kumasi Cultural Center (again) where we went on a tour of the Asante Warfare Museum. It was pretty cool! There were ancient swords and weapons of various kinds. We also received a guided tour of the former Asante King's Palace. It had a lot of artifacts of previous Asante kings. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take pictures at either of the museums. We ate dinner and went to our hotel. I watched V for Vendetta with Mike on my laptop in our hotel room. Got to love air-conditioning and a hot shower!

Friday - We had a 2 hour drive north of Kumasi to Techiman, one of the provinces of the Asante Kingdom. There, we met with the chief for a while for him to discuss aspects of his peoples' culture. The chief sent us, with one of his "servants," to several rock formations just outside of the village. These rock formations are regarded as holy religious sites to both Christian and traditional African beliefs. We climbed up this huge escarpment for a couple of hours! It was an amazing feeling once you got to the top. Most of the people struggled climbing it, but thankfully my days in Boy Scouts prepared me well. I also got some fantastic pictures from the top of the "mountain" that we climbed of the surroundings. When you picture Africa in your head...this is what we saw (for the first time)! It was so cool. There wasn't really any wildlife, other than the usual insects and lizards, but the scenery was beautiful. I can't wait to show everybody pictures of this when I get back home. After we descended the mountain, we went to the Brobina-Fiema Monkey Sanctuary. It's this small village that monkeys live on the outskirts of and come into town around dusk and dawn. Unfortunately, just as we arrived, it started pouring down rain and the monkeys had already returned to the surrounding jungles. We saw a couple way up in the trees, but they were too far to get pictures. We went back to our hotel for dinner.

Saturday - This was a pretty uneventful day. We drove back to Kumasi from Techiman, but along the way we stopped at a craft village that made wood carvings, a batiking village (a type of printed cloth), and a kente village (a type of weaved cloth, this is the "traditional" African cloth). We were allowed some time to shop at each of the three villages. I got some really cool stuff, for myself and as gifts for others. Can't wait to show everybody what I got in December!

Sunday - we went to an important festival for the Asante people (that occurs every 40 days), but I can't remember the name of it for the life of me. We also met the Queen Mother of the Asante people. It was pretty cool, but our tour guide didn't tell us how long the ceremony would take and none of us were really prepared to sit for 4 hours without eating. Sam, our tour guide, is a great guy, but he doesn't communicate very well at times. Oh well! After the durbar, we ate lunch and left to come back to Accra. I finally arrived at the hostel on campus around 9 p.m. and went to bed very soon after.

So, that was an incredibly condensed version of my weekend, but I promise to share more about it when I return home. I have a lot that I need to read for lectures tomorrow, so I need to get going. All is well other than my trips lately. Still haven't had too many problems with bugs. Last night, I woke up in a cold sweat, my back itched, and my heart was beating really hard and really fast. I ended up having to call my mom at 4 a.m. here (mid-night back home) to ask her what was wrong. Thankfully, in addition to being a wonderful mother, Nancy Walker is an incredible nurse and told me what to do to get everything under control. We still don't really know what caused the symptoms, but they haven't recurred again. If they do, I'll probably have to go to a clinic and get everything checked out. I'm sure my mom didn't sleep too well after that phone call, but everything is fine for now! My last class of the day tomorrow is cancelled, so I only have two and I'll get to go to Pizza Inn two hours earlier than normal! I also got my first package from my mom today. It took six weeks to get here and was pretty expensive to send, but it was definitely worth it. I've been re-stocked on peanuts, hand sanitizer, K2O drink mixes, deodorant, etc. for the next couple weeks. They have this weird policy in Ghana in regards to postal services. Even though my mom paid a ridiculous amount to have everything shipped here, I still had to pay transit fees and the Ghanaian national tax on the "value" of what was sent. Luckily, the guy processing our packages was very friendly and studied at the University of Ghana a couple of years ago, so he gave me a reduced value of my package. My mom had it insured for about $75, but he only charged me for $40. The taxes and transit fees still came out to 20 cedis! I guess I learned my lesson for next time...pay the $50 charge by the airlines to bring EVERYTHING you need with you, rather than having it shipped. Well, I need to head out now.

Until next time,
Greg

Catching Up...

Well, it's not going to be as in-depth and detailed as I would have liked, but here is the recap of what I've been up to the past two weeks.

Two weekends ago, Saturday (6/9) to Monday (8/9) our group from Penn State, which consists of Andrew, Mike, Terrell, Kevin, Caroline, Danielle, Christine, and myself, went to Cape Coast and Elmina for the weekend. We left around 6 a.m. on Saturday. I wanted to kill myself when my cell phone alarm went off at 5 a.m. It didn't help that I was up until about 12:30 on Friday night watching Gossip Girls with Carly and McKenzie. I know what you're thinking...what the heck is Greg doing watching Gossip Girls? I know because I thought the same thing myself. But to be honest, it's really not that bad. This doesn't mean that I have a new found liking for excessively dramatic and cheesy girl television shows, but it does give me something to do in the evenings. Anyways, the drive to Cape Coast was about two hours. When we arrived, we grabbed a quick breakfast at a restaurant that overlooks the ocean, right next to Cape Coast Castle. As soon as we were done eating, we went a couple miles away to join a parade. We were actually in a parade! It was a bit awkward. I felt like an animal on display at the Bloomsburg Fair as little kids and adults alike pointed their fingers at us and laughed/smiled. The guy that we were behind must have been pretty important because women kept coming up to him and fanning him throughout the parade route. He also had an entourage of people to get him water and energy drinks (he drank three during the parade...can't be good for his heart). At one point in time, a television station came up and interviewed him while walking along the street. But, he was a really cool guy and was encouraging us to dance with him. I'm not much of a dancer, but I tried and the Ghanians certainly got a kick out of watching me. The parade was fun for about the first two hours, but after that, it got incredibly hot. I got a sunburned neck and nose because our tour guide didn't tell us that we would be out in the sun for so long, so I didn't put any sunscreen on. After about three and a half hours and 5 miles of walking we finally got to the end of the parade route. The reason for the parade was part of an all-day celebration where all the "sub-chiefs" recommitted themselves to the "head chief" on that tribes new calender year. There was a durbar that the president of Ghana spoke at, but we didn't have time to stay around. We got a quick lunch and then went to Cape Coast Castle. We got a guided tour. It was intense! They took us down into the dungeons where they kept the slaves back in the 17th and 18th centuries. The tour guide also showed us the governor's room, the "trading room" (where the merchants bartered over the purchase of slaves), and the "door of no return" (the door that the slaves were filed through on their way to the boats to leave for Europe and North and South America. After the tour, we had a few minutes to walk around and take pictures. I went back down into the dungeons to get some pictures and I was the only person down there. It was incredibly creepy; I had chills in my spine. I got some great pictures though and I can't wait to show everybody when I get back! We went back to our "botel" (a hotel that is essentially a boat on a huge pond). There were crocodiles in the pond! It was so awesome. We threw bread into the water and a ton of fish would come and start eating it. Then, all of a sudden, crocodiles would lunge out of the water to eat the fish. They are such powerful animals. It was a bit intense knowing that they aren't penned into a specific area and could come out of the water onto the land by our rooms at any point in time, but the staff assured us that there have never been any attacks in the botels 30 years of operation.

On Sunday, we woke up around 9 a.m. after a fantastic night's sleep (I had an air-conditioned room for the first time since I've come to Ghana)! We ate breakfast at the botel and then drove about an hour west of Cape Coast to Elmina (named by the Portuguese in the 17th Century after "la mina" - meaning "the mine" because of all the gold that they found in the region). We went to Elmina Castle. We received a tour there as well. The tour guide there was much better and well-informed. While the dungeons weren't quite as eerie, the stories about the British Governors and soldiers taking advantage of the female soldiers and showing us how they selected their "prizes" was saddening. The castle itself was nicer than Cape Coast Castle in terms of architectural design and restoration projects. One of the coolest things about the castle is that it hosts the second oldest church built in West Africa (the first was destroyed during a conflict between the Dutch and the English over control of "Gold Coast" colony - the old name for Ghana). I got some awesome pictures there as well. After our tour of the castle, we ate lunch and went to a beach resort for the afternoon. The beach was beautiful, especially in comparison to my experiences at Labadi Beach and Ada Foah. There was no trash in the water or on the beach within eyesight. The waves were the perfect size for body surfing (made me wish I had my boogey-board) and they had really comfortable chairs to sit in and just enjoy the surroundings. We stayed there until about 4 p.m., then got in our bus for an hour and a half ride to a remote village in the rain forest. There, we saw a bamboo orchestra play some traditional African music that was accompanied by an African dance ensemble. It was spectacular! One of the coolest cultural experiences I've encountered thus far. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. When we were finished watching the dancers and listening to the music, we got up and joined them in dancing. They taught us a traditional African dance. Let me tell you, it was quite tiring. I give these dancers a lot more respect for what they put their bodies through. I thought dancing to one song was tiring, imagine what dancing to 7 songs is like! By the time the orchestra was finished, it was getting dark and we had to leave right away before it got too dark. The roads here at nighttime are very dangerous because of all the potholes and drop-offs on the side of the roads. We all wanted to stay and see the village, so I guess I'll just have to make it a point to go back there at some other point in time this semester. We went back to the botel and went to bed.

Monday morning we went to Kakum National Park around 10 a.m. and went on the canopy walk tour. It was a pretty tiring trek up the side of the mountain to get up to the canopy level of the trees below. Once we got to the canopy, my excitement quickly turned to sheer terror. Now, I'm not usually that afraid of heights, but if you saw how primitive looking these walkways that were suspended 40 meters (approximately 130 feet) above the jungle floor, you would understand. The park rangers assured us that there have never been any fatalities in the parks history, but that didn't seem to help calm down my nerves. I was okay crossing the first of seven walkways because it was pretty stable and not quite as high off the ground. But on the second walkway, the boards in the middle creaked really loud as we walked across them and I thought my heart was going to pound out of my chest. I made the mistake of looking down! Imagine looking down on the tops of trees that are as tall as the tallest trees back in Pennsylvania (and you're still well above them). I got some really cool pictures, but they do the canopy walk no justice. By the fourth and fifth walkways I was feeling as "comfortable" as possible and by the end I was really excited about what I had just done.; walked along 300 meters of a walkway made of rope, a wooden walkway situated on top of an aluminum frame (resembled a narrow ladder), 40 meters above the ground! If you ever get a chance to come to Ghana, I highly recommend spending a day up on the canopy walkway in Kakum National Park. It is a once in a lifetime experience (especially considering there are only 3 other similar canopy walkways in the entire world). We ate a late lunch at the park before driving three and a half hours back to Accra. It was an awesome weekend; the best I've had here in Ghana so far!

Well, I've been working on this for quite some time and I need to do some work for a group project meeting that I have at 5 p.m. today for my history class. Sorry I didn't get a chance to completely catch-up on my life, but I'll fill everybody in on this past weekend and my trip to Kumasi sometime soon. Tomorrow is my busy day, so I probably won't be online, but I will try my hardest to post the rest on Wednesday, seeing as I am going out of town again this weekend. We're leaving Thursday morning and returning Sunday, so I will be without Internet for a couple of days again. If there is anything you need from me for the next week or so, make sure you email or facebook me by Wednesday, otherwise I won't get it until next Monday. Hope all is well with everybody back home/at school!

Let's Go State (3-0),
Greg

My Apologies

Hey everybody,

I'm incredibly sorry for not posting for such a long time. I've been very busy the past two weeks and tonight is no exception. I don't really have time to post about all that has happened since I last wrote, but I can assure you that it is on the way (possibly even tomorrow). I have a lot to share, it's merely a matter of finding to the time to sit down and type it all out. I just wanted everybody to know that I am well. Rash on the arm still hasn't gone away so I might be going to clinic on campus tomorrow to get it checked out. Otherwise, I'm doing great! I traveled the past two weekends (to Cape Coast and Kumasi) and had two exams last week (one in each of my history courses), hence the reason I haven't been keeping up with the blog.

In other news, Penn State is doing fantastic! I mean, it hasn't been much of a challenge so far. Coastal Carolina High School, come on? The first true challenge lies ahead this Saturday when we play Illinois, but I'm confident that Joe Pa can pull out a win. Let's go State! We found a Sports Bar in Accra that shows American Football (both professional and collegiate) from time-to-time. This past weekend, they had the Ohio State-USC game and the NC State-Clemson game. I got really excited when we found it!

Well, that's all for now. It's been really nice hearing from people via facebook and e-mail! I really appreciate all the prayers. I can feel God's protection around me.

Greg

Quick Update

Life has been good ever since the return of the UNC/miscellaneous group on Monday evening. In fact, I had the most fantastic meal during my entire stay in Ghana so far Monday night. Carly, McKenzie, and I made some delicious pasta with tomato and basil sauce. Carly brought a blend of spices from back home that is to die for! We had a great time preparing, eating, and even cleaning up. We listened to random classical music on my iTunes while we ate. I don't know how many of you watch the Office, but it's our very own version of "The Finer Things Club." The comparison is almost perfect, except we have 2 girls and 1 guy vs. the actual club which consists of Pam, Toby, and Oscar (1 girl, 2 guys). I'm sure Eric is proud of my Office trivia knowledge. Last time it was third in the beet eating contest, next time it will be first in the trivia challenge. Too bad I'll have to miss the Office Convention again this year. I'm really going to be depressed if I can't watch the episodes online at NBC.com (hope I'm not breaking copyright laws by saying that).

Yesterday was a typical Tuesday. Three classes beginning at 11:30 a.m. and going until 7:30 p.m. Thankfully, I have a two hour break right in the middle of that to get something to eat and go to the bathroom. By the end of my last lecture, all I can think of is the delicious Veggie Supreme Pizza waiting for me at Pizza Inn (got to love gas station food). We got smart this time and had the rest of the group order our pizzas for us, so they were ready by the time we got there. Otherwise, it takes 45 minutes to and hour to get your pizza. When we came back to ISH we had cake in celebration of Callie's 22nd Birthday! It was pretty good for Ghana, but it wasn't quite the same as those delicious cakes my mom gets for everybody's birthday back home. Even though I won't be home for my birthday, I hope there will be a nice big cake awaiting me when I return (wink-wink, Mom). Everybody hanged/hung (I never know which one of those to use) out in my room for a little. Thankfully I didn't have any classes today to worry about and could stay up a little later than normal.

Today was pretty busy, despite the fact that I didn't have any classes. I woke up around 9:30 a.m. and immediately got dressed so I could walk up to the History Department and pick up a packet to read for next class. Side note, textbooks are nearly impossible to come by here in Ghana, so we have to pay for photocopies every time we have a reading assignment. Turns out they didn't have them ready yet ("Tomorrow" they said. That's what they always say). Then I went to the Economics Department to drop one of my Econ classes because it won't transfer back to Penn State. Next on the agenda was Barclay's Bank to exchange some money. That is always quite an experience. Imagine trying to stuff 100 people into a room the size of my family room (hopefully most of you can picture the size because I'm a terrible judge of dimensions) and there is almost no semblance to the lines. People always cut in front of you unless you literally remain inches away from the person in front of you. After that was over, I went to the Political Science Department to drop one of my PL SC courses that doesn't fit into my schedule. Finally, I stopped by JQB to drop off my registration form at the international programs office before heading back to ISH to take a shower and eat lunch. Then I went to the main entrance to meet up with Callie, McKenzie, and Carly to come to Busy Internet in Accra (which is where I am at present). I'll probably be here for another hour or so to send out some emails and do a bit of research for my Sociology class. There's a little Shania Twain playing over the radio right now that's driving me crazy.

So that's all the day-to-day things that have been going on since I last blogged. Now I have just a few random things to mention:

- I've developed a small rash on my right wrist that seems to intensify in sunlight. It itches from time to time, but otherwise doesn't really bother me much. Hoping it goes away on its own though.

- I went to put my Kent State or Penn State hat on today, only to discover that they're both growing mold. Disgusting, I know, but I like them both too much to part with them. I'm going to hand wash them and pour some boiling water on them and see if it helps. It's probably a result of my sweat, dirt, and Hunter's residue that's been sitting in humid, tropical weather for nearly a month.

- The weather here is completely unpredictable. It can rain, be windy, cloudy, and sunny all in the same day. Makes it very difficult to predict when to take my rain jacket and umbrella, so I usually take them everywhere.

- One of the cleaning ladies brought her children to the hostel with her the other day. The son's name was Jones and his older sister was named Elizabeth. I sat and talked with them for a couple minutes while their mom was cleaning the bathroom on our floor. I gave them each a piece of gum and they loved it. Then we played a game where I would pour some multi-colored chips out on the bench (Jones is using them to learn how to count in school) and they would race each other to count them first. Elizabeth usually won, but Jones didn't seem to mind.

- I love the girls from UNC! The southern accent (mostly Carly) and personality beats northern girls any day. If I wasn't so close to graduating, I would definitely consider transferring to UVA or Chapel Hill. I will most definitely be visiting Genevieve and Kyle again, (and now Carly, McKenzie, Callie, Maggie, and Mary Beth) this spring! For the record, my wife must be from south of the Mason-Dixon Line.

There's a lot more I could add to this list but I've been working on this entry, the last entry, and a couple emails for a while now and I'm tired of thinking! I think I'm going to use the rest of my incredibly fast Internet time facebooking and looking up airline prices to Cairo (that's right, I might be flying to Egypt for 10 or 11 days later this semester, if the "Price is Right" (which is another (triple parenthesis...I know you hate me right now Rafik) thing that I miss from back in the States)).

Salutations (Charlotte's Web anybody? Which, coincidentally is the name of a beautiful southern city that produces equally beautiful southern women),

Greg

Responses

In response to some of my "readers" comments/e-mails.

Aunt Lynn - Sorry about not responding to that initial comment you left during the "Packing" entry (or any other comments you may have left). It seems like there may be some sort of problem with the website itself because other people have said that they've left comments and I haven't received them. The comment you left yesterday was the first comment I've had since "Packing." So if anybody else has sent me comments that I haven't responded to, it's probably because I'm not receiving them for some reason or another. As Leonardo DiCaprio said in "Blood Diamond," "T.I.A. (this is Africa)," so that could be part of the problem. But, in response to your questions. My leg has been taking longer to heal than I had expected. It still hasn't "scabbed over" completely, but I think that it might get rubbed off when I sleep at night. I continue to consult WebMD for information and I will be sure to get it checked out at the first sign of infection. Neosporin has helped I think, but I really wish I had some NewSkin with me. As I mentioned before, all the Ghanians are huge Obama supporters. In fact, one Ghanian walked passed me today and said "McCain's losing!" I don't really know what elicited that comment towards me (I guess I just have that conservative Republican aura about me). I doubt the Ghanians are concerned with who McCain's running mate is, because they have all assumed that Obama has already won. They do, however, know what a running mate is. They are having a presidential election here in Ghana on December 7th and some of the billboards post who the candidates' running mates are. They actually use similar tactics as American politicians use in selecting their running mates. For example, a candidate from Accra (in the south) is likely to pick a running mate from the northern or central region to win more votes. For my sociology class, I'm going to be conducting independent research on the cause for Ghanian support of Obama. My tentative research question is, "Does the overwhelming African support for Barack Obama in the 2008 Presidential Election stem from a racial connection with the candidate or a genuine belief that he will improve the condition of Africa?" Many people that I have talked to about the election really just want to see a black president in the U.S., but there have been others that believe that Obama will bring a paradigmatic shift in U.S. foreign policy towards Africa (which I think is an absurd belief). I want to find out which one is true. Hope that answers your questions Aunt Lynn. I'll be happy to answer any others that you may have.

Mom - see above for the condition of my leg. Even though I already told you this the other day, I want to publish my ideas for your world conquest on my blog. So, as some of you may or may not know, my mom was in charge of the nursing staff at the Evangelical Community Hospital Ambulatory Surgical Center (or something like that) last week while Leslie was away. The following is an excerpt from the email message I sent her:

"Maybe you should form a coup d'etat, overthrow Leslie and her regime of terror, and usurp power for yourself! I'm just kidding of course, but if it means more money, I'm not. And if that's successful, don't stop there. Take over the entire hospital, then Lewisburg, then Pennsylvania, the U.S., and become dictator of the world. I will totally submit to your rule if you promise to make me your chief advisor with a hefty salary of course."

Don't really know why I felt compelled to post that on my blog. Probably for the sheer amusement that it will bring to her co-workers this week. I'm sure they're missing seeing my bubbly face around there every week to receive my allergy injections. By the way, I was completely kidding about your "regime of terror" Leslie. You're wonderful! But Dr. Tenedious on the other hand...

Eric Yale - "I'm not your friend, buddy." I miss you man! Glad to hear everything worked out relatively well. Just remember that the same void that you feel in your heart is the same that I will experience this spring when you're in Rome. We'll just have to ensure that Christmas Break is amazing and will heal our broken hearts. I'll send you an email in the next couple days about your "Shaping" class and in regards to our previous conversation. Take it easy...

Patrick Wagner - Glad to hear all is well at Pitt and you're enjoying the blog. Thought I would give you a little shout-out because it gives me the perfect segway into saying, "Pittsburgh Stinks!" I mean, they lost to Bowling Green. Can you say over-rated? Let's Go State! But seriously dude, I'm happy to hear that you're enjoying yourself out there (even though your football team is terrible). Miss you man! Can't wait for more Sheetz and Hess Fields excursions over Christmas Break.

Tim McKinley - "Ghanarrhea" is terrible! I love reading your outlandish messages on the Facebook thread. Although, that map of Soda vs. Pop is a bit flawed. The sample size is way too small to cover every county in the U.S. They probably only polled 5-6 people in each county. Interesting nonetheless though. Hope you have a good semester! See you in December...

Kyle Perez - This is a test to see if you're actually reading my blog since you were complaining about me not writing on your wall. I've met these really awesome girls from UNC, which means I will most likely be coming down for another visit again this spring (pass the word along to Genevieve if she isn't reading my blog). Hope you're having an awesome semester so far! I was surprised when I saw UNC's pre-season ranking in SI. They may actually have a pretty good football season (but nothing compared to Penn State). Oh, and Michigan is going to be terrible! Hope you didn't get your hopes on that one. By the way, I met this girl from Elon who is dating a guy who's in SigEp there. They're balanced-man...made me think of you. Take it easy dude!

Stu Ruston - Wish I was at State this semester man (but at the same time, not really)! When I read about our trouncing of Coastal Carolina it really made me homesick, or at least "State College-sick." Hope your semester is going well so far. If you run into Yongsheng Chen, tell him I said, "helrow!" Can't wait to be re-united this spring...hopefully as roommates! Take it easy dude!

To "Everybody" Else - (if I didn't mention you specifically, you should categorize yourself as a part of "everybody") I miss you and can't wait to see you; either over Christmas Break, Christmas Eve with the family, or spring semester at Penn State! You can continue to send messages via my blog, email, or facebook. But if you're feeling overly adventurous, you can try calling me at my Ghanian cell phone number...+233-024-019-2358. Just remember that I'm 4 hours ahead until daylight savings (when it changes to 5 hours).

Axis and Allies, House, and Evans Agyei

Hello everybody!  All is well here in Ghana and pretty unchanged since I last posted (only 48 hours ago, I know, but it feels like forever).  Things have been pretty dull around campus this weekend because a lot of people were away traveling and until today, the weather wasn't ideal.  Today is the first day it hasn't rained at all since Wednesday.  Thankfully, I have my laptop here; otherwise, I would have likely gone insane!  I've been playing a lot of Axis and Allies on my computer whilst listening to classical music on iTunes.  Carmina Burana by Carl Orff makes for some great background music for the World War II-based strategy game.  Also, I have watched the entire first season of House since I bought it on Wednesday.  The episodes are roughly 42-44 minutes in length and there are 22 episodes in the first season.  That's approximately 16 hours in total, 2.67 hours per day, 3.5 episodes per day.  Season Two starts tonight (and might be done just as quickly as the first season)!  I'm sure that Will and Ben are happy to hear of my recently discovered infatuation with Dr. Gregory House and his team of diagnosticians.  Almost makes me wish I was going into medicine...almost!

I had my first "visitor" today.  Mr. Evans Agyei, the Gideon that my grandparents met at a conference this summer, came to Legon this morning.  He lives in Asamankese, about 1.5 to 2 hours north of Accra.  I was abruptly awoken at 5:45 a.m. by Mr. Agyei to let me know that he would be on campus in about an hour.  I about died!  I set my cell phone alarm for 6:15 a.m. and slept right through it.  I woke up 6:45 a.m. and panicked because I thought he was there.  Thankfully for me, he got stuck in traffic; unfortunate for him.  He finally arrived around 8 a.m.  His son Selorm is also a student at the University of Ghana, but lives off campus.  We waited for his son to join us for breakfast but there was some miscommunication between the two because the son went to the wrong meeting place.  Mr. Agyei and I went for breakfast and waited for his son to arrive.  We ate at Tasty Treats and got the "full breakfast," which includes sausage (actually hot dogs), an omelette, beans, breadrolls, and a cup of tea for 3 cedis.  We talked about Mr. Agyei's life, family, school that he runs, etc.  He asked me a lot of questions about my stay in Ghana so far and about my grandfather.  We talked about the Gideons and he told me several stories about his experiences in Louisville for the Convention this past summer.  He plans on returning to the U.S. in two years for another convention.  Half-way through breakfast, Selorm arrived and we talked a lot about our education.  His son lives in Madina, a suburb of Legon/Accra, and we exchanged numbers.  He has given me an open invitation to his home and agreed to travel with me when I got to Asamankese to visit his father.  At the end of breakfast, we all got a picture together (reminiscent of the picture that he took with my grandparents at the convention) and hugged.  I can't wait to go visit Mr. Agyei at his home.  He said that he'll show me around his home, orange and pineapple farm, the Golden Child Complex School (the grade school he runs), and the village.  He is friends with the chief, so we'll probably go meet him as well!

After they left, I did some work in my room until lunchtime.  Mike and I went to the Night Market.  I had white rice with vegetable stew.  It was pretty good, but lukewarm.  That is my biggest complaint about the food here.  I don't mind eating cold food if its meant to be cold, or warm food if its meant to be warm.  But I hate eating warm "cold" food and more commonly, cold "warm" food.  Oh well!  The internet at ISH 1 hasn't been working the past couple days, so I decided I would trek across campus to the Jones-Quatrey Building (JQB for short) and use the wireless access in the International Programs Office.  I'm actually about to head out now.  The group is due back any time now and Carly, McKenzie, and I are going to make dinner together tonight.  Probably spaghetti and sauce (how African)!  Tomorrow is my busy day (3 lectures and half-price pizza at Pizza Inn), so there may not be a post.

Until next time (I'm really struggling to come up with creative salutations),

Greg

Day in Osu

Today was another uneventful day. Woke up around 9 a.m., took a shower, went to the computer lab to write my blog and send out some emails (only to find out that the manager didn't show up today, so they were closed), got breakfast, watched an episode of House, and played some Axis and Allies on my computer. Thankfully, I found some others that wanted to go into Accra today, so I didn't have to go alone, which would have been fine since it was daytime, but not nearly as much fun. Ben, Mike, Andrew, and I left ISH around 12:30 p.m. and walked to the tro-tro station. There usually aren't tro-tros that go directly to your destination, so you have to go to one of the main stations and pick one up from there. We rode to 37 Station and switched tro-tros. Sure, it's a bit of a hassle, but it only cost $0.65 per person to get there (vs. a taxi which would cost about $2.00 per person). Once we got to Osu, we walked down the street to check out the street vendors stands. The merchandise in Osu is a bit pricey, but at the same time very nice because it is in a very tourist-centric portion of the city. I bought the Ghana flag for 7 cedi and a football jersey (knockoff of course) for 7 cedi, 50 pesawas. The original asking price for both items was 15 cedi, so I was pretty proud of my bargaining abilities today. Once Mats and Simen, from Norway, arrived in Osu, we walked down to Papaye for lunch. Papaye is about the closest to an American "fast food" restaurant, but the service is far from fast. I had a cheesburger and french fries (which Ghanians call "chips"). With a large bottle of water and a glass of tangerine juice, my lunch total was 6 cedi, 50 pesawas. Pretty comparable to McDonald's. We walked back up the other side of the street, constantly being heckled by vendors. There are a ton of guys that go around selling wrist bands that say Ghana, or more popular "Obama."

I told a Ghanian that I wasn't an Obama supporter for the first time today. He seemed amused at first (thinking I was kidding), but I told him that I wasn't joking. I said that I was going to vote for McCain and then his expression quickly changed to confused. I asked him if he had ever even heard of John McCain and he said "no." I explained that he is in the opposite political party (using a reference to Ghanian politics) as Barack Obama. Based off this guys expression, it seemed like he thought Obama was already elected president! After telling him all this, he left me alone (probably because he was either embarrassed, or more likely, disappointed that I didn't like Obama and that he wasn't guaranteed to become president). I think I'll have to use this tactic from now on! I'll just have to be careful who I say it around. I've quickly found that I am, literally, the only conservative American at the University of Ghana! Doesn't surprise me, but it does make political debates a bit intimidating. Luckily, I have 4 years of speech and debate on my side and the arrogance to think that I'm always right (very important characteristic I've found for doing well in debates).

That aside, after we left Osu, we stopped at the Accra Mall...the most Western thing south of the Mediterranean! There's a Nike Store, Panasonic, Puma, Shoprite, and several other upscale Western-style clothing stores. I picked up some groceries at Shoprite: peanut butter, tomato sauce, spaghetti, and a bottle of South African white wine. Aside from the peanut butter, I'm planning on having a very Italian-style, home-cooked dinner tomorrow night (although red wine would have been more appropriate). I'll probably pick up a nice loaf of bread tomorrow at the market to top it all off. Something that I thought about today...it is going to be weird when I get back to the States and can't have alcohol for a year. I only have a bottle of beer or a glass of wine with dinner, but I'm sure that after four months of doing so I will become accustomed to it.

We left the mall around 6:30 and came back to ISH. I picked up some salt and cooking oil at the "All Needs, Ltd." (which is a very ironic store name) down the street. I just finished up dinner (two sausage and vegetable kebabs) and came over to ISH 1 (I live in ISH 2) to use the internet. I'm pretty tired tonight so I think I'll be staying in, but a couple people were planning on going to the "Family Room" Cinema to watch a movie. The Family Room is a place that has several rooms that seat 4-7 people that you rent out to watch a movie on a television. You just pick a DVD and they play it for you. It costs 10 cedi for the 4 person room and 13 cedi for the larger, 7 person room. I'll probably just watch a movie on my laptop, then call it a night. I have to go to the Bush Canteen market in the morning to pick up a plate, silverware, a pot, and a cooking pan. In the afternoon, I'll work on my Sociology assignment in the library and pick up my books at the student bookstore. Doubt I'll be posting tomorrow because almost everything is shut down because its a Sunday. Ghanians take the "Remember the Sabbath and Keep it Holy," commandment a bit more serious than Western countries.

Just found out that Penn State won today! Not just won, but handed it to Coastal Carolina. Let's go State! I really wish I had been there. In fact, this is my first episode of homesickness. Oh well, I have the rest of my life for Penn State Football; I only have 4 months to enjoy living in Ghana! Well, I'm heading out...

Greg

Worst Day Yet...

So, after I wrote my wall post yesterday, the day took a turn for the worse. After I left the International Programs Office, I went for lunch with Brandon. While we were trying to enjoy our meal, this beggar came over and sat down and would not leave us alone. He had a "sob story" about how he was a Liberian refugee and needed 4 cedi to get a taxi from campus to the refugee camp on the other side of Accra. I told him that we didn't have any money and if he would please leave us alone, but he kept persisting. It might sound mean, not helping him out, but if I gave 4 cedi to every person that came along with a story I would be broke by now. That was only the beginning...

After lunch, Brandon and I parted ways (he had another class). I started walking to the History Department to pick up our reading list for the semester. On the way, it started raining. Luckily I had a rain jacket with me, so I was fine until I got to the History Department. Once I picked up the syllabus, I waited until the rain slowed down because by this point in time it was pouring. As I was walking back to ISH, a torrential downpour began and I was utterly helpless. I was right in the middle of a long walkway without any protection. The closest building was 300 yards away. My rain jacket quickly became soaked (and likewise, permeable)! The worst part was, I had my laptop with me and the rain was seeping through my backpack. So I took my jacket off and wrapped it around my backpack to try and provide some protection for my laptop. Fortunately, I made it back to the hostel before the water got to my computer, but I was soaked and muddy. I jumped in the shower (second of the day) and put my clothes out to dry.

That afternoon, I was on my laptop and it was charging. All of a sudden the voltage converter I had started smoking and sparking. It's fried! Mom, you'll have to apologize to your coworker that let me borrow it (let her know that I'll pay her to replace it when I get back). Now I have to get another step-up/step-down converter. Until then, I can't use my laptop because it's low on battery. The worst is yet to come...

So around 6 p.m. we decided to go get dinner at the Basement. We were all craving some Red Red, something that the Basement is particularly good at preparing. Unfortunately, when we arrived they said they were out and we had to get something else. That's not the worst of it. On the way back to ISH (it was still pouring at this point, mind you), I fell in on of the thousand ditches that weave their way around campus. They're drainage ditches to prevent water from puddling up around sidewalks and such, but they aren't covered and when it's dark out, they are very difficult to see. My left foot fell in (with my $120 Nike Shocks on, making matters even worse), and my right shin caught the lip of the CEMENT ditch! I got a pretty rough scratch that was bleeding and my shin hurt like (pardon the French) hell the whole way back to the hostel. It's got a nice lump on it this morning. The thing that worries me the most though is that people frequently throw their trash in those ditches and they smell like sewage when you walk by them, so I'm hoping that scrubbing the scratch in the shower (third of the day) with soap and water, putting alcohol sanitizer on it, Neosporin antibacterial spray, Neosporin cream, and a band-aid took care of all the bacteria! I'll be keeping a close eye on it over the next few days. Oh yeah, and throughout the day, my stomach was upset!

So, needles to say, I was not in the best of moods by the time I went to bed last night. Today has been a little better, except the rest of the group left for the Volta region this morning around 7 a.m. until Monday. I would have gone with them, except Prof. Dodoo has already set up a similar trip for the Penn State group that's already been paid for. The trip this weekend would have set me back $230, so I chose to stay behind. But everybody else went. So it's going to be a pretty lonely weekend. Tomorrow, I'm going into Accra for the day. Going out to eat, doing a little shopping, listening to the Penn State game on the internet. Sunday I'll try and finish up my Sociology assignment that's due in two weeks, which should only take about 2 hours. So, I don't really know what I'm going to do with the rest of my time between now and Tuesday, but I'm sure I'll find something. I might possibly head up to Asamankese, about 2 hours north of Accra, to meet Mr. Evans Agyei (the Gideon that my grandparents met at the International Gideons Convention this summer).

Well, that's all for now. No questions from anybody yet. Sometimes I wonder if what I'm writing about is really interesting to anybody. If you want to hear about something in particular, to possibly pique your interest, let me know.

Peace,
Greg