Due to the time change, my wake up time was
around 12:45pm, 7:25 am back home. Our day was a pretty calm one, our plan was
to head out and do some exploring, while also visiting some of the incredibly
generous friends my dad made in the two weeks that he was here before us. After
piling into our very large SUV, we were out of our little cocoon of an
apartment and back into the city with the people. The first destination was the
University of Ghana, also referred to by the locals as Legon. It's a very large
campus, with 40,000 students in attendance. Next, we traveled away from the
heart of Accra to visit the school where my brothers would be attending. I
forgot to mention this earlier (whoops), but my mode of education won't be at
an actual school but online, taking online classes with an Ohio branch. This I haven't
started yet, but I assume will be a mini adventure in and of itself!
Okay. After leaving the
school, we headed to "Uncle" George's house, a man who had graciously
taken my dad under his wing and found us the very luxurious apartment we are
currently staying in. We headed over there to watch the African Cup final of
football, which had Ghana squaring off against Libya. As the time crept closer
to the game, the ever crowded roads and sidewalks got noticeably clearer as
everyone made their way to a tv to hopefully watch their team take the cup and
$750,000 prize. (Spoiler alert: they lost) This was a pretty big disappointment
for the Ghanaians, although their team had already scored a spot in the World
Cup through defeating Egypt in the qualifier which was a pretty good
consolation for the loss against Libya. Alright enough about football, back to
the good stuff.
Life here in Ghana is
overwhelming at first. In America, we keep to ourselves and don't really
approach others much, if at all. Here in Ghana, the people are like one huge
family. When meeting new people, they can clearly tell that my family wasn't
from around here and let us know that we were welcome, which was usually
followed by a hug. Another good indicator of the Ghanaians close relationships
are the modes of transportation called tro-tro's. These are minivans that
travel around the cities, picking up and dropping off people at desired
destinations along the way. The tro-tro's are large, but house about twice the
people they are meant to. It's a wonderful sight to be driving along and see a
tro-tro pull up, filled to the brim with people laughing, talking, and smiling
to each other.
Housing here in Ghana is
much different than in the US. In the US, there are the low income areas and
high income areas, but now much mixing. Here, almost everywhere is mixed-income
housing. Sure, there are areas specifically housing the higher income people
and others for the lower income, but a majority of the housing is a mix, which
is nice, it's nice to see that the people really don't care about how much
someone makes, they can still be neighbors. As it is only day two now, and I'm
reflecting on day 1, I can't say I'm a Ghanaian expert just yet :), but I'm
feeling pretty confident that over the course of our trip, I will be able to
really make Ghana my home.
For this blog, I'm
kiiiinda just rambling, so if anyone has any questions/suggestions for what I
should talk about, by all means please comment and share your thoughts. This is
a learning experience for all of us, and I'm very glad I can include all of you
in it, but I would be even happier if I really addressed everyone's thoughts!
-Layla
I think it'd be fascinating to discuss the food culture (all the spices and the tribal influences). Also, I always wanted to see the street markets of Accra in pictures (like street food, artisan crafts, produce, etc)!
ReplyDeleteHi. Are you seeing mainly adults or also lots of young people? Are you seeing people your age? How do they behave? How do they dress? What are their interactions with the adults? What about the very young? Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us.
ReplyDelete