A lot has happened since my last blog. It is hard to believe that we have been here for two weeks already and that we are almost ready to leave Accra for good.

Like many other poorer nations, bargaining here is a way of life. I have been honing my skills while bargaining for cabs, bargaining in markets, and bargaining with street vendors. There are people all over selling a variety of goods ranging from crazy glue to windshield wipers. It is often hard to tell what a fair price is because being obrunis (the Ghanaian word for foreigners), we are often discriminated against in terms of pricing. They know that 99% of white people in Ghana are far wealthier than them. Regardless, I have been impressed at how good some of the salesmen are. I can't imagine how they squeeze out a living when there are so many people selling the same things right next to each other. Sidenote: While at the at market, one of the store owners told us that Anderson Cooper from CNN had bought a very large drum a few months ago when Obama visited. Pretty cool if its true.

The other day four of us headed to one of the two major markets in Accra, Mokola Market. This is a massive maze of small stands selling things such as cow and pigs legs, a local rodent called grasscutter, snails, crabs, fish, and other everyday items as well. It was an eye-opening experience that again drove home how impoverished so many people are here. We passed by a great number of stands where the owners were too run down to make any effort to sell to people.

One pleasant surprise for our group has been the number of events happening at our hotel. The other day after returning to the market we came back to the hotel to find a reality show being filmed out by the pool. They were speaking a native language so we couldn't tell what was happening, but the minister of tourism was present and there was a priest dressed in traditional cloth pouring out a bottle of gin. The other night we also had a drumming and dancing group come give us an interactive show. For the first hour, they drummed and danced and then they spent the second hour teaching us. It was cool to see a very talented, local group that has been together for 14 years. But it was even better to see our professors try to copy what they were doing.

Lauren, my sister, also came this past week and just left last night. Once she arrived, we decided that the local home she had arranged to stay at was not nearly as comfortable as the suite Matt and I got put in so we ventured out in a cab that night to fetch her suitcase. An hour later we were officially lost in the cab. It is nearly impossible to navigate at night in some parts of Accra because there are no street names and no street lights in some poorer areas like the one we were in. As in any big city, it is not recommended to venture into poorer areas at night, and we were the only two white people for miles. We got especially nervous when we sent our cab driver off to find a phone and the power went off. We sat in complete darkness for about 15 minutes until the owners of the home Lauren was to stay at found us sitting in the cab. That story is for you, Mom.

Luckily, she got to do pretty much everything the group did because we had one extra seat on the bus. She came to the Akosombo Dam with us. This was a ways out of the city on the largest manmade lake in the world. This damn is quite important to the Ghana because it powers 75% of the entire nation's electricity. We also went out to a beach reggae club on St. Patty's day where Lauren bought us green shots. The saying everyone is Irish on St. Patty's day apparently doesn't apply in Africa—people had no idea what we were doing.It was a very Rastafarian atmosphere and I half of our group probably could have gotten high off of second hand marijuana smoke. I found it surprising how many rastas there are here, maybe people just want an excuse to smoke. We finished up Lauren's visit by going to Bojo beach yesterday. Bojo is only about an hour away from our hotel and it is very nice. It is an island that require quick boat ride across a lagoon. On the island is a restaurant and bar and it is the cleanest beach we have seen thus far. The waves were great and we had a nice lunch on the beach.

Lauren also came along when our history class met with a chief of a local village. The chief, who looked like a blend of Nelson Mandela and Morgan Freeman, was accompanied by a panel of elders. There was a teacher, a priest, and a doctor who were all supposed to talk to us about the effects of colonialism and Ghana's independence which occurred in 1957. All of these people lived through these times so they had many stories to offer, some of which weren't even relevant. The chief was very warm and seemed to be a fair leader. Ironically, he was wearing traditional cloths but held a cell phone the whole time. Next to the chief, the priest was the most interesting character and often interrupted the Chief. He compared western clothing to an atomic bomb at one point and said Ghana's breaking away from Britain was like "giving a baby a razor." The priest didn't feel they were ready but the general consensus among the elders was that "lean liberty is better than fat slavery." Sidenote: The elders also spoke out against nursing homes in the U.S.

On friday, a few of us went to Champs Sports Bar for a little taste of America. We watched some first round games and took advantage of happy hour. My bracket is busted already as usual. I feel like this blog is getting too long so I will save our school visit and the joys of Nigerian soap operas for the next one. Also, if anyone really wants to hear about class, email me. Thanks for reading.