My First Several Days

The past few days I have definitely been seeing the darker side of Accra. When we went on the bus tour of the main part of the city, the smells were overwhelming (not in a good way). Seeing people passed out along the streets was a harsh reminder of the poverty that many in this country live in. Then today, when Anas Aremeyaw-Anas came to talk to us about his undercover reporting work, I was reminded that there are many deep rooted human rights issues in Ghana.

However, there have also been many encouraging experiences this week. On Monday, we walked to the soccer field near our house again to watch the Monday Stars play. Although the soccer game itself was pretty confusing (for me at least) people were very nice and offered to escort us to the front so we could see and take pictures more easily. We saw many Ghanaians standing in trees, sitting in top of nearby structures and trucks. Most of us decided to copy them and climbed up on top of the bus with our driver, Erik.

After we left the game, we went to a bar near our house, our first dining experience without Leslie. It was a lot of fun, and I’m definitely getting more used to interacting with people who only speak a few words of English. I really want to work on my Twi, but I feel that people have had mixed reactions to our Twi attempts so far. Some people laugh and respond in English, some grossly overestimate our abilities after one word and begin a rapid spiel of Twi, and some are patient and try to help us with our Twi. Others just like to yell “Hi!” “Obruni,” or tonight “Akosua!” (The name for a girl born on Sunday, and also a word for eggs) at us.