Friday, January 21, 2011

Akawaba!

I wrote this yesterday intending to upload it then but the internet cafe was not cooperating. I will have something about Friday posted hopefully later on today.

Akawaba!

which means welcome in the local dialect, Twi. I landed late last night and my good friends at United Airlines decided to welcome me by leaving my bag at Heathrow, despite having about four hours to get it where it needs to be. At the airport, I met some others from the program as well as the program director and her husband.

Ten Things I have noticed

1. While you think that the air-stairs are artificially warm, enclosed in a vestibule, it accurately reflects the current temperature and humidity.

2. There is barbed wire, running just below the balcony, preventing either people or animals from installing themselves there. I was later told this was for people.

3. Toilet paper is provided as a welcoming gift as the University lacks a communal supply.

4. The van that Brockport owns has a vent for the engine to breathe when forging river or creek.

5. An inordinate amount of dust will likely clog everything, due to the lack of rain and dust from the Sahara. s

6. While I appreciate the hordes of young, strong man willing to push a fellow traveler’s luggage trolley to the vehicle, they all expect some “British coin” in exchange. I later found out that a few of them are pickpockets, even slipping out someone’s laptop in the process.

7. When insisting that you are not an impotent and can push one’s own luggage trolley, those same young men has difficulty accepting this.

8. While one obtained a student visa with full intent of spending a full semester in Ghana, the visa mandates that you leave the country after sixty days. However, reentry extends it another sixty days so that is the purpose of the visit to Togo.

9. The pace of a Westerner is usually quicker than a Ghanaian as time is less of the essence. That pace also appears to apply to being on time.

10. Boneless chicken seems to be primarily a Western phenomenon.

Day Two

Today, a tour of the campus was in order. However first, we began with breakfast at the program director’s house. My favorite food was of course omelets with peppers and onions. There was also tea which fed my caffeine addiction, some sort of knock off hot dog, a porridge like substance, fresh fruit, and in typically English fashion, baked beans. The bread, three types was very good.

After breakfast, our program director gave a talk about a variety of topics, both lighthearted and those less so. Amongst the items mentioned, one should never bargain for public transportation as fares are fixed while bargaining for most everything else was acceptable, including taxis. We also broached the topic of personal safety and security.

In another program, five girls were looking for a cafeteria on campus. They asked a man where it was and he obliged rather friendlily. They followed him into a dark place somewhere either on or near campus, and then robbed them of passports, bank cards and money. Our director said that one should never take your passport anywhere unless you are leaving the country. Other thieves are more clever and subtle.

Professional Friend Makers

The Ghanaians are famously friendly and there is a certain group of young men who are even more gregarious. Those sorts of men hang around campus, looking for students, particularly international ones, who look dazed, confused or stunning, and wholeheartedly befriend them. If you want to go to the beach, they will gladly take you there, at any time of the day. The same goes for Kakum National Park or really, anywhere else. Capitalism at its finest is simply what is going on. These men view their “friends” as investments and will get them to somehow pay for everything. It is one thing if you ask a Ghanaian to take you somewhere and dash him or her some Cedis for their assistance. However, if they ask, you do not owe them anything. Worse, some “friends” will use you to gain access to the International Students Hostel as a scouting trip for a future less friendly visit. They could take note of which locks are not locks, where you keep your own valuables, and more. One particularly talented professional friend maker managed to get an international student to go up to their room and bring down their laptop in order to show them something. The laptop and the “friend” were never seen again.

Campus Tour

The campus tour was rather good though long. We were divided into pairs, given to a guide and saw what seemed to be almost every building on campus. While that part was helpful, it was most helpful and entertaining to discuss anything at all with the guide, the second President of Ghana. He told us, in jest of course, that he was the second President of Ghana as everyone remembered first President, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah but no one remembered the second one so he called himself that.

ATM

One of the first stops was the ATM for MasterCard, which is a rarity in a country dominated by the Visa gods. I entered my pin and went to select the amount of cash. It spits out that that transaction cannot be completed so I went back and selected another amount. The same thing happened every for the tiny sum of ten cedis ($1.40, pronounced like CDs). So I selected cancelled the transaction. The machine made a funny noise and returned to welcoming me to the Commercial Bank of Ghana. Not to worry, the guide took us through the gate of the University and across the street to a branch of the bank. The lady behind the desk asked how long ago it had happened, and told me to come back tomorrow to pick it up. My roommate had opened a Bank of America account before arriving, an idea which I should have arrived at earlier. With any luck, I will pick up the card tomorrow and all will be well.

Our guide also explained how naming works based on what day of the week you are born on. Kofi Annan was born on a Friday as Kofi is a name for Friday. He even looked up my own birthday which happened to be on a Saturday and told me a name which I promptly forgot.

Taking Kofi to Court

He also said that the relationships formed in the individual Ghanaian residence halls between the students living there were very strong, reminding me of Crew as rowers are a tight bunch as well. When he was still living in his residence hall a few years ago, the University administration wanted to shut down the hall and move out all the students, as the scheme of improving some aspect would be improved by doing something else with that particular residence hall. The students living there refused to move and the story evolved into one sentence. “We took Kofi Annan to court and we won.” Dr. Annan was the Chancellor at the time (and remains so today). The residence hall remains in its original function and we met several friends of our guide, highlighting the tightness of the community despite the fact that our guide had been out of school for several years.

Other interesting facts learned today include that out of 40,000 students and employees, there are about a 1,000 international students. A small portion of those students are American law students seeking a bargain law degree abroad.

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