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