acraa

after writing my last post, i discovered acraa traffic! my half an hour ride to school took two hours on the way home. traffic in acraa is like traffic in new york city, but with two-lane dirt roads, no traffic lights, and big vans instead of taxis. each trau traus is a two man operation; one man is the driver and the other is the mate. the mate collects the money from passangers, opens and closes the door, and yells out the window to try to collect more riders. when a passanger wants a stop, they tell the mate and he then bangs on the side of the door to let the driver know to pull over. i catch a trau trau two blocks from my house at a stop called st. johns and go to legon, which is where the university is located. it's not uncommon for drivers to pull over to go to the bathroom, buy some water, put air in the tires, or fill up the tank (when a trau trau gets gas, they leave the engine running!)

cell phones are everywhere in accra. most people have them and tons of people sell prepaid mins on the streets. people buy little tickets with a scratch off bar and then type in the number beneath to fill their phone with mins. because of this system, you don't have to pay for incoming mins. when a girl likes a guy, she will 'flash' him, which means she will call his phone and then hang up right away so that the guy has to call her back and pay for the mins.

meals at mama vida's are interesting. in ghana, meals are not a time to sociolize, they are for survival. we all eat at different times and at different tables, when i ate with papa last night, we sat back to back and mama watched us while we ate. as soon as i finish my food, mama quickly comes by to pore more on... i usually have to stop her, portions are huge!

mama vida doesn't have running water, which makes showers, shits, and laundry quite different than what i'm used to. to shower i walk outside and fetch a bucket of water from the outside spicket and bring it back to the house. after i use the toilet, i poor more water on top to flush the bowl. last night i did my laundry for the first time, mama vida laughed at me and had the helper boy assist me.

i have had twi (pernounced chwee) class every morning and we have had lots of interesting guest lecturers talk to us in the afternoon. they have discussed the economy, gender studies, education, and funerals.

tonight we are going to the beach!! i read that the sunset over the gulf is beautiful so i'm excited for that. there is a music festival celebrating bob marley's 100th birhtday that we are all going to check out.

still no luck with the pictures... sorry

abeshia! (see you when i see you)
dane