1. The first place is a conference room, sleekly designed in a sort of new-age, minimalist way, at the Centre for Freedom and Accuracy (CFA), a gated complex alongside one of many dirt roads in Labadi. A man named Andrew Awuni who resembles a slightly grayed Stringer Bell – yet seems to represent everything the Read More …
It’s been halfway through our program here in Accra, yet I’ve been unsure on what to write about for the blog. I have a selfish desire to need to write something profound/clever and this post is not much different. While we were in Kumasi this morning, I woke up to a Facebook message from my Read More …
First Day at Metro TV from Jeffrey Mercado on Vimeo.
When I traveled to Mexico with my family it was nice to have my dad with me everywhere we went, bargaining all the prices of our meals, taxi rides, gifts and souvenirs. But here in Ghana, I have been faced with the challenge of bargaining by myself. I’d say it has to be one of Read More …
I am realizing there is a difference between feeling and saying you do not take things for granted. If you continue to have access to your comforts, if you are never actually in a situation where you are without your conveniences, you won’t realize how much you really did take things for granted all along. Read More …
I’ve never had an encounter with another car while I was driving where I was either honked at or felt it was necessary to honk, and hope I will never be compelled to. In America when someone honks at you, you know you made a bad move. People become infuriated when they’re honked at because Read More …
I think I spent everyday since I knew I was part of the Media in Ghana program thinking about this summer. June 21st came around before I knew it and by the 22nd, I was already stepping out of the plane, realizing the stories of extreme humidity were accurate. I was overwhelmed by the thick Read More …
The culture of soccer is beautiful. Excuse me, the culture of football is beautiful. There is a saying in sports that continues spirit, pride, and skill: “For the love of the game.” Down the road from our house is a football field. Field is a general term that denotes a playing surface on a flat Read More …
Ok, lets first be transparent. America is basically unexplainable. It is so far from being one culture, one country, one people. We pretend like it is, but I dare you to encompass Connecticut, Detroit, Texas, Los Angeles, New York, Mississippi, Miami, Montana, Iowa, Utah, Alabama and how about Eugene, Oregon in one concise explanation. Not possible. Sorry. My Read More …
Before I came to Ghana I had no idea what kind of food to expect. Leslie stressed the importance of bringing our favorite power bar, canned tuna, boxes of mac ‘n’ cheese and microwavable oatmeal. Now I know why. Our favorite name brand foods at the local grocery store are pricy and eating out for Read More …
After two weeks, it had taken seventy two phone calls, twelve unanswered emails and one false alarm fedex delivery before I was finally informed by the Embassy of Ghana in Washington, D.C. that my passport was missing and that it seemed that it had never even arrived on their premises. The unsuspecting woman who was Read More …
It’s day four of my internship, and I finally got assigned something to do! Loretta, a Ghanaian intern at the New Crusading Guide, grabs a copy of the Daily Guide, sits down next to me, and tells me that we are going to write a story. She starts flipping through the Daily Guide, points to a story Read More …
As I bounced around in the backseat of a blue minivan in pursuit of current President of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama, I took a second to ponder, “What if I had stayed back in the U.S?” Maybe I’d be waking up around noon, making a halfhearted effort to go on a run, but instead complaining Read More …
Here in Accra, I am interning for the newspaper, Public Agenda. We function quite differently here than I would imagine a professional newspaper at home would. My first day of work I was given the culture column to write about “obruni experiences in Ghana,” as well as the freedom to write about any other news story Read More …
Croc Facts courtesy of Nat Geo.