Birthday, and Homestay!

I just had the best birthday in the history of my birthdays! I have known my group for all of 2 days, and they gave me the greatest day ever. First we began with Twi language lessons (which we will all have to learn quickly for our next homestay in Kumasi) and for breaks we learned West African dancing with live drumming...! West African dancing is incredible, you move to the beat of the drums and tabla, and you hunch your body towards the Earth. All dances tell a story. I picked it up quickly! Then for my birthday we all went to the beach, and Kwame (one of the younger staff members) came with us. The ocean was like a bathtub, and everyone was playing music and dancing on the beach! The only difficult thing was getting proposed to by many men on the beach... a bit fast I would say! I may need to start saying that I have a husband. On the Tro Tro ride home, everyone sang Happy Birthday to me for a longgggg time, led by Kwame.  Then, after dinner my friend Jake brought tequila for all birthdays on the trip, so a few of us took shots for my 21st.   A bunch of my friends walked to the store and bought boxed sangria and chocolate, and they surprised me with this and with a birthday card signed by everyone on the trip.  My friend Rachel gave me a birthday massage, and Kwame and Papa Atah brought me wine.  It really was the best birthday I have ever had, and I couldnt believe I had such thoughtful friends by the second day of my trip.  I showed Yemi our program director the card in the morning, and he told me that he already had a feeling that our group was special, especially since we always tell the staff to come eat with us and join us in all of our activities.  The main saying here is |Enjoy your life| and that really is what everyone does here!  I\ve gotten used to saying it, it feels so simple and so wonderful.
Today I recently met my homestay family, and my homestay mother, Auntie Mellisant, has been a homestay mother for 9 years and has won best homestay mother awards.  Her daughter teaches at the University I will be going to, and she has adopted 2 girls who I hope to play with! I just finished a political discussion with a member of the family who I think may be Jennifer\s (Auntie\s daughter) boyfriend.  He sat down to eat and he said I was invited, meaning I was invited to sit and talk with him.  Normally in Ghana you only eat together on the weekends, which is interesting but is also nice because we don\t need to feel badly about missing dinner. We just eat when we\d like to. We just need to communicate about coming home late. Auntie made me a delicious dinner tonight and asked me everything about what I like to eat. She made me pasta with vegetables, and I ate cooked egg too (its hard to get protein here). She told me that I need to be safe, and that it is safe to walk around just not to be too friendly with men who want to marry me.  I have a huge bed, a toilet and shower to myself... nicer than our hotel! I  think I lucked out, because it won\t be like this for my other homestays.  And the University is only a short shared taxi ride away, 10 or 15 minutes opposed to the 1 hour Tro Tro ride many will have to take. I lucked out! Auntie said that many of her children (which she said I am one of) bring their families to Ghana to visit her.  I am so excited for everything, and I am loving life!
Love!

Here!

Hello from Ghana! I am here safely, and am so happy! We are staying for 3 nights in a hotel in Accra for our orientation, and I killed my first cockroach! I got my mosquito net up successfully, and we have air conditioning (which we will not have the rest of the trip).  The weather is HOT, I feel like I am detoxing all day long with all this sweat and need to drink a LOT of water. Today a doctor from the university came to our hotel to tell us how to keep healthy in Ghana, and what to do if we get sick with diarrhea, malaria, etc.  Apparently malaria, while not fun and not completely defended against by mosquito nets and malaria pills, is like getting the flu here: if you show symptoms (and have insurance which we do) you just take antibiotics for 3 days and you\re fine!
So far everyone in my group is AWESOME, and we went to the market today to buy emergency cell phones.  It was bustling with people, and there was music and children dancing on top of dirt piles.  And what a community! Women carrying water on their heads, children smiling and running around safely.  The program directors (Papa Atah, Kwame, Yemi and many more to meet soon) really have helped us so much in the beginning so that we feel comfortable doing things on our own.  Today I had a horrible nauseous reaction to my malaria pill and everyone was offering me tums, asking me if I was alright, etc... it\s like a really nice family.  I loveee one of the staff\s 3 year old son, today during resting time I started teaching him numbers and letters and his Mom told me that I am a natural  teacher.  She also called me Auntie Ashley to her son, because he gave me a hug and kiss after playing together for so long! 
The food is very spicy, which has been a bit tough but its not bad! We just need to be really careful with the water. After tomorrow night we begin our 2 week homestay in Accra, where we commute to classes in Tro Tros, which are like vans.  Today our entire 18 person group fit into 1 tro tro... we\ve really had to get to know each other well very quickly, smushed and sweating and smiling. It was like a roller coaster! And tomorrow for my birthday we planned a trip to the beach, which I\m so excited about! I got really lucky because it will be the last day we will all be together for the day and night for some time. After our homestay in Accra we have a 2 week homestay in Kumasi, where we will have to speak only Twi. Then 12 days in a rural village where we will see monkeys and giraffes and not have light or running water. After that we travel around the country together, staying in hostels. After that, Independent Study Project! I\m thinking of possibly studying the education system in rural Ghana, but we\ll see how difficult the 12 day rural village stay is before I make that decision!
I love you all so much, and I am sending peace and happiness to you from Africa!
Love,
Ashley

Adventures Await!

Dear friends and family,


I am so excited to embark on my travels, 2 weeks from today!  I will be leaving for Ghana for 4 months of learning, traveling, dancing, drumming... and ADVENTURE!  I have no idea what to expect in Ghana, but I will be going with an open mind and an open heart.  I will be traveling around the country with a group of students, with our homebase being at the University of Ghana, Legon.  We will be staying with 3 different homestay families, and our last month will be devoted to an Independent Study Project which we may choose to do on anything we feel inspired by while traveling and learning in Ghana. Because I do not know how much Internet access I will have, I hope to update as many people as possible when I do reach Internet cafes through updates on this blog. I will be leaving on January 27 with a backpack on my back and a huge smile on my face, and I cannot wait to begin my new chapter in Ghana!


Peace, love, and happiness to you all,
Ashley