Week 6 Updates

So, I have been seriously procrastinating on writing this post, I think because I didn't know what exactly to include. I'm in a funny place now where most things here don't surprise me anymore, but that doesn't make them any less different and foreign and interesting. I realize that my new normal is still probably  hard to imagine for most of you in the US, so I've been wavering about including every little funny or strange thing that has happened to me or just skimming over the past couple of weeks with summary. I'll try to do a little bit of both.

Last week was my school's 15th anniversary week, and they went all out. We had no classes and instead had different activities everyday. Here was the schedule for the week:

• Monday - Clean up day (we weeded and picked up trash not just at school, but on all of the streets around school)
• Tuesday - A health talk and blood drive
• Wednesday - Gospel Rock Show
• Thursday - A health walk (we walked around town with our school marching band for four hours!) and exercise (mainly Azonto dancing)
• Friday - African traditional day. There were cultural presentations and everyone came to school dressed in the traditional clothing of their tribes or like different African leaders. 
• Saturday - The Anniversary ceremony and cadets parade

Because I am a cadet, a good chunk of each day was spent training for the parade that was Saturday morning. The parade went really well (I didn't make any mistakes!) and the highlight of my day was when the lieutenant from Accra Air Force Base looked me straight in the eye and whispered "congratulations" as he did his inspection of my flight (my marching group). Also, girls' soccer started practicing this week (turns out we're going to have a team after all!). It feels so good to get into the routine of playing again. The anniversary activities and cadets training and soccer practice combined to create a crazy week. I was at school basically from 6 am to 6 pm everyday and I fell into bed every night, but it was awesome.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - I love my school here! The students are all so, so nice and patient with me, and I have made several good friends. I love that the teachers and coaches know how to joke around and connect with the students while still earning their respect. I think the other exchange students and my host family are shocked when I say I actually like going to school, but it is true, and it has really made living here a lot easier. 

Here are some other random things from the past couple of weeks (that really could each be entire posts themselves):

• I voted for the first time! I ended up having to take off two days from school because the first time we went to the embassy it was closed for Columbus Day (should have thought of that...) and then I had to go through a confusing process to register and submit a write-in ballot. But it's done now! 
• My host family is on the website couchsurfing.com, so they occasionally have guests from around the world staying with them. Right now we have a guy named Melvin from Sierra Leone (who is married to a woman from Finland) who is waiting in Ghana to get his Finnish citizenship documents from the consulate in Nigeria (I know, very confusing). He will be staying with us until December or whenever the documents are ready.
• One day my host brother Desmond randomly came home from work bearing treats - Honey Nut Cheerios, cheesecake mix, and macaroni and cheese. I seriously have the best host family ever!
• Last Saturday after Twi lessons I went with a couple other exchange students to a beach called Kokrobite, filled with a cool mix of Peace Corps volunteers and Rastafarians and European travelers  We met up with Desmond and Melvin and a couple of Desmond's friends and spent a  nice afternoon there. In a couple of weeks we're gonna go back for their reggae night.
• After the beach we came home and we were all tired so we decided to have a family movie night. In the middle of watching 21 Jump Street and eating ice cream with my host brothers we heard screaming outside and thought we were being robbed. Everyone ran outside with baseball bats and we found out that a crazy completely naked woman had opened our gate and walked right into the other house on our compound! (Thank goodness she chose their door and not ours...I would have screeeamed). Once she was out of our compound she danced and laid in the street for a while and some neighbors went and took her clothes and then she got irritated and started jumping in front of cars and yelling, so the neighbors chased her out of the road. The sad thing is that at one point a police officer came and he just tried to talk to her for about thirty seconds then got back on his motorcycle and went away.
• My host auntie Nancy bought me some Kente cloth and took me to the tailor to have an African dress made to wear to church and for traditional day at school. I'll try to post pictures later today.
• I spend a good chunk of the church service every Sunday just observing what the ladies are wearing. It reminds me of sitting on my front porch in D.C. on Sunday mornings and watching all of the old African-American ladies in their huge hats and pastel dresses going to the church around the corner. 
• Try to say Irish wristwatch really fast :) This (along with inappropriate jokes, skateboard tricks, and more) is just some of the many things I have been learning from my younger host brothers haha.
• Saturday night I went out with Pearl and Desmond and Melvin and while we were out we ran into the Miss Ghana competition. All I can say is...So. Much. Hair weave.
• Yesterday I was coming home from a trip to the family's clothing store and a stop at the mall with my Auntie Aba and host brother Kwesi and our tro tro and our taxi cab broke down and I got stuck next to a drunk guy on the second tro tro. Worst luck ever, but it's always an adventure in Ghana :)

Anyways, I know this was long but it was kind of a catch-up post. My life has quickly gone from looking for things to do to trying to find time to do everything I want to. When I was in Paraguay, at one and a half months the vast majority of my free time was spent with my host family. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, it just took me a lot longer to make friends there than it has here. Also, one of the other Americans that I came here with went home last week, eight months early, and several of the other exchange students I've talked to are having a very hard time settling into Ghanaian life (due to host family problems, culture shock, boredom, etc.). With these things in mind, I don't take it for granted that I have lots to do here - I am thankful that I have made awesome friends (from school, other exchange students, and host siblings) and have fun things to do each weekend. 

Before we came, we learned over and over again about the roller coaster of emotions that exchange students generally go through. Our mood would supposedly go down in the first week or so in country, then go super high as we start to adjust to the country and meet new people. Then after a couple of months we would go back down as the surface adjustment high gives way to the realization that we are actually still "outsiders" and don't have as firm of a grasp on some of the major aspects of the culture as we thought we did. Right now I feel like I am on the tippy top of the roller coaster, hoping that I don't come down anytime soon. I am loving life here and am just trying to be proactive, keep trying new things, and show the same kindness that I have received (and that has made this experience so great so far) to every Ghanaian I meet.

Twi word of the day:

school - sukul