Wednesday, October 1, 2008

9-23-2008 Sunyani,Ghana

My first day of school was a few days ago. Ive decided to go on the Visual Arts path. I figured i might as well do something dealing with the Ghanaian culture rather than doing a science, math, or business course. The students in the class are very cool. I think its about 30 people, with only 4 girls, so all i hear all day are testosterone filled jokes. haha. Everyone is very curious about the american culture. Which i enjoy telling them about. But usually they want to know my political and religious views.
When they ask about my political views i tell them that i consider myself an independent because i agree with some republican views and some democratic views. and of course they want to know who i want to win the presidential election. when i ask them they usually tell me Barack Obama, well thats actually the only answer theyve given me. and actually they give me legit answers, not just "Because hes black.". I know no ones vote counts but the american vote, but i think most of the world wants Barack Obama to win.
As for religion, its everywhere, which i dont mind at all. they pray at school, and there is a student chaplain, and he preaches to us on mondays,wed, and fridays. hes pretty good for only being aloud 5 minutes. My economics teacher asked me one day, and i think everyone pretty much put what they were doing aside to here what me and my fellow american had to say. I told him that i wasnt any particular religion and that i believed all true religions have different names but they all contained the same truths. I also told him that i believed all people go to heaven but its whether your close or far from God in the afterlife. He replied "We'll be good friends this year." so i though that was pretty cool!
Some other things about school. The desks are the most uncomfortable things ive ever sat on. Its like sitting on a 2"x4" for 3 two hour sessions, without any leg room. its like im being punished for 6 hours. Those things are the work of the devil. lol.
Ok, if you dont want to hear a pretty nasty story, then skip these next few lines. My friend Innocent, no seriously thats his name, told me that sometimes a thief will get burned alive if they get caught. I didnt believe him one bit. then the today he brought in this newspaper, and the headline said "Burned Alive", with the most graphic picture of a dead burned man as the cover picture. i about threw up in my mouth. I guess the guy had stolen ONE PLASTIC CHAIR and he was tied up in chains, dragged 800 yards then burned alive. civilized, i think not. and actually the mayor of the town had ordered him to be burned, obviously he denied it and got away with it. It was terrible.
Me and wess were going to visit another AFS student in Nkoranza on saturday, but ended up not going because the bus never came, so we ended up going to Eusbett hotel. Its where all the white people go when they stay in Sunyani at least thats what my host bro told me. I still didnt see but 1 obroni. But it was heaven! they had american food! I was never so excited to get a pizza in my life! it was ghanaian pizza but it was still great! I asked for pepperoni and they gave me chicken. lol
One thing about the variety of food here, or i guess lack of variety i should say. Every dinner i either eat yams, plantains, rice and tomato sauce or fufu, or a combo of all. Its pretty annoying to eat the same thing over and over again, but i didnt come here to get pampered did i? and the portions here are freakin massive. my mom for breakfast gave me 7 plantains, and pretty much made me eat them all, then gave me some leftover rice. Im 215 lbs, but thats a lot of food! haha. but ive been getting used to the Fufu lately. and i kind of enjoyed it much to my surprise. Im glad im gettin used to it, because ill be eating it for the next 9 1/2 months!!!
Ill end on a pretty funny story. One of my teachers asked me what sport i played. I said i wrestle at my high school. and everyone went nuts when i said that. they thought i did wwe! they started pretending to throw chairs and other crap like that. I got kind of pissed off after awhile and luckily i had a video of one of my matches on my camera and showed it to them. then they realized. now they want me to show them moves. ahaha.

I hope you and your family are doing well!
Take care!

By the way, my appologies(s/p) for not adding as many photos as i said. there are a few photos lower down on this same page. enjoy!

2 comments:

LeeLee said...

Sorry, about the uncomfortable seating arrangements at school, you better not steal a plastic chair!

Nice to know there are names (Innocent) even more unusual than Zoey-haha!

Glad you are going with Visual Arts, I can't wait to hear more about it. Sounds like everything is going well, the food sounds VERY interesting, I guess I would starve...lol

Keep blogging, thanks for keeping us informed on your adventure.

Unknown said...

Hey Rich, I'm glad you took the Visual Arts path. For one thing I think you'd enjoy it most and you haven't had alot of that here. Plus you're right about getting the Ghanaian culture from it. Was it by chance all three of the AFSers took the same classes?

Oh, if it makes you feel any better, I've been out at Aunt Tricia's and her rooster was outside Jennys room (where I'm sleeping)cock-a-doodle-doing at the break of dawn each morning! At least it's only temporary for me.

Love you,
Mom