Questions Answered

So i realize that i keep asking for questions and peole continue to send me them but I never get around to answering them. So to remedy this situation I will be answering questions from Ms. Betsy Franson as well as any others I can in the next 12 minutes I have left. Here we go:
Question 1.
What's the weather like?
The weather is Hot, but it's a warm heat. There are very few places with A/C so everyone is just kinda smelly and dirty. Ghanaians don't seem to sweat and I have to admit that I have somewhat gotten used to the heat. Also, it is the rainy season so there are monsoons that bring downpours that flood everything. It isnt as hot as Phoenix in the Summer but its still pretty freakin hot.
Question 2.
Cuisine and Drank?
The Ghanaian food is pretty awful. They have Banku that has a similar texture to play dough and Fufu that has a similar consistency to thick paste. Banku is cassava and plantains pounded to make a ball of playdough and Fufu is corn. The process of making Fufu is very sexual. The man stand over the women with his giant smasher and in a rhythm smashes the fufu as the woman takes water or something and folds it over. Everytime the smashers is inches away from the womans hand as they work together in rhythm (one man no chop!). The fufu and banku are served in different types of soup: light soup, ground nuts soup... and usually either chicken, fish, or goat or strange meat. Also there is Jollof rice that is rice with some sort of seasoning that is pretty good. Kenkey that i talked about in the last post is by far my favorite local food. I have however found a way to eat the banku and fufu by swallowing it as fast as possible without out chewing. Oh and i forgot to mention all these excluding the rice is eaten with your hands. You ball up some banku or rip off a piece of fufu and dunk it in the soup and throw it in your mouth (no homo). Further on the food... there are many items that the street hawkers sell to you on the side of the road while in traffice things like: Plantain chips, pure water, fanchoco and fanyogo (ice cream), chocolate, corn and cheesy gordita crunches (not true but sometimes i dream about it). I also recently did some not so smart decisions while waiting for our bus broke down on our trip to the Volta region (more on this trip next post). I tried an oyster kebab, shrimp, grass cuter kebab, snail kebab and a bag of tiny fish that i didn't really know what they were from the side of the road. I sometimes question eating seafood in fancy restaurants in the states but for some reason, i was probably dehydrated, i just had to try it. THey were all pretty ok except for the snails that were what you expect a snail to taste like. My stomach was pretty ok after teh strange foods but I had a mean poop (gross) the next day. Nothin to write home about... or i guess it was. And id like to let you know that as I was writing this my co-worker put a gizzard kebab in my face and I took a huge bite of it. It was spicy.
A note on bowel movements: I used to take the act of taking a poo for granted but it is a miracle of the human body. I would like to tell you a story of Nick, one of my fellow companions/roommates in Ghana. He is a good kid from small town Montana and he went 12 days without taking a poo. He took 8 laxatives drank as much juice and coffee as her could and nothing. Yesturday was a huge step for him as he was able to squeeze out a little something the entire dilema is a process and I will surely keep you updated on his status. Today he is light on his feet an opptomistic after eating at a lebanese restaurant that is sure push its way through. Sorry if this was gross, but I thought it was funny.
One last thing on food. There are legitamte shopping centers and even a brand new mall in Accra with plenty of food that is recognized. Although I have lost plenty of weight since I've been here I have been eating well and when I start my job at coconut grove my boss said im guaranteed to gain some pounds. OK anymore food questions please bring them on. Also if you want to send me some Goldfish or some gushers please feel free. If you can figure out how to get me a chipotle burrito or a prince pucklers chocolate oreo malt ill worship you like a god.
Question 3.
Do Ghanaians drink a lot?
Well it depends on the Ghanaian. There is a very healthy nightlife for ghanaians and expats. The local drink of choice is beer or gin. They have local beers like Star (my brew it's heiniken) and Club that are popular, Guiness is also hugely popular among Ghanaians. There is also palm wine that is pretty hit or miss. It is moonshine made out of palm frawns so the alcohol content depends on the bottle you get. Also Apeteche is supposed to be the strongest gin youll ever had and if it is made the wrong way you can go temporarily blind. I havent tried apeteche yet. I dont know I feel like ive talked about some of my nightlife adventures before and im sure ill let you in on more stories latter cause Betsy has soooo many questions.
Question 4.
Are the schools in session now?
The university of Ghana is on break but there are still people hanging around but not as many as during the school year. THere are still kids wearing cool uniforms running around so i assume there is some schoolin going down. Also my 14 yr old bartender has to close the bar up at 10:30 cause he has school.
Question 5.
What about women in Ghana?
The ladies in Ghana are some of the prettiest girls i've ever seen. Everytime I turn my head its like 10! 10! 10! 10! I havent hooked up with any local girls...yet. Yes I will keep the gypsy tears close. THere is a gender divide and men are looked at to be dominate but I haven't really noticed too much I dont know what you call it... feminism crap. I work with strong intelligent ladies who work with men. We have female announcers and editors and producers.
Question 6.
What do most people dress like?
Most people dress in american style clothing. It is funny i find that people in the US go to places like Abercrombie to buy clothing that looks throwback and everyone in ghana has that gear but it is just sent over from the states. I love looking around and seeing the jerseys people wear. Ive seen Eddie George, Quinten Jammer, Michael Jordan. And even a couple Diamond Bs hats. The traditional wear is also sported by people in everyday wear but it is becoming less popular. The men wear booboos that are like mumus just one piece long tunicy type things that look awesomely comfortable. No, I havent gotten one cause I would look ridiculous. THe women are always immaculately dressed with long dresses with colorful african prints and braided haird. Looking good. Ghanaians definetly know how to stay fresh to def.
Question 7.
Have you found yourself a virgin wife?
No, I am single and now aparently a bit of a stud muffin. The office is working hard to find me the right virgin wife as the marketing department and newsroom battle over me. Its really bizarre.
Question 8.
What sports are big there?
Football (Soccer) is not just big but it is the only thing that Ghanaians care about. Everything is football. They also have Golf, Hockey (yes ice hockey), but Football is the sport of choice. If Michael Essien ran for the presidency he would win unanimously(Michael Essien is a Ghanaian who plays for Chelsea, he just signed a fatty 5 yr deal with the club and is one of the best mid-fielder in the world, he also is the spokeperson for fanyogo an frozen yogurt type thing)
Question 9.
Do people watch a lot of TV?
No most people don't have a tube, but they do usually find one to watch football matches. The green zone (the name of our house) does have a TV but no satelite so we never watch it. Without Satelite there is only 3 or 4 channels that are pretty piss poor. Really funny comercials though and i get satelite at work so i can watch CNN and stuff. Radio though is the number one media in ghana and Peace FM is the number one radio station. Everyone listens to the radio at all times.
Question 10.
Are there a lot of X-pats?
Yes there are X-pats and X-pat bars for them to mingle. I havent really chatted up with too many but they seem allright. Alot of people from Ireland and the UK. Some from the states. Ryans is one of the popular x-pat bars and they serve jager shots, pretty cool. Dont know what else to say about that.
Question 11.
Do you play your harmonica?
Yes, all the time. I dont know how to play but I pretend and try to follow along with bob dylan and billy joel. I have also kinda learned when the saints go marching. Im working on the ducks fight song. Thanks for the harmonica it makes me look like such a baller.
Question 12.
Are you really staying for 6 more months?
Yes, yes I am. I changed my plane ticket to February 2nd 2009! (I cant believe it is 2009) I am going to Cote D'ivoirre, Mali, and Togo on a little holiday with some of my friends and some Peace Corps kids that i call 'the Corps' for almost 3 weeks then I'll spend a couple days in Accra before heading to Cape Coast to live at the resort. Ive talked more with my boss and he said that I would just be based out of the coconut grove helping out with the radio station and travel around with Dr. Paa Kwesi Ndoum, who is running for president helping with the campain. He is with the CPP and if you want to learn more about it id google it. He recently came out with a manifesto and i support most of what he says he is a really interesting guy. The next couple months are going to be unreal. I am getting a drviers license (i dont know why) and will be living the good life on the beach while helping the community and being a baller.
Allright I think that is all thanks to Ms. Franson for her questions. Please do send more and ill try to answer them as swiftly as I can. Still gotta tell you about volta region as this is my last week at Peace FM i should try to get some work done. I miss you all keep in touch. Sorry for the typos spellcheck is down.

Keeping the Faith

Hello loyal readers. I have to say I love hearing from all of you that read the blog and show your love. Daps especially to Anti-S who is now in charge of the sweatpants freelance fan club get sign up with the fan club and send the 100 cedi registration fee to Me and Anti-S will send you a pair of sweatpants (this has not been discussed with Anti-S but I'm sure she will except the roll, also if you send me 100 cedi you won't actually get sweatpants). Ok so of course I have been busy and now that I have been getting questions to answer from family and friends (i love getting questions, things that I think are just normal will probably blow your mind.) this is sure to be a big post. My co-workers at Peace-Fm have taken a liking to me. I am pretty much their clown for entertainment as they throw jokes in twi at me because I am so confused all the time. We have a good time. Some things you should know about my co-workers and Ghanaians in general is that they are religious. They love Jebus and they want everyone to know about it. All the Tro Tros have stickers on the back window with slogans like: "Praise Jesus" "God time is the best time" "God's Son" "Jehovah" "The Rock is in the building" well not that last one but I think you get the idea, and Jay-Z is actually pretty big here people wear rocawear and Ive seen some barber shops with paintings of Hova on the signs. Not just the tro tros praise Jebus but all the shops and stores in Ghana have some sort of religious name: "Praise be the Lord cell phones" "Blessed is God Chop Bar" "Fizzling blood of Jesus restaurant." Gospel music is also one of the most popular types of music so people always ask about Boise, Idaho because apparently they produce a lot of popular Gospel tracks in Ghana. So being a Jew kinda separates me from the rest of my Jebus loving co-workers. They love asking me questions so the religion question came up and they were shocked when I said that I didn't believe in Jebus and that I was a Jew. Anyway so the long battle of trying to convert me to Christianity is something that i try to avoid with ambiguous answer to unanswerable questions. One of my co-workers Akua, who is my home girl, invited me to go to church with her on Sunday last week. I have respect for all religions and I heard that Ghanaian church is a party so i decided to go and check it out.



Grandma reassurance break: I'd just like to address my Grandma because I know that she reads this blog and say that I have not been brainwashed and turned christian. I am still a happy and Jewish boy who would pay 50 cedi for a corned beef sandwich and a bagel with lox. Some would even call me mensch. So no need to worry Jew tang clan aint nothin to... well Ill just leave it at that. Love ya grammy.



Now that we got that out of the way. I went to church early on Sunday with my friend Krista. Akua and her sister Akua met us there. They have the same name because they were born on the same day. The day you were born is a big deal here and everyday has a different name more on that later. So when we got to church the building was filling up and as usual Krista and I were the only obronis in the place. People were singing some gospel tunes while a band jammed and the bass player especially kept some funky riffs going to start off the worship. Then different preachers would come up and lead a prayer or say a sermon. The service was in English and they used a twi translator but I couldn't understand what was going on most of the time so Akua (the one i work with) would help me out. For one of the songs Akua told me that it was about how their ancestors worshiped to the wrong gods before the white man came and now they sing out the praise of the white man for bringing them Jebus. Kinda crazy. One lady during the service had the holy spirit come over her and started to shake on the ground as people at the church came over to help her out. It was all like the televangelists that you see on BET. One of the preachers would spit such fast rhymes about Jebus he was like Lil Wayne, i couldn't really understand what he was saying but i knew it was fresh. Towards the end of the service after more praise and worship and some dancing and singing the preacher asked everyone who was visiting the church for the first time today to stand up in the front. So Krista and I head on up to the front standing with about 15 other new guests and the preacher gave us all a blessing. As if it couldn't get any weirder. After the blessing we were taken up stairs for another blessing from another preacher and asked to fill out a form if we wanted to join the church. I respectfully declined seeing that I have trouble waking up early on a Sunday and accepting Jebus as my lord and savior. So instead Krista and I were given the one time only form to fill out. It had the standard name, address, phone number, ever been baptised questions, and also the last question was for prayer requests. I decided not to waste an opportunity to have the paradise way church and congregation to all focus their efforts in granting any prayer I had. So i thought hard and long about what i pray for the most. Of course world peace, cure for cancer and a mountain of ice cream came to mind but those things never seem to work out. So i instead wrote down the only thing I truly pray for on a regular basis with a passion that only G-d can understand, Ducks Victory! I know what most of you are thinking. 'this is shameful how could you do that blah blah blah' because of course G-d is already a huge ducks fan and to request that prayer puts G-d's love for the ducks in question.
Anyway sorry for the ducks tangent. There is still more...ahh ill try to make it quick. After the service we got some ice cream and headed over to my friend Akua's house. I was really excited cause I wanted to see at what level the people I work with were living at. She lived with her parents in a nice house and only has one sister which is a very small family for Ghanaians. The house was nice though and they had satelite TV and nice furniture. It was however not like my rents house, still felt like Africa. So when we got there Akua had her momma make us some kenkey. Kenkey is this pastey yellowish stuff that you eat with your hands and mush it up and dip it in this awesome hot pepper sauce with goat (ya i eat goat meat now) and chicken. Its real messy. I usually have to force down the local food and hold myself from joshing (booting (throwing up)), but i actually really liked this meal for some reason maybe cause it was real home cooking which i haven't had since I left for college (ya i said it momma!). Just joshin my momma cooks for me every once in awhile. So after the meal we were leaving when Akua let me know that her mom was, well i forget what she calls it but a person who makes prophecies, like the old lady from the matrix (she looked a lot like her too). Anyway so told me that she thought I was going to make a lot of money and that I would travel the world and help people at the same time. I was all like wow that's awesome once less thing for me to worry about. She told Krista that she would have lots of blessings. A little less specific but still good.
This weekend I went to the Volta region and I have stories about that too but I mean look at this beast of a post so I'm gonna quit.
I know that people have asked questions on the food and other such goings on but this is getting long and I promise to address all questions on the next blog... hopefully. Go Ducks!

Blogosphere Cometh!

So i added a blog list so you can read about other people in my program and their experience. Hope you enjoy. Sorry about the typos in the blog. I do plan on editing it at some point. Also just an update on the job situation. I will definetly be staying for 6 months longer then planned. I am doing a trip to Cote D'ivoire, Mali and Togo with some friends. Should be crazy. Then I will move to Cape Coast to live on the beach. I met with my boss who introduced my to my editor kinda person and what he wants me to do is completely change the programing based around local news. The station is a community based station that hires kids without high school educations and they want to assist in their stories and teach them how to be journalists. Im pretty stoaked about the idea. Also I will be helping with the online newspaper the Ghanaian Journal, and with the political campaign. All this is being run by the CPP candidate so they said if I wanted to travel around Ghana and help campaign I could. Its gonna be nuts. Allright gotta go. Peace

"Yes, they are wild animals. They could attack at any time." part 2

I believe that I left you with some hangman under a mango tree, and I just want to stress that the 2 hour hangman session has changed the entire dynamic of the group all we can do is talk about some sort of hangman association maybe even getting it into the Olympics. Also, I just ran into a crazy lady outside the Peace FM offices. Her story is that her husband used to work at Peace FM but went to the States to receive his fortune and come back and buy a house with his wife. Instead he met a white girl in the states and married her and abandoned his wife. So this lady came up to me talking to me with quivering lips about her nose and her hair and eyes and then she went to her neck and started spitting out some twi and did the cut across the throat symbol that was outlawed in the NFL. Not to worry you she is just kinda crazy and hangs outside the office all the time and the security guards have to deal with her. It does bring up something I have noticed here though that everyone wants to come to the US because they think everyone there just sits around counting their money all day (some people do). Whenever the Ghanaians tell me to take them back to the states with me I ask them what they will do when they get there and they never have an answer they just think that once they get to the states everything will be better, but there are plenty of poor people in the states. I tell them that they should try to make themselves better here because there is a very large middle class here that live in style and although the US is the shit "America F*** Ya!" Ghana is a great place to be and there is plenty of opourtunity here if the people would raise themselves up rather than just try to come to the States never to return leaving the state of Ghana like my crazy friend outside. Just a small thought sorry if it doesn't make sense.

So after we finally got the car running again it was another hour and a half on this bumpy horrible road till we got to Mole singing songs all the way and sweating like a obroni in the back of a hot van covered in red dirt and severely dehydrated... uh anyway the Mole Motel was awesome. Leslie (Program director. fearless leader) said it would be a rustic stay but I thought it was nice and the view over the park was incredible; there was even a pool. Warthogs just wandered around the motel and you could see antelopes and other animals getting water from the watering hole down in the park. The next day we got up way too early like 6 in the morning to go on our walking safari. That is right a walking safari so if an animal came to attack us all we could do was run. Luckily for me I was pretty sure that I was not the slowest in the group and had problem tripping a friend if being attacked by baboons (just joshin). We walked no more than 5 minutes not even fully into the park before we saw some antelopeish animals (I forget the name) also we were in some sort of small community and baboons and other monkeys with the warthogs would just hang out with their red butts out. The baboons sat like people and one of them started to touch himself inappropriately and everyone just kinda snickered and didn't say anything about it cause although it was inappropriate for us baboons can do whatever they want cause they're baboons. So after leaving the little village we were in full on safari mode silently moving through the bush with out guide (i forget his name lets just call him Norman) He carried a big gun and had been working at the park for 26 years. He warned us of snakes and told us about the tsi tsi fly problem that was fixed apparently. Anyway we were in the bush for maybe ten minutes when Norman spots an Elephant. Not just an Elephant but a Savannah elephant. Savannah Elephants he told us are bigger and can't be in zoos because they can't tame them. The only thing I can compare the size of the elephants to are if you could take a really big elephant and stand it next to these elephants, that's how big they were (did that make sense, in other words they were really big) This guy was huge and hidden in the trees and bushes so we moved around to get a better view stalking our gigantic friend that is the most dangerous animal in the Park, they kill more people than even the lions and can charge at 70 miles per hour! I also before leaving did some reading on elephants and was thoroughly scared of being so close to a giant beast that could crush me with plop of his bottom. Also I watch way to many Most amazing videos shows to not be scared. All I was thinking was that we are way to close to this elephant as Norman removed the gun from his shoulder and put it at the ready. We watched the elephant eat for awhile and dodged him as he moved towards us. Then out of nowhere another bigger elephant with one huge tusk and one half broken tusk starts fighting with our elephant friend. Norman told us that they were competing for a mate and they start bashing into each other destroying the plant life and scaring the crap out of me. Then Norman tells us to move as he leads the group with me towards the back as the two giant beast start to come straight for us they were probably 20 feet from us as far as I could tell although other kids thought 30 or even as close as 10. I book it as fast as I can while the other kids try and run and take pictures at the same time. So we decided to leave the two elephants to go at it while we explored the rest of the park. there was a big warthog that was taking a nap on a pile of trash so Montana nick and I got up real close to it and crouched down just to look at how weird that nasty swine was. Norman our guide told us how warthogs eat snakes and are immune to any venom. He also said that they can fight off lions with there tusks and have bone that come out under there eyes to protect them when they smash there tusks into something. Someone in the group asked if they were dangerous. This is where Norman said "Yes, they are wild animals. They could attack at anytime." Just as he said this the warthog jumped up and scared the poo out of nick and I. So we had to go back and change our pants. During the safari We saw baboons, green monkeys, antelope and antelopeish things I think they were called kobs but i don't remember, warthogs, and probably something else that i am forgetting, it was pretty sweet. That night we just hung out at the motel looking over the park thinking about how awesome this program has been and how we are getting college credit for this which is such a joke. The next day we went back Kumasi, and for some reason I had to sit in the back seat of Fatal's van of horrible times and got covered in dirt again. I have since washed the cloths (by the way we don't have a washing machine so i have to hand wash everything) and the white shirt will never be whit again. Other then that the ride was pretty drama free I slept most of the time and then we went to some bead village that i forgot the name of. This place has not heard of family planning so there were just cute kids running all over the place and holding our hands as we walked to see hoe they made glass beads, just like my momma. Well a little different, they pretty much just take glass bottles and crush them up real fine. Then they add dye for the color and put them in these clay saucers things adding different colors to the holes with a piece of cassava branch in the middle for the hole. Then they bring it to this oven made of mud and place the saucers in it with a wood fire on the bottom wait about 2 hours and bam, glass beads for all. While the guy was telling us about his beads the children started braiding all the girls hair in the group with these ridiculous braids just to add to the absurdity of the situation. So i bought some beads cause i just don't get enough glass beads when im at home, but they aren't as cool as my mommas. After saying buy to the cute kids and leaving decked out in beads we headed to this waterfall on the way back to... actually that might have happened before the bead village cause it doesn't make any sense but id rather just tell it like this than change stuff i've already written, sorry for the purists but these are just stories so back off. Anyway the waterfall was super sweet and nice to just kick it watching the water fall. Words cant describe but i took some pictures with my disposable. I'm working on finding a way to get some pictures up from somewhere. Ok this post is getting a little long so i'm gonna end it here we all made it back safe and sound i left out some markets and after hours fun cause i think you get that I'm having a good time and buying a lot of crap. More info on details to come. By the way did you know everyone carries stuff on their head in Ghana? Just imagine me walking around with everyone carrying things on their heads. I've seen people carrying a pile of nuts, 4 full sized tires, a bowl of water, plantain chips, and stuff like that. OK running out of time and i want to check the MLB standings go Diamond Bs! and the Ducks! I miss you all keep emailing and asking questions i want to hear from you.

"Yes, they are wild animals. They could attack at any time."

What's what is what? Go Ducks! So it has been brought to my attention that I have major typos in this blog which I do intend to correct but I don't get to the Internet often and when I do I'm usually pressed for time and cant proofread what i just wrote so cut me a little slack. Also, thanks for your comments I'm glad people are enjoying it. Anyway I have some more stories for ya so sit back put on your seat belt (no one in Ghana wears seat belts), buy some plantain chips (people sell them on the highways dodging traffic and carrying giant bowls of them on their head) and lets rage... Welcome to the jungle!
That was a little more dramatic then necessary sorry about that, stream of consciousness just kinda has a mind of its own (that's funny ((way too many parentheticals))) :) So this weekend like promise the group went to Kumasi and then up to Mole. The bus ride to Mole was longest so we had to leave at like 6 in the morning because Leslie, our program leader, was afraid to drive on the roads at night out of fear of criminals blocking the road with a log and robbing us at gun point. Please don't make a fuss this didn't happen. Anyway so of course the night before we went out to Wasu and then Reggae night because were in Ghana and every night counts. No excuses play like a champion and we did. Anyway H-bomb for those who know her and care was leaving while I would be in Kumasi so this was our last night together and just want to say that I miss her and had a killer time while she was here. So the next morning on the long bus ride through the dangerous roads we eventually made a stop at a stand of bush meat sellers so Leslie could take a picture. Of course I had no idea this was a planned stop and just woke up to a group of young Ghanaians wielding knives, grass cutters stretched out like kites, and armadillos. Dead armadillos that they sell for people to eat. They wanted money for the pictures we took at them and one of them pretended to through his armadillo on the bus and I thought it was alive when they stretched it out of the protective shell that it curls up into and was cowering in the aisle of the bus with Krista thinking this was the end screaming "GO GO GO!" Anyway that was our first encounter with the bush meat people. Pretty crazy. So we finally got to Kumasi late and stayed at this sweat hotel with a pool and lived the good life. The next day we saw the Ashanti king's palace and took a tour learned all about the Ashanti King who is the man. He has the craziest outfits and sweet swords and stuff. I'd look him up on wikipedia cause I don't feel like telling you all about him if you don't care. Anyway there were peacocks all over his palace so of course I thought of Athens for those who know why that will be really fun to you. So then we did some shopping and by some I mean a lot of shopping Leslie is a shopaholic and we went to the Kente cloth village and saw how they made them and then we went to a adinkra village and got to stamp our own adinkra symbols on some kente cloth. I got the Unity symbol so obviously I couldn't stop saying "UNITY!" like Dave Chapelle doing Rick James (no homo). It was also really educational to learn how they made the ink out of bark and all about the meaning of the over 150 different symbols. Right, so then we went to the open air market cause of course we needed to do more shopping. The girls all went to the fabric section cause they are girls and boring while Sonny our Ghanaian friend led me and some of the boys through the biggest market in west Africa. It was split up into sections of chaos with varying degrees of smells and weird things that I'm still not sure what they were. One of the first places we ran through was the meat section were butchers with machetes were hacking away at animals of all different shapes and sizes. This place was dark and there was a blood gutter running threw the middle. It was like walking through a haunted house as all the butchers took notice to the white kids and wanted to shake our hands which we regretfully did because the health standards were less then proper. There were full heads of goats and this goopy slimy pile that someone said was intestines. And a guy sharpening his machete as sparks flew off it. It was all pretty unreal. So we got out of there and went to different sections like the fish sections (really smelly), clothes (fresh gear), peanuts, cosmetics, literally if you could think of there was someone selling it. The ladies who run the market loved us and were even offering there daughters to my buddy Ken... good luck buddy. So then we ran into a bunch of Hoes, which was awesome cause our guide sonny was all like hey look at all these hoes and there they were in a pile right next to the grass cutter traps and other gardening equipment. Get your mind out of the gutter this isn't Amsterdam. So that was the market pretty much the next day we had to be up extra early to drive to Mole so we decided to stay up all night and party. The next day we drove for like 4 hours to get off our sweet china bus and into a van. There were 16 people shoved into this van and myself, Michelle, Krista and Nick took the backseat (I know you dint know these people but whatever they are great that's all you need to know). So the Van was air conditioned and had vents in every row except for the back row because that'd just be silly. It was literally 25 degrees cooler when we would stretch out arms out to reach for some oxygen. TO make it better the back door to the van wasn't shut so all the red dust from the grad 3 road made a cloud in the backseat. We were covered in seat and dirt and had nothing else to do but sing billy joel songs and go a little crazy. After maybe half an hour the van of course breaks down. Luckily we broke down right next to this family's house and sat under their mango tree and played hangman for two hours while the driver, who by the way his name was Fatal, tried to get oil for the van cause it leaked out 3 liters of it and was broken. We didn't complain but rather became the best Hangman players of all time while kids in their underwear just kinda watched as we talked shit about our skills at guessing letters. I got my roommate Scot without guessing a single letter, the word was 'Chris Tucker'. All right didn't even get to Mole yet but i gotta go do the news, ill continue this latter. By the way Favre should come to the Cardinals. Larry Fitz and Boldin with a little Favre Super bowl is in the bag.

It's not the destination

So things have gotten into some semblance of a routine. I go to parliament during the week and report on what they yell about, and help out with production for some of the radio shows. I guess I dont have too much exciting stuff to report but for the fourth of july we met up with the NYU program kids to see their palace of a place that has a washer and dryer and computers and costs like 30 grand just for one semester. My cab driver though had no idea where we were trying to go so we ended up just wondering the streets of Osu until we called our group to meet up. We met this stranger on the side of the road, which is a bad idea in general but it seemed to work out. His name was Kelly and he was the nicest. He helped us find our friends and we gave him a pull from our bottle of whiskey (I realize that all of my entries have some form of drinking invovled, but this was the 4th of July so I don't want to here it). Anyway we adventually made it to an X-pat bar called Ryan's in Osu and it was strange to be in a place that looked like the bars back home and I didn't really like it. All the Irish guys were sour and drunk because we were having such a great time celebrating the countries birthday. Anyway I dont have much time I gotta right a story before the news show. An update though on my potential job. Last night I went to the regency cocoanut grove hotel in Accra to met Lankeesha my new boss and he pretty much said that I could do whatever I wanted for the radio station or online newspaper and I could stay at the resort in Elmina and live on the beach. So I think I'm going to be staying in Africa longer than planned. Oh man the people at my work are yelling at each other trying to find me a virgin wife I gotta go. Tomorrow I head to Kumasi and Mole park. Super stoaked, sure to be stories. Go Ducks!

It was spicy, I almost died, It was awesome.

Howdy! July 1st is republic day in Ghana, which is their version of independence day. So of course the entire country was gonna boogie. I had to work that day though and helped produced the news hour and my boss let me off early to rage. Down at Labadi beach was the epicenter of the party. There was a huge stage and just arriving to the beach by tro tro (the van/bus/taxi system that is the most confusing and terrifying). We were told that if you go in through the back gate it only cost 1 cedi vs 5 if you go through the front so of course we went to the back but when we arrived there was a mass of people pushing and shoving while guards armed with assault rifles manned the gate. A couple giant Ghanaians took over our group and shoved and dragged us through the scene that could have been cut from 28 days later. I thought I was going to get trampled while squeezing through the small opening and arriving on the other side just to be met with a hike through mud and trash to finally arrive at the party. We passed through another security checkpoint and then our personal security personal demanded that we pay them with some small argueing we each paid 3 cedis that was well worth the protection. The beach was full of Ghanaians playing football (soccer) on the beach, drinking heavily and of course trying to sell me crap. Anywhere I go in Accra I stand out because I am white but here the spotlight seemed to be shinning extra bright as drunk Ghanaians don't seem to care about personal space. After grabbing some brews to calm the groups nerves some of the group couldn't stand the party any longer and left before the concert. Myself and three others decided to stay as the crowd started to get rowdy and the show began. First there was a booty shaking contest and that was awesome as my companions danced on the sidelines. Then when the main acts started to go on and we had consumed a couple boxes of sangria we decided to go for it and jumped right into the middle of the dance party. The concert was massive the only venue that comes close to it was seeing Dave at the Gorge in Washington state. If you take an aerial shot of that show and look at the negative you can get an idea of how out of place me and my obrouni friend were. We were the only white people (Scot was there and he is black but still obviously an obrouni) in a sea of black. We kept boogeying and played defense as the Ghanaians tried to brush the Michelle and Krista's hair and grab there asses. The acts on stage were incredible and the crowd got so into the show and danced the night away. It started to get out of control and a little scary so we left the party completely drunk and sweaty. It was an awesome Republic Day. Also, so I started doing the Parliament beat for Peace FM (the day after I got wasted for republic day). I arrived at parliament and just walked through the gate without any sort of security check or anything I just told them I was with Peace FM and they bought it. Parliament was not what I expected. They brought in the Golden Scepter to start the session and say a pray. The golden scepter has to be present or Parliament doesn't count. Sometimes when the members of Parliament get to rowdy and the speaker can't control them he will just grab the scepter and run out of the room with it and parliament is over. My first day it wasn't all that exciting, in fact most of the members didn't show up for the Minister of Health's reports. The ones who were there didn't really pay attention as they chatted and talked on their cell phones if it wasn't their time to talk. Anyway I got my first stories read on air one last night for the 6 o'clock news show and one this morning for the morning show. They also put them online. They are short but they are written for radio and the ambulance one came with a voice clip that I took from Parliament. So if you want to check them out here they are: http://www.peacefmonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15131&Itemid=32. Also the stories are translated into twi so I didn't know they were running my story till I heard the announcer say 'district hospital' and was all like 'hey I wrote about that'. I'm surprised about how much responsibility they are giving me. OK one last thing that just happened and was awesome. So when I came back from Parliament today the office was having fire protection day. Last year on this day apparently there was a fire in marketing and the building went up. There isn't any alarm system so the people in the studio in the basement stayed on the air until the smoke came down and they freaked out and ran. No one got hurt, but now they fire department comes to teach people what to do during a fire. The best part was when they said they would do a demonstration. Immediately I thought this is gonna be awesome. So to cut it short they lit a big metal bowl on fire and people took turns using blankets and fire extinguishers to put it out in the yard outside the office. I stood at a distance with a goat i named oreo to see the disaster (ya my office has goats outside, your's doesn't?). Of course after a couple people went they added more gas and the thing got out of control. The small fire exploaded to a 6 foot rager and the firemen grabbed the extinguisher but it was all out of juice from all the other demonstrations. So they just let it burn out and everyone was fine but i think the goats were freaked out. Ok, Allright, come on this is too long, I should get back to work. Go Ducks!

Photos

So my camera broke after two pictures but my buddy ryan has taken like over 3,000 photos and put them online. His blog is www.ryanknutson.blogspot.com Hope you enjoy.

Gooood Morrrrrrning Ghana!

Bwah Bwah! So it is official I am a rockstar. I am sitting here at the Peace FM newsroom on Republic Day (Ghana's independence day) and the office is pretty empy because everyone is out celebrating but they told me to come in for my second day to learn more about the station, Peace FM 'the station with a vision.' Yesturday was my first day and my head hurt just from trying to understand what was going on as my coworkers tried to learn about life in the US and about Barack Obama while switching back and forth from Twi to English and Twinglish. Peace FM is the number one media in Ghana so it is exciting to be working with this mostly young staff who always seem to be giving each other shit and joking around. It also only broadcasts in Twi so when I sit and listen to the radio they know that I am just sitting there confused. I've made some friends quickly who have been showing me the ropes, the studio, recording room, newsroom and all that jazz. Yesturday I sat in the technicians room with all the crazy buttons and lights as they produced a talk show were people can call in and voice their opinion. At the end of the show they gave me producer credit on air even though I didn't do much but try to figure out what was going on. I also got my first sms story. One of the reporters in the field interviewed an official about drug use and alcoholism in Ghana and txted the station the story so I wrote it out on paper and they read it for the 6 oclock news. I was amazed at my involvement on the first day. I was even put on air unknowingly. I was sitting in the newsroom watching tennis when my coworker Akua told me to come down to the studio. People were sitting around and talking but I figured that they were playing music or a commericial and Akua sat me down in front of the mic when one of the announcers asked me if the other announcer was my wife. I was really confused and said "no, this is my first day" then Akua whispered in my ear to agree and pointed to the mic. I was on air during some sort of skit about a Ghanaian who goes to America and comes back after 12 years to find his wife with another person. Ok so my first day was pretty nuts and i took the tro tro back by myself which was an experience ill tell you about latter cause I should get to work. Peace...FM