A Different Kind of Time Change

I am currently sitting in my mosquito net covered bed, listening to my neighbors sing sunday prayers, getting my awesome tie-dye sheets sufficiently covered in sand, and waiting for the water to turn back on. That's what I call multi-tasking. Taking a shower here is like playing Russian Roulette, you never know when you're gonna get stuck with shampoo still in your hair or a toothbrush full of toothpaste... or in my case a body full of Bojo Beach sand. The down side is you end up smelling a little on the funky side more often than you'd like to, but the up side is you always have an excuse for being absolutely disgusting!

Productivity takes on a whole new meaning in Ghana. At home a productive day for me means I've accomplished a large to do list of homework assignments, errands, or fun activities. Here, a full day is one that accomplishes one task... if that. For example, yesterday my day's activity was getting lunch. I kid you not, it literally took me all day to get to and from a nearby restaurant that serves veggie friendly food. It was totally worth it, but a little frustrating. I'm still not used to the fact that taking out cash or getting groceries is a day long activity, but I'm getting there. I'm sure by the time I get back I'll have a whole new perception of time.

Today my days' activity was going to a beach about an hour away from Legon. It was beautiful and only semi-touristy, but even an hour away the beaches here are still decorated by an inordinate number of plastic bags. The coolest part of the beach: Ghanandolas. Pretty awesome.

Tomorrow's to do list is class and shower, that is if the water goes back on. Not too exciting. It's funny because every time I try to write an entry for this blog I realize how

few stories I have... or at least not in the traditional sense of a story. For example, today the Mate on my tro tro told me he loved me. We had never met. Now that was a pretty funny moment, but that's it- the story doesn't continue. Start to finish in one sentence. And there are many more where that came from. It makes the "what did you do last night" conversation go a lot faster, which is kind of nice, but blogging is a little challenging.

So now that I've explained my predicament I'll share some of my one-liner stories.

Last night I went to a benefit concert for Haiti where the Ghanaian version of Paris Hilton (a rich heiress with no real talent, covered in lots of glitter and attempting to sing on key) performed her hit song "Ete sen? Eye" (which means "How are you? Good," real clever lyrics). The rest of the concert was amazing, but she was not rockin it.

Earlier this week one of my professors didnt show up to the first day of class because the classroom was too far away. He somehow managed to relay the message to us that it was our job to find a different available classroom closer to the main entrance. I still have no idea where that class is.

Ghanaian karaoke might be the funniest thing I've ever seen. All I have to say is Cher+Ghanaian accents=a beautiful thing.

Finally, I saved the best for last. A woman asked me today if I was jealous of her beard, and yes she did really have a beard, and yes, I was jealous.