Things don’t run as smoothly here as they do in the U.S. Showing up for my internship today and being told by one headmaster that they don’t have the letter to let us work today was frustrating. What was worse was that they did in fact have the letter but the headmaster who had it had not communicated with the other. This all took about three and a half hours to figure out, a trotro ride, a bus ride, and finally a taxi ride.
Was I surprised? Not really. In the U.S. I might get upset, blame someone, and then expect an apology. Today I was annoyed, a little frustrated at having spent the entire morning commuting back and forth but I’ve also taken some time to look at the positives of the journey of going there and coming back – taking a trotro through Madina, a market area, taking a MetroBus and realizing we were going a different route, and finally taking a taxi through the back roads of Madina and seeing the shops on the sides of the street.
It’s all caught up with me now though and I can barely stay awake.
This week was the first week of class – sort of. I showed up for my class on Monday morning and the professor did not show up. This is not unusual for the first week of class. In addition the workers who open and close the buildings on campus, and do various other things, are on strike. They haven’t been paid for their overtime hours and today when I walked on campus I saw them demonstrating at the front gate. We are unsure of how this is going to affect classes next week. The other three classes I have are all through the CIEE program so we were able to meet. Those classes are Twi, a seminar on Living and Learning in Ghana, and Sociological Foundations for Development (the class that accompanies my internship).
Maybe more about classes next week…
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