Akwaaba!

I've been in Ghana for five days now, so I think I've accumulated some stories. Probably too many. Oh well. So, since arriving, we stayed in a hotel on Saturday and Sunday night in East Legon, the outskirts of Accra. It had air conditioning and running water. Totally excellent. We had orientation that started with learning a dance and some Twi vocab. Twi is ridiculously harder than I expected. It's all tonal and barely ever written down. I assumed that people would speak more English than they do, too. Most Ghanaians speak Twi to each other, not English. I'm trying to pick it up...eventually.

On Monday, our homestay families came and got us. My homestay mother's name is Auntie Jennis and she's hosted SIT students for the last 10-12 years. I have a host sister, Nana, who's six and I barely ever see my host father. In Ghana, all Westerners are called Obruni, so on the street, you'll just hear "Obruni obruni obruni!" It's not meant to be offensive, but you definitely hear it all the time. The people here are just so kind, though. They're always trying to help you in any way they can. Yesterday, a girl from my program, Ali, and I were trying to go back to our houses on the "public transportation system," tro tro. The tro tros are crazy old vans that just pick people up and run all the time. You never known when they're coming, they don't have designated stops, they basically are just a little nuts all around. Anyways, we had to transfer at Kwame Nkrumah Circle, the Times Square of Ghana. We were so lost, so this man who looked about 28 took us to exactly where we needed to go, caught a cab for us, and paid for our cab. Ghanaians are also really nice to obrunis in general, so that works in our favor. Our teachers here say that everyone in Ghana looks at the world as a chain link, so if one of the links is having a hard time, it is the others' duty to help out.

Also, a little known fact about Ghanaians is that 90% of them are up by 5:30 AM. Oy, I know, me...5:30? Yeah, it's true. I've been waking up for class at 4:30 AM to be out of the house by 5:45. I'm still trying to get used to it. Luckily, my homestay house is one of the nicer ones, though I have to still use a bucket shower because water doesn't run through the shower usually.

Sorry this is rushed, I'm grabbing a ride home from my host mom. More updates to come!