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Some interesting facts about Ghana:

The flag is red, yellow and green with a black star in the middle. It was designed by a woman who is still alive and living in Accra today. She is in her 80s. There was a contest after Ghana gained independence from Great Britain in 1957 to design the new flag, and she won. The color red represents the blood of the people who fought for independence, the yellow is for the gold found on the Gold Coast of Ghana, and the green is for its natural resources (it is a country rich in resources, though it has little means of manufacturing and processing its own resources). The black star in the middle of the flag represents the black people of Ghana.

It feels like we’ve been here for months and it’s funny when we remind ourselves we’ve only been here for three full days. I can’t believe I’ll be living here for four months. I often wonder if it will go by fast or slow, but I’m sure I’ll have a better idea once school gets started. I’m actually really looking forward to school, especially the classes I (hope to) have at the University of Ghana! We went there today to see the campus and register for classes, and it was a totally new experience. Definitely something I will cherish forever. First of all, they register for all their classes by going to each department, selecting a class, and registering on paper. They do almost nothing on the computer, much like the “olden days” when our parents went to college (sorry Mom!). It was so fun though because The University of Ghana is a sprawling campus that reminds me a lot of A&M, except no football team, and dirt roads everywhere. But it’s beautiful and very austere. A girl who lives in Solomon’s, Marykate, and I walked around trying to find where to register for a Media and Society class, and ended up being referred to, no lie, like 5 different building because no one knew where exactly to send us. I was smiling the whole time because it was so funny to see how (to Westerners) unorganized it is. I told Marykate that if this was our system in America, I would have no faith that my registration requests would ever even go through, because in some cases, you literally register on a loose piece of notebook paper. But it works and I have faith in their system!

So, speaking of classes, I hope to take the Media and Society class I was talking about, which should be really interesting since I’m a Communications major, and we take classes much like that in New York (some even have that exact title!). It’ll be interesting to note the differences between the way they see media and society and the way we do in New York. I also want to take a 2 credit Traditional African Dance class at the University of Ghana, which I think Gillian and our new friend Mallory are taking, too. J It should be really fun! At the NYU Academic Center I plan on taking Pan-Africanism, African Popular Music, Society, Culture, and Modernization in Ghana, and my Internship with the West African AIDS Foundation, which counts as four credits. So this semester I plan on taking 18 credits, all of which will end up being electives at NYU. Marykate and I are trying to get the Media and Society class to count as a requirement for our program at NYU, but we’ll see how the department handles it.

Today we visited the two universities here in Accra- Ashesi University and the Univ. of Ghana. Ashesi is the private university that has only about 300 students enrolled, and the Univ. of Ghana has 33,000 students! Suffice it to say, since I’ve been looking for the “real” college experience since I’ve been in college, taking classes at the University of Ghana is a dream. I’ve heard many people say Ashesi is much like NYU- full of only those students who can afford (or had the grades to get a scholarship) for school. And as I mentioned earlier, public university is paid for by the government in Ghana. We also learned some cultural do’s and don’t’s in one of our lectures today. You are NOT supposed to use your left hand for anything, and extending it, waving it or eating with it is the ultimate sign of disrespect. Also, unlike in America, you must knock anytime you enter someone’s office, and before you begin asking someone (your director for instance) you must say “Hi! How are you doing today?” and genuinely be interested and be willing to spend a few minutes inquiring about the other person before you even begin to request something.

Patience is a virtue here. Our meetings almost always start at least 10 minutes late, and when the director or professors come in to teach, they don’t apologize or even act like they know they’re late.

I also learned my Ghanaian name today! First names are determined by the day you were born. So for each day of the week there’s a girls name and a guy’s name. And then your last name is given to you by lineage. Since I was born on a Friday, my name is Afia (pronounced Ah-FEE-ah).

I think that’s all I’ll write for tonight. I’m exhausted!!! It’s usually around 90 degrees here, with 90% humidity, and it wears you out!! I forgot what it’s like to live in a place as hot as this. Reminds me of my Arizona days, but with humidity.

love love love,

Afia