End of Week Two and the Beginning of classes

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  Legon, Ghana
Friday, August 26, 2005

Well I've been here for almost a full two weeks now. I feel like I am really starting to adjust to the cultural differences, although I still get frustrated with the pace of things. I thought that registering for classes was all completed at the end of last week, but how wrong I was. Registration was so FRUSTRATING!! Elaine, I will never complain about Carleton registration again. There is obviously no Internet registering, which I had assumed. However, there is also no centre area to register either. You need to walk to each department and try to find what room they using for registration. Once you think you've found the right room (since there are pieces of paper and forms in stacks throughout the room) you need to find the person in charge. Sometimes there is someone there who can help you, sometimes there are other equally confused students, and sometimes you just sit down and wait 30-60 minutes until someone shows up. Once you've registered you need to return in a couple of days to see if they have posted the class schedule yet. No one can tell you which day the schedule will be posted, so you just have to check every couple of days (remember the campus is four times the size of Carleton's so this is no quick task). This week I started classes. On Monday I went to check the social work class schedule and found out that the department couldn't find a lecturer for one of my classes, so I had to find another department that would accept my late registration. Most of the classes that were supposed to run aren't being offered and 4th year BPAPM requirements already limit my options. My Monday afternoon class never had a prof so I'll try again this Monday. My Tuesday class had 300 people in it, and not enough chairs so people sat outside the class to hear the lecture. Wednesday morning had a prof who came 20 minutes late, apologize for not having a voice, and then left. My Thursday morning prof told us that class had actually began last week so we should catch up, and then kept asking me what State I was from, even though I corrected him that I was from Canada and the province of Ontario. Thursday afternoon the prof came 40 minutes late and then spent 35 explaining what a "theory" is (for those of you who are wondering, it is a generalized, not historical, explanation- yes that took 35 minutes). Today is Friday and I have no classes, whew! My roommate Ninny has still not arrived, but she is supposed to be here any day now, she is Ghanaian so I assume that most people know that the first week of classes is usually disorganized and not so important. To all of my Fellow BPAPM developers, I was the only one in my Politics and Development class that was familiar with Rostow or Andre Gunter Frank (Susan, I think that's all we studied for an entire year). I am really excited about some of my classes though because we're going to study African theories from African theorists and not just Europeans, so I think I really will learn a lot. The only thing I am not looking forward to are the early morning classes. I have class at 7:30 AM three times a week (ouch).

Food has become a problem, and as I expected being a vegan is almost impossible. I was so excited when I found soy milk here, but when I read the ingredients Meghan and I realized that it has whole milk powder in it, well I tried. So milk and eggs are being re-introduced into my diet, as slowly as possible. Fish oil is also really hard to avoid, but I think I have managed with all but one meal. I'm eating a lot of wakye (beans and rice), red-red (beans), plantain (mmmm...soooo good), baked yams (they are the best French fries I have ever had. Mom, poppa, Dana, Gray, Char, Liv, Kyle, Ant- I bought ketchup today!!), and lots of very fresh fruit (MANGOs, papaya, pineapple, apples, oranges). The only challenge left is trying to eat everything properly, like you should eat oranges when they are green, and they cut the top off for you so that you squeeze the juice out and then eat it kinda like an apple. However, I am missing food from home (vegan cheese. I miss vegan cheese SO MUCH) and coffee (I've had one cup of coffee once since I've been here, thanks Afam). The Carleton Crew and I went to a Chinese restaurant in downtown Osu last night, it was so unbelievably good. Two nights ago we finally made it out to Labodee for the beach party. The music was fun, but it really had a Rasta feel, which meant way too much weed. So a couple friends and I grabbed a star beer at the bar and then went and danced in the waves on the beach. We had a blast!

Meghan and I went to the Canadian High Commission the other day to check in, and we managed to arrange a meeting with Michele Ganyon from CIDA. He is working right now to set us up with a reputable local NGO so we can do some volunteer work. I am spending the weekend at the artists market with my friend Kwame and Meghan, and then I hope to continue my work on getting a placement at an NGO. Next weekend we're off to Kumasi, home of the Ashantis and their kingdom.

Thanks to everyone who has been sending me the e-mails it's so nice to hear from all of you. Your words of encouragement are so heart warming. I hope for those of you returning to school that your registration process goes smoothly, and if it doesn't try to use my experience for some perspective, you'll get through it!

~Adrienne

xoxo