July 12th - July 16th

Andrea and I were snapped slightly back into reality this week as we both had OCI (on campus interview) stuff to do for our summer 2011 jobs. It actually wasn't terrible using the 3g modems we bought, but it took up the free time that used to be reserved for watching the world cup :P

I still managed to have some fun though. Tuesday was my brother Sean’s b-day. Knowing him he probably had enough fun for both of us. On Wednesday I went to hang out with Evans, the dude that helped me get set up in Ghana. His friend Rashida popped in Evans' place because she agreed to make a dress for Terri. For roughly $20, including the cost of nice fabric that Shara helped me pick out a couple weeks ago, you can get a tailor made dress, complete in a week! The three of us watched the U-20 women's teams from Ghana ("the Black Princess") battle the defending champion Americans to a tie. That's the result I like to see when my two favorite teams meet, haha.

On Thursday, I wanted to get a bunch of people together for a drink, which presented the perfect opportunity to visit Pedro in his new digs (I can't remember if I wrote about it, but Pedro moved out of my room into an Apt just beyond the Teshi-Nungua traffic. It became completely necessary because he is extending his stay by at least 2 months. )His place is actually really nice! He's got like a kitchenette, and a small living room with two chairs and a table. And a couch, bed and tv in his room. He's actually paying less money than us for a nicer place but it took him forever to find it. As I’m writing the power just went off, but thank goodness for the generator that allowed me to save my progress. Power came back in 2 minutes though.
Me, Daan, Pedro, Andrea and Jackye grabbed a drink at the “T” spot (named for the T shaped junction by which it’s located. Whilst Pedro was telling us another one of his wild drunk stories from the night before that involved him and Terry pleading with prostitutes to find a new line of work a debate ensued about prostitution that left me and Andrea arguing for a half an hour, while the other 3 got bored and started a side conversation (Andrea is actually interviewing commercial sex workers for the report she’s working on at the Human Rights Center). Law school creeps its way in, again!
Jackye went home and the remaining 4 of us went to a dinner spot that Pedro discovered a couple nights ago. It was nice to get a local meal as a “family” that wasn’t cooked to death by grandma. For 7 cedi total ($5) we all got a substantial meal (rice balls with peanut soup and an egg for me). Lucky for Pedro, he really likes local food so he’ll survive at least another 2 months.
Aside from Daan, who really wants to go home as soon as she can, I feel like we’ve all said this week how much we’re used to living here. With a little under a month to go it’s a good feeling to have. My boss keeps floating the idea of my coming back after I get my law degree to work at his firm or to teach at the University of Ghana law school (he even brought me to the school to meet a senior professor). At first it seemed kind of outlandish but I’m actually giving it thought. I have a great boss here, who trusts me with some substantial work (ask me about the work I’m doing with Internet fraud right now). Additionally, I always thought when I was growing up how cool it would be to give my kids the unique experience of living abroad as a child… so the possibility of coming back for a year or two when my first born is of school age (5 or so) is seeming like a viable option. Of course that is just fantasy at this point, so I don’t wanna hear any lip from family about sweeping their currently non-existent grandchildren or nieces/nephews to Africa.
This weekend me, Christin (the girl who came to the Western region with us last weekend), Terry and Andrea are going to visit Komeyete, again. We’re hoping to bring trash bags, rubber gloves and candy to “Africa” to convince the kids to help us clean up the beach. There are a ton of plastic bags and other rubbish that washes up from Accra, and it really mars the otherwise beautiful scenery (and football matches are a drag when you trip over plastic coke bottle every ten minutes). We’re hoping to make a short trip out of it so we can come back to Accra to celebrate Andrea’s birthday/gear up for our 12 hour journey to the Northern region next weekend!