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As of today, I have exactly one month left here on the continent of Africa.  Since my housing ends on May 20, I’m planning on spending a few days traveling in Ghana with Damipi and then heading to Togo to spend my last few days in Africa with him and his family.  Since Easter, I’ve done a bit more traveling and a lot of the same old stuff as well.

I went on a mini-vacation with Sarah Bird, her boyfriend Tony, and Naeesa to Paradise Beach in Ada Foah.  Our trip was a little less than heavenly, though.  Because all of us were low on cash, we hoped to save money on our island vacation by bringing our own water and some bread to munch on.  Tony emerged from his and Sarah’s hut and said, “I think we’re going to have to give the bread to the owners to keep.  I saw a cat in our hut.”  Later we discovered that it was in fact a humongous rat that had eaten a fist-sized piece of the bread loaf and left droppings on their bed.  Gross.

To make things worse, we all ordered the spaghetti on the menu (which was quite tasty and only $1) only to find out that it gave all of us diarrhea.  Although we four were the only guests at the place, and there was a staff of over ten people, every meal we ordered took a full two hours to arrive and our orders were often wrong. Despite the beautiful surroundings, I won’t be going back.

I’ve now developed a large rash on the side of my face and I wonder if it’s the first stage of river blindness… I took a risk and swam in the beautifully warm and shallow waters of the Volta river (swimming in fresh water carries the risk of contracting river blindness).  Let’s hope I don’t pay for that swim with my eyesight!

Our trip to Takoradi (Ghana’s third-largest city) was much more fun and rodent-free.  We spent the entire three days eating huge cheap plates of chips and Chinese food at a restaurant called Naakoff Chinese Restaurant (yes, pronounced “knock-off”) and watching satellite TV in the hotel room.  We also went to the beach which is always fun.  I have never spent so much time at the beach in my life.  I love it.

Things have been getting a little dicey here in Ghana.  The administration announced a new policy called “In-Out-Out-Out” where only first-year students can stay in on-campus housing (which costs about $100 for Ghanaian students) and everyone else is left to fend for themselves in the (relatively expensive) surrounding area.  In the middle of a protest (which I mistakenly thought was a parade), I was filming and got a fist-full of dirt thrown in my face by an angry protester.  That was scary and unsettling.  Apparently, death threats were also issued to professors and administrators on a statement submitted to local radio stations written in “blood”.  Also, the campus was “shit-bombed” (as the Daily Graphic so graphically put it) by a group of students who smeared feces on the walls of several prominent locations of final exams in protest of the university carrying on with business as usual.

There’s also been a rumor (which I guess isn’t a rumor since it came from the U.S. State Department) that the dreaded bird flu has been detected here in Ghana.  It’s funny—during all of those “scares” (anthrax, bird flu, SARS, etc.) it was always “somewhere else” but now I’m smack dab in the middle of the place where we now are advised not to eat chicken or eggs (staples in my diet here).

Two days ago, I went to a fashion show and art exhibit at the house of the US Ambassador to Ghana, Pamela Bridgwater.  Not only was her house fancy and fabulous, but the fashion show was entertaining and gave me ideas for two new dresses (which has now turned into a more affordable hobby since I now trade fashion magazines from the States for the dresses she sews for me).

I also scheduled a visit to Ashesi University, a tiny liberal arts college in Accra modeling itself after schools like Swarthmore (or Pomona…) and had lunch with the deans and a professor to hear about their experiences and learn more about the school.  I also got to talk to some students about their experiences at Ashesi and sit in on a presentation about internships two students had at Goldman Sachs.  I am entertaining the idea of applying for a Fulbright grant to research in Ghana with Ashesi University after I graduate from grad school.  Ashesi seems like such a fantastic institution because it combines my interests in education, the Diaspora, and business in a special way (the school specializes in teaching Business Admin, Computer Science, and Management Information Systems).  I think I could learn a lot working there and want to keep in touch with them just in case it could actually work out.

Light’s out has now increased to every other day, so tonight we won’t have light after 6 pm (15 minutes from now) so I’m trying to plan a fun night out for myself.  I’m feeling uninspired however, and hope that something wonderful pops up unexpectedly.

In the last few weeks, I’ve become acutely aware that my money is dwindling down, and that I had better start budgeting it better before I end up selling pure water on the side of the road.  Therefore, I’ve decided to save money by sticking to tro-tros more (rather than relying so heavily on taxis), eating less extravagantly, and buying few souvenirs.  One thing I realized is that my most valuable souvenirs are the photos and videos that I am taking, and those cost me nothing, so I will feed my dream of being a documentary filmmaker and quell the shopping beast inside of me.

The last few days have been nice.  My friend Rebekkah from Germany had a big house party for her birthday in the mountains of Aburi.  Getting home back to Accra out of the nowhereness of the mountains in the middle of the night was beginning to look a bit dicey until my friends and I literally ran down a tro-tro and hired him to take us back to Accra.  It was wonderful seeing the joy on people’s faces as they boarded our magical late-night tro-tro as we trammeled through the dark streets of Ghana.

Yesterday, I decided to go visit my friend Lord at his house in Adenta.  Being the lazy princess that I am, I spotted a chance to get a free ride to the junction as a big white van pulled out of the parking lot of my hostel.  Thinking that I was hitchhiking like the good ole days in Cuba, I asked for a lift and then jumped into the front seat.  Halfway through the ride, I realized to my surprise that I was actually just riding a normal tro-tro!  It was just empty and headed to the station to find passengers.  I wasn’t charged, so I guess it was hitchhiking in a way… I made a little video interviewing the driver and the mate, the young man who jumps out of the moving vehicle yelling out the destination in a loud, froggy voice.  He’s responsible for collecting the money from the passengers as well as recruiting people into the tro-tro.  Once one has been a mate for a certain amount of time, you graduate to being a driver of your very own tro-tro (which, incidentally, is usually owned by someone else).

Once I arrived at the bus station that Lord told me to go to, I was immediately approached by a seedy-looking man with a deep voice whose first words were, “Hey, lady, I’m not a bad man, but…”  No thank you!  I finally made it to Lord’s house where he was chopping goat meat in a closet-sized kitchen in preparation for our lunch.  It was wonderful just kicking it with him and his housemate (a stunningly young-looking 29-year-old woman named Mercy) and their friend Jane.  I made movies of Lord chopping goat meat, of Mercy and Jane pounding the fufu, and of everyone pressuring me to eat snail (which I did.  It was bouncy!).  Lord and I talked about love and life, and eventually decided to take a grand trip up to Mole National Park for his birthday in two weeks.  When I mentioned the trip to Sarah Bird, she said, “Twelve hours on a bus with Lord?  God bless you.”  We’ll see how the trip goes…  I’m excited about seeing elephants and other large mammals up close and without a cage!

Last night shortly after returning from Lord’s house, it began to storm crazily (which prompted me to make another video clip) and my plans to go on a double date to see Ghana’s premiere big-budget film Run Baby Run were ruined (Of course the plot centers around the trafficking of a found case of cocaine.  It’s all the rage here this year!).  I ended up falling asleep ridiculously early and being woken up the next morning by the Wash N Wear laundry service manager wanting to know which of my clothes had come up missing this week (it never ends!).

Today was a day of wonders!  I needed to go get a visa for Togo for me and Damipi’s upcoming Easter weekend in Togo.  Exciting!  Determined to stay within my budget, I set off in search of the Togo Embassy via public transport.  I made it there relatively quickly and spent only 60 cents as opposed to $4.  Victory #1!  My second victory was that as I was crossing the street (weaving dangerously through congested stationary or slow-moving cars as I sometimes do) one of those fancy black cars rolled up in front of me and stopped.  I peered inside to see which important dignitary was inside.  It was President Kufour and he waved at me!  Oh, I was excited!  It was really funny, because no Ghanaians were fazed at all.  I was shouting, “Hey!  Wasn’t that the president?!” and people were just like, “Yeah…so?”  Victory #2!  My third Victory was getting the man at the embassy to issue my visa immediately instead of having me wait three hours until the pick up time.  Yay for me! I then headed back to campus, ate a great vegan meal….and a chicken kebab for a total of $2 and watched Queen Latifah’s movie Last Holiday, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

This budgeting thing just might work out after all…