Fall Updates (Oct-Dec)

I'm making an effort to post some updates for the past couple of months I've missed. I wasn't originally planning on getting dressed up for Halloween, nor were most Obrunis that I spoke with, but some of our friends in another hostel were throwing a costume party so we figured we would join in. In Ghana, Halloween is largely just ignored which of course makes costume shopping a little difficult. My friend Kristin and I ended up going with a good standby when costumes are in short supply - togas. We tracked down a couple of white sheets and went as Greek king and queen. Our group of 8 or so dressed up Obrunis were met by incredulous looks from the Ghanaian as we made our way from our hostel to Legon hall on the other side of campus. The party basically amounted to a bunch of dressed up obrunis mingling with Ghanaian students who all thought we had lost our minds. It was an awesome opportunity to exchange some "culture" from back home.

On Saturday I played in a soccer match that pitted the international students against Liberian refugees who were bused in from a local refugee camp. The first half of the game was played primarily by the obruni international students from Europe and the States while the second half was mostly the Nigerian students against the Liberians. The obrunis took the first half, 1-0, while the Nigerians got stomped on, something like 2-5. I guess the Liberian refugee game is one that the International Student Association likes to put together every year, definitely a fun time.

I think I need to preface this next piece by saying that Sunday, November 2nd could quite go down as one of the coolest days of my African adventure. Just before my soccer match on Saturday I was approached by a Ghanaian named Cobby who asked me for a favor. I hesitantly spoke with him for a bit, thinking in the back of my mind that this must be a scam. Cobby told me how he needed a white man to play a part in a music video that he was shooting for a band that he managed. He talked me into it and on Sunday I met up with Cobby and traveled to a village outside of Accra to shoot the scene. I won't go into too much detail about the scene because I should have a copy of the video soon so that I can show everybody. I'm pretty sure that the whole thing is going to look pretty ridiculous and in fact a number of people at the shoot told me that most Ghanaians will get a good laugh when they see my part (I'm sure plenty of Americans will too). Anyways that's how I became a Ghanaian music video star. I'll definitely post the video on YouTube as soon as I get a copy.

Last Tuesday a huge group of us American students loaded up into buses and headed to a hotel in town for the elections. The exchange program from NYU had organized a big election event on the back lawn of the hotel with a projector and screen. Obama was announced the winner just as the sun broke the horizon and with everybody breaking out in dance to the popular Ghanaian highlife song called "The Barack Obama song".


On Tuesday Oct 21st I left for my second trip to Togo. My traveling companion was a young Ghanaian named Philip Achinake. I met Philip through an American retiree named Alan Matthews who has been living in Accra since 2001. Alan had been helping Philip and a number of other boys who had previously been used by an illegitimate Ghanaian NGO to scam money from Western donors. It's a very long and complicated story that I'd love to share with people when I get home but I'll move on with the update on Togo. The reason for my trip was to attend a celebration at La Conscience that was to be held on Wednesday. In attendance at this celebration was the Deputy Chief Ambassador for the US mission to Togo, the village chief of Ahépé, a couple of regional prefects, and many residents of the village of Ahépé. The purpose of the event was to present donated school supplies to children in preparation for the upcoming school year. Entertainment included a number of dances from the girls in the vocation program at La Conscience and drumming and dances from residents of Ahépé. Thursday morning I worked with Kodjo to film a promotional video for La Conscience, Kodjo narrating in French while I did so in English. Philip and I then headed back south to Lomé where we caught a lorry north to the town of Kpalimé on the western side of the country. Early Friday morning we visited the nearby Kpimé falls complete with monkeys jumping through the tree-tops. We then chartered a couple of motorcycle taxis to take us across the border back into Ghana. The hour-long ride through the forested hills separating Togo and Ghana was spectacular! Not to mention the border crossing was much more uneventful than previous crossings down in Lomé, namely, no death threats.