I’ve only been off the plane for an hour and already my socks have turned from white to red. The white jacket I’ve brought along, mostly for the air conditioning on the plane, already has traces of dirt all over it and it can only be a matter of days before my white sheets fall to the same fate.
We arrived in Ghana at 2:00 GMT. Stepping off the plane, I didn’t quite understand what was going on- possibly because of the brain numbing boredom of our 10 hour flight (crappy movies, crappy service, crappy sleep), but most likely because it felt like I was at some sort of summer camp. The heat wasn’t too intense, of course I sweated straight through my jeans, but it wasn’t the oven others claimed it to be. It was probably about 85, pretty humid but there was a nice breeze coming off the ocean that I knew was somewhere close. The humidity provided a thin veil of haze that hid everything but that within a mile. But palm trees, huge flowering bushes and the red sand were all close enough to remind us where we were.
When we finally drove up to our dorm (International Student Hostel #1- ISH 1 for short), the summer camp feeling kicked in even farther. Our dorms are about the same as UWL’s, but instead of having the hallways that connect each room inside of the building, they’re on the outside, motel style. Each room has one feature that no dorm room in La Crosse gets even close to: a balcony! I’m in a temporary room on the first floor tonight but tomorrow I’ll move into a room with a balcony on the second floor. Each of the rooms has windows on the outside wall and the inside wall that can close, but really who would want to close them? A perfect breeze comes through every few minutes, and with the help of our trusty ceiling fan, hopefully the room won’t get too hot. But having all the windows open makes me feel like I’m cheating at camping. I’m in a room with electricity and a nice fan but when eyes are closed and the imagination kicks in, it could totally be a huge tent.
We moved in, slept from four until 5:45 and then walked to dinner. The main cafeteria, the Bush Canteen, is a ten minute walk down a couple streets and through a roundabout. More red sand all over, all the better to dye my socks with. They’ll never be the same againL. The coolest part about our walk to dinner was sitting in a tree on the main road to the Canteen. Nestled in the crook of a tree was a little, Pongo-sized monkey! He was just chillin’ there all day I guess. Some of the girls were saying they saw him in the same place when they went for lunch.
Dinner was very, very tasty, to say the least. ISEP is providing all of our meals, including huuuge bottles of water, until our orientation is finished sometime next week. There were tables under a big tent-like awning and the food was set up buffet style. There was a steamed cabbage-veggie option, then rice with some sort of herbs, lo mein noodles (don’t ask me), boiled potatoes, a beef stew dish and some sort of chicken wings. I thought I was doomed after reading multiple travel articles on the heat Ghanaian meals pack! Lucky for me and my sensitive taste buds, the hot and extremely hot sauces were on the side! Needless to say I passed those over quickly. Everything was great to the extreme. The only reason I didn’t return for seconds like a few others was the succinct death threat my feet issued at the smallest thought of standing. Thank God dessert was passed around! My first experience with Ghanaian ice cream leaves me thinking there might not be vanilla extract here. What was supposed to be boring vanilla in a plastic packet, kind of like a ziplock without the zip, tasted like toasted marshmallow. Maybe the chocolate will taste like coffee…hopefully.
After dinner I washed off what felt like a week of grime with a quick cold shower. And by cold, I mean just a few degrees below room temperature. I definitely won’t have to worry about getting hypothermia in the middle of the tropics I guess. It’s really hard to fully understand the truth. I feel like I walked into Olbrich Gardens and in an hour I’ll have to pack myself into a huge coat, scarf, hat, gloves, and brave the winter winds. Hopefully my senses will wake up in Africa tomorrow and not a walled in rainforest in the middle of Madison.
No comments:
Post a Comment